Blizzard, developer of the hit massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft, has suspended 18,000 accounts for violations of the game's terms of use, the GameSpot Web site reported. That amounts to roughly 200 accounts per day, the site reported.
Most of the suspensions were of computer-run characters made to farm gold and items for resale in the real world. Blizzard is asking legitimate Warcraft players to report suspicious activity.
VU Games recently announced that the game had reached the 5-million player level.
Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Warcraft Hits 5 Million Mark
Blizzard Entertainment announced that World of Warcraft, its hit massively multiplayer online role-playing game, has surpassed 5 million customers worldwide. The subscription-based MMORPG launched about a year ago in North America, Australia and New Zealand and has since been released in Europe and Asia. The game was launched in Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong on Nov. 8.
Blizzard's announcement coincided with word of its next Warcraft expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, set for release in 2006. The expansion will add new lands, quests, monsters, magic items, spells and abilities, two new player races, a new player profession, 10 new levels of power for players to achieve and more.
Blizzard's announcement coincided with word of its next Warcraft expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, set for release in 2006. The expansion will add new lands, quests, monsters, magic items, spells and abilities, two new player races, a new player profession, 10 new levels of power for players to achieve and more.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Warcraft III
I just installed WC3 last night.
Maybe if I play it awhile it'll get me in the mood to pick WoW back up.
Maybe if I play it awhile it'll get me in the mood to pick WoW back up.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
The end of WoW for me?
When my desktop died for several weeks, I decided to cancel my account since I wasn't using it. I did get my computer up and running again but November 14th was my last day in WoW.
I don't know at this point when or if I'll ever play again.
I will check the WoW site occassionally. Looks like they are adding ALOT of stuff in the future.
If I don't play WoW, what should I be playing?
I don't know at this point when or if I'll ever play again.
I will check the WoW site occassionally. Looks like they are adding ALOT of stuff in the future.
If I don't play WoW, what should I be playing?
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Friday, October 07, 2005
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Elysian hits lvl 59 and 300 tailoring tonight
After only 7 1/2 months. :-D
I created her on Feb. 21.
And I did no quests during lvl 58, I killed Jadefire demons the whole level.
Now, I need some golden pearls...
I created her on Feb. 21.
And I did no quests during lvl 58, I killed Jadefire demons the whole level.
Now, I need some golden pearls...
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Friday, September 09, 2005
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Finally - 10,000 gold!
This is a repost from the Hellscream realm forums. The hints for making money in the AH may be of interest to a wider audience.
Posted 9/5/2005:
I am happy to announce that my AH slave Cancela has hit 10,000 gold by just trading the AH, buying low and selling high.
I seeded Cancela with 10g early May this year as an experiment after my main hit 60 to see if I could work the system and understand the laws of supply and demand well enough to make money. Blue daggers and epic weapons has been the mainstay of my business but there are many surprising areas where bargains can be found. My goal was to reach 10k gold and having achieved that I will be winding down my trading.
http://img5.picsplace.to/img.php?file=img5/3/WoWScrnShot_090505_152101.jpg
The picture is not photo shopped (I can’t even use it) and no, you can’t have my stuff :)
Posted 9/7/2005:
First, thanks for all the feedback, good as well as bad. It is even nice to hear from the obvious trolls and non-believers :)
After some thinking, I have decided to share my methods with everyone. I have reached my goal so it is only fair that others try their luck if they want to. I'll start with a couple of disclaimers :
a) There are some generalizations below. While they may not be correct all the time every time, they are correct almost all of the time.
b) These are my personal observations only. They are not facts. They worked for me but they may not work for you.
c) One possible effect of me posting this is that the number of bargains in the AH is reduced since many more people will know what to look for. Fewer people will then get really rich but more people will gain some money.
Now on to my methods:
1) Learn the prices before trying to enter the market. While looking at what other people ask for an item is a good indication, it doesn't actually tell you if if sells for that price or not. The absolute best way is to sell items yourself. The second best is to get the item pricing from Allakhazam.com. They list the 200 last prices for every AH item.
2) Blue daggers always sell at high prices. This is especially true for daggers below lvl 34 (if I remember right) since there are no blue dagger quest rewards below that lvl.
3) People will always spend money on weapons before spending money on armor. Blue and purple weapons are therefore a mainstay of my trading.
4) On the alliance side, these weapon types are the easiest to sell (in order easy to hard): Daggers, 1h sword, staves, 1h axes, 2h sword, 2h axes, 1h maces, ranged weapons, wands, 2h maces. There are of course a number of individual exceptions to this.
5) Do not try to trade in items that can be crafted. You can never compete with someone who dumps items just to lvl skill. A good example is 1h swords lvl 40-50. There is a multitude of craftable 1h swords in this lvl range so prices are very depressed.
6) People will pay a lot to twink their alts. As a result, blue weapons lvl 15-20 can command higher prices than blue weapons lvl 30-40.
7) People will pay exorbitant amounts to have the best. Good examples of this is Glowing Brightwood staff (epic lvl 49) going for 800-1000g while Hammer of the Northern Wind (epic lvl 49) goes for less than 100g.
8) Never carry more than 2 items of the same kind. Even if you can snap up more to what seems to be a good price, you may end up being overstocked and having to dump them off cheap.
9) There are bargains to be had anywhere if you know the pricing. I almsot exclusively trade weapons/armor and recipes but trade goods have bargains too fo you know the pricing.
10) Be patient. If something doesn't sell, relist and try again. I usually list 24 hr except if it costs me more than 1g to list, then I list 8 hr.
11) The AH charge of 5% will eat into your profits. Remember this when you buy out and relist.
12) If you find something at a good price, consider carefully whether to take it on buyout or whether to just put a bid on it. I normally only do buyout if I know that someone else will snap it up before the auction time is up. Often I just put a bid in and hope for the best. Note that you will loose a lot of items if you do this, but depending on how many you are bidding on you will also win a lot of them.
13) Items that do not have a buyout on them will usually go for less than items with buyout. The reason is simple: When people buy, the want the item now. Therefore less people will bid on items without buyout and there are some nice bargains to be had here.
14) When listing items, I usually try to put up a price that I can live with with a buyout just 5-10% higher. This is because I want people to take the buyout to increase my turnover. When there are several items of the same listed, you have to decide if you want to undercut or not. This is a matter of preference. I usually undercut by a little, but that's up to you.
15) Crosstrading between the horde and alliance AH using the Gadgetzan AH can be extremely profitable, but only if you have 2 accounts. The Gadget AH has a very high percentage fee on what you sell, so unless you can buy and sell stuff through the Gadgetzan AH at a very low price the fee will kill your profit. With 2 accounts, you can list items for 1s buyout and as soon as you list it with your horde char, buy it with your alliance char or vice versa. This way nobody else can snap up the auction and the fee (10%? can't remember) gets taken only as a percentage of the 1s price, ie costing almost nothing. If you pay attention to the pricing in the horde and alliance AH you can make a lot of money. For example, I have bought several purple epics (Krol blade, Glowing Brightwood staff, Brain Hacker) for 350-500g on the horde side and sold them for 700-900g on the alliance side.
16) There are some obvious things to look for when crosstrading. Look for pally items on horde side where they are priced lower. Same with shaman items on the alliance side.
17) If you want to crosstrade, you will be most profitable if you can send items both ways and never have to send money from one side to the other. If all the bargains are on the horde side, you will quickly end up with a pile of alliance money and no horde gold. Therefore, look for items that can go the other way, even if you dont make any money on them. It just has to be better than the fee that you pay for gold transfers through Gadgetzan AH.
Happy trading!
10,000 gold
Posted 9/5/2005:
I am happy to announce that my AH slave Cancela has hit 10,000 gold by just trading the AH, buying low and selling high.
I seeded Cancela with 10g early May this year as an experiment after my main hit 60 to see if I could work the system and understand the laws of supply and demand well enough to make money. Blue daggers and epic weapons has been the mainstay of my business but there are many surprising areas where bargains can be found. My goal was to reach 10k gold and having achieved that I will be winding down my trading.
http://img5.picsplace.to/img.php?file=img5/3/WoWScrnShot_090505_152101.jpg
The picture is not photo shopped (I can’t even use it) and no, you can’t have my stuff :)
Posted 9/7/2005:
First, thanks for all the feedback, good as well as bad. It is even nice to hear from the obvious trolls and non-believers :)
After some thinking, I have decided to share my methods with everyone. I have reached my goal so it is only fair that others try their luck if they want to. I'll start with a couple of disclaimers :
a) There are some generalizations below. While they may not be correct all the time every time, they are correct almost all of the time.
b) These are my personal observations only. They are not facts. They worked for me but they may not work for you.
c) One possible effect of me posting this is that the number of bargains in the AH is reduced since many more people will know what to look for. Fewer people will then get really rich but more people will gain some money.
Now on to my methods:
1) Learn the prices before trying to enter the market. While looking at what other people ask for an item is a good indication, it doesn't actually tell you if if sells for that price or not. The absolute best way is to sell items yourself. The second best is to get the item pricing from Allakhazam.com. They list the 200 last prices for every AH item.
2) Blue daggers always sell at high prices. This is especially true for daggers below lvl 34 (if I remember right) since there are no blue dagger quest rewards below that lvl.
3) People will always spend money on weapons before spending money on armor. Blue and purple weapons are therefore a mainstay of my trading.
4) On the alliance side, these weapon types are the easiest to sell (in order easy to hard): Daggers, 1h sword, staves, 1h axes, 2h sword, 2h axes, 1h maces, ranged weapons, wands, 2h maces. There are of course a number of individual exceptions to this.
5) Do not try to trade in items that can be crafted. You can never compete with someone who dumps items just to lvl skill. A good example is 1h swords lvl 40-50. There is a multitude of craftable 1h swords in this lvl range so prices are very depressed.
6) People will pay a lot to twink their alts. As a result, blue weapons lvl 15-20 can command higher prices than blue weapons lvl 30-40.
7) People will pay exorbitant amounts to have the best. Good examples of this is Glowing Brightwood staff (epic lvl 49) going for 800-1000g while Hammer of the Northern Wind (epic lvl 49) goes for less than 100g.
8) Never carry more than 2 items of the same kind. Even if you can snap up more to what seems to be a good price, you may end up being overstocked and having to dump them off cheap.
9) There are bargains to be had anywhere if you know the pricing. I almsot exclusively trade weapons/armor and recipes but trade goods have bargains too fo you know the pricing.
10) Be patient. If something doesn't sell, relist and try again. I usually list 24 hr except if it costs me more than 1g to list, then I list 8 hr.
11) The AH charge of 5% will eat into your profits. Remember this when you buy out and relist.
12) If you find something at a good price, consider carefully whether to take it on buyout or whether to just put a bid on it. I normally only do buyout if I know that someone else will snap it up before the auction time is up. Often I just put a bid in and hope for the best. Note that you will loose a lot of items if you do this, but depending on how many you are bidding on you will also win a lot of them.
13) Items that do not have a buyout on them will usually go for less than items with buyout. The reason is simple: When people buy, the want the item now. Therefore less people will bid on items without buyout and there are some nice bargains to be had here.
14) When listing items, I usually try to put up a price that I can live with with a buyout just 5-10% higher. This is because I want people to take the buyout to increase my turnover. When there are several items of the same listed, you have to decide if you want to undercut or not. This is a matter of preference. I usually undercut by a little, but that's up to you.
15) Crosstrading between the horde and alliance AH using the Gadgetzan AH can be extremely profitable, but only if you have 2 accounts. The Gadget AH has a very high percentage fee on what you sell, so unless you can buy and sell stuff through the Gadgetzan AH at a very low price the fee will kill your profit. With 2 accounts, you can list items for 1s buyout and as soon as you list it with your horde char, buy it with your alliance char or vice versa. This way nobody else can snap up the auction and the fee (10%? can't remember) gets taken only as a percentage of the 1s price, ie costing almost nothing. If you pay attention to the pricing in the horde and alliance AH you can make a lot of money. For example, I have bought several purple epics (Krol blade, Glowing Brightwood staff, Brain Hacker) for 350-500g on the horde side and sold them for 700-900g on the alliance side.
16) There are some obvious things to look for when crosstrading. Look for pally items on horde side where they are priced lower. Same with shaman items on the alliance side.
17) If you want to crosstrade, you will be most profitable if you can send items both ways and never have to send money from one side to the other. If all the bargains are on the horde side, you will quickly end up with a pile of alliance money and no horde gold. Therefore, look for items that can go the other way, even if you dont make any money on them. It just has to be better than the fee that you pay for gold transfers through Gadgetzan AH.
Happy trading!
10,000 gold
Monday, September 05, 2005
1. An Open Letter To Bushbashing Hippies | 9/5/2005 7:45:37 AM CDT
Dear WoW-forum raging teenangster wannacommies,
I come before you today to plead for rational thought. Given that you probably blame your ping problem and shocking single digit rolls in MC on Bush, Big Oil and his refusal to ratify Kyoto, I by and large expect this to fall on deaf ears.
But before you begin your rant to counter my rant - there are a few things I'd like you to think about. For many of you, that concept may be a little overwhelming, so please ensure you are seated.
First, you are angry at Gorgeous George because he was on holidays, and didnt immediately cancel his plans to.... do something else you are now widely criticise him on: Take grandstanding photo-ops and pontificate on what a tradgedy this is. Do you understand that as President, in a time of national disaster, you ask the FEMA head guy if everything is being done, he replies "Sir yes sir", and that you have now reached the limit of your usefulness? You could grab a hat, leap on a helicopter and head on down to rescue some refugee's, but you'd probably be a hinderance, given all the security you'd need.
Second, you are angry that this is somehow related to global warming. I implore you to recognise, as those of us who arent currently browsing through a haze of smoke from a 30ft bong, that GWB has only been in office for 5 odd years, and even if he'd completely destroyed every single industry in your nation, there was no way he could have had any impact on the environment to reduce the impact of Katrina.
Third, you somehow feel that Federal incompetence is to blame. This is remarkable, given that preparing states for natural disasters, especially predictable ones like a big bloody hurricane, is a Local and State affair, not Federal. If you stopped screaming at Bush for 30 seconds, you might recognise that your beloved Democrat overlords failed you in ways far more tragic then taking an extra 24 hours holiday before pracing around on TV:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.
A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.
"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fourth, you might wonder why people were left in the Superdome for so long without being evacuated. But here is the good news - your friendly State and Local Democrats had a superb plan in place. Here it is: Tell everyone to rally at the Superdome, store up exactly %@$% all water and food there, and then bus everyone out to safety. Ingenious! But where were all the buses?
Right here:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=17362_The_Ray_Nagin_Memorial_Motor_Pool&only
Your tax dollars hard at work folks. They left all the buses exactly where they would get flooded. Good thing only smart people are Democrat...
Fifth, you cant have a crack at Bush and somehow not bring in Iraq. You are probably thinking that somehow the deployment of National Guard in Iraq meant there were less American Military Personnel left at home to deal with this emergency. Again, you are miles off target. Current troop levels in Iraq hover at the 140000 mark. Far be it for an Australian to lecture Americans on their military strength, but that represents a little over 10% of your Military strength.
Sixth, you do realise that the Governor has the power to send in the National Guard, and the blame for their absence for the past few days cannot be laid soley at the feet of the Bush Administration. Given that the Democrat Governor hadnt even announced a state of Emergency on Saturday, dont you feel that Blanco deserves the hard questions?
Seventh, before blaming Federal funding for levee's as a cause of the disaster, are you aware that it was decided over thirty years ago for "cost reasons" that the levee's were only designed to protect against lvl 3 hurricanes, and Katrina was lvl 4? Are you also aware that the levee's that fail were levee's in good condition and were not considered a serious risk? Being a hippy, you are doubtless woefully ill-informed about levee funding and Iraq, so I shall enlighten you:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050901corps,1,7189346.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane-protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.
In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way—inundating much of the city—were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.
However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and couldn’t handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline. The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis.
“I don’t see that the level of funding was really a contributing factor in this case,” said Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of engineers for the corps. “Had this project been fully complete, it is my opinion that based on the intensity of this storm that the flooding of the business district and the French Quarter would have still taken place.”
