Category Archives: stamina

Lichborne: Blood Death Knight Tanking 101

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

A lot has changed since the last we did a Blood Tanking 101 article. There's only one tanking tree for death knights now; you don't need to worry about defense rating; and parry haste is a thing of the past.

While we have talked about various aspects of Cataclysm blood tanking in past columns, this column is meant to be your one-stop shop for all things blood tanking, to give you a general idea of what you'll need to do to start seriously tanking at the heroic dungeon and raid level as a death knight.

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Lichborne: Blood Death Knight Tanking 101 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lichborne: The great death knight Cataclysm tanking stat weight debate

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. Join World of Warcraft's first hero class as we head into a new expansion and shed the new kid on the block label.

So here's the thing about figuring out your tank stat weights as you go into raiding: They're all subjective and likely to stay that way for a while. Between Blizzard's redesign of the way stats work, the way boss fights work and the newness of expansion, we're still trying to get the data we need to figure out the best exact way to min-max our gear. Right now, there are a few specific schools of thought on how to gear yourself for raid tanking, and right now, they all seem to be working for specific raid groups. Today, we'll take a look at the major tank survival stats and discuss the new quirks, benefits, and drawbacks of each of them as you start gearing up in earnest for the raid game.

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Lichborne: The great death knight Cataclysm tanking stat weight debate originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for mages

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I have to say, there's an awful lot in the just-announced Cataclysm stat and system changes to take in. But if you're anything like me, you're able to cope with that dense heap of information by narrowing your focus to what's really important: what does all this mean for mages?

Here's the short list of specific things we need to be aware of:
  • Stamina - Like all clothies, we'll be seeing a bunch more of it on our gear. The aim is to have our max health be similar to that of plate-wearing classes.
  • Spirit - We won't need it anymore. It'll be a healer-only stat, and we'll be getting our mana regen some other way. In other news, there is a God.
  • Intellect - Now grants spellpower, but will provide less mana than it does now. I assume this is to balance out our mana pools with all that extra intellect we'll be seeing on all our gear.
  • Spellpower - Gone from most gear, the only place we'll now be seing straight-up spellpower that isn't tied directly to intellect will be on weapons, and only to distinguish caster weapons from melee weapons.
  • Haste - Still around.
  • Critical Strike Rating - Still around.
  • MP5 - Gone.
  • Spell Ranks - Gone. Every spell will now have only one rank and will scale with level. The levels at which we learn many of them will change, to fill in the gaps.
  • Mastery - New stat that will be tied directly to your talents. Supposedly, no matter your spec or class, getting more of this will always, always make you better at whatever it is that you're best at. For me, this means getting more mastery will make my mage incrementally better at making fun of warlocks.
  • Existing gear - All of it will change to reflect this new statistical system, but we're being assured that the gear we have now will still be good for us. I have concerns about this, though.
Brief (as brief as you're going to get with me, anyway) analysis after the break.

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Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for mages originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phat Loot Phriday: Zod’s Repeating Longbow

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Reader Matthias C. wrote in with a special request to see this item here, so here you go.

Name: Zod's Repeating Longbow (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)
Type: Epic Bow
Damage/Speed: 541-887 / 2.80 (255 DPS)
Attributes:
  • +34 Agility, +51 Stamina
  • On equip: Your ranged attacks have a 4% chance to cause you to instantly attack with this weapon for 50% weapon damage. This one's interesting -- the tooltip actually says the chance to hit. It's not the first time that's happened, but plenty of tooltips will say "a chance of" proccing rather than mentioning the actual percentage.

Gallery: Phat Loot Phriday

Avool's Sword of JinShroud of Chieftain Ner'zhulMarrowstrikeTitan-Forged Helm of TriumphDa Booterang

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Phat Loot Phriday: Zod's Repeating Longbow originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cooking after Pilgrim’s Bounty

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So you took advantage of Blizzard's little Cooking leg up during Pilgrim's Bounty (don't be ashamed, I did, too), and you want to know: what's next? The holiday let you level up all the way to 350 Cooking with easily purchased vendor items, which was awesome, but cooking tops out at 450, so maybe you're wondering how to get up there. Let us help.

You may not have made it all the way to 350 during the holiday -- if you need to nab a few other points, you'll have to head to Outland and level up there for a little bit. Talbuk Steak is a good one to do if you need that extra boost -- it's vendor purchased, easily farmable (or buyable on the AH), and the Stam boost isn't bad. Once you've hit 350, then you'll need to head to Northrend. You can train at the cooking trainers in the faction inns in Dalaran. You'll probably also want to stop off and pick up the Northern Cooking quest, as Northern Stew will help you get relatively easily to 375. After that, it's time for the booze.

