In today’s guide, we’ll be focusing on the upcoming Season of Discovery Phase 2 and giving you some Rogue leveling tips. Learn how to prepare for the next phase and stay ahead of the competition with this guide!
We’ll start with profession. Ideally, it would be very convenient if you want to choose Skinning for leveling. It earns you extra WOW Classic SOD Gold and gives you something to do during the downtime before the next mob arrives. You’ll regain some health and energy while making a profit.
Personally, I would give up Skinning at the highest level and pursue Engineering. I have prepared all the materials for a quick upgrade for the second profession. I recommend you not to upgrade immediately after choosing Engineering because it will take some time to master these professions.
If you want to get ahead of other players and level up in a less competitive way, the profession you can take is First Aid. Since we don’t have a cure, First Aid is ideal for a quick cure while on the run. This way, you can maximize the time you spend killing mobs.
Cooking is also a suitable profession, but I would wait until the highest level to upgrade it.
For leveling, there are two viable builds, Combat build and Hemo build. I prefer Combat build because it’s easy to get started. And I prefer faster monster kill times to being a PVP winner.
Honestly, if you level up a little slower, Hemo build will do better. Because you will have more utility to protect yourself in PVP.
Let’s start with Combat Rogue, since that’s how most players will approach it.
First, we need to talk about the current runes, and we’ll start with Shadowstrike. It’s a great rune and one of the best ways to mark creatures in the game. Therefore, you need to get this rune quickly.
When you get Saber Slash, higher-level mobs will have a huge health scaling if you can kill them quickly. So eventually Saber Slash will get better around level 20 once we get Cheap Shot.
I think Saber Slash would be better for the leg slot, but the best is still Between the Eyes. And you have an optional Chest Rune, Blade Dance. I like using Rune of Quick Draw. It has a decent AoE damage output and, despite being slow, is especially useful in PVP.
And Rune of Deadly Brew will eventually give you more raw DPS. You don’t need to worry about that, and your poison will clear some of your back space. So if you don’t have any competing factions when leveling, I would go with Between the Eyes and Saber Slash, and Deadly Brew once you complete the runes.
Let’s review talents. First, you could invest two points in Improved Sinister Strike. You can then also invest two points into Remorseless Attacks for an additional 40% critical chance. Just remember that you need to land a critical hit on the target to trigger this talent.
Since I prefer to focus only on Combat Talent Tree, usually we’ll take Improved Gouge. Since we have Bleed and Deadly Poison, I recommend you only take the 3% extra dodge. This will make you better here and take less damage.
The next talent points will depend on the weapon you use. Besides a lot of swords, there are also some Maces that are easy to get. So you can choose Dual Wield Specialization or choose a specific Weapon Specialization based on your weapon. I would choose Aggression, and finally Weapon Expertise and Adrenaline Rush.
For Hemo builds, Rogue leveling requires more skill. Because you will have Weapon-swap Macro to use Ambush on the dagger and Stealth on the slow main hand weapon.
If you get two good daggers, as well as Mutilate, you can choose Saber Slash or even Mutilate, so you will need less weapon swapping. For the leg slot, Between the Eyes is still your best rune. For the chest, I would actually choose Quick Draw over Deadly Brew.
The talents here are all optional. You can choose any talent you like, but I recommend you choose some utility talents at the beginning so that your Stealth will be better.
When choosing a weapon, you’ll usually choose a slower weapon. This is because your skills, like Backstab, Sinister Strike, Saber Slash, Mutilate and more, all deal damage based on weapon damage, and your weapon damage is obtained by multiplying your DPS by your attack speed.
So more DPS on a weapon does not mean more weapon damage, which is the most important stat in these types. A good main hand dagger will have an attack speed of 1.8 and a good non main hand dagger will have an attack speed of 2.6.
When it comes to dealing with elites, there are going to be some problems if you can’t deal with them face to face. If Elite is dealing with too much damage, you can swap your runes for Just a Flesh Wound and Blade Dance.
All you have to do is kite the elite. You’ll reengage as it slows and bleeds, then your stun cools down and your energy regenerates. You will slowly eliminate dangerous monsters.
But if you plan to level mainly through dungeons, then I recommend you to use Backstab build. Because the normal build dies too quickly here, and you can’t increase the damage with Saber Slash and Poisons. If you want to focus on dungeon farming while leveling. I recommend balancing these abilities.
If I have good gear, I rarely use Slice and Dice because I usually kill the monster in three Sinister Strikes. But if my gear is a little low or the mob’s health is too high, I will definitely use my Slice and Dice at the beginning. It all depends on the mobs and how fast I kill them.
Overall, Melee Haste will significantly increase your damage whenever the fight lasts longer than a few seconds.
Another tip is that if you’re fighting mobs in Stealth and don’t use Shadowstrike, always use Pickpocketing. You’ll get some extra coins and an Iron Lockbox. These Lockboxes are cool because they contain the potions and powders required for Blind and Vanish, and disappear at level 26.
In the end, your rotation should look like this. The first step is to approach the mob. Step two, distract it if necessary. Make sure you are at 100 energy and have your dagger equipped, then approach the next tick. The third step is to pickpocket the poor NPC. You can use your Sinister Strikes to deal a little extra damage, and the monster will die at any time.
Greetings and welcome to the latest guide for WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 2, with a primary emphasis on the Feral Druid within PvP.
I've labeled it as speculation due to the uncertainty surrounding the runes scheduled for the upcoming phase. Thus, our discussion will revolve around the runes speculated on forums and the essential abilities that Feral Druids urgently require for improved playability in PvP.
Phase 1 was and still is very rough and unfair for Feral when it comes to PvP. We are forced to play every kind of hybrid build with Cat Form kiting and Sunfire spams. But that’s not the cat we want. I mean, we are not even using Feral abilities and Feral talents, so we can’t really consider it as a Feral. On the other side, if you try to use cat abilities as the main source of DPS, we still run the balance tree to get the clarity and pray for it to proc for the instant Shred because it’s unusable with 60 energy and not so good DPS. The only good thing is the Feral talent that allows us to refresh 40 energy instantly whenever we shape-shift, but that’s also limited because of mana problems.
