Oh it feels good to write a priest only column again, even if it is only temporarily. Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed when looking at everything healer related or thinking “big picture”. But when it the focus is just about priests, I can really go into some of the gritty stuff.
Anyway, I got a little treat this week. I’ve been spending a bit of time in Cataclysm. You don’t need me to tell you this place looks awesome. In case you were wondering about leveling, check out the video I’ve attached. It’s me destroying a bunch of mobs both as discipline and as holy. To the untrained eye, they wouldn’t really know what to look for because leveling as discipline and holy looks practically the same!
If you haven’t seen what Power Word: Barrier looks like yet, don’t worry as it’s all in here as well. Read more about my thoughts on the two non-shadow specs for leveling, Chakra, and what end game could feel like. I healed some Blackrock Caverns as holy, and I have to say, I do like the way the default healing UI is coming.
Continue reading Spiritual Guidance: Cataclysm leveling so far
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Spiritual Guidance: Cataclysm leveling so far originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You’re playing the game, you’re fighting the bosses, you know the how — but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.
When looking at the new race and class combinations that are coming out with Cataclysm, some are far easier than others to digest, such as the addition of the hunter class to the human race. Of course the humans can be hunters, that’s not a terribly far-fetched statement at all. But what about the other new race that, as of Cataclysm, gets to take up the bow and tame beasts as well? I’m speaking of the Forsaken, of course — the thought of an undead creature holding a biscuit and coaxing a wolf to be his new best friend is just a little off-putting.
In Wrath, we’ve seen a sudden return of the dark rangers — the forsaken remnants of what used to be Sylvanas’ corps of elven rangers. As Ranger General of Silvermoon, Sylvanas led and commanded the Farstriders back before the Third War. After the events of the Third War, Sylvanas found herself turned into a banshee, and then after regaining her body, a dark ranger — the first dark ranger of the Forsaken. But the Forsaken we play in game aren’t really elven — they’re humans, the former residents of Lordaeron. How do they fit in? There’s a few different and absolutely reasonable theories kicking around, but first we should take a look at the first and only human ranger lord — Nathanos Marris.
WARNING: The following post may contain some spoilers for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. If you wish to remain unspoiled, stopping here would be advised!
Continue reading Know Your Lore: Nathanos Marris and the dark rangers of the Forsaken
Filed under: Lore, Know your Lore
Know Your Lore: Nathanos Marris and the dark rangers of the Forsaken originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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I’ve said it before, but low level PvP is going to be insanely fun come Cataclysm. It will be so much fun, in fact, that it will almost be worth rolling alts for and maybe even turning off XP gains to stay in the lower brackets just a while longer. The big change is because of the bonus abilities players gain when choosing a tree to specialize in. Although every character gets one big, signature spell, they are bundled with complementary abilities or skills that define the spec.
When I first reviewed the initial talent overhaul, the developers hadn’t settled on exactly what abilities to give to classes at level 10. Several builds into the beta, we have a better picture of how the various specs will look, and it’s not very likely that these will change much when the game goes live, considering that each spec basically revolves around these core abilities. For the purposes of this post, we’ll take a look at the first two battleground brackets — 10-19 and 20-29 — mostly because characters get talent points every other level now, so these two brackets should cover the first two tiers of each tree. We’ll try to be general for now because everything is in such flux, so expect a few errors as abilities get moved around from one beta iteration to the next.
Continue reading The Art of War(Craft): Low level PvP in Cataclysm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, The Art of War(craft) (PvP)
The Art of War(Craft): Low level PvP in Cataclysm originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Every Sunday, Chase Christian of The Light and How to Swing It invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. This week, we discuss how holy power works and what we’ll be using it for.
If we look at the resource systems of WoW over its lifetime, it’s clear that Blizzard has been trying to diversify the mechanics. We’ve seen warriors’ rage system constantly tweaked, rogue energy regeneration altered in every expansion, and hunters returning to their old focus resource from back in the original beta. The inception of death knights also introduced not one, but two resource systems to the game. Warlocks are even getting a new soul shard system in Cataclysm that will give them a brand new resource bar.
Paladins of all specs have been having problems with their ability usage. Retribution paladins could use a castrandom macro and do nearly full DPS, protection paladins have an incredibly static “969″ rotation, and holy paladins have been stuck using nothing but Holy Light since Naxxramas. We needed something to help us break the cycle of repetitive ability usage. The dev team looked at ways to give our class a little more flavor, and came up with the concept of holy power.
Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Holy Power hands-on
Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It
The Light and How to Swing It: Holy Power hands-on originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
