A lot of people already know it, but for RL reasons I'm gonna skip out on this expansion.

Can't really say I'm 'Leaving', cause I'll still be prowling, and you'd have to ban me to get me not to be sitting in IRC most work days.

But beyond that, it's been fun.  You guys rock, and Nhia <3 Ghli!

<3 all

Peace out.

As 4.0.1 came out on Tuesday, new changes came out for paladin healing. Gone are the days of Holy Light bombing to help AoE Via the Glyph of Holy light. Now our AoE heal is Light of Dawn, or rather our flashlight. It appears to not have a cap on the amount of people it can heal at once. Currently it heals for about 2.5-2.7k for 922 mana, but is currently on a 20 second CD unless glyphed down to a 10 second CD and becomes weaker by 20% (not sure if this is a good idea at level 85, but we will see). It’s not a bad way to proc Solace to a full stack for 288 spirit.

Judgment of the Pure has not changed, but with no Judgment of Light around, There’s no reason to judge every 10-15 seconds or so. 

Our big heal is now Dawn of Light. Heals for about 13-15k, but costs 1318 mana and has a base cast time of 3 seconds. With the haste that I currently have, this has been knocked down to 1.99 seconds/ 1.82 with Judgment of the Pure.

Holy light is still our main heal, but isn’t as strong as it was. Heals for 5.6k, costs 395 mana, and has a base cast time of 3 seconds.

Flash of light is has changed to the fastest heal that we can do, next to instant casts. Heals for about 10, costs 1186 mana, and has a base cast time of 1.5 seconds. With haste, this is down to 1.19s/1.09s

Beacon of light got wacked by the nerf bat, and did it get nerfed hard. Half of any heal that I do gets sent to the person with the beacon. Costs 263 mana. However, it’s also a combo point generator, if my beaconed target is directly healed

Although Crusader Strike is now a baseline ability for every paladin, it’s still viable to use as it generates combo points. Might as well stay in melee range, and generate combo points as a filler for not needing to Judge every 10 seconds.

Holy shock become a combo point generator with the new Holy Power mechanic that we picked up. Glyphable so you can increase it’s crit rate by 5%. It's still on a 6 second CD. However, casting holy shock now has benefits.

1. A holy shock crit can reduce the next cast of holy light by 1.5 seconds. In 4.0.3, this will make the cast time of Dawn of Light or Holy Light be reduced by 1.5 seconds.

2. Casting holy shock (crit or not) grants 30% haste for the next FoL, HL, or Dawn of light. HOWEVER, when 4.0.3 comes out, this(speed of light) has been changed to only grant 1%/2%/3% spellhaste

Word of Glory is our Holy Power finisher. 1 charge 3k heal, 2 charges 6k heal, 3 charges 9k. Costs no mana.

Protector of the Innocent is not exactly a heal we do, but something like a nerfed Beacon on ourselves. It can crit (this might get nerfed so it doesn’t crit all all). In addition, if you heal yourself, you do gain PotI heals(might get nerfed as well). 

Illuminated Healing is our Mastery bonus. This turns us into a weaker (8% baseline)/stronger version of Val’anyr with no 45 second cooldown. I reforged crit on all my armor pieces (down to 32.7%) to mastery (up to 17.93%). However, World of Logs doesn’t take account into Illuminated Healing yet, so I expect the true healing+Absorb for me to go up when it is added. 

Going over what happened with half of ICC being completed, healing as expected was strange. Marrowgar, not everyone was grouped up, so the healing from Light of Dawn wasn’t very effective. Then again, we were attempting to do Boned, and failed the achievement, which probably explains why no one was grouped up.

Not sure what was going on Lady Deathwhisper as we were doing Full House.

Gunship was snoozeship. Nothing unusual except Nuit wasn’t on for his usual kiting duties.

Saurfang was strange to everyone. The order of people getting marked were me, Kish, Crawfeesh, and Puregenius. People healing marks were me, elapsed, raziella, and silentalaram, with kish healing the first melee mark. Since I was marked first, healing became a breeze just for healing myself. Marks were doing about 6k-8k damage per tick. Holy light+PotI would heal myself for 6k+5k +whatever spell decided to crit at that point. Mana was never an issue; I never dropped below 70%, no innervates, and no divine plea(which is 10% mana regained on a 2 minute cooldown now).

