Enhancing Raids w/your Shaman WoWNow!
Updated here to include the following two weapons….
March 30, 2008 Added two more Patch 2.4 items:
Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus.
I went and filled out the zillion questions from Easydamus to find out that ….
I Am A: Chaotic Neutral Human Wizard/Sorcerer (3rd/3rd Level)
Ability Scores:
Strength-15
Dexterity-19
Constitution-14
Intelligence-16
Wisdom-17
Charisma-14
Alignment:
Chaotic Neutral A chaotic neutral character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but doesn’t strive to protect others’ freedom. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions. A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those different from himself suffer). A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behavior is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it. Chaotic neutral is the best alignment you can be because it represents true freedom from both society’s restrictions and a do-gooder’s zeal. However, chaotic neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it seeks to eliminate all authority, harmony, and order in society.
Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.
Primary Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard’s strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.
Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.
Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus
Detailed Results:
Alignment:
Lawful Good —– XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (17)
Neutral Good —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
Chaotic Good —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Lawful Neutral — XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21)
True Neutral —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (23)
Chaotic Neutral – XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (24)
Lawful Evil —– XXXXXX (6)
Neutral Evil —- XXXXXXXX (8)
Chaotic Evil —- XXXXXXXXX (9)
Law & Chaos:
Law —– XXXXXX (6)
Neutral – XXXXXXXX (8)
Chaos — XXXXXXXXX (9)
Good & Evil:
Good —- XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Neutral – XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Evil —- (0)
Race:
Human —- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Dwarf —- XXXXXXXX (8)
Elf —— XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Gnome —- XXXXXXXX (8)
Halfling – XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Half-Elf – XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Half-Orc – XXXX (4)
Class:
Barbarian – (-2)
Bard —— (0)
Cleric —- (0)
Druid —– (-6)
Fighter — XX (2)
Monk —— (-23)
Paladin — (-19)
Ranger —- (0)
Rogue —– (-2)
Sorcerer — XXXX (4)
Wizard —- XXXX (4)
Well, I finally said adios to my trusted PVP cleaver and welcomed in a Netherbane to my off-hand. A fine upgrade and pretty high up there on my list of weapons for an enhancement shaman. 4th overall in value for an enhancement shaman for off-handers currently. This will change come the 2.4 patch, but a darn good off-hand indeed.
Group:
Totems:
Just dps like mad and don’t pull aggro.
Notes:
I love, love this boss. Very melee friendly! Just dps like mad and don’t pull aggro.
Notes:
Still have a few improvements to make on this boss. Seems like the Corrupted Lightning totem does get in my way of making more dps on the boss, but lasting the entire encounter was more important tonight. I even took a sabre-lash or two. Yuck!
Notes:
My first ever kill of this boss, heck…. it’s my first ever SEEING this boss. He can be a pain, but I just prioritize my targets for bird adds first, Jan’alai 2nd after the bird adds are down.
Notes:
I pulled on my PVP gear for stamina buffs. All sorts of any kinds of stamina increases so we can all survive the Spirit Bolts (Shadow) ability from the Hex Lord. Made sure I was topped up in health just before the Spirit Bolts came blasting in.
Notes:
Add’l details on his abilities on this fight:
We packed up and held Zul’jin for tomorrow.
We were a bit tired and wanted to try Zul’jin with full rested XP, so we’ll try him tomorrow night. Note: this dungeon will reset in 1 day 3 hrs!
Badges of Justice, the new economy will be here soon. Pokemon… gotta catch ‘em all fever is nearly here. Patch 2.4 is coming soon, the download is already upon us all. So I ask ye of little hope, what benefits are you going to first grab up?
For the enhancement shaman, I wholeheartedly look forward to the the Vanir’s Right Fist of Brutality for a main-hand upgrade. Right?
Based on my little poor-man’s EJ calculations my current Dragonstrike main-hand weapon value for enhancement shamans is 970.1 EP. The Vanir’s Right Fist of Pwnage! is more than a tier upgrade at 1015.4 EP. Heck, the Big Bad Wolf’s Paw (834.6) to Decapitator (912.8) upgrade is 78.2 EP points. The Vanir’s Right Fist of Brutality (1015.4) vs. Dragonstrike (970.1) is a whopping 45 EP points. Ohh. That’s not too much of a change.
Ouch. I was hoping for more when cashing in my Badger tokens. 105 BoJ for a 45 EP upgrade. Hmmm. An upgrade is an upgrade, isn’t it?
Geez. That’s a lotta Badges. Lemme look at what else I can get (on the cheap) for enhancing the enhancement shaman.