Strock also denied that escalating costs from the war in Iraq contributed to reductions in funding for hurricane projects in Louisiana, as some critics have suggested. Records show that corps funding for the Louisiana projects has generally decreased in recent years.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eighth, are you aware that the complusory evacution order was given following a personal request from your President to the State Governors? Do you seriously believe that GWB actually likes to see dead black people? Are you aware of the PR nightmare this causes for him? Even if he was a callous and indifferent ragin $%$ member, he would still attempt to be helpin those colored folks out because hell, at least he wouldnt look bad?
Ninth, are you aware that full 2/3's of the NOPD abandoned their post and went awol? Given that New Orleans went heavily for Kerry last election, their complete lack of spine surprises few, but dont you feel that those men and women somehow let you down a little more than GWB? Dont believe me?
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2005/tr20050903-3850.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Q: Does that explain why it took several days to get to this point?
GEN. BLUM: No, there was no delay. The fortunate thing is with modern technology they faxed the agreement back and forth, the two governors signed it. It was a matter of moments. That was not the delay.
The delay was in, if you want to call it a delay. I really don't call it a delay, I'll be honest about that. When we first went in there law enforcement was not the highest priority, saving lives was. You have to remember how this thing started. Before the hurricane hit there were 5,000 National Guardsmen in Mississippi and 5,000 National Guardsmen -- excuse me. Let me correct the record. There were 2,500 National Guardsmen in Mississippi and almost 4,000 National Guardsmen in Louisiana that were sheltered and taken out of the affected area so as soon as the storm passed they could immediately go into the area and start their search and lifesaving work, and stand up their command and control apparatus, and start standing up the vital functions that would be required such as providing food, water, shelter and security for the people of the town. So it was phased in. There was no delay.
The real issue, particularly in New Orleans, is that no one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans. Once that assessment was made, that the normal 1500 man police force in New Orleans was substantially degraded, which contributed obviously to less police presence and less police capability, then the requirement became obvious and that's when we started flowing military police into the theater.
Two days ago we flowed 1400 military policemen in. Yesterday, 1400 more. Today 1400 more. Today there are 7,000 citizen soldiers -- Army National Guard, badge-carrying military policemen and other soldiers trained in support to civil law enforcement -- that are on the streets, available to the mayor, provided by the governor to the mayor to assist the New Orleans police department.
I am absolutely confident that the security situation as it has improved in the last 24 hours will improve two-fold in the next 24 hours, and soon it won't be an issue at all.
Will something ever go wrong in New Orleans? Sure. Things went wrong in New Orleans and every other populated area around in our country and around the world every day. But I think you'll see a return to normal levels very soon, perhaps in the next 24 hours.
Q: General, you mentioned a disintegration of the New Orleans Police Department. Do you know how many officers are still on duty?
GEN. BLUM: I would rather not say. I think you'd be better to refer that question to the mayor of New Orleans. I have my own estimate. I would say they are significantly degraded and they have less than one-third of their original capability.
Q: So is it fair to say it is the National Guard that's keeping law and order in New Orleans?
GEN. BLUM: No. As long as there's one uniformed police officer in the city of New Orleans, we will send as many National Guard soldiers to augment, support and work in support of that lone law enforcement officer as necessary. So if hypothetically there's only one left, who's in charge? It's still that lone police officer supported by the National Guard in their role as military support to law enforcement.
We are not in the lead. We have no need nor intention of imposing martial law or having the military police the United States of America.
Q: What happened to the other police, general?
GEN. BLUM: Again, that can be best addressed, but what was told to me by the Mayor day before yesterday is many of them lost their homes, many of them lost ability to get to the precinct, many of them who did show up found what they were dealing with so overwhelming and dangerous or threatening to them as an individual that they made the personal decision to not risk their life until the situation made more sense to them. That was an individual decision, it was not the police chief's decision or the mayor's decision. I think that the mayor and police chief are working right now to reconstitute the New Orleans Police Department, but that question would much better be addressed to them for detail.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally - where the hell are all the mods?
Sincerely,
An Australian Conservative,
Me
WoW General Discussion -: "4750015"
Dear WoW-forum raging teenangster wannacommies,
I come before you today to plead for rational thought. Given that you probably blame your ping problem and shocking single digit rolls in MC on Bush, Big Oil and his refusal to ratify Kyoto, I by and large expect this to fall on deaf ears.
But before you begin your rant to counter my rant - there are a few things I'd like you to think about. For many of you, that concept may be a little overwhelming, so please ensure you are seated.
First, you are angry at Gorgeous George because he was on holidays, and didnt immediately cancel his plans to.... do something else you are now widely criticise him on: Take grandstanding photo-ops and pontificate on what a tradgedy this is. Do you understand that as President, in a time of national disaster, you ask the FEMA head guy if everything is being done, he replies "Sir yes sir", and that you have now reached the limit of your usefulness? You could grab a hat, leap on a helicopter and head on down to rescue some refugee's, but you'd probably be a hinderance, given all the security you'd need.
Second, you are angry that this is somehow related to global warming. I implore you to recognise, as those of us who arent currently browsing through a haze of smoke from a 30ft bong, that GWB has only been in office for 5 odd years, and even if he'd completely destroyed every single industry in your nation, there was no way he could have had any impact on the environment to reduce the impact of Katrina.
Third, you somehow feel that Federal incompetence is to blame. This is remarkable, given that preparing states for natural disasters, especially predictable ones like a big bloody hurricane, is a Local and State affair, not Federal. If you stopped screaming at Bush for 30 seconds, you might recognise that your beloved Democrat overlords failed you in ways far more tragic then taking an extra 24 hours holiday before pracing around on TV:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.
A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.
"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fourth, you might wonder why people were left in the Superdome for so long without being evacuated. But here is the good news - your friendly State and Local Democrats had a superb plan in place. Here it is: Tell everyone to rally at the Superdome, store up exactly %@$% all water and food there, and then bus everyone out to safety. Ingenious! But where were all the buses?
Right here:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=17362_The_Ray_Nagin_Memorial_Motor_Pool&only
Your tax dollars hard at work folks. They left all the buses exactly where they would get flooded. Good thing only smart people are Democrat...
Fifth, you cant have a crack at Bush and somehow not bring in Iraq. You are probably thinking that somehow the deployment of National Guard in Iraq meant there were less American Military Personnel left at home to deal with this emergency. Again, you are miles off target. Current troop levels in Iraq hover at the 140000 mark. Far be it for an Australian to lecture Americans on their military strength, but that represents a little over 10% of your Military strength.
Sixth, you do realise that the Governor has the power to send in the National Guard, and the blame for their absence for the past few days cannot be laid soley at the feet of the Bush Administration. Given that the Democrat Governor hadnt even announced a state of Emergency on Saturday, dont you feel that Blanco deserves the hard questions?
Seventh, before blaming Federal funding for levee's as a cause of the disaster, are you aware that it was decided over thirty years ago for "cost reasons" that the levee's were only designed to protect against lvl 3 hurricanes, and Katrina was lvl 4? Are you also aware that the levee's that fail were levee's in good condition and were not considered a serious risk? Being a hippy, you are doubtless woefully ill-informed about levee funding and Iraq, so I shall enlighten you:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050901corps,1,7189346.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane-protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.
In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way—inundating much of the city—were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.
However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and couldn’t handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline. The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis.
“I don’t see that the level of funding was really a contributing factor in this case,” said Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of engineers for the corps. “Had this project been fully complete, it is my opinion that based on the intensity of this storm that the flooding of the business district and the French Quarter would have still taken place.”
Strock also denied that escalating costs from the war in Iraq contributed to reductions in funding for hurricane projects in Louisiana, as some critics have suggested. Records show that corps funding for the Louisiana projects has generally decreased in recent years.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eighth, are you aware that the complusory evacution order was given following a personal request from your President to the State Governors? Do you seriously believe that GWB actually likes to see dead black people? Are you aware of the PR nightmare this causes for him? Even if he was a callous and indifferent ragin $%$ member, he would still attempt to be helpin those colored folks out because hell, at least he wouldnt look bad?
Ninth, are you aware that full 2/3's of the NOPD abandoned their post and went awol? Given that New Orleans went heavily for Kerry last election, their complete lack of spine surprises few, but dont you feel that those men and women somehow let you down a little more than GWB? Dont believe me?
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2005/tr20050903-3850.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Q: Does that explain why it took several days to get to this point?
GEN. BLUM: No, there was no delay. The fortunate thing is with modern technology they faxed the agreement back and forth, the two governors signed it. It was a matter of moments. That was not the delay.
The delay was in, if you want to call it a delay. I really don't call it a delay, I'll be honest about that. When we first went in there law enforcement was not the highest priority, saving lives was. You have to remember how this thing started. Before the hurricane hit there were 5,000 National Guardsmen in Mississippi and 5,000 National Guardsmen -- excuse me. Let me correct the record. There were 2,500 National Guardsmen in Mississippi and almost 4,000 National Guardsmen in Louisiana that were sheltered and taken out of the affected area so as soon as the storm passed they could immediately go into the area and start their search and lifesaving work, and stand up their command and control apparatus, and start standing up the vital functions that would be required such as providing food, water, shelter and security for the people of the town. So it was phased in. There was no delay.
The real issue, particularly in New Orleans, is that no one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans. Once that assessment was made, that the normal 1500 man police force in New Orleans was substantially degraded, which contributed obviously to less police presence and less police capability, then the requirement became obvious and that's when we started flowing military police into the theater.
Two days ago we flowed 1400 military policemen in. Yesterday, 1400 more. Today 1400 more. Today there are 7,000 citizen soldiers -- Army National Guard, badge-carrying military policemen and other soldiers trained in support to civil law enforcement -- that are on the streets, available to the mayor, provided by the governor to the mayor to assist the New Orleans police department.
I am absolutely confident that the security situation as it has improved in the last 24 hours will improve two-fold in the next 24 hours, and soon it won't be an issue at all.
Will something ever go wrong in New Orleans? Sure. Things went wrong in New Orleans and every other populated area around in our country and around the world every day. But I think you'll see a return to normal levels very soon, perhaps in the next 24 hours.
Q: General, you mentioned a disintegration of the New Orleans Police Department. Do you know how many officers are still on duty?
GEN. BLUM: I would rather not say. I think you'd be better to refer that question to the mayor of New Orleans. I have my own estimate. I would say they are significantly degraded and they have less than one-third of their original capability.
Q: So is it fair to say it is the National Guard that's keeping law and order in New Orleans?
GEN. BLUM: No. As long as there's one uniformed police officer in the city of New Orleans, we will send as many National Guard soldiers to augment, support and work in support of that lone law enforcement officer as necessary. So if hypothetically there's only one left, who's in charge? It's still that lone police officer supported by the National Guard in their role as military support to law enforcement.
We are not in the lead. We have no need nor intention of imposing martial law or having the military police the United States of America.
Q: What happened to the other police, general?
GEN. BLUM: Again, that can be best addressed, but what was told to me by the Mayor day before yesterday is many of them lost their homes, many of them lost ability to get to the precinct, many of them who did show up found what they were dealing with so overwhelming and dangerous or threatening to them as an individual that they made the personal decision to not risk their life until the situation made more sense to them. That was an individual decision, it was not the police chief's decision or the mayor's decision. I think that the mayor and police chief are working right now to reconstitute the New Orleans Police Department, but that question would much better be addressed to them for detail.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally - where the hell are all the mods?
Sincerely,
An Australian Conservative,
Me
WoW General Discussion -: "4750015"
Monday, August 22, 2005
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Friday, August 05, 2005
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Friday, July 22, 2005
An open letter from the Priest in your party.
This document is to enlighten people who play with priests on a regular basis. I'd say this applies mostly to the 30 through 50 crowd. Any lower, and the spells are pretty simple, and any higher, I would hope you already know a little. On with the show...
Say, who's that skinny fellow wearing cloth who's always in the rear with the gear?
He's the priest keeping you alive! Here's a few notable facts and tips to keep you informed on how a priest operates... [I'm Horde, so I don't deal with Paladins]
A Holy Priest is only a better healer than a Shadow or Discipline priest. A priest is a priest, and we all heal pretty well.
Flash heal is a fast-cast spell that heals moderate damage. Greater heal takes a long time to cast, and heals a lot. If I'm in your group, you won't need to call out for healing. If your health is getting low, chances are I am about to hit you with a major heal spell.
Don't run. Let me rephrase that. DO NOT FSCKING RUN. Our spells have a range, and if you are outside it, you are not getting healed. If a mob is attacking you, and you think you are going to die, do not run. It will only make things worse. If your dead corpse is 100 yards away, surrounded by a dozen mobs, I'm going to have a harder time rezzing you.
Power Word: Fortitude is not free. It costs a LOT of mana. In fact, I cast a lot of spells, and use a lot of mana. Mana is my livelihood. If I don't have it, I don't live. If I don't live, chances are you don't live. That said, I am happy to take a break and buff everyone up (usually takes almost 2 bars to buff 5 people). Just let me recover the mana, before we head out again.
I repeat, if I don't live, you probably won't either. I am probably the softest target there is. That being said, I DO have means of defending myself. I consider myself a good priest, and I can manage aggro with fade, distance, spell choice, and Shield. This doesn't mean I can tank mobs myself. I happen to be a shadow priest, and I can rock non-elite mobs up to 2 or 3 levels above me. But consider this - the more time I spend defending myself, the less time and mana I'm spending healing you.
Slow down. Slow your roll, buddy. Unless I'm decked out on crazy +Spirit and/or +Mana regen gear, I'm going to need to sit and drink. A lot. Usually after every other fight, if not every fight. I try not to go into a fight with less than ~4,000 mana. And I'm 54th level. In the late 40s, it was no less than 3,000. That's usually at least 2/3rds of a mana bar for most priests.
Resurrection takes 10 seconds to cast, and requires a lot of mana. If I am out of mana, I cannot cast Resurrection. If you think I have forgotten your corpse (chances are I haven't), check my mana bar, if it's empty, you're going to have to wait. If it's not, just give me a friendly reminder like "Rez when you get a chance?" ... demands like "REZ ME ALREADY" do not earn you any brownie points.
Time to face the facts: I may have simply let you die. If you are not the main tank, you may have died because I simply couldn't get a spell off on you quick enough, because I've been healing the main tank. I'm looking at you, mages & warlocks. Yelling at me for healing is not going to get you anywhere. My entire job in a tough instance is watching health bars. Your health is not as important to me as the main tank's. If I can't save you, I will rez you after the fight. I'm sorry that the loot system sucks and sometimes you get screwed out of boss loot, it happens to me, too. I hope they fix it.
Warlocks: Always, always, ALWAYS Soulstone the priest. Stone the druid only if you think it will be absolutely necessary for a combat rez from them for me. I can rez more with a larger mana bar pool, and most times, with more health and mana on resurrection. Also, control your aggro. You can nuke pretty hard, but can't back it up with armor. Make sure the tanks have cemented aggro. Generally a warlock who can't manage his aggro properly is the first to die in the group. And that means a big waste in my mana pool from healing them.
Druids: I'm sorry, but in general, the priests are better healers than you. Please get over it. I appreciate all the help I can get, but if you wanted to be a better healer, you should have rolled a priest. If you want to argue about how much your spells heal, maybe you should ask yourself how much is in your mana pool, how much HP you can actually heal before tapping your pool and how quickly you regen. If it isn't agreed on beforehand that you will be healing, don't heal unless the situation becomes bad. If I waste mana because your heal landed a split second before mine, I am going to be totally ripsh!t. Because when your mana pool is empty, you can still fight. When mine is gone, I just wait for the wipe. Aside from that, A druid and a priest in a tough instance can be an incredible combination, and save a lot of runs from the graveyard for everyone. Also, Mark of the Wild is a great buff I like to have whenever possible - more Stam and Int means I can stay alive longer and cast more heals.
Mages: I love getting the AI buff. Don't pass me up, it adds a few hundred more mana that can make or break a tough fight if I run out of mana - and I can move faster with a larger mana pool in easier instances. And until they add mana drinks to Alchemy, I'd love to get a bunch of water, too. I can go through about 15 or 20 high end waters in a couple hours of instance running. Thanks in advance.
Hunters: Use your feign death if things get hairy and you've got bad aggro - but not if you think the mobs will aggro the casters when you do. Try to be sure that mobs you aggro will transfer to the main tank. I can generally take care of you with healing (or the off-healer can), so it shouldn't be necessary. I'm sorry, but you are not high on the list of priority heals.
