Sweet, Sweet, Runic Hammer

Finally I have my height Primal Mights, time to craft my so wanted Runic Hammer.
I'm pretty confident that it is the right choice because of the lack of "competitors" availables. Netherbane on Al'ar don't seems to drop that much and I won't have the Arena points needed for the Gladiator OH in at least 5 or 6 weeks. More and more rumors saying that there will be a 1800-1900 cap to obtain Gladiator weapons in Season 3, it seems that I'll be missing the anticipated Christmas this year.

Another objective to quickly acheive is to obtain the Fel Leather Leggings to replace the one I have. Easy to afford, 3 Gem Slots and +25 Basis Hit rating, I love it. As Skulker's Greaves and Void Reaver Greaves never drop and I won't have the DKP for Cataclysm Legplates anytime soon, it's a pretty nice waiting choice. Tonight, I will up my Consortium Reputation in order to have this pattern as soon as possible.

Raid Analysis #2

Second analysis inc, with last Thursday raid.

Context : Tempest Keep, Void down, 1h30 of tries on Al'ar.

Overall :

#11, despite I was constantly #8 before the tries on Al'ar, which is not the most DPS friendly fight for us, the guys who love contact <3.>

1. Better reactivity -> Survivability. A dead Shaman don't bring power to his fellow rogues/warriors.
2. I manage to change all my gems by +Hit ones, so now I have 123 Hit rating instead of 45 at my first raid which means 4,9% more hit rating to arrive at 16.79% total hit. So I had 18% of miss, not extraordinary but better than the 22,1% I had at my first raid. That explain my better DPS, if you take into account the fact that except this hit thing, my stuff is more or less the same that the one of my previous raid (except the imba belt).
3. Better trinket management (macro /use on Stormstrike) and shocks rotation (except Al'ar immune to fire >.<), mana management (I will definitely love the day we will have a third paladin in the raid to have Blessing of Wisdom).

For my next raid, probably Wednesday night, I'll have this beautiful Runic Hammer as off-hand weapon and I will try some totem-switching too. Can't wait the results.

Gentlemen, Choose your Weapons

Choosing your weapon is one of your most important choice as a Enhancement Shaman on World of Warcraft. And it is also one of the most difficult challenge to face.

What does a Shaman wants from his weapons ?

1. First of all, he wants a slow weapon, both in Main-hand and Off-hand, actually the slowest weapons as possible. Why ? Simply because around 30% of a Shaman DPS comes from Windfury, so you want your Windfury to hit the strongest as possible. And you got to know that since the 2.1 patch WF got a 3 sec. cooldown, that means that the faster is your off-hand, the more you risk to see WF proccing on this same off-hand, which you should not want to see happened because it is your weakiest hand*. Here is a nice graph taken from Malan post on EJ forum :
   
   
   
2. You want the weapon with the highest base DPS possible, considering the previous factor.

Now that we know how to choose the weapon, let's see what you should spend your DKP at thanks to Spacetotem who created the Shaman Weapon DPS Index (WDI).

Here is his calculation to choose a weapon : ((DPS*Speed) + 0.5*DPS)/3. Seems really logical to me as we knows from above that the more the weapon is around 3.0, the prettier our DPS will be. I just add the Merciless Gladiator calculation to his Index, as it wasn't available when he has done his calculation.

