Uldaman instance exploring this week

What a great week last week was with all of our Scarlet Monastery exploring and clearing. Blizzard amazed me again with great level design and with fun/entertaining boss encounters. So, I am now itching to check out another instance...Uldaman. Uldaman seems to be a step up from Scarlet and hopefully we can conquer it before too long. What you need to know:

1. You get to Uldaman a lot easier than you do SM! Fly to Loch Modan and Uldaman is just inside the Badlands zone which is south of the Loch.
2. Quests that involve killing in Uldaman
3. Blue drops to drool over

This isn't to say I won't go back to SM either. I know Leaping and Vorcha would like to do it so I am game for helping with that sometime this week too if you guys want.

I am up for SM this week. I can go pick up the quest(s) tonight. I got Tycho up to 38 over the weekend. Shadow Magic rules.

Cool, you make the 3rd person I know that still needs to finish SM.

Shadow Magic rules.

Can you still heal? Just curious how it changes your play style.

I only need the book from there. If I get to it cool, if not I''ll just drop it.

Yeah, I can heal just fine. I did some of SM last night with a group and all I did was heal. Plus, Mind Flay was getting rave reviews from them for its ""runner stopping"" power. Improved Fade (shadow talent) is great for groups too. It doubles the time on Fade (to 20 seconds). Makes it a lot easier for the tanks to get aggro back off me.

Any Shadow Priests...Is Vampiric Embrace worth it?

"Eezy_Bordone" wrote:

I only need the book from there. If I get to it cool, if not I''ll just drop it.

We can solo the book now, so you and I can do it whenever. It is worth the 3900 or so exp in my opinion.

Yeah, I can heal just fine. I did some of SM last night with a group and all I did was heal. Plus, Mind Flay was getting rave reviews from them for its ""runner stopping"" power.

Cool. Run stopping power it always good in instances too!

I can only find 3 Alliance Quests for SM. Mythology of the Titans, Rituals of Power, and of course In the Name of the Light. Is that all?

Rituals of Power is mage only. So, you only need the other 2.

Ah, that''s cool. It seems like a bigger quest place for the horde. It''s too bad, I owned Harod last night, but I didn''t have the quest. Or I should say I healed some dudes that owned Harod.

You should be able to pay 1 gold to expand your Quest Log to 25 or 30.

Heck, I would even pay 10 gold to expand it.

I''d pay 10g per extra quest.

I''m game for Uldaman and Scarlet (if there is room in the Scarlet group that is)

Just whisper me whenever.

Oh yeah, a lot of priests are shadow specced (including me). The only one that I''ve run into that wasn''t was that priest from the pirate boats in STV.

Vorcha is definately interested in hitting SM sometime this week. I have both quests (Name of Light & Mythology of Titans) and I''m on the verge of hitting lvl 40 sometime tonight. Since I''m passing up a mount at the moment (Aspect of Cheetah is free ) I''ve got enough gold saved up to buy all of my skills for once.

My quest log is starting to swell with Uldaman quests--I get them without trying. I''ve also been hanging at SM trying to whip up some cash.

Ok, sounds like we have plenty of interest. I would be game for taking a group into the far right wing of SM to get the Titans quest done. (should take 10 min or less). Also, on the way we can kill Loksey for whoever needs him. Herod wing would take about 35 to 45 minutes and then that leaves the big fight. Best part about the final boss fight is that we found a way to clear about 5 mobs and then run up through the water fountain to save about 20 minutes.

Following Derailment:

JimmDogg, I''ve been looking into VE lately (went up to silence so it''s 1 pt for me). I''m not going to get it for the following reasons.

- I rarely use shadow spells in a group b/c most mobs don''t last the full 18sec for SW:Pain to be cost-effective and I like sitting on mana for effeciency and in case the crap hits the fan which it sometimes does.

- 20% isn''t much. At most, I do 2 shadow spell casts in a good group on a mob. That''s 100 pts of health healed if those spells do their full damage (but again, I save mind flay for runners so that usually cuts short. Usually the case ends up that mind flay and SW: Pain don''t do their full damage.). Granted VE lasts for 1 minute so the amount healed will be more, but I just don''t feel comfortable nuking away in groups. I also don''t do mind blast in group since that''s an aggro spell.

