arthaslol and the most excellent warriors - part 2

In this second vignette we hear about the most excellent warriors. This story occurred quite early in my 5-man tanking career, not much beyond level 30, in Maraudon.

I didn't know the instance and had not been assertive enough in engaging my fellow party members on the matter (post on learner tanks and instance knowledge incoming) and after some confusion when I went one way around a rocky outcrop and the healer the other (and we wiped) our healer and a dps disappeared in a flash. This left myself and two warriors. But not just any two warriors, two most excellent warriors! We requeued and waited… and waited. After a while we decided to forge ahead. I survived through trash via Victory Rush and eating afterwards and after a while we got to the end boss.

We gazed up at the huge weed with its spiky arms and slavering maw. “I don’t know,” said Dorf, one of my fellow warriors, (I shall call him ‘Dorf’ for my memory portrays him as such) looking over Razorlash, “there’s a lot of hits there.” “Let’s rotate the taunt,” came the suggestion from our colleague. “Alright,” I added, “wait until I’m low then you grab him, then Dorf, then I’ll blow cooldowns and see if we can’t finish him.”

And you know what – it was close but we did and we could. I’ve had many good experiences pugging but this still goes down as one of the best. Three players, finding themselves in adverse circumstances come up with a plan based upon the capacities of their class and then successfully follow through. It was a pretty easy low-level instance but this outcome felt like a great victory. We completed the run and I gave a hearty farewell to my warrior friends – hoping to see them again.

Stay liquid folks,

Mogul.

arthaslol and the most excellent warriors - part 1

Ollo folks,

Tanking PUGs gives you exposure to the best and the worst of the WoW community. I have to say that I love it. It’s challenging and it’s fun – it can be uplifting but it can also be very very odd. Two vignettes follow.

Our first scene opens at Slave Pens where a brave band of adventurers, thrown together but the winds of fate, set out for fun and fortune. I did say ‘fun’ right? They are led by the redoubtable Bankgrrl who, as a protection warrior since her early days of adventuring – having levelled exclusively through instances as prot - knows a thing of two about tanking. Runs are quick, aggro is held, the healer is protected and thanked at the end of the run (for healing pugs is a challenging role). In the way of warrior tanks it’s not ‘all’ business but it is ‘mostly’ business. She takes pride in leading her teams to good outcomes.

Bank (as she is known to her friends) surveys the team, a priest, a mage, a shaman and a death knight – a sturdy crew who seem up to the task, although… there is something odd about the DK. She can’t put her finger on it. He’s quiet as many of his people are but a little ‘too’ quiet. Shelving her doubts she begins the task.

The first few pulls go well when suddenly early into the fourth pull one of the mobs suddenly flies past our resilient tank’s right shoulder to land in the midst of the dps pack. Instinct kicks in, she slaps out a taunt and charges then works the mob back into the group.

“Please don’t pull the mobs DK (name and server address withheld).”

Silence.

The instance continues. Bank decides that it must have been muscle memory on behalf of her DK companion, a Death-Gripping hangover from single adventuring until right at the next pull there goes another mob, flying out of the tight group she’s formed for AOE right into the middle of the dps pack. The healing is split, the DPS fracture, Bank blows a cooldown and charges back to grab the mob.

“Seriously? Please don’t pull the mobs DK.”

Silence.

Another trash pack and more flying mobs. “What’s wrong with you – don’t pull the mobs!” And then the mage pipes up, “He’s not doing any harm.” But he is – he’s slowing down the run, he’s moving the dps between AOE and single target damage, he’s pulling bulk heals from the healer to hold him up while he grabs aggro on elite mobs he’s not specced for tanking. He queued as deeps; what on earth is wrong with him?

Let’s leave the third person narrative here. This odd DK didn’t last much past the first boss. I got on with tanking and stopped talking to him. At Mennu he continuously taunted from me and I taunted back to hold aggro. He never said a word and soon after the boss fight simply left the group. I’ve tanked somewhere between 40 and 50 instance runs on this toon and this guy was the oddest person I’ve come across; he was an enigma wrapped in a passive-aggressive riddle.

