World of Warcraft Strategies

WoW in Minecraft!

2012-05-27T22:13:00.001+02:00

This picture was mailed to me with the following description:

I got bored so I used some old ScreenShots from when I played WoW and edited them into a minecraft ScreenShot. I figured atleast some of you guys would like it :3
Two Belf Guards; Belf DK; Boar; Minimap; Hearth Stone; Chest (Harder to find, but its there); and the Character GUI

That picture fucked with my mind.
I couldn't see if this was Minecraft in WoW or WoW in Minecraft...

We're making up for the lack of pigeons in Orgrimmar!

2012-05-27T18:57:00.000+02:00

They are the heroes Orgrimmar deserves, but not the one it needs right now.

Old Azshara

2012-05-26T22:29:00.000+02:00

The new Goblin terraforming is cool and all, but sometimes I just miss the beauty of old Azshara :).

.... but then I remember how rarely I actually went there and how little I enjoyed questing in it. Seriously. It was pretty, yes, but very empty. I was there often to farm dreamfoil, purple lotus and essence of water from fishing (goldmine at the time). There wasn't much questing to do and the layout was terrible, but I found it to be one of the prettiest zones in the game.

No matter what, this little guy always cheers me up.

2012-05-26T22:07:00.000+02:00

My favorite pet by far, the perky pug made Wrath great.

Scoot scoot scoot* 'Cause pugs wipe all the time. *sniff sniff sniff *

My best friend had a pug. He loved it until the day she died. I never met the pug, but I wish I did. :( He has a special macro set just for her.

World Of Warcraft Pandaren Mount Revealed: Dragon Turtles

2012-05-25T23:47:00.000+02:00

Pandarens, like other World of Warcraft races, will get their own unique mount. Today Blizzard officially unveiled these mounts. It seems that Pandarens will be able to ride enormous dragon turtle into battle.

The turtle dragons look strong enough to carry even the fattest Pandarens. They're huge creatures with thick armored hides. You can definitely see their dragon lineage when you look at their face.

The art team did a nice job on these turtles. They're a lot more impressive than the plain old horses that worgen players received in the Cataclysm expansion. I like all the the little touches, such as the kneepads and the keg on the back of the saddle. A lot of non-Pandaren players will be grinding rep right after Mists of Pandaria's launch so that they can buy these mounts.

Mists of Pandaria is expected to launch later this year. The expansion, WoW's fourth, is currently in closed beta testing.

How One Dying Man Found Solace In World Of Warcraft

2012-05-25T21:47:00.000+02:00

I'm so used to mainstream coverage of video games being this terrible, moral panic inducing mess of hyperbole - so it's really refreshing to see a mainstream story about video games that showcases the massively positive influence games can have on our lives.

MSN tells the story of Patrice Anseline, a 51 year old man diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer, and the solace he has taken from World of Warcraft and the sense of community and solidarity he has found there in the wake of his diagnosis.

He recently revealed to his friends in the World of Warcraft community that doctors have told him he does not have much longer to live.
"I told them … I've got some bad news," he said. "A few people stopped playing and they just said to me, ‘What, are you serious'.
"They used the word Eminance, that's my other nickname on World of Warcraft, and they said, ‘Eminance, we are going to pray for you at church'."
Mr Anseline, who lives with his family in Moe, said he and other players with cancer were using the game as a support group.
"At the end of the day World of Warcraft is a game. But the difference between it and other games is it is a game that includes social interaction," he said.

It's an interesting piece. Most mainstream coverage of games tends to be negative, but this story reminds us that games can be at the centre of some really incredible communities - like ours.

Good luck to Patrice, and thanks for sharing your story.

How to be a good raid leader

2012-05-23T20:40:00.000+02:00

I'll be covering the following topics in this guide

Raid composition
Prepull preparations
Overview during the encounter
Communication during encounters
Tactic tweaking
Distributing loot

Your role in the raid
As a raid leader you are expected to take responsibility. I'll cover the main parts of the job of a raid leader below.

Raid composition
Before you can get your raid underway, a raid will need to be made. It is your job as a raid leader to set the best raid for the boss which you are going to be facing first.
There are 3 types of roles in a raid. Tanks, Healers and Dps.