Rogues: You generally do fine until you get too much aggro. Along with warlocks, I find rogues to be some of the worst to try and keep alive when they've attracted too much aggro. Always coordinate with us and the mages with Sap/Poly/MC/Shackle. That is some deadly Crowd Control combinations, and I've steamrolled some tough instances with a Mage, Rogue and Warrior. The key is working out the details and strategy in advance. Managing aggro is the most important.
Warriors: Yes, I'm healing you - stop asking. We are a good combo. A warrior and a priest are a powerful combination - but you aren't invincable, and neither am I. Try to hang back and pull with a gun, or let the hunter pull. Use Charge on single mobs, or right before the pulled mob gets to us. Manage that aggro! Hit different mobs and use Taunt to keep them stabbing you. Healing you with Greater Heal and Renew (most mana efficient) is way better for everyone than casting Flash Heal 5 times and Shield twice on a warlock who can't get aggro off him. Trust me, it's a recipe for disaster. Most importantly, keep the aggro off me. I can heal everyone else, but when there's a mob interrupting my spells or forcing me to cast spells on myself, it's bad times.
Mind Control, where applicable, is better to use than Polymorph. I'll tell you why. Mind Control lasts 1 minute, and I can actually use the controlled target to attack other targets and hold aggro. I can also use mobs that have healing spells (Witch Doctors, Priests, etc), and heal my own party members. It works out even better that way, because I can fight, still heal, and when the mob comes out of Mind Control, they have less mana, and their spells are still cooling down. It can be broken infrequently, and at random times, but some of the best groups I've been with, have used MC, sheep and sap to effectively control massive groups or tough mobs - and defeat them handily. Also, Shackle Undead seems to be excellent in places where there are Undead. This is about on par with a sheep, though. It lasts ~40 seconds, and acts the same way. Striking a shackled undead breaks the shackle.
If you are dangerously low on health, and/or taking serious damage, I will probably cast a shield on you. Shields last for 30 seconds, take moderate damage (500-750), but have a 30 second 'cooldown' effect. This can be reduced to 15 seconds with talents. This gives me a little time to cast some heals on you.
If I am in shadowform (all purple and shadowy and badass looking), that means I can't cast any healing spells. I'm a good enough priest where I won't be in shadowform if the group needs healing. In fact, I mostly use SF when solo, or in a really easy instance (ie: no one really needs any healing).
Being in the Rear with the Gear generally means I get very little loot. I have accepted this, and Group Loot rules or Round Robin is relatively fair. However, if there are quest objectives that are not multi-use (single quest drops on mobs, regular drops, or ground pickups, for example), please leave me a few. Check with the group as to who needs what, and try to make sure everyone has the same amount. I get screwed constantly trying to fulfill quest drops because the warrior or rogue in the front scoops up all the quest drops.
And finally - please do not anger the priest. Making demands, exhibiting poor regard for strategy, or generally playing like a moron will usually draw ire from the entire party - but especially me, because I'm the one who has to keep an asshat's health bar full. And that's aggravating. And sometimes we fail to keep an asshat's health bar full, and that doesn't help anyone.
Psiphon
[edit] I left Shaman out because I rarely have problems with Shaman (unless they are tanking!)
And on the other side of the coin, I want to throw in some things to look for in a good priest for your party.
Anyone can simply say "Hey, I died!" and think that their priest sucks. Maybe so, but maybe not. Think about the following, when heading into a tough instance:
First off, always try to have a secondary rez to the priest - A Druid or Warlock are the best examples.
The priest shouldn't spend all his time healing secondary tanks. Most of the aggro should be on the main tank, and the priest healing that tank. There are several good reasons. First, the tank usually has more HP and more armor, and can handle the hits better. Second, because of the larger health pool, the priest can let the tank's health drain and cast Greater Heal - which is much more mana efficient than Flash Heal.
The main tank, and just about anyone else who is taking damage, should have Renew on them throughout most of the fight. It's efficient, and uses very little mana. I think it takes me about 4 seconds of regen time to recover mana lost from Renew. You should almost always have it during a fight if you're taking damage.
A good rule of thumb in just about any instance is to not use any Fear abilities or spells. For Priests it is no different. Priests can fear up to 4 targets at my level, but should never, EVER be used unless as a complete last resort (like if 4 mobs are attacking the priest, and everyone is going to die, no one has mana, the tank is dead, and the sky is falling). Fearing targets in an instance can and most likely WILL get you kicked. That is wipe-city.
If your priest isn't using Shield (when they can) to stop the bleeding to give them time to cast a heal, they might not be managing their cast times right. Shield takes a bit of mana, but it's instant and is good for emergencies.
Handling emergencies is key to good priesthood. If everyone is down on HP, and it looks like a big wipe, and the priest comes through with a Prayer of healing or something that turns the tide of a fight, that's a good priest. If people start dropping like flies, the priest is out of mana, and/or they did not manage their spells and mana well.
Priests will die consistently in about three scenarios. One is if they simply mismanage their aggro. Casting too many greater heals, prayers of healing, and doing too much damage will draw too much aggro. Second is if they outlevel their party members by too much. The higher level you are (the more healing/damage you do), the more aggro you draw. If I'm healing a main tank that is 5+ levels below me, that mob is generally going to be more interested in killing me than him. Third is if the other party member are terrible at holding aggro. Not using Cower, Taunt, etc, will not put the tanks in priority over the Priest. Considering those things, being smart with aggro, and even having a priest that is a level or two lower than most of the party proves to be a good scenario.
If you're in an instance that is so easy the priest doesn't need to heal, they should know that they can switch to laying out more damage. Priests have incredible nukes and damage spells. When my party is breezing so well, it only makes it faster if I'm laying on my 175~200 dps with DoTs and nukes. On the flip side, a good priest knows when to lay off the agression and focus on healing.
Specialization isn't terribly important until you get into the 50s. As I said before, a priest can heal, whether they are Holy or Shadow. Even at that point, a good priest with a solid spec (either way) is effective as a healer and a tertiary damage dealer.
Good priests take their own advice. They don't run. When I have aggro on me, I cast shield and renew on myself, and go back to healing everyone else. Sometimes I throw an Inner fire on, too. But my attention is almost never on my own health, it's always on yours, and I will stay exactly where I am.
Those are a couple things to look for in a priest. It's important, because it may save you a lot of aggravation and wipes.
WoW General Discussion -
Say, who's that skinny fellow wearing cloth who's always in the rear with the gear?
He's the priest keeping you alive! Here's a few notable facts and tips to keep you informed on how a priest operates... [I'm Horde, so I don't deal with Paladins]
A Holy Priest is only a better healer than a Shadow or Discipline priest. A priest is a priest, and we all heal pretty well.
Flash heal is a fast-cast spell that heals moderate damage. Greater heal takes a long time to cast, and heals a lot. If I'm in your group, you won't need to call out for healing. If your health is getting low, chances are I am about to hit you with a major heal spell.
Don't run. Let me rephrase that. DO NOT FSCKING RUN. Our spells have a range, and if you are outside it, you are not getting healed. If a mob is attacking you, and you think you are going to die, do not run. It will only make things worse. If your dead corpse is 100 yards away, surrounded by a dozen mobs, I'm going to have a harder time rezzing you.
Power Word: Fortitude is not free. It costs a LOT of mana. In fact, I cast a lot of spells, and use a lot of mana. Mana is my livelihood. If I don't have it, I don't live. If I don't live, chances are you don't live. That said, I am happy to take a break and buff everyone up (usually takes almost 2 bars to buff 5 people). Just let me recover the mana, before we head out again.
I repeat, if I don't live, you probably won't either. I am probably the softest target there is. That being said, I DO have means of defending myself. I consider myself a good priest, and I can manage aggro with fade, distance, spell choice, and Shield. This doesn't mean I can tank mobs myself. I happen to be a shadow priest, and I can rock non-elite mobs up to 2 or 3 levels above me. But consider this - the more time I spend defending myself, the less time and mana I'm spending healing you.
Slow down. Slow your roll, buddy. Unless I'm decked out on crazy +Spirit and/or +Mana regen gear, I'm going to need to sit and drink. A lot. Usually after every other fight, if not every fight. I try not to go into a fight with less than ~4,000 mana. And I'm 54th level. In the late 40s, it was no less than 3,000. That's usually at least 2/3rds of a mana bar for most priests.
Resurrection takes 10 seconds to cast, and requires a lot of mana. If I am out of mana, I cannot cast Resurrection. If you think I have forgotten your corpse (chances are I haven't), check my mana bar, if it's empty, you're going to have to wait. If it's not, just give me a friendly reminder like "Rez when you get a chance?" ... demands like "REZ ME ALREADY" do not earn you any brownie points.
Time to face the facts: I may have simply let you die. If you are not the main tank, you may have died because I simply couldn't get a spell off on you quick enough, because I've been healing the main tank. I'm looking at you, mages & warlocks. Yelling at me for healing is not going to get you anywhere. My entire job in a tough instance is watching health bars. Your health is not as important to me as the main tank's. If I can't save you, I will rez you after the fight. I'm sorry that the loot system sucks and sometimes you get screwed out of boss loot, it happens to me, too. I hope they fix it.
Warlocks: Always, always, ALWAYS Soulstone the priest. Stone the druid only if you think it will be absolutely necessary for a combat rez from them for me. I can rez more with a larger mana bar pool, and most times, with more health and mana on resurrection. Also, control your aggro. You can nuke pretty hard, but can't back it up with armor. Make sure the tanks have cemented aggro. Generally a warlock who can't manage his aggro properly is the first to die in the group. And that means a big waste in my mana pool from healing them.
Druids: I'm sorry, but in general, the priests are better healers than you. Please get over it. I appreciate all the help I can get, but if you wanted to be a better healer, you should have rolled a priest. If you want to argue about how much your spells heal, maybe you should ask yourself how much is in your mana pool, how much HP you can actually heal before tapping your pool and how quickly you regen. If it isn't agreed on beforehand that you will be healing, don't heal unless the situation becomes bad. If I waste mana because your heal landed a split second before mine, I am going to be totally ripsh!t. Because when your mana pool is empty, you can still fight. When mine is gone, I just wait for the wipe. Aside from that, A druid and a priest in a tough instance can be an incredible combination, and save a lot of runs from the graveyard for everyone. Also, Mark of the Wild is a great buff I like to have whenever possible - more Stam and Int means I can stay alive longer and cast more heals.
Mages: I love getting the AI buff. Don't pass me up, it adds a few hundred more mana that can make or break a tough fight if I run out of mana - and I can move faster with a larger mana pool in easier instances. And until they add mana drinks to Alchemy, I'd love to get a bunch of water, too. I can go through about 15 or 20 high end waters in a couple hours of instance running. Thanks in advance.
Hunters: Use your feign death if things get hairy and you've got bad aggro - but not if you think the mobs will aggro the casters when you do. Try to be sure that mobs you aggro will transfer to the main tank. I can generally take care of you with healing (or the off-healer can), so it shouldn't be necessary. I'm sorry, but you are not high on the list of priority heals.
Rogues: You generally do fine until you get too much aggro. Along with warlocks, I find rogues to be some of the worst to try and keep alive when they've attracted too much aggro. Always coordinate with us and the mages with Sap/Poly/MC/Shackle. That is some deadly Crowd Control combinations, and I've steamrolled some tough instances with a Mage, Rogue and Warrior. The key is working out the details and strategy in advance. Managing aggro is the most important.
Warriors: Yes, I'm healing you - stop asking. We are a good combo. A warrior and a priest are a powerful combination - but you aren't invincable, and neither am I. Try to hang back and pull with a gun, or let the hunter pull. Use Charge on single mobs, or right before the pulled mob gets to us. Manage that aggro! Hit different mobs and use Taunt to keep them stabbing you. Healing you with Greater Heal and Renew (most mana efficient) is way better for everyone than casting Flash Heal 5 times and Shield twice on a warlock who can't get aggro off him. Trust me, it's a recipe for disaster. Most importantly, keep the aggro off me. I can heal everyone else, but when there's a mob interrupting my spells or forcing me to cast spells on myself, it's bad times.
Mind Control, where applicable, is better to use than Polymorph. I'll tell you why. Mind Control lasts 1 minute, and I can actually use the controlled target to attack other targets and hold aggro. I can also use mobs that have healing spells (Witch Doctors, Priests, etc), and heal my own party members. It works out even better that way, because I can fight, still heal, and when the mob comes out of Mind Control, they have less mana, and their spells are still cooling down. It can be broken infrequently, and at random times, but some of the best groups I've been with, have used MC, sheep and sap to effectively control massive groups or tough mobs - and defeat them handily. Also, Shackle Undead seems to be excellent in places where there are Undead. This is about on par with a sheep, though. It lasts ~40 seconds, and acts the same way. Striking a shackled undead breaks the shackle.
If you are dangerously low on health, and/or taking serious damage, I will probably cast a shield on you. Shields last for 30 seconds, take moderate damage (500-750), but have a 30 second 'cooldown' effect. This can be reduced to 15 seconds with talents. This gives me a little time to cast some heals on you.
If I am in shadowform (all purple and shadowy and badass looking), that means I can't cast any healing spells. I'm a good enough priest where I won't be in shadowform if the group needs healing. In fact, I mostly use SF when solo, or in a really easy instance (ie: no one really needs any healing).
Being in the Rear with the Gear generally means I get very little loot. I have accepted this, and Group Loot rules or Round Robin is relatively fair. However, if there are quest objectives that are not multi-use (single quest drops on mobs, regular drops, or ground pickups, for example), please leave me a few. Check with the group as to who needs what, and try to make sure everyone has the same amount. I get screwed constantly trying to fulfill quest drops because the warrior or rogue in the front scoops up all the quest drops.
And finally - please do not anger the priest. Making demands, exhibiting poor regard for strategy, or generally playing like a moron will usually draw ire from the entire party - but especially me, because I'm the one who has to keep an asshat's health bar full. And that's aggravating. And sometimes we fail to keep an asshat's health bar full, and that doesn't help anyone.
Psiphon
[edit] I left Shaman out because I rarely have problems with Shaman (unless they are tanking!)
And on the other side of the coin, I want to throw in some things to look for in a good priest for your party.
Anyone can simply say "Hey, I died!" and think that their priest sucks. Maybe so, but maybe not. Think about the following, when heading into a tough instance:
First off, always try to have a secondary rez to the priest - A Druid or Warlock are the best examples.
The priest shouldn't spend all his time healing secondary tanks. Most of the aggro should be on the main tank, and the priest healing that tank. There are several good reasons. First, the tank usually has more HP and more armor, and can handle the hits better. Second, because of the larger health pool, the priest can let the tank's health drain and cast Greater Heal - which is much more mana efficient than Flash Heal.
The main tank, and just about anyone else who is taking damage, should have Renew on them throughout most of the fight. It's efficient, and uses very little mana. I think it takes me about 4 seconds of regen time to recover mana lost from Renew. You should almost always have it during a fight if you're taking damage.
A good rule of thumb in just about any instance is to not use any Fear abilities or spells. For Priests it is no different. Priests can fear up to 4 targets at my level, but should never, EVER be used unless as a complete last resort (like if 4 mobs are attacking the priest, and everyone is going to die, no one has mana, the tank is dead, and the sky is falling). Fearing targets in an instance can and most likely WILL get you kicked. That is wipe-city.
If your priest isn't using Shield (when they can) to stop the bleeding to give them time to cast a heal, they might not be managing their cast times right. Shield takes a bit of mana, but it's instant and is good for emergencies.
Handling emergencies is key to good priesthood. If everyone is down on HP, and it looks like a big wipe, and the priest comes through with a Prayer of healing or something that turns the tide of a fight, that's a good priest. If people start dropping like flies, the priest is out of mana, and/or they did not manage their spells and mana well.
Priests will die consistently in about three scenarios. One is if they simply mismanage their aggro. Casting too many greater heals, prayers of healing, and doing too much damage will draw too much aggro. Second is if they outlevel their party members by too much. The higher level you are (the more healing/damage you do), the more aggro you draw. If I'm healing a main tank that is 5+ levels below me, that mob is generally going to be more interested in killing me than him. Third is if the other party member are terrible at holding aggro. Not using Cower, Taunt, etc, will not put the tanks in priority over the Priest. Considering those things, being smart with aggro, and even having a priest that is a level or two lower than most of the party proves to be a good scenario.
If you're in an instance that is so easy the priest doesn't need to heal, they should know that they can switch to laying out more damage. Priests have incredible nukes and damage spells. When my party is breezing so well, it only makes it faster if I'm laying on my 175~200 dps with DoTs and nukes. On the flip side, a good priest knows when to lay off the agression and focus on healing.
