Moranin suggests that I consider a new alt to deal with my impending lack of WoW goals. I'm undecided on this point - I've already got a mid-level Warrior alt that's I'm working on when he has rest exp available (don't see the point in leveling him without rested exp and having to scrounge for quests to make up the difference), but what good is a blog if not to consider options at times like these?
If you're reading this on my actual site, you'll see in the sidebar that I've already got a Mage, a Pally, a Hunter, and a Warrior. The remaining classes follow, ranked based on how likely I'd be to roll an alt in them. Commentary on any of the below is more than welcome. :)
5. Warlock: My past experience with the class on the live servers includes a 16 Lock and a 23 Lock (on Hyjal). I didn't like it much cause I felt like I was sitting around watching my pet kill stuff. No chance.
4. Druid: My past experience includes a 22 Druid in one of the pre-open-beta stress tests (at which point the class did not have talents), and the occasional test-drive of my girlfriend's OOMKin. I'm not really a fan of Balance - it's like a mage, but it isn't one. With apologies to the blogger in question, I think I'll pass on the Big Bear Butt, especially since I'm already leveling a Warrior, and I don't see why I'd level a LOLCat instead of a Rogue if I wanted a stealth class.
3. Shaman: I have a 14ish Shaman stashed somewhere, and I spent a fair portion of the 2.2 PTR's messing around with a pre-made 70 Shammy because I thought it would be the best new class for me to try. Like the Balance Druid, Ele fails with me for not being a mage. Enhancement was a lot of fun, but I hate totem management. WoWInsider's Shammy columnist quipped that an Enhancement Shammy who doesn't use totems might as well go roll a Rogue or a Fury Warrior. I thought this was good advice, and proceeded to do just that.
2. Rogue: I last tried a Rogue in open beta, I think I gave up around 10 or 11. I can't be arsed to stealth around - I lack the patience for it - and I CERTAINLY can't be bothered to stun mobs and run through them to get a backstab off. If I didn't have a Warrior going, and possibly a DK in the expansion, I'd give this a shot. For the moment, though, the Fury Warrior plays the way I'd want a Rogue to play, and I've already got the Warrior.
1. Priest: Again, leveled to 12 or so back in 2004. That said, I hear interesting things about Shadow, intriguing enough that I'm seriously considering this, even if the leveling guide calls for actually spending talent points in wand spec (!). It has the advantage of not being a melee class, which is a good thing if I wind up picking up a DK. A subplot of this question would be what race to make the hypothetical priest, since that actually matters for priests. We'd definitely be talking about an Alliance alt here, and I'm not doing another human, so the choices are:
Dwarf: Desperate Prayer (free instant self heal, not usable in Shadowform), Chastise (instant damage and root, also not usable in Shadowform), Stoneform (meh), and Find Treasure (useful for "loot off the ground" quests, but conflicts with mining)
NE: Starshards (free instant DoT, actually usable in Shadowform), Elune's Grace (meh), 1% dodge (better than nothing), wisp (yay corpse runs!)
Draenei: Symbol of Hope (free mana regen, USABLE in Shadowform), Chastise (meh-ish, as above), 1% spell hit (never hurts, though I'd probably be getting enough spell hit to cap from talents anyway), Gift of the Naaru (free Heal over time, not usable in Shadowform), +5 Jewelcrafting (I'd definitely be going JC, since it's the only profession I lack and I'd like to be able to detonate ore).
Starshards is the single best item on the list, but the rest of the NE package doesn't impress me much (also, my hunter is a NE male, and I'm not sure if I'm willing to play a NE female). I actually have a Dwarf priest bank alt (I'd always figured that, if I ever did a priest, I'd want Fear Ward), but both racial spells can't be used in Shadowform, and what's left isn't much. The Draenei probably has the best overall package, especially until I get Shadowform (HP regen, MP regen, an extra instant damage spell, and useful misc bonuses), but I may prefer the fake Dwarven accent to the fake Draenei accent. If I did go Draenei, I might pull a Shamaxx and go female solely cause the male voice annoys me.
Ah, decisions, decisions. As I said, comments welcome.
...starshards?
ReplyDeleteUnless they changed the mechanics, or they've become super OP since I last tried using the spell on Nu around level 60 or so....
....starshards? :P
Consider that you'll use Vampiric Embrace all the time - but soloing, I found that w/ nu I killed stuff too fast to make Vampiric Touch worth it a lot of the time (it has a cast time). I can see Symbol of Hope being a nice way to top off mana every 5 mis w/o having to stop for refreshing beverages.
Nu's biggest problem is mana availability over 2-3 kills, not availability of DPS.
I may be overly harsh on starshards, but fwiw, if a spell has an animation that should by all bounds of logic be AoE, and it's a doggedly single target spell? thanks but no thanks.
Bear in mind, everything I know on the topic, I learned from skimming a leveling guide on WoWWiki. :)
ReplyDeleteStarshards was changed in patch 2.3 - it's now an instant cast DoT that's usable in Shadowform and free, and it gets 88% of your spell damage to boot (Wowhead commenters report 1700 damage over 15 seconds, with a 30 sec cooldown).
As to mana regen, the leveling guides I've seen suggest taking Spirit tap and Wand spec (the part of me loyal to my mage weeps) with your first 10 talent points, and switching over to your wand 6 seconds before the mob dies, so you are free from the 5 second rule by the time the mob dies and you immediately start getting 200% spirit regen. They claim that the only reason you will run out of mana while chain killing single mobs is if you have to stop to PVP because someone tried to gank you. YMMV since you've actually played a spriest. ;)