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The Last Few Weeks of BC Raiding

WoWGrrl — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:07:39 +0000

So here we are, one month before the expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is upon us.

As usual, if you talk to people about the state of the game, if you talked to 10 different people, you’d get 10 different opinions: Some say there’s no use in playing at all, some say it’s the best time to play, some would look at you and say “huh?” and then go back to playing, because WoTLK won’t affect them very much (or so they think).

Personally, I’ve left my lowbies to sleep while I enjoy the high time of no-commitment-required PUG raids that we’re in right now.

Want To Raid? PUGs, PUGs, Everywhere!

There are Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep PUGs happening on my realm on the weekends left and right (both 25 man). Mount Hyjal PUGs, Sunwell Trash Runs, guilds in all levels of progression still looking for new members and actively trying to raid.

While my Healer sits unguilded, in conversations with what I believe to be a quality guild worth waiting for, I look around and make friends and offer my raid healing services where it fits my schedule, and continue to improve my gear to the standards of the new guild.

My Recent PUG Raids

Before the weekend’s raids, I ran Karazhan with an AWESOME group on Tuesday and did a full badge run, which was great. Then, I ran a couple of heroics a day during the week.

On Friday I got into an unadvertised Mount Hyjal PUG (25 man) on my Priest for the first time (thanks to some social contacts!!), and had a great time downing the first four bosses in the place, and while my overheal % needs work, I did well in general for overall heals and feel as if I contributed well to the group.

On Saturday after doing a few heroics and upgrading/re-gemming/re-enchanting my helm, I tried to get into a Black Temple PUG (25 man, same progression as Hyjal above) but I didn’t have any social “ins” to the group so while I made the +heals requirement by the skin of my teeth, I didn’t make the health point requirement that was in place for one of the nastier bosses in the place, and was removed in the pre-raid gear check.

Sooooo…. I vowed to improve my gear for that PUG next week, and put myself into LFG, and then got invited to a guild run going into Zul’Aman. While this wasn’t a Bear Run by any stretch of the imagination, it was another round of healing experience that I didn’t have, and can now update my “toon resume” with.

Experiences So Far

I’m really enjoying all of this varied healing experience on my Priest, but doing this wide number of raids I’m not directly familiar with means I’ve been doing a lot of reading and researching with my time, too. My AFK time on game while waiting for the raid to be fully assembled, etc, is spent on WoWWiki reading up on the fights about to come up.

In general the runs I’ve been a part of recently have been successful - well-run, or in the case of Karazhan, full of well-geared players ready to tear it up. The requirements for the 25-man PUGs I’ve been trying to get into are pretty stringent, but that’s good for the entire group.

The Zul’Aman guild run was the least successful of all the runs - but with 2 of 3 healers being geared only for Karazhan, it can’t be a big surprise that we only got Nalorakk the Bear boss down before wiping repeatedly on Akil’zon the Eagle Avatar.

Any Gear Upgrades?

Yes! Got some of those. Those aren’t my focus in raiding, however, so I mention them last.

From Hyjal, I got a couple of new pieces: Boots of the Divine Light and Angelista's Sash, but from the rest I’ve been picking up Heroics badges and the occasional off-spec piece for a Shadow set I’m putting together.

But for now it’s time to go update my Priest’s “toon resume”, before this Sunwell Trash Run I’m in starts up. Forgive me if I add it to my resume before I’ve actually completed the experience…

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Player Gearing vs Player Performance: Level 70

WoWGrrl — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:15:56 +0000

In this game, there’s a wide variety of individual player skill.

Skill is not necessarily reflected by gear at any level, either. It’s not rare to find someone better geared performing much worse than someone lesser geared when directly compared and all other things are equal.

During leveling this is pretty normal - you’ve got experienced players and completely new players all mixed in together, and in the low levels there are more young players with short attention spans who tend to delete their characters and start another when the leveling slows down around 35-40. Plus, in any given lowbie party, it’s likely everyone will be at a different character level, which introduces its own imbalances.

But in Heroics and End Game Raiding where you’re dealing with all well-geared level 70’s, there’s still a marked difference in skill levels and the amount of “output” any given player can get out of their character.

Raiding Guilds Recruiting Standards

I’ve been looking around for a guild that is still raiding in this lull before the WoTLK opens up, and have applied to, and been rejected from, a couple of the high-end ones still raiding.

Rejected mainly because I have no inside references who can vouch for my skill, which then makes the raiding guild recruiters turn to the websites that look strictly at gearing, and make their judgements from there.

My gearing isn’t BAD, but the quality of guilds I’m applying to (according to their charter of expectations for their membership and leadership and my experiences with their members) is definitely beyond where either of my toons are right now - they’re at the end of Black Temple or already in Sunwell Plateau, and my gear is just touching into those places.

So, while I work on the social end of getting into a high-end guild by trying to look for opportunities to party up with high-end raiders in Heroics and low-end raids and spark up conversations that lead to more runs to demonstrate my skill and lead to many good things, I also work on improving my gear.

And, I compare my skills against others when I have the opportunity to do so - and PUG raids tend to be the best place for this direct comparison.

Results From Friend’s Magtheridon PUG

Last night a Mage friend of mine put together a Magtheridon PUG in an attempt to finish off his Champion of the Naruu title, so I came along on my Priest Healer, who had just recently respec’d into Circle of Healing, and was sporting 1868 +heals unbuffed.

The PUG itself wasn’t a successful run - it was my friend’s first attempt at putting it together, and we didn’t have enough Warlocks to handle the infernals, but it was a good couple of tries and a good experience for him as a newbie Raid Leader.

I got a chance, however, to compare myself directly against two other Circle of Healing Priests of varying gear levels during this run - at least in the early parts of it where we were all close enough together that Recount and the Combat Log could be trusted to have caught all of the activity.

Pre-Magtheridon Healing Results

Here’s the basic results for the run, highlighting what I consider to be important - overall amount of heals, heals per second, and overheal percentage.

