Mechanics Quandries

[T_Dawg]

Hail fellow Loungers!

I come today in search of much needed information regarding the mechanics of WoW! I have an infinite amount of gratitude towards any that should be able to furnish me the information that I do seek.

First off: Mages.

How much intellect does it take to equate to 1% chance to crit with spells?

I have heard much speculation. Many think it is 20. Is there any confirmation on these guesses?

How does +XX damage work with spells?

Next: hunters.

What is the fastest attack creature (that can be made into a pet) in the game? Any ideas?

Is it advisable to level up a low level beast or just go for a high level one? Does leveling up a low level beast improve to be better than just snagging a high level creature?


Any guidance to these answers will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-- T-Dawg.

[Skandranon]

How much intellect does it take to equate to 1% chance to crit with spells?

I have heard much speculation. Many think it is 20. Is there any confirmation on these guesses?

Confirmed by Blizzard; the number, also confirmed by testing, is 100.

How does +XX damage work with spells?
[right][snapback]86951[/snapback][/right]

The amount of bonus you get is scaled to the cast time of the spell, but not counting cast time modifiers, according to Blizz. Actually, each spell has a damage efficacy coefficient which Blizzard based off the cast time. Spells of 3.5s or longer have a coefficient of 1.0, meaning they get the full bonus. Spells of 3.0s have a coefficient of 0.8325 or so, and spells of 1.5s or below have a coefficient of 0.4375. Blizzard hasn't given specific confirmation on the coefficients of spells with other cast times yet.

[Concillian]

Confirmed by Blizzard; the number, also confirmed by testing, is 100.
[right][snapback]86952[/snapback][/right]

I always thought it would scale with level as % to crit does with melee classes. Actually it probably scales with opponent's defense skill and the % to crit mouse hover assumes max defense rating for the level.

[Mirajj]

Next: hunters.

What is the fastest attack creature (that can be made into a pet) in the game? Any ideas?

The only one I can think of, off the top of my head, is Brokentooth, a named cat that hangs around Stranglethorn Vale, who's got a 1.0 atk spd.

Is it advisable to level up a low level beast or just go for a high level one? Does leveling up a low level beast improve to be better than just snagging a high level creature?
Any guidance to these answers will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
[right][snapback]86951[/snapback][/right]

This one is pretty much a matter of opinion. At current, there is very little to distinguish the various subclasses of pets other than color. There is some, but not a whole lot. Myself, for instance, am very much happy with the 1.3 atk spd Moonsaber Runt I tamed when I stepped off the boat from Darnassus for the first time.

I did, once, stable my Moonstalker, and looked at the Frostsaber Pridelord. The moonstalker won out. It was faster, but that was about it. Pretty much every other stat was the same.

There are sites out there that list the differences in pets, and what kind of pet to look for, depending on what abilties you are looking for.

To answer your question, I'd say to choose one (or three) and stick with them. Find them when you are young, and you will save yourself a lot of grinding to level up a pet later if you do it along the way. But...it's up to you. It's your $15/month, after all. =)

[SoulEdge]

The only one I can think of, off the top of my head, is Brokentooth, a named cat that hangs around Stranglethorn Vale, who's got a 1.0 atk spd.

Broken Tooth, 37 silver elite, can be found in Badlands. Besides 1.0 attack speed, it comes with Dash 2, but will lose it after a while and can only be retrained at pet level 40, so make sure to learn Dash 2 from it as soon as you tamed it. Oh, Broken Tooth is a rare spawn, so happy when my hunter bumped into it at level 37. :lol:

Heard that some spiders have very fast attack speed, will have to dig around a bit to see whether it's 1.0 or any faster.

[Zarathustra]

Heard that some spiders have very fast attack speed, will have to dig around a bit to see whether it's 1.0 or any faster.
[right][snapback]87001[/snapback][/right]

The spiderlings in LBRS used to have some very fast attack speed, but that was changed in one of the recent patches.

[kandrathe]

Hail fellow Loungers!
...

Next: hunters.

What is the fastest attack creature (that can be made into a pet) in the game? Any ideas?

Is it advisable to level up a low level beast or just go for a high level one? Does leveling up a low level beast improve to be better than just snagging a high level creature?
Any guidance to these answers will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-- T-Dawg.
[right][snapback]86951[/snapback][/right]

Check out this site for all you ever wanted to know about Hunters. It's still one of my shortcuts. Good Intentions Guild Hunter Info

[Necroth]

You get 1% crit per 100 intellect. So it's not advisable to go for high intellect if you want to crit.

For a mage, I'd recommend frost spec with shatter, ice shards and piercing ice along with +damage gear for a good crit % and relatively good damage. (I like those high FB crits).

+Damage is calculated accoriding to the rank of the spell and the casting time it has. This is not affected by talents. For instance a fireball gets as much damage as it is possible to get from whatever gear you are wearing, even if the talent removes 0.5 seconds of the casting time. AOE spells recieve a rather large penalty on +damage, so you won't notice much difference when using arcane explosions or whatever. 1,5 sec casted spells get the same bonus as instant spells (talking about single-target now) which is somewhere between 43 and 49%