Is there a Disc priest pvp buff in the upcoming Patch 4.0.6?

So apparently Ghost Crawler has announced some pretty crazy priest BUFFS! it should hit the test realms soon!

Lets see what we have here. Oh yeah, disc wont suck anymore. /yay. (or maybe it was just me, heh) ah well im playing my mage now so eh. But still good news for disc pvp priests. Ill break down the official disc list here, ill skip the boring bits...

• PVP Buff: Focused Will now procs when the priest is critically hit, in addition to its current effect. : so that means that now it will stack?


• PVP Buff: Improved Power Word: Shield now also increases the amount absorbed by an additional 15/30% when cast on oneself. : but i did hear that the mana cost for shield is also being increased so you still cant spam it (too much).


• PVP Buff: Pain Suppression is no longer dispellable.


• Penance mana cost has been increased by 7%, but healing has been increased by 20%.


• PVP Buff: Strength of Soul now also causes the priest to become immune to silence, interrupt, and dispel effects for 2/4 seconds after using Inner Focus.


• PVP Buff: Glyph of Pain Suppression has been renamed Glyph of Desperation and now allows Guardian Spirit to be cast while stunned, in addition to Pain Suppression.


• PVP Buff: Glyph of Spirit of Redemption has been converted into Glyph of Prayer of Mending, which increases the healing done by the first charge of Prayer of Mending by 60%.

Now i have probably overlooked some of them so check out the official list below, but its looking good. Hmm do i want to go back to playing my priest or keep leveling the mage.



Here goes the list of changes for Priests happening in Patch 4.0.6:

• The duration of Levitate has been increased to 10 minutes, up from 2.


• The mana cost of Power Word: Fortitude has been reduced by approximately 68%, making it roughly equal to the cost of Mark of the Wild.


• The mana cost of Power Word: Shield has been increased by approximately 31%, but its effect has been increased by 208%.


• The mana cost of Renew has been reduced by 24%.


• The mana cost of Shadow Protection has been reduced by approximately 65%, making it roughly equal to the cost of Mark of the Wild.


• Mind Blast damage has been significantly increased. It should be roughly 50% greater than Mind Spike.


• Mind Control now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.


• Mind Sear can now be channeled on friendly targets in addition to enemy targets. In addition, Mind Sear's damage has been increased by roughly 15%.


• Prayer of Healing effectiveness has been reduced by 15%.

Talent Specializations

Discipline

• Divine Aegis: Critical effects from Prayer of Healing now award a bonus amount in addition to the default, always-proc Divine Aegis effect.


• Grace is no longer limited to one target at a time.


• Focused Will now procs when the priest is critically hit, in addition to its current effect.


• Improved Power Word: Shield now also increases the amount absorbed by an additional 15/30% when cast on oneself.


• Pain Suppression is no longer dispellable.


• Penance mana cost has been increased by 7%, but healing has been increased by 20%.


• Strength of Soul now also causes the priest to become immune to silence, interrupt, and dispel effects for 2/4 seconds after using Inner Focus.

Holy

• Blessed Resilience will now proc when the priest is critically hit, in addition to its current effect.
  Chakra


• Chakra states now last 1 minute, up from 30 seconds.
  Binding Heal and Holy Word: Serenity now refresh the duration of Renew on the target, in addition to the other direct heals.


• Binding Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal can now trigger Chakra: Serenity.


• Mind Spike can now trigger Chakra: Chastise.


• Circle of Healing effectiveness has been increased by 30%.


• Desperate Prayer now heals the priest for 30% of their total health, up from a very subpar value.


• Guardian Spirit: The absorb/heal from this ability can now never exceed 200% of the maximum health of the target.


• Holy Concentration now increases the amount of mana regeneration from Spirit while in combat by an additional 15/30%, down from 20/40%.


• Holy Word: Chastise now has a 30-second cooldown, up from 25. In addition, it properly breaks from damage.


• Lightwell's health has been increased by 50% (for PvP purposes).


