I've found that I have a number of habits that have carried over from old skool Wow. Most of these have changed as the game has evolved (such as using my own epic flyer to fly some place instead of wasting the gold to use the taxi service), but some of them have carried over (such as continuing to use IF for the AH and visiting the same auctioneer every time).
But I found that one of my habits has to do with how I perform in the game. And this one is a bad thing. You see, I still remember the days when there were super powerful spells... spells that were so strong that they were almost like instant "I Win" buttons. These spells were so powerful that they got put on these ridiculously long cooldowns. Spells for example, that would blast a target with a pyro so large... that it would continue to burn long after impact, or a spell that would put up a shield that was as big as a wall, or a spell that would allow your to spiritually lay your hands on yourself or another player to instantly heal them for an insane amount of health. These spells would have cooldowns of days... or at least what seemed like days sometimes. But as we've progressed through the various versions of Wow, they've slowly lessened or removed cooldowns for these special spells.
But I still treat them as special. I still have something in the back of my mind that tells me that I should save them for special occasions. Certainly I'd use them for a boss fight, but trash? Unheard of!
And this habit carries over to new spells as well. Take Mirror Image for example. It's only a 3-minute cooldown, so I should probably use it pretty much every chance I get. Heck, if we're doing new bosses it guaranteed that the explanation alone will take more than 3 minutes. Furthermore, even on the boss fight, I'm afraid to use it until the right time. I want to wait for heroism.. I want it to be at the best time... Heck! If we're using heroism at the end of the fight, I probably can pop my clones towards the beginning of the fight and be able to cast them again once heroism starts.
Granted, I haven't been playing my mage much, so it's not like I recognized it from my lack of not playing my mage. No, this time I was looking at spell rotations for my wife's shadow priest. And for all things shadow, where do you turn? That's right, ShadowPriest.com. So, in the standard rotation, they start off with spells to start buffs and debuffs, get a little damage in, and then BAM! Shadowfiend. But... but... you're supposed to use that only when you're almost out of mana, right? Granted with a normal Shadow Priest, it's on a 3-minute cooldown, not 5. But it's not just about mana, it's also about increased damage. And it's not like it's a 30-minute cooldown, it's only 3.
So, while I'm sure that I'm the only that still has this "issue" remember to use your cooldowns on a consistent basis, not just when the raid leader yells, "pop all cooldowns!"
Showing posts with label Beginning Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beginning Tips. Show all posts
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Cornering a Market
There are very few times in my Wow career that I have used my professions to actually make money. And even more so, to use the AH wasn't exactly my forte. Until I discovered a little secret last night.
Leiandra's professions have always been enchanting and tailoring. Until this last expansion, I had to sit out in front of the IF bridge and spam trade channel letting people know that I have the enchants. Tailoring was less of a chore, but it didn't ever make much money. Oh, I suppose there was the time back in TBC where I had the pattern for Belt of Blasting that was a pretty good money maker. But other than that... well... you just don't go off and make a boat load of Moonshroud Robes and expect to sell them in one weekend. Currently I do sell my enchants, but only a few at a time. I'm mostly just burned out on spamming trade channel, and generally just lazy about making money.
Well, Zanderfin has been my miner/jewelcrafter. For the most part, I'd say it's been profitable. He's mostly used his own materials to skill up. And most of the meta gems I used to finish off the skill up process have been sold for only a small loss.
But last night, I happen to do a quick scan of the AH to find out what the current price
of Runed Cardinal Rubies were. It's one of the few epic cuts I can do, so I'll post one of those every once in awhile for a small profit. When the results showed there were none, I had to check a few times. Sure enough... none. So, I quickly posted 2 for about 40g more than I usually post them.
Then I searched again to make sure nobody else had quickly undercut me. The results showed 1 auction. But wait. Where did my other auction go? Did I mess up and forget to post it? After searching through my bags, I finally looked at my auctions tab. Sure enough, somebody had bought the first one at almost break-neck speeds. What's a person to do? Yep, throw a few more up at an even higher price.
When you have a profession like Jewel Crafting, it's actually quite easy to make some money. Each gem is relatively cheap. Even epic gems are only about 200g. (Which is kind of a lot, but not as much as a couple thousand for epic tailoring items.) Every class needs them in some form or another. So, with the low price point, people are generally lazy about purchasing a raw gem and finding somebody to cut it. They simply get the cut gem, and move on. It's not worth the inconvenience to save a few gold for that one gem.
And that, my friends, is the beauty of Jewel Crafting. The "pure stat" gems like pure spell power, pure attack power, or pure stamina seem to sell the best. The more I do my daily JC quest, the more gems I can cut. And.... most importantly: I don't have to spam trade channel!!! Yeah!
The down side of this profession. If you're a miner/jewel crafter, there is an opportunity cost in using that ore to prospect. You don't get to make the boatloads of money as you're leveling up. A lot of your gems will probably be sold to a vendor... especially the lvl 70 ones. But you'll eventually get to make some pretty sweet money with this profession.
Leiandra's professions have always been enchanting and tailoring. Until this last expansion, I had to sit out in front of the IF bridge and spam trade channel letting people know that I have the enchants. Tailoring was less of a chore, but it didn't ever make much money. Oh, I suppose there was the time back in TBC where I had the pattern for Belt of Blasting that was a pretty good money maker. But other than that... well... you just don't go off and make a boat load of Moonshroud Robes and expect to sell them in one weekend. Currently I do sell my enchants, but only a few at a time. I'm mostly just burned out on spamming trade channel, and generally just lazy about making money.
Well, Zanderfin has been my miner/jewelcrafter. For the most part, I'd say it's been profitable. He's mostly used his own materials to skill up. And most of the meta gems I used to finish off the skill up process have been sold for only a small loss.
But last night, I happen to do a quick scan of the AH to find out what the current price
of Runed Cardinal Rubies were. It's one of the few epic cuts I can do, so I'll post one of those every once in awhile for a small profit. When the results showed there were none, I had to check a few times. Sure enough... none. So, I quickly posted 2 for about 40g more than I usually post them.Then I searched again to make sure nobody else had quickly undercut me. The results showed 1 auction. But wait. Where did my other auction go? Did I mess up and forget to post it? After searching through my bags, I finally looked at my auctions tab. Sure enough, somebody had bought the first one at almost break-neck speeds. What's a person to do? Yep, throw a few more up at an even higher price.
When you have a profession like Jewel Crafting, it's actually quite easy to make some money. Each gem is relatively cheap. Even epic gems are only about 200g. (Which is kind of a lot, but not as much as a couple thousand for epic tailoring items.) Every class needs them in some form or another. So, with the low price point, people are generally lazy about purchasing a raw gem and finding somebody to cut it. They simply get the cut gem, and move on. It's not worth the inconvenience to save a few gold for that one gem.
And that, my friends, is the beauty of Jewel Crafting. The "pure stat" gems like pure spell power, pure attack power, or pure stamina seem to sell the best. The more I do my daily JC quest, the more gems I can cut. And.... most importantly: I don't have to spam trade channel!!! Yeah!
The down side of this profession. If you're a miner/jewel crafter, there is an opportunity cost in using that ore to prospect. You don't get to make the boatloads of money as you're leveling up. A lot of your gems will probably be sold to a vendor... especially the lvl 70 ones. But you'll eventually get to make some pretty sweet money with this profession.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Basic Tank Hints: Defense
I was laid up in bed for most of Saturday and all of Sunday. It was plenty of time to quest my shaman to level 80 (from about 77, I think), dual spec him as a healer, and run a couple of my first heroics as a healer. It's pretty much a different game playing as a healer vs. my normal role of DPS. And I enjoyed it a lot.
We first ran Heroic Violet Hold. It went very smoothly. The only casualty was a mage that pulled agro. (That would so be me in normal situations. lol.) I got a minor upgrade with Moragg's Chestguard, and also the Design: Thick Autumn's Glow.
A little bit later, another group went to go do Heroic Nexus. While it wasn't the worst run ever, I now have a more complete understanding as to why healers can't keep up under geared and incompetent tanks. After a number of wipes (I wouldn't consider any of them my fault), we finally made it through. I did make it out with the Bands of Channeled Energy, but lost the roll for the Design: Deadly Monarch Topaz. And I lost the roll to the tank who also got the Flame-Bathed Steele Girdle and the Bulwark of the Noble Protector. Yeah, that's right... the tank got the 3 items from the last boss.
But at any rate... here's the issues I had with the tank. Tanks, pay attention here.
We first ran Heroic Violet Hold. It went very smoothly. The only casualty was a mage that pulled agro. (That would so be me in normal situations. lol.) I got a minor upgrade with Moragg's Chestguard, and also the Design: Thick Autumn's Glow.
A little bit later, another group went to go do Heroic Nexus. While it wasn't the worst run ever, I now have a more complete understanding as to why healers can't keep up under geared and incompetent tanks. After a number of wipes (I wouldn't consider any of them my fault), we finally made it through. I did make it out with the Bands of Channeled Energy, but lost the roll for the Design: Deadly Monarch Topaz. And I lost the roll to the tank who also got the Flame-Bathed Steele Girdle and the Bulwark of the Noble Protector. Yeah, that's right... the tank got the 3 items from the last boss.
But at any rate... here's the issues I had with the tank. Tanks, pay attention here.
- Tanks need Defense rating. It's kind of a basic stat for you guys. For Wrath for Heroics, tanks need a minimum of 535. For raids, you need 540. Heck, even in BC you needed 490. Our tank had 305. I could see every time he got crit because his health would be fine, and then it would drop to almost dead.
- Know where your healer is and don't get too far ahead of him. Sure, it's our job to keep you alive, but if we stayed behind to look at loot, we're probably not ready for the next pull.
- And along those lines, if your healer doesn't have mana, you might want to wait until he does before you pull.
