Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Sometimes you feel like a Noob...


Sometimes you don't

In my case I hardly ever feel like a noob. Mostly because I have a job where I have alot of free time and I can read about WoW for a good chunk of my shift. It also helps that I have been maintaining a WoW blog for about a year.

How can a person that reads about WoW and maintains a WoW blog feel like a noob?

Like I said before, it does happen, but usually it is something minor. Today it was not a minor feeling of noobishness, it was a full blown hooded ninja attack of noobishness.

Yeah I know...hooded ninja...wearing slippers...it was intense to say the least.

First some background information...

As you know I have been looking for a guild. I quit my previous one because it was unorganized and mostly full of fail.

I looked into all of the comments and emails I got from my post last week. A few of them looked promising, but none of them jumped out to me as my new home. Mostly because I am a huge thunder head and I really didn't want to transfer off my server unless I thought it was going to be that "perfect" guild for me. While I am talking about it, I do want to thank everyone that was kind enough to send me their guild information, mucho appreciated.

Anyway, a WoW friend of mine that I have known for quite sometime just got into a pretty hardcore guild and told me that I should attempt to get in.

I immediately replied that I am sure I wouldn't be able to make the raider attendance policy that they have being that they are a pretty hardcore guild...atleast in my eyes they are.

He then informed me that they have a "raider" rank which requires you to make atleast 2 out of the 4 raids per week. Well shit...I can make two days out of the week, what the hell. So I thought about it for a few days while I was trolling around their guild website and finally decided to fill out an application last Sunday night.

I didn't have to work or have anything to do the next morning, so I took my time filling it out. I knew that I would only have one chance to make a first impression and it took me roughly 1.5-2 hours to complete. Most of the time was trying not to sound dumb lol.

They replied and everything sounded good and well on its way for me to becoming a member. However, you can (not saying you should) bullshit and make your application sound like you are the GM of Elitist Jerks, but there will come a time when you have to walk the walk....

Trial Run

I logged on and informed one of the officers of the guild that I am online and available if they would like to give me a trial run to see if I can walk the walk. About 10 minutes later I get a reply from him saying...

"how much dps can you do?"

Fuck...I don't want to dps on my trial run. I applied as a healer and even stated in my application that I would only use my Elemental off spec if we needed a healer to switch to dps for a fight. My elemental set only has one piece of T8 and all the rest is T 7.5 and a few drops from 10 man Ulduar. Not something that is going to make an impression with this guild. I reply back to him with a very honest answer mostly because I am kinda hoping that he doesn't take me.

Like I said, you only get one chance for a first impression.

My honest answer was 2.7-3k dps. He invited me and we rolled into 25 man Ulduar. Oh boy...

Hooded Ninja Nut Smack

Well, I knew this guild was good, but seeing it in person was something that I have longed for since WotLK came out. They extended the raid lockout and the first boss we rolled on was Hodir. He went down like a bitch....in fact...all of them went down like a bunch of bitches.

We made Mimiron look like a complete joke with only 22 people in the raid. It was alot of fun, but I seriously never felt like a noob like I did during this raid lol.

First off, I am not used to 25 man raids where everyone does there role and is geared for the encounter. I am used to that "pug" mentality where I think I am one of the best players in the raid and consistently looking for idiots that will screw it up...ie stand in the fire, not moving from the deep breath, ect.

I was doing my rotation perfectly and I was pumping out alot of damage. On a fight like Thorim, where there is very little movement once the tunnel is over with, I was rocking 4k dps and I was 8th on the dmg meter.

Fights that require alot of moving and mob switching, ie Freya, I could only pull off about 2.7 ish dps. Overall I finished the raid doing 3.1 k dps which ended up being the lowest out of the dpser's at 12th place.

I also had a complete "AMG NUB" moment during the raid. It happened when on our first attempt on Mimiron. I got hit by a napalm and didn't get healed. In vent they tell me to go ahead and use my self rez. No problem...

Oh shit...

I have the minor glyph that doesn't require me to carry around my reagents for my self rez. However, I have it on my main spec, resto....not my elemental spec.

/facepalm.

They continued onward and pwned Mimiron on the first shot with 21 people (Three people left the raid and were not replaced and then I died at the beginning)

They laughed at me, but it was all in good fun. We then went to Vault and cleared that out to finish off the night.

At the end of the raiding, the GM says asked me to drop down a vent channel. He then said that he liked my application and for the gear level, I put out exactly what I should have. He then asked me if I would want to raid as elemental.

ugghh

Elemental bores me and I am super under geared for it compared for where the guild is progression wise. I told him that I will raid elemental, but that I would like to keep my main spec as resto and would prefer to heal.

He understood and went ahead and gave me a guild invite as a trial member. The two resto shamans that they already have in the guild are VERY geared out and are skilled. So we shall see if I get a raid spot or not. Atleast I know that they want me, which is a good feeling.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

I'm One HOT Piece of Beef...


That's right, I said it.

My cow is one hot piece of beef. More to come on this later in the post.

I did alot this weekend in terms of WoW, it was kinda nice. This was the first real weekend in the past 2-3 months that I had a good ratio between doing stuff in WoW and in real life.

Real life ramblings? Really? I didn't think you cared! Ok, so now EVERYTHING is moved from my apartment to my house. Everything is in its place and my apartment is completely cleaned out. I turned in the keys and I was a little sad. Lots of memories in that apartment...

/sniffle

I also did a couple podcasts about Fantasy Football over the weekend. Check em out if you're interested here.

Wait...so you lied? You didn't really want to hear about my real life ramblings?

Ahh ok, I see. Makes sense. Thanks for stopping and telling me the truth. I was about to go in depth on how to make a spinach kish.

Go Go Gadget WoWage!!!

Damnit, now I have the Inspector Gadget theme song stuck in my head.

Curses!

I did alot of cool stuff in WoW this weekend. I got me a Pink Elephant pet and the Brewmaster title from Brewfest. Have you notice how you summon this pet? It is different then anyone I have seen before, you actual chug a beer and he appears lol. Kinda neat I guess right?

So that leaves Hallow End, The Elders, and the Flame Festival left to do on my Shaman to get my hoofs on a violet proto drake. Its really not that important to me, I really don't care about the extra speed or the fact that it is a proto drake. When I first set out on this long, strange, journey (see what i did there? omg haha me) my sole purpose for completing all the holiday events was for the drake and all the cool titles you get to rock.

Then I got myself green proto drake and I love it to death. See the picture on the right hand side of my webpage underneath the new poll? Yup, that's my green proto drake, his name is Hubert. He is a gangsta...anyway

So yeah, once I got Hubert, I didn't care about the violet proto drake. I am still going to complete all of them to get the rest of my title's. When I get the drake I will probably only mount him in Dalaran to stroke my epeen to the masses lol.

Hot Beef

Oh yes, you were intrigued by the title and then you had to read through all that nonsense just to get to this point uh? You're a solider, I'm impressed. So not only did I get the Brewmaster's title, which is second to only "the Love Fool" in terms of badassness. I got the Chef's title as well!

/sexydancewhilesingingmileycyrus

...

Pretty satisfying after spending all that time running around and getting the recipes. Not to mention how lucky I got by getting all of the rare drops. The four recipes that dropped from the old cooking dailies in Shatt were all I had left for the past month.

Quick tip if you are interested in getting the title is that 2 out of the 4 recipes have a chance to drop from the crate of meat. The other two have a chance to drop from the barrel of fish. When I found this out I got the other two recipes within a week.

