Sitting bored in Shat you see a message in GC of someone asking for a run through say normal Ramparts … In your uberness you way over gear the place … to the point where it’s pointless for you to ever even consider it. Feeling in an overly giving mood, you decide to run it anyway … It will be fun.

Your group consists of … 1 uber pally tank, 1 uber healer, 1 uber AOE, 1 or 2 60 somethings to pick up the loots. Your first run you take it slow, marking and making pulls the way you should. After about the third pull, you pull 3 groups just to make this go quicker. You round the corner and start clearing around the boss … Opps, you pulled 3 groups and the boss … this turns into laughable as you level them.

You head upstairs and pull the entire hallway at once. You are starting to get brave. You are now faced with the round platform .. you know the one … you turn right to and see Omor the Unscarred, or head down the path ahead of you for Vazruden. Then you have a hey guys watch this moment and tell the group you are going to head out to the platform going right, make a big circle, then back up against the wall on the left, (right by the chest), and let them AOE the entire group … (Dramatic Pause) … You are now surrounded by sparklies as everything is dead. You finish killing the bosses and head back to Shat.

A couple hours later, there is another request for Ramparts again … We can do this bigger than the first time! You round up your group again … only this time decide that you are doing the entire thing 8 pulls, less than 30 minutes … It goes something like this:

1. Clear everything up to the guy that summons the dogs.
2. Clear from there to the boss in one pull, (Don’t forget the guys by the door and make sure your lay on hands it up … we needed it here).
3. Clear the hallway upstairs
4. Clear the round room by moving to the right, circling the room, and then backing up against the wall by the chest in the corner.
5. Clear the hallway down to Omor the Unscarred
6. Kill Omor the Unscarred
7. Clear the hallway to Vazruden
8. Kill Vazruden

7 and 8 almost count as one pull considering Vazruden is engaged when the last couple of guys die anyway … but either way … it took us 28 minutes to clear ramps completely … (We gauged it off the pally buffs) … Really it was 3 manned because the rogue that was with us is lvl 60.

The Toons Used to Do This:

Lvl 70 Healer turned Tankadin Xander

Lvl 70 CoH Priest Kevorkianphd (K11)

Lvl 70 Warlock Mariejan (MJ)

Next time we do this we are going to record it so there will be video .. in the mean time, it was awesome!

Have fun!

Ok, it's time. For those interested in doing this, here is the quest chain:

This is a quest involved in the Black Temple Attunement Chain:

The Black Temple attunement starts at The Altar of the Sha'tar for Aldors, and the Sanctum of the Sun for Scryers. Both are in Shadowmoon Valley.

Aldors start attunement from Anchorite Ceyla at the Altar of Sha'tar in Shadowmoon Valley:
1. [A] [70] Tablets of Baa'ri
2. [A] [70] Oronu the Elder
3. [A] [70] The Ashtongue Corruptors
4. [A] [70] The Warden's Cage

Scyers start attunement from Arcanist Thelis at the Sanctum of Stars:
1. [Sc] [70] Tablets of Baa'ri
2. [Sc] [70] Oronu the Elder
3. [Sc] [70] The Ashtongue Corruptors
4. [Sc] [70] The Warden's Cage

After that, the chain comes together for Aldor and Scryer.

5. [70] Proof of Allegiance
6. [70] Akama
7. [70] Seer Udalo

Seer Udalo is found in the Arcatraz just before the last boss.

8. [70] A Mysterious Portent
9. [70] The Ata'mal Terrace
10. [70] Akama's Promise

After you finish this chain, you get to pick from some rewards and the chain seems like it ends. It continues however, inside Serpentshrine Cavern from an NPC called Seer Olum who you can speak with after killing Fathom-Lord Karathress. He starts the next part of the Black Temple Chain by offering the quest:

1. [70] The Secret Compromised
For this quest you just return to Akama.
2. [70] Ruse of the Ashtongue
In this quest, you must use the costume Akama provides, and kill A'lar in Tempest Keep: The Eye while wearing the Ashtongue Cowl. Attunement for The Eye is a whole different chain.
3. [70] An Artifact From the Past
In this, you need to gain access to The Battle of Mount Hyjal in Caverns of Time, and slay the first boss, Rage Winterchill. Attunement for this involves killing Lady Vashj and Kael'Thas Sunstrider.
4. [70] The Hostage Soul
For this you must speak with A'dal in Shattrath city.
5. [70] Entry into the Black Temple
For this, just speak with the naaru Xi'ri in front of Black Temple.
6. [70] A Distraction for Akama
Unknown what this quest asks of you, most likely you need to defend Xi'ri and make your way into Black Temple. At the end, you become attuned to enter and are granted The Medallion of Karabor

