Marama's WoW Corner

Patch 3.1 -- It was a Hairy Bear, it was a Scary Bear....

2009-02-27T14:00:00.000-08:00

I just logged out of PTR for patch 3.1. I was going to take my pally for a spin, but the graphics glitches were a little distracting....like the flat bear in my backpack and the freaky female dwarf heads on the walls of the inn....

WoW Links List Updated for Wrath of the Lich King

2009-02-10T23:10:00.001-08:00

Just a quick note.

I went through the Big List of WoW Links and updated a good portion of it for relevance to Wrath of the Lich King, which is something which was way overdue.

I haven't been keeping up with this blog much lately, but I intend to get back to it. I've mostly been occupied with actually playing through Wrath of the Lich King, and with college lately.

Now that I've hit level 80 with my Paladin and Warrior, and gotten the Paladin mostly epiced out, and cleared all the Lich King raid content, I can sit back and relax until Ulduar comes out in 3.1, which leaves more time for blogging.

Big List of WoW Links is Online

2008-04-30T00:13:00.000-07:00

My Big List of WoW Links is now online.

I originally created this list to put up some information for casual gamers, and the occasional humor or opinion post. However, the lens format doesn't allow for projects such as a big list of WoW links to be easily indexed. So, I've created a Squidoo lens with a nice fat list of WoW links for anyone to bookmark, so that they have a good resource to check when searching for information.

The links found on the List are all vetted by me for minimal quality standards. I have linked sites which have further links within them, in order to avoid clutter. This is especially notable on the Warrior and Paladin sections, which point to a couple of very nice link compilations from the official WoW forums. So, get in there, dig around, and if you like it, bookmark it. (That's my ulterior motive: a big back up for my WoW bookmarks.)

The List will be a constant work in progress, so if you don't see a link there that you think should be, you should click the contact link on that page to send me an email, so I can check it out.

The Alt Bug is Nibbling at My Toes

2008-04-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

Is it time for me to break out Joana's Guide again, or perhaps Brian Kopp's?

I've already lamented the fact that in order to pimp out my PVE toons, I'll need to collect hundreds of Badges of Justice. Gearing up the Warrior for PVP is yet another time consuming grind, though I'm going about it very casually.

I've decided to retire my Hunter and Druid, for the most part. I'll likely finish off my Hunter's epic leatherworking pieces, but that's about it, perhaps use him to farm daily quests.

So, do I need another alt? Is the grass really greener? I dunno, but I'm getting that itch again, even as I'm preparing for two toons to shuffle off into retirement.

My candidates are Memories, a brand new (rotting) Undead Rogue on my PVP server, and Howard, my level 34 PVE server Warlock. I was working on Sango, as the sidebar shows, for PVP, but after crushing better-geared 'locks with my Warrior, and being constantly annoyed by Rogues on all my characters, decided to roll Rogue. My 2v2 partner for my Druid is currently a Rogue, and I think Rogue/Rogue may give better control options. The Warlock, I just want finished so I can collect the Season 2 Warlock Set to wear around town. It just looks that cool. (It'll also give me a fifth 70 to do dailies and farm with on my PVE server.)

Although I won't be able to play them much, as I'm devoting most of my playtime to my Warrior, Mage and Paladin, I think I'm going to do a weekly play session with each of my new alts. I'll do a series of posts with each, to review the guides, and put it up somewhere on the web, with linkage.

I'll be using the Blood Elf starting area (starting at level 5) for the Rogue, so I can check out that section of the guide, and my Warlock may prove some insight into using one of these guides with an already existing character.

Pimping My Mage in 2.4

2008-04-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

I've been taking a long, hard look at what's out there for my mage since patch 2.4 came out. I've been playing with the same crafted epics and PVP rewards, with a few raid drops (because there aren't that many raid drops that are upgrades when you're just starting into SSC and TK) for several months.

Stepping into TK, I realized, hey, lack of stats sucks!

Now, I hadn't partaken of any of the badge loot in lieu of my crafted stuff simply due to the fact that none of it was really a DPS upgrade for me at the time. Patch 2.4 changes that somewhat.

Here's a link to my mage's wish list from Warcrafter.net:

Wishlist

This list is my non-hit capped set. All I have to do to hit cap it is swap out four pieces of gear, three of which I already have in my inventory. If I do so, I don't really lose too much spell damage or crit, just a little haste.

What's cool about this set is that I gain some spell damage, lose a tiny bit of crit, but go up to a whopping 157 Haste rating from my current 25. Getting this setup, all of which is attainable outside of raids, should give me a significant DPS upgrade, along with a nice stat boost. Which should help me from folding like a cheap tent if I get a random charge from a trash mob.

Of course, gathering all of this stuff should keep me busy for a while. I'll need a ton of cash for leveling Engineering for the goggles, and for buying the Mantle of Nimble Thought pattern the next time it pops up on the Auction House, plus about 655 Badges of Justice.

Oh, that Timbal's Focusing Crystal should be a Darkmoon Card: Crusade, but you know, I already have Timbal's and the Crusade Card is pretty darn spendy. So...

So, patch 2.4 a time sink? You betcha. Worth it? Heck yeah.

I hereby pronounce patch 2.4 A Good Thing. At least for Mages.

I don't need no stinking badges!

2008-04-08T22:35:00.001-07:00

Well, I tallied up all of the 2.4 badge loot I'd like to get for my characters.

My Warrior (as of now) and my Druid are strictly PVP characters, so I don't need much for them, just the PVP cloaks for 60 badges each.

My Mage is my main raiding character. If I decked him out in the new badge gear, he'd gain some INT and STA but lose actual DPS stats, so it's a wash for him, 0 badges.

My Paladin is my backup raiding character, at my guild's disposal should we end up short on healers for a raid. I like to keep her gear up to date because of this. I want to build a set for each spec for her. It's much faster to do dailies or kill quests (for leveling) as Ret, and I'd like to tank the new dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King. My Holy set is pretty decent, including several raid drops. Still, when you add it all up, she weighs in at a hefty 1141 badges! I've got seven saved up on her at the moment...

My Hunter is sort of my red-headed step child. I'd still like to get him a Blood Lust Brooch, as it's a nice trinket. Most of his other slots will be LWing, PVP and Kara epics. So, only 41 badges for him.

Grand total: 1302 Badges of Justice.

That should keep me busy for a while.

WoW 2.4 Patch Thoughts

2008-04-03T00:47:00.001-07:00

Patch 2.4 is here, so it's probably time for me to ramble on with my latest WoW thoughts. I'm going to try to get back to this blog a bit more, but I'm also working on another project to organize WoW information for the casual players out there, so it may be hit or miss.

Guess I'll start with Patch 2.4, or as I like to call it patch carrot.stick.

This patch has a LOT of goodies in it. My loot whoring heart swells with ardor at all of the new, and old, gear that has become available for my small army (more a squad, technically) of alts. Not to mention Sunwell's new five man, Magister's Terrace, and a bunch of easier daily quests. All this adds up to a nice fat carrot hanging from a stick juuuust out of reach to keep us playing until Wrath of the Lich King comes out.

Out of reach, I say? Well, let's just call it a time sink.

New Instance : New loot to grind for, including the Phoenix Hatchling pet, which I really want for my fire mage.

New Dailies + Daily Quest Limit : Oh, well, may as well grind gold for that epic flying mount now. With 5 seventies, I can now do 125 dailies per day. Joy.

New Badge Loot: The newest badge loot (the vendor for which is unlocked as your server takes over the island of Quel'Thalas via daily questing) is VERY good. It's somewhere between Tier 5 and Tier 6 good. It's also expensive. My Badge gear shopping list for my alts anywhere from 400-700 badges per alt. Yeah, that'll keep me busy.

Blue PVP sets are now available from reputation vendors at Honored: Actually, a time SAVER here, but it lets you boost your resilience nicely if you're more of a PVE player who wants to get some of the upcoming Season 2 arena gear when it rolls down to honor purchases in Season 4. So, it's really an enabler for honor grinding.

Battleground Token Turn In for Honor: A new quest (actually same name as an older, similar quest, if I recall correctly), Concerted Efforts, rewards 314 honor for turning in one of each Battleground Mark. Yet another honor grind enabler, along with honor being instantly available, it's really pretty nice for boosting you up enough to buy an item you need, provided you don't need the badges. It also eases the pain of being perpetually on the losing side in certain battle grounds.

Of course, the new 25 man raid is pretty cool news for raiders, and should keep them busy a while. But this blog isn't for those guys. =P (Not that I don't raid, I'm just casual about it, still puttering through SSC and TK at the moment.)

Anyway, nice carrots, long stick. It should be more than enough to keep an altoholic or even a one character player busy for a while, perhaps until the release of WOTLK.

Joana's Guide Thoughts and the End of Sango's Journey

2007-10-27T05:04:00.000-07:00

Sadly to say, I've decided to put off leveling my Warlock to test Joana's Guide. I've got other projects that are demanding the majority of my time over World of Warcraft, and I don't really need a sixth high level character.

The guide works, there's no doubt about it. Class really does not seem to matter at the early levels, and after reading through the guide, there's nothing most classes can't solo later on, and the experience gain is going to be more than enough after patch 2.3 to allow you to skip a few of these quests if you can't do them.

If you want to go with a strong solo class, my recommendations are as follows to get the best use out of a solo questing guide (whether Joana's on Horde side or Brian Kopp's on Ally side):

1. Hunter. The guides were written for them, and Hunters are still king of the soloers.
2. Warlock. Once you get sufficient talent points, anything a Hunter can solo should be doable just as easily with a lock.
3. Feral Druid. One of the best classes for soloing tougher content, out of sheer brute force and survivability.
4. Frost Mage/Other spec Mage. Frost mages are great at soloing any non-caster mobs, and have the easiest time IMO when caster mobs come into play. Other mage specs kill fast and still have a decent number of options for kiting.
5. Rogue. One of the classic fastest levelers. They lack the survivability of the above classes in soloing PVE stuff, but really not by much.
6. Everyone else. Every class can solo fairly well, and although I believe the top five classes are going to have the easiest time completing the questing schedule in a leveling guide, with some creativity and knowledge of the class, any class can do well with the guides.

E-Z Epics in 2.3 WoW Patch

2007-10-26T16:50:00.001-07:00

If you've been paying any attention at all to the upcoming patch, you'll have noticed that in the upcoming patch, quite a few obtainable epics are being made available. If you go to www.mmo-champion.com, you'll be able to find some lists and screens of these. There are quite a few new heroic badge rewards, as well as upgraded PVP epics, and the addition of Season One Gladiator sets becoming buyable with honor and battle ground marks.

If you've bothered to check in here lately, or just glanced at my post dates, you'll realize that I haven't been all that active on the old blog. This blog is largely a reflection of my WoW activity, which means I also haven't been playing a whole lot lately.

With an expansion pack on the way, meaning all of my factions and current equipment being made obsolete rather quickly following its release, my attention had waned. Patch 2.3, however, has done a fiendish job of dangling a big fat carrot in front of my nose, so now I find myself grinding out battlegrounds and hitting Heroics for gear. (By the way, in 2.3, you'll only need Honored rep for heroic keys.)

Will all of the goodies patch 2.3 also become obsolete when the Wrath of the Lich King comes out? Certainly. However, leveling up my Warrior with the PVP epics and Season One gear will be easier than the crappy DPS blues I'm wearing now. Likewise, some of the best Paladin Ret gear in the game post-Burning Crusade has always been the PVP gear, so getting a full epic set of Ret gear in case I feel like being able to actually kill something in a timely manner while leveling up is another temptation. Heck, I'm bored with healing anyway, so running instances and raids Ret (which is getting some nice changes in 2.3) may be a pleasant change of pace. My Mage is pretty decently set up, but a few more PVP epics will help wash away the ugly blue stains on his character sheet. And, of course, my Druid will be going for the Season 3 Gladiator set, as he's my current main, and all I do with him is PVP with the occasional heroic instance tossed in.

Ok, it's AV weekend, so that's enough blogging for now. I have honor to grind!

