Posts Tagged rogue

Grouping kills you

Tobold recently had a post on how Grouping kills you.  I was looking at it from the perspective of twinking up a rogue.   A Balanced Heartseeker dagger costs 40 Emblems or 60 Champion’s Seals.

40 Emblems is roughly 13 heroic instance runs – depending on the group and the instance, you’re looking at 13 hours or more.

60 Champion’s Seals is about 12 days of dailies – maybe an hour a day, a good chunk of which is flight time when you can be afk to do other things.  Also, you are guaranteed your Seals whereas if the group falls apart you may not get your emblems.

If your daily playtime is limited, you’re better off doing dailies rather than trying to find instance runs.  Why group before raiding?

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Pawn Scales for Wrath

pawn 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 )

EDIT: There is something broken about these scales for weapons. Do not use them to decide which weapon to use.

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.

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Shaman Play in 3.02

shaman2 I had a chance to play my shaman this weekend and got him a good chunk of the way through 67.  The changes to shamans in 3.02 are huge.  My enhancement shaman now feels like a real hybrid class rather than a self-healing rogue. 

The trickiest bit has been remembering to use all these fancy new abilities.  For example, I was fighting a weak elite, meant to hit chain lightning and brought out my spirit wolves instead.  That was a very happy surprise!  I’m going to try to solo a tougher elite next time I get on, just to get practice in burning through my cooldowns. 

Maelstrom weapon is a lot of fun – I love popping those instant heals if my health is down.  Water shield keeps my mana filled up.  I’m now doing roughly 50/50 physical and magical attacks as opposed to the pre-patch 80/20. 

I’m probably going to switch to resto when I hit 70 and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do with that spec.   I think I’m ready to play a healer again. 

EDIT: I managed to trivially solo Torgos and Terokkarantula at 67. Windroc Matriarch was somewhat tougher but I got her down too.

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My Ideal WoW Party

party 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. 

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So You Want to Raid Lead

We have a couple of people in our guild alliance who are interested in raid leading.  I thought I’d give them a hand by pointing out some useful posts and tips.

Strategies

mistell As a raid leader, your key task is to provide a strategy for raids.  I find that Bosskillers generally provides solid guides.  The nicest thing about his site is the links to other guides, including video guides.  I’ve found that Pillage has a lot of very detailed guides.  What makes Pillage’s guides so useful is that they cover trash mobs as well.  When you don’t need a full guide – just something to refresh your memory – WoWWiki is the place to go.

Addons

There are a number of addons out there that make life easier for a raid leader.  Here are a few that I’ve found particularly useful.

ORA2 provides information about the raid’s status, cooldowns, main tanks, main assists, and so on.  A lot of the functionality has been rolled into the default UI, but ORA2 provides a better interface and some enhanced functionality.

RaidBuffStatus gives a complete overview of the Raid’s Buff Status.  Does the hunter have an aspect up?  Did that freshly resurrected warlock get a new int buff?  Is someone ignoring your pleas for full raid buffs before a tough boss?  Did people "forget" consumables again?  A quick Ctrl-Click and you can whisper the buffer to remind them.  If you feel like being less discreet about it, you can let the raid know who’s slacking off.  About the only things this doesn’t seem to track are weapon buffs (oils/blacksmith stones), healthstones, and soulstones. 

Deadly Boss Mods and BigWigs provide critical information for boss fights.  As raid leader you need to know when a boss is about to use their special abilities and these addons help you keep track of that. 

GuildRaidSnapShot in combination with our guild site lets you do two very useful things.  First it keeps track of who was at a raid.  Second, it tracks the epics that drop.  If you install this addon, it will prompt you for a DKP value, just leave the field blank and hit enter.  After a raid, you will have to go to our site and upload the snapshot.  Once you have uploaded the snapshot, you can click on the "Purge" button the pops up next time you log in.

There are addons to help you with marking targets – I personally find it just as easy to keybind the symbols and use that.

Loot Systems

50dkpminus Now we start to get into the really messy stuff.  What makes loot systems messy is that we try to make them fair. 