At this point, you are attuned and can enter Black Temple, and do not have to continue to get your title. The chain continues however, and you can soon upgrade your medallion. It continues with:

1. [70] Seek Out the Ashtongue
You just need to find Seer Kanai inside Black Temple.
2. [70] Redemption of the Ashtongue
This involves entering Black Temple, and killing the boss the Shade of Akama.
3. [70] The Fall of the Betrayer
After killing the Shade of Akama and returning to Seer Kanai, he asks one last thing of you. Kill Illidan The Betrayer. After doing so, you are granted the Blessed Medallion of Karabor, an upgraded version of your original medallion, and allows teleportation to the Black Temple.


I will continue with the 2nd half of the quest chain, (the one for the attunement to Mt. Hyjal) later this week.

As you can see from screen shot upon screen shot Defiant was hot this weekend. We toppled boss after boss, and almost had a 4th. During our Al’ar attempt we were able to adapt on the fly to the different things happening during the fight to bring him down to under the 20% mark.
What’s next for Defiant?

We lack the shadow resist for the 3rd boss in Hyjal so we are at a bit of a loss there.

We will be making attempts on KT, Al'ar, and Vashj I am sure.

I think we will be in a holding pattern for at least the next few weeks as we get our new bosses on farm status and continue to gear people up. As much as all of us love a weekend like this, it leads to down time and people getting bored as it will start to look like we aren’t progressing again as we just farm these bosses for the T5 loot they drop.

There was one sad moment over the weekend. This hunter talked to me during raid so I was a little too busy to take a screen shot but … The story is sad none the less. We took a new hunter on about a month ago who I have to wonder ever got himself into full T4. He didn’t understand agro, didn’t use his pet, and couldn’t trap a rat more than once … nice enough guy though. Our GM and I start working with the guy in an attempt to help him improve, which he did some.

Over the last few weeks he was not aloud to roll on Tier loot as there are several hunters that were here before him, but he was given a new neck, wrists, and basically ancillary pieces of gear to offset the lack of chance at T5 right now. He ninja /gquit Saturday night in hopes of starting his own guild.

This is a very honorable thing; however I do find it funny that he is spamming trade for sigs for his “new” guild that is looking to start T5 content citing that the GM has T6 experience in Hyjal. He has never been past Hydross in SSC?? He has seen Rage/Anetheron, (both of which we have on farm and have 23 manned so …), either way, I wish him the best of luck.

In the whisperl I mentioned, I asked why he left? He stated it was because he is not aloud to have loot. Hmm. I stated to him that he had gotten loot, and which he came back and said what loot? I point out the bracers, neck, and other things at which point he said oh. He left our guild because he wanted specific loot and he wanted it faster. He would have gotten everything he wanted and then some ... Had he just stopped and thought about it.

Point is this … just because it’s not a piece of Tier loot, loot is loot. And upgrade is an upgrade; I think we forget that sometimes.

Solarian Void Walker

Solarian Dead

So we had a guild first last night. We killed all 3 of the bosses that we are able to kill in SSC in one night ... 3 hours no less. Lurker got his revenge however.

We have a rule in Defiant, "Don't Suck." Mistakes are ok, but repeated mistakes, esp if they are stupid ones, are not.

This is generally said before we start, while things are still upbeat, and never used as a put down ... However the joke has become that if you die to Lurker's Spout, you suck and will recieve a /gkick. (ok not really but it's fun).

This has really motivated everyone to relax during Lurker and avoid spout at all costs ... So what does the bastard do? Over rotate during our fight and kill a couple of people.

Bah

Today is another installment of Huntering 101. I have not done a piece on this in quite some time as there has not really been a need, but today I think there is a need. Today’s is entitled:

Omen and You.

