Breakfast topic: Best new ability
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Feb 1st 2007 at 8:00AM
I was playing the Burning Crusade at the house of a friend when I hit level 66. I went to the trainer and saw my new skills available for purchase. A deep chuckle began in my throat, quickly progressing to maniacal laughter. My friend, a warlock, looked over my shoulder to see what was so funny. He rolled his eyes when he saw what I was laughing at - I was about to purchase Cloak of Shadows. "Don't be so happy. It's going to be nerfed soon," he said. All I could say was "Then we better duel really, really fast. Ready?"
I am very happy with Cloak of Shadows, and have put it in the row of "Emergency Kill Quick Buttons" along with Berserking, Evasion, Adrenaline Rush, and every trinket that increases attack power when activated. I've also been having fun with Deadly Throw, which allows me to be a jerk to mages and hunters. Envenom is ... well, Envenom sucks.
Every class seems to have at least one really awesome new ability. Whether it's the mage's Ice Lance (most often heard being said to rogues, as in "Just wait until we have Ice Lance"), the priest's Shadow Word: Death, or the warlock's Ritual of Souls (which isn't that great but will at least stop people from opening trade for healthstones), players have something really exciting to look forward to as they ding new levels. What ability are you most looking forward to, or if you've already gotten to 70, what ability do you like the most?
Filed under: Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Zuuler Feb 1st 2007 8:14AM
What can I say, all the new abilities are great for locks so far. I am only lvl 63 but I have heard lots of great things about incinerate, ritual of souls, and soulshatter. Fel armor has been more useful than I originally expected. The loss of armor is made up by a great increase in dps. Once I get soulshatter, demon armor will probably be obsolete for me.
But my favorite new abilitiy is shadowfury. I have actually heard some people saying bad things about this, but its a great AOE. With talents is a .5 second cast, and unlike rain of fire and hellfire, its not channeled, so whatever mobs are in the circle when the cast completes gets hit for the full power of the spell, instead of having a chance to wander out of the target zone.
Its been very useful. The boiling blood quest in Hellfire Peninsula, the one to obtain orc blood and put it in a cauldron, then all those scarabs come out. I saw people dieing from the ammount of scarabs they summoned. I would sit and ocntinue to put blood in the pot until the scarabs started attacking (usually 3 blood samples before this happened). I would then shadowfury right on top of me and the scarabs would die instantly, and if any survived, one wave of hellfire would finish them off.
I have even used it in battlegrounds, specifically AV. There was a group of alliance crowded around the flag for Stormpike GY. A huge melee battle had just finished and most of them were pretty weak. I used shadowfury and had 7 KB from that one cast. I know this because I had just checked my score while waiting to rez, and hadn't cast anything until that moment. When I saw so many players fall at once, I had to check my score again, and sure enough there were 7 more KB's from that one cast.
In scholomance is that room with all the skeletons, me and a mage wiped through that room like it was nothing.
The other use it has is its stun effect. If I am being ganged up on by a group of mobs, I can shadowfury and give myself a 2 second headstart at getting away. And now that its ona 20 sec cooldown this can be done repeatedly if necessary.
Best of all, its a powerful spell that doesn't cause the casting warlock to lose health like hellfire does. With all this new DPS gear I have been picking up, hellfire rips through me fast.
Sunk Feb 1st 2007 8:22AM
Yup and the awesome new hunter ability is... errmm ummm errrmmm oh....
Ghostle Feb 1st 2007 2:50PM
I have my rogue at 70, and of all the new abilities, Cloak of Shadows is possibly tied for best imo with Shiv. The only reason I say tied is because I already had the cloak once so it isnt anything new to me, just new that I can use it when I go back to a raiding spec.
Now for shiv, I really thought it sucked when I first bought itand tried it out on random mobs, but as I have had more time to use it I have come to love it in both 5 man instances and in pvp (its where it truely shines). For those who don't know, shiv is an ability that lets you instanly do an offhand attack for 35 energy (very minimal) for weapon damage plus applies whatever poison is on the MH, slower weapons require more energy. Having the ability to pretty much at will stack wound poison on a priest 5 times in a matter of seconds, or successfully cripple a hunter is so much fun, plus its excellent for the new instances since a lot of mobs like to heal each other and the other things you pull with them.
On my lock, I am really looking forward to seed of corruption and pvping with it
Heyasuki Feb 1st 2007 8:23AM
I'm a Rogue as well with that I'm loving my upgraded talents. I see you don't care for Envenom? I'm guessing you're not Assassination built then because it rocks the house with that build! great PvE ability :)
Deadly throw is not bad especially once you get a cool throwing weapon from a BS or the Halls. I'm happy with my upgraded poisons and the new one too! No threat FTW!
It seems like most of you PvP rather than PvE and all I do is PvE :P
Heyasuki Feb 1st 2007 8:24AM
Oh! forgot to mention CoS is AWESOME in a PvE man nothing like taking off a dot and saving your healer's mana and your life! All rogue's should have this on their spam bar.
Cgreen Feb 1st 2007 8:56AM
Like Sunk said, the amazing new hunter ability is???? Kill Command is just meh, Id rather weave in another steady shot then waste my time with it.
Rerolled Feb 1st 2007 9:01AM
Envenom is actually my second favourite new rogue ability, after CoS. At level 70, with 5/5 vile poisons, my 5-point envenoms are doing about 2-300 damage more than an evis (with 3/3 imp evis, too) on a fully sundered mob. And if your guild is anything like mine, the tank in a 5-man is more often than not a druid, which makes envenom shine even more. It's affected by Stormstrike, too, and that can result in some massive crits. Over 4k envenoms are easily possible with stormstrike and some AP buffs. Granted it's dependent on spec, but so is ice lance for that matter.