Is it fair that the priest who’s been there for every raid, supplied consumables and enchants to everyone, and has played with great skill loses a roll for a cloth belt to a PUGed shaman who happens to be resto for this week’s raid but is going back to enhancement next week? 

Is it fair when a new rogue loses a str/agi/attack power dagger to a priest who likes the way it looks but who has been around long enough to have the points needed to bid on it?  These are the types of situations that loot systems are intended to regulate.

Thus far, we’ve been using need/greed rolls for loot.  It’s the simplest system to implement, but as in the priest example above, it can lead to gross unfairness. 

Here are some overviews of loot systems.
DKP Loot Systems
Other Loot Systems
Saraid Article on DKP

We’re going to stick with rolls for now, but this is something we really need to think about particularly as we move into 25 person raids. 

WoW Web Stats

20070705

WoW Web Stats is a very useful tool.  I don’t place a lot of faith in Damage/Healing meters. (How to top the healing meters :) )  However, they can provide some feedback.  If you’re DPS and you’re not staying ahead of the holy priest, there’s a problem.  If you’re a prot warrior and you have 3 times as many shield slams as revenges, there’s a problem (hangs head in shame).  Big Red Kitty has a guide to an earlier version of WoW Web Stats – just jump down to step 10 as a lot has changed for the previous 9 steps. 

I will post a detailed guide for anyone who needs to upload a WoW Web Stats Report.

Player Gear/Spec Evaluation

005duelme We haven’t made a big deal out of spec, all we ask is that raiders be specced for their role.  Don’t show up in a resto spec and plan to DPS.  Don’t show up looking to tank as a paladin without Holy Shield.  Do a search on WoW Wiki for [class] builds to see some of the standard builds.  Go to Elitist Jerks to see what are key talents for a given class/spec.  If someone wants to fill a role while not having speced for it, they can expect to be greeted with skepticism and will have to work harder to prove themselves.  (Off specs can work, I knew a holy paladin who was an amazing tank in the pre-BC days when paladins were only supposed to be cleansebots.) 

Some quick evaluations tools are be.imba and WoW Heroes.  These are very valuable to raid leaders.  These tools will let you know that Raider X is geared up enough to run Black Temple while Raider Y isn’t geared up enough for Karazhan.  Note that these tools depend on what is visible in the armory and that they are only estimates.  If your prot warrior logs out in his DPS gear, he’s going to have a terrible score.  As Warshrike demonstrated last week, a DPS that’s undergeared for Kara can still rock the damage charts in Zul’Aman when played by a skilled player. 

THE END

There’s more to be said, but this should give you a good start.  I have a lot of fun raid leading and I hope you do too!

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All Purple!

I got the last few badges for my cloak last night and now Tristam is decked out head to toe in epic gear.

It was a fun run (except for Prince). We sped through and went from Moroes to Prince in 3.5 hours. We downed Moroes, Opera (Romulo and Julianne), Curator, Shade of Aran, Netherspite, Chess, and Prince. The fights were smooth as could be except for Prince and oddly enough Chess. We lost at Chess for the first time ever. (I figure since I took the Warchief I jinxed it.) We had a lot of melee DPS so Prince was rough. It took us a couple tries but we got him.

Justin brought his rogue last night and made out like a bandit. I think his rogue now has more Kara loot than his warlock who’s been raiding for the last four months. Of course, now I expect his rogue to put out as much DPS as his warlock. :)

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Pre-Karazhan Gear for Rogues

I don’t actually have a level 70 rogue. My highest rogue is 42, Alliance, on a PvP server, and has been parked for many months. However, I do run Kara with one rogue in our raid and one of our guildies has an up and coming rogue alt. This Pre-Karazhan Gear list for rogues could be useful to them. So could A Rogue’s Guide to Karazhan.

