Conquest uses Loot Council for distributing the wonderful shinies that drop during raids.
Read over the GM's description of the guild, and also one of the Council member's reflections on our first raid if you're so inclined to get some background.
To sum up: Loot Council distributes the wealth to benefit the raid the most. Loot is also used as a reward for all the nice behaviors we like in our raiders such as timeliness, lack of inappropriate afk-ism, proper gear care taking, using consumables, etc. When epics drop, members indicate a preference, and then the Council takes a moment to deliberate and then reward the loot.
The only system I've ever used in the past was a random roll, so I don't have a huge experience to compare and contrast with, but just like everyone else, I've got my opinions, solid foundation or no.
So, what's life like with the Loot Council?
First, some disclaimage is needed. Any praise for the LC that follows shall not be construed as asskissery in an effort to get more loot. I highly doubt any Council members read here, because they're all pretty busy planning our next kills. Secondly, any praise for LC has nothing to do with the fact that I've gotten a sweet sweet upgrade on both of our first two raids.
Some things I like:
1) Expectations. The LC made it clear a week before our first raid...if you want shiny, you need to do your homework. Each raider had to put together a loot wishlist for all of Naxx-25 and OS-25. Anything that encourages preparation is a good idea in my book.
2) Speed. Based upon the pre-work for the wishlist, looting moves very quickly. Once the loot master links an item, you've got 5 seconds to indicate your preference. Indicating preference is a no brainer since you already examined the loot tables and recorded your thoughts. If you deliver your preference even a split second after the end of the countdown, sorry charlie, no soup for you. I'm a big fan of remaining focused and efficient through these administrative parts of the raid.
3) Tension. When a bunch of people all indicate "interested" on the same piece of loot, the Council takes a moment to discuss on a private channel. The raid sits and silently waits, with all the interested folks holding their breath. When the Loot Master announces the decision, its like the Academy Awards or something. Win or lose, I find it much more fun than a random roll.
4) Meaningful. If you are the person who gets the loot, it means the Council considered all the team members, and thought you to be the most deserving. Feels much better than the cold impersonal RNG. However, there is an alternative interpretation, which I'll explore below.
5) Beneficial. Our tanks have generally gotten a slightly larger share of the loot than the other raiders. This is a good thing, since the raid lives and dies by their survivability. I'll gladly go loot-free in favor of our tanks.
6) Trust. This one is a slippery slope, but to me, its fundamental to the style of raid we run. The Council needs to build up the trust of the membership. This takes time, but if executed well, a fair and efficient Loot Council will cement the trust that the whole raid has in the leaders. If executed poorly, its open for lots of drama, but only time will tell.
7) Less Waste. In random roll or DKP systems, players can choose to skip on some upgrades because they're waiting for a Tier drop that may or may not drop later that same night, resulting in raid-benefiting loot getting sharded. LC should protect from most of this type of behavior.
Since the top section was labeled "Some things I like", it'd be natural to call this "Some things I dislike" or some other antonym. Not so much, because I really have nothing I dislike about LC yet. So lets call it...
Some things I'm weary of:
1) Weakest Link Syndrome. This one hits home with me right now. I'm pretty damn near the weakest DPS link. The rest of the team has devoted much more time into gearing up at 80 than I've been able to do. In addition to gear, there is also personal performance and skill. The other DPS'ers in the raid are Michael Phelps versus my doggy paddle.
However, I've been rewarded with loot on each of the first two nights. The first night, it was largely uncontested since the other two players who could use the item both passed. The second night, 7 players expressed interest in the item, and after a slightly longer than normal deliberation period, I was given the gear.
On the one hand, I'm honored to get the prize, if you look at it from the perspective of loot as a reward for good raider behaviors. Also, being on a totally new server, with no friends yet, and not really having carved out a niche as an underperforming DPS'er in a guild of min/maxers yet, its is a reassuring sign that the leaders want to invest in you.
On the other hand, from the perspective of benefit to the raid, one could interpret this as the Council saying you're the weakest link. When coupled with WWS data that reinforces the message, a fragile ego like mine might have to go on a bender and drink heavily for a little bit.
I just hope that over time, the Council balances things out, because I'd hate to have my teammates feel like they work harder outside of raids, and that means that they get less rewards during raids. I'm not a big fan of being a weak link.
2) Fairness. This is not what you think. I'm not really weary of the Council being unfair and giving loot to themselves or to their clique within the guild. I'm actually going the other way. I hope that Council members get their fair share of loot. I hope that they dont err too far in the direction of giving loot to other people, so as to avoid being perceived as loot whores.
So that's all I've got. Meantime, I'm off to hit some Heroics to make the Council's decision a little harder when they choose to reward me some loot.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Hodir, Oh Dear
Sons of Hodir. A faction with no tabard. Rep to be grinded via 3 daily quests.
The kicker is that SoH is the faction that gives the shoulder enchants.
So everybody and his brother is out in eastern Storm Peaks doing those dailies.
Ok, ok, since we jumped into Northrend a couple weeks ago, we're all accustomed to a little competition for our quest objectives. That's all well and good.
Even more so for those of us fools who chose to transfer from the warm comfortable womb of PvE into the harsh unforgiving grief-fest found on PvP servers.
The competition, the corpse camping, the general attitude of "ima git mine, screw everybody else" is a way of life in WoW.
And, Blizzard, in their wonderful benevolence, made this rep grind for Sons of Hodir. And designed it such that you concentrate a large number of players into a very small geographical footprint where these three quests take place.
For one quest you've got to kill some Elementals on a frozen lake to gather ice. Then use the ice to chill some metal. And go bring the quest guy the metal.
The frozen lake is packed so dense with players, you've barely got elbow room. Luckily, they made the respawn rate so high that the corpses are stacked 3 or 4 deep across the entire frozen lake. And the hot pieces of metal, while heavily camped, also respawn pretty quick. No problem here, Alliance and Horde playing nice together.