- It''s an active spell. My bar is already cluttered. It might be useful in solo situations but there are other heal options. Plus, VE is not going to keep up w/ your incoming damage if you''re being knocked silly. Also, I usually have shield up so that my mind flay channel time isn''t cut short. And, mind blast is an 8sec recharge so you can''t constantly nuke the mob even w/ the talented mind blast.

- In PvP if you are close enough to do shadow damage, you are close enough for the opposing group to dispell your butt.

I would get VE under 2 conditions: I was pursuing Shadowform as this would be my only available heal in that form negating the need to switch or if my race was undead(it''s currently bugged for them and they end up double tapping the mob for a heal when used w/ their racial spell).

I''ve been putting points into spirit tap too... thinking about respeccing and getting out of that and shadow affinity. My mana is 3500 so double spirit for a measly 15sec doesn''t seem worth 5 talent points.

Editted to add other stuff

There are a ton of Uldaman quests. You can get like 5 or 6 in the badlands and another one in Ironforge.

Cope will be scarce over the next week as I''m going skiing near Ironforge ... er, I mean Canada. If I''m on, feel free to whisper me if y''all want to start Uldaman or need help with SM.

There are two in IF for uldaman but one is chained to sending you to loch modan first and doing something for Ironbeard in the badlands. Ironbeard then sends you to uldaman from there.

Sounds good Cope. I have a feeling we will be in Uldaman for a few weeks. I have been told that you need a tank around level 50 for the hardest guy too.

JimmDogg, I''ve been looking into VE lately (went up to silence so it''s 1 pt for me). I''m not going to get it for the following reasons.

- I rarely use shadow spells in a group b/c most mobs don''t last the full 18sec for SW:Pain to be cost-effective and I like sitting on mana for effeciency and in case the crap hits the fan which it sometimes does.

- 20% isn''t much. At most, I do 2 shadow spell casts in a good group on a mob. That''s 100 pts of health healed if those spells do their full damage (but again, I save mind flay for runners so that usually cuts short. Usually the case ends up that mind flay and SW: Pain don''t do their full damage.). Granted VE lasts for 1 minute so the amount healed will be more, but I just don''t feel comfortable nuking away in groups. I also don''t do mind blast in group since that''s an aggro spell.

- It''s an active spell. My bar is already cluttered. It might be useful in solo situations but there are other heal options. Plus, VE is not going to keep up w/ your incoming damage if you''re being knocked silly. Also, I usually have shield up so that my mind flay channel time isn''t cut short. And, mind blast is an 8sec recharge so you can''t constantly nuke the mob even w/ the talented mind blast.

- In PvP if you are close enough to do shadow damage, you are close enough for the opposing group to dispell your butt.

I would get VE under 2 conditions: I was pursuing Shadowform as this would be my only available heal in that form negating the need to switch or if my race was undead(it''s currently bugged for them and they end up double tapping the mob for a heal when used w/ their racial spell).

I''ve been putting points into spirit tap too... thinking about respeccing and getting out of that and shadow affinity. My mana is 3500 so double spirit for a measly 15sec doesn''t seem worth 5 talent points.

Interesting thoughts. I agree that VE would be bad for groups unless you had another Priest or some other Character dealing Shadow Damage (Warlocks?). But most of the Shadow line was meant for soloing and that''s where I would use VE. Opening with VW and then following up with MB, SW:P, and Mind Flay is an intriguing thought, no? Could you get by with no shielding? I would like to try it out. I wish respecs were cheaper!

How do you feel about Shadow Weaving? Would that be a better choice? The 3% gain seems so small, but the spell does stack up to 5 times. I have to put my talent points someplace. I really want Darkness. Maybe I should go back to the Discipline tree?

I still love Spirit Tap, but you have to put some equipment toward spirit for it to be effective. If you go Int/Stam, it''s gonna be useless at high levels. It will probably lose utility as you level up anyway, because your mana pool will get so big. Can you imagine how incredible that talent is at level 10-20?

"JimmDogg" wrote:

Interesting thoughts. I agree that VE would be bad for groups unless you had another Priest or some other Character dealing Shadow Damage (Warlocks?). But most of the Shadow line was meant for soloing and that''s where I would use VE. Opening with VW and then following up with MB, SW:P, and Mind Flay is an intriguing thought, no? Could you get by with no shielding? I would like to try it out. I wish respecs were cheaper!