Our other spells are Rake and Shred. Rake has so low DPS even with Savage Roar and Mangle bleed buff, and it costs the same as Mangle but does less DPS. Feral is almost made as a one-ability class in this phase, which I can’t accept.
But before we jump into runes’ prediction and the things we hope we get in the next phase, let’s talk about abilities and talents.
At Level 40, there is some fantastic news for new abilities. We are finally getting our stealth opener ability, Pounce. So, we don’t walk cluelessly around in stealth just to hit a Mangle. Pounce allows us to hit 1 free ability, get 2 combo points, and hit a couple of auto attacks while our target is still stunned. However, we still have energy issues.
Another opener ability we got between Levels 20 and 40 is Ravage, which actually deals with some nice damage but costs 60 energy and doesn’t stun the target. So, we need Pounce to get actual opening damage with these 2 different abilities. Having in mind that with Pounce, we deal with a couple of auto attacks while the target is stunned.
Next, the brand-new ability is finally another combo point finisher called Ferocious Bite. It deals instant damage, unlike Rip, which deals damage over time. However, the use of these 2 is situational, but Rip still remains the best DPS finisher with numbers.
But it’s not always about the numbers in PvP. New levels don’t bring us just attacking potential news but also defensive ones. At Level 40, we are getting Dire Bear Form and Frenzied Regeneration, which boosts our defensive capabilities a lot. A Level 40 Druid with proper PvP items and the talent Survival of the Fittest had some insane HP, like 4,500 health and about 40% to 50% reduced damage. And when we add Frenzied Regeneration on top of that, that makes Druids insanely hard to kill in Phase 2 in Bear Form.
Next to offensive and defensive capabilities, we also have a Cat Form Dash and Travel Form so we can actually close the gap with enemies or kite them and heal. But wait, a lot of shape-shifting also requires a lot of manas. But there is also a solution for that. We are getting innervate at Level 40, which regens our mana on some insane scales, so we can actually shape-shift and heal in the middle of the fight.
These abilities and possibilities bring Feral Druid surely onto another level when it comes to PvP. We are not a one-ability spec anymore.
For talents, we can finally spend our points where they belong - in a Feral tree. Some of the important and matchable talents would be Sharpened Claws, which increases our crit chance in Cat Form by 6%, and Blood Frenzy, which adds another combo point whenever we make a Critical Strike with an ability. This is one of the game-changers and the start of the better times that will come for Feral Druids.
On top of that, this talent will make Druids actually stack agility instead of strength because now we have direct advantages for our Critical Strike, which wasn’t the case in Phase 1. Strength still gives us 2 points of attack power, while Agility gives us 1 point and gives us bonus armor, dodge, and crit. For every 20 points of Agility, we get 1% of critical chance.
The next important talent we are getting is Improved Shred, which reduces its cost by 11 energy. And by the time we hit level 40, we will have a Level 3 Shred with some increased damage, plus a 30% bonus scale from Mangle bleed effect. So prepare yourself in case these crits.
Other mentions would be Savage Fury, which finally boosts our Rake damage and will probably make it worth with Savage Roar and Mangle bonus, like in Phase 1, where damage sucked hard. But this talent also increases the Claw damage, which means our Mangle is getting buffed once again for the same energy cost.
There are also Predatory Strikes and Heart of the Wild for Faerie Fire (Feral), and even Feral Aggres sion in case we decide to go for Ferocious Bite damage.
As I mentioned because there are a lot of variations we can try, and all that still depends on runes we are actually getting in Phase 2. And with runes being mentioned, let’s see what we had on the runes’ wishlist: Eclipse, Berserk and Tree of Life. So, they are more or less aiming for each spec to have their ultimate rune. These 3 would be surely the game-changers in both PvP and PvE.
Berserk would surely make a big difference, especially in PvP, where we could hit 5, 6, or 7 Mangles in a row, which on this damage scale would be probably absurd. While in PvE, Berserk is already decent with DPS, so getting this ability would be a blast. But I don’t think we are getting Berserk in this phase. I think that’s an ability saved for later phases.
Still, it’s not impossible because we don’t know what runes other specs are getting. So, I would rather talk about realistic things that Feral lacks at the moment and the runes that would be nice to get for a much better experience in PvP.
The first thing that comes to my mind, thinking about PvP and PvE, is a Tiger’s Fury. This ability is completely useless at the moment. With a 30 energy cost, this energy cost should be zero, or even better for Feral, would be something like a talent from the Cat called King of the Jungle to make our Tiger’s Fury restore 20, 30, or 40 energy when used and keep the ability damage bonus. That would be a blast in both PvP and PvE, especially in PvP because now we got Pounce opener, and this would lead to instant 3 to 4 combo points in the opener without our enemy moving at all.
While we still talk about offensive runes, I have to mention Primal Gore. This one would be amazing, but I think it’s less likely to happen, and we would probably need to sacrifice one of the other PvP runes we are talking about now if we want to use it. Probably, this one would be used much more in PvE.
The next game-changing rune for PvP would surely be Predatory Strikes. With 5 combo points, we get an instant ability, which we can use either for Entangling Roots to kite or instant healing like Healing Touch. This rune would improve survivability and stability in fights, so we don’t need to constantly shift into Travel Form and waste tons of mana on shape-shifting. I don’t even think this is something unfair when I compare it to the Priest survival ability and damage in Phase 1, which is insane.
And the last thing Feral Druid needs is some kind of slow to control the fight and make Shreds easier to land. A perfect solution could be Infected Wounds with a 50% movement speed reduction debuff from Mangle. But this one wouldn’t be a game-changer to actually waste 1 whole rune on this. For example, a combination of 70% from agility into healing done and a 50% slow on Mangle should be a nice combination for just 1 rune, which would add much more stability in our fights.