There are currently 4 classes who's capable of tanking. These are Protection warriors, Protection Paladins, Feral Druids and Blood Death Knights.
Each of these four classes bring certain raid cooldowns to the raid, but in the current tier, Dragon Soul, I've found feral druids and blood death knights to be the more versatile tanks, making me want to prioritize having them in the raid over at protection warrior - or paladin.

There are 4 healing classes in the game currently. These are the Restoration Shaman, Holy Paladin,Holy/Discipline Priest and last but not least the Restoration Druid. The current winners here are the restoration shamans, holy paladins and discipline priests. They all have superb raid cooldowns while being able to put out immense amounts of healing when needed.

Lastly we have the dps. Every class in game i capable of dps'ing on a level that can compete with the other classes. Dragon Soul have been favoring rogues, mainly because the legendary daggers are so far ahead of every other weapon, and fire mages, due to cauterize. We'll get back to these later.

I say it again, every class brings something to the raid.
This is a link to a website where you can find all your raid buffs
This is a link to MMO-Champions raidcomp, where you can visually see which buffs you'd get with a certain raid composition

The ideal raid composition is in many cases as followed.

For 25 man guilds.

2 tanks (some fights only require one)
5 healers (some fights may require one or two more healers)
8 ranged dps
7 melee dps

Try to get at least one role of each class, except for tanks, when progressing in general. Some strategies may require higher amounts of a certain classes for the strategy to work.
For example Spine of Deathwing 25 man heroic required you to stack tons of arcane mages, in order to be able to beat the encounter.

For 10 man guilds.

2 tanks (some fights only require one)
2 healers (some fights may require one more healer)
4 ranged dps
2 melee dps

10 man raiding is much less demanding, raid setup wise. For example, warlocks were the weakest dps class on Spine of Deathwing heroic, yet we managed to defeat the encounter within world 30th, even though we had two of them.

Keep in mind that it is better to get the players than the good classes in most cases.

Prepull preparations

After you've set your and have moved to the instance comes the next job. Explaining the tactics so everyone can understand them.

For starters you want to do a brief rundown of the bosses abilities, and how to deal with them. After that you want to assign people for cooldowns or tasks.

These are the things you need to have assigned before the pull.

Pick a mage or / and a shaman, and make sure they know when to use BL/hero/TW
Assign the tanks - and healers cooldowns for specific healing or damage intensive moments in the fight
Assign people for specific targets if it's a multitarget encounter
Put floating raid markers for certain areas which are important during the encounter

From here on out it trial and error.

Overview during the encounter
When i refer to "overview during the encounter" i'm speaking of awareness. As a raid leader you need to watch the entire raid. You need to be able to correct people during the encounter and be aware of why you wiped. There are several addons who can help you as a raid leader, keeping tracking track of class - and encounter mechanics, which should allow you to focus more on the positioning etc.

The following addons help you keep track of class - and encounter mechanics

Ora3
DBM
Bigwigs
Omen Threat Meter

Learning to do your job perfectly while keeping an eye on the raid, and takes time to learn. So if you are new to raid leading, don't expect it to be perfect at the start. Find a balance and try to improve over time.
Currently the best "role" for raid leading is tanking. Simply because there isen't much for us to do in this tier, so we got a lot of focus to go around. On the healer hand, healers have got a very hard time trying to raid lead while keeping everybody topped up.

Communication during encounters
Communication during encounters should only be made by the officers and the raid leader. You wan't to avoid as much confusion as possible, which can occur if you have 10 people speaking over each other.

Tactic tweaking
You should always try to find out why you wiped. The addons recount, ensidiafails and fatality are all 3 good addons which can tell you how each raid member died and over how long of a time span.
After you've found the source of the wipe, you can either ignore it if it was a dc or whatever, or take a few minutes, sit down with your officers and figure out what to change to make sure it doesn't happen again.

This webpage can help you visualize your tactics if you prefer

Distributing loot
Every guild has their own loot system. It might be a loot council system, need before greed or a simple DKP system.