• Serendipity now has Spell Alert and Floating Combat Text feedback support.


• Surge of Light can now also proc from Flash Heal and Greater Heal, and can now also critically hit.

Shadow

• Shadow Orbs benefit from mastery has been increased by approximately 16%.


• Vampiric Embrace now lasts until canceled.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Mind Flay no longer requires Shadow Word: Pain to be on the target.


• Glyph of Pain Suppression has been renamed Glyph of Desperation and now allows Guardian Spirit to be cast while stunned, in addition to Pain Suppression.


• Glyph of Psychic Horror now reduces the cooldown of Psychic Horror by 30 seconds, down from 60.


• Glyph of Spirit of Redemption has been converted into Glyph of Prayer of Mending, which increases the healing done by the first charge of Prayer of Mending by 60%.

patch notes / talents come via Cataclysm Stuff post via KruXoR

the top selling consoles list, looks like the nintendo ds is coming out on top followed by the wii

So which console do you prefer? According to the sales, the Nintendo DS is coming out way ahead with 47 million sales in just the United States alone and 135 Million Total Sales.

According to Nintendo's internal sales figures, the Nintendo DS™ family of portable video game systems has sold more than 47 million in the United States since the original model launched in November 2004. That tally makes Nintendo DS the nation's best-selling video game system of all time.

For the second major milestone of 2010, Nintendo's internal figures show that the Wii™ home console marked its third consecutive calendar year with U.S. sales of more than 7 million - a feat never before accomplished in the history of video games by a home console. To date, the Wii system has sold more than 34 million in the United States alone.

Heres where all the consoles rank overall

1. Nintendo DS @ 135.58 million, including DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL units (as of September 30, 2010)


2. Nintendo Wii has sold 75.9 Million consoles.


3. Worldwide: 62 million (as of September 16, 2010)


4. XBOX 360 - Worldwide: 44.6 million (as of September 30, 2010 (2010-09-30))


5. PS3 - 41.6 million (as of September 30, 2010)

The wii was always going to be popular due to the target market for this console and the new control method that is assisting people adopt this new technology, and its available out of the box.

See the PSP isnt doing so bad after all coming in at number 3, but it has been around for a little while now

The XBox 360 and PS3 are neck and neck at 44.6 million and 41.6 million respectively, give or take a couple of million.

sources:

1. http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=27181


2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS#Sales


3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360


4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3


5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable

via KruXoR

The most awesome new wow cataclysm item ever… the Rainbow Generator… And how to get your own!

So what is it and how do i get it!? /sarcasm (semi on)

Provided that you are already past the level requirement of felwood, you should have no problems aquiring this tasty item.

1. Go To Felwood


2. Talk to Arcanist Delaris, pickup the Do the Imp-Possible Quest


3. Do all the following quests from this dude, until you come across the final quest of the chain Open Their Eyes

Once you have completed the quest Open Their Eyes you will recieve the (ZOMG) Rainbow Generator...

And yes it does hit for about 11 on a mob that is level 47. So watch out, Oh and it comes with a full 10 minute cooldown, just to stop u spamming the 11 damage ranbow and therefore overpowering your class... ;)

This Post comes via KruXoR - The most awesome new wow cataclysm item ever… the Rainbow Generator… And how to get your own!

New wow leveling guide map, shows all the new zones you should level in

This post comes via kruxor.

A friend sent me this level flow diagram, i think it comes via MMO Champion. I just posted it up here for my leveling reference really. Will make things a lot easier when it comes to leveling up a new toon, as i am doing at the moment for some strange reason. Still wondering if i should level a druid or a mage, im kinda leaning towards the mage at the moment. Just cos its good clean DPS fun ;) Still only level 28, but will keep me busy until the official launch.

Anyway here is the leveling diagram:



Or download it here, or via the original link here.

Enjoy.

Time for Some SC2 2v2 Strategy

I think i have almost moved on from WoW... I guess ill just wait til the next expansion, until then... SC2!

