Patch 3.3.5 Test Drive: Enhancement DPS

What’s the first thing you’d do after a five-month hiatus?

I headed out for a test drive. After picking up the Black Bruise and Keleseth’s Seducer in April, a new job and new time constraints meant I had no more time for raiding, and I decided to take a break.

When I logged in last night and checked the character pane, I saw the icons and remembered: Hey, I’ve got a pair of bad-ass fist weapons here!

Some old-school friends were starting up a late 10-man ICC run, and we ran a quick six-boss gauntlet. Here are the numbers:

Gear Score: 5784

DPS: 9772.3

Buffs: Improved Might, Kings, MotW (scroll), Fish Feast, Intellect, no flask.

For half the raid, it was an alt run, so the context may be a bit skewed. The 9777 DPS was good for second on the meter, behind a very solid Elemental Shaman friend who has a heroic weapon and the four-piece set bonus.

Which I still don’t have. But, hey, Cataclysm might be here in less than two months, so what’s the worry?

It Depends On Which Witch

From the department of missing tier sets, some news: We still haven’t seen a single screen shot of the new Shaman Tier 10 armor set from Icecrown Citadel, but thanks to MMO-Champion, now we know its name: Frost Witch’s (Garb/Regalia/Battlegear.

Going by previous naming conventions, we (Enhancement Shamans) will wear the Frost Witch’s Battlegear.

I was initially disappointed when I read the news, but on second consideration it might not be that bad. It depends on how you visualize the word witch. There’s the Wicked Witch of the West (lame), and the Wicked version of that same witch (also lame), and you’ve also got the Salem “witches” (not very fun), but then again there’s the Witch-King of Angmar. And he’s badass. So badass, Blizzard decided to lift the character pretty much wholesale and splice it into its own lore.

Besides the superficial and visual similarities, the backstory of the Witch-King is echoed in the backstory of the Lich King — both are former mortal men, both are former royalty, and both became corrupted by inanimate objects imbued with dark magic. If you want to take it even further, both of them like to retreat to angular-looking fortresses with towering black gates and spires when they’re not terrorizing the rest of the world.

And, yeah, as a player of Battle for Middle Earth II, I’d noticed this at the time:

The ridiculous thing is, EA managed to nerf the Witch-King in very expansion that was named after him. In vanilla BFMEII, Mordor was laughably weak in the early game, but capable of an insane level of cheesiness in the mid- to late-game. I have many fond memories of leading Mountain Trolls and Nazgul, with the Witch-King at the forefront, against opponents in multiplayer.

But EA has such a disregard for its playerbase, that it’d rather devote all its developer resources into the next title than squash simple little bugs and cheat-permitting holes in an otherwise beautiful, memorable game. Seriously, BFMEII was the best multiplayer RTS since Age of Kings. But EA sucks, and Blizzard takes the longevity of its games seriously, which is why I’m playing World of Warcraft and not one of the EA shit festivals.

So, yes: Witches. Let’s hope for Angmar, and not the West.

PTR News round-up: Lich King sound files and sobbing Shaman

MMO-Champion supplemented Blizzard’s official update on the Patch 3.3 PTR changes today with a post packed with juicy new screenshots, including several new sweet-looking boss models, a trio of new five-man dungeons in Icecrown Citadel, and a a new vanity pet.

First, a potential spoiler: With the latest PTR build, Blizzard’s added a long list of new sound files associated with the scripted elements of the upcoming Icecrown Citadel raid. MMO-Champion has transcripts of the sound file, including dialogue from Uther the Lightbringer, High Overlord Saurfang, and several other prominent heroes from the game’s lore. We’ll repeat MMO-Champion’s warning here — if you want to go into Icecrown fresh, and you’d rather be surprised by what unfolds, don’t click on the link.

The post also features an updated list of Achievements players can earn in Icecrown Citadel (but only lists the 25-man versions at the moment), as well as screen shots for a couple new boss and mount models. Players will be able to obtain Invincible, a warhorse that formerly belonged to Arthas.

Invincible, Arthas' mount. (Image courtesy of MMO-Champion)

Not only does Invincible look more bad-ass than any other warhorse mount in the game, it’s also got wings and (as the filename suggests) presumbly can be used as a flying mount as well. The presence of wings, along with the fact that Invincible belonged to one of the most important lore figures (an evil Shadowfax, if you will), gives me hope that Blizzard will give the mount a separate flying animation, unlike the awkward Headless Horseman’s mount, which looks like it’s pedaling through the air on an invisible exercise bike.

