Warcraft PVP Needs More Stuns

Posted this suggestion on the PVP forums. I'm always amazed that someone will think I'm serious. lol.

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Lately in battlegrounds I'm finding my toons are living far too long. All this running around, casting spells and fighting makes my fingers tired and gives me a headache. Who really wants to control their toons that much?

So instead of merely whining, one needs to offer solutions. The answer to this problem? More stuns. Not only should stun durations be increased, but area of effect stuns need to be introduced into the game. Here are just a few spells to consider:

Chained Kidney Shot - When your current target is stunned, the stun jumps to the 3 closest enemies.

Hammer Storm of Justice - All enemies in a 30 yard radius are stunned for 6 seconds.

Maim Frezy - The druid goes into a "stun" frenzy jumping from enemy to enemy and stunning up to 5 of them in a 30yd radius.

These are just a few ideas that would really enhance the PVP experience.

Resto Druid Pre-Naxx Gear - Part I

Recently, I was able to purchase the dual spec option for my Feral druid. After trying Boomkin and being very disappointed with their PVP survivability, I tried a Restoration (Resto) spec and love it. So over the past few weeks the gearing up process is in full swing. Here is some of the information discovered during that process.

With the new season of arena, last season's arena gear is purchasable with honor. And given the gear's quality, there are a number of items in this list. If you are not a PVPer, I highly recommend doing the Wintergrasp weekly quests. Usually, there are so many people in there, no one will notice you aren't into PVP. Just stay near the action to complete the quests and you will have enough honor to purchase something in a few weeks.

There are are only a few good items for each slot. Not a lot of itemization for druids. If you have a weak item in a slot, check out the Overcast crafted set. It includes very solid pieces that can be used as a baseline for building your set. Many of those pieces are included in this list.

Update 6/6: Rearranged the data a little bit. Comments at top, made list more tabular.

Head
Helm of Anomalus would seem the best overall. But the PVP and vendor options are also good.

Hateful Gladiator's Kodohide Helm - PVP Honor, 49600
Helm of Anomalus - Heroic Drop, 21%, Anomalus in The Nexus.
Helm of the Majestic Stag - Vendor, Honored with the Kirin Tor
Overcast Headguard - Leatherworking, AH

Shoulders
Not a lot of options for the shoulders.

Hateful Gladiator's Kodohide Spaulders - PVP Honor, 31600
Silent Spectator Shoulderpads - Heroic Drop, 22%, Svala Sorrowgrave Utgarde Pinnacle.
Overcast Spaulders - Leatherworking, AH

Back
Really like the Deadly cloak here. But there are lots of options.

Deadly Gladiator's Cloak of Deliverance - PVP Honor, 38000
Wispcloak - Tailoring. AH. Often found on auction house for 600G.
Reanimator's Cloak - Drop, low rate, Trash in Drak'theron Keep, BOE
Shroud of Moorabi - Heroic Drop, 24%, Gundrak, Moorabi
Subterranean Waterfall Shroud - Heroic Drop, 20%, Akn'kahet: The Old Kindgom, Jedoga Shadowseeker.

Wrist
There are some good options for the wrist. Really like Culling of Strat drop here.

Deadly Gladiator's Armwraps of Salvation - PVP Honor, 31600
Plague-Infected Bracers - Heroic Drop, 11%, Chest after Mal'ganis, Culling of Strat.
Handler's Arm Strap - Heroic Drop, 21%, King Drek, Drak'tharon Keep
Wound-Binder's Wristguards - Vendor, Honored Knights of the Ebon blade
Overcast Bracers - Leatherworking

Hands
Not a lot of options here. So I have included one cloth piece I actually use as well.

Hateful Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves - PVP Honor, 31,600
Grotto Mist Gloves - Heroic Drop, 21%, Hadronox, Azjul-Nerub
Gloves of Northern Lordaeron - Normal Drop, 18%, Chest after Mal'Ganis in Culling of Strat.
Overcast Handguards - Leatherworking
Moonshroud Gloves - Tailoring

Chest
Very limited options here. The UP drop is very good. BOE item so you may be able to buy at AH.

Hateful Gladiator's Kodohide Robes - PVP Honor, 49600
Ymirjar Physician's Robe - Drop, Low rate, Trash in Utgarde Pinnacle
Overcast Chestguard - Leatherworking


Waist
Another slot with pretty limited options. The PVP belt or Hall of Lightning belts seem to be he best options here. 40 Badges for a belt seems a little ridiculous to me.

Deadly Gladiator's Belt of Salvation - PVP Honor, 49600
Vine Belt of the Woodland Dryad - Vendor, 40 Heroism Badges
Belt of Vivacity - Heroic Drop, 21%, Halls of Lightning, Volkhan
Overcast Belt - Leatherworking


Legs
The Earthgiving legguards rock. Better start saving your gold now. :)

Earthgiving Legguards - Leatherworking.
Hateful Gladiator's Kodohide Legguards - PVP Honor, 49600
Kilt of the Forgotten One - Heroic Drop, 19%, Akn'kahet: The Old Kindgom, Herald Volazj
Overcast Leggings - Leatherworking


Feet
The crafted boots look like a good option here.

