Personalizing Your UI: Part 2
Modding gone horribly wrong. Courtsey of Techchee.com
Personalizing your UI is about more than good looks, its about convenience. This time around I am going to show you some great add-ons that are not flashy but get the job done right. This includes chat, inventory management, and auction house mods that will help you to use your play time more efficiently and make it more profitable.
Chat Add-ons:
In game chat can sometimes be tedious and even irritating. If you have ever been in trade chat during a murloc/chuck norris/anal spamfest then you know what I am talking about. However, Warcraft’s chat can be a powerful tool if you know how to use it correctly.
At the time of this post I was using ChatMOD as my only chat add-on. It has been an excellent add-on that has provided me with everything I thought I needed out of a chat mod. This includes the ability to easily join/leave, colorize, and organize channels. It gives users the ability to scroll up the window using a mousewheel and remove the default scroll buttons. ChatMOD can add sound effects to notify when a message has been received from group, raid, guild, or whisper. And finally, it gives you the ability to click on the word invite or inv to invite the whisperer into a group or raid.
The one thing that seems to be missing from ChatMOD was more customization options for whispers. Whispers are independent from the rest of the random, meaningless chat that often flies by and require special attention. For this reason I decided to try out WIM. (WoW Instant Messenger) At first glance I did not like this add-on at all. It seemed bulky and literally felt like a program was opening on top of WoW. However, after using it for a few hours I saw that it was useful and convenient with many customization options that made have a 1 on 1 conversation easier.
This is a multi conversation chat panel. The tabs at the top control each of the seperate conversations.
This is the options interface for WoW Instant Messenger.
An additional feature is the History Viewer, which is really nice so going back to see if you missed a message from a friend.
In researching this post I also tried using Chatter, which is currently the highest rated chat mod available, and Chatr, a relatively new chat mod. Chatter had more customization options than ChatMod but the bugginess and semi-intimidating configuration menu left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Overall, neither Chatter or Chatr seemed to do anything that ChatMod couldn’t do. so if you are looking for a simple, light, chad mod I suggests ChatMOD. For experienced modders, give Chatter a try.
Another aspect of chat is who you are talking to. I found several options for friends list available, but ended up with FriendFu, a FuBar add-on. FriendFu seems to do everything a person could want out of a friends list with actually having to bring up your friends list. You just scroll over the icon in your FuBar to bring up a list of friends.
On a side note, Carbonite, which is a questing add-on I use already, includes many friends list features that may be enough without wasting more memory.
Main options menu for ChatMOD
Sound options for warnings.
Channel options
The menu is for a cool feature that highlights words of interest that scroll by.
Bag Add-ons:
Bag add-ons are another set of mods that can be almost limitlessly useful even though most people just use them to turn all of their bags into one bigger bag. I have used Bagnon, Ark Inventory, Onebag, and several others. Each of these mods has its specialty or area in which it excells. Bagnon is a great lightweight mod that has all of the basic options such as changing size, color, and opacity. Not to mention the ability to see what all of you other characters are carrying without logging over. Unlike Onebag, which is also a lightweight bag mod, you get the bank mod included.
Onebag is similar is most ways and adds a few options for sorting items, but you must also download Onebank for your bank bags.
In my opinion, the best bang for your buck is Ark Inventory. Immeadiantly after installing, the default bags look horrible and are huge, taking up a third of my 1920×1080 screen. However, typing /arkinventory config brings up a simple options screen that has everything you need to customize your bags in whatever way is useful to you. My favorite thing about Ark Inventory though, is the bag customizing. This options lets you set types of items that go in imaginary bags. This means you can set a bag to be for gear and the mod creates a space for all of the gear you currently have in your bags. This option is great for reagents, quest item, and off sets that just get mixed up and hard to find in one big bag.
My bags seperated by category. Ark auto places my reagents in the first bag, my gear in the second bag, and so forth. If you fill a bag Ark allocates more slots to that bag.
Main options menu for Ark Inventory
Options for automatic bag opening
Options by bag type
Bag color and size options
Auction House Add-ons:
I actually regret having added this into Personalizing Your UI because the amount of detail and options make this a topic that I could not completely cover in several posts. Not to mention that there are a very large number of add-ons that are cover all sorts of auction house related issues that can be really useful but are not actually ah mods. So to keep things short I covered 3 ah add-ons that I think cover the widest range of and most popular features of a good ah mod.
The first I tested was Auctioneer and was impressed with the options and speed at which it allowed me to list items.Using with Auctioneer was kinda like getting addicted to crack. I couldnt stop playing with it and kept finding new add-on that worked with it. One example of the really useful add-ons is Enchantrix, which tells you what an item will disenchant into. When I uninstalled Auctioneer to test the other add-ons I lost the ability to use these other great features and felt like someone had cut off my hand. Luckily, both other ah add-ons had built in features that were similar to, though not as good as the ones that come with Auctioneer. The real benefit was that my loading times dropped signifigantly when uninstalling Auctioneer and switching to AuctionLite. I found AuctionLite to be pretty much perfect for what I need when trying to play the ah game. Its easy to use and has great buying and selling options, including the ability to auto buy a certain amount of items. If this feature has to purchase extra to get the amount you wanted, it tells you how much you can resell the extra items for.
