Tank in Cloth

Wake Up Call

2008-01-30T00:25:00.000+08:00

Quite by accident, I stumbled onto this post. By the time I finished reading it, it felt like I was hit by a truck. Certain truths had hit way too close to home...

Now, I'm certainly no leader of a end-game raiding guild; I'm not even in such a guild but the behavior described sounds way too familiar. It's not the first time I've read such 'Spent too much time on WoW, so bai bai' posts but I've always managed to brush it off as 'Yeah, that's not happening to me'...

But for some reason, this post struck a nerve. Looking at it objectively, I think it's because like the author, we both have a obsessive-compulsive personality. While I've never admitted it to anyone, deep down, I've always know it. When I get obsessed/engrossed in something (previous examples had included Magic: The Gathering, other games like Diablo, Diablo 2, Starcraft, Warcraft) I could literally put all things aside and keep going at it. Somehow, the little voice in my head tells me that this is wrong and I should stop. But then a louder one would be urging me to kill one more mob, finish that last quest, go up one more level... Every waking hour (including those at work) would be spent on the thing in question. If I wasn't playing it, I was reading up on it.

I have a wonderful wife and two beautiful kids but so often, I take them for granted. Looking back, I have only ever had two major fights with my wife. The first time was over Diablo 2 and the second was over WoW. I had deleted Diablo 2 after that fight and scaled back my WoW time after the second. Why didn't I delete WoW? Because my friends 'needed' me. What I had forgotten even then was my wife and kids needed me more...

I think my wife has pretty much accepted that this is how it is, but I cannot help but feel that it's just not fair to her to have a husband who is not there for her so often.

Even looking back at this blog, I look at the amount of time I had spent researching specs and gear, during my spare time, and cannot help but feel that perhaps I should have spent some of that time improving myself in some ways... Brush up on some skills that would have an impact on my career and my life or maybe even trying to get fit.

Knowing myself, even if I quit now, it's quite likely only a matter of time before I find something new to obsess over. However, having really stared into the abyss, I really hope to break out of this cycle. Spend more time with my family and bond with them.

So, this is after all, my swansong... When next I have access to the servers, I will be disposing of my pixels and then delete all my characters so there is no coming back. Drastic, but cold turkey is still sometimes the best solution for an addiction.

While I might sound regretful of the time I had put into WoW, what I don't regret are the people I wouldn't have met otherwise. Gary, Li Lian, Hah Ping, Chin Kok, and Michael from the Job One gang. Omy, Mathe from the old VVL/Artifice crew. Even new acquaintances like Meg through this blog. I really hope that I'll be able to keep in contact with them, even as we are likely to drift apart.

If you are still reading this, it's not a call for all to quit and 'Save Yourself'! Let me clarify it again. For people who have the discipline and control, it is a nice form of escapism from the harsh realities of life, no different from a good book or movie. But in my case, it's become a dangerous form of addiction.

So to all my dear friends who may or may not read this, I bid thee farewell...

Blog Azeroth - Shared Topic

2008-01-29T15:20:00.000+08:00

Just got involved with Blog Azeroth, which is a forum collecting people who blog about WoW. A community effort that is being put together is for everyone to blog about a shared topic, which this week is "What do you enjoy about the class you play the most?". This may not be too apparent, but the class in question here is the Warlock.

In actual fact, I hated the warlock. I was leveling a lock and a shaman together when I first started and somehow, me and lock never clicked. I got frustrated at pulling aggro from bluey, having troubles with more than one mobs which my shaman could solo with ease. I had a cookie-cutter SM/Ruin spec so I figured the class was just wrong.

Then one day, I finally found out what drain tanking combined with fear bombing was (I think it was in some forum post) and it finally all clicked together. Suddenly, my lock was doing things he really had no business doing. And it was fun!

In the end, I guess that's what I enjoy about the lock. As long as you were creative about it, there are very few quests or elite mobs that cannot be solo'ed, even at the appropriate level and especially when demons are involved. :)

Getting Ready for the Temple...

2008-01-29T09:30:00.000+08:00

With already Panda asking for Temple for his warrior and Ara 2-3 levels away from 50, Shev got the attention again last night for the final push to 50 and the completion of Tanaris quests. The first objective of 50 was easy since I was just a few thousand xp away; one quest did the trick. I disrupted the Tanaris grinding to sort out the pre-quest for the Temple class quest which was grinding out 20 Minion's Scourgestone. By the time I got my 20, I was halfway to 51! Love the new 'enhanced pre-60 xp'!

I dinged 51 finishing up Tanaris and have parked my character at Hillsbard, ready to push into Hinterlands. Maybe, next time Ara is online, we could group up and finish the Jinthal grind.

I wanted to check something regarding her spec this morning when I noticed this in Shev's armory... Now, for Shev, I tend to log out in one of her pretty dress (which is Lovely Purple Dress at the moment) but I certainly didn't expect that helm...

Woof Woof

2008-01-28T10:30:00.000+08:00

I don't know any girl (or guy, for that matter) who gets excited at being able to morph into a dead dog, but Shev's certainly one happy gal.

Yup, Level 20 & Ghost Wolf time! No more running on her hoofs for this Draenei. To celebrate, I was tempted to run from Exodar to Blood Watch, but in the end, I wasn't that excited and just did the run to the flight master.

(Although, on my (retired) Tauren Shaman, when he reached 40 (my first 40 at that time), I rode my spanking new Kodo all the way from Bloodhoof Village to Crossroads. When I had enough for the epic Kodo, I rode it from Bloodhoof Village back to Orgrimmar...)

The other Shev (the Blood Elf Pally) is also in sight of a milestone of her own. Level 50, which opens up the class quest for Sunken Temple (unlike the Ally Pallys and the other classes, we don't have a choice, but the trinket is pretty nice). Hope to wrap up Tanaris quickly (just a few more quests to go), toodle over to Hinterlands, grab the Temple quests and then time to bug guildies to get their alts up and running for the Temple!

First Contact

2008-01-27T04:33:00.000+08:00

Yup, that's Meg. After being on the server on and off, we finally met each other. Quite surprisingly, I got a group invite, and before I knew it, Shev had made it to Shattrah! Who needs the Lunar New Year teleporters when you have a lock for a friend. :)

After getting my stone set, I was all ready to take the portal back to Exodar and continue the grind when I got another surprise!

Wow...

Now, I've got a Warlock as well. Granted, he's not the PvP bent, but I'm certain they have no castable Stuns and no Silences. Yes, properly talented, our Rain of Fire, Hellfire and Soul Fire spells can cause stuns, but I didn't see those being cast. The demon dog with Spell Lock was nowhere to be seen either. But, stunned I was. & speechless.

Well, she might not have exotic tails or panties from Frederick's from Azeroth but she's one stunning lady, that's for sure. :)

Tanking the Labs

2008-01-26T09:10:00.000+08:00

Well, finally did get the Shadow Labyrinth run under Eld's belt... Now, since he is a prot warrior, I had to tank the instance... Not a problem... Yeah, right...

Well, we wiped, a few times... Quite a few times were due to my fault... We really had a lot of problems with the big room before Blackheart the Inciter when I was doing the pull and trying to handle multi-mobs and Grandmaster Vorpil while I mastered the kiting. I've only done these as a DPS and well, it takes a bit more effort than it looks... But quite amazingly, we managed to one-shot Murmur... I'll attribute that to the great healing rather than my tanking... None of the tanking stuff dropped, but at least the quest reward ain't too shabby...

What I really had a problem with was tanking of multiple mobs... I need to be able to switch targets faster and apply Devastate & the various aggro gaining moves to increase aggro. By the end of the run, think it was better but still needs lots of work... Always room for more improvement, I guess...

Another thing I had problem with was mobs that Fear. I really should look at what stance-dancing/berserker rage should be done. Fear Ward helps but I won't always have a Priest.

N00B!!!

2008-01-25T10:20:00.000+08:00

Yes... I'm a n00b...

I mentioned that I had 487 defense on Eld? Actually, it's more like 494... Why?

I got some pants from a quest yesterday which looks like they could be a minor upgrade to my grinding/questing pants. However, when I moused over them, I realised they had tanking stats... On closer inspection, I realised that somewhere along the line, I had mixed up my tanking pants with my grinding pants, wearing my +crit pants while tanking & my +def pants while grinding... Wonderful...

After correcting that mistake, yes, it's official... Eld is uncrittable... Weeee...

(But if anyone asks in-game, I was wearing +crit for the aggro generation... I SWEAR!!!)

AV Grind

2008-01-24T10:16:00.000+08:00

With yesterday's daily PvP quest being AV on Shadowsong, Gren ventured in for the grind. Ever since the buff on Bal & Vann, it's put a crimp on the Horde strategy of minimal defense, full on zerg prevalent on Reckoning. Now, the AVs we win are the ones where some effort is put into defending or the allies have more AFKers than we do...

While most can argue that the buff isn't that great, it's enough of a speedbump for the Horde offensive that it takes them just a little bit longer to make it to SP, letting Ally win the foot race...

Is it game-breaking for Horde as many are claiming? Not really. I still maintain that the Horde base is a lot more defensible, as long as there are people who want to defend it. Hunters, and properly talented Mages, and Locks on the towers have a very good defensive field of fire. Even if they get hit by the incoming offense, they can take a couple of steps back into the flag room to bandage, using LOS to make themselves safe. Now, put melee a bit behind the gate, with Frost Traps, about six to eight Horde can hold the gates against just about anything besides a full-on zerg of the entire ally offense.

Is the Bridge of Death in Dun Baldar a pain? Yes. But ten Ally cannot hold the Bridge & both bunkers, mainly because players at the bunkers do not have the range to hit Horde on the bridge. But, most players can't be bothered to think this far... *shrug*

Anyway, Gren opened her account with 8 straight losses. I got bored with many simply not trying so I went off to do some quest grinding on my warrior for cash and Consortium rep. Just before I logged off for the night, I ran one last AV, which I think had more than half Ally AFK. That's because we won without them capping any towers, with our D bogging them down trying to cap and hold the RH graveyard (the epic trinket was fun. Res at FW, trinket back to keep and continue to harass... lol).

Anyway, saw this in the Official Forums today.

In our continued efforts to support fair gameplay in World of Warcraft and to provide a positive experience for players, we are currently taking steps to ensure fair and enjoyable competition in the Battlegrounds. Starting immediately, we will be issuing warnings and penalties, including suspensions and the removal of Honor points and recently acquired Honor rewards, for non-participation in Battleground games. We are taking action against thousands of accounts immediately, and will continue to monitor these situations and regularly take action against violators. If you encounter a player in a Battleground who is intentionally not participating in the battle for an extended period of time, please help us track the situation and report the player as AFK. For information on how to complete an in-game AFK report, please go here: (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/battlegrounds/info.html). All reports will be thoroughly investigated, and corrective action will only be taken if the violation is confirmed. Thank you for your support and best of luck to you in all of your games in the Battlegrounds!

- Bornakk 11/1/08

This sounds like they will be keeping track of the number of AFK flags you accumulate. Too many and they will clamp down on you. If that's the case, hopefully it'll lead to less AFKing. At the moment, it doesn't seem to have helped. But when a few of the serial AFKavers get hit, maybe things will improve...

2.3.3

2008-01-22T21:41:00.000+08:00

Bug Fix... Yawn... No Wow for tonight then...

No more Ghosts...

2008-01-22T15:22:00.000+08:00

Through a hotfix we’ve recently removed the ability to tame a Grimtotem Spirit Guide. Players who have already gone through the trouble of taming the creature will be able to keep them unchanged. This hotfix only removes the possibility to tame this creature from here on.

The removal of the spirit guide has been debated within design discussions for a while now as to what impact the pet and its precedent has on the game.
The unintended nature of the taming, the undead status of the guide, appearance of the wolf in relation to the feel of the hunter class, and the complex processes of taming were all issues touched upon and discussed.

Ultimately the discussions brought us to the conclusion that this should not be a permanent addition to the pet selection available to hunters; however, those that have already tamed them should be allowed to keep them due to their efforts in obtaining one.

- Drysc 15/1/07

A bit slow to notice this, but it's official. No more taming of the Ghost Wolf...

I did procrastinate on this forever and now, it's not possible anymore... While it's not something game breaking, hunters on the internet are getting up in arms over this 'stealth-nerf'.

Frankly, I'm puzzled that Blizz actually took the effort to sit down and brainstorm this thing through... This is especially since that the 'ghost' effect really had no effect in the game. It doesn't make it harder to see/target in PvP. It doesn't allow the pet to take less damage or do more damage. It just had the distinction of being different.

It takes a lot of effort to get; both in terms of the effort and gold required to gather the required gear/gem and the effort to level it to 70. It's the latter which had given me cause to procrastinate about it. I once tried to level a pet 10 levels below me, and it sucked bad. I cannot imagine having to do it for the wolf, but there are people who will.

