I really enjoyed Big Bear Butt Blogger: Raid Song of the Week #4. His first pick was March of Cambreadth, so he obviously has excellent taste. Anyhow, the song is available as an MP3 from Amazon which means it’s DRM-free if I recall correctly. I think I’m going to listen to it a couple more times then look at buying either the song or the album.
Archive for October, 2007
The Daedalus Project has an interesting article on Player Life-Cycles in MMORPGs. I would put myself at the Recovery stage. I would drop WoW, but it affordably meets my entertainment needs. For my next cheapest alternative, reading, I would have to spend a minimum of four times what it costs me to play WoW.
I would love to move on to another MMORPG, but there’s not much else out there. I would need to spend the money to buy myself a much better video card and I’d probably have to upgrade Jaimie’s computer significantly. So for now I play WoW in Recovery mode.
Gearing Your Fresh 70 Hunter
Oct 22
My hunter will soon be 70 (currently most of the way through 66) so I need to start looking at gear. Here’s a good starting point.
Gearing Your Fresh 70 Hunter | World of Matticus
Stats
Agility – It improves our Critical chance and Attack power. These are both good things
Critical strike – Improves Critical strike chance
Hit rating – Very important but pretty much ignored by hunters who don?t know what they are doing. 136 is our Hit rating cap. Having more then this wont help us out. So if your at this or close to hit you can stop looking for more hit. 89 hit rating for you surefooted hunters
Attack power – Increase your base damage
That?s the big four when it comes to stats we should look for
Raiding Consumables
Oct 18
Nightshroud of Alleria has an excellent post on Raiding Consumables. Since the WoW forums tend to eat posts, I’m reproducing it here. Big Bear Butt Blogger also discusses Raiding and instance consumables, all classes which is how I found Nightshroud’s post.
Raiding Consumables
by Nightshroud of AlleriaSince launch, the consumables system has changed dramatically in several steps. Yet the importance of smart consumable use has not changed. This guide introduces the current system and provides a reference first by category then by raid role.
Categories and Cooldowns
Mutually exclusive buffs and shared cooldowns keep things relatively simple. This is good for dungeon designers who need to know what to expect from players and good for players who want to feel they’re doing all they can.
A fully prepared player needs:
* A Flask OR
* a Battle Elixir and a Guardian Elixir* A food (or drink) buff
* Weapon buffs
* Potions
* Two-Minute Linked items
* One-Minute Linked items
* Scrolls
* Bandages
Flasks
Flasks last for two hours and last through death. Using a Flask prevents the use other Elixirs.
Flask of Pure Death – 80 Shadow, Fire, and Frost spell damage.
Flask of Blinding Light – 80 Arcane, Holy, and Nature spell damage.
Flask of Supreme Power – 70 spell damage for all schools.
Flask of Relentless Assault – 120 Attack Power. Works for both melee and ranged.
Flask of Mighty Restoration – 25 MP5 regeneration.
Flask of Distilled Wisdom – 65 Intellect.
Flask of Fortification – 500 Health added to maximum and 10 Defense rating.
Flask of the Titans – 400 Health added to maximum.
Flask of Chromatic Resistance – 25 Magical Resistance to all schools.
Flask of Petrification – Physical and magical immunity for 60 sec. Unable to attack, move or cast spells for the duration. It may not be cancelled early and temporarily clears your threat to all mobs while in effect.
‘Shattrath Flask’ versions are available for Mighty Restoration, Fortification, Relentless Assault, and Supreme Power. These are bind-on-pickup from vendors in the two Shattrath banks for one Mark of the Illidari each. A player must be exalted with The Sha’tar, Cenarion Expedition, and either Aldor or Scryers to interact with the vendors.
Marks of the Illidari drop from trash mobs in Tempest Keep, Serpentshrine Cavern, Mount Hyjal and Black Temple. Shattrath flasks may only be used in these zones.
‘Unstable Flasks’ are available for Gruul’s Lair and Blade’s Edge Mountain zone plateaus only. Bandit, Elder, Physician, and Soldier flasks are sold by the Aether-tech Assistant vendor who appears during a scripted attack just west of Felstorm Point in Blade’s Edge. Attack begins every even-numbered hour going by server time, e.g. 6pm and 8pm. Players must hold off the attack for a series of vendors to spawn. The flask vendor is the first and easiest, requiring very little intervention.