Next quest has you in a cave with some worms. Kill the oil blobs and use their secretions to polish the head at the Hodir camp. At peak times, I've seen upwards of 20 people in this cave. Insane. But, again with the respawns. This one goes pretty quick, and Cats and Dogs live together in harmony.
And then....the ultimate in Grab-Your-Ankles daily questing...kill 5 little spirits and 5 big spirits, and blow a horn over the corpse to free the trapped soul.
Little spirits are all over the place. Kill and horn-blow those 5 within a few seconds of arriving on the scene.
Big spirits. Much more rare. Much more visible.
AND THEY MADE IT SO SOMEONE ELSE CAN BLOW THE HORN ON THE CORPSE OF THE GUY YOU TAGGED AND KILLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had 15. FIF-F%@KING-TEEN of these guys stolen from me. And that's 15 semi-rare spawns, not 15 dudes that're just standing in line to get horn-blowed, gang bang style.
I'm a person prone to frustration at times. I'm used to it, and have many ways of managing through the spikes. However, this one made me mental. Seriously ready to hurt somebody.
As it would turn out, leftover pizza is Chicken Soup for the Ninjerd Soul, so I had a couple slices, and shortly thereafter, did the quest in K3 were you lay the landmines to stop the incoming attack. Love that one. And now I am calm.
The kicker is that SoH is the faction that gives the shoulder enchants.
So everybody and his brother is out in eastern Storm Peaks doing those dailies.
Ok, ok, since we jumped into Northrend a couple weeks ago, we're all accustomed to a little competition for our quest objectives. That's all well and good.
Even more so for those of us fools who chose to transfer from the warm comfortable womb of PvE into the harsh unforgiving grief-fest found on PvP servers.
The competition, the corpse camping, the general attitude of "ima git mine, screw everybody else" is a way of life in WoW.
And, Blizzard, in their wonderful benevolence, made this rep grind for Sons of Hodir. And designed it such that you concentrate a large number of players into a very small geographical footprint where these three quests take place.
For one quest you've got to kill some Elementals on a frozen lake to gather ice. Then use the ice to chill some metal. And go bring the quest guy the metal.
The frozen lake is packed so dense with players, you've barely got elbow room. Luckily, they made the respawn rate so high that the corpses are stacked 3 or 4 deep across the entire frozen lake. And the hot pieces of metal, while heavily camped, also respawn pretty quick. No problem here, Alliance and Horde playing nice together.
Next quest has you in a cave with some worms. Kill the oil blobs and use their secretions to polish the head at the Hodir camp. At peak times, I've seen upwards of 20 people in this cave. Insane. But, again with the respawns. This one goes pretty quick, and Cats and Dogs live together in harmony.
And then....the ultimate in Grab-Your-Ankles daily questing...kill 5 little spirits and 5 big spirits, and blow a horn over the corpse to free the trapped soul.
Little spirits are all over the place. Kill and horn-blow those 5 within a few seconds of arriving on the scene.
Big spirits. Much more rare. Much more visible.
AND THEY MADE IT SO SOMEONE ELSE CAN BLOW THE HORN ON THE CORPSE OF THE GUY YOU TAGGED AND KILLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had 15. FIF-F%@KING-TEEN of these guys stolen from me. And that's 15 semi-rare spawns, not 15 dudes that're just standing in line to get horn-blowed, gang bang style.
I'm a person prone to frustration at times. I'm used to it, and have many ways of managing through the spikes. However, this one made me mental. Seriously ready to hurt somebody.
As it would turn out, leftover pizza is Chicken Soup for the Ninjerd Soul, so I had a couple slices, and shortly thereafter, did the quest in K3 were you lay the landmines to stop the incoming attack. Love that one. And now I am calm.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Delicious Chocolate Cake
Both me and Google Reader are going crazy, maybe just a little bit.
I could have sworn I remembered writing up, either in its own post, or maybe just a footnote in some larger post, a qq session about how many times I'd completed the Daily Cooking Quest in Shatt City at level 70, without ever getting the Delicious Chocolate Cake recipe. Hell, I even remember somebody commenting that they had a similar experience (see, when you get the massive number of comments that I do, comments have a tendency to stand out. I'd like to see BRK say that with a straight face, fer'schizel). But I can't find it, via manually scanning, searching via Google, and looking through my collection of un-posted articles. But whatever.
So, here I am, months ago, doing the Shatt cooking daily daily. And get all the nice stuff they like to reward you for doing that. But never the recipe for Delicious Chocolate Cake. And slowly over time, I give up hope, and just randomly do the quest as suits my fancy.
Then they roll out a damn achievement for cooking DCC.
So I revamp my efforts and start doing the Shatt cooking daily nearly daily.
But I've still got no cake.
Then, last night, upon completing my second Northrend cooking daily, lo and behold, what's in the reward bag?
The recipe for Delicious Chocolate Cake.
Yummy yum.
Edit: so, after writing my hugely interesting and insightful opening paragraph, I decided to try the actual Google web search, rather than Google Reader search. "amava cake" did the trick and landed me this gem of a story.
Edit of Edit: wtf? After finding the link on Google web search, I went back into Google Reader, and it can't find the article at all. What gives? I'll have to try the Google link out when I'm out from behind the firewall. Who knows, maybe there'll be an Edit of the Edit of the Edit by the time this hits the presses.
Addendum to Edit of Edit: See? Its there! And there's not one but rather three comments on the post. I'm not crazy. At least not in that way.
I could have sworn I remembered writing up, either in its own post, or maybe just a footnote in some larger post, a qq session about how many times I'd completed the Daily Cooking Quest in Shatt City at level 70, without ever getting the Delicious Chocolate Cake recipe. Hell, I even remember somebody commenting that they had a similar experience (see, when you get the massive number of comments that I do, comments have a tendency to stand out. I'd like to see BRK say that with a straight face, fer'schizel). But I can't find it, via manually scanning, searching via Google, and looking through my collection of un-posted articles. But whatever.