Something that could also be considered adding in Phase 2, for example, Apex Predator’s Craving, where our Rip has a chance to proc Ferocious Bite. Because I feel that Ferocious Bite won’t be used much since we have so much bonus bleed damage, and Rip just outperforms it for pure numbers. This free Ferocious Bite damage doesn’t need to be at maximum 5 combo points.
In Phase 2 of WoW Season of Discovery, every Warrior will be wanting to get their Whirlwind Axe as fast as they can. Warriors will really struggle to farm this axe, but Level 25 Hunters will have no problem killing the Elementals by kiting and farming these charms. Here’s how you can farm them to stockpile the charms for Phase 2 for the Whirlwind Axe Quest.
Warriors need to collect 3 different types of charms, and they need 8 of each of them, giving these charms a lot of value. These charms are farmed exclusively in Arathi Highlands, and they’re at 3 different locations:
Each of these Elementals has about a 33% chance to drop each charm, providing a really consistent farm.
For talents, you will want to dump all of your points into Marksmanship, picking up Aim Shot, 3 points into Hawk Eye, and 2 points into Improved Hunter’s Mark. I find that Improved Aspect of the Hawk doesn’t get a lot of value in this farm, and Hawk Eye is particularly important for the Wind Elemental farm, which we’ll get to a bit later.
For runes, you should always use Heart of the Lion and Kill Command for this farm, but you’ll need to flex your hand rune depending on which Elemental you’re fighting.
Let’s start with the Fire Elemental, where you’ll want to be using Chimera Shot. For your opener, cast Aim Shot and Multi-Shot to start the kite. Send your pet in, cast Kill Command, and kite the Elemental down the road, casting Chimera Shot and Multi-Shot on cooldown. Do your best to get off as many autos as you can and utilize Concussive Shot to help slow down the Elemental to get off additional auto attacks.
While this path is definitely the most convenient, there are a few things you need to keep in mind when you’re running down the road. Raptors can wander close to the road and aggro you. There is a Horde patrol of undead that will just mess you up. If you’re on a PvP server, you need to be careful because you could absolutely run into a player of the opposing faction who may or may not mess you up as well.
If you find that you need an alternate route for the kite due to PvP being troublesome or maybe the patrol is in your way, you can opt to kite along Thoradin's Wall. Simply pull the mob to the west and head north, hugging the wall, as no mobs will spawn anywhere near the wall, and your path should have plenty of room for the kite. This is just textbook kiting, running using your cooldowns as you go and making sure you don’t let the Elemental ever hit you as you have Aspect of the Cheetah up the whole time.
For Alliance players, the Wind Elemental Farm is extremely simple, as they spawn just outside of Refuge Pointe. Make your way just out of town and head over this hill where you’ll find a cluster of Elementals at another point. For these pulls, the one major difference is your opener is the same, but when you’re kiting, you basically want to shoot Multi-Shot or Explosive Shot and then run away immediately. You’ll see the cast bar at the top of the Elemental.
Where you want to walk away, back up, shoot, immediately walk away when you start casting, back up, use your ability, rinse and repeat. You want to continue to kite the Wind Elemental down into town and slowly just whittle them down, getting your kill. If you get hit by a few of the Elemental attacks, it’s not a big deal. You can definitely survive.
Honestly, if you had better gear, you could probably face half the fight if you wanted to. The additional 6 yards of range that you get from Hawk Eye talents with 3 points in it makes this just trivial, and I can’t recommend it enough if you’re going to do this farm.
Last but not least, we have the Water Elemental, and these are going to be going back to Chimera Shot, same opener with the Aim Shot, Multi-Shot, and we just want to basically kite them from this location down the hill, kind of staying close to the ledge where that rock is, and bring them down to this open area where there're no mobs that spawn, and it’s perfectly safe to just kite around, and you can do circles or do whatever you want, as it’s a big open area with really nothing to worry about.
The only thing to know with the Water Elementals is they do have a close-range Frost Nova spell, so your pets will be more or less useless as it will consistently be getting rooted to the ground. Serpents suffer from the same problem. Their ranged attack won’t quite reach these Elementals, so your pet won’t be doing too much here.
That’s pretty much it for the stockpile your charms! You can stockpile these charms in the weeks leading up to the launch of Season of Discovery Phase 2, as it should make for a really strong payout. Hope this guide helps you.
In this guide, I wanted to give you a list of Alchemy consumables I think will have some worth in WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 2. These are all items I think will be in high demand after Phase 2 release, as these are pretty much just the next set of consumables likely used for the raid and other content within the game.
These are unobtainable as of now. However, the recipes that aren’t trainer-bound are already up in the auction house, so you can stay ahead by buying them now.
Starting us off is the Elixir of Agility. This is the upgrade from our current agility Elixir, and it’s bound to be used heavily by all melee classes. You’ll acquire the recipe for this craft simply through your Alchemy trainer.
It becomes available at rank 185, about halfway to the next phase’s max profession rank of 225. You’ll need Stranglekelp and Goldthorn to craft this item. You can farm Stranglekelp very easily if you’re a Tauren and get the herbs. You can also farm Goldthorn as of right now.
Our next item is the Elixir of Greater Defense. This defensive Elixir is widely used by both PvP and PvE players, so this item is guaranteed to have high value, just like the Elixir of Defense does now. The recipe is acquired naturally by leveling your Alchemy. It becomes available at rank 195. For this craft, you need Icethorn and Goldthorn, items you can start stockpiling right away.
Next, we have Elixir of Fortitude. This item is arguably one of the more controversial items on this list, as there are other Elixirs more likely to be used. Not as much as the other items on the list, but it’ll almost certainly have some value like the others.
