the way of the 1.4 choppa

1.4 brought many changes to the way people play their classes.

In the last few days I saw master bomber sorcs trying out single target specs, and full on damage marauders dabbling with defensive sets.

I am not an exception to this change, as obvious as I may sound.

With Epikk I was running a high damage crit spec (but then again, who wasn't?). Tons of melee power, capped str, high crit value, and some added damage tactics + crit triggered ones.

After 1.4 went live, my damage plummeted. Thanks to that forsaken "reduce damage from crit attacks" renown training, 2 out of 3 of my hits were being massively nerfed damage-wise.

It was a tough couple of days if I do say so myself. Must have spent around 50 gold and some 5 hours trying different things to see what now worked for me in this completely new world of post 1.4

for a while there I even considered a full defensive build, which would actually be something very very different from my usual suicidal builds.

But alas I crossed paths with an old friend called weapon skill. To be honest it's a pretty obvious choice, but one that didn't cross my mind at first.

So now, I ditched crit completely. Ok so I have some on parts of my gear, but to be honest I couldn't care less for it.

My current renown training is completely devoted to strength, weaponskill and parry. nothing else.

Thanks to this, I gained two new tactic slots (since there's no crit.. there's no need for crit-triggered tactics) and with my newly acquired high parry, I'm actually trying out Riposte for the first time. That and some healing coming from my exhaustive blows (25% chance) are making me survive a little bit more at least in scenarios (still running an exhaustive blows spec btw)

Best part of all of this? I'm still pro at dying, but now I can actually deal some damage to 2h tanks, and every order that trained reduced chance to be critted and reduced damage from crits actually just has a huge amount of useless renown points when it comes to fighting this choppa :P

let's see how this goes from now on. I suspect that with more people training reduced crit and reduced crit damage, more people will stray from crit builds. and with that happening, I can see people dropping the reduced crit training (or at least not going as far as 50% reduction)

Time will tell.

cheers.

The Healer's Hassle

That's my title, that is.
I've been trying something different, not necessarily good, but I've quite ejoyed it.

Long overdue, I've been trying to DPS more often, taking advantage of my new found intteligence softcap (sitting at 1070 with the Int buff an the Harbringer set to offensive). The result has been... satisfying and I've found myself trying to raise alternative healers for my scenario parties so I can DPS. I've taken revenge on WHs and WLs alike, closing in the gap in my Dammaz Kron. Oh yeah, I dinged 70. Also, long overdue.

But let's continue our DPS Zealot musings.

With my new found renown rank came a new mastery point which I spent to buy Chaotic Agitation. It is actually quite a good spell and I'll tell you more about its potential shortly.

I could feal the evil glares as other players started noticing the Scourge coming from my focus so I tried to not switch to DPS tactics very often, remaining in healer-friendly tactics and only turning on the harbringer once in a while.

But I've been thinking of completely rehauling my specc to slot in some new goodies and possibly make my Zealot a true force to be reckoned with while DPSing.

My DPS friendly-tactics have been Waves of Chaos (rituals pulse with damage), Divine Fury (25% more damage but 20% less healing; that or the other way around), Something-Or-Other (20%? chance to proc an absorb shield of 700~? on being hit) and Scourged Warping (each tick of Warp Reality - the DoT - has a chance of making the next Scourge cast in 10 seconds to be insta cast). All well and good but I'm not happy with Divine Fury. The extra damage is good but the healing gimp is noticeable when I have to turn off my Harbringer to save myself (and, possibly others) from certain death.

So I've been looking at other tactics to buy to slot in instead of it. I could go for Manipulation, to keep damaging while I turn back to healing. But there's too many 25%s in tthat equation, making its damage output quite gimped.

Chaotic Force wouldn't be half bad either, considering I mainly cast Tzeentch's Cry and Scourge while Chaotic Agitation cools down. But taking up a tactic slot for just two abilities seems a bit of a waste.

