Alt Leveling Project

Hi folks.  I just wanted to say that since my wow time has been quite limited lately, and will be so for the next five months, me and my gf have decided to level alts.  they will be nelf druids.  we'll be a druid duo running around doing quests.  what's mostly beneficial to this arrangement is that we can practically be the trinity of groupings with just two players.  I think i'll play feral tank and combat while she heals and moonfires things.  i think this will be a great way to pass the time when it's late at night and there's really nothing left to do besides level an alt or do a random dungeon.  and we've had quite a bit of random dungeons lately.

So, since i am out of room in Ravenholdt, we'll make the characters on Wyrmrest Accord.  Now the thing about WA is that it's a pacific time server, perfect for us, i guess.  and also, it is a "normal" server where world pvp is voluntary.  this will appease the gf a little.  however, i dont have any qualms about being ganked, or ganking others.  in any case, it will still be an RP server so there's plenty of dressing up, talking in a certain, more dignified language, and more slow walking to be had!  like we RP at all. but if the time comes where we can, we'll be able to!

Since we will be alliance, and questing is quite a "new" exprience for the both of us, it will seem like a totally brand new game. in order to keep this feeling as much as possible, there are some things i'd like to keep as a rule.

• We can only quest to level.  No grinding mobs for experience either.  we kill what we need to kill for the quest or to get to the quest objectives.  gathering professions are out of the question since we do gain experience from them.  we can always power level professions come 85 anyway. 
• No random dungeon finder thingey.  ever.  well we can use the finder to look for a specific dungeon group if the dungeon is appropriate for our level and also only if we have quests that requires us to enter these dungeons.  they've streamlined the dungeon quests for dungeons up to level 60, so you can get all the quests inside the dungeon.  we'll have to figure out the best way to deal with this when we get there. but i hope to only do the dungeons once ever and continue on with questing from then.
• No Heirlooms.  HAHAHA forgetaboutit!! really, none of that for-handicapped people stuffs allowed. we're leveling on greens and maybe blues.  no overpowered gear for the push-here-dummy crowd.  really though, i think the extra 30% (chest shoulder helm cape) is a bit too much.  that, and the gear is usually 2x better than whatever else we can get at our level, having heirlooms is just overkill for leveling.  we're experienced players anyway.
• No leveling guild.  Nope. We will not join any guild that has fasttrack.  actually, we'll probably just end up making our own guild there and calling it Brazen.  Or maybe call it Accordians, get it? *ahem*server name*  Doing this will ensure that we get almost zero bonus experience.  we might end up with the rested experience thing, but that's all we'll take. 

So with all those rules above, i think this will give us a good challenge for the road ahead.  even without heirlooms, instance leveling is so easy.  questing is super easy and even group quests no longer require groups to complete.  in all honesty, this project is something i'd like to do on my spare time when i just want to learn the rehashed stories.  we might even have to lock our experience so that we can go through all of the zones and do all of the little things we can do before we outlevel the zones.  i think is is quite impossible to do considering the starting zones are all far apart and the leveling goes by so fast.  it might be more feasible to go through all of the leveling zones when we're higher, say level 30 or so.  We'll see how it goes.  i'll have a chart with all the zones, dungeons and their levels just so we'll know where to go and what to do when we finally leave teldrasil.  and i am thinking darkshore will be an awesome new questing experience.  so if you like to join us, we'll be on alliance side on Wyrmrest Accord.  make some characters and chit chat with us!

The loss of Audacity

Today's post is in response to a thread actively going on since friday.  You can read the thread here.  Beware, it's past 25 pages as of today (it's only been three days!).

Here is the gist of what happened, based on what i've read and what i surmised as the truth.

Audacity is a guild on the Ravenholdt server, hordeside.  they're a fairly good raiding guild that has cleared normal content in approximately a month.  They were in direct competition with another guild on that server who used to get server firsts since Wrath called Shadows and Dust (now i love the name of this guild because it reminds us that we're not special snowflakes but just shadows and dust... taken from the Gladiator movie by Ridley Scott, but that's besides the point).   The core of the audacity raiding group took a break several months back to play League of Legends and basically neglected the guild. The guild leader promoted a great deal of people to Officer status and did not log back on the guild leader toon.  I do not know if he logged on alts just to level and chat and things, but he did not log on to the toon with the guild leader tag for over a month.  This allowed one of the officers to petition the GMs to make him the new guild leader.  after a successful guild leader switch, the new GL kicked everyone out of the guild, except maybe his alt or his friend.  then took as much gold, mats, gear, etc as they possibly can from the guild bank.  the guild bank looks like it had about 170K in gold.  The guild now sits as a stagnant level 25 guild with no activity. 

Now a bunch of the guildies who were kicked approached the ousted guild leader (possibly on an alt, or playing with them on another game, LofL, or by whatever means) to question why they were kicked out of the guild.  former guild leader logs back on to see that the guild has been taken from him and plundered.  then he made a thread about it on the wow forums, as linked above. 

Now i know how a guild can suffer from not having an active raiding group.  Mine was just the same for a while, but had solid members playing and contributing nonetheless. even still, there wasnt that much activity and zero progression as a guild.  even as a non-raiding member of the guild, i had a sense of belonging even if i did not participate in a guild first kill, or something similar.  i wanted to see my guild progress and be proud i was part of something that actually had success.  when my guild stopped raiding for a while, i felt no real desire to even log in or even felt good about my guild.  now, they're pushing to kill rags and hopefully enter into heroic version soon.  it leaves a good feeling.

The responses in the forums were basically split between two different opinions, while most ignore (or maybe accepted) the wrongdoing of the usurper.  One side believed that it was the responsibility of the GL to log on and actively lead the guild, otherwise, lose the guild to its members.  It is, after all, a group identity.  the guild was built by its people and that its leaders are there to constantly lead the people of the guild. the guild leader deserved to have his mantle stripped from him (no matter what happened after that).  The other side believed that the guild should not have to suffer such a "coup" or takeover like this and demanded Blizzard make some kind of restitution.  Hiatuses should be allowed and GLs should not be penalized for taking long times away, lest thieves break in and steal their stuffs, leaving the guild in a much worse state than before. 