Priest Stats:

Priest	#1	#2	Shrimproll
Healing	2266	2015	1868
MP5 (out)	604	518	493
MP5 (in)	236	208	210

Healing Results

Priest	#1	#2	Shrimproll
Total % Healing	27.8%	13.3%	16.2%
Heals per sec	1232.9	779.3	956.0
Own Overhealing %	32.2%	39.1%	22.9%
% of grp overheal	28.3%	18.4%	10.4%

Summary Of Above Results

The summary of the above results is that Priest #1, being +250 healing to Priest #2 and +400 healing to myself, did not only the most healing, but the most group overhealing.

The high percentage regarding the Group Overhealing, however, is as a result of doing so much of the overall healing, however. Priest #1’s individual overheal percentage was better than Priest #2’s individual overheal percentage (ie: Priest #1 had less individual overheal, and a lower percentage than Priest #2).

As the least-geared Circle of Healing priest, Shrimproll looked good on the charts. I know that charts aren’t everything in a raid (at all) but consider: With 150 less healing than Priest #2, Shrimproll did:

2.9% more overall healing

~150 higher Heals per second rate while healing

~16% less overhealing (ie: more efficient healing)

This kind of stuff is hard to demonstrate in one’s raiding resume, however.

So, I will continue to grind for Heriocs badges and gear upgrades, and continue to PUG raids and put more solid efforts into making new raiding friends…

And continue to strive to perform better than people better geared than me. I do it not as a mean way to compete and put others down (or I’d have named Priest #2), but as a way to improve my own play and abilities.

When I find a great guild with other skilled players like myself, I know it’ll pay off.

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Sept 2008 Raider’s Resume: Mage (frost), Priest (holy)

WoWGrrl — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:13:51 +0000

All of the things like reputation can change so quickly when one hooks up with a few good players and rushes through things everyone needs, so I put a date on the post, because I forgot to put a date on the Resume itself.

I’ll put a date on the updated version I do, whenever that may be.

Check it out, here’s my first attempt at a video resume for my Mage and Priest who are both geared for raiding T5+ content, and looking for an excellent home on the realm of Zul’jin, Horde side.

Any suggestions on what I should change/improve for my next version?

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How To Get The Swift Brewfest Ram / Great Brewfest Kodo

WoWGrrl — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:54:21 +0000

Wondering what the deal is with the Brewfest daily quest?

Wondering what the loot is, and how easy it is to get?

And you hear it’s in the Grim Guzzler in BRD - do you have to clear ALL THE WAY THERE??

Here’s a video to answer all your questions!

EDIT: There was a problem with the sound on the first version. This one actually has sound.

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Applying For A Raiding Guild: What To Ponder

WoWGrrl — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:20:33 +0000

I had my Mage in a raiding guild for a few months in the winter, and had some great raiding times, and great times running Heroics with a new group of friends.

But, I kind of got burned out on the guild for various reasons, so I returned to my friendly social Friends guild that I leveled my first toon to 60, and then to 70, in, and I put effort into leveling my Priest to 70 and gearing her up.

With my Mage at 224 on the Be Imba! scale, my Priest is now level 70 and over 200 on the Be Imba! gearing scale which puts her as geared for ZA, SSC and TK, right up to the very end and nearly to the start of BT and Hyjal.

Many of my friends in the social Friends guild have toons that can run Heroics, now, and we’re PUGging Karazhan and Zul’Aman (those of us geared well enough)… but other than Sunwell Trash Runs, nobody but me has progressed into the 25-man raiding arena, and for the most part, it’s because they’re not quite far advanced gear-wise to get in. Because we all have a billion alts, and Heroics is the “goal barrier of acheivement” in this guild for all these toons.

Some players aren’t quite so altoholic-y and are getting their main toon close, and that’s great, but after that experience with the TK PUG where we downed 3 bosses (two which were first-timers for me) and had a great, quality raid (in so many ways), the little wish that I could join in on that more regularly, with a reliably good group, poked its head up.

Why I’m Not In A Raiding Guild

I’m not in a raiding guild because I have pretty high standards when it comes time to commit my time on a regular basis for something.

In real life sport, I expect my coaches to have a strong positive character. I expect my swim coach to be knowledgable and supportive and understanding of the fact that this IS a recreational swimming team, even though there are some die-hard competitors in the fast lanes. I expect my martial arts instructor to maintain a safe training environment despite the “violent” actions we’re practicing.

And what of my teammates/classmates? I expect them to put in their own efforts to, well, basically, not inconvenience me for the sake of their own convenience in what we’re both doing.

Online, this is a difficult thing to achieve for many reasons.

Like, the fact that the leaders in sport are often receiving some financial benefit for their work and training, whereas people leading high-end raiding guilds aren’t. In fact, raiding guild leaders are often paying money OUT to do what they do… for Vent servers, websites, etc… nevermind the time they’re spending in and out of game to be the well-versed leaders they are.

And members, too, aren’t being paid, which digs into questions of loyalty and being self-serving vs sticking it out for the guild (the last raiding guild I was in had a lot of turn-over - get geared, skip to a guild higher in the progression chain, which left us regulars unable to sub out even)

So in the end, my raiding experience showed me there was potential for great fun and enjoyment of the game, but it may not be easy to find a raiding guild that I actually feel comfortable in.

What Kind Of Raiding Guild Would I Like?

If I were to join one (since running my own is out of the question), and it would be a great one for me, what would that raiding guild look like?

