WoW in an Hour

Is anyone out there?

2011-10-25T10:18:00.000+08:00

Well I haven't posted here for over a year - but feedburner and blogger are telling me there are still people that have me subscribed... so thank you for your hope that I might one day return?

Anyway I have returned to a point - I've started a new blog over at http://gameldar.posterous.com - The Third Drawer

I offer no promises about it:
1. I've tagged it more as a geek blog - there'll definitely be WoW content - but ... as you can see the first post was actually about using Java for scripting. My interests are varied and I've been looking at things largely from a game design perspective. But be warned I might write about anything and everything... and it's likely to be a bearwall!
2. It isn't going to be a polished product - it's more a place for me to thought-dump and discuss ideas. I won't be doing any editing - and I write it all on my ipod on the train to/from work.

Something Different

2010-08-17T09:55:00.000+08:00

So I figured I wouldn't be able to stay away from writing for long... and it is the case. However I have decided to work on something different and new - with a different direction and purpose - the significant factors being that it isn't so time dependent and potentially labour intensive as writing here.

The new? Gnomish Truth - which is more or less a blog reflecting on current day issues (starts with Australia election issues) - as seen by Veritas the gnome Death Knight. It is all in character and I think I'll enjoy the different way of approaching the writing. I tried to start something like this before, but without the world that Warcraft provides as a basis for all the interaction. But it gives me a nice creative space to work with. I've also not set myself the same bounds as I had for this blog and so there will quite possibly be short entries of little snippets of thoughts.

So follow along with me there if you like!

Tanking: Barriers to Entry

2010-08-09T14:20:00.000+08:00

No I'm not coming back to blogging at this stage, but as I mentioned previously I did plan to continue doing some writing in some form. At the moment this is in the form of a post for the official forums which is sort of a distilled version of my post Leveling the Cataclysm Tank. I figured I might as well post/link it here as well... just in case you are still subscribed (which feed burner is tell me is the case!?!)

Gravity from pwnwear.com kindly posted it on the beta class discussion forums as well.

So the links are:

Tank Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=26398720227
Beta Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26399180642&sid=2000

And a copy of the post for those of you without access to the official forums:

There has been a lot of discussion about a "Tank shortage". From one perspective I enjoy that because it means as a player that enjoys tanking, and will do it in preference to other roles, I get instance groups via the LFD tool. Having been going through the leveling process again - this time with a Bear tank - with a mix of questing and random dungeons - I've been rediscovering some of the frustrations of tanking at the lower levels. I believe this carries through into the shortage at later stages in the game, simply put the barrier for entry for tanks is too high. A tank can be carried by a good healer, but it is a role with a lot of pressure, and particularly with the side effects of Internet anonymity LFD and learning to tank at max level is more than likely a turn-off except for the extremely thick skinned, or the totally arrogant. A failure at DPS is less noticeable (particularly in leveling dungeons) whereas maintaining and keeping aggro gives more immediate feedback to the aspiring tank.

I'm not in the beta to test these things out but have been following a bit about what has been going on (but I might have missed something) - so some of these things may already be addressed.

To break it down there are likely to be 4 main points where people will try tanking. I won't directly reference these, but it forms the basis for my thoughts, and plays into a few particular suggestions. This is a gross over-generalisation but that is needed to simplify the discussion:
1. Level 15 - when dungeons become available
2. Level 40 - when players pick up dual specs and take a tanking off spec
3. Level 58-60 - when Death Knights enter the scene
4. Max Level - having gone through leveling people will try out tanking or are bored with one role and want to try out another.

That said, players gain the basic tools for tanking early on - in the form of defensive stance, righteous fury, bear form and frost presence and the appropriate taunts - but there are a couple of issues still which I'll address at specific points.

Low Level Rage
This issue is actually the culmination of a number of issues - in some respects there isn't a big issue with actually generating rage. This is largely an issue for bears/warriors - paladins might share some of the issues, but have the advantage of starting with the tank full (assuming they drink)
1. Starting with an empty tank in an environment where people don't wait for you to establish aggro.
I would say this is largely a 'culture' thing - looking back at when I leveled my warrior in vanilla I don't remember having these issues because the maxim was known and maintained to 'wait for x sunders' before attacking. These days you're lucky if the dps isn't trying to pull for you. It is all part of the 'go go go' mentality which you can deal with at max level because you have the tools (and know what you are doing) but when you are just learning this can be a bit issue. Recently, when first playing my bear I would pull with faerie fire and run into range and pray that I would get enough rage to be able to swipe before the dps unloaded.

2. Ways to improve your rage generation aren't obvious.
There are lots of ways to improve the above situation by managing your rage properly. As someone new to bear tanking and also returning to low level rage tanking I didn't manage my rage particularly well to start with but through asking others (via the above blog post and follow up posts and responses on other blogs) I found some ways to improve it. Things like rage potions and stopping attacking towards the end of the fight to preserve your rage for the next set of mobs are good methods but aren't immediately obvious. Also, at that level doing damage is actually one of the better ways to gain rage and so choosing defensive talents can actually hamper your progress - if you are thinking I am the tank and I need to survive then that can actually be working against you - this can come down to talent and gearing choices where gearing for avoidance/mitigation hampers it. This is particularly true for starting bears since they can't pick up Natural Reaction till level 34.

3. The gear requirements are already higher for tanks
I saw my rage issue diminish on my bear when I bought the heirloom weapon (Repurposed Lava Dredger) to replace a mace I had got in deadmines (from the first mini boss). Defensive stats wise it isn't so big an issue, but in terms of doing damage to get the rage it was a big issue. Without heirloom items the need to constantly upgrade the weapon just to maintain rage could be a big issue.

4. Out leveling an instance creates rage starvation.
Much like in the end game once you have some decent gear - you can actually end up being rage starved. When I first came back to my druid I queued via LFD and got Stormwind stockades 3 or 4 times in a row. I was about level 24/25 to start with and so in the dungeon finder interface it was actually coming up as yellow and then green. Because of the level difference I was taking very little damage, and therefore not getting much rage from the incoming damage.

I'm hoping some of these issues will be addressed by Rage Normalization 2.0 (or is that 3.0) but I wonder if there is space for inflated rage generation for lower levels, much as has happened to mana so that in the beginning tanking is about learning group dynamics before slowly introducing rage management on top of that.

In game training about tanking mechanics
I'm not sure how much of this should happen, but I can see a place for having some form of in-game training in the basics of the tanking mechanics. Ideally this could be incorporated into the quests that give the stances (although there is no quest for righteous fury for example) - so that the players get given a version and then get thrown into a situation where they have to use stance and taunt for example like hunters get the taming stick before actually getting tame beast.

The simpler version would be just to integrate a brief explanation into the quest texts or with the change to specializations chosen at level 10 this could theoretically be incorporated into the selection dialog - which would be useful for all specs - something like on the class pages on the www.worldofwarcraft.com (but improved - some of the tips/explanations are very lack luster).

For DKs I think it would have been ideal to incorporate the mechanics into the quest where you fight Patchwerk - there is no healer, but you could have a basic taunt rotation with a mob - having them yell out to taunt off them when they get to low health or something like that?

I imagine it would be a huge development effort, but the ideal situation would be to have some form of 'training dungeon' where players could go and learn about the roles they can play in a dungeon, with scripted events to show the diverse tasks appropriate to the roles. In this way melee dps could also learn about behind behind the mob etc.

DK's start with gimmick taunt only

Death Grip is a signature of Death Knights, so I can understand that it is there to start with (as well as being a gap closer for PvP). However, Dark Command isn't available until level 65, by which stage prospective (eager) tanks will likely have tried their hand at tanking. For tanking purposes as the sole taunt it is on too long a cooldown, particularly when DKs don't have an equivalent to Commanding Shout. Additionally, Death Grip also serves as a ranged interrupt/silence (yes I know they also have strangulate) so the dual purposes mean that the long cooldown on the only taunt means you might have other control issues if you are saving it purely for taunting.

Tank Threat new to 80 (gear scaling)

The implementation of Vengeance will hopefully go some way towards helping this (although that is primarily aimed at help geared tanks keep ahead of the DPS) but for tanks new to 80 jumping into LFD to learn how to tank they are immediately at a disadvantage. I've seen it first hand going back to tank on my warrior who is Naxx 10 geared. Going into normal ToC I couldn't maintain threat against the DPS even on single target fights where the DPS were reasonably geared (e.g. had some i232 gear). Some of this is the result of the LFD matching system not being perfect and giving appropriate DPS to the tank's gear level. In reality this is failure by the DPS to check their threat when running with a lesser geared tank, but with the current state of the impatience of LFD it is all too common an occurrence and proves to be yet another barrier to tanking.

What it does mean is that the safest path for someone wanting to tank is to gear up with off spec rolls queuing up as damage or heals. This builds upon the already high gear requirements just to be uncrittable (for non-bears) and particularly for those that already have a main that is in the DPS/Heals role - they're more than likely to give up before going all the way along that path. I guess I feel this particularly as I have limited play time and can't spend the extra hours that this would entail (when I returned to WoW just before 3.3 I had said I wasn't going to gear a tank up again for this reason... I failed because tanking is what I love to do, but I did end up going down this route - as main spec heals, and started tanking when I had amassed tanking gear as off spec rolls).

Bears/Paladin's ranged pull (FFF/Exorcism isn't at 15)

This is relatively minor - but was picked up by another blogger that had been leveling their bear - that there was no ranged pull for a starting bear. I've always had it ground into me that you don't pull with a taunt, so I can understand the sentiment. Paladin's should have this solved by Avenger's Shield become the protection baseline, but giving FFF to bears at 15 would solve this.

Being the Defacto Leader

As the tank, even with the 'Dungeon Guide' tag, it often falls to the tank to be the leader in the dungeon. I have actually not found this to be too bad in the past - particularly with leveling dungeons or when Wrath was release as long as I explained that I hadn't run the dungeon at all/very much. There are two main issues:

1. Knowing the pulls

If you aren't with a sympathetic group it can be very intimidating knowing what to pull and where to pull it. In some respects the just pull and tank it all mentality of Wrath has done away with this, whereas with the careful pulling from Vanilla/tBC it was a bigger issue. With the focus changing in Cataclysm this might resurface once more. I know bears in particular have had an issue with having no ranged silence and having to coordinate line of sight pulls. Yes there are general maxims that can be learn - like pull the caster, but it does mean that the tank in theory should have done more research before entering a dungeon. I actually hope that the change to more strategic pulling will actually improve this situation - with a greater understanding that the pull plays a vital role in the success of the dungeon and people will be more patient with those that are up front and honest in saying they don't know what they are doing, this could also mean it is worse, particularly as the expansion gets older and people are running the dungeon for the umpteenth time - and we have a new player/tank meeting the content for the first time.

2. Navigating the dungeon
I've actually been tempted to make a post just about this, but as the defacto leader you need to know where to go. This is particularly bad in vanilla dungeons which are not linear, tBC and Wrath improved this by making them pretty much linear. Simply put - the best aid here for the tank is having a map of the dungeon like you do with the Wrath dungeons. I hope as the old instances are being done-over that instance maps can be added to all those dungeons too. It won't necessarily help know what the short cuts are, but it does mean you can get some more general idea, and build up more of an idea as you run the dungeons multiple times.

Tanking UI
1. Visible Threat

Presently I would say Tidy Plates - Threat Plates is an almost required add-on for tanks - particularly for beginner tanks. Being able to visually see the mobs you don't have threat on is an enormous help. Otherwise learning who has the aggro from what mob is hard to tell (and why Righteous Defense is an awesome taunt). I would actually suggest making this a visual effect on the mob or under the mob itself perhaps through a colored aura of some description - as I came across a situation where just having it on the name plates I didn't notice because I was in a tunnel (gauntlet up to Tyrannus) and couldn't see the name plate on the elemental because it was too big and the automatic zooming meant I couldn't see the top of the mob to see the name plate. It is the alternate red, yellow and green coloring of the name plates is the advantage I see - the resizing of the plates isn't a feature I use. I understand there is some implementation of this in beta (100% on the name plates?) but I haven't heard how good/effective it is.

2. Overlapping name plates not the default
The other side of this is that I think the default for the overlapping of name plates should go back to not be overlapping. As a tank trying to select the appropriate mob is a nigh on impossible in a big group of mobs. Yes it is still difficult because the plates jump around, but it is easier than trying to click through multiple mobs.

3. Player/Target frame position

I actually like the default unit frames (the main two things I miss when using the defaults are the class coloring and the combo points for kitty/rogue are not visible enough - I tend to play with a dimmed screen) - however the default positioning of the frames is not ideal. I find this for all characters - but most important when tanking - that i like to have my frame central at least so I can keep track of my health without taking my eyes away from the action. I have a macro set up to allow me to move them, but this should be a configuration option (lock/unlock) - and even using the macro the target frame always resets it's position on logout (or technically on a UI reload)

So those are the points I see as barriers to entry - some I don't have clear ways to effectively solve them, but I figured it would be good to have some discussion about it. So please chime in if you see solutions, or have other issues that you think are a barrier to entry for tanks.

WoW in an Hour: Full Circle

2010-07-13T12:57:00.000+08:00

I spent some time thinking last night (my wife had stolen my source of distraction - the computer) and as is always the case thinking is dangerous. One thing I realised is that my goals for this blog have been achieved. Not only is WoW a game that can be played in an hour, it is actually one of the few activities that I can actually achieve things within an hour.

Blizzard really have done a good job in rewarding the player for their efforts and even little time spent so that you feel you have achieved something. Leveling is relatively quick ,particularly with heirlooms. At max level gear is easily attainable and you can see the upgrades and the steady improvement. Interestingly I've found the gating of the heroics based upon gear to also be a point of reward (as well as frustration). As I've been gearing up my hunter, I'm eagerly awaiting the point where I can do heroic ToC, and the ICC 5 mans.

In stark contrast I realised that so many things on my todo list outside of playing WoW are not so easily achieved in an hour. With creative tasks like programming and writing projects I find I need more than just an hour because it takes me a good proportion of that time to get my head back into the space where I can pick up what I was doing. It either ends up with me staying up late (which I can't afford at the moment), or being frustrated.

This is farewell
Unfortunately blogging fits under this category as well. To be able to blog and to keep it up to my self appointed standards, each blog post takes me well over an hour, probably somewhere around the three hour mark. So to that end I am going to hang up my blogging hat. I want to specify an end to it and get some closure and not just quietly fizzle away, with a lingering burden to post.

I have really enjoyed writing this blog. It has given a vehicle to my thoughts and WoW brainspace. The original focus, of working out what it looked like to play WoW in an Hour, to my mind has been largely resolved with a resounding yes. My play time has changed, my focus has changed, but I'm still enjoying the game immensely even with limited time.

I'm proud of what I've done here. I actually lasted longer than I thought I would, and there are some posts that I've been really happy with (mostly linked up to the right).

Stuff unfinished
I had a couple of topics I did want to cover, but didn't, namely PvP and Roleplaying. The answer to both is yes - they both fit in. One comment in regards to roleplay, is that I've shied away from the roleplay side because it is something I like to undertake without interruptions - which is not how my play time is. It takes a different brainspace which WoW has not been for me, but it can certainly be a great place to engage in roleplay.

I'm not disappearing
I'm not pulling down the blog - I'm not sure how much will be relevant when Cataclysm hits, but in the mean time I hope it can be a resource to others like me who don't have a lot of play time each session... or who happen to be interested in what ever other topics I've covered.
I'm also not going to disappear from the interwebs. I'll stick around on twitter (although I have changed my handle to my internet name - gameldar) and you'll certainly see my commenting on other blogs. I'll most likely be contributing to the WoW universe as I can with work on addons - my own and also the WoWPro leveling guides. I'm guessing I'll also have ideas that I feel like writing about at some point (perhaps with a tanking focus). I'm not exactly sure how they end up being shared with you all, but I'll find a way!