X 45: Off-hand weapon | Vanir’s Left Fist of Brutality
X 60: Back | Dory’s Embrace
X 60: Wrist | Steadying Bracers
X 60: Ring | Angelista’s Revenge / Sunwell Badge Loot – Melee Ring
X 75: Hands| Gauntlets of Rapidity
X 75: Hands| Belt of the Silent Path
X 100: Leather Leg | Trousers of the Scryers’ Retainer (leather)
X 100: Chest | Tunic of the Dark Hour
What will be your first Badger purchases for Patch 2.4? Enquiring minds wanna know!
A clearing of Tempest Keep (except for the old head-honcho himself, Kael’thas) tonight and more badgers to round up in Karazhan.
I want to improve (gear & skill) for each Tempest Keep run so I keep the stats and compare with previous fights.
Al’ar
Starting off, we downed Al’ar the Phoenix in Tempest Keep with a #10 ranking in overall damage output.
Miss rate (white damage): 18.9% much better than the 22.7% miss rate from last time.
Crit rate (white damage): 32%
Windfury proc rate: 29%
Void Reaver
Loot Reaver still kills a lot of raiders, even on a 1-shot. My damage done getting to #4 overall output to Void Reaver. In fact, I was #4 ranked in damage done back in Dec. 11, 2007.
Miss rate (white damage): 17.8% is actually worse than 15.7% back in Dec. 11, 2007. Hmmm.
Dps now: 784 vs. dps then 689.
Crit rate (white damage): 22%
Windfury proc rate: 27%
Strange that my crit rate and miss rate are worse now compared to Dec. 11, 2007, but my overall dps is higher.
High Astromancer Solarian
I continue to look forward to this fight because the mage has low armor and I can do more dps than any other boss in Tempest Keep. I did get 1626 dps vs. Solarian at one point. That’s the best I’ve done on any Tier 5 (SSC/TK) boss. Overall dps this time was #8 and 1053 dps. Even though I was ranked #6 back in Jan. 14th, my overall dps was 936.
Miss rate (white damage): 12.7% is mucho better than 18.1% on Jan. 14th, 2008.
Crit rate (white damage): 26%
Windfury proc rate: 30%
Karazhan
Still looking forward to the 2.4 badge rewards? I know I am. I just hope Blizzard doesn’t pull a frosty one on us and make the Badge rewards 2.4 Badges only or something.
Moroes
#3 ranked damage output on Moroes at 730 dps. Miss rate was 17.3% (not too bad) but that ole rogue can still dodge a fair bit (7% dodge rate). Ayep. The only difference from last week’s Karazhan is that I was in survival mode for most of this fight because the Moroes adds were running around mostly free. Last week dps: 946. Last week’s miss rate: 18.8%. Last week’s Windfury crit rate: 50%. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.
Crit rate (white damage): 20%
Windfury proc rate: 30%
Maiden of Virtue
Maiden was full of melee this go round. Again like last week, I ranked at #3 in overall damage done. My dps was slightly better at 780 dps vs. 754 dps last week. Only a 22.3% miss rate this time vs. last week’s parry-extravaganza 35.6% miss rate. 15% parries are serious, so I stayed behind the big lass as best I could this time.
Crit rate (white damage): 22%
Windfury proc rate: 34%
Opera – Big Bad Wolf
The Big Bad Wolf event from Opera was fun (and I don’t remember getting the Little Girl debuff) so I was one of three people who didn’t get killed and survived to rezz up the fallen raiders. Is he really that hard? Or people just not knowing the encounter, bad luck, etc.?
Miss rate (white damage): 12.9% (nice!)
Crit rate (white damage): 27%
Windfury proc rate: 18% (that’s all?! geez. unlucky)
Nightbane
Nightbane last week was horrible. This week was a little better because I only got one Charred Earth near me, so I could dps a fair bit this time. I was the main assist for the Rain of Bones. Managed up a 660 dps and #2 overall damage done to the scary skeletal dragon.
Miss rate (white damage): 15.1%
Crit rate (white damage): 33%
Windfury proc rate: 27%
More next week. Enjoy your WoW.
After a few silly wipes to warm us up to Kael’thas, we had a couple of good attempts (#7 and #8). Things definitely get better when the weapons are controlled and downed quickly in phase 2.
Group:
Phase 1 Totems:
The only melee damage needed in this phase are vs. Lord Sanguinar and Master Engineer Telonicus.
