20121226, mercredi

A. Lots of LFR for the Mistweaver monk.

1. looted new gloves, iLevel 483 replacing 463.
2. looted new boots, iLevel 483 replacing 476
3. purchased new iLevel 489 shoulders from Golden Lotus QM, replacing iLevel 450
4. moved up from average iLevel 470 to average iLevel 474.
5. completed all LFR raids, 2 for Mogu, 2 for mantids, 1 for Terrace of Endless Spring.
6. reached 5000 total VP.  Found 1000 VP a week ceiling to be a bit restrictive.
7. spellpower, combat mana regen, haste, crit, and total health were all increased after appropriate gems, inscriptions, enchantments, and reforging were applied.

B. My experiences with MoP LFR has led me to update my methods for spell sequencing.

1. Before a raid fight is joined, I place Jade Serpent statue where I think it will do the most good. When I cast Soothing Mist, so does the statue, but always to an injured party different than the target than I picked.  If I damage enemies, the statue casts 50% of my damage dealt to an injured ally.  This is Eminence.
2. ==>Keep myself healed; cannot heal if dead.
3. I cast Renewing Mists on myself.
4. If I have the chi, I cast Chi Wave on myself.
5. If Mana Tea is has been generated, I consume it.
6. I apply Master Mana potion or Water Spirit if I'm critically low on mana
7. ==>Healing others.
8. Both RM and CW bounce on to heal others after my character.
9. I cast Soothing Mist, usually on the tank or the off-tank.  If those two are doing fine or are out of range, I pick the DPS in most trouble.
10. While I channel Soothing Mist, I look at the status of Surging Mist and Enveloping Mist.
11. If one of the tanks is in bad shape, I apply Enveloping Mist.
12. If one of the DPS is in trouble, I apply Surging Mist, which I have glyph-configured to travel to the lowest-health team member within 40 yards.
13. Applying Surging Mist often generates enough extra chi to enable Enveloping Mist; both are instant casts if cast during the channeling of Soothing Mist.
14. If a large number (say 10+) of team members are in trouble, I cast Revival, which delivers up to 137,000 HP to members who are in eyeshot.  Unfortunately, Revival has a 3 minute cooldown.
15. Return to placing self-heals that are chain heals.
16. ==>Contingencies.
17. Kite as necessary.  Enemies do leave those pools of nasty stuff behind.  The add-on GTFO helps here for alerting one to bad stuff on the floor.
18. Get mage food if possible; it restores mana the most quickly between battles.
19. Get health stones from warlocks if possible; they restore 24% of total HP in combat, and have 3 charges.
20. When I am stunned, I can still cast Cocoon.  Sometimes I cast this on one of the tanks.  Other times I cast it on myself; absorbs 140k damage, lasts 12 seconds.
21. If a team member is in seriously in trouble, Thunder Focus Tea will double the value of Surging Mist.
22. I avoid using my offensive attacks during dungeons and raids, but if I am under attack, I usually reply with kiting or (a) Rushing Jade Wind and (b) Spinning Crane kick.  These damage the enemy, but also passively engage Eminence; Spinning Crane delivers AoE healing directly.

C. Mechanics that seem of little use.

1. Healing spheres.  No one I have observed seems to have any awareness of these.  Even if pointed out, no seems to use them.  At iLevel 474 and my current config, the ones generated by my Mistweaver are worth 44k healing.
2. Uplift.  Expensive (2 chi) and useless (only 25k HP healing).
3. The web page http://www.noxxic.com/wow/pve/monk/mistweaver/heal-rotation-and-cooldowns which has several wrong names, and the descriptions often do not match current usage.

D. The Shadow priest, Kronospriest, reached level 90.

    http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/uldum/kronospriest/advanced

and got through a few Heroic MoP dungeons.  I'll be trying out some Holy priest builds since I've seen such strong performances in dungeons and raids.

