# World of Warcraft General Discussion

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [March 4, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294 "2009-03-04T17:44:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 95

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**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1881 "2009-06-11T22:18:37Z")

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So in what type of combat would I use “rend” - close in, like with the Blackrock Champs?

Thanks

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**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1882 "2009-06-11T22:21:46Z")

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> [@Quasimodem](#):
>
> So in what type of combat would I use “rend” - close in, like with the Blackrock Champs?
> 
> Thanks

Well, being a warrior, pretty much all of your combat will be close in, so you should use it on anything that is not immune to bleed damage.

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**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1883 "2009-06-11T22:56:15Z")

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> [@FlightlessBird](#):
>
> #2 was writing a macro to drop all 4 of my Cooldowns at once. (trinket for +SpPwr, Mirror Image, Arcane Power, Icy Veins), sped up my burst damage too!

Cool idea! I’m going to have to do that one, too.

> [@ashman165](#):
>
> A good place to pick up frostweave is in Scholazar Basin at the little dig site. You should get, well have by now, Northrend Scavenging (or something like that name) so that you can “occasionally” find extra cloth on humanoids. I will grind that place for about an hour at a time and come out with 5-10 stacks of frostweave. I also farm there because of the mines, since my mage is also a miner; she’s lesbionic that way.

Thanks for that tip – my mage is also a tailor/miner.

> [@ashman165](#):
>
> I would strongly recommend moving some talents from the frost tree to the arcane tree. You’ll find a great upgrade in your dps by taking up through 3/3 Torment the Weak (TTW), in the classic frost/TTW build. 3/3 Spell impact is a 6% increase in your damage straight off, plus 12% with TTW nets you an 18% increase in your dps.

And thanks for that one, too. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at tweaking out my spec, and I know a lot has changed in the game.

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**Author:** ![MindWanderer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@MindWanderer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindWanderer)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1884 "2009-06-12T01:12:20Z")

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I took a screenshot today, for the first time in a while, and I couldn’t find it, because I discovered there where a ton of screenies in the screenshots folder from previous times I had taken them and forgotten to remove them. So I ended up looking through a lot of them, from Kara, from guild events and so on, before I found the one I took today. Now I’m getting all nostalgic for my old guild.

I kinda miss the raiding despite the time commitment and the stress. I thought I’d share two of my favorite screenies that were in there. The first one is a Kara raid during the fight against Shade of Aran, and the second is a guild meeting with the two guildleaders in the foreground.

[Shade of Aran Fight](http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa23/azatol/WoWScrnShot_090708_195427.jpg)

[Guild Meeting](http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa23/azatol/WoWScrnShot_011208_142546.jpg)

I’ve got a lot of pictures of Shade of Aran wipes in there for some reason. The one I picked is one that turned out well, thanks to combat rez and some luck. Our raid leader was a tank-spec druid who did quite well, and sometimes switched to dps spec for certain fights. He was usually MT

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**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1885 "2009-06-12T01:56:34Z")

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Well holy crap, guys. Have you seen the changes announced for Patch 3.2.0 so far? They’re [making mounts](http://www.wowwiki.com/Riding) extremely accessible now. As in regular mount at 20, epic at 40, and flying at 60, with the prices cut down to a mere fraction of what they are now.

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**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1886 "2009-06-12T02:19:33Z")

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> [@Bosstone](#):
>
> Well holy crap, guys. Have you seen the changes announced for Patch 3.2.0 so far? They’re [making mounts](http://www.wowwiki.com/Riding) extremely accessible now. As in regular mount at 20, epic at 40, and flying at 60, with the prices cut down to a mere fraction of what they are now.

Yeah, someone announced that in guild chat last night and I didn’t really believe them… it seemed too cheap. But after reading up on it I guess it makes some sense. Flying will really change Outland, that’s for sure. Blizz really seem to want to get folks up to Northrend ASAP - which I guess makes sense since that’s what they are currently developing. It will also really cut down on the early-level doldrums, which I wholly support - makes it much easier to try out a class if you can get them to a level where they have more than one or two abilities without having to put in hours of running around the Barrens.

The only thing I’m not sure about is the 150% flying mount speed at 60. That makes fast flying even more of a “luxury item” than it already is.

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**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1887 "2009-06-12T02:42:05Z")

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I leveled to 24 last night , Kiddos, and got myself a stronger “Fury” talent.

I watch very carefully what I loot, and am always mindful of what those things mean as far as the attributes are concerned.

