Blizzard AE in BRD

[Fuzzyboy]

Hey - thought I'd share some more pulls of the blizzard-AE type. Judging by the looks of the videos from players using AE instead of blizzard, it's likely less efficient in terms of XP/hr, but I find it a bit more relaxed, so thought I'd share a few pulls.

And to avoid the rose tinted goggles, I've shared both some decent pulls and some messy ones :-)

Decent pulls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8XCf9JSdRY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYYQLcoWcoQ

Kind of messy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b_osQHBFHQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSs7IQHP4

Oh, and also, for anyone about to go to BRD, I would advise waiting with big pulls until 54 when the next rank of demo shout hits. It's still decent XP at 53, it's just a whole new game when the next rank of Demo shout arrives :-)

[Mercbeast]

Gotta say, playing like that, a paladin would probably be a lot better as your healer, since blessing of salv will let you bring your dps into the fight much sooner. Other than that, looks good. Curious what kind of XP/hr you're doing in the jail loop tho.

[Kojiiko]

Your talents tree for your mages pls?

[slapkey]

Hey - thought I'd share some more pulls of the blizzard-AE type. Judging by the looks of the videos from players using AE instead of blizzard, it's likely less efficient in terms of XP/hr, but I find it a bit more relaxed, so thought I'd share a few pulls.

And to avoid the rose tinted goggles, I've shared both some decent pulls and some messy ones :-)

Decent pulls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8XCf9JSdRY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYYQLcoWcoQ

Kind of messy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b_osQHBFHQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSs7IQHP4

Oh, and also, for anyone about to go to BRD, I would advise waiting with big pulls until 54 when the next rank of demo shout hits. It's still decent XP at 53, it's just a whole new game when the next rank of Demo shout arrives :-)

What's your general setup with the Warrior? My team is 45 and I'm struggling to know how to hold AOE threat with him as you're doing in the video. I played around with stances and different things, but you seem to have it figured out pretty simply.

[Mercbeast]

What's your general setup with the Warrior? My team is 45 and I'm struggling to know how to hold AOE threat with him as you're doing in the video. I played around with stances and different things, but you seem to have it figured out pretty simply.

He's spamming demo shout for like 20s before he comes in with the mages and lock. You can see his threat meter in the vids, he's probably figured out roughly how much threat he needs for his casters to come in and dump their damage without getting threat.

[Fuzzyboy]

Gotta say, playing like that, a paladin would probably be a lot better as your healer, since blessing of salv will let you bring your dps into the fight much sooner. Other than that, looks good. Curious what kind of XP/hr you're doing in the jail loop tho.

Agreed - I miss a lot of paladin utility. The downsides of playing horde side :-)


Your talents tree for your mages pls?

It's deep frost - it works well for both single target and AE: https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/mage/23--0535323303035005


He's spamming demo shout for like 20s before he comes in with the mages and lock. You can see his threat meter in the vids, he's probably figured out roughly how much threat he needs for his casters to come in and dump their damage without getting threat.

Exactly this :-) After a while you get an intuitive feeling of when you have enough threat to start AE.


Gotta say, playing like that, a paladin would probably be a lot better as your healer, since blessing of salv will let you bring your dps into the fight much sooner. Other than that, looks good. Curious what kind of XP/hr you're doing in the jail loop tho.

I haven't measured the XP/hour, which is kind of intentional, since I tend to go into competitive mode when measuring XP, so I just don't and have a more relaxed experience. Usually I take a lot of breaks, watch streams/tv-shows on my off-screen etc. It feels fast though - levels 54 and 55 have been very short.

After I hit 56, I've transitioned to just clearing up to ring of law, doing the event and then resetting, since I still need a lot of items from the event. That's not very optimal in terms of XP/hr, but on the other hand, I need the items at some point and I might as well get some XP while doing them :)

[Lyonheart]

what threat meter you using? i didn't think they worked in classic

[Fuzzyboy]

what threat meter you using? i didn't think they worked in classic

I'm using ClassicThreatMeter (https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/classicthreatmeter) - it works only if all party members have it, but obviously that's not an issue for us MBers :-D

[Perrigrin]

how do you avoid healer aggro on the pull? been trying it a bit and healer gets aggro while tank is tryuing to build aggro for me :()

[WOWBOX40]

Sidenote:
any chance we could go back to using the good old trusty / tried and true since 2006 "aoe " = "area of effect", instead of "ae". AE can mean a lot of things.. and can be confusing :)

[MiRai]

Sidenote:
any chance we could go back to using the good old trusty / tried and true since 2006 "aoe " = "area of effect", instead of "ae". AE can mean a lot of things.. and can be confusing :)
The one thing we may agree on.

[Fuzzyboy]

how do you avoid healer aggro on the pull? been trying it a bit and healer gets aggro while tank is tryuing to build aggro for me :()

There's a number of things that can help you with aggro:

1) Make sure your imp is buffing you with fire shield (if you have a warlock)
2) Put a spike on your shield
3) Make sure your warrior has talent points in improved demo shout / battle shout
4) Make sure your healer has the threat reduction talent points
5) Make sure your tank is specced protection and is using defensive stance

If you have that covered and your healer is still pulling aggro, make sure your tank has decent gear (doesn't have to be great) and that you're doing level appropriate content. Most of the time, when doing big AoE pulls, you'll want to work on green mobs.

