I Will Continue to Not Blog

Read the title bitches.

Druids are Fine

This image is horrific for what I'm trying to show.  However, over the course of a half hour turtle in the level 70-74 bracket, my druid was able to heal for nearly 2 million health points.  Druids are fine, nerf everyone else.

Do You Think I'm Stupid?

Dear Potential Pick-Up-Group Member,

I see that you are interested in joining my raid group in hopes of killing some bosses.  Well, that's very exciting! I'm happy that you and I share a common goal of progressing in World of Warcraft's endgame environment.  But, perhaps we could address the following issues together?

You Don't Match the Roles Required:



Oddly enough, your rogue does not count as a tank or a healer.  So when I asked for a tank or a healer, why did you think that your rogue would do the job? Blizzard might be full of lies but at the very least I know they're telling the truth on this one.

You Are Not the Correct Level for the Content:

Now I know that this seems painfully stupid for me to point out, but you're not going to be able to zone into the raid instance let alone hit any of the monsters inside.

You're Not Ready for the Content:

Depicted above is a screen shot from the (supposedly defunct) WoW-Heroes website.  Gearscore is a poor means of qualifying who is or isn't ready for raiding.  But, the WoW-Heroes website makes a lot of the information clear and easy to read.  Your Holy Paladin has a manapool as small as 62k mana.  At the same time, your paladin has spellpower and spirit levels well below introductory raiding standards.

While this is sometimes a difficult thing to swallow you just might not have the gear to raid competitively.

You Don't Seem to Give a Shit:

You're level 85, you're the class and specialization I require, and you're wearing gear that is appropriate to start raiding.  So why haven't you enchanted any of it? Those little x's in the above picture signify items that are currently missing enchants and list some upgrades.



Sometimes enchants are expensive.  Other times, you have an item that doesn't deserve a higher end enchant.  But there's no reason to not put something on the item in order to increase your contribution to my raid.

A Mage with zero enchants is missing out on the following stats:

Intellect: 325, with 500 intellect over 12 seconds through Power Torrent.  An additional 40 intellect if you have an offhand.  Critical Strike:  60.  Stamina: 100.  And as much as 50 of a rating stat or a runspeed enchant. 



So why would I take you over somebody who has taken the time to enchant their items? They will, fairly obviously, contribute more to the raid than you will.

(The above also goes for gemming.)

Bottom Line

Please, don't whisper me for an invite if you don't fill a role I've specified, if you're not the correct level, if you're not ready for the content, or if you don't give a shit about your character.

Oh, and don't fucking lie.  When you say "385 iLvL 13/12" and I look your character up and see something horrific then you've wasted my time.

A slow and inconsistent progression is better than none at all

Congratulations to my guild (and I) on our first (This is hopelessly late) Omnotron Defense System kill and Maloriak kill.

Raid Composition from Left to Right: Epictetus, Ocin, Konpaku, Fragilegoods, Carebear, Lilchris, Seductiv, Fwuzzy, Moonkin Hatchling, Wisdomteeth, and Khuvenant

What I want to point out about this composition is the three tanks.  Fragilegoods and Lilchris did a standup job through the first 3 phase repetition.  However, during the last burn phase, Wisdomteeth was forced to mage tank Maloriak for the kill.

Congrats again SPK!

A Goal a Day

I'm going to start setting myself personal achievements to accomplish once a day.  Today, with the help of Fragilegoods and Shoryu of Serial Peacekeepers renown, I played the "Only One Must Die" mini-game.

This mini-game is best played in a resource style game, but can be played in any of the available battlegrounds.  So, here's the setup.

1.  The group (3 party members is what we did, you could do anywhere from 1 to 5) charges to the enemy spawn point.
2.  The party leader names the target.  In our particular case it was easy, "Mission" was our target.
3.  You spend the rest of the game guessing where they're going to ressurect after you've killed them and kill them again.
4.  If you win the battleground while doing this, bonus points.

And that's all there is to it.  Here's some twists you can do for flavour:

1.  See if you can get the same target a couple battlegrounds in a row and do a total deaths over the sum of the battlegrounds.

2.  See if you can pick consecutively more difficult to kill targets.

3.  See how many times you can successfully /dance with them prior to attacking and killing them before they leave the battleground.

4.  Shootout: Everyone in your party gets a turn to solo the target.  If they fail to solo it, its the next person's turn.  Person with the claim to the most deaths of the target wins.

Third Level 85

Got my paladin (Eatenyofood) to 85 today.  Only levelled through dungeons and PvP.  And other than one dungeon that I tanked to get from 80 to 81, I healed the entire way.  I enjoyed myself thoroughly and am looking forward to healing in arena and raids in addition to my previous repertoire.

