MOGS

Raid Finder Coming in Patch 4.3

This is straight from Blizz. I’m sorry its posted a bit late but I know you all are looking for a tidbit of information. There’s a lot more info out there too.

Raid Finder Coming in Patch 4.3

The Epic of Tol Barad

Tol Barad has been the talk of the Pvp world for the last week due to it’s honor exploit that was just recently hotfixed. It is the level 85 outdoor PvP zone, similar to lvl 80 Wintergrasp, located off the west coast of the Eastern Kingdoms. Every two hours the island fills up with players in a huge capture the base scenario that take no longer than 30 minutes to complete.
Tol Barad originally gave the winning faction 180 bonus honor. Which was a nice change of pace for the battleground honor grind. The problem was that TB is extremely in the favor the defense, so if you held TB at some point in the morning, there’s a good chance you’re going to hold it all day and reap the bonus honor,daily quests, and boss in the zone.

Blizzard thought that if they increased the honor reward for winning on offense that the attacking faction would be more encouraged to win. I’m not sure if someone hit at extra 0 in there, but for a short period of time if the attackers won they would receive 1800 honor! The factions began to talk and a truce was signed on many servers and the win-trading began. Every 2 hours the the attackers won within minutes, and those lucky enough to get in the zone received their 1800 honor, essentially a Pvp piece. Since TB lets you in at a 1-1 basis only a select few that won the “TB Lottery” got in.

A couple of days into the lottery a bridge exploit was found. On the nothern bridge of the Tol Barad Pvp zone that connects TB and TB Pennisula you began to see hundreds of the attacking faction stack. Those who didn’t win the lotto stood and waited. It was discovered that if you could time it right as the third base was being capped if you ran into the zone, before the zone queue warning ported your character out, that you would also receive the 1800 honor. Another truce was made between horde and alliance throughout servers that allowed those on the bridges to remained unharmed so they could time it right. I found about this after I just finished grinding out honor for a week and a half. I was able to make it two or three times and it worked, and finished off my blue honor set. Then when Blizzard realised that the zone was no longer contested but being fully exploited, they did a hotfix on the honor. Their 1800 honor attacking “gift” (as they’re putting it) was available for a week, exploited in days, then hotfixed within hours. Truce treaties were broken and it became a pvp zone once again.

Now Tol Barad awards 360 honor if the attacker wins. Which is more than originally obtained yet we’re unsture if it’s still worth it or not since the zone once gave out just too much honor. Of course this is just another hotfix and the zone is subject to even more changes. We can only hope they’ll find a balance between offense and defense and provide us with a reward that isn’t out of this world yet still worthwhile.

Best Mastery for each class in WOW Cataclysm

Mastery’s are one of the new additions in Cataclysm, and they provide a passive buff to each class for putting 31 points into a talent tree. The buff can also be increased, by equipping Items that have “Mastery” points on them. The idea behind this is to force player’s to fully commit to one tree with the majority of their talent points, so that they only have 10 other points to put into another tree.

Before Mastery’s, players were sometimes able to find viable hybrid talent spec’s, where they would split their talent points up between 2 trees. You would pass up the powerful last talent for a specific talent tree, in lieu of a number of mid range talents from another tree. Examples of this were Frost/Fire mages, and Unholy/Frost Death Knights.

The Mastery’s have killed a bit of the uniqueness of the customization of talent specializations. On the other hand, the talent trees are much cleaner and easier to use. Bloated talents that took 5 points, have been reduced to two or three, and most passive bonus’ from talents have been removed.

One example of this is a Mage’s impact talent. It use to randomly proc a 2 second stun 10% of the time you used one of your fire spells. Now, any damaging move has a 10% chance to reset the cool down on fire blast, and cause the next fire blast you cast wtihin 10 seconds, to stun the target for 2 seconds. This is a great example of the positive changes to the talent trees, since it turns the stun from a random occurrence, to something that you can control. It still proc’s 10% of the time, but you decide exactly when you want to use the stun once it procs.

Another improvement comes in the first two tiers of talents for each Tree. Blizzard knows that each character will have 10 extra points to spend, so they accordingly made the first 2 tiers of talents in each tree generally very useful. As a Frost mage, I can get improved counterspell (4 second silence on counterspell, a must have talent for pvp) in the first tier of arcane. I can also get a 3 second 70% sprint added to my blink on the second arcane tier. If i choose to subspec fire instead of arcane ,I get 70% chance to not lose casting time while being hit, 30% mana back on crits, 1/2 Blazing speed (5% chance on melee hit for a 8 second 50% sprint), and the impact talent outlined above. Blizzard did a great job of trimming the fat from the talent trees, and moving some of the must have talents down lower in the trees.

Here, I will outline what I think are the best Mastery’s for each class, from a PvP Perspective. I will rank them, one through three.

Death Knight

• Blood Mastery
  Blood Shield – Each time you heal yourself via Death Strike, you gain 50% of the amount healed as a damage absorption shield. Each point of Mastery increases the shield by an additional 6.25%.
• Frost Mastery
  Frozen Heart – Increases all frost damage done by 16%. Each point of Mastery increases frost damage by an additional 2.0%.
• Unholy Mastery
  Blightcaller – Increases the damage done by your diseases by 40%. Each point of Mastery increases disease damage by an additional 5.0%.

1. Unholy Mastery. 2. Blood Mastery 3. Frost Mastery. I picked Unholy Mastery as the best since extra disease damage means your damage over time effects will hit harder, so you will essentially be doing more damage without needing to “stick” on the target. Blood Mastery is interesting, and edges out Frost Mastery since it provides a scalable shield, which should help a blood DK’s survivability in PVP.