Now I have TWO badass titles to rock and I don't know which one to actually sport. I have been lending towards "Chef Teknizzle" more because he is a fat cow and I just think that its funny. On the other hand, "Brewmaster Teknizzle" would also fit a fat cow...so I am at a crossroads lol. Too bad I couldn't rock my four favorites at the same time...

"Brewmaster Chef Teknizzle the Love Fool of the Frozen Wastes"

I think I'm going to put in a ticket with a GM. Who knows...weirder things have happened.

Raiding Front

I got into 6, that is right, count them 6 10 man Ony groups this weekend. Why 6 Tek you ask? Because every single one of them was a fail. It was mind boggling. The funniest and saddest thing of every single group was the same exact thing. We had more then enough dps and every single player whether it was a healer, dps, or tank was more then enough geared for the encounter.

60% of the each raid...which is like 6 people out of a 10 man raid could not get the concept of the deep breaths. Don't get me wrong, I gave each of the 6 raids more then enough tries to get it down. I gave each one 4 wipes before I left. I might have stayed for more attempts but it was the same damn people dying to the deep breaths.

LOOK...Onyixa is very easy. All you have to pay the F attention when your screen says in BIG LETTERS "Onyixa takes a deep breath"

Look up at the whore and figure out which way her head is facing. If she is facing you, make sure you either move at least 10 yards to the side or get behind her. Its JUST that easy.

It really made me think that I must either be REALLY good at WoW or people were just too dumb to pay attention and get out of the way. Kinda makes me wish WoW had a single player mode option.

Speaking of Anubs...

So that was pretty frustrating, but I did get into an awesome 10 man ToC raid on Friday.

One shotted everything but the faction champions and we killed them on our second attempt.

Anub is a fun, well tuned fight. I really liked phases one and two, but I didn't like phase 3 at all. As a healer it just goes against everything you do. You want to keep all the dps and the healers around 20-30% life. The only people you need to keep topped off is the tanks. Freaking weird and it was stressful...but very fun.

Has anyone noticed Anub's loot table? Its by far the biggest I have ever seen. There is TON of crap in that table.

The one handed healer spell mace dropped. I forget the name, but its name is something along the line of "mighty chieftain mace". Either way it looks BADASS for a tauren and had 95 more spell power then the one I was currently rocking.

I rolled a 7

/fail

The other healer rolled a 5. Yes! I could win this! The raid leader starts his countdown...

5...
4...
3...
2...

The third healer rolls a 50. He wins...but this is not over for me. I inspect this priest because I knew that what he was rocking couldn't have been much better then that mace. He was in a very good end game guild. I was right, the mace that he just won was at best a side grade.

Do you want haste or crit. That was the only difference. So I messaged him if I could buy the mace from him due to the fact that it would be a big upgrade for me. He doesn't reply but opens a trade chat window with me.

I wait...

He doesn't trade it, he doesn't say anything to me.

I was like...shit...what do I put in there! Do I put anything in there? He might get pissed and change his mind completely. Ahhhh!!!

150g? I hit trade

He also hits trade, sweet! With enchants that spell mace upgraded my spell power by 107 and put my grand total of 2550 spell power without my totems. If I drop my spell power totem I have a grand total of 2745 spell power!

WTFMATE!?!

Too much Spell Power?

Way too much...time to regem. Now don't get me wrong, I want to get my hariy hoofs on as much spell power as I can, but there is no point in having that much spell power when you can up your other important stats...try to find a balance per se.

I regemed 4 of my slots to "10 haste & 5 mp5" gems and "12 spell power & 10 haste gems".

So now I am rocking 19% haste which brings my chain heal down to 2.1 second cast...aka the fucking hotness. 505 mp5 while casting with my water shield, a very good solid amount and 2505 spell power without my totems. 2700 with my spell power totems.

I also got some new pants and a new resto totem from the conquest badge vendor to bring my gearscore up due to the fact that I am applying for a pretty good guild that is on my server. If I get accepted, which is looking like I probably will, it will be the best guild that I have ever been in in regards to pve. These guys are leet but have a "part-time raider" position that requires me to attend 2 out of the 4 raids during the week.

I should be able to manage two raids a week. That is very doable, even on my schedule.

Coming Soon...

Expect to see an article about how to get into a guild that might be "too good" for you. On the flip side expect to see another article on how to get good, skilled players for YOUR guild.

I have been on both sides of the fences and I feel that I am pretty knowledgeable on the subject, so stay tuned and don't forget to check out the new poll!

Podcasting! Are you interested? Want to join up with myself and talk about WoW? Email me and let me know. I mean if anything we would have fun lol, that is a given!

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Friday's Food for Thought - Brewfest fun

Morning blog lovers!

First off, I want to thank you for all the responses I got from yesterday's article. In regards to "Potts" comment...DIAF

kkthxbai

So the weekend is finally here! F yeah. It is going to be a busy weekend for me in regards to real life. I have to clean and finish getting all of my stuff from my apartment to my house and turn in my keys.

95% of everything has already made the journey from my apartment to my house, so its not going to be that BIG of deal, but I do to clean the shit out of my apartment if I expect to get my deposit back.

blah, blah, blah, right? Who cares...

I know...lets talk about some WoW action shall we?

WTFspaghetti's 12 man Choir - "OOO FO SHIZZLE!!!"

Me: Hold up...why is there only 12 of you? Where is Deanglo, Tyrese, and Bonquesha?

Choir: You didn't hear? They went to the Maury Show to find out who is the baby daddy of Bonquesha's child...

Me: LMAO

Choir: ...

Me: Your right...that was out of line...moving on

Brewfest

Just a few thoughts on the current holiday that might help you get enough tokens to obtain the title.
  • You only need 350 tokens TOTAL to get the title, not 550.
  • Don't spend your tokens until you have 350 of them. Buy all of the clothes and go to Dalaran. Shake your ass and get that achievement done and then take the port back to your main city (Org or IF). Return the clothes for a full refund and then buy the Brew of the Month membership. Wa La...ezmode.
  • Then you can get a Pink Elephant as a pet or a keg...sounds good to me!
  • You only get tokens from the Direbrew boss the first time you complete the quest. After that you are only going for drops.
  • You can do the "This one time, when I was drunk" quest once a day and the riding around shouting quest once a day. This will yield you 25 tokens.
  • The transporting kegs quest you can do once every 12 hours...so it is possible to do twice in one day. During this quest you want your ram going full speed the WHOLE time. Run by a barrel of apples every once in awhile to refresh your ram so you don't get exhausted.
  • There are different routes to take, figure out the best way to get the most tokens. You should ATLEAST get 20 tokens during the duration. If you are not getting atleast 20, you are doing something wrong.
That's it really...

On a side note, I was doing the brewfest boss guy in BRD. The whole time I was bullshitting around in vent about how the epic ram mount is going to drop...blah, blah, blah.

Then it actually DROPPED! I rolled a 99! Holy shit...that is awesome!!

Except for the point that I lost...

Let me repeat that again. I rolled a 99

and lost the roll.

It was the last summon so I went back to Org, got completely smashed from one of the kegs and logged for the night. I still can't believe it really...

Anyway, I was planning on writing about a few other subjects, but I am getting super busy at work and sadly....must end it.

/sniffle

Have a good weekend everybody! Don't forget to celebrate your own Brewfrest in real life. Just be safe and don't try catching invisible creatures while you are drunk.

First off, that invisible creature is not in fact invisible....its your neighbor's cat. I am sure that they wouldn't appreciate that, so again....BE SAFE.

