Amen to that.

Yep, totally pegged it. Especially when I log out to spend time with my girlfriend or go out with friends.

Anyways, I saw you connect to my server once, Kame! Are you actually trying to level on here?

EDIT:
Removed response to deleted post.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 14 2010, 6:43 pm by DevliN.

I should level up on DevliN's server, but that means I would have to transfer, because I can't stand leveling up without heirlooms now. Is it me, or am I the only one who thinks Blood Elves have the best 1-20 levelling area in the game? Especially Ghostlands, that place is amazing. Oh god, Tauren and Undead, do not want. I usually just bring all my alts to ghostlands.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Mar 14 2010, 5:42 pm by Zycorax.

Yeah, that's my favorite place as well. Plus with the massive rep you get from Tranquillen, you end up getting some pretty decent gear to level with right off the bat.

Yea...I started a belf pally... But I haven't gotten motivation to do it. I hate the belf starting area. Its took big and the main city there irritates the hell out of me. She's still on your server. So maybe I'll go back.

Finally got my epic flying. Am I looking better DevliN? Or is it just the welfare epics?
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mal%27Ganis&cn=Prepared

Not doing Enhance anymore, eh?

Before I audit your gear, I can already see some gemming issues. Here's a quick explanation for gems:
- Restoration: Stack nothing but haste gems. If you need blue for a great socket bonus or meta requirements, use the MP5 gems. Otherwise, ignore the socket bonus and stack +20 haste in everything.
- Elemental: Stack hit and/or spell power. If you aren't hit-capped, you need to gem for +hit. Once you are hit-capped, you will only need to stack spell power. If you need to fill blue meta requirements, then choose +stamina or maybe +MP5.

For the rest, I'll go through piece by piece:

Helm: Good helm for DPS, but you've got the wrong gems in it. For the meta, use the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond (+21 Crit Rating and 3% Increased Critical Damage), and for the meta requirement, use the +Spell Damage/+Stamina purple gem. If you're just gemming for healing, then those are perfect and you just need to replace the helm itself.

Neck: Good for healing, but not so much DPS. It isn't terrible, but also not gemmed properly. If you're healing, use +MP5 instead of Stamina for blue requirements, and try to stack as much haste as possible.

Shoulders: Same as helm, great for DPS but crap for healing. The enchant is perfect for DPS, but for a healing set you'd need the MP5/spell power one. Also you'd get more by putting in a full spell power gem and ignoring the socket.

Chest: This chest is more for healing than DPS. The socket bonus is pretty useless, so you could put a full haste gem in instead and ignore the bonus, or put in a haste/MP5 gem if you really want it.

Belt: The belt is properly gemmed (sort of, since they aren't epic) for DPS, but not for healing (again, stack haste like crazy).

Legs: Great DPS legs, not so good for healing. Definitely ignore the socket on this since Spirit is completely useless for Shamans. Instead throw in haste or spell power (depending on what spec you want to use them for. Also replace the enchant because Spirit is completely useless for Shamans. Instead, use the stamina/spell power enchant instead.

Feet: The boots are fine for either spec. The enchant isn't great, but none of the feet enchants are spectacular.

Wrists: Good for either spec and great enchant. These can be easily upgraded later on, too, but for now they're fine.

Hands: Perfect for healing, terrible for DPS. Perfect gem choice (other than it not being the epic one).

Ring1: Okay ring, though try to replace it with something that has no spirit.

Ring2: Good starting ring. There are tons of upgrades in ToC and the newer ICC dungeons.

Trinket1: Great starting trinket for healing.

Trinket2: Fantastic healing trinket.

Back: Great cloak for healing, and okay for DPS.

Weapon: A mace/dagger and shield will almost always be better than a staff. I recommend replacing this.

Totem: Since Chain Heal is your primary healing spell, this is great.

*hides her Saronite Swordbreakers from Devlin to avoid his gear and gemming wrath*

I'm not sure which gear you saw, but yeah, the one I should have on right now is my healing gear. I was looking on EJ and they told me to go get two pieces of Tier 9 for elemental and two pieces of Tier 9 for healing, because the elemental gives you haste, and the tier 9 2 set for resto is pretty good. Hence, I tried to be a little more neutral on my gemming of my shoulders and head piece. I guess I should stack more haste, probably would be helpful, people tell me mp5 isn't that good, is that true? I'd use epic gems, but I'm a poor guy. People always told me to get the socket bonuses too, usually. Though, most of the stuff you say is terrible for DPS I have another set for when I run elemental, I actually think my elemental might be a little better geared than my resto set. The only thing is the staff, gives me a massive amount of haste, and I haven't got an epic one-hander yet to use with my shield. I also have an enhancement set in my bank, when I switch specs to farm, lawl. Armor penetration is not great on enchancement shamans correct? What should I be looking for in gear, hit, then expertise, then agility, then crit, then attack power/strength/intellect?

