Posts with tag weapons

I think an experience along these lines is pretty common for WoW transmog enthusiasts: "Fantastic, I finally got the Talon of the Phoenix! I'm gonna transmog it to... wait. I'm using an axe for raiding." Or maybe this one: "Yes! This is an amazing upgrade! ...Oh I can't transmog a two-handed weapon into a main and off-hand, so I have to redo my outfit." I use weapons as examples because they often have the most limited transmog options, despite the fact that Blizzard did lift a lot of their restrictions in patch 5.2. Polearms and staves can be transmogged into each other. One-handed maces, axes, and swords can be transmogged into each other. Two-handed maces, axes, and swords can be transmogged into each other. But two-handed axes, swords, and maces cannot be transmogged into staves or polearms. Fist weapons cannot be transmogged into one-handed swords, axes, or maces.

In one view, the limitations make sense. As a druid, I can use staves, polearms, and two-handed maces. I cannot use two-handed axes or swords. If there were no restrictions, I could transmog my healing staff into a sword and be a resto druid with a sword. That seems odd to me. Then again, I can be a resto druid with a staff transmogged to a polearm, but I cannot be a resto druid with a staff transmogged into a two-handed mace, even though I can equip both those weapons.

Weapons play a huge role in World of Warcraft, even if you don't play a physical damage class that actively hits people with them. Beyond damage capacity, weapons buff your character's stats and heavily effect your character's looks. While it may seem like there's not much to weapons beyond wielding them -- and for the new player, sometimes wielding them is all you need to know. For experienced players looking for in-depth theory-crafting or number-crunching, this article isn't the place. But, for players just getting started, we'll take a close look at the weapons available, what their stats mean, and try to help you figure out what you should be wielding.

Weapon types
Weapons are broken into three basic types: one-handed weapons which can be wielded with a single hand, two-handed weapons which require two hands, and ranged weapons which also require two hands. You'll also find weapons labeled main hand or off hand, meaning that they can only be wielded in your main hand or off hand -- which comes into play with classes that can wield a different weapon in each hand (dual wielding).

You will also occasionally run into items labeled off hand without a weapon type. These items are typically equippable by any class in their off-hand slot. These can be anything from cosmetic items -- like flowers -- to items that buff stats for classes that can't dual wield but can use one-handed weapons. And, while they aren't quite weapons, shields are considered off-hand items as well.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

A few weeks back, I wrote a column singing the praises of the patch 5.2 death knight. I definitely stand by that column. Death knights remain a solid, fun class to play this patch. That said, there's always problems. Some of them probably won't ever be solved by patch changes. Today, we're going to look at some of the sillier death knight problems I've been dealing with lately, and see if there's any chance of relief for them.

My weapon won't drop

This is a problem I've had for ages. It seems like ever since Wrath, my death knight has had to wait a little longer for the weapon I actually want to wield because either it never drops or because someone else generally wins the roll or pays more DKP than me.

I, of course, do my best to do a little bit of every spec every patch because I want to be able to report on DK issues first hand, but my first death knight love and my main spec will always be some form of two-handed DPS.

I've been leveling my warrior recently, as those of you who read a previous Breakfast Topic already know. There's one thing about leveling her as protection that really keeps niggling at me, and that's how bizarrely a one-handed weapon sits on the female tauren model. It might just be me, but something about how the handle of almost every sword, axe, and mace in the game bangs into her chin seems wrong somehow. (I could probably also write something about tabards bugging out on the female tauren when she sits, but I'm pretty used to that now.)

Now, in the grand scheme of things, this is small potatoes. I should be getting mad about how druids aren't getting Shark With Lasers form in Mists of Pandaria or the serious game balance issues posed by my inability to get a decent pair of shoulders to drop for my shaman. I have absolutely no excuse for my obsession with how high a one-handed weapon sits on a female tauren -- and yet somehow, it still bugs me. At least with my warrior, I can spec her fury with Titan's Grip and stop thinking about it, but other classes are still kinda stuck.

Spill, folks. We've all got tiny things in the game that don't merit attention and yet drive us nuts. What are yours?