WoW Paid Name Changes

2007-10-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Blizzard announced a new paid name change service. The roll out will be in phases across the realms, and the fee for the name change will be $10.

For a mere ten dollars, you can get rid of that goofy name you put on an alt that you ended up enjoying and playing.

For a mere ten dollars, you can get rid of your reputation as a ninja or general malcontent.

It's not the end of the world, or the best thing since sliced bread, but it presents interesting possibilities and problems.

I'd much rather see a faction betrayal quest ala Ever Quest II. They said renames would never happen, though, and this is just one in a long list of "nevers" that has come to pass, so who knows?

Run World of Warcraft on Linux

2007-08-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

I was just looking around for some general Linux information today, and found this tutorial about setting up WoW on Linux, on the Ubuntu forums. The tutorial covers setting up WoW using Wine on Ubuntu (though should work for other distros). Make sure you read the comments as well, there's a lot of good stuff in the thread.

I've been away from the blog for a while due to working on another project with an approaching deadline, and due to spending a few days unscrambling my Windows XP install. I'll be working on Pre-Karazhan gear guides and continuing to level my Warlock, Sango, using Joana's Horde Leveling Guide this week. Keep an eye out for updates.

5 Joana's Horde Leveling Guide Tips

2007-07-25T19:35:00.001-07:00

I've had to take a short break from leveling Sango this week due to reduced play time. Since I don't have further updates to my ongoing review of Joana's Horde Leveling Guide, I thought I'd share a few tips on getting the most out of the guide.

1. Leverage Your Rested Experience. If you're using the guide like I am, to get the most out of your limited play time, make sure you always park your character at an Inn or City to gain rested experience. Try to play to a cutoff point in the guide that ends with you hearthing or going to a city to get the greatest benefit.

2. Don't ALT-TAB to read the guide! If you have dual monitors set up, then by all means, read the guide on your second screen. If you don't, then print out the section(s) you're working on from the PDF. If you really need to see a video on the quest, then tab over to the HTML version and check it out. You won't need anything but the steps in the guide, however, if you follow the next two tips.

3. Get a map mod that reveals your map. I'm using a mod called Metamap. There are two advantages to this approach: First, most map mods let you see your X,Y coordinates and find coordinates on the map by moving your cursor over it. That's what all the numbers in parenthesis are in the guide that look like this: Go to (41,75). The second advantage is obvious: Your new character won't have the map uncovered yet.

4. Get a mod called Lightheaded. This mod lets you see the wowhead.com entries for your quests in the quest window. It's simply a database of the quest summary info from wowhead and the user's comments. This saves you from having to tab out to go to a database site to look up quests you're unfamiliar with. It's a HUGE TIMESAVER.

5. As an alternative to printing the PDF, you can also get a notepad mod that lets you type in it while in game. All you need to do is highlight the text for your next steps and then use the Windows copy function (control + c), then in game, put your cursor in your notes mod and hit control-v to paste the text.

Now, get out there and level!
Horde: Joana's Horde Leveling Guide
Alliance: Brian Kopp's Alliance Leveling Guide

Marama's Very Short Guide to Heroic Underbog

2007-07-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

I finally got a chance to run a Heroic mode instance. I haven't done one up until now for lack of finding a guild group on my PVE server. Fortunately, my PVP server guild have all dinged 70, so we've started hitting heroics.

This will be a very short guide, because frankly, Heroic Underbog doesn't rate any lengthy explanations.

OUR GROUP:

Our group make up was as follows: Arms Warrior (Tank), Feral Druid (DPS/tank), Holy Paladin (offhealer, DPS...no, really), Holy/Disc Priest (Main Healer), and a Rogue (DPS). Everyone has decent, but not amazing gear. Everyone has good enough gear to start Karazhan, without being dead weight, but without being maxed out for pre-Raid gear either.

An ideal group would replace one healer with a mage or other DPS with good CC. You don't really need two healers for this run, but it's perfectly doable with a lower DPS group.

We had the Warrior tank all the bosses since my Druid has slightly better DPS. This worked fine with only 3 pts in Tactical Mastery in Prot on the Warrior.

TRASH:

Underbog is a pretty easy Heroic. The trash pulls are all the same as in the normal mode, but the mobs are level 70-71. We used minimal CC on the trash pulls. Just Sap and some Hibernation. The only thing you have to remember is to separate the healers in the shambler groups and the groups before Gha'zan, so you can beat down the rest of the group. For the larger pulls, we just used two tanks, with the DPS on my druid's guys first, so I could go kitty and help dps down the warrior's adds when they were done.

The only tough trash pulls were the Underbog Lords. The trick with these guys is that they're all "RAWR! Hulk smash puny adventurers! The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets!" So, it's good to have high DPS for these guys. We didn't have huge DPS, but the bear/healer combo was good enough.

BOSSES:

Hungrafen: Pretty much the same tactics as on Normal mode, except that he spams the mushrooms like crazy. You just have to clear a bit more trash (more rep!) before his ramp, and kite him down the ramp instead of run circles up top. The two Bog Lords before him were harder. I tanked both on my druid, and we got one down. Then we ran back and killed the other one. I think with a higher DPS group, a decently-geared bear tank could handle both.

The loot: Girdle of Living Flame. Sharded. Seems like a decent Elemental Shaman belt though.

Gha'zan: Again, same tactics as in normal mode. Even with our DPS being a little low, he went down fast. Our tank brought him off the platform and put her back against the wall at the bottom of the ramp leading up to him. This worked perfectly for positioning him. You'll see warnings about avoiding his tail, as per normal, but it's worth mentioning that rogues and druids can dps from the rear. Remember, the rear arc is a 180 degree arc, so you can be on the side of his hit box and still back stab/shred by standing a little off center to the rear.

The Loot: Dunewind Sash. Went to our Rogue.

Swamplord Musel'ek: Again, identical tactics to normal fight. I pulled the Swamplord back down the hall a bit, and killed him with the rogue and pally while the warrior offtanked Claw with the priest healing. Then we killed Claw. Pretty straightforward fight.

The Loot: Armwraps of Disdain. Our Rogue scored again! Lambent Chrysoprase, went to our Priest.

The Black Stalker: Ah, end boss! Loot piñata! The biggest difference here is that he spawns a bunch of Mini-Me's. Ignore them and DPS him down fast. We tried using Warrior and Priest fear cycling, but they're immune to fear.

The Loot: Primal Nether, went to our Warrior to upgrade her mace. Barkchip Boots, went to my Druid. Demonfang Ritual Helm, went to the Priest. Endbringer, went to the Pally.

Overall, a really easy, quick run. Some nice loot and four Badges of Justice. I highly recommend Underbog if you're looking for an easy "starter" heroic. Everything does hit harder, especially the Underbog Lords, but overall difficulty isn't any worse than the normal level 70 wings of other dungeons. The tactics are simple enough that you could probably get run it with a PUG with a reasonable chance of success.

WoW Patch Notes for 2.2 Up

2007-07-12T21:31:00.001-07:00

Patch notes for 2.2 are up!

Will comment later, just thought I'd throw this out there. Went up yesterday. When my internet was down ALL DAY AND NIGHT. Grr.

UPDATE: You know, commenting on patch notes is really kind of fruitless. So, I won't actually ever be updating this post with comments. =P

No Skeletons for U Chinese People!

2007-07-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

I thought this was interesting: Skeletons have been removed from the Chinese version of WoW. I believe China has some strict laws on violence in games, but really... I wouldn't mind if we got rid of skeletons on US servers too! They seriously pile up in some world PVP areas, and I think contribute to framerate drops. The article doesn't state if this means all skeletons and bones or just those from PVP deaths, but I'm assuming the latter, as removing all the scenic ones strikes me as too much work for Blizzard to bother with. (If it is ALL bones and skeletons, then we know why the male orc shoulders haven't been fixed!)

BONES and skeletons have disappeared from the Chinese version of the popular online fantasy game, World of Warcraft (WoW), sparking fierce criticism from the nation's army of players.

Falling Gnomes Caught on Film

2007-07-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

Someone caught the falling gnomes on gamecam!

I don't really condone these scumbags, but I find this attempt at spam strangely amusing, so I'm compelled to share this video. Note, the person who made the video seems to have taken an effort not to show the URL, so good on him (or her) for not promoting our creative and amusing scumbags.

Falling Gnomes: A New Gold Spamming Technique?

2007-07-10T12:09:00.001-07:00

I got a kick out of this article I found on QJ.net:

"We've all seen salesmen who would do anything to get a sale, it seems that the gold spammers in World of Warcraft have once again taken it one step further with a new marketing campaign: Falling Gnomes. These level 1 gnome warriors were plummeting to their deaths in Ironforge with their bodies spelling out the name of a site that peddles gold."

The full article is HERE.

I haven't spotted any falling gnomes yet, have you?

Burning Crusade Rep Maximizing Page Updated

2007-07-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

Made a small update to the BC Reputation guide.

In the nutshell: If you grind Coilfang instances to Heroic you can actually hit Revered off of quests alone.

Guide to Pre-Karazhan and Pre-Heroic Druid Cat DPS Gear

2007-07-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

EDIT: 11/20/07. Season 3 is starting on Tuesday 11/27. That means a new feral Gladiator set (without the +heal, adds +hit and armor ignore, very nice for PVE) is coming out. Season 1 Gladiator gear is becoming buyable with honor points and new Leather and Dragonhide boots, belts and bracers are coming out. Even if you don't like to PVP much, I highly suggest grinding the honor as much as you can stand, until you collect these epics.

If you've just dinged 70 and you want to get some decent cat dps gear before you head into Karazhan or Heroics, then you're in luck. As with bear druids, cat druids have quite a few goodies available from quests in the Burning Crusade.

This list is a little different from the bear tanking list, in that I've pulled most of these items straight from Emmerald's lists. The items will be listed in the order of their DPS from highest to lowest on the sustained dps list. Emmerald's system of converting stats to DPS gain from items is pretty solid, so I figured why reinvent the wheel?

If you want a whomping big DPS gear list, Emmerald has two that fit that descripition:

Emmerald's Cat Druid Sustained DPS Gear List
Emmerald's Cat Druid Burst DPS Gear List

Ok, now for my recommendations. All of this stuff is pretty easy to get, and rates pretty high on Emmerald's list.

One thing I'm not including are various green items "of the Tiger." Often, these will rank very highly on the list because of the STR and AGI. . Since cats don't have a good aggro dump, and a lot of fights involve damage to the whole group, I recommend you have a fair amount of STA even on DPS gear. As usual, the crafted BoP epics are very good, and if you have leatherworking or engineering, you should definitely take advantage. The dps figurines from jewel crafting are also very nice.

HEAD:

Cobrascale Hood (Crafted) It's epic, but it only slightly edges out Helm of the Claw, so I'd advise passing unless you have cash to burn.
Helm of the Claw (Quest in Steam Vaults)
Stealther's Helmet of Second Sight (Quest in Shadowmoon Valley)

NECK:

Haramad's Bargain (Consortium Exalted Rep)
Necklace of Trophies (BoE World Drop) This gains on Natasha's because of the +Hit. If you're already at 5-6% from other gear, Natasha's pulls ahead.
Natasha's Pack Collar (Quest in Blade's Edge Mountains)

BACK:

Vengeance Wrap (Crafted) Expensive, and lacks Stamina, but most DPS from a cape you'll find outside a raid.
Capacitus' Cloak of Calibration (Mechanar Drop)

SHOULDERS:

Expedition Scout's Epaulets (Alliance Only Quest, Shattered Halls)
Blackened Leather Spaulders (Kurenai Revered Rep)/Talbuk Hide Spaulders (Mag'har Revered Rep) A pretty easy rep grind, and well worth it.
Shoulderpads of Assassination (Shattered Halls Drop) The rep shoulders above are a little better, and don't need costly gems to get the most out of them.
Cleansed Fel Pauldrons (Aldor Questline in Netherstorm)

CHEST:

Chestguard of the Talon (BoE World Drop) This can usually be gotten off the Auction House very cheaply. In sustained DPS, it's rated slightly below the Tunic of Assassination, which it outperforms on burst DPS. Considering the gems to bring the Tunic of Assassination up to par are worth more than this chest, it's the clear winner in my book.

