When To Decide To Change Your Role

Last night, I had a conversation with my GM about changing my role in raids.  For most of ICC, I was one of the core raiding team.  I enjoyed it and I still enjoy raiding when I can at level 85.  However, there have been several things in my life that made me purposely asked to be put as a backup to our other moonkin.  Many guilds are getting to the point now where they are deciding and settling their core raid team.  Here are some things you have to look at when deciding whether it is time to change your role on a raiding team/guild.

1) Look At Your Personal Life - I'm gonna be moving and getting a new job probably within the next month.  I don't know how these things will affect my playing time in game.  The more uncertainty there is in the short term, the more that you should be willing to move to a backup role.

2) Look At the Future - If you think there is a reasonable chance that you will not be able to raid consistently during Cataclysm, then it is better to step aside.  Having served as an officer in a guild before, there is nothing more annoying than gearing somebody up who isn't able to come regularly.  That is gear that somebody else can use regularly.  I am getting married this year to the love of my life.  As much as I hope that I could play 3.5 hours a night for 3 days of a week, it is likely not going to happen.  I still will be able to play, but maybe not a hardcore raider's schedule.  It would be unfair for me to get geared up in raids before other moonkins in the raid if I may not be able to put it to good use for the guild. 

3) Look At New Opporunities - My guild just started our PvP division, Vanguard.  I have been trying to do both rated and unrated battlegrounds as much as possible.  What I'm finding is that I'm really enjoying it.  I even wanted to be one of the battleground leaders.  Since this is an opportunity to step up and be a leader in my guild's PvP division, I decided that my role has to change in order to be the best PvPer I can be.  It is not that I will never raid, but when you are leading battlegrounds, you don't need PvE gear which means I have to finish getting the PvP set done to be effective at PvP.

So basically, I'm going to be moving in my guild from the PvE to the PvP division.  This probably means more than likely, you are going to see a few more PvP articles in this blog. You may have noticed this already this year anyway since 3 of my first 4 blog post in 2011 (not counting the Header Contest voting and site statistics) are PvP related.  I'm still gonna cover PvE raiding as well as general WoW talk, but you may notice an increase in PvP moonkin talk from what it was before.

Also, just a reminder to keep voting in the Header Contest.  We have over 80 votes already and would love to see it jump to over 100 at least.  Voting will close on January 14th.

Lessons From First Night of Raiding

Last night was the first night I got to step into a 25 man raid with my guild, Conquest. (Which we are recruiting quite a few classes so I would recommend checking them out with the link on the sidebar.)  I was only in for one boss, Halfus, since they had been wiping to the second boss all last week and wanted the experienced people in there for that fight.  Here are a few things that I found out while raiding:

1) Moonkin mana may not be as big of an issue in 25 man raids. - It may have just been the mechanics of the first fight, but I was never below half mana thanks to Eclipses, etc.  As I start to get some actual raid gear, I may see this improve over time.  I'm not gonna change my spec based off of one single boss kill, but if this continues, I may take points out of Moonglow and move them into Owlkin Frenzy.

2) Raid bosses are fun - Halfus is not the most involved fight in the game, but it sure is a lot of fun.  Between the dragon breathing fire on you all the time to activating the drakes and whelps, it is a hectic fight, but a lot of fun.  Which brings me to the next point.

3) Threat has changed - In 25 mans in Wrath, for the most part, I could open up on a boss almost immediately due to MDs, Tricks of the Trade, etc. to give the tank aggro.  Not the case anymore.  If I am popping Treants, Starfall, Wild Mushroom, adding DoTs, and start casting my nukes, I can pull aggro easy.  It even lead to our second wipe.  Now, it is better to delay slightly and let all the tanks pick up what they are going to pick up, then start bombing.

4) DPS standards have gone up - At the end of Wrath, I was pulling 13k - 15k DPS on most boss fights with highs of around 17k.  Last night, I pulled 18k on the Halfus kill.  It would have been great if the tank hadn't pulled 18k as well. (Admittingly, there are a lot of adds in that fight which add to tanks DPS) Most of the other DPS was above 20k + DPS.  This shows mainly one thing, if you think you are gonna step into a raid with any green pieces and do great, it is not gonna happen.  I still have a green 318 head that needs to be replaced in my moonkin set.  Also, I really need something with a meta to get increased damage percentage. (Once they fix the Chaotic meta gem) I'm at 1700 JPs approximately, so I'm sure the head will now be my next purchase. 

5) Trash Is Tough - Going back to trash like we saw in Ruby Sanctum, I think we had at least 6 - 7 different types of CC at one time on trash and we wiped more on trash then on bosses.  The trash it tight and tough and is easy to pull extra groups.  It requires special awareness to know that you are not pulling stuff you shouldn't.  Also, goes without saying, Starfall is a no-no on this trash.

So overall, I enjoyed the first night of raiding.  It was good to get back in the swing of things and am looking forward to more raiding with my guild. 

Also, just a reminder about the Header Contest.  The last day for entries is this Friday.  After that, I will post the nominees the week after and will let the readers vote on the next header for the blog.  Also, next Monday, I will have some major announcements on the new blog projects I talked about yesterday.
       

Finding The Right Guild For You

Yesterday, I talked about the pitfalls that can occur when filling out guild applications.  But guilds work both ways.  Not only does the guild have to find out if you are right for them, but you have to find a guild right for you.  So you may be asking what questions should I ask myself when looking for a guild.  Here is a list of questions you need to think about?

1) What times can I raid? - This is extremely important.  If you know that you prefer to raid in the evening, you have to find a guild that runs on your schedule.  If you can only raid two days a week, you have to find a guild that only raids two days a week.  You have to set aside what times during the week you can raid.  Some of the most hardcore guilds I have seen raid 3 hours a night, 6 nights a week.  I would never apply to such a guild because I don't want to raid that much.  I like our current 3 night a week schedule for 3 - 3.5 hours per night.   

2) What style of raiding do you like? - It is just a fact of life that some people cannot handle the rigors of hardcore progression raiding, which is fine.  I like to seperate guilds into three types.  Hardcore, semi-hardcore, and casual.  Hardcore guilds are guilds that optimize performance and ability.  If you are not doing your job, you don't raid.  Period.  If you get butthurt about being told to sit for a progression raid, hardcore raiding is likely not for you.  Semi-hardcore is people who are focused on progression but also focus a little more on the people.  If you earned your raid spot, you have earned it and it is yours.  The only way you would lose it is if you stop showing up altogether.  These guilds tend to get all the content done but may never progress into things like hardmodes, etc.    Casual is just as it sounds.  It is extremely laid back and they focus more on being a group of people/friends over progression.  You may be given advice here but you will probably not be told to sit out on fights.  They will teach you or drag you a long, but you will be there.  I have tried all of them and I can seriously say that I love hardcore raiding.  We don't raid all the time but when we do, we are focused on getting down content.

3) What type of people do you like? - This goes a little in hand with the style of raiding, but it is also different enough to make you think about it.  If you prefer G to PG-13 humor/language, some guilds are not gonna be for you.  Some guilds will advertise that they are family friendly, which is great if you have children who want to raid/play with you.  Other guilds will drop "fuck" like there is no tomorrow and they will shout and yell at people in raids, etc.  If you do not prefer that type of humor/language, some guilds won't be for you. 

4) What do you want to focus on? - There are a lot of PvP guilds and a whole lot more PvE guilds.  If you want to focus on PvP, a strict PvE guild is likely not for you.  If you want to focus on PvE, PvP guilds won't provide what you are looking for.  What I think you are going to see going into Cataclysm is that more guilds will start doing both organized PvE and PvP, which our guild is starting to do to get gear, achievements, guild bonuses, etc. especially with the rated battlegrounds starting.

5) Where are you with your gear? - I put this down far on the list for a couple reasons.  One, you can always get better gear.  Two, depending on the type of guild, this may be less of an issue.  If you just hit 80 today and you have quest/dungeon blues and greens, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to apply to a "Light of Dawn" guild who has cleared out all the hardmodes.  They are going to tell you to get better gear and comeback.  Even some guilds are more strict and unless you are mostly in 264 gear, they won't let you into their guild.  Find out where their guild requirements are.  Some guilds do use GearScore (Why? I don't know.).  Others will at least want you to be in somewhat current gear and then test you in a raid setting, which is the better way to do it.

