I... Hate... MrT....

No, not this guy...
The new 5 man instance located on the Isle. If I have to see the Commendation of Kael'thas fall and get disenchanted another time I will lose my mind. Mind you I ran Black Morass about 20 times before the Hourglass of the Unraveller fell and I actually won the roll, I can't even seem to whiff the Shard of Contempt, which is now rated as the top trinket for kitty DPS.

I am running ZA now weekly (I hope, it is really left to Laguna who has done a great job leading the run and just about guaranteeing a successful 3 timed chest run and a full clear) for the chance at Berserker's Call which would be an upgrade to both my current trinkets. We are still farming T5 bosses in SSC so maybe getting a Tsunami Talisman is not completely out of the question.

Anyone who keeps up with Emmerald's site for ranking Feral druid gear might have noticed a shift in item rankings. + Hit has been given more weight than it was previously though I don't believe this really is the case. Having a Romulo's Poison Vial I can guarantee you it is not better than Darkmoon Card: Crusade from real world results. A matter of fact when I took many druids advice as to re-gemming from + Hit to straight agility and ignoring the hit cap my DPS did increase.

What I think the general consensus is, about 92 Hit is a soft cap since through raid buffs and debuffs like Improved Faerie Fire you really don't need the mathematical cap of 142. 142 is what you would need without the help of a 25 man raid, and really, when do you plan on taking on Vashj solo? Before sorting all this out I decided to just ignore the cap and it definitely worked out for the best with maybe just 1-2 true missed hits per boss fight which really is much of nothing while my Crit went up and my damage.

I am going to start trying out some of the new power shifting macros hopefully this week and report back as to their success. I plan on limiting it use for the "burn him now" times during a boss fight as to not use up mana at the beginning or middle of a fight where a battle rez or some other ability might be needed, after all our biggest benefit to a raid are all of our various abilities that can help in "Oh Crap" situations to avoid a wipe and another 15 minutes of getting ready for the next attempt.

Ugh... New WotlK Talent calculator is no more

If you click my link below you will see that Blizzard had asked to have it removed. Dang, I should have SSed it before so I could show it. Here is the first one I did...

Remove 5 points from Infected Wounds and put them in the Natural Shapeshifter path and you will have my updated one that is no longer linked.


In other news, here are some other rumored changes and my thoughts...

• Entangling Roots can now be used indoors as well. (Yay, I am now a CC dps class for 5 mans)

• Tiger's Fury no longer costs energy, but now has a 30 second cooldown. (Yay, moar DPS for free)

• Hurricane cooldown has been removed. (Yay, easier to farm old world rep as feral)

• Ferocious Bite's damage for extra energy now scales with attack power. (Yay, for big time Crits)

• Nature's Grasp can now be used indoors as well. (Yay, I can successfully duel now while waiting to go in SSC)

• Omen of Clarity is now a passive effect instead of a self-cast buff. (OMG! WOOT! Awesome for PvP and one less buff I have to cast all the dang time)

• Feral Charge is now available in Cat Form as well. (Yay, my DPS just went up on Leo... if I can live through the agro )

• Survival of the Fittest's effect has been doubled. (Whoa)

• Mangle (Bear) now increases the damage of your Maul ability instead of the Shred ability. (Sweet jesus, did we really need more single target agro? How about make this increase damage of swipe to help us be more pallyesque)

Well, this sucks.

We lost a guild member (Lamaa) to an ill swung ban stick methinks. Instead of typing the whole story or plagiarizing the better part of something extremely well written I will just link to everything you might want to know. Please read and get the word out to anyone who can help.

Lamaa's Plight

Changed my level 80 talent tree

Don't know if this will work...


My Talent Tree

I totally missed the Master Shapeshifter talent in the resto tree which require using 5 points to max out. So basically the same one I used before but shifting 5 points from infected wounds to the Shapeshifter talents. Of course this is taking 3 things into account.

A. I am level 80 and not grinding, otherwise infected wounds would be nice.
B. I am not concerned about PvP, otherwise infected wounds would be nice.
C. Raid bosses are immune to the infected wounds effect or a rogues mind numbing poison overwrites the effect.

WotlK new feral Druid talents and my level 80 tree

Wow, just wow. I hope these new talents stick.

PowerShifting?

Well, I have done some reading today and it looks like I might just try some power shifting in the near future. There are a couple of big time Macro's written out there to take advantage of the 2.3 patch change in client side shifting with minimizing energy lost in the shift and even combining it with potion use such as Haste Potion or Insane Strength Potion.

I don't see using the Macro except for certain fights or at certain times. I think using it for trash might be a nice way to boost overall raid DPS (if I can avoid agro, which lately seems tough) and also use it for boss fights like Leo for example when he is in human phase since as Melee we have so little time to get in hits before the last 15% phase... then again when he hits 15%. I would turn the macro off (the macro can be toggled on and off) for DPSing in his demon phase just in case the mana for a battle rez might be necessary.

Depending on how this works out I will most likely respec for the Intensity talent and also Natural Shapeshifter pulling points from Nurturing Instinct and Primal Tenacity. That will suck for my PvP nights... no more WTF pauses from warriors and rogues trying to stun me...

Anyway, once I have the time to get this installed and tested I will report back as to my findings as how it impacts my DPS, agro (shudder), and raid utility.

There is a new Boss in SSC

Woot! Vash is down!

Here is my take on the fight from a feral druid stand point...

1. Kitties hate static charge.
2. Make a shift Macro for both bear and cat forms. /Cast !Cat Form and /Cast !Dire Bear Form These are to brake Vash snares so you can continue to DPS or pick her up in case all your Pallies are dead and the MT is stuck in a snare.
3. Use dash to get to poison elementals faster, loot the core, toss it up.
4. Try to kill elementals fast, killing elementals at the top of the platform is a risky proposition with strider's walking around in circles fearing everything.
5. Stay away from the front of Naga, they will kill you.