Specialization isn't terribly important until you get into the 50s. As I said before, a priest can heal, whether they are Holy or Shadow. Even at that point, a good priest with a solid spec (either way) is effective as a healer and a tertiary damage dealer.
Good priests take their own advice. They don't run. When I have aggro on me, I cast shield and renew on myself, and go back to healing everyone else. Sometimes I throw an Inner fire on, too. But my attention is almost never on my own health, it's always on yours, and I will stay exactly where I am.
Those are a couple things to look for in a priest. It's important, because it may save you a lot of aggravation and wipes.
WoW General Discussion -
Friday, July 15, 2005
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Thursday, June 30, 2005
(Supposed) Game Pro article about WoW
Thought you all would like this. I find it to be so true
Posted: 06/28/05
Who is the average MMORPG gamer, and what's the stereotypical image? An Avante Garde hipster humming A Love Supreme? A social #&%&erfly getting in a couple minutes between going clubbing? The average blue-collar, white-collar Joe? Nope, you probably think up of a socially defunct, greasy-haired recluse that wears an old freebie T-shirt won from signing up for a credit-card. (But of course I'm not like that. Other video game journalists may be dorks, but not myself.) Many stereotypes exist because at some level they're true. So what's true about the overwhelming majority of MMORPGs?
They're not for the meek, light-hearted gamer.
Part of it has to do with the conventional pricing model. With a game demanding $15 a month, you can't afford to just casually log in a few hours on the weekend without feeling jipped. So the casual gamer's MMO has to be a game entertaining enough to pull people away from their usual games (let's face it, most MMOs are boring), and rewarding enough in a 1-2 hour timeframe so it doesn't require you to neglect your daily routines.
After being traumatized by Star Wars Galaxies (20 minute of traveling, 30 minutes waiting in line for buffs meant 40 minutes of downtime before actually grinding), I thought my MMORPG days were over--but eventually I was drawn into the casual friendly-ness of World of Warcraft. Blizzard seemed to be the first to take casual playing elements to the next level--no forced grouping at early levels (say Final Fantasy XI), or tediously long exp grinds from furry fuzzy animals too cute to be called mobs (Lineage II). It seemed to offer fill that void of a casual gamer's MMO.
But the dream lasts only for a couple months (or 10 /played days if you grind). Unfortunately, you hit the end-game and it turns into any other MMO: a long grind. Unlike Diablo II, which spewed phat loot rewards in a span of 10 minutes, the instances are long and unrewarding. Enduring mammoth 4-5 hour runs of Scholomance a couple times, and I've discovered that watching paint peel is more fulfilling. Strat is a great length at 1.5-2 hours, but the low drop rates mean you can go on 50 runs and not get that piece of set gear you need.
The much anticipated Battlegrounds turned out to be just as un-casual, especially the half-day events of Alterac Valley. Best way to win AV? Log in at the wee hours of the morning, wait for the other side to get tired and log off so you win by default. Of course, unless you're on a more Horde-heavy server like Illidan, this mostly works only for Alliance. Honor system, even with the recently announced change in the reward system, is still a grind, forcing you to repeat Warsong Gulch till you get queezy of the phrase, "He's on the roof!"
This isn't to say that MC should be trivialized to quick 2-hr excursions. But what's the logic in offering casual gaming elements from levels 1-59, then focusing only on hardcore gamers at 60? Why not have casual game experiences at 60? Keep appeasing the hardcore with carrots dangled on a distant stick, but add more content catering to Saturday night gamers.
Solutions:
1) Instanced 5-on-5 PvP battlegrounds similar to what Guild Wars is doing. Have hundreds of instances available to remove those annoying and unpredictable queues (Estimated Wait Time: < 1 minute. Current wait time: 3 hour 45 minutes). When your 5-man group wins, you go on to a different map rather than staying in the same trite level for eternity. Escort/destroy objectives that don't involve the ubiquitous gear icon. 5-on-5 would be especially beneficial for Rogues, who are nothing but fattened cattle waiting for slaughter in Alterac Valley.
2) Quests/Dungeons that give stackable upgrades: Have stackable minor upgrades that can be mixed and matched with different combinations, offering more customizability of weapons (or armor). Make it require you to go into a five-man instance that's 1-2 hours long.
Of course, it can't screw up Enchants, so have it separate from those. As a simple example, maybe have a dungeon where you need to retrieve a rare mineral, and each time it gives +2 max damage to your weapon, for a max of +10. Or mix and match so you get +5 damage and -.2 speed to your weapon.
Power gamers will zip through them, but casual gamers will spend only a couple hours and still leave feeling a sense of accomplishment. Plus, customizability is sorely lacking in WoW as it is, and it'd be nice to be able to trick out your favorite weapon (cus let's face it, Earthshaker's minimalist aesthetics are far from earthshaking when compared to a Doomsaw).
3) Solo instances: Class-specific instances that are long (10 hours), but progress in couple-hour increments where you can log off and continue later. They could be given from a class trainer, and provide class-specific perks as a reward.
Well, there's always hoping--but in the mean time it's back to ninja-looting corpses in Alterac to hit exalted ...only 1500 more quests to turn in.
Link
http://gamepro.com/computer/pc/games/features/46245.shtml
WoW General Discussion -
Posted: 06/28/05
Who is the average MMORPG gamer, and what's the stereotypical image? An Avante Garde hipster humming A Love Supreme? A social #&%&erfly getting in a couple minutes between going clubbing? The average blue-collar, white-collar Joe? Nope, you probably think up of a socially defunct, greasy-haired recluse that wears an old freebie T-shirt won from signing up for a credit-card. (But of course I'm not like that. Other video game journalists may be dorks, but not myself.) Many stereotypes exist because at some level they're true. So what's true about the overwhelming majority of MMORPGs?
They're not for the meek, light-hearted gamer.
Part of it has to do with the conventional pricing model. With a game demanding $15 a month, you can't afford to just casually log in a few hours on the weekend without feeling jipped. So the casual gamer's MMO has to be a game entertaining enough to pull people away from their usual games (let's face it, most MMOs are boring), and rewarding enough in a 1-2 hour timeframe so it doesn't require you to neglect your daily routines.
After being traumatized by Star Wars Galaxies (20 minute of traveling, 30 minutes waiting in line for buffs meant 40 minutes of downtime before actually grinding), I thought my MMORPG days were over--but eventually I was drawn into the casual friendly-ness of World of Warcraft. Blizzard seemed to be the first to take casual playing elements to the next level--no forced grouping at early levels (say Final Fantasy XI), or tediously long exp grinds from furry fuzzy animals too cute to be called mobs (Lineage II). It seemed to offer fill that void of a casual gamer's MMO.
But the dream lasts only for a couple months (or 10 /played days if you grind). Unfortunately, you hit the end-game and it turns into any other MMO: a long grind. Unlike Diablo II, which spewed phat loot rewards in a span of 10 minutes, the instances are long and unrewarding. Enduring mammoth 4-5 hour runs of Scholomance a couple times, and I've discovered that watching paint peel is more fulfilling. Strat is a great length at 1.5-2 hours, but the low drop rates mean you can go on 50 runs and not get that piece of set gear you need.
The much anticipated Battlegrounds turned out to be just as un-casual, especially the half-day events of Alterac Valley. Best way to win AV? Log in at the wee hours of the morning, wait for the other side to get tired and log off so you win by default. Of course, unless you're on a more Horde-heavy server like Illidan, this mostly works only for Alliance. Honor system, even with the recently announced change in the reward system, is still a grind, forcing you to repeat Warsong Gulch till you get queezy of the phrase, "He's on the roof!"
This isn't to say that MC should be trivialized to quick 2-hr excursions. But what's the logic in offering casual gaming elements from levels 1-59, then focusing only on hardcore gamers at 60? Why not have casual game experiences at 60? Keep appeasing the hardcore with carrots dangled on a distant stick, but add more content catering to Saturday night gamers.
Solutions:
1) Instanced 5-on-5 PvP battlegrounds similar to what Guild Wars is doing. Have hundreds of instances available to remove those annoying and unpredictable queues (Estimated Wait Time: < 1 minute. Current wait time: 3 hour 45 minutes). When your 5-man group wins, you go on to a different map rather than staying in the same trite level for eternity. Escort/destroy objectives that don't involve the ubiquitous gear icon. 5-on-5 would be especially beneficial for Rogues, who are nothing but fattened cattle waiting for slaughter in Alterac Valley.
2) Quests/Dungeons that give stackable upgrades: Have stackable minor upgrades that can be mixed and matched with different combinations, offering more customizability of weapons (or armor). Make it require you to go into a five-man instance that's 1-2 hours long.
Of course, it can't screw up Enchants, so have it separate from those. As a simple example, maybe have a dungeon where you need to retrieve a rare mineral, and each time it gives +2 max damage to your weapon, for a max of +10. Or mix and match so you get +5 damage and -.2 speed to your weapon.
Power gamers will zip through them, but casual gamers will spend only a couple hours and still leave feeling a sense of accomplishment. Plus, customizability is sorely lacking in WoW as it is, and it'd be nice to be able to trick out your favorite weapon (cus let's face it, Earthshaker's minimalist aesthetics are far from earthshaking when compared to a Doomsaw).
3) Solo instances: Class-specific instances that are long (10 hours), but progress in couple-hour increments where you can log off and continue later. They could be given from a class trainer, and provide class-specific perks as a reward.
Well, there's always hoping--but in the mean time it's back to ninja-looting corpses in Alterac to hit exalted ...only 1500 more quests to turn in.
Link
http://gamepro.com/computer/pc/games/features/46245.shtml
WoW General Discussion -
Janus' Addon of the Week: Scrolling Combat Text
Anyway, this week I picked Scrolling Combat Text.
In short, this mod lets you easily see all sorts of combat information easily. It gives you scrolling text above your character's head for a variety of events: Taking spell or melee damage, debuffs, or special effects firing off like Clearcasting or Windfury.
It gives a very Final Fantasy-ish feel to the game, and is very customizable. You can adjust the speed and colors in addition to what exactly shows up.
Sterling Order of Knights :: View topic - Janus' Addon of the Week: Scrolling Combat Text
In short, this mod lets you easily see all sorts of combat information easily. It gives you scrolling text above your character's head for a variety of events: Taking spell or melee damage, debuffs, or special effects firing off like Clearcasting or Windfury.
It gives a very Final Fantasy-ish feel to the game, and is very customizable. You can adjust the speed and colors in addition to what exactly shows up.
Sterling Order of Knights :: View topic - Janus' Addon of the Week: Scrolling Combat Text
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
G4 - Feature - World of Warcraft Secrets
Azeroth can be a dangerous place, full of monsters and warring clans and races. But it can also be a land of great wonders and undiscovered treasures just waiting to be claimed by adventurers brave, smart, and patient enough to uncover them. Or, then again, you could just read these tips and skip all of that work.
Easter Eggs
TREKKIE REFERENCE: In Booty Bay, just outside the inn, you’ll encounter Chief Engineer Scooty manning a teleportation device. If you have a quest that takes you through the device, you’ll find a character named Sprok and his away team.
MATRIX REFERENCE: On your way to the Ironforge Auction House, ask one of the guards the location of the alchemy trainer. One of his answers will be, “why, oh why didn’t I take the blue potion?”
FIGHT CLUB: Further into the Undercity, in the War Quarter, there’s an honest to God Fight Club where you’ll find two NPC fighters named Edward and Tyler.
GHOSTBUSTERS REFERENCE: Another movie reference can be found in the Mage Quarters of Stormwind. There, you’ll find three mages-in-training talking shop. Hang around long enough and one of them will say “wouldn’t that be bad, like crossing the streams bad?”
STAR WARS: The Shimmering Flats. Peek around a bit and you’ll find a goblin race team with a very familiar looking vehicle—Blizzard’s version of Sebulba’s podracer from Episode I. Do a little more exploring and you’ll also find a wrecked podracer which smacked into a canyon walls.
CONAN: In the Badlands around the middle of the map is a semi-hidden crypt. Enter the crypt and you’ll see a decomposed guy sitting on a throne with a sword to his side. It’s a scene from the first Conan movie.
BRUCE CAMPBELL TRIBUTE: In Dun Mo-rogh, just south of Kharanos, there’s a small camp where a group of dwarves are taking target practice. Hang around long enough and you’ll hear one of the dwarves scream out: “This is my boomstick!”
BOOK REFRERENCES: In the upper levels of Booty Bay, there’s a clothing shop named “A Tailor to Cities,” an homage to Charles Dicken’s A Tales of Two Cities. And in the Undead capital, the Undercity, you’ll find Algernon at the alchemy trainer’s holding a flower. This is a nod to Daniel Keyes’ novel Flowers for Algernon.
MEMORIAL: Blizzard designers also left a tribute to fallen comrade. In the Barrens, atop a hill just southwest of Crossroads sits a small shrine. Here, you’ll find a memorial dedicated to an Orc with the initials “M-K.” In the real world, M K was Michel Koiter, a Blizzard illustrator who passed away during production of World of Warcraft.
To reach the memorial, follow a ridge to the southeast and half-way up the hill you’ll find the base of a mound. Go up the short trail to reach the shrine. As a little bonus, if you visit the memorial in spirit form you’ll find a spirit healer named Koiter.
GAME REFERENCES: While fighting your way through the Deadmines to get VanCleef’s head you’ll encounter a Goblin Shredder. Take it down and look at the dashboard and you’ll see a familiar face: Kerrigan, The Zerg Queen from Starcraft: Brood War. She appears to be the ruler of the goblins as well. Other goblin shredders can be found in Strangle-thorn Vale and Gadget-zan.
In northern Un’goro Crater, there’s a place we’ve started calling “Camp Nintendo.” Two residents of the camp are the feuding brothers, Larion and Muigi. If those names sound a bit familiar, they should, they’re anagrams of Mario and Luigi; and the battling brothers are even decked out in red and green overalls.
Deep in the Uldaman instance, you’ll find a friendly refuge manned by three dwarves: Baelog, Olaf and Erik “The Swift.” Dedicated gamers should recognize these dudes from The Lost Vikings—the first game Blizzard created for the Super Nintendo back in ‘92.
RARE PETS
LIL' TIMMY: Lil’ Timmy is one of the game’s best pet dealers. Timmy doesn’t spawn often, but when he does, he wanders the streets of Stormwind trying to sell his one and only white kitten. This animal costs sixty silvers, but can be sold for five gold.
Even we couldn’t determine exactly when Timmy materializes, but we discovered that he spawns at the end of the canal between Old Town and the Trade District in Stormwind. You can camp at the bridge between the two districts and work on your fishing skill while you wait for him to come by.
Once Lil’ Timmy appears he wanders along the canal outside Old Town and Dwarven District. If you don’t catch him before he passes through Cathedral Square and turns right, poof!--he’ll be gone....
TINY CRIMSON WHELPLING: This beastie must be farmed from the gameworld. Your grinding begins in the Eastern Wetlands where you have to kill Crimson, Red and Flamesnorting whelps to find the drop. The drop rate of Tiny Crimson Whelplings is about one in a thousand (we got ours in 30 minutes). These little guys are worth much more then their weight in gold. If you decide to sell your rare pet, he’ll fetch about 40 gold pieces at auction.
TINY EMERALD WELPLING: In the southwest corner of the Swamp of Sorrows you’ll find Dreaming Whelps. Farm these badboys long enough and eventually they’ll drop a Tiny Emerald Whelpling.
HIDDEN QUESTS
THE CHICKEN QUEST: Head to Sal-deans’ Farm in Westfall and find a chicken. To unlock the secret you have to do the “Chicken Dance” for the chicken about a hundred times. Set up a macro to enter the command easily--bring up Options, select Macros, choose the icon you want and enter the command "/chicken". Then put the icon in an action bar.
Soon you’ll see the message, “Chicken looks at you quizzically. Maybe you should inspect it?” Accept the quest and purchase the special chicken feed from Farmer Saldean. Return to the chicken and type "/cheer" before feeding the chicken. Do this right and the chicken will lay an egg. This egg is your new pet, a prairie chicken.
ZELDA TRIBUTE QUESTS: This is only available when you reach level 47. Head to Un’Goro Crater and in the marshlands you’ll find a wrecked raft and a faded photograph. This find will initiate the quest “It’s a Secret to Everybody” (a quote from the original Legend of Zelda).
