I, like everyone else who bought WLK, recently made a Death Knight (named Pareidolius, from the word "pareidolia"). And I, like everyone else, was dismayed to find that trade skills start at ZERO. So now, I've gotta run all across old-world Azeroth picking low-level flowers so I can make low-level crap that I'll vendor (fortunately, low-level Glyphs are desirable for everyone, so it's not a complete waste) so I can pick higher-level flowers so I can make higher-level crap...well, you know how it goes.

The biggest mistake Blizzard made in this expansion (besides allowing gnomes to be DKs) was setting tradeskills at base level for new Death Knights. They're basically saying "here, go waste your time on something we could've easily fixed". How? Easy. Since Death Knights enter the "real world" at lvl. 58 (and immediately head to Outland), they should automatically start their new trade skills with 290 skill points. They should walk through the Dark Portal, get to a profession trainer, have Master-level crafting available to them to train, and be given 290 points right then and there.

Another way to fix this problem, and the skill point system in general (including weapons, defense, etc.) would be to give all players the option to go to a trainer and train up to the appropriate level, or pretty close to it. It's not fun to have to go and "grind" up your skill on something. Who wants to run around collecting materials, or even worse: buying them off the AH? Who wants to go stand in one place and get beat on to level their defense skill? On Baluki, I've been using nothing but daggers for a VERY long time. If I decided to respec to Enhancement (and I've been collecting gear for it, partly because I don't have a choice (WTF BLIZZARD? DID YOU FORGET THAT ELEMENTALS EXIST?!?) and partly to try it out) I would have to go wail on some low-level creatures to get my skill up so I can be effective in combat.

I'm sure Blizzard knew about this problem, but for some reason they chose not to address it. I hope they do some day, but it'll be too late for my Death Knight, because he's going to get his Herbalism and Inscription skills to 275 before he hits Outland. And he's going to hate every minute of it.

I sure am glad I have podcasts and audiobooks.

Continued...

Continued...

Oooh, at last. The new Shaman talents and spells have been leaked. I'm going to go through them and explain what I like (nearly all of it) and what I don't (almost none of it). Keep in mind that this stuff WILL change. Some stuff will be buffed/nerfed, some will be reworked, some will be removed completely, and some will be added in the future. This stuff is from a very early version of the expansion, and we're not even supposed to be able to see it yet.

UPDATE 6/27/08: I've updated this post with My Concerns. You can read them at the bottom of the post.

New Spells

Lava Burst - You hurl molten lava at the target, dealing 888 to 1132 Fire damage. If Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will consume the Flame Shock, causing Lava Burst to critically hit. 2-second cast time, 8 second cooldown, 30-yard range.

At last, we get a new nuke, which looks pretty awesome. This spell will ensure that we use Flame Shock a lot more often, which itself will be much more powerful thanks to new Elemental talents. Rather than doing nothing but shoot lightning bolts at our targets (in dungeons, at least), we'll most likely be getting new spell rotations ensuring that Flame Shock is always up, using Lava Burst when it's ready, and Lightning Bolting in between. And of course the guaranteed crit will probably proc Elemental Focus.

My Verdict (so far): Great


Hex - Transforms the enemy into a random critter, reducing the target's movement speed by 75%. While moving, the hexed target cannot attack or cast spells. Only one target can be hexed at a time. Only works on Humanoids and Beasts. 0.5 sec cast, 1 minute cooldown, 20-yard range.

Finally, CC! Basically a mini-Polymorph, but it gives the target the ability to try to run away (not that they'll be doing it very quickly). The only problem is that I don't know how long they stay hexed. I get the feeling that it'll only be a few seconds, which would be unfortunate. It would be nice to have a longer (or more frequently castable) hex so we can provide some more reliable CC in dungeons.

UPDATE 6/27/08: There's a video of this spell in use on the site linked at the bottom of this post. Looks like it's about 8 seconds long. Not too bad. Also, the critter is a frog, but there are probably others.

My Verdict: Ok/Great (Depends on how long the hex effect is.)


Earthliving Weapon - Imbue the Shaman's weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by {50} (scales with level) and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additional 180 over 6 seconds.

Cool, a new weapon buff for healers! The flat stat increase is nice, but getting a new HoT along with it is pretty cool too. I've got nothing bad to say about this.