6) Where is your life currently and in the near future? - Seems weird to ask this, but it is important.  If you are going to be starting a job in a month, you need to find out what your hours are going to be to see if it matches your set raid times.  If you just had a child, you probably want to break from raiding for a while to help take care of the child, who may be up during your raid hours.  Progression raiding is not just about the current, it is about the future.  Most progression guilds consider new members an investment.  They may not be the best geared or the highest DPS at the time, but they put time in downing bosses, getting you gear, etc. to make it so that you will be a benefit to them.  If you know your life is about to change and it may take you away from raiding, just wait and see where you are.

7) How do you handle criticism? - Again, this is far down on the list because I hope this is an answer you already know from your friends, family, and work.  If you can't handle criticism, even harsh at times, hardcore progression raiding may not be for you.  As I mentioned before, hardcore guilds try to maximize everything.  If you don't like being told you have the wrong spec or are gemmed incorrectly or are not using your spells/abilities properly, you may want to find a semi-hardcore/casual guild. 

8) How is your computer?  - It seems silly, but it is important.  Is your computer build to handle 25 man raiding?  If not, there are still hardcore progression oriented 10 man guilds you can join.  But a lot of older computers have problems with frequent disconnects, lag, slow frames per second, etc.  that actually affect performance.  I try to aim with my computer to run at ~ 20-30 FPS with a latency between 200 - 300 ms.  If it is not in that range, I may say I have to sit because of lag.  Nothing worse then wiping a raid because you disconnect or you are lagging severely. 

9) Are you willing to research? - The more hardcore a guild is, the more they expect you to know your class inside and out.  In addition, a lot of guilds do not give explanations of fights.  They say watch this video, read this thread on TankSpot, and come prepared.  If you are not willing to research fights and your class, you are probably not suited for hardcore progression raiding.

10) Are you willing to farm? - Are you willing to get gold, flask, enchants, gems, etc. as quickly as possible when needed?  Some guilds provide some of these things.  My guild provides flasks, enchants, and uncut epic gems.  We have to provide money for our own repairs.    However, some guilds tell you to bring your own stuff.  As a note, you should always be prepared to bring your own stuff regardless of what type of guild you are in.  It is just proper and polite.  If you aren't willing to do enough farming to get your own flask, enchants, gems, repairs, etc., then that guild may not be for you.  I'm not saying find a guild that provides all that stuff for you since you should get it yourself, but if you want to find a guild that has perks for raiders, you can.  Even more so with the guild leveling system coming out in Cataclysm. 

These are my top questions to ask yourself when looking for a guild.  It has provided a lot of guidance to me over the years of playing this game and are questions that I ask constantly when I have been looking for a guild.

How NOT To Get Into a Raiding Guild

Having now been in Conquest for almost 9 months, which is my longest guild stent ever, I have seen lots of applications.  And while I'm not on the committee who decides who gets to join our raiding team or not, I have seen a lot in applications that can kill you before you even get a trial.  What I want to go through is what will kill your chances of getting into our raiding guild before you even get started in the first place.

1) Not filling out the application template - Here is an example of an app that was told to reapp correctly.  Names have been taken out to protect the guilty.

I am a 5.6k gs boomkin, I am 11/12 in ICC 10 with some HM down, I have done Blood Queen on heroic. I would love to join and hope to hear more soon. ****** is my name and I am on Nerzhul

Our guild was nice enough to tell him about the app but some raiding guilds will not be nice about it.  Why?  Because it shows inability to study and an inability to follow directions.  That is two of the worst qualities in a raider in a progression oriented raiding guild.

2) Incorrectly filling out the application template - An example:

28) Attach or link to a recent screenshot of your UI in Dalaran while you mouse over the game menu icon. Bonus: Include your raid frames. Please see the attached example: I'll need to get back to you on that one. MY UI is broken atm due to uninstalling some things. I will take a SS once it is back to its normal format.

You know the saying you never get a second chance at a first impression.  This is a perfect example of how not to make a good impression.  Fixing a UI could literally take an hour to get it in a presentable format.  If you can't delay applying one hour to make sure you fix your UI or you log out in your PvE gear, then you likely won't have what it takes to make it as a progression raider.  If you can't take time to prepare yourself when applying for a guild, you won't take time before raiding to prepare yourself.

3) Insulting people in your application - Example:

Tell us one joke that you find hilarious (if that's too much pressure, any joke you find funny will do). Women's rights

Oh, the stir this caused on this guy's app.  Once he was in the guild, we found out that this was not a joke for this guy.  He was dead serious.  He ended up insulting our feral tank, which is probably one of the reasons she ended up leaving the guild and slowed our progression down.  Now don't get me wrong, there is a fine line between joking and insulting.  If you know the person fairly well in game, you can joke like this.  If you are apping to a raiding guild, you probably shouldn't since you do not know these people.  He was eventually let go from the guild because of his attitude.

4) Short answers to questions on application - An example.  Be warned, this is a long one.

Main Character (include class and spec): *******
Alts (include class and spec): ******
Real First Name: ******
Age: **
Location: *****

2) Have you read the guild charter and loot council FAQ? Do you agree with them?
Yes

3) Why are you interested in joining *******?
High end raiding guild

4) If applicable, tell us why you left your last guild(s).
I server changed and im in a pvp guild now i want to be in a raiding guild

5) Do you know any current ******* members who will vouch for you? If so, nope new to the server but ive talked to ******

6) Please tell us about any previous raiding experience in WoW.
LK experience

7) Pleas tell us about any previous leadership experience in WoW.
Ive lead raids for my former guild on ***********

8) What do you want out of your playing time?
Good time and progression

9) Are you able to make all of ******** raid times (Mon, Tues, Thurs 6-9 PST) on a regular basis?
Yes

10) Are you able to listen and speak on Ventrilo?
Yes

11) Approximately what percentage of raids do you plan to attend?
100%

12) Please describe your computer/internet setup and indicate whether you tend to have lag or connectivity issues.
No problem

13) Are you willing to occupy a bench slot (online and still available to sub in) when needed?
If its needed I will but I'd much rather be a core raider and earn the spot

14) In your opinion, what do skilled players of your class and spec contribute to 25-man raiding?
Misery high DPS some sort of healing

15) What do you, as an individual, bring to raids that distinguishes you from average players? Here’s your chance to convince us that we need YOU for our team.
I've read and learned everything about my class

16) If you had to name your favorite movie at the moment what would it be? Why?
Friday Night Lights

17) What mods do you use, and why do you like them?
Recount, Deadly Boss Mods, ,
Pitbull, Bartender, Quartz, Dotimer

All set-up like ***** (<3) UI in his post on *******.

18) Tell us one joke that you find hilarious (if that's too much pressure, any joke you find funny will do).
Lol not really a joke guy kinda just a smartass sarcastic guy

19) Is there anything else you want us to consider in reviewing your application?
Nothing special just wanna be in a high end raiding guild and earn my spot

This applicant ended up being accepted into a guild by the other faction, but the point remains.  If you can't take time to give in depth answers to an application, it shows a lack of communication, a lack of following instructions which occurs several times in this app, and a lack of caring about your ability to raid.  If you character is good, go into depth about what you bring to the table.  Short one line sentences tell us nothing about you.

5) Showing an unwillingness to learn - You can fill out an application correctly, but alot of guilds are going to want you to explain your gemming, enchants, reforging, etc.  Some want you to do it on the application.  Others may ask you after you apply.  Here is an example of what not to do:
 

Rogue Member of Our Guild: First things first, Which spec is your pve spec? I ask this because they are both incorrect for min/maxxing as combat, I suggest you go read up on elitist jerks if you are serious about applying.

Applicant: My second spec was an inside joke with a few friends for some PVP. My first spec is my PvE I was testing today which I recently changed from having 3 points in RS in the sub tree. You seem to think I have no idea what I'm doing, obviously you are mistaken. I'm well aware of what needs to be put in for a viable combat spec. Since the patch I've been testing things. Thank you for your input but I will pass on going to those forums.

First off, if you are not even willing to go to the site where pretty much all theorycrafting is done for every single class, it shows an unwillingness to learn about your class.  I visit EJ all the time to find the latest theorycrafting.  Also, you can test things, but don't assume you are automatically correct either.  Also, if someone who is currently raiding as the same class as you tells you there is a problem, you better check it out and not insulting the person who has been raiding for a long time.