So, here I am, months ago, doing the Shatt cooking daily daily. And get all the nice stuff they like to reward you for doing that. But never the recipe for Delicious Chocolate Cake. And slowly over time, I give up hope, and just randomly do the quest as suits my fancy.
Then they roll out a damn achievement for cooking DCC.
So I revamp my efforts and start doing the Shatt cooking daily nearly daily.
But I've still got no cake.
Then, last night, upon completing my second Northrend cooking daily, lo and behold, what's in the reward bag?
The recipe for Delicious Chocolate Cake.
Yummy yum.
Edit: so, after writing my hugely interesting and insightful opening paragraph, I decided to try the actual Google web search, rather than Google Reader search. "amava cake" did the trick and landed me this gem of a story.
Edit of Edit: wtf? After finding the link on Google web search, I went back into Google Reader, and it can't find the article at all. What gives? I'll have to try the Google link out when I'm out from behind the firewall. Who knows, maybe there'll be an Edit of the Edit of the Edit by the time this hits the presses.
Addendum to Edit of Edit: See? Its there! And there's not one but rather three comments on the post. I'm not crazy. At least not in that way.
I can haz Humble Pie
Monday night was the first All-Conquest 25-person raid. It was my first raid with the new guild, and in fact, its the first group activity with the new team, since all my focus since the server transfer was power leveling and power turkey-eating.
Short Version: 3 Hours. Sartharion in Obsidian Sanctum Dead. Naxx Spider and Plague wing cleared. Mama got a new pair of boots.
Medium Version: Matticus tells the medium version better, so go read it there. This is my first raid with a brand new team. I had no idea what to expect: from the environment/culture of the raid, from my own personal performance, from the performance and expectations of the players around me, from the mass quantity of new bosses we'd be facing.
Lots of uncertainty. Lots of change. To summarize the end result of each of those uncertain expectations listed above: perfect blend of professional execution while still laughing at fart jokes, piss poor, absolutely stellar, not too bad given the concise explanations from the experienced raiders.
If you're the type who generally loves the ego stroking, I highly recommend raiding with a Hunter who has Balls of Steel for a nice serving of Humble Pie. And, contrary to most historical posts on this lovely blog, no, folks it wasn't yours truly. The other hunter, did well over double my damage output, is carrying the Legendary Thori'dal bow, 4x T6, and everything else level 80 epic already. Just....wow. Out of 14 DPS, I was generally 10th or 11th in DPS. Me thinks hardcore isn't a strong enough word to describe this crew. How's that for a rude awakening for a Night Elf dude/chick alone on a brand new server?
In other news, Mama got the first piece of phat level 80 lewtz off of his/her loot wishlist. Long live the Loot Council. And Long Live the other Hunter and Shammy who chose to defer on the boots, thus making the Council's decision pretty easy.
Long Version:
And I do mean long. And thick, too.
Where to start? Where to start?
How about "at the beginning"?
The big boss man with the corner office at work got a bug up his butt about something. Something that I take care of for him. So my trip home was delayed by an hour and a half. As if you, my precious reader, actually care about my trip home, or my boss's boss's random whims and sometimes agonizing sense of urgency. But I digress.
The bottom line was that I had a very small window of time in which to square away the 101 Details of Raiding, all of which are unfamiliar since they moved my cheese from 70 to 80.
Fiddlin' with Gear
Start with Hit Rating. I'd like to be as close to Hit Capped as I can be. I was still sporting nearly entirely level 70 epic gear. And pretty far from the hit cap for level 80 (296 with no talents, 197 with 3 points in Focused Aim).
So I browse my bank of random quest greenies and bluies that I'd collected along the way to 80. Painful level of detail trying to choose between roughly 25 pieces of gear, balancing across all the families of stats that BM Hunters like, while pushing as far into the Hit Rating as I could.
Not sure if it was the ongoing discussion at BRK about entry-level Hunter melee weapons or not, but I've always hated the look of the Season 3 axe that I've been carrying for nearly a year.
Decided to go for the dual Fang of Truth. This requires Honored with Wyrmrest Accord. I was 450 rep away from Honored. Ok, quick like a bunny, get over to Dragonblight and do that annoying flying dragon fight daily quest. I say "annoying". I actually hate that quest. It reeks of something very grindy that I don't enjoy, is kinda buggy and the interface is sloppy and they just rushed it out the door to make something "cool". Meh. But, in a pinch, I've got no problem with grindy or annoying. Gimme shiny!
Complete the quest, hoping for a nice fat 500 rep reward. Nope. 250. F#$K! Time's ticking!
Some guildies advise me that there's a daily out in Coldarra. Ah, yeah. I remember that one. Harpoon a Dragon. Long ass flight out to Coldarra. Quick quest completion and turn-in.
Ding Honored, ding long ass return flight to Wyrmrest, ding dual Fang of Truth.
Ding Weapon Skill of ONE (1) in 1H Swords. Ding LOL.
STFU with the "dings" already.
Back to the bank. Time still ticking, and invite time is getting closer.
Decided on replacing some of the level 70 PvP gear as a first step towards the Hit Cap. Green chest replaces Merciless Gladiator's, Green boots replace Vindicator's, Blue Fangs of Truth replace Vengeful Waraxe, Blue necklace replaces Guardians. I didn't have anything nearly powerful enough to make me consider dropping my T5 2-piece bonus just yet, but I'm sure that sad/happy day will come soon enough.
An Enchanted Evening
Time pressing ever onward, I venture off to the AH.
These new puppies are gonna need some polish.
Decided to check the price of Enchanting mats. If the cost for 2x Enchant Weapon - Accuracy was reasonable, I'd go for no talent points, and get close-ish to the 296 hit cap. Otherwise, its 3 points in Focused Aim.
Yeah. Lets just say...respec. The mats available on the AH at the time would have put the cost at 1,200g for each Accuracy enchant. 2,400g on some blue weapons? I know I bought a Mini-Van, so you guys already question my sanity, but this just ain't gonna happen.