For this discussion I am going to use a single target boss fight such as Void Reaver because there are agro drops and things change. Anyone can stand and shoot, and avoid pulling agro on a fight such as Gruul, mainly because it’s 1 target, 1 tank, let them get way out ahead and go to town. Hence the term Tank and Spank.

Rule #1: Trust your omen at all costs. If your omen says you are over the tank, you Feign Death, and you are still over the tank, you are.

Void Reaver is a little trickier than Gruul due to the agro dumps. Every time a tank gets punted across the room, VR does an agro dump on that tank allowing you, single target high DPS, to climb the agro chain. This is where your omen comes into play. You should use FD every 30 seconds, but then again if you are anything like me, if you don’t have to FD, you don’t … instead you save it for when you might really need it to save your skin.

There are several methods to the VR fight, ours it not the most common but it works. As a hunter you head in, throw up your Mis-Direct, and start DPSing. You watch Omen like a hawk and you see that you are right up with the tank. You FD. Omen still says you are up with the tank. There are addon’s that tell you if your FD was resisted, it doesn’t say that it was …. So you keep DPSing. STOP!!! WAIT!!!

We are going to pause right here.

Rule #2: Don’t always trust your add-ons. Omen included.

I have found that omen is the most reliable add-on for telling threat that there is. It is the only threat add-on that I use. People are welcome to use as many add-ons as they may, but when it comes to threat, you should probably only use one, and trust that one. Your add-on that tells you if your FD was resisted does not always match omen and vice versa, therefore you are at an impass. I have NEVER pulled agro when omen said that I wouldn’t. NEVER.

If omen doesn’t show your agro go away when you FD, just ASSUME that it didn’t and stop DPSing, until the tank has lead again. Don’t just say, “Omen is screwed up” and wipe the raid.

At this point in raiding you should also have a feel for your agro … you should know how fast you build it … every time there is a major change or upgrade to WoW the add-on’s are messed up for a few days … you should be able to go without OMEN if need be … if you can’t you need to pay closer attention and learn to fight without it … loss of it should not be raid stopping.

Rule #3: During an AOE fight, there is nothing that says you must stay on the same target until its dead.

On an AOE fight such as Hyjal this is even easier. You should probably never have to FD here. You should never pull agro either. When you have multiple tanks all with different targets, (generally 3 in the case of Hyjal), that gives you easy access to 3 different targets assuming you are using some type of raid assist … if you aren’t you fail but that’s another discussion. If you see your agro approaching a tank … oh wait, you are following a tank target right? Anyway if you see your agro getting to the point where you are about to pull agro, switch to another tank’s target … it’s really that simple.

In conclusion, trust your omen at all costs … 99% of the time it is correct ahead of other add-ons. If you didn’t know this, my omen talks to yours so yours knows what my threat on that target really is … therefore it’s as accurate as it can get.

Basically if you pull agro and the only person you kill is you ... and then we wipe at 1% while you and your 1kDPS, (give or take), died at 65%, we would have downed them ... so it is possible that the wipe is your fault ... in the end you still killed us all.

Upon completing our Mag kill, we headed to Gruul when this came up (on back to back pulls):

Larisa of Larisa’s Corner writes this morning about Moderation and Addition. I don't feel I am a gaming addict, but I am not good at moderation with it either. She reference’s a post by Monique of Girls Don’t Game about a true addiction to World of Warcraft. The sites author was a member of the previously extinct, now "For the Horde" Death and Taxes for a long time as well as a couple of other notable guilds. She has had toons with every piece of tier gear there is, and tells a powerful story.

The thing about Gaming:

It’s in my blood, and one might even call it a bit of an addition. I can remember when I was younger spending hours playing Mario Brothers until it was complete. Then there was Mario Brothers 2 and 3, Legend of Zelda, Gran Turismo (and the many sequels), Doom, Starcraft, Warcraft, Unreal Tournament, and a slew of other games. Gamers are gamers no matter what way you cut it. Being the best is at times all that is important.

The thing about all of the above games and many more is that I have beaten them … all of them. I have never played a game that was able to be beaten that I have not beaten. Here in lies the problem with WoW. It’s unbeatable. It’s a virtual world with no end. Blizzard makes sure of it. It keeps us playing. If I downed Sunwell tomorrow, I would probably stop playing, but that is a long way off ... and I am sure the expansion will come out right after I finally do.

