New Build!!!

Right, new build I had started my Dwarf Shaman but I'm gonna hold back on writing up because the new build unlocked Thousand Needles for Testing, sooo I can finally get to 55 on my druid/priest, which Is pretty cool.

Dunno if this post is really worthy of a post but lets point some clear things out from this patch.

1) They want to heavily tune down "mana-regen" tactics, this is a great decision it means you have more room to make mistakes as a healer and this sort of thing.

2) Removing Illumination, I never liked this talent as like a pathetic amount of mana, it worked better with 100% back on crits because it just felt nicer, but it's too hard to balance around this mechanic at all levels of gear I would presume and so it's been removed and probably for the better.

3) ZG IS GONE!!!?!?!?!!!!????!!!! Please make those mounts welfare so I can laugh at a certain somebody who farmed those for over 4 years and only just got both of them recently :)))).

Exciting Talent Trees in Cataclysm

Since this was a blue tagged post, I presume they want some specific feedback on talent trees so far in the beta, which are the most exciting and stuff.

I think first of all you need to look at what is meant by "exciting", if you mean huh this tree is pretty cool looking, or if it's like bam that's an exciting tree. I think the wording of this is pretty poor, realistically I think talent tree analysing falls into 2 categories: Core talents, and Utility talents.

Let's be frank with my feedback here, none of the talent trees are "exciting" in my book, since they are basically still the exact same way they were at 51 points, there are still going to be builds you can't have any choice over for pretty much every spec. The fact this question is being asked makes me think that a lot of the talent trees are finalised in terms of layout talents and such, and if this is the case then there was 0 point moving from a 51 point to a 31 point system, the same problems are still there with the talent trees.

Stuff like increased run speed is labored as a "utility" talent and is "optional" whereas as a hardcore raider I know that is anything but the case, run speed is a mandatory dps talent, like Metabolic boost is for zerglings in sc2, run speed=dps and is mandatory. Most of the talent trees at the moment are 31 points in your direct tree that you have absolutely 0 choice over, sometimes you are choosing between 2 different throughput talents and you can't have them all, this is wrong.

My "vision" for 31 point trees would be that you would have 25 points in your main tree that were mandatory for dps increase, this includes talents like run-speed aoe increases (because not every fight is patchwerk) and then you should be left with 5 points in your main tree you can spend on other utility things, such as Selfless healer in retribution or denounce in the holy tree, where there probably will be a "best" spec, but it would probably end up varying from fight to fight and beyond those 25 initial points might increase your dps by 1% at most, but more likely will give you utility to your group.

I think a prime example of the talent tree's failure is the talent impact, you called specifically for ideas on "utility" and I don't think it's too surprising people would give you ideas for dps increasing utility. At the moment impact is basically fire pestilence, obviously a bit rng but yeh, and that makes this talent mandatory, it is going to be a big dps increase on certain fights and does not in any way shape or form fall under the term utility in terms of raid utility.

Raid utility are stuff that don't directly increase your dps and are very situational, perhaps they help healers out with healing or are things that give you snare immunity or increase time on utility spells, stuff like incorperating the current glyph of evocation into a talent, thats purely utility. Many people would probably take it but only if the talent system fell under my criterion.

The idea here is so you end up needing to spend about 4 points on average per tier and then have 1 extra point per tier (maybe 2 or none per tier but on average 1) where you can put into any talent you have access to and it be "ok".

My main problem with talent trees are there are going to still be plenty of talents that never see the light of day outside of say levelling, denounce is one of these in Holy's current status, you just don't have any room to take this interesting utility talent, it obviously doesn't affect healing throughput it's just utility but I can't take it because I don't have enough points.

My biggest qualm with talent trees right now are the subspecs. I realise Blizzard wants to encourage subspeccing but ideally I feel people should have loads of choices with their subspec options, if something that is "mandatory" for dps is in the second tier I have to devote 8 points to that tree, you may argue that you can choose between talents in the first tier (often this isn't the case and people need "motivation" to spend talents in the first tier to get to the second tier) but well surely it's better if there are around 5 mandatory points in subspecs, that were all in the first tier. Lets say for shadow we had evangelism and Archangel in the first tier and then twin disciplines a 2 point talent in holy and then some talents in shadow main tree clipped, ideally you would end up with a cookie cutter spec which is like

3+x/2+(5-x)/25+6 where you get to choose the plus talents completely freely, right now in pretty much every tree the talent tree cookie cutters are like 31/8+x/(2-x) where you basically have a maximum of 2-3 points you can choose from, and even then thats being generous. I'll try and list the "best" trees that fall under this criterion.

