It's a New Year - 2010

Happy New Year! 

Time for the resolutions list. No, not the personal one that you make and never accomplish. The 'I'm going to pwn WoW" goal list that you love to create!

1.) Loremaster title: I am about a two hundred quests away on two seperate Alliance/Horde toons. It's time to buckle down and get that achievement done.

2.) Buy all heirloom items both PVE and PVP. I'm amassing quite a collection as it is and should go all the way to complete the alt-o-holic sets.

3.) Level up all my 60's to 80's before Cataclysm arrives. Now this feat is a bit hard to do as I have six alts that have been sitting at sixty since Burning Crusade.

4.)  Hit 35K on all three of my bank alts. This one isn't much of a goal as one of them has been sitting at 20K for half the year and the others are just as close. Might as well list an easy goal though!

5.) Find a new guild. It's no secret that Continuum is no more. What we had was special but it's high time I found a new home for both myself and hubby.

Goals accomplished in 2009

1.) Masaya: I can sincerely say that I accomplished a sense of satisfaction with my resto-druid. In Burning Crusade she was labeled as a useless healer by the guild I had been in at the time. She was never allowed to heal(such was the stigma of druids back then) and was always brought in to simply dps as a last ditch effort replacement. Masaya in the last year far surpassed all of my expectations both as a character in earning a variety of hard achievements but also became a top notch healer. Even though she was not my main this druid lady became a fast favorite.

2.) The Four Healer Team: What can I say? I had a goal from the onset of Wrath and that was to raise up all healer classes to endgame. Easier said than done. I struggled for quite a bit on two of the healer classes as they were seen as DPS rather than Heals. Fortunately I was able to push through the barrier of doubt and show to all that those two were meant to be the healers. In Decemeber I finally accomplished this lofty goal as I brought up my priestess to level 80. I'm often asked if I have a preference for a type of healer. My answer is always a resounding "Nope!" When you love to heal..there is no difference. FallingSnow(Paladin), Masaya(Druid), Ariella(Priestess), and Luzbella(Shaman) are all beautiful machines of healing prowess. I wouldn't have it any other way.

3.) Casual Raiding Guild: Continuum was special. It will always hold a special place in my heart. A guild that started up with an invitation via whisper by Kalodon. Why were we invited? Simply because druids rule(and the pally is ok) was the chuckling answer given. I took a quick liking to Kal and quickly found myself enjoying the game more as I got to know the other members. At first there was a rocky start as the moment we were thrown into Violet Hold at fresh eighty. The hubby tanked and I healed the instance. Well...we attempted to should we say. The heroic turned out to be buggy as hell. It left quite an impression of 'You Suck' in everyones minds. We quietly took to keeping to ourselves. It wasn't pleasant and as time passed we noticed that we were being excluded from heroic invites and conversations. But we kept on and watched as more members were being introduced. Some left, some stayed, and we eventually all became friends. The parades into Naxx and all the head-smacking times of mistakes committed and eventual successes in Ulduar; they all hold a unique memory. We laughed, we cried, and at the end we screamed and said regrettable words but not once did I ever regret joining Continuum. Not once.

4.) Tarrick the DK: He was labeled as a flavour of the month. He was constantly laughed and chided at for existing. He was kicked out of the original heroics for having 2500 DPS. At that time 2K was above the normal DPS which was about 1800.  He was often replaced for other classes in greens(simply because he was a DK) during raids. And he was constantly never given a chance all due to being the new Hero Class. I worked so freaking hard on this guy for the last year. I have never played a DPS class and when DKs first became available I was alongside the first in line to create and level up one. The lore behind this class was intriguing and the motives of their existance truly enchanted me. But with this new class came a huge assumption. Quite literally it still exists today and that is; if you play a DK then you fail.

This constant hate toward DKs robbed Tarrick of many opportunities. I gemmed, enchanted, min-maxed, researched and literally drove rotations into my skull in order to be the best. There is very little I like to boast about but Tarrick is my unique snowflake. I worked my ass off for this guy to be considered viable. And yet he was brushed away in favour of anything else. Sometimes I even cringed at seeing other DKs in worse gear and DPS capabilities being given opportunities that he wasn't. They performed so badly but were still accepted.  I honestly almost gave him up. It wasn't until the introduction of the random LFG tool that I was able to work his way into higher gear. He still has a way to go but he deals 5K+ to bosses and 4K to trash mobs in a mixture of 219-232 gear all via heroics. Tarrick is finally being recognized as something other than a 'lol u a DK'. He's been invited to three top end guilds and I have to say it feels really nice to be guaranteed a DPS main spot. I may take one of the offers and get him into ICC but the fact remains...he's quite an accomplishment of the year.

Thanks for reading!

WoW Gold Tip: Winter Veil

If you haven't already jumped onto the bandwagon of Winterveil sales it may be too late to truly cash into this holiday. Eggs, Milk, Holiday Spices, and Wool are most likely beyond saturated to make an insane profit. Yet that doesn't mean one couldn't put up a few at a time in the off chance there are any achievement stragglers.