My Verdict: Great

New 51-Point Talents

Thunder (Elemental) - You call down a bolt of lighting, energizing you and damaging nearby enemies within 10 yards. Restores 5% mana to you and deals 595 to 679 nature damage to all nearby enemies, knocking them back 20 yards. Instant cast, 45 sec cooldown.

This is pretty cool. Finally, a way to get rogues off my ass in PvP. And it's pretty cool to see a knockback effect on one of our spells. Also, it's nice to have another AOE spell. I can see this being fun to use with Fire Nova Totem (especially with the new talent-based stun effect) and it'll also be nice for protecting allies. The mana-restoring aspect is kinda weird, but I certainly won't complain. My only issue is that it seems to be primarily a PvP talent. Not that that's a bad thing.

My Verdict: Pretty Good


Feral Spirit (Enhancement) - Summons 2 Spirit Wolves under the command of the Shaman, lasting 30 sec.

Heh, after all the complaining we did when it was announced before BC came out that we'd be able to summon elementals but not spirit wolves, in a way this sounds like Blizzard's way of saying "fine, HERE are your fucking spirit wolves!" Not that they've necessarily short-changed us. Unfortunately, there's not any other info that I've been able to find on the subject. It'd be nice to know what the wolves do, what the cooldown is, or even what color they are (I hope they're black and purple like they were in WC3). Hopefully they do more than just attack stuff.

My Verdict: Who Knows?


Spirit Link (Restoration) - You link the friendly target with two nearby targets, causing 50% of the damage taken to be distributed to the linked targets. After 2200 damage, the link will sever. Instant cast, cooldown unknown.

Yay, another WC3 spell! This looks like it'll be the new Tank's Best Friend. I can see a lot of potential for griefing though, since it makes the two people nearest to the target to take more damage. Maybe it's not that big of an issue (especially since the max damage that anyone will take will be 550). And frankly, the damage absorbed seems a bit low; maybe instead of expiring after 2200 damage, it should use up charges each time damage is absorbed. Then again, that would make it much less useful when fighting fast-damaging opponents (part of which can be mitigated with Stoneskin Totem). It's an interesting problem, if it is a problem at all.

My Verdict: Love it, shows promise, but may need some work

New Talents

Elemental Oath (Elemental) - Increases chance to hit with all spells by 50/100% when Elemental Focus or Elemental Mastery is active.

Considering that shamans are so crit-happy, and that any well-geared shaman generally has Elemental Focus active most of the time in a fight, this is quite a boost. In fact, it'll probably get nerfed, even considering that they nerfed Elemental Precision down to +3% spell hit (from 6%). Also, Elemental Focus and Elemental Mastery are required to get it.

My Verdict: Sounds pretty good.


Astral Shift (Elemental) - When you are critically hit twice in a row, you have a 33/66/100% chance to shift into the Astra Plane, causing you to be immune to all physical damage for 3 sec. This effect has a 30 second cooldown.

This will be our third talent that only works when we get crit on. I don't like any of them. For starters, they're basically PvP-only. We get crit so little in PvE that it's often a surprise to see them proc. I think they all need to be reworked so they're valid in all (or most) areas of the game, not just PvP, not just Raids (I'm looking at you, Totem of Wrath).

So, how do we fix it? How about changing it so that it activates when you take a certain amount of damage within a certain amount of time? Say, when you lose 40% of your health within 3 seconds? Also, the cooldown seems too long, and/or the duration of the immunity seems too short. Even then, it doesn't seem great.

My Verdict: Needs major work done


Lava Flow (Elemental) - Increases the amount of spell damage gained while having Flametongue Weapon equipped by 5/10/15%, and increases the damage done by your Flame Shock and Lava Burst by 4/8/12%.

This talent (and the next) makes Flame Shock a serious threat to your enemies. For a long time now, its use has been optional, but now it'll be essential. And of course, making Lava Burst more effective is a no-brainer.

But wait, what's this about Flametongue? Sounds to me like it's getting changed to give extra spell damage, which is quite nice. I wonder if they'll do anything for Frostbrand and Rockbiter too, since those are so rarely used.

Verdict: Great


Storm, Earth, and Fire (Elemental) - Your Frost Shock has a 5/10/15/20/25% chance to root the target in frozen ice for 2 sec., your Earth Shock's range is increased by 1/2/3/4/5 yards and the periodic damage done by your Flame Shock is increased by 20/40/60/80/100%.

