What about sunrise
What about rain
What about all the things
That you said we were to gain.. .
What about killing fields
Is there a time
What about all the things
That you said was yours and mine…
Did you ever stop to notice
All the blood we’ve shed before
Did you ever stop to notice
The crying Earth the weeping shores?

Now, the point of this is basically just to tell that we’re finally getting a proper use for Earth Shock as Elemental. The latest Cataclysm beta-build (12803) added in a useful combination of things. First, we get to use Lightning Shield instead of Water Shield, and it will provide us with mana regain and a mechanic somehow similar to Enhancement’s Static Shock. It all comes from the two new talents Rolling Thunder and Fulmination.

Rolling Thunder gives us the nice mana regeneration. 1% total mana is quite a bit, especially with a 60% chance of every Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning being fired. The side-effect of adding a shield-charge seems to be a bit odd at first – it’s not really intended for us to get hit to do damage. However, that’s where the second part comes in.

Fulmination (the name is incredibly fitting by the way) gives us a way to deplete excess shield charges from the maximum of 9, down to the normal amount of 3, by firing off – yes, Earth Shock. In short, optimal conditions will let it do the extra damage of 6 charges. Improved Shields suddenly looks very interesting, and one could theorize that [Glyph of Lightning Shield] might be slightly useful. Then again, glyphs haven’t been touched upon yet, so it’s quite meaningless to talk about those just yet.

If we use todays numbers, the extra 6 charges would add the following amount to the damage:

Seeing as 3500 spell power is in no way a unreachable number, that would give us a bonus damage of at least:

… and that’s a pretty stunning number, considering Earth Shock‘s damage itself hasn’t been added yet.

There still is some “drawbacks” though. First of all, it’s not really going to be that often we can use it (around every 20th second or so, if we’re lucky). Understandable, since it lacks such a severe punch. Secondly, there’s the thing that it’s not yet included in Elemental Reach, which reels us into 25 yard range. Most likely going to be fixed though, as it would be incredibly awkward otherwise.

Still, it’s a change I thing is very welcome, adds a bit of spice to the rotation, and breathes some new life into an old friend – although, most of us would probably prefer something with Frost Shock instead. Now, if only I had a beta key so I could test this properly…

Friday – October 2nd:
Quite a bit of impressions to make up for a loss in one evening at least, as I was thrown head-first into social relations the next day, when we (with “we” meaning Charlotte and I) went to the University, as she had to attend to a lecture. And already here, a notable difference between Denmark and Mexico was shown: you had to attend every single lecture. Back home, it’s your own responsibility. As it didn’t seem too appealing to me to join in on the lecture, I was asked (or well, told, but I didn’t have any objections) to join a few of the other international students, in a perilous adventure by car through Guadalajara, to buy fútbol (soccer)-tickets for later. Quite an amusing trip as I had only spoken to the two I was going with for around 30 minutes, before being detached from Charlotte…

And what a game it was! Two local teams from Guadalajara at a semi-big stadium (probably room for 30,000 people). Even though the game seemed to be pretty one-sided at first, as one of the teams scored within the first 5 minutes, the opponents got it turned around and won 2-1. Really exciting. On top of that, add Sol (yeah, the beer), nachos, the lovely company of others and a hilarious half-time show (with hilarious slapstick-alike comedy of people tripping painfully in every possible way imaginable, being tackled by one of the teams mascot, etc.). Oh, and then there was the weather. Dark clouds were slowly spreading over the stadium during the start of the match. Thankfully, there was no rain, as the storm didn’t get close, but it gave some really beautiful background lightning strikes. Needless to say, I was rather happy. Even though the rest of the evening continued with more beer, more socializing and drinks, I wasn’t exactly off the jetlag yet, so the evening didn’t go on for that much longer.

Saturday – October 3rd:
The saturday didn’t really include many interesting things to tell, as most of it was spend trying to get Charlotte a new phone, get it registered, and getting money on the account. In Denmark, that would seem like a trivial task, but not down here. The language barrier didn’t cause much of the trouble – mostly because Charlotte’s spanish has gotten really nice while down here – but more the silly amount of the Mexicans needing to register every – single – thing, in all ways possible. The phone had to be bound to a person (including the passport number – what the hell?), even if it wasn’t an actual subscription. In the end, we succeeded and there was much rejoicing.

In the evening, we met up with quite a bit of the other international students, and had a nice dinnerparty with plenty of food, beer and general good times. Words of Pastafarianism were given, and pasta was eaten.

Sunday – October 4th:
Sunday turned out to be the cultural forefront of these first few days. We decided to go on a minor bus-trip to downtown Guadalajara, and take a tour-bus from there to Tlaquepaque, and see the stores and the general area. The ordinary bus-system is quite different from the “organized” system in Denmark. Besides being hilariously cheap (a ticket costing 30% of the smallest ticket possible in Denmark, can take you everywhere in Guadalajara, pretty much), there’s a quite different view on getting on and off. You can basically just wave wave at the bus, and it’ll stop. In the same way, when you press “stop” in the bus, it’ll most likely stop as fast as it can, instead of waiting till the next real stop. Rather nice instead, gives more freedom, and removes everything I hate about busses in Denmark (where missing the stop you intended to stop at, mostly means walking for quite a while). Basically, the advantages of caps mixed into the ordinary buses. On a related note, caps are cheap as well!

