Hit Cap vs Not Hit Cap – In Pictures!

I did a gear opps that I wish to share with you.

When we wiped with Patchwerk at 4% I didn’t have my raid boss gear on. So I was not hit capped. (Hit cap info here.) I missed. I have screenshots to share with you. This really demonstrates what being hit capped as a warlock will do for you.

In my raid trash and Heroic 5-man gear I have 158 Hit Rating. Currently I have three points in Suppression and three points in Cataclysm. I had a Draenei mage for Heroic Presence. With talents and Heroic Presence that put me at 10.02% Hit. I actually need 17% for Patchwerk. My hit was 6.98% under. (Pictured here post raid...so less other buffs.)Not being at my hit cap, I had 2460 dps.I missed over 10% of my Shadow Bolts. That is way more then I would have expected. At the same time since I was not hit capped it is encouraging to see the numbers working.Also, misses don’t reapply Shadow Embrace. So there is lost damage there.

I did apply Siphon Life to help heal myself when we lost one of our healers to a disconnect.

What I do see is that I am being very good at reapplying Haunt. Haunt is the most important spell in my non-rotation to keep up on the boss. With an 8 second cooldown and 12 second duration, I have 4 seconds to reapply Haunt. Patchwerk has a 6 minute Berserk timer. So I kept to reapplying at spell duration pretty closely.
.
..
…

Enough of that, let me actually put on my hit capped gear and try this again. In my raid boss gear I have 362 Hit Rating. With talents and Heroic Presence that put me at 17.80% Hit. My hit was 0.80% over.Being beyond my hit cap I had 2705 dps. I noticed too that there was not much change in dps of my party members so I don’t think they changed anything that they were doing.No more misses!!
I should have adjusted my gear further to gain back dps from the extra hit I didn’t need from my raid make-up… for Heroic Presence…but didn’t.

Bottom line…

Hit cap is good for DPS.

Oh. One other thing, I am really enjoying being an Affliction lock in raids.*grin*

Hydra Talks on TNB

…and talks and talks and talks.

I am on this weeks Twisted Nether Blogcast Episode 28. You can get the podcast here. Download the mp3 and you can hear me chatting with Bre and Fim.

Yes, Husband burnt his finger on the match to light his tea light.

“Good” tanks refer to why I don’t pug. When My Healer pulls aggro off the the tanks secondary target, the whispers start. When My Healer tells me “when” I call the group and have no problems doing it. Thank goodness this was a PuG tank. We think it was an account sharing issue.

Yes, I realize I refer to people as mine, My Tank, My Healer, My guildie, My Rogue… didn’t you realize you are my minions.

After the interview I took pictures of where I play. You can see the world of geekdom that I live in.
I also want to thank all the people who ignored me when I told them I was nervous and not going to be entertaining. You were no help at all. I appreciate that.

Military Quarter Cleared

Two more bosses down, Four Horsemen and Patchwerk.We tried Four Horsemen once before. I tried lock tanking twice. Once the other week which was fail. Then I went back did some research and tried it again last night. I don't know what I am doing wrong .... but I died the two times.

I have read that I should be able to drain tank through the damage. I need to look at the WWS report to see how much damage I was taking versus what I was getting from my Improved Drain Life and Siphon Life. It was just not going to happen until I can find out how to heal myself as fast as I am getting damaged. I know!! Hard concept to grasp!

I don’t like reading I “should” be able to do something and cannot. Unless I can come up with a definitive process to heal myself through the damage I don’t think I will be trying it again. I am not going to spec talents into more survivability at the loss of dps when we have other options in group. The pally and boomkin had no problems. Dead boss is dead boss. But still.

We killed Patchwerk on the third attempt of the night. The first time part of the raid had never seen the fight before and positioning was right next to the kill-you-if-you-touch-me-canal-of-ooze.

The second attempt, one of our pally healers DCed. We still got Patchwerk to 4%. While we buffed up one of the warriors went to change specs and gear for more damage for the third try. *Opps* And maybe I should change out some of my gear... something about hit rating (more to show about that later).

Being able to summon into instances is soooooo very convenient when it is not abused. It is really great to be able to keep a raid going. I can summon someone back after a respect or because something important needed to be retrieved. I do try to call out when we are grinding new bosses and I get low on shards. SS and Soulwells >>>> then summoning your sorry lazy ass.

We went off to take a look at Grobbulus. It was close to the end of raid time. More of us actually seeing the fight the better. Looks easy enough for our merry ban of raiders.

While getting to him I got to play 3-D Frogger for the first time!I lived! ….
But my tank in a dress died … twice.

He commented that he should have taken his clothes off or put his dress on. He made me laugh to the point of tears. I think he is correct in his statement.

Ebon Blade Not so Friendly

Those Ebon Blade Death Knights are tricky.