Wow, that's quite a talent. Let's break it down by element.
Storm - I guess that's Frost Shock. It's nice that we're getting so many forms of CC now, but 2 seconds from a spell that can only be cast every 5-6 seconds seems a little weak, especially considering how many ways a Frost Mage has to freeze you. Other than that, I like it.
Earth - Boring, but decent.
Fire - Wow, that's really nice. That'll definitely make me use Flame Shock way more, AND it gives me synergy with Lava Burst. Plus, with the Lava Flow talent, it makes the combination of Flame Shock and Lava Burst VERY potent. I'd take this talent even if it didn't have the Storm and Earth parts.

My Verdict: Great, but needs some minor changes.


Mental Dexterity (Enhancement) - Increases your Attack Power by 33/66/100% of your Intellect.

That's a pretty significant chunk of AP there, and will definitely help to make Hunter gear more viable for Enhance shamans. Also, it basically makes Ancestral Knowledge essential, since it affects Intellect now. It's interesting that this is a 3rd-tier talent, which will no doubt make it easier for Resto shamans to operate while soloing.


Improved Stormstrike (Enhancement) - Increases the number of Stormstrike charges by 1/2, and decreases the cooldown by 1/2 seconds.

Can't go wrong here. I'm especially happy with this, because it means that when I'm grouped with an Enhance shaman, he won't be gobbling up all the SS charges with his piddly little Earth Shocks, so I can use some of them for my massive Lightning Bolts.


The Rest (Enhancement)

Look, I don't feel like running down the rest of these Enhancement talents. They all look good to me, but I literally haven't been Enhance-specced in years.


Cleanse Spirit (Restoration) - Remove 1 disease, 1 poison, and 1 curse from the target.

Not exactly original, but it's nice, and will give Restos some extra efficiency when fighting rogues, death knights, and now warlocks.

Verdict: Good!


Blessing of the Eternals (Restoration) - Increases spell crit by 2/4%, and bonus +heal from Earthliving Weapon by 5/10%.

That extra crit will be nice to have, since Resto is going to be so much more focused on crits now (see Ancestral Awakening).

Verdict: Pretty good


Ancestral Awakening (Restoration) - When Healing Wave or Lesser Healing Wave crit, an Ancestral Spirit heals the nearest friendly target for 20/40/60% of the amount healed initially.

Wow, this is awesome. I bet that amount is nerfed, but it's still a very useful talent, and will likely make Restos hoard crit gear a lot more than they do now. I sure hope you get to actually see the spirit when it heals. I can imagine seeing shamans standing in the back healing, with a spirit standing next to them occasionally. Neat.

Verdict: Awesome.


Improved Earth Shield (Restoration) - Increases the number of charges by 1/2, and increases the healing done by 5/10%.

All in all, a good talent. However, it doesn't matter how many charges it has if someone comes along and just purges it off of you. It needs a purge-resistance element, like "reduces chance that ES will be purged by 25/50%".

Verdict: Missing something.

...and Tidal Waves looks fine.

Changed Talents

• Earth's Grasp moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1. Still sucks.
  
• Convection now 3 points, down from 5, same bonus!
  
• Call of Flame affects Lava Burst now.
  
• Elemental Devastation moved from Tier 4 to Tier 2.
  
• Elemental Focus now required for Elemental Fury. Still the best 2 points you'll ever spend.
  
• Improved Fire Totems now Improved Fire Nova Totem. Gives 50/100% chance to stun ALL affected for 2 seconds! Magma Totem threat reduction element removed (hopefully they'll reduce its base threat).
  
• Storm Reach also increases radius of Thunder spell by 10/20%.
  
• Elemental Precision nerfed to +1/2/3% spell hit, from 2/4/6%. See Elemental Oath. Also, threat reduction TRIPLED to 10/20/30%, from 4/7/10%.
  
• Lightning Overload no longer required for Totem of Wrath.
  
• Enhancing Totems moved from Tier 3 to Tier 1.
  
• Improved Lightning Shield renamed Improved Elemental Shields, moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1. Now affects Water and Earth Shield as well.
  
• Shield Specialization is STILL THERE. Now down from 5 points to 2. Chance to block up to 10% from 5%, amount blocked down from 25% to 20%.
  
• Healing Focus reduced from 5 points to 3. Same bonus.

