WoW: Warlords of Draenor

If anyone is interested, there's about 10 of us at the moment that have started a guild on Thrall for horde side. I played with the alliance guys off and on but had friends that wanted me to join them. This guild will be a GWJ guild and we will be recruiting for spots not filled.

GWJ code of conduct will be followed...so the "Be excellent to each other" motto lives on with the other faction.

We chose thrall because it's high population and we had friends there already. At any rate, any GWJers are welcome simple PM anyone that's online. Guild name currently is Super Dragon Rocket Gun (placeholder, will probably be changed).

We could use any help that people would like to offer, officers, raid leaders, mascots, etc.

We will also be playing PVE and PVP content. More on how that's organized will be available later.

Cool Rezakh I've been missing the Horde. Do any of you guys play later at night or West Coast time?

It will really depend upon what everyone needs...and we'll try and fit that as best we can. As of right now the thinking will be evenings somewhere between Mountain and East Coast. None of us, at present, are West Coast.

Patch day! I'm having a blast on my warrior but not sure what spec to play now. I've been Fury for most of leveling but considering protection. Is it hard to level as prot these days? Also that new Survival Hunter without range looks totally cool. Trapping and fighting side by side with your beast was always the vision I had for hunter. Maybe I'll use my 100 boost on it. With the upcoming artifact weapons I feel like my spec decision is really important (though I'm sure I can switch).

Fury is definitely a lot of fun (and they have the coolest weapons, even those most people seem to miss the storm dragon face in the blades)... but it's also suuuuuuuper weird. Furious Slash has been a very bleh ability since day one of Warrior in Alpha, and yet, Blizzard cannot let it go.

That said, it sounds absolutely brutal and is totally worth a high end sound system for your PC while playing it.

I logged into all of my characters across 3 servers to unlock all my transmog stuff. Looks like I need to buy some shirts for the title. I threw together a Destro spec and queued for a dungeon, but the sever crashed after the first boss. I was having some interface issues, so I'm still really figuring it all out. I'm planning on trying out Demonology again - I'm happy about the change away from turning into a demon.

Aristophan wrote:

I threw together a Destro spec and queued for a dungeon, but the sever crashed after the first boss.

Welcome to patch day!

Yeah, I have like 20ish characters across 4 realms to log into in succession tonight... and a lot of vendoring of old epics to do tonight, assuming anything is up.

I'll probably spend the night DLing the patch. In the meantime, I've got to get on the stick and order my new PC. My current PC's hamsters are too old and slow to run the x-pac.

Wow, the patch "streamlined" a lot of things. Not sure if I like it yet or not. The UI changes I find overwhelming. Gonna have to play with the nameplates and mini map settings.

My weakauras are now all broken. I'm sad.

PSA: Grand Marshall gear is not in the wardrobe currently. Do not vendor/delete.

I spent a few hours playing with the new Survival Hunter last night, and it was quite fun. Harpooning in to start a fight is a blast.

BadKen wrote:

I spent a few hours playing with the new Survival Hunter last night, and it was quite fun. Harpooning in to start a fight is a blast.

Same with enhancement's ghost wolf lunge/sprint. So cool to see... sadly, I'll probably never use it in a raid environment when I already have Ghost Wolf (and with the artifact weapon, its Maelstrom generation) and the Stampeding Roar Totem is right next to it. Thankfully the other talent in that row is pure garbage, so it's only a 2 horse race and I don't have to even consider the third option.

I need to figure out how to play Shadow Priest now, I must be missing some kind of health regen mechanic because I'm having to sit and eat after almost every on-level fight (this is a mid 90's alt, leveling up).

Farscry wrote:

I need to figure out how to play Shadow Priest now, I must be missing some kind of health regen mechanic because I'm having to sit and eat after almost every on-level fight (this is a mid 90's alt, leveling up).

Using the... health DoT? I forget what it's called.

Demosthenes wrote:
Farscry wrote:

I need to figure out how to play Shadow Priest now, I must be missing some kind of health regen mechanic because I'm having to sit and eat after almost every on-level fight (this is a mid 90's alt, leveling up).

Using the... health DoT? I forget what it's called.

You're thinking of Devouring Plague, and it's as dead as your garrison.

Shadow got completely reworked in 7.0.3. Instead of generating orbs, Shadow Priests build up something called Insanity, then enter Voidform, a state that buffs your DPS.

I haven't looked at Shadow that closely (I'm still in shock that Disc is now almost entirely atonement healing), but it looks like, other than their shields, Shadow Priests have no abilities to regen health.

That might change when you level or when you hit 110 or when you get your artifact. In the meantime, travel with a healer!

Enix wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:
Farscry wrote:

I need to figure out how to play Shadow Priest now, I must be missing some kind of health regen mechanic because I'm having to sit and eat after almost every on-level fight (this is a mid 90's alt, leveling up).

