Baluki's WoWblog has finally moved. It can now be found at:
http://dubiosity.net/blogs/baluki/

This site (baluki.blogspot.com) will no longer be updated.

Continued...

Vaneras just announced a huge list of changes being made to the shaman class on the official forums, and holy crap. There are a lot of really interesting and really cool changes and additions being made. As always, here is my analysis and commentary on the changes.

New Spells

Primal Strike (available at level 3): Primal Strike is a new weapon-based attack that every shaman will learn very early in the game. Our goal with this ability is to make leveling as Enhancement rather than as Elemental more viable, since many key Enhancement talents become available at fairly high levels.
It's the intention of Primal Strike to let shaman play as an Enhancement at low levels. Currently when leveling in this spec, you end up just using Lightning Bolt a lot so you feel like an Elemental shaman instead. At a higher level, Primal Strike gets replaced by Storm Strike. They share a cooldown so Enhancement just won’t ever use Primal Strike after that, in the same way that Prot warriors don’t use Sunder Armor once they have Devastate or Feral druids don’t use Claw once they get Mangle.

I hadn't really noticed, but if you're leveling as Enhancement, there's not much for you to do besides shock and auto-attack until lvl 40, when you get Stormstrike. It would be nice to know what Primal Strike actually does (probably just a slightly different version of Stormstrike), but we'll find out eventually.

Healing Wave (level 4): While the shaman already has an ability called Healing Wave, we’re adding another spell to the class’s direct-healing arsenal and giving it a familiar name. The current Healing Wave will be renamed Greater Healing Wave, and the intent is for the “new” Healing Wave to be the shaman’s go-to heal. Lesser Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave will be used on a more situational basis.

Ok...interesting. I guess this is Blizzard's answer to the problem that downranking spells used to solve. This will give us a way to cast a medium-sized, mana-efficient spell instead of a quick, expensive spell (LHW) or a huge, expensive (though worth it) spell (GHW). And from what else I've been seeing, it looks like other healer classes will be getting similar medium-range heals.

Unleash Weapon (level 81): Unleashes the power of your weapon enchants for additional effects (see below). A dual-wielding Enhancement shaman will activate the effects of both of their weapon enchants. Instant cast. 30-yard range. 15-second cooldown. Undispellable.
Here are a few examples of effects we’re considering for this ability:

• Windfury Weapon – Hurls a spectral version of your weapon at a target, dealing 50% weapon damage and increasing the shaman’s Haste for the next five swings.
• Flametongue Weapon – Deals instant Fire damage and buffs the shaman’s next Fire attack by 20%.
• Earthliving Weapon – Heals the target slightly and buffs the shaman’s next healing spell by 20%.

Looks like this will make spell rotations much more interesting, even if it is basically just a version of Paladin Judgments. Overall, a pretty cool addition, especially for Enhancement.

Healing Rain (level 83): An area-effect heal-over-time (HoT) spell that calls down rain in a selected area, healing all players within it. There is no limit to the number of players who can potentially be affected; however, there are diminishing returns when healing a large number of targets, much like the diminishing returns associated with AoE damage spells. This should give Restoration shaman another healing tool that improves their group-healing and heal-over-time capabilities. 2-second cast time. 30-yard range. 10-second duration. 10-second cooldown.

Wow, that's pretty cool. So it's basically a healing version of Flamestrike, or an easier-to-use (but probably weaker) version of Tranquility.

Spiritwalker’s Grace (level 85): When this self-targeted buff is active, your spells are no longer interrupted by movement and possibly even by your own attacks. This will give shaman of all three specs another way to heal or do damage when it’s necessary to move in both PvE and PvP. Instant cast. 10-second duration. 2-minute cooldown.

Whoa, really? That's huge. Being able to gun and run from time to time (or heal and run away, which would be very useful for me) is going to be a major asset for us shamans. This'll be a big help for fighting meleers in PvP, and for boss battles that require a lot of moving around.

Ability Changes

Restoration shaman and other healing classes will need to pay attention to mana more than they’ve had to during Wrath of the Lich King. Spirit will be the Restoration shaman's primary mana-regeneration stat.

