Monday, November 21, 2011

Where Is My Neck Piece?

So I was perusing the Dragonsoul loot lists to see where my upgrades will come from and start working on my BiS list for 4.3. I came across something odd. The only neck piece that drops in the entire raid is a spirit caster one. So I said to myself, "Self where is your neck?" Turns out it comes from the VP vendor and guess the secondary stats... +Hit and +Haste. Bleh. Not only that but since the neck comes from VP there is no way to upgrade it. I've yet to see a 4.3 version of the Crystallized Firestone and even then the 4.2 ones don't work on VP items. So that leaves me with two choices for next tier.

A)VP Neck
B)Heroic Flowform Choker from Domo

Option A is terrible because of the itemization on the item while option B poses a different problem altogether. In my total of 19 Domo kills (12 being on Heroic) I have seen the choker drop a grand total of once. Yup just once. So sadly I will most likely be forced to take option A due to we will only get one maybe two more Domo kills before 4.3 drops.

Here's hoping.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Staff Completed

After 4 1/2 months and 125 Firelands boss kills I've finally finished my Dragonwrath.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Almost Done

After finishing farm content on Tuesday I found myself at 234/250 Smoldering Essences required for the last stage of the Dragonwrath quest line. After glancing at my armory page and adding the last couple bosses I need, I have determined that it took me 121 various Firelands boss kills to finish the staff. Total time spent has been about 4 1/2 months. In the mean time 25 mans are finishing their 3rd and in some cases their 4th staffs. Not really the 2.5:1 ratio Blizzard had intended. Now after finding out that on 10 man bosses aren't guaranteed to get an Ember to drop I did some quick napkin math and estimated that I would have finished my staff this week. Obviously I was a tad off but I knew there was the possibility of that when I hit the Seething Cinders stage and saw how large of a range that could drop and that Heroic didn't matter.

Overall I'm really happy to finally finish my first current legendary (I say current because I made a Thunderfury and a Sulfuras). At the same time I am so burnt out on Firelands by now. Our mage who is second in line isn't even halfway through the Cinders stage and it's doubtful that he'll finish it before patch 4.3. In the mean time I wouldn't be surprised to see some 25 mans with 5 or even 6 staffs done.

Math Time:
Our average 10 man roster has 4 people eligible for the staff (myself, mage, ele shaman, boomkin). That's 2/3s of the dps being casters. In the end 1/4 get a staff. That's 16% of the eligible players getting a staff.

Assuming same proportions of a 2 tank, 7 heal, 16 dps squad on a 25 man group that would estimate 11 dps being eligible for the staff. Let's assume 5 staffs are finished by 4.3. That's 5/11 so 45% of the eligible players getting one.

Correct me if I'm wrong but 16% * 2.5 /= 45%.

Yes they buffed the last stage of the 10 man part but that part still takes 5-6 weeks depending on drops. On top of that the nerfs in 4.3 to the proc rate are targeted (I believe) at the fact that huge chunks of 25 man rosters will have staffs and if they balance around that then it would mean tuning the Dragonsoul fights to that damage which would screw new 25 mans that don't have 5 staffs.

Hopefully Blizzard sat down and scratched out the math on the Rogue daggers.