- Pull, don't charge. This warrior had a love of charging. He'd charge on almost every pull. Which would pull multiple mobs, which would cause wipes. Furthermore, charging at the mobs that are right before a boss has a high likelihood of pulling the boss. Trash mobs aren't meant to be pulled with the boss. I'm just saying.
- If other people that have more knowledge about the instance ask you to do something, you might want to listen. Maybe, just maybe they know what's going on.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Rawr The Program
So, I really can't believe that I haven't blogged about this before. I feel like I've let down the druid, mage, and many other communities. The information is certainly out there, but why haven't I told you guys about it? Selfish? No. Forgetful? Maybe. But the truth is that I thought I had already blogged about this.
What am I going on about? Today I'm talking about Rawr. Rawr is a program that was originally developed to help Druids figure out gear upgrades for Bear and Cat forms. I know it's been around for at least two years, but know exactly how long. There's been many changes (it's now in Beta 15), and it's come a long way from just supporting Druids. It now supports the following classes/roles:
Likewise, for tanking, you can see how each item stacks up in different areas. For tanks, it's not just how much stamina you have. So, Rawr breaks it down into Mitigation, Survival, and Threat. All of which are important to tanks.
You can also enter all the gear you currently have, and it will optimize it for you. Results may vary. Most of the time it seems to give good suggestions. There's some gear choices that are debatable, but aren't they all?
Now this program is essentially for level 70 toons. You can change your specs and the gear will adjust accordingly as well. If you're looking for gear lists of any of the above classes, go check it out. It's a great program.
What am I going on about? Today I'm talking about Rawr. Rawr is a program that was originally developed to help Druids figure out gear upgrades for Bear and Cat forms. I know it's been around for at least two years, but know exactly how long. There's been many changes (it's now in Beta 15), and it's come a long way from just supporting Druids. It now supports the following classes/roles:
- Bear
- Cat
- DPSWarrior
- Healadin
- HolyPriest
- Mage
- Moonkin
- ProtWarrior
- RestoSham
- Retribution
- Tankadin
- Tree
- Warlock
Likewise, for tanking, you can see how each item stacks up in different areas. For tanks, it's not just how much stamina you have. So, Rawr breaks it down into Mitigation, Survival, and Threat. All of which are important to tanks.
You can also enter all the gear you currently have, and it will optimize it for you. Results may vary. Most of the time it seems to give good suggestions. There's some gear choices that are debatable, but aren't they all?
Now this program is essentially for level 70 toons. You can change your specs and the gear will adjust accordingly as well. If you're looking for gear lists of any of the above classes, go check it out. It's a great program.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Wrath Preparation - Start Now
I was looking through my personal bank for Leiandra the other day, and I did a pretty good job at cleaning stuff out, but I still have things that have been sitting in there for a few years now. Being that I've had most of these items since before the last expansion went live, I have a feeling that as we get closer to the next expansion release, they'll be even further diminished in their value.
As an prime example of one of the items that lost value, let's look at Mooncloth. It used to have a cooldown of about 4 days (3 days, 20 hours). (As of patch 2.4.3, the cooldown was removed, but that was long after the expansion was released.) With a cooldown of 4 days, there will generally be an inherent supply shortage. While there were a number of high-end, level 60 items that could be made with Mooncloth, Outland drops were far superior. The only reason left to create Mooncloth after the expansion hit was for the 16-slot Mooncloth bags. But even those are "replaced" with Netherweave Bags (although the Mooncloth ones have the advantage of not being BoE).
In Classic Wow (pre-The Burning Crusade expansion), the Essences (Fire, Air, Earth, Undeath, and Water) were a pretty big crafting component. They'd go for a decent amount on the AH, and many areas were farmed for it. I remember spending long periods of time farming the 10 Fire, Air, Earth and Water that I needed for my Robe of Archmage. Again... only to be replaced shortly after entering the Outlands.
So, what can we learn from last expansion to apply to the upcoming one? Start selling now. I'm not saying you need to clear out your 6 tabs in your 1-alt guild vault, but you might want to start thinking about it, and maybe even slowly moving stuff out. I'm guessing that Primals will go the way of Essences, and whatever we're farming in WOTLK may even eventually drop motes as Essences are dropped in farming motes now. So, there's really no need to keep them locked up in your vault. Start to sell the ones you won't need. And do it slowly so you don't flood the market and drop the price.
I'll admit that we don't know a lot about crafting in Wrath of the Lich King, but we can assume that there will be better stuff. You don't use level 30 items to craft level 60 gear. Neither will you use level 70 items (primals) to craft level 80 gear. You might also want to slowly start moving out leather, cloth (Netherweave, Shadoweave, Primal Mooncloth, and Spellcloth), and ore. Don't get rid of all of it; you'll most likely need some for your first skill-ups above 375, but if you have an entire guild vault tab dedicated to Spellcloth for your one level 70, you might want to think about moving that stuff out. Also, the "expected" release date is still 4 or 5 months away. You may still be using some of that stuff for yourself before we all storm Northrend. You know your situation, act accordingly, but don't let the value of those items drop too much as we get closer to Wrath.
Side note: I recognize that a lot of people hold on to lower crafting materials for alts and whatnot. That's fine. Continue to do that if that's your thing. But even as Essences lost value (both monetary and skill up value), so will Primals. Will anyone think of crafting a 400g 20-slot bag when they may be able to do the same bag for considerably less materials from Frostweave?
As an prime example of one of the items that lost value, let's look at Mooncloth. It used to have a cooldown of about 4 days (3 days, 20 hours). (As of patch 2.4.3, the cooldown was removed, but that was long after the expansion was released.) With a cooldown of 4 days, there will generally be an inherent supply shortage. While there were a number of high-end, level 60 items that could be made with Mooncloth, Outland drops were far superior. The only reason left to create Mooncloth after the expansion hit was for the 16-slot Mooncloth bags. But even those are "replaced" with Netherweave Bags (although the Mooncloth ones have the advantage of not being BoE).
In Classic Wow (pre-The Burning Crusade expansion), the Essences (Fire, Air, Earth, Undeath, and Water) were a pretty big crafting component. They'd go for a decent amount on the AH, and many areas were farmed for it. I remember spending long periods of time farming the 10 Fire, Air, Earth and Water that I needed for my Robe of Archmage. Again... only to be replaced shortly after entering the Outlands.
So, what can we learn from last expansion to apply to the upcoming one? Start selling now. I'm not saying you need to clear out your 6 tabs in your 1-alt guild vault, but you might want to start thinking about it, and maybe even slowly moving stuff out. I'm guessing that Primals will go the way of Essences, and whatever we're farming in WOTLK may even eventually drop motes as Essences are dropped in farming motes now. So, there's really no need to keep them locked up in your vault. Start to sell the ones you won't need. And do it slowly so you don't flood the market and drop the price.
I'll admit that we don't know a lot about crafting in Wrath of the Lich King, but we can assume that there will be better stuff. You don't use level 30 items to craft level 60 gear. Neither will you use level 70 items (primals) to craft level 80 gear. You might also want to slowly start moving out leather, cloth (Netherweave, Shadoweave, Primal Mooncloth, and Spellcloth), and ore. Don't get rid of all of it; you'll most likely need some for your first skill-ups above 375, but if you have an entire guild vault tab dedicated to Spellcloth for your one level 70, you might want to think about moving that stuff out. Also, the "expected" release date is still 4 or 5 months away. You may still be using some of that stuff for yourself before we all storm Northrend. You know your situation, act accordingly, but don't let the value of those items drop too much as we get closer to Wrath.
Side note: I recognize that a lot of people hold on to lower crafting materials for alts and whatnot. That's fine. Continue to do that if that's your thing. But even as Essences lost value (both monetary and skill up value), so will Primals. Will anyone think of crafting a 400g 20-slot bag when they may be able to do the same bag for considerably less materials from Frostweave?
Thursday, July 31, 2008
The New Guy
Due to various issues (some real life, some other reasons), we've had a few key tanks leave the guild recently. I think we spent about 2 days recouping and running ZA instead, but then we bounced right back up and killed Kaz'rogal on our first attempt on Tuesday night.
So, with the departures, there's obviously some holes that we had to fill. We did it with a few people respecing, a few people shuffling around, and some new recruits as well.
Not to single him out per se, but one of the new guild members was a little... shall I say... overly excited about raiding with us. His first night on a trial run, it seemed to be great. Enough so that we invited him in to the guild as an Initiate. The next night, things got a little more out of control with him. I think he annoyed about 1/2 the guild, and our guild members aren't shy about voicing it either. He ended up apologizing at the end of the night for his actions.
I don't bring this up to discuss drama or belittle him. It's obviously import to not only make a good impression on a new guild, but also to fit in. And if you find you don't fit in, then make the necessary changes or leave the guild. It's much easier to change yourself than it is to change 24 (at least) other people in the guild, especially if you're the new guy.
At any rate... Chick GM wrote a great post about it about a month ago. So, if you're that guy (or gal) in a new guild, you should definitely read the post. (Click here to read the post.) And there's even a lot of important things to read even if you've been in your guild for awhile.
For those that don't normally click links, here's her bullet points:
But seriously... go read the post.
So, with the departures, there's obviously some holes that we had to fill. We did it with a few people respecing, a few people shuffling around, and some new recruits as well.
Not to single him out per se, but one of the new guild members was a little... shall I say... overly excited about raiding with us. His first night on a trial run, it seemed to be great. Enough so that we invited him in to the guild as an Initiate. The next night, things got a little more out of control with him. I think he annoyed about 1/2 the guild, and our guild members aren't shy about voicing it either. He ended up apologizing at the end of the night for his actions.