But what really caught my eye was Changer's Touch. Chaotic Agitation crits nicely, even though my crit is subpar (sitting at around 16%). But Chaotic Agitation has some very nice points going for it: the hits are close together; if the target goes out of range (oh, say, to the backline next to his juicy healers) it keeps on hitting, wether I lose LoS or just range; my AP ritual makes its AP cost almost null. Now, from the recently discovered usefulness of the Shadow Warrior's heal debuff (yes, only now have I started seeing Shadow Warrior's actually use it on a regular basis) I can assert that a 50% heal debuff is not to be taken lightly, especially if u can AoE it. 2k heals will only heal 1k and previously useful HoTs of 500~will be cut down to 250ish. Not terribad, in my opinion.

I'm left to wonder if it stacks with Windblock, but I'd need some help in testing it out.

I'm also thinking of scraping up an extra point to buy Boon of Tzeentch, if its axis problems have been fixed (I've heard nothing to confirm this), mainly to improve my own survivability against those pesky pouncers and stealthers.

I also wonder if anyone out there has tried these things out and can shed some light on the subject. My bloodthirst would greatly apreciate it.

My Single Target Choppa Specc (I'ts Epikk!!!)

This is massively delayed, I know, but here it is

Epikk's Choppa Build and some more stuff!!! (AKA big wall of text incoming)

I'm gonna split this up into a few sections in order to cover Mastery training, Renown training (even though this part will get changed when 1.4 arrives) and gear, so, let's get started.

Renown Training:

Might up to 5 for 102 strength

Blade Master up to 3 for 30 Weapon skill

Oportunist up to 2 6% crit

Mastery Training:

I went full Hitta with a dash of Savage, meaning I spent 17 points on the Hitta tree (getting it to 15 and buying "Bleed Em Out" and "Strong Finish" on the way) and 11 points on Savage (got "Wot Rules?" and "Can't Stop Da Chop")

Gear:

Currently I'm runing with a mix of Invader Darkpromise and Tyrant. Will change to Tyrant/Warlord only in a couple of Renown Ranks but that's still to come

Head and Shoulders are Tyrant

Hands and Belt are Invader

Chest and Boots are Darkpromise

The reason for this is to get the two STR bonuses from DP and Invader plus the wounds bonus from Tyrant.

The added crit from shoulders and boots together with the MP from the gloves are very nice.

Obviously, MP talisman on gloves, and crit on shoulders. The rest i slot STR.

I'm going with a "Krogengz, Cutta of Doom" (City bag) on my right hand and a "Titan's Choppa of Anathema" (Invader insignias weapon) on my left hand.

The Cutta of Doom provides some needed MP while the Anathema one gives out some more MP and a little bit of crit.

Cloak and 2 glyphs from TOVL. Still haven't been able to get a Panahasi though, for the MP and the 4 piece bonus, so, the other 2 jewelry slots are filled with an Executioner's Ring and an Icon of Assassins for the Nehekharan set.

Tactics:

Brute Force: 160 STR

Wot Rules?: exhaustive blows no longer remove rage

Flanking: Added 15% damage when attacking from sides or back

Strong Finish: Increases crit chance with Hitta abilities by 15% and decreases my ability to defend crits by 10%

As you can probably tell from the tactics, my main focus is spamming abilities that require rage, and are from the Hitta tree.

Abilities and rotation:

First of all, my Hurtin' Time is always on. I realy don't care if it damages me,

because the added damage that it provides is simply too good for me to not use it.

Other than that, I run things arround Reckless Blow.

Now, every one and their mothers bash me for using this cuz, as most say, "it's a crap ability because of the 5% penalty on getting critted and you can do almost the same damage with Slasha or Go For Da Soft Spot", but more on that later.

By the way, I rarely run alone. I'm usually either in a party or warband with guild mates, so, my buid has that into consideration, and I allow myself to suck on survivability because I know there's a healer somewhere that's taking care of me.

I wouldn't dream of roaming solo with this build. I'm just too squishie with it.

Anyway, getting on with stuff.

I revolve arround 2 main abilities, wich are Bleed em Out (sweet SWEEET DOT) and Reckless Blow. No matter what kind of oposition i get, these two are the ones I rely on.

So, as I said before, I run in groups. That being said, right before engaging, I usually kick Git Stuck In. The 35% AA haste for group mates is precious and unless everyone has a speed lower than 1 second, it does make a diference (even though most people won't notice it's magic).

Right after that, there's a 5 second gap that I hate... the 5 seconds it takes for my rage to build up.