Healing in Battlegrounds

Healing is not what it used to be.  Or so I've been told.  As I level my paladin through random cataclysm dungeons and battlegrounds, it doesn't seem too different.  My mana is essentially infinite as long as I'm not doing something stupid (lol-exorcismspam-ftw-rite?).  And if I get ignored in a battleground, I can keep myself and another guy alive indefinitely.

So where are the healers in battlegrounds? From brackets 10-19 to 85, healers have become more scarce than PvP-Tanks (Thanks largely to Protection being more fun than Retribution or Arms/Fury).  Are stress levels scaring people? Or lack of functionality?

Or perhaps people are lazy.  I'm not sure.

Theoretical Rated Battlegrounds

Back before Cataclysm came out, Blizzard made some general statements on rated battlegrounds and what they would bring to World of Warcraft.  I can't remember if my thinking on them is correct or based in fact, but I'll talk about what I thought they were.

You would have options to queue for a normal battleground and a rated battleground.  Normal battlegrounds you could do any time all week.  You could only participate in a set number of rated battlegrounds.  Your performance in that game would be rated by Killing Blows, Deaths, Honorable Kills, Damage Done, Healing Done, and Objectives completed (Capturing/Defending flags and nodes).  Your rating would go up or down depending on your performance, and go up or down more or less depending on if you won or lost the battleground.

Ultimately, Blizzard deemed that this would either be too much code or would be too prone to number inflation and greedy play (If every player is trying to capture the flag in WSG for a rating boost, what would stop them from ignoring the current flag carrier's well-being in hopes of being able to capture the flag?).  Perhaps this could be solved by making a win exponentially better for your rating than a loss.  I'm not sure.

I like the concept of rewarding players for solid efforts in a winning or losing battleground.  Sometimes players excel in a battleground, getting huge numbers of honorable kills and killing blows and capturing nodes, but are unable to be everywhere on the map.  This has happened to me, but I know that this has happened to a lot of above-average players.  They get stuck with uncoordinated or ignorant teams and are only able to do incredibly well in certain areas where the rest of the team flounders.  Those people deserve a little extra reward than 3 honor more than the next guy.

A couple things

I'm going to cover a couple things really quick.

Baradin Warden's Rep

At Mr. Popularity (Rank 2) or Guild Level 12, you receive an additional 10% reputation reward for killing monsters and completing quests.  That means that if you complete the 12 daily quests available through Tol Barad, 6 on the Peninsula and 6 on the Baradin Hold Island, you will get a total of  4050 reputation.  That means over the course of three days, you can move through the entirety of Revered. 

Matchmaking Value and Rating

 "If you win, Blizzard will drag your rating up to your Matchmaking Value.  If you lose, Blizzard will drag your Matchmaking Value to your Rating."  This is the simplest way I've been able to describe the system between Matchmaking Value and actual team Rating.  Your rating is what matters, it's what you get achievements from and allows you to access higher levels of gear.  Your matchmaking value is what allows you to ascend ratings faster or slower; if you beat teams at a higher matchmaking value, then your matchmaking value will rise and your rating will try to rise with it.

Recount

Recount is the only addon that I ever recommend to other players.  It is the quickest and best way to gauge how you are performing.  Let's say the following:

You are doing a boss fight in a dungeon with guild mates.  You are spec A.  You wipe on the boss fight.  Your Recount informs you that you did DPS-A.  After the wipe, your guild mate asks you to switch specs.  You are now spec B.  You wipe on the second attempt.  Your Recount informs you that you did DPS-B.

So, now you compare your Recounts.

On Damage Dealt, DPS-A was higher than DPS-B.  On Damage received, DPS-A took more damage than DPS-B.  On Interrupts, DPS-B was higher than DPS-A.  What does this tell us?

It tells us that DPS-B was able to take less damage likely due to the increased number of interrupts over DPS-A.  If another person were able to pick up on the interrupts, then you should respec back from DPS-B to DPS-A for the higher numbers.

So, that's a highly controlled situation but it covers why I love Recount.

PvP vs. PvE: The Endless Tug-O-War

Blizzard has received a lot of flak over changes made in the two hemispheres of World of Warcraft.  These hemispheres are, of course, the Player vs. Player and Player vs. Environment hemispheres.  Let's not get these confused with how realms are denoted (Kel'thuzad being a PvP realm and Aerie Peak being a PvE realm) but rather how the game is played.

Blizzard has 10 classes with 30 specs.  These 30 specs are meant to be unique from one-another while comparable in value.  The way they are valued is how effectively they can do their respective jobs.  That means that all 30 specs need to be competitive at the same time as comparable.  A Raid Leader or a Battleground Leader should, when forced to make a decision, pick a player rather than a class.

This means that Blizzard has one god-damned-fucking-difficult job.  30 unique specs, covering 4 roles, all doing similar jobs without beating each other out? Sounds difficult.

Now, multiply that difficulty by two.  As every class should be able to pick any spec for either hemisphere; a warrior should be able to PvP and PvE as Fury and not feel handicapped in anyway.

