My latest upgrades worked, today I tried VoA10 class run, VoA25, OS25.
And guess what, average dps > 5K, with 5.3K on OS25 and over 6K on drakes.
Needless to say, overdps'ed guys from Ulduar raiding guilds, now fighting against AEnema, Echoes, Titans, Nemesis dudes. And I've got a TOC5 heroic weapon HAHAHA.
I'm scared just to think what my next upgrade, shoulders 7.5 -> 3.2 EoT, will do.
I'now got a slight problem, which is to decide on wether to get the T9 shoulders and aim for the 2pc bonus set, which REALLY don't like for T9, or go for the EoT 45 emblem ones, keeping in mind I've got 2 EoT shoulders to choose from, with haste+spirit or crit+hit. Considering I'm nearly hit-capped...the "healer" one will actually give me 40 spell power more, plus 59 haste instead of 59 crit.
The sad part.. we're doing 1xToc10 a week, Ulduar going snail pace, ToC25 is still a failure due to missing ppl and ppl showing up and saying "so, what's this fight about?".
/sigh
On a new topic, I've ordered a AMD 4800x2 to replace +3500, hopefully the 1M cache per core, 2.6ghz overclocking and dual core for some tasks will help me in 25-raids to sustain my 40 FPS.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Crusader's Arena Nightmare and a big DPS push
The last two days, we tried TOC10, and we downed the first and second bosses.
The first one was easy, the group knew what to do, and the Yeti came down fast.
The second one, Jaraxxus, took two tries, most of the group had never seen him, but it's easy. Just dps the boss, turn to adds if they show up, move if you've got the Legion Flame on you, and keep away of the portal and of the volcanos. That's about it for dps'ing.
For healers it's a bit more complicated, because of Incinerated Flesh and the need to heal 30K or so in order to disable the healing absorption.
Fire resistance helps, Shadow ward too.
The third one (I think it's the latest one) was... a nightmare.
It's been a few years since I've done Arena 5v5, actually I did pretty well as priest in TBC, but I never locked it that much.
Oh well, the Faction champions is 6 vs 10.
In our random 6, there came a resto druid, a shammy, a priest, a lock, a paladin and a warrior.
I'm sure Blizzard must be having tons of fun in Arenas training these guys, because they are so tuned, so tuned, it's damn hard to get a single one down.
We've been struggling, most notably as our group composition is not so good, and we keep trying to go for the druid, or for the shammy, and the other one heals the first one. CC works very badly, banish lasts for 1 sec or so, Fear is a bit better, but PVP rules rule so after 3 casts, immune they become.
We downed the druid once, but our group was scattered already.
A pain.
On the bright side, I got a belt drop in TOC10, and I upgraded all my emblems of conquest gear, meaning I'm now T8.25 4/5 with a conquest necklace.
The amazing part is that, if I keep the T7.5 and a TOC5 HC gear, I get roughly the same DPS, ye, about 4500 DPS on Dummy, with a peak DPS nearing 5K.
That's pretty impressive, considering I've beaten the 5K dps record in VOA the day before.
I can't wait to test my new gear on Patchwerk, Emalon, etc.
Heroics are ridiculous now, last night I went with a good PUG, and we slaughthered a lot of instances, UK in 20 mins, HOS in 30 mins, including all achievements, etc. A laugh, it almost looks like a private server.
The first one was easy, the group knew what to do, and the Yeti came down fast.
The second one, Jaraxxus, took two tries, most of the group had never seen him, but it's easy. Just dps the boss, turn to adds if they show up, move if you've got the Legion Flame on you, and keep away of the portal and of the volcanos. That's about it for dps'ing.
For healers it's a bit more complicated, because of Incinerated Flesh and the need to heal 30K or so in order to disable the healing absorption.
Fire resistance helps, Shadow ward too.
The third one (I think it's the latest one) was... a nightmare.
It's been a few years since I've done Arena 5v5, actually I did pretty well as priest in TBC, but I never locked it that much.
Oh well, the Faction champions is 6 vs 10.
In our random 6, there came a resto druid, a shammy, a priest, a lock, a paladin and a warrior.
I'm sure Blizzard must be having tons of fun in Arenas training these guys, because they are so tuned, so tuned, it's damn hard to get a single one down.