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Warrior I hate Blackheart the Inciter

Since I spent pretty much all of last week in Shadow Labs getting one person after another attuned, I finally found a nice strategy for Blackheart the Inciter yesterday. Warrior I hate Blackheart the Inciter!!! – TheorySpot

Basics; We all know who you are Killing……… – So put a big freaking ORANGE Circle on Your* Head……
making it easier for your party to find you after MC to come
cluster up for 2seconds, so no matter who gets 1st Aggro,
you can Pop a Taunt Off within simple range, instead of the
Casters madly popping off shots and backing up.
- Now have the party use the next 3-5 Seconds doing NO DPS
Even a Healer should chill for a second, until you have that
Taunt & Bash & Devastate back-up kiting at least* 5 feet towards…
the ‘return-to-spot’….
- Their job for 3 to 5 seconds is to apply 1st Aid to themselves.
5 seconds of 1st Aid = 3,000 HP and Less Aggro and ensures a Buffer
for the start of the Next MC.
*That’s why Rogues remove posions, during the MC, the Poison DOTs
inflicted on other party members willl later interupt the bandaging.
- Now you have 20 to 25 Seconds of DPS Time.
Your ass is kinda towards the wall, you didn’t have to fight for aggro
while they bandaged, they have 3k HP more, and are back in their spots.
You should be able to bandage again on Alternating MC’s depending on
how many phases you need to go through.

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Feign Death and My Tanking Priority List

The when and why of using Feign Death. | The Delusional Hunter

Repeat after me: Feign Death is an ability used by hunters to manage their aggro accumulation during a fight. It is not a tool for dumping aggro once you have stolen it.

Use it (Feign Death) every time it cools down

As a tank I hate dealing with this. Chasing hunters around trying to pull off of them is a royal pain, especially on my poor paladin who lacks intercept/intervene. If the healer dies, it’s my fault. I try to save everyone, but my tanking priority is roughly this: keep the healer alive, keep aggro on the main and secondary target, keep myself alive, keep off-healer alive, keep mages alive, keep aggro on extra mobs, keep rogues/warlocks/hunters alive, actually DPS the target. Mages get higher keep alive priority to to squishiness and crowd control abilities. Warlocks/hunters/rogues have aggro dumping abilities. Warlocks and hunters have pets to help them and a tendency to go after the extra targets where my aggro is weaker.

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Blog Azeroth :: Shared Topic #1!

Over on Blog Azeroth, someone proposed that there be a weekly topic for bloggers, something to spark a little comparison and to allow readers to see different points of view. Here’s the first one: Blog Azeroth ::Shared Topic #1!
Q: What do you enjoy about the class you play the most?

At the moment the class I play the most is paladin, namely Andromache on Quel’dorei.

I enjoy being able to buff people. Right from the word go, my presence helps the others in the group. When I tried out a rogue, I found the lack of buffs strangely disconcerting. The constant maneuvering for position annoyed me too.

My previous main was a holy priest. Andromache is specced for paladin AOE grinding. On the occasions when I soloed on my priest, trying to kill one mob a few levels lower was heartbreakingly slow. Now I buff myself, round up as many mobs as I can, and chortle as they die futilely beating against my armor.

I play a protection warrior when I tank for our guild’s static group. My warrior has amazing flexibility when he’s working with a group, but on his own he’s pitiful (see holy priest above). When things go wrong, Andromache can self-heal, bubble and bandage, and lay on hands. One on one with my warrior versus my paladin, there is no question that Andromache would be the last one standing. Paladin have more panic buttons for keeping themselves alive.

Blood Elf paladins are twisting the light for their own purposes, but I see my paladin as closer to the Uther-type of paladin than a power seeker. With a warlock it’s hard to deny that you’re at the very least flirting with evil, with my paladin I can be one of the good guys. (This is why the WotLK Strat instance has me worried.)

My hunter is a powerful DPS machine but she’s basically a solo character. This is a Massively Multiplayer game and playing with others is more fun. A paladin makes a great grouping character.

I still haven’t gotten the hang of shaman or mages. Druid is the only class that might appeal to me as much as a paladin for general play, but my horde druid is only level 11. My level 70 paladin has piles of shiny new stuff to play with.

Thus the reason I play a paladin.

What do YOU enjoy about the class YOU play the most?