I've personally experienced all of the system, and can say that every system have their pros and cons

Loot Council
Pros

Loot based on performance and attendance
Loot is being given to the deserving

Cons

Corruptable

It may seem like a fairly good system, and it is. Though it's very very very hard to find the delicate balance between if the loot is being distributed professionally or personally. You may have had an argue with one of the officer which might reflect on the outcome when though it shouldn't.

Need before greed
Pros

No personal feelings involved
No flame from the ones loosing the rolls

Cons

Completely random

This system relies completely on RNG, which some would call fair, but can cause internal conflicts if certain people win a lot of rolls and some win none, and the gearing gets out of balance. The raid leader and the officers can ask the winner to give it to someone else, but then what's the point of the system. Overall a bad system to use.

DKP
Pros

Loot based on attendance
Posibility to offer more loot in form of more DKP to the players who stuck through progress
Easy to track loot

Cons

Trials have a very hard time obtaining gear when they are accepted, as everyone else have tons of dkp and they have none

Overall a very fair system, though requires a lot of work from the officer team, as there's a lot to keep track of. Trials will have a hard time getting loot, but then again, trials shouldn't expect loot when they join a new guild.

Conclution
Always be aware of your raid composition. 25 can be relentless, where as 10 man can be more forgiving. Try to get all your raid buffs on 25 man, focus mainly on melee or casters for 10 man, as you can't get all your buffs anyways.

Make sure the raid have a decent idea of what is going to happen, and have your cooldowns planned out before you pull the boss.

Try to watch what everyone is doing, as it'll make the analysis of what went wrong way easier and faster afterwards.

Keep ventrilo / teamspeak clear during combat.

Analyse what went wrong every time you wipe and make sure to prevent it from happening again if it can be avoided.

There is no "correct" loot system. It's all based on personal preferences and should therefore be something the officers decide as a group.

I hope this helped some of you out there. The guide is very shallow, simply because there's so much to being a raid leader.

Enjoy

So I hear you like avenger transmogs.

2012-05-23T16:36:00.000+02:00

WoW Insider did a set of all the avengers here. But they're honestly not as good as this one.

Waiiit a sec... Thor was a paladin?
Last I checked, only elemental shamans hurled lightning and thunder!

Really touching story.

2012-05-22T13:50:00.000+02:00

This was mailed to me with the following comment:

It took 3 years for my actual name to open up on my server (Twisting Nether, US) and this is what I've been waiting to do.

Really touching story.
I hope you enjoy your new name and time in WoW. Don't dwell in the past for to long though.

Will Feral

2012-05-21T23:05:00.002+02:00

This pictures was mailed to me. There are no words to describe just how much I love this. This is both disturbing and hypnotic at the same time.

made me think of this. if you haven't seen the bit, check it out. it's from funny or die presents and it's directed by tim and eric

Small Alchemy Trick Get 15 Volatile Airs evry day with 10g or smaler amount

2012-05-21T20:57:00.000+02:00

Typically, when you use Transmute: Living Elements, you will receive 14-16 random Volatile elements (Volatile Air, Volatile Earth, Volatile Water, or Volatile Fire) in exchange for 15 Volatile Life.

If you use this transmute while in one of the new Cataclysm zones associated with the Elemental Planes, however, the element into which your Volatile Life will transform will be predetermined. For example, if you use Transmute: Living Elements while in Uldum, you will always receive Volatile Air for your efforts.

Mount Hyjal: Volatile Fire
Vashj'ir: Volatile Water
Deepholm: Volatile Earth
Uldum: Volatile Air

Additionally, alchemists with Transmutation specialization will have a chance to receive bonus Volatile elements when completing this transmute. The bonus will be random, though, regardless of which zone you are in.

Need an exterminator.

2012-05-21T16:50:00.000+02:00

AQ40 was never fun - at least for me. I just hated the whole bugs/tunnels theme. Twin Emps and C'Thun were pretty cool though, and AQ20 was a blast.

Its not as bad as pulling the optional boss which only dies by ice damage and realising "Oh I'm a paladin solo'ing this how the hell am I going to do this"

Mont Saint-Michel France or Scarlet Monastery?

2012-05-20T23:14:00.000+02:00

One of the things I remember was so many pvp battles back in the day through that walkway. As Alliance it'd take at least a half hour of trekking. Taking the lake shortcut, and not grabbing aggro. Only to enter SM and have horde camping stone, or the inside by the portals. Then once everyone finally made it in, after multiple deaths, you realize you're in wrong instance.

