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Raiding Horizons Part One: Gear

March 31st, 200923 comments »

I’m going to do a four-part series on getting your Enhancement Shaman properly geared, gemmed and enchanted/glyphed for raiding and then what goodies to bring to said raids.  Consider this as a guide to follow and not a strict set of rules.  You may find things that work differently or even better for you (in which case, let me know!).

Every guild has different rules for their raiders, so I recommend checking with your particular guild as to what raiding requirements they have set.  Then do your best to not only achieve those, but to exceed them.  As for this series, I’ll show you guys a few things to get that will help get your overall DPS up and situate your stats on the right path to raiding glory.

Onward to Part One: Gear!

Update 1/1/2010: Patch 3.3 is here (and has been here – yes, I’m a slacker) and, with it, the long awaited Emblem changes.  From now on, every heroic and raid instance from Heroic Nexus through ToC 25 will drop Emblems of Triumph.  The new Icecrown Citadel Raid will drop Emblems of Frost.  You can also earn up to 2 Emblems of Frost a day by completing a Random Dungeon through the new LFG tool (first random only – subsequent randoms award Triumph).

Now that there’s a veritable cornucopia of gear you can obtain through heroics (blues and one purple from each end boss) and several quartermasters to choose from, I’m going to try to organize this list a bit better by listing out the best gear you can get for your badge farming.  This means I’ll be focusing primarily on Triumph/Frost gear, crafted items (200 and higher) and possibly a few heroic purples sprinkled in there.

Head

Chest

Feet

Hands

Legs

Shoulders

Waist

Wrist

Cloak

Neck

Ring

Trinket

Totem

A quick word on the Triumph Totems.  I’ll go into more detail on this in the gemming post but short version is as of Tier 9, haste is the new black.  You will see a lot of Shamans still favoring Attack Power, which isn’t “wrong” just as haste isn’t “right” – both will work.  I have tested both and found, with Tier 9 level gear, Haste puts out more DPS so I favor the Haste Totem.  You may love Attack Power (highly favored in the Tier 7 & 8 days), in which case, go for the Attack Power Totem.  Both are good and both will serve you well – it’s entirely dependent on your stat choice and your play style.  But as far as pre-raid gearing goes, use your Triumph badges on a Totem as opposed to your precious Frost badges.  Save those for Tier – T10 for Enhance Shammies is the hotness.

Weapon

There is an ongoing debate over the use of Slow/Fast or Slow/Slow.  First off, Enhance Shammies always dual-wield.  There is no reason to ever wield a 2H – your DPS will suck all the more for it.  Prior to Patch 3.1, it was found that a fast offhand boosted lower DPS (i.e. DPS from pre-BiS gear); however, with the rebalancing Blizzard did to Flametongue weapon in 3.1, the ball is firmly back in the court of Slow/Slow.  If you’re using Slow/Fast, get a slow Offhand, period.

Now, some points to consider before you look at the list above and go “Holy crap!  I’m 80 and it’s Christmas!”

  1. Always maintain your hit and expertise caps.  If this means taking a “lower level” piece to do so, do it.  Your DPS is nothing if you’re missing or being dodged most of the time.
  2. Skill and Knowledge > Gear a lot of the times.  For me personally, as a raid leader, I’ll take a player who is knowledgable, skilled and knows how to function in a raid who may have a few blues over an unskilled, unprepared player in full epics.  With the changes in the emblem system, a LOT of people will be running around in Tier 9 gear and a LOT of them won’t have the first clue how to properly use it.  Don’t be that guy.
  3. Research boss strats, practice your spell priority until you’re comfortable with it, make sure your gear is properly gemmed and enchanted, and download any required (and helpful) addons.  For those of you who want an easy to mark goal – 1.8K DPS minimum is good for Naxxramas; 3K minimum is good for Ulduar.
  4. A word on BoE epics – they may not always be available on your server or, if they are, they are at outrageously inflated prices.  Consider these pieces bonus pieces – i.e. if you get one, hey, bonus.  If not, you have exceptionally adequate alternatives.
  5. Craft a Frost Resist Set for fights like Sapphiron and Hodir.  Before you scoff and say they aren’t needed, I tell you “perhaps not” but it’s about perception.  You show up prepared.  You went that extra few pieces and, trust me, that goes a long way with a raid leader.

