Unbearably HoT

As it seems that nearly everyone I know has now received a beta key after the last wave of invitations, it only seems appropriate that I readdress Feral Combat talents in WotLK. After teleporting back and forth from Valiance Keep to Moonglade, I’ve finally settled on a build that I feel provides the most security and the best opportunity for bear threat generation—at least, for now.

I’m still a little confused as to where the real differentiation between bears and cats lies; while there are talents geared specifically for tanks (Natural Reaction, Protector of the Pack, etc.), there still aren’t any new talents for cats. King of the Jungle? Maybe, because I’d argue that the bonus use effect of Tiger’s Fury is much more useful than bonus use effect of Enrage. Rend and Tear superficially looks like a talent geared more toward cats, but since when has Ferocious Bite been useful for anything beyond leveling?

As such, I feel that you can currently utilize one build for tanking and moderate DPSing. The pictured talent build is essentially what I’d like to be using at 80. All PH NYI (place holder, not yet implemented) talents are now “live” on beta, and it’s pertinent to note that the talent “Mother Bear” has been renamed to the slightly less Disney “Protector of the Pack”. Talent choices that I felt warranted a discussion or at least mentions have been highlighted in red squares. Moving from top to bottom, left to right:

Naturalist
I’m still amazed that this talent is lurking in the Restoration tree. While many talent choices in the Feral Combat tree augment specific feral abilities under certain circumstances, Naturalist simply boosts damage by 10% in all forms—no strings attached. More damage landing means threat generated by your bear, and you have the added (albeit largely unnecessary) bonus of a talented-down Healing Touch. Jawesome.

Shredding Attacks
Note that I left this staple talent out in the final round. This is a key talent that I’d make a point in taking if I was planning solely on DPSing, and even though it also reduces the Rage cost of Lacerate, I have thus far never found myself in a Rage-starved-situation where I ended up wishing I’d taken it. I would much rather drop two points into Savage Fury and guarantee myself an additional 20% damage caused by our two largest threat multipliers, Maul and Mangle (in Bear).

Protector of the Pack
I’d like to reiterate that the old placeholder talent “Mother Bear” has been renamed to “Protector of the Pack”. While I’m still not thrilled at the damage reduction based on party members, you can’t dispute that a 12-15% overall damage reduction is a huge boon to Bear’s who normally have no way to mitigate spell damage, and who will, in the expansion, have far less armor than we’re used to. Couple the 12-15% damage reduction with a 60% Dire Bear damage increase, and you has absolutely no excuse to not take this talent.

Predatory Instincts & Rend and Tear
I originally wasn’t sure if the 10% base Maul damage bonus from Rend and Tear would win out over a 10% base damage bonus from all critical strikes. I realize at first glance that it seems like common sense: yes, having a critical strike damage multiplier for all attacks is fabulous and much better than augmenting one ability (as with Rend and Tear). The idea, however, was that the bonus from Predatory Instincts relied on a Critical Strike occurring, and that Rend and Tear’s additional 10% damage added to Maul (on bleeding targets) was a constant. In Beta, Maul really is where we start seeing some huge numbers and it plays a far more integral role in a normal tanking rotation than it used to. For now, however, I’m sticking to Predatory Instincts and also finding comfort in the 15% chance to avoid area effects.

Infected Wounds
I wasn’t initially sold on this talent. There was a lot of speculation regarding whether or not it would actually affect boss level mobs, but in lower level instances at the very least, it certainly applies. This talent is great. Your mainstays of Maul and Mangle can apply this debuff in stacks of two, reducing the target’s movement speed by 25% and attack speed by 10%. Sure, it only lasts for 12 seconds, but if you’re constantly reapplying Mangle and Maul, it never drops off. Compare this to a Warrior’s Thunder Clap at Level 80:

“Blasts nearby enemies increasing the time between their attacks by 10% for 30 sec. and doing 300 damage to them. Damage increased by attack power. This ability causes additional threat and will affect multiple targets.”

Although taking 3/3 Improved Thunder Clap blows IW out of the metaphorical water, Bears have essentially been provided with a single target Thunder Clap coupled with a Hamstring ability, something we never had before.

Everything else is a no-brainer. Berserk is especially awesome (when you remember that you have it), Feral Aggression is still mostly unnecessary, and we’ve also been granted the ability to use any item, potion, or stone while in any shapeshifted form. Things are almost looking up, but with Paladin and Warrior Protection trees growing increasingly more solid, it’s tempting to make the switch.

If you have any questions or just want to discuss what’s up, feel free to contact me.