If I might ask a favor, please?

As **jayjay** once did, could y’all check ol’ Wolkie’s armory once in a while and suggest stuff?

Thanks!

Q and Wolkenlaufre (who is smitten by Heather, the innkeeper (ess :)) at the Sentinel Hill Inn!

I **told** y’all I take Role Playing seriously, right? 😉

When it rains, it rains in on her, and that bothered Wolkie to the point of making the Inn his Hearth-Stone “home”.)

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**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1888 "2009-06-12T03:06:04Z")

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> [@Quasimodem](#):
>
> When it rains, it rains in on her, and that bothered Wolkie to the point of making the Inn his Hearth-Stone “home”.)

It’s okay. They’re fixing her roof. The contractor’s a little slow, but it should be done before the next century.

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**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1889 "2009-06-12T03:16:13Z")

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This is a great post but it is not exactly true that all the tradeskill give you about the same result. Each tradeskill gives a common set of stat bonuses (i.e. the 38 point spell power advantage that BM was talking about) but each tradeskill also has some unique features. You probably can’t go wrong and it probably makes more sense for a Hunter to take leatherworking than blacksmithing or tailoring but each tradeskill comes with a unique set of tradeoffs.

Here is a link to the gathering skill buffs:

Skinning: +32 Critical Strike

> **[Master of Anatomy](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Master_of_Anatomy)**
>
> Master of Anatomy is a passive trait of all skinners that adds critical strike rating in an amount proportional to their skinning level. Other gathering profession-granted skills: Lifeblood Toughness Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module...

Mining: +50 Stamina

> **[Toughness](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Toughness)**
>
> For other uses of Toughness, see Toughness (disambiguation). Toughness is a passive trait exclusive to miners. It increases your Stamina, with patch 3.0.8, scaling with mining skill level. This is roughly the same bonus to stamina as that given by...

Herbalism: 2000 Instant Heal

> **[Lifeblood](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Lifeblood)**
>
> Lifeblood is an instant cast haste buff and minor heal available to sufficiently skilled herbalists. It is a free, instant heal that increases in power for every 75 skill points in herbalism. It does not scale with spell power, although it is...

Skinning is the easiest gathering skill to level up, followed by herbalism and mining (mining got nerfed a while back). While some of the gathering skill bonuses may seem nice, they are pretty weak compared to the advantages that come with mastering a tradeskill.

And here are the link to the profession only items that you can get from the various tradeskills:

Alchemy: Trinkets provide the customary BoP bonus for tradeskillers.

> **[Alchemy](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Alchemy)**
>
> For lore, see Alchemist. The alchemist mixes herbs found by Herbalism and reagents in order to concoct elixirs, potions, oils, flasks and cauldrons with a variety of effects. A player can create healing, invisibility, elemental resistance and mana...

Mixology for Alchemists: increases duration and effects of alchemy potions consumed by an alchemist

> **[Mixology](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Mixology)**
>
> Mixology is a trained passive ability available to Alchemists with 50 or more skill. After training Mixology, any flask or elixir that can be created by the Alchemist has double duration (2 hours) when it is consumed by them. In addition, the effect...

Blacksmithing: BoP items.

> **[Blacksmithing exclusive BoP items](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Blacksmithing_exclusive_BoP_items)**

Socketing:

> **[Socket Gloves](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Socket_Gloves)**
>
> Socket Gloves is a Blacksmith-only skill to add a socket to their own gloves. This skill is learned at a Blacksmithing skill of 400 for 4 50. Wowhead Thottbot WoWDB

> **[Socket Bracer](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Socket_Bracer)**
>
> Socket Bracer is a Blacksmith-only skill to add a socket to their own bracers. This skill is learned at a Blacksmithing skill of 400 for 4 50. Wowhead Thottbot WoWDB

Note Socketing doesn’t count as an enchant so you get to enchant your gloves and bracers normally.

Enchanting: Ring enchants

> **[Enchanting](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Enchanting)**
>
> For lore on enchanting profession, see Enchanter. Enchanting is a primary profession in which characters may enchant gear and craft a variety of items. The main use of enchanting is to augment the stats of gear, such as more strength, intellect,...

Enchant offers a wide variety of enchantments for many different slots (including the weapon slot) that are frequently best or near best in slot but other than the standard bonus (e.g. +19 Spell power X 2 = +38 Spell Power), I cannot identify why you get with Enchant that you cannot get from paying an enchanter and I certainly don’t see why you would have more than one character with enchanting.