There is a Link counterpart in Marshal’s Refuge named Linken, whom you’ll be helping find his lost memories. This quest has you trekking all over Azeroth completing a chain of 13 tasks. Eventually the trail will lead you back to Un’Goro and the final part of the quest, “It’s Dangerous to Go Alone”.
The next tribute can be found by beating Blazerunner at Fire Plume Ridge. Blazerunner is a level 56 elite (we whupped him by pairing up with a paladin and casting Fire Resistance Aura, then having another party member use the Silver Totem of Aquamentas to take down Blazerunner’s protective shields). After he’s beaten, pick up the Golden Flame in the back of the cave, which looks like a piece of the Tri-Force. Now return to Linken in Marshal’s Refuge and claim your reward--Linken’s Sword of Mastery and Linken’s Boomerang.
G4 - Feature - World of Warcraft Secrets
Easter Eggs
TREKKIE REFERENCE: In Booty Bay, just outside the inn, you’ll encounter Chief Engineer Scooty manning a teleportation device. If you have a quest that takes you through the device, you’ll find a character named Sprok and his away team.
MATRIX REFERENCE: On your way to the Ironforge Auction House, ask one of the guards the location of the alchemy trainer. One of his answers will be, “why, oh why didn’t I take the blue potion?”
FIGHT CLUB: Further into the Undercity, in the War Quarter, there’s an honest to God Fight Club where you’ll find two NPC fighters named Edward and Tyler.
GHOSTBUSTERS REFERENCE: Another movie reference can be found in the Mage Quarters of Stormwind. There, you’ll find three mages-in-training talking shop. Hang around long enough and one of them will say “wouldn’t that be bad, like crossing the streams bad?”
STAR WARS: The Shimmering Flats. Peek around a bit and you’ll find a goblin race team with a very familiar looking vehicle—Blizzard’s version of Sebulba’s podracer from Episode I. Do a little more exploring and you’ll also find a wrecked podracer which smacked into a canyon walls.
CONAN: In the Badlands around the middle of the map is a semi-hidden crypt. Enter the crypt and you’ll see a decomposed guy sitting on a throne with a sword to his side. It’s a scene from the first Conan movie.
BRUCE CAMPBELL TRIBUTE: In Dun Mo-rogh, just south of Kharanos, there’s a small camp where a group of dwarves are taking target practice. Hang around long enough and you’ll hear one of the dwarves scream out: “This is my boomstick!”
BOOK REFRERENCES: In the upper levels of Booty Bay, there’s a clothing shop named “A Tailor to Cities,” an homage to Charles Dicken’s A Tales of Two Cities. And in the Undead capital, the Undercity, you’ll find Algernon at the alchemy trainer’s holding a flower. This is a nod to Daniel Keyes’ novel Flowers for Algernon.
MEMORIAL: Blizzard designers also left a tribute to fallen comrade. In the Barrens, atop a hill just southwest of Crossroads sits a small shrine. Here, you’ll find a memorial dedicated to an Orc with the initials “M-K.” In the real world, M K was Michel Koiter, a Blizzard illustrator who passed away during production of World of Warcraft.
To reach the memorial, follow a ridge to the southeast and half-way up the hill you’ll find the base of a mound. Go up the short trail to reach the shrine. As a little bonus, if you visit the memorial in spirit form you’ll find a spirit healer named Koiter.
GAME REFERENCES: While fighting your way through the Deadmines to get VanCleef’s head you’ll encounter a Goblin Shredder. Take it down and look at the dashboard and you’ll see a familiar face: Kerrigan, The Zerg Queen from Starcraft: Brood War. She appears to be the ruler of the goblins as well. Other goblin shredders can be found in Strangle-thorn Vale and Gadget-zan.
In northern Un’goro Crater, there’s a place we’ve started calling “Camp Nintendo.” Two residents of the camp are the feuding brothers, Larion and Muigi. If those names sound a bit familiar, they should, they’re anagrams of Mario and Luigi; and the battling brothers are even decked out in red and green overalls.
Deep in the Uldaman instance, you’ll find a friendly refuge manned by three dwarves: Baelog, Olaf and Erik “The Swift.” Dedicated gamers should recognize these dudes from The Lost Vikings—the first game Blizzard created for the Super Nintendo back in ‘92.
RARE PETS
LIL' TIMMY: Lil’ Timmy is one of the game’s best pet dealers. Timmy doesn’t spawn often, but when he does, he wanders the streets of Stormwind trying to sell his one and only white kitten. This animal costs sixty silvers, but can be sold for five gold.
Even we couldn’t determine exactly when Timmy materializes, but we discovered that he spawns at the end of the canal between Old Town and the Trade District in Stormwind. You can camp at the bridge between the two districts and work on your fishing skill while you wait for him to come by.
Once Lil’ Timmy appears he wanders along the canal outside Old Town and Dwarven District. If you don’t catch him before he passes through Cathedral Square and turns right, poof!--he’ll be gone....
TINY CRIMSON WHELPLING: This beastie must be farmed from the gameworld. Your grinding begins in the Eastern Wetlands where you have to kill Crimson, Red and Flamesnorting whelps to find the drop. The drop rate of Tiny Crimson Whelplings is about one in a thousand (we got ours in 30 minutes). These little guys are worth much more then their weight in gold. If you decide to sell your rare pet, he’ll fetch about 40 gold pieces at auction.
TINY EMERALD WELPLING: In the southwest corner of the Swamp of Sorrows you’ll find Dreaming Whelps. Farm these badboys long enough and eventually they’ll drop a Tiny Emerald Whelpling.
HIDDEN QUESTS
THE CHICKEN QUEST: Head to Sal-deans’ Farm in Westfall and find a chicken. To unlock the secret you have to do the “Chicken Dance” for the chicken about a hundred times. Set up a macro to enter the command easily--bring up Options, select Macros, choose the icon you want and enter the command "/chicken". Then put the icon in an action bar.
Soon you’ll see the message, “Chicken looks at you quizzically. Maybe you should inspect it?” Accept the quest and purchase the special chicken feed from Farmer Saldean. Return to the chicken and type "/cheer" before feeding the chicken. Do this right and the chicken will lay an egg. This egg is your new pet, a prairie chicken.
ZELDA TRIBUTE QUESTS: This is only available when you reach level 47. Head to Un’Goro Crater and in the marshlands you’ll find a wrecked raft and a faded photograph. This find will initiate the quest “It’s a Secret to Everybody” (a quote from the original Legend of Zelda).
There is a Link counterpart in Marshal’s Refuge named Linken, whom you’ll be helping find his lost memories. This quest has you trekking all over Azeroth completing a chain of 13 tasks. Eventually the trail will lead you back to Un’Goro and the final part of the quest, “It’s Dangerous to Go Alone”.
The next tribute can be found by beating Blazerunner at Fire Plume Ridge. Blazerunner is a level 56 elite (we whupped him by pairing up with a paladin and casting Fire Resistance Aura, then having another party member use the Silver Totem of Aquamentas to take down Blazerunner’s protective shields). After he’s beaten, pick up the Golden Flame in the back of the cave, which looks like a piece of the Tri-Force. Now return to Linken in Marshal’s Refuge and claim your reward--Linken’s Sword of Mastery and Linken’s Boomerang.
G4 - Feature - World of Warcraft Secrets
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Thursday, June 16, 2005
How to please a Priest
originaly posted by Laena
-Please don't get the aggro off me. I like it when the baddies beat on me, I swear! I have 3000HP, and I can take the beating MUCH better than the Paladin/Warrior/Rogue. After all, I can heal myself, so I have a nearly endless supply of HP. If I die,it's my fault, ALWAYS. I just didn't heal myself fast enough. My favorite thing to do in an instance when our oh-so-talented rogue pulls 6 mobs is to shield myself, get beat on by the 5 mobs that aggroed me when I healed that awesome rogue and hold all 5 of them off while the other 4 party members beat on the one mob that is not on me. Yep! Love it!
-Casters don't need loot! Nope! Bet you didn't know that, either. We don't need armor... we don't get hit. We don't need weapons! We cast! We don't need quest items because the rewards are usually armor, and since we don't need armor, we don't quest. So by all means, melee classes, make sure you loot those kills the instant they fall and NEVER let a caster get the chance to get to the corpse. WE DON'T NEED TO LOOT.
-Priests aren't main healers... Paladins are! That's right pallies... the instant you notice a health bar start to drop, YOU should be casting your heals. I bet that priest didn't even notice anyway. I never start casting a heal only to have a pallies heal go off an instant before mine and I just wasted my mana. We're just back-up healers, to be called upon only by a paladin, who is out of mana and is down to a perilous 80% health. This calling always should come in the form of "HEAL ME PRIEST". The demanding tone, self-righteous attitude, all caps and title of "Priest" are all necessary, as we are just priests, and won't understand you otherwise. We're not used to healing and really do need paladins to hold our hands through everything.
-If any member of your group dies, it's always the priest's fault. ALWAYS. If you pulled eight lvl 60 Elite mobs and even one of your party members dies in the fray, it's the priests fault, not yours. If you are a hunter, and your pet dies, no matter how low everyones health bar is, it's the priest's fault for not healing your pet. Your pet is your own personal tank, so it clearly takes precedence over the members of the party who are actual people. Also, you should NEVER heal your own pet... not even when the priest's mana is completely gone. She should have a mana pot up and ready to go JUST FOR YOUR PET.
-When grouped for an instance, always make sure you run into an instance while the priest is still on the griffon flying to you. Nevermind that there tend to be numerous elite mobs hanging around outside instances... the priest won't need your help to get in. After all, she has that endless supply of HP at her disposal from her heals. If, on the off chance that the priest does die on her way in, be sure to mock her.
-Warlocks! You guys are so awesome with your soulstone ressurection! You should never put that on the priest. We are the last person you should care about living or dying in a group. Put it on yourself or the rogue always, k?
-When looking for a priest for your group, always do a /who priest and just start sending random, unintelligible whispers to anyone at or above the level range you're looking for. Make sure you never do any of the following: Introduce yourself, say please, speak in a complete sentence, use real words. Also, don't bother ASKING them to join you. You must DEMAND it. A great example is "come 2 BRD mah grp needs u". We're priests! We're giving by our very nature, and appreciate being treated as your own personal heal monkeys. This is especially effective if you've never even spoken to the priest in question before.
WoW General Discussion -: "3620593"
-Please don't get the aggro off me. I like it when the baddies beat on me, I swear! I have 3000HP, and I can take the beating MUCH better than the Paladin/Warrior/Rogue. After all, I can heal myself, so I have a nearly endless supply of HP. If I die,it's my fault, ALWAYS. I just didn't heal myself fast enough. My favorite thing to do in an instance when our oh-so-talented rogue pulls 6 mobs is to shield myself, get beat on by the 5 mobs that aggroed me when I healed that awesome rogue and hold all 5 of them off while the other 4 party members beat on the one mob that is not on me. Yep! Love it!
-Casters don't need loot! Nope! Bet you didn't know that, either. We don't need armor... we don't get hit. We don't need weapons! We cast! We don't need quest items because the rewards are usually armor, and since we don't need armor, we don't quest. So by all means, melee classes, make sure you loot those kills the instant they fall and NEVER let a caster get the chance to get to the corpse. WE DON'T NEED TO LOOT.
-Priests aren't main healers... Paladins are! That's right pallies... the instant you notice a health bar start to drop, YOU should be casting your heals. I bet that priest didn't even notice anyway. I never start casting a heal only to have a pallies heal go off an instant before mine and I just wasted my mana. We're just back-up healers, to be called upon only by a paladin, who is out of mana and is down to a perilous 80% health. This calling always should come in the form of "HEAL ME PRIEST". The demanding tone, self-righteous attitude, all caps and title of "Priest" are all necessary, as we are just priests, and won't understand you otherwise. We're not used to healing and really do need paladins to hold our hands through everything.
-If any member of your group dies, it's always the priest's fault. ALWAYS. If you pulled eight lvl 60 Elite mobs and even one of your party members dies in the fray, it's the priests fault, not yours. If you are a hunter, and your pet dies, no matter how low everyones health bar is, it's the priest's fault for not healing your pet. Your pet is your own personal tank, so it clearly takes precedence over the members of the party who are actual people. Also, you should NEVER heal your own pet... not even when the priest's mana is completely gone. She should have a mana pot up and ready to go JUST FOR YOUR PET.
-When grouped for an instance, always make sure you run into an instance while the priest is still on the griffon flying to you. Nevermind that there tend to be numerous elite mobs hanging around outside instances... the priest won't need your help to get in. After all, she has that endless supply of HP at her disposal from her heals. If, on the off chance that the priest does die on her way in, be sure to mock her.
-Warlocks! You guys are so awesome with your soulstone ressurection! You should never put that on the priest. We are the last person you should care about living or dying in a group. Put it on yourself or the rogue always, k?
-When looking for a priest for your group, always do a /who priest and just start sending random, unintelligible whispers to anyone at or above the level range you're looking for. Make sure you never do any of the following: Introduce yourself, say please, speak in a complete sentence, use real words. Also, don't bother ASKING them to join you. You must DEMAND it. A great example is "come 2 BRD mah grp needs u". We're priests! We're giving by our very nature, and appreciate being treated as your own personal heal monkeys. This is especially effective if you've never even spoken to the priest in question before.
WoW General Discussion -: "3620593"
Monday, June 13, 2005
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Alliance hummm ..
(LVL 32-36) Plains Creeper Arathi Highlands 12-20% Drop Rate.
*Duskwood spiders (Black Widow Hatchling, Green Recluse, Carrion Recluse, Naraxis, Venom Web Spider, Pygmy Venom Web Spider) (LVL's 19-27) 6-12% Drop Rate.
Spider Silk: "214334"
(LVL 32-36) Plains Creeper Arathi Highlands 12-20% Drop Rate.
*Duskwood spiders (Black Widow Hatchling, Green Recluse, Carrion Recluse, Naraxis, Venom Web Spider, Pygmy Venom Web Spider) (LVL's 19-27) 6-12% Drop Rate.
Spider Silk: "214334"
D & D Online downloadable movie from E3
OnlineWelten - das Online Rollenspiele Portal - MMORPG / MMOG / OnlineRollenspiele
OnlineWelten - das Online Rollenspiele Portal - MMORPG / MMOG / OnlineRollenspiele
Friday, May 27, 2005
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Vintage Advertisements posters Americana Beauty Entertainment Fashion Fine Art Reproductions
Vintage Advertisements posters Americana Beauty Entertainment Fashion Fine Art Reproductions
Vintage Advertisements posters Americana Beauty Entertainment Fashion Fine Art Reproductions
Monday, May 23, 2005
Friends girlfriend campaign against wow...
(found on the WoW forums)
So this girl here at WWU wrote a paper addressing all the WoW players in the building (theres a lot of us) and posted it in all the bathrooms. Theres some names and whatnot that wont make sense but youll get the idea.... my notes will be in brackets...
Your World of Warcraft is Also Your World Without Women
By: B_____ Y______
I’m sure by now most of the residents in Nash Hall have experienced the cult following that is World of Warcraft. I’m also sure that the majority of men in the building either has given into this phenomenon individually, or has a roommate, friend, or RA that’s fallen. Being one of the many women in Nash Hall (our dorm) involved in a relationship with a man whose life is no longer is own, I have a few things to say.
1. Realistically, most girls despise World of Warcraft. With the exception of Sara Taylor (girlfriend of Brett Williams and fellow wow-er, lucky dog) and very few others, girls just have no interest in it whatsoever. We do not care what level you just hit, we do not care what boss you’re about to kill, we do not care how many days you’ve spent wasting your life away, and we absolutely DO NOT care how “f-ing” hot your character is (her boyfriend has a female night elf.) So stop telling us or you’ll be single very, very soon. No one wants to date a junkie.
2. Don’t you have class or something? It seems to me that we live in a government sponsored insitution, NOT in your mom’s basement. I don’t think President Bush would be very happy to hear that his funding is going toward a Univeristy full of ridiculous boys who are wasting the public’s hard earned tax dollars (would he really care?) How much does it cost to attend Western? (about 3 grand a quarter, or 9k a year) And how much does your account cost a month? (15 dollars even) I won’t even bring up the point that you are here to study and gain ACTUAL, not computer animated, knowledge, and that you could be saving mucho dinero staying in your own house and letting someone live in Nash who actually deserves to be here. Anyone ever heard that song by Ben Folds Five, “Song for the Dumped?” Yeah. That’s what I thought.