So, before i have enough rage, what usually goes on is Slasha -> Slasha -> Bleed Em Out -> Can't Stop Da Chop -> Go For Da Soft Spot

Slasha's debuff stacks, so I try to get at least two in there right at the start of the fight.

Bleed Em Out starts ticking in slowly but it really does a lot of damage in total

The reason I spit out Can't Stop The Chop (for the healing debuff) only after 3 hits is that I really wanna take advantage of most of it's timer. It wouldn't really make a diference for the target's health if I had used it as an opener instead of when I do because even at 50% heals, a decent healer would be able to out heal my Slashas and the first tick of Bleed Em Out if they went in after CSTC, so, this way I just get 2 debuffs in and the first tick of a DOT, then the heal debuff, just in time for the big strikes to go in together with Bleed Em Out's bigger ticks.

Go For Da Soft Spot should already damage a lot at this stage cuz of the toughness debuffs

After this roll-out, it's time for the massive damage.

Reckless Blow is ready to use!!!!

Ok so, it deals a lot of damage. It's actually my most damaging ability. But it does have the drawback of debuffing your chance to be critted by 10%, which can be a pain, so, after aplying the first Reckless Blow, remember to toss in a Try 'An Hurt Me to reduce your target's chance of critting you by 100%.

Yhea ok so the other guys arround your target that you didn't debuff will still proffit from your chance to be critted, but hey, that's why I run with good healers :P

Anyway, after this point, it's just a matter of working your stuff arround Reckless Blow. Just keep spamming it, while reaplying anything that needs to be reaplied (like Git Stuck In when the cooldown ends, Try 'An Hurt Me whenever you change targets, CSTC when the heal debuff ends and most importantly, always have a Bleed Em Out runing on your target)

UPDATE

I forgot to mention something... Obviously, knock down your opponents whenever possible. This is also one of the reasons I have Wot Rules? slotted. The knockdown needs rage and I really can't be caught on a situation where I need a knockdown but there's no rage to use it because of some other ability I just used, and the same goes for the other way around... can't really be negated of a knockdown just because I used a Reckless Blow.

END OF UPDATE

With this set up I currently run at 33% crit (counting in the crit tactic for the Hitta tree abilities). I have had higher crit rates at the expense of other stats, but to be honest, 33% already crits enough.

All in all it's not an awesome spec, but it's what works for me right now. It's obviously extremely dependent on gear (reason for which I won't be able to wear Warlord untill i'm RR69) but then again, what isn't?

And I think that's that.

thank you for your time reading through this wall of text,

Cheers.

Struggle and Single-Target Experiments

Still doing moving related stuff. Boxing stuff in and out. Cleanin, washing, drilling, urgh.

I haven't mustered much strength to porperly play WAR as of late.

I did dabble in a Single-Target specc. I was not impressed. The boost to my Single-Target speels wasn't as significant as I'd hoped (mostly because it was pretty high to begin with) and... well, I just didn't feel like I was in my own skin. My advice would be, if you wanna experiment with new speccs do so before you've been playing the same one for nearly two years.

But, I'll be honest, seeing as I just hit rr69 (kinky, isn't it) I'm gonna give my Zealot a rest and play my Magus for a while. I'll try the single-target specc on him too for... two reasons...:

1. I've heard say it's awesome
2. I need a change before the change.

My AoE build has brought me loads of fun and killage but I need something new to keep logging in. And it's not new content or more rr grinding that's gonna keep me coming back. It is going to be my own ability to find something new to do within the same environment, with the same rules and same interface.

Zealot: Path of the iPhone®

Yes, after 25 years someone gave me a nickname.

So, I've been asked about my specc a lot lately. Seems that when you start edging closer to rr70 ppl start taking you more seriously. Not that my healing has changed much but there you go.

My specc looks like this with 3 more points spent in the alchemy tree (wardb doesn't account for the extra specc points you get with every 10 rrs). Bear in mind that the Warping the Spirit tactic has had its effect changed and now makes Tzeentch's Cordial have a % (20%?) chance to increase the target's armour for 1056 and reduce his armour penetration by 10% for 10 seconds. This chance applies with every tick of the HoT so, with a bit of luck it will refresh itself down to the last tick.