Not sure what people were doing on Rotface. We were supposed to Dances with Oozes. I was one of the first people to get diseased. Stood in area away from the other ooze with my ooze just hitting me (2k-3k hits)and let PoiI keep me up while healing Orky.

Heroic Festergut was nothing but full of bugs. Vile gas was being thrown at anyone, and I mean anyone in melee or ranged. It was at the point where I was barely out of melee range, and somehow I got vile gas chained into the melee. I hope this gets fixed by the next lockout.

Other than that (and the nuking of illumination and DI), it seems like we’ll be fine at 80 and ok at 85. We’ll have to see when we get our hands on our level 81+ abilities that we don’t have access to yet to see if we’ll be fine at 85.

I'm bored at work so I'm going to use this as a place to compile some raiding Warlock thoughts for until Cataclysm. I'm not going to do a Demo spec at the moment because, well, I don't really see it as raid viable yet so long as an elemental shaman is around the sp buff is now the same.

Word of Warning: This guide is in a state of constant flux as what's live is also in a state of constant flux. For example, presently Demonology is testing as the second strongest DPS spec, ahead of both DL and SB affliction locks...so I may need to write up one of those guides soon. We'll see.

Destruction

Destro looks to be the top warlock spec at the moment, even after the nerf to Searing Pain (which you had to know was coming).

Glyphs: Top main performing prime glyphs are Conflagrate, Imp, and Immolate

Other valuable major glyph: Lifetap (unless your haste is high...1400ish).

Fear, for CC issues is nice too. When glyphed targets cower in terror rather than run around and pull mobs.

Gear: First, get up to 17% hit. 446ish. Remember spirit is worthless, dump your purple purified dreadstones for veiled dreadstones (int / hit). Reforging is okay if you have gear with crit on it, but in many cases it won't be that helpful, since you've probably been stacking haste for the last little while anyway, haven't you. If you can reforge hit (if over cap) or crit to haste or mastery, you should do so. Haste is very slightly better than mastery at the moment, unless you're over the 1406 haste cap. Anything beyond that point should ABSOLUTELY get reforged into Mastery. But, let's be honest...you're only at that point of haste on your gear w/o any more spellstones if you're mostly 277/284 gear...and those folks aren't probably the kind of person who needs to read guides like this.  :)

Spec: Pick the dps talents as much as possible to 31 in Destro. Then hop over and pick up some points in Dark Arts and Imp Corruption.

Pet: Imp

Rotation:

Start with a Shadow Burn --> Soul Fire to keep up the Imp SF buff (15% haste buff for 15 seconds if target is over 80% health).

Keep these dots up all the time: Immolate, Bane of Doom, Corruption.

Keep Conflagrate and Chaos Bolt on CD.

Use your instant cast SF when it procs.

Pop Doomguard / Infernal (for multi-targets) if it's up.

Collect loot.

EDIT 3: Neither edit 1 or 2 was helpful. Things are correct as originally posted.

Affliction

Affliction is still a strong contender for a dps spec. Many things remain the same in terms of rotation for affliction. There's technically a viable Drain Life spec which is very different than the Shadowbolt spec. The thing is, if you want to be a DL warlock, your reforging is very different than either a SB afflock or a Destrolock. That means that if you want to be at an optimal level you'd have to reforge if switching between DL Affliction and Destro or SB Affliction.

Personally, my dps has been about equal between DL Affliction and SB affliction and I like to be able to switch to destro, so SB is the way I'm choosing. DL is substantially harder to play and requires you to micromanage each and every facet of your gameplay (no simple button spamming for your filler spell, your range from the target is a substantial issue in order to keep up your 15% dot damage debuff, lots of math in terms of figuring out when to "clip" DL). All in all, if you can manage all that, knock yourself out...but Ghostcrawler says you'll be casting SB again in a few months anyway.

