I know your all keen to hear the answers to the following questions. Call it intuition

Here We go…

General WoW Cataclysm Questions

What is the deal with the Cataclysm PVP Queues? Why are they so long? Why Does It Take So Long To Find A Battleground?

Well Horde battle ground queues are quite long, can be anywhere up to 10-15 minutes, This is due to the fact that most people have rolled horde and a lot less people want to play alliance  these days. Horde however seem to win a larger percentage of battle grounds than alience. So alience queues are almost instant, being mostly less than one minute. However this will change slightly depending on your battle group.

Arena Queues are always quite quick being around 1-2 minutes.

So the options are, change to Alliance and get pwned 60% of the time with instant queues, or stay on horde and wait for the looong queues.

Where can i buy the 70-80 PVP Gear?

You will have to make your way to area 51 in netherstorm, there is PVP vendors there where you can buy your classic PVP gear sets, the other peaces can be found in your capital city still, like boots and gloves. But the main items are all there, including the weapons.

Priests

What is the Haste cap for shadowpriest in patch 4.0.x or 4+?

You should be aiming for about 500 haste rating which will work out at about 6.9% haste.

How much spell penetration should i be aiming for arenas as a disc priest?

You should be aiming for around 200 spell penetration, just go for the epic cloak.

Bloodthirsty Gladiator’s Drape of Diffusion or Vicious Gladiator’s Drape of Diffusion

A Great arena 2v2 priest to check out the gear and the enchants is Mackenzii.

What is a good rotation for shadowpriests?

For maximum DPS you should be looking at the following rotation:

1)  Mind Blast when 1+ Shadow Orbs up to maintain  Empowered Shadow
2)  Shadow Word: Pain
3)  Devouring Plague
4)  Vampiric Touch
5)  Archangel at 5 stacks of Evengelism
6)  Shadow Word: Death only if the boss has less than 25% health
7) Shadow Fiend
8)  Mind Blast
9)  Mind Flay

Mage

What are the best trinket options for my 85 mage?

It depends a bit on your spec, well not really… there all kinda the same, in order of awesomeness or hard to get ness.

	[Heart of Ignacious] Twilight Ascendant Council			372	623.79
	[Theralion's Mirror] Valiona and Theralion			372	622.54
	[Figurine - Jeweled Serpent] Jewelcrafting			346	618.11
	[Darkmoon Card: Volcano] Inscription			359	586.18
	[Heart of Ignacious] Twilight Ascendant Council			359	551.92
	[Theralion's Mirror] Valiona and Theralion			359	550.51
	[Bell of Enraging Resonance] Atramedes			372	545.26
	[Stump of Time] Hellscream’s Reach – Exalted			359	535.72
	[Stump of Time] Baradin’s Wardens – Exalted			359	535.72
	[Vibrant Alchemist Stone] Alchemy			359	520.53
	[Gale of Shadows] Erudax			346	516.94
	[Soul Casket] 1650 Valor Points			359	507.52
	[Witching Hourglass] Ascendant Lord Obsidius			346	499.14
	[Bell of Enraging Resonance] Atramedes			359	482.17
	[Anhuur's Hymnal] Temple Guardian Anhuur			346	475.64
	[Gale of Shadows] Erudax			333	456.44

I know im referring here again to the MaxDPS Table, Reference below.

Hunters

Why do PVP / Arena Hunters have spell penetration on their gear?

Well a lot of hunter attacks do spell damage, for example arcane shot and explosive shot. Also traps are all spell damage. so adding spell penetration to your gear will make your DPS a lot more effective in PVP.

How much spell penetration will i need on my hunter?

You should aim for a minimum of about 100 spell penetration, and you can go up to a max of about 200 depending on how much agility you want to sacrifice.

Mark of the Wild and Blessing of Kings both have about 100 spell resistance in them, so having 100 will negate those buffs. Mage Armor adds another 44 to all resistances. Paladins and Shamans can have around 200 resistance to fire, so if you are a survival hunter it is advisable to have around 200 spell pen.

Data Sources
MaxDPS – Shadow Rotation

MaxDPS – Fire Mage

Yes it has come to that time, where i have farmed all the battle grounds, done tol barad quite enough, made 10,000 gold from daily quests, and there isnt really that much else to do. I log in, do my 5 arena wins on the Hunter and the Priest, thats about 2 hours a week. Now what do i do? PvE? No Thanks, I found Sambas, Karoma and Loc’na(sp?) the other spirit beast.

I have about 20k in gold spread over my characters, nothing to buy really. I could level fishing again and cooking, but i can just buy the food from AH. So what is there to do apart from arenas? Nothing much really. I started leveling a few other characters that i have sitting around, and got all the heirloom gear, but it seems kinda pointless. I guess there comes a point when there isnt really that much else to do, i need to feel like im achieving something, which i guess is why they introduced the achievement system, but for some reason its just not the same as the feeling you get from leveling a toon. I usually top the DPS charts in BG’s as BM or Marks, its kinda fun but i dont need the honor points anymore, so whats the point.

And now there going to make honor even easier to farm? why? for alts? idk maybe its good. Recently i just started playing 1v1 on sc2, its kinda cool to play that again. Something different. I guess just keep playing arenas until next content update, least thats still fun.

Thought these looked pretty awesome, im guessing they finally added the jump skill to GW2? Shows the new classes and their skills.

Guild Wars 2 – Full Teaser Trailer

Guild Wars 2 – Thief Skills

Guild Wars 2 – Elementalist Skills

Necromancer Skills

Guardian Skills

Ranger Skills

Warrior Skills

I’m thinking that some people aren’t liking the cataclysm balance right now? Lol…

Also on other news, I got 2 spirit beasts! and now i can quit wow. And go play Harry Potter online, apparently… Pfft.

I dont usually post rogue stuff, but hey this is pretty pwnage. /rolls a rogue. and then spends 2 months getting gear/skills… Check it out, tis a good vid.

Playing with Talbadar (shadow priest) and Mayopompapum (resto druid).

3v3 currently rated over 3000 with a 99% win ratio.

Some games do take 15 minutes but I picked the faster ones this time (don’t worry, good opponents).

1) The White Panda – Stereo Hands
2) W-Unit – Rave Revolution
3) Utah Saints – Something Good (High Contrast Remix)
4) Damage Vault – Passage

Ah remember the good old days…

So I am officially addicted to leveling.

Ive been leveling my hunter the past few days, up to 83 now. Do i really want another 85 character. not really, the gearing, the honor grind, the dailies. I just have to pick one class and stick with it. Eh i will decide when im 85… maybe . I do still have a druid and pally that i may level in the future.

As I also do, i check out the latest in arena geared classes that i want to copy the spec’s and gear etc of. Imitation is the highest form of flattery after all.

Here is the Top Rated Arena Priest at the moment: Wrathful Gladiator Talbadar good to see what the leet players are doing with there chars .

Found a good article on wow riot, its a bit old now. But still quite good showing how to 1v1 with a shadow priest. Its a massive post, but a good read, still kinda relevant.

Here’s an excerpt on how to beat a frostmage with a shadow priest, this could have all changed after the update, but may still be good strategy wize so take it with a grain of salt.

 vs. 

I would put Frost Mages as the third most difficult class/spec to win duels against(pve geared feral/muti rogues own). Some would argue Death Knights are harder, but I have more ‘random’ losses versus mages because of sheer luck where the DK tactics are more refined and less risky.

Gear Choice: I honestly have not tried Satin versus mages, but with a couple of strategies I have Satin would definitely be more ideal than Mooncloth. You need 600-1000 haste against Mages to do well because your globals are going to be really important. The speed of Dispel Magic, SW:D, Fade, and Shield is limited to your globals only so having millions of spell power will not work as good against Mages as it does DKs. If you have access to gear like on TR you will want a Bauble and Corroded key to just outlive any burst attempts.

 

Race: Human

 

Spec Choice: There is one talent choice that will literally win half of your duels and that is Silent Resolve. I have seen some Mages try to spellsteal my shield 10 times and fail while I kill them (Eraseasaurus  xD). Here is the most ideal specs: Satin / Mooncloth

 

The Opener: 

The opener is pretty much not in your favor at all. The best mages prefer the unpreventable opener with IMP CS into a sheep. They will continue to spellsteal all of your buffs and triple sheep while their CS is coming back up in 5 seconds or so after the CC chain is done. The best way to prevent this opener (if you do not want to get sheeped or want to save trinket) is to spam silence at the start. I will usually use devouring plague then dispel magic twice in that time so I have a DoT ticking for 24 seconds with no shield. They will usually reapply ice barrier, though. Starting buffs is important for this duel. I start with Inner Fire, Vampiric Embrace, Fort, Shield, PoM, Levitate,  and Divine Spirit. Having Shadow Prot, Abolish Disease, and Fear Ward can only hurt you if they spellsteal it early on. All of the other buffs have some sort of beneficial idea to wearing them at the start. Fort, Shield, and PoM are basically rush prevention buffs. If they decide to go for some all-in no sheep no spellsteal tactic you want those on at the start. Levitate is just a nice trash buff that does not help them much and Divine Spirit gives you 16 spell power for free. IMPORANT- If they do sheep you at the start you can use a macro to remove all of your buffs. I just made a simple one for myself and did not get too technical with it. /cancelaura Power Word: Fortitude /cancelaura Power Word: Shield /cancelaura Levitate /cancelaura Prayer of Mending /cancelaura Divine Spirit /cancelaura Shadow Weaving /cancelaura Shadow Protection

 

Strategy 1 – Survive the Spam: 

It is one of the most difficult things to survive against a Frost Mage with Icy Veins pumping Frostbolts into your face. Like I mentioned earlier if you have defensive trinkets you will want them for this fight. The biggest problem in this matchup is that Mages have 30% dispel resistance and that can be so frustrating when each resisted dispel is another 5k Frostbolt in your face. Anyway, assuming the Mage did not go for some all in strategy you still have your PvP trinket and he starts casting Frostbolts with IV up from distance with an elemental and his mirrors out. Your best bet is to run away while dispelling yourself and him. I usually Silence or trinket and Silence to stop the initial damage and Winter’s Chill stacks. If you get distance you should be ok (usually cast some instants and a few Holy Novas if this happens). If you are unable to get away this is the most dangerous part of the duel. The Mage may have blinked into you or just caught up while you were snared and you cannot escape. 100% of duels I will use Disarm as a quick interrupt on a Frostbolt. It lasts 1.5 seconds, but it is enough to stop some damage so it’s worth it. Your best bet if they stick on top of you is to get a dispel on his shield and icy veins and start casting mind flays to give him serious pushback. This basically prevents the zerg as it gives them 1.0 second pushback on every frostbolt and they will need to stop casting them.

 

90% of Mages will run at you and then do a Cone of Cold Frost Nova Deep Freeze combo, so if you see a Cone of Cold have Fade ready and prevent as many Deep Freezes as possible. Something else I will do when I have time is offDoT and possibly kill/fear the water elemental as it actually does a bunch of damage and lasts a long time. Similar to the DK duel you will have to heal yourself. Juking the CS is pretty much necessary and if you do get CS’d just spam spells from the other school because you will just get put behind otherwise. If you get locked on Shadow you can try to get distance or just spam heals. This may sound like something trivial and obvious, but many times when I get locked on a heal I end up trying to run away and to no avail where I could have just stood there and spammed damage to pressure him to stop casting bolts. Another important thing to remember is that you have to use dispersion in deep freeze or you get owned. I always save it until their first frostbolt in the deep is about to finish and then use it. I usually come out early unless my mana is going to get wasted. I usually disperse the first one and trinket the second. Once you are able to survive all of the early pressure mages are simple to deal with.

 

Strategy 2 – Playing the Mind Game: 

This is really something that wins nearly all of my duels versus top mages. I always work hard to give the Mage a false sense of what I am trying to do. After my duel series with Eraseasaurus I gave him some insight as to why he lost the series and he actually beat me a few times once he figured out some of the games I was playing. The biggest game I like to play is the Shadowfiend juke. This wins so many duels, heh. As soon as the Mage gets in a comfortable position with spam frostbolts and shields off cooldown, I will always fall behind in healing and do not have too many options to come back. The best way to relieve some pressure is this move. Basically what you do is as soon as you are getting low you use your Shadowfiend. Seems simple and pointless, no? It is more complex than it sounds, though. The reason this is so effective is because every Mage in the world sees a Shadowfiend and they instantly want to stop it. They will Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Deep Freeze, and pet nova it until it goes down 95% of the time. That is exactly what I am looking for them to do when I use it. When I am waiting for my weakened soul to fall off or I am just hoping to live until the second disperse I just use it and hope they do not ignore it. There are some other mind games I like to play and one of them is the DPS race. As soon as the Mage tries to go hard and go for the kill I will just stand there and cast damage into them to try to force them to run. Generally the Spriest will die first in this kind of engagement, but most people tend to want to run away instead of going for the risk of the kill. The best thing about Mages running away is when they go cast Evocate. Evocate is one of the last spells you should be casting as the Mage in this duel. I do not remember the last time a Mage went to go Evocate and has come back to win the duel. The spell is just false hope unless you have your entire second set of cooldowns and mirrors up to finish the Spriest off after. It is very easy to live through a solo mage without any pets so having them go Evocate when you are at 50% health is basically a free win – just cast some heals and you are full. There are a few others I do, but one last one is messing with their opener. Lots of Mages love to juke deaths because they feel good doing it, so to abuse that against new Mages I will just get 3 dots and start flaying them. This usually leaves them at 50% when I am sheeped and that is pretty much a won duel already.