 

My Concerns

Elemental's PvP Emphasis
I know a lot of people think that the Elemental tree is primarily meant for PvP, but I don't agree. Of course, the signs are certainly pointing in that direction. The new talents Astral Shift and Thunder, along with Elemental Shields and Eye of the Storm, are mostly or entirely useful only in PvP. However, there are also the PvE abilities like Totem of Wrath, Unrelenting Storm, and Elemental Precision that point to the idea that Blizzard wants the tree to be viable for dungeons too.

So...where are the new PvE talents? The Elemental tree still lacks a way for players to buff the group differently from other shamans, besides Totem of Wrath (which is still only good for raiding). Elemental needs its own Unleashed Rage: an ability that triggers when damage is dealt and buffs the whole group in a meaningful way. Or, its own Stormstrike: an ability that causes a meaningful debuff on the enemy.

Here are some random suggestions:

Thunder seems like it'll be useful for protecting an ally for a couple seconds when they draw aggro. How about giving it an AOE aggro-reduction for all allies within its effective radius (10 yards) based on a percentage of the damage dealt?

Eye of the Storm should give you a constant chance to avoid interruption instead of being a crit-activated ability. That would make it useful in both PvP and PvE.

Make Astral Shift a self-activated ability. The affect should probably be nerfed, of course. Say, 50% physical damage reduction for 5 seconds.

We could use a talent that buffs Wrath of Air Totem. Enhancement has 3 ways to buff useful Enhance totems, Resto has Restorative Totems. Sure, we can make our damage-dealing Elemental totems more powerful, but that's about it. Personally, I think Totem of Wrath should be eliminated and replaced with something like this:

Totem of Wrath (3 points)
Your Wrath of Air Totem's effectiveness is increased by 10/20/30%. In addition, it increases your group's chance to hit and critically hit with spells by 1/2/3%.

Elemental Shields is decent for PvP, but how about making it reduce damage taken over a certain percentage of your total health? Like this:

Elemental Shields (3 points)
If any incoming damage exceeds 25% of your total health, it will be reduced by 10/20/30%.

Lava Burst is pretty cool, but I think it could be even better if they gave it a debuff ability when it "eats" your Flame Shock. Something like this:

Lava Burst
You hurl molten lava at the target, dealing 888 to 1132 Fire damage. If Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will consume the Flame Shock, causing the Lava Shock effect, which decreases [armor/spell resistance/attack speed/casting speed] on the target for 8 seconds.

Those may be a bit strong, but you get the idea.

 

Well, that's it for now. I'm sure I'll think of more stuff to talk about in the future.

[WotLK Information Wiki]

Continued...

About a week ago, I decided I was ready for a change with my mage Trellan (who's currently 56, but was 54 at the time). He's been full Frost from the beginning, but I felt like trying out a Fire spec. So I traded in my durable, CC-endowed, AOE powerhouse frost spec for a glass cannon fire spec. How do I like it?

Well, it's ok. The damage output is nice, and the fact that you can kill stuff really quickly is fun, but I spent too much time eating and drinking between fights. And, it's pretty bad for fighting more than one opponent.

The fire spells seem kinda weird to me, too. Pyroblast is a great opener, but after that I don't know what to do besides keep firing off fireballs. What is Scorch for? Blast Wave confuses me, and Flamestrike is just difficult to use. As for the rest of the talents, I just don't "get" them.

So, clearly being Fire-specced isn't my thing; I went back to Frost. Maybe I'll try Arcane the next time I want to try something different, perhaps once I have Arcane Blast at 64.

By the way, I'll gladly accept any tips and explanations for making the most of a Fire Mage. I'm always willing to try again.

Continued...

I made it to lvl. 57 on my Paladin specced Protection. But lately, I haven't been playing her, because it's been hard to AOE grind in Winterspring, EPL, and Silithus.


So, I'm looking for some advice. I'll be heading for Outland as soon as I hit 58, so should I just stick it out? Is it easier to do Prot AOE grinding in Outland, or would it be much easier to respec to Retribution? I know it'll be easier, but will it be MUCH easier?

Here's a build I've been considering if I do go Ret.

The main reason I want to stick with Prot is so I can tank well. But then again, I haven't been doing much of that lately. Maybe I just talked myself into switching already...

Continued...

I'd like to say a few things about the Google ads that appear on this site.