Deadly Gladiator's Boots of Salvation - PVP Honor, 39600
Earthgiving Boots - Leatherworking
Boots of Transformation - Heroic Drop, 20%, Gundrak, Gal'darah
Overcast Boots - Leatherworking

Summary

Hopefully, you can get some decent gear one way or the other. In part II, I will go over weapons and accessories to complete your set.

Wow Plugins and 3.1

I wanted to make a list of the plugins I use and where to get them. Mainly so I have a future reference for the next patch. lol. But if I put them here, maybe some other folks out there can benefit from this post.

My philosophy is to use as few plugins as possible. This way, playing on another machine isn't completely alien. And also, if someone stops updating a plugin, it does not wreck my playing experience.

Auctioneer
So popular it has its own web site on Source Forge for downloading. The only way to go if you need to buy and sell stuff in wow.


Wow Interface
Capping (3.1.001, updated for 3.1) - A really, really useful PVP mod. It displays the times it will take for a graveyard or tower to cap. By control-clicking a timer the time is inserted into BG chat. Very useful in AV and AB.


CurseForge.com
Cooldowns (1.2.5, updated for 3.1) - Displays the number of seconds until a spell is available. The genius is the seconds are displayed on the WOW toolbar for the spell. So you don't have to look someplace else or clutter your screen. Very very useful.

Druid bar (Not updated yet) - Shows your mana bar when in Bear or Cat form.

Curse.com

Cartographer - (2.5.1, updated for 3.1) - Map mod for WOW. Makes the make smaller and adds coordinates. Also provides more information about who is where in BGs I think.

Gatherer (3.1.12, updated for 3.1) - Tool for mapping herbs and ore nodes.

Recount (3.1b, updated for 3.1) - The best damage and healing meter in the game.

3.1 and PVP

A quick note on Patch 3.1 and PVP. I spent some time on my Druid and my Mage last night after the Patch came out.

Damage is even burstier now than it was before. My Druid dies much easier than before and my Mage is about the same. However, my Mage Attillla seems to be putting out some crazy DPS now. So now he has some chance against Ret Pallies and Death Knights. The Ret Pallies still seem to be the most overpowered. The Death Knights seemed much more killable than before the patch.

The Demise of Clothies in PVP

Last night I saw the future of battleground PVP, and it is bleak. The toon composition of an Arathi Basin game was (11 Paladins (mostly ret),  6 Death Knights, 5 rogues, and a smattering of other classes).  My calculator tells me that makes 73% of the toons from these overpowered melee classes that currently dominate BGs.

It makes me sad. Because I can remember the days when BGs were dominated by cloth wearers. The Warlocks, so much like the American Buffalo, used to roam these plains in the millions, cursing, corrupting, and fearing their way to death and destruction. But now they have been hunted to near extinction. Sure you see the occasional stray, cowering in the corner with his FelGuard or FelHunter, hoping to get 2 or 3 dots cast before being 3 shotted. But all the kids have given them up for the really cool new classes.

I remember when a Mage used to be able kite other toons.  Throw out a Frost Nova, or a Cone of Cold, then use the old standby Monty Python maneuver. Run Away! Run Away! Get range on the enemy, and burn him down. But alas, those days are gone. If you haven't been hit with Deadly Throw (30 yd), then its Avenger's Shield (30 yd), or a Hammer of Justice, or Repentance (20 yd), or Chains of Ice (20 yd), or Death Grip (30 yd), or Hamstring. I could go on and on. There is simply no way for the glass cannon to get away anymore, especially with the number of people playing these classes.

So alas, like so many other clothies, I must bid farewell to the old BGs. Goodbye WSG. See ya AB and EOTS. Adieu AV, I would still play ya, but since Blizz has ruined you, no one queues any more. I am down to Strand and Wintergrasp where at least I can hide in a tank, on a wall, or the sheer mayhem protects me. That will have to suffice until all clothies get an invincibility bubble or magic immunity bubble or blessing of freedom or some chance to survive more than 10 seconds.  :)

Arena Complaints on Wow Insider

I want to comment on this article on WowInsider about problems with the Arena system.

The Arena system should be a bell curve the way Blizzard has designed it. That means the vast majority of teams should be right around a 1500 rating. Since Blizz has put a rating requirement on gear in season 4, I would guess a large number of players have stopped doing arena since there is no incentive to play (especially if you suck).

Consequently, a lot of teams that were 1600 or 1700 are gonna see their rating drop because without the suckage below them, they will become the sucky 1400 and 1300 teams of the future.

All Blizzards moves seem to have the goal of limiting the number of people that get Epic PVP gear. Dropping players ratings, making them angry enough to quit Arena seems to further that goal. Why they are wasting so much effort on such a small specialized segment of the player population is a mystery to me.

Hit, Expertise, Dodge

Great article on the Big Bear blog on hit, expertise and dodge.