 

Extra Tips for the duel:

1. Find a Pillar

If you have a pillar nearby you will definitely want to be using it. By spamming dispel on yourself around corners you can prevent any quick deep freezes (even avoid imp cs deeps) while your DoTs slowly kill them.

2. Devouring Plague is your Friend

If you are on the move you should really be spamming this spell. It does 2-3k damage on use and causes you to gain ~500-700 health per application when they do not have a shield.

3. Effective Shielding

Mages love spellstealing your shield as much as they love juking deaths and preventing shadowfiends. To abuse this love you want to use your shields as frostbolts are about to hit you. When the frostbolt lands it should absorb the spell completely and leave your shield with 500-1000 absorb left. If they waste time spellstealing it they will not realize that it has almost nothing left and is pretty much free globals for you.

Check out the full article here has a whole bunch of strategies on how to 1v1 pvp shadow priests

Remember robocop? good times

Ah back to the future, ok thats enough caffeine for me.

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Check out this Extreme downhill bike runWatch through the eyes of a crazy Chilean cyclist as he risks life and limb in the VCA race run in Santiago.

And who can go past the awesome dub mix of charlie sheen! lol classic.

So the server is down for the night, better do some gear research. My hunter just hit 77 so i haven’t even started the gear grind yet, but its good to have some kind of idea what to look for.

Anyway Here goes, I have listed the initial obtainable gear from just quest rewards and getting faction gear, and a few PVP pieces. I really just prefer PVP rather than just maxxing the DPS in PVE. So these are obviously a good place to start for gear and not best of the best, I can list this later on if anyone wants it . Anyway its a good place to start. I found a great site that you can punch in your class and spec and it will show u all the best items for you spec and the most popular Gems and Enchants to get as well, its at MaxDps.com

Anyway on with the gear listings (Hunter BiS List, for starters), this should keep you busy rep grinding and PVP’ing for a while…:

Head

[Windhome Helm] Wildhammer Clan – Revered

[Snarling Helm] Dragonmaw Clan – Revered

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Chain Helm] PVP Reward

Head Enchant

[Arcanum of the Ramkahen] 
Ramkahen – Revered

[Arcanum of Torment] 
Knights of the Ebon Blade – Revered

Neck

Consider the fact that you can get Acorn of the Daughter Tree from The Guardians of Hyjal upon leaving Mount Hyjal and, at the time of writing this, you can get Sweet Perfume Broach through spamming the Royal Crown queue. While not as good, you save yourself a huge chunk of coin for 13 ilvls of stats and if you’re in a good raiding guild, you’ll potentially have access to Necklace of Strife which is BiS prior to heroics for some classes.

It makes me wonder if dumping anything north of 10 – 15k is worth it simply because it’s purple.

Every now and then…in a very great while…you get lucky in WoW.

I was browsing through the Auction House while waiting for a Guild raid invite.

Armor > Miscellaneous > Neck, Epic filter, search. Don Rodrigo’s Fabulous Necklace pops up, with a buyout price of 3K. I did a double take, clicked it to make sure that I wasn’t seeing things, and bought it immediately. Reforged haste to hit, equipped, got my invite and entered Blackwing Descent very, very happy.

[Brazen Elementium Medallion] Jewelcrafting

346

Or you can alywas get one of these ^ crafted for you, or if your lucky pick one up on the AH.

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Necklace of Prowess]

Shoulder

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Chain Spaulders]

[Mantle of Moss] Honored – The Earthen Ring

Mail

333

[Spaulders of the Savage Beast]

Mail

333

Shoulder Enchant

[Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal] 
Therazane – Exalted

[Lesser Inscription of Shattered Crystal] 
Therazane – Honored

Back

Back Enchant

[Enchant Cloak - Major Agility]

Chest

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Chain Armor]

Chest Enchant

[Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats]

[Enchant Chest - Mighty Stats]

Wrist

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Wristguards of Alacrity]

[Bloodied Dragonscale Bracers]

Wrist Enchant

It seems here that the older enchant from wrath actually stacks up for better dps than the new one for crit. Id probably take assault over the crit.

[Enchant Bracers - Greater Assault]

[Enchant Bracer - Greater Critical Strike]

Hands

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Chain Gauntlets]

Hands Enchant

[Enchant Gloves - Major Agility]

[Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility]

Waist / Belt

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Links of Cruelty]

[Belt of the Stargazer] Honored – Ramkahen

Id probably get one of those buckle’s that go on the belts as well so you can chuck an extra gem in there. There usually pretty cheap depending on your server. Can find them on auction house for about 50-100g or so. Creates a prismatic socket.

Must keep concentrating on gear action … Gets boring writing up all this stuff after a while, ah well nearly there!

Legs

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Chain Leggings]

Legs Enchant

Here i would take the AP over the Agility as it actually ads more to the DPS. So go the Dragon Scale Leg armor if you can afford it Last i checked they were around 500-700 gold. your already gonna have a ton of stam anyway, and more DPS usually wins the fight. but if you feel that you really need the stam hit, then take the extra stam, and tank it.

[Dragonscale Leg Armor] 
Leatherworking

[Charscale Leg Armor] 
Leatherworking

Feet

[Treads of Malorne] Exalted – Guardians of Hyjal

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Sabatons of Alacrity]

Feet Enchant

Now i like the speed increase as much as anyone, but i think it equals about 1% faster walking / running speed, so just take the Agil if you dont really care about running faster, DPS wise the Major agility enchant wins, but if you find it useful take the Assassins Step.

[Enchant Boots - Major Agility]

[Enchant Boots - Assassin's Step]

Rings

[Elementium Destroyer's Ring] Jewelcrafting

[Band of Blades] Jewelcrafting

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Ring of Accuracy]

Trinkets

If your PVPing a lot and need the anti stun trinket, get this one as well as one of the ones listed below. Or if your hard core just get 2 of the following.

[Quicksilver Alchemist Stone] Alchemy

Ranged Weapon – The Juice!

Now i havent listed any of the epic PVP gear just yet, as its not really that easily obtinable. But i will list the epic bow here as its one of the best ranges weaps in the game, and you can actually get it by just getting an arena team together and just running a few arenas each week should get you a couple of hundred points and on your way to a nice shiney epic bow, gun or xbow (all the same stats) Just depends what you prefer the look of.

The Next best one is the engineering gun, should be available in the AH for a LOT of gold, im guessing i havent checked yet…

[Kickback 5000] Engineering

This is probably the one ill end up with for a while, as i dont really like guns, just too noisy really… Anyway this one is available as a rep reward after just doing a few (lot)… tol barads and dailies.

If you want something to hold you over til you can get one of the above, this sometimes sells in AH pretty cheap really, about 500-700 gold usually is a good price guide, but some people just have to crank up the price. Anyway, this is a nice bow as well.

[Ravenheart Longbow]

Or you can get this one from the Quest in Twilight Highlands

Weapon

[Staff of Old Woes]

Phew… Now i can go and watch Man vs Wild! Yay… Happy Gear Grinding.

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I never know what gear to get first when starting to PVP on a fresh noobed level 85 Priest, so i thought i would list some of my findings here.

usually i just find a shadow priest that is doing massive damage in battle grounds and just check there gear/spec, but i have found a couple of useful posts on this one. I think we can forget about spirit for the moment, for shadow as the mana usage pretty much just sux anyway no matter how much spirit you have, however you can get the spirit geat and reforge it to Haste for a better option. Plus get the +spel pen cloak as well and that will be mostly enough for most players apart from mages where you need around 225 or so spell pen.

SuperShadow said: Personally, I think haste is the best stat for pvp once your hit and spell pen capped. What im doing is getting the back for spell pen, 201, and one blue gem for 50 spell pen which equals 251. I’m a tailor so I want my back enchant. Then im getting haste neck and boots without reforging them. Then im getting all the spirit gear available, (bracers, belt, two rings, of hand, wand) and reforging all the spirit and hit, one of the rings has hit, into haste. This will give just enough hit to be hit capped and maximize all your haste. You can reforge 40% so here’s the math.

Bracers= 134 spirit X .40 =81 spirit 43 haste
Ring = 134 spirit X .40 =81 spirit 43 haste
Ring = 134 hit X .40 =81 spirit 43 haste
Waist = 159 spirit X .40 = 96 Spirit 63 haste
Of Hand = 127 spirit X .40 = 77 Spirit 30 haste
Wand = 72 Spirit X .40 = 44 Spirit 28 Haste
Total 460Spirit 250 haste

You can get crit wand if u want cause hit capped is 410. Take away the wand and spirit will be at 416, only 6 above hit capped which is very good. Of course im reforging all my main set pieces into haste as well unless it already has the stat. I’m actually getting disc hands cause they have haste and getting the other four pieces into shadow. I hope this helps.

Kulva Said: Personally I believe haste is the go getter to what you wish to stack as well as 40 intel gems and/or 20 haste 20 intel … the faster and longer your dots have, the better. I mean, where do you find yourself casting in arenas anyway, towards the end? Yea, that sounds about right. Getting locked down 4x trying to flay or MS/MB is just annoying. VT is the main thing you want to have up in an open window since it still does very nice damage over time.

Overall, mastery is kind of gimped. I believe it’s strictly for PvE purposes and shadoworbs are just extra buffs to be dispelled (They are always the first to be spellstolen I think.) And with crit, wouldn’t you have slower dots that will just run out easily meaning you have to recast and oom yourself within a short while? I don’t think it’s really that dependable to stack but still good to keep a decent amount (Having more haste for sure)

You will need 195 spell pen for most all classes besides mage which is 240.

My haste/crit is at 6.6%/13.5%. My additional haste comes from: talents(3%), mind quickening(5%), black magic on my mh(+250),and my troll racial beserking (20% for 10 or 20 sec cant remember) makes haste for me not a problem. most of the bloodthirsty gear that u will get is stacked with crit. what i do is gem haste where needed for meta bonus on helm and rest int for other socket bonuses. Add more crit if u want to but i like to hit them faster than i do harder in arena.

hit is at 4 % for lvl 85 targets no more no less is needed

so it goes hit 4% >sp 240 > toy with haste/crit until u like it!

Related Videos for Cataclysm Priest 85 Shadow Spec Gear Options

Heres a bit of shadow priest PVP action, gives you an idea of the kind rotation your spost to be using, Mind Spike is good to use towards the end of the fight as you can burn them down nice and fast, three mind spikes and you get a 100% chance of crit instant cast Mind Blast .

Post Comments come via this thread if you wanna check out the original

So I Copied my priest from Horde to Alliance, and bought the noob blue set, but what should i spec for just pvp?

I initially copied it cos i wanted a PVP healer really, so i bought the Bloodthirsty Gladiators Set from AH for about 2-3k all up, and did one spec as Disc and the other as Shadow.

Bear in mind that im in fully noob blue PVP set, this is how it went. Disc, eh it was ok, did a WSG. Did a little bit of healing (no idea how to heal now in cata) im guessing POM, renew and then the old skool Heal that no one used to use, but now they actually made it usefull.. Man how long does three seconds in PVP go for! like 1 minute it seems, anyway long cast time! IDK its probably just the gear and that i suck, but it didnt really do it for me.

Then i gave the new shadow a shot, I was critting for 27k right off the bat. only just started to crit those numbers on the mage (also noobed gear) but hey. IDK shadow seems pretty dam strong at the moment.

Its pretty hard to find decent content for 85 cata at the moment i did manage to find a pretty good 85 Disc Priest PvP Cataclysm Discipline Priest vid, check it out Might give you some inspiration..