So, we reach an inevitable conclusion: One (Potentially two or even three) spec is not "balanced."  Balance can't PvP because it lacks the on-command burst of a mage or warlock.  Beastmaster can't PvE because it lacks the sustained DPS.  And the list goes on and on, essentially for every spec.

Blizzard has done, as far as I'm concerned, a superb job of maintaining best-possible balance.  You still see minorities of certain specs in both PvP and PvE environments.  This may or may not have anything to do with gross undertuning or overtuning of specs; more likely than not, the specs have never been closer for effectiveness.  Instead, there is a slight difference that is over-exaggerated; If one person tells you that Destruction is 5% better than Affliction, and you tell the next person, and they tell the next person, eventually nobody is specced Affliction because Destruction is 100% better and a million others agree with that false-conception.

The big issue for me and many others is gear.  If you didn't know, Blizzard has not released the 2200 rating weapons.  This isn't for lack of desire to release the gear.  It's just that PvE players are not currently mowing down raid content.  Blizzard has delayed the release of the 2200 rating weapons to prevent a swarm of raiders from rushing Arena and Rated battlegrounds to get, what would be, the Best in Slot weapons for both PvE and PvP at the same time.

The reverse of this happened in Wrath of the Lich King.  With the release of the expansion, guilds powered down the entry level raids.  226 weapons were available to drop from Kel'thuzad and 213 items were attainable across the board throughout 25 man raids.  PvP, on the other hand, was behind by an entire tier and users were forced to achieve high ratings just to get top quality PvP gear.

So, in the balancing Tug-O-War, PvE beat PvP in WotLK.  And in Cataclysm, they tried harder to balance it.  No weapons for PvE nerds, I suppose.

Great Grandma Darbles and a Beginner's Guide to WoW: Part 1a

I'm going to do a couple updates kind of at a whim with a focus on a Beginner's Perspective to WoW.  They're not going to be in any particular order or follow any path of logic/reason.  They'll mostly just come to me when they do and hopefully, at the very least, they'll be entertaining to read.

So, without further adieu...afk Pizza needs to go in the oven.

Right, here we go...

Choosing Your Class

Overview:  Choosing your class, when you first pick up the game, is going to be a difficult task.  You're going to have conceptions of what each class does or doesn't do prior to ever playing the game.  The name "Warrior" says a lot; that you're going to hit people and monsters with an assortment of weapons is probably an understatement.  You might also have a thought that the Warrior is "brainless," that they do not posses the skills to work magic.

Blizzard has done an excellent job revamping the Character Creation screen:

Features:

In the top left corner we see the factions, Alliance and Horde.  Portraits below represent the different races available for each faction.  In the screenshot, I have clicked the Gnome portrait.

Below the factions and their associated races, you have a choice of gender.  In the screenshot, the male gender was chosen arbitrarily (Though I will admit that I'm totally sexist).  And below that, you will find the classes that the selected race can choose.

Over on the right you will find descriptions of the race (Including racials and a brief summary) and below you will find Blizzard's description of the class.  In the screenshot, it describes a rogue.  It describes roles that the class plays, the armor-type that they wear, a general description of the class' style of play, and the resource system that the class employs.

So, with that all out of the way, let's get into it.

Class	Tank	Healer	Damage	Plate	Mail	Leather	Cloth
Death Knight	X		X	X
Druid	X	X	X			X
Hunter			X		>Level 40	<Level 40
Mage			X				X
Paladin	X	X	X	>Level 40	<Level 40
Priest		X	X				X
Rogue			X			X
Shaman		X	X		>Level 40	<Level 40
Warlock			X				X
Warrior	X		X	>Level 40	<Level 40
Total: 10	4	4	10	3	2	2	3

There are 10 classes in World of Warcraft.  Of those 10, the following is true:

• There are only 4 pure classes (Hunter, Mage, Rogue, and Warlock).  All other classes are hybrids.
• Only 2 classes can hybrid over all 3 roles (Paladin and Druid).  All other hybrid classes only cover 2 roles.
• Only 1 class can cover 4 different raid or PvP positions (Druid).  All other classes are limited to 3 or less positions.
• 4 classes change armor specialization at level 40 (Hunter, Paladin, Shaman, and Warrior).  All other classes specialize in the same armor type from level 1 to level 85.
• Death Knights remain the only hero class.  They become available to play with the purchase of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and a level 55 character.

Brb, want to eat the pizza I put in the oven.

Delicious!

Now that I have befuddled you with a lot of information that you may or may not take anything away from, I'm going to describe each class (Much from personal experience).  We'll go in reverse-alphabetical order just to spite the above chart.

Warrior:

Warriors are a hybrid class (Despite argument).  They cover the roles of melee damage dealer or tank.  They specialize in mail armor until level 40 and then specialize in plate armor.  They can use the largest assortment of weapons in the game, only excluding wands and relic items.  They are also the closest thing to a 2nd hero class, as all races from both factions are able to choose warrior.

