Fall of Jewelcrafting

A major announcement was made for Jewelcrafting on the 22nd which I haven’t had a chance to address yet:

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

In the next major content patch we will be removing the prismatic quality of the jewelcrafter-only Dragon’s Eye gems. Like other gems, they will have to match the socket color to receive a socket bonus. When this change occurs, players with qualifying jewelcrafting skill will be provided a yet to be determined amount of Dalaran Jewelecrafter Tokens as compensation.

This is actually a pretty big chance which will significantly change the benefits of JC vs other professions. Lets try and break it down to how it affects raiding and kitty dps. Lets focus in only on professions that give dps boots and skip the don’t have direct bonuses (ie. Herbalism, Mining, Engineering, Tailoring)

Profession DPS Bonus Summary

Alchemy: Mixology (increased duration on flasks 2x + increased effect)

Blacksmithing: Socket Bracer, Socket Glove (Add 2 prismatic sockets)

Enchanting: Enchant Ring – Assault (+32 Attack Power x2)

Inscription: Master’s Inscription of the Axe (+104 Attack Power, +15 Crit)

Jewelcrafting: Delicate Dragon’s Eye (+27 Agil x 3)

Leatherworking: Fur Lining – Attack Power (+114 Attack Power)

Skinning: Master of Anatomy (+32 Crit)

Now that we understand the general bonuses, how does that affect kitty dps? Below are some basic kitty conversion numbers pulled from Elitist Jerks

*1 Agi = 1.18932 AP (1.308252 AP) (Cat Only)

*1 Agi = 0.0129744% (0.01427184%) Crit

*1 CritRating = 0.022% Crit

Alchemy: +64 AP from Flask of Endless Rage

Blacksmithing: 2 Sockets = + 16 agil x2 = 32 Agility or 41.86 AP + 0.46% Crit

Enchanting: 2 Ring Enchants = +32 AP x 2 = +64 AP

Inscription: Shoulders +104 AP – +40 AP (Exalted Hodir Enchant) = +64 AP

Jewelcrafting (pre nerf): 3 Pris Gems (in blue/yellow & red socket) (19+19+11 Agility) = +49 Agility or 64.1 AP +0.70% Crit

Jewelcrafting (post nerf): 3 Pris Gems (in 3 red sockets) (11 Agility)x3 = +33 Agility or 43.17 AP +0.47% Crit

Skinning: +32 Crit = 0.704% Crit

Summary?

All professions are pretty close in terms of benefit with BS and JC coming out on top. While JC was far superior before the nerf it’s been brought a little closer into alignment with the rest of the professions. It’s still the logical choice to choose but just not as apparent as before. While BS is definitely the next best option, it really doesn’t make sense for a druid to be a BS so any of the other professions seem to a better choice.

ps. In case you’re wondering why I’m Enchanting/Herbalism, the main reason behind this is me being lazy and waiting for Ulduar to see if epic gems would be released. I really should get to work and lv JC but laziness and the convenience of being able to farm my own herbs are winning the war. (epic flight form herbing ftw!)

You’re a… Heartbreaker

I originally wrote some thoughts on the XT hardmode Heartbreaker a few weeks ago. At the time in it’s original form it was quite frankly, difficult as balls. However, since then they’ve gone and nerfed it “to the ground”. I’m really not too happy that they did this, sure we got the achievement (in 1 try no less) but it doesn’t really feel like we earned it nor was it really worthy of being called a hard mode.

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

The hit point increasing hard mode ability for XT-002 Deconstructor has been reduced to 50% in the 10 player Normal setting, and 60% in the 25 player Heroic setting. The corresponding damage increase for XT-002 has also been reduced to 15%. Life Sparks also have half of their previous hit point values.

XT-002 Deconstructor Hard Mode – Heartbreaker

• XT-002 no longer enters heartphase (you broke his heart duh!)
• XT-002 HP increased by 50% (5mil HP to 12.5mil HP)
• XT-002 damage is increased by 25%
• Gravity Bombs now drop a void zone once they expire
• Light Bombs now spawn a Light Spark upon expiry

General Tips

• Don’t pop heroism on 1st heart, you shouldn’t need it
• Use 1 tank, Assault Bots that spawn can be tanked easily by a cat druid or a ret pally etc
• Melee should try and stack on 1 foot (say right) so that if someone gets Searing Light, they can switch to the left foot and continue to dps
• Gravity Bomb void zones should be dropped far away to avoid any accidental dmg
• Have your casters (we had 2) kill Light Sparks, keep melee on XT

