Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast.

Back at the beginning of April, we were treated to the Cataclysm preview for all of the classes. Many people were excited, some were disappointed, but everyone had news to digest. This past week has seen the Cataclysm friends and family alpha start and since then, we have seen a plethora of leaks: everything from images of the changes to old zones and new instances up to some data-mined information about female worgen. Needless to say, it has been a pretty busy week.

This last week has also seen a lot of discussion about the leaked talent trees as they are in the alpha now. I thought now would be a good time to take a break from boss talks to talk about what we know so far about the shaman talent trees and maybe find out your opinions on them as well.

The information in the link above is leaked and is in no way official. If you are waiting for an official release or don’t want to see any potential spoilers, don’t click the link. Otherwise let us take a look at some of the potential changes.

When I first looked at the leaked restoration talent tree, I was a bit surprised. I had expected more restructuring and more changes than we we currently see. As with everything though, this will be subject to change. This is leaked information, it may not be 100% accurate and even if it is, we are still in an alpha phase. Things will change, and until Blizzard says that things are final and presents them to us, it is best to keep an open mind when looking at the information.

What we know so far

* Some of the talents have been moved around.

* Tidal Mastery has been removed.

* Thundering Strikes has been removed.

* Cleanse Spirit has been removed as a talent. The talent is now Improved Cleanse Spirit and allows for the removal of magic effects from friendly targets.

* Ancestral Knowledge has been changed. Instead of increasing intellect by 10% at max rank, it now increases maximum mana by 15%.

In place of Tidal Mastery, a new talent has popped up, Focused Insight.

Focused Insight

Rank 5/5

Requires 15 points in Restoration talents

After casting any shock spell, your next heal’s mana cost is reduced by 75% of the cost of the shock spell, and its healing effectiveness is increased by 25%

An interesting replacement for what used to be 5% crit rating. A few people have commented to me that they think this is purely a PvP talent. Looking at it though, I can’t help but see the potential for PvE. As it stands now, Riptide increases the healing effectiveness of Chain Heal by 25% when it is cast on the a player with Riptide on them. One would assume that these could potentially stack, allowing for even larger chain heals, but also this can be used for larger Healing Waves and, in Cataclysm, larger Greater Healing Wave. I can also see this talent playing very nicely with Tidal Force, and even Shamanistic Focus could begin finding its way into talent specs. The other part of it that really interests me is the mana reduction component. While it is true that in order to activate the talent you have to cast a shock of some kind, it could still potentially be useful. Think of some of the fights now like Festergut where you can find yourself placing a Flame Shock on the boss as you run in. This can help you recover some of the mana spent placing the DoT on the target. It also was not so long ago when we had boss fights in which we had to interrupt abilities with shocks as well, and that may see a comeback. Keep in mind, Blizzard has stated they wanted to make mana more of a commodity, and something like this can go a long way to help in fights where you are forced to do something else and could potentially have an impact on 5-man content for us as well.

Another new addition to the restoration toolbox is Ancestral Resolve.

Ancestral Resolve

Rank 2/2

Requires 25 points in Restoration talents

Reduces damage taken while casting spells by 10%

People have told me that this one feels like a purely PvP talent as well, but again, I can see the potential for PvE here. There are a lot of fights where there is a ton of environmental damage going around in both raids and heroics. Reducing the damage we take can be quite helpful for a few reasons. Taking damage forces us to focus on our own health as much as the group we are healing. While it should not be the case, diverting our attention from our healing targets even momentarily can sometimes result in their deaths. A lot of healers also suffer from tunnel vision. Sometimes we become so focused on the fight or our healing targets that we do not pay enough attention to our own health. Giving us a few more seconds to keep healing our targets or to realize we are dangerously close to killing ourselves can go a long way. Think of how useful this would be in a fight like Sindragosa, where you may find yourself standing in harm’s way to heal tanks. We already have Healing Focus to help reduce pushback from damage; having another ability that passively helps us heal while taking damage could be quite helpful.