Druid

• Balance Mastery
  Total Eclipse – Increases the bonus damage from Eclipse by 12%. Each point of Mastery increases the bonus by an additional 1.5%.
• Feral Mastery
  Savage Defender – Requires Bear Form. Increases the damage absorbed by your Savage Defense ability by 32%. Each point of Mastery increases the absorb by an additional 4%.
  Razor Claws – Requires Cat Form. Increases the damage done by your bleed abilities by 25.04%. Each point of Mastery increases bleed damage by an additional 3.1%
• Restoration Mastery
  Symbiosis – Increases the potency of your healing spells by 10% on targets already affected by one of your heal over time spells. Each point of Mastery increases heal potency by an additional 1.25%.

1. Feral Mastery. 2 Restoration Mastery. 3 Balance Mastery. Feral Druids are pretty strong in PVP now, due in part to their their bleed effects. They can’t be dispelled off like many other DOTS, so the damage needs to be mitigated in other ways. Therefore, the more bleed damage for ferals, the better. Restoration mastery is good, since druids almost always have HOTs on a target. It will result in a 10% increase to a Druids healing for the majority of their spells. Balance Mastery comes in last since its an uninspired mastery, and since Balance druids are the least represented spec of Druids in PVP.

Hunter

• Beast Mastery
  Master of Beasts – Increases the damage done by your pets by 13.6%. Each point of Mastery increases pet damage by an additional 1.7%.
• Marksmanship Mastery
  Wild Quiver – Grants a 14.4% chance for your ranged attacks to also instantly fire an additional ranged shot. Each point of Mastery increases the chance by an additional 1.8%.
• Survival Mastery
  Essence of the Viper – Increases all elemental damage you deal by 8%. Each point of Mastery increases elemental damage by an additional 1.0%.

1. Marksmanship Mastery. 2. Survival Mastery. 3. Beast Mastery. Marks mastery is by far the best, since it can provide some random burst damage. It is essential a 10% proc for “double” damage on your ranged auto-attack, since it gives you an entirely new attack, which aslo has the potential to crit. Survival mastery comes in second, since it applies to a multitude of moves, such as cobra shot, serpent sting, explosive shot, arcane shot, etc. Beast mastery comes in last since its just a passive increase in damage to your pet.

Mage

• Arcane Mastery
  Mana Adept – Increases all spell damage done by up to 12%, based on the amount of mana the Mage has unspent. Each point of Mastery increases damage done by up to an additional 1.5%.
• Fire Mastery
  Flashburn – Increases the damage done by all your periodic fire damage effects by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases periodic damage done by an additional 2.5%.
• Frost Mastery
  Frostburn – All your spells deal 20% increased damage against Frozen targets. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%.

1. Frost Mastery. 2. Arcane Mastery. 3. Fire Mastery. Frost Mastery comes in first since it amplifies a mage’s burst damage. Frost mages rely on the increased damage and critical strike chance they get against frozen targets to help set up kills. This Mastery will help a mage squeeze out a little extra damage on their shatter combos. Arcane Mastery comes in second, because it increases the damage on all your spells. Also, with Mage armor restoring 3% of your maximum mana every 5 seconds, your Mana pool will almost always be at 75% plus, unless its a very mana intensive fight. Fire Mastery comes in last, since the majority of the damage fire mage’s do is a result of direct damage spells, and not DOTS.

Paladin

• Holy Mastery
  Illuminated Healing – Your direct healing spells also place an absorb shield on your target for 10% of the amount healed lasting 8 sec. Each point of Mastery increases the absorb amount by an addtional 1.25%.
• Protection Mastery
  Divine Bulwark – Increases your chance to block melee attacks by 18%. Each point of Mastery increases block chance by an additional 2.25%.
• Retribution Mastery
  Hand of Light – Your auto attacks have a 8% chance to grant Hand of Light, causing your next Holy Power ability to consume no Holy Power and to cast as if 3 Holy Power were consumed. Each point of Mastery increases the chance by an additional 1%.

1. Holy Mastery. 2. Retribution Mastery. 3. Protection Mastery. Holy Mastery comes in number one, because it is amazing. The shield effect occurs 100% of the time, and will proc off all of your direct healing spells. And since its a shield instead of additional healing, it helps to add some utility to a Holy Paladins repertoire of abilities. Retribution Mastery comes in second. Ret paladins have typically just hit their abilities as they come off of cooldown, so this will help to add some unpredictable burst to their game, while conserving resources. Protection Mastery comes in last, because it’s only useful against melee classes in PVP.

Priest

• Discipline Mastery
  Shield Discipline – Increases the potency of all your damage absorption spells by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases the potency of absorbs by an additional 2.5%.
• Holy mastery
  Echo of Light – Your direct healing spells heal for an additional 10% over 6 sec. Each point of Mastery provides an additional 1.25% healing over 6 sec.
• Shadow Mastery
  Shadow Orb Power – Increases the damage done by your Shadow Orbs. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 1.3%.

1. Holy Mastery. 2. Discipline Mastery. 3. Shadow Mastery. Holy Mastery takes the cake here because it adds the 10% bonus heal over time over 6 seconds to all of your heals. This should help to remedy Priests lack of HOT’s, and also help them to conserve mana. Discipline Mastery comes in second, only because dispell’s are so powerful at the moment. 20% more absorption on your power word shield does not help much if the shield is dispelled. Shadow Mastery comes in last, because it provides a sub-par damage boost to only your shadow orbs, which in turn only boosts your mind spike and mind blast moves. Blizzard stated they were still working on these shadow orbs, and in the end they may provide you with things like instant mind blast’s and mind spike’s. Hopefully Blizzard buff’s this mastery if/when the tweak shadow orbs.

Rogue

• Assassination Mastery
  Potent Poisons – Increases the damage done by your poisons by 28%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 3.5%.
• Combat Mastery
  Main Gauche – Your main hand attacks have a 16% chance to grant you an extra off hand attack. Each point of Mastery increases the chance by an additional 2.00%.
• Subtlety Mastery
  Executioner – Increases the damage done by all your finishing moves, and the effectiveness of your Slice and Dice, by 16%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.0%.