As always, WoW Wiki's Enchants by Slot page is outstanding. Although their links to each specific enchant are bunk, and you have to manually go over to WoW Head for details. But the Wiki summary is the best launching page I've found.
Settled upon roughly 1,500g worth of enchants, a new Meta Gem, and one or two new regular gems. Annoying as balls to have to buy individually listed pieces of Infinite Dust when you're buying 50 or so, only to have to go to the mailbox and individually click on all 50 again.
Bottom line is I'm hit capped with the 3 talent points, and I'm pretty happy with the balance in my stats, maybe a bit too high on the Stamina for my point in raiding, but whatever. Hopefully the next few weeks will see a full swap out of all this level 70 crapola.
Quick respec to 53/18/0. Not sure if I'm 100% happy with it, but I was in a rush, and its reasonable if not perfect. I sense tweaking in my future.
Fill 'er Up
Time to fill the bags with consumables.
Wyrm Food (+crit), check.
Kibbler's Bits, check.
Mix mash of Outlands potions, flasks, elixirs, and Northrend potions, check.
Heavy Frostweave Bandages, check.
4 Saronite Arrow Machines, check. I have no idea how the change to "Steady Shot now Uses Ammunition" will impact my quiver. (EDIT: 3 hours of near constant firing used 75% of the 24-slot quiver. Upgrading to a 28-slot should eliminate any worry of running short on arrows).
So where's the instance?
Little things you take for granted. Karazhan had this long windy path that takes you right to the raid portal. Pretty easy to find, especially back when you had to do the Master's Key quest chain, since that guided you right to the door.
Where the f is Naxx? Wiki and Head only give some screen shots of what it looks like, and what zone its in, but no specifics.
So I figure I'll hang out near Wyrmrest and work on my Sword weapon skill until invites start up.
They tell me we're going to Obsidian Sanctum first. Ok. Where's that now?
I see all the little mini-map dots representing my teammates, all right on the spot that I'm on. But where the f are they? That stupid Wyrmrest tower....must be on a different level. Check ground floor, middle floor, tippy top of tower. Nobody.
Ok, I'll be the new guy....."so where's the instance?"
Find the crack in the ice and go underneath the tower. kthx.
And all the rest
Lot of build up in this story, but honestly, from here on it, it was....follow the Main Assist (who of course has a ridiculous "é" in his name so I had to ask how the F do you type that accented e so I can make my assist macro, thus cementing my position as team noob), manage your cooldowns, stay out of the fire, and just generally don't do stupid stuff. Every now and again, take a peek at Recount, and cry as you watch the others absolutely crush your damage output. Don't forget to loot your emblems.
The night went exceptionally smoothly considering its the first time most of us have played together, although many of the team used to raid together in a previous life.
Swift pace, effective reactions to mis-pulls or unforeseen pats, concise boss explanations and assignments, and efficient Loot Council activities for loot distribution.
Kicked the sht out of Obsidian Sanctum, Naxx Spider Wing, and Naxx Plague Wing. One-shot everything, until with only minutes till quitting/bed time, we took one stab at Patchwerk and he made Quickwerk of us.
What Next?
So what's next for Conquest?
Raid ID is due to reset so Tuesday's run will basically be the exact same thing, only focused on more speed. Clear the farm stuff like its going out of style, and have more time in the week for progress. Considering we one-shot everything in the first two wings with only 6 healers, the goal is pretty realistic to fully clear Naxx in our first week.
So what's next for Amava?
Hanging out in vent after the raid, randomly end up with just me and the GM/RL in the channel.
"Amava, you still awake?"
Oh, sht. Time to get chewed out for being absolutely piss poor DPS'er :-( "um, hey, how's it goin" (averts eyes to the ground and kicks stone around nervously).
"What'd you think of the raid? How do you think the officers and I did tonight?"
What now? No beating? or is he just softening me up for the kill? "pretty cool. [this] was awesome, [other thing] was good enough, [yet another thing] could improve, but will surely get better as the officers and the team work work together over time"
"Thanks, keep letting us know if there's anything we can do better."
"Ok, cool. ttyl. Oh, and btw, if you happen to NOT look at WWS for tonight, that's fine by me XD"
Along the way, spoke with the DPS Officer. Nice to hear him reassure me that they're withholding judgment until everybody's on a vaguely even gear scale. Good, because I'm gettin ready to delete my account after tonight's performance, but maybe i'll just log out and go to sleep and reconsider the delete in the morning.
Time to get some Heroic action going and get those next couple upgrades that're right within reach!
Oh, yeah, and while trying to find some Chilled Meat for the daily cooking quest after the raid, ding 400 Swords weapon skill.
Oh oh, yeah, and as always, its a pleasure to have an enchant on the green boots that got replaced who's lifespan was roughly 2 hours from the time the Greenie got enchanted to the time the purple was equipped. I fully believe in the old adage "good things happen to those who enchant".
Short Version: 3 Hours. Sartharion in Obsidian Sanctum Dead. Naxx Spider and Plague wing cleared. Mama got a new pair of boots.
Medium Version: Matticus tells the medium version better, so go read it there. This is my first raid with a brand new team. I had no idea what to expect: from the environment/culture of the raid, from my own personal performance, from the performance and expectations of the players around me, from the mass quantity of new bosses we'd be facing.
Lots of uncertainty. Lots of change. To summarize the end result of each of those uncertain expectations listed above: perfect blend of professional execution while still laughing at fart jokes, piss poor, absolutely stellar, not too bad given the concise explanations from the experienced raiders.
If you're the type who generally loves the ego stroking, I highly recommend raiding with a Hunter who has Balls of Steel for a nice serving of Humble Pie. And, contrary to most historical posts on this lovely blog, no, folks it wasn't yours truly. The other hunter, did well over double my damage output, is carrying the Legendary Thori'dal bow, 4x T6, and everything else level 80 epic already. Just....wow. Out of 14 DPS, I was generally 10th or 11th in DPS. Me thinks hardcore isn't a strong enough word to describe this crew. How's that for a rude awakening for a Night Elf dude/chick alone on a brand new server?
