Segment 52: Deadly Boss Mods

So now you’re raiding, or at least running instances. It doesn’t matter if you’re raiding old “vanilla WoW” dungeons or Baradin Hold, or anywhere in between; you want to do the best you can, whether you are the tank, a healer, or DPS. That means you need situational awareness, because while a mage doing the safety dance in Naxxramas may be low on the DPS charts, a dead mage is zero DPS.

The NPCs have an advantage over you. They may not be as smart as you (let’s hope not!), but they are inside the computer; there’s no lag between events and their knowledge of those events. Deadly Boss Mods (“DBM”) will help you overcome that advantage.

Right now I have a total of 36 DBM modules installed, including the core module and a totally superfluous “victory sound” module. There are modules for world events, PvP, every existing raid instance, and general modules for Outlands, Burning Crusade, Wrath, and Cataclysm. Other features (cribbed from the DBM Web site) include:

* Boss mods for all raid bosses.
* Colored raid warnings (players will be colored according to their class) with icons – so you will know what’s going on without even reading the message.
* Auto-respond during boss fights. DBM will inform anyone who whispers you during a boss fight that you are busy. These messages contain the name and health of the boss as well as the raid’s status.
* Boss Health-frame: you can enable a simple frame that shows a health bar for all active bosses. This is enabled by default for multi-mob bosses like Four Horsemen.
* Bars can be enlarged with special “notice me!” effects when they are about to expire.
* Crash recovery: you had a disconnect or crash during a boss fight? No problem for DBM! It will request the timer and combat status information from other DBM users in your raid group and you get your timers back.
* Synchronization system for accurate timers.
* No dependencies, no embedded libraries (except for the optional LibDataBroker plugin that embeds LibDataBroker). This means you can use DBM without any other add-ons.
* Modular design – all boss mods are plugins and can be exchanged, removed or updated separately.
* Load on demand – all boss mods are separate AddOns and they will be loaded when they are needed, so they don’t use memory or CPU until you enter the corresponding instance.
* Efficient code: DBM uses less than 250 kb memory and the CPU usage is also very low.
* Special effects like the screen flash effect, huge warning messages and sounds will draw your attention to critical events.
* Bars can change their color over time and flash before they expire.
* Highly customizable: you can change the bar color, size, icon position etc.
* Support for SharedMedia, so you can use any texture for your bars.
* An option to create custom timers, so-called “Pizza Timers” for your pizza or whatever you prefer to eat while raiding. You can also send those timers to your raid group.
* Powerful object-oriented API – you can use it to write your own boss mods!

There are screenshots and a download link, as well as dedicated forums at DeadlyBossMods.com

And you can update DBM with any of the three popular updaters.

Do yourself and your party members a favor; get and use Deadly Boss Mods.

Music for this segment is from FreePlayMusic.com and is entitled “Pushing It” by Eric Darken

Download the MP3: Deadly Boss Mods

No related posts.

NOTE: The status of many add-ons post-patch 4.0.1 can be found at
http://www.wowpedia.org/Cataclysm_AddOn_status

No related posts.

This morning, as is my usual habit, I tried to log into WoW from the computer in our library at home. Instead of the normal “Authentication Successful” message, a larger splash screen popped up, telling me that my account had been locked due to a detected “change in play pattern.” Now, my pattern is highly predictable. I normally play on the computer in my home library mornings and evenings, on my office work computer at lunchtime, and on my home office computer weekends, with rare forays on my laptop. That’s it; four computers, three of which never go anywhere. What could have changed?

Well, here’s the thing: on Tuesday evening, I was having problems staying connected. I didn’t think anything of it; rolling restarts on the servers frequently indicate server-side patches, and those frequently mean new bugs. Wednesday, one of my co-workers mentioned he had the same problem, but the third member of our lunch crowd said he hadn’t noticed anything.

What if those connection problems were caused by some account thief attempting to log into my (and my co-worker’s) account? Failing, of course, as he doesn’t have our authenticators, but still trying? Attempted logins from an unusual location (like, for example, China) qualify as a “change in play pattern.”

So this morning, I carefully typed the URL shown in the “account locked” popup (in Google Chrome, because Internet Explorer is about as secure as a tissue-paper bank vault), went through the rigamarole to change my password (this time using a more-secure randomized string), and logged in to play. The whole thing wasted about half of my normal early-morning play time (and prevented me from testing a particular add-on for the Emporium), but none of my Horde toons have been robbed. I should have checked the Alliance, too, I guess. I’ll do that later today.

Bottom line: If you don’t have an Authenticator, for your own sake, get one! I am certain that’s the only thing that kept my account from being stolen. And after you get it, if it’s the keyfob style, photocopy the serial number on the back and store that copy someplace safe, away from the computer and the Authenticator.

Use a “secure” password, one that you never use for anything else, at least eight characters long, mixed letters and numbers. Make it random if you can do that and still remember it. Write it down (yes, I know you’re always told “don’t write it down”) and put the slip of paper in your wallet. If you lose your wallet, your WoW password is a very minor problem, trust me.

And if you aren’t using Gmail for your main email address, open an account there now (it’s still free), and change your Battle.net information to point there. Gmail is very, very good at detecting “phishing” spam. I get around six spams every day that pretend to be from Blizzard. They never are. Gmail properly identifies them as phishing every time, with a large red banner across the top of the email. Granted, it also flagged the legitimate email from Blizzard this morning as “spam,” but it did NOT call it phishing. If anyone is interested, I can tell you how to identify the real source of an email; it’s pretty easy.

Be paranoid; this is the Internet, and they really are out to get you.

Oh, and have you ever been curious where those “we heard you like to sell your Wow Account, Dawg” emails that pretend to be from Blizzard would take you if you followed the link? If you’re using OpenDNS, this is what you’d get (and even if you are, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I am a computer professional; I have years of experience to help me stay safe.):

No related posts.

Segment 51: Old Friends Revisited

Let’s look at the pre-Cata add-ons covered in the Emporium once more, quickly, and see what’s still useful. Any dates referenced here will be 2011 unless otherwise stated.

From the top:
Omen3 – Outdated. I’ve personally moved to Skada.
Carbonite – Updated January 25th.
Decursive – Updated March 4th.
Grid – Use Healbot.
Mage Fever – Updated February 14th. Use Curse to get the latest version.
Lorack’s DK Optimizer – Out of date. Use SpellFlash with the DK module.
DeclineDuel – Out of date but still working.
AchievementSnap – Out of date.
DingRecorder – Out of date.
AuctionLite – Updated January 22d.
Advanced Trade Skill Window – Updated February 9th.
Free Refills – Updated March 7th.
InfiniteIgnore – Updated February 21st.
RankWatch – Outdated and obsolete.
EasySerum – Updated for patch 4.0.1 and should still work.
GoGoMount – updated March 9th, and GoGoPet updated for 4.0.1 in October 2010.
Add-on updaters are updated whenever you run them.
Outfitter – Updated January 8th.
_NPCscan – updated January 23rd.
Parrot – updated February 16th.
WetSpot – Obsolete.
SkillScore – obsolete. Use PlayerScore/GearScore instead.
RaidBuffStatus – Updated March 15th.
ArkInventory – updated February 26th
AutoEmote – still works even though it is long out of date.
AutoProfit is out of date, use AutoProfitX2, updated March 4th, instead.
LightHeaded was updated March 9th.
Leveling Guides – possibly no longer needed with Carbonite and Lightheaded. It’s up to you.
HealBot – updated March 6th. I’ve received email that there may be an issue with the slash command for HB, but I have not had time to investigate.
XtoLevel – updated January 25th.
AutoAspect – out of date. Consider SmartBuff as a replacement.
OmniCC – updated in December 2010 for WoW 4.0.3a
ControlFreak – updated January 4th 2009, but amazingly it still works.
Panda – updated March 5th.
Xloot – updated in December 2010 for Wow 4.0.3a
Talented – updated January 7th.

And at that point we started hitting add-ons by class.

Quick tip: Every add-on you have active uses some memory, so for best performance, only enable add-ons you intend to use.

Music for this segment is from Archive.org and is entitled “Nostalgia of Freedom” by Nicolas Panderis

Download the MP3

No related posts.

“I Need To Do a Dance”

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly News
We discuss the lack Blizzard developer chat.

What in the WoW is going on?
Modem discusses the current state of the player base in WoW

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
This week Icesnake brings a collection of familiar addons

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

No related posts.

Not to be overly academic, but WoW and Blizzard have essentially formed a relationship with each and every one of their consumers. We have developed norms with the way we interact with each other and when those norms get violated it is always very difficult to navigate a recovery process. I have often said in private to Jason and others that I now feel like Blizzard/WoW and I are navigating a rough stage in our relationship. It’s like when your partner/spouse tell you that they don’t love you anymore but because you so deeply love them you want to try to work it out… I feel like Blizzard/WoW is the partner/spouse who doesn’t love me as a player and a consumer anymore. Yet, my devotion to the game remains even despite its best efforts to get rid of me.

So here is my two cents on what is wrong in WoW, and what Blizzard should do to fix it.

Raiding
I know a lot of you probably cringe when I say that I believe the first tier of Cataclysm raiding is far too difficult for the majority of the player base. I’ll agree that Naxx and Obsidium Sanctum in Wrath were quite easy especially considering that I was able to complete both within 2 ½ months of Wrath’s launch (and I had to level my DK from level 55 in that time). I was also a young and new raider at that time, I knew very little about past raiding ventures and wasn’t experienced in the ways of classic and BC raiding, but I tried my best and did my research and though it wasn’t too terribly difficult it was still time consuming and fun… and I could learn. After all isn’t learning what the first tier of content for an expansion should be all about. So after having done my fair share of heroic modes in ICC, ToC, and Ulduar, and having 2+ years of raiding and raid leading experience under my belt jumping into Cataclysm raiding should have felt like ok… new fights… but lets do this. Instead it feels like everything I learned about raiding has been shattered and crapped on and Blizzard ratcheted the games difficulty up so much that even a now highly skilled player like myself (topping charts even when I pug in with hardcore guilds and players) feels like a complete and utter scrub and I’m left throwing my hands up in the air like did the last 2 years mean nothing?