With the other factions all I had to do is be friendly and I could pick up their tabard. Once I had that I could run dungeons in their name and gain reputation.

Ebon Blade?

*shakes head*

Apparently completing the Daily Dungeon quests was not good enough.

Here I was supposedly "friendly"... but no Tabard of the Ebon Blade.

Supposedly It's All Fun and Games until you actually want something from these Death Knights.

*grumbles about having to chase down some flying moving ship.

*grumbles about trudging through the snow.*

*grumbles more about bring the beat down to some elites*

*rips tabard from the clutches of the elf in pigtails.*

*grumbles about taking less time so her hearth is still on cooldown.*

*thinks*

Wait.

I can have the Ebon Blade tabard at friendly but not really. You have to work for them. Those Mage people just gave me the tabard at friendly. But I was manipulated into doing even MORE for the Ebon Blade ...

I think I am going to like these Death Knights.

De-Hydra-tion

Yes. You can get achievements in death. But not always. I don’t have any idea what happened. Except that I was the last dps to die and Dehydration popped on my screen.Apparently killing Hydra on the Ichoron boss fight was the achievement.

Happy Winter Vale

Good cheer to you, your family, and friends.
Hope you have a safe holiday if you are traveling.
Don’t forget to check for presents under the tree in Ironforge and Orgimmar.

I must have been good at one point for I got a gift......cheeper Eternium Thread!

Hydra Thought of the Day

I have been told that I am “scary” and that is on normal. Can you imagine what scary I can bring when I am set to heroic?

Demonic Circle Uses

I am finding really great ways to use the circle. Like avoiding: cloth armor + whirlwind = dead warlock situations. The circle is a great tool to help move into range.

Demonic Circle: Summon – (15% of base mana, 0.5 sec cast) You summon a Demonic Circle at your feet, lasting 6 min. You can only have one Demonic Circle active at a time.

Demonic Circle: Teleport – (40 yd range, Instant, 30 sec cooldown) You teleport to your Demonic Circle.

We can use your teleport while moving. I quickly learned to not count on the port to not be on cooldown. Start moving out of the way while you hit your teleport. I am sure you can think of other ways to use it. Here are some of mine while doing dungeons.

Azjol-Nerub - Anub'arak throws up spikes. I use the circle to reposition myself and get out of the way.

Halls of Stone - Tribunal of Ages has beams being shoot at you during the event. I have started to put a circle down for pure repositioning purposes. This is one place where that is an asset with the last phase having two separate beams that you need to ensure you move from.

Halls of Lightning – Ionar is a "run away before he gets you" fight. I use my circle to get away from the party member that has the static overload.

Halls of Lightning – Loken is apparently the deadliest boss in all the game. To the point that Ghostcrawler posted how a Pally healer has to heal this fight since they have the most trouble. The circle lets you port while you move. This is great if you have the strategy to move. Us? We cheat and have two Uber-dps, all of us stand in place, and bring in an AOE healer to help out our Pally heals. This is one time I wish the cooldown was shorter.

The Nexus – Ormorok shoots spikes out of the ground. The circle is another emergency option to move out of the way.

The Nexus – The Commander (Heroic Only) does a wicked whirlwind. He also likes to reposition after a charge. The circle is a great tool if I find that after a charge I am suddenly where he is being tanked.

Violet Hold – All bosses I set up my position on the steps. This helps me orient myself in the room during and after a fight. It is a great way to port myself to safety to eat and drink. The final boss, Cyanigosa, pulls everyone to her. I immediately use my circle to get back into range.
Oculus – Drakos pulls everyone in (like Shade of Aran in Kara). There are also floating bombs released and a bomb on a player that need to be avoided. I use my circle to get away from everyone. They know where I will be so no running to the same spot.

Oculus – Mage-Lord Urom was the first boss I found the circle to be immensely useful. When he is on the center ring and engaged he will periodically port to the very center of the ring and cast an arcane explosion. Prior to the fight I set up my portal at the outer edge. A stone pillar is between Urom and me when he casts arcane explosion. This makes this fight easy mode for locks.

Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom – Herald Volazj makes you fight clones of your party members. I use the circle to mainly reposition myself after dealing with the party clones.

Utgarde Pinnacle – Svala Sorrowgrave sacrifices someone and you have to get off the platform. When I am sacrificed I spam my port button if I think it will be close.

Utgarde Pinnacle - Skadi the Ruthless chases someone while he whirlwinds. The circle is very useful in this fight. To the point that if you have yet to try it, you will be amazed at how much easier it will be while you are killing Skadi. This is one time where I kited him after the tank died to kill the boss. Having the circle up so I can get ahead was a huge factor in getting it accomplished.