This is something we've known about for a while, of course. Personally, I think Blizz has let mana regen become too powerful in WotLK, to the point that you don't really have to worry about it anymore. I purposely avoid any MP5 gear, and I've gotten rid of mana-regen talents, because they're just not useful anymore. I should be ending boss fights with most of my mana gone, not at 50% or so like I do now.

We’re making changes to which classes and specs are able to dispel magic, diseases, curses, and poison, largely for PvP purposes. Shaman will have Cleanse Spirit as a baseline ability, but it will only remove curses. Restoration shaman will have a talent that will improve Cleanse Spirit so that it also removes magic. Shaman will no longer be able to remove poison.
Cleansing Totem will be removed from the game, as we want dispels to be a decision for players, not something done mindlessly. To that end, all dispels will cost slightly more mana, and you will waste the spell if you cast it when there is nothing to remove. (Currently, the dispel is only cast when there is something to remove, which encourages spamming “just in case.”) We will balance PvE dispelling with this new model in mind.

Oh crap. I don't like this at all. I feel like Cleansing Totem is the one thing that keeps me from being a guaranteed kill for rogues and death knights right now. Removing my ability to remove ANY poisons or diseases is going to be very bad. Spiritwalker's Grace will help a little bit, but as soon as a rogue or DK gets in my face, I'll still be extremely likely to die. And I can only Thunderstorm once every 45 seconds.

Totem of Wrath now will replace Flametongue Totem for all shaman, and dropping this totem will buff the group’s spell power by 4%. Elemental shaman will have a talent that lets all Fire totems provide +10% spell power, allowing them to drop Searing, Magma, or Fire Elemental Totems without losing their spell-damage buff. The 4% and 10% buffs will be exclusive with each other and with the warlock’s Demonic Pact, so you can’t benefit from all of them at once. We’re also considering letting Elemental drop Searing Totem at range.

Finally. This is a huge boost for us Elementals. It's always been a tradeoff between buffing the group with ToW and doing more damage with totems, and now we'll be able to do both at once. I'm sure it also means that we're losing the crit debuff it provides, but that's not unexpected.
Searing Totem is still pretty weak, but I can definitely see myself keeping it dropped at all times, just to get a little extra DPS when a Magma totem isn't feasible (or when the Fire Elemental is on cooldown). And being able to drop it at range would be a big help. I just hope they increase its duration and damage.

We want to free up Enhancement global cooldowns to make the spec more dynamic to play. We’re considering, for example, increasing the cooldown of Lava Lash so shaman have time to work other interesting abilities into their rotation.

Ok, sure. If they're increasing the cooldown on LL, I'm sure they're also increasing its damage, because I doubt that they want to weaken the spell.

Talents

Elemental Reach will be simplified so shaman have a more consistent spell range.

Sounds fine. This probably means that Flame Shock's sniper-like range will be reduced a bit, but whatever.

We plan to add Earthquake as a deep Elemental talent for targeted and persistent AoE.

Hell yes. I've been hoping to get Earthquake for a long time now (it was a Far-Seer spell in WC3). However, AoE isn't really a problem for us anymore, thanks to how powerful Magma Totem and Fire Nova are. It would need to have a good secondary effect (like a knockdown or something). Still, it'd be nice to be able to do AoE without having to step into the fray to drop the totem (besides what's already offered by Chain Lightning).

Spirit Link will likely be worked back into deep Restoration in some form. The idea is that you will be able to link targets together so they share damage. When we had previously tried to implement Spirit Link, it was hard to balance and a little confusing. However, we really liked the concept -- and so did players -- so we are trying to bring it back.

Hell yes. Another classic WC3 ability. I was really disappointed when they removed it during the WotLK beta, but it sounds like they're really going to be able to do it this time.

Elemental will have a deep talent that allows Spirit (which will appear on the gear they share with Restoration shaman) to boost their Hit rating.

Yea, we've known about this one for a while too. A good change, but I wonder if we're going to wind up with as much Spirit on gear as we have MP5 on gear now, and what'll happen once we reach the Hit cap. I guess that's where Reforging becomes useful. Also, how the hell are Elemental and Enhancement going to regen mana?