   Weapon DPS Index
Rank
DPS
Speed
Index
Ratio
Differential
Weapon
1
100.2
2.8
110.2
1.1
10
Syphon Nathrezim
2
98.7
2.7
105.3
1.07
6.6
Rod of Sun King
3
97.6
2.7
104.1
1.07
6.5
Dragonstrike
4
97.6
2.7
104.1
1.07
6.5
WickedEdgePlanes
5
100.2
2.6
103.5
1.03
3.3
Rising Tide
6
97.5
2.6
100.8
1.03
3.3
Merciless Gladiator's Slow
7
93.7
2.7
99.9
1.07
6.2
TalonPhoenix
8
91.1
2.7
97.2
1.07
6.1
Dragonmaw
9
91.1
2.7
97.2
1.07
6.1
Black Planar Edge
10
93.7
2.6
96.8
1.03
3.1
Netherbane
11
92.1
2.6
95.2
1.03
3.1
The Decapitator
12
91.2
2.6
94.2
1.03
3
Gladiator's Slow
13
87.5
2.6
90.4
1.03
2.9
Fool's Bane
14
84.3
2.7
89.9
1.07
5.6
Planar Edge
15
84.3
2.7
89.9
1.07
5.6
Drakefist Hammer
16
87.6
2.5
87.6
1
0
Big Bad Wolf's Paw
17
83.7
2.6
86.5
1.03
2.8
The Bladefist
18
83.5
2.4
80.7
0.97
-2.8
Runic Hammer
19
100.3
1.8
76.9
0.77
-23.4
Boundless Agony
20
71.7
2.7
76.5
1.07
4.8
Reflex Blades
21
98.6
1.8
75.6
0.77
-23
Fang of Vashj
22
83.4
2.2
75.1
0.9
-8.3
Fel Edged Axe
23
71.7
2.6
74.1
1.03
2.4
Boggspine Knuckles
24
93.6
1.8
71.8
0.77
-21.8
Heartrazor
25
71.6
2.5
71.6
1
0
Terrok's Gavel
26
91.9
1.8
70.5
0.77
-21.4
Malchazeen
27
65.5
2.6
67.7
1.03
2.2
AH GREEN
28
87.5
1.8
67.1
0.77
-20.4
Emeral Ripper
29
100.3
1.5
66.9
0.67
-33.4
Tracker's Blade
30
100.3
1.5
66.9
0.67
-33.4
Swiftsteel Bludgeon
31
62.6
2.5
62.6
1
0
Mag'Hari Fury Bnd
32
93.7
1.5
62.5
0.67
-31.2
Claw Phoenix
33
91.1
1.5
60.7
0.67
-30.4
Gladiator's Fast

So you can see that 100 dps weapons from BT are less valuable than that AH Green you gought for 10 golds.

I've Fool's Bane (#13) as MH and a 2.6 AH Green at OH. As you can see, there is not an huge amount of OH available before BT. As I got 240 Arena points (sic.) and no DKP available, I'll go for that sweet Runic Hammer (#18 but #6 OH) as off-hand with a Mongoose enchant on it.

Now that you have choosen your weapon, you're probably wondering how hard it would hit on mobs ? Thanks to Hedin post and assuming that you've farmed Mana Tomb Heroic for the Totem of Astral Wind, there are the results :

• MainHand Damage :
  ([Weapon Damage] + [Fully buffed AP]/14 * [Weapon Speed]) * 1.10
• MainHand Windfury :
  ([Weapon Damage]+([Fully buffed AP] + WindfuryAP + [Totem of the Astral Winds AP])/14 * [Weapon Speed]) * 1.10 * 1.40
• OffHand Damage :
  ([Weapon Damage] + [Fully buffed AP]/14 * [Weapon Speed])/2 * 1.10
• OffHand Windfury (2.1 patch mechanic :
  (([Weapon Damage]+AP/14*[Weapon Speed])/2+(WindfuryAP + [Totem of the Astral Winds])/14 * [Weapon Speed])) * 1.10 * 1.40

Hope that this post will help you to find your correct weapons too.

_________________________________________________
* As a Shaman, your Off-hand will always do half the damage that your main hand would have done with the same weapon.

Raid Analysis #1

Well, this post, hopefully, begins a long series of raid analysis of my own.
Let's begin.

Overall :

Well, really disappointing at first glance. #14, and the feral druids behind me, fury warrior just above me have also tanked during the instance (look the Dmg. In. stat). Nothing to be proud of. But 4% of total DPS output isn't that bad considering this was my first raid, specially when you know that I have wait longer than usual to hit any ennemies as I didn't know the behavior of mobs nor my own aggro-capability in a 25 Raid. What's really alarming me is the comparison of my DPS over my teammates : 496 where other Cacs are between 602 and 771.

Comparison with the other Enhancement Shaman, Kenpachii :

33,15% less DPS than him. Why ? Here are an in-sight view :

First and mainly itemization but I'll be back on this issue later on this report.
DPS Time, me : 52 minutes, him : 64 minutes. Explanation : I died too much. But mainly on a early Grull Shatter and at the very beginning of Void Reaver (because of him on Void, should be noted :D), which have make me lost hell a lot of DPS time. That make 19% of differences in terms of DPS time.

Above statement is confirmed by the number of hits. He have done 26% more normal hits and Stormstrike than me, with the 20% Haste proc on his blacksmithting mace (before landed value, arguing he is using two 2.6 weapons which make this comparison possible).

Calculation by Odon :

Dajay: (702 + 441)/0,799 => 1430 Hits
Ken: (865 + 605)/0,83 => 1771 Hits

If we add the 23% DPS Time lost : 1430*1,23 => 1759 Hits so 12 Hits of difference. Peanuts © Odon.