If you don't know how Google ads work, let me explain. Basically, the ads contain a little script that reads the text of my blog, which lets it decide which of the millions of ads in Google's database are most relevant to display.

But on to my point.

First, since this site is about World of Warcraft, it makes sense that there are WoW-related ads being displayed. This is fine, except that some of them are for gold-selling and powerlevelling sites. I do not in any way endorse those sites. People who buy gold and powerlevelling services are directly supporting the people who create keyloggers and hijack accounts.

Do you know anyone who has ever had their account hacked/stolen? It's because they accidentally got a keylogger on their system, or gave their password to somebody (like a powerlevelling service). Once an account is stolen, typically the thief sells all their gear on all their characters, then sends all the gold to someone else, who then sells it via a gold-selling site. THAT is how it works now.

I've tried to filter out as many of these sites as I can, but there are so many that it's impossible, so I've stopped trying. I recommend you check out NoGold.org for more info.

Secondly, since this site is frequently about the Shaman class, there are often ads about real-life shamanism (if it can indeed be called that) and spiritual healing, and all that. That stuff is pure nonsense, and I really hope nobody takes it seriously.

Stick with real medicine. Talk to your doctor. It's not that the scientific community refuses to take alternative medicines seriously, it's that they have already conducted testing that proved the stuff worthless, and have long since moved on. Alternative medicines & techniques are a scam, nothing more. I recommend checking out sites like Science-Based Medicine.

So there ya go. Getting off my soapbox now...

Continued...

I may not have mentioned it here before, but I'm a Jewelcrafter/Miner. I picked it up right after I bought Burning Crusade (which was a couple months after everyone else) and for the most part, I've been happy with it. But there are some things about it that need to be fixed.

Necklaces

One of the coolest things about Jewelcrafting is that we can make Neck-slot items that buff your whole group. However, these items are expensive to make, and only have 10 charges for the group buff. The expense is understandable, but once you've used all the charges you're left with a necklace that just isn't that great anymore. The few necklaces I've equipped have gone unused, because I never want to waste a charge. And really, how often do YOU see a JC buff when you're grouped? I think I've seen it once. People just aren't using them.

Solution? Recharge kit. We should be able to make an item that will give a necklace a full charge. Simple as that.

But that's boring. I've got a more interesting idea. Create a new type of Socket and call it something like Charge Socket. Each of these Jewelcrafted necklaces should have 10 of these Charge Sockets instead of the current 10 charges. You would be able to socket a base gem (ie: Citrine, Flame Spessarite, whatever) into the Charge Socket to provide the item with another charge. When you use the Necklace to provide your group with a buff, you consume a charge, and with it, the socketed gem.

The gem required to provide the charge should correspond to the level of the item being charged. To charge a lvl. 25 necklace, you would need a Moss Agate or Iridescent Pearl. To charge a lvl. 70 necklace, you would need a Golden Draenite or Azure Moonstone.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've got about a million of those lvl. 70 Uncommon-quality gems.

Fist Weapons

When I picked up Jewelcrafting, I was under the impression that crafting Fist Weapons would be one of the cool things you could do. But there's only ONE, the Heavy Iron Knuckles. A lvl. 27 item. Ahem.

Now, I know there are plenty of Blacksmiths out there thinking that Fist Weapon crafting should belong to them, to which I disagree. You've got Swords, Maces, Axes, and Armor (and I think Blizz intends on adding Shields). Blacksmithing fits Warriors, Paladins, and to a lesser extent Shamans and Hunters the best, so it doesn't make sense to make Fist Weapons a Blacksmith item when they're usable by Shamans, Hunters, Druids, and Rogues (and yes, also Warriors). Plus, there's already a precedent set, so Jewelcrafters get to keep them. So there.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Jewelcrafters need to be able to make more Fist weapons, and a greater variety of them too. There are some great fist drops in the game right now for melee-oriented specs, and we definitely need more of those, but there should also be Caster- and Healer-specific fist weapons for Shamans and Druids to use. Especially shamans. Especially elemental shamans. Especially ME. If there was one unit in Warcraft 3 that was defined by fist weapons, it was the shaman.

I'd even like to see some Jewelcrafter-only fist weapons. In fact, I've got a crazy idea about a BOP barebones dagger with around 12 gem slots, which would basically allow you to build your own customized weapon. THAT would be really cool.