At this same camp, Sorcerer flasks can be purchased any time from the Bash’ir Crystalforge. Beast flasks can be purchased any time from the Fel Crystalforge objects in the western plateau’s demon camps. All Unstable flasks cost 10 Apexis Shards each. Shards drop from plateau mobs and are rewarded in large quantities by the Skyguard and Ogri’la daily quests on the western plateau. Unlike Shattrath flasks, any of these flasks may be found on the Auction House.
Unstable Flask of the…
Bandit – 20 Agility, 40 Attack Power, 30 Stamina.
Beast – 20 Agility, 20 Strength, 30 Stamina.
Soldier – 20 critical strike rating, 20 Strength, 30 Stamina.
Elder – 8 MP5 regeneration, 20 Intellect, 30 Stamina.
Physician – 44 Healing, 20 Intellect, 30 Stamina.
Sorcerer – 23 spell damage and healing, 20 Intellect, 30 Stamina.Battle Elixirs
When not using a Flask, a player may use one Battle Elixir and one Guardian Elixir. These do not last through death.
Elixir of Mastery – All stats increased by 15 for 60 minutes.
Adept’s Elixir – 24 spell damage and healing and 24 spell crit rating for 60 minutes.
Greater Arcane Elixir – 35 spell damage for all schools for 60 minutes.
Arcane Elixir – 20 spell damage for all schools for 30 minutes.Elixir of Major Firepower – 55 Fire spell damage for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Greater Firepower – 40 Fire spell damage for 30 minutes.
Elixir of Firepower – 10 Fire spell damage for 30 minutes.Elixir of Major Frost Power – 55 Frost spell damage for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Frost Power – 15 Frost spell damage for 30 minutes.Elixir of Major Shadow Power – 55 Shadow spell damage for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Shadow Power – 40 Shadow spell damage for 30 minutes.Elixir of Healing Power – 50 Healing for 60 minutes.
Fel Strength Elixir – 90 Attack Power but 10 Stamina reduction for 60 minutes.
Onslaught Elixir – 60 Attack Power for 60 minutes.Elixir of the Mongoose – 25 Agility and 28 critical strike rating for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Major Agility – 35 Agility and 20 critical strike rating for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Greater Agility – 25 Agility for 60 minutes.
Ground Scorpok Assay – 25 Agility for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Agility – 15 Agility for 60 minutes.Elixir of Major Strength – 35 Strength for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Giants – 25 Strength for 60 minutes.
R.O.I.D.S. – 25 Strength for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Brute Force – 18 Strength and Stamina for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Ogre’s Strength – 8 Strength for 60 minutes.Elixir of Demonslaying – 265 Attack Power against Demons for 5 minutes.
Guardian Elixirs
When not using a Flask, a player may use one Guardian Elixir and one Battle Elixir. These do not last through death.
Lung Juice Cocktail – 25 Stamina for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Major Fortitude – 250 Health added to maximum and 10 health regenerated every 5 seconds for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Fortitude – 120 Health added to maximum for 60 minutes.Major Troll’s Blood Potion – 20 health regenerated every 5 seconds for 60 minutes.
Mighty Troll’s Blood Potion – 12 health regenerated every 5 seconds for 60 minutes.Elixir of Major Defense – 550 armor for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Superior Defense – 450 Armor for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Greater Defense – 250 Armor for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Defense – Increases armor by 150 for 60 minutes.Earthen Elixir – Up to 20 damage reduced when taking physical or magical damage for 60 minutes.
Gift of Arthas – 10 Shadow resistance. Enemies striking you have a 30% chance of being inflicted with a disease that increases their damage taken by 8 for 30 minutes. Lasts 30 minutes.
Elixir of Ironskin – 30 Resilience rating for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Empowerment – 30 Spell Penetration for 60 minutes.Elixir of Major Mageblood – 16 MP5 regeneration for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Draenic Wisdom – 30 Intellect and Spirit for 60 minutes.
Elixir of Greater Intellect – 25 Intellect for 60 minutes.
Cerebral Cortex Compound – 25 Intellect for 60 minutes.
Elixir of the Sages – 18 Intellect and Spirit for 60 minutes.
Gizzard Gum – 25 Spirit for 60 minutes.Spirit of Zanza – 25 Spirit and Stamina for 120 minutes.
