Hi guys, I'm back!

I've spent most of this time watching TV episodes, movies (Star Trek rocks!), and playing Fallout 3 & Plants vs Zombies. I will get on to the UI post shortly (as voted here), but I thought I'd get something else up in the meantime.

So, uncountably you've heard of the hotfix to Overload, but as with any change like this, it's raised more questions (and complaints) than answers.

First things first: Rotations!
Your standard LB/FS/LvB...

Binkenstein

Patch 3.1 is finally here, and with it more bosses, more items, and more changes. The question is (or at least the one that I will address here) how does this affect Elemental Shaman? As per usual, I shall be covering this from a PvE perspective, as I have little interest in (or skill with) PvP. I'll cover talent builds, glyphs, and a few general gearing issues. There will be a short re-cap at the end.

Firstly, talents. We didn't see many changes to talents this time around, mostly...

Binkenstein

Dear Blizzard,

Could you please re-think the way caster gear is itemised?

Most of the gear that is showing up on the PTR at the moment has Spirit or MP5 on it. Not much of an issue for other classes, given they get some benefit from spirit (although for some this bonus is fairly minimal), but Elemental gains precisely zero from any regen itemisation. What this means is that the few items that are added without regen stats will be hotly contested by DPS casters, or forcing...

Binkenstein

So far patch 3.1 has very few changes for Elemental. The only change/addition is the talent Booming Echoes, adding a +10% damage bonus, per point for a maximum two points, to Frost Shock and the direct damage portion of Flame Shock, as well as reducing the cooldown on these shocks by 1 second per point (incidentally, it appears that the shock cooldown is reduced to 4 seconds after FS or FrS, while ES/WS will give a 6 second shock cooldown).

The question now is where to take the two...

Binkenstein

Last week I asked a question in the Benefactor's Bar to see if anyone had done any math/testing of the common assumption that Bloodlust/Heroism should be used at 35%, or about 55 seconds before the fight ends. Not surprisingly, a few people said I was silly for asking such a question, as obviously stacking the extra 12% damage on Fire/FFB Mages & Affliction Locks with bloodlust was superior than not doing so.

However, two mathematically inclined individuals took up the challenge,...

Binkenstein