In the end, is the nerf good? Actually, I think it is. It gives those who have done it something special to be happy about. For those who missed it, too bad... :p But look on the bright side, you saved 100+G... ;)

Closer... Closer...

2008-01-22T10:35:00.000+08:00

487...

That's what Eld's defense is after getting Dabiri's Enigma... Just a little bit more... A Shadow Labs run should be enough with the wrist reward. Yes, I know I'm slow... Time to put some more effort in... :p

Hey, might just get lucky with it and get the trinket as well...

If I get the shoulders as well, then it's time to go buy the lottery...

MIA?

2008-01-21T11:27:00.001+08:00

Not really... But it's been a crazy week at work and home so not much time to update...

WoW-wise, not much happened, except for some leveling with the alts. Shev (the hordie one) managed to get some instance runs in, with Zul'Farak and Mara under her belt. Tris is also coming along nicely... With the new 'enhanced' leveling, both of them are quickly out-stripping the levels of the area they are in and it looks like a lot of areas will be skipped on their way to 60.

With the impending Chinese (or Lunar) New Year, I've decided to roll the other Ally alts so they can take advantage of the New Year portals to get the flight paths for the other capitals. That's what I managed to do for Shev and Tris last year and it really helps in the running about... So here's the three Level 6s...

Marthrak's the Priest, Elainith's the Rogue and Visala's the Mage. Might be awhile before they level though... :p

Gruul's Lair

2008-01-11T10:39:00.000+08:00

West has struck a deal with another guild to do join Gruul's Lair runs...

It's a US-based guild, so meeting part way, the run will start at midnight... :p

Anyway, following on from my time-honoured tradition of counting chickens before they are hatched, these are the loot to look out for in there.

Shoulder: Voidheart Mantle (High King Maulgar) A side-grade to the Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders, but until I get more spell hit, worth trading the 9 damage for the 11 spell hit rating (which is about 0.87%). Good also for the 2-piece bonus.
Waist: Belt of Divine Inspiration (High King Maulgar) This is more of a side-grade to Girdle of Ruination but might be worth considering if there is somewhere better that I can stick the Runed Ornate Ruby
Legs: Voidheart Leggings (Gruul the Dragonkiller) Another side-grade, to the Fel Infused Leggings in terms of damage. But again, for the spell hit and the 2-piece, it is certainly worth considering.

Main Hand: Bloodmaw Magus-Blade (Gruul the Dragonkiller)

On the (unlikely) chance that my poor (severly undergeared) warrior is required...

Shoulder: Warbringer Shoulderguards (High King Maulgar)
Legs: Warbringer Legguards (Gruul the Dragonkiller) The legs from badges are better, so, it depends on which I can get first. Set bonuses will also come into consideration, of course.

Shield: Aldori Legacy Defender (Gruul the Dragonkiller)

One thing to do to prepare for it is to go get the Flasks using Shards. Unstable Flask of the Sorceror for Mart and Unstable Flask of the Beast for Eld.

You Call THAT a Buff?

2008-01-10T10:30:00.000+08:00

Did a couple of AVs last night and quite disappointed in the supposed AV buff. Mainly because it made just about no difference...

We won both games and in the second, it was a close one, so we pulled with two towers still up. Van still went down... So, nothing seems to have changed?

Irregardless of how it is right now, AV is supposed to be a PvP battleground. Yet, it's quite possible to win it, without killing a single player. So, how can it be changed? I'm not sure the old epic 10 hour AVs were that great. For one, it makes the gathering of AV Marks impossible. I like the reinforcement idea, but perhaps Blizz should take that idea further... Firstly, Reinforcements should only be reduced by killing other players. Burning of Towers/Bunkers should not reduce Reinforcements. Then Reinforcements can affect how the 'end-game' plays out. Here are some of my ideas.

Reinforcements buff Van/Drek
One idea is to tie Van/Drek's HP directly to the amount of Reinforcements left for their respective faction. eg. Say Van has 400,000 HP at the start of the BG, with 600 Reinforcements on both sides. When there are 300 Reinforcements left, he will have 200,000 HP, and so on. It can be linear, or reverse logarithmic or whatever. The point is, the more Ally swine you kill, the weaker Van is...

Another possibility is to make it such that Van has some uber abilities, that he will lose as the number of reinforcements tick down. I'll even go as far as suggest that above 350 Reinforcements, Van should have a 'Pally bubble' which cannot be dispelled.

Reinforcements really do Reinforce Van/Drek
In addition to the four warmasters/marshalls, perhaps there should be more NPCs in the room. I'll suggest 4 marshalls who shall despawn based on the number of reinforcements left. Each will despawn when reinforcements drop below 300, 250, 200, and 150 respectively.

Make the defense/burning of Towers/Bunkers Count
Take out the NPCs in the towers/bunkers. If your players are not going to defend them, don't depend on NPCs to do it either. This might have the effect of making the four towers/bunkers in the middle of the map as generally 'given' to the other faction. However, if we buff the tower marshalls/warmasters enough that it makes sense to hold your towers, smart players will begin to actively defend them.

Also, give them greater spell effects that can affect the defense of Van/Drek. Be it in the form of AOE heals, AOE damage to the entire room, etc.

These are just some ideas off the top of my head... I should probably put them in the Suggestions forum, but way too lazy... :p

Anyway, Mart also managed a Heroic Mech run for the 6 badges. It was really funny. We started as 2 pallys, 3 locks, when one of the lock realised he cannot get the key as he is only friendly with Sha'tar (he hasn't dinged 70 for that long...) So, we put out the call for a DPS and got a Ret pally; ie a 2 lock, 3 pally team... We were a bit messy but we got the job done. Killing the fire witch was really messy, with the tank losing aggro at like 3%, and she proceeded to 1-2 shot the healer and the other pally, leaving the 2 locks standing to take her down...

2.3.2

2008-01-09T11:43:00.000+08:00

No WoW last night, due to maintenance and the upgrading to 2.3.2. Looking at the changes, the following stand-out...

PvP

Warmasters/marshals in Alterac Valley now increase each other’s maximum health and damage by 20%. This is a stacking effect.

Nice change. It makes capping and burning the bunkers/towers more imperative now. I've seen succesful kills of Van with up to two Marshalls still active. From now on, defending capped bunkers needs a serious looking at. Re-taking of capped towers can put a serious dent in being ready for pulling Van.

Hunters

Pet leveling speed has been increased.

Nice for those who tame pets of significant lower level than them (Spirit Wolf?). Maybe it's time to throw lots of money at getting the Spirit Wolf? :p

Mages

Cold Snap (Frost) cooldown reduced. It is now in the Ice Block position in the talent tree. This ability will no longer reset the cooldown on Fire Ward.

Ice Block (Frost) is now available on the trainer to all mages at level 30.

Icy Veins (NEW Frost Talent) decreases casting time of all spells by 20% and increases the chance your chilling effects will freeze the target by 10%. Lasts 20 sec. 3 min cooldown. It is now in the Cold Snap position in the talent tree.

Very nice for Mages and really nice for Frosties... Oh wait... I don't have a Mage...

Shaman

Lightning Shield mana cost reduced.

Nice. Lightning Shield is a good cheap source of DPS which just got cheaper!

User Interface

You can now see raid members on the minimap as dark blue dots in addition to party members which still display as light blue dots.

I like this one. It helps in BG as the radar can be quite misleading on whether there are raid members near by. I've been using a 'mini-Map' for this but it's a bit too small to be able to see the details required.

Of course, there are still a whole bunch of known bugs in 2.3.2. Nothing truly gamebreaking, but it looks like there will be a 2.3.3.

Shaman Talents

2008-01-08T15:24:00.000+08:00

How do you choose your talents? Most people look for cookie-cutter builds and apply them. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that, since hundreds of people have debated and ‘done the maths’ to find a good optimum spread of points to min-max your damage output. However, unless you are also in a cookie-cutter situation (ie being the MT in a X-man raid guild, etc), that cookie-cutter spec might not fit you to a T, and talents which were considered weaker might warrant a second look.

So, that’s the approach I’m going to take with my Shaman’s talents. Yes, she is at level 11, but I’m not going for the “haphazard, ad hoc, pick talents as you go” approach either.

I’ve already decided on Enhancement. Resto levelling is probably an exercise in frustration and having levelled a (retired) Tauren Shaman to 60 in Elemental, I thought of giving Enhancement a try. Also, pre-60, most of your gear just doesn’t really support Elemental that well. In addition, being able to use two-handed weapons right off the bat should make Enhancement a much easier time to level with.

Now, Shev’s situation on Bloodhoof is that she will likely be levelling a lot on her own. I’ve got no illusions about the viability of finding groups, especially for ‘Old World’ dungeons in my timezone so talents picked should emphasise her ability to do damage while soloing.

So, what do we have on the Enhancement tree?

At Tier 1, both talents are decent but hardly something to get too excited about. Previously, Shield Specialisation is attractive, since most of the damage you take is Melee and until you could take the two-handed weapon talents, you will use a Shield a lot. Now, with Shev already packing a two-handed mace, it’s unlikely if she’ll ever use a Shield. Furthermore, Ancestral Knowledge helps (a little bit) with the mana pool, the bane of Shaman.

The next five points are easy. Melee is the workhorse damage providers and Thundering Strikes boost it nicely.

Now, rather than pick something from Tier 3 next, I’m going to go with 3 points to Improved Lightning Shield. Lightning Shield is cheap, ‘passive’ damage and should always be active. Improving the damage for just 3 points is a good investment.

The next point will go to Shamanistic Focus; with the excellent synergy with Thundering Strikes.

We’ll need one more point to get to Flurry, another workhorse of Enhancement. Guardian Totems are out; the bonus you get is largely irrelevant. Improved Ghost Wolf helps to get out of tricky situations. Anticipation reduces the amount of melee damage taken and Enhancing Totems make the Strength of Earth and Grace of Air totems better. I picked Enhancing Totems because Strength of Earth totems are useful even when soloing (when there are a number of mobs in pulling range, drop totem and pull them one by one) and both totems are great in parties (if there is such a situation).

So, one to Enhancing Totems, and five to Flurry, brings us to Tier 5. Elemental Weapons boost the buffs we give to our weapons and should be next on the list. For the next point, I’ll go back to Enhancing Totems to max it out. Spirit Weapons get the next point. The threat reductions while partying is good but the main draw is that it’s the pre-requisite to dual wield.

Five points to boost your melee damage by 10%? Weapon Mastery is a given. Mental Quickness is really attractive, since it helps to boost your spell casting using your melee stats, but Weapon Mastery is that much more superior.

At Tier 7, the first point should go to Dual Wield. The next point should be put into Stormstrike to provide an immediate boost to your DPS. Dual Wield Specialisation will take the next three; hitting helps in your DPS… ;)

Unleashed Rage is a nice buff when grouped with other melee characters but even for solo, it’s still good DPS.

Shamanistic Rage is an interesting choice. In a group/raid scenario, it’s a must have for it provides the shaman with the longevity needed. In a solo scenario, it’s good for topping up the mana pool, which reduces down-time. Whether to take this talent largely depends on where the other twenty points go. What ‘killer Tier 5 talent’ will you have to give up taking Shamanistic Rage?

It’s either Elemental Fury (Elemental) or Nature’s Swiftness (Restoration). Without the talents and the gear to back it up, Elemental Fury is largely wasted, since it needs to crit to get the bonus. I find Nature’s Swiftness as largely an ‘Oh Sh*t!’ button. Pop it for either an instant heal or Spirit Wolf. Honestly, I feel that Shamanistic Rage will get a lot more use than either of these two, so the 41st point will be that.

Now, with 20 more, it’s time to look at the other trees. Elemental is nice but with most of my gear supporting melee, my spells will still be weak, compared to melee. I’m inclined to go with Restoration as I’ll need to heal myself now and then and some of the talents do complement Enhancement.

I’ve gone with Tidal Focus for the Tier 1 talent. Healing Wave is rather inefficient and likely to be used more in after combat healing. As a healbot, Improved Healing Wave would be nice, but I’ve opted for more help on the mana pool front.

OK, Improved Reincarnation sucks. There is absolutely no reason to take it. If your group is wiping that often that THIS makes a difference, maybe it’s time to look for a new group. Ancestral Healing provides a nice armor buff but as mentioned, most of my healing is expected to be out of combat. I’ve loved dropping totems so I’ll dump the next five points into Totemic Focus.

Nature’s Guidance is a nice complement to the +hit required to counter the inherent misses from dual wielding. More from talents means less required from gear… ;)

The remaining seven points are a bit of a toss-up. Under consideration are Mental Quickness (from Enhancement), Healing Focus, Tidal Mastery and possibly Totemic Mastery. If you consider Mental Quickness and Tidal Mastery, Mental Quickness will likely give your spells more oomph. Increasing the radius of Totems make totem placement easier and offers more flexibility in mobile encounters. So, the spread will be three to Mental Quickness, one to Totemic Mastery and three to Healing Focus.

