Down goes the monstrosity!

Raids-

Background: I joined a guild that was 2/12 back on Feb. 23rd. I took a shot at them over a few others because it just felt right. I think I picked a winner! This guild raids two times a week for a total of 8 hours in that week. We have progressed 1 new boss a week as long as we have had the people to raid. I'm pretty happy overall after my start to Cata to land with the great group of people I have.

This week started ok, fell off quickly at the end of the 1st night and when I logged on last night I didn't know what I was going to log into. We had a few that were under preforming and just not doing what they needed to for the rest of us. Yes, as a raider you owe good play and solid performance to the 9 or 24 others!

We head to BoT, 1shot Halfus, 3shot the Dragons, and pulled our way to the Elementium Monstrosity, we had 3 new people there. The RL explained the fight and our tactic we were going to use, ready check and Pull.

Our 1st pull went really smooth, we got to the Monstrosity! I made a huge error in tanking him, Tank spot needs to update, they show you do a little circle and the boss follows, I can tell you that the boss DOES NOT follow you any more, he stands there like a dumb ass and casts shit. Pally and range tank is not a sentence you hear much. I cut the raid off from DPS'n and we lost. Got it to 5% or so. The next pull or two were RNG luck with the buff/debuff placement and didn't get to P3.

We finally got P1and P2 smooth and P3 started with boss at about 28%. I got the boss, and started to kite, this ass hat likes to stand in one place and not move much. I literally had to run 30 yards to get him to follow. The DK tank taunted and we noticed something, the DK did a better job of the "I'm going to stand here and not move while I cast and the DPS overtakes your aggro" thing this boss does. We jumped in tank vent and worked out a plan. Oh, yes, we wiped at 1% or about 480k health left on boss. OMG 1%....really!

Next pull, we did amazing, thngs were going smooth and the Monstrosity came up at about 26%, the DK had a bit of problems moving her but all in all it was going good. I did get a chance to WoG our priest while in the air and added utility where I could. I hate when I don't do my job the right way. It happens from time to time. But we did it we got the council down. A boss that only 13% of the guilds in the world have done. This isn't a heroic clear or a server first but it is a great thing after the way the week started and looked like we were going to have.

After this we went back to BWD and 2 shot Maloriak. Grabbed some gear for some, some shards for enchants and all in all it was a great week. The officers and RL stepped up and worked out our issues we had and we are progressing nicely.

Oh Blizz, could you please please fix the effin loot system. We get the same drops week after week, of the 3 helms that can drop for a tank, two of those bosses are on farm and they haven't dropped them AT ALL in fact we have de'd about half of our drops lately and our main healer (priest) is still sitting about 350 ilvl due to the shitty drop nature!

In other news-

I started work on Byka, my toon from Tanking Adventures. I hit level 81 and I really can't believe this, I went from 42K hp's unbuffed to 58k with 2 pc's of gear and 1 level. That's amazing. Keep in mind she was about 246 ilvl before Cata hit. 

My plans are to level her soon to 85 and see where I can get prior to 4.2 coming out.

I started tanking with my DK. I wanted to go tank for a few reason, I was only planning on going DPS but didn't like it. So tanking is my thing I figured I'd just tank with her. I got her to ilvl 345, which isn't bad, she's squishy and takes tons of damage but its another tank for the guild and fun all in all.

Scam alert!

Please read this, I know most forum readers and blog readers are a step a head of the average wow player, the normal guy who just wants to log on and do dailies...etc.

I came across this the other day, I was tired and wasn't paying attention like I should, I clicked on the link and had an odd feeling hit me...it was the old armory page. It immediately asked for a user name and password. Yes I know, most will say if you provide this you are an idiot...most will say, I would never do that but all it takes is one person, tired or drunk or on pain meds to do this and your account is hacked.

No I didn't get hacked nor did I give info but I just did a wow armory search and it pop'd up again. I don't want this to happen to anyone.

After I post this, I'm reporting this to Blizz, I suggest you all do the same. Here is the front page of the SCAM site...

PLEASE DO NOT CLICK ON THIS LINK and PROVIDE any info.....I AM ADVISING YOU ALL TO STAY AWAY FROM THE BELOW SITE

http://us.wowermory.org/us/      <------DO NOT CLICK OR GIVE INFO

EVEN THE SITE ADDRESS IS VERY SIMILAR

Thank you Mr. Robot, I'm fixed.

I have become a blog addict, I like to read them and enjoy seeing what the "smarter" people of WoW have to say. To me its much more entertaining that /2 Trade chat.

Mr. Robot is a pretty neat site I came across while doing a search, its in essence a bot that tells you as you have added gear you have enchanted/reforged/gemmed in the wrong place. Like most humans, we get complacent. We get comfortable and don't change. Sure on our main raiding toon, we are always fixing and adjusting, but on a alt, or say a toon we don't raid on things get sloppy.

I like this 'bot so to speak, not only does it offer suggestions it allows you to see what would change if you made the change.

Here is a simple picture of my hunters set up to what I would gain if I did the suggested fix.

