Here are the Pawn scales I’m using for my toons in Wrath of the Lich King.   As always, Pawn is for quick comparisons, not for squeezing every last point out of your gear.  Read Skeleton Jack’s post on Pawn for some of the things to watch out for.  I have tweaked some of these scales and I have no strong theorycrafting proof behind their effectiveness. 

A few more points to note:

1. Each rating is relative only to itself.

Some pawn users assume that if they have two strings, that the rating that has the higher value is what the gear is better for. This is NOT the case. You should only use a rating to compare two items together, rather than using ratings to determine what an item is better for. (Note: This rule can be counterfeit, but that requires balancing points)
2. A rating that gives you numbers in the 100’s is no better or worse than one that gives you points in the 10,000’s
Remember, this is a relative comparison tool. So 900 - 1000 may be better than 90,000 to 95,000.
3. Pawn doesn’t account for everything
Raid buffs, gear changing, and Talents factor in here as well. These are static values to help determine relative value, but raid buffs, talent changes, and changes from blizzard will affect the relative value of these statistics, so these strings will more than likely be dynamic.

Warrior

Protection

Balanced

(Pawn: v1: “Balanced”: CritRating=0.89, Agility=8.47, ExpertiseRating=9.22, DefenseRating=11.13, BlockValue=4.86, ArmorPenetration=1, Dps=3.56, Strength=3.84, ParryRating=8.24, BlockRating=8.42, DodgeRating=9.61, HitRating=1.98, Stamina=14.29, Armor=1, HasteRating=0.62, Ap=0.43 )

Survival

( Pawn: v1: “Survival”: BlockRating=8.49, Strength=2.91, ParryRating=8.56, Agility=8.02, ExpertiseRating=7.22, DefenseRating=11.61, Stamina=14.25, Armor=1, DodgeRating=10.09, BlockValue=4.98 )

Threat

( Pawn: v1: “Threat”: ArmorPenetration=4.54, CritRating=4.03, Dps=16.15, Strength=4.66, ParryRating=0.41, Agility=3.26, HitRating=9.56, HasteRating=3.02, ExpertiseRating=9.56, Ap=2 )

Based roughly on Elitist Jerks Tanking Spreadsheet.  Needs to be edited for sockets.

( Pawn: v1: “Heavy”: RedSocket=16, CritRating=0.8, Strength=1, MetaSocket=8, ExpertiseRating=0.7, BlueSocket=16, YellowSocket=16, ColorlessSocket=16, HitRating=0.7, BlockValue=0.9 )

Based roughly on Matthew Rossi’s post,The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Heavy.  This is for leveling as a Prot Warrior.  Vene has a good post for Raid DPS as a Prot Warrior.

Fury

See this post for Fury Warriors.

Paladin

Mostly from this thread on Elitist Jerks. 

Protection

Mitigation

( Pawn: v1: “ProtMit”: DodgeRating=18, BlockRating=1, Ap=1.2, CritRating=0.6, Strength=9.5, ParryRating=14.5, ExpertiseRating=1.5, Agility=14.5, HitRating=1.1, Stamina=19.1, Armor=1.2, SpellPower=0.8, DefenseRating=16.5, BlockValue=16.5 )

Threat

( Pawn: v1: “ProtThr”: Intellect=0.2, DodgeRating=15.1, BlockRating=0.9, Ap=4.7, CritRating=2.4, Strength=18.8, ParryRating=12.8, ExpertiseRating=6.1, Agility=12.2, HitRating=4.2, Stamina=16.8, Armor=1.1, SpellPower=3.1, DefenseRating=13.9, BlockValue=17.4 )

Holy

( Pawn: v1: “Holy”: Intellect=2.25, RedSocket=24, CritRating=1.1, MetaSocket=75, HasteRating=1, BlueSocket=14, Stamina=0.1, SpellPower=1.2, Mp5=2.5, YellowSocket=30 )

Shaman

Enhancement

Based on a run of EnhSim, DPS simulator

( Pawn: v1: “AEP Calc”: Intellect=1.14, CritRating=0.64, Agility=1.39, ExpertiseRating=0.67, OffHandDps=4.33, YellowSocket=32, ArmorPenetration=0.52, RedSocket=32, Strength=1, MetaSocket=16, HitRating=0.68, BlueSocket=32, MainHandDps=8.82, HasteRating=0.81, ColorlessSocket=32, Ap=1 )

Restoration

Based on this post.