6) Not communicating back - We have had applicants who have just applied to the guild and never come back to check on their app.  The application was filled out correctly and thoroughly, but they never just came back.  Even if you are accepted by another guild, it is common courtesy to go back to the guilds you applied to and say I was accepted by another guild and I'm withdrawing my app.  Not saying that makes it look like you are burning bridges that you probably shouldn't.  What if the guild you were accepted to collapses next week?  Guess who is not gonna take you.  The people you filled out an app with and did not communicate back with.

7) Applying for things not needed - Most raiding guilds have sites that tell you what there current needs are.  If you are a resto/balance druid and they need a feral cat, you are probably not applying to the right guild.  My guild thankfully has an open door policy.  We take exceptional recruits of any class.  (I should also mention at this time that my guild, Conquest, is currently recruiting for Cataclysm raiding and rated PvP, something we have just started.  See the link on the side.)  Just find a guild that needs a resto/balance druid and apply there.  Also, pay attention to Twitter because some guild leaders will announce on Twitter that they are recruiting.  I have seen probably 30 announcements for people recruiting for guilds on Twitter.  That is how I first applied to Conquest.  I saw @matticus put a call out for ranged DPS and I applied and got in.  I had to prove myself before I came in on progression fights, but that is what new applicants have to do. 

These are some of the major errors that I see in applicants.  Don't do these things and you will at least get your foot in the door.  Now from there, it is up to you.  You have to perform and you have to compete.  You are going to have 9 or 24 other people who are expecting you to do your job correctly and to the best of your ability based on gear and experience.  If you do it, you will get on the raid team of your choice.

The Beauty of Justice Points in Wrath

This weekend was a WoW weekend with the girlfriend working.  Besides trying to finish leveling up my DK's herbalism and skinning, I also got to work on my pally's inscription some. (F.Y.I Just My Two Copper was right, this is a gold mine, even at the early glyph stages.  Plus, you get 3 skill points per glyph. I have made about 2k gold on my pally since picking up Inscription and it is only at skill 374.)  I also got to do VoA on my druid over this weekend in my starting pursuit to be at 4k Justice Points prior to Cataclysm.  It was in VoA that I saw the beauty I haven't seen in Justice Points before.

Prior to 4.0.1, most VoA groups went like this.  We go in and kill Toravon for the Frost badges.  In 25 man, we may do the fire guy just to get some PvP gear or help a lower level alt.  They were quick runs, but we usually left two to three bosses up.

After 4.0.1, this changed.  We actually did all 4 bosses to get Justice Points and Honor Points. (Remember that the VoA bosses drop Honor Points as well.)  And I forgot how much fun Emelon was.  I mean Archevon is still the tank and spank he always was and in mostly heroic ICC 25 man gear, he went down like a little bitch.  But it was great to do all 4 bosses again.  Then I realized why Blizzard went with Justice Points instead of continuing Emblems.

If Blizzard continued Emblems, there would be no reason to do optional bosses.  Now, when Valor points come out, this may happen again.  However, all the Valor points get converted to Justice points when the next tier opens up, so you still have incentive to do all the bosses in a raid because the current Tier of gear also drops to being bought with Justice points.  Skipping bosses will only be an option for the highest level of raiders in Cataclysm, but even right now, you should be wanting to do all the bosses in a raid to get those Justice points.  There are only two raids I can think of right now that have optional bosses, which would be Ulduar and VoA, but you should be wanting to do all the bosses you can right now just to hit the Justice Points cap.

The Benefits of Competition

Sometimes as people who have been raiding for a long time, we get comfortable.  Sometimes, too comfortable.  We know when it is time to raid, what to do, and do what we can.  But it also can be at times that you do the same thing over and over again and get very comfortable.

However, if you want to light a fire under your ass in raiding, bring another person of the same class and spec as you into a raid.  My guild is currently trying out a new moonkin who applied.  Last night going into the raid, I had one goal in my mind.  Outperform this guy on every standard whether DPS, raid awareness, being where I need to, etc.  Not that our raid couldn't use two moonkins.  I personally feel the more druids, the happier the raid.  However, being the person who has been in the guild longer, I felt it necessary to outperform him.

Competition is healthy and good, especially for raiders.  As we get comfortable with fights and raiding, we have a tendency to get lazy and make mistakes we normally wouldn't.  Competition will snap you out of it in a hurry.  When you know that you want to excel in performance, you get more on your game.  It is the same way athletes thrive on competition.  They are good normally, but in the heat of competition, some people excel and some people fall. 

In addition, it shows you take pride in what you do.  It allows you to say that I am up to this certain standard and I'm able to compete with any person who steps into this raid of my class and spec.  It allows me to say that I do everything that I can to the best of my ability.   

However, this can go too far as well.  The whole problem with Gear Score is people judging people by their gear instead of their performance.  It is a very bad way to be competitive.  However, it is better to be competitive on things that matter, like DPS or being where you need to be in certain circumstances.  Some things matter in competition but some things mean very very little.  It is important to find what things are okay to be competitive with and what things are not.

So the next time your guild recruits somebody of the same class as  you, don't demean their gear or put them down unless they truly deserve it.  Instead, look at it as competition that will raise your game to the next higher level.  Trust me, you will be thankful for it.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Raiders

In my time as what I would consider a hardcore raider (albeit 9 hours a week), I have picked up some things that differentiate the people who are effective raiders and the people who want to make everybody pull their hair out.  I wanted to take today to point out those things.  These things are pretty  much regardless of what raiding tier or expansion we are in but this will be more focused on guild raids and not PUGs.


1) Prepare - There is no excuse for not coming prepared to a raid.  You should have flask to last the entire time allotted.  You should have reagents for buffs.  You should have your gear gemmed and enchanted with the best possible enchants/gems for you.  You should have a basic understanding of fight mechanics and any proper addons necessary.

2) Readiness - When you first come into a raiding guild, you may not be pulled in for every fight especially depending on where your gear is.  You may come in for farming fights and then be put on the bench for progression fights.  One of the best ways to show you are willing to do what it takes is to step up, be in Vent, and be ready when they say they need you.

3) Optimize - This goes for a few different things.  One, your gaming setup should be to the point where you are not constantly disconnecting during 10 or 25 man raiding, depending on what you are doing.  You may not be able to run your settings on Ultra but can run them on Good.  That is fine.  It takes being in a raid setting to get those video settings right.  Optimization is also looking at what you have and build the best possible combination.  If you have a PvE and a PvP piece of gear that are both the same iLevel, you should be using PvE gear in most cases (tanks being the notable exception).  Programs like Rawr can help with this optimization.

4) Research - If you are coming in for a new fight, research the mechanics.  Seeing any video of a Professor Putricide kill will tell you that you should not get hit by Malleable Goo.  In addition, you should research and know your rotation, what to do in certain circumstances, and how you can be most effective.  Your gear may not make it where you will top the damage charts, but you should be competitive.

5) Learn - Learning can come from two ways - education or experience.  In this case, both are invaluable.  If you see someone who is the same class as you and is outperforming you, ask for help and learn from them.  The other way you can learn is from your mistakes.    Admit you were wrong to yourself or your raid if you need to and then correct it.  If you are not certain how to correct it, ask.  Every raider makes mistakes from time to time, but admitting it and learning from it is the only way you can get better.

6) Observe - Raid awareness is key to being an effective raider.  If you know that HM Sindy is about to pull in, you need to make sure your stacks of Unchained Magic clear before  you get pulled in so you don't explode the raid.  Or if you get unbound plague during phase 3 of HM Professor, you need to possibly back off and purposely die to get rid of the plague out of melee, where it could affect the tanks.  Observing what goes on around you is critical to being effective in raiding.

7) Communicate - End game raiding is not for the silent.  If you are about to do something like battle rezzing or Ankh, communicate.  If you are about to accept the battle rez, communicate.  If you are a healer and you get taken off during the valk phase of LK, communicate.  If you are a warlock with a portal up and you do not need us to DPS your valk, communicate.  The better the communication is, the more effective the raid team is. 

End Game Raiding At The End of An Expansion - A Study In Risk Versus Benefit

My guild, for the time being anyway, has decided that we are going to halt our 25 man ICC hard mode progress at 11/12.  The main reason they have decided this is because with the time left in the expansion and the amount that we raid, we could use that time to get some other achievements completed.  If we complete the other achievements, we may come back to 25 man HM LK but for now, we are holding off.

Being in the guild for our original 25 man LK attempts, I can see why this path was chosen.  We had such guild turnover while attempting the LK normal encounter that we ended up with some nights with not enough people to raid and we had to do 10 mans.  If it was this bad for normal, how much worse would it be for hardmode? 