Engineering: Too many Engineer only items to mention, I don’t have an engineer but only because I don’t want that much choice in my life.

> **[Engineering](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Engineering)**
>
> For lore, see Technology. Engineering is a primary crafting profession by which one can create many useful and amazing items as well as complete vendor trash. Engineers can craft items that, in general, all classes find helpful in PvE and PvP....

Aside from providing best in slot headgear, there are more than a handful of unique engineer only items you gain access to.

Inscription: best in slot shoulder enchants make the really cool to do ONCE Sons of hodir faction quest unnecessary (it takes a LOOOONG ass time to complete and you have to do some grinding on top of that to get the second best in slot enchant but its probably worth doing at least once).

> **[Inscription](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Inscription)**
>
> Were you looking for the type of armor augments known as Inscriptions or the class lore from the RPG Inscriber? Inscription is a profession which was introduced in Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Inlinegfx/img\_link\_data.json' not...

Jewelcrafting: In addition to being able to cut 3 special gems that provide the usual BoP tradeskiller bonus, you also get some BoP trinkets.

> **[Jewelcrafting](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Jewelcrafting)**
>
> Jewelcrafting is a profession which was introduced in the Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Inlinegfx/img\_link\_data.json' not found. The Burning Crusade expansion. Players are able to make rings, trinkets, necklaces and statues, as...

Leatherworking: In addition to best in slot bracer enchants (which gives the usual advantage over non leatherworkers), leatherworking creates some decent armor, some pretty good armor enchants for 6 slots AND is one of the cheapest and easiest tradeskills to level up, being cheap and easy is the basis for a lot of decisions we make in life (like who we take to the prom).

> **[Leatherworking](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Leatherworking)**
>
> Leatherworking is one of the primary professions. Your character can only have 2 primary professions at any time. The leatherworking profession allows players to utilize the leather gathered through the skinning profession to create a variety of...

Tailoring: I think tailoring is different in that tailors do not get the standard BoP bonus gear, instead their high end BoP enchant adds a proc to your cloak. And with Lot of faction grinding, you can have the best bags in the game.

> **[Tailoring](https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Tailoring)**
>
> Tailoring allows players to cut and weave various pieces of cloth into armor, bags, shirts, and other cloth items. Tailors play an especially important role in guilds because they can create bags for the entire guild, provided the guild members...

My only point is that while each tradeskill provides some sort of best in slot BoP advantage over people that don’t have that tradeskill, each tradeskill is a little different and in any event is probably better than a gathering skill by the end. I levelled with leatherworking and skinning but am now looking to switch out skinning for something else.

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**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1890 "2009-06-12T03:42:04Z")

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> [@Bosstone](#):
>
> Well holy crap, guys. Have you seen the changes announced for Patch 3.2.0 so far? They’re [making mounts](http://www.wowwiki.com/Riding) extremely accessible now. As in regular mount at 20, epic at 40, and flying at 60, with the prices cut down to a mere fraction of what they are now.

Are you kidding me?! Ugh, I literally JUST hit 70 and went to go learn expert riding and got my mount. Well, at least this will make grinding out the lower levels a lot more tolerable. Now I just need to figure out which faction I need to be in with to get Artisan riding at a discount…

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**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1891 "2009-06-12T04:09:00Z")

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> [@Bosstone](#):
>
> Well holy crap, guys. Have you seen the changes announced for Patch 3.2.0 so far? They’re [making mounts](http://www.wowwiki.com/Riding) extremely accessible now. As in regular mount at 20, epic at 40, and flying at 60, with the prices cut down to a mere fraction of what they are now.

What are these “feats” that article mentions?

“Paladins receive the 75 skill as part of buying their level 30 mount from their trainer. At level 60 they can either buy the journeyman skill and learn the epic mount from the trainer at level 61 or do the original level 60 quest to get the Charger and get the journeyman riding skill ( **and a feat in 3.1** ) for free.”

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**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1892 "2009-06-12T04:34:54Z")

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> [@jayjay](#):
>
> It’s okay. They’re fixing her roof. The contractor’s a little slow, but it should be done before the next century.

🙂 **jayjay** I love you, man!🙂

Yeah, I get laughed at by the other “guests” at the Inn, but who gives a flyin’ Gryphon poop?😃

Sometimes I get “blessed” by someone in my “virginity” and I have a “thanks” button for that, and, for the most part, I really like interacting with other players.