I find clearly that playing a game like WoW is oftentimes involes taking on responsibility many do not want simply because many believe that this should just be a game.  However, it is a hobby for some (like other socially involved hobbies in real life, there comes a set of responsibilities attached and requires constant involvement, ie. reading club, bowling league).  Should one leader step down or stop being as active, another one should take their place. Since wow is a hobby of sorts, guild leadership often carries a heavy weight of responsibility that often negates the fun out of the game.  However, the responsibility or the act of doing the responsible tasks may, in and of itself, be just as fun for the guild leader.  Let the leaders lead and the followers follow.  And many derive fun from just killing things, or players.  And let those be the Raiders, or the PvPers, or the Members.  Of course, there are officers and whatnot, but lets keep things really simple for now.  The system works to a certain point.  Leaders find it fun to lead while followers find it fun to follow, and play the game at the same time.  Both consider this a game, however the leaders may find this game more of a hobby than the followers. 

Skip to the problem at hand, i find that the guild leader had not done everything he could have to prevent a takeover of his guild.  that is a fact.  i feel that the guild leader did a good job with the guild did well for the guild to notify his members that the "core raiders" will take a break and move on to do various things for a while.  this could have involved playing with alts, playing a new game, seeing the sunshine for once, etc.  but his intention was to keep his members, those who are not part of the core, interested in playing and staying in the guild until December when the next patch hits.  They had every opportunity to leave the guild and find a home elsewhere should they disagree with the path the guild is taking.  However, the members stuck around while the core just chilled somewhere, having some online presence but not really moving in any progressive direction. 

I feel there is nothing bad about the blizzard policy of replacing an inactive guild leader.  Whether or not guild leaders around the world knows about this rule is not the point.  When taking on responsibility to see the enjoyment of a group of people a guild leader decided they want to lead, that guild leader should understand all that goes into being a leader, including all of the rules blizzard has for replacing an inactive guild leader.  They have a responsibility to their guildies to do so.  So in the case linked above, blizzard has done nothing wrong.  they simply followed procedure.  whether it was known to others or whether it was for the benefit of "bad" people is irrelevant at this point.  the rules were followed.  that part is pretty clear.

However, i do not condone the actions of those who tried to take over leadership.  what they did was unacceptible, despicable, cruel and disgusting. They basically stole from the guild.  Although they themselves have stated that they took back what they believed they contributed from the bank, this seems very suspicious because not all the moneys can be accounted for.  Not only that, they took what others have also contributed, the others who were ousted/kicked, and called it their own because they somehow contributed to killing a mob that dropped a BoE.  They're basically saying they're owed the gold because they contributed some, but let them take other people's share too, because, well, they got kicked lol.  somthing like that.  let's not sugar coat what they did. it was stealing, showing that their responsibility was only to themselves. 

As unfortunate as this situation is, it shows just how people with no responsibility to the community can do when given nearly absolute power.  the phrase absolute power corrupts absolutely, and that with great power comes great responsiblity are key when analysing this incident.  here we see the evil that men can do to each other for the sake of gold and in-game materials.  in real life, we see a lot of this happening for tangible items like money, someone else's boyfriend, or status.  but in a game, even for something as small as in-game currency, we also see people stooping to such lows in order to get what they want.  And then they try to justify their actions.  i am not buying that.  claiming that the guild leader left is one thing, but then taking over the guild, kicking EVERYONE, then taking all the gold and items, claiming that your'e just taking back what you guys contributed, is totally different. 

For the guild that died and the people that made up its members, i hope everyone finds a new home. the loss of the guild is not just in gold or mats, but bank tabs, perks, acheivements, etc. all these things can be replaced with further hard work. sure, it's not the original guild, with the original acheivements, experiences, victories, hardships, etc.  but at least you can start anew and rebuild, this time with a better understanding of the dangers involed in being part of this game and its community.  i am pretty sure it wont be the same. it really will not be. it's much like going back to an ex that has cheated on you, it just will never be the same as it was.  good luck.

Resolution thread here.

Raidfinder is For the Masses

I was thinking a little today about what i want to do with my free time for the next several months.  I know i've mentioned that i want to start two characters within the next few weeks because my girlfriend is going back to school, but now plans got a little delayed.  Program doesnt start until the end of November, so i have at least another month to drill out some raids with her.  yay!  but i still think about the future of wow and about the time where i will be leaving this game.  One thing i find very useful is playing my xbox when i do get the chance.  it brings me a little bit of playing "perspective" from other genres and gives wow a little more life... being that "absence makes the heart grow fonder" or "how can i miss you if you dont go away?" kinda thing.

So when i do play other games, i find that i always end up going back to wow due to two reasons.  First, there's always progression on my characters.  Second, due to this progression, the game is never finished. Contrast this to many of the other games i've played, i played it to the point of the last battle even, and then quit before i reach the end.  it's never the end that really forces me to continue playing. it is always the journey.  and even in wow, level 85 begins a grand new journey that is drastically different from the previous.  from 1 to 85, you're chasing after that experience bar, equiping gear that's appropriate for your level and class.  but at 85, there's no more experience, only gearing.  and some of that gear comes from reputation "experience" or dungeon "experience" (ie. grinding a dungeon for the 10th time for that one last piece of gear) and, finally, currency "experience" where the currency is used to purchase better buffs, potions, upgrades or gear.  in the case of wow, it's gear. upgrading my gun with a scope? no, im replacing it with a boss drop!  see the difference?  not much of a difference at all now is there?

In any case, i am reading up on the 4.3 patch notes today and come across a wide variety of buffs.  Holy priests may be playable again.  beasts and survival hunters are getting a small buff to, hopefully, bring them out from the dps pitts and make them "ok" again.  nothing useful for paladins. etc.

what i do find most appealing is the raid finder tool.  now i dont care to nitpick at any of the minor details just yet (you know, with the whole world is ending if they dont change this or that before they impliment it... chances are, they will change little things here or there to make it whole.  also that whole winged guardian minipet OMG end of the world crap just needs to DIAF).  anyway, raidfinder.  it will be the ultimate weapon of the casuals to do casual things.  all the raiders are complaining and thinking, wtf, it wont work, raids are a complicated logistical mess, is it not?  but hey, if you dont think it's optimal for you, then dont use it.  and who is to say bliz wont design it so that it WILL work with 25 random folks?  somehow us players think it needs to pass the [insert your name here] Seal of Approval before it can be implimented into a game, a game that isnt even ours. we only pay to play it.  but really, bliz has already thought about most of our concerns when this feature does hit.  lower ilevel drop, limited rolls on gear, will not lock you out of the real thing, mechanics will not be as unforgiving as a real raid, etc. heck, if they had this for WotLK i would have used it to kill arthas.  hell yea i would.  break up all the wings into different instances also.  yes. do that. i'd love to raid like that.  anyway.

