Waldonnis

I checked the new Halaa cut out today and it was a bit "too rich for my blood" for right now, with the cost being four research tokens. Once I get the last two I need for the nice mount from there, I'll start saving up some dust for the new stamina/resilience gem cut purchase On a side note, does anyone even use resilience gems? I haven't had a single request so far... As for some of the others, I've noticed a trend on the AH that is somewhat disturbing. It seems that, at least for the Solid Star of Elune, the same seller keeps listing/delisting it in hopes of getting a buyout on it (959/989 are the starter/buyouts on it, if I remember correctly). This has gone on for days now and I can only assume it's the same pattern since it's HIGHLY unlikely that the person has looted more than one. Also, there seem to be at least 2-4 cuts that are being offered by the same person, so I'm wondering if someone's trying to disturb or fix the market by combining guild-wide pattern drops with a single seller. I'm an industrious farmer, but even though I see tons of blue loot, even I'm not THAT lucky.

Another one that an old friend reminded me of for PvP... If you suspect a rogue is around and you think you're a prime target for a sap, polymorph a nearby critter. This will put you into combat, which prevents you from being sapped (can't sap a target that's in combat). Now, bear in mind, that may elevate you to the "prime target for attack", so be prepared Incidentally, similar techniques exist for other classes (casting a curse or dot on a critter), so keep that in mind when you're duo-guarding a flag Just don't run out of critters by killing them all

Authentication servers are acting up again. It was fine until I made what appeared to be my final change to fix the Xloot add-on and tried to log in to test it...*sigh*

Solid Star of Elune is indeed missing entirely; not one jewelcrafter in the guild (after talking with every one of them that I know of that's 350+) has it, so that's a definite target for acquisition. In my experience, that and most of the meta gems show up periodically on the AH, but are HEAVILY overpriced (1200g+) and I don't see the sense in paying that much for them, especially with donated funds. For that much money, I'd much rather pick up other missing ones that are priced lower and try to find an external friend that would cut them for nothing...while just waiting for them to drop for a Clanmate to donate to the cause that way. Incidentally, I'll be expending some of my (precious) research tokens to get the new Halaa cut released with 2.2 (once the auth server works again and we retake Halaa), so that should be available soonish. Subsequent farming to replenish my research tokens may turn up other dropped cuts, so who knows (my last farming expedition in Nagrand turned up three blue cut drops).

*schedules a YouTube Anonymous meeting for Vol*

Couldn't help but think of you when I saw this one... CLICKY

Nope, because it's a talent effect rather than inherent to the spell. Impact, frostbite, ignite, and so forth are all dealt with differently than the snare on frost spells. I actually think Blizzard "cheated" with frost spells in their implementation and that their binary nature was a side-effect of that...in short, they only had one "check" in the code and didn't want to make extras for frost (ideally, they should've had a much more complicated system for snare effects) so they just "made it fit". I would've loved to see a partial resist system for frost or other binary spells, but it just isn't implemented that way. Interestingly enough, and something I forgot about before, was that blastwave is also binary for the same reason. There are a few other individual spells that are binary, but frost is the only entire magic school that is binary in nature.

Not sure I can pencil in more raiding nights into my calendar, but I can try. Fortunately, Gruul's Lair can be a relatively short run once the group gets the feel for the fights, so it's a bit easier to schedule for me than something like Karazhan. I'm currently locked up on Wednesday (Gruul's on Waldy), Friday (Karazhan on Hoofie), and Sunday (Karazhan on Adranna)...any other day could work, but Monday's probably the best bet for me, given my sleep schedule. Aside from Waldy (who will already have a raidID), the rest of me are available to choose from.