I don't bring this up to discuss drama or belittle him. It's obviously import to not only make a good impression on a new guild, but also to fit in. And if you find you don't fit in, then make the necessary changes or leave the guild. It's much easier to change yourself than it is to change 24 (at least) other people in the guild, especially if you're the new guy.
At any rate... Chick GM wrote a great post about it about a month ago. So, if you're that guy (or gal) in a new guild, you should definitely read the post. (Click here to read the post.) And there's even a lot of important things to read even if you've been in your guild for awhile.
For those that don't normally click links, here's her bullet points:
- Avoid making it the "Me Show"
- Know your Leaders
- Do your homework
- Mind the feedback
- Make a friend
But seriously... go read the post.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
WoW on Resume
So, as I mentioned, I had a job interview yesterday. I think it went pretty well, for the most part. We'll see if anything actually comes of it. A few months ago, I decided to start including my experience as a World of Warcraft Guild Leader in a "Management Experience" section of my resume. I spend far too many hours doing this to not count it. :) So, here's what I came up with:
To me, that's a pretty solid example of management experiences. Sure, go ahead and provide feedback as you feel is necessary, but I think it's pretty solid.
Apparently, the recruiter I'm working with didn't see it the same as me. She had forwarded an edited version of my resume that did not include this experience. And she didn't send me a copy of the edited resume either. So in the interview, I referenced World of Warcraft because of our guild web site where I installed the phpbb forums and customized it, showing my familiarity with different languages, and my ability to research and solve problems. Bringing up a video game reference from seemingly thin air probably made me look bad at first, but it brought attention to this part of my resume (since I handed them one of my copies at the start of the interview) and one of the interviewers plays Wow. :)
I'll hear back in a few weeks. I suppose if I get the job (or at least an offer), I can really start to preach this. I know there's the guy from Yahoo that got hired partly because of Wow, but how effective is it for the rest of us? I'll keep you posted.
World of Warcraft 5/2007 – Present
Guild Leader
• Nightly coordinate a group of 35 people.
• Research and determine appropriate solutions based on resources available to help members overcome complex problems.
• Participate in all aspects of bringing on new members, including marketing, interviews, and orientation.
• Oversee that managers have properly coached subordinates to perform their given tasks.
• Handle and resolve personnel issues that may arise, including disciplinary actions when applicable.
To me, that's a pretty solid example of management experiences. Sure, go ahead and provide feedback as you feel is necessary, but I think it's pretty solid.
Apparently, the recruiter I'm working with didn't see it the same as me. She had forwarded an edited version of my resume that did not include this experience. And she didn't send me a copy of the edited resume either. So in the interview, I referenced World of Warcraft because of our guild web site where I installed the phpbb forums and customized it, showing my familiarity with different languages, and my ability to research and solve problems. Bringing up a video game reference from seemingly thin air probably made me look bad at first, but it brought attention to this part of my resume (since I handed them one of my copies at the start of the interview) and one of the interviewers plays Wow. :)
I'll hear back in a few weeks. I suppose if I get the job (or at least an offer), I can really start to preach this. I know there's the guy from Yahoo that got hired partly because of Wow, but how effective is it for the rest of us? I'll keep you posted.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
11 Characteristics of a Good Raider
Last night was not exactly a stellar night of raiding for Primogeniture. So, it got me thinking about what exactly makes a good raider. A lot of these can be applied to 5-man instances as well. So, here were the 11 things I came up with, in no particular order.
1) Listen to strategies - Even if you've done the fight a million times before, there's a chance that the raid leader wants to do something just a little bit differently. Plus, assignments are usually handed out at this point. It drives me crazy when people consistently ask me what they're supposed to do 5 seconds after I just got finished explaining their specific role.
2) Be aware of your surroundings - If they're fire raiding down on top of you doing 2500 damage every 2 seconds... get out. Unless there's a specific reason to be there, you can most likely move and save yourself. Otherwise, your healers may have to make a choice to save you or somebody else. And as much as you've buttered up that uber healer, sometimes, the decision isn't to save you.
3) Be aware of your health and act on it - Health potions, bandages, healthstones... it's not a bad idea to use these every once and awhile. It might mean the difference between you being dead and alive. A lot of time I have health potions on healthstones on cooldown because I've used a mana pot and gem... but I'd still have bandages.
4) Be proactive to avoid damage - Sure your raid is uber enough to heal through some trash mob's Aoe spell, but a simple spell interrupt can make that trash go so much faster. And you may have the DPS to kill the mob even if he gets off a heal... but that doesn't mean you shouldn't ignore those either.
5) Do not pull aggro unnecessarily - If you're the tank assigned to that target, you should "pull" aggro. But unless another tank is dead, leave it alone. Oh, and DPS should never pull aggro no matter how much they want to down the last few percentage points before it gets to them and kills them.
6) Dead = 0 DPS. A lvl 1 priest can do more damage than your dead corpse on the floor. Stay alive.
7) Be a Team player, not a Me player - I love the players that are willing to sit out for whatever reason for raids. Raid leaders, don't take advantage of these people and make them sit out every night because of their generosity.
8) Efficient rezzing - If for some reason you have a near wipe (I know, I know... you're way more leet than that), think about the order that you should rez. Priests, Paladins and Shaman should be first so they can rez others. Mages and Druids next because they'll need to eat/drink, buff others, and then drink again. Warlocks and Hunters are next so they can rez their pets, but also because they need to get mana back. And finally the Rogues and Warriors because they can be ready for action by a healer throwing them a simple heal. I think a lot of times we want the tanks up so they can protect us, but it really seems like this is the most efficient manner.
9) Everyone knows you're dead - "I'm dead" doesn't really do anything for raid leaders. They have a UI. They're watching the bars. So, shut up. Now... that said... "I didn't kill my demon" is a perfectly acceptable statement so we all know we're free to kill you for not taking down your demon in time.
10) Keep the chatter down - I really don't want to talk about breasts or your significant other or the latest prank you pulled in the middle of a boss fight. Voice communication channels need to be open for boss related information. Keep it in tells, or keep it turned off.
11) Be on time - If you signed up for a raid at 8:30, be there at least 15 minutes beforehand if you can. Sure there's going to be exceptions and times you can't make it, but those should be exceptions, and not your M.O.
p.s. I'm sure there's many, many more things that could be covered in this topic. These were just the first 11 that I cane up with. Feel free to add other tips below.
1) Listen to strategies - Even if you've done the fight a million times before, there's a chance that the raid leader wants to do something just a little bit differently. Plus, assignments are usually handed out at this point. It drives me crazy when people consistently ask me what they're supposed to do 5 seconds after I just got finished explaining their specific role.
2) Be aware of your surroundings - If they're fire raiding down on top of you doing 2500 damage every 2 seconds... get out. Unless there's a specific reason to be there, you can most likely move and save yourself. Otherwise, your healers may have to make a choice to save you or somebody else. And as much as you've buttered up that uber healer, sometimes, the decision isn't to save you.
3) Be aware of your health and act on it - Health potions, bandages, healthstones... it's not a bad idea to use these every once and awhile. It might mean the difference between you being dead and alive. A lot of time I have health potions on healthstones on cooldown because I've used a mana pot and gem... but I'd still have bandages.
4) Be proactive to avoid damage - Sure your raid is uber enough to heal through some trash mob's Aoe spell, but a simple spell interrupt can make that trash go so much faster. And you may have the DPS to kill the mob even if he gets off a heal... but that doesn't mean you shouldn't ignore those either.
5) Do not pull aggro unnecessarily - If you're the tank assigned to that target, you should "pull" aggro. But unless another tank is dead, leave it alone. Oh, and DPS should never pull aggro no matter how much they want to down the last few percentage points before it gets to them and kills them.
6) Dead = 0 DPS. A lvl 1 priest can do more damage than your dead corpse on the floor. Stay alive.
7) Be a Team player, not a Me player - I love the players that are willing to sit out for whatever reason for raids. Raid leaders, don't take advantage of these people and make them sit out every night because of their generosity.
8) Efficient rezzing - If for some reason you have a near wipe (I know, I know... you're way more leet than that), think about the order that you should rez. Priests, Paladins and Shaman should be first so they can rez others. Mages and Druids next because they'll need to eat/drink, buff others, and then drink again. Warlocks and Hunters are next so they can rez their pets, but also because they need to get mana back. And finally the Rogues and Warriors because they can be ready for action by a healer throwing them a simple heal. I think a lot of times we want the tanks up so they can protect us, but it really seems like this is the most efficient manner.
9) Everyone knows you're dead - "I'm dead" doesn't really do anything for raid leaders. They have a UI. They're watching the bars. So, shut up. Now... that said... "I didn't kill my demon" is a perfectly acceptable statement so we all know we're free to kill you for not taking down your demon in time.
10) Keep the chatter down - I really don't want to talk about breasts or your significant other or the latest prank you pulled in the middle of a boss fight. Voice communication channels need to be open for boss related information. Keep it in tells, or keep it turned off.
11) Be on time - If you signed up for a raid at 8:30, be there at least 15 minutes beforehand if you can. Sure there's going to be exceptions and times you can't make it, but those should be exceptions, and not your M.O.
p.s. I'm sure there's many, many more things that could be covered in this topic. These were just the first 11 that I cane up with. Feel free to add other tips below.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Unlocking Epicness
I realize that this may be old news for a number of people, but I'm still kind of surprised at how many people don't understand what we get from opening the phases for the new daily quests. If Bronzebeard was like most servers (which I'm sure it is), people were very focused on progressing us to phase 3 and unlocking the Badge gear vendor. I think we had the anvil built before we were even 50% through phase 3. So, let me focus on something other than creating the anvil for the badge gear vendor.
