Hiatus

To my readers,

I regret to inform there will be no more Puut'n It Down for a short time. Unfortunately real life issues are getting the better of me and even though I have tried, I realized that I simply do not have enough hours in the day to maintain the blog at the level I would like to. I am about to enter a couple of weeks of finals and, this being my senior year of college, I cannot treat these commitments lightly. My personal WoW experience has already taken a substantial hit (my raid attendance has dropped some 35% in the last 2 months); and when I am barely able to make my raiding schedule it makes it near impossible to maintain this blog as well.

However, I am more pleased to say that this will only be a short break. I plan to pick it up again in early/mid January over my winter break when I have gotten myself back into the game and community again.

The page will still be here for you to still have access to the gear guides and such, but I will not be performing updates during this time.

I encourage you to all return in January and rekindle your readership. I thank all of you for your support over this time and for making this blog as overwhelmingly successful as it has been. When I started I thought a couple hundred views would be amazing, and in the 7 months the site has been up it has generated over 50,000 hits.

If you need to contact me, I am still always available at puutnitdown@gmail.com. Other than that, enjoy the release of Icecrown (as I am fairly sure it will be released in this down period) and I look forward to writing for you all again in the near future.

Best of luck,

-Puut

Tier 10 Models & Name, No Set Bonus Update

About a week ago the first images of the Shaman Tier 10 models were released on MMO-Champion, I have attached them here. Although I was hoping to see how they look on a race that can actually use them; it doesn't look like it is coming any time soon. My initial thoughts are positive, the look is very different to what we have been exposed to recently. The whole outfit seems like a druid/warlock hybrid to me; dark and menacing with the nature theme creeping in. The shoulder animation looks interesting too, it will be good when we can see animations. Thoughts on the new look?

It was quietly mentioned at some point a while back, but the name of the set is the "Frost Witch's Regalia". Again, not exactly 'shaman-y' as we are used to it. Perhaps this new theme is a permanent revision to our image.

I was hoping to have more information on the changes to the setbonus that was being alluded to a while back. As it officially stands (to the best of my knowledge) the 2-set bonus is still a 2 second reduction to Elemental Mastery with every Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, although it looked as if it was being reduced to 1 second. I will continue to follow this and post as soon as any changes are made official.

-Puut

Recent Updates

I have been reluctant to post lately as the big upcoming news will be regarding the tier 10 set. Unfortunately this keeps getting delayed as they are making changes to what was believed to be our 'official' set bonuses. Also, we still have not had our t10 models released although every other class has.

I have gotten wind that there may be more changes/released information in the next week so hopefully this is the case and I will be able to have it out to you very soon. Until then, continue to hold your breath in patient anticipation and hope we get lucky with awesome looking models and major buffs to our bonuses.

Hopefully you'll hear from me soon,

-Puut

Trial of the Crusader 25 Man Gear Guide

Following on from the 10 man version, here is the 25 man version of the gear guide. I have made some more adjustments to the styling, so please comment on your thoughts regarding these. These changes include adding notable mp5 or spirit gear, colour coordinating the items to show as red and blue (for Horde and Alliance versions) rather than purple for epics (Note: They are ALL of epic quality).

Northrend Beasts:

• Blade of Tarasque (Heroic) / Barb of Tarasque (Heroic)
• Belt of the Ice Burrower (Heroic) / Binding of the Ice Burrower (Heroic)

Lord Jaraxxus:

• Bracers of Cloudy Omen (Heroic) / Wristwraps of Cloudy Omen (Heroic)
• Ring of the Darkmender (Heroic) / Circle of the Darkmender (Heroic)

Faction Champions:

• Bastion of Purity (Heroic) / Bastion of Resolve (Heroic)
• Boots of Tremoring Earth (Heroic) / Sabatons of Tremoring Earth (Heroic)
• Cord of Biting Cold (Heroic) / Belt of Biting Cold (Heroic)
• Cloak of Displacement (Heroic) / Shroud of Displacement (Heroic)

Twins Val'kyr:

• Skyweaver Robes (Heroic) / Skyweaver Vestments (Heroic)
• Bindings of Dark Essence (Heroic) / Dark Essence Bindings (Heroic)
• Wail of the Val'kyr (Heroic) / Cry of the Val'kyr (Heroic)

Anub'arak:

• Misery's End (Heroic) / Suffering's End (Heroic)
• Chestguard of Flowing Elements (Heroic) / Cuirass of Flowing Elements (Heroic)
• Footpads of the Icy Floe (Heroic) / Boots of the Icy Floe (Heroic)
• Leggings of the Deepening Void (Heroic) / Breeches of the Deepening Void (Heroic)
• Gloves of the Lifeless Touch (Heroic) / Handwraps of the Lifeless Touch (Heroic)
• Armbands of the Ashen Saint (Heroic) / Bindings of the Ashen Saint (Heroic)
• Maiden's Favor (Heroic) / Maiden's Adoration (Heroic)
• Reign of the Unliving (Heroic) / Reign of the Dead (Heroic)

Tribute Chest (Heroic Only):

• Jaina's Radiance / Aethas' Intensity
• Bolvar's Devotion / Lady Liadrin's Conviction

Enjoy,

-Puut

Trial of the Crusader 10 Man Gear Guide

My usual approach to gear guides has had to change due to the new format of raiding with heroic versions of loot and the fact that Horde and Alliance no longer use the same loot. As such, the table is arranged by bosses, then Alliance Version (and heroic equivalent) / Horde Version (and heroic equivalent).