1) Shadow Main tree

I've already commented on how this tree doesn't really work for levelling because of mana issues, but if we ignore this we get a pretty good tree, you end up with 4 points to choose between utility talents, you could grab silence and psychic horror or you could grab the free pvp trinket or a stun or whatever, you have a lot of choice in the shadow main tree. This is exactly how I would hope to choose my max level spec (obviously whilst levelling this needs tweaks but thats more rearranging talents that are mandatory and the same cost rather than anything major).

However if we look at the subspec options we just don't have any, all 10 points have to into discipline, 8 points are already mandatory in discipline, and 2 points extra in the second tier all have dps consequences so really you only have 2 points to choose between mental agility and improved power word: shield, which isn't enough.

2) Fire Sub-spec

I want to make it clear that this is about Sub-speccing options, the actual fire tree is poor because you don't get any choices for utility (unless you consider impact utility) and you have to actually spend 32 points in the tree to get all the dps talents you want.

However, looking at the subspec options of the tree they are probably one of the most ideal, you have 3 points you *need* to spend in arcane/frost (that is netherwind presence/Piercing Ice) then you have 4 free points you can spend in either tree or back into the fire tree on pure utility and not on dps increasing talents. Obviously I feel like netherwind presence and Piercing Ice should be 2 point talents, (or even removed since these are talents which are supposedly boring). This assessment also presumes that arcane concentration is in no way mandatory for fire mana conservation. If it is then this sub-spec is again worthless.

I want to note these are all from a pve stand-point, in my opinion pvp is useless and shouldn't influence choice on talent trees, obviously utility talents have far more use in pvp than in pve. I also want to note that I do not consider purely threat talents in a tree utility unless they are an increase to aoe threat, numbers are not finalised so I cannot tell how mandatory those talents would turn out being.

Other trees which are pretty good:

Beast Master Hunter Main-tree

Arcane Mage Main-tree

Fire Mage Subspec-tree

Frost Mage tree (some talents need work but overall the feel is good, subspec is pretty good aswell presuming frost doesn't need master of the elements and arcane concentration)

Retribution Paladin Main-tree

Holy Priest Main-tree (If Test of Faith is changed to 2 points)

Shadow Priest Main-Tree

Combat Rogue Main-tree

Subtelty Rogue Main-tree (Presuming that Energetic Recovery is not Mandatory, Cheat Death is Reduced to 2 points)

Elemental Shaman Sub-spec Tree (I'm torn on this, 7 mandatory points is too much but you have good choices with the 3 remaining points, it remains here but it's borderline)

Affliction Warlock Main-Tree (If everlasting affliction is a 2 point talent)

Demonology Warlock Main-Tree
Destruction Warlock Tree (Very good tree (from my limited understanding of Destruction Warlocks)

Arms Warrior Main-Tree (Improved Hamstring needs to be 1 point or a talent below it only 1 point otherwise this can't be taken)

Fury Warrior Main-Tree

Protection Warrior Main-Tree (Borderline.. I say this is ok presuming aoe threat isn't mandatory but you can't get all of the aoe-threat talents as utility so it needs some tweaking but is "ok")

Trees which need to be changed:

Blood Deathknight tree (Choosing between throughput talents in main and subspec)

Frost Deathknight tree (Only 1 choice at tier 2, rest is mandatory)

Unholy Deathknight tree (Choosing between throughput talents)

Balance Druid tree (IF Owlkin Frenzy procs on all attacks, this tree needs work... if not then it is ok IF Moonglow is not required for boomkin mana regen, subspec is all mandatory)

Feral Dps Druid Tree (All mandatory, no subspec balance options & mandatory 8 points in Resto)

Feral Tanking Druid Tree (All mandatory, arguable that kotj is utility but that's the only thing you can spend points on, subspec options all in resto but amount of choice is good)