Auctionator was very similar to AuctionLite but just felt inferior in its presentation. It did have all of the basic features and was more memory efficent than Auctioneer.
The detailed view of the auction house interface.
A breakdown of features from the basic auction house interface, courtesy of the Auctioneer website
This is a view of an item tooltip using all of the Auctioneer accompanying add-ons. The name of each addon is listed below.
As you probably noticed I didnt go into a lot of detail regarding each add-ons setup and confiugurations. Instead I will be linking to other articles, posts and videos that give specifics and attention to detial that I did not have time for. Please see the Add-Ons page at the top of the screen for links to this information. Stayed tuned till next week and I will wrap up my Personalizing Your UI post with Part 3 on map, loot, and raid mods.
Connection Issues
I just wanted to apologize for the lack of posts at the beginning of this week. My internet has been down. 
Damn you Verizon!!!!!!! A new router showed up yesterday but after installing I am still having a few connection issues, although not as bad. Don’t worry though, I will still be posting the second part of the Personalizing Your UI post before the end of this week. Also, I am going to be upgrading the site quite a bit more and hopefully that will be done on Saturday. If you have any questions or recommendations for topics or improvements them email me at darkenedsoul1@rocketmail.com.
Today’s Menu: Fish Feast
Chef Chuck here again with another great recipe to make mouths water. This special dish will make you the favorite of any party with its robust flavor and ability to give buffs to all members of a raid or party. Just take 2 Musselback Sculpin, 2 Glacial Salmon, 2 Nettlefish, and a dash of Northern Spices, throw it all in a baking dish and have your Green Proto-Drake breathe on it for about 30 seconds. Chef Chuck promises you will be everyones new best friend after whipping up one of these babies for a hungry crowd.
Fish Feast
Binds when picked up
Requires Level 70Use: Set out a great feast that will feed your party! Restores 15000 health and 12960 mana over 30 sec. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 80 Attack Power, 46 Spell Power and 40 Stamina for 1.00 hour.
Darkened Soul: A Mission Statement
Courtesy of Apanthrope, Shadow Priest
Originally, I started Darkened Soul so that I would have a way to discuss and help others with different topics relating to playing a shadow priest. What I didn’t understand was that there is no way I can cover as much as I want or is needed on a thorough class site by myself. So what I have decided to do instead is create a shadow priest portal.
Don’t worry if you regularly read my blog posts because I will still be writing them. However, my priority has changed and the main focus of this site will now be to help shadow priests find every bit of information that is available no matter how small. I will be categorizing, reviewing, and researching the already existing and constantly updated world of shadow priest literature.
Meaning……if there is a blog on shadow priests that really rocks, I will send you there.
If a new add-on comes out that is great for melting faces I will find it, review it, and tell you what sites have it.
I will even be mindless pouring through gigabytes of YouTube videos for PvP, PvE, or other type of interesting videos I think might be entertaining or amusing.
The site will be constantly changing as fast as I can make it happen. The best way to keep up with these changes is to follow my Twitter, which is always showing the latest updates on the left hand side of the site. You can also follow it by clicking here. Feel free to contact me through Twitter or my email (darkenedsoul1@rocketmail.com) if you have any suggestions, information about content, or questions about the changes being made.
Personalizing your UI: Part 1
Customizing your UI FTW!!!!
Sometimes even the best gaming companies do not have the time to make every feature kick ass. The developers at Blizzard deliberately designed World of Warcraft to be almost infinitely customizable through modding, so that they would not have to try to make each player happy with a single way of doing things. Omfg there are mods that do just about anything you can imagine, from changing your gear with a single click, to warning you when bosses are going to rip your face off, to letting you play games whenever you die. I am kind of an add-on freak. I use so many add-ons that my screen takes about two full minutes to load. One of the main things that I use my mods to do is to customize my user interface and how I interact with it. How can anyone play with the basic WoW interface? Its boring and there are so many things that you can’t do, can’t move, or can’t change. So…..I am going to divulge my small amount of experience and knowledge of customization in a three part post starting with bar mods and player frames. Part 2 will be over chat, bags, and the auction house and how they can save you time and make you mucho moola. Finally,Part 3 will be over maps, loot, and raid mods that will keep you alive when your lame ass healer doing Naxx in greens can not.
