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Spiritual Guidance: Shadow priest mailbag for Cataclysm and 4.0.1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Your host for the shadow-flavored Wednesday edition is, as always, Fox Van Allen -- an indestructible specimen of draenei might. In fact, there are only three things that can even dent his armor: saccharin hugs from his holy counterpart Dawn Moore, caramel corn and that stupid bug that kills you every time you try to enter the Maelstrom in the Cataclysm beta. I've noticed that an awful lot of people seem to be playing shadow priests these days. Way more, it seems, than back in the days of Ulduar. Now, that can mean one of two things: Either Blizzard has gone the distance and finally made shadow priests competitive enough and fun enough to draw in large numbers of new endgame raiders, or -- and I'm going out on a limb here -- my columns here have been just so popular that record numbers of priests are forsaking the light just to be more like Fox Van Allen. You can probably make a stronger argument for the "Blizzard fixed our class" reason, but that doesn't really do much for my ego or make a good segue into today's article. So, for the purposes of today's Spiritual Guidance, I shall be the shadowy beacon that made a spec popular through naught but the raw power of his own charisma. As you can imagine, such a shadowy beacon gets asked an awful lot of questions. Occasionally, in between all the people asking, "Can I buy you a drink?" and "Can I have your babies?", a shadow priesting question gets asked. They're seldom involved enough to write a full article about, but I feel like I have a responsibility to shadow priesting kind to answer them, regardless. And so today, I'm taking on a few questions about patch 4.0.1 and Cataclysm. Let's jump right in. Now that patch 4.0.1 is live, what's going on in the Cataclysm beta for shadow priests?
Spiritual Guidance: What few shadow priest highlights BlizzCon 2010 could scrape together
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Even weeks when your shadowy messiah, Fox Van Allen, is nursing one heck of a headache -- along with, presumably, everyone else who's still suffering from the non-stop party atmosphere of BlizzCon 2010. Let's start by saying that BlizzCon 2010 was an absolute blast. I met most of the WoW Insider crew, got to smell Mike Sacco's hair yet again, got some amazing swag and got to eat at Jack in the Box no less than five times. The best part, though, was probably meeting Orkchop (pictured above with WoW Insider's moonkin blogger Tyler Caraway, who can only aspire to be as amazing as Orkchop). The dude is an internet celebrity. For real. But enough about how awesome Orkchop is. Let's talk shadow priests, and how awesome they are. Now, I'm not good at sugar-coating things, so I'll just come out with it: BlizzCon 2010 was pretty disappointing in terms of World of Warcraft-related content. The biggest news out of the convention was the new loading screen for Cataclysm. Really. That was the big news. Seriously. And it's just a palette-shifted version of the Sindragosa loading screen. Despite the lack of earth-shattering news, I made sure to take note of all the shadow priest action. There wasn't a heck of a lot of it, but what little ground was covered was hugely important to the future of the spec. The good, the bad and the non-answers -- we'll go over it all after the break.
Spiritual Guidance: Welcome to Cataclysm heroics, shadow priests
Welcome to the Wednesday edition of Spiritual Guidance, where your host Fox Van Allen takes on the darker, shadowy side of priesting. While your holy columnist Dawn Moore was busy trying to plant suggestions regarding the alleged superiority of healing, Fox was busy casting Mind Control to demonstrate the superiority of the shadows. Right now, on the live Wrath servers, shadow priesting seems to fit like a glove. That's not necessarily a result of our class and mechanics being perfect -- they're not. It's a result of their feeling familiar. We've been playing under the rules of patch 3.3 for nearly a year now and it feels natural; it feels right. We're blessed with strong damage and near unlimited mana -- provided we put in the effort to know how to make both of those a reality. It's hard to accept that 4.0.1 is bringing such major changes, especially in the realm of that once unlimited mana bar. It's gone, and it's not coming back any time soon. If you need any evidence, consider this: After slashing mana regen to the bone last week, Blizzard followed up by cutting regen even more this week in the latest beta build. (For something called a "nerf," these cuts sure hit like a Mack truck, don't they?) These changes to regen may make the 80-to-85 leveling process more tedious, but they don't necessarily make it more difficult. If the pinch is going to be felt anywhere, it's going to be in 5-man instances, heroics and raids. Since raids aren't quite available yet, I decided to queue up for some heroics instead to get as much Cataclysm endgame flavor as I could. Can our mana bars handle the stress? How weird and different are our new rotations? And how can shadow priests add much-needed value to a party above and beyond the standard DPS abilities in Cataclysm? The answers to those questions -- plus a stunning 47,306 damage crit -- are all after the break.