Vs Zerg

The problem with vs Zerg is that they expand out too dam quick, and have superior mobility to keep the other player on defence the whole game.

VoirDire from Sweden said:

The build/strat goes something like this:
One zerg 14 hatch into 14 pool and techs to mutas fast with 4 gases.
Other zerg 13 pool into fast roaches until deemed safe from a rush.
When mutas are up, harass to keep other team in their bases while expanding.
If other team builds lots of static defence to hold of the harass, tech to broodlords.

The first in-base expo is easy to hold due to the shared bases and the long distances so that at least one zerg can 16 hatch and pump 4 gases worth of mutas super fast. The other zerg can easily defend agains a fast rush from two players due to the long rush distance and the fact that roaches own all tier 1 units. The other team on the other hand has to account for all the rushes avaliable to zergs (Like double 8-pool/One zerg banelings, other zerg speedlings/roach+3 queens-attack etc) and can't safely fast expand.

The zerg team then has superior mobility all game long with muta/speedling and near complete map information due to overlords and creep tumors. They can expand safely and deny the other team from ever advancing/attacking due to the fact that no expos has any common chokepoints and cannot be properly defended without a large portion of the army posted there.

The zerg team can see if the other team fast expands with their first overlords and then just expand more while harrasing with mutas.

If the other team invests in a lot of static defences one zerg just techs up to brood lords and destroys it.

If the other team invests in air units the zerg team just build a lot of corruptors which is the best antiair unit in the game.

A tough new 'noob' friendly Starcraft 2 Single Player instructional video

Drops/sneak attacks can easily be spotted in with two players worth of overlords and creep tumors scatterd across the map and the superior mobility of mutas/speedlings/nydrus.

Anyone's got any good strategies/theories on what would work against a double z-team on Twilight Fortress?

Thors should work as mineral line defenders against mutas... I have yet to try that, but teching to, and building, thors gives the zergs even more time to expand.

I have countered this strat with terran by just, massing troups and doing all upgrades. He actually just send down a lot of flyers and after this i just built lots of turrets and then started building goliaths, usually about 4 will do it, and take out a while army of flyers easy.

Then i just keep pumping out the supply depo's cos u need like 1 for each two goliath's almost.just be chaining these, and try and get a second command center out and pump up the mineral harvesting to keep up.

789 said:

The main problem with combatting your strategy would definitely be mobility. I can think of some good compositions to fight against it - most of them including thors (since I play terran). A few thors completely neutralizes the mutalisks - but it is so hard to move out with them unless you get medivacs to carry them lol. Something like MMM + Thor (some vikings if broodlords out) with protoss ground + storm would work okish. Stalkers/Marines can do a decent job of protecting vikings from corruptors. Thors will neutralize any muta and do okish against broodlords. The rest of your combined ground forces + storm should be able to handle the zerg ground army. I think the composition would work well - but mid game mobility would be a problem.

Check out more on these related forum threads:

• Team Liquid


• sc2 fast banshee build order: This can be quite an effective strat, as you can be producing banshees withing 4-5 minutes of the st

This post came via KruXoR.

PvP Disc Priest Guide from the wow forums

Just a few (many) good disc priest tips i copied from the wow forum here, good read. Thx to the original post by Synikul.

I have largely noticed that within these forums and the AJ forums there doesn’t seem to be a comprehensive guide for priests that goes over the basics. I see a lot of bad advice given by mediocre priests (and by no means am I saying I am amazing) that don’t know what they are talking about.
For that reason I want to make a guide just going over the basics of a discipline priest, sort of like the raiding guides that are at the top of these forums.
So that being said lets begin.

Two Disclaimers: First, I might have made mistakes, I am writing this waiting for a lab that’s 4 hours away and since I am in the middle of the JHMS Library, I am not putting that much research into it, so just correct me and it will be fixed. Second, I am not going into complex strats for 2346 vs Euro (haha) etc… it’s just the basics of what you need to know to begin PvPing.


