Ambril the Mage

How Much Spirit Would it Take?

2007-09-24T00:02:00.000-07:00

I've been a pretty busy little mage as of late, hence the lack of time for my blog here, so I thought I'd get things rolling with something from awhile back (from something I posted in the Avalon guild forums) that never made it into my space here.

Namely, I was interested in the current state of spirit, it's usefulness to a mage and how it has scaled under the common circumstances of 25-man raiding of today. Mages are known for their lengthy and obsessive theorycrafting over dps, but I feel that they do so to the detriment of taking near as much time to consider and understand mana regen as well.

An average mage of today has around 200 spirit (which may or may not be even a noticable improvement over what we had at level 60), even though everything else has scaled upwards (in some cases rather dramatically) since then. This is not the fault of mages however, as much as it is itemization decisions Blizzard has made that have punished mages.

In the interest of trying to finger at what point spirit-based in combat mana regen will allow a mage (like myself) to be self-sufficient independently of shadow priest support, I posed the question. Initial estimation pointed towards 1700 spirit being the point at which I could simply cast fireball over and over without going out of mana. In fact, without my mana bar moving much at all...

Someone else theorized, allowing the mage to actually finish at 0 mana at the 10 minute mark (effectively making them perfectly tuned for maximum sustained dps over the length of an SSC-level fight, provided all bosses in SSC were Golemagg ~ haha) brings that figure down to roughly 1100 spirit ~ still not allowing for the use of Mana Pots, which I suspect would bring that down to about 700-800 spirit, but that's just a ballpark guess. And again, this would be for a fully sustained fight, with no interrupts, which no longer exist.

Still unrealistic, I know, but it provides a workable upper end for figuring out where the potency/quantity of spirit for a mage needs to be.

Next I was interested in finding out just how long my present mana pool can last... I could have just done a Dr. Boom test and found out in 5 minutes, but it seemed important to factor in full raid buffs, since no one really cares how long you can last unbuffed.

Factoring in:*219 unbuffed spirit (my current *at the time of the calculation)
*Mage Armor
*Divine Spirit
*Arcane Intellect
*Blessing of Kings
*Blessing of Wisdom
*Well Fed +20 spirit
*Evocation with Staff of Divine Spirit and Flawless Wand of Spirit swapped in
*Elixir of Draenic Wisdom
*Super Mana Potions
*Mana Emerald, Ruby, Citrine, Jade (didn't last long enough to use the Jade though)

During hard 100% sustained nuking (scorch+fireball), breaking only to use Evocation and allowing for some latency, the point at which I ran out of means to replenish mana (ie. all cooldowns were down) and went effectively OOM was 5 minutes 48 seconds.

Ick, I know. I was about a minute shy of my mana pot cooldown coming up. It's also not a realistic boss scenario either.

My mana returns over this time, from various sources:

Mage Armor: 4623 mana
Blessing of Wisdom: 2747 mana
Clearcasting: 4800 mana (not spent at all, subject to considerable variance over such a short period of time)
Master of Elements: 4611 mana (subject to considerable variance over such a short period of time)
Mana Potions: 7200 mana (subject to a small amount of variance)
Mana Gems: 3200 mana (subject to very little variance)
Evocation: 7035 mana

Unfortunately, the only two ways to effectively improve any of these figures (most of them simply don't get better, short of casting lower dps, but more mana efficient spells a la Scorch) is via spell crit or spirit. Now as much as I'd like to say, double my spell crit, I'm not really sure that's going to happen. All it would have taken is a small boost in one area to get me over that hump to the next mana pot cooldown, and I would last upwards of 2 minutes longer.

So we have the current reality, somewhere in the ballpark of 200ish spirit and the magical wonderland where we have 700-800 spirit and all problems are solved. There has to be a better, more ideal place in the middle somewhere ~ perhaps even solved by Blizzard doubling either the amount or effectiveness of spirit. Even though I scoffed at the idea of that being enough earlier, it might not be that bad...

2007-08-13T23:42:00.000-07:00

On mages and shadow priests

2007-08-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

Wanted to hang on to this thought:

There is definitely a ceiling to the amount most classes can benefit from a shadow priests' mana regen, since a strong shadow priest can literally return mana as fast or faster than some classes need to spend it. In that case, all a shadow priest is really doing is making life easier and saving them a few coins in mana pots, etc.

Mage is really the only class to my knowledge capable of ratcheting up their mana expenditure in exchange for performance at a level that can easily exceed a strong shadow priest's mana return. Since that is the case (to such a remarkable level), it doesn't seem as though it even matters if shadow priests get nerfed or mage mana regen gets buffed, there will always be a direct and noticeable correlation between what a shadow priest does and a marked improvement of mage performance. Needless to say, as long as Arcane Blast exists, shadow priests will not be out of a job in the raid environment any time very soon (even if bringing a shadow priest means taking one less mage), since a shadow priest might have to return upwards of 10K mana each minute in order to reach the maximum rate at which a mage can dump it.

http://forums.subcreation.net/viewtopic.php?pid=37788

In a Name

2007-08-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

I know that sometimes I post ZOMG game design or whatever, but essentially I think of this blog as mostly a respository for random thoughts and insights that I am able to assume that no one really cares too heavily about. It's vanity, essentially. As well as a space to not really bother anyone. I honestly am not particularly concerned if it is ever heavily read or not. Just random thoughts projected out into teh internets. I'm sure at some point I'll start talking about my cat.

Since afterall, that's what the internet is truly for. A place for random people to talk about their cats.

I'm not really sure where I came up with the name Ambril. All I know, is that I did in fact dream it up myself sometime, long ago. I suppose I thought of it as a logical hybrid of the names Amber and April, two names I've always sort of liked.

With the appearance of internet search engines came the realization (unsurprisingly) that the name actually existed, in the form of a character on Dr. Who. Huh. I've never particularly been a big fan of hard sci-fi at all and particularly not weird British ones on PBS, so that came as news to me.

Looks like it is also now the name of some sort of pharmaceutical as well. Sheesh. I'm not sure if it's a "good" drug or not. Probably just something for old people.

Not that I have anything against old people. Old people are fine. L2P.

I can only take the satisfaction that somehow (and I'm not even remotely sure how), I've managed to totally trump those other two Ambrils on a Google search.

In your face! hehe

This only leaves the mystery of who this Kash Ambril fellow is. Or Bambam Ambril, for that matter. Oh well.

Addendum to the Previous

2007-07-28T23:54:00.000-07:00

I do understand that on the 2.1 PTR, Blizzard toyed around with a re-allocation of the stat budgetting for epic tailored gear. A "nerf". It really wasn't a nerf, simply a rebalancing of what the items were (a lightening of the +damage components in favor of other nifty stats such as... more than zero stamina), but not surprisingly, many tailors were outraged about the proposed changes. I can see their point, to a degree, but I can also see the point of Blizzard wishing to make the change (as explained below). Personally, I think the "nerfed" versions were essentially what they should have been in the first place. But it was too late and Blizzard was damned if they do and damned if they don't. Oh well.

How I Hate to Love my Spellfire

2007-07-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

Every so often (as in, a couple times a day) on the Mage forums you will find a post like this one. "Should I get Spellfire?" The answer to this is invariably a universal "Yes". One which I would be inclined to echo, unless the player were principally a PVPer. It doesn't mean that I am without reservation regarding the tailored set, however.

The Spellfire set (as well as the Frozen Shadowweave set) follow a principle laid out by the epic tailoring robes at level 60 ~ Robe of the Archmage and Robe of the Void, respectively. These items were lean on stats but the best thing going in respects to spell damage enhancement on a chest piece at early end game. Not many people ever crafted and wore them (I only ever recalled like, 3 mages including myself on Aerie Peak who wore RotAm), but those who knew well enough to actually make and wear them invariably had a leg up on heading into ZG or MC and pumping out some of the best damage in the raid (if not *the* best). Similarly, my first epic raid chest upgrades were banked because my crafted robes were "better".

Robe of the Archmage (mage)
+12 Intellect
+40 Spell Damage
+14 Spell Critical Strike Rating
Use: Restores 375 to 625 mana.

Robe of the Void (warlock)
+14 Stamina
+46 Spell Damage
Use: Heals your pet for 450 to 750 health.

When I first noted the epic tailoring patterns in the Burning Crusade, I immediately knew that it was what I would work towards. Afterall, I've always been a tailor (both on my mage and my warlock). I've always gone for the crafted epics. I picked up Spellfire specialization even though I was (and always had been) a deep frost mage, mostly because I felt about ready to give fire a shot, considering I'd no longer be fighting dragons and fire elementals almost exclusively.

An interesting thing happened as I hit 70 and my tailoring reached 375 though... I couldn't do it. I drug my feet respeccing for fire, not only because frost spec is a psychological safety blanket to frost mages as well as because...

It (effectively) has no stamina.
It has no spirit.
It has very little intellect.
It is a 3-piece set of all of the above.

The tradeoff of pure performance itemization has always been that you equip them in moderation. But here, they are a set, with a set bonus. The complimentary Spellstrike set is more of the same. Quite simply, I thought it was too much, too lopsided. I felt it was an unwise itemization choice to wear too many pieces like that. I also felt the old vest version of the chest piece was ugly, and as much as I hate to admit it, I don't like wearing ugly pieces. So I sold the Spellcloth I'd saved up on the AH and dropped tailoring for alchemy.