There are people that play the game that are content to just farm, play alts, and just mess around. I am not one of those people. I have made some very good friends through the game, and they are friends that would remain friends when the game is gone, but they are a small part of what draws me in. It’s the thrill of raiding, downing bosses, overcoming the odds.

I read for the first time this morning The Confessions of a Hardcore Raider. I am what most would consider pretty hardcore, I put quite a bit of time into the game, although I do have the ability to go and do other things, and do from time to time, many times I would prefer to just sit in the virtual world and play away.

There are people who the game encompasses their entire lives. I recommend that every raider read the entry above, and then look at how much of your life is encompassed by WoW. It will end someday, and when it does what will fill that void?

This post is dedicated to Monique and the courage it must have taken to tell her story in an attempt to help others with addictions of all kinds.

As many of you know, Anetheron bowed to the power of Defiant for the first time last week. This week was no different. We even had what I will call a wave of epicness. We were starting to wonder if we were going to see any trash epics this week when wave 7 of the Anetheron fight comes rolling in. I think the epic god tripped, stumbled, and dumped his bag of goodies out on defiant all at one time. Benedykt got his boots, tanks got cloaks, casters got cloaks it was a thing of beauty. The best part about it, we managed not to wipe while looking at loot.

At different points during that fight, Anetheron spawns infernals which require a tank crazy enough to tank them. That is where Erec comes in. He’s nuts but don’t tell him I said that. So back up to before we start … this is only the second time I have healed this fight, and my job is be the back up of the back up, on Erec. And raid heal. I asked Greyan where the best place for me to stand is, and he says over on the catapult. Sweet! I am a short dwarf therefore this should give me the perfect view of everything that is going on. Not a problem. I am still wearing my mooncloth set which has no stam on it … Thanks Blizzard. The first internal spawns … I fire of my Frisbee in Erec’s direction … I cast renew on him. We are prepped. I am pumped to backup the backup! I start into a greater heal on some other random raid member. The infernal reaches us. I suddenly have an oh shit moment … What Greyan failed to mention and I failed to remember is the infernals do an aoe blast. Yep, you guessed it, Erec is tanking the infernal right next to the catapult. I was dead before I hit the end of the catapult and granted the privilege of watching the rest of the fight from my elevated position on top of the catapult. I also realized that I really was just the 3rd string during that fight as they downed him without my help. Although I was the only one to die ...

We decided to move on and play with the Kaz’rogal trash. If you have ever read the strat on this guy, without shadow resist, he is going to just laugh at you. We don’t have any shadow resist, so it is truly just playing in the trash. Our first two attempts we go down at about wave 4, but we got the kiting of the gargoyles down … Attempt 3 was the greatest battle I have ever been a part of. It was hot! There is not better way to put it. Wave 4, then wave 5, then wave 6 … we weren’t killing them faster than they were coming so they were starting to pile up and the healers had not had time to drink. It was starting to look rather bleak.

Our RL drops, (GM’s T6 resto Shaman), he reincarnates … soul stones are being popped as the healers are dropping … wave 7 our first tank dies; I check my mana pool … WTH?? I am still at 75% mana and have not potted or used my sucker! Wave 8 rolls in still no drinking. All the tanks die but Erec and Alent. (Remember I said Erec was nuts?) … he runs to the gated entrance, throws down his consecrate and says I am gonna need some heals! He is now tanking all 9 of the trash mobs as our DPS is desperately trying to burn them down.

At one point grid showed 22k of incoming heals on Erec as we are desperately trying to keep him alive so we can see Kaz’rogal. He finally goes down as mana pools are starting to diminish and the amount of damage he is taking is too much for us to handle … we kept him up a good 30 seconds! About half the trash is dead and we are almost to the boss ... Down to 1 tank, our warrior Alent, 2 healers and 3 or 4 trash mobs. I am spam healing Alent trying to keep him up ... This goes on for 15 or seconds that seemed like an eternity. He goes down, but we kept him up longer than I expected. It was just awesome! It was most likely the greatest epic battle I have been a part of in the game, and one I will always remember.

It was the moment when Defiant cried out in one voice we will not die without a fight.

While running around doing dailies last night, some of the most elite guilds on our server were gearing up to head into Sunwell for their nightly wiping err raiding session. This gave me a chance to look at the tier 6 gear for each of the classes on something other than my dressing room mirror.

