A Post before I completely disappear

So I'm moving, which means I'm going to be gone for a bit. I haven't had time to post on here, which sucks for you, sorry. I have had a lot things I would have liked post about and while I have time I'll go for it. I don't sense this post being popular with most people I know, not that I do many that are.

Arena/pvp balance talk has died down a lot in Heroes Inc since 3.1 came out. The system as a whole is much better. In fact, there used to be a lot of complaining about arenas on the guild forums and that has disappeared. Is everything fixed, if you run melee/healer in 2's it is. Everyone who runs arenas seriously in Heroes inc runs a healer melee team and have pretty good ratings.

There is one exception to this, Bluetide and I have run moonkin/elemental in arenas. Two fail pvp specs on 2's team is fail. Anyone who knows how to play their melee healer comp will beat us. While locks and hunters are the worst 2's classes they wreck us, double melee (who isn't awful) is instant death as well.

So after getting just under 1400 we dropped to 1280 or so and went to the ptr search for a comp doesn't suck. We'll probably go resto druid/warrior, ret or dk is also a possibility. This is the way of arenas in wow. Comp is still king, I honestly think they could fix this.

Right now dps casters are trash 1 vs 1 against melee. In general melee classes have more ways of slowing, silencing, stunning and killing casters than caster have of getting away. Melee are designed to kill healers and healers are balanced to survive melee and dps casters are designed to be 3 shot by ret pallies.

I really don't think it's that complicated, all dps casters need an instant cast root or stun. All melee have some sort of interrupt or silence. Melee has more gap closers and slows than casters have to get away, combine that the burst most melee can do with no cast time. Melee need tools to get to ranged and ranged need tools to get away. You know, make it so skill is the difference. I can kill any melee who is terrible (except ret pally, they can auto attack me to death), but any dk, rogue, or warrior who knows how to play will plow me and pretty much any other dps caster.

Enough QQ, I'll just spec resto and Blue will roll melee and we will get a much better rating as long we our have faces ready to roll.

I'm am in no way attempting to diminish what anyone has done in arenas (expect ret pallies) nor am I saying that we would take a melee/healer comp and yawn our way to 1850 or 2000. What I'm saying is we could sleep walk our way to higher ratings than we have now with healer/melee. Also, I know that enhance is terrible and feral isn't great either, I also know that frost mages are not trash against melee (just healers).

Out with the old in with the new

3.1 is here and the reign of terror that was 3.0 to 3.0.9 has ended. Patch 3.1 is the way it should have been the day the expansion came out. So I thought I'd give old 3.0 a good beating before I move on.

Pvp was a huge failure. Arenas were geared for hardcore players so most everyone else abandoned them. With folks running around in welfare naxx epics bgs were painful and there wasn't much to gain by doing them. Class imbalance was crappy as ever.

Pve gets a C+ to B-. Making all content available to ten man groups was brilliant, excecution was not. Ten man content gave worse gear and tended to be more challenging. Not that the content was challenging outside Sarth +drakes. Sarth +3 drakes ten man was the hardest encounter in the game and really wasn't doable without 25 man gear. 25 man content was extremely easy (for the most part). Most could be pugged by with pretty much anyone with a pulse.

Other stuff, achievements are pretty sweet. Quests in Northrend were pretty good and the art is well done. One can't help but wonder if they had spent the time they did making the dk class and their starting area (which was really well done) fixing classes already in the game that needed work how much better the game would be class balance wise. 3.0 was not ready and if they weren't busy making an extremely overpowered class it would have been a lot better.

Onto the good news. Dual specs are wonderful, the ability to switch specs without finding a trainer, redoing glyphs and your bars is awesome. Click of a button (yes I click my activate these talents button, I'm sure you hardcore players have it keybound) I'm resto or balance. My only complaint is your mana goes to zero when you do, stupid. What do rogues have there energy drained to zero? Dks lose their runic power or maybe warriors losing rage? Yeah, that's the same.

Battlegrounds are less bursty, though I would assume not being balance making a difference. If I'm going to pvp it has to be as resto, you know why. Bgs have been pretty fun, I can tank a couple of people, though one person who is good with their stuns/silences can get me. I'll do arenas to get the rating for some gear, how much I do depends on how much I like it. I used to do bgs to get gear for arenas now I'll be doing arenas for better gear for bgs.

Ulduar is hard. If your guild was hiding bad players in Naxx good luck to you. 3.0 was the time of the crappy 25 man guild clearing content, it's over. We have downed Flame Leviethan and Razorscale, I'm thinking we have a good shot at clearing the rest of first wing on Monday. With all the hard modes this place will keep us busy for a long time. My only complaint is most of the caster gear is geared towards healers, though most casters aren't healers. Oh well, at least casual pvp is back, that's all.

