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I've probably been getting on my guildmates' nerves about Shadow Word: Death, but I still have to sing its praises here on the forums.
Shadow Word: Death is so awesome, it's indescribable.
For those unaware, it's a new spell for Priests at level 63 that is an instant attack doing approximately 500 base shadow damage to a target. If it kills the target, no problem. If it doesn't kill the target, the damage you do to them with the spell also damages the caster (so both you and the target take equal damage).
With 5/5 Mental Agility, it costs 218 mana to cast, if I recall correctly. That's dirt cheap. I'm not even shadow spec'ed and I'm in love with this spell.
It's not the damage it does, which admittedly is quite nice (750-1200 in my current DPS gear), it's the fact that it adds a whole new dimension to the Priest. One thing we've *never* had is an instant attack spell - something that will immediately smack a mob. Sure, there's Holy Nova, but you have to have the talent and you have to be standing right next to a mob for that to work; that's not exactly something Priests want to do often for obvious survival reasons. For tagging reasons alone, Shadow Word: Death is incredible. So what if it also damages me for 800-1000 hit points? That's cake to heal back, and meanwhile I've got the tag, you Mage and Hunter mother****ers. :)
For all those times humanoids have run away from me and I lacked a real "punch" spell to knock them out NOW NOW NOW before they grab one of their friends; for all those PvP situations where it's coming right down to the end and I lacked a spell that could finish them before they'd finish me; for the sheer amusement of snapping my fingers and watching something die...
Now's my time.
This spell adds a whole new dimension to Priests that just wasn't there before. For the longest time, Blizzard said that giving Priests an instant attack would unbalance the classes (and they were right), but they found a way to do it and make it interesting - by punishing the Priest if it doesn't kill the target.
Long live Shadow Word: Death!
So, my question to you others out there: is there a new spell/talent available that you feel changes the role/power of your class as significantly (or more)?
-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
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At level 62 I got Victory Rush on my warrior, and have been very pleased and surprised how good it is. It is an instance cast, zero rage attack that does damage equal to 35% of your attack power (like a mini bloodthrist). It's limitation to make it not overpowered is you can only use it for 15 seconds (and has a 15 second cooldown) after you land a killing blow on a target that yields honor/exp.
Those 15 seconds go by very fast I found. It basically only gives you time to run right to the next mob. If you have to mount up, or gather anything there is almost no way to get to another mob. But it's reasonable for such an awsome ability:).
Besides just making grinding faster it also helps with adds. If you get a add you know you are going to get an victory rush hit on the second one.
I don't know how Victory Rush would be with different builds, but it's synergy with a fury build is very nice. You already have high AP from imp BS, and imp berserker stance. And it's another attack to proc fury. When I first tested the skill I went to an orc camp in NW hellfire pen. and just rolled through the place. With a VR crit and/or a BT crit mobs are already half dead, and fury is rolling.
One bug I've noticed is if you do BT and VR back to back they both do the same damage. I don't know if this is a display error, or a bug that is actually making them do the same damage. Depending on which one you do first the second will do the same, so if you can BT first, VR says it does the same damage, which would be a boost in damage.
I also just dinged 64 and got spell reflect. It's going to be worthless for grinding, and probably hard to use in PvP. I'll have to try it for tanking and see if I find some good spots for it.
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The biggest boost of the expansion for my Druid so far was at level 61 when I was able to pick up Omen of Clarity to go with Mangle. Certainly, it is not a new ability, but it is a combination of abilities that was unreachable until hitting level 61. The ability to have free mangles is a huge boon toward killing things (in cat) and tanking things (in bear). Another good addition that I am looking forward to is Lacerate. Currently, my druid has trouble burning through rage, at times, when fighting a single boss-type mob because swipe is a rather inefficient rage use against a single target. Lacerate will add another single target skill to the spellbook that will definitely help out on single target aggro. While neither of these seem really "game-changing" they are definitely a major boost in power for a feral druid.
As for my shadow priest, I can't wait to get shadow word: death. :)
-TheDragoon
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Maim's been huge and greatly improved the soloability of cat against higher level mobs. I have an unfortunate habit of fighting mobs of level +2, +3 or more (don't judge me!). Before 2.0, Bear (with high armor, frenzied regen, and bash->heal) was necessary to slowly eek my way to victory. But cat is now a viable (and more exciting) option. Next up: A stunlock cycle using Pounce, Bash, and Maim.