Moreover we really don't seem to have the same DPS Cycle : mine is mainly SS / Flameshock / SS / Earthshock / SS / Flameshock when Dot is up. He is more into the Earthshocking-thing and he almost never used Flameshock. For me it's an error as Flameshock take the huge bonus of Curse of Elements and is more mana effective than Earth Shock.

This is not the only difference. When we talk about healing yourself on a hot spot, he seems to use mainly Healing Wave while I prefer top an Lesser Healing Wave when needed. Three reasons for me to do this : Lesser Healing Wave is more adapted to the situation of a DPS who have to move all the time, moreover it's mana efficiency is roughly the same as Healing Wave untalented. Second reason is that the time you cast Healing Wave, 3 Paladins et two priest has Flash-healed you. Third reason, correctly timed, LHW could be used between a Swing, especially if you own two 2.6 weapons, as it doesn't reset the Global Cooldown.

Let's continue on the DPS difference. The DPS Time isn't all. Itemization matters a lot, he hits and crits harder than me without any doubt possible.

Yesterday night before the raid, unbuffed I was roughly at 20% crit / 10% Hit (9% from talents) / 960 AP. Ken got 27.18% crit / 17,24% Hit / 1190 AP unbuffed too. Numbers speak for themselves, especially the huge difference in Hit rating. 22,1 % missed vs 17,0%.

Conclusion, +Hit issues :

The goods issues of this raid was my reactivity to dps focus, 100% time totems on ground and global efficiency when I was alive. I've now to go into two directions : first survivability, 1k HP more would be the minimum necessary.
Secondly I have drastically increasing my Hit rating. The cap is 25,5%, with yesterday loots I'm currently at 11.85%. More information on the efficiency of Hit on Wowwiki and on this excellent guide from Blessing of Kings, Coriel's blog. As 1% Hit is 15,7894 rating, the cap is 403 rating points. As a PvE Enchancement Shaman withDual Wield Specialization and Nature's Guidance, it left me 261 ratings points to obtain, and I've just 45 now. And I should do this without sacrifying AP and Stamina as detailled on the WoW Forums TBC Shaman FAQ, the Enhance Shaman Collected Works Theorycraft on Elitist Jerks Forum or this Enhancement Hit Rating post on Blizzard Forum. [EDIT] : Very nice critic of Slant post on EJ forum could be read here, on Bizz' boards.

Oh yes, the loots : I obtain Liar's Tongue Gloves on Magtheridon and Gronn-Stitched Girdle on Grull. And a nice two-hands for PvP too :>

Tonight's raid

Maulgar / Grull / Math' / Void Reaver Downed.

Well, my main mistake was to die on a Grull Shatter, I did not not manage well. It remembers me those old AQ40 C'Thun sessions. Another thing, I was killed by a colleague error on Void at the very beginning. But overall, there is nothing to be proud of on for me on this raid.

Statistics

My newcomer stuff is not the only reason for this low input. I could improve a lot more my DPS Cycle by hitting more quickly for exemple. I was so afraid to keep aggro that I refrain myself too much. Well, it's late, I'll be more explicit tomorrow.

Some Recount stats :

First Real Raid Inc.

So tonight the night, our guild's raid holiday finished yesterday... and I really don't feel THAT ready for it.

I mean, this week-end I've leveled up to 308 in Leatherworking which is great. But during that time, I've spent almost all my money and I still got Gems / Enchants / Consummables to obtain.
Fortunatly, I got some nice friends in game who could help me by loaning me money or crafting goods.

I really wait for a correct itemization in order to be less stressful about all those concerns. Then I'll be more able to focus on gameplay issues and PvP/PvE theorycrafting which is what really interest me.

A little more about my guild scheduling for the new "season" :

• 6 Raids per Week : 3 SSC / 2TK / Grull's Lair - Math's Lair)
• Objective : Vashj / Kael'thas dead by end of October.

This week, I registered to both raids of today and Thursday. There is two enhancement Shamans including me, with one spot by raid. So I should raid one to three times a week, depending on my alter-ego availability and needs. Today should be a Maulgar / Grull / Magtheridon run, a classic one for the guild. My first one.

What I really expect from this raid isn't loots (with zero DKP, even if I wanted to...) nor DPS (awfull itemization due to my commitment to leatherworking, more important for me on long term). I want to prove that I could be a more than correct addition to the DPS rotation of my guild, at least with my totem buffs and my global attention to the raid.

PvP Matrix

Did I ever precise here that I'm definitely a PvP Fan ?
I love to read each posts of the blogs of Keystone or "God I'm your next Prophet" Ming.

