awesome Icy Veins Class Guides Just Got Better

[Vlad 411]

We are very pleased to announce that we have recently completed the great labour of significantly improving the quality of our class guides.

We have always been dedicated to providing guides of the highest accuracy and quality, so we have enlisted the help of respected authorities and top players to review our existing guides and help us improve them.

Below you will find a complete list of those wonderful individuals who have helped make our class guides
even better, after which we go into a bit more detail about the process.

Death Knight

• Blood: Reniat, the author of the Blood Death Knight guides on the Official Forums and MMO-Champion.
• Frost and Unholy: Mendenbarr, a prominent theorycrafter who maintains Death Knight guides on Elitist Jerks.

Druid

• Balance: Imsupersdw, one of the best Balance Druids in the world, who raids in Method.
• Feral: Fragnance, one of the best Feral Druids in the world, who raids in Method. You can watch his stream on Twitch.
• Guardian: Arielle, (@riftmaker), a prominent Guardian Druid theorycrafter and the main author of The Inconspicuous Bear (a very respected Guardian Druid resource).
• Restoration: Celece, one of the best Balance Druids in the world, who raids in Midwinter.

Hunter

• Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, and Survival: Kennyloggins, a leading figure in the Hunter community, who raids in Blood Legion.

Mage

• Arcane, Fire, and Frost: Blatty, one of the best Mages in the world, who raids in Method.

Monk

• Brewmaster: Sunnier, who maintains the most respected Brewmaster Monk resource site: Sunnier's Art of War.
• Mistweaver: unpl, a Mistweaver Monk who raids in Paragon.
• Windwalker: Gondlem, one of the best Windwalker Monks in the world, who raids in Midwinter.

Paladin

• Holy: In the process of being reviewed by Atismund, who raids in Envy (25-man), and by Smirk who raids in Paragon (10-man).
• Protection: Theck (@TheckPhD), the main author of Sacred Duty (a well respected, and arguably the most valuable Protection Paladin theorycrafting resource).
• Retribution: Anafielle (@Anafielle), a respected Retribution Paladin who contributes to Sacred Duty and Morgeine, one of the best Retribution Paladins in the world, who raids in Envy.

Priest

• Discipline and Holy: Jhazrun, one of the best Discipline Priests in the world, who raids in Paragon.
• Shadow: Artzie (@Artzieh), a Shadow Priest who raids in Method and Twintop, a Shadow Priest theorycrafter from How To Priest.

Rogue

• Assassination, Combat, and Subtlety: Dryaan, one of the best Rogues in the world, who raids in Envy and frequently stream on Twitch.

Shaman

• Elemental: Leeds, one of the best Elemental Shamans in the world, who raids in Method.
• Enhancement: Purge, one of the best Enhancement Shamans in the world, who often contributes to the Enhancement Shaman section of Totem Spot.
• Restoration: Zetian, who raids in MCO, one of the most efficient 10-man guilds in the world, and Sonie, one of the best Restoration Shamans in the world, who raids in Method (25-man).

Warlock

• Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction: Gahddo, one of the most prominent Warlock theorycrafters, who maintains the Warlock profiles and rotations in Simulation Craft, and Evrelia, who raids in ScrubBusters, and frequently streams on Twitch.

Warrior

• Arms: In the process of being reviewed by Gondlemstyle of Midwinter.
• Fury: Gondlemstyle, one of the best DPS Warriors in the world, who raids in Midwinter.
• Protection: Sco, Guild Master of Method, and one of the best Protection Warriors in the world.

Initially, when we first started writing these guides, they were all entirely created by Damien and myself, based on our experiences with playing the classes, and on extensive testing and research. However, as our workload on the site grew (and especially as we finally completed our offering of 34 class guides), the amount of time and attention that we were able to dedicate to each guide dropped.

Given the enormous popularity of our guides, and large number of people around the world who use them extensively, we decided that we had to find a way to do better. So, we contacted experienced players of each class and spec, and asked them if they would be willing to review our guides, and offer any corrections or pointers required. The responses we received have been overwhelmingly positive, and after more than a month of intensive work on the subject, all of our 34 class guides are now reviewed and approved by either a prominent theorycrafter or a top player of the spec. The remaining 3 guides will hopefully receive the same treatment soon.

