Heroics: Take Two

After the initial hatred caused by the annoygin difficulty of pugging Heroics, I took a little time away from instances. I worked on my dailies, gaining rep and a bit on my professions. I got my engineering to 525 on Darraxus and got my Druid Rootmender to 81.

I have also been making gobs of gold off of glyphs. Buy herbs cheap, make glyphs and profit.

Then I decided to give Heroics another shot. And they went better overall. They weren't perfect, but they were tolerable at the least.

So far I have gone to two different Heroics. The first was Heroic SFK. We only downed the first boss, which doesnt sound great, but it was the only one we atempted before I had to leave for RL obligations.

The first boss in SFK is apparently the most difficult of the bosses in there. He casts a lot of spells which need to be interrupted. It takes a lot of awareness to get it down properly. He takes everyone down to 1 percent health and casts a heal spell. It heals everyone in the party and him. You have to let it heal you a bit, but you also have to make sure he doesnt get healed all the way up to full. Everything he casts is interruptable. We wiped probably 5-6 times before we got him down. We ended up with me interruptin his pain and suffering spell and a Shaman in the party interrupting everything else. Thanks to good awareness on the attempt we took him down, I was able to interrupt his self heal before it went off when I realized that the Shaman had used his interrupt about 1 second before the cast came.

The other instance I did was the Throne of Tides. The first boss was an incredible pain at first. I think it took us about 8 tries to get her down. On about 6 of the tries, the DK in part got killed in a geyser. The other problems came when one of the caster adds wasnt CCed and used chain lighting to kick our face in. There were also a couple of slow interrupts on the shockwave spell she casts that does a crapload of damage.

Once we got everything in place, it went pretty well. Stay out of stuff, control the adds, profit.

The second boss took us two tries and was quite easy. Kite him around the room. Pew pew and stay out of the bad. Profit.

The Third boss took two tries, but we would have gotten it in one had we gotten out of the first phase on the first attempt. The first phase is massive amounts of damage coming fast and furious. You want to interrupt his lava burst as often as possible. Once he is rescued from the brain controller guy, it is easy from there. When he posseses another player, take the player down to 50 percent health. Then beat on the brain dude some more.

The last boss, I ended up leaving after about 6 attempts. It wasnt incredibly complicated. DPS burn caster and Murlocks adds in phase one while I kite big dude. DPS burn channelers in phase two while I kite the big dudes.

We only got to the final phase once, and certainly would have beaten the encounter if not for one thing. Nobody could figure out to look up and target the Giant Squid dude. Two attempts after that, I had to go.

The unfortunate thing is that these instances are going to take you a couple of hours it seems unless everything goes perfectly.

The good thing is that they are completely doable if people pay attention and are patient. I ran with the same group for the entire instance despite all of the wipes. That was not even counting the couple of wipes that we had on trash.

Overall, they are still quite hard, but they are doable. They are also fun in a challenging kind of way. Unfortunately, that fun starts to wane after about 2-3 hours in the same instance.

Welcome Back!

One of my best friends is bag in the blogosphere. Go give him a shout!


http://occeletaisback.blogspot.com

Happy Hollidays!

Best wishes to all of you bloggers and blog readers out there. May you get something you want.

I love the smell of expansion money in the morning

New Expansion Money

There is always money to be made in a new expansion. Especially right at the beginning when you have people power leveling their professions. You can make thousands and thousands of gold off of gathered materials.

Usually this dies down a bit. Then it seems like prices tank. Remember that the market goes in cycles. It is up and down all of the time.

Ore goes up, Ore goes down. Same with herbs and other materials.

One thing I have noticed is that superior quality gems seem to be very cheap at the moment. This probably has something to do with the sheer number of Jewelcrafters leveling their profession. My guess is that the market will go back up when all of the AH dumping JCers are maxed.

You get tons of people leveling a profession with the idea of getting it to the max level for whatever goodies it brings. There are many less that are actually in it for the money. Once the market clears out a bit, you will find the true worth of items.

I am still going to ole reliable. Inscription. I have often times found very cheap herbs on the AH. I turn these into glyphs and make a very tidy profit. Everyone was saying that this expansion would kill inscription because of the added slots. Not true at all. I have been making as much gold as I ever did outside of my days of posting 1000 plus glyphs. I usually have no more than 200 up at a time and make several thousand a day.

Making money off of professions is not for everyone. A lot of people just do it for a little bit of extra cash. For some it is a WoW lifestyle.

Speaking of Jewelcrafting, I made some nice gold off of a few blue items I made randomly. I sold two rings for around 600 gold each.

Cool the Engines

Sometimes, you just need to cool down. That has been the case with me recently when it comes to running Heroics in Cataclysm. I had to take a step away from them so that I would still enjoy playing the game.

The good thing is that this is a fresh expansion and there was plenty of stuff to do. I have been doing a variety of things that have helped me cool off a bit and will give me the motivation to try Heroics again soon.

First thing is Archaeology. So far I have gotten a bunch of crap, but I know that there are treasures out there. One of my friends has already completed five rare ones including a fossil raptor mount and non combat pet. Something that makes a bunch of dwarf chicks with swords dance. A Mechanognome pet and something that makes a shade of himself. It is pretty easy and a nice way to kill some time while you chat on vent with your buddies.

Second thing I have been working on is my professions a bit. I have been doing some work on my Insciption and Jewelcrafting while gathering other materials for my Engineering.

The third thing has been rep grinding. I have been doing Therazane and Wildhammer Dailies to go along with a few regular instances for additional rep and gear. Dailies are quick and easy and make a decent distraction.

The last thing I have been doing is what I have always done. Build a giant pile of gold. I have been selling all kinds of miscellaneous things I have crafted as well as some of the archaeology pieces. I have also been keeping up with my Glyph Making. They are selling at very good prices on my server and I pull in 1.5-3k a day with very minimal work.

Sometimes you just need to see the other things that are enjoyable to you. I will be ready for Heroics again.....soon.

Tank Club

Cataclysm has changed tanking a bit. Face roll is no longer allowed. You can still AOE tank just fine, but the amount of damage you take is nearly unmanageable. You need to be well prepared and use the tools that you have available. And yes, DPS are tools....in more ways than one :P

Rule number one of Tank Club: Mark your targets. Marking your targets is amazingly easy. I bound the symbols to my number keys for quick marking. It also makes it easy to mark on the fly. Make sure that your DPS knows what each mark means. Skull is first kill, X is second, Sheep the moon, Sap the Star etc. etc. If the DPS knows what the marks are there for, they are a lot less likely to CC something that you don't want CCed.

Rule number two of Tank Club: Take advantage of the CC that you have available. Ask the DPS to use it. If they refuse, then just boot them. If they are not willing to help you be successful, they don't need to be there. The best forms of CC are the ones that last. One of my favorites is Mind Control. You can have a Priest Mind control a mob and have it work on killing another mob. This is essentially a double CC method.

Rule number three of Tank Club: Don't break the CC. The CC is important. It makes it easier for everyone involved. Don't break it unless you mean to. Be careful with your AOE. Make sure to pull the other mobs back so that you are not in danger of breaking the CC before the duration is up or you are ready for it.

Rule number 4 of Tank Club: You have cooldowns, use them. As a tank, you receive a nice number of defensive cooldowns. I use shield block whenever it is up. I use my shield wall or last stand when it looks like the healer is having some problems. Be proactive with your cooldowns. Shield wall is not a 30 minute cooldown like it was back in the day. Don't be afraid to use it on tough trash pulls. Also for Warrior's spell reflect is a thing of beauty. You take no damage, and your enemy does. Use it every chance you can against caster mobs.

Rule number 5 of Tank Club: Interrupt. This doesn't just go for tanks. This goes for DPS as well. Interrupts are very important and will not cause a substantial loss of DPS. Interrupting can even make the fights go by that much faster. If nobody is interrupting the heals, then it is going to take a long time to finish the fight and there is a greater likelyhood of a wipe. Stuns are nice. When your target is stunned, it does no damage. That could be considered a defensive cooldown in itself.

Rule number 6 of Tank Club: Kill the Caster first. The casters are often times the biggest pains. They don't like to come to you and they easily aggro on your healer if you don't get a good handle on them from the get go. They may be healing or they may be shadow bolting your face off. Either way is not good, especially as armor does not mitigate spell damage. If you are a warrior and specced into gag order, Heroic Throw is perfect for pulling them. Or you could use the next rule......

Rule number 7 of Tank Club: Line of Sight Pull. LOS is nothing new. And it still works. If something can't see you, it can't hit you. This is perfect for getting that casting mob into range if you don't have another way.

Rule number 8 of Tank Club: Watch that PAT. Patrols are dangerous in Cataclysm. One Patrol has the potential to pull several other mobs and be the difference between a wipe and success. Make sure you are pulling back when needed and don't take on too much at one time. If a trash mob is by itself, there is a reason for it. It is gonna hit you hard. Be kind to your healer and pay attention.

Rule number 8 of Tank Club: You DO talk about Tank Club. The best sources of knowledge for tank are other tanks. Maybe a tank has a better way of doing something. Maybe they know a different strategy. There are a lot of things you can learn from other tanks. You just have to be open to it. Every tank has room for improvement. Don't be THAT GUY.

Following these rules and a little help from your friends should make your instance experience a much better one.

Cataclysm and Heroic....Failures

So......Heroics are hard. And by hard, I mean unplayable. They seem to have gone back to the days of needing to get a group you are familiar with to run through it. So far, I have done a bunch of Heroics on Darraxus. And by done, I mean attempted. So far the tally is around 20-30 wipes and 1 boss downed.

