by Zach Yonzon
Something I’ve been meaning to write about for a while are my personal guidelines to ganking, or more generally, world PvP. There are no hard-and-fast rules regarding world PvP, although I follow a personal code of conduct when it comes to these things. Think of it as a guide on being good — character-wise, if not skill-wise — or how not to be an asshat in PvP. Today, we’ll go through a few simple unwritten rules or ideas and my reasoning behind them. That way, I can also say they’re no longer unwritten rules.
It might seem futile to lay out some ground rules for world PvP, considering that at the heart of it, they’re not really enforceable, but I’d like to think the world (of Warcraft) would be a better place if everyone followed a few simple rules of PvP engagement. It would certainly go a long way towards rectifying the image that some PvE players have about those who PvP. I mean, we’re not all uncouth ruffians. At least, not all the time — oh, who am I kidding? PvP players are bastards. But some of us, at least, are nice bastards.
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by Brian Wood
While BM has come a long way in the beta, it still has not-yet-implemented talents and not-yet-functional talents. But the main problem with BM is that the pet design pass hasn’t been done yet. BM relies on its pets far more than any other spec, and until we know how the pet design will play out, we are left with big questions in our rotation.
Join me after the cut as we take a look at exactly where BM is right now, why our pets are more important than ever, why big red pet is better than ever, and why we can’t say for certain just what the final BM rotation will look like.
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by Gregg Reece
With the latest build, we’re finally starting to see things get a little smoother and the mechanics to make a little bit more sense. Keeping Holy Shield up is easier than in previous builds, and a lot of depth to the types of strategies we can have while tanking has greatly improved. Also, our mastery bonus has been official revealed.
These may not be the talents we’ll end up seeing when the expansion hits, but they’re getting there. Some talents will look pretty close to how they exist currently, while others have absolutely nothing to do with their current versions. Let’s go take a look.
Spec freebies
Avenger’s Shield What was once our pulling ability is now actually one of our primary rotation abilities. It still acts like it used to, but it has a 24-second cooldown
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?by Brian Wood
In Wrath, the SV rotation is more reactionary, and in Cataclysm, it is that and more so.
Despite the frantic gyrations from being focus-starved to actually having too much focus, the SV rotation is probably the least-changed hunter spec rotation in Cataclysm. We use Cobra Shot instead of Steady Shot, we don’t have to worry about reapplying Serpent Sting and instead we get to actually use Arcane Shot from time to time. Join me after the cut and we’ll take a look.
Standard disclaimers
This is still the beta, so while the feel for the specs seems to be solidifying, everything is still subject to change. The current level cap in the beta is level 83. We are not going to discuss what spec does more DPS, or how much DPS each spec does, because that stuff is not yet final.
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by Chase Christian
Energy is simple to model and even simpler to use; no ability is more than 6 seconds away. The system has seen constant upgrades since its humble origins, though its core functionality has remained unaltered. It’s become a crucial part of our mindset, and it defines the experience of playing a rogue. I had an old friend that used to say that all true rogues set their watches to only tick every 2 seconds. What is about energy that keeps it marching on so reliably?
Energy has come a long way
Energy hasn’t always been quite as amazing as it is in today’s environment. Originally, it was generated in 20 energy chunks every 2 seconds, which was incredibly clunky. You could be just 5 energy short of using Kick against a clutch enemy ability and get stuck waiting for a full 2 seconds before you’d see your next energy tick. Luckily, in Wrath, Blizzard’s dev team smoothed out energy generation, and we now see 10 individual energy ticks every second. The new regeneration model helps us pull of more clutch Kicks, Blinds and Dismantles, as well as allowing us to squeeze out every last drop of DPS.
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by Fox Van Allen
we’re going to run down the list of the top ten most popular shadow priest glyphs and pick them apart, one by one. Hopefully, in the process, we can get rid of your cookie cutter build and find you a great new set of glyphs that matches your play style.
1. Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain
According to wowpopular, more shadow priests take the Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain than any other. Its popularity can probably be pinned to two factors.
