I'm going to get WHAT?!

Nerfed!!!

Patch 5.1, titled Landfall, hasn't yet hit Europe, but it will do so in just a few hours, which means that a couple of changes apply to classes I play actively; in this case shaman and particularly death knight. Why particularly death knight, although my main is a shaman, I'll tell you now.

Death strike is getting its bonus healing removed in PvP with 5.1. As this only applies to player verses player combat, blood death knights will still heal themselves as they used to in PvE, and retain the basic healing from death strike in all situations, as well as the blood shield absorption, while the bonus healing is lost in PvP. Below is the description of death strike at level 90, and the bolding indicates which part (according to my understanding) no longer applies to it in PvP.

Focuses dark power into a strike that deals 280% weapon damage plus 748 to an enemy and heals you for 20% of the damage you have sustained during the preceding 5 sec (minimum of at least 7% of your maximum health). This attack cannot be parried.

I generally PvE way more than PvP, although there have been seasons that I've been quite active in PvP - but the truth is that it's still fairly rare activity for me. During Mists of Pandaria I've completed a total of two battlegrounds. Not impressive. I did, however, have plans for it and particularly in the case of Vlad. I was going to distinguish myself in the PvP area, as a blood death knight, because, well... If you compare my skill when it comes to, say, raiding and when it comes to PvP, there's a big difference, so I need it to be easymode! EZmode, I tell you. Also because PvP is a nervewracking experience for me, it makes me nerdrage.

I mentioned shaman, too. There's more bad news for me when it comes to my PvP future. Totems will now be considered spells, which means they cannot be cast while silenced. This may not sound like much to a non-shaman, but a ton of shaman abilities come from totems. With totems we're able to, for example, remove fear and absorb/reflect a harmful spell. Although the talent and ability changes in the pre-Pandaria patch made totems less important in a way, they're still a great part of shaman gameplay.

While I am nearly traumatised by PvP as elemental shaman, I haven't completely abandoned the thought of it, as I have great and fun memories of it, too, not only losing my nerves and taking it out on the wrong people. Like that one time in Arathi basin, when I annoyed a priest healer by throwing him down the cliff at Lumber Mill. He came back with revenge in his mind, trying to mind control me off the cliff, but I prevented that three times, first by interrupting, then with a totem, and once more by interrupting - as back then wind shear had a 5 second cooldown. Until I get over the upcoming nerfs, it seems that my only hope of the holy trinity for PvP will be my somewhat holy paladin.

I think this was about all I wanted to rant about this evening, thank you and sorry! Now a long, deep breath and...

Something old, something new

I hate explaining why I haven't updated in a while! They all sound like excuses for blog boredom, which they certainly aren't. I love the blog, but I've been horribly busy with my studies. I only have one exam to go this week, but a long work task waiting. Hrmph. Nica's valor cap for the week stood at an impressive 150/1000 - surprisingly I'm still one of the best geared people in the guild, with an item level of 471. Pure laziness does pay off, it seems.

This one goes for alts. I'm a real sucker for them and I have too many. Or maybe I've just simply had too much time. I'd like to introduce an older alt, who I was suddenly inspired to play again, and a new soul that's just joined the pack.

I don't need any knights, I don't need any engines of war
I will unleash all my spells, devastating your enemies' walls
But my help isn't free, you made a pact with darkness
Now I want what I need; your astral energy you will give
Don't be afraid; I will never take your soul
Now you are saved but your lifetime will be shorter

(Magic Kingdom - Evil Magician)

Sometimes during the later part of Cataclysm I created a warlock, whom I leveled up to 41 together with Lan's gnome mage. He is known as Sorley Harding, the Harvester, and it's fair to say that I've roleplayed his felhound Bruunam way more than him. He fascinates me, though. At some point I even considered deleting him, because I had absolutely no interest in leveling him. He was spared, because I was too fond of Bruunam. Although I don't hate leveling - and I've never hated it, in fact it's quite nice -, it was cool to "start" at 41 for a change.
Sorley's return must've got his demonic friend Kalna all dizzy, because her summoning disorientation was to last 15 days - along with her invisibility; I'm not sure what that refers to.

Bweath of the Dwago--!

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I present you with my ever so slightly monkish experiment, Jester Dragomirov. It's been noted around the guild that I've sort of made Russian-influenced names my "thing." As much as I'd like to talk about history here, I think it's better left out and just say that I like how they sound, so sexy and brutal! Oh, I might've said too much already.
Shortly put, he's a brewmaster monk that I am currently leveling mostly through quests to get comfortable with the rotation, then I'll hop into a few dungeons. Comrades, have your eyes and ears at the ready, for more in-character information about Jester is coming up in the future. I intend to really experiment with him.