Spiritual Guidance: Dinosaur Pirate Explosion Carnival (or, why Shadow Orbs is lame)
After a vicious, brutal campaign, the primary election between light-side Spiritual Guidance writer Dawn Moore and the shadow-specced Fox Van Allen (your host for today's article, of course) has come to a close. Fox had built a strong lead in the polls right up until this weekend, when a confused cadre of Tea Party activists misread Dawn's fondness for Earl Grey as tacit support for a right-wing economic agenda. Stupid democracy -- it just never seems to work. Being an international superstar, I'm constantly accosted by fans. They walk up to me on the street and they ask, "Fox, what's the best part about working for WoW.com?" There's an awful lot I like about writing, of course. I love that I have groupies. I love that I get to write about priests, internet dragons and magic, and then name my column something ridiculous, random and ill-fitting like "Eight simple rules for dating my teenaged shadow priest." I love that I can actually help people play the game better. But what's the best part? The groupies. Yeah, hands down. The groupies. The second best part, though -- I'm free to write whatever the heck I want about World of Warcraft and Blizzard. I don't have to toe a company line. When Blizzard gets it wrong, I can say they've gotten it wrong. A few weeks ago, I wrote a column called The four best things about Cataclysm for shadow priests. I touched on things like Shadowy Apparition and Paralysis, two new talents that I'm loving while leveling in the beta. "But Fox," you ask, "what about those great new Shadow Orbs? You left those off your list!" That's right, I did. I left them off because Shadow Orbs represent one of Blizzard's misses.
Spiritual Guidance: The greatest Shadowfiend nerf (or maybe buff) of all time
The race to represent the Spiritual Guidance column is turning into a nail-biter. Dawn Moore, writer of the Sunday version, took an early lead due to her natural dual constituencies, holy and disc. Recently, though, Fox Van Allen, the shadow-specced author of the Wednesday column, has taken a statistically insignificant 46-44 percent lead over his rival in the polls. Some credit Fox's well-written, intelligent columns. Others point to the recent discovery of yet five more Shadowfiend-bite-riddled corpses; Dawn supporters all. "Yes we can" is so 2008 -- "... or else" is the new catchphrase for a new decade! Ladies and gentlemen of the shadow priesting jury, I am outraged. Or possibly thrilled. You see, just this past week, Blizzard has done something totally unconscionable. Or possibly ground-breakingly awesome. Of all the tools at the disposal of the shadow priest, there's one I hold in higher regard than most the others: my Shadowfiend. You see, spells like Mind Flay and Vampiric Touch -- they're all just spells. My shadowfiend is more than that. He's a pet. A friend. When I was sick and alone this past week, it was my shadowfiend who brought me a box of tissues and a remote. It was my shadowfiend that brought me a bowl of gnome noodle soup. It was my shadowfiend who rode across yellow- and blue-colored waves of sound to fight the evil dust empire that exists under my coffee table when I look down there and cross my eyes a little so things get blurry. Granted, most of that may have just been a fevered dream or cough-syrup-induced hallucination. The key point stands, however: You don't mess with my shadowfiend. This week's problem: Blizzard's been messing with our shadowfiend. Maybe. I mean, it's possible that Blizzard's been buffing it. I am incensed. Or possibly elated. We'll try out some funky, back-of-an-envelope math after the break to try and sort through exactly what's happening with our beloved shadowfiend and figure out whether or not this is cause for alarm ... or the best thing to have happened to shadow priests in the history of ever.