The kicker came later as I was in Karazhan and came to a realization that I felt that mage dps potential simply wasn't what it once was... I wasn't happy with the damage output I was capable of relative to what I expected of myself. I eventually bit the bullet once again and dropped herbalism in order to level tailoring to 375 all over again. Long story short, here I am... deep into the Tier 5 raid instances, working on Lady Vashj and my health and mana pools are lower than they were when I entered Karazhan in 5-man blues. My spirit is about on par with what it was at level 60. The damage is (finally) there, but just about everything else is a little lacking.

The Repercussions of Spellfire

It can probably be said without reservation that Spellfire is a highly questionable itemization choice for a player ~ even though, as I stated above, I will always tell another mage "Yes" if they ask about whether or not they should craft them. Truth of the matter is, we're sort of stuck with it. In some corners, it is considered a requirement for a mage, which only further proves how much of a misstep it was in its conceptualization.

The mage community today has many concerns about the state of mage performance even beyond the state of mage dps. Namely, they have concerns about survivability and mana efficiency. It can be stated pretty well that these problems likely have less to do with ineffective mechanics and more to do with the fact that everyone is running around with gimped stats due to the nature of epic tailoring.

Not only is Spellfire a poor itemization choice, it is a poor choice that is reinforced by other mages and raiding guilds that encourage all mages to make this questionable itemization choice. Why would people pressure players into bad gear choices? Because the current mechanics for mage dps do not support properly budgeted gear. Quite simply, you need this stuff in order to obtain relevant performance. With Spellfire, a mage posts the damage you would expect. For many mages, you need it simply to do your job. At least until your gear becomes relatively advanced. People who chide mages concerns by stating "get some stam gear" or "just get some spirit" aren't entirely grasping the itemization dilemma of the class relative to performance. If mage dps potential were just a little better than it currently is, mages would have more breathing room to make wise itemization choices.

Spellfire may have been the cause for the Co-efficient Nerf

I doubt that I’m the first to say this, but I think that the spellfire set has backfired badly on mages.

In that thread, one mage states that mages are not being forced to be tailors. I have to call this into question, however ~ citing the initial tuning of Level 70 raid instances where Blizzard so much as stated that they felt obligated to assume that raids would be flasked and buffed to the absolute max. They felt they had to do this because players *could* do it. If they didn't, players would trivialize the content by simply bringing more buffs.

Since the precedent is there, it stands to reason that along those same lines of thinking, mage damage has been tuned to account for the idea that many mages would be wearing Spellfire. Interesting that they will not similarly retune other aspects of mage performance around Spellfire, such as mana regen ~ but ultimately, doing so is a bad idea anyway. No class mechanic should ever be tuned according to specific pieces of gear they might obtain. If mage damage output has been retuned (or other classes buffed) relative to Spellfire, then that is a mistake that may not play out today, but will play out down the road, since gear-based performance imbalances come and go as the gear does. Class mechanics do not.

Elixir of Major Firepower Now Less Expensive

2007-07-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

In a notable addendum to this post:

http://ambrilthemage.blogspot.com/2007/05/elixir-of-major-firepower-too-expensive.html

I noticed a couple weeks back that the cost for Elixir of Major Firepower has, in fact, been reduced! Much rejoicing ensued. Relative to the cost in mats for Major Frost Power, the Firepower equivalent now also costs 2 motes of fire, rather than the original 3 motes per elixir.

Yay! I never saw any documentation of this change, but hey, I'm not complaining. :D

These Guys Ain't So Bad

2007-07-10T19:44:00.001-07:00

Not the best composition from a photographer's perspective (I don't like the dead space at the lower right), but I wanted to grab it quick before these guys stopped kneeling before me. :D

The fact that these guys seemed to recognize and respond to me while a good distance from the scripted point of quest completion that triggered the event seems to say a lot about Blizzard's scripting. They could have just said "bow in that direction" (which would have been facing the other way), but it appears that they didn't. They appear to actually know who the character(s) who completed the chain are. Or at least that was the impression I got here.

In other news, I can't seem to log on to Aerie Peak right now, which makes me a sad panda. :(

Fireball Wastes Mana Too

2007-07-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

An often cited drawback to the nature of channeled spells such as Arcane Missles or a shadow priest's Mind Flay is that the mana expenditure is up front. Which means, you spend the mana and then have to stay standing in one spot, uninterrupted for x-amount of time in order to reap the full benefits of the mana you just spent on it. (I feel your pain, shadow priests of the world ~ having to rely upon a channeled spell heavily as a source of dps isn't always so hot under a lot of circumstances.)

These days, with fights getting longer and bosses with hit points that measure in the millions, mana efficiency is as big a deal as ever. Which is why it's pretty important to figure out how to maximize not only your damage output, but within the parameters of decent mana management.

An often overlooked aspect of the "nuke"-type spell (one which I'd classify as one with a longish 2+ second cast time followed by a travel time before the damage is inflicted) such as fireball or frostbolt or shadowbolt, is the travel time. People don't think about it. And while I think the overall impact to dps is probably pretty inconsequential and hence the reason why people don't factor it into dps at all, it can have impacts upon mana efficiency, and dps as a result as well. Because of the travel time ~ the hidden factor that does not make it true "direct damage" by at least one definition.

You probably know what I'm talking about. A mob is getting lowish on health, and as you wind up to nuke them down one last time... you cast the spell, and as it leaves your fingers and heads the monster's way... it's health vaporizes from all the focus fire of so many other people pounding away at it and your spell lands with a big thud. Not a biggie. It happens all the time. But what you did just do was spend the mana for a spell that actually got cast, but... didn't do anything. Bye bye 400 mana, or whatever.

Honestly, it happens a lot on trash. And ultimately, who cares if you waste a little excessive mana on trash?? You're just going to sit down for a drink right away anyway.

My point? Well, ultimately not much of one, since I have to admit I'm prone to theorizing about things just for the sake of theorizing about them. Clearly any dps-conscious caster is well aware by the time they reach, say, UBRS that a wasted cast time is wasted dps. My point is that sometimes it is wasted mana as well and not only in the better known circumstance of channeled spells. Where this matters mainly is in that many bosses have adds... and when those adds come it is invariably a mana and time sensitive matter.

I suppose I would propose that another class of offensive spell exists that unlike channeled spells or mid-long cast time nukes offers a failsafe from wasting mana in relatively small windows of opportunity, such as the adds on bosses often present. They would be... "blast" spells, I suppose. Or "burst". Arcane Blast, Fire Blast, Mind Blast, Scorch, Shadowburn, you know, those spells. The beautiful thing about them is that they are the class of spell that does not pay mana up front before the damage is done. True "direct damage". They are light-weight, quick spells that pack a wallop without any travel time and are incapable of wasting your mana (even if their DPM ranges from great to highly debatable). I like that. :)

Unravelling the Mystery of what happened to Frostbolt

2007-07-04T16:33:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not know (or care), I am a longtime deep frost mage who recently abandoned frost to go fire. I have some pretty fond memories of running around pew-pewing things with my frostbolt and racking up some relatively serious dps in the process. In fact, there was no way of second guessing the potency of deep frost once upon a time. If you didn't think frost could pump out some big damage, I like to think I could have shown you otherwise. Once upon a time.

Things changed though. I believe I've posted at some time about my feelings of distress and disappointment upon reaching level 70 and boggling over how little my damage output had improved over the course of the 10 levels from 60. I never really did any hard math to figure it out... I didn't need to. I think deep down I had a sense of what was going on, so I simply left it behind and moved on.

If I had to look back upon it now and figure out what exactly went wrong with the spec, it might include the following points, what I'd regard as the "truth" regarding what happened to frost:

1. Frostbolt Rank 11 was "Uber"
This was by design. Rank 11 was the rank of Frostbolt that pre-2.0 could only be learned from a tome drop off bosses in Ahn'Qiraj 20. I had the fortune, as a raiding mage, to obtain this about the second week after the AQ gates were opened on the server. I got pretty used to it too. The fact was, it was meant to seem overpowered by design and it is easy to forget that if you'd used it for a long time.

When the 2.0 patch came along however, it became trainable to all mages, so everyone should have had it in the short interim before the expansion came out. Upon reaching level 63 when rank 12 became trainable, the scaling of rank 12 seemed comparatively vanilla since it was in-line with the scaling of ranks 1-10, not rank 11. Again, this was by design and not a mistake, even though it did make rank 12 appear weak.

An important thing to keep in mind is that the spells at a mage's disposal today are normally scaled ones, not the "overpowered" ones available to mages in post-AQ level 60 Azeroth.

2. Spell Damage Coefficients dictate how much damage a spell does far more than base damage does
This is a tricky statement. But I believe it's true. Afterall, if you look at the base damage of Frostbolt rank 13 and think that it actually does 597-643 damage then you're sorely mistaken. My rank 1 Frostbolt also does a heck of a lot more than 18-20 points of damage, make no mistake. This would seem to become increasingly true as the amount of +spell damage that can be acquired via gear gets higher and higher. The amount of damage any spell does is more dictated by its spell damage coefficient than it is the base damage of the spell or anything else.

Where does this leave Frostbolt as spell damage scales upwards and upwards? Not in a good place, really. At least not as a direct damage spell, since unlike Fireball, it is penalized for being a binary spell. In effect, it benefits less from spell damage for no other reason than because it has a slowing effect. As spell damage increases and raid mobs remain largely immune to slowing effects, it will NOT scale properly as a primary raid nuke when compared to Fireball. The differences were negligible at level 60, but this is increasingly not the case.