I attempted guild leading at one time, but it only lasted for about a week.  However, I can see how decisions, especially at the end of the expansion, need to be formulated.  The progression side of all of our raiders I'm sure is thinking that we need to push ahead and take down 25 man HM LK.  However, the logic side of the raid leaders is probably also saying that doing HM LK this close to the end of the expansion may not occur and it may turn to having people leave the guild.  Preservation of the guild and our current group of raiders we have is more important than finishing the progression content.

Now, we are still going to be attempting progress.  We want to take down Algalon.  We want to take down HM Anub in TotGC.  We want to get the Immortal in 25 man Naxx.  We want to take down Halion HM.  We want to take down Yogg + 0.  But at the end of an expansion, these goals are more likely than downing HM LK 25 man with what little time we have left.

Everything in life and in this game is a study of risk versus benefit.  I personally believe that my guild is good enough and we can take down 25 man HM LK.  However, what will the cost be?  Will we burnout some good raiders out who will not return in Cataclysm?  Will we split the guild and cause arguments that cause people to leave the guild?  How many wipes will it take before people get too frustrated to even show up on raid night?  I personally would be there until he is tasting the floor, but I enjoy raiding and it motivates me.  Not everybody is like that.

In addition, people could be wasting gold that they need for the expansion in unnecessary repairs or doing other stuff that will actually make it harder for them in the expansion.  Sometimes, it is better to just hold off and wait.  Sure, we can become guild whatever number to down HM LK in 25 man ICC.  However, it would be better to just wait and get our resources together so that when Cataclysm rolls around so that we can be server first to finish content.

So I'm definitely interested in what other guilds are doing right now to close out the expansion.  Are they pushing forward in ICC or have they decided to try other stuff until then?  In our case, preservation of our current raiders and preparation are more important than downing HM LK.

My Raiding UI - What You See and What You Don't See

When you are a raider, one of the most important aspects of raiding is your UI.  Natrii from Natriicraft did a great article about a month ago on how to clean up your UI.  What I want to talk about is how my specific UI helps me while I'm raiding and hopefully, it will give some help to you too.  

 

My raiding UI.  (Click for Larger View)

Let's start with the basics.  You notice I have Grid for raid frames, recount for damage meters, and Forte Exorcist for my cooldown timers.  I know a lot of moonkins prefer Squawk and Awe for cooldown timers.  I like the fact that I can see not only my cooldowns, but my fellow raid member's as well.  For example, if I see the bear tank has cast Faerie Fire or the shadow priest has cast Misery on the pull, I will know I don't need to cast Faerie Fire unless it drops off.  I can also look at how much time is left in Heroism.  While it doesn't help moonkins, it can help my mage if I'm about to cast an evocate at the end of heroism.  I also like the bar that shows cooldowns that are  under the nameplates in a graphic fashion.  I can see when the Lunar Eclipse cooldown is over if I have not procced a Solar Eclipse for some reason and can switch back to Wraths to get another Lunar Eclipse.  I can also see when my Eclipses proc in the first place if I miss the big ball over my head.  The basics UI is what I do to try to make my raid UI something that I can use for either of my classes.  I even use the basics for my DK tank or warlock that I'm leveling. (Technically, Forte Exorcist is a warlock cooldown timer.)  You will also notice that I'm using Tukui for my UI shell.  It is clean and I like the info it gives without having to go with something like Titan Panels or FuBar.  In addition, it includes add on functionality like Bagnone, Mr. Plow, and Omen automatically.  You also will notice that I'm running DBM and oRA3, which is standard for our guild raids, and Altoholic so that I can see what my alts may have.  It also helps to see how much money my alts have if I need to transfer money anywhere.

 

Now, digging in a little deeper, there are some increased functionality of my UI, but you have to understand my keyboard.  My keyboard is a Logitech G15 keyboard.

 

  

One of the things that I recommend all druids do is to keybind your forms.  In my case, I keybind my forms to the far left keys.  Having a single key to be able to hit to change forms is incredible.  It helps in fights like Sindragosa when I change to travel form and run out from the AOE attack after the pull in.  It also helps to change to bear or cat form if I pull aggro by accident.  My favorite use of it is to fly to the top of the game world, get out of flight form, and then recast flight form right before I hit the ground.

The second great thing about this keyboard is the number pad to the side.  I set up the 1, 2, 3, and 4 keys on the number pad to correspond to button 6, 7, 8, and 9 on the Tukui bars, which is the lower bar in the middle.  Up above the first bar, you will notice the second bottom bar on top.  The second row are buttons that I need to hit in an emergency or buttons that I can move into my 6, 7, 8, or 9 button positions.  Typically on my moonkin my number 6 is Starfall, my number 7 is Typhoon, my number 8 is Hurricane, and my number is 9 is Treants.  Since the number pad 1, 2, 3, and 4 correspond to those numbers, all I have to do is press the corresponding number on the number pad on the side and can hit my Starfall quickly.  However, lets say it is a fight like Faction Champs in TotGC and I have been put on Cyclone duty.  I can move one of my 6, 7, 8, or 9 actions to the top row and still within reach and place Cyclone on any of those keys which moves their functionality to the keypad.  From there, I just make a couple macros for who I'm targeting with Cyclone and the job is done.  For my mage, I use the 6, 7, 8, and 9 keys for AoE spells and my Mirror Image.  I also have a macro on one of my keys that blows my load that I usually press with Mirror Image.

Speaking of macros, there is one major macro that I use for my moonkin raiding and I have discussed it before.  I macro my DoTs together in a way that it will allow me to cast Insect Swarm first then Moonfire.  If it is done correctly on the first part, Insect Swarm will be the next DoT to hit when I press the button again.  Of course, I can get trigger happy and get the alternation off a little.  I also had a macro that combined my Starfire with a Potion of Speed, but with 1120 haste, I'm just using Starfire now.  If I'm tanking, I have a lot more macros since I macro every ability with Maul for threat generation and I have my Oh Crap button in case I need to throw up Barkskin, Frenzied Regenration, etc.  I also have different macros for my DK and my warlock.  And when I decide to level my hunter, I heard that is going to be Macroland.

 

One of the other things you don't see is what is not running in my UI at this moment.  I'm not running Auctioneer.  I'm not running Questhelper.  I'm not running GearScore.  All of those are memory drains and affect 25 man performance.  What I do have running is an addon called Addon Control Panel.  This allows me to set up different addon configurations based on what I need them for.  I have a raiding set of addons that minimize memory needed.  I also have a set just for questing when Cataclysm comes out.  I also have another set for auction house use.   It is a great addon and I would recommend getting it.

Beyond that, the only other addons I have running are fight specific addons.  For example, I am using Unbound which helps tell you who has Unbound Plague in the HM Professor Putricide fight and how much time left they have to hold it.  It also tells you if someone has held it for longer than 10 seconds.

So I hope you like my UI.  I know it is not perfect by any means and any recommendations would be great, but I enjoy it for what I use it for.

The Walls (of WoW)

This weekend, when I wasn't spending time with my wonderful girlfriend, I spent time trying to finish leveling up my tailoring and enchanting.  However, I found out a dirty little secret about leveling both at the same time. You run into a wall.  The wall is tailoring level 420.

Now, you are probably wondering why I said tailoring level 420 is a wall for both tailoring and enchanting.  The main reason why is that you have to make some decisions at that point.  Yes, you can make the gray gear and then disenchant it.  However, what do you do with the infinite dust you get?  You could either make more enchants and get your enchanting higher.  However, you can also make bolts of imbued frostweave and make frostweave bags, which sell for a very nice price on the AH and raise your tailoring skill.  So it seems like at this point that I have to choose which I want to finish off first.  I can finish leveling tailoring and make money to help finish leveling enchanting or I can finish leveling enchanting and then level tailoring up to 450.  I'm leaning towards tailoring first to make the money with the bags and then finish enchanting after that.

This goes back to another post I wrote about extra Emblems of Frost.  You get to a point where you literally cannot buy anything else but primordial saronite or PvP gear with your Emblems of Frost to help your character.  I cannot buy gear for my mage with my druid's Emblems of Frost.    

I'm sure some people get this way with raiding.  Even Paragon this past weekend defeated HM LK 25 man with no ICC buff.  What do you do after that?   I bet there are a lot of canceled Paragon subscriptions this morning because they have literally done everything the game has to offer.  No ICC buff HM LK 25 man kill is their wall.

