Tier 4, baby.

Short version: We downed the Curator on Monday. One try, no deaths. Smooth as silk. The tier 4 glove token dropped for Warriors, Priests, and Druids. Three of us rolled on it, and I won!



Fuck yeah. So exciting. :3

Patch 2.2.0 (Upcoming)

Here's a few things I'm excited about for the upcoming patch:

General:
- Resilience Rating: The reduction to the percent chance to get a critical strike now also reduces the damage dealt by damage over time effects by the same percentage.

- Mac Movie Capture: the Mac client can now capture in-game video to QuickTime movie files using a configurable choice of codec (H.264, Motion JPEG, or Pixlet), resolution, and frame rate. Two new entries have been added to the Key Bindings dialog for start/stop recording and for cancellation of a recording. For more detailed configuration options please see the Mac Options panel in game. Mac OS X 10.4.9 and QuickTime 7.1.6 or better are required. Not all machines have enough performance to smoothly capture video at high frame rates; end user experimentation will be required to find appropriate settings for each system.

Druids:
- Enrage: If this buff is clicked off early, the armor penalty it causes will now be removed as well.

- Enrage and Furor should no longer initiate combat, though it will prevent rage decay for the duration.

Paladins:
- Blessing of Kings, Light, Might, Salvation, Sanctuary and Wisdom increased to 10 minutes. (Fucking YES)

- Hammer of Wrath cast time reduced to .5 seconds, global cooldown reduced to .5 seconds.

World Environment:

- The following old-world factions have had their acquisition rate significantly increased: Cenarion Circle, Argent Dawn, Timbermaw Hold. (About goddamn time)

- Monstrous Kaliri: This creature now has loot. (Also about goddamn time)

Also, I found out that the final part of the Yenniku quest chain (Stranglethorn Vale) is working again after 2.0. I'm so very glad to see that. Means I can actually complete it, which I have never been able to do. Fun!

Adventures in Feral-land

Yeah... I made the jump into the Feral tree about fifteen minutes after I made my last post.

Feral is a very interesting talent tree for the sole reason that you essentially gain two trees in one. You gain improvements in Bear/Dire Bear form as well as improvements in Cat form.

For the uninformed, Bear/Dire Bear form is essentially a tank form. Users gain enhanced armor and stamina, as well as added attack power. Cat form allows for Druids to basically become rogues--users gain additional attack power (based on your Agility) and the ability to stealth.

In my short time of playing Dusk as a Feral Druid, I have learned a great deal about tanking. I don't think I have learned enough, but I am getting to a point where I am understanding a lot about all the intracacies of the way aggro works and how to use it.

Dusk's armor, HP, and such at the moment are as follows (with Mark of the Wild at +340 armor, +14 to all stats, +25 to all resistances):

Duskflower (Dire Bear Form):
HP: 12069
Strength: 262 (+ to attack power @ 504)
Agility: 222 (+ to Crit @ 9.84%, + to armor @ 444)
Stamina: 806 (+ to HP @ 7880)

Damage: 365-423 (157.7 dps)
Attack Power: 1356 (+96.9 dps)
Hit Rating: 29
Critical Chance: 20.84%

Armor: 18714 (reduces damage taken by 63.93%)
Defense: 412 (+ to chance to dodge by 2.48%)
Dodge: 22.87%
Resillience: 38

Intellect and Spirit do fuck all for a Feral Druid, so they're not listed; the same goes for Parry and Block--can't do either one. This very reason is why I suspect Blizzard threw on so much resillience to armor from the Arena Vendor, for example, and why defense is not such a big emphasis. But I could also be talking out of my ass on this.

Dusk is very comperable to a warrior or paladin tank with her current gear. It can only go up from here.

For contrast, here are Dusk's kitty stats, again, with MotW on (note: I have very little gear for Cat form, so I usually just use my tanking gear... oddly enough, it works alright):

Duskflower (Cat Form):
HP: 8152
Strength: 266 (+ to attack power @ 512)
Agility: 303 (+ to attack power @ 303 [+140], + to Crit @ 13.08%, + to armor @ 606)
Stamina: 433 (+ to HP @ 4150)

Damage: 178-202 (189.9 dps)
Attack Power: 1789 (+127.8 dps)
Hit Rating: 55
Critical Chance: 24.08%

Armor: 3792 (reduces damage taken by 26.43%)
Defense: 376 (+ to chance to dodge by 2.48%)
Dodge: 28.11%
Resillience: 34

Considerably better roguish stats, but definitely lacking compared to a 70 rogue. I just don't have the gear for it right now, but I'm gathering it. For example, I just got the quest reward Stealther's Helm of Second Sight, which has three lovely sockets waiting to be filled.

Anyway, I have more adventures in Karazhan to post about, but I haven't the time right now. Suffice to say it involves a lot of pwning and we were on the receiving end last Saturday...