Finally, this notion of being “spoiled” by a video game is utterly ridiculous in my book. Games are supposed to be fun, and completable by people with some challenge mixed in. Wrath was a challenge for many players but with enough work and effort even if it took them longer they got to do the content, not hard modes, but normal modes. Hard modes are for the hardcore, normal modes are for everyone who has the time and effort to put in. Blizzard should strive to give the hard core players better and more unique loot so they can feel that hard modes really do prove that they’re leet and they have something unique to show for it (not some recolored same model from an easy boss), but still make the loot for normal modes look appropriately cool (just not as cool as hard mode stuff). That’s the way I think it should run.

Dynamic Content
For all intensive purposes Azeroth is about as static of a world as you can get in an MMO. I’ve been a vehement defender of Blizzard on a lot of fronts, but this upsets me now more than ever that I see a number of lesser funded and developed MMO’s having dynamic content.

Take for instance the rifts and invasions in Rift… open world PVE content that actually gives you something for completing them (Rifts version of Justice Points). They encourage players to cooperate and are challenging but do not end up causing players to have to inspect each other’s gear/spec or anything like that before tackling them. Sure it might be slower than raiding or dungeoning… but it’s fun. No stress I get to join a public group of random people and go pwn some monsters and get stuff. The best part is… hardly anyone is judgmental or mean in those groups. Everyone has this attitude of “Yeah! Let’s do this!” You die… so what… run back and keep fighting the good fight. Why doesn’t Blizzard have something like this? In Wrath it could have been scourge invasions of towns and quest hubs or out in the world. In Cataclysm, it could easily work as Twilight Cult invasions… Imagine cultists overrunning Crossroads or Goldshire randomly, or your out running your dailies in Twilight Highlands and uh oh Dragonmaw Port is under attack by a swarm of cultists and twilight drakes so you and everyone else in the zone go rush to fight it off. Click a “Join Public Group” button and go in and save the day. I’m telling you… it could work and in Azeroth it would be awesome.

Community
I’m not sure if this is because of the content or just the maturity of the game but the player base of WoW is unbelievably judgmental and terribly inconsiderate and rude. In Wrath I used to see people pugging raids and dungeons all the time because it was fun even if you didn’t complete the dungeon. Now on a Friday night I log in and barely see anyone talking in Trade Chat… not even the obligatory “Baby” or “Murloc” memes. It’s like a ghost town…. no one wants to talk… no one is pugging. It feels for lack of a better word… empty or hollow.

Not to mention when you do finally get to the stage of getting into a pug or some other groups activity. You are under constant pressure to perform (spec, rotation, gear, ability) and at the first sign of trouble you’re kicked or not invited. Though I realize this is an ever-present and necessary trend in any group wanting to get stuff done, ratcheting up the game’s difficulty has increased the amount of scrutiny given to players and even friends that you have raided with for 2 years… who are good players! Is that what Blizzard wants to do to their community? Punishing people who enjoy playing together by making it so that they can barely get down 2 bosses a week? Making it so that you have to berate your friends about gameplay mechanics when I know that they know what to do? I urge Blizzard not to sacrifice the most important aspect of their game, the community, for the sake of appeasing the few people who enjoy excluding others from the fun, the others whose sense of accomplishment is directly related to the failure of others.

I recall Chris Metzen, in his “Geek Is” statements at Blizzcon 2010 talking about Dungeons and Dragons… and saying “Geek is sitting around a table with your best friends… armed with only graph paper and funny dice… and imagining far flung worlds of your own.” He even said that that was his favorite slide. For me “Geek Is” spending an evening raiding with my best friends enjoying jokes and downing bosses with minimal stress… still requiring skill and a few wipes… but minimal stress. Why does it now feel like Blizzard doesn’t want me to do this anymore?

Are there any people out there who aren’t experiencing these woes? Is it confined to my server? Is it just a random series of events that has plagued me as of late? I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, but I ask for help and your opinions. Please keep in mind these are my experiences and opinions and they may be very different from your own. I encourage respectful and intelligent disagreements, but don’t want to see any ignorant comments about “how I suck” or “qq” etc.

No related posts.

Segment 50: Add-ons for Shaman

I have been informed that, during the per-class segments, I somehow contrived to miss the shaman. Let’s correct that right now.

The shaman is a hybrid support class, providing DPS via spellcasting or melee, or healing. In addition, the shaman can place totems to provide additional benefits to the party or deal additional damage to enemies.

To help your shaman in his chosen role, I’ve put together a list of some well-regarded add-ons. All of these are available from Curse.com – see the segment notes for direct links.

First, we have SpellFlash: ReSham, a module for the SpellFlash add-on. SpellFlash: ReSham will provide visual cues for appropriate spells or abilities duing combat and out of combat. You can easily disable certain talent trees, and also disable it when out of combat.

TribalEnhancement is a lightweight add-on supporting all shaman specs. It provides totem, buff, debuff, and shield tracking using a “least intrusive” philosopy.

Tyler is a Nub is a simple add-on to remind you to reapply your weapon buffs. It also works for rogue poisons and warlock buffs.

SmartRes2 provides intelligent and co-ordinated party and raid wipe recovery. You’ll want every class who can rez to run this add-on, and then hope you never need it.

Lastly, we have Shaman Friend. This add-on is specifically designed for the shaman and provides lots of useful functions for all shaman specs. There are too many to go over here; take a look at the add-on page, as linked in the segment notes.

Music for this segment is from Jamendo.com and is entitled “Deranged” by Fox.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

Segment 49: AutoBar

AutoBar is a multi-bar add-on that automatically adds potions, water, food, quest items, and other usable things into buttons for quick access.

By default, it creates three new bars: Basic, with such things as your hearthstone, mounts, bandages, potions, trade skills, quest items and trinkets; a Class bar, with primarily non-combat spells and abilities; and Extras, with companion pets, fishing items, and miscellaneous other items on it.

You can move the bars around, change size and alignment, skin them, assign categories to various bars, add new bars, bind keys, and many other things, either using the AutoBar GUI or using the command line in the chatbar.

Since Autobar doesn’t use up any of the built-in action bar slots, it allows you to reserve those for combat abilities, hopefully making you more effective in groups and solo.

You can get AutoBar from WoWinterface.com or from Curse and support is provided at MuffinManGames.com

This segment was inspired by Psycaeda of Destromath.

Music for this segment is from Archive.org and is entitled “Dreamworld” by Brainstorm.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

“We Turn 60″

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly News
We discuss the lack of a new raid in Patch 4.1, the possibility of a legendary staff coming soon, Old Ironforge opening up and more.

Sign of the Failocolypse
A listener shares his most failed LFD group.

It Came From the Forums
A fun topic this week: what do you eat while playing WoW?

Strategy
We talk about tips for new tanks to get started.

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
This week Icesnake brings you addons for Shaman.

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

No related posts.

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly Blues
We discuss the news coming out regarding World of Warcraft Cataclysm Patch 4.1.

Why You Got Kicked
We discuss some of the most popular reasons people vote to kick someone from a dungeon group.

It Came From the Forums
We talk about one post where someone says that epics need to be earned and another that brings us spells that didn’t make it in to Cataclysm

Strategy
We bring you a walkthrough of Heroic Deadmines

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

Lore & More
We talk about 4.1 and some lore and thoughts about possibilities for Patch 4.1 and beyond.

Fan Art Showcase
Onyxia and Nefarian art by Leon19.

No related posts.

“Don’t Nerf My Bandwidth”

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly Blues
We talk about Bashiok’s lost notebook, Wow bandwidth requirements, Shaman healing changes, Dungeon finder and vote to kick.

Favorite Boss Fights
We talk about our favorite and most memorable boss fights over the years.

It Came From the Forums
Gold should be pointless and the authenticator should be nerfed.

Strategy
We bring you a walkthrough of Heroic Shadowfang Keep

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

No related posts.

No related posts.

No related posts.

Cataclysm has brought many new challenges for everyone in the game. The most talked about changes have come from the difficulty of heroics and raiding as the expansion begins. You can’t visit a WoW related site without running across endless chatter over the difficulty of the new endgame. Today, I’m going to give you a simple way to improve your play in every aspect of the game; especially when it comes to being effective in raids.

Cataclysm has given everyone more to be aware of when it comes to raiding. If you’re a DPS, a deep focus on your priority system leads to great damage output but can also make you less aware of the fire you happen to be standing in. Now more than ever, we need to be focused on staying alive and making the lives of those around us easier. But we can’t gimp out damage output either, else we’re letting our group down in other ways. So what we need to do is focus on being able to do damage while moving, while being aware of our surroundings, and utilizing the various utilities our class brings to the table we may often consider “PvP abilities” or not directly useful in PvE situations.

The best way to increase your situational awareness in this game is by participating in PvP. I’ve learned first hand how much more effective you can be in the DPS role by having PvP experience. PvP requires you to react to unscripted sequences, do damage while on the run, and simply think clearly in hectic situations. Simple examples of what I’ve been doing in PvP that have translated well to raiding are; properly utilizing Fel Flame while on the run in Baradin Hold, staying in the fire on Halfus for an extra 0.3 seconds to finish that critical Chaos Bolt cast, holding on to an instant Conflagrate for a half second knowing I’m about to move, timing all of my cooldowns for Bloodlust as if I were doing a hard switch in arenas for the kill, and many other examples.

Recently, I’ve been asked many times by other Warlocks I group with how I’m doing more damage than they are while we’re in the same spec, using the same “rotation”, and so forth. I believe PvP has given me a lot more experience in being resourceful and getting everything I can out of my gear and abilities.

What do you think? Do you feel like PvP experience has given you an edge in PvE content, or has it hurt you in some way? Let me know what you think in the comments!

No related posts.