Demonic Circle useless? Not even close. Situationally more helpful then others? Absolutely. The fact that the gnome pile of dust is the same size as an orc pile of dust? … is just creepy.

He Came Through

… way more then I expected. Delivered to me through the Gadgetzan auction house was 9!!! more Green Winter Clothes. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9.

I guess you can say Oathbreaker did NOT live up to his name
*giggle fits*

…

See.

SEEEEEEE.

>.>

<.<

See what I did there…

His name is Oathbreaker.

OATH - BREAKER.

…

I think I need to check what they put in my eggnog.

My Tailoring so Far

375-385 I was able to make Mycah's Botanical Bag. With how cheep the mats were for me it was a nice easy way to level. Was a great hit with my crafter guildies. But that ended the “easy” stuff.

386-395 I tried Frostwoven Boots at 4x Bolt of Frostweave. But it was better to move on to the next higher item. I quickly started making Frostwoven Cowl at 5x Bolt of Frostweave. Everything got disenchanted.

… this absolutely killed me. I had to buy Eternium Thread for the first time. We went from rune thread at one gold to this fancy thread at THREE GOLD! When I started buying stacks I started having chest pains. Yes, I know you get a discount with factions you are exalted with...well there was this problem…
396-401 I made Duskweave Belts using 7x Bolt of Frostweave. It all got disenchanted.

402-406 I made Shining Spellthread and Azure Spellthread. I saved these since they let me make my tailor only Sanctified Spellthread for PvE and Master's Spellthread for PvP.

407-412 Was Duskweave Wristwraps using 8x Bolt of Frostweave... more disenchanted items.

413-417 I made Frostweave Bags. Most of our Tailors in guild did a deal for guildies, every 90 frostweave cloth would get you a bag. A few took us up on it. I personally gave them a bag even if they were short. Better then them just sitting in my bank or a discount on the full auction house.

418-424 I started making a set of the resilience gear for cloth wearers, Frostsavage. I am not sure how much I am going to wear of it. But at least I had it made and could pass it on to someone else if they would like pieces.

425 Was collecting mats for a very special item….I have a Magnificent Flying Carpet!… I should be able to fit six more people on this thing. Apparently only tailors have learned the art of surfing the rug.

426-437 I made more of the Frostsavage set and Frostweave Bags. I became exalted with the Argent Crusade I made a Brilliant Spellthread. Eternal Life I get from my herbalism so it is something I get easily. I made this not because anyone needed one made, but eventually someone will need one made. To get to 440 I will be making more of these for that very reason.

I still have a bunch of bags left. I may give them out as thank you gifts to my gem cutter and others that have helped me.

Na. That would be “Nice” and I try to avoid such things. *thinks* But if I give them a bag that I already have ... maybe they will continue to do nice things. I will have to evaluate the manipulative benefit of bag gifting.

Not the best way to do skill ups for tailoring. But I tried to utilize the resources I had at my disposal. For a long time the cloth was the limiting factor. At the higher levels it became the Infinite Dust.

Has it been worth it?

Tailoring really has not been a profitable profession. The best use I found has always been making bags. The second has been finding the patterns to use up the cloth that eventually becomes abundant and have it disenchanted to sell in the auction house.

I am not excited about the tailor only enhancements for backs. For warlocks they are quite unspectacular. I read them and immediately dismissed their usefulness to our class. If pressured, Lightweave Embroidery would be the only thing I would consider. Weak compared to getting the speed enchant on your cloak.

I like tailoring because it is a profession that is useful occasionally and then I can forget I have it. If you have it already and have some fun or rare patterns prior to Warth, I would keep it and level tailoring.

Would I recommend it for a new player or toon? No. There are other professions that give you more of a benefit. Even the three gathering professions give you an actually benefit. Wowwiki.com actaully has a nice table to look at the crafting bonuses.

The idea of leveling tailoring with enchanting just scares me. Since I know enchanting is what most tailors have a secondary skill… good luck.

Evil Check: JC My Shinny

Diamonds maybe forever, but Spell Power gems are a girl’s best friend.

Is it evil to make someone else get reputation just to get a pattern for you?

I am currently waiting on my Jewelcrafter to finish his Kirin Tor reputation to get the Runed Scarlet Ruby pattern. Oh. I could get another JC to cut the gem for me. I even have another in guild who can do it. I have sitting in my mail 8 gems to be cut. So I wait.

Why am I making this ONE crafter do this?

Is it the pastel wussy mage tabard? Nope, but a bonus.

Does he owe me gold? Not a copper.

It is cute when he grumbles every time I ask “How much more rep?” No, but It warms my heart.

Then why? …*grin*

He abandoned his lock to be a Death Knight.

Spirit = Kill More

So much.
Too much.
Constant changes.
Rethinking.
Reworking.
It looks the same.
All is different.