Warriors as Damage Dealers:

Warriors live in the fray.  If they are not up and in your face, hitting you with any weapon that they can grab a hold of, then they aren't at their computer or are on your team.  Because of this fact, Blizzard has designed the warrior class to be highly mobile.  They are able to charge great distances to meet an enemy or to save a teammate.  They also have a lot of tools and options in order to keep enemies close to them, as it's just unwieldy to fight an opponent in hand-to-hand combat when they're half a mile away.

They tend to prefer two-handed weapons. either using a single two-handed weapon or dual wielding them through Titan's Grip.  

Warriors as Tanks:

Warriors were the first class to be built for tanking.  Throughout the Vanilla World of Warcraft, and a larger portion of Burning Crusade, encounters were built and designed for Warrior tanks.  As a result, they are the most thoroughly and carefully designed of the 4 tanking classes.  They have a large toolbox of abilities to work with in order to close gaps on enemies, lock them down through stuns and silences, and to retain health through assorted defensive abilities.

Warrior tanks use a single-handed weapon along side a hefty shield.  

Warlock:

   (Note: It's pretty fucking obvious that I do not have a decent levelled warlock.  This section will be done mostly from the eyes of an ally or enemy to warlocks, rather than from the player perspective)

Warlocks are a pure damage class.  They cover a single role of ranged caster damage dealing.  They specialize in cloth armor from level 1 to level 85.  Rather than weaponry, Warlocks use a large number of spells in order  to destroy their enemies and devour their souls.  It is important to note that Warlocks and Hunters are the only classes with dedicated pets.

Warlocks as Damage Dealers:

Warlocks can specialize in three ways: Their damage dealt over time, their pet demons, or their burst damage.  The Damage over Time (DoT) specialty warlock, or Affliction Warlock, will wear an enemy down through consistent application of  different sources of damage.  And, as you're about to die, they will steal your soul for their own purposes.  The warlock who loves their pet demon, or Demonology Warlock, will use their demon to do their dirty work.  And, as you're about to die, they will steal your soul for their own purposes.  Lastly, the burst damage warlock, or Destruction Warlock, intends to blow you up through massive fire damage.

And they, too, will steal your soul as you're about to die.

SNEAK PEAK FOR NEXT BLOG: Great Grandma Darbles and a Beginner's Guide to WoW: Part1b

Shaman:

World of Warcraft: City Design

I have always mused about City Design in World of Warcraft.  It partially stems from my ongoing work in my Bachelor of Arts, with a focus in Geography.  People, seen through a lens of space and time, are always more interesting than just people.  Context is incredibly important. 

In World of Warcraft, people generally focus on the visuals.  We have a monstrous landscape that is very interesting to look at.  We are going to ignore a number of facts, such as the jungles of Sholazar Basin as far North as Northrend or the disparities between Hyjal and Winterspring.  However, I am going to ignore the visuals; my computer is not up to scruff (As seen by my many screenshots) from a hardware perspective.

Instead, I'm going to look at City Design.  Particularly Alliance, as that is my more thorough area of expertise, but I will talk about Shattrath and Dalaran.

So, first things first: Stormwind needs to be nerfed.

Stormwind

Overview: Stormwind is the last stronghold of the human race and the capital city of the Alliance.  Situated in the Elwynn Forest, it features stonework architecture with wooden rooftops (Of different colored varieties, seemingly representative of the different districts). 

Features: Stormwind is home to all class and profession trainers, even including the infamous Harrison Jones as the local Archaeology trainer (Archaeology is still bullshit).  It has two auction houses that are located in the Trade District and Dwarven District.  It's also the only city to have portals to the Cataclysm areas, located in the Northeastern portion of the city named "The Eastern Earthshrine." It's also the only city where you can access Justice, Valor, Honor, and Conquest point Vendors, all located in the Old Town portion of the city.  For travel, there is a harbor that leads to Darnassus and Northrend (Borean Tundra), the Deeprun Tram to Ironforge, and a Flightmaster.

Problems: Stormwind is incredibly spread out.  A character in their low levels (Prior to mounts, of ground or flying variety) has a lot of distance to travel around the city.  To visit King Varian in Stormwind Keep, see a warlock Trainer below The Slaughtered Lamb, and then head to the Flighmaster to go questing is quite a distance.

This problem is doubled if you aren't sure where you are going and tripled if you fall into one of Stormwind's many Canals.  Canals, while aesthetically appealing and vital for a Daily Fishing economy, are ultimately a nuisance; they provide cover for water-friendly enemies (Pesky druids and warlocks) and pose a drowning-risk to children.

It is also a travesty that the Deeprun Tram is not noted in the map of Stormwind.  By failing to mention it, there is a discouragement from traveling to the Dwarven Ironforge.

