Ellay Quad Boxes Eye of the Storm

Ellay, of Dual-Boxing, posted one of his multibox pvp videos. He shows us a complete round in the Eye of the Storm, and it really gives you a good looking into what mass pvp looks like with multiple Elemental Shaman.

Thanks Ellay!

Boom

PeeVeePee

Well, I hit 48. With all five Shaman. It's time to PvP.

As you may remember, I first attempted to multibox PvP back when the boys were 19. I headed into Warsong Gulch with 4 of my Shaman, lead by my 19 Twink Rogue. It was a disaster. Here's a quick recap why: Twinks.

A Twink is a low level toon that has been maxed out on gear and stats. This is done by strategically dragging him/her through instances, getting them the best gear possible, and then abusing the hell out of the ability to enchant low level items with high level enchants. The end result, super powerful toon for their level.

This effect is magnified the lower you go. So a level 19 twink may actually have nearly triple the health your 19 does, and the melee twinks can likely kill you in 1-2 shots. Melee, is actually where twinking shines at low level. So seeing as my Shaman are casters, I was tossed around WSG like a bunch of beanbags. This twinking effect becomes less of an issue as you go up to higher brackets.

The 40s, I figured, would be a good place to try PvP again. I wanted to wait until everyone was 48, because that's when we get Chain Lightning Rank 2. So here I am. Before I headed into combat, I knew I needed to look at my interface and macros a bit closer. But I didn't. I wanted to PvP, so I queued up.... wonderful.



After 28 minutes of getting my bearings, we won 3-0, and my boys held 5 of the top 7 spots on the killing blows charts. I was freak'n out. This was what I was waiting for. Bliss.

The actual gameplay was rather interesting. When players first saw me, they wouldn't hesitate to attack. I don't think they could tell how many toons were there. But after dying to 5 simultanious Chain Lightnings, they learned their lesson. Most folks simply ran the other way when I came up a ramp. Hilarious.

At one point, I followed a teammate into the Alliance Flag Room. There were 4 guards. I killed them all within a few seconds. I did so by first coming in to "Tier 2", the level between the flag room floor, and the roof, and dragged my guys along the edge of the drop off. This allowed me to target one of the Alliance standing guard, and send 5 Chain Lightnings down into the room, which proceeded to kill the first guy, and seriously mame the two next to him. A few Lightning Bolts later, everyone was dead, and my guys were left untouched. Beautiful.

As I followed the flag carrier outside, he headed towards the Alliance Ramp, and I followed. I noticed that all the guys I had just wiped out were rezing, and two mounted to follow us. I dropped off my own mounts at the top of their ramp, and started dropping totems. I fanned my boys out into formation, and we were quite the sight... if I do say so myself. The two mounted pursuers stopped dead in their tracks... walked backwards for a few steps then turned around and ran. Joy.

Everything just seemed to work out. As with any WSG match, you'll be more effective if you pick your fights, and avoid rushing into a melee fest. So I did. I stayed back, and went in when I knew I could safely unleash some damage. When one of my boys would die, I'd leave them at the GY until I was done with the current fight. Then I'd have the one at the GY mount, then autorun forward. I'd meet them half way, tell them to follow, then head back to the battle a full team again.

My Totems were all wrong. I was still using a group macro which was dropping totems designed for PvE, not PvP. So I decided to setup a new PvP Totem Macro. I started dropping Grounding Totems first, as they wipe out any and all casters by absorbing everything they cast. Then my healing/mana totems, to help sustain me. Then Earthbind, Tremor and Stoneskin totems. And finally some Searing Totems for good measure.

This worked ok, but it became evident that I need quick and easy access to Earthbind for catching those who choose to run away, and Tremor because sometimes you need it to stop those kamikaze Priests who figure they can just aoe fear me to death. So I added these to my Shift-x keys on the Nostromo.

Then I headed into Arathi Basin... it didn't go too well. For three reasons.


1. Killing a Multiboxer is fun.

Why? Because if you're playing against one, you've likely died to him several times already, feel he's cheating, with you were him, and seeing him die just might make you feel better about being you.