( Pawn: v1: “Resto (EJ)”: Intellect=7, RedSocket=105, HasteRating=3, BlueSocket=86, YellowSocket=112, SpellPower=5, Mp5=10, CritRating=3 )

Hunter

Beastmaster

( Pawn: v1: “Beast Mastery”: Intellect=7, RedSocket=128, CritRating=5, MetaSocket=168, HitRating=10, Agility=7, HasteRating=2, BlueSocket=128, YellowSocket=128, ArmorPenetration=6, Mp5=8, Ap=4 )

From this thread

Druid

Cat

( Pawn: v1: “Cat (Toskk)”: ArmorPenetration=1.0161, RedSocket=37.312, Strength=2.332, CritRating=0.83, ColorlessSocket=37.312, MetaSocket=103.21, FeralAp=1, Agility=1.6992, ExpertiseRating=1.0362, BlueSocket=18.66, YellowSocket=26.92, HitRating=1.0334, HasteRating=0.7236, Ap=1 )

From Flyv

Bear

( Pawn: v1: “Bear (Toskk)”: RedSocket=113.7, YellowSocket=101.3, ColorlessSocket=172.4, MetaSocket=329, Stamina=7.185, Agility=3.429, Health=0.411, BlueSocket=172.4, Armor=1.066, DefenseRating=1.885, DodgeRating=2.685, ExpertiseRating=1.306 )

From Flyv

Resto

( Pawn: v1: “Resto”: Intellect=5.79, HasteRating=2.87, CritRating=2.05, SpellPower=9.4, Spirit=5.13, Mp5=10 )

From this Elitist Jerks Post

Death Knight

Unholy

( Pawn: v1: “Unholy”: ArmorPenetration=0.544, RedSocket=39.7552, CritRating=1.12, Strength=2.4847, ColorlessSocket=39.7552, HasteRating=0.621, Agility=0.7336, HitRating=2.474, BlueSocket=17.3929, YellowSocket=25.2329, TwoHandDps=7.567, ExpertiseRating=1.391, Ap=1 )

From Skeleton Jack’s Post.  

Other

Other specs, Warlocks, Priests, Mages, and Rogues are out of luck here.  I suggest Elitist Jerks as a starting point. Good luck in your search!

NOTE: No warranties, either express or implied, are hereby given. All software is supplied as is, without guarantee.  The user assumes all responsibility for damages resulting from the use of these features, including, but not limited to, frustration, disgust, system abends, disk head-crashes, general malfeasance, floods, fires, shark attack, nerve gas, locust infestation, cyclones, hurricanes, tsunamis, local electromagnetic disruptions, hydraulic brake system failure, invasion, hashing collisions, normal wear and tear of friction surfaces, comic radiation, inadvertent destruction of sensitive electronic components, windstorms, the Riders of Nazgul, infuriated chickens, malfunctioning mechanical or electrical sexual devices, premature activation of the distant early warning system, peasant uprisings, halitosis, artillery bombardment, explosions, cave-ins, and/or frogs falling from the sky.

Galadria highlights some priest builds for Leveling in Wrath. It’ll be a while before I level a priest again, by which time everything will probably have changed.

I finally got a warlock up to the level cap!  For some reason I like warlocks up to about 60, at which point I lose interest.  It’s almost pitifully easy to level a warlock.  Dot, fear, win over and over and over.  I was running with Jaimie’s shadow priest so we really destroyed mobs. 

I don’t think I’ll be playing my warlock into the expansion.  I may well level him to 80 at some point, but it won’t be anytime soon.  Maybe somewhere out there is a warlock spec for me, but so far I haven’t found it. 

A Dwarf Priest has a very detailed writeup on Weighing Priest Healing Stats for Wrath. I’ve pulled out some bottom line numbers but the whole thing is worth a read (also he provides links to Lootrank profiles).

