Shadow
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Crowson's Shadow Actuator rumbles your rump, won't damage your ears
Certainly you've heard of the bass shaker concept by now, right? If not, here's an alternative from Crowson that should make things crystal clear. The firm's new Shadow, which is obviously targeting the custom install market, gets bolted beneath any theater seat in which more bass is desired. When hooked up, the "Tactile Motion" feedback provides the wondrous feeling of bass without the hearing loss associated with cranking things to 11. Additionally, each chair can be controlled independently, meaning that some viewers could experience more rumble than others. Sadly, there's no mention of a price, but we're sure you can find an inflated one by phoning up your nearest HT dealer.
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.
The new Misery
Many Shadow Priests are not feeling very good about the state of the class in LK right now. Yes, buffs to DPS are promised. But a lot of our utility has tanked, from Shadow Weaving not affecting other players, to Vampiric Touch being dialed down and given to other classes, to Misery. It's sad, but amusing that a talent named Misery would get nerfed this hard. Currently, in live, Misery gives 1/2/3/4/5% increased spell damage for all players against targets affected by your Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay, and Vampiric Touch. Pretty sweet. As of the latest beta version, it's +1/2/3% spell hit for all players against targets affected by the same spells. The reason this is especially bad (besides that the last two ranks of the talent were removed) is that most casters are hit-capped when they raid, which means that additional spell hit doesn't help them at all. So either players are going to start gearing assuming Misery will be up – which defeats Blizzard's stated goal of making it so no class is truly essential for a raid – or Misery is going to be worthless most of the time (outside of leveling maybe). This seems like a good case of a broken talent, and so I have every hope that it will get addressed during the beta. But as of right now, Misery is pretty miserable indeed.
8885 is not entirely kind to Priests
My favorite class was certainly not left out of the party when it came to this beta build. The most interesting changes to me: Inner Fire works on spell power now, not just healing spell power as was the case in previous builds. This only makes sense, given that spell power is unified now. Penance has been buffed for all ranks, but I need to see proper numbers before I can make any conclusions. MMO-Champion is noting that it now ticks twice instead of thrice; I'm hoping that's a bug related to lowering the channel time to 2 sec. The new Disc talent Grace got the stuffing nerfed out of it. It now reads as follows: Your Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Penance spells have a 50/100% chance to bless the target with Grace, reducing damage done to the target by 1%. This effect will stack up to 3 times. Effect lasts 8 sec. Yikes. It was a very strong talent, but I'm not sure it deserved to be hit quite this hard. Focused Power reworked to increase your total spell damage and healing by 2/4%, and reduce the cast time of Mass Dispel by 0.5 sec. Anything that makes you 2% more Priest per talent point is practically a must-have talent. New Disc talent: Renewed Hope (Tier 8): Increases the critical effect chance of your Flash Heal, Greater Heal and Penance spells by 3% on targets afflicted by the Weakened Soul effect. Our Shadow brethren were not left out either, though perhaps they will wish they had been (this is all stuff that had been previewed in the big "raid stacking" post). Vampiric Touch changed to implement the new mana battery model ("cause up to 10 party or raid members to gain 0.5% of their maximum mana per second while you are dealing shadow damage"). Misery changed to 3 ranks, now gives 1/2/3% spell hit. Shadow Weaving changed to 3 ranks, and now only increases the shadow damage you deal. Definitely a bittersweet moment in the Priest development cycle. I really hope Shadow gets some major buffs soon. [via MMO-Champion]
Beta Shadow concerns
A Dwarf Priest is one of my very favorite WoW blogs. The author writes about exactly one topic – Priests – and she does it very well. So when she says that Shadow Priests are "on the endangered list" in Wrath, I think there's probably some truth to that. The core argument is that Shadow Priests' utility is not at the point it was once at (group mana regen is not unique any more; Shadow is not as important for raid synergy), but their DPS has not (yet) been increased accordingly. One reason why Shadow's DPS is low has to do with spell coefficients. You know how items with +damage or +healing (or now spell power) always say "adds up to [however much] damage"? The coefficient on a spell is what determines exactly how much is applied. Generally it's based on cast times – Greater Heal gets 86% of +healing applied, while Flash Heal only gets 43% – but there are exceptions for spells with added effects, such as Mind Flay and its snare.
