World of Warcraft

[Totenkindly]

Patch 9.2 Warlock Tier Set Helmet Appearance Updated - Light Horn Feature Added

With the latest PTR build, the Warlock tier helm has received another update - The previously pointed hood has been softened, and the helm now features light horns!

www.wowhead.com

Oh look, they have so kindly removed the white KKK hood for Warlock tier set in 9.2. How sweet.

I remember gasping when I first saw the design drop on PTR, then seeing that Twitter was already on the case.

 

[Totenkindly]

Just took 2 hours or so to spec into Protection Pally and solo Plaguefall on heroic to earn the Slime Serpent mount. (As of Summer 2021, you had to solo all four bosses instead of the last two.)

I am a decent iLvl (i245 as pro pally) so that helped because I don't have much experience with the toolset -- although after today I am getting really familiar with it. In fact, I now get while the pro pally can interrupt a lot -- one of the regular hotbuttons is a shield that auto-interrupts anything it bounces off when cast. (This is in addition to the regular interrupt + the stun.)

The trash was pretty easy overall, aside from an occasional scare moment. Tanking was like I remember for my old guild in Torghast the night they needed a tank -- I can soak a lot more damage than I can as Ret Pally, I just can't do nearly as much damage.

1. Globgrog -- pretty easy mechanics wise, just took awhile. I learned fast to also cut down the slimes when he calls them, because if they reach him, they heal him back up with whatever health they have left.
2. Doctor Ickus -- I knew how to clear all the trash easily from running this dungeon as DPS. The biggest deal is the Slime Injection, which I forgot about, and I must have pulled a few stacks and then just croaked before realizing it. I think I took him on the second or third try. I can soak a lot of the explosions when needed, but was popping some CDs when slime injection took over.
3. Domina Venomblade -- Fairly hard but routine. Either she or Ickus was the hardest of the bosses. I took her on the third try, and by then I got into a routine and was just making sure I popped CDs to minimize problem areas, Blinding Flash to momentarily stun assassins, and always was grouping up the assassins as soon as they appeared as well as prepping for the 2.5 second stun (capping health, popping a CD) that I could not avoid. It took me awhile, maybe 6-7 minutes when I finally beat her? I actually was able to use Avenging Wrath 3-4 times in this fight, despite its longish cooldown.
4. Margrave Stradama -- Take out the trash group with Ickor Bileflesh last so he can't port around. // Damn, I don't know whether this was because I did it so much on Mythic + or whether it's just a far less deadly dynamic, but I aced it on first try despite mucking up one or two tentacle whips. The tank can actually take a tentacle whip on heroic without too much damage. Just tank the add when it appears until it dies, soak the puddle, CD the rain, and keep whittling the Margrave down... and then just pay attention to the tentacles and don't botch avoiding them too much. The only "eh" moment is when if you go too long multiple mechanics are in play (she stays and does attacks, while tentacles come out). But honestly, I think it might have been the easiest fight of the entire dungeon.

There was a benefit in terms of solo tanking, because I didn't have to worry about other players and could dodge some of the mechanics rather than having to pop CDs to take them in the face.

When you are done, you just warp back to Domina Venomblade's location and in a pool off to your left is the slime serpent waiting for you to click on it. Easy-peasy. It's just as a Prot Pally, it takes awhile because of less damage. I'm impressed with the folks who ran it at level 210-220 after all four bosses became mandatory, but I think they were tank mains so they knew their toolset well and were specced for it.

The slime serpent is the Nzoth serpent mount from BFA, just in icky green colors like the Maldraxxus constructs (you can see the stitching down its sides). But I think it looks kind of cool. It has spikes and seems like a giant organic bramble.

Ironically, this mount and one of the other serpent mounts are the ones I am most proud of because you can only earn both while soloing -- here by running Heroic/Mythic Plaguefall, the other one by completing both of Nzoth's nightmares (orgrimmar and stormwind) with five masks running. the latter one, I worked very hard when the patch was current and earned it the hard way; this was one was a little easier due to iLvl but not a walk in the park, and I still had spent some time learning the dungeon. Most mounts are just RNG tests and/or depend on a full group.