20121219, mercredi

A. My warlock made it to level 90.

   http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/uldum/Chronoslock/advanced

With average iLevel 447, the lock has moved up to number 2 in strength, passing my lycan DK,

   http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/uldum/chronoslycan/advanced

whose effective average iLevel is 443.  Both have a number of runs in heroic dungeons, and have benefited in terms of armour enhancement.  Coming up next is my shadow priest,

   http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/uldum/kronospriest/advanced

whose average iLevel is 421, and character level is 88.

B. My lead character is still the mistweaver monk,

   http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/uldum/Chronospanda/advanced

whose average iLevel is 470, despite the link; that app seems not to honour armour upgrades.  (The bracers were upgraded to 466; the staff to 480.)  This character has a number of LFR runs, and has hit the weekly limit of 1000 valor points the last two weeks.  Armour pieces from the raids has been big pluses.

C. Antonidas realm.

This last week my total time in Uldum characters passed my total time in Antonidas characters.  Antonidas was my main realm from January 2007 until January 2011, when I started playing in the Uldum realm, and joined the guild Dungeon Crusaders.

When I cruise through the Antonidas characters to try to apply what I've learned in the guild, I see that I just don't have enough time.  My to do lists in Uldum are lengthy for the time I have on hand.  Further, the game discriminates very strongly in favour of guild members over individuals.  There is no catching up, which makes me sad.

D. For various historical reasons, in other realms I have characters that are

1. all PvP, or
2. all Horde, or
3. death knights (experiments).

 I'll likely not get back to these.

E. Guild Wars.

I played Guild Wars from mid-2005 to January, 2007 plus off and on (mostly off) after that.  I still have all my characters...GW is subscription free.  During the years that I played WoW, GW introduced a number of changes which allow the player much more ability to configure characters and game play.

This is the direct opposite of the trends in WoW, where configuration has been steadily eroded and the dumbing down of the game has been relentless.  Recently I've spent a number of hours on advancing the setups of my GW characters, in increments, and have been pleased at seeing resulting improvements in game play.  In MoP, one can obey the Noxxic strictures about armour and find the correct spell rotation for your class and spec.  Then one is likely to succeed; otherwise, failure at some level is very likely.

Guild Wars 2 has more flexibility than GW1, and keeps the subscription free model.  Its initial cost is less than the subscription to WoW for 6 months.

20121211, mardi

It's almost the supposed Mayan Apocalypse!  Oi.

A. While skimming (they are long)

1. http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/7349425617 
2. http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/7004016082?page=1 
3. http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/cross-realm-zones/

the contrarian in me got interested.  I saw a huge number of comments, with a small number of ideas; that is, the usual mix.

B. Some of the more often repeated refrains on how to get subscribers to return:

1. Make more races.  Alternately, remove some of the existing races.
2. More specs per class, usually 4 per class was advocated, like the 4 in druid.
3. Add another faction, as in Alliance vs Horde vs x.  Perhaps x is neutral, perhaps not.  Sounds like the pandas.
4. Keep CRZ.  Drop CRZ.  Improve CRZ.   (Cross Realm Zones)
5. Model upgrades (vanilla races look 'old' or 'ugly' compared to say, goblins).
6. Model configuration extension on character creation: taller/shorter, beefier/thinner, more hair styles and colours, body art, various ages, and so on.
7. Spend some real gold on in game icon art, which often looks dated and inappropriate.
8. Make all classes available to all races.  Or, cut down on the number of classes particular races can use.
9. Write tank specs for all classes.  Alternately, don't do this, ever.
10. We have farms in Mists?  So let's have player housing, guild bases, permanent flying fortresses.

