My priest just hit 85, so it’s official: I have two toons. I had enough Justice Points saved up to gear her up a bit; she’s at an item level of 335, but I still want some more experience in the harder regulars before I try my hand at heroics. I definitely love Disc priest; I’m not fond of Holy yet. And I’m scared to heal in raids–so many bars!
No earthshattering achievements to report, but I just wanted to say that on Friday night I ran six BGs and lost every one. Actually, one was a tie. Went 2-1 in TB though.
Yesterday I ran five more and went 5-0. I don’t know what to make of that. I guess it’s too small a sample size. But I’d rather go .500 each day to at least get the Conquest badges.
Anyway, new favorite activity: Standing on one of the bridges in Eye of the Storm and mind-controlling people off the edge as they try to cross. I took out four in a row at one point. It’s even more fun then MCing them off the Lumber Mill cliff in AB, since that is rarely fatal.
As much as I’ve been extolling the PvP system, I think I ran into a roadblock. 2v2, healer/dps team on both sides. It seems to always be a stalemate if neither dps can do enough damage to the healer. Our BDL team like that is a priest/feral-druid combo, and we were facing a mage/resto-druid combo. I couldn’t get close enough to either to do any damage. Frost Nova, Ring of Frost, Entangling Roots, Nature’'s Grasp, Hibernate, Cyclone. Add to that, both druid and mage are decent runners with Travel form and Blink. All of that was good enough to keep me locked down pretty well and out of reach, even with my trinket. I wasn’t going to dance around for 45 minutes so we quit. When the next one looked similar (but the other team quit first) I was growing very frustrated. Probably because my other PvP team is a rogue/mage and those fights are short. After that, we picked up a third from the BDL and tried our hand at 3v3 which we did ok at. At least they were quicker, even with healers.
Anyone else have the same problem? Or just me?
No, it’s not just you. The game just isn’t balanced around 2s, and many 2v2 comps are basically just grind-fests. Be glad you didn’t run into something stupid like Blood DK + Healer. If both teams are dps-healer teams you either need really solid coordination to get that first kill, or just have more patience than them.
I find the only way to remain sane in 2s is to run a double-dps team, preferably with some off-heals from one of you. Did you try shadow+feral? You might lose more, but at least it’s quick.
3s are much more balanced, although you still run into some super combos that are really tough to beat for your comp.
My biggest complaint with arena right now is that it’s exactly what Blizzard said they didn’t want. There is absolutely no triage - it’s all about setting up a kill and getting the healer locked down long enough to blow up a target in 3 secs or less. And if you miss with a stun or a CC, one heal crit and the target is often back to full.
Noob question–when I’m doing the TB dailies in the PVP area, and during the TB battle itself, my tankadin is unable to use Lay on Hands. What’s up with that? The button is just grayed out…not on cooldown or anything, just unavailable. Is this a bug? I can use Lay on Hands in normal bgs with no problem…
Accomplishment-wise, my mage has unlocked everything in Firelands, got the mount–which is pretty cool looking–but is having horrible luck with Zen Vorka’s Cache. The last thing I want from the zone is the pet that can drop in that item–but at 30 Marks per cache, it’s getting frustrating to get another worthless green item, and face grinding another day’s worth of dailies.
I rarely buy gear, but I caught a Gurabashi Punisher (1H Mace) on the AH for about 1K gold, so I bought it for the tankadin. Ilvl 353, so not awesome or anything, but it looks neat and was a major upgrade from the axe he was using…and dwarves get a small expertise bonus with maces, so that helps.
I believe rated battlegrounds, like arena, do not allow abilities with CDs 10 minutes or longer. At some point this was also added to PvP zones, but it seems to be a bit buggy from time to time. It should only be during the battle, of course.
Hmmm…interesting. I can live (well, die, actually) with it not working during the battle, but it’s damned inconvenient for questing down in the prisons. Especially the one with the Archmage…seems like I always pull a train of mobs when I run in to that area, and having that one quick complete heal would make things so much easier.