 

[Stigmata]

Me after wasting 2,000 gold outbidding a Prot Paladin on the caster sword from Gruul's lair in a GDKP run, for my 3rd level 70 alt:

 

[Totenkindly]

Me after wasting 2,000 gold outbidding a Prot Paladin on the caster sword from Gruul's lair in a GDKP run, for my 3rd level 70 alt:

you gotta do what ya gotta do roflmao

I bought a mythic plate helm xmog from Legion because I really wanted it a few years back, draining my money.... and then stupid Blizz was forcing me to pay a lot more for legendary gear in this xpac so now it seems like nothing

 

[Stigmata]

My humblebrag parse post for a group comp not conducive to good parses (bringing 6 healers, 3 of which are Holy Priests, so lots of my uber chainhealing gets sniped by Circle of Healing). Killed her on the 3rd try on our first real night of attempts. Finally attuned for Tier 6 raids which are going to be dropping in two weeks.

 

[Totenkindly]

Microsoft Gaming Acquires Activision Blizzard In $68.7B Gaming Deal

Microsoft Gaming has announced the purchase of Activision Blizzard this morning on what is considered the biggest gaming acquisition in history, valued at $68.7 billion.

www.wowhead.com

 

[Totenkindly]

So I kinda blew off the Mythic weekly and even Timewalking / Mage Tower stuff. I just don't see the point in doing them if a new patch is rolling out and all your gear is gonna be outdated anyway. It's actually kind of the detriment to me doing 9.3 ... I have BiS right now for my main, and then I'd have to get my best gear all over again which is just a pain in the ass. I really would like the mythic Plus mount for 9.3 (it's a lovely red spirit recolor) but I don't know if I feel like spending the time and effort on it, because otherwise I've kinda done little except get some more alts to 60 (for the next xpac).

I like playing my main most and have mostly justified that by switching Covenants. the big thing about the upcoming 9.3 is that you can use two legendaries... but one has to be your covenant legendary. I was Night Fae ret pally for character flavor and don't regret it, I love the zone and being NF, but the NF legendary is already subpar overall and most of your periodic buffs (it cycles through four, one for each season) are best used on others. Kyrian seems to be the most powerful for burst; I think the NF spiritshape is much better for the secondary covenant power (it offsets the notable Ret Pal movement weakness), since the Kyrian potion isn't as useful for a utility/self-heal class like ret pally.

Anyway, I switched to Kyrian to at least raise that to 80 before the patch, so I was prepared if I wanted to do it, and picked up the Divine Resonance legendary, and it is ridiculous to say the least. Jeez. My burst damage if I pop all CDs as NF is around 10-11K max (and usually more like 8-9K) in current content... but as Kyrian I am hitting 14K regularly, and depending on the number of mobs in the pool, I hit 18.3K tonight. The NF legendary only boosts one of the four cycling buffs, where the Kyrian legendary is boosting your NF power each time, which has a 1-minute CD. If you are a ret pally, the DPS difference is kind of an no-brainer, and I suspect it will improve my mythic plus game decently once I would regear, if I decide to do 9.3. [I'd also get to use another legandary, so if I used the AoE lightbringer... geez.]

 

[SgtP3pper]

Ah, nice to see someone other than myself spam a Typology forum with WoW content.


I don't play at all these days, no time, and when I did play it was just one maxed out Undead Warlock and a few baby alts. I do, however, follow Blizzard and Asmongold closely as Warcraft(before it became WoW) was a large part my childhood/youth.

 

[SgtP3pper]

 

[Totenkindly]

Ah, nice to see someone other than myself spam a Typology forum with WoW content.

Yeah, all the time I spend min/maxing and learning strategy leaves me needing to clear out my brain. Plus bitch about the regular annoyances.

Maybe the off-chance that someone can benefit, although I think I am the last retail nerd here -- the other few posting I think are mainly doing Classic.

I don't play at all these days, no time, and when I did play it was just one maxed out Undead Warlock and a few baby alts. I do, however, follow Blizzard and Asmongold closely as Warcraft(before it became WoW) was a large part my childhood/youth.

I haven't really followed the streamers and commenters much, although I'll occasionally watch something. (Usually I'm watching boss / high-end-level encounters.) I did watch Asmongold and some others when the Blizzard scandals hit in 2021.

Gratz on Warlock -- that and mages, I have just not really ever enjoyed. I guess it's not my favorite playstyle.

 

[SgtP3pper]

Gratz on Warlock -- that and mages, I have just not really ever enjoyed. I guess it's not my favorite playstyle.