In other news, Mama got the first piece of phat level 80 lewtz off of his/her loot wishlist. Long live the Loot Council. And Long Live the other Hunter and Shammy who chose to defer on the boots, thus making the Council's decision pretty easy.
Long Version:
And I do mean long. And thick, too.
Where to start? Where to start?
How about "at the beginning"?
The big boss man with the corner office at work got a bug up his butt about something. Something that I take care of for him. So my trip home was delayed by an hour and a half. As if you, my precious reader, actually care about my trip home, or my boss's boss's random whims and sometimes agonizing sense of urgency. But I digress.
The bottom line was that I had a very small window of time in which to square away the 101 Details of Raiding, all of which are unfamiliar since they moved my cheese from 70 to 80.
Fiddlin' with Gear
Start with Hit Rating. I'd like to be as close to Hit Capped as I can be. I was still sporting nearly entirely level 70 epic gear. And pretty far from the hit cap for level 80 (296 with no talents, 197 with 3 points in Focused Aim).
So I browse my bank of random quest greenies and bluies that I'd collected along the way to 80. Painful level of detail trying to choose between roughly 25 pieces of gear, balancing across all the families of stats that BM Hunters like, while pushing as far into the Hit Rating as I could.
Not sure if it was the ongoing discussion at BRK about entry-level Hunter melee weapons or not, but I've always hated the look of the Season 3 axe that I've been carrying for nearly a year.
Decided to go for the dual Fang of Truth. This requires Honored with Wyrmrest Accord. I was 450 rep away from Honored. Ok, quick like a bunny, get over to Dragonblight and do that annoying flying dragon fight daily quest. I say "annoying". I actually hate that quest. It reeks of something very grindy that I don't enjoy, is kinda buggy and the interface is sloppy and they just rushed it out the door to make something "cool". Meh. But, in a pinch, I've got no problem with grindy or annoying. Gimme shiny!
Complete the quest, hoping for a nice fat 500 rep reward. Nope. 250. F#$K! Time's ticking!
Some guildies advise me that there's a daily out in Coldarra. Ah, yeah. I remember that one. Harpoon a Dragon. Long ass flight out to Coldarra. Quick quest completion and turn-in.
Ding Honored, ding long ass return flight to Wyrmrest, ding dual Fang of Truth.
Ding Weapon Skill of ONE (1) in 1H Swords. Ding LOL.
STFU with the "dings" already.
Back to the bank. Time still ticking, and invite time is getting closer.
Decided on replacing some of the level 70 PvP gear as a first step towards the Hit Cap. Green chest replaces Merciless Gladiator's, Green boots replace Vindicator's, Blue Fangs of Truth replace Vengeful Waraxe, Blue necklace replaces Guardians. I didn't have anything nearly powerful enough to make me consider dropping my T5 2-piece bonus just yet, but I'm sure that sad/happy day will come soon enough.
An Enchanted Evening
Time pressing ever onward, I venture off to the AH.
These new puppies are gonna need some polish.
Decided to check the price of Enchanting mats. If the cost for 2x Enchant Weapon - Accuracy was reasonable, I'd go for no talent points, and get close-ish to the 296 hit cap. Otherwise, its 3 points in Focused Aim.
Yeah. Lets just say...respec. The mats available on the AH at the time would have put the cost at 1,200g for each Accuracy enchant. 2,400g on some blue weapons? I know I bought a Mini-Van, so you guys already question my sanity, but this just ain't gonna happen.
As always, WoW Wiki's Enchants by Slot page is outstanding. Although their links to each specific enchant are bunk, and you have to manually go over to WoW Head for details. But the Wiki summary is the best launching page I've found.
Settled upon roughly 1,500g worth of enchants, a new Meta Gem, and one or two new regular gems. Annoying as balls to have to buy individually listed pieces of Infinite Dust when you're buying 50 or so, only to have to go to the mailbox and individually click on all 50 again.
Bottom line is I'm hit capped with the 3 talent points, and I'm pretty happy with the balance in my stats, maybe a bit too high on the Stamina for my point in raiding, but whatever. Hopefully the next few weeks will see a full swap out of all this level 70 crapola.
Quick respec to 53/18/0. Not sure if I'm 100% happy with it, but I was in a rush, and its reasonable if not perfect. I sense tweaking in my future.
Fill 'er Up
Time to fill the bags with consumables.
Wyrm Food (+crit), check.
Kibbler's Bits, check.
Mix mash of Outlands potions, flasks, elixirs, and Northrend potions, check.
Heavy Frostweave Bandages, check.
4 Saronite Arrow Machines, check. I have no idea how the change to "Steady Shot now Uses Ammunition" will impact my quiver. (EDIT: 3 hours of near constant firing used 75% of the 24-slot quiver. Upgrading to a 28-slot should eliminate any worry of running short on arrows).
So where's the instance?
Little things you take for granted. Karazhan had this long windy path that takes you right to the raid portal. Pretty easy to find, especially back when you had to do the Master's Key quest chain, since that guided you right to the door.
Where the f is Naxx? Wiki and Head only give some screen shots of what it looks like, and what zone its in, but no specifics.
So I figure I'll hang out near Wyrmrest and work on my Sword weapon skill until invites start up.
They tell me we're going to Obsidian Sanctum first. Ok. Where's that now?
I see all the little mini-map dots representing my teammates, all right on the spot that I'm on. But where the f are they? That stupid Wyrmrest tower....must be on a different level. Check ground floor, middle floor, tippy top of tower. Nobody.
Ok, I'll be the new guy....."so where's the instance?"
Find the crack in the ice and go underneath the tower. kthx.
And all the rest
Lot of build up in this story, but honestly, from here on it, it was....follow the Main Assist (who of course has a ridiculous "é" in his name so I had to ask how the F do you type that accented e so I can make my assist macro, thus cementing my position as team noob), manage your cooldowns, stay out of the fire, and just generally don't do stupid stuff. Every now and again, take a peek at Recount, and cry as you watch the others absolutely crush your damage output. Don't forget to loot your emblems.