Granted, I have been doing randoms. And granted, the DPS has been sucktastic for the most part. Tanking, I have been doing between 7-8k dps per instance. Some fights I have done as high as 14k. Most of the DPS is hovering around Wrath levels at 5-6 k.

It takes forever to try and kill bosses and by halfway through the fight, the healer is out of mana and we all die a slow death. One of the biggest problems is DPS still not paying attention well enough to get out of the bad. On the first boss in one of the Uldum instances, the guy drop a bunch of landmines. These landmines hurt....alot. The DPS could not seem to keep out of it. We would lose 1 or 2 DPS in the first 20 seconds of the fight. The rules for instances have changed. They are hard. Much in the way they were in BC.

DPS is not judged only on their DPS now. They should be judged more on their ability to stay alive and interrupt mobs.

There are tons of ways to CC and tons of ways to interrupt now. People just need to get used to doing it. When there is a pull, DPS should not be doing anything until solid aggro is established. It causes too much trouble with baddies running here there and everywhere smacking DPS and healers.

For the LOVE OF GOD INTERRUPT PLEASE!!!!

Seriously. Just do it. This isnt a Nike add, but you need to interrupt.

Case in point. Got into Throne of Tides. Throne of Tides have healer mobs. Sometimes two in a group. We should have CCed one from the start. Did we? No. Were they being interrupted properly? No!

We spent five minutes on a single pull because I was the only one trying to stop the heals from coming. Every class has some kinds off CC for the most part besides Warriors perhaps.

Shaman - Hex
Mage - Polymorph
Warlock - Succubus or Fear
Paladin - Repentance
Rogue - Sap and Stunlock
Deathknight - Chains of Ice
Druid - Cyclone/ Roots
Hunter - Traps

There are all kinds of viable CC. I think it is just a matter of getting used to it again.

Another problem is the not standing in things. In Wrath heroics, you could stand in things and it did not matter one bit. The healer could heal through it. That is no longer the case. The healer cant heal through anything at this point.

Cataclysm instances are a game of choices it seems. The choices are do your job the right way or suffer a horrible death.

Cake or Death?
I will take the cake please.
Sorry, we are all out of cake.
So that leaves Death?

That leaves Death. For everone who has not learned the importance of CC or interrupting casts.

So please......help out your tanks and healers. Use all of your abilities. We can no longer AOE tank everything without abandon. Give your group a chance and dont be a dunce.

Other than that, Cata has been just peachy. I love the new quests and zones. I like everything so far...except the expansion.

I don't mind increased difficulty. I do mind instances than make me not want to play at all. I know a few people who are very casual WoW players. They enjoy instances, but they aren't super duper hardcore. I fear that if they get into instances the way they currently are, they will be turned off from that aspect of the game.

Maybe I should give it some time, but I think some nerfs may be coming down the pipe.

Can I ride you face? And other mount Shenanigans

There appears to be some kind of bug that was letting me ride on other people mounts even though they were not actually multi person mounts. It made for some fun shenanigans.

Somehow we ended up riding the faces of our friends mounts. When my wife got in my chopper instead of opening the side cart, it just folded her up inside. I was also riding underneath my friends nether rocket (thats what she said).

Real Azeroth Heroes

Darraxus presents: Real Azeroth Heroes

(Real Azeroth Heroes)

Today we salute you Mr. Blame it on the other guy Guy.

(Blaming it on the other guy guy!)

You do what you want when you want

(Im a Shaman and I like to pull things!)

Just like you, I don't care for being wrong.....

(Go ahead and blame that shit on the tank yeah!)

So, pull when you arent supposed to. Do what you want. And when it comes down to it....just blame it on the tank and healer.

(Rofl noob lrn to tank lol!)

So Mr. Blame it on the other guy Guy, have a Bud on me, and keep being that guy. The douche nobody enjoys playing with. It doesnt matter because you arent even on the same server anymore.

(Mr. Blame it on the other guy Guyyyyyyyyyyy!)

Warrior AOE Tanking post 4.0

So, unless you are super duper geared in ilvl 270 gear, you have probably noticed a bit of a drop in AOE threat. It took a bit of getting used to, but I have worked out a nice little rotation that seems to help with my Warrior.

Obviously this is nothing cutting edge and I am not what you would call a Theorycrafter, but I was doing some very decent DPS in Heroics. Obviously there are some new mechanics in effect.

Two of the most notable things to me are

a) Thunderclap sucks ass for AOE threat.
b)Rend is actually useful for once.

My new standard AOE rotation is.

Charge.
Rend. Yes rend.
Thunderclap. Thunderclap will spread rend to all of the other target in range.
Shockwave. Shockwave hit harder after a Tunderclap.
Revenge.
Cleave when able.
Shield Slam when able.

Voila. Now you are AOE tanking like less of a noob.

Growing like a weed

Shades apparently cant swim either.

That is what my Wife's Paladin is doing. She outleveled my Rogue in Outland and is now leveling with my Mage in Northrend. She is now 71 and my mage is 73. She wants to try to gain a level a day and I certainly wouldnt put it past her.

I also spent a little bit of my gold fortune to get Darraxus his 310 riding. I hadnt even known it was available yet.

I have been having a lot of fun running 5 mans again. We have had some entire 5 man groups that were all RL friends. That always makes it better. If someone messes up you dont have some asshat yelling at them.

I expect that my wife will end up outleveling my Mage as well. Leveling machine I tell you.



King Darraxus holds court.

Rofl Screenshots!

Naxxramas Shades tell the funniest jokes!




One of these is not a proper NPC.

The Patch of QQ, Hallows End, and Wifey!

So far, this patch has produced more QQ than any in a while. Everywhere in tradechat wha wha wha they broke my class. Learn to deal with it and move on. My Warrior prot DPS went way down. I can still tank. It is just a little bit harder.

One think I am really enjoying is the new DK frost spec. Wearing complete garbage gear, I pumped out 4300 in DTK. Just retarded. I am going to play the hell out of him until he gets nerfed.

On to Hallows End. This Holliday is fun, but some of the acheivements are so damn long and boring. Doing Trick or Treat at every single place sucks ass. Yet I am going to give it a shot. All of my toons now have the Sinister Squashling. And Darraxus now has the Reigns of the Horseman. Thank god. I got all kinds of mounts on my alts for Brewfest and crap for Darr.

And now about Wifey. My wife is back to playing WoW. She decided to start up a new character and level it herself to better learn the game. She rolled a little Paladin named Beezzie. So far so good. Level 27 and done mostly on her own besides a few higher level quests.

I now have my mage at level 70 after much neglect and my bank Rogue is level 50. I generally only like leveling them when I have rested XP.

Well thats it for now. Until nest time, stay classy Blogdiego.

Patch so Far

I haven't had a ton of time to play, but it has certainly been different.

I made 12k over the first two days selling glyphs. Looking at another 3-5k today. My only regret was not turning all of my inks into glyphs prior to the patch. Now they cost 3 ink each.

I actually ran an instance on my Warrior. While it felt more or less the same, it also felt a bit foreign. One thing I definately noticed is about a 400 dps loss in prot spec.

Once I try out some of the other new things I will write it up.

In the meantime Im going to keep on making that money :)

What have you guys been doing since the patch hit.

Epic Thread Monday

Found this at MMO Champion. Legen.....wait for it....dary.

This is what makes forums worthwhile.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/732188-I-found-Deathwing

The Good Ole Days?

Everyone talks about the good ole days when it comes to WoW. There is often times nostalgia, especially around the end of an expansion. The truth is that it wasnt always the good ole days.

Back in Vanilla and even as fresh 70s in BC, the instances were hard. Like really hard. Scholmance was a several hour run to get to the end. Tanking as a Warrior with no AOE ability wasnt fun either.

Shadow Labrynth in BC was a nightmare. The first time I got through it I think we had 11 wipes and it took us over 4 hours. It was ridiculous. Had to do it though just to get the key fragment to eventually get into Karazhan.

BC and Vanilla would cock block you at every turn. This generally applied to raids during those periods. In my BC guild, we spent about a month at Moroes, and month at Curator, and a month at Shade of Aran.

It wasnt easy. By comparison, people were pug clearing Naxx in no time at all.

The good ole days were fun. But that was mostly because of the company I was in. Hanging out with friends is the bread and butter of this game, and it doesnt change at all.

The only good thing about getting Donkey Punched by instances was the joy of finally completing it.

If 5 mans are going to take 4 hours to do like they did back in the day, I am not going to be very happy. Who has that much time to spend? Who wants to spend it all in a single 5 man instance?

Surely not me.

So wish not for the good ole days. Just hope that your friends are along for the ride and whatever content they throw at you will be alright.

New Patch....back to the 5 man grind?

Now I must admit that 5 man instances are one of my favorite things in the game. Especially when you can grab a friend or 4 and laugh along the way. I admittedly have stopped doing them for the most part.

Why? Because there is no incentive to do them. I enjoy doing some of the older content given that the rewards are basically the same to me.

I think the new patch is going to get people back into the instances. The bosses will be dropping justice points instead of emblems which means that you will be able to use the rewards for level 85 gear. It is a great way to get a head start on Heroics is Cataclysm.

This likely means that I will be running them again which gives me a good excuse to finish the glory of the hero acheivements. I am not that far off currently, but just could not bring myself to do it.

Here comes Darraxus to smash some face.

Eff you Direbrew....right in your A

Yeah. Nothing at all for my Warrior. I got one remote, three of the BOE maces that are now worth nothing, three Kodos and a Ram. My Paladin got a Kodo AND a Ram. My warrior got buttfvcked.