So thank you for reading over the last six or so months, for the comments, for the feedback. This is part of the ebb and flow of life that we ride, people come and people go and I look forward to following along with those changes and seeing where the changes take us all.

Catchup over Coffee

2010-07-02T01:15:00.000+08:00

I know so many people that are tired, sick or just worn out at present. My sample set is not exactly diverse. My brother used to present the results of his polling saying that everyone thought x. When you probed you would find out it meant him and his friends. They were all engineers and male. For me, I'm a parent of young kids and therefore have a number of friends in that category and you forgo the privilege of a full night's sleep when you become one!

We are going through a particularly bad patch where my daughter enjoys my company so much so wants to have it for a couple of hours in the night (hence why I've posted this at 1am). My son was the same. It is my fault as both my kids have inherited my aversion to sleep. This time we have the advantage that we know it will end.

It is also the beginning of winter cold season. I think my family is going through its third set of colds. Add on top of that I've been very busy with work and have been working late into the evenings and you end up with a tired, tired Gameldar.

Given this state I was suprised by the reminder from Angelya of Revive and Rejuvenate that I've just passed six months of blogging (she started a couple of days after me). I feel like I've limped across the line, but at the moment I've got a building list of things I want to do but little time amd energy to do them.

The list looks like this:
1. Write a post on the official tanking forums about tanking and encouraging new tanks to take up the mantle with improvements in cataclysm, although I'm also waiting to see what is happening in the beta.

2. Test and help out with the development of the wow-pro tour guide replacement add-on.

3. Fix a couple of small things with my add-on mtarget and finally do a non beta release.

4. Work on another project I've got brewing in my head (not wow related)

5. Work on another project that is actually wow related.

6. Watch some of the world cup (even though Australia is out)

7. Relax and veg out with my wife.

So being tired in general I've only managed the last one (which is recurring - we've been revisiting Firefly) and therefore been rather quiet with the blog.

That said, I've still been thoroughly enjoying my game time. I've been spending most my time leveling my druid who is now a bearkin or boombutt or whatever you call a level 42 dual specced bear and boomkin. I need to try more dpsing on my boomkin spec as I was constantly running out of mana in the one instance I did run only to realise I was still wearing my tanking gear (I should have realised since I had more health than the tank). I've also been managing to cobble together my weekly ICC for a few weeks running and have got some nice tanking gear now - but I'm looking forward to extending the raid lockout and seeing more than the first four bosses soon!

So that is a bit of a catch up with where I am at. With the beta out now I double checked and I am signed up for it so we'll see if I get a key and them I'll have to make a real decision about playing in it.

Note the image at the top is from http://blogs.uab.cat/travellingaroundtheworld/2009/04/

To fish or not to fish...

2010-06-21T22:43:00.000+08:00

To fish or not to fish. I'm not actually talking about doing some fishing. As a WoW in an Hour player, fishing could be a good way to chill out and just not have to think. I always feel frustrated with it and haven't got particularly high with any of my characters.

The buff grants stamina, attack power and spell power. If I look at those stats however they don't provide me the best benefit I could have from food. Spell power is just more over healing for my paladin heals. However I am still short of the haste soft cap so I use haste food!

As a tank I'd benefit from expertise and hit more than the attack power. Keluin is hit capped and is well past the soft cap for expertise but more expertise or strength would be of more value. Of my level 80s my hunter would probably gain the most from it. But even then he would benefit more from agility. It really comes down to evaluating what stats you are going to find the most valuable.

No, I wanted to talk about fish feasts. They are the default food for raids always greeted with a "thanks for the feast" or some variation. However is it the best food for you?

To aid with the selection process I've created a small table of what foods provide what buffs because I always forget and I wanted a quick reference.

Name	Sta	AP	SP	Hit	Exp	ArP	Hast	Str	Spt	Ag	Crit	MP5
Fish Feast	40	80	46
Mega Mammoth Meal	40	80
Poached Northern Sculpin	40	80
Tender Shoveltusk Steak	40		46
Firecracker Salmon	40		46
Worg Tartar	40			40
Snapper Extreme	40			40
Rhinolicious Wormsteak	40				40
Hearty Rhino	40					40
Very Burnt Worg	40						40
Imperial Manta Steak	40						40
Dragonfin Filet	40							40
Cuttlesteak	40								40
Blackened Dragonfin	40									40
Spiced Worm Burger	40										40
Spicy Blue Nettlefish	40										40
Mighty Rhino Dogs	40											20
Spicy Fried Herring	40											20

The advantage of a feast is that you can guarantee everyone in the raid is at least getting some buff from food. They can also be more easily provided as a resource from the guild bank. I've been carrying around the stack of fish feasts from our guild bank ready to bring out at the raid (although I have to give them to someone else to provide as I still haven't finished that leveling task with Keluin). However, the materials for the other foods are generally easy to come by and don't necessarily require fishing!

So before your next raid have a think about the little bit extra you can do to ensure success.

WoW in an Hour: Remote Auction House

2010-05-26T20:01:00.000+08:00

Unless you live under a rock (which might be a good way of naturally heating and cooling your home) you will have heard about the remote auction house. This is where you can access the auction house via the web or an iPhone app. It is now in open beta on all the us (and just starting on eu) realms so I recommend going and checking it out while it is still free!

It is going to be a partially paid service. For $US2.99 a month you will be able to create and place bids on auctions. However, anyone will be able to browse the auction house without paying the fee.
From my quick playing, I like the interface. It is easy to work with and has some good sorting options which I've got used to with the likes of auctioneer. The create auction page is also similar to the appraisals tab from auctioneer. The best feature, however, is that you can post auctions directly from your bank (no guild bank access though) or the mail box. So, even if you don't end up signing up, the beta is a good time to clean up your banks (I have a lot of Burning Crusades mats for example).

The main limitation I've seen of the system (and a good one) is that you still have to log in to be able to convert the goods bought into a value added product. You will still need to log in to the game to smelt your ore or disenchant the greens you bought. So I'm predicting greater competition for the schemes of making gold that involve buying low and selling high! You are also limited in the number of transactions you can perform in a day to 200 (25 in the beta). This is there to stop abuse of the system and is subject to change.

The remote access will diminish the need for a bank alt. You can change between your characters and sell directly from them rather than always sending to the toon sitting in the auction house. It doesn't diminish the advantage of having an alt with a bank full of goods for sale. It actually enhances it because you can access the bank directly. I would like to see direct bank access functionality carried in game but it does take away some of the loose hold on reality in game.

Advantages for the time limited?
So what are the advantages for us with limited play time?

Play, play, play
The most obvious one is that we can fully dedicate our playing time to playing. We can play and then do all our auction house 'work' on the train to work (my phone isn't capable but I do write my blog posts then so if a word doesn't make sense have a look at your key pad for an anagram using the same keys - predictive text is a boon and a curse) or in our lunch hour or when we have access to the Internet but not to the game.

For me, this is an intriguing concept. If you give me the option of running a dungeon or tinker on the auction house the choice is simple I will always choose the dungeon. However, if I could do my auctions later then I'd be more likely to get into playing the auction house. I'd still have to log in and do all my crafting and watching the crafting bar is not my idea of a good time! However, it would markedly reduce the down time without having to worry about mailing and logging over to my bank alt.

That said, the greater availability is a reason not to sign up! The temptation to do so at work would be too great!

Alternative auction times
Another advantage for some one like me who only plays on a couple of days of the week is that I could place auctions on days and times when I don't normally play. For example, all the auction house guides talk about the price peaks on Tuesdays for raiding goods (Wednesdays for me in Australia). Therefore I could post or repost auctions even if I don't play. Alternatively, I've noticed prices for goods are generally more expensive on the weekend. So I could take advantage of the Thursday prices for goods I wanted to buy even though I rarely log in on a Thursday.

Also it gives you the chance to get some of the rare or high competition goods by increasing your window of opportunity. You could regularly log into the remote auction house if, for example, you were leveling your alchemy and needed some of those late vanilla WoW herbs.

Planning
The thing I'm looking forward to most, however, is the ability to browse the auction house. This will be available without subscription. Two ways I see of making use of this is as follows:

Being able to work out what gearing or leveling a tradeskill is going to cost me roughly. I've made use of the online databases in the past for estimating the costs to level herbalism and engineering. But realm prices vary and they didn't have much data for my realm.

I also predict the likes of wowhead will start mining the data through the client and will provide more accurate pricing information.
Being able to see the current prices for goods I want to sell without having to log over to my bank alt. I've already made use of this - checking the different prices for Dragon's Eyes versus Nightmare Tears. By looking at the online auction house I could see that Dragon's Eyes were selling at a very low price while Nightmare Tears were making a good profit and the market wasn't flooded. So I made the tear instead.

You cannot place bids or create auctions if you are logged into the game, but you can still browse. So you can just tab out of WoW and check it on the web (or even easier if you have an iPhone).

Is that a good idea, Daddy?
The only other question worth asking is how will this affect the game? Has Blizzard started down the slippery slope of no return by adding a paid for service that confirs some in game advantage? All the other paid for services offer no or very minimal advantage (the differences between races offers very little).

Gold is an advantage - but is changing the point of access a big deal?
However making it easier to make gold can provide a big advantage. As I've seen in my guild one of the members returned from travels and immediately outgeared the hard work I had done with my tank by dropping a whole lot of gold on all the best crafted and BoE gear (I'm not complaining we needed more tanks). However I think it isn't that big an advantage because firstly if you were looking for that small gain you would be stuck in front of the game already.

Limited Transactions
Secondly, the limit on the transactions means that it wont be overly useful for the heavy traders. The second comment on the mmo champion post announcing the change was to that affect - they do thousands of transactions per day and so 200 remote transactions was just a drop in the ocean.

In-game is still required
Lastly, as you can't do anything with what you buy except resell it without logging into the game you still have the usual cycles. It isn't an instant money maker. Lore in his weekly marmot said he was looking forward to being able to do more remotely like your tradeskills. That would be a different level of change in combination with the auction house change. The potential to automate the auction and tradeskill processes through a web protocol is very high. I haven't looked at the terms and conditions of the remote auction house, but I'm predicting tools that will automate the whole process regardless of the rules. In game Blizzard controls the methods of interactions and requires some human interaction. But over the web there is no such control. With trade skills included it would be a one button money machine.

In reality this is a change for the casuals - the time poor, money rich players like me. I can really see it being a useful tool for a few more dollars a month. It is a good move on Blizzard's behalf. The casual gamer's dollar is a highly fought for dollar and this is just one more tool to enable time limited players to keep apace with those with more time and to not have to constantly play catch up.

So I am in favour of it. Will I subscribe? Probably not - I am a cheapskate and I don't need any more distractions! If I had an iPhone it might be a different answer though.

How about you?

Tunnel Vision

2010-05-18T22:46:00.000+08:00

Realisation dawned on me this weekend. I've been queuing as dps and tank on my druid and I actually got into a group as dps (a group that consisted of four druids and a warrior) for the Scarlet Monastery Graveyard. As much as I love tanking it was actually good because it was the first time I've actually run graveyard apart from vanquishing the headless horseman back in the Burning Crusades. There isn't much to it so I wouldn't have had to worry. But it did mean I had to try my hand at melee dps again.

I am terrible at melee dps. According to recount I didn't do the worst but I was below the tank and the warrior. Now I did have to drop out of cat form at one point because the tank pulled the whole of the first room and the healer ran out of mana so I took over the heals. The other problem is that cats at level 30 have no AoE attacks (does that get fixed at some point?). However that isn't the real issue. It is one of a mindset.

I realised while trying to dps that I would spend too much time watching the mobs as a whole and not enough time focusing on my target. Particularly for cats (and therefore rogues but I haven't played mine since vanilla WoW) where you have to pay attention to your combo points - I really have trouble. I can't tunnel vision myself to focus on one target and so I don't use my attacks effectively and end up either in front of the mob of not even facing it.

My situational awareness training as a tank is having a negative impact on my ability to dps! Actually I do have a problem with facing the wrong direction while tanking too. I always sit at max zoom (as you can see by the screenshot to the right - that little grey blur in the middle is my kitty druid) and so telling what direction those pesky little mobs are facing is not immediately obvious. I never play with sound on so I have to rely on the error message that pops up - which is normally above where I'm focused and I usually have the "that ability is not ready" message up as I tend to mash my attacks until they come off cooldown. I should really investigate if there is some way to move those messages into my line of sight!

The classic time I remember facing the wrong direction and not noticing was in Gundrak. I was tanking on my warrior and we were going to have a go at Less-rabi. I charged in and as sometimes happens with charge ended up behind the mob but was facing away from him. Anyway we proceeded with the fight and I couldn't understand why I kept losing aggro. When it came to my turn to interrupt I missed it even though I used shield bash at the appropriate moment. After he turned into a mammoth I noticed the "you must be facing your target" message!

As a tank the mobs follow you and so in general you control their positioning. Shockwave has set me up with some good practices in making sure the mobs are in front of me but these rules don't apply when you don't control the mob!

So I'm looking forward to getting to level 40 and getting my dual specs in which I'll probably go moonkin! Tank and ranged dps with some ability to heal (I know you can't do it in moonkin form but I tanked a lot of wrath dungeons while levelling with a healing boomkin) will work better for me.

That said, I am still keen to improve my melee dps skills but I think I'm probably better of with a dps Death Knight, ret paladin (I did alright with my ret spec when leveling) or maybe fury warrior. DKs and fury, being more a rotation based dps class, would help because I can just follow that while focusing on my target. Also the Paladin and DK are a bit more forgiving of range issues (which is also an issue you don't have as a tank)! I wouldn't mind trying my hand at Retribution again as I have an OK set of gear I've gathered as off-spec rolls, but I don't have a spare spec to drop... wtb tri-specs?

So do you have any issues when changing roles? Drop me a comment if you do! Also any tips for a fail melee dps much appreciated!

Leveling the Cataclysm Tank: Addendum

2010-05-17T15:37:00.000+08:00

Vidyala from Pugging Pally (which is a great blog go have a read of her adventures leveling via LFD) posted a comment to my last post about tanking - sharing the frustrations of tanking as a bear. I created such a long reply I broke Blogger's comment system so I thought I should turn it into a post instead!

Vid's comment was:

Gameldar! I'm having exactly the same problem. I have a baby Tauren druid I've been playing around with a little bit - last night I had the bright idea to spec her as a tank and give it a go. I ran RFC 4-5 times (can't quite remember); she's only level 17 yet.

The rage thing is SO FRUSTRATING. And the DPS were not even letting me touch things before they'd be attacking, hunters in particular were giving me a massive headache. Half the time the DPS were tanking...those caster packs towards the end are a nightmare, and even any multi-group was aggravating. You can bet I picked up Glyph of Maul as my first essential glyph. Even then I often didn't have enough rage to start a fight, let alone use Maul or Swipe. Taunt is constantly on CD. Does it not get any better? I'm not sure if I'll be able to stick with it if rage generation continues to be such a debilitating issue; I thought it was just because I am so low-level yet.

Don't lose heart just yet! I ran another 6 dungeons over the weekend and things have improved a bit for me. One of those I was (fail) dps... but the rest I was tanking. I'm now in the graveyard shift so 5/6 of those were in the Scarlet Graveyard and the last one was the Library (I think - the one where you get the key at least). But in general things were improving for the following reasons:

1. I was running dungeons that were red for me in the LFD tool rather than green. So I was effectively out-gearing the content which is always bad for rage. Now I'm taking more damage I'm getting more rage (and making the healers work a bit!)