WAIST:

Belt of Deep Shadow (Crafted) I'm only listing this to tell you not to bother with it. It's a BoE crafted, but the mats list includes two Nether Vortex which only drop in 25 mans. At this stage in raid progression it's unlikely any guild who has the resources to make one is selling many outside their guild, and if they were to sell one, the price is sure to be high. However, if you're rich or know the right person to get one made, it's an outstanding belt.
Veteran's Dragonhide Belt / Veteran's Leather Belt (PVP) The Leather slightly edges out the Dragonhide in DPS, but I don't mind trading less than 1 DPS and a little STA for the INT. The extra Armor doesn't hurt either if the going gets tough and the tough go bearing.
Socrethar's Girdle (Scryers Quest in Netherstorm)

WRIST:

Veteran's Dragonhide Bracers (PVP) Fourth on the list for both burst and sustained DPS. Clear winner over the Leather version. These are the easiest to attain epic PVP piece, and considering their placement on the list, there's no excuse not to get them, even if you hate PVP.

LEGS:

Clefthoof Hide Leggings (Quest in Blade's Edge Mountains) Easy and fun quest line. No reason not to get these. They're ranked fourth for burst DPS and ninth for sustained DPS. Best choice for pre-raid or pre-heroic legs. Unlike their closest attainable counterparts, they don't require gems to get the most from them.

HANDS:

Gloves of the Unbound (Arcatraz Drop) If you're going to farm for gloves, these are the ones to farm for. Slotted with two STR gems, they blow away Wastewalker Gloves and Handgrips of Assassination.
Fel Leather Gloves (Crafted) These fall a little under 2 DPS behind Wastewalker and Assassination in sustain damage and beat them by a good margin in burst damage, and you can get them without relying on a lucky roll. These do lack any STA, however.

FEET:

Veteran's Dragonhide Boots/Veteran's Leather Boots (PVP) Again, the Leather beats the Dragonhide a little on sustained, and a bit more on burst dps. I'd opt for the INT, personally.
Fel Leather Boots (Crafted) Makes a good showing on the DPS list, but again, totally laking in STA. In my opinion, go pvp for the belts, boots and bracers, it's worth the effort.
The Master's Treads (BoE World Drop) Not half bad. Can use these until you get better if you find a deal on them at the AH or get them from a drop. Stealth bonus is a nice perk.

RINGS:

A'dal's Command (Sha'tar Exalted Rep) Will take a lot of TK runs, but there are enough other items on this list in TK instances to make it a no brainer if you like doing instances.
Overseer's Signet (Aldor Quest in Netherstorm) If you're Aldor, this is a great option, almost equal to A'dal's Command (and listed higher on burst dps by Emmerald)
Acrobat's Mark of the Sha'tar (Quest in Shadowmoon Valley)
Kaylaan's Signet (Aldor Quest in Netherstorm) From the same quest that gives Cleansed Fel Pauldrons.
Slayer's Mark of the Redemption (Quest in Shadowmoon Valley) Identical stats to Kaylaan's Signet, but not a faction specific quest.

TRINKETS:

Skyguard Silver Cross (Shat'tari Skyguard Exalted) It's a rep grind, but it's probably worth it. Great DPS trinket.
Hourglass of the Unraveller (Black Morass Drop) Another great crit trinket.
Bladefist's Breadth (Quest in Hellfire Peninsula) Yep, it's good all the way to 70.
Abacus of Violent Odds (Mechanar Drop)
Badge of Tenacity (BoE, World Drop) Great for tanking and not too bad on DPS. Good if you want to save some bag space.
Fetish of the Fallen (Auchinai Crypts drop)
Mark of Conquest (Zangarmarsh World PVP Reward)
Core of Ar'Kelos (Quest in Netherstorm)
Uniting Charm (Alliance Quest in Nagrand)
Ogre Mauler's Badge (Horde Quest in Nagrand)

WEAPON:

Merciless Gladiator's Maul (Arena Season 2 Reward) I normally don't put Arena gear in my guides, because of the effort involved, but you should give this weapon a good hard look. Even if you're the most casual pacifist of a gamer, it may be worth it to duke it out for a few weeks for this bad boy.
Staff of Natural Fury (BoE World Drop) This will set you back quite a bit. On the up side, it has excellent DPS and a nice shape shifting cost reduction. Not a bad choice if you PVP but don't Arena.
Dreamer's Dragonstaff (Botanica Drop) This seems to have a good drop rate. Even my Mage has it. Shouldn't be too hard to farm while you work your way up the list.
Earthwarden (Cenarion Expedition Exalted Rep) If you've got one for tanking, it'll do respectable double duty until you get a better dedicated DPS weapon.

ENCHANTS and GEMS:

Generally, go for STR and AGI. Given the choice between the two, go for STR.

Druids and Rogues Getting PVP Review

2007-07-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

I'll never claim to be a late breaking WoW news site, but fortunately, World of Raids is.

They have just posted news of an upcoming Druid and Rogue PVP Review .

Not surprisingly, the news comes by way of the WoW-Eu forums, where information seems to flow more freely from the CMs. Judging by the blue comments, the focus will be on Arena performance for both classes. This is good news for me, because I plan to get a set of Merciless Gladiator's gear for my Druid, even if I gimp a percentage of my team's matches in the process. (That's not as evil as it sounds, 3/5ths of the team are in-laws, and I do far worse to them on a weekly basis in real life =)

Of course, I created the Druid as my PVP character because Druids have always been strong in PVP, if played well. I think Blizzard has been very kind to ferals since 1.8, and especially with Burning Crusade, so if there's more love coming to help us in Arenas, I'm very interested in seeing what form it takes.

Sango's Journey: Part 6 Southern Barrens

2007-07-06T16:57:00.000-07:00

Joana sends Sango back to the safety of the Barrens for a couple of easy levels.

I finally got a chance to sit down and run Sango through another section of the guide today. Although today's entry involves a little stupid death at the hands of the Razormane, fortunately there were no ganking distractions (that should be coming up in the next section, however).

This section of the guide promised to get me from level 22-23, but I managed to hit 24 by the end. So, no complaints there. I could have probably skipped a little bit of content if I found it too annoying or difficult, so classes who aren't quite as strong at soloing should take note.

The quests for this section were pretty straightforward. Hit Camp T and head South. Do quests. Do a quest you pick up down there. Head back up to turn in. Pretty basic stuff. I think a bit more direction at some points in the guide would be nice, though. I don't mind the barebones format at all, since I know where most of this stuff is anyway, but you get a lot of instructions formatted like this:

Get quests W, X, Y, and Z in Town.
Go do quest W at (44, 63)*
While you're there, do X, Y and Z.
Head to NPC A and pick up quest B. Do it.

Of course, it would be nice if the guide gave a location for quests X, Y, and Z if they're pretty far from quest W, or if nearby a simple "head East." Same with the last part where it tells you to go find a new quest in the general area. Now, frequently, the guide does give you those nudges. But it frequently relies on either you clicking on the link to the database entry on the quest, or prior knowledge. It's pretty easy to just check the web for the quest, but it'd be nice not to have to tab out of game if you get confused.

*The number set in parenthesis is a set of map coordinates. There are several UI mods that will show you your current coordinates and the coordinates your cursor is on as you move it over the world map. I'll be covering these in a follow up post.

Total time played to 24: 1 day 7 hrs 54 mins

Time played 22-24: 3 hrs 19 mins

(That splits pretty evenly between the two levels too. Just over 1.5 hrs per)

Guide to Pre-Karazhan and Pre-Heroic Bear Druid Tanking Gear

2007-07-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

EDIT: 11/20/07. Season 3 is starting on Tuesday 11/27. That means a new feral Gladiator set (without the +heal, adds +hit and armor ignore, very nice for PVE) is coming out. Season 1 Gladiator gear is becoming buyable with honor points and new Leather and Dragonhide boots, belts and bracers are coming out. Even if you don't like to PVP much, I highly suggest grinding the honor as much as you can stand, until you collect these epics.

Bear gear has always been kind of interesting to find, because Blizzard apparently likes to put the best bear tanking stats in unlikely places. In the world of bear tanking, greens can easily outshine epics. In the Burning Crusade, nothing much has changed. Since some of the best gear is crafted or quested, it's pretty easy to quickly gear your bear up to step into Karazhan or Heroics.

Before looking at the individual pieces, a quick review of Bear tanking stats is in order.

Armor: Armor mitigation is capped at 75%, which is around 35,880 armor against level 73 opponents. Bear Druids are the only tanks that can hit that cap currently. Armor does NOT have diminishing returns. Druids have less avoidance than other tanks, at least when looking at this level of gear. So, armor is GOOD. It's our primary tanking stat. A good number to shoot for when gearing up is at least 20k to start. More is better.

Stamina: Armor doesn't really do anything against magic damage, and bears will be eating more crushing blows than other tanks, so a good amount of STA is important. Aim for at least 12k health self-buffed.

Defense/Resilience: Since there are some decent bear pieces to be had with Resilience on them, and since Defense isn't as useful for bears as warriors/pallies, I'm including it here. With that in mind, Defense is still a bit better for bears. With Survival of the Fittest, 415 Defense will make a bear uncrittable. That's pretty attainable, but while gearing up, you can use some Resilience to bridge the gap.

Dodge: A bear's only avoidance stat. Dodge Rating and Agility gives us dodge. I'd advise stacking Agility as it gives Crit as well as Armor, and gives a bit more Dodge than Dodge rating. (.07% per point of AGI vs. .05% for Dodge.) Starting out, aim for about 25% Dodge.

Crit: Crit is nice because it gives us free rage through Primal Fury, and some free ability uses from Omen of Clarity. Don't bother with Critical Strike Rating, though, just get it through Agility.

OK, on with the list:

HEAD:

Stylin' Purple Hat (Crafted) No reason not to get this one, as it's a crafted item with pretty easy materials.

NECK:

Mark of the Ravenguard (Quest) Nice high STA neck with Defense. Easy to get quest reward.
Strength of the Untamed (Cenarion Expedition Rep - Revered) Less STA but adds in Dodge Rating. You'll be going for CE rep anyway, so may as well grab this one.

BACK:

Thoriumweave Cloak (Mechanar Drop) 390 Armor and 35 STA in one slot, 'nuff said. Easy farm.
Bogstrok Scale Cloak (Slave Pens Drop) Get this early and it will hold you over for quite a while.

SHOULDERS:

Gladiator's Dragonhide Spaulders: (PVP) If you like to PVP, you should grab these. Even if you don't like to PVP, these are pretty easy to get, only costing 11,250 Honor and 20 AB badges. Even if you don't plan to get any other PVP gear, if you're not downing HKM yet, the lack of tanking shoulders makes these a good investment.

Shoulderpads of Assassination: (Sethekk Halls Drop) Best blue drop shoulders. Not quite as good as the PVP shoulders, but very nice.

CHEST:

Heavy Clefthoof Vest (Crafted) Seriously, no excuse not to get this vest. You can go with other options that give better offensive stats for tanking five mans, but for heavy duty tanking, this is your best choice.

WAIST:

Manimal's Cinch (Quest) Remember those greens I was talking about? Here's one. Get it.

WRIST:

Umberhowl's Collar (Quest) Same questline as Manimal's above.
Veteran's Dragonhide Bracers (PVP) Pretty easy to get from PVP, a bit better than Umberhowl's.

LEGS:

Heavy Clefthoof Leggings (Crafted) Get 'em.
Ash Tempered Legguards (Quest) HUGE Armor on these, pretty easy to get. Can use while gathering mats for/saving money for Clefthoof.

HANDS:

Wastewalker Gloves (Shattered Halls Drop) Not sure on drop rate on these. I've run a ton of SH and haven't seen them drop yet though.
Verdant Gloves (Quest) If you don't get lucky on drops, or just don't like farming Shattered Halls, these are solid.