But, there is a consensus saying that Enh. Shaman can't PvP. Well.

I'm from the first players of WoW, doing the stress bêta-test and so. For the love of the lore and the class, I decided at first to play my druid. During two years and a half, from the luxuriants forests of Darnassus to the abominations of Naxxramas, I've loved playing my druid on the PvE side. And I loved the PvP side too. And I remember what people was tolding to druids, early 2005 : Resto. Druids can't PvP.

Seems, that the Enh. Shaman community needs a Ferahgo* too.

Pre-BC, I was a Resto. PvP Druid, a proud one. I got an excellent PvP team with 4 people of it have gone to the Grand Marshall title, which means hardcore PvP, both in terms of performances and availability. Because of work, PvE Objectives and friends to help, I did not go to these, which is one of my regrets from Wow v1.

I want to feel the same with my Shaman, because I deeply think there is quite an underestimate potential in this class. So let's prove this on the ground.

First of all, gather your team.

• Divayth : the most impressive pvp mage I have played with. No matter he is outgear or focused, no matter what his current specs are, he will able the best of his class tools.
  + High/Burst DPS
  + Crowd Control (Nova, Sheep)
• Stillgäärh : PvP-Resto druid. He his more and more improving his skills in the PvP Area. As I know well the man behind this keyboard, a pure perfectionnist.
  + Burst Heal (Swiftmend, Nature Swiftness)
  + Crowd Control (Cyclone, Feral Charge)
  + Best dispell Poison spell in game (Abolish Poison)
• Freakhill : Well, I know much his impressive warrior skills. But this guy IS PvP at hearth and he migrated from his server to engage in my PvP squad with the goal to prove something.
  + DPS
  + Crowd Control (Sap, Blind, Poison)

As for me, I bring my Purging abilities (hello Shadowpriest, Mage, Warlocks), the versatility of my totems and my *sig* uncontrollable DPS (waiting for a correct two-hander to go). Moreover, I could really be a onspot healer if necessary, just by switching weapons I could have +500 healing, which is quite nice to send a quick Lesser Healing Wave or Chain Heal.

So Rogue/Resto Druid/Mage/Enh. Shaman. We need one more, but we didn't decided yet. Paladin, Warrior, Warlock ?

What is your opinion about that ? What is missing from our matrix ?

_________________________
* Ferahgo : First ever great resto druid videomaker, his video showing him completly owning couple of rogue and warlocks have revolutionized the way people were looking at Resto. Druids in PvP, sending much confidence to the community.

Managing Cleave

Yesterday night, I've died on Nightbane two times.
Why ? I didn't manage the cleave area two straight times. 8k hits each, kthxbye ++.

As a healer or feral tank pre-BC, I barely never had to manage those things and it is a harsh request that manage your life as a dps isn't as easy as you could think of it, 30 yards from the action. The reason is for dragon-long-type-beast, the cleave 180° range is not just in front of is mouth, but from the center of his body, which is completly not the same, especially if you were thinking like me that going through his stomac would be okay.

Otherwise, not a single Enhancement Shaman loot on the whole run. I just updated my Violet Ring by going honored on the faction, which is a little consolation prize.

Should I consider Blacksmithing ?

Well, I'm currently 239 Leatherworking, my Dragonscale quest done (tip, go on south of Tanaris to skin the Scorpid Scales, the scorpions there have higher drop rate that the ones near the town). I've in bag enough thing to go 300 as soon as I reconnect, probably tonight.

Then I'll have the Knothide Leather to farm (ouch !) to go 375. On the same side, I'm working on my Sha'tar / Scyers reputations to do Drums of Battle and Drums of Panic, as it is the most effective to go 375.

So now, I'm really investigating about going Blacksmithing.

PROS :

• First of all, Dragonstrike. Going both Blacksmither and Leatherworker would assure me not to be dependant on instance drops to be very effective with all the "Binded when Picked-up" great stuff.
• Secondly, doing another crafting on my main will enable me not to re-work on reputation related recipes, which is very important in this game.

CONS :

• Skinning is definitely a very good source of revenues. I have a 57-Warrior Alt Skinner, but it won't be as effective to farm with him than to farm with my main.
• It will take another huge amount of golds to go there (about 5k). I don't want again to lose time going searching mines on noob zones, specially for a profession in which you have to search your ressource and even compete to have a spot. I know mining is very lucrative but just don't have the time to "enjoy" it. At least with skinning, you're going to a cave and just kill mobs without looking the yellow point on your tiny minimap.

Well, what do you think about it ? I would definitely consider other players point of view.