But, before we allowed ourselves to board the tour-bus that would take us to Tlaquepaque, I had to get some new shoes, as my old ones were in a rather sad shape (read: utterly devastated). A pair of funky Converse-shoes later, everything was suddenly right. The trip there was quite exciting in cultural way, as we got to see the various different parts of the city, and different important buildings. Tlaquepaque proved to be a galore of different shops with souvenirs and interesting things you’d want to have, but not as “touristy” as it may sound. In the end, I got a really nice sombrero (which I’m still wondering how I’m going to get home) and got to eat lunch while seeing/hearing a Mariachi-band with dancers and the whole thing.

… And I think I’ll leave it as that for now. Lots of exciting stuff coming up the next few days, so expect a new post soon – which is hopefully slightly shorter too, as it took me close to two hours writing this.

First, it’s interesting to note that we get a new key ability in the spell cycle; [Lava Burst]. While it’s sad that it has a 8 second cooldown, and thus not helping us completely against a nature-immune monster, it does have a very nice side effect, being the synergy with [Flame Shock]. Pop Flame Shock, Chain Lightning (if possible), and 3 or 4 Lightning Bolts, then a Lava Burst. Rince and repeat, and profit. I’m sure it could result in some quite noteable criticals.

Secondly, I’m getting lots of surviveabiliy, both in the general raid envoirment, and PvP-wise aswell, in form of [Elemental Warding], [Elemental Shields] and [Astral Shift]. Great stuff, which will have it’s uses in PvE aswell. Atleast it’ll be easier to keep me alive, I’m sure.

Oh yes, and there’s the big funky spell at last; [Thunderstorm]. Notice the twist with this spell; it’s free, it’s instant, and it gives you 5% of your mana back. The slightly more fun part is the silly amount of area of effect damage that we’re finally able to do – oh, and the knockback! I’m going to be a living Tezla Coil!

Now, before I get too carried away, let’s get back to the spec, what do I gain from it, in regards to the primary spells of interest?

Lightning spells gets:
5% more damage done.
5% more critical chance.
0.5 seconds shorter casts.
100% critical strike damage bonus.
25% of spellpower bonus to Lightning Bolt damage.
Lightning Overload!

Lava Burst gets:
11% more damage done.
124% critical strike damage bonus.

Flame Shock gets:
5% more damage done.
100% critical strike damage bonus.
100% bonus to periodic damage.

It’s quite easy to see that the above mentioned rotation benefits from everything. Flame Shock gets time to let the periodic damage tick, Lava Burst is supposed to crit every time, and Lightning spells are just.. mean. On top that, the rotation will ensure that the new talent [Elemental Oath] stays up, as long as I keep firing, and that’s even if none of the lightning spells crit – which is rather unlikely.

The only bad thing (or well, challenging atleast) I have to look ahead for is that instead of the 13% hit I got from talents, racial and totem now is going down by a rather noteable amount, to 4%. That is, I have to gather 12% instead of 3% hit on my gear. Good with a challenge for once. It’s a good tradeoff for getting 30% threat reduction instead of the previous 10% though. Likely to be even more needed than now.

There’s one last thing I didn’t mention, which is also a rather significant effect. [Flametongue Weapon] is changed to also gain a bonus to spelldamage. How much though? Not yet known, but I’ll get a 60% bonus to the value atleast from [Lava Flows].

Need I say that I simply can’t wait to check all this out?

Atleast, we have the following clues now: The Valenzetti Equation chain is complete, revealing a picture of an evil penguin, with the 6 words used being: Tundra, Cold, Cavern, Harbinger, Icy and… Evilpenguin. The latter being revealed a day too early, but still included in the “master.css“-file. The last rune at the top seems to be a Viking Compass, which fittingly resembles “The Lost Vikings”, another Blizzard game. In the picture itself, the eyes have become more visible and bright, seemingly smoking (or looking like horns, perhaps?), bringing the resemblance back to some of the key figures of.. well, pretty much all the big game series they’ve created.

What will emerge from behind the icy wall, if it has to be Diablo-related? Tyrael’s face (as that has never been seen)? Belial or Azmodan, the two lesser evils that sought to get rid of the 3 primes, so they could take over?

It’s a major tease, that’s what it is. Hats off to Blizzard for that one, yet it’s going to be really exciting to see the last picture, if any, tomorrow. I’m still hoping though, but I can’t make decipher anymore of this splash-screen, besides hope. For now, I’ll attempt to get as far into Diablo II, to remind myself of the story.

Oh yeah, and it starting raining and thundering outside. Sadly, the lightning isn’t pink, or sounds that way.

Occasionally, there’s a flash of light, and a giant rumble spreads. It doesn’t sound too far away. Then, all of a sudden, the rain changes to hail, and the strength improves tenfold. This is the part where the really big strikes show themselves, and let’s us know that the force of nature is truely a force to be reckoned with.

I’ll just sit here and enjoy the nice feeling of being safe inside. Admitted, I did open my window, but that’s naturally because I missed, and like, the lightning strikes.