3. Hey, have you ever heard the words “Personal Hygiene?” I think not. Judging by the smell wafting down from the 3rd, 5th, and 6th floors,(the guy floors in the building) us ladies of floor 1 have had to invest in a serious supply of air fresheners. When was the last time you actually took a shower? I know for a fact that several residents on the 5th and 6th floors have gone about 3 days without showering, and usually wear the same shirts and pair of underwear for days on end. No wonder everyone’s door is always locked. They are trying to keep the smell stifled inside their room, which is disgusting. TLC had it right when they didn’t want No Scrubs. You scrubby boys had better knock if off.
4. What the hell are those stupid headsets? Do you work in the Taco Bell drive-thru? It sure smells like it on your floor. If so, I’d better be getting a discount. What, do you need reassurance that you actually do have friends who understand your addiction? You wonder why girls go to the bathroom in pairs, or why they get pissed when you can’t tell what they are thinking. This is the same thing, and just as mind-boggling. Why do you need to talk to other computer nerds while playing the game? Does your score improve with the number of friends you have online? Or maybe you met your other girlfriend who is 36, divorced, and lives in Kentucky with her 15 cats. Sure sounds like a winner to me.
5. What is your age again? Last time I checked, Western Washington University did not admit 12 year old boys into its academic program. I don’t think the admissions office would be too pleased to hear about the progress of its North Campus (location of our dorm on campus) students. It’s nice that you college men have found a piece of common ground, but honestly this is ridiculous. If you have your RA, your roommate, your friends across the hall, your girlfriend’s ex boyfriend, and the guy who beat you last week in poker all on the same server going on a quest, you know you’ve hit rock bottom. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next thing I see is someone running down the hall with a pillowcase cape tied around their neck, scantily clad in Power Rangers underwear, crying because so-and-so just stole their star wars action figure or holographic Pokemon card. Honestly, that’s just not okay.
Be happy that I chose to keep the concerns to only 5. I know these perfectly valid points may be hard for some of you to hear. But realistically, it’s the truth. The moral of the story is; boys, don’t ignore girls of any status, girlfriend or not girlfriend, just to sit around all night in your boxers with chip crumbs on your belly, playing this infernal game. Keep it up, and the words “we need to talk” or “this just isn’t working out” or even the dreaded “I met someone else” will arise in the not so distant future. And I can just see each and every one of you, sitting there dumbfounded as to what could have possibly gone wrong. Everything was just so perfect. Speaking of which, I don’t think we should see each other anymore. Have a good life alone in Molten Core. (this wasnt a break up letter, its just harsh) WoW General Discussion -
So this girl here at WWU wrote a paper addressing all the WoW players in the building (theres a lot of us) and posted it in all the bathrooms. Theres some names and whatnot that wont make sense but youll get the idea.... my notes will be in brackets...
Your World of Warcraft is Also Your World Without Women
By: B_____ Y______
I’m sure by now most of the residents in Nash Hall have experienced the cult following that is World of Warcraft. I’m also sure that the majority of men in the building either has given into this phenomenon individually, or has a roommate, friend, or RA that’s fallen. Being one of the many women in Nash Hall (our dorm) involved in a relationship with a man whose life is no longer is own, I have a few things to say.
1. Realistically, most girls despise World of Warcraft. With the exception of Sara Taylor (girlfriend of Brett Williams and fellow wow-er, lucky dog) and very few others, girls just have no interest in it whatsoever. We do not care what level you just hit, we do not care what boss you’re about to kill, we do not care how many days you’ve spent wasting your life away, and we absolutely DO NOT care how “f-ing” hot your character is (her boyfriend has a female night elf.) So stop telling us or you’ll be single very, very soon. No one wants to date a junkie.
2. Don’t you have class or something? It seems to me that we live in a government sponsored insitution, NOT in your mom’s basement. I don’t think President Bush would be very happy to hear that his funding is going toward a Univeristy full of ridiculous boys who are wasting the public’s hard earned tax dollars (would he really care?) How much does it cost to attend Western? (about 3 grand a quarter, or 9k a year) And how much does your account cost a month? (15 dollars even) I won’t even bring up the point that you are here to study and gain ACTUAL, not computer animated, knowledge, and that you could be saving mucho dinero staying in your own house and letting someone live in Nash who actually deserves to be here. Anyone ever heard that song by Ben Folds Five, “Song for the Dumped?” Yeah. That’s what I thought.
3. Hey, have you ever heard the words “Personal Hygiene?” I think not. Judging by the smell wafting down from the 3rd, 5th, and 6th floors,(the guy floors in the building) us ladies of floor 1 have had to invest in a serious supply of air fresheners. When was the last time you actually took a shower? I know for a fact that several residents on the 5th and 6th floors have gone about 3 days without showering, and usually wear the same shirts and pair of underwear for days on end. No wonder everyone’s door is always locked. They are trying to keep the smell stifled inside their room, which is disgusting. TLC had it right when they didn’t want No Scrubs. You scrubby boys had better knock if off.
4. What the hell are those stupid headsets? Do you work in the Taco Bell drive-thru? It sure smells like it on your floor. If so, I’d better be getting a discount. What, do you need reassurance that you actually do have friends who understand your addiction? You wonder why girls go to the bathroom in pairs, or why they get pissed when you can’t tell what they are thinking. This is the same thing, and just as mind-boggling. Why do you need to talk to other computer nerds while playing the game? Does your score improve with the number of friends you have online? Or maybe you met your other girlfriend who is 36, divorced, and lives in Kentucky with her 15 cats. Sure sounds like a winner to me.
5. What is your age again? Last time I checked, Western Washington University did not admit 12 year old boys into its academic program. I don’t think the admissions office would be too pleased to hear about the progress of its North Campus (location of our dorm on campus) students. It’s nice that you college men have found a piece of common ground, but honestly this is ridiculous. If you have your RA, your roommate, your friends across the hall, your girlfriend’s ex boyfriend, and the guy who beat you last week in poker all on the same server going on a quest, you know you’ve hit rock bottom. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next thing I see is someone running down the hall with a pillowcase cape tied around their neck, scantily clad in Power Rangers underwear, crying because so-and-so just stole their star wars action figure or holographic Pokemon card. Honestly, that’s just not okay.
Be happy that I chose to keep the concerns to only 5. I know these perfectly valid points may be hard for some of you to hear. But realistically, it’s the truth. The moral of the story is; boys, don’t ignore girls of any status, girlfriend or not girlfriend, just to sit around all night in your boxers with chip crumbs on your belly, playing this infernal game. Keep it up, and the words “we need to talk” or “this just isn’t working out” or even the dreaded “I met someone else” will arise in the not so distant future. And I can just see each and every one of you, sitting there dumbfounded as to what could have possibly gone wrong. Everything was just so perfect. Speaking of which, I don’t think we should see each other anymore. Have a good life alone in Molten Core. (this wasnt a break up letter, its just harsh) WoW General Discussion -
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Best place to gold farm from 35-40
Go to the Shimmering Flats in 1000 Needles. To the northeast of the racetrack there's a ship sticking up out of the sand with a bunch of turtles around it. Kill 'em, skin 'em, sell the parts to the vendors, sell the drops on the AH, sell stacks of skins on the AH. If you wipe them out, move west to the pit and do the same with Basilisks.
You should get 3.5 - 5g per hour, not counting returns from the auction house.
I had the best luck with those. Others have recommended Raptors and Tigers/Panthers in Stranglethorn Vale.
-----
these guys in dustwallow marsh:
Mudrock Tortoise
http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?n=7363
They have a 40% chance of dropping:
Speckled Shell Fragment
http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?i=5752
Which vendor for 45s 15c a stack.
They can also be skinned for Turtle Scales which you'll need for leatherworking 225+ quests.
-----
Badlands is great, as mentioned. You may also want to try the human camps in Hillsbrad Foothills or the farious farms in Arathi Highlands. You can sell the cloth in the AH fairly easy so that helps as well.
-----
Solo the Deadmines.
Disenchant items if you can, otherwise put them on the AH. Put the wool and linen up at the AH for the ridiculously high prices they sell for.
5-10g per run (45 mins) if you're smart about it
-----
Badlands. Elementals.
-----
WoW General Discussion -
You should get 3.5 - 5g per hour, not counting returns from the auction house.
I had the best luck with those. Others have recommended Raptors and Tigers/Panthers in Stranglethorn Vale.
-----
these guys in dustwallow marsh:
Mudrock Tortoise
http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?n=7363
They have a 40% chance of dropping:
Speckled Shell Fragment
http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?i=5752
Which vendor for 45s 15c a stack.
They can also be skinned for Turtle Scales which you'll need for leatherworking 225+ quests.
-----
Badlands is great, as mentioned. You may also want to try the human camps in Hillsbrad Foothills or the farious farms in Arathi Highlands. You can sell the cloth in the AH fairly easy so that helps as well.
-----
Solo the Deadmines.
Disenchant items if you can, otherwise put them on the AH. Put the wool and linen up at the AH for the ridiculously high prices they sell for.
5-10g per run (45 mins) if you're smart about it
-----
Badlands. Elementals.
-----
WoW General Discussion -
Sunday, May 15, 2005
The case for taking another look at priests
Alright, by this point I hope most of you know the story; Priests were asked for feedback from the devs with Fangtooth as an intermediary. We compiled 40-50+ pages on two official threads of our problems, concerns, gripes, and just general whines. We started dozens upon dozens of threads giving numbers and hard facts about what our problems were. For the most part they were very well thought out and constructive. Upon getting the "Priest Report", most priests feel that nearly all of these concerns seem to have been completely overlooked, and we seem to have been told (not directly, but implied heavily) that priests are "finished". Now that Fangtooth has moved on to Paladins and we see other classes who arguably are much more functional in groups getting the same style of buffs we asked for -namely PvE group specific buffs-, that seems to be the case more than ever.
Let me say right now, this isn't a whine about Paladin buffs, Warlock buffs, Hunter Buffs, Shaman buffs, or any other kind of buffs. The fact is many priests feel we didn't get a fair shake when it came to our feedback.
I've posted many times on this very subject from the very thought out and constructive to earning myself a small vacation from the forums and everywhere in between. This is to be one of the more constructive. I don't necessarily agree with everything in this post, however, the purpose behind it is to try and voice the priest community's problems ideas and suggestions, not just mine. So let's get to the point, shall we?
Problem: Holy Nova isn't nearly effective enough to justify its being a 31 point talent.
Status: Partially resolved. Changed from a near useless 5 second aggro reducer to a more useless group heal/very small AE nuke (both components are aggro free).
Outcome: Not satisfactory. The change to an AE heal from aggro reduction was a step in the right direction for a talent on the top of the Holy tree, I think many priests would agree. However the numbers seem off. Also, the talent is reported to be bugged in that friendly players periodically resist the healing effect. Interestingly, Fangtooth stated in his priest report:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
"This spell is also more mana efficient healing wise than Prayer of Healing. For Prayer of Healing you will need a minimum of 3 targets for the mana to heal ratio to be at maximum effectiveness, with Holy Nova you need only 2 targets."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is both incorrect and misleading, Holy Nova rank 3 has a ratio of 2.5 HPM while Prayer of Healing has a ration of 4.68 HPM. Those numbers are calculated for 5 people healed because as any high school math teacher will tell you: You pay the same price no matter how many people you heal, so you only reach maximum effectiveness when you heal the maximum number of people allowed. With talents the disparity will become even bigger because in order to get to holy nova, most priests are going to to get Improved Prayer of Healing as well as Spiritual Healing, both of which make Prayer of Healing more efficient.
The above statement by Fang leads me to believe that perhaps the Holy Nova talent is not as efficient as intended. One way of fixing this would be to lower the mana cost, however the majority of priests would rather see the ammount healed raised to offset this. Priests still feel that the small ammount healed doesn't buy enough time to get out even the fastest of our heals in order to save a life. In short, this is not the emergency skill many priests had hoped it would end up being. After all I think every player in the game is under the impression that the end tree 31 point talents are supposed to make us say "wow". Currently neither Divine Spirit nor Holy Nova make us do this.
Suggestion: Please take a second look and consider raising the ammount healed, even if you have to reduce damage dealt. Remember than any Holy/Disc priest (as there is no such thing as a pure holy priest, and that's fact) has to weigh this against Inner Focus from the discipline line. We get ONE or the OTHER. As it is now, and even with a 30 second cooldown, it's currently considered to be no contest. During unscientific polling on my server (sending people tells asking if they had holy nova) I found that 1 person out of the 20 I asked had holy nova, no one else had even considered it after looking at it or testing it.
There's holy nova. The rest will be much quicker, I promise.
Problem: Priests deal with large and slow heals, in high end instances damage can streak badly so healing with greater heal must either start early and risk over healing or have the heal land late and see a dead tank.
Status: Mostly resolved, albiet indirectly.
Outcome: When the Devs buffed mana regen by allowing full regen during casting, they negated most of the penalty of cancelling a four second spell, the only penalty now is usually wasted time, but still definatley exists when heals critical. Many priests almost feel landing a critical heal is a penalty of wasted mana rather than a bonus of extra healing in most circumstances.
Suggestion: See Inspiration, below.
Problem: Master Healer
Status: Unresolved, unacknowledged
Outcome: Not acceptable. Many priests feel that for a tree buried so deep in the Holy Line half a second off an already unwieldy spell is too long.
Suggestion: Many priests have asked for each rank of Master Healer to take off 0.2 seconds as opposed to 0.1. Other priests are less demanding or fear balance issues and ask that the full 5 points in Master Healer end up taking off 0.75 seconds.
Problem: Holy Fire just isn't worth it.
Status: Resolved?
Outcome: Holy Fire was greatly retooled to be more mana efficient, and many priests are happy with it, but a sizable number of priests question why there is even a damage talent in our healing line while some others ask how we are supposed to use something with this long a cast time in groups when we very likely will need to interupt it in order to heal.
Suggestion: Some priests have felt that this spell would better suit priests needs in instances and grouping if it were instant cast with a prohibitavely long recast timer. This spell is generally only used once in combat while soloing, and that is as an opening spell to pull the mob, and they suggest that making it more usefull to priests whose main desire is to group (the ones who are most likely to spec Holy in the first place) might open up this portion of the Holy Tree to many more people (whether or not this is wanted by the devs is an entirely different story, I know).
Problem: Improved Smite - The minority of priests who have a problem with this particular talent feel that, again, damage talents shouldn't be a part of the Holy line. The larger part feel that the ammount added is too small. To be clear, no one, to my knowledge, has voiced a complaint about Smite itself. Smite without talents has a damage range of 384-492, and this is fine. Priests aren't mages, but when we talk about spending 5 talent points in order to add 38-49 damage at level 60 many priests just wonder what the point is.
Status: Unresolved, Unacknowledged
Outcome: Not acceptable.
Suggestion: Perhaps lowering the mana cost, or raising the damage by more than 10%?
Problem: Inspiration - Some priests fear (probably fueled by warrior rumors) a "soft cap" to armor ratings, and many priests question the validity of adding an ammount of armor valued in the hundreds in a game where tanks measure their AC in thousands, especially when that tank is beaing beat on by dragonspawn in Molten Core. We wonder if the ammount of mitigation is worth it, and ask what priest relies on critical heals. It's widely felt that this talent should somehow benefit the healer, not necessarily the healee.
Status: Unresolved, Unacknowledged
Outcome: Not acceptable.
Suggestion: The beta version of this talent was highly prefered (a bonus to mana regeneration after a critical heal) to this version, if undoing the change is not viable, then perhaps changing it to a talent that addresses our over heal problem in some way would be? Perhaps by returning a small portion of the original casting cost back when a healing spell crits.
Problem: Inner Fire - While this spell is universally appreciated for its armor, many priests question its cost to duration ratio (this spell costs more per minute than most every other self buff in the game) as well as the decision to include a melee attack buff. The only time I have seen a priest melee is a holy spec who solos. The process involves a semi-exploit which manipulates wand cooldown and weapon delay in order to get the DPS of both. With the wand auto-fire toggle coming next patch, unless auto-attack can be triggered at the same time, priest melee will all but disapear and this bonus will be useless. Also, the 3 minute duration is seen as highly annoying.
Status: Unresolved, Unacknowledged
Outcome: Not acceptable
Suggestion: Apply the attack bonus to wands either instead of, or in addition to melee weapons.
