Weird... last night I didn't hear anything when Shamanistic Focus was going off... I am sure that now that i am aware that there should be a sound, I will hear it and be just as annoyed as everyone else.
Its pretty bad...I have my game sounds done kinda low, but I know other melee in guild were complaining about it like crazy on Tuesday night in BT, lol. Hopefully they just take out the sound and not just nerf the spell.
SR has clearly changed the game for us. Threat is a total non-factor and our dps got boosted (conveniently hidden from meters)
These are instances where I have been truly grateful about Shamanistic Rage.
EoS - P1 tanking. P3 with the seethe/ae spam is also so smooth now.
Gurtogg - if you get focused or hit by poison
Mother - Ports are completely harmless now.
L5 beams from council robot bastards.
Rogue focus, blizzard, flamestrike on council.
It is amazing. Shamanistic Rage has to be one of the top 2-3 PVE skills for any class in the entire game. But most importantly our mana burden is so low now that we can save SR to use it reactively.
Threat is still a factor, on nearly every fight, at least for me. My gear is pretty average at best for a 9/9 guild, and I have to cyclone WF/TA and almost always have to hold back a ton on Teron/RoS/BB.
The BB, where being accepted matters
Originally Posted by Kazanir
This thread is hurting my self-esteem because I've never been hit on (to my knowledge) by a gay man. :/
Threat is still a factor, on nearly every fight, at least for me. My gear is pretty average at best for a 9/9 guild, and I have to cyclone WF/TA and almost always have to hold back a ton on Teron/RoS/BB.
RoS and Gurtogg I had significant threat issues, but that's just about it anymore.
It wouldn't be annoying if it didn't proc every sec I guess :P.
best thing is my raid seems to hear it more than I do.
"Yo, Amy stop critting so much"
"That, my friends, is the sound of mana efficiency!"
gotta agree w/ the SR change hype, given how slowly I run out of mana now, it is now much more up to me when I use SR, I am also glad to hear it works on Council trash l5 beam, i was hoping to test it yesterday but we haven't gotten to council this week due to our own stupidity on bosses this reset.
edit: ugh @ Bloodboil. To prevent having to worry about the threat cap and instead worry about stuff like the breath I simply dont do ANYTHING before the first fel rage phase, that tends to be a big enough lead for me to at least only melee during all other non fel rage phases, its annoying but I have to worry less.
Could someone here critique my gear/spec for me? (Edit: Since the new talent rework, and everyone has been going back and forth on if its good or not to pick up a few of the new things over, blah whatever if you HAVE TIME AND ARE BORED please take a peek) I'm trying to find out what are some things I can pick up that don't require a 25 man because im not always pulled in for our raids.
Things I know i'm lacking - neck/mainhand upgraded(it was HELL to find a heroic group pre-2.3) the totem from heroic MT and some boots.
Other than that I also wanted to know about when to start dpsing. My tank is damn good at getting aggro etc. but i'm so paranoid about grabbing aggro I'm hesitant to hit things quickly like everyone else does.
If you are reading this for the first time, please read the entire first post before posting questions. Almost every question that's been asked recently has been answered in this post. Nobody here has any interest in perusing your armory and two dozen WWS parses just to tell you the same information that is posted below.
That's from the first post in this thread. It was true then, it is true now.
I'm not going to look at your armory and just say, if you can't raid you must:
Go to heroic instances: There are many good items that drop in heroics.
Go to heroic instances: There are badges that drop in heroics with which one can buy some good gear.
Get into battlegrounds: There are many reasonably decent items from the honor vendors.
Get into rated arena matches: There are several great items from arena vendors.
Get on Ebay: On any given day there is probably a character of the type you want in better gear posted for auction.
Yeah apparently you can't read either, I already said that getting into heroics was problematic at best on my server.
And there are a lot of new things that JUST came out in ZA and rep rewards that I haven't been able to keep track of so a lot of that info on the first page needs updated.
