Badge Vendor, Come Out...

Sometime yesterday, the Badge Vendor was unlocked in Quel'danas. While I had enough badges saved up for my Scryer's Blade of Focus, I was 12 badges short of the Fused Nethergon Band. But luckily, when I awoke in the Scryer's Inn, I was invited to a Karazhan raid that had seen one of its members disappear without notice. It was a late start for the team as a whole, so we didn't get a full clear in, but I got exactly 12 badges as we breezed through 6 bosses. After disbanding, I ported to Stormwind to fish me up a baby crocolisk and then went back to Shattrath to turn in some quests I was just finishing up before I was summoned into Karazhan.

Then, off to Quel'danas. With 10 Large Prismatic Shards and 10 Greater Planar Essences in hand for Enchant Weapon: Spellpower (I have not saved up for Sunfire yet) and Enchant Ring: Spellpower, I was ready to find the vendor. Of course, there were many other people around me trying to do the same thing, but I managed to get his attention and purchase my items. I then went out on the island to do my daily quests with Mercreus. We breezed through everything except the Darkspine Myrmidion quest as they were refusing to drop keys for us, but when I returned to the questgivers, I hit exalted!

I immediately went and picked up a Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen which replaces my Vindicator's Pendant of Conquest. But I think the Pendant of Acumen will be replaced with the Vindicator's Pendant of Subjugation once I have saved up enough honor points. With a Runed Crimson Spinel, damage is identical on the two, so it comes down to whether 21 haste is better than the proc on the neckpiece which theorycrafts into 25 damage or so (maybe less due to a hidden cooldown).

Scryer: [((333dmg + 367dmg) / 2) * (1 + 0.5 * 0.12)] / 50s = +7.42dps = 25.97 dmg

While out doing the dailies though, I definitely could see the boost in damage from the new dagger and ring. The nice thing about the ring is that it allows me to use the Icon of the Silver Cresent at all times and stay at the hit rating cap (with the Pendant of Conquest or Subjugation - I'm 8 under the cap with the Pendant of Acumen). However, if I find I like the Pendant of Acumen, two Great Lionseyes will get me to the hit cap rating exactly which I might do if I can find someone to purchase them from (I will certainly be watching the auction house for them this weekend).

Note: It has now been 2 weeks and 1 day since the patch - I have done the fishing daily quest every day and still nothing. No hat, no fishing line, and most importantly, no pets. And now that Nefernetcher has the Phoenix Hatchling, he's bringing it out whenever he can to rub it in my face...

The Mini Hulk

Yesterday, it arrived. It came wrapped in the mail, but still oozing out of the package, yes...it's my very own Disgusting Oozeling. He turns me a shade of green not unlike the Incredible Hulk, just a very, very small one. Here he is at my side (bonus points if you can guess the instance - click on the image to see the full shot and reveal the instance):



So yes, I was late yesterday, but there was still room for me in the "instance" and we once again tore through the place, I earned 22 badges I wasn't expecting and now have 201 - yes, two stacks now.

After that, I hurried to do as many Shattered Sun Offensive quests as possible. I did the three now available in Shattrath - went from Nagrand to Blade's Edge to Netherstorm (stopping briefly in Nagrand to do the daily cooking quest). I ported back to Shatt, turned them in and then went over to Ironforge where I took the gryphon north and quickly completed three new quests in Quel'Danas. There was one quest I didn't complete which required bombing the Dead Scar - there were just too many people flying right in front of me or right behind me.

So I briefly considered going over to Hellfire Peninsula to complete the two dailies there, but time had run out on my stay in Azeroth, so I fell asleep inside a nice inn in Shattrath and tonight I shall reach friendly with the Offensive. And maybe I'll be able to see inside the Magisters' Terrace as well.

A Few Planned Upgrades

With 2.4 hitting, and a new Badge of Justice vendor opening soon, I plan on purchasing two new items. Along side those items, I'm hoping the daily quests can quickly fund the purchase of a couple Hearts of Darkness for a craftable item. Once I receive those upgrade, I also plan on switching out my cloak for additional haste rating. When all is said and done, I should be able to hold off Nefernetcher who almost beat me in damage last night on Gruul.

Upgrade #1: Nathrezim Mindblade (with +40 damage enchant) --> Scryer's Blade of Focus (with Sunfire enchant)

Gain of: 24 stamina, 10 intellect, 54 damage. Loss of: 23 crit.

Upgrade #2: Signet of Ancient Magics (+15 Stam Gem, +12 damage enchant) --> Fused Nethergon Band (+12 damage enchant)

Gain of: 2 intellect, 28 hit rating, 4 damage. Loss of: 10 MP/5.