Review: This city is quickly deteriorating from lag.  It is home to too much that is vital for a level 85.  Cataclysm portals should be available in all cities, along with the different Points Vendors, so that people can choose a city based on their preferences rather than be pigeonholed into a single place.  Also, the canals need to be removed as they hamper travel.  That, or boats that travel magically should be implemented as another method of travel around the city.

Ironforge

Overview: Ironforge is the last of the Dwarven Kingdoms and the former (Unofficial) capital of the Alliance.  Situated inside a mountain in Dun Morogh, it is composed of rock and metalwork.  It's also a circle.

Features: Ironforge is home to all class and profession trainers, but prefers a certain Doktor Professor Ironpants over Harrison Jones for the instruction in Archaeology (Worst profession ever conceived by human kind).  It has a single Auction House located in The Commons.  It only features a single portal to the Blasted Lands, such as every major city.  It has a centrally located Flightpath and the Deeprun Tram to Stormwind.

Problems: Ironforge does not feature many of the necessities required to be a capital city.  It suffers a lack of Points Vendors, Cataclysmic portals, or an easy-to-access harbor to other areas (Having to travel to Menethil Harbor to access Theramore or Northrend).  There is also a canal-styled problem along the outermost circle of the city, where players can fall and have to travel out of their way to return back to the upper levels of the city.

There is also the issue where a player who wants to fly out the top-exit at the Gate of Ironforge is dismounted.

Review: This city is dead as the player base is forced to live in Stormwind, even though Ironforge is the superior designed city.  The circle makes it easy to travel from one place to another, either by following the circle or cutting straight across it.  It also features no water, which generally slows a player down to a crawl if they fall into it.  By adding portals to Cataclysm areas or Points Vendors, Ironforge would quickly recapture its title as Unofficial Capital of the Alliance.

Darnassus

Overview:  Darnassus is home of the Night Elves.  It is situated on the island of Teldrassil north of the continent of Kalimdor.  Much of the architecture is marble or magically influenced trees, with much of the city covered in vegetation.

Features: Darnassus is home to all class trainers and profession trainers, and employs a no-name of Hammon the Jaded to teach Archaeology (Archaeology and "Assisted-Suicide" both start with A!).  Like Ironforge, it features a single Auction house located in the Tradesmen's Terrace.  It also has a port to a port, from which you can travel to Stormwind or Azuremyst Isle.  And unlike its sister cities, it has two flightmasters.

Problems: Also like its sister cities, Darnassus features no Points Vendors or Portals to Cataclysm zones.  It suffers Stormwind's "Let's Put Water Everywhere to Slow People Down" problem.  It's also dangerously out-of-the-way of everything, with long flightpaths to everywhere but Mount Hyjal.  

Review: Darnassus shares similar, if not worse, problems as Ironforge.  However, even with an addition of Cataclysm Portals and Points Vendors, I doubt that it would become a highly populated city due to its large amounts of water and its distinct distance from important-areas.

The Exodar 

Overview: The Exodar is the spaceship that the Draenei aptly piloted into the landmass that is Azuremyst Isle.  It's architecture features sophisticated engineering and metalwork with influences of magic in the forms of crystalline structures.  There is also a focus attributed to that of the Light.

Features: The Exodar is home to all class and profession trainers, with a hot goatgirl named Diya who probably knows as much about Archaeology as I do (That it is the use of telescopes that will guide us to underground artifacts (Wait, what the fuck?)).  Single Auction house, Single Flight Master, and the only Alliance City that is Multi-levelled (Though only slightly).

Problems: If Darnassus is out of the way, then The Exodar is from another planet.  You need to use its port to reach a port from which you can access another port.  It is also horribly confusing in the names of its areas; the Trader's Tier is the only area that correctly implies its contents.  "The Vault of Lights" and "The Crystal Hall" imply nothing other than more Lights and more Crystals, even though they feature many of the class trainers.  And again, it holds no Points Vendors or Cataclysmic Portals.

Also, like its Blood Elf counterpart, you cannot fly in The Exodar or its surrounding country.

Review:  The Exodar needs a lot of work if it were to ever be the mainstay of the Alliance.  First, it needs to get back into orbit and re-crashed into a better location.  Then, it needs to get all the amenities that Stormwind hogs.  And lastly, it needs to learn to name its Districts something other than vague generalities.  Oh, and being able to fly in the only Multi-levelled city might be a great help too.

 
Shattrath

Overview:  Shattrath was the Capital City of both factions during the Burning Crusade.  It is also the first "Sanctuary" location in World of Warcraft, a place where both factions could exist without forcing combat.  Shattrath is built out of stone that is enormous and detailed, and is home to the Naaru.