Segment 48: Pawn

You’re running 5-mans, trying to gear up so you can level even faster, or run heroics, or raid. You see other people clicking “need” on gear that you think you might want, but you’re not sure if it’s really an “up” for you, and you don’t want to be “that guy.” What do you do? Pawn.

Pawn is an add-on that uses values from Wowhead to quickly compare loot items (or quest reward items) with gear you have equipped, and lets you know if it’s really an “up.” In the case of quest rewards, it will also indicate which item to take to vendor, in the case where none of the items will improve your current outfit.

Pawn can be installed and used immediately without any configuration; or if you’re the hard-core theory-crafting guy who spends days building spreadsheets, reading Elitist Jerks, and who runs Rawr and Atlas Loot, you can customize it for your fine-tuned needs.

Pawn is built to detect your class and optimize gear scores for you; again, you can customize it heavily, but for most players it will be more than adequate as soon as you install it. You can also share your own customizations (called “scales”), and import customizations shared by other players. There’s even a Web site dedicated to sharing them, linked in the segment notes.  And you can set up multiple scales (quite useful for the dual-specced player) and have multiple scores displayed on gear items.

Comparing drops or linked items to your current equipped gear is easy: Just right-click the item’s icon. If you would like to compare items in AtlasLoot, you can set up hotkeys for that purpose (the square brackets are the default, but if you have already bound them to other purposes, you’ll need to choose others).

There’s a pretty comprehensive ReadMe file included with Pawn; it includes almost everything I’ve mentioned here, and more.

One final note, not in the audio segment: the Pawn suggestions for gemming and reforging are also incredibly handy.

You can download Pawn from Curse or install it using Wowmatrix. Other Web sites and add-ons mentioned in this segment are linked in the segment notes at Wowphiles.com.

Music for this segment is from Jamendo.com and is entitled “Pay Attention” by Dead Pawn Company.

If you have a favorite add-on, or you’re looking for an add-on for a specific purpose, please drop me a line via email to AddOns@wowphiles.com or hit me up on Twitter.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

“Big Email Episode”

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly Blues
We talk about Patch 4.0.6 changes, stealth raid nerfs, is cataclysm questing too linear.

Too Much Trash
We talk about how people get frustrated when they spend so much time on trash before even getting to bosses.

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
Icesnake is back this week to bring you the addons Pawn and Dungeon Strategy addons.

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

Strategy
We bring you a walkthrough of Grim Batol.

No related posts.

Segment 46: PlayerScore

The single biggest complaint heard in World of Warcraft is about pick-up groups, usually called “pugs.” Why? Because players join pugs without the proper gear or experience to make a successful run. In the past, group leaders (now called “dungeon guides”) had two add-ons to help them determine the level of readiness a player might bring to his pug, GearScore and SkillScore. Individual players could use them to determine their own state of readiness, and decide how to improve it. Both of those became outdated with Cataclysm.

Now, TenTonHammer has released an add-on that combines the best features of GearScore and SkillScore, called PlayerScore.

I chose to download the add-on only, but there is an option to download the add-on with an updater. Since I already have three updaters, I didn’t see the need; plus, I will be forever paranoid about EXE files in add-ons that don’t come from Blizzard. However, the updater also allows you to download new PlayerScore data from TenTonHammer, and to upload ratings you’ve given to other players, much like the Wowhead Looter. So again, it’s up to you. TenTonHammer makes it easy to choose.

Confusingly, the folder name for PlayerScore is GearScore. If you already have GearScore (or SkillScore) installed, you should remove it (or them) before installing PlayerScore.

Once installed, you may find, as I did, that PlayerScore is disabled. Enable it for the toons you want to use it on.

After you log in on one of those toons, you’ll find a new icon in the center of your screen, a warhammer. Drag it to where you want it. Then click on a toon you’d like to inspect (you can click yourself, which is a good idea for your first look), and either type “/gs” or right-click the hammer icon and choose from the menu.

You will be presented with a largish frame containing quite an array of data, including the old GearScore information and a lot of new data. Dungeon Guides will want to look at the toon’s capability in 5 man, 10 man, and 25 man dungeons.

Rather than go into any more depth here, I recommend you check out the PlayerScore site at TenTonHammer. Look yourself up and see how you’re rated. Decide for yourself if this is an add-on you need. I know I want it.

Music for this segment is from Ska4U.com and is entitled “Explosive” by The Planet Smashers.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

“Word Ta Ya Goblin”

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly Blues
Not much this week but we talk about the removal of the requirement of entering a dungeon before it becomes available in the LFD tool.

Tol Barad
We talk about the story of Tol Barad and some of the lore regarding it.

Does usability trump the desire to make money?
We discuss BoE epics and if someone who wants it for gold should be allowed to roll against someone who will equip the item immediately and use it.

Strategy
We bring you a walkthrough of Halls of Origination.

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
Icesnake is back this week to bring you the addon Playerscore

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

Resto Shaman Guide
Ken from the Weekly Randoms podcast shares a guest segment on Resto Shaman.

No related posts.

Segment 45: Custom sounds

Some players play with all of the World of Warcraft sounds turned off; others turn on everything; and some prefer to replace or augment the in-game sounds with custom sound files. This week we’ll look beyond music players, at a couple of add-ons that help you with customizing the sounds in WoW. This segment was inspired by John Trahan. Thanks for your suggestion, John!

Since all of these add-ons use normal MP3 files for their custom sounds, you could easily substitute replacements of your own choice – just put them in the appropriate folder in your add-ons directory tree (look in the folder where the add-on you’re customizing is found) and rename them to replace the ones that came with your add-on. A good source of sound effects MP3s is SoundFXnow.com

GodLike! is an add-on that plays a sound when your spell, heal or melee attack crits. NOTE: Some of the default sounds are definitely not safe for work or around small children. It comes with some Bart Simpson clips that could be used instead, however, and if you’re reading this, you can grab my personal replacement English choices at the bottom of this post.

ComeHere is for Death Knights, and plays Scorpion’s “Come Here” or “Get Over Here” sounds when you use Death Grip.

Chocobo will play one of four random chocobo theme songs when you mount on a hawkstrider of any type. You can also change it to play the song on any mount if you want.

CritSound plays a custom sound each time you crit. Customizing the sounds without replacing the files requires you to edit the LUA file; if you’ve never looked inside a LUA, this is a relatively safe place to get your feet wet. Personally, I’d simply replace the MP3 file.

CoolLevelUp replaces the level up system message by a complete Level Up animation with music and sound displaying what stats you have gained and the new skills you can now learn from your class trainer. It gives you more information than the vanilla WoW level-up message, as well as being more entertaining

Music for this segment is from Ska4U.com and is entitled “You Done Me Wrong” by the Upsessions.

Download the MP3

Replacement English Sounds

No related posts.

Segment 44: Music Players

This week we’ll look at a few music players that run from within World of Warcraft. If you’ve ever died while tabbed out to change your music, or missed an important message on Ventrilo or TeamSpeak because the music was too loud and you couldn’t change the volume on WinAmp, you may find one (or more) of these to be a godsend. However, for those that require playlist makers, let me warn you NOT to use Curse’s installer; download the ZIP file and install manually, because Curse Client strips out EXE files – which includes the necessary playlist makers.

Music players that run within WoW require you to put your custom music into folders within the WoW directory tree (there’s a way around that, but having tried it, I recommend that you *don’t* try it). And it seems that no two music player authors agree on where you should put your music, so I recommend you settle on which one you want for playing MP3s and stick to that.

Van32′s CombatMusic plays custom MP3 files to (1) replace the in-game Fanfare music; (2) replace the in-game “you died” sound; (3) play your music when you enter combat and (4) play other MP3 files when you enter a boss fight. In my experience, you should probably pick 30-second “ringtone” MP3 files for the Battles list, or you will find yourself wanting to prolong combat. This is not a wise move when you’re solo, and won’t make you popular in groups. It doesn’t require a playlist generator, but the files you want to use must be placed in specific folders and renamed; and you’ll need to tell the player how many Battle songs and Boss songs you have. See the tutorial page for details.

EpicMusicPlayer really is Epic. It plays all of the in-game music as well as your own custom playlist, and includes two playlist generators, one in Visual Basic and the other as an EXE file (which, again, will be stripped out by the Curse client). The visuals are truly epic, as well. This is one worth having just to look at when you’re waiting in a queue. You don’t have to rename your files; if you don’t want to use your own MP3s, you won’t need a playlist at all. Install Guide

MusicPlayer (Sat, Oct 23 2010) is a fairly simple straight-up MP3 player. Unfortunately, it can’t be used without a playlist at all. Visually, it’s unattractive, but it’s simple and it works.

Music for this segment is from FreePlayMusic.com and is entitled “Flash Pipe” by Thomas Schneider.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

“Don’t Kick Me Bro”

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly Blues
We discuss topics that Blizzard responded to this week such as the guild perk system and Blizzard forcing people to have too much social interaction.

Introduction to PvP
modem gives you a guide to getting started with PvP battlegrounds and arenas. He gives you the most efficient ways to get points for gear.

Etiquette regarding Vote To Kick
When is it appropriate to vote to kick someone out of your dungeon group?

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
Icesnake is back this week to bring you addons to play custom sounds in WoW.

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

No related posts.

In the Wowphiles podcast #54, Modem mentioned three add-ons to help us archeologists, but they didn’t get linked in the show notes,  so here’s where you can get them:

Archy (pronounced like the perennial comic book teenager, “Archie”) is an assistant for Archaeologists that want information at their finger tips.

GatherMate2 and GatherMate2 Data collects Herbs, Mines, Gas Clouds, Artifacts, Fossils and Fishing locations and adds them to the worldmap and minimap. Updated for Cataclysm.

Archeology Helper Draws HUD with GatherMate2 pins, and shows Dig Sites on the Minimap and Battleground Minimap

If you find you need help getting Gathermate working, check out this thread on MMO-Champions.

Happy digging! Oh, and Modem – I wear adamantium-toed boots. No worries!

EDIT: Thanks to Chesterfield, 85 Worgen Druid on Drenden.

No related posts.