About  two weeks prior to the initial event I had farmed the Dragonhawks in Silvermoon to stock up on small eggs. I can safely say that the one hour I spent bopping the dragons on their heads was well worth the time. Eggs were flying off in twos and stacks of five for upwards of 10G a piece and more. Milk was being sold for several gold. And the interesting moments were found listening in trade. People complained openly about the high cost of the materials. Some even compared an Auctioneer to a crack dealer. o.O

Yet, for every second of complaint there was several sales being made. I daresay that one should never under estimate the power of convienance. With this said a person whom didn't plan ahead should now take a good look ahead and see what else can be profited off of in the near future. Hopefully when the next event rolls around you won't be left behind and will be able to catch a ride on that wagon of riches.

Happy Winterveil!

WoW Gold Tip: Seasonal and Rare Items

A really basic gold tip relates to holidays and rare events .Every now and again when a holiday or special event swings about ingame there are limited edition items up for grabs. This is the time to buy those items in a large quantity. Most likely the items are either BOE or consumables. After a short amount of time has passed the items you bought will be worth a lot more than what you had originally paid. Thus allowing you to place them up for auction at a substantial profit. Just watch out that you don't wait too long to post the items up in AH. If the original holiday or event is around the corner the items will lose much of their value.

Guide: DPS -The Numbers, The Fire, and You: Part Three

Written by Lightbeard of Winterhoof with written permission to be posted here

Part 3

2D: Watch your Threat.
Some tanks have in recent times been capable of producing ridiculous amounts of threat. Some tanks have also had their basic AoE threat nerfed ever so slightly. You might notice if you run with a paladin tank, for example, that peeling adds in an AoE pull is now more readily accomplished. While the truth remains that threat is rarely a problem in the current game, it is still the responsibility of the DPS to make sure they do not exceed the tank's threat. It's not a measure of how awesome you are that you can pull from the tank. Indeed, in some cases, it's a measure of how careless you are that you did pull from the tank.

Some instances, like that OMGWTF Lava Burst crit for 20k, are unavoidable, and that's why tanks have taunts, but if you can avoid pulling threat, you should.

The Marked Target
A common practice for dealing with threat issues is for the tank to mark an initial target. If and when your tank marks a target with a kill-first icon (I'll always use a skull for top priority and the X for secondary targets) then attack that target first using only single-target attacks. Once that one is down, open up with the AoE. Your tank will love you for it, and so will your healer.

Threat Dumps
Certain classes have abilities which allow them to attempt to reduce their total threat. Typically, in the case of the ones that reduce your total threat to 0, these abilities also cause you to stop attacking while they are active. In solo play they are your "Oh " buttons. Their role changes slightly in group settings. These abilities should used before you actually manage to pull aggro. The key reason for this is in the way threat actually works. Once you pull aggro it's not always safe to assume that the tank will still be #2 on threat. The result of a delayed aggro dump could easily be a wipe if the #2 or #3 target on the threat list happens to be (and likely will be) a healer. The best time to use your threat dump is when you are beween 95 and 125% threat. You do not actually pull threat until you reach 130% of the current target's threat.

Threat Transfers
Hunters and Rogues have abilities that allow them to transfer threat to the tanks. Contrary to popular belief, these are not just for pulling. All tanks now have sufficient tools to pull with, so the old misdirect-pull routine is rarely needed. Instead, these abilities would best be used right before performing a strong attack, or if you're approaching the 130% threat pull mark and your threat dump is still on cooldown. It's also a good idea to use these abilities even if you aren't approaching the pull limit. Giving the tank extra threat adds padding so that those not-so-rare massive crits won't be as likely to pull.

Threat Reduction Talents
In current content most of these are deemed unnecessary. If, however, you find yourself continuualy pulling off of the tank, you should very much consider speccing into a threat reduction talent if it's avaialble. Some threat reduction talents have secondary effects that make them desirable anyway.

Stop Attacking
It seems like common sense. If you find yourself riding too high on the threat list, hold back for a few seconds.

2D: Utility abilities
Most classes bring some form of utility with them. While these are not technically DPS-specific, typically the healers and the tanks cannot take the time to perform these abilities. Battle rez and innervate come to mind most readily (considering we'll typically have at least 4 druids in a raid) but there are other utility abilities. Divine Sacrifice from a ret or Holy Paladin (used in conjunction with Divine Shield) can significantly reduce damage to the raid or group. The random instant heals available to enhancement shamans and especially to ret paladins should be used first and foremost to keep yourself healed and secondly to assist the healers, especially if we're running with a new healer that is still gearing up or practicing their role.

3: The DPS Meter
Coming out on top of the DPS meter is a great ego trip. Coming in at the bottom, below the tank, is a terrible blow. However, it needs to be emphasized that the DPS meter is not an accurate measure of how effective you are. In fact, if you actually follow everything previously posted here chances are your personal DPS could suffer. I'm perfectly fine with that because I'd rather have 2k DPS doing it right, than 6k DPS doing it wrong. (I'd love to have 6k DPS doing right though). The truth is, even if you managed to pull 9k DPS on the main boss, but never bothered to switch and kill the adds and the raid wiped because those adds took out the healers, you did not help the raid with your "mad deeps." If you only managed to pull 1500 overall but safely battle-rezzed the healer that got whacked because the other guy pulling 9k didn't switch targets, you've done for more for the raid than what will show on the meter.

Conclusion:


In short, the DP meter is a great tool for personal use, but as with most metrics in the game, its usefulness is limited by context.

Thanks for reading!
-Lightbeard, Winterhoof US, Alliance