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Tanking with Warrior and Paladin

I spent a good chunk of Sunday tanking with my paladin, then switched over to tanking on my warrior for our static group. It was interesting to make the switch. I ran Ramparts and Blood Furnace on my paladin with a priest and a rogue. For one run we had a shaman and hunter and for the other two we had another paladin and hunter. We ran Live Strat with our static group.

The kinds of pulls that are easy on my paladin are a click-fest on my warrior. Multiple mobs including a couple non-elites? The paladin tosses a shield, throws down a consecrate and that’s all she wrote. The warrior is going nuts trying to get a sunder on every mob so that the healer doesn’t pull aggro. The situations that lead to trouble on my paladin are easy to save on my warrior. The DPS has gone a little crazy on a big mob? Taunt, shield slam, devastate and you’re mine! The paladin is hoping that righteous defense and/or blessing of protection isn’t down and that she can re-establish aggro before they wear off. It takes a bit of work to shift mindsets from one to the other.

(Now if only I had a feral druid for a third shift in perspective.)

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Guide to Blessings

Blessing of Kings has a good Guide to Blessings. I’ve run a couple of instances with my paladin now, so it’s nice to have a breakdown of what blessings go with what classes. Looks like my big mistake was forgetting to put Salvation on the rogue and DPS warrior. Ah well, we had successful runs anyway.

Warrior (tank) – Kings, Light, Sanctuary, Might
Warrior (DPS) – Salvation, Might, Kings, Sanctuary, Light

Druid (bear) – Kings, Light, Might, Sanctuary
Druid (cat) – Salvation, Might, Kings, Sanctuary, Light
Druid (other) – Salvation, Wisdom, Kings, Sanctuary, Light

Warriors and druids usually cause the biggest hassles when organizing buffs. DPS warriors do not have ways to drop threat, so Salvation is very important to them. At the same time, putting Salvation on your tanking Warriors ends extremely badly.

As for healers, I generally prefer to put Salvation on them first. It’s safest, and you don’t want to lose your healers to adds, or if the tank gets incapacitated.

Hunter – Might or Wisdom, Wisdom or Might, Kings, Sanctuary, Light
Hunter (Survival) – Kings, Might or Wisdom, Wisdom or Might, Sanctuary, Light

Because Feign Death is a complete aggro wipe available every 30s, hunters do not need Salvation. Additionally, not having Salvation will give them more control over trapping and improve the effect of Misdirect. Might will usually do more damage on short fights, but Wisdom will do more on long fights.

Hunter pets get the same Greater Blessings cast on the Warrior class. This is a source of great amusement to paladins.

If you have a Survival hunter with Expose Weakness, Kings can provide more DPS for a 25-man raid. The hunter needs at least 800 Agility for this to be the case.

Mage – Salvation, Wisdom, Kings, Sanctuary, Light

Paladin (tank) – Kings, Light, Sanctuary, Might
Paladin (DPS) – Salvation, Might, Kings, Wisdom, Sanctuary, Light
Paladin (healer) – Wisdom, Kings, Salvation, Sanctuary, Light

Paladins are all over the map as well. Since paladin heals are innately low-threat, you can get away without Salvation. As well, paladins wear plate, so if a healer must pull aggro, it’s better to let a paladin do so.

Priest – Salvation, Wisdom, Kings, Sanctuary, Light

Shaman (healer/caster) – Salvation, Wisdom, Kings, Sanctuary, Light
Shaman (Enhancement) – Salvation, Might, Kings, Wisdom, Sanctuary, Light

Rogue – Salvation, Might, Kings, Sanctuary, Light

Warlock – Salvation, Wisdom, Kings, Sanctuary, Light

Warlock pets get the same Greater Blessings cast on the Warlock class. If the warlock uses an Imp, make sure that Phase-Shift is turned off while Blessings are being cast. A phase-shifted Imp will not receive any Blessings.

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Raiding Consumables

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 Alleria

Since 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.
Greater
Protection 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.

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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 Fortitude

Food – 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 Wisdom

Food – 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 Zanza

Food – 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

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My Toons

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.