1. Subtlety Mastery. 2. Assassination Mastery. 3. Combat Mastery. Subtlety Mastery is the best, because it gives you two strong bonuses. More damage on finisher moves means you are more likely to get a kill with a finisher in a PVP scenario. Moreover, an increased effectiveness on Slice and Dice means you will be getting more auto-attacks on a target within a given timeframe, which will also help you score kills. Assassination Mastery comes in second, since Envenom scales with Potent Poisons, is a finisher, and already hits pretty hard with 5 combo points. Combat mastery comes in last since it seems this will most likely result in a increase in damage for PVE, rather than PVP.

Shaman

• Elemental Mastery
  Elemental Overload – Grants a 16% chance for Elemental Overload to occur. Elemental Overload causes a Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, or Lava Burst spell you cast to trigger a second, similar spell on the same target at no additional cost that causes 75% of normal damage and no threat. Each point of Mastery increases the chance of Elemental Overload by an additional 2%.
• Enhancement Mastery
  Enhanced Elements – Increases all Fire, Frost, and Nature damage done by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%
• Restoration Mastery
  Deep Healing – Increases the potency of your direct healing spells by up to 20%, based on the current health level of your target (lower health targets are healed for more). Each point of Mastery increases direct heals by up to an additional 2.5%.

1. Restoration Mastery. 2. Elemental Mastery. 3. Enhancement Mastery. Restoration Mastery is a great Mastery, since it makes Shamans an even better clutch healer. Even better, is that you get closer to the 20% bonus in direct heals, the more you need it at any given time. Seems to be a perfectly designed PVP oriented mastery. Elemental Mastery is second, because it provide some extra burst, that is also under you control (since you can decide when to trigger it). Enhancement Mastery comes in last because it does not add anything special to the class.

Warlock

1. Affliction Mastery. 2. Destruction Mastery 3. Affliction Mastery. The Warlock Mastery’s seem very sub-par overall. I’ll give the affliction mastery the top spot, since most of their DOTS are dealing shadow damage, so this should have a noticeable increase. Destruction Mastery comes next, since its a flat increase to all Fire damage, which is the focus of a destro locks damage. Last is Demonology Mastery, because it only increases pet damage, and only increases your damage when you are in demon form, which has a long coo down.

Warrior

• Arms Mastery
  Strikes of Opportunity – Grants a 16% chance for your melee attacks to instantly trigger an additional melee attack for 100% normal damage. Each point of Mastery increases this chance by 2%.
• Fury Mastery
  Unshackled Fury – Increases the benefit of abilities that cause or require you to be enraged by 37.6%. Each point of Mastery increases enrage effects by an additional 4.70%.
• Protection Mastery
  Increases your chance to block by 12% and your chance to critically block by 12%. Each point of Mastery increases your block chance by an additional 1.5% and your critical block chance by an additional 1.5%.

1. Arms Mastery. 2. Fury Mastery. Protection Mastery. Arms Mastery is the top choice here, since you will be dual wielding two handed weapons. An occasional additional auto-attack with one of those will add up after awhile, and provides some surprise burst. Unshackled Fury comes in second, because it provides such a huge benefit to those abilities that require you to be enraged, close to 40%. Protection mastery comes in last because it is more of PVE talent, and would only be useful against melee classes in PVP.

Questions or Comments? Drop me a line, Jake@mogs.com

MOGS Starter Guide to Cataclysm PvP for Warcraft

Cataclysm is upon us, and the new Arena season has begun. Those who just got Cataclysm over the holidays are working on leveling through the new content to 85, and those who got it on release are more than likely already there (I know I am!). At 85 you’re presented with a couple of options of what to do with your character, take them hardcore PvE, hardcore PvP, dabble in both because you’re a hardcore player, or dabble in anything you can get your hands on for you play the game casually. I’m going to focus on the hardcore PvP aspect, and how to get your fresh 85 started for end-game rated battlegrounds and arenas.

Currently there are 3 new tiers of pvp gear that you’ll have to mix and match until you’re in full purples. There’s the crafted ilevel 339 set, which can be created by a friendly 525 skill level tailorer (Fireweave, Emberweave sets) leatherworker (Bloodied sets, which include mail sets), or blacksmith (Bloodied, Ornate sets). You can purchase all of these on the Auction house. The cloth pieces generally go for 300-750gold, the mail/leather/plate pieces go for 500-1k gold (on occasion a shoulder or chest will be 2k). I highly recommend that you pick up at least 2-3 of these pieces (pick them all up if you can afford it), for this season’s honor grind is one of the hardest since vanilla WoW. Being a restoration druid I personally grabbed a couple of the Emberweave pieces along with the Bloodied Wyrmhide to mix and match to achieve the desired itemization along with the resilience. Currently Resilience is your strongest stat in PvP, Blizzard changed it so it now effects ALL damage you take, rather than just reducing the chance to be crit and crit damage. So even if you are wearing leather with a couple of cloth pieces, you’re better off with the resilience than trying to stack PvE gear (unless you’re a dps class and you aren’t being trained 24/7, then toss in some PvE pieces for the exra damage). Once you’ve acquired all you can spend on, jump into some BG’s and begin the grind.

With the current honor point system, honorable kills are only worth 1 measly honor, while a win will net you a bonus 45-90 honor (daily nets you 90, from there on out it’s 45 bonus honor per win), if you lose you get stuck with 15 bonus honor. This system essentially forces you to win to make any kind of progress on your honor grind. With chest/legs/helm costing 2200 honor it can take quite a while until a piece is obtained.