For warlocks the changes to gear stats in 3.0 was not really a big deal.

Spell Damage = Spell Power

So when you thought of your gear upgrades, things didn’t change because of the Spell Power change. What did change drastically was our Fel Armor.

Fel Armor - Surrounds the caster with fel energy, increasing spell power by X plus additional spell power equal to 30% of your Spirit. In addition, you regain 2% of your maximum health every 5 sec.

The key change was “30% of your Spirit” is converted to Spell Power.

0.3 * Spirit = Spell Power

Spirit is not completely useless for us now. We need to rethink how useful spirit as a stat is for us. I would NEVER tell a warlock to stack spirt. Ever. Ever. Ever. Just now is not completely useless. Any stat that that gives spell power is something to consider.

/y We have spirit. Yes we do. We have spirit how about you?!

I have been rolling this in my mind of late because locks DO have talents to increase our hit rating up to 3%, Suppression and Cataclysm. Even though I said I would stop putting points into those two talents. I am rethinking that choice. This gives me more room to play with the currently available gear.

When doing my gear comparisons I now have to consider spirit. If an item drops that had no hit rating on it, I do not completely dismiss the killability uses.

Lets look at my yummy gloves, Gloves of Glistening Runes.Spell power = 68 (Spell Power) + 0.30 * 44 (Spirit)

As a warlock I get 81.2 spell power from these gloves. Plus it has a yummy red gem slot. Depending on your budget that is a +14, +16, or +19 spell power gem. (I don’t think the +23 spell power gem is out yet. But I would be too cheap to get them right now away.)

So add spirit into your evaluation for a piece of gear. More hit rating can be just a respec away. Where a mage may pass up on an item because it has no hit rating on it…they may just be your windfall.

BRK was My First

I thought it was Ratters… but I guess Ratter was not my first, but my most memorable.

BigRedKitty (going by Dahm at the time on his blog) was my first comment by a blogger still blogging Aug 8, 2007 .

Sorry Ratter, you didn’t comment until Aug 17, 2007. I still like you anyways.

Since I have you here. Thank you readers for visiting. I had my 10,000 visitor since I started tracking when I came here to the new site. Number 10,000 was a visit from Germany. I hope your stay of 13 minutes and 6 seconds was an enjoyable one.

Red to Green Winter Clothes

Met up with a fine Horde lock friend Oathbreaker… he was on Alliance side… which was odd. It came down to this…

Red Winter Clothes are crafted by Alliance tailors.
Green Winter Clothes are crafted by Horde tailors.

So he was in the hunt for Red Winter Clothes to smuggle to Horde side through the goblins.

I REFUSED! I refused to have him pay AH prices for something I could make easy. Luckily I had time right then since I wiggled myself out of running heroics for a bit. (Something about a “NO!” *refuse invite*.)

So the swap was for 1 Green Winter Clothes for every 1 Red Winter Clothes.

Easy enough.Sometimes I am not so hot with the quick simple math. But even I can immediately tell that a few are missing. He said he was out of the runecloth.

TWINK FAIL. Runecloth should always be in stock at large quantities for bandages.

*sniffle* That poor little mage. Surviving a brutal attack by a rogue to be only pew pewed by a hunter 4 seconds later… All because he didn’t have a bandage. *sniffle cry* ...Oh well.

I expect to have 4 Green Winter Clothes in my mail sooner then later. But maybe I should not trust someone who calls themselves… Oathbreaker.

So Proud

Two days she stalked him.

She waited patiently for him to arrive. To show before her eyes.

Standing in a puddle of water in the furthest reaches of the cave, she waited.

She was a hunter without a pet.

Listening as the water dripped somewhere in the cave.

She didn’t want any pet she wanted HIM.

She checked her weapon. She made her sure her freezing trap was working. Checked to make sure her autoshot was off.

On this second day she talked to Hydra about her endeavor. (For 2 hours and 40 minutes tyvm.)

She made her very first macro
/tar Uhk’loc

She plans on looking in to many many more. (Misdirection preferably.)

But she had a task. A mission.

She refused to let anything distract her from this goal.

She waited. She stalked.

All her time spent gave her nothing but her ultimate goal. Success!
Congratulation Husband’s Mom on your first RARE pet hunt.

Iridium Comes Out to Play

This is why I am Horde (sometimes)...

I met some new guys on vent, they were friends with one of my guildies. Even with me in the channel there was talk of hookers, getting laid, chicks, drinking, and more I am sure. I was less then half paying attention, Hydra was working on tailoring and I was doing math to calculate how many eternals needed, which type, cost, etc.

My guildie whispered me and profusely apologized for the vent chat. I told him I was a big girl. If I cared, I can go to another channel or turn it off. It was entertaining. Not a big deal at all. I am made of stronger stuff then that.