Theres quite a bit of QQ going on in the forums such as this (could be just trolling but idk, didnt post on their main so prob just troll…)

As the titel says, currently priests are the worst healer class in the game, we’re worse at just about everything:

Mana efficiency
Healing done
Survivability
Damage (yeah, that too.)
Better CDs. Disc is left with PS and barrier, PS is susceptible to dispels, and barrier is just a terrible pvp ability all together. It’s like a mini PS that you HAVE to stay in. Good design.

Ill give examples for all of em’:
Mana efficiency: Our mana CDs are pretty much @%%!, and heals costs so much (5.7k for a flash heal, which heals 12k, i got 111k HP and a warrior whiteswing me 13k crits, and 25k “Spell” crits, if i get stunlocked and down to 25% health it will take me 7 heals or so to get it back up 7*5700= 39k mana that half my mana pool just to catch up from a stunlock) Shadowfiend gives next to no mana, befor the nerf it didnt give much mana back anyway since it gets more controled than i do. Hymn of Hope is a long cast and ur teammates will prolly die during it. Archangle, i didnt even put points into it if i start casting smite i’ll just die during it.

Survivablility+Healing done:
As i explained a warrior whiteswing crits me for about same as a flash heal heals me for, if he then starts pressing his buttons they can just spam unhealable damage into me and i cant do anything about it.

Damage: Cant do any damage since ill just die during it

Cooldowns: Priest have 3 defensive CDs to keep themself up: PS, PI and PWB, PWB is a 30% dmg reduce with a 3 min CD. lolwut? paladins have a 20% dmg reduce 40SEC Cd.
PI, well u can spam heals fast true, but not for long since you will go oom.
PS, very strong CD but on a very long CD AND ITS DISPELABLE which is also a big problem. (Yes it was dispelable befor, 5% chance but its nothing compres to the current chance)
Also priest have NO mobility CDs, shamans have ghostwolf, druids have shapeshift (I know they arn’t CDs <.<) and Paladins have freedom to get away what do priest have? NOTHING!
Alot of people says Resil will fix it! but really it wont.

Another problem for exspecially disc, is that they lost their unique thing, bubbles and dispels, when blizzard decided that every healer should get dispel magic, they just gave it to everyone and didnt think that discs, lost one of their unique things, and gave us nothing in return, other than nerfing bubbles to being worthless, and letting whiteswings take em away.

High rated priests have gone so far to say that Shadow RMP is far better than any disc/Holy RMP. i mean comon! that just shows that something clearly is wrong!

Priests REROLL WHILE XPAC IS STILL NEW

One last thing:
I know my english isnt great nor is this thread prolly. But!
Please BUMP this thread to make blizz even more aware that there is a problem !

The Response: Xhoi (85 Blood Elf Priest)
Post on your priest so we can take this post seriously. This is just excessive and useless QQ.

Flash heal crits for far more than 12k.

Better cooldowns? That’s basically what you bring a priest for.

Survivability. Desperate Prayer, penance, CoH, shield, healthstone, pots?

Mana efficiency? We are one of the best classes at perserving (spelling?) our mana after our hotfix. (Note. Even though our talent tree isn’t updated, the stats for the pvp talents and regen talents are) I’m currently sitting just above 4k mana in combat.

However we are a lot more gear dependant than the other classes. Just gear up and you will out heal every single one of them. Sure, some of our single target spells seems rather weak.

But they are not worse than shaman/druids and same mana. Sure, paladins have better single target spells.. but that’s the point.

Edit: What problem btw?

And another response, more PVE related: Fatherdoc (85 Troll Priest)
I dont normally bother with these forums, but I loved playing my priest, I enjoy healing both in PVP and Raids. However i have been doing 5 mans over the past couple of days, I started on Holy, and found although the flash heal was ok I was running out of mana after each fight, CoH was completely useless it healed players for something like 7k each. well when everyone has just been hit for 25k that doesn’t really do much as it costs so much mana and then has a 10 sec cooldown, so I hit PoH and its the same, I just burn mana, and during this i’m still having to keep the tank up.
Now i did find that HEAL was low cost on mana but for a reason, it was low healing about 8k normal and 10-11k crit (all approx), but it takes nearly 3 secs to cast unless you talent spec it down to about 2.3 secs. still too much time casting. i’m having big trouble with holy!

I tried Disc and mana isnt quite as bad a problem, but still an issue, the shield are generally useless, most wiped out in one hit, and it costs me about 3.5k mana to cast PW Shield, to cut it short…….
I’m finding priests to be to slow, use far too much mana, and generally the heals particulary the AoE heals suck.

I’m not the best out there, but I USED to enjoy healing with a priest and now I don’t, I just hope Blizz can resolve it, should’nt be too hard.

This response seems more apt: @Xhoi what you just said about priest CD made me lol …

now regarding priest situation:
Healing priests (disc and holy), are doing fine in PvE… mana isnt issues when u get every item with spirit. Also healing output is rly comparable with rest of the healers, maybe disc could do 5% more but still is very good in raids for the cds it provides.
Shadow priests need a little buff in pve, their dmg is pretty low.

in PvP generally priest healers suck and get focused first, i can see it in bgs … everyone is like Oh priest let’s *%!! him. Also my old arena mate said priest dies in 1 min max … either he runs out of cds or runs oom… and it’s true. Holy is very nice, with the disorient etc, but rly you cant keep up with other healers…
Shadow in pvp can do rly good, just S&P needs to get fixed… it’s dr and effect.
And ye OLD RPM is gone, I just saw yday rogue and mage lf pala/druid/shaman for 3v3… something rly needs to get fixed or most ppl are gonna reroll – like me, i got a warrior on the way … leveling …

My few cents

Check out the full thread here, has a few good points.

I just found another good, kinda QQ thread : Why priest dislikes cata changes, disc pvp

Check it out:

Whiskys
85 Draenei Priest
The Mushroom Kingdom
3630 Edited by Whiskys on 1/14/11 4:11 AM (UTC)
I think discipline priest mechanics looks amazing on paper and they truly are, however on practice it is very hard to use them and most players only use what gives them an advantage over other classes, which renders those new mechanics that looks amazing on paper useless and not worth using.

Here is a down to the ground view on how priests use mechanics in competitive arenas/duel on P.T.R at the moment:
This is what a good disc priest spec is on P.T.R at the moment, below explains why:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfhcMosbforoMur

Arcangel/atonement and glyph of smite/Glyph of divine accuracy
I love arcangel, I like how it increase our healing and our smite damage with the very glowy and amazing graphics when you use it.

The thing is good priests knows that using smite exposes your holy school to be interupted, this making you unable to cast any benificial spells to you and your allies. In a world where mana is rare and healing is weak versus the huge health bars, it truly matter. This is why most priests resort to use mind spike instead, it cost less mana, the cast time is faster and it deals damage just about the same than smite and doesn’t expose your holy school. I think it’s a lot of smart concepts put forth as why you should not use smite.

Arcangel mana return is also not enough to justify risking yourself getting locket out of your school or not healing your teamates, this brings me to the next point;

Atonement healing is a smart idea and I truly love it, I can see why blizzard dev. team created atonement since wile smiting you loose time for healing and atonement was a way to account for that. The sad thing is that it is not reliable for all the above reasons about smite.

Glyph does make smite hit harder, but holy fire doesn’t give you any arcangel stacks and glyph of divine accuracy doesn’t increase your chance to hit with holy fire.

In a nutshell
- Smiting in arenas is very tedious and dangerous to get your healing school locket
- Arcangel stacks are too hard to get for the same reason
- Arcangel mana returns is subpar for the amount of risk we have to out
- Smiting dps is not as good as mind spike, priests use mind spike instead
- Smiting is not mana efficient
- Loosing time healing to go offensive is useless in regards of mana efficiency and heal throughput we have

P.T.R changes
Honestly the Strengh of soul buff was a bit too much and I like the fact that they have (or might) move it to inner will, I love this talent and use it a lot in PvP now in cataclysm. However I would still keep a 4 seconds immune to dispels as you put sheild on, because in all honesty even with dispells getting nerfed it still gets instantly dispelled since people is now aware that it absorbs so much.

Focused will stacking to 40% with crits and 10%+ hits is awesome, we needed that much.

Prayed of mending giving 60% more health is nice, but I’m not sure it is being enough.

Desperate prayer change was so NEEDED!

Power word barrier is amazing in raids, however in arenas it’s not mobile and if you want to use it you have to stay rooted in one place not to loose your cooldown…

Still waiting on smite/penance throughtput/damage increased… like if Surge of light could also let you use smite instantly would be great + other changes.

a lot of ppl seem to disagree though:
Venaliter
85 Goblin Priest

You are clueless.

Priests aren’t anywhere near viable even post patch in PvP. We simply can’t get a cast off or get something off us.

We have a fear, which they are apparently trying to make better, but it’s still too easy to break.

We have a couple instants which are easy to dispel or just don’t heal for enough and can be ignored.

Any melee can sit on us till we die, and there’s almost nothing we can do.

We’re *#%%ed.

and then the reply, i know you can check it out on the orig thread linked under this

I think YOU are clueless since you never broke 1,500 in arenas and you don’t know what happens in higher end arenas,

Disc priest crave offensive abilities and a way to peel right now, we don’t want interupt immunes and everything being focused on one ability which is PW:S.

Priests lost their trademark of being offensive and this is what made them wanted in arenas, go on arena junkies and you’ll see every glad saying the same.

Original Thread Linkage

Related Videos for The PVP Cataclysm Priest Options

Yeah i know what to do in wow eh, Cant be bothered raiding or PVPing, just want a bit of a break. Well archeology will certainly take up you time, but is it really worth it? Lets take a look.

Now some people say that archeology i wow is a bit boring, and well it can be quite monotonous however, get the 310 speed mount (and being a mage is also handy ) and then crank up some cool tunes. I recommend something like Paul Okenfield (this mix is funky) Planet Perfecto Radio Show. Anyway, then just get open a page or forum to read and aim for the closest dig symbol on your map, aim for some sky, press num lock and your good to go. .

I know get to the point, is it really worth leveling? Lets check out the items for inspiration. Im just going to list the rare ones, cos the other ones you will just vendor for some extra cash anyway.

Dwarf artifacts

Fossils

^^^ Yep thats how you get that funky raptor every second person now has! Hey its still cool and it sounds a bit like a chicken or a pig when you hit the space bar while mounted

Night Elf artifacts

Troll artifacts

OMG the best looking sword in the game and it binds to account so you can sent it to your other toons!!!

Draenei artifacts

Orc artifacts

Nerubian Artifacts

Vrykul artifacts

Tol’vir artifacts

Also Here are some tips while leveling, just to make leveling archeology it a (tiny) bit quicker.

• Just collect fragments all the way up to level 50, if you do this you will get 1 level everytime you fond some fragments, then once you hit 50 you can go in there and get all the way up to like 90 or 100 just from the fragments you already found.
• make sure you get to the dam trainer when you hit the level cap, and dont waste any of those annoying to find fragments.
• mount up after you survey, so i usually have my survey key bound to like scroll up or down or something and then i land, hit survey and straight away hit the mount key again so im ready to follow it to the next node, just saves a bit of time. If you wait for the pointer to spawn and then mount. Hey it may only save 5 seconds but it adds up.
• Dont spend time compiling posts like this, as it severely impacts your leveling speed.

This Post is proudly Brought to you by the letter X and the following other links:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.htmlsid=2000&topicId=26726035891

FranksPlace.org Cataclysm Archaeology Guide

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Its actually harder than you think to find the best place to farm herbs. I have found a couple for you listed below. Now some of these herbs are going for more than 100g per stack, and you can get a stack worth in about 10 minutes if you just follow these maps.

Wild Steelbloom – Northern STV or Northern Stranglethorn

This is has by far the highest concentration of Wild Steelbloom with 91 notes listed here, the following also have some nodes but slightly less concentration of herbs. Stonetalon Mountains (84), Ashenvale (78), Arathi Highlands (64), Desolace (43),Wetlands (27), Duskwood (19), The Hinterlands (18),

Highest Concentration of Goldthorn – Arathi Highlands

65 Nodes of Golthorn are located here, other places this can be found are

, Dustwallow Marsh (48), The Hinterlands (45), Feralas (26), The Cape of Stranglethorn (19) and Desolace (11).

Sungrass in Eastern Plaguelands

Has over 250 Nodes here! you should be able to farm this stuff witin a few minutes per stack easy. Esp if you have a epic flyer . Other locations for this are

Thousand Needles (201), Badlands (84), Burning Steppes (75), Tanaris (46), Searing Gorge (37), Silithus (34), Un’Goro Crater (28

Khadgar’s Whisker in Eastern Plaguelands

Tons of nodes here over 350! other locations for Khadgars Whisker are

 Western Plaguelands (152), Feralas (132), The Cape of Stranglethorn (77), Arathi Highlands (50), Dustwallow Marsh (50), Desolace (40),

As my gear is currently so … not cool on the mage. I was thinking of leveling alchemy again.