Downfalls-
I did this with Chasey the pally as well and I wasn't happy with the outcome. It removes the human element and common sense approach to tanking. As we all know tanking isn't a science, its experience and minor adjustments. The suggestions for Chasey had me losing 4600 health, and gaining less than 2% avoidance and 1% mastery. It also instructed me to put the 1% block meta in , which without me being block capped doesn't help when I don't block.

In summation-

Above is the gear on my hunter and the suggested changes I could make to increase my AP and just overall enchants. Its simple, easy to use, not mathy and food for thought when trying to max your toon.

I like it for the DOH! Why didn't I think of that, I like it for its simplicity, I like it for its attempt to help those who might just not get it and you can adjust it too. I don't like it because it might not always be correct and if you don't know what you are looking for, could give you the wrong info.

Valor Point revision in 4.1

It is not official yet but here is what is in the works per this post.
I kind of like this change, what are your thoughts?

Nope. In fact, this is exactly what we're doing in 4.1. :)

Right now, you receive 70 VP for the first random Cataclysm Heroic dungeon you complete each day. In 4.1, you'll receive 70 VP for the first seven random Cataclysm Heroic dungeons you complete each week. Similarly, you'll receive 140 VP for the first seven random Rise of the Zandalari Heroic dungeons (the new Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub instances) you complete in the week, too. Collectively, you'll be able to earn up to 980 VP exclusively from Heroic dungeons, which in turn will count towards your weekly 1250 VP cap.

By transitioning random Heroic dungeon rewards from a daily format to a weekly one, we'll be able to give players more control and flexibility over how they can earn VP -- which is cool! -- but this also means that we've a lot more bookkeeping to do in terms of where those points are coming from. To help with that, we're adding a "Valor Point bar" (similar to an XP bar) to the top of Dungeon Finder UI that will track your weekly cap, as well as how many Heroics you can still run for VP during the week.

We're going to be writing up a pretty big blog about that system since it's somewhat complicated, but here's what you can take away right now:

•In 4.1, running random Heroic dungeons for VP is now something you can do on your own schedule. Feel like spending your entire Saturday queuing up as random? No problem!

•The first seven random Rise of the Zandalari Heroics you run for the week will award 140 VP each. This is double the VP that you’ll receive from your first seven random "tier 1" Cataclysm Heroics, since the dungeons are considered a "step up" in difficulty.

•You'll be able to randomly queue for the Rise of the Zandalari Heroics separately from the tier 1 Cataclysm Heroic dungeons.

•Each week you can earn up to 980 VP just by running random Heroic dungeons. If you want to maximize your VP gains, you can still reach the overall weekly cap of 1250 by defeating raid level content.

This isn't yet on the PTR for testing. We'll let you know when it is, though, and will continue to provide more information as the development of 4.1 progresses.

03/14/2011 11:00 AMPosted by Xmc


Some people don't have time to log in every day, but have, for instance, a lot of time on the weekend to play.


We hear you, and we agree that asking players log in every day (or night) just to keep pace with their VP is a bit unreasonable and can sometimes lead to World of Warcraft feeling less like a game and more like a job. That's ultimately why we're making these changes. We want you to log in because you enjoy raiding, or questing, or -- in this case -- running dungeons, not because you feel like you need to complete a specific chore every day in order to stay viable/competitive.

A learning moment in my wow life....

There are special times in game you will never forget, there are times you want to put past you, then there is that special, most unforgettable thing that makes you wonder about even IRL. This moment for me was an awakening, a teachable moment or any other metaphor you want to use and the bad thing was it went on for the 1st year I had my tank or longer.

My 1st toon was a hunter, I did my share of durp moments with my hunter, like not knowing how to distract a pat, or thinking that hitting your target w/serpent sting prior to the trap placement would allow that target to come out of the trap with less health. Yes I did that, so what. My Worst moment ever on my hunter was face pulling Attunmen, Morose and the Curator in one night. Some were pet pulls, others misclicking a target. It made me a better player in the long run.

I was pugging Kara, I was the "MT" due to my gear, I had, T4, T5 and badge gear, it wasn't bad really. It wasn't Sunwell gear but for the most part, I was one of the better geared tanks on my server. I took pride in being a decent tank and tried to listen to others on what I could do to improve. We pulled thru the hallway where the Maiden was, it was a tough hall on pugs, lots to do in there. I was looking at my numbers and the other tank, a pally as well, was beating me out on damage done and DPS. It was odd I was almost 300sp ahead of him, yes I said spell power as tank, we had to have it. We discussed it and I couldn't figure it out, but we downed bosses and well, it didn't matter.

On too Wrath, even as the newer tank in my guild, the other tanks asked me questions becuase I took pride in knowing what was going on. I always read maintankadin.com and had a pretty good rapport with some of the more progressed tanks on my server. I like to know what was going on, I didn't want to be a typical Wrath tank.

I was the best geared tank in my guild, and of my friends I typically ran with my gear was usually better. Every one of them had me in total damage done and DPS in general. I looked at logs and seen I was running a pretty tight rotation (969 etc) and in general my spells were hitting hard or harder than others I ran with, all excpt for one...