This is just obtained from your Alchemy trainer. You can start crafting this as early as rank 175. You will need the same materials as the Elixir of Greater Defense, which is Icethorn and Goldthorn.
Up next is an item I think will arguably have the highest sell rate out of any item on this list, and that is the Greater Mana Potion. The lesser variant, the one used in Phase 1, sells out simply because Mana is always in high demand for casters and healers. So it makes sense that the upgrade of that item will have high value and demand.
You’ll get this recipe from your trainer. You will need an Alchemy rank of 225 to craft this. However, that should be pretty easily attainable if you gather the materials now in your free time. You’ll need Goldthorn and currently ungatherable Khadgar's Whiskers. There are some on the auction house, but grinding it yourself when Phase 2 hits shouldn’t be too difficult.
Our next item is a bit different, as it’s a potion. Lesser Stone Shield Potion is a solid unused armor potion. It’s bound to be used by tanks and PvP players in Phase 2. You can acquire the recipe for this item through a quest in the Badlands. It’s a pretty easy quest, so you shouldn’t have to worry. You will need an Alchemy rank of 215 to craft this, and it’s pretty expensive to make as it needs both Goldthorn and Mithril Ore.
Continuing on, we have Mighty Troll’s Blood Potion. The current variant of this item is still selling decently fast and for a decent price on the auction house, so this is bound to be a worthwhile farm. The recipe for this item is a rare world drop.
However, it is currently available at the auction house, but at a hefty price on my server. It’s going for a little over 15 SOD Gold, so I think it’s better to wait until Phase 2 to acquire this recipe, as it will plummet in value within just a few days. You need a rank of 180 in order to craft this item, and you’ll need Life Fruit and Bruiseweed, both of which are easily farmable now in Phase 1.
Up next is an item that is almost guaranteed to have value next phase, and that is Nature Protection Potion. The raid of the next phase is Naxxramas, and with the theme of the instance, there is guaranteed to be a lightning damage, and Nature Protection Potion negates that, just like Shadow Protection Potion does for Twilight Lord Kelris in BFD. This recipe is sold by Aventur in Torris, Feralas and Stranglethorn Vale.
However, it is also available on the auction house for a reasonable price, currently at around 90 silver. For this craft, you’ll need an Alchemy rank of 190 and Stranglekelp and Liferooth, both of which are easily farmed in Phase 1.
Now, this is the second controversial item on this list, as I’m not sure how valuable it truly will be, but I’m sure it’ll see some use, and that is Oil of Immolation. This item is just AOE in a bottle, so I’m almost certain it will see some value in the new raid and even, for instance, farming. This recipe is taught by your Alchemy trainer. You’ll need a rank of 205 to craft this, as well as Goldthorn and Firebloom, which are currently unobtainable.
Now, I decided to include one last bonus item, which will 100% have some value, but I’m unsure precisely how high of a value that is: Frost Oil. This item is used for quests, so I’m sure speed levelers will want to grab this quickly on a trip to the auction house, so when they stumble upon this quest in the Badlands, they’ll have it ready to hand in.
You can get this recipe from an Alchemy vendor named Bro'kin, and he’s located in a dangerous area in the Arathi Highlands. However, this recipe is also on the auction house, going for about 30 silver on my server. For this item, you need a rank of 200 Alchemy, Khadgar's Whiskers, and Wintersbite, which is currently unobtainable since you need 195 Herbalism to gather the nodes.
I hope you all enjoyed this list of ultimate consumables. I’m sure we’ll see some value in the next phase. You can start grinding a lot of these materials right now in Phase 1.
There are many different things we can prepare for Season of Discovery Phase 2, for example, a full Quest Log, materials, and so on.
Today, I've put together a guide with many different things you can farm that will begin a quest. This allows you to get even more experience so you can also get ahead of the competition and reach level 40 even quicker.
When you slay the final boss in the dungeon Wailing Caverns, located in Barrens, you can also loot the Glowing Shard. This can be looted by both factions.
At the Phase 2 launch day, you then want to head to Ratchet and begin the quest. Next, you need to speak to the Goblin located close to the Flight Master and ask for more information about the Glowing Shard. After that, you will have to head back to Wailing Caverns.
On top of the dungeon, there will be a small building. In here, you will find a Tauren. Both factions can speak to the Tauren. When you hand in the quest, you will also get a follow-up that will either tell you to head to the Nexus as an Alliance player or Thunder Bluff as an Horde player.
You should also head to Ashenvale and do the world PVP event. When you kill the different guards, you can also obtain the Warsong Outrider Mark, an item that will also begin a quest. This quest item you hand in at Ashenvale, and it will reward you with experience and also an item that will increase your damage and healing by 5% for 2 hours. This is pretty nice when you're also going to level up to 40.
When you slay the final encounter in BFD, you also have a chance to obtain this item. It begins a quest and will most likely not reward you with any experience. However, you will get a world buff that will last for 2 hours. So having this item in your inventory allows you to go to the Nexus or Thunder Bluff. Activate the item, and get a new world buff. But remember, you can only do it once, but it will provide a buff to anyone in those main cities.
In the southern part of Stranglethorn Vale, there are 3 pirate ships. On these ships, you can obtain a Cortello's Riddle, an item that begins a quest at level 35. But you can obtain this item no matter what level you are.
You can solo this if you play a class with a pet; else, it's way more efficient to find someone else and do it together. Then, one player could, for example, be standing on top of objects and prevent the monsters from hitting them. At the same time, you can then loot the riddle.
The reason why you want to focus on doing this is that it starts a big quest chain that will reward a lot of experience. At the end, you can also get yourself a 14-slot bag.
Another way to loot the riddle is simply to use defensive cooldowns. As a Rogue, I, for example, use Evasion. As a paladin, you could use a Bubble. Meanwhile, the other player in your party is going to loot the riddle.
Next, I'll show you Alliance and Horde-specific quests you can also prepare.