So this new raidfinder thing sounds great.  more stuff to do for those who are done with the heroic dungeons, have all the vp gear they need, and are ready to do something more, but cannot commit to a guild to raid on a weekly basis.  it's also more stuff to do for those who already have one or two raiding mains and would love to get more of their characters progressed to the point where they can "adequately" stand in for a missing raid member, if needed, without having to run zulroics 40 times in order to do so. 

My horde guild is odd.  no they're not odd. it's just that when i am on, half the people are already in a raid.  that leaves me with nothing to do really.  i ask around sometimes to group with the "leftovers" for a zulroic, or to add to someoen's BH run.  that's about it.  i've only been able to raid with this guild twice ever. and this is only when the moon and stars and planets and all the asteroids allign.  it was on a weekend.  it was on a day they needed an extra player and i had the opportunity to play for 3 hours.  it's difficult to even get to that stage because any extra player would have been filled up fast. but i think those days, i beat someone out on replying. =P  anyway. this gives me and maybe a couple of random stragglers who are online while the main raid is going on to actually get into another raid and kill a few bosses.  gear would be better than what we have but will not be as great as the ones in the normal raid.  fair enough.  i like that.

My alliance guild is also odd. there's two main differences.  one, there's a lot less people, but of those people, everyone has different alts that arent really considered "alts".  they're really co-mains. this guild raids often, and most would take their alts to various raids throughout the week.  this not only gears up their alts, but makes their alts just as geared as their mains.  having two solid mains give them the flexibility to raid several times a week with different compositions, keeping relatively the same core members.  i am not part of that core group since i only raid with them once a week.  for a guild like this, the raidfinder tool really isnt a desirable option for them, unless it becomes an alternative to gearing alts through firelands (t11) to get t12 ready.  i think this will be what they'll use it for. 

So for both types of guilds, and i know there are more types of guilds out there, but at least for the guilds that i am in, random dungeon finder will be beneficial to both groups in two similar but different ways.  Horde guild will have a bunch of mains playing to gear up because it is an alternative to the three new heroics (and they're not part of the raiding core) and alliance guild will use it to better gear up their alts to be raid-ready for their "alt" t12 deathwing raid 2, or raid 3, or however high it goes. 

For the strictly socials, or non "hardcore" players who dont raid, this is an awesome addition.  for the raiding hardcore who have many co-mains, this is also an awesome addition.  For those who have one main and raid exclusively with that main, pushing server firsts and all that, well those people will probably have as much use for it as grinding earthen ring rep.  or something similarly useless. for those who like rep grinds and daily quests, this feature might not be for them.  the vast amount of options at the end game is why wow is so popular still and shows its dedication to cater to a wide array of players.  having a raid finder might not be useful for everyone, but for a lot of people, it's a great feature i am definitely looking forward to using. 

Tedium, ad infinitum

Today we celebrate points reset day, where we can gain a measly 980 more points this week from the randomizer and/or raids.  I've been thinking lately just how long it takes to actually buy a piece of gear, if played diligently.  Let's do some napkin math and see where it leads us.

Chest and pants both costs 2200 vp. Gloves costs 1650 vp. Bracers, Rings and Necklace cost 1250 vp. Relic slot is 700 vp. Most classes can only use one of the rings while some may use a suboptimal second ring and reforge the useless stat and require two.

The result is 2(2200)+1650+3(1250)+700 = 10,500.  This is for most classes.
With 980 vp/week, if i cap each week, it will take me 10,500/980 = 11 weeks to get all the gear i need to max out this tier, without raiding.

My hunter is my only raiding character and has had to buy practically every piece of gear from the list, barring the 700 required for the ranged slot, as no gun/bow/xbow is available.  However, i do have the lavabolt, so that's not a problem. the other item that she doesnt need are the bracers. shaving 1250vp off.  The reason for this is because the BoE bracers that drop from firelands is actually better, and so i coughed up about 7k gold for it and bought it.  Both items saved me a total of 1950vp. so to max out my character since i have no luck with drops, i will need 10500-1950 = 8,550vp (9 weeks) to max out my character.  honestly, i've only gotten the headpiece from shannox and a bow. that's it.  still hoping for the ranseur of hatred. after 10 weeks still hoping.  Now this is great and all, 9 weeks of continuously getting capped and i've come a long way.  but i still do not have everything.  i had to take a break for the last two weeks and only did a random here or there.  i am still hoping to get the gloves this week and i should be done with the valor point grind. 

Now 9 weeks or a little over two months of playing and you're awarded with very piece of valor gear.  that sounds absolutely great, but there is always a downside to this. people have real life obligations and cannot raid all of the time.  and even when we raid, there is no guarantee that we'll actually see these points or a conparable drop.  my groups have been plagued with RNG and poor... whatevers. i dont know.  random messups here and there causing us to play longer and longer, then ending the night with just shannox down and maybe rhyolith.  beth kills us at 10% after the 5th try and we call it a night.  so much for gearing.  how do you gear when you dont kill bosses? 

I know, im one of the few minorities who still cant get Beth down even though nerfs has hit two weeks ago.  thanks for the cheering up.  i needed that.  in other news, and back on track, my army of alts require much work. 

For every person who has a main and maybe an alt, there's another person with 10 alts sitting around.  Gearing these alts are a pain but gear them we shall.  for my dk i am about halfway to getting the next and almost final upgrade.  also, my rogue and paladin only has one vp item.  the rest are jp items and some from opening the molton front.  Although all these items are easily gotten, what seems to be a problem has always been gearing my five-ish alts sufficiently throughout the expansion.  Remember that formula above where it's calculated that it takes over 10 weeks to get all the vp items? let's not go into how a zul-roic can turn out and how not finishing it will result in nothing. nada.  useless JPs but no VPs.  yep.  those have happend and 40 minutes of wait plus 80 minites of hurting in a dungeon ends up with ZERO VPs.  thanks blizz. you are the roxxors. I can split up 490 of the points and get 7 from normal heroics and do 4 zulroics.  even then, these are heroics which i've done countless times already.  compound that with having already done these dungeons in normal mode too and you can see just how crazy it all gets.

in any case, what i am trying to get at is this.  while i know that gearing up a toon requires a lot of work, and sometimes i am just happy with gearing them up just enough to do OK damage in a zulroic setting, i do find the whole process tedious to the point of NOT playing my character after i've acheived a certain threshold.  Once i have received my last piece of vp gear for my dk, i will probably never touch her until next patch because blizz has caused me to put all my efforts into her and i have nothing left for rep grinds, mount grinds, or even pet grinds.  yes, pets.  i dont have all of them but i do have a lot.  =P

With the length of the grind i have to set my own standards and limits when acheiving something. And it is not for lack of time that i do this.  i have a solid 3 hours a night and a little more on the weekends to do all of this stuff, but it has gotten to the point where the 40th zulroic is just... enough.  Dont belive me? here...