Restoration Druid Tree (Far far too many mandatory talents in resto, I had to spend 5 extra points to get everything, subspec options offer no choice)

Beast Master Hunter Sub-spec Tree (no choices at all)

Marksman Hunter Tree (All Mandatory and too many talents, no choice in subspec options)

Survival Hunter Tree (All Mandatory and too many talents, no choice in subspec (presumably I don't have enough knowledge of survival hunters to know for sure))

Arcane Mage Sub-spec Tree (8 mandatory points, little choice beyond that)

Fire Mage Main-Tree (Way too many mandatory points, probably want to spend 35 points in the tree)
Holy Paladin tree (All Mandatory talents in both main and sub-spec trees)

Protection Paladin tree (Way too many choices of Mandatory Talents in both main and sub-spec trees)

Retribution Sub-spec tree. (8 Mandatory talents with little choice available for the remaining 2)

Discipline Priest Tree (Absolutely no choice, all talents are mandatory in both main and sub-specs)

Holy Priest Sub-spec Tree (This is here because there are 8 Mandatory talents, the choice between the final 2 is pretty good though)

Shadow Priest Sub-spec Tree (All talents in sub-spec are mandatory, you even choose between 2 throughput talents, nothing in holy is worthy of sub-speccing)

Assasination Rogue Tree (Presuming Back-stab is an execute ability all talents are mandatory (Movement speed is not utility), choosing between dps increasing talents in sub-spec)

Combat Rogue Sub-spec Tree (Considering run-speed is mandatory and that eviscerate is used in combat rotation 0 choice in sub-spec)

Subtelty Rogue Sub-spec Tree (Considering Run-speed is Mandatory, no choice in sub-spec)

Elemental Shaman Main Tree (Way too many Mandatory Talents)

Enhancement Shaman Tree (No choice in Main-spec or sub-spec, (regardless of if primal wisdom is or isn't mandatory)

Restoration Shaman Tree (No choice in Main-spec or sub-spec, (Elemental Precision needs to be available and not mutually exclusive with Movement speed))
Affliction Warlock Sub-spec Tree (No choice at all)

Demonology Warlock Sub-spec Tree (All Mandatory points, choosing between way too many dps increasing talents)

Arms Warrior Sub-spec Tree (This is dependent on Enrage stacking with wrecking crew, if it does it's bad, if not then the sub-spec tree is "ok, but could use some tweaks")

Fury Warrior Sub-spec Tree (Deep Wounds is far too mandatory to be 2nd tier and 3 points, should be baseline and removed, then sub-spec is perfect)

Protection Warrior Sub-spec Tree (Too many Mandatory Talents to choose between)

Hopefully this comprehensive list of opinions tells you what you want to know, the best tree at the moment is the Destruction Warlock Tree in my eyes, whether you call it "exciting" is very different because I don't think "exciting" quite cuts it, all the trees are pretty exciting but this tree is the most well made and allows for the best freedom of choice whilst remaining as exciting as some of the more bloated trees.

Feralas Alliance Supplement

Similar to Desolace, Feralas is basically a mirror on the Alliance side with pretty much identical quests, however the questing flow and actual story on the alliance side is just much more engaging, the zone starts off identically until we get to Feathermoon Stronghold as opposed to Stonemaul Hold. Here you are given a briefing from Shandris Feathermoon to 3 worgen sentinels, this not only gives you a sense of progression through the zone it also just makes the zone far more engaging on the alliance side.

Firstly you fly over to the ruins of Feathermoon and find it to be under brutal assault from the naga, you fight your way through the naga to kill the named npc and get to fly back, pretty short but also very engaging and immersive. I also love how feathermoon stronghold looks in comparison to the Stonemaul Hold, it's just so.. lovely.

Moving on from here we get sent to the Highborne encampment where our second worgen is located, basically we get complete mirrors to Stonemaul hold quests, but instead of the Muisek quest we get a quest which apparently is rallying the troops. However, these are in a 20,000,000x better order than the muisek quests and flow perfectly with the other quests in the area, I also like how rallying the mobs here sometimes spawns horde poachers you need to take down, so you still have to kill as much as the horde people do.