So far, we have not seen any mention of talents that help augment the newly renamed Greater Healing Wave or Healing Rains. There has also been no mention of Spirit Link in the talents. Blizzard had previously mentioned a desire to bring Spirit Link back, but has not yet specified in what capacity they were going to try it.

Speculation

While it is true that this is still early information at best, I suspect we are going to see a few things happen from here. First, I think that there will be actual consolidation within the tree. Currently, many of the talents we have already come to know and love are still there. They have stated that they want to add more fun, flavorful talents to the tree and fewer must-have talents, but as it stands right now, I am still seeing a lot of must-haves. With the importance of mana conservation, I am also wondering if we will see more talents changed to include some form of mana conservation or reduction in mana cost for spells.

I find the removal of 10% crit from talents falls in line with what Blizzard has said about reducing the overall healing numbers. They want it to feel more interesting and hectic in some ways. Reducing the amount of crit available to us from talents will play into this by reducing our overall healing output. This also affects any of our talents such as Ancestral Healing and Ancestral Awakening that directly benefit from a higher crit rating. Later in the expansion we may see this loss of crit compensated for with gear, but that is yet to be addressed.

So what do you think so far? What type of talents would you like to see Blizzard add to the restoration tree? What talents would you like to see them remove or consolidate? As more information becomes available, we will keep you posted and up to date. Remember to check back often.

Emblem upgrades in Blood Pact would be happen every week for each player that the player need to be attention.The fellowing article is introduce the Emblem upgrades in Blood Pact.Read it and get the general idea,you will find that can help you to solve your problems in playing world of warcraft for Blood Pact.

I recently turned my attention back to one of my ‘locks that I had pretty much stopped playing after Trial of the (Grand) Crusader. This means that his gear isn’t bad by any means but that there are quite a few upgrades I can get for him without even having to get him raiding again. Pretty much all of these items come from spending Emblems of Frost.

Emblems of Frost can be collected a number of ways, the easiest being the random heroic. Completing a random Lich King heroic dungeon (using the dungeon finder tool — /LFD) for the first time each day will earn you two Emblems of Frost, so that’s 14 each week. Do note that the random element of this tool is the dungeon; feel free to form your own party before using it. You can also do the weekly raid quest for another 5 emblems. Toravon the Ice Watcher is holding a couple more for you, so if you can kill him on 10- and 25-man modes, then you can bag another four from him. To collect any more in a week you need to raid Icecrown Citadel, where if you clear it and do the ICC quest, you can get up to 60 more. After the break, we’ll see what we can spend them on.

The most obvious gear to blow your hard-earned emblems on is the tier 10 set. The basic set (the one you can buy with emblems) is item level 251, which is actually lower than the heroic tier 9 set. If you do compare them, most of the stats are lower, especially spirit, but there’s a big gain in haste for the tier 10. It also looks like warlock gear and not like something you stole from a mage. Anyone not wearing the best tier 9 gear set is probably going to find a nice upgrade in tier 10.

Another advantage with the tier 10 items is that you don’t waste the emblems should you wish to upgrade. With tier 9, you had to save up a load of emblems and then decide whether to buy the lowest quality items or hold out until you had a Trophy and go for the better ones. With tier 10, you only spend emblems on the lowest item level gear and then use the item and the boss tokens to upgrade.

* Dark Coven Hood

* Dark Coven Shoulderpads

* Dark Coven Robe

* Dark Coven Gloves

* Dark Coven Leggings

Tier items are not the only thing worth spending your emblems on, not by a long way. In fact, they’re not the only items to consider for those slots. The Meteor Chaser’s Raiment is a better chest item than the basic tier 10 robe. However, you do need to factor in how many set bonuses you are aiming for and whether you expect to be able to upgrade your set pieces to the ilvl264 or even 277 versions. The Gloves of False Gestures are in pretty much the same boat, but I feel they are far more on a par with the Dark Coven Gloves and so less reason to not use the set item.