Part 1
Bar Mods:
One of the first things that irritated me when I began playing World of Warcraft several years ago, was the inability to move the action bars and player frames. Okay, great I can make a few more bars appear, but I can even move them where I want them to go. Luckily, several mod developers took on this problem immediately and gave us some great solutions. As far as bar mods go, the best of the best (and pretty much the only two) are Bartender and Dominos (whic used to be Bongos). Both are well done and consistently updated with content. Personally, I use Bartender4 because of its almost unlimited configuration options. Bartender4 gives you the ability to use as many bars as you want and to customize the size, number of buttons and rows, and visuals. Bartender also has many bar-related action options like a range finder, self-cast options, and assisting targets. For players that swear by key bindings, Bartender uses a much simpler approach to setting your hot keys through a click to bind system. In the screen shot below you can see the easy to understand options menu for Bartender4 and some of the customization options.
Here are a few button configurations using Bartender4 that I have found online. The bottom picture is of my current UI on Chuckenorris while fishing in Ironforge.
You can have as many or as few bars on screen as you like. Also, each bar can be customized with different amounts of buttons
Interesting button set up. I think it uses another mod called CyCircle to get the rounded edges.
A nice minimalist scheme free of addon clutter
Nice raiding UI
My Current UI on Chuckenorris
One thing that id like to point out on my UI, is that I use hidden buttons. These are bars that disappear when you are either in combat or you have to mouse-over to see them. I like this option because it keeps mount and buff buttons off my screen when they are unnecessary.
Dominos has similar options and customization to Bartender4 so I am not going to repeat them all. Both are great choices for moving your action bars into a position more suited towards your playing style. I wont go into configuration techniques, however, if you have any questions you can email me at darkenedsoul1@rocketmail.com and I would be glad to help you out. Also, there are some great UI threads at MMO-Champion and Elitist Jerks that not only post pics but answer questions and give advice.
Player Unit Frames:
Next up we have player unit frames add-ons. Player unit frames show your character’s health and mana along with party, raid and enemy information. Mods such as Pitbull, X-Perl, and Glass Unit Frames give players the ability to change the look and placement of there unit frames to meet there needs. There are an enormous amount of these mods available but I will only go over the general capabilities of them and not there specifics for the sake of keeping this post readable and short.
Player unit frames are probably the most difficult thing Blizzard would have had to compromise to try and keep players happy. I have seen so many different set-ups ranging from a simple movement of the existing frames, to a complete skinning and modification. All of these mods will give you the ability to move your unit frames, but for the really detailed stuff you will probably want to stick with the bigger names such as Pitbull or X-Perl.
Recently I switched to Pitbull for a few reasons, but for almost 2 years I used X-Perl so I have had very detailed experiences with both. My switch to Pitbull was due to X-Perl’s inability to dumb down the unit frames as much as I was wanting at the time. By dumb down I mean two bars, one for health, one for mana, with no player picture and no icons or graphics. I was going for a super simple UI with an open center that felt clutter free. Pitbull gave me the customization I wanted of my unit frames but I had to give up several features that I really liked about X-Perl. For instance, X-Perl has a very useful set of options for buffing, debuffing, and timers to track them. As a shadow priest I find it infinitely important to keep accurate timing on my DoTs. I basically combated this loss by searching until I found a DoT timer that worked for me. (ShadowMOD 1.4) Pitbull on the other hand gave me the ability to customize the shape and size of my unit frame bars to a degree that I could not accomplish with X-Perl. In addition, I found Pitbull’s raiding unit frames to be cleaner looking while still having all the necessary information. Other than that both of these mods have there own take on all kinds of features including: raiding unit frames, pet frames, pet target frames, target frames, target of target frames, target of target of target frames, main tank frames, range finders, cast bars, threat bars, and many more. Here are a few of the more interesting unit frames I have seen.
This set up is some what similar to mine, with the party frames near the bottom and the player and enemy frames near the center
This is a raid frame set up for a healer.
A slightly more cluttered yet useful single target set-up using bigger bars for targets and bright colors to maintain focus during intense combat.
There were some unit frames that were so complicated that I felt showing the pictures would be asking for questions that were out of my knowledge range. But, as you can see these mods can completely change the way you interact with your unit frames and the information they display for you. Hopefully, this will make your WoW life a little easier, at least until they change something that breaks all the add-ons again 
That is it for this section on bar mods and unit frames. These are just a few of the neat and interesting customizations that you can achieve to create a UI that fits your play style. Whether you are a healer, tank, or damage dealer there is a unit frame or bar mod to suit your needs. Please see Darkened Soul’s add-on page by clicking the link at the top of the screen to find locations for all the mods talked about here today and many more. For any question you may have please email me at darkenedsoul1@rocketmail.com and stay tuned next week for Part 2 on chat, bags, and auction house mods.
Photos in this post are courtesy of the Elitist Jerks “Post Your UI” thread
Compiled Priest Changes for Patch 3.1
This is going to be my on-going list of Priest changes for patch 3.1. All of these patch notes are subject to or may already have changed. Notes are listed in the order that they have been posted. The newest notes are closest to the top. These patch notes are compiled from MMO-Champion’s full patch note listing. I have done my best to label the build that each set of notes is from but some were not listed.