Most PvP priests are afraid a boost in duration would be accompanied by an increase in mana cost. If the cost/duration ratio does not warrant, in the devs eyes, being improved; The duration should likely stay the same as shaman paladins and priests love to purge this spell.
Problem: Holy/disc priests would kill for improved fade.
Status: Unresolved, Unacknowledged
Outcome: Unnacceptable
Suggestion: Perhaps moving improved fade to the discipline line, and improved mana burn to the shadow line. I've seen this suggestion many times and have yet to see a shadow priest object (i'm not saying one hasn't, I just haven't seen it). Most shadow priests value Improved Mana burn as a talent and go that deep into the discipline tree anyway. Either that or say "working as intended".
Problem: Unbreakable Will doesn't appear to resist stun effects as it should, it's unknown if this bug extends to silence or fear (i've yet to see any conclusive testing).
Status: Partially resolved.
Outcome: A good start: Blizzard has uncovered a bug in which prevented this talent from resisting stuns, and a fix should go live next patch.
Suggestion: First of all, priests should stop and give Blizzard a great big hug and pat on the back for recognizing and fixing this talent. After the tears of joy have dried, we should ask them to run tests on the fear and silence resist aspects.
Problem: Divine Spirit, over all, is worth less mana as a 31 point talent than Arcane Intellegence is as a normal ability except in the longest of fights. This largely has to do with spirit itself.
Status: Unresolved Unacknowledged
Outcome: Unacceptable
Suggestion: Raising the ammount of spirit added by this talent, after all I think every player in the game is under the impression that the end tree 31 point talents are supposed to make us say "wow". Currently neither Divine Spirit nor Holy Nova make us do this.
Problem: Levitate's duration is rather short, and it requires a farmed reagent that is rarely found.
Status: Partially Resolved
Outcome: Levitate now has a 2 minute duration as opposed to a 1 minute. However the light feather is still not sold by vendors, forcing us to farm birds in low level areas or forget about this spell.
Suggestions: Either have vendors start carying light feathers (doesn't the Merchants Union know there's alot of demant?), or put more birds in more places with more of these on their loot table.
WoW General Discussion -
Let me say right now, this isn't a whine about Paladin buffs, Warlock buffs, Hunter Buffs, Shaman buffs, or any other kind of buffs. The fact is many priests feel we didn't get a fair shake when it came to our feedback.
I've posted many times on this very subject from the very thought out and constructive to earning myself a small vacation from the forums and everywhere in between. This is to be one of the more constructive. I don't necessarily agree with everything in this post, however, the purpose behind it is to try and voice the priest community's problems ideas and suggestions, not just mine. So let's get to the point, shall we?
Problem: Holy Nova isn't nearly effective enough to justify its being a 31 point talent.
Status: Partially resolved. Changed from a near useless 5 second aggro reducer to a more useless group heal/very small AE nuke (both components are aggro free).
Outcome: Not satisfactory. The change to an AE heal from aggro reduction was a step in the right direction for a talent on the top of the Holy tree, I think many priests would agree. However the numbers seem off. Also, the talent is reported to be bugged in that friendly players periodically resist the healing effect. Interestingly, Fangtooth stated in his priest report:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
"This spell is also more mana efficient healing wise than Prayer of Healing. For Prayer of Healing you will need a minimum of 3 targets for the mana to heal ratio to be at maximum effectiveness, with Holy Nova you need only 2 targets."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is both incorrect and misleading, Holy Nova rank 3 has a ratio of 2.5 HPM while Prayer of Healing has a ration of 4.68 HPM. Those numbers are calculated for 5 people healed because as any high school math teacher will tell you: You pay the same price no matter how many people you heal, so you only reach maximum effectiveness when you heal the maximum number of people allowed. With talents the disparity will become even bigger because in order to get to holy nova, most priests are going to to get Improved Prayer of Healing as well as Spiritual Healing, both of which make Prayer of Healing more efficient.
The above statement by Fang leads me to believe that perhaps the Holy Nova talent is not as efficient as intended. One way of fixing this would be to lower the mana cost, however the majority of priests would rather see the ammount healed raised to offset this. Priests still feel that the small ammount healed doesn't buy enough time to get out even the fastest of our heals in order to save a life. In short, this is not the emergency skill many priests had hoped it would end up being. After all I think every player in the game is under the impression that the end tree 31 point talents are supposed to make us say "wow". Currently neither Divine Spirit nor Holy Nova make us do this.
Suggestion: Please take a second look and consider raising the ammount healed, even if you have to reduce damage dealt. Remember than any Holy/Disc priest (as there is no such thing as a pure holy priest, and that's fact) has to weigh this against Inner Focus from the discipline line. We get ONE or the OTHER. As it is now, and even with a 30 second cooldown, it's currently considered to be no contest. During unscientific polling on my server (sending people tells asking if they had holy nova) I found that 1 person out of the 20 I asked had holy nova, no one else had even considered it after looking at it or testing it.
There's holy nova. The rest will be much quicker, I promise.
Problem: Priests deal with large and slow heals, in high end instances damage can streak badly so healing with greater heal must either start early and risk over healing or have the heal land late and see a dead tank.
Status: Mostly resolved, albiet indirectly.
Outcome: When the Devs buffed mana regen by allowing full regen during casting, they negated most of the penalty of cancelling a four second spell, the only penalty now is usually wasted time, but still definatley exists when heals critical. Many priests almost feel landing a critical heal is a penalty of wasted mana rather than a bonus of extra healing in most circumstances.
Suggestion: See Inspiration, below.
Problem: Master Healer
Status: Unresolved, unacknowledged
Outcome: Not acceptable. Many priests feel that for a tree buried so deep in the Holy Line half a second off an already unwieldy spell is too long.
Suggestion: Many priests have asked for each rank of Master Healer to take off 0.2 seconds as opposed to 0.1. Other priests are less demanding or fear balance issues and ask that the full 5 points in Master Healer end up taking off 0.75 seconds.
Problem: Holy Fire just isn't worth it.
Status: Resolved?
Outcome: Holy Fire was greatly retooled to be more mana efficient, and many priests are happy with it, but a sizable number of priests question why there is even a damage talent in our healing line while some others ask how we are supposed to use something with this long a cast time in groups when we very likely will need to interupt it in order to heal.
Suggestion: Some priests have felt that this spell would better suit priests needs in instances and grouping if it were instant cast with a prohibitavely long recast timer. This spell is generally only used once in combat while soloing, and that is as an opening spell to pull the mob, and they suggest that making it more usefull to priests whose main desire is to group (the ones who are most likely to spec Holy in the first place) might open up this portion of the Holy Tree to many more people (whether or not this is wanted by the devs is an entirely different story, I know).
Problem: Improved Smite - The minority of priests who have a problem with this particular talent feel that, again, damage talents shouldn't be a part of the Holy line. The larger part feel that the ammount added is too small. To be clear, no one, to my knowledge, has voiced a complaint about Smite itself. Smite without talents has a damage range of 384-492, and this is fine. Priests aren't mages, but when we talk about spending 5 talent points in order to add 38-49 damage at level 60 many priests just wonder what the point is.
Status: Unresolved, Unacknowledged
Outcome: Not acceptable.
Suggestion: Perhaps lowering the mana cost, or raising the damage by more than 10%?
Problem: Inspiration - Some priests fear (probably fueled by warrior rumors) a "soft cap" to armor ratings, and many priests question the validity of adding an ammount of armor valued in the hundreds in a game where tanks measure their AC in thousands, especially when that tank is beaing beat on by dragonspawn in Molten Core. We wonder if the ammount of mitigation is worth it, and ask what priest relies on critical heals. It's widely felt that this talent should somehow benefit the healer, not necessarily the healee.
Status: Unresolved, Unacknowledged
Outcome: Not acceptable.
Suggestion: The beta version of this talent was highly prefered (a bonus to mana regeneration after a critical heal) to this version, if undoing the change is not viable, then perhaps changing it to a talent that addresses our over heal problem in some way would be? Perhaps by returning a small portion of the original casting cost back when a healing spell crits.
Problem: Inner Fire - While this spell is universally appreciated for its armor, many priests question its cost to duration ratio (this spell costs more per minute than most every other self buff in the game) as well as the decision to include a melee attack buff. The only time I have seen a priest melee is a holy spec who solos. The process involves a semi-exploit which manipulates wand cooldown and weapon delay in order to get the DPS of both. With the wand auto-fire toggle coming next patch, unless auto-attack can be triggered at the same time, priest melee will all but disapear and this bonus will be useless. Also, the 3 minute duration is seen as highly annoying.
Status: Unresolved, Unacknowledged
Outcome: Not acceptable
Suggestion: Apply the attack bonus to wands either instead of, or in addition to melee weapons.
Most PvP priests are afraid a boost in duration would be accompanied by an increase in mana cost. If the cost/duration ratio does not warrant, in the devs eyes, being improved; The duration should likely stay the same as shaman paladins and priests love to purge this spell.
Problem: Holy/disc priests would kill for improved fade.
Status: Unresolved, Unacknowledged
Outcome: Unnacceptable
Suggestion: Perhaps moving improved fade to the discipline line, and improved mana burn to the shadow line. I've seen this suggestion many times and have yet to see a shadow priest object (i'm not saying one hasn't, I just haven't seen it). Most shadow priests value Improved Mana burn as a talent and go that deep into the discipline tree anyway. Either that or say "working as intended".
Problem: Unbreakable Will doesn't appear to resist stun effects as it should, it's unknown if this bug extends to silence or fear (i've yet to see any conclusive testing).
Status: Partially resolved.
Outcome: A good start: Blizzard has uncovered a bug in which prevented this talent from resisting stuns, and a fix should go live next patch.
Suggestion: First of all, priests should stop and give Blizzard a great big hug and pat on the back for recognizing and fixing this talent. After the tears of joy have dried, we should ask them to run tests on the fear and silence resist aspects.
Problem: Divine Spirit, over all, is worth less mana as a 31 point talent than Arcane Intellegence is as a normal ability except in the longest of fights. This largely has to do with spirit itself.
Status: Unresolved Unacknowledged
Outcome: Unacceptable
Suggestion: Raising the ammount of spirit added by this talent, after all I think every player in the game is under the impression that the end tree 31 point talents are supposed to make us say "wow". Currently neither Divine Spirit nor Holy Nova make us do this.
Problem: Levitate's duration is rather short, and it requires a farmed reagent that is rarely found.
Status: Partially Resolved
Outcome: Levitate now has a 2 minute duration as opposed to a 1 minute. However the light feather is still not sold by vendors, forcing us to farm birds in low level areas or forget about this spell.
Suggestions: Either have vendors start carying light feathers (doesn't the Merchants Union know there's alot of demant?), or put more birds in more places with more of these on their loot table.
WoW General Discussion -
Saturday, May 14, 2005
10 Things you never want to hear in Instances
10. Do we want a fourth warrior?
9. So we're all gnomes? This should be fun!
8. How long do these things usually last? 15 minutes?
7. I wonder if these monsters are aggressive?
6. Don't worry, the priest doesn't need to regain his mana.
5. What's that gold dragon looking thing around the monster's name and level?
4. From a mage: Just heal me, I'll hold aggro through AoE.
3. I'm so drunk right now....
2. Nah, we don't need a healer, grab another hunter.
And the number 1 thing you don't want to hear in an instance...
Yea sure, go ahead and pull. I know we'll only get one.WoW General Discussion -: "3122130"
9. So we're all gnomes? This should be fun!
8. How long do these things usually last? 15 minutes?
7. I wonder if these monsters are aggressive?
6. Don't worry, the priest doesn't need to regain his mana.
5. What's that gold dragon looking thing around the monster's name and level?
4. From a mage: Just heal me, I'll hold aggro through AoE.
3. I'm so drunk right now....
2. Nah, we don't need a healer, grab another hunter.
And the number 1 thing you don't want to hear in an instance...
Yea sure, go ahead and pull. I know we'll only get one.WoW General Discussion -: "3122130"
Friday, May 13, 2005
Ultimate FAQ & Links
Draznar's Ultimate Profession FAQ & Links to other FAQs
(Please read entire FAQ before posting in forum.)
If applicable to an existing FAQ, please reply in that FAQ.
* * * Looking for someone to maintain TAILORING and/or SKINNING FAQs * * *
Here is the Unofficial Profession FAQ. Please help me flesh this out. This FAQ is dedicated to those in this forum that helped develop it.
Questions, comments, or suggestions can be put in a reply to this post.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section 1 - FAQ Information and References
Section 2 - Profession Basics
Section 3 - Getting Started
Section 4 - Other Stuff
Section 5 - Links to Specific Profession FAQs
Section 6 - Links to Additional Resources
Section 7 - Training Information
Section 8 - Trainer Locations
Section 9 - Secondary Profession Expert Tomes
Section 10 - Secondary Profession Artisan Quests
Section 11 - Bugs and Issues List
Section 12 - No Seperate Forums & Post Tags
Section 13 - Thanks & Closing Comments
1 - FAQ INFORMATION AND REFERENCES
1.1 Where can I read the official details about Professions?
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/professions/
1.2 What about “Unofficial” details?
Obviously, this FAQ.
See Section 5 - Links & other FAQs in this FAQ
It is also suggested that you take a look at these two sites and get to know them: http://www.thottbot.com/ and http://wow.allakhazam.com/.
1.3 I have additional information for this FAQ, how do I get it to you?
Please reply.
1.4 Can I repost your FAQ on my website, guild website, etc?
No. Permission to repost or redistribute this FAQ remains at the authors sole discretion. You may, offer a link to this FAQ however.
1.5 Website X would love to host your FAQ, interested?
No. Maintaining the FAQ in more then once place does not appeal to me in the least, I don’t care how easy your website FAQ engine is.
1.6 What’s the official link to this FAQ?
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=40
1.7 What are your expectations of those that maintain the seperate profession FAQs?
See 6.5.
1.8 How can those of us in europe make suggestions or question your FAQ?
I will check the following thread every so often and will update and or respond her as appropriate. http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-tradeskills-en&t=5790&p=1&tmp=1#post5790
2 - PROFESSION BASICS
2.1 What are the different classifications of tradeskills?
Type: Primary and Secondary. You may choose upto two (2) Primary Professions. You can take all of the Secondary Professions.
Category: Gathering, Production, and Service. Gathering Professions collect resources or materials that can be made into to items by Producing Professions. Service Professions provide services such as enhancing an item or healing a player.
2.2 What are the Primary Professions?
Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Herbalism, Leatherworking, Mining, Skinning, & Tailoring.
2.2 What are the Secoundary Professions?
Cooking, First Aid, & Fishing.
2.3 What are the Gathering Professions?
Fishing, Herbalism, Mining, & Skinning.
2.4 What are the Producing Professions?
Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Cooking, Engineering, Leatherworking, & Tailoring.
2.5 What are the Service Professions?
Enchanting & First Aid.
3 - GETTING STARTED
3.1 How do I learn a Profession?
Train in as an Apprentice in that profession from one of the begining trainers for 10 copper. You will find a few scattered about, but most can be found in the major cities near the starting areas.
3.2 Where are the professional trainers?
Ask a guard! Guards will tell you where to find trainers and other services in most areas. (Right click on Guard. Select Professions. Select Desire profession. Click Goodbye.) Look for the arrow and flag on your radar.
3.3 How do I actually use my profession to create an item?
Open your skill list ("P") and click on the profession icon to bring up the profession's particular creation menu. The menu tells you what you can make, how many you can make given your current inventory (bank not included!), and the required ingredients for your recipe/pattern.
3.4 How do I create several items at once?
In the bottom left corner of the trade interface, there is an area where you can select how many of a specific item you want to create. There is also a "Create All" button that will create as many copies of the item as you can.
3.5 What are recipes used for?
Recipes are instructions on how to make a specific item? They allow you to make the item once you have the required materials and the necesary tools. You must have a recipe for a particular item in order to create the item.
3.6 Where can I get recipes?
You will start with a few recipes when you first train in a profession. Many recipes are available from the same in-game trainers who teach a specific trade skill. Other recipes are found through various vendors around the world or on the corpses of slain monsters.
3.7 Can I fail when crafting
No. When you craft an items, you always make that item, so there are no wasted materials.
3.8 Do you need a new recipe every time you attempt to create an item?
No. Once you have learned a recipe, you will remember it unless you unlearn the skill.