I already have herbalism leveled all the way up, so dropping mining will be sad but i got more than enough cash really and herbs still sell quite well on the AH. I found a few Total Matts Needed for powereleveling alchemy, they differ quite a bit i guess cos of the skills changed in Cata. The flasks you can make give you quite a bit of an advantage and you can also mage a nice trinket when you get to max level. So its worth it i think. Flask of Enhancement and Vibrant Alchemist Stone

Here is the newer of the two lists:

Approximate Materials Required for 1-525:

• 59 x Peacebloom
• 59 x Silverleaf
• 93 x Briarthorn
• 33 x Bruiseweed
• 20 x Mageroyal
• 45 x Stranglekelp
• 20 x Liferoot
• 30 x Kingsblood
• 55 x Goldthorn
• 10 x Wild Steelbloom
• 55 x Sungrass
• 25 x Khadgar’s Whisker
• 15 x Blindweed
• 45 x Golden Sansam
• 18 x Mountain Silversage
• 30 x Sorrowmoss
• 15 x Dreamfoil
• 50 x Felweed
• 10 x Terocone
• 35 x Dreaming Glory
• 10 x Netherbloom
• 20 x Talandra’s Rose
• 5 x Pygmy Suckerfish
• 75 x Goldclover
• 30 x Tiger Lily
• 25 x Adder’s Tongue
• 20 x Icethorn
• 40 x Lichbloom
• 69 x Cinderbloom
• 13 x Stormvine
• 39 x Azshara’s Veil
• 22 x Heartblossom
• 5 x Volatile Life
• 32 x Twilight Jasmine
• 23 x Whiptail
• 3 x Hessonite
• 15 x Alicite
• 15 x Zephyrite or 15 Nightstone

Comes via wow professions

I made a guide for a guildy who was levelling alchemy. It’s definitely not perfect, but I figured I’d post it since there’s no guide for it here yet. A few notes:

1) I tried to stay away from things like Stranglekelp, Wintersbite, Icecap, etc. They can be a pain to gather, since they are only found in specific locations (especially Wintersbite)
2) For the most part you’ll be skilling on orange recipes. This is because I wanted to be as sure as possible about how many mats were needed.
3) Where it says “approximately xx combines” that means you will be skilling into the yellow-green range, where “exactly xx combines” means it should be orange the whole way.
4) I’m fairly sure I overshot quite a bit on most of the approximate combines, so you may have extra mats.
5) The northrend section can be done quite a few different ways. Feel free to experiment.

Total mats list is at the bottom (I didn’t tally up the vials, I’m assuming you’ll buy those as needed).

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2330 from 1-60 skill – approximately 70 combines – 70 peacebloom, 70 silverleaf, 70 crystal vial
(Raise your alchemy cap)

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2334 from 60-90 – approximately 40 combines – 80 earthroot, 40 peacebloom, 40 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=3171 from 90-120 – exactly 30 combines – 60 briarthorn, 30 mageroyal, 30 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=7255 (vendor bought recipe) from 120-130 – exactly 10 combines – 10 bruiseweed, 10 swiftthistle, 10 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=3177 from 130-155 – exactly 25 combines – 25 wild steelbloom, 25 stranglekelp, 25 crystal vial
(Raise cap)

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=7181 from 155-175 – exactly 20 combines – 20 liferoot, 20 kingsblood, 20 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=3450 from 175-195 – exactly 20 combines – 20 wild steelbloom, 20 goldthorn, 20 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11450 from 195-205 – exactly 10 combines – 10 wild steelbloom, 10 goldthorn, 10 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11448 from 205-220 – exactly 15 combines – 15 khadgar’s whisker, 15 goldthorn, 15 crystal vial
(Raise cap)

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11457 from 215-230 – exactly 15 combines – 15 sungrass, 15 khadgar’s whisker, 15 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11460 from 230-245 – exactly 15 combines – 15 arthas’ tears, 15 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11467 from 245-255 – exactly 10 combines – 10 sungrass, 10 goldthorn, 10 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11478 from 255-265 – exactly 10 combines – 20 gromsblood, 10 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=17553 from 265-270 – exactly 5 combines – 10 sungrass, 10 blindweed, 5 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=17555 from 270-275 – exactly 5 combines – 5 dreamfoil, 10 sorrowmoss, 5 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=17556 from 275-300 – approximately 35 combines – 70 golden sansam, 35 mountain silversage, 35 crystal vial
(Raise cap)

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=33740 from 300-315 – exactly 15 combines – 15 dreamfoil, 15 felweed, 15 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=33741 from 315-325 – exactly 10 combines – 10 terocone, 10 felweed, 10 crystal vial
Making a http://www.wowhead.com/spell=38070 at this point will allow you to do transmutes.
You can also specialize at L68+: http://www.wowwiki.com/Alchemy#Alchemy_Specializations
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=45061 from 325-340 – approximately 20 combines – 40 ragveil, 20 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=28555 (vendor bought recipe) from 340-350 – exactly 10 combines – 20 dreaming glory, 10 felweed, 10 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53838 from 350-360 – exactly 10 combines – 20 goldclover, 10 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53841 from 360-365 – exactly 5 combines – 5 goldclover, 10 deadnettle, 5 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53842 from 365-375 – exactly 10 combines – 10 goldclover, 10 tiger lily, 10 crystal vial
(Raise cap)

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53812 from 375-385 – approximately 30 combines – 30 pygmy suckerfish
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=54218 from 385-395 – exactly 10 combines – 20 tiger lily, 10 crystal vial
At this point I would highly recommend doing http://www.wowhead.com/spell=60350 (note: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=38070 or equivalent required) from 395-420 if you can afford (or are able to mine) the 200 saronite bars required. You can then sell the titanium bars and you will also get a number of transmute discoveries. Otherwise, continue:
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53840 from 395-400 – exactly 5 combines – 10 goldclover, 10 adder’s tongue, 5 crystal vial
*see below
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53905 from 400(401)-415 – exactly 15 combines – 30 icethorn, 15 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53837 from 415-420 – approximately 10 combines – 20 lichbloom, 10 goldclover, 10 crystal vial
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=60350 from 420-430 – approximately 25 combines – 200 saronite bars
Alternatively, you can stop transmuting saronite at 425 and start doing http://www.wowhead.com/spell=57427 and/or (430+) http://www.wowhead.com/spell=57425 to 435 (440 even, in the case of skyflare)

At 435+ you can start making the various flasks: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53903 http://www.wowhead.com/spell=54213 http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53902http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53901 - for skill. These are very material intensive, and thus I will not list approximate or exact materials here – You’re on your own to decide which is most useful to you and/or profitable on your server.

*One of these three is recommended for trinket use if you are levelling your character at the same time as alchemy: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=60403 - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=60396 -http://www.wowhead.com/spell=60405 - See links for mats (varies)

Total mats list (Titanium Transmute version):
110 peacebloom http://www.wowhead.com/object=1618,
70 silverleaf http://www.wowhead.com/object=1617,
80 earthroot http://www.wowhead.com/object=1619,
30 mageroyal http://www.wowhead.com/object=1620,
10 bruiseweed http://www.wowhead.com/object=1622,
10 swiftthistle (combo gather from briarthorn or mageroyal),
60 briarthorn http://www.wowhead.com/object=1621,
55 wild steelbloom http://www.wowhead.com/object=1623,
25 stranglekelp http://www.wowhead.com/object=2045,
55 goldthorn http://www.wowhead.com/object=2046,
20 liferoot http://www.wowhead.com/object=2041,
20 kingsblood http://www.wowhead.com/object=1624,
30 khadgar’s whisker http://www.wowhead.com/object=2043,
35 sungrass http://www.wowhead.com/object=142142,
15 arthas’ tears http://www.wowhead.com/object=142141,
20 gromsblood http://www.wowhead.com/object=142145,
10 blindweed http://www.wowhead.com/object=142143,
20 dreamfoil http://www.wowhead.com/object=176584,
10 sorrowmoss http://www.wowhead.com/object=176587,
70 golden sansam http://www.wowhead.com/object=176583,
35 mountain silversage http://www.wowhead.com/object=176586,
35 felweed http://www.wowhead.com/object=181270,
40 ragveil http://www.wowhead.com/object=181275,
10 terocone http://www.wowhead.com/object=181277,
20 dreaming glory http://www.wowhead.com/object=181271,
35 goldclover http://www.wowhead.com/object=189973,
30 pygmy suckerfish http://www.wowhead.com/item=40199 I recommend buying these off the AH,
30 tiger lily http://www.wowhead.com/object=190169,
10 deadnettle (combo gather from Goldclover, Talandra’s Rose, Tiger Lily or Frost Lotus),
400 saronite bars/800 saronite ore

Comes Via WoWHead

Related Videos for Alchemy Leveling

So you want a list of Best In Slot for your priest eh?

Whats all this BiS business anyway, /flame stuit on . /jk… I have scoured a bit for some of the best listings, its good to have them all in one place. And i even installed that funky wowhead plugin dealie that shows the item details for your viewing pleasure.

Holy Priest BiS Gear Listing

Nidaba’s BiS Gear List

Crown of Luminescence: [Insightful Earthsiege Diamond]

[Sapphire Amulet of Renewal]

[Conqueror's Shoulderpads of Sanctification]

Sunglimmer Cloak

[Conqueror's Robe of Sanctification]

[Shackles of the Odalisque]

[Handwraps of the Vigilant]

[Leash of Heedless Magic]

[Conqueror's Leggings of Sanctification]

[Boots of Fiery Resolution]

[Glowing Ring of Reclamation], Conductive Seal

[Spark of Hope] + Show of Faith

[Staff of Endless Winter]

[Scepter of Creation]

Nidaba’s BiS Gear List: No Hard Mode Drops Allowed

[Conqueror's Cowl of Sanctification]: [Insightful Earthsiege Diamond]

[Pendant of the Shallow Grave]

[Conqueror's Shoulderpads of Sanctification]

[Cape of the Unworthy Wizard]

[Conqueror's Robe of Sanctification]

[Shackles of the Odalisque]

[Conqueror's Gloves of Sanctification]

[Leash of Heedless Magic]

[Conqueror's Leggings of Sanctification]

[Spellslinger's Slippers] or [Savior's Slippers] (sockets make these most flexible)

[Glowing Ring of Reclamation], any 213 ring you have or [Signet of Manifested Pain]

[Spark of Hope] + [Soul of the Dead] or [Illustration of the Dragon Soul] or [Eye of the Broodmother] or [Sif's Remembrance] (if you can do Thorim.10-hard, which really isn’t that hard)

[Rapture] or [The Lifebinder]

[Scepter of Creation]

via Here

Shadow BiS as of 4.0.3 (this was a HARD one to find!)

I use GuildOx to determine my BIS gear set. I do not use shadowpriest.com‘s BIS Gear list or the accompanying BIS threads, although these can be good resources. I will try to keep the above link updated as often as I can. Note that I have decreased hit in this list by 3% to purposely place a higher priority on gear with spirit. Change the value to equal spirit and crit if you don’t want to do this.

Trinkets – Ignore the trinket list in Guild Ox, it is never right. I’ve done a few trinket calculations below.

Tendrils of Burrowing Dark 346 – 340.69
Anhuur’s Hymnal 346 – 341.15
Tyrande’s Favorite Doll 359 – 356.00
Soul Casket 359 – 383.55
Stump of Time 359 – 384.20
Sorrowsong 346 – 385.65
Gale of Shadows 346 – 400.94
Heart of Ignacious 359 – 413.10
Witching Hourglass 346 – 417.75
Theralion’s Mirror 359 – 462.43
Heart of Ignacious 372 – 466.87
Bell of Enraging Resonance 359 – 470.81
Figurine – Jeweled Serpent 346 – 472.34
Bell of Enraging Resonance 372 – 494.18
Theralion’s Mirror 372 – 522.93
Darkmoon Card: Volcano 359 – 534.48

I will add more trinkets as they become available. I primarily napkin-math my trinkets using their stats and the percentage uptime of the trinket based upon World of Logs data.

REFORGING

Do your reforging in this order:

1. Mastery – reforge all mastery to Haste when possible, then spirit or crit
2. Hit/Spirit/Crit – reforge to Haste when possible, otherwise leave or exchange it to add or drop hit
3. Haste – never reforge this stat

Your aim with reforging should be to have the most haste possible and secondly to reach as close to your hit cap (17%) as possible without being under. It’s ok to be a little under the hit cap as long as you’ve maxed out your best stat – never sacrifice haste to get hit.