As of late, I have mostly been helping some friends get their mid 70 toons close to 80. I have also been leveling my mage Crispee.

I deleted my level 63 rogue. I saw no need for two rogues and could not bring myself to delete my bank toon who made me a fortune.

My mage is doing as much dps at 66 as some level 80 toons I have seen.

I am looking forward to the next big patch for one big reason. My last big gold scoop. Everyone is going to be buying glyphs and Im gonna be the one supplying it....like a little drug dealing gnome.

Un-Hacked

Thanks to awesomesauce GM Apollythoes, my golds are being restored! Woohoo! And I turned them onto some blogs. Turning bad into good!

Hacked

Some asshole hacked my account and took my gold. WTF!!!!

Going Old School

Still running Direbrew and still dont have shit on my Warrior....but I have both the ram and the kodo on my Paladin. GRRRRRRRRR.

That isnt what is old school. This last weekend I grabbed a small group of friends and we decided to do some good ole fashioned smashing of raids...BC style.

Firs we wanted to do Karazhan. This instance took up almost every one of my Saturday evenings during the Burning Crusade. We got a bunch of friends together and blitzed through it. I still enjoy this instance despite how easy it is with a couple of 80s along for the ride. We blew away the instance in short time and decided to continue on.....to Gruul.

We wiped on the first attempt at Maulgar because nobody had run it since who knows when. It still wasnt the easiest of fights with 6 toons. Gruul went down easy peasy and dropped the item the personified guild loot drama in BC....the Dragonspine trophy. My guild ran that instance into the ground to get that for whoever needed it.

After taking down the big ugly Gron we decided to head over to Magtheridon. We wiped on the first attempt after not clearing all of the trash and there being way too much healing of bad guys. We took him down on the second try no problem.

After that we decided to do one more for old times sake. We headed over the Zul'Aman. I never cleared it during BC, so it was all new content for me. We blew through in no time at all and that completed our old school evening.

Sometimes the most fun things are just to hang with some friends and blast through some content you had never seen.

A good weekend despite Direbrew being a twat.

Brewfest Loots

I love the new way. So far, I have gotten a remote on my Hunter, a Kodo on my Druid, and a ram on my Paladin. Of course I havent gotten shit on my main. WTB BOA rewards.

I cant complain though. I have already gotten two mounts and I imagine there are plenty who have gotten none.

Yo

That is my normal greeting to friends in WoW. I have no idea why.

So much for updating my blog more often I guess. Not to say I havent been playing WoW. In fact, I have been doing a decent amount in game.

Mostly, it has been reliving the good ole days and playing with friends. Not even really much as far as Wrath content. Mostly just beating the crap out of old instances.

I got achievements for Dire Maul, BRD, and Molten Core. I also got my Keymaster achievement. You can not call me Zuul.

Gear grinding is done for me. Cataclysm is only a few weeks off and there is no point. I am cleaning out my banks before it rolls around and everything becomes vendor trash.

Thats how Ive been rollin. How bout you?

Luck of the Dwarvish

Decided to get in on a Sarth 3D zerg on Darraxus since I had never done it. And what do you know? I won the black drake.

TWO RAINBOWS ALL THE WAY!!!!!!

That is all.

Been busy moving but should be posting a bit more.

Save Gnomeregan

Gnomeregan needs you. Get out there, smash some dirty trogs and get your gnome on.

It is about time we get those dirty little squaters their house back.

For the Alliance! And for getting Gnomes out of our home towns!

Maintenance....Bleh

Packing up my house getting ready to move....have some free time for WoW....and maintenance strikes.

Oh well.

I have gotten a few more friends to rejoin WoW, which means I can actually hang around with people I know.

Recently, I have been running some instances on my Hunter and even on my Deathknight. I would like to get each a litte better geared before Cataclysm.

Speaking of gear, I got into a VoA10 pug on my Hunter. We didnt down a boss because DPS was low. Now my Hunter isnt very geared at all. Somehow, I was still the third highest DPS in the raid.....and the Raid Leader had the nerve to complain about my gear level when I was beating several better geared DPS on the meters. That is just retarded.

I also completed Zul Gurub for the first time on Darraxus. Since they are going to be getting rid of the instance, I wanted to get the achivement....and maybe a shot at the mounts. Well, the mounts didnt drop, but we did take down Hakkar for the achievement. Myself and Occeleta died twice before we called in a healer to give us a hand.

Just counting down the days to Cataclysm.

Asshattery

It is still all over the place especially in LFG. Since hitting 80, I have been trying to get some decent gear for my Hunter. That means running the Icecrown instances ALOT.

I got into Hall of Reflection. Waves go smoothly and we kill the first boss. Then the tank just quits group.

Then shortly after, I get into another Halls of Reflection...with the same douche of a tank. Guess what happens? If you guessed that we killed the first boss and he fled like an asshat, then you are correct.

Seriously, if you are going to run an instance with people you dont know, at least have the courtesy of finishing the instance....or letting them know that you are just farming that one boss.

This fuck you is for you Chumi of Gurubashi. May your loot never drop and your testacles fall off if it does.

In other news, I got into my first raid last night with my Hunter. VOA 10 woohoo. I even put up a respectable 3500 dps for the run. The only disapointment is that nobody ever does anything past the most recent bosses to be added. Oh well.

Peace and chicken grease.

About time.....

I finally got my Hunter to 80. He was the second character I ever created way back in vanilla. This is the first time he has ever been level cap.

I also finally started leveling his professions......generic Hunter professions 1 and 2......skinning and leatherworking.

My Hunter is no longer the red headed dwarf step child. He is finally a part of the family.

In other news, there are still fucktards running instances.

I have been running the Icecrown instances to gear up while I am leveling my Leatherworking. I have been top dps every time in essentially all blues below ilvl 200.

I was in a Pit of Saron where we kicked a ret paladin for doing 900 dps. I did around 1300 at level 70 on my Ret Paladin.

Then to top it off, he was replaced with a DK.....doing 900 dps.....in mostly epics.

Another note on my Hunter. I actually tanked half of Hall of Stone as a BM Hunter when the tank decided he didnt want to stay after the first pull. We didnt get a real tank until the bronzebeard event.

Fun times.

Late to the Party

So, I was a bit late to the Icecrown Party. I got into my first ICC 10 man this past weekend. And I had some fun. We cleared the first six bosses and may have gotten more had I not had to go to sleep at that point.

For my troubles I got a new tanking ring from the instance and one from the rep I got while in there....Oh, and I fricking love the gunship battle. Rocket packs FTW. I was a Dwarven Boba Fett minus falling into the Sarlac.

I also got to level 79 on my Hunter and will be making that final push to the big 80. I think the rest of my toons will end up no higher than 70 before Cat due to the adjustment in Northrend leveling.

Another happy note for me was that two more of my online buddies came back. I had not seen them for quite some time and was a bit discouraged, but they were doing the same thing as I was. Just kinda waiting for Cataclysm.

Can't wait for the expansion and to replace all of my epics with the first blues I find.

Wow.....facebook with more action

This is how I think of wow these days. Especially since I will be moving a couple of states from friends and family. For me the greatness of moms is and always will be the ability to play a game with your friend over great distances. Facebook with gnomes. Sounds awesome to me.
I am also very excited about some of the things coming out about catalysm. It makes me wonder...should I continue on with the guild I spent wrath with or start a family and close friends guild. I am leaning towards the second one. That way anything we do will help each other out.

I are Huntard here me pew

Huntards. They have been reviled as asshats since the beginning of wow. Now my huntard is 78 and closing in on the cap for the first time ever. Having played one quite alot lately it is easy to see how many huntards can be so fucking terrible. They are so easy even a caveman could level it. Seriously. Easymode. All you need to get to 80 is a pulse. That is probably why there are so many bots that play huntards. My hunter is not incredibly geared and I usually top the dos meters....as beast master. Now that leads me to wonder. Which is easier....the original king of the noon classes aka the hunter or the heir apparent to mouth breathers everywhere....the deathtard? What do you think....and which is more boring to play?

Darraxus in da house

Word!

So yeah, I have been playing WOW again....still without any of my old friends.

Leveling my Hunter and making some gold has kept me entertained for the time being. Hunter leveling is easy mode. Send pet. Auto shot. Arcane shot if I want some excitement.

Since I started playing again, I have hardly even touched my max level toons.

I ran a random heroic on Darraxus....and I STILL GOT IT. The mad skills that is.

I also did a VOA10 on my Druid.....and got a piece of pvp gear I will likely never even touch.

Oh, and I discovered the joys of REALID on my friends lists.....no your friends can hide from you in a Blizzard game if they are on your friends list. Makes it easier to plan shit if you have toons on multiple servers as well.

Besides WoW, I have also been getting my ass kicked at Modern Warfare 2. The hacking in that game is retarded. Either that or I am just bad. I think it must be the hax.

Anyways, how are all the other bloggers out there in the blogosphere. It seems like some of the people that left are back....but more or less in the same boat I am.

WHAT UP BLOG TOWN.

So......

I caved and am playing WoW again.

So far it has mostly been a bit of leveling my Hunter and making more gold....like I need it.

The sad thing is that there are zero of the people who I have played with for years currently playing.

The social part is lacking at the moment.

Getting That Itch

To play again. I guess I just miss the interactions with people while playing a game. May be back soon. We shall see.

Real Azeroth Heroes

Darraxus presents: Real Azeroth Heroes

(Real Azeroth Heroes)

Today we salute you Mr. Taking a break from WoW guy.

(Taking a break from WoW guy!)