As you can see, Sethekk halls and MGT did not drop their mounts for me.  but also, a total of 33 successful Zulroic runs.  there have been many unsuccessful ones as well. 

And this is just one my DK. 

None of my characters have even started to do the daily quests for the molton front. None.  Zero.  I've opened up the vendor in the very beginning and that's it.  There's really no way i can gear up my toons, do dailies AND try to raid and make my gameplay meaningful.  meaningful being the ability to gear up well. but people have done this and are doing this right now, and they pvp!!  but for me, i dont consider myself the normal player.  but i still am one of the customers who try to play this game.  it's the basic develop-the-character kinda game.  and i have... five.  and more on the way.  i'll have to one day decide who to focus on but for the time being, the only fun characters have been my dps characters. 

Overall, i just think the gearing process is too long, especially for a game where most of us have alts.  and i wouldnt post this at all even, except for the fact that 4.2 raid content has been nerfed so that we can quickly gear up for the next patch, which is in the PTRs right now.  this means i have about 2 months before all my hard work becomes obsolete and i'll have to start over again.  maybe if i stick to one character, things will be fine. but the fact is there is no one out there with just one character.  we're all playing this fantasy game trying to experience the game from different points of views, some more obvious than others.  but this grind is really causing me some issues.  do i really need 17 zul amans and 16 zul gurubs to finish gearing?  really?  add my hunter, rogue, paladin and maybe another toon and now we have a problem.

in conclusion, the whole moral of this?  i dont know.  i just know the grind is long so come 4.3, these next three dungeons better be awesomer than the ICC 5mans they came up with a couple years ago.  those sets of dungeons were awesome and kept me playing another 5 months.

Tanks and Their Need for DPS Gear, Pt. 2

I understand the game mechanics, that if you can roll "need" on an item, that it's fine to roll need on it.  No one will stop you. Blizz will not "punish" you since they gave you the option to roll need.  But there are some social mores out there that tells people not to roll need on offspec items unless no one else needs it.  There have been so many jerk tanks (my gf when leveling her DK had to deal with this constantly) who need on dps plate and dps weapons and accessories it annoyed me to no end.  Then one day, i just accepted the fact that these guys will do what they do, and there is nothing i can really do, besides preemptively making a snide remark as we watch the /roll fall out.  I am ok with it.  i really am. i still dont like it, but i have come to the point where these things do not really matter anyway. 

I was on my paladin last night in two very fail groups that kept dying to things, first in ZA, and then another random in ZG.  However, we did prevail once people understood the fight the first time around.  The 1st tank wasnt stellar, but he had enough play time to know how each fight went.  He didnt quite understand the dragonhawk boss mechanic, but he knew to kill one of the hatchers.  What i can see from this is that he's been through this on an alt or on his current character as dps. Now he's tanking it as a warrior. we went through the whole instance with about five or six wipes. not too bad, but not nearly what i am used to.

The second group was a ZG group that started off dead.  Actually, i joined at the snake boss fight, with the tank and a dps dead (same guild).  I lasted about 30 seconds getting the boss from 40% to 20%.  then died with the other dps and healer.  we redid the fight a couple of times.  I should have left, but i persevered.  Either i have a lot of patience or a lot of hope in these people.  Now i am not saying i am the greatest, but i am saying i know mechanics enough to not die.  well, what happend was this.  We went on to 1-shot the Ogan boss, but died to trash along the way.  We wiped once and nearly wiped again on one of the archeology bosses.  It was the one that enrages and does a pursuit.  We 1-shot the cat lady but wiped once to Zanzil.  Now i know Zanzil because he's infamous for giving my hunter Zulian Slicers (useless) and almost never drops it for my DK.  Also, my gf has been waiting for him to drop his plate healing shoulderpads for a month, but hasnt.  I am beginning to think that the shoulderpads doesnt exist.  anyway. he killed us the first time due to summoning poison cauldron first.  healer dies but we manage to avoid damage until he summoned the zerker. we all die to the zerker.  the second attempt was awesome mainly because he summoned the little skeletons first.  all three melees grabbed the fire cauldron so we can do some extra dps on the boss.  by the time he was ready to summon a zerker (2nd cauldron call), he was dead.  easy if the RNG is right.  somewhat difficult if the RNG goes to the zerker (just kite for a while). but difficult if he does poison because all of the dps loses the fire buff.

Now on to jin-do and we 1shot him. wow.  awesome sauce.  the 2hand hammer drops and i need on it.  20 seconds later, the tank needs it, gets it, and promptly leaves group.  as if it was some easy way of "getting away with it".  although i can totally tell and if i get into a group with her again, i will promptly ignore her, need on all the tanking stuffs, then leave group.  oh and i will do this as a healer too, so he will die and suffer a repair bill.  or maybe i can pretend i was afk.  haha. baby aggro.  no one knows.  yea. blizz, please have me play with this ninja tank again so i can be a jerk. some people just deserve it.

Now i did not need on the tanking necklace (although i greeded it just in case, instead of disenchanting it) that dropped. Nor did i need on the tanking sword that dropped from Ohgan boss.  I know the dino is maned Ohgan because he keeps calling him during the fight. but for the life of me, i dont know the boss' name.

Anyway, i can understand why some tanks will need on dps gear.  It's for their dps set, and some people can rock it and some people are just horrible at it.  i am not sure how i can fix this issue.  i really dont want to actually. i say if they're able to roll need then they can.  but only if the mainspec dps who would benefit from that item pass, greeds or disenchants it.  surely, going to someone who might use it sometimes is better than going to someone who will just vendor it or shard it.  anyway, i am not mad. just disappointed in people.