Spiritual Guidance: In defense (or condemnation) of Dispersion
This week your shadow priesting expert, Spiritual Guidance columnist and ace attorney Fox Van Allen, took on his hardest case yet: defending fellow columnist Dawn Moore against charges of murder! The trial was quick -- after presenting the same Rime-Covered Mace to the judge as evidence five consecutive times, Dawn was instantly declared guilty and hauled away. She was last heard muttering something about "the scent of fresh lemons ..." I have this recurring vision of a grand council of shadow priests. We sit around a gigantic conference table in a dark, shadowy dungeon somewhere. We talk shop and strategy. We share recipes for roast gnome. We discuss our plans to conquer the world. Then some joker mentions Dispersion, and the whole damn thing falls apart. "It's a waste of a 31-point talent! We're being screwed!" "Sit down, jerk, Dispersion is just fine!" An epic fistfight breaks out. And the haters wind up using Dispersion to soak up the blows. Hypocrites! Now that we know Dispersion is firmly set as our 31-point talent in Cataclysm, some old wounds are getting reopened. A lot of priests were never truly sold on Dispersion when it was first introduced, and while it's slowly gained acceptance (and more usefulness -- remember when it was garbage in Ulduar?), emotions still run high. A contingent of shadow priests loves the utility of the ability and the lore behind it. A contingent despises it for eating up the slot of some mythical perfect ability that's yet to be designed. It's the shadow priest equivalent of Roe v. Wade. And we're going to jump right in the middle of it after the break.
Gamescom 2010: BioWare reveals 10 new advanced classes for TOR
We've known for a while now that Star Wars: The Old Republic is planning to offer players two different specializations for each class, but up until now we've only heard of a couple of them. Today at Gamescom, however, BioWare unloaded the names and loose descriptions of ten advanced classes. The best part? No Bothans died for this information. Darth Hater reports that imperial agent characters will have the choice between specializing as snipers (long-range DPS) or operatives (who use stealth and short-range weapons to get up close and personal). If a bounty hunter is more to your liking, then the choice between a powertech and a mercenary should get your imagination racing. Over on the Republic side, troopers will sign up for either commando or vanguard training. Commandos are the tanking line, although we don't know much about vanguards yet. SWTOR-Station spied a Zabrak trooper at the BioWare booth, indicating another possible race for the class. Force-users are also in store for powerful upgrades. The villainous Sith inquisitors choose their path between a more Force-happy sorcerer or the twin lightsaber-using assassin. Their counterpart, the Jedi consular, has a similar decision to make: that of a shadow, who can use double-bladed lightsabers, or a wizard, who uses a single lightsaber but can heal. Are Star Wars fans ready for wizards and sorcerers in their MMO? Somehow, we think so.
Spiritual Guidance: Cataclysm and the shadow priest's day of reckoning
Today's shadow-centric edition of Spiritual Guidance is brought to you by high priest of the shadows, Fox Van Allen. The holy-fearing Dawn Moore will be back to share more non-shadow wisdom ... eventually. For now, though, she's being detained by authorities in Stormwind. Apparently, they got this anonymous call about her turning traitor in Cataclysm ... In terms of whether or not the human race would go extinct, 1983 was a nail-biter. On Sunday, Sept. 26, 1983, a fluffy cloud set off the Soviet Early Warning Missile System. The system misread some data and reported that the United States had initiated nuclear war. Thankfully, a Russian technician was able to do some on-the-fly logical reasoning (the U.S. wouldn't just launch just one missile, right?) and decided to ignore that warning. And the four other erroneous warnings to follow. It was pretty much a real-life version of 99 Luftballons. Some stupid little computer error almost leveled the civilized world. Of course, the Cold War being what it was, you didn't hear about it on the nightly news. The world didn't end. Knight Rider still aired that night, right on schedule. There were an awful lot of changes to the Cataclysm shadow priest build over the past week. A few were good, a few were "OK," and one nearly led to the shadow priest world's being reduced to a pile of smoking rubble. Follow us after the break for more Cataclysm shadow priesting information. And for those of you who feel ignorance is bliss and don't want to be spoiled ... we now return you to Knight Rider, already in progress.
Soul of the Ultimate Nation sees the spreading Shadow
It might seem like everything is all fine and dandy in Soul of the Ultimate Nation, but there's a shadow on the horizon. More specifically, there's Shadow, the newest character added to the game. A combination of dark sorcery and assassin skills form Shadow's potent, solo-friendly skillset, something the game's development team had been hinting at since the beginning of the year. But that's hardly all that's new in the game, which has expanded the high-level content as well. Player characters over level 100 have access to nearly two hundred added quests, as well as new high-level areas in Helron's Castle. Neville's Swamp and Bronze Moon City, as well as the area conquest for the aforementioned castle, are all open. To cap off the experience, players have access to the fourth village in Soul of the Ultimate Nation, giving high-end players a spot where they can congregate with one another. Rather than forcing you to just read the text, however, we have both a set of preview images in our gallery, and two trailers for the update embedded past the cut. %Gallery-98558%
Spiritual Guidance: The top ten shadow priest glyphs, page 2
Let's take a moment to appreciate the value of Inner Fire. The Glyph of Inner Fire is all about survivability. Since the glyph boosts our armor only, though, deciding whether or not to take it requires a little bit of thought.