C. Yikes.  In reply to the piles of suggestions I saw, I'd go for (in order)

1. removing some races, notably pandas, goblins, and worgen.  Add the Mogu as a playable race.
2. reducing the specs per class.  Druid tanks?  Absurd; one swipe of an axe and a flesh bear is dead.  Shadow priests?  Contradiction. Throw out the specs that are just too ridiculous.  Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
3. having a believable neutral faction?  I like this idea.  Perhaps the Mogu will have a resurgence, reclaim Pandaria, and expel the interlopers (Horde and Alliance) from Pandaria.  That would be one expansion.  A second expansion would be the Mogu invasion and conquest of Kalimdor, where Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff are crushed and burned to the ground, along with all Alliance settlements and bases.
4. CRZ just degrades rendering and frame rates.
5. I like this idea.
6. I like this idea.
7. I like this idea.
8. No, a thousand times, no.   Gnomes, dwarves, goblins, and pandas should never be death knights.  Pandas should never be rogues, warriors, paladins, shaman, warlocks, mages, priests, druids, or shaman.  They look either too stupid (males) or too cutesy (females).  Lots of races should not be shaman or druids.
9. Tanks should be protection warriors or protection paladins.  I'd say delete tank specs for other classes.
10. Blizzard wrote other games, notably StarCraft and Warcraft.  These involve building lots of structures and using those to further your game play.  In StarCraft, the aim of your opponent is to destroy all your structures.  In Warcraft (users have told me repeatedly), one spends much effort in building structures for enjoyment and wealth, only to have them destroyed for the fun of marauders.----So, Blizzard came up with World of Warcraft to get away from those models.  Since Blizz introduced phasing, I guess they think they can go back to structural crafting without the complaints that marauders bring to the surface.
11. Yes, sure, right.  The inevitable call will come (many thousands of times)...'we must be able to destroy the Alliance barracks in Theramore' or 'we of guild x demand the right to raid and burn and utterly destroy the guild base of guild y.'

D. More comments...about dumbing down WoW and driving away subscribers.

1. The severely reduced talent trees offer fewer choices; many of these choices are useless.
2. Gutting of other configuration.  For instance, hunters no longer use mana; the focus model is very limiting.  There is no way that I know of to extend or modify it.  Mana-using classes have the size of their mana pools decided by the game, not by choices of armour and enchantments.
3. The character slot for relics, wands, bows, and thrown items has been removed.  I liked all of those, and feel the opposite about Blizzard for yet another 'I think you are stupid' design decision.  The loss of ranged attack versatility hurts.
4. The class/spec successful spell combinations have often been reduced to perhaps 4 to 6 spells.  Fire mage comes to mind, as does certain parts of Mistweaver monks.
5. I have benefited personally from the dumbing down of spell combinations.  Some of my alts in either Antonidas or in Uldum have not been used regularly for a while.  When I come back to these alts, I see the Simon-says aspect, and say to myself, 'ok, just use these 5 spells in this rotation and I can do dungeons in PuGs.'   There is no need to master the character.  But then again, there is less character to master (all races, all specs, all talent trees).
6. For me, that has been truly helpful, since I can revive old alts and look successful in execution.  But lets face it: I might as well be playing Guild Wars 2, which limits you to 10 spells equipped.  Period.  GW2 is free of subscription costs.
7. The noxxic website is now (my opinion) authoritative for any class and any spec.  Noxxic gives one a clear map on how to choose armour for any character.  This has been enabled by the lobotomized talent tree, and the corresponding simplification of internal character mechanics.  For instance, hunters used to be able to benefit demonstrably from increments in strength, agility, intellect, and stamina.  Intellect has been removed.  Since the ranged slot has gone, the need for close-in strength is gone.
8. This makes armour choices very clear cut, and re-forging 'guidelines' are all very precise.  Follow them, and the short spell rotations, and you will do well.  Otherwise, not.
9. That is, don't think about it, follow the reduced rule set, and you will succeed.
10. Again, I have benefited from this.  Since I have too many characters, I need short cuts, and Mists has provided this in abundance.
11. Currently, I'm having fun with it, but I no longer see the distinction that put WoW well above other games.  That has been surgically removed.
12. If I hear a solid rumour that the Mogu will conquer Azeroth, perhaps I'll change my assessment.

20121204, mardi, Antonidas realm

I've been ignoring my Antonidas characters all too much.  Here's a snapshot of some of the higher level characters.