Segment 43: Add-ons for Warlocks

First, let me apologize for being alphabetically-challenged last week, and getting Warrior ahead of Warlock in the add-on rotation.

Warlocks are generally called upon to provide DPS, along with some ancillary tasks like summoning soulwells, creating soulstones, and making coffee. No, wait, that’s mages who make the snacks and beverages. Well, whatever.

As a consequence, one very popular talent spec is Destruction. If you are a Destruction warlock, you’ll probably want Destruction for Dummies. Keeping in mind that this add-on is also meant as an aid for Death Knights, Druids, and Hunters, it provides a visual prompt to tell you what spell you should cast next for a good single-target DPS rotation.

Spellflash: Warlock is, of course, a module for Spellflash, and flashes the spell button for (what should be) your next cast. You may want to experiment and see which style, and which spell rotation, suits you better: Destruction for Dummies, or Spellflash.

Winns Drain Soul tells you when to cast Drain Soul (and nothing else). Useful if you find yourself running out of Soul Shards frequently.

DoTimer (“dot timer”) is actually four add-ons in a single package, for tracking Damage over Time spells, Cooldowns, and PlayerAuras, and managing Notifications. Each sub-add-on can be enabled, disabled, or customized individually.

And for you role-players and just generally chatty warlocks, we have SoulSpeak. SoulSpeak emits random chats and emotes appropriate to various Warlock actions, with messages you can edit for customization.

Music for this segment is from ska4u.com and is entitled “Whip Them Down” by Pauline Black and The Selecter.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

Tol Barad has been a hot topic since Cataclysm released in early December. Since the start we’ve seen countless articles written over it’s imbalance and players sharing their discontent for the new zone. I’d like to tell you why Tol Barad doesn’t suck, and quite frankly, why I think it’s a fantastic zone for exciting PvP.

I spend a lot of my time in the game participating in PvP, whether through battlegrounds, arenas, Tol Barad, or dueling outside of Orgrimmar. PvP is a passion of mine and the challenge of facing a real-life opponent is exciting. Some of the best memories I have from my time playing PvP come from exciting and tense moments. I’ve been in Arathi Basin and won 1600-1590. I’ve encountered world PvP situations where I started a fight with 20% of my health, had a wimpy dagger equipped (remember when we had to level individual weapon skills?), my pet on passive, and won. I just recently won an arena match where my partner died, I finished off one enemy from 5% of his life, then finished off the other from 90% of his life, where I was at 10% when my partner died.

It’s those kinds of tense situations that make PvP in general so exciting. Tol Barad has taken some of that tenseness and brought it into organized world PvP.

Most recently, we’ve thought of world PvP, especially on PvE servers, as Wintergrasp. It’s the majority of players exposure to world PvP and so I’ll refer to it as such here. Wintergrasp was a fun experience in my mind, but it lacked the best quality of PvP; excitement. Essentially the strategy was the same each time and the fight played out the same way every time. The difference between battles was likely which side the attackers were coming through. The excitement only started when the interior of the fortress had been breached and by then it was too late for the defenders. Wintergrasp was effectively Strand of the Ancients on steroids.

Tol Barad starts off with tense situations and keeps them going throughout the battle. You may be defending Slagworks and wondering what the situation looks like over at Ironclad Garrison. Should you leave 20 at Slagworks and attack Warden’s Vigil, or are they going to come back to Slagworks right away? Which point is going to get hit next, and by how many? With three main points of interest, something is always going on at one of them, or is imminent. Strategy is a key factor for both attackers and defenders and is simply more important and fluid than it was with Wintergrasp. Understanding the pattern the attackers are following from flag to flag and how you can take advantage of that as a defending unit is the difference between a win and a loss.

The structure of Tol Barad creates impromptu battles on an epic scale many times throughout the battle. That’s what we want from world PvP after all, isn’t it? We’re not primarily focused on taking out vehicles as we were in Wintergrasp. We’re finding ourselves in huge battles, using our CC abilities, and fighting players in true world PvP fashion.

While Tol Barad isn’t the most balanced experience right now, I can appreciate the recent blue post explaining the design ideas behind Tol Barad and the importance put on holding the zone. I was encouraged to hear that response as opposed to hearing how the idea is for us to bounce it back and forth as Wintergrasp turned out to be at the end of Wrath with the many attacking team buffs. I do believe there can be some minor tweaks made to make it slightly easier to capture Tol Barad as an attacker, but don’t want to see it turn into something where the excitement from the battle is gone.

I think we should all be enjoying the epic world PvP experience we have available to us right now. It’s rare and something I’ve never been able to experience before. It’s certainly head and shoulders above what Wintergrasp provided and I would be sad to see the experience go away in any form.

Tell me what you think about Tol Barad in the comments!

No related posts.

“I’m DPS, That’s What I Do”

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly Blues
We discuss Patch 4.0.6 notes and some of the things that caught our attention.

Ghostcrawler’s Post about Heroics
We read excerpts from Ghostcrawler’s blog post about the difficulty of Heroic dungeons and give our thoughts on it.

It Came From the Forums
What would you do if you woke up as your WoW character?

Strategy Segment
We give you a walkthrough of the Lost City of the Tol’vir dungeon in Cataclysm

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
Icesnake is back this week to bring you addons to play music from within WoW.

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

No related posts.

“DK’s Can Hit Level 86″

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly Blues
We discuss Blizzard’s stance on the state of heroics and our thoughts on their difficulty level. Then we discuss the dungeon finder and gear detection.

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
Icesnake is back this week to bring you addons for Rogues.

Healing Tips
Modem provides tips for healers in Cataclysm.

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
Icesnake is back this week to bring you addons for Warlocks.

Strategy Segment
We give you a walkthrough of the Vortex Pinnacle dungeon in Cataclysm

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
Icesnake is back this week to bring you addons for Warriors.

Loreducation with Evinrue
Evinrue is out this week so we briefly ramble on about who the love of Garrosh Hellscream’s life will be.

No related posts.

The advice I’m about to give for Paladin tanking is from my own recent experience and the techniques that I feel are working for me. If you are looking for Paladin Tank Gear please visit my blog post on that.

Divine Plea: It’s not just for mana anymore

I’m starting off talking about Divine Plea because I believe effectively using it is an important skill to add to your toolbox for threat generation and survivability.

First take note of the talent Shield of the Templar. With 3 points in this talent every time you use Divine Plea you gain 3 Holy Power.

Threat Generation

Problem: At the start of a boss fight you need to generate threat quickly.

Solution: Right before you pull the boss hit Divine Plea to generate 3 Holy Power and you are able to immediately use Shield of the Righteous giving you a threat burst to get a lead on your DPS.

Survivability

Problem: Currently most players are still trying to gear up since we are only one month into Cataclysm. Therefore our own survivability is low due to lack of gear, and also our Healer’s need help due to low mana pools and low mana regeneration.

Solution: Using Divine Plea every cooldown to generate 3 Holy Power allows you more opportunities to use a full strength Word of Glory and heal yourself, therefore increasing your survivability.

Be a Defensive Driver

Do you remember when you learned to drive a car and the instructor said to “drive defensively”?

Safe Practices for Motor Vehicle Operations defines defensive driving as “driving to save lives, time, and money, in spite of the conditions around you and the actions of others.”

Tanking is not just about how much threat you can generate and how much damage you can do. It’s also about staying defensive in order to save your own life and the lives of people in your group.

Use your defensive cooldowns liberally.

And by liberally I mean all the time.

Word of Glory – Once you’ve established a solid lead in threat, this should be your go to ability and not Shield of the Righteous. Hit this every time you have 3 Holy Power.

Divine Protection – I use it on trash pulls to help even out spike damage I’m taking as well as in boss fights when I see the healer’s mana or my health starting to dip low.

Guardian of Ancient Kings – This is a new ability so don’t forget you have it. Use it like you would Divine Protection and don’t be hesitant to hit them both at the same time if you need to.

Holy Radiance – It puts a small HoT on you and all melee around you. There is no reason you shouldn’t be using this every time it is active.

Ardent Defender – Works like Divine Protection by reducing damage by 20%, however only use this when you see your health getting dangerously low so that you can take advantage of it’s ability to save your life in the event that an attack would have killed you.

Lay on Hands – Once you’ve used Ardent Defender and you find your health getting to that dangerously low level again hit Lay on Hands to get your health back to full.

Hammer of Justice – I love using this during a trash pull on a caster mob. Stunning one mob even for a short time is a useful form of damage mitigation.

Trinkets – Trinkets with a “Use” ability sometimes tend to get left behind and forgotten. I like to Macro my “Use” trinkets to my Crusader Strike so that I can make sure I am using them every time they are available.

Healing Spells – Our healing spells can be a mana drain but sometimes it pays to cast Holy Light or Divine Light on yourself or a party member once in a while. Don’t be afraid to use them.

AoE Tanking: Don’t Go OOM

Running out of mana at the wrong time can be very bad for your health and the health of those around you. To avoid this I try to use Consecrate as little as possible.

It still seems odd to a lot of us who are used to the days of using Consecrate often to not see it on the ground. It’s also odd to the those not familiar with the changes in Paladin tanking who don’t see it on the ground and say ignorant things like, “zomg why don’t you consecrate failtank!!!”

Here is my current process for AoE Tanking:

Avenger’s Shield – I use this first to pull the mobs toward me. Be sure to be using the Glyph of Dazing Shield and not the Glyph of Focused Shield.

Righteous Defense – As the mobs are running toward us I’ll look at my Vuhdo frames to see if anyone is showing that they have Aggro. A lot of times your healer or the person who did a CC pull will have aggro from 1 or more mobs. Cast Righteous Defense on them right away to taunt those mobs.

Holy Wrath – Once the mobs are in range I hit Holy Wrath first. This way I can stun any of them that are able to be stunned.

Hammer of the Righteous – Next I hit this to do more AoE damage to all mobs in range.

After using these opening moves I focus on the target I marked as skull to make sure I have enough aggro built up on it.