So how do you deal with the walls of WoW?  Here are just a few of my suggestions:

1) Make a List - I did this myself to see what I have left to accomplish in this expansion.  Even if you have killed HM LK 10 or 25 man, there is more you can do.  Have you got your Ulduar drakes?  Have you got your Sarth + 3 drakes red drake?  Have you got Tribute to Insanity in TotGC?  Even when you think you have done everything, you can find something. 

2) Look Elsewhere for Goals - Sure, you may have done everything on your main, but how about leveling an alt.  I am going to try to get my DK and warlock up to level 80 before Cataclysm hits.  If you haven't done the DK starting area, I would at least go do that even if you have no intention of leveling it up to 80 just for how awesome it really is.  This game is so expansive.  I would even consider going after Loremaster if I didn't have a list of stuff to already do.

3) Spread the Love - Consider using your main to help some other guilds make some progress where they are struggling.  Just like Pink Floyd's "The Wall" warns against isolation of yourself from the world, I'm recommending not to isolate yourself to your hardcore guild.  Sure, you may have to save yourself for your guild's 25 mans, but you can lend your support to help another guild with their 10 mans to help them get further and see more content.  Plus, it will give a better name to the hardcore versus "elitist jerks".

4) PvP - Have you tried to hone your skills in arenas?  Have you tried to run in some premade BGs?  These are all options.  Plus, I'm sure your honor points will hang over into Cataclysm just like they did into Wrath so you will be able to get some PvP gear up front in Cataclysm.

5) Prepare for Cataclysm - You know what your profession or guild will need going into Cataclysm.  This is the biggest thing I could recommend.  Even if you yourself are set, there is stuff your guild will need.  Help get them ready.  Even if you are happy with your gear, continue raiding to help those who aren't as geared.  Because the easier it is for them to level, the easier it will be to start raiding at level 85.

I'm sure there are a bunch of things that I cannot even think of in game right now to do, but every player knows what needs to be done.  So I would recommend, look for yourself and see what you can do in the final months of the expansion.

   

Extra Emblems of Frost? How to Make Some Tasteful Purchases and Prepare for Cataclysm

As we come to the end of Wrath and the end of another Tier of raiding, I am having a real question come up for the first time.  What to do with all of these extra Emblems of Frost?  Since this is the first time I have been in a hardcore raiding guild in WoW, I'm getting Frost emblems left and right.  Just last night in 10 man ICC, we got 10/12 bosses in one night, plus the extra valkyr before Dreamwalker, so we ended up with 21 Emblems of Frost.  The night before, we went through all of RS, which is 5 Emblems of Frost, plus the Deathwhisper weekly, which is 5 more Emblems of Frost, plus we went 8/12 in 25 man ICC and the valkyr, since we are doing HM Putricide this week in 25 mans, which gave an additional 17 Emblems of Frost.  That is 48 Emblems of Frost in 2 days.  And that is not even running the random 5 man for the day.

Well, here is a small shopping list that encompasses all of the things I have ever bought for myself with all my emblems.  This list will change based on what your professions are, etc.  For example, my mage is tailoring.  If I get to the point where I am getting that many Emblems of Frost on my mage, I will want to buy primordial saronite to get some tailoring recipes.  I could even transfer the saronite from my main to my mage.

1)  Main Spec Tier Gear - This was my first priority on my main.  I ended up buying all 5 pieces of Tier gear because it gave me some flexibility to use some of the 277 gear I would get from HMs.

2) Idol of Lunar Eclipse - I needed to get my Tier 10 idol.  It basically increases your critical strike rating by 220 and is necessary for you to hit the Lunar Crit Cap.

3) Belt of Omission - I have talked about this before, but I needed this belt to get rid of the Shard of the Crystal Heart 245 trinket because of the hit.  Since we are clearing ICC 25 man hardmodes now, I may switch to a 277 hit neck to get a better belt.

4) Off Spec Tier Gear - I needed my Tier gear for my tank spec.  I got everything except the chest piece because I got the Sack of Wonder from Lootship. (Still waiting for the next heroic version to drop to pick it up, since it is BiS for feral tanks.)

5) Idol of the Crying Moon  - Needed to upgrade from the 226 Idol of the Corrupter I have been using for tanking.

6) Corroded Skeleton Key - High stamina trinket with a good on use.  It will hold me over until I can get the top two trinkets, which would be the heroic version of Unidentifiable Organ and the normal or heroic version of Sindrigosa's Flawless Fang.

At this point, I have already bought everything listed here.  From this point on, this is a list of the stuff that I am likely going to try to purchase or purchase more of.

7) Primordial Saronite - This is what I have been spending my current Emblems of Frost on.  I just sold four on the AH for the price of 750 gold each, making a cool 3k gold in the process.  This is how I'm going to try to prepare for Cataclysm.  I have very little interest in doing PvP except for honor to buy gems, etc.  I will never downgrade my Frost badges to buy gems because it is easier to do it with Triumph badges.  This means my Frost badges for right now are for making money.  Ideally, I would like to have about 10k - 30k gold going into Cataclysm.  The other option is to buy the saronite, give it to my mage, let her finish leveling up tailoring, buy the ICC recipes, and then sell 264 cloth gear on the AH to get even more.  I'm not certain which is better yet, because my mage is still about 50 points away from max level tailoring.

8) PvP Gear - Getting this arena seasons gear with Frost emblems is an option and if Cataclysm doesn't come out until November, I might definitely get into some PvP.  But this will likely be my last purchases before Cataclysm hits.  Plus, to have only one level of PvP gear behind the current arena season at 85 will be pretty sweet.

Just a reminder, if you want to remember Wrath with your very own FigurePrint, you have until this Saturday to enter the Christmas in July contest.  Please sign up for your chance to win some free stuff.  Finally, check out my new sweet mount for getting Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10 Man).  Thanks to the Wednesday night 10 man crew at Conquest for helping all of us to get the mount.  Our next target in 10 man, HM LK and Bane of the Fallen King.

World of Blizzard - What Does Starcraft II Mean for WoW?

 Cat Depiction of a Zerg Rush

I, like so many of my fellow World of Warcraft players, picked up Starcraft II yesterday. (Actually, I had the Collector's Edition sent to me by Amazon.)  I have not had a chance to actually get into Starcraft II yet, but I did play some in the beta.  If  you want somebody to royally beat in Starcraft II, just add me as a RealID friend, bigdog1862@yahoo.com, and I will try to play some games.

However, the interesting thing in all of this is how will the only other Blizzard game in over 5 years affect their biggest hit ever.  I was listening to The Instance, where they were discussing what they thought would happen.  They thought people have been waiting so long for this, that many people will give up WoW to play Starcraft II, especially considering it is near the end of an expansion.  I actually tend to think the answer is a little more complex.  The effect of Starcraft II on WoW will very heavily depend on what type of player you consider yourself.  I want to look at it from three different perspectives; the hardcore, the semi-hardcore, and the casual WoW player.

The Hardcore - Starcraft II may cut into some farming mats time or dungeon running time, but it will not likely pull people away from raiding or the game.  My guild is still downing hardmodes in ICC and I don't foresee any hardcore WoW players canceling their WoW subscription to play Starcraft II.  I think for them, it will be a nice distraction from WoW (We added a Starcraft II channel in our vent), but will not replace it.

The Semi-Hardcore - This is most dependent on what you are doing in WoW right now.  If  you just downed LK and have no interest in doing hardmodes, it can be reasoned that you would cancel your WoW subscription to play some Starcraft II.  However, if you are on the last few bosses of ICC or are getting into hardmodes, you will likely play Starcraft II on the side until that is completed.

The Casual - This is where I could see the most people going to play Starcraft II.  They likely play WoW to hang out with their friends.  Now they have a new game to play with their friends and so will not likely want to play WoW, but play Starcraft II.  In addition, there is no charge for playing Starcraft II, so they will want to save their money on WoW.   

Now, there are some exceptions.  I'm sure there are some hardcore WoW players in places where Starcraft is a sport (mainly Asia) who have just been waiting for the next Starcraft and will likely devote their time to this game and cancel their WoW subscriptions.  Also, players who have downed heroic LK will likely cancel until Cataclysm.  However, I do not foresee most hardcore WoW players giving up WoW for Starcraft II.  And honestly, that is what Blizzard wants anyway.  If they can get you to play Starcraft II and WoW at the same time, they have done their job successfully.  And just wait until next year when they want you to play Diablo 3 too.