Name	Lvl	Class	Tree	Role	GearSc	Av_iLvl	Prof1/lvl	Prof2/lvl
Chronosten	86	DK	Frost	DPS	10,861	390	Inscription/581	Herbalism/561
Chronosnine	85	Mage	Fire	DPS	10,119	364	Enchantment/440	Tailoring/412
Chronosone	85	Warrior	Arms	DPS	9695	349	Blacksmithing/525	Mining/525
Plutozero	83	Hunter	Marksman	DPS	6333	292	Leatherworking/478	Skinning/533
Kronosnine	64	Warlock	Affliction	DPS	1073	84	Alchemy/281	Herbalism/331

---

For many of my Antonidas characters, this is the first time through the Darkmoon Faire to get XP and essentially free professional +5 advancements.

It's also a golden time for mid to lower 80's characters to jump in average iLevel.  I took the arms warrior from 312 to 349 in about 20 minutes using the auction house.  Those armour changes took the warrior's GearScore from 8000 flat to 9695.  Jumps like 316 to 390 are relatively cheap; some were as low as 12 gold.

Working with a guild in the Uldum realm has shown me much about evaluating armour for particular choices of class/specialisation.  The MoP material made much of this possible for me, since a lot of the cheap armour is made by crafters who are taking their professions to level 600.

Playing in Antonidas offers some strong bad shocks.  When my Uldum characters need something, they often look in the guild bank instead of the auction house.  If that fails, they can ask a guild sibling to make the item in exchange for materials.  In Antonidas, I feel the lack of level 600 enchanters acutely in my set of 10 characters.  There's no guild bank; going on dungeon runs for gear is always with PuGs; there are no guild perks.

20121203, lundi

A. Since my last post,

1. The Mistweaver monk's average iLevel rose from 456 to 461.
2. The Mistweaver finished a raid as healer, 4th in total healing of 6 healers.
3. The Warlock reached level 89
4. Level 90 Dungeon Crusaders Egal, Githeiah, Chronospanda, Azeld, and Flynt got some achievements in WotLK 25-man raids, then we hit a snag.

B.  Regarding the healing of the 36 million HP dragon in the WorLK raid (the dragon needs a net heal of +18 million while being actively damaged),

1. Found this discussion of single target healing (not my usual effort, which is AoE) of value:

    http://www.noxxic.com/wow/pve/monk/mistweaver/heal-rotation-and-cooldowns

I'll be using chi more regularly as well as mana, and the healing spell rotation is different.  Noxxic's toplevel recommendations are:

• Healing Sphere Pre-place if at all possible so your target can self heal later.----of course, the dragon does not move, lol
• Soothing Mist Maintain at all times on your healing target. Builds Chi.
• Enveloping Mist Use to heal low to moderate damage. Costs Chi.
• Surging Mist Use to heal high amounts of damage. Builds Chi.

For AoE, I use Renewing Mist, with Enveloping Mist and Surging Mist for minor+ emergencies, so this is a change.  I'll be casting

      Expel Harm-builds Chi
      Chi Brew---refills Chi.

a lot more.

2. Toward the end, they recommend changing glyphs to  use

    http://www.wowhead.com/item=85692 [Glyph of Mana Tea]

I can make this glyph with inscription and apply it.  This should increase the effectiveness of Mana Tea in this situation.

3. According to the link Egal sent regarding 5.1 hot fixes this coming Tuesday, the total damage absorption done by

    http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116849 [Life Cocoon]

will be increased by 100%.  In my healer's current configuration, the absorption is 130,345 HP. 
This spell has a 2-minute cooldown, so I could cast it 3 times on the dragon during our 7 minutes. 
It only lasts 12 seconds, but buffs other healing spells by 50%, as well as doing the damage absorption.

4. I'll need to measure whether the buffs in the spirit world actually update combat mana regeneration for the better.  My feeling on the matter after 3 wipeouts was that it made things considerably worse, but I need to do some measurements.

5. I got quite a number of stuns/sleeps/paralysis/whateveritis during this encounter
    ....no healing done
    ....always take damage
    ....mana regen seems to stop altogether.

I have no suggestions on how to avoid those.  I get them despite listening to GTFO and kiting when I think it will help.