So what else do our friendly Emblem of Frost Quartermasters have for us? Well, there’s Volde’s Cloak of the Night Sky, which is rather nice. Though it just struck me that it’s the same model as the Death Knight reward from the quest Tonight We Dine In Havenshire. Well, I can live with that; it goes pretty well with the Dark Coven stuff.

The Belt of Omission is almost best in slot if you need the hit rating; otherwise, the Circle of Ossus is also a very nice purchase. They have very few items in the game that are better than them, but do bear in mind that one of them drops off the very first boss in Icecrown Citadel. The Crushing Coldwraith Belt is almost identical to the Circle of Ossus (swapping some spirit for crit), so if you are killing any bosses in 25-man ICC then this may come your way.

If your trinket slots are needing some ilvl264 love then there is an option for you. Maghia’s Misguided Quill is a very powerful item that is one of the best in the game, but (yes, it’s a big but) it’s only good if you need all the hit rating it offers. One hundred fifty-two hit in one item is going to make it awkward to upgrade later without spending some time over the cap or having upgrades sit in your bags until you can find some more with more hit rating. If you are at the hit cap without a trinket then this one is essentially useless and you’re better off with the Abyssal Rune from normal Trial of the Champion.

That’s pretty much it for the Emblem of Frost vendors. If you are overflowing with Emblems then you could spend them on Primordial Saronite to craft either the Deathfrost Boots or the Leggings of Woven Death. The boots are great and well worth crafting if you can afford them, but it’s probably better to grind for the cash to buy the Primordial Saronite rather than blow your Emblems on them. The legs are good but not worth getting over the tier item, so they are worth it if you have gold to burn but are short on emblems — but otherwise, go for the Dark Coven Leggings.

As always, gear selection is a very personal thing. I’ve tried to give an overview of the options you have from Emblems of Frost, but don’t get too focused on these items. I strongly suggest you use SimulationCraft to find out what stats you will gain the most from increasing and choose upgrades based on that. Blood Pact covered the basics on doing this a few weeks back, if you need a hand with it.

Guilds who’ve been slower making the climb are having a harder and harder time finding raiders willing to commit to the final stretch. Everyone’s worried how the expansion’s changes to raid drops and incentives are going to affect the guild’s motivation and team spirit. The community is holding its collective breath, waiting for Cataclysm …

How is your guild holding itself together during this time of transition? Our website is looking for an article on how guilds can keep from disintegrating during this pre-expansion period of transition. We’re looking for thoughtful strategies and suggestions, between 500 and 1,000 words, on ways that guilds can successfully survive the period linking the end of Wrath with the launch of Cataclysm. What is your guild doing? What alternatives are working for other guilds and raiding groups? Preferably, you’re the GM or an officer of a guild or the leader of a regular raiding group (although we won’t discount submissions from other types of players). As with all guest post call-outs, only the best submission will be accepted.

Here’s what to do: read up about the Seed guest writer program, sign up and then submit your article (you can’t see the article page unless you have a Seed account). Unfortunately, we are currently only able to take submissions from individuals living in the United States; we hope to be able to accept international submissions in the future.

Foxlight is now even more aptly named, now that you have chosen holy for his talent tree. You also voted for jewelcrafting/mining, so he will be making pretty, sparkly things. But, while most of you find Fox Van Allen’s shirtless pally fabulous, you’re really here to vote on the class and race of WoW.com’s prom queen, Christian Belt. You’ll also get to vote on the questing zone for next week, if you so choose. But first, the schedule:

* Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, his new troll mage: Some time Saturday
* Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the blood elf paladin: Saturday, 8 p.m. EDT
* Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue, Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, and Gregg Reece, the orc warlock, will be making appearances as they can.

The polls are after the break.

We’ve been questing all over Stonetalon Mountains for the week. Should we move to another quest area? I have listed our other zone choices in order of how much of a change they are likely to go through in Cataclysm, from most to least.

