Slightly off topic, but has anyone else noticed Nibelung no longer procs off of spells since patch? I only use the staff for heroics and aoe, and the only 2 procs since patch have come from molten armor procs.

I just did a heroic and it was proccing off Blizzard. I can confirm that the self-heal on their Smites is in too, though possibly not the proc rate buff (I didn't notice any more than usual, which presumably I would have with the rate being doubled).

PI and IV don't stack

Power Infusion - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft

but it would be a great idea to get it during the fight :-)

I hate to call you wrong without a log or anything, but according to my testing it about 6 weeks ago, PI + IC stack just fine, PI + AP don't stack (AP will over-write the PI buff, and PI can't be cast on you during AP). I assumed this behavior was a relic from when they were both percentage damage buffs, and the classification of the PI spell hasn't been changed.

You sure about PI+BL not stacking? I know I often have both buffs at the same time showing. Are you saying 1 is being ignored in the dps calculations although it shows having both buffs. I often blow all my cooldowns on a BL (AP+IV+Hyper+MI) and just as soon as AP wears off I get a PI while BL is still active.

The haste benefit of Power Infusion will not stack with Bloodlust. You can however have both buffs at the same time, but only the mana cost reduction of Power Infusion will be active.

So, Nibelung. I've had a chance to test it a bit since the changes:

- The proc rate buff is in, and it now seems a competitive weapon, especially for someone concerned about hitting haste caps. The Val'kyr made up roughly 6-7% of my single-target dps over a few boss fights.
- The heal effect will not save a Val'kyr standing in particularly nasty effects (I had one die very quickly to Koralon's fire patch, for instance), but it will keep them up through almost anything else that doesn't 1-shot them outright. They could stand in Toravon's frozen orbs or take Marrowgar's Bone Storm if it wasn't in their face.
- It no longer has ridiculously overpowered interaction with Blizzard+Imp Blizzard+Frostbite triple-dipping on the proc. That said, it does still proc on every hit of an AOE, and once for the cast itself (haven't confirmed this latter since the change, but I don't believe it was changed).
- Very, very importantly, Val'kyr can be targetted for random-target effects. For example, the Nerub'ar Broodkeepers in early ICC would web them. I imagine this can be exploited to great effect on certain fights where pets are valid targets (can Malleable Goo be thrown at a pet, for instance?), and for damage-splitting effects (e.g. Putricide green ooze). I believe they're targeted as a pet would be. This might also be very dangerous on certain encounters (if they trigger Defile, for instance).
- If you are combat pulsed by a boss but in combat with nothing else, the Val'kyr will attack the boss. This has interesting results in, say, Azjol-Nerub.

I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a bug related to randoms. Try unequipping and equipping it at the start - I had noticed excessively long periods without procs (even considering the incredible RNG of the staff to begin with).

What abilities, if any, cause push back on the LK encounter?

Im not sure what the guidelines are on posting on "new" encounters these days, so I'm gonna explain what is true in general in most cases:

- Damage-Auras (think Sapphiron) don't push your casting back, but they do damage obv.

- Nasty things you can stand in, get targeted by specifically or get smashed on the head with generally do push back your cast, but have a tendency of being deadly enough to deserve to run the hell out of them. Pushback protection does not grant any protection against 100%-pushback, i.e. death by void-zone.

- Adds meleeing you, as can ocasionally happen, do push you back, just like any melee-attacks do. From ICC so far, there haven't been many adds that dont insta-gib you and still require high DPS.


That being said, despite having been quite convinced of speccing into pushback protection in ICC first, I don't see many encounters anymore where I really need it (though I'm still waiting for hardmodes, obv.). I've been running 10mans without Imp.Concentration Aura, and despite having a 5% vulnerability to pushbacks from that, I haven't noticed any real pushbacks on any encounter except Marrowgar.

Throughout the fight just infest. In the transition phase his cone attack and the pulsing attack from being the target of a frost orb (or near someone who is the target) both cause pushback.