Patch Day!

It's Patch Day! Here are some quick notes:

Spirtual Attunement - This works with overhealing!!! Greatest paladin ability ever!

Enchanting menu - much, much needed change. Being able to sort enchants by slot was sorely needed.

Looking For Group menu - looks pretty nice. As always, depends how people use it.

New paladin animations - Blessing of Wisdom is so pretty. I like!

Faster backwards walking - rather unexpected, but pretty nice. Much easier than doing strafing tricks. Should be nice with a mage and Frost Nova.

Buying new spell ranks automatically upgrades your icons on your bars - I love this. I missed this so much when I rerolled from warrior.

Buffs automatically cast correct version on low rank people - Yay for drive-by buffing!

More detailed character info - Very, very nice. More information is always good, and this should stop the debates and guesswork about things like Int to Spell Crit.

All in all, it looks like a very solid patch. Lots of little changes as well.

I respecced 10/0/41, but haven't really gotten a chance to try it out. I have high hopes for Sanctified Crusader and Improved Sanctity Aura. I may end up switching back to something else, but none of the other paladins seemed interested in going Retribution. I really want to see the effect of Sanctified Crusader in a raid.

The biggest decision is still to be made: do I enable my PvP title (Knight-Captain) or not? It is a good rank to display, and has a good sound to it (Knight-Captain Coriel), but it's not a very prestigious title (like Grand Marshal, for instance).

Heh, I haven't even looked at the options for my warlock yet.

BWL Progress

I've been working a lot lately, and haven't been able to play as much WoW as I'd like. It looks like the reshuffle of the schedule did the trick, as we've downed Vaelastraz the Corrupt, Broodlord Lashlayer, Firemaw, Ebonroc, and Flamegor over the last 3 nights. It looks like we might give Chrommaggus a shot if we get enough people on Saturday.

I missed a lot of the kills, but was present for the Broodlord and Flamegor kills. I was even the 6th paladin on Flamegor. I love being the 6th paladin, because then I can go crazy with Blessing of Sacrifice. I really, really wish the tactical blessings didn't overwrite the Greater Blessings.

As an aside, does Flamegor even do damage to non-tanks? I was meleeing him for JoLight, and the only damage I was taking was Sacrifice damage. I thought he actually did damage to the rest of the raid, but I may be confusing him with another of the drakes. Or maybe it was because I was in full FR gear. (He's named Flamegor, I figured it was a reasonable precaution.)

The funniest part about the Broodlord kill is how I joined the raid. I got summoned to the raid while the raid was inside the Suppression gauntlet. I don't even think I had a chance to change into most of my raiding gear before I was plunged into combat. Heh, my guild is slightly crazy, but it's all good.

Scheduling

WoW is very quiet lately. Everything appears to be in a holding pattern, waiting for the next patch and the Burning Crusade.

My guild is still trying to move forwards, but we're running into scheduling problems. We have a small number of raiders, which is great because you can always get into a raid, but now that we are working on Vael we need a full raid to show up. We usually do MC Tuesdays, and sometimes Wednesday, and reserve the rest of the week for Blackwing Lair.

Unfortunately, Saturday is the day we've always had the lowest attendance, and that's making Vael attempts hard. (People aren't avoiding Vael, we get good attendance on the other nights, but Saturdays we just have lower attendance.)

I think we're going to try and juggle the schedule a bit, and do MC on Saturday, and BWL on the weeknights. Hopefully that will lead to more progress.

It's amusing, but in many ways a good chunk of a raid guild leadership's time is taken up with logistics.

In a lot of ways Blizzard makes the process harder than it should be. Take the reset times of Onyxia and the 20-man raids. Onyxia resets on a 5-day timer, and ZG and AQ20 are on three day timers. This means that they change from week to week, causing havoc with schedules.

For example, there was a post from a small guild on the Raid Forums, asking if there was any way to set up a consistent weekly raiding schedule for ZG such that they could clear all the priests on Raid Day 1, and do Hakkar and Jindo on Raid Day 2.

You can't do this with only 2 raiding days, but you can with 3:

Day 1 - Raid
Day 2 - Raid
Day 3 - skip
Day 4 - Raid

This schedule guarantees that at least 2 of the three raids will be in the same lockout period. Probably be a different two each week, but still. The 3rd raid will also be in a different lockout period, so you can get the maximum number of bosses possible per week.

Onyxia also causes juggling, but it is mitigated by the fact that Onyxia is fairly quick to do.