Well, let’s see:

Whether or not the guild has an age policy, new recruits are very carefully scrutinized for certain traits of independence along with certain traits of being a “team player”. Examples:
- Guild history that doesn’t involve hopping around between raiding guilds
- Exalted in Cenarion Expedition, The Sha’tar and Aldor or Scryer on main raiding toon.
- Willing to PUG Heroics or other dungeons and quests without concern.
- Enjoys his or her gear but doesn’t feel the need to tell everyone else about it, on and on (limited epeen measuring please, but congratulating each other on gear improvements/wins is awesome).
- Always comes to raids fully stocked with consumables (food, oil, flask/elixirs, potions, any other helpers) and doesn’t talk about the fact that they’ve done it at all. It’s a normal part of their raiding experience and they don’t expect a pat on the back for it. Certainly asking others for these things would be an extremely rare thing, usually happening when there were an unusual number of deaths that night or the 25 mana pots you brought with you are running low after many long, pot-burning battles on a new boss.
- Doesn’t require a summon for a scheduled raid unless the location of the raid was changed last minute. Parks their toon outside the instance if they’re on the stand-by list, and plays an alt so they’re still available in 20 seconds notice ;)
- Has epic flying on their main raiding toon already and nobody talks about their repair costs in a “woe is me, it’s so expensive” way.
- Maxed professions, including the secondary ones, on their main raiding toon, and knows the value of having done so.
- Doesn’t share their characters with friend or family. We always know who we’re talking to when your character is online.
- Spends time looking up information on websites etc and watching videos for things they want to know/get better at
- AFK’s are infrequent outside of scheduled breaks, and are only rarely unreported beforehand. AFKing for dinner mid-raid? Replaced and penalized.
- If a buffing class, gets everyone buffed up quickly after a wipe and gets mana restored for the battle quickly. Rarely, if ever, has to be asked for spot-buffing for individual deaths.
Leadership is responsible and knowledgable
- People’s time deserves respect. Start the raid on time, end the raid on time. Don’t reward people who arrive late or leave early with no prior notification, as that punishes those who came on time and stayed until the end.
- Some discussions should be done in private. While peer pressure and a bit of public embarrassment is a good learning tool at some times, there are times it shouldn’t be the first attempt of behavior modification. Vent should be kept quiet during raids with very little extraneous noise.
- Someone’s gotta be the bad guy when a new recruit doesn’t fit. I expect leadership to recognize early and remove the one who obviously doesn’t fit long before their 30 days probationary period would be over. Or heck, have test runs with a player before even recruiting them. If it’s a borderline case and someone who could be coached because they have a good attitude and get along with people that’s fine, but there are obvious cases at times and having them stay any length of time is grating ;)
- I’m willing to make modifications to my playstyle as long as things make sense. If it’s done for some weird “I hate frost mages” reason, then I’ll have a problem with that :)
- I’d really like to have leaders who are respected in the community, or at least when they get into PUGs or in with people they don’t know, they make a good showing outside of being a skilled player. Being in a top-end raiding guild is awesome, but it doesn’t make you God ;)
- When I join something, I want to do well and fit in and be a great contributor. But different people have different visions of what makes a great contributor. If I’m confused about something, I’d like to be able to talk to leadership who are knowledgable and respectful, to get things cleared up.
- Fair looting rules. Mains over Alts, Main spec over Off spec/PvP, PUGs get equal roll if they were required, spread out the goodies in a way that is good for the raid overall, no nepotism.
Obviously, this entry is more as a way for me to think this thing through as the expansion draws nearer and my itch to join a fast-leveling group of non-alt-a-holics grows.

Also, I had someone from a top-10 Horde side guild on my realm find my blog and entry about Be Imba! recently and initiate a conversation with me when I logged in on my Mage… and in reading their charter after that conversation and perusing the website, my interest is further piqued!

Three raiding nights a week, with mandatory 66% attendance which allows for a player to raid only 2x a week, and a whole bunch of things in their charter which point to an adult, mature, respectful environment and a tight-knit group.

I will ponder this further as I work to join a PUG I hear someone in this guild arranges every week on the same night and time… but doesn’t advertise on Trade. Woot, underground high-end raid PUGs!

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High Astromancer Solarian, Tempest Keep - video and tips

WoWGrrl — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:32:49 +0000

Solarian is an early boss in the 25-man raid instance of Tempest Keep in Netherstorm of the Burning Crusade expansion pack.

A boss with Shadow on her mind, the fight is a lot of chaos but a lot of fun.

If you are the bomb, get away from the raid!

Taken from a Mage’s perspective, and with great thanks to the Zul’jin Horde guild “Afternoon Delight” for allowing me to fill a spot in their raid!

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Jan’alai the Dragonhawk Avatar, Zul’Aman - tips video

WoWGrrl — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 12:05:52 +0000

One of the many challenging fights in the 10-man raid instance of Zul’Aman, Jan’alai the Dragonhawk Avatar has lots of AOE and lots of dragonhawks ;)

Avoiding the fire bubbles is the first challenge for most raiders, and controlling the hatching of the eggs, too. And like most raid boss fights, this is a solid challenge for both tanks and healers. Wipes can happen fast with that many dragonhawks kicking around!

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Freelance Raider or Raid Guild Member?

WoWGrrl — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:26:35 +0000

Okay.

In the hidden annals of this blog, I have written an entry about joys of Freelance Raiding. Only, I feel the need to go over it again and clarify some things before I post it.

Raiding Now -vs- Raiding In 6 Months

Freelance Raiding works awesome right now, but in 6 months the raiding game will be way tougher for everyone in it than it is right now.

The World of Warcraft landscape is about to change with the release of the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack and another 10 levels and re-gearing up to do.

Freelance raiding won’t be as easy as it is right now when so many people (including myself) are so well geared.

So, as I’m visiting my parents at a beautiful lake with wonderful flower gardens and green grass and wildlife… I’m pondering my World of Warcraft future.

My Warcraft Future

When there’s 10 more levels, most of my friends will WANT to advance through to 80 but few have the time nor energy to do the research required to learn new content quickly. They prefer a more laid-back format of play, which I’ll admit is something I enjoy at times too…

But this time, with how much I’ve learned and how much fun it is to play with skilled players in coordinated fashions, I’ve decided…

I want to zoom to 80. With a skilled group who are thirsty to take on new content and bash themselves against it and share stories of eventual triumph.