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

LFG - Help a Cow Out!

Morning blog lovers!

I am thoroughly enjoying Brewfest. The daily quest where you have to shotgun a beer and throw the mug at the dark iron dwarfs is a pure win. Chasing invisible creatures that one can only see while drunk? Harilous. By far my favorite holiday event.

Last year during Hallow's End I decided that I was going to do all of the holiday world events and get myself a Violet Proto Drake.

I leveled cooking and spent a retarded amount of time on Winter's Veil. I got all my candy hearts and rock "the love fool" title all the time. I was doing really good until the "Elders" holiday came. For some stupid reason, I decided I was going to get the title on my alt...my Mage...because he was my very first horde toon to make it to 60 during Vanilla WoW.

I know...I went insane right? I figured it would be no big deal, I can wait a few extra months to get my elders title on my main right? Well, a few weeks after the holiday ended I realized that I made a terrible mistake.

To make matters worse, I took a three month break from WoW. The break overlapped the Fire Festival so I missed that one too. I wish I would have remembered, I would have logged on to do it...but oh well.

So I have to wait another 9-10 months to get my violet proto drake, we will see if that happens or not. I am sure I will get it, I mean I have been playing for damn near 5 years. At this point, I think the only thing that will stop me from playing WoW permanently is if Blizzard stops making expansions and new content.

Hell, I am not even sure that would stop me.

WoW has become such apart of my life. Video games in general have always been one of my main hobbies, so I don't feel like it is just WoW...but it is by far the game that I keep on coming back too.

I have meet a TON of awesome people and without WoW I would have never known that I enjoy blogging so much. This post is getting a little off subject though...

I know...this post has a direction? Who would have thought....

Guild Troubles...

The only reason why I have stayed in the guild that I am currently in is because they raid and they do not have any attendance policy. If I am on, cool, I will get an invite and probably end up getting loot. If I am not on, no big deal. When I log in I don't feel guilty and I don't have anyone yelling at me because of it.

This was not the reason I joined though. A month or so back I filled out an application and got accepted into a promising guild. Right before I was going to put in the transfer, my real life friend that I play with on the server joined a guild with a few online friends.

I spoke with the GM and got an invite. I figured that I will hold off on the transfer if I can find a guild that I like and enjoy with friends. Plus its on the same server as all of my toons, that alone was enough for me to give it a shot.

Now, the only good thing about this guild raiding wise that has happened is downing Mimiron in Uld 10.

That is IT

Everything else has been a facepalm after facepalm. Atleast in the 8-9 raids I have attended.

Not to mention that my real life friends that play on my server don't play the same times that I play anymore it seems. I see a few of them every once in awhile, but nothing like it used to be.

It has gotten me feeling all BLAH.

I love the no raiding commitment type of style of my current guild, but I don't have fun raiding with them due to the fact 85% of the players are very noobish and don't listen or perform well.

Perfect Situation

My perfect situation is to find a guild, ally or horde, that will allow me to raid no more then 3 nights a week, starts and ends on time, has great leadership, and will allow me to have a non bench position in raids. Of course I expect the guild members to ALL be self-sufficent and know their class inside and out while having the ability to do it. Talk is cheap mofos!

I almost prefer 10 man raids to 25 man raids, but either would do. I guess that if I had to pick I would prefer 25 mans, but that isn't really important to me.

Is anyone out there!?!

If you think that your guild could use a FANTASTIC resto shaman that pew pews lighting bolts everyonce in awhile, please let me know. I would rather go to a guild that I know atleast one person then to roll in there as the new guy on the block.

I will not let you down!

My blog gets about 300 hits a day...I know that someone out there can help me.

mucho love

-Tek

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Onyxia - Revamped and Pissed Off - A Guide to Pwnage

Oh yes, everyone is super excited about killing the new, revamped, level 83 Onyxia! Trade and LFG channels were buzzing all day about getting PUGs setup, everyone had a little daydream about getting the rare 310% flying mount.

Then Onyxia put some baby powder on her hands and pimp slapped the shit out of all those noobs.

Onyxia is not a joke, she is a hard hitting bitch and the fight is mostly a coordination encounter. Onyxia does not care if you can do 6k dps or 2k dps, this fight is not a dps race. As long as your healers aren't having mana issues...this fight can go on forever. Which I kinda like....it makes my job alot more important then it already is and others really notice the difference between and good and a bad healer.

Anyways....the encounter, yes....lets get to that shall we?

Its My Baby Mama...

First off, I love Onyxia. She was my first real raid way back in the day of 40 mans and doing the raid today really brought back some fond memories.

Check out my awesome editing skills on this picture of Onyxia's Lair. Get familiar with it, it will be helpful when I am explaining how to take this ho down.



The Easter egg object in the middle is the lady herself. Notice her tail, how she is facing, and where all the casters and dps are located. There are a few reasons why I like everyone but the tank on one side. It is mostly for phase 3, but there is no point of changing it in phase 1. It is so everyone is grouped up and in range of my tremor totem. It also gets you setup perfectly for phase 2.

Phase 1

Start by loading your tank up with HoTs (Heals over time...aka druids). The tank will then walk towards the dragon to begin the encounter. At this time, the only people that should be REMOTELY close to the tank is the healers. Ony hits hard and it is possible to get out of the range of heals while positioning the beast like my map shows. This will result in a wipe due to your MT going down with in the first 10 seconds. The only person that should EVER be in the frontal cone of Ony is the tank.

So now you are in position. The tank has its back to the wall, your melee dps is not getting hit by the tail and everything is going to plan.

Phase 1 is just a tank and spank. There is no reason bust any of your cool downs since there isn't an enrage timer. Just hang back and pew pew until she reaches 60%. At this point she will turn around and walk towards the entrance.

Keep on pew pewing...this is where dps becomes important.

Phase 2

Onyixa will fly up in the air. At this time 20 whelps come out of each cave. Best way to handle this is to group up in the middle, let the tanks get a few seconds to gain aggro and AoE those biatches Naxxramas style! Having an AoE healer like a Shaman or priest really makes this the easiest and faster way.

When you get the whelps down, a bigger add will come. Have all dps kill it asap. The big add comes from the entrance. If you are all grouped up, then the tank should have no problem aggroing him. This add hits hard, but is very healable. The thing you need to look out for with these guys is when they do a castable aoe. I forget the name, but its like a 5-6 second cast that surrounds the add with fire dmg and it will kill you if you don't get out of range. 15 yards should be more then enough space when he does this ability.

Onyixa will be in the air shooting fireballs at a random people. Make sure your raid group is spread out...but is in the same general area. This is especially important for healers and tanks not to get separated and due to the random fireballs Ony is throwing around, I found it best to grouped up, but still spread out 10 yards or so from everyone.


The whelps will come every 90 seconds and the bigger adds will come pretty much every 30 seconds or so. Have 1 tank stand near the entrance of each whelp cave. When then spawn they will get aggro. If you want to you can have them meet up in the center to be aoe down, or you can just assign a few melee dps to take them down. They do not hit hard and do not have much health points.

Every once in awhile, your screen is going to say the following...

"Onyixa takes in a deep breath"

AS SOON as you read this message, look where Ony is in the air and try to get behind her or strafe to the side. She will do a fire breath attack that will only hit where she is currently facing.

This is VERY IMPORTANT people. It is so important that there is an achievement if noone in the raid gets hit by one ok? You will not survive a deep breath. Ony has been munching on Funyuns and garlic bread while chain smoking non filter cigarettes and drinking black coffee. Result is her breath is FUNKY and will kill you....pay the F attention =P

Ranged DPS - You need kill Onyixa while she is up in the air AND when the bigger adds come, kill them ASAP. Remember, this is not a dps race. As long as your healers have mana....which they should...this should be simple.