FEET:

Heavy Clefthoof Boots (Crafted) Get 'em.
Veteran's Dragonhide Boots (PVP) A bit better than Heavy Clefthoof.

RINGS:

Iron Band of the Unbreakable (Old Hillsbrad Drop) Not unique, can get two of these. If you're getting your Violet Signet, you can just farm one.
Wind Trader's Band (Quest) A really quick quest for a druid, nice STA and tanking stats to hold you over until you get two good armor rings.

TRINKETS:

Mark of Tyranny (Quest) Still one of the only Armor trinkets in the game. Still great for bears.
Smoking Heart of the Mountain (Crafted, BOP) Ditto.
Badge of Tenacity (BoE, World Drop) Probably the Holy Grail for tanking druids since patch 2.1. Hard to track down, but worth it.

Once you can do heroic CE instances, you should hit Underbog for an Argussian Compass. I know this is a pre-heroic gear list, but it's worth mentioning.

WEAPONS:

Earthwarden (Cenarion Expedition, Exalted Rep) Get it.
Braxxis' Staff of Slumber (BoE World Drop) Grab one of these as soon as you hit 64, it will last you until you get your Earthwarden. Usually can be had fairly cheaply at the AH.

GEMS and ENCHANTS:

I'm not going to run down the whole list. Generally, go for STA first, then AGI.

As a general guideline, good choices for gems are:

Red: 8 AGI
Yellow: 4 AGI/4 Hit Rating (Hit Rating is hard to come by on bear tanking and PVP gear)
Blue: 12 STA

However, use common sense and adjust to what you need based on the rest of your gear.

If you want to go over a comprehensive list of bear tanking gear, go here. As with all my guides, I tried to keep the options limited to what's easily available to a casual player, but Emmerald's list is a great resource if you like browsing for gear.

Note: Emmerald's list is not up to date with current S3/Vindicator's gear, though it does provide a good guideline for lower gear levels.

How to Pick a Grinding Spot

2007-07-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

Some people make a distinction between the terms "grinding" and "farming." I don't make that distinction. Grinding simply means continuously killing mobs. The goal is to minimize downtime and maximize kills. Whether you are killing for experience, crafting materials, or to make cash, you will want to apply the same basic principals to picking a good grinding spot.

While some classes are more efficient at grinding than others, by following a few basic guidelines, you should be able to pick a spot that suits you.

1. Ease of killing. This will vary between classes and specs. The key idea is to pick mobs that you can kill quickly and without taking too much damage. For low DPS classes, this usually means green con mobs. For casters, this usually means melee-only mobs, which are easy to kite, or simply kill before they reach you. For melee DPS classes without heals, this means mobs with low armor/health, to minimize downtime for recovering health. The best way to find out if the mobs you want to grind meet this requirement for your character is to simply go kill some. See how many you can kill between downtime, whether that means drinking to refill mana, or eating to regain health. A good number to shoot for is 4-5 kills between breaks.

2. Mob Density. The ideal grinding spot will let you continue to kill so long as you can do so. You want to find a spot that lets you quickly move to the next kill without running the risk of unwanted adds coming and ruining your fun. (In fact, if you have movement impairing abilities or spells like Judgement of Justice or Curse of Recklessness that prevent running outright, you should use those while grinding.) Ideal mob density will vary according to your class, and your ability. For AOE grinders, such as Mages or Protection Paladins, very tightly packed groups that are easy to round up en masse are ideal. For slower killers, runners become a problem, so you want a bit more breathing room between mobs.

3. Respawn Rate. You don't want to move between camps of mobs if you can help it, since movement time takes away from killing time. You'll want to find a spot where the mobs respawn at a rate that matches the time it takes you to clear their camp. If you kill fast, you'll want a fast respawn timer, if you kill slow, you want to avoid mobs spawning on you while you're fighting. Mob density and respawn rate are closely related, as they will be determined by your killing rate. This varies highly between individuals, and even over the course of a character's progression, so the best way to find an ideal mix is to experiment.

4. Player Traffic. You want to avoid competition if at all possible while grinding. Even the best grinding areas can only support 2 to 3 players at most and allow for optimal grinding. It's good to have a back up spot to go to if your primary location is busy. The amount of traffic in an area varies greatly by server and by time of day. Also consider teaming up with someone else. This is especially helpful if you're grinding for reputation, less so if you're grinding for experience or to make money. Sometimes a person is in area simply to complete a kill quest, and will welcome the company. By helping someone finish a quest (kill quests are about the most boring type), you might make a friend, as well as get your area back to faster.

5. Type of Mob. If you're grinding for a specific drop (many recipes fall into this category, dropping only off of certain mobs in certain areas), then your choice is made for you. However, if you're grinding for experience, reputation, money, or crafting materials, you can often maximize your efforts by choosing mobs that yield two or more things you need. For example, if you're grinding to level, you'll notice most grinding guides point you toward humanoid type mobs. This is because humanoids drop cash, cloth, and have a higher chance to drop useful (green or blue quality) items. The benefit here is that you get cloth for bandages or for sale. Bandaging is a huge downtime saver, and cloth is always a good choice for the Auction House. Cash is obviously spendable and doesn't take up bag space. Green or blue drops may be used or sold on the Auction House. Here's a short list of mob types and expected drops.

Humanoid: A favorite type to grind on. Drops cash, cloth, higher chance to drop green/blue quality items. The only downside to Humanoids is that their abilities vary greatly, and some humanoid mobs can be too tough to make grinding them worthwhile. Most humanoid mobs run in fear when at low health, which can increase the chance of getting unwanted adds.

Yetis: Yetis are humanoids, but they don't follow the normal rules. Yetis drop cash, but not cloth. Instead, Yetis are skinnable. In addition, Yetis always live in mountainous areas and caves. This makes Yetis the ideal mob to grind for characters that are Miners and Skinners, a great money making combination. They do not flee in fear, which makes the chance of attracting adds lower.

Beasts: Beasts can be skinned, and drop various body parts, which are gray "vendor trash" items. They generally have a lower chance to drop green/blue items (though this is not always true) than humanoids. Most beasts do not run in fear at low health levels. (Plainstriders and some Raptors are two exceptions I can think of offhand.)

Demons: Demons will fall into either the Humanoid or Beast categories above as far as characteristics. Generally, biped demons will have humanoid loot types, and animal types will be skinnable and have animal type loot. Floating heads follow humanoid guidelines. Demons don't flee in fear at low health.

Dragonkin: Dragonkin are essentially like Yetis. They are skinnable but otherwise have humanoid type loot tables. In addition, several types of dragonkin can drop Whelpling vanity pets, which can go for quite a bit on the auction house. (These have an insanely low drop rate, by the way.)

Giants: Generally follow the same rules as Humanoids. Most giants running around are elites, and not closely spaced enough to be worthwhile grinding, even if you're capable of grinding elites at a good pace. Elite dragonkin are always a better choice.

Elementals: Elementals drop cash (even though they have no pockets), have a small chance to drop green/blue quality items, and drop high value vendor trash as well as specific types of crafting supplies that sell on the Auction House for good money. These latter will be either white or green quality items with a name such as Elemental _____ , Essence of ______, or Mote of _______. (The blank will be Earth, Air, Fire or Water depending on the type of elemental.) Which one an elemental drops will depend on the level of the elemental. Currently, Motes, which can be combined into Primals, are the highest value. Rock Elementals in the Badlands are a favorite mob to grind for people saving for their first mount, as the vendor trash value is high, they have good density, don't do high damage, and don't have any particularly annoying attacks to deal with.

6. Location. When picking a grinding spot, you'll want to also have a good location. That means easy access to vendors (to sell trash drops, which add up), a mailbox (to mail salable items to an auction house alt). It's also nice if you're fairly close to the nearest graveyard. Although mobs should be easy to kill, sometimes accidents happen. Another consideration for location is the availability of resource nodes if you have a gathering profession, such as mining or herbalism. Since you'll be in the same spot for an extended period, you'll be able to get in a good amount of gathering if there are a couple of resource node spawns nearby.

Sango's Journey Part 5: Ashenvale and the Zoram Strand

2007-07-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

Joana's Guide takes Sango to strange shores for a quick level.

I took a few days off Sango, and while I'd like to claim it was a clever ploy to maximize my rested experience, I was really just farting around PVPing with my 70s. Another reason for the procrastination was that I really didn't want to take the hike across Ashenvale to the Zoram Strand.

This was another short section of the guide, designed to go from level 21 to 22, and to get you the Splintertree and Zoram Strand flight paths. Once again, I found myself in contested territory. I merrily went on my way, killing spiders and bears and wolves, oh my! Then SPLAT, level 64 ally Warrior. (Yay for Armory spying.) Unfortunately, my Druid was pretty far away, so no retribution was in store for my little Gnomish friend. Oh, but it will be, yes, it will be. So, after a bit of punitive killing in Astranaar, I was on my merry way.

The Zoram Strand part had me do Vorsha the Lasher, which was one of the quests that Joanna suggests you can come back and do around level 24 if you can't complete it at 22. It was a pretty simple quest, helping an NPC kill two waves of three mobs each, then a hydra with a pretty cool paint job. At 22 this was pretty simple for a Warlock. I think with the talent points and spells available at this stage that Sango is catching up in solo power to an even level hunter, so the guide should be pretty easy to follow going forward.

I only varied a little bit from the guide this time around. I ran into one of the mobs for The Ashenvale Hunt, Ursangous, so I killed him. He was a hair bear, and a scary bear, but I unpacked my DOTs and it all turned out well. I flew back to Splintertree for an easy 1950 experience before hearthing back to the Barrens at the end of the section. I'd say it was worth it. I don't think chasing roaming mobs is on the schedule for the guide, so doubt I'll be told to track the three beasts in Ashenvale down later, but if the opportunity arises to pick one off, my advice is to go for it.

Total time played to 22: 1 day 4 hours 35 minutes

Time played 21-22: 3 hours 20 minutes

Guide to Burning Crusade Warrior DPS Gear

2007-06-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

WARNING: Since this guide was first written, additional items have been added to the game, and S1 Gladiator gear has been rolled down to honor point attainable, so this info is a little dated. Also, Expertise Rating and Haste Rating are showing up on more and more attainable gear now, and neither was mentioned (or widely available) at the time this was originally written.

The Burning Crusade has not been kind to DPS warriors, especially Dual Wield Fury Warriors. Your best bets for Warrior DPS gear are really Arena gear and Heroic drops, and perhaps some crafted epics. Out of those options, only crafted gear will be immediately available upon reaching level 70.

This guide is going to focus more on gear for Arms/Fury and 2H Fury spec Warriors. The reason for this is that there is a pretty severe lack of plate gear for dual wielding warriors leveling up and just hitting 70. This is because in addition to Attack Power/STR, Critical Strike Rating/AGI, and Stamina, dual wielders also need to consider Hit Rating. Hit Rating on plate is hard to come by without slotting a lot of +hit rating gems and sacrificing other important stats. If your only concern is doing DPS in a group, and never being able to offtank on the fly to pull loose mobs off of casters and healers, then a good suit can be built up using some Leather pieces for +Hit. Also, the Ragesteel set gives good DPS stats at the cost of STA.

I don't like to sacrifice Armor or STA for DPS stats, and the gear in this guide will reflect that bias. The items presented will be good starter gear for warriors stepping into PVP and who wish to DPS in instances while maintaining the ability to take a hit from an elite. Now on to a basic discussion of stats.

STATS

For damage output you will need to balance Attack Power, Critical Strike Rating, and have about 5.6% Hit. Some target numbers to look at with this level of gear would be around 1400-1500 Attack Power (not impressive compared to epic gear, but doable with blues), 25% or more Crit, and the aforementioned 5.6% Hit. (Note: For your specials not to miss on raid bosses, you need +9% Hit)

Attack Power comes from STR and Attack Power equip bonus on items. For a Warrior, 1 STR = 2 AP. 14 Attack Power = 1 DPS. If you regularly run with a Paladin with Blessing of Kings, you should try to get most of your AP from STR.