Statues

If you're not a Jewelcrafter, you may not even realize that we can create stone statues that will give us a steady stream of healing for 2 minutes. They're basically single-target Healing Stream Totems, except they look like a little (attackable) Stone Golems with a very visible green healing ray.

Unfortunately, there isn't one for the 60-70 game. You can make them with each kind of stone, from Rough, Coarse, Heavy, Solid, up to Dense. Primal Earth is supposed to be the new type of stone in BC, but you can't make a Primal Stone Statue.

Or can you? I was just looking up these statues on WoWhead, and a Primal Stone Statue does indeed show up when you do a search for statues. One of the commenters says that they're craftable on the Test Realms right now. So maybe they're coming in 2.3.2. Sure hope so.

UPDATE: No, Primal Stone Statues are still not in the game.

Figurines

UPDATE: This issue has been resolved to my satisfaction in Patch 2.4. There are now 5 very nice purple-quality figurines, which are basically upgrades of the blue ones. Still no spell crit figurine, unfortunately.

Another item that non-Jewelcrafters may not know about. We can create JC-only (BOP) trinkets that boost stats, and also have an on-use ability that also summons a little gem animal (I'm pretty sure that killing the gem animal also removes the on-use buff, but I could be wrong).

There are a lot of pretty cool and varied Figurines in the game, but unfortunately the best ones are only Rare (blue) items. It would be nice if we could create more powerful Epic figurines (aka MORE PURPZ!!!1), naturally using some of the rarer materials in the game.

I would also like a nice Spell Crit-enhancing figurine, but the Living Ruby Serpent and Talasite Owl work pretty well too.

PS: The Golden Hare figurine comes in pretty handy in WSG.

Continued...

Just thought I'd mention that I went back to Elemental. Screw healing.

Continued...

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had finally surrendered and respecced Resto, since I was so fed up with dealing with all the crap that came with being Elemental-specced. Now, I'm going to talk about how that's been so far.

First, I had to pull together a set of healing gear, and what I've come up with is pretty goddamn sad. I've only got 4 or 5 pieces of pure Healer gear (since I swore to never go Resto again, I didn't bother to save any from quests for quite a while), so I've had to find other sources.

I threw on a few pieces that I had with high MP5, and put some healing gems in them. A couple already had them, because as of 2.3 a Royal Nightseye is actually a very good Elem Regen gem (and helps me get the socket bonus on my Tarren Mill Defender's Cinch, whereas a Lustrous Star of Elune wouldn't).

Finally, I went and bought a Watcher's Cowl to boost my +heal, and to hide my shame. There are some slots where I just don't have anything to replace my Elem items with, so I just make do.

So I have about +818 healing and 119 MP5. Not bad. Certainly not good enough for Heroics though.

I haven't been in any dungeons yet, but I've been PvPing a bit. And I've gotta say, I'm shocked by my survivability now. Previously, a rogue would stunlock me to death in about 5 seconds. In my first AB match as Resto, I survived having a rogue beating on me for what seemed like a full minute, with me doing nothing but healing myself occasionally, until a teammate came and killed him.

My sustainable DPS may be laughable now, but honestly, it's still pretty good for grinding and occasional PvP offense.

I'm still planning on putting all my Marks and Honor points toward Elemental gear, and hopefully in a month or two I'll have improved my gear set enough to be a more serious contender.

Continued...

It's hard being an Elemental shaman. REALLY hard.

For starters, it's really hard to find a group. Everybody knows that your standard dungeon party has one tank, one healer, and 3 DPS, and there's always plenty of people available for DPS. And to make matters worse, now that most people are doing Heroic dungeons, nobody wants you if you don't have any crowd control. People would rather take a lousy hunter over an excellent Elemental (or Enhancement) shaman (not that I'm saying that I'm excellent).

Ever since 2.3 was released, I haven't been able to get into a group. I've been invited to Kara a few times, but I don't even have my key yet. Getting into Black Morass has been very hard, and now nobody is doing it in Normal mode (I'm just one full clear away from my CoT key) and nobody would take me even if I COULD do it in Heroic.

So instead, I've decided to try PvP a bit. I'm not normally a big PvP fan, but I need better gear, and this is the only way I can do it (and non-PvP Elemental itemization is lousy anyway). But PvP just makes me angry and frustrated, and I really hate it. Every Alliance character I see starts to look like they're mocking me, and I start taking it personally and thinking that every Alliance player is an asshole. And of course all my teammates are complete idiots, or so it seems.