From some of the feedback I got, people understood that opening new phases would allow additional bosses to be accessed in the 25-man Sunwell Plataeu raid. (Edit: Thanks for the clarification, Matticus. See? Even I screwed it up. lol.) But since there's only about 4 guilds on our server that could attempt that, a lot of people got the WIIFM attitude. (What's In It For Me?) Let me spell it out in 2 words:
Epic Gems
Up until 2.4, the only way you could get uncut epic gems was by raiding Black Temple or mining a certain node in Mount Hyjal. That's it. There were a few other epic gems that dropped in Heroics, but they certainly weren't customizable as the uncut gems are. Furthermore, in order to cut the gem, you'd have to have Scale of the Sands reputation, which again... would be Mount Hyjal rep.
With the latest patch, all of the gem cuts can be obtained by reputation with the Shattered Sun Offensive. Magtheridon drops a Black Sack of Gems which contains 3 epic gems. And finally, you can also purchase gems from a different Badge Vendor.
The Gem Badge Vendor
Once your server finally opens up phase 4 through daily quests, you can now work on the daily quest to open up the Badge Vendor that sells uncut, epic gems. For a mere 10 Badges, you can purchase a nice, shiny, uncut, epic gem. (Edit:) This quest is called Discovering your Roots, and it can be found in the recently reclaimed harbor Inn. The quest requires you to go back to Shatt, fly NE to an elevated part of Terrokar Forrest to gather some roots. Pretty easy and straight forward.
So please, don't just focus on the Badge Gear Vendor. There's more to the Shattered Sun's plot to equip us all than that. They also want to make our gear the best it can be via these upgraded gems. So, get out there and do the dailies that will unlock stuff for your server AND for YOU!
Epic Gems
Up until 2.4, the only way you could get uncut epic gems was by raiding Black Temple or mining a certain node in Mount Hyjal. That's it. There were a few other epic gems that dropped in Heroics, but they certainly weren't customizable as the uncut gems are. Furthermore, in order to cut the gem, you'd have to have Scale of the Sands reputation, which again... would be Mount Hyjal rep.
With the latest patch, all of the gem cuts can be obtained by reputation with the Shattered Sun Offensive. Magtheridon drops a Black Sack of Gems which contains 3 epic gems. And finally, you can also purchase gems from a different Badge Vendor.
The Gem Badge Vendor
Once your server finally opens up phase 4 through daily quests, you can now work on the daily quest to open up the Badge Vendor that sells uncut, epic gems. For a mere 10 Badges, you can purchase a nice, shiny, uncut, epic gem. (Edit:) This quest is called Discovering your Roots, and it can be found in the recently reclaimed harbor Inn. The quest requires you to go back to Shatt, fly NE to an elevated part of Terrokar Forrest to gather some roots. Pretty easy and straight forward.
So please, don't just focus on the Badge Gear Vendor. There's more to the Shattered Sun's plot to equip us all than that. They also want to make our gear the best it can be via these upgraded gems. So, get out there and do the dailies that will unlock stuff for your server AND for YOU!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Gearing up Recent 70's in 2.4
Any of us that have been playing since before the expansion hit will probably remember running instances like UBRS, LBRS, Strat and Scholo for your Dungeon 1 set of armor before heading in to the 40-man raids. These were the easy dungeons. You could pretty "easily" get your gear upgrades, and that was pretty much the way to do it. I had guild mates back in the day that ran Scholo upwards of 40 times in order to get their head piece.
The trend was slightly continued with the release of the expansion, in that there is the Dungeon 3 set. The bonuses probably tend to be the biggest thing about the set pieces. Some of them are quite helpful. Some of them, seem like Blizzard is just mocking us. (*cough* 2-piece set bonus *cough*)
These sets became less important if guildies can run you (or your alt) through Karazhan. And if you're a crafter, some sets are way more powerful than these sets. That doesn't mean that you should enter Karazhan in all greens though. Come on... let's at least be a contributing member to the raid. And you'll need to survive some hits along the way. So, what I'm saying is... you still need to gear up.
Enter 2.4.
In case you didn't realize it, there's a pretty easy way to gear up your recent 70's in 2.4. To make it better, the price of each item is generally low as well. (About 1 daily can get you the full set of blues). I'm talking about the Level 70 PvP Rare Set 2. Each item requires you to be Honored with a different faction. The factions are Lower City, Honor Hold (or Thrallmar for you Hordies), Cenarion Expedition, Sha'tar, and Keepers of Time.
In your questing, you probably hit honored with most, if not all of these factions. If you ran each of the instances associated with that group, I imagine you'd be honored with all of them. But the best thing about it... it's a sure thing. You don't have to hope that your piece of whichever armor will drop this time. You know you'll get the rep, then you just go buy the item.
There's also multiple sets for those hybrid classes. So, for example, a priest could take the Satin Battlegear or the Mooncloth Battlegear.
Yes, I realize these are PvP items and not PvE, but for the effort you put in, and how quickly you'll replace this gear if you are running Karazhan... it's really a great route to gear up quickly.
p.s. Keep in mind that this is my second post for today. Some people tend to miss items when I double-post.
The trend was slightly continued with the release of the expansion, in that there is the Dungeon 3 set. The bonuses probably tend to be the biggest thing about the set pieces. Some of them are quite helpful. Some of them, seem like Blizzard is just mocking us. (*cough* 2-piece set bonus *cough*)
These sets became less important if guildies can run you (or your alt) through Karazhan. And if you're a crafter, some sets are way more powerful than these sets. That doesn't mean that you should enter Karazhan in all greens though. Come on... let's at least be a contributing member to the raid. And you'll need to survive some hits along the way. So, what I'm saying is... you still need to gear up.
Enter 2.4.
In case you didn't realize it, there's a pretty easy way to gear up your recent 70's in 2.4. To make it better, the price of each item is generally low as well. (About 1 daily can get you the full set of blues). I'm talking about the Level 70 PvP Rare Set 2. Each item requires you to be Honored with a different faction. The factions are Lower City, Honor Hold (or Thrallmar for you Hordies), Cenarion Expedition, Sha'tar, and Keepers of Time.
In your questing, you probably hit honored with most, if not all of these factions. If you ran each of the instances associated with that group, I imagine you'd be honored with all of them. But the best thing about it... it's a sure thing. You don't have to hope that your piece of whichever armor will drop this time. You know you'll get the rep, then you just go buy the item.
There's also multiple sets for those hybrid classes. So, for example, a priest could take the Satin Battlegear or the Mooncloth Battlegear.
Yes, I realize these are PvP items and not PvE, but for the effort you put in, and how quickly you'll replace this gear if you are running Karazhan... it's really a great route to gear up quickly.
p.s. Keep in mind that this is my second post for today. Some people tend to miss items when I double-post.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Dustwallow Marsh
This weekend was kind of hectic with me being sick (new sickness) and everyone's schedule just kind of seemed to be thrown out of whack. Since I was never sure how much I'd be on any given toon when I signed on, I spent the weekend mostly playing alts. I got my druid (yes, another druid (long story)), to lvl 38 last night, and I started the weekend at lvl 33. It sure sounds like a lot, but there was a lot of afk time in there as well taking care of various household things.
But the excitement and motivation for leveling him came mostly because of the level range that he's in. I dinged a couple levels out in Desolace, following the good old leveling guide that helped me through things before. (And I think I hate Desolace. I plan to never set foot in that zone again.) Then I headed off to Dustwallow Marsh to try out all the new quests there. (Yes, I know they've been out for quite some time... I'm just finally getting an alt to that level.)
I've said this before, I think Blizzard has really learned a lot about how to create quests and chains and make them feel more epic. The beginning quests used to be kill tigers... just because I said so, and that was about it. No real rhyme or reason or decent back story. But out in the new quests for Dustwallow Marsh, things are actually interesting. They tell you pretty much exactly where to go to complete a quest (unlike some of the vague tips of past quests). There's story lines that end. Heck, they even completed the Shady Inn quest chain. You get to fly over Alcaz Island (which probably hasn't seen anyone since the pre-expansion Dungeon Upgrade quests probably aren't completed at all anymore).
They even put another quest hub, flight path, and inn in at Mudsprocket. The only thing that wonder about is if they've put in a decent amount of graveyards. Thankfully, I've think I've only found 1, and that was because I was lazy and running through a bunch of stuff in travel form. But I didn't have to corpse run very far. All in all... a very good zone. I'm looking forward to completing the quests at Mudsprocket, and then back to the old zones again. Meh... I knew it couldn't last forever. :)
But the excitement and motivation for leveling him came mostly because of the level range that he's in. I dinged a couple levels out in Desolace, following the good old leveling guide that helped me through things before. (And I think I hate Desolace. I plan to never set foot in that zone again.) Then I headed off to Dustwallow Marsh to try out all the new quests there. (Yes, I know they've been out for quite some time... I'm just finally getting an alt to that level.)
I've said this before, I think Blizzard has really learned a lot about how to create quests and chains and make them feel more epic. The beginning quests used to be kill tigers... just because I said so, and that was about it. No real rhyme or reason or decent back story. But out in the new quests for Dustwallow Marsh, things are actually interesting. They tell you pretty much exactly where to go to complete a quest (unlike some of the vague tips of past quests). There's story lines that end. Heck, they even completed the Shady Inn quest chain. You get to fly over Alcaz Island (which probably hasn't seen anyone since the pre-expansion Dungeon Upgrade quests probably aren't completed at all anymore).