I guess I should of stated that.
Plus, I was curious about having expertise since that also wasn't on the first page from when I had been reading up on it.
so a lot of that info on the first page needs updated.
Such as?
By the way I'm leaving for a backpacking trip tomorrow so if people see anything needing changes in the OP, best to give me a PM so that I don't overlook it when I return.
That comment wasn't a slight on you but the sims i've got and what not don't show the new things on my gear like how this expertise will effect my combat and a couple other things I was just trying to get some convo going :/
Yeah apparently you can't read either, I already said that getting into heroics was problematic at best on my server.
And there are a lot of new things that JUST came out in ZA and rep rewards that I haven't been able to keep track of so a lot of that info on the first page needs updated.
I guess I should of stated that.
Plus, I was curious about having expertise since that also wasn't on the first page from when I had been reading up on it.
Thanks tho?
If you want individual help on your gear and spec try the shaman forums over at worldofwarcraft.com, hell I might even jump over there and help you on it if you do.
Expertise is explained on the first page. Look up ZA gear on something like wowhead and compare it yourself. They provide the numbers for doing so on the first post as well.
Yeah apparently you can't read either, I already said that getting into heroics was problematic at best on my server.
And there are a lot of new things that JUST came out in ZA and rep rewards that I haven't been able to keep track of so a lot of that info on the first page needs updated.
I guess I should of stated that.
Plus, I was curious about having expertise since that also wasn't on the first page from when I had been reading up on it.
Thanks tho?
Quoting from the OP:
Originally Posted by Malan
In short:
OH = [Merciless Gladiator's Cleaver] > [Fury] > [Fool's Bane] > [The Decapitator] > [Runic Hammer] > epic dagger or anything else faster than 2.4
There is info on picking a OH weapon which includes the fist weapon from ZA. And if you want to know about how good gear is, I hope you read the EP section (formally known as AEP). You can easily figure out how good gear is in there compared to what you have there. Don't ask someone else to do the math for you.
Originally Posted by Malan
VIII.12 Itemization - Weapon Expertise
Patch 2.3 will change all weapon skill rating into weapon expertise rating, which converts into Expertise skill at a rate of 3.95 expertise rating:1 Expertise, and reduces the chance for your target to dodge and parry by 0.25% per point of Expertise. [Shoulderpads of the Stranger], which used to provide 10 dagger skill rating, will now provide 10 expertise rating (all weapons).
The parry reduction element of Expertise will have only marginal use in raid settings: mobs cannot parry attacks made from behind. Many bosses randomly turn to cast attacks and can parry while turning, but this possibility is too random to value significantly. Unlike parry, mobs can dodge attacks from behind and Expertise is currently the only way to reduce the number of dodges. The dodge reduction element of Expertise will vary from encounter to encounter: it will be useless against bosses that are constantly casting (e.g. Shade of Aran, High Astromancer Solarian, Reliquary of Souls) because mobs cannot dodge while casting, but useful against mobs that do not cast or only cast instant spells. Expertise has been shown to affect yellow damage as well as white damage, so under the second circumstance it is actually more useful than hit rating for enhancement shamans.
We still don't know how Expertise's dodge and parry reduction affect the one-roll white attack table. For now, the community is assuming that it converts dodges and parries into hits that do not have a chance to crit. On the other hand, we are now confident that Expertise will allow yellow attacks to crit, since they are resolved through a two-roll system. Thus, we will estimate expertise rating to be similar to the weight of hit rating, with some exceptions.
First, expertise rating is only useful in chunks, because there is no concept of having 2.5 Expertise - the Skill values are all rounded down to whole integers. To get around this, you first need to sum up the expertise rating across all your items, divide by 3.95, take the floor, and multiply by 3.95 again. This gives you a "white hit rating" equivalency. Note that this makes expertise rating EP discontinuous. One expertise rating may be worth 0 EP because it is not enough to give you an extra skill point -- e.g. you go from 14 expertise rating to 15 expertise rating -- while a jump of two expertise rating at the same point may have a surprisingly high EP -- e.g. you go from 14 expertise rating to 16 and thus 0.75% dodge reduction to 1.00% dodge reduction.