2. The pulls in the Graveyard (and Library) were generally bigger than anything in Stockades or Gnomergan. This again meant I was taking more damage. It also meant it was easier to lose control of mobs. I, thankfully, also picked up challenging roar when I hit level 28 which I made use of on occasion. Challening Roar and then swipe swipe and everything was generally good! I managed to pull the whole of the first room in the Graveyard - no rage problems then... although I wouldn't recommend that as the healer might have some mana issues (thankfully in the time I did it the healer dinged in the middle and got his mana bar back - in the time I was dpsing I had to drop out of cat form and take over healing as the healer ran out of mana when the tank pulled the whole thing).

3. I bought the Repurposed Lava Dredger (funny looking weapon, and smaller than I thought it would be) - which is the heirloom weapon. This replaced Rhahk'Zor's Hammer which is the drop from the first mini-boss in the Deadmines so it was getting out of date. Now I'll be automatically keeping my weapon up to date. I think it was Darksend noted in his feral druid guide on tankspot.com (I couldn't find the reference again with a quick look - it might have been in the video) one of the best methods of helping rage and threat for a druid is to upgrade your weapon!

4. I've actually had some runs where DPS have waited for me to get aggro. So those types of DPS do still exists... either that or they were just incompetent...

5. And probably most importantly - I've stopped worrying so much about other grabbing aggro. If the warrior wants to charge in an thunderclap everything before I've even got there, I'm happy to let him get hit a bit while I get the rage. I found it generally only took one swipe to pull the mobs back onto me. I've had annoying hunters too - maybe by this level they still haven't learnt to turn of autotargeting? But I had one particular hunter that kept running ahead and pulling mobs... so most the time I just let him tank it (which he ended up doing as he kept pulling aggro of his cat).

I don't know RFC very well as I've mostly played Alliance side (and I haven't run any dungeons with characters in range since LFD was introduced) but if I remember rightly it was a level 13-15 dungeon. This means that if you first entered at level 15 you are already at the top end and basically outgear it. So rage will be a problem there. So I'd at least continue on for deadmines and WFC where you'll be taking more of a beating!

Finally, at level 17 you also don't have Faerie Fire (Feral) yet (comes at 18) - this is an awesome threat tool that should be used on cooldown. As I wrote above, I've found that it pretty much works as another taunt as it is doing enough threat to pull off the dps if you target the mob and hit them with it. It seems strange to have a debuff that is like that - but I've been getting into the habit of using it (I've macroed mine with startattack because I almost always pull with it).

I also pinged Allison Robert of wow.com fame via twitter to see if she had any advice. She replied saying she had had similar experiences recently leveling an alliance side druid recently. Her suggestion was to keep getting the feral talents that increase damage to help with the rage situation. Allison's Bear 101 (as well as her other articles - she is my favourite wow.com writer... I've been reading all that she has written since she wrote some general things about tanks about when 3.0 dropped despite only just starting this druid thing and her clear paladin hate!) is well worth a read too!

So in general I've found it to be getting better as I level, get more experience and get more tools as well. Bears still really do miss a way of getting rage initially - warriors can do it with charge - although they'll need to spec into arms and set up a stance change macro before they get warbringer. But I've also found there is an element of luck involved. I had two graveyard runs one after each other. The first I didn't have rage problems and seemed to be taking more damage, the second I had rage problems - so perhaps I was getting luckier with dodges etc (I was also taking less damage because I had a priest healing me instead of a druid - but the rage is still attributed when absorbed by the priests shields). I'm looking forward to getting the dodge to rage conversion though!

All of this has made me want to try and get into the Cataclysm beta so I can try out low level bear/warrior tanking and be able to give some constructive feedback. I tried to opt in last night and failed - upon which it took me to the Korean battle.net site??? I'll try again but it was late and I couldn't be bothered stuffing around with firewalls etc!

Oh... and I was a bit disappointed about feral charge. It is more of an equivalent to warriors intercept not charge - it costs rage and has a cooldown - it isn't an opener!

Leveling the Cataclysm Tank

2010-05-13T23:51:00.000+08:00

I've been playing my baby druid recently as a bear tank (just hit level 29). It has got me thinking about the changes to the leveling game with Cataclysm, with a particular focus on tanking.

Now if you are completely avoiding all news of the up and coming expansion you might want to stop reading now, however I'll only be making brief mention of a couple of mechanic changes. If you don't want to then watch this video instead.

Infinite mana for the young ones...
Ghostcrawler, in response to some changes, mentioned that mages will lose their conjure food and water spells till level 40 when they will get a combined food and water one. The idea being that before level 40 you're not going to need to eat or drink. This should greatly improve the leveling game by reducing the down time.

Now I must admit I haven't had to play a character that had to stop for mana for a long while. The regen mechanics have already been improved and two out of my three level 80 characters had replenishment while leveling in addition to mana return methods. The other two I've played recently were rage based (well energy in cat form for my druid). But if I look into the dim dark past I do remember having to drink regularly when playing my mage and warlock (before I started drain tanking).

From the questing perspective what they have already done to the level 1 to 15 experience should scale out to higher levels. What I'll be interested in seeing is how this applies to the instances. Will healing and dpsing in instances not require mana breaks. Should that be the case - will it be a rude introduction at level 40 or will it be a gradual change.

Side effects?
Not caring about mana from the start could have some negative side effects. End game instances have been teaching us some bad habits already. Panzercow was lamenting this on twitter and in a recent post where the tank completely ignored the cries from the healer for mana before going on and pulling and wiping. My response was that the abundance of mana and the limited need for healing in the current heroics means that as a tank I have gotten out of the habit of regularly checking the healer's mana. I will generally do it before a boss but that is the limit of it. However the healing required and thus mana required for the trash while leveling can require drinking more often. I need to get back into the habit!

The other bad habit that I've been noticing more now I'm tanking at a low level is the impatience of the dps to start before I've established aggro. AOE tanking is the name of the game yet at the low levels you don't have all the tools you need to be as effective. Yet the dps have and use their AOE attacks. I don't remember having similar issues when leveling my warrior back in vanilla because there was the standard maxim "wait for x sunders" that the dps knew and understood. Additionally the just AOE everything mentality was not there. Ghostcrawler says they want to move away from that mindset but will it apply to the old dungeons as well? I don't see it changing except via a change in the toolsets to negatively impact the AOE tanking game even at low levels thereby enforcing focused fire and crowd control.
For now we have to be AOE tanks at all levels.

I don't see red
In tanking on my bear I have returned to swearing regularly at, and about, rage. I rarely have enough for 1 swipe and enrage's one minute cooldown is a long time to wait! It means I'm having to run into packs of mobs hoping to get hit and hit enough that I can get a swipe off before the dps start aoeing everything. Thankfully I have a taunt and faerie fire hits like a truck and almost works like a taunt. However I'm starting to think I might need to spec into resto to get furor already so I can powershift and start with some rage, as for bears at least, that seems to be the limiting factor.

I keep looking forward to getting charge to help with the initial rage issues before I remember that it doesn't generate rage like the warrior version. I'm starting to notice some other differences too. Most notably with relation to rage one thing that you can do as a warrior to make your rage generation smoother is to use a faster weapon. Bears don't have the option as the swing speed is set by bear form. I'm really noticing the 2.2 second swing speed at the start of the fight as I wait for rage to come in.

All the rage issues make me wonder if the changes for rage normalization coming in Cataclysm will actually help at lower levels. Even with big sets of mobs hitting on me I'm usually waiting for rage before I can do more. I'll have to examine my combat logs but I don't imagine I'm dodging too much given my current levels of dodge. I'm not specced into survival talents unless they also have some benefit to cat form so I'm also not losing out on rage from that either but the mobs have not been a threat to me - I just don't seem to be taking that much damage.

I've only died twice. The first was because we didn't clear the other rooms before taking on Dexteran Ward in the Stockades and got feared into the other rooms. The second time I ran into a room and started pulling and all the dps went AWOL and the mobs kept pulling others as they ran away and eventually the healer ran out of mana.

So the issues I'm having are all about getting and maintaining aggro which is being caused by a lack of rage. This really does need to be addressed in Cataclysm as I think it is one of the barriers to solving the tank shortage.

Tanking Noobs/The importance of getting it right from the start
If players try out tanking at low levels and find it hard (particularly if they don't get a friendly pug) then they are not likely to return to it later in the game. Additionally, we are likely to see more rerolls of people that are already experienced in dps and healing that want to try tanking with their worgen, goblin, tauren or troll. Providing a positive tanking experience while leveling is critical.

What on the tool belt?
Rage is not the only factor in the low level tanking experience but a lack of tools for tanking is part of it as well. Bears are the exception here because they have the opposite problem currently of not having enough tools at 80. But Paladin tanks do not get a direct attack apart from Judgement until level 60 in Hamer of the Righteous with the other main attack coming at level 75 (Shield of Righteousness). Now that will change with Crusader Strike and Holy Shock becoming baseline which will be a good step forward. Now that Paladins can pull with Hand of Reckoning it might be worth moving the talent points around to move Avenger's Shield down and Hammer of the Righteous up. Alternatively it would be useful to move Shield of Righteousness to be available earlier. This would help Holy paladins too. However I'll keep watching the changes as it might be improved for all those Tauren paladin rerolls depending when Holy Shock becomes available.

However, careful changes to the talent trees would need to be made otherwise the epic feeling of the key talent points could be lost.

Warriors are probably better spaced in terms of getting their tools and might be a good example to follow - I'm just speculating as it has been a while since I leveled my warrior and I leveled and tanked as arms. However I know from Cynwise's recent experience that rage is a still a big problem for leveling warriors too. I never tanked on my paladin while leveling but I imagine starting with the tank full would help there, but at least currently, it is recommend to start down the retribution tree first for real of command rather than going into protection.

Learn when the damage is less
Fixing the problems for low level tanks does need to be a priority as it is the best time to learn the ins and outs without having to worry as much about your party members taking a couple of hits as they will be able to survive. I remember some Deadmines runs where defining who was actually tanking was a bit questionable but it didn't matter. Starting early is a big key to learning and, more importantly, enjoying the tanking game.

Moar maps!
The other thing that could really help, given the expectation of the tank to lead, is to introduce maps for the old instances. Stockades is pretty straightforward but Gnomergan is a nightmare and it isn't anywhere near as complicated as other instances.

Interactive Tutorials
I've also wondered about some sort of tutorial system to give a basic introduction to the different roles in a party in a safe environment. Dungeons and Dragons Online has a tutorial system that introduces you to the game mechanics before starting. They already have the elements in place because they support solo dungeon play with the support of NPCs that party with you with AI. I'm not proposing introducing that mechanic in general as I've experienced it in DDO and Guild Wars, and I didn't enjoy it. However, particularly with the return of the need for crowd control, it could be a useful tool for all roles teaching the important components in some sort of simulated battle. Idealy a tutorial system would not be required because you could learn with guild mates. But I know I had to dive in the deep end and try tanking with a group of random people found by the global LFG channel back in Deadmines - before it got nerfed! If I'm doing something new like that (including the first time I've run an instance) I'll usually tell the group and I like to think people are decent and patient but there are enough stories floating about that I know it isn't always the case.

Visible Threat
The final change I think that needs to be made is to integrate the threat values into the name plates of the default UI in the same manner as Tidy Plates: Threat Plates addon. If you haven't used this addon then, at least for tanking, it is a must! I turn off overlapping plates and with threat plates I can quickly click target mobs i'm losing or have lost threat on. Before this addon existed I would frantically click the name plates of mobs I saw running off and would check who their target was before taunting. We have seen addon functionality being integrated into the default ui in the past (the recently announced chat changes are reminiscent of WIM). I can see Blizzard doing it.

So I'm watching the upcoming changes with some anticipation even though I'm not likely to have another tank to level from scratch again! We'll see - I keep being tempted to level another warrior or paladin!

Do you have any other changes you'd like to see to leveling tanks? Oh and all bear tanking tips highly appreciated!

Red Head Rage: Maintenance Tuesday

2010-05-04T21:25:00.000+08:00

I've got a confession to make. IRL I am a red head! As is want of my kin I have a fiery temper. However I have more or less tamed that beast since the age of eight (before which having terrible tantrums is about the only reliable memory my mum has of me). So now I'm an apathetic, laid back individual common to my generation. The only thing that really manages to get me riled is my son somehow, perhaps because he is like me in temperament as a child.

In terms of WoW there is little that annoys me as I commented in my last post. I roll with the game changes seeing them as part of the ebb and flow of an actively developed and dynamic game. However relatively recently there was one night when I remember being livid, absolutely livid at Blizzard. It was a Saturday night, I had had a busy and tiring day with the usual weekend activities being a parent and home owner. I came to log into WoW and came up to see the realm selection screen and there were no realms available. I hit escape to in back to the login screen to see that all realms were down for an unscheduled maintenance. This wasn't just a quick restart to fix a couple of problem but was basically a Tuesday maintenance brought forward.

The problem for me? Tuesday maintenance for me, given the magics of time zone differences falls from 6 pm Tuesday evenings for me. Now this has always been the case, but I've generally accepted that I pay the same subscription fees (well plus exchange rate fees because I am not paying in Aussie dollars) for less potential play time - these day I tend to have something else on a Tuesday evening. But this Saturday pushed my red head rage button and my wife and Twitter had to put up with a raging behemoth. Now days I like to think I maintain control of my logic at such times but I'm sure I was not quite coherent. So instead you shall receive the distilled wisdom of said rage a couple of months on.

Blizzard has been asked by the oceanic player base when we get locally hosted servers and have always responded to pay there aren't any current plans to do so. Now I can understand we don't have the numbers to justify that - it couldn't be self supporting.

Performing a dry run
However I think that having servers set up for alternative regions could be used to their advantage when it comes to maintenance. If maintenance for oceanic realms was performed at the equivalent time but in our time zone it would be performed about 15 to 20 hours before the main US realms. This would give them a chance to ensure that the upgrades and changes could go more smoothly for the majority of their player base by working with a smaller subset first. I'm sure the vast majority of oceanic players would be happy to deal with a bit more instability for the opportunity to play in prime time 7 nights a week.

Daytime support
The other advantage of this change is that the guinea pig maintenance would be performed during the day US time where potentially there are more resources, developers etc available to assist if something did in wrong. Now I work in the computing industry and I understand that there are issues that will only show up with the greater numbers of users, but it should hopefully pick up other issues earlier.

The Drawbacks?
The one major drawback of such a setup is what happens when some servers are down but not all of them that you get those whose home realms are down for maintenance will roll new toons on the servers that are available. Gnomeaggedon saw the worst case of this happening where the players came griefing on another realm. However, given the regular nature of maintenance I doubt griefing will be an issue. The problem will be the increased population potentially filling server and creating lag. Tuesday morning are specifically chosen because they are the low usage point - it is the reason we have cheap Tuesdays for video rentals, the movies and pizza. So the inflation of the population will be relatively minor.

Infrastructure changes
There will need to be some infrastructure changes to support this. Primarily the battlegroups will need to be region dependent so no more mixing US and oceanic realms as is the case currently - which will stop all the confusion of people saying "Good morning" to me in LFD when I'm playing in the evenings! I can see the mixing is a form of load balancing by distributing the high use times across multiple time zones.

Looking at it in the light of improved maintenance and a happier player base I think it will outweigh the negatives and is a change worth making!

01/04 - is that January or April??
Lastly while I'm talking maintenance please Blizzard give one of your developers half a day to implement time zone support into the login messages so I don't have to do work out when you are actually talking about - having to remember the time differences as well as summer time changes and having to deal with a backwards date format. Computers are good at those sort of conversions - can't we make use of them?