I drooled over the Rogues and Hunters, but it is the priests I have always liked the most. I have done a piece on Hunter gear, so now I am going to give some attention to my other favorite class, The Priest.

I found that I started to hate my T4 pieces because the arena gear looked just like it, and therefore I did not stand out at all. I spent hours raiding to get the few pieces that I had, and here these people just spent some time in BG’s. Considering how much I detest the battle grounds, I guess it’s a fair trade. Now I have T5, and there are people running around in look alikes of that too … bah.
If you can’t beat em join em I suppose. Do not confuse my hatred of the Battle Grounds with a hatred of arena. I LOVE the arena. I don't have rely on 24+ strangers to work as a team to suceed. I am going to start doing arena with Benedykt for the sake of working on getting him some arena gear.

With the new season right around the corner, the part that I am interested in is the arena gear for the last 3 seasons has used the same graphic as the tier gear, so are we about to see a pre-view of T7?? We will have to see I suppose.

Back to raiding … I want to take a walk down the history of Tier Priest gear and take a look at what was … as I am beyond curious of what’s to come!

Tier 1 This set reminds me of the mooncloth set that most tailoring priests start in at 70. There are a lot of things that look very similar with this set of gear. It was obtained pre-BC with regular trips into MC. When I say regular, I mean regular. Back then, from what I understand, MC was a 40 man raid and each boss only dropped one piece of gear. Not one piece of gear for each ... ONE piece of gear PERIOD! That means that to get the entire set, you were either greedy, or really lucky. Either way I doubt there were very many that farmed the entire set. Thank god blizzard fixed that.



Tier 2 This is my least favorite of all of the priest sets. It’s clad with very bright colors, and considering where it came from, I suppose it makes sense. If you were lucky the bosses in Onyxia’s Lair would grant you a piece of this set. In my opinion they were going after a scaly dragon look with this set of gear. The set bonuses weren’t anything to be scoffed however … 3 pieces restored 20Mp5, 5 pieces granted you a 50% chance that if you were struck in melee you would fade for 5 seconds, (I want that one today!!!), and last the 8 piece set granted your Greater Heal a HoT equal to renew rank 5.




Tier 3 This set was not bad however being possibly the plainest set blizzard put out. The design was rather basic, nothing to really make it stand out from the other gear at the time. This was another 8 piece set that dropped out of Naxxramas. This is name you should keep track of as it is returning with the release of WoLK. This set is a little different than any other set at the time as this was the first set that used multi-class tokens. However there was also rep required to obtain each piece.





Tier 4 This is a 5 piece set and probably the one we are most used to seeing. This set drops out of Kara, (Curator and the Prince), as well as Magtheridon’s Lair and Gruul’s Lair. This set is fairly easy to obtain as there are now even pug groups downing Gruul and Magtheridon. A look a-like set can also be obtained through BG play, so you don’t even have to do arena anymore to appear to have T4. They are completely different stats however, and the PvP gear for a priest is not suitable for long term replacement of PvE pieces.







Tier 5 This is the set that we have just started to move into. It is my opinion that at this point blizzard started to make priests look like fluffy warlocks. They have bright colors on their gear, but hoods over their heads, and glowing eyes. This 5 piece set drops from SSC and TK. If you are a holy priest, this is a nice set for you, but if you are a shadow priest, I feel this set is a little fruity.










Tier 6
Tier 6. Now we are onto the hottest armor set in the game period. This is the kind of set that people will return to BC just for the sake of getting to walk around town in. I think Blizzard had shadow priests in mind when they made it, but either way doesn’t matter. It reminds me of something forsaken. I personally think the best class for this set of gear would be an undead shadow priest. This is the only 8 piece set in BC dropping from some the nastiest bosses in the game. Very few have made it to the basement of The Black Temple, Survived the waves of trash in Mt. Hyjal, and seen anything past the first trash pull in the Sunwell to have the ability to adorn themselves with this hot set of gear.


This has been a trip down the road of gearing of a priest, both old school and new. Most people find a priest to be very painful, and it is until about lvl 40. For all the trouble that priests have gone through to get their gear, and the death tolls that far outrank any other class, Blizzard bestowed some of the best looking gear, with the greatest artists upon them.

