An Egotistical Reader mailed in a VERY good question, to which I have no answer. I’ve done a bit of research and can’t find anyone ELSE who has the answer either, so I’m imploring you, the rest of the Egotistical World, to help us out.

I’m leveling a Draenei priest currently as shadow, and I have a question in regards to the talent; Improved Shadow Word: Pain.

This extends the duration of the spell by 6 seconds, or 2 ticks of damage. My question is how does +Spell damage impact this?

Ok, while I understand that +spell damage will make the spell hit harder, my question is how does this impact the per tick damage?

My make-believe example is this (see, I’m not very good at maff, so we’ll be using big round numbers).
Lets say that SW:P is hitting for 100 every 3 seconds, normally this would have 6 ticks for a total of 600 damage.
If we improve it, it’ll hit for 100 every 3 seconds, for 8 ticks for 800 damage.

If I have +500 damage, and SW:P has a 100% coefficient then we can deduct;
1100 damage over 18 seconds and
1300 damage over 24 seconds.

This makes for;
183.3 damage per tick on the 18 second duration, and
162.5 damage per tick on the 24 second duration.

Is this how the math is being done?
Or is the damage added to the base, then the ticks are extended?

Using the above 18 second example, of 183 dmg a tick, will the game calculate the per-tick damage on the model of;
Base Damage + (Coefficient x Spell damage) x 6 (or 8)?
Making for; 1100 over 18 seconds @ 183 a tick or 1464 over 24 seconds @ 183 a tick.

Being a PvP/DPS priest this is an important question for me, as in PvP I’d rather forego the mana efficiency and re-cast the dot every 18 seconds if it meant a high per-tick hit.

Thank you for the help;
Fiscal

Thank you for the email, Fiscal!

Well? Do we have any Egotistical Shadowpriests or math lovers in the audience to help out?

Answer
We have an answer! Each tick of Shadow Word : Pain will tick for the same amount, regardless of whether or not you have the talent. The talent simply adds two ticks of the same value as an untalented SW:P. So if your targets are staying alive long enough for those extra two ticks, the talent is more and more worth the points as your spelldamage goes up.

You will, in reading about spellcasting in WoW, hear a great many terms thrown about like cheap rose petals at a wedding.

“FSR” “Five Second Rule” “5SR” “Regen” “Spirit”

The first three all refer to the same thing, but understanding all of them and how they apply to your class is imperative to being an effective priest.

Let’s take them one at a time, shall we?

Regen
Regen - or, more specifically mana regen - is the ability and speed at which you regenerate mana after casting a spell.

That little blue bar beneath your health is your mana bar. Every time you cast a spell, you spend mana on it. Obviously that mana has to return in some fashion - this is known as Regen.

Mana Regen can be affected by a number of different things - everyone regenerates over time.

Health Regen is affected by whether or not you are in combat. If you are in combat, your health regen is nothing - you do not spontaneously regain health in battle. Outside of combat, you regen your health at a slow but steady pace, even if you don’t stop to eat or bandage or what-have-you.

MANA Regen, on the other hand, is not affected by whether or not you are in battle, but instead is ruled over by the Five Second Rule (FSR). I’ll go into that in more detail later, but for now just be aware that mana regen is not tied to health regen, nor is it determined by battle.

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In trying to pick my topics to blog about this week, I’ve decided to go back to the basics.

I’ve promised a few times to do blog entries on things like the Five Second Rule and proper aggro management - I need to write these.

I know a goodly few of you are probably so familiar with both of these rules as to be sick at the thought of reading about them again — but I also know I’ve got a few newbies out there, and I’d like to be able to move on to more complex topics without having to apologize for not explaining the basics first.

So, to you priesting gurus - you may find me boring for the next few entries. To everyone else, this next stuff is really important.

Also, by unanimous agreement, the item mouseover linking is staying. Thank you for giving me your opinions!

Okay, okay. I know I’m sort of bogging the site down with randomness, but I only promise two heavy priest posts a week.

So here’s a bit of fluff - Chore Wars - Earning Experience Points for Housework.

Spend some extra time enjoying that image on the homepage, it’s full of hilarity.