We've been struggling, most notably as our group composition is not so good, and we keep trying to go for the druid, or for the shammy, and the other one heals the first one. CC works very badly, banish lasts for 1 sec or so, Fear is a bit better, but PVP rules rule so after 3 casts, immune they become.
We downed the druid once, but our group was scattered already.
A pain.
On the bright side, I got a belt drop in TOC10, and I upgraded all my emblems of conquest gear, meaning I'm now T8.25 4/5 with a conquest necklace.
The amazing part is that, if I keep the T7.5 and a TOC5 HC gear, I get roughly the same DPS, ye, about 4500 DPS on Dummy, with a peak DPS nearing 5K.
That's pretty impressive, considering I've beaten the 5K dps record in VOA the day before.
I can't wait to test my new gear on Patchwerk, Emalon, etc.
Heroics are ridiculous now, last night I went with a good PUG, and we slaughthered a lot of instances, UK in 20 mins, HOS in 30 mins, including all achievements, etc. A laugh, it almost looks like a private server.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Holy days
Nothing like a pack of holidays in the bag away from WoW to recharge the batteries.
Now I've back and... Cataclysm announced. It had been leaked weeks ago, together with the new races, goblins and worgen.
So yesterday I reactivated my raid world, not with much success. Even though T8.5 is now given for free (mostly), most ppl keep doing their feeble dps and healing, not knowing what to do on bosses, etc.
I started also doing some new stuff for optimization purposes, which is to record every raid fight in WWS, so I can post-analyze it. Recount is nice but it resets every raid.
- Tried VoA25 with a PUG, and obviously failed. Did 4.4K dps, though.
- Did VoA10 with another PUG, this one seemed good, and I beat a record: 5.1K dps on Emalon and 4.9K dps on Archavon, with room for improvement. I had a boomkin and a shammy in raid, no shadow priest or unholy DK.
- Did Freya in Ulduar10 with the guild and seemed much easier than before.
- Tried TOC25 with the guild and some other guilds but (TOC23 actually) failed. People simply can't move away on time from the 3rd mini-boss. Strangely my WWS log missed the fight.
I finally created my Flask of the North, that's 47 spell power for free.
I also bought lots of trash mounts and I'm now with 75 mounts, but with my drop luck, I'll never get the 101th mount before patch 3.3.
Today I'm going for 4/4 T8/T8.5, as I will get 58x2 emblems of conquest. I hope that will help my DPS.
Also, I think I'm going to try some PVP leveling with a dualboxing pair.
Now I've back and... Cataclysm announced. It had been leaked weeks ago, together with the new races, goblins and worgen.
So yesterday I reactivated my raid world, not with much success. Even though T8.5 is now given for free (mostly), most ppl keep doing their feeble dps and healing, not knowing what to do on bosses, etc.
I started also doing some new stuff for optimization purposes, which is to record every raid fight in WWS, so I can post-analyze it. Recount is nice but it resets every raid.
- Tried VoA25 with a PUG, and obviously failed. Did 4.4K dps, though.
- Did VoA10 with another PUG, this one seemed good, and I beat a record: 5.1K dps on Emalon and 4.9K dps on Archavon, with room for improvement. I had a boomkin and a shammy in raid, no shadow priest or unholy DK.
- Did Freya in Ulduar10 with the guild and seemed much easier than before.
- Tried TOC25 with the guild and some other guilds but (TOC23 actually) failed. People simply can't move away on time from the 3rd mini-boss. Strangely my WWS log missed the fight.
I finally created my Flask of the North, that's 47 spell power for free.
I also bought lots of trash mounts and I'm now with 75 mounts, but with my drop luck, I'll never get the 101th mount before patch 3.3.
Today I'm going for 4/4 T8/T8.5, as I will get 58x2 emblems of conquest. I hope that will help my DPS.
Also, I think I'm going to try some PVP leveling with a dualboxing pair.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Trial of the Crusader for Dummies (Boss 1)
Our guild tried TOC25 normal and failed, as ppl kept doing the same mistakes, part of them went inside without looking at the videos, etc. The usual /sigh.
So the next day we tried TOC10. And it worked, although it took some time for everyone to understand what to do and when.