Then I start to tab through targets and hit each one once or twice to increase my level of threat on each mob. Also continue to mix in Holy Wrath and Hammer of the Righteous as they become available for AoE damage and threat.

In situations where we have picked up more mobs than I would have liked or a mob is summoning adds, I then use Consecrate to supplement my AoE rotation and threat generation.

My Protection Paladin Spec

My Build: 3/35/3 – This is the current talent spec that I am comfortable using.

Marking Targets and Initiating Ready Checks

These are a couple things that all tanks can do to help their group to be successful. Marking a target to use crowd control on and marking the first and second mobs that you would like your dps to focus fire on is a great way to take some pressure off of you as a tank.

Taking the guess work out of kill order for dps makes it easy for you to maintain threat and keep each dps from pulling aggro on a different mob.

Using /readycheck and even making a macro button for it makes it easy on you for knowing that people are ready for you to pull a boss. Don’t cause unnecessary wipes because someone wasn’t ready and you failed to use a ready check.

Final Thoughts

Those are some of the techniques that I use when I’m tanking in Cataclysm. It might not be perfect and you are free to offer your own tips for the things that you use to be a successful Paladin tank. I’m always open to suggestions and I hope that what I have here will be useful to a lot of people getting started tanking as a Paladin.

No related posts.

Segment 42: Add-ons for Warriors

Warriors fall into that World of Warcraft category that can either tank or DPS; with that in mind, we’ll look at a few add-ons that lend themselves to these roles.

First up is TidyThreat, which is a plug-in for TidyPlates. TidyPlates modifies the nameplates you see over the heads of mobs, and TidyThreat makes it instantly clear, using color bars, which mobs are loose, which have aggro on you, and which don’t. It’s easy to switch the color scheme for Tank or DPS, and you can turn on a “detail” window which will tell you who has threat, and how much. If you only want to use one add-on for tanking,, it should be TidyPlates with TidyThreat. The default display is thermometer-like, and it’s incredibly simple; as stated by the author, “If you’re DPSing: Don’t go into the RED! If you’re tanking: Stay in the RED!”

SpellFlash: Warrior is a plug-in for SpellFlash which will flash above your ability buttons, to suggest your next move.

TankadinTps is a threat analyzer for several classes; this is especially useful for the theory-crafting players.

Nutty War Announce is a useful add-on with an unfortunate name; it will display chat text announcements of the warrior’s use of various abilities.

Please see the segment notes for links to the add-ons.

Music for this segment is the Dragon Warrior theme from Realm of Darkness.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

Segment 41: Add-ons for Rogues

This week we’ll talk about some add-ons for the most versatile of melee DPS classes, the Rogue. In addition to simple DPS, Rogues are often called upon to provide crowd control, scout, open locks, and find traps.

Quick Rogue Info is a customizable set of information frames for rogues. Included are buff and debuff bars, combo points, poison stacks, threat, DPS, player health, target health, energy, and much more! Also, an icon suggests the next ability to cast based on simple rotation rules for all rogue specs. If you have Recount installed, QRI will also display DPS.

Sapper Enhanced is a somewhat less-comprehensive add-on for Rogues with a few different features. If you want something that’s lighter than QRI, give this one a try.

Poison Warner is unique to the Rogue class. It prints a warning in chat and plays a sound to warn you if you are missing a poison or if you have joined an arena or BG with a weapon unequipped.

Finally, we have SpellFlash: Rogue, a module for BigRedBrent’s Spellflash addon. Currently meant for the Mutilation Rogue, it will (as the name implies) flash the action button for the suggested next ability in your rotation.

Music for this segment is from High-Tech.com and is entitled “The Pink Panther” by Henry Mancini, performed by The Ventures.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

Segment 40: Add-ons for Priests

I’m going to focus primarily on healing priests here, because you guys are the ones that stand back and make sure the rest of us can work. And, of course, sometimes you have to pick us up, dust us off, and send us back into the fight. That’s what Moms, Dads, coaches, and Priests do.

So, without further slobbering…

Healbot Continued is *the* quintessential add-on for healers. If you’re still using Grid, I strongly recommend you give Healbot a try. If you don’t use any other add-ons as a priest, you should use Healbot. There are intensive, in-depth tutorials and commentary for Healbot in multiple languages at healbot.info and even videos. As always, you should check the segment notes for direct links.

SmartRes2 helps you and your fellow healers to coordinate recovery from wipes, when someone gets in over their heads. I did NOT say DPS pulled aggro. Although maybe they did. Ask the tank.

PetTimeToLive lets you Shadow Priests know how much longer your Shadowfiend will be around to distract the mobs. Do you have time to escape, or should you just try to take down as much as you can before you die? PTTL will help you decide.

POM Assist tracks Prayer of Mending casts specifically. If that’s all you think you need to know, POM Assist will take care of that for you.

Music for this segment is from Audiostreet.com and is entitled “Zadok the Priest” by Johann Sebastian Bach, as performed by the WPHS Chorus.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

In my last post I talked about how I didn’t think that Heroics in Cataclysm were necessarily too difficult, but we as players needed more awareness and experience and gear.

Since then I’ve been making attempts at various Heroics, all with similar outcomes: we seldom finish the entire dungeon and it involves a lot of wiping along the way.

Have I decided to change my tune and say that yes they are in fact too difficult? No, I’m not ready to concede that point. They are hard, there is no doubt about that, but I don’t think they are unfairly hard.

I think the line of whether or not something is too difficult and should be adjusted comes down to whether or not it is unfair. If a heroic dungeon is so difficult that unless you have the perfect group composition and all the stars are aligned you will fail, then it is unfairly hard. I don’t feel however, that we are experiencing that situation.

The only thing that seems to me that Blizzard should take a look at changing are healers. It seems like healers are really getting the short end of the stick here and it makes me wonder if their mana pools and healing output are too low. Yes, gear will solve the problem, but if their base is too low to begin with then they are just trying to dig themselves out of hole that they didn’t need to be in.

For players, I’m a believer in the notion that just because you can enter a Heroic with an average item level of 329 doesn’t necessarily mean you should. If you are skating by with gear in your bags that is not even your spec, and you have equipped mostly greens with none being gemmed or enchanted, you aren’t doing much to help the success of your group.

I think instead of using average item level as the benchmark, and taking account items in your bags as well, Blizzard should tried something like require that you have at least a blue level 333 item either from regular dungeons or from quests equipped in every slot (we can even exclude trinkets) when you try to enter the Heroic version. Then you at least know that people have put some work into gearing for Heroics and the group as a whole will be more successful.

I’m a believer that higher content and harder content should be accessible to everyone given that they have put in some level of work. Players shouldn’t feel entitled to running Heroics right off the bat just because, “Only n00bs run normals”.

If you want to run Heroic level dungeons then I believe you should have to put the time and effort into running the normal modes first and acquiring all regular level gear before moving on. The average item level restriction of 329 seems like a soft attempt at this.

Then, a year into Cataclysm, when many more people have higher level gear, I think it’s fine to remove or lessen the restriction and give people the opportunity to carry their less geared friends if they so choose.

At the beginning of an expansion I don’t see anything wrong with putting up a stronger gate and saying to players, “You must have at least all regular level gear before you can move on.”

So even though the system is flawed, the dungeons themselves are not at an unfair level of difficulty.

The best advice I can give players struggling right now in Heroics is this: know the mechanics like the back of your hand. There is no margin for error right now and everyone needs to be on their game 100%.

No related posts.

My goal for this blog post is to create a list of things that players can do in heroics to not only be better players, but also better people. If you have a tip to share, even a small one, please leave it in the comments section of this post.

There are obvious things we can do to be better players like–don’t stand in fire. But there are also some intangible things we can do that affect the group’s success like–how we interact on a human level. I’m looking for both kinds of tips from you guys and gals so share away.

This post was inspired by my experience last night in Heroic Lost City of the Tol’vir. The group was comprised of four guild members and a healer from the LFD tool. When one of our DPS got disconnected we picked up another DPS using the LFD tool.

The DPS that we got was already well geared and clearly someone who was in one of the higher end more hardcore raiding guilds. I thought this would be lucky for us. It really wasn’t.

After a couple wipes on High Prophet Barim our well-geared DPS, who was seemingly quite a good player, made some vague passive-aggressive comment (that could be loosely interpreted as advice) then called our group Wrath Babies and left.

So my tip on how to be a better person in heroics is this: if you see someone doing something that is clearly wrong, because maybe they don’t fully understand the strategy or mechanics, and you are an experienced player, try politely whispering someone and saying, “Hey during Phase 2 stay away from the white glowing circle around the boss because it does damage.”

Don’t just call people names and rage quit. Try using your knowledge and your experience to help others rather than as a symbol of how L33T you are, which you use to hold over other people’s heads and then stick your tongue out at them like a four year old right before you leave the group.

If someone doesn’t listen to your advice, that’s on them. If you don’t even try, that’s on you.

No related posts.

The discussions, conversations, and flat out raging over Cataclysm heroics continues on forums, twitter accounts and all across the internet. This is a topic that I’m going to touch on some more in the next episode of the podcast, but since it is on my mind, I thought I’d write a little about it.

The majority of what I’ve been seeing are players who are upset because dungeons and heroics are so hard right now that they can’t even finish them without the group breaking up. There are also people complaining that they are too easy and a faceroll already and Blizzard sucks for not making them hard. These players however, are a minority and in all honesty, I think they are just saying that to make themselves look zomgl33t.

So let’s focus on the issue of the dungeons being too hard. Some things players are saying:

• The group wiped once and disbanded
• Someone said they had never been in a certain dungeon and the group disbanded.
• Someone said they had never done the heroic version before and the group disbanded.
• Heroic runs are taking three hours and no one has time for that.
• Healers suck.
• Tanks are egomaniacs.
• DPS are morons.

That list could probably go on for several pages but I’ll spare you, and myself, the pain of that. But what I do want to talk about are my thoughts on all of this.

