Welcome to Hybrid Theory, where we discuss all things hybrid in the World of Warcraft. Hybrid Theory is brought to you each week by columnist/blogger Alex Ziebart.
I really thought my excitement over Wrath of the Lich King would fade after the initial onslaught of alpha information and just come back around launch time, but that hasn't really been the case. It's been a pretty consistent type of excitement, and I pretty much devour every piece of information I can find.
We've talked about Druids already, but while I love Hybrids in general, my Shadow Priest is my main and my first love. Yes yes, I'm sure some of you still disagree with Priests being Hybrids, but I'm of the opinion that they are so I shall continue. If you want to disagree, do so in the Comments section below.
I adore playing my Shadow Priest, but I think all Shadow Priest players agree with me when I say there are some definite issues with the class on some level or another. Why don't we take a seat and see what might be on the devs' minds, eh?
Hello, fellow Holy priests! Are you interested in Karazhan, but have never gone yet? Maybe you want some Badges, maybe you want some nice epics, or maybe you just want to hang out with nine other folks and have some fun. But what to wear?
Well, the good news is you don't need amazing gear to start KZ. In fact, healing KZ can be easier than healing many heroics, in my experience, if only because you have another healer or two there to help you out. Of course, the better your gear is, the better your performance will be, but there are many easy-to-reach pieces of gear that will perform fine, and several that will perform amazingly, for Karazhan. Join me as I step through some recommended options.
Two aspects of my personality come into conflict quite often during my time playing WoW. You see, I love getting the most out of my gear, and pushing every little point of damage I can get out of my equipment. However, I hate doing math in my leisure time. When you really want to get down to min-maxing, you're stuck with that little math part.
Fortunately, there are tools out there to help that out somewhat. The latest tool being Chardev.org, a website that allows you to either build a character from the ground up or import yours from the Armory. Everything from gems to enchants to talents are able to be altered here, and while this isn't the first website to do something like that, it does do something differently. It allows you to see all of your stats, and the breakdown of your spells. Their damage, damage coefficients, casting time after Haste, all of that.
It definitely isn't perfect or a replacement for good math, but it's quality work regardless. The ability to refine your item searches further would help a lot. As it is right now, it just throws you a giant list of what could technically go in that slot, with no way to narrow it down. Still, seeing spell stats and how gear will affect them laid out for you is very cool. Chardev is worth at least a look!
My original intent for this week's Hybrid Theory was to take a close look at the Badge Gear for Hybrids in patch 2.4, but that turned into a monstrous project that left my head spinning. I remained vigilant, until I saw the specific class columns were working on this themselves, starting with Shifting Perspectives. Upon hearing that, I jumped for joy and it was as if the Heavens opened up and thousands of beautiful angels embraced me against their supple forms.
So instead of filling your browser with loot links and badge prices, I'm going to talk about the future of itemization, from patch 2.4 and onward.
"We do plan to have more specs share some loot. I know it's great when the Retribution-Paladin piece drops, but that's a piece that isn't good for 26 other classes/specs, so hopefully we can make it so the item will apply to more classes/specs so even the randomness of loot won't be so much of a big deal."
The ring features +22 to the primary five stats, making it (wait... let me make sure my math is right here...) 22 times better than The 1 Ring.
I'm not sure of it's use initially. It's a well rounded stats ring, so perhaps a druid or other hybrid class might be interested in it if they find themselves changing roles often enough. However for a single role / gear set, there are a plethora of better choices easily obtainable.
Of course, with that said, it makes a helluva nice ring to start off at 70 with.
Yet another fun little tidbit slipped by unnoticed in the recent frenzy of 2.4 news, but no longer! Behold, a WoW Insider exclusive!
Okay, so it's not that special and I may have exaggerated the weight of this news item just a little, but I think most of you will be happy to know that the Magisters' Terrace drops a 20 slot bag: The Sun Touched Satchel. It is unique, but it seems to be a fairly common drop off of the trash inside of the instance. I don't have statistics and percentages for you but when I mentioned it in General chat, a fair number of people spoke up to say they had one as well. Judging entirely off of that, I assume it won't take you dozens and dozens of runs to get your own.
I'm sure this is a bit of a sting in the bum of Primal Mooncloth tailors when combined with the near-free 20 slot bags from Zul'Aman, but keep in mind that the bag is unique. I don't expect this will cause the market for 20 slotters to change much, if at all. Besides, I think everyone in WoW can agree that more bag space is a good thing, no matter the source.
No, they didn't forget the Jewelers in the new crafted gear. Healers, casters and melee DPS all recieve both a ring and a necklace from Jewelcrafting in 2.4, and the recipes are likely drops in the Sunwell raid zone.
The necklaces(which are BoP) all come equipped with a gem slot for further customization, making them a pretty nice prize for end-game Jewelers. The materials on these rings and amulets are pretty hefty though, it won't be an easy task to make them. Everything from Primal Mights to Hardened Khorium Bars to gems from Mount Hyjal and Black Temple are needed to craft these beauties. And let's not forget the Sunmotes for the rings, and the Primal Nethers for the necklaces.