I'm now the proud owner of 2 Tyrant pieces: the shoulders and the belt. Still wearing Sentinel chest piece (Assasin's Suit or whatever it's called. The one that looks like a BW on its appearance) mainly because I'm only rr68. And Darkpromise never drops for me. Ever. Hands and boots are Warlord and I'm wearing a spiffy Cowl of the Fist with a Mask of the Bloodletter appearance. Wicked. I've got all 4 ToVL glyphs, the semi-crappy LoTD cloak, a rr65 SC weapon and a rr55 SC focus.

------!! SELF-INTERVIEW TAIIMMEEE!!!11eleven!-------

Q: I've heard Zealots are better off focusing on ST (Single Target) healing and not group heals. Why did you go for Dark Rites?

A: I would rather have my groupheal crit everyone for 2.5k than take as long a cast time on an Elixir of Dark Blessings for a possible 5k for the simple fact that the only thing taking a serious beating that can wait that long is a turtling tank. Also, bombing being a very current problem I gotta face the fact that every single person in my party is likely to be hit at exactly the same time. So, yes, Zealot's ST is VERY good and VERY strong, especially because, unlike the Shaman (the DoKs don't even count for ST when not dps specced), Zealots can specc specifically for ST but grouphealing is essential especially if you find yourself being the only healer in your party.

Q:Would you bet on Willpower or Wounds for survivability?

A: Tricky. I'll be the first one to admit it, I'm a very squishy Zealot. Mostly due to the fact that I stacked Willpower until I had it softcapped without my Willpower buff. Still, if I'm running with a good group that will assist me when I'm targeted, squishiness is no longer much of a factor. Also, they might say Shamans excel at survivability and DoKs have better armour but Zealots have Embrace the Warp (not to be confused with Warping Embrace even though the icons appear to be the same). Yes the cooldown is terrible but, odds are, after you use it Order will just give up on you. Another thing crucial to upping your survivability is location and spatial awareness, but more on that later.

Q: What stats are most important for a healing specced Zealot?

A: Willpower primarily (no-brainer that one) and Healing crit. Healing crit is essential and is actually something I'm lacking. At 23ish% I'm still nowhere near where I want to be (please God, Mythic, anyone, I need those DP boots. If they were to magically appear in my mailbox I wouldn't tell a soul. I swear!) It's essential not only for the obvious reason (you heal more, duh) but for 2 of my tactics: RB (you get AP back on healing crits) and BoC. With RB proccing off groupheals I can pretty much spam DoP nonstop and throw TCs and a LA around and not even care that my AP ritual doesn't apply to me. BoC just makes healing all around that much easier. It also makes my FoC crit for over 1k with just 8 points spent in Alchemy. For an insta cast cheap heal that's just awesome.

Q: Is it worth it buying more than one Ritual? Like say, the AP and the DR one?

A: I would have to say no. It's just not worth a specc point imho. If you feel your regular healing isn't cutting it, I'd go for the healing one. If you can do ok without it go for the AP one. It will make your party kill stuff faster. This "stuff" includes stuff hitting you.

Q:What about for PvE? Are Zealots any good at PvE healing? What specc do you go with when healing LV or ToVL?

A: Zealots are the quintessential PvE healer. We have so many useful things for PvE, it's scary. The selfres is useful when you wipe, obviously. You can up a tank's wounds for 60 seconds which is useful for bosses that have a hard first strike. The new Warping the Spirit works wonders because of the extra armour. Tzeentch's Talon helps a ton with dps races and so does the AP ritual. And if you're ST specced PvE is where you'll truly shine as a steady flow of Elixirs can keep your tank up against almost anything.

Tactics wise I only swap something out to slot in Subtlety, seeing as Guards are better spent on something other than me and I dont wanna die. I don't bother respeccing to ST for PvE anymore. Just not worth the money and my specc is good enough atm to handle both situations.

Q: What would you say is the Zealot's biggest fault?

A: Until 1.3.6 I would say it was its complete lack of dps viability when healing specced. Now, I really couldn't say. I haven't tried turning my Harbinger on at all, seeing as I don't need to damage anything. For leveling a Zealot, it might have been a good change but, then again, I don't know any Zealots who are PvE solo-leveling so it's true usefulness is lost on me. At the moment, I'm completely satisfied with how things work on my Zelly.

Absent Sara is absent!