The night went exceptionally smoothly considering its the first time most of us have played together, although many of the team used to raid together in a previous life.
Swift pace, effective reactions to mis-pulls or unforeseen pats, concise boss explanations and assignments, and efficient Loot Council activities for loot distribution.
Kicked the sht out of Obsidian Sanctum, Naxx Spider Wing, and Naxx Plague Wing. One-shot everything, until with only minutes till quitting/bed time, we took one stab at Patchwerk and he made Quickwerk of us.
What Next?
So what's next for Conquest?
Raid ID is due to reset so Tuesday's run will basically be the exact same thing, only focused on more speed. Clear the farm stuff like its going out of style, and have more time in the week for progress. Considering we one-shot everything in the first two wings with only 6 healers, the goal is pretty realistic to fully clear Naxx in our first week.
So what's next for Amava?
Hanging out in vent after the raid, randomly end up with just me and the GM/RL in the channel.
"Amava, you still awake?"
Oh, sht. Time to get chewed out for being absolutely piss poor DPS'er :-( "um, hey, how's it goin" (averts eyes to the ground and kicks stone around nervously).
"What'd you think of the raid? How do you think the officers and I did tonight?"
What now? No beating? or is he just softening me up for the kill? "pretty cool. [this] was awesome, [other thing] was good enough, [yet another thing] could improve, but will surely get better as the officers and the team work work together over time"
"Thanks, keep letting us know if there's anything we can do better."
"Ok, cool. ttyl. Oh, and btw, if you happen to NOT look at WWS for tonight, that's fine by me XD"
Along the way, spoke with the DPS Officer. Nice to hear him reassure me that they're withholding judgment until everybody's on a vaguely even gear scale. Good, because I'm gettin ready to delete my account after tonight's performance, but maybe i'll just log out and go to sleep and reconsider the delete in the morning.
Time to get some Heroic action going and get those next couple upgrades that're right within reach!
Oh, yeah, and while trying to find some Chilled Meat for the daily cooking quest after the raid, ding 400 Swords weapon skill.
Oh oh, yeah, and as always, its a pleasure to have an enchant on the green boots that got replaced who's lifespan was roughly 2 hours from the time the Greenie got enchanted to the time the purple was equipped. I fully believe in the old adage "good things happen to those who enchant".
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Amava Goes a'Raiding - Alchemy Products
So I posted my "overwhelmed yet" post. And what a post it was. And, following my first level 80 25-person raid with my new guild on my new server, "overwhelmed" doesn't even come close to capturing the situation. But that's another post for another time (probably 5 minutes from now, in a post immediately following this one).
To help settle the nerves in situations like this, I like todrink whiskey. lots of it. break things down into easily digested chunks. If all goes as planned, this will be the first in a series of Amava Goes a'Raiding articles that can be a reference for me, and maybe you, going forward. Note that the items I'll cover are not intended to be comprehensive, but rather, just cover the things I plan to use for my little Beast Master.
Today's entry will cover the stuff from Alchemy that I like to drink. I found all this by simply browsing WoW Head's listing of all the Alchemy products, so maybe there's something missing. You never know.
Since I'm a gatherer, and despise spending gold, I've also included materials for most of the stuff to help plan out my inventory and sales of herbs.
I didn't see anything that's the equivalent of Fel Mana Potion, so for now, it looks like we'll be using the same old Runic Mana that everyone else is using. Then again, the real nice thing I liked about Fel Mana (besides the higher amount of mana) was the MoT effect, which allowed me to drink it earlier in a fight without wasting any of the impact, back when it was vital to manage potion cooldowns to chain-chug through out the fight. Only one pot per fight, so bye bye micro-brew micro-management.
Intellect = Attack Power. Mighty Thoughts, FTW!
So now I can plan out what kind and how many herbs I need to have on hand, and how much I can sell, which is nice since level 80 enchants ain't getting any cheeper.
I'm generally following my nose on this journey through taming the overwhelming beast, so we'll have to see whether Enchants or a random collection of one-offs (shoulder faction, head faction, belt socket, etc) catch my fancy next.
To help settle the nerves in situations like this, I like to
Today's entry will cover the stuff from Alchemy that I like to drink. I found all this by simply browsing WoW Head's listing of all the Alchemy products, so maybe there's something missing. You never know.
Since I'm a gatherer, and despise spending gold, I've also included materials for most of the stuff to help plan out my inventory and sales of herbs.
Potions
I didn't see anything that's the equivalent of Fel Mana Potion, so for now, it looks like we'll be using the same old Runic Mana that everyone else is using. Then again, the real nice thing I liked about Fel Mana (besides the higher amount of mana) was the MoT effect, which allowed me to drink it earlier in a fight without wasting any of the impact, back when it was vital to manage potion cooldowns to chain-chug through out the fight. Only one pot per fight, so bye bye micro-brew micro-management.
| Runic Healing Potion | ||
| 1x Goldclover | ||
| 2x Icethorn | ||
| Runic Mana Potion | ||
| 2x Lichbloom | ||
| 1x Goldclover | ||
| Powerful Rejuvenation Potion | ||
| 2x Talandra's Rose | ||
| 2x Lichbloom | ||
| To be honest, I'm not sure if I'll use these, but wanted to include it while I've got some motivation to compile this list. | ||
| Potion of Speed | ||
| 2x Adder's Tongue | ||
| 1x Pygmy Oil | ||
| 1x Pygmy Suckerfish | ||
| Also unsure on these puppies. Haste is borderline for BM. But this is the only potion that directly impacts damage output, so if mana and health are both fine late in a fight, one of these'd be a nice boost. | ||
Battle Elixirs
| Elixir of Mighty Agility | ||
| 2x Goldclover | ||
| 2x Adder's Tongue | ||
| Likely this will be my farm-content buff of choice | ||
| Elixir of Accuracy | ||
| 2x Tiger Lily | ||
| 1x Talandra's Rose | ||
| As I wrestle with the +hit cap, and debate whether I want to burn three talent points, this may get a spot in my medicine cabinet | ||
| Elixir of Armor Piercing | ||
| 2x Tiger Lily | ||
| My jury is still out on Armor Penetration. Since it was rare-ish in TBC, I used to love it, now its all over the place, and I'm unsure how to factor it into decisions. | ||
| Elixir of Deadly Strikes | ||
| 1x Goldclover | ||
| 2x Adder's Tongue | ||
| Elixir of Lightning Speed | ||
| 1x Deadnettle | ||
| 1x Crystallized Life | ||
| Again with the haste. | ||
Guardian Elixirs
Intellect = Attack Power. Mighty Thoughts, FTW!