Phase 2 Totems:
Melee focus is on the Cosmic Infuser (mace), then Infinity Blades (dagger), Warp Slicer (sword), and finally Phaseshift Bulwark (shield).
Phase 3 Totems:
Run like heck, the sky is falling!
Yeah, we made it to phase 4 on both of these good attempts, but didn’t last long with Capernian and Telonicus still running around. Not to mention, Kael’thas was nuking at will too. 
Attempt #7 here:
Attempt #8 here:
My basic praises/gripes here are:
So, I’m asking all my shaman brothers & sisters out there: what tips can you provide that will help me out vs. Kael’thas? I’m looking for looting weapons help, more dps help and anything ‘weird’ that you do to survive this long phased encounter.
Now that 2.4 patch information is coming out of the woodwork, sprouting flowers and green possibilities everywhere, the mindless farming of badges continues. Karazhan madness, exit stage left. From Moroes to Prince in two hours & with three shaman, it was as easy as training a pigeon.
Ayep. Moroes was first up on the hit list. Pulled a respectable 946 dps and 2nd only to our always-raid-leading-hunter & hunter class leader, Wolfus.
Personal details vs. Moroes below. A few parried by Moroes, but not too bad 18.8% miss rate. I love that 50% Windfury crit rate. That rocks. 
Attumen next up and I pulled a lame 717 dps. #4 on the damage done chart. Must have been tired or something. A raw 20% base miss rate didn’t help either.
My personal details here & a lot of misses by yours truly. That’s crazy to have a melee 26.8% miss rate? I must be doing something wrong, but maybe just bad luck, but I probably need more armor reduction.
Maiden up next and another lackluster showing by yours truly. Only 754 dps and #3 ranking but it just seemed like I was stunned the whole fight. This and my %miss rate was *gulp* 35%! A 15% parry rate and 8% dodge rate leaves me with only 12% misses. Geez shaman, get behind her for pete’s sake.
Misses were bad enough, but 35.6% miss rate and it didn’t help that our tank can’t seem to stay in one place so I was forced to frontal attacks on Maiden. 15% parried = Yikes! 15% Windfury crit rate? Geez. It IS interesting to see how much Windfury can be parried. 20% parry rate vs. my Windfury plus the 5% dodges sure does limit my damage output.
Nightbane now and yep, I got Charred Earth near me every time except for 1 time Nightbane decided to throw one to the ranged people. I dislike this fight so much. How many ‘Blizzard-Don’t-Like-You-Melee-BURN!’ encounters do we face? Heaps of them, I tell you! Heaps.
Wound up running out of Charred Earth the whole time and guess who’s job it was to slam the skeletons? Yup, Mr. Enhancement Shaman. Why not just get a rogue to do it? Sheeesh. 21.5% miss rate.
Now! Finally for the fun melee fight. Downing Curator on his first Evocation is such a joy. I remember wiping to this guy a year ago, now he’s just easy-peasy. Yep, you saw it right. 1814 dps and #1 damage done overall.
36% white damage crit rate. A marginally low 19% miss rate. And see that 6506 max hit on a Windfury attack? Niiice.
I must have gotten a 2nd wind on that Curator fight, so I blasted up on Shade of Aran too. 1101 dps and #2 on the damage done.
2% parried, 13% miss rate are fantastic. 40% crit rates for white damage & Windfury are super as well.
Prince was last on our hit list. I was enfeebled a lot so I basically just sat back and watched the ranged dps him down. Pretty boring for melee if you ask me.
We’ve cleared Tempest Keep to Kael’thas. Bring on the wipe fest!
Any tips for an enhancement shaman during Kael’thas encounter? Send em my way via comment or email Asirae AT hotmaIL dot c0m.
Some lackluster presence from the raiders tonight as we downed attempted Lady Vashj. A heavy healer raid (4 x shaman, 5 x priest, 2 x paladin) does not bode well on Lady Vashj. Despite the obvious ‘less than desirable‘ raid mix, we had a few attempts on Lady Vashj, but did not make it anywhere clear in phase 3 so we tucked tail and ran. Ran all the way to Magtheridon.
Our best attempt on Lady Vashj. Overall, I was #2 on damage done to Lady Vashj, so that should tell you something was lacking from our hunters/rogues/dps’ers.
Group:
Totems:
My details during the Vashj fight here:
We turned to Matheridon and turned the pit lord over on a BBQ spit. Not a bad turnout from yours truly with #3 damage done spot to the enhancement shaman!
Group:
Totems:
My details here:
So, #2 dps on Vashj, and #3 dps on Magtheridon. Hmm!
More next week! Stay tuned.
