by Rich Maloy
Casual raider? Or not fortunate enough to play a shaman as your main, but instead stuck on another, lesser class? This article is for you. If you need to go out and gear up your shaman from guild alt runs, PUG raids and mucking about in daily dungeons for your two frost emblems, then read on for your gear choices.
From the applications we received over the past few months at Big Crits, it seems that guilds and PUGs alike had a hard time getting past Deathbringer Saurfang — that is, until the bigger ICC buff hit. Now the breaking point is 6/12 ICC, with kills on Festergut and Rotface being commonplace but little experience beyond that available. Taking into consideration how far casual guilds or alt runs can realistically get into ICC, I’ve listed the loot in order of progression, from easy to hard.
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Speak with Gil Grisert at Fort Wildervar.
Description
When the expeditionary force moves north, Captain Adams expects everything to be ready at Fort Wildervar. The scouts and craftsmen there have been tasked with preparing the gear and rations for our men for the climb into the hills.
The captain’s famous for his temper, so I want to send someone ahead to check on the preparations. Fort Wildervar is far to the northeast, beyond Skorn, up in the snow-covered areas near the border with Grizzly Hills. Find Gil Grisert there and make sure he is prepared.
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Orfus of Kamagua in the Howling Fjord wants you to deliver Orfus’s Bundle to Elder Atuik at Kamagua.
Description
<Orfus bundles up the clues you brought him.>
My people are bitterly entrenched in a war with the Northsea Freebooters. If any tuskarr could help us in our quest to right the wrongs of the pirates, it will be Elder Atuik of Kamagua. You must take these clues to him at once.
To get to Kamagua you must take the Ancient Lift, behind me. Take the lift directly to Kamagua and find Elder Atuik.
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Lieutenant Icehammer in the Howling Fjord wants you to place the Alliance Banner in Baleheim and then defend the banner against attackers.
Return to Lieutenant Icehammer with the Alliance Banner should you survive.
Description
I’m not about to put the fate of this mission into the hands of some untested scrub.
Now, if you want to prove to me that you’ve got what it takes to carry out this mission, you’ll need to do what I tell you.
Take this battle standard and head over to Baleheim, directly north of here. Once you’re at Baleheim, find the center of town and drop our flag. Fight off any vrykul dirt bags that attempt to take down our beloved flag and return to me once you’ve established Alliance dominance!
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Vice Admiral Keller at Valgarde Port in the Howling Fjord has asked that you bring him the Dragonflayer Battle Plans.
Description
While we were able to gather very little information as to the whereabouts of Ingvar, we do know that Yanis resides in a cave next to the worg pit inside Wyrmskull Village.
Intelligence gathered from the rescued soldiers indicates that Yanis guards Dragonflayer battle plans.
I need you to go back to Wyrmskull and recover those plans. Kill any vrykul that get in your way – including Yanis!
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by Chase Christian
I think that holy paladins have been pretty blessed this expansion, pun definitely intended. Our holy tree has been very solid throughout Wrath, and we’ve even got a few flex talents that we can use to pick up Improved Lay on Hands or even Blessed Hands. Our massive healing throughput has also made us one of the healers of choice for Anub’arak and the Lich King on heroic mode and even for bugging out Yogg-Saron’s heroic mode, as well. Our progression throughout Northrend has settled holy paladins into a pretty comfy healing niche. Even with all of the development our class has seen in the past few months, a few questions still remain.
For example, why are we still using the item level 200 Libram of Renewal instead of one of the shiny new librams from the Emblem of Frost vendor? The reason is that our old libram is too strong, and our new librams are poorly designed. Specifically, the Libram of Blinding Light just doesn’t mesh well with our playstyle. It forces us to use Holy Shock on a regular basis to keep it active and only provides extra spellpower. Of all the stats possible, spellpower is probably the one that holy paladins need the least of. What can Blizzard do to get things right the next time around?
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by C. Christian Moore
Offense vs. defense
4 DPS teams are offensive quintets (even the healers participate in damage most of the time) that use incredible damage to accomplish quick wins and losses. They’re often referred to as “zerg teams.” Silly StarCraft references.
When I first started playing arena, a friend much more PvP-experienced than myself explained to me the difference between two-healer team and 4 DPS: “A two-healer team is a balanced fighting force, using positional and defensive advantages to their advantage. Think of a castle, fortified with archers and boiling oil. A 4 DPS team is more akin to a juggernaut, barreling through walls and relying on brute force. Sometimes the castle wins; sometimes the battering ram is successful. The lines of attack and defense are much different, however.”
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Plaguebringer Tillinghast at New Agamand wants you to use Tillinghast’s Plagued Meat to attract down a Proto-Drake and observe its reaction to eating the stuff.
Description
Wait, that gives me an idea! What if it didn’t kill the whelps because it was sprayed on the outside of their eggs?
<name>, we have to get the plague inside of them!
I know! I’ve got some plagued meat here. Take it to the Ember Clutch and get them to eat it!
But no, we’re thinking too small. Let’s get one of the proto-drakes flying overhead to come down and eat it.
Yes!
Stay close to the meat and observe what happens. Yes, it might attack you, but such is the price of progress.
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by Steve Zamboni
Almost all auction house tactics revolve around the undercut. It may be a single copper, a few silver or a few gold, or a freefall drop down to the price of materials. Regardless of the amount or the frequency, most undercuts share a common misconception: that you’re controlling the market with your undercuts. You’re not. Your competitor has the control. By undercutting, you’ve just let your competitor decide your price. You’ve let your competitor set a cap on your profits — and more, you’ve agreed to accept even less with your undercut.
The inscription market sees more than its fair share of this, sometimes on a large scale. The low deposits encourage large number of postings, followed by even larger numbers of cancellations and repostings. Prices fall as each new poster accepts and trumps the previous poster’s prices, until the market falls to the cost of materials and the walls go up. The final wall signals a complete loss of market control.
Once it’s up, it no longer matters who built the wall. If it’s your wall, you can’t raise prices until the competition perched above you goes away. If it’s not your wall, you can’t raise prices on your auctions until someone breaks the wall. Stalemate, and out come the piña coladas.
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by Joe Perez
This week, we are going to talk about Healing Rain, a new spell obtained when a restoration shaman reaches level 83. When we first received word of the new spells and abilities during the Cataclysm class preview, there were quite a number of people who didn’t know how they felt about this new spell. Would it be good? Would it be useless? Was it really necessary? When the beta was released and the level cap moved to 83, we started to get a small idea of what the spell could do. I’ve been spending the better part of the last couple weeks testing it out in various situations, seeing how it complements the other tools in our healing arsenal.
What is Healing Rain?
Healing Rain is a new restoration shaman healing spell learned at level 83. Here are the stats:
- 46% base mana
- 30-yard range
- 2-second cast time
- 10-second cooldown
- 10-second duration
- Calls forth healing rains to blanket the area targeted by the Shaman, restoring 345 to 409 health to allies in the area every 2 sec. for 10 sec.
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