Tactile display allows you to 'feel' both light and shadow
The concept of touching things such as light or smells isn't anything new, but there's so much room for interpretation that it's always interesting to see new applications. At Siggraph 2010, a new tactile display is being shown off which allows the user to feel light and shadow. Called Touch Light Through the Leaves, the device consists of a camera which detects light, and 85 vibration units, which have motors, process the light and shadow information into sensations. Check out the video below to see it in action, and hit up the source link for a bit more info.
Spiritual Guidance: Of lore, the forsaken and shadow priests
In addition to being the author of Wednesday's shadow priest edition of Spiritual Guidance, Fox Van Allen is an accomplished songwriter. After Dawn Moore refused to use Power Infusion on him during a lengthy raid encounter, Fox wrote the song In the Air Tonight. He mailed Dawn front-row tickets to his first concert performance, and as he reached the chorus, a bright spotlight engulfed Dawn. She cried in shame. It was awesome. Regular readers of Spiritual Guidance know that over the last month, I've been putting together a leveling guide for aspiring shadow priests. In the last installment, I made a seemingly innocuous comment about shadow priests' being able to take the talent Shadowform at level 40: We're able to make that fateful decision to forsake the light in exchange for causing more destruction more effectively. I was literally describing the game mechanics; staying in Shadowform requires you to give up the spells in the holy tab. One of our commenters, aramis, used the line as a launching pad for an interesting comment that addressed a very basic question for us shadow priests: What the heck are shadow priests supposed to be, anyway? I won't reprint the entire comment here, but it's definitely worth reading. The gist of it can be understood by reading just the first few sentences: Mr. V-A, we don't FORSAKE the light as Shadow Priests. On the contrary, we embrace it ... We accept the light as the balance of ourselves. Life is about balance: pleasure and pain; good and evil; life and death; light and shadow. Is aramis right? Follow me past the break as we explore a little bit of shadow priest lore, dip our toes into the cold waters of shadow priest roleplay, and try to solve an identity crisis that most of you probably don't even realize exists.
Cataclysm Beta: The latest on shadow priests
Pro: Blizzard has weeded out a lot of the "filler" talents. Talents like Shadow Reach, Shadow Focus, and Focused Mind are gone. These were necessary talents, but the never really felt "fun" to take any of them.
Spiritual Guidance: The worst shadow priest raiding application ever
Each Wednesday, Spiritual Guidance is taken over by shadow priest ambassador Fox Van Allen. Named one of People Magazine's "Most Influential People" in 1984, Fox finished ahead of both Secretary of State James Baker III (#8) and actress Farrah Fawcett (#9). Where was Dawn Moore on that list? She tied Press Your Luck host Peter Tomarkin at #273. It was a very comprehensive list, you see. Icecrown Citadel, in some capacity, has been open for business for over six months now. There's some good news and bad news in that statement. It's definitely bad news for established raiding groups -- once core members have established themselves as Kingslayers, they're likely to start losing interest in raiding. That's good news, too, at least for people interested in becoming Kingslayers themselves -- it's an ideal time to be looking for a raid group, even if you're not a perfect, hardcore raider. While opportunities are increasingly plentiful, any raid group worth joining is going to have some semblance of standards. You can't just walk in off the street just because you're a shadow priest and they're looking for one -- you have to prove yourself a little bit first. That's what this week's column is all about: understanding what raid teams are looking for and understanding how to best present yourself. In the spirit of Goofus and Gallant, we'll teach by showing you what not to do. I will be playing the part of the handsome Gallant. Playing Goofus today is Mookie Wilson, New York Met and villain (or hero, whatever) of the 1986 World Series.
Spiritual Guidance: A shadowy work in progress, page 2
A large part of World of Warcraft is the solo questing aspect. Alliance and Horde can find things to do in Redridge Mountains (15+), Ashenvale (18+), and Stonetalon Mountains (17+), though the first two are skewed more towards Alliance and the latter is skewed towards Horde. Once you pass level 10, you'll find yourself able to enter battlegrounds with your newly minted priest -- specifically, Warsong Gulch.