Using the... health DoT? I forget what it's called.

You're thinking of Devouring Plague, and it's as dead as your garrison.

Shadow got completely reworked in 7.0.3. Instead of generating orbs, Shadow Priests build up something called Insanity, then enter Voidform, a state that buffs your DPS.

I haven't looked at Shadow that closely (I'm still in shock that Disc is now almost entirely atonement healing), but it looks like, other than their shields, Shadow Priests have no abilities to regen health.

That might change when you level or when you hit 110 or when you get your artifact. In the meantime, travel with a healer!

They have Shadow Mend as a straight heal. Should get it at 18 according to mmo-champion's talent page. There's a talent at 30 that buffs it as well.

robkid wrote:
Enix wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:
Farscry wrote:

I need to figure out how to play Shadow Priest now, I must be missing some kind of health regen mechanic because I'm having to sit and eat after almost every on-level fight (this is a mid 90's alt, leveling up).

Using the... health DoT? I forget what it's called.

You're thinking of Devouring Plague, and it's as dead as your garrison.

Shadow got completely reworked in 7.0.3. Instead of generating orbs, Shadow Priests build up something called Insanity, then enter Voidform, a state that buffs your DPS.

I haven't looked at Shadow that closely (I'm still in shock that Disc is now almost entirely atonement healing), but it looks like, other than their shields, Shadow Priests have no abilities to regen health.

That might change when you level or when you hit 110 or when you get your artifact. In the meantime, travel with a healer!

They have Shadow Mend as a straight heal. Should get it at 18 according to mmo-champion's talent page. There's a talent at 30 that buffs it as well.

Huh. I missed that in the Icy Veins writeup. But Wowhead (thank goodness) has it listed thusly:

Shadow Mend
2.8% of base mana; 40 yd range
1.5 sec cast
Requires Priest (Discipline, Shadow)
Requires level 18
Wraps an ally in shadows which heal for (750% of Spell power), but at a price.

The ally will take [(750% of Spell power) / 20] damage every 1 sec, until they have taken [(750% of Spell power) / 2] total damage from all sources, or leave combat.

So it's not quite a straight heal, but it's something worth using in the right spot, I guess.

My favorite Shadow talent, meanwhile, is Surrender to Madness:
All your Insanity-generating abilities generate 200% more Insanity, and you can cast while moving, until you exit Voidform.
Then you die. Horribly.

That is some messed-up warlock-y sh!t right there.

Enix wrote:

My favorite Shadow talent, meanwhile, is Surrender to Madness:
All your Insanity-generating abilities generate 200% more Insanity, and you can cast while moving, until you exit Voidform.
Then you die. Horribly.

That is some messed-up warlock-y sh!t right there.

This is the only reason I'm thinking of leveling up my 80 priest I've left alone for 6 years.

Also, it looks like there is a level 30 talent "Masochism" that when you cast Shadow Mend on yourself, the DOT heals you instead.

Aristophan wrote:
Enix wrote:

My favorite Shadow talent, meanwhile, is Surrender to Madness:
All your Insanity-generating abilities generate 200% more Insanity, and you can cast while moving, until you exit Voidform.
Then you die. Horribly.

That is some messed-up warlock-y sh!t right there.

This is the only reason I'm thinking of leveling up my 80 priest I've left alone for 6 years.

Also, it looks like there is a level 30 talent "Masochism" that when you cast Shadow Mend on yourself, the DOT heals you instead.

Worth noting, the DoT doesn't need to tick to its full duration to fall off or deal its full damage to fall off. It will fall off with external damage. If you're solo and tanking everything yourself, there's almost no downside to using it because the things smacking you are going to do more damage than you need to wipe it out pretty quick.

For Disc, someone suggested pairing Shadow Mend with Grace to give a big initial heal that will most likely be canceled out by damage, especially if you're using that on the tank.

Disc is a big fat mess at the moment. At least it is to me, who can't quite get the hang of Atonement.

Yup, Shadow Mend with that one talent selection (I forget which, it turns the dot into a hot when cast on self) was the piece I was missing. Got that straightened out and it's all good.

The biggest change is that shadow priest AoE seems noticeably weaker (when combined with the lack of buff/healing options overall) but single-target soloing is really strong - stronger than it was pre-patch IMO, at least during the leveling process.

Farscry wrote:

Yup, Shadow Mend with that one talent selection (I forget which, it turns the dot into a hot when cast on self) was the piece I was missing. Got that straightened out and it's all good.

The biggest change is that shadow priest AoE seems noticeably weaker (when combined with the lack of buff/healing options overall) but single-target soloing is really strong - stronger than it was pre-patch IMO, at least during the leveling process.

Yeah, in my short playtesting at 100 so far, I couldn't figure out a comfortable AoE rotation, but nuking bosses felt very satisfying. From what I've read, it's basically "cast your better Dot (based on talents) on everything and then Searing", but it was hard to execute and seemed rather weak. Of course, the Fury warrior nuking all of the trash quickly might have had something to do with that too. I was doing around 30k on trash and he was doing over 100k I think.

Enix wrote:

For Disc, someone suggested pairing Shadow Mend with Grace to give a big initial heal that will most likely be canceled out by damage, especially if you're using that on the tank.

Disc is a big fat mess at the moment. At least it is to me, who can't quite get the hang of Atonement.

Yeah atonement feels kinda weird. I tried it out in LFR and it seemed ok-ish using PW:S and Shadowmend to keep it up on the tanks and just dpsing, then chucking a quick heal on any DPS's that need a bit ok extra healing.

Sonicator wrote:
Enix wrote:

For Disc, someone suggested pairing Shadow Mend with Grace to give a big initial heal that will most likely be canceled out by damage, especially if you're using that on the tank.

Disc is a big fat mess at the moment. At least it is to me, who can't quite get the hang of Atonement.

Yeah atonement feels kinda weird. I tried it out in LFR and it seemed ok-ish using PW:S and Shadowmend to keep it up on the tanks and just dpsing, then chucking a quick heal on any DPS's that need a bit ok extra healing.

After tinkering with Disc a little more, I'm going with this:

* Shield the tank
* Plea any melee classes (they're more likely than not to take damage)
* DPS the boss or adds like crazy (which heals anyone with Atonement through shield, plea, etc)
* Use Shadow Mend (with Grace talent) if I need a big catchup heal
* If the whole group is taking heavy damage, throw out Mindbender (it heals those with Atonement) and/or Rapture (eliminates the CD on your shield) and/or PW:Barrier

I'm thinking about giving Holy a try simply because it seems more traditional (i.e., more straightforward heals and none of this DPS-to-heal weirdness). But I've rolled with Disc for a long time and am determined to make it work!

Enix wrote:
Sonicator wrote:
Enix wrote:

For Disc, someone suggested pairing Shadow Mend with Grace to give a big initial heal that will most likely be canceled out by damage, especially if you're using that on the tank.

Disc is a big fat mess at the moment. At least it is to me, who can't quite get the hang of Atonement.

Yeah atonement feels kinda weird. I tried it out in LFR and it seemed ok-ish using PW:S and Shadowmend to keep it up on the tanks and just dpsing, then chucking a quick heal on any DPS's that need a bit ok extra healing.

After tinkering with Disc a little more, I'm going with this:

* Shield the tank
* Plea any melee classes (they're more likely than not to take damage)
* DPS the boss or adds like crazy (which heals anyone with Atonement through shield, plea, etc)
* Use Shadow Mend (with Grace talent) if I need a big catchup heal
* If the whole group is taking heavy damage, throw out Mindbender (it heals those with Atonement) and/or Rapture (eliminates the CD on your shield) and/or PW:Barrier

I'm thinking about giving Holy a try simply because it seems more traditional (i.e., more straightforward heals and none of this DPS-to-heal weirdness). But I've rolled with Disc for a long time and am determined to make it work!

I didn't like it at first (and I complained about it here) but now that I've gotten used to it feels more engaging than the other healing specs. Are you using power word: radiance at all?

A little, but PW:R is slooooooow. It feels quicker to spam Plea and DPS than to stand around and wait for PW:R to complete.

Speaking of, are you using disc in BGs? How is that working out? I haven't tried it yet, mostly because it feels really weak. (I'm probably wrong about that; that's just how it seems right now.)

Enix wrote:

Speaking of, are you using disc in BGs? How is that working out? I haven't tried it yet, mostly because it feels really weak. (I'm probably wrong about that; that's just how it seems right now.)

Not sure of their healing output but they're definitely easier targets, and my buddy that's holy has been 1st or 2nd on the healing charts each time.

Enix wrote:

A little, but PW:R is slooooooow. It feels quicker to spam Plea and DPS than to stand around and wait for PW:R to complete.

Speaking of, are you using disc in BGs? How is that working out? I haven't tried it yet, mostly because it feels really weak. (I'm probably wrong about that; that's just how it seems right now.)

In case you hadn't noticed, plea increases in mana cost as you have more and more attonements up. May not matter for like normal/heroic dungeons... but that increased mana cost could come back to bite you in the butt... especially if you're then doing rounds on maintaining them as every plea becomes a 4-stack cost instead of hitting all of them with radiance.

Like I said, I doubt it'll matter in lower level content, but once mana becomes a concern, that radiance's slow cast may just be something you'll have to start proactively to then heal the AOE as it goes out.