Also, I doubt CoS will be nerfed, it's super handy for instances and in pvp, the only class it's anywhere near an I win button against is locks, who needed a real foil anyway.
P.S. Seed of corruption is by far the coolest new warlock spell.
Zuuler Feb 1st 2007 9:03AM
Didn't hunters get a shot that silences spell casters? Might you use said silencing shot in place of "Nerf Locks"?
Maybe I am confusing it with something else?
Hybrys Feb 1st 2007 9:14AM
For Hunter, we got some nice stuff.
Steady shot, for one, can be worked perfectly into our rotation, when Arc/Multi is on cooldown. Also, if you have an Autoshot timer, you can cleverly sneak it in between shots, only adding DPS, never delaying your normal shots.
SNAKES IN A TRAP! ...Sucks.
Aspect of the Viper. Your new farming Aspect. Why have 155 extra attack power, when you can have mana regen, and reduce your downtime? Aspect of the Viper works like this: (Int*0.25)mana per 5 seconds. Pretty damn sweet, when you are pumping out those 225 Arc shots, and 325 Multis. (I can't be sure of the mana costs.... MM Hunter FTW)
Misdirection. Your raid groups new lover. "Redirect the threat from your next three shots the the target."
Hit the MT with that, Aimed --> Multi --> Steady *if you can sneak it past your auto shots* And that is only if they are immune to Distracting Shot. If they are not, Aimed --> Distracting --> Multi. Raid buffed, that's about an extra 2000 threat *Counting 4k raw, and 1/2ed from BoSalv (Pally Buff)*
Jenet Feb 1st 2007 9:11AM
just a word about that uber healthstone summoning thing.
I've been playing a lock a LOOOONNNGGG time.
It takes 3-4 minutes to convince people to click on that ritual. They all think I'm summoning a doomguard just to kill them. I really shouldnt have summoned all my guildmates off cliffs when I was younger.
(tho when I got a flying mount, I summoned a 67 friend of mine (non druid) to a big floating island out in space. we all flew off laughing.
Kerni Feb 1st 2007 10:05AM
Avenging Wrath and the new Rank of Seal of Command.
http://pallywithash.wordpress.com
Hybrys Feb 1st 2007 9:14AM
I've read other comments, and feel I should comment as such.
For MM Spec, Kill Command SUCKS. For BM spec, it's decent, at best. If you combine it with the talents that give the ability +20% chance to crit, and Ferocious Insperation.
The Silencing Shot is the MM 41 Point talent. It's not a very good PvP Talent, since it's a short silence, and if a warlock ambushes you, and DoTs you up, chances are he isn't stupid enough to stay in your shot range. *Since we are gimped to 8-35yr range, he can just stay close. Errr....No pointblank shots...Doesn't make a tonne of sense. >.>*
On the other hand, it's an amazing PvE talent. I find myself using it on the last second Enemies are casting longer cast spells. It's no better than a shield slam, though. It's more of an interrupt than a real silence. 4 seconds. I mean, I've got that much time with Scatter Shot. (Which you should be crying nerf on, if you think Silencing Shot should be nerfed. It's a 4 second stun, and it's only a 21 point talent... Maybe even 16.)
Rerolled Feb 1st 2007 9:15AM
Silencing shot is a 41 point talent.
And speaking of hunters, if you guys don't want that amazing Misdirection, us rogues would certainly love it.
Chris Feb 1st 2007 9:36AM
Druid's Mangle. Ever wonder why we can suddenly do damage? That's it.
utope Feb 1st 2007 9:38AM
As a frost mage, I'm definitely looking forward to Ice Lance.
I haven't looked over to many of the Pally and Warrior new abilities so I'm not sure what to expect from them. I'll work on those after I get my mage to 70 though.
Kang Feb 1st 2007 9:46AM
I don't think Ice Lance is all that great, personally; it's got one very specific application(frozen targets) which makes it all but worthless for arcane or fire builds due to its' relatively high mana consumption. Sure, you can fire it off like a gatling gun due to being an instant with no cooldown, but for my money, the best new mage ability so far(at 66) has to be either Molten Armor(procs all the fire talents, including Impact and Ignite) or Arcane Blast(damage comparable to Fireball but so much faster).
cykik Feb 1st 2007 9:40AM
spellsteal makes me giggle
Wasyl Feb 1st 2007 9:49AM
I'm still 65 but I can't wait for 66 to get Cloak of Shadows. I really don't see this getting nerfed any time soon, rogues are the squishiest class in the game right now (all you clothies get armor self-buffs or shields), we needed something. Remember, the game isn't balanced for one-on-one, so while it's true that we can probably put warlocks in their place in duels (making us the one class who has a decent chance), what is 5 seconds going to give you in group PVP? You might finish killing that caster you jumped, but after that you're going to get pounded into the ground just like before CoS.
I find it funny that Warlocks would whine about ANYTHING, seeing as how they eat most classes for breakfast with their DoTs, nukes, and versatile pets. Rogues face an uphill battle when fighting most classes, this will just turn the tables a little bit on casters.
Matt Park Feb 2nd 2007 10:16AM
Bloodlust is the guaranteed "We need a shaman in our raid" ability. I can't wait till I get it.
Amaris Feb 1st 2007 9:48AM
Anyone actually found a use for Shadow Word: Death? I use it for tagging mobs before they get stolen from me (as priests don't have any other instant-damage spells), but other than that it's really weak spell.
What I do love is the new Reflective Shield -talent! I'm keeping myself shielded all the time now.