Something finally caught my attention in Vent. Warsong Gulch. The 20 bracket. There was the typical epeening comments.

[Me] What game you guys are in?
[Them] WSG 1
[Me] Score? *reviews where all the abilities are keybound*
[Them] *ding* We have just capped our second flag.
[Me] Nice. *queues* Sounds like a good game.
[Them] We are just swarming them.
[Me] Oh. I just got into game. Excellent.
[Me] So who is who out here?
[Them] *proceeds to tell me*

First job was to return the flag. Fix this stale mate. *ding*
Second, it was to tie up the game by kiting. *flag cap*
Next, it was to show these boys that this was a big kids game. Kill them all! *clears path for FC*
Lastly, it was to win. *evil grin*
Iridium has earned the achievement [Warsong Gulch]

[Me] I sure am rusty. Thanks for the practice guys.
[Them] You were that Hunter. I killed you!
[Me] Yes. Yes, you did. You and three others were kited to the far Alliance ramp side. Behind the fence even. I watched the Horde flag carrier on my map run off the Alliance graveyard. If I killed you, there was a potential you could chase him down. Soooooo... Good job killing me.

Fun times. *Iridium heads back to cavorting with other Horde*

Amplify Curse

Amplify Curse - Reduces the global cooldown of your Curses by 0.5 sec.

WTB reread of talent text.
*smacks forehead*

So simple. Sometime I can be so smart. Other times … I really wonder.
*off to respec talents*

We Raid We Saw They Died

Our plan is to not start raiding until January. We have gone through holidays trying to raid before. It is a hard time to get everyone together.

Others have talked about no social lives. I am inflicting one on my husband. So there are parties, visits to family, and pure "Lets go see the lights!" coming up. These things cramp the WoW time. I for one am glad that we are not starting until January.

War Machine has not raided since September. Yes we did Kara, ZA, Gruuls and others. But real progression raiding stopped for us prior to the Outland's raid nerf.

It was observed Saturday that we had two full groups running heroics and blowing through them. There are some heroics I have yet to do or are harder. More then half we blow through with no issues at all. Everyone is getting geared, enchanted, leveling their professions, etc.

5 + 5 = 10 ... A raiding we did go.

So we agree to try some of the 10-man content Sunday. Torture a new healer. Burn some wood. Chew glass as a team!

First there was Sartharion. We got him on our third try.
If you just want to deal with only the boss, you do need to kill all the adds. (Opps, missed a pack.) I really should count it as two, one to really see the fight and one to execute the kill.
Next, we were off to Archavon. He ATE our main tank. Then he killed me. We didn't know that was going to happen. Our off-tank was in dps gear. But once the OT picked up the boss, I got a battle rez so we had the dps to kill him in time. HE ATE OUR FLIPPEN TANK. Spit him out. Eat the other. He has a thing for eating plate. Still...One Shot!
We were feeling good about ourselves. So off to Naxx!

Anub'Rekhan took us a few attempts to get the positioning correct. It was a fun fight! I am enjoying the Boss, adds, and timing fights. Where you cannot just stand still and kill. I did use my Improved HoT to keep adds off my tree.
Grand Widow Faerlina we again two shot a new boss, once to see the fight, then once to execute on what we needed to do. A mage was in charge of getting one add at a time low in health. That way when she enraged we could kill the add in one or two hits to get her back to normal.

Big spider Maexxna was a PITA for me.
The instructions were for "ALL dps should free wrapped players". Well I tried. But by the time I got there, I was really useless. With no burst damage it was a waste of time. So tip to Affliction locks... the REAL instructions are... "All BURST dps should free wrapped players". After fixing some other things we cleared the Arachnid Quarter!
We again had trouble with Patchwerk. So we headed over to the Military Quarter and defeated Instructor Razuvious again. We had a few resets. We had two new tanks with us but they quickly figured out the timing. Four bosses down in our first planned adventure into Naxx, not a bad run at all.

The MVR (most valuable raider) was awarded. Granted I awarded it... *drum roll*

For the time saved in repairs, grabbing reagents, and selling off vendor trash... I again (in case you forgot) give you my Traveler's Tundra Mammoth.I had a great time raiding as a guild again.

HIT ME MORE

AKA…the promised post... OMG I GOT HIT GEAR.

Picked Up

Legwraps of Sweltering Flame
After doing my wowhead search for leggings, I went back and picked up the Legwraps of Sweltering Flame. Looking at the database, the other hit rating leggings come from raids. I was happy to spend the 100 Badges of Justice for them. I am going to keep my eye out for a pair of pure DPS leggings. But I have yet to see any drop, so I may craft myself up some.