Also huge is stacking Improved Leader of the Pack with Improved Vampiric Embrace. My guild, by chance, is similar to Brista's "HealerGuild," (Although we describe ourselves as a '5-man' guild). It's not uncommon for our sister guild (a 'raiding' guild) to be looking for even a single available healer while we run instances with two shadowpriests and two feral druids. With iLoTP and 2xIVE, none of us leave our respective DPS forms on trash. Vampiric touch keeps mana up for the shadowpriests and the druids pop out to top people off between pulls. Heck, we can run the Ramparts and not cast a single in-combat heal until Vazruden.
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For Warlocks it's two spells
The first at 62 is Fel Armor which grants the Warlock up to +50 spell damage and also returns 20% more life on healing affects which is quite nice. If you have the talents for it in the Demonology tree, this becomes +65 and +26% respectively with 3 of 3 talent points. When grouping, this is immensly powerful.
The second at 64 is Incinerate, a spell that does damage very similarly to Shadowbolt while being a bit more mana efficient and get a boost in damage if there is a Immolation on the target. For grinding my tactics have changed to putting dots on the target and then spamming Incinerate till the mob dies and it does damage on par with shadowbolt, but more efficiently.
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Yeah, VR is a nice skill for PvE solo grinding. It's decent in group grinding, but you have to get the KB (I think), so it synergizes quite well with execute (no-rage ability when I have no rage and after I've probably delivered the KB!). It also seems to proc off of some strange things, i.e. I was able to use it after killing totems from a boss in the Slave pens (I wasn't tanking, so I wasn't in defensive stance). I don't get many KBs in PvP, so it's probably worthless there.
Spell reflect is gimicky in PvE 5-mans. It's another tool, which I don't mind. Rage cost is still extremely prohibitive (even while tanking). Not sure about the aggro mechanics of it, which would be nice to know.
Still need help in PvP I find.
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Quote:For Warlocks it's two spells
The first at 62 is Fel Armor which grants the Warlock up to +50 spell damage and also returns 20% more life on healing affects which is quite nice. If you have the talents for it in the Demonology tree, this becomes +65 and +26% respectively with 3 of 3 talent points. When grouping, this is immensly powerful.
The second at 64 is Incinerate, a spell that does damage very similarly to Shadowbolt while being a bit more mana efficient and get a boost in damage if there is a Immolation on the target. For grinding my tactics have changed to putting dots on the target and then spamming Incinerate till the mob dies and it does damage on par with shadowbolt, but more efficiently.
God yes for Fel Armor. I went from ~170 or so Drain life tics at 61 to ~270 or so with that armor up. Its been phenominal. As for Incinerate I still haven't played around with it much, though it does seem damn good on paper. Will have to check it out some^_^
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Quote:So, my question to you others out there: is there a new spell/talent available that you feel changes the role/power of your class as significantly (or more)?
Not sure it counts as "new" (since this talent was introduced back in 2.0 patch), but Water Elemental has the similar impact on mages' abilities. Even if it's not a real tank, you still can use your new pet to hold one mob attention long enough to kill another one... not to mention it adds pretty solid DPS by itself. The only problem is buggy pet control bar (which usually does not appear when pet is summoned in combat), but for this the workaround exists.
For hunters, Silencing Shot (again, introduced in 2.0 patch) makes the big difference - I even dropped my initial plans to re-spec Beast Mastery for leveling, only because of this talent. Sure, hunter never was a bad puller, but casters always gave me some trouble. Not anymore :P.
P.S. This all is applicable to PvE, I don't PvP at all.
-Snezhinka, lvl 60 (still :() mage
-Yolks, lvl 60 (alas:() hunter
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Also something that's not NEW-new, but new enough to mention here:
Shadowfury talent, with the recently decreased cooldown (20 sec!)
It's AOE stun + shadow damage that (unlike HF and RoF) - can crit.
I haven't played my lock after 60 yet, but with a good tank and enough +dmg gear I was sailing smooth through DM east and Strat killing stuff very fast.
It's hard to describe, but it really makes a huge difference on the mob packs. Try respeccing into Destruction (on PTR, for example), you'll feel how good it is.
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Quote:It also seems to proc off of some strange things, i.e. I was able to use it after killing totems from a boss in the Slave pens (I wasn't tanking, so I wasn't in defensive stance).
