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Gearing up your Holy Paladin for Crit
Mmmm, Crit and Holy. For a long time these two have been BFFs, and Crit was always a priority for Holy Paladins. So much, in fact, that the proliferation of Crit plate in The Burning Crusade and the mad scramble to stack it resulted in the great Illumination nerf of 2007 (to borrow a phrase from BRK). In my gear guide for Haste, some of you asked why I prioritized Haste over other seemingly important stats like Intellect, MP5, or even Crit. Well, I didn't, really. Most Spell Power plate will already have Intellect, so all you really have to do is avoid the ones that don't.I've never been a big fan of MP5 on Plate, as it is a poor man's substitute for Crit after Illumination was nerfed in Patch 2.1. It isn't specially important now, either, with the help of Divine Plea. Spell Power values only differ by a small margin between items, so I tend not to prioritize that. Haste and Crit tend to be the values that I look for in items because it's easier to pad Spell Power through enchants than it is to raise Haste and Crit. Both are good stats, although nowadays I tend to pursue Haste because I want my heals to land faster. It's extremely useful when healing Death Knights, for example, who tend to take large spikes of damage.
Lichborne: A Death Knight statistics primer
Welcome to Lichborne, the weekly Death Knight column by professor Daniel Whitcomb, who totally has a PhD in Death-Knightology from Ebon Hold University. It's the truth, I swear. I've seen a lot of people asking these questions as we've been getting into the expansion: Now that I am trying to gear by Death Knights, what stats should I get? What's good for a Death Knight? Which armor should I take. We've started getting in that somewhat in the last few columns, with advice on reputation gear and starting zone gear, but I figured today we should delve a little bit more into the why of Death Knight stats. Today's column will double as a little bit of primer on how Death Knights get their power, and what stats you should be looking for on armor in general to make your Death Knight the best it can be. It's not completely in depth, but it should get you well on the road to understanding just how Death Knights get all that awesome power and sexiness. We'll have 3 sections today. The Good are stats that are excellent choices for DPS, Tanks, or both. The So-So are stats which still do us some good, but are pretty situational or conditional in their usefulness. The Outcasts are those stats that you should avoid -- Well, I'd say avoid like the plague, but we're Death Knights. We like the plague around here. So I'll just say you should avoid them.
Checking your caps: Defense, Block, Hit, Expertise
Honor's Code has a great post up about the secondary gear stats that often get overlooked in favor of the main attributes. Everyone knows that Hunters need Agility and Warriors need Strength, but after that, things tend to get a little fuzzy -- just what does Expertise or Hit do for you? HC breaks it down from a Pally perspective, but what they say about these stats is helpful for any class that has to deal with attacking the bad guys.Defense comes first -- defense rating, for tanks, allows you to make sure that bosses can't crit you. Each class has its own defense cap, and the cap has changed from 70 to 80, so you'll have to keep an eye out for your own cap when you get that far. Block is next -- a high Block rating means you're pushing other attack options off the table when you're hit, so that when something does hit you, you block the damage on it. Both of those stats are mainly for tanks -- other classes, who aren't getting hit, won't have to worry about them at all.But Hit and Expertise you will have to worry about if you're DPS -- Hit will make sure that you don't miss your target (the fewer misses you have, the higher your DPS), and Expertise makes sure that those hits don't become dodges or parries. This is tough stuff, and it shows up much earlier in Wrath, it seems, than it did in Burning Crusade, But the good news is that there's a lot of help around -- Honor's Code offers a great overview for what everything means, and from there, you can search our site or others for what you need to know about each stat and how it works with your class.
The Queue: Yes, this is what we call it now
Yep. Ask a Beta Tester is officially The Queue. It's kind of a joke, you get it? Get it? You know, queue, like you wait in line for an answer? An A to your Q? Q? Queue? Hahah! Get it? Get it!? Hahahah! Ugh. Queue queue.Anyway, The Queue is now our daily Q&A column, where the WoW Insider staff answers your questions about the game to the best of our ability. Previously limited to Wrath content, we'll now happily answer most anything about the game if we're able. Today is obviously no exception, so we're going to start with a question from Andostre... TBC saw a rise in the necessity of Hit Rating. Is Hit as important in Wrath? I ask because Hit isn't nearly as fun as Attack/Spell Power or Crit rating.