So what do you think? Is there some big gaping flaw in my logic or something that I'm missing?

Note: that image is not me - its a screen capture from a video from http://www.xprezz.dk

WoW in an Hour: Communication

2010-05-01T09:43:00.000+08:00

The signs are there that I'm becoming a grumpy old man. I'll present the evidence:
1. "Game[ldar] is getting snarky"
That is a quote from guild chat recently. It is not normal for me to get annoyed but I was getting frustrated in a FoS run with the holy paladin that was having trouble healing and for some reason had beacon of light on one of the DPS and wasn't keeping themselves alive either. There is only so much Ardent Defender and Lay on Hands can do.

The point however was that is was worth commenting in guild chat that I was getting snarky because it is a rare occurrence.

2. I initiated my first vote kick ever
I was running Azol-Nerub with a guild mate who was healing for me. In the run was a well geared warrior who
a) kept pulling aggro from me, partially because he was doing 6k DPS, but mainly because he was killing the wrong target (for example he was going full ball on the first boss while a watcher was still alive).

This lead to b) him dying a couple of times - there is only so many times I can taunt - and my guild mates Valyrn bubbles were quite making up for how tired he was.

Despite all this, it was a quick run but he complained and says to hurry up as we're heading to Anub. While I'm doing a quick check of the healers mana and making sure we're all there the warrior charges in and starts the event by tanking Anub. I was tempted to just let him tank it and let us four man it while he was just a corpse. However I then noticed that the hunter was locked out. I snapped and initiated the vote kick with a the reason "No frosties for you"... well it would have had that reason, except I didn't get the dialog asking me for it.

3. I snapped IRL
This is the real proof and my shame. On Sunday night I was looking forward to the ICC 10 man which I had been organising. I came into the bedroom all ready to log in and get everyone organised when I found my wife all excited about finishing up the DVD we had been trying to watch the previous night - which we watched on the laptop away from sleeping children's ears. I snapped and said that there was no way we were watching it. I was going on my raid and there was no way she could stop me. Needless to say this didn't go down well, but it was failing on relatively deaf ears.

Communication is key

I might be becoming a grumpy old man but my wife is doing her best to stop that, but that brings me to the point of this post. The whole of the third proof could have been avoided by some clear communication. One of the reasons for my reduced play time is to moderate what happened when my first child was under one. Through lack of sleep, that is normal to parents of babies, compounded by late nights playing WoW, I was rapidly becoming that grumpy old man! So my wife and I have an agreement on my play times and how often I play. As Gnomeaggedon said, in his WoW in My Hour interview, it is imperative that you keep to that agreement. But setting those bounds and adjusting them to changing factors requires good communication!

The above situation could have been avoided had I communicated effectively rather becoming overly defensive, particularly in the situation we've been in recently - being extra tired from having a unsettled baby under assault from new teeth, separation anxiety and being on the cusp of crawling. What I heard was "I'm reneging on our deal that you can raid on a Sunday night" which, in my mind, I had clearly established a few weeks prior. My wife heard "my computer mine mine mine roar I don't want to spend the evening with you".

There was actually three major points of failure in communication on my behalf.

The most obvious was my raging rather than saying clearly and apologetically that I had different plans for the evening. My snarky, oppose-me-if-you-dare response was certainly not the way to who friends and influence people.
I had not shared with her my excitement and the effort I had put into putting together the raid. I had been planning, organising, recruiting, cajoling people for a number of weeks and it finally looked like I would have the numbers.
When I had discussed raiding on a Sunday night previously, I hadn't communicated clearly enough that it would be every Sunday night and that I was organising it. Basically I had said I wanted to try and raid on a Sunday night and that it wouldn't be much different from a normal Sunday night except I needed to make sure I was on by 8pm. I should have twigged at the time when my wife didn't ask more questions about it, and just said OK. Obviously she had not realised that this was an every week thing, and I hadn't reiterated it at any later date either - particularly as it didn't start immediately and a few weeks had elapsed.

Subsequently, having discussed it further, and with more detail what it involves and what I want to achieve, we worked out there is actually a better night for it - when she is regularly out and there isn't going to be conflicts with our intentions for the evening. So that is the plan from here.

As an aside - the ICC 10 man was a fizzle for me anyway. We did get it going and it ended up being an all guild run. However I got bitten by the lag monster running to about 7k pings. Pings like that don't work for tanking, and I was having 40 second cast times for Flash of Light when trying to heal (I'm just sort of the haste soft cap so they are normally just over a second). And then my daughter woke up screaming and I had to go... so hopefully I'll see some ICC action soon!

So you hear it over and over and over again - good communication makes good relationships and when WoW is involved it isn't any different! So practice good communication!

Note the image above is from http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2009/09/twitter_fight_n.php

Slight disturbance in the force

2010-04-16T15:17:00.001+08:00

If you got here without thinking then my job has been done properly (as I'm writing this the webhop from the old domain isn't working) ... but if not there is a little something you may or may not have noticed... I've moved domains. I'm not planning on getting rid of the old one (since I pay nothing for it).

Yes I finally bought a proper domain - I got sick of being sent to the wordpress spam filters.

So welcome to:

wowinanhour.gameldar.com

don't forget to update any bookmarks!

The trouble with choices

2010-04-12T23:16:00.001+08:00

Role choices
I've been a bit quiet on the time constrained play topics recently, but there is a reason - I've been too busy in-game getting my tanking gear up to scratch to do the research for a couple of posts that I want to do. I've been working on my tanking gear as par for the course mainly through drops from the instances but now I've actually been spending emblems and gold on it too (I just bought the orbs and the eternal fires to make Sarontie Swordbreakers)!

This is the problem with a hybrid class - I have too much choice - and thus I'm not geared to the gills in either spec. My healing gear is definitely better at present - I have spent my Emblems of Frost on it - but I have been wavering - for two reasons:

1. Firstly, and mostly, I read Matticus' post The Secret to Being a World-Class Healer and realised something - when given the choice I prefer to tank over healing. The secret is all about practice, practice, practice - yet when I get the choice - I generally prefer to tank. The one exception is when it is new content particularly where my gear is not the greatest - I get nervous about being the weak link in that chain. That isn't to say healing is easier - as I saw last night in ToC - we wiped on beasts when the other healer was a little slow moving out of the fires (and I couldn't keep up with all the healing - I'm not that good).

2. The other thing that is eating my time - I'm trying to organise a regular 10 man ICC with my guild - setting aside just two hours a week. I blame Miss Medicina for inspiring me! So I've also essentially been learning the ropes about raid leading by trial and error. We had our first run again as a guild last night in ToC which due to having to pug ended up start way to late and I only lasted one boss before I had to go. I'm wishing I had read Windsoar's post So You Wanna Lead... beforehand however - I don't think I made that many of the listed issues last night, but I have in the past. The other thing I noticed was how much I tend to tunnel vision while healing - I can focus enough to move out of the fires, but I didn't have much idea about what else was going on - other than the feedback I got from having to heal people!

Recruiting
So on that note MARTELL or CHIVAS is recruiting more for 10 man ICC on Sundays 10 - 12 PM Server Time (that's 8-10 GMT +8) - that's on Saurfang US, an Oceanic Server. If you are interested - pop by on a Saturday or Sunday night and send me a tell - or send me an email/twit.

A couple more title choices
However I have had the chance to earn myself a few titles - most recently "the Noble" - I farmed my 100 eggs and found I had everything to do the other achievements - although it was till I had farmed a few more that I realised i had the Spring Robes to plant the plants.

I also got a whole whack of titles at once by finally getting my Crusader title which by way of requirement means I also got the Ambassador and the champion of xxxxs ones. It worked out nicely in the end - I ended up with exalted faction in all the capital cities after doing all the valiant quests - except for being a bit under 500 rep from exalted with Darnassus - so I turned in two letters of commendation at the same time. However I didn't end up buying my new mount as I figured I could put the seals to better use buying the heirloom chest for my next project - my next tank - my Death Knight.

Use of time choices
The other choice I've had to make is in terms of my non-playing time. One thing I've decided in that regard is to cut down my blogging time to one post a week. So sadly we have probably seen the last of the WoW in My Hour series. One of the reasons for not playing as much WoW was to give me a chance to think and do things that aren't WoW related and I have another couple of projects lurking in my head that I would like to see the light of day. We'll see how those go - but I'm hoping I might end up spending less time mentally on WoW and allow other creative juices to flow. I know I've really enjoyed the series - so if anyone wants to take up the mantle and ask hard (OK maybe I never asked the hard questions) then please don't feel like you are treading on my toes to do so! I'll point out - asking other bloggers is an easy task - they have a tendency to be prolific writers without you even having to ask - it is a rewarding experience!

Paladin or Warrior choice
I was asked in the comments of my Pally Tanking for Warriors post the following question:

I have a simple question should I level my priest with a prot warrior or prot pally (i want them to be prot) not just for leveling, but for 80. Which of the two is better with a priest as healer.

I gave a quick response in the comments, but given the theme of choices I thought it was worth reposting here.

What I did say was this:

It really comes down to personal preference neither will be better or worse. And it would be better to choose the class you think you will enjoy.

TL;DR for working with a priest - there isn't going to be a huge difference - at 80 warriors might be slightly better off when you outgear the content because the shields from priests stop the mana returns from spiritual attunement because you don't need as much healing - but there are ways around this.

Leveling - if you are going to do a lot with just the two of you the Paladin has some advantages because it has some tools to save other people (Hand of Protection, Lay on Hands) which is largely limited to intervene on the warrior side (you can also make use of Challenging Shout too).

But once again it comes back to preference. I would have a look at the posts by Big Bear Butt I referenced above for comparisons between the way that you tank as a paladin, and the way you tank as a warrior - assume that there are a number of similarities between bear tanking and warriors in terms of being highly mobile etc.

A couple of further thoughts...

I should note that I didn't tank on my Paladin until I hit level 80 - and I didn't go Prot on my warrior until level 60 and I also got to almost level 60 in vanilla WoW so my perspective on leveling is a little dated - and this is largely speculation. But in terms of the leveling process there are a couple of factors - one warriors get their signature attack at level 40 in shield slam and the new best friend (as of patch 3.3.3 - I'll be updating the warrior health calculations soon) in revenge you get at level 14. Early levels of paladin tanking there aren't so many tools available. However, as I was finding bear tanking in the 20s recently rage was an issue - and I think at that level having mana to start with would be a benefit.

Now assuming you blast through the levels you have different tools available that eventually even out in the lists I have in the original post. I would say at earlier levels Paladins are already seeing AoE threat advantages through consecrate - and also Seal of Command (which is usually the best option going down Ret to start with) with warriors missing out on shockwave until level 60.

One last point from my perspective, the off spec options for Paladins are greater than a warrior - in terms of healing, but also in terms of DPS. My dps experience is very limited - but I've found that Retribution is a lot more forgiving on positioning than a warrior (I've never been fury so this is solely based on Arms) - and for someone that has trouble with melee DPS (I'm fine if I'm controlling the mobs) I found I go better performance from my paladin. Some of this will be likely due to gear - the theory being Warriors are the most gear dependent, and on the flip side Retribution starts out better but doesn't scale as well. I can't say because neither of my gear sets for DPS have been any good. I laugh whenever I look at my Arms gear!

But I'll reiterate - they are different classes so preferences will vary - but purely min/maxing there isn't a lot of difference in it from what I have seen. Interestingly the warrior tanking our ToC run last night was saying he didn't want to offtank because he started his warrior after always having to offtank with his protection paladin - but a lot of that is a carry over from old (e.g. tBC) expectations. Both can main tank or off tank. The other issue with the question is this though - that it is hard to compare before you get to max level as the tanking experience and tools do change - perhaps not as much from about level 60 although you are missing some tools on both sides!

So ... two roads diverge in a wood... or is that many roads/choices... damn it - I was never good at decision making!

WoW in My Hour - Jaedia

2010-04-08T21:14:00.000+08:00

WoW in My Hour is on to its seventh installment where I interview other bloggers and WoW players to explore the different ways people spend their time in game and speculate (or relate) what/how they might prioritise the smaller time periods - particularly if that is all they are left with. We cross another border this week to the European side of the fence.

Can you please introduce yourself. Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do (blog about) - in terms of WoW?

I go by the name Jaedia, I play a Hunter (and many alts), and I tend to blog about whatever's in my mind really. I started 'The Lazy Sniper' as a Hunter blog, but since I quit raiding I haven't had much interest in patch notes and such. I like to help out once in a while with a guide if I feel it would be useful, for example, when SAN started up I wrote a guide for levelling Hunters. These days I've become more of a 'general' WoW blogger, though I try to keep the focus on Hunters every now and then.
How would you describe yourself as a WoW player? Hardcore, casual (and what you mean by those if you choose to use them), raider, PvPer etc

I couldn't call myself hardcore or casual to be honest. I do play a lot, but mostly on alts, and working on achievements. I'm an altoholic and an achievement hoarder. I currently have 6 80s, and around 20 characters across 3 servers. My aim is to try one of each class, and to see how many achievements I can get on my main. I also collect things: mounts, pets, tabards. Anything aesthetic I suppose, I like them, they give us as characters a little bit of individuality.
What does a typical week of WoW playing look like?

At the moment, my main goals are to finish Loremaster on Fae [ed: which she achieved not long after her initial responses], and level my Rogue in SAN. I'm having a lot of fun in SAN and on Argent Dawn, so most of my WoW time is spent over there. I also like to play the auction house a little bit. I get the same thrill out of making gold as I do for earning achievements.
You've stated in your blog that you've stopped raiding - how come? Is there anything that would bring you back to the raiding table?

I wrote a post about the why actually. The main reason being the way raiding affects people. I've seen people I considered to be friends turn quite nasty, becoming fairly elitist and up themselves and for no real reason stop talking to me. After some fairly heavy guild drama I had enough. I don't care for the elitist attitudes, and cold shoulders, or scheduling my time ingame. I like to log in and think "What am I going to do today?" And I can decide to do a few instances on my Death Knight, and if anybody asks "Could you help me with something/would you like to join us here?" I'm free to say yes, I have no raid time restrictions, and I like that. If raiding was more about having a bit of fun once in a while rather than progress, then perhaps but I can't make any promises.
Is there anything (in WoW) that you wished you could get into but just don't have the time (or for some other reason)?

PvP I think. It's the only aspect of the game I've never really been able to get into. I've tried, and I go through phases where I find joining an AV and seeing how many times I can kill a certain player (whoever kills me first or has a bad name usually) or how I can hone my skills, quite fun. The thing is it never lasts, and PvP causes so many flared tempers that after a while I start to become frustrated. I'd love to try arena properly, I just don't have the confidence, and I can't enjoy it properly.
Your favourite class is hunters - what is it that attracts you to them?

You know, my first class was a Warlock, which originally I found boring, I couldn't get into the class (I have a little more now). So, I rerolled a Priest, planned to heal, specced Shadow and never turned back. I played her for most of TBC and part of Wrath, but about halfway through last year I realised I had a new love of Hunters. I couldn't pin it down exactly, though choosing and naming your ingame companion is quite nice, though the complexity of Marksman and Survival (compared to other specs I've played in the past) feels fun. It's a ranged melee class to me, which is unique.
One thing I've noted is that hunters are often very passionate about their class. Is there one particular mechanic, or style that would break the class for you if it was changed?

Actually, yes. If Hunters ever.. God forbid, became a melee class. I play melee classes, I enjoy them, but I don't think I'd like one to be my main. Hunters are ranged and that wouldn't work. Incidentally, I'm growing slightly tired of Hunter pet mechanics. This is something else I've posted about fairly recently, in fact. I'm bored of seeing all PvErs running around with a Wolf pet. It's so bland, there is no variety anymore! I'd like there to be.
What is the one biggest tip you can give a starting out hunter?