The only solution is for Blizzard to buff the coefficient of Frostbolt, if they are interested in seeing it remain viable as a high end raid nuke, though there is no indication at this time that they see this as necessary.

A normal 3 second cast time spell has a spell damage coefficient of 85.71%, but the penalized coefficient of Frostbolt at 3 second cast time is 81.4%. At less than +300 spell damage, this is not a big deal. At +600-1000 it starts to show. If spell damage bonuses get to reach amounts of 2-3k, this will be a big, big deal. The price of having a slowing effect on the spell gets more and more expensive as gear scales upwards. It'll be something Blizzard will probably have to look into at some point in time.

3. The -10% Spell Coefficient Nerf hurt Frostbolt more than Fireball
This is silly, because Frostbolt was the weaker spell in the first place. The actual penalty is less than -10% straight off the coefficient though, because it never has a 100% coefficient. -10% off less than 100% is less than -10%, afterall.

The primary reason for this as far as I can tell is within the "Empowered" talents, which improve the spell damage coefficients for Fireball and Frostbolt when taken respectively. At 5 ranks, the Empowered Fireball talent improves the coefficient for Fireball by 15% while the similar talent for Frostbolt only improves the coefficient for Frostbolt by 10% with an additional 5% chance to crit. This allows Fireball to actually overcome the nerf (and pick up +crit elsewhere), while the 5 talent points in Empowered Frostbolt just barely removes the nerf (it actually adds +0.9% net benefit to the spell after overcoming the nerf) and only adds some crit to it after that.

Pretty weak.

But 5% to crit is pretty nice too, right?? Not really, since it's scaling we're concerned with here and crit is a notoriously overvalued stat. Percental additions or reductions to the effects of gear on your spells are of paramount importance, since they ensure that gear upgrades are actually upgrading your spells... While yes, Frostbolt does benefit from gear upgrades just like everything else, relative to other spells such as Fireball, or even more notably Shadow Bolt (due to the poorly inconsistent application of the mage nuke nerf), your Frostbolts simply aren't upgrading as well...

---------------

Of course, all of this is relative to what your goals are and what your gear level is. Obviously, PVP mages typically have no complaints about frost, since the binary effect of Frostbolt is actually... worth the penalty to damage. I'd say that if Frostbolt is performing well for you, that's great. I'm talking primarily about high performace raid environments. But if you stick around long enough and go through enough gear upgrades, I believe you'll begin to see what I'm saying.

A Tale of Two Servers

2007-06-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to meee! Well, not entirely quite yet. But very soon. The birthday of the server has come to pass as well as my guild's. I consider myself very fortunate, as being in any sort of raiding guild that is older than your toon is, is a blessing invariably. I value stability and loyalty above all else.

I'm still pretty Old School AP, however. I was a reroller from Dragonblight, one of the old launch day servers, where my first and only previous guild had run on hard times. I won't get into the specifics, but it was hard on those of us who were loyal to the guild, and that's all I'll say. Those sorts of things happen ~ it's almost written into WoW lore.

The reason why it is not my mage's birthday quite yet is because my original character on Aerie Peak was actually a rogue! When I first came here, the intent had been to simply scope it out and decide if I was going to want to make a home here for my warlock once transfers opened up. For some reason, I didn't quite grasp just how long the six months it required really is, in game terms. The rogue was a way to pass time, really. My heart was (and still is) in playing a cloth-wearing caster though, so I quickly realized that I just didn't have a strong interest in playing melee. I opted for a mage instead, though the first time I tried playing a mage I hated how frail it was... Having had decent experience playing a warlock, I felt as though I was finally ready for the mage playstyle, and I was right. Nowadays I actually cherish the idea that I'll quickly die if I'm not careful... It's fun. :)

New Gems in 2.1 are the Best Raiding Caster Gems Yet

2007-06-03T05:19:00.001-07:00

While recent aquisitions and changes to the stuff I am wearing recently have allowed me to make some significant improvements to many performance enhancing stats, one thing that I am now finding myself a little hurting for is perhaps the most important one for a raiding mage: spell hit. Quite specifically, I've lost about 40 spell hit rating which amounts to about a loss of 3% to hit with my spells. Some would argue that the amount of other stuff I've gained more than makes up for this and they're most likely right. But it certainly doesn't mean I should neglect that stat. I need to come up with ways to compensate.

All in all, spell hit can be a little lean to come by, mainly because there's a ceiling on how much you can benefit from. Anything more than +16% is completely wasted. Factor in that there are class talents that improve spell hit rating, the need to stack in on gear is lessened even more. Still the fact remains that while fighting a Boss, spell hit alone provides the stiffest penalties or gains, particularly if you a caster who is committed to long cast time nukes. Every time one of my fireballs miss, that is a full 3 seconds of dps completely lost. This can be a big deal on certain boss fights where the amount of time you get to dedicate to dpsing the boss is limited and literally counted in seconds.

One stroke of genius came in the patch in the form of new gems. Specifically, spell hit gems. A sorely, sorely needed addition, particularly now that I really sort of need them.

Great Dawnstone
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31861
+8 Spell Hit Rating
"Matches a Yellow Socket."

Veiled Noble Topaz
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31867
+4 Spell Hit Rating and +5 Spell Damage
"Matches a Red or Yellow Socket."

Now the only question is, when will people start getting their hands on these designs, so I can get my mitts on a couple of them? :)

In the meantime, my dear Quagmirran's Eye (nerfed in the patch anyway) may have to take a backseat to a Scryer's Bloodgem (a compromise I'd been making for the Krosh fight already anyway).

"WoW"

2007-05-31T23:37:00.000-07:00

One of the rare "good" threads on the WoW General Forums asks What Was Your first "Wow" Moment in WoW? (I didn't actually catch this, but caught wind of it via WoWInsider). I suppose I've had quite a few ~ many similar to the ones most often cited. Modest ones, the ones that got you going and kept you going even back before you knew you'd be able to get a mount at level 40.

But in all my time of WoW, and even though I've seen cooler things since (like the AP Eranikus event), there is really the one moment that stands out most for me (and for many other I'm sure), even moreso than the "oh sh!t, what are we gonna do" first peek at Majordomo Executus (which was on the same very late night):

BY FIRE BE PURGED!

(My old warlock on Dragonblight)

One of the best gaming experiences ever right there. :D

Cast Latency

2007-05-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

There has been interesting discussion recently on the mage forums about cast time latency and its impact on dps.

This isn't new knowledge however ~ seasoned casters have known about this for awhile. Basically, there is a point on your casting bar where your spell will finish, but it is sooner than the cast bar tells you and sooner than you are allowed to begin casting the next spell as a result. It is, so far as I can tell, attributable to the lagtime it takes for the castbar to appear and is applicable to essentially all "cast time" situations. Short cast time spells like Scorch or Flash Heal are particularily prone to falling behind over the course of being spammed, as the spell fires so fast that latency sometimes makes it hard for the castbar to keep caught up. I mean, spells are laggy by their very nature. I find knowledge of how this works useful at times as mundane as mounting, where you can start running at mounted speed before your mount is even completely summoned. It's a beautiful thing.

While this knowledge has always had limited application outside of situations that require moving around (like PVP, where you can instinctively begin moving around seemingly before your spell is done casting without cancelling the spell ~ mastery of which is part of what can seperate outstanding from average PVPers - see Vurtne), points have been made of actually using /stopcasting macros to benefit while stationary as well. The Quartz Casting Bar allows one to see exactly how much wasted cast time the cast bar is committing them to, based upon their latency at the time of the cast, as seen in the image below. The section in red at the end of the cast bar is essentially a buffer of lag representing the point at which, the spell will have already completed casting.

Now is /stopcast macroing hax? Not really sure. All it really does is in effect state "No, I'm not going to spend 1.7 seconds to cast a 1.5 second spell." It requires greater concentration to benefit from (since you cannot simply spam your cast button), is prone to mis-clicks that result in cancelled spell casts and even then, players with low latencies will not see much benefit. A poster on the Subcreation forums stated "I don't expect this to get banned, since it would make the game nearly unplayable for Australian players etc." which while a bit of an extreme argument, I think ~ is an interesting highlight of how the performance of our computers and quality of our connections can impact our performance in the game.

Children's Week!

2007-05-22T20:34:00.000-07:00

I told you she is tall. Visual confirmation. ;)

The Women Archmages of Warcraft!

2007-05-18T19:03:00.000-07:00

Considering the prominence of women as Archmages in Warcraft is perhaps more a reflection upon Dalaran than it is anything else, since being named an "Archmage" is a title very specific to prominent members of the Kirin Tor ~ literally, the magocratic governing body of Dalaran. It is mostly political in nature, though it does generally allude to great arcane power as well. As such, Archmages would typically be limited to humans, gnomes and high elves ~ though in WoW currently, only humans are typified as representing Dalaran's leadership in almost every case with prominent exceptions lying amongst the undead, who were afterall once human too and usually also (former) members of the Kirin Tor (ie. Kel'Thuzad) and even then the vast majority of them are men. Blood Elves seem to have their own power structure now, removed completely from Dalaran with titles such as "High Nethermancer" or "High Astromancer" and trolls... well, they're so old, they've never really had any need or use for an orgization like Dalaran. They probably view it as the silly political mess that it is.