They even put another quest hub, flight path, and inn in at Mudsprocket. The only thing that wonder about is if they've put in a decent amount of graveyards. Thankfully, I've think I've only found 1, and that was because I was lazy and running through a bunch of stuff in travel form. But I didn't have to corpse run very far. All in all... a very good zone. I'm looking forward to completing the quests at Mudsprocket, and then back to the old zones again. Meh... I knew it couldn't last forever. :)
Friday, March 21, 2008
World of Warcrack
WoW is an addicting game. There's almost always one more thing that you can or want to do before you log off. There's almost always an alt you can level, or another quest you can complete. Or one more thing to sell in the trade channel. Maybe it's just one more turn-in for a repeatable quest to get to the next level of reputation. Whatever it is, it usually finds a way to take some more time away from sleep, significant others, etc.I'm sure there's nicknames for other MMO's as well, but World of Warcrack seems to fit right along with the original Evercrack. It's hard to quit. You always want more. And at 15 bucks a month, it's not cheap. (Okay, okay... that is kinda cheap compared to what I think actual drugs would cost.)
Even if you can waltz in and kill the current end boss with your raiding guild, there's always something more to do. And even then, they keep adding patches, and content, and expansions to keep you coming back for more. It's been said that the only way to truly beat WoW is to simply cancel your account. Turn it off. Uninstall WoW from your computer.
To me, however, it's not all about "beating the game". It's about the journey. It's about the entertainment. It's about reading quests. It's about conquering bosses and impossible feats as well. And to do that, I have to spend time playing the game. At a minimum, I'm probably at 22 hours per week. Generally 3 hours per night, 7 nights per week, and then a bit more on the weekends. I'm sure my average is higher, but just throwing out some numbers here.
But, as anyone that's read my recent posts knows, I also have a family. I have a job. And I don't generally play when the kids are awake. (Have you ever tried have a 22-month-old help you to do an instance? Doesn't work so well.) So, I maintain some balance when it comes to my addiction.
I have a really good friend, that can't seem to control this habit. I've suggested having his wife set limits on the Parental Controls, but then I can imagine the resentment if he can't log on at a certain time (say she's out of town or something). Not only does he go for the "just one more" school of thought, he's also very competitive, and so he always wants to be the very best he possibly can be in his class/role. So, he sometimes plays a bit more than he probably should. He's recently "beaten WoW" for the third time. The first two times, he deleted all of his toons so that he wouldn't be tempted to come back. The last time he came back, he reacquired his account from his nephew who had leveled a toon to cap. He (my friend) simply had to gear him up, and he did a great job doing it... again, being one of the best in his class/role. At any rate, he realized he was playing way too much, and he's uninstalled Wow. (At least he didn't delete his toons this time.)
But going back to me, like I said, I generally only play when the kids are asleep or otherwise occupied. I generally require very little sleep, so I also play when everyone else in the house is sleeping. And I try to be sensitive to my wife's needs if there is a time when I need to be offline when she's still awake. But if I didn't have a wife and kids, I can only cringe at how many hours I would probably spend playing Wow.
So, the point of this post is two-fold: A) About how many hours do you play per week. B) What do you do to curb your addiction, so you aren't playing 24-7?
Monday, October 29, 2007
Loot Fixation?
Today's post originates from a quest out of the Badlands: Scrounging. I believe that I've mentioned that I've been leveling a shaman, Zanderfin, with my wife, who's been playing a shadow priest. Being that there's two of us, the "kill x number of mobs" quests are quite easy while the "kill mobs to gather x" quests take at least twice as long. We had been doing a couple of the latter types of quests out in the Badlands such before we got to the Scrounging quest. Because I'm sure they all had the "worst drop rate in the game" for quest items, my wife's patience was wearing a bit thin.
It's really not a bad quest at all. All of the mobs you can kill at one time are all in one place. And the respawn is fast enough that you can keep killing and never stop. And the quest reward of the mail boots was a pretty big upgrade for me. And, like all items at this level, it will soon be replaced with something else.
I got to thinking about loot in general. Yes, the game is all about loot. But how important are items to you? Most leveling items are going to be replaced, so is it important to worry about getting that certain item? Should you go to the AH every time you gain a level to get the latest and greatest items?
You're just going to replace them later, but at the same time, they'll help you to get the next level and level of items faster. On a PVP server, it might mean the difference between getting ganked in STV or you being the one ganking.
Personally, I search for quests that will aid in that gearing up process. I might visit the AH every once and awhile for a new weapon, but usually not much more. (Since I just got dual wield at 40, that was one of the first things I did with my shaman.) I generally don't fixate on an item either. There's almost always an upgrade. Sure, the cloak off of Prince would be a nice upgrade, but there will always be something better. If not in the current game, at least in the expansion. lol. And you obviously need better gear in order to do certain things, like end-game progression, so that's kind of a different story. But what do you do in the leveling up process?
It's really not a bad quest at all. All of the mobs you can kill at one time are all in one place. And the respawn is fast enough that you can keep killing and never stop. And the quest reward of the mail boots was a pretty big upgrade for me. And, like all items at this level, it will soon be replaced with something else.
I got to thinking about loot in general. Yes, the game is all about loot. But how important are items to you? Most leveling items are going to be replaced, so is it important to worry about getting that certain item? Should you go to the AH every time you gain a level to get the latest and greatest items?
You're just going to replace them later, but at the same time, they'll help you to get the next level and level of items faster. On a PVP server, it might mean the difference between getting ganked in STV or you being the one ganking.
Personally, I search for quests that will aid in that gearing up process. I might visit the AH every once and awhile for a new weapon, but usually not much more. (Since I just got dual wield at 40, that was one of the first things I did with my shaman.) I generally don't fixate on an item either. There's almost always an upgrade. Sure, the cloak off of Prince would be a nice upgrade, but there will always be something better. If not in the current game, at least in the expansion. lol. And you obviously need better gear in order to do certain things, like end-game progression, so that's kind of a different story. But what do you do in the leveling up process?
Friday, October 19, 2007
Healer Classes Defined
Last night, we had a very difficult time with Shade of Aran. In the transition, we lost a lot of healers. And for various reasons (Internet/computer went down for days, RL issues, etc), we have been extremely limited on our healing this week. For healing, we had an undergeared shaman, a moderately geared shaman, and a moderetly geared paladin. We oddly enough had some huge issues with the Flame Wreath. Why anyone was moving when everyone knows that fight and has done it successfully on multiple occasions is beyond me.
So, I thought I'd take a moment today to talk about the different types of healers and how they function, or at least how I understand they heal. I'll be making some over simplifications, but feel free to correct me if I'm flat out wrong. I won't go into the buffs that each brings to a group; that's beyond the scope of this post, but is a good discussion for the future.
Druids
This class is the king (or queen) of the Heal-Over-Time spells (HoTs). With the proper spell rotation, they can keep HoTs up on 3 people at a time. Their spells are generally quick casting, if not instant-cast, but they do not have strong direct heal spells. Because of the quick casting times, they can generally be mobile, but have the disadvantage that in Treant form, they move slower. Having a resto druid can help keep a tank up during periods of mass silence. They also have Innervate that can replenish mana for themselves or any target they choose. Also, they have a Tranquility which is an AoE heal but is on a 10-minute cooldown timer. As a warlock does damage, a druid does heals.
Paladin
King of the direct heals. For the most part, paladin spells take time to cast. They do have the intant-cast Lay on Hands which replenishes health up to the maximum health of the caster, but it's on an hour cooldown and leaves the paladin with exactly zero remaining mana. No HoTs, and no AoE heals. I'd probably equate the rogues damage with a paladin's heals.
Shaman
From my best understanding, Shamans are one of those classes that basically make everyone else look really good. They have some decent spells of their own, mind you, as well. They've got the preventative maintenance of Earth Shield. They have the extremely slow HoT of a Healing Stream Totem. And they have the unpredictable heal of Chain Heal. But their totems are appreciated by all. (Oops... I said I wouldn't go into that discussion.) From what I've seen and read, it's kind of silly to use the Healing Stream Totem when you can use the Mana Stream Totem (which can effectively translate into more health by way of heals). They probably equate most to, well... Shaman in damage.
Priest
Priests have a little bit of everything. They've got HoTs, but not as strong as the Druid. They have direct heals, but not as well as the Paladin. They've got preventative maintenance by way of Prayer of Mending. They can heal themselves as well as another because of Binding Heal. Probably the best AoE heal with Prayer of Healing. They also have Circle of Healing and Lightwell, which both seem like great spells, but are rarely used that I've seen. There's also Holy Nova (another AoE Heal). So, looking at all that AoE, I'd probably have to say their damage equivelant is a mage.
So, is one way better to bring than another? Of course not. They compliment each other and help each other out. If you're in a 25-man run, bring all four. If you're in Karazhan, you're probably going to have to limit it to just 3. Ideally though, it's advantageous to have 3 different classes for your healers so that you have those different abilities. (Plus, they all use different armor types, so no gear is wasted.)
So, I thought I'd take a moment today to talk about the different types of healers and how they function, or at least how I understand they heal. I'll be making some over simplifications, but feel free to correct me if I'm flat out wrong. I won't go into the buffs that each brings to a group; that's beyond the scope of this post, but is a good discussion for the future.
Druids
This class is the king (or queen) of the Heal-Over-Time spells (HoTs). With the proper spell rotation, they can keep HoTs up on 3 people at a time. Their spells are generally quick casting, if not instant-cast, but they do not have strong direct heal spells. Because of the quick casting times, they can generally be mobile, but have the disadvantage that in Treant form, they move slower. Having a resto druid can help keep a tank up during periods of mass silence. They also have Innervate that can replenish mana for themselves or any target they choose. Also, they have a Tranquility which is an AoE heal but is on a 10-minute cooldown timer. As a warlock does damage, a druid does heals.
Paladin
King of the direct heals. For the most part, paladin spells take time to cast. They do have the intant-cast Lay on Hands which replenishes health up to the maximum health of the caster, but it's on an hour cooldown and leaves the paladin with exactly zero remaining mana. No HoTs, and no AoE heals. I'd probably equate the rogues damage with a paladin's heals.