I ran many 5 player pugs for various dungeons in Classic Wow and including 10-player pugs for Upper Black Rock Spire. I ran many heroic pugs in both Burning Crusade and Wrath. What I’m saying is that I’ve done a lot of pugging over the years and I’ve run a lot of dungeons.

Do I think the current content is too hard? No, I don’t.
Do I think the current content is unfair to casual players? No, I don’t.
Do I think a high percentage of players are more spoiled, impatient, and lazy (not necessarily all 3 simultaneously) than before? Yes, I do.

First, the question of the content being too hard. I don’t believe requiring that players pay attention to kill orders, fight mechanics and movement equate to a dungeon being too hard. If dungeons were so easy at the beginning of an expansion for players in quest greens and blues that we could burn through them with no regard for mechanics, then why should Blizzard even take the time to develop and implement any mechanics?

They might as well just give us the gear for free. Or better yet, they might as well not even require that we even play the game. They could just send us a badge in the mail that says, “Congrats, you beat World of Warcraft! Your players are all the highest level with the highest gear and the most money, so don’t please don’t worry about spending time doing it yourself. We’ve taken care of all the details for you.”

Let’s move on to the issue of the heroic difficulty being too much for casual players and not fun for casual players. I’ve been a casual player who had very little time to play. I’ve also been someone who spent a lot of time playing. Currently, I’m somewhere in between. I’m also fortunate to have a fantastic guild right now. But in the past I haven’t been so lucky.

In my experience, the difficulty of the current dungeons is not harder than what we have had in the past. I don’t think the difficulty is at an unfair level. I think it is challenging right now, and challenges pose problems for some groups and also for casual players.

This message is for casual players: I understand that spending the limited amount of time that you have trying to find a group only for it to quickly fail sucks. I get that. The reason I left a PvP server was because spending the limited time I had to play getting ganked was not fun for me.

But I think your anger and frustration should not be aimed at Blizzard for making things too hard. I think it should be aimed at players who have gotten lazy and want things handed to them on a platter. It should be aimed at the give-up artists who are too fragile to deal with challenging dungeons.

If you are someone who is forced to pug dungeons for whatever reason, there are a few things that you can do to help your situation:

A) Find a better guild. Yes, this isn’t always doable and might not be the solution for everyone. But there are good guilds out there. I know this firsthand. If the guild you are in doesn’t fit your schedule or your needs, sometimes you have to make the tough choice to leave. Even if it means leaving behind some people that you like. I wish I had done that during Burning Crusade.

B) Form groups on your own server rather than the dungeon finder tool. Use the looking for group channel, or even use trade chat if you have to. Forming a group of people on your own server will yield a higher percentage of success than a group of strangers from all servers. You can still queue for a random dungeon once your group forms and complete the daily dungeons.

My final message on the issue of players being spoiled and lazy is this: stop expecting to run heroics in crap gear like it’s Utgarde Pinnacle and you are in all iLevel 264 gear. Those days are gone. At least temporarily.

Show some respect for fellow players and don’t leave a group at the first sign of trouble. If you know the dungeon and the boss fights well, offer help and advice to your group rather than giving up and finding a new group. Stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution. Yes, that is a cliche, but guess what? It’s the only way we are going to have successful groups again…at least until Patch 4.3 when we are all spoiled and facerolling dungeons again.

The things that are going to get us through this period are communication and respect. Show some respect for other people and communicate with them. These two simple tasks will be the difference between failure and success.

No related posts.

This week I was informed about a website that helps players find the best Cataclysm pre-raid gear for their class and spec. The website is Ask Mr. Robot.

Ask Mr. Robot is a simple and easy to use tool for finding gear. You select the icon for your class, followed by the icon for your spec. Then Mr. Robot does some calculations and brings up a list of gear that it considers to be the best options.

There are a few parameters that you can use to filter your options and force Mr. Robot to pick different pieces of gear. The limited number of options makes the process simple and not too overwhelming. Some other gear calculators have so many options to choose from that it can feel like the tool itself has its own learning curve involved.

Ask Mr. Robot does its calculations and pulls up the gear lists fast. There is no waiting for items to load from a database or pages to refresh. The downside is that it only gives you one set of gear. You can get it to swap out some items based on your option selections, but you aren’t able to see what your second, third, or even fourth best options might be for each slot. Having only one option at a time requires us to trust that Mr. Robot’s calculations are correct and that this is in fact the piece of gear that we should have in each slot.

In its current state, Ask Mr. Robot is a fast and easy way to get a list of gear available that will get you ready to raid.

There are a number of resources available for gear, including our own Cataclysm Gear Guide Lists, but I recommend that you add Ask Mr. Robot to list of resources and give this tool a try for yourself.

No related posts.

“Are You Feeling Shortchanged?”

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly Blues
Cataclysm sales record, Dalaran is never getting portals back so stop asking, Healing in Cataclysm, Hot
Fixes, Winter Veil

PvP Wargames
We discuss the new wargame skirmishes for PvP

It Came From the Forums
The question came up on the official WoW Forums: Are you feeling shortchanged by Cataclysm?

Strategy Segment
We give you a walkthrough of the Stonecore dungeon in Cataclysm

Icesnake’s Addon Empoorium
Icesnake is back this week to bring you addons for Priests.

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

Loreducation with Evinrue
Evinrue is out this week so we briefly ramble on about who the love of Garrosh Hellscream’s life will be.

No related posts.

I’m continuing my series of posts where I compile resources for players looking for the best gear to have in order to start raiding in Cataclysm.

See Also:
Cataclysm Pre-Raid Healer Gear
Cataclysm Pre-Raid Tank Gear

Below are some of the better gear lists I have found so far. I’ll keep updating this list as new resources become available.

Death Knight

Death Knight Pre-Raid Gear Guide

Death Knight Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List (2-Hand Weapon)

Druid

Balance Druid Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Feral Druid Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Hunter

Hunter Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Mage

Mage Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Paladin

Paladin Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List (Dungeon Gear)

Priest

Shadow Priest Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Shadow Priest Cataclysm Raid Preparation

Rogue

Rogue Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear Guide

Shaman

Elemental Shaman Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Enhancement Shaman Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Warlock

Warlock Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Warrior

Warrior Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Warrior Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear Guide

No related posts.

Cataclysm has only been out for a week and I’ve come to the conclusion that the level cap should have been set at 90 instead of 85.

Let’s ignore the Paladin named Forscience who went from 80 to 85 in just over five hours. He doesn’t count because inevitably someone always gets the first level capped character with help from friends and mob tagging.

We will also ignore the people who played endlessly and reached 85 the first day or two after Cataclysm’s release. I’m actually going to take the speed at which people reached 85 out of the equation entirely and focus on something different: content.

Going into Cataclysm I made an assumption, which has turned out to be wrong, that there would be five new zones (excluding Tol Barad) and therefore one zone per level. I thought that we would be able to see all the content as we leveled and when we hit 85 we would have quested in each of the zones.

Wrong.

As of this moment I am level 84. I’ve taken a pretty standard route to get where I am. I’ve mainly quested solo, but also fit in a few dungeon runs to round out the experience. I’d say that this is the Blizzard approved method of leveling. And by that I mean, this is what Blizzard had in mind for how the majority of players would level.

So what’s the problem you ask? The problem is that I’ve only quested in two zones.

I started questing in Mount Hyjal and followed it through to the end. (Side note for those who haven’t done it yet, you should make sure to see the last quests in Hyjal) In the process I ran Blackrock Caverns three times.

From there I decided to move on to Deepholme, where I did enough questing to get the zone questing achievement, and then finished up with the Therazane dailies. I also did two Stonecore dungeon runs in the process.

That brings me to today. I’m level 84 and I’ve only seen two zones. I’ve already skipped Vash’jir, now I can skip Uldum and move on to Twilight Highlands where I will hit 85.

I think that Blizzard could have very easily made the level cap 90 with the content that we currently have. From Mount Hyjal I could have gone to Vash’jir, then to Deepholme, then to Uldum, and finally to Twilight Highlands where I would hit level 90. I would see all the content while I was leveling rather than going back and doing it later.

For a lot of us, once we hit max level it becomes a game of running heroics for gear and then moving on to focusing on raiding. That doesn’t leave a lot of time to go back and run content that we out-level.

If you want to see all the Cataclysm content you can do so with alts or by going back after the fact for the fun or the gold from quests, but it’s a shame that we can easily skip two zones.

At this point if you are saying, “But we could skip zones in previous expansions”. True, but in Northrend there are a total of 9 zones (excluding Wintergrasp) as opposed to 5 in Cataclysm.

If you are only going to give us five zones, don’t only give us five levels to do it in because then it really does feel short and like we got a bit ripped off. Making the level cap 90 would have made the leveling experience much more fulfilling and less like the lack of high level questing content it currently feels like.

Had the level cap been set at 90 then players would have felt as though the high level questing experience was more like previous expansions and less like its current state: merely a setback.

No related posts.

To add to my series of compilation posts for Cataclysm Pre-Raid gear guides and shopping lists, I’ve found a couple resources for tanks. I lumped the plate wearing tanks together. Death Knights: the first link has some information on 2-Handed weapons for you.

See Also:
Cataclysm Pre-Raid DPS Gear
Cataclysm Pre-Raid Healer Gear

Below are some great resources for tanks. I’ll update this list as more become available.

Death Knights, Paladins, Warriors

Cataclysm Pre-Raid Tank Gear List
Cataclysm Pre-Raid Tank Guide

Druids

Feral Druid Cataclysm Pre-Raid Tank Gear List

No related posts.

This week we’ll look at a few add-ons for Paladins. Keep in mind that in many cases, add-ons are multi-class, so even if you don’t play a pally, it’s worth your time to check out the links in the segment notes to see if there’s anything for your favorite class.

SpellFlash: Paladin is a module for SpellFlash which will flash your action bar when procs happen, to remind you to cast your special abilities as soon as they are ready.

BuffBroker manages your group and personal auras. This add-on will help match your best buffs for your group, and help keep those buffs active on you and your party.

Movable Holy Power helps you track your holy power, moving (and improving) the graphics.