Critical Strike % comes from Critical Strike Rating at a rate of 22.1 Crit Rating per 1% Crit, and from AGI at a rate of 33 AGI per 1% Crit. So, 1 AGI = .66 Crit Rating and 1 Crit Rating = 1.5 AGI. Keep that in mind when comparing AGI items and Crit Rating items.

Hit % comes from Hit Rating and talents. 15.8 Hit Rating = +1% chance to hit. So, for 2H warriors having 79 Hit Rating (+5%) is good, but you probably won't see it on this level of gear.

Weapon Skill really isn't relevant to this level of gear, and as none of this gear adds Weapon Skill, it's not germane to the discussion, however WoWiki has info for the curious.

WEAPON STATS

The DPS for blue level weapons at level 70 is pretty uniform. It is the additional stats and equip bonuses that set them apart. For level 70 blue 2H weapons, the norm is 93.x DPS, and for level 70 blue 1H weapons, the norm is 71.x DPS.

Your basic white damage comes from weapon dps + attack power + any talents that increase weapon damage, such as two handed spec or one handed spec. This is why your damage range on your character sheet is always much higher than your weapon's actual damage range.

Your attack power always increases your white DPS.

As a result, your attack power increases the AVERAGE damage PER SWING of your weapon.

ALL of your instant attack skills are based on the damage you do per swing, plus a normalized weapon speed coefficient.

Therefore, given the same weapon DPS, A SLOWER WEAPON ALWAYS YIELDS MORE BURST DAMAGE, AND WEAPON SPEED NORMALIZATION FOR SPECIAL ATTACKS DOES NOT AFFECT THIS.

Slow weapons of the same dps HIT HARDER.

Since all of the level 70 blue weapons are the same basic DPS, you will want a weapon with a slow speed, from 3.5 up. Keep in mind, a slightly faster weapon with a lot more AP on the weapon may actually hit harder, or a slightly faster weapon with a lot of Crit on it may add more damage from crits, but you want the attack speed to be on the slow end of things for both a MS build and a 2H fury build. In the Burning Crusade, this means 3.5-3.6, with the occasional 3.7 weapon tossed in.

For a 2H wielding Warrior, slow is best due to our damage from special attacks, and especially considering the need for burst damage in PVP.

For a Dual Wield Fury Warrior, the weapon speed is less of a consideration, so long as both weapons have a high DPS and contribute Attack Power, Hit, and/or Crit. The general consensus is that a slow mainhand weapon is good, due to Whirlwind and Overpower damage, while there is a split between those who favor a faster offhand versus a slower offhand. On the side of a faster offhand, rage generation is cited as the benefit, while on the side of a slower offhand, the weaker offhand swings consuming less of your flurry charges is the reason cited. In my opinion, both are valid concerns, but rage generation is rarely an issue with a fury build and with a high enough crit rate, along with macroing to overpower with improved overpower keeps flurry up quite well. My advice here: get the highest DPS offhand you can find, but given a choice go for a slower weapon if the DPS is equal. NOTE: Since the change to Whirlwind hitting with both weapons, two SLOW weapons of the SAME SPEED (yields an extra hit from flurry) are preferred. (Slow/Fast still isn't much behind though in overall damage output.)

Now on to a gear list. Again, this is stuff you can pick up on your way to 70 or right after turning 70, and is in no way the best gear you can get. That stuff will take considerable time and effort, this stuff is what can you use while expending that time and effort.

I am not including craftable epics (save one, since Warriors are highly unlikely to be tailors) on this list. If you have engineering or blacksmithing, you have some nice epics available and you should be taking advantage of that.

HEAD:

Overlord's Helmet of Second Sight (Quest Reward) Great choice for 2H Warriors. The questline for this starts in Shadowmoon Valley, and you'll need a flying mount or a friendly warlock with a flying mount to complete the chain. This is available to both factions.

Hope Bearer Helm (Auchinai Crypts drop) This is a great DPS helm you can get at level 65. It doesn't make it on to a lot of Warrior DPS gear lists because the name, the gem socket bonus and the graphics all scream "Paladin," but if you take a close look you'll see that the only stats on the helm are generous amounts of STR, AGI and STA, plus it has 3 sockets. You do NOT have to use gems of the matching color for your Red/Yellow/Blue slots, you just don't get the bonus (no loss here). With three yellow +Hit gems, this becomes one of the best options for a DW Warrior for a very long time, and, of course it can be slotted for 2H use as well. Worth farming for DWing.

Exorcist's Plate Helm (Costs 18 Spirit Shards) You can use this at level 66, and it is obtained from a vendor in either Stonebreaker Hold (Horde) or Allerian Stronghold (Ally) for 18 Spirit Shards. While the Meta slot and the small amount of Resilience make the helm look attractive as an early PVP option, I'd advise you to save your Spirit Shards for a Band of the Exorcist, and use the next option until you get Hope Bearer to drop (or until you get your Overlord's).

Clefthoof Helm (Quest in Nagrand) From the Clefthoof Mastery quest in Nagrand. Nice stats with some Hit Rating. A really solid helm for a green. Obtainable at level 64with a group.

NECK

Natasha's Choker (Quest in Blade's Edge Mountains) As a warrior, you'll want a partner for this quest chain, but it's worth the effort. This is one of the few pieces of gear on the list with no STA, because the DPS stats are the best you'll see pre-raid or pre-heroic. In fact, it's so good, it's the only DPS neck on the list. It's obtainable at 65, and even if you don't luck out on a Garrote String Necklace or Pendant of Battle Lust from Hellfire Citadel runs in your early 60s, you can easily make do for five levels and get this.

Talon Lord's Collar (Quest in Sethekk Halls) This one is a tough call. You have to give up your Mark of the Ravenguard for it, which is a very good tanking neck. However, the 21 Hit Rating is nice for DW Warriors trying to maximize +hit. Natasha's choker loses 11 hit to it, but gains 12 AP and 15 Crit Rating, so is still superior for DPS IMO, even for DW.

BACK

Vengeance Wrap (Crafted - Tailoring) This is simply an incredible DPS cape, better than other pre-raid epics for pure damage output. It's a tailoring item, and it requires a Primal Nether to make, so it will cost you, but it's worth the price.

Cloak of the Inciter (Shadow Labyrinth Drop) Great choice, especially for DW Warriors due to the +hit. Worth farming.

Delicate Green Poncho (Easy quest in Nagrand) Great DPS cloak for the effort involved, obtainable at level 64. Hide Cloak option may be best whith this thing, though, as the graphic is...lacking.

Cloak of Impulsiveness (Durnholde, CoT Drop) Decent AP cloak for the level. Not worth farming.

SHOULDERS

Sylvanaar Champion's Shoulders (Quest in Blade's Edge, Alliance Only) These are green but they have the best DPS stats of any shoulders before you hit heroics. Unfortunately, the quest line is Alliance-only.

Pauldrons of the Crimson Flight (Black Morass Drop) Nice high-STR shoulders.

Overmaster's Shoulders (Quest in Netherstorm) Decent green shoulders, not as good as Sylvanaar shoulders but available to both factions. Only drawback is low STA.

Jade Warrior Pauldrons (Quest in Hellfire Citadel) While these lack the DPS stats of the Overmaster's Shoulders above, Horde Warriors may chose to use them for the STA until they get an upgrade.

CHEST

Doomplate Chestguard (Arcatraz Drop) A pretty solid DPS chest, this is part of the Doomplate Battlegear Dungeon 3 DPS plate set. The nice thing about this set is that the two piece bonus is +35 Hit Rating (+2.21% Hit). The drawback is that the other four pieces of the set are all heroic drops.

Chestplate of A'dal (Questline in Netherstorm) Obtainable at 67 from a questline in Netherstorm. This is the same line that leads to the Arcatraz Key quest that gives Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard from the Tanking Gear Guide. You may as well get both. Excellent choice for DW warriors, probably the best on this list.

Blackened Chestplate (Quest in Blade's Edge) A very nice DPS chest you can get as low as level 65. The +25 Hit Rating makes it a clear winner for DW warriors.

Adamantite Breastplate (Crafted) Useable at level 67, the Stamina on this and the sockets make it a solid choice for starter PVP gear.

Durotan's Battle Harness (Durnholde, CoT Drop) Obtainable at level 66. This is a very decent crit chest for Arms Warriors. Will do quite well until you get something higher up the list.

WAIST

Deathforge Girdle (Sethekk Halls Drop) Worth farming, especially for Fury warriors, who can use the slots for +hit gems. Fortunately, Sethekk Halls is a very fast run and probably your best choice to farm for Spirit Shards, so that eases the pain of getting one of these.

Rubium War Girdle (Arcatraz Drop) Kind of sad that the runner up to a belt from an easy non-70 instance is from the hardest 70 five man, but there you have it.

Borak's Belt of Bravery (Questline in SMV) Decent belt that you can get from the questline to get your Grom'tor's Charge for your tank set. It will do the job until you can get better.

WRIST

Bands of Syth (Sethekk Halls Drop) Another good reason to farm Sethekk Halls a bit. Best DPS bracers you'll see for a while.

Adamantite Plate Bracers (Crafted) Another piece of the set. Again, nice starter PVP bracers if you want AP and STA.

Nexus Bracers of Vigor (Mana Tombs Drop) Your earliest blue DPS plate bracers. Usable at level 64.

LEGS

Legguards of the Shattered Hand (BoE World Drop, usually available on AH) On most servers, these can be had for a reasonable price. They are the second item on this list with no STA, which is a big loss for the leg slot, but this can be made up for with a Clefthide Leg Armor for PVP, or for PVE you can boost the DPS stats even further with a Cobrahide Leg Armor. Simply the best blue DPS legs available at this time, especially for DW Warriors.

Greaves of the Iron Guardian (Underbog Drop) These are the runner up for DW warriors, even though they are usable at level 63, mainly due to the sockets. They are good enough to use from 63 to 70, though some green quest legs at higher levels offer more DPS.

Midrealm Leggings (Netherstorm Quest) Very nice green quest reward legs. Obtainable at level 68.

Runed Sketh'lon Legplates (Questline in SMV) Awesome legs if you're looking to boost your crit. Obtainable at level 69.

Inkling's Leggings (Questline in Blade's Edge) Nice AP/Crit legs obtainable at level 65.

HANDS

Gauntlets of Cruel Intention (Botanica Drop) Very nice DPS gloves, and a fairly common drop from the easiest of the Tempest Keep instances.

Gauntlets of the Vanquisher (Scryer-Only Quest in Netherstorm) Nice DW gloves, though Scryer only.

Adamantite Plate Gloves (Crafted) Last piece of the set, makes the list again due to AP/STA.

Ironblade Gauntlets (Ramparts Drop) These are here simply for their two sockets. DW warriors may want to keep these to socket for +hit if they are looking to maximize +hit. Worth using until you get Gauntlets of the Vanquisher or Gauntlets of Cruel Intention, if you're DWing.

FEET

Obsidian Clodstompers (Botanica Drop) Another reason for a trip to Botanica. Very nice DPS boots that you can socket with either Crit or Hit and retain a small STR socket bonus.

Sha'tari Wrought Greaves (Quest Reward) Also featured on the Tanking Gear Guide, these can just as easily be slotted for DPS use.

RINGS

Lightwarden's Band (Aldor - Revered)
Conquerer's Band / Naliko's Revenge (Horde/Alliance Quest in Shattered Halls)
Ravenclaw Band (Sethekk Halls Drop) +Hit on this one
Ring of Umbral Doom (Botanica Drop)
Longstrider's Loop (Mana Tomb Drop) Not unique, has +hit
Ring of the Exarchs (Auchinai Crypts Drop)
Band of Triumph (Blue PVP DPS Ring)
Ogre Slayer's Band (Quest Reward, Nagrand)
Band of the Exorcist (50 Spirit Shards) Only epic on the list, because it's easy to obtain. Can use at 67.

