Best Warrior Leveling Souls in Rift (In My Opinion)

I'm sure many players in Rift are still leveling as quickly as possible.  I have my warrior at level 47 on the brink of 48. (Two bars away).  Having leveled through, I have played around with the souls a lot.  While I'm certain that this will change a little when we get start raiding,  (FYI Conquest of Emberlord is recruiting all classes and roles for raids, rifts, and warfronts.) I think I have found the best souls for leveling if doing PvE with a little PvP on the side.  Again, this is just my personal experience and may just be my observation more than anything.

When leveling, I think of a few requirements.  First, the soul should be able to put out as high of DPS as possible.  Second, they should have some mechanic to help if you pull multiple mobs.  Third, they should be able to have a mechanic to decrease downtime.  Finally, it should be able to be used in instances or warfronts.

Looking at these requirements, some souls would be out.  Clearly, anything that is focused on tanking would not in and of itself be a good solo leveling soul.  Those tend to focus on threat and mitigation but does very little for high DPS output.  And while Paladin does have a self heal, there are no real good mechanics to decrease downtime.  However, I would recommend one of your specs to be a defensive spec, especially when fighting elite mobs. (Also, I should add in that Hazeed in Shimmersand is a bastard and should burn in hell for all eternity.)

So now, we turn our attention to the offensive souls.  Champion, who is probably the heaviest of damage but also the most vulnerable of the offensive souls;  Paragon, who uses duel weapons and has ranged abilities; Riftblade, who has elemental buffs and more crowd control than the other offensive souls; and Beastmaster, which is the only offensive soul to have a companion and self heals in combat.  So with these four choices for offensive roles, which would be the best ones for leveling.

In my personal opinion, Beastmaster is an absolute requirement for leveling.  It gives you a companion who could potentially tank if you pull multiple mobs.  It also gives you two different self heals, one that can be cast on cooldown and a bigger heal that cost attack points but heals for 150% of weapon damage.  In addition, it offers 3 different buffs for while you are leveling and you can switch your pet to tank or damage.

This leaves room for the two other souls in your leveling spec.  The second choice should be really based on your playstyle.  You could make an argument for Paragon; however, I think the Champion soul is the best second choice.  One, it puts up huge damage with two handed weapons.  Second, it has an attack power ability that is a "kill" ability, Deathblow.  In other words, when you get an enemy to 30%, you have a way to finish them quickly.  The quicker you kill an enemy, the less time you have to recover.  Add in the fact that you get heals from Beastmaster and you are talking very little down time.  Plus, you get higher damage the faster you move with Bloodlust.

Since I don't see much of a point in taking the other high damage tree, Paragon, since you are going to be focusing on two handed weapons, this means the final soul is kind of chosen for us.  Even if you go deep into Beastmaster and Champion, you can still get the Flaming Spears in Riftblade and have a decent ranged attack.

In order of preference, while leveling, I would get Beastmaster to 31 points to pick up the bigger heal that requires attack points.  From there, I would get Champion up to 31 points.  Then go to Riftblade to get the Flaming Spheres.  This should be enough points to get to level 50 which at that point, you would go for more mitigation or damage based on your role in raids.

The Single Meanest, Cruelest Technique to Use on the Auction House

Itty Bitty Poker Kitty

I have seen a lot of crazy stuff at the AH.  I have seen massive undercutting.  I have seen people trying to drive markets down.  I have even seen people for insanely high prices.  However, I would like to think that I have come up with the single cruelist technique to use on the AH.  This technique actually punishes people for not using addons like Auctioneer.  It also punishes people who use the remote AH.  But the biggest people it screws over is people who don't pay attention.

Let me set up the scenario I like to use.  Let's say that Fortune Cookies are the following on the AH:

Seller 1: Fortune Cookies X 20 for 400 g (5 stacks)

Seller 2: Fortune Cookies X 20 for 399 g, 99 s, 99c (3 stacks)

Seller 3: Fortune Cookies X 20 for 390 g (10 stacks)

Now, most normal people playing the AH would set up a stack of 20 Fortune Cookies for 389 g, 99 s, 99 c.  If you sell it, you would be getting approximately 19 gold per 1 Fortune Cookie.  Not bad in any market.  But how can you improve it.  You can't post it for higher without buying the other 18 stacks which let's be honest gets expensive.  Plus, you know more than likely all the sellers will come back and undercut you.

This is where the single meanest, cruelest AH technique comes into play.  What if you were to sell only 5 Fortune Cookies for 389 g, 99 s, 99 c?  You just increased the price for one Fortune Cookie up to approximately 77 gold per 1 Fortune Cookie. 

But the biggest advantage is how you played your hand.  If this was a game of poker, this would be equivalent to a bluff.  Someone who uses Auctioneer would see that your price to market price percentage is too high and would not buy it.  However, someone who doesn't have addons, like weekend players, or someone who is using the remote AH may buy it thinking they are getting a stack of 20 since your price lines up with the other stacks of 20.  When they buy it, they will realize they were bluffed out of 15 Fortune Cookies and you are walking away with the money.