Melee DPS - You need to kill the bigger adds and also take down the whelps. Don't be a hero, just do your job. When the whelps get spawned from the whelp cave, wait until a tank has aggro before busting out your AoE attacks. Feel free to single target them, but if you start going aoe crazy before the tank has aggro....your death is on you.

This is what worked out best for us. If we had the ranged dps stay on the boss the whole time to get her down faster, then we had massive issues keeping everyone alive and a very big issue transitioning to phase 3.

Killing the bigger adds ASAP really made phase 2 alot EASIER. It wasn't even a strain on my mana healing it.

At 40% Ony will land...

Phase 3

Ok, the hardest part is over with. If you did it like I did, the transition from phase 2 to phase 3 shouldn't have any big adds up and most of the whelps down.

DO NOT TOUCH ONYIXA!

Let the tank regain aggro. This might take a little bit due the ranged dps pew pewing him down the last 20% of her life.

Instead, finish off all of the adds and remember, don't get anywhere near that tail. It will swipe you into the whelp cave which is only going to cause frustration.

Once the adds are finished and the tank has repositioned with plenty of aggro, begin to pew pew away. This is the perfect time to bust all of your cool downs and go nuts, just don't pull aggro.

Onyixa in this phase is the exact same as she was during phase 1, but now she does a group fear and during this fear, lava now comes through the cracks on the floor...hitting for 5-7k. In our 10 man, we had everyone on one side of Onyixa to ensure that everyone was in range of my tremor totem.

The End

Collect your loot and brag to your friends. Congrats!

Healing thoughts

This encounter does have some intense points, but overall you do not need to worry about mana consumption if you are epic'd out. I used my mp5 set for the first few wipes, but then switched to my single target, spell power / crit heavy, throughput set and was fine.

As a resto shaman the only time I ever used chain heal is at the begining of phase 2 with the 40 whelps. Other then that it was Riptide + LHW all day. I think the fight is well tuned and will not likey to be puggable for atleast a few more weeks.

After then everyone should be used to the encounter and explaining each phase will not take 15+ minutes and require Vent.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Patch Day! 3.2.2 is here - Arcane Mages cheer!

Sorry for the lack of updates here people. I have been out of work and have been sick. I will dive ALOT deeper into the new patch, 3.2.2, later on tonight.

However, I just wanted to let everyone know that today is in fact Patch day.
  • Onyixa is back and she is f'n pissed!
  • Arcane Mages are now wanted for RAIDS! Woohoo! Lets hope they don't nerf it 20 hours into live. For changes done to the mage spec, check out an article I wrote a few weeks back.
  • Elemental Shamans, Flameshock's base ability is now just like the glyph. More on this coming later.
  • Heirloom items extra experience percentage will now be helpful in battlegrounds! I was already getting a silly amount of XP doing AV....now its going to be redonkeyous.
That is just a few of the changes.....

My full thoughts later on tonight / early morning. Until then, I'm WTFout!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Lawl


Nothing much more I need to say. Enjoy your hump day!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The Mailbox - Healing Chart Idiots


Morning blog lovers!

I received an email a few weeks back about healing charts and what I thought of them. I figured I would write a post about it and my thoughts on them. Here is the email I received...

I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your blog...early this year I joined a new guild and decided to respec my shaman into resto so that I could be more beneficial to the guild. We raid, but we're not a raiding guild per se; so while we'll never see true end game content we have a blast clearing Naxx 10 & 25 weekly and pushing our way through Ulduar.

I was hoping that you might consider discussing your thoughts on healing meters on a future blog...because my GM and I had a fairly heated debate about them most recently. I'll give you the background on the situation that let to this.

We farm OS10 & 25 for Emblems of Conquest every week...and for the most part we're all fairly overgeared for the instance; especially when we do it with no drakes up. On a recent run we went with three healers..two Resto Shamans (one being me) and a Holy Pally. (who happens to be the GM.) She assigned herself to heal the MT and told the two shammys to handle OT and Raid.

As I said we're all overgeared for the raid, so there wasn't a whole lot of significant damage being taken by anyone..other than the MT who always holds aggro like a pro. After each fight the GM started linking healing meters and getting on the shaman's cases for not doing their job. (no one died, btw). She knows my thoughts on healing meters in general, and I also tried to explain to her that she was single target healing the only person in the raid who was taking any significant damage but she wasn't hearing it. I told her that I could have outhealed her had I stood in a pool of lava and spammed RT>HW>HW during the boss fights...but that wouldn't necessarily make me an effective raid healer.

IMHO, you can't measure healing the same way that you measure total damage/dps. There are too many extraneous factors (one of which is illustrated above.) I do think healing meters have their place as one piece of the puzzle in pinpointing immediate problems; but if no one is dying and no healers are going OOM then there isn't a problem to pinpoint.

It has gotten so bad that I've taken a break from raiding with the guild (particularly when she's around...lol); but it seems weird to me to keep saying "no thanks, I'd rather run Ulduar with a pug this week."

Now I don't claim to be neither a master healer nor an uber raider; but I am good at my job to the point where I'm typically on the top of the list when raid invites go out. But if I have to concentrate on putting up high numbers as opposed to doing what is best for the raid I may need to either retire from raiding or find another guild to run with.

Again, take care and thanks again for your blog!

First off, your welcome and thank you for your compliments...they make me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Now, about healing meters and your retarded GM...

It completely dumb founds me that raid leaders do not know how to use healing meters and is one of my biggest pet peeves in terms of WoW. My beef with healing metes is that you can not look at just the "healing done" portion. You have to look at several different charts to get a good idea of what is going on and if someone is slacking.

The three that I check are...

  1. Healing Done
  2. Over healing Done
  3. Heals per second
I check them in that order and when you do that you get a pretty good idea of what the healers are doing and if any of them are quote / unquote "slacking". All three of them are very beneficial, but you have to know how to read them and not over react or jump to conclusions.

Healing Done

It gives you a very generic, non detailed view on the healing output your healers are doing. Not much more to say other then that really. This is what everyone looks at and makes judgements off of.

Negatives - It doesn't take into effect the role of the healers, being raid healing or single target healing. It also doesn't care about over healing. It just measures straight healing done. If you decide to spam heal yourself until your out of mana while you are already at full health....it will take all of that and put it in its records. I don't know about you, but I strive for no over healing. There are some that do not care and like to see themselves at the top....so by just looking at this chart and nothing else, you are not getting the whole picture.

Positives - It does show overall healing done, which in most cases, paints a pretty good picture. However, like I said before, it does not give you the whole picture and this more times then not causes drama.

Over Healing Done

Druids, beware, this is mostly about you! A good resto druid should always be at the top of the healing done. It is very, very, rare that one isn't. Alot of the time Druids are number 1 on the healing done chart by 5-10% more then everyone else. I have had numberous "talks" with people asking me why my healing wasn't up to par with the driud and I always link them the over healing chart.

The majority of the time, Druids are numbero uno on that chart too. Usually by more then 5-10%....more like 15-20% more then almost everyone. Druids can't really help overhealing though, its just one of those things about HoTs.

I notice that holy pallys have alot of over healing too. That is because they are more of an "active healer" compared to a "reactive healer". Meaning that it is better to keep the tank top off and not let them get too low. This type of healing is going to have more over healing due to the mechanic, not the healer.