Kitty Tips

• Berserk on your 1st heart phase, it’ll be up again before the fight is over
• Before the heart phase begins (pre 75%) try and get a nice big 4-5 cp Savage Roar applied this will help to minimize the amount of cp’s wasted during this phase and increase your overall dmg
• Make sure your Tiger’s Fury is up + full energy pre heart phase, dps loss pre heart phase is better than dps loss during heart phase.
• Help your healers out, pop Barkskin/Survival Instincts when possible during Tympanic Tantrum or if shit hits the fan, shift out and drop some heals

Whats the point of doing this achievement? Fluxing Energy Coils

It’s about damn time

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

In our next major content patch, druids will find a host of new textures for two major forms, cat and bear. There will be five different designs for each of these forms for the Horde and Alliance. Night elves can choose to change their cat and bear look at any time by visiting the barber shop and changing their character’s hair color, while tauren will be able to change which look they use by switching skin tones in the barber shop — a new feature for tauren in the next major content patch. Given that there are more hair colors and skin tones than unique form looks, some colors and tones will overlap with these new textures. The hair and skin colors chosen will, in most cases, correspond with the color seen in the look of each form. Some similar colors that may share a particular cat texture will not necessarily share the same bear texture.

We’d like to share with you this new art for each form and faction in four installments. So without further ado, our first preview is for the five new textures of the tauren druid bear form. We’ll also show the current form design so you can easily see the extra detail and textures of the new art. Work continues on new looks for the remaining druid forms and we hope to add them in future content patches.

Where are the cat models?! ^^

EDIT: Added Night Elf Models!

Too Much Penetration

There was a blue post made on Friday (I would have updated but I don’t blog on weekends) regarding the potential changes to Armor Penetration.

Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)

We are now considering capping armor penetration at 100%. Armor could no longer go negative. We’re not sure if we would do this in a hotfix or in 3.1.2. We just wanted to let anyone know who is furiously trying to acquire every armor pen item in the game.

Note that there is not a not a cap on the amount of armor that can be reduced in WoW at the moment. Also note that capping armor penetration at 100% does not mean that you can always reduce every target’s armor to 0%. The tooltip says “up to” for a reason.

Yes, we understand this stat can be a little confusing.

Whats up with this potential change? My thoughts are it’s a precautionary change to prevent all melee classes from stacking ArP and ignoring all other stats, allowing a theoretical maximum much higher than anticipated. Stacking one stat only is not something new, a prime example being pre 3.1, all kitties recall stacking str gems to maximize Savage Roar even though it didn’t really make sense (logically) from a kitty/rogue philosophical perspective. What should we be doing now? Well there’s a lot of discussion going on on the Elitist Jerk forums on what gear choices should be made going forward. The choices that need to be made are highly dependent on each individual druid. Regardless of the change, you should still aim to stack towards 100% to maximize your benefit from ArP which can be done using trinkets, gear or a combination of both. Some things that need to be considered are:

• Are you a full time kitty or a full time bear/part time kitty? (Do you have a separate kitty set?)
• How much ArP do you have now? How close are you to the cap (100%)? With/Without a trinket?
• Do you have access to Hard Mode IC/Naxx to obtain the ArP trinkets? (Grim Toll, Mjolner Runestone)

Personally, I am sitting at a level of ArP that is not close enough to the cap (even with Grim toll) to make it worthwhile to gem for ArP. As such I’m still gemmed purely for agility. This may/will probably change as I continue to get more ArP gear but in the interim, I’m sitting on my current gems waiting for more gear (WRU Mjolner Runestone) and the outcome of Blizzard’s changes & the discussions of the community. The last thing you want to do is gear towards a goal before the stat is balanced.

Appease Lord Consumablars

One of the most challenging things in raiding is to find 25 competent, consistent & dedicated raiders to pull together and work towards a common goal. Contrary to popular believe, WOW is a game and not a job and to ask for everyone to be at their best always is a challenging task.

One of the most difficult things I find is ensuring that everyone is using consumables for progression nights. I completely understand that consumables are not necessary for farm nights because who doesn’t want to save some gold? But on a progression night where we’re trying to push the envelope and every little bit counts, it’s absolutely a must.

I stumbled upon an excellent addon (in my frustration in between wipes with guildies not using consumables) that actually identifies users who are not using consumables (flasks/elixirs & food buffs). Gone are the days of having to click on each user and look for buffs. This nifty addon will display in raid chat every guilty culprit who is trying to go unnoticed and fly under the radar. Worked great for us, hope it works for you

Behold! Check for Consumables

On a side note, thanks to Runy over at Unbearably HoT for the link and publicity for my fledging blog. I hope the folks that came to take a peek like what they’ve seen and will continue to read in the future. Not much to report in from the hard mode front except that we’ve been working on Freya and did complete Knock, Knock on Wood. All 3 will take a bit more work and coordination which I’ll report on once it’s complete!