The trick to shortening your honor grind is to watch your Tol Barad timer, and make sure you queue for it everytime it’s up. Tol Barad is the new “Wintergrasp” where you fight to take control of an island. Tol Barad is extremely favored for the defense and if your faction has it, there’s a good chance they’ll have it all day. It can take anywheres from 15-30 minutes max (depending if they down any towers) and if you win nets you a tasty bonus of 180 honor (then another 95 honor for the weekly victory quest). Since Tol Barad enters players from each faction on a 1-1 ratio, matches can extend up to 100v100, thus that 1 honor per KB can finally rack up. If you follow the zerg wave of players (whether your offense or defense) you can net anywheres from 90-150 extra honor during the Tol Barad from those kills. I’ve managed to obtain around 350 honor from a single Tol Barad including the weekly and winning the Tol Barad.

For a dps class I recommend picking up the most costly honor pieces helm/chest/legs and get those out of the way and you benefit more from PvE off-pieces than healers. For healers I recommend picking up 2 main pieces to get the 2 piece 400 res set bonus then replacing all pieces of gear that don’t have resilience on them first. After you are in your full resilience set that’s a mix of crafted and honor gear, you can start to replace the crafted gear with the honor pieces.

After you’ve acquired a decent amount of gear (should be around 1.5-2k resilience), I recommend you start an arena team as soon as possible (any size will suffice). Currently conquest points are easier to obtain than honor points and right now the lowest cap for conquest points is 1343 points per week. If you win at least 5-6 matches, you’ll quickly cap your conquest points for the week. Epic items start off at 1250 conquest points for off-pieces and go up to 3400 for 2-handed weapons, and 2450 for one-handed. So essentially within 2 weeks and 12 wins in arenas you can have an epic one-handed weapon, or an epic piece of gear of your choice.

Essentially after creating an arena team, and farming honor approx 3-4 hours a day for 2 weeks, you can have an epic weapon, the full honor set and be prepared to head into the competitive arena and rated battleground scene. Currently I’m rocking the epic weapon, and 2917 resilience on my restoration druid. My 3v3 team (Shadow Priest/Frost Mage/ Resto Druid) is going to be starting our hard arena grind later this week and plan on frapsing some matches so you can check them out and watch our attempt for glad this season. Enjoy the honor grind for it’s the last one you’ll have to do.

Questions or Comments? Drop me a line, Jon@mogs.com. Happy honor farming!

Return to the Cataclysm

The earthquake has come and the Cataclysm is upon us. With the expansion releasing in a couple of days I have decided to reactivate my account harboring for another chance at Gladiator. It’s been frozen over the last couple of months and I decided to dust off the ole’ credit card, purchase a gamecard and the expansion and load it up. After fifteen minutes of patching I was back in the game. Spun around my old toon geared out in full furious, which brings me back to the old days of arena, hopefully foreshadowing success in this upcoming season. I then logged in to see the destruction.

First things first, I was noticed to respec my druid. Being a healer of sorts I ooed and awed over the new talents. Unable to decide I googled and searched for the current “best” spec and eventually settled on one that suited my play style. I’m pleased with all of the talent tree changes. Blizzard is bringing it back to the simplicity of 31 point trees like back in vanilla WoW, while revamping the trees so leveling is now fun as well (Felguard at lvl 10 say wat?). I’ve heard some rumors on how broken Mages are and most casters at that. But as of every pre-expansion patch everyone is broken for 3 weeks then we max out and everything balances out like Blizzard says. If not, it’s fixed, the beauty of MMOs.

Running around Dalaran whispering all my old friends, discovering the lack of Dalaran portals..and the lack of people in Dalaran in general. I almost began to believe the game’s population was tinkering off. A short trip to the newly expanded Stormwind City shown that as with every expansion the city population moves as well. I checked out the new sites and enjoy that the Park was ripped into a cataclysmic rift, and the new Stormwind Keep was redone to look as epic as it should with the king back on his thrown. I have yet to check out the other Alliance cities but judging by the new look of Stormwind, the other cities are sure to look just as spectacular.

I had some more time before work so I decided to see how rusty and how outgeared my character really was and queued for a random battleground. 2-3 Battlegrounds later, I noticed that nothing has changed and Alliance still loses just about every single time. I also came to the conclusion that full furious is awful now and I get just rofl-stomped down in about 3-4 crits. I agree that mages and ranged casters are extremely powerful at this time. I found myself just following a mage or boomkin around pocket healing them until I was found and decimated by the Horde.

I browsed some forums and saw that with Cataclysm rated battlegrounds will begin as well. Being a PvP buff I can’t stand losing battleground after battleground and think this will really help swing the tide of battle into more evenly matched battlegrounds. Also after realising this I talked with my friends and we queued up faction changes deciding Horde would be a better PvP fit for this expansion. I’m stoked for the new expansion and can’t wait till classes balance out and the arena season begins. Be sure to check back for arena videos, for my friends and I are going to make a Glad run and you can be there to see if it happens or not!

Questions or Comments? Drop me a line, Jon@mogs.com. I will be sure to update everyone on the status of my Arena team, once the Arena season starts. Happy grinding to 85 everyone!!

Cataclysm goes live Tuesday!!

At midnight Pacific (3am EST) on Tuesday, December 7th, Cataclysm will officially go live on US and EU servers! With the release of the latest expansion into the Warcraft universe, several changes will go into effect that will offer more than just a few more zones to level in, but changes to the core game itself and an overhaul of how the guild system works. Some of the changes players have to look forward to include:

• Worgen and Goblins are playable. (Paid Race Change Service will also go live for these races immediately)
• Flight Master’s License is purchasable by players, giving them the ability to fly in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms
• Guilds can begin to level up and earn perks and guild achievements, and guild members can begin to build reputation with their guilds.
• All professions are trainable to skill up to 525 (Illustrious Grand Master), including the new secondary profession, Archaeology.
• Initial dungeons (like Blackrock Caverns, which is playable at level 80) become available.
• The new 80+ zones – Mt. Hyjal, Vashj’ir, Deepholm, Uldum and Twilight Highlands – will become playable, beginning at level 80. Portals and ‘breadcrumb’ quests will be available in Stormwind to start you off.