All of this is just petty annoyances for a guild. I like the idea of lockouts, because they allow a guild to work on an instance over several nights, and also allows Blizzard to slow down the influx of high-end loot into the world.

But lockouts should be based on the natural schedules of people, rather than arbitrary numbers. And the natural schedule for most people is the week. My preference would be for ZG and AQ20 to have a 3-day lockout followed by a 4-day lockout. And Onyxia could go to 7 days or the new ZG schedule. All instances reset at the same time each week.

Being able to make simple, predictable schedules would be a great boon to raiding guilds, or guilds looking into raiding. Hopefully lockouts in the Burning Crusade are based around the week, making for natural scheduling.

Quests That Should Have Been Epic

The one thing WoW has done really poorly is rewards at level 60. Restricting epics to raids was a mistake in my opinion. For most of the game there was a decent balance between rewards for instances, and rewards for quests. However, at 60, the balance swings way too much towards instances. There are some questlines that are epic in scope, and really deserve epic rewards.

Here's my list of quests that deserved epic rewards:

1. Tirion Fordring questline

This is one of the best loved questlines in the game. It takes you across Eastern Plaguelands, to Stratholme, and to Hearthglen as you help Tirion Fordring seek redemption. It's a gorgeous questline, and the rewards are quite good, but if they were bumped up a notch, this quest would be perfect.

2. The Lich, Raj Frostwhisper questline

This quest takes you from Scholomance, to Stratholme, and back to Scholomance as you seek the key to defeating Raj Frostwhisper. It's quite long and involved, and very few people actually do the whole questline. I've actually gotten more whispers about my Warblade of Caer Darrow than any other piece of gear. By the time most people would have completed the questline, they've moved on to raiding instead.

3. Hero of the Fallen Horde questline

This one has you fighting in the Blasted Lands, seeking to destroy Razelikh the Defiler. I remember forging the Sword needed to defeat his Servants, and the questline culminates in an awesome battle atop the Defiler's Rise.

4. Dawn's Gambit questline

I'll be honest, I haven't even finished this questline yet. It's the one where you have to collect the eggs from Upper Blackrock Spire and then go to Scholomance and defeat Vectus and his students. I just don't feel like going back to UBRS.

---

Personally, I love these long, involved questlines. They are a fair amount of work, and really deserve to have better rewards. Hopefully, end level questlines in Burning Crusade will have improved rewards.

Loot!

Loot always seems to come in waves for me. I go a long time without seeing anything, and then I get lots of stuff at once.

This past weekend, I picked up:

[Zandalar Freethinker's Belt] - ZG
[Hand of Edward the Odd] - AQ20
Holy Light: Rank IX - AQ20
[The Immovable Object] from AV

Pretty good haul for one weekend. Makes up for the last couple months. The Hand of Edward the Odd is pretty interesting. It's almost a perfect weapon for my playstyle. It's fast, has decent DPS, good caster stats, and makes some of your heals instant cast. I've enchanted it with Crusader and it is a great deal of fun.

It actually makes me want to respec back to Protection. I'll probably stay the same until the next patch though, and the free respec. It's interesting that Blizzard is releasing the new talents before the expansion. I wasn't really expecting that. I was expecting the new honor system and such, but I didn't think they would release the talents separately from the increase in the level cap.

Ah well, the cynical among us can look upon it as an extra month of intensive beta-testing.

Edit: Heh, I forgot the one item I actually spent DKP on: Onyxia's Head. I got it more for the quest and getting to hang the Head up in the Stormwind Gates. But it did get me a [Dragonslayer's Signet].

SoC versus SotC

Some commenters have questioned the tradeoff in the last post. I don't deny that you do give up a significant amount of damage by not using SoC. To my mind, though, the added flexibility and regeneration of SotC make up for it.

However, not everyone will agree with my valuation of the tradeoff. So let's examine some cold numbers.

Let's take a paladin with 1000 AP, a 3.8 speed weapon with 75 DPS, and +300 dmg/heal. Assume she is fighting a mob with 40% damage reduction. Also assume that she is spending all of her time attacking.

Let A be her Attack Power.
Let s be her weapon speed.
Let d be her DPS.
let P be her spellpower
Let R be the percentage of damage that gets through the armor.

Base dps = [d + a/14]*R = 87.9 dps

SoC dps = [ds + as/14]*0.7*7/60 + 0.29*P*7/60 = 55.6 dps

SotC dps = 306/14 * R = 13.1 dps

So basically, the SoC paladin is doing 143.5 dps compared to the SotC paladin's 101 dps. So by going SotC you sacrifice about 42 dps, or about 30% of your damage.