| Elixir of Mighty Thoughts | ||
| 1x Talinda's Rose | ||
| 2x Deadnettle | ||
| Elixir of Mighty Mageblood | ||
| 1x Goldclover | ||
| 2x Lichbloom | ||
Flasks
| Flask of Endless Rage | ||
| 7x Lichbloom | ||
| 3x Fire Leaf | ||
| 1x Frost Lotus | ||
| 1x fancier vial than the elixirs, lol | ||
Wrap-up
So now I can plan out what kind and how many herbs I need to have on hand, and how much I can sell, which is nice since level 80 enchants ain't getting any cheeper.
I'm generally following my nose on this journey through taming the overwhelming beast, so we'll have to see whether Enchants or a random collection of one-offs (shoulder faction, head faction, belt socket, etc) catch my fancy next.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Level 80 Reaction Quickies
So I dinged 80. Not a server first, or a world first, or a first anything. Except for an Amava first, so therefore, clearly the most important first that's occurred to date.
Lets take a look at some quickies:
1) To get to this point, I finished the quest completion achievements for Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Sholazar Basin, and Storm Peaks.
2) Need 5 more quests for Zul'Drak, 3 of which will come from a Dundrak run, and the remaining 2 are probably Amphitheater of Anguish, although I have no idea how AoA works.
3) Did roughly half of the Howling Fjord quests in a parallel stream to the leveling-focused activities in the completed zones.
4) Each zone I've completed is fully explored, with out ever actively trying to explore, except for a single chunk of exploration in Storm Peaks. The quests simply guided me through the full zones, which is pretty cool.
5) Other than a few dungeon quests, I have no straggler quests left from any of the completed zones, which is very cool. I still have 4 group quests from Outlands floating there, just begging to be abandoned.
6) Me thinks that leaves Grizzly Hills, Crystalsong Forest, Wintergrasp, and [something else i forget, but starts with a floating airship military base looking thing to the north of Dalaran] totally untouched.
7) Bubbles the Gorilla was my partner through the whole trip. She's taken every sort of abuse you can imagine, and always comes back and stays happy with a simple serving of berries and the occasional Sporeling Snack for those hard hitting Group Quest bosses she likes to solo.
8) Ran Utgarde Keep and The Nexus on normal mode at level 70. Ran the first hallway of Utgarde Keep in a 2-person attempt at level 76. Haven't set foot in any of the other dungeons.
9) From the looks of the new Guild, and actually the server at large (LFG/LFM, /general, /trade), Normal Mode of dungeons is no longer part of the game. All of the energy is aimed at Heroics. And this is not even two weeks since release.
10) Gear. At the moment I hit 80, I was wearing my full level 70 raiding set, except for one trinket and one ring. I have a bank full of quest rewards that all seem like possibilities as I aim towards the hit cap for level 80 raiding. Not sure which of these will actually see combat, but for better or worse, I will answer that by monday.
Lets take a look at some quickies:
1) To get to this point, I finished the quest completion achievements for Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Sholazar Basin, and Storm Peaks.
2) Need 5 more quests for Zul'Drak, 3 of which will come from a Dundrak run, and the remaining 2 are probably Amphitheater of Anguish, although I have no idea how AoA works.
3) Did roughly half of the Howling Fjord quests in a parallel stream to the leveling-focused activities in the completed zones.
4) Each zone I've completed is fully explored, with out ever actively trying to explore, except for a single chunk of exploration in Storm Peaks. The quests simply guided me through the full zones, which is pretty cool.
5) Other than a few dungeon quests, I have no straggler quests left from any of the completed zones, which is very cool. I still have 4 group quests from Outlands floating there, just begging to be abandoned.
6) Me thinks that leaves Grizzly Hills, Crystalsong Forest, Wintergrasp, and [something else i forget, but starts with a floating airship military base looking thing to the north of Dalaran] totally untouched.
7) Bubbles the Gorilla was my partner through the whole trip. She's taken every sort of abuse you can imagine, and always comes back and stays happy with a simple serving of berries and the occasional Sporeling Snack for those hard hitting Group Quest bosses she likes to solo.
8) Ran Utgarde Keep and The Nexus on normal mode at level 70. Ran the first hallway of Utgarde Keep in a 2-person attempt at level 76. Haven't set foot in any of the other dungeons.
9) From the looks of the new Guild, and actually the server at large (LFG/LFM, /general, /trade), Normal Mode of dungeons is no longer part of the game. All of the energy is aimed at Heroics. And this is not even two weeks since release.
10) Gear. At the moment I hit 80, I was wearing my full level 70 raiding set, except for one trinket and one ring. I have a bank full of quest rewards that all seem like possibilities as I aim towards the hit cap for level 80 raiding. Not sure which of these will actually see combat, but for better or worse, I will answer that by monday.
Stars Aligning
Talk about the stars aligning on a tuesday night.
First all-Conquest 25-person raid is slated for the monday following Thanksgiving.
I'm sitting at level 79. And have plans to be with family and friends from wednesday through sunday, thus leaving little option for when to make the push to 80.
Storm Peaks is the place. Fabulous zone, I love the snow. Reminds me of playing Donkey Kong Country on SNES back in the day. My fav zones where always the ones that had the visibility totally obscured by falling snow. The visuals of flying into K3 and seeing the rotating warning lights through the snow. Good job by you, Blizz.