Shaman
From my best understanding, Shamans are one of those classes that basically make everyone else look really good. They have some decent spells of their own, mind you, as well. They've got the preventative maintenance of Earth Shield. They have the extremely slow HoT of a Healing Stream Totem. And they have the unpredictable heal of Chain Heal. But their totems are appreciated by all. (Oops... I said I wouldn't go into that discussion.) From what I've seen and read, it's kind of silly to use the Healing Stream Totem when you can use the Mana Stream Totem (which can effectively translate into more health by way of heals). They probably equate most to, well... Shaman in damage.
Priest
Priests have a little bit of everything. They've got HoTs, but not as strong as the Druid. They have direct heals, but not as well as the Paladin. They've got preventative maintenance by way of Prayer of Mending. They can heal themselves as well as another because of Binding Heal. Probably the best AoE heal with Prayer of Healing. They also have Circle of Healing and Lightwell, which both seem like great spells, but are rarely used that I've seen. There's also Holy Nova (another AoE Heal). So, looking at all that AoE, I'd probably have to say their damage equivelant is a mage.
So, is one way better to bring than another? Of course not. They compliment each other and help each other out. If you're in a 25-man run, bring all four. If you're in Karazhan, you're probably going to have to limit it to just 3. Ideally though, it's advantageous to have 3 different classes for your healers so that you have those different abilities. (Plus, they all use different armor types, so no gear is wasted.)
Monday, October 1, 2007
Personal Fishing Contest in SW
You'll have to excuse my lack of posting on Friday. I've been enthralled by working out kinks to integrating a phpBB3 forum with eqDKP and BossProgress. All in all, I believe I've got everything done where we could have that launched with my guild's web site. The only question now is, how do we want to handle DKP? It's been a huge struggle, and I won't bore you with details. As Matticus said recently, "No system is better then that of human discretion. Always use it. Different ways to handle loot are useful for different types of Guilds. Find out what works best for you."
But that's not the point of today's post. As I mentioned before, I've been leveling up my fishing a bit. (Yes, yes... nothing to do with raids, I know.) I pretty much went to town on Saturday, getting Leiandra skilled up. I got from about 200 up to 225. I went all over the world doing the fishing quest. (Remember to bring baubles for the fishing quest, it'll make it much faster; I forgot.) And I now have the ability to raise my fishing up to 300.
After that quest, I thought I'd settle down in Tanaris to get some more fish. Still unwilling (or too lazy) to go buy baubles, a fair number of fish were getting away. I was well aware that fishing in higher zones gives you the same amount of fishing "experience" as the lower zones do. It's all based on number of catches, and not relative level (such as mob experience is). I had long ago leveled my cooking to a respectable 364, so it's not like I needed the fish for that skill. My thought process was that getting higher fish would sell for a higher price. While this was technically true, my main objective was to skill up my fishing so that I could eventually catch things in the high level areas like Nagrand.
So, while I was catching some more valuable fish in Tanaris, the return on my investment was most likely much lower due to the many fish that escaped my deadly hook. Upon having that epiphany, I quickly teleported back to SW, and fished like crazy. My skill is now sitting at 264.
I bring this up for the fishermen in us all. I think it's one of the few parts of WoW that most people don't care about too much. Personally, I enjoy it. Nothing's better than kicking back with some friends and having a fishing night. (I spent all of my fishing time chatting with friends.) It's such a change of pace. And, and higher levels, it can be lucrative as well. Of course, if I keep up my career in Stormwind, I'll continute with my 4-5 copper per catch. It looks like I'll have to leave eventually, but when? When is a good point to really get serious in fishing in places outside of Stormwind?
p.s. We should be trying Mag again tonight after we kill Gruul. Hopefully we'll have enough tanks online to give it a shot.
But that's not the point of today's post. As I mentioned before, I've been leveling up my fishing a bit. (Yes, yes... nothing to do with raids, I know.) I pretty much went to town on Saturday, getting Leiandra skilled up. I got from about 200 up to 225. I went all over the world doing the fishing quest. (Remember to bring baubles for the fishing quest, it'll make it much faster; I forgot.) And I now have the ability to raise my fishing up to 300.After that quest, I thought I'd settle down in Tanaris to get some more fish. Still unwilling (or too lazy) to go buy baubles, a fair number of fish were getting away. I was well aware that fishing in higher zones gives you the same amount of fishing "experience" as the lower zones do. It's all based on number of catches, and not relative level (such as mob experience is). I had long ago leveled my cooking to a respectable 364, so it's not like I needed the fish for that skill. My thought process was that getting higher fish would sell for a higher price. While this was technically true, my main objective was to skill up my fishing so that I could eventually catch things in the high level areas like Nagrand.
So, while I was catching some more valuable fish in Tanaris, the return on my investment was most likely much lower due to the many fish that escaped my deadly hook. Upon having that epiphany, I quickly teleported back to SW, and fished like crazy. My skill is now sitting at 264.
I bring this up for the fishermen in us all. I think it's one of the few parts of WoW that most people don't care about too much. Personally, I enjoy it. Nothing's better than kicking back with some friends and having a fishing night. (I spent all of my fishing time chatting with friends.) It's such a change of pace. And, and higher levels, it can be lucrative as well. Of course, if I keep up my career in Stormwind, I'll continute with my 4-5 copper per catch. It looks like I'll have to leave eventually, but when? When is a good point to really get serious in fishing in places outside of Stormwind?
p.s. We should be trying Mag again tonight after we kill Gruul. Hopefully we'll have enough tanks online to give it a shot.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Aggro - Defined
For those of you that have played World of Warcraft in any group (which, reading this blog, you probably have) know a little term called "aggro". Each mob (or enemy) has what is called as an aggro table. Whoever is at the top of that aggro table is the person that mob will attack, generally speaking. So, to look at the 3 roles: Tanks want aggro while Healers and DPS generally want to minimize their aggro so that they don't exceed that of the tank. (In some cases, DPS is the tank, but that's not the focus of this discussion.)
Different classes have various ways to deal with aggro, hate, or threat, as it is sometimes called. Tanks (warriors, druids, and paladins) have abilities to increase aggro. They either do this by directly damaging the mob or using a skill that is intentionally designed to make the mob focus on them, called a taunt. I assume you understand this concept, and if you don't, do yourself a favor and take a look at the spells that those classes perform. There's more than a few of them that say something to the effect of "causes a high amount of threat." As a tank, you'll probably want to use these skills a lot.
Some of non-tanks have ways to shed aggro. For example, every 30 seconds, a hunter can feign death, and as long as it's not resisted, the threat towards him is completely erased. Every 5 minutes, a rogue can instantly vanish and erase his aggro. Paladins can help all of the people in this role by casting Blessing of Salvation. And for my final class example, a mage can cast Invisibility every 5 minutes, but it takes 5 seconds to have the full effect in which time you can't cast anything or be hit or you'll have wasted it.
All that should be review for you. If you need more details see Threat or Aggro over on WoWWiki. Today however, I'd like to focus more on two other types of aggro that are just as real and maybe even more dangerous, but I haven't been able to find them listed on WoWWiki yet.
Parent Aggro. Generally caused on school nights when you're up too late. A large amount of threat can also be generated by failure to do chores, homework, or upon obtaining bad grades because of outside factors (especially playing Wow instead of putting forth the needed effort). This is a very specific type of aggro. Generally speaking, you can only get on an aggro table of two "mobs" in the world by generating this threat. Normally it is easier to aggro the female mob vs. the male mob. But once equally aggroed, they're both a force to be reckoned with. This type of aggro can cause you to lose a precious healer at 1 am (healer's local time) on a Thursday when you're about to pull Nightbane.
Spouse Aggro. This is probably more well known as Wife Aggro or generally mispelled as Wife Agro. To keep this post non-sexist, we'll use the gender neutral term. This is the more severe of the two "unusual" aggros. Your parents will always love you even if you "waste you life away playing stupid video games," but your spouse may not. Causing Spouse Aggro can cause long periods of afk, but usually for days at a time. Normally upon pulling Spouse Aggro, one must work hard to repair their reputation with the mob. Gifts can work well, but generally just spending time with the "mob" will raise you from a KoS reputation level. Akin to Spouse Aggro is also the GF/BF Aggro, and to a much lesser extent, the Children Aggro. GF/BF Aggro may need to be assessed, because it may eventually develop into Spouse Aggro, but excessive aggro at that stage may cause one to reflect if said aggro is really necessary at all. Children Aggro varies, but can usually be reduced by bed time, nap time, movies, candy, or other mind detouring activities.
Be more wary of pulling these types of aggro far more than anything else in the entire game. They are dangerous. They need to be avoided at all costs. Work hard on the reputation with said factions, and you shouldn't have an issue.
Are there other types of aggro that I missed?
Different classes have various ways to deal with aggro, hate, or threat, as it is sometimes called. Tanks (warriors, druids, and paladins) have abilities to increase aggro. They either do this by directly damaging the mob or using a skill that is intentionally designed to make the mob focus on them, called a taunt. I assume you understand this concept, and if you don't, do yourself a favor and take a look at the spells that those classes perform. There's more than a few of them that say something to the effect of "causes a high amount of threat." As a tank, you'll probably want to use these skills a lot.
Some of non-tanks have ways to shed aggro. For example, every 30 seconds, a hunter can feign death, and as long as it's not resisted, the threat towards him is completely erased. Every 5 minutes, a rogue can instantly vanish and erase his aggro. Paladins can help all of the people in this role by casting Blessing of Salvation. And for my final class example, a mage can cast Invisibility every 5 minutes, but it takes 5 seconds to have the full effect in which time you can't cast anything or be hit or you'll have wasted it.
All that should be review for you. If you need more details see Threat or Aggro over on WoWWiki. Today however, I'd like to focus more on two other types of aggro that are just as real and maybe even more dangerous, but I haven't been able to find them listed on WoWWiki yet.