It also seems to proc when you break a sheep... guess kinda useful in figuring out which warrior did it...:whistling:
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Endless Rage almost lets us reach adequate Rage generation while using a two-handed weapon.
ArrayPaladins were not meant to sit in the back of the raid staring at health bars all day, spamming heals and listening to eight different classes whine about buffs.[/quote]
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Lifebloom brings a whole new dimension to Druid healing. I knew they were shifting the focus more to that of heals over time for the Druid, but only upon training this spell did I understand the degree. I've gone instances without using Healing Touch at all. The mechanics behind casting and maintaining a 3x stack of lifebloom on those who need it, choosing not to refresh it at times so the large heal hits at the end, and integrating Regrowth and Rejuv. just makes for a completely different slant on the healing role.
And hey, I'm Balance specced.
See you in Town,
-Z
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Quote:For tagging reasons alone, Shadow Word: Death is incredible. So what if it also damages me for 800-1000 hit points? That's cake to heal back, and meanwhile I've got the tag, you Mage and Hunter mother****ers. :)
/trots up to the boss spawn point
/declines Bolty's group invite
/places a Fire Trap
/sets pet to stay
/sets pet to Aggressive
/tar Bolty
/waits for spawn to pop to /gloat
Hunters still win I'm afraid :P
Regarding changes the one I've noticed as a Druid is the number of items which have a reduce threat on use property. There's one from a quest in Hellfire Peninsula, one for Sporegar rep and another one at least. This essentially makes Fade available to non-priests which is a very significant healer ability
I believe it existed in the game before but wasn't anything like so easily obtainable. In TBC raids I think we'll see a lot of healers using these once people figure out that giving up a small amount of healing power substantially reduces your repair bill. Sometimes of course you'll just dump the aggro onto another healer but sometimes this ability will prevent a wipe
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Quote:Also huge is stacking Improved Leader of the Pack with Improved Vampiric Embrace. My guild, by chance, is similar to Brista's "HealerGuild," (Although we describe ourselves as a '5-man' guild).
Wonderful to hear that Monkey
We're just in the process of setting up the guild this week. Rather than full-on Healer only we've decided to stick to a ratio of 60% heal-capable classes with a month on, month off system for healing duties
We also will be sticking to 5 mans at first as we want slow quality growth rather than a rush to get enough level 70s to do the 25 mans.
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Quote:I also just dinged 64 and got spell reflect. It's going to be worthless for grinding, and probably hard to use in PvP. I'll have to try it for tanking and see if I find some good spots for it.
Don't underestimate Spell Reflection in grinding. You know when I was soloing those Hederine Initiates seeing if an Eye of Shadow would drop? Kick was the main reason it was possible. The cost might be prohibitive, but if you build your attack around the reflect, and having the rage available for it, I'm sure it can be quite powerful.
As for myself ... I'll get back to you at 66. Envenom has been a mild disappointment, just barely clawing over Eviscerate in certain scenarios -> even with 0/3 Imp Eviscerate and 5/5 Deadly Poison. Deadly Throw seems like a nice addition to have, but I haven't used it yet, as I haven't seen a single decent throwing weapon.
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Aspect of the Viper.
Downtime? What downtime?
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Quote:Deadly Throw seems like a nice addition to have, but I haven't used it yet, as I haven't seen a single decent throwing weapon.
There is one really nice throwing weapon that drops in one of the instances (I want to say it is from Underbog, but I'm not sure). :)
-TheDragoon
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Quote:There is one really nice throwing weapon that drops in one of the instances (I want to say it is from Underbog, but I'm not sure). :)
First boss in Underbog drops Needle Shrike, a 2 AP, 1 hit rating upgrade over Strikers Mark.
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Mangle for Druids finally makes Feral Druids feral:)
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Quote: One thing we've *never* had is an instant attack spell - something that will immediately smack a mob. Sure, there's Holy Nova, but you have to have the talent and you have to be standing right next to a mob for that to work; that's not exactly something Priests want to do often for obvious survival reasons. For tagging reasons alone, Shadow Word: Death is incredible. So what if it also damages me for 800-1000 hit points? That's cake to heal back, and meanwhile I've got the tag, you Mage and Hunter mother****ers. :)
Doesn't Mind Flay instantly tag a mob? I suppose SW:D has a longer range.
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