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Shadow
* Psychic Horror: Has been redesigned and is now a 1-point talent. You terrify the target, causing them to tremble in horror for 3 seconds and drop all weapons (disarm effect: including bows) for 10 seconds. 2 minute cooldown. (Up from 1 minute) Instant cast. The horror effect can be dispelled, but the disarm cannot.
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Patch 3.1.0 – PTR Build 9733
Glyph of Hymn of Hope – Your Hymn of Hope lasts an additional 2 sec.
Psychic Horror cooldown
We were worried about the short cooldown in combination with Psychic Horror not sharing the Psychic Scream diminishing returns. We imagined every fight starting with the priest just chain CC-ing someone. It was intended as a defensive tool, to use when you’re having trouble with a melee class or hunter. The longer duration should make you think about when you use it instead of just firing it off as part of your rotation.
Having said that, cooldowns are a relatively easy thing to mess with, so we can always tune it up or down depending on how it plays out. (Source)
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Patch 3.1 – PTR Build 9722
Priest T8 Shadow 4P Bonus (Class: Priest) — Your Mind Blast also grants you 240 haste rating for 4 sec. (Old – 15 Haste, bugged)
Priest T8 Healer 4P Bonus (Class: Priest) — Casting Power Word: Shield also grants you 250 spell power for 5 sec. (Old – 15 spell power, bugged)
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Holy
Divine Hymn mana costs has been increased from 35% of base mana to 63% of base mana. Cooldown increased from 6 min to 10 min. Now Heals 3 nearby lowest health friendly party or raid targets for 4320 to 4774 every 2 sec for 8 sec, and increases healing done to them by 15% for 8 sec.
Shadow
Psychic Horror cooldown has been increased from 1 minute to 2 minutes.
Patch 3.1.0 – PTR Build 9704
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Holy
Hymn of Hope – You recite a Holy hymn, restoring hope to those in despair. Restores 3% mana to 3 nearby low mana friendly party or raid targets every 2 sec for 8 sec, and increases their total maximum mana by 20% for 8 sec. Maximum of 12 mana restores. The Priest must channel to maintain the spell. 40 yd range, Channeled, 6 min cooldown
Divine Hymn – You recite a Holy hymn, summoning the power of the Divine to assist you in your time of need. Heals 3 nearby lowest health friendly party or raid targets for 1 to 6 every 2 sec for 8 sec, and increases healing done to them by 15% for 8 sec. Maximum of 12 heals. The Priest must channel to maintain the spell. 35% of base mana, 40 yd range, Channeled, 6 min cooldown
Body and Soul now increases the target’s movement speed by 30% (down from 60%). (Not a change, clarified by Ghostcrawler)
Shadow
Shadowfiend doesn’t have a reduced chance to be hit by spells and melee attacks anymore But they gained a healthy hp boost for PvP and the standard pet avoidance for AE damage in PvE. (Source)
Misery now increases the benefit from spell power gained by your Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by 5/10/15%.
Divine Hymn redesigned: You recite a Holy hymn, summoning the power of the Divine to assist you in your time of need. Heals 3 nearby lowest-health friendly party or raid targets for 4960-5208 every 2 seconds for 8 seconds, and increases healing done to them by 15% for 8 seconds. Maximum of 12 heals. The Priest must channel to maintain the spell. Cooldown increased to 6 minutes, up from 5.
Hymn of Hope redesigned: You recite a Holy hymn, restoring hope to those in despair. Restores 3% mana to 3 nearby low mana friendly party or raid targets every 2 seconds for 8 seconds, and temporarily increases their total maximum mana by 20% for 8 seconds. After the effect expires, the mana is lost. Maximum of 12 mana restorations. The Priest must channel to maintain the spell. Cooldown increased to 6 minutes, up from 5.
Mental Agility, Inner Focus, Shadow Reach, Shadow Focus and Shadow Affinity now all affect Psychic Horror.
Discipline
Improved Divine Spirit: This talent has been removed.
New Talent: Improved Flash Heal: Reduces the mana cost of your Flash Heal by 5/10/15%, and increases the critical effect chance of your Flash Heal by 4/7/10% on friendly targets at or below 50% health.
Shadow
Shadow Affinity: Now also causes you to receive 5/10/15% of your base mana when your Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch spells are dispelled.
Vampiric Touch: When dispelled, Vampiric Touch will deal damage to the afflicted target.
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Glyph of Fear Ward: Now reduces duration and cooldown by 1 minute.
Glyph of Inner Fire: Increases bonus armor by 50%.
Glyph of Mind Control: Increases duration by 30 seconds.
Glyph of Psychic Scream: Increases duration by 2 seconds, but increases cooldown by 8 seconds.
Discipline
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Grace description has been modified to add – Grace can only be active on one target at a time.
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Discipline
Mental Agility changed from 5 to 3 Ranks. Now Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 4/7/10%. (Old – 2/4/6/8/10%)
Holy
Serendipity now reduces the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell by 4/8/12%. (Down from 6/12/20%)
Body and Soul *New Talent* – When you cast Power Word: Shield, you increase the target’s movement speed by 30/60% for 4 sec, and you have a 50% chance when you cast Abolish Disease on yourself to also cleanse 1 poison effect in addition to diseases.
Shadow
Shadowform now gives the the periodic damage from your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch spells the ability to critically hit for 100% increased damage.
Mind Melt now also increases the periodic critical strike chance of your Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain spells by 3/6%.
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Discipline
Mental Agility: Reduced to 3 points (4/7/10%), down from 5.
Shadow
Mind Melt: Now also increases the periodic critical strike chance of your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch spells by 3/6%.
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Power Word: Barrier (Power Word: Shield for the whole group) and Hymns revamp
We’d still like to do Barrier, but some of the revamps ended up more extensive than we planned. At this point we’d rather make what we have taste good instead of throwing new ingredients into the stew, but it’s an idea we still like.
Believe it or not, hymns are still being worked on. Now that the squid works a little better, Hymn of Hope has even less of a role. (Source)
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Holy
Hymn of Hope has been re-added to the game.
Shadow
Psychic Horror (New Skill) – You terrify the target, causing them to tremble in horror for 3 sec and drop all weapons for 10 sec. (16% of base mana, 30 yd range, Instant cast, 1 min cooldown)
Vampiric Touch now cause 680 damage (at Rank 5) if the effect is dispelled.
Shadow Affinity now gives the priest 5% of his base mana when his Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch spells are dispelled.
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Warrior rage generation while Power Word: Shield is active in 3.1
This is a buff to warriors versus priests. However, warriors also received a pretty hefty nerf versus priests that not many players are talking about. Specifically, you will no longer be at zero armor in PvP situations. (Source)
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Discipline
Meditation and Improved Power: Word shield have changed locations with each other.
Meditation: Now grants 17/33/50% of mana regeneration while casting
Renewed Hope: This talent also now allows you to proc the Renewed Hope buff on all party/raid members every time you cast Power Word: Shield, reducing damage taken by 3%. Lasts 20 sec.
Shadow
Psychic Horror: Has been redesigned and is now a 1-pt talent. You terrify the target, causing them to tremble in horror for 3 sec. and drop all weapons (disarm effect: including bows) for 10 sec. 1 minute cooldown. Instant cast. The horror effect can be dispelled, but the disarm cannot.
Improved Spirit Tap: Now grants 17/33% of mana regeneration while casting.
Spirit Tap: Now grants 83% of mana regeneration while casting.
Priest
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Glyph of Dispersion: Reduces the cooldown on Dispersion by 45 sec.
Glyph of Fade: Now reduces cooldown by 9 sec.
Glyph of Guardian Spirit: If you Guardian Spirit lasts its entire duration without being triggered, your Guardian Spirit cooldown is reset to 60 sec.
Glyph of Holy Light: Can no longer crit and has had its range updated.
Glyph of Hymn of Hope: Your Hymn of hope provides 2 times the normal amount of mana per time, but its duration is 50% shorter.
Glyph of Mind Sear: Increases the radius of effect on Mind Sear by 5 yards.
Glyph of Pain Suppression: Allows Pain Suppression to be cast while stunned.
Glyph of Penance: Reduces the cooldown of Penance by 2 sec.
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Viper Sting
Viper Sting vs. priests is something we plan to address. (Source)
Reflective Shield and Hymn of Hope removal
There is a good chance we will just keep this spell. The jury is still out. As I am sure most of you know, the original intent was to let you gain the functionality on any target. When we had to limit it to the priest for technical reasons (that is to say the tech didn’t exist to cast it on others) then we became less enamored with the spell, as did many of you.
However it turns out there are plenty of players who still like Reflective Shield exactly as it is, so it may get a stay of execution. Both these spells will probably be rescued from the cutting room floor. (Source)
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Shadow Priests
I think Shadow priests will be in a good place. For PvP they got a much-needed tweak to Psychic Horror, but I won’t spoil it here.
For PvE, I think the changes will help their scaling in the long run. I suggested in another thread that we might need to make their Shadow spells crit at 200% in order for the Shadowform change to actually be a buff. But we are fully committed to having the dots crit. The game just works better that way.
The Shadow Ulduar 4 piece set bonus is pretty sweet too. (Source)
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Healing as a Discipline priest
I believe there are 1 or 2 more Disc talent changes you don’t have yet that boost healing a little more. We’re not worried about Disc mana generation, because it was really good before, but let us know if you get on the PTR how it feels. (Source)
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Glyph of Fade – Reduces the cooldown of your Fade spell by 9 sec. (Down from 15 sec)
Glyph of Mass Dispel — Reduces the mana cost of Mass Dispel by 50%. (Up from 20%)
Glyph of Mind Control — Reduces the chance targets will resist or break your Mind Control spell by an additional 17%. (Old – Increases the duration of your Mind Control spell by 30 sec.)
Glyph of Smite — Your Smite spell inflicts an additional 20% damage against targets afflicted by Holy Fire. (Old – Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Smite by 100%.)