I want to experience it this time while it’s new. The last 2 times I didn’t do that.

Time To Immerse Myself In Greatness

I’ve updated my Toon Resumes page for both my Mage and Priest.

I’ve put together a video resume that has to be uploaded when I get to high speed next and linked to their resumes.

Will I find a great guild? Who knows.

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How To “Ghetto Hearth”

WoWGrrl — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:51:34 +0000

Have you ever been stuck in Azeroth, unable to get back to Outland because your hearthstone is down, and wondered if there was a way to easily get back to Outland without having to run through the Dark Portal itself?

Well, there’s a way. Even when your hearthstone is down, there’s a repeatable way to activate it and send you back to your hearth point.

On our realm, we call it the “Ghetto Hearth”, because it’s a cheap bit of a “cheat” to get back “home.

How is it done? Simple:

Join a party, and enter into an instance, and leave the party.

Then, a few moments after you leave the party, the game will notice you’re not in the same party anymore and it will put up a notification: 60 seconds and you’ll be returned to your hearth point.

All you have to do is wait out the notice and it’ll hearth you back!

I use guildmates for this all the time, and sometimes I see people on Trade asking for a party for Ghetto Hearth, and I generally extend an invite to help them out.

Any other tricks like this one I should write about?

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Al’ar the Phoenix God Tips and Tricks - Tempest Keep video

WoWGrrl — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:42:25 +0000

My Frost Mage got into a great PUG the other day, and we took down all but one boss in TK and then took down two World Bosses (Kazzak and Doomwalker) before departing.

Here’s the Al’ar fight!

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Transmute Cooldown Reminder: Group Calendar

WoWGrrl — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:49:03 +0000

There was a time when I was vigilant about my transmutes on my various toons.

Every day I would transmute a Primal of one type into a Primal of another with some end goal in mind (be it the eventual transmute of Primal Mights or other transmutes for gearing materials).

Every day I would check and see how much longer it was before I could transmute cloth again, and make sure I had the materials days in advance.

My Transmuting History

Initially, I was just transmuting Shadowcloth, but at some point I decided to transmute Primal Mooncloth and Spellcloth, even though I wasn’t spec’d for those ones. When I was creating my Mage’s Shadowcloth 3-piece set, I did this so I could trade Primal Mooncloth and Spellcloth for the Shadowcloth and make the job a shorter one to get my set.

Then, when my Priest tailor hit the Outland and specialized in Primal Mooncloth (which is easy to specialize in, as it’s done via turn-in instead of dungeon quest drop), I stopped making Primal Mooncloth and Spellcloth on my Mage and just made what each Tailor was spec’d for.

Then, when my Priest had enough Primal Mooncloth to make her primary Primal Mooncloth set and had it all crafted, waiting for me to hit level 70 and put it on, I stopped transmuting. I switched my Mage from Shadowcloth to Spellcloth and then did very little with it.

Transmuting Falls Off… Then Picks Up

Oh sure, I’d transmute once in a while, but not as regularly as I used to. A friend would mention needing something, and I’d do it for a couple of days and then slack off again.

And then we started to use Group Calendar within my guild.

And the dern thing reminds me that I’ve got transmutes coming up, or transmutes available.

So now it’s almost like a compulsion… I log in and it says “Spellcloth transmute available” and I can’t help but log over to the right toon and get it transmuted as part of my morning rituals after I’m done whatever it was I logged in to do initially.

What Do I Do With It?

My stockpile of Primal Mooncloth and Spellcloth is growing now, and it’s making me wonder what I should do with it. (besides sell it, which I only do when hard up for cash)

Already my Mage has 20 slot Primal Mooncloth bags - perhaps I should upgrade my Hunter’s bags, since I’m always struggling with room because of losing a full bag to arrows?

Maybe I should get the Whitemend Set for my Priest.

I haven’t quite decided.

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Terestian Illhoof, Karazhan - raid video, tips and tricks

WoWGrrl — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:40:15 +0000

From the perspective of a Frost Mage, this is the Karazhan fight against Terestian Illhoof and his many minions, including Kil’rek the imp.

Tips and tricks are provided just in case you’re still new to this fight and wanting to be prepared when you go in with your guild!

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Re-Gemming and Re-Enchanting Hunter for Heroics and Karazhan

WoWGrrl — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:12:26 +0000

With two toons all epic’d out (Mage and Priest), I turned my attention to my Hunter to see what kind of upgrades I could immediately work towards as I get into Karazhan PUGs equal to her level of gearing (mid-Karazhan/Heroics).

About My Hunter

Right now, my hunter is a Marksman/Survivalist mix, with “uber traps” as the goal of my points in Survival, and Marksman being all about damage where pets are often seen as a bane (Heroics and Raids).

She’s an Enchanter who only recently hit 375 (one of the enchants mentioned below required it, she had the rep just not the level) after sitting at 372 for many many moons. She’s also an Herbalist, at 375 for many moons already.

Her gear is a mix of blues and purples, with a couple of Heroics badge rewards and a couple of purple drops from Karazhan and Heriocs.

Deciding What To Improve

I went to WoW Heroes and looked myself up, and used the information it provided as a way to chart my course for improvement over the next few hours.

I started by going down the list of enchants it suggested for my gear.

My Enchanting Rules (70s)

When doing enchants I have one basic rule: If it’s purple, it gets the best enchant. If it’s blue, it gets whatever is the next cheapest down from the most expensive, but still suggested as a “decent” enchant for my class.

Enchanting Upgrades to Hunter

That lead me to get things like:

Savagery to 2h weapon
Vitality to boots
Cobrahide Leg Armor
+4 stats to both rings
+6 stats to chest

I already had a few other enchants all done - bracer, gloves, shoulder, and head, so this rounded out the enchants nicely.