In short, I’m having _fun_!

Again (am I saying it too much?), thanks to you and the other Dopers for the help!

Quasi and Wolkie

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**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1893 "2009-06-12T04:40:19Z")

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> [@Mister\_Rik](#):
>
> What are these “feats” that article mentions?
> 
> “Paladins receive the 75 skill as part of buying their level 30 mount from their trainer. At level 60 they can either buy the journeyman skill and learn the epic mount from the trainer at level 61 or do the original level 60 quest to get the Charger and get the journeyman riding skill ( **and a feat in 3.1** ) for free.”

Feats of Strength. They’re special Achievements that are meant to be worn as a badge of pride. Like, if I just bought the epic mount from the trainer (which I did), I wouldn’t get the Feat. But if I did the pain in the ass Charger quest chain, then I’d get the Feat to show that I went through that ordeal. My GF went through the quest chain to get her Warlock Dreadsteed, so she has the Feat to show off now.

Feats tend to be exceptionally rare things. There’s a lot of them that are even purely unique. There’s a list of them [here](http://www.wowwiki.com/Feats_of_Strength).

As for lowering the level on mounts, I think 20 and 40 are _really_ early, but I’m not complaining. I think it makes a lot of sense, too; before Burning Crusade, half the game was leveling to 60 and half the game was doing stuff at 60. So it made sense to get your epic mount at 60, because you still had a lot of use for it. When BC came out, it made sense to put the flying mounts at 70, because half the game was leveling and half the game was doing stuff at 70. However, looking at the game progression now, the current levels kind of suck. The epic mount _is_ nice for Outland, but the Outland zones are so much bigger than Azeroth zones that it still feels like the regular mount. And having flying mounts at 70 really sucks right now, because you hit 70, you get your mount…and then you go to Northrend, where you can’t use it until 77! Putting flying mounts at 60 will really make a difference in enjoyment of the game.

Notice that Cold Weather Flying stays at 77, because Northrend is still the endgame. And that’s fine. When the next expansion comes out (my money’s on the Maelstrom), eventually CWF will be kicked down to 70.

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**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1894 "2009-06-12T05:15:59Z")

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> [@ashman165](#):
>
> I would strongly recommend moving some talents from the frost tree to the arcane tree. You’ll find a great upgrade in your dps by taking up through 3/3 Torment the Weak (TTW), in the classic frost/TTW build. 3/3 Spell impact is a 6% increase in your damage straight off, plus 12% with TTW nets you an 18% increase in your dps.

I’m giving this a try, but it’s not going to give me an 18% increase across the board.

Spell Impact doesn’t affect frostbolt or frostfire bolt, which are my two main damage spells in the rotation, although I won’t sneeze at the damage increase on ice lance and cone of cold.

Torment the Weak only affects snared or slowed targets. This will be awesome for solo work, but won’t help against bosses since most of them are immune to my slowing and freezing effects.

It was hard giving up a few of those frost talents, but we’ll see how the spec works overall.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ashman165](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@ashman165](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashman165)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1895 "2009-06-12T06:03:51Z")

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> [@Redwing](#):
>
> Ummm… no. CoE is rarely used, because someone else already puts it up for free (Earth and Moon or Ebon Plaguebringer). ISB takes the place of scorch for the same reason. Curses used during raid are CoD if destro, CoA if demo (for molten core procs) CoA if aff (higher dpxt (damage per execute time) than CoD when talented. CoE by one lock if there’s no boomkin or DK (why are you in 25man progression without a boomkin (crit, haste, spell damage taken, all in a giant chicken)?). I expect that every lock always refreshes their DoTs on completion of the GCD or cast that the DoT expired during, that seems to be a rather minimal expectation to me, like not letting corruption or shadow embrace or ISB fall off.
> 
> Gear wise aff and destro stack haste over crit, and of the spell stats (hit, haste, crit, and power) all locks value power the least (well, until hit capped, but you knew that). DoT’s crit, and haste reduces all your casting times, it just scales better for an aff lock, because he’s spending so much time casting a 3second cast time nuke. If he’s not casting that nuke , in GCD from a CoA, or refreshing UA or haunt, what the heck’s he doing? Demo stacks crit and spell power because that’s what he uses for his raid buffing, though that raid buff is pointless before 2800 spell power, and not fully reliable, depending on pet criticals.
> 
> I will grant that you’re right that locks don’t need another DoT. As much as I liked SL, rolling it into corruption with the talent’s fine. Technically it’s a dps increase, because aff locks get one GCD per 30seconds back.
> 
> For anyone who’s trying to improve their raiding game, one of the first rules (for dps) is always be casting or in a GCD. If you’re resource constrained (casters on Vezax) there’s still someething you could be doing (wanding). It may not be much, but every little bit counts; on things like Yogg phase 2, people burning a GCD on corruptor tentacles as they run to the next crusher can whittle down enough corruptors that the upstairs group can finish them off when the downstairs group enters the brain room.
> 
> To me, the frustration is that my alt brings the single best buff in the game (BoK), which is unique to that class. My main’s best debuffs were move else where (CoE). It’s all QQ anyway. What matters is dropping bosses and getting loot.
> 
> Which reminds me, anyone done Thorim hard mode, and got any advise? I don’t think I’ve seen anything kick our asses quite so hard as he did. Heck, even failing at three tree Freya we did better than we did with Thorim with Sif playing along.
> 
> **Shot from Guns** why would a blood-elf need rage? They can’t be warriors or druids. The change to Arcane Torrent were a buff to the ability, 6% mana every two minutes is nothing to scoff at, and the AoE silence may be OP (it’s very gross in healer v healer fights).