First let’s go over our STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES

Strengths:
Disc Priests are the only class that has offensive AND defensive dispels, as well as the only healer class with a MD that can remove Bubble and Ice Block.
Disc Priests have many abilities to reduce damage instead of constantly healing.
Disc Priests have Mana Burn which can force players to play defensively (ex: using it on mages) or allow you to flat out OOM the other healer allowing for a fairly easy win.
Disc Priests have very good defensive spells such as Pain Suppresion.
Disc Priests have strong offensive abilities that combined with trinkets, power infusion, lightweave procs etc.. can allow for quick switches that combined with a DPS can do a lot of damage.
Disc Priests have AOE heals, Single Target heals, HoTs and Divine Hymn which heals for a lot and out of LoS.
Disc Priests can fit in every bracket very easily.

Weaknesses:
We die very quickly once our shields are down. If you don’t get a peel (your partner doesn’t get the DPS off you via whatever means of CC etc) you will probably die soon.
We are not very mobile, meaning we don’t get much opportunity to drink.
We have terrible mana regen compared to other healers.
PvE gear does next to nothing for us, unless you are human and can use the Solace of the Fallen.
All we have is fear. Once that is gone, its up to your partner to help you.

Now if you look at that list you might think, yay, dpriests are super strong. But remember, the two weaknesses I outlined are huge weaknesses that you have to overcome to do well. We are very partner dependent because of our lack of survivability, a terrible form of CC and mana regen is one of the most important stats in arenas. That being said, we are a very viable class, with a decent learning curver and one that is very fun once you get a hang of it.

SPECS

Specs:
60/11/0
Strong Defensive spec
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bxIbuhGqRcsffRtbht

53/18/0
Smite Spec
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bxIbuhGVMcosfktbxtc0b

57/14/0
Ref Shield + Armor Spec
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bxIbuhGiRcosfRtbhtc

60/11/0
Ref Shield - Defensive
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bxIbuhGiRcRffRtbht
Ref Shield - Defensive

GEMS
On gems, always gem for things that you find will benefit you the most. There are no set "sockets" unless you are in full PvP s7 gear and have no PvE gear.
Blue: If you are a tailor and have the back enchant (keep it), then you probably have to pick up spell penetration from somewhere. You can gem 25 spell pen, or 12 sp 10 spen to fill this socket and gain offensive power. If you are new to PvP and lack stamina (PvE gear) you can gem 30 stamina, or 12 sp 10 stamina. If you need res and stamina, you can gem 12 stamina 10 resilience.
Yellow: You can gem 20 resilience. You can gem 12 stam 10 resilience. If you feel you are doing well on the defensive end you can gem 12 sp 10 resilience.
Red: You can gem 12 sp 10 resilience for a good balance. You can gem 23 SP to gain offensive and some defensive stats (spellpower largely helps for offensive abilities though).
Top end priests that have 900 or more resilience, and around 24 to 25k hp will generally start gemming spellpower. Remember, priests are a strong healing class because we can contribute in quick switches to get kills!

Meta
Grab one of two gems. Either the spell power stun reduction (I recommend this one) or if you went for hit 12 hit 12 crit on your boots grab the spellpower minor speed meta. Once you get to the point where games are decided by how much you get drinks off/how much mana you retain/efficacy of heals/damage you should grab the 21int/mana back gem.

Now lets go over little tips that can improve your game on various classes.
A lot of these are obvious but its still things that are good to know.

TIPS
First, Shadow Word: Death can be used to get out of any CC mechanism that breaks on damage. This includes Sheep, Blind, Frost Shatter etc. Basically, if (for example) a mage is sheeping you, stopcast your spell and SWD him. The spell will hit him, and then rebound and do damage to you. If you time it so the damage hits after he sheeps you, you will break out! Find a mage friend and practice this. Its very necessary on mage teams.

Second, Divine Hymn takes you out of combat. It also works out of LoS. So you can go behind a pillar, DH to keep your partner up, and then immediately drink.