That corresponds to this talent spread. Of course, I'm not committed this to stone and will change based on whatever wind blows along and changes my mind... :)

Welcome to the Dark Side

2008-01-07T12:37:00.000+08:00

Come roll Bloodhoof and twink out at 59. :P

With an invitation like that, who can say no? So, say hi, to Shev's 'evil' twin, a Level 10 Shaman on Bloodhoof!

I'll probably be alternating her with Shev the pally & Tris to get the most out of Rested XP. So, it's going to be awhile before they hit the level cap (or even the twinking cap as Megan so kindly suggested... Depending on how it goes, I might also make a start on the other ally alts...

Mart also got in on about half a Kara run. Finally saw Moroes (fun!) as well as Maiden (not quite so fun) and Oz (a good laugh). With finally enough badges, I managed to toss the old quest reward blue and upgraded the off-hand to this little beaut...

Here's hoping for more great loot! ;)

Hello, Unwashed Masses?

2008-01-04T09:35:00.000+08:00

I've made attempts at leveling ally characters before but somehow, I've never gotten them past level 20.

However, I've recently wanted to try out some of the other classes a bit more (I think I've tried every class to at least lvl 20 but never really followed through on them... :p) and since having to delete mules on Shadowsong is a pain, these other toons will need to be on another server. So, I thought it might be an idea to roll them as Alliance.

Following on from trying to keep unique race/class combos, I've got the 5 ally races to match to the Mage, Rogue, Shaman & Priest class.

Of the four, the Shaman has to be rolled on a Draenei, so that's settled. For the rest, the Priest class is the one affected the most by race, so I thought to settle that next.

The Night Elf Level 10 spell is fairly pointless. I intend to go Shadow, so it's not like I have a lack of DPS spells. On the other hand, Humans and Dwarves get Desperate Prayer which will have it's uses in clutch situations.

The Night Elf Level 20 spell (Elune's Grace) is a bit more useful, reducing chance to hit by melee and range by 20% for 15 sec. The Human (Feedback) and Dwarf (Chastise) spells are both situational in nature, with Feedback only useful against casters and Chastise useful against Humanoids. I think in both PvE and PvP, Feedback will have limited usage, although it might shine in Arena. However, having a stun spell in Chastise will probably be more useful, espacially since all PvPers are Humanoids and in PvE, Humanoids are the ones that usually run... So, for priest, Dwarf will be the race of choice.

Now, since I definitely want a Night Elf character, that means she will have to be the Rogue, since they can't be Mages. The increase to dodge and stealth racials also provide some synergy.

Finally, for Mage, it's between Humans and Gnomes. Gnomes bring with them Escape Artist, but Mages have Blink to achieve that, although the 5% Int buff is nice. Humans don't bring much racial synergy to the Mage class as well but at least there's Diplomacy... :p

So, final call is as follows:
Draenei Shaman
Human Mage
Night Elf Rogue
Dwarf Priest

Last thing is to find them a home. I'm tempted to go with Drenden, home to BigRedKitty since it sounds like a nice place to plant the flag. I'll need to check on the population size (and presence of login queues) but if that's ok, then time to roll and choose the pretty faces.

Zul'Aman

2008-01-02T16:03:00.000+08:00

Since West is trying out this instance, I might be able to go 'for the ride'... So, have been reading up on the bosses and these are some of the loot worth looking out for. These are considered as upgrades over Kara loot.

Warlock
Head: Hood of Hexing (Hex Lord Malacrass)
Ring: Signet of Ancient Magics (Akil'zon)
Ring: Mana Attuned Band (3rd Chest in Timed Event)
Trinket: Hex Shrunken Head (Hex Lord Malacrass)

Main Hand: Wub's Cursed Hexblade (Jan'alai)

Warrior
Head: Battleworn Tuskguard (Hex Lord Malacrass)
Shoulder: Pauldrons of Stone Resolve (1st Chest in Timed Event)
Chest: Chestguard of the Warlord (Zul'jin)
Feet: Jungle Stompers (Nalorakk) These are more of a sidegrade to Boots of Elusion, which offers more avoidance, whereas this offers more Shield Block.
Trinket: Ancient Aqir Artifact (Zul'jin)

Main Hand: Cleaver of the Unforgiving (Zul'jin)
Shield: Bulwark of the Amani Empire (Jan'alai)

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T09:36:00.000+08:00

So what were you doing when the clock struck 12?

We were right in the middle of downing Grand Warlock Nethekurse... Hahaha... What a way to spend New Year!

At Least We Aren't The Worst

2007-12-31T09:53:00.000+08:00

Well, the 3v3 team was formed with Xig & the boomkin and we notched up our 10 games this week... Very embarrassing... But, based on our (especially mine) gear, not too surprising... At least, we did win one game... :p

Hopefully, it'll be better next week as I gather more PvP gear... Should have enough honour by tonight to get the S1 chestpiece.

Over the weekend, Mart also finally got a peak at Kara, at the chess event and Prince. I ended up with this belt because no mages were in the raid and no disenchanters either... :p The 5 badges were really good though. Prince dropped the token for my T4 helm but I passed on it because it's not something I will use, not with my uber goggles.

Arena

2007-12-28T14:54:00.000+08:00

Well, I've never really considered doing this as my reflexes/latency/skill aren't just up to it but since not much else is happening, I've also been considering upgrading Gren's gear through PvP.

So, it's got me to research what I can get out of Arena for Gren. The Season 3 weapons and shoulders are a bit out since those require personal and team ratings and I really would want matching gear, it's either grind for Season 2 set or some pieces here and there to go with the Season 1 gear. Now, Season 2 set would require a fair amount of Arena points, and frankly, I don't really like the look of the set so looks like the honour grinding for Season 1 will continue.

However, one thing to get would be the Season 3 Waraxe, which doesn't require personal rating and just 1000 points. Depending on how many points you can get each week by scrubbing out, might want to aim for the Season 2 Crossbow which requires 3,261 points, instead of the Season 1.

No Cheese with this Whine...

2007-12-28T10:42:00.001+08:00

Last night was one of the rare nights when I was able to be online rather early and I was hoping we could get a 5-man going. Unfortunately, the little princess woke up after awhile but after a LOT of coaxing, she was back in dreamland. Tried to get the 5-man going again, but the two of them were happily in their own world with their stealth runs...

Fine...

By the time they were ready, it was quite late, so I thought we could do a regular instance run instead, since we were not constrained by the midnight reset thing (there was just over an hour and a half to go). If our group had the CC, DPS and the familiarity of the instance, we could conceivably run Heroic Mech or Slave Pens in the short time we had, but we didn't. Their answer? We had enough time to finish off a boss or two of their leftovers of Heroic Sethekk Halls...

Frankly, what's the point? For 1 badge? In that time, I could run AVs for almost 2k honour. If they refuse to run other Heroics with us in the short time that we have, and refuse to help gear the rest up, then what use is 1 badge?

I asked for help in a normal instance run for Eld or even normal Shattered Halls for Mart to complete his quest, but, no. They will only do Heroics. That's wonderful. When they needed help in grinding SL for rep, we go. Now they'll only do Heroics, and on their terms. So? I ended grinding more AV.

But now, I'm seriously considering what to do. If Bact had a decent connection and Naraa was around more consistently, it might be worthwhile to stick around since we can get the five-mans. Now? I can't even get groups to finish my group quest in SMV... So, I was seriously considering joining West instead. I mean, they have been the one who has helped me a lot for my group stuff; a heck of a lot more than those two. In fact, all my Badges of Justice are from runs with West. It seems like 'abandoning' the guild again but if I'm just doing solo stuff, might as well re-roll or server transfer...

So, I guess that's what I'll end up doing. Next time I see Panda or one of the other officers online, I'll ask about joining. Dunno if they would have me, since I still won't be able to make it to most of their raids... :p

Hax!

2007-12-27T11:13:00.000+08:00

If you read Big Red Kitty's blog, you'll know that his guild bank was recently cleared out by someone who managed to hack one of the guild officer's account. It seemed to have been done using a keylogging program to get his password as the hacker managed to get his password twice!

That really brought home the message that as much as we think everything is fine and dandy and safe out there, there really are a lot of dodgy people doing dodgy stuff. Frankly, losing virtual lootz is small peanuts, even if it was the hard work of a large group of people over a period of time, but if I was that officer, I'll be much more worried about what other passwords the keylogger has access to, things that really matter in the 'RL', like bank account login, etc.

So, how to make sure the following doesn't happen to you? Go buy a proper 'Internet Security' suite, which should ideally include an Anti-virus, Malware scanner and especially a Firewall. Read the damn manual and learn to configure said Anti-virus, Firewall, and Malware scanner. If you can pour through the mumbo-jumbo about which shot-rotation is best for a 41/20 hunter, this shouldn't be too tough to understand. It's not rocket science.

End of the day, it doesn't matter if you are the most leet raider/PvPer anything if a hacker gets your password, empties your account out and delete your characters.

All Your Bases Belong to Us - The Sequel

2007-12-27T09:47:00.000+08:00

Well, I didn't think we could pull it off again, but we certainly did... Twice in a row! Not only that, but we bettered the effort by keeping Galv alive. I was with the Galv D group (ok... group is a bit generous... There were only 3, then 2 of us...) and after they cleared us, I thought Galv was a dead duck. After res, I went to help retake Iceblood Tower, and when I got back to see Galv as I noticed a few defenders still there and was surprised to see the half-naked Orc still running around...

Anyway, that was the last and only attempt to kill Galv and we sat there watching while the rest of the Defense capped the Towers, and our Offense slowly rolled the Ally Defense and killed Van...

Mart should have enough to get the gem after the honour calculation tonight. I've started Gren on the grind. I've bought the wrists using honour and marks banked from pre-TBC. Most of the S1 gear are side-grades (DPS-wise) but at least I get matching clothes... One thing I did realise is how LACKING her DPS and stats are... Mart was at least able to hold his own and Eld had the excuse that his gear was crap but he still had the stamina. However, Gren, poor Gren didn't have the stamina to go toe to toe with anyone who had some PvP gear & not enough DPS to kill them fast enough... :( Hope the situation will improve as her gear gets upgraded...

Sleepless

2007-12-26T16:39:00.000+08:00

What a crazy night...

Great Idea
Heroic Mech run when the daily is for that.

Bad Idea
Heroic Mech run at 2am in the morning...

But, Great Idea > Bad Idea and I leapt at the chance to go... We were definitely not on top of our game (a few wipes here and there) but we finished the thing. So, 6 more badges for Mart and a Nether to boot... The drops were horrid but at least I got a Void Crystal out of it.

Now, if I can get a few more runs under the belt, I should be able to get my first item... :p

Getting There

2007-12-24T10:10:00.000+08:00

Finished off a few of the quests and 'upgraded' my gear to proper tanking stuff. The Defense is just a little bit lacking (481...) but getting there. I really want to get my Cipher chain done for the axe. After that, will be grinding the quests for rep.

Over the weekend, also grinded the druid a bit and really got to experience the 'enhanced' leveling from 20-60. It's really fast. Just doing the quests in Charred Vale pushed Tris from a newly 26 to 27 with spare change. I think I'll look at getting her to 35 for the secondary profession quests, then concentrate on leveling Shev to 70! I really need to clear out some of the junk on my mules which are waiting for her professions to get past 225... :p

Ghost Wolf Pet

2007-12-21T10:50:00.000+08:00

To add to the list of interesting and different pets, this baby is the current king of the hill.

It's basically a summoned beast from some of the new mobs in Dustwallow Marsh. Now, that's no big deal, except for the fact that the mob lasts only for 8 seconds. The problem? Your Tame Beast spell takes 20...

Anyway, intrepid hunters have found that this is not a huge problem... How? You just need to get your Tame Beast spell to be faster than 8 seconds!

First, you need a helm with a Meta-gem slot. An easy to get helm is High Warlord's Chain Helm which requires just 12,852 Honour and 30 AV Marks (or grind a bit more for Gladiator's Chain Helm for 14,500 Honour and 30 AV Marks) or Nether Runner's Cowl, assuming you are Exalted with Consortium.

Second, you need to get a Mystical Skyfire Diamond for the helm. Remember that you need more Blue gems than yellow. Now since you are facing lvl 30 mobs, just unequip all your gear with yellow gems. If you have NO blue gems, just buy some random junk blue gem from the AH (you should usually be able to find green (as in rarity) gems in AH for about 1g) and socket it into the helm.