We killed it, and I came out top dps on the kill attempt. Rewarding for me.
But shame, I overaggroed once and died on a previous attempt. Kick me.
Here it goes (from a DPS perspective, of course, nearly no references for healer and tanks):
Phase 1: Gormok
- Tank tanks (it's a bit + complicated but...)
- Ranged and healers spread apart, far away from him to avoid a stomp.
- Run away from fire patches.
- When snobolds appear on the back of anyone, most DPS (at least ranged) kill it.
- When snobolds stop coming, nuke the boss.
It's really easy. The only problem is when DPS are asleep and 3-4 snobolds get behind ppl, so they can't dps, heal, etc, as they get interrupted.
Phase 2: Acidmaw and Dreadscale
- Dot Dreadscale a bit (weakness too if possible, helps the tank+healer)
- Nuke Acidmaw.
- Acidmaw will poison ppl, I noticed not one, but several ppl at one time, so it seems to be zone oriented. Poisoned ppl will get paralyzed soon, so they have to run to whoever get Burning Bile. In the beginning, only the Dreadscale tank will get Biled, so run to him or paralyze and die as he can't come to you. Lock teleport helps. A poisoned person gets green. A biled person gets a burning fire around him.
- After they both go underground the first time, 2 ppl will get a Burning Bile, ie, Dreadscale tank and a random, so... beware, it burns ppl around, so stay spread.. and away from Dreadscale cone !
- When Acidmaw is dead, nuke Dreadscale. Dreadscale will get 50% + dmg, so either keep Weakness or COE/COD.
- Biled persons must be healed through.
- I once died suddenly from a Dreadscale attack (non-agro) and I couldnt check on log what happened. But it looks like I got a Burning Bile and a Fire Spit in short succession (1sec), as I lost >24k HP. I nearly used my HS but it was so fast...
- Both mobs go underground and back up, and seem to reset aggro(?).
- On Dreadscale, my aggro suddenly went skyrocket, he came for me and bye bye. Didn't understand what happened as I was around 50% last time I checked (usually I do a threat check every 2-3 secs)
- Use Fire/Nature resistance Auras/Totems/Aspect.
This is the critical phase, once you killed these, you have it in the pocket !
Phase 3: Icehowl
- A bit yeti, tank him and wait for his charge.
- Sends everyone against the walls.
- Never EVER be with your back to a gate, a bug will get you frozen and you'll die.
- After he stuns everyone, he'll charge someone, rotating to his direction, going backwards and then charging. During this time, you get free and a speed buff, so RUN SIDEWAYS like hell. If you are on a corner with a pillar on your side (take your time while stunned to rotate the camera and find out where you are), run to the opposite side of the pillar)
- If he kills someone, he'll probably wipe the raid, as he gets enraged. If not, he gets stunned (head on the wall hurts), and takes more damage for 10 secs , so use your cooldowns and beat him. Aggro can be a problem, I noticed the Omen alarm at the 9-10 sec mark as I was overdpsing.
- He has an artic breath that freezes ppl and does frost dmg. Frost Aura or Totem.
That's about it, easy boss, as long as you don't lag, or don't go AFK when he charges !
The loot ?
It dropped some mail stuff and a Wand, that I lost against a fellow Lock.
Meanwhile I've got DKP for sale, as I can't use it. May be on TOC25, that I will miss next Sunday because I'll be in Alentejo :(
So the next day we tried TOC10. And it worked, although it took some time for everyone to understand what to do and when.
We killed it, and I came out top dps on the kill attempt. Rewarding for me.
But shame, I overaggroed once and died on a previous attempt. Kick me.
Here it goes (from a DPS perspective, of course, nearly no references for healer and tanks):
Phase 1: Gormok
- Tank tanks (it's a bit + complicated but...)
- Ranged and healers spread apart, far away from him to avoid a stomp.
- Run away from fire patches.
- When snobolds appear on the back of anyone, most DPS (at least ranged) kill it.
- When snobolds stop coming, nuke the boss.
It's really easy. The only problem is when DPS are asleep and 3-4 snobolds get behind ppl, so they can't dps, heal, etc, as they get interrupted.