Please, please, please let the tank pull, use Feign Death when you get it, and strength and spell power gear? Yeah, not for you. Agility. Oh and.. bears are insanely good tanks. Okay, so that's not 'one' big tip, but I notice a lot of.. um.. 'huntards' in LFG.
Congratulations on your Loremaster Achievement - as an achievement affectionardo do you have one you are most proud of? Assuming this is Loremaster what is the one you're second most proud of? What is it about the achievements that makes them special?

Thank you :) *thinks* Ooh, I do have an achievement that I am a little more proud of than Loremaster. I have both Bloody Rare and Frostbitten. Even with NPC Scan and strange hours, it was pretty difficult to get them both. I went a little bit insane searching for Loque'nahak in the end and went a little insane, haha. I happened to log my Hunter out over the ledge of white gorillas, and whilst mining on my Warlock I saw it, relogged quickly and got it. You have no idea how happy that made me! The thing that makes them so special for me is purely the feeling you get when you achieve something nice. A little bit of pride. The same feeling you get when you kill a particularly hard boss, or reach a high arena rating.
Do you wish there was something to do with the achievement points, other than bragging rights?

Nah, I think they are what they are. Just another collection of things. Another number. Some reward you with nice things like mounts, pets, titles, and some are just there for fun. Though I think 'Well Read' deserves a title 'the Librarian' or something, because that's just 10 points for a fairly time consuming task. I also think that the over 9000 achievement should give a title and a tabard perhaps 'the Collector' maybe.. I'm not great at naming things!
How well do you think achievements fit into a WoW in an Hour playstyle? Is there some that would not be possible?

Achievements are a great way to whittle away an hour. You can put a lot of effort into some, for example a few PvP achievements, and you can sit back and relax for a few others, depending on your mood. If you only had an hour's play time to spend on your achievements however, a few might be a little difficult, specifically a few of the raiding achievements because it would be hard to get several people to spend an hour in Sunwell, and come back the next day spend an hour, just as an example. They do require a lot of free time to get a lot of points, but if you're just after a nice little time waster then they're absolutely great.
If you had only an hour to play WoW in any given session how would you fill your time?

I'd play the auction house, first and foremost. Perhaps I'd chip away slowly at an alt, occasionally join an instance, perhaps risk a battleground. Generally hang around in guild and chat.
If you could only ever play for an hour at a time - would you? If yes, then how would you see your in game activities change? If no - why not?

Hmm.. I couldn't be sure unless it happened. I'd say yes now, but I think after a little while I'd grow bored of the game and cancel my subscription. Whenever I take long breaks away, I tend to get the urge to quit and then something pulls me back in. I'm sure that would make me want to quit in the same way. In that hour I'd feel more satisfied with reading a book I think, personally.
Would you be willing to be part of a raiding crew/guild that only raided for an hour at a time? Do you think it's feasible?

Possibly. Though I play a lot, raiding for an hour at a time would make thing a little more interesting and would be less likely to induce burnout.
Do you have any tips/advice for making the most of your WoW play time?

Definitely go with whatever's going to make you happiest while you're playing. If that means rerolling, changing guilds, sticking with your friends when a better guild is asking you to join, anything like that, if it will make the game more enjoyable for you, and you speak to the people who matter first, then go for it. At the end of the day, WoW is a game, whilst remembering there are people behind the avatars, also remember that you don't have to play a class you hate.

Thanks so much Jaedia for taking the time out to answer my questions - and for your lightning fast response to them too! As usual if you have questions for Jaedia I'm sure she'll be willing to answer them - so ask away in the comments!

The trouble with pugs...

2010-04-06T23:36:00.000+08:00

More often than not I organise a pug for the raid weekly - comprising of a couple of guildies and the rest being random people that answer the call via /1, /2 and /4 (does anyone else find it annoying that Looking For Group is only available in cities). Normally I'm not that worried about who I get - I'll take pretty much anyone - but a couple of weeks ago my server had Lord Marrowgar Must Die! for the first time. So for the first time ever I added a 'pst gearscore/achievement' to the end of the recruitment. It made me feel dirty (I do run gearscore at times), but it does provide a basic threshold for working out who to invite. I didn't automatically go for the highest gearscore responses but tended to do it on a first come first serve basis (with achievement link being a bit more important) and had to make some decisions about what class based upon being melee/ranged.

Anecdotal Evidence
Anyway the group was formed and after some hassles getting in there due to the stupid phasing issues at the stone we started clearing the trash. Everything was going fine and we didn't have any major issues with the trash except that someone popped one of the traps that we could have skipped - the tanks picked it up and we proceeded up to Marrowgar. Now someone gave a brief explanation of what was going to happen and I emphasised that melee and ranged will need to break the bone spikes because we were melee heavy and then we gave it a shot. I think we got just out of the first Bone Storm when we wiped.

We gave it four attempts before I had to go and the raid fell apart. We wiped on the trash before the second attempt because someone didn't follow the same path back in as the previous clear and triggered the traps and pulled mobs. We lost the first healer after the second attempt, which I quickly found a replacement for, and they lasted one attempt before they decided we were a no-hope pug and we found a final replacement not too quickly. There were certainly plenty of people looking to pug the weekly.

However despite the good gearscores of the players (I had the lowest of them all and I was fine for healing it) it couldn't determine if they were competent players. Could they get out of the fire, and more importantly could the DPS kill the bone spikes? On the last attempt, it was most obvious why we were having trouble - it was the second issue - the DPS were not breaking the player out of bone spikes - it was being done by one player - one of my guild mates. How do I know this - because on the last attempt he was the first one to be hit by the bone spikes and he was still stuck when we wiped 1 more bone spike and a bone storm later.

On the flip side - on that last attempt I did think we would have some trouble because I could see from the gearscore that the replacement healer was not really ready for 10 man ToC let alone 10 man ICC - and I really did feel the loss in healing. But I will re-emphasis that it can only be a general guide - I know I could boost my gearscore in my healing spec with a new libram but the iLevel 200 one is still the best option.

Measuring Competency
So the question is - how do you find out which players are competent or not? The only person that linked me their achievement was one of the DPS - who did nothing to help with the bone spikes - so it is not a fool proof check either. I haven't tried out the Elitist Group add-on and I think it would help a little bit more than gearscore, but it cannot answer the question either - but can more completely measure general playing experience.

In contrast to the Marrowgar weekly, last week I organised the raid weekly for Instructor Razuvious Must Die! - again with a couple of (different) guildies. Now this is a different level of difficulty to Lord Marrowgar, but we got into Naxx to find that neither of the tanks had tanked it before - a fight which is traditionally hard to master in one attempt. So I switched to my tank spec and got another to heal it, and after a couple of false starts we ended up downing him - with what amounted to 8 players (I didn't realise until later than the tank I asked to DPS didn't have dual specs and so was tanking in his tanking gear and spec - and we lost a healer to a disconnection so I switched back to healing). What made it work? The players - in this case one of the DPS knew what they were doing and took over the tanking but the other tank who had never done it before picked it up with ease. I know when I first tanked it I wiped us twice before I got the hang of the mind control. I was impressed by this tank, to say the least.

So gearscore (or any other add-on) could not tell me any of this. How do we form a pug with some hope of success? The main way I normally approach this is to have people I know that are competent filling key roles. I normally like to have a healer and a tank that I know (i.e. are from my guild) and often when organising the weekly this is the case, but as I saw in the Marrowgar attempts you also need competent DPS (an more than one).

Where did all my friends go?
One thing I finally came to recognise today, after reading Veneretio's post The Dungeon Tool is ruining your chances of raid tanking, is that in times of yore I would have had people on my friends list to call upon (and actually did) when trying to fill raid spots (and in those days 5 man spots). My friends list has fallen into disrepute - for four reasons:

As Veneretio pointed out - I'm not making new friends because LFD means they are just random faces, rather than faces I could intentionally run into again (by a large - I should take more note of who is on my server when running pugs)
I took a break from WoW for 3 months - so the constant contact I used to have isn't there. Additionally I am playing less, and usually earlier in the evening, so our overlap times have changed.
I've switched mains to a main that jumped straight into raiding with my guild - so Keluin's friends list is largely people I leveled with - which they most likely hit 80 way before Keluin did and so the time we last played together is even longer.
I've been part of the same guild for about 10 months now and they have always been active in running dungeons together - prior to the introduction of LDF I hadn't had exposure to pugs for a good long while.

So all of these things mean that my friends list is out of date - probably filled with people that don't play any more etc, etc.

The raid weekly is the dungeon of old
Find competent players has become a bit more pertinent a question as I've been looking to organise a once a week 10 man ICC raid night as part of my guild. Given my time restrictions, and being in a relatively small guild - this means that we will have to look outside the guild to fill in the places for a regular 10 man. So in discussions with my GM (who was also with me in the Marrowgar attempt) we have started to look out for good players to fill the gaps that need filling.

So the question about choosing pug members from the wall of messages that you receive still remains unanswered - but I can see that the raid weekly pug is going to have to become the new format for finding those dependable players - all-be-it once a week. I know I need to start taking note of names again!

Does anyone have a magical tool for pug discernment?

The Great Blog Noblegarden Egg Hunt

2010-04-03T07:27:00.000+08:00

Just a quick note to say that WoW in an Hour is also taking part in The Great Blog Noblegarden Egg Hunt being organised by Angelya at Revive & Rejuvenate. So join in the seasonal festivities and spend some time going through 35+ great WoW blogs looking for eggs. Might I suggest you enjoy some of the posts while you are going about it!

SAN (Oceanic) Easter Egg Hunt - the Clues!

2010-04-02T23:20:00.000+08:00

When: Monday 5th April, 8.30 AM Server Time (US EST) (or 8.30PM GMT+8 for me)
Where: Argent Dawn US - starting in Ironforge - but my character is a lock so I can summon you there (assuming I have another couple of people about).
Who: Anyone who wants to - just roll a new alliance character and look for someone from Single Abstract Noun - or my character Narcolious.

The following are the clues for all the things we'll find in game. They are in random order! Note if you want to play along at home - these will be Alliance side as that is what SAN is on Argent Dawn US.

Look at me I'm Sandra D, playing with your money, not the character the real me, it takes three to parody, look I'm Sandra D
Call April O'Neil in on this case, and you better hurry up there's no time to waste, we need help like quick on the double, have pity on the floating city, man it is in trouble.
A deer, a rabbit and a skunk walk into a bar...
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Let the music play, ... Work your cares away, Dancing for another day, Let the ... play, down at ...
The serenity of the engine room is perfect for this quirky engineer
Selling flowers in pink and red is my final one
Handling your money is just a circus act!
Lost... maybe some numbers will help guide you down
Father of "I want to be a real boy"
Grab a coffee with this galatic cruiser
My name is ... you killed my father. Prepare to die!
Mother of the bewitched
He'll save the day with a paperclip
Bartholomew J's pet
Heiress that is famous for being famous
With a whip and a hat I'll be a lost raider in a temple of the last crusade
Jump on a mushroom and hang out with these two italians
The forgetful link
Pick up some power converters here so you can walk on the sky

So... these might be a bit obscure so you might need to us a search engine... but have a guess - if you can't make it to the event then send me an email with the answers and I'll let you know who was first with the correct answers - against purely for bragging rights (and a bit of e-fame?)

WoW in My Hour - Gnomeaggedon

2010-04-02T09:17:00.000+08:00

WoW in My Hour is on to its sixthinstalment where I interview other bloggers and WoW players to explore the different ways people spend their time in game and speculate (or relate) what/how they might prioritise the smaller time periods - particularly if that is all they are left with. This week we move to the darkside... a DPS blog for the first time!

Can you please introduce yourself. Tell us a bit about who you are
and what you do (blog about) - in terms of WoW?

I'm a young (hey, 40s are the new 20s right?) professional that gets more kicks out of WoW than TV and house work. I live, work and play in Melbourne, Australia. Recently single father of Odin... my little household god.

A quick note on the "recently single". While there is no question that WoW playing was a prominent issue in our relationship, it was really an easy target, and the hours spent in keeping the relationship afloat way outweighed the hours playing or thinking about WoW. I see too many people pointing fingers at WoW as the primary reason an otherwise flawed situation breaks down. I will mention pre & post separation in this interview because the pre-separation was true "Wow in an Hour stuff", whereas post-separation is my choice to "WoW in an hour", or not.

I play Alliance side on Aman'Thul, one of the Oceanic tagged servers in the Bloodlust Battlegroup. I have two mains, Gnomeaggedon the Fire Mage of ill repute and Squidly the interloping Shaman. There are probably 20 other characters strewn across 10 other servers that have never and will never make it beyond level 3.

From a blogging point of view, I have been blogging now for nearly 2 years at Armaggedon's Coming! It's a blog primarily about Fire Magery, particularly Gnome Fire Magery, occasionally about Resto Shamanism, often about silly thoughts that enter my mind that my RL friends would just shake their heads at - so instead I publish it for hundreds to shake their heads at.

Originally it was along the lines of Fire Mage raiding tips, tricks and experiences. These days it tends to be more about Fire Mage PvP... I can fit that into an hours playtime.
How would you describe yourself as a WoW player? Hardcore, casual (and what you mean by those if you choose to use them), raider, PvPer etc

I'm a casual-hardcore-casual-pvping-raider.

Did that clear it up? No?

Ok, I'm casual. I don't have specific times that I can or do play. That is controlled by RL - work and family. When I was married, I arranged to have one night a week (generally Fridays) as my night out at the pub... the thing was I never left the house, I just played with my mates while having a few beers.

Beyond that, I might grab the odd "Desperate Housewives hour" here or there.

I'm hardcore. When you have limited playtime, you don't want to waste it. Thus I research what I need, I gear for what I need and I go do it. When I get an invite to a raid, I will be the 1st at the summoning stone, expecting to summon immediately - especially if I am the last to join the raid.

I don't appreciate people screwing about for an extra 15 minutes, or coming in their house clothes rather than their raiding clothes, or gemming green because they are only 4k gold away from that bike.

I'm casual. It is unlikely I will log on with a raid invite pending, in fact unlikely I have any particular plans at all. I might want to raid, but I will settle for PvP. I might want to PvP, but I will settle for questing.

I PvP, therefore a I am. I have nearly always enjoyed PvP, although I didn't get into it for a year or so after I started playing WoW. Recently I have picked up the bug again, in part due to my lack of anything else reliable to do, but also because I have stumbled across a group of people that just destroy battlegrounds... there is nothing better than sending 40 Horde back to the starting graveyard in AV within a minute of starting a game.

I'm a raider. I love raiding. My raid gear is the best it can be with what I have and can do. I know my class and I play it pretty well. For most of TBC and WotLK, I raided with a group of friends every Friday night. We all did our own things the rest of the week and they were in much more progressed raiding guilds, but Friday night was reserved for RL friends, and in fact started because I could only play Fridays - so they all rolled toons with the understanding that they would keep up to, but not go significantly past me.

What does a typical week of WoW playing look like?

I log on
Check Wintergrasp - do it if the time is right.
If I haven't done VoA 10 & 25 or the weekly raid, I join the LFR channel/interface.
I might queue for a random instance, but meehhh.. whatever.
I might quest for a bit to try to complete Loremaster.
I might go and sign up for a BG by myself
I might join the Bloodlust PvP group and bang out BGs in between quests
I might visit the AH.
I might relog into Argent Dawn US and join the folks of Single Abstract Noun.
I might not be in the mood for any of this and only discover it when I log in... in which case I log off.

What is it about gnomes... ?

