sunwell-badge-loot
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Make way for maintenance day
Maintenance day is underway until 2pET/11aPT and many WoW fans are searching for something to do, while players with day jobs log on to point out that they can never play during these hours. Fortunately, we have lots going on today, as well as some highlights from the past week that you won't want to miss. Wrath of the Lich King: Compilation of everything we know of to date about Death Knights, the new hero class we'll be seeing with the expansion. The new expansion is now in alpha testing! Read on to find out what this means, as well as what it doesn't mean. Arena Season 4: A great analysis of when arena season 4 might begin.
Shifting Perspectives: Patch 2.4 druid roundup
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, postpones the final part of the bear tanking strategy guide once again to focus on druid changes in today's patch 2.4. Yeah, yeah, I know. Leveling guides still need to be written, tanking strategy article gets put off yet another week. If anyone ever told me before I started this gig that I'd have too many breaking news stories to discuss to write big posts in a long series, I'd have laughed at 'em. I guess the lesson here is that World of Warcraft is a continually growing game, and sometimes we have to act fast to stay on top of the changes. As much as I'd like to hand you Episode III: Return of the Bear Strats, I bet with the patch hot and heavy, most of you are a lot more interested in knowing how we stand with the excellent druidy goodness. Sigh. So long, bear strategy. Hopefully next week. Unless we get a hot annnouncement of new druid content coming in the next expansion, or shocking undocumented patch changes, or something. One thing you can be sure of... there will be some folks that have every badge reward they want on patch day, and others will continue, like me, to scrimp and save. Either way, look on the bright side. It'll be nice to have at least a week before people start complaining of being bored again. Let's do a nice roundup of all the various changes and additions coming to the druid class, so everybody can plan what they want to do first. Just follow along past the break!
Going Priestly in patch 2.4
With patch 2.4 live, lets take a look at what it's offering those of the more Priestly persuasion. Gear, a few talent and spell changes, and some new fun in the new instances will be a boon for your Priest.For our Shadow brothers, you can now look forward to Fear Ward in Shadowform and a somewhat nerfed Vampiric Touch (they've fixed the bug where casting lower ranks wasn't penalized like other healing spells are).Disc priest, like Nethaera, can look forward to a slightly buffed Inner Focus (though in reality it's not a very big buff, just Chastise, Starshards, and Shadowguard corrections in that they'll no longer trigger the Inner Focus charge). Reflective Shield will not break CC, and a penalizing effect has been added to lower ranked Power Word: Shield. Chastise is now instant cast, and will no longer dis orient the target. And of course, Power Infusion has been changed.Holy rollers will like that Silent Resolve now affects a wider range of spells. Mass Dispel will affect 10 targets instead of 5.There will be several pieces of gear added as well.
Encrypted Text: Gear me up in 2.4
Surprised to see us again so soon? Well, with 2.4 hitting today (Elune willing), it's time to see what there is out there for rogues in the new patch -- at least gear-wise, since rogues don't have many mechanic changes on the PTR right now. This new gear is available as badge rewards, drops from Magister's Terrace, and even crafted loot! (Sorry -- since the Sunwell isn't going to be open at first, loot from the 25-man raid has been left out of this one, and we talked about the Shattered Sun rep rewards already.) Badge of Justice Loot The first things you'll probably be staring at in the new badge vendor's inventory are the new daggers. The Blade of Serration, Swift Blade of Uncertainity, and the Mutilator clearly have a lot in common -- all three have the same 103.1 DPS and stam/hit/AP stats. However, the Blade of Serration is 1.8 speed, one-handed, and costs 105 Badges of Justice, while the identical Mutilator is off-hand only and costs only 45 Badges. The Swift Balde, intended as an off-hand for combat dagger rogues, boasts a speed of 1.5 and the same discount off-hand price of 45 Badges. Since these daggers clock in as the fourth-best daggers in the game DPS-wise, they're a must-have for all small-group dagger rogues. Combat fist spec rogues can also enjoy some hot new weapons. (Sorry, swords and maces, but no new pointies/blunties for you.) Vanir's Right (and left) Fist of Brutality and Vanir's Left Fist of Savagery forgo the hit rating and stam of the daggers in exchange for agi and haste rating. They share the same 105/45 badge price as the daggers, so you can pick up the whole set for 150 Badges of Justice. Drawbacks include that the models look like rejected monsters from AQ40.