TRINKETS

Blackhand's Breadth (Quest Reward UBRS) Why is this here? Because it's still good and it's not a drop.
Bladefist's Breadth (Quest Reward, Hellfire)
Abacus of Violent Odds (Mechanar Drop) Worth farming.
Hourglass of the Unraveller (Black Morass Drop) Worth farming.
Figurine-Felsteel Boar (Jewlecrafting, Bind on Pickup) Nice AP trinket if you happen to be a Jewel Crafter, and the little piggy can put out some damage as long as it isn't getting hit.

TWO-HANDED WEAPONS:

As previously stated, crafted BoP epics are the best here, followed by other crafted epics if you can afford them. Below are some standard DPS blues suitable for Arms or 2H Fury.

Apexis Cleaver (BoE) This can be had from AH or you can farm a Depleted Two-Handed Axe and some Apexis Crystals and make one yourself. This is from the new content in 2.1.
Hellscream's Will (Ma'har Exalted - Horde) OR
Arechron's Gift (Kurenai Exalted - Ally) These are the Talbuk mount factions in Nagrand, really easy to raise faction with.
Plasma Rat's Hyper Scythe (Mechanar Drop) Pretty common drop from first boss in Mechanar.
Sonic Spear (Shadow Labyrinth Drop) While it's a decent Warrior weapon, I'd advise you to not run with a Hunter if you want this. You'll make him a very sad Hunter if you outroll him on the Sonic Spear as it is about the best hunter weapon available for a long time, while you have a lot more options available.
Greatsword of Forlorn Visions (Botanica Drop)
Illidari Bane Claymore (Questline in SMV) Super slow, with nice high end damage range.
Firemaul of Destruction (Shattered Halls Drop) Only 90.3 DPS but has a huge top end damage due to the slow speed, tons of STA and Resilience. A nice mace spec pvp weapon.

Sango's Journey Part 4: To Stonetalon and Back Again

2007-06-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

In this installment, Sango gets hopelessly lost in Stonetalon, but Joana's guide still delivers the promised levels.

I'm beginning to think that my play habits aren't doing justice to Joana's Guide. As before, I wasted a TON of time on this section of the guide. Sango, apparently, has inherited my sense of direction and short attention span.

Things started off well. I headed up to Stonetalon, picked up some quests, and worked my way up towards Sunrock Retreat. Then the first distraction got me, a level 30-40ish Dwarf Hunter with a stupid name bushwhacked me while I was killing three spiders. That's fine. That's part of life on a PVP server, keeps you on your toes and all that. Of course, the other part of life on a PVP server is sweet, sweet revenge, and failing that, reprisal against the other faction in general.

Long story short, I got on my 70 Druid, and two other level 20 alts that were ambushed hopped on their high levels, and we beat the bushes in Stonetalon looking for this guy. He must've logged, because as our dragnet expanded, we didn't manage to capture him. Well. No problem. We headed over to Ashenvale and razed Astranaar a few times, taking out any lowbies we spotted along the way. Although it got old after about the fourth or fifth sweep of NPC murder and mayhem, I did end up wasting a good part of the night just goofing off. So, when I got back to Sango, I was starting to get sleepy.

Apparently, the allies in the zone were all in bed when I logged back to Sango, so I had no more PVP issues, but I did manage to get into a cave and get killed by mobs in a spot where I couldn't res safely. Since I had to get to the back of the cave for a quest, I ressed and death ran in further, then did it again. Then spirit ressed and ran back to where I was supposed to head to after doing the cave quest. Then waited for res sickness to wear off before hitting the final few quests of the night. So, there you have it, the model of modern leveling efficiency!

I also headed over to do some of my Succubus quest chain, and my next session will begin with that rather than Joana's guide, so this will take a chunk of time off as well.

Total time played to 21: 1 day 1 hour 15 mins

Time played 20-21: 2 hrs 33 mins

Wowhead Acquired by ZAM Network

2007-06-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

ZAM Network has acquired Wowhead. This isn't exactly breaking news, as it has been a couple of days since I heard about it, however, it's noteworthy.

Apparently, ZAM is the current owner of Thottbot and Allakhazam, and the former owner of IDE, the RTM company. John Maffei, president of ZAM Network assures us in an interview that there will be no advertisements for gold sellers or power levelers on Wowhead, and pretty much attempts to put much distance between his company and the likes of IDE. I believe this, as the gold ads have disappeared from the other two sites. My one concern is that the quality of the site doesn't take a nosedive like Thottbot did, though the press release attempts to lay those fears to rest.

Links:

Press Release
Gamasutra Q&A With John Maffei

Sango's Journey Part 3: Stonetalon and Barrens

2007-06-21T13:59:00.001-07:00

The biggest section of Joana's Guide so far, from level 15-20 in 78 easy steps.

Thanks to the wonders of modern phone spamming and caller ID spoofing technology, I didn't get any sleep Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday mornings, so I had to do this section of the guide in little chunks of playtime. The third section of the guide was only 6 steps, so I'm combining it with the next, much longer section, for this entry.

Joana first has us dip into the Stonetalon Mountains for a couple of quests to get from 15-16. Nothing too big to report here, the last quests were up north, so it made sense to hit these as well. It was the first time I've taken my little warlock into contested territory, so my paranoia level was high, but the trip was uneventful. This section got me from 15 to 16 as promised.

The next section of the guide takes us on a grand tour of the Barrens, heading a bit further South. All of the quests were reasonably easy to do for a warlock at my level, though I did incur a few corpse runs through inattentiveness. At one point, the guide sends you to Thunder Bluff to turn in a quest and train. Unfortunately, Taurens don't tolerate our kind, so Warlocks need to go to Ratchet to train. The guide will take you there soon after, but I went ahead and flew over to train because I wanted new skills.

The /played time numbers are kind of average compared to other characters I've leveled in the zone. Then again, the Barrens is huge and I did an unusual number of corpse runs from stupidity. I expect the guide to kick into higher gear once I get a few levels. Now that I have some talent points spent, Sango is a much more efficient Warlock, and will only improve with levels.

Warlock note: It looks like the guide is going to send me near my next stage of Succubus quest anyway, so I'm holding off on doing it for now.

Total time played to 20: 22 hrs 42 mins

Time played 15-20: 9 hrs 7 mins

Guide to Pre-Karazhan and Pre-Heroic Warrior Tanking Gear

2007-06-19T06:28:00.000-07:00

Since the Burning Crusade hit, the World of Warcraft has been a little short on tanks. As a contributor to that problem by retiring my Warrior from the tanking life, I'd like to share some info for the new breed of bright-eyed Warrior rerollers who are taking up the reins from us jaded release day tanks.

Fortunately, Blizzard has made it pretty easy to get a decent set of tanking gear to start Karazhan and Heroics in Burning Crusade.

Gearing up your tank is an ongoing process. When you start researching tanking gear, you realize that there are a LOT of tanking stats to keep track of, and you'll realize that you can't set your target numbers too high on all of them without hitting up heroics and raids. Progression is the name of the game. What this guide will do is show you how to hit some pretty simple target numbers that will let you succeed in the early encounters in Karazhan (and the first few bosses drop some nice tanking upgrades) and in Heroics.

Just to simplify things, I'm going to toss out some target numbers. You will be making these numbers up with gear, and where needed, with talents. Just getting there to start out is the important part.

Defense: 490. This level of defense gives you crit immunity to most raid bosses. Some bosses will have a higher chance to crit, but that's the exception rather than the rule. More defense isn't necessarily bad, as you gain some mitigation talents other than resistance to crits, but in general it's better to steer towards other stats once you've reached 490 Def.

Armor: 12,000. This is pretty much a no-brainer. Higher armor means more survivability against melee attacks. There is NO diminishing returns on armor. Even though you don't gain as much mitigation per cent with higher levels of armor, each chunk of armor increases your survival time in melee by a static amount. So, the more the merrier here.

Health: 12,000. You'll want at least this much health to start tanking encounters where plate can be hit for upwards of 4,000 to 5,000 damage, and aside from resistance, health is the only stat keeping a tank alive against incoming magic damage.

Dodge and Parry: Ideally, you'll want these numbers to be around 40% or so combined. You'll likely be seeing 30% or so when you're starting out. Dodge is much cheaper on the item budget than Parry. While a dodged attack and a parried attack are both essentially misses (0 incoming damage), a parried attack also gives you a counter-attack, increasing the speed of your next attack. While this makes Parry kind of cool, it makes it a sucker bet for things like gems.

Speaking of Gems: Stack Solid Star of Elune. You shouldn't need any other gem to hit your target numbers.

The above was a very brief, although hopefully accurate enough for our purpose, discussion on tanking stats. You'll notice I ignored stuff like Block Rating (chance to block) and Block Value (amount to block, and increases Shield Slam damage). That's because in evaluating our starter gear set, they don't really matter. Higher end gear will add in all of the cool tanking stats you need as you progress. If you'd like a great in depth guide to tanking raids, Ciderhelm's guide on the WoW Forums is very good reading.

OK, on to the gear list. The emphasis here is on gear that you can get without too much reliance on chance. Most of this will be crafted, rep reward, or quested gear, with the occasional dungeon drop thrown in. Not every possibility is listed per slot, usually two to three max.

HEAD

Felsteel Helm (Crafted)*
Myrmidon's Headdress (Quest Reward)

NECK

Mark of the Ravenguard (Quest Reward) *
Strength of the Untamed (Cenarion Expedition Revered)

BACK

Devilshark Cape (Steamvault Drop)
Cloak of Eternity (Crafted)*

SHOULDERS

Shoulderguards of the Bold (Shadow Labyrinth Drop)*
Warchief's Mantle (Quest Reward)

CHEST

Jade-Skull Breastplate (Mechanar Drop)
Breastplate of the Warbringer (Quest Reward)*
Vindicator's Hauberk (Aldor Revered)

WAIST

Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard (Quest Reward)

There's no excuse not to get this belt, as it's a quest reward and the only blue tanking belt in the game pre-raid or pre-heroic. If you want a filler belt while trying to get a group together to quest for this, then grab a green "Of the Champion" belt off the AH* or use one of the following quest belts:

Fearless Girdle (Quest in Zangarmarsh, has two sockets so you can add 18 STA with green gems)
Girdle of the Lost Vindicator (Aldor Quest in Netherstorm)

WRIST

Sha'tari Wrought Armguards (Quest Reward)*
Bracers of the Green Fortress (Crafted Epic)

LEGS

Felsteel Leggings (Crafted)*
Timewarden's Leggings (Keepers of Time Revered)

HANDS

Felsteel Gloves (Crafted)*
Thatia's Self-Correcting Gauntlets (World Drop, BoE, can get on Auction House)

FEET

Sha'tari Wrought Greaves (Quest Reward)
Flesh Beast's Metal Greaves (Quest Reward)

RINGS

Protector's Mark of the Redemption (Quest Reward)*
Andormu's Tear (No STA but a ton of tank stats, good if you have enough health elsewhere)
Elementium Band of the Sentry (Arcatraz Drop)
Wind Trader's Band (Quest Reward. Green, but very good stats, fast quest)*
Iron Band of the Unbreakable (Old Hillsbrad Drop)

TRINKETS

Adamantine Figurine (Shadow Labyrinth Drop)*
Dabiri's Enigma (Quest Reward)
Figurine of the Colossus (Shattered Halls Drop)
(I'm still using my Zandalarian Hero Badge with my Adamantine Figurine. )

WEAPONS

Grom'tor's Charge (Quest Reward)*
Honor's Call (Honor Hold Exalted)

SHIELDS

Netherwing Protector's Shield (Quest Reward)
Aegis of the Sunbird (Botanica Drop)
Platinum Shield of the Valorius (Shadow Labyrinth Drop)*

RANGED

AH Green "of the Monkey" level 70 -- Seriously, your best option for this slot.
Zerid's Vintage Musket (Quest Reward)*
Scout's Throwing Knives (Quest Reward)

*The items marked with an asterisk are my current gear, including the green belt off the AH. Since I haven't gotten my warrior's flying mount yet, I can't get a couple of the quest rewards, like the Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard or Netherwing Protector's Shield. Still, that gear only took me about three days to gather after hitting 70 and hit all of the above target numbers with a few points put into Anticipation and full Toughness. So, even if I spec partially into Protection, to offtank a raid or to tank an instance, I'm already at the target numbers, and it didn't take too much work at all.