Glyphs: Haunt, Bane of Agony, Lash of Pain

Other major glyphs of importance: Shadowbolt, LifeTap (until haste > 1400). Fear, for CC issues is nice too. When glyphed targets cower in terror rather than run around and pull mobs.

Spec: Pick all the regular dps shit in Affliction to get to 31. You'll have to pick some optional stuff. I only put 1/2 in Jinx as Jinx has only really valuable application on trash. Same reason I skipped on the Seed of Corruption talent. I did pick up Curse of Exhaustion, for potential kiting. Then I grabbed 3/3 Bane and 2/3 Shadow and Flame in the destro tree.

Gear: Here's where DL and SB playstyles vary. The reason DL is viable is that it benefits from mastery. If you switch just about every piece of gear (after hit capping at 17%) so it has mastery on it, you get an added 33% (ish, that's what it was for me) periodic damage increase. What that means is that essentially ALL your spells have an extra 33% damage bonus.

For either DL or SB you should be dumping spirit. (As above). Gearing for a SB focus the stat weights are basically the same as for Destro gearing as described above. (Mastery is a little more valuable for Destro locks than SB afflocks, but probably not so much that it changes gear sets between the two.)

Pet: Succubus

Rotation:

Starting off, it's no longer as valuable to stack Shadow Embrace with shadowbolt and haunt, so you're just as well starting off by throwing up your dots on the target as you run in because dots automatically readjust to crit, haste, and spellpower levels upon refresh.

Keep Haunt on CD at all times.

Get up your Dots (Bane of Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction).

SB filler (or DL if you're a drain life focus...also as DL you probably will need to stand way closer to the boss so you don't lose Shadow Embrace w/ Haunt's long travel time...you'll also need to keep an eye on the 5% crit debuff if you're the only one bringing it--see, I told you it was hard).

When boss is <25% health, use Drain Soul (which can now crit) instead of ShadowBolt.

Pop Doomguard when available.

Pretty much the same rotation as before for SB focus.

I'll start by hitting the big changes and then get into more details later.  First say goodbye to the faceroll rotation and say hello to a very rigid and unforgiving rotation.  I am loving the holy power mechanic so far and I have to say that its going to be really easy to spot Paladins who know what they are doing and those that have no clue.  

I'll get into talent changes, stats, reforging this weekend when I have time to be detailed.  

Most of the information is from either my own findings or reading from EJ_RET_4.0.1

Rotation.

I dont have tons of data to go by yet but I have spent a lot of time on the target dummy and I feel like I have the basic rotation down.  First off Crusader Strike (CS) is our main way of getting Holy Power (HP).  Every time it hits we get 1 HP.  With my current gear + talent (I'll get into this later) my CS comes off CD about every 3 seconds.  This gives me time to react to AoW procs (free instant cast of Exorsim) or , Judge, holy wrath (HW), throw my hammer (if in execute range or if I have wings active).  Templars Verdict (TV) and Divine Storm (DS) our the only DPS finishers we have at level 80 and each should only be used when you have 3 HP.  DS now is only used if you have multiple targets and TV will be the main finisher you use.  Seal of Truth is the dps seal. The 31 point talent Zealotry also consumes HP and should also only be used when you have 3 HP.  This talent allows CS to grand 3 HP instead of just 1 so you will change your rotation accordingly.  Here is what my rotation looks like currently for three different phases of a fight.  

Meat and Potatoes (no heroism, wings, or execute range)

CS filler CS filler CS ..  TV will replace CS or filler if you have 3 holy power  

filler: judge, HW, Exorcism procs.

For procs that appear if its the Mastery proc Hand of Light (TV as though you have 3 HP and doesnt use any HP) its always #1 priority.  If there is AoW proc and I have 3 HP already then its TV then Exorcism.  There is a talent that give a 40% change of gaining HP from Judgements, Exorcism, (others) so you dont want to use a skill if you already have 3 HP and potentially waste that HP.  Sometimes you will find that you will proc 2-3 Hand of light in a row so its important to use them and then get back into the rotation.  

Wings + Zealotry 

hammer CS TV filler CS TV filler CS TV hammer ...

(looking into if it is really best to use zealotry with Wings or not.