Tips for Surviving the Cataclysm

• PORTALS and “breadcrumb” quests for the Cataclysm zones are available in Stormwind and in Orgimmar
• IN ORDER TO QUEUE FOR A DUNGEON using the Dungeon Finder you must first visit the entrance to that dungeon. If you want to queue for BRC, be sure to go there before trying to queue up for the first time!
• DAILY FISHING AND COOKING QUESTS are available in both SW and ORG. The fishing and cooking dailys reward a skill point each day, and the cooking daily rewards a Chef Award, which is used to buy the recipes you will need to level your cooking.
• DON’T FORGET to obtain your Flight Master’s License and visit your profession trainers before leaving for the new zones!
• EMPTY YOUR BAGS of unnecessary items like vendor trash, old mats, old gear that you don’t want to keep, and cute/fun novelty items. Additionally, making some space in your BANK is probably wise. Make sure your stocked up on the necessary foods, potions, reagents and gear that you will use, but by keeping your bag space limited and stocked with the stuff you will actually need you will keep yourself from having to visit a vendor every few quests, which is a giant waste of time.
• CATACLYSM DUNGEONS are expected to be a bit harder than Wrath heroics, and it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you read up about the dungeon and watch a video, if possible, before you queue. Dungeons in Cataclysm will require significant crowd control and awareness. Mobs hit much harder than they did in Wrath heroics, so there won’t be anywhere near as much AoE tanking or chain-pulling because tanks simple won’t be able to survive. Knowing what to expect can help your random dungeon experience go much more smoothly
• The first two areas where level 80 players can go, Mt. Hyjal and Vashj’ir, are only available once you turn 80, not 78 as with previous expansions. They will both be full of lore and interesting quests, and they each have faction reputations. It looks like the popular place to begin will be Hyjal, so for a less-populated start, Vashj’ir may be a good choice. However, Vashj’ir is under water, so be prepared for a new experience!

The most important thing is to HAVE FUN!

Breakdown of new Abilities in Cataclysm, Class by Class

I am going to list all of the new abilities that each class is getting in Cataclysm, along with an analysis for which ones I think are best. Keep in mind this is from a PvP perspective. Each class is really getting a lot of utility with all these new moves, as the majority of them are very useful. Some combine 2 mechanics from other abilities, while others are completely unique. One overall positive change is the prevalence of 1-2 minute cool down moves. I am glad blizzard is moving more away from the over powered moves with 3-4 minute cool downs, since moves with 1 minute cool downs can be used much more often.

Death Knight

• Dark Simulacrum
  20 Runic Power 40 yd range
  Instant 1 min cooldown
  Places a dark ward on an enemy that persists for 8 sec, triggering when the enemy next spends mana on a spell, and allowing the Death Knight to unleash an exact duplicate of that spell. Against nonplayers, only absorbs some harmful spells.
• Necrotic Strike
  1 Unholy Melee Range
  Instant
  Requires Melee Weapon
  A vicious strike that deals 100% weapon damage and absorbs the next (0.75 * AP) healing received by the target. For 15 sec, or until the full amount of healing is absorbed, the target’s casting time is increased by 30%.
• Outbreak
  30 yd range
  Instant 1 min cooldown
  Instantly applies Blood Plague and Frost Fever to the target enemy.

A Death Knight was the last class I played in WOW, and Necrotic Strike is the move I would have most liked to have. This move would be good against anyone receiving healing in a BG’s and Arenas, but would really shine when used against casters, and especially healers. With the extra pressure of being able to slow cast times (much like a rogue’s mind-numbing poison), while eating the healing being received, it would really help you to set up kills. It also only takes 1 unholy rune to use, so you could theoretically use it once every five seconds, if needed.

Druid

• Thrash Level 85
  25 Rage 8 yd range
  Instant 6 sec cooldown
  Requires Bear Form
  Deals AP*0.154+243 damage, and causes all targets within 0 yards to bleed for (AP * 0.026 + 151 * 3) damage over 6 sec.
• Stampeding Roar Bear Form / Cat Form
  15 Rage
  Instant 2 min cooldown
  Requires Bear Form
  The druid roars, increasing all nearby friendly players movement speed within 10 yards by 40% for 6 sec.
• Wild Mushroom
  11% of base mana 40 yd range
  0.5 sec cast
  Grow a magical Mushroom with 5 Health at the target location. After 6 sec, the Mushroom will become invisible. When detonated by the Druid, all Mushrooms will explode dealing 650 to 786 damage to all nearby enemies within 0 yards. Only 3 Mushrooms can be placed at one time.

  Use Wild Mushroom: Detonate to detonate all Mushrooms.

• Wild Mushroom: Detonate
  40 yd range
  Instant 10 sec cooldown
  Detonates all of your Wild Mushrooms, dealing 650 to 786 Nature damage to all nearby targets within 0 yards.

I am going to go with the two feral druid moves here, Thrash and Stampeding Roar. Thrash gives ferals an area of effect damage over time move. What this means is that druids will be able to run into a group of players, and everyone within 8 yards gain a damage over time debuff on them, and will tick for bleed damage every three seconds (and bleed damage can be difficult for opponents to negate).

Stampeding Roar is equally as impressive, as it could be used either offensively or defensively. It can be used to have a group of players charge in on the enemy quickly, or to escape. Word is that feral druids are among the most powerful classes at the moment, so are sure to see arena strategies develop around this move.