(I am ignoring crits, talents, and time spent not meleeing. Most of this affects both sides equally. I'm also ignoring Judgement of Command, as I don't think it would really be spammed by a melee-healing paladin. It does add another 30 dps or so, if spammed constantly.)

So the tradeoff becomes 30% less damage in exchange for 40% more Light/Wisdom procs, increased chance of renewing Judgements, and added flexibility in chosing when to start a heal.

Given that paladin damage is last on my list of priorities in a raid (though it is still on the list!), it's a tradeoff that I am willing to make.

As an aside, note that in either case, the majority of a paladin's damage comes from her base damage. The numbers seem relatively reasonable to me, though the weapon DPS is a bit high. You can always use your own values in the equations and see how your personal trade-off works. SoC does scale though, while SotC does not, so the better your gear is, the more attractive SoC becomes.

Swing Timers and Seal of the Crusader

It's been drilled into paladins for a long time that "slow weapons that do a lot of damage per hit are better". But this is not always true. In my view, faster weapons are better for raiding.

Slow weapons ARE better for doing damage with Seal of Command. There's no question about that. However, damage is not the main purpose of a paladin in raids, and so perhaps looking at different weapons is a better idea.

It all comes down to swing timers. Casting a non-instant spell resets your swing timer. So to get into a rhythm, a melee-healing paladin with a 3.8 speed weapon goes something like this for every 10s or so:

1.5s - Flash of Light
3.8s - Swing
1.5s - Flash of Light
3.8s - Swing
---
10.6s

The problem with this is that it's not very flexible. You have to wait a long time between swings to get off heals. If you don't wait long enough before healing, your swing doesn't go off. If you miss once, there's a good chance that you will fail to refresh your Judgment.

In contrast, let's look at the same paladin wielding a 2.2 speed weapon:

1.5s - Flash of Light
2.2s - Swing
1.5s - Flash of Light
2.2s - Swing
1.5s - Flash of Light
2.2s - Swing
---
11.1s

With a faster weapon, it's easier to weave Flashs in between your swings. Less swings are "lost" due to casting a Flash early, and the paladin has more opportunities to connect with the opponent, increasing the chances of renewing a Judgement.

This can be even further improved by using Seal of the Crusader. SotC will reduce the swing timer even further. The 3.8 spd drops to 2.7 spd, the 2.2 spd to 1.6s. This makes it even easier to weave healing and melee together.

Additionally, SotC does add a little more damage, and increases the amount of procs you get by 40%. In a raid setting, you can pretty much guarantee that Judgement of Light and Wisdom will always be up, so you get additional procs from both.

It's for these reasons that I feel that Seal of the Crusader is actually the best Seal for a raiding paladin. It's not as spectacular as Seal of Command, but it is far more consistent, and allows a paladin to use her other abilities to larger effect.

To sum up, for Seal of the Crusader:

Pros
- more damage than Seal of Light/Wisdom
- 40% more Light/Wisdom procs
- easier to refresh judgments
- easier to weave healing and melee swings

Cons
- less damage than Seal of Righteousness/Command
- no extra damage from Judgement of Righteousness/Command

Loot Drought

Nothing new is happening. We kill bosses, paladin loot does not drop.

It's been so long since I've gotten anything really good. I've been in this guild for about a month and a half, and I've only picked up an A20 book, and two blue items (admittedly, my Gavel is just shy of epic). Meanwhile, a rogue who joined with me has gotten 5/8 Nightslayer and a Qiraji Sacrificial Dagger.

I have a lot of DKP, just waiting for paladin loot to actually drop. I almost bid on an Untamed Blade today. I pretty much would have zero use for it, but it looked pretty cool, and so was tempting. Probably would have won it too.

I'm generally pretty easy-going about loot, but seriously, this is excessive.

Nothing much else to talk about in WoW. No real issues to discuss. If you want my opinion on something, post in the comments. At least it will give me something to write about.

Razorgore Strategy

Solidstate requested the Razorgore strategy we used, so here it is. We use a pretty normal strategy.

Hunters, mages, warlocks, rogues are divided into 4 DPS groups, one in each corner of the room. They kill orc mages as they appear. They also crowd control any legionaires if they can (sheeps, stuns, traps, succubi).