You have played for many years. You have helped make Blizzard a small fortune.

(Now they aint getting mah money!)

Just like you, I enjoy WoW.....

(And want something besides the same recycled crap yeah!)

So, stay alt tabbed out looking at porn. Without you, the random LFG experience would not be complete.

(Guess you don't want your random emblems!)

So Mr. Taking a break from WoW guy, keep on enjoying your life outside the confines as Azeroth. We know you will be back and ready to go one day/

(Mr. Taking a break from WoW Guyyyyyyyyyyy!)

It has been done....

I have cancelled my account. I have been incredibly bored with WoW as of late and see no reason to keep paying for it monthly when I have scarcely logged on for more than a minute over the last several weeks.

There just isnt really a lot for me right now in game.

I am sure I will be back for Cataclysm, but for now, this is the end.

Thank you everyone for reading. This is not the final end, but the an end nonetheless.

Peace out bitches and Ill see you later.

Live to Fight Another Day

That is Crispee's motto. Crispee is my level 62 gnome mage....and he has a skill for surviving.

Yesterday, there were three almost wipes in an instance he was in....it was Blood Furnace. And each time, he survived.

The other people in the party exclaimed, "How does that damn Gnome keep surviving?"

I told them it was because of his sexy Gnome dance moves. The sway of his hips stayed the savage beast.

Or it could have been me aggro dumping on people with ice block and then blinking my way to the exit.

That is a very long run....but it added to fun of the run.

I hate you Netherwing Eggs

These sons of bitches are a pain in the ass to find. I WANT MAH REP.

The other dailies are pretty quick and easy so far. I have a bad feeling that this rep grind may take a bit longer than I would like. Too bad you dont get rep for grinding the mobs as well.

Ah well. I also picked up two new sexy heirlooms for my mage. I want to play his ugly little ass for some reason.

That is all. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Gearing Up For Cataclysm

No, not as in getting the best gear possible. I have been trying to gear up by gaining some levels on my much neglected alts.

These alts are the red headed step children of my stable (sorry, Gingers dont have souls).

Recently I have been farting around on my Hunter and Rogue mainly. My hunter is the second character that I ever made and he has never been at the level cap during any expansion. Right now I have him at 71, and the same problem still exists....I dont particularly find Hunters to be fun.

I grabbed a dual spec on him so that soloing would not be so terrible (I was running a survival spec and my pet seemed to be made of cardboard). Now I am happily eating faces as BM. Speaking of BMs, I my rogue is not fun at all.

My rogue is squishy. He also does terrible DPS. I dont have an AOE. I just cant compete with any other class in overall damage and dps except on boss fights. I am mainly leveling my Rogue because my sister powerleveled her druid up to that range and it is more fun to level with someone than alone.

I still have Crispee the pink haired Gnome mage as well. He is very squishy, but I usually have fun playing him because he is quirky.

I think I am also going to start beating down some of those old BC reps with Darraxus before the expansion comes out. Starting with Netherwing and maybe following that with Kurenai.

This is the first time that I have played any amount of time in a few weeks. At least it gives me something to do.

Until next time.

Not Much Going on Here

Yeah. I haven't really played in at least a week. Busy life schedule these days. We are thinking of cancelling my wife's account as that is just another 15 dollars a month that she doesnt really use.

Wish I had something interesting to talk about, but I dont.

Until next time.

FailPug of the Week

Two posts in one week ZOMG ROFLBBQ!

ANyways, this was not a 100 percent pug and only one of the members truly failed.

It was a Warlock doing under 1k dps. He was specced into Demo and was just plain bad.

I did not even notice how shitty his numbers were until I was just past the second boss. I had to lol at the percentage of damage dome by ability. 92 percent of his damage was Rain of Fire.

After we faced the last boss (we were in Nexus), I decided to check the individual recount for that fight. Warlock did 500 DPS. 100 percent of it was from Rain of Fire. He AOEd a single target boss...../facepalm.

To top it off, his pet only did about 100 less total damage on the fight. Epic fail.

I don't know if the dude was a bot or a little kid, or maybe just a fucking idiot. I don't understand how people make it that far don't know what the hell they are doing.

I could do more than 500 dps at around level 60. How on earth do you do 500 on a boss at level 80.....head exploding now.

WoW Girl Power!

I did not get much of an opportunity to play this weekend, but the time that I did play, it was mostly with some of the girls of WoW.

First, I saw Phaelia online for the first time in forever. She was getting her first taste of the Icecrown instances. Unfortunately for her, Scourgelord Tyrannus bugged out at the end of the second instance and rendered it unable to finish.

She has just gotten back into the swing of things and has been mostly spending time with the freshly sprouted seed. We even ran a random Heroic Nexus that went quick and painless. Always nice to see a former blogger getting back to the game.

I also got to play with my favorite lady.....my wife. This is the first time she had played since February.

Since this week is Childrens week, we decided to go out and grab a few new pets. I got Mr. Wiggles and Peanut. That gave me the veteran Nanny achivement. She got Speedy and Sleepy Willy.

Overall, I did not get to play very much, but I did have fun with the time I did get to play.

Unfortunately, if people I enjoy playing with are not online, I just dont enjoy playing. I play now for the friendly social interaction. I havent even bothered to see past the first boss in icecrown.

Anyways, just a quick update. How are y'all?

Ding Fries are Done!

After much leveling and toiling, I finally reached level 80 on my Warrior. Strangely, level 79-80 was the easiest of the Northrend levels. I just jumped into instances that I still had quests for and I was done like that.

Once I hit 80, it was time to spend some of my hard earned money. I purchased my ilvl 245 shoulders with my emblems and then bought the Breastplate of the White Knight, Saronite Swordbreakers, and Tempered Titansteel Treads off of the AH.

With all of the enchanting/gemming/gearing, I ended up about 9 hitpoints shy of 30k unbuffed and 537 defense.

So I decided to do Forge of Souls for my first regular instance at level 80. We breeze through it pretty easily, but the mobs are hitting pretty damn hard. We down the last boss and.....the Heroic Achievement pops up. Yeah, I queued us up for the wrong one lol.

As it is right now, one of the biggest upgrades I need is my weapon. I am still rocking the Ragemane's flipped one from Zul'Drak.

It is nice to not be the top damage and DPS anymore in an instance. Before 80, I was doing 1400-1700 while it seemed like everyone was below me by a couple hundred. Total damage was much worse as I was doubling up many of the dps. Sometimes it makes me wonder if people just don't know their class or are just being lazy.

Anyways, the Druid will be next. Although he will just be a gets there when he gets there kind of toon.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

The Wheel in the Sky Keeps on Turning....

I love Journey. If you don't love Journey, you fucking suck. So what does this post have to do with Journey? Nothing.

I am on the home stretch now of leveling my Horde Warrior. Almost thar. I hit level 78 over last weekend. In one day I got to exalted with the Hodir. I didn't need the Hodir rep on my Warrior, but I figured it would be nice to have for once I start leveling my Druid.

I have also started doing some of the Argent Tournament dailies. Woohoo. I think if I really go for it this weekend, I can hit 80.

I am still outdamaging everyone in instances. It must be my leet skills.

I am also making very decent money on my Horde server with my glyph industry. I believe I am sitting at about 22k and usually pull in 700-1k plus gold on any given day. The best part is that it takes me about 15 minutes a day.

My sister is a leveling whore. Her Rogue is probably 80 by now on the Horde server and her Priest is the same level as my Warrior. Hard to catch up when you dont have time.

Anyways, how have you other bloggers been?

Where in the World?

I have been super busy. Work/gym/wife has left little time for blogging recently. Doesn't help that my site is blocked at my work again.

Anyways, there hasn't been much going on. I did get my Horde warrior to 77 which means that I don't have to keep running around and aggroing shit like a retards.

WoW has really slowed down. Perhaps when I get my Horde warrior to 80 I will be glad to go through the gearing process. Then again, maybe I will hate it. Who knows.

I still enjoy playing, but I can't play the long hours that I did back in the day. After a maximum of around 3 hours, I get tired of it.

One small pleasure I found is healing with my Tauren Druid. EZ mode.

Hopefully next week, I can find the motivation for more blog posts....or at least have something to blog about.

Until next time......

Cataclysm Warrior Update

New Warrior Abilities

Inner Rage (Level 81): Whenever the character reaches a full 100 Rage, he or she will gain a buff that causes attacks to consume 50% more Rage and do 15% more damage for a short amount of time. This is a passive ability so it won't need to be activated by the player. The goal for this ability is to provide a benefit for hitting max Rage instead of it feeling like a penalty. However, we also don't want warriors to feel like they're supposed to pool Rage and do nothing until they hit 100, so we'll be closely monitoring how this plays out during the beta testing, and making adjustments as needed.

This will really help out some of the tanks who are not as quick on their Heroic Strike Button. It also makes it so it isnt a true waste to hit 100 rage. It should be good for all levels of tanks.

Gushing Wound (Level 83): This ability will apply a bleed effect to the target. If the target moves, the bleed gains an extra stack and refreshes its duration, up to a maximum of three stacks. The ability is currently planned to have no cooldown, cost 10 Rage, and have a 9-second duration. Gushing Wound is designed to be weaker than Rend with one stack, but better with three stacks, which will be reached when fighting a moving target.

I am not sure if this will be available for Prot Warriors, but if it is....damn. That will be a nice chunk of extra damage if you are constantly dragging mobs around. We will have to wait and see though.

