Thursday, July 19, 2007

Entering the world o' gems

In my WoW playing career, I've been in the possession of one, count 'em, one gem. I bought it from some NPC schmoe in the inn at Honor Hold, just to see how the gem thing worked. What it told me was that gems were just as big a mess as enchants; lots of money that I couldn't spend effectively until I did a ton of homework.

Well, at least the homework becomes much easier when you find the World of Warcraft Gem Finder. If I want to know which give +spell dmg, it's just a click away. Spell damage in a blue socket? Two clicks.

Very nice. Not quite PayPal donation nice, but nice.

Btw -- thanks for the comment earlier. Will post soon about the +nature damage, which I do tend to use over generic +spell for PvE leveling. After a quick review of the Nordrassil Raiment, I think the much less expensive +nature dmg gives Tier 5 armor a run for its money. Pre-70, obviously enough, I think "of Nature's Wrath" is tough to beat.

Now I haven't run any mathes against "of Arcane Wrath" and starfire, but when you can grab that +617 bonus every two seconds, 1.5 if you crit, well, I think it's the pure speed of wrath that's most important for maxing out your gear's bonuses. I do start with starfire, as things haven't changed much since level 62 or so.

Balance Style:
Starfire to pull
Entangling roots
Moonfire for DoT
Insect Swarm
Vengeance of the Illidari or the like
Wrath-spam
(reupping roots and moonfire as necessary)


The only thing that's changed for panzering is that I'm using the Braxxis staff now instead of Ursol's.

Panzerkin with Braxxis
Starfire to pull (occasionally if starfire stuns, I'll use Vengeance of the Illidari)
Wraths until mob is on me (Nature's Grace pays off here)
Moonfire (followed by Wrath on criticals)
Insect Swam
Faerie Fire
Wail with Braxxis
(re-up moonfire every ten seconds, and follow with Wrath if Nature's Grace procs)

1 comment:

Mera said...

Meant to comment earier.

Although natures grace is more prominent from wrath, and so to maximise its use, a fast cast is good, wrath is a mana drain.

Starfire will allow much more sustained damage, and although you will not do as much damage per second, you will be able to keep on nuking for much longer, increasing your overall damage.

If you prefer to drink more often and see mobs go down faster, or somehow do enough melee damage to counter mana regen, go for it.

However, generic +dmg gear not only aids nature damage & arcane, making that sustained dps easier, it also benefits +healing. You may hate healing, but sometimes, you gotta do it, whether its off heal, or even main heal, that generic +dmg will start helping you heal greatly.

Do you switch weapons in combat - I know you like to do melee damage, but if you can swap in combat, why not? Start with your caster staff, open with spells, then flick onto your slumber or ursol instead. The +armour bonus from braxxis staff of slumber is nice, but the AP you will get from ursols claw will definetly help mana regen from Elune's touch instead.

Finally, if you start only taking greens n blues of +nat dmg, you lose items with spell crit.

If you wanna maximise your use of nature's grace, get balanced items that add a bit of crit. and when you go endgame, either kara, or lvl 70 instances, that +hit gear will help immensly up your dps.