Everyone else though, really should have low over healing. If any other class / spec has a higher over healing percentage then a holy pally or a resto druid, then then are either....

A. Trying too hard
B. Stroaking their epeen to show off on the healing done charts.
C. Being stupid

Remember, over healing is a negitive stat, not something you want to be number 1 at ok?

Heals Per Second

This is a good chart you can take at face value. However, you have to take the role of the healer before coming to a clear result. For aoe healers, 2k hps overall is a good number to shoot towards. I have done boss fights and ended with doing 4k hps for the fight. That normally doesn't happened though. When you are done raiding for the night, look at the hps...if its 2k or above, the healer was pretty much on his/her game. If lower, think about the situation a little more before coming to a conclusion.

Overview

When you want to see how you are stacking up against other healers in your raid, first check the healing done charts. If you notice anything weird or something that doesn't make sense to you, (ie - you are healing your ass off and you are 3rd on the list) go to the Over Healing chart. More then likely the people that are above you in the healing done chart will be WAY above you in the over healing chart.

If you want to do further research on how a healer(s) is doing, check the hps chart. This is the only way to effectively grade your healing cores. Not by linking the healing done meter in raid and then asking your healers why they suck....what a doucebag.

The Black Sheep

There is always one of them and in the healing world its disc priests. They will ALWAYS be dead last in regards to healing meters and this is because the majority of their spells are designed to absorb dmg, not heal through it.

There is a mod out there will take this into affect and actually show you the way that recount does, but I have no idea what it is or what it is called. I looked for it for awhile, but due to being a work, everything is blocked. If I find it later when I am home I will update.

EDIT: - Check out this post, it should open your eyes in regards to Disc spec'd priest.

In regards...

To your raid leader that decided to make an issue on a OS 10 run given the situation you explained is utterly retarded. I hate drama and to have a "heated conversation" (aka drama) over healing meters for a OS 10 run would make me /gquit with the quickness.

I mean seriously....who does that?

As a healer you need to do what is needed for the raid to succeed, not just heal and be number 1 on the healing charts.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Random...

Yo yo yo!

I finally got my internet hooked up at my house!

Fantastic right?

Except that there is only one phone jack that is working for my dsl connection and it is in the kitchen...

So I have my PC hooked up on my kitchen table lol. Got to love it.

I just did a pug of 25 ToC. We cleared it out....it was amazing and now I have some T9.5 shoulders.

So sexy....its also 4am in the morning....ima go to bed now

This is a very random post...hints the name

haha me <3

Friday, September 11, 2009

Only the Good Die Young...

Today is 9/11.

I would just like to take a moment and pay some sort of tribute to all the people that died that day.

It is kinda crazy when you think about all of the lives that were lost and all of the weird circumstances that surrounded it...

Did you know that the only plane(s) to EVER in the history of modern aviation to crash and be completely disintegrated by jet fuel, leaving no engines is the hijacked planes from 9/11?

Did you know that the only modern skyscraper(s) to ever collapse from a plane crashed-jet fueled fire in the history of man is the Twin Towers on 9/11?

Do you know the type of steel, the grade of the steel, that the Twin Towers were built with could not be weaken, melted, or destroyed by the jet fuel from the planes?

Did you know that there the owner of the twin towers took out a 3.2 billion dollar insurance policy in July 2001 to protect against a terrorist attack with details of a plane or planes hitting them?

Did you know that there was over 100 billion dollars in gold stored underneath one of the twin towers?

Do you know that the only plane that was allowed in US airspace after the "attack" was a plane carrying Bin'Laden's family?

Look...I love America and all that junk, but don't think for one second that there wasn't people that didn't know this was going to happen. The questions that I asked above are all FACTS. If you don't believe me, please, I encourage you to do your own research.

There is also a video out on youtube called "Loose Change". If you watch it, please do not take everything that the documentary says as fact. Do your own research to confirm.

I know it blew my mind and it just makes me really sad.

So here is to you, your family, your friends, and your love ones that were effected by the events on 9/11/2001.

Much love

Mark

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Results and In...


Morning blog lovers!

I still have no internet at my house which means no WoW and that makes me a sad panda. I don't have much to write about in regards to WoW, but I have a few things I would like to touch on.

Poll Results

Last week I asked the question - "In regards to 5 and 10 man groups, which DPS would you prefer overall?"

Now I know I screwed up by not putting Ret Pallies on the list lol, so the list is slightly invalid...but lets just forgot that aspect and look at the results.
  • Death Knight - 9 (6%)
  • Druid (Feral) - 7 (4%)
  • Druid (Boomkin) - 5 (3%)
  • Hunter - 13 (9%)
  • Mage - 38 (26%)
  • Rogue - 12 (8%)
  • Shadow Priest - 6 (4%)
  • Shaman (Elemental) - 26 (18%)
  • Shaman (Enhanced) - 14 (9%)
  • Warlock - 14 (9%)
  • Warrior - 0 (0%)
Wow, 144 total votes and not ONE for Warrior dps. Pretty shocking really. I started thinking about it and I know its true for me....I do not prefer Warrior DPS to any other DPS class / spec. They do not bring much to a raid that a Protection Warrior wouldn't bring and other classes / specs bring ALOT to the raid.

I used to raid with a Fury warrior all the time. He was one of the few dps warriors that was very good at his class. However, he couldn't push much above the 3k dps mark no matter how much his gear improved.

In the state of WoW that we are currently in, 3k dps is becoming more and more the norm. It isn't like when WotLK first came out were 3k dps meant you were either very good at your class or was geared out in raiding epics. So I am not too suprised by the results, but damn...not 1 vote?

Shadow Priests > Boomkins?

The results state that more people prefer Spriests to Boomkins. I couldn't disagree more. I freaking love Boomkins and what they bring to the raid. I am not saying that I dislike Spriest, but I was suprised by this result. I mean hell, people refer Feral Druid dps above both of them. I won't argue that in a 10 man raid, but a 5 man I do not like having a feral dps. They lack a serious AoE ability that makes those heroics ez and quick.

And the winner is...

Overwhelming winner is Mages. Some would argue this for the reason that I get a TON of hits on this blog from people looking for Mage information. However, Mages kick ass and their sole purpose is to deal as much dmg as they can.

I know my Mage is a ton of fun and completely wrecks faces, so I am not going argue the results. Plus we bring FOOD and AI....both which are cruical!

Especially the food =P

Are you Ready for some Football!

That is correct, NFL season is almost here. I am not going to bore you with NFL information, but I do want you to check out our other blog for all sorts of NFL and fantasy football articles. Hell, we even started to do a podcast about it...alot of good information over there, so check us out.

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Real Azeroth - An Undead's Journey to Power...

Morning blog lovers.

I know that I have never wrote a story about WoW in the view of a role player. I have never role played before, but I was bored and just started writing. Below is what I came up with and I hope you like it. If you do, please leave a comment and let me know.

If you never read or don't like reading these kinds of stories, I completely understand. However, this story is nothing like you have ever read before about WoW....that is certain.

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Chapter 1: Intro

You know...I don't remember it. Its like it never even happened.

I have no clue who or what I was in my past life. I find myself thinking about it more often then I would like to, but I just can't help myself sometimes...

Did I have a family of my own? Was I a mighty champion of the Alliance that stood for honor and the great good of man or was I a poor farmer in Westfall that was too chicken shit to stand up to the thieves that own the territory?

Its not like that it matters anymore. Ever since I woke up in that coffin I knew my purpose in this life was to reek havoc to all things....living.