Spiritual Guidance: A shadowy work in progress
The Spiritual Guidance duo, Fox Van Allen and Dawn Moore, haven't always gotten along so well. While some attribute that to the natural way that the shadow abhors the light, the real reason is the time they were on The Price is Right together in 2003. I mean, two hundred dollars for a grandfather clock, Dawn? What were you thinking? Some days, I wish Spiritual Guidance was a TV show. Not only would the world be better able to appreciate my own physical beauty, but I'd be able to do one of those "Last time, on Spiritual Guidance" opening montages, filled with dramatic clips that tell you exactly what happened last week. "Fox, we need to get to level 10, and fast! Before the orphanage explodes!" "But if you're the Priest trainer ... then who's that?" "You're not casting Smite enough! Faster! Faster! More Smite NOW! Hurry, there's not much time!" KABOOM! "The orphans, they're on fire! Quick, cast Renew!" Things are often a lot more awesome in my head than in real life, I'm afraid. Still, last week, we did address the process of starting a new priest, getting him geared up with heirlooms (or heaven forfend, green items) and the basics of the early spells (Smite, lol). This week, we're digging a bit deeper, getting to 20, rocking some instances and doing some PvP -- that's right, life as a priest is finally ready to begin. Follow me after the cut. And don't mind the random explosions and orphan debris -- they're just there for next week's opening montage.
Exclusive: Motorola Droid X preview
Not interested in waiting until the 23rd for Verizon's big announcement? Don't worry, we've got you covered right now! The Motorola Droid X has probably been one of the worst kept smartphone secrets in recent memory, but after spending two hours with the phone we sort of see why. In short, it's pretty awesome. Call it a superphone or a mega-smartphone, but the 4.3-inch handset is absolutely Verizon / Motorola's answer to the HTC EVO 4G, and makes the Droid Incredible look like a bench warmer. What do we mean? We'll let you see for yourself just after the break in a breakdown of exactly what this phone is all about -- and in a video or three of it in action. Oh, and on your way down, make sure to feast your eyes on the gallery, too. %Gallery-95261%
Motorola Droid X stars in its clearest off-the-cuff preview yet (update: comparison shots!)
Let's be honest, we've seen more Droid X / Xtreme / Shadow spy shots than we can keep track of at this point, but for the latest batch, Mr. Blurrycam must've forgot his trademark blur filter and delivered us the cleanest images yet -- for shame, we know. Here's what the current owners of the super-secret phone, Gadget University, are claiming: 4.3-inch screen (it seems to jump between 4.3 and 4.1, depending on whom you ask), 1GHz Snapdragon processor, HDMI out, HD video recording, Android 2.1 with a "new version of Motoblur" (Ninjablur, you say?), and hardware navigation buttons. The Verizon logo is again unmistakably clear, and according to the site's "inside information," the Droid X (as the Model number says) is coming next month, with training beginning at the end of this month. [Thanks, Sean] Update: And here it is alongside some of its contemporaries. Thanks, Jeremey!
Mysterious Motorola Droid X coming to Verizon?
The gang at Phandroid have got their hands on pics alleging to be Verizon internal documentation that details an up-and-coming handset called the Droid X. Honestly, this sounds like it could still be an internal name to us, although there has been some speculation that the handset is, in fact, the launch name of the Motorola Shadow / Xtreme that would be accompanying the Droid 2 for a Summer launch. Moving on down the line, this thing purportedly has a 4.3-inch display and Safari 4.0 for the browser. While Android's browser is also WebKit-based, we're calling shenanigans on any info that says this phone (if it exists) is shipping with Safari. More info to fuel your rich fantasy life after the break.
Cataclysm Talent Preview: Shadow priests
On Thursday, Blizzard released brand new information regarding talent builds in Cataclysm. Surely, all of us World of Warcraft addicts are grateful for the slow tease of information. Of course, a lot of the "new" information was already data mined and leaked from the alpha over a month ago. I covered a lot of the changes to the shadow tree in a previous column, Ghostly aspects of our shadowy hatepower. Shadowy Apparitions, Shadow Orbs, getting rid of Shadow Focus, spirit contributing to our hit rating -- it's all in there. I won't bore you with all the details I covered already. But it's not all old news, of course. There's some new stuff in there, and there is stuff to be excited about. I'm getting more optimistic about shadow priesting in Cataclysm with each drop of new information, and it feels like Blizzard might actually be listening to us. Seriously. Listen, the standard caveats apply here -- it's really early to talk about this stuff and this could all change. But it'd be really quiet and boring around here today if we didn't.