Swiftness of Zanza – 20% run speed increase for 120 minutes.
Sheen of Zanza – 3% chance to reflect hostile spells for 120 minutes. First spell cast is a guaranteed reflect.Food Buffs
You may have one food or drink buff at a time. These last for 30 minutes unless otherwise stated and do not last through death.
Fisherman’s Feast or Spicy Crawdad – 30 Stamina and 20 Spirit.
Dirge’s Kickin’ Chimaerok Chops – 25 Stamina for 15 minutes.
Halaani Whiskey – 20 Stamina for 15 minutes.
Feltail Delight – 20 Stamina and 20 Spirit.
Skyguard Rations – 15 Stamina and 15 Spirit for 15 minutes.
Rumsey Rum Black Label – 15 Stamina for 15 minutes, and gets you drunk to boot!Runn Tum Tuber Surprise – 10 Intellect for 10 minutes.
Kreeg’s Stout Beatdown – 25 Spirit, but decreases Intellect by 5 for 15 minutes.
Mok’Nathal Shortribs, Talbuk Steak, Feltail Delight, Clam Bar, or Buzzard Bites – 20 Spirit and 20 Stamina.Crunchy Serpent, Poached Bluefish, or Blackened Basilisk – 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit.
Golden Fish Sticks – 44 healing and 20 Spirit.
Blackened Sporefish – 8 MP5 regeneration and 20 Stamina.
Nightfin Soup – 8 MP5 regeneration for 10 minutes.Poached Sunscale Salmon – 6 Health regenerated every 5 seconds for 10 minutes.
Ravager Dog – 40 Attack Power and 20 Spirit.
Warp Burger or Grilled Mudfish – 20 Agility and 20 Spirit.
Roasted Clefthoof – 20 Strength and 20 Spirit.Weapon Buffs
One weapon buff allowed per wielded melee weapon (so two buffs possible for dual wielders). These last for 30 minutes unless otherwise stated and last through death. Weapon buffs do not stack with Rogue poisons nor do they stack with Shaman weapon buffs (e.g. Rockbiter or Windfury).
Superior Wizard Oil – 42 spell damage and healing.
Brilliant Wizard Oil – 36 spell damage and healing, and 14 spell critical strike rating.
Wizard Oil – 24 spell damage and healing.
Lesser Wizard Oil – 16 spell damage and healing.Superior Mana Oil – 14 MP5 regeneration.
Brilliant Mana Oil – 12 MP5 regeneration and 25 healing.
Lesser Mana Oil – 8 MP5 regeneration.Adamantite Sharpening Stone – 12 damage added to a sharp weapon and 14 melee critical strike rating.
Fel Sharpening Stone – 12 damage added to a sharp weapon.
Dense Sharpening Stone – 8 damage added to a sharp weapon.Adamantite Weightstone – 12 damage added to a blunt weapon and 14 critical hit rating.
Fel Weightstone – 12 damage added to a blunt weapon.
Dense Weightstone – 8 damage added to a blunt weapon.Elemental Sharpening Stone – 28 critical strike rating on a melee weapon.
Greater Rune of Shielding – Applied to a Shield. First 4000 points of damage taken absorbed instead.
Lesser Rune of Shielding – Applied to a Shield. First 1000 points of damage taken absorbed isntead.Potions
All potions share a two minute cooldown.
Major Dreamless Sleep Potion – 3600 mana and health restored, but put to sleep for 12 seconds. Sleep (and the benefit) can be dispelled by friendlies.
Super Rejuvenation Potion – 1650-2750 mana and health restored.
Major Rejuvenation Potion – 1440-1760 mana and health restored.Fel Mana Potion – 3200 mana restored over 24 seconds, but reduces spell damage by 25 and healing done by 50 for 15 minutes. Debuff stacks up to 10 times.
Super Mana Potion – 1800-3000 mana restored.
Auchenai Mana Potion – 1800-3000 mana restored.
Cenarion Mana Salve – 1800-3000 mana restored. Only usable in Coilfang instances.
Blue Ogre Brew – 1800-3000 mana restored. Gruul’s Lair and Blade’s Edge plateaus only.
Bottled Nethergon Energy – 1800-3000 mana restored. Drops and limited to use in Tempest Keep instances.
Unstable Mana Potion – 1350-2250 mana restored.