Hunter

• Cobra Shot Level 85
  40 yd range
  1.5 sec cast
  Requires Ranged Weapon
  Deals weapon damage plus (276 + (RAP * 0.017)) in the form of Nature damage and increases the duration of your Serpent Sting on the target by 6 sec. Generates 9 Focus.
• Call Pet 5
  Instant
  Summons your fifth pet to you.
• Aspect of the Fox
  Instant 1 sec cooldown
  The hunter takes on the aspects of a fox, allowing you to shoot Steady Shot and Cobra Shot while moving and causing you to gain 2 Focus whenever you receive a melee attack.
• Camouflage
  20 Focus
  Instant 1 min cooldown
  You blend into your surroundings, causing you and your pet to be untargetable by ranged attacks. Also reduces the range at which enemy creatures can detect you, and provides stealth while stationary.

  You can lay traps while camouflaged, but any damage done by you or your pet will cancel the effect. Cannot be cast while in combat. Lasts for 1 min.

I am going to go with a tie between Aspect of the Fox, and Camouflage. Aspect of the Fox addresses two of a hunters biggest weaknesses in PvP, their need to stand still while firing some their most important shots, and getting hacked down by melee while doing so. This provides you with 2 more instant shots, and Focus for when you are getting hit by melee for when you must stand still to cast shots.

Camouflage will also be a big help to Hunters in PvP, as it will allow they to get the jump on other ranged classes in PvP. I can see this being a big advantage for them at the start of an Arena when facing off against ranged clothies, such as a Warlock or Mage. While in this camouflaged state, you will also be able to invisibly set traps, and maneuver your pet into position.

Mage

• Flame Orb
  6% of base mana 40 yd range
  Instant cast 1 min cooldown
  Launches a Flame Orb forward from the Mage’s position, dealing 228 Fire damage every second to the closest enemy target for 15 secs.
• Ring of Frost
  7% of base mana 30 yd range
  Instant cast 2 min cooldown
  Summons a Ring of Frost, taking 3 sec to coalesce. Enemies entering the fully-formed ring will become frozen for 10 sec. Lasts 12 sec. 10 yd radius.
• Teleport: Tol Barad
  8% of base mana
  10 sec cast
  Reagents:
  Rune of Teleportation
  Teleports the caster to Tol Barad.
• Time Warp
  26% of base mana
  Instant cast 5 min cooldown
  Warp the flow of time, increasing melee, ranged, and spell casting speed by 30% for all party and raid members. Lasts 40 sec.

  Allies receiving this effect will become unstuck in time, and be unable to benefit from Bloodlust, Heroism, or Time Warp again for 10 min.

On to the Mage. These are the most exciting changes for me, as I’ll be playing resurrecting my Mage for Cataclysm. I will mainly be doing 3v3 Arenas with a comp dubbed Shatterplay (Shadow Priest, Restoration Druid, and Frost Mage), with Jon playing the Druid. They have three new useful moves, the best being Ring of Frost, with Time Warp coming in at a close second.

Ring of Frost is essentially an area of effect Frost trap. Even better though, because it triggers on enemies within a 10 yard radius. Healer hiding behind a Pillar? Ring of frost him out, so he is forced either be trapped for 12 seconds, or to come in line of site of frostbolts and mind blasts. Moreover, it’s on a 2 minute cool down, so you will likely be able to use this twice in most arena matches.

Timewarp is also amazing, and will let team comp’s that were reliant on a Shaman’s Heroism/Bloodlust, to be viable with other healers. This is the main reason Shatterplay is now viable a Druid now, because a lot of Season 8 comp’s relied on a Shaman’s Heroism/Bloodlust 30% increased casting time for 40 seconds to set up kills. This lets the Mage barrage a frozen enemy even quicker with crit frostbolts and icelances, and allows a Shadow Priest’s dots and mind flays to tick even faster.

Paladin

• Inquisition
  Instant
  Consumes all Holy Power to increase your Holy Damage by 30%. Lasts 4 sec per charge of Holy Power consumed.
• Holy Radiance
  40% of base mana
  Instant cast 1 min cooldown
  Heals all friendly targets within 0 yards for up to 683 every sec, with effectiveness diminishing on targets farther than 8 yards away and for each additional player target beyond 6. Lasts 10 sec.
• Guardian of Ancient Kings
  Instant 5 min cooldown
  Select a talent specialization in order to activate Guardian of Ancient Kings.

  Holy: Heals nearby wounded targets, preferring the ones with lowest health.
  Protection: Reduces damage taken.
  Retribution: Attacks nearby enemies (like Summon Gargoyle).

• Word of Glory Level 85
  40 yd range
  Instant
  Consumes all Holy Power to heal a friendly target for 2018 to 2248 per charge of Holy Power.

Word of Glory seems to be the best of the bunch. With the new Holy Power mechanic added to Paladins, certain spells (Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous, and Holy Shock) will build a charge of Holy Power with each application, stacking up to 3 times. This gives Holy Paladins another instant heal to use along with Holy Shock, and it will not consume any mana.

I played a Holy Paladin in arena’s not to long ago, and I know how frustrating it can be when Holy Shock is on cool down, and you are forced to spam flash of light to keep someone alive, which leaves you sitting out in the open subjected to spells and melee attacks. This spell will help to keep Holy Paladin’s more mobile in PvP.

Priest

• Mind Spike Level 85
  12% of base mana 40 yd range
  1.5 sec cast
  Blasts the target for 1083 to 1143 Shadowfrost damage, but extinguishes your shadow damage-over-time effects from the target in the process.

  Mind Spike also increases the critical strike chance of your next Mind Blast on the target by 30%. Stacks up to 3 times.

• Inner Will
  Instant
  A burst of Holy energy fills the caster, reducing the mana cost of instant cast spells by 15% and increasing your movement speed by 10%. Lasts 30 min.
• Leap of Faith
  13% of base mana 40 yd range
  Instant cast 1.5 min cooldown
  You pull the spirit of the friendly party or raid target to you, instantly moving them directly in front of you.