Enhancing Totems will be replaced with Focused Strikes, which will improve the damage of the new spell Primal Strike and Stormstrike.

Ok, sure. I'm not sure where the buff from ET is going. It's probably just being eliminated, so that Shamans and Death Knights can provide the same quality of buff (from Horn of Winter) no matter what. Sounds like Blizz is trying to get rid of most instances where different buffs of different qualities clash.

With the Mastery system, we’re also considering removing a number of talents that grant passive bonuses, such as Mental Quickness, Improved Windfury Totem, Mental Dexterity, Call of Thunder, Tidal Mastery, Purification, Nature’s Blessing, and others, to allow players more freedom to choose more interesting talents.

Sounds good. Those talents are boring, and Blizz wants to make talents more interesting. However, they're going to have to add a lot of replacements, otherwise players will be able to get all the talents they want without having to put much thought into their choices.

The Mastery System

Read up on the Mastery system here.

Elemental

Spell damage
Spell Crit
Elemental Overload: Your direct-damage spells have a chance to proc a less powerful “bonus" version of the spell. This will work much like the current Lightning Overload talent, but would also apply to Lava Burst.

Enhancement

Melee damage
Melee Haste
Nature Damage: This will provide a passive bonus to the Nature damage dealt by the Enhancement shaman.

Restoration

Healing
Meditation: The amount of mana you regenerate in combat as a function of your Spirit.
Deep Healing: Your direct heals will do more healing when the target’s health is lower. This will scale to damage (e.g. someone at 29% health would receive more healing than someone at 30%) rather than have arbitrary break points.

Not much to say here, except that I really like the Mastery system, and I really like Deep Healing. Also, Lightning Overload will provide a boost to Elemental Overload instead of what it does now.

Miscellaneous Q&A

Vaneras also answered some interesting questions here. Of particular note:

The Cataclysm is a time of great upheaval. Deathwing’s return to Azeroth tore a hole in the fabric of the universe that tragically resulted in the ultimate and irrevocable destruction of all Sentry Totems. Level designers are contemplating a shrine for the Sentry Totem near that of Uther the Lightbringer. We know shaman players will greet this news with grief, but as with all class changes we’ll have to get into beta before anything is final.

What? We still have Sentry Totem?

Continued...

I'm making this post to see if I can get the Trackback feature on my other blog to work correctly. However, you may be interested in this link anyway. So, either enjoy or ignore:

• Avatar & the Future of 3D (Part 1)
• Avatar & the Future of 3D (Part 2)

Continued...

I just wanted to mention that I've got a new blog that I've been working on for about a month now. It's quite a departure for me, because it actually covers some serious topics, like politics, science, religion, and so on. I must warn you though: you probably won't approve of some of the topics I cover. But go ahead and check it out if you're curious; you'll survive. If nothing else, you'll get to see what I look like in real life. And I'd love to get some feedback.

In case anyone is wondering, I still intend to keep writing THIS blog. There just isn't a whole lot for me to talk about right now. I've been working on a feature post that I'm tentatively calling "WoW's biggest mistakes", which I hope will turn out pretty good.

[Dubiosity]

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...

I haven't been playing a lot of WoW lately. I loaded up Oblivion again, and its various add-ons, expansion, and mods (the whole thing takes up about 10 gigs) and have been playing that a bit.

I also recently downloaded the Spore Creature Creator, and man that's fun to play with. Even though I only have the demo, I've made a lot of really cool creatures. Imagine what I'll be able to make with the whole thing!

Here's a little box thingy that displays all the creatures I've made so far:

Yea, I know this post has nothing to do with WoW.

Continued...

Today I received an e-mail from WoWBreak, which is a WoW-themed user-submitted news site, similar to Digg.

It's pretty neat. It looks like it'll be handy for keeping up on the latest news and blogs that aren't already being posted on WoW Insider or MMO-Champion or whatever. But, it needs more users.

