Along the twitter streams, I got hit with the signature line “10 mans are easier for 25 man geared tanks”. Now, had we been talking about Naxx, Ulduar or ToC, I maybe could have agreed, but we weren’t.

The ICC25 Edge?

The reality is the difference between an ICC25 geared tank and an ICC10 geared tank is negligible. The difference between the 2 gear sets boils down to…

1 gun if you’re too cheap to buy it off the AH 2 set pieces The ICC10 ..read the full article

With every patch comes undocumented changes, but I’ve got to hand it to Blizzard, this time they’ve really caught me by surprise. It turns out that the Kael’thas encounter in Tempest Keep now has a chance to drop a permanent copy of the legendaries used in the encounter. For those of you unfamiliar with them, here they are:

Cosmic Infuser Devastation Infinity Blade Netherstrand Longbow Phaseshift Bulwark Staff of Disintegration Warp Slicer W.O.W.

Yes, it’s a lot to take in because while these weapons certainly lack the stat bonuses ..read the full article

Granted, if you’re just aiming for the bonuses, the Priest healing set just doesn’t look as hot. That being said though, I picked up the four set a week and some change ago with the determination to try to master it. In terms of stats, the tier 10 is better than the tier 9 (Intellect, stamina, and all that fun stuff).

But how do you pursue the bonuses?

(2) Set: Your Flash Heal has a 33% chance to cause the target ..read the full article

Image Courtesy of Geico Insurance

The patch 3.3.2 includes a few amendments to Heroic Dungeons and how they’re played.  Entire packs of mobs are being deleted.  Bosses abilities are being shortened or being made less frequent.  Fight mechanics are being made easier.  In essence, Blizzard is giving us more opportunities to blow through these dungeons with little to no effort.

I’m an educator at heart.  Seeing as though my life “endgame” is to be at the front of a classroom, it’s important ..read the full article

Unexpectedly, the Blizzard team has decided to let us in on the little secret of how things will be changing Tier-wise in the next minor patch.

Gloves Breakdown

(Old) Ymirjar Lord’s Handguards 1579 Armor +81 Strength +148 Stamina Yellow Socket Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina Equip: Increases defense rating by 71. Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 63. Equip: Improves hit rating by 54.

(New) Ymirjar Lord’s Handguards 2461 Armor +81 Strength +148 Stamina Yellow Socket Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina Equip: Increases defense rating by 71. Equip: Improves hit rating by 54.

Change +882 Armor - 63 Dodge rating

Gauntlets of the Kraken 2658 ..read the full article

The gang at Blizzard HQ had this to say recently regarding the Tier 10 tanking sets:

We recognize that many plate tanks are making their gear choices based on the amount of armor they’re provided, as this is currently the most preferred stat. In order to make the tier-10 plate tanking sets more desirable, we will be adjusting the stats on the gloves and chest pieces in order to inflate the amount of armor they provide in the next minor patch. ..read the full article

Entering Icecrown, we’ve got a number of interesting weapons to choose from and if you’ve kept up with the content, I think you’ll be hard pressed to not have something usable. The larger question though isn’t what is usable, but instead what’s desirable. What didn’t drop for me that should have. Is anything worth still running pre-Icecrown instances for? You bet. Let’s begin.

Heroics

Red Sword of Courage Upon launch this was the must have weapon that you ran Utgarde Pinnacle for over ..read the full article

When analyzing the encounters, both Festergut and Rotface clearly have a lot of magic damage to dole out, but does that really matter?

A bit. Not a lot.

What you give up for Bonus Armor

I’ve been raving about Bonus Armor and the often counter argument is it does nothing against magic damage.

Which is true.

However, what does Avoidance do against magic damage? What does Expertise and Hit rating do? How about Block?

Nothing.

Which is what you give up to get Bonus Armor.