If you are a Troll (with the Berserk racial giving 30% spell haste at 10% health, it has been reported that you can possibly do it solo with just the diamond, but frankly you need a fair bit of luck and almost no lag... Since I'm notorious unlucky where this kind of crap is concerned and I do have lag, I'm going to try to stack the deck a bit. These help:

Drums of Battle which needs a 350 Leatherworker to use. These give 80 Spell Haste Rating - 5.1%
Juju Flurry from a quest in Winterspring. These give 30 Spell Haste Rating - 1.9%
Shaman's Bloodlust (or Heroism, depending on your faction) spell, which gives a flat 30% increase
Priest MC spell, to better control the spawning of the Wolf

Now, I don't know any Leatherworkers and the mats seems a bit harsh and the JuJu seems like work for little benefit, so it should be easy with a Priest + Shaman. It's not that we have an abundance of these, but I should be able to round them up... In theory, with both Bloodlust and Berserk, I should be able to reduce the casting time to 4.9 seconds, whereas with Berserk (or Bloodlust) only, it's 7 seconds, which is a VERY small window of opportunity.

So, how to do it?

Duel your friends till you get to 10% health. Have the Priest MC the Grimtotem Spirit Shifters. Spam cast the various Aspects until the gem procs, then have the shaman cast bloodlust on you. When you start to grow, have the priest summon the wolf immediately.

You need to them immediately target the wolf and tame! This can be a bit tough so use a macro like this:
/target Grimtotem Spirit Guide
/cast Tame Beast
bind it to a button and spam as required!

Of course, after that, you have a nice grind ahead of you to bring a level 30 pet to 70... I'll wait till patch 2.3.2 where the pet leveling improvements go live before doing that.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer...

2007-12-21T10:04:00.000+08:00

My toons went on a kissing spree and Eld was the first to get lucky with the sprig of Fresh Holly... So, on the way to Nagrand to run the Circle of Blood quest, Eld rode a reindeer with sparkly bits behind...

Eld has been running quests in Shadowmoon Valley and while killing some water elementals with Naraa's help, the pattern for Ragesteel Shoulders dropped. It looks like it's something worth making for my grinding set, but the urgency is not there... When I continue my blacksmith grinding, I'll make one of those. Till then, tanking gear takes priority...

I also finally got round to planning and actually training my pets properly. Zeph is now a grinding/PvE pet and Frostie is the PvP pet... It was also during this time to my horror that I have yet to learn Prowl 3... So off to STV I went, tamed a Jaguero Stalker, who also came with Cower 5 (yeah....) and quite fortunately, learnt the skill almost immediately.

Profit!

2007-12-18T11:51:00.000+08:00

For the truly lazy who want to make money without stepping out of Org...

You need about 300 Cooking. You must have this already or it is too late.

Check your mailbox for the recipe for Hot Apple Cider. It makes 2 x Hot Apple Cider each time, requiring Sparkling Apple Cider, Holiday Spirits & Holiday Spices as reagents.

Now, if you look at the prices, it means 2 Hot Apple Cider costs 1s 10c (2 x Hot Apple Cider costs 50c for Sparkling Apple Cider, 50c for Holiday Spirits & 10c for Holiday Spices to make. But, EACH Hot Apple Cider vendors for 1s 60c. So, for 1s 10c capital, you make a profit of 2s 10c. Cooking has a 'cast time' of 3 sec. Assuming it takes 1 sec to then vendor this, that means your profit is 2s 10c per 4 seconds, or 31s 50c per minute, which translate to 18g 90s per hour.

Not the fastest way to make money, but it's like WB's AV, you can make money while surfing net...

Ho Ho Ho

2007-12-17T09:54:00.000+08:00

The Christmas event has started in Azeroth.

Unfortunately, doesn't look like there is anything new in the quests, so I'll probably skip those.

But, my tailors, leatherworker and cooks with high enough levels all receive patterns/recipes in the mail. The leatherworking boots and food are not that exciting, and the dress looks drab on males... BUT, put them onto the females, esp the blood elves... I'll let you decide for yourself...

Check!

2007-12-17T09:45:00.000+08:00

After mindless farming of PvPs, Primals...

Mart's PvP wrists, with socketed gem & the +15 spell dmg enchant? Check!

Eld's Gun, with the signature tank gem, Solid Star of Elune? Check!

Mart's Engineering Mount? Check!

OK... Confession... I farmed 22 Primal Fires... I gave up after that & bought the remaining four from the AH... :p

Next on the list is to start on those quests for Eld's gear. Have to try to get in the run on Crypts and Old Hillsbrad as well...

All Your Bases Belong to Us

2007-12-14T09:53:00.000+08:00

Had an amazing AV game last night. Horde absolutely cleaned the house, burning all four Bunkers, holding all four towers, capped both mines and EVERY graveyard. Yup, we owned everything on the map! The only blemish was the loss of Galv, but hey, that's a pretty amazing achievement still. Big props to our D in that game.

Actually, I was really annoyed when someone had capped Snowfall since that & Aid Station were their only graveyards at that time so all the Ally were ressing at Aid Station. BUT they were so inept that we still overran the Aid Station, and capped it. In the end, the Snowfall cap just meant it was even more funny...

I also managed a good run of WSG games, with it being the PvP daily, netting the 20 marks needed for my wrists. In the end, it was a 6 wins with 3 losses run. There were a few turtles, but a few good games, including one where we came back from a 2-0 deficit. One interesting coincidence was this shaman who was in the same WSG as me 6 times in a row! Will still have to run a few more AVs to get the Honor for the gem...

Will now need to monitor the AH for a reasonably priced Veiled Noble Topaz. There were a bunch in there last I checked but the price wasn't right. If not, will need to start looking for a JC in /2. Similarly, will need to start farming the mats for the Spellpower Enchant. Sigh... More Primal Fires... Between this, the gun & the mount, I'm going to need 26 of them! In terms of priority, I'll say this first, then the gun, then the mount...

Tanking Upgrades

2007-12-12T12:18:00.000+08:00

More premature searches, but just in case I need to know... :)

This is a great list of gear to look at. It also made me re-look at some of my original choices, such as the Myrmidon's Headdress instead of Felsteel Helm.

Bought using Badges of Justice in order of Importance
Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx (Wrist - 35 Badges)
Iron-tusk Girdle (Waist - 60 Badges)
Unwavering Legguards (Legs - 75 Badges)
Slikk's Cloak of Placation (Back - 35 Badges)
Sabatons of the Righteous Defender (Feet - 60 Badges)
Bonefist Gauntlets (Hands - 60 Badges)
Faceguard of Determination (Head - 50 Badges)
Chestguard of the Stoic Guardian (Chest - 75 Badges)
Necklace of the Juggernaut (Neck - 25 Badges)
Ring of Unyielding Force (Ring - 25 Badges)
Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600 (Trinket - 41 Badges)

Heroic Drops
Spaulders of Dementia (Shoulders - Talon King Ikiss, Sethekk Halls)

One more option for neck is the Brooch of Deftness, which costs 35 badges. Expertise looks to be a nice defining stat, so it might be worth giving up the avoidance stats in Necklace of the Juggernaut.

For weapon, I'm still undecided about Sun-Eater, which drops off Pathaleon the Calculator in Mechanar. The avoidance is nice, and the 20 DPS increase over Grom'tor's Charge is good threat, probably worth the slight dip in Stamina as well as the loss of the racial Expertise with Axe. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I suppose.

The rest would probably need not be replaced. BUT, that's a heck of a lot of badges...

On the off-chance I go to Karazhan, the following are some stuff to look out for. They'll replace the Badge items.

Head: Warbringer Greathelm (Prince Malchezaar)
Neck: Barbed Choker of Discipline (Maiden of Virtue)
Shoulder: Mantle of Abrahmis (Netherspite)
Hands: Warbringer Handguards (The Curator) *Note that these are only better if the 2-piece bonus comes into play
Feet: Boots of Elusion (Thrash Mobs)
Ring: Violet Signet of the Great Protector (Rep Reward: Violet Eye - Exalted)
Ring: Shermanar Great-Ring (Shade of Aran)
Trinket: Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch (Moroes)

PvP Update

2007-12-10T09:29:00.000+08:00

With a lot of AV farming runs, Eld has got his mits on the Shield and the mount. When I remember, I'll do an update on his Def and health. I'll really need to get some of the confirmed pieces enchanted, though.

Now, the next to go for the PvP grind is my lock, for his wrists (which, unfortunately, means a lot of WSG runs). At the same time, I'll farm the honor to buy the Runed Ornate Ruby to replace one of my red gems (probably on the Girdle) for the little increase in +dmg.

Eye of the Storm

2007-12-06T11:08:00.000+08:00

Finally tried this out in a 'pre-made' of sorts...

It looks like AB with a smattering of WSG thrown in. However, the points from capping the flag doesn't seem like it helps that much and grabbing the towers are still the key.

Anyway, not a huge fan of it but need the marks for the Shield, so 9 more marks and I'm done with this...

Wireless Keyboards... BAH

2007-12-04T09:24:00.000+08:00

After the incident with the leaky batteries, I replaced my keyboard and mouse with a Wireless desktop (ie kb + mouse). On first use, I am most definitely not impressed. When holding down a key for movement, it'll stop after awhile and you'll need to let go of the key and press again. It's VERY irritating. I got one WSG in before I realised it's not going to work and was on the verge of going back to my wired keyboard.

I decided to check the net and realise many people had the same problem. In the end, the odd solution was to put the keyboard and the receiver FURTHER apart... I was very skeptical but was willing to try anything. When I did that, the damn thing worked... Go figure...

Aside from that, honour farming in AV for the shield is coming along nicely. I should have enough honour later this week, but still need the EotS marks.

Tanking Enchantments

2007-12-03T10:32:00.000+08:00

Over the weekend, bought the Felsteel Helm and Felsteel Gloves from the AH as planned. They were going for cheap, less than 50g each. The mats alone would have costed more.

So, it's time to start considering on enchantments. After digging around, the following looks like a good set of enchantments for a warrior tank.

Head: Glyph of the Defender [+16 Defense Rating, +17 Dodge Rating] (Requires Keepers of Time - Revered)
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Warding [+15 Dodge Rating, +10 Defense Rating] (Requires Aldor - Exalted)
Back: Enchant Cloak - Greater Agility [+12 Agi]
Chest: Enchant Chest - Exceptional Health [+150 Health]
Wrist: Enchant Bracer - Fortitude [+12 Sta]
Hand: Heavy Knothide Armor Kit [+10 Sta] (Crafted)
Legs: Clefthide Leather Armor [+30 Sta, +10 Agi] (Crafted)
Feet: Enchant Boots - Fortitude [+12 Sta]

Main Hand: Enchant Weapon - Potency [+20 Str]
Shield: Enchant Shield - Major Stamina [+18 Sta]

I've gone with Potency over Greater Agility for the Weapon Enchant because I think I'm not really at the stage where I've got that much avoidance to make it worth stacking. The extra Str will contribute with some Shield Block and more AP for more threat.

I've also stacked the Stamina enchants for more survivability. When my gear improves, I'll start replacing with Agility enchants.

Prot Spec here I com...

2007-11-30T12:02:00.000+08:00

OK, with the decision made, some adjustments will need to be made...

With Devastate requiring a 1-handed weapon, Lunar Crescent is of course out of the picture now. I've been toying with the idea of making The Planar Edge anyway for farming purposes (& to get that 1 Blacksmithing point) but the mats for that are something ridiculous... Granted, it's a really good one-handed weapon, but still...

I'll be re-channeling the gathered mats for Lunar Crescent into making the Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer, luckily, still have the Primal Nether in the bank. Will also need to make a start on the quest for the rewards that I need. I've starting grinding the PvP for the Honour needed for the shield.

For the rest of the gear, I think I'll need to identify some interim pieces for those that require drops. Sometimes, you just ain't lucky...

Shoulders:
Warchief's Mantle (Quest Reward: Return to Andormu, Caverns of Time)
Nexus-Guard's Pauldrons (Quest Reward: Success, Netherstorm)

Back:
Cloak of Eternity (Crafted - Tailoring)
Cloak of the Valiant Defender (Quest Reward: Ar'kelos the Guardian, Netherstorm)

Ring:
Protector's Mark of Redemption (Quest Reward: Dissension Among the Ranks, Shadowmoon Valley)
Ring of the Stonebark (Quest Reward: Exorcising the Trees, Blade's Edge Mountains)

Trinket:
Dabiri's Enigma (Quest Reward: Dimensius the All-Devouring, Netherstorm)

Rather than farm for the pattern, I'll probably buy the Felsteel Helm and Felsteel Gloves off the AH.

The final question is the timing of the respec. Staying as Arms makes the PvP easier, so I think I'll try to stay as Arms for as long as possible. However, when there are more calls for instance runs, then I'll respec.

