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Over the course of the last few weeks, our guild has been trying Heroic Sartharion with all three drakes still alive and we’ve been met with some… challenges. Stomp and I have mentioned several times on the podcast that it’s a very difficult event under the best circumstances, but when anything goes wrong for us, it leads to a wipe. Up to this point, I have been raiding with an Unholy spec because, for me, it was far superior damage to Frost or Blood with my gear. That all changed this week, when I was asked to spec Blood for the Abomination’s Might and Blood Aura. With the gut-wrenching changes to Unholy (overstating, hehe) and the challenges with Obsidian Sanctum’s Flying Foursome, it seemed as good a time as any to try something new. So… with a heavy heart (Goodbye, Glacierslobber or whatever your name was. /sniffle) and a respec bill to boot, I took the plunge.

Things to consider when changing a Spec
1) What are you doing in your current spec that you like or don’t want to change?
Well… the things I loved most about unholy, changed. The gargoyle got nerfed to only 30 seconds (not that I enjoyed managing my runic power while he was up) so I wouldn’t miss him too much. My ghoul was always a good source of dps but it’s a bit too deep into the unholy tree for me to be able to get two points in Blood Aura and still be able to reach Master of Ghouls so that was out as well. I still can summon him every once in awhile, but I don’t get to giggle at his name. /shrug

2) What do you want out of your new spec?
ZOMG FACE PWNAGE! Sorry… lost it there for a second. The first thing I wanted out of the Blood tree was, of course, Blood Aura. The additional healing is a boon to our healers who have a lot going on in Obsidian Sanctum and in that fight, every little bit helps. I also wanted to pick up Abom’s Might in case we don’t have an enhance shaman handy (aside from the constant 2% strength it gives me). Also, since Gargoyle and Dancing Rune Weapon were arguably similar dps prior the the patch and Gargoyle got nerfed a bit, then it made sense to dive all the way down to the 51 pt talent in blood.

3) Do I have the gear for the change?
I know there are alot of folks that don’t really care about this and change specs whenever the mood strikes, but let’s be honest. If I only have 250 hit, do I really want to try out the hot new Dual Wield spec du jour? Probably not, since your misses will more than negate any possible increase to your damage that you might enjoy if you had the gear to carry the spec. In my case, the gear I had for Unholy works quite well for Blood. I have passed on items with armor penetration in the past since most Unholy damage is magic and not physical, so that’s something I might change a little bit, but for the most part, I’m set for Blood. I’m hit capped for two handers (or at least very close), have gobs of attack power and plenty of crit… GOOD TO GO! I was also really fortunate to get the Sigil of Awareness from Heigan in Heroic Naxxramas and decided to pick up the Glyph of Obliterate to help out with my Obliterate damage.

4) Lastly, what is going to change in my rotation?
One of the great things about Blood is that it’s strike, Heart Strike, only uses 1 Blood Rune! That makes managing a rotation a little simpler and gives more options. And now it hit’s two targets to help with AoE which has always been a bit of a downfall to blood in raiding.

Results of the Blood Experiment
I love it!! I won’t say that it is better dps than Unholy or that I’m never going back… but I will say that I find it easy to play and it does a fair amount of dps with a couple of really good raid buffs. If you like big shiny yellow numbers then I highly recommend it. During the Thaddius event in Naxxramas, there is a damage buff that you get from being near raid members with the same polarity that you have and I hit for 24K obliterates. I also was hitting Malygos (with 2 sparks stacked) for 26K dmg. You can’t help but giggle when you see numbers like that!

I have PvP’d with it as well and the burst damage is formidable. I also like that I don’t have to manage the pets or runic power as much. Once I pop the ghoul, that’s that. He does what he wants and I don’t have to worry about him (although I’m still responsible ). It’s possible to cut off your own gargoyle well before the 30 second duration is reached if you happen to time an Unholy Blight or a Death Coil improperly.

So, I won’t say that I am a convert or Unholy is a thing of the past or everyone switch to Blood because it’s the bestest thing since the Javachip Frappaccino… but I will say that I’ve had alot of fun and don’t mind staying this spec to raid as long as we need. Try it out if you get a chance!