We have two warriors (with speed boots) kite the dragonkin and legionaires in a Figure 8 around the room, using both platforms. They run up one ramp, and then jump off the middle in order to buy some additional time, as the mobs go back down the ramp and around. They are spamming Demo Shout and taunting any new mobs that appear.

The remaining warriors pick up loose dragonkin and legionaires and bring them to the main kiters. We usually had a warrior follow each of the main kiters, picking up any missed mobs.

The druids' primary job is to sleep any loose dragonkin until a kiting warrior picks them up. They also do a little healing.

The paladins and priests are the healers, with the priests trying to keep their aggro down as much as possible. The paladins also guard the ramps to the controller, stunning and engaging any mobs attempting to get to the controller.

There are two or three controllers who rotate controlling Razorgore and popping eggs. We don't let the orcs/dragonkin attack Razorgore. It makes the last phase a bit harder, as Razorgore is at full health, but that's just a ranged tank-and-spank fight.

Realistically, it's all about the kite and aggro management. If you have one priest who does much more healing than the other priests, she will pull aggro and mobs will swarm the center. Paladin heals are lower aggro, so priests should try to defer to the paladins as much as possible, use HoTs, small heals, etc.

That's the strategy we used last night. Of course, it does take practice. We took about five tries, progressively getting better each time, and tweaking the strategy each time (for some reason, our kiters weren't doing the full Figure 8 for the first few attempts).

Another strategy I've seen is to have the main kiter be the first Razorgore controller, and to use Razorgore's Shadow Volley ability right before the control timer expires. That transfers all the aggro to the main kiter, giving her an edge as she starts the kite.

Another Spiritual Focus Idea

I still think that Spiritual Focus is very important to the paladin class, and that having it as a Tier 2 talent is too high. It doesn't look like Blizzard will make it baseline anytime soon, but here's a compromise idea.

1. Make Spiritual Focus a baseline ability, but with only a 40% chance to avoid interruptions from damage.

2. Add the following talent to Tier 2 Holy.

Improved Spiritual Focus (3/3)
Requires 5 Points in Holy.
Increases the effectiveness of Spiritual Focus by 10/20/30%.

So we get 3 possibilities:

Untalented Paladin
- 40% base chance to avoid interrupts from damage
- 70% chance with Concentration Aura

Paladin with 3/3 Imp Spiritual Focus
- 70% base chance
- 100% with Concentration Aura

Paladin with 3/3 Imp Concentration Aura
- 40% base chance
- 90% with Concentration Aura
- 15% chance of ignoring interrupts
- 50% chance given to allies

Now, Imp Concentration Aura is much closer to SF in power. It still doesn't completely guarantee your cast, but gives an extra bonus to your allies to make up for it. And it makes 2 paths viable for paladins: one with Holy, and one with Protection.

As well, since we've reduced Imp SF to 3 points, there's room in Tier 2 Holy for a small 2 point talent. Perhaps something like:

Evil's Bane (2/2)
Requires 5 Points in Holy.
Increases the damage done with your Exorcism and Holy Wrath spells by 15/30%. Increases the duration of your Fear Undead spell by 5/10s.

Razorgore Down!

And we start our march into Blackwing Lair. No paladin loot dropped, as usual.

Razorgore is a neat fight. Aside from the actual mechanics of the fight, its placement is very interesting.

In many ways, Razorgore is one of the most complex fights in BWL, and to have it as the very first encounter is a real shock. It's like Blizzard is putting the raid on notice, "This is NOT Molten Core. It's a brand new game." It sets the tone for the whole instance.

It is an unexpected decision in many ways, and I have a lot of respect for Blizzard for structuring BWL in this manner. A more conventional decision would have been to have a steady ramp up in complexity. Instead, having a very complex fight first forces raiders to shake off the complacency of Molten Core, and stretch their abilities in new directions.

Week 2 on Ragnaros

Back into MC again to kill Ragnaros. On our first attempt, Ragnaros hits the raid with an AoE knockback right before he submerges, when we were all gathered at our collapse point. That leads to a heart-breaking 1% wipe.

No worries, even though no soulstone or DI was up. A druid sneaks back to Ragnaros and begins ressing.

The second attempt is beautiful. We are destroying Ragnaros, no one is dying, I'm pumping Judgements of Righteousness into Ragnaros like there's no tomorrow. The 3-minute mark comes up, and we collapse perfectly as the Sons of Flame come up. The Sons are being intercepted by our warriors and druids when all of a sudden we hear "BY FIRE BE PURGED!" and people go flying. "DIE INSECT!" It turns out that if Ragnaros decides not to submerge, he and Sons of Flame together will easily wipe the raid.