As an Alliance, you should head into Deadmines and slay the final boss. Here you can obtain a letter (called "An Unsent Letter") that will begin a quest. You hand in this quest in Stormwind City. There's also going to be a follow-up for the dungeon stargates.
In the southern part of Darkshore, there’s an area where you can loot a book (Book: The Powers Below). The drop chance is awful, and I would highly recommend you to do this with someone else. It took me more than 50 kills to obtain this. The good thing, however, is that it’s shared. So if it drops for someone in your party, then all of you will be able to loot it. Even though you loot this in Darkshore, then you hand it in in Ironforge. So the next time you go to Ironforge, you just hand it in.
An Old History Book is an item you can obtain from pretty much every single creature in Duskwood. It’s a low drop chance, but still something you should be farming and prioritize getting now.
As a Horde, you should head to Thousand Needles and look for the messenger. You will be able to obtain the Assassination Note that you also hand in in the very same zone.
It seems like Horde players have way more quests that can prepare like this, at least higher-level quests compared to the Alliance. An example could be in Ashenvale, where you accept The Ashenvale Hunt and complete this instantly. This allows you to pick up 3 items that begin the quest. One of these where you need to slay a bear. If you find it difficult to find the specific target, then you type “/tar” and the name of this NPC to make it even easier.
Then you could also add a mark to the target so you can see it even though it’s behind an object. Some of them can be a bit difficult to solo, so I would highly recommend you to form a party and look for other people who are also doing this quest. This is mainly because the final target you will also have to slay is level 31.
These quests are so important to do also because all three you hand in at the exact same location. So you’re going to end up with a lot of additional experience. Then you could find more experience in dungeons or maybe even do yet another thing.
This is to head to Desolace and kill these higher-level creatures. They’re going to be above level 30, so you should definitely form a party. It’s a low drop chance, but you can get this item that begins a quest, and it requires you to be level 25.
Hello fellow adventurers! Today, we’ll be taking a thorough analysis into Gnomeregan lore, history, mysteries, unanswered questions, and how they’ll finally be resolved in Season of Discovery.
As we approach February 8 launch, it’s crucial to understand the background, not just for curiosity’s sake but for strategy. After all, knowledge is power in WOW Classic.
Therefore, in this first part, I will discuss the controversial legend surrounding Gnomeregan.
The story of Gnomeregan is one of innovation, tragedy and unsolved mysteries. We need to explore the key events that shaped this iconic place.
It all started in the mountains, where Dwarves and Gnomes lived together in Dun Morogh. They were both smart and resourceful. Thus, after Dwarves and Gnomes worked together to create a magnificent city called Gnomeregan, the two races quickly developed a friendship.
It’s a fantastic and very tech-focused city, so for a while, everything was fine. Gnomes invented amazing machines and gadgets that more than made up for their small stature.
A high Council of Gnomes led them, eventually electing Mekkatorque as their leader. Also in this Council of Gnomes is Sicco Thermaplugg, one of the most genius Gnome inventors and the most ambitious of all Gnomes. He dreams of one day expanding Gnomeregan further into the lands of Dwarf.
Regardless, Gnomes lived here for many years until a Dwarven Expedition entered Azeroth.
After easily slaughtering Dwarven Expedition, all Troggs were awakened from their slumber, and Troggs tracked Dwarves back to Ironforge. Thus began a long and terrible war between Troggs and Gnomes. Their city is under siege. Troggs are slowly advancing, and Gnomes are desperate.
But Troggs are mainly at the bottom, which seems to be a blessing. So all they need is to move all Gnomes to the upper levels, and then Gnomes can release all the toxic radiation from the machines in the city to the lower levels. This will kill Troggs instantly. After the cleanup, Gnomes could move back, but that was how Gnomes’ downfall began.
In fact, Troggs didn’t die when the radiation was released into the ground floor. They just get stronger. Meanwhile, a filtering system that was supposed to keep the upper Gnomes safe failed completely. A shocking 80% of the entire Gnome population either died or became irradiated Evil Gnomes.
At this point, the irradiated Gnomes and Troggs have completely disappeared, with their new leader, Thermaplugg.
But Thermaplugg has also been affected by the radiation, and is more crazy and ambitious than ever. Meanwhile, their city was completely destroyed, and the remaining healthy Gnomes had to flee to Ironforge, where they remain to this day.
Despite its rich history, Gnomeregan leaves many unanswered questions: why has it not been reclaimed, and what secrets does it hold? Let’s delve deeper into these mysteries.
The first question is why the city had not been recaptured during the initial attack.
At the time, the rest of Azeroth was busy dealing with Scourge, fighting Lich King, and messing with Defile mechanics. But after Third War, powerful forces combined with the remaining Gnome population could easily reclaim the city. In fact, the only attempts to retake the city occurred far away from Little Fanfare.
Another question surrounding Gnomeregan is why Troggs attacked in the first place.
The common answer is that factories are really noisy and Troggs is attracted to the noise. Although Troggs are barbaric in nature, they are also known for hoarding Titan Artifacts.
What do you think it is about Gnomeregan that is so attractive to Troggs that it warrants a multi-year siege? This is the beauty of Season of Discovery. Because we finally have a chance to get answers to these unanswered questions in Phase 2, we no longer have to think about how to change the story and what new chapters might be added.
We’ll hear back by February 8th. Because we knew we’d be revisiting Gnomeregan with a raid group and facing a new, more challenging Thermaplugg.
If we can defeat Thermaplugg once and for all, this could be the beginning of urban reclamation.
We expect Phase 2 will feature new quest chains with raid rewards. These quest chains may open up new lore and insights.
One possibility is to create a new staging center near Gnomeregan, which has vendors and NPCs and is the perfect place to organize attacks on new raids.
There is another key legend. We found that there is also a lot of speculation about Shadowy Figure helping you get epic craft in Phase 1. Many speculate that this is Xal’atath.
