Well, time for a new drug...
11:08 AM
That is to say, it's the same as the old drug... going back to a Shred spec. Guntir and I had a heart-to-heart the other day and decided that while Feral+Disc CAN outlast most other teams... we just aren't putting out enough dps pressure to do it anymore, what with gear upgrades and better players and what-not. So, he has spec'd back into Divine Fury, and yes, we know that most high-rated disc priests take this over Spell Warding, but there was a period where we were facing lots of bad warlock+healer teams who would DoT up both of us... so in addition to ProM being the only heal needed, we would also have Spell Warding on Guntir to keep him from taking too much damage.
Anyway... we're basically going to try and get a little more offensive and put out more sizable burst. I'm definitely going to miss not having positional problems with Mangle... but really it will be a 40 energy ability rather than a 34; I can still spam it if I need to. I was watching Ampere's video (Filefront) which was released yesterday, near as I can tell, and I had a few notes to make mention of:
1) He's a Shredder, and he doesn't really seem to have any problem with rogue+priest (interestingly).
2) He can do a warrior's full health bar in 3 gcds if he gets some lucky crits (and so can I... we're wearing nearly the same gear) with Shred.
3) He switches targets a LOT to put down Cyclone on the healer (which I do too, but he does it IMMEDIATELY after getting Rip up... which I find interesting more in a sec).
4) His priest saves his offenses but spends his defenses (he waits for CC-gibs to use holy-fire-death-mindblast, but uses Pain Suppression almost immediately against the warrior in the video).
Anyway... I went in and made some new macros that I really think will help (namely: FFF->focus, FeralCharge(Bear)->focus) and reglyphed/spec'd back to Shred (and I picked up Berserk+Mangle over Rip+SurvivalInstincts... I know how good I said both of those are, but we're going to try and focus on burst, so need more of it). We'll give it a shot today and see where we're at.
June 17, 2009 at 9:07 AM
I swear by my focus Feral Charge-Bear. My healer can't stand long games, so I try to end the match with every Rip.
Wait on energy
Rip
Burn Energy
Focus Charge first hard-cast heal
Bash Healer
Cyclone Healer
Get Back on the DPS while my priest fears healer.
If ever we face more coordinated teams, I expect to have to coordinate Rip more closely with the scream since I won't be able to count on my stun or Cyclone.
June 17, 2009 at 9:12 AM
As a followup, let me say I'm not really qualified to give advice... 54 games played, 1550 MMR.
I enjoy the blog and was sorry to see your post frequency drop off a cliff :(
June 17, 2009 at 9:22 AM
Ouch, Jon... ouch. Frequency in terms of posts per week? Yeah, I have hit a bit of a slump in posting this week (work is getting a little odd...)
Although, this is the "calm before the storm" I believe, as the 3.2 PTR (and thus - patch notes) should be going up "soon" (which I believe to mean this week), so I will undoubtedly inundate the front page with posts about all the injustices being committed, buffs being handed out, nerfs slammed down, etc.
I appreciate your patronism (meaning from the old term of "being a patron" rather than "patronizing ways") of the site, and I will strive to persevere through these lulls and get some quality posts up... or a video or something...
June 17, 2009 at 1:47 PM
I'm not sure you can technically enjoy my patronage unless I'm paying you!
Do you accept accolades and devotion in lieu of PayPal?
June 17, 2009 at 1:57 PM
Accolades, certainly!
I forgot that I took down my ads, so you can't technically pay me with clicks. It don't matter, I'll keep writing as long as people keep reading.
June 17, 2009 at 4:56 PM
Well I feel behind the times here sitting around without any focus bear-charge macro, guess I'll have to go make one of those up.
I'm curious if you have ever considered specing shred AND mangle by sacrificing improved pounce/bash?
I've been running that for a few weeks for the very reason you've switched back to shred spec. I just felt I wasn't putting out enough burst. Once I speced into shred I could certainly feel the difference.
Thanks for the link to Ampere's video. It made me wonder a lot about ui. I've been using the standard ui since the beginning of the season, but after having my friend who was 2200's s4 and s5 sit down with me to watch a few games and having him tell me my biggest problem was my interface I've been thinking I need to do some moding.
You mind posting a picture of your ui and a list of mods you use for arena?
Cheers,
Urshanabi
June 18, 2009 at 5:26 AM
Disclaimer: Bad rating, few games played.
I've considered making that trade myself. My experience playing without the stun duration was that Pounce/Bash were scarcely worth using against classes with stun-duration reductions.
Once I decided on CC-chain as my one-trick-pony game-ender, that cemented the extra stun duration in my build. It gives me that little bit extra to make sure I can trinket following an offensive healer Bash and still get the Cyclone off.