I remember swearing that when I hit 60 I'd camp horde there for hours. That was one of the first things I did at 60. Unfortunately, at least on Illidan, the horde always got backup quickly, and the camper became the camped.

Azeroth to Outland whitout portal.

2012-05-20T21:10:00.001+02:00

this is a little exploring video of how to get to outland from azeroth !

" We were wrong all along to thing that outland would be somewhere else than Azeroth . It was on it but in a different phase or Mapid! I dont think Deepholm or Northrend are any different " said Glitcher Hector after he showed us the vid where he demonstrated how to do this on Eternal-wow ( private server ) using WowEmu hack.
You can get from Azeroth to outland withour using hacks
What will you need :
Druid or any other guy that has an instant fly mount ( eg flying broom )
Pally for speedbuff
a better spot than the one we picked ( one that is closer to the bluewall so you dont die of fatigue )
and Darmkmooon fare tigers
OR
Ohack and a paly :P
Architects HT&AG

It's Almost Like They're Made By the Same Company or Something...

2012-05-19T15:26:00.001+02:00

Tin Foil Hat time folks; what if the demonic forces attacking Sanctuary are connected to the Burning Legion?

One of them are the result of betrayal against their own master, one of the 7 evils. But instead of killing them, the master instead attached that "thing" as an arm and filled the creatures with poison which can kill their enemies, yet not hurt the master. The other... Old gods.

What girl gamers are like

2012-05-19T10:19:00.000+02:00

An old friend mailed me this one the other day.

Alternatively, everyone should stop defining themselves by a hobby. I can kind of understand why they do that, though. Artists like to create art, and photographers like to photograph.

Lots of Ottawa-area folks on WoW, I guess!

2012-05-17T22:17:00.003+02:00

Brother-in-law sent me this. Looks like there are some WoW/Alliance fans in City Hall (Ottawa).

You can also check out Silvermoon Crescent, Winterspring Ridge, Stormwind Ave to name a few here

Would love to live on Stormwind Ave having been an Alliance player (but yes have a cow, belf and zombie as well). I'd be afraid of being zerged every night though. I have a vision of me just giving up and standing outside on my lawn jumping every few minutes so I don't AFK out.

The REAL WoW killer.

2012-05-17T21:16:00.000+02:00

I havent had this many friends on at the same time since like the launch of Cata lol expect there all in diablo 3

My friends guild recently fell apart (they loath pandas) and he has stopped playing in the last week. However, he has started playing Starcraft II and Diablo III a lot now. Damn you Blizzard, you steal all the good gamers!

What does the Diablo Collector's Edition Contain?

2012-05-16T15:10:00.000+02:00

Evil that had been destroyed and long-forgotten returns again. Mortal heroes have to save Sanctuary again. The limited-edition Collector's Edition contains a very special set of Diablo goodies. It contains treasures to impress any Diablo fan. The legendary and rare items in the Edition would help in Diablo quests too.

Here is a quick summary of all the items in the Diablo Collector's Edition.

DIABLO III PC/MAC GAME – This is the full version of Diablo 3 on DVD-ROM.

DIABLO SKULL AND 4GB USB SOULSTONE - This is one of the most amazing goodies in the pack. It includes full versions of both Diablo 2 and Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction so you can revisit the past once again. Even though Diablo 3 requires heroes to learn the strategy of the game afresh, this look back into the future is a helpful resource for refreshing your combat skills before you take on the main Diablo 3 war.

EXCLUSIVE IN-GAME CONTENT – There is a fantastic amount of new game content in the Collector's Edition also.