Northrend Beasts:

• [Shoulderguards of the Spirit Walker] ([Heroic]) / [Pauldrons of the Spirit Walker] ([Heroic])
• [Shoulderpads of the Glacial Wilds] ([Heroic]) / [Pauldrons of the Glacial Wilds] ([Heroic])
• [Icehowl Cinch] ([Heroic]) / [Icehowl Binding] ([Heroic])

Lord Jaraxxus:

• [Felspark Bindings] ([Heroic]) / [Felspark Bracers] ([Heroic])
• [Firestorm Ring] ([Heroic]) / [Firestorm Band] ([Heroic])

Faction Champions:

• [Blade of the Silver Disciple] ([Heroic]) / [Sunreaver Disciple's Blade] ([Heroic])
• [Sandals of the Silver Magus] ([Heroic]) / [Sunreaver Magus' Sandals] ([Heroic])
• [Talisman of Volatile Power] ([Heroic]) / [Fetish of Volatile Power] ([Heroic])

Anub'arak:

• [Helmet of the Crypt Lord] ([Heroic]) / [Helm of the Crypt Lord] ([Heroic])
• [Vestments of the Sleepless] ([Heroic]) / [Robes of the Sleepless] ([Heroic])

Tribute Chest (Heroic Versions Only):

• [Heartcrusher] / [Heartsmasher]
• [Drape of the Sunreavers] / [Drape of the Sunreavers]
  

I have been FAR less lenient on what I put in this time; absolutely nothing with Spirit or mp5 made the list. Only purely useful stats were permitted, so keep eyes open for Resto shammy gear that may be an upgrade still.

I hope the new format is easy enough to understand. 25-Man version incoming...

-Puut

New Totem for 3.3; Reincarnation Changes

Back on tuesday MMO-Champion released the new totem slot items that will be available in 3.3, along with the Death Knight, Paladin and Druid equivalents. It has become commonplace to release a new totem for each spec every major patch for Blizzard since Wrath's release.

The new totem, which as I write this appears to still be unnamed, was initially announced to have the following attribute:

Your Earth Shock, Flame Shock, and Frost Shock spells grant 73 critical strike rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.

This was jumped on quickly by the online community, due to the fact that as it stood it was going to be near useless for us and overshadowed by the previously released totems of WotLK. A thread was soon put up on the Damage Dealing forums and, to my surprise, got a very quick response from Ghostcrawler who stated it would be haste rather than crit and the time would be extended to 30 seconds.

This changes things quite a bit. It took it from being awful to being slightly better than our current best in slot, the Totem of Electrifying Wind. We will have an almost constant 219 haste, although the stacking time will factor in slightly. It may become habitual (depending if there is an internal cooldown) to spam a couple of extra shocks on cooldown at the start of bossfights to build up your stack. The 30 second timer is a nice addition as well in that it gives us a little more lenience in movement intensive fights that is currently given by Electrifying Wind. Overall it looks to be the new BiS, but not by much. Like a deluxe version of what we are already using; few more bells and whistles but essentially the same thing.

The other change that has sprung up was the reduction in cooldown on our Reincarnate spell. It currently stands at 60 minutes, although it can be talented to reduce by 20 minutes via the Resto tree which we don't spec into. The PTR patch notes showed it being reduced to 50 minutes, and GC came out saying they are considering dropping this to 30 instead. This is to keep it fair with the buffs to other 'back from the dead' abilities like Druid's Rebirth and Warlock's Soul Stones, which had their cooldowns halved also. I will update on this once it is confirmed but I expect this to be the case.

Due to a hectic week I didn't get the ToC 10 Gear Guide out but I will be working on it every chance I get. The 25 man version should follow shortly thereafter.

-Puut

Tier 10 Announced

It is that time again! With a new major patch comes new tier and subsequently new tier bonuses. I don't need to explain to most of you how dramatic these announcements are; they tend to unleash a sea of complaining and arguing over which are good and which are bad, which need nerfing and which need buffs.

As I write this these are now offical.

Elemental Shaman Tier 10 Set Bonuses:

2-Set: Your Lightning Bolt spell reduces the remaining cooldown on your Elemental Mastery talent by 1 sec.
4-Set: The cooldown on your Lava Burst ability is reduced by 1.5 sec.

There was announced ones earlier that were seemingly incorrect and most people assumed they were 'placeholders' until Blizz finalized the changes. These has the 4-set bonus listed as a 15 second reduction, which was illogical considering it only has a 8 second CD initially.

I will leave the floor open for discussion at the moment, and will post my thoughts later. This announcement made me realized how behind I am on talking about tier 9, so expect to see a Trial of the Crusader gear guide and tier 9 analysis to be posted soon.

-Puut