A missed spell is less damage, plain and simple. For affliction warlocks, it's easy to conceive of "just cast it again", but a fully-resisted soulfire means no return on a rather long investment in time. This is compounded for mages (especially frost) since not only do they get reduced benefit from +dmg for their primary school, but also enjoy a higher chance to miss. Since math was brought up, any idea how much more +dmg is needed to make up for a 16% miss rate when your +dmg has a less than 1:1 modifier due to shorter base cast time? I've done that math (no Google needed, did it pre- and post-BC) and it's why I swapped back to fire...partial damage is better than no damage and, unlike warlocks, mages don't have infinite mana pools. Don't get me wrong, +damage is important and should be considered heavily, but I find the "rule of thumb" to be flawed when level differentials on raid bosses combined with an unmodified miss rate as high as frost's can mean up to one third of the spells can be fully resisted. In essence, hit is important and damage is important. How you rank those two in relation to each other is largely dependent on what you have already. To relate this to tanking, it's akin to saying defense > stamina > armour...the order changes depending on what you have already and what the spec/function is. Sure, you can have all of the +hit in the world, but if your damage is lousy, it won't mean much...just as if 25% of your spells are resisted because you lack +spell hit, your godly +dmg gear will only be worth 75% of your +dmg total (which is innately lower than 100% for frost anyway, so it's more like 67%). As for penetration, I've read those threads...one is from 2006 and pre-dates BC (penetration was a development stat introduced into newer instances and stated back then that it wasn't fully implemented). The other is a more recent thread that, honestly, was littered too much with conjecture and epeen assertions to really take as a serious source of information (Google has turned up similarly flame-filled "discussions"). Blizzard has not adequately explained penetration in detail, much like they haven't explained the threat system (which everyone seems to be an authority on in forums, despite it being a closed system). I've yet to do serious experimentation of spell penetration, but would be happy to do so to find out one way or another. If what you claim is true, then there is literally no mechanical difference between hit and penetration, which would mean that many items introduced in BC are worthless or (at best) interchangeable with spell hit items in terms of stat costs...and that Blizzard never did introduce the partial resist mitigator that they planned on. Of course, to test this, I would need someone with enough time to get hit by about 5,000 fireballs in a row and that has some fire resist gear...any volunteers? (seriously) Oh, on a side note, healing is quite a bit different for paladins. Pure +heal gear does benefit them from a one-dimensional "hps" front, but a healthy dose of crit will increase their mana efficiency since they get a mana return when they crit heal (hpm on a paladin is astounding on a well-geared holy paladin with high +heal and crit...BoW wasn't the reason they never seemed to run out of mana, it was the crit heals combined with a pre-nerf SA return of 100% on heals received) Nothing in this game is "simply put", honestly, and I've seen enough walking gear disasters (warlocks with ungodly stamina but no damage, mages with high crit but no damage, rogues with greater-than-cap hit and bunches of crit but not much AP, etc) to want to staple disclaimers on all general recommendations. There are definitely some suggested evolutions for gear stats, but for many classes, there comes a point where the general rules of thumb end up being contrary to what would benefit them the most (as Kailand pointed out in another thread for instance, at a certain RAP level, hunters gain more from agility than from further RAP-only gains). I think it's a shame that Blizzard introduced so many stats to consider for spell casters, most of which aren't really related, but all of which affect damage...along with a significant amount of "chance". Melee damage stats are significantly easier to quantify and understand (and infinitely better explained officially) in comparison. As a result, we're stuck with discussions like this and people like me looking for volunteers to get pelted with fireballs just to "see how this stuff works" hoping for a glimpse into whether or not stuff actually works.

Leave it to me to post a big list, then forget a very important tip... For the PvP mages, if you see a warrior running towards you trying to get into charge range, counterspell him IMMEDIATELY once he gets into your range. It seems dumb, but it's actually brilliant, since a warrior can only use the charge ability when not in combat...and counterspell puts him into combat. Counterspell's range is also five yards farther than charge's maximum range, but five yards is tight, so do it quickly. For warriors over level 30, this leaves intercept as his only means of closing that distance and it has a cooldown once used, leaving you with two escape options (nova and blink) and giving him ZERO options once he burns that intercept until his cooldown is up. I used to use this all of the time against Gothalion. Many times, he ended up having to call in a paladin for a freedom buff just to catch me (or resort to engineering, but I can play that game too ). My favourite tactic is to counterspell, take the intercept and one hit, blink, then start kiting with rank 1 frostbolt and fireblast. If they get too close, nova is an option, but remember that they can use their trinket to escape that, so don't wait until they're on top of you to cast it or you may get a painful surprise. If they're...less than smart...they may trinket out of the frostbolt snare, so keep rank 1 frostbolt handy as well.