If that’s the case, she’ll likely be back to help us get more epic gear and new artifacts, with new raids coming soon. This is truly the perfect time to explore the engineering marvels and rare artifacts Gnomes have preserved in the city’s underbelly.
This means that countless machines and gadgets lost during the war will eventually be recovered in engineering-themed raids. There is a good chance that there will be unique and exciting items that have never been seen before.
So you might be wondering why Gnomeregan is such a perfect raid environment. Let’s look at the different aspects that make it ideal for raiding.
The first aspect that makes it so perfect is the verticality. As you enter from the top and take the elevator down, you descend into the dungeon, where it becomes more challenging. After all, this is the most vertical dungeon in Vanilla, located next to Sunken Temple.
So we could potentially see any mechanic, and we could even get some crazy stuff like launching players into the air to assist us.
As we get deeper into Gnomeregan, the elevators kill a lot of raiders. While Gnomeregan’s elevators don’t have buttons, we’ll probably find them all in one place.
There’s another marvel of engineering in the raid, and that’s the unique vendor system. Where you can exchange specific drops for rewards.
Imagine you don’t need the typical low value rewards from Vendor-Tron. You have a chance to earn epic crafting materials and loot in new raids.
There’s also Punch Card system, which is part of Data Rescue Quest for Alliance. You can have random cards that drop and unlock doors to new rewards and maybe even some secret boss encounters. This is probably my favorite part of Gnomeregan raid.
It’s a city full of secrets, locked bolts and mysterious buttons that may well lead to rare treasures and unseen artifacts. I really hope the developers incorporate the original spirit of invention, mystery, and curiosity that built this city so long ago in Gnome.
Understanding the legend of Gnomeregan is more than just a matter of satisfying our curiosity. It is also about adding depth and experience to the challenges we will face in the future. I’d really like to hear your thoughts on Gnomeregan lore and potential solutions to unanswered questions.
I know there are still some players who are concerned about their Mage leveling and farming. So in this guide, I want to bring you my 10 tips and tricks that will help your Mage become better at AOE farming in WoW Classic Season of Discovery. So if you are ready, let's get straight to these tips without wasting any time!
For those that don’t know, AOE that comes from player models can have their range increased by jumping when they cast the spell. We used to jump to maximize the distance so that sappers would go. This works well with all AOE that come from the player. I will use Arcane Explosion, and it does not hit the mob. Neither of us moves, but when I jump in the air, my Arcane Explosion gets a little extra distance. A lot of the time when I am Arcane Explosion spamming, I will be jumping to make sure I am hitting every mob in my range.
Daze is a pretty annoying mechanic. It reduces your move speed by 50%, and if you are unlucky, you can get chain dazed and die. You have 2 options to bypass this mechanic, both of them pretty cool. When a mob strikes your back, there's a possibility of experiencing Daze. You can avoid daze easily by making sure you turn and face the mobs as they are hitting you. Another way to avoid daze is by shield effects. You are unable to be dazed when you have a shield buff applied. This includes Power Word: Shield, Mana Shield, and Ice Barrier.
Quick note: You can only be dazed by melee attacks, not ranged attacks. Using Mana Shield and Ice Barrier, as well as facing mobs, will be key to future farms in avoiding daze.
Leeway is in the game for lag and melee attacking. It’s a latency system that buffers melee combat to allow people to hit targets a little further than you normally would in case there is weird lag going on. Melee swings can cover a much larger distance with leeway attacks.
When someone in combat is strafing or jumping, melee range is increased by a lot. This happens for enemy mobs too. If you are strafing or jumping, they will benefit from leeway. This is a trick we see used a lot currently in Wailing Caverns. You can avoid a lot of melee damage taken when abusing leeway correctly, such as backpedaling while kiting.
Ice Block is used for more than just saving your life. It is very important for getting a lot of mobs stacked in one spot. When you Ice Block, all ranged mobs will stop using their ranged attacks. When you’re in an Ice Block, all ranged mobs will run to your position and start auto-attacking your Ice Block. There are a lot of farms where you can not line of sight and get ranged mobs closer to you.
You will see Mages constantly using Ice Block to get numerous units stacked for an easy kill. When you leave an Ice Block, never jump, as this will cause you to take a lot more damage from melee attacks. If you just hold forward out of the Ice Block and spam Nova, you’ll be able to avoid a lot of instant damage coming out of the Ice Block.
The World Buff from BFD is pretty massive, and the main reason for this is 20% move speed. In WoW Classic, the only way to get this kind of buff was from The Zanza elixir. This buff was massive for basically every dungeon farm in the game. The 20% move speed allows you to easily outpace mobs with Blink and avoid huge amounts of damage. While the other buffs from Boon of Blackfathom are also incredible. But it is not a good idea if you are farming without 20% move speed.
Engineers get access to a lot of cool toys and effects that can assist in farming, but the main reason you want it is for Grenades, Sappers, and Dynamite. Even for just Phase 1. Let’s talk about the the Heavy Dynamite. Heavy Dynamite does 128 to 172 damage. Arcane Explosion Rank 2 does 58 to 65 and costs 120 Mana. So, on average, one Dynamite is worth 2 to 3 explosions of damage and Mana.
Being able to kill all the mobs before they can run away very smoothly. As we get further into Season of Discovery, our pulls will become much longer and more intense on our Mana. Dynamite, having a 60-second cooldown, will allow you to get multiple casts off in the longer pulls. It’s very important. I couldn't recommend Engineering more.
This may seem like an obvious one, but I want to emphasize the scaling of spell power with Living Bomb. The kill phase is way cleaner, and I have plenty of Mana left over for Arcane Explosion. Living Bomb scaling with spell damage is amazing. I recommend prioritizing it wherever you can. Phoenix Bindings, Phoenix Gloves, Invoker's Mantle, and Invoker's Cord are all really cheap and easy spell damage options you can pick up off the auction house by your SOD Gold.