Gem Upgrades For Hunter

Then I took a look at my gems, and had some 7-8 green gems in various pieces - lots to replace! I searched on Hunter hit cap, and found it to be 142 (correct me if I’m wrong), which lead me to stacking +hit Dawnstone gems (blue) into my gear, replacing the green gems I had originally. By the end, only one green gem was left, and my hit at 143.

Starting Stats, Ending Stats

I didn’t record my exact starting stats, but I know my hit rating was under 100 and attack power was under 1500 unbuffed, crit chance unknown.

Now, after all the enchants and re-gemmings, I’m at:

Hit Rating: 143
Attack Power: 1804
Crit Chance: 19.19%

My crit chance is low, but that will improve as I can swap out the +hit gems for other things because my gear will start to have more +hit on it in itself as I collect more badge rewards and get into a few Karazhan groups here and there.

Dungeon Goals

This character is a relatively low priority, but right now has a goal to get to Honored with Zandalar Tribe (Zul’Gurub from the old world) in order to get the enchanting recipes (healing and spellcasting oils). Other than that I will do a few heroics here and there, mostly with friends, and PUG one Karazhan every few weeks.

Last week I got into a full clear of Zul’Gurub - it went really smoothly and while no mounts dropped and the Turtle Polymorph book didn’t drop either, it was a lot of fun, and I’m told some of them run ZG regularly for the rep, too.

In terms of reputation with Zul’Gurub, I got to Friendly and got the first of two enchanting recipes I am seeking on this character: Brilliant Mana Oil

Next up, Brilliant Wizard Oil!

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Prince Malchezzar in Karazhan Video, Priest Healer

WoWGrrl — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 19:47:37 +0000

I have been going through Karazhan and Heroics and basic 25-man raids with my Healer who hit 70 in July 2008, and recording the fights from her perspective and with tips and tricks for healers in mind.

There are still tips and tricks for other classes, as I try to cover the major important parts of the fight when I do my videos.

I’m in the process of developing website that will be especially dedicated to the videos I’m going to make when WoTLK comes out, but for now I’d love to hear your feedback about the videos, especially if they helped you in your own attempts in any way!

Please feel free to link to my videos from your guild websites or refer your friends to check them out if they’re new to raiding any of the places I’ve made videos for.

Prince Malchezzar in Karazhan,
from the healer perspective

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Advancing The Lowbie Paladin

WoWGrrl — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:46:49 +0000

As a healer, I’ve grown to love the Pally Tank in my level 70 5-man instances. While they may be difficult to heal at times because of the sheer armount of healing they need as everything in the room beats on them, I’m happy being confident that unless people try REALLY HARD, they’re not going to pull aggro and I’m not going to get healing aggro.

So, with that thought, I seek to level my Paladin to be one of those awesome tank-type people.

But, right now she’s only level 25 and thus barely has the spellbook skills to be that awesome Pally Tank I know she’ll be in the future. And of course, she hasn’t had much in the way of tanking experience yet either.

But that’s changing.

About My Pally

My Pally is actually spec’d mostly in the Retribution tree right now, but I’m gearing myself towards the “tank” end of the scale (favoring stamina and intellect for now) instead of the melee DPS (favoring agility and strength) end. I’ve also picked up a helpful tanking-specific addon to go with the fact that I’ll have to lead the kill order and pacing of dungeon instances as a part of that “tanking” job.

For this toon, I’ve opted to attempt to completely avoid healing, having a Priest, Druid and Shammy already doing heals duties… but I HAVE healed a BFD run when the other Paladin in the group only had the mindset to tank and I wasn’t interested in an argument of any type.

In time I’ll get more points into the actual Protection tree, but right now from what I’ve read, Retribution is the way to go for my spec, despite the fact that I behave and gear like someone others might expect to be geared Protection.

I’m going on the thought, largely, that in Azeroth things have been nerfed so far and are so forgiving for quick leveling that it’s more gearing and behavior than spec that determines how well one plays their role in a group situation.

Professional Aspirations

With my family of toons, I have all of the professions covered, so for now with this one I’ve just gone completely “Gathering”: Mining and Skinning.

When the expansion comes out, one of my toons needs to take up Inscription, but I’m not sure whether it will be this Paladin or another of my toons, so for now I’m just gathering and processing and collecting.

Immediate Dungeon Goals

At 25, I’m not really high enough to properly tank an RFK run, so I guess that means I’ll be doing a couple more in BFD.

Also, there’s a mess of guildmates who have alts at the 18-20 level, so maybe I’ll tank an SFK run or three for my friends so the clothies can get the Robes of Arugal, etc, and all look the same. ;)

While the number of instances I can tank and get benefit from are few right now, soon I’ll be getting into a range with a number of choices and a lot of demand on the LFG channel. Sure, the groups may be chaotic, but there should be a lot of them.

I’ll be sure to write about my tanking adventures as they happen!

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Big Bad Wolf / Red Riding Hood in Karazhan, Opera Event

WoWGrrl — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:56:30 +0000

One of the most fun events in the entry-level raid instance of Karazhan is that of the Opera:

When the event is started, one of three different boss groups will spawn, each with their own strategy.

When folks were largely unfamiliar with these fights, this meant long explanations to the entire raid about each fight, so whatever one came up, everyone was generally familiar.

These days, everyone is assumed to be familiar. If you’re not familiar, you’d better learn quickly!

Here’s a video I made on my Mage in a PUG where we faced the Big Bad Wolf and Red Riding Hood.

I love that I got an awesome run as Red Riding Hood to put in the video to show folks how to run if they’re not familiar with the fight. It worked out so great!

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Advancing The Lowbie Druid: 40s

WoWGrrl — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:29:47 +0000

My lowbie Druid is coming along these days, hitting an area of “many dungeons” in the 40s and not having many problems finding groups when I actually sit down to spend her rest bonus

About My Druid

My Druid is a female Tauren, spec’d completely Balance, and in her mid-40s.

I’ve been doing nothing but Dungeon instances with her since before level 20, and have been healing most of the time, with an occasional bout of caster-DPSing, and one time where I tanked something for some guildmates.