Major Mana Potion – 1350-2250 mana restored.
Major Combat Mana Potion – 1350-2250 mana restored.Fel Regeneration Potion – 3200 health restored over 24 seconds, but reduces all stats by 15 for 15 minutes.
Super Healing Potion – 1500-2500 health restored.
Auchenai Healing Potion – 1500-2500 health restored.
Cenarion Healing Salve – 1500-2500 health restored. Only usable in Coilfang instances.
Bottled Nethergon Vapor – 1500-2500 health restored. Drops and limited to use in Tempest Keep instances.
Volatile Healing Potion – 1050-1750 health restored.
Red Ogre Brew – 1050-1750 heath restored. Gruul’s Lair and Blade’s Edge plateaus only.
Major Healing Potion – 1050-1750 health restored.
Major Combat Healing Potion – 1050-1750 health restored.Major
Protection Potion – Absorbs 2800-4000 Shadow, Nature, Holy, Frost, Fire, or Arcane damage. Lasts two minutes.
GreaterProtection Potion – Absorbs 1950-3250 Shadow, Nature, Frost, Fire, or Arcane damage. Lasts two minutes. Ironshield Potion – 2500 armor for 2 minutes.
Greater Stoneshield Potion – 2000 armor for 2 minutes.Heroic Potion – 70 Strength and 700 extra maximum Health for 15 seconds.
Destruction Potion – 120 spell damage and 2% spell crit for 15 seconds.
Insane Strength Potion – 120 Strength but decreases defense rating by 75 for 15 seconds.
Haste Potion – 400 haste rating for 15 seconds.Living Action Potion – Immunity to stuns and movement impairing effects for the next 5 seconds. Removes existing stuns and movement impairing effects.
Free Action Potion – Same as Living Action Potion but does not remove existing effects.Restorative Potion – Removes 1 magic, curse, poison or disease effect every 5 seconds for 30 seconds.
Purification Potion – Removes one curse, one disease, and one poison effect.Limited Invulnerability Potion – Reduces physical damage taken by 120 for 8 seconds.
Magic Resistance Potion – 50 Resistance to all schools of magic for 3 minutes. Does not stack with class buffs/auras.Invisibility Potion – Invisibility for 18 seconds.
Sneaking Potion – Adds six effective Stealth levels for 60 seconds.Shrouding Potion – 800 Threat reduction to all enemies within 30 yards for 15 minutes.
Mighty Rage Potion – Increases Rage by 45-75 and increases Strength by 60 for 20 seconds.
Great Rage Potion – Increases Rage by 30-60.Two Minute Linked Items
Master Healthstone – 2080, 2288, or 2496 health restored.
Charged Crystal Focus – 2000 health restored.
Fel Blossom – Absorbs 750-1250 damage. Lasts 15 seconds. Herbalists only.
Nightmare Seed – Increase your health by 2000 for 30 seconds. When the effect ends the extra health will be lost.
Whipper Root Tuber – 700-900 health restored.
Night Dragon’s Breath – 394-456 mana and health restored.Demonic Rune or Dark Rune – 900-1500 mana restored at the cost of 600-1000 health.
Mana Emerald, Mana Ruby, etc. – Mages conjure mana-restoring gems for their own use.
Flame Cap – 80 Fire spell damage and a chance for ranged or melee attacks to cause 40 fire damage. Cannot be used again for three minutes.
One Minute Linked Items
This category is mostly profession-based PvP items. Nets, bombs, Engineering dohickies. Leatherworker drums share this cooldown but actually require a two minute wait before using any other drums.
Drums of Battle – 80 melee, ranged, and spell haste rating on nearby party members for 30 seconds.
Drums of War – 60 Attack Power and 30 spell damage on nearby party members for 30 seconds.
Drums of Speed – 15% movement speed increase on nearby party members for 30 seconds.
Drums of Restoration – 600 health and mana restored to nearby party members over 15 seconds.
Drums of Panic – 5 enemies within 5 yards are forced to flee for 2 seconds.Scrolls
Scrolls stack with the other buffs listed here but do not stack with class buffs such as Prayer of Fortitude and Gift of the Wild. They are useful when a usual buffing class is absent or for stats not raised by class buffs. Scrolls do not last through death.
Scroll of Stamina V – 20 Stamina for 30 minutes.