A. Lady Jaina Proudmoore
When talking about women Archmages, you would typically only be talking about one person... and that is Jaina Proudmoore. She is the Queen Bee, not only of Theramore or of modern Azerothian women mages but to some degree, of the Alliance as a whole, arguably. Where she lacks in terms of actual armies and people she more than makes up in terms of her aristocratic influence (not only in the Alliance, but the Horde as well) and impact on the recent history of Azeroth. She represents a true figure of leadership amongst the human race, whereas Bolvar in Stormwind isn't a true ruler and the King of Stormwind is... a kid. Not only a prominent member of Dalaran's Kirin Tor magocratic body, she is also of royal lineage to the Island nation of Kul Tiras (which is not currently in WoW, yet) ~ essentially a "Princess" of that nation (placing her in highly influential positions of no fewer than three Alliance "nations" ~ no small feat). Not much in game currently alludes to her true influence over Azeroth short of the coming Battle of Mount Hyjal in which she plays a prominent role, with only one less noteable exception being during "Children's Week" when your orphan asks you to take him to get her autograph ("They say that Lady Jaina Proudmoore in Theramore is one of the greatest heroes the Alliance has ever had. When I grow up, I wanna be a hero of the Alliance too!"). Don't be fooled! When you get her autograph, keep it for yourself! ;)

Apparently, in Mount Hyjal her towering presence is quite literal, as I hear she's literally like 10 feet tall. But it isn't even that different from her embodiment in Theramore. If you go back to her there sometime, take note ~ she is as tall as a night elf, if not a little taller! She is also an "Epic" quality/rarity card in the Warcraft TCG, which I am proud to say I received from Zanzola as a birthday present (even though I've never bothered to actually play the TGC). :D

B. Archmage Angela Dosantos
Angela is probably most noted as the "Watcher of Atiesh" and a member of the Brotherhood of Light, the secretish sect of the Argent Dawn associated with combatting Kel'Thuzad. In game terms, she is the person who provides attunements for entrance into Naxxramas and can be found perpetually embroiled in the planning and debating taking place in Light's Hope Chapel. Sadly, her days of prominence in WoW were short-lived, but I still remember you Angela!

C. Archmage Leryda
A high elf Archmage! A first that I can readily think of in WoW. Sadly, not much more is known about her, since not much is known about the Violet Eye in general. Granted, it's a "secret sect" (much like the wizards of Dalaran seem highly predisposed towards forming), but really... they seem little more than a tacked on quest line and as such, I sadly don't find them too compelling personally.

D. "Tabetha"
Maybe you know who she is and maybe you don't... since frankly, if you've never levelled a mage or warlock, there has never been a reason to even know that she exists... Buried deep in Dustwallow Marsh, Tabetha is a hermit who lives in a shack not too far from Onyxia's Lair, far off any well travelled path and very close to areas that pose significant threats to players who would otherwise be trying to adventure there. While she is not an "Archmage" per se, attributable to her apparent lack of association with Dalaran or any other specific faction... the mage and warlock trainers of both Horde and Alliance know of her for some reason and they send you to her (more than once, if you are a mage), where she grants some fairly challenging quests. Fact of the matter is, this mysterious woman is a very powerful magician and everyone seems to know it.

So what's her deal, exactly?

There is no official answer, but I am a believer of a theory that she is in fact, Aegwynn ~ former Matriach/Guardian of Tirisfal, Mother of Medivh, which while not an "Archmage" exactly, implies someone much more ancient and powerful than a simple Archmage... she once vanquished Sargeras, the creator of the Burning Crusade afterall! :O So yeah, if Medivh's dad has kicked your butt recently, you seriously don't want to know what his mom could do to you... Aran was a simple court conjurer afterall (an insecurity he readily admits to during the fight in Karazhan. ie. "I am not some simple jester!", "Yes, yes, my son is quite powerful... but I have powers of my own!" Insecure much??) ~ Medivh's true power came from his mother. Aegwynn still lives in solitude somewhere, whether she is in game or not, and given that her most recent contact was with Jaina, it would stand to reason that Tabetha's proximity to Jaina in Dustwallow would support the idea that this simple hermit is someone much, much more powerful than is readily apparent.

"Honestly, they don't teach you young mages anything these days. Violet Citadel's gone to pot, and that's the truth." - Aegwynn (to Jaina)

ZOMG

2007-05-16T23:24:00.000-07:00

Netherspite Will be Easier after the Patch

2007-05-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

I'm hesitant to really call what is happening to the Netherspite fight as a "nerf", since it is more than that ~ the fight is being restructured to a degree that will literally change the way many guilds fight it. The PTR Patch 2.1.0 Notes had this much to say about changes to Netherspite:

Netherspite's room now has a door.

Whether or not the door locks (I am assuming that it would/should), it still has a crippling effect on a popular strategy of many guilds and strategy guides which involves literally leaving the room to get out of LOS of its Netherbreath during phase 2. The initial impression of this change is that while arguably easier fights like Aran and Illhoof are being nerfed, Netherspite of all things will become harder. Can we be reading this right??

The other significant change to the fight is this:

Netherspite will no longer cast Nether Burn while crazed.

But what does that mean exactly? Judging by the verbiage used in various strategies regarding the fight, the nearest thing resembling a craze would be the enrage phase at the 9 minute mark, where he deals 400% damage and (presumeably) wipes the raid off the face of the earth. But what would be the point of removing Netherburn from that? Is it going to save anyone from doom at that point? Is it even necessary? Does the raid at that point deserve a chance? Does this constitute the "re-design" Tigole referred to here: "We're in the process of re-designing the encounter. Certain aspects of the fight will remain in place. But expect a lot of changes to the encounter. "

If you've had the pleasure (or displeasure, depending on how you feel about the fight) of engaging Netherspite you might remember that the beginning of phase 2, referred to as the "Banish" phase by fan sites, there is a message: "Netherspite goes into a Nether-fed Rage." Nether-fed rage is sometimes referred to (confused with??) the 9-min "It's over, GG" enrage, but phase 2 quite clearly is called Nether-fed rage too. So in spite (no pun intended) of the mis-synch of verbiage between Blizzard and fan sites, the implication is that the Netherburn is most likely being removed from Phase 2. The part where people used to leave the room. People perhaps overlooked this note, but it's probably the single biggest nerf being applied to Karazhan in the patch.

Because even though strategy guides go to extensive lengths to crit you with blocks of text regarding the beams, they are easy. The deal breaker regarding Netherspite constitutes one easily looked over sentence:

Nether Burn: Aura type spell, Deals 1200 shadow damage every 5 sec, affected by line of sight. Not much can be done against this ability, but to heal through it.

That is basically what kills you. And it is being removed from a third of the duration of the fight ~ an amount equalling upwards of 72k (if unmitigated) of raid damage removed from each Banish phase.

Sure, it means you'll have to stay in the room now, and the Netherbreath is pretty nasty, right? Well, it was, while compounded with the constant Netherburn that assured you were almost never at full health. But 4k really isn't that bad since it does less damage than the person in the blue beam is taking every 5 seconds after about 45 seconds in the beam. So now, during phase 2:

You are able to bandage immediately without even leaving the room, since Netherburn will not interrupt it.
You are able to continue dpsing him largely unmolested (if you are a caster) during phase 2, at which time he is more succeptable to magic damage.

All the healers have to do is top off the raid and no one will die to Netherbreath. DPS is more sustained and he will die faster as a result. The only sticking point is the Threat-wipe at the end of phase 2. Guilds should be used to this sort of thing by now, however ~ even though overzealous dps and mountains of DOTs are always a potential concern when a raid monster wipes its aggro.

This is of course assuming that I'm foreseeing this correctly. There may be undocumented changes to the fight as well. We're just going to have to wait and see what tricks Netherspite 2.1.0 holds for us. :)

Elixir of Major Firepower Too Expensive

2007-05-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

This isn't really new news. I specifically chose to be a Scryer most specifically so that I could learn to make the Elixir of Major Firepower for myself, but the sad thing is, I rarely ever even use it. Why is this? Simply because it is too expensive to make. I do use a firepower elixir, but it is the Greater Elixir of Firepower. The level 60 version. Obviously, the Scryer's version is more powerful and the duration is twice as long, but is it really worth it? Well, I've made the decision that under most circumstances it is not. The duration is irrelevant since most elixirs are really only practical/needed as some measure of helping to avert a wipe, where a wipe is possible (ie. boss fights). Under these circumstances, an elixir is quite often unlikely to make it to the 30 minute mark, much less an hour. So what you really have is one elixir that gives 25 more spell damage (in it's current pre-alchemy nerf form) at a ridiculously higher price.

The major sticking point is this... 3 motes of fire for a single Major Firepower pot. To be perfectly honest, this kind of sucks. Fire elementals are a major headache to farm as a fire mage before you even consider how overfarmed they are by a wide array of classes for various crafting reasons, the low number of spawns available in farmable areas and the annoyingly low drop rate of the motes. I prefer to buy them (which further explains my reluctance to use this pot), which average about 6g for 3 motes, at a "good" price. Even before considering the other mats, in a situation where you are trying to learn new bosses, you are dropping upwards of 8g per wipe on this elixir alone.

Sort of trivializes the much bemoaned repair costs, doesn't it? All this stuff can add up (which is why I'm glad for the coming changes).

By comparison, for a single Greater Firepower pot (which I buy all of the mats for off the AH), it will cost me about 30 silver on Firefin Snapper and 45 silver on Firebloom to make an elixir with over 2/3rds the potency of the Scryer version that costs around 8 gold in mats to make. The Elixir of Major Firepower simply isn't worth it in any situation where you anticipate it might take more than one or two attempts to kill a boss and considering that I like to carry 10-20 of any given elixir on me at all times, the price disparity is simply too much for someone who likes to be prepared at all times.

By comparison, those who use the frost and shadow magic equivalents are much better off, as they are simply less expensive (the frost one only takes 2 motes of water instead of 3 and the shadow one does not require any motes of anything and are oddly cheaper/easier to make than the old level 60 equivalent, which was admittedly too expensive as well). Come the patch, Adept's Elixir may very well become the way to go, for me personally. It's a good potion at a reasonable price.

Little Known Drawback to Playing a Mage

2007-04-28T23:47:00.000-07:00

Frequently killing monsters in places where you are unable to loot them:

That Deathsworn had an epic, I just know it!!!

In Netherstorm in particular, I've taken to waiting for monsters to finish traversing ravines and cliffs before finishing them off. It's such an un-even place!

errata

2007-04-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

Addendum to the previous post: it would appear that the Elixir of Empowerment will actually be classified as a 'guardian' elixir? I'm not sure I follow the reasoning behind that since it's only purpose is to help you do more damage, but I'll take it if that's the case.

--------------------------

Ordinarily, something like this wouldn't warrant attention, but it was particularly ridiculous. A level 19 dwarf asking me for gold cited needing money to buy a tabard. But the thing was... he was wearing a tabard at the time. I pointed this out to him and he proceeded to take it off before my very eyes and insist that he wasn't.

Sheesh people. ;)

Elixir of Empowerment

2007-04-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I tried out the Elixir of Empowerment on the Gruul fight and I must say, even though I was too preoccupied with the environment of the fight to give it too much scrutiny, it did seem to possibly help. I mean, obviously it should. Taking into consideration the coming changes to how many elixirs a person can use at a time, it is not worthwhile to think about which elixir is going to help you the most. I think that the obvious thought is to flock to the one that openly states "more damage". But is that really the best choice? How does something like the Elixir of Empowerment truly pan out in comparison?

Elixir of Empowerment
Use: Decreases the magical resistances of your spell targets by 30 for 1 hour.

Blizzard has a way of muddying up the verbiage sometimes where spell benefits are concerned ~ this effect is the same as Spell Penetration you will occasionally see on gear or enchants and helps to negate the 'partial resists' your spells sometimes suffer. Whether or not you can benefit from spell penetration can be determined from what you are seeing when you cast spells at things. If you toss a fireball at a boss and anticipate for it to do 1800 damage, but only 800 damage lands, you just suffered a fairly big partial resist. To this extent, if you are using a damage increasing elixir rather than empowerment, you just tossed a big portion of the benefit your are supposed to be getting out the window.

Fire magic specifically seems to be particularly prone to this vulnerability, since a great many monsters and bosses in WoW seem to come with some measure of fire resistance. One of the hidden benefits of frost has long appeared to be the relative lack of resistance to frost most monsters have. This may change come Serpentshrine Cavern, but to date frost has always typically been pretty good in this respect. From my observations, shadow, arcane and nature magic have tended to fall somewhere in the middle.

The thing is, warlocks have less need for spell penetrating bonuses since their Curse of Shadows includes a fairly large resistance debuff ~ enough so to generally negate the need for any additional help, if they are actually using it. Curse of Elements similarly extends this benefit to mages while using fire or frost spells. (No similar debuff exists for arcane or nature, that I'm readily aware of.) Rank 4 of CoE is nearly three times more effective than the Elixir of Empowerment, just in its resistance debuff alone. Ideally one warlock should put this up on a boss fight (even though warlocks benefit less from it themselves), because it helps the raid succeed. I mean, I guess they do some fire damage too ~ shouldn't forget that.

So if warlocks can significantly decrease the need for spell penetration on a boss fight, then you shouldn't really need it, right? To some degree. You also have to keep in mind that while in a small raid instance such as Karazhan you will often have too few casters of the same type to make the make resist debuff curses seem attractive in comparison to damaging curses. (assumption corrected by David)

So basically, in any situation where you are not seeing partial resists… don't worry about it. But if a boss is shrugging off more damage than you are comfortable with, it is perhaps time to consider losing the Elixir of Major Firepower and popping that Elixir of Empowerment instead.

Chalk One Up for GM Customer Support

2007-04-08T04:18:00.000-07:00

Looking at the picture below of all the griffons, you may note that I am missing my staff. This is of course assuming that you knew or cared that I currently use a staff. In fact, I've always used a staff. I had a fondness for caster swords back when I was playing a warlock (since they were quite hard to come by back then and seemed fitting of a lock), but as a mage I prefer staves. No real reason, it's just my thing.

A few days ago, I had a bit of free time so I decided to take up fishing. I figured maybe someday I could start making some of those tasty Golden Fishsticks for Zan, you know? So I was fishing away over in Goldshire until a friend sent me a tell asking if I would help out in a Sethekk Halls run, to which I of course said yes. I mean, I was just fishing, afterall. I vendored the Brilliant Smallfish in my pack and ported to Shattrath where I eventually noticed to my astonishment that my staff was missing. So yeah, no staff, just this stupid fishing pole. And I had raid in an hour or so. I mean, you can't just show up to a raid equipped with a fishing pole!!! I immediately headed back to Elwynn to check the vendor buyback on the absurd chance I'd vendored it, but porting between Azeroth and Outland swipes the vendor buyback clean, apparently.

I will admit, I was very, very distressed by all this. Sure, my staff isn't some super leet and rare epic or anything, but it's nice and I like it and... it's what I have. So a scramble ensued as I flew to Tanaris to grab the Continuum Blade for the Keepers of Time, since it is passibly decent and I have the rep for it. And of course, I've unwisely failed to obtain a decent Off-hand to store in the bank, so I didn't have an off-hand either. I checked in the AH and let me tell you... the prospects in there for a good off-hand were pretty darn bleak. So I bought something... Non-glorious Off-hand of the Invoker or something (which I am equipped with in the picture below). Oh, and the Sethekk Halls run fell through too, needless to say.

An in-game GM responded to my GM Ticket about my dilemma about an hour and a half later and as luck would have it, he was actually able to recover my lost staff!! The discussion went something to the effect that (we can only do this for a player a limited number of times, would you like for me to attempt to recover this particular item)? To which I of course said yes. I mean, I've been playing this game for about two years and this is the first time I've ever lost something, so I wasn't anticipating having to ask them to do it too often.

Sure enough, in a short period of time, I found that my staff was waiting for me in the mail ~ and here is the kicker (contrary to what I'd ever heard about item restoration), it had my enchant on it! It was awesome. :)

Hi

2007-04-06T16:11:00.000-07:00

So what to say about the World of Warcraft forums… they are an endless source of comedy of various kinds, that much is for sure. I suppose different people read them seeking their entertainment in different ways. Personally, I do not much care about them, but I do read them mostly because I am at work and perhaps being a little lazy. I like to say things when the moment so moves me, but try to keep my hands clean too in order to avoid being baited and trolled by other bored people who are more inherently devious. What fascinates me most are the unique "cultures" that you find amongst them. Different forums have different purposes, and as such, have slightly different "cultures". Overall what you're really getting though, is the 10,000 foot view, at which people lose their individuality in some respects and assimilate into an amorphous mass of raving loonies and crybabies.

Or at least that's how people seem.

It's often noted how it is the sort of environment that can bring out the worst in people. I'm not so sure that's true though… you simply don't really know who they are. One person who seems to be "crying" about something or another may not really be crying, may not be half as bothered as you think they seem. Just for example. The "culture" of players changes when you get into the game itself. Yes, these are the same people ~ but it can be easily said that I can walk through Ironforge or Terrokarr without being assualted by people yelling, screaming and crying or stirring drama. People don't engage in that behaviour half as much as the forums leads one to believe. The people who create real problems really tend to be more of a minority than people begging for money in Stormwind.

Things become even more… reasonable when you get into a guild. Particularly if you ever get on vent with anyone, they become normal people. They have jobs and spouses and responsibilities and things. But if you go back to the forums, to the 10,000 foot view… whoah, things are weird out here.

On a lighter note, here are a couple of the more humorous things I found today:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=93159746&sid=1
Someone in the Mage forum is tired of looking "ridiculous" (his word) because his outfit of miscellaneous epic gear isn't very flattering. Now wasn't there a machinema video with a song where a male (mage) sang about having to wear a dress? It's hilarious though, and true!! I totally want his staff though. He is actually pretty well geared.

The bugs forum has some pretty good stuff if you sift through it. Various bizarre things that happen to people. It can really be pretty funny.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=86708768&sid=1
In this thread, someone has a concern about relogging dismounted while in the air:

Since I hit 70 I've nearly always logged out on my flying mount, straight up from wherever I happened to be.

Two times now I've logged in and found myself dismounted and falling. Being a hunter one of these falls was fatal due to having to fly so damn high to unsummon my pet.

Haha!! I'm sorry, that's just hilarious. :D

Fly the Friendly Skies

2007-04-02T23:38:00.000-07:00

Reason #1 for not taking a level 70 mage to your lower level instance

2007-03-31T14:21:00.000-07:00

An interesting thing happened the other day ~ as I was in Slave Pens assisting a real life friend who had recently transferred a level 60 paladin to Aerie Peak. I was assisting him along with my other real life friend Zanzola as well as knocking out a very old quest in there (it was the 'find the four guys between Slave Pens and Underbog quest ~ that while I had been Slave Pens several times now on Heroic Mode, I simply could never justify asking a heroic group to do the extra clearing to the one guy so I could complete some level 67 quest cluttering up my log book).

We'd picked up two other players, who were both from the same guild and both warriors. Now, before you suspect this is going to turn into some 'OMG this PUG was so bad lol' rant, it isn't. They were pretty nice guys. It might be worth noting that they were levels 64 and 62 though. 62 might have been a bit low, but we had a level 70 mage (me) and a level 70 priest (Zan), so it's all good.

We get late in the instance and on some of the bigger pulls there are these naga who... mind control. Now, I've seen a fair bit of mind control in The Burning Crusade so far. Most notably on the Blackheart the Inciter fight. It's annoying, as all spell casters probably know, because while mind controlled you blow all your mana on the dumbest things. If I had a dime for every time I've just stood in the middle of nowhere casting Blizzard on no one, I'd have like a buck and a half now. I'd have to say that apart from the occastional 6k pyroblast or something, I'm surprisingly harmless while mind controlled most of the time. I'll Icelance you for 200 damage, switch my mage shield spell three times and then bonk you with my staff like a crazy person.

Hilarity ensued when one of these naga mind controlled me and I watched in mild horror as my Arcane Power ability got popped and I proceeded to aoe my poor group of level 62-64 plate wearers for devastating amounts of damage. I was shocked. We're talking 900 points of damage per tick of blizzard on our tank. I quite literally killed the whole group (with the exception of Zan) with a single spell. Our tank laughed it off, as I guess we all did, and told me "You're pretty powerful", which I suppose is not entirely untrue when compared to someone a few levels lower than me... I just wish my spells were nearly that powerful against the monsters! Good lord, haha.

Killers Amongst Us

2007-03-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

I haven't taken the time since the release of the expansion to look at this, but I always find it somewhat amusing and usually full of surprises. If you look here, you'll find a utility on the Blizzard website that allows you to peruse which monsters in the game are killing the most people.

In WoW Vanilla, the results had settled to a point where you could tell what you were going to find. Like, the Defias typically kill more noobs than Ragnaros ever did, on a day to day basis. Other notables include the Gadgetzan Bruisers, who presumably have a history of ripping people up on PVP servers, for ganking too close to town (or in town).

The biggest killer in original WoW (amongst end game bosses) was undisputably Vaelstrasz the Corrupted in Blackwing Lair, which probably comes as no surprise to seasoned raiders. It was a fight that marked a significant milestone for a guild since… he wasn't simply out to kill your raid, he set out to kill your guild. And that he did, historically, on some occasions. He also had a built in aspect whereas the death of members of the raid was unavoidable. People died like clockwork, and that's just how the fight was.

Judging from the past week, here are some highlights of what bosses (specifically, I'm not interested in how many murlocs killed people, though it's amusing) are killing people these days. This isn't a good 'ranking' so much as a sampling of points of interest.

Maiden of Virtue (334,373 player deaths last week)
She definitely appears to be the Queen Killer at this point in time and an indication that the overall progress of WoW players in End Game seem most likely to be stuck at or around her. This surprised me some, since most of the guilds in Karazhan on my server have beaten her. But then, simply because you've beaten her once doesn't mean you won't still face a wipe next time you meet with her. I wouldn't have pegged her as this devastating, but then here the numbers state otherwise. Her deadliest day was Wednesday (players died on her 72k times that day alone).

Romulo & Julianne (191,287 player deaths last week)
This is remarkably high, considering only a third of the players who do the opera event each week get this encounter. Big Bad Wolf killed a comparatively unimpressive 64,267 players.

The Curator (72, 809 player deaths last week)
Surprisingly low, but I've been able to conclude only one reason for this... The adds are killing people, not the boss himself. I forget what the sparkies are named. I'd suspect The Curator is killing nearly as many people as the Maiden, but I can't verify it at the moment.

Shade of Aran (176,351 player deaths last week, excluding deaths attributable to his adds, which would boost this death toll a little higher)
I suspect people would skip him and shoot for Prince Malchezaar, were it not that the doorman offers a port to his room upon his death. Let me say, I really enjoy this fight… But he's no simple squishy, that's for sure. I anticipate his death tolls to rise (potentially to current Maiden of Virtue levels) in the coming weeks, because he's relatively important.

Talon King Ikiss (176,251 player deaths last week)
I was surprised to see that people are having so much trouble with him (I think he got buffed recently?). He has one of the most remarkably high death tolls of all bosses, currently.

Shadow Labyrinth
Grandmaster Vorpil (183,332 player deaths)
Blackheart the Inciter (169,063 player deaths)
Murmur (146,737 player deaths)
Well, the Arcatraz is immeasureably harder ~ but… people don't like it. People seem to LOVE to run the Shadow Labyrinth, which has made it appear to be the biggest death trap in Outland! haha

2007-03-19T23:31:00.000-07:00

What to talk about!

This morning I had it in my mind to talk about Burning Crusade itemization in the 'post-epic' environment and while I feel this is (potentially) a fascinating topic, I eventually just sort of woke up and realized as I sometimes do that things I find of utmost interest while I'm still half asleep seems less so once I've woken up. I suppose I play quite a bit, when 'WoW itemization' is the first thing on my mind when I wake up in the morning. o_O

So yeah, it's been a fairly eventful past few days for me as I've levelled cooking up to 225 and alchemy up to 360 (I just picked it back up) and have radically altered my spec from deep frost to arcane/fire. The change in spec is, of course, a topic I happen to have had a lot of opinions about lately, but I guess I won't talk about it here at this moment since I've spent time talking about it in other channels and fear the redundancy of talking it all out again. I am surprised by how well I'm handling the loss of my 'safety blanket' (ice barrier), but truth is, I always used it far, far more often than I actually needed it.

I am now, however, able to understand how fire mages come to be so partial to it. You have a wider array of spells at your disposal of varying strength and cast time and, well, that's a good thing. You can mix and match, change up the pace of your dps as called for. As a frost mage, it's pretty much just... frostbolt, frostbolt and... frostbolt again for good measure. Tried and true, but perhaps not always enough... The arcane tree (of which I am specced 40 points in now) provides for not only a greater mana pool and mana effeciency, but also the ability to burst hard ~ much harder than deep frost spec really can (arcane/fire and arcane/frost are both good in this respect). With our newly added aggro-wipe ability, speccing for the occasional unbridled threat burst is a little more forgiving, provided one knows well enough to use it wisely ~ or falls upon it in execution range to simply get the kill done (finished off Warp Splinter with an AP/PoM Pyroblast just tonight, as a matter of fact). After that, the only concern is to meter out the use of one's mana enough to last upwards of ten minutes of combat.

Okay, enough babble for me tonight. Time for bed, and dreams of... itemization, I suppose. haha

OK, you got me :D

2007-03-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

"Why does everyone automatically assume I know tailoring and cooking?"

2007-03-12T15:47:00.000-07:00

In the past weeks it has slowly come to light to me that I am going to need to work on building my cooking skill up, as I've taken recently to actually buying food off the AH. This is because unlike level 60 End Game, the literal benefits of cooked food in TBC are unlike anything we'd seen prior.

Admittedly, cooking is not something that I'd ever given much thought to, because… well, I'm a mage. I can conjure food out of thin air, without all the headache of collecting ingredients and then having to find a cooking fire (which has been, to be perfectly honest, always a pain in the neck as far as I'm concerned). On alts who've been able to cook in the past, I often found myself bothered by the need to allot a certain amount of bag space to holding on to small quantities of this ingredient or that ingredient… only to turn them into small quantities of something else. Cooking has also long been somewhat pointless for mages or anyone who can heal themselves, just out of principle. But that's neither here nor there now.

Nowadays, I've been fond of this:

Blackened Basilisk
Use: If you spend at least 10 seconds eating, you will become well fed and gain 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit for 30 min.

Not only does this make for a very nice raid buff, it has the added benefit of being stackable in quantities of 20, which is awesome (as opposed to potions, which of course only stack to 5). It makes it easy to bring an ample quantity of it with you wherever you go. There are also a couple other receipes with the same effect, just in case I find that I don't specifically find pleasure in grinding basilisks (a distinct possibility).

So of course now, simply being able to conjure my own comparatively drab food is really no longer an excuse for me to not have a built cooking skill. This stuff is simply too good to pass up on and now I am faced with the less than fabulous prospect (and mild humiliation) of having to go back Elwynn Forest and (potentially) annoy level 5 players by committing a brief mass annihilation of the boar population there (they'll respawn in 2 minutes, I promise!).

Quagmirran's Eye

2007-03-08T08:21:00.000-08:00

Addendum to this:

Quagmirran's Eye
Drops: Quagmirran (The Slave Pens)
Equip: +37 to damage
Equip: Chance on spell hit to improve haste rating
Cooldown: Not Applicable
It's really hard to say how good this really is, but the +37 to spell damage alone makes it worth equipping if you don't already have some nice stuff.