The first playstyle I want to go over is face tanking, which I use a lot in open-world farms or versus mobs that are lower level than me, such as Deadmines. The key interaction here for face tank farming is Living Flame and Regeneration. Living Flame does spell fire damage, which counts as Arcane damage for the healing from Regeneration. The amount of healing you receive will keep you alive versus some pretty insane damage.
Before casting Living Flame, make sure you have Temporal Beacon on yourself. I like to get 4 to 5 Living Bombs out, then Living Flame. Then you just spam Arcane Explosion until all the mobs die. Add on the extra healing you receive from the Arcane Explosion spam, and it’s pretty incredible what you can live through.
This is the playstyle I expect to be dominant, from now on into Season of Discovery, so I recommend learning it now. Blizzard will be amazing for massive pulls where you can’t handle the incoming damage from Elites slapping you. You can play this style with or without Regeneration. If you aren't running Regeneration, I recommend Fingers of Frost.
In Phase 2, we will have 5 points in Shatter for 50% increased crit chance. It will be pretty amazing. What you want to do for this style is grab as many mobs as you can and then get to your kite spot. You will then start throwing out 6 to 8 Living Bombs, Living Flame, and then begin to Blizzard kite. By using Living Flame after the Living Bombs are out. Make sure the Blizzard keeps all the mobs tightly stacked in the Living Flame for maximum damage. Add on the Living Bomb crits from Fingers of Frost, and you speed up the kill so much. Come Phase 2 with all the extra mana and talents we will have. This style will be king for a lot of the content.
There are a few addons I couldn’t recommend more for Mage farming, and the most important one is called WeakAuras. This addon lets you create custom code that will track certain things for you in-game. I highly recommend Plater. It makes it way easier to see what HP the mobs are at and who is missing Living Bomb. I also use Nova Instant Tracker to track my dungeon lockouts, how many mobs I’ve killed, as well as the XP and gold gained during those runs. There are a lot of WeakAuras out there that can track your uptime on buffs and other things. Make sure to customize this to your liking.
That’s my list. I hope you found these tips and tricks helpful. There’s a lot going on with Mage farming, and it can be pretty overwhelming if you dive straight into it with big massive pulls. Start small, learn small pulls first, and then work your way up to the big challenges. We Mages are kings of farming, and you can become one too.
We'll be discussing the various buffs and nerfs that went into effect on January 11th. These buffs and nerfs are going to be affecting 2 main classes. That’s going to be our Beast Mastery Hunter and our Priest. I’m going to share with you some tweaks that you can make to your Beast Mastery Hunter that might counter some of the craziness that Blizzard is going to nerf in this upcoming update in WoW Classic Season of Discovery. We have a lot need to be covered, so let’s get started.
In a recent January 10th post, Blizzard stated: We intend to make the following adjustments via hotfixes for hunters:
In the developer notes, they put, 'We remain concerned that hunter pets are still too powerful and believe that the best way forward is to reign in the Beast Mastery rune while compensating via the Hunter's main spells.' I guess they’re trying to get more and more Beast Mastery Hunters to go Marksman.
Beast Master Hunters are going to take a hit in DPS once these nerfs go into effect. Now, here are some of the changes that I’m going to make to my Beast master Hunter that's going to help me to counter some of these nerves. Let’s first discuss the runes. So before this update, I was running hard of the line Beast Mastery rune, and I’d switch back and forth between Flanking Strikes and Sniper Training. I wasn’t using the Kill Command cause my primary pet that I was using was a Wind Serpent.
Now, post-January 11th update, I’m going to be running a hard of the line Beast Master rune and Kill Command cause I’m going to be switching out my primary pet. Additionally, if you don’t have access to a harded line, you could always use the Master Marksman. And if you’re one of those Hunters that really enjoy weaving in and out, you can always interchange between Kill Command and Flanking Strike.
So as far as the talent tree, my primary build is going to be 2 in Improved Aspect of the Hawk, 5 in Endurance Training, 3 in Thick Hide, 5 in Unleashed Fury, and 1 in Ferocity.
Yes, if you’re in a raid situation where you know that your pet’s going to be taking a lot of damage and dying a lot, then I would definitely recommend taking the 2 points out of Improved Aspect of the Hawk and getting Improved Revive Pet. Because, as we know, with a dead pet as a Beastmaster Hunter, that’s going to take out a gigantic chunk of our DPS. But when I’m out in the world soloing and whether it be experience farming or gold farming, my pet really doesn’t die that much. So it makes no sense to waste 2 points in the Improved Revive Pet.
And additionally, in the raids I’ve been in, my pet hardly ever dies. So it just felt like a waste of points to put into Improved Revive Pet when I just improved my all-out DPS so much more by putting those extra 2 points in Improved Aspect of the Hawk. So I would definitely recommend that you try both ways to see what fits your playstyle better. If you lean towards having that extra DPS and Improved Aspect of the Hawk, or if you just need that Improved Revive Pet because your pet keeps on dying.
Now that we talked about runes and talents, let’s talk about pets. Before this update, I was using a Wind Serpent. And Wind Serpents are also awesome pets. That Lightning Strike is just catastrophic. But it came at a price of 50 focus and getting nerf 30% in our Focus regeneration for our pets and 10% for damage. Doesn’t make sense to continue using a Wind Serpent.
So what I’m going to end up doing is switching back to my Ghost Saber, which is a 2.0 attack speed cat. That’s going to do really nice damage in conjunction with that Kill Command rune. And if I ever switch out with a Flanking Strike rune, that 2.0 attack speed is going to give me more attack damage. Therefore, I’m going to be able to pull out more damage by using a 2.0 attack speed cat.
I’m going to bring you a quick Shaman tank in-depth guide about everything we need to know in WoW Classic Season of Discovery. It includes races, runes, what you want to use on certain bosses, rotation, and just kind of further information into the builds.