Flameheart Spell Scalpel
While running The Culling of Stratholme the Tome of Salramm dropped which is a very nice off hand. Problem… no hit rating. Also the main and off hand would have to be pretty big upgrades to be better then my Chilly Slobberknocker I received for fighting in the Amphitheater of Anguish. LOCKSMACKDOWN. *clears throat*.

Granted I needed Kirin Tor reputation to revered, luckily I was already working toward that for my head enhancement, Arcanum of Burning Mysteries.

Ward of the Violet Citadel
I know the dagger was to go with my great drop. I quickly replaced my Tome with another off-hand I could get. Once I searched… and knew about it. That is what I get for shopping. This off hand takes 25 Emblem of Heroisms to purchase.

Robes of Lightning
Completing Halls of Lightning quest “Whatever it Takes!” gives you this very nice chest piece. I opened the Sons of Hodir reputation out in Storm Peaks for the helm enhancement, so I just continued till I got this quest.

Voodoo Signet
This ring is a Gundrak quest reward from completing “For Posterity”. I like Gundrak, reminds me of Sunken Temple ... but better.

Drops

Mark of the War Prisoner
Only drop I was shocked to see. This is the Wrath version of the BC’s Scryer's Bloodgem. This has 73 hit rating and an on use ability. This little doodad drops off Cyanigosa in Violet Hold (Heroic).

Cape of Seething Steam
Drops off of Volkhan in Halls of Lightning. There is actually an identical non-drop you can pick up from the Ebon Blade at Honored called Dark Soldier Cape.

Belt of Unified Souls
Drop off Meathook in The Culling of Stratholme (Heroic).

Wand of the San'layn
This wand dropped off of Prince Keleseth in Utgarde Keep (Heroic). I was in group with two warriors, a pally, and a death night. It was a nice treat to have it uncontested.


No Changes

Mantle of the Corruptor
Still one of the best pieces of gear with hit rating. I am actually glad about that because of how much fun it was to get. Also, this is an easy visual for me to tell if I am in the correct gear for a fight. I need to re-gem with Wrath ones.

Fused Nethergon Band
I just have not received a ring to upgrade this one. *thinks* maybe I do have a pure dps one in the bags somewhere for my 5-man set. But it is absolutely in my Hit set for a while.

Now what

In my full hit gear, I have 426 hit rating, 1772 spell damage, and 10.45% crit chance. For heroics I reduce that hit to 213 hit rating, 1843 spell power, and 14.45% crit chance. I should be fully enchanted. With so many gear changes I lose track.

If I have minimal choices for gear with hit rating, I am NOT going to consider hit rating. There are some pieces that I have been completely disappointed in available hit rating gear, like boots. *mumbles about men not understanding about shoes* I will just get the best DPS boots I can get.

I am also making the choice to NOT put in hit gems. I am doing this because I am lucky to be climbing up the hit rating chart. The drops made that happen, particularly the trinket. With that said, I need to re-gem my shoulders, I may gem them for hit rating since it is part of that set.

I am also moving points out of Suppression because for the runs that I am currently doing it is not helping me. If I do randomly go to Naxx I will about a 1% miss chance. If we go to a 10/25 man it will be glass chewing.

I have made the Hydra decision that 1% miss potential is acceptable. If someone doesn’t like it

TO BAD GTFO!!!

I mean it is easily fixed with a respect with points back into Suppression.

Hit Gear is for DPS

I have been stacking hit like it is going out of style. I have talked about why here. You can also check out more details and gear at The Warlocks Den.

Wowhead.com’s filter feature has been fantastic for researching gear with hit rating.

Cloth Armor with Stamina/Intellect/Spell Power/Hit Rating

After looking at the chest pieces simply change the slot to Legs and “Apply filter”. Make sure the column is sorted the way you want.

You can also hover over where it says “Database > Items > Armor > Cloth” you can filter by everything. Hovering over “Armor” you can switch to a weapons search. Play with it a bit if you have not before, it is a powerful thing.

I am running 5-man Heroics. I need 158 hit rating. The gear I have now goes above and beyond. I am actually scaling back my normal gear so I don’t exceed the 158 so much.

We have gone to Naxx once. I had about 310 hit rating. I didn’t notice a lot of misses. Unfortunately the run was so new to me… I didn’t actually pay much attention. Just the NOT dieing part was my main concern. I know I have the data for a WWS report… but whatever. Reaching the 446 hit cap rating is not going to be an easy task. Becoming hit capped is absolutely not going to happen over night.

I am saving my OMG I GOT HIT GEAR post for tomorrow. Read at your own risk.

Cooking World Drops for your Mood Swings

The recipes you need, you get by doing the Daralan cooking dailies. But this is not about what you NEED it is about fun. In Wrath there were four fun world drop recipes.