Our website brings you another leak of Cataclysm information, this time provided to us by our friends that ran WotLK Wiki, who are now setup under Nihilum Cataclysm Wiki. The information is the first look at the new user interface strings. These provide key glimpses into what the UI[User Interface], and thus the player, will be doing in Cataclysm.

Obviously, they are not complete and there will be tons more added throughout the alpha and beta phases.

We want to be sure not to give any spoiler content for those that concerned about such things, so everything of substance is after the break. Don’t read on if you don’t like spoilers.

This post is currently being updated. Thank you for your patience.

Notes

• UI strings are text that you see whenever something pops up on the screen, like “You are too far away to attack.” or “You need more mana.” or “You are dead.”
• There are a lot of new strings about the new Battle.net communication system, but we’ve known about that for a long time. Those are left out.

We are proud to welcome a new generation of trees whatever we’re going to be in Cataclysm.

Before I do anything else, I want to draw some attention to a guide on restoration healing recently published by Tree Bark Jacket that is an incredibly impressive work. It’s comprehensive and fun to read, and for anyone who’s getting started with the spec, I highly recommend heading both there and to Lissanna’s guide to restoration healing in patch 3.3.

We’re continuing our updated and expanded series on how to gear a new druid at 80, and this week we’re going to tackle restoration druids. Frankly, a lot of the desirability for the listed pieces depends on your spec and current level of +haste (if you’re wondering why that is, you’ll find an explanation in our Restoration 101 post). If you are planning to raid on your resto druid, this is a bare-bones guide to what you need to look for:

* If you have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are below 735 haste, prioritize haste. Look for +haste pieces and gem Reckless Ametrines.
* If you have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are at or above 735 haste, you can either prioritize/gem spellpower or (much better) move points into more throughput talents in the restoration tree.
* If you don’t have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are below 856 haste, prioritize haste.
* If you don’t have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are at or above 856 haste, prioritize/gem spellpower. As you get new pieces, it may be necessary to gem or regem to stay around the haste cap.
Why do you need to worry about this? Long story short, haste reduces your global cooldown, allowing you to apply more HoTs to more players more quickly — and that’s something you need to keep in mind if you’re planning on raiding (particularly 25-man content). If you’re not planning on raiding at all, don’t drive yourself crazy trying to reach a cap that can be difficult even for raiding druids to reach, and just use your best judgment. If you need more mana regeneration, prioritize spirit over crit and haste. If you have four-piece tier 9, crit is really nice for you. And if you want to make things really simple for yourself — look for any piece with spellpower, haste and spirit. You can’t go wrong with these three stats.

As with our post on how to gear a new bear at 80, a few notes before we start:

* I’m assuming you don’t have access to ICC-10 or -25, at least not on a regular basis. If you’re playing on a realm where bored players are pugging heroic Icecrown content, feel free to disregard all of the following list. Otherwise, my assumption is that you’re gearing a new restoration druid in order to raid (or at least make the content you’re doing easier). In many places, I have listed gear you can get from the first four bosses in Icecrown Citadel, because I got some feedback after the bear post from people saying that this content is frequently pugged as well. If you’re going further than that, Restokin had some excellent posts on balance and restoration gear available from the Crimson Halls and the Plagueworks.
* I’m assuming you probably have access to Onyxia, Vault of Archavon and (maybe) some ToC. Most servers have PUGs running this content fairly regularly (if not, feel free to start one). I’ve listed the ilevel 245, tier 9 pieces available if you get your hands on a Trophy of the Crusade. With many players upgrading to tier 10 right now, there aren’t as many players rolling on these.
* I’m not assuming you’re an arena star. PvP gear tends to be much less useful for trees than ferals, but you’ll find a few pieces here that you don’t need an arena rating to get. I’ve also listed a few Wrathful pieces that you might get off Toravon.
* You will find some caster DPS pieces here. I went back and forth for a long time over including more DPS-oriented pieces (namely, cloth and leather with hit) and finally decided to include a few of the better ones, mostly because a lot of them have gobs of haste. If there’s a piece without hit more easily available elsewhere, I generally left it off. DPS pieces also tend to lack spirit or MP5, and you need to be careful with this. If you pack your resto set full of pieces without these stats, your regen will suffer badly, so be careful.
* This is not a comprehensive list. I’ve eliminated most of the pieces we’ve previously covered in our January 2009 guide to starting restoration gear. If you’re still leveling your druid, or you’re hitting 80 completely destitute, I would recommend reading that first.
* I am a huge cheapskate. It’s a little easier and cheaper to gear a resto druid than a feral (there’s much less gear competition if you stick to leather), but you can still go hog-wild on BoE and Frost gear if you’ve a mind to do so. I’ve tried to point out when an expensive piece might be worth it, and when it might not be.
* For anyone without a very good Emblem of Frost income who wants to prioritize the order in which they get their pieces, I would spend badges first on the Vestments of Spruce and Fir (close to best in slot even for people raiding heroic ICC), and then — if you’re purchasing Primordial Saronite with Frost emblems — get the Blessed Cenarion Boots made. After that, it’s really up to you. Neither the tier 10 helm or shoulders is particularly compelling as a stand-alone piece, but I’m reluctant to advise people to run out and buy the legs and gloves, which have a chance to drop off Toravon.

Concerning tier bonuses

If you have four-piece tier 9, then crit is a pretty good stat for you. You will still need to worry about haste, but the abundance of crit on everything will do a lot more for you than it will do for druids in other gear.

Both the two-piece and four-piece tier 10 bonuses are extremely good for restoration, although they are more oriented toward a raid healer than a tank healer. If you’re going to go for the tier bonuses, buy the helm, shoulders, gloves and legs. The chest piece should be the Vestments of Spruce and Fir.

As with our bear post, if you have any combination of the following pieces, you should consider yourself well-geared.

Helm

Since the change to Gift of the Earthmother in patch 3.3, a number of helms have become less attractive, and this is a weird slot as a result. If you’re not at the soft haste cap, then the tier 8 helm is actually better than the ilevel 232, tier 9 helm.

Enchant Arcanum of Blissful Mending from Wyrmrest Accord revered is the classic choice, but if you have four-piece tier 9 or do a lot of tank healing, go with Arcanum of Burning Mysteries from Kirin Tor revered.

Meta Gem If you’re having mana issues, use the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond. If you’re not having mana issues, Ember Skyflare Diamond. You will probably want to read Tree Bark Jacket’s blog post on how this works vis-a-vis what your trinkets are.

* Helm of Abundant Growth (Alliance)/Mask of Abundant Growth (Horde) The ilevel 245 non-set spellpower helm available for 75 Emblems of Triumph.
* Lasherweave Helmet Available for 95 Emblems of Frost.
* Stormrage Crown Dropped by Onyxia-25.
* Stormrage Cover Dropped by Onyxia-10.
* Headpiece of Reconciliation If you get Sartharion Must Die! as a weekly raid quest and do the 25-man version, be on the lookout for this; it’s a really nice piece. It is, however, a hard-mode piece, so unless the raid’s bum-rushing a Sarth-2D or 3D, it won’t appear on the loot table.
* Conqueror’s Nightsong Headpiece The tier 8 helm. Yes, it’s better itemized than the tier 9 helm if you’re short on haste.
* Malfurion’s Headpiece of Triumph (Alliance)/Runetotem’s Headpiece of Triumph (Horde) The ilevel 245, tier 9 helm available for 75 Emblems of Triumph and 1 Trophy of the Crusade.
* Tattered Glacial-Woven Hood Dropped by the Captain’s Chest in normal Halls of Reflection.
* Sightless Crown of Ulmaas Dropped by Marwyn in heroic Halls of Reflection.
* Lifespark Visage If you get Flame Leviathan Must Die! as a weekly raid quest and do the 10-man version, look for this.
* Malfurion’s Headpiece of Conquest (Alliance)/Runetotem’s Headpiece of Conquest (Horde) The ilevel 232, tier 9 available for 50 Emblems of Triumph.
* Fallen Sentry’s Hood Dropped by Falric in normal Halls of Reflection.

