Psionic’s PcGamer

Patch 3.2 is on the horizon and I want to go over a few interesting updates from the patch notes, as well as tier set bonuses for Tier 9. First item to point out is any instance and/or raid that dropped Emblem of Heroism or Emblem of Valor will now drop Emblem of Conquest! This is a great update to gear up newer level 80 players or alts. Also, they can still be converted down to Heroism or Valor if you’d like.

Now for the relevant elemental shammy changes, my notes are in italics!

• A customizable totem bar will now be available for shaman allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems. Starting DPS earlier is going to be great, and with the 4 different sets, you can have a few PVE and PVP versions. If you’re dual-spec with Resto when you switch it can have it’s own separate sets for PVE and PVP.
• All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards. Again, possibly starting DPS earlier. This will help me in our Thorim fight as our tank takes the second mini-boss up the stairs, he sometimes gets away from me.
• Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed. Much needed change for PVP, but I’ve yet to see how much it could possibly help. Except for Thunderstorming opponents off cliffs Ele Shammies are kind of gimped.

Tier 9 Set Bonuses

Elemental 2P Bonus: Increases the duration of your Flame Shock spell by 9 sec.

Simply spamming Lightning Bolt only does 3-400 less DPS on target dummies, and this is because of the GCD waiting on Flame Shock. By lasting 9 more seconds, it will boost DPS by a decent amount more over LB spamming. However, losing the 4P bonus from Tier 8.5 is going to hurt. It may be better to simply wait till you have 4P T9.

Elemental 4P Bonus: Increases the damage done by your Lava Burst spell by 20%.

With the combination of FS lasting longer, this will really boost dps.

Rotation is still a priority system: FS>LBur>LBolts

No other Elemental changes so far! For the full patch notes Wowhead as always has a well formatted layout. Here’s the link!

It was an exciting week in Ulduar Friday and Saturday. On Friday we got FL, Razorscale again, and then proceeded to kill XT-002 Deconstructor after about 2 1/2 hours of attempts. It was rough but we got him down. We aren’t taking screenshots of encounters considered easier. We moved on to Kologarn and got him down after a few attempts.

Psion on a motorcycle in Ulduar!

Kologarn’s Head

Saturday was just as successful. It didn’t seem like it would be at first! We were wiping over and over on Auriaya. The pull is very difficult, but once you got that down it’s just down to paying attention and surviving. Each time someone dies, the risk someone else will die goes up, and if you lose more than 5-6 people you’re gonna be toast, depending on her HP at that point.

Auriaya defeated by Relentless!

Next, we moved on to Hodir. It’s a very easy fight and we had him down the 3rd attempt. Afterward, we killed the trash to Thorim, because he is supposed to be an easier fight as well. It didn’t go so well and we didn’t have much time left for the raid, so after the 4th wipe we called it. Basically half the raid goes down this hallway and half the raid stays in the center arena. I know the Arena groups had issues as well, but all I saw was the hallway group, and it was a mess! This mini-boss fires a slam down the hallway on one side or the other, and you have to move out of that. Then there are 2 sets of 3 mobs that have to be killed as you’re rotating back and forth. They also stun you. It wasn’t fun to say the least, we’ll be practicing more next week.

For my own reference and anyone interested this is my patch 3.1 ideal spec/gear for pure PVE Elemental Shaman.

Elemental Shaman Spec and Glyphs

Now, this spec is for PVE, but you do have some leeway in where you spend points. For example, I put two points in Improved Ghost Wolf that you could put into Improved Shields. Also, I put a full 3 points into Unrelenting Storm, which is debatable if you need it or not. In Ulduar, I’ve noticed that on bosses I have no mana issues, but moving constantly fight to fight I have to drink now and again whereas before I was practically always full mana.