I actually got this the other day and must say, the proc on this thing is pretty much... fantastic.
Copied from commentor "Locke" on t-bott:

Just got this yesterday, the proc has a 15% proc chance. That means on average every 6th spell will proc it. With back to back shadowbolt spam it will proc on average every 15 seconds, lasting for 6 seconds, giving 25% faster casts. Over time this translates into an average of 7.5% faster casting. 7.5% faster casting equals 7.5% dps increase. Quite nice for one trinket :)

My experience/observation tells me that what Locke is saying above sounds about right. If you have any experience with Arcane Concentration/Clearcasting, it triggers loosely about as often as that does, which is surprisingly often. Also, 7.5% faster casting, as Locke points out, is directly translateable to a 7.5% increase in dps, which is not only quite excellent but also means that it scales with the more spell power you get, which can give it some longer-term viability potentially.

The only downside I can think of is that given the random nature of the proc, sometimes it goes off at odd times ~ like right as you land a killing blow and are leaving combat, or right before you're about to cycle through a burst of instant casts. Still, if it were a useable trinket and you had some control over it, you'd probably be looking at a two minute cooldown for it, which is fine... but not as nice as this.

So yeah, this trinket is definitely recommendable to other mages and warlocks that use shadowbolt a lot (perhaps not quite as nice for warlocks that use a dot, dot, dot, channel cycle primarily).

Holy crap, Challe's Home for Little Tykes!

2007-02-28T19:08:00.000-08:00

These are just entirely too cute... look at the baby tauren!! :o

Nerf Botanica Respawn

2007-02-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, a group of us wound up calling a Botanica run on Warp Splinter, without ever actually killing the big tree. Because he was too hard? Nah. In fact, nothing in the instance had seemed particularly hard and we had one-shot killed every boss up to Warp Splinter, in spite of the fact that only one of us had really been there before. We did have to reset the Warp Splinter fight though, because our priest and someone else was dead (so barring the ability to reset we would have wiped, given). Still sort of figuring out how best to manage the adds with the class balance we had.

The true problem was, when the people who'd died returned to the instance, there were... freakin' respawns. Not having a warlock to summon them to us, a couple of us headed back to maybe help clear what had repopped, only to find that respawn extended all the way to the first bosses spot already, and was continuing to fill in the instance quickly. And not just little bits of respawn either. Full freakin' packs of mobs. Pretty much everything was coming back.

What the hell?!?!?

I mean, it's not even like we were caught in a wipefest where respawn would predictably an issue. We'd moved quickly and had killed every boss on our first attempts. Seriously, that's just not cool.

NERF RESPAWN in BOTANICA

Thank you for listening.

KO'd by Thee Plague!

2007-02-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

Dragons and demons and boars be damned! After all of that, the one thing that will invariably get you... the freakin' flu. So basically I've been out of commission for a few days. I kept having these crazy feverish dreams about some unknown faction that I couldn't figure out how to build rep with... over and over and over again. Gr..ach-greaksjhre!

In other news, I hope that they never, ever fix this! I always wanted an Archmage I could just whip out whenever a situation called for it. :D

Of course, I just had to catch myself spelling like an illiterate noob. Bah, oh well!

I don't think even a mountain of archmage weirdo clones would stop Sylassa from trying to get me to duel. ha ha

.

2007-02-15T22:24:00.001-08:00

Death from Above!

2007-02-13T15:14:00.001-08:00

Ambril's Trinket Review

2007-02-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

It's been said by me and many others that the most valuable thing that a mage can take out of Molten Core is the Talisman of Ephemeral Power. This is particularly true now, as the Azuresong Mageblade has gone the way of the Arcanite Reaper so fast it's literally hilarious (considering how much freakin' drama has occurred over that sword over the years). And now as the Burning Crusade has come to pass and I am level 70, the once epic gear that I possessed has mostly gone away without much fanfare. Granted, Arcanist was never truly that great (I am one of those mages who insisted on staying in my Robes of the Archmage upon receiving my Arcanist Robes anyway). The one thing that has persisted through all of this though… are my trinkets.

One thing I've noted in the Burning Crusade is the addition of passive aspects to useable trinkets, which is a fantastic development overall. But as I've seen a few caster trinkets pass through my hands, I have yet to see one that has really grabbed me ~ yet to see one that makes me want to say goodbye to good ol' ToEP or my ToA, for that matter. The truth is, a good trinket is hard to replace ~ hence why above all else, a person should strive to obtain the very best trinkets they can (regardless of what class they are playing).

Here is an abstract of some of the trinkets I've managed to dig up that are new to TBC and are of similar nature to ToEP (in no particular order). This list is by no means complete, as I'm certain I've both missed items and that there will later become available others that will put most of these to shame (considering that none of these are actually pieces of raid loot and only one is epic).

Ancient Draenei Arcane Relic
Drops: Terokkar Forest quest reward
Equip: +21 to crit
Use: +120 to damage for 15 sec
Cooldown: 1.5 mins
The passive crit bonus is nice, the damage bonus is mediocre and the duration of the effect is on the short side. Only decent if you didn't already have something better. Once upon a time you would have drooled over +3% crit, but those days are gone. Get your crit elsewhere and get a better trinket.

Vengeance of the Illdari
Drops: Hellfire Penninsula quest reward
Equip: +26 to crit
Use: +120 to damage for 15 sec
Cooldown: 1.5 mins
The passive crit bonus is nice, the damage bonus is mediocre and the duration of the effect is on the short side. Only decent if you didn't already have something better.

Icon of the Silver Crescent
Drops: 41 Badge of Justice turn in
Equip: +42 to damage
Use: +153 to damage for 20 sec
Cooldown: 2 mins
Sweet jebus. This thing is practically a Talisman of Ephemeral Power and a Neltharion's Tear combined. Not quite, but close enough to drool longingly over. I know what I'll be saving my Badges of Justice for now.

Arcanist's Stone
Drops: Epoch Hunter (Old Hillsbrad)
Equip: +25 to spell hit
Use: +167 to damage for 20 sec
Cooldown: 2 mins
This offers a good excuse to equip some spell hit bonus. The real gem of this is the 20 second duration, meaning it's a good blast of sustained damage bonus that doesn't build or degrade like other noteworthy 20 sec caster trinkets. The cooldown is a bit longer than I'm used to, but pretty good overall.

Figurine - Living Ruby Serpent
Drops: 370 Jewelcrafting
Equip: +33 stam/+23 int
Use: +150 to damage for 20 sec
Cooldown: 5 mins
Exceptional burst damage due to a long duration and decent stat bonuses. The very long cooldown makes this a weak trinket for longterm DPS benefit. You can use a Talisman of Ephemeral Power three times in the time it takes to use this once. Equip it for the stats and occasional good burst, but not as a primary workhorse trinket.

Quagmirran's Eye
Drops: Quagmirran (The Slave Pens)
Equip: +37 to damage
Equip: Chance on spell hit to improve haste rating
Cooldown: Not Applicable
It's really hard to say how good this really is, but the +37 to spell damage alone makes it worth equipping if you don't already have some nice stuff.

Scryer's Bloodgem
Drops: The Scryers - Revered
Equip: +32 to spell hit
Use: +150 to damage for 15 sec
Cooldown: 1.5 mins
Meh, I'm not that impressed, to be perfectly honest. Technically probably on par with ToEP or perhaps a little better, but I wouldn't exactly shard a ToEP for it unless I was having loads of trouble with spell misses or something.

Shiffar's Nexus-Horn
Drops: Harbinger Skyriss (The Arcatraz)
Equip: +32 to crit chance
Use: Chance on spell crit to +225 to damage for 10 sec
Cooldown: Not Applicable
Impossible to calculate, but this thing looks very, very tantalizing.

Xi'ri's Gift
Drops: The Sha'tar - Revered
Equip: +32 to crit
Use: +150 damage for 15 sec
Cooldown: 1.5 mins
This is the better version of the Scryer's Bloodgem for those who are hording crit bonuses. It really depends on how badly you need crit. The spell damage bonus is merely alright. Better for a Scorch/burst caster than the Zandalarian Hero Charm though, I'll give it that ~ which I guess would make it a half way decent PVP +dmg trinket.

The following calculations should be taken with a grain of salt, as they only take +spell damage bonuses into effect, ignoring other bonuses such as +spell crit and the like. I've looked at three different types of casters, judging by what their 'workhorse' spell is and assuming a "spam" ~ ie. the noted spell is the only thing being cast during the duration of the trinket effect. The Scorch results can be used to supplement for any non-aoe instant cast, as instant casts receive the same +dmg benefits as a 1.5 second cast spell such as Scorch. All in all, these lists by no means paint a full picture of what makes a trinket good. They are merely abstracts of a couple ways of looking at them. Also, while I believe I got the math right, it is possible that I may have miscalculated on the trinkets that build/degrade (namely ZHC and ToA).

The first list of 'raw damage' reflects the net bonus over the duration of the trinket effect (in most cases 15 or 20 seconds). The second list reflects the long term DPS of the trinket, taking into consideration how frequently it can be used. There isn't a lot of difference between the frostbolt and fireball results, due to the fact that they are fundamentally similar spells, though not completely so. One notable difference appears to be that Fireball casters benefit more from the Talisman of Ascendance, due to the fact that they do not use the effect of the trinket up as quickly.