Ask a Beta Tester: Heirloom items, class trainers, and more
Another day, another edition of Ask a Beta Tester. Today, as a special treat, I am going to answer your questions while blindfolded. And on fire. And covered in bees....actually, I don't really like that idea so I'm going to answer your questions like I normally do, starting with Naraxus's question...Something I was thinking about was how much of an important stat "Hit" was on endgame gear in BC. A couple of patches ago a lot of the lower level gear was given a hit stat to it and I was wondering if the 70-79 gear in WotLK has "Hit" or is it just basic stats and spell power, attack power etc?There's some Hit on leveling gear, but not enough to keep you capped right to 80 in my experience. I actually didn't really try, I concerned myself more with survival and longevity. In the case of a Priest, that meant stamina, spirit, and spell damage. Leveling gear is a bit more simplified. Raw stats, and some attack power/spell power in most cases.You'll also find some crit, hit, and haste, but your leveling gear isn't going to have as many random stats slapped on it as you see on some raid gear.
Holy and Discipline Priest 3.0.2 spell and ability review
Before continuing to read on, you may wish to refer back to part 1 of the Holy and Discipline Priest 3.0.2 overview. Part 2 will cover many basics including mana management, healing spells, gem questions, and glyphs. It is a very strong bet that patch 3.0.2 patch will activate on Tuesday. For the Priests that are still raiding (I feel like I'm the only one), find out what you need to know after the jump!
Crit DoTs for Affliction, sorta
The Shadow Priest world was recently pleased to learn that Mind Flay is going to be enhanced in an upcoming beta build with the ability to crit (as well as a 30% increased spell power coefficient). The Affliction Warlock community, meanwhile, just wanted to know if they'd get a similar treatment, and it looks like the answer is: maybe? Kind of? Let me explain. Last night, class designer Koraa said the following in the beta forums: There will be a new talent in Affliction in an upcoming build. Keywords: "DoT" and "Crit" (Well, sorta) How do we interpret that "well, sorta"? Who knows, really. I'm sure we'll all see soon enough. In the mean time, it's always fun to speculate! What's like critting, but isn't actually a crit? Well, there could be a chance of 1.5x/2x damage, without actually being counted as a crit. This way it wouldn't trigger effects that trigger from crits. However, it would then not solve the issue of crit rating being next to meaningless for Aff locks. "Sorta" could also mean that crit mechanics will apply to DoTs, but not in a traditional way: A crit DoT could have each tick do extra damage (this would be the closest analogue of a regular crit, I think). It could be extended in duration, which would save on mana but not really raise DPS. Each tick could have a separate chance to crit. It could actually compress the DoT, making it do the same amount of damage in less time, which would raise DPS and keep DPM constant. I think that last one is my favorite. What do you think they'll do? What do you want them to do? Update: Semi-crit mechanism revealed! New talent: Pandemic - Each time you deal damage with Corruption or Unstable Affliction, you have a chance equal to your spell critical strike chance to deal 33/66/100% additional damage.
Shadow Priests finally get love in the Wrath beta
Shadow Priests have been eagerly anticipating some love in the Wrath Beta for a long time now, and we've finally received some feedback beyond a pat on the head and a "hold on a bit." Koraa has just posted some great news in a thread started by the ShadowPriest.com community.While it won't fix all things, it's definitely a start, and a good one: Mind Flay's coefficient will be raised by roughly 30% "to start," and it will gain the ability to crit. Yes, that's right. The coefficient will be de-gutted, and it will benefit from crit. After months of nothing, this is like a ray of sunshine from the heavens. Koraa also mentions that they'll be looking at the rest of the Shadow tree, but states that most people agree the tree itself is fine, the issue is the Shadow spells themselves, which I will more or less agree with. While some new spells would be nice, the class is plenty functional with what they have assuming the numbers will be tuned properly, and our gear matches up with that.Hopefully we'll be seeing the new and improved Mind Flay in the next beta build, but it may take a little longer than that since it will be a complete rebuild of the spell. As soon as it's in, I'll be back here raving about it, I promise.
Counting up 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 more Shaman complaints
There's a new chapter in the ongoing saga of Shaman disappointment with patch 2.4, and it's this: "1, 2, 3, 4... 6?" As you may have noticed in the patch notes, Call of Thunder (an Elemental Shaman talent that increases the crit strike chance of Lightning spells) had five ranks that gave 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, and 6% respectively. But patch 2.4 will bring it in line with standard arithmetic, and have rank five give 5% crit chance.An obvious nerf, right? Blizzard doesn't seem to be so sure. Players say that there was a reason rank five gave 6% chance to crit, and it was probably to balance the ability with other abilities in endgame. But Neth says that though it is a nerf, the devs did it just to bring the values in line with other similar ranked talents. Even giving Neth the benefit of the doubt on the devs' decision, that seems really unlikely-- no one would "accidentally" count 1, 2, 3, 4, 6. Clearly the extra percentage crit chance was in there for a reason, and the devs shouldn't change it back unless Shamans really are critting too much (and by all accounts, they are not).It seems like a lot of whining over a small issue (and yes, that could be said about all of this Shaman business), but once again not only is Blizzard not clear on their communication, but they continue to mangle Shaman relations-- in a patch where Elemental Shamans are finally hoping for a buff, the devs decide instead to nerf one of their biggest talents, supposedly to fix a mathematical bug. If the devs suddenly said that Fel Concentration was getting nerfed to 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% (rather than the 14%-70% it's at now) because those numbers were more "in line," Warlocks would throw a fit. And that's exactly why Shamans are so unhappy right now.