This is an easy area to screw up and I'm still working on perfecting it.  I would say that while wings is up hammer hits hard and should be #1 priority.  I may change my mind as I get more data but thats my feeling right now.  Again any TV procs that happen should be consumed right away and exorcism procs should be used as fillers since TV currently hits a lot harder then Exorcism.  

Execute Range

Pretty much the same as Meat and Potatoes except that you use hammer as a filler when its available.

As you can see the old rotation is dead and gone.  

You'll notice that I never mentioned consecrate because its a huge mana dump atm and the damage that it does is almost equal to the mana (2.5k ish).  On multiple targets you'll change out TV with DS and add consecrate (maybe worth it on 4+ mobs) as a filler but otherwise its the same rotation as I stated above.  

I'll get some more in here as time permits.

The boost they gave to us is good.  Not OP good but it puts us close to where we were pre 4.0.1 so that its the new rotation thats hindering damage and not because we are swinging a wet noodle..

Ok I'm bored so I'll just type this up for people to read, and to remind myself too on what I need to do when online.

Most info is found here:  http://elitistjerks.com/f78/t105659-4_0_1_rogue_faq/

I may have added a few things myself.

Specs (there are flexible fillers in there):

Assassination - http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#fcIfzsMdoGo0bZ0h:qV Last glyph is Vendetta or Backstab, I dunno.   Cycle is basically Envenom to keep SnD up, keep rupture up, mutilate 4+, backstab < 35%.

Combat - http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#f0bZfGccocbRGo0h:o0Vz  Cycle is basically keep SnD up.   Use Revealing Strike at 3-4 combo points before a Rupture/Eviscerate (does not affect SnD waste to use otherwise).    Watch Bandit's Guile to maximize CDs/Ruptures/etc.   

Reports are, DPS sucks, well rogues have to get used to new mechanics too, but it doesn't look good, needs buffs!

Subtlety - http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#f0hZ0bZcGcsdu0RGo:mza   Keep SnD up, keep Hemo debuff up, keep Rupture up via Evis, keep Recuperate up, otherwise Backstab/Evis.     

Reports are, HAT is broken, resetting your combo points when other people crit, so likely not viable til fixed.

Stat Weights (AP = 1):

Assassination

• Spell Hit 3.1
• Agility 2.8
• Expertise 2.6
• Haste 2.2
• Mastery 1.9
• White Hit 1.7
• Crit 1.4

Combat

• Agility 2.88
• Spell Hit 2.38
• Haste 2.25
• Expertise 2.2
• White Hit 1.69
• Crit 1.62
• Mastery 0.6

Subtlety

• Agility 3.67
• Expertise 2.15
• Spell Hit 1.9
• Haste 1.84
• Crit 1.67
• White Hit 1.14
• Mastery 1.01

Trinkets:

Assassination

1. Heroic Sharpened Twilight Scale 810
2. Heroic Death's Verdict 760
3. Heroic Deathbringer's Will 760
4. Sharpened Twilight Scale 710
5. Death's Verdict 680
6. Harkuml War Token 680
7. Heroic Whispering Fang Skull 670
8. Deathbringer's Will 670
9. Comet's Trail ~640?
10. Heroic Abomination in a Jar 600
11. Whispering Fang Skull ~595?

Combat

1. Heroic Sharpened Twilight Scale 830
2. Heroic Deathbringer's Will 790
3. Heroic Death's Verdict 780
4. Sharpened Twilight Scale 740
5. Deathbringer's Will 700
6. Death's Verdict 690
7. Harkuml War Token 690
8. Heroic Whispering Fang Skull 690
9. Comet's Trail ~650?
10. Whispering Fang Skull ~625?