I don't know how to describe it.
I don't think anyone can describe it.
Until they try it.
I have met a lot of Gnome haters over the years... some of them admit later that they rolled a Gnome and loved it, many I think keep that information in the closet.
You've been getting back in PvP recently what brought about the renewed interest?

Three PvP unrelated things brought me back to PvP.

1) Raiding (or the lack of it), and
2) Squidly, and
3) LFD

1) Raiding (or the lack of it). My mates and I went our separate raiding ways some time back. Well they went raiding, I just sort of wallowed. This was before LFD and Raid weeklies and all that. I could spend 4 hours in /LFG and not get a run. That's when 2) came about.

2) Squidly is the Shaman I rolled because I was bored. I started leveling him the traditional way, but soon found myself leveling via BGs when the XP was insane. He basically went full time Resto and it was just piles of fun. I soon realized that in the matter of a couple of months he had outstripped Gnomeaggedon's PvP achievements.

3) LFD came and Squidly was in great demand. Soon enough his PvE gear outstripped Gnomeaggedon's, and then I got bored of the demands on PuG healers, so I did the only sensible thing... I shelved Squidly and brought Gnomeaggedon out of the cold.

Back to 1) The problem was, that no matter how much Gnomeaggedon did the LFD dailies, he was still just one more undergeared Fire Mage in the crowd when it came to raids... About this time, I made a desperate plea to one of the most respected Mage Bloggers, Euripedes from CriticalQQ.. He responded and Fire Mage PvP was back!

By back I mean I have pretty much neglected everything else.
What do you think about the recent changes to the honour and looking for battleground tool?

I hate it.

There, I said it.

To be more specific, from Gnomeaggedon's PoV I hate it. Gnomeaggedon had to slog both ways uphill through the snow over burning coals to get all the PvP gear that can be bought with honor.

However... from Squidly's (and I dare say the general WoW populace) this is a awesome development.

Gnomeaggedon is in the position many high level raiders (well mid level anyway) found themselves when T9 and T10 was being given away for nothing. At 1st glance there is nothing in it for him, yet everyone else is getting a leg up.

However there is lots in it for Gnome. Lots of honor to spend on, well actually I don't know what. Lots of people injected into the battlegrounds. Lots of fresh meat to slaughter.

Strangely, I am sad at the loss of the Battleground marks. I wish they had kept them. I think that if you choose to fight in a BG, there is no other reward than increased honor. I would like to be able to gain the marks for choosing to live and die in a specific battleground, which could maybe then be handed in, in sets, say for Arena points or something.

Squidly on the other hand will be rejoining the Honor Train... time to discard that Deadly gear and upgrade to the latest 3 season old gear.
Any tips for those getting into battlegrounds for the first time?

Tip 1: Learn to laugh at death... theirs and yours.

Dead is a natural state in Battlegrounds and has little of the adverse side effects of PvE death. It's a max of a 30 second timeout for being a naughty player that couldn't stay alive.

That said, value your life highly - you can't contribute that much at the graveyard.

Tip 2: DO NOT FIGHT ON THE ROADS! Cynwise says it best here.

One additional point. If you MUST fight on the roads (ie. you have been pulled from your saddle by a pack of blood thirsty Horde), then do your team mates a favor. Drag the enemy off the road and tie them up long enough to allow your mates safe passage.

Dying on the road is a death in vain.
Dying off the road to allow you mates to cap a "flag" is a death worthy of a ballad.
Do you arena? If so, how is it for little gnomes with big balls of fire? How does it compare to battlegrounds?

I'm "thaaaat close".

I have joined two Arena teams. A 3v3 and a 5v5. We planned to take the 5v5 for our first killing spree last Sunday, but we got caught up in the joys of WSG and AB and before we knew it midnight had arrived.

It will be interesting to see how things go. None of us are expecting to top the Arena rankings, it's a bunch of mates having a bit of fun, however from what I read, not raiding is a handicap to PvP (another argument for separating the two). You see, most people dont' wear that much PvP gear, just the bare minimum, then they wear high end raiding gear to achieve the burst they need.

There is a good chance I will be the 1st to die under a burst of raid-quality DPS... but that at least will give me less time to screw up.
Is there anything (in WoW) that you wished you could get into but just don't have the time (or for some other reason)?

I think I have been lucky (and time constraints have added to this) to see most parts of the game now. Sure not at the high end in any of them, but I have raided, PvP'd, instanced, quested, enjoyed World events... so I have the breadth if not the depth.

I regret missing the bulk of the one-off events. Even the Zombie invasion for me was an hour here or an hour there. When I finally had time to go and enjoy it, the party poopers got it canned.

I would still like to go back and complete all the old world/TBC raids... I LFR for them all the time. However, I think you need a guild to get that stuff done and even then the guild has to be willing (and I have been in a few guild capable, but "we have already done that" prevents it happening).
If you had only an hour to play WoW in any given session how would you fill your time?

See 3) above.

That is pretty much how every hour (whether contiguous or not) in WoW goes for me.

It is one of the reasons I was, and still am for that matter, angry at the change that LFD brought with it. You can only "queue" for one activity at a time. You must choose Raid, PvP or Instance. I'm not an activity hopper. If I get in a BG, group or raid, I will stay there, but I would like to be able to queue for all 3 and choose the 1st option available.
If you could only ever play for an hour at a time - would you? If yes, then how would you see your in game activities change? If no - why not?

My play style has adapted to 1 hour blocks anyway. So yeah definitely.. let's look at what Gnomeaggedon and Squidly can achieve in an hour.

Quests:
Both would do a lot of quests.. maybe only one fumbling one, or 10 quick and easy's.

Instances:
- Gnome would get at least 1 instance, maybe 2 (allowing for queue time). The rest of the time can be spent grooming his beard in Dalaran or questing.
- Squidly would get 3-4 instances.. healer queues pop fast.
Raids:
Both could easily fit in a VoA, maybe two (how many PuG raids do more than one or two bosses). Likewise the weekly raid quest is usually the 1st boss, people are always forming weekly raid groups, meanwhile quest.

Battlegrounds:
Using the new system, you should be in a battleground within minutes of joining the queue, Then it depends on your group and the battleground. You may get 2-3 battlegrounds done in that hour.

The battleground group that Gnomeaggedon has been rolling with will knock over a max honor AV in 9-15 minutes.. that's 4-6 AV's in an hour.

But you need to be honest with yourself and your loved ones about that hour.. I will leave that to lucky question 13).
Would you be willing to be part of a raiding crew/guild that only raided for an hour at a time? Do you think it's feasible?

Definitely yes, on both counts, however the willing is easier than the feasibility.

The feasibility is easier now that you can extend raid lockouts. It would also be easy if you had a raid crew/guild that would slip you into a raid for an hour no matter when or where.

That is a big ask of a raiding guild of course...

"Ohhh we have made it to Arthas.. Ahh Gnomeaggedon has logged on, who wants to skip this fight?"

That said, there is no reason why you couldn't organize 10 people to raid a specific instance on specific toons for 1 hour sessions. Remembering that for some people 1 hour sessions only come once per week, for others it's once per day and of course some people have no control over when that one hour occurs.

But let's just assume that you can get 10 people to be online at 9pm (home from work, kids are in bed, dishes & homework done etc.) each designated raid time, then there is no reason why you can't all be sitting out the front of the instance at 9pm. If someone has a mammoth, you don't need to go to town to repair, or get reagents etc.

In that hour, all going well, you should be getting at least 1 to 2 bosses down, maybe more. What if you don't have 10 ready to go? Well don't stop... Who didn't spend an hour in LFG looking for one or two more for Naxx, only to go ahead and find it was easier without the dead weight?

What people do with their characters between those scheduled raid slots is up to them, as long as there is a common understanding that that raid time, that raid instance is purely for the use of that group and they will be waiting outside at the designated time and not a "minute" later. Remember it doesn't have to be ICC Hard mode. For time limited players, venturing into ToC, Ulduar, even Naxx is better than doing absolutely nothing (or LFD for the 1000th time).

Raiding for progression is fun. Raiding for gear less fun. Raiding for fun with a great group of people beats all.
Do you have any tips/advice for making the most of your WoW play time?

1) Be honest
2) Remember why you only have "an hour" and honor that
3) Be flexible, more flexible that you imagine you can be.
4) Don't lose heart if you don't succeed.

1) Be honest with yourself, your playmates and your RL "mates".
If you only have an "hour" then play for the hour - no more. Yes, even if that means logging out mid-raid, BG or instance. It's way too easy to play for "another 5 minutes".

2) This is a big one. If you are only playing for "an hour" due to real world commitments, especially if this is negotiated time, then honor the gift of the time.

5 minutes more might not mean anything to you, but it will to your partner the 3rd time you do it. You need to understand there is a different definition of "play time" for the player and the stood-up.

Player: I hour of play time starts when I start doing something productive in game. It doesn't include starting the PC, visiting the AH, grabbing my offset from the bank, flying to the raid location, returning to town, repairing, selling trash, visiting the AH, logging off and shutting down the PC.

The Stood-up: You time starts the second you either:
a) Mention you are going to play than f'ing game, or
b) The moment you leave my side.

So that "hour" is in reality best case 50 minutes, more likely 40 minutes.

Don't feel ripped off... you got to play - that's what you wanted to do wasn't it?
Instead be genuinely grateful for the opportunity to play. Once that time is over, make sure you concentrate fully on the other aspects of your life.
One you get a good track record, there is a good chance you can get an occasional 2 hour session when there is a double header Desperate Housewives/House session on.

3) Be flexible. I know some people are terrorfied of PvP... but let me tell you, it is soooo much fun you will wonder how you survived the boring months of LFD, the hours of waiting on your raid group to fill, or to repair.

Sure if depends on having and average+ group and on having an enemy that isn't going to roflstomp you into the group... but if you don't cry when it takes you 3 weeks to down the latest progression boss, you shouldn't be crying when you only win 4/10 battlegrounds.

4) Don't lose heart in the game if you don't get to (or complete) raid, PvP, Instance etc in your limited time. This time maybe you didn't succeed, but you probably will next time.

I've been bumming around the server for a long time, long before practically instant instance queues, before random Battlegrounds, before there was a reason for a PuG to take me on a raid.

I have spent 5 hours dreaming of getting a spot in a 5 man.

Trust me, life is very good for the time-limited right now. Just because you didn't get the raid spot until 5 minutes before you logged off this time, doesn't mean you wont get one in the 1st 5 minutes next time you log on.
Any final comments?

Well... there you go, I get to litter someone else's blog with a wall of text.. you can never accuse me of being succinct.

Thanks Gameldar for the opportunity to share my "WoW in an Hour"!

Thanks so much Gnomeaggedon (or is that Trollaggedon I'm a bit confused) - awesome responses that give a great insight into not only how you play the game, but also how you approach it with RL concerns included. Thanks for your honesty too!

As always - if you have any questions I'm sure Gnomeaggedon will drop by and answer them, so please ask away in the comments! And if you are a horde player on the Bloodlust Group - watch out for the great balls of gnomen fire!

SAN (Oceanic) Event - Easter Egg Hunt

2010-03-31T12:07:00.000+08:00

When: Monday 5th April, 8.30 AM Server Time (US EST) (or 8.30PM GMT+8 for me)
Where: Argent Dawn US - starting in Ironforge - but my character is a lock so I can summon you there (assuming I have another couple of people about).
Who: Anyone who wants to - just roll a new alliance character and look for someone from Single Abstract Noun - or my character Narcolious.

I'm organising an event for Single Abstract Noun this coming weekend. It is tagged as an oceanic event because that is the time that I play - but if you feel like getting up early then come along.

So what is it all about?

Being Noble Garden aka Easter this weekend I figured I would organise a fun event to coincide with it.

The premise behind it comes from the other meaning of Easter Egg. As reads from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(media):

A virtual Easter egg is an intentional hidden message, in-joke or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, web page or video game.

In game there are a numerous pop culture references, one of the more obvious examples is Harris Pilton aka Paris Hilton. The idea behind this event it to set up a scavenger hunt that we can run as a guild event to find (and screenshot) a number of pop culture references in game while having fun - and yes the thought that there might be a number of level 1s trying to weave their way across Azeroth is part of the fun!

I will be formulating a series of clues to find our in-game references and we'll go a searching for them. Depending on how many people turn up we my split up into teams and compete to see who can get it done quickest (for boasting rights). I'm aiming for it to take an hour to an hour and a half. But feel free to join or leave as you need to!

If you can't make it, play on the EU servers or want to run a similar event in a better time for you - then please stick your hand up and take charge of running one yourself! I'll post the clues on my blog before Monday (maybe Friday) so you can all cheat and get some idea where we are going! If you want to organise one yourself and want the clues - email me and I'll get the answers back to you!

Lastly - if you have a favourite in game reference please email me (email is upon on the right on the blog), or direct message me on twitter and I'll see about including it. If you do email it through then it might be useful for it to include an explanation of the reference (as some things are not obvious - particularly in other countries) with a wowhead link!

RRRRamble and 3.3.3

2010-03-30T23:23:00.000+08:00

I spent my evenings of the weekend doing some PvP of a different kind... in the form of Settlers of Catan. A great board game, possibly made better because I won 50% of the games I played (ok so I only played 2 games, but 50% sounds better).

Patch 3.3.3, otherwise currently known as the economy disrupting PvP patch dropped last week with a number of changes - most notably the introduction of a vendor for all those excess Frozen Orbs (with an appropriate change to the dungeon loot so you can only choose greed for Frozen Orbs) and the change to the battleground marks and honor and the introduction of Looking for Battleground (the slightly odd younger sibling of the Looking for Dungeon tool)

I've only had limited time to play with any of the changes... I haven't even looked for Frozo but I was most happy to notice when I switched specs with Keluin - that Righteous Fury costs no mana!!! Yay for undocumented changes - and about the only Paladin love for this patch. I've always hated the mana cost because you have to have it up if you are tanking (it is basically defensive stance for Paladins) and I tend to have it up in both my tank and my healing spec and it used to eat a chunk of mana.

The other change that I've drooled over was the change to Revenge and Improved Revenge (and Thunder Clap becoming a ranged attack, and to a lesser extent the boost to Vitality). My first Revenge was a 7456 crit and my gear is pretty average now days (iLevel 200 Naxx/Heroics gear)! I really haven't had the chance to test out the warrior changes - I tried to get a quick run in before tonight's maintenance and somehow ended up in Forge of Souls (it also seems to me they might have lowered the gear requirements to end up there via the LFD tool - I ended up in Heroic Halls of Reflection as a tank the other day on Keluin which was a first - although I did queue in my healing gear). However I managed to show how rusty I was but stuffing up a pull with my heroic throwing and then charging the same target instead of the one I meant to - watching the rest of the mobs peel off to the healer. This was followed by some weird bug where the mobs didn't lose aggro in the wipe causing another wipe as the DK and I arrived outside the room where we had died. Then just as I was about to pull my happily asleep daughter woke up screaming (which was particularly unusual for that time). I returned to see half the group disappeared and 3 minutes left before shutdown. My apologies to the group! However, up to that point I was happy to see my DPS as a warrior tank already better than I had done previously... still not up to my Paladin's level but even as a chronically under-geared tank I wasn't having many aggro problems, although I did miss having a second true taunt - I've really grown attached to Righteous Defense and using Challenging Shout and not seeing the mobs plates turn green was a bit confusing (green because I've started using the Tidy Plates Threat Plates add-on which turns the health of the mobs green when you have aggro).