Overall, i am ok doing 12-15k dps on bosses rockin a Wild Hammer from normal mode Grim Batol.

Rogues and Paladins

I've played a rogue over the past few months and geared him up to the point where im pretty much "maxed" out on valor gear and zulroic gear. "Maxed" because i dont raid or want to spend all that gold on some nice crafted or FL trash dropped item, and because i dont want to waste gold regemming/enchanting a piece that may only be marginally better than what i already have.  That said, my rogue is pretty decently geared and can probably do well in a FL raid.  He's been on hold for the past couple of weeks because there's simply nothing else worth while to do, at least on him.  This is the same for my deathknight.

There are two things i want to touch on when it relates to this rogue.  one, i want to compare it with ret paladins due to their usage of combo points.  and two, i want to theorize about the gearing process and what we might see in the future. [after writing this post, i got lost and cant seem to think straight anymore. so you're left with the first topic of combo point generation and its uses.  I'll talk about gearing a little later.]

Paladins have three combo points whereas rogues have five. as it relates to ret, these combo points are used as a damage buff, an attack or to proc an ability.  Sometimes it can be used to heal, like a holy paladin, but never for spells specific to prot.  understood.  the paladin, with his 3 combo points and 4 second-ish gap between getting each combo point, is a static battle mechanic for both prot and ret.  i believe holy has a different way of getting combo points altogether, which doesnt include CS, HotR or DS (bound by that 4 seconds with little else in between).  four seconds is a long time. and because we're not locked to mana usage when using these abilities, not if we judge, then what happens is that we fall into a pattern of always having to use a combo point ability every four seconds, or our dps falters.

Contrast this to rogues, who's combo point generation is dependent on an energy system and whose abilties are locked out only by a global cooldown, you can ramp up the combo points quickly and wait a few seconds for the final combo point, then finisher. it gives the rogue a lot more flexibility to use their abilities when they want, with the only limitation they're trying to fight is not being energy capped.  can you imagine Sinister Strike (SS), SS, pause for the hell of it, SS, pause because you're expecting a kick, then finisher? all this while keeping your energy below 100?  that seems like a lot to watch, sure.  but it's more exciting than for paladins to Crusader Strike (CS), hope a filler procs, if not wait four seconds for another CS, hope a filler procs, if not wait four seconds for a CS, then YOU MUST CAST INQUISITION AS YOUR FIRST FINISHING MOVE and use up all your combo points.  Then repeat the above for 12 more seconds until you can actually do a beefy damage blow.  what's that? 24 seconds?  some fights last just that long and we've just finished our "ramp up" sequence.  And why is it that my 1 point slice and dice rocks while my 1 point Inquisition is useful for... 2 attacks?  The scaling of the ret finishers are also crap compared to rogues. 1 point gives me about 30% weapon damage, 2 gives me a bit above 100%.  3 will give me over 300%.  that means, even at two combo points/holy power, a templar's verdict will do crap damage at 2 combo points.  We must have 3 combo points to do anything worth while. length of Inquisition? same deal as above. 

Anyway, as you can see, i am not complaining about dps.  i am doing almost just as much dps on my ret paladin as i am with my rogue. and im barely able to enter zulroics on my paladin. imagine beating out my own rogue in dps with similar gear.  that would be odd.  but i have to keep two things in mind.  one, the length of the fight, and two, the use of available cooldowns.

i play as a combat rogue, so this is coming from a combat perspective.  I have two solid cooldowns, which is killing spree and adrenaline rush.  KS is on a 2minute cooldown while AR is on a 3 minute cooldown. in a boss fight, depending, i can possibly get two KS and maybe, if i am lucky, two AR's in.  but i really doubt many fights last more than 3 minutes now.  this provides a nice burst only after i get SnD up, which is really quick.  a 2point SnD will cover all of KS or AR uptime.

However, for a paladin, the buffs are a little different. Again, ramp up time is slow, so Inquisition has to be at 3 combo points.  not only that, zealotry has to be at 3 combo points.  this is great if i get a proc, but horrible if i have to wait the full 24 seconds.  Wings can go up any time and has a 3 minute cooldown. Guardian of ancient kings has a 5 minute cooldown.  Some things to note. 24 seconds into the fight 2 cd's go off.  Zealotry and Wings. Awesomeness happens when i get Art of War procs as well.  However, zealotry started 12 seconds into an Inquisition buff, which means i'll have to reapply inquisition with my last zealotry application.  an application is when i use my 3 holy powers gained from zealotry.  this last application has to be used for Inquisition otherwise, i will spend the next 12 seconds without Inquisition buff.

About 2 zealotry induced Templars Verdicts in, i pop Guardian of Ancient Kings, which i will shorten to Ancient Kings. This Kings will last me through wings and zealotry.  I know, people have other ways of doing this to maximize their buffs, and i am slowly getting into this so i'll have to change my play just a little bit.  Either way, the point here is that there are several buffs that need to go up at once, or else your dps will suck.  Now the trick is to get the boss killed before your dps starts to trickle.  and trickle it does.  the second time around, your first ability to come off cooldown is Zealotry.  So use that, by itself. Then Wings.  So use that a minute after.  Then Zealotry again a minute after that. With Kings a minute after that. Basically your buffs steadys out the longer the fight goes, with some abilities overlapping the further we go down the timeline. but six minute fights are rare. so lets not deal with that for now.

As you can see from the above (or not, i dont know), Paladins produce the bulk of their dps after the first 24 seconds of the fight, for about 20-30 seconds. then slowly trickles with occassional bumps every minute after the second minute.  Depending on how you look at it, this is bad for 8 minute raid boss fights.  Good for 2 minute 5-man heroic boss fights.  Why? because paladins rock the meters in the first 2 minutes of a fight.  Please notice i never added procs. if procs happen, the whole fight might favor the paladin even faster.  but the cooldowns remain the same.  instead of starting doing really good dps after 24 seconds, they can start as early as 2 seconds. but that's RNG.  and we hate RNG.

anyway, the above is a simplified and poorly explained mechanic of how i play a ret paladin and a combat rogue.  now i dont want to suggest any changes, other than give me a free exorcism after i CS (always), or let me use holy shock as a filler for those times i cant use Exo or TV.  i need something in there to bridge the tedium of waiting for CS.  OR... make CS faster, give me 4 combo points with 3-second cooldowns.  i'd be a much happier paladin.  also, stop making 1CP inquisition basically useless.  hell. just make us all rogues already. 