I added the ability to “hover” over an item link and have a small window show up with the item information.

In theory, it’s a beautiful thing.

In practice, however, it’s somewhat clumsy - it seems to make a goodly portion of the page “hiccup”. In addition, half the time you have to chase the link a little to get the popup to work.

As an example, the [Talasite Owl].

What is YOUR opinion? It’s already a link to the wowwiki page for the item. Is the hover information useful? Handy but irritating? Maddening? Indispensable?

Please comment with your suggestions on the matter. If nobody cares, I may remove it for now and not worry about it.

There are exactly two reasons to go through the hell that is leveling up Jewelcrafting, in my opinion.

1) It’s really nice to feel needed, and I love having people ask me to cut gems for them. (Though funnily enough, when I admit that I do not have a particular JC design and point them to the prices in the AH, they aren’t willing to buy the thing so I can make it for them. I wonder why that is…oh. Right. It’s because they’re ABSURDLY expensive!!!!!!!! )

2) The [Talasite Owl]

In my opinion, the Talasite Owl is one of the best trinkets in the game for a healer.

It is a BoP trinket (so yes, you have to level up Jewelcrafting to get it) that has both an Equip and a Use effect. As a reminder, you have to have 270 Jewelcrafting and be Revered with the Sha’atar to get the design. So…go ask some friends for a few more Botanica runs. You need the [Prismatic Mittens of Mending] anyway, right?

Equip : Restores 14 mana per 4 sec

Some of you will say that’s not a huge number, and you’re right. Debating against that or an extra +70 heal is up to you and your gear. Personally, I try to keep my mana regen as high as possible.

The Use effect, however, is why I love this trinket so much I want to marry it and make tiny little trinkets.

Use : Restores 900 mana over 12 sec.

Go ahead, drool a little bit. What is that? That’s a baby innervate is what that is.

No, it’s not as good as innervate, but will those priests in the audience with an innervate please raise your hand?

That’s what I thought. Now simmer down.

You can pop that baby every 5 minutes. If you do it preemptively, then you can use it twice in some boss fights.

The alternative Use effects on other trinkets involve giving you a big +heal bonus for 15 seconds (ish), or giving you a spirit boost for 15 seconds, or lowering the cost of some of your spells for 15 seconds…

I don’t like those Use effects as much because I don’t spam heals for most fights. So I may only get to take advantage of the trinket’s use 2…maaaybe 3 times before it wears off.

If I were a paladin healer, they DO spam heals. Or a druid healer - they also do a lot of chain casting to keep HoTs up.

But I’m not. I’m a priest. And I like to give my tank a greater heal followed by an HoT, pat them on the head, give them a peanut butter and jelly sammich, and send them into battle for a while before I need to bandage them again.

Assuming that I’m low on mana, I get the full use of this trinket. It’s not a phantom buff that drops off and does nothing if I don’t use it - it uses itself, giving me back the thing I need in order to continue healing - mana.

I love it. I love it more than any other trinket I’ve come across. That, and I don’t have a pet druid yet that when I call out “OOM” will pop out and innervate me.

As a side bonus, you get a really spiffy looking green stone flying owl vanity pet for the time that it’s active. And they took away the dying sound and animation when it wore off (because that was just heartwrenching), so now it just fades away when it’s done.

Coolest vanity pet ever, I wish they’d let the pet stay around even when it stopped giving me mana. =]

The site’s shaping up (as you might notice)

I can see where my header image needs a bit of tweaking, but I intend to replace it on a regular basis anyway.

A few more small tweaks - that yellow is brighter than I’d like. There are some spacing issues in the entries. I need a more visible link back to the home page…

But all in all, I -think- I like this one. I managed to tweak the CSS so I could widen the site, which makes me much happier. I need to do more blog-hopping and find some good blogs to add to my links list, and a few more housecleaning things of that nature.

Adding the images for the various tags, finding better verbiage for some of them…

I will get my web marketing guru friend to take a look and pass judgement, but I may be nearing the end of my half-hearted last minute posts as I try and tweak the css at the same time.