New PvP Gear

2007-11-30T10:09:00.000+08:00

Well, most of the focus has been on the new Arena Season 1 gear being available for honour and I've already looked into that. I sort of missed the new honour gear being made available as well until I read some discussion on it in the forum.

So......

Warlock:
Vindicator's Dreadweave Cuffs (11,794 Honour Points, 20 WSG Marks)
(to be gemmed with Veiled Noble Topaz)

Hunter:
Vindicator's Chain Bracers (11,794 Honour Points, 20 WSG Marks)
(to be gemmed with Delicate Living Ruby, slot bonus is not worth it)
Vindicator's Chain Girdle (17,850 Honour Points, 40 AB Marks)
Vindicator's Chain Sabatons (17,850 Honour Points, 40 EotS Marks)
Vindicator's Pendant of Triumph (15,300 Honour Point, 10 EotS Marks)
Sergeant's Heavy Cloak (7,548 Honour Points, 20 AB Marks)

Nothing for the tanking warrior...

The question remains if I should buy these now, since it seems like they will be upgraded as the seasons progress. Nonetheless, the lock cuffs look good enough to buy for now anyway...

Looks like there'll be a lot of PvP happening from now on...

Tanking Basics

2007-11-27T10:32:00.000+08:00

This is a nice article on tanking.

One of the things to note is the ability cycle recommended.
Initial Threat: Devastate, Devastate, Devastate, Shield Slam, Revenge, Devastate, Devastate
Normal Cycle: Shield Slam, Revenge, Devastate, Devastate

Eld's Gear

2007-11-27T10:15:00.000+08:00

I posted in the warrior forum looking for advise on Prot spec grinding and weapons, seeing as how The Planar Edge is not that great a tanking weapon. I was considering switching to Swordsmith for Fireguard. The following is a reply I got which was really insightful, a rarity in the wow forums.

Well, given I am human, the Fireguard is better over Gromtor's Charge, however, in your case, I would not make the effort for a couple of reasons.

Axe specialization for an Orc is key, stick with the Axe. Gromtor's charge works in
your favor in two ways. One, specialization means you have 5 points in favor of
reducing parry/block. Two, Defense. Given you are arms, your gear probably
hasn't seen a lot of 'pro-defense' and you want to build that up to get
Uncrittable as well as getting serious stamina gear as your expectations will
now be about taking hits and trying to avoid them.

You will also pick up other weapons that will have better defense and stamina, like King's Defender in Chess Event in Karazhan. Now unlike my situation, I am stacked up a bit more on defense, in the 510-512 range for avoidance as well as not fully stacking up on stamina, but taking advantage of agility for dodge and armor. The time it will take you to become a Master Swordsmith will not be worthwhile to get
Fireguard/Blazeguard, more so on the fact if your Tanking gear is defense starved. This is also taking into consideration you putting 5 points into Anticipation to get the extra defense.

Right now, your main focus should be the following:

Stamina - Baseline, get above 10k, 11 to 12k would be better.
Defense - 490 minimum
Avoidance stats - Work on getting Dodge close to 18%, Parry to 15% and Block to 19% overall, pre-buffed. You will find tanking items that will bolster areas.
Strength - Bolsters your attack power which you will need for threat and helps with block value
Agility - Bolsters your crit chance, your dodge and armor which helps in mitigation and threat generation

While +hit would help a lot, your focus is going to be less about worrying about hitting a lot and more about just taking a crapton of hitting or avoiding it. Most fights will involve more about you taking hits, even as an offtank, because most of the mobs are now hitting upwards to 3k+, so more stamina and avoidance better.

On the solo side, I have favored Dual Wielding and DPS gear that is a little higher on +hit and +crit ability. The reason is due to faster rage generation and dumping ability. With fast weapons, in my case, a Blazeguard and Fireguard, Devastate, rend, thunderclap soloing hasn't been a problem with most 70-72 mobs. Elite wise, you will be better off in prot and defensive stance to mitigate the blows and also needing someone to back you up, but normal ones, I was able to fight 3 melee types consecutively with some decent DPS gear.

I don't favor the 2handed weapons mostly because of the slow speed in order to get the big hits and on a miss, that means much more waiting to get rage. Dual Wielding, you can afford a miss or two and still generate rage from another blow. But you also have to have 'fast' weapons. Given Planar Edge is a 2.7 weapon, for main hand, hopefully you will have a fast 2nd hand weapon to do some strikes with the offhand. Between 2handed and your planar edge, it is a toss up which would be better in your case.

70 no. 3

2007-11-27T02:52:00.000+08:00

Eld dinged his 70 pretty much in the same manner as Gren, grinding the mobs for Consortium rep... :p

That was the easy part... The tough part to gather the gear he needs starts now...

Site Update

2007-11-23T11:17:00.000+08:00

After reading about how to do the Wowhead pop-up window thingy for gear, I've decided to go back and update my links to allow for this and to colour-code the links appropriately. This will be nice for the future, since I'll no longer need to open seperate windows to see the stats itself.

The instructions to do this can be found here. The thing that was not articulated was how to colour-code the item. This seems to be a rather manual process and is done by adding class="qX" to the href hyperlink. X will correspond to the rarity as follows:

q0 = poor (gray)
q1 = common (white)
q2 = uncommon (green)
q3 = rare (blue)
q4 = epic (purple)
q5 = legendary (orange)
q6 = artifact (yellow)

I've also added in the search box for Wowhead, whose instructions can be found here.

Enchantments Listing

2007-11-20T16:00:00.000+08:00

This is a nice listing of enchantments arranged by slots from Wowwiki. Will be useful in planning of enchantments.

Magical 490

2007-11-20T15:20:00.000+08:00

The number to aim for when talking about Defense is 490. At 490 Defense, you can (almost) no longer be 'crit' by any mob/boss up to three levels higher than you, which will cover all heroics and raid mobs and bosses.

Generally, you have 350 Defense out of the box, and 20 Defense skill from the Anticipation talent (for both Warrior and Pally Prot trees) so that means you need +120 Defense from gear, which translates to 285 Defense Rating.

If you add up all gear from the list for warrior, you will have 308 Defense Rating, which is an 'overkill'. Of course, this doesn't take into account enchantments and gems. So, it's something to keep in mind to balance out together with the enchants.

The following are enchants that will go on (and can safely be counted towards the 285 required) mainly because there is nothing better to go on that slot.

Head: Glyph of the Defender [+16 Defense Rating, +17 Dodge Rating] (Requires Keepers of Time - Revered)
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Warding [+15 Dodge Rating, +10 Defense Rating] (Requires Aldor - Exalted)

So, the final number? 258 Defense Rating. Which means we'll have a fair amount of leeway to play with in terms of gear to get more Stamina and Avoidance.

Pitbull and an Update

2007-11-20T09:54:00.000+08:00

After reading the comments on forums and websites, I decided to try out Pitbull, as a replacement for XPerl. It's pretty good actually and the amount of customisation is amazing. However, it looks like a heck of a lot of work to get it to look like what I want. XPerl is a lot less effort and although it doesn't look as good, it'll suffice for now.

Finally ran a Heroics daily, which was Sethekk Hall & helped a friend with his druid epic flight quest. Good fun, quite smooth except for an unfortunate wipe at the final boss... Really wish we can get that group together for more heroics runs... I got the Nether which is now in the bank... Will probably hang onto it for now, might need it for Spellthread if I get a good pants upgrade.

Oh, also got Mart's engineering to 375... I made a repair bot but didn't get a skill-up... :p So, in the end, made two flying machines and donated one to the guild bank... lol

Gathering of Tanking Gear

2007-11-19T11:23:00.000+08:00

As Eld creeps towards 70, thought I should list out the quests I need to be aware of (with the tanking rewards) so I don't miss them.

Mana-Tombs
Someone Else's Hard Work Pays Off (Feet)

Shadow Labyrinth
The Soul Devices (Bracers)

Shadowmoon Valley
The Cipher of Damnation (Axe)
Dissension Among the Ranks (Ring)

Netherstorm
How to Break into Arcatraz (Waist) - Requires Botanica & Mechanar runs

Will probably look at grinding of PvP for the Season 1 Arena shield (15,000 Honour Points & 20 EotS Marks). Probably less effort than the Exalted Sha'tar shield...

2.3 Released

2007-11-14T09:55:00.000+08:00

Well, Blizz released 2.3 on schedule so servers were down last night. I've taken the opportunity to clean out the WTF folder since I haven't done that in awhile. Besides, I'll need to update all my add-ons anyway.

Anyway, list of things to do in 2.3...

All
Go to Dustwallow Marsh and get the new flight point in the Goblin Town

Warlock
Grind for mats for Flying Machine
Grind for the Repair Bot (Gan'arg Analyzers; Blade's Edge Mountain) and Arrow Maker (Sunfury Archers; Netherstorm) recipes

Pally
Relook at the Ret & Prot builds with a number of changes to talents in both trees

Warrior
Relook Talents with the change in Weapon Mastery and Deathwish.
Grind for the Leatherworking Bag Recipe (Ogres in Barrier Hills)
With the change in Tactical Mastery and approaching lvl 70, to relook at maybe Arms Tanking with Mortal Strike
Relook the items to make in light of the new LW receipes

Will also be updating the Rep requirements based on some of the new patterns available.

Epic Belt

2007-11-13T01:02:00.000+08:00

Had my first full Heroics run, in Slave Pens and won the Nether with an amazing roll of 100! :)

I ended up buying the Primal Fires on the AH so I've got another upgrade!

You can also see the effect of the new add-on to change the fontset. Needs a bit of experimentation but for now, this font is a vast improvement over the default...

Epic Helm

2007-11-06T01:39:00.000+08:00

Finally got a Nether; it dropped of Warp Splinter in normal Bot... Since no one else needed, I finally got my engineering helm made... :)

Quiet Week

2007-11-05T09:49:00.000+08:00

Been a quiet week. For whatever reason, had barely had five online for any meaningful run. The exception was the run of Botanica, but that got cut short when Elaina woke up brawling...

Been tinkering a bit more with my UI and I think I like how it looks like now. Nice buttons & a lot cleaner interface. Will be on the lookout for more add-ons... Main thing now is how to improve the 'radar' screen but yet to see something nice.

One last thing is that I've been re-thinking of what to do for my pally in end-game. As it stands, I think we have more than enough tanks but not enough healers. With the itemisation, I think end-game pally healing is quite viable, so this is one area I think I'll explore.

Sometimes

2007-10-30T10:41:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, when you think your DPS is too low, it will be too low...

Sometimes, Wowwiki is not the be-all and end-all of all Dungeon strats...

Sometimes, we just need to listen and think for awhile as we can't always be correct...

& Sometimes, I just like to be proven right...

This guild is not Death & Taxes nor Nhilum. We will wipe on trash mobs and we will wipe on bosses that should be one-shotted... We can't always have perfect runs but as long as we are having fun, who cares...

They might have better gears and know their class well but really, sometimes, I just prefer runs without them...

Heroics

2007-10-29T11:04:00.000+08:00

Not much happened over the weekend, but I had my first (belated) taste of Heroics.

It was only the first boss run for Sethekk Halls, but at least I had the chance to view the trash mob clears which are apparently the real challenge rather than the bosses themselves.

They definitely hit harder and any form of CC would be welcome. Good focused DPS will still be the key though. Without CC, a good tank and healer would be able to compensate. A lot more thinking on your feet will be required since the mobs do tend to have more abilities that will require adaptation.

So, which would make a better tank for Heroics? Honestly, my feel at the moment is Paladin. As long as he can be kept alive, being able to tank multiple mobs looks to be the winner here. My feel is that a Paladin is much more able to front-load Threat, enabling the DPS to start faster and kill faster. However, the Paladin's lower Stamina will require much closer attention from healers.

Other than that, Eld should be finishing off Zangarmarsh soon. To a certain degree, Shev is a bit stuck at the post-40 doldrums (I really hate the 40-60 grind...). Will have to pick up a bit on that slack...

Expertise

2007-10-24T14:59:00.000+08:00

New in 2.3 as a replacement for the +Weapon Skill bonus.

What it does is that it reduces the chance for your melee attacks to be dodged or parried. Frankly, it seems like a modified +hit which you could collect in addition to the +hit you are collecting. It also seems to be a good way to increase your damage after you've hit the hit cap.

For ranged attack, since the target can't dodge or parry those anyway, this will be replaced by +hit or +crit rating.

For racials, these are all changed to +1% crit.

Edit: The melee weapon +skill racials are changed to 5 pts of Expertise. Ranged remain as +1% crit.

It's a huge buff to the 'casuals' out there since the hit cap is relatively meaningless since you are never going to meet any lvl 73s, so having +1% crit instead is a direct increase to DPS. For the raiders, it's losing +3% hit on bosses which will have an impact. This 3% will now need to be made up for in gear & gems.