The other major change was the PvP changes - namely the introduction of the Looking for Battleground (or Random Battleground) tool that gives greater rewards if you choose to do a random battleground (and win) much the same as doing the random dungeons. Along with this the honor returns from honor kills has been doubled, and there are no longer marks for battlegrounds with the marks being redeemable for honor and all the items now being available for honor only. The word around the traps is the turn in process is painful (and also that you get better honor reward for turning the Concerted Efforts quest - so do that if you have the appropriate marks - I think that is the right quest name).

I haven't tried out the PvP changes - but I really want to - I've always enjoyed the PvP in the battlegrounds and I think this will make it an interesting change from when I last seriously did any battlegrounds - which was during the welfare epics stage of the Burning Crusades on my hunter (grinding out the honor for x Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow) when I spent hours in Alterac Valley in hour long turtles ... which almost always ended when Horde summoned the Frost Lord. I'm seriously thinking about getting my hunter back into the battlegrounds now and seeing how it goes - but be nice to the real PvP folk and do some prep before going into the battlegrounds. Have a read of Gnomeaggedon's post, and you'll find a lot of good info (along with maps) over at Cynwise's Battlefield Manual (I was surprised how much I didn't know about Alterac Valley given how much I've played it).

So I'm going to add more PvP to my todo... which was something like this:

Run on more dungeon with 3 random pug members to get my pug

Sit dog - good boy!
Get my tier 9 holy paladin chest
I actually have the emblems for this - I got them yesterday (yay for heroic Oculus as the second random daily - the emblem fountain coming in at 8 emblems of Triumph) but baulked when I saw how little of an upgrade from Tier 8 it was... and it has no haste (which I'm lacking a bit at the moment)! I think I might be better off healing H HoR for Chestpiece of High Treason and maybe getting the crafted bracers first instead.
Get Keluin's Crusader title (and spiffy mount) - only 9 more tokens required and maybe a tiny bit of reputation with Darnassus!
Tank on my warrior (partially done, must do more)
Gear up my hunter - which I'm partially doing by leatherworking but I've been slow with there not being much (affordable) leather on the auction house.
Get the plate heirloom chest and shoulders for my DK and try some Outlands tanking - have the shards for the PvP shoulders... now for the chest.
more PvP
Play more with SAN over on Argent Dawn
Do some Roleplay (also on Argent Dawn)
Play some of my little horde shammy (or any other low level alt) I've been neglecting.

That list is too long - particularly as it is normally interleaved with 'do the raid weekly' and possibly 'do the daily dungeon' for at least Keluin, if not my other level 80s.

Last thing in my ramble - I'm officially declaring yesterday as Vote-kick Monday. I ran a couple of dungeons and came across a couple of vote kick occasions. The first - I somehow ended up joining a group to tank H HoR and we wiped (I think my taunt off the healer was resisted and they went splat). The healer then promptly went AFK as a ghost not to return... so after waiting an appropriate period we tried to votekick them - only to be met with a 'You have initiated too many vote kicks'. The previous tank had disconnected and they vote kicked him to make space for me... and apparently you can't vote kick more than once now.

The second incident was in Heroic Oculus - were the DPS warrior was (I'm guessing) relatively new to the instance and was a bit slow in keeping up with the group. It really wasn't a problem because we were find 4 manning stuff... but we were with in the group with a go girl rogue (I'm coining that phrase if someone hasn't already) who was extremely impatient. Eventually they initiated a vote kick (without reason I might add) and before I had a chance to click no the warrior was kicked. Nothing had been said within range of the warrior (apart from the catch phrase 'gogogogogo'). So I'm guessing they were sitting there bewildered at their loading screen as it came up.

Thus endeth the ramble.

Note: Image at the top of post is from the official Settler of Catan site.

WoW in My Hour - Angelya

2010-03-26T06:43:00.001+08:00

WoW in My Hour is on to its fifth instalment where I interview other bloggers and WoW players to explore the different ways people spend their time in game and speculate (or relate) what/how they might prioritise the smaller time periods - particularly if that is all they are left with. This week we are blessed with another professional map maker - who would have thought there were so many and they just happen to blog about WoW?

Can you please introduce yourself. Tell us a bit about who you are
and what you do (blog about) - in terms of WoW?

I'm Angelya and I play a Resto/Balance Druid, so I mostly blog about tree-druidy and lazer-chicken things over at Revive and Rejuvenate. I also blog about my alts and other fun stuff that's going on in Azeroth. I try to be helpful and informative, and attempt to be entertaining!
How would you describe yourself as a WoW player? Hardcore, casual (and what you mean by those if you choose to use them), raider, PvPer etc

At the moment I'm pretty casual - I love raiding but I don't do it every night, and I'm not chaining heroics like crazy to get all the best gear possible, just enough to tick along. I read a lot of blogs and try to apply what I learn, but I'm not a theorycrafter. When I was looking for a guild to join I wanted one without the 4 nights a week attendance requirement, because I want to play the game in my spare time when I want to, rather than the game dictating to me when I must play. I guess that's how I define the difference between hardcore and casual.
What does a typical week of WoW playing look like?

Well, I play most nights when I'm at home. My guild raids ICC 10 on Wednesday and Monday nights and the weekly raid on Thursdays. Outside of that I can usually be found in a heroic (although I'm slowing down with that now) or levelling one of my alts. When I get a chance I log into my SAN characters on Argent Dawn to say hi to the nice people there.
You've recently started afresh on the US (Oceanic) servers as you've moved from the EU servers - have you noticed many differences between the US/EU sides? Has it been a positive change?

It's been positive and negative... Negative in that I really miss the guild I was in on the EU server, but positive in that now I have a new guild who are very friendly and I'm getting to see the content rather than sitting around in Dalaran at 8am server time wondering why it's so quiet! For the most part I haven't noticed that many differences, apart from hearing Aussie and Kiwi voices on vent instead of European accents. The difference I noticed first was that on the US servers people always put "pst" after their requests on trade, like "LF ench pst". On the EU servers it would just be "LF ench" or "LF ench /w me" or something. Apart from that, everything is pretty much the same. Same spam and lingo on trade, same amazing players, same idiots, same greed on orbs in guild groups and need in pugs! I've been amazed actually that it's been so similar, but I guess a lot of the WoW culture and language comes from outside the game rather than individual servers.

Actually one thing that I have noticed about the Oceanic servers is that there is, as in real life, some gentle ribbing between the Aussies and Kiwis. As far as I can remember, I never saw anything like that between European nationalities. Well, there was the occasional referring to a guy in our guild as the "crazy Italian" but he loved that. I hope he did anyway :)
You also switched from the Alliance side to Horde side in the process? How would you compare the two? Does your heart still beat for the Alliance?

We decided to roll Horde this time since neither of us had played a max level Horde character before. I'm so glad we chose to switch, not because the people who play Horde are any different, but because the levelling experiences are quite different, especially in the starting areas and in Outland and Northrend. Seeing the Wrathgate questline from the other side is so worth it, I would really recommend it to anyone who has the time to get a toon of the opposite faction up there. Also the ICC 5-mans are worth seeing from both sides - Jaina and Sylvanas put on quite a different show!

I'm not missing the Alliance that much so far, I'm happy to be For the Horde! The Horde seem to have a great sense of honour and loyalty, plus interesting politics. The Alliance just have leaders who like to give long-winded motivational speeches. I'm looking at you, Tirion.
You levelled with the Recruit-A-Friend program with your husband - how did that compare to normal? Did you feel like you levelled too quickly considering you were changing factions?

Wow, amazingly ridiculously quickly. Our first pair were at level 60 in 45 hours /played, over about 2 weeks. We used a special version of TourGuide that is tuned for refer-a-friend, so it directs you to group quests and those with good rewards, and leaves out a lot of the "bring me 10 goretusk livers" type of quest. We would pick up a few quests at a village, go do them, come back and both ding. In some areas like Ashenvale and later in the Hinterlands, we'd ding twice if we had a few to turn in. We were constantly finding that we had unspent talent points. For our purposes it was perfect - we'd already seen all the content before, so we just needed to rush through. And rush we did! For a new player - I really feel they would be missing some of the best parts of the game.

The RAF bonus ends at level 60, so it's back to the normal grind after that. It took me about a month to get Leesah from 60 to 80, but it was worth taking it a little slower because the Outland and Northrend stories are where the differences between the factions lie.

Our three months is just about to end actually, so the race is on this weekend to get as many levels in our Shaman/Warrior pair as we can before it all ends and we have to go back to normal levelling speed!
Who got the RAF mount?

He is supposed to have got it but he hasn't yet! Maybe after I pay my next subscription he might get it, but if not we'll be on the bell to a GM! Another perk that the person doing the referring gets is that you can be granted a certain number of free levels from the referee. Once Leesah was over level 60 and Aefa was almost there herself, my husband started up a Mage and I granted it 60 free levels. I was so annoyed that I had just levelled up a mage the hard way and here he was with a free level 60 one! Only problem was, it was in level 10 gear, so he had to buy a truckload of cloth and level up tailoring just so he didn't get creamed as soon as he set foot in Outland! At least the first quests there give great rewards so if you can survive them, you're okay.
Having just (re)levelled you have now joined a raiding guild and jumped straight into ICC (as a restochicken - can I use that term) - how does it feel to jump straight into the highest tier of raiding without having to do the lower level raids? Has the emblem change been a good thing?

The guild I joined are very casual - they raid ICC-10 twice a week and don't really have a set team. The first time they invited me to go along I was like, "Are you sure? My gear is still pretty bad!" But I did alright and didn't disgrace myself, and I think they were mainly after the Moonkin buff. Since then I've been going regularly for a few weeks and my gear is a lot better, but I'm still not sure a pug would take me along :)

For my purposes, being able to grind Triumph badges has been brilliant. I got myself 4 pieces of tier 9 in about 3 weeks, and I wasn't chaining heroics that much. I got the Frost badge idol in 2 weeks of doing daily random heroics, before I'd even set foot in a raid that dropped them. For the game in general, I think it allows a greater number of people to get enough gear to be able to pull their weight in the top content. Whether they do pull their weight is another question.
You also missed out on Ulduar and ToC while travelling and re-levelling - do you wish to go back and do some raiding there?

Oh yes. We left the UK just before Ulduar came out. After I started playing my EU account in Australia, my guild took me on an alt run into Ulduar as far as Hodir, and it was awesome! But it was only once and I'm dying to go in there and see it again. They also took me to TotC-10, this was before ICC was released. I've been to TotC-10 a few times now, and I can see the difference in gear ICC and Triumph/Frost badges have brought - it's just so much easier now. I can take or leave TotC (although the gear in there is still very good), but I'd love to see Ulduar again. My current guild has been talking about going back in there in to do a few more of the hardmodes, but there's been no action yet.
Is there anything (in WoW) that you wished you could get into but just don't have the time (or for some other reason)?

I'd really like to be able to make money easily! Mr Angelya buys loads of stuff on the AH and sells it for profits, but I can never recognise the good deals. I also don't often have the patience for dailies anymore. The first time I ground out 5000g was when the Quel'Danas Dailies were a quick run each day. These days, as soon as I get cash I have to spend it on something for a new piece of gear! It's going to be a while before Leesah sees her swift birdy!
If you had only an hour to play WoW in any given session how would you fill your time?

Well, if I could only log in for an hour today, I'd probably do a random heroic for my Frosties, perhaps followed by another one if it was a guild group. Or I might do a few quests on my mage. She's in Northrend now so there's a light at the end of the tunnel (a very small light, but it's there)!
If you could only ever play for an hour at a time - would you? If yes, then how would you see your in game activities change? If no - why not?

Hmm, interesting question. I probably still would play, but I wouldn't be able to raid with my current guild. I'd probably still do the same other things though - heroics, levelling alts, festival stuff, the usual.
Would you be willing to be part of a raiding crew/guild that only raided for an hour at a time? Do you think it's feasible?

Yes, I think it would work, as long as you could start exactly on time and everyone knew the fights so there was no stopping to explain. Often the most time-consuming part of raids is the setup beforehand!
Do you have any tips/advice for making the most of your WoW play time?

It's important to have goals when you're trying to make the most of your time with anything. Decide what you're working towards on each character and then do that, while being prepared for unexpected raid invites!
Why is map making so cool?

Maps are just awesome! They are works of art - I can look at a map for hours, especially historical maps. I'm a visual person so diagrams and pictures are important to me, and maps just fit right in with that - I get really lost in places unless I know which direction North is so that I can make a map in my head. Okay now I've made myself sound like a complete geek :)

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences Angelya - especially about going to the dark side and coming to the bright and sunny lands too! I should point out that Angelya also has the dubious honour of being the first person (that wasn't me) to make use of my armoury lookup tags so she had to deal with my back documentation!

As usual, if you have any questions I'm sure Angelya will take the time out to answer them - so throw her a nice and difficult one!

Epic

2010-03-23T23:01:00.002+08:00

Image from ABC News Online

If you've been watching Keluin's achievement feed over to the right somewhere (for those of you not in a feed reader) you'll see he recently got the Epic achievement. However this post is actually about my epic adventure!

Just a warning - there are lots of images in this post - mostly taken with my phone's camera... so excuse the quality!

In Perth (Australia - where I live) got hit with a 'freak' storm yesterday. They are calling it the worst storm in 16 years - and it was unusual here because it was
a) unexpected
b) short
c) ferocious in its intensity

In reality it was most like a tropic storm - except we aren't in the tropics.

The first I knew about it - my bosses wife had rung him to say that one of their windows at home had been broken by a hail stone. The rest of the conversation was drowned out as the rain and hail started pounding on our office roof. Not long after the rain decided to make its way into our office, flowing down the wall into our network access and the power points half the office ran off (included the beloved coffee machine... oh and my computer too). So after shutting down my computer and removing books, cables and computers out of harms way (and not quite sending my work safely to Europe) I decided it would be best to start the journey home - figuring it was going to take me longer than normal. So I stepped outside to this:

Image from ABC News Online

I think that photo was taken a little bit later than when I went past - because I crossed the road about where that first car is without getting too wet. I was trying to make my way to the train station (which is just behind the photographer) and continued heading parallel to the station trying to find a safe place to cross. In the end I gave up and pulled off my shoes and socks and crossed here:

I'm a relatively tall man (6 foot 4, or 194 cm) - and that water came up past my knees. So I wandered across there and up to the train station bare foot. I'm glad that I get to wear shorts and a tee shirt to work!

I was wondering how water and electric powered trains work... and rather worried by this scene:

It was about at this point I rang my wife and said I was on my way home - but I'll probably be home about normal time - even though I had left about 45 minutes earlier than normal. Thankfully the train actually arrived and didn't seem worried about the rain - after one change I eventually made it to my station while waiting "for signals" at times and being generally glad I wasn't near the door - given the gale and rain that was flying past. The other passengers and I were also watching with some bemusement the large number of cars that had staled in or around the rail under passes.

Having left the train I started jogging down the platform and tried to tag off (we use smartcards here to pay for the trains) only to find there was no power on the station. This subsequently meant we had to force the gates open to get across the tracks to the car park. I jumped into my car and immediately put it into 4WD:

From there I proceeded to crawl home watching the moron P platers (Probationary drivers) roaring through the water, and enjoying the following sort of traffic

Every traffic light between the train station and my house was out (which is what that last picture is supposed to be showing). I don't think I went above 40 km/h all the way home - except at one point where I sped up and promptly hit a massive puddle on the side of the road spraying water up over the windscreen and reducing my visibility to zero. I slowed down to notice another moron driver riding my tail... in a Mitsubitshi Lancer with no clearance...

After a while I finally got to the streets around my house to survey the damage. I got to enjoy the view as I ended up following a Learner driver (the photo for that didn't work out). In my day you didn't go out to learn to drive in such weather... now days they have to keep a log book - there must be a category now on "Practice driving on flooded roads".