Next, we must account for the fact that Expertise, unlike hit rating, also effects the yellow damage from special attacks in addition to the white damage from auto-attacks. To correct for this, you need to multiply by the ratio of melee damage to white damage, or (Yellow % of damage + White % of damage)/(White % of damage). Also, because white crit rate as a percentage of landed swings decreases as hit rate goes up, but with the two-roll system, yellow crit rate stays constant, we must adjust for that. Finally, we must multiply by the EP of 1 hit rating, to convert our "hit rating" equivalency into EP.
Example Calculation:
Assume that we are examining a new piece of gear that will bring our total Expertise Rating to 17, Hit EP is 1.4, Crit% is 30%, White% of DPS is 50%, Yellow% of DPS is 40% and the remaining 10% is shocks and searing totem.
Expertise EP = \lfloor \frac {17}{3.95} \rfloor \times 3.95 \times \frac {40 \times 1.30 + 50}{50} \times 1.4
Expertise EP = 45.12
Note that this value is not the EP stat weight of Expertise Rating, it is the total sum worth of the Expertise Rating on all your gear.
Its all there on the first page bud. So, if by saying the first page needs to be "updated" you mean that you want gear rated for you so you don't have to figure out the EP yourself, then yes, it does need to be updated. But in the real sense of the word, all the info is there for you to use and find out good gear yourself.
Nope, definitely don't want someone else doing math for me but like I said, the first page didn't update for me on this machine for whatever reason. Firefox crashed and when it restarted things haven't changed for this first thread as I have it in a different window.
Alright appreciate it i'll have to go look it up on my fiance`s machine since this one still isn't updating it.
Hey guys. I've been following this thread since the beginning, really great help for the understanding of shamans class mechanics.
We were extremly unlucky with t5/t6 tokens for a long time so i'm still wearing my t4 helmet.
Since we downed illidan 1 month ago im hoping to get my hands on Cursed Vision of Sargeras and so passing for the t6 tokens. Today Zul'jin dropped Grimgrin Faceguard, nobody else wanted to take it so i picked it up.
Now my question: On the first sight it's a huge upgrade over t4, but is it worth it to loose the 3% crit bonus from Relentless Earthstorm Diamond? In a raid environment with around 40-50% crit rate it's quite a dps boost.
Blasted lands mobs are no longer reliable for hit mechanisms, NG is quite useless against them due to level difference. Any test on them would give great advantage for elemental.
The purpose was not to determine dps, but % of dmg done. I listed all numbers for comparison purposes if someone found it relevant. It's easy to realize that in that situation your ES will be over norm with no one eating the SS and your FS will be lower than norm with no debuffs on the mobs. I'd like to know what rough %'s people find.
Before 2.3 10% of my damage on BL mobs was shocks. Now it's about 16%. Same mobs as part of my test with varying %'s still shows a decent basis of comparison from 2.2 to 2.3 even if a raid environment will be different on some level.
Hey guys. I've been following this thread since the beginning, really great help for the understanding of shamans class mechanics.
We were extremly unlucky with t5/t6 tokens for a long time so i'm still wearing my t4 helmet.
Since we downed illidan 1 month ago im hoping to get my hands on Cursed Vision of Sargeras and so passing for the t6 tokens. Today Zul'jin dropped Grimgrin Faceguard, nobody else wanted to take it so i picked it up.
Now my question: On the first sight it's a huge upgrade over t4, but is it worth it to loose the 3% crit bonus from Relentless Earthstorm Diamond? In a raid environment with around 40-50% crit rate it's quite a dps boost.
Quick and dirty method.
R.E.D. effect improves your dps by .03 * crit rate.
