So where do we stand?

Ive entitled this post ... so where do we stand for a few reasons, hopefully they will become clear once people have read the post, but for the time being I apologise because this will no doubt be a bit all over the place rather than focused on one particular point.

Anyway for those of you out there living under a rock 3.3.3 and the subsequent 3.3.3(a) which fixed the problems caused by 3.3.3. I unofficially dubbed 3.3.3 the discipline priest patch. Im sure it did other things to other classes but IMO the major changes effected Discipline.

(a) PW:S Glyph - the heal from this can now proc Divine Aegis and Trauma this is a nice little change especially for those fights where shield spamming is prevelant.
(b) the reworked T10 (4) set bonus means that discipline priests out there now have an additional 5% absorbtion on PW:S
(c) The ICC buff which is currently sitting at 5% and which according to Boub over at MMO has found evidence that this buff could scale up to 30% at some point in the fututre.

(b) and (c) combined amount to a pretty impressive increase to PW:S I read a few other blogs by a variety of people, who tried to say that the 5% from the set was minimal and weren't really worth it but it so is. The only downside to the increase absorbtion it that those encounters where I normally bubble spam for example Lich King the infest generally doesnt break my shields anymore lol. This may seem like a good thing but it means I aint getting the mana regen I used to from Rapture. I cant believe that I am almost complainging about PW:S being too strong.

(d) There was a fourth thing but ATM I cant remember what it was :S.

So all in all it looks as though Discipline has seen a nice little increase in its effectiveness.

So what gear did I get?

In case you hadn't guessed I picked up the T10 (4) now that it has been reworked. Hell even the (2) is more impressive than I had 1st thought:

T10 (2) - the HoT from this is rather nice. As first it may appear a little underwhelming but it stacks. I have had it stacked to the extent that the HoT ends up ticked for a very substantial amount. It might be a short duration and it will drop off frequently but it is very impressive nonetheless.

T10 (4) - it ROCKS!!! read above and below if you want more info but its just superior to the old T10 (4) in so many ways.

I ended up buying Healer T10 - Head, Shoulders, Gloves, and I already had the legs. I also picked up the Shadow T10 - Chest and Shoulders (for those fights where the T10(4) might not be as strong and I would prefer to have the additional through put).

After reading a few articles from varying people and reading comments on said blogs it appears that a large number of people are choosing to avoid the T10 (4) as most Disc Priests were planning to before 3.3.3 changes were announced. The main arguement put forward is either (a) 5% isnt enough (I would like a little more but the 5% is still very impressive) and (b) I have already spent my badges so I aint spending anymore. Dont know about everyone else but I am swimming in badges. Hell I aint even doing my daily dungeons, or weekly raids anymore unless I am waisting time. I would suggest that anyone unsure about what to do should run their own calculations and tests rather, and deciding themselves what they should do rather than relying on other peoples analysis or evaluation.

Progress?

ATM Contingency have been doing reasonably well in progression. We have 30 people in the guild now who have killed Lich King on 10man and are currently progressing through ICC 10HC, unfortunately due to scheduling issues my group have only managed to clear to DS - we got 1 night on progress and Blizzard in theor infinate wisdom decided to break the log in servers which meant we had about 2h where people were unable to log in :( so far I have to say I am impressed Lord M is how he should have been from day 1 but Lady DW and Gunship have been relatively easy. Even the few attempts we had on DS were good, despite out terrible set up.

ICC 25man has seen similar progress. Last week our faces were sore after slamming them against our desks repeatedly. We just weren't syncronising together as we should have been. I am happy to report that last night everyone (well almost everyone had taken their brain medicine) and we saw some real progress last 3 - 4 tries saw us getting into PH3 without too much bother or almost getting there before one little thing threw it all away. Another week progressing like that and we should have a kill.

Side Projects

Ulduar 10 - managed to get in with a few friends this week and happy to report I am now only missing 2 achievements for my Proto Drake and those who came to help are in a similar position. ATM Yogg 1 keeper and Razorscales dwarves are all that stand between me and my drake.

ICC Alt runs - this week saw a strange turn of events where a few old guildies from New Order who are now in Excesse got in touch with me and we did a 25man and 10man alt run. Was nice to catch up with some old friends and pick up a few achievements on my alts in the progress.

Ok this is where things get a little strange, or crazy, or insane ... heard all of these things this week. I have decided to roll another priest on Haomarush Horde side. See told you it was crazy. The reasoning behind it ... however faulty it may be is sound to me. I have many many healers but after I have taken Panzee through his lockouts and someone asks me to help them with some run they are putting together I tend to either do on my Druid and Heal or Warlock and DPS, my shaman I no longer feel a connection to and my healing on him is no where near as fun or impressive as it once was. The result is during these other runs I always find myself thinking ... "Damn I wish I was on my Priest for this" while working out at the Gym at the weekend it hit me ... make another priest - I love both holy and disc, the variety and effectiveness of Priests is impressive and I love to play them. The next hour at the gym involved me going through everything in my head planning progression, professions, going through names etc etc . So I am pleased to announce the creation of my 2nd priest on Haomarush - Panzeemktwo (Basically Pansee MKII unfortunately Blizzard dont let you put spaces, or capitals in names :( )

Well thats all for now. I hope all the Priests out there dont think im too crazy and have decided themselves what gear they are going for.


Peace