Glyph of Scourge Imprisonment — Reduces the cast time of your Shackle Undead by 0.5 sec. (Old – Increases the chance of success for your Shackle Undead spell by 8%.)
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Discipline
Grace doesn’t reduce damage dealt to the target anymore but now increases the healing received from the Priest by 3% (Up from 2%)
Renewed Hope now also give you a 100% chance to reduce all damage taken by 3% for 20 sec to all friendly party and raid targets when you Power Word: Shield a friendly target.
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Glyph of Psychic Scream — Increases the duration of your Psychic Scream by 2 sec. and increases its cooldown by 8 sec. (Old: Increases the duration of your Psychic Scream by 1 sec.)
Glyph of Fear Ward — Reduces cooldown and duration of Fear Ward by 60 sec. (Old: 30 sec.)
Glyph of Fade — Reduces the cooldown of your Fade spell by 15 sec. (Old: Increases the duration and cooldown of your Fade spell by 50%.)
Glyph of Inner Fire — Increases the armor from your Inner Fire spell by 50%. (Old: Increases the charges on your Inner Fire spell by 20.)
Glyph of Mind Control — Increases the duration of your Mind Control spell by 30 sec. (Old: 12 sec.)
Glyph of Smite — Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Smite by 100%. (Old: 50%)
Glyph of Dispersion — Your Dispersion ability now also clears movement impairing effects and makes you immune to them for its duration.
Glyph of Guardian Spirit *new* — If you Guardian Spirit lasts its entire duration without being triggered, your Guardian Spirit cooldown is reset to 60 sec.
Glyph of Penance *new* — Reduces the cooldown of Penance by 2 sec.
Glyph of Mind Sear *new* — Increases the radius of effect on Mind Sear by 5 yards.
Glyph of Hymn of Hope *new* — Your Hymn of hope provides 3 times the normal amount of mana per time, but its duration is 50% shorter.
Glyph of Pain Suppression *new* — Allows Pain Suppression to be cast while stunned.
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Discipline
Skills
Divine Spirit is now a baseline spell.
Talents
Penance (Tier 11) Damage increased slightly across all ranks.
Grace (Tier 9) now lasts 15 sec. (Previously lasted 8 sec)
Rapture (Tier 8 ) revamped. Now a 3 point talent. When your Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed or dispelled you are instantly energized with 1.5% of your total mana, and you have a 33% chance to energize your shielded target with 2% total mana, 8 rage, 16 energy or 32 runic power. This effect cannot occur once every 12 seconds.
Focused Will (Tier 7) now increases spell critical strike chance by 1/2/3% in addition to its previous effect.
Reflective Shield has been moved from Tier 7 to Tier 5. It is now a 2 point talent and causes 22/45% of the damage you absorb with Power Word: Shield to reflect back at the attacker.
Enlightenment (Tier 6) is now a 3 point talent and now increases your total Spirit by 2/4/6% and increases your spell haste by 2/4/6%. (Previously a 5 point talent)
Meditation (Tier 3) now increases mana regeneration by 17/33/50%. (Previously 10/20/30%)
Improved Power Word: Fortitude (Tier 2) now also increases your personal stamina by 2/4%.
Unbreakable Will (Tier 1) now reduces the duration of Stun, Fear, and Silence effects done to you by an additional 6/12/18/24/30%. (Previously 3/6/9/12/15%)
*New Talent* Improved Flash Heal, Tier 7, 3 point talent – Reduces the mana cost of your Flash Heal by 5/10/15%, and increases the critical effect chance of your Flash Heal by 4/7/10% on friendly targets at or below 50% health.
*New Talent* Soul Warding, Tier 5, 1 point talent – Reduces the cooldown of your Power Word: Shield ability by 4 sec, and reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Shield by 30%.
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Holy
Skills
Prayer of Healing is now a targeted spell that heals the target’s party.
Holy Nova mana cost reduced from 27% base mana to 22% base mana.
Talents
Circle of Healing (Tier 9) healing increased across all ranks.
Test of Faith (Tier 9) now increases healing by 4/8/12% on friendly targets at or below 50% health.
Serendipity (Tier 8 ) changed to: When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 6/12/20%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 20 sec.
Holy Concentration (Tier 7) changed to: Your mana regeneration is increased by 16/32/50% for 8 sec after you critically heal with Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Binding Heal or Renew. (Previously had a chance to grant clearcasting effect)
Blessed Resilience (Tier 7) increases the effectiveness of your healing spells by 1/2/3% along with its previous effect.
Improved Holy Concentration (Tier 9) removed from the game.
*New Talent* Empowered Renew, Tier 9, 3 point talent – Your Renew spell gains an additional 5/10/15% of your bonus healing effects, and your Renew will instantly heal the target for 5/10/15% of the total periodic effect.