Working on teh Alts

I've been working on Alts lately.  Many many alts.  Adding to the alts i already have.  yes. more alts!!

What started this week was a gradual pregression into altaholism due mainly to my inability to play wow in one huge sitting with my girlfriend because she started school again.  And since i work and we have a 4-year old not yet in school, the gf has to take night classes for the next... six months or so.  this leaves me no opportunities in the evenings to devote 3 hours of gaming time to. 

when i get home, its already about 7pm.  I know i have to pick up my gf at 10:30ish from the station, so i have about three hours in between to do what i want.  Well, that's a good chunk of raiding time!  but alas, i have to feed the little one, get her bathed, and get her ready for bed.  all this is done in little segments since my gf isnt home to prep all this for me.  even in doing a raid from 7-10, it still will not be acheivable since i will be taking small breaks to do the above, and also take care of myself (ie. shower, etc). so with this change (and im not complaining about the change, just stating the facts) comes a change in playing priorities. 

Of course, Wow is a game that's been slowly worked to cater to those who have very little time for raiding, or time to really devote huge chunks of the day to.  The ultimate change to cater to all of us with time constraints and juggling tasks, chores and errands, is to give us a pause button. that would totally rock. When playing xbox, i hit pause, save game, wash dishes, go back and play some more.  In Wow, i find that the best thing to do is to roll a rogue, or a druid.  I've created a troll druid and a bloodelf rogue this week just for that purpose.  =D  and will be leveling them sometime within the next month or two.  that, and i have several level 80s to max to 85 and several 85s to max out on gear.  OK, maybe not max out on gear, but at least have enough to be ilevel 350-ish.  this will allow for me to enter any silly PUG that might go on for BH, or BOT or BWD, even FL.  yes, FL!  but whenever that may happen. And of course, who could ever miss out on the chance to do one of those 2-hour Zul-roics??  no ways! im there!

Add to the list, if i do get any time on the TV, i have a slew of hack and slash games like Darksiders and Bayonetta, some FPS's like Gears and Halo (not a fan of Call of Duty), and possibly Forza... and thinking of picking up RPGs like Saints Row and on and on... the list goes on.  But the TV belongs to my toddler girl, who demands to control the TV whenever i decide to hop on.  So playing on the xbox might not be possible.  As for her habit of taking over, she does that with everything.  If we're playing on our computers, she wants to play too.  Thankfully, she has her own netbook and her own trial account.  =]

Back on track: this is my list of characters and their progress or planned progress for the next five months.

My 85's
1. Burlésque - (MM Hunter) Raiding on weekends with the girlfriend. On weekdays, will just check mail for juicy AH sales on PvP mail goods.  that's basically it.
2. Devyn - (Frost Death Knight) Non-raiding. Been Frost since Wrath. Frost for life!  Geared to the teeth from Zuls and VP/JP. There is no meaningful progress outside of raids.
3. Brunö - (Combat Rogue) Non-raiding.  Geared almost to the teeth from Zuls and JPs.  Has some VP gear but need another, or two.  and will be done. 
4. Epicurious - (Fire Mage) Non-raiding. Trying to be fire in an arcane world.  srsly.  Doing heroics. Not yet Zul-ready, but close.
5. Devynity - (Ret Paladin) Non-raiding.  Geared for heroics. does about 9k with no thinking. does about 14k with more mobs and seal of righteousness. does about 15k on bosses with all cooldowns on, seal of truth and bossfights lasting 1minute.  on longer fights, dps decreases due to cooldowns on cooldowns. Currently trying to gear this char for Zuls and beyond.  Ret dps is decent, but very RNG. sometimes its good, sometimes it sucks.  but overall, Ret is in a decent state.  the problem isnt just RNG, but also, that it's not fun. the fighting mechanic just sucks.  everything is slow unless i get procs. and that's RNG.
6. Diinky - (Druid) All she does is her daily xmute.  That's all.  nothing else. /sad
7. Brooke (prot pally), Ithacus (prot war) and Krakkenskull (Blood Dk) are all 85's with nothing to do.  dont want to tank too much. 

As you can see, there's just one active project during the week, and that's my Ret Pally.  This will continue until i get bored of Zulroics and eventually somewhat be proficient at pally dps.  Other than that, there's nothing else going on.  I may take Epicurious on a couple heroics and then wait for my gf to come home.  Weekends will involve raids. hopefully that will be all i do on the weekends, leaving me with lots of time to do other things, like enjoy the sun, visit a park, or window shop at the mall.  or something else besides playing wow!

As for non-85's, here's another list:
1. Akeelah - Lv82 Warlock.  She is my enchanter and tailor. I'm only leveling her for her tradeskills and that's it. 
2. Aquilla - Lv.70-something Priest.  Not really useful at all right now. She herbs, but so does two other toons.  She's an alchemist, but so are two other toons.  Priesting is fun, but not enough to want me to level through dungeons healing aoe happy tanks.
3. Bersaeus - Lv70-something blood dk.  yes another blood dk. but this one is on a different realm which i like to have more toons presence. =D
4. Druid2 - lv 80something druid used only for JC.  maybe i'll level her as feralcat. maybe.
5. Rockdarr - Lv 80 shaman. maybe healy.
6. Xylie - lv 45 priest.  my third priest.  i know.
7. Voltaris - lv. 50ish prot warrior.  this dude is leveling with my gf's shaman.  thank god for xrealm partying. 
8. Primo - lv 67 dwarf hunter.  will level with a 60something gf's alt when she gets there.
9. El Segundo - 68 warlock.  maybe in a couple years.
10. Cryogin - lv. 35ish mage.  this is on hold.
11. Thylandarr - lv. 45 mage. this is my first character. he is on hold forever. =D
12. Azurielle - lv. 72 priest.  shadow.  leveling with one of my gf's alts.
13. Azuriella - lv. 68 DK.  another fun character to play when im bored.

Most of my characters are horde but my one raiding character is alliance.  hopefully, i can join some pugs on my 85s and run some raids when i can.  as for the level 70s-80s, they will eventually be 85. but it gets super complex when pairing these toons with my gf's toons to level together. sometimes i just need to level a couple solo.  what makes it more complicated is that they're in different factions and realms. my toons are scattered across three realms for the most part, and a fourth one soon.