Now, for the gear. My ideal gear for patch 3.1 (with alternatives)

Helm: Conqueror’s Worldbreaker Helm

Neck: Pendant of the Shallow Grave, Pendant of Fiery Havoc, Pendant of the Piercing Glare

Shoulders: Conqueror’s Worldbreaker Shoulderpads

Back: Drape of Mortal Downfall, Drape of the Spellweaver

Chest: Conqueror’s Worldbreaker Hauberk

Wrists: Bindings of Winter Gale

Hands: Conqueror’s Worldbreaker Gloves

Waist: Belt of the Fallen Wyrm

Legs: Conqueror’s Worldbreaker Kilt

Feet: Eruption-Scarred Boots, Lightning Grounded Boots (These boots are BoE and craftable by leatherworkers, it has 2 gem slots which could make them better than the other boots.)

Rings: Frozen Loop, Pyrelight Circle, Shimmering Seal

Trinkets: Eye of the Broodmother, Pandora’s Plea, Scale of Fates +Hit > Living Flame, Elemental Focus Stone

Weapon: Soulscribe

Shield: Voice of Reason

Totem: Totem of Hex

Basically, you need to look for items that have spellpower, haste, crit, and hit. You don’t need spirit or mp/5 in practice. The hit cap varies depending on your race, spec, and whether or not you have a boomkin with Improved Faerie Fire in your raid. Here’s a good guide for hit rating courtesy WowWiki.

Keep in mind there are still some very good gear options in Naxx25, such as the boots above. Blizzard did not give us any options that don’t have mp/5 for Boots in Ulduar, from what we’ve seen so far.

This was last week, but Relentless was able to down Razorscale week one of patch 3.1! Once you learn the encounter it wasn’t too difficult, but the way we killed him was kind of funny. Our first tank dropped when he was around 40%, and was quickly picked up by a pally tank. He died at 10%, Xeo yells on Vent “EVERYONE DPS, HEALERS THROW DOTS UP!” I think he enraged at like 2% and dropped shortly after.

We had maybe 10 people alive when he died! O.o

Much to my dismay, it appeared as though the T8.5 for Elemental Shaman was going to have a lot of MP/5 (which is basically useless for us, even more so with Chain Heal nerf). Blizzard has come through and listened to the community (or always planned it and updated the gear!) but all that MP/5 is now Crit and even better, pure Hit Rating.

This is a truly fantastic change, my gear spreadsheets will no longer have cloth items for Helm/Chest. The best part about the new stats is with all this Hit Rating, we can actually choose a different trinket than +Hit and still be hit-capped. There are still some items that are better as Cloth but personally I don’t like being seen in Cloth.

Link courtesy mmo-champion Elemental T8.5

Edit: It looks pretty wicked.

This week I’m working on leveling up my awesome drood, and just hit 73.  On my shaman I made sure to do the quest achievements as I leveled up so I didn’t have to do them later. Doing the same thing now on my druid, but I know it’s not the fastest way to level.  Leveling for a second time to 80 is going to be grueling, and some of the starter quests are mundane. However, there is some great lore in the beginning zones that I see now directly relate to lore in Storm Peaks and Icecrown, and at times it’s pretty fun.

Psionic riding a flaming arrow.

Surfing a flaming arrow. What is cooler than that?

Wrath of the Lich King has brought hundreds of exciting new quest lines, done in more detail than ever before. Not just in lore, but in the immersion of the player in the quest.  The days of retrieving or slaughtering X number of Y are not gone, but they have certainly evolved.

My Shaman, Psionic (Nazjatar), has been level 80 for a couple weeks now. In my own journeys I have been completing the Quest achievements in Northrend and have come across several chains that are really cutting-edge.  My favorite so far was Storm Peaks, in the chain that leads to the dailies for Sons of Hodir.

Thorim

There are around 20-25 quests in the chain, beginning with simple requests from Lok’lira the Crone, inside a cave.  She transforms you to appear as a Hyldnir, an ancient race of female (except for the King) warriors.  Through your efforts an alliance forms between the Hyldnir and the Sons of Hodir.  Certain aspects of the world change depending on where you are in the quest line, so it truly feels as if you guide the outcome of the truce.  And the ending… magnificent.  I won’t spoil it for you, go find out for yourself!

The starting quest is They Took Our Men!