How do you feel about Shadow Weaving? Would that be a better choice? The 3% gain seems so small, but the spell does stack up to 5 times. I have to put my talent points someplace. I really want Darkness. Maybe I should go back to the Discipline tree?

I still love Spirit Tap, but you have to put some equipment toward spirit for it to be effective. If you go Int/Stam, it''s gonna be useless at high levels. It will probably lose utility as you level up anyway, because your mana pool will get so big. Can you imagine how incredible that talent is at level 10-20?

Aside from the 5 points in improved renew, I have everything dumped into Shadow. Currently have VE, Silence, 2 points in Shadow Weaving and 1 in Shadow Reach. My thoughts so far:

Vamperic Embrace: In the 30''s I found VE to be extremely useful for soloing mobs at or below my level. Now (lvl 41, almost 42) I find that I''m using is much less and have pondered re-spec''ing out of it. Points are becoming far too valuable for me to be spent on something that I rarely use.

Silence: Hands down one of the top 3 spells of a Priest. I ran through SM in it''s entirety last night and on a number of pulls Silence prevented the healer mob from extended the fight. Additionally, I''ve discovered that the spell works extremely well for pulling casters. Since they can''t cast, they have to run in and melee. This is invaluable when soloing.

Shadow Weaving: I''d file this under the ""all or nothing"" category that Spirit Tap would also belong to. With 5 points, it''s guaranteed to work every time and getting an extra 15% on Mind Blast goes along way when soloing. With that said, I don''t see myself getting this one again when I do my next respec. (Will be doing shadow just enough to get silence). Additionally, and to answer your question, this spell does work for all members of your party. A warlock that I group with often did additional damage on the mob when using Shadow spells.

Spirit Tap: IMHO, this is a better choice than Blackout if you''re going to be climbing the Shadow Tree. It''s certainly noticeable when soloing and having 5 points guarantees it procs after a kill. When I was in SM, I''d Mind Flay mobs that were near death and often got this to fire off.

Shadow Reach: Another ""all or nothing"" spell. My 1 point is an absolute waste, but investing 3 points seems to work well for most. I grouped with another Shadow Priest who maxed this skill and his 24 yard Mind Flay (20 standard) was VERY nice. Again though, as I will be doing a lot more grouping past 40, I''ll most likely pass on this guy.

I really enjoy the Shadow tree (if you couldn''t tell) but feel like it''s time to start putting some points into the Discipline tree. The 15 second time reduction for PW:Shield and the bonus to PW:Fortitude are my primary wants. I re-spec''d a long time ago when I was in my lower 20s, so the next one is gonna cost me 5g.

Chum
Cidoc (lvl 41 Priest - Bloodhoof)

If I was a priest I''d max out Shadow first and put the extra in Discipline until I reached level 58-60 then respec back to Holy (the choice talents) and Discipline.

Simply because by then your going to be sitting in the back of the group healing or buffing... not doing anything offensive... and even with nothing in Holy your still the best healer <55 level.

So...

Anyone up for a romp through Uldaman this weeK? I''m game and I know there are a few guildies at the appropriate level or higher who may need this instance.

I''m not sure what the time commitment for this instance is, but I''m game most of this week. I just need to pick up the damn quests again.

I am up for it and I need it. How many quests are in Uldaman?

I have Tycho up to 41 and probably soon to be 42. Any time this week but Saturday.

I am game for a run through it probably. It is starting to get too low and I would prefer Maraudon but we don''t have the levels for it yet.

I think I have a few quests left here. I''m game for Tuesday nite.

I still have quests in there I need to do.

Tuesday night sounds good... I''ll probably start recollectin the quests and doing some easier portions of it tonight if anyone wants to join.

"Fiddler" wrote:

Tuesday night sounds good... I''ll probably start recollectin the quests and doing some easier portions of it tonight if anyone wants to join.

If possible find the necklace that starts a quest. As you''ll have to come back then anyway. After you find the necklace the quest has you go to the mystic ward in IF, talk to the maker, then bring him some truesilver (I AH''d mine) then he tells you what you need to find in Uldaman to go from there.

Anyone ever find a map of this instance? Thanks!

Chum

"Chum" wrote:

Anyone ever find a map of this instance? Thanks!

Chum

I am hoping Quintin makes another.