Add-ons are something that most people use for a variety of reasons. Some of those add-ons help us make gold, some help us keep from getting ripped off, and others provide vital raiding information, while others make it possible play our class. I couldn’t imagine trying to heal a raid without some type of a raid frame setup … Beyond that, I couldn’t imagine trying to do it without Clique. Today I am going to review a few of the add-ons that I use, and why I use them.

There is no portion of my UI that is stock. Not a single bit of it. I for one don’t like the way it looks, and it doesn’t provide me the information I feel is vital to my survival in PvP or PvE. Perhaps one day it will, but for now, I just change it around.

I am going to highlight a few of them quickly and why I use them … hopefully the ones that aren’t directly understandable.

Decursive – ask anyone who plays a priest and they will tell you how invaluable this program is. The Maiden fight in Kara is almost impossible without this add-on. It allows for the single click removal of curses and diseases on members of your raid.

Grid – A healing based raid frames add-on that allows the user to select members of their raid. Healers should always use this in conjunction with Clique

Clique – allows you to tie your spells to different combinations of mouse clicks while hovering over a raid frame. This is most useful when in a raid and lots of people are taking aoe damage. This will allow you to cast spells without changing targets … and decide quickly which spell you wish to use.

Cycircled – Simply changes the look of your buttons.

X-perl – re-skins the entire interface in reference to the party / raid frames

BigWigs – I prefer this over Deadly Boss Mod because it has a cooldown timer built in. I don’t use this on my priest as much as I do my hunter, but anytime anyone uses a spell that has a long cooldown, such as MisDirect, it tells you then counts down how long they have until they may use it again. This allows me to time my MD around everyone else.

Simple Mini-Map – relocate and change the look and size of your mini-map.

Bartender3 – Allows you to resize and bring up as many bars as you need to hold all your spells.

Elkbars – a Buffbar Mod

Outfitter – remember my rant about my riding crop? Every time I mount up this puts it on automatically … nuff said!

Chatter - Reskins the way the stock blizzard chat windows look and act.

Metahud – Display all of your pertinent information in a heads up display on the screen so you don’t have to look anywhere but the center of the screen.

Questhelper – takes all your quests, and displays the completion locations in a logical order for you to follow. Works best when used with Cartographer.

WowMatrix - This is probably the single most important addon that I have. It scans my addon folder looking at what addons I have, then checks their version numbers to make sure I have the latest version. If I don't, it tells me then goes out and loads the latest version for me ensure that I stay up to date.

Add-ons are something that a person can use as many or as few as they like. I have seen some people’s setups that supply more information than you need, where as the stock UI does not supply enough. The nice thing about it is it allows a person to play their game and have it look anyway they like.

All of these can be found at either Curse Gaming or using Wow Matrix

If you have add-on suggestions that I am not using that possibly I should be using, I would love to hear them!

It would appear to me that there is a high burn out rate amongst the raiders in this game. It’s that burn out rate that causes guilds like Death and Taxes to implode. It can also be argued that this is the advantage of having multiple toons. Most guilds spread gear using the simple policy mains before alts. The main question is, at which point is an alt no longer an alt, but instead a second main?

Generally when someone decides that they wish to switch their main, it’s not to another toon of the same class, or even job in a raid. This causes several problems in gearing and raid cinergy. This gimps the raid to the point of having to find another X class, and that person is now looking to take the place of someone else in the raid.

Let’s say that there is an opening there for the alt. Now the guild has to find an equally geared toon to fill in the hole that was left behind by the switch, and now allow the lesser geared alt to take gear that has already been taken by the main that left.

The main reason this is coming to mind today is I have been feeling the burnout with my hunter. I still enjoy the game, love my hunter, have not stopped gearing him, or playing him the hardest that I can, but don’t get the thrill out of raiding with him that I once did. For the moment, I prefer playing Benedykt, as he is a new challenge. I stopped tweaking Knurd’s UI long ago, stopped reading about shot rotations, macros, trapping, it’s all automatic now. It just happens flawlessly. Benedykt has breathed new life into the game.