Frostbolt Spam
Raw damage per usage/burst:
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +1270 dmg
2. Arcanist's Stone: +1088 dmg
3. Figurine - Living Ruby Serpent: +977 dmg
4. Zandalarian Hero Charm: +941 dmg
5. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +855 dmg

Overall DPS boost
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +21.9 DPS
2. Neltharian's Tear: +14.3 DPS
3. Quaggmiran's Eye: +12 DPS
4. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +9.5 DPS
5. Briarwood Reed: +9.4 DPS

Fireball Spam
Raw damage per usage/burst:
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +1300 dmg
2. Arcanist's Stone: +1113 dmg
3. Figurine - Living Ruby Serpent: +1000 dmg
4. Zandalarian Hero Charm: +969 dmg
5. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +875 dmg

Overall DPS boost
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +22.5 DPS
2. Neltharian's Tear: +14.7 DPS
3. Quagmirran's Eye: +12.3 DPS
4. Talisman of Ascendance: +10 DPS
5. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +9.7 DPS

Scorch Spam
Raw damage per usage/burst:
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +1114 dmg
2. Arcanist's Stone: +954 dmg
3. Figurine - Living Ruby Serpent: +857 dmg
4. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +750 dmg
5. Scryer's Bloodgem/Xi'ri's Gift: +643 dmg

Overall DPS boost
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +19.3 DPS
2. Neltharian's Tear: +12.6 DPS
3. Quagmirran's Eye: +10.6 DPS
4. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +8.3 DPS
5. Briarwood Reed: +8.3 DPS

The case for the Talisman of Ephemeral Power stands in that while other trinkets may represent well in one aspect or another (burst vs. long term) the ToEP still rates high in both categories for both long and short casting styles. There is better, sure ~ but the number of items currently available that are noteably or even marginally better are very few, to say the least. The only clear winner is the Icon of the Silver Crescent, which I am assuming that everyone in their right mind is going to want to get.

'The Hell??

2007-02-10T21:33:00.000-08:00

Was this just added to one of the rogue talent trees?? o_O

Status: Frost Mage Tailor in a Burning World

2007-02-09T13:38:00.000-08:00

There are a few things that seem readily apparent to me regarding what is accessible to a character such as I at this point in the expansion. They are things I realized very quickly and as such, things I plan to address in the coming weeks.

First off: I went back to tailoring. This was for the same reason I went with tailoring in the first place when Ambril was born. There are readily accessible epic items that a mage tailor can make for herself (and only herself) that are too good to pass up. In WOW Basic, it was the Robe of the Archmage. In The Burning Crusade it is the Wrath of Spellfire set, obtained via the Spellfire tailoring specialty. While these items are things that are ultimately outgrown, they provide a wonderful initial footing for entry into the epic content where a person needs to go to obtain better. Beyond that, tailoring remains as it always was… an ultimately unfulfilling profession to hang on to after those items are crafted. So like last time, once I craft my items, I will again abandon tailoring in favor of alchemy ~ a profession with endlessly profound benefits to the individual who raids.

Status as a frost-specced mage: While I've enjoyed identifying as a frost mage for so long, and generally enjoy my spec, times change. The preliminary level 60 End Game was rife with the flames of fiery monsters who die just fine from frost spells. I see no indication that this lopsided elemental leaning is going to continue into level 70 End Game however. That's cool. I think we're all tired of fighting legions of fire monsters anyway. And while I represented well for myself in terms of my damage output as a frost spec, the simple fact is that fire specs *do* have slightly better overall damage potential and I'm not in denial over that.

The early Burning Crusade mage loot is simply… better for fire-specced mages, that's the thing. The set bonuses for the mage Dungeon Set 3 are pretty apparently tailored for fire mages:

# 2: Reduces the cast time of your Flamestrike ability by 0.2 seconds.
# 4: When you are hit while Mana Shield is active, you have a chance to gain up to 100 spell damage for 15 seconds.

Okay, so Flamestrike is still a joke, set bonus or not. And a frost mage can still utilize Mana Shield. But why would they?? Ice Barrier is an infinitely better shield. Now to be honest, I don't foresee myself running around in a full set of D3 ever, so it's mostly just a point I'm making here.

The other point is something I alluded to earlier in this post… Two of the three tailoring specializations offer craftable DPS caster sets. Frozen Shadoweave (or whatever it is called) offers bonuses to Shadow and Frost damage, making it ideal for warlocks, frost mages and shadow priests. I mean, only half ideal for them. No class uses both shadow and frost spells. The Spellfire set on the other hand, offers similar dual bonuses to Arcane and Fire damage ~ both mage schools of magic. So it's a no-brainer. You get better mileage and a wider array to your offensive arsenal out of being an arcane/fire specced-mage wearing Spellfire than you do from… well, anything else. So while being a frost-specced mage is ultimately fine… some of the early gear tells another story. If you are a frost-specced mage, you are the "Off" spec. The Burning Crusade is for fire mages. Or at least the initial impression would seem to state as much.

Carebears

2007-02-08T00:13:00.000-08:00

These guys in the Shadow Labyrinth really aren't so bad if you just give them a chance!

Making Friends out of Enemies

2007-02-07T00:52:00.000-08:00

I do so love my turtle poly spell. It's the one true irreplaceable treasure I took away from level 60 end game. I suspect not many more mages who do not already have it will have the fortune of obtaining it, unless Blizz decides to give it to everyone.

A favorite passtime of mine has often been to turn one of the rats near the entrance to the AH in Stormwind into a turtle, since low level humans simply cannot resist the urge to stab a cute little turtle. Every time invariably, I would watch as some unwitting victim of my amusement would catch a glimpse of the odd little creature, eye it suspiciously for a moment and then proceed with a good "HYAH!" to bonk it, at which time it would turn into a dead rat before their eyes. Lowbies are so funny, and so predictable too. One time a level 5 mage stabbed one and failed to actually kill it... a level one rat. Watching the wounded critter run for its life was simply hilarious, as I revelled over how it had managed to survive. I tried to re-polymorph it so that it could regen its health, but the mage was too quick and managed to finish it off. Poor little turtle-rat.

Then people began sending me tells for Deadmines runs and handouts, so I ported the hell outta there! Stormwind is the true "Lower City". haha

Today, an un-guilded level 70 warrior sent me a tell asking if I wanted to run a 5-man Onyxia. Hmmm, yeah that sounds unattractive on so many levels. No offense to the guy, but... yeah. Definitely a first though.

Jewelcrafting

2007-02-06T13:14:00.000-08:00

I do hope that Blizzard implements some sort of searching convention specific to the socketable gems that jewelcrafters make. I am wearing a couple of these items (or at least will once I grow tired of my awesome pointy red witch hat and re-equip the better headpiece I have) and well... they're totally overvalued if you don't actually... fill the sockets. The problem is, I have no idea what the gems that can go into them are, what they are called, any of that info. I've done quick searches on this here internet and have been unable to come up with what I want: a quick and dirty reference item of what all socketable gems exist. What they are named and what they do and what 'color' they are, mostly.

So as it stands, the only real option I have is to either suck up the valuable time of a jewelcrafter asking noobish questions about their craft or scan pages upon pages of... you guessed it, trade goods in the auction house looking for anything weird that might be a socketable gemstone. Even then, it seems as though the current selection in the AH is lean and more often than not, gems for useless things like strength and plus stab or something. pfft!! Who would want that?!?!

Now I wouldn't complain too loudly about this, but think about it... trade goods are consumeables that used to make a finished product via crafting. Socketable gemstones on the other hand are the finished product. They don't belong in the trade goods listing. I mean, not logically, at least. Oh well, I'll figure it out. :p

Level 70

2007-02-05T14:00:00.000-08:00

So hey everyone, I finally managed to ding 70 last night, so grats to mee!

I haven't had much time to do much else since then, apart from tend to the most pressing dilemma of any newly minted level 70... ebon, golden or snowy? Unfortunately with only three choices for all of the Alliance, there isn't a whole lot of room for individuality, but I chose the ebon birdie just in case anyone cares. It wasn't an easy choice though, I must admit. Not that it matters much. At 100g a piece, I could own all three if I really wanted.

The big moment came upon a quest turn in at Area 52, since I'd just turned to questing there after having spent some time delving fairly deep into some of the more involved quest chains in Shadowmoon Valley. The quests down there were getting... cumbersome, whereas I just need a few simple quests I could knock out fast to put me over the top.

Much gnashing of teeth in the household the past few days over events in Blade's Edge and beyond. Zanzola, Moonsita (from Dragonblight US) and myself have often found ourselves cursing our bad luck until it became apparent that luck had little to do with it. Every time we seem to go anywhere, we get jumped.

Mobs to the left! Mobs to the right!

I have no idea where they come from, but they're invariably appear from out of nowhere every time I seem to engage anything. Now I'm no noob, or at least not exceptionally so. One thing about playing a mage is that a lazy or sloppy mage is often a dead mage. Sure, I kill fast, but I go out of mana fast and die fast too. I've long ago learned to proceed with caution and always leave my backside as safe as possible, but it's often just not enough to do so. Nowadays I often find myself in a flurry of sheeps, frost novas, blinks and/or generally screaming in terror as five mobs try to chase me down and eat me. Crazy stuff, but it's sort of fun I guess, once the cursing subsides. :D