The Undead Queen herself is a real bitch. She has full control of our kind and makes us co-exist with the other races of the Horde. You can call me a rasict, but everyone knows that the undead are the superior race. I am just waiting for the day when we no longer have the peace treaty with the others. Just the thought of roasting those ignorant, motherless Orcs is enough to get me through my day.

I am telling you right now that I can not stand the smell of those over-grown, super-sized cows. Ugh...I would slaughter them all if the Queen let me.

"They are a worthy ally Whezzy, they have abilities that we do not possess" she says.

Blah, blah, blah, killing just one of them and I could feed my hounds for a month.

Look at me...I'm a Tauren...I am in touch with nature and I believe all living animals are wonderful...

/wrist

You think all living animals are wonderful because you closest relative is a beast that only purpose in life is to be eaten. Disgusting creatures...

Don't even get my started with those wannabe Orcs. Do you know that they actually think they are Warlocks? That is laughable at best. There is a reason why Nefarian's Black Dragonflight was not successful. It was because the dipshit thought that Orcs were somehow a worthy opponent to protect its doors.

Orcs are good for one thing only, to be sent to battle as the first line of defense to kill all of the peons. If they can even do that...

That way the real skilled race can come in and take out the real threat. Undead of course you insignificant fools!

Who can forget about the Trolls....

Ahh yes, the good ol' Trolls. You would think that generations and generations of warriors would have done something for the gene pool, but sadly it has not. They are not a reliable ally in my races opinion. They rather sit around their villages, get high, and open up dance studios. They do not have the killer instinct that their ancestors once had and like we do for battles.

The only thing they are good for is drug trafficking. God damn Trolls own the drug trade and will only use their ancestral given talents to protect their business. It is a success business I must say. If anyone in Azeroth, Alliance or Horde, wants to get high...it always leads back to the Trolls. No one dares to give them any competition on any type of hallucinate drug. It is well documented that the Trolls backlash is too much of a risk. I am not talking about just murder, I am talking about lynching of your love ones, scalping's, decapitations...ect.

Fucking dance studios...pfft

Last but not least, the Blood Elfs. The Belfs popped out of nowhere one day, it was fucking crazy. You ever wonder how so many Belfs lived on one tiny island without the rest of the world knowing? It is because there wasn't alot of Belfs in the first place. Also, the elders of Sivermoon sheltered them from the real world. They did not want them to know about how the real world works. They decided they rather make up a fantasy story to tell the young'ns about how the world is wonderful and to live life to the fullest...

What a load of shit.

Some Trolls stumbled upon the Belf island and it forever changed the race. Drugs are a crazy thing. Some of them grow naturally and some of them are chemically made. These Trolls got the Belfs hooked on some serious stuff, Bloodcaine. (Blood is the term used in the streets) It is made from the leaf of a common herb in the jungle, Kingsblood. After a year or so the whole Belf culture changed dramatically. The female Belfs turned to prostitution to make gold to buy more Blood. After another year there were too many Belfs bastard children to house on the island.

They were forced to venture out in the real world. The elders obviously decided to align themselves with the Horde due to their drug addiction and that the Trolls were on the Horde.

If I was forced to pick my favorite race within the Horde, it would have to be the Belfs. The majority of them have blood whores for mothers and that gives the kind of hatred and fury that you want.

Plus, I make all of my money off the Belfs. Confused? I will tell you how it started.

Chapter 2: My Path

Like I said at the beginning, I knew my sole purpse in this life is to destroy all things living. That is how I lived for the majority of the time I have been undead.

I have mastered all of the elements needed to destory my enemies, arcane, fire, and frost. I worked my way up to a high ranking General in the factions eyes. I have seen countless battles and have brutally killed over 500,000 Allys.

No one has ever been able to defeat my brothers and sisters when I was commanding them. I have frozen Ragornos and cut off the head of Onyixa. I laughed at Nefarian's attempts to stop me and spilled his blood on his own throne. I have torned the heart out of the wanna be Troll god Hakkar the Soulflayer and kept it as a trophy. The bugs of AQ were squashed like the pest they were....

Long story short...I was a bad mother fucker.

However, times change and with that comes changes to your lifestyle. The Queen, the bitch that she is, stated that she has no plans for the undead to break from the Horde.

At the time, I would have done anything for her, but after I heard her say those words....

My whole life changed.

I know longer felt it was my duty to show others how dominate the undead were. Why should I do all of this work for a Queen that doesn't care about the advancement of our race?

Not only that, but I was broke. All of my money was used to keep up my murderous lifestyle.

I needed to make a change and I found my calling, my niche you would say. It is what humas call a "Pimp".

To be continued...

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Tuesday Maintenance Boredom - Vacation Over

What is really good people in the blogmoshere?

Last time I updated this blog it seems like a really long time ago. This probably due to the fact that I have been on vacation from work for the past five days.

Jealous? Don't be. It was one of those vacations that you took only because you have a REDONKEYOUS amount of stuff to do in your real life. Yeah, you know the ones...those vacations are OK I guess...but they definitely aren't something to be jealous about mmkkk?

I am in the middle of moving from my apartment to my house. We got everything over to my now besides my PC, computer desk, and a few odds and ins. I have no internet and no satellite. A few months ago my ps3 broke so I can't even play that....I am 100% certified bored. I am writing this on my laptop onto a word processor because all of my neighbors are assholes and secured their wireless internet...bastards.

WTFspaghetti's 15 man Choir:

"O BABY YOOOU....YOU GOT WHAT I NEEEEED....SO LETS START TALKING ABOUT WOW, I SAID LETS START TALKING ABOUT WOW"

did my choir just reference a Biz Markie song? You guys are old school, I love it. Anways, onward to the WoWage.

New Beginning or the End?

I told you in my last article that I joined up with a casual raiding guild. I joined due to the fact that one of my good friends joined and I thought it would be more enjoyable to be in the same guild and raid together then to be in separate guilds.

Like I said before, there was no application process. I do not like that and I have never been in a good guild that didn't have an application process. If anything the process is there to weed out the terribads. However, I have never been so embraced in a a guild before like this one. Everyone is really cool and is easy to talk to. I found out that a married couple that I recruited in my old guild were also in this guild.

Not only that, but they are high ranking members...neat right? It is fun to be in a large active guild again and I haven't ran a pug 5 man in over a week...its fantastic.

Only problem is that their raid time NEVER starts on time and there is entirely way too much down time.

Example:

We went back into ToC 10 man to clear that bitch out and started with the Faction Champions. Oh hell yes, we were going to pwn this shit right?

Hahaha...yeah right. I am not one to make excuses, but we seriously had one of the hardest combinations they could throw at us imo. Resto Druid, Resto Shaman, Arms Warrior, Ret Pally, Warlock, and Spriest.

We seriously wiped in there for over an hour...I think 9 times total. The best attempt is when we actually killed both of the healers lol.../facepalm.

Between wipes there was some serious downtime. People were arguing the strat and were complaining that this isn't fun and we should go do some Ulduar.

At one point one of the officers starts yelling at one of the other officers about his attitude and it was really awkward. They decided to take a five minute break to "cool off and clear our heads".

In the mist of this awkward silence, I just started laughing into vent lol. I then said that "I am sorry, but that was funny to me. Ima go smoke now lol"

That five minute break turned into a 15 minute break. Then we wiped a few more times before rolling into another break and doing some 10 man Ulduar.