Scroll of Spirit V – 30 Spirit for 30 minutes.
Scroll of Intellect V – 20 Intellect for 30 minutes.
Scroll of Strength V – 20 Strength for 30 minutes.
Scroll of Agility V – 20 Agility for 30 minutes.
Scroll of Protection V – 300 Armor for 30 minutes.—————————————-
Tanking Example
Flask – Flask of Fortification
OR
Battle Elixir – Elixir of Mastery, Elixir of the Mongoose, Elixir of Major Agility, or Greater Arcane Elixir (Paladins)
Guardian Elixir – Elixir of Major FortitudeFood – Fisherman’s Feast, Spicy Crawdad, Halaani Whiskey, or Feltail Delight
Weapon Buff – Sharpening/Weight Stone or Superior Wizard Oil (Paladins) and Greater/Lesser Rune of Shielding (Paladins and Warriors)
Potions – Super Healing Potion, Major Protection Potion, Ironshield Potion, Heroic Potion, Destruction Potion (Paladins), or Rage Potion (Warriors)
Physical DPS Example
Flask – Flask of Relentless Assault
OR
Battle Elixir – Elixir of Mastery, Fel Strength Elixir, Elixir of Major Strength, Elixir of the Mongoose, or Elixir of Major Agility
Guardian Elixir – Elixir of Major Fortitude, Earthen Elixir, Elixir of Major Mageblood (Hunters)Food – Ravager Dog, Warp Burger, Grilled Mudfish, or Roasted Clefthoof
Weapon Buff – Sharpening/Weight Stone or Superior Mana Oil (Hunters)
Potions – Super Healing Potion, Major Protection Potion, Insane Strength Potion, Fel Mana Potion (Hunters), or Rage Potion (Warrior)
Magical DPS Example
Flask – Flask of Supreme Power, Flask of Pure Death, or Flask of Blinding Light
OR
Battle Elixir – Adept’s Elixir, Greater Arcane Elixir, Elixir of Major Fire/Frost/Shadow Power
Guardian Elixir – Elixir of Major Fortitude, Elixir of Major Mageblood, Elixir of Draenic WisdomFood – Crunchy Serpent, Poached Bluefish, or Blackened Basilisk
Weapon Buff – Superior Wizard Oil, Brilliant Wizard Oil
Potions – Super Mana Potion, Major Dreamless Sleep Potion, Major Protection Potion, Destruction Potion
Healing Example
Flask – Flask of Mighty Restoration
OR
Battle Elixir – Elixir of Healing Power, or Adept’s Elixir, or Elixir of Mastery
Guardian Elixir – Elixir of Major Fortitude, Elixir of Major Mageblood, Elixir of Draenic Wisdom, or Spirit of ZanzaFood – Golden Fish Sticks, Blackened Sporefish, Fisherman’s Feast, Spicy Crawdad, or Kreeg’s Stout Beatdown
Weapon Buff – Superior Mana Oil, Brilliant Mana Oil, Superior Wizard Oil, or Brilliant Wizard Oil
Potions – Dreamless Sleep/Mana/Rejuv Potions, Major Protection Potions
TankSpot has a useful Tank Walkthrough – Steam Vaults.
Raiding and Status
Oct 15
A book I’m reading had the following quote in it. “Maintenance of status in any group is a full-time job.” I suspect this is an overstatement – it’s more like a part-time job for most groups or people simply wouldn’t have time to belong to more than one group. Since right now World of Warcraft is my major social activity, this made me think of WoW. How much of raiding is about maintaining status within the group as opposed to the loot and fun? It’s always interesting to me when I see how people remain people regardless of the situation – even in a world made of bits, people still react in much the same ways as they do in a world made of matter and energy.
+Hit Caps for Bosses
Oct 14
Blessing of Kings: +Hit Caps for Bosses is good stuff to know. Given that my only 70 is a healer, I didn’t even know about this for the longest time. With an up-and-coming 64 hunter, it’s the kind of thing I’m going to have to know.
Pre-epic plate healing gear
Oct 13
The Light and How to Swing It: Pre-epic plate healing gear, part 2 – WOW Insider has more ideas for Jaimie’s paladin.
Let There Be (Back)Light!