[shinkux]

awesome videos! what add ons are you using? mainly interested in the party cast bar, cooldown, and buff tracker you have set up. I've been looking for something to do that, but classic add ons have been hit or miss so far..thanks in advance!

[dazed1992]

awesome videos! what add ons are you using? mainly interested in the party cast bar, cooldown, and buff tracker you have set up. I've been looking for something to do that, but classic add ons have been hit or miss so far..thanks in advance!

I would love to know as well, for now me personally im using classic castbars for party castbars but his setup just looks so much cleaner.

Also are thoose vuhdo clickbars with videoFx next to them, it looks super clean in your setup did you do anything special?. My setup looks super janky although it does the same as yours but im wondering how to get it closer to yours.

[Homer]

Sidenote:
any chance we could go back to using the good old trusty / tried and true since 2006 "aoe " = "area of effect", instead of "ae". AE can mean a lot of things.. and can be confusing :)

AOE = Area of Effect AE = Arcane Explosion

[nodoze]

Isn't AE an AoE?

[Peregrine]

Isn't AE an AoE?

Nop. Ae is Arcane Explosion and has always been.

[nodoze]

Isn't AE an AoE?
Nop. Ae is Arcane Explosion and has always been.I typed the above "pun intended" but regardless I was pretty sure Arcane Explosion (AE) is an Area of Effect (AoE)... :)

[Peregrine]

I was pretty sure Arcane Explosion (AE) is an Area of Effect (AoE)... :)

Yeah, but when talkin inchat about AE it's referred as ARcane ExpLOsion:P regardless aoe or not :P
Happens to the best of us :)

[Perrigrin]

There's a number of things that can help you with aggro:

1) Make sure your imp is buffing you with fire shield (if you have a warlock)
2) Put a spike on your shield
3) Make sure your warrior has talent points in improved demo shout / battle shout
4) Make sure your healer has the threat reduction talent points
5) Make sure your tank is specced protection and is using defensive stance

If you have that covered and your healer is still pulling aggro, make sure your tank has decent gear (doesn't have to be great) and that you're doing level appropriate content. Most of the time, when doing big AoE pulls, you'll want to work on green mobs.

Thanks - Could you share your lock and warrior full builds as well? I run same team comp but not using blizzard/rain at all - might be loosing out

[Fuzzyboy]

awesome videos! what add ons are you using? mainly interested in the party cast bar, cooldown, and buff tracker you have set up. I've been looking for something to do that, but classic add ons have been hit or miss so far..thanks in advance!

1) Party cast bars are IsBoxer with VFX to the castbars of my minions - very low tech :)
2) Same with the hotkeys / cooldowns - VFX to 4 of the actionbar slots on the minions (with click-through)
3) Buff tracker is part of Shadowed Unit Frames (https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/shadowed-unit-frames)


Thanks - Could you share your lock and warrior full builds as well? I run same team comp but not using blizzard/rain at all - might be loosing out

I don't think it's significantly more or less effective than the Arcane Explosion setup (though different pros and cons), it's just another style, so I guess it comes down to preferences :-)

Builds for level 54:

Warrior: https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/warrior/05-055-50250103530221101
Lock: https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/warlock/-035-555320502202015

[llamaramax]

I have a noob question but how/what addons did you use to setup the Party frame to the left on your warrior with the cast bars, water, poly etc? Is that through VFX?

[shinkux]

ah hah! didn't think of doing that, thanks for the tip!

[Sisyphus]

There's a number of things that can help you with aggro:

1) Make sure your imp is buffing you with fire shield (if you have a warlock)
2) Put a spike on your shield
3) Make sure your warrior has talent points in improved demo shout / battle shout
4) Make sure your healer has the threat reduction talent points
5) Make sure your tank is specced protection and is using defensive stance

If you have that covered and your healer is still pulling aggro, make sure your tank has decent gear (doesn't have to be great) and that you're doing level appropriate content. Most of the time, when doing big AoE pulls, you'll want to work on green mobs.

On number three are you saying imp demo increases the threat generated per shout? I searched far and wide on this and could not find something that validated this. Awesome if true ... and means I’ll have to respec a third time :)

[Fuzzyboy]

On number three are you saying imp demo increases the threat generated per shout? I searched far and wide on this and could not find something that validated this. Awesome if true ... and means I’ll have to respec a third time :)

I haven't seen it documented anywhere, but to be honest I just assumed that the threat generated was based on the amount of attack power reduction, thus meaning that increased reduction equals increased threat. That being said, I would love to skip the talent, so if anyone actually has any evidence either way - please share :-)

Update: The only info I've been able to find on this is here: https://github.com/magey/classic-warrior/wiki/Threat-Mechanics#improved-demo-shout - concludes that improved demo shout does NOT increase threat generation.