And Elemental shamans just aren't any good in PvP (or at least in Battlegrounds). I can hide in the bushes launching lightning bolts and do some decent damage, but as soon as anyone sees me I basically have to run away or die. All I can do is shoot lightning bolts and a shock every 6 seconds. I don't have any pushback resistance or anti-stunlock. Against hunters, I'm worthless. Against warlocks, I'm just feared forever while they DoT me up. I don't even bother fighting back against rogues anymore. I don't have any CC, I barely have any anti-CC. How am I supposed to deal with this?


Well, today I finally had enough. I can't do what I want to do with Elemental. Just don't bother with it until Blizzard wises up.

I went Resto. God dammit.

I really don't want to be Resto. I was Resto back in my raiding days, back before BC was released. After going through Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Ahn'Qiraj, and halfway through Naxx, I burned out on healing. I don't like being the one whom the success of the group hinges upon. But what choice do I have? I could continue with a spec that I like but doesn't work, or I could go back to doing something I don't really enjoy that is in high demand.

My healing gear is pretty crappy, but at least I'll get into groups. And if I let my groups know ahead of time, I should be able to continue building on my Elem set while I'm healing. I don't really know how long I'll stay Resto, but it may be until WLK comes out.

I'm really starting to consider just giving up on my shaman completely, for the first time in 3 years. The Elemental tree just doesn't work very well in the game as it is right now. There are still serious, deep flaws and overall design problems that keep it trapped in the pre-BC game (not that it was ever very good then, either).

My Hunter is 67, but I'm probably not going to bother trying to do dungeons with him; there are already too goddamn many hunters out there. Same with my 50 warlock, although I'll probably PvP with her at 70 out of revenge, and also because they're basically unstoppable. My next highest is a 44 Prot Paladin, which may become my new "Main" but I just don't know right now. I don't think I like the other classes enough to make any of them my new main. Switching to a Death Knight when WLK comes out sounds damn tempting at this point.

Here's hoping that Blizzard gives Elemental some REAL attention in WLK, and hopefully before then too. The changes in 2.3 were nice, but Elem just isn't viable in its current state.

EDIT: I should point out that I'm not talking about Raiding or Arenas. Just 5-man dungeoning and Battlegrounds.

EDIT 2: I also should point out that this post should be taken with a grain of salt. It's mostly just frustrated complaining (which is why it's in the "Bitching" category). Things are certainly better than I make them sound, though that's not to say that there aren't still problems.

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No, I don't really hate Firefox. I'm just having a hell of a time getting this site to work in both IE7 and FF, AND having to deal with cramming my CSS designs into BlogSpot's XML templates. So if something looks wrong, I'm sorry, and I'm working on it.

According to my visitor logs (zomg, im trackin u!) 49% of my visitors are using FF, 38% IE, 6% Opera, 5% Safari, and the remaining 2% are the wanna-be browsers. Pretty interesting, especially when you consider the global browser stats. Obviously, this site picks up a lot more tech-savvy people than is normal, and a lot of tech-savvy people switched to Firefox back when IE6 was the only other viable option.

Of course now, IE7 is every bit as secure and stable (or moreso) as FF, but old reputations die hard. The nice thing about having FF around is that it gets Microsoft off its ass and back into innovating new browser features (and vice versa). That's why competition is cool.

Then again, designing for multiple browsers sucks. I think that's really the point of this post. Just don't bitch at me about web standards, because I don't want to hear it.

UPDATE: I found the problem I was bitching about. It was caused by my own shitty programming. Oh well.

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Well, I FINALLY have this site looking the way I want it to. I've been toying with this design for a few months, and yesterday I finally went ahead and put it all together.

But that wasn't enough. Once I had it all laid out and looking great, using CSS instead of tables, I had to try to shoehorn it into Google's code. And CRIPES, that's a pain in the ass. Google's blog templates use XML for everything, and since I don't know XML, it was basically just a 2-day long session of trial-and-error. Honestly, I think I reloaded the page a few thousand times, trying to get everything looking right.

I still need to add some more of the sidebar items to the site, and there are probably still a few things that aren't working right, but at least it's usable, and if you ask me, it looks great.