Recipe: Bad Clams - Succulent Clam Meat & Mote of Shadow
Recipe: Haunted Herring - Fangtooth Herring & Essence of Undeath
Recipe: Last Week's Mammoth - Chunk o' Mammoth
Recipe: Tasty Cupcake - Northern Egg & Simple Flour

None of these recipes do anything for you. Not a thing good or bad. It is just there to read. There is a two hour buff on you. You need to look at the buff icons too. The little faces are cute.

Bad Clams - Eating Bad Clams make you angry.
Haunted Herring - Eating Haunted Herring makes you scared.
Last Week's Mammoth - Eating Old Mammoth makes you sad.
Tasty Cupcake - Eating Cupcakes make you happy.

To see the recipes drop you need to train in Grandmaster Cooking. No particular skill level is needed, you only need to have trained for 450. I have seen the recipes drop while I was out farming and within dungeons. So I know they are truly a world drop.

These recipes are used for the achievement Second That Emotion. You need to eat one of each of these treats. If you are achievement happy, you don’t have to have these recipes, you can eat a treat a friend has made.

But the achievement I cannot WAIT to complete is during Children’s Week. You eat a Tasty Cupcake in front of an orphan for the achievement… Bad Example. *daintily wipes mouth* I need to get some practice in for that one. I know I saw an orphan around here somewhere. *heads to Stormwind*

MORE Richard

The-bestest-self-gift-of-the-year.

Richard is MINE!

*starts the agonizing wait*

There is 999 out there now so good luck.

And there is a paper Richard. How fun is that. <3 Lars *checks printer ink*

Warlock 100% Hit Cap

Note: The numbers still apply for 3.1 changes, but the talent Cataclysm changed.
You have zero DPS when you are dead. Staring at the floor of the dungeon admiring how much detail Blizzard put into the room. You are trying to avoid that one percent wipe. Since you are a fantastic DPSer you know how to stay alive. A Shadow Bolt leaves your fingers, but your screen shows…

Miss

Well that is not good. You have to HIT the boss to DPS the boss.

For warlocks (all casters, I guess that includes mages... but whatever) it is really easy… we have to pay attention to the hit rating on our gear.

Wowwiki.com tells us that no matter what level our chance to hit and miss is the following.

Boss level	Chance to Hit	Chance to Miss
+2 (5-man)	94%	6%
+3 (10/25-man)	83%	17%

Today, after 3.0, you can reach 100% hit. If you reach the hit cap it is possible for your spells to never miss.

Prior to 3.0 you would hit cap at 99%. Everyone would have a 1% chance to miss with a spell. At level 70 our magic number was 215 hit for Kara. Now we have new numbers to focus on.

Warlocks have two talents a talent to increase your hit percent, Suppression in the Affliction tree and Cataclysm in the Destruction tree. It would take six three points to increase your hit by 3%.

You will also STILL need to stack hit rating to reduce your miss chance further. You will put points into those talents for now. The goal is to move them out of those talents as you build your hit rating gear. (edit: You may keep these points for secondary reasons.)

Each percentage of hit requires 26.23 hit rating at level 80. To hit cap you will need to round up so that you have 100% hit or more.

Chance to Miss	Hit Rating	Hit Cap Rating
1%	26.23	27
2%	52.46	53
3%	78.69	79
4%	104.92	105
5%	131.15	132
6%	157.38	158
7%	183.61	184
8%	209.84	210
9%	236.07	237
10%	262.30	263
11%	288.53	289
12%	314.76	315
13%	340.99	341
14%	367.22	368
15%	393.45	394
16%	419.68	420
17%	445.91	446

So what is your hit rating goal at level 80? It depends. *grin*

Goal – 5 mans
We need enough hit to overcome a 6% miss rate. From the above table that is a 158 hit cap rating. If you have the talent points to increase your chance to hit by 3%, you need to overcome a 3% miss rate. You will need 79 hit cap rating.

Goal – 10/25 mans
We need enough hit to overcome a 17% miss rate. From the above table that is a 446 hit cap rating. If you have the talent points to increase your chance to hit by 3%, you need to overcome a 14% miss rate. You will need 368 hit cap rating.

Boss level	Chance to Miss	Hit Cap Rating	Hit Cap Rating (3% talents)
+2 (5-man)	6%	158	79
+3 (10/25-man)	17%	446	368

Keep in mind what your personal situation is when you play. Pick the number that is right for your game time. Anyone who tells you that 446 is the ONLY hit cap rating is W.R.O.N.G. and now you know why.

Also NOT having a 100% hit rate is not bad. We survived all of BC at level 70 being at 99%. Lots and lots of bosses died in that time. Don't sweat about it. If you do, you will start stinking up the place. I have enough trouble with all the undead locks around here. They need to keep their mucus to themselves is all I am saying.

Happy killing!!

For an additional perspective check out Mystic Chicanery or The Warlocks Den.