I played a priest in Vanilla WOW and TBC, and I’d say the new priest abilities are a mixed bag. Mind Spike is highly situational, as it gets rid of a shadow priests mainstay damage, which are their three damage over time spells. It has some potential synergy with Paralysis, a high end shadow talent (immobilizes the target for 4 seconds after you crit a mind blast), but this requires 4.5 seconds uninterrupted casting for three MInd Spike’s to stack(bumping your crit chance to 90% with mindblast), and 1.5 sec to cast for a Mindblast (of which you can get 2 off while the Mind Spike debuff stays up). This amount of time is not always available in a PvP Scenario.

Inner Will seems to have potential, but you will have to give up the 10% armor and spell power bonus from Inner FIre to use it. However, the 10% increase to run speed and instant casts seems very suitable to a PvP environment. Leap of Faith, or “Lifegrip” (since it similar to a DK’s deathgrip) will be great for Discipline Priests who are healing in BG’s and Arena’s. It should have a 45 second cool down, as I believe 1.5 minutes is too long. I think it should also be a Discipline school spell so that Shadow Priests are able to use it without dropping Shadowform.

Rogue

• Combat Readiness
  Instant 2 min cooldown
  Enter into a state of heightened awareness, deflecting enemy weapon strikes with increasing effectiveness. Successive attacks will deal 10% less damage per application, stacking 5 times. Lasts for 30 sec, but if 6 sec elapse without any incoming weapon strikes, this state will end.
• Redirect
  40 yd range
  Instant 1 min cooldown
  Transfers any existing combo points to the current enemy target.
• Smoke Bomb
  Instant 3 min cooldown
  Creates a cloud of thick smoke in a 8 yard radius around the Rogue for 10 sec. Enemies are unable to target into or out of the smoke cloud.

Redirect takes the cake here, as it’s pretty powerful for a one minute cool down move. With all the switches that occur in PvP, it will be nice for rogues to be able to conserve their combo points every once and awhile. This will enable them keep up their damage where it needs to be, while allowing them to use their finisher’s in stride.

Redirect seems a little underpowered since its a 2 minute cool down, and can be negated by when the opponent sees it pop, and backs off. Smoke bomb is great, and will give the rogue a leg up on ranged attackers, such as Elemental Shaman, Shadow Priests, Mages, Warlocks, Balance Druids, and Hunters. Rogues sometimes have a hard time against ranged targets when all their cooldowns are popped, and this will allow them to regroup in the position they are already in, rather than having to run away.

Shaman

• Unleash Elements
  7% of base mana 40 yd range
  Instant cast 15 sec cooldown
  Focuses the elemental force imbued in the Shaman’s weaponry, with the concentrated effects depending on the enchantment unleashed.

  See individual weapon imbue spell tooltips for details regarding the effects of unleashing each.

• Unleash Earth
  100 yd range
  Instant 15 sec cooldown
  Unleashes the Rockbiter enchantment upon the Shaman’s weapon, forcing the target enemy to attack the Shaman for 5 sec.
• Unleash Flame Level 85
  100 yd range
  Instant 15 sec cooldown
  Unleashes the Flametongue enchantment upon the Shaman’s weapon, dealing 1023 to 1211 Fire damage to target enemy and increasing the damage dealt by the Shaman’s next Fire spell by 20%.
• Unleash Frost Level 85
  100 yd range
  Instant 15 sec cooldown
  Unleashes the Frostbrand enchantment upon the Shaman’s weapon, dealing 807 to 937 Frost damage to a target enemy and reducing their movement speed by 50% for 5 sec. Increased in effectiveness if the target is already afflicted by a movement-slowing Frost effect.
• Unleash Life Level 85
  100 yd range
  Instant 15 sec cooldown
  Unleashes the Earthliving enchantment upon the Shaman’s weapon, healing a friendly target for 1916 to 2074 and increasing the effect of the Shaman’s next direct heal by 20%.
• Unleash Wind
  100 yd range
  Instant 15 sec cooldown
  Requires Melee Weapon
  Unleashes the Windfury enchantment upon the Shaman’s weapon, dealing 125% of weapon damage to the target enemy and increasing the Shaman’s melee attack speed by 40% for the next 6 swings or until 12 sec have elapsed.
• Healing Rain
  46% of base mana 30 yd range
  2 sec cast 10 sec cooldown
  Calls forth healing rains to blanket the area targeted by the Shaman, restoring 690 to 820 health to allies in the area every 2 sec for 10 sec. Healing effectiveness diminishes for each player beyond 6 within the area.
• Spiritwalker’s Grace
  12% of base mana
  Instant cast 2 min cooldown
  Calls upon spiritual guidance, permitting movement while casting non-instant Shaman spells. This spell may be cast while casting other spells. Lasts 10 sec.

Healing Rain seems like the most impressive new Shaman ability. It’s a modified Tranquility, where the healing increases the closer you are to the shaman. Despite the high mana cost, it will be virtually spammable in dire situations, as you can have your BG partners or Arena team members stack up on top of each other for maximum healing. Spirtwalker’s Grace will very useful all shaman’s, providing them with all the utility of their moves while on the run, albeit pursuing the enemy or escaping.

Warlock

• Fel Flame Level 85
  6% of base mana 40 yd range
  Instant cast
  Deals 221 to 255 Shadowflame damage to an enemy target, increasing the duration of Immolate or Unstable Affliction by 6 sec. The ability uses green fire.
• Dark Intent
  6% of base mana 30 yd range
  Instant cast
  Requires Metamorphosis
  You link yourself with the targeted friendly target, increasing both of your haste by 3%.