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On my trip to the Exodar, I found a lvl. 10 Blood Elf Rogue just as I got off the boat. He wanted me to help him find a Blood Elf Bandit Mask, which makes you look like you wrapped your face in a red towel. He apparently thought it looked pretty neat, and since it's one of the very first head-slot items you can get in the game, he decided that he had to have one.

The problem is that it drops from a single mob that randomly spawns SOMEWHERE on Azuremyst Isle. And it has a 9% drop rate once you find the mob. Not good odds. This guy wanted me to help him track it down. He seemed to think that he only spawned in front of one tree, but I humored him and followed him to the tree, where of course there was nothing.

Just for fun, I decided to run around and try to find it anyway. Naturally, I could cover more ground on my epic mount with riding crop than he could on his...feet. I wasn't sure if I would give it to him if by some miraculous chance I actually found it, or keep it for myself. After about 5 minutes, I gave up and ported away when he wasn't looking.

However, the rogue seemed to think that I had promised him a mask or something. He fully expected me to buy one on the AH (which I was going to do before his sense of entitlement kicked in) or go back to Azuremyst and farm for it for him.

And he kept at it too. He kept asking if I had his mask yet, so I blocked him. So who knows what happened to him. I do know that he had somehow destroyed his hearthstone.

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Jeez, look how much better this Murloc Suit looks compared to everything else on the screen.

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I've decided to take another break from WoW. Might just be a couple weeks, might be a month or two. I came to the end of another subscription cycle and, besides being broke, I decided that I don't really have any reason to keep on playing right now.

I still have fun levelling my alts, but I don't have any reason to keep working on Baluki. It's hard finding groups (and the time) for dungeons, which is my favorite part of the game. I don't really like to PvP, and to top it all off, my guild is basically defunct and I don't feel like starting with a new one right now. I also don't feel like grinding; this is a game, and I shouldn't have to do tedious, boring stuff.

Maybe in a few months, Blizz will have some improvements in place.

• Shamans (and off-specs in general) still need a lot of work. Blizz really needs to open their eyes and realize that hybrids aren't really hybrids when they've specced 41 points into a tree.
• Jewelcrafting needs improvement. I can only pop out 5g gems for so long, and I don't feel like spending 400g on new designs. And where the hell are more fist weapon designs?
• The end-game needs to be more accessible. They need to make Normal modes for the raid dungeons, because I want to see all the cool stuff end-game has to offer, but I've quit hardcore raiding for good.

My most interesting characters now are my Mage and my Paladin (and maybe my Priest). I just got my Hunter into Outland and realized that I have no interest in continuing with him; every single fight is the same: Hunter Mark -> Pet Attack -> Sting -> Arcane -> Auto-attack. Yawn.

I really hope that Blizz is able to breathe new life into the game sometime soon. I don't want to have to wait for the next expansion.

And is it just me, or does it seem like a whole lot of long-time players are quitting?

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It's come to this. I'm posting pictures here to win an argument on a message board.

In a discussion on WoW Insider (posted here) I mentioned that it was weird seeing Draenei wearing Ten Storms (and the BC recolored pieces, which are listed in the above post) since TS is covered in Horde logos. Admittedly, I was referring to the Horde logo from Warcraft 3 (seen here) and not the updated one for WoW (seen here), but it's clearly nearly the same logo.

However, the symbol may be a shamanism symbol that the Horde adopted for their use. Note the wolves on the WC3 crest.

Either way, it still says "Horde" to me.

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This thread on the shaman forum is great; instead of complaining in the usual way ("omg blizz, wtf!") someone came up with the idea to write our complaints in haiku form. There are some pretty funny ones on there.

And of course, I had to write my own. I think I wrote more than anyone else in that thread, actually.

Haikus are quite fun, because they're easy to write, and they sound profound.

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If you've ever been through Blade's Edge, you know the horrors of the graveyards there.

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C'mon, Blizzard...did you really have to make some of the Water Elementals immune to nature damage? Are you TRYING to make me cry?

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I made a post just now on the shaman forums about what I'd love to have as my end-tree Elemental talents. Right now, I have a deep and burning hatred of Lightning Overload and Totem of Wrath. They're just so CRAPPY. They're par for the course as far as shamans are concerned, but that won't stop me from dreaming.

WoW Forums -> More Elemental Tree fixes

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