Since Gren is hardly even fighting anything above level 71 (the elementals in Nagrand), more crit is great. :)

Woot!

2007-10-19T02:08:00.000+08:00

Big night for Mart tonight...

First, managed to get the ring off the Headless Horseman (The Horseman's Signet Ring)... If I had missed it, it wouldn't have been too bad since there is an identical ring but this one with the pumpkin icon is just too cool...

Then, I managed to buy the pattern for the Girdle... Sure it set me back by 1000G but it's not like I had something to do with the money... :)

Now, I really need to get to those Nethers...

Season 1 Arena Gear

2007-10-18T16:29:00.000+08:00

With Season 3 Arena coming, Season 1 Arena gear will be available for 'sale' with Honour Points and the usual trinkets.

The problem with Arena gear is needing a settled group to do this with and that's not always possible... With Honour Points, at least you could grind those out in BGs. Some stuff that I might want to start saving for...

For Lock:
Gladiator's Spellblade (25,200 Honour Points, 20 EotS Marks)

For Hunter:
Gladiator's Chain Helm (14,500 Honour Points, 30 AV Marks)
Gladiator's Chain Armor (14,500 Honour Points, 30 AB Marks)
Gladiator's Chain Gauntlets (10,500 Honour Points, 20 AV Marks)
Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow (27,000 Honour Points, 40 AV Marks)

For Warrior & Paladin:
Gladiator's Shield Wall (15,000 Honour Points, 20 EotS Marks)

Powerleveling Professions

2007-10-16T11:55:00.000+08:00

Having done the WC run and gotten the scales as required, I changed Tris' profession from Skinning to Alchemy & will be starting the grind of the profession.

Have wanted to link to this PowerLeveling Guides for all Professions for sometime now and this is a good chance to do it. It's a nice list of powerleveling guides for all the professions. I don't necessarily agree that it's the easiest/cheapest for all of them, but it's a good start to work out the best path.

Spell Haste

2007-10-15T18:24:00.000+08:00

Information is rather sketchy on this, but I think given is that there is little point in hasting something below 1.5 seconds, which is the Global Cooldown. Also, spell haste is calculated after talents.

Now, a few points to keep in mind.

With Bane, the casting time for Immolate and Shadow Bolt are reduced by 0.5 seconds.
The only spells I use in combat with casting time are Unstable Affliction (1.5 seconds), Immolate (1.5 seconds with Bane) and Shadow Bolt (2.5 seconds with Bane).

Obviously, it doesn't help with UA & Immolate. With Shadow Bolt, any more than 40% would be wasted. So, Spell Haste only helps one spell. Even though that is spammed during boss fights, I think that +dmg will still be better in the end as that will benefit all spells, including DOTs.

So, for locks (especially affliction locks), I'll rank it about equivalent to +crit. The benefits will be less than +dmg and +hit. Take it if offered, but don't sacrifice those stats for it.

2.3 Badges Highlights

2007-10-15T15:03:00.000+08:00

Just to keep an eye on some of the stuff that I should be targetting for 2.3 Badge of Justice turn-ins.

Trinket (75 Badges)
Battlemaster's Audacity

Higher +dmg on equip than the Icon of the Silver Crest. It's good to pair together as both 'Use' abilities have different effect, although Audacity is more survival based, rather than boost to damage. Quagmirran's Eye is still nice, but the difference in +dmg might suggest that this and the Icon are likely to be the two trinkets.

Edit: This is the new PvP trinket. It can also be bought for 30,000 Honour Points and 40 AV Marks

Wand (25 Badges)
Carved Witch Doctor's Stick

Well, better than my current wand, so pretty much a given. The boost isn't that much so might KIV until I've upgraded the rest of the gear.

Hands (60 Badges)
Studious Wraps

Better than the Jaedenfire Gloves of Annihilation so easy decision.

For the rest (mainly the Wrist, Waist & Legs), I need to read up more on how Spell Haste works and if it is beneficial to locks. The off-hand looks to lose too much +dmg compared to the Orb so probably forgo that. The back is a PVP cloak so will skip that.

Edit: After looking at Spell Haste, will be giving the Wrist, Waist and Legs a miss.

I'm a Dwarf wanna-be

2007-10-15T10:14:00.000+08:00

Over the weekend, finally got the tickets I needed to get the ram mount. It looks a bit small when Gren is riding, but still quick decent. Something different... :)

Eld cleared some instances as well, mainly BF & UB. I actually had to tank UB which was interesting. It's the first time I really had to tank anything and it's certainly rather interesting. It's certainly more fun than healing, but a bit torn between this and DPS. Of course, this is just the one time and I might change my mind if I had to do it day-in-day-out... lol

2.3

2007-10-12T17:28:00.000+08:00

It's on the PTR and patch notes are out.

Early days yet but looks like some nice stuff for sale for badges. Guess Heroics might be back in fashion again.

The engineering mount looks like a gyrocopter. Definitely going to be built. Question now is which to use, this or the drake. The mats are rather reasonable. No crazy nethers or stuff like that.

The CE mount is a Hippogryph. Looks nice. Thinking of grinding CE rep for Shev for that.

They are also tinkering with the Warrior trees. If this is what it is, then Arms will be looking good, with Deathwish & Improved Intercept.

Now, just to wait till it goes live.

Hunter +Hit Theorycrafting

2007-10-11T10:34:00.000+08:00

Interesting read for raiding hunters...

Wowinsider: BigRedKitty Smacking the Hit Cap

Nerf Locks

2007-10-11T10:27:00.000+08:00

Sometimes you don't need a smooth run to have fun...

We had a few wipes last night in SL, including a terrible feared mob pull the boss, and wiping to the 6 man trash clear. BUT, the fight with Murmur was memorable.

We had already wiped one time and it was getting late so it was the last attempt. Hunter died early so it was just Pally tanking, Drood was healing and me and mage were DPSing. At about 3-4%, the tank died... Oops... At the next Resonance, the druid & mage fell, 2%... I thought it's game over, since I had already popped my Healthstone and Health Pot. But was determined to go down fighting.

I was fortunate to be reasonably well-topped up with health but low on mana. So Life-tap, activated my trinket and proceeded to DOT & spam Shadowbolts. Another Resonance came in, was still standing (lock Stam ftw!) and Murmur was at 1%. A few more spam and just when I was about to tear my hair out in frustration for being so close, I realised no more black stuff was coming out of my hands and Murmur was no longer targetted... & a huge spear fell from the sky! Woot!

Of course, it was anti-climatic that my jumper cables failed and I spent like 5 minutes waiting for them to dodge respawns etc. to get enough back to summon the rest... But it was fun... :)

Staves

2007-10-09T12:02:00.000+08:00

Not really a fan of them, since the +dmg from a Main Hand/Off-hand combo will always be higher (at the cost of raw stats).

However, the following might be useful in their appropriate circumstances

Before getting the Off-hand from Heroic badges:
Terokk's Shadowstaff (Sethekk Halls (H), Talon King Ikiss)

Before getting the dagger from Prince:
Staff of Infinite Mysteries (Karazhan, The Curator)

Heroics and Kara Upgrade

2007-10-08T11:48:00.000+08:00

Did the research to see which heroic instance contains upgrades for Mart...

Waist: Glyph-Lined Sash (Mana-Tombs (H), Nexus-Prince Shaffar)
Ring: Cobalt Band of Tyrigosa (Mana-Tombs (H), Nexus-Prince Shaffar)
Trinket: Quagmirran's Eye (Slave Pens (H), Quagmirran)

Not much there...

The Cobalt Band is identical in stats to the ring from the Headless Horseman (as it was on the PTR). If I get that ring, then this ring is not that enticing...

The Girdle is also superior to the Sash, but no sign of the pattern yet.

Either way, time to run Shadow Labs to get Revered with Lower City for the key to Heroic Mana Tombs and time to start looking for Heroic Slave Pens runs.

The following gems (if they drop will be good as well)
Yellow/Red: Shining Fire Opal (The Mechanar (H), Mechano-Lord Capacitus, Pathaleon the Calculator or Nethermancer Sepethrea)
Blue/Red: Glowing Tanzanite (The Black Morass (H), Chrono Lord Deja, Temporus or Aeonus)

Similarly, the following are upgrades from Kara.

Back: Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran (Moroes)
Wrists: Bands of Nefarious Deeds (Maiden of Virtue)
Legs: Trial-Fire Trousers (Romulo, The Crone or The Big Bad Wolf)

Main Hand: Nathrezim Mindblade (Prince Malchezaar)

The following are good for the +hit on raids
Neck: Brooch of Unquenchable Fury (Moroes)
Back: Ruby Drape of the Mysticant (Prince Malchezaar)

Key to Kara

2007-10-08T08:20:00.000+08:00

Quite lucky to hop onto a PUG for BM last night. Well, it wasn't so much a PUG since the other four members were guildies, but still, found the group in the /2 channel...

Anyway, went like clockwork... We went in, and destroyed the thing. No close calls, no problems. Finished off the required quests and got my key to Kara... :)

Along the way, also picked up the T2 look-alike shoulders. But seriously, the stats on it are crap... The off-hand also dropped. Would have been a nice side-grade (lose some +dmg for stats) but I thought I'll pass on it since I took the shoulders already...

Now, at least maybe once in awhile, I can tag along with West to Kara... :p

Over the weekend, Shev also got her Brewfest dress... :)

Another Tick in the Box

2007-10-06T03:50:00.000+08:00

Thanks to ex-SB'ers, and a couple of PUGs, I finally completed Arcatraz. After turning in the quests, that had actually left me 1000 rep short of Revered with Sha'tar. I was resigned to a run of one of the instances. But when I finished the Akama questline, I had a pleasent surprise with a 1000 rep with Sha'tar. Woot! Revered.

Main thing is this opens the possibility of Heroics for Mechanaar, which looks to be rather easy... :) Badges & Primal Nethers, here I come!

BrewingFest

2007-10-05T16:51:00.000+08:00

Last night was a wash-out. The barking quest was broken... So I pretty much figured on giving up on it.

However, Blue posted that it's been fixed but they've given up on the Dark Iron Dwarf invasion thing. In the meantime, they are increasing the reward for the barking quest to 40 tickets and 3 tickets per turn-in of the keg! Hmmm, some hope? :)

Brewfest

2007-10-04T09:49:00.000+08:00

This started yesterday and I was running around trying out the festivities...

Rather interesting, but to get the number of tickets for some of the more interesting rewards will require repeating some rather tedious things (like the racing rams) which will get boring after awhile... Oh well, no choice.

I figure you can safely get the 15 tickets for the daily barking quest. The racing rams need some practise but I am averaging 20 or so tickets for 35 tickets per day. Brewfest lasts for 14 days (2 weeks) so that's about 490 tickets. If I want to get the ram, I'm going to need to camp the dwarf invasion a lot more or find somewhere to do another run (it resets every 12 hours).

Damn...

More Festivities

2007-10-03T00:59:00.000+08:00

Just as the (very disappointing) Harvest Festival ends, Brewfest begins. Based on the Oktoberfest, it looks like one big booze-fest... Interestingly, some of the rewards available will persist after the event which is always something nice.

One item is a mount which looks fairly similar to the Rams the dwarves get. Frankly, that looks pretty dumb but maybe I'll get it just for laughs... Maybe Gren, since Raptors are just as ugly...

For Shevane, probably get the dress since she is my look pretty gal...

When Halloween comes about, Hallow's End will be here. Usually good for Bobbing Apples (uber food) and party tricks, there is a nice boss being implemented in Scarlet Monastary. Based on the info so far, doesn't look like he's too tough or anything but his loot table includes some really nice drops (like a +35 dmg ring!). Definitely worth getting the guys together to farm this dude.

Onwards to 70

2007-10-02T10:14:00.000+08:00

Just realised that more runs of Ramparts and Furnace are just going to save me about one run of Shattered Halls in the future so just bit the bullet and went ahead with starting the leveling grind to 70.

So far so good... Gear is being replaced and the only piece of the super old Imperial Plate Set left are the bracers. However, looks like I'll be holding onto it until Terrokar Forest... :p

What I'm beginning to consider is what to do with my warrior. I still prefer my lock and pally but looking at the situation, he could be the only lvl 70 warrior in the guild. While the drood tank has been going ok in 5-mans, I still have doubts about it's viability in Kara, giving the lack of shield blocks. Pallys also suffer from a lack of Stamina. Hmmm, guess we'll see how it goes when Eld dings 70. Maybe by then, everyone has quit again, and no Kara runs... :p

Bite and Claw

2007-10-01T10:13:00.000+08:00

Finally peeked at my combat log last night and I realised that after the initial dump where all the abilities, Dash, Growl, Bite and Claw went off, my pet would not Bite again for the duration of the fight. Claw was going off and Growl also done, but Bite was not there. Leads me to thinking that perhaps training Claw is sufficient and the points can be better spent elsewhere.