Indeed. That’s why I said use CoE provided there isn’t a boomkin in the raid. Of course, some people will have a spec they love which won’t be orthodox but still will work well for their playstyle. But with all of the talent points, there’s simply no way to account for every individual flavor, and most cookie cutter builds have a few discretionary points anyway.

As with any most things, the raid composition will dictate a lot. The restrictions are more prevalent in 10 man than 25 man, for obvious reasons. But it simply isn’t true to proclaim the thing as “no” since the changes made of late haven’t yet been tested extensively so as to determine which set of priorities in one’s rotation will yield the optimal dps/dpm. More work is being done by those who enjoy theorycrafting; however, it’s far from settled.

I’m not so sure about using curse of doom. I have rarely used it when I’ve raided, and in TBC I raided as 0/21/40, like most destruction locks did. Unfortunately, that’s no longer possible because of the removal of demonic sacrifice. (Bye bye, you lovely talent you). Some people use it and swear by it, others don’t. I haven’t seen any hard data to suggest that it’s somehow a such a superior idea that failing to use it actually reduces one’s dps or dpm. It’s also a dicey proposition because it’s hard to predict what’s happening a minute down the road and where one’s threat might be, or within what phase one might be at the moment.

It if goes off at an unfortunate moment, it well can create more of a problem than it’s worth. But, if someone’s using it and it works for them, and their guild is satisfied with their performance, then no one is really in a position to tell them otherwise. Certainly not me despite the fact that it wouldn’t fit into my particular playstyle.

The short answer is that locks are semi-broken right now. The ISB is at the moment quite alright, but they keep changing it back to a self buff/raid buff. I wish they’d just make up their mind.

What else would they do other than cast a shadow bolt? I don’t know; that would largely depend on what’s going on. One idea which comes readily to mind is drain life. Particularly since this ups one’s chances for a nightfall proc.

Maybe I’ll have to dust of my lock and go do a raid and crunch some numbers to see what’s the bee’s knees with the last couple of patches.

“Torment the Weak only affects snared or slowed targets. This will be awesome for solo work, but won’t help against bosses since most of them are immune to my slowing and freezing effects.”

Yes, they might be immune to _your_ snares, but that doesn’t mean they’re immune to everyone else’s. TTW will work on a target slowed by anyone, such as thunderclap from a protection warrior. Also, with fingers of frost, even if the boss isn’t snared or frozen, the talent lets your spells as if he were.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1896 "2009-06-12T08:48:06Z")

</div>

Y’all forgot to tell me **this**!

(But it’s okay)🙂

When you’re a level 24 Warrior, you cannot _refuse_ to tank, and ask for just DPS!

Dem li’l shits dont understand 59 years old w/ Alzheimer’s Disease!

They just say shit like “You **SUCK** ”, and go away hurt on accounta I can’t help 'em because I am afraid I’ll make a mistake!

And no amount of whispering to the leader makes a difference!

He/She has their mind set on a Group, and they’ve just run into a 'tard.

I’ll just deny every offer and do what I can, alone.