6. Might help to have another level 80+ player there to do keep the enemies off the healer and the dragon.

20121128, mercredi

A. Lead character summary:

Name	Lvl	Class	Tree	Role	GearSc	Av_iLvl	Prof1/lvl	Prof2/lvl
Chronospanda	90	Monk	Mistweaver	Healer	13,625	456	Inscription/600	Herbalism/600
Chronoslycan	90	DK	Unholy	DPS	12,911	441	Inscription/600	Herbalism/600
Chronoslock	88	Warlock	Affliction	DPS	12,086	421	Engineering/600	Mining/600
Kronospriest	88	Priest	Shadow	DPS	11,974	415	Leather/600	Skinning/600
Chronosdruid	86	Druid	Balance	DPS	10,979	390	Enchanting/600	Tailoring/580
Chronosmage	85	Mage	Fire	DPS	10,376	373	Leather/411	Skinning/468

---

B. So, I have the production professions Inscription, Engineering, Leatherworking, and Enchanting covered at level 600.  At level 90, these characters will have more work to do acquiring extra recipes for high level items that have reputation requirements and the like.

My Tailoring has not quite reached 600, but Azeld and Egal have that covered.  For Inscription and Enchanting, there are other guild toons at 600, and Leatherworking has another guild toon close to 600.

I have the gathering professions (Mining, Skinning, Herbalism) covered, as do several other characters in the guild.

In order to get to the best recipes for Engineering, Leatherworking, and Enchanting, I'll need to bring the warlock, the priest, and the druid to level 90.   Perhaps this is not as relevant for Enchanting, and Azeld has that one covered in any case.

C. My lead character is now the Mistweaver healer, which I brought up from scratch after MoP came out in late September.  I made the character so that we would have an in-house, toplevel healer for the guild.

The 5.1 patch has introduced both nerfs and buffs on Mistweavers, and we've yet to see how that pans out in heroic dungeons.  If the nerfs prove to be dominant, I may equip Kronospriest to use the Holy second Tree.  There will be a learning curve of course.

D. Other characters I'm developing

1. Kronosnetank---Night Elf, level 25, monk, Brewmaster, Mining (for toughness).
2. Chronosmonk---Human, level 52, monk, Windwalker.

I'm using both questing and dungeons to level up these characters.
The Windwalker only has the Tiger stance, so I'm running it only as DPS.
The Brewmaster (tank) is still somewhat lacking in tanking spells, and I've run him as DPS (Tiger stance), while questing using tank spells (Ox stance).

E. Lead characters, level 90.

1. Tank---Flynt; second, Tungar.
2. DPS---Egal, Githeiah, Ricket, alternates Azeld, Chronoslycan.
3. Heals---Chronospanda.

F. Characters 85 to 89.

1. Heals--Miress (86), Hertha (86), Jespi (86)
2. DPS--Kronospriest (88), Chronoslock (88), Mcmaniac (86), Chronosdruid (86), Bigblueone (85), Zesto (85), Chronosmage (85), 
3. Tank--hm....?Mcmaniac (86), ?Dazled (84)

20121122, jeudi

Happy Thanksgiving.

A. Regarding the upcoming 5.1.x patch, Egal sent me some of the rumoured changes to come for  monks in general:

• Monk
  • Spear Hand Strike now costs 10 energy (was 30).
  • All healing spells which cost mana have had their mana cost increased by 10%.
  • The energy costs of Legacy of the Emperor, and Legacy of the White Tiger have been reduced to 20, down from 50.
  • The energy cost of Healing Sphere has been reduced to 40, down from 60.
  • The Tiger Power provided by Tiger Palm now reduces target armor by 30% with a single application and no longer stacks.
  • Stance of the Fierce Tiger now increases the Monk's movement speed by 10% in addition to its other effects. This movement speed increase stacks with other effects.
  • The healing provided by the Healing Sphere base spell has been increased by 20%.
  • The chance to generate 1 Chi while channeling Soothing Mist and Crackling Jade Lightning has increased to 35%, up from 25%.
  • The Power Strikes talent now grants the Power Strikes effect every 22 20 seconds, which causes the Monk's next attack to generate 1 additional Chi.
  • The Healing Elixirs talent now grants the Healing Elixirs effect every 18 seconds, which causes the next Brew or Tea consumed to heal the Monk for 10% of maximum health.
  • Mistweaver
    • Enveloping Mist is now available at level 16, down from level 34.
    • The healing provided by Chi Burst and Chi Wave has been reduced by 25%.
    • You now have a chance equal to your crit chance to generate double the amount of Mana Tea charges.
    • Renewing Mists now travels to 2 additional targets (was 3 targets).
    • The mana cost of Soothing Mists has been reduced by 33%.
    • Haste for Mistweavers is now 50% more effective through Stance of the Wise Serpent.
    • The healing provided when detonating Zen Sphere has been reduced by 25%