T7 Content

• Spellpower: 2100
• OOFSR MP5: 450
• Spirit: 950
• Int: 950
• Crit: 20%
• Haste: 7%

Deep Holy Priest Stat Weights (w/Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Guidance, IHC, Serendipity, Test of Faith, Empowered Healing, Circle of Healing)

• Spellpower: 0.60
• Spirit: 0.54
• Intellect: 0.74
• Crit: 0.10
• Haste: 0.45
• MP5: 1.00

Deep Disc Priest Stat Weights (w/Mental Agility, Mental Strength, Rapture, Borrowed Time, Divine Aegis, Penance)

• Spellpower: 0.60
• Spirit: 0.40
• Intellect: 0.84
• Crit: 0.08
• Haste: 0.48
• MP5: 1.00

EDIT: Shadowpriest Stats

For Shadowpriests, see Shadowpriest.com
An imaginary stat “PP” for Pseudopower is used to calculate item values.

• 1 spellpower = 1 PP
• 1 crit rating = 0.77 PP
• 1 haste = 0.79 PP
• 1 spirit = 0.23 PP
• 1 int = 0.39 PP
• 1 hit = 1.41 PP (when not hit-capped)
• spellpower + crit*0.77 + int*0.39 + spirit*0.23 + haste*0.79 + hit*1.41 + sockets + meta [CSD] = total PP

I have to agree with The Egotistical Priest’s What Ego’s Most Excited About in Wrath. 10 player raids for all content really appeals to me. I don’t like 25 player raids as that’s just too many people. I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up running some 25s in Wrath, but I’m hoping there won’t be too many.

It’s here!  I’m excited!  We were nowhere near getting the ZA bear mounts or any of the titles, so the big things that the patch takes away aren’t really affecting me.  I am not looking forward to trying to figure out what gear is good for my various toons again.  "1 point of strength = 3.1415 AP compared to one point of agility = 2.71828 Defense versus the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow…"

What am I going to do first?  Wipe out all my addons!  Then will come the pain of reconfiguring them.  If I’m lucky, this will result in a sleeker, speedier interface.  Thanks to lots of practice, I’ve almost forgotten most of my keybindings so I’ll have to relearn all those.  "Crap -  that used to be shield block not intimidating shout!"

Once I have my interface in a somewhat useable state I’ll most likely head out to Orgrimmar to see if there’s a world event there and to take a look at any changes.  I’m going to have to get my various toons into the builds I’ve chosen for them.  Depending on what else is happening I may hop back onto my druid for that last push to 70 - I made the mistake of turning in a pile of quests just before logging off last night.  Oops. 

Don’t forget to consult Anna’s compilation of The Best of 3.0/WotLK Information!

We’re getting awfully close to 3.0x’s release - no official date yet though.  Here are the builds I’m looking at for my toons.  I expect that I’ll have made some silly mistakes in picking out talents, but I can live with that.

Tristam is going to be tanking for any raids we get going between now and Wrath and for our static group after Wrath’s release.  I need to track down more build information, but for now I’m thinking Warrior 5/0/54. (I should also look at this build from TankingTips.com.

Andromache is going to stick to protection as well.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up doing 5 mans for most of her leveling.  I’m leaning toward Paladin 0/56/5.

Arthemis is definitely going for a primarily beast mastery spec.  Exotic pets look like fun, but I suspect I’ll stick with my kitty pet for actual leveling.  One of my favorite things about hunters is chain trapping.  Thus I’m aiming for resourcefulness down the survival tree with Hunter 41/0/20.  I know it’s sub-optimal for MQoSRDPS but this is not a grouping toon, it’s a fun toon so BRK can bite me. 

The following toons are not 70 yet, so here’s where I think I’ll head given their current levels. 

Emerys is likely going to stay feral.  I’m leaning towards Druid 0/51/6 at the moment. (An alternate spec from ThinkTank is Druid 0/50/11)

Anzu is going to stay enhancement.  I’m leaning towards Shaman 0/51/6. EDIT: Apparently resto is no longer as useful, so I’m thinking Shaman 6/51/0 instead.

I think I’d like to give demonology a shot on Merddyn, so I’ll try Warlock 0/54/0. 

Flint is staying in retirement for now, so I’m not even thinking about priest builds. 

I will probably be leveling my dwarven priest again in Wrath - not because I plan to play him much but because I want to keep him at the level cap. When I do, Seri from World of Snarkcraft looks to have some good advice for Leveling Disc/Holy in Wrath « . Flint has always leveled Holy/Disc so this advice lets me continue down that path.