Diablo III - Aesthetic Artifacts like special banners, bottled smoke, bottled cloud, glowing angel wings, dyed armor sets according to your creative ideas, etc.
Diablo II - Battle.net Portraits
You can use special portraits from Battle.net and army decal to proclaim your status as a hero who saved Sanctuary.
BEHIND THE SCENES BLU-RAY/DVD SET
If you love Diablo, you would love to meet the teams that have brought the fantastic storyline into being. This exclusive Blu-ray/DVD two-disc set introduces you to the team of Diablo 3 with lots of interviews. It shows you how programmers, writers, artists, designers, musicians, and animators came together for this fantastic project.
THE ART OF DIABLO 3
A special 208-page art book takes a look into the design and art of the game. It takes you from the early ideas to the latest 3D designs.
DIABLO III SOUNDTRACK
You can even add the Diablo 3 music to your collection now. The Collector's edition includes a CD of all the 24 original pieces of music from the Diablo 3 soundtrack

Now, who would want to miss all this?!

Make Massive Profits With "Runic Plate" Vendor Recipes

2012-05-16T13:56:00.000+02:00

With Cataclysm, 4 Blacksmithing recipes became either incredibly hard or impossible to obtain due to changes to the mobs that dropped them - most were removed. For those that were still in the game, they would only drop off of rare or elite mobs that had ridiculous re-spawn timers, with a chance of less than 1%. The recipes were:

However, as very few people seem to know, with Patch 4.3 they were added back into the game as an infinite supply recipe (sold for a measly few gold each) from this NPC in Un'Goro Crater:

Dramm Riverhorn

I've been able to make ridiculous profits off of these items already, as most people seem to think they are still rare drops or unobtainable. Below is an example of my profits:

Just for 5 minutes of travelling! Chances are these aren't in your server's auction house, as the server I posted it on easily has one of the most active AH's in the game.

You might want to play around with the price a little bit, as the profit you make depends completely on your server, but good luck earning some nice gold from this

The Black Market We'd Like to See

2012-05-15T22:37:00.000+02:00

Shattrath for 2 Gold? Still seems a bit steep... Maybe Dalaran.

Personally? find Northrend 20 times worse then Outlands. I generally quest in Borean Tundra 68-70 and then dungeon/BG grind to 80.

I am also really sick of the "You didn't earn it" mentality.
For mounts, there is no "earning it". It is all about luck. There are lots of things that I should have earned by now, but I have horrible luck. I'm looking at you warglaives.

Logging in today...

2012-05-15T20:52:00.000+02:00

I'm to poor to afford diablo untill the end of the month. So I get to raid by myself, yay! Guess it's TIME TO FARM ALL THE RARE SPAWNS! WAIT IN ALL THE DUNGEON FINDERS!

Oh why hello my fellow faction mate!

2012-05-15T10:42:00.000+02:00

I'd love to have that licence plate. The reason I wear Horde symbols in public. Instant friends everywhere. Also, a few instant enemies. :D KEEPS LIFE INTERESTING! Until it sparks real world PvP. O.O

Diablo III Midnight Launch Event

2012-05-14T23:05:00.000+02:00

This is it, the time we were all waiting for so long has finally come - less than 24 hours separate us from long awaited Diablo III Launch date.

To get you properly prepared for this Epic event we will now give you answers regarding some of the most common questions + Diablo III Midnight Launch Event.

Lets begging with our little FAQ, shall we

Q: Wen I will be able to play?
A: Servers start at Midnight (the night between may 14 and 15)

Q: What is Midnight Launch Event?
A: Midnight Launch Event will take its place all over the world in various cities and stores. Depending on the city and country it will last for 4-5 h up until midnight, keeping you entertained with Cosplay, sales, and various contests.

Q: How do I find Midnight Launch Event near me?
A: To find Midnight Launch Event in your local area is best to check your local news. In additional you might want to visit D3 Community site.

Q: When I will be able to install the game?
A: Game installer will be unlocked at 17:01 CEST on May 14 for EU players and 8:01 a.m. PDT for US.

Q: What is BattleTag and what do I need it for?
A: Battle tag is some kind of nick that will be used across Battle.net (similar to how you've used your real name with Real ID, but with made up name instead).
more information about BattleTag here Introducing BattleTag

For more information visit Launch Day Preparation Guide - Diablo III

I haven't played this alt in a very long time...

2012-05-14T23:03:00.000+02:00

Its pretty nostalgic but FUCK the days of needing arrows. I also have 4k+ of the best Wrath arrows sitting in my bank. =( I remember making the bullets you get from the ICC vendor. They fetched quite a bit of gold at the AH.