Upgrade #3: Pauldrons of the Aldor --> Mantle of Nimble Thought

Gain of: 12 stamina, 38 haste. Loss of: 16 spirit, 15 crit, 4 hit, 1 damage.

Swap #1: Collar of the Aldor --> Spellstrike Hood

Gain of: 16 hit, 22 damage. Loss of: 14 stamina, 23 intellect, 17 spirit, 15 crit. Trade of: +3% increased crit damage for +92 damage for 10 seconds with Spellstrike Set

Swaw #2: Brute Cloak of the Ogre-Magi --> Shadowcaster's Drape

Gain of: 4 stamina, 25 haste. Loss of: 23 crit, 1 damage.

Total gains/losses over all five changes:

Gain of: 26 stamina, 40 hit, 63 haste, 78 damage.
Loss of: 11 intellect, 33 spirit, 76 crit, 10 MP/5.

In all, it's a great trade off. Hit and crit are traded at a 1:1 ratio through sockets so I lose 36 hit/crit. But with 1 Haste > 1 Damage, and both Haste and Damage > Hit and Crit, it's some huge damage gains (141 haste+damage is much better for damage than 76 crit (though I'm really only losing 36 in the tradeoff)). The intellect I lose isn't nice as a larger mana pool is always nice, but only 11 lost isn't too bad. I never liked the MP/5 in the ring, so I'm glad to get rid of that. And though spirit now factors into mana regen, it hurts a little to lose that, but it's not a big deal as I was able to make it through Gruul last night without potions and with a mana emerald still in my bags.

With these changes, I should be able to hold off Nefernetcher for just a little while longer. I just haven't seen any Hearts of Darkness on the auction house for a while, but hopefully spamming trade channel with requests will get me the two I need for my shoulders.

Of course, this also factors in the Sunfire enchant which I have a bit of farming to do, but I think with some concerted effort this weekend I can either farm up the mats or earn enough through 50 daily quests to purchase the mats.

The spell haste rating I will be achieving with 63 points grants me a 4.01% faster cast time which translates essentially to 4.01% more damage. With these haste items now also affecting the global cooldown, it'll be pretty nice if I can stack some more haste. Perhaps with the additional hit rating gained through gear changes I can put some epic haste gems in some slots previously reserved for +hit and if I amass enough badges, I can think about swapping out Fury of the Ursine for Runed Spell-Cuffs giving my total haste rating a boost of 1.59% for a total of 5.6% faster casts.

2.4 Today

2.4 came out today and while I haven't had the chance to play around with the patch, it will be relatively uneventful. I have the patch downloaded and burned, ready to install, and I've got my 150 badges sitting in the bank for my new dagger - the Scryer's Blade of Focus. I was swamped at work the last two weeks and didn't make it to Karazhan, so I didn't get the 60 badges for the Fused Nethergon Band.

Hopefully I can make it over to the Sunwell to pick up the dagger before Zul'Aman or Gruul's tonight and hopefully Large Prismatic Shards aren't too expensive on the auction house becuase I stupidly didn't buy enough yesterday and I would like to enchant it before I go.

Either way, the patch should provide a lot of fun over the next few days as we explore new areas, participate in new daily quests, and amass even more new pets! Speaking of which, I have a bid in on a beautiful Disgusting Oozling. If I don't win it, I'm tempted to bid on a Captured Firefly. There's one cheap on the Auction house now and even though I wanted to find him myself, I can't pass up a great deal.

Weekend Updates

Other than grinding Wintersaber rep, I found a couple of sweet patterns on the auction house. I can now craft a Mantle of Nimble Thought and a Swiftheal Mantle. I plan on making the Mantle of Nimble Thought just as soon as I can purchase two Hearts of Darkness. I picked up the Swiftheal pattern to just round out my tailoring recipe collection (it was a cheap 350g).

I also was invited to a Karazhan run with the great guys from Rough Raiders (quite a bit of Gold Team people in there too) and we cleared Kara last night in very good time for a team that is geared, but not at Z'A/Gruul's level. I missed Attumen as I was working on my Wintersaber rep, but still, I'll take the 21 badges as I had expected to earn zero this week. I'm up to 160 or so badges now I believe...well on my way to the 210 I will need at the time of 2.4 to purchase the Scryer's Blade of Focus for 150 badges and the Fused Nethergon Band for 60 badges. I already have all the mats except for the Prismatic Shards to enchant both items and I'll be set. These two upgrades will give me 24 additional stamina, 12 intellect, 28 hit rating, and 48 damage at the cost of 23 crit rating. But with the additional hit rating, I can resocket a few items and easily gain 28 damage or crit. Oh yeah, I lose 10MP/5 - a worthless stat in my opinion. Especially with the Spirit/Intellect mana regeneration changes.