Power Infusion lowers your mana cost and increases your casting speed. This has two big effects. First, you can res your partner in 5 seconds by power infusing yourself, bubbling yourself for the 45% haste increase and then res’ing. Second, you can get fast, mana efficient mana burns by popping PI. Finally, you can get relatively mana-cheap dispels by using it. That’s why you will see top priests using PI at points where they are not even casting heals or burns.

Bubble stealth partners to make sure they don’t get popped out with things like Desecration. As long as they don’t take damage they should remain stealthed.

Make sure you chain Gargoyles and other undead creatures when fighting DKs. This includes Lichborne. By chaining the gargoyle and then going LoS, you will not be getting hit for 2k every cast.

GLYPHS
Major glyphs:
Pain Suppression – This is a must for it allows you to use it when stunned. A lot of times kills on you will happen when a rogue stuns you, or a ret repentances you etc.. If you can pop PS, that lets you not become a quick kill.
Penance – Reduces CD by 2 seconds. This is fairly self-explanatory. The more penances you can cast, the more likely you are to survive (or keep your partner up).

Now this is where you have a choice.
If you play an offensive comp (where you do a lot of damage when you switch to someone) then you want to get the Glyph of Smite. A lot of times when I play Priest Rogue, we end up fearing the opposing healer when he doesn’t have a trinket up and then we both DPS the kill target. With MB/SWD => Holy Fire, Smite I can do a lot of damage.

If you play a defensive comp (where you mainly heal) or your partners are bad at peeling and you have a lot of trouble keeping yourself up, go for the Shield Glyph which heals yourself when you use shield, or the Glyph of Inner Fire which increases your armor gained.

Your minor glyphs:
Glyph of Shadowfiend- when it dies you get 5% mana, this helps for people who kill your sfiend (some do.. why who knows?) or for when a druid cyclones it, it glitches or it gets stuck in desecration. At least this way you get some mana.
Glyph of Levitation- I use this for dispel protection. Did you throw out that fear ward, and that priest is rushing at you to fear and dispelling you? Hit this to make sure he doesn’t get it off. This is used for when you know the priest is about to come fear you, don't spam it to protect everything lest you go OOM.
Glyph of Fortitude- Often purges/dispels will take off PW:F. This is a lot of health... you should always keep it up. This makes it efficient.
Glyph of Shackle Undead- Good for DK's .. but thats about it.

GOOD MACROS

Chaining Gargoyles!
#showtooltip Shackle Undead
/target Ebon Gargoyle
/cast Shackle Undead
/targetlasttarget

Mouseover Dispels
#showtooltip Dispel Magic
/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Dispel Magic; Dispel Magic

Stopcast and SWD Sheeps etc!
#showtooltip Shadow Word: Death
/stopcasting
/cast Shadow Word: Death

Shadowfiend (if you target an opponent it targets them!, if its your partner, targets their target)
#showtooltip Shadowfiend
/cast [nopet,harm][nopet,target=targettarget,harm] Shadowfiend
/petattack [harm][target=targettarget,harm]

Anything can be extended to mouseovers, flash heal, penance etc.. just replace dispel with that spells name =)

DISPELS
Some people don’t know what they can dispel, and that’s a huge thing to not know considering its our strength. I will outline what you should dispel on every class when you face them.

Paladins:
Blessings: Dispel these once. If they keep reapplying, don’t worry about it. If they don’t ( a lot don’t) you just took off a huge buff.
Sacred Shield: Looks like your bubble but cooler and more golden. Always, always take this off. It not only helps their healing, it absorbs a lot of damage. Take this off themselves or their partners.
Bubble(Divine Shield): Mass Dispel this. It makes them immune to all damage.
Repentance: If it is on your partner, dispel this. Its basically like a hammer that stuns you/partner for a few seconds.
Hand of Sacrifice ( will be on their partner): Dispel this as it shares damage and if you are CCing the pally, then their sharing damage can break a CD like blind or sheep.
Divine Plea: If the holy pally is not protection specced then dispel this. However DP reduced the pally's healing in half, so if you have the pally OOM and you are about to put out a lot of damage on their partner, let them have it.

