zacsgames.com

In the beginning there were priests. Then Blizzard said “Let there be other classes!” Things have been a lot more complicated ever since. Fortunately, there is Spiritual Guidance, WoW.com’s bi-weekly guide for priests. On Sundays you can enjoy discussion on discipline, holy, and healing in the company of Dawn Moore. We don’t have cookies here, but only because we call them biscuits, and serve them with tea, sandwiches, and scones. Did you want one lump, or two?

A couple of months ago I found myself talking to a non-priest about the gems I had slotted on my character. He was of the understanding that disc priests wanted nothing but crit, and thought it was strange that I had gemmed straight spellpower on all my gear. Figuring he was behind on the times, I happily explained to him that I was using the standard gem set up for shield spamming disc priests, which works around the premise that if the majority of what we do is cast shields, then we should stack as much spellpower as possible in order to make our most used spell (Power Word: Shield) absorb more. This is the standard practice advised to shield spammers throughout the priest community, and I’ve advised it here on Spiritual Guidance before as well.

The non-priest still didn’t understand though. He kept insisting “but crit …” which inclined me to gently stroke back his hair and say “there there, poor little confused non-priest, it’s all right.” I allowed him his dignity though, and instead went on with my explanation. I told him that alternative stats like crit and haste didn’t do much for shield spamming since Power Word: Shield can’t crit, and Borrowed Time removes the necessity for haste since the talent carries us down to the 1 second GCD soft cap whenever we cast Power Word: Shield. The non-priest still didn’t understand, so I explained to him that a disc priest’s primary interest in crit was Divine Aegis, a talent which applies a second shield whenever one of your spells crits. “But shields don’t crit,” I reiterated. “The heal from the Glyph of Power Word: Shield can, but that would only add say … 500 extra absorption from Divine Aegis. The spellpower is still better.”

As I typed out those last words, they boomeranged back and hit me square in the face. Startled, I peeled the sans serif off my nose and and reexamined the limp letters in my hands. Suddenly I wondered, “is that really true?”

Continue reading Spiritual Guidance: Shield spam and Divine Aegis, a theorycrafting story

Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance

Spiritual Guidance: Shield spam and Divine Aegis, a theorycrafting story originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW.com staff and ask them, “What are you playing this week?” (Otherwise known as: WRUP!) Join us to see what we’re up to in and out of game — and catch us in the comments to let us know what you’re playing, too!

In addition to the usual fare of talking about what we’re all doing this weekend, we asked the team how they felt about Zul’Gurub being removed as a raid instance in Cataclysm. Are they angry? Pleased? Completely apathetic? What about your, dear readers?

Alex Ziebart (@alexziebart): Not much of a break for me this weekend. My pen and paper crew is getting together this weekend because Labor Day killed our usual weekend plans. Beyond that, I’m going to be populating a couple of new blogs that I’m working on with content. Weekends? Holidays? Pish posh. As for Zul’Gurub … well, I’m not happy that it’s going away. I’m also not unhappy. I didn’t exactly go in there very much, but I will miss it. It was one of my favorite raids at 60. Jin’do and Hakkar were awesome fights.

Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey): Nada going on playwise — I’ll be in Vegas all weekend! As for ZG being removed, I am not worried. I am not worried. I amnotworriedohgodmustspendeverylockoutperiodfarmingfortigerpleasedon’ttakeitawaaaaaay

Amy Schley (@wowlawbringer): I’ll be hitting the local farmer’s market with the family and then working on Ulduar achievements with my server’s guild alliance. I’ll miss ZG, but not enough to go hogwild on farming it for the next few months.