We intend to continue working with these people in the future, to make sure that the guides are always up to date (especially when new patches are released).

For the sake of consistency, we prefer to only have one reviewer for each spec (with the exception of healing guides where we prefer two so that we can look at both 10 and 25-man perspectives). If you want to contribute to a guide for which we already have a reviewer, then you are more than welcome to post in the guide's comments thread, or to e-mail us.

We thank you all for your support.

For the past month we have worked very hard on our class guides and with the help of top raiders and known authorities, we now have the best offering you can find for World of Warcraft classes.

[bdop4 2]

Created an account just to congratulate you all on such a great resource.

I've been playing WoW since its inception and have characters in all classes. When I haven't played a class in a while, I come here to refresh myself on build, stats, rotation, etc. so I don't make a fool of myself the next time I queue.

Your class guides are exceptional, and cut to the chase on what I should be focusing on when playing a particular class. I used to go to Elitist Jerks and the website forums. While they too have valuable information, I spend way too much time gleaning through arcane discussions (EJ) and long threads of mostly irrelevant commentary (forums).

Icy Veins guides are short, sweet, and to the point. Well done!!

[Darkfriend 0]

I'm quite interested in seeing if the new fury guide is any good since the last one was, frankly, crap. Not an inditement as much as a reality. I'll check over it for sure!

Edited April 26, 2013 by Darkfriend

[Vlad 411]

I'm quite interested in seeing if the new fury guide is any good since the last one was, frankly, crap. Not an inditement as much as a reality. I'll check over it for sure!

What do you think of the updated version?

[Damien 1,514]

Our former 10-man reviewer for Holy Paladin disappeared, so we will have Smirk from Paragon review it instead.

[Darkfriend 0]

What do you think of the updated version?

I'll take a look right now and let ya know!

[Darkfriend 0]

What do you think of the updated version?

Ok it still has some key problems. For one, the CS phase combo is wrong on a number of very key points.

One: The CS combo actually starts with the BT before a CS. You bank 1 RB blow before this starts, so you have 4 possible ways to proc the 2 extra RBs you need (1x BT before, 1 CS, 1 BT after, brage.) So the rotation for a CS phase is this: BT-CS-RB-BT-RB-RB. This means you delay CS and use every 21.5 seconds or 22.5 seconds to line up with BT on a 4.5 second CD. You should never aim for 2x BT in a CS phase. If the BT before the CS doesn't crit and you're lower rage (below 80) wait an extra 4.5 seconds and try again UNLESS the RB proc you have banked is going to drop.

THUS, with the number in parenthesis being RB charges after the ability is cast, the ideal situation is as follows: (1)-BT(2)-CS(2)-RB(1)-BT(2)-RB(1)-RB(0)-BT(1)-back into normal rotation.

Another note is that since you're not hitting CS exactly ever 20 seconds, you're 3rd BB should be delayed, although not more than 10 seconds (generally I need to wait 6 seconds for mine to realign on the 3rd CS.) Still make sure you don't DR during a CS.

The setup for the guide is kind of weird too. You don't handle fury as "No CS" and "CS" phases. You handle it as "preparing for CS" and "Pre-CS-CS-After" with the later being between 5 and 8 GCDs long. (remember, you can NEVER save the RB charge if the BT immediatly after CS debuff drops crits, so you're better off just spending it right away.)

Oh, another thing. WS>HS for damage, but HS wins if you don't have the GCD and need to prevent rage cap OR during a CS, where you want at least 3.

Finally, you never use cleave. Ever.

So it seems better, but it still needs a lot of work before I start referring people back here instead of just having them come directly me to.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Darkfriend

[SIl 3]

Congratulations on enlisting the help of so many talented players! Going to read asap

[Damien 1,514]

I updated the links for a few players who changed guild since we originally wrote this post. I also added Evrelia as a Warlock reviewer.