Her professions are Skinning and Enchanting. Enchanting is nearly at 300.

I’ve already got a 375 Enchanter, but I wasn’t sure how much I’d be playing or advancing my Hunter, and wondered if I would do better with gathering recipes on a Healing/Casting Druid. This remains to be seen.

Resting Up For Dungeons

This toon, because she’s a healer, got into dungeon groups for dungeons I couldn’t even get quests for yet… going through Ulda at 35, Maraudon at 41 (where all my cast attacks were resisted by halfway through since all the mobs were 45+), and Zul’Farrak in my early 40s as well.

So now, I’m running around and gathering up quests for Uldaman, Scarlet Monestary, and Maraudon (having already gone through ZF enough to gather and finish the quests) so I can PUG my way to having completed those this weekend to burn off HER rest bonus.

The Spec Future Of This Toon

I’ve been doing just fine healing as Balance spec with gear that focusses on a strong mana pool, but I’ve been told that BRD is where the “wrong spec for healing” starts to become a problem.

I shall let you know, as I’m very close to that borderline!

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Maiden of Virtue Raid Video, Karazhan, Mage Perspective

WoWGrrl — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:00:50 +0000

Here’s a video I made after a fun PUG through Karazhan with some others who were well-geared like my Mage.

It’s done from the Mage’s perspective, but I’m sure soon I’ll have the Priest Healer’s perspective up for all to see!

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Zul’Aman Hunter Duties

WoWGrrl — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:58:49 +0000

Edit: This is posted during maintenance, but was written last night :)

I’m going into Zul’Aman on my (undergeared) Hunter right now, with some well-geared guildmates.

I’ve only been in ZA with my Mage, but I know there’s duties I have to worry about as a Hunter in order to appear semi-competent.

Here is where I write about those duties:

Misdirects:

On Nalorakk when he changes form, redirect onto the tank. I’ll only be able to do this once every second time, so I’m Misdirecting onto the Warrior tank and letting the Pally tank generate his own threat to facilitate the switch-over between tanks.

On Hex when he shifts form, redirect onto the tank. Same restriction as above.

Tranquilizing shot:

On Hex when DBM says to do it (when he enrages)

Killing Assignment:

On Jan’alai, when killing theatcher going to the right when two come out, while Pally tank handles the hatcher on the left. Watch for the Pally’s hatcher for when he’s finished hatching the left side because he runs to the right side to hatch those ones if left alive.

Killing the hatcher going to the left when two come out, while Pally tank waits for the Hatcher to hatch the left.

And from there, don’t die.

(We made it to Halazzi but didn’t down him, too weak in the DPS department beyond myself)

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Advancing The Lowbie Shaman

WoWGrrl — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:08:33 +0000

My lowbie Shaman just hit level 30 and got skills like Astral Recall (hearth with a 15 min cooldown) and the ability to self-ressurrect with the help of a reagent, the Ankh.

About My Shammy

Shammy is spec’d a mix of all three trees, with 5 points in speeding up my main healing cast by .5 seconds (resto) and 5 points in increasing my mana pool by up to 5% (enhancement), and the rest of the meagre points spent in elemental.

My gear is mostly cloth with a few leather pieces I could find. I’m a caster Shaman who generally goes into parties as a damage-dealer and then acts as backup heals when things get messy, and there’s very few pieces of caster leather out there that I’ve found.

My professions are Skinning and Leatherworking on this toon, knowing that at end game Leatherworking is useful to a Mail-wearing Shaman, and also having had a profession gap there for a long time, with no Leatherworker. Shammy’s at 225 Leatherworking, waiting for level 35 when she can start to advance to 300.

Shammy In Recent Days

Recently, Shammy has been peacefully resting. Having spent all my rest bonus while advancing from 26 to 29, I put her into an Inn and turned out the light, and have only checked in on her a few times.

Checking in on my toons usually means I’m making sure they’re all ready for the next set of dungeon runs that will happen when they’re pulled out of the Inn. Enough water? Reagents? Do I have any quests to collect?

Then, I log out again if I’m not planning to run something at that moment. When I log back in I know it’s ready to go.

Upcoming Dungeoning Plans

I’ve already progressed through a handful of lowbie instances, and finished all of the quests in each of them. My next focus is Scarlet Monestary, and I’ve spent time running around gathering all of the pre-requisite quest chains and finishing them up to the point of needing to go into Scarlet Monestary to finish my quests.

This weekend I will log in and put myself into the LFG tool and find some Scarlet Monestary groups to heal or DPS for, and by the end of the weekend, with a few successful runs, I will have spent my rest bonus and Shammy will be sent to rest again for another while.

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Sunwell Trash Runs (SWP trash runs) video

WoWGrrl — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:05:27 +0000

On our realm, Sunwell Portal trash runs have been very popular and many players have gained great gear and gobs of money by going into these two hour trash-fests held by the elite raiders on the realm.

I haven’t had a lot of time this summer to get into them and haven’t wanted to spend thousands of gold on those particular gear upgrades, either, but I did have to see what all the fuss was about, and how the whole thing worked.

And I’m happy to have created a video so I can share it with you, too!

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The Darkmoon Faire Is Coming To Town

WoWGrrl — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:17:19 +0000

The Darkmoon Faire is being set up right now, in Elwynn Forest.

It’ll be there for a week, starting officially on Monday and packing up after the last day of festivities on Sunday.

The Faire will be visited by a wide variety of players, myself included, even though it’s way off in Alliance territory and it’s quite a ride to the nearest Horde settlement.

What will I be there for?

Cheap Fel Lotus on occasion (4g ea vs the 30-45g ea in the auction house here), and for my Priest to get her Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon from the Beasts Deck I picked up in the Auction House this morning for 2000g.

Forget Farming UBRS.