Shadow
Skills
Shadowfiend now creates a shadowy fiend to attack the target. Caster receives 5% mana when the Shadowfiend attacks. Damage taken by area of effect attacks is reduced, and the Shadowfiend has a reduced chance to be hit by spells and melee attacks. Lasts 15 sec.
Talents
Dispersion (Tier 11) now clears all snare and movement impairing effects when cast, and makes you immune to them while dispersed.
Shadowform (Tier 7) now gives your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch spells the ability to critically hit.
Darkness moved from Tier 6 to Tier 1.
Silence (Tier 5) range increased to 30 yards. (Previously was 20 yards)
Vampiric Embrace (Tier 5) now lasts 5 mins. (Previously lasted 1 min)
Spirit Tap (Tier 1) now increases mana regeneration while casting by 87%. (Previously 50%)
Improved Spirit Tap (Tier 1) increases mana regeneration while casting by 17/33%. (Previously 10/20%)
*New Talent* Improved Devouring Plague, Tier 6, 3 point talent – Increases the periodic damage done by your Devouring Plague by 5/10/15%, and when you cast Devouring Plague you instantly deal damage equal to 5/10/15% of its total periodic effect.
Abolish Disease: Now cleanses a disease every 3 sec, down from 5. Duration reduced from 20 seconds, down to 12 sec.
Devouring Plague: This spell now has a new icon.
Divine Spirit is now trainable at level 31.
Holy Nova: Mana cost reduced approximately 20%.
Hymn of Hope: This spell has been removed.
Improved Holy Concentration removed.
Prayer of Healing: This spell now heals the target’s party, rather than being limited to just your direct party.
Shadowfiend: Health scaling increased. Now receives 30% of the master’s spell power. Mana return increased to 5%, up from 4%. The Shadowfiend now receives mana when its melee attacks land, rather than when it deals damage. Movement speed normalized to player movement speed. Tooltip revised.
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Talents
Discipline
Divine Aegis – Divine Aegis effects will now stack, however the amount absorbed cannot exceed 125*level (of the target).
Grace: Duration increased to 15 seconds, but now is only limited to one target.
Improved Power: Word Fortitude – Now also increases your total Stamina by 2/4%.
New Talent: Soul Warding: Reduces the cooldown of your Power Word: Shield ability by 4 sec., and reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Shield by 30%.
Penance: Damage increased approximately 30%.This spell can now be cast on yourself.
Power Infusion: This effect now has a new spell effect and sound.
Reflective Shield:This talent has been removed.
Unbreakable Will:Increased from 3/6/9/12/15% to 6/12/18/24/30%.
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Holy
Circle of Healing: Healing increased by approximately 40%.
Holy Concentration re-designed: Mana regeneration is increased by 16/32/50% for 8 sec after you critically heal with Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Binding Heal or Renew.
New Talent: Empowered Renew: Your Renew spell gains an additional 5/10/15% of your bonus healing effects, and your Renew will instantly heal the target for 5/10/15% of the total periodic effect.
Serendipity re-designed: When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 6/12/20%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 20 sec.
Test of Faith: No longer increases critical effect chance of your heals, but healing done on targets lower than 50% health is increased from 2/4/6 to 4/8/12%.
Shadow
Blackout: This talent has been removed.
Darkness: This talent is now in tier-1, moved up from tier-6.
Dispersion: Now clears all snare and movement impairing effects and makes you immune to them while dispersed.
New Talent: Improved Devouring Plague (Shadow): Increases the periodic damage done by your Devouring Plague by 5/10/15%, and when you cast Devouring Plague you instantly deal damage equal to 5/10/15% of its total periodic effect.
Shadowform: Bonus damage from critical strike chance removed and replaced by the ability of those periodic damage spells to generate critical strikes.
Silence: Range increased to 30 yards.
Vampiric Embrace duration increased to 5 minutes, up from 1 minute. PvP duration is now 60 seconds. Cooldown removed.
Blue Post O’ the Day: Flasks
As many of you have learned, we will be reducing the duration of flask effects so that they only last one hour. However, all recipes that create flasks will create two instead of one for the same material cost. Additionally, we will be increasing stack size from 5 to 20 as we anticipate players will need to carry more flasks at a given time. Vendor value for flasks has also been reduced to keep the auction house deposit low.
Our goal with the change was to allow players greater flexibility when determining how long they plan to raid, as currently we were seeing many players balance time spent raiding around flask duration. We also anticipate that this change will make using flasks in dungeons and battlegrounds a more reasonable decision for players. Though this change will not occur until patch 3.1.0, we wanted to give as much advance notice as possible in case some of you who are stockpiling flasks would prefer to wait to do so until the change is implemented.
We realize players who currently have stockpiled a lot of flasks may feel like they will lose money with this change, since their current flasks will only last for half as long once 3.1.0 goes live. To partially remedy this, we are going to allow players to exchange any current Northrend flasks (Flask of the Frost Wyrm, Flask of Stoneblood, Flask of Endless Rage and Flask of Pure Mojo) for two flasks with the shorter duration. Flasks from older content will not be grandfathered in, and going forward, it will only be possible to make the flasks with a one hour duration.