PallyPowerWarn provides warnings when you are missing blessings, seals, auras, or righteous fury. Combine this with BuffBroker and you should never have to worry about getting the right buffs on again.

Ardent Defender is an add-on designed to help Protection Paladins. It has around ten functions; if you are a prot pally, I’d recommend you check out the full description at Curse.

bitPala is a simple add-on to add three bars so you can easily track Beacon of Light, Judgement of the Pure, and Holy Power.

OptiTaunt informs you and your party or raid if your taunting abilites were resisted. It also announces your use of crucial abilities like Hand of Reckoning, Righteous Defense, Avenger’s Shield, and Divine Protection.

Retribution FCFS helper (clcret) is an addon similar to Lorack’s DK Optimizer; it provides visual cues to recommend the best spell or abilitiy for your Ret Pally to use next.

BOLT – Beacon of Light Timer is another add-on to help you keep up your Beacon of Light and Judgement of the Pure.

And for more Pally add-ons, check out this link.

Music is from YouTube.com and is the Theme from Paladin, performed by Johnny Western,  and the instrumental version by Duane Eddy.

For more information about “Paladin” take a look at TV Acres.

Bumpers provided by Scott Johnson of The Instance and Frogpants Studios.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

“The First Week of Cataclysm”

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly Blues
Cataclysm was released and we discuss, Guild XP was changed, Free server transfers available for select realms

Cataclysm Impressions
We discuss our thoughts on what we’ve experienced so far in Cataclysm.

Icesnake’s Cataclysm Experience
Icesnake comes on the show to discuss what he has thought of Cataclysm so far.

Strategy Segment
We give you a walkthrough of the Throne of the Tides dungeon in Cataclysm

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

Loreducation with Evinrue
Evinrue is out this week but we talk about the history of Therazane and give you some background on her.

No related posts.

Since there was a request for the words to my little poem at the beginning of WoWphiles Podcast #50, I decided to post them here for everyone.

Enjoy!

Twas the night before Cataclysm when all through the land,
Not a creature was stirring, not even the Cult of the Damned.
In the shadows the Burning Legion prepared,
In hopes that a great dragon soon would be there.

Buildings collapsed and the landscape was changed,
From Elwynn Forest all the way to Moonglade.
And then like a flash the vision became clear,
And with my own two eyes I saw, that Deathwing was here.

No related posts.

“Twas The Night Before Cataclysm”

Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Weekly Blues
The Shattering has happened, dungeon quest xp nerf, new battlegrounds brackets

Cataclysm Factions
We talk about the new Cataclysm factions and some of the rewards you get from each

It Came From the Forusm
We answer the question: In which zone should I start leveling in Cataclysm?

Strategy Segment
We give you a walkthrough of the Blackrock Caverns dungeon in Cataclysm.

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews.

Loreducation with Evinrue
Evinrue is out this week but we talk about the personalities it takes to be faction leaders and run the Horde or Alliance.

No related posts.

One of my favorite things to do at the beginning of an expansion is search item databases and find out what is the best gear for my character to have in order to successfully start raiding. Yes, I truly am a nerd like that.

I’m sure I will do the same this expansion for my characters, but in addition I’m compiling resources for all classes and specs to help you all get prepared for Cataclysm raid content.

See Also:
Cataclysm Pre-Raid DPS Gear
Cataclysm Pre-Raid Tank Gear

Below are lists that players have put together to get you started healing raids in Cataclysm.

Resto Druid

Resto Druid Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Holy Paladin

Holy Paladin Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Disc/Holy Priest

Healing Priest Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

Resto Shaman

Resto Shaman Cataclysm Pre-Raid Gear List

No related posts.

It seems that Blizzard is giving us the patch again because there were some problems with people receiving it the first time. I must say, I love that Blizzard gives us content patches, but as someone who has a slow internet connection I can’t help but QQ a bit about waiting a second time to get in the game. Fortunately we can bypass the download for now if we choose.

I’ll sit here and wait patiently however, as this patch downloads again. Here’s the official blue post:

It’s not a new patch, it’s actually “re-downloading” data which will replace current files. It’s intended to resolve a few issues including disconnects and ‘pink squares’.

As it’s not a patch, if you’re extremely eager to get into the game (or it’s taking too long) you can actually bypass the launcher and run the wow.exe in your game directory and play normally. You can then continue on downloading it later after you’re done playing.

No related posts.

Daetur on the MMO-Champion Forums created an entry titled “What Wrath players need to know to not suck at Cata!” I found some good information in what he said, though I think it is less about sucking and more about getting back to the fundamentals of group play.

I’ve pulled out some of the key points from what Daetur said and I’ve added my own opinions here as well. Since I have been running a lot of low level dungeons on my Priest I’ve experienced a complete lack of the fundamental tactics for a successful dungeon run. You can expect that players new to World of Warcraft are still learning, but most of what I witness is just general laziness and complete apathy from players in heirloom gear who should know better.

EVERYONE:
1.) Be mindful of your positioning. Do these mobs have a knockback? Will you get thrown into other mobs? When trying to dodge that fire on the ground, are you running towards another group of mobs? Extra pulls can and likely will mean wipes, and any damage that can be avoided will make your healer’s life that much easier, and make their mana last that much longer.

——> 1.a) If you do get aggro, run the offending mob TO your tank, not AWAY from him. Root or snare the mob that is aggroed on to you, and then move TO your tank so that the mob will run closer to them as well. This makes it much easier for your tank to peel the mob off of you, and will get you back into safety quicker.

2.) Communicate with your group. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen these people before in your life. Ask who you should CC. Ask the tank to pop his CDs because you know you have trouble healing this pull. Ask if you have questions about an encounter (please, for god’s sake). Ask for a mana break. Don’t sit there like a deaf mute along for the ride and pray everyone else knows what they’re doing. Much of the Cataclysm content WILL take some organization.

——>2.a.) Take and give constructive criticism. If you wipe, try to figure out what went wrong and fix it without liberal use of “suck,” “noob,” “fail,” “ragequit,” etc. Also, if someone else offers you criticism, don’t take it too personally.

3.) Keep your group’s best interests in mind. Pay attention to what is happening to your group members. Is a mob running for your healer or clothies? Root it, slow it, or stun it. Did you get an extra add? Try to help control them- slow, CC, etc.

4.) Be patient! This is all new content, and your group is in leveling gear, not top-tier epics. These fights are not generally easy, and have some new mechanics to learn. If someone in the group needs to have the fight explained to them, don’t complain. If your groups wipes, run back in and try again. I’m sure you had to learn the fight at some point too. If the healer needs to stop for a mana break, don’t keep pulling or get impatient. Trust me, they are working hard to keep your group alive. DON’T expect 15-20 minute runs!

5.) Be observant. Check out new buffs, debuffs, and spell effects. The more you know about what is around you and what mobs can do, the more effective you can be. Mages in particular, watch for TASTY Spellsteal fodder. You’ll be amazed at the buffs you can give yourself and take off of a foe.

6.) Consumables!! Yes, that’s right! Health potions, mana potions, potions of speed! Well, mostly health and mana. Have them! Use them liberally if you have access to them! Mana potions in particular can give healers the extra mileage they need on a tough fight.

A couple things on the first section: Patience, where has it gone? It seems to me that there was a time when players had more patience than they do now. You used to be able to wipe and get back in without half the group leaving. So my advice here: find a guild you can fit in well with and run with. This will generally solve the patience issue.

Also, when you get aggro and a mob comes after you it is instinct to run away. But like Daetur said, run to the tank. This is an important habit for everyone to get into.

DAMAGE DEALERS (DPS):

1.) If your target is casting and it can be interrupted, do it! Interrupts- not just for bosses! Interrupting spells being cast by your enemy will often go a long way towards reducing incoming damage.

——> 1.a.) Bind your interrupt/stun/silence to an easy-to-reach key. If you only ever use ONE keybind, this should be it. I typically have mine bound to my scrollwheel or Shift+leftclick so that I can hit it as fast as possible. Your mileage may vary.

——> 1.b.) You can use a ranged interrupt or silence to help your tank gather spaced out caster mobs. The tank will, 9 times out of 10, greatly appreciate this, and it really helps with add control.

2.) A dead DPS does NO dps! Remember, if you recklessly frontload all of your damage and aren’t careful, you can end up pulling off the tank. Please stay on our target, or the marked target.

——>2.a.) This rule also applies to standing in ‘stuff.’ The faster you move out of it, the easier you make your healer’s life. Since mana will be more of an issue for healers in Cataclysm, the more mana you can save your healer, the better your group’s chances of survival.

——>2.b.) Use of defensive cooldowns, even as a dps, can really save your healer a lot of trouble. If you can anticipate incoming damage (un-interruptible AoE, or you got aggro somehow), pop a CD like Barkskin, Icebound Fortitude, etc. Also, with a bit more freedom in speccing in Cata, talents that increase healing done to you or reduce damage that you take can be very good candidates for your spec.

3.) Be patient! Let your healer drink, let your tank mark and set up their pull, and let someone explain the fight if necessary. Remember, this content will be NEW to nearly everyone from 80-85.

4.) Learn about your classes’ Crowd Control (CC) abilities. Before stepping into a Cataclysm dungeon, please note that some trash packs NEED to be Crowd Controlled (CCed). Familiarize yourself with the CC options available to your class, and the limitations of it

——>4.a.) Don’t break the sheep! Be careful of cleaves and AoE abilities if there is a CCed mob nearby. Damage often breaks enemies out of CC, and they will then run rampant through your group.

5.) Learn to kite! Kiting involves slowing a mob and making it chase you away from or around your group while not hitting you. Mages and hunters in particular are known as great kiters. Death Knights can be quite good at it too, as they have both a taunt and Chains of Ice. This technique can be extremely helpful in situations where there are multiple powerful melee adds that cannot be CCed.

6.) Follow marks and kill orders! Focusing fire will be very important in Cata. We won’t be able to just AoE down every pull anymore. Usually, Skull will be first and X will be second. Crowd Control targets may also be marked. As a general rule, HEALER type mobs die first, followed by damaging casters, then melee.