Features: Shattrath was also the first city to feature portals to all other major cities, but those have since been removed (To put more focus on Stormwind and Orgrimmar).  It now features Auction houses and class trainers.  It also has a very easy-to-use portal to the Isle of Quel'Danas for those who wish to do Magister's Terrace or the Sunwell Plateau.  It might even feature a portal to The Caverns of Time for those who are Revered or Exalted with The Keepers of Time.  It also is the only place to purchase level 70 points rewards or turn in level 70 raid tier items.  Oh, and I forgot to mention Boduro the Seeker; he will train you in your Archaeological Exploits (By the way, have I mentioned that Archaeology will cause you to get cancer AND guarantee death? That means that Boduro the Seeker wants you to die from cancer.)

It is also, probably, the coolest city in game.

Problem: The Burning Crusade is a dead expansion and therefore Shattrath is a dead city.  There is very little reason to exist in Outlands other than levelling a character or profession, and there is no reason to set your hearth to Shattrath now that you can easily access the Outlands from any major city in Azeroth via the portals to the Blasted Lands.

Review: Shattrath was the place to be in its time and it might be time for me to let go of it.  It's useful to note that while I was writing this bit about Shattrath, I received a whisper asking for a portal to Stormwind.  Go figure.

Dalaran

Overview: Dalaran was uprooted by some pesky mages from its original home in Hillsbrad Foothills and floated over Northrend.  It was the main hub of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for both factions.  Features cobblestone pathways between stone buildings, it can be described as the Purple City for its abundance of Purple colouring.

Features:  Like its counterpart Shattrath, it held portals to all the major cities that have since been removed.  It now features Auction houses, class trainers, and profession trainers.  The Archaeology trainer is Dariness the Learned located in The Legerdemain Lounge.  It is there that she explains that Archaeology ruined her marriage and caused her to turn to Alcoholism.  It does have a couple of vendors that Stormwind has not yet managed to steal: the Frozen Orb Vendor, the Ink Trader, the Heirloom vendors, and Points Vendors for WotLK rewards  It is also the only floating city. 

Problems:  Just like Shattrath, it lives in a world of dead content.  There is little reason to exist in Northrend other than when levelling a new character or profession.  However, as there is no easy way to access Northrend (Other than by boat or stealing aboard a Zeppelin), it does suit to hearth to Dalaran while levelling a character.

Review: Dalaran is a place people are forced to go if they specialize in Inscription or wish to purchase heirlooms.  Perhaps the mages of Kirin Tor, now no longer having to deal with the Lich King, could float their city back to Hillsbrad?

And with the end of this post, the TL;DR:

• Give portals and points vendors to the other cities.  This will reduce the reliance on Stormwind as a Capital City.
• Acknowledge that there is a Deeprun Tram to Ironforge from Stormwind.
• Fly Exodar to somewhere better.
• Grow Darnassus to somewhere better while you're at it.
• Float Dalaran back to Hillsbrad, too.
• Get rid of water in cities; Irritation is not a flavor.
• Put a raid in Oshu'gun so that Shattrath has a reason to exist again.

Conquest Point Cap Confirmed

Your Conquest Point Cap will increase by 3 for every 1 rating you are above 1500.  So, at 1501 rating, your Conquest Point Cap will move from 1343 to 1346.

World of Archaeologycraft

I need to direct everyone's attention to a major discovery!

Whilst I was travelling in the deep jungles of Stranglethorn Vale, nearby the Gurubashi Arena...

I swore I had a feeling I could only describe as "Spontaneous Exploration".  I felt the need to spike the ground and bust out my telescope! For truly, there must be something around this ancient Arena of note...

And, lo! Behold! An artifact!

It is obvious that this Gurubashi Arena is not aptly named! For the Bloodscalp Trolls, in fact, dined in this area! With cutlery no less! Obviously the race is not as barbaric as we once believed.  The arena must have been dedicated to something more delicious, "Trollian Chef" or the like. 

Also, this just in.  Archaeology blows.

Magmaw 10 Man Kill

Magmaw death image courtesy of Carebear.

Features: Serial Peacekeepers - Aerie Peak

From Left to Right: Chame, Detroitt, Jellybean, Elunairis, Carebear, Ocin, Fragilegoods, Wisdomteeth, Lilchris, and Epictetus.

So, my guild and I experienced our first success in Cataclysm raiding with the death of Magmaw.  With this kill there are a number of truths.  Cataclysm is going to be a new experience of raiding.  Gone are the days of nuking bosses down with no thought of mechanics.  Also gone are the days of killing bosses without every single raid member putting in a solid effort.

Our kill involved a strategy of keeping a single ranged on the outside, a tank holding aggro to one side, and the rest of the group (3 healers and 5 DPS) up against Magmaw on his backside.  This allowed the majority of the group to focus on Magmaw without a lot of movement.

A fundamental point of this strategy is that the ranged on the outside must be the strongest range for burst threat for the worm spawn.  This strategy collapses quickly if the ranged inside the DPS group pull the worms in amongst the healers and melee. 

