a Darkened Soul

This is going to be my on-going list of Priest changes for patch 3.1. All of these patch notes are subject to or may already have changed. Notes are listed in the order that they have been posted. The newest notes are closest to the top. These patch notes are compiled from MMO-Champion’s full patch note listing. I have done my best to label the build that each set of notes is from but some were not listed. Read the rest of this entry »

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As many of you have learned, we will be reducing the duration of flask effects so that they only last one hour. However, all recipes that create flasks will create two instead of one for the same material cost. Additionally, we will be increasing stack size from 5 to 20 as we anticipate players will need to carry more flasks at a given time. Vendor value for flasks has also been reduced to keep the auction house deposit low.

Our goal with the change was to allow players greater flexibility when determining how long they plan to raid, as currently we were seeing many players balance time spent raiding around flask duration. We also anticipate that this change will make using flasks in dungeons and battlegrounds a more reasonable decision for players. Though this change will not occur until patch 3.1.0, we wanted to give as much advance notice as possible in case some of you who are stockpiling flasks would prefer to wait to do so until the change is implemented.

We realize players who currently have stockpiled a lot of flasks may feel like they will lose money with this change, since their current flasks will only last for half as long once 3.1.0 goes live. To partially remedy this, we are going to allow players to exchange any current Northrend flasks (Flask of the Frost Wyrm, Flask of Stoneblood, Flask of Endless Rage and Flask of Pure Mojo) for two flasks with the shorter duration. Flasks from older content will not be grandfathered in, and going forward, it will only be possible to make the flasks with a one hour duration.

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Chef Chuck is back and on the menu today is Snapper Extreme. This tasty treat is great for getting you to hit cap when you are just a bit low. Currently the highest level gear for shadow priests is lacking a lot of hit so I personally have been sitting about 32 short of my 288.5 and using this food to make up for the difference. In addition you get the always present stamina buff and restoration of BOTH health and mana. Which is nice is you are running something without a friendly neighborhood vending machine around (mage).

This food is made using 3x Bonescale Snapper and 1x Northern Spices. Bake at 350 degrees for 45minutes.

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These days not many priests PvP as shadow due to lack of survivability and useful weapons. Why choose shadow when disc is so powerful and fun at the same time? Well there are some amazing new talents and abilities coming to shadow in 3.1 that should spice things up. Read the rest of this entry »

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When the hit rating problem of TBC struck many wow players hard, shadow priests got off easy having to put in almost no effort to get our 76. In WotLK our required hit rating took a giant leap up to 290 and required a little more planning and effort to get capped. The main issue in this for me was tier 7 gear and the lack of hit on all but 2 pieces. I know that I am still using the 72 hit trinket from Violet Hold to compensate for using 5/5 tier 7.5.

Lets face it, hit is not sexy…. No one brags about hit rating or shows it off the way they do spell power, crit, or haste. Its a stat that all of us wish would go away, but we also know never will because it is essential to the dynamics of game play at this point. So, every time I get a new piece of gear I have to weigh its benefits against the loss of hit. This being said, I started looking into the gear from patch 3.1 to see what we have to look forward to.

First off, tier 8 will only have 1 piece with hit rating, that being the chest piece with 74. Some new staffs have been added, such as Unraveling Reach with a massive 114 hit. Overall, it seems that hit seems to being mostly showing up on pieces that are alternatives to set pieces instead of in the off slots such as belts or bracers. Below is a list of hit rating gear data mined from 3.1 courtesy of MMO-Champion.

Weapons:
Unraveling Reach
Intensity
Fire Soul

Tier 8:
Tier 8
Tier 8.5

Head:
Collar of the Wyrmhunter
Cowl of Icy Breaths
Cowl of the Absolute

Neck:

Pendant of Fiery Havoc

Shoulders:

Soot-covered Mantle

Chest:

Raiments of the Corrupted

Waist:

Belt of the Darkspeaker
Sash of Ancient Power

Wrist:

Combustion Bracers
Bracers of Unleashed Magic

Legs:

Overload Legwraps

Feet:
Sandals of Rash Temperament

Trinket:
Living Flame

Finger:

Ring of the Vacant Eye
Shimmering Seal
Frozen Loop

Off Hand:

Overcharged Fuel Rod

Wands:

Quartz Crystal Wand

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Ever since hearing about duel specs the thought keeps racing through my mind that Chuck is no longer a shadow priest, he is now just a “priest”.

Despite the fact that I could choose to go shadow PvE and shadow PvP spec, most pugs and even guilds will expect one of your specs to be…….dun dun dun, not shadow! I know, damnit damnit, is what I was thinking too. However, since finding out about duel specs I have started collecting a very respectable healing set including several pieces of the Valorous set. In addition, though it is not my first attempt at healing, I have been throwing myself out there for heroics and what not as a Disc priest. (Not quite ready to commit to Holy just yet)

Healing just isnt the same game it used to be guys and gals. It seems that while Blizz decided to give all classes to AoE to kill the concept of crowd control, they also gave healers unlimited mana to kill the ideas of mana conservation and not overhealing. Now some of this will change when the new mana regen changes take place in patch 3.1, but in the mean time I suggest getting out there and getting some practice.

Trust me when I say, putting your name in LFG means at least half the time you are going to be expected to heal whether you want to or not. I mean what excuse will you really have when your healing spec is but a mere button click away.

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Well its been over six months since I last posted which means I’ve probably lost most if not all of my reader base. But I’m back and better than ever. My daughter was born last year and I have adapted her into my WoW schedule finally. Chuckenorris is now an extremely geared out level 80 raiding shadow priest. I have also leveled my warrior Struggler to 80 and I’m currently working on getting him defense capped so he cant tank in raids. Now that the reintroduction is over, I can get back to bringing you the most up-to-date info and news for shadow priests on the interwebs. So stay tuned and dont touch that dial.

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