I respeced ret and ran for 1 week with every pally I could and seen something that was killing me. They all had the same number of ticks of concentrate but it hit for much harder. Why and the hell was this kind of thing going on? What was I doing wrong? I even signed up and post about this in my new home away from home maintankadin.com.  <---That thread was the kind of frustration I was feeling. I couldn't figure out why.

Due to this, I changed the way I played, I key bound my abilities, put a bar mod into place and a few other things and OMG I FOUND WHAT the issue was.....I was using Rank 1 concentrate. Yes I said that, all that time all those instances, everything was due to me having a wrong spell on my bar.

I have racked my brain as to how this happened, and this is probably how it went down...When I was leveling, I used conc but it was a mana killer, back as I leveled, rank 1 was less mana. As wrath hit, I adjusted my bars accordingly and never even thought to look at what rank I was using. Ok, so this could probably happen to anyone, but all in all, it might be the best thing I've ever had happen to me.

Due to this blunder, I fixed many bad habits, went to add on's and improved my reaction time and how quickly I did things. All in all this error made me a better player and again taught me you can always learn and adjust.

Finding that guild, a guide for proper placement in the World of Warcraft.

Been there done that, my experiences with finding a guild that you fit.

Now, the World of Warcraft isn't like the real world. There are tons of guilds out there and many of them recruit all the time. Many of them ask for only what they need. Some never recruit yet always have the members they need. Guild are a hodge podge of people and NEVER ever is a guild drama free. Due to the anonymity of the Internet, roots don't take shape in a guild really fast. It takes time to get comfortable so patience and some good investigation will help.

Here are some tips I've come up with to help ease the pain of finding a guild.

-Know what you want! This means if you want to tank, shoot for that spot in a raid. Ask the questions of the guild you are looking at that you need to know before you make a move, any move. A few questions I needed to know; Is this a core spot? How much will I OS? What does the raid roster look like?

-Talk to the person you need to! This might be hard and take a day or two but speak with the (ranged or tank or whatever) person who you will be reporting too. They tend to have the best info and are more than likely to give you the feel of the position you are looking for.

- ASK for a vent interview! - this really in my mind has been the biggest thing I've found success with. You find out so much more about the officer/officers, the cohesion of the guilds mood and if you are going to like being around the people you are talking with. If they don't have time for a vent interview, my guess is they won't have much time when a problem arises or that they are looking to fill a spot and not find a person.

-Be ready to apply - Guilds love this. Let them know you have been to their site and would like to ask them a few questions before you start the application process. Why? They took time to put this application and web site out there. They also want to see if you can follow rules and can put a sentence together.

-Hit up the WoW forums first and hang in chat for a bit - Check out the recruitment forum post, have they trolled? are they being trolled in their thread? How about trade, is the realm troll in this guild? Are they know as a trade chat type guild? Is this something you want from a guild? This lends itself to the perception of the guild. Do people really not like them?  Sure some people troll to troll but if its a recurring theme, it might be the guild. If these aren't a bad thing for you....roll with the guild.

- How long have the been looking for your spot? Well....why? Have the blown thru 7 tanks and are they still looking? Are they bringing on 3 plus you and picking the best? Is that something you want to do?

Finally a few tips-
- All guilds ask the same question on their application. Shorten this process by putting the following down on a notepad, or other method to copy and paste.

• Your raiding experience 
• How long you have been playing
• What your spec is and why
• What former guilds you been in and why you left

This is not the only questions they ask but 95% of the applications I've put in have had these question on the app.

Now for the rest of the application, does it give the precption they are professional about raiding or jackasses? Do they want to know you or your toon?What is your computer/Internet like? are you a clicker or binder?
Be honest in your answers and be prepared to defend you views. If they don't like what you've said, is that the place you want to be?

I'll give you an example of a conversation of why I chose not to continue my time app'n for a guild. I talked to the tanking officer. He didn't like my reforging choices no my trinkets. He made it clear they were not with the changes that Cata offered to pally tanks. He asked why I was reforging away from hit and exp? Why my trinket wasn't a stam trinket and why my hit was so low.

The conversation never got better. I tried to explain my choices but he seemed to be either having a bad day or we just didn't click. Here was the straw that told me he would accept my choices ever or he was just to controlling and I'd never really be able to do what I wanted with in their raid environment. Why was that important. Tanks tend to be Class A personalities but he wanted to rule the roost and it was apparent.

Case in point: Sandguard Bracers are a  decent bracer. They have a tad of threat and a tad of avoidance. Pally's want to refore to mastery, and in general use the threat stat to get that. Well if you look at how they are itemized, reforging dodge, nets you more mastery than EXP. When I explained this to him he told me I was thinking wrong and probably would need to run some heroics before I cracked the raid line up. He said I didn't have enough knowledge to be in his guild. His guild was 6/12! I was 3/12 at that point. I hadn't raided since December and this was the 1st week in Feb. He had in his mind what I should reforge and didn't want to listen to anything but what he figured was correct. I didn't really want to waste any more or my time or his.