Unfortunately, our outside DPS (Hunter) was fighting for threat against the other ranged DPS and our dedicated Frost DK.  To solve this issue, when the worms spawned and were slowed by the hunter's trap, the Fire Mage and Frost DK would unload on the worms as they moved from the DPS group to the position of the hunter.

Another major point of this strategy is the Crash.  Magmaw drops to the floor, doing AoE damage and stunning anyone in the area.  The area itself is huge vertically, ranging from Magmaw to the back of the room.  The way to avoid this is to move horizontally, essentially a glorified sidestep.

Once we figured out how to figure out our threat on the worms and how to avoid crash, Magmaw was an easy kill. 

Our first attempts on Defense System left a lot to be desired, but progress was certainly made in a positive direction.  Hoping for another kill and another step down the Blackwing Descent.

Note of most importance: We tend to have significantly more difficulty on trash and their mechanics than bosses.  We wiped more on the guardians previous to the Defense System than the Defense System itself.

With Tales of Oshu'gun

For those that have forgotten, Oshu'gun is a rock structure of some magic potency in Nagrand.  It is sized appropriately to house instances or even raids.

Pictured above is an up-to-date screenshot of Oshu'gun itself.  You should note that nothing has changed at all since Wrath of the Lich King or Cataclysm expansions.

However, Blizzard had stated that with Cataclysm we would see zones in Uldum and Grim Batol, both previously unexplored.  I have high hopes that in future patches or expansions, we will get to see more of Oshu'gun.

The Committee of Crowd Control in Catalcysm (The CCCC)

In Cataclysm heroics, groups are tending to use Crowd Control as a means of making sure that the tanks, and therefore the group as a whole, do not get blown up by high damage.  However, lots of groups are unaware of which crowd controls exist and for which particular mobs, or that there is even a distinction.

So, first! There's a distinction! Mobs have a type; these types include:

Beast
Critter
Demon
Dragonkin
Elemental
Giant
Humanoid
Mechanical
Undead
Uncategorized

So it's important to notice that certain classes have no forms of crowd control for certain varieties of creature.  Hunters with their Freezing Trap are the only class that can deal with all forms of mobs, other than mobs that are purposefully immune to crowd control.  A detailed list, while out of date, is available here in case you are confused on what mobs can be dealt with by which classes.

One thing I do want to mention are the softer crowd controls.  These include snares, roots, stuns, silences, and cyclone.  They are not perfect crowd controls; they have positives and negatives associated with their usage.

The positives of these soft crowd controls is that they can be utilized to prevent damage to the tank or group.  Snaring or rooting a mob that is melee or has an "Explodes-at-melee-contact" mechanic is an excellent way of dealing preventing those targets from hitting any of the group members for a period of time.  Stuns, silences, and cyclones are great for caster mobs, particularly ones with long casts leading towards unhealthy amounts of damage.

The negatives of these crowd controls exist in that they are not permanent fixes to situations.  A stun or root will never fully replace sheep or fear as their durations are too short.  There are more negatives depending on which mechanic and ability is tied to it, so I won't go into detail here.  Just understand that these soft crowd controls can be useful where there's a lack of crowd control (Or more importantly, where crowd control has been broken).

I also just want to mention two crowd controls that are noticeably neglected, underused, or ignored.  Retribution Paladin's Repentance and Warlock's glyphed Fear.  There has long since been a stigma that retribution paladins are incapable of crowd control and that Repentance is only for PvP; however, this talent is mandatory in all Retribution specs and works just as effectively as Sheep (More effectively in that it actually covers more types of creatures).

There is also a misconception associated with Fear in that it will cause the mob to run away in fear and pull entire instances/heroics/raids and wipe the group with a single use.  With the new fear glyph, you sacrifice the spell's lack of cooldown in favor of stronger utility. 

Important Macro

/target Tamed Crag Boar
/cast Ice Lance

This will get you through Cataclysm.

Rawr and You!

So, I'm here to answer all of your questions about gearing your characters at level 85! And the answer is, sadly, very simplistic.

1.  Visit www.elitistjerks.com

• This website will provide you the basic knowledge base on what your class should be doing for spec, rotations, and stat weights.  It is generally updated to the latest patch updates and often illuminates basic errors in your own judgement.
• Forewarned, there is a lot of reading to be had and includes math.  If you are scared of either, then you should still visit this site but ask someone to break it down for you that you feel is more comfortable with the information.

2.  Visit the Rawr site.

• This website can be difficult to navigate or understand because it's laid out for people with basic understanding of programming.  To Navigate, do the following
• Click "Rawr4 v4.0.xxx Released!"
• Scroll down slightly and click http://elitistjerks.com/rawr.php
• You're going to be prompted to download Microsoft Silverlight
• You're going to be prompted to allow permissions for Microsoft Silverlight, which I found impossible so...