Tired of the personnel logistics involved in 25-man raiding? Anxious to fine tune your reflexes for a competitive 10-man environment in Wrath of the Lich King? Do you want to combat the pre-expansion ennui by establishing roots with experienced raiders? Unopposed to the idea of playing multiple characters to better suit a particular encounter? Have a healthy sense of humor? Enjoy politics and unnecessarily large words? Confused as to whether or not crustaceans are truly underwater insects or kings of the sea? Do you want an [Amani War Bear]? 

Shit, so does everyone. Get in line. But if you’ve answered “Yes” to any of the above questions, Dread Lobster might be for you! Dread Lobster seeks folks with a combination of raid experience and unique personalities to develop a synergistic group of players for Wrath of the Lich King.

Straight from our FAQ:

What exactly is Dread Lobster?

Dread Lobster is a Doomhammer (Alliance, US PVE) guild established to prepare its members for raiding progression in WotLK. Although many of us have experience in T6, including Sunwell Plateau, our focus is on positioning the guild for fast-paced 10-man progression in the upcoming expansion.

What activities does Dread Lobster currently host?

Dread Lobster does not currently run any regular raids, but when there is interest we occasionally run Kara or farm up another [Amani War Bear] with our friends. As summer comes to an end, we hope to expand our ranks and possibly our schedule as well, but the focus at present is on preparing alts, professions, stockpiling mats/wealth and researching Beta.

How will Dread Lobster be run once WotLK is released and raiding begins?

Our goal at Dread Lobster is to create a strong, competitive raiding corps capable of swift progression through 10 man content. To that end, standards of play and contribution will be high, but not unreasonable. All members will be expected to do their part in playing to the best of their abilities, constantly seeking to improve those abilities, and ensuring that they are always prepared for content. Members should be prepared to receive and offer constructive, informed criticism.

Dread Lobster’s raiding schedule will ultimately consist of no more than four scheduled nights of raiding (more or less 6 PM server time or later). Standards for attendance will be high, but not inflexible. We recognize that our members may have lives outside of the game and will strive to facilitate this while also ensuring that the commitments made to the guild are respected and honored when possible.

Loot will be handled with a rigid DKP system, though the exact nature has yet to be determined. It is our experience that the most important features of DKP are transparency, equity and consistency, all of which will be reflected in the system we ultimately adopt.

I love seafood! How do I join?

If all of this sounds marvy to you, please submit an application by following the instructions in the stickied Application Template. We’ll be in touch if our interest is piqued!

Get in on the action today and become part of the Dread Lobster foundation! Questions can be directed in game to Tomyris, on our forums to any of the officers, or right here to me (yes, I am an officer). 

Note that we are especially interested in dedicated healers. Apply today!

Yesterday, the world nearly ended. After Phaelia pointed me in the right direction, I trainwrecked some JavaScript and salvaged some easy-to-use drop-down menus out of the smoking wreckage. While they might not be as aesthetically pleasing as I’d like, my goal was to start uncluttering the sidebars and provide better utility for readers who might be searching for specifics. Instead of an unwieldy list of Armory information, you can jump to whichever character you want to see. Rather than sifting through categories to try and find something that I might have misplaced anyway, you can view Recent Posts. The Category option is still available, but it’s been neatly compacted into a Jump menu. 

Unbearably HoT has also undergone a number of fairly minor cosmetic changes, and if you normally read the RSS version of my posts, I recommend stopping by. As I learn more about the basics of site design, I’m committed to providing You the Reader with a non-commercial, easy-to-read layout that retains a certain kind of panache*. My goal is to make any and all information accessible and fun, and if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, I’d be more than happy to field what I can. 

The ongoing overhaul also means that my blogroll is constantly metamorphosing into a beastly project. I’ve recently added a number of blogs that are well worth checking out, and to make the page a little cleaner, I’ve separated them into sections. There are thousands of WoW blogs out there, and you’re bound to have missed at least one. I know I have. Take a look and click-through to someone you may not have heard of before. I imagine you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Until next time.

* “A certain kind of panache? Some might call it boner appeal.” —Phaelia 

Since I wrote about Blizzard’s Recruit-Yourself! Program a few weeks ago, I’ve had a number of questions about the entire process that ran the gamut from what the absolute minimum was to pay to take advantage of it to whether or not a linked Level 1 could grant bonus XP to a linked level 30. As a follow up, I’d like to point out a few tips and tricks I’ve discovered through the whole process.

Start it out right. Mmm, yeah.

