~chron » pve

And I deserved it because I won Patchwerk meters

chronic — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:57:44 +0000

How come every time I queue 2s on my Paladin every game is Hunter/Healer on Nagrand, and whenever I queue on my rogue they’ve all been mysteriously replaced by DK/Paladin teams? Ok, I’ll try not to turn this into another counter-comping whine. Hunters are cool and 10 second wyvern is balanced, learn 2 hand of sacrifice.

After all the engineering QQ last week I decided the old “if you can’t beat them, join them” mantra applied and PL’d engineering to 425 on my rogue for the oft-maligned GLG. Fel Iron was incredibly expensive, but apart from that the material costs weren’t too harsh. Big thanks to Aely for smelting (among other things) 300 cobalt bars for me since the ore was so much cheaper. At least the UI has a “create all” button, I guess.

It ended up costing me about 2.5k all up, and so far I definitely think it was worth every copper. Azuba skilled up eng the same weekend and we’ve had some incredible tricks+cb evis+double GLG gibs that I have unfortunately so far neglected to fraps.

I also managed to grab a Sinister Revenge from the Regression alt Naxxramas run which was a pleasant surprise. PvE daggers and gimmick professions; I have become everything I hate and it is fucking delicious.

This is what a CS->KS typically looks like on a level 80 training dummy, with no shaman assistance or buffs:

CS -> Hyperspeed Accelerators -> Mut -> Pause -> KS -> Mut -> Mut -> CB Evis -> GLG while running to 30 yards to restealth

(optionally, rocketboots around like a retard)

Balanced. I haven’t tried out the pyro-rockets yet but I’ve heard they are also quite fun, and 45y range to boot.

Divine Plea is really hard to use in PvE

chronic — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:43:09 +0000

I took my paladin to a guild Naxxramas raid on the weekend, which was a nice change of pace – since Wrath came out I’ve been raiding primarily on my rogue. While I’ll happily run heroics in my hybrid spec I decided to go with something more traditional, though I must admit I actually forgot to put beacon on my hotbar until half-way through the second wing.

Serious business right? Thankfully Ring of Valor has prepared me well for not standing in various fires!

I got a few nice PvE upgrades, but not the second t7 piece I was hoping for – I’m still trying to complete my two piece bonus for arenas. I almost have enough emblems to buy the gloves or chest, though, so that’s an option if Archavon isn’t feeling benevolent this reset.

Raid healing has quite a different atmosphere to raid DPS, I find. Although you have the constant stress of people dying if you fail to perform, you don’t have the same optimization problems that DPS classes have. On my rogue every boss is a competition, even if it’s just against my previous personal best. There’s always room for improvement.

On a healer, if nobody dies, you’ve pretty much done your job. I’m not convinced the healing meters (especially the overhealing ones, hi beacon) are especially relevant or useful. Once you have enough intellect to not go OOM, enough throughput to keep up with Hateful Strike – well, gear evaluation becomes a largely academic exercise.

The positioning factor and the somewhat dynamic triage aspects (or “whack a mole” if you prefer) of healing are pretty entertaining though. Maybe I just needed a change from 4s/4e CttC rotations?