Some time ago I also got Vlad to 90 and since then have geared up his blood spec before frost, although I think I'm supposed to be DPSing in raids! To tell you the truth, though, I'm not liking frost as much as I did in Cataclysm. The new 87 ability, Soul Reaper, feels extremely dull and lame. I tried using it while questing, and hardly had time to pull another mob until the effect had already fallen off. Losing a frost rune (cost varies by spec: blood for blood [rawr!], frost for frost, unholy for unholy) every now and then isn't such a big deal, I know, but still. My dislike for it isn't a surprise, though, because I'm generally not too fussed about execution abilties. Hammer of Wrath is a minor exception, though, I'm not sure why.
Blood, on the other hand... To me blood was extremely enjoyable in Cataclysm, but in Mists it's bloody (...yes) perfect! As blood, Soul Reaper is hardly essential, which adds to its niceness.

My real life alter ego, one that I created over a decade ago, likes to listen to Eros Ramazzotti and knows all the lyrics of the album Stilelibero despite never having studied Italian (yet! Rhapsody speak, I will learn you!).

Patchfever

I only just realised that the only thing I've mentioned regarding 5.0.4 is a bug. A bug! Before the patch was released, I complained about my Cataclysm burnout, Pandaria not being released yet, guild worries... And not one positive word now that the game is actually fun again. In fact it's fairly logical, since I really want to play it now - that leaves no time for writing, right?

Anyways, I thought I'd go through the start of the patch and how it has worked out for me. The most notable difference in gameplay are obviously the new talents and abilities, so I'll start with those. For Nicasia the elemental shaman, my main, I chose the following talents for heroic Dragon Soul raiding purposes: Astral Shift, Frozen Power, Totemic Restoration, Echo of the Elements, and despite the fairly overpowered totem, Ancestral Guidance.

After testing in multiple encounters, I came up with the result of Echo being better than the other two options. It was particularly strong in encounters with steady DPS maintenance, such as Ultraxion. Her major glyphs are Telluric Currents, Flame Shock, Spiritwalker's Grace, and for minor ones I went with Far Sight, Totemic Encirclement and Lakestrider, which has nearly got me killed already! I was really jaded raiding with Nica. I kept thinking about swapping for my death knight for the remains of Dragon Soul... Until 5.0.4 came out. Then BAM! It all got fun again!

Vladan received Boiling Blood, Purgatory, Asphyxiate, Death Pact and Blood Tap talents for his blood spec, and Unholy Blight, Anti-Magic Zone, Asphyxiate, Death Siphon and Runic Empowerment for his frost spec. His blood glyphs are Unholy Command, Icy Touch, Anti-Magic Shell, Horn of Winter, Resilient Grip and the oh-so-essential Corpse Explosion. His frost glyphs are Shifting Presences, Death Coil and Icebound Fortitude, which I thought I'd find useful in some situations. The minor glyphs are the same, apart from Tranquil Grip replacing Resilient Grip.
I wonder if Chilblains is actually meant to be spelled with only one L?

Purgatory is, to my mind, a very cool talent mainly because of the feel of it. It suits the death knight playfeel perfectly. I think it's useful for raid tanking. And because I was bored, I bound various insults to Vlad's Dark Command taunt. It's not common for people to share my sense of humour, but we'll see!

Raleigh, who is a holy paladin, has got a bit less attention post-patch. He did make my jaw drop after doing 20k DPS on a dummy, though. Sadly I don't find protection very interesting at the moment, so I will more than likely make his offspec retribution - again. This is also because holy pretty much lost Exorcism, and I think that spell has the sexiest sound effect in the whole game. That sound is no doubt one of the best things about paladins.

Despite Nica's raiding getting a lot more fun, I still think Vlad is on top of the gameplay chart, bursting 60k DPS on a raid boss with relative ease, and with an item level lower than Nicasia's. This doesn't mean that Nica isn't still my main, and most loved character.
The remaining three Dragon Soul runs in fact seem a bit saddening now that we had a really fun raid last Saturday. It's been a long time since we've had that much fun as a group - at least I felt that was the case. Otherwise, too, I think the recent rough times are over for now. The timing of 5.0.4 couldn't have been better, since the new stuff is really refreshing, and it shows. Thank you, Blizzard, for this patch!

P.S. I'm going to be studying Mon-Thur evenings now and I'm not sure about how much that affects my WoW playing and blogging, but in case I seem a bit inactive, it's most likely because of that.