Blizzard isn’t picky about their money. While Lycentia and I initially thought that we could only exploit the Refer-A-Friend bonus by using alternate e-mail addresses, the reality is that we ended up opening second accounts on our primary e-mail addresses. This is better in the long run if you plan on merging accounts. Generally speaking, Blizzard wants you to have the same e-mail address or the same last name on your credit card to merge accounts—otherwise they have to assume you may have eBay’d. A fellow WoW blogger warned me that if I change my name when I get married, I may have to fax Blizzard a copy of my marriage license to make any major account changes. 

Money isn’t everything—right?

Maybe in-game gold is easy to come by, but in the current economic landscape, the reality is that many of you, including myself, probably operate under a tight budget (unless you’re in the business of hookers and blow). Although my previous equations illustrate exactly how much money it costs for two people to create two new accounts, end up with a minimum of two 60s, and a Zhevra mount each, we can further streamline those numbers.

1. If you don’t mind waiting, you can save $20.00 each. Although buying the Battle Chest saves you a few bucks, upgrading your RAF accounts to Burning Crusade capabilities is not necessary. You can purchase a vanilla WoW upgrade for each account at $19.99 and then let your characters sit at 60 until you’re ready to transfer them back to your main account. 
2. If you don’t care about a striped mount, you can save an additional $14.95. No, you can’t get out of paying the initial $14.95 per month fee if you want to get to level 60; however, you can forgot the 60 day Gamecard for the mount and only pay for the triple XP gains.
3. If you don’t care about reaching level 60 with triple XP bonuses OR the mount, you can save $34.94. A main account linked to a trial account may still receive the triple XP bonuses—but only until level 20. Remember: you may only Grant a Level to a character lower than yourself, and you can only gain the triple XP bonus if the linked accounts are within four levels of each other.

Power-leveling (quite literally, in fact) multiple toons to level 60 also requires an enormous sum of in-game gold, if only to train Class skills (nevermind professions). For many, this will be a non-issue if you’re rolling alts on the same realm as your main. In the case of Lycentia and I, we completely rerolled on another realm, as another faction, with essentially no one we knew to bum a few silver off of. As a result, our speed grinding required a few pit-stops along the way, and even at 60, we need to farm excessively to support both characters. To make fast-cash, you can:

1. Destroy all humans. In just about every starting zone, there’s an area with humanoids who will drop muchly needed cloth and copper. Grind for a level or two on those (although questing grants faster XP) for enough silver to train your basic Class and Trade skills. 
2. Pick up gathering professions. Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning are all ideal tradeskills to level along with your first 60, but you will need to take some time out and work them up in level every once in awhile. Everything sells. No, seriously. Peacebloom, Copper Ore, Light Leather? Gold. On every realm, there’s some d-bag looking to level a crafting profession or stocking up for WotLK. Take advantage of it. Oh, and make a bank alt while you’re at it. 
3. Sell EVERYTHING. Anything that you can’t immediately wear or use, vendor. If it’s a green item you don’t think will hold up on the AH? Vendor. Crappy mana and health pots that you’ll outgrow in about 45 minutes? Vendor. If you think that some item holds some AH worth, mail it on over to your bank alt, put it up, and keep moving. 
4. Buy bags as soon as possible. If you already have a main on your realm (or a friend), a few Netherweave Bags shouldn’t be an issue. But even outfitting your intrepid toon with 8 slotters can help considerably in the long run. More storage equals more stuff and more stuff equals more gold. 

Dude, I’m level 60 and I can barely hit that guy! He destroyed me!

Well, obviously. The usual process of leveling a character allows for the gradual increase in both Weapon and Defense skills. For casters this is less of an issue (since in an ideal world, you’re not getting the shit kicked out of you or hitting a mob with your weapon) than melee, but even as a caster, if you get to Outland with less than 300 Defense, relatively innocuous mobs will casually rip you apart and then go back to grazing (yes, the Helboar did surprise me). How can you circumvent this issue?

1. If you’re going to want a melee based level 60 character, use that as the character you’ll manually level to 60. Even though you’re still moving through content at three times the normal speed, your melee toon will still end up with close to 300 defense and weapon skill by the time he or she dings 60. 
2. Learn how to take a beating. If you’re retarded and leveled a caster manually (like me) and then granted 29.5 levels to a melee class, you have a little work to do. Dungeons like RFC, SFK, or the Deadmines are great to tear through as a level 60 in level 20 gear. You can (usually) sit there and autoattack and win, simultaneously leveling weapon and defense skills. Additionally, you can pick up cloth for the AH or for First Aid along with various items to sell (or, much to my embarrassment, use). 

Bonus!