Welcome to 2.4, Warrior
The patch is coming. We all know this. We don't know exactly when it will be here, but will know it's coming. (Edited to add - okay, it's today.) What will it change? What will warriors have to be concerned about, what will we look forward to, and what gear can we get from the unlockable vendor on the Sunwell island?Well, for starters, at least so far as has been revealed on the PTR, warriors are seeing remarkably little in the way of changes. Imp Hamstring is now subject to diminishing returns, Cleave won't hit a CC'd target, and supposedly they're going to fix the bug that has led to flurry not proccing off of off-hand weapon strikes. This is not a huge laundry list of changes. The entire warrior section of the current patch notes is as follows: Cleave: This ability will no longer strike any secondary target which is under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc. (Edited to Add - Hortus clarifies that this change was rolled back on live.) Endless Rage will now give the correct amount of rage as intended from damage dealt by a Warrior. Improved Hamstring (Arms) effect is now subject to diminishing returns when used in PvP. Stances: It is no longer possible to accidentally change into a stance you are already in via macros (resulting in a global cooldown and loss of rage). Whirlwind: Critical strikes with the off-hand weapon from this ability can now trigger Flurry and Rampage. Flurry will properly refresh if a crit occurs with 1 charge left. The Cleave change is nice, but is part of a larger attempt to fix non-AoE abilities that target more than one mob, and as such can't really be considered a warrior change. Endless Rage, Flurry and Whirlwind changes are all bug fixes. Improved Hamstring is seeing a PvP nerf that, frankly, it probably needed.I have to admit, I'm underwhelmed, and also a little relieved.
Patch 2.4 and Shamans - How did we do?
Back in February I made this post on Totem Talk discussing the patch 2.4 changes for shamans. Since then, things have changed and the current changes to the class are as follows. Call of Thunder: (Rank 5) now gives 5% critical strike chance. Chain Lightning: This ability will no longer jump to secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc. (Edited to add - Hortus explain it all - it was rolled back on live.) Earth Shield: Mana cost reduced roughly in half, and charges reduced from 10 to 6. Elemental Focus: This buff will no longer be removed when Shamanistic Focus is triggered. Flametongue Weapon: Having different ranks of this enchantment cast on two different weapons will no longer cause the enchantments to trigger multiple times per swing. Ghost Wolf: Cast time reduced to 2 seconds, down from 3. The Global Cooldown of all Totems has been reduced to 1 seconds, down from 1.5 seconds. Healing Grace: This talent now reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 10/20/30%.The resistance to being dispelled modifier from this talent now applies correctly to Water Breathing. Rockbiter Weapon: Tooltip and error messages have been adjusted slightly. Shamanistic Rage is now a Physical ability instead of a Magic spell, and thus is no longer dispellable. It now reduces all damage taken by 30% and gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 30% of your attack power. This lasts for 15 seconds with a 2 minute cooldown. Stormstrike has a new icon. Totem timer icons will now show up under your player portrait when you cast totem spells. Right-clicking a totem timer icon will destroy that totem. Toughness will now also reduce the duration of movement slowing effects on you by 10/20/30/40/50%. Tremor Totem now pulses every 3 seconds, down from 4 seconds. The Shaman spell Fire Nova Totem will no longer sometimes detonate without doing any damage. That's a pretty substantial list of changes all told. Some are clearly bug fixes, while others are straightforward buffs (the totem cooldown being reduced to 1 second, Shamanistic Rage no longer dispellable, totem timers) and others have the horrible taint of nerf upon them (Call of Thunder giving 1% less crit). Still others aren't so cut and dried. So let's take a look at what this patch means for us shamans.