Heroic Leap (Level 85): This ability makes the character leap at their target and apply the Thunder Clap ability to all enemies in the area when they land. Heroic Leap will be usable in Battle Stance and shares a cooldown with Charge, but the Juggernaut and Warbringer talents will allow Heroic Leap to be used in any stance and possibly while in combat. The cooldown for this ability might be longer than the Charge ability, but it will also apply a stun effect so you can make sure the target will still be there when you land.

This will be awesome for chain pulling if the cooldown is not too long. Charge into group one, thunderclap, shockwave, start rotation. Heroic leap to next group, rinse and repeat. Sounds good so far.



Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

In addition to learning new abilities, you'll see changes to other abilities and mechanics with which you're already familiar. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.

Heroic Strike will no longer be an "on next swing" attack, as we are removing this mechanic in Cataclysm. To keep the niche of Heroic Strike as a Rage dump, it will become an instant attack, but will cost between 10 and 30 Rage. This ability will not be usable until you have 10 Rage, but if you have more than 10, it will consume up to 30, adding additional damage for each point of Rage consumed above the base 10. Other abilities, such as Cleave, Execute, and Maul (for druids) will work similarly. The goal is to provide players with an option where if you can't afford the Rage, you don't push the button, but if you have excess Rage, you can push it a lot.

This will be a nice way to make it a bit more spammy. I am sure that there will be some complaining from the old school tanks about tanking being dumbed down too much.

Battle Shout, Commanding Shout, and possibly Demoralizing Shout will work more like the death knight's Horn of Winter ability. Specifically, these shouts will cost no resources, generate rage in addition to their current effects, and be on a short cooldown.

The best part of this is that it become a no-brainer to use these. And they will probably be used constantly for the extra rage generation when there is an extra global cooldown available.

Whirlwind will hit an unlimited number of targets, but only for 50% of weapon damage. The intent is for this ability to be used in multi-target scenarios and not on single targets.

Meh. I don't get into DPS spec much, so it will not affect me nearly as much.

Overall, heals cast by players in Cataclysm will be a lower number relative to players' health than the current game. So to make the Mortal Strike debuff less mandatory but still useful in PvP, Mortal Strike will reduce healing by only 20%. All equivalent debuffs, including the Shadow priest and Frost mage debuffs, will be for 20% less healing. At the moment we aren't considering giving this debuff to anyone else, though we will certainly consider PvP utility for historically under-represented specs that use other mechanics.

Another meh for me. Lets see how it turns out.

Sunder Armor will be reduced to three stacks instead of five, and still provide only a 4% reduction in armor per stack. We want to make this debuff easier to apply and less of a damage swing when it falls off.

I guess this opens more global cooldowns but will reduce damage somewhat? Another one that we will have to look at the math on. I imagine that in long fights, it will be a significant dps decrease.


New Talents and Talent Changes

The Furious Sundering talent in the Fury tree will make the Sunder Armor ability cause 25/50% weapon damage and reduce the threat generated by 50/100%.

Devastate for Fury...woohoo.

The Mace and Poleaxe Specialization talents in the Arms tree will be removed. These provided just passive stats, which are not the kinds of talents we want to design in the future. We will keep the Sword Specialization talent, but it will be changed to a talent that applies to all types of weapons.

No more respecs because you are using a new weapon. Nice little change.

As a Fury talent, Booming Voice will increase the Rage generated by shouts.
While we like how Titan's Grip plays, we recognize some warriors liked the Fury tree because of the really fast swings that dual-wielding one-handed weapons could provide. Therefore, we're planning to try out a talent called Single-Minded Fury that is parallel to Titan's Grip and will provide a large boost to the damage of a pair of one-handed weapons.

Will make you have to think of if two one handers are the way to go or two handers. I think it will be good since there really arent a lot of classes using one handed physical dps weapons at this point.

Several talents that reduce the Rage cost of abilities will be changed to focus on increased damage for those abilities instead.

More damage. Nom.

The new Arms talent called Disarming Nature will make successful disarms cause the target to cower in fear for 5/10 seconds.

Oh noes I lost mah weapon! Im gonna piss mahself!

Another new Arms talent called Blitz will make the Charge ability hit for extra damage. The amount will possibly vary depending on the distance travelled.
Improved Pummel, a Fury talent, will cause a successful interrupt to generate 10/20 Rage.

More reason for a DPS warrior to actually use their damn interrupts.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Arms
Melee Damage
Armor Penetration
Bonus Swing

Bonus Swing: This is similar to the Sword Specialization talent that is currently in the game, but Bonus Swing will work on all attacks and with all weapons. You have a chance to proc a free, instant weapon swing that hits for 50% damage.

Fury
Melee Damage
Melee Haste
Enrage Intensity

Enrage Intensity: Every benefit of being enraged is increased. This includes doing more damage/healing/ etc. from abilities like Bloodrage, Death Wish, Enrage, Berserker Rage, and Enraged Regeneration.

Protection
Damage Reduction
Vengeance
Critical Block Chance

Critical Block Chance: As we mentioned in the stat changes preview, block rating is changing to a chance to block 30% of a melee swing's damage. Protection warriors have a chance that the block will be a critical block and block for 60% of a melee swing's damage instead. There will likely be talents available to push the amount blocked even higher.

This sounds pretty good. Less damage taken FTW.

Vengeance: This is a mechanic to ensure that tank damage (and therefore threat) doesn't fall behind as damage-dealing classes improve their gear during the course of the expansion. All tanking specs will have Vengeance as their second talent tree passive bonus. Whenever a tank gets hit, Vengeance will give them a stacking attack power buff equal to 5% of the damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of the character's un-buffed health. For boss encounters, we expect that tanks will always have the attack power bonus equal to 10% of their health. The 5% and 10% bonuses assume 51 talent points have been put into the Protection tree. These values will be smaller at lower levels. Remember, you only get this bonus if you have spent the most talent points in the Protection tree, so you won't see Arms or Fury warriors running around with it. Vengeance will let us continue to make tank gear more or less the way we do today – there will be some damage-dealing stats, but mostly survival-oriented stats. Druids typically have more damage-dealing stats even on their tanking gear, so their Vengeance benefit may be smaller, but overall the goal is for all four tanks do about the same damage when tanking.

Delicous damage. Lots of it. This should be very sexy and keep us from falling behind all of the other tanks.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues.

Overachiever?

I have been officially labeled an overachiever by my sister and friends.

The other day, I was talking with Vordan and Moparman about the fact that I am up to 15k gold already on my Horde server. They replied "Not everyone can be an overachiver like you". Actually, I think Moparman actually called me an "overachiveing bastard".

I guess to an extent, this is true. On a day to day basis I will generally play about 20 minutes of WoW. On weekends, I will play between 2-3 hours. What little time I have, I try to make it count.

In some ways, I suppose I am an overacheiver. I have 5 level 80 Alliance toons and 260k gold on my main server.

I have a 75 Warrior and 60 Druid with 15k gold on a Horde server that I started to mostly pass the time.

I play less in a week than some people I know play in a day. Yet, I often seem to have more. More of many things. I don't mean to brag, but I am pimpalicious.

My tanking, healing, and DPS abilities are generally as good as anyone I know who are at the same gear level. Often it is better than many with much higher gear levels.

Maybe a lot of this just comes from the confidence I have gained over years of playing. I can brag because I can back it up.

Maybe it is the fact that I learned the hard way and am a grizzled vet of WoW. I have played alongside some awesome tanks. My favorites are always fellow Warrior tanks. I know one of them pops in on my blog from time to time (talking to you Blade).

I have also played with ones who didnt know their asshole from their elbow, but raid tanked anyways. I used to play with a tank who tanked all the way through Hyjal and Black Temple in BC....who didnt use shield slam in his normal threat rotation /facepalm. You couldn't say anything to him about it because he thought he was awesome.

Confidence and Knowledge. This is how you become an overachiever.

Sorry for the rambly post. This shit was directly off the top of my head.

Real Azeroth Heroes (Part 10)

Darraxus presents: Real Azeroth Heroes

(Real Azeroth Heroes)

Today we salute you Mr. DPS who does not accept the random queue guy.

(Doesn't accept the instance queue guy!)

You have been waiting for 15-30 minutes for this instance. When it is go time, you should sit on your hands and soak up the sun.

(Now it is gonna have to requeue us!)

Just like you, I enjoy random instances

(And want to run them in a timely manner yeah!)

So, stay alt tabbed out looking at porn. Without you, the random LFG experience would not be complete.

(Guess you don't want your random emblems!)

So Mr.Doesn't accept the random dungeon queue Guy, have a bud on me and enjoy never getting into an istance. We probably won't miss you in you Northrend Greens anyways.

(Mr. Doesn't accept the random dungeon queue Guyyyyyyyyyyy!)

Monday.....Blah

Another craptastic Monday....HOORAY. (Gag)

I hope you all had a nice Easter. I really didn't do anything. Easter doesn't even really feel like a Holliday to me anymore. Not as many kids around as there once were.

Anyways, enough of that. I played WoW this weekend. Did you know? Of course you did. Everyone subscribes to the Darraxus Reality Show - Dwarves Gone Wild!

Except I didn't really do any playing on my Alliance toons over the weekend. It was dedicated to the Horde toons and advancing my Warrior (and his assets).

Warrbringer got a nice bit done. First big thing is that I got to level 75. 75 is a significant level for me because I get to use my JC trinkets. One of them has two 51 stamina gems socketed in it....YUM. At level 75 I am at about 18.5k health unbuffed. Not to shabby I must say. And I am still pwning the fuck out of most of the DPS in instances. A lot of the XP came from Dungeons, but I did a fair amount of questing as well.