For example if your crit is 33.3% you are looking at a 1.0% melee dps gain from this effect.
Determine your melee dps using a simulator of your choice. Say it is 1000. The gem effect alone would increase your dps to 1010. (1000 * 1.01)
A difference of 10 dps.
Now reset the sim and add AP until you have gone from your original 1000 melee dps to 1010dps. The amount of AP you added is a rough approximation of the AEP value of the meta gem effect. (For me it was roughly 37 ap)
But do not forget that free agility. Take the AEP gain you calculated above and add 12x the AEP contribution of AGI for your gear and you have a decent estimation of the AEP contribution of that gem.
Then just sum the AEP contributions of both helms and go with what is best.
Post patch, im basically sitting with infinate mana.
I've turned to dropping fire nova every cooldown, and after it blows, i drop searing for a few seconds, no mana issues at all, basically fire nova is another shock for me.
Im not sure i could maintain all of it without 25% mana reduction on the totems, but it is something to consider when comparing elemental and resto as secondary trees. 15% more damage from totems isn't a huge percentage of our overall damage by a longshot, but it is something.
Nope, definitely don't want someone else doing math for me but like I said, the first page didn't update for me on this machine for whatever reason. Firefox crashed and when it restarted things haven't changed for this first thread as I have it in a different window.
Alright appreciate it i'll have to go look it up on my fiance`s machine since this one still isn't updating it.
You might want to do control+f5 (same as control+refresh) on the first post page. Control resets the cache in both firefox and internet explorer, I believe.
The other option is to use which ever browser you use to delete the cache. If it has no cache, it will be forced to query the entire page again. IE has settings to set how often it will check for non-cached versions (every time you open IE, every time you open the page, etc) which may help solve the problem going forward, also. I'm not sure if firefox has this sort of granular mechanism, but I've never had a problem with either one so I can't say offhand how much this will help you.
Well, after some testing it appears the Stonebreaker Totems cooldown is 10seconds, no more. So basically if you have the buff up and you cast a shock there's no chance it will refresh. If someone else wants to work out the math for if it's worthwhile to try and time your shocks every 10 seconds instead of every 6 seconds, feel free :P
God, I love this patch. Did Full MH and up to Akama tonight and I love it so much . Infinite mana, more dps (hidden on the meters, but can be shown in WWS at least) and I feel like I can finally go all out. Haven't done Reliquary or Gurtogg yet, but I usually had to stop dps on at least Anetheron, RWC and HWLN. Didn't have to tonight ^^.
Here's the WWS: Khaelyn - WWS (one of our messier raids, but hell I couldn't care even if I tried, really enjoyed myself tonight)
I was chaindropping Fire Nova and Magma Totems on Hyjal trash, it really does nice damage if you check overall. 220k from Fire Nova, 180k from Searing and 90k from Magma Totem. But as everyone else has said, the biggest difference is Shamanistic Rage, oh dear god how I love it. Allows me to pull aggro from a mob without having too bad repercussions, allows me to mitigate damage such as Death & Decay, Doomfire, Unquenchable Flames, whatever other AoE. Not to mention the extra threat reduction.
It really changed my playstyle, I usually at least waited 5-10 sec before dpsing a mob, now I just went straight in together with all the other melee, it was pure heaven .
Heads-up for Omen users: it appears Threat/Omen hasn't yet been updated to reflect the change to Spirit Weapons--thus, it's possible that you are judging your threat higher than it actually is.
11/15/07, 4:20 PM
![Krom[Fenris]'s Avatar](http://avatars.cdn.elitistjerks.com/customavatars/avatar21226_1.gif){kind=avatar}
. Infinite mana, more dps (hidden on the meters, but can be shown in WWS at least) and I feel like I can finally go all out. Haven't done Reliquary or Gurtogg yet, but I usually had to stop dps on at least Anetheron, RWC and HWLN. Didn't have to tonight ^^.
Similar Threads