Subtlety

1. Heroic Death's Verdict
2. Death's Verdict
3. Heroic Sharpened Twilight Scale
4. Heroic Deathbringer's Will
5. Sharpened Twilight Scale
6. Deathbringer's Will
7. Heroic Whispering Fang Skull
8. Herkuml War Token
9. Whipsering Fang Skull

Enchants

• Weapons:  Berserking -> Mongoose
• Gloves:  44AP -> 20 agi
• Boots:  12hit/12crit -> 16 agi
• Cloak:  23 haste -> 22 agi

Random Note:

For greatest flexibility in all specs priority probably should be

• Get the spell hit cap (289 / 342 / 394 / 446 rating depending on your precision)
• Get to expertise cap (172 or 149 for gnomes with daggers/swords)
• Red Slots = Agility (delicate) or Expertise (precise)
• Yellow Slots = Agilty / Haste (deft) or Expertise / Hit (accurate)
• Blue Slots = Agility / Hit (glinting)  or Expertise / Hit (accurate)
• Reforge crit into haste or hit
• And of course, reforge the most worthless stat on the item into a higher stat when possible
• Note:  Mastery seems good for Mutilate, so reforge for that whenever you can't do haste.

looking to upgrade some parts on my computer. here are the specs. one thing i want to do right away is my ramm. Feel free to post any sugestions. GFX card is not a concern as I have already dealt with it.

Processor, Operating System and Memory

Operating system installed

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium

Processor

Intel ® Viiv™ Processor Technology with an Intel ® Core™2 Quad Processor Q6600
• 2.4GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 677MHz Front Side Bus

Chipset

Intel ® P965 Express Chipset

Standard memory

3072MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM memory (2x1024MB & 2x512MB for ultimate performance) (expandable to 8GB)

Memory type

DDR2-SDRAM

Memory slots

4 DIMM (240-pin, DDR2) (occupied)

Internal drives

Internal hard disk drive

640GB

Hard disk controller

Serial ATA

Hard disk drive speed

(7200 rpm)

Optical drive type

SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology

Optical drive speed

16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL, 8x DVD-R DL, 12x DVD-RAM, 16x DVD-ROM, 40x CDR, 32x CDRW, 40x CD-ROM

Second optical drive type

HD DVD Player for high definition movies

Second optical drive speed

2.4x HD DVD-ROM, 5x DVD-ROM, 15x CD-ROM

System features

Memory card device

15in1 memory card reader

Modem

56k modem

Network interface

Ethernet 10/100/1000BT integrated network interface

Video adapter

NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS graphics card with
256MB dedicated video memory, TV-out, DVI, and HDMI capabilities. Up to
1023MB Total Available Graphics Memory as allocated by Windows Vista®.

Video RAM

256MB

Compatible interactive TV services

NTSC TV tuner, over-the-air ATSC high-definition television tuner, and FM tuner (antenna included)

Internal audio

High Definition Audio, 8 speaker configurable

Keyboard

HP wireless keyboard with extended range (up to 30 feet)

Handheld remote control

HP Media Center remote control with IR (infrared) receiver

External drive bays

2 external optical drive bays, 2 internal HDD bays, 1 external HDD bay

External I/O ports

6 USB 2.0 ports (2 in front); 2 FireWire®-IEEE-1394 ports (1 in front)

Expansion slots

3 PCI slots (occupied), 1 PCI Express x16 Slot Slot(s) (occupied)

Software

Included/Pre-installed software

Microsoft® Internet Explorer 7.0; Windows Mail; Adobe® Reader 8.0

Software - education / reference / entertainment

Windows Media Center

Software - internet & online

Internet Solutions (Up to 3 months service included)

* Bell Sympatico High Speed Internet
* EastLink High Speed Internet Access
* Netscape High Speed Internet Service
* Netscape Accelerated Internet Service
* Shaw High-Speed Internet Access

Software included

Recovery partition (including possibility
to recover system, applications and drivers separately); Optional
re-allocation of recovery partition; Recovery CD/DVD creation tool;
Symantec™ Norton Internet Security™ 2007 (60 days live update)

Dimensions / weight / warranty

Weight

13.80 kg

Package weight

20 kg

Dimensions (w x d x h)

192 x 420 x 385 mm

Package dimensions (W x D x H)

500 x 600 x 340 mm

Warranty Statement

Service Options:
- Hardware: One year parts and labor from date of purchase
- Software: 90 day technical toll-free phone assistance
- Service Delivery: Customer Replaceable Parts; Return to hp for
repair; Authorized Service Provider. For information, visit
www.hp.ca/support