ENCHANTS – note that if you have a profession enchant it’s pretty much always better

head
best: Arcanum of Hyjal – revered with hyjal

shoulders
good: Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone – honored with Therezane
best: Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone – exalted with Therezane

back
best: Greater Intellect

chest
good: Mighty Stats
best: Peerless Stats

wrist
good: Speed
good: Superior Spellpower
best: Greater Speed

hands
good: Exceptional Spellpower
best: Haste
best: Greater Mastery

legs
good: Ghostly Spellthread
best: Powerful Ghostly Spellthread

feet
best: Haste

weapon
good: Mighty Spellpower
good: Hurricane
best: Power Torrent

off-hand
best: Superior Intellect

GEMS

For the most part right now, the red gem is the best gem for every slot on your character (just as GuildOx suggests). This may change once we get epic gems, but for right now you are generally well off just using red gems in every slot, unless the socket bonus is 20 intellect.

meta
good: Ember Skyflare Diamond
best: Ember Shadowspirit Diamond

red
best: Brilliant Inferno Ruby

blue
good: Purified Demonseye
best: Brilliant Inferno Ruby

yellow
good: Reckless Ember Topax
best: Brilliant Inferno Ruby

Comes via Google Web Cache, and originally ShadowPriest.com.

I know you want a page that can show all of your tags in one place right? I know why would you want this, well its probably good for SEO that google can see all of your tags, and hey its good to see them all in once place, isnt it?

Now searching for plugins for this one didnt really show up anything useful, so i delved deep into the wordpress guru archives and dugg out some handy code that you can use to list all tags in one page.

Now to be able to do this easily you will also need to be able to chuck in a custom template in wordpress as well, and this is as easy as adding the following tag to the header of your custom page. You can usually create this by copying your page.php file into a new file and naming it something other than page, like moo.php or something creative like that… At the end of the day as with most programming it doesent really matter what the name is, but usually its good to make it something that you will remember at a later time.

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<?php
/* Template Name: Show All Tags Page - Or other Template Name Here */
?>

Anyway Now that the template business is sorted, you can create a new Page in your wordpress blog called Tags or whatever you want really, and select the new template when creating the page.

The functions used for displaying the tags are as follows:

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<h3>Random remix tag cloud:</h3>
<?php wp_tag_cloud('number=50&format=list&order=RAND'); ?>
 
<h3>Most common tags:</h3>
<?php wp_tag_cloud('number=50&format=list&orderby=count'); ?>
 
<h3>All <?php if (function_exists('tagstats')) { tagstats(); } ?> tags in alphabetical order:</h3>
<?php wp_tag_cloud('smallest=10&largest=10&number=0&format=list'); ?>

Its as easy as that, see, it wasnt all that hard after all Unless my explaining tools are not up to scratch, and well it is quite late in the evening and past my bed time and such things, so any questions please ask below.

Edit: You will also need to add the following function to your theme functions.php file. Im just trying to get this functioning again in the new version of wordpress 3.1.

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// total number of tags
function tagstats() {
          global $wpdb;
          global $numtags;
          $wp_test = get_bloginfo ('version');
          $numtags = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM $wpdb->term_taxonomy WHERE taxonomy = 'post_tag'");
          if (0 < $numtags) $numtags = number_format($numtags);
          echo $numtags . '';
}

You can see my giant tagging listage action live here: Tags.

So you’ve recently hit 85, done a couple of bg’s or tol barad, and your getting a bit pwned. What spec do i choose?

Yeah this happened to me today, I know you cant ding 85 and be super leet straight away, well im my case i may never be, but hey i can dream (or practice). Went to the Auction house and bought up all the PVP Craftable Blues ended up with about 900 res and butt all spell power. So now im hitting like a wet sponge and getting wtfpwned quite often. Also the dam mobs are kicking my ass, even in tol. what the hell am i doing wrong? I think it all comes down to gear and maybe spec

I have found two frost specs that are quite decent. but really you need the gear to back it up, and you have two options really, get pwned in battle grounds for about a week or two, or alternatively fall asleep playing all the PVE content to get the DPS gear, and lets face it resiliance for a mage, really? i guess it all helps, but we are squishy and should really be playing keep away for most of the time anyway, not like we can just stand there and take it for long .

Here are the Specs:

Frost Spec 1

WoWHead Link

Frost Spec 2

WoWHead Link

Few things about these specs, you can choose between fast running when hit, or fast running after blinking, now for me i prefer the fast blinking run, i think you get to use it more often but some may prefer the latter. Anyway check them out.

As Always i have found some handy guides, Heres one from a post by Trixzy on Arena Junkies:

Alright, I’ll just start this out by saying, I’m not a glad,I’m not an Exceptional player but I’m here just to help out
I also want to Emphasize on that this guide is from MY point of view and has alot of MY opinions, if you disagree feel free to comment but please do not flame (:

Content
1. Spec
2. Gearing
3. Macros & Keybindings
4. Teams & Setups
5. Races
6. My Two Cents

1. Spec, where to put those extra talent points?

Spec:
http://www.wowhead.c…hsdMo:MkmMqkzmM

This is what I am using, I’ll start by saying there is ALOT of different spec choises you should consider when specing you mage.
I’ve chosen to take [Enduring Winter] to my build due to our 3v3, you can take that talent point and put it in [Improved Freeze] wich is the norm.
The 2 extra talent points I have in fire [Burning Soul] can also be placed in many different ways, some take [Invocation]from arcane to get that extra bit of damage boost. Others use them on [Ice Shards] in the frost tree.

There is also another choise to go wich looks like this:

http://www.wowhead.c…hsdMo:kMmMqkz0m
Thats basically the “norm” WITH impact.
So you can mess around with the 7 “extra” talent points, you can go [Blazing Speed] if you enjoy the dispel of all roots etc.

Thats basically covered, choose the extra 7 talent points(that is in the fire spec in this one) with your playstyle, what you usually do and wich one of them benefits your setup.

Glyphs
Prime:
Glyph of Ice Lance, surprise Ice Lance has changed from shatterfiller or omg instants I cannot cast to the most powerful spell we have.

Rest of these are situational, you can choose them according your playstyle or setup.

Glyph of Cone of Cold, Situational
Glyph of Frostbolt,Choose frostbolt if your setup allows you to cast alot e.g (you are not the tunneltarget usually)
Glyph of Frostfire, Frostfire if you want more dots and dispellable stuff on the target (e.g playing with an affliction warlock).
Glyph of Mage Armor,Situational do you end up ooming?

Major:
I have to say again, change glyphs according your setup. Ice Barrier glyph doesn’t increase the absorb with big amounts you could swap it with Glyph of Icy Veins due to the fact it removes Necrotic Strike, but again, if you feel like you are getting trained in your comp then you probably should stick with Glyph of Ice Barrier.
Glyph of Polymorph
Glyph of Ice Barrier
Glyph of Evocation

Minor:
These 2 are VERY good, if you don’t want to carry Light Feathers with you, get the slow fall glyph. Conjuring is good because it reduces the manacost of managem aswell, so if you are having long matches where you might even end up using all of your charges, this one is very good.
Glyph of Slow Fall
Glyph of Conjuring

2. Gearing up, gemming, what to choose?

Hit.
The most important stat for you to choose is HIT.
The PvP hitcap for a mage is 4% in cataclysm. With one exception, Night Elf racial [Quickness] this gives you 2% more needed hit to hit Night Elf’s so try going for just a tiny bit more than 4%. I suggest somewhere around 5% without sacrificing too much of other stats.
It should be easy to obtain, if you are under the hitcap don’t forget Reforging will always help you out (:

Spell Penetration.
Secondary and very close up on the list is Spell Penetration, you will need about 195 Spell Penetration since this is what the resistance auras, totems etc. give out max.
Against other Mages, they will be running with Mage Armor wich increases their resistances by 45 so with buffs and Mage Armor they can reach up to 240 resistance to your spells. 
Trying to get 240 is overkill, you won’t need that much against almost anything else (Felhunter is an exception) so get the spell penetration cloak, if you only have the Bloodthirsty version available you can enchant it with +70Spell pen or you can gem to reach ~~200.
I prefer running with the Vicious Cloak since it gives straight up 201 Spell Penetration. You can also choose Vicious Neckwhich gives the same amount.
But take in consideration, You cannot get a Haste Cloak, but you can get a Haste Neck.

Now we go into the part wich is kinda blurry for most people atm.

Haste/Crit/Mastery, what to choose?
Why would you gem for crit when you have [Shatter]? Because it multiplies your crit chance by 3. So lets say you are running with 15% crit, if the target is frozen you will have 3×15% wich is 45%, thats very low thinking you want to crit with each Ice Lance or Frostbolt on frozen targets. So best to get is 33.3% crit wich will then put your shatters up to 100% crit chanse (well almost). Crit is the most powerful stat atm, gemming until you reach a reasonable amount is suggested.
You will be low on crit at lower level gear (Bloodthirsty) but as you get more Vicious items your crit will increase by a significant amount. Just remember don’t reforge the crit away.

Haste is not nearly as powerful as it used to be, you wont be able to cast many frostbolts now that mages are tunneled hard so at this point, Crit and Mastery are much more stronger than haste.

As for mastery, without ANY mastery in your gear you will have 8.00 Mastery rating, that is 20% Increased damage against frozen targets. The Mage mainset items (shoulder and head) have mastery already in the item, 340rating to be exact. Which will give you about 4% increased damage, so gemming Intellect/Mastery gems, will give you 20 each yellow socket that will maybe get you up to 4,30% increased damage against frozen targets. So is it really worth gemming for? 
My Opinion, no. Take the mastery you can get from items but crit until certain levels and then mastery after that.

Gearing, how much resilience do I need?
(my armory; http://eu.battle.net…t/trixzy/simple)

Resilience for a Frostmage is starting to be key, try to aim for about 3k resilience, dont take those pve pieces since vicious has resil on it

More about gemming:
Yellow; Intellect / Haste
Red; Intellect
Meta; Chaotic (Critical strike and increased crit dmg.)they are updating the gem requirements.
Blue; Intellect / Hit if the socketbonus is worth taking.
Prismatic; Intellect.
Cogwheels; Mastery and Crit.

Enchants:
Head, Guardians of Hyjal Revered; 60Int 35Crit
Shoulder, Therazane Exalted; 50Int 25Haste
Cloak, Enchanter; 50Intellect
Chest, Enchanter; 40Resilience
Wrist, Enchanter; 50Crit
Mh Weapon, Enchanter; Hurricane unless you can afford Power Torrent
Oh, Enchanter; 100Int
Gloves, Enchanter; 50Mastery
Legs, Tailor; 95Int 85Stam
Feet, Enchanter; Movement Speed and 35 Mastery

That means offsets + 2mainsets of vicious will bring you up to the “now my resilience is fine” level. But unless you have a raiding guild to get you some nice pve gear to use with your pvpset, just stick with the pvp one. It’s really not that bad!

Now you have your gear and spec set up time to get into action.

3. Macros and Keybindings, how will I become better by using these?

Keybindings
Starting off, I suggest you bind almost all your abilites to some key in your keyboard. Most common bindings are 1-5,(since your fingers probably are not long enough to reach the 0 button while your right hand is on the mouse, yes you need to keep your right hand on the mouse.)Shift+1-5 keys, Control+1-5keys and Alt+1-5 keys. You can add such bindings as E,S+E,C+E,Q,S+Q,C+Q,F(with S+C),V(with S+C),§(with S+C),F1-5,<(with S+C),Shift+Space etc. there is over 60bindings you can put into your keyboard that you can reach with your left hand alone, not even including the keybindings you can add to your mouse Mousewheelup, mousewheel down, mousewheel button with modifiers. If you have additional buttons on your mouse them aswell.

Keybinding is essential if you keep your actionbar looking like (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0-+) with important spells on those, you will have to move your right hand from your mouse to your keyboard or stop moving with your character. Removing your right hand from the mouse will limit your view in arena, you cannot see what is happening if you are looking at a wall and have your right hand on the keyboard, so keep it on the mouse.

Macros
Focus target counterspells and sheeps are essential in the arena for a mage, you will need to set up a focus target (usually the healer) and while targeting your nuke target you can click on a macro to do something to your focus target without switching targets.

CS
Counterspells your target, if you click on shift modifier Counterspells your focus target.

#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:shift, target=focus] Counterspell
/cast [nomodifier:shift] Counterspell

Sheep
Sheeps your target, if you click on shift modifier Sheeps your focus target.

#showtooltip Polymorph
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:shift, target=focus] Polymorph
/cast [nomodifier:shift] Polymorph

Ice Block
#showtooltip Ice block
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Invisibility
/cast Ice Block

Quick Invis
#showtooltip Invisibility
/Stopcasting
/cast Invisibility

Decurse
This will decurse your mouseover target if you have one, if not it decurses yourself

/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Remove Curse
/cast [target=player] Remove Curse

Armors
This is a onebutton all armors kind of thing. Puts on Molten Armor without modifiers, with shift modifier Mage Armor, with control modifier Frost Armor. Molten Armor tho is mostly for PvE, you probably wont use it in arena so if you like you can replace it with Mage/Frost Armor and remove the ability from the macro

/cast [nomod:ctrl, nomod:shift] Molten Armor
/cast [mod:ctrl] Frost Armor
/cast [mod:shift] Mage Armor

You can find guides on other sites and AJ aswell to mage macros and how to macro stuff, this is just the basics.

4. Teams Setups and Strategies

This Section is not to tell you every comp out there you can play, and neither is this guide about what setup to run so you can get “free” glad. This guide is to help out and here is only the most “popular” comps.

Teams
Mages are highly wanted is many different setups due to our high crowd control, damage and survivability.

2v2;
:mage:/:rogue: a very common setup that relies on CC to survive and get a kill. These two players will need good communication and synergy to be able to survive.
:mage:/:warlock: not as common as magerogue but also a very viable setup this team aswell relies on CC and communication.
:mage:/healer works just aswell as any mage dps teams, this team will require the mage to be able to CC a target by himself (with a few exceptions of short and limited CC from healers)
You can try with any dps class it will work, just aslong as you two have great synergy and know what you are doing and what you need to do.

3v3;
:rogue:/:mage:/:priest: one of the strongest comps out there (atleast will be again after patch) known as the famous RMP.
:mage:/:warrior:/h:paladin: again in this setup you are the CC’er, don’t try to tunnel too much damage since the warrior will do that, you focus mostly on interrupting keeping people locked(sheeped/RoF’ed etc.) but help with your damage, coordinate a warriorfear/sheep/hoj and you can have a person locked out of the game for a very long time.
:mage:/feral:druid:/:paladin: this team has high amounts of CC, Sheep, Cyclone, HoJ, Roots and Hibernate(for druids) You will mostly have to line up a LONG CC chain on a healer (or the dps while tunneling the healer) to land a kill, but both of the dps has amazing damage so if played right you can probably drop a target within a counterspell.
:mage:/shadow:priest:/r:shaman: Not so much CC yet amazing dps, shaman totems will buff you and the priest and you can probably drop a target in a couple seconds if lined up so that both of the dps can deal damage.
:mage:/:warlock:/r:druid: this team has the most CC ingame, every class has a spammable CC so spam them on a healer will land you kills very fast.

As for 5v5, theres no “very good mage setup” unless going 4Mages and a Rogue(A JOKE).

These are just the most popular setups in arena, not the “best” ones.
You can make any setup “best” for you if you play with people you enjoy playing with and train hard (:

5. Races and Racials

Blood Elf; Arcane Torrent, Arcane Resistance and Arcane Affinity. A good class for a mage due to Arcane Torrent the other racials are kind of a waste. Arcane Resistance does help with resisting CS but Mage Armor exist.

Draenei; Heroic Presence, Gift of the Naaru, Shadow Resistance and Gemcutting. 1% Hit from Heroic Presence is good, less hitgear you need to take. Gift of the Naaru again a good racial since you do not have alot of selfhealing (Evocation with glyphs and bandages!) Shadow Resistance and Gemcutting are kind of a waste, here I say it again, Mage Armor exist.

Dwarf; Explorer, Frost Resistance, Gun & Mace Spec, Stoneform. Most of these are useless (Mage Armor) but with the new changes to Stoneform it will be AWESOME. a VERY good race to pick for a mage.

Gnome; Arcane Resistance, Engineering Specialization, Escape Artist, Expansive Mind, Shortblade Specialization. Yet again a very good alliance race due to Expansive Mind and Escape artist but IMO it doesn’t compete.

Goblin; Best Deals Anywhere, Better Living Through Chemistry, Pack Hobgoblin, Rocket Barrage, Rocket Jump and Time is Money. This is probably one of the best Horde races there is for a mage due to Rocket Jump and Time is Money.

Human; Diplomacy, Every Man for Himself, Mace and Sword Spec, The Human Spirit. A good race to choose due to EMFHS but the rest of these are useless in pvp. Still the use of this one racial is better than almost anything else you can get.

Night Elf; Nature Resistance, Quickness, Shadowmeld, Wisp Spirit. Quickness and Shadowmeld are okay racials but not that helpful IMO.

Orc; Blood Fury, Axe Specialization, Command, Hardiness. Blood Fury is a good racial rest of them, not so good. You wont spend time in stuns anyway and there is no certainty that Command affects Water Elemental (I think it does but nobody knows for sure).

Troll; Beast Slaying, Berserking, Bow Specialization, Da Voodoo Shuffle, Regeneration, Throwing Specialization. This competes with Goblins for Horde, very high on the list due to Berserking.

Undead; Cannibalize, Shadow Resistance, Underwater Breathing, Will of the Forsaken. Not a bad race but definetly not good either. WotF shares a 45second cooldown with pvp-trinket.

Worgen; Aberration, Darkflight, Enable Worgen Altered Form, Flayer, Running Wild, Transform: Worgen, Two Forms,Viciousness. Not a very bad race due to sprint and crit but doesn’t compete with other racials IMO.

I’ll sort by order in which I(emphasize on this word) think is best.

Horde; 1. Goblin/Troll 2. Blood Elf 3. Orc 4. Undead
Alliance; 1. Human/Dwarf 2. Draenei 3. Night Elf 4. Worgen 5. Gnome

6. My Two Cents.
But ofcourse you shouldn’t pick your class by racials pick the one you think looks awesome and stick with it.

Happy Arenaing & GL!

Check out the full post here

Related Videos for

Here is another good movie, Jilrock 4. Great Mage PVPing, couldnt find an embed linkage tho:
Jilrock 4 – Class: Mage | Category: PvP | Server : EU – Ashenvale ( Flurry )

Edit: Umm the video above is actually of an 80 mage not 85, ah well.

Edit 2: I found a good list of Mage Pre-Raiding Gear on Elitest Jerks, listed for your (and my) convenience below. Mage BiS Pre-Rading Gear.

ITEMS PER HEROIC DUNGEON

7 – Halls of Origination
6 – Deadmines
5 – Throne of the Tides, Blackrock Caverns, Lost City of the Tol’vir
4 – Shadowfang Keep, Grim Batol, Stonecore
3 – Vortex Pinnacle

ITEMS PER REPUTATION

2 – Earthen Ring, Hellscream’s Reach, Therazane, Dragonmaw Clan, Ramkahen
1 – Guardians of Hyjal

HEAD

359 [Lightweight Bio-Optic Killshades] – 525 Engineering
346 [Cowl of Pleasant Gloom] – Hit/Crit – 2,200 Justice Points
346 [Helm of the Typhonic Beast] – Hit/Mastery – Halls of Origination
346 [Crown of Enfeebled Bodies] – Crit/Haste – Grim Batol
346 [Blinders of the Follower] – Crit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep
ENC [Arcanum of Hyjal] – Guardians of Hyjal (Revered)

NECK

359 [Yellow Smoke Pendant] – Crit/Mastery – Dragonmaw Clan (Exalted)
346 [Eye of Many Deaths] – Haste/Mastery – 525 Jewelcrafting (BOE)
346 [String of Beaded Bubbles] – Hit/Mastery – 1,250 Justice Points
346 [Charm of the Muse] – Hit/Crit – Halls of Origination
346 [Tauntka's Necklace] – Crit/Haste – Lost City of the Tol’vir
346 [Pipefish Cord] – Haste/Mastery – Throne of the Tides
346 [Pendant of the Keep] – Crit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep

SHOULDERS

346 [Meadow Mantle] – Crit/Mastery – 1,650 Justice Points
346 [Mantle of the Eastern Lords] – Hit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep
346 [Mantle of Master Cho] – Crit/Haste – Lost City of the Tol’vir
ENC [Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone] – Therazane (Exalted)
ENC [Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone] – Therazane (Honored)

BACK

346 [Cloak of Ancient Wisdom] – Crit/Haste – Earthen Ring (Revered)
346 [Shadow of Perfect Bliss] – Hit/Crit – Vortex Pinnacle
346 [Periwinkle Cloak] – Haste/Mastery – Throne of the Tides

CHEST

346 [Robes of Orsis] – Hit/Crit – Ramkahen (Revered)
346 [Robes of Embalmed Darkness] – Haste/Mastery – 2,200 Justice Points
346 [Corsair's Overshirt] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Inquisition Robes] – Hit/Mastery – Blackrock Caverns
346 [Robes of Arugal] – Crit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep
346 [Robes of Rampant Growth] – Crit/Haste – Halls of Origination

WRISTS

346 [Armbands of Exiled Architects] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Sand Silk Wristband] – Hit/Crit – Lost City of the Tol’vir

HANDS

359 [Flamebloom Gloves] – Haste/Mastery – Earthen Ring (Exalted)
346 [Gloves of the Painless Midnight] – Haste/Mastery – 1,650 Justice Points
346 [Mnemiopsis Gloves] – Hit/Crit – Throne of the Tides

WAIST

359 [Dreamless Belt] – Hit/Mastery – 525 Tailoring (BOE)
346 [Incense Infused Cumberbund] – Crit/Mastery – 1,650 Justice Points
346 [Stratosphere Belt] – Hit/Mastery – Vortex Pinnacle
346 [Beauty's Silken Ribbon] – Crit/Haste – Blackrock Caverns
346 [Girdle of Nobility] – Crit/Haste – UNKNOWN, possibly Deadmines

LEGS

359 [Breeches of Mended Nightmares] – Crit/Haste – 525 Tailoring (BOE)
359 [Flame-Ascended Pantaloons] – Crit/Mastery – 525 Tailoring (BOE)
346 [Pensive Legwraps] – Crit/Haste – 2,200 Justice Points
346 [Legwraps of Astral Rain] – Crit/Mastery – Halls of Origination

FEET

359 [Desert Walker Sandals] – Hit/Haste – Ramkahen (Exalted)
346 [Slippers of the Twilight Prophet] – Hit/Mastery – Stonecore
346 [Corpse Rompers] – Crit/Haste – Unknown

FINGERS

359 [Ring of the Boy Emperor] – Haste/Mastery – Archaeology
359 [Signet of High Arcanist Savor] – Hit/Crit – BOE World Drop
346 [Ring of Warring Elements] – Crit/Mastery – 525 Jewelcrafting (BOE)
346 [Band of Lamentation] – Hit/Mastery – Dragonmaw Clan (Revered)
346 [Diamant's Ring of Temperance] – Crit/Haste – Therazane (Revered)
346 [Abandoned Dark Iron Ring] – Crit/Haste – Grim Batol
346 [Anthia's Ring] – Hit/Mastery – Throne of the Tides
346 [Band of Rays] – Hit/Crit – Halls of Origination
346 [Lavishly Jeweled Ring] – Hit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Rose Quartz Band] – Crit/Haste – Stonecore
346 [Spirit Creeper Ring] – Crit/Mastery – Lost City of the Tol’vir

TRINKETS

359 [Darkmoon Card: Volcano] – 525 Inscription (BOE)
359 [Stump of Time] – Hellscream’s Reach (Exalted)
359 [Tyrande's Favorite Doll] – Archaeology
346 [Figurine - Jeweled Serpent] – 475 Jewelcrafting (BOP)
346 [Anhuur's Hymnal] – Halls of Origination
346 [Gale of Shadows] – Grim Batol
346 [Sorrowsong] – Lost City of the Tol’vir
346 [Tendrils of Burrowing Dark] – The Stonecore
346 [Witching Hourglass] – Blackrock Caverns

STAFF

359 [Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan] – Crit/Haste – Archaeology
346 [Insidious Staff] – Haste/Mastery – Hellscream’s Reach (Revered)
346 [Cerith Spire Staff] – Hit/Haste – Thone of the Tides
346 [Emberstone Staff] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Staff of Siphoned Essences] – Crit/Mastery – Grim Batol

MAIN HAND

346 [Elementium Spellblade] – Hit/Crit – 520 Blacksmithing (BOE)
346 [Beak of Julak-Doom] – Hit/Mastery – Julak-Doom (world boss, Twilight Highlands)
346 [Modgud's Blade] – Hit/Crit – Grim Batol
346 [Blade of the Burning Sun] – Crit/Haste – Halls of Origination
346 [Biting Wind] – Crit/Haste – Vortex Pinnacle

OFF HAND

346 [Dungeoneering Guide] – Hit/Mastery – 520 Inscription (BOE)
346 [Hermit's Lamp] – Hit/Haste – 950 Justice Points
346 [Beauty's Favorite Bone] – Hit/Crit – Blackrock Caverns

RANGED

346 [Corla's Baton] – Hit/Mastery – Blackrock Caverns
346 [Cookie's Stirring Rod] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Wand of Dark Worship] – Crit/Haste – Stonecore

Via Elitist Jerks / Valaran / Here

Well its another gaming day, and i just wrote half of this post and did a select all and delete, and then i couldnt even resurect it by pressing ALT+Z argh! Guess thats what i get for trusting in the wordpress editor, back to notepad++ for me. anyway… here goes again.

I really dont need another MMO to play, wow is just too all consuming as it is, but there is a bit of hype going around about a new one called Rift. It actually looks a little bit like aion vs warhammer. Some people are saying a few good things about it, you can get access to a beta key pretty easily i think, you may just need to pre-purchace it or something like that. But the community is growing.

Heres one review i found on RiftFan – Rift from an MMO veterans point of view:

I’ve played it all…
UO, EQ, EQOA, EQ2, FFXI, WOW, LOTRO, DAOC, Aion, AOC, WAR, AO, SWG, FE, VG, Shadowbane, FFXIV, DF etc… and I’m sure there are some I’m forgetting.
I’ve played WoW off and on since release, but did not buy into Cataclysm. It was just time to move on.
Enter Rift.. I had not researched it at all, I didn’t even care about it. The only information I had about it was what one of my friends had shared with me and even then I really didn’t pay attention. I didn’t think it would be a good game from how it sounded. One of the things I had missed about current MMO’s were their lack of attention to the PVP parts of the game. Once my friend mentioned how Rift was handling PVP, my interest was suddenly peaked. So I managed to get a VIP beta key.. and here’s what I found in the game. Please keep in mind that I’ve not stuck with any MMO except for WoW for more than a few months in the past year.

GRAPHICS
Trion was smart. They didn’t do like many others have done in the past and try to make a ridiculously system intensive game. They designed the game so that it looks great, but will still play fairly well on lower end systems. Mine is several years old and I can still play on almost the highest of settings. The graphic style was a good balance of “realism” and “stylishness” for me. The character models didn’t have a whole lot of customization options, but I believe there were more than WoW’s system. I also felt the models looked good and fit into the world around them. They didn’t look completely out of place like those in say, Vanguard. The world graphics fit the atmosphere of the game pretty well in my opinion. I really don’t have any gripes about the graphics at all. They look better than WoW and they run well on lower end systems.

GAMEPLAY
Since this is only a review of the parts of the game I’ve actually played. Please don’t take this and think that I’m referring that the entire game will be the same way, because we have yet to get to play the entire game as of yet. This is solely based on the short time I was in beta. I’ve heard alot of people scream that the game isn’t as it was advertised, or that it isn’t revolutionary.. etc. Does it have to be? WoW definitely wasn’t, and it did very well. Usually from what I’ve found, games that try to be extremely different from what people are used to.. are the ones that don’t do so hot. The gameplay in RIFT is definitely not revolutionary, but its very solid and smooth. What it does, it does well. The animations are smooth, the spell effects look great. I think everything they’ve done, takes WoW and amplifies it by a few notches. Which is what WoW did itself when it was released. They didn’t rewrite the book on MMO’s they just took what already works well and made it work even nicer. Most people who are looking for something “new” aren’t really at all. Most just want a familiar game in a new setting. This is what RIFT does. It won’t take long to familarize yourself with the controls or the game as it is indeed very similar to WoW and its counterparts. Is it a WoW clone? Depends on how you look at it.. are all the multitudes of FPS games with the same controls “clones”? There’s a certain formula that just “works” and this is one of those formulas. Age of Conan and Darkfall tried to change that formula and look where they ended up. On a down note, I could see where the game might get boring Because of this.. because they all eventually do.. but there’s always a downside.

SPECIAL FEATURES
RIFT includes a few things that we may have seen before in other games, but done in a new way. One of the biggest things I really enjoyed about the beta were the rifts, which are basically a more polished version of WAR’s public quests.. which I always thought was a great idea if they had been implemented properly. I really like the fact that they can appear anywhere . Its like a “drive by” raid and allows for group play without all the pains of trying to form a group. I’m sure they could get overwhelming when trying to level up, but I think that if your smart.. you can avoid them or better yet.. participate.
The Crafting in Rift is nothing special at all, its more of the “it works, so why change it” formula that WoW capitalized on. If your playing this game to be a crafter, I would suggest finding something else. This is not a crafter’s MMO. Crafting is more of a supplemental part of the main game and was never meant to be a game in itself here.
Rift’s Soul system is one of, if not the coolest feature in the game. With the way they’ve designed the character customization.. (if they are able to keep it balanced) We will be able to create some of the most customizable characters in an MMO to date. This could easily go very bad, if they did not balance things properly. As usual my fear is that within a few months, the “hardcore” min maxers will have already figured out what builds are the absolute best and idiotic gamers will just follow suit, rather than experiment and play the souls they find to be the most fun for them.
PVP in RIFT is something I haven’t gotten to do a whole lot of so I can’t really comment alot.. but from everything I’ve seen and read. They’ve put alot of thought into the PVP part of the game, so that its not just “Tacked on” like it is in most other games that focus mainly on PVE. It seems to have a purpose on its on, and I like the faction based system because I really think we will see some good world PVP out of it with how different the factions are.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I’ll be preordering the game, with several of my former WoW and Conan guild mates. I cannot tell you if the game will last for any of us, but as of now its surpassed everything else we’ve tried in the past year and is finally allowing us to lay the world of Azeroth to rest, and that for us is great because we were pretty sick of that world. If your looking for revolutionary, your looking in the wrong place. If you just want a fun game in a new setting that does what you already know very well.. Rift is your game, as it stands in beta.

Another interesting one that someone sent me a video link to is Interstellar Marines. This one looks quote good judging by the video so far, they have released three playable demos so far downloadable from their website. check out the vid below.

We realize that it can be difficult to explain the concept of Interstellar Marines and AAA indie game development to your friends and family, so we’ve put together a comprehensive new video that will get everyone up to speed in less than 5 minutes. Even your grandma will get the message! … Go to InterstellarMarines.com to learn more!

And finally a sweet (and yet surely annoying) console setup… Unless the fans dont make an annoying noise, and its not 3am…

So i was posed the question the other day, Is Cataclysm Underwhelming? Well it actually wasn’t worded in that way, more like. Are you getting bored of wow already, asked while i was leveling my mage rather than gearing up my priest that was already 85. Have Blizzard really added enough to cataclysm to make it worthwhile?

I think its a bit harsh to judge so quickly, I mean it was a pretty smooth transition really. I’m sure this is far from a complete list, but here is a few of the massive tasks they had underway:
- massive world events leading up to cataclysm
- redesigning the whole world to accommodate flying mounts
- basically re-designing orgrimar from scratch
- adding archeology skill
- redesign of all classes / gear
- addition of two new races and story lines / home worlds / mounts or travel forms, etc.
- new leveling sections added pretty much one section or world for each level between 80 and 85.

I mean, there is a massive pressure on them to get it just right and you can never really please the masses can you. You are always going to get someone hitting the QQ button about their class or whatever.

If you go by the queue times, the popularity has definitely gone down since launch. No more wait times on my server at all for logging in.

For me i think its at a good medium now, as i don’t really want (or have time to) play hardcore mode wow anymore, and its good i can just login and to an instance run or a few battle grounds or level archeology and its just a bit of fun.

This was sparked by the following post that i found on MMO champion I guess just typical QQ action to see here. I mean there not forcing anyone to play, dont like it? quit.

I will start from the start, listing things that blizzard have done wrong:

1) The much hyped pre launch-world event was poorly conceived and not well thought out at all. Other’s opinions might differ but it failed miserably compared to the BC and wotlk world events.

2) Starting zones were released with multiple bugs and many started quests did not function properly. Few bugs can be ignored but there were bugs even in quests that introduced a player to starter zones. The fact that blizzard allowed these buggy quests to be released without fixing them, was the first stop in knowing that the company has lost it’s touch.

3) LFD tool – It is a great tool but since it was released, many people have complained about the random not being ‘really random’. There has been more than enough time to fix this very small problem. No one likes to run the same place over and over again, if you have my luck and the place happens to be Grim Batol (pops everyday, completed rarely), it is easy to get frustrated. Surely making a random tool, actually random, is not too much to ask?

4) Random BG tool – since the release, all that the random BG tool has ever given me is the two “new” BGs. Both BGs lack any imagination on the part of development team and are a rehash of BGs that already exist. Again, I am still searching for the ‘random’ bit of this tool.

5) Extremely poor content like Tol Barad making it to release- Tol barad testing was a big event. Many who participated gave feedback, the feedback was ignored and as a result a complete new zone does not function properly.

6) Heroic dungeons: While i support the level of difficulty in the Heroic instances, I completely disagree with the amount of trash some places have. Grim batol and SFK are classic examples of where the devs crossed the line between difficult and annoying. having 3 trash packs of 4 mobs each in one small room is in no way fun.

7) Forcing new playstyles on players – As a resto druid, I have grave objections to Nourish spam. I healed in BC when nourish did not exist, healing was tough then but it was fun and along the lines of what you read in your class desciption before creating your character. Trying to make eveyone do everything is not something that has benefitted the game.

Knee-jerk reactions from Devs – I will not touch the Pandora’s box that is the class balance that devs tend to do but the Tol barad “fix” of giving the winner 1800 honor stand out. It was the least thought of and most illogical attempt at fixing the broken state of Tol Barad.

9) Regular server and instance server restarts: In the last 3 weeks, I can only think of two raids where there has’nt been a restart. Some people are comfortable with this but personally, if I bought a new fridge that just turned itself on and off again almost everyday, I would not be very happy. Worst part is that players are given no indication as to what is the purpose behind the said restarts which again points to the lack of care for the players, on part of the company.

10) Extremely buggy encounters: A few bugs is acceptable, a few more can be attributed to the fact that cata was a rushed expansion but the number of bugs this expansion came out with has exceeded BC and wotlk by a huge margin. One would think that years of experience runnign a game would have taught the designers a few lessons but clearly not.

11) Blizzard have delibrately put a lot of things in this expansion which are for lack of better word a ‘time-sink’. There have always been time-sinks but this expansion has gone back to the mistakes of vanilla. other’s opinions might vary but personally, there is nothing worthwhile to do other than raids at end level, of course assuming that the raid server is’nt down again.

12) The blizzard representative’s attitude towrds players on the forums has been disrespectful and downright demeaning at times. Sometimes they have even made negative comments on casual players complaining about difficulty. While I do not subscribe to the typical split between so called casual and hardcore, I do subscribe to the idea that if you do not have something nice to say, just do not say anything, is the best approach at times, especially when dealing with your own consumers.

13) Lack of anything new or imaginative: So far there has’nt been one moment in cataclysm where I have just gone ‘ wow, that is amazing’. The only thing that comes close is the Uldum architecture and that’s not really a lot to shout about. Sure they spent time doing lower zones but let’s face it, most of those zones are just a bit more detailed and you can fly over them ! Blizzard must have known that most players will spend a majority of time in the new zones and yet the new zones give a feeling of having been neglected by the devs.

So apparently blizzard are offering free iPads if you have the best promotional or unique screen shot of your Core Hound Pup!

/searches for latest screen shot’s showing the corehound pup. Yeah i got mine a few months ago now, i dont even pull it out very often. No better reason than this to start though .

All you have to do it take it out in interesting locations and then press ALT+Z to hide your interface and then the Print Screen key to take a screen shot. Then wow automatically takes a photo of your in game screen and saves it into your world of warcraft folder under screenshots. If you installed wow on your C drive in Program Files \ World of Warcraft it would be in the location: “C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Screenshots”. to get there quick in windows just press the windows key + r and then paste in

1

"C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Screenshots" to go straight there.

Here is the official blizzard Post:

If your account is protected by a Battle.net Authenticator or the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, then you already know how safe and secure your Core Hound Pup pet can make you feel. But there are plenty of players out there who can still benefit from the companionship and peace of mind that our infernal puppy provides.

We’re kicking off a Core Hound Pup adoption campaign and we need your help! Simply send us funny, cute, or just plain epic screenshots featuring your fiery two-headed buddy. We’ll be picking two of the most memorable images each month in 2011 and awarding the winners with a brand new iPad.