As the hours ticked on by through the evening, I crept ever closer to 80.
Overall, questing in WotLK has been much better than in the past. Very few quests lay around clogging up the quest log, most of the quests that involve travel get completed in tandem with at least one other quest that involves the exact same travel.
One of the Storm Peaks quests has you summon 4 Shammy companions and you get to pretend you're a 5-boxer for a little while, which I thought was a nice touch. Although I found the quest to be a bit frustrating. Long story short, dismiss your pet before you summon the shammies.
At times, the number of active quests would become worrisome, as I was trying to push push push for 80. I'd get down to a single active quest in the zone, but that'd would end up leading to 2 or more, or maybe fly me past a region that'd have a yellow ! on the ground below me. Or for one quest, I'd need to complete a daily quest to push my rep up to friendly and open up a host of other quests. Or, still another where I'd need to remember to summon some dwarf guy who serves as the quest giver/taker.
Lots of variety, adding to some fun while racing through the xp bubbles.
Traveler's Tundra Mammoth helps a ton for emptying your bags on the fly. Plus, at the times when you need to be on the ground, Aspect of the Pack makes you like a Crusader Aura wannabee.
Along the way, I dinged 450 First Aid, which was nice since I can stop burning cloth and start selling/saving for a tailor gf.
Along the way, I dinged 450 Mining, which at this point, painted the picture that the stars were definitely aligning for the evening.
And then, I'm about 7% of the XP away from 80.
And I ding the quest completion achievement for Storm Peaks, indicating that the zone is pretty much used up, XP-wise.
Grr, I'd hate to have to travel to a new zone just to finish off this last bubble.
Look in the quest log.
One single quest left. Turn it it. Sends you to a guy. Turn that quest in. Sends you to get something. Turn that in. 3% away. One quest left.
Take control of an arctic snake, and go fight the massive colossus.
This fight is hysterical. You burrow under the snow to avoid his stomps, you emerge to spit on him, and go back under the snow.
Oh, and by this time, its like 1:30 in the morning, so I'm utterly exhausted, but "No sleep till 80" is the rally cry for the night.
With about 20k health left on the damn Colossus, my snake dies.
And its time for me and Bubbles to kick some ass. Naturally, she gets 2 shot by the mob. But she bought me enough time. With 400 health left on me, the Colossus dies!
Fly back and watch three Dwarven brothers have a reunion. Talk to the guy. DING!
Kinda neat to have the ding occur exactly as I complete the last quest in the zone. Coincidence? Or is Blizzard just that good?
Either way, the stars were aligned, indeed!
Ding, First Aid. Ding, Mining.
1 year and 6 days after hitting 70, Ding 80.
And, most importantly...Ding, sweet sweet slumber.
First all-Conquest 25-person raid is slated for the monday following Thanksgiving.
I'm sitting at level 79. And have plans to be with family and friends from wednesday through sunday, thus leaving little option for when to make the push to 80.
Storm Peaks is the place. Fabulous zone, I love the snow. Reminds me of playing Donkey Kong Country on SNES back in the day. My fav zones where always the ones that had the visibility totally obscured by falling snow. The visuals of flying into K3 and seeing the rotating warning lights through the snow. Good job by you, Blizz.
As the hours ticked on by through the evening, I crept ever closer to 80.
Overall, questing in WotLK has been much better than in the past. Very few quests lay around clogging up the quest log, most of the quests that involve travel get completed in tandem with at least one other quest that involves the exact same travel.
One of the Storm Peaks quests has you summon 4 Shammy companions and you get to pretend you're a 5-boxer for a little while, which I thought was a nice touch. Although I found the quest to be a bit frustrating. Long story short, dismiss your pet before you summon the shammies.
At times, the number of active quests would become worrisome, as I was trying to push push push for 80. I'd get down to a single active quest in the zone, but that'd would end up leading to 2 or more, or maybe fly me past a region that'd have a yellow ! on the ground below me. Or for one quest, I'd need to complete a daily quest to push my rep up to friendly and open up a host of other quests. Or, still another where I'd need to remember to summon some dwarf guy who serves as the quest giver/taker.
Lots of variety, adding to some fun while racing through the xp bubbles.
Traveler's Tundra Mammoth helps a ton for emptying your bags on the fly. Plus, at the times when you need to be on the ground, Aspect of the Pack makes you like a Crusader Aura wannabee.
Along the way, I dinged 450 First Aid, which was nice since I can stop burning cloth and start selling/saving for a tailor gf.
Along the way, I dinged 450 Mining, which at this point, painted the picture that the stars were definitely aligning for the evening.
And then, I'm about 7% of the XP away from 80.
And I ding the quest completion achievement for Storm Peaks, indicating that the zone is pretty much used up, XP-wise.
Grr, I'd hate to have to travel to a new zone just to finish off this last bubble.
Look in the quest log.
One single quest left. Turn it it. Sends you to a guy. Turn that quest in. Sends you to get something. Turn that in. 3% away. One quest left.
Take control of an arctic snake, and go fight the massive colossus.
This fight is hysterical. You burrow under the snow to avoid his stomps, you emerge to spit on him, and go back under the snow.
Oh, and by this time, its like 1:30 in the morning, so I'm utterly exhausted, but "No sleep till 80" is the rally cry for the night.
With about 20k health left on the damn Colossus, my snake dies.
And its time for me and Bubbles to kick some ass. Naturally, she gets 2 shot by the mob. But she bought me enough time. With 400 health left on me, the Colossus dies!
Fly back and watch three Dwarven brothers have a reunion. Talk to the guy. DING!
Kinda neat to have the ding occur exactly as I complete the last quest in the zone. Coincidence? Or is Blizzard just that good?
Either way, the stars were aligned, indeed!
Ding, First Aid. Ding, Mining.
1 year and 6 days after hitting 70, Ding 80.
And, most importantly...Ding, sweet sweet slumber.
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