So kind of annoyed at Ragnaros, we regroup for attempt three. Third time is the charm, and Ragnaros goes down easily. Loot is linked and he drops the [Eye of Sulfuras] to make up for our troubles. Our guild is amused by this, as we only have 3 out of the 8 or 9 [Sulfuron Ingots] needed to craft the Legendary Weapon. Because it is Sulfuras, I bid on the Eye, but another warrior wins it (we go by Total Earned DKP for Legendaries). Honestly, I'm kind of relieved that I didn't get it. I hate farming, and the mats required for Sulfuras are insane.

So that's how raiding is going. No paladin gear is dropping, but that's pretty much par for the course.

Blizzard nerfed Crusader Strike and Vengeance, so the paladin forums have descended into a pit of whining and despair (the natural state, in many ways). For some reason, people thought that Crusader Strike means that you would have three paladins judging, but only one paladin in melee spamming Crusader Strike in order to refresh all three judgements. It's like it never occurred to them that maybe we should have all three paladins meleeing and each refresh her own judgement.

CS being nerfed is expected, but Vengeance is a bit unusual, given that it has been untouched for such a long time. Current theories are that an 31/0/30 build proved too strong, or that with the additional attacks given by CS it was easier to achieve a perma-Vengeance state.

Ah well, Burning Crusade is a long way aways, so I shall not worry about it.

Ragnaros, the Firelord

It has taken me over 10 months, over 100 posts, through three different servers, and several guilds, but I have finally killed Ragnaros, the Firelord. He Who Was Ancient When The World Was Young. (I love the 'cutscene' before the fight.)

In the end, I think I did it the best way possible. With a guild who had not killed Ragnaros before. First kills are the sweetest. We did a pretty good job too. 38 people in the raid and we killed him on our second try. It was the third attempt overall for the guild, as we went to have a look after the first Majordomo Executus kill last week.

In a really weird way, it kind of feels like I've beaten the game. I know there's still BWL, AQ40, and Naxx to go, but Ragnaros felt like the end boss of World of Warcraft. Maybe because he's been the goal for so long. Or because I've been so close before, but never actually finished him.

Still, Ragnaros is dead. Bring on the Burning Crusade! (or Blackwing Lair, whichever comes first :)

Loot, Jindo, and Exploring

It never fails. I update my picture on this blog and I immediately get new loot soon after. I really should update more often.

I went to AQ20 today with the guild, and picked up a [Gavel of Qiraji Authority] from the General Rajaxx fight. This is an insane weapon. I have no idea why it isn't epic. Compare it to the [The Unstoppable Force]. It has +16 Int, +19 dmg/heal, +6 mana/5s, in exchange for -4 Str, -2% crit, and a stun. Maybe [The Unstoppable Force] is better, but not by much. The only thing is that the Gavel is a fast weapon (2.2 speed vs 3.8), but as I don't have Seal of Command, it's fine for me. Plus it looks very nice, and rather unique. I'll get a picture up before the next raid. ;)

I also got the [Qiraji Spiked Hilt] for the Exalted Cenarion reward. I do like the sword, but I'm nowhere near the exalted reputation required. I only got the Hilt because no one else wanted it. If anyone has any tips or suggestions for getting to Exalted CC reputation fast, I would love to hear them.

Boss-wise, I got to see and kill Moam for the first time. Interesting fight. We stacked the raid with warlocks for extra mana-draining to make it easy, but it was still fun.

After Moam, the guild went for Hakkar in ZG (ZG having been cleared the previous night). I sat out for the Hakkar fight (first time the guild has killed Hakkar), but came in after for Jin'do the Hexxer. Now that was a fun fight. It took two attempts, but he went down (first Jin'do kill for the guild as well). It's a very chaotic fight. Totems, invisible shades, teleports, dancing skeletons, it's hilarious. I think the reason we won the second fight is because I got mind-controlled much more. Better me than a rogue or fury warrior, after all. :)

So I got some loot, and added Moam and Jin'do to my kill sheet. Not a bad day.

Oh, I almost forgot. Way back in May, I posted about how, as a level 60, I miss the sound when a piece of the map is discovered. Well, I was exploring Deadwind Pass during the Hakkar attempts, and it looks like Blizzard has fixed this problem! The sound played and pieces of the map filled in. I don't know when Blizzard fixed it, and it's a small thing, but it made me smile. Good work, Blizzard!