Now that my war’s as geared as he’s going to get without raiding FL (and I’ve lost interest in grinding VP for T12 >.> ) I’ve been mainly focusing on leveling my blood DK. One conversation I had with a pug where 3 of us agreed that war tanking could be stressful – I noted that DK tanking was actually restful even with the rune tetris going on.
A few weeks ago, I’d said that I couldn’t see how I could tank at 85 with all that going on. I guess I’m improving. 
I’m not sure though where to pop AMS, since I don’t get a lot of many-caster pulls in mid-Wrath. Bosses maybe? I do mash VB and IBF regularly, Rune Tap third, and DRW when I remember it exists (it’s new! D: ).
I use AMS pretty much on CD during trash - it never hurts to use it. On bosses it really shines if there is a large chunk of magic damage coming.
[QUOTE=lizardling]
I do mash VB and IBF regularly, Rune Tap third, and DRW when I remember it exists (it’s new! D: ).
[/QUOTE]
And don’t forget Bone Shield! 
I looked for you guys this weekend hoping to get some arena action, but I guess I missed it.
I was the third who got initiated into arena action, and it was pretty fun for a first-timer. There’s a lot on intricacies that I need to hone on to be a better Arena PvP’r.
Good to know, I’ll start using AMS more.
:smack: I forgot that since I tend to wibble on using Bone Shield, due to the fact that it doesn’t seem to jibe all that well with Blood Shield, from what I’ve seen/read, but I do use it on nasty pulls. (I can’t pull the bat room in reg DTK without popping 2-3 cds yet, frex)
Curse you, patch day! Oh wait, it already downloaded.
Bluey says:
My druid hit 64 and that means new spell, Lifebloom. Used it for one run last night and my minor mana issues are over, just keep it stacked on the tank and I don’t have to cast another spell. Bit dull actually.
I need help with my dps so I turn to the great WoW thread for help. I seem to be falling behind the rest of my guild in dps, but I’m not sure why, I have pretty decent gear. I think I’ve reforged correctly, but I’m still only doing 13-15k dps. If you think I can do better gear, I’ve got a bunch of spare gears. Mostly trinkets: Stump of Time, Bell of Resonance plus what’s equipped. I had to put my T11 Gloves on over my Widow’s Cluthes to get my 2pcT11 Bonus back.
I’m not sure I can be doing 20k+, but I think I should be doing better. So I think it may have something to do with my rotation. My burn rotation is pretty good. I see the giant spikes in World of logs. But my conservation phase is pretty low. I’m going AB234AM and ABar on movement (plus fireblast and ice lance if moving farther) I try to use my CDs every time they come up, though that’s an area for improvement. (I just got an addon that should help there)
So does anything stick out as a problem? Go closer to AB6AM on conservation phase maybe?
Here’s what I do on my mage (who used to be my main but is now my primary alt, and is around ilevel 360 at the moment–I generally pull around 15-22K in Firelands): AB spam until you get to about 50% mana, Evocate, then AB x 4/AM, use a mana gem, keep this up until Evocate is back up again, then go back to AB spam until 50% and repeat. Use your Orb whenever it’s up, and use Arcane Power and Mirror Images during burn phase. I don’t use Arcane Barrage very often but it’s usually because I forget. 
What’s the purpose of the “Money Changer” vendor in the Dalaran Sewers? She has a vendor screen, but no items…
Joe
Way back when, in the dark days of Wrath, you didn’t have just JP and VP, but rather the bosses and heroics dropped emblems. Each new raid brought a new tier of emblems, but the items you could buy with the emblems didn’t change the currency they were sold in. So, if you wanted one of the ilvl 200 trinkets or epic gems that could be bought with the Emblem of Heroism that dropped from heroics and Naxx, but all you had was Emblems of Frost from ICC, you would have to trade down those badges through Emblems of Triumph, Conquest, Valor, then Heroism. You could visit the money changer to do all these transactions with one vendor, or you could visit each emblem vendor in turn to trade down to the next lowest tier.
Thanks. Sounds like a pain in the ass…
Joe
It was. Especially if you just found out right now that there was a damn money changer.
:smack: