Amid a torrent of cheers and sighs of relief, Cataclysm raiding came to a close last night for Vigil’s raid team. HM Deathwing finally succumbed to the Aspects and to our determination, and although no epic legs or cow-themed secret phase were presented as a reward for our efforts, I know it was a particularly sweet victory for a raid team that has weathered too many winter storms. And as I sit here thinking of what I wanted to say about Cataclysm in general, and about Tier 13, I find that I wish I had more time. The drives to and from work, during which I wrote and rewrote this post at least 20 times over in my head,...

It has become a tradition of sorts for my Significant Other and I, when making the trek down to the parents’ house for birthdays, holidays, or other celebrations, to use the time on the road to talk game design/philosophy.  Oftentimes, the conversations start out about WoW (since that’s something that we’ve shared for 5+ years now) and drift off on tangents outside of Blizzard’s universe to debate the value of crafting systems, whether there’s viable alternate end-game progression outside of PVE and PVP, or if large-scale vanity items (eg: player housing) have a place in a world where player density is important. Our drive down south this past holiday was no exception to our typical brainstorming practice, as a...

It’s hard to believe it, but 2011 and all its glory will shortly be a thing of the past. It’s been 3 tiers and over 100 ilvls since we all set about reaching 85, and thereafter steadfastly pursued a fire-breathing menace who set entire zones ablaze. It’s certainly been an eventful year at that—from the more recent LFR bans, to Legendary farming, and class stacking discussions. For Resto Shaman in particular, it’s been a roller-coaster ride of emotions, as we’ve gone from being cast aside in Tier 11 and 12 to being the healer de rigueur at the end of Tier 13. Buffs and nerfs, we’ve been through it all, and as MMO-Melting Pot has been chronicling, we in...

Now, more than ever before, there are a multitude of choices for players looking to get those final upgrades in the last tier of the expansion. From heroics and LFR to 10- and 25-man raids, end-game PVE content has a multitude of gearing paths to suit a player’s interest and potential time commitment. Even valor upgrades have been expanded in this last progression push and now include offset helm and shoulder options for players who haven’t had the opportunity to kill the corresponding tier-token bosses. In today’s post I’m going to focus on one specific element of your Tier 13 set—trinkets. Always popular and always hotly-debated, trinket selection is the one choice where a healer can make a major...

I went through about 13 or so awkward intros for this post and in the end all I could think to start this off was to say—it’s been one heck of a ride since 4.3 launched. For some, it’s been a trial in patience, as new dungeon heroics and LFR bosses have asked you to venture outside your comfort zone and interact with other people in the world (of warcraft). For others, this marked the start, and possibly end (for those 8/8 DS folks) of progression for the expansion. And for everyone, the bustle and population of the game rose as people logged in to experience all the new things to do and see in game, except transmogrification, because...

Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work – Chuck Close As I set about getting ready for the last content tier of the Cataclysm expansion, after spending a year being taunted by elusive achievements like , it’s time to mark another milestone in my little corner of the world—the second anniversary of Life in Group 5. Yes, it’s been two years since I started creating a blog to call my own, since I started taking my theorycraft beyond the information found on Elitist Jerks, and since I started trying (emphasis on “trying”) to become a Resto Shaman yoda for … well, everyone. Let me tell you, it’s been one...

Although it will be at least another six months before we find ourselves knee-deep in Pandas and cross-faction conflict, and toe-to-toe with another set of as-yet unknown antagonists, information about Mists of Pandaria is slowly making its way into the online community. And the first major chunk of information, released at Blizzcon, is something that I’ve been looking forward to weighing in on ever since I’ve gotten back from my California vacation. As I mentioned in my Blizzcon Afterthoughts post, I walked away from the intro to MoP much more reassured about the direction of the shaman class than I had expected to be. And although some of my Elemental and Enhancement friends who attended were less than enthused...

(This is Part II of a 2-parter on Resto Shaman in the upcoming patch 4.3, which is currently being tested on PTR servers. Part I talked about some of the changes that Restos have waiting for them in the final tier of the expansion. This post is going to try and wrap up that preview with a discussion on healer parity). I don’t think there’s any question that WoW has changed significantly from those first days of Vanilla. And certainly the raiding game itself has evolved by such leaps and bounds that it’s fairly difficult to compare the tank-and-spank, pallies-spend-the-entire-fight-buffing fights of Molten Core against the incredibly complex, demanding dances that populate the instances of Cataclysm. And although the...

If anyone had any doubt in their mind about Blizzard’s commitment to speeding up patch releases, I think it has been firmly extinguished with the flood of PTR data hitting WoW websites in the last month. In conjunction with the much-debated nerf to Firelands content and recent PTR testing, it seems like it won’t be long until we find ourselves facing the adversary that taunted us since last December. (Yes, it’s only been a year!) For Resto Shaman, and actually shaman in general, patch 4.3 is looking to herald some major changes to the class, some of which have me scratching my head and others that have me screaming “hallelujah!” (This is actually going to be a two-part post,...

This year marked my second visit to Blizzard Entertainment’s hat tip to its fans and community, and as seems to be the case for most attendees, it was an experience not to be forgotten. Unlike last year’s more low-key version, 2011’s Blizzcon (at least Day 1) was absolutely packed with announcements and news, from the preview of the upcoming expansion, to class changes, balancing discussions, and some of the most epic SC2 gameplay I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. The parties were a delight (even though I didn’t spend all that long at any of them), and Vixsin-rage was even put on display to the poor lads who decided to park themselves in the hallway outside of my...