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Marking Targets

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.

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Rezzing Priority

Egotistical Priest has a nice post on Rezzing Priority
Rule 1) Always rez other rezzers first.

They’ll get up, have themselves a drink, and help you rez.

Who’s next? Well, who takes the longest to recover from a death? Mana-users that buff group members should be next. Priests, mages, druids, paladins…anyone who is going to have to drink -> buff -> drink should get the next rez priority.

Rule 2) Always rez mana-using buffbots next.

After that, mana-users who don’t have buffs should get priority. They’re still going to have to drink to get their mana back, even if they don’t have to drink TWICE after they rebuff the group. Hunters, warlocks, for example. (please note that if your hunter’s pet died in the previous fight, they’re basically in the second rule. They have to drink, rez their pet, feed their pet, drink…)

Rule 3) Non buffing mana-users next.

After that, melee fighters like warriors and rogues should get the rez. They just need to sit down and eat. (Heck, most of the time they don’t bandage OR eat, they wait for me to heal them).

Rule 4) Next comes anyone who only has to regen health.

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The Ten Commandments of Being in a Group

The Ten Commandments of Being in a Group gives some very good advice for grouping from Poga.

The Ten Commandments of Being in a Group

Yeah, I’m making a funny here but it’s a funny with a point. While you’re working your way up to 70, you’re spending a lot of time solo and it’s easy to pick up some very bad habits. Because I’ve seen this far too many times, I wrote up this list hoping to encourage breaking those bad habits and picking up some good ones in their place. So go forth and sin no more!

I. “This is thy group, which brought thee out of the land of PUG’ing, out of the house of boredom; thou shalt have no other groups before thy current group.”

What this means really is if you’re in a group to do a run, don’t be a bastard and ditch the group to go do another run with a different group. Commit to the run you’re with and see it through. Decide BEFORE the run if you have better things to do or not enough time to finish the run. If you’re going to be short on time, let the rest of your group know before you start and let them decide whether you should come along.

II. “Thou shalt not wear thy gear in vain.”

Gear with sockets should have gems in them (even if it’s just a 2 gold green gem). Gear that can be enchanted should be enchanted. Yes, it may be crap gear you intend to replace soon but you can still put a cheaper enchant on it to help you get by in the meantime. These little things help you to pull your weight in the run and whatever your class or spec, that’s your job.

III. “Remember the mana bars and keep them full.”

This one is mainly for the tanks… it’s easy to look up, see you’ve got a full health bar and decide you’re ready for the next pull. STOP. Look down. There are a bunch of other bars there. These days most of them are likely to be a health bar with a mana bar right under it. If those mana bars aren’t full, stop and wait for folks to get mana before you start the pull.

But as I said, it’s only mainly for the tanks and some of you mana users are just as guilty. Not because you ignore the needs of your other group members before starting the pull, but because you’re not drinking to get mana yourself! If the pull goes badly for whatever reason, you’re going to want that mana pretty soon.

IV. “Honor thy tank and thy healer.”

This one’s easy… if you’re dps and you see the tank has started the pull, what should you do? The right answer is nothing. Absolutely nothing. Don’t do a thing until you’ve seen the tank not only close with the mob(s), but has had a chance to land at least two blows. This doesn’t mean time your spell so it will land after the 2nd blow, it means don’t even start casting until the 2nd blow. The only exception is if you specifically have a job in the pull doing crowd control. And yes, this applies even if it’s “only trash mobs”. If the target the tank is pulling is a boss, you shouldn’t do anything until the tank has had a good 10 seconds to get a hold on the aggro. Yes, there are specific bosses that are an exception to this rule but I’m sure your tank/instance leader will point them out to you.

What does this have to do with “thy healer”? Very simple… if the tank gets the aggro and is able to hold it, 90% of the healer’s effort is going toward keeping the tank alive and well. And trust me, the tank is going to take a lot less damage when he’s getting hit than a rogue or a mage will. That means the healer doesn’t have to throw around his heaviest, mana-hungry, threat-magnet heals. He’ll be able to keep healing longer and keep lower threat the whole fight.