A word on the Enhance Shaman Tier 9 set.  The bonus is crap on both accounts, but that is my own opinion and nothing more.  However, the overall stats aren’t that bad and a four piece set would definitely benefit you in the long run.  My recommendation, before you begin raiding, is to purchase the Tier Head, Gloves, Pants and Chest for the bonus and then spend your emblems on the 245 shoulders for a bit of oomph to your stats.  Yes you could swap out Head for Shoulders and that’s completely your call but the 245 shoulders are actually a teensy bit better than the 245 helm.

Raiding Horizons Series

Raiding, Shaman ,,,,,,,,,

A Big Furry Kitty Says Goodbye

March 30th, 20091 comment »

AilisFor all you hunters out there, if you didn’t hear already, BRK has announced he’s leaving WoW to focus more on his family.  He’s been a wonderful source of information and laughs and will be sorely missed by the WoW community.

RL > WoW and never forget that.  If WoW keeps you from balancing your life in such a way that your friends don’t feel forgotten and your wife/husband doesn’t feel like they have to compete, then it’s time to take a break.

Farewell, BRK, good luck in all you do and lots of love from the blogosphere.

Hunter ,,

Chain Heal Spam

March 30th, 20092 comments »

AilisI respecced resto yesterday to help out some guildies in heroics since we had no other healers online.  

I have a love/hate relationship with being a healer.  I love that my gear rocks and my stats are excellent and I have a modicum of knowledge about what to do.  I hate all the stress and anxiety that goes with being  a healer.  If you’ve never healed an instance and you play a class that has that capability, go respec and do it once.  In fact, go heal H HoL and tell them you’ll heal through the Nova.

Earth Shield, Riptide, Chain Heal, Chain Heal, Chain Heal, Chain Heal…

Healing as a shaman is great, actually, despite all my muttering to the contrary.  We have a battery of skills that are extremely useful for group healing and functional for single-target healing.  Most of the time, as a resto shaman, you will be placed on raid heals rather than tank heals because of Chain Heal.  It’s very powerful, causes a lot of overhealing, and casts very quickly.

Your Healing Wave is reserved mostly for the tanks because of the insane amount of HP they have.  Your Lesser Healing Wave will do jack to them and is best used on choice members of the raid that didn’t get topped off by your Chain Heal.

While we may not be as powerful of a healer as a Holy Priest or a Holy Paladin, we have a few tricks in our arsenal that make healing fun, albeit very harried and interesting.  So, the point of my painfully short post is, if you play a shaman and haven’t ventured into the Resto tree at all, please do.  If anything, it will help you appreciate your healers a lot more.

Shaman ,

To the Paladin in My Raid

March 29th, 20094 comments »

AilisI love Imp. Blessing of Kings.  I do. It’s my favorite.  

You know what my other favorite is?  Blessing of Might.  You know, that one that grants me the ability to pummel with more attack power?

Why you insist on lumping me and my fellow melee brethren in with the caster and healy shaman so you can put Wisdom on all of us, I have no idea.  Blessing of Wisdom does nothing for us.  We gain mana back through intelligent uses of Shamanistic Rage, our Water Shield and the Mana Spring Totem.  I very rarely run out of mana so a 91 mp5 really doesn’t do a ton for me.

I don’t care if it’s the improved version or the cheap 10 minute version, if there are shamans in your raid, please do them all the honor of asking if any of them are melee.  If so, the melee get Might and the Caster/Healy get Wisdom.

We deserve proper buff love, too.

/end rant

Raiding, Shaman ,,
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