Just a reminder, Saturday is the last day to enter the Christmas in July contest for a chance to win some great prizes.

Dungeon Armor Sets (a.k.a Nailed It)

When they announced hero and valor points replacing badges a few months ago, I talked about the possibility of bringing back pre-raid tier gear, which was known at one time as the dungeon armor sets.  Well, it appears that this is going to happen according to the latest information from MMO Champion.

From the data mining of the latest Cataclysm build, they have found the cloth armor sets for what appears to be the dungeon armor set.  With this information, there is some likely information that can be taken from this.

1)   Will Be Attainable One of Two Ways - MMO Champion stated that this gear will likely be drops in the 5 man heroic dungeons.  I tend to disagree with this.  Blizzard has set up a standard of buying one Tier behind gear with hero points and buying the latest raid gear with valor points.  My guess is that these will be buyable with hero points with the possibility of making them stronger with drops from 5 man dungeons, like tokens.  However, it is still possible that you will have to get the dungeon tokens to get the initial dungeon gear.

2)  Will Not Have Set Bonuses - I tend to think that Blizzard believes that the raiding sets of gear should have bonuses for classes.     With pre-raid gear, I would not be surprised if they put no bonuses on them.  This means that any class of the same cloth type will likely have the same gear.  A shadow priest, mage, and a warlock should all be wearing the same pre-raid dungeon gear with the only differences in gemming and enchants to show their preferences in stats.

3)  Will Make Dual Specs More Important - If you have easily attainable pre-raid dungeon sets, you will have no excuse to not have gear for both your sets.  Now some classes, like mages, can likely use the same dungeon armor set since there will be no set bonuses to warrant using two different sets of gear.  However, with druids, I will likely have my moonkin set and my bear set.

4) Will Set a Bare Minimum Standard for Raiding - In other words, if you at least don't have the pre-raid dungeon set, don't show up for raids because you are not going.  Naxx made it very easy for you to go in with blues and be somewhat successful.  I have a feeling this will not be the case in Cataclysm. You will need the dungeon armor set in order to get in and start raiding.

Of course there are some unanswered questions still about gearing in Cataclysm.  When will the Tier 10 gear be replaced with new gear or will we enter new raids and heroic dungeons with Tier 10?  If it is dungeon drops, will it be classed based like tokens currently are?  Will there be heroic dungeon gear that will surpass the dungeon armor set or will we get all 5 pieces of the dungeon armor set?  Hopefully, these questions will be answered sooner rather than later.

Remember, 7/31/10 is the last day to enter the Christmas in July contest.  As of right now, there are 6 entries so everybody is winning something.  If you enter, you will have a very good chance of winning something for just posting.

Aggro - How Much of An Issue Is It Still?

With Wrath of the Lich King, the focus was taken away from the use of CC and into more complex strategies for bosses.  One of the things that is occasionally overlooked in all of this is aggro management.  But in a game with misdirections and tricks of the trade, is aggro that much of an issue anymore?  I prefer to look at aggro management in 3 different lights.

5 Mans - Aggro management is still huge in a 5 man setting.  While all of the tanking classes have the ability to hold aggro on multiple mobs at once, an overzealous DPS AoEing can pull aggro off of any tank.  And I do mean any tank.  You can be in 25 man ICC HM tanking gear and a DPS could pull off of you.  This is why in 5 mans, it is especially important to wait for tanks to get aggro.  If you overgear a 5 man, it may be less of a concern, but it is a concern still.

10 Mans - Aggro management may be an issue in 10 mans.  A lot of this is determined by your raid makeup.  If your 10 man does not have a rogue or a hunter, then watching aggro becomes much more important since all aggro built is tank aggro.  In that case, it is important to wait for the tank to get sufficient aggro before opening up on him.  Also, I made an important discover last night in my 10 man on LK.  We had a rogue who was doing Tricks of the Trade to the tank.  However, if the gear is not comparable, a higher geared DPS can overtake a lesser geared Tricks of the Trade.  I ended up pulling LK because my DPS was higher than his Tricks which lead to my death and a unnecessary wipe.  So just realize that if you out gear and out DPS your hunter or rogue, you may need to still hold off on DPS to let the tank get full aggro.

25 Mans - Aggro only becomes an issue in select circumstances.  Since almost every 25 man will have at least a hunter and a rogue, you should not have an issue pulling aggro off the tank if they are doing their jobs correctly.  In a few circumstances, you will still want to wait.  One of the biggest examples of aggro management in 25 mans is the raging spirits during the LK fight.  I can't tell you how many DPS died because a raging spirit spawns off a person and they don't wait for a tank to pick it up before opening on it.  Another major instance is HM Deathwhisper, where the adds can one shot a non-tank.  Wait until the tank gets aggro on the adds.  Also, in HM Deathwhisper, taunting does not work for Deathwhisper, so aggro has to be carefully managed between the two tanks usually through a combination of Tricks and misdirects.

So,  if you are close to pulling aggro, how do you drop it really quick?  Every class has a few ways to do it, but I'm gonna just talk about the druid's ways to drop aggro.  These tactics rage from really quickly to really slowly, but they will all work.

1) Stop Attacking - This it the most obvious, but it is also the one that is least likely to work.  Usually by the time you find out you need to back off, the mob is headed your way anyway.  If the tank is not able to get aggro back, you will have to use another tactic.

2)  Go Bear Form - If the mob is headed your way, you can always go bear form.  If you are DPSing in cat form, you may even be able to tank it for a second since you would pick up the uncrittable talent anyway.  If you are DPSing in boomkin, it will still only take two hits to kill you if you throw up Barkskin as well, but it is better than one.  Ideally, you want to go bear and then do some slight kiting until the tank gets the boss back.

3) Cower - One of the overlooked druid talents, but incredibly handy.  You just change into cat form and then use cower.  This helps you drop all aggro on the mob and lets it go back to the tank.

4) Shadowmeld - For all the night elves, you can use Shadowmeld, which will drop aggro on the mob.  The one catch to this is you will gain it back the second you come out.  However, this may give time for the tank to pull the mob away and get back a aggro lead or have his taunt off cooldown.

5) War Stomp - For the Tauren, your ability is not as good as Shadowmeld. (Sorry)  However, if the mob is stunnable, you can stun them and then use some other tactic to drop aggro.  It gives you a second, but it may be the second you need to drop aggro.  Of course, this will not work on bosses.

So overall in the game, aggro management is still important.  Maybe not as much as it was at one point and time in the game (remember the Karazhan mobs that the tanks had to be number 1 and number 2 on the aggro table due to him freezing one of the tanks), but still important enough to pay attention to it especially in 5 and 10 mans.

Please remember to sign up for the Christmas in July contest.  You only have 9 more days to sign up to win some free stuff.  I feel like early in August, we are going to start getting some announcements about Cataclysm.

My Pre-Cataclysm Raid Achievements Bucket List

I'm sure with more and more coming out about Cataclysm every single day, we are thinking about what are the things we still have left in this expansion that we would like to get done.  I personally feel we will see Cataclysm in the next 4 months.

I just wanted to list my personal goals before Cataclysm.  I'm sure everybody has their own, but this is just my personal list of what I feel is unfinished in this expansion.   

Redhawks   Heroic:  Storming the Citadel (25 Player)
                   Heroic:  The Plagueworks (10 and 25 Player)
                   Heroic: The Crimson Hall (10 Player)
                   Heroic: The Frostwing Halls (10 and 25 Player)
                   Bane of the Fallen King (10 Player)
                   The Light of Dawn (25 Player)
                   Heroic:  Fall of the Lich King (10 and 25 Player)
                   Full House (25 Player)
                   I'm On a Boat (25 Player)
                   Dances With Oozes (25 Player)
                   Flu Shot Shortage (25 Player)
                   Nausea, Heartburn, Indigestion... (25 Player)
                   Portal Jockey (25 Player)
                   All You Can Eat (25 Player)
                   Been Waiting a Long Time for This (25 Player)
                   Neck Deep in Vile (25 Player)
                   Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10 and 25 Player)
                   Heroic:  The Twilight Destroyer (25 Player)
                   Stokin' The Furnace (10 Player)
                   Firefighter (10 Player)
                   I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning (10 Player)
                  Glory of the Ulduar Raider (10 Player)
                  Observed (10 or 25 Player)
                  A Tribute to Insanity (25 Player)
                  Call of the Grand Crusader (25 Player)
                  The Immortal (25 Player)
                  Earth, Wind, and Fire (10 or 25 Player)

Redrobin    The Plagueworks (10 Player)
                  The Crimson Hall (10 Player)
                  The Frostwing Halls (10 Player)
                  The Frozen Throne (10 Player)
                  Fall of the Lich King (10 Player)

I would also like to get my DK, Redider (It is a palindrome), and my warlock, Redeagles, who are both in the 60s to level 80.  However, these are the last things on my list because we are likely going to see a decreased leveling curve so it will be faster to level them later.