Now Tomlinson gave up the ghost at his house in Berkeley Square,
And a Spirit came to his bedside and gripped him by the hair—
A Spirit gripped him by the hair and carried him far away,
Till he heard as the roar of a rain-fed ford the roar of the Milky Way:
Till he heard the roar of the Milky Way die down and drone and cease,
And they came to the Gate within the Wall where Peter holds the keys.

"Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high
"The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die—
"The good that ye did for the sake of men on the little Earth so lone!"
And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as the rain-washed bone.
"O I have a friend on Earth," he said, "that was my priest and guide,
"And well would he answer all for me if he were at my side."

—"For that ye strove in neighbour-love it shall be written fair,
"But now ye wait at Heaven’s Gate and not in Berkeley Square:
"Though we called your friend from his bed this night, he could not speak for you,
"For the race is run by one and one and never by two and two."

Then Tomlinson looked up and down, and little gain was there,
For the naked stars grinned overhead, and he saw that his soul was bare.

The Wind that blows between the Worlds, it cut him like a knife,
And Tomlinson took up the tale and spoke of his good in life.
"O this I have read in a book," he said, "and that was told to me,
"And this I have thought that another man thought of a Prince in Muscovy."
The good souls flocked like homing doves and bade him clear the path,
And Peter twirled the jangling Keys in weariness and wrath.

"Ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thought," he said, "and the tale is yet to run:
"By the worth of the body that once ye had, give answer—what ha’ ye done?"
Then Tomlinson looked back and forth, and little good it bore,
For the darkness stayed at his shoulder-blade and Heaven’s Gate before:—
"O this I have felt, and this I have guessed, and this I heard men say,
"And this they wrote that another man wrote of a carl in Norroway."

"Ye have read, ye have felt, ye have guessed, good lack! Ye have hampered Heaven’s Gate;
"There’s little room between the stars in idleness to prate!
"For none may reach by hired speech of neighbour, priest, and kin
"Through borrowed deed to God’s good meed that lies so fair within;
"Get hence, get hence to the Lord of Wrong, for thy doom has yet to run,
"And . . . the faith that ye share with Berkeley Square uphold you, Tomlinson!"

The Spirit gripped him by the hair, and sun by sun they fell
Till they came to the belt of Naughty Stars that rim the mouth of Hell.
The first are red with pride and wrath, the next are white with pain,
But the third are black with clinkered sin that cannot burn again.
They may hold their path, they may leave their path, with never a soul to mark:
They may burn or freeze, but they must not cease in the Scorn of the Outer Dark.

The Wind that blows between the Worlds, it nipped him to the bone,
And he yearned to the flare of Hell-gate there as the light of his own hearth-stone.
The Devil he sat behind the bars, where the desperate legions drew,
But he caught the hasting Tomlinson and would not let him through.

"Wot ye the price of good pit-coal that I must pay?" said he,
"That ye rank yoursel’ so fit for Hell and ask no leave of me?

"I am all o’er-sib to Adam’s breed that ye should give me scorn,
"For I strove with God for your First Father the day that he was born.
"Sit down, sit down upon the slag, and answer loud and high
"The harm that ye did to the Sons of Men or ever you came to die."

And Tomlinson looked up and up, and saw against the night
The belly of a tortured star blood-red in Hell-Mouth light;
And Tomlinson looked down and down, and saw beneath his feet
The frontlet of a tortured star milk-white in Hell-Mouth heat.
"O I had a love on earth," said he, "that kissed me to my fall;
"And if ye would call my love to me I know she would answer all."

—"All that ye did in love forbid it shall be written fair,
"But now ye wait at Hell-Mouth Gate and not in Berkeley Square:
"Though we whistled your love from her bed to-night, I trow she would not run,
"For the sin that ye do by two and two ye must pay for one by one!"
The Wind that blows between the Worlds, it cut him like a knife,
And Tomlinson took up the tale and spoke of his sins in life:—

"Once I ha’ laughed at the power of Love and twice at the grip of the Grave,
"And thrice I ha’ patted my God on the head that men might call me brave."
The Devil he blew on a brandered soul and laid it aside to cool:—
"Do ye think I would waste my good pit-coal on the hide of a brain-sick fool?
"I see no worth in the hobnail mirth or the jolthead jest ye did
"That I should waken my gentlemen that are sleeping three on a grid."