Phase 2: Acidmaw and Dreadscale
- Dot Dreadscale a bit (weakness too if possible, helps the tank+healer)
- Nuke Acidmaw.
- Acidmaw will poison ppl, I noticed not one, but several ppl at one time, so it seems to be zone oriented. Poisoned ppl will get paralyzed soon, so they have to run to whoever get Burning Bile. In the beginning, only the Dreadscale tank will get Biled, so run to him or paralyze and die as he can't come to you. Lock teleport helps. A poisoned person gets green. A biled person gets a burning fire around him.
- After they both go underground the first time, 2 ppl will get a Burning Bile, ie, Dreadscale tank and a random, so... beware, it burns ppl around, so stay spread.. and away from Dreadscale cone !
- When Acidmaw is dead, nuke Dreadscale. Dreadscale will get 50% + dmg, so either keep Weakness or COE/COD.
- Biled persons must be healed through.
- I once died suddenly from a Dreadscale attack (non-agro) and I couldnt check on log what happened. But it looks like I got a Burning Bile and a Fire Spit in short succession (1sec), as I lost >24k HP. I nearly used my HS but it was so fast...
- Both mobs go underground and back up, and seem to reset aggro(?).
- On Dreadscale, my aggro suddenly went skyrocket, he came for me and bye bye. Didn't understand what happened as I was around 50% last time I checked (usually I do a threat check every 2-3 secs)
- Use Fire/Nature resistance Auras/Totems/Aspect.
This is the critical phase, once you killed these, you have it in the pocket !
Phase 3: Icehowl
- A bit yeti, tank him and wait for his charge.
- Sends everyone against the walls.
- Never EVER be with your back to a gate, a bug will get you frozen and you'll die.
- After he stuns everyone, he'll charge someone, rotating to his direction, going backwards and then charging. During this time, you get free and a speed buff, so RUN SIDEWAYS like hell. If you are on a corner with a pillar on your side (take your time while stunned to rotate the camera and find out where you are), run to the opposite side of the pillar)
- If he kills someone, he'll probably wipe the raid, as he gets enraged. If not, he gets stunned (head on the wall hurts), and takes more damage for 10 secs , so use your cooldowns and beat him. Aggro can be a problem, I noticed the Omen alarm at the 9-10 sec mark as I was overdpsing.
- He has an artic breath that freezes ppl and does frost dmg. Frost Aura or Totem.
That's about it, easy boss, as long as you don't lag, or don't go AFK when he charges !
The loot ?
It dropped some mail stuff and a Wand, that I lost against a fellow Lock.
Meanwhile I've got DKP for sale, as I can't use it. May be on TOC25, that I will miss next Sunday because I'll be in Alentejo :(
Blizzard's 3.2 is out. Or is it ?
Yay, 3.2 is here.
- A new PVP instance, laggy like hell, like AV was in the oldschool days. It looks nice, but unplayable, at least for me.
- A new Trial of Champions 5-instance, in normal and heroic. An instance ? More like an annoying way to spend time, with a long lore introduction, fun to watch the first times, with Jaina and Thrall watching, but utterly boring afterwards. A static arena scenario. And the loot ? Oh my god, the loot, in heroic, it rewards lvl 219 items, a sword better than my normal Ulduar one, and a cloth head on pair with the best lvl 226 Ulduar heroic head. Enough said, don't go anywhere else, just farm this place !
- A new Trial of Crusader 10/25-instance. An instance ? A fake instance ! The first boss (a 3-wave of 4 mini/medium-bosses) is the ONLY boss. I was suspicious, since no information about Lord Jaraxxus was written in wowwiki.com. Now I confirmed it. Hehe, Blizzard green bananas :
- A new set of dailies, very simple ones, to kill a bunch of mobs or bomb a few boats like the Sun Offensive bombing, and basically to farm some more seals/coins.