Hybrid Theory: Healers, gear, and entering Northrend
Welcome to Hybrid Theory, where we discuss all things hybrid in the World of Warcraft. Hybrid Theory is brought to you each week by columnist/blogger Alex Ziebart.Remember a few weeks ago, I mentioned how if you want to be extra-cautious about preparing for Wrath of the Lich King, you should figure out a calm, easy way to farm gold that won't burn you out? After having hit the current level cap on the beta realms... I still recommend that, if you want to be extra prepared. If you're a very casual, don't worry about it too much, really. It's not that big of a deal. Leveling will get you enough for the bare necessities. If you're the type that wants to start leveling professions and gearing up immediately upon hitting the level cap though, think about going into Wrath with at least a couple thousand in your pocket, which really isn't that hard of a task.Moving past that, though, a lot of people have asked about gear across all classes, but mostly Hybrids. Hybrids have asked because all of the Healing classes are amongst them, and if you're a Healer you may not necessarily have a set of DPS gear. My first comment on this: Don't worry. Really.
Select Priest glyphs changed in latest beta push
Do you remember when the Shadow Priest glyphs made their rounds, and then we all complained a lot and made suggestions as to how they should be fixed? Guess what, guys. They aren't terrible anymore! I know, it's a shock! The updated Shadow Priest glyphs are all pretty much straight buffs, while some of the Holy ones are buffs, and some are fixed balancing issues. Let's take a look, shall we?Glyph of Lightwell - Increases the amount healed by your Lightwell by 20%.I've played around with Lightwell on the beta quite a bit, actually, and its current incarnation is fantastic. The HoT rarely breaks, and my guildies are generally intelligent enough to know when to use it. At level 77 in full level 70 gear, each tick of LIghtwell currently heals for around 2,200. Each tick healing for 2600-2700 with this glyph is pretty amazing, considering it's a "set it and forget it" heal.Glyph of Renew - Reduces the duration of your Renew by 3 sec. but increases the amount healed per tick by 40%.Sounds good to me. It will be a little more mana intensive to keep the HoT on a tank, but strong HoTs are priceless.
All the World's a Stage: Sacrificing spells for the story
All the World's a Stage returns today to shine a brutal but loving eye on the intricacies of roleplay. We do this by looking at the craft of roleplay itself, and the people who love it. We might not be ready for Jerry Springer, but we're pretty sure this week's column is going to have a little debate behind it. Michael Gray fills in this week for David Bowers, and talks about letting roleplay exclude some other forms of play in the World of Warcraft.We're not a big Guild. All told, we probably have about twenty to twenty five people who come online at various times to talk, chat, and play together. We have some structure, but we're mostly a motley of friends who hang out. Our raiding effort takes place because our raid leaders woke up one day and said "By Wrath of the Lich King, we're going to be able to progress in ten man content."We're also a roleplay-ish kind of Guild. I say "ish" because we're not full immersion players. We have some light story notions. For example, I have the vague idea that our raid's main healer is the son of our raid's main tank -- that's mostly because they're the same human model, but one has light blonde hair, and the other has old, graying hair.So, when we come across folks into the roleplay and immersion a little more than we are, we're sometimes not quite sure what to make of it.
Hybrid Theory: State of PvP in the Wrath beta
Welcome to Hybrid Theory, where we discuss all things hybrid in the World of Warcraft. Hybrid Theory is brought to you each week by columnist/blogger Alex Ziebart.Before I start, while you read this remember that the Wrath beta does not currently allow you to hit the level cap. Everyone is level 77, and there's a lot that is unfinished. This is more anecdotal about the state of things, and not really analyzing how things will look in the end. You still with me? Good.I decided to try out incredibly, insanely buggy Lake Wintergrasp when the beta realms went up yesterday, and later on I gave the new Battleground a whirl, too. Through all of this, there was one constant: Holy crap Ret Paladins are OP. No, really. I know, it blew my mind, too. Retribution Paladins. Overpowered. Hell has frozen over.
