At the earliest it seems, Wrath of the Lich King will be coming out in November. More than likely though the expansion will be released some time after the beginning of the year. Like everyone else I am eagerly awaiting this expansion so I can roll my first Death Knight. My dilemma though is what race do I wanna play. Do I want to roll horde or ally. And then which races; Gnome, Dwarf, Draenei or Undead, Troll, Orc or Blood Elf? I guess a lot of that will depend upon how they look at the setup stage, but we shall see.
Another item that I have to worry about are my existing toons. I want Dhar to definitely be in full epics by then and I would like to see Pallas at level 70 and acquiring her epics. Money is another factor that I am trying to prep for as I'm sure I'm not even close to what I'll need. I am trying to also have at least one horde character at level 70 by then as well. And let us not forget my fast leveling Warlock. And if we really want to get technical we can include any of a number of other alts that are spread around on servers due to my alt-itis.
Finally the decision must be made, who gets leveled first? Obviously my shammy is at the top of that list but a lot can happen between now and then and we'll just have to wait and see.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Basics Part Two
As far as the ideal talent make up, there's a lot of debate. I have specced into the Elemental tree and the Restoration tree and found that both definitely have their bonuses. From the stand point of the elemental tree it's the biggest advantage has to do with the speed in which you can apply you shocks on you opponents. The disadvantage of this is I found myself going OOM much faster than the other build. In the traditional Enhance/Resto build I found that I actually output more damage over time and that I rarely have to pot or mana shield in intances or raids. PVP does see me having to recoup my mana more, but that's to be expected because of the nature of what happens on the battlegrounds.
With some of the proposed changes coming in WotLK, I'm really looking forward to seeing how the builds will work out. I know that with some of the improvements they have been talking about with regards to armor and such I will probably want to see if it is possible to put more talent points in to my armor buffing talent. Even though I'm not sure this will be really possible.
On a side note. Pallas recently respecced to a Fury/Prot hybrid (0/28/11) and I am really liking the difference in play. I can now use a sword and shield and do very good damage and I have increased my survivability quite a bit. I'm following the (0/30/31) talent build for hybrid off tanks. I feel that this will allow me more room to level fairly fast and to start learning to tank in 5-mans. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please leave a comment letting me know what you think.
With some of the proposed changes coming in WotLK, I'm really looking forward to seeing how the builds will work out. I know that with some of the improvements they have been talking about with regards to armor and such I will probably want to see if it is possible to put more talent points in to my armor buffing talent. Even though I'm not sure this will be really possible.
On a side note. Pallas recently respecced to a Fury/Prot hybrid (0/28/11) and I am really liking the difference in play. I can now use a sword and shield and do very good damage and I have increased my survivability quite a bit. I'm following the (0/30/31) talent build for hybrid off tanks. I feel that this will allow me more room to level fairly fast and to start learning to tank in 5-mans. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please leave a comment letting me know what you think.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Basics of Enhancement
There is a simple truth about being an Enhancement Shaman.
***DPS***
Any way you can dish it out.
For this shaman have melee attacks, stormstike, weapon enhancements, shocks, lightning shield, and totem to create a substantial wall of damage. All of these items lend to the overall damage a Shaman can dish out, and it is such a high amount I can output as much DPS as other melee classes that are bettered geared than me. And this is possible due to extremely tight gearing practices.
The most important stat for Enhancement Shaman is Strength. After this is Agility, Stamina and Hit. There is a lot of debate over the matter of agility and hit among enhancement shaman but after substantial testing and research I have come to the conclusion of that STR comes first, and the other 3 are tied for second. Overall our job is to add totem support for damage to the melee group or party, and secondarily to hit as hard as possible. To do this means that our AP must be as high as we can get it and this means we have to look at how STR and AP scale.
Elitist Jerks have researched the matter of scaling for STR and AP extensively and they concur that STR scales better than just straight AP. Shamans gain 2 AP per point of STR, and depending upon other factors in the way gear scales it may actually be a little higher than that. AP directly translates and doesn't gain much from scaling. So from a standpoint of gear selection, you want gear with STR on it. This means, a lot of the PVP gear is ideal, even though your trade off will leave you with a low hit rating. This isn't as bad as it seems if you specc'ed into Resto for the hit bonus.
***DPS***
Any way you can dish it out.
For this shaman have melee attacks, stormstike, weapon enhancements, shocks, lightning shield, and totem to create a substantial wall of damage. All of these items lend to the overall damage a Shaman can dish out, and it is such a high amount I can output as much DPS as other melee classes that are bettered geared than me. And this is possible due to extremely tight gearing practices.
The most important stat for Enhancement Shaman is Strength. After this is Agility, Stamina and Hit. There is a lot of debate over the matter of agility and hit among enhancement shaman but after substantial testing and research I have come to the conclusion of that STR comes first, and the other 3 are tied for second. Overall our job is to add totem support for damage to the melee group or party, and secondarily to hit as hard as possible. To do this means that our AP must be as high as we can get it and this means we have to look at how STR and AP scale.
Elitist Jerks have researched the matter of scaling for STR and AP extensively and they concur that STR scales better than just straight AP. Shamans gain 2 AP per point of STR, and depending upon other factors in the way gear scales it may actually be a little higher than that. AP directly translates and doesn't gain much from scaling. So from a standpoint of gear selection, you want gear with STR on it. This means, a lot of the PVP gear is ideal, even though your trade off will leave you with a low hit rating. This isn't as bad as it seems if you specc'ed into Resto for the hit bonus.
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