I did a bit more in Howling Fjorde, but ended up heading out to Zul'Drak with my sister before long. We completed the first few areas pretty quickly including the Drakuru quest line. Is it just me, or is that an annoying ass quest line? At least I got a sext tanking trinket out of it.

A couple of other fun things happened in our adventures in Zul Drak. First, I got Northern Exposure. Woohoo! Worthless achivements for me. The second thing was actually quite funny.

Me and sister mounted up and running along headed over to Drakuru's area. Sister stops on the big stone path leading through ZD. I say "You may want to watch out". Sister gets smushed by Thrymm the Hope Ender. LOL.

In other news, I actually did something on my Horde Druid. I got into a partially completed ramparts run where they did not know what the hell they were doing. I was healinge everyone equally because we had Shaman and Paladins who were pulling instead of the DK tank. To top it all off, nobody died at all....until the last boss....and it was me who died.

Dragon lands across the room. I am on the platform leading down to the room. Dragon aggroes on me. Dragon stomps slowly across the room bypassing the tank and all of the DPS. Dragon NOMS my face. They took him down, but at least the dip shit tank ended up dying as well.

My bank toon also had a very nice weekend. He probably raked in 5-6 k selling glyphs (and a 100 percent profit reselling an Orb of Deception). I probably also spent at least 1500 to buy herbs. One of the main glyph sellers took most of the weekend off and I was selling many of them for 50 gold a pop. Then he returned and knocked them all down to 10 gold per glyph. Hooray.

Overall, a very good weekend. How was yours?

The Tanking Yo-Yo

On my long journey as a Warrior tank, it has been a large yo-yo type ride. Things change. Nerf and Buffs. Mechanics changes. It has definately been a long strange trip.

Vanilla WoW: This is where I got my start tanking. I gravitated to WoW from EQ2. While leveling, I was a complete noobcake. Points thrown here and there in arms and fury. I didnt know shit basically. At around level 45, I stopped playing for around 6 months. I decided to start playing again after talking to a co-worker who played and told me all about raiding etc.

So, I continued on as a noob. I grinded mobs in WPL from level 54-60. That was not exactly fun. I dinged level 60 in about 16 days /played. I can hit 80 in way less than that now.

My friends told me I should go prot and tank. I put all of my talent points into prot and away I went. I was terrible. I was accused of buying my toon from ebay. I did get better.

Tanking in Vanilla WoW sucked. There really wasnt such a thing as AOE aggro for a Warrior tank. We sundered stuff....alot. Generally you asked dps to wait 3 sunders before opening up. There were also mobs marked and kill orders. They didnt go AOE crazy unless they felt like dying. You couldnt thunderclap in Defensive stance. We didnt have devastate or fancy doodads like that. Yet, we were to go to tank in Vanilla. This mostly had to do with just how terrible the tanking trees for Paladins and Druids were. If you played those classes, you healed or you didnt come.

Warrior tanking kind of sucked, but we were on top of the world. Enter.....

The Burning Crusade: In the Burning Crusade, we were still considered to go to tank, but parity was coming fast. Druids had huge health pools to take monster hits and Paladin tanks were to go to class for AOE tanking. Warrior tanks were still the best rounded tank, but our AOE was still pitiful. Still no thunderclap in defensive stance. Still no multi target abilities. Our TPS was very high, but out DPS was pitifully low.

It wasn't until the end of the expansion that we got some of our best abilities. Warbringer and Shockwave come to mind. Being able to Thunderclap in Defensive stance was huge and made a world of difference. Our DPS went up as strength became a priority on gear. Going into Wrath, we were looking pretty good.....but everyone else was looking better.

Wrath: The fall and rise of the Warrior tank. Warrior tanks have been viable all through wrath....but they have not always been the most desired tank. Paladins, Druids, and DKs all put out more DPS. Paladins and Druids had more health. We were at the bottom of the barrel for much of the expansion.

No we are looking up finally. We got more health. Now we can at least be competetive with the other classes for DPS. We are no longer the golden gods of tanking....but we still get to sit at the table with the other classes. That is all I really wanted. Tanking should be about which class you enjoy playing, and shouldnt have to come down to a choice of do I want to have fun, or be more viable.

Here is to parity lasting in the next expansion. Long live the Warrior tank.

Darraxus in Action!

My sister Vordan put up a video of us running through Heroic UP on our mains.

Here is the link to her post.

It was obviously an easy run. I am the Dwarf sprinting ahead of everyone.

Enjoy.

Da Weekend.

Da Bears.

Yeah.

So, a pretty average weekend. Made a decent chunk of cash on my Horde toons though I have found that I am actually playing Darraxus a bit more and trying collecting frost emblems again. 4 more and I will be rocking a nice new pair of gloves.

The thing about Warrior tanking now....we are FUCKING AWESOME. I have yet to do less that 2500 dps in any instance on Darraxus. Only once have I been last in total damage (and not by much). This was an instance where all of the DPS were doing over 3.5 k each.

A few runs with friends I was first in total damage.

On a semi-pug weekly run that I got together, I ended up third in total damage in Naxx.

I am loving Warrior tanking more than ever. I think we are finally on the same level as Paladins for damage output. WOOHOO.

My sister frapsed a run through UP with Darraxus and her main Vordan. She will probably be posting it up before very long. I will link it up when she does.

One thing that I am remembering now is that instance runs are so much more enjoyable when done with a group of people that you actually know. I love isntances with all friends. Even if their damage sucks a bit. As long as they know what they are doing.

My next plans are to help my sister get better as a Warrior tank. She has been having a bunch of problems. This will likely be some of the focus of a future Nubcast.

Anyways, that about covers it for me. What was your weekend like?

Condolences to a Friend

One of my best RL friends and an in-game friend an blogger suffered a terrible loss recently. My condolences to Occeleta.

Show him some comment love if you can. I do not feel that it is my responsibility to speak on his loss, but any nice words would likely be appreciated.

Ok, so I lied a little bit.....

I had at least a minor tinge of happiness about the last patch with all of the prot warrior changes. Then I decided to dust of Darraxus.

Yes, I dusted him off and did something instance related for the first time in about a month. I wanted to check out the beautiful new revenge.

And let me just say. I creamed my jeans.

I did a random, which ended up being Heroic UP. Darraxus can still actually use a lot of frost badges.....yes I am a slacker.

After the first several trash pulls leading up to Svala Sorrowgrave, I was rocking about 3k dps. Rocking it like a fucking hurricane. Or a paladin.

That is one of the bad things about the deep wounds spec. It really distorts the mirror when you are standing there trying to measure your epeen.

Sorrowgrave.....flys into the air with deep wounds on her....tick....50 dps.....tick 50 dps....tick 50 dps. Thats how much was being lost. She was dead before she even landed the first time.

This group was pretty much awesome. Two of the DPS were over 4k. The DK was at 4.8k. I out damaged the mage, but he was still pulling around 3k plus dps.

I basically bull rushed the isntance like a fat kid rushes a buffet.

We cleared it in no time flat. In the end even with the boss fights that are terrible for tank dps as a Warrior (Svala, Trophy room, Last Boss), I ended up rocking about 2500 dps.

22 percent of that damage was revenge!!!!

Revenge I love you. I wish I could quit you. And I hope they dont nerf you.

Darraxus is back. Kicking ass and taking names. Or at least just kicking ass.

WoW Lite

That seems to be more what I am playing these days as opposed to actual WoW. I "play" WoW usually about 3 days a week on or around the weekend. Usually it is for 2-3 hours each of those days.

For the rest of the week, I play WoW Lite. I only have about 15 minutes at a time to do anything once or twice a day. My version of WoW Lite is the Auction House.

I log on, gather up my gold and then get to work. I repost anything that happened to expire and then I do a mass cancel on my glyphs (only cancelling the ones that were undercut). This is done using QA 2.

I then go clear out my box and repost all of those glyphs also using QA 2. The longest part is of course clearing out your mail box. I have worked around that a bit by creating a very simple macro.

/console reloadui. Right in the middle of my bank toon's action bar.

It will reload your mailbox immediately, and you dont have to wait the annoying ass 30-60 seconds until the next batch.

If I am feeling REALLY adventurous, and have a bit of extra time, I try to do the JC daily on Warrbringer. Daddy needs him some recipes plox.

Limited time is a major theme for me right now. What is your WoW Lite?

New Patch, WHOOPDEE DOO!!!!

As you can tell, I am not all the incredibly excited. I did not see anything that will get me playing my Alliance toons anytimes soon.

The prot Warrior changes looked plenty sexy. More stamina. HELLS YEAHS. More damage for Revenge....CAN I GET A WHUT WHUT. Improved Revenge is no longer a stun, but now hits a second target. WOOT. AOE IN DA HOUSE.

Speaking of Warriors, my Horde Warrior is now up to level 74 and sitting at 22 emblems of Heroism. I will be able to get my first sexy piece of gear by the time I hit level 80. I am still noticing that I am usually still first or second in damage in any given instance. DPS must just really be that bad. I picked up the tanking weapon from the Ragemane's flipper quest and whacked away at some Scarlet Onslaught dudes. Your weapon skill is now at 2 LOL. I ended up getting it up to about 300 or so before calling it a night.

Next level I will be able to use those delicious socketable JC trinkets....and I will be able to put delicious Stamina Dragoneyes in them. MMMMMM OP Warrior tank.

I have also been making a decent amount of coin with my inscription and jewelcrafting. I havent been selling a whole lot of rare quality gems because I don't have the proper cuts, but the uncommon ones have been selling nicely. Plus, I have stepped up my inscription on this server. Sitting at about 2k gold on my bank toon after starting at about 200. Progress is progress.