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With great betas come great datamining, and we've got some splendid new weapon and shield models from the Mists of Pandaria beta courtesy of Disenchanting Azeroth. A lot of these models are potentially NPC only or lower level items, according to the site, and they are very detailed as we've come to expect from Blizzard's texture artists. Hit the link for more staves, axes, maces, and more from Mists of Pandaria.

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. On Wednesdays, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen comes from out of the shadows to bask in your loving adoration. All jokes removed to achieve SOPA compliance.

When we met here last, I spent a great deal of time calculating the power of trinkets, partially because it's an important subject and one that's not easy for a shadow priest to unravel without performing their own research (or reading someone else's). The real reason: WoW Insider data shows you guys absolutely love reading about trinkets. And why wouldn't you? Trinkets are the most compelling gear slot to fill. Instead of relying on boring, flat stats, they offer compelling procs.

But trinkets aren't the only pieces of gear that offer compelling procs -- not anymore. Game designers at Blizzard are finally living up to a promise they made way back in February 2010 to "make more proc weapons in the future."

The future is now, but that presents a new challenge to shadow priest. What exactly are those neat new procs worth? And what's our best-in-slot weapon?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

As an enhancement shaman, my main character has lost many a roll over the years to players rolling on weapons for which their class probably shouldn't even have been rolling in the first place. We enhancement folk are pretty picky about which weapons we'll use; slow one-handers with agility are the only ones that pique our interest (blasphemers who use spellpower weapons are dead to me), and only those of the mace, axe, or fist families. Back in Naxx, I lost out on Calamity's Grasp to a rogue who wasn't even specced into a fist weapon build. Hunters rolled on one-handed axes like Touch of Madness -- as if they couldn't use nearly every other kind of weapon! Even dual-wielding DKs tried to get their cold, dead hands on one-handers like the Lion's Maw.

If it were up to me, I would remedy this problem by creating a whole new weapon class: flails. Flails would only be usable by shaman (and maybe druids, because kitties are cute). Variations could include the medieval-esque spiked ball(s) chained to a short pole handle, or even the nunchaku style of two sticks chained together. The swiftly spinning ball and chain of death would fit well with the enhancement shaman's Windfury Weapon imbue as well.

If you could, what new type of weapon would you add to WoW? Which classes would be able to use the new weapon, and why?

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The folks at Wowhead News have found a very interesting new vendor outside of patch 4.2's Firelands raid. Lurah Wrathvine, who is also riding on a Flameward Hippogryph for maximum pizzazz, will upgrade various normal tier 12 raid and valor point gear for the low, low price of a Crystallized Firestone. This is an item that drops off of the bosses therein when they are killed on heroic difficulty.

What's interesting about this system is that it affects items that don't even drop in the Firelands, especially the difficult-to-upgrade relics like the Hardheart Relic that makes my shaman scream "Me want!" like a caveman. Since relics are usually a valor point purchase, this makes them difficult (if not impossible) to upgrade, in comparison to other items. In general, this whole system is currently only in place to upgrade 21 items, but with some of those items being weapons or armor pieces, we may see more soon. It makes me remember Sunmotes and the Sunwell Plateau's exchange system. Crystallized Firestone definitely seems like the next iteration.

Also new on the test realms: The Avengers of Hyjal have a new strength DPS trinket. Looks like new itemization is being implemented as we speak.

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The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!

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Blizzard and Epic Weapons' weaponsmithing fan art contest tasked talented WoW enthusiasts with crafting and building life-size replicas of their favorite World of Warcraft weapons. Categories included Best Dagger, Best Mace, Best Sword, Best Ranged, and Best of the Rest. The entries are phenomenal, but that's a given for how talented the WoW playerbase is.

Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week: Shackleford.

Sometimes when I am out looking for new addons for the Spotlight, I find an author rather than any one addon. Many addon authors are not one-timers -- they've got a few addons under their belts because they either love the work or just can't get enough out of punishing themselves. Suffice to say, we are very appreciative of their work, and really, where would we be without them?

Today's Addon Spotlight focuses on two cool utilities from Shackleford, addon author to the stars (maybe). I am a big fan of little utilities, since most of these little wonders sit idly by, performing their functions with nary a whisper or whimper. Things just happen. If you don't already know them, may I introduce CalendarHUD and WeaponUP.

