Comments on: Meatballs

By: Shattered Moon

Shattered Moon — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:12:26 +0000

I tend to agree with Auzara. My (unverified) theory is that the chance for earth shield to score crit heals is based on the spell-crit chance of the target, not on that of the shaman who cast it. When I cast earth shield on myself, paladins, mages, locks, etc., I notice much higher crit rates than when I cast it on prot warriors.

The anti-spell interruption feature is golden, especially when there is no paladin concentration aura in the group. With 70% anti-spell interruption from Healing Focus, plus 30% from earthshield cast on yourself, you can stand there taking damage while also casting fully uninterrupted chain heals on the raid. For example, the Flight Phases of the Nightbane fight.

By: Auzara

Auzara — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:48:37 +0000

First, this is the right combinations of funny and informative.
Second, I want spaghetti for dinner now. Even with the healy goodness explosions.
Third, I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that the crit rate on Meatballs(and Prayer of Mending) was based on the target’s spell crit due to a wonky mechanic related to the spell technically being cast by the recipient when it goes off. This may be outdated or just plain wrong information, so I guess I’m just basically asking you to debunk that myth or give me a cooke and tell me I’m right.

By: Raiding and the Resto Shaman, Part 2 : Too Many Annas

Raiding and the Resto Shaman, Part 2 : Too Many Annas — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:25:58 +0000

[...] a fantastic summary of meatballs Earth Shields and why they’re awesome, check out this post by the Egotistical [...]

By: teh Khol Abides

teh Khol Abides — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:29:23 +0000

I’m here to help!

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:18:39 +0000

Well I was coming to say that this post made me hungry…then I read teh Khol’s post above. And now I’m not so much hungry any more.

By: teh Khol Abides

teh Khol Abides — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:32:00 +0000

They also call it poopshield. Just throwing that out there…

And as a side note “exploding with healy goodness” has created a mental image I will carry to the grave…thanks a lot, Ego.

By: Eldr

Eldr — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:49:22 +0000

Hoy! I resent that! I have to press AT LEAST three buttons to destro dps. That makes it 33% more complex than shaman healing.

Firemage only takes 2, and frostmage? pff…

(note I played mage for two years so don’t anyone get their panties in a twist, ok?)

and on a serious note, when I was affliction I actually set up Clique for click-dps. SBolt, Immo, UA, Corr, Co_, SL, drainlife, fear, coil - I couldn’t fit it all on my bars! Trying to maintain full dots on three targets without clipping gets well confusing, let me tell you. The practice is really paying off though as I try to master rolling lifeblooms.

By: Esoth

Esoth — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:26:37 +0000

“6 charges
It used to be 10 charges, and if memory serves, it got nerfed down to 6 because it was OP in PvP. They dropped the mana cost, too, so from my perspective, it’s a good tradeoff.”

This is actually a big PVP buff, and not much of a change to PVE. In addition to dropping the charges, they also lowered the mana cost - I think it’s maybe a little bit cheaper now in terms of mana per charges, but mostly about the same. The issue is that Earth Shield can be purged/spellstolen/arcane-shot/etc. Think about it - if charges were to be worth X amount of mana each, and someone takes it off of you right away, now you’re out 10*X mana, instead of 6*X mana. It is also makes it much less likely to change who you’re casting Earth Shield on. Say your teammate is getting pounded, but they’re ignoring you for a bit - you still have 4 charges left, but you can put up an Earth Shield on them without wasting too much mana. Basically, it lowers the chance of having wasted Earth Shield charges, without making the total number of charges be so ridiculously low that you have to spend every other GCD putting it back up.

I’ve found that in arena, Earth Shield is both a gift and a bane. If you have a felhunter on you devouring magic he’s taking off part of your interrupt. They also like to silence. Mages like to spell steal it and then counterspell you while you’re casting a heal so you can’t immediately purge it off of them. Sometimes I just want concentration aura instead!

“Aggro from the healing goes to the target. I’ll say it again, it’s like a sweet, sweet song. Aggro from the healing goes to the target. Bask in it. Swim around in it like Scrooge McDuck.”
Yep, both the aggro and the credit for the heal go to the target. It should also be noted that casting Earth Shield generates a small amount of threat on YOU. This isn’t normally an issue, unless your resto shaman decides to cast it on the tank as he’s riding in to pick up Archimonde. Good times.

By: On top of Spaghetti : Too Many Annas

On top of Spaghetti : Too Many Annas — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:25:07 +0000

[...] the fabulous Egotistical Priest, has written up a fantastic overview/guide to Meatballs. Er… Earthshields, that [...]