I was hoping to schedule a "mage event" soon to pass along some tips, but since we all play such different schedules, I figured this was probably a better place to pass along some mage tips and tricks I picked up over the years. I'll probably add to this list over time, since my memory isn't what it used to be... Use rank 1 frost nova instead of max rank! Little known fact, even amongst long-time mages, is that rank 1 frost nova has an identical duration to max rank, but TONS less mana. The only difference between the ranks is the damage done by the nova, and let's be honest, none of us use the spell for doing anything but stopping things in their tracks so they can't smack us in the head. Keep rank 1 frostbolt handy and on your toolbars. PvP mages have long known this, but I've found it less common amongst PvE-focused mages. Simply put, rank 1 frostbolt has a very short cast time (and tiny mana cost) and will still apply the frostbolt snare. If you need some time to cast that fireball after blinking, rank 1 frostbolt is your friend. To give you an idea of how powerful that spell can be, I've actually kited and killed higher-level elites with *only* rank 1 frostbolts and fireblasts (works great on warriors and hunter pets too, for you PvPers). Remember, damage isn't the focus of using rank 1...it's all about control....make sure you're the one with the advantage of distance Molten armour can (and frequently does) proc ignite. This can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the situation. Be sure to have some distance between you and your sheep targets to prevent a "hey, how did that mob hit me after I sheeped him?" lag-ignite. On the plus side, since molten armour can proc ignite, it can also proc the talented stun effect (you can almost hear that rogue cursing in RL after hitting you with a cheap-shot then getting stunned himself). Evocation's effects increase with more spirit, exactly like innervate. Since you can switch weapons (including wands) in combat, keeping a high-spirit weapon/wand combo in your bags and swapping them in can make a huge difference for prolonged fights. Personally, I carry a healing staff on Verissi just for evocation and on the off-chance that I may receive an innervate. Itemrack and most other wardrobe add-ons support auto-switching for evocation or innervate, so it's worth checking into if you're finding that your evocation is only filling about half of your mana bar and you aren't good at macros. Spellsteal is fun, but it drains mana fast. I play with spellsteal a ton and there are some really neat buffs that can be taken, but it may not be worthwhile on prolonged fights in PvE. Purge and dispel have vastly smaller mana costs, so work with your priests and shaman to set up a system for dealing with self-buffing mobs. For most "trash fights" spellsteal is perfectly viable and loads of fun, but most boss fights would probably work out better if you used that hunk of mana putting damage out. One noted exception to that general rule is Temporus in BM, though, since he has a haste buff that's very valuable to steal and can help give mages a bit more "burst" to knock him out quickly. Practice your mana gem/potion/evocation rotation....a TON...and always keep at least your two highest-rank mana gems conjured in raids. Long boss fights are rough on mana, as we all know. Potions are the most renewable resource you have in a single fight, so use them liberally, especially since you're not going to be conjuring any mana gems while fighting Personally, I always kept that lower-rank mana gem handy for the "5% to go" times, when a potion would be overkill and I just needed to cast a small number of spells before being done...saves some money in the long run and lets you keep that unused mana potion for the next boss. Once you get a gem/potion/evocation rotation worked out, you'll find that running out of mana doesn't happen frequently and, as a side benefit, you can feel good that you didn't have to use the wand Detect magic does not pull idle mobs in instances. I use detect to mark my polymorph targets frequently and to remind me of which is mine if more than one type of crowd control is being used. One HUGE note to make, though, is that detect magic should not be cast on a mob that's in the process of being body-pulled, since it can (at times) cause the mob to make a detour towards you. I learned this the hard way on Shazzrah in MC, when I cast detect on her as she entered the cave and before the tank could get her attention. Long story short, she blinked to me and wiped out the clothies....bad stuff. So, either cast it before the pull or after the tank has established some threat. Oh, one side note, detect magic is an arcane-based spell, so if a mob is arcane immune, detect will not land (nor will hunter's mark for the same reason). Frost nova or blink, but don't frost nova then blink. Blink is your ultimate escape and frost nova is your "you stay there" spell. Sadly, both have cooldowns, so if you use them both together, you're a sitting duck for awhile if whatever was next to you catches up again. Alternate between them and you can keep that charging/intercepting mob (or player) at a distance for a long while..especially if you remember the rank 1 frostbolt tip above Blink bugs are frustrating...but there's one that's fantastic. If you time it correctly, you can jump off of a very high cliff and blink *just* before hitting the ground without taking ANY falling damage. For awhile, I had the timing down so well, I could jump off of Thunder Bluff (and even once from Hyjal) without taking even 1 point of damage. This takes TONS of practice, though, so I recommend removing your gear prior to doing any experimentation Last tip for now is simple... PRACTICE AND EXPERIMENT I've done some amazing things as a mage and have also had some horrid failures, but I learned a ton simply by trying to solo things that appeared incredibly difficult or impossible. Through trial and error, you'll find your own strengths and weaknesses, and likely some of your own tips to share with the rest of us. Much like "Wide World of Sports", I've seen the thrill of victory to the agony of utter defeat...from kiting down a dragon from the Onyxia chain with only rank 1 spells (took FOREVER, but it was a challenge and taught me a ton about mana conservation and blink timing) to totally blowing my timing and smashing face-first into the ground in Thousand Needles on a mistimed blink. Be daring, be stupid...but be mindful of those around you. It's fun to try things that will likely get you killed, but don't take your buddies (or complete strangers who try to help out) down with you...save the stunts for solo time and keep a yell macro handy to let people know that they shouldn't try to lend a hand Oh, quick fun thing for you arcane mages... Ever had that annoying Alliance priest hovering on his mount thinking you can't kill him? AP, mount up, fly above him, dismount in mid-air, PoM-pyro and fireblast him, then blink right before you hit the ground (or feather fall). A friend of mine has killed a number of people that way...but an even funnier one is: mount up, fly above him, dismount in mid-air, PoM-polymorph him, then do the blink trick (or feather fall). If everything's timed correctly, you'll land safely and his sheepy body will crash into the ground. Just don't do it too often or people will start getting wise