Real life is still incredibly busy. Hope all is well with you blogtastic sumofabitches.

F@#K this I am out.....

For the weekend!

Ha bet you thought I was quitting.

Me and blogging are like Brokeback Mountain....only not gay cowboys......"I wish I could quit you". Except I dont. So I guess we are nothing alike.

Fuck it.

Also, this is my 500th post. I probably should have put a bit more thought into it....but fuck it.

Not promising anything, because I was too tired to do the damn Nubcast last weekend, but perhaps this weekend. We should have a decent number of topics to cover that include:

1) Why am I so delicious

That is a topic that could take at least an hour. So yeah. Party like its 1999 and have a good weekend.

Finding a money maker and HAX!!!!!!

As I previously posted, I spent a ton of money (3k to be exact) to get to the Northrend Jewelcrafting level on my Warrior. Now that I have got there, it is time to recoup some of that money!

On my Alliance server, green gems are not worth shit. I have found that on my Horde server you can make a nice chunk of change selling them....like selling one for the price of an entire stack of saronite good.

I was down to 250 gold yesterday. I am back up to about 750 as we speak. Most of that came from selling off my surplus that I had from leveling the profession, the items that were disenchanted for me by my sister, and of course the green gems.

On my Alliance server, I have noticed that green gem prices are super low. They really arent worth shit. Well, apparently there arent a whole lot of Jewelcrafters on my server, so the normal way of things are completly out of whack. I wanted to buy a chaceldony to do the JC Daily yesterday......not a single one on the AH. Nor was there a single stack of Cobalt Ore. This morning...still no chaceldony.....and there was a single stack of Cobalt ore for 45 gold. 22 more points in JC and I won't have to use Cobalt anymore and can switch to the much cheaper Saronite.

On a shitty note, Moparman apparently got hacked somehow. I am not sure how. He probably got key logged. Who knows. His characters got stripped and they stole everything they could. This is another instance where you wonder WTF was a hacker thinking. Moparman never has shit for gold....ever. He spends it. As soons as he can. If you want to hack someone, it probably isnt really worth all of the time to hack someone that doesnt have anything.

Hacking seems to be on the rise. Be extra careful with your accounts!!!

Woot!

Not blocked at work...means I can post a blog. Even if it is redonculous.

So, just an update on my WoW happenings.

At this point, I have been exclusively leveling my Horde Warrior. He is currently up to level 73 and slowly getting up there.

Moparman has leveled his Horde DK to Northrend range, so we have actually been able to do some instances with three of us. Our first instance in Northrend, he did a paltry 500 dps. A few days later he was up to 800....but still not doing as much as the tank.../FLEX.

I am noticing that many of the instances seem to be getting easier for my sister to heal as well. Whether she is just more familiar with the healing style of a priest or picking up new gear, he mana pool it thanking her.

On a side note, I just power leveled Jewelcrafting on my Horde Warrior. Holy Crap on Toast there is never gems on the AH seemingly. The bad thing is that the damn thing costed me nearly 3k to power level up to the Northrend level. The last few levels before I could cut green Northrend gems were absolutely brutal.

At least the cost to level it should be made up with the gems I will be selling. And I get to equip some sextastic monster stamina gems. AHHHHH YEEAHHHHHH. That was my porno voice btw.

For my fail stort of the week, I dont really have a good one. We did have our first wipe in a few weeks. Stupid tab targeting Warlock decided to pull another 1-2 groups in the drake room of UK. This made for a crispy fried healer and an ugly wipe. This Warlock had their voidwalker out at the time...../facepalm.

Sorry about the lack of posts. I have been too busy with taking care of my wife and working out to be able to post as much as I would like. I have also only been playing around 6 or so hours per week, mostly crammed onto the weekend.

Anyways, how have my beatiful fellow bloggers been?

Lack of Posting

Sorry folks, my site is now blocked at my job where I do most of my blogging. On top of that, I have been going to the gym and trying to live a healthier life which takes up a lot of time that I would otherwise have for other things....such as blogging.

Hopefully I will have something for you tomorrow.

Nubcast

Depending on my schedule and my sister's we may do another nubcast tonight. If anyone is interested in hearing it, leave a comment with what you want us to talk about.

The Fail is Strong with these ones

Sorry about the lack of post yesterday. Blocked at work again. Someone needs a Muthafvcking uppercut.

Anyways, I had very limited time yesterday and decided to do a random instance for my two emblems. My sister said she would go along and heal on her 80 to make it quicker. Thank goodness she did. Great googly moogly the dps was bad.

I was top dps. And I was top damage. Tanking.

Recount says:

Warrbringer: 869.7 DPS, 938114 damage
Random DK: 671.7 DPS, 596284 damage
Random Mage: 683.7 DPS, 516041 damage
My Sister's Holy Paladin 472.8 DPS, 405734 damage
Random Feral Druid: 433.9 DPS, 388033 damage

Yes, the tank did nearly 200 more dps and 350k damage more than the next highest DPS.

Ingvar was even better.

I did 772 dps for 36 percent of the damage
DK did 535 dps for 23 percent of the damage
Mage did 310 DPS! for 11 percent of the damage
Druid did 502 for 19 percent of the damage.

I wonder if the fact that I had an 80 along brought out all of the bads to play?

Or is it just me that is a magnet for bads?

Just like a tootsiepop, the world may never know.

That reminds me. Mr. Owl deserves a Muthafvcking uppercut.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Orc and Tauren Warriors look awesome. Possibly the most awesome looking Warriors in the game. This is probably to make up for Blood Elves.

Is it just me or is the radio more obnoxious now than ever before. Between Ludacris and the Chipmunks and Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus, it is enough to make you want to put your face in a wood chipper.

Single Abstract Noun is awesome. I just wish that I could go check out the European version so I could get my daily does of Kum......not that you perv.

I wish I took more screen shots. There is not telling what kind of awesome you will pick up randomly. My sister's blog has some funny ones going on.

One of my all time favorite screenshots is of me flying across hellfire on a gryphon. I looked down and saw the Fel Reaver pwning some Mage's face.

One of my other favorites is the one where it looks like Durn the Hungerer in Nagrand is giving it to Banthar doggy style.....we know who the king out there is.

Leveling Horde as opposed to Alliance is so different....and I feel guilt killing Dwarves in the Nexus.

If you have a toon wearing spell power plate and you are not a Holy Paladin....please kill yourself now.

Moparman is a noob. I hope he read this :p

What will happen when WoW ends? As much as I enjoy the game, I don't think I will be too sad.

My milkshake brings all the nubs to mah blog.

Kelis can die in a fire as well....as long as I am not grouped with her in a raid.

Twisters do not walk alone. There is not infact a bathroom on the right....unless you are wrapped up like a douche.

Every Rose has it's Thorn, Bad Moon Rising, and Blinded by the Light all have misunderstood lyrics....see above.

They would also make pretty cool guild names.

I am a cheap bastard and Horde my gold like Scrooge McDuck.

They need to make a money swimming pool so that I can swim in it.

Who wants a MuthaFvcking Uppercut?

Mikey does.....he'll try anything.

That be all. Enjoy your Tuesday.

Weekend Update

So, as you may or may not have seen, my sister and I did our podcast this weekend. I am the sexy sounding one. She is the one who apparently sounds like a little boy. Nothing incredibly important on there, just testing it out to see how it went.

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent as the last several weekends were. Leveling my Horde Warrior.

Thus far, he is level 71 (half to 72, which I will probably get to tonight).

I can officially tell you that DPS can be just as bad at 70 as it is at 80. And I can also tell you that I have yet to get a group that didnt have at least one DK in it. I have also only had one group where I was actually last in DPS and damage.

While tanking, I generally do around 800-850 dps. Many of the dps I ran with were more in the 500 range. I got in one completly amazing Nexus group that was insane. There was a Paladin and a Mage both doing 1800 dps for the duration of the run. There was also a DK in there doing over 1000. Those kinds of DPS make my runs so much easier.

The bad thing is that I am leveling this Warrior through Northrend without the advantages of having level 70 raid gear. Darraxus was over 18k health unbuffed when he hit Northrend. This toon is just barely at 13k unbuffed.

So far, if my sister has been on we have quested in Borean Tundra. If not, I would head over to Howling Fjorde to do some quests. This is where I learned that the Horde get an extra dungeon quest for Utgarrde Keep.

I also more or less finished Powerleveling my Inscription. I had been sitting at around 255 Inscription for quite some time and decided to move it on up. I got it to 405 in no time flat, so now my shoulders have the shiny delicious shoulder enchant. I am thinking that I will have to powerlevel Jewelcrafting next for the sexy gems as well as the nice trinkets.

Recently, it has felt like I abandoned my Alliance toons. Mostly because I have until there is something interesting for me to do on them. Raiding is nice.....if you have the time. Which I don't. PvP makes me want to pull my hair out. I am tired of running Heroics without having any upgrades available. On top of that, I have no motivation to level my 70 Hunter. I just don't really find the class to be that fun.

Otherwise, most of the weekend was spent with Wifey. How was your weekend?

Nubcast

This is the Nubcast

Not the greatest, but you get to hear my sexy voice. Keep in mind I was tired as shit having been up all day etc.

ENjoy. Or dont. I dont give a fuck.

Tonight, I'm Gonna Have Myself a Real Good Time

Tonight, I will be doing the Podcast with my sister.

I will answer any questions asked to the best of my knowledge (which is vast and unending :P)

Leave any questions in the comments section.

