MoP Beta Pandaria and Monks (non-warrior)

So I have been in the beta now for a little over week and finally had time to sit down today and play it. As the title says this is non-warrior, I decided the one thing I needed to do in the beta was to play through the starting Pandarean zone so I could see it and at least try the monk class. Where do I start, upon creating my Pandarean I noticed te character creation screen had been changed no more aimlessly scrolling through skin tones and hair styles you get to see them all and select them from a grid view of them all. Once on the island the first thing I noticed was that the terrain and objects looked a lot smoother even the starting armor looked amazing. the quests were fun and not too boring or grind feeling. The first thing about the monk class that I noticed was that when I went to attack the target dummies for the second quest I was auto attacking, somewhere I missed the memo that they were adding auto attack to monks. I was very disappointed to see auto attacks because I was hoping to see Blizzard remove auto attacks from all classes to make the game even more immersive and to make afkers stand out even more on fights. For the first 10 levels I have felt at home playing the monk it felt familiar like a warrior yet different, with energy and combo points like a rogue one would expect a monk to play like a rogue. I dont Know if it was the quests, the environment or the new class but it was the most fun I've had leveling a character 1-10 since I leveled my first Tauren Warrior. Next week I will have an update on the Monk class and the final few level on Pandaria. I decided to go Brewmaster and will be going Horde once I get the chance to. Also next week I will post my impressions of MoP Beta Warrior as I sit down and toy with specs and debate whether I want to play the new content now or wait till release.

Warrior Pride

A well written article provided by WoW Insider on the Warrior, and what it means to play one here.

Mist of Pandaria Pre-beta Thoughts

I have been playing WoW now for 4 years now so I missed the hay day of Vanilla, I started at the release of The Burning Crusade and spent way to many days not studying playing. I do have to admit that since the release of Wrath of the Lich King I did start playing a whole lot less down to playing only 2-3 nights a week most weeks. Through Cataclysm I have wanted to play more but have not had the time due to real life changes for the best.

But I am really excited for Mists of Pandaria because it is new and unknown, where Cataclysm kinda let us down with only 2 truly new zones, Tol Barad, and 2 starter areas that were new, I was really looking forward to going to Undermine. Uldum was a let with 6 years of build up of wondering what was behind those doors. Hyjal a fun zone but it felt very familiar and Twilight Highlands was the same. With Wrath it was new in a WoW sense but in Warcraft it was not. So with Mists we should get that sense of excitement of going somewhere new like we did in Vanilla and TBC.

And this whole notion of Kung-Fu Panda will ruin the game, is bogus the Pandaren have been around since WarCraft3 and have been a race that me along with many long time Warcraft fans (not necessarily wow fans) have been eager to play. Pre-TBC they were even thought to be the Alliance playable race for the expansion.

I did signup for the WoW annual pass so I will be in the MoP beta however I don't play on PTRs much because I like being surprised with content that I will be playing through for 4-8 months, so I am still torn about actually participating in the beta.

My Arms Warrior UI

Raiding Addons:
- Deadly Boss Mods
- Deadly Boss Mods Spell Timers (great for monitoring your groups CDs)
- Parrot (floating combat text)
- Tidy Plates
- X-Perl Unit Frames

UI addons:
- ArkInventory
- Fortress (a broker display)
- Broker uClock
- MrCurrency
- Broker_DurabilityInfo
- Broker_Location
- Postal
- Razer Naga
- Prat 3.0
- SexyMap
- Sunn Viewport Art

Screen Shot comming soon

4.3 and the Glory of Arms

With the coming of 4.3 it has laid to rest the notion that it would kill Arms PvE DPS being competive with Fury, and in fact made Arms the viable PvE spec by a lot. People called me crazy for playing Arms in 4.1 and 4.2 but look at them now all running around with their single 2 handed weapons. The funny thing is that even with full 4.2 gear I am currently putting out more DPS than better geared warriors on my Server and in LFR (yes I know they are normally lazy in LFR). What it comes down to is how I DPS and the way my spec is set up. 1) I know the arms priority system very well for playing it over a year now, and most Fury warriors are still trying to faceroll as Arms, yes it will put out okay numbers, but no where near where it should be. 2) In DS the same as it was in FL the AoE Arms spec seems to be the better overall spec for the dungeon there are a few fights where the single target spec is better but for the over all raid go with the AoE spec especially if you need your 2nd spec for something else (like having to tank because your guild fell apart 2 weeks before 4.3 came out and still hasn't recovered).

Just remember the best DPS priority rotation will look something like this for single target Open w/ Rend - then begin - CS>MS>OP>Slam(Rage<60&MS still on CD)/HS(Rage>60)

and for Multiple Target: Open with Rend - then begin - CS>MS>TC>OP>MS>BS>MS>CS>SS> then settle into the above single target rotation until BS and SS are off cooldown.