Tomorrow – The Most Excellent Warriors!

: )


M.

flipping at armour changes + prot warrior links

Everyone loves a bottleneck. Especially gold hungry moguls!

Recently I’ve levelled a priest to cap and am currently levelling up my bank alt Bankgrrl as a prot warrior. Along the way I’ve rediscovered a couple of very lucrative flip points for gear purchases on the AH.

The Cata Flipping Point
Cata gear starts at around level 77-78 which is at the high end of a battle group band. To avid PVPers this represents an ENORMOUS jump in stats, by comparison to the lesser geared members of the opposition, causing you to have access to one-shots and the like.

Level 40 Mail to Plate Flipping Point
Specifically for tanks this one represents an almost doubling of armour on various pieces by comparison to mail. All 40 tanks will be looking for these pieces so you can charge a premium.

Level 40 Leather to Mail Flipping Point
This one is for the shamans and is less likely to be profitable. For PVP shamans this is the beginning of a new band so even with an upgrade to mail the added damage mitigation is not going to be a great deal of help. PVE shamans are even less likely to be concerned here. It’s worth a look though.

What to buy
Now, as you approach these flipping points you’ll find at least one if not a few AHers firmly ensconced. Don’t be concerned by this – remember you’re not trying to buy ‘their’ stuff and flip it, you’re looking for the guy who’s had a drop and posted it up for 90g. A quick buy later and you have a piece that will likely provide somewhere between 300g to 500g profit. Making gold at this method requires a daily pruning of your gold bush (hmm, not sure I’m comfortable with that metaphor) to garner in the good deals and quickly flip them up onto the selling floor.

Control of the market?
Don’t even try it! Except for this one item: shields! Shields are a major source of armour for prot tanks. In the early days almost half your armour can come from your shield. There is NO heirloom shield so all tanks will be looking for that good drop or something special from the AH. If your realm is like mine then you won’t see many good tanking shields on the AH (although you will find a large number of items with Int on them). If you’re buying up to 100g and flipping to around 300g I think this could be a good market.

A Few Links for Starter Warrior Tanks
Go here for a brilliant level 15 tanking guide – this was so helpful to me – but also read on for general prot tanking tips in the bigger guide.
Pulveriser’s guide was also wonderfully graphic and contains some good high-level information – check the youtube version as well.
And best of all for a newby starter tank go to Maps For Tanks! Just go there! It has maps laid out in the sequence they come up in the LFG tool with the best path through the instance for you to take (including where quest items are). The folk from Disciplinary Action who run this site seem to be taking a break from updating it so the maps run out around the level 40 mark atm but they assure that they’ll be back soon. I can’t overstate the usefulness of this site for familiarising yourself with the instances before you get there.

That’s all for now folks.

Stay liquid,


Mogul.

...and he shall be my Squishy

Dory: I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy. Come on, Squishy Come on, little Squishy.
[baby talk, the jellyfish stings her]
Dory: Ow. Bad Squishy, bad Squishy.

When you’re a new and under geared clothy in BGs, when you’ve just hit 85 and your stat weightings have been nerfed out of sight by the helpful gaming company to whom you pay your monthly tithe, when your lack of spell pen means your super crits are now super cute, when you have just become a little fish in a big pond…

What do you do?

Get smarter people, get smarter!

Travel in a pack (school ; )
You’re weak and squishy so get some big friends – pallys and warriors and DKs (oh my!) are your best mates. Why? Cause they won’t stand around throwing a few spells at that damn warlock or mage, they’ll get right up in their grill and bust em up good. (Okay, maybe not our mage overlords they won’t bust up but you get the picture).

Find heals and stick to them like glue
You know what’s good when you don’t have many hits? Hanging with someone who can give you some more! Priests, shammies, pallys and druids, anyone who looks all helpful and healy (a mouseover in the Blizz BG screen will tell you the dedicated healers). Follow those guys and you know what? Help em out when the horde try to off em – that’s kind of your role anyway.

