Analogue’s gear is looking good. I need to get more Valor points but I’m getting close enough to having the VP gear I want that I don’t always do a daily run. She does get her JC daily done religiously though. And I need to re-spec her tonight, I want to give Efflorescence another try, but I’ve been feeling the urge to play other characters again.
I played with my paladin some this weekend, getting her from just barely 83 to almost 84. Frustratingly I’d left her halfway through Deepholm and couldn’t figure out where, so I went and did a little Uldum until Reversion, leveling an alt through Deepholm, mentioned a spot where I might have broken the chain. Back I went and sure enough there was a quest, so I finished Deepholm, opening up the shoulder enchants, and then put Divergent back in storage. I’m starting to get the hang of Ret but I don’t like it. I’ll probably go Holy/Prot at max level.
And Tuesday, I went to Baradin Hold on Analogue, then when checking my Valor Points realized I’d maxed out my Justice Points, again. I went to look at what the JP goods vendor would sell and then noticed the Heirloom vendor. Hmm… never did buy that other Heirloom trinket. I picked it up and mailed it to my baby shaman. Who I knew had other heirlooms I’d mailed her…. and I hadn’t logged onto her in forever… ok, log on, grab heirlooms, equip. Hmm. She’s pretty shiny now, and halfway through 26. Let’s do a few quests.
An hour later I’d gained two levels and was remembering why I had liked this little dwarf shaman anyway. Cool. Plus I have been meaning forever to get a shaman up high enough to get a real feel for their healing. Sometimes I feel like I can’t diagnose why raid heals aren’t working right because I don’t know shaman or holy priests well enough, and I aim to fix that.
Anyway. Last night I went to work on her a bit more, got her past 30, and relocated her over to Desolace to check the place out. A guildie was trying to put together an alt run on Bastion of Twilight. So I thought I’d bring my priest. So did 3 other guildies. I determined that they wanted me to dps and we cleared the trash. I looked at my meters and was very disappointed with my performance, so when we were swapping some people anyway in order to have more stuns on Halfus, I swapped to my mage. Technically she has less gear but I knew I could pull out considerably more damage with her.
And I did. We wiped so many times, the trash respawned, and we cleared it again. In two clears we got three epics, the thrown weapon, the healer staff and the cloth bracers, and I won the bracers. Cool! Now, if I make all my dreamcloth this week I should have enough for a belt and pants for my mage… she’s so much fun, really she is. I am glad frost and fire are viable raid choices now but I love arcane. If I’m gonna pew-pew, let’s keep the pew-pew as simple and shiny as possible!
I have three pieces of green gear, no epics at all, and managed about 8.5k dps on the trash. My priest, with significantly better gear, was struggling to hit above 6k. I assume it’s just that I know exactly what to do on my mage, but…. yeah. It was satisfying. I’d been dithering about whether to gear the mage or the priest but I know if I gear the priest all I’ll ever do is heal. If I gear the mage maybe I’ll want to go blow things up. And she has all the shiny pets and archeology toys anyway.
OH! Last attempt of the night, we actually downed him. Three tanked, three healed, with Rev’s spare bear going cat after the drakes were down, and we beat the enrage timer handily. Woot! I expect the normal raid to have no problems. We’re going in there Friday so we can get lots of work on the Twins this weekend. Wish us luck! I want to be 6 or 7/12 by Sunday…
Woo~ alt runs FTW I miss those!
Out of curiosity, what was your rotation for your SP?
I open with Mind Blast
Then SW:P, VT, DP. Get 5 stacks of Dark Evang. More then likely will have 1-3 Shadow Orbs up. Throw Mind Blast. With Empowered Shadow – reapply VT and DP as needed. Mind flay some more, and Mind Blast when as approp and to reapply Empowered Shadow.
And Dark Intent from a lock is soooo delicious. Make friends with your local lock today.
Um, see, that was the problem, I was trying to keep SWP up on everyone…. and not managing my shadow orbs nearly well enough. Did lots of Mind Flay, tried to have DP and SWP up, SWD below 20%. I think I was doing MB + VT pretty well at the start of every fight and possibly not as well afterwards.
Arcane mage is much, much easier…
lol indeed. But I love my fire spec. BURN!!!!!!!! BABY BURN!!!!
With my SP I open with the dots. VT, DP, and SW:P. From there I flay 2x, hopefully I get an orb, but the real reason is to get 5x Dark Evang. At that point I mind blast and redot regardless of dot times. Most of the time I have an orb. I don’t use mind blast on CD but time it so that I have as close to 100% uptime on empowered shadows as I can.
From what I have seen the key to maximizing DPS is to refresh VT and DP when you have empowered shadow and 5x evang. Also never have VT fall off, with the dots adding on it not a DPS loss if you have the mana. If you’re having a mana issue then use your short CDs more. Also don’t forget SW:D will return mana when used on targets that it does not kill.
Use the dark wings for a DPS CD ranther than a mana CD. I try to use them right after they come up but its also key to time it so you’re eary in dot duration as you want 5x dark evang up when you refresh VT and DP and for that you’ll need time to flay. Its also important to throw your Shadow fiend early and often.
With multiple mobs I try to keep an empowerd VT, DP, and SW:P up on an extra and just flay sparingly on the kill target.
Oh and with all that don’t forget there is a boss doing some stuff and that fire is bad.
Twins .. that is one tank, no? So uh … I guess I relearn to tank AND do it by myself all at once! Hurray!
Actually, that one doesn’t look too bad to tank as long as I hold it right in front of the stairs instead of on them.
Is it Friday yet?
You got the cloth bracers?!?!?! I am SOOOO jealous!
Please WoW gods, let them drop during raid night tomorrow!
I was really thinking of giving them to you but I decided to be selfish and take them fir me!
At least Karius finally got a chance to roll on the darned things at least once.
Sorry
or…. well if I’d REALLY been sorry I’d have given them to you, or Falahla, or Eltard so he would have to give them to Falahla. Or something.
Two orbs and I can make the last piece of dreamcloth I need to make Invariant the epic belt, then work on rep and badge gear. She didn’t do that well in GB last night, only pulled about 7k and Approx and Fiona ate my lunch.
Yeah, sorry I missed the heroic last night. I was a bit busy off-tanking regular Throne of Tides for a pug bear that had never been there before. I think next time I’m just queueing up as tank myself.
It’s kinda sad when there’s a rogue in the group, and my addon announces me mind freezing every important thing that DBM yells at you to interrupt.
That is sad