All Official Like...

Sweeeet...

Wow

Coolest Set EVER! Thanks to MMO Champion.

Randomness

Wow... I fail, I meant to link this ages ago - Rhoelyn, who has taken great delight in keeping us hanging on with her wonderfully emotive mini-comic strip posts here and here, has made a World of Warcraft Meme post. She describes exactly what a "meme" is in detail, basically its an art thing - think "mime", minus the desire to punch someone in the face and giggle maniacally. Go show her some love and hopefully we'll see more of her work in the future.

I've seen a few people posting around the place naming theme songs for their toons (one of the more recent shared topics suggested by the good people over at Blog Azeroth); the first thing that comes to mind for me is the climax of Karmina Burana by Carl Orff - one word, EPIC. Yes, I do understand how many cool points I lose for that, so let me make it up by linking my favourite version when it was used in a Carlton Draught advertisement. My priest has a much more laid-back look on life, and would probably be better suited with something like this (WARNING: once that song gets into your head, the only way to remove it is with a fork; say what you like about them, the Finnish know how to get down.)

Lastly, I've been asked a couple of times now about my thoughts on WotLK talents and what-not. As I said in a round-about way in the comments of Bristinie's post here, as it currently stands today, I think the new Destruction tree is a little messed up so I'll reserve any in-depth review for now. I do get what they're trying to do, but I'm willing to bet my lunch money there are going to be some subtle yet telling changes to a few talents there before D-Day. I am thrilled at the possibility of moving away from standard SB spam, but the talents need to mesh a little better before I think too heavily about them. Once it feels a little more complete to me, I'll be all over it. Playing the beta holds no interest for me however; pleasure-delaying is a personal hobby of mine. Oh, this, however, excites more than I'm comfortable admitting... (wowhead link here, but its only the pattern, they don't seem to have the item in their database as yet). Engineering was the first profession I took on my first toon and I've never been sorry, my fingers start twitching every time I see a new doo-hickey to build.

Edit: Double fail, this was another post I had been saving to put up - my favourite mage's ideas for new achievements.

Appetite for Destruction

Recently during the course of a heated, emote-filled in-game discussion, someone had the gall to utter the following in my presence...

"But everyone knows that Destruction locks are terrible for farming right?"

Pfft hardly - this is a very common misconception, its one of those statements that needs a "relatively" inserted at a crucial juncture there somewhere. I think the Affliction lock is probably the best mana-based farmer there is, with Dark Pact and judicious use of well timed drains and taps, you can seriously farm for days on end without ever needing to stop for a break, and I don't pretend we can reach those heights. Demonology builds are no slouches in the ezy-mode farming stakes either, having an axe-wielding maniac by your side certainly has its advantages. In my (not-so) humble opinion however, the Destruction lock - played correctly, utilising our strengths to allow for our weaknesses like all good players should - absolutely gives most other mana users a serious run for their money, and in a majority of cases will out-perform most mages on an even playing field for pure longevity.

Right, so farming is the repetitious killing of certain (usually) non-elite mobs within a location, for some kind of pre-set goal; maybe involving some kind of drop, reputation gain, daily quests completion, whatever. The point is that its not raiding, its not 5-manning, and it is most certainly NOT difficult - your dps maximization abilities play second string importance to economy of killing. Being a competent farmer means you are able to spend a maximum time killing the desired mobs, and a minimal time on your butt eating and drinking. Farming can be tedious enough without needing to sit and drink every 5 minutes; it is the chore portion of the game. In essence, its about stretching that mana pool as far as it will possibly go.

There are 3 basic methods to keep your mana pool overflowing:

• Mana regeneration - Requiring Spirit or mp5 gear, both of which lock gear inevitably epic fails at. Additionally, lacking a talent that allows mana regeneration while we cast, this aint the method of choice for us, so I'll leave it be.
• Mana replenishment - Either through some spell or talent for regen mana, such as Evocation, Dark Pact, Imp Drain Soul or yes, Life Tap, or through the consumption of pots and mana gems. We do have some definite possibilities in this arena...
  
• Mana conservation - The best way to preserve mana is also the most obvious: not needing to use it in the first place. This is the biggest advantage of the destruction lock, our potential for mana conservation by needing a minimum of casts to achieve our ends (Peace! Thru superior fire powah!.

The easiest way to take care of your mana woes if you're a destruction lock that isn't spec'ed shadow mage, is the wonderful talent Improved Drain Soul. This talent is 10 shades of awesomeness, and as long as you remember to make every kill with your Drain Soul, you are on the proverbial Ezy Street. The kills may not be as fast as going all guns blazing, but it is a continual stream of killing until you just... can't... take... eet... any... mo...

For the rest of us that are spec'ed 21/40, life is not quite as simple, but still manageable. The talent that allows us to keep extending farming life is (obviously) Life Tap, the second is that wondrous talent I keep coming referring to as the most unappreciated talent we have - Soul Leech. Whether for raiding or farming, this talent is gold. So many people spec away from it these days, and all I can do is sadly shake my head. The secret to this talent is making sure you are ready to use it - you never know when its going to proc, so tap regularly, never be at 100% health, and retroactively make use of it. Every proc of Soul Leech that you don't use is wasted mana. If you add a Death Coil every 2 minutes (no, you don't have to be in PvP to use it), and we're talking some very decent mana regen - I haven't even mentioned life drain or mana drain, and personally its very, very rare I'd use the drains while farming, they're kind of useless while you're getting beat on and fear is just wasted mana and time imo (remember we're only talking about farming here, right?).

Its hard to quantify or put some theory-crafting behind all this, so I'll go with a real world example. I've been clocking my 10 dailies out on the Isle lately, and my lock's best time is just under 40 minutes without really pushing, and the worst a (metric) smidge over 50 (a good portion of which is just wasted trying to get those damn keys to drop from the snake-heads). The Wretched rarely last more than 2 sb's; if they are still on their feet, a light wanding cures them of verticality. Nothing else lasts more than 3, maybe 4 sb's for the occasional Myrmidon. Nothing gets close enough to do any real damage, so running with a low health pool isn't an issue. During this time, its rare I'd sit and drink or bandage more than once.

Just to be clear, this isn't a measuring contest - all I really want to do is outline that just because you're destruction doesn't mean you can't farm; you can actually farm far more efficiently than most. No, we don't compete with some builds that are more suitably equipped such as an Affliction lock (and I'm not even going to talk about hunters), but we are on at least an even playing field with any other mana user out there.

Edit: Having a read through the comments and the general consensus is that sac'ing your VW is another key to mana efficient farming, and this is something I agree with and really should have put in the post. Personally, in keeping with my laws of mana conservation and basically just to be contrary, I usually farm with my imp out - its gives me another life tap's worth of health (no, not really, but at least most of a life tap), and its like having a double wand going, often saving me one more sb on various mobs. However, as usual, test it out see what works - if it makes you feel good, do it!

Bristinie's Corner

You may remember Bristinie from such posts as l2demo part 1 and l2demo part 2 on my blog, where he selflessly gave of his knowledge for the betterment of demonology locks every where; well, he finally took the plunge and created his own little corner of the web right over here. His first real post is about some of the love you can expect to see for Demonology locks in WotLK, and how it looks like its going to benefit your raid. Head on over and read between the lines for some barely concealed innuendo about a man and the unquestioning love he has for his nasty ass demon.

Touching... So, so touching.