Yes, I bought the deck. I figured after finding out where the Ace was located in UBRS and how I’d have to bring a few friends each time to get past certain parts of the instance to get to the guy who drops the Ace (2% of the time, so not even a high percentage drop…), I’d buy it if it came up at a reasonable price.

I’ve seen the Ace on its own come up for over 1500g, so when I saw the full deck for 2000g (versus the Blessing Deck for my Mage which sits at 3500g and still sits there according to me), I hopped over to a toon that has unlimited access to my guild bank funds, withdrew 2000g and bought the deck.

It’s now in my Priest’s mailbox, and I’ve sent my retired Warrior over to Goldshire to scout out the status of the Faire (even though I know it starts tomorrow). Tomorrow my Priest will venture over to the Faire ground herself and pick up this new trinket.

Incremental Improvements

That’s sure to bring her over 200 on the Be Imba! “Gear-o-meter”, and will be a nice trinket to use clear through most of WoTLK’s levelling portion at the very least, I would expect.

After these recent SSC and TK groups I’ve filled a spot with for a couple guilds lately, I do think about actually improving my Mage’s gear again. Perhaps I’ll work towards getting the Blessings Deck which turns into the Darkmoon Card: Crusade for my Mage for the next time the Faire comes to town… which I think will be closer to home, in Mulgore if I’m not mistaken.

Am I the only one that thinks these Card names were shuffled? Shouldn’t Blessings be for a Priest or Paladin, while a Beast be for Melee or perhaps Hunter class?

Whatever. The trinkets are high end and give me somewhere useful to spend the gold I accumulate with my family of toons, and in the end that’s what counts.

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Using be.imba.hu as a Guide to Character Advancement

WoWGrrl — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:06:08 +0000

With level 70s part of the problem, unless you’re in a raiding guild already, is the whole question of “what do I do now?”. You know you need to upgrade your gear and make it better, but the question of “Where do I start?” comes to mind.

I’ve got some guildmates in my small social, non-raiding guild who are hitting 70 or recently hit 70 and are asking this question, so I thought I’d write a little about what I do, myself.

Introducing The “Be Imba!” Website

If you’re a hard-core raider, you probably already know about this site - I learned about it back in April, but I’m still finding a lot of people who don’t know about it, so I thought I’d start by sharing the information:

http://be.imba.hu

This site is a “PvE character tuning” site for level 70 players of World of Warcraft. If you’re below level 70 you can’t use this tool yet.

If you have a 70 (or know someone else who is one), go to that site and do a search on your character by filling in the basic form you’ll find below the banner ad. (EU or US?, what realm? what character name?)

Then click on “Query Report” (for me on my Mac, hitting return in the character name field doesn’t activate the search, only a click does), and give it a moment to generate your report.

If the server is overloaded, you’ll need to come back at another time to check your report. Try when it’s not so busy. I suggest doing it in the morning.

Once the report comes up, you can look over it and find a whole whack of interesting information about your character:

- How many “low level” items do you have that need upgrading?
- Are your enchants the right ones or are there better ones for your class?
- Does your spec check out for being good for PvE or PvP or quest grinding?
- Do you have enough hit or spell hit for raiding for the spec you’ve chosen?
- What level of instances are you geared for?

How To Use The Information To Guide Advancement

Now that you see all this information, how can you use it to improve your character?

My strategy has been simple:

1. Knock out all the “Warnings” about my character.

1. Use the site’s linking to figure out where I need to go to get my next upgrades of various pieces of gear.

My Hunter was the last toon I looked up on Be Imba! in order to go through this upgrade process, and I went from 1467 AP and 44 ranged hit to 1800 AP and 143 ranged hit just by re-gemming and getting the various enchants that they recommended a Hunter get on the site. (my crit is still low at under 20%)

How Others Use Be.Imba

… mainly to see if you’re geared.

I use it quickly to see if the Kara PUGmates I’m in a group with are geared or not geared, and same with Heroics PUGgers. It’s an easy way to avoid players who say they want a “badge run” but aren’t geared enough to properly contribute to such a quick, successful run.

So, look yourself up first and see what it’s saying about you! :)

My Toons On Be.Imba

In closing I thought I’d leave a link to my toons as well. I don’t think my Hunter will ever catch up to where the Priest and Mage are, but I’m pretty happy where they all stand and what I can do with each of them now :)

Frost Mage
Holy/Disc Priest
MM/SV Hunter

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Prince Malchezzar raid video, Karazhan, Mage perspective

WoWGrrl — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:13:51 +0000

Prince Malchezzar is the Demonic Presence in Karazhan that you have to kill as part of the Karazhan quest chain that starts outside the instance.

It’s one of the fights where the randomness of where the firey Infernals drop that can determine whether Prince goes down or the raid wipes - even if you’re in a really well-geared group.

Here’s an example of an extremely close call. We got him, but can you guess how many raiders were left alive at the end?

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There’s Epic, and then there’s EPIC (Joining a TK run)

WoWGrrl — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:04:57 +0000

Now that folks have been in level 70 End Game for so long, and a billion guilds are doing Kara and beyond, and many people have more than one toon epic’d out… I’m noticing there’s this big gap between “epic” and “EPIC”.

I’ve gone into Kara and SSC PUGs (SSC was a guild who picked up a few PUGgers to fill out numbers for the night, so not a true “PUG” by my standards) with my mage where very few people topped 800-900 DPS, despite being geared predominantly in purples (1-3 blues left, no greens). In those PUGs I sit on top of the damage and DPS meters, being able to maintain 900-1200 DPS over the course of a raid, depending on how many AOE fights there are.

Then yesterday afternoon, a well-known raiding guild on my server headed into Tempest Keep - The Eye, and I just happened to be in the city when the Guildmaster and Raid Leader did a call-out for 2 DPS to fill their raid. I had a few hours I could burn, so I whispered in response, and got an invite.

Going To TK As A Guild Outsider

The raid was mostly formed, and when I joined their Vent server (which worked with my Mac, oh joy), most people were already in vent.