Guild Ethics

There has been a whole lot of talk about guilds and bloggers and said bloggers in guilds this week. It was about people from guild getting offended about being blogged about. Well, you know what I have to say about that?

Fuck em.

Yes. Fuck em. In a figurative way. Not literally. Unless you want to and they are also willing.

My stance on people getting offended by what I write is.....if you dont like it you can either

a) Not read it
b) Go eat a big fat bowl of dick

Personally, I dont blog about my guild much. I dont really run with them a whole bunch or ever socialize with them much anymore. No need to bring them up these days.

You best believe if they were being douchetastic, I would call whoever out on it.

I once had a former female guildie who found a post that refered to a run with her. She found it because she googled fail boat.....my post came up and involved her. Not by name, but she knew who she was. My response...."So?".

The thing about guilds is this. You have no obligation to them. You may like the people in your guild. You may even consider them friends. This doesnt mean you have censor yourself. If they dont like what you have to say, they can kick you.

If what you say is true about them, maybe they will realize that THEY are the ones that look like douchebags and not you.

Blogging is an outlet for many a player and person. If others don't like what you have to say......say it with me......THEY CAN EAT A BIG BOWL OF DICK.

This message brought to you by Darraxus, in support of Tamarind.

For the 5 year Olds

Is this what WoW has come to? 5 year olds.

Let me explain.

I did another pug UK yesterday on my Horde Warrior. This one was going significantly better. Part through the run, the Warlock doing 1400 dps had to leave. He was replaced by a Deathknight.

The Deathknight wasnt really anything special, and his DPS was not as bad as some I had seen, but damn. Several times, the DK would faceroll right into a bunch of mobs. It was annoying. I would grab them, but this kept happening. Then the DK asked if we could turn the loot to free for all. Huh? No. Hell no. We said as much. The DK then says "Com on guys plez?"

Being the smart ass I am, I reply "I can haz free gold ploz?".

We roll through the instance without many problems. I skip a group of mobs and wait on the stairs for the rest of the group, knowing exactly what is going to happen. Boomkin follows closely. Shaman follows closely. Paladin follows closely. Deathknight runs right up to the group we are trying to skip and face pulls. I pick it up and we warn him that one more time and he is going to get kicked.

The the DK says "Sorry guys, I had my 5 year old brother playing. I am playing now though."

Shortly after, he says "And don't talk to my brother like that."

Don't tell him that if he keeps being an idiot we are going to boot him.

To which I reply, in the classiest way possible "I will punch your fucking brother in the face."

We move on and the amazing thing....THE DKS DPS GOES DOWN.

I then ask the Deathtard if he can have his 5 year old brother play again because he does more dps.

We finish the rest of the instance without much difficulty. The fact that the DK died on Ingvar kinda goes without saying.

If you are going to let your 5 year old anything play, please have them quest or something. They generally just want to go beat up some monsters. Don't set them up for failure by putting them in an instance where they may be insulted for bad performance.

Yes, WoW is a game. Yes, kids can play it. Hello Kitty Adventure Island it aint.

Return of the Fail Pug.

Oh fail pug, how I have missed you.

I am now level 70 and in Northrend with Warrbringer the Orc Warrior. I am a tank. I like to tank shit.

Me "Lets do the random dungeon for the Emblems, Gold, and XP!"

Sister: " Great Idea!"

Well. It was not the greatest idea in the word apparently.

I was tank, she was heals. We got two mages and a DK for DPS. The trash packs went down fine. It was the DPS performance on the bosses that was terribad. The two mages were doing over 1k dps for the run......because of Blizzard.

Unfortunately, the boss was something else entirely apparently. Prince Kelleseth must have taken at least 5 minutes. Healer iceblocked 3-4 time. I was iceblocked 3-4 times. The DPS got Iceblocked a few times as well. It....took...for....ever.

I was top damage and second in DPS for that boss fight. In craptastic gear. The bottom was the mage coming in at around 400 dps. Not only did they take forever to kill the boss, they apparently dont know that you are supposed to break the iceblock. I have to continually break the iceblock off of my sister so that I wouldnt get my ass handed to me.

Trash goes by decently once again and we pull up to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. DPS IS SO FUCKING WEAK. Once again, I ended up as top damage and second dps. Once again, the mages in heirloom gear were on bottom of the pile. One was at 500. The other was under 400...again.

Trash, trash, trash. The trash was fine. Then we get to Ingvar. He shouldnt be that difficult. Unless of course DPS DOESNT KNOW WHAT THE FUCK TO DO!!!!!!

We ended up wiping twice on Ingvar. The first time, he had less than 2k health left. The second time, he had around 20k. The first attempt should have been the last. I dont know what the fuck was going on, but there were two mages still up when I went down with Ingvar at 2k health. It is like they stopped....or werent DPSing to start with. After the second wipe, I just quit group. We had already been in there for close to an hour. I didnt get my shiny emblems. All I got was a craptastic pug story.

Northrend from the Other Side

This weekend I took my Horde Warrior into Northrend for the first time. I have been through both Borean Tundra and Howling Fjorde so many times on my Alliance toons that I pretty much have that shit memorized....this is so very backwards for me.

And by backwards, I dont know which way is up. Funny how the simple relocation of quest hubs can fuck your sense of direction right up.

I got to the point where I would just have my sister lead the way. There are many of the same quests, but there are also plenty that are different.

As Alliance, I always rode by those kobolds and moths and thought......what the hell are they there for? Well, there is a big ass quest chain for the Horde. Finishing up the moth things sends you to get the nice blue weapon and 30k xp. As Alliance, you have to work hard for that weapon by fighting the vampire dude on top of the necropolis.

As Horde, that shit is handed to you on a silver fucking platter. Not that I am complaining (well that much at least).

Many of the quests are very much them same, just from different quest hubs. The Taunka'Li or whatever the buffalo dudes are called are basically the same thing as the Gnomes at Fizzcrank airstrip. They give you almost identical quests with a few different ones thrown in here and there.

One of the quests I enjoyed at the beggining of Borean Tundra was taking the Alliance traitor and giving him back. I got a Gnome....and named him Gnomeageddon. And he just didnt want to leave me apparently. Even after I gave him back and got credit for it. He was still following me around like a little puppy dog. I had to let him know "Hey, I am Darraxus.....I am not Megs. Get lost you ugly little bugger." I was actually sad when he finally got taken down to China Town by one of the shitty little kobolds.

Overall, I am making pretty decent progress through Borean Tundra. I am now about three bubbles from 70 which will be huge for a few reasons. I will get a couple of Emblems for the regular dungeon daily. I will also get all of the more powerful level 70 abilities and be able to wear some of the Cobalt shit that I picked up on the AH.

Once I hit 70, I will be getting back to tanking some instances. I enjoy tanking. I just dont enjoy tanking when there are going to be a bunch of overeager DPS running around in Heirlooms doing big time dps.

I imagine I will probably do all of the Nexus quests before I actually do my first dungeon. Better to have all of those available right at the start.

Anyways, that was pretty much my weekend in a nut shell. How was yours?

Peace Out Jong!

To the illest ret pally around.

The star the burns brightest burns out fastest.

It was a short and humorous ride.

May the pimpjuice be with you.....always.

I once wrote a song for you. The only man worth writing a song for.

Some Relevant Patchnotes (to me)

Engineering:

The PetBombling and Lil' Smoky non-combat pets are no longer Bind-on-Pickup.

This should probably be a nice way to make some money as an engineer. I am probably to cook a few of these up and throw them on the Auction House. Hopefully the rest of the engineers on my server and faction are too dumb to read patch notes.


Vitality: Now boosts Stamina by 3/6/9%, up from 2/4/6%. Strength and expertise benefits have not changed.

As a tank, extra hitpoints are extra hitpoints. We had falled a bit behind the other tanking classes as far as hitpoints go. This should do a decent job of fixing that. Darraxus want more stamina, DARRAXUS SMASH!!!!!

Revenge: Damage done by this ability (base and scaling) increased by 50%

Revenge will once again overtake devastate on the priority system. It should still be behind shield slam, but we will see what kinds of numbers we put up. Once the patch hits, I would advise speccing back into improved Revenge and getting the Glyph again if you dont still have it.

The Random Battleground system has been added! Similar to the Random Dungeon system in the Dungeon Finder, players can now queue for a random Battleground.

Sweet. Now I don't have to agonize over what I want to play and end up doing none of them. And it will really help on the queue times for specific battlegrounds.


Winning a Battleground using the Random Battleground option for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency and 25 Arena points.

Another nice little change. The good thing is that even if you lose, you can keep playing until you win to get the daily done.


Battlegrounds will no longer award Marks of Honor.Players with existing Marks of Honor can still turn them in to their respective faction's quest givers, including individual marks for those who may have more marks for one Battleground than another.Items which previously required Marks of Honor will have their costs adjusted to remove these requirements.

YES. I hate Battleground Marks. I hated griding them for the mounts. For the I had to run 20 WSG to get enough of those marks to help my wife get her Mechanostrider. Honor is easy. Marks suck ass if your faction never wins in a specific BG.


InscriptionMost recipes that required 2 inks now only require 1

Good. This will help leveling my inscription on my Horde Warrior as well as make it a no brainer to produce some glyphs that would have been borderline to create before.

The Cooldown has been removed from creating Titansteel.

This doesnt really affect me, but it will affect people who sold their cooldowns on the regular as well as the people who bought them. This is most likely a case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. It should also help lower the price of BOE crafted epics.

On a side note......I finally flipped a Orb of Deception that I bought for 750 gold for 1300 gold. Had a guy send me an ingame mail making the offer. Profit is profit.