5 Steps to not be a PvP Nub
These days not many priests PvP as shadow due to lack of survivability and useful weapons. Why choose shadow when disc is so powerful and fun at the same time? Well there are some amazing new talents and abilities coming to shadow in 3.1 that should spice things up.
- Shadow Affinity: Now also causes you to receive 5/10/15% of your base mana when your Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch spells are dispelled.
- Vampiric Touch: When dispelled, Vampiric Touch will deal damage to the afflicted target.
- Psychic Horror: You terrify the target, causing them to tremble in horror for 3 sec and drop all weapons for 10 sec. (16% of base mana, 30 yd range, Instant cast, 1 min cooldown)
- Dispersion (Tier 11) now clears all snare and movement impairing effects when cast, and makes you immune to them while dispersed.
- Shadowform: Now reduces both spell and physical damage taken.
While these changes should breathe some new life into PvPing as shadow, for now I bring you 5 tips that have helped me succeed in PvP.
1. This one is pretty basic but you’d be surprised by how many people actually forget this. Rebuff completely after every death. This means Fort, Shadow Prot, Inner Fire, even fear ward. Why would you think getting beat by someone or a group of someones should be followed by gimping yourself for the next assault. If you want to do well or at least try to look like you belong then please remember this step.
2. PvP gear and PvE gear are not the same no matter how good your PvE gear is. Dont get me wrong when i say this, because I know not everyone has full deadly gladiator. My point here is there is some very easy to get PvP gear through badges, honor points, arena points, Grizzly Hills coins, and Stonekeeper’s Shards, not to mention running VoA. Having a couple of pieces of gear with high stam and resilliance and gemmed and enchanted properly will greatly increase your chances in battlegrounds no matter what your goals are.
3. The spells used in raiding and 5 mans are great for melting face but when it comes down to it you have to be, for the most part, standing still and protected by a tank to use them. In PvP you must maintain constant mobility and learn to use your entire arsenal of spells. Like every class we have spells that seem useless or ill designed for PvE. That is because they were most likely designed with PvP in mind. Dispel, Mass Dispel, Abolish Disease, Mana Burn, these are all spells that are rarely used by raiding shadow priest but are the life and soul of a PvPer. Learn all aspects of your class to become a better player in PvP and in general.
4. Stay in groups and fight at the flags. Its easy to get angered and follow an enemy away from safety so I guess the main message here is never lose your head. Think clearly and help those around you. You dont have to know the people in a battleground to work well with them. Whatever you are doing, whether it be defending, flag carrying, or whatever, take stock of the players around you and what class they are. Every class has different strengths and weakness in PvP and it helps a lot to know what they are.
5. Healing. This is not an all the time thing, but when you are in a battleground with few healers or none are around you are a healer. It sucks yeah I know. The thing that you have to remember is without the others around you you will be a sitting duck. Heal when needed and nuke when needed and be smart enough to recognize when the time is for each.
These tips are basics for staying alive and doing ok at PvP. Stay tuned to my PvP section of the blog and I will get into specifics as time goes on. Thanks for reading and have fun.
Hit or Miss- 3.1 Gear
When the hit rating problem of TBC struck many wow players hard, shadow priests got off easy having to put in almost no effort to get our 76. In WotLK our required hit rating took a giant leap up to 290 and required a little more planning and effort to get capped. The main issue in this for me was tier 7 gear and the lack of hit on all but 2 pieces. I know that I am still using the 72 hit trinket from Violet Hold to compensate for using 5/5 tier 7.5.
Lets face it, hit is not sexy…. No one brags about hit rating or shows it off the way they do spell power, crit, or haste. Its a stat that all of us wish would go away, but we also know never will because it is essential to the dynamics of game play at this point. So, every time I get a new piece of gear I have to weigh its benefits against the loss of hit. This being said, I started looking into the gear from patch 3.1 to see what we have to look forward to.
First off, tier 8 will only have 1 piece with hit rating, that being the chest piece with 74. Some new staffs have been added, such as Unraveling Reach with a massive 114 hit. Overall, it seems that hit seems to being mostly showing up on pieces that are alternatives to set pieces instead of in the off slots such as belts or bracers. Below is a list of hit rating gear data mined from 3.1 courtesy of MMO-Champion.
Weapons:
Unraveling Reach
Intensity
Fire Soul
Head:
Collar of the Wyrmhunter
Cowl of Icy Breaths
Cowl of the Absolute
Neck:
Shoulders:
Chest:
Waist:
Belt of the Darkspeaker
Sash of Ancient Power
Wrist:
Combustion Bracers
Bracers of Unleashed Magic
Legs:
Feet:
Sandals of Rash Temperament
Trinket:
Living Flame
Finger:
Ring of the Vacant Eye
Shimmering Seal
Frozen Loop
Off Hand:
Wands:
Quartz Crystal Wand
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Darkened Soul
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