There are a few other tricks that I didn’t know about when I waded into this whole ordeal, and if you have the opportunity to take advantage of them ahead of time, it can seriously shorten your leveling experience. 

1. Clear instances with an unlinked 70. You still party with your linked buddy for the triple XP gains, but adding the unlinked 70 gives you the group bonus (for more XP) and, of course, allows you to pull half an instance at a time. You can level almost solely from doing this, and as long as you’re careful, you can bring level 20 characters through Scarlet Monastery. 
2. A level 60 character, already granted the 29 levels from the linked account, can simultaneously gift another 29 levels to another linked account. A little confusing? Let’s take my original scenario. Assume 3 accounts: 1 → 2 → 3. Account 3 can grant levels to Account 2. Account 2 can grant levels to Account 1. 
   • Account 3 →Grants 29 Levels to Character on Account 2.
   • Account 2’s New 60 →Grants 29 Levels to a Character on Account 1. 
   • Essentially, you can keep leveling 60’s and keep granting levels to more characters, so long as the accounts are appropriately linked.

   
   Makeouts Grants Gelid 29 Levels

3. You can almost hit level 61 if you time your level granting correctly. This means that you need to level your toons to 31.9 (you cannot go over) and then grant them levels. This puts those toons at about 60.9 percent, making the stretch to 61 very easy indeed.

That’s about it! Unless you have a pocketful of gold, there’s a lot of auction house whoring and galavanting on cheap-o mounts to be had. If you have any other questions, let me know!

Blizzard’s presumptive answer to fixing tanks is here! I logged into the beta tonight to find that my talent tree had been rearranged and that two new placeholder talents had been added:

• Natural Reaction: increases your dodge in Bear and Dire Bear forms by 2%/4%/6%, and you generate 1/2/3 Rage every time you dodge in those forms.
• Mother Bear: increases the bonus attack power for Bear and Dire Bear forms by 20%/40%/60%, and for every player in your party, damage taken is reduced by 1%/2%/3%.

The solution, apparently, is to add more dodge and pray that the RNG treats you right (assuming 40% dodge, 6% of 40% is 2.4, bringing your dodge up to an abysmal 42.4% for a three point talent; however, this may just mean a straight up extra 6% dodge, which still doesn’t seem too fantastic)—and, of course, have four other people in your party (which rather goes without saying in a raid environment). I am under the assumption that, if you have four other players in your party, that gives you a 12% damage reduction. Why is this important? That damage reduction will presumably affect spells. I’m assuming that the damage reduction is BEFORE any other considerations, such as armor. Thus:

Giant Dong hits you for 1000.

Before any mitigation stats, that 12% shaves off 120 damage, bringing that 1000 hit down to 880 damage.

Considerable, but I dislike having to depend on everyone else. Also, I’m still wondering if we get counted as a member of the party as well, which would then boost the damage reduction to 15%.

I didn’t have any threat generation issues in the Nexus last night, and boosting my AP in Dire Bear by another 60%? As long as you’re connecting with the mobs you’re hitting, threat should never be a problem (unless, of course, the DPS starts before you). Bears have always been TPS powerhouses with the amount of damage they were able to frontload, but what I’ve seen thus far in beta suggests that we’ll be seeing another enormous damage boost. Of course, I’m still wearing my T6/Sunwell gear and we have no vague glimmers of the kind of itemization we’ll see in 10 and 25 mans.

Still, I really expected to see a talent fix addressing armor (or a Thick Hide boost and subsequent move down a few tiers) and STA (added as another deep feral talent), as suggested by the ever “eloquent’ Ghostcrawler. As soon as the talents are actually implemented, the following is the build I’ll be trying for tanking:

Note the lack of Shredding Attacks (taking a Rage hit for Lacerate), Feral Aggression (which I previously outlined as useless for raiding when a warrior is present), Brutal Impact, Nurturing Instinct (again, pointless for bears), Primal Tenacity (I couldn’t figure out what else to give up, honestly), and Infected Wounds (seemingly a Cat only PVP talent). I’m considering taking points out of King of the Jungle, but when you figure that you often use your Enrage ability very early on (for initial Rage), having a 15% damage boost for that introductory hit phase seems ideal.

Again, I’m still clinging to Furor (which, with the latest changes I think will be more important for Bears than Cats), Naturalist (for the STR), and Omen of Clarity (for the free attacks). Other than Furor, I’m not entirely convinced these talents are necessary for a tanking build anymore, and I may just reslot those 6 points into Predatory Instincts and Shredding Attacks with one lonesome point left over.

For now, I’m playing with the Berserk build I put together last night, enjoying my Glyph of Swipe. More to come when I’m awake.