There is always a 1% chance for a spell to miss (aka fully resist). This cannot be overcome by spell hit, so don't bother trying. As for "seek to increase your +damage, +hit, then +crit", this is HIGHLY dependent on class and spec. For instance, frost mages are frequently better off going hit > damage > crit, whereas deep fire mages often prefer hit and crit over smaller gains in damage simply because of talented crit boosts and combustion (arcane-heavy specs have their own preferences as well). Affliction warlocks frequently underestimate crit and hit unless they're regularly facing elite mobs over level 72...recasting an instant isn't bad, but I've blown five GCDs trying to "hit" Gruul with a single corruption, for instance (and crit is nice simply because we do cast shadowbolts while our DoTs are ticking). Penetration is WIDELY misunderstood and undervalued. While it's not spectacular or something that is a "must have", it's still useful and shouldn't be overlooked if you're raiding post-Karazhan. Actually, I think the provided description is a bit misleading so I'll try to explain and will even mention a special case where penetration has absolutely no value.... Ever had a DoT tick away or a spell hit and you only did part of the damage, while some portion was resisted? I've had up to half of an amped curse of doom resisted on Gruul and 2/3rds of a pyro at a few points. This happens frequently, but is often missed unless you're a chronic combat log watcher or can actually process the immense amount of info being spit out by SCT (warlocks and shadow priests would likely miss it because you're flooded with info). Well, those "partial resists" are what spell penetration was designed to overcome. It's true that the partial resists are a function of a mob's (or player's) resistance to that school, much like wearing fire resist gear allowed us to partially or sometimes fully resist things in MC. If those mobs had spell penetration gear, our resist gear would've been less effective. For PvP, penetration probably won't play a big role for mages, since hardly anyone would ever wear resist gear into battle there, but warlocks may want to investigate the effects of spell penetration once resilience starts affecting DoTs. Now there is one particular school of magic that will *never* get partially resisted: frost. The reason for this is that frost spells have a snare component that occupies the "check slot" for that spell (all other schools have no innate ability like a snare, so that check slot is used for partial resists...spell effects/partial resists are processed after the hit/miss determination). Any mage that's had a frostbolt hit a raid boss knows that they'll see "immune" pop up, even if they did damage with the spell. That immune was the boss's immunity to the snare that accompanies a frostbolt hit. Because the snare occupies the check for frost spells, it's impossible for frost spells to be partially resisted. This is why frost spells are known as "binary spells"...they either hit or are resisted fully. There's a side-effect to frost being binary as well in that the base hit for frost is 84% (could be 87%, but my memory's cloudy on the exact number) at equal level, hence frost mages with no +spell hit frequently see more resists than fire mages (who enjoy a much higher base hit due to the non-binary nature of fire spells). Since frost is a binary school, penetration is totally useless for that school of magic and any mage spec'ed frost that uses that school more than 80% of the time should REALLY go for more +spell hit than a comparably-geared fire mage.

Concerts? Sounds suspiciously like something that happens "outside of the house", which of course, means I know nothing about it Happy Birthday! Hehehehe, glad you had a good time! I've heard the same about Buckcherry before (mediocre in live shows), so it probably wasn't just your show Happy Birthday! I'm sure everyone will be happy to have you back in Karazhan next week, especially after having me as an off-healer for the second half

The name looks familiar...I seem to remember him from the druid class forum awhile ago, but it's been too long to be sure. The page was definitely funny, though, and it looks like he's actually more delusional than I am Happy Birthday! On another funny note, I ran across a silly page about what the new expansion will NOT be. I'm sure Oriah will appreciate one of the pics on the page Happy Birthday! CLICKY

Sure thing. Tobalaya's transmute is almost always free, so no need to try to locate someone to transmute the diamond.