Rep Grinding

230 Leatherworking with about 200 Rugged Leather and the same amount of Thick Leather in bags. At the end of the week, I'll be at least 300 and I will have to focus on my reputation to have the recipes which will enable me to grind past 350.

The two main reputation I'll have to focus on are The Sha'tar and Keepers of Time. Fortunatly, I've found thanks to comments on WoWInsider a really nice site which summarizes what I will have to grind/farm/buy/instance in the future.

Almost a full Karazhan run last night run

One loot for me and is worth it : Fool's Bane, the best main hand I could find with my guild progression for the moment. That is to say I'm happy!

Bashing Raptor or Making Fun at Naxx... Mmmh... Raptors

Yesterday, I had a dilemna with all my friends going enjoy themselves at Naxxramas. Since it was the single WoW_1.0 instance I didn't finished with my druid, it was appealing. But, it much more important for me at the moment to prepare a correct itemization for the "real" raid content beginning (end of SSC / Eye/ Hyjal / BT) the 20th of this month. Currently my guild is in holiday mode since the 6th, there is no official raids except some Karazhan when there is enough motivated people and pre-TBC contents. For example, Monday night they've rushed whole AQ40 for fun.

Tonight, there will be probably a Kara-run which I will join. I really want to discover the first bosses and drop some weapon, especially the Terestrian one, Fool's Bane.

I <3 Elitist Jerks

This post is simply what I was searching above all.
A complete view of my class with all the theorycrafting issues resolved.

I left you, I've a lot of pages to read !

[EDIT]

Coeff : Haste Rating = 2.2, Strength = 2 (2.2 w/Kings), Crit Rating = 2, Agility = 1.8 (2 w/Kings), Hit Rating = 1.4, Attack Power = 1.

Lootzor Link : Warning, Lootzor don't manage Haste for the moment.

Haste : Beneath 1.5 weapon speed, haste rating will drop in its average value per point, 10.5 haste rating gives 1% haste.
Hasted Speed = Weapon Speed / ( (1+(Haste 1 %/100)) * (1+Haste 2 %/100)) * (1+(((Haste Rating 1 + Haste Rating 2 + ... )/100)/10.52)))

Getting Things Done

I decided to use this blog as an incentive in my progression with my Shaman.

So, I have had a new column on left with my main grind objective at the very current moment with full details. It could be grinding a profession, materials for a craft, a reputation or else. But only once at a time : I don't want to disperse myself into to much things at a time, which would be totally ineffective, knowing myself. Moreover, you'll be able to "follow" my progression more easily with that tool. I'm also thinking about a new design, as I dislike the current organisation but that's another story.

Missing a point

Looking this morning at the TBC Shaman FAQ on the wow website, it seems that the correct ratio for Shammies DPS is 1 AP = 0.5 STR = 0.45 Haste = 0.93 Hit Rating = 0.66 Crit Rating = 0.75 AGI.

This ratio makes agility/crit much less important than Disquette's ones which I've seen on Shamanistic Rage. Moreover, it takes into account the impact of Haste.

I have to precise Haste is not as important for shaman that rogues or warriors for a simple reason : Windfury. Windfury have this 3.0 seconds cooldown on both arms that make you want to have the slower main and off-hands possible. Adding haste is quite a nice bonus, but contrary to rogue/wars it will not perfectly scales as you'll somewhat "miss" Windfury swings.

Otherwise, I've 126 Hit point to find to cap at 17%, this will be a main problem in future.

EDIT : Using the new stats, I've redone my Lootzor list for mail items at short terms.

First Karazhan !

Ok, since the last post I've made filled some of my objectives. First of all, I've finished my Karazhan access, crafted my Felfury Gauntlets and almost finished my Vengeance Wrap. I'm curretly working my leatherworking but since I was ill I've been a little late from what I was planning to do.

This week-end, I was part of the pick-up Karazhan of my guild, killing Netherspite, The Prince and doing the Chess Event. The Enhancement Shaman gameplay is really, really different from what I was used to play as a DPS with my warrior or the single time when my drood were feral. I have to get used to it, I've to get used to playing at full a DPS Class instead of the raid healing role I had those two last years. Well, I had also a nice loot on the chess event : Mithril Chain of Heroism : +56 AP, 0.88% Crit, 0.88% Dodge which is a really nice thing, isn't it ? So all my PvP points (which are some rare at the moment) will go to the trinket at first.

Now objective number one : crafting my Ebon Netherscale Set ASAP. I've whole tons of leather to farm, well, if we have to go, we'll go.