And in this case, the best thing in the world could somebody come in and undercut you.  If you are posting stacks of heavy savage leather or bolts of embersilk cloth, you will be surrounded by both higher and lower by people posting stacks of 20, which means they are even more likely to click yours thinking it is a stack of 20.

Is this applicable to other MMOs?  Well, the Rift AH is kind of messed up right now.  However, as more people are getting to level 50 and having established characters, this technique would probably work even better since they don't have addons yet.  When they get addons, it would only be punishing people who don't use the addons.

So, I would encourage you to try.  It feels a little dirty and a little underhanded, but it is a technique that can make your profit margin higher.  Much higher.  And if you feel really bad about it, think of it as playing poker and you just pulled off a really great bluff.

Redhawks Gaze Season 2 - Electric Bugaloo

Redhawks Gaze 2: Electric Bugaloo

Ok, yes.  It has been a long while.  I haven't forgotten about all of you.  I hope you didn't forget about me.  So you are probably wondering where the hell I have been all of this time.  Well, I have had a lot of exciting life changes going on right now.

First,  I got married.  I have been engaged since December 2010 where I got engaged in Charleston, SC during a snow storm. (Thinking geographically, you should see how unique that really is.)  We originally were going to get married in late 2011 or early 2012.  My second big life event changed that completely.  We found out in May that we are expecting.  This made it where we had to push up the wedding a little so that we can accomodate the new baby on the way.  Plus, she needed healthcare to be able to take care of the baby.  We are going to have an actual wedding for all our friends and family in July, but we had to go ahead and get married.

So, the big question you are probably wondering is what is going to happen to Redhawks Gaze.  First off, I am going to keep blogging.  Will it be as frequent as it once was?  No.  Will it still be as informative as it once was? Yes.  Will is just be WoW?  No. 

Since all of this started happening, I have also formed my own Rift guild on Emberlord-US called (no surprise on the name) Conquest.  You can find the site here. (We are recruiting for all classes, callings, etc. for PvE and PvP.)  Also since I am having a lot of these life changes, I actually have a co-GM by the name of Lilstick.  Do I know what the future holds?  No.  Will I be MMOing forever?  Probably not.

So this brings me to part 2 of this blog post.  How will this site change?  First off, I realized that updating two seperate blogs is next to impossible and I'm not going to even try to.  So, as of this post, Redhawks Ascension will be deleted.  This also means that Redhawks Gaze will now cover both WoW and Rift.  I will make it clear as to which is being covered in the title.  In addition, you will probably see some general gaming post as well to add a little spreading out, especially if it is news related to MMOs.

So, as I mentioned in the title, welcome to Season 2 of Redhawks Gaze.  Hopefully, you will enjoy the new content you will be seeing coming up.

Most Annoying Thing About 4.1

I have liked most of what has come out in 4.1.  While I wasn't wild about Call to Arms, I have noticed a much shorter LFD queue time when going as moonkin.  ZA is fun albeit pretty difficult. (I haven't had a chance to run ZG yet.)  I like being able to do 7 LFD at one time and get all your Valor points for the week.  I haven't run AB yet for rated BGs, but I'm looking forward to it.  I even liked the fact that they reduced the number of Conquest points you get per rated BG win so you have to win more at higher ratings.

However, there is one thing that is driving me nuts with 4.1.  Especially considering that I pay extra for it and it is working like crap.  I'm of course talking about the Android WoW Remote App.  I'm glad that we finally have an armory and guild chat, but something about this thing broke the remote AH on Android.  I can't collect my gold from sales.  I can't put stuff up to auction, especially things where being on market quickly matters.  It is driving me insane.

Yes, I know that I can log in game and do all those functions.  However, I am paying $3 more per month for this functionality and I feel like I'm being cheated here.  Now, I could run off to the forums and complain like everybody else, but I don't think that will help.  I also don't know if other people are having similar problems to me, so I'm sure somebody is going to say something.

Am I going to demand money back?  Probably not.  I still have guild chat functionality, which is great, although I haven't seen anybody talking in guild chat yet.  I also have some armory functionality.  Plus, I use it so much, I used probably $8 worth of AH dealing for $3.

So, remote AH users, has anybody else been noticing issues or is this something that is just happening to me?

How to Screw Pure DPS and Guilds in a Single Move

Blizzard announced something that truly made me ask, what the hell are you thinking?  In case you haven't heard, 4.1 is presenting a new system that will offer bonuses if you queue for a small represented role (read: tanks).

Now, this sounds great on the surface.  Bonuses for tanks and healers and shorter queue times for DPS.  However, while they get shorter queue times, the pure DPS classes get screwed over.  Let me make this  very clear.  If you are a pure DPS class (hunters, warlocks, mages, rogues), you will never have a chance at these rewards.  NEVER.  There will never be a day when there is an overflowing of tanks and healers enough to make it where you will get the Call to Arms.  Now, yes, you do get faster queue times which should mean more instance runs in, however, that will only help you for the first 7 dungeons of the week.  After that, there is no pont for DPS.