- A new emblem system. No more medals of heroism and valor. No more medals ? Wrong, you now got conquest and triumph. Everywhere you go, you get Conquest. So... an heroic gives you 4 conquests. Naxx 10 gives you 1 conquest per boss. And Naxx 25 ??? 1 conquest per boss. So forget Naxx 25 and the need to coordinate an idiot PUG, just farm Naxx 10 with your guildies. Or better, go heroic farming, you do heroics in 30 mins, the rate is probably higher than Naxx. And Ulduar ? Oh my god, I don't know, but if Ulduar 10 also gives 1 conquest, I'm going to kill someone at Blizzard, as that way, no one will bother to set their foot in Ulduar. For the gear it's not worth, as we've seen that TOC-5 heroic gives better gear ! /cry, I wanna see Yogg-Saron !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- A T9 set. This is of course to reward the hardcore dudes that need something to do in the next months until they release Icecrown Citadel. As it is now, they have nothing to do ! Most hardcore guilds will kill the TOC bosses at their first tries, and then do some achievements, but it'll be over in a month. So they'll spend the rest of the time farming their T9 set.
- A new PVP instance, laggy like hell, like AV was in the oldschool days. It looks nice, but unplayable, at least for me.
- A new Trial of Champions 5-instance, in normal and heroic. An instance ? More like an annoying way to spend time, with a long lore introduction, fun to watch the first times, with Jaina and Thrall watching, but utterly boring afterwards. A static arena scenario. And the loot ? Oh my god, the loot, in heroic, it rewards lvl 219 items, a sword better than my normal Ulduar one, and a cloth head on pair with the best lvl 226 Ulduar heroic head. Enough said, don't go anywhere else, just farm this place !
- A new Trial of Crusader 10/25-instance. An instance ? A fake instance ! The first boss (a 3-wave of 4 mini/medium-bosses) is the ONLY boss. I was suspicious, since no information about Lord Jaraxxus was written in wowwiki.com. Now I confirmed it. Hehe, Blizzard green bananas :
- A new set of dailies, very simple ones, to kill a bunch of mobs or bomb a few boats like the Sun Offensive bombing, and basically to farm some more seals/coins.
- A new emblem system. No more medals of heroism and valor. No more medals ? Wrong, you now got conquest and triumph. Everywhere you go, you get Conquest. So... an heroic gives you 4 conquests. Naxx 10 gives you 1 conquest per boss. And Naxx 25 ??? 1 conquest per boss. So forget Naxx 25 and the need to coordinate an idiot PUG, just farm Naxx 10 with your guildies. Or better, go heroic farming, you do heroics in 30 mins, the rate is probably higher than Naxx. And Ulduar ? Oh my god, I don't know, but if Ulduar 10 also gives 1 conquest, I'm going to kill someone at Blizzard, as that way, no one will bother to set their foot in Ulduar. For the gear it's not worth, as we've seen that TOC-5 heroic gives better gear ! /cry, I wanna see Yogg-Saron !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- A T9 set. This is of course to reward the hardcore dudes that need something to do in the next months until they release Icecrown Citadel. As it is now, they have nothing to do ! Most hardcore guilds will kill the TOC bosses at their first tries, and then do some achievements, but it'll be over in a month. So they'll spend the rest of the time farming their T9 set.
Saturday, August 01, 2009
The yada yada and simcraft
I find it amusing that ppl go to ElitistJerks, watch the nice DPS bars with the different specs and glyphs and immediately say: This is the best spec, I use the best, so all other specs are for noobs. And so they behave like idiots.
That's all very fine if you have the perfect raid composition and exactly the gear stats as described by EJ and a perfect fight like Patchwerk and ....
HOWEVER... 99% of the time, you don't.
But still the funny ppl state the same things on wow-forums and such, e.g. that "Glyph of Life Tap" should not be used in Deep Destro, and should be replaced by "Glyph of Immolate". Why ? Because all high end players do it. And why do they ?
Oh... because simcraft runs from EJ tell them that. And so they do it.
Well, here is my EJ simcraft run, with my gear and my study which shows that Life Tap is not worse.
The only difference between the simcraft runs (that do the same nr of lifetaps since, on 5 mins target dummy fight, there's not enough mana) are the glyphs.