It is interesting in a time when everybody starts getting bored with the expansion, there is still so much to do to finish it up.  Some of the things on this list will be achieved as early as tonight during our ICC 10 man on my main.  Others will have to be after we down the last 3 heroic bosses before LK on 25 man.  Some will actually involve us beating heroic LK.  And people who are getting bored with the expansion I'm sure have a list just as long, if not longer.  So instead of focusing on how boring it is to keep doing ICC, focus on what you haven't done yet and set it as a goal.

Also, want to remind people about the Christmas in July contest.  You have 10 days left to enter to win free prizes.  Also, you will notice that there are sharing options at the bottom of all the post now.  If you want to share this post through Facebook, Twitter, etc.,  you have that option now.  I hope you take advantage of it.

How to Lead a PUG Raid - A Guide

Not too long ago, I did a post about what a PUG should do if they are in a guild raid.  Today, I want to take the reverse of this.  What if it is a true PUG raid and you are the one leading it?  Here are some of my guidelines if I'm leading a PUG raid.

1)  Make Your Requirements Clear -  I am fine with the leader looking for people who have the achievement or even a certain Gear Score.  Even for stuff as dumb as VoA.  Just make it clear up front what your requirement is.

2)  Set Your Requirements at a Reasonable Level - Here are my thoughts on requirements leading a PUG raid:

Naxx, OS, VoA - Can you push buttons and move?  Do you have a heartbeat? (If you go for 3 drakes, the requirements are higher) 

Ulduar - Can you follow basic directions from a raid leader? (HMs require more of course)

Malygos - Are you proficient in following directions?

ToC - The achievement and 4k Gear Score or no achievement and 4.5k Gear Score.  Also, gear must be gemmed, enchanted, proper for your spec. (a.k.a proper gear requirement)  Must be able to follow exact directions correctly.

ICC 10/RS 10 - Minimum 5k Gear Score with proper gear requirements and must provide adequate DPS. (Tanks should not be higher than DPS on bosses)  Must also follow raid leaders instructions exactly.

RS 25/ICC 25/TotGC 10/25 - Minimum 5.5k Gear Score with proper gear requirements and at least be able to do 6k DPS.  Must also follow raid leaders instructions exactly.

HM ICC/RS - Would never, ever, ever, ever, ever PUG. (Exception is Lootship)

3) Establish a "No Fail" Policy - The best PUG raid leaders I have seen have always established a "No Fail" policy.  What does it mean by "No Fail".  If you get hit by Icehowl in the first fight of ToC during a charge, you are out if we wipe or you get no loot if we finish, regardless of what you roll.  If you do not target Bone Spikes during Marrowgar, you are out or get no loot.  As a member of my PUG raid, your job is to make my job as easy as possible.  If you don't, I can find someone else who can.  Especially considering I have a whole guild of people who would like to come in.

4) Don't Establish Your Raid Based on What You Can Get - It is really annoying to see a PUG raid leader in trade chat saying that a certain item that someone wants is on reserve because they or a friend wants it.  There are reasons to keep running a raid instance to get emblems and other gear.  The other way I see this happen is in VoA.  In a 10 man VoA, I have seen the raid built around the fact they only want one of each class in the raid so that they have a better shot at getting a drop for them.  I would much rather build a raid quickly and take 2 mages then waiting around for a rogue that isn't around to come anyway.  Also, make sure of what you need. I had one VoA PUG leader build a raid with no tanks.  That makes people leave and makes people think you are an idiot. 

5) Use Vent Where Appropriate - I would say the Vent worthy raids right now are Ulduar, ICC, and RS.  If a person does not have Vent, that is reason in my book to kick them.  Why you ask?  Because then they have an excuse if they fail at something.  I do not want them to have any excuses for failing.  I want them to hear the instructions clearly so if they fail, they do not have an excuse for it.

6) Loot Rules - In a PUG raid, I think that random rolls are always the best loot policy.  I would also specify main spec first, then off spec second.  If nobody wants either, it would go to a roll off for an abyss crystal or for AH if BoE.  If someone rolls main spec on a BoE, I would require them to equip right there.  And you can inspect to make sure it is equipped. Also, for orbs, primordial saronite, and trophies in ToC, they should be done on a /roll 25 and given to the person in that spot on your raid frames.  It is much easier than trying to go through 25 random rolls.  For tier pieces in ICC 25 man, use MS the OS rolls as well.  To make it fair, I also try to limit gear to one MS piece for everybody then you can roll on a second MS.  When it comes to OS, I don't really care.   For profession patterns, make them link their maxed out profession and then roll in case there is more than one.

7) Troubleshooting - If I'm leading a PUG raid and they leave after one wipe, welcome to my ignore list.  If I replace you for doing inadequate work whether healing, tanking, or DPS and you whine and complain about it or go to trade chat to complain, welcome to my ignore list.  If we make it through the raid and you are not up to standards I expect for a player at that level, I will not put you on the ignore list, but I will remember  you the next time I build a PUG raid.

8) Achievements Outside of Clearing a Raid are the Discretion of the Raid Leader - Full House on Lady Deathwhisper is fun, but don't expect my PUG raid to go for it though.  In a PUG raid, I want to get through as quickly as possible, not go for extra achievements, etc.  Now if we get an achievement during a PUG raid, like I've Gone and Made a Mess during Saurfang, great.  But I'm not aiming for achievements.  If you have a problem with, you can find a PUG raid that will do the achievements. (Good luck with that.)   

9) Be Stern, but Not An Ass - This is tough.  You are building a 10 man ICC PUG.  You start off by saying they have to have this achievement and this amount of Gear Score.  You get the raid built.  You get to Marrowgar and down him.  However, you noticed a healer who was under performing in that fight.  There is a way to tell him to improve or he will be replaced without coming across as an elitist asshole.  Tell him that he is not eligible for loot from this boss due to under performance.  Give him until the next boss to improve.  If he doesn't, he is replaced.  You have to hold to the guide, but you can hold to it with tact.

10) If You Call the Raid, Don't Insult People, Thank Them - At that point when a raid is called, insulting the stupid hunter who kept pulling aggro and not using feign death does nothing.  Thank him for coming then put him on the ignore list and don't bring him to your next PUG raid.

Hopefully, following these simple guidelines, you will have a good PUG.  If you start off by building a strong PUG, the better your chance of success are.

Remember, you still have time to sign up for the Christmas In July Contest.  Contest ends on 7/31/10. 
 

Getting the Non-Heroic Achievements for Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10 Man)

Last night in my 10 man raid, we decided to try to get all the achievements for Glory of the Icecrown Raider and get some sweet 310% mounts.  Eight of the ten of us had already gotten all the heroic wings achievements when they went 10/12 HMs in one night and got heroic Sindy on 10 man the next week so all they needed were the achievements.  I was on vacation the night they went 10/12 HMs so I still need 10 man HM Festergut, Professor Putricide, Blood Council, Blood Queen, and Dreamwalker to get my mount.

If you are interested in getting your sweet mount from 10 man ICC (You can see the mount's on my guilds website on the right side bar.  We are currently recruiting a mage.), let me walk you through each of the achievements and how to get them.  As mentioned above, you also have to beat all the bosses except LK on HM to get this achievement and get the mount.  However, these achievements can be done in normal mode.  Also, if you notice a link in the achievement name, I have tried to link the cultural reference with the achievement. 

Boned - You may have gotten this one already in your dealings with Lord Marrowgar.  It is pretty simple with good DPS and on non-heroic mode.  Just kill all the bone spikes under 8 seconds.

Full House - Just like in poker, you will need 3 of a kind and a 2 of a kind for this Lady Deathwhisper achievement.  For the 3 of a kind, you will need all 3 different types of fanatics (cult, deformed, reanimated).  For the 2 of a kind, you will need both types of adherents (cult, reanimated).  You will also need to keep them up for the entire Lady Deathwhisper fight.  This is probably the second hardest achievement to get.  You will need a hunter to kite the deformed fanatic.  One of your tanks can handle the other 4 adds.  What this means is that you will have only one tank tanking Lady Deathwhisper the entire fight.  You will need misdirects from hunters (if they are not using it themselves on the deformed fanatics) and tricks of the trade from the rogues so the tank can keep aggro due to the stacking debuff.