V. “Thou shalt not break CC.”

The only person that should ever break crowd control is the tank, and that is when they are about to begin focusing threat on that target. If you break CC because you want to speed things up, you’re just going to make the tank’s job harder because now he has to chase the mob down, taunt it, and hope he can build his threat fast enough. That’s no way to treat the person who’s playing that tank.

VI. “Thou shalt not pull the mob.”

90% of the time the only people that should pull the mob(s) are the tank or a hunter using misdirection. 9% of the time it will be a sheep pull because the mobs present make that a more reasonable pull (ask the tank first before you just do this). The last 1% is for bizarre scripted scenarios where someone else needs to pull because of the way the fight works. That’s it. Pulling mob(s) because you’re bored and the run isn’t going fast enough for your taste means you need to be patient and respect the other people you’re running with rather than deliberately threatening the run. If you’re in a hurry due to time constraints, explain that to the others in the run so that they can take all reasonable steps to speed things up without causing wipes.

VII. “Thou shalt not steal aggro.”

Get KLH Threat Meter (KTM), better yet get Omen. These days there’s no good reason not to have a threat meter. And then pay attention to it! Omen will give you warnings when you’re about to steal aggro from the person currently holding the mob (which we hope is the tank). This also gets back to the fourth commandment and honoring your tanks and healers. If you do steal aggro, DON’T RUN AWAY FROM THE TANK. You’re just making it harder for the tank to get the aggro back and thus the mob is going to hit you even longer.

VIII. “Thou shalt bear buffs upon thy neighbors.”

If you can buff the party, you should buff the party. If you’re a paladin, that means use your blessings and auras. If you’re a priest, get out those prayers. Just about every class can buff their fellow party members in some way and if you can, you should do it every time the buffs go down. Yes, some classes like paladins and shamans have some damn short durations on their buffs (blessings and totems respectively) but you chose the class, that means you get to keep up the buffs despite their short durations. If you’re a paladin, consider getting the Cirk’s Blessings addon as it will make blessing management a lot easier.

IX. “Thou shalt not be a loot whore.”

That’s a pretty easy and straight-forward statement. If you can use the loot drop, then by all means, roll need or pass and roll after or spend DKP, whichever is the method your group is using. But when you’ve won two items and you’re looking at a third and someone else in the group can use it, it’s time to pass. Similarly, rolling need on a BoE item just because an alt of yours can use it isn’t cool. Ask the group first and only if they say it’s ok should you do so.

X. “Thou shalt not come unprepared, desiring not thy neighbor’s potions, nor food, nor bread and water, nor reagents, nor scrolls, nor ammo, nor anything that belongs to thy neighbor.”

Yeah, I threw in the bread and water because it fit well and yeah, mages should provide bread and water to their group but the point remains, bring your own buff food, reagents, ammo, and potions. At the very least you should have ammo, reagents, and a stack of health/mana potions appropriate to your level. For more serious runs like heroics or raids, you should also have elixirs or flasks to buff yourself as far as you can go. And being prepared means having your armor repaired fully for a run.

(via WoWInsider)

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Llamaforu’s guide to the new rogue!

Llamaforu’s guide to the new rogue! looks interesting. I’ll have to try that out with my rogue.

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Post-60 World of Warcraft

I’ve had a level 60 character in World of Warcraft for about three weeks, and life at 60 is boring. The big problem is that there’s no longer anything do to solo (or as a duo). You need at minimum 5 people to go places and do things that matter (unless you want to grind rep one point at a time – even there you’re way better off waiting for a raid to go).

I’ve largely abandoned my level 60 character apart from the Alterac Valley battleground and the occasional instance with my guild. We’re just getting up to 20-some level 60s so getting a group together at any given time is tricky. I’m curious to see what happens as we get more guild members up to 60.

As it stands, I’ve made a pile of alts and I’m trying to take advantage of rested XP by playing them in rotation. I have an alt for every class. So far I like the priest best (duh), followed by the warlock and hunter. The class I like the least is the rogue – I’ve gotten him to level 19 and I just can’t seem to figure out how to play a rogue properly.