Continue reading WRUP: Zul’Gonenub

WRUP: Zul’Gonenub originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

When you play WoW on a beta server, you accept that there’s going to be a lot of bugs. There’s the stacking modifier that doesn’t actually stop stacking, and you’re left with retribution and protection paladins swinging for 5-digits with every attack. I’ll admit that I felt a bit guilty when I one-shot someone with a thirty-thousand damage Avenger’s Shield. There’s also the programmer who accidentally misplaced the decimal in another spell, letting Crusader Aura grant us 600% mounted movement speed. Even with some of these glaring issues present, it’s our job to ignore the urge to exploit and to continue working on testing balance and content. Well, it’s our job to only gank a few people at the teleport NPCs and to then get moving to test balancing. Well, maybe more than a few. Well, maybe all of them.

Anyway, Blizzard unveiled its most comprehensive patch to the beta last week. It contained a ton of changes to paladins, and specifically there were a lot of holy paladin talent changes. While some of these edits are positive, like the new Denounce and Exorcism changes which FINALLY give us a spammable ranged attack, others are fairly grim. I’m talking about the complete removal of Illumination and the ruination of Divine Plea. They’re both toast.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Why is the mana gone?

Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It

The Light and How to Swing It: Why is the mana gone? originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Comic News: Out of World announced that there will now be a comic released each week, rather than 3 times per month. It has also been seriously suggested that The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf will be back soon! Unfortunately, I do not have the date yet. You guys should also take another look at the SMF Gallery Guide; WoW, eh?’s artwork has been updated to show a custom piece!

Last, but certainly not least, Kelly Aaron’s, and WoW.com‘s, Byron, the Tauren Rogue, has debuted its finale.

• Fourth Wall: Mojo.
• Slash AFK: The Rogue. Also: Get in Mah Bellie.
• Tales from the Crossroads: Fanning the Flame.
• NPC: Appreciation Decimation. Also: Ego Maniac.
• Complex Actions: Rogue in Training.
• Teh Gladiators: The Whi… Wailing Caverns. (1/2 – hit next!).
• Check out the latest from Out of World. Ever so slightly, possibly, a little bit, NSFW.
• Beyond the Tree: Shield Shocked. Also: Woe to the Conquered.
• Away From Reality: Prickly.
• WoW, eh?: All Comes Tumbling Down.
• Torment of the Week: The Next Step.
• The Warcraft Hero in: No Contest.
• Dark Legacy Comics: Undercover.
• LFG #387 and #388.
• Daily Quests: One More for the Road. P.S. I will totally take care of that mount for you.
• Coffin Comics Minis: Decision 2010.
• Coffin Comics: Goblin Motorrad.
• Guilded Age has a somewhat NSFW one-year anniversary issue up!

Last week’s featured comment: Tokkar said…

Continue reading Sunday Morning Funnies: Even the sticker is shoddy

Filed under: Humor, Comics, Sunday Morning Funnies

Sunday Morning Funnies: Even the sticker is shoddy originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.

It began innocently enough. My first toon was a druid who, like all druids, started collecting off sets. As the soulbound epics began to pile up, I rolled a bank alt to store the herbs and other sundry BoE items she amassed. And then I started collecting alts. And professions. And materials to level just about anything you could imagine, from reputation to first aid. Before I could intervene, the bank alt formed her own guild simply to manage the inventory.

On impulse one day, I decided the hoarding was too much. How many Bone Fragments does anyone really need, after all? Over the next few weeks, I auctioned off every item not directly related to profitable endgame crafting, making a substantial amount of gold in the process. There was order and storage and sanity — until the turtle mount obsession kicked in. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m incapable of vendoring potentially useful materials. Potions of Speed sell nicely, but not as quickly as the aptly named Pygmy Suckerfish float in, and a thousand hours of Guru’s Elixir seems a tad excessive even for nine alts.

Do you too have a hoarding problem? Glacial Bags across the board filled with complete tier sets from every level? Rare materials of dubious value looted while getting Loremaster? Stacks of epic gems you can’t auction off rapidly enough? Fel Armaments in case someday you might want to become exalted with Aldor? Rows of Northsea Pearls you have no idea what to do with? Am I really the only person whose fifth guild bank tab is given over to something as questionable as Pygmy Oil?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts

Breakfast Topic: Are you a hoarder? originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments