How BC has changed me / Level 32 routine
No, not in big personal ways, but my gameplay has certainly changed since BC came out. The primary thing that's happened is that I'm playing more with my wife then without her. I'm not 100% what the difference was, but I think it boiled down to making a commitment to experience all the content in the Draenei starting zones with her. The reason I think this made the difference was that I was actively trying to get her to play. In the past when she's express an interest in playing it meant that I'd log off of my main and to play a toon I really wasn't too interested in with her. I'm sure it gave here the impression that I'd rather be playing without her, which (subconsciously) may have been true. I mean, I liked playing with her, but it was quests I'd already done, zones I'd already cleared, and playstyle that I'd already experienced. DPS and Warlock, done that do death...
Now, when I'm playing my 'main' it's nowhere near as fun. I'd much rather be playing with her, and I'm sure my general attitude has changed. I've really gotten excited about 'tanking' and the paladin class in general, both of which are 'new' to me. The synergy with the Shaman is also amazing, and unlike anything I've done before. While Paladins are the defensive hybrid (tanking/healing), Shaman's are the offensive hybrid (DPS/Healing). If you look at my three highest level toons (Rogue, Hunter, Shadow Priest) I've already played the DPS and Healer roles. The only role I really hadn't experienced was that of a tank. With my wife taking care of DPS and Healing, I'm able to focus on the one area do the MMO trinity that I haven't already done to death: tanking.
Speaking of synergy, Windfury Totem and Reckoning are just crazy fun. I've only got 2/5 in Reckoning, so it's a 4% proc rate, but when it does proc it's full strength. Windfury is a 20% proc rate on hit, so I've got a 59% chance of getting a windfury proc off one of my extra hits (1-(.8*4)) and roughly 30% (8!/(2!*6!)*(.2*.2)*(.8*.8*.8*.8*.8*.8)) chance of getting two procs. That translate to a pretty heavy spike in damage, and by extension, threat. It's not the flat 20% buff it is for warriors, but only because a significant portion of my damage dealt is reactive and not active (i.e. Retribution Aura, Blessing of Sanctuary, and my Shield Spike).
As I implied above, our Draenei are sitting at level 32. I think I've gotten 10 levels in the last week, so it's been very productive. The elite quests in Duskwood are so much easier with the two of us. We took out Morbent Fel at level 29 without a death. I've never seen him go down so easily. It was pretty scary at first with adds he comes with, but they were quickly attracted to my Consecration and coupled with the damage from my Aura, they quickly fell. I don't think we even focused damage on them, they died to my passive AoE. The Bride of the Embalmer went down just as easily, as did Stalven, all before level 30. Level 30 lead us to Southshore and more evil murlocs. At one point I had 7 on me while I dual boxed. I just through up all the totems, dropped consecration and whittled them down. It was a lot of damage to heal through, but it was successful. Magma Totem immediately after Consecration is great, a lot of damage. Oh, Blessing of Sanctuary is great. 10 damage less per hit really adds up when you're taking 5 hits per second (aka the murlocs) and almost assures that Redoubt is always up. Seal of Light is also nice. I'm trying to decide how when to use it in place of my normal SoR/JotC (or JoJ for runners). I'm inclined to use it when AoEing, as the added threat from Consecration offsets what I'm losing from not using SoR, plus the added healing adds a lot to my survivability. If the mob isn't a runner, and the mob hits hard, I'll use JoL instead of JotC.
Level 32 gave my wife Chain lightning which she's been happily accidental pulling with :P. Luckily my taunt effects all three of the mobs that are now really pissed at her. I think that the combination of my inherent AoE abilities with Chain Lightning, Magma Totem, and Fire Nova Totem, we should be capable of some mean feats of AoE grinding. Provided I don't die first.
My current Tanking routine:
- Buffs
- Righteous Fury
- Blessing of Sanctuary
- Aura of Retribution
- Blessing of Salvation (wifey)
- Windfury Weapon (wifey)
- Food/Pots/Scrolls that are available
- My Routine
- Taunt mobs off my wife's pull
- Consecration (if there's more than one mob)
- Judge Light if the mob isn't a runner, Justice if they are
- Cast SoR if the mob isn't a runner, SoL if they are
- Back up a touch so that all mobs are in front of me (aka I can block).
- If there are 3 or more mobs, I'll consecrate a second time
- Otherwise just keep the mobs in front of me and keep my Seals fresh. I don't typically Judge SoR as often as I can. I generally let SoR run for 20 seconds so that I can get three ticks of mana regen before interrupting it again. Mana regen is very important for me as I don't have a very high mana pool, most of my gear is tanking gear, so +STA is a primary concern and I've been grabbing Spirit/Strenght/Int when available.
- Obviously if my wife pulls aggro off of me I taunt them back and drop consecration to cement the taunt.
- My wife's Routine
- Pull with Lighting Bolt
- Flame Shock the primary target (I taunt as soon as the shock goes off)
- Drop totems (Stoneskin, Searing, Healing Stream, and Windfury)
- Melee my target
- Cast Chain Lightning when it's up
- Cast Shocks when Available (Flame when the mob is above 80%, Frost on runners or ones are at or below 20%, Earth the rest of the time)
- After my initial Consecration, drop Magma Totem
- Drop Fire Nova Totem after Magma expires
- Drop Searing Totem while the others are on cooldown
- Heal me whenever I'm at about 50% health
- Use Totemic Call (I really think it should be called Totem Recall) after the fight to restore a bit of mana, though with here Int/Spirit focus she's rarely /oom.
2 comments:
WoW playing wives. We're the lucky ones.
Agreed and Agreed. There are several couples in my guild who play together almost exclusively. We also have several who have kids that play, so it's not unusual to see Mother/Father/Daughter/Son groups from time to time. Pretty cool IMHO, I look forward to my son being old enough to play. And wipe his own butt...
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