It's been pretty fun, though I definitely want to try something a bit more up-close and personal in the future. Perhaps a Paladin or Warrior.

Yeah, all the time I spend min/maxing and learning strategy leaves me needing to clear out my brain. Plus bitch about the regular annoyances.

Maybe the off-chance that someone can benefit, although I think I am the last retail nerd here -- the other few posting I think are mainly doing Classic.

I haven't really followed the streamers and commenters much, although I'll occasionally watch something. (Usually I'm watching boss / high-end-level encounters.) I did watch Asmongold and some others when the Blizzard scandals hit in 2021.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Totenkindly]

Asmongold is definitely the showman

 

[Stigmata]

Ah, nice to see someone other than myself spam a Typology forum with WoW content.


I don't play at all these days, no time, and when I did play it was just one maxed out Undead Warlock and a few baby alts. I do, however, follow Blizzard and Asmongold closely as Warcraft(before it became WoW) was a large part my childhood/youth.

I watch quite a bit of Asmongold's content as well and he seems quite in tune with the mentality and greviances veteran players, such as myself, have with the current state of the game.

I agree with his take on the future of WoW now that Activision has been acquired by Microsoft -- what's the worse that could happen? Another underwhelming half-baked expansion with repetitive chore systems that ultimately aren't very fun and engaging? The best thing they could do is leave Blizzard content developers alone while possibly luring back some of the old creative talent that bailed in the shitshow it became. It also would be cool of they essentially created a WoW 2 on a completely new engine and used that as the platform for engaging in new story telling. There's soooooo many stories to tell in Azeroth, and they've barely even scratched the surface.

 

[SgtP3pper]

The best thing they could do is leave Blizzard content developers alone while possibly luring back some of the old creative talent that bailed in the shitshow it became. It also would be cool of they essentially created a WoW 2 on a completely new engine and used that as the platform for engaging in new story telling. There's soooooo many stories to tell in Azeroth, and they've barely even scratched the surface.

Good ideas.

 

[Tennessee Jed]

Just checking in since there seems to be some discussion happening.

Years ago I did mostly PvE to get a few characters up the ranks quickly, and then played around in the dungeons and battlegrounds a bit on the side.

Then I took a lot of years off. Recently I started up again, and I'm going slow. Mainly tanking PUGs in the old Cataclysm dungeons with a Protection Warrior. I have to relearn all the dungeons after all this time, and I sometimes only do a run or two a week. So I'm currently just now relearning the Dire Maul dungeons.

But it's fun. It's a massive nostalgia trip to go back to the old Cata dungeons. And since I'm tanking them, I have to know them in more detail than in the past. So I go slow and do lots of runs until I know each dungeon like the back of my hand, before proceeding to the next. (My warrior is capped at level 19, just to keep the play simple--so I can focus on the dungeons rather than mastering advanced spells.) And the PUGs are fun--if anything can possibly go wrong, it will. But it keeps me on my toes.

Meantime, I haven't even set foot in Shadowlands. I haven't even bought the Shadowlands expansion. I'm having fun just doing the nostalgia thing in the Cata dungeons.

And I occasionally check out Asmongold when there's news or controversy about the game. He's entertaining and definitely the go-to guy for WoW.

 

[Totenkindly]

Back to a nerdy post on my part:

Started doing the long mount-drop haul again in Pandaria/WoD with my slew of alts. (I was doing it a lot a year or two back, then quit for some months.) A big part of my fun in the game is collecting tangible rewards (title, xmogs, mounts, and pets, although less-so for the last). I'm somewhere around 450+ mounts at this point.

Anyway, the current rotation along with frequency in Rarity plugin vs Collective Wisdom frequency.

• Oondasta - Cobalt Primordial Direhorn (373/2000, CW=2500)
• Galleon - Son of Galleon (474/2000, CW=3333)
• Nalak - Thundering Cobalt Cloud Serpent (372/2000, CW=3333)
• Rukhmar - Solar Spirehawk (325/500, CW=700)

The fraction is how many tries I've made against the Rarity chance to drop; CW is the public perception of how many tries you need to make before a drop.