Burning Crusade Impressions from the Forums

It looks like an NDA expired, and paladins who were in the Burning Crusade alpha are talking about their experiences on the forums. Some pretty interesting stuff there. For me, though, the best sign came from Tinaris:

It seems to me that the way our healing is supposed to work is when its intermingled with melee when we have the chance to hit the mob for some mana gains via JoWisdom. Hit the mob for mana a few times, cast an emergency heal, rinse and repeat. I found that this method of support healing, even as a 14/0/43 Paladin, was very helpful in terms of putting out good damage, being involved in heals, and maintaining respectable mana amounts for emergencies. Spiritual Attunement helped out in this, as the bit of AoE damage I took would get me some attention from the main healers, which would replenish my mana for more healing for others.

This is superb news. It's basically how I play now, and Blizzard has made it even more viable. This is what a Paladin is supposed to be. Honestly, this paragraph has made me eagerly anticipate the Burning Crusade.

In particular, it looks like Blizzard has hit a home run with Spiritual Attunement, which gives you back mana when other people heal you.

We also got a Strike! Crusader Strike is the new 41-pt Retribution talent. The paladin boards are rejoicing. The strike is pretty cool, but I'm probably still going to go for Captain America (heh, I don't even know what the real name of the talent is).

As well, apparently we have new animations and effects for our Seals and abilities. This is a *much* needed change. Previously our effects were very bland. The PvP people probably aren't going to be too happy, as snazzy effects tend to give information to your foes, but I think it is neat part of playing the game. As well, you need to be able to get info from your enemies in order to react to them. Makes the fight one of skill, rather than just a guessing game.

Draft Priorities, Part 2

Inframike posted a comment to the previous post on the draft priority system:

But... Shadow Priests and Discipline Priests have very different priorities :(

Exactly! That is why this system works. The mages/warlocks spend all of their picks on damage gear, while priests need to split their picks between damage gear and healing gear (can't let those uppity paladins get all the good stuff).

So what will end up happening is that the mages/warlocks will get the lion's share of damage gear, but priests will have priority on a few pieces, enough to treat them fairly.

Remember that the alternative is that mages/warlocks get priority on ALL damage gear, and priests get none. That's generally what happens now in priority-based loot systems. Free systems don't need to set priority rules, and wouldn't need to draft.

As an aside, I don't believe that there is such a thing as a Shadow Priest or a Discipline Priest. There is a Priest who is currently specced Shadow, and a Priest who is currently specced Discipline. People change specs, and thus need different gear for different situations. I was Retribution[1] yesterday, and today I'm Holy[2]. I still collected healing gear when Ret-specced, and I'll still bid on damage gear now that I'm Holy.

[1] 5/11/35 - Extreme damage (for paladins, anyways).

[2] 32/11/8 - I like to think of it as my Improved Seal of the Crusader build.

Draft Priority

I don't really agree with restriction-based loot systems. However, if you do think that priorities are necessary, here's a system I came up with a long time ago (but never actually posted about):

Have your class officers draft the items in the instance.

In a random order, each class picks one item. That class gets first priority on the item. Continue drafting items (use switchback so that the second pick goes in the reverse order). The second class to pick an item gets second priority on that item. Continue until all the non-class restricted items have a first and second priority.

Each class now has an equal number of priorities. The focused classes will probably get first priority on the very best stuff, but hybrids should be able to score some decent second priorities.

As well, it sets up little rivalries between classes who do not normally compete, such as mages and warlocks, which helps them understand what it feels like to be a hybrid.

Plus it's a fun game, and you could turn it into a guild event where everyone provides "advice" to their officer.

Restrictions and Skill

If you've read my posts, you know that I'm a pretty strong proponent of no restrictions on talent specs or loot distribution. I feel that such restrictions are inefficient, and in the long term will be detrimental to the raid. One of the major reasons that I think restrictions are bad is that they interfere with developing skill.

I'll start with a definition:

Skill is the ability to make good decisions.

A person who makes better decisions is more skilled than someone who makes poor decisions. In a raid, this can be decisions with positioning, or skills used, or timing of abilities. For a healer it can mean deciding who lives and who dies. But it can also be decisions on how to spec, or what gear to take.

Skill is not absolutely innate. It is learned. As you use your abilities you learn how to make better decisions, and thus you become more skilled.