This time the break was supposed to be 15 minutes to talk with the officers about something. I rolled into Ulduar and I didn't get the message that pops up saying you are about to be saved to this instance. A few seconds later it said that "you are now saved to this instance"

WTF MATE!?!

Come to find out, they have cleared up to Thorim. Well isn't this great? Fucking A...so after the 15 minute break(35 minuts later) we actually pull.

We one shot Thorim and it was pretty wild healing in the arena. It gets intense at a point and is really fun to attempt to keep everyone alive. What was funny about this is right before we started the Thorim event, my girlfriend decides that she wants to sit in my lap and wants to heal lol.

I explained to her that this is SRS BIZZNEZZ and that daddy is going to have to play this one. She was slightly upset, but refused to remove her ass from my lap.

So I did what any REAL man would do...I reached around her and healed my ass off! It was actually really funny explaining to her WTF was going on. She would start telling me which person was getting low..."OMG HE GOING TO DIE! AHHH...oh, you saved him...good...PHEW!"

For the first time ever she said...

"damn, that was intense. I can see why you like playing so much."

I laughed a little. Made fun of her for saying that some. She then went to bed and I continued to on my quest to kill that little robot fucker, Mimiron.

Mimiron

God I hate this dude. This is where my last guild failed at. To be fair though...it has gotten nerfed alot since we were trying to down him and we only had probably 7-8 wipes on him. I knew that we could kill him, but we never got back to Mimiron due to the guild falling apart.

Anyways...

I am a MONSTER at this fight. I put on all of my mp5 gear and was rocking 705 mp5 WHILE casting.

Raid leader spends 10 minutes explaining the fight to the 3 new people. We pull...

Phase 1 - perfect - Downed
Phase 2 - perfect - Downed
Phase 3 - perfect - Downed
Phase 4 - Both tanks died to the same plasma blast and we ended up wiping while all of the pieces were at 10%.

Fucking awesome...we are so going to kill this fucker. I had full mana going into phase 4 and I can do non stop healing the ENTIRE time. We got this

Next pull

Phase 1 - Wipe - Raid leader decided to make the pally tank that is new to the encounter MT. She dies to the plasma blast.

Next pull

Phase 1 - Wipe - Same thing...MT dies again to plasma blast

Pull Number 4

Phase 1 - Wipe - Went back to the setup we had on the fist pull. However, the Tree druid is consistently moving around and not staying spread out. He gets 3 people Naplam'd at the same time the Tank needs all of the heals. The raid leader blames the Warrior tank.../facepalm

Pull Number 5

Phase 1 - Downed - but Tree druid died because he couldn't heal himself through a Naplam and the other healers were out of range. /facepalm
Phase 2 - perfect - Downed
Phase 3 - perfect - Downed
Phase 4 - Wipe - Couldn't keep everyone up with all of the raid dmg due to only have 2 healers.

Pull Number 6

At this point I am flipping out in raid chat. Telling everyone to get there head out of their asses and just focus.

They were a little shocked that I flipped the way that I did, but hey...sometimes you need to lay down the law and it worked. We downed him without anyone dying and I must say...it was fun as hell.

I would post a screenshot but yeah...I don't have my PC at my house. I am going to bring my laptop to work and upload this article to the blog then...pretty weaksauce I know, but hey...I'm bored lol.

Overall

I am still not 100% sold on this guild. There are many things I like and many things that I really don't like. I am going to stay here and see how things work out atleast for another month.

It works out really nice that they do not require any attendance policy, especially because I am moving and won't be able to play WoW for the next week. I also like the fact that if I do log on and there is a spot for me in the raid I will get an invite if I want it.

Only time will tell friends...more to come on this later.

Its Tuesday and the servers are down in the US for maintenance. So if you are bored, take a look around my blog...go through the achieves. I have over a 125 posts for your enjoyment lol.

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Thursday Ramblings...

  • I have decided not to transfer off of my server. I almost went ahead with paying the money and transferring, but there was stuff in my mailbox and Blizzard wouldn't let me do it.

  • I logged in and I find out that one of my good friends has joined up with a 25 man guild. They have been on the server for quite sometime, but just went through a restructure in leadership.

  • Plus, some cool people that I know are also in the guild, so I decided to join up with them to see how it will go. There was no application process and the first 25 man we ran was ToC.

  • It went pretty bad, we wiped a few times on the Northrend Beasts, but finally got it. Mostly because my friend and me are super elite healers. It was a sloppy kill, but hey...its a kill.

  • The loot system is Suicide Kings. They also cleared the list so I had an equal chance to get some loot as anyone else...chill by me!

  • Some how I rolled a 100 and picked up a Trophy of the Crusade. WTF is that you ask? It is used, along with emblems of triumph, to purchase tier 9.5 gear. So I am pretty excited that I am going to get a piece of that soon.

  • They then completely failed at the second boss, Jaraxxus. I am not going to lie, this dude is not ezmode. However, he is not hard...he is a trick fight. There is alot of stuff going on and if everyone isn't on the same page or doesn't do there job...then its a wipe.

  • I think we would have got killed him, but after every attempt, atleast 1 person left and had to be replaced. We only had 4 good healers and the other one that we pugged in completely and utterly sucked ass.
I just want to take a second to post this screenshot. I am Teknizzle, my resto druid friend's name is Tubbs. I have never beat him in healing...like EVER. So I doubt that this will ever happen again.


Ok, back to the ramblings...
  • The raid was called 3 hours after we started the group. 1 boss was killed. I spent over 150g in repairs.

  • You would think that I would be pissed off, but I wasn't. I might have been if I was a every week raider like I used to be. I haven't raided in a 25 man besides OS and VoA in a super long time and even though we wiped and overall failed, I still had fun and enjoyed myself.

  • However, if this continues to be a pattern, I will definitely look elsewhere. The people in this guild are super cool though and I know a bunch of them from elsewhere, so I am going to stick it out for atleast a few weeks.

  • After yesterday I had 98 badges of conquest on my Shaman. The reason I haven't used them is because the 2 piece T8.5 set bonus and the stats on the gear is perfect for single target healing with a little bit of raid healing.

  • My 4 piece T7.5 is actually better for raid healing and is more balanced for all kinds of healing. However, I did finally get the T8.5 head. I gemmed it, enchanted it, and named it Jorge.

Chef's Title!
  • Omg! yay! Nope...still waiting on 2 rare recipes to drop from the old cooking dailies in Shat. I will not give up though....that title is badass.

  • Speaking of titles, I no longer have the option to select "Of the Noble". I still have the achievement and it says that I should have it...but its not an option. I don't really care though because it was by far my least favorite title. Still weird though....

Faction Sex Change is Live

Yeah, if you haven't heard yet, it is now available. I am not going to get into it though, there is plenty of other blogs on my blog roll that already talked about it. Go to them for more info on it.

I do want to show you another screen shot that PROVES that my toon went through a sex change.
  • I didn't have to pay any money to Blizzard.
  • It made me laugh
  • I was drunk when it happen though...so maybe that is why I thought it was so funny
Anyway!



That is all for me blog lovers! Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

I Have a Crush on...

Felica Day!

There is something about her looks, personality, and her addiction to WoW that does it for me.

I know that I am not alone out there in the blogmosphere! Its ok to admit you have the hots for her...I understand...I will not judge you..I mean...she is a red head!

Nough said amirite?

Anyway, for you that don't know who she is or why the hell I am talking about her on my WoW blog. She is the producer / main character in a sitcom based off of a MMO like WoW.

She has her own website and she is already in season 3 of her series called "The Guild". I heard of the series before, but I never actually watched it...

