Loot Horse!

Putricide is not a horse, but the silly tanking trinket dropped again. And I didn't get it again. Of course, Alenena is so far geared that its much more of an improvement for the raid for someone else to get it (so long as they tank regularly).

The Edge of Shadow

In other words, Shadow's Edge. A friend got it today- a big deal considering that we're a 10 man raiding group.

Lol I forgot a title last night.

A Dead Professor, a Dead Vampire, and well, I guess a Live Dragon, but she disappeared as soon as we saved her so wall we got was this lousy box filled with healing plate and tanking plate. And I couldn't use the belt and the Holy Paladin had dibs on the shoulders.

Counter-Wiping

I get to talk about wiping again!

I'm excited!

Anyways, today again, TOC ventured into ICC and wiped repeatedly. However, we also did the amazing and did some counter-wiping. For those of you who don't know, it is the process of taking a wet (or damp) rag and swiping it swiftly over a ledge.

It can also mean downing the boss.

Thanks to some helpful hints, I managed to kite the big Oozes on Rotface (our previous stumbling block) and we won epic loots. I don't know what dropped. I think my healer was I happy, so that made me happy.

We then tried Professor Putricide several times and failed. We got to Phase two each time (the first attempt only barely). I found that as the only melee (other than the OT in the abom). I got to just sit there and wail on the boss. When he dropped slime on me, I would move slightly. I didn't have to worry about the vials because he drops them behind him so I wasn't taking damage.

We did give up on him (it was alright tho). And we moved to the Blood Council.

That fight is an interesting one. First off, I love it because Valanar says "Naxxanar was merely a setback." Which I guess is becoming a WoW theme. Anyways, whilst tanking my boss who had 1hp off to the side, I didn't get to do anything. I did occasionally throw my shield at a Disco Ball to toss it back up, but for the most part I stood there. Even when it became the point where he could take damage, I could have probably stopped all but auto-attacking because of the vast amounts of threat I had. We got a lovely achievement for having no one take more than 23k in a single spell hit due to a visiting mage who has a spec and gear set specifically designed to tank Keleseth. (thank bud).

And I hit Exalted with the Ashen Verdict. I got my new ring, my new title and I missed out on the "first kill" SS.

May Round Up

I have no idea what I did in the past month.

So I should let you know, because unless you have a really good memory, you won't remember either.

Early on, I had a song about how much I hate tanking the Tribunal of Ages on my paladin. I also hate it on my DK.

I also talked about some ideas that I had for the game, stamina, and then three things for Cata.

And then I even talked about my obsession with looking cool.

Following all that, I had loads of pictures and articles about Dragons and cats.

Some point in there, I started the "Death by..." chain.

And I ended by getting another 80 and writing about it at the beginning of this month.

Nice people

Nice people? On the internet? HA!

Yeah, I had gotten the impression from many places that everybody in heroics is all about gearscore, speed and doing as much damage as they can.

However, I have yet to experience it. There are several reasons for it. First off, my main (Alenena) is geared enough to tank ICC-25, this satisfies the GS group. Then, because of this ridiculous amount of gear, I can run quickly through instances pulling up to three or four packs of mobs at once, so the people who desire speed are happy. Then, since my gear is ridiculous, I can hold threat off pretty much everybody I see, so they can go crazy.
Thus, I never hear any complaints on my paladin.

On my warlock, I generally only run with guildies, and as we are a social guild, we don't really care what happens so long as we get what we want- fun.
Thus, I never hear any complaints on my warlock.

My Death Knight is managed to get to the Defense cap quickly, and began running heroics. His gear is awful, he can't pull more than one pack at a time and people have to watch their DPS or pull off him.
However, I have yet to hear any complaints on my Death Knight.

In my last heroic (VH) I saw that one of the DPS (shaman) had ICC-10/25 gear and could probably pull 5-7k dps. This means that he would have pulled off me in under a second. However, when I mentioned I might have difficulty keeping up with him, he just settled into chain-casting Lightning Bolt, and ended up topping the charts with about 2.5k.

So, go figure, nice people on the webz.

Negative Stats

My druid, Erthu, is a bear tank and currently has equipped Shriveled Heart as his neck piece. The ZF only special green neckalce that gives -5 str, spirit and +13 stam. The stam is what makes it for him. (Not talking about the Shriveled Heart from H-HoR)*.

Anyways, I was thinking that negative stats would be interesting. Perhaps make some plate tanking gear with negative int and armor pen but with more than standard amounts of dodge, stam or str. The int would effect paladins and the arp would hurt warriors and DKs.

I'm not sure how else it could be fairly balanced or if at all it is a good idea, but I liked the concept and think more should be done with it.

*Also- if you know of any other two items that have the same exact name, but different stats, lemme know. I'm interested.

Vanity Weapons

First off, I just want to say that I know the biggest mistake Blizzard has even made. The didn't make a counterpart to Fist of the Deity. It is one of the prettiest weapons in the game and I want it.

However, I play a paladin so I can never equip it- much less its potential counterpart.

What I want to see is vanity weapons (the following could apply to gear as well). Anyone and everyone would be able to wield every single weapon as a vanity weapon. It would be a weapon kinda like The Fire Extinguisher. See- that is a two-hand. Not a mace, sword or axe. Just a two-hand. If you clicked to equip an item you couldn't use, it would pop up a little prompt:

"Equipping this weapon will make it a vanity weapon. It will remove all stats from it and it will be bound to you."

That way, when I (on my pally) see a really cool looking: staff, dagger, fist, or off-hand weapon, I could just equip it so I could look cool- but it wouldn't do anything. The important thing to stress is that all vanity weapons would do 1 dps.