Neck

I’m really trying my best to stay away from PvP pieces where I can, but there’s no way around it; unless you get lucky with a Marrowgar-25 drop, the top three slots outside of raiding are all Wrathful or Titan-Forged pieces.

* Bone Sentinel’s Amulet Dropped by Marrowgar-25. Note-perfect itemization for a resto druid, but be prepared for a lot of competition.
* Wrathful Gladiator’s Pendant of Subjugation Dropped by Toravon or available for 52,200 honor. If you’re below the haste-cap, use this; if not, use the Deliverance piece below.
* Wrathful Gladiator’s Pendant of Deliverance Dropped by Toravon or available for 52,500 honor.
* Titan-Forged Pendant of Ascendancy Available for 25 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor.
* Evoker’s Charm Available for 19 Emblems of Conquest.
* Heartbreak Charm If you were lucky enough to get this off the recent Love Is In the Air bosses, it’s identical to the Evoker’s Charm.
* Arcane Loops of Anger Dropped by the Devourer of Souls in heroic Forge of Souls.
* Love’s Prisoner Dropped by Bronjahm in heroic Forge of Souls.
* Freya’s Choker of Warding Another Flame Leviathan-25 piece.
* Symbol of Redemption Dropped by the Black Knight in heroic Trial of the Champion.

Shoulders

As with the helm, this is a really weird slot; the balance tier 10 shoulders are actually better than their restoration counterparts. If you’d like to stick to a restoration-oriented piece, my advice would be to pick up tier 9.

Enchant Greater Inscription of the Crag from Sons of Hodir exalted. If you have four-piece tier 9, you’ll want to use Greater Inscription of the Storm. Scribes will be using Master’s Inscription of the Crag or Master’s Inscription of the Storm.

* Stiffened Corpse Shoulderpads These are a BoE zone drop from ICC-25, but, as with all BoE pieces from ICC, they’re pretty expensive. I would just save toward the tier 10 shoulders, or — if you can get your hands on a Trophy of the Crusade — buy the ilevel 245 shoulders. If you’re wondering why a non-haste piece is so high on this list, it’s easy; the meaty spellpower allocation in addition to the two sockets vaults it to the top.
* Malfurion’s Spaulders of Triumph (Alliance)/Runetotem’s Spaulders of Triumph (Horde) The ilevel 245, tier 9 shoulders, available for 45 Emblems of Triumph and 1 Trophy of the Crusade.
* Pauldrons of Revered Mortality (Alliance)/Mantle of Revered Mortality (Horde) The ilevel 245, non-set cloth shoulders.
* Lasherweave Mantle Available for 60 Emblems of Frost. These are not well-itemized in comparison to tier 9, which is why the 251 tier 10 barely clocks in above the 232 tier 9.
* Malfurion’s Spaulders of Conquest (Alliance)/Runetotem’s Spaulders of Conquest (Horde) The ilevel 232, tier 9 shoulders, available for 30 Emblems of Triumph.
* Shoulders of the Fateful Accord (Alliance)/Epaulets of the Fateful Accord (Horde) The non-set, ilevel 245 leather shoulders.
* Titan-Forged Spaulders of Salvation Available for 40 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor.
* Very Fashionable Shoulders Dropped by Bronjahm in heroic Forge of Souls.
* Grim Lasher Shoulderguards Dropped by the Captain’s Chest in normal Halls of Reflection.
* Frayed Abomination Stitching Shoulders Dropped by Marwyn in normal Halls of Reflection.