When taking on Cho'gall in the Dire maul arena, which had sound when I did this, which is so awesome.. this event was pretty damn epic anyway but the sound just makes it great, instead of the orc leader you get Shandris Feathermoon helping you out, which just feels so much better and makes more sense. I presume it's somewhat of a bug that she basically 2-shots cho'gall compared to the orc leader, but regardless ^^.

The final worgen leader is located at a new alliance encampment, which basically all the quests here have not been implemented on the quest map however they are purely identical to the horde versions, apart from the lack of alliance involvement with the Grimtotem encampment, regardless to say that I presume this is NYI, since the alliance npcs are still located in the grimtotem and presumably will be used once these quests are implemented.

Ysondre is still bugged, so can't bring any feedback on that quest here, and well here are some pictures, the alliance side is definitely much better than the horde version of this zone, it flows better but still suffers from some lack of quests by being a level short of where I should be finishing this zone.

Desolace Alliance Supplement

This is going to be a pretty short post since basically this zone is practically identical for both the horde and the alliance, there are a couple of unique quests but they are basically mirrors of the horde versions, firstly there is a quest, which is actually probably available for the horde aswell you are just never directed there, it involves killing lots and lots of the local wildlife, I feel that 15/15/25 are way too high numbers even if its a 100% drop-rate, they feel like nagrand v2 and that is never going to be a good thing, perhaps reducing these to 25/10/10 would be good, since the vultures drop more than 1 item per kill. Otherwise it's a pretty simple kill quest.

The other quests are the reclaimer's incorperate want you to collect a chest and then kill naga to get the satchel to drop. This quest seems to be a vanilla remnant and if this quest is to remain in the game it definitely needs to have some auto-questing here to stop the painful travelling to and from Nijel's point.

Finally the Explorer's league hub has a quest to kill a named apothecary in the south, pretty standard quest really and It's pretty much there instead of killing the named orca in the bay, nothing particularly amazing and so you can see the questing experience is very much shared. The quest where you destroy nijel's point is obviously not in the alliance version and no alternative quest is given either, instead you just go round Satyrnaar and do the 3 quests at each of the areas of interest and nothing else comes of them.

Overall though there isn't much to talk about for this zone so just a few screenies ^^.

Farwatcher's Glen

Finally we reach the conclusion of this zone, which is actually somewhat incomplete seemingly, we arrive in Farwatcher's glen after taking vengeance on the horde and get given a series of quests to complete up the exploded volcano in the south west of the zone. One of these quests is meant to take you via rocket-pack to the questing area, however obviously this isn't implemented and you have to run around the long way, not exactly an issue since this is beta but obviously something that should be fixed for live.

The quests on the mountain are pretty standard and I would like some sort of interaction with the elite black dragon on top of the volcano, I mean she is just sitting there and you end up killing her eggs and whelps and she does nothing and you don't fight her which is somewhat disappointing, like I said the conclusion to this zone is weird in a sense that it doesn't feel like a conclusion, it's not like the Horde area where it really felt like you could conclude with the bomb exploding and the truly epic lore with garrosh and Krom'gar, the alliance version just isn't a great ending point, personally I would have liked to see some form of attack on the horde with Garrosh having to choose whether to apologise to the alliance or still be made out to be an awe-inspiring warchief, would have had some good dialogue.

If that isn't possible then definitely this last questing hub needs to be expanded somewhat to include a fight with the dragon here, that could easily fit for a nice conclusion to the zone and showing where the true threat should be lying rather than the on-going battle with the horde in this zone.

My overall thoughts on this zone are really good, this zone isn't as good as the horde version, and well it was never going to be, you can't compete with the insanely epic questline of the horde version, but this zone still manages to deliver a pretty good questing experience and some epic moments within it, which is great. The conclusion of this zone needs some work along with decisions about the south east of the zone and the Northwatch area, but other than that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this zone for alliance.

Mirkfallon Post & Thal'darah Overlook

Heading back to the main story with the bomb we are told to make haste to Mirkfallon post where the bomb has been spotted, cool story really immersing you in a common theme through the entire zone, whereas in the horde that was advancing through the horde ranks on the alliance side it's about saving lives and stopping the bomb, both of these ideas however give you a great sense of progression throughout a zone and a sense of purpose, which I personally really love.