Then Tomlinson looked back and forth, and there was little grace,
For Hell-Gate filled the houseless soul with the Fear of Naked Space.
"Nay, this I ha’ heard," quo’ Tomlinson, "and this was noised abroad,
"And this I ha’ got from a Belgian book on the word of a dead French lord."
—"Ye ha’ heard, ye ha’ read, ye ha’ got, good lack! and the tale begins afresh—
"Have ye sinned one sin for the pride o’ the eye or the sinful lust of the flesh?"

Then Tomlinson he gripped the bars and yammered, "Let me in—
"For I mind that I borrowed my neighbour’s wife to sin the deadly sin."
The Devil he grinned behind the bars, and banked the fires high:
"Did ye read of that sin in a book?" said he; and Tomlinson said, "Ay!"
The Devil he blew upon his nails, and the little devils ran,
And he said: "Go husk this whimpering thief that comes in the guise of a man:
"Winnow him out ‘twixt star and star, and sieve his proper worth:
"There’s sore decline in Adam’s line if this be spawn of Earth."

Empusa’s crew, so naked-new they may not face the fire,
But weep that they bin too small to sin to the height of their desire,
Over the coal they chased the Soul, and racked it all abroad,
As children rifle a caddis-case or the raven’s foolish hoard.
And back they came with the tattered Thing, as children after play,
And they said: "The soul that he got from God he has bartered clean away.

"We have threshed a stook of print and book, and winnowed a chattering wind,
"And many a soul wherefrom he stole, but his we cannot find.
"We have handled him, we have dandled him, we have seared him to the bone,
"And, Sire, if tooth and nail show truth he has no soul of his own."

The Devil he bowed his head to his breast and rumbled deep and low:—
"I’m all o’er-sib to Adam’s breed that I should bid him go.
"Yet close we lie, and deep we lie, and if I gave him place,
"My gentlemen that are so proud would flout me to my face;
"They’d call my house a common stews and me a careless host,
"And—I would not anger my gentlemen for the sake of a shiftless ghost."

The Devil he looked at the mangled Soul that prayed to feel the flame,
And he thought of Holy Charity, but he thought of his own good name:—
"Now ye could haste my coal to waste, and sit ye down to fry.
"Did ye think of that theft for yourself?" said he; and Tomlinson said, "Ay!"

The Devil he blew an outward breath, for his heart was free from care:—
"Ye have scarce the soul of a louse," he said, "but the roots of sin are there,
"And for that sin should ye come in were I the lord alone,
"But sinful pride has rule inside—ay, mightier than my own.
"Honour and Wit, fore-damned they sit, to each his Priest and Whore;
"Nay, scarce I dare myself go there, and you they’d torture sore.

"Ye are neither spirit nor spirk," he said; "ye are neither book nor brute—
"Go, get ye back to the flesh again for the sake of Man’s repute.
"I’m all o’er-sib to Adam’s breed that I should mock your pain,
"But look that ye win to a worthier sin ere ye come back again.
"Get hence, the hearse is at your door—the grim black stallions wait—
"They bear your clay to place to-day. Speed, lest ye come too late!
"Go back to Earth with lip unsealed—go back with open eye,
"And carry my word to the Sons of Men or ever ye come to die:
"That the sin they do by two and two they must pay for one by one,
"And . . . the God you took from a printed book be with you, Tomlinson!"

– Rudyard Kipling

I have a lot of alts either at 70 or approaching it quickly - warrior, paladin, hunter, warlock, shaman, druid plus my retired alliance priest.  When the expansion comes out I’m going to have to choose which one(s) to level first and which will have to wait.

What will our static group do?  We originally rolled on Quel’dorei to play with three of our friends.  If they’re still interested in playing together as a group the characters we designate as our group characters will be used for group play.  Assuming my warrior stays as the tank for the group, I am willing to take six months to get to 80 on him if that what it takes for us to play together.  Ditto for any of my other toons if we decide to shuffle our roles around.