Good luck gearing your tank!

Guide to Retribution Paladin PVP Gear (good for PVE too!)

2007-06-19T03:31:00.000-07:00

As I was looking over retribution Paladin gear for newer level 70s to go for, I realized that the retribution sets from PVP are actually very good for PVE Ret pallies as well. I suppose nothing much has changed for Paladins in that regard in the Burning Crusade, as aside from AQ40 gear, some of the best Ret gear was also from PVP.

Kalgan made it clear in a post a while back that he and the dev team regard Retribution spec as a solo PVP and solo grinding spec. In other words, the bastard red-headed stepchild spec of what was billed as the "melee hybrid" class at release. Like many, I signed on for a melee fighter with mediocre heals and nice buffs to help out when soloing and add utility to a group. Over the last two and a half years, my paladin has evolved from a capable fifth man in a group, both able to offtank and dps, to a raid healbot, to a main instance healer. As I have a warrior, I never bothered to spec for the tanking role Blizzard wants to shove down our throats as part of the new "tanking/healing" hybrid paradigm, though I've tanked a bit of stuff as Holy.

So, it's no wonder Ret itemization is a little weird, and no wonder some of the best Retribution items are to be had from PVP. Unlike the spell damage and healing sets, the retribution gear is very light on Resilience. The stat points lost in resilience are spread around among spell damage and strength. This has caused a bit of debate. In my opinion, for PVP purposes, the spell damage should have been left as resilience rating for ret gear, and for PVE purposes strength would have provided better gains for damage output.

However, the stuff does have enough damage and healing to boost your heals by a bit, and that's somewhat useful. It becomes more useful when you realize you can toss on a healing shield like the Crystal Pulse Shield and the new +423 healing Gladiator hammer with a +81 healing enchant, and get a fast +778 Healing boost if you're in full Gladiator's/PVP gear. That's not too bad of a quick role switch if you find yourself tossing emergency heals.

My current build is 5/8/48

Sources for my numbers (subject to change when realms come back up with live data):

Arena Weapons
Arena Paladin DPS Plate
Honor Rewards from Here and Here

Here's the setup I'm looking at. It requires nothing other than getting into an arena team and accumulating points. I plan on waiting until a friend of mine finishes leveling his Hunter and just doing ten 2v2 matches a week for the Gladiator stuff. This has got to be the least optimal way to go about it, but eventually those six (seven counting healing mace) Gladiator slots will fill up!

This isn't the best gear build for pure PVE DPS. The honor cape should be replaced with a Vengeance Wrap and eventually I plan on getting Furious Gizmatic Goggles for the head slot, since I'm an Engineer. Likewise, you can probably find higher-DPS rings in instances, and from reputation rewards like Adal's Command from exalted Sha'tar rep. There are also better trinkets for DPS purposes, such as Hourglass of the Unraveller, but I chose quest rewards everyone can get easily and without loot drama.

Likewise, for pure PVP, you may want to mix in two pieces of the Season 1 Gladiator gear and get resilience gems and trinkets to boost your resilience.

The main point of this gear list is that it is obtainable on a casual basis, if you invest some time in PVP, and it's a very well-rounded setup.

Head: Merciless Gladiator's Scaled Helm
Neck: Veteran's Pendant of Triumph
Back: Sergeant's Heavy Cloak (I could not find an upgraded version of this item.)
Shoulders: Merciless Gladiator's Scaled Shoulders
Chest: Merciless Gladiator's Scaled Chestpiece
Waist: Veteran's Scaled Belt
Wrist: Veteran's Scaled Bracers
Legs: Merciless Gladiator's Scaled Legguards
Hands: Merciless Gladiator's Scaled Gauntlets
Feet: Veteran's Scaled Greaves
Ring 1: Veteran's Band of Triumph
Ring 2: Band of the Exorcist (PVP Ring you grind Auchindoun instances for. Sort of illogical, but not too tough to get with time.)
Trinket 1: Blackhand's Breadth
Trinket 2: Uniting Charm or Bladefist's Breadth (I chose the spell crit quest reward so no BFB for me. Stats below use Charm)
Weapon: Merciless Gladiator's Greatsword (The stats are the same on all the slow weapons, I happen to like the sword graphic best.)
Libram: Libram of Zeal (There is a new Arena Libram, but I don't have stats for it yet)

Now, if we add all of the above up, before customizing the gear with enchants and gems, we get:

STR: +278 / +305 with Holy STR
STA: +519
INT: +185 / +203 with Holy INT
Attack Power: +204
CRIT Rating: +368 (+16.65% chance to Crit)
Spell Damage and Healing: +239
Resilience: +145 (-3.68% chance to be Crit, and -7.36% damage from Crits)
HIT Rating: +28 (+1.77% Chance to Hit, +4.77% with Precision)
1x META Gem Slot
4x RED Gem Slots
4x YELLOW Gem Slots

Needless to say, this is a VERY good baseline set of stats for a Retribution Paladin. My ultimate goal in obtaining this gear will simply be to go bash in the skulls of monsters and NPCs while grinding out unfinished (or new) quests, rep, and crafting supplies, while stepping into the occasional battleground and bashing in the heads of my fellow players. (Well, their characters, let's not get too carried away.)

With that in mind, here's how I plan to slot gems and enchants on the above gear:

Head: Glyph of Ferocity (Cenarion Expedition Revered rep; +34 AP, +16 Hit Rating)
Back: Greater Agility (+12 AGI)
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Blade (Scryers Exalted rep; +15 Crit Rating, +20 AP)
Chest: Exceptional Stats (+6 All Stats)
Legs: Nethercobra Leg Armor (+50 AP, +12 Crit Rating)
Wrist: Brawn (+12 STR)
Hands: Superior Agility (+15 AGI)
Feet: Dexterity (+12 AGI)
Weapon: Mongoose (Proc: +120 AGI and Haste)
Meta: Swift Windfire Diamond (+20 AP and Minor Run Speed Increase)
Red: 4x Bold Living Ruby (+32 STR total)
Yellow: 4x Brilliant Dawnstone (+32 INT total. Plenty of Crit elsewhere, and I like a decent mana pool)

This would give me:

STR: +360 (Including Holy STR)
AGI: +45 (+1.8% Crit)
STA: +519
INT: +223 (No Holy INT)
Attack Power: +328
CRIT Rating: +395 (+17.87% Crit)
Spell Damage and Healing: +239
Resilience: +145 (-3.68% chance to be Crit, and -7.36% damage from Crits)
HIT Rating: +44 (+2.78% Chance to Hit, +5.77% with Precision)

This would give me a 29.67% crit chance, +5.77% hit chance, and over 1500 unbuffed attack power, while still maintaining a decent 9.5k Health and 7k Mana (roughly). Not a bad mix of damage output (30% or so crit should keep Vengeance stacked nicely) and survivability.

Of course, if you're not up for Arena, the blue PVP gear is still very nice in its own right, and the rest of the gear listed can also be had from normal battlegrounds PVP. A nice crafted epic weapon like Thunder with the blue PVP set and honor reward epics will still perform VERY nicely.

Sango's Journey Part 2: The Barrens

2007-06-19T03:09:00.000-07:00

Joana's Guide forgot the important first step: /leave 1.

After leaving general chat in the Barrens, I set about following the next stage of the guide, from level 12 to 15. While Durotar really doesn't take much to optimize, I figured the Barrens would prove a nice test for the guide. After all, the Barrens is huge, and packed with quests.

Reading forward in the guide, I see that there's a quick divergence to the lower level Stone Talon quests, then it gets back to the Barrens. So, my next session will also be covering the Barrens.

The order of things was laid out very smartly, and made sense. I tend to get easily distracted, by doing things like tabbing out to surf while eating and drinking, and on the longest walk of the guide to get to a quest area, I actually walked the same distance in the opposite direction by mistake! I blame the telemarketers that kept interrupting my beauty sleep for the errors. I also got myself into several stupid spots and had more corpse runs than normal today.

All that said, the guide worked well. There was nothing in this section that was beyond a Warlock's abilities to accomplish (an alert one anyway). I didn't do the quests at the tail end section of the guide, having gotten myself into a spot where I couldn't res safely and spirit ressing. So, I wasted some precious travel time. I had already hit 15 before starting those, however.

My hunter guildmate reports good success with the guide as well. He's not questing exclusively, taking time to do crafting as well, but he's hit 20 since he picked up the guide, which was after I did. After the servers come up tomorrow, I hope to get a nice long session and clear a big chunk of the Barrens out.

Time played to 15: 13 hrs 35 mins

Played time 12-15: 4 hrs 49 mins

Sango's Journey: Part 1 Durotar

2007-06-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

Sango the Orc Warlock decides to level up using Joana's Horde Leveling Guide.

I've got a very small (five active members) guild on a PVP server. We're just big enough to create a 5v5 Arena team. This is the server where I already have a level 70 feral Druid. I like the druid for PVP in general, and he's strong in most 1 v. 1 match ups, but I don't see him as all that viable in 5v5 Arena.

Since we have a Paladin, Warrior, Priest and Rogue in the works, I decided to build a Warlock. I've already been to 60 five times, and to 70 four times, and our plan is to hit BGs at 70 and get the blue sets and BG epics then transition to Arena, so gear isn't an issue. Quest gear will do fine to start out. That left speed as my concern. My compatriots are already 55 and 60 now, so I have some catching up to do.

I decided to drop the $37 on Joanna's guide to see how fast it could speed things up. Sango's Journey entries will record my experiences with the guide, including tips for use with a Warlock. Since the guide is focused on my goal, speed leveling, if it's good, it has far more value than any Prima guide, and will be well worth the cost. Especially since I can use it again on other alts.

I bought the guide when my Warlock was level 8, and I spent a lot of time goofing off in guild chat discussing plans for the arena team, so my initial leg of the journey will not be an accurate gauge of leveling speed.

Part One of the guide takes you from level 1-12. There is both a Blood Elf starting area guide and an Orc starting area guide. One of our 60s got the guide and started a new Blood Elf hunter to check it out, and he's had nice results in the Blood Elf area. Considering Orc racials for a PVP lock, I went the Orc route.

Since I've already done the vast majority of the quests in the guide and don't need the links or the maps on the HTML version (and because WoW crashes a LOT lately when you alt-tab out), I just printed the pages for the first section off the PDF file, and used them as a checklist.

The first thing you notice about the guide is that it is written from a hunter's perspective. The hunter class quests, including details such as the best pets to tame along the way are highlighted in red, so they're easy to skip.

Durotar is pretty much Durotar now matter how you slice it. The suggested order of quest stacking was very good though, and more optimal than my usual approach. There was one glitch, and that is with a timed quest.

At one point, the guide directs you to pick up "Need for a Cure" and then tells you to go do four more quests, then run down to turn in some in Razor Hill, then run up and do all the cave quests, and THEN turn in "Need for a Cure."

"Need for a Cure" requires you to complete "Finding the Antidote" which gets you the antidote for the poor troll hiding out in the rocks. (I have to wonder why the NPC doesn't just take a few steps to the East and shout for a guard.) "Need for a Cure" has a 45 minute timer. There is NO WAY I could get the quests in the guide done in that time frame with my Warlock at level 10. I have some reservations about a Hunter doing it, but it may be possible. I failed the quest by about 30-45 seconds. When you drop "Need for a Cure" the game also deletes your antidote, meaning you have to go pick that quest up again and do it.

My advice: After you pick up "Finding the Antidote", DROP "Need for a Cure" and at the point the guide tells you to go turn in "Need for a Cure" pick it back up and give the antidote to the troll. This lets you get the antidote and not worry about the timer.

Warlock Tip: You can wait until you do the cave quests to get the first leg of the voidwalker quest done, and when you go back to Org for other quests, the last part is right next to one of those.