Bring something to the party
Aint got umph? Aint got D? What about a voice – you’ve got one of those right? No one talks (types) in BGs – well, not Alli ones anyway. BUT… once you get a group chatting and then they have a success it’s amazing how everything transforms. Suddenly people are offering suggestions, calling out incomings, deciding on a plan and acting upon it for the win. I personally have changed the course of BGs just by what I suggested and followed through on. You think people should be going after the flag rather than fighting mid? Then say so – but be constructive, suggest a meeting point and get them all together so that you can go in and roll the FC and his cronies. Be smart, hatch a plan with your group members and follow through on it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how many people are like you and given the chance will fall on a good idea like hungry jellyfish upon their prey (okay – that analogy could have been better but I was “not” going to say wolves!)

Squishies can sting
Yes you can, yes you can little squishy. You’re a cloth-clad squishy with low firepower and low survivability but you can still sting. But don’t sting the full hits warrior (shhh don’t even look at him, he might come over here), focus on that low-hits hunter over yonder, the one that your pally mate is beating on, finish him off quick and work out who you’ll assist next.

If you’re gonna die (and you are) then make it count
Damn if that hunter didn’t have a couple of friends and damn if the shield you just dropped on your pally mate is gone and he’s blowing his cooldowns as his hits plummet. What are you going to do now? RUN LITTLE SQUISHY, RUN! But run in the right direction, which is to say the wrong direction. ; ) You want to run in the direction that will be of most tactical use to your team as you drag your opponents with you. So bubble up, slap on your HoT, get ready to pop your trink, your fade, your dispersion, etc and run. See how far out of the action you can take those suckers before they off you – it’s amazing how long you can last when you’re just trying to survive.

Have fun
Not being able to pwn annoying horde (or alli – hi there hordy bros and sis’) into the ground with great gobbets of AWESOME can really get a clothy down. But know this: Blizzard made it that way on purpose! They ‘want’ you to grind through your BGs, to claw and scrabble your way to the top (top if you’re a mage that is – near-top for the rest of you). You’re not sucking by accident, Blizzard wants you to strive, to spend time, to pay dollars. So realise you’ve just committed to another WoW grind and have fun with it. If the frustration is getting you down then perhaps BGs at cap and the necessary gearing process are not for you – it’s a game after all you know, you can turn it off. ; )

Stay liquid folks,


M.

now what?

Hi folks! A belated HNY to you all.

Now what have I been doing since my last post last year?

Levelling a priest is what!

Here’s my priesty Werewithall. I’ve been having an absolute ball with her. Levelling has been mostly via instances smite healing as Disc with a fair amount of shadow PVP in battlegrounds once I got closer to the top of each respective band.

Were is my first ever heal-specced toon and there’ll be more posts to come relating to great sites I found as I levelled, smite healing and how cool it is and some of the fun transmogging I did along the way.

But today I’m posing a question: Now what?

I’m at end game and in general it’s not a part of the WoW game process I have enjoyed recently. There are two things that might change this experience for me though on this toon:

After dinging 85, crafting a full resilience set and converting the honour I’d capped (and been storing in Justice points) to some nice gear I hit a couple of BGs and found my damage to be competitive and my survivability to be fine – I’m not even chanted yet! It helps of course that these were BGs where Alli communicated well and won. ; ) So continuing as Shadow heals (post on this later) in BGs beyond 85 may be a prospect and;

Most importantly for future play at cap Were has always primarily been a healer, a fightin smitin healer but a healer nonetheless. As such there is still a progression pathway there for me on this toon: 85 normals, then 85 heroics – further instances opening up as gearing level improves. Without the capacity to hit the instances and alternate my experience I don’t think end game BGs would cut it. With it though (yes, I know DPS can instance but only every 10-15 minutes) I find myself interested to see the new content, read up on the boss fights and potentially someday hit a LFR group.