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Cooking after Pilgrim's Bounty originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phat Loot Phriday: Worldcarver

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A big, bad axe from Ulduar this week.

Name: Worldcarver (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)
Type: Epic Two-hand Axe
Damage/Speed: 632-949 / 3.40 (232.5 DPS)
Attributes:
  • +137 Strength, +136 Stamina

Gallery: Phat Loot Phriday

Avool's Sword of JinShroud of Chieftain Ner'zhulMarrowstrikeTitan-Forged Helm of TriumphDa Booterang

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Phat Loot Phriday: Worldcarver originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phat Loot Phriday: Clemency

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Umm, drool. This staff is so awesome it makes me want to go back to playing a caster.

Name: Clemency (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)
Type: Epic Two-hand Staff
Damage/Speed: 280-518 / 2.10 (190.1 DPS)
Attributes:
  • +153 Stamina, +153 Intellect. Yes, that much. +86 Spirit, too.
  • A Blue and a Red socket, with a +7 spell power bonus if you match both up. Remember, you don't have to if you don't want to, and this is certainly a socket bonus that's probably not worth going for. If you need an extra gem for your meta, this is probably the place to put it.

Gallery: Phat Loot Phriday

Avool's Sword of JinShroud of Chieftain Ner'zhulMarrowstrikeTitan-Forged Helm of TriumphDa Booterang

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Phat Loot Phriday: Clemency originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WoW Rookie: Primary stats for beginners

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New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic, and be sure to visit WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide for links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's.

Theorycrafters and experienced players, go away - no really, /shoo! Today's WoW Rookie is for brand new players or players who are embarking on a new alt with absolutely no idea which end is up. The topic: what stats should you look for on gear as you level up? With XP and levels moving so quickly these days, it's not a topic that bears deep reflection or rooting through gear lists online in search of exceptional pieces. Any time you devote to researching and going after specific gear will be rendered moot by equal time spent questing - ding, better gear at your disposal! Still, concentrating on the right set of primary stats gives you a solid foundation for steady, predictable game play and supports experimentation with different spells, specs and tactics.

The early levels (and by that, we mean "vanilla" WoW up through level 60) are all about basic stats (also known as "attributes"): agility, intelligence, spirit, stamina and strength. As you level, you may run across the occasional piece of gear that boasts a fancy attribute like spellpower or attack power. Consider it extra flavoring; you'll meet veteran players who swear by the stuff, but it's not mandatory. Equip the piece if the basic stats are also solid, and carry on. Most early pieces that boast more interesting stats were added later in the game's evolution. The basics remain the fuel for your pre-60 leveling fire.

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WoW Rookie: Primary stats for beginners originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phat Loot Phriday: Frostforged Ringhelm

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We haven't done a piece of armor in a little while (it's been mostly weapons lately), so here's a cool helm from the updated Onyxia with an interesting historical twist.

Name: Frostforged Ringhelm (Wowhead, Thottbot)
Type: Epic Plate Head
Armor: 1925
Attributes:
  • +83 Strength, +154 Stamina
  • +10 Frost resistance, +10 Shadow resistance. These are on here because this is the updated version of the Tier 2 helm for death knights.

Gallery: Phat Loot Phriday

Frostforged RinghelmAncient Hakkari ManslayerEdge of AgonyBlack JellyInsanity's Grip

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Phat Loot Phriday: Frostforged Ringhelm originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phat Loot Phriday: Edge of Agony

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I finally got my Green Proto-drake today, so I was tempted to do that, but instead today we'll go with the old PLP standby of big scary swords. Alliance, before you go running after this one, make sure to see the note below.

Name: Edge of Agony (Wowhead, Thottbot, MMO Champion)
Type: Epic Two-Hand Sword
Damage/Speed: 651 - 977 / 3.50 (232.6 DPS)
Attributes:
  • +112 Agility, +92 Stamina
  • Improves haste by 62, attack power by 183, and armor penetration by 86. Note that these are the stats for the 10-man normal item (Trial of the Crusader drops are pretty confusing actually). The 10-man Heroic version has a better version of this, but with the same name and graphic.

Gallery: Phat Loot Phriday

Edge of AgonyBlack JellyInsanity's GripDirk of the Night WatchWeather-beaten Fishing Hat

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Phat Loot Phriday: Edge of Agony originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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