Jaimie and I have characters that we’ve leveled up in pairs (or mostly in pairs).  Our two hunters will probably level together (dual core hounds ftw!).  My paladin and her mage will probably level together (though paladin/shadow priest is tempting too).  Our warlock/shadow priest combo was made to play together.  That leave me with a druid and shaman to level on my own.  There’s always the possibility of mixing and matching the pairings.  If we don’t do that early on, we wind up with one of us running the other through quests the first toon has already completed.  It’s not nearly so fun that way. 

What do I want to do in Wrath?  I’ve healed endgame.  I’ve tanked endgame.  I’ve even DPSed endgame a bit.  I really don’t feel a pull to fill any particular role.  My preferred endgame role isn’t going to be a major factor in my decision.

My first toon to 80 will probably be the one that’s most fun to play.  Thus, I expect my hunter to be the first to hit 80 with my other toons trickling in over the next few weeks or months.  My next pick would probably my paladin if I end up playing in groups a lot from 70 to 80.  I’ll probably switch back and forth between my remaining toons and level them up more or less equally. 

(inspired by this Voodoo Ventures post)

A Dwarf Priest has a post on Shenanigans that made me laugh.  That is a very mean addon to spring on someone, but the punishment fits the crime. 

On one of the blogs I read someone posed the question "What would your ideal WoW party consist of?"  Here’s my answer as of late in Burning Crusade World of Warcraft. I am assuming you are forming up a group of level 1 people who are going to be instancing together from now to the expansion (and you are all reclusive millionaires so you can play as much as you want to before Wrath comes out and completely invalidates this).

Tank: Either a protection warrior or a protection paladin.  The warrior for their numerous "oh crap" buttons and sheer survivability and the paladin for their amazing AOE tanking abilities.  A bear druid would be a strong second place - the main reason I wouldn’t put them in first is that all those lovely plate and shield drops would get sharded.

Healer: I would go with a holy priest.  From what I’ve seen there are no situations where a priest is a bad choice for healing 5 mans.  In cases where the group is taking a lot of AOE damage, a paladin healer may not be able to keep up.  A restoration druid or shaman would also be a strong choice, but they’re not as versatile as a priest.  A discipline priest would probably work as a main healer as well, but I don’t know enough about them to say for certain. 

DPS/off-heal: I would pick either a elemental shaman, a balance druid, or a shadow priest.  All three should have a good sized mana pool and their gear should allow them to do a decent job of picking up heals if needed.  I would lean slightly toward the shaman for utility and so that mail caster gear doesn’t get sharded.  The shaman’s hourly self-resurrection would also be useful on rough runs. Retribution paladins and enhancement shaman are less likely to have the mana pool and gear to pick up on healing. 

DPS/utility: Mages take this hands down.  A warlock or rogue will probably pump out similar or slightly greater DPS but they’re nowhere near as useful.  Mages offer the best CC in the game for humanoids and beasts, portals to capital cities, food, and water.

DPS/support: I would lean toward a hunter for this role, particularly a hunter with improved traps.  A hunter’s traps provide CC for almost every mob in the game.  Hunters can pump out some very strong DPS.  A hunter with jumper cables can help with wipe protection.  That being said, it’s easy to argue for just picking another one from the DPS/off heal category.  An elemental shaman can bring totems for strong group buffs.  A shadow priest provides a steady stream of mana and health while DPSing.  A balance druid brings Gift of the Wild and a battle rez.

Here’s the party I’d make for running 5 person instances: protection paladin, holy priest, mage, elemental shaman, and shadow priest. The shadow priest could be replaced by a balance druid giving stronger off-tanking possibilities traded for weaker off heals/mana regeneration.

Classes/Specs I would not bring: Fury warriors,arms warriors, retribution paladins, rogues, warlocks, and enhancement shaman all bring DPS and utility to the group but their contributions pale when compared to those of the classes I’ve listed.  These classes all have strong places in raids or in PvP but they just aren’t useful enough for 5 player instances. 

I’ve figured out my next pre-Wrath project!  If my current alts all make it to 70 before Wrath of the Lich King comes out and I find myself getting bored with their day-to-day play, I could transfer over my undead priest, Dorane, and level her to 60.  This would leave her ready to play with Jaimie’s Death Knight.  This would get me a priest without having to slog through the low-level stuff again.  With the latest changes, she could even get her mount immediately.  Now I’m excited again!