I hearthed to Netherstorm and made my way to the stone, and then announced to the raid chat that I was going to disconnect for a moment to check addons.

While I was reloading the game, I offered my Magely services on the vent line - saying that even though there were 3 other Mages in the raid, if they wanted to give me a buffing or sheeping assignment I was all for it, just let me know.

Just as I finished checking over my Addons and was about to re-login, someone asked on Vent whether anyone had an offline timer on my character. I spoke up to let them know I was still there (as did the raid leader), but it did make me smile to know that they pay attention and take action on people who d/c from a raid. It’s a pain in the ass to everyone else to have teammates missing, so I appreciate the sentiment even though it was aimed at me.

When I got back online, about half of the raid was already in TK. Nobody was yelling out for summons (another plus), and only one had to be summoned once we were in the instance, save for a few toon swap-outs for the different boss fights we faced. Swap-outs were done efficiently and quickly.

Vent was mostly quiet, and the voices that spoke on it were calm and relaxed.

And It Begins…

Marks went up, assignments went out. Four Mages, so I was the only one not assigned a Polymorph marker. Fine with me since it’s been a while since I was in TK, and the guild I was in with before only downed Loot Reaver (before it was broken and then fixed) and Solarian a couple of times when I was there. (I’m sure they’ve progressed now, but I left back in May).

And as it turns out, I needed all the time to concentrate on DPSing that I had available, just in order to try to keep up a LITTLE bit and not look like some “noob” off the street they picked up and dusted off!

With my 900-1200 DPS output in various fights, I was generally hovering around 7-9 position on the charts. (to note, I was in position 2-3 of the 4 Mages) Seventh to Ninth position!! There were all sorts of people cranking out more damage than I was in that raid, and I was really impressed and inspired by the whole thing.

By The End…

By the end of the raid, we had downed Al’ar, Void Reaver, and Solarian, but didn’t go after Kael because the tanks didn’t have the proper resist sets, and we didn’t have a proper fire-spec’d Warlock. (this is where I nod my head and say “okay”, because I don’t know the fight specs at all)

But the raid had gone so well and nobody had to leave halfway through, nobody AFK’d during it, and everyone was still there, so we went and downed Doom Lord Kazzak in Hellfire Peninsula, and Doomwalker in Shadowmoon Valley!!

Both went down with very little problems, and it’s neat to note that you get 2 heroics badges from each of those world bosses (plus a few gear drops).

Wow, that was a lot of fun (to do once in a while)! Maybe I’ll watch again another afternoon to see if they need DPS or a healer to fill out raid ranks. But in the mean time, I’ve got some more gems to upgrade! :)

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Morogrim Tidewalker in Serpentshrine Cavern, Raid Video

WoWGrrl — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:24:56 +0000

Shot from the perspective of a Frost Mage, this is a video about one of the many fun bosses in Serpentshrine Cavern, designed for a 25-person raid team.

Morogrim Tidewalker is a giant like those found off the shore of Ferelas, patrolling the sea. He’s got murlocs at his command, and it’s time for him, and them, to die!

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Chess Event, Karazhan, video how-to and tips

WoWGrrl — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:45:53 +0000

The Chess Event in Karazhan is one of the easiest “fights” in the game. Certainly, it takes no mana, no health, no tanking, no healing, and no watching of threat.

The object of the game is to take down Medivh’s King, before he takes down ours.

Here’s a video from a recent PUG I was invited into, with tips and tricks in case you’re new to the fight or haven’t seen it yourself.

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How To Become Champion Of The Naaru

WoWGrrl — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:08:02 +0000

Champion of the Naaru is a special title that is given to players who have completed a couple of Quest chains to result in attunement for The Eye in Tempest Keep and for Serpentshrine Cavern in Coilfang Reservior.

The actual NEED for attunement to enter these 25-man instances was lifted as of Patch 2.1.2 which was quite a while ago, but as of Patch 2.3.0, the title was introduced as a way to allow people to discern themselves from others who had not completed the quest chains.

So, basically, right now it’s just a social marker - something to label you as someone who did something specific, whether or not you did it BEFORE attunements were lifted or not.

I started this quest chain when I was in my brief stint in a raiding guild, but by the time I left, I still needed to finish three more quests to complete it all - two heroics, then downing Magtheridon.

I didn’t put any real efforts towards getting the right heroics done until I heard someone mention that the Champion of the Naaru title won’t be available once WoTLK releases, in order to prevent players from getting the title on EZ-mode with the new Northrend gear and levels.

What? Something That Won’t Be Available Later??

Okay, fine, I figured… I’ll get it on my Mage, since he’s already very close to achieving it.

Starting The Quest Chains

In order to get the title, a player has to complete the attunement chain quests for Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye in Tempest Keep.

The SSC quest you can pick up at any time by heading into the Heroic version of Slave Pens and progressing partway through it towards the first boss. Once you’ve got the quest, you need to venture into Karazhan for Nightbane, and Gruul’s Lair for Gruul himself to pick up the items, and then return to Heroic Slave Pens to turn it in.

The TK quest chain, however, requires a pre-requisite quest chain to be completed: The Hand of Gul’dan in Shadowmoon Valley. This quest chain is the longest part of the process, and has a few group quests (Cipher of Damnation) that one level 70 will not be able to solo, so round up your buddies or listen in on the General line in SMV to get in on parties forming for it when you hit them.

For the Shadowmoon Valley quest chain, there’s two of those types just about back-to-back (one solo in between) to make it easier to find a group for the second - turn in and stay with the group you’re with after you complete The Cipher of Damnation - Borak’s Charge so you can work together to complete the final step of [70 G5] The Cipher of Damnation.

Once You’ve Got It, How To Show It!

I got mine after turning in the Trial of the Naaru final step of killing Magtheridon. I had already long killed Nightbane and Gruul and finished that series.

The process of showing your new title is easy - open up your Character Sheet and select the new title from the drop-down:

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