I discovered that one of our healers is feeling the same burn out and would rather play her hunter than her healer. This makes things interesting. The first response is to just trade healer for hunter and be done with it. The problem is it’s not that simple. The toons are not equally geared by a long shot, and to be honest trading and giving up loot drops we have already gotten on our mains would not be a big deal. The problem is the gimping of the raid overall with the lesser healing and lesser DPS of the swap.

I guess my question is this, how does everyone else feel about swaps such as this? Should they be aloud? It’s not like myself or the other person are playing at anything less that top form even with the burnout, so that’s not an issue. It’s simple a matter of gear. And the gearing is not massive, but enough to be mentioned. We are talking about T5/T6 vs Kara/T4. I should probably mention this thought to her before posting it here, but ya know lol. We are both raiding with the alts during all T4 level raids already, and some of the T5.

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the true state of the guilds in WoW. This past weekend one of our hunters was asked to come and help out in a guilds first run of Kara. He had an alt in this guild a long time ago from what I understand. I am lucky in that I never went through the learning process of Kara, instead I found a guild that needed a hunter and therefore they gave me the free Kara epic pass in order to get me geared.

I pay attention to sites like Wow Jutsu which show things like 99.95% of all guilds have cleared Kara. I have always just assumed that this was accurate, and that everyone has done this. I am starting to realize that this is not the case, and feel that we are taking our position of killing bosses in T5 content for granted.

I found a new blog this morning, Kestrel’s Aerie. Hopefully the writer enjoys agreeing to disagree as I do because I enjoy the writing even if I don’t agree with the point of view. If you find the time, stop over there and check it, it’s well written and informative. I am sure they will let me know if they don't like someone disagreeing to their writing publically ... or at least pointing out another point of view.

It would appear that they are working their way through Kara, and still find the place exciting. This got me to thinking … Not everyone is claded in epics, and clearing Kara in just a few hours. We have complained because we feel that Kara should be on a 3 day reset so we can farm it for more badges. I think this argument has come from our short sightedness about what the true state of guilds in the game truly is.

I equate this line of thinking to this: You hear of rich kids who state that they didn't realize that everyone doesn't live in big houses with fancy cars and a swimming pool. This happens because everyone they meet lives the exact same way that they do. When you look at us and the people we associate in game, they are all on the same level of raiding that we are. This is not because we don't want to associate with the others, this is because we have a huge guild, and therefore rarely have to pug anything. On the occasion when we do pug something, we are very selective about the gear the person has on because we are looking for players just like us. It's not snobbish; it's just what we are used to.

I am going to start paying better attention to those around me, and the gear they are in because I am now curious about the true state the guilds in the game.

Last night was great. I have not been that excited about dropping a boss in ages. I honestly didn’t think we were going to get Anetheron down until we were further into the T5 content. It would appear that none of the raiders, the officers, the GM, or the raid leader thought we would either.

If you have ever been to Mt. Hyjal, the trip to the third boss is like changing zones. It’s about a 6 min ride. So … The instance is large enough that you mount up and ride around in it. It might as well be another zone. Yep, you guessed it. We got lost. We turned right when we should have turned left. So we are standing out side these gates staring at these big uglies going, “I don’t think this is right.” Next you hear, so does anyone know what this boss does? “It has something to do with the mana users in the raid exploding.” “What?? Were all F’in mana users??”

Needless to say we found our way over to the horde base, and did some wiping, kiting, and generally having fun with the trash.

As you can see from the picture Benedykt is starting to become quit the respectable looking priest. Those shoulders I stole on the AH for 260g. [Pattern: Swiftheal Mantle] drops out of BT and generally goes for 700g on Greymane. My stable of toons with new shoulders 1 … Moron who miss listed on the AH 0.

Knurd got his new trinket this weekend. I have been hunting for the Ace of Storms for weeks without seeing it. The ace generally goes for 350g or so on the server. As most of you know, the Darkmoon Faire is nestled outside Goldshire right now, and so everyone is listing their cards and what not. I check the AH and low and behold, Ace of Storms! I picked that up for 180g. My stable of toons with new shoulders and a new trinket, [Darkmoon Card: Wrath] 2 … Moron who miss listed on the AH 0.

In conclusion it was a great weekend, probably one of the better ones in wow I have had in a couple of weeks.

ANETHERON IS DOWN!!! GRATZ DEFIANT!!!