If you have yet to adopt a Core Hound Pup of your very own, then don’t wait a moment longer, or we just might have to give you the big puppy-dog eyes. Visit our account security site to learn how to get a Battle.net Authenticator or download the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, available through our mobile apps page or as a free download from the Apple App Store or the Android Market.

Adopt a puppy! Protect your loots! Win an iPad! Read the contest rules for details and eligibility requirements, and happy screenshotting!

via the Official Blizzard Blog

Related Videos for Corehound Pup

So i am still leveling my mage at the moment… however its always good to see someone elses point of view when it comes to PVP. Found this one on the wow forums, looks like a two part series should be a good viewing. I have re-arranged the original post source to include the vids, i know it was hard work but hey makes for easier viewing and readage. The following vids and skill all belong to Nighttempest im not trying to claim any of his glory just promoting some good cata mage pvp skills Check it out:

DISCLAIMER: I don’t claim skill! I just happen to know what I’m doing (half the time).

Anyways out of sheer boredom I decided to make a mage guide I managed to get some good clips (all of it was filmed in one day other than the scene on the docks vs the boomkin and warlock which was 3.3.5), so I decided that I should probably put them to use… anyways it’s a 2 part movie just read the description, and it takes a while to load in from youtube since its popup so you can get the full quality.

As long as I don’t waste your time completely, and you guys get at least ONE thing out of it I’ll be happy.

Part 1

• Movement/Kiting
• Lining Up Burst
• Simple Exercises to increase your mage skill

Part 1 is essentially a very slow, very chill movie starts from the very basics of everything, and ends with some silly exercises of me doing stupid crap in IF. Anyways you can at least enjoy the music if nothing else. (WARNING: I was a “bit” drunk for the last bit of part 1 since it was the end of the day so expect some weird screen shaking.)

Part 2

-Class Specifics: Rogue

(Rules: No Water elemental, or mirror images allowed)

Notes: I was going to include warrior, but they are not a complete class until 85 in PvP so they won’t be on here despite the opening list on part 1. This movie is a lot more edited than the first part, and is not really in the “chill” mood.

I’m going to add a voice over (on a separate file that you can listen to while you watch) when I have access to my mic again (100$ mics seem to break down more than the 20$ ones), but till then read this:

Fedxx is a 2750 MMR rogue (ex glad on his UD), and we’ve been duel buddies for a while now, this is the 2nd time since the first day of 4.0 that we dueled so expect to see a learning a curve, and a few mistakes (mostly by me he makes like 3 in the entire movie).

His opener:

-Opens with a garrote without breaking sap so I can’t spin around to face him, into a KS while I’m still blanket silenced by garrote.

To trinket, or to not trinket the stun rules are simple…

-Did he use shadow dance?

Yes: trinket

No: Don’t trinket (derp)

Don’t worry about being blinded it’s better for him to reopen without shadow dance. (Some duels I eat the shadow dance since I don’t want to fraps his reset, so I save trinket for blind.)

-Why are you invising? It’s just going to break.

It gives me 2-3 globals of breathing time, and a possible freecast, but unfortunately I’ve been pro’d and sapped out of invis before >_>. That’s a minor issue though considering how many bleeds sub rogues have.

-Why are you taking so little damage?

I’m facing him as much as possible. The maximum amount of backstabs he gets per duel is 8-9, and max of 3 ambushes.

-Why doesn’t he just turtle for his CDs?

He does some duels, and those are the ones where I lose, but he was nice enough to do burn down duels as well.

-He wouldn’t be able to turtle as much if you used a pet.

I’m aware of that, but mages are such a hard counter to rogues with the pet atm that I found it cheap to use it so I decided to run without it.

-Won’t rogues smokebomb change the game of rogue vs mage?

Not really we can counter it with ring of frost, or just blizzard. Vs good mages smokebomb will mostly be for:

a.) Getting out of combat with blind, and then smokebombing off the pet (assuming pet nova is used). (No other rogue on beta has thought of this yet…. kudos to me?)

b.) Smokebombing as deep freeze goes off.

c.) Recup tick time, and energy regen.

Rogue vs mage has remained essentially the same formula since level 60 even.

Mage plays defensive until Cds are out, mage resets, rogue has jack. Rogue qqs about mages.

Alternatively: Mage plays defensive, but rogue outplays mage, and mage QQs about rogues.

Anyways as I mentioned earlier I hope you guys get at least ONE thing out of this, and I’ll be happy.

Check out the rest of the thread on: WoW Forums

Ok so it cant be a guide beyond Cataclysm, but hey it has a good ring to it… What the opposite of beyond, (checks google) Hmm, well that was no help, and unrelated to this post anyway. So I have been leveling my new mage just lately, and going through all of the changed content and locating all of the new quest hubs etc, and i have to say its pretty cool what blizzard have done to the wow leveling flow in cataclysm. It all flows together nicely and there are a lot more connecting quest chains and they break it up with a few different and fun quests here and there, but if you just feel like grinding through the level you can do that as well. I have just hit 73 on my dranei mage and it has started to get a lot slower, 60 – 70 was a breeze and before that was amazingly quick compared to how long it used to take! Even battle grounds are ok to go in every now and again being alience i tend to win more than on the horde side overall, and wins can get you about 25% of a level in the 30′s and 40′s. not so much in the higher levels, but you can still get about 100k exp from winning an av and thats only about 20-30 minutes of game time, so its pretty comparable.

Now i have posted the following leveling flow diagram before but its so good ill post it again here:

originally posted here…

I was looking for a bit of extra advice on power leveling as well, not the bad powerleveling that you pay for but the stuff that just helps you with general leveling in wow, dont get distracted, and concentrate, try not to get bored i was leveling the other night and watching a movie, that definately slowed down my leveling process probably due to not being able to concentrate on more than one thing at a time, might be a male thing.

Anyway here is a few tips on powerleveling that i found:

Five golden rules of powerleveling

Minimize Downtime

Downtime is whenever you are not killing mobs or completing quests. Examples for downtime include regenerating mana or hitpoints, traveling, chatting, attacking other players, reading or dieing.
For obvious reasons downtime directly hinders your goal of leveling as fast as possible. Keeping these activities to a bare minimum is the most important aspect of power leveling.

Maximizing Burst Damage

The second most important thing when powerleveling is how fast you can kill mobs. Both single mobs and groups of mobs. Burst damage is greatly impacted by your spec (think protection versus fury), your gear level and your playstyle. And to a lesser extent by consumables, buffs and reforging/stat choices.

Play alone

To clarify right away: I do not have any math showing how grinding instances with a fleshed out 5 man group compares to leveling by questing. But if 70 – 80 is any judge, leveling by questing will be at least as fast but without the drawbacks of leveling in a group. You set the pace, you decide when to take breaks, you rely on your preparation and expertise instead of the preparation and expertise of other people. The method of power leveling purely in instances is not the focus of this text. Much rather the focus is on leveling by questing and grinding.
Questing in a group of multiple people always has drawbacks that can never outweigh the benefits. While „killing-quests“ are typically (slightly) faster in a group, a lot of drop-specific quests are much slower in groups and you will find yourselves waiting for mob respawns a lot. Not the mention the downtime is increased significantly for a group with multiple players.

Always know your next steps

Use a guide; preferably with an addon that goes hand-in-hand with the guide.
If possible use a second screen to always display the guide so you can read while you travel or grind. Always read at least the next paragraph in the guide so you know what you will be doing after the current task. This is to make sure you don’t travel unnecessarily or separate tasks that should be persued together.

Stay awake

Only read this paragraph if you consider leveling to 85 hardcore.
My personal, most important advice: Do not drink alcohol when trying to stay awake and focused for a long period of time. Alcohol will get you very, very tired very fast.
Most people (including me) will find listening to music while leveling stimulating and keeping you going.
Caffeine is your friend, but you need to use it the right way:
Caffeine works by changing the chemistry of the brain. It blocks the action of a natural brain chemical (adenosine) that is associated with sleep. Adenosine is produced by your daily activity, especially by physical exercise.
To a nerve cell, caffeine looks like adenosine. Caffeine, therefore, binds to the adenosine receptors. However, it doesn’t slow down the cell’s activity as adenosine would. The cells cannot sense adenosine anymore because caffeine is taking up all the receptors adenosine binds to. So instead of slowing down because of the adenosine level, the cells speed up. The „problem“ is, that adeonosine keeps building up while caffeine is blocking the adenosine receptors. So as soon as the caffeine loses its effect, you have a lot of adenosine around that will rapidly occupy all the receptors. This happens very fast and you will turn from being totally focused to dead tired in a matter of minutes. Drinking a coffee or an energy drink will flood the brain with caffeine for a short amount of time. It usualy takes 15-30 minutes to feel the effect, which then peaks around 30-60 minutes after consumption.
So once your body decides that you are tired, you would have to drink a coffee around every 2 hours at least to stay focused and you would still feel a lot of „ups“ and „downs“ when the caffeine peaks and declines.
A much better way is to rely on a continuous, controlled flow of caffeine that never peaks or declines but keeps a steady level to prevent you from becoming too tired. You might know the substance that provides just this effect under the name of „Guarana“. Guarana capsules usually work over several hours (typically 5-6), emitting a steady flow of caffeine (the exact same thing that you get when drinking coffee). Designed to keep you awake when feeling tired as opposed to coffee, which is good to „remove“ tiredness when you are rested; which is why coffee is consumed to wake up.
Enough of the medical lessons. You can get guarana capsules prescription free (in most countries?) at your local apothecary. I suggest you learn some more about the effects of guarana or ask your pharmacist about them before trying them out. Just to clarify again: Guarana is NOT a drug. It is identical to the caffeine chemical derived from other sources, such as coffee and it is classifed as GRAS in the United States.

Note: This rule is for crazy gamers! For you health, I suggest that Life first, Game Second! lol!

Take care of yourself

Don’t carry leveling to excess.
Make sure you always feel comfortable or immediately stop playing!

Here a few tipps:

• Always have water or tea on your desk (or any neutral beverage) and don’t forget to drink enough.
• Eat two or three times a day. You will notice you won’t be as hungry as usual simply because your body is burning much less calories. It’s only a couple days, so go all out on pizza, lasagna and what else makes you happy (and can be eaten at your computer ). I would say try to eat some fruits/vegetables too etc, but yeah, **** that.
• Again, no alcohol or drugs apart vom caffeine.
• Care about hygiene. It is much more comfortable to play after a shower.
• Make sure your Monitor is at least 50cm away from your eyes. If your eyes start to hurt, take a break or stop power leveling.
• Maybe stick around in your Teamspeak to keep some company and to motivate eachother. But it can be distracting, especially if people keep asking stuipid questions about where to find quest objectives.
• Turn off your mobile phone and lock the door if you have a toilet & fridge in your room. For a second you thought I was serious here, right? Powerleveling is nice and fun, but don’t do it at the cost of the people around you.

Now just on a small side note about leveling mages, i was arcane for ages while leveling in the low levels and that was doing pretty well for me. I switched out to frost spec at about 40 or so and have been leveling as frost all the way to 73, after reading a bit a lot of people are going fire now for leveling, i might give that a try and see how it goes.

Frost is quite easy though for leveling, Just do a Frost Fire, then ice bolt x2, and ice lance and finish with a fire blast if its still going. Then when you get the freeze spell (cant remember exactly what level thats at) has a 30 sec cd, and then u just freeze the mob and hit them with 3 ice lance crits, gonski! Anyway ill check out a fire pve build and see how that goes, leveling as ice gets a bit same old after about 30-40 levels anyway

I found a pole on mmo champ and the results about leveling mages were, Arcane (9%), Fire (71%), Ice (20%). So it seems fire is the way to level.

My mage has some rather horrid gear for a level 80. I logged onto the PTR last night to mess around with fire, and much to my surprise I pulled 5400 DPS in a fight against one of the new encounters for the pre-Cata event. This was done knowing very little about a fire rotation (Hey, I’ve been Arcane!), and without my normal bindings.

My thoughts on it? Scorch is insane. Quick little spell that you can cast while moving with talents, doing 5K a shot. Oh, and it’s free and freaking FAST. All I did was spam the hell out of it and fire of Pyroblast when it procced. I loved it. Considering the last time I used Fire on my mage (August of 2007), I will definitely have this as one of my specs. It’s just so much fun.

________ __ _

Everyone says ‘go frost,’ so that’s mostly what you see (sheeple). The best spec is the one you have the most fun with. I levelled my mage fire all the way. When dungeoning with groups that outgear you and/or the content, your dps will suffer because of the time factor mentioned above. All things equal, fire does very well. The non-fire spells in combo do very well indeed.

The Sources:
MMO Site
MMO Champ
KruXoR