Honor's Code

Hours after my Decision Point post went live, a major new build of the Beta/PTR went up. Because, of course it did. Shaman is improved What I read from the Shaman Discord is many of the mechanical issues with Shaman were addressed. Stormstrike got a big damage buff, as did Crash Lightning. AoE should be better and Stormstrike should feel more rewarding. Elemental Spirits got changed so all three outcomes are similar. Shamans are no longer a bit of a mess and I've opened the door a crack for the Shaman to make a last minute push to take over as my BfA main mostly because... Mongoose is back Mongoose Bite got buffed and looks to be competitive. This will delight many current Survival Hunters, but it brings back the Mongoose Fury damage window. I hated the Judgement/Colossus Smash damage window on Ret and Arms. Mongoose Fury is a little different than those so I decided to try it out on Beta/PTR. I don't play Survival today, so its not a mechanic I understand well. At ...

We're three weeks from prepatch and less than 60 days from Battle for Azeroth's launch. It's time to stop waffling and make a decision. I have the new main narrowed down to three: Hunter, Monk, or Shaman. I've debated the pros and cons, watched videos, and streams, and played each on Beta. First out I need to eliminate one and that's going to be the Shaman. Both DPS specs for Shaman are a bit of a mess right now. The developers did call out both specs as known trouble spots for them so there's hope the situation could improve. This is good news for the Shaman community, but I have to go on the information I have available today. I don't love playing the Shaman enough to make him my main in the hopes Enhancement and Elemental get addressed before launch, nor do I love him enough to put up with a subpar 8.0 experience in the hopes of better days in 8.1. Now, maybe the developers blow me away with the next build, and I can always change my mind later, but ...

This week, I'm going to do a post on what I see as the pros and cons of each class I'm currently considering as my new main. Under some points, you'll see a counterpoint to that pro or con. Here's your chance to make the case that I should join your class family. Tweet at me @honorshammer or leave a comment. I'm going in alphabetical order. Today, the Shaman. Shamans Pros I love all the aesthetics. I love the lightning for DPS, the water for heals, and even a little fire thrown in for flavor. The new elemental models are beautiful. Shaman sort of kind of gets a pet with every spec having Earth Elemental. Shaman can shapeshift into a Raptor with a glyph to Ghost Wolf. I don't think anyone else is planing on playing a Shaman in our group. This shouldn't matter. Shaman NPCs are awesome. There's a guy in the Exodar scenario with the fist weapons from the Hyjal raid who looks wicked cool and I've loved Myrla Stormcaller since Cataclysm....

This week, I'm going to do a post on what I see as the pros and cons of each class I'm currently considering as my new main. Under some points, I've included a counterpoint to that pro or con. Here's you chance to make the case that I should join your class family. Tweet at me @honorshammer or leave a comment. I'm going in alphabetical order. Today, the Monk. Monk Pros Monks have a cool aesthetic. I like all the combat animations. Monk is the only option I'm considering that can tank. I'm looking to take a break from tanking. If I need my tanking fix in BfA, I can tank on my Horde Druid Windwalker Monks are great in M+ in Legion.. Method currently has Windwalker as a Top 5 DPS for M+. Will this carry over to BfA? The new Rising Mists talent for Mistweavers looks fun. I probably won't heal often. My Monk is an alchemist which should bring in good gold income Monk Cons I would need to level up from 52 or use a boost. I would ...

This week, I'm going to do a post on what I see as the pros and cons of each class I'm currently considering as my new main. Under some points, you'll see a counterpoint to that pro or con. Here's your chance to make the case that I should join your class family. Tweet at me @honorshammer or leave a comment. I'm going in alphabetical order. Today, the Hunter. Hunter Pros I have actually played Beast Mastery Hunter in all end game PVE content. I've done well and enjoyed it. I did do low DPS when I tried to PuG Antorus and got kicked after dying to Ruiner.  Pets are fun. You never feel you're alone in the world. I love my dinosaur pets. The new BfA Survival looks wicked cool.  BfASurvival is looking like more of a single target spec, and not strong for M+.  New Survival gets to throw bombs!! WildFire Bomb/Wildfire Infusion is not looking like the strongest build. I enjoyed Charge on my Warrior. Harpoon is the closest to Charge of any ...

Twelve contenders enter the battle royal. Only one can emerge victorious. Only one will claim the title of "Main". First three out Demon Hunters, Warlocks, and Death Knights all have an aesthetic and core fantasy I don't enjoy. The only one of these I've even gotten out of the starting zone was a Death Knight and that was only to get a bank toon with big bags. If you love one of these classes, awesome. Have a blast. Me? I'd rather play another game than play one of them. The Demon Hunter, Warlock and Death Knight fall. Nine remain in the ring. Aren't you a Paladin? I'm ready to put down the shield for a bit. I've loved tanking, but after tanking through Warlords of Draenor and Legion , I'm showing myself all the tell tale signs of tank burnout. Honor's has been a Protection Paladin so long, it feels weird for him to be anything else. In addition to that, Battle for Azeroth is unlike any previous World of Warcraft expansion. There...

The Kentucky Derby was Sunday and Legion finds itself in the homestretch. In less than 100 days, we'll start Battle for Azeroth. Both my Paladin and my Hunter have their +15 Mythic achievement, class mount and Mage Tower appearance. I'd still like to clear Heroic Antorus on one of them, but my guild has had some attendance issue and we've pretty much stalled out at Heroic Coven.  I managed to push my Alliance Druid's ilevel up to 934, but it wasn't enough to get the Mage Tower down. I got some great advice on Twitter. The Lightblood elixir was a big help, but I'm still getting behind and dying even before the boss reaches 50%. Clearly, I need more skill, and by skill, I mean gear. My guild has let my Druid in on some M+ runs which should help. My Tauren Druid has been spending some quality time in his Garrison leveling up professions in preparation for Battle. He's going to be Inscription/Herbalist. I've done World Quests on him to get his ge...

Disappointing news out of the Blizzard Media day event . The first Allied Races in Battle for Azeroth are not the Zandalari and Kul Tirians, but instead the Mag'har Orcs and Dark Iron Dwarves . This is great news for anybody stoked about rolling those races, but it means my dreams of playing a Zandalari dinosaur Druid will have to wait until at least 8.1, if not longer. 8.1 won't drop until at least November, maybe even December. It reminds me of the situation around the flail reveal during the Legion Beta. I was on the fence as to what I was going to play. Retribution had the strong appeal of wielding the Ashbringer, but I love to tank. As Beta progress, Wowhead datamined the flail model and when I heard it was to be a Protection Paladin only weapon, I was thrilled and decided to stick with Prot. I got on the Beta servers and the subsequent PTRs for the next year looking for clues as to how the mysterious weapon would be obtained. Of course, in due time, we learned of Mage T...

My philosophy is the make the best decision I can based on the information I have available to me at the time. The raid team is planning to stay Alliance. We're currently 11/11 N and 3/11 H in Antorus. All I know with certainty is I want to play a Zandalari Druid. Their travel forms are dinosaurs and some of the data mining hints ALL their forms might be dinosaurs. My highest Horde toon is Kishuf, the mage I boosted in Warlords. I decided to level him rather than use the boost I got with the Battle for Azeroth preorder. Once I get him to 110, he can do the Nightborne and Highmountain recruitment. I'd love to see those stories. Then once Battle is out, he'll level to 120 and do whatever is required to unlock Zandalari. I have no idea what I want to main for Battle on the Alliance side. Honor's Hammer, my Paladin, has been my main for every expansion except for Cataclysm where I started out with Theogrun, my Hunter. Even then, I switched back to Honor's Hammer ...