Back to Warlockery

Ok. So I have been researching hit gear. I have been running heroics. I am playing with DoT rotations. I have been leveling my tailoring.

And you have not been privy to any of this information.

Sorry about that. Maybe I should tell you about it. As it stands I am much Wrathified.Once I can figure out hit on my own I will post my thoughts for my own benefit. Yes I am one of those people that need to do the math for myself. I just need to take the time to actually sit down and do it.

Foote-man Brothers

He is an NPC and being an NPC in WoW is kinda a cool thing. If you had a friend as an NPC you would be excited too, right?!

Who you may ask …

*deep breath*

My little sister’s boyfriend’s brother (got all that?) is a Producer for Blizzard, Rob Foote. The four named Footmen are named for Rob and his three brothers, Chuck, George, and Mitch. So the Foote brothers are Footmen in Valiance Keep in the Borean Tundra.

My sister’s boyfriend NPC is Footman Mitch. Rob gets his brother, Mitch, into things like Blizzcon. Husband and I get to reap the occasional benefit. Thus things like the polar bear mount and murloc suits come our way.

In Footman Chuck’s notes in wowhead someone said “How... random?” Now blog readers you are smarter then those reading wowhead.

After much searching I couldn't find him (because all humans look the same.) Even made a /target Footman Mitch macro.
I think he is confused and is actually Guard Mitchells is his NPC. He is a member of the Cult of the Damned. I knew I always liked him... I meant bad evil misguided man.

Drood Finds a Mage

Hydra is going to have a giggle fit over this Mage. I knew Mages were lesser… but really…

Polar Bear Style

Husband has himself a Blizzcon Polar Bear mount…(Please disregard the tank in a dress. The dress has an armor kit on it too. *shakes head* I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.)

Yummy Glass Naxx

I went on my first glass chewing run of Naxxramas Tuesday. Our guild will not officially schedule raids until after the Holidays. A few wanted to poke around Naxx so we guild PuGed it. We had 2 warrior tanks, 2 pally and a tree for heals, and 5 dps.

We tried Patchwerk. This fight is a tank and spank. He is a serious tank gear check. We had better luck with our better geared tank taking the Hateful Strikes as the off tank. Truly we needed some tank gearing. Since that was not something that would suddenly happen. We moved on.
We headed over to Instructor Razuvious. Once our tanks communicated effectively we had Razuvious down. We called out Knives to help our healers. If a tank goes down, Razuvious swats the raid quickly... is not pretty.

If healers and ranged DPS are quick you can reset him by running up the stairs and out the room. I was always too high on the threat table to get very far. ...16299 Physical and 109,700 Overkill… a total of 125,999… I gasped when that went across my screen.

A group of us went off to do the daily Heroic, Violet Hold. This is like Black Morass, where you get portals of mobs, but you stay in the one room. You get two random bosses prior to the final boss. It will get easier once I learn the strategies for each of the possible bosses. Completing it the first time on Heroic was challenging. If you wipe you restart at wave one.
After each group all non-tanks need to sit and eat and drink. Every moment counts. We finished with my Rogue getting his face smashed in while eating by Cyanigosa. We four maned the final boss in Heroic Violet Hold. All stops were pulled to accomplish that kill. Messy but dead is good enough for me.

A New Game Starts

Welcome friends both old and new. *wave*
(Insert music here. My choice is Jupiter and Mars from Gustav Holst’s The Planets.)

My name is Hydra. I am a master of shadow and flame. I am a level 80 Warlock. This is my journey some call me Almost Evil.
I turned 80 last Friday. I missed being the first guild lock to 80 by 33 minutes 41 seconds. When we started the race, I had a 667K deficit. I would have beat him to 81.I quested through Howling Fjord, Dragonblight, Zul’Drek, and Storm Peaks. I did some instancing, amazingly with other guilds and *cringe* a PuG. I should not call it a PuG. I knew 1.5 of the people, they all came from raiding guilds. The tank I knew left after the first dungeon and *gulp* I stayed for the second. Being called into run with three guilds is not so bad.

Even as I was trying to ding 80, a group for Utgarde Pinnacle and Occulus was waiting for me.
I only went and trained on even levels. Training for 79 and 80 spells cost 254g 86s 60c. (I think. There maybe a flight in there. Or a bribe. *shrug* who can remember these things.)
In my quest to 80 I worked with my Felguard, Neelshril. We had some good times. I enjoyed doing all those group quests with him tanking. Learning how many dots I could pile onto the mob prior to pulling agro. We took some time in Nagrand to say our goodbyes. I am not sure when we will meet again but maybe this will establish a better Master and Demon relationship now that I can see his usefulness. He made a good fishing partner.
I have run instances, heroics, and even chewed glass in Naxx. I still have yet to figure out where to start upgrading my gear. This all sounds very familiar.