Not much has been happening. I've been grinding my Hunter's Consortium Rep and collecting her gear. I figured on trying for the rifle. Warlock comes out for the odd instance run. I've also started grinding my Warrior to 70... So many things to do, so little time...

On the downside, Blizz has not fixed the bug which doesn't allow Blood Elves to finish the Harvest quest. Looks like won't be getting free bread till next year...

T2 Lookalike

2007-09-25T09:45:00.000+08:00

With help from some wonderful people (Thi, Bact, Panda & Horse), Gren finished the Teron Gorefiend questline last night. After help from a nice Rogue who cut the Nightseye for me and stopping by Blade's Edge Mountain for a few quests to push the Cenarion rep up to Revered for the Head enchant, I've managed to upgrade the rather ho hum

to the much more exciting

She still looks odd with the helm, but what the heck...

I LOVE Transporter Malfunctions

2007-09-24T09:40:00.000+08:00

In another display of my hidden wish to look good (aka be Ally), the Transporter Malfunction which afflicted Mart made me look like a male Night Elf,

Then, it was a female Draenei (aka goat lady)

I think I should teleport more often...

To Crit or To Hit?

2007-09-19T10:55:00.000+08:00

First, some basic info about crit and hit.

The StatMod for all Combat Ratings are the same, ie the 'cost' of 1 CSR is the same as 1 Hit Rating. At lvl 70, 15.8 HR = 1% hit and 22.1 CSR = 1% crit

The base chance to miss is 5% (against lvl 70 mobs), 5.5% (lvl 71), 6% (lvl 72) and 9% (lvl 73).

Ranged attack will not cause Glancing Blows and cannot be dodged or parried. Players cannot cause Crushing Blows.

So, for hunter, the attack table consists of the following

Miss (max 9%)
Block (max 5%)
Crit
Hit

On paper, this seems that given the choice, running about 6% HR (or 94.8 Hit Rating) would be optimum. You'll reduce to zero the miss chance against lvl 72 and below mobs which means more white hits.

However, the crit cap in this case is 86%, which is far beyond what you can reasonably achieve even with the best gear in this game. In addition, for BM hunters, crits proc abilities like Kill Command, and Go for the Throat, and benefits from Mortal Shots (if you have the appropriate talents). So, I would think that for BM hunters, crit is superior to hit in any scenario, even if CSR is 1.3 times more expensive than HR.

Hunter Gear

2007-09-18T12:00:00.000+08:00

I was going to just leave her gear as is, but I've decided to at least upgrade with quest reward and crafted gears. However, I think I'll leave out quests from instances, as I'll rather run those with Mart for rep. (The exception is the Grandmother questline as it only requires a quick run of Crypts)

Head: Stalker's Helmet of Second Sight (Teron Gorefiend, I am..., Shadowmoon Valley)
Neck: Natasha's Choker (The Hound-Master, Blade's Edge Mountain)
Shoulder: Earthmender's Crimson Spaulders (Escape from Coilskar Cistern, Shadowmoon Valley)
Back: Dawnstrike's Cloak (Down with Daellis, Netherstorm)
Chest: Felstalker Breastplate (Crafted)
Wrists: Felstalker Bracers (Crafted)
Hands: Ar'tor's Mainstay (The Cipher of Damnation - The Third Fragment Recovered, Shadowmoon Valley)
Waist: Felstalker Belt (Crafted)
Legs: Mag'hari Huntsman's Leggings (Hero of the Mag'har, Nagrand)
Feet: Boots of the Outlander (already using)

Ring: Kaylaan's Signet (Deathblow to the Legion, Netherstorm)
Ring: Slayer's Mark of the Redemption (Dissension Amongst the Ranks..., Shadowmoon Valley)
Trinket: Mark of Conquest (Hellfire PVP)
Trinket: Bladefist's Breadth (already using)

Main Hand: Ceremonial Warmaul Blood-Blade (already using)
Off Hand: Shani's Crysknife (already using)
Ranged: Consortium Blaster (Rep Reward: Consortium - Revered)

That's based on the use of Mail items only. However, if we include Leather (& based on the rather crappy Mail pieces available in some slots, might have no choice...), the following will come into play.

Shoulders: Talbuk Hide Spaulders (Rep Reward: Mag'har - Revered)
Chest: Mag'hari Scout's Tunic (Hero of the Mag'har, Nagrand)
Legs: Fel Leather Leggings (Crafted)

Screenshots

2007-09-17T10:22:00.000+08:00

Some screenshots of the end-sequence...

Here we go...

Illidan Stormrage...

Oops... Found out...

Escape back to Shat...

Onyx Drake... :)

Done!

2007-09-17T00:54:00.000+08:00

Just hit exalted and finished off the Netherwing grind... Being flown back to Shat City as I write this... Cool...

End in Sight

2007-09-14T10:13:00.000+08:00

12,025/21,000

Which means 4 more days... I can shorten this to three days if I either finish the races (very unlikely) or find 3 more eggs. While it's tough to depend on the RNG, so far, the odds are that I find at least an egg each night (think the record is three). So, might happen! 3 days and 3 eggs...

Daily Quests - Money Maker?

2007-09-12T10:34:00.000+08:00

I've been thinking of this...

Each day, I spend about two hours on Netherwing Daily Quests for the rep. Purely from quest rewards, I get 97G and change. Including gray vendor drops, this goes up almost 110G, with the greens to go. The thing is this... If I streamline the process, ie, drop the Nagrand flight (which takes about 30 minutes, including travel time), it's still about 100G for 1.5 hours. (actually, the Nagrand flight is ok. Good for pee breaks)

I've looked at the other daily quests. There aren't many other dailies, which means each area has only a small number of dailies, making it even more inefficient.

It may get really boring afterawhile... But, so are all other money generating grinds...

Stupid Race

2007-09-10T09:47:00.000+08:00

OK. The Dragonmaw race is going to drive me mad...

I've been stuck at the Mulverick's race for awhile, and have been tantalisingly close quite a few times... I'm seriously tempted to skip this (& the last race). In the time I spent on this race, I could have farmed the mats or the money for a Riding Crop... :p

Anyway, I'm about 1000 away from Revered... After that, would need to see how soloable the attack on Scryer town is...

Otherwise, Gren got her flying mount. It'll help in the rounds at Nagrand for mining, which is something I should get back to once I'm done with the Netherwing grind.

Netherwing Update

2007-09-07T11:09:00.000+08:00

So far, hasn't been too bad... After four days of grinding, I'm at 5475/6000 Friendly. Should hit Honoured tonight, which will mean a lot of time on the races quest.

I've done some calculations. Assuming I do all the quests and all the daily quests every day, I should hit Exalted on the 16th Sep. However, I should lose one day to server maintenance, so make that 17th Sep.

However, if I can gather 8 more eggs, that will cut it short by a day.

The second question is the Daily quest for the defence of Scryer town. I've assumed that it's feasible to do every day (which means soloable, or can find a group for it every day). If not, it will add two days to the grind, which isn't too bad either. However, if I can gather 3 more eggs, then it'll only add one day... Confused? Hah!

However, money-wise, this grind has been rewarding. I'm estimating at least 70g a day, from quests and drops. Should be able to afford the flying mount for Gren by the time I get the drake for Mart.

Also, I've decided to get the Onyx Netherdrake. Looks the nicest among the bunch of them.

Aesthetics

2007-09-04T11:32:00.000+08:00

I've always maintained that Tier 2 are still the nicest looking armor set... Well, maybe not for mage, but certainly for lock and pally. If I get bored, here's the recoloured TBC equivalent...

Warlock
Head: Demonfang Ritual Helm (The Underbog (H), The Black Stalker)
Shoulder: Mantle of Three Terrors (The Black Morass, Chrono Lord Deja)
Chest: Vermillion Robes of the Dominant (The Steamvault, Warlord Kalithresh)
Waist: Sash of Serpentra (The Steamvault, Warlord Kalithresh)
Legs: Devil-Stitched Leggings (The Botanica, Laj)
Feet: Extravagant Boots of Malice (Mana-Tombs (H), Tavarok)
Wrist: Crimson Bracers of Gloom (Hellfire Ramparts (H), Omor the Unscarred)
Hands: Gloves of the Deadwatcher (Auchenai Crypts (H), Shirrak the Dead Watcher)

Paladin
Helm: Mask of Pennance (The Steamvault, Mekgineer Steamrigger)
Shoulder: Justice Bearer's Pauldrons (Hellfire Ramparts (H), Omor the Unscarred)
Chest: Breastplate of Many Graces (Shadow Labyrinth, Grandmaster Vorpil)
Belt: Girdle of Many Blessings (The Slave Pens (H), Rokmar the Crackler)
Legs: Cassock of the Loyal (The Underbog (H), Hungarfen)
Boots: Boots of the Watchful Heart (Old Hillsbrad (H), Captain Skarloc)
Bracers: Virtue Bearer's Vambraces (Blood Furnace (H), Broggok)
Gloves: Life Bearer's Gauntlets (Hellfire Ramparts (H), Nazan)

In honour of my first 60 (the retired shaman), and also because Ten Storms do look really cool, I'll try to collect the look-alike set for my Blood Elf to look pretty in (she's going to need a few Primal Mooncloth bags, at this rate...)

Shaman
Head: Headdress of the Tides (The Underbog (H), Ghaz'an)
Shoulder: Mantle of the Sea Wolf (Mana-Tombs (H), Tavarok)
Chest: Harness of the Deep Currents (Shadow Labyrinth, Murmur)
Belt: Stillwater Girdle (Mana-Tombs (H), Nexus-Prince Shaffar)
Legs: Oceansong Kilt (Hellfire Ramparts (H), Nazan)
Boots: Wavefury Boots (The Slave Pens (H), Rokmar the Crackler)
Bracers: Primal Surge Bracers (The Black Morass, Aeonus)
Gloves: Fathomheart Gauntlets (The Steamvault, Warlord Kalithresh)

Netherwing

2007-09-04T10:41:00.000+08:00

Broke a few piggybanks, but got the 5K & started the rep grind. The drop rates on these quests are a pain... The 40 crystals daily are going to be a problem... Oh well... It's something to keep occupied. At least the grey drops aren't bad money-wise...

BOP Recipes

2007-09-03T11:48:00.000+08:00

Something to grind when I'm bored... These are the BOP recipes that drop from non-instance mobs. Will only see them if you are of the right tradeskill. Will check for Alchemy and Enchanting when they get to the right level.

Engineering
Khorium Scope - Sunfury Bowman (Netherstorm)
Hyper-Vision Goggles - Mo'arg Weaponsmith (Shadowmoon Valley)
Felsteel Boomstick - Doomforge Engineer (Blade's Edge Mountain)

Blacksmithing
Greater Ward of Shielding - Sunfury Bloodwarder (Netherstorm)
Ragesteel Breastplate - Ashtongue Warrior, Crazed Murkblood Miner (Shadowmoon Valley)
Ragesteel Gloves - Boulderfist Warrior (Nagrand)
Ragesteel Helm - Anger Guard (Blade's Edge Mountain)
Khorium Boots - Disembodied Protector (Netherstorm)
Khorium Pants - Deathforge Guardian (Shadowmoon Valley)
Khorium Belt - Murkblood Raider (Nagrand)

70 no. 2

2007-09-03T09:54:00.000+08:00

Gren dinged 70 grinding the Ethereals at the Heap... So, it's back to grinding quests for money for Mart's epic flying mount.

I'm short about 300g or so. Shouldn't be too tough to make up...

New Pet

2007-08-30T11:02:00.000+08:00

Done! Zephyr is now a two-headed white bird!

It was a cake. I don't know why I thought it was an elite (it wasn't). It still hurt though, got me to about 50% life, and I'm four levels above it!

There weren't even that many mobs around. In the end I killed a few extra to learn Screech 5 off the Windroc...

Pet Abilities

2007-08-29T12:27:00.000+08:00

One other matter with regards to the taming of the new Zephyr, I'll need to grab Screech 5.

It's a bit fortunate that Greater Windrocs in Nagrand has this. I guess I'll tame a lvl 66 version to bring along as the 'throw-away' pet.

Also, have re-looked at Pet Skills since this was slightly changed. Have settled on the following.

Common Skills (Active)
Growl - Rank 8 (0 pts)
Bite - Rank 9 (2 9pts)

Common Skills (Passive)
Great Stamina - Rank 5 (50 pts)
Natural Armor - Rank 11 (175 pts)
Avoidance - Rank 2 (25 pts)
Cobra Reflexes - Rank 1 (15 pts)

Cat Skills (Active)
Claw - Rank 9 (29 pts)
Dash - rank 3 (25 pts)

Carrion Bird Skills (Active)
Screech - Rank 5 (29 pts)
Dive - rank 3 (25 pts)

This will be retuned based on their expected usage (PvE for bird, PvP for cat), but for now, this is it.