*shrugs* Doesn't matter much to me. Fridays are generally better for me, but I can likely make any night work other than Wednesdays and Sundays. Oh, another small correction to the loot distribution so far...Hoofie got the Royal Cloak of Arathi Kings from Moroes on the first night as well (which I must say has worked out nicely for farming and questing).

My private army is always available for cameos...especially Adranna, she likes the attention

I'm not convinced that Arena could ever really be balanced...and truthfully, it wouldn't be fun at all if it were. Part of what I enjoy about PvP is overcoming my class weaknesses and exposing those in others. It's frustrating to get slapped down repeatedly by classes that are meant to flat-out own you, but when you win a few battles against them, you can't help but smile. I still get some chuckles thinking about some of the warriors that Waldy has defeated handily (despite them being the rock to my scissors), for instance. Someone pointed out once on the PvP forum that it's because we're imbalanced that it's fun...if everyone were the same in power and ability, PvP would be horrifically boring (and I agree with him on that). As for line of sight, I can see how that could be a major problem for hunters and mages as well (due to their longer cast-times on higher-damage spells). Personally, I think it would be interesting to have a more wide-open field available, if for no other reason than to shake things up a bit and have some crazy-fast action going on. I think something like that would actually draw me into Arena combat...hiding behind things has never been my strong point

It actually wasn't that bad. I managed to get the cloth for 23 points of tailoring as well as exalted with the Mag'har, and I just need another 40 or so powders for the nicer of the two epic Halaa mounts The gold gain was good as well (made about 500g along the way in just grey loot and cash drops), found 1-4 blues per week (three in one day at one point), enough greens to DE for the arcane dust I needed for tailoring, and it's been a great supply of free mana and health potions. If anyone ever wants to work on Consortium reputation, I'd definitely recommend Nagrand for those reasons. Having tried the prison keys (drop rates SUCK) and insignias in Netherstorm already, Nagrand just works out to be the most efficient and rewarding comparatively. In all, I'm definitely glad I could combine all of those goals into one grind...it always makes it that much easier to deal with when you're there for more than just one thing, since "progress" isn't measured only in ogre bead drop rates

There were gnomes...lots of them....always getting underfoot. Many were rogues, some were mages, and I think I saw a warlock's ear stuck to my slippers at one point. It's all a blur now...

I'd like to thank all of the little people that I stepped on and have forgotten along the way that helped make this possible. Yes, Adranna is exalted with the Consortium and can now cut the difficult-to-find-people-that-can-cut Relentless Earthstorm Diamond (+12 Agility & 3% Increased Critical Damage), so start sending lavish praise, purple flowers for her hair, and copious amounts of fishing lures her way and she just might open up her crafting window for you! Now if these last two tailoring points would cooperate... *mutters about the two tunics made without gaining a single point*

*Rocky voice from Bullwinkle* Again? That trick NEVER works! Seriously, though, ret has always needed help and likely always will. One day, Blizzard might wake up and realise that while ret definitely is sub-par when it comes to damage currently, player attitudes hold back paladins more than their adjustments ever will. Much like it was in my days as a paladin before, holy continues to be the "only viable spec" to players, and also the only one with (somewhat) scaling gear available at all levels of raiding. Sadly, if they added items that just screamed "ret paladin", we'd probably see more hunters, warriors, or shaman than paladins end up with them. Interesting idea...but I bet those raptors in the Highlands still won't have hearts (nor will the centaurs in Desolace suddenly grow ears) ...and in the distance, a million PvP server dwellers cried out... Just how bad is it in 5v5 anyway? I can see why hunters would have some difficulty, but it just doesn't seem like it should be as bad as the QQ crowd makes it out to be. I agree with you about fixing some of the other elements of the class (and geez, even itemisation fixes alone would be nicer than a MS-like shot), but Arena shouldn't be the motivator for it, in my opinion.

PvP just hasn't been as much fun without hearing Katak in AV calling Ivus "that big tree monkey guy" Eventually, I'll get back into the PvP circus, but not yet...and Arena just holds no interest for me right now.

The laughs are dead giveaway. Nothing says evil quite like the gnome male laugh. As for the smiles, if you take a little more than a glance, you'll notice that it looks more like a smirk or grimmace. No part of a human male's face broadcasts "hi, come talk to me". It's more like "come over here and I'll kill your entire species"

Then you're playing on the wrong side Horde *are* the good guys!