Arcane Brilliance: Why we Mage
Hi there! Yes, after a long hiatus, Arcane Brilliance is back. Snack tables all around! Anybody ninjas the biscuits, they get a Fireball in the face. Nah, just kidding. Even ninjas are welcome here. As long as they're mage-ninjas. I've been a Mage since day one with WoW, and until a few weeks ago I had never really questioned my class choice. I liked the idea of being a caster, a back row fireballer with robes and a pointy hat. When I came over from FFXI I asked my WoW-playing buddy (the aforementioned shammie) which class I should be. He asked what I was into, and I said something like "I want to be a huge caster-tastic wizard in a dress who sets things on fire with his mind. Is there a mage-type class?" He said. "Yes. It's called...Mage." And that was it. I rolled my undead Mage and began conjuring flaming death and croissants. I happily leveled my Mage to 70. And then...the bubbling, Healthstone-critting warlock happened. After the jump: Shameful self doubt, soul searching, and finally...sweet redemption! And more Mage-talk.
Crit happens
ces_1 over on WoW Ladies posted bragging about her 9.7k Healing Touch crit, and it reminded me that I do exactly the same thing. For some reason, seeing those big numbers pop up in the middle of battle is an indescribable thrill. Crits are strange entities-- they aren't even always helpful (there are many situations, mostly when aggro is tight, in which big crits are actually bad to get). But big numbers inspire something primal in us. And even if we aren't world-record critting (even in the LJ comments, people are showing off bigger Healing Touch crits), there's something super inspiring about seeing a huge number and then realizing it's your personal best. A 3k Lighting Bolt crit isn't that much, but darned if it wasn't a terrific feeling when I finally hit it on my Shaman.Loot is fun, but at the highest levels, it's a group thing-- you need to go into somewhere as a group or a raid, and then even if you do down the boss, you have to make sure you win a random roll or however else loot is distributed. But crits are far more personal-- even though they come from that loot, they're a result of all the gear choices you've made and the talents you've chosen for your character. Sure, a big dragon to fly around on is fun, but crits, out of the many rewards we've all earned in Azeroth, are maybe the most personal achievements you can find-- a real, numerical symbol that you've learned how to combine gear, class, and talents to do big things.
Critapalooza
We've all heard them, those people in Alterac Valley or in Steam Vaults that announce those amazing crits every time one pops up on the screen. You may very well be one of those people yourself. But every time one of those huge numbers pops up in the chat log, you could very well stop and wonder, are they telling the truth? Nicholas over at WoW LJ posted on this topic today, and I identified with his side of things. He mentioned that whenever someone announces "omg my shadowbolt just crit for 5k!" there is a pause that happens, followed by self-doubt. I know I have been there myself. I sit there and seethe, wondering if I will ever be able to reach those kinds of numbers myself one day. He also brings up the possibility that not everyone is honest when they post these outlandish numbers. Maybe the hunter's Arcane Shot really didn't crit for 4k. Maybe it's a whole huge cover up, where we are all sitting here envious of numbers that don't actually exist. I'm not really sure either way. I know I'm not a huge crit machine (yet), and I don't post fabulously high numbers mostly because I don't achieve them. If I do, it's something I tell my friends, and we rejoice together in my outrageous luck. Without judgement, I'd like to ask the same question Nicholas does at the end of his post: also, (nobody will judge you for telling the truth), have you ever done this and lied about the damage you did? (maybe add an extra 100 or 5?)[via WoW Livejournal]
Forum post of the day: One time my Astral Recall crit
One of the funniest threads I've ever seen on the WoW forums starts out in a fairly innocuous way: "One time my Astral Recall crit ... Found myself in New York," wrote the shaman Spaceshock. From that, the thread evolved into a pure being of win and awesome, as other players imagined what would happen if some of their abilities crit. The best include:
