The Armory

I really like the Armory. I like being able to look at the "recommended upgrades" and check out what my guildmates and friends are up to. It breaks the monotony of work when I can use my couple of "quota-time" minutes to bypass the firewall and look at the beautiful purples that I want...

So it's sad when it doesn't work for me.

Oh yeah, I said that yesterday.

RIGHT that's what I'm here for.

PROOF that yesterday it said I had last been updated January 1st (not the 16th), 1970

Hmm... I should have changed it to my Melee stats, and been in catform. Rawr. Oh well... instead you can see that in my Mostly PvP gear I have 28 bonus damage and 80 healing yay! No wonder I heal like crap...

Alts with Professions are Too Much Fun

I love my main. Tigersoul, however, is in a bit of a rut. The only Honor purchases I might want make are the Vindicator's Band of Triumph, the Veteran's Band of Triumph (not too bad to have them both, although there are certainly better rings) and the Vindicator's Pendant of Triumph (although really I'm still holding out for Haramad's Bargain). Total Honor requirement for the 3 of them? 41,900 Honor. I currently have just over 3,000 because of my Tiger-funk. They also require 20 AV marks for the rings and 10 EOTS marks for the neck, but I've got those covered. (100 AV and 14 EOTS)

Tigersoul basically is to the point where the only real advancement he'll get is in Arenas and Heroics, and like I've mentioned before - I'm not a huge fan of PUG-anything. I did tank for a friend through the easy Steamvaults run to the 2nd key frag, so I WAS able to get one step closer to attunement. That place is quite confusing if you've never been there and are taking the back way - I could see anything through all the plants and was QUITE confused! All that's left for Kara attunement is Arcatraz, Old Hillsbrad and BM yay!

I need to get my guild to start running regular instances for a while. I think some of our almost 70s would appreciate our help.

In the meantime - I've been leveling my Rogue Katryona (28 now) and my Priest Silverthorne (32) but more importantly or rather more FUN... their professions! Katryona is a Miner/Engineer, and Silverthorne is a Tailor/Enchanter. My problem... They are both basically at 225 in their respective crafts... and they can't advance to the next level (up to 300) until they are 35. D'oh! I need to get them leveled! As a side note on rogues and druids... IF I were to advocate giving cat-form more rogue-like abilities - VANISH would be my number one request. Somebody was saying Pick Locks (?!?!?!) but uhmm..... that'd be a talented kitty I must say. Vanish I could live with. I LOVE it!

About Engineering...
I like goggles and bombs.
For a decent guide from 1-375 if you are powerlevelling Engineering - TenTonHammer has a great guide. However I will have you know that Katryona isn't following that guide because she is having WAY too much fun using her Advanced Target Dummies and wearing pretty much useless Fire Goggles because they look cool... along with all the other fun bombs and toys that come with Engineering.

Finally, I can't seem to get WoWArmory to work for me lately. That also means Warcrafter won't sync my data NOW (I'm a bit obsessive) which makes me sad. I DID get to the Armory earlier today, and I noticed something funny. In the bottom left where it says "Last updated" it said "Last Updated: January 16, 1970" Wow! That's a LONG time since it was updated!! I have a screenshot at work - and I WILL post it to prove it.

I am ANTI Gold Selling

In the World of Warcraft, Gold is a WONDERFUL thing. It is shiny. It makes me happy. I like it. I have to spend LOTS for even prettier purples and shiny enchantments for those purples.

It gets expensive. What?? 5000g for an epic flier? Almost 5000g to get five tabs in your guild bank? How in the world (of warcraft) can I afford that!?

Maybe I should spend some REAL money for FAKE money...

BAD IDEA. Don't do it. NoGold.org has a great write up of why gold selling is bad.

I personally have never considered buying gold. Was it a pain in the butt to get the five grand required for epic flight? Yes. Was it frustrating? At times, yes, which is even more annoying because this is supposed to be a GAME. Was it worth it? YES! Why? The time spent doing dailies, farming clefthoof and knothide leather, motes, etc etc actually was a lot of fun as long as I made it fun. AND now that I have the epic flight - those dailies that were a grind are actually a LOT more fun with epic flight. So yeah, it was a pain, but it was worth it.

Which brings me back to buying FAKE money, with REAL money. That doesn't make much sense. I mean would you go out and spend a hundred bucks to get 1,000,000 dollars for your Monopoly game? Of course not!

Now if there were a way to LEGALLY sell that fake money for REAL money... I'd be all over that. But it's not legal. You signed the TOS so please have some integrity and keep your word.

Blizzard over the years has been kind of quiet about the issue at first, but now they are much more active about it. Good for them I say!

Thanks to BBR for giving me something to write about today - his article is better. Go read it.

Best Comic Ever

Seriously.

As a Feral Druid I must say...

Best. Comic. Ever!

Thanks to a post by BBR at Random Ravings of Warcraft, I was able to spend WAY too much time reading Goblins! then further research made me spend WAY too much time reading webcomics. And so I finally found Dark Legacy.

Woops. I'd better log in and see how my guild is doing.

o.O


(Seriously though - I LOVE ALL Droods!)

Druid Army Fun

I leveled Treesoul to level 6 yesterday while watching "Pride and Prejudice" with my wife. (Very girly show... but quite silly and I actually did enjoy watching it so I couldn't do dailies, but I COULD do low level Night Elf Quests!).

When I got to level 5 I had a whispered conversation with a random person that went something like this:

Random Nelf - "Hey can I join your guild?"

Treesoul - "Are you a druid?"

RN - "no I'm a hunter"

Treesoul - "If you are a hunter why would you want to be a part of the Druid Army?"

RN - "Oh, um, nevermind then"

Really there isn't much point in other people joining this silly little guild. At least in its current status with nobody in it but my 2 Druid alts and a few guildies never-played Druid alts...

BUT - was I being rude? I thought it was kind of funny, but on reflection maybe I was being rude.

What do YOU think?

Blog Azeroth: How did you come up with your character names?

I'm very bad at keeping up with the Blog Azeroth Shared Topics. But I don't mind too much because I'll miss some here and there, and do some of the others. That's what works for me and I'm sticking to it.

So how did I come up with my characters names? Sit back and get ready for a big entry - not because my reasons are deep, but because I have a lot of Alts! But for the purposes of this shared topic, I will mostly constrain my explanations to my main server of Dragonmaw

Early Original Names:

Tigersoul - My Main, 70, druid, my favorite character name I am using. WAY back before I was even in High School, I created a group of adventurers who I was going to write books and/or video games about. I drew pictures of them, and even created and used them at the Inn of the Weary Traveler, a WBS RP Chat room. Tigersoul was NOT, however, the lead character in these adventures, rather the best friend and right-hand-man (or maybe left) of the main character. But since you can't have titles like General or Warlord in WoW names, and simple names like "Blade" are never available, my major character name that I use almost everywhere on the web was unusable. So Tigersoul became my main. I like Tigers, and this character had a special affinity for animals and especially characteristics of a Tiger. So a druid fits perfectly eh? I actually have a Tigersoul Rogue, Hunter, and Warrior throughout various servers, but my Druid is the REAL Tigersoul.

Silverthorne - Human Priest, lvl 31 - Silverthorne also came from the same group as Tigersoul - he was the noble-born patron and sometimes helper of the group. He was probably more a mage than a healer... but oh well, my guild needs more Priests so there you have it! Interestingly, there is a high level Silverthorn on my server, so occasionally I get high level items mistakenly mailed to me. I always mail it back because no way am I going to keep something not meant for me. (Grateful people have sent me money even though it wasn't expected! Nice!)

Katryona - Human Rogue, lvl 24 - I have a degree in Russian, we were considering naming our daughter this, but decided not to. Still, it fits my idea for this sexy dangerous spy/assassin/rogue. Engineering is fun too, so I'm looking forward to getting her closer to endgame!

Later Names derived from Tigersoul aka "The Soul Clan":

Soulsword - Human Warrior, lvl 46 - Plate wearing sword wielding member of the Soul Clan, Adopted of course since the only born members of this family are Night elves... So pretty simple deduction as to why he's Soul-Sword.

Soulfist - Draenei Shaman, lvl 23 - My first main on my first server was a Tauren Shammy named Bullfist. Some of my guild from there moved over to Dragonmaw with me, so Soulfist was born when I had a hankerin' to roll an Enhancement Shammy. I love dual wielding magic casting totem dropping shammies! (Unfortunately, I DO like cows more than blue skinned demon-like things... but for some crazy reason which I'll never understand, the honorable, spiritual, and not very violent Tauren are Horde) So Bullfist transformed into Soulfist.

Soulspark - Draenei Mage, lvl 13 - Even though mages don't really have any electrical type powers that I know of... I liked Soulspark more than Soulfire or Soulflame... so there you have it. She's kinda spunky.

Angelsoul - Night Elf Hunter, lvl 14 - Simple mix of guild name "Angels of Wrath" incorporated into the Soul clan. I like the hunter class, but for some reason I'm having a bit of a problem with her.

Moonsoul - Night Elf Druid, lvl 8 - Founding member and current acting guild leader of the Druid Army. He's a Balance Druid, (or WILL be rather - 100% no changes!) and Tigersoul's younger brother. Moonkin all the time in the future... so his name will make a lot more sense then!

Treesoul - Night Elf Druid, lvl 2 - Officer of the Druid Army, she's a bit slow right now... and isn't anywhere NEAR the tree-form that is her namesake. Oh well. She's patient.

Silversoul - Dwarf Pally, lvl 8 - My kids wanted me to create this one for them, but I don't particularly like playing him too much... We'll see. Mix of my priest's name and the Soul clan. Only non-elf that has the soul at the end too.. woops.

P.U.G.

No I'm not talking about that cute little furry animal but about the notorious MMORPG phenomenon known as a P.U.G. (Pick Up Group).

I don't like PUGs! Am I original in declaring this? No way.

Earlier I wondered why I don't accept more Heroic instance invites... And part of it (as mentioned in that post) was that I wasn't sure I was geared enough to do it. I think that was actually a secondary reason and the MAIN reason is that I don't like to group with people I don't know for a variety of reasons.

So here are some of the reasons I don't like PUGs (aka "Why I don't run more instances")
Most of them, in one way or another connect to the others:

• Real Life ALWAYS trumps WoW - Probably one of the biggest reasons I am not a Raider, even casually. I have a beautiful wife and 2 hilarious boys with another little girl on the way. While sometimes I would rather be tanking than changing a diaper... my Wife threat meter goes WAY off the charts - and I tell ya... NOBODY wants or needs that kind of aggro! I'm lucky my wife lets me play as much as she does!
  
• Time - The time it takes to run PUGs in either Normal or Heroic is more time than I want to invest playing with people I probably don't know and more often than not don't even WANT to know. I don't want to waste your time, I don't want you wasting my time. Pretty basic there. I think I play a bit more than "Casual" players - but I'm not Hardcore either.
  
• I'm a perfectionist - If I can't do it right I'd rather not do it. So, when other people who I don't know mess up and it causes me to think maybe I'm messing up as well - (or if they rush me) I hate it.
  
• Flow - A really good PUG that meshes well and runs the instance flawlessly is extremely rare. I've been in one or two of these my whole WoW career and... WOW! Those were some awesome groups! (Had one in ZF - and that's all I can remember now, although I know it happened) BUT, the majority of PUGs are full of pushy greedy whiners that want to hurry and think they are the only one that is important or knows anything in the group.
  
• Groups in General - I love the social aspects of WoW - I have some amazing friends and guildmates. But I like questing, exploring, and soloing more than I like partying. This was most obvious to me when I used to play FFXI and you basically couldn't go ANYWHERE past a certain level if you weren't in a group. That group or nothing requirement (and school) was probably why I quite FFXI. WoW has been very refreshing in that you don't HAVE to group up to get most things done.
  

Now don't get me wrong, sometimes PUGs can be awesome, and on some quests, PUGs are a great way to get things done (Nethermine Ravagers, or almost 80% of the other quests in SMV anyone?).

Also for some reason my dislike of them doesn't apply to Battlegrounds. You'd think it would because many of the problems most people have with PUGs happen MORE often in BGs than they do in Instance PUGs. Whiners, complainers, AFKers, people with no beneficial input other than "Man you guys all suck" etc.

Reputation

Reputation is everything right?

Well I guess it depends what you WANT...

At least in the World of Warcraft. Increased reputation brings rewards. Weapons, Trinkets, Rings, Recipes for professions, and other less-corporeal forms like just wanting to be Exalted with EVERYBODY. Everybody possible anyway, sometimes it's just NOT possible. I mean you have to choose between Scryer or Aldor, Bloodsail or Booty Bay, Magram or Gelkis, and of course Alliance or Horde. The only way to get around this is by having an Alt have a different rep affiliation than you. And well really... that just isn't the same and probably doesn't COUNT.