Shaman:
Ghost Wolf: Dispel this, it’s a magic buff and they will use this to get away from your partner or to help peel if they are DPS.
Earth Shield(or any shield): Dispel this, it heals them every time you hit them and if you they put it on their partner they might survive your fear -> DPS chain.
Flame Shock: Dispel this quickly, its going to lead to a hard hitting, insta lava burst. Be warned when you dispel this they will get a haste increase so be warned that you need to move out of the way when you do this.

Druids:
Innervate: Single handedly the MOST important spell to dispel. Make sure you are dispelling the druid when he starts to go OOM, because he will cover his innervate with other spells that you can dispel to protect that innervate. You must take this off as soon as it is up.
HoTs: Dispel most of these, esp on your kill target.
Thorns: Dispel this, it can do a lot of damage on whoever attacks the kill target.
Mark of the Wild: Dispel this, its resistance to magic can allow them to resist fear, mind control etc.
Entangling Roots: If its on your partner dispel it. If its on you because they are running to innervate, get it off quick.

Mage:
Ice Block- MD this depending on the situation. If you are killing the mage and he uses it to survive, go for the dispel. If its just defensive to get rid of a blind or something, don’t worry about it, you could do better things with that time.
Focus Magic – Extra crit for the mage and the person it is on. Its got to go.
Sheep: Get it off your partner
Int- Extra intellect, also must go =)
Ice Barrier: Protects against a lot of damage, you need to take this off quickly
Anything that freezes you (Nova, Frostbite Procs, Ranged Nova) – This opens you up for a Deep Freeze so dispel it fast.
Chill Effects- If the mage is the kill target you need to dispel these fast or else he will kite you forever.

Priests:
Bubble- Dispel that immediately, its our most important spell for keeping ourselves up.
Renew- Falls under HoTs, which much immediately go.
Grace- Increases healing, and covers more important spells, so dispel this.
Fort- Like a said, it’s a lot of stam so dispel that.
Fear Ward- Most important thing to get off in priest v priest matches. That fear is where you get a kill on their partner. For this reason, it’s a bad idea to buff FW on yourself at the beginning of a match. Its going to disappear fast.
Shadow Protection- Resisting fear = you lose, so make sure this goes off.
Divine Spirit- Taking this off makes our dismal mana regen even worse.
Fear- Dispel this off your partner

Warlocks:
Fear- Dispel off your partner
DoTs - Dispel those you can, leaving the curse (which you cant dispel) to allow you to bounce Prayer of Mending around.
UA Locks- If the lock is UA (Unstable Affliction) you want to make sure you dont dispel his DoTs, as it will silence you. Bouncing PoM should keep you up just fine, you may want to take it off if you start getting mana drained.

Hunter:
Black Arrow- Increase damage, and deals shadow damage so you have to get it off. (Special thanks to Healzalot for correcting me)
Freezing Trap- Get it off on your partner or whoever they are trying to CC

Death Knight:
Chains of Ice: Ugh, such an OP @#_$#@, make sure you get it off your partner or yourself.
Diseases: Dispel these off quickly. Cure Disease is your friend.. spam it.

SUMMARIZE OF DISPELS
Dispel anything that slows your partner. Dispel anything that slows you. Dispel anything that can lead to a burst chain (shatters, lava burst etc). In arena if you don’t know what happened to you, look at your combat log, find out what happened and ask someone you know that is good at that class what they think happened. If you see that priest do a 5 sec res ( which you should know all about by now) ask a priest how it might have happened.

Good Mods:
Gladius: One of the most important mods you can have as an arena player. It puts a ton of information about your opponents on a small informative series of bars. Its good to click on the "show target" icon that allows you to see who your opponents are targetting! This can tell you who they might be focusing, when a burn, charge, or sheep might be coming at you