I've added a few of my posts to the site. You can see my submission list here. Feel free to "tag" my stories so they get on the front page. If you want to. Please.

[WoWBreak] [Stories submitted by Baluki]

Continued...

A while ago, I added the Project Wonderful ad box you can see on the left. Since then, I've made a whopping $2.

So, I've decided to put those two dollars into getting the word out about this blog by placing ads on other WoW-related web sites. Gotta spend money to make money, you know.

At this moment, I've placed 4 ads on 4 different sites. I'm paying them 0-5 cents per day (depending on how popular the site is) for one week. Hopefully my investment of a whopping 35 cents will pay off in increased traffic and, ideally, more ad revenue for me. We'll see.

Oh. Here are the simple ads I created, which should be showing up on the aforementioned sites. They're also useful if you want to link to me.


Argh, looks like I need to change the background color on one of them.

Continued...

This is a list of other WoW-related blogs that I like. To possibly get yours on the list, just leave a comment with a link below.

And feel free to add me to your lists, if you like my blog.

Laser Chicken
By: Delos
Focus: Balance Droods

Continued...

NOTICE: I was completely wrong in this post. See Edit 2 at the bottom for details.

I'm a casual PvPer, and I've been doing Battlegrounds from time to time to upgrade my crappier gear to sweet, sweet Season 1, Vindicator's, and other assorted Honor-buyable gear.

However, once Season 4 starts, Blizz is making some changes that will require Arena ratings for some of that gear.

According to MMO-Champion, Blizzard will be giving the Boots, Rings, and Bracers an Arena Rating requirement. So, go get those now before it's too late, if you don't do Arenas like me.

The Belts, Necklaces, and Trinkets won't have an arena rating, so if you're thinking about buying one of those, it's a good idea to hold off and spend your honor points on the items listed in the previous paragraph.

I've been saving up to replace my green-quality belt for a while now (I've been busy, and broke) but I've decided to replace my boots (the second item on my list due for replacement) instead.

Just thought I'd throw that warning out there. I have no idea when Season 4 will start, but I doubt it'll be this Tuesday, so I think we have at least a week to get what we need.

EDIT: There's some confusion about whether or not the current Vindicator's gear is being replaced on the vendors with the new Guardian's gear. If it's not, you can pretty much ignore this post. I was under the impression that it was.

EDIT 2: Bah, I was totally wrong. They're not removing the Season 3 honor-bought gear (aka Vindicator's) after all. So, my new advice: don't buy a Belt, Neck, or Trinket until Season 4. Unless you want to. I'm writing this as someone who doesn't get a lot of time to PvP anyway (and quickly tires of it when I do), so I will definitely be waiting to replace my gear.

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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...

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I got bored yesterday and started working on a Dream Talent Tree set for WLK, using Unleashed Gaming's talent tree creation tool. I tried not to change any of the current talents, although I did modify most of the weak ones.

The new talents may seem a bit overpowered, but remember that EVERYONE is going to be getting new talents too, so hopefully mine won't be too far out of line. Some of them came from my previous thread about talents.

As I'm writing this, I don't have the Resto tree finished. I'm also not even going to try to update the Enhance tree, since I don't know much about it.

[Baluki's Dream Talent Trees for Wrath of the Lich King]

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Those of you with better-than-average powers of observation may have noticed the new ad boxes on the left, under the TOC. And there boxes under the first three posts of any given page.

So, what do you think? Are they too flashy, not flashy enough? Can you ignore them if you want to? (I'm aiming for "yes".)

I'm trying to make a little money selling adspace here, since I'm currently dead broke (I'll probably have a week or two this month without WoW). I've been doing the boring Google ads for a while now, but I just added the new Project Wonderful ads on the left yesterday. Those ads will probably be much more interesting, since those are paid for with a bidding system. Right now, a single penny will get you a box on this blog for a little while, but hopefully it'll go up eventually.

So yea, let's hear some thoughts.

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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.

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You've all seen a shaman do something cool and thought "gee, I wish I could be as cool as a shaman". Well, there are actually a lot of items in the game that can help you to replicate those abilities, though some are more reliable than others. Unfortunately, none can make you as cool as a shaman.