What to do?

Blizzard has no intention of fixing balance druids for pvp. While every spec was supposed to be viable it's clear that balance is one of the specs that isn't included. So what should I do? Resto and feral are better, but not by much and I just don't have a desire to use either spec in pvp. I have a rogue but I just haven't enjoyed it, though it may be worth revisting after the patch.

As far as my non 80's I have a 73 hunter, 58 dk, and 35 shaman. The hunter has never really interested me in pvp, but they have performed well. I have no doubt that dks will plenty viable despite the nerfs they are getting. I'd like to try resto shaman, but 45 levels is too steep for me. Maybe I could get Ferth to send me some cash to level it so I can pop heroism and drop some totems for his raid group. I could just not do any arenas and only pvp once a week with the guild with my druid or rogue.

Anyway, most of you guys know me pretty well, I'm fairly lazy with bgs and leveling and I'm very good looking. What do you think I should do?

It's April Fools Day

So expect to see talk of moonkin pvp buffs from Ghostcrawler. No doubt the only day of the year it'll be brought up.

I hit the wall and fell on my head

For me Burning Crusade was a huge learning experience. One thing I learned is I should avoid things that frustrate me. So for Wrath I have made some changes and have been pretty successful. However in there is something I haven't been able to get away from. It is called loot luck, mine is really bad. Yes, I have hit the loot/dps wall. In the world of ten mans things are okay. I have one thing left I need, it has a 40% drop rate and I haven't seen it drop since no one else needed it.

My 25 man luck has been awful, I have looted 73 valor emblems and for all those boss kills I have added 2 pieces of gear to my raid set. Both pieces were picked up in pugs. Too bad for me we don't use dkp in heroes (not suggesting it) I have been on every 25 man run and have grabbed one piece I only use for heroics and a healing belt.

So what? Who cares if I'm getting loot? Well as my dps has plateaued and we are trying to Sarth +3 drakes and what we are currently missing from my vantage point is dps. What can I do to increase my dps? Pray for my tier 7 helm and run 25 man content and hope I get gear. Pugging 25 man content just isn't enjoyable, my only motivation is gear and I don't get it.

I now only raid Monday or Tuesday so that means I have to choose between Sarth 3d and finishing Naxx and Sarth 25 man next week. I'm not convinced we (I) have the gear for sarth 3d, if I was then I wouldn't make this post. We would down it this week if we were, or get pretty close. While Sarth 3d is a complicated fight, it isn't for me. My job is to dps, avoid fire walls and blue circles. I have that down, I don't need more practice, I need more dps. I'm also pretty sure it is a waste of time to try it without my group buffs, so if I don't go they are doomed to fail in my opinion.

For our 25 mans we do a two epic per run, one tier piece/weapon and one other piece. In our run earlier this week I got nothing and those who would compete with me on leather spell gear did. This means nothing for the next run though, I have a worse chance of getting gear for our next run as there will be fewer bosses downed. So in all likelyhood I will once again come away with nothing but emblems I don't want.

The ultimate goal for me is the Glory of the Raider achievement. So do I sign up for Sarth 3d and hope I'm wrong about our gear level or do our guild heroic naxx /sarth run and hope to improve my gear and my dps for our try next week? If I could do both I would, even if I knew I would get no loot and we weren't going to get three drakes down, but I can't. I have no idea what I should do, other than buy a rabbits foot, find a four leaf clover or capture a leprechaun. Maybe then luck would be on my side. That's all.

Happy Thoughts

I don't have time to blog much anymore so when I do I'm highly motivated to do so. That motivation is generally anger or one of it's friends rage or disgust. Not today, today I post about happy things.

Raiding with my guild in 10 or 25 man form is pretty great, I've kinda of soured on 25 man pugs, I think already said why. Heroes Inc is a great bunch of people to hang out with and kill things with. Mood is always good, no one gets bent out of shape or is 12 years old. Sometimes we take a talking break when the Undying get ruined, but we're getting used to it. If I had time I would have posted about our victory over Sarth +2 drakes and how great I was. All I remember now is heroism is good.

I like my druid, things aren't perfect. Things really couldn't be worse as far as pvp goes, but I don't pvp so I'm fine. Dual specs will be sweet, tried it out on the ptr and I love it. Soon I can heal heroics wthout it costing me 100 gold.

I have figured out how to get my graphics card to function properly so I can run at max settings and quest where ever I please. Rather than using minimum settings and having my graphics card overheat. Just have Zul Drak and Ice Crown left for questing. Questhelper + swift flight form = win.

I quit pvp, that makes me happy. I have tried and tried to enjoy pvp, giving up was the answer. Why I didn't figure this out earlier I don't know. That's all.