The other group that gets screwed in this is guilds.  A lot of guilds are approaching the level 23 rank right now.  As I mentioned on Monday, the quickest way to level up a guild is guild heroics.  This new system completely takes away the incentive to run guild heroics.  Thankfully, the perks are still there, but after you hit 25, what is left?  Nothing.  If I'm not getting guild incentives, what is the point of going with a guild group, especially considering that I have to solo queue for a chance for a mount or gems or anything else.

Hybrid classes are loving the changes.  As a resto/balance druid who has a good set of tank gear in his bank, I'm loving this new system.  When 4.2 hits and all the old gear becomes Justice Points gear, you bet I'm gonna try to catch up on gear if I'm needed in emergency for a raid.  And I have chances for extra gold or a rare mount in the process?  Yes, please.

So, is it possible to fix this?  In my opinion, yes.  One, it should change every four hours and just make it random, not based on what is needed.  That way, at least the pure DPS have a chance to get the rewards.  Second, if a guild, not just a group, are queued for the random role for the next 4 hours, the people filling that role still have a chance to get the goods.  Yes, this means that 1 of only 5 people may get the chance for a mount, but that person is not sacrificing the chance at least to run with the guild.

Let the Race Begin

It is expected that my guild, Conquest (Who is recruiting for both the PvE and PvP sections. I mean we are really recruing for PvP.  See sidebar for link to guild.), will reach guild level 23 by today. (Latest will be tomorrow)  This means that the race will start for the first level 25 guild on Ner'zhul since I'm expecting other larger guilds to hit the cap at the same time we do and I don't think anybody has hit server first level 25 guild.  So how do you win the race to level 25?  I have a few ideas.

1) Run Heroics - Probably the fastest way is to have people in the guild form up and run chain heroics.  You get guild XP for every boss kill plus extra XP for every dungeon completed.  This will be the likely quickest way and easiest way to get guild XP.

2) Level Alts - This will be the second easiest way.  You get guild XP with every quest you turn in.  While the amount is less than if you were running guild chain heroics, it still is a hefty addition to the guild XP. 

3) Random Guild BGs (Not Rated) - Ideally, doing rated BGs with a very good team, would bring in a great amount of guild XP.  Unfortunately, when you can have rated BGs that last a full 25 minutes between two good teams, it may not be the quickest.  What would be quicker is to form 2 5 man groups and queue for WSG, Twin Peaks, or Battle of Gilneas.  A guild group against random PUGs should roll them pretty easily.  Not as good of guild XP as the first two, but not bad.

4) Raids - Break the 25 man raiding group into 2-3 10 man groups and clear out all the farm content with no hardmodes.  That will likely bring in a good deal of guild XP if you can get people who don't normally raid in your guild into the third 10 man group to complete it or alts.

5) Loremaster Anyone? - If you could have a couple people devoted to going and getting all the quest on their max level alts done, all that guild XP would be coming in.  It is better if it is an alt so that you are leveling them too, but if you don't have anyone leveling, you could easily send your 85s out to try and get Loremaster after guild level 23.  However, those 85s would be better suited to be running heroics.

I'm sure there are bunches of other ways to get guild XP.  I have tried to help my guild this weekend by finally leveling my mage to level 85.  The fact of the matter is a lot of guilds on your server are probably hitting level 23 right now, which means the race starts soon.

And Now, The End is Near. I Face The Final Curtain.

This post is going on both Redhawks Gaze and Redhawks Ascension.

It is with a heavy heart that I'm reporting that I'm stepping away from blogging.  Main reason that I'm stepping away is that I don't have time to play WoW or Rift anymore. 

My career has taken me in a very different direction than I ever thought.  I know I was a player, but I never thought that Jay-Z would actually listen to my rap single.  He e-mailed me and told me that I spit hot fire and he wants me to make an album.  I'm gonna be recording a new album with his studio, Rock-a-Fella Records.  He has even lined up duos with Beyonce and Rhianna.  I'm super excited to be moving into this new area of my life.  I also have talk show apparences for Conan, The Colbert Report, and co-hosting with Kelly Ripa on Live after Regis leaves.

I want to give out many thanks.  First, I want to say thank you to Conquest for encouraging me to start this blog in the first place.  While I was hoping to achieve the same success as Matticus from World of Matticus, you just can't let go of the rap game.  Also, I want to thank Qieth not for his blogging skills, but helping me with my new rap name, Quick Qieth Quipper.  As the first person to respond on my blog, I'm glad to honor you in this way.  Also, to Lufitoom and Tralina, you are welcome backstage at my rap shows anytime.

In addition, I want to thank all the people from Rift who have come on to support my new blog.  While I'm a little upset that I'm not gonna hit the level cap for a while until I become bigger than Jesus, be assured that anybody who stands in the way will be hitting a very different cap, most likely in the ass.

Finally, I want to thank Charlie Sheen for teaching me the philosophy of winning.  I have tasted the Tigerblood and now I'm succeeding in the rap game.  I hope to be doing some Charlie Sheen with you soon.

So, with a heavy heart, I thank everybody for their support.  Also, pick up my new joint on Rock-a-Fella Records, Q Cubed, coming in July 2011.  Don't hate the player.  Hate the game. (Which if you believe this, you just lost it.)