I'm On a Boat - On lootship, you just have to make sure that no person goes to the opposite faction's airship more than twice.  This really should be done on normal mode to just kill the ship as quickly as possible.  You are going to have to split your tanks and DPS into two groups.  Each group will stay over for two ice mages.  By the time, the opposite ship should be going down in flames.  Also, if you're in the last group that goes over, you can stay on the other ship because it will teleport you up to Saurfang once it goes down.

I've Gone and Made a Mess -  Probably the easiest achievement of the bunch.  If your DPS is sufficient and good at minimizing Saurfang's gaining of Blood Power, you will easily kill him before 5 Marks go out.

Dances with Oozes - It is amazing how fast you can kill Rotface on normal when you don't have DPS going around and trying to combine slimes.  The goal of this achievement is to make sure that you don't get an ooze explosion or in other words, combine 5 slimes.  The easiest way to do this is just burn the boss, move out of slime spray, but don't kite.  If by chance, two of the slimes do get together, have the OT pick up those two slimes and kite away from the other slimes.  I don't even think we got 5 mutated injections.  This is really a test of your healers being able to keep up people with slimes hitting them.

Flu Shot Shortage - Very easy achievement to get here, but can be tough if you get to the Pungent Blight.  The first set of people who get spores moves away from everybody.  So does the second set of people.  For the third set of spores, everybody stacks up so that everybody in the raid has 1 to 2 stacks of the inoculation.  If the RNG is cruel and somebody gets picked for spores twice in a row, they will not be able to get the third stack and must move out of the raid.   If it does get to Pungent Blight (it did not happen for us), then people will need to use cooldowns to keep themselves alive. 

Nausea, Heartburn, Indigestion - This is where having very high DPS will help you out immensely.  The main key to this achievement is that the OT in the abomination will not slow down Professor Putricide's unstable experiment slimes at all.  The way we handled this achievement was to set up on the right side of the room.  When the green slime comes out, we blow it up immediately.  When the orange slime comes out, we have range get on it early and kill it.  The quicker you can get through phase 1 and phase 2, the easier this achievement is.

The Orb Whisperer - If everybody is doing what they should do in the Blood Council fight, you probably already have this achievement.  The key is nobody can take more than 23,000 spell damage from a single hit in 10 man mode.  This means three things.  One, nobody near each up during empowered shockwave.  Two, the person targeted with empowered flame has to run and kite through as many people as possible.  Three, kinetic bombs must be kept up.  These are all things you should be doing anyway during the fight.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy - This is the achievement that will require you to do Blood Queen twice, but it is pretty simple.  One week, you have to beat her while a vampire.  The other week, you have to beat her while you are not.  If you run with a regular 10 man, you will likely find that the healers and tanks need to be bitten and the DPS does not for your entire raid to get the achievement.

Portal Jockey - This achievement wins the award for the most confusing description for an achievement.  Reading it at first glance, it appears that everybody has to enter both portals.  That is not the case.  The key to this achievement is that the healers must enter all available portals.  For 10 man, there will be two portals.  Just make sure your healers are communicating which portals they are going into so they hit all of them.

All You Can Eat - Far and away, this is the hardest non-heroic achievement in this meta.  During the Sindragosa fight, nobody can get more than 5 stacks of the mystic buffet debuff.  The key here is the tanks have to clear their stack on every other iceblock.  The easiest way to do this is to have the tanks on opposite sides of Sindragosa.  Yes, you do run the risk of a tank being tail swiped, but that should not happen to often. During Phase 3, you will drop the very first ice block on the side with the tank who is tanking her at the start.  DO NOT DPS the iceblock.  When the OT clears his initial stack, he will run to the other side and taunt.  At this time, two things should be happening.  One, the second iceblock should be moving to the OT side.  Two, the first tank should be clearing his stacks behind the first iceblock.  After he clears his stack, you can DPS the block down.  From there, you just alternate sides with the tanks letting them clear their stacks every time before DPSing the iceblock down.  The tanks will likely get about 3-4 stacks each time, but they will be able to clear in time.  It may take a few times to get this right, but once you do, it will be achievement unlocked.

Been Waiting a Long Time for This - And,  yes,  you will have to wait a long time for killing the LK to get this achievement.  You have to get a stack of necrotic plague during phase 1 of the LK fight to 30.  Note that once you do get the stack of 30, you can clear it then and still get the achievement.  Rule 1:  No AoE.  The OT will need all the ghouls he can get his hands on to pass along the necrotic plague.  This also means no Starfall during Phase 1. :(  Rule 2:  Only the first person who gets necrotic plague will run to the OT's mobs.  Everybody else will run the opposite direction to have it cleared.  The reason for this is having two necrotic plagues on mobs kill them so quickly that you aren't able to stack the first necrotic plague.  Rule 3:  Burn the LK down to about 75% and then stop DPS.  You will be waiting for the stacks of necrotic plague to build up.  Once the OT mobs hit 30 stacks, burn LK down to 70% to initiate the transition to phase 2.  From there, you have to kill LK.  This is a really tough achievement if you have not gotten to the point where you can one shot LK on normal because you will have to do this all again if you wipe, which means more waiting.       

And this is all the non-heroic achievements that you need to get Glory of the Icecrown Raider.  After this, you have to beat all the bosses except LK in heroic mode to get your nice shiny mount.

Speaking of shiny stuff, make sure to enter the Christmas in July contest for your chance to win a free FigurePrint or a World of Warcraft mouse or a PrintWarcraft poster.

Naxxramas - How the Mighty Has Fallen

 In the original World of Warcraft, Naxxramas was considered the most difficult raid instance ever.  Requiring 40 players and insane amounts of strategy and coordination, only the top guilds in the world could go in there and be successful.  Even at the end of Burning Crusade, you still needed quite a few people to go in there because of the mechanics.  I, unfortunately, never did Naxx in its prime.  I didn't even start playing until Burning Crusade.  However, you talk to anybody who has played World of Warcraft since the beginning and they will tell  you how difficult it was.   I was excited that they were bringing back Naxx in Wrath of the Lich King.  Of course, any original raider said it was not going to be anything like it once was.  And for the most part, they were right.

I am not usually one to be nostalgic so  you are probably wondering why I'm being so today.  Last night during our raid, one of our warriors is building a block tank set so that we can go for heroic Anub in 25 man TotGC.  He had a laundry list of gear that he needed to get.  Since we cleared 25 man Ruby Sanctum and 10/25 man ICC, we decided to have a retro raid night and go help him get the block gear from Naxx. It was when we got to the first boss that I realized how much this raid had fallen.  We defeated Anub'Rekhan before the first insect swarm.  And this was just the start.  Just to highlight a few other things that occurred in our 25 man Naxx raid.

Defeated Heigen without having to do the dance once.

Defeated Gluth without a decimate. (Precious and Stinky, which are trash mobs, are tougher than Gluth now)

Defeated Grand Widow Faerlina without an enrage.

Defeated Noth without a teleport.  (We had done this when he was the weekly.)

As far as I know, no fight lasted longer than 3 minutes in the entire Naxx raid.  We thought we had a good shot at the Immortal achievement until Instructor Razuvious where we lost one of our tanks and our chance at the Immortal achievement.

While losing the Immortal achievement on the last wing before the Frost wing was tough, what was even tougher was seeing what Naxx had been reduced to.  Once the greatest raid instance in the entire game now reduced to nothing but World of Logs fodder.  (By the way, pretty much every single one of our DPS ranked on every single fight in Naxx.)  Even Ulduar has some challenge still left in it with hard modes.  But Naxx literally has nothing left.  When you have people who can go in solo into 25 man and defeat two of the bosses in the plague quarter, you know that raid has become nothing.  Stuff like this did happen in Burning Crusade when the game wide nerf hit before Wrath in Karazhan and Zul'Aman.  Now, this has happened before Wrath is even done.

So to Blizzard, please do not rehash anymore raid content.  What you even described at one time as the best raid dungeon ever has been reduced to nothing now.  I do not want to see Sunwell as a level 85 raid that will be beaten repeatedly and then just embarrassed after the new highest tier of raiding comes out.  Take some pride in your raids.

Please remember the Christmas in July contest and enter for some cool stuff.