Okay, that explains it. The reason I said they were terrible for healing is because the 2-piece set bonus is useless and prevents you from getting the 4-piece healing set bonus. MP5 isn't useless at all, it's just useless to gem it unless you need a blue slot. Shamans are constantly running out of mana in boss fights, so you generally want spell power, haste, and MP5 on all your gear. Crit is nice, but not as helpful as faster spellcasting.

Yeah, a lot of people think that but if you do the math, avoiding them is generally more beneficial. For example, your shoulders have a blue socket and a bonus of 5 spell power. If you gem them with the +23 spell power, you lose the +5 and end up with 23 total. If you gem with a purple +9 spell power/+12 stamina gem, you end up with 14 spell power total and an additional useless 12 stamina. In that case it would be more beneficial to just avoid it. For something like your necklace, the extra 4 intellect (40 mana) isn't going to help much compared to a higher amount of haste or spell power.

The only reason why I said it was terrible is because MP5 isn't that necessary for Elemental Shamans. Having MP5 isn't terrible per se (and I totally understand that there are very few options without MP5), but you'd get more use out of the extra haste or crit that the stat replaces.

Correct, armor penetration is more for Retribution Paladins, DPS Warriors, and DPS Death Knights. You really want any piece of mail with attack power. You can use melee leather if need be, but mainly stick to the mail stuff. I tend to look for higher attack power first, then haste, then crit. The melee hit cap is waaaaaaaaaaaaay lower thant he spell hit cap, so I wouldn't worry about that too much. I have like 5 expertise on my Shaman and I do about 4500 to 5000 DPS in TotC10 and ICC10, so I don't think that's nearly as useful as people say. As far as gemming goes, stack nothing but attack power. If need be, some haste gems may help here and there, but for the most part you want a ton of attack power.

Went into Ulduar last night and did Leviathan for weekly...that place is fun.

Yep, Ulduar seems fun Shame I didn't play when it was introduced. When I started playing last time, ToC was released and no one cared about Ulduar anymore. I've cleared the two first "wings" plus Hodir and it's been fun so far.

I haven't even got into a raid yet, people want 5k gear score, for everything.

Its best to have the gs anyways...otherwise your dmg/heals won't amount to enough. That being said, I want to get 5k gs in cloth for my dk so that I can get into runs...and see how long it takes before they kick me.

Yeah, too bad 5k gear score is pretty much unattainable without getting into raids in the first place. I have badge gear/heroic gear and I'm only 4k. All people ever want to do is ICC 5k gear score, or TOC with 5k gear score. >_> People are even asking 5k gear score for VoA.

The Gearscore thing has gotten out of hand. Many people only use this (and many times achievements as well) to judge other players' abilities, still I see players beating significantly better geared players on the damage metre. I often find my Rogue (with 5500-ish GS ) doing 500 to 2000 DPS more than equally or better geared Rogues.
The worst part about the Gearscore is that now people demand a way too high score for "easier" raids such as ToC, Onyxia and VoA. You can do ToC and Onyxia fine with just above 4k GS, still you must consider yourself lucky if they let you in with 4.5k GS!

There DevliN, got a shield + one hander, got a new ring and I got my chest piece. All I need is a good trinket now, and I'll be set. Darkmoon Card: Illusion any good? I think they said it translates to 60mp5, it's basically a free pot every 5 minutes. Might get the bell trinket, hm. Is that Egg of the Mortal Essence good, the upgraded scarab of the infinite cycle? I never knew if random haste procs are good or not.

I got my Enhance Shaman from 3500 to 5000 in a week of just doing randoms. None of that was through raids. Thanks to being able to get a full set of T9 with some 245 gear from emblems of Triumph, 5000GS is actually insanely easy to get.


I used to use Illusion. If it isn't overpriced, it's okay I suppose. You'll rarely get a chance to use it more than once in a fight, though, so the "Use" isn't great. The bell used to be fantastic, but you can get better from emblems. The Egg of Mortal Essence used to be great, but the Triumph emblem trinket is far superior (especially if you're concerned with GearScore).

For a Restoration Shaman, haste is the best thing you can ask for. On the other hand, the higher intellect and the +spell power "Use" is superior.

I actually disagree. We bring a Warlock to our ICC10 raid sometimes who has a GearScore of 4200 and puts out more DPS than some of our 5000+ members. GearScore is based on item level, and more often than not some low ilevel gear is better than the higher stuff.

I never understood why Use trinkets are good for healing though, when am I supposed to use it, when the tank is taking huge spike damage? Should I use it every cooldown to imitate a static + spellpower? (That's what I do when I DPS at least.)