Changes about monks that refer to Energy are about Windwalkers (dps) or Brewmasters (tanks), not Mistweavers (heals) who use mana.   At level 30, Mistweavers choose one (not two, not three) among {Chi Wave, Zen Sphere, Chi Burst}.   I chose Chi Wave, so I don't have Zen Sphere or Chi Burst.  At level 75, I chose Diffuse Magic, not {Dampen Harm, Healing Elixirs}.

B.   Point by point, for the changes that would affect my character,

1. "All healing spells which cost mana have had their mana cost increased by 10%."  That's a nerf.
2. "The chance to generate 1 Chi while channeling Soothing Mist and Crackling Jade Lightning has increased to 35%, up from 25%."  Some spells require chi rather than mana, so that's a buff.  For each 4 chi generated, 1 Mana Tea is produced, so there is collateral good.
3. "The healing provided by Chi Burst and Chi Wave has been reduced by 25%."  OK, that's a nerf.  Chi Wave is one of my top performing healing (and damage) spells.
4. "You now have a chance equal to your crit chance to generate double the amount of Mana Tea charges."  That's a buff.  More mana tea means fewer tight mana situations. 
5. "Renewing Mists now travels to 2 additional targets (was 3 targets)."  If Renewing Mists currently hits 3 targets (sounds about right), then adding 2 more means that Renewing Mists (a Heal over Time spell) will cast on entire 5-toon dungeon teams.  This seems like a big buff, but if they also weakened its effect per toon, it might be a break even.
6. "The mana cost of Soothing Mists has been reduced by 33%." Soothing Mist is the central spell.  Reducing its mana cost by a third is a huge buff.
7. "Haste for Mistweavers is now 50% more effective through Stance of the Wise Serpent." I use only Stance of the Wise Serpent when I'm Heals.  Haste is the second most important stat according to Noxxic.  So this is a buff.

So there was two nerfs, and five buffs.  We'll see how it actually works out.  I see from this that I am not the only one having mana shortage problems with Mistweaver monk.


C. An un-trumpeted nerf on Mistweavers was on the fall back spell Revival.  As I remember using it in dungeons, Revival topped off (made 100%) each team member's health, and dispelled magic, poison, and disease effects, all in one shot, instantly.   Its 3 minute cooldown made it a spell I had to use carefully.

In the last week or so, I noticed that it no longer did the job, and indeed, the text of the spell changed.  It now heals all members for 108,599 HP in my current armour.  The dispels and cooldown are the some.

This is a huge difference.  For most of my team mates, 108k HP is less than one third of their total health, whereas it used to restore 95% in extreme cases.  The ace in the hole spell is gone.

D. I'm debating starting to use the monk spell 'Zen Meditation'.  Here's the text:

Channeled, 3 min cooldown
Reduces all damage taken by 90%
and redirects to you up to 5 harmful
spells against party and raid
members within 30 yards.  Lasts 8 seconds.

Being the victim of a melee attack
will break your mediation,
cancelling the effect.

I remember during the Seige of Niuzao Temple (Heroic) dungeon, Flynt in particular and almost everybody got affected by very damaging spells that prevented casting or executing melee.  This would include at least long stuns, silencing, putting to sleep, and the like.

This looks like a good trade-off.  If team members determine that they would greatly benefit from this, then I could (1) stop healing and (2) use Zen Meditation to take away the mind-stunning (or whatever) spells.