  When you or the linked target gains a critical periodic damage or healing effect, the other gains an increased 3% increased periodic damage and healing lasting for 7 sec. Stacks up to 3 times. Dark Intent lasts for 30 min.

• Demon Soul
  15% of base mana 100 yd range
  Instant cast 2 min cooldown
  Requires Metamorphosis
  You and your summoned demon fuse souls, granting the Warlock a temporary power depending on the demon currently enslaved.
• Imp – Critical Strike damage on cast time Destruction spells increased by 60% for 30 sec. Each spell cast benefitting from this effect reduces the bonus by 20% until the bonus expires after 3 casts.
• Voidwalker – All threat generated by you transferred to your Voidwalker for 15 sec.
• Succubus – Shadow Bolt damage increased by 10% for 20 sec.
• Felhunter – Periodic shadow damage increased by 20% for 20 sec.
• Felguard – Spell haste increased by 15% and fire and shadow damage done increased by 10% for 20 sec.

Fel Flame is the best new Warlock Spell. “The ability uses green fire”, is the most important part, since locks having been asking for green fire since Vanilla WOW. It also renews the duration of an Affliction lock’s most important damage over time spell (unstable affliction), and a Destruction lock’s most important damage over time spell (Immolate). Moreover, it does not have a cooldown, so it is spammable for when your in between DOT rotation, and do not have time to stand and cast.

Warrior

• Colossus Smash Battle, Berserker Stance
  20 Rage Melee Range
  Instant 20 sec cooldown
  Requires Melee Weapon
  Requires Battle Stance, Berserker Stance
  Smashes a target for 150% weapon damage plus 120 and weakens their defenses, allowing your attacks to entirely bypass their armor for 6 sec.
• Inner Rage
  Instant 1.5 sec cooldown
  Usable when you have over 75 Rage to increase all damage you deal by 15% but increase the rage cost of all abilities by 50%. Lasts 15 sec.
• Heroic Leap
  8 – 40 yd range
  Instant 1 min cooldown
  Leap through the air towards a targeted location, slamming down with destuctive force to deal (1 + 0.5 * AP) damage on all enemies within 8 yards.

I played a Warrior in Vanilla WOW, and all these three moves seem to address their weaknesses. Inner rage and Heroic Leap are tied for the best new move in my opinion. As a warrior, there are times you become rage capped in PvP, with no outlet for the excess rage. Inner Rage addresses this by giving you the trade off of 15% more damage, while making your moves cost 50% more rage. With no cool down, this can be used whenever you need it.

Heroic Leap addresses mobility concerns that warriors sometimes have. When charge and intercept are on cool down, this will allow you a third option. It also does not appear to be restricted by stance like charge and intercept, so it can be used in emergencies to get to a target quickly.

Questions or Comments? Drop me a line, Jake@mogs.com. I will be sure to update everyone on the status of my Arena team, once the Arena season starts. Happy grinding to 85 everyone!!”

DEATHWING IS COMING!

When Cataclysm is launched it seems our old friend Deathwing has crossed planes and is now going to wreck havoc on anything and everything that stands in his path. Every day Deathwing is going to pick a random zone in all of Azeroth and torch the entire land peroidically killing everything in his wake. If killed by Deathwing you’re rewarded with an achievement, a repair bill and a corpse run.

So if your grinding our your new Goblin or Worgen and the sky turns dark above you, you’ve chosen the wrong zone to level in for the day, and you’ll be as good as burnt toast, although you will gain a Feat of Strength achievement for your troubles. Luckily this isn’t a permanent event, this will stay in effect until patch 4.xx? which will allow us to finally down the damned dragon for all the times he’s going to roast our new toons.

Jon@MOGS

Warcraft Gets New Talent Trees in 4.0.1

With Patch 4.0.1 around the corner, there’s going to be some significant changes in this patch that’s prepping us for Cataclysm. The most noticeable change is they are completely redoing the talent trees.

We’re now back to Vanilla WoW’s 31 point talent trees. Of course they added a whole new twist . Each talent tree getting it’s own moves and buffs specific to that tree. They took out all of the “fluff” talents and made each one unique and useful in it’s own way. This hopefully preventing the cookie cutter builds of today’s talent trees from occurring again.

MMO-Champion came out with the new class talent calculator and you can preview it all here.

I’m personally stoked for the new changes. I miss the old basic talent trees. I remember when they first came out with the 41 point trees I felt overwhelmed with options. Then cookie cutter builds became the only real way to play the class. I think this will be a success and allow them to balance the class specs easier.

Jon@MOGS

Flexible Raid System in 4.0.1

A recent blue post ¹ explained the new raiding system for Cataclysm. They are obtaining a new philosophy on raiding that “that the size of your raiding group should be a choice based solely on what’s more fun and enjoyable for you, and that you should not have to complete the same raiding content twice in a week to maximize your character’s progression”

With the new Flexible Raid Lock System, instead of being locked to a specific raid group and size you will now be able to mix and match raid groups throughout the week to complete your weekly raid lockout. For example; if you killed the first boss of Ruby Sanctum on 10 man and they wiped repeatedly on the second boss, you could continue the raid in another 25 man or 10 man group as long as the first boss is down. Or continue onto Zarithrian with a group that has already cleared the first 2 fights. Although you won’t be ale to go back and fight Baltharus if you were apart of the group killing Zarithrian. But you would be able to join other raids for the last two fights.

Heroic raids, however, do not follow this same formula. You can only complete a Heroic raid with the same specific group that started it. Although you can join another group and finish the raid on normal mode for the bosses you missed out on in Heroic.

This new system will streamline the old Raid system and will allow people to raid in the group sizes they enjoy most. But I fear this may bring a decline in 25 man raiding. But only time will tell and may the hardcore keep 25 man Heroic raiding alive.

1. source: MMO-Champion Blue Tracker  ↩