Second Pet

2007-08-28T11:58:00.000+08:00

While I do like the blue skin on Zephyr, it's gotten not so special since appearing in Outlands as a normal mob. To be honest, I have yet to see anyone else with one, but still, it's sort of lost that little bit of uniqueness. So, I have yet to even look at leveling Zep, concentrating on Frostbite instead.

Anyway, I think I've settled on the replacement. This little beauty... Trachela, mate of Torgos.

The complication is that she is immune to any form of CC like the usual Frost Trap, or Frost Nova, sheep, etc. So, guess I'll have no choice but to tank her while taming.

I recall the area is crowded with adds though, so might need to bring a trash pet to clear the area first. She also hits a bit like a truck (well, she did when I was that level...), so might even have to bring some healzbotz help...

This'll be a little project to break the monotony of grinding skins and metal...

Engineering Mats

2007-08-27T18:01:00.000+08:00

From 350 -> 375, it's going to be a lot of luck involved... However, to craft the three items that I intend to make from 350 skill (the Goggles, the teleporter and the rocket launcher), these are the mats to gather:
9 Khorium Bars
120 Adamantite Bars
40 Fel Iron Bars
24 Eternium Bars
3 Primal Fire

This translates to:
3 Khorium Power Cores
4 Hardened Adamantite Tube
6 Felsteel Stabilizer
4 Fel Iron Bolts

I'll need to see with how much skill-ups these items will give. In all likelihood, I'll make everything except the goggles and spam Adamantite Rifles (2 Thorium Tubes, 2 Adamantite Frames, and 4 Fel Iron Bolts) till 370, then make the goggles. Then farm for the Khorium Scope recipe and make four of them to get to 375.

No matter how u look at it, that's a lot of metal...

Professions Leveling

2007-08-27T17:21:00.000+08:00

Just to maintain a record of items to level with. Some of the items in the list will have higher material cost than what is the minimum but it's gear that someone can use.

Blacksmithing 316 -> 375
316-330 Fel Iron Plate Boots (6 x Fel Iron Bar) x 13
Fel Iron Plate Pants (8 x Fel Iron Bar) x 2

331-332 Fel Iron Breastplate (10 x Fel Iron Bar) x 2

333 Skyforged Great Axe (10 x Adamantite Bar, 6 x Primal Air) x 1

334 Adamantite Cleaver (8 x Adamantite Bar) x 1

335-340 Adamantite Dagger (7 x Adamantite Bar, 2 x Knothide Leather) x 6

341-344 Lesser Ward of Shielding (1 x Adamantite Bar) x 4

345-346 Adamantite Plate Bracers (6 x Adamantite Bar, 2 x Primal Earth, 2 x Primal Fire) x 2

347-348 Adamantite Plate Gloves (8 x Adamantite Bar, 2 x Knothide Leather, 3 x Primal Earth, 2 x Primal Fire) x 2

349-350 Adamantite Breastplate (12 x Adamantite Bar, 4 x Primal Earth, 2 x Primal Fire) x 2

351 Adamantite Rod (10 x Adamantite Bar)

352-360 Adamantite Sharpening Stone (1 x Adamantite Bar, 2 x Mote of Earth) x 9
(If there is a market for it, can replace with Adamantite Rod)

361 The Planar Edge (5 x Primal Might, 20 x Primal Shadow, 2 x Hardened Adamantite Bar, 12 x Felsteel Bar)

362-375 Flamebane Gloves (8 x Fel Iron Bar, 4 x Primal Water, 4 x Primal Fire) x 14
(Requires Aldor - Friendly)

Leatherworking 351 -> 375
351 Felstalker Belt (6 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 4 x Fel Hide, 8 x Crystal Infused Leather, 6 x Primal Air, 2 x Rune Thread)

352 Fel Leather Gloves (6 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 6 x Fel Hide, 6 x Primal Shadow, 3 x Rune Thread)
(Requires Consortium - Friendly)

353 - 357 Heavy Knothide Armor Kit (3 x Heavy Knothide Leather) x 5

358-360 Riding Crop (4 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 1 x Primal Might, 6 x Arcane Dust, 1 x Small Prismatic Shard) x 3

361 Fel Leather Boots (10 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 8 x Fel Hide, 8 x Primal Shadow, 3 x Rune Thread)
(Requires Consortium - Honoured)

362 Fel Leather Leggings (10 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 10 x Fel Hide, 10 x Primal Shadow, 3 x Rune Thread)
(Requires Consortium - Revered)

363 Quiver of a Thousand Feathers (8 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 99 x Light Feather, 2 x Primal Air, 1 x Primal Nether)
(Requires Lower City - Revered)

364 Netherscale Ammo Pouch (12 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 12 x Nether Dragonscale, 4 x Primal Earth, 1 x Primal Nether)
(Requires Thrallmar - Revered)

365 Heavy Clefthoof Boots (4 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 20 x Thick Clefthoof Leather, 4 x Primal Earth, 2 x Rune Thread)
(Requires Cenarion Expedition - Friendly)

366 Heavy Clefthoof Leggings (6 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 34 x Thick Clefthoof Leather, 4 x Primal Earth, 2 x Rune Thread)
(Requires Cenarion Expedition - Honoured)

367 Felstalker Bracer (6 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 6 x Fel Hide, 6 x Crystal Infused Leather, 4 x Primal Air, 2 x Rune Thread)
(Requires Thrallmar - Honoured)

368 Felstalker Breastplate (10 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 4 x Fel Hide, 8 x Crystal Infused Leather, 8 x Primal Air, 2 x Rune Thread)
(Requires Thrallmar - Honoured)

369 Heavy Clefthoof Vest (6 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 40 x Thick Clefthoof Leather, 4 x Primal Earth, 2 x Rune Thread)
(Requires Cenarion Expedition - Honoured)

370 Bag of Many Hides (15 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 5 x Wind Scales, 5 x Fel Hide, 5 x Nether Dragonscales, 5 x Thick Clefthoof Leather, 3 x Rune Thread)

371 - 375 Drums of Panic (6 x Heavy Knothide Leather, 4 x Fel Hide) x 5
(Requires Keeper of Time - Friendly)

Jewelcrafting 226 -> 300
225-250 Thorium Setting (1 x Thorium Bar) x 40
(Along the way, make a Figurine - Truesilver Crab)

250-255 Red Ring of Destruction (1 x Star Ruby, 1 x Thorium Setting) x 5

255-265 Truesilver Healing Ring (2 x Truesilver Bar, 2 x Heart of the Wild) x 10 (Or Ruby Pendant of Fire or a mix of both)

265-290 Simple Opal Ring (1 x Large Opal, 1 x Thorium Setting)
Sapphire Signet (4 x Blue Sapphire, 2 x Truesliver Bar, 1 x Thorium Setting)
Diamond Focus Ring (1 x Azerothian Diamond, 1 x Thorium Setting)
(Any of the above, making Simple Opal Rings first, then Diamond Focus Rings, finally Sapphire Signets

290-300 Onslaught Ring (1 x Powerful Mojo, 1 x Essence of Earth, 1 x Thorium Setting)
Emerald Lion Ring (2 x Huge Emerald, 1 x Thorium Setting)
(Either of the above, making Onslaught Ring first)

Pally (& Tank) End-Game Gear

2007-08-23T15:28:00.000+08:00

VERY premature, but since I'm researching...

Head: Myrmidon's Headdress (Quest Reward: The Warlord's Hideout)
Neck: Thalodien's Charm (Quest Reward: Shutting Down Manaforge Ara [Scryer])
Shoulders: Spaulders of the Righteous (Botanica, Laj)
Back: Devilshark Cape (Steamvault, Warlord Kalithresh)
Chest: Breastplate of the Righteous (Steamvault, Warlord Kalithresh)
Wrist: Sha'tari Wrought Armguards (Quest Reward: The Soul Devices)
Hand: Felsteel Gloves (Crafted)
Waist: Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard (Quest Reward: How to Break into Arcatraz)
Legs: Timewarden's Leggings (Rep Reward: Keepers of Time - Revered)
Feet: Ascendant's Boots (Quest Reward: A Job Unfinished...)
Ring: Elementium Band of the Sentry (Arcatraz, Harbinger Skyriss)
Ring: Delicate Eternium Ring (Crafted)
Trinket: Darkmoon Card: Vengence (Quest Reward: Darkmoon Furies Deck)
Trinket: Figurine - Dawnstone Crab (Crafted)

Main Hand: Crystalforged Sword (Made from Depleted Sword, BOE)
Off Hand: Gladiator's Shield Wall (PvP)
Libram: Libram of Zeal (PvP Reward: Hellfire)

Obviously, this will be close to the gear to get for Eld to tank in as well... The exceptions are
Neck: Strength of the Untamed (Rep Reward: Cenarion Expedition - Revered)
Shoulder: Shoulderguards of the Bold (Shadow Labyrinth, Murmur)
Chest: Vindicator's Hauberk (Rep Reward: Aldor - Revered)
Trinket: Adamantine Figurine (Shadow Labyrinth, Blackheart the Inciter)

Main Hand: Grom'tor's Charge (Quest Reward: The Cipher of Damnation)
Ranged: Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer (Crafted)

For the feet, those boots are only available if grinding the Netherwing rep questline. If not, these will suffice.
Feet: Flesh Beast's Metal Greaves (Quest Reward: Someone Else's Hard Work Pays Off)

Upgrades Prior to Heroics for Mart

2007-08-23T12:23:00.000+08:00

Have pretty much gotten the best I can get for now. Just missing these pieces.

Waist: Dragonmaw Augur's Cinch (Quest Reward: A Job Unfinished...) [with Runed Living Ruby and Glowing Nightseye]
Ring: Ashyen's Gift (Cenarion Expedition Exalted)
Trinket: Oculus of the Hidden Eye (Auchenai Crypts, Shirrak the Dead Watcher)

Ashyen's Gift loses out a bit of +dmg, but the +hit will more than make up the difference as compared to my current ring.

The trinket can be skipped if I start Heroics & gathering Badges of Honour for Icon of the Silver Crescent.

Speaking of Heroics, would also need Primal Nether for these crafted pieces (& the receipe for the Girdle as well...).

Helm: Destruction Holo-gogs (Engineering Crafted)
Belt: Girdle of Ruination (Tailoring Crafted, BOE)

Badge of Justice

2007-08-22T15:31:00.000+08:00

Well, not near Heroics at the moment, but just to note that I'll need to collect 66 Badges. That's a lot of runs...

Orb of the Soul-Eater (25 Badges)
Icon of the Silver Crescent (41 Badges)

Factions after Patch

2007-08-20T18:14:00.000+08:00

Not much changes, but added in the new factions to this. Left out the pure raiding one since it looks like tat will be out of the question.

Back

2007-08-20T14:38:00.000+08:00

Yeah... Back...

Enchantments

2007-04-20T08:58:00.000+08:00

It's time to start looking at some Enchantments since some of the gear are not going to be replaced even past Kara...

Chest: Exceptional Health (8 Arcane Dust, 4 Major Healing Potion, 2 Large Brilliant Shard)
Bracers: Spellpower (6 Large Prismatic Shard, 6 Primal Fire, 6 Primal Water)
Gloves: Major Spellpower (6 Greater Planar Essence, 6 Large Prismatic Shard, 6 Primal Water)
Boots: Fortitude (12 Arcane Dust)

This will be updated as we go along...

Consortium Rep (Part Deux)

2007-04-19T02:57:00.000+08:00

Some more details have emerged regarding the new 2.1 content patch.

For one thing, Revered for Consortium will make available a new engineering receipe. It's not too exciting, just another Seaforium type thing, so not sure if it's worth the effort... Anyway, will update the factions page accordingly.

Other than that, the good news is the increased drop rates for leather as well as reduction in thorium requirements for Jewelcrafting. That should save some money and effort.

Consortium Rep

2007-04-10T10:00:00.000+08:00

From the Wow website, the new patch will include new content for characters in 'good standing' with the Consortium, whatever that means...

If Honoured is all that is require, then I'm fine. However, I won't be surprised if Revered is required, since that seems to be the level required to open new content (such as Heroic instances). Of course, Sporeggar only required Friendly.

I think I'll put a short hold on the Consortium quests that I have outstanding for now, just to evaluate the situation.

Besides, haven't had time recently, with the grinding of Primal Water and Netherweb Spider Silk for my Frozen Shadoweave Set, as well as my Scryer rep.

Anyway, from the looks of things, it looks like Blizz is really putting effort to include solo and five man content for those who are not inclined to raid (even Karazhan). Good for me, I suppose...