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WLD July 19, 2006

Present this week:
* Rampenape – human sorcerer
* Kysta half-elf cleric
* Riamara spryte greenbond
* Miru human fighter
* Ruke human palaldin
* Cinner the dwarven rogue/wizard/fighter/cleric

With their prisoners leading the way, the party decided to seek out the Spider King. As they came to a solid door, it suddenly opened and on the other side were six heavily armed drow. Ruke decided to try for diplomacy, presenting the token the naga had given them. The drow sent for Lorath.

While Ruke was chatting with the spokes-drow, Rampenape launched an ice storm on the drow. The drow ran forward, but were slowed by the storm of ice. Kysta implored Pelor to eliminate the lead Drow while reaching out to touch it, but the magic in the drow’s very being rejected the spell’s effects. The lead drow was cut in half by the force of Ruke’s blow. The drow were pounded into the ground by the force of Rampenape’s renewed ice storm. One by one the deadly hailstones claim their lives.

As they enter the next room, a drider and the messenger drow enter from the north. The drow looked a little confused “Where did the rest of them go?” Kysta tried to convince him that something huge attacked and they ran after it. The drider didn’t buy it and screamed “Treachery! Guards!” Ruke rolled his eyes, seeing that it’s not going well he wasted no time charging the drider. The drider is stunned by the force of Ruke’s attack. Bleeding heavily he pulled out a dagger and flail and prepared to defend himself. Rampenape fired scorching rays, one at the drider, the other at the drow. He missed the drow completely and the drider glowed slightly as the magic is absorbed harmlessly into his skin. With a crackling sound, Lorath swung his flail at Ruke. At the same time he stabed underhanded with a dripping green dagger, scoring three solid hits.

Upon seeing Ruke attack Lorath, the drow’s eyes widened and he yelled for help. He pulled out his sword and moved forward. Kysta’s mace whistled harmlessly past the drider. Ruke slashes out twice rapidly at the drider, pivoting his foot forward to give it that extra ‘oomph’ but the attacks bounce off the shield held in the drider’s lower arm. Rampenape got frustrated and used his last scorching ray on those two again, and again fails to affect either. Riamara sings lesser transfer wounds on Ruke. Lorath continued his attacks on Ruke, but missed him completely.

The drow swung at Ruke again and flailed the air ineffectually. Kysta hit the drow with her mace. The drider scuttled out of the way of Ruke’s attacks. Rampenape blasts a fireball into the hallway behind them. The drow screamed as it was consumed by flames while the drider is burned but fought on. Riamara cast lesser transfer wounds on Ruke. Miru took a run all the way to the fight, after hearing Ruke’s scream.

Then they saw more drow running down the hallway towards the sounds of battle. The drider collapsed as Kysta hit it. The approaching drow howled as they saw the drider fall. Ruke charged forward at the first drow in anger, driving it back by the force of his blow. Rampenape cast ice storm a bit north of the first drow, avoiding Ruke. Riamara used her wand on Ruke again, transferring some of his wounds to herself. Miru charged right up into the battle.

The drow began to fall back, unprepared for this kind of assault. Kysta threw out a burst of sound, stunning all the drow but one. Ruke slips on a leftover hailstone and misses the drow completely, and was in turn battered by the remnants of Rampenape’s ice storm. Rampenape tried for another ice storm, but this time the drow shrugged off its effects. Riamara uses her wand one last time on Ruke, transfering his wounds to herself and passing out. Miru charges the nearest drow, killing it with one solid blow.

Two of the drow were still stunned. The third ran for her life! Kysta’s mace thumped one of the stunned drow. Ruke killed the two stunned drow with two blows. The party quickly determined they would be unable to catch the runner and so fell back to a room with solid doors so that they could rest through the night. Oddly enough, their wounds seemed to heal very quickly.

****************

Miru joined the game late. Cinner was there at the beginning but got disconnected due to a storm.

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