I mean I got plenty of important stuff to do in my life ok? Lets go through the list
  1. I have to feed my cats. Very important. They have threatened to delete my WoW account on multiple occasions. They even gone as far of saying that they will leave my Tauren naked, broke, and in the middle of Ironforge so all the gnomes and dwarfs can laugh at me. PUTZ DAZ FOOD IN MAH BOWL OR DA GNIMEZ GET UR DAZ COW!

  2. I have other internet videos to watch. No, no, not that kind of videos....GAWD. I am talking about other cool nerdy videos that make me chuckle and giggle uncontrollably. Like the guys from "The Website is Down", and Peter Chao...I swear that Jong is Peter Chao...Jong seems like the kind of guy that would wear Gucci sunglasses while he is raiding with his Ret Pally yelling at the top of his lungs "MUHAMMAD DERKA DERKA". Also, who can go a day without watching this? I know I can't....

  3. I have to watch manly stuff. Also very important. Watching Sportcenter, NFL, Soccer, and Ping pong keep me in touch with my manly side. Without it I am not sure I want to see what will become of me.
That is just naming a few people! So you can see my day is pretty filled up with important things to do.

However, I did get some free time today and decided to watch the first season of "The Guild". Every episode is only an average of 5 minutes long and it only took me about 30 minutes to watch the entire first season.

From a WoW player that has been playing since vanilla, it is freaking harilous and I will recommend it to anyone that enjoys WoW humor.

Here is the link to the website again. What do you guys think about the series? Did you enjoy it as much as me?

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Elemental Shaman - 3.2 updates / Things you Should Know!


Ahh yes, Elemental Shaman. If you have one you love them, if you don't, then you are /jealous of them.

I was talking with multiple people over the weekend (none that have a elemental shaman) and they were all saying how "over-powered" elemental shaman are blah, blah, blah.

"A newly dinged 80 can get some crafted gear and some item level 200 blues and do 3k dps"

First off, lies!

Second, you are just jealous because we have utility and we are a hybrid class. Just because we can spec to heal or melee, does not mean that a straight dps class (mage, hunter, rogue) should do more dps then us.

Wipe those tears tubby and get ready to learn a few things about lighting power, nature wielding, FROSTSHOCKIN Elemental Shamans.

Tier Gear and Bonuses - When to use them?

Tier 7
  • 4-set bonus: The bonus critical strike damage of your Lava Burst is increased by 10%
Tier 8

  • 2-set bonus: The periodic damage dealt by your Flame Shock can now be critical strikes.
  • 4-set bonus: Your critical Strikes from Lightning Bolt cause the target to take nature damage equal to 8% of the Lightning Bolt’s damage over until cancelled sec.
Tier 9

  • 2-set bonus: Increases the duration of your Flame Shock spell by 9 seconds
  • 4-set bonus: Increases the damage done by your Lava Burst spell by 20%

Everyone in there mama is running heroics and raids to get there hands on conquest badges. You can buy anything with these badges, including your full tier 7 and 2 pieces of your tier 8.5.

When to switch from T7 to T8?

Your tier gear should be your first priority due to the bonus you get with them. As an Elemental Shaman, you want to be using your T7 four piece bonus until you get both T8.5 items from the badge vendor.

The 4 piece bonus from your T7 is not as good as your 2 piece bonus from T8. Going a little further in depth about it, the 4 piece T7 bonus roughly increases your output by ~30. While the 2 piece T8 bonus increases your output by around ~125.

Quite a huge difference. I have seen quite a few elemental shaman rolling around in Dalaran with one piece of T8 and it is breaking up their 4 piece bonus from T7. By doing this you might have a little more stats, but your dps overall is going to be much lower.

When to switch from T8 to T9?

The two piece set bonus for T9 is not that powerful. I saves you 1 global cooldown every 30 seconds, making it a small upgrade and only uping your output by ~60. Do not break up your T8 4 piece set for the 2 piece T9 unless the second item gives a 90-95 dps upgrade.

Surprised? I was too...but that last part was taken directly from the math guys over at Elitist Jerks.

So start collecting your T9 pieces. Just don't switch your 4 piece T8 until you have 4 pieces of the T9. Pretty weak, but it is what it is.

When you do get the 4 piece T9, that is where the money is at....I would love to create a shaman on the PTR to see what kind of dps I would be doing...I am sure its REDONKEYOUS!

Gems!

So now you are rocking your sexy 2 piece tier 8 bonus, but now you need to make sure you are gemming those suckas right.

[Chaotic Skyflare Diamond] is the only meta gem you should be using as a Elemental Shaman. If you are not using it, then you need to replace it ASAP if you care about making your toon the best it an possibly be.

Other then that, you should just be gemming for spell power. If you are having issues reaching the hit cap (368 for horde 342 for alliance) you should use the mix stat gem, [Vivid Eye of Zul] (+10 hit and 15 stamina)

Why you say? Well, it counts as a blue gem which is a requirement for the meta gem and it also allows you to stack more spell power gems like [Runed Cardinal Ruby]. It would be better then stacking the 12sp/15 stamina gem unless you are already hit capped. Then the 12sp/15 stamina gem would be the way to go to make the requirement for the meta gem.

Glyphs

I had to do some research on for this section. What I found was pretty cut and dry and that my friends is a good thing. We like to have things that are cut and dry. That way we don't confuse or over think ourselves.

  • Glyph of Flame Shock - Required - It is a key part of our rotation, without it we wouldn't do the DPS that we do now. I mean not only does it save 1 global cooldown, it allows us to pew pew more!

  • Glyph of Lightning Bolt - Required - It works out to be an additional 4% extra damage to lighting bolt.
The above two gylphs are the cut and dry part. There isn't any reason why you shouldn't have them in regards to PvE dps.

The glyphs below are the conditional ones, lets take a look. However, that 10% is a co-efficient bonus for Lava Burst. Also, because of the high use of our Lava Burst spell in our rotation, you should only get this when you are rocking the 4 piece set bonus for Tier 9. The 20% damage bonus (4 piece T9 bonus) further multiplies the additional spell power, which is just damn sexy!

So don't use this glyph unless you have the 4 piece tier bonus.

This is what you should use until you have the four piece tier 9 bonus. An additional +84 spell power to all spells sounds like something we can all use!

Pew Pew Rotation!

Nothing has really changed since I wrote my article a few months back, but here it is again.

FS, LvB, CL/LB filler, LvB, CL/LB filler, and repeat.

Now you don't have to use chain lighting if you don't want to, but I use it for a few reasons.
  1. It does more damage
  2. It's are only reliable AoE spell
Some of the negatives about Chain Lighting is that is cost more mana then Lighting Bolt and it is on a cool down. So you just can't spam it.

I want to be clear on this though, you do not have to use it, it is optional in our rotation. Most of the time I do use it, but I also pretty good gear and can take the extra hit on the mana.

Earthshock please?

Alot of Shamans say that you need to use Earth Shock in your rotation. I don't incorporated into my rotation because ES only has a 25 yard range (with talents) and you need a glyph to make it even come close to putting it in our rotation.

I already went over glyphs and the [Glyph of Earth Shock] is not worth replacing any of the other ones I listed in that section.

OMG? The End?!?

Yup, that is all I got to say about Elemental Shamans at this point. Just make sure you are using the right gear and the correct rotation and you should be doing fine. Located on the right of my page, under Shaman, there are a few other guilds about Elemental Shamans you might find interesting.

Topics include stats, gear, and reaching the hit cap.

Until next time, I'm WTFout!