Oct 12
Parry! Dodge! Spin!: Let There Be (Back)Light! highlights a new and improved version of a keypad I mentioned earlier. Now I just need to hope that I can save up enough cash between now and Christmas to get Jaimie and I each one of these.
Tankadin 101 – Gestalt
Oct 11
Here’s another description of how to tank as a paladin.
Maintankadin: Tankadin 101 – Gestalt
Excerpt:
Putting it together: A typical pull
1. Prep Seal of Righteousness
2. Avenger’s Shield, break line of sight/ have other players counter if the pull involves casters.
2a. If CC is necessary (and it usually won’t be), apply it after the AS pull.
3. Judgement of Righteousness on the first kill target.
4. Consecrate, Holy Shield, up a Seal, in this order (to insure timers are appropriately staggered).
4a. If more threat is needed, Seal of Righteousness
4b. For more threat on a longer fight, Seal of the Crusader (Judged immediately, then up another seal).
4c. If more mitigation is needed, Seal of Light (Judged immediately, then up another seal).
4d. If the mobs are runners, Seal of Justice (judged, up another).
4e. If it’s going to be a long fight, Seal of Wisdom (Judged, up another).
5. Keep Consecrate and Holy Shield up, rotating seals and Judgements as necessary. Try to maintain active judgements on as many targets as possible, rotating weapon swings between judged targets to maintain them.
6. Throughout the fight try to move your targets a little bit as they die. It can be difficult to loot 12 corpses stacked directly on top of each other.
Note that the links on the site are pretty much all broken. Follow the advice, not the links!
This also has a nice breakdown of paladin protection talents. Unfortunately it hasn’t been updated in the last 6 months and will likely be very broken with the next patch.
Found via EgoTank – Lern2Tank which has some very good general tanking advice and links to more resources.
The Zen of Mage Macros
Oct 11
If ever I play a mage again, Girl Meets WoW: The Zen of Mage Macros is an article I’ll definitely have to look at. I was thinking of something along the lines of her
Self Buff in a Can
This macro creates a single button you can hit to apply all of your self buffs. Note that Molten Armor can be replaced with Ice Armor, according to your preferences./castsequence [target=player] reset=60 Dampen Magic, Arcane Intellect, Molten Armor;
for my paladin.
Dofus review
Oct 11
Tobold wrote up a Dofus review. I may well check Dofus out if I get tired of playing WoW again and there isn’t anything else that appeals to me.
Strida Folding Bike
Oct 10
I would have loved to have had a Strida Folding Bike when I was living in Ottawa. Where I’m living now, it’s much more practical to have a regular bike.
My Toons
Oct 10
I tend to play a lot of different characters in World of Warcraft. Here is a brief summary of those I’ve played and a little about each of them.
Mardin was a gnome mage around level 15. He was my first character. For some reason I decided that I wanted to play a priest instead, so I wound up abandoning him fairly quickly and moving on to my next toon.
Dorane was an undead priest. She was the first character I leveled. I got her up to about 35, but then Jaimie got her own account and we decided to level toons together. She was abandoned at that point.
My first character on Andorhal was Ali, a human warlock. I played him with Jaimie up to about level 20, then we tried out another pairing. As of this writing Ali is level 61. I play him about once a week, on Saturday mornings when gankage is at a minimum. He’s fun enough to play and if Andorhal were still my main server I’d probably play him more often. As it stands, it will likely take him months to get to 70.
My second character on Andorhal was Reall, a gnome rogue. I could not get the hang of rogues to save my life, so Jaimie and I made up another pairing. Eventually I ended up going back to play him. What I did was practice on mobs that were a couple levels lower than me until I got the hang of playing a rogue. He’s currently my third highest character on Andorhal at 42 and I’d like to level him again.
Flint, a dwarf priest, was my main character on Andohal. I’d missed my priest buffs from Dorane and I wanted to play something I knew so I made him. Jaimie had decided that gnome mages were for her, so she rolled up Tinder. We played this pair for a long, long time. Flint is retired now as I don’t want to raid and there’s really nothing else for him to do. Basically the death of our guild, Legion of the Dragon, killed Flint and Tinder. If I someday decide to get back into raiding on a PvP server, Flint is my most likely candidate.
Rêve was my night elf druid on Andorhal. He was originally made to play with Jaimie’s Emeraude, but Jaimie didn’t like druids, so he wound up soloing a fair bit. He’s up just past level 40. I enjoyed playing a druid – the ability to shift to whatever was needed for a given situation was great. I’m hoping to start up an all-druid group on Quel’dorei.