I actually lucked out on a few mounts:

• Sha of Anger - Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent (210/2000, CW=2000)
• Timewalking Dungeons - Infinite Timereaver (3/100, CW=4000 -- don't ask me, I've heard of people taking thousands of drops to get this, I didn't even know what it was when I got it)
• Underrot Mythic - Underrot Crawg (3/200, CW=666)

Other mounts I didn't luck out yet:

• Ashes of Alar - 125/100 [finally got]
• Invincible (Lich King mount) - 133/100 [still trying]

 

[Totenkindly]

Well, these were the two big news items this week:

Boosting Communities Now Prohibited in World of Warcraft

Blizzard has published a blue post about boosting communities now being prohibited in World of Warcraft. Edit: Added Blizzard clarifications.

www.wowhead.com

Cross-Faction Dungeons, Raids and PvP Coming in Patch 9.2.5

Blizzard has announced that cross-faction dungeons, raids and PvP are coming in Patch 9.2.5!

www.wowhead.com

I really wasn't see a lot of advertisements in Trade (on my very old server) for boosters, although maybe some larger/newer trafficked realms were seeing it. I talked to my favorite contact at one org and she said she'd pass me the names of reputable guilds who would still take along stragglers in mythic or raid. My issue is I really need to stop playing so much (I've had back and hand issues, and work on a computer all day to boot) and don't want to spend hours on end clawing my way through high-level content in part because of that; but I also don't have a guild, and PUGs essentially suck if you can even get into a high-level run without knowing anyone. So it was nice to pay some in-game gold to go on runs with people I knew were decent, and I tried to keep my play level close to the service I was requesting. Long story short, if I don't find folks to play with (paying or not), I will probably not play much high-end content for 9.2.

For the good news, cross-factioning dungeoneering sounds pretty nice, considering I think a group leader can still flag a run as single-faction when desired. I wasn't a huge fan of BfA due to the stoking of animosities, aside from an occasional gank run. But really, the game is 18 years in and by now there should be ability to team, especially considering some of the story lines resulted in both factions working together.

Analysis of Shadowlands DPS in Mythic Sanctum of Domination - Week of January 25th

Today we will take a look at the DPS balance in Sanctum of Domination, based on data from the week of January 25th. For this analysis we will use data provided by Warcraft Logs Mythic Sanctum of Domination statistics.

www.wowhead.com

Paladin Double Legendaries in 9.2: Combinations for Holy, Protection and Retribution

Double Legendary testing is available on the PTR allowing players to wear both a normal legendary and your covenant-specific legendary at the same time. Our Paladin Guide Writers have theorycrafted a first look at the Double Legendary combinations you're likely to equip in Patch 9.2 - Eternity's...

www.wowhead.com

Hooray for ret pal falling at a respectable place (10/24) in the DPS mythic raid pack for 9.2. I guess we now see why there were 17K Balance Druids testing in Mythic Raid (they came in 2nd).

The Mythic dungeon double-legendary expectation for Ret Pally 9.2. is also no shock, since I've played with most of the legendaries mentioned. Last cross-section of player base I saw, about 75% of ret pallies were Kyrian, 17% Revendreth, and I was one of the Night Fae outliers (3.2%)... well, I had just switched to Kyrian and ran the covenant legendary (and got my rep/tree done) and it's just been sick. in PvE, I've been regularly pulling 12K ST DPS and 18K AoE DPS with Divine Resonance and related. So that's about a 3-4K ST difference and 6-7K AoE difference from NF. I miss my soulshapes, but the DPS improvement is so crazy.

 

[Totenkindly]

BIG LOVE ROCKE -- Err "X-45 Heartbreaker" I suppose -- is now MINE!!

It drops on Crown Chemical instance for two weeks a year (as a valentine's day event), so most people run lots of alts daily. I was running 18 alts a day and it dropped on my last run today.

Supposedly a drop rate of 1/3333 -- I got it on my 225th run. With all the other changes, I'm still kinda curious if they modified the drop rate.


EDIT:

X-45 Heartbreaker Drop Chance - Blizzard Evaluating Solutions to Future Holiday Frustrations

Blizzard has released a blue post addressing frustrated complaints about the X-45 Heartbreaker mount from Crown Chemical Co. during Love is in the Air. They revealed that they are discussing solutions, but nothing will happen for this year's event.

www.wowhead.com

Wowhead addressed the mount drop today. Apparently the devs are considering ways to improve this particular event although nothing will change for this year. there were no changes this year to drop rate, so apparently I was indeed very lucky.