Jeeeeeezus Efffffin Christ!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ashman165](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@ashman165](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashman165)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1897 "2009-06-12T09:42:28Z")

</div>

> [@Quasimodem](#):
>
> Y’all forgot to tell me **this**!
> 
> (But it’s okay)🙂
> 
> When you’re a level 24 Warrior, you cannot _refuse_ to tank, and ask for just DPS!
> 
> Dem li’l shits dont understand 59 years old w/ Alzheimer’s Disease!
> 
> They just say shit like “You **SUCK** ”, and go away hurt on accounta I can’t help 'em because I am afraid I’ll make a mistake!
> 
> And no amount of whispering to the leader makes a difference!
> 
> He/She has their mind set on a Group, and they’ve just run into a 'tard.
> 
> I’ll just deny every offer and do what I can, alone.
> 
> Jeeeeeezus Efffffin Christ!

Here’s what you do: let it all out and understand that at some point you’ll catch on to tanking. Or not. Not everyone is cut out to do it, but it’s really unimportant so long as you’re rocking the dps charts and staying alive. 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1898 "2009-06-12T12:12:47Z")

</div>

> [@Quasimodem](#):
>
> Y’all forgot to tell me **this**!
> 
> (But it’s okay)🙂
> 
> When you’re a level 24 Warrior, you cannot _refuse_ to tank, and ask for just DPS!
> 
> Dem li’l shits dont understand 59 years old w/ Alzheimer’s Disease!
> 
> They just say shit like “You **SUCK** ”, and go away hurt on accounta I can’t help 'em because I am afraid I’ll make a mistake!
> 
> And no amount of whispering to the leader makes a difference!
> 
> He/She has their mind set on a Group, and they’ve just run into a 'tard.
> 
> I’ll just deny every offer and do what I can, alone.
> 
> Jeeeeeezus Efffffin Christ!

Unfortunately, a warrior’s main role IS tanking. In a 5-man instance, there’s really not a lot of room for a non-tank warrior, because you have so few people to distribute into the other niches.

Another thing to remember is that a LOT of WoW players are kids or teenagers, who are going to probably be more blunt and less sympathetic (their brains haven’t developed that area completely yet). It’s going to happen that you’re going to run across some people who don’t understand exactly what your Alzheimers is doing to you, or who don’t really believe you have it. You just need to remember who YOU are, and what YOU want out of the game, and not let them ruffle your feathers.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![martu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@martu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/martu)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1899 "2009-06-12T13:19:33Z")

</div>

Hello all, more Warlock questions from me! Hopefully in a month or six I might be able to give some advice rather than asking all the time…

Key bindings are my latest issue, I don’t have enough fingers. On my pally I manage to handle all my combat spells using only the keys 1-5, Q, E and F with two spells bound to each through the use of ctrl. For my warlock this isn’t enough it seems. Last night I tried to use my Felhunter and work on learning how to Drain Tank properly and DOT-ing multiple mobs and using Fear. As I see it I need the following spells close to hand:

Immolate  
Curse of Agony  
Curse of Tongues  
Corruption  
Shadowbolt  
Health Funnel  
Drain Life  
Shadowbolt  
Life Tap  
Drain Soul  
Health Funnel  
Bandage  
Healthstone  
Fear  
Pet Ability 1  
Pet Ability 2  
Pet Ability 3  
Arcane Torment  
Banish

these would be handy too for particular scenarios:  
Drain Mana  
Curse of Weakness  
Enslave Demon

and I am only level 31! So how do you guys handle this?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![martu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@martu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/martu)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/1900 "2009-06-12T13:35:52Z")

</div>

Very annoying thing kept happening last night while trying to do the ‘Prison Break In’ quest that you can pick up in Hillsbrad. It involves getting into a hut that is surrounded by a wall so I take my time and working my way around the building to clear out the mobs there before I go inside. The casters have an annoying spell that summons ghosts and lots of them, not really a problem with my new Felhunter and using CoT for the first time. However as I creep up to a wall in the compound I hear a noise and suddenly I am being attacked by ghosts which it seems are spawning out of nowhere. I get my bearings and notice they are coming from a caster the other side of the wall - how have I managed to aggro him?? Doubly annoying was that I couldn’t get over the wall to attack him without running through about 4 other mobs. I had no choice but to run away and avoid this area next time when, of course, all the mobs I originally killed had respawned.

Second time? Same thing happened but in a different spot! Third time I finally managed it only to find out that the last NPC I had to kill was 6 levels above me and damn near impossible to hit.

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