Archive for December 13th, 2008

13
Dec

Unholy PvP for S5 – Specs and Glyphs

   Posted by: Skeleton Jack    in PvP, Specs

Heya guys!!  So S5 Arena is just around the corner and you need specs and glyphs pronto.  Heard that!

So what to do?  3 installments of PvP excellence is what!!  Right here and now we will dip into Unholy.  Why?  Because I know more about Unholy.  /Easy mode foo’s!!

And I know you never thought I’d say it, but Blood is rocking now!!

 

Unholy PvP Specs

23/0/44  This is the basis of a Ghoul Unholy PvP spec with 4 points unspent. 

23/0/41  This is the basis of an Unholy PvP spec while ignoring your ghoul with 7 points unspent.  If results find that ghouls are not all that viable in PvP Arenas then this is the alternative freeing up more points for other purchases.

  • Mark of Blood - Survival utility to make focus fire less of an issue.  This is capped at 20 attacks on PTR.
  • Toughness - If you are having issues being kited this will help.
  • Ebon Plaguebringer - 1% crit to spells/melee per point is a solid investment with bonus damage to your spells and your team if you have caster dps.
  • Wandering Plague - In 5v5’s this is more useful as you are more likely to have multiple targets in a smaller area.  It is less useful in 2’s.  Any way you cut it though, added spike damage is always a plus.
  • Rage of Rivendare - You can dip into this as much as 3 points for a total of 6% extra damage if you have Blood Plague up, which you should whenever possible.  A flat % damage increase is never something to ignore.
  • Unholy Aura - The ability to grant your entire team a +15% movement increase is nothing to scoff at.  This makes it that much easier for them to kite/close when needed.  Sometimes 1 extra second of running to a pillar does make the difference between dying and living.

For those wondering why I am giving you unfinished specs, then prepare to hear something other people won’t tell you.  Cookie cutter specs that spend every point are 9 times out of 10 incorrect.  Yes, that’s right.  They are wrong.  End of story.

No one can account for personal players’ strengths and weaknesses or every single team composition and the skill (or lack of skill) of your team.  You may need MoB to help your healer or UA to help your fellow melee close on kiters.  Or your team may be uber allowing you to focus on pure dps.  The base specs are the cookie cuter requirements.  After that, only you can best determine what will help you and your team win.

 

Unholy Glyphs

Major Glyphs

So which Majors do you pick?

  1. Glyph of Blood Strike is mandatory.
  2. Glyph of Icebound Fortitude should be your secondary as it’s a way to get out of trouble regardless of your current RP situation
  3. Glyph of the Ghoul is mandatory if it goes live as it is and you spec’d for ghouls.
  4. If you are not spec’d for ghouls then depending on your team makeup and how Arena pans out, you will determine your 3rd pick off of that information.

Minor Glyphs

 

Why this spec?

Well, that’s a lot of information and requires more time than I am willing to spend on the matter atm.  But I will give you this.  Out of my personal playing experience, the research that I’ve done on multiple websites, and just pure number crunching…these are your winners if you wish to spec as Unholy in PvP.

Please remember that there is no clear winner yet as to the best spec in Arenas as no one is fully geared out or playing with months of experience trying out compositions, etc…  So with that in mind, be ready for my upcoming post on Frost PvP.  You can also refer back to my Blood PvP for S5 – Specs and Glyphs post.I have to say I am actually quite excited about the new Blood PvP specs!

I promise you this information is accurate and well thought out.  After I’ve had time to break down the other specs I’ll try to get back to reasonings and explanations as to why you pick certain talents and the strategies and tactics involved.  GL!!

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13
Dec

The Focus of Skeleton Jack.

   Posted by: Skeleton Jack    in Website

Heya guys!!  Been wandering around tearing my hair out working on material and I realized I needed to prioritize things.  So here is goes.

My focus as a writer and a player is Death Knights.  However, it is not tanking.  That is not to say I won’t be tanking from time to time, or that I won’t put up tanking posts here.  I will.  I’m too naturally inquisitve to just ignore that stuff.  But it can’t and won’t be my focus.  PvE Raids and PvP Arena/BG’s are going to be my primary focus.  For those of you that find this dissapointing, I am truly sorry.  But as a game, you have to pursue those things which make it fun.