The official drop rate is 0.03%. Wowhead calculations of drop rate (based on anyone who gets it while being connected to Wowhead client) is closer to 0.05% which isn't much higher I suppose. (IOW, expected drop = 1/3333, actual measured drop = 1/2000.) Put another way, out of 24234 attempts, only 12 got the mount. Yay me?

I think the issue is while there are a few in-game mounts with drop rates this low (like Son of Galleon), you can try for them all year. This event runs for 2 weeks once a year, so you have 15 attempts/days per character to try for it, then you're done. Despite being so fortunate, I have sympathy about this for those who have tried thousands of times and failed. (Basically people raise a stack of alts to the appropriate level, then just run it anywhere from 15-50 times a day or more with their alts.)

 

[Totenkindly]

Rather considering finishing off the storylines and then cutting way back (not doing higher level content) or quitting WoW in general.

I am not excited about Tier Armor (one more thing to collect AND the highest Tier armor in LFG is lower than my current Season 2 mythic+ gear AND the Ret Pally armor is kinda meh).

I mostly wanted to stay to get the Season 3 Mythic mount but I don't really have anyone to run high level mythics with guild-wise or otherwise, and I don't even have the benefit of running with a booster now once a week to get a nice high level item that could at least improve my iLvl.

And now this bullshit -- my favorite class is pretty much fubar for Season 3, Wowhead has shoved it into Tier D classes (with Feral and Affliction) as unplayable/uncompetitive. Thanks, Blizz. No one is gonna pick me for high-level mythics now, out of LFG, and I can't even pay to get a group.

Wowhead: "Ret Paladin is feeling similar to Feral Druid this patch. Tremendous pain from no borrowed power gain, terrible 4 set, and no real sustained AOE are some of the problems that plague Ret Paladin. A lot of what has landed them in D-Tier is the just lack of solid AOE as the Paladin utility suite is typically one of the most desirable ones. They are quite difficult to bring and make work effectively in most situations just due to this tremendously low tuning on their AOE DPS."

Also, this crap

Icy Veins:
24. Retribution Paladin (THE ONLY D-TIER CLASS in ICY VEINS RANKING)

D-Tier​

Specializations listed here are usually the worst case scenario, meaning they have a bad damage profile, a tier set that does not bolster their DPS as much as the other specializations, low-mobility, and also are hard to fit within a comp (mostly hybrid specs).

Retribution Paladin​

February 16 update: Retribution Paladin received no changes going into Season 3, outside of their obligatory tier set. Their tier set is also one of the weakest for Mythic+, compared to the majority of the DPS specializations, with the Retribution Paladin 2-Piece bonus giving them an extra 2 seconds of Seraphim when they benefit from Art of War. Their Retribution Paladin 4-Piece will then make Art of War have a 50% chance to reset the cooldown of Wake of Ashes instead of Blade of Justice. The 2-piece set is also experiencing a major bug that does not let them extend the initial duration of Seraphim, which I hope to be solved soon. Their single-target is decent, and they also provide great utility to the party. With a slightly higher damage profile and more consistent damage outside of cooldowns, I can see the spec climbing the Mythic+ rankings, but as of now, it will remain the lowest ranked DPS.

Retribution Paladin is going to start Season 3 as the weakest DPS specialization. The spec has great party utility abilities, with the most notable being Blessing of Freedom, Blessing of Sacrifice, Lay on Hands, Devotion Aura, Blinding Light, and Hammer of Justice. They have some of the strongest AoE and single-target burst in the game, with the combination of Execution Sentence, Avenging Wrath, and Final Reckoning. They are also one of the few classes with an immunity through Divine Shield.

The biggest disadvantages of Retribution Paladins are how dependent they are on their cooldowns for damage, low mobility outside of Divine Steed, and low self-sustain, making the spec less-desirable in a standard group composition.

There are only 24 specs. At least the only way to go is up.


I assume this was tested with Kyrian / Divine Toll and AoE legendary (for the double legendaries), since about 90% of ret pallies have gone with that.

I could play the Arms Warrior I've been working on but it's not my main.

 

[Stigmata]

Activision Blizzard Pledges Support for Ukraine and Suspends Sales of Games in Russia

Russian Population:

Microsoft/Blizzard imposing the real sanctions that cause the Russians to turn against the Putin regime.