Sunday, December 28, 2008

Starter Resto Shaman PVP gear

If you are not a leatherworker, find one and make friends. Your first set of high-level pvp gear is available at lvl 78 and it's made by leatherworkers. If you are elemental or resto, your choice will be the Stormhide Set (which wowhead doesn't consider a set, so here's a link to just the chest). Unfortunately, the set lacks any spell crit rating, and has no gem slots where you can add the crit, so it's not ideal for elemental.

Compare this to the Savage Gladiator's Ringmail, which is the best Honor gear you'll get without an arena rating. The Savage Glad is better, but only because of the resilience increase and the gem sockets; it's inferior in several other respects. Considering the relative costs, you should compare the different pieces in the two sets; a mix might be the best results for your time (I'll post my choices between pieces and my reasoning when I have had a chance to make the individual comparisons).

But you've got two whole levels before you need to worry about that. First, you want the Stormhide. You sweet talk your leatherworker into agreeing to make the set for you. Now what?

Leather. Lots of leather. Unlike a lot of the BC patterns, the "non-leather" components for this set are minimal -- just 8 Eternal Water for the whole set. But boy, did they make up for it in leather costs. First, the patterns cost 3 Heavy Borean Leather apiece from a vendor just outside the leatherworking shop in Dalaran. That's 8 patterns for 24 Heavy Borean Leather... and the suit itself? Another 84 pieces of Heavy Borean Leather, for a grand total of 108 pieces of Heavy Borean Leather... ok... that doesn't sound so bad... until you do the math. 1 Heavy = 6 Regular... that's 624 Borean Leather. At one a minute, no breaks, no scraps, that's still 10 and a half hours of your skinner's time. Generally, even in Sholazar you're looking at something closer to one per 3 minutes on average (and you wondered why leather was so expensive on the Auction House...). So remember, you don't just owe your skinner a drink, you owe them a few kegs.

Up next? Early and (relatively) easy-to-get enchanments, as well as filling those other gear slots.

Earthbind Totem

Gah! Look! Earthbind totem no longer knocks rogues out of stealth. There are plenty of other reasons to drop it in pvp but please, all you people writing shaman guides, stop putting this in your pvp info! It hasn't worked for a long time. This isn't something new with 3.02!

Shaman PVP guides

Most of the Shaman PVP information out there is pure crap. What isn't, hasn't been updated with the changes in 3.02. The one place with info I trusted, pvpgg.com, has had all it's old info removed. All the discussion centers around what spec to use... but just as important is what stats you should be carrying and there's no post-3.02 information on that anywhere.

So I guess I'll be doing some experiments over the next few weeks. Let you know what I find.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Pronunciation

As much as possible, I tried to match the sounds to their corresponding English equivalent. Here are a few that are not as obvious:

Kh - Greek X, scottish ch. The sound comes from the back of the mouth, the throat rather than the front as in English ch.

oh - Greek omega. This is a long and round O.

eh - Greek eta.

ei - like "eye"

eu - a dipthong. Try saying eh-oo quickly. This is not pronounced like "you".

dj - Egyptian dj, as djet. similar to English tch as in watch.

Other (Pronouns, Articles, etc)

Here are a few other useful pieces:

Diminutives:
Feminine: -oeg, oula
Masculine: -in, -akehs
Neuter: -aki

Definite article: koh, keh, kor. Corresponds to masculine, feminine, neuter declensions, but is not declined. "The journey": koh Poros.

Pronouns, declined as masculine regardless of gender they refer to, except er'ar and er'ad, which are declined as fem. and neut. respectively.

I- emos
you - edos
formal you- edjeyos
he - erehos (er'os)
she - erehar (er'ar)
it - erehad (er'ad)

Capitalization: I have taken to capitalizing nouns, as in German. I find it easier to keep track of what I'm saying. I don't see this as a general rule of the language, but it IS very convenient.

Common to Draenei

A

and - kai

B

C

D

Desire - v. epithum'ein
Dwelling - n. trath

E

Exile- v. draenein

H

Home
- n. trath

J

Journey
- n. Poros

Joy - n. Khara, -as. Used as a term of endearment in vocative form: "What did you say, aKhara?"

K

keep safe, to
- v. arkanein

L

Light
- n. Shar

P

pleasing, that which is suited to the heart
- n. thumarehsa

S

sufficient, to be
- v. arkanein

T
to - p. a(n).

toward - p. a(n).


Note: These definitions and spellings are entirely my own creation and extrapolation except where they match the wowwiki article. You're welcome to use them, but they are not canon.

Noun declensions

As in many languages, Draenei words have three types: masculine, feminine and neuter. These should not be mistaken as necessarily referring to the gender of the object itself; a man's name may be inflected as a feminine word.





Masculine
CaseSingularPlural
Nominative-os-u
Genitive-ou-oun
Dative-o-uh
Accusative-ol-ul








Feminine
CaseSingularPlural
Nominative-ar, -a-ei
Genitive-as, -at-is
Dative-a-ih
Accusative-al-il








Neuter
CaseSingularPlural
Nominative-al, -ad, -ath, -or-i
Genitive-as, -ou-is
Dative-a, -o-ih
Accusative-al,-ol-il


The vocative of all forms is a- or an- (in front of vowels) at the beginning of the word.

A full explanation of "case" and "declension" is outside the scope of this page. Wikipedia has a good series of articles on Inflection and related terms.

Verb conjugation

Verbs are complicated. I purposefully did not create every possible tense, mood, aspect, etc., just those I thought I was most likely to use.

Considering the longevity of the draenei, I assume the most common present will actually be the progressive/continuous, because most things in their life will be ongoing, the same now, in the past and in the future. This forms the basis for my accent in Common, as I most frequently replace the regular verb with an ongoing version.







Present Indicative
SingPlur
I-oh-emeh
you-oseh-eteh
he/she/it-on-esteh(n)








Present Progressive/Continuous
SingPlur
I-dja'oh-dja'meh
you-dja'oseh-dja'teh
he/she/it-dja'n-dja'steh(n)








Present Subjunctive
SingPlur
I-koh-kemeh
you-koseh-keteh
he/she/it-kon-kesteh(n)


In other words, the subjunctive is formed with the addition of -k-, the coninuous with -dja-, before the appropriate ending.







Simple Past
SingPlur
I-mai-ataam
you-tai-tayid
he/she/it-nai-atar








Simple Future
SingPlur
I-mu-emar
you-oto-etar
he/she/it-nu-estar


infinitive: -ein
gerund/participle: -djuhin







To Be
SingPlur
I-ohmi-emeh
you-ohseh-eteh
he/she/it-ohmon-esteh(n)