Wrath Beta patch notes: Priest
My main is a Priest. A Shadow Priest, to be precise. While I started out Holy, my Priest has always been my main and probably always will be. The only thing that could possibly draw me away is my Protection Paladin, should my raid ever need another. Obviously, the very first thing I looked at in the Wrath Beta patch notes were the Priest notes. I've talked about what we saw in Alpha, and I was cautiously optimistic at the time. After seeing these notes... well... yeah, I'm still optimistic. I am (dare I say it?)... excited, even!I'll tuck my analysis behind the cut, but here are my three favorite notes out of the Priest notes: New Talent: Improved Spirit Tap (Shadow) - Gives you a 50/100% chance to gain a 50% bonus to your Spirit after gaining a critical effect chance from your Mind Blast or Shadow Word: Death spells. For the duration, your mana will regenreate at a 25% rate while casting. Lasts 8 sec. Lightwell (Holy): Cast time reduced to .5 sec, down from 1.5 sec. Charges increased to 10, up from 5. Now breaks from any attack that hits you for 30% or more of your total health. Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5. Shadowform (Shadow): Now has an innate 30% threat reduction. Now has a shapeshift UI.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Faith and religion
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, the column that answers your questions about the story and lore of the Warcraft universe. Click the Comments link below, ask your question, and blogger/columnist Alex Ziebart will answer you in a future installment!Two weeks ago, when I was going through my queue of questions, one stuck out as especially complex. Sean Riley inquired about the beliefs and practices of the various Azerothian religions. This topic really excited me as I kind of have a thing for analyzing religion and faith. I would never claim to be an authority on theology, but it's stlil something that is very interesting to me. Warcraft lore combined with theology? Yes please! Obviously this isn't really the place to analyze and debate religion, but taking time out to research the gaps in my knowledge on this particular topic was incredibly fun for me.Unforunately, I didn't have the space in that week's column to fit the answer to that question in, nor did I really have the time. It was a broad question and needed to invest a hefty amount of time into it. This one question has filled today's column, and while that may be disappointing to some that are waiting their turn, I hope it's an interesting read regardless.
Hybrid Theory: Healers, hit, and homogenization
Welcome to Hybrid Theory, where we discuss all things hybrid in the World of Warcraft. Hybrid Theory is brought to you each week by columnist/blogger Alex Ziebart.Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen. Today's Hybrid Theory is purely guesswork and speculation. In no way will I pretend that these are facts, and you should not take them as such. It's a topic that grabbed my interest, and it's something I really enjoy trying to figure out despite the missing pieces of information we don't have yet. I welcome all of you to add your thoughts on it in the comments section below. Perhaps we can get a decent idea of what's to come.Let's get started, shall we? In the previous weeks of Hybrid Theory, we've discussed all we knew about some of our favorite classes. During this discussion, matters of itemization often came up. Most notably, the new Spellpower mechanic. This would allow healers and DPS classes to use the same gear, but Healing spells would get twice the benefit.First thought is that DPS and healers will share gear. Right? Well... maybe. Possibly. There are a lot of factors we don't really know yet. While it isn't always the case, for some classes there is a pretty large divide between gear that is good for a caster and gear that is good for a healer, and the deciding factor isn't how much damage or healing is on that item. In some cases you'll be able to switch seamlessly from DPS spec to Healing spec and not need to change your equipment, but trying to optimize your gear in both cases is not going to be so easy.
WWI '08 Panel: Priest
Before I begin, if you haven't seen our notes from the class discussion Dev Panel at the Worldwide Invitational, you should go take a look. Skip down to the Priest section, look it over, and come on back. I'll wait here for you, okay? Okay, go. Are you back now? Good.We knew of the existence of the three spells Chilton discussed for quite awhile now, but the confirmation is nice, especially since there's no need to dance around the 'it might not be real, oh no' bit. The three spells I refer to are Divine Hymn, Guardian Spirit, and Dispersion. The stated goal of these abilities is to solidify the role of the current Priest specs. I can definitely agree with that on the part of Divine Hymn and Guardian Spirit, but not so much Dispersion. That doesn't mean Dispersion is a bad ability for what it does, it just doesn't reinforce the role of a Shadow Priest necessarily.
T-Mobile Shadow II to support HotSpot@Home?
We've seen the HTC-sourced T-Mobile Shadow II peeking out from around the dark corners of eBay and the harsh lights of the FCC, but the latest word is that the WinMo slider will also come equipped with UMA, allowing it to work with HotSpot@Home. That's a first for an HTC handset and a first for Windows Mobile, but before you get all excited, check the source of those whispers: "market sources" quoted by Digitimes. Yeah, we'll believe it when we see it.
What to wear to melt faces in Karazhan, part two
Welcome back to my guide on pre-Karazhan Shadow Priest gear. If you missed part one, where I talked about general stat importance, some sets, and the first half of the item slots, go read it now. Back? Good. On with the show. In this part I will be covering the remaining slots (from gloves on down), and talking about what gems to use (the red ones), as well as some places to look for more information. Gloves Elementalist Gloves of Shadow Wrath. Yet another of Shadow Wrath green. Remember, I would advise against equipping too many of these, regardless of how good they are in-slot. Tempest's Touch (Caverns of Time quest). Gloves of the Deadwatcher (Shirrak, Heroic Auchenai Crypts ) Enchant Major Spellpower is, quite expensive, but other BC enchants are not worth bothering with. I'd say put it on any of the above. The old-world enchant Shadow Power is equivalent for you, if that's more convenient.