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

A brief RECAP! 250k to 1 million gold

Hi folks,

Well that's done!  Nice to be back over the million again.  : )

This is where I started seven weeks ago: 5 toons came across, each with portable holes to all slots.  I'd spent months laboriously converting my gold to product, creating choppers, shuffling for chant mats, proccing out flasks and making BSing buckles and weapon chains (I also took all glyphs to 15 stacks - and then forgot to bring the pally glyphs).

TCG mounts were a definite help, I snagged two raptors (one of which I still have) and a big battle bear.  Here's what I bought em for.

And here's what I sold them for.

On my old small server I watched them drop by 10000g before I bought them.  On the new populous server I set my sell prices and waited.  Combined purchase price was 135554g, sell price was 230850 - so far that's 95k profit on the two.  I still have a raptor listed for 142k gold - it'll sell eventually.

And that's what came home to me... on this new server if an item is saleable then it "will" sell and likely at the price you set.  I've gone from a server with less than 1000 active toons to one with over 20000.  I sold all 10 choppers within a few weeks, they flew off the shelves and for reasonable prices.  I'd thought 10 was an optimistic number as on the old server they'd languish for months on end - not so on Frostmourne.  My original store of 14 stacks of buckles have gone and I'm now crafting afresh.  Gems went like wildfire and mogging flipping has been fun and profitable.

Some interesting things about making it to the mill again on Frostmourne:

• I'm selling gems where the competition is posting at less then 10g for buyout (around 195g).  I can only surmise that I have Blizz's dodgy basic interface to thank.  It happens regularily.
• I've bought some herbs to transmute green gems to blues but apart from that everything I've sold is what I brought with me which was prospected from 6 bank tabs of pyrite ore.
• I've not entered the epic gem market at all.
• Mogging flipping is great fun.  I buy blue and epic weapons only for less than 200g and post for 1500g.  They move along nicely.  I make sure only to buy weapons that are rare and "look" interesting.  Remember, people are mogging to make their toons unique - trying to sell a look that is prevalent on the AH is not going to get you far.
• Glyph competition is fierce - I only really glyphed when I wanted to get the last few thou towards cap - getting about 3k a day from this when actively glyphing (ie, 2 posts a day).

Stay liquid guys,


Mogul.

30. how to enjoy playing WoW - part 3

Olla – how 4.3 working out for you guys. I’ve not had a lot of time over the last few days to jump in but when I was on totally loved transmogging my astonishingly ugly DK epic two hander look to a very simple 5g green from the AH – take that crazy WoW art!

Now for the third instalment of this series.

30. how to enjoy playing WoW - part 3

WWCND?

Do ‘some’ hard things
The best games, the ones you remember are the ones that excited and challenged you. Find something that is going to be difficult to accomplish and take a run at it. It could be anything? One of my toons is in a great gulid that primarily PVEs. I’m considering trying to mobilise at least a number of guildies to get some premades going to capitalise on the new conquest point changes. There’s some interest but it’ll be hard work to get it going and make it self-sustaining. That’s why if I manage it, it’ll be fun.

Don’t chase achievements
When achievements first came out everyone in my guild started chasing them. We were a hardmode 10-man guild and the general thought was that the points you got for achievements would (to be announced at a future date) provide some form of benefit in game, something the raid group could leverage off. We weren’t alone in this, everyone thought that would be the case. In actual fact achievement points provide no benefit other than distinguishing you from your fellow players. They are purely for ePeen and seem more self-flagellating than any other element of the game.

Summing up
Relax! Take a step back. So much of the angst I read about when people quit the game seems to be related to both a level of frustration with the xpac roundabout (now the patch roundabout) and an incapacity to monitor and restrict their own time spent playing the game. Fair enough, the first is just plain annoying and the second for most people is a learned skill (it certain was/still is for me). Remember that this is a game and while most games have an ending WoW, by design, doesn’t. You need to provide your own endpoint.

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.