Time Played to Level 12: 8hrs 46mins

Check back daily to see Sango's progress!

Contributing to the Tanking / Healing Shortage

2007-06-17T02:38:00.000-07:00

I've decided to place my Warrior, Paladin, and Druid into semi-retirement, and to make my Mage my new main. That's two less tanks on two servers and one less healer. In fact, I've respecced the Warrior and Paladin to Arms/Fury and pure Retribution, because I'll likely only break them out to do quests for cash or some PVP.

What prompted me to do this? The primary reason isn't really any great dissatisfaction with tanking or healing, as I enjoy both those roles, but simply a matter of time. Focusing on one character will allow me to advance further in the game and get great gear all that much faster. And a certain weariness of tanking and healing.

OK, so why the Mage? I could've gone with my Warrior, Paladin, Druid or Hunter as main. The first three are already level 70, and geared for the roles they're most in demand for, and the Hunter is 61 and easy enough to level. In terms of gearing, mages have some nice things going for them with epic tailoring items, and reputation items in the Burning Crusade, and I spend a lot of time soloing at weird hours, so that's a huge benefit. The other reason is that I'm frankly sick of tanking and healing for PUGs, and I tend to do more PUGs than guild runs.

Let's face it, good PUGs are the exception. As a tank, you constantly have to fight your own group for control of the mobs, because your DPS is incapable of focus firing, causing mobs to run amok bouncing between the DPS and the healer trying to keep them alive. DPSers constantly shoot incoming mobs before you can even land a single sunder on them, or stun them before they get to you. And let's not forget jumpy DPSers pulling while you're still marking or setting up a pull, or worse yet, waiting for a pat to clear. It's even better when two of your DPS pull before you're ready, and pull different mobs. Heck, sometimes I'm waiting for the cooldown on my Bloodrage when my hyperactive PUG DPSers pull. Guess what? If that taunt gets resisted, I've got no rage to use anything else to get aggro on the mob. Enjoy your corpse run.

Healing in PUGs is only a slightly better proposition. All of the above problems from DPSers usually culminate in a dead healer due to spreading heals over the whole group and getting excessive healing aggro. Then you have the truly bad tanks who can't tank more than a single mob, as if it's hard to locate the Demoralizing Shout button or Thunderclap. I've lost count of the times I've been slammed by three or more mobs after tossing a single Flash of Light. That's just sad. Sometimes, even under the best of circumstances, you're going to get aggro as a healer. Fortunately, most if not all DPS classes have some form of crowd control or snare they can use to get those mobs off you. But do they? Nope, too busy watching their damage meters.

Anyway, next time you're in a group with three DPSers (and I may be one of them!) looking for that elusive tank and healer, think about how much a little awareness that a dungeon is a group effort can go towards solving the mysterious tanking and healing shortage.

Arena Season 2 Gear up on PTR

2007-06-16T23:52:00.000-07:00

Looks pretty nice, especially the new weapons. World of Raids has links up.

Warlock set wins in the graphics department, in my opinion.

Guide: Maximize Your Rep in The Burning Crusade

2007-06-16T23:00:00.001-07:00

The Burning Crusade introduces a lot of new factions, and these have some great rewards, including items, recipes, heroic instance keys, or head and shoulder enchants. The good news is, that it's a lot easier to gain faction in The Burning Crusade than ever before in World of Warcraft.

That said, there are a few things you can do to maximize your rep gains. There are three main sources of faction: Killing mobs that give reputation, doing quests, and doing repeatable turn in quests. There are lower level repeatable quests that stop at Honored rep, and higher-level repeatable quests that will take you to Exalted, depending on the faction. Reputation for kills stops at Honored, until you get to level 70 instances. Normal quests give reputation no matter what level your reputation is at.

Let me repeat that: Normal quests give reputation no matter what level your reputation is at.

This is key to maximizing your Burning Crusade reputation gains. As you enter each new zone in Outlands, you should avoid doing faction-granting quests of the non-repeatable kind until you have run that zone's instances enough times to get your reputation to Honored. Doing this will put your reputation up to Revered, and should get you some good gear in the process. Once you hit level 70 you can run the higher-level wing of each instance to get to Revered (or Exalted if you wish.)

Some of the major factions are listed below, to get you started. Note, the Reputation Rewards links go to the main faction page for WoWHead, which has more advice on gaining reputation:

Honor Hold:
Reputation Rewards
Reputation Quests
Instance: Hellfire Citadel (All wings)

Thrallmar:
Reputation Rewards
Reputation Quests
Instance: Hellfire Citadel (All wings)

Cenarion Expedition:
Reputation Rewards
Reputation Quests
Instance: Coilfang Resevoir (All wings)
EDIT: My guildies have followed this advice, and by doing Coilfang instances to honored, then all of the CE quests, including Blade's Edge were able to quest all the way to Revered. I think this is the only faction where the quests make this possible in BC. Sure saves a lot of rep grinding at 70!

Keepers of Time:
Reputation Rewards
Reputation Quests
Instance: Caverns of Time (All wings)

The Sha'tar:
Reputation Rewards
Reputation Quests
Instance: Tempest Keep (All wings, up to Exalted)

The Aldor:
Reputation Rewards
Reputation Quests
Instances: None for kill rep, but Shadow Labyrinth and other instances with demon mobs provide drops that can be turned in for reputation. (Fel Armaments and Marks of Kil'jaeden)

The Scryers:
Reputation Rewards
Reputation Quests
Instances: None for kill rep, but the Tempest Keep instances' Blood Elves drop repeatable turn in items. (Arcane Tomes and Sunfury Signets)

Lower City:
Reputation Rewards
Reputation Quests
Instances: Auchindoun (All wings, except Mana Tombs)

The Consortium
Reputation Rewards
Reputation Quests
Instances: Mana Tombs

Cloth Grinding Guide for Level 70 Tailor Profession Swappers

2007-06-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

Yes, I used that dirty word "grinding" -- sometimes there's no way around it. MMORPGs are time sinks, and WoW is no exception. Well, in the case of tailoring, the Burning Crusade makes a bit of a grind worth the effort with the introduction of several epic cloth sets. In addition, there are three complimentary sets for each, the patterns for which are drops. There are also several non-set cloth epic patterns. If you aren't already familiar with them, get on over to wowhead and check them out.

My mage was a miner/skinner before Burning Crusade came out, so I've had to power level tailoring. I'm currently approaching 300 tailoring. The best grinding spots I've found so far are:

Deadmines: Linen. A no-brainer. Just pull the whole instance and hit them with downranked AOE spells to conserve mana.

Stockades: Wool. Another obvious choice. Many of the mobs here can knock you down or interrupt your casts, but that shouldn't be a huge issue.

Scarlet Monastery Armory: Silk. As a mage, I found the Armory to be much more productive for silk than the Library, due to most of the mobs being melee only, making them easier to gather up for AOE. I believe Armory also has a better drop rate for silk, though I'm not running any stat gathering mods to be certain. At 70 it's possible to pull a couple sections at at time.

Dunemaul Compound, Tanaris: Mageweave. This is simply the easiest area to run laps and rake in mageweave. The drop rate is good and usually nets 2-3 pieces of cloth. Sometimes run into farmers, but they usually leave with a 70 player cleaning the place out quickly. Just be polite and don't kill the named quest NPC in the cave, and if you see your own faction there, ask if they're questing. If it's the other faction. . .well, they're on the wrong side, aren't they? Tanaris is also the closest flight path to your trainer at this level, over in Theramore, so it's easy to go pick up new recipes as you skill up.

Blackrock Stronghold, Burning Steppes: Runecloth. This is a great area for runecloth. It's one of the areas I used to gank farmers on my pvp server once upon a time. With Burning Crusade out, it seems mostly empty on my two servers lately. Not only do you get a nice respawn rate on the mobs inside and outside of the building, but there are three chest spawn points as well: One by each fire outside, and one (really two) inside the inner ring where the elite guy is. Oh, don't bother with the elite, it seems you can't actually kill him, as he's a quest NPC set to "submit" after you beat him down a little.

Any Manaforge, Netherstorm: Netherweave. The lower level guys at Manaforge B'naar provide easy kills and a short trip to town to sell vendor trash. I'm Scryer rep, so I farm these for Sunfury Signets and Arcane Tomes for a nice double dip. The ghosts at the Ruins of Enkaat also have a good drop rate and are somewhat easier kills.

For Felcloth, the satyrs in Azshara are great, but I am certain I can go from runecloth to netherweave without needing to hit Azshara.

There's a New Breed of Farmer in Town, and He Has a Pig Named "Boar"

2007-06-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've seen them by now: Hunter with a pig named "Boar," running in a pre-set pattern and merrily killing mobs even after you've tapped them. I've run into them in Azshara and last night came across a several in Tanaris. These seem to be the latest flavor of gold farmer, the bot farmers. I don't like them.

I remember the good old days when my servers' farmers had real people behind them! Whether you loved them or hated them, you could at least interact with them. The farmbots are another symptom of the new breed of in your face gold farming business model characterized by spamming tells that take up your entire chat window, and I hope Blizzard is successful in shutting both the bot software writers and the gold spammers down. (You know who I mean on both accounts probably, and I won't mention them by name, they don't deserve the free publicity. I will delete any replies mentioning any of these companies by name as well.) I yern for the days of the kinder, gentler, HUMAN farmers.

The human-controlled farmers could sometimes be annoying, but they weren't usually all that bad to deal with, and they weren't engaging in any in-game activity that everyone else hasn't -- we're all farmers at some point. Although they were working for gold-selling companies, which is an activity I can't condone, at least they were real players who you could interact with, and sometimes to your mutual benefit.

I remember when I was leveling my paladin from 58-60, pre 1.8 days. I decided to check out Tyr's Hand to see if I could grind on the elites there, as I'd heard they were good farming. Of course, the area was swarming with professional farmers! Well, instead of leaving or trying to compete with a dozen or so level 60 rogues and hunters for kills, I healed one of the more efficient-looking rogues. I got an instant group invite, and a ton of /love and /hug emotes. I had adopted my first farmer! I heal-botted the rouge for a few hours and we flew through the kills. My adoptee fed me a steady supply of water and mana pots from the drops, and I got an entire level of experience from one session as well as half the cash drops and my share of loot from group loot. I had just made some person's day on the other side of the world by increasing their productivity by a huge chunk and got myself a nice level out of it. Usually on my PVE server, the farmers were willing to lay off of quest mobs if you sent them a tell (well, usually several) and were nice enough to say, trade mana pots for mage water. On my PVP server, it was always fun to gank the farmers. Usually I'd get a free HK out of the deal, but some of those guys were actually pretty fun to fight. Ah, those were the good old days.

But, what can we do with these farmbots? Or to them. On PVP servers, we can kill those of the opposite faction of course, and on PVE servers or same faction on PVP servers, we can tag their mobs if we have instant ranged attacks and let them do the killing for us, which is nice, but not nearly as fun as I'd like.

What do you do with your farmbots? More importantly, what do you do to your farmbots?

A World of Warcraft Blog? Why?

2007-06-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

There are many great (and not so great) sites out there devoted to World of Warcraft. So why do we need another one? Well, we don't, but I wanted to enter Blog-space and WoW is a topic I like to write about.

While I would love to have one of those resource-packed, informative sites that everyone flocks to -- it's been done. I plan to share as many of those resources with you as I can. I'm sort of a hardcore casual player by nature, meaning I'm the type of person who spends a good deal of time logged in to the World of Warcraft, and have played since release, having had five level 60s and a small army of alts when Burning Crusade came out. I've done some raiding, and much dinking around with this or that, and try to keep up to date on matters of interest to WoW gamers. I currently have four level 70s, and am raiding on one of those. I spend my online WoW time split between doing things with my raiding guilds and my family guilds.

So, this blog is aimed at folks like me, and at helping those players who invest a little less time in the game. Hopefully I can share a few tips and some humorous observations with my fellow WoW addicts, and perhaps pick up tips from my fellow gamers.

Please, feel free to comment! Just keep it clean, civil, and spam-free.