The actual questing here is also really interesting, we get a standard kill quest and another quest which is like, blow up some oil-pumps, which basically involve killing a controller next to it and then using the item dropped by them. Firstly, the controllers call down an orbital shredder, which is pretty damn cool I might add, but it's marked as an elite which is pretty scary and completely and utterly wrong since they haven't got the health nor damage to be classed as elites so I presume this is a bug. What makes this quest note-worthy though is how using the item basically causes a nuclear holocaust from what I can tell, you use it and about 5 seconds later there is a massive explosion!! I think it even pushes your character away when the wave hits you, that's just so awesome.. really I cannot put into words how good that interaction is.

We were also given a quest to meet minx inside, I really love this "Goblin" Pump controller as a gnome wearing a goblin male mask.. classic :D. Basically you are told to grab this log book, nothing too special about that but.. the mobs on the platform are incredibly annoying mainly because of the Orbital shredders they call down, because these come from above if you pull the goblin controller at the top of the ramp they call down the orbital shredder and it lands on the above platform and basically pulls the entire area. Luckily I have shadowmeld and was able to kill the controller regardless though this needs to be somewhat fixed.

Handing in these quests though we have to rush to Thal'darah Overlook because the bomb is headed for the grove, upon hand-in you are swept immediately onto a hippogryph. Fortunately as an experienced wow player, *cough* by luck *cough* I handed in the other quests before the quest to head to the overlook so wasn't left with quests to hand-in here. Needless to say this needs to be an "activate on talking to" type quest rather than it immediately transitioning you to the next quest hub, although that's good for story purposes it really is annoying if you didn't hand in the other quests here first.

Upon landing it seems like it's a race against time before the bomb hits and you are dispatched franticly on a vehicle pick-up quest, similar to the dragonblight quest for alliance. I feel like the gryphon needs to go faster speed whilst sped up, this quest is good for the first 2-3 fly-outs then it just seems like a total chore, really fun quest though and great for the immersion factor here, which I definitely appreciated. The follow-up quest really surprised me though, and god is it awesome, you go out for one last effort to save druids and you basically are just watching a cut-scene of the bomb falling on the grove, but my god is it epic having a massive explosion in front of you crushing your hope of rescuing druids.

There was a slight bug with these quests where I was "stuck" in a parachute whilst on the hippogryph watching the bomb, I actually didn't notice this until reviewing the screenshots I had made because this scene is epic but obviously this is bug and needs to be fixed ^^. The follow-up to this is to exact revenge on the horde and take a glaive-thrower and reap havoc on the horde in what is a mirror of the horde quest with the catapult, I don't do this quest until after but I will just comment on it now, obviously the "bug" id is still on the glaive thrower as it was on the demolisher. The quest was good other than the fact that the number 2 button seemed totally redundant, why would I use it when I can just spam glaives every second using number 1 button. I also liked how this area neatly transitions you to the final area, but I will cover that after this last bit.

The other quests you can pick up after the somewhat epic cut-scene involve trying to cleanse stonetalon peak, which has seemingly been taken over by old god corruption and, tentacles!!! Oh, how I love you tentacle missions. What is better is the fact that these tentacles grab night elf sentinels and dryads, oh hentai references perhaps :). Regardless the quests here have perfect synergy and are really lovely, I always love tentacles and they really have a great aesthetic with Stonetalon peak. Nothing much is explained as to who the old-god corrupting this place is, but regardless it's nice to see tentacle missions :D.

A pretty epic conclusion to the main storyline of this zone I thought, I mean it's no "you are dismissed", because my god that is seriously awesome, but it does a pretty good job of itself on the alliance side.

Northwatch Expedition Camp

Right, so this is one of the breadcrumbs you are given from Windshear Hold, I chose to do this for a few reasons: The breadcrumb only really works taking it from windshear hold, the "vehicle" needed to get to the place is located near here and it is in the opposite direction of the story meaning I know you will not get directed back here, whereas you are more likely to get directed back to the main story.

Continuing on from my point in my previous post, I wholly disagree with giving a breadcrumb against the flow of the story, the quest text about the bomb is really urgent like you need to follow it asap, but its not logical for questing xp to do this, which really goes against the story flow of the zone.