• Right click the program in the window and click "Download this Application" or some such
• The program will now exist on your computer for whenever you like
• This program, like Elitist Jerks, is sometimes clunky and mathy.  You can take a lot away from it if you're willing to do the work, or you can use it very simply like I am going to illustrate.

 3.  Using Rawr

First, open Rawr.  If you can't do this, you shouldn't be able to open up World of Warcraft either and therefore this whole thing is irrelevant.  Unless of course, you're suffering some kind of error; perhaps email the people at Rawr?

Next, you want to import a character (Preferably yours!) from Battle.net.  You do this by clicking File -> Load From Battle.net

Make sure you select the correct server continent (US for North Americans, EU for Europe, etc), the correct server (Aerie Peak for me, Kel'thuzad for you, etc), and correctly type your character name.  I will be using Wisdomteeth for this!

An important sidenote: Because we are downloading information straight from Battle.net, it is optimal usage to log your character out in what you believe is your PvE raiding set.  That way, you can see what to upgrade from if-need-be.

Now that we've loaded it up, you're going to be fucking bombarded with information.  Information you can use, information you can't use, information that is informative, etc.

Two things to do first:  Talents and Buffs.

I like to use a talent tree already loaded into the Rawr program.  This is generally the accepted cookie-cutter spec for your class and the program is readily able to provide information to you using it.  To do this, click the Talents tab and select a talent tree from the dropdown menu.

Rawr also provides information about your character with a variety of buffs.  Many of these buffs you cannot provide for yourself.  So first, check to see if you are self-buffed by your talents only.  If you are finding that it's all broken and stupid looking, just click the "Unbuffed" option in the dropdown menu and reselect the options you know are available to you.  You'll also find which buffs you really desire in a raid and which ones you can do without.

Now that you've done all that, the information is now pertinent, it's back to the home screen.

Now, if you're an advanced user or just someone who likes to play with numbers, you can feel free to do whatever you want all over the place and do all kinds of silliness.  For this kind of guide, I'm going to show you how to turn off sources of gear so that you can see the best possible gear options for your character.  The WoW Armory website provides possible upgrades to your character with a clunkier system.  I find that Rawr is quicker to use.

First, click Filters:

As you can see in my filters, I have certain things selected off.  I have turned off "Tier 11 Raids" (Including Blackrock Descent, Bastion of Twilight, and Throne of the 4 Winds) but have left on Baradin Hold.  I have also turned off "Unknown/Not found on armory."  This is because I am not currently downing any content in T11 raids and I want to exclude items found in those raids.  I also want to exclude items that may not exist.

Filters can also be incredibly specific.  In the above image, "Special Currency (Points, Tokens, etc.)" is turned off.  However, I have selected within that tab certain things to turn off:

As you can see, I have turned off "Valor Points," "Armor Tokens," and "Other."  Valor Points are turned off because I feel I am limited in sources (Daily heroic and Baradin Hold runs once a week).  Armor Tokens are off due to only being found in T11 Raids.  And Other is turned off because I want to exclude items that may not exist.

Now, you can go further and turn more or less off.  However, if you find you're like me and that's all that you need to do, you now have an updated list that includes all possible sources of gear for you.  And this is where this tool comes in handy for upgrades.

In the above image, I've clicked the "Gear > Head" button and hovered over the gear area.  From there, I can choose any item and look at available upgrades.  I'm going to use my shoulders for item comparison.

We can see a number of things in the above image.  First, there is a long line of shoulder pieces.  You want to, ultimately, pick the shoulder piece with the longest blue bar.  That is generally the most relevant piece to your spec.  Also, there are items with green diamonds.  Those green diamonds signify an item piece that you own with different variations.  The piece that is highlighted green is the piece you are currently wearing.

This tells me two important things:

1. I need to go get a different shoulder piece from Siamat in Heroic Lost City of Tol'vir.
2. If I choose to not get a different shoulder piece, I need to change my current gem from a shitty green +15 Intellect +15 Critical Strike rating to a much better blue gem of +40 intellect.

And that's a little bit about Rawr! There's a lot more in the program that's available to you for a lot of different things.  It's important to note a couple of things:

• Rawr emphasizes maintaining hit (And expertise) caps.  If you are not currently at cap, it will prioritize all possible options to achieve cap. 
• If you grab an item with a lot of hit and it puts you over cap, it will cease prioritizing items with hit on them and prioritize items with other stats.
• The item upgrades available to you will affect future items that you get, so check with Rawr often.  It could be possible that one piece of gear that you grab puts you over a soft-cap for a particular stat for your class and other items you were after will no longer be as attractive.
• You should have an understanding of your class and spec before using Rawr.  If you do not, you may not understand why Rawr prioritizes certain items over others; worse, you may not understand that Rawr has an error and provided incorrect options to you.