Parent Aggro. Generally caused on school nights when you're up too late. A large amount of threat can also be generated by failure to do chores, homework, or upon obtaining bad grades because of outside factors (especially playing Wow instead of putting forth the needed effort). This is a very specific type of aggro. Generally speaking, you can only get on an aggro table of two "mobs" in the world by generating this threat. Normally it is easier to aggro the female mob vs. the male mob. But once equally aggroed, they're both a force to be reckoned with. This type of aggro can cause you to lose a precious healer at 1 am (healer's local time) on a Thursday when you're about to pull Nightbane.
Spouse Aggro. This is probably more well known as Wife Aggro or generally mispelled as Wife Agro. To keep this post non-sexist, we'll use the gender neutral term. This is the more severe of the two "unusual" aggros. Your parents will always love you even if you "waste you life away playing stupid video games," but your spouse may not. Causing Spouse Aggro can cause long periods of afk, but usually for days at a time. Normally upon pulling Spouse Aggro, one must work hard to repair their reputation with the mob. Gifts can work well, but generally just spending time with the "mob" will raise you from a KoS reputation level. Akin to Spouse Aggro is also the GF/BF Aggro, and to a much lesser extent, the Children Aggro. GF/BF Aggro may need to be assessed, because it may eventually develop into Spouse Aggro, but excessive aggro at that stage may cause one to reflect if said aggro is really necessary at all. Children Aggro varies, but can usually be reduced by bed time, nap time, movies, candy, or other mind detouring activities.
Be more wary of pulling these types of aggro far more than anything else in the entire game. They are dangerous. They need to be avoided at all costs. Work hard on the reputation with said factions, and you shouldn't have an issue.
Are there other types of aggro that I missed?
Monday, August 27, 2007
Fun With Dailies
I realize this is probably old news to most of my readers, but I was a little slow on these. I'm just now starting some of the dailies, and the fun that goes along with them. Oh, and there's a good bit of money to be had as well. So, just what are Daily Quests or Dailies? Most of the dailies are quests that can be completed fairly quickly. You can do up to 10 dailies per day; and as the name implies, you can doe each of these quests every day, once per day. It seems that most of them are about 12g and reputation each time you turn them in. So, not bad. So, where are these quests?
At 58, you can start getting the ones from Honor Hold or Thrallmar (depending on your faction). Sometimes referred to as the PVP or Towers quest. You basically have to capture each of the 3 towers in Hellfire Peninsula. Not a lot of gold on this one, but you do get 3 Marks of Honor that can be spent at the Quartermaster for your faction here in Hellfire Peninsula. You also get some reputation with that city.
After that, I'll send you on over to Wowwiki to see all of them. I haven't done Banish More Demons from the Ogri'la yet, because I don't have the reputation yet. Nor have I done any of the Netherwing quests yet (still shy the 5000g for my epic flying mount). But I think a lot of them are a lot of fun. The egg bombings for Fires over Skettis are kind of neat. I hate those stupid birds that knock you out of the sky. Finding the prisoner for Escape from Skettis can be a huge pain, especially if all the spawn points are camped.
Bomb Them Again, Wrangle More Aether Rays!, and The Relic's Emanation are all pretty new to me. I think they're all pretty novel ideas. Granted, the Aether Rays has kind of been done before (see Fallen Hero of the Horde quest line) where you have to take an enemy down to a certain % and then do something before they die. Unfortunately, I kept killing the Aether Rays. I guess my spells just hit too hard.
The Relic's Emanation = Simon. Simply, fun, entertaining, but not aggravating to where you have to memorize a pattern of 20. Bomb Them Again is kinda almost exactly what I wanted/imagined when I first starting dreaming of a flying mount. I'm just really impressed with these quests. I really need to get out of a dungeon so that I can quest more. There's a lot of neat quests out there.
At 58, you can start getting the ones from Honor Hold or Thrallmar (depending on your faction). Sometimes referred to as the PVP or Towers quest. You basically have to capture each of the 3 towers in Hellfire Peninsula. Not a lot of gold on this one, but you do get 3 Marks of Honor that can be spent at the Quartermaster for your faction here in Hellfire Peninsula. You also get some reputation with that city.
After that, I'll send you on over to Wowwiki to see all of them. I haven't done Banish More Demons from the Ogri'la yet, because I don't have the reputation yet. Nor have I done any of the Netherwing quests yet (still shy the 5000g for my epic flying mount). But I think a lot of them are a lot of fun. The egg bombings for Fires over Skettis are kind of neat. I hate those stupid birds that knock you out of the sky. Finding the prisoner for Escape from Skettis can be a huge pain, especially if all the spawn points are camped.
Bomb Them Again, Wrangle More Aether Rays!, and The Relic's Emanation are all pretty new to me. I think they're all pretty novel ideas. Granted, the Aether Rays has kind of been done before (see Fallen Hero of the Horde quest line) where you have to take an enemy down to a certain % and then do something before they die. Unfortunately, I kept killing the Aether Rays. I guess my spells just hit too hard.
The Relic's Emanation = Simon. Simply, fun, entertaining, but not aggravating to where you have to memorize a pattern of 20. Bomb Them Again is kinda almost exactly what I wanted/imagined when I first starting dreaming of a flying mount. I'm just really impressed with these quests. I really need to get out of a dungeon so that I can quest more. There's a lot of neat quests out there.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Group Composition for Karazhan
I remember when we were gearing up for Karazhan and trying to gather all the information possible. Is our gear good enough? Do we have the right classes? How far in should we expect to go? So, I thought I'd throw together a few observations on those questions you may have if you're first venturing into Karazhan.
Group Composition
We generally go with the philosophy of wanting one from each class, and then one additional member. Keep in mind, this is an "ideal" list, and rarely happens in practice. Things to keep in mind: You'll need 2 tanks, 3 healers and 5 DPS. You can get away with 2 healers for some of the easier battles, but to make things easy, this is what you'll need.
You may also have some of your hybrids play a duel role at some point. We generally have our pally tank some of the undead groups in the Ballroom right before Moroes. He can usually hold the large, undead groups better than our other tanks, so it speeds up the AoE process with less casualties. Also, a druid for a second tank usually has the gear to go full dps on the fights such as Shade of Aran or Prince where only 1 tank is needed.
You can certainly mix up the groups with different classes. Two or three priests for shackling in Moroes' room certainly doesn't hurt... being able to banish two or more of the elementals in the Shade fight... these aren't bad things. You mainly need to make sure that you stick with the basic rule of 2/3/5. If you have 4 prot tanks, you may want to think about letting 2 of them sit out.
Gear
What is needed? This is kind of a hard question to answer. The response question may be: how far do you want to go? You can probably do the animal bosses the first time in to Karazhan. To get attuned to Kara, you had to do enough in instances that you're probably geared enough for at least those. They may even be your groups first purple boots, bracers, and/or belt. The next few fights mainly take enough coordination, with Moroes and the Opera Event ramping up even more. By the time you're hitting Moroes, you probably shouldn't have any greens except maybe a trinket or two. And in the nights you're not running Karazhan, you should be getting the rest of your Heroic Keys and running Heroic instances. You'll should probably get a feel for what each boss will need as you attempt them. Give them a few attempts each, and don't be afraid to put them off to next week because you need more drops from Maiden or something like that.
Buffs
This one may depend on how much money you want to spend. Flasks are going to be great to use while you're learning these bosses. They persist through death and last for 2 hours. You'll also want an ample supply of Health/Mana pots, food (stam, +dmg or +healing), and mana/wizard oil. As you gear out, you'll probably need less of these things, but it's better to be over prepared and one-shot 3 bosses then having to keep corpse running back.
Those were my initial thoughts of beginning to do Karazhan. Anyone else have ideas for the basics?
Group Composition
We generally go with the philosophy of wanting one from each class, and then one additional member. Keep in mind, this is an "ideal" list, and rarely happens in practice. Things to keep in mind: You'll need 2 tanks, 3 healers and 5 DPS. You can get away with 2 healers for some of the easier battles, but to make things easy, this is what you'll need.
You may also have some of your hybrids play a duel role at some point. We generally have our pally tank some of the undead groups in the Ballroom right before Moroes. He can usually hold the large, undead groups better than our other tanks, so it speeds up the AoE process with less casualties. Also, a druid for a second tank usually has the gear to go full dps on the fights such as Shade of Aran or Prince where only 1 tank is needed.
You can certainly mix up the groups with different classes. Two or three priests for shackling in Moroes' room certainly doesn't hurt... being able to banish two or more of the elementals in the Shade fight... these aren't bad things. You mainly need to make sure that you stick with the basic rule of 2/3/5. If you have 4 prot tanks, you may want to think about letting 2 of them sit out.
Gear
What is needed? This is kind of a hard question to answer. The response question may be: how far do you want to go? You can probably do the animal bosses the first time in to Karazhan. To get attuned to Kara, you had to do enough in instances that you're probably geared enough for at least those. They may even be your groups first purple boots, bracers, and/or belt. The next few fights mainly take enough coordination, with Moroes and the Opera Event ramping up even more. By the time you're hitting Moroes, you probably shouldn't have any greens except maybe a trinket or two. And in the nights you're not running Karazhan, you should be getting the rest of your Heroic Keys and running Heroic instances. You'll should probably get a feel for what each boss will need as you attempt them. Give them a few attempts each, and don't be afraid to put them off to next week because you need more drops from Maiden or something like that.
Buffs
This one may depend on how much money you want to spend. Flasks are going to be great to use while you're learning these bosses. They persist through death and last for 2 hours. You'll also want an ample supply of Health/Mana pots, food (stam, +dmg or +healing), and mana/wizard oil. As you gear out, you'll probably need less of these things, but it's better to be over prepared and one-shot 3 bosses then having to keep corpse running back.