The problem is, you need several guys to kill one, and it's hard to organize enough when you're playing with only 9 other pugs. But in AB, you're playing with 14, so it's easier to form a lynch mob and head after the multiboxer.


2. Multiboxers are cool.

This guarantees you have at least 2-3 fans follow you around to watch the magic. Therefore, at any given time, I'm responsible for 8 of 15 players being in the same spot. It's just too hard to hold 3 flags.

3. Rotating Graveyards.

In AB your spawn point is rarely the same, and if a flag is captured while you await resurrection, you may even move to another yet. At one point, I had guys at 3 different GYs, and it took a LONG time to get them all back together again. That means we have 3 players out of 15 that aren't doing anything for the team until I can get to them. It sucks.


So we didn't win, and I decided AB can wait.

I went back into Warsong late that night, fully expecting to rule the roost again... but it didn't turn out so well. But that's another story... stay tuned.

Boom

Patch 2.3.2 Goes Live

Yesterday, the Public Test Realm was closed. And today, Patch 2.3.2 goes live on US servers!

The only real changes for Shaman are to our elemental shields. Here's how the patch notes look:

Shaman

• Lightning Shield mana cost reduced.
  
• Water Shield now restores mana periodically regardless of how many charges remain. Duration increased to 10 minutes.

The Water Shield change is the most significant to us Shammieboxers. But before we get to the changes, lets review it's history.

There are two ranks of Water Shield, one found at level 62, and the second at 69. For the same of comparison, we'll be only discussing the full blown, rank 2 at level 70. (the returned mana would increase with level.)

In the beginning, it was a 10min shield, that held 3 charges. Each time you got hit, you got some mana. Woot. Mind you, at the time it cost mana to cast.

Shortly after that, it was upgraded. You would get nearly 200mana when hit, and it only lasted a minute. If at the end of the minute, you had any charges left, they each paid off at once. (ie if you never got hit, and the shield expired, you'd instantly get 600+ mana.) Bliz looked at what it had done and said, "This is mediocre."

The bonus to mana was a welcomed change, but the need to refresh this shield every 60 seconds was quite frankly, rediculous. So in 2.3.2, we're getting a buff again, and I think they finally got it right.

In the new version, we now get a buff that grants 50mp5 simply by having the shield up. PLUS, we still get 200 mana when we're hit, up to 3 times. PLUS, now the shield lasts 10 mins! So now, it becomes a 10 minute blessing that continues to make it easier for Shaman to maintain mana levels.

The only thing that sucks about all this... my boys are still 14 levels away from it. :)

Boom

Don't worry Princess, I'll kill you!

Zul'Farrak was fun. It was quick. Some of the lewts was good. But I figured I could do better. So I packed up the boys, and worked our way to Maraudon.



Maraudon was actually the first instance to be added to WoW after release. It came in patch 1.2. (12/18/04... good lord we've been playing this game a long time.) I remember the release. At the time, I was hardly high enough level to go there, but I remember watching some of the hardcore players post the gear they got from it.



Maraudon was a fairly creative design. As you can see in the map, it's broken up into 3 major sections. The Orange Zone, the Purple Zone and Lower Maraudon. Both Orange and Purple are on the same level, each has it's own entrance, and they eventually meet as you head toward the Earth Song Falls. After completing a quest, you can obtain The Scepter of Celebras, which allows you to warp from the entrance, directly to the falls, and essentially start at the half way point.

When I went in, I was still 45, and I took Boom. The mobs were still easily dispatched, and the xp was wonderful. The gear was fantastic, as most of it required level 48, so it was something to look forward to.



I've been trying to loot most mobs, if anything, for DE material and enough cash to train these 4 financial black holes. Ever since I started that, I've found 3... THREE world drop Epics. This blows my mind quite frankly. The first, the Fiery War Axe was actually a great find, and gave me 200g towards the lvl40 mounts. The next two, The Ring of Saviors and the Icemail Jerkin you see here, are worthless. But fun finds none-the-less.

By this point, my boys are actually putting out some real damage. So I found myself contributing to boss fights, and even some mob pulls instead of just watching Boom beat them down. This is turned out to be really fun, and gave me a peek into what's next... instancing with all 5 Shaman.