Hope you like this build and have a try. Now, let's just dive into this guide.
With Shaman tanking, there are only 3 races you can play as: Troll, Orc, and Tauren. Each has special racial or special things that make them better than others.
If you’re looking for more stamina and more survivability build, you’re going to go Tauren. This brings the Racial of Endurance, giving you more health pull. It also has War Stomp, which is great for AOE pulls. Stomp shock everything. It basically stuns every target for 3 seconds so you get all the aggro on them and pull them towards you.
If you’re going Orc, which has Axe Specialization, giving you a couple more points into using axes. You also get Blood Fury, which provides a damage boost but with a 50% less chance of healing for 25 seconds. So some bosses it might cost you your life.
Trolls, the last race, brings a great racial called Berserking. This increase your attack speed for some time. The other downside of it is they bring Beast Slaying, currently not very useful in BFD.
Next, we’re going to look at what type of runes you want to be running as a Shaman tank. There’s a different variety. You’re going to want to have the Way of Earth on. It’s very easy to obtain in the Barrens. This one turns your abilities, such as Earth Shock, into a taunt for you. It also gives you, on top of that, a 30% more health pull.
Other things you’d like to run for survivability include Shield Mastery, throwing on a shield, giving you 15% extra block chance without any other bonuses. So, it might be useful for you.
If you’re not getting hit much or hard in BFD, I would recommend running Dual Wield, using double Rockbiter Weapons to get an increased amount of threat. However, you would also have to run Dual Wield Specialization on your chest piece rather than Shield Mastery since you’re not using a shield.
For the hands, these are runes that I swap on each different boss in the BFD. Some bosses, I’ll throw on Molten Blast for AOE.
For single-target bosses, I’ll throw on Lava Lash.
For bosses like Ghamoo-ra, I’ll throw on Lava Burst with Overload on my chest for an increased chance of procing and doing more damage. You’ll still hold the number 1 threat, no matter what.
The runes are up to you, whichever way you like to play the game. If you want to go Shield Mastery or try new things that Shaman has offered in SOD, it’s up to you.
Something thorough that we go over doesn’t have to be crazy right now is the stat priority for Shaman tanks. You do want stamina, but it’s not something you’re going to get right away since bosses aren’t hitting that hard. So, focus on agility into strength, then into stamina. These 3 boost your threat, damage, and help you DPS.
Then focus on intellect for mana, and armor and hit rating. Currently, you don’t get a lot of armor rating since we’re on the 25 brackets, and hit rating is obtained from BFD Boon and epic gear from professions. These are quick notes about stat priority and what to look for in a Shaman tank.
I want to get into the quick rotation. When you pull a boss, pop Flame Shock right off the bat and then cast Molten Blast because, with Flame Shock up, there’s a 10% chance that this resets the cooldown of Molten Blast. So, you can keep pressing Molten Blast, generating more threat as you go in. If you don’t have another Shaman in your group, drop the right totems.
Strength of Earth Totem and Fire Nova Totem seems to be the only 2 because your mana pool isn’t crazy high. Dropping totems like Fire Nova Totem repeatedly might not be worth it because you’ll go out of mana. Strength of Earth Totem stays up for 2 minutes, so you drop it. Most bosses last 30 seconds to 45 seconds or maybe longer, which might last a minute 30.
You can also apply Frost Shock if all the targets have Flame Shock on them, and if you have enough mana, you can throw in Lightning Shields. Again, it’s situational, depending on your mana. If you have extra mana to spend, throw on Lightning Shield, Frost Shocks, or keep throwing Molten Blast.
The rotation is situational, so if your rune swapping, you might not be running Molten Blast. You might run Lava Lash, Lava Burst, or different things that are good for different bosses. But you’ll still Flame Shock, drop the same totems, and look out for those things. The rune is the biggest thing on whether you’re casting Molten Blast, Lava Lash, or Lava Burst.
Finally, I want to get into professions and maybe some consumables for the Shaman tank. Currently, there aren’t professions that increase your threat besides maybe engineering for Heavy Dynamite, but it’s for AOE damage. Most bosses in BFD are single tank bosses, so professions are up to you. I would say run Leatherworking. You get gloves that give you a hit percentage and increase your attack speed for a certain duration when you pop them.
When it comes to consumables for tanks, Strong Troll’s Blood Potion for health regeneration throughout the raid, Elixir of Defense for armor that reduces all damage by boss melee attacks, stacking with some runes like Way of Earth for armor. Elixir of Firepower is good for abilities like Lava Burst and Molten Blast. Elixir of Lesser Agility is excellent for agility, our number 1 stat priority.
Situational consumables like Free Action Potions are invaluable against bosses and enemies with stuns. If you pop it at the beginning of Lady Saravess, you won’t get frozen arrowed and can stand in her pool without getting chains in Phase 2. Shadow Protection potions are solid against Kelris.
Finally, for the last part of this guide, we’re getting into the talent tree for Shaman tanks. You’re going to want to go right into the enhancement tree, going 5 out of 5 in Shield Specialization. It increases your chance to block attacks with the shield by 5% and increases the amount blocked by 25%. This is up to you.
If you’re running a shield, it’s worth it. If not, and you’re dual-wielding, Ancestral Knowledge might be better, increasing your maximum mana by 5%. Going down, you want Thundering Strikes, improving your chance to crit with your weapon by 5%. If you’re dual-wielding, you have a double chance to crit.
Anticipation, going 5 out of 5 increases your chance to dodge by an additional 5%. You want to dodge and parry to tank less damage for a smoother raid.
Finally, since you get 16 points, we’re going to put 1 into Flurry, increasing your attack speed by 10% for the next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike. This works well with Thundering Strikes. The more you crit, the more Flurry procs you get, making you swing faster and output more threat. It’s better for you to be tanking any boss.