Water Breathing

• Hydrocane: Drops from a semi-rare boss near the beginning of Gnomeregan. Very easy to get solo if you're 50+. Constant.


• Deepdive Helmet: Requires Engineering. Constant effect.


• Waterbreathing Elixirs: Crafted by Alchemists, though there are also some you can receive as quests. 30-min and 60-min varieties.


• Band of Icy Depths: You're never getting this. Ever. Constant effect.


• Unending Breath spell: Warlock spell. Same spell, but requires no reagent. Thanks a lot, Blizz.

Water Walking

• Hallow's End Pumpkin Treat: One of its numerous effects is that it'll turn you into a ghost, which gives you Levitation. Only available during Hallow's End holiday.


• Priest Levitate spell: Same basic idea as Water Walking, except that it also gives them Slow Fall. Arrrgh...at least this time it requires a reagent.

Ancestral Spirit

• Goblin Jumper Cables: There are two varieties; the XL version works more often, and doesn't need to be equipped anymore. The XL version has to be made by a Goblin Engineer, but any Engineer can use them. Sometimes doesn't work.


• Priest Resurrection spell: Same spell, different designation.


• Paladin Redemption spell: SSDD.

Reincarnation

• Darkmoon Card: Twisting Nether: You get a 10% chance to self-rez on death. Not bad, but pretty hard to get.

Lightning Bolt

• Lightning Capacitor: A 13% drop off Illhoof in Karazhan. Not nearly as reliable as the real thing of course, and only works for casters.


• Gnomish Death Ray: Kinda similar, and can put out a decent amount of damage. Requires Engineering to make it (and it's BOP) but not to use it, so if you drop Engineering you can keep using it (like I do).

Bloodlust

• Haste Potion: Chug one of these and go crazy. Only lasts 1/3 as long, and I don't really know how the speed-up compares. Also apparently only works on melee and ranged, not spells.


• Drums of Battle: Gives your whole GROUP an 80 haste speed buff that lasts 30 seconds, with a 2 min cooldown. Requires Leatherworking to use. 50 charges. (Thanks Frogs!)

Lightning Shield

• Electromagnetic Gigaflux Reactivator: Sort of like Chain Lightning and Lightning Shield in one crazy-looking gizmo! When you activate it, you basically get a Thorns-style buff that does 5 nature damage to anyone that hits you, not just every 3 seconds like LS. And as long as I've mentioned it...


• Druid's Thorns spell: A simliar punish-your-attackers effect, but causes less damage. However, it activates EACH time you receive damage, without the 3-second cooldown. And it doesn't have any charges to use up. The downside is that you need to find (or be) a Druid to use it, and they're almost as rare as Shamans these days.

Healing Stream Totem

• Stone Statues: Feeds you a steady stream of healing when activated. Jewelcrafter-only. Unfortunately, Blizz didn't make any designed for lvl. 70 players.

Searing Totem

• Gnomish Flame Turret: A neat Engineer-only toy that burns up everyone in range. Materials seem ridiculous though.

Well, I could go on, but the remaining stuff is kinda nitpicky. I'm trying not to stick too many profession-based items in the list, since I want the list to be primarily items you can go out and get, no matter what.

Of course, the easiest way to be as cool as a shaman will always be: play a shaman!


EDIT (Nov 19 `07): This post was featured on WoW Insider today! I feel famous now. Maybe I should put some ads up...

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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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Lightning Bolt - Earth Shock - Chain Heal

This is something I got the urge to throw together last night. I decided to make a cool logo for an eventual redesign of this site (yes, another one), but then I started thinking...it would look really cool on a t-shirt.

And to top it off, I decided to do 3 different versions, one for each Shaman talent tree. Of course, you can get whichever one you want to. IF you want to.

Proceeds go to the Feed Baluki Fund. I make a buck on each, and CafePress gets the rest.

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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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Until I get the time to post this on this site properly, here's a link to my Wallpapers collection. They're all just great scenery shots.

http://picasaweb.google.com/feldmanskitzoid/WoWWallpapers

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