So there were lots of trees down at the park where I take my kids every morning:

My son used to play in that tree... and look at the size of this one (taken this morning with some day light!). That is a eucalyptus tree - they have a massive tap root going down a long way... and it just snapped!

So I made it home safely and survived driving through the floods and over some fallen trees and branches all thanks to my trusty Jeep! I love it... but I really do need massive storms like this to justify the petrol is uses - thankfully I don't drive it that much these days.

Now the adventure didn't quite end there. The Jeep was parked outside because we had no power and couldn't get the garage door open. I saw why the power died as I was driving home - a lightning strike hit the power sub-station. Very impressive bit of lightning too I might add!

I then went inside to find towels all over the kitchen floor - apparently our house wasn't built to cope with horizontal rain and it had been flowing in through the kitchen exhaust, and making its way through windows deep under the veranda - the amount of water flying sideways can best be seen by the amount of water in the kid's sandpit and wheel barrow - both well under the veranda.

So I made it inside to find my wife trying to entertain the kids in our bedroom with candles scattered around everywhere. It was a day for achievements for her too such as:

Which had largely been brought on by my mother earning the following achievement

So after a quick candlelight dinner and a bit of screaming I got the kids to bed... which also wasn't aided by the fact that we now had no power and no way of combating the 80% humidity and 31 degree (Celcius) temperatures... I then spent a good part of the evening cleaning up the kitchen.

However there were some positives of the whole encounter:

1. We found that our son is not afraid of thunder - in fact he was out enjoying the rain and having great fun - trying to catch the Thunder with all his toys:

2. We finally made use of all those candles I had bought my wife over the years

3. I get to enjoy Lamb Roast mid week ... as the power was off for a full 24 hours and some of the stuff in the freezer was starting to thaw - including a nice leg of lamb.

4. I was reaffirmed again how amazingly wonderful, strong and resilient my wife is. She put up with so much and with even more today without power, telephone (including her mobile going flat), and stupidly high humidity combined with high temperatures and kids that didn't really want to sleep.

Search Term Q & A

2010-03-22T15:15:00.000+08:00

Rhidach (and others) have done this in the past - but basically through the wonders of the internet I can see the search terms that hit my site. Sometimes these are questions that I haven't answered - so here are those answers! It has gotten quite longer being the first one...

General Questions

Q: adam holisky requires advanced training

A: Um Adam have you been googling yourself again? I think you should look at your resources page... depending on what type of training you require!

Q: gravity pwnwear idiot

A: *buzzt* Wrong. And why are you searching for this???

Q: wow tourguide 3.3

A: I'm not sure exactly when this happened in terms of patches - but Tour Guide is currently not available for download. Have a read of the interview with Tekkub over at wow.com for more info - but basically it's only available with Zygor's leveling guides for the moment.

Q: best place for exp and leather northrend

A: As soon as I could I took Coaz to Sholazar Basin - being the home of Nesingwary's set of kill x beasts. You get a ton of leather while you quest. I've since moved to Grizzly Hills as it also has a lot of killing beasts involved in the questing too.

Q: what class blows things up
A: Survival hunters use Explosive Shot! Otherwise you might want be interested in a Fire mage...

Q: what does aoe mean in wow

A: Area of Effect - you might also see references to AE (Area Effect) basically this is used for spells/attacks that hit more than one mob at once.

Q: why does mail take an hour wow

A: This was covered in a recent episode of The Queue over at wow.com - but short answer - it slows the ability of gold sellers that hack into accounts to do their damage. I think historically it was actually there because mail wasn't supposed to be instant - and from that perspective it also used to apply to mailing between your characters. This is now instant thankfully!

Q: how to change time in wow so i don't have to play in dark

A: I used to experience this when I first started playing - on a US realm playing from Australia it was always night... even to the point that I started a guild called Dawnraiders when trying to set up an Oceanic time raiding guild. The reality is - you'll have to transfer/play on a server that is in/closer to your timezone if you want to see the day time!

Paladin Tanking Questions

Q: 3.3.2 bis paladin tank gear/3.3.2 best paladin tank build
A: Have a read over at Righteous Defense or Honors Code...

Q: advantages of druid tanking over paladin tanking

A: I mentioned this in my Pally tanking for warriors comments, but have a read of Big Beart Butt's posts Tanking Test! Druid vs Paladin

Q: herbalism for tanking pally

A: There are probably better professions for a Paladin - lifeblood isn't a huge health return and being an HoT means you can't really rely on it to save you. I used to use it on my warrior in combination with Last Stand to effectively give me the health back permanently - with Paladins don't really have the option of... and being a tank you get instant groups - so you won't have time to herb!

Q: forge of souls strategy pally avenger's shield caster

A: I'm assuming this is for the set of 5 mobs that are 4 casters around the mob in the middle. In this case I aim my avenger's shield on the back left caster and then make a beeline for the front right mob. This will usually leave one caster up that you will probably just have to keep taunting back on you - I try and slowly move across to the said mob, but it doesn't always happen.

PTR questions

Q: blizzard public test realm how do i get a 80/can you create a level 80 character on the ptr?/can you get free levels in ptr wow

A: Under the character copy option on the account pages when you log in there is an option to transfer a pre-made character (not always enabled for all PTRs). This is the closest you'll get to 'free' levels. Back in WotLK beta they also had a exp boost to help you get through the leveling quicker.

Q: free gems ptr

A: Jen answered this in the comments on the PTR related post. Yes - there is a vendor for epic gems and enchants too.

Quests

Q: if you keep a weekly quest from last week and do it can you still do this weeks one? wow / is it possible to have more than one weekly raid quest?

A: No - you have to abandon the previous raid weekly - otherwise you will be ineligible for the new one. You can however complete the previous weeks one (if you happen to find yourself killing said boss) - but finding a group to do that might not be easy!

Q: pit of saron quest if u abandon / the halls of reflection, can i abandon quest and rejoin?

A: You can abandon them and pick them up again - however you will probably have to redo the instance to start at the appropriate point again because Jaina/Sylvanas move and you can only pick them up at certain points.

Gear

Q: mats for tyrannical beheader

A: Blood, sweat, tears and a bit of luck - this is a drop from the final boss Scourgelord Tyrannus in Heroic Pit of Saron.

Q: best hunter enchant tyrannical beheader

A: Um... This is not a hunter weapon... strength does nothing for you and you will make your melee dps friends sad rolling on this. If you have no better option then the haste and armor penetration will be useful, but otherwise the only thing I can see this being useful for as a hunter is the stamina if you are making a high survivability set for soloing/tanking with your pet - in either case Massacre is your best option.

Q: tyrannical beheader enchant

A: Beserking - unless you are a DK tank... but you should be using a rune then.

Q: trade emblem macro

A: You don't need a macro - someone pointed this out somewhere recently (I'm sorry I forgot where) - you can just buy multiple emblems at once by shift clicking the emblems when you buy them.

Q: heirloom cross server

A: Not possible yet - it'll happen Soon TM. But hopefully soon soon rather than later soon.

Q: i deleted my character without mailing heirlooms

A: Ack. I think your only hope here is to petition a nice GM and see if they can restore it for you and keep your fingers crossed.

WoW in an Hour: Write an Addon

2010-03-19T00:04:00.001+08:00

Last week I spent a couple of hours on WoW playing Narcolious with all the others from Single Abstract Noun. I spent a couple of hours and I only killed 3 mobs in the whole time. Some of that time was spent chatting, some setting up my UI, others going back to Ironforge to train and finally get a flaming horse for him - however the rest of that time I spent with the help of Phaerae testing out and fixing up an addon - namely my addon MTarget. Explaining MTarget is rather complex so I'm going to leave that to a later post - in its simplest form it can be thought of as a focus replacement (allowing multiple focus targets) - through the rewriting of macros.

If you don't have a lot of time to play and developing/coding/etc is something you enjoy then I can highly recommend it. MTarget is now onto its second version - the first never really made it out of beta - but did the job it needed to (the second version is now into its final beta stage). I started rewriting the whole thing while I was on my last break from WoW and have been working on it on and off since my return to playing. Occasionally I would dedicate an evening to sorting out the bugs - and that is what I did this week - finally getting around to testing and making sure that the broadcasting was working - and picking up a few bugs along the way (like I had forgotten to actually check if the debug setting was on/off before outputting the debug information - more chat spam? yes please).

One of the positives of doing this as a player with limited time is that I can make use of time, when I can't play WoW, to do some coding. Those of you that have been through any sort of programming course of some description have probably come across the term CABTAB - or Code a bit, Test a bit - which is generally not considered the best way to do things because you don't end up getting a consistent implementation from top to bottom but bits and pieces cobbled together. I remember back at uni, for the assignment I got my best mark in, I had got to uni the day it was due, decided it was crap and rewrote the whole thing in a text editor in the general computing labs. Only after I had finished the whole rewrite did I go to a computer lab to compile and test it. Therefore coding when you aren't in front of WoW can actually be beneficial to the process.

The other thing to remember is that you don't always have to be working on it. If it isn't working yet or you're not in the mood you can just dabble with little bits at a time (fix one bug then get on with something else), or disable the add-on and you're free to do other things. This is one reason why it has taken me so long to get my add-on back into action - it certainly hasn't been the focus of my WoW time!

Learn a new language

Stories of WoW has a post up of wow and languages - talking about using WoW to learn new languages (as in spoken language) - you as a developer can to! WoW add-ons are written in Lua - I had never used it before starting to code my add-ons, but quickly picked it up. So take the opportunity to learn something new. It is a well structure (yet flexible) interpreted language with similarities to other many other languages so you can pick it up easily. The formal Lua documentation isn't too bad either! It is currently quite popular as the scripting language for games so if you are looking to move into game development it is a good thing to have under your belt! Eclipse supports Lua if you like an IDE for developing in (I'm happy with vim which does have syntax highlighting for it too).

Learning to code?

I've seen two situations where people have been thrown into the deep end when it comes to programming. One of my units at uni "Computer Graphics and Image Processing" was opened up to the multimedia students and watching them flail about as they tried to learn how to program at the same time as actually doing some pretty complex 3D graphics programming was painful. Equally painful, I watched my wife trying to learn Fortran for a maths computing unit... I ended up writing most of her assignments (but she managed to pass the exams all by herself!). Even now she watches me when I work from home and wonders how the heck I understand what I'm doing - it all looks like a foreign language... and it is. So is coding a WoW add-on the place to learn about programming?

Sadly, I would say no. There is a lack of documentation, and Lua, while a great language, is not the place to start - I would recommend a compiled language over an interpreted one - simply because you can usually get more meaningful messages out of a compiled language through the act of compiling (converting the written text into something the computer understands). I'd start with something like Pascal (it has some parallels to Lua as well) - it was written to be a teaching language and it was where I started many moons ago (actually not technically true - I started my first programming in some weird language I can't even recall on a Microbee computer and then moved to qbasic on my first PC).

The one thing going for starting out with an add-on would be motivation - you may not have any motivation to write Hello World in Pascal but getting a message popping up within WoW that says hello to you might be all the motivation you need. I know when teaching music these days they'll often teach the popular songs first to in-still a sense of excitement and motivate the pupil to learn more about music... rather than starting with scales. The same can apply.

Getting Started
There is nothing more I can say about getting started other than... just do it! Give it a try, fail, succeed, fail again, keep trying and you'll learn. If I look through my projects folder I have so many failed projects - its in my nature to start things (usually with a brilliant idea) and then stop once I've learnt what I wanted to learn. But keep trying!

Start small
If you are interested into getting into add-on development then I will pull out yet another one of my uni maxims - KISS - Keep it Simple Stupid! Start with something simple and don't set your goals too high (I fail at this so much... so take my advice with a grain of salt - knowing that I'm a bad offender!) I've developed three main add-ons in my time - MTarget is the only one that is road worthy I might add. But I started simple. My first add-on goes back a while to when I was levelling my warrior. Basically to make it easier to use Overpower I created an add-on that switched my buttons around if I got an Overpower proc ("awesome give me some of that" you say - sorry but this was in vanilla WoW - what I was doing has not been possible since patch 2.2). This was simple and was generally working (it had issues if you went left combat with the Overpower buff up) but it introduced me to the basics of add-on development.

The other add-on I've developed was even simpler, called SwitchTracker, and I knocked it up in a few minutes purely as a proof of concept that you can actually mine and herb at the same time - just by automating the switching of your tracking. It doesn't have any configuration etc, but it wasn't intended to be used in production (I was just arguing my point over on the Wowhead UI & Macro Forums). If you do want this functionality someone in that thread recommended Spotter.

It doesn't have to be a beautiful unique snowflake
While you are learning don't be afraid to reinvent the wheel. Try your hand at implementing something that already exists - or just a part of it. I was recently re-reading a thread on the same forum when I was trying to remember the name of an add-on (Livestock) and one of the forum members mentioned that he had written his own version. When queried why he did this his answer was simply that all the add-ons suggested do much more than what he needed (which added to memory usage, and potential lag etc).

Make improvements to an existing add-on
Most add-ons have a list a mile long of improvements that commenters have suggested. You can make a start on add-on development by working on another add-on. I've done this in the past - I wrote the dual spec support for Power Auras Classic. At the time it was available as an alternative download, but it has since been integrated into the main line. Be careful not to step on the developers/maintainers toes (in the case of Power Auras when asked the maintainer preferred it to be hosted on wowinterface rather than on my website for example) - so ask before you do something or at least before distributing it!

Make use of third-party libraries
There are a few about - but the main one I use is Ace (which if you've ever browsed through your add-on directory you'll probably see multiple copies of... it is widely used). If you are just wearing your L plates then use them. Other add-on developers might tell you to avoid them - because they do add an overhead - but they are a great place to start and can do a lot of the leg work for you - which if you find performance issues (or just so desire it) you can always replace the library bindings with your own implementation later.

Don't start with fancy graphics

One of the main things I've had issues with when developing my add-ons is that the UI side of things is a bit mysterious. Tools do exist to help with working with them (I've played with WoW Addon Studio and found it has some stability issues - that may be a Windows 7 thing though). Start with something that doesn't require much in terms of UI and go from there - chat commands are easy to work with! What you can see to the right is one of my dodgy efforts at UI in MTarget - that is supposed to be a drop-down menu (but you can see my newly dinged level 80 hunter in the background I might add).

Use the Source Luke
The one major downsides of add-on development is a lack of good documentation and tutorials to go along side it. There are helpful forums around (the forums on www.wowace.com for example) and you can find smatterings of tutorials on wowwiki but you are likely to need to look at the source code to work out different things or get third party libraries to work. Thankfully the source is available for everything you are working with. Blizzard is not happy with the use of obfuscated code, and so it is rare to see an add-on with code that is hard to read. So if you want to know how to do something, or integrate with a library you are most likely going to have to read and understand someone else's code.

The source for the Blizzard add-ons are available over at www.wowcompares.com which I've found to be really useful especially when trying to integrate with standard UI functions.

Resources

The following is a list of resources I've made use of - feel free to add more in the comment too!

wowwiki API: World of Warcraft API documentation - this is a (usually) up-to-date copy of the API documentation that gets posted on the official forums.
WoW Ace: a sourceforge for WoW Add-on development - projects hosted here automatically end up on wow.curse.com. Also there are numerous libraries to work with and the forums are helpful too.
wow compares: the source for the Blizzard add-ons
WoW Addon Studio: a studio for developing UI components
World of Warcraft Programming: a book and website all about programming for WoW. I haven't read the book but have made use of the references at times - but the names behind the book are a number of the big names in WoW Addons.
Lua: The official Lua site - documentation, and code snippets can be found here

Edited to add the reference to World of Warcraft Programming - as pointed out on the Twisted Nether podcast (thanks for the plug!).