Lets crack on with the area though, firstly I don't know if I agree with the positioning of this vehicle, it's pretty far away from Windshear hold and is the second set of crossroads you come across, which isn't exactly the most logical of areas to look. However the vehicle cut-scene I suppose you should call it is pretty damn awesome and a lovely way to transition to this area.

Firstly we get, what I think anyway, is a great answer to the question of why the cave is so damn big on the horde side, turns out that its a double-ended cave with somewhat mirror quests on the alliance side who "accidentally" opened up a back-door to the horde stronghold. So this time we get a different set of quests, the alliance want to shut off the cave so they can't be attacked by the horde, but before doing so you need to plant explosives save some miners and kill horde assassins.

The actual place for the explosives was really confusing, I feel like some sort of direction was needed for this objective because the sparkles weren't all that helpful and although the pillars were in somewhat logical places I don't think it is really clear enough, especially how inaccurate map objectives look in caves.

The miners quest is basically a pure mirror of the orc peon quest so I won't go into too much detail on that, the other quest is to kill assassins utilising the infra red goggles stolen from the goblins ^^, in a similar quest to the start of the horde version of Stonetalon putting on these goggles marks the assassins on your mini-map and killing them is rather elementary, once killing them however you get a cool auto-quest from the gnomecorder, not sure how he got a hold of it but regardless, to kill their leader.

I really, really think that the leader needs to be shown-up on your mini-map I was running around looking for her, then realising she was right in front of me because I thought she would be marked on the map like the assassins, so yeh.. was rather confused :<. After doing these quests and handing them in you get a nice phase where the roof comes down and the mine collapses :). Pretty nice effects tbh, the only bug was that the infra-red goggles effect kept on until you left the cave, I presume this is a bug and they should be removed once you hand in the quest, but it's a pretty minor qualm.

Now, I particularly liked this next quest since it sort of brings a paradox in the questing world, the alliance want to ally with the grimtotems because the horde have fallen out of love with them, which is true if you go through the mulgore zone, however as the horde you are told to fight the grimtotems because they allied with the alliance, so it seems rather paradoxical and which came first, which I actually like and gives the player whos played as both races an extra immersion of the zone.

The quest though basically gives you a "collect lots of items quest", I like the npc name of Mcweaksauce and seemingly he has been promoted from azuremyst isle to the best chef in all the alliance and has ended up in Stonetalon, pretty nice evolution of characters.

This quest sort of mirrors the horde version, with the exception of killing Kobolds... the drop rate on the Boulderside Cheese is extremely poor, it definitely needs to be 100% like I've argued in previous articles, I would like to add how lonely this quest is, it could use a companion to do whilst out here. The hand-ins though require some cool interaction with the grimtotems, who are like we need big weapons!

So what do you do? you go into the horde mine and collect some alliance crates and kill horde there, great synergy with these 2 quests really, having looked at the area though you can see why there isn't a horde mirror quest here.. I mean what would they do here, theres even a Zeppelin tower here which is un-climbable, so I'm not sure if this area if fully implemented or not. Regardless though, after collecting the weapons you get to go and interact with the grimtotem chieftain, perhaps this is why there is no horde quest to kill him ^^.

He basically asks you to do the alliance version of "buff up the troops", however this version is 20x better, one because it's not a humongous cast time and two, because when using the weapons the grimtotem weapons turn into alliance level 60 pvp weapons, which are just so iconic and awe inspiring. I also like how there are plenty of grimtotem just standing around the chieftain you can just use the item on really quickly.

The follow-up to this is also really awesome, you basically have to kill a series of horde generals, 4 in total, all big named mobs. This quest was really challenging and I don't know if it was too challenging and perhaps there should be slightly longer between the waves but I really loved the feel of this quest, perhaps it could have been enhanced by having a grimtotem strike force with you, which would have been even more immersive, but this quest was a pretty lovely conclusion to this area.

Now from the end of this zone you get a quest that leads you into the southern barrens naturally, obviously I've already stated my opinion on this but yes this does make sense but if this is to make sense this area should be mutually exclusive xp wise with farwatcher's glen or share experience pool with the southern barrens.

That's the end of this post though, obviously I flew back to Windshear hold and cracked on with the main storyline of the zone, "the bomb".