The Light and How to Swing It: Badge rewards in 2.4
Now that the patch is upon us, it's a good time for reflecting upon all the new badge rewards available to us in the near future. As a hybrid class with 3 main viable specs (healing, tanking, DPS), it's no wonder that there's a lot of new badge gear for paladins in this patch. Allison did a fantastic write-up of new badge gear for druids a few days back, so I figured I'd follow her format as it relates to paladins! HolyItemization for Healing specs has been pretty solid when it comes to badge gear, and the new stuff is no exception. Just like the Pier 1 set that 2.3 introduced, you'll find lots of healing, spell crit and mana per 5 on the new gear... just more of it.
Blood Pact: Badge loot shopping!
Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman. He's recently started to plumb the depths of SSC with his 0/21/40 build and bragging about 8k shadow bolts.I don't know about you, but the first thing I'm going to do when patch 2.4 goes live AND when Smith Hauthaa becomes available (added for clarity) will be to spend my hard-earned badges on some new shiny loot. I've been wearing my Frozen Shadoweave Robe since forever (no luck with Magtheridon for my T4 - *cry*), and frozen or not, the dress is smelling a little ... musty.Gearing up, as we know, is serious business and I'll walk through my Warlock loot decisions here with you. We also know that the new 2.4 badge loot is pretty expensive, and with a finite amount of badges, players need to make some hard buying decisions - which is the fun part really. Personally, I evaluate each item based on the following criteria: Incremental upgrade vs existing gear, keeping set bonuses in mind: Duh. Future progression: Will I be replacing this piece one week from now with drops, PvP gear or other loot? Cost: Can I get two cheaper pieces to get a greater upgrade than a single expensive piece? The cost of enchanting and gemming the new pieces should also be taken into account. Last but not least, looks! How will the new piece fit in with the rest of my wardrobe? Now let's look at the shiny purples!
A guide to Hunter badge loot in 2.4
So 2.4's going live, and I know your first question: What's in it for me? If you're a Hunter, let me enlighten you, at least on the subject of badge loot. There's a couple pieces of mail armor and a few new weapons that Hunters should have their eye on once Smith Hauthaa is open for business, and I'll give you the breakdown on how they stack up for Hunters after the Break. Just to note, I will mostly be comparing these to T5 and T6 drops, and will assume that you won't be attacking the Sunwell immediately.
Shifting Perspectives: 2.4 Badge-A-Palooza, Druid style
Every week, Shifting Perspectives is written by someone who is not me. Except for that one time. Rather an addictive experience, stealing this column. Does anyone even read the italicized portion at the top? Hello? Nobody? I'm just gonna sing. "My baloney has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R, my baloney has a [censored over copyright infringement] (ed. just do the column, please).While I sincerely hope the rumors about the patch hitting soon aren't true because I'm sitting on all of 43 badges of justice right now (g@^#(*% mother-expletive piece of $%^@ fire resistance set), I am forced to admit that the times may possibly have caught up with me. I confess that for a long time I hadn't even looked at the new badge loot that will become available ingame, partly because things have gotten markedly busier with my guild of late and partly because I'd planned my 2.3 badge acquisitions very carefully and wondered if I could get away with keeping myself somewhat unspoiled for 2.4. That lasted until I found out just how expensive the 2.4 gear is actually going to be ("150 badges for a new weapon, Zach? Are you @*(#&#% kidding me?"). Noble effort while it lasted, though. Well, no more. If 2.4 does hit next week, I'm going to be ready to stand in front of the badge vendor and know exactly what I can't afford to buy for all three specs.This treatment looks exclusively at the new leather gear offerings available in 2.4 and assumes that you won't have access, or at least immediate access, to the new 25-man raid Sunwell Plateau. For my part I am still using six -- count 'em, six -- pieces of badge gear for various tanking purposes in Tier 6 content, which either says a great deal about the general quality of badge gear or says a great deal about how bad feral itemization is in endgame content. I'll be magnanimous today and say it's both.
