Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Use www.resto4life.com

Work Complete! I've finally completed the move to a new WordPress blog. While I still need to fine tune some things, it's ready for public consumption. From now on, please visit:

http://www.resto4life.com

And if you read via subscription, make sure you're using my Feedburner RSS so that your subscription remains up-to-date:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Resto4life

Take me to the new site!

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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Macros for Reagent-Driven Spells

Inspired by a recent post over at BigRedKitty, I'd like to share with you the latest changes I've made to a couple of my macros, both of which are for spells that require reagents.

Rebirth:

#showtooltip Flintweed Seed
/cast [combat] Rebirth; [nocombat] Rebirth (Rank 1)
/rsay This combat resurrection is brought to %t by www.resto4life.com and the letters A, G, R, and O.

The above macro selects the rank of Rebirth to cast based on whether you're in combat or not (as previously mentioned in Downranking Rebirth to save money). Additionally, the #showtooltip line specifies that it should display the Flintweed Seed tooltip, along with the number you presently have in your inventory. The let's you monitor at a glance how many times you can cast the spell before needing to Refill. And yes, my guild does get to see my blog address every time I combat rez. Although maybe I should change that link to my article on Handling Threat...

Mark of the Wild and Thorns:

#showtooltip Wild Quillvine
/castsequence [target=mouseover,modifier:ctrl] Gift of the Wild;[nostance] reset=target Mark of the Wild, Thorns

This is a nifty macro I developed to help me quickly buff my teammates in Arenas. In an Arena match, you want to throw as many buffs as you can on teammates before the match starts which means both Mark of the Wild and Thorns. Back when I was playing in 5v5, casting ten buffs, topping members off with a Lifebloom, and getting into Cat Form and stealthed was cutting it close in the minute before a match started. This button casts Mark first then follows with Thorns the second time it's pressed as long as your target hasn't changed. As an added benefit, you can use this to quickly buff your group tank in PvE by clicking it twice instead of once. Hold down the CTRL key to cast our group spell, Gift of the Wild. Like the Rebirth macro above, this macro includes a #showtooltip to indicate how many Quillvine you have remaining.

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Season 3 Armor Values Released

The folks over at MMO Champion are currently previewing the stats (and aesthetics) for Season 3 armor. The trend of inflating the armor values of cloth-wearers to nearly the level of leather wearers apparently continues in Season 3 with the following total armor values for 5-piece Season 3 armor:

  • Priest: 1903 (3.0% increase)
  • Mage: 1903 (3.6% increase)
  • Warlock: 1903 (3.6% increase)
  • Restoration Druid: 2088 (6.3% increase)
  • Rogue: 2186 (25.63% increase)

Huzzah for the Rogues whose armor values are seeing a significant increase after being the squishiest targets in Season 2. I'm happy, at least, to be seeing a larger percent increase than the clothies. There is a a 9.7% difference in armor between Restoration Druids and Holy Priests in Season 3, up from the 6.3% difference of Season 2 (yay). I'm still of the opinion that the difference is too marginal, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

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Monday, October 15, 2007

Featured Artwork: Commision Night Elf

The piece of artwork featured this week is a piece by Christian Inside, MonkeyfroG on deviantART. It's a beautiful, full color depiction of his girlfriend's Druid (name not given). I was at first surprised to see her referred to as a Druid, but then I recognized the Nordrassil shoulders. I'm guessing from the Merciless Gladiator's War Staff she's wielding that her robe is the Robe of the Elder Scribes, a beautiful garment dropped by Nightbane in Karazhan. These two items collectively indicate that she's of the Balance persuasion, despite her otherwise strong resemblance to a Priest. This piece is particularly signficant since it points to the current problems with Moonkin itemization and such Druids being forced to wear cloth. Happily this a problem which should see some redress in Patch 2.3.

I love the level of detail the artist went to in depicting the Druid's armor. If I could change one thing about the piece, however, I would have like to have seen the left side of the background be green since Druids leverage both Arcane (purple) and Nature (green) magics to restorative and destructive ends, possibly flipping the colors to provide better contrast against her hair and robes. Still, I imagine she uses this image as her desktop wallpaper and will for some time to come!

P.S. Thanks to an anonymous commentor for pointing out that her staff is the Season 2 Balance staff and not the healing staff from Magtheridon.

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Zul'Aman Aesthetics

Before the release of the Burning Crusade (back when the level limit was capped at 60), I was asked how ugly gear would have to be before I'd rule out wearing it for its stats. My response at the time was, "I'd wear a chicken on my head if it had 50 Spirit!" Well, if the images of Zul'Aman loot are any indication, it would appear that Blizzard has accepted my challenge. Our shiny new — ostensibly Tier 5 equivalent — armor and weapons appear to be made of just about every natural material one could find lying around in a field: dried grass, mud, feathers, rocks, pieces of bird nest, and paint colors that would offend the senses of even the most primitive peoples. As an example, look at the Helm of Natural Regeneration, an item that drops from Jan'alai:

Helm of Natural Regeneration
Binds when picked up
HeadLeather
328 Armor
+33 Stamina
+39 Intellect
+30 Spirit
Red Socket
Yellow Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +9 Healing
Durability 70 / 70
Requires Level 70
Equip: Increases healing done by up to 86 and damage done by up to 29 for all magical spells and effects.

Obviously, those are some pretty sweet stats. But then take a look at what it looks like when worn (pictured at left, preview courtesy of MMO Champion). While it isn't exactly a chicken on your head, it instead makes YOU look like a chicken. Honestly, Blizzard, is this some sort of punishment for guilds unable to clear SSC for decent looking gear? Are we to be made fun of in our hula skirts of +50 STA and coconut breastplates of 120 +Healing? Actually, that would be kinda cute — at least on female Night Elves — so I'm sure there's nothing of the sort in store for us. WTB visibility toggles for every slot!

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