You give up ..read the full article

Sentinel’s Winter Cloak [50] Verdigris Chain Belt [60] Gauntlets of the Kraken [60] Cataclysmic Chestguard [95] Ymirjar Lord’s Pauldrons [60] Ymirjar Lord’s Greathelm [95] Pillars of Might [184] Boots of Kingly Upheaval [115] Ymirjar Lord’s Breastplate [95] Ymirjar Lord’s Handguards [60] Corroded Skeleton Key [60]

Skip: Ymirjar Lord’s Legguards [95]

Yes, I snuck the crafted pieces that require Primordial Saronite (23 Emblems of Frost each) in there this time. I’m not taking into account that the patterns themselves require a Primordial Saronite to buy though which you may or may not have ..read the full article

The other week, as a gift to you from us, we each offered to write and discuss a topic of your choice. Here’s what we came up with!

What do you want for Winter Veil? You want to wrap your boomkin snugly in an Ancient Polar Bear Hide or keep your holydin’s toes toasty in a pair of Mudslide Boots? Well you can’t have it.

Bah, humbug.

Patch 3.3 has hit just in time for the winter holidays – a time when ..read the full article

So as I’m sure many of you know, I’m waiting not so patiently to turn my blueberry into a Dwarf Shaman. To this effect I’ve recently commissioned a wonderful artist by the name of Ginny to draw me one! Who’s Ginny you ask? Well let me tell you. I met Ginny through my podcast (For The Lore), she’s a wonderful artist who has done a lot of the work for our podcast’s episodic icons. She has a great eye for ..read the full article

Back in the Vanilla we received not one, not two, but three items of legendary status. Crafting these items was arduous and rewarding to complete. They were very lore centric and having one was a big deal Lets look at the first three Legendary items.

Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros

The baby legendary of the initial bunch, this was crafted by combining a Sulfuron Hammer with the Eye of Ragnaros. The part list for the initial hammer was pretty steep I mean take ..read the full article

This is a guest post by Aleph, who chronicled his early end game gearing process.

Upon levelling my priest to level 80 and looking at joining my guild’s raid team as a healer, I found that I hit a barrier where I simply had no means of gaining any new gear that would get me up to Naxx10 level and therefore enter the raiding circuit as it were.

Before I continue I should make a few things clear.

I play in ..read the full article

So where has Lodur been you might be asking? Well I’ve been a busy Shaman. For those of you who may not know I am now the co-host of a weekly podcast called For The Lore. We transmit every week live on Monday’s at 6:45pm EST over at our Ustream Channel. We cover all aspects of modern gaming and some of the old school, we talk about more then just the lore of these games but the story is honestly ..read the full article

Have you seen this mace? It’s supposed to drop from Rotface, I believe. Have you looked at the proc yet? Make sure you read it twice.

Each time your spells heal a target you have a chance to cause the target of your heal to heal themselves and friends within 10 yards for 217 each second for 6 seconds.

I’m assuming there’s a 45 second internal cooldown. This mace could come in handy for any class, I’d imagine. Judgment of Light? Chain ..read the full article

You’re the one who sits in front of your computer.  You’re the one who has to look at the back of your toon’s head all night (or day).  You’re the one who has to put the gold into gems, enchants, and glyphs.  You’re the one doing the necessary rep grinds.  Most importantly, you’re the one paying $15 each month to play the game you enjoy.

Hence, you’re entitled to play how you want to play, right?  Keep in mind that it ..read the full article

When Burning Crusade touched down we received a token system. The system tied multiple classes to a single drop from a boss. This allowed for less loot being sharded or discarded and allowed for quicker gearing as a guild. The tokens could then be turned in for your tier set pieces. A lot of people were afraid of this method, but it worked out really really well. Guilds were able to gear out their raiders quickly and efficiently and very ..read the full article

As I’m sure many of you know by now, the PTR is live bringing with it a wonderous amount of changes to pretty much everyone. I’m going to focus today on a few things, Shaman changes and tier 10 set bonus for Restoration Shaman. First let’s take a look at the set bonuses for tier 10 Restoration shall we?

Shaman T10 Restoration 2P Bonus – Your Riptide spell grants 20% spell haste for your next spellcast.

Shaman T10 Restoration 4P Bonus – ..read the full article