Herne was my dwarf hunter. It was fun to play a hunter and have mobs die all around me. He tamed Old Smokey in Loch Modan, renamed him Andarta, and has stuck with a fuzzy bear ever since. He’s just over level 40. I’ve moved my hunter thrills over to Arthemis on Quel’dorei.
Myrddin was my gnome mage. Jaimie liked the class so much that I felt that I really should try it out. It was okay, but mages really aren’t my thing. They’re as squishy as priests but without being in a support role. He’s around level 37 and isn’t likely to be played again – currently he’s serving as my bank toon on Andorhal.
Lun was my gnome warrior. He was mostly arms spec and fun to play – I was going to raise him to be a tank but it never really got that far. He was the one who showed me all the abilities that a warrior has at his disposal. He’s at level 40 and might be played again if I decide to go back to Andorhal.
Padraic was my human paladin. I had seen Anath do amazing things with his paladin – lots of pre-Burning Crusade tanking when paladin tanks weren’t supposed to exist. I played him a decent amount and he was fun to play. Again, he got lost in the crush of alts around level 36 and now I’ve moved on to Andromache on Quel’dorei for my paladin game.
Taliesin was my draenei shaman, created around the time of the Burning Crusade’s release. I never really got the hang of him. Jaimie powered him through a couple of instances for gear, but he really didn’t get played much. He’s around level 19 and not likely to be played again.
I was sick of being ganked on my low-level alts so around January Jaimie and I made characters on Nazgrel. We were regularly playing horde on a PvE server with with Justin, Faith, and Dave and felt that it was silly to have two PvE horde servers to keep up with. So Artimis and Andromache moved from Nazgrel to Quel’dorei, with Artimis being renamed to Arthemis in the move. Now Quel’dorei is our main server.
Arthemis is my blood elf hunter. She started out paired with Jaimie’s Arala, but we ended up running our two hunters together for maximum killing power. So now Arthemis and Diannia are burning through Outlands. Arthemis still has her springpaw lynx from level 10, Arge, as her pet. For some reason none of the other pets appealed. Arthemis is currently level 63 and is likely to be my next 70. My enthusiasm for leveling seems to diminish as I approach the level cap however, since I’m playing with Jaimie, she keeps me moving along instead of making another alt.
Andromache is my blood elf paladin. She’s the one who started out with Diannia, Jaimie’s hunter. She’s my farming toon and fully specced out for paladin AOE grinding. I have a lot of fun with her, watching 5-6 mobs four levels higher die from beating themselves to death on her armor. She’s currently level 50 and farming Un’goro to keep Tristam and Arthemis supplied with mats. I’m really hoping to get her up to 70 right after Arthemis.
Tristam is my tauren warrior. He’s the one I play with my static group – me, Jaimie, Faith, Justin, and Dave. I love trying to keep my DPS-happy squishies alive – it keep the game exciting. He’s fully specced into protection and most of the time we wind up taking down instance bosses that are still red to our group (i.e. many levels higher than us). He is also the GM of our guild, Sleep Deprived. He’s 47 and gets played as often as our group can match up our schedules.
Anzu is my tauren shaman. I’ve had fun playing him but since Jaimie and I are focusing on leveling Arthimis and Diannia and I spend my solo time gathering mats on Andromache he doesn’t get played a lot these days. I’m looking forward to the patch 2.3 leveling speedups so that I can get him past level 23 without having to grind brutally.
Finally Merddyn is my blood elf warlock. I had to make one, blood elves just demand to be warlocks. I’m none too thrilled with his name, but since he’s paired with Jaimie’s Vivianne he had to be named some variant of Merlin. He runs with Jaimie’s shadow priest for a lot of dot-fear-win fun! He’s at 24 and not likely to be doing much leveling prior to 2.3.
AAAAANNNNDDD that’s all folks! I have a couple level 10ish alts here and there but I haven’t played them seriously so they don’t count. I’ve played all the classes in World of Warcraft and I have a really hard time deciding which is my favorite. At the moment, I’d say that I would be least likely to play a mage and most likely to play a paladin or a druid if I were starting from scratch. If I were starting on a new server again, I would make a hunter for the fast leveling and so that it could bankroll my other toons. It’s the people that make MMORPGs fun, so I would be happy to play any class if I had a solid group to level with.