Those were my initial thoughts of beginning to do Karazhan. Anyone else have ideas for the basics?
Monday, August 20, 2007
/readycheck
First off, sorry for missing a couple days of posts. I've been doing some training at work and haven't been able to make the time at home. That said... I'm back. :) This will certainly be review for most, if not all, of you, but I thought it would be important to document for any beginning raid/party leaders.
Back in the day before the expansion, the guild I co-led (Cracked Anvil Trading Co.) wasn't really a raiding guild. The guild was mostly started because 2 of my brothers and myself got tired of the random guild invites. Once we started the guild, it continued to grow by leaps and bounds by only by adding people we knew in real life. We had people of all ages, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, etc... It made for an awesome social guild and if fit a lot of our play styles extremely well.
A lot of us wanted to do more and advance past 60. So, naturally we'd run things like Scholomance and Stratholme. We ran UBRS who knows how many times (and that's where my story today will focus). We eventually progressed through most of ZG, but never did a full clear.
Now I know this is no bragging rights by any means, but man did we have UBRS down. (That makes me sound so noobish, but let me make my point.) For most of us, it became pretty much a yawn-fest. But a necessary one. We needed more people to consistently fill 20 spots for ZG, but there was some lacking in the gear category. So, for Dungeon 1 chest pieces and other drops, we ran UBRS as a guild a lot. It got very second nature for most of us... we basically put it on cruise control.
Now, Karazhan's no UBRS, but I get in the same lazy mind-set sometimes. Or at least to a small degree I do. Because we've switched some groups around not everyone in my group has killed everyone in Kara. On the contrary, most people have not. So, I should be on the top of my game in both fighting and leading (which is one of my roles). I assume that everyone has the same "hurried" attitude and that we'll all be ready as soon as I say go. I've found this to be mostly false.
By no fault of their own, people aren't always ready when I am. Maybe somebody got lost or needs more mana or had a power outage and is completely offline. (Okay, the offline thing I've always caught.) But just in case you don't know... /readycheck is your friend.
/readycheck can be initiated by a raid or party leader or a raid assistant. It provides each member of the group with a little dialog box asking if they're ready. Then it provides information back to the person that initiated it. If folks are afk (flagged afk, not just literally away from their keyboard) or disconnected, it will tell the initiator immediately. It will tell that person if somebody hit "no", which is a perfectly acceptable thing to do if you're not quite ready. Or, if everyone is ready, it will give that feedback to the initiator as well.
It's just a great tool to use to make sure that everyone is ready for the next boss or pull; especially after any short break (such as a raid wipe or enough deaths to allow somebody to step away from thier computer for a short amonut of time).
Back in the day before the expansion, the guild I co-led (Cracked Anvil Trading Co.) wasn't really a raiding guild. The guild was mostly started because 2 of my brothers and myself got tired of the random guild invites. Once we started the guild, it continued to grow by leaps and bounds by only by adding people we knew in real life. We had people of all ages, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, etc... It made for an awesome social guild and if fit a lot of our play styles extremely well.
A lot of us wanted to do more and advance past 60. So, naturally we'd run things like Scholomance and Stratholme. We ran UBRS who knows how many times (and that's where my story today will focus). We eventually progressed through most of ZG, but never did a full clear.
Now I know this is no bragging rights by any means, but man did we have UBRS down. (That makes me sound so noobish, but let me make my point.) For most of us, it became pretty much a yawn-fest. But a necessary one. We needed more people to consistently fill 20 spots for ZG, but there was some lacking in the gear category. So, for Dungeon 1 chest pieces and other drops, we ran UBRS as a guild a lot. It got very second nature for most of us... we basically put it on cruise control.
Now, Karazhan's no UBRS, but I get in the same lazy mind-set sometimes. Or at least to a small degree I do. Because we've switched some groups around not everyone in my group has killed everyone in Kara. On the contrary, most people have not. So, I should be on the top of my game in both fighting and leading (which is one of my roles). I assume that everyone has the same "hurried" attitude and that we'll all be ready as soon as I say go. I've found this to be mostly false.
By no fault of their own, people aren't always ready when I am. Maybe somebody got lost or needs more mana or had a power outage and is completely offline. (Okay, the offline thing I've always caught.) But just in case you don't know... /readycheck is your friend.
/readycheck can be initiated by a raid or party leader or a raid assistant. It provides each member of the group with a little dialog box asking if they're ready. Then it provides information back to the person that initiated it. If folks are afk (flagged afk, not just literally away from their keyboard) or disconnected, it will tell the initiator immediately. It will tell that person if somebody hit "no", which is a perfectly acceptable thing to do if you're not quite ready. Or, if everyone is ready, it will give that feedback to the initiator as well.
It's just a great tool to use to make sure that everyone is ready for the next boss or pull; especially after any short break (such as a raid wipe or enough deaths to allow somebody to step away from thier computer for a short amonut of time).
Monday, August 13, 2007
Consortium Rep
Starting out with my Everquest 2 days... when you got a higher standing with different groups, you would be seen differently. Guards might hail you as you walk by where as before you were completely ignored. It's been awhile since I've played, but I believe they would even salute you as you walked by if you had the minimum "reputation".
So, what's with all of the factions in World of Warcraft? You don't really get much. At Honored, all factions will give you 10% off their goods. I'm down with that. Great idea. What bothers me slightly is that after that, you really don't get much. Think about it. "Exalted" is a pretty high word to mean "we'll sell you this one item." But at least one faction in WoW will give you something worthwhile.
The Consortium can be found throughout all of Outlands. They're ethereal smugglers
, traders and thieves who are led by Nexus-Prince Haramad. The greatest thing about them is they never stop giving. Once you reach a reputation of Friendly, you get a monthly salary that you can pick up from Gezhe in Aeris Landing in Nagrand. (Edit: Thanks Lichas for reminding me.) This salary is a bag of gems. As you progress up the reputation chain, you get better and more gems in the bag. So, not only do they have items and patterns that you obtain through reputation, but you also get a monthly dividend!
I want to see more of this type of faction in the expansion. But how do you get reputation with them? The simplest way is simply to do Mana Tombs over and over again. Once you hit Honored, you'll have to get Lower City reputation so that you can can get the key for Heroic Mana Tombs.
Most likely you won't live in Mana Tombs though. You may even get sick of running instances. And I only said it's the simplest way, not the fastest. There's quests all over for these guys. If you see an ethereal, and he's got a quest, most likely it will give you Consortium rep. You can see the quests over at WoWWiki. Of particular note, you'll want to complete Seek Out Ameer which starts in Stormspire, and then A Mission of Mercy. Once you've complete A Mission of Mercy, you can then collect [Ethereum Prison Key] in Heroic Mana Tombs. These will allow you to complete other quests, and eventually summon a 4th boss in Heroic Mana Tombs.
For the solo player, besides the normal quests there's also a couple of repeatable quests that do not require a group. You can complete Obsedian Warbeads and A Heap of Ethereals (Zaxxis Insignias) by pure grinding. The other repeatable quests are Ethereum Secrets obtained at Honored and A Thousand Worlds obtained at Revered.
Myself having only reached Honored, I haven't reaped a lot of the gem benefits from these guys. I've asked people to run Heroic Mana Tombs a lot of times, and I mostly get turned down. When I do get people in there and they realize they're getting Consortium Rep, they're usually excited about that. Maybe I just need to do a better job at my marketing. LFM for Heroic Mana Tombs should now become LFM for Heroic Consortium Rep Run.
So, what's with all of the factions in World of Warcraft? You don't really get much. At Honored, all factions will give you 10% off their goods. I'm down with that. Great idea. What bothers me slightly is that after that, you really don't get much. Think about it. "Exalted" is a pretty high word to mean "we'll sell you this one item." But at least one faction in WoW will give you something worthwhile.
The Consortium can be found throughout all of Outlands. They're ethereal smugglers
, traders and thieves who are led by Nexus-Prince Haramad. The greatest thing about them is they never stop giving. Once you reach a reputation of Friendly, you get a monthly salary that you can pick up from Gezhe in Aeris Landing in Nagrand. (Edit: Thanks Lichas for reminding me.) This salary is a bag of gems. As you progress up the reputation chain, you get better and more gems in the bag. So, not only do they have items and patterns that you obtain through reputation, but you also get a monthly dividend!I want to see more of this type of faction in the expansion. But how do you get reputation with them? The simplest way is simply to do Mana Tombs over and over again. Once you hit Honored, you'll have to get Lower City reputation so that you can can get the key for Heroic Mana Tombs.
Most likely you won't live in Mana Tombs though. You may even get sick of running instances. And I only said it's the simplest way, not the fastest. There's quests all over for these guys. If you see an ethereal, and he's got a quest, most likely it will give you Consortium rep. You can see the quests over at WoWWiki. Of particular note, you'll want to complete Seek Out Ameer which starts in Stormspire, and then A Mission of Mercy. Once you've complete A Mission of Mercy, you can then collect [Ethereum Prison Key] in Heroic Mana Tombs. These will allow you to complete other quests, and eventually summon a 4th boss in Heroic Mana Tombs.
For the solo player, besides the normal quests there's also a couple of repeatable quests that do not require a group. You can complete Obsedian Warbeads and A Heap of Ethereals (Zaxxis Insignias) by pure grinding. The other repeatable quests are Ethereum Secrets obtained at Honored and A Thousand Worlds obtained at Revered.
Myself having only reached Honored, I haven't reaped a lot of the gem benefits from these guys. I've asked people to run Heroic Mana Tombs a lot of times, and I mostly get turned down. When I do get people in there and they realize they're getting Consortium Rep, they're usually excited about that. Maybe I just need to do a better job at my marketing. LFM for Heroic Mana Tombs should now become LFM for Heroic Consortium Rep Run.
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