However, what this would mean (especially if it affected (visible) gear) is that people could stop rolling Warriors to RP. At the moment all weapon types (except wands) and all armor (except class armor) can be worn by Warriors. Also all races (except Blood Elves (until Cataclysm)) can be warriors. This gives them the greatest versatility it customizing their appearance- but if you can put on whatever you want, no matter your class- it would look a lot cooler.

Again, this could be a very stupid idea that breaks Arena's beyond belief- but I don't care. I don't PvP. I wanna look purty!

April Round Up

April was a good month. I got a bunch of t10 and my guild made some progress into ICC.

I've commented on raiding, loot, comfort zones and wiping.

I finished up the WoW in Real Life series, but barely managed to get anything of the Low Leveling guides worked on.

I even brought in my real life in a couple places- with Financial Aid and Elder Gods.

Finally, rather than giving this its own separate post, I've hit 200 individual viewers. I'm not sure how many of you are regulars, but I'm glad you've come around at least once.

Financial Aid

So- I've been filling out tax forms and financial aid and I'm starting to hate it.

But besides that, I've been known to give out financial aid in game. I feel that it is a good thing to do sometime while playing WoW. You should- at some point borrow and lend gold. You can choose not to pay it back promptly (or at all) and charge interest on your loans, but it is something that needs to be done.

I say that it needs to be done because it encourages you to work at making some money. If you owe a friend 1k, you are more likely to be able to pay that off quickly rather than if you were just grinding that gold from scratch with no motivation. When I was grinding gold for Epic Flying, I was about 200g a day (I was also leveling JC). When I got a 2k loan from a guildie and friend, I increased my revenue to about 500g a day and paid him back four days later. My increased revenue continued for another couple weeks and I almost had enough gold to get a second character Epic Flying.

So- clearly, by my experience, borrowing gold is a good thing. Therefore, it can be extrapolated that lending gold to people who are as trustworthy as me makes their play experience better. Thus, lending gold increases the overall fun had while playing.

In conclusion send all the gold you have to Alenena on Ursin (Alliance).

Elitest Jerkness

I am currently gearing up my paladin- Alenena, to tank raids (her gear may be displayed as Ret).

Anyways, right now all of my gear is iLv 232 or better- this means it is all t9 equivalent.

The ONLY possible upgrade from emblems of triumph (for my prot spec) is the 245 Helm. However, since no plate tanking helms drop in ICC 10 Reg, which is what I run, I have devoted my frost emblems to getting that particular tier piece. Following that I will occasionally upgrade my other slots with items that I can get as I get the frost.

However, as a not serious raider, I have trouble getting many frost. This means that I have to be very careful on what I purchase with my emblems.

Yes, I could do theory crafting and figure out which piece I need to get when, but it would take a lot of work. I would need to figure out my personal BiS set which is fairly unique- unlike most raiders, I have yet to progress past the first four bosses of ICC and I feel that it will be a while until my guild can successfully pass them.

This means I need to wait each stat and figure out the likely hood of each item dropping, and then the likely hood of me winning it.

So, rather than doing all that work, I'm just finding the items I'm least likely to get, aiming for those first and my selection method- after I get 2piece t10- will be prettiest first.

An Essay on Alternate Methods of Encouragement and Rating

This is not an essay. This is just a fancy title.

Anyways, the concept is to reward raiders in methods other than the usual.

When a raider enters a raid, they expect to get a small amount of gold and perhaps some loot. In some cases, when the raid is on farm, they can get some disenchant mats.

However, if there are promises of other rewards, they may attempt to perform better, especially if rewards are linked to performance.

Standard practices include:

1. Reward the Best DPS
2. Reward the Best Healer
3. Reward the tank that takes the least damage.

However, those methods all have their weak points. The 'best' dps may just target the boss the whole way through- even when you're supposed to be focusing on the adds. The 'best' healer may just stand there and heal themselves and the tank- ignoring their other utilities and players. The 'best' tank may just be the off tank and only have to fight occasional adds that are burned down quickly.

However, there are alternate methods.

You can reward the person who takes the least amount of damage. This is good for the raid because then healers can focus on the tanks, rather than that hunter that is standing in the fire.

Give a reward to the tanks for most damage taken with fewest deaths. This indicates that they held threat on the most damaging of enemies, but managed to survive.

You can give rewards for bad-assery, creative strategies and other unique things.

Bad-assery awards include:

1. Solo-tanking Marrowgar when the OT died at about 95%.
2. Doing the most DPS- while your fishing pole is equipped.
3. Tanking the boss- as a mage.

Creative strategy awards include:

1. The "Maybe we should try CC this time" technique.
2. The "Lets have our healers not be in dps specs" tactic.
3. The "Lets not let Righteous Fury fall off in the middle of the fight" strategy.
   
4. The "Doctrine says CC and single target. WotLK says AoE is teh best!"

And be creative with your rewards- give out gold, pets, pet rocks, monocles etc...

End-game.

Tanking in ICC. Real nice view there.

A slightly more expansive view.

Guild first down of Anub'arak. More like A NOOB'arak. Also Guild first complete ToC run- thats a given, given that it was the first Anub kill.

I know you all were probably expecting a Greedy Gronko piece, but this happened (as well as an Ony kill) and I have some more work I need to do so....

To top it all off I got a very nice 1h axe off Anub because I was the only who wanted it. And I wanted it because it was pretty. In Ony I got both the 22 slot bag and the Paladin Tanking helm, which is actually an upgrade over both my t9 piece and my offset HoR piece.