Data:
gear_stamina=1012
gear_intellect=748
gear_spirit=565
gear_spell_power=1879
gear_hit_rating=401
gear_crit_rating=408
gear_haste_rating=249
tier7_2pc=1
tier8_2pc=1
meta_gem=chaotic_skyflare
items=sundial_of_the_exiled/dying_curse
max_time=300
optimal_raid=0
talents=http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warlock=000000000000000000000000000003220030003000000000000000005203205210331051335230351
actions=fire_stone/fel_armor/summon_pet,imp
actions+=/curse_of_elements/immolate/conflagrate/chaos_bolt/incinerate/life_tap
glyphs=conflagrate/incinerate/"immolate or life_tap"
infinite_mana="0 or 1"
Results with infinite_mana=1=> 0 life taps:
DPS(glyph_LT)=4120
DPS(glyph_IMMO)=4191
Results with infinite_mana=0=> 10 life taps:
DPS(glyph_LT)=4046
DPS(glyph_IMMO)=4023
Notice that DPS with glyph_IMMO is higher, but it decreases by 17dps for every life tap you do. DPS with glyph_LT is lower, but it decreases by only 7dps for every life tap you do. So we want to find the magic number of life taps for which glyph_LT is worth.
4120-7.4*x = 4191-16.8*x <=> x=7.55
CONCLUSION:
If in a typical (is there such a thing) fight I do 8 life taps or more, I should go for glyph_LT. Otherwise I go for glyph_Immo. And the difference... is not huge. Unless you do NO life tapping. So you ask:
Why should I life tap ?
1 - Taking in account most Ulduar fights require movement (Razorscale, XT, Council, Kologarn, etc, etc), You have to, anyway. How much ? Depends. A LOT. On gear, on RNG, on raid composition, on the skill of other players, their lag, your lag, etc.
2 - You need mana. Purists will say "but I dont need, I got the perfect raid". Congratulations. Most ppl don't.
That's all very fine if you have the perfect raid composition and exactly the gear stats as described by EJ and a perfect fight like Patchwerk and ....
HOWEVER... 99% of the time, you don't.
But still the funny ppl state the same things on wow-forums and such, e.g. that "Glyph of Life Tap" should not be used in Deep Destro, and should be replaced by "Glyph of Immolate". Why ? Because all high end players do it. And why do they ?
Oh... because simcraft runs from EJ tell them that. And so they do it.
Well, here is my EJ simcraft run, with my gear and my study which shows that Life Tap is not worse.
The only difference between the simcraft runs (that do the same nr of lifetaps since, on 5 mins target dummy fight, there's not enough mana) are the glyphs.
Data:
gear_stamina=1012
gear_intellect=748
gear_spirit=565
gear_spell_power=1879
gear_hit_rating=401
gear_crit_rating=408
gear_haste_rating=249
tier7_2pc=1
tier8_2pc=1
meta_gem=chaotic_skyflare
items=sundial_of_the_exiled/dying_curse
max_time=300
optimal_raid=0
talents=http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warlock=000000000000000000000000000003220030003000000000000000005203205210331051335230351
actions=fire_stone/fel_armor/summon_pet,imp
actions+=/curse_of_elements/immolate/conflagrate/chaos_bolt/incinerate/life_tap
glyphs=conflagrate/incinerate/"immolate or life_tap"
infinite_mana="0 or 1"
Results with infinite_mana=1=> 0 life taps:
DPS(glyph_LT)=4120
DPS(glyph_IMMO)=4191
Results with infinite_mana=0=> 10 life taps:
DPS(glyph_LT)=4046
DPS(glyph_IMMO)=4023
Notice that DPS with glyph_IMMO is higher, but it decreases by 17dps for every life tap you do. DPS with glyph_LT is lower, but it decreases by only 7dps for every life tap you do. So we want to find the magic number of life taps for which glyph_LT is worth.
4120-7.4*x = 4191-16.8*x <=> x=7.55
CONCLUSION:
If in a typical (is there such a thing) fight I do 8 life taps or more, I should go for glyph_LT. Otherwise I go for glyph_Immo. And the difference... is not huge. Unless you do NO life tapping. So you ask:
Why should I life tap ?
1 - Taking in account most Ulduar fights require movement (Razorscale, XT, Council, Kologarn, etc, etc), You have to, anyway. How much ? Depends. A LOT. On gear, on RNG, on raid composition, on the skill of other players, their lag, your lag, etc.
2 - You need mana. Purists will say "but I dont need, I got the perfect raid". Congratulations. Most ppl don't.
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