What to wear to melt faces in Karazhan, part one
Shadow priests, you are very desired in Karazhan. Between great DPS, mana returns for the group, and a Shackle, all KZ raids would probably benefit from having a face-melter along. This is a guide to gearing yourself up in order to get in those Karazhan raids and earn great epics, from Ritssyn's Lost Pendant to the Nathrezim Mindblade. Holy priests, this is not the post for you (unless you're trying to build a Shadow set as well) – look to the Holy Priest guide to gearing for Karazhan instead. Due to the unique mechanics of Shadow Priest combat, there is one stat that rises above the rest for you: +damage (either shadow or all schools). More +damage means more DPS, of course, but it also means more mana back from Vampiric Touch; this will be your primary form of mana regeneration, and you should have VT up at all times. Spell hit is also very important. Assuming you have 5/5 Shadow Focus (which you should, unless you're already hit-capped), you need 76 spell hit to reach the cap on level 73 mobs (raid bosses are considered level 73). Additional spell hit is relatively useless, although that once you reach 101 hit, you can take a point out of Shadow Focus and move it elsewhere; it's probably not worth gearing for this specifically though.
T-Mobile Shadow II takes the obligatory shady auction tour
We look at sellers of unreleased phones on eBay much the same way we look at the FCC's device approval database: fun for window shopping, but that's about it. We're not sure we'd personally part with enough cash to find out whether the seller of this particular HTC Shadow II for T-Mobile actually has the thing to sell us, though we can totally understand why well-heeled folk might be willing to give it a go (and if we had enough money to buy a phone straight off an FCC lab, we'd probably be living somewhere in a private archipelago with no phone service to start with). The long-rumored smartphone seems to change colors every time we see it, with this latest pack of photos suggesting a glossy black front with dark red gradient accents -- not bad, we'll admit. Like the original, the Shadow II packs WiFi and a 2 megapixel camera, but when it launches later this year it'll come out of the box with Windows Mobile 6.1 and a decidedly friendlier industrial design. Oh -- and hopefully, a friendlier price than a functional prototype is currently commanding on auction.[Thanks, Fernando]
FCC suggests HTC CONV100 is T-Mobile's Shadow II
So, what is the HTC CONV100? Looks like we might finally have our answer after the freakin' Bluetooth SIG left us all scratching our heads a few months back. The answer lies in this grainy picture that the FCC somehow passes as an official filing document, in this case used to identify the location of the Bluetooth antenna relative to the exterior of the device. Those with sharp memories will recall that this looks suspiciously like the spy picture we saw of the supposed Shadow II for T-Mobile, and the lack of WCDMA 850 / 1900 in the test documentation would certainly jibe with that theory. The white casing looks like it could really pan out, too, so we're kinda hoping T-Mob ends up offering at least a couple colors when this one inevitably gets official in the next few weeks, months, years, or decades. [Via Cell Phone Signal]
Priests in Wrath: Analysis of Alpha talents
I would like to take a moment to talk about the leaked Priest spells and talents from the Wrath friends and family alpha. We have decided not to keep this information on the site for legal reasons, but there are many other places on the internet to find it, such as this wiki (which, by the way, seems to have been semi-locked to prevent recurrences of Tuesday night's rampant vandalization). Note that these are alpha leaks (for those not conversant with software testing, alpha comes before beta, and beta comes before release), and most of these talents and spells will change before Wrath goes live. Some of them will probably not be recognizably the same, or even there at all. Nevertheless, it's certainly something to talk about in a game that, in my opinion, has had far too little change over the past couple of years.
16 devices for T-Mobile between June and August?
TmoNews has published a laundry list of devices that it says will launch between June 16 and August 1 -- 13, to be exact, with another three that aren't listed. That's a positively Japan-esque release pace, a breakneck schedule that we're having a hard time believing. To its credit, several launches that are known or well-rumored to be in the pipe are listed here, including the Motorola E8, Shadow II, Samsung t229 and t339, and Nokia 5610, but to its discredit, fanciful devices like an alleged Shadow III are also in the mix along with the BlackBerry Bold, which AT&T has an exclusive on following its launch over there that should easily prevent T-Mob from picking it up by August 1. Of course, there could be some wiggle room on those dates, and again, most of these devices seem totally plausible -- but for now we've got to file this squarely in the "we want to believe" category.[Thanks, Chris W.]