Summertime in the north is upon us, and School is ending all across the country. This means that the kids are going to be playing more wow, and are going to want those coveted raid spots with the guilds that have been progressing all winter. Today I look to give some advice to those school aged people looking to join the many guilds out there.

1. Assume the guild has been raiding all winter without you, this means that you need them more than they need you.

2. Be honest on your application about where you have been. There are many quick and easy ways to look at your guild history, and chances are if the guild you are applying to is already in SSC/TK/BT/MtH/SW, they know their stuff. This means that stating that you are ready, or have been to somewhere can easily be judged by your rep with a certain faction and the gear you are wearing.

3. Everyone wants to see endgame. Be honest with yourself as well as the guild you are applying to about your experience. This may sound redundant with 2, but it’s not. When it comes to end game, there are several impossible fights that can be referenced as the same as X fight only harder. This makes the new fight possible and easier because everyone has seen a variation of it before.

4. Use Proper Grammar on your application. This is just like a job application, and therefore make sure you spell and grammar check everything before submitting it.

5. Make sure you answer all the questions on their application.

6. If you are applying to a guild, it means that you left your old guild for a reason. The new guild is probably not going to ask about it, but if you start telling them it’s because you had a problem with the GM, or the officers, or whatever, then they run a guild history and you have been in 12 different guilds in the last year, then they are probably not going to bring you in.

7. Just because you join a guild, that does not grant you loot priority or a raid spot. The people you are now raiding with have probably spent months laying the ground work for you to suddenly find yourself 3/6 in SSC, or stepping into BT on easy mode.

Basically every guild out there needs people at this point; it is the name of the game. Don’t expect to walk in and have the run of the place, instead be prepared to show your worth and start at the bottom. If the officers and the GM see you are outplaying the people on the A list, you will find yourself on it very quickly. Most of these end game guilds that are truly progressing did not get there by playing favorites. You will get your turn. You must also realize these guilds know that when it is time for you to return to school, they are going to lose you again … therefore they might be hesitant to give you some of that uber gear you are yearning for.

One of the fun aspects of the game is to figure out how to go faster. Never mind the fact that you still have to wait on everyone else, so really you have not gotten anything done any faster; you are just the first to arrive. That is part of the fun of being a BM hunter; we are talented to make our pet hit more. SURE, that’s the reason we did it. The mounted speed increase is just a bonus. Combine that with your riding crop and you are winning the races every time … except for the damn Pallys. That pursuit of Justice is crap. What justice are they doing anyway? Fighting the terrible crime of ugly monsters that always come back? Oh well, I guess that’s called job security.

There are several people in my guild, (including me), that have been using Be IMBA to find out what they are and are not geared for. I put faith in this right up until today. I logged last night wearing my Riding Crop because I was mounted. Thanks to outfitter, I no longer forget to take it off! Well unless I am mounted when I log (nub). I made some gemming changes to Knurd, mainly having to do with his hit so I could wear [Ring of the Recalcitrant] instead of [Violet Signet of the Master Assassin]. I finally removed the intel and stam gems and replaced them with +hit gems, so I gained a little DPS through the conversion and luckily my friendly neighborhood gem dealer had some on hand making it very cheap. I am told it's always good to have your dealer owing you favors.

Knurd has maintained a gear rating of 219.8, according to Be IMBA, this was also before I scoped his bow, so I was expecting to see at least a little upgrade. This put me geared for Hyjl/BT which is good because we have rage on farm, but are working our way through TK/SSC so I am a little ahead of the game where I like to be. I ran him through this morning and it came up 203.83?? This puts him bearly at SSC/TK. The only negative thing that has changed is he is wearing his [Riding Crop] instead of [Hourglass of the Unraveller].

This makes me question just how reliable sites such as this are. I know that our GM and leads have been using the site to help decide who gets to go on some raids and who still needs some work. These sites generally tell you important information, such as mis-enchanted items, missing gems, low quality gems, things of the kind, but I don’t think they can be relied upon to decide if you are ready. I know that I will not be using them for this any longer.

The moral of the story here is this … if your guild has been having trouble getting through Hyjal it’s probably your fault. Due to your complete obsession with going faster, instead of doing more damage, you have failed Warcraft and Life in epic proportions. You should forever be kicked from your guild because you set them back from downing Rage to wiping on Lurker trash just because you left your riding crop equipped.