The bosses all dropped really quick, and I was able to complete three different quests, including Corruption of Earth and Seed, which gave each of my boys their Resurgence Rod. The regen stats are fantastic for PvE and PvP both. That, and they look pimp, which is by far the most important thing.

I found myself actually enjoying the grind through. The bosses are fun, but so are the mobs. I started having some hilarious flash backs to the first time I came in here. I was with a group of low levels (my friends) and one guy who was a high level warrior (think 52ish) who was essentially twinking us through. Anyone else remember the giant slug butt that constantly gave birth to more slugs? :)

We eventually got all the way to the end of the entrance, and were granted audience with the Princess.

About the Princess... um... HOTNESS!



I almost couldn't kill her. My boys found themselves in a trance as they watched this thing of beauty strut her stuff. (Those hips... Those Thighs... They've got me Hypnotized) Despite her obvious beauty, she's actually quite the pain for a normal group at a normal level. She has this ridiculous ground stomp that sends your group bouncing backwards, and if you're not careful, over the falls. But Boom slapped her around pretty soundly, and loot was had by all. (well, it was had by one, but that doesn't sound as cool.)



Maraudon is such a beautiful instance, that it's almost relaxing to run. Everything is bright, pretty and huge in scale. This makes for some plesent grinding. But the XP almost came too fast... Before I knew it, I was 46. That's good right? Well, sure. But that also means all 5 of my Shaman are the same level. I had to face the fact that Boom was going to have to step out. It was time for the Twenty Totems to unite like a green, magical Voltron, and take on the world.

Hey, this means we get to try PvPing again! WOOT!

Boom

Shamans come in last in Arenas

SK-Gaming.com recently added a "Global Player Ranking" built with data pulled from the Official WoW Armory. They do an excellent job of manipulating the data into some useful info. Something that stood out was the lack of Shaman in the top 100 players group.



3 percent.

I read some more about Shamans in the Arenas, and I'm starting to understand why. First off, these numbers are based on the average Arena Rank of a given player, including their ranks from all three Arena Brackets. (2v2, 3v3 and 5v5)

While just about every top Arena Team in the 5v5 bracket has a Shaman in it, the 3v3s and 2v2s are a different story. Shamans can either head into an Arena ready to heal, or drop crazy burst DPS. Healing isn't normally an option, because the other healing classes simply have more to offer.

That leaves burst DPS. While Shaman can do this well, once again there are much better choices for DPS when you have such a small team as you do in 2v2 and 3v3.

I plan to play in all three brackets when I hit 70. I'll likely follow in Alley's footsteps and take 4 of my boys in at a time, and bring a 5th dedicated healer. But I hope to run 2v2 and 3v3 on my own, and see if I can't make some progress.

I don't intend on even hitting 1800 in the lower brackets, but I plan on having fun. :)

Boom

Ding! (48)

Why choose to Ding at 48? Well, several things happen at 48. The most notable would be rank 2 of Chain Heal,(actually came at 46) and more importantly, rank 3 of Chain Lightning, both important in PvP.

The next reason... you guessed it, PvP. Ever since I stepped in WSG at 19, only to be cut to tiny shreds, I dreamed of hitting 48 where I figured I'd be able to compete with the twinks. And as you'll see later this week, I do.

Boom

Happy New Year!

Well, the break is over. Back to work. :)

Ok, this isn't exactly work. But I do have alot of grinding to do. This week we'll be covering a few different things, and along with that, will come a new format for Twenty Totems: The Blog.

Starting this week, I'll have a new post every morning. Instead of trying to fit a post into my normally busy workday, I'll be building a weeks worth every weekend, and post them daily throughout the week. This also means I can give you a sneak-peek each Monday, into what we'll be talking about that week.

Here's what you have to look forward to. We follow Boom deep into Maradon, and fall in love with a Princess... We own WSG, then it owns us... I pause, look around the room and wonder if this hobby is actually an illness... and in our Friday "How to Multibox", we'll be looking into basic Formations.

Woot! Amirite?

So come back every morning for more Shaman/Multiboxing/Egotastic/Spectacular!