And doing massive loads of DPS and killing people…  Well that’s what I call FUN!!!  :D   /approved by SJ!!

In the not too far future there will come a point where there becomes a lack of information to write about.  And if such becomes the case, where do we go from there?  Lots of places.  I have ideas to expand the site, including other pages for some of the most relevant information out there that you guys will need over and over again.  There is the possibility of a Death Knight Forums, a fully expanded best in slot items list, and even a fully detailed break down on TPS (threat per second) and a mitigation/avoidance page dedicated to tanks.  So not to worry.  I’ve got loads of stuff planned for you guys.

But for now, it’s Raid PvE and Arena/BG PvP.  Anyways, it’s time to go drop more gold on Ore for the incoming S5 Arena and to get to reading about upcoming theories about DK PvP.

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13
Dec

Want to up your game? Want to play better?

   Posted by: Skeleton Jack    in Questions

Heya guys!!  WHAT IS THIS SLEEK PIECE OF GAMING PWNAGE!?!?  Glad you asked!!  This my friends is the Nostromor N52 TE (Tournament Edition) gamepad.  You can search around the web and find someplace else to buy it possibly cheaper, but I always recommend getting it here at Newegg.

Recently a reader asked about my keybindings, which was a very good question.  If you think about it, we have so many abilities at our disposal that it’s nearly impossible to quickly click on any ability at demand.  It’s hard.  And if you are keyboard turning (arrows) without using your mouse, you are WRONG.  End of story.  And especially coming from a Shaman…you think we have too much to click on…good lord totems take up so many buttons…

So how does this piece of gadgetry work?  That’s the wonderful thing about it.  You can program it to work any number of ways!!  It has three colors, as you can see the blue LCD light lit up already on the pic.  Depending on which color you are in determines what each button will do.  So in essence every key can be one of 3 different keys on your keyboard.

Me personally, I use the thumb button to switch colors.  Blue is the base, so if I press any of the keypad buttons it fires of 1 to = on my main bar.  Thumb Directional Control Back swaps the buttons to my second action bar.  And Thumb Directional Control Up swaps the buttons to my third action bar.  Also the Thumb Button is my spacebar key, or Jump.  Meanwhile my right hand is holding on to the mouse at all times.  I *NEVER* touch my keyboard ever.  If I have to type, then I touch it.  If I am fighting, the keyboard does not exist to me.

Uhm here is a pic of my setup:

This is the only pic I have of my computer atm, so you’ll have to make due with checking out my ex at the same time.  If you look between her face and arm, there is a keypad there.  That is the N52 TE above.  Basically that keyboard in the center is there for basic control of the computer and so I can type to people.

With the N52 TE you can do anything really.  I personally have it tied into 3 action bars and my push to talk key for ventrilo.  How you use it is up to you.  A buddy of mine who played a Frost mage had his strafe keys also bound into it so he could AoE grind mobs without ever having to turn his back to a mob.  By strafing everywhere he went, he could never be dazed.  It was weird watching someone always run sideways, but it’s incredibly effective when you think about it.  I just don’t have the patience to learn that skill however, heh.

If you want to improve your gameplay, this is the thing to buy.  It will do more for you than a stick of RAM, a new video card, etc.  Now don’t get me wrong, it is *not* easy to learn.  You have to train yourself to use keys you have never used before.  The first 1-2 weeks is pure hell.  You will want to throw the damn thing out of the window.  But if you practice and give it time, in the end your reaction time will be better than it has ever been and you will be a far better player.

My buddy Diremudflap, funniest gnome warlock I’ve ever met in my life, and co-GM of Category 5 turned me on to this baby.  Generally speaking, if he tells me about a new mod or piece of tech I perk up and listen now.  Hasn’t lead me wrong yet, and I wouldn’t do the same to you.  It took him months to convince me to go buy something that I refuse to even play WoW with without it.  Go get one.  It’ll be the best investment into WoW you’ve ever made.

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