ShadowCraft Engine web frontend AKA Cata spreadsheet
Happy Holidays everyone! I don’t really have anything useful to say at the moment since I’m a little busy with Christmas. Just wanted to give my greetings. Here’s a protip: if you don’t want to feel lousy this season, don’t PUG a Cata heroic!
I hit 85 a couple of days ago and I’m in the process of gearing Sin for raiding. Well, possibly anyway. There are a couple of things we need to sort out guild-wise before we get there but that’s a different story. Anyway, here are a couple of things you might want to know in case you’re also considering getting your rogue geared.
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The item level of regular dungeon drops is 333. Gear that can be acquired by Justice Points is 346. Regular dungeon drops have a heroic equivalent when you run heroic dungeons. The level of these items is also 346 and says “Heroic” under the name.
You need an item level of 329 in your character sheet to qualify for heroic dungeons.
Assassination provides the most DPS out of all three specs. Combat is supposed to be close. That isn’t the case in my experience though.
In case you haven’t seen it yet, everything you need to know about Cata raiding (stats, specs, etc.) can be found here. An in-depth Assassination guide is also here. Specs, stat weights, gems, etc. are all there.
Here’s a gear list of sorts that you might find useful, sorted by slot. Note that I only queried armor so trinkets, rings, cloaks and weapons aren’t included.
That’s it for now. Hope you find the information useful.
I didn’t participate in the beta when it was available so when I upgraded to Cataclysm I didn’t know what to expect. Thankfully, the amount of hand-holding that Blizz has implemented is so rampant you’d have to be blind to miss it.
I’m leveling as Assassination. The experience might be different for Combat or Subtlety but till I respec I won’t know what it’s like. As a dual-specced rogue Sin’s second spec is non-existent. EJ says that Assassination is the clear winner in raiding DPS and I’ve also read that Combat is “missing” damage, whatever that means, which are the reasons why I haven’t set it as my second spec. If this was WotLK, I’d be Combat in a heartbeat because of the cooldowns, AOE attacks and simpler rotation—okay, mostly because of the simpler rotation. Cata re-introduces Rupture in the Assassination cycle and also brings in Backstab, but the details on that are for a different post.
In case you were wondering what the World of WarCraft: Cataclysm Collector’s Edition contains, Ars Technica has you covered. Hit the link for the rest of the contents.
Price? $80.
I was leveling my priest earlier. I struggled a bit with finding a decent rotation using a Shadow spec but once I did I started to actually have fun. It was my first time leveling in the Barrens post-Shattering and I eventually stumbled into Camp Taurajo. What’s left of it anyway.
The Alliance apparently attacked the camp. I was looking at the results. To add insult to injury the ruins are now populated by looters.
I was given a quest called Honoring the Dead. It involves finding the bodies of four Taurens in the camp and giving them their final rites. It sounded simple enough. I thought nothing of it until I got to the bodies themselves.
Their names were Krulmoo, Dranh, Yonada and Omusa. As I gave them their final rites, each of them rose as a spirit and said something.
Krulmoo’s Spirit: I ran to wake up the others when the attack hit. Were they able to escape? I tried to fight off the soldiers with a skinning knife…
Dranh’s Spirit: I can feel the embrace now of all living things, the Earthmother’s eternal peace. Thank you.
Yonada’s Spirit: Alliance - they’ve surrounded the camp! What are they doing here? Why are they attacking Taurajo? Get the children - run! RUN!
I am no stranger to getting feelings evoked by games. For example, I said a silent “Hell yeah!” when Jim Raynor finally succeeded in getting Kerrigan back in SC2. He never gave up, even when he questioned his motivations about saving someone who committed genocide. He didn’t quit on her. So when I started to feel a little heavy while I was on this quest I knew that it had gotten to me. I was laying these NPCs to rest. I was witnessing their last thoughts before they passed on.
These were my thoughts as I headed to the last body. Omusa. He was the camp’s flight master. Seeing him dead was tougher than the rest because he was a level 65 elite NPC. If anyone in the camp had a chance of surviving, it would’ve been him.
I was in a somber mood already. I just wanted to finish the quest, to get it over with and move on. Little did I know that Blizz had a surprise for me.
He stayed to defend so that others may survive. And even in death Omusa’s spirit is able to summon a wyvern to fly. If that isn’t badass I don’t know what is. His final act lifted my somber mood.
I find it comforting that I am not alone in feeling a little different about this quest. And I’m sure there’s an Alliance equivalent of this wherein the Horde is the offender. Still, it’s quests like these that make leveling not only fun but also provoking. So thanks Blizz. Whoever came up with this quest deserves recognition.
The title says it all. Poor armorsmiths.