3.9 How do I know what the stats are on an item before I make one?
Hovering your cursor above the item icon and you will see that stats for that item.
3.10 What items are used in crafting?
The list is to long to post. A general rule is to look at the color if the items name. Grey items are vendor trash, sell these to a vendor. All other items are to be used or can be used in a profession. Use Thottbot for more information on an items.
4 - OTHER STUFF
4.1 Which tradeskills should I take to earn money?
This is a much discussed issue, I'll give you my general thoughts on this. First I recomend that you take the ones that interest you the most or compliments your profession. With that said, the clearly most profitable professions are the gathering professions. All other professions need material and they will often buy them from others. So if all you want to ocus on is money, then take skinning, and either herbalism or mining.
4.2 What good is crafting, if most drops or quest rewards are better than most crafted items?
Crafted items aren't meant to totally replace all your items. Rather, it is meant to be worn in a few spots, with the majority of your equipment coming from quests and hunting. - Tyren (Answer given in reference to leatherwork)
4.3 Which professions are a good complement to my class?
Druid - Skining/Leatherwork
Hunter - Skining/Leatherwork or Mining/Engineering
Mage - Tailoring/Enchanting or Skining/Tailoring
Paladin - Mining/Blacksmithing
Priest - Tailoring/Enchanting or Skining/Tailoring
Rogue - Herbalism/Alchemy or Skining/Leatherwork
Shaman - Skining/Leatherwork
Warlock - Tailoring/Enchanting or Skining/Tailoring
Warrior - Mining/Blacksmithing
PVP - Mining/Engineering (provides extra range, damage, and snare capablitity)
Money Making - Minning/Skinning or Herbalism/Skinning
Note these are up to debate. I recommend that everyone takes all the secondary skills. If you solo alot you might want to do Herbalism/Alchemy.
5 - LINKS TO SPECIFIC PROFESSION FAQs
5.1 Where can I get more specific FAQ for my profession?
Roriandris' Alchemy FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=102586
Raoul's Blacksmithing FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=113903
Draznar's Cooking FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?ForumName=wow-professions&ThreadID=118679
Jaywu's Enchanting FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=105145
Rasmfrackn's Engineering FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=43026
Draznar's First Aid FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=118687
Draznar's Fishing FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=74610
Roriandris' Herbalism FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=102751
Emli's Leatherworking FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=43110
Tessie's Mining FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=76478
Zarzz's Skinning FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=88064
XXX's Tailoring FAQ See FAQ Repository let me know if you would take over this FAQ.
Laenis' Lockingpicking (Rogue) FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-rogue&t=20276
[b]FAQ Repository[b] hosted by the Azerothian Trade Union at http://wow.toshimo.com/ hold back-ups of our FAQs incase Blizzard's forums delete them/
6 - LINKS TO ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
6.1 What other information posts should I check out?
Tessie's Auction House FAQ Needs to be reposted
Alumriel's Profession PDFs http://www.streamload.com/bollwerk
Wilhelm's Gathered Crafting Materials List & Beta Server Price List http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=3716&tmp=1#post3716
6.2 What other resources do you recommend?
Thotbott (The quickest WoW DB) http://www.thottbot.com/
Allakhazam (Another great DB) http://wow.allakhazam.com/
Azerothian Trade Union (Invitation only forum to discuse methods of making money in WoW) http://wow.toshimo.com/
Cosmos User Interface (A great help with professions) http://www.cosmosui.org/
Zalla's Guide for Collecting Non-Com/Small Pets http://tkasomething.com/zallafaq.php
Reputation FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-quests&t=43787
6.3 I can't find a good FAQ or Guide for XXX?
Feel free to start one or check through some of the fan sites. See next 2 questions.
6.4 I started an FAQ (or other usefull thread) in this forum, how do I get it added here?
If I have not already added it, reply to this with the link and I'll see about adding it. See 6.5.
6.5 What are your expectations of those that maintain the seperate profession FAQs?
Once a week make sure it is bumped to avoid deletion.
Make revisions as needed. Keep it current. Just a quick reminder these are frequently asked questions, not all questions.
Notify me after major revisions, so we can maintain backups.
If you see questions posted that are answered in an FAQ, point them to the FAQs.
Suggestion for creating the FAQ. Reply imediately after posting a few times to reserve space for expansion.
CONTINUES IN NEXT POST
[ post edited by Draznar ]
2. Draznar's Ultimate Profession FAQ p. 2 | 11/24/2004 12:54:04 PM CST
Draznar's Ultimate Profession FAQ & Links to other FAQs - P2
7 - TRAINING INFORMATION
7.1 What are the different levels/ranks in the professions?
Note: Gathering, Cooking & First Aid Professions do not have level requirements.
Rank (Min - Max Skills), Min Level, Cost.
Apprentise (1-75) Lvl 5, 5 copper
Journeyman (50-150) Lvl 10, 5 silver
Expert (125-225) Lvl 20, 50 silver
Artisan (200-300) Lvl 35, 5 gold
Note: Secondary Professions do not train for Expert & Artisan. See below.
7.2 How do I do I become an Expert or Artisan in Secondary Professions?
Expert: By reading that Professions Expert Tome. They cost 1 gold.
Artisan: By completing a quest. Must be level 40.
Details can be found below.
7.3 How do I know which resources or recipes will boost my skill?
Resources and recipes are colored-coded according to the likelihood that harvesting/creating the item will increase your skill.
Red items are items that you may not yet make or harvest.
Orange items will always increase your skill when created or harvested.
Yellow items will sometimes increase your skill when created or harvested.
Green items will rarely increase your skill when created or harvested.
Gray items will never increase your skill when created or harvested.
7.4 Why am I not getting any more skill-ups?
You have reached the highest skill points for your Rank. Go train to the next rank.
You need to move to a harder recipe or material. Each item has a range where it is to easy to make/gather to continue to earn skill-ups. Go find the next recipe/resource.
7.5 How do I "unlearn" a profession?
Go to your skills panel (hit "K") and highlight the skill you want to forget. It'll show up in the lower panel and next to it you'll have one of those circle with a slash "No" symbols. Click on that symbol to forget the skill. A dialogue box will confirm your choice.
Any items that you had equiped that required required the un-learned skill will be un-epuiped next time you login and will be in your backpack.
If you ever want to learn this profession again you will just start out as a novice (0 skill) with only the starting recipes.
Warning: Unlearning does not clear specialization.
7.6 How do I do I become a "Master"?
Master is an NPC only title for those that can train Artisan. The highest a player can train is Artisan.
[b]7.7 Complete Trainer List
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/guides.html?guide=361
8 - TRAINER LOCATIONS
8.1 Where can I find the Journeyman & Expert Trainers?:
I am not including these at this time, since they are so many of them and easy to find.
Ask a guard! Guards will tell you where to find trainers and other services in most areas. (Right click on Guard. Select Professions. Select Desire profession. Click Goodbye.) Look for the arrow and flag on your radar.
8.2 Where can I find the Gathering Profession Trainers?
Gathering Trainers (Herbalism, Mining, & Skinning) can train all levels of that profession. So go visit the closest trainer.
8.3 Where can I find the Artisan Trainers (For training in Expert)?
Alchemy - Ainethil in Darnassus (A) or Doctor Herbert Halsey in The Undercity (H)
Blacksmithing - Bengus Deepforge in Iron Forge (A) or Saru Steelfury in Orgrimmar (H)
Enchanting - Kitta Firewind in Elwynn Forest (Tower of Azora) (A) or Hgarth in Stonetalon Mountains (H)
Engineering - Springspindle Fizzlegear in Iron Forge (A) or Roxxik in Orgrimmar (H)
Leatherworking - Telonis in Darnassus (A) or Una? in Thunder Bluff?
Tailoring - Georgio Bolero in Stormwind City (A) or Josef Gregorian in The Undercity (H)
8.4 Where can I find the Master Trainers (For training in Artisan)?
Alchemy - Kylanna Windwhisper in Feralas Feathermoon Stronghold) (A) or Rogvar in Swamp of Sorrows (Stonard) (H).
Blacksmithing - Brikk Keencraft in Stranglethorn Vale (Booty Bay) (A/H).
Enchanting - Annora in Uldaman (within instance, near bats) (A/H) to get to her you go right from the "Raiders of the lost ark room". After you go right there are 3 passages you go right past a pit full of non-elites then there is a fork and go right once more. There you will fine another pit full of non-elite scorpids you have to kill them all before the trainer will come out.
Engineering - Buzzek Bracketswing in Tanaris (Gadgetzan) (A/H)
Leatherworking - Wark Nightsky in Hinterlands (Aerie Peak) (A) or Hahrana Ironhide in Feralas (Camp Mojache) (H)
Tailoring - Timothy Worthington in Dustwallow Marsh (Theramore Island) (A) or Daryl Stack in Hillsbrad Foothills (Tarren Mill) (H)
8.5 Where can I find the Special Trainers?
Master Dragonscale Leatherworker - Peter Galen in Azshara (Near base of road to The Forlorn Ridge) (A) or Thorkaf Dragoneye in Badlands (H)
Master Elemental Leatherworker - Sarah Tanner in Searing Gorge (A) or Brumn Winterhoof in Arathi Highlands (North of Stromgarde Keep, west of cross roads) (H)
Master Gnome Engineer - Tinkmaster Overspark in Ironfprge (Tinker Town) (A) or Oglethorpe Obnoticus in Stranglethorn (Booty Bay) (H)
Master Goblin Engineer - Nixx Sprocketspring in Tanaris (Gadgetzan) (A) or Vazario Linkgrease in The Barrens (Ratchet) (H)
Master Shadoweave Tailor - Jalane Ayrole in Stormwind City (Westside of Mage Quarters) (A) or Josephine Lister in The Undercity (The Magic Quaters) (H)
Master Tribal Leatherworker Caryssia Moonhunter in Feralas/Thousand Needles (A) or Se'Jib in Stranglethorn Valley (Mouth of River to Lake Nazferiti) (H)
Note: Use Thottbot or Allakhazam to map these people if you need help finding them.
9 - SECONDARY PROFESSION EXPERT TOMES
9.1 Where can I find the Expert Tomes?
Expert Cookbook: Shandrina in Ashenvale (Silverwind Refuge) (A) or Wulan in Desolace (Shadowspray Village) (H)
Expert First Aid - Under Wraps: Deneb Walker in Arathi Highlands (Stromgarde Keep) (A) or Balai Lok'Wein in Dustwallow Marsh (Brackenwall Village) (H)
Expert Fishing - The Bass and You: Old Man Heming in Stranglethorn Vale (Booty Bay)
Each book cost 1 gold.
See individual Profession FAQ for more information on finding these vendors.
10 - SECONDARY PROFESSION ARTISAN QUESTS
10.1 what are the requirements for the Secondary Artisan Quests?
Level = 40
Skill = 225
I repeat you need to be at least level 40 and have maxed your skill at 225.
10.2 Where can I find the Cooking Artisan Quest:
Note: See 11.1 on Artisan Bug.
Alliance Start: Starts with Daryl Riknussun in Ironforge near the grif platform at the forge. http://www.thottbot.com/?q=3002
Horde Start: Start with Zamja in Orgrimmar in the third house on the right on the near the Valley of Strength in the Drag. http://www.thottbot.com/?q=3131
You can skip the starter and go directly to Dirge Quikcleave.
Both send you to speak with Dirge Quikcleave in Tanaris (Gadgetzan). http://www.thottbot.com/?q=829
Dirge is the slayer of sorrows for anyone not high enough to hunt the rocs in the area. You need to provide the quest giver with 12 giant eggs, 10 Zesty clam meat, and 20 alterac swiss.
Bug Warning: Make sure you have ingredients to cook something for a skill up to 226 before leaving the area. You can cook with the huge bon-fire in Gadget. It's around the corner behind the inn.
Giant eggs Are a commin drop off Level 40+ Rocs in Tanaris (plenty near Gadgetzan) or Owlbeasts in The Hinterlands.
Zesty Clam meat can be looted out of Big-mouth Clam (container) that drop off of the Muckshells and Threshers in Dushwallow Marsh, Naga Explorers in Stranglethorn Vale, or Hatecrests in Feralas.
Alterac Swiss sells for 40 silver per stack of 5 from Ben Trias in Stormwind City (Cheese shop just inside gates) (A) or Inkeeper Sikewa in Desolace (Shadowsprey Village) (H). For other vendors (http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?i=842).
10.3 Where can I find the First Aid Artisan Quest?
Note: See 11.1 on Artisan Bug.
Alliance Start: Starts with Nissa Firestone in Ironforge near the Military Ward at the forge. http://www.thottbot.com/?q=2225
You are sent to speak with Doctor Gustaf VanHowzen in Dustwallow Marsh (Theramore).
Horde: Start with Arnok in Orgrimmar in the Valley of Spirits. http://www.thottbot.com/?q=2735
You are sent to speak with Doctor Gregory Victor in Arathi Highlands (Hammerfall).
Triage: He will have you triage 15 patients in a certain order before 6 die. You will be in a room with 6 cots (make sure you can see all 6 cots). You will have special triage bandages (add them to your action bar) which should be applied to Critically injured, then Badly injured, and then injured.
Bug Warning: Make sure you have plenty of Mageweave Cloth to make some bandages for a skill up to 226 before leaving the area.
10.4 Where can I find the Fishing Artisan Quest?
Note: See 11.1 on Artisan Bug.
Alliance Start: Starts with Grimnur Stonebrand? in Ironforge? http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?q=834
Horde Start: Start with Lumak in Orgrimmar (Valley of Honor).
Both send you to speak with Nat Pagle in in Dustwallow Marsh (Theramore Island). http://www.thottbot.com/?q=1281
Nat Pagle wants you to four different fish; Feralas Ahi, Savage Coast Blue Sailfin, Sar'theris Striker, & Misty Reed Mahi Mahi.
Bug Warning: Make sure to right after for a skill up to 226 before leaving the area.
Feralas Ahi is a rare drop in Feralas (Verdantis River).
Savage Coast Blue Sailfin is a rare drop in Stranglethorn Vale (The Savage Coast)
Sar'theris Striker is a rare drop in Desolace (Sar'theris Strand)
Misty Reed Mahi Mahi is a rare drop in Swamp of Sorrows (Misty Reed Strand)
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Draznar's Profession FAQ http://tinyurl.com/6d56o
3. Draznar's Ultimate Profession FAQ p. 3 | 11/24/2004 1:13:58 PM CST
Draznar's Ultimate Profession FAQ & Links to other FAQs - P3
11 - BUGS AND ISSUES LIST
11.1 Secoundary Profession Artisan Quests
Several users have completed the quest and had level changed to Artisan, but skill is maxed at 225, not 300. Bug was discovered in mid December. Last update from GM was "Unfortunately, as of yet we have no resolution for this issue." (1/25) or "Unfortunately at this time our staff is still looking into what is causing the issue. We have no way of resetting secondary professions at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience." (2/2)
To prevent bug, make sure to skill up to 226 before leaving the zone. This means you should have all the stuff you need to make at least one skill up with you, when you complete the quest.
11.2 Training
Trainers for certain professions (e.g. enchanting) show all required materials when listing formulas/recipes/plans etc. available to be learned. This information is clearly quite helpful in determining whether or not to spend the money to learn a given formula/recipe/plan etc. However, this information isn't displayed for all professions (e.g. blacksmithing, tailoring).
11.3 Alchemy[/b]
Gift of Arthas: Every time it goes off it automatically removes another potion from the players inventory. This can be avoided fixed by taking one off the stack and using that one.
11.4 Cooking
Dragonbreath Chili: Every time it goes off it automatically removes another chili pot from the players inventory. This can be avoided fixed by taking one off the stack and using that one.
Winter Squid: No longer being caught in the game.
11.5 Enchanting
Enchant Gloves - Minor Haste: Lowers your dps, has since beta.
Enchant Weapon - Fiery Weapon: Causes problems with abilities like heroic strike, and raptor strike, ie, attacks that add so and so much damage to your next attack, the attack goes through, but you don't do your weapon damage, just your proc damage from the enchant.
11.6 Engineering
Cloaking Device: Quite often the "ten second invisibility" only last for three seconds. Any enemies that had you targeted before you activated the cloak can still see you and follow you around, and any damage dispels the cloak.
Gnomish Rocket Boots: Sometimes the speed boost only lasts for ten seconds instead of the listed 20.
Gnomish Universal Remote: After about 5 seconds everyone disappears except the robot deing