And lastly, MMO-Champion has a Tier 10 set round-up, once again sans Shaman. If you’ve been waiting for a look at the Shaman Tier 10 models (and the search terms pointing to this blog confirm quite a few readers have been), the administrators at MMO-Champion feel your pain:

“The only thing I can give you for the moment is a great big hug while you cry on my shoulder.”

 

Related reading:

Cooldowns reduced on Earth and Fire Elemental totems in Patch 3.3

Tier 10 Enhancement Shaman set bonuses

Kilt vs Pants!

no t10 yet is a result of massive internal argument in the art dept between kilts versus pants

go pants!  - Vagoo, Cho’gall

 

There are many shaman t10 ideas floating around. i personally am supporting one of either of the following:

Coconut bikini and grass skirt

Codpiece, assless chaps, and black leather harness.  – Judrak, Proudmoore

Tier 10 Four-Piece Bonus: On Second Thought…

I took another look at my Tier 10 Enhancement Shaman set bonus preview post and realized I may have been underselling the four-piece bonus. A second look at the roughly one-in-seven chance proc shows some enormous potential for stacking absurd amounts of Attack Power.

Sure, it’s pure RNG, and like trinkets that have “equip” instead of “use” effects, it only lasts for a short 10 seconds. But this is all about burst damage, and it’s scary to think what the Tier 10 four-set proc can do in combination with our other procs.

We be gettin' crazy amounts of AP from dis proc, mon.

A well-geared shaman can easily hit 6k Attack Power while raid-buffed. With Unleashed Rage, that brings it up to 6,600. If the four-piece set bonus procs, that shaman is suddenly up to 7920 Attack Power. If the stars align, that shaman might have a double Berserker proc. Now he’s up to 8720 Attack Power. Toss in the proc from Totem of the Quaking Earth, and the shaman tops out at 9120 Attack Power.

Now, toss in Bloodlust, an offensive spell crit to trigger Elemental Devestation, and the 12% increased damage from the new Shamanistic Rage, and we’re looking at potentially ridiculous burst DPS in patch 3.3.

I’d be stupid to sneeze at that.

Tier 10 Enhancement Shaman set bonuses

The past week has seen a flurry of data-mined art depicting Tier 10 sets for almost every class besides Shaman. Maybe that’s a good thing, because Tier 10 sets for classes like Rogues and Hunters don’t seem to be going over very well, at least aesthetically.

The good news is, MMO-Champion’s given us a preview of Tier 10’s two- and four-set bonuses, including the bonuses for the as-yet unrevealed Shaman set:

• * 2 Pieces (Enhancement): When you activate your Shamanistic Rage ability you also deal 12% additional damage for 15 second.
• 
  * 4 Pieces (Enhancement): Each time the beneficial effect of your Maelstrom Weapon talent reaches 5 charges, you have a 15% chance to gain 20% attack power for 10 seconds.

The two-set bonus seems ridiculously good, especially compared to Tier 9 and considering Shamanistic Rage is on a one-minute cooldown. I’m sure I’m not alone among Enhancement Shaman in not using Shamanistic Rage very often when it comes off cooldown — in a way, Improved Stormstrike does its job almost too well, and the rare times I find myself hurting for mana are during extremely mobile fights like Anub, when I find myself re-dropping all four totems because the raid has run out of range.

With the two-set bonus, there’s incentive to use Shamanistic Rage every time it’s off cooldown. Players can also use it like an on-use trinket, timing it with Bloodlust and Feral Spirit to squeeze even more DPS from the ability.

The four-piece bonus is a little more confusing, as a percentage-of-a-percentage. Essentially, more than one out of every seven times you get a Maelstrom five-stack, you’ll gan 20% of your Attack Power. But only for 10 seconds. This set bonus is trinket-esque as well, with the caveat that you cannot control when it procs, adding yet another RNG element to Enhancement DPS.

Still, compared to Tier 9’s universally reviled set bonuses, Tier 10’s bonuses look flat-out incredible. Here’s to hoping they stay intact through the PTR to the live patch.

Related posts from Stormstrike:

Enhancement Shamans in Patch 3.3: Should we respec?

Lord Marrowgar down! The fight, from a melee perspective

The Frozen Halls: Enhancement Shaman Gear

Fall of the Lich King Trailer: So how easy will it be to kill Arthas?