The Blue Elephant Brigade

TeflonJon · Brigadier Rookie Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 1284

Got it patched and read through the notes. Some very interesting changes. Just waiting for my server to come back up.

Akuma · Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:39 pm Post subject:

We steamrolled the 4 available Icecrown Citadel bosses tonight. Kind of a letdown, but I guess I can't expect them to be hard since it's only normal mode. The Gunship Battle is really cool even if it's easy.
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Mishlai · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:37 am Post subject:

I'm loving the random dungeon thing. Guaranteed blue loot ftw. No dicking around with summoning ftw. No interruption in your questing ftw. No more hours in LFG asking for a healer ftw.
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TeflonJon · Brigadier Rookie Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 1284

Yeah, I ran about 20 instances straight last night collecting badges and such. Even ran a few of them 2-3 times despite having already done them that day. I like the storyline elements of the 3 new 5 mans, but haven't had a chance to do the 10/25 man yet. I wonder who the new Lich King is going to be when Arthas dies. Uther makes some allusion to it, in the HoR instance.

Mishlai · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:48 am Post subject:

I've been leveling an alt on an alliance server, so the level 80 stuff is obscured from my vision. I was getting a little burned out on the lock thing anyway. WoW has been World of WarlockCraft for me for the last 2.5 years or so; it's nice to do something different. My druid (40) is specced dps for soloing, but I actually enjoy tanking a lot and as soon as I can afford dual spec I'll get set up to be a regular pug tank.
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You are the result of 4 billion years of evolutionary success.

Fucking act like it.

"The stars died so that you could be here today" - Lawrence Krauss

"The universe is huge and old, and rare things happen all the time." - Lawrence Krauss

Mojobacca · Brigadier Commando Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 2789

What server is your alliance alt on, Mish?
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Mishlai · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:54 am Post subject:

Drak'Thul, named Philyra
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You are the result of 4 billion years of evolutionary success.

Fucking act like it.

"The stars died so that you could be here today" - Lawrence Krauss

"The universe is huge and old, and rare things happen all the time." - Lawrence Krauss

Akuma · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 9:23 am Post subject:

TeflonJon · Brigadier Rookie Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 1284

I started off on a rogue, but shifted and now my main is a feral specced druid with a resto offspec. I love the flexibility it offers. Even with the feral spec aimed at kitty dps, not tanking, and with dps gear I can still tank 5 man heroics with no problems. Having battle ress and some healing really helps in a pinch, and healers absolutely love Innervate. Our MT for raids is a druid, and I'm in the top Horde raiding guild on my server, so it's definitely a viable option if that's the route you want to go. Let me know if you want some good resources/addons for feral druids.

Mishlai · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:00 pm Post subject:

Sure, yeah. What do you like?
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You are the result of 4 billion years of evolutionary success.

Fucking act like it.

"The stars died so that you could be here today" - Lawrence Krauss

"The universe is huge and old, and rare things happen all the time." - Lawrence Krauss

TeflonJon · Brigadier Rookie Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 1284

Tank Spot
Elitest Jerks

TS & EJ both have a number of great threads on both tank and dps aspects of the feral spec, but those are both good general overview threads to start with.

My armory page should let you get an idea of the basic cookie cutter feral dps spec, and Sonny's is the tank spec. Small differences in spec, the major difference between the two is going to be gear. I know alot of people that carry an extra set of gear with them so they can switch between the two readily.

As far as addons, once you get to the point were you are running instances and everything doesn't die in the first 10 seconds, you'll want some sort of cooldown timer. I am using ICEHud at the moment and it has cooldown bars built into it, but you can also use NeedToKnow, RoguePowerBars, or something similar. You'll eventually be tracking Savage Roar, Mangle, Rake, Rip, Faerie Fire, Tiger's Fury, possibly Berserk, and who knows what else. It's a bit much to do by staring at little box icons on the target info. Additionally you can try an addon called FeralByNight. It keeps track of all your buff/debuffs and is setup to prioritize which one needs to be refreshed next to keep your dps at max. Some people think it's cheating, or that it makes it too easy, but I think it's useful for getting to know the rotation and which skills have higher priority.

That should be pretty good for getting you started. Both of those forum threads discuss stuff in detail what you want to look for in glyphs, gemming, etc... Most of it won't really be necessary to until you get to endgame, but that's where feral truly shines. Kitty dps takes awhile to ramp up and on anything other than boss fights you probably won't ever hit your peak dps.

TeflonJon · Brigadier Rookie Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 1284

So here's a screenshot of me pugging DTK with my new UI that I mentioned.
On the left you have my health, energy, mana, threat from center outward. On the right it's target health, target's mana and cast bar are hidden because this was a non-caster trash mob, then I've got all my cooldowns that I mentioned, SR, mangle, rake, rip, tiger's fury, FF. Combo points are shown underneath, and the target info directly under those. So far I really love this setup. The only problem I've found is that it seems to have issues with vehicles. I end up having to disable it and run the default UI for Occulus, but everywhere else has been fine. I haven't done any of the BG's that have you piloting a turret/vehicle, but I imagine that would be similar. I'm hoping they work out a patch for that soon, but otherwise I'm very pleased.

Mishlai · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 2:21 pm Post subject:

That's very clean. Mine is pretty cluttered, but I guess I'm used to certain things. I could never really get the hang of that style of UI. It have ArcHud, but really I only use it for seeing my own cast progress during combat. When I want to see health, etc. I check the top left. I also like having my target's target & focus target, class, etc.

My main UI items are Carbonite & Xperl.
_________________
You are the result of 4 billion years of evolutionary success.

Fucking act like it.

"The stars died so that you could be here today" - Lawrence Krauss

"The universe is huge and old, and rare things happen all the time." - Lawrence Krauss

TeflonJon · Brigadier Rookie Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 1284

I have focus off in this particular shot, which is odd because I normally keep the healer on focus so I can track their mana for innervate. It also can track pet health/mana which isn't shown here. I also normally don't use the target of target unless I'm tanking, just to make sure that I'm taking all the punishment, and not some poor clothy. It includes class/level/race info in the target info block, and also changes the target's healthbar to the default class color.

One of the advantages of this UI that I'm enjoying is the variety of customization available. There are alot of options I have disabled because I normally don't use them, but might be things other would find useful. I'm also very spartan in my approach to things, so a clean and simple interface fits me perfectly. Many of the others I tried just felt too cluttered for me, and I've seen screenshots of some that have the whole screen filled with the UI. I like being able to see the game, not just my action bars.

Resheph · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 8:55 pm Post subject:

I used to use a TON of addons and spent a shit load of time customizing my UI with similar mods. On my original hunter I spent hours setting up Flexbar using it's features (making buttons appear when usable/in range, disappear when not, etc). I'm just lazy now, I just use the stock bars with XPerl, Carbonite, and other mods to make my life easier (mail mod to get all mail in 1 click, tooltip, auctioneer, Necrosis for my lock, Badkitty when I was playing my drood, etc)
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