Axes, maces, lightning, Windfury and wolves. It can mean only one thing: enhancement. Rich Maloy lives it and loves it. His main spec is enhance. His off spec is enhance. He blogs about the life and times of enhance at Big Hit Box, pens the enhance side of Totem Talk and leads the guild Big Crits (Week 3 now out!) as the enhancement shaman Stoneybaby.

As a melee class, weapons are our most important items. Not surprisingly, good weapons (emphasis on "good") can't be bought with emblems and only drop off a select few bosses, with the best weapons dropping off the hardest bosses. While trinkets can be hard to acquire (Death's Choice/Verdict is a lie!), you can fill in the gaps with emblems or even some subpar trinket choices and not have as big an impact on overall damage as a good weapon. Nothing beats a big stick.

Today we're looking at enhancement weapon options in dungeons, plus Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel in 10s and 25s, regular and heroic. I am skipping over Naxx, OS, EoE, Ulduar, and Ony because it seems to me that it's far easier to get in and gear up in a ToC/ToGC PuG these days than any other raid. There are some good weapon choice in those older raids, but even starting out as a fresh 80 you should find ToC-10 PuGs doable.

Let's dive in to our weapon options.

Want to get Gold Capped? This column will show you how, and is written by Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, also of outdps.com, the Hunting Party podcast, and the Call to Auction podcast.

Enchanting mats are a strange business. They are in constant massive demand, and can be made in a variety of ways. Every Tuesday, thousands of guilds get thousands of upgrades that need to be enchanted, every day, hundreds of thousands of players run PUG and PvP content that gives them upgrades they want to enchant, and every day, thousands of players buy things like Bolts of Imbued Frostweave, which require enchanting mats to make.

Axes, maces, lightning, fire, frost, and wolves, and best of all, Windfury. It can mean only one thing: enhancement. Rich Maloy (aka Stoneybaby) loves it and lives it. His main spec is enhance. His off-spec is enhance. And he will be penning the enhance side of Totem Talk.

It seems 101 guides are all the rage these days, which makes enhancement shaman 101 a convenient place to start with my inaugural WoW.com post. Playing an enhancement shaman, and playing it well, means dealing with the most extensive spell rotation in the game, having two caps to hit in gearing, and a dozen cooldowns to track. Not to mention the need to run out of fires, avoid whirlwinds, and generally dodge all that hate on melee. It's safe to say enhance is one of the most complex specs to play. It's also one of the most fun.

My favorite part is that we're right up front making a mess of things with both physical and magical damage–to deadly effect. You want to play enhancement? Let's dive right in to get you started!

This is surprising: the entire loot table for the Arthas fight, on both 10 and 25-man (normal and hard, judging by the item levels) has just been posted to the Armory. Edit: the loot is also on Wowhead now, complete with 3D models. As tipster Micah noted, if this is really the whole loot table, it consists entirely of armor tokens, weapons, and Invincible's Reins (which is listed as a guaranteed drop on 25-man heroic). The focus on weapons isn't exactly new for raid end bosses, but it's interesting nonetheless.

I haven't had a chance to go through the whole list yet, but as far as I can tell, there aren't any of the nifty proc-based items we've been seeing elsewhere in Icecrown. It's pure stats on Arthas drops (though Alex points out that they all the 25-man heroic items have flavor text). Still, I wouldn't say no to a nice Tainted Twig of Nordrassil for my druid.

Which one's your favorite?

Melee combat? Barbaric. Healing? How pedestrian. Let the elements do the talking. Totem Talk: Elemental. Brought to you by Mike Sacco.

Last week I took you through Elemental 101, a crash course in playing your elemental shaman. Now that we've got the basics out of the way and you understand your talents and rotation, it seems as good a time as any to talk about gear.

We addressed the main stats you're looking for on elemental gear last week, but here's a quick rundown again for those who missed it: Hit rating, spell power, haste, and crit. These are the only four stats we'll be looking for on elemental gear, besides the obvious intellect and stamina boosts that'll be on nearly every piece of caster gear anyway.

If the above sounds like a pretty reasonable set of stats to look for, well, you're not wrong. So I've got good news and bad news for you. The good news? There's definitely elemental gear out there. The bad news? Good luck finding it. Elemental gearing has a lot of issues unique to both the shaman and this specific spec. And you're not gonna like them.