My Favorite post ever

It's been about a year since I made this post, I still love it. This was inspired by the sadness of viewing the armory and wws from my guild. Back when I made this post we were doing 25 man bc content and no one read this (for the most part). This meant I could say I wanted, though I did throw a paragraph in at the end in case people did read it. I didn't add it here because well, those folks are gone and seemed to have figured out how to gear anyway. The info is out of date of course, but this still a winner in my book.

How to gear up like a noob

So many people make guides on how to gear up to get the max out of your toon, few give you the secrets on how waste materials and enchant most all of your gear with little or no benefit to your dps or what not. This guide will focus on dps gearing. I don't know quite how to noob it up as a healer or tank, I don't quite have the skill for that. This won't focus on specific gear but stats your looking to grab that won't really increase your dps. You can't really control the gear you have as far as drops go, so that doesn't count. We will avoid the obvious, such a priest getting strength enchants, you not going to fool any noob into thinking you know what your doing. The goal is make your gear look like it is done right to another noob.

Caster dps first, spell hit is the most important dps caster raid stat, so avoid it. Non-noobs (I think I invented a word) will eventually get +16% needed to cap to be capped. I think the number around 210 or so if you have no talents that increase your chance to hit with spells or lower spell resistance by a certain percent. Elemental shaman don't count here, their talents give them 12% meaning it's near impossible not to be hit capped, so if your an elemental shaman either avoid those talents or load up on spell hit.

Socketing, now a non-noob would have every socket with +8 spell hit gems, unless your missing a really nice bonus by doing so, until capped. They would then replace the gems as their gear improves. There are lots of options for noobs though. Blue slots +9 stamina, +12 if you're rich, there is also the +spell crit and spell penetration gem (it sucks and is cheap). Red slots you need to +9 spell damage here, noobs and non-noobs alike will do this. Yellow, the spot made for a +8 spell hit, you can go with +8 spell crit or int, the spell damage/spell crit is the most popular. Another important thing is to stack stats that don't benefit your class/spec that much. Shadow priests and non destro locks stacking spell crit is a good example. Nothing says noob like socketing a +5 spell damage +4 spell crit gem on a affliction lock. A non-noob playing these classes once they are hit capped would go pure spell damage (maybe spell haste as well, I haven't researched these classes enough), though noobs will generally be stacking crit where hit would go.

Enchants, here is another chance to increase your dps and fail. One method is to put a + stamina armor kit on every spot you can, increasing your dps by exactly zero. Shoulders, helm and legs are good slots for this as there are really nice enchants for those spots and that's not what were are looking for here. As far as weapons go, there are a lot of possibilities some noobs do enchant there weapon with +40 spell damage, which is what non-noobs tend to do as well. If you want to set yourself apart grab the +30 int enchant instead, or go the lazy way and get nothing on there. You should always have at least one piece of gear unenchanted, not your cloak though. Spell penetration lowers targets resists, only one raid boss has such resists if I recall (don't remember which one). So the +20 spell penetration is a must for noobs, non-noobs get the +2% threat reduction, poor non-noobs (me) get nothing.

Melee dps, well once again +hit is the top stat (for most) for melee classes. A non-noob class guide will let you know the amount of + hit you want. Rogues for instance the cap is around 340 or so. As far gems go, until capped every slot should have +8 hit gems in them, other than the 2 blues you'll need if you have meta gem the requires them. Also if a red gem bonus gives you +hit then take that as well. That's not the noob way of doing things though. They key is to socket crit (once again). +12 ap gems are pretty noob too. If your a rogue and really want to noob it up while raiding go subetly with daggers, your dps will be horrible, you'll suck in pvp too. Enough about rouges the key is too be well under the recommened +hit for your class and know what stats are best for your class and not get them. Don't socket strength if your a warrior or enhance shaman for instance.

Enchants, same as casters go for stamina kits wherever you can. Hunter's have a lot of options for their melee weapon, fiery weapon enchant is a great one, cheap and useless. Everyone else should get nothing, or a pre bc enchant. Most melee are going to have weapons from pvp or arenas. Make sure to get the weapons that are the wrong speed for you class. Rogues grab the slow off hand, fury warriors and enhance shaman fast off hand. Daggers are a must for rogues, they are gimped compared to swords or fists and noobs don't know that, so they are the natural choice.

A few last pointers, putting resilience gems in pve gear is great noob idea (unless the gear will never see a raid, then just an average noob idea). A few other noob ideas that aren't gear related, don't research your class to find out the best spell/attack rotation, noobs make up there own and the dps meters prove it. Also don't attack from behind as melee, nothing like getting your tank crushed because your attack got parried. Also run damage meters but don't extend your range to 200 yards, keep it at 30. You will rule your own dps charts and can link them to friends, of course the raid leader will have you 10th in dps.