I love CSS, but it doesn’t leave me much time to write long blog entries, which are my passion.

No, this doesn’t count as today’s post. =]

Fishing is one of the most agonizingly boring activities in the game. Seriously, it really is.

You toss your line out, right? Then what do you do? You sit there and watch your bobber. It’s even more fun than watching grass grow, and twice as exciting as watching paint dry.

Each cast is….oh, monkeys, I can’t find the exact time. Let’s call it 15 seconds at most. Somewhere in that 15 seconds, you’ll hear a soft splashing sound, your bobber will jump, and you’ll need to right-click on the bobber to catch the fish. (Update : Time has been confirmed by an Egotistical Reader! 20 seconds as of last patch, and apparently it used to be 30 seconds. *shudder*)

Doesn’t SOUND that bad….but 15 seconds is a long time. And it’s not like you can go afk, grab a soda…anything. Heck, you probably shouldn’t even DRINK the soda! What if the bobber jumps while you’re mid-gurgle?

Not only is it time-consuming, it’s intensive. You can’t ignore that bobber for a second, or else you might miss your chance at catching the fish. No chatting with guildmates, no nuthin.

It’s mind-numbing.

……

And I’m going to ask you to spend a goodly portion of your time and learn how to do it.

Why?

[Blackened Sporefish]
Requires Level 55
Use: Restores 4320 health over 30 sec. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 20 Stamina and 8 Mana every 5 seconds for 30 min.

[Golden Fish Sticks]
Requires Level 55
Use: Restores 7500 health over 30 sec. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and increase healing done by 44 and Spirit by 20 for 30 min.

You and fishing? You’re gonna be BEST FRIENDS.

Rather than spend a long time in my blog discussing fishing, I refer you to El’s Extreme Anglin’ website, which has more than you’ll ever need to know. For example, I didn’t realize I could get my fishing skill up to max just as quickly (if not even MORE quickly) if I stayed at the same low-level fishing pond the whole time. No need to swap waterways unless I want a different kind of fish. Skillups are based on number of successful catches, not the difficulty of the catch.

So…go find you a comfy lawn chair and a drink with a straw (and optionally, one of those tiny little umbrellas) and strap yourself in. I’m doing it in small doses - every time I log on, I’m accosted for instance runs, which are a good sight more fun than fishing is, so I’m progressing slowly.

I’ve been discovered!

I know you’ve heard it a million times, but please pardon the dust. I’m still in the “make it pretty” stage of blogging.

See, I have this awesome fool-proof plan for a successful blog.

Step 1) Get the underwear
Step 2) Create the blog
Step 3) Write for the blog until you get past the first two greatbig lumps of “Ack, do I really want to do this?”
Step 4) Decide that you’re actually going to continue the blog, even if nobody reads it
Step 5) Make the blog pretty
Step 6) Confess to BRK that you’ve secretly been stalking his blog for months.
Step 7) ….
Step 8 ) World Domination!

I’m still in Step 5 - trying to find a customizable skin that fits the ideal of the blog.

So those of you watching already get to see as I spiffy up the place. Once I’ve got a color theme I like (I’m rather partial to the current one, but I make no promises) I can restructure my tags, add fun animated icons for the post categories, add a banner, an HR image…all sorts of little tweaks and whathaveyous.

So pardon the dust, we’re still making the place habitable.

Feel free to snark and disagree at the CONTENT, but don’t bash the wallpaper (just yet…you’ll have your opportunity, I’m sure)

<3 Welcome to the Egotistical Priest!

…and no….this doesn’t count as today’s post. =]

*sighs and rubs forehead*

This is one of the most frustrating topics I can think of, so I’ll go ahead and get it over with.

Much like modern day health news, the subject of overhealing is one that is strewn with confusion and misdirection.

To quote one of my favorite comedians, Lewis Black, “Is milk good or bad? ……. I rest my case.”

Is overhealing good or bad? …..

What is Overhealing?
Overhealing is when you heal someone for more health than they’re missing.It’s a pretty self-explanatory description, but it’s worth mentioning just so you know there aren’t any hidden caveats or clever tricks. It’s exactly what it sounds like. (more…)