I make no secret of it, and have, in fact, talked about the topic in multiple posts, in comments on other bloggers’ sites and even in the whopping two podcasts I’ve participated in—I am a meter junkie. Ever since the early days of BC, when I raided as a dps and fought tooth and nail to distinguish myself from a mage roster of 5, I have been very interested in understanding how meters can be “won”. It’s an interest that stuck with me when I main-switched to my Resto Shaman, and a curiosity that has endured over the course of 3 expansions (and likely more to come). But it’s something more substantial than epeen that’s motivating me to write...

With Mists of Pandaria on the horizon and Cataclysm in its twilight, more and more players are making that final push to get their characters up to 85 and into Dragon Soul. And whether your goal is just LFR or getting into DS normal or hard modes, the path into Tier 13 raiding is an easy one these days. Having just taken my old main, a mage, from newly 85 and still in crappy leveling gear to unremarkable mid-meter LFR deeps, I realized how helpful it would be to offer up a guide to those aspiring Resto Shaman out there, who might be looking to make the same journey (albeit with more success than my foray into the world...

It seems like old news now, but it was just a couple weeks ago we saw the floodgates open on MoP data as Mists beta launched. For avid WoW news followers there has been a torrent of articles, posts, videos and screenshots to sort through in the search for changes to the classes we love. For Resto Shaman in particular, the Beta launch brought along with it new Tier 90 talents, new glyphs, and a variety of changes to our arsenal. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to talk about how any of these things play out, because Blizzard seems to unconcerned with my very little corner of the internet, but I wanted to keep everyone up to...

As part of my efforts to substantiate the theories presented in my 2-part series on endgame gearing and progression, I sorted through a ton of data dealing with achievements and guild progression in Tiers 11 and 12. I had originally drafted those two posts with the results of that data analysis included, but due to the fact that I can be a long-winded arse at the best of times, it ultimately was put on the chopping block in my final round of edits. However, because it is, I think, pretty interesting data, I wanted to offer it up for consumption if for no other reason to provide some insight into the numbers behind it all. So, to set the...

It seems like only yesterday I was sitting in the front rows of Blizzcon, all atwitter over the shaman talents on display on the big screen. And although I’m sure that a significant amount of work has gone into Mists of Pandaria development since that day over 4 months ago, not much has changed from an external standpoint. So, in light of the press tour taking place this week for MoP  and the complete lift of the NDA on March 19th, I thought I’d take a quick look at what sort of resto shaman changes we’ve seen indication of thus far and hypothesize about what sort of information could be waiting for us once the NDA is lifted. (I...

Gearing, as one component of a PVE environment, has come a long way since WoW’s inception, tracing a path through different sizes of raid content, varying levels of difficulty, and a host of distinct distribution systems, from pure RNG to effort points. As a system, gearing is inherently tied to the progression of the WoW PVE endgame, with stat inflation progressively and continually narrowing the margin between those dps and hps thresholds set by the encounter and those that are achievable by your raid team. Amazingly, when I started writing this post over a month ago, it wasn’t something that was instigated by any sort of shocking realization about gear and its relationship to progression or an overwhelming urge...

Whenever I think about the process of gearing in WoW, I invariably picture MC Escher’s famous print, “Ascending and Descending”. Although more people might be familiar with the movie Inception’s depiction of the Penrose Stairs, the visual is still a keen one—a never-ending loop of stairs which you can ascend ceaselessly and still never progress past a point where you already had been. To me, the endgame gearing process is very much like that continuous loop of stairs. Your Best-in-Slot from the previous tier, that you spent weeks or months farming, is outdated and insufficient the moment new content is released. And no matter the gear thresholds that you surpass, you will never have gear that is truly irreplaceable....

It’s been just two months since Dragon Soul was released, and whether due to the holidays or maybe just the excitement of consuming new content, it seems like time has been racing by. Judging by the number of emails that I’ve received since 4.3 launch, it’s been a busy time for you all as well, as you worked your way into the new heroic dungeons, through LFR, and onto the final battle with Deathwing. Today I wanted to do another round of the Resto Shaman mailbag, addressing some of the most common Dragon Soul questions that I’ve received post-4.3. As always, if you don’t see your question answered below, you can always feel free to drop me an email....

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...