As you can see, you'll need to jump through some hoops to get your hands on these, but they seem worth it. If you want to see for yourself, check out the stats and materials after the jump. Thanks again, MMO Champ!
As I've mentioned before, The Darkmoon Faire is currently in Terrokar Forest, just outside Shattrath City, so if you have decks to turn in or need to refill your private stock of Darkmoon Special Reserve, now's the time to get on it. But if you're still a little bit taken aback by the prospect of gathering all those cards, or wondering if the trinket at the end will really be worth it, we'd like to help you out.
In this post, we'll be looking at both the old and new decks and listing some pros and cons of each deck so you can figure out if you want to spend the next month tracking down cards before the Faire shows up in Elwynn Forest in March, or even if you just want to blow your epic flying mount fund on getting a deck before it leaves for the month.
The Fear Ward change, like I mentioned in my last post, is primarily a convenience change for PvE. Reupping Fear Ward every 3 minutes when you need to keep putting Shadowform back on afterwards is annoying, and a large mana drain over long encounters. However, it wasn't crippling, so not a very big deal. What this will help the most is PvP, especially arenas. Having an arena match last longer than three minutes isn't unlikely, so you will probably want to put Fear Ward back up at some point throughout the match. Being required to drop Shadowform to do it is sort of a pain, considering both the loss of damage and the mitigation Shadowform supplies you with, arguably one of the Shadow Priest's strongest defenses.
The Spell Haste change is what has me a little excited. I'll admit right away, I haven't crunched any numbers. I'm notoriously bad at breaking down raw stats, I usually just eyeball my gear and take a guess. I'm right or pretty close more often than not but don't hate me too much if my guesses here are completely wrong. If you want to see some raw numbers, you can probably check them out over at the ShadowPriest.com forum.
The names of equipment in the World of Warcraft are really hit or miss. You have a few that are absolutely amazing, some that are downright awful.
On the one hand, you have Crul'shorukh, Edge of Chaos. Stop reading for a second, and say that out loud. Crul'shorukh, Edge of Chaos. Roll it around on your tongue, savor the flavor. That name alone radiates manliness, and it helps that it was a darn good weapon in its day. If Bruce Lee and John Wayne had a child, I bet its name would be Crul'shorukh. This right here is the height of awesome.
And then... then, you come across the Wand of Happiness. Come on, really? The Wand of Happiness? When I spotted this in Nagrand, I completely forgot whether I was playing the World of Warcraft or Cuddly Pink Ponies in Dreamland. Am I supposed to be slaying orcs and dragons by the dozen or rolling dice to see if I get to wear the pretty tiara? Well... I guess I'm doing both, technically, but thats not the point. How about Wand of Blowing Stuff Up instead? Eh? Ehh? Yeah, that's what the World of Warcraft is really all about.
My favorite database site has recently added a new feature to their item listings. When you look an item up on Wowhead.com, you'll notice a new link to the right of the item's name which says "Get in-game item link". When you click on it, a new window will pop open with some highlighted text. Simply copy the text into your in-game chat window and hit enter. You'll be given an in-game item link for the equipment you looked up on Wowhead, so you can check yourself out in the dressing room or pass the info on to another player.
This is certainly a cool feature and one I'll probably play around with quite a bit. This may allow me to do away with some of the item databaseaddons I currently use in-game. I'm already alt-tabbing out to read Wowhead all the time, so it won't be much hassle at all to copy their links into the game when necessary.
Will you be using this feature at all? What do you think about it?
Cheri asks if learning a weapon skill just because a weapon looks cool is dumb. If you're asking me, Cheri, I'd say, "not at all." She's even talking about just learning a weapon skill, and I'm saying that if you have to respec just to use a cool looking weapon, go for it.
My Shammy was all about shields and maces while leveling, all the way up until Kang the Decaptator dropped and I won the roll. I couldn't pass it up-- I went ahead and grabbed the two-hand spec point just to wield that weapon. Nowadays, as a resto raider, I'm back to using the snake mace and a shield, but if a terrific caster staff dropped and fell into my hands, I wouldn't mind switching at all. Likewise, after looking at the rogue builds, I decided to go for a combat daggers build because it seemed like that would let me do what I wanted as a rogue. But I can't seem to find two daggers that look really cool to wield-- I have to say, I'm seriously thinking about speccing swords (away from my beloved backstab!!) just to wield two gigantic blades of destruction. Heck, I've even worn a cloth headpiece for a while on both my Shammy and my Rogue, just because I thought it looked much better.
The purists among you are probably apoplectic by now, shocked that I would choose a piece of gear for its looks rather than its stats, or that I would change my playstyle simply for cosmetic reasons. But what can I say-- the looks make the Orc. What's the point of min/maxing all those abilities and that equipment if you can't look good doing it?
Two Ring to rule them all, 
Yet another fun little tidbit slipped by unnoticed in the recent frenzy of 
Cheri asks if 
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