MojoPac Freedom
Oct 10
Now that MojoPac Freedom – Lifehacker is free, it should be easy to run WoW off of a thumb drive. That means that if I do get a gaming laptop before the next time I go to my in-laws, Jaimie could play with me by hijacking her dad’s computer.
ScanCafe
Oct 10
ScanCafe will digitize your old slides, negatives and photographic prints at high quality.
I may do something like this at some point as a present to myself. There are a lot of kid pictures that I would love to have in digital format, but scanning them seems like too much work. Ideally I’d also grab some of my parents’ negatives from when I was growing up and get those scanned too. I bet my mother-in-law would love to get all the kids’ pictures that I have for when/if she gets back to scrapbooking.
I’ve been thinking about something along the lines of GeoPic II for the office. It would be useful to know exactly where and when photos are taken, particularly for damage claims. Now to actually get a digital camera for the office…
Paladin Tank Guide
Oct 9
I’m trying to learn how to tank on my protection paladin. Mostly I just play her for the AOE grinding, but it would be useful to know how to tank as well.
New Paladin Tank Guide – TankSpot
The Pull:
1. Activate Seal of Righteousness
2. Activate Holy Shield
3. Activate Avenging Wrath (if available)
4. Cast Avenger’s Shield
5. Run in/position mobs
6. Drop Consecrate
7. Reactivate Holy Shield if necessary
8. Judge Righteousness
9. Start your spell rotation, i.e. repeat steps 6 through 8.
Note: Since I am currently specc’d into Improved SotC, I generally like to Judge with Crusader during my second spell rotation to keep my TPS up.
Also, in certain cases it may not be prudent to pull with Avenger’s Shield, such as the Fathom Lord Karathress fight and most trash in SSC/TK, because you don’t WANT all the mobs beating on you at the same time. In these cases, you will be sharing tank duties with a few other tanks, and them not being able to pull their targets off you to tank them is a BAD thing… shadow-nova’ing Sea Witches in SSC for instance. >.< In these cases, the pull should go as such:
1. Activate Seal of Righteousness
2. Activate Holy Shield
3. Activate Avenging Wrath (if available)
4. Run in
5. Cast Judgment of Righteousness/Reactivate Seal of Righteousness
6. Position mob
7. Drop Consecrate
8. Reactivate Holy Shield if necessary
9. Start your spell rotation, i.e. repeat steps 5, 7, and 8.
Marking Targets
Oct 5
Priestly Endeavors had a good post on Marking Targets and determining the priority. I’m going to switch from the F-keys to numpad for marking and see how that works out. Given that I’m the tank for our static group, I get to do a lot of marking.
I’m thinking of making up a set of macros along the lines of:
*skull – not sure about the [combat] bit for rw may have to be /run if InCombatLockdown() SendChatMessage(“Main DPS target has changed”,”RAID_WARNING”) end
/script SetRaidTargetIcon(“target”, 8);
/rw [combat] Main DPS target has changed
/p White Skull is main DPS target. Focus DPS on skull!
* Square
/script SetRaidTargetIcon(“target”, 6);
/p Blue Square is HUNTER freeze trap/pet tank/kite target
* X
/script SetRaidTargetIcon(“target”, 7);
/p Kill Red X after Skull goes down if no new DPS target has been assigned
* Star
/script SetRaidTargetIcon(“target”, 1);
/p Yellow Star is MAGE sheep target – don’t touch it!
*Purple Diamond
/script SetRaidTargetIcon(“target”, 3);
/p Purple Diamond is WARLOCK banish/pet tank target.
* Green Triangle
/script SetRaidTargetIcon(“target”, 4);
/p Green Triangle is ROGUE sap target
*Orange Circle
/script SetRaidTargetIcon(“target”, 2);
/p Orange Circle is a patrol – keep an eye out for it
*White Crescent Moon
/script SetRaidTargetIcon(“target”, 5);
/p White Crescent Moon is shackle/root/alternate CC
* No Symbol
/script SetRaidTargetIcon(“target”, 0);
/p No Symbol is secondary tanking targets – wait for them to be marked as X or Skull before DPSing
Overkill on explanation for my usual group, but could be useful in a PUG setting.