Also, while running Wintersaber rep, I picked up beads to turn in for Timbermaw rep and I'm currently at 17,400 out of 21,000 rep needed for exalted. I have 50 more beads on me which translate to 1,500 more rep, so I'm at about 19,000 out of 21,000. A little more grinding for beads and feathers and I shall quickly be exalted with 21 factions.

2.4 Epic Stones Make Me Happy

I found this over on MMO Champion and it looks like I'm going to need a lot more badges. I already plan on spending 210 badges when 2.4 comes out, but I could go for some gem upgrades too.


(Click the image to enlarge)

The thought of some Great Lionseyes, Veiled Pyrestones, and especially Runed Crimson Spinels make me giddy.

2.4 Badges

Today some of the pricing was announced on the new Badge of Justice loots in the next patch and while the number of badges needed seems a bit high, I think it makes sense for the quality of the items you will be getting.

The other main change is that mana regeneration is being changed to be dependent on both intellect and spirit. From Elitist Jerks Forums:

Granted, but again, I'm more concerned with what happens with mages. Unfortunately, I checked my math again so that I can use an inequality. (I'd like to apologize if my math skills are not too honed for the company I'm in.)

s*√i*k

(s+1)*√i*k>s*√(i+1)*k

(s+1)*√i>s*√(i+1)

〖(s+1)〗^2*i>s^2*(i+1)

(s^2+2s+1)*i>s^2 i+s^2

(2s+1)*i>s^2

i>s^2/(2s+1)

This means that if your Int is greater than the given number (related to your spirit), adding Spirit will increase your mana regen better than Int. So, let's pick a number. Say, 400. That's your Spirit. This means that if you have greater than 199.75 Int, it is better to put one point of Spirit on than one point of Intellect, for purposes of mana regen.

Thus, this change does not really benefit Mages at all, but it might have implications for very high-Spirit casters. It seems the rule of thumb would be that if your Intellect is less than half your Spirit, increasing your Intellect to the point that it is half of your Spirit would yield better regeneration than simply stacking Spirit.

So with my spirit really low right now, the added spirit from the new 2.4 badge items will drastically increase my mana regen which will be quite helpful.

The one thing I'm looking at here is replacing my Spellfire set with the new Sunwell Badge items. The Shroud of the Lore'nial is 100 badges, Voodoo Woven Belt is 60 badges (2.3 haste loot) and the Enslaved Doomguard Soulgrips are purchaseable for an unknown number of badges (I'm thinking a mage pair of Gloves will appear shortly as these appear more suited for locks).

The difference between those three badge items and my Spellfire set is:

+119 Armor
+86 Stamina
+39 Intellect
+33 Spirit
+62 Hit Rating
-22 Crit Rating
-86 Damage

It's tough to justify losing 86 damage like that. But gaining 62 hit rating translates at almost 1:1 to damage or crit. So the total loss in Hit/Crit/Damage (all 1:1 relationships via different socketing) is -46.

So do you take the 46 point loss in Hit/Crit/Damage for 86 Stamina, 39 Intellect, and 33 Spirit? 39 Intellect = 585 more mana which is one to two extra fireballs per fight. It also is 0.5% extra crit rating (or 11 spell crit points). So the gain of Intellect offsets 11 points of that loss, so I'm losing 35 points (ignoring the 585 extra mana).

So to lose 35 Hit/Crit/Damage, I gain 86 stamina and 33 spirit. 860 hit points is nothing to just toss aside as meaningless, but it comes at a cost of damage. So the question is which is more important? Right now, with ice block and other damage avoidance options, it is rare when I die in a fight. However, how many times have I died by less than 860 hit points? I couldn't tell you. Add to that the 33 spirit. Doing some quick calculations, added 33 spirit and 39 intellect affords me an additional 45 mp/5 out of combat. With Mage Armor, that's an additional 13.5 mp/5 in battle. With an 8 minute fight, that's an additional 2,160 mana or an extra five firebals. With my fireballs averaging 2,400 damage or more, that's an extra 12,000 damage which would outweigh the 35 damage I lose. However, that assumes that I run out of mana after using all my gems, evocation, and potions, which I do not do (yet). And with more MP/5, I shouldn't in the future.

It's a tough call. I might wait for some more theorycraft numbers to come out and then rue the day I made my Boots of Blasting as the new Boots of Incantations look pretty nice...+12 stamina, +1 intellect, +23 spirit, -1 hit, -21 crit, +15 damage.