7.) You are more than just “big numbers!” Simply because your role or spec is “dps” doesn’t mean you can’t throw out a heal, a dispel, or a cleanse, or even pick up a stray add. Did the healer just die? Does your class have some healing spells? Well, you’d BETTER have those on your bar, because it’s time to show what you’re made of. Pick up the healing and save your group!

The biggest thing to takeaway from the DPS section is to not front load your damage, do not aoe right away, and follow kill orders. We’ve gotten into a habit of pulling very large packs of mobs and using nothing but aoe.

This might work for the players who currently out-gear the Wrath Heroic content but in low levels and for 80-85 this will create problems. We’ve developed bad habits and we’ve trained a new generation of players just getting started in WoW to follow the same bad habits.

The tank should not pull 10 mobs, then the dps unload all aoe spells and abilities, then everyone has aggro and is taking damage and the healer is out of mana by the end of that pull. This technique is just slowing down the runs because 1) The DPS players have won’t be nearly efficient enough to aoe large packs down. So you are actually killing slower this way and 2) The healer having to constantly stop and drink is also slowing you down.

We need to get away from pulling entire rooms and get back to playing smart, marking targets as needed, crowd control as needed. This will actually speed up your run.

HEALERS:

1.) Cleanse! Many healers in WotLK are more used to healing through debuffs instead of removing them. With mana being more of an issue in Cata, it will often be more efficient to remove damaging or heal-reducing debuffs as soon as possible, rather than try to heal through all the damage. Which debuffs are more expensive to heal through than cleanse will be something you have to learn on your own, but it will be important to keep cleansing in mind in Cataclysm content!

2.) Conserve your mana! Mana is not going to last you anywhere near as long in Cata as it does now. Learn which heals are the most efficient, and get a feel for how much each one heals for. Knowing which heal to use when will be essential. AoE heal spam will not cut it anymore.

——>2.a.) Part of mana conservation is triage. Triage is deciding the priority of you ‘patients.’ As a general rule, if SOMEONE has to die, it should be the dps first, the tank second, and the healer last. This means, if you have to choose between saving a dps and yourself, save yourself. Between the tank and the healer does get more fuzzy, but remember that it’s possible for dps to burn something down with heals backing them up if the tank does die.

3.) Predict incoming damage. Watch who the mob(s) is(are) targeting. Having an addon that shows who has threat is quite handy here, or just activate this feature in the standard WoW raid/arty interface. If you see an add turn to a dps, you know that that’s the one that will need heals. You shouldn’t be mindlessly spamming everyone in CASE they take damage anymore. You know the tank will be taking damage. But the key to be a great, efficient healer, is to be able to anticipate who ELSE in your group is going to get hurt.

4.) Be ready for anything. Assume the worst. If you are about to start a pull that you have never healed before, it is safer to assume high spike damage than wait and see. Many healers get a nasty surprise when a new type of trash mobs hits like a freight train and they just weren’t ready for that kind of damage.

These are all solid tips for healing. I especially recommend that players have an addon that shows threat. I use Vuhdo and have it set up so that as soon as someone gets aggro it says AGGRO in red letters on their frame. This way I know someone is about to take some damage and I can prepare for it.

TANKS:

1.) Don’t break CC! Pull mobs BACK and away from CCed adds. This will reduce the risk that CC will be broken by your own AoE tanking abilities and dps’ cleaves. It will help you hold threat because you do not need to watch your AoE and cleaves, and it will help your dps for the same reason.

2.) Mark adds! You should know the drill—Skull on the first target to die, X on the second, mark CC targets with Square, Moon, etc. Focusing fire will be more important in Cataclysm. Packs cannot simply be AoEed down across the board. Typically, you’ll want to have your dps target enemy HEALERS first, then damage-dealing casters, and finally, melee.

3.) Be liberal with your shorter cooldown CDs. Mitigating incoming damage will be essential in Cata. It will help conserve your healer’s mana. A particularly good time to hit your shorter defensive cooldowns (anything under 2 minutes) will be close to the start of a pull, when the most adds are alive, unless there is something special about the adds that makes them more dangerous later.

4.) Use your stuns! Stuns are a great way to mitigate incoming damage, don’t forget it! They can also buy you time to get stable threat at the start of a pull, or stop a mob from running after a healer or dps when your taunt isn’t up.

5.) CONTROL your pulls. Pull with restraint. Most tanks in WotLK (myself included) have gotten very, very accustomed to charging into a dungeon, foaming at the mouth, and pulling the first three groups all together. This is NOT going to fly in Cata, guys. We will need to relearn how to pull with restraint. When you pull a group, range pull and drag them BACK instead of charging right into them. You can also have CCers pull from range and pick up the mobs as they head towards your group. Try not to aggro any extra mobs.

6.) You are NOT the master of the group. Many tanks in WotLK have become rude and overconfident due largely to their short queue times. Many have a tendency to treat the other members of their groups with the expectation that whatever THEY says goes, because the group cannon function without them. Please, I beg of you, if you are one of these tanks, remember that you cannot solo this content. You need your group as much as they need you.

The big adjustment for tanks will be restraint. Sure it’s fun to pull an entire room and see how how many mobs you can grab at once. But guess what? If you can’t hold aggro on them all, you are doing a disservice to your party. Even if you can hold aggro you are taking more damage than necessary and causing your healer to work harder than they should have to and burn through mana faster than they should have to.

I do also see tanks with a God complex. If you find yourself running with a tank like this who tells you to shut up or get out because you need them more than they need you, simply put them on your ignore list and you won’t have to worry deal with them in the future. As a tank myself I can say that — we aren’t that special. Just because we are fewer in numbers doesn’t mean that we have the right to act like the group can’t live without us.

The moral of the story is patience, communication and getting back to the fundamentals. Like I said, if you are in a good guild you can solve the patience and communications easier than a PuG, but if you don’t follow the fundamentals of group play then you will still struggle as much as the worst PuGs.

The original post.

No related posts.

Thanks to Frostnut for putting this together for us. He’s giving the Alliance some love.

Yellow Star: Auction House
Purple Diamond: Bank
Orange Square: Flight Masters and Trainers
Red Triangle: Cooking/Fishing Dailies
White Triangle: Valor and Justice Point Gear Vendors
Red Star: Battle Masters
Blue Hexagon: Guild Vendor

No related posts.

This week we’re going to take a look at a few of the add-ons meant for mages, the glass cannons of the World of Warcraft. As always, be sure to get the latest version if you’re going to try these out; out-of-date add-ons may not work at all, or worse, they may do something completely different to what you want. Check out the links in the segment notes for add-on details and dates.

First up, we have ControlFreak. This add-on is meant for crowd control, and it does a very good job keeping you, the mage, focused on this aspect of your job.

Next is Decursive. Decursive is designed to help you cast Remove Curse on the proper target at the proper time.

Mage Fever is a proc and buff notifier for mages. If you have difficulty figuring out when to cast any of the spells that depend on another spell’s proc for maximum effect, Mage Fever will aid you to get the best effect from your rotation.

OmniCC is a simple, lightweight timer that puts impossible-to-miss countdown timers on your spells which are on cooldown.

SmartBuff helps you make sure your buffs are kept up, allows you to manage them for solo or groups, and even reminds you to scarf down that buff food.

Finally, WittyMage is a fun addon (which may annoy those around your toon, so make sure they’re cool with it if you plan to be around them often).

Music for this segment is from FreePlayMusic.com and entitled “Magic Evening” by Dean Barrett and Judy Whittaker.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

Since I searched and searched but couldn’t find any maps online that told me where to find the NPC’s in Orgrimmar that I was looking for, I’ve created a labeled starter map to help you find some of these key NPC’s in Orgrimmar right away.

I don’t have them all NPC’s discovered and labeled yet, but these will get you started. As you can see the overall shape and design of Orgimmar is the same, but there are some new features like the elevator and the NPC’s on that upper level.

Stay tuned because I will get this post updated with trainers and more.

A. This is the elevator which will take you to the new upper level of Orgrimmar
B. Up here you will find the Flight Master as well as new Faction Quartermasters
C. This is a hard to see little path that takes you to the Gear Vendors
D. Across the bridge up here are the Valor and Justice Point Gear Vendors
E. The Auction House
F. Entrance to Visit Garrosh
G. The New Zeppelin Towers are located up here.

No related posts.

We’ve known that this day would come. The day when Deathwing would rise from the earth, shattering it, causing cracks and tidal waves that will change the landscape of Azeroth forever.

How do you feel now that this day is about to arrive? For the most part I’ve been excited about the shattering and the changes that World of Warcraft is about to go through. It’s going to almost feel like a new game for a lot of us. But, the flipside of this excitement however, is a bit if sadness.

I think that for many of us who have been playing World of Warcraft since the days of the Classic game before the first expansion we have a lot of memories that are tied to that world.

It was a special time discovering the world for the first time. I spent time just getting lost riding across the Eastern Kingdoms taking in the changes in scenery. Seeing each new zone was a wonderful new experience.

At around level 30 I also joined my first guild. Memories of Azeroth are filled with thoughts of the good times spent meeting people and making friends in the game for the first time.

I’m sure all of you have memories of things you did in the game that felt special, and with the coming Shattering you feel as though a part of you is getting destroyed along with the land. I know part of me feels this way.

The one thing we need to remember is that we will always have those memories. We might not have the same visual triggers in the game when we ride through the world and see things that remind us of those past times. But the memories themselves will always be with us.

Now is the time to make new memories. It’s a time in which we set the old memories up on the mantle within our mind where we can always look back at them fondly, but start to create new memories of a new world with old and new friends.

So while I have a heavy heart and will miss certain aspects of the world, I look to a new day and fresh new experiences with the great people I have come to know in World of Warcraft and those I have not yet been introduced to.

Below are a couple videos regarding the Shattering of Azeroth that I thought were pretty funny. Enjoy, and thanks to Lysaria for sharing these.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOHMuPs-8y0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV-IA6iFoPE

No related posts.