Last night was fun, we finally got her down. We wiped lots, once I killed a poison elemental and tried to loot the core just to have a naga spawn right on top of me so I hit it instead of looting the core and was quickly killed... that sucked of course.

Bring on Kael. XD

Broke 2K DPS

Was shocked when I saw recap having me over 2K dps... thought it was cool.

In other news for the first time on the Leo fight I decided to use a Elixir of Demonslaying, wow, before I pulled agro and died I was tracking to be #1 in total damage on the whirling douche of destruction... maybe next week.

Looks like adding Trousers of the Scryers' Retainer and Angelista's Revenge was worth the badges after all. Since I have broken my 4T4 bonus for tanking next will come Handwraps of the Aggressor as I shift to using Stag-Helm of Malorne and Mantle of Malorne for 2T4 bonus and Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm for tanking duty... Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots hopefully will be soon behind for my last possible badge related DPS upgrade.

Breaking the 4T4 bonus for tanking is a mixed bag but most likely important at this junction of raiding. Adding T5 means little change in survivablity but pushes up threat which will help progression.

Zul'Aman Clear!

Add the 10 man raid Zul'Aman to my full clear list. Was a lot of fun even though we lost the roll on the Tiny Voodoo Mask and Blood of Zul'jin. I did get Bladeangel's Money Belt which was kinda nice even though I blew 60 badges over a month ago for Waistguard of the Great Beast.

In typical Wow fashion for me Berserker's Call didn't even fall so I will continue using my antiquated trinkets until I can get Tsunami Talisman or Shard of Contempt the later of which I have also not seen in my last half dozen or so runs of Heroic Magisters Terrace.

At this point it is all about the trinkets since I am sitting on 2T4, all the possible badge upgrades, and S3 gear to fill out the rest. Until T6 and Black Temple me DPS will not change much short of taking up the powershifting hobby or improving my trinkets.

I was able to get Breastplate of Malorne from a Mag's run which completed my T4 set... WOOT... my first full set playing Wow. This was important for 2 reasons, flexibility in which 2T4 to wear for the bonus for DPS going forward and I am now getting the 4T4 bonus for tanking while wearing my first piece of T5 Nordrassil Feral-Kilt. This makes Tanking Tidewalker and the FLK add a little easier.

Last but not least, we downed Rage Winterchill on our first try... but he is so easy.

A'Lar down

Well, it's Tuesday... no WOW for at least 5-6 hours I suppose.

Last night AC downed A'lar for the first time I am sure of many more to come... well, that's about it.

I finally got my first piece of T5 gear in the form of pants. We lose armor and stamina putting them on but gain Hit and avoidance and did just fine with them tanking Tidewalker last week. I also used the new tanking neck from SSO which added some expertise... not much but enough I think to avoid a little more burst damage from parries. Looking at our WWS numbers from the prior week the Hit and extra avoidance from changing to the T5 pants and new neck equaled about another 3% to avoidance and shrank TW's avoidance of our attacks noticeably.

Tidewalker Dead

Went into SSC last night and 1 shot him.

Had my Commendation of Kael'thas equipped and it went off 4 times.

My hat off to my healers they did a great job keeping me alive. I did use my Healthstone macro once which went off without a hitch.

/cancelform
/use Master Healthstone
/Cast Dire Bear Form

Also used a Flask of Chromatic Wonder and a Magic Resistance potion.

Although I couldn't see it, I hear our only Prot Pally did a flawless job with the murloc's along with the warlocks doing their thing. Last time we got Tide to 1% and it was due to losing our Pally so his healers did a bang up job too I assume.

I got no loot from Tidewalker and probably never will since I will be saving for the Thalassian Wildercloak from Kael'thas Sunstrider.

Doom Lord Kazzak Down

A week or 2 ago we downed DLK... yay.

THE BIG NEWS IS 2.4 IS TODAY!

With 2.4 hitting and all the new gear that comes with it my blog might be getting updated more often with boss kills and upgrades.

Hopefully the new content will help get me out of the WoW bored blues I have had as of late getting tired of doing the same raids and bosses over and over again... I am sure having such little interest in T5 gear has something to do with that also since it takes a good 3 pieces of T5 to replace 4 pieces of T4 for tanking... and no T5 is better for DPS over my arena gear, 2T4 bonus, or new 2.4 gear.

Any who, I have been running Kara religiously ever Friday for badges and Netherspite week after week continues to deny me my pants upgrade so it looks like after the purchase of the Staff of the Forest Lord the next thing I will need will be the Trousers of the Scryers' Retainer. Just for those 2 items I will need 250 badges... ouch. Good thing all raid bosses will now be dropping Badges... I am going to need them. Here is a full list of upgrades I would like before hitting Hyjal and Black Temple...

Nordrassil Chestplate - T5 Token - Kael'thas Drop
or
Embrace of Everlasting Prowess - 100 Badges
Ring of the Stalwart Protector - 60 Badges
Commendation of Kael'thas - MrT Drop

T5 gear for tanking as it falls...

Kitty Upgrades

Dragonspine Trophy - Gruul Drop (in the top 3 trinkets, quite possible the best as gear improves)
Belt of One-Hundred Deaths - Lady V drop
Ring of Lethality - Hydross Drop
Tsunami Talisman - Leo drop
Thalassian Wildercloak - Kael drop
Staff of the Forest Lord - 150 Badges
Trousers of the Scryers' Retainer - 100 Badges
Shattered Sun Pendant of Might - Faction
Angelista's Revenge - 60 Badges
Shard of Contempt - Heroic MrT Drop