First, it used to be a much better glyph. In the old 3.2 days, the glyph was a damage-increasing necessity that made our ticks of Mind Flay more powerful. Given the state of shadow priest damage back then, it was all but required for raiding. A solid chunk of shadow priests still hold on to this as a relic of that time.
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by C. Christian Moore
Goals The No. 1 issue players have to deal with when they decide to go for gladiator isn’t about gear, teammates or even skill. If you are a dedicated raider in a competitive progression guild, you can relate to what we’ll be discussing today. The issue is the desire to attain goals and sacrifices that must be made.
Some players want gladiator far more than others, just like some players want to be the first on their realms (or first in the world) to slay dragons. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t care a whole lot about slaying dragons. I was once in a top 50 U.S. guild but left it because raiding required too many hours — hours that could be spent playing arena (which I enjoy considerably more) or doing necessary IRL stuff.
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Posted by: free-wow-guide in WoW Battleground, WoW Death Knight, WoW Druid Guides, WoW Hunter Guides, WoW Mage Guides, WoW Paladin Guides, WoW Priest Guides, WoW PvP Guide, WoW Rogue Guides, WoW Shaman Guides, WoW Warlock Guides, WoW Warrior Guides
by Zach Yonzon
A new, exciting build of the Cataclysm beta has been released, implementing the promised overhaul to the talent trees. It’s still raw at this point, but we get a glimpse of the direction the developers want to take. The basic or starter abilities have been defined and although some of these may change, such as Divine Storm for retribution paladins (Ghostcrawler, lead systems designer, mentioned that it would probably go back into the talent tree), the changes feel solid and refreshing. One of the ideas the developers have is that “both the 31-point and the 10(-point) ability need to have more single-target use,” which means we should get very good one-on-one abilities early on as well as at higher levels. The trees are a long way off from being done, but that shouldn’t stop us from taking a look at them and picturing the possibilities.
One of the cooler, less noticeable things to come out of this build are the one-liner descriptions about each of the talent specs, allowing players to quickly grasp the concept of each spec. Blizzard seems committed to keeping this model, complete with talent tree lock-outs to prevent players from straying into other trees early on. As you might have suspected, the real culprit (or at least the most notable one) behind this change is PvP
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by C. Christian Moore
Cataclysm is still a while off, and now is as good a time as any to start PvPing. If nothing else, PvP gear is some of the best leveling gear around. The mix of offensive stats plus massive resilience gives you little downtime.
Wintergrasp
Do Wintergrasp every time it’s available. Wintergrasp tokens can be exchanged for honor if you aren’t going to use the gear that the tokens can buy. Several quests award lots of honor, as well; make sure to do them each time they become available.
If you are on a server where your faction is severely outnumbered, take the time to craft a PvP spec that can take advantage of Tenacity. For instance, if you are a warlock, you might want to consider a spec which uses Metamorphosis. I’ve heard of warlocks mashing Demon Charge into Immolation Aura, killing off 20+ players of the enemy faction and making 3,000ish honor in the matter of 10 to 15 seconds. Seriously, I’ve seen screenshots.
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by Zach Yonzon
Today, we’ll discuss how to form our battleground dream team. Unlike battleground PUGs where we’re beggars taking scraps — figuratively, of course — we can actually choose whom to bring in our battleground premades. For a guild to earn achievements or XP, roughly 75% of the team has to belong to the same guild. It’s still unclear as to whether rated battlegrounds will function identically to arenas, where teams have set rosters at any given time … although in that scenario, guild recruitment seems like an easier way to assemble teams.
Healers
Healers are the backbone of any team. Much like in arenas, raids and dungeons, healers are a team’s glue. While one might say that healers in PvP — battleground PvP, at that — aren’t as critical as they would be in a raid setting, make no mistake that a team without healers will simply get trounced on the battlefield. Full DPS teams in arenas — much less successful ones — are extremely rare. In an environment where deaths are almost routine and everyone gets a chance to return to play thanks to the Spirit Healer, it’s tempting to think that teams can get by without a healer … But there are few things more dismaying than zoning into a battleground and finding that your PUG doesn’t have a single one.
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