I’m not doing a heck of a lot of preparation for Wrath of the Lich King.  That being said, I am doing two things to prepare. 

I’m buying cheap herbs so that my warlock can level inscription as quickly as possible.  Right now he’s one of my three miners, so it won’t be hard to drop mining for inscription.  It looks as though there will be a lot of neat abilities opened up with inscription, so I want to level that as quickly as possible. 

The other thing I’m doing is leveling alts.  I have a druid, shaman, and warlock around level 50.  I’d like to get them all to max level before the expansion - that’ll give me 6 toons to level to 80 (7 if I decide to level Flint).  If Wrath takes too long to come out, I’ll probably level another priest.  I’m hoping that Wrath will allow some kind of insta-leveling so that I can run a priest with Jaimie’s death knight.

One big thing that I’m not doing is stocking up on gold.  With 3 level 70s, I could theoretically be pulling in 600ish gold per day by doing daily quests.  I just don’t want to do dailies - at this point the only reward for doing them is gold.  If there were a way of doing 5-10 dailies for a badge of justice, I would do them, but as it stands it’s just not worth it.  I have  epic flying mounts on all three of my max-level characters, so what am I going to do with more gold?  I’m playing the auction house conservatively which takes me about 15 concentration-free minutes a day and makes me a decent trickle of gold.  For now, that’s enough.

Regular runs have lost their luster lately so I’ve been leveling alts. Team dot-fear-win (my warlock and Jaimie’s shadow priest) is up to level 52 and tearing through the zones. My shaman is up to 47 and aiming for 50 so that he can get past 300 jewelcrafting. My druid is only at 46 - he fell behind my shaman because the shaman got into a ZF run. He’s likely to stay behind for a bit as I really want to get my shaman up to 50 fast. I’ve gotten fishing up to 283 on my paladin by doing the daily quests. My hunter is up around 200 fishing so she’s almost ready for the Nat Pagle quest. We’re still doing Karazhan and Zul’Aman raidwise - my paladin and my hunter haven’t been needed so I’m down to 2 nights a week.

I’ve been grouping up with a bunch of new 70s lately.  Some of them do amazingly well in groups while for others it’s obvious that they soloed their way up to 70.  It seems to me that it isn’t the solo players’ fault that they don’t know how to play in a group - grouping before endgame is fairly strongly discouraged by World of Warcraft’s incentive system.

Ideally WoW would change so that grouping would be either neutral or provide a small bonus relative to solo play.  At this stage I rather doubt that will happen.  What if instead there were quests for each class/spec just below max level that tested some of the basics of grouping? 

I picture these as some kind of tiny single-player instance with only a few encounters.  The encounter would be set up to test a skill and would reward an achievement that others can see.  It could be set up to have different levels of difficulty as well.

Here are a few suggestions for quests by class.

Protection Warrior - escort 3 DPS and 1 healer NPC through to a destination.  Level 1 - NPCs watch their threat and the healer is skilled.  Level 5 - NPCs are trying to top the DPS charts on 6 mobs at once and the healer keeps falling asleep.

Hunter - keep a mob off the group.  Level 1 - the mob is trappable and the group doesn’t touch it.  Level 5 - Every member with a DOT applies it to the mob and the healer likes to stand next to it and cast big heals.

Holy Priest - heal the group through 2-3 encounters.  Level 1 - the tank is well geared and the DPS focus fire.  Level 5 - the warrior is tanking as dual-wielding fury and the DPS likes to stand next to you when they pull then use their aggro dump. 

Sure you could PUG and replicate all these experiences and more, but this idea has a couple of advantages.  First, it would be an easy way to check that a player knows their class and role.  Someone who has completed the level 5 quest will still have stuff to learn, but they have a solid grasp of what’s needed.  Second, since this would be part of the solo game, players could complete it at their convenience.  No need to spam "LF Tank, Healer, and 2 DPS for any instance" when you want to brush up your trapping skills.  No need to worry about letting the group down when your 4 year old suddenly decides this is a good time to flush the cat down the toilet.  The quests would be fairly short and could be repeated at will.  Third, this could be used to award entry-level gear for a specific role.  Want to switch that paladin from tank to healing?  Run through these quests and you’ll have a decent healing set to get you started. 