In any case, the above post is really for my benefit, as it lets me see the majority of my characters' progression and so that i can plan my priorities for the next several months.  hopefully, they'll all be 85 with some just waiting to gear up to the max. 

one thing i'd like to also see one day is the character limits for each realm. i'd like to see a couple or 10 more slots added, maybe 10 per faction even.  who knows.  anyway. glad i can post and hope you guys have a great day!

Sylvanas

Sylvanas Windrunner -- one of my favorite characters in this story of stories known as the Warcraft universe, has a little story found here.  This is a story depicting Sylvanas' visit to the Frozen Throne shortly after the death of Arthas.  Here you will find her reactions to discovering Arthas' death and also finding out there is a new Lich King.  but it also takes you on a little ride as you see a transformation of the leader from a leader bent on revenge and anger, to one finding value in those loyal serveants that surround her. 

I see it as a transformation, of sorts. Not counting the three or so times she has died already.  But a transformation in character. 

I first met Sylvanas long ago, when she was still in elven form--a hunter, defending her beloved land from the march of Arthas and his undead minions.  Arthas had to traverse all of QuelThalas, leaving the dead scar in his wake, in order to reach the sunwell at the isle of QuelDanas. That is where he resurrected KT, in which we fight in Naxx. Now along the way, Artas met with resistance from the Elven rangers, and one ranger annoyed him more than the rest, which was Sylvanas. Here it was that i met her and saw the transformation when Arthas finally killed her.  He brought her back to live to serve him, much to her own disliking.  Then we saw the entire story of how she became the leader of this clan of forsaken, how she made allies of Banshees, and how she made Verimathras "kill" his own two brother demons to show his loyalty.

Here's a leader who showed weakness once, by jeopardizing her own capital city to rid herslef of two unwanted leaders, again, Verimathras and an apothicary.  Now, i do believe Sylvanas knew of Verimathras' deceit way before it happened but allowed it to happen anyway, for two reasons.  one, she wanted to show to the horde that she was not as powerful as people may have her believe, as to show to the world that she is not such a threat.  Second, she wanted to use others' forces to solve her own problems. Why not?  It's free help from the Horde. 

Now she has returned, even more powerful than ever, but bound by a different agenda.  It is no longer anger and revenge that hold her.  Perhaps, it will be redemption that causes her to continue.  Perhaps, prologing her life would only delay the inevitable.  Thus, she intends to live for as long as possible, creating for herself what she tried to stop in Arthas. 

Overall, read the story.  It's surprisingly good writing. 

Update (end of August edition)

After two months of leveling on alliance side, i have to say that people from both factions of the game are completely alike. There are smart ones and dumb ones, casuals, hardcores, etc.  What i find more of is that the people on a smaller faction will know each other better.  There are a lot less anonymity on the smaller faction, which works out in favor of those who are "good" or deemed good by other players. 

What i also find is that there is a greater need for healers and tanks, but mostly healers in our realm and faction.  Any alts willing to join and be my "pocket" healer is always welcome.  Healbot not required. but a good sense of awareness is.  and that's basically the key factor when raiding, dungeoning, and pvp.  we have to be aware of our surroundings at all time, while naturally doing tip top dps.  these two things arent mutually exclusive, but they are very difficult to master together. 

So to my friends who read my blog and ever had this little inkling of healing, i'll coach you! i will make you master healer in no time!  jk.  i wont make you master healer.  but i will give you as much support as you will need. but what i ask is that you empty your minds of the things you're used to.  a full cup cannot be filled.  that's what my teachers said when i was a kid.  that is what Mo'at, the Tsahek said to Jake Sully.  and i find it difficult in real life as well.  and i have come to the point where i will not teach anyone who is not willing to learn.  sometimes we just need to put aside our old habits (you know, the things we learn first and continue doing even though it's not efficient, effective or popular, it's brought us this far, so why not?) and learn to heal, or in fact, play the game in a different light.  sometimes it's as easy as zooming out, or switching addons, or removing recount.  recount is a good tool to use after a fight to analyze how well or badly someone did. but it isnt tip top priority in a fight.  staying out of bad, interrupting, slowing, dispelling, countering specific mechanics, staying out of bad, etc.  all of these things are way more important than dps.  or hps. hps shouldnt even matter. 

anyway. just my little philosophy this friday.  sometimes we all have to relearn how to play.  i had to when learning to play my hunter efficiently.  i am still annoyed at my dps.  i dont watch it during the fight since there's so many things to watch than recount, but i do look at it after a fight.  i also have skada installed and they both tell me different stories.  finally, i've set up a world of logs account just to upload and see how well or badly i do personally, and eventually be able to perfect my own shots and rotation. 

In the near future, i am planning on posting several things.  one, i will be showing my UI, or user interface.  i will go down the list of the addons and tools i use in order to help me stay aware of my fights.  most of these things are completely customizable and can fit into anyone else's character and playing style.  Some things are strictly redundant but i need those redundancies to help me monitor how the party or raid is doing.  second, i will be going down the list of some of my power auras for certain events.  i am sure weak auras can do the same things.  either way, i dont really want to show you an how-to, but more of a why-to, so that you can make something similar which will help you monitor your own buffs, debuffs, abilities and cooldowns. Third, i do want to show my combat logs, fights, etc.  i know many fights involve a lot of movement, and a lot of timing where i cannot get the best "rotation" available. but i do want to show my own progression as a hunter.  i dont think i have grasped the whole of being a hunter.  as someone on the internet has said before, playing a hunter is one of the easiest things to do in wow.  playing a hunter well is one of the most difficult.  in all actuality, i find it very difficult to play a hunter well, especially when limitations are in place, like focus cost to set traps? or even use the trap launcher? really? that costs focus? wtf? and the whole trap launcher mechanic is super clunky at best.  i wish they just made it automatic. i can launch a trap at my feet if i wanted to.  seriously. 

in any case, look for more hunter-related posts here!  my days of playing a druid are not over, however.  i've been logging on to my druids daily to make gems and transmute for gold.  it's quite a feat now that their duties does not involve fighting the fight and taking it to deathwing, his kids, or ragnaros.  but instead, to supply the fighters with mats so that they can eventually beat down and destroy the evil that threatens azeroth. haha.  whatever.  i just want more gold.  anyway. see you all next time!