Anyway lets take a quick look at my rep sheet. I am very happily almost exalted with EVERY Alliance force. Those dang Gnomeragan rep points are hard to get. 1,303 points away from Alliance Exaltation!

Now I DO have a plan, which is helped by Alterac Valley and the current Lunar Festival. I get 75 alliance points from every ancestor I get a coin from - so 18 more coins and I'm exalted. That takes a lot of time though, so I get rep in Alterac Valley. Alterac Valley for Gnome rep? How can this be?? Well remember all those quests that you USED to do in AV but now you don't because they are kind of pointless? Well... other than the polished armor buffs - I think it would be pretty difficult to summon the druid and the flight masters quests and catching goats just takes too long. BUT, if the other team is determined to Turtle (which most of the time they are these days - at least in my Battlegroup) why NOT turn in the armor scraps, medallions and (my favorite) globes to the quest acceptors in between waves. Why? REP POINTS!!! First off, you can get all the way to Exalted with the Stormpike Guard fairly easily, AND it gives you quite a bit of Ironforge rep as well. Once Stormpike and IF are maxed out, it tells you how much rep you are getting from the other Allied forces you haven't maxed yet. Currently for turning in 5 globes I get +19 rep with Gnomeragan exiles. Not bad. However. If you are playing AV for Honor - follow the tried and true method of following the masses and win - you'll probably get more honor. BUT, when the other team is turtling - might as well get some rep along with those 95 kills for the game right? Right! Mixing the coin rep with the AV should get me there pretty quick. Unfortunately I'm also trying to farm Consortium rep, Cenarion Expedition rep, Netherwing, and heck, let's throw Ogri'la and Kurenai in there too! Too much rep! It's CRAZY I tell ya!

For more info on rep, Nasirah over at "A Tale of Two Druids" has been posting some AWESOME rundowns of how to increase your rep with various factions. Lower City, Sporeggar, Kurenai/Mag'har, Cenarion Expedition and more - it's awesome! The rest of the blog is a nice read as well, focused mostly on Balance and Resto Druids. I highly recommend it!

Arenas

Arenas are crazy.

They can last from as short as 30 seconds to 10 minutes.

The biggest factor in a successful arena is the way that team is setup for the bracket.

Lets take a look at MY arena teams and make a quick discussion as to the good and bad aspects of these teams. (Links to Armory Arena Teams pages for each one)

2v2 - "No juice for you" - Hunter, Druid - Basically all out DPS on this team with a little healing from me. The biggest problem on this team is ME because a) I don't heal enough b) I don't Root enough c) I don't cyclone enough. I'm working on it. 3-7, unfortunately we were doing these on a Monday night so we didn't get credit for the ten. With more practice I know we can win more than we lose.

3v3 - "Wrathful Angels" - Our most successful trio seems to be the Hunter, Mage, Druid combo (yay I'm part of it!) - Last night we only needed to do 4 matches to get everybody over the 30% mark to get points, and we won every one of them. Granted - we are down near the 1200 rating mark - but you'd be surprised how many people buy those lower teams and basically "power-level" them up back to a better rating. You can tell the difference between a team that really should be at that rating and one that shouldn't. We have 5 members of this team and the constant mixing to make sure everybody gets a shot at points makes us lose.

5v5 - "Deaths Angels" - Hunter Hunter Rogue Mage Druid. All DPS is probably NOT the way to go in 5v5. Especially when you are against a group with 2 pallies, or a mix of a pally and another healing class - you will die. We finally added a priest to the mix - with him healing and me providing backup heals and DPS - it SHOULD work out a lot better. Unfortunately, one of our Hunters is Pregnant, our rogue is in the Navy stationed in Guam, the other hunter and mage are in Australia - and I THINK the priest is too, but he parties a lot - so we haven't been able to try out our new setup. I think with the good experiences I've been having in 2v2 and 3v3, I'll be much more beneficial to the team - EVEN though I'm an arena gimped Feral...

There are LOTS of PvP strategies out there - but in my blog readings today, I was reading Kestrel's Aerie and he posted a link to A Dwarf Priest where there is an awesome entry on Priest PvP tips against other classes. I actually got some good ideas from reading it (on how to druid pvp better yay!) and even learned some things I DIDN'T KNOW!! ((There is also a GREAT synopsis of the "Love is in the Air" Holiday - I got TWO romantic picnic baskets yesterday - so I gave it to a friend instead of taking it out of the gift - the baskets can not be, but the gifts of adoration CAN be traded even after you opened it to see what it was!)

Like I said I felt like I needed to use Cyclone more to help - but there are DIMINISHING RETURNS on cyclone. From the Dwarf Priest:

Cyclone has diminishing returns (first time cast on you it lasts 6 seconds, the second time is 3 seconds, the third is 1.5 seconds, the fourth and subsequent times you are immune) which get reset if combat is left.

Now why didn't I know that? Probably just because I didn't use it enough to figure that out. :p So it looks like if I run away enough to "leave combat" I can then cast the 6 second Cyclone again, right?

Great! Running away strategies!

One thing I have noticed... Some druids are good at ONLY the "run away!!" strategy and not the "run away heal run away cyclone run away heal heal heal don't run away turn into cat form and mangle the face off that remaining opponent!" strategy.

Right... Sorry about that got a bit excited about that last part there as I was able to successfully do that in all the battles my 3v3 group had last night. We only had one death in all the matches we played last night. That's not bad!

Unfortunately - because I only had time for one thing (and logged off immediately after getting everybody to 30% played) - I missed out on a VERY kind invitation to run Sethekk Halls from my good friend Ethlite. Sorry about that Helstrike!! I really want my Swift Flight Form - all this time spent "mounting" my Nether Ray is just too much time wasted when I can insta-shift into flight!!

Blog Azeroth: Druid Challenge

Thanks to Bellwether at 4Haelz for the suggested challenge... it only took me two weeks to get it done...

Challenge:
Hypothetical situation: Blizzard has introduced a new underwater zone to WoW. Due to this, they start giving all classes underwater abilities. The druid seal form is now utilized for more than simple travel.

Your goal: Design abilities for the seal form! Is the seal a healer? Magical dps? Physical dps? Tank? Utility? CC? Something entirely new?

Accepting the thrown Gauntlet:

Of course the only thing that could even be remotely possible here is the Tiger Shark! (Bull shark for Tauren) Get rid of that silly seal form, for it pales in comparison to this mighty beast of the sea!!

Heck, they even have the models in the game already!! (Night Elves get the sleeker Shark, and the Tauren get something like the Hammerhead model (See - MUCH cooler than that silly seal))

Sharks instill fear into the hearts of all who dare tread in shark-infested waters! Being such scary creature makes them a powerful DPS/CC mix.

Abillities:
Shark Form - Shapeshift into aquatic form, increasing melee attack power by 40 plus Agility, increasing swim speed by 50% and allowing the druid to breathe underwater. Also protects the caster from Polymorph effects and allows the use of various cat abilities.

Blood Frenzy - Upon critical strike a 50% chance to increase attack power by 150% for 5 seconds, once every 15 seconds. (Talent investment to get this or improve it)

Tailfin Swipe - A quick spin whacking the enemy with a powerful swipe of the tail stunning the target for 4 sec. and causing 150% damage.

Mangle (Shark) - Mangle the target for 140% normal damage plus 142 and causes the target to take 30% additional damage from bleed effects for 12 sec.

Jagged Bite - Serrated shark bite with damage plus greater bleed effect.

Feed - Activate to regenerate 7% of total health every 2 sec. by consuming Humanoid or Marine-life corpses within 5 yds - lasts 10 sec - 2 min cooldown (yay stealing racial abilities!)

And finally, the ultimate shark ability...
Jaws Attack - Shark disappears and all enemies abilities (up to 5 in a 30 yd radius) and spells receive an increase of 1 second to cast until the music finishes and the shark appears behind the select target for a devastating blow (30 minute cooldown) Booyah! Even better... the potentially doomed target will receive a special item right before the final blow at the music's crescendo... This item too is already in the game... Message log: "You have received the dreaded item" BAM! You die. (BTW - a must have Lucky Item that should be in EVERY guild bank. 'Cuz I say so.)

An underwater area would be great! Maybe there's a faction of less-violent Naga or Murlocs that'll give quests and help you out!

Other BA Bloggers who completed the Challenge:
The Dread Mana Turkey
4 Haelz
Lost in the Grind
All Things Leafy (Love the HGTTG reference in the title!)