Basic guide to Affliction DPS is a good guide both to reading WoW Web Stats as an affliction warlock and to how to DPS effectively in a raid as an affliction warlock. My affliction warlock is leveling with Jaimie’s shadow priest so it’s rare that a mob lives long enough for both of us to get all our DOTs onto it.

Life of a Nin had a post On Raiders and raiding which discusses summer slumps in raiding and lack of progress.  He mentions the idea of a large scale raiding alliance as a possible solution.  You stay in your guild, but raid with people from the raiding alliance at the times that work for you on the raids you want to run.  One example of this in action is Leftovers Community Raiding.  For further reading, see the WoW Insider article. 

I really like the idea, but thinking about the overhead scares me.  The loot system would have to be 100% impartial.  If you have the points or win the roll you get it.  If there is even the slightest room for favoritism the whole thing would fall apart. 

How are troublemakers handled?  In the relatively small guilds I’ve been in, there have been a number of disruptive people.  Sometimes it was just a bad night.  Sometimes it was a regular occurrence.  How do they avoid blacklisting someone for having a bad night while keeping the troublemakers from stirring things up?

It looks like Leftovers is an Alliance group on a role-playing server.  Looking at their setup tempts me to pull Flint out of retirement and give it a try.  Sadly, Flint would lose the provable distinction of having leveled on a PvP server as a holy priest.  I’m also not sure if I want to get into raiding on him again.  It’s definitely something to think about. 

I recently ran Blackrock Spire with some 55ish people from our guild alliance. We ran Upper Blackrock Spire, then Lower Blackrock Spire. It was fun to see the old place again. I have a lot of memories of running it back when 60 was the level cap.

One fine day when I was questing in Felwood on my priest, I got a whisper for a pick up group for Upper Balckrock Spire. Three pulls in and I got the first piece of my Devout set, the Devout Belt. As the only priest, it was mine!

We ran Upper Blackrock Spire many times as a guild. One of the first times we downed the end boss, Jaimie’s mage was the last one standing. We got a screenshot of the kill and Tinder soloing Drak was a guild legend.

For a sadder memory, Lower Blackrock Spire saw the death of our second guild. (We were only in the first one for a week when most of the guild switched.) In the middle of a run, just as we were pulling the giant wolves, our guild master logged on, promoted the druid in our group to GM, then logged off. A week or two later, our guild disbanded and we joined Legion of the Dragon - our first raiding guild.

It’s strange but I think if I were to resume playing my priest, Flint, I could do a better job than I did when he was my main character.  It would take me a bit to get back into the swing of healing and my first few runs would doubtless be scary things.  However, I think I have a better grasp of how to play than I did back then.

Flint was my first max level character (twice).  It’s not surprising that I would make some really noobish mistakes, such as the time I mind controlled a Dark Iron dwarf in Gnomergon, ran him over the nearest ledge, and watched in horror as he pulled most of the rest of the instance. The simple fact that I’ve had more practice means that I play better.

There are a lot of resources out there that I didn’t know about on Flint.  Heck, there are a lot of resources out there that didn’t exist when I was playing Flint.  Loot lists, message boards, theorycrafting, rotations, macros, and strategy guides have all helped tremendously.  Now I know why I shouldn’t be rolling on that spell crit mace against a paladin.  I did a decent amount of research while playing Flint, but nothing compared to the research I’m doing now. 

Having leveled a warrior, paladin, and hunter to max level and getting a warlock, shaman, and druid a decent chunk of the way there means that I have a better idea how the different classes are played.  There was one warrior that annoyed the crap out of me because he wouldn’t watch mana bars at all.  Now I know why he loved to chain pull and I am aware that I don’t NEED to have full mana for every trash mob pull in an instance.

Raid leading has taught me even more about the different classes and how to get people to work together.  I was good at healing my group, but terrible at carrying out any other heal assignment.  I would get nervous whenever someone’s health would drop and would toss out heals to unassigned targets.  That’s fine every once in a while, but not as a general practice.  I’ve learned to trust my teammates to do their jobs while I focus on doing mine.

Now I want to roll up a priest to apply the lessons that I’ve learned.  Maybe I’ll do that once my other toons make it up to 70 (or next time I want another alt).