Random Update (Mid-August)

Hi guys,
Sorry my last post has been so long. Many things have been going on and there's just so much to write about.  Although at times, i dont feel like writing, i do want to keep my readers up to date about my wow-playing. I also want to thank those who do read this and hope that they take something away from my posts, no matter how silly some of them are.

Today i just wanted to update you about what's going on in wow for me.  I started an alliance hunter a little over a month ago to level with my girlfriend.  it seemed pretty boring then, as i was leveling as marksman spec (MM), and all i was doing was multi-shot and steady shot pairs.  sometimes i'd actually use serpent sting and follow with a Chimera shot and Master marksman aimed shot (MMM-AI).  These are the basics of my "rotation" which is not a rotation at all.  Since reaching 80, i've discovered huntering to be a little more complicated, as i actually need to CC (and my Traplauncher+trap combo is almost second nature now, i can do this while running, but i can never do this while in the middle of a rotation) and control my pet more.

And lately i've figured out what i like in this game.  A little bit of raiding (about two-three nights a week is perfect) with random leveling and character progression thrown in the remaining times.  Oh, and also selling in the AH.  if i cant sell in the AH and make some gold, half of the game is gone for me.

In any case, playing my hunter presents some challenges at 85 which i have never dealt with before.  first, i have to deal with a pet.  sure, they are usually able to take care of themselves, but i find that sometimes they'd die whirlwinds, fire and the like.  Although they may have some survivability (less aoe damage) they still get damaged and i still have to keep an eye on them.  second, they sometimes run off to attack mobs which i did not attack.  this happens only after we kill one mob or a group of mobs and the pet somehow has another, unengaged mob on queue.  this usually happens when i tab target and cycle through my targets.  even though i did not attack the mob halfway across the map, i did cycle through him to get to my actual target, and this is what gets me labeled noob sometimes.  oh well.  Third, the shot rotations are different from MM to BM.  as i can imagine, every hunter has a BM spec. not because they like it, but because it allows them to tame certain exotic pets.  although BM may not fare as well as the other specs, and rely heavily on their pet (say, 40% of the dps comes from their pets), they still can hold their own in raids and such.  but the problem for me is getting these two specs to meld together when i play. So far, only two abilities are interchangeable.  one is the long CD nuke, and second, is the proc. oh and the source of focus regen is different.

Here's what i mean.
For MM's, the focus regen ability comes from Steady Shots.  for BMs, it is using Cobra Shots. So that's a no-brainer replacement (/cast [spec:1] Steady Shot; Cobra Shot). 
For MMs, their main nuke on cooldown is Chimera Shot.  for BMs, it's Kill Command.  However, the issue is this. Chimera Shot has a 10 second cooldown, 9 seconds glyphed.  For Kill Command, it is 6 seconds.  This often throws my rotation off as i would be spamming Chimera shot but not seeing it available for 3 extra seconds, 3 seconds in which i could have added other shots. 
The last difference is the proc-based ability.  kind of.  Kind of because it's not really a proc. it's more of a wait for your buff to reach 5 stacks, then unload.  for MM, this is MMM-AI.  and for BM, this is a proc that will increase your ranged attack haste by 15%.  One is a hard-hitting nuke while the other is a buff to your casting speed and global cooldown. 
Whatever the case, the thing that throws me off is usally the Chimera Shot/Kill Command switch, which has different cooldowns and causes the "rhythm" of my shots to go helter-skelter. 


I hit 85 on my hunter about three weeks ago and decided to join an actual raiding guild.  My current guild belonged to a friend of my gf who i've met on hordeside and wanted to level on alliance side.  this is great and all, and i hope my quests and leveling and stuff helped her level his guild just a little.  in any case, being that there is no active recruitment and that there's really only 4 active people in the guild, one being my gf, i decided that joining an actual raiding guild would make a lot of difference in my game.  And join one i did!  the guild raids later at night, which is perfect for me since i get home around 7ish. they play roughly around 8pm and end around 11pm my time.  perfect.  and i am very glad i did find a group of raiders willing to play at that time.  and i am very glad it's a very casual raiding requirement.  raid attendance is required two days a week, where we raid Firelands on tuesday and wednesday, or wednesday and thursday.  it varies.  but all the other raids are optional, including BH, BoT, BWD and Tot4W.  All of those do not have a mandatory requirement for my team at least.  Also, i will be uploading parses to World of logs eventually. so watch out for that!  i really dont care to share the info with others, but it is really for my own research, as somehow, i am an info junkie.  I love graphs and interpreting real life events from what graphs and charts say. =D

So what i can never find in horde-side, i have found here on the alliance.  Here are my guesses as to why that is the case.  for one, there are a lot fewer people on the alliance side, therefore, if there are bad players, there isnt that large of a playerbase where their lack of talents can be hidden.  they just stand out more and often are forced to either play well or do something else.  this something else can include leveling alts, remain in 5man heroics, or just switch to another faction/server.  The second point is bascially a converse of the first: with so few people there is a better chance that you will be remembered for the good that you do.  people play together more.  this can also be because the realm is a pvp realm, and partying together keeps the would-be gankers away.  But overall, people will know each other better and know the quality of play each person can do.  Now finally, i do know that there are quality players over on the horde side as well, but there is so much garbage players to sift through that it makes it really difficult to find actual good players.  i am not saying everyone is bad and there's a distinct minority of players who are good, there's just a higher chance of meeting a retarded or bad player on a higher population realm/faction.   this all goes along with my theory as to why medium pop servers are better than high pop servers.  but that's another post altogether.

Although it does seem like i am comparing apples to oranges, i do find it particularly intriguing that i can easily find an organized raiding guild on the alliance side easily.  I am also not saying that the talent hordeside is lacking, they are not.  actually many of their guilds are leading the progression in our realm.  but the problem still remains, with the added number of people on hordeside, there's a higher chance of finding subpar players to "fill in the ranks" of a guild.  Oddly, it seems that on the alliance, most people know what they're doing.  maybe it is because they are forced into it due to... nevermind.  this is not a philosophical post.  =P

Finally, i'd like to note that i did attain the reins of the ravenlord.  My hunter's armory is at this link here.

Anyway, sorry for the delay in posting. life has been rather busy and i havent found a real reason to post lately.  Maybe a brainstorm session for topics would help.