Restrictions on gear and spec make the decisions for you. Thus you cannot truly improve your skill so long as those restrictions bind you. If you are prevented from speccing Shadow, you will never learn exactly how Shadow limits you in raids, and that knowledge is valuable for future decision-making.

I believe that a Holy/Disc priest who has tried Shadow is a more skilled priest than a Holy/Disc priest who has never gone to the dark side. A skilled paladin will have tried the different options, and makes a decision based on the knowledge gained.

This even extends to loot. If you are prevented from taking loot that you think will help your character, you will never learn how to value loot appropriately. I have an Unstoppable Force, and it is seriously annoying me. It's next to impossible to keep a Judgement stuck on a mob. The lesson learned is that I don't like really slow weapons, and they are ineffective for my playstyle.

Of course, the problem is that sometimes we only learn by making mistakes. And occasionally that will mean spending DKP on the "wrong" loot, or using the "wrong" talents. But if a player is prevented from making mistakes, how can they learn?

Choice is intricately bound to skill. Anything that interferes with a player's choices also interferes with a player's skill development. A guild that is truely interested in having skilled players would be best served by allowing members to make their own choices, understanding that this means that sometimes members will make mistakes.

Odds and Ends

I haven't had a lot of time to post lately. Here's a quick round up of what's going on.

The Guild

This is not going so well. I haven't really been able to get past the 10-person mark in recruiting. So I've decided to merge with another guild on my server. They run MC with about 30 people, so the 5 or so people in my guild will be a good addition to them. I doubt I will be able to make their raid times, but at least my guildies will land in good spot. Hopefully it makes sticking with me for the last three weeks worthwhile.

I attended part of an MC raid with the prospective guild. They're pretty good. We did Garr with 30 people and 2 'locks, which impressed me. I've seen a lot of guilds not even try Garr with less than 4 warlocks. I'm not so much impressed with the kill--you should be able to kill Garr with 30--as with the willingness to actually try the fight with a non-optimum raid.

Plus their loot system is amusing. It's Fixed-Price DKP, only the price is a percentage of your DKP. Person with the highest DKP gets the item. So a piece of Tier 1 costs 25%. It's pretty crazy, and I'm still pondering the ramifications.

45-man Baron

I tried a 45-man Baron run for the first time on the weekend. It's a lot of fun. We didn't make it, but we gave it a good shot. We fought a couple of groups that we could have skipped, didn't really balance mana usage well, and had a bit too much downtime.

And honestly, me healing with my crazy 5/11/35 spec probably didn't help. I really need to get some gold and respec. :)

But still, it was crazy fun, and I'm really happy that Blizzard put it in. It's a solid, worthwhile challenge for 5 people.

Alterac Valley

I hit Exalted with AV over the weekend. Got my [The Unstoppable Force] and [Don Julio's Ring]. I'll probably pick up [The Immovable Object] when I get some cash.

This is the first reputation I've gotten to Exalted. Personally, I loathe grinding, so I never get anywhere with reputations.

Lightforge complete!

Also, I went on Strat Live run on the weekend and Lightforge Boots dropped. So I got the last piece of Lightforge that I was missing. Technically, I have 5/8 Lightforge, and 3/8 Soulforge, but it's all good.

The line between casual and hardcore raiding

Xias and Doeg asked about casual and hardcore raiding a couple posts ago.

Personally, I think that a guild cannot be all things to all people. You have to choose what you want to be. This means that occasionally you will have guild members leave your guild as they seek out things you cannot provide. If half the guild wants something and the other half wants something different, you need to pick a side.

If I was the guild leader, I would pick the option that I personally wanted. If you pick something that you are unhappy with, it will manifest in how you run the guild and poison your efforts. So in the case of the guild split, I would be proactive, choose someone to run the other side and split the guild into two. Being up front about everything allows you to maintain good relations with every one.

As to real life relationships, it's very common to have a husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, or family in the same guild. So you do have be careful. Kicking a spouse will probably result in the other partner leaving. If you are fair and even-handed though, people will respect the decision you make.

Personally though, "not skilled enough" is not a kickable offense, in my mind. I think that, for the most part, innate skill is overrated, and you can always teach people to improve their play. Far more important are qualities like reliability, and low-drama.

But that's just me. I've never actually been in a guild with players who did not have some skill. I have been in guilds with people who went afk all the time, constantly asked questions about loot, or refused to buy Greater Blessing of Salvation.

On the scale of problems a guild member can have, being unskilled is a long ways down the list.

But that's just my opinion. Wanting to be in a guild with a lot of highly skilled prima donnas is another option. Honestly, you'll probably progress faster, if you don't blow up first. Doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me though, but it's your $15/month.

So You Want to be a Raider? Part Two

Are tradeskills other than First Aid useful?

Yes, all tradeskills are useful. Cooking gives you buffs, smithing allows you to make resistance gear, etc. However, the requirements I listed above are more important. If you have a choice between getting your Onyxia key or getting 300 Blacksmithing, go for the Onyxia key.

How do I find a raiding guild to join?

Join the GuildRecruitment channel, and watch for people advertising in the major cities.

On your WoW realm forums, there is usually a guild progression thread listing the guilds involved in endgame. Most of these threads have links to the guild websites.

As well, keep an eye on the realm forums, and check out the Guild Recruitment forum. Guilds often post to the forums if they are looking for people.

Participate in pickup groups. You may group with a raider, and she may tell you if her guild is looking for people.

What should I look for in a guild?

First, make sure that you can attend their raids. There's not much point in joining a raid guild when you can't make the raids. If the guild doesn't have their raid times listed, ask a member of the guild in game.

Second, make sure you like their loot system and rules. Loot is one of the major reasons for going to the trouble of raiding, so make sure you can live with the system the guild uses. Most guilds do not use the built-in rolling systems, but rather DKP or point systems.

Third, see if the guild is recruiting your class and if you meet their requirements. There's no harm in applying to a guild if you don't, but you are more likely to be successful if you are what the guild needs.

Try and make sure the guild is a good fit, personality-wise. This is often harder than it appears, because you don't really see the true face of the guild until you join. Don't join a guild if you dislike some of the guild members or have had bad experiences with them. You'll be spending a lot of time together, and it can get frustrating at times. Don't be afraid to leave a guild that isn't working out for you. Epics are not worth being unhappy!

How do I apply to a guild?

Most raiding guilds will have an application forum on their website, where you will find a list of requirements and an application template. Fill out the template to the best of your abilities.

Do not lie on your application. It's much better to be truthful, and lying will only create bad blood. If you seem to fall short of their requirements, it's much better to acknowledge it, rather than dance around the question. Also, if a guild asks you about your previous guilds, do not badmouth your old guilds. Be honest, but be classy.

Often, an application will ask you about your gear. It's useful to create a profile at a site like CTProfiles. This way, you can just put a link to your profile on the application.

Finally, only apply to one guild at a time. Most raiding guilds frown on people who apply to multiple guilds. Apply to one guild, and wait a couple days for a response. If they don't respond, contact them in-game and ask politely about their application. If you do decide to apply to another guild, post a response to your first application saying that you are withdrawing it.

I got into a guild, and am going on my first raid! What should I know?

Congratulations! Here are some quick tips to help you on your first raid:

1. Show up on time and prepared. Show up at the instance enterance a few minutes before the raid starts. Make sure you have all the gear you need, and that everything is repaired.

2. Have a stack of heavy runecloth bandages, 5x Major Health potions, and 5x Major Mana potions if you are a mana-user. You should also have enough reageants to last you the entire run. I usually bring twice as much as strictly necessary. It's better to have too many than to run out.

3. Follow instructions from the raid leader. If you don't understand something, speak up and ask a question. Also, it's a good idea to choose an experienced player of your class and follow her lead. Be careful here, because sometimes the experienced player can get away with riskier moves, so try to err on the side of caution. However, watching how the other player positions herself will often help you understand the fights.

4. Try and read up on the fights beforehand. A good source of information is WoWWiki. You never truely understand a fight until you experience it first hand, though. But reading up on it first can help a lot.

5. Don't go Away From Keyboard during the run unless absolutely necessary.

6. You probably won't get any loot from your first run, because you'll have less points than the other raiders. Don't expect loot, and don't bombard the raid with questions about loot. If you have questions or concerns about how loot is handled, ask after the raid.

7. Try to show up to all the raids, especially the learning ones. Don't expect a spot in a very cutting edge raid, because you will generally be outgeared by the other raiders. However, show up and be prepared to jump in if the raid needs you. Let the raid leader decide if you are geared enough. It's very important to show up to both the raids with a lot of wipes AND the raids with a lot of loot.

8. Have fun! Remember it's a game, so don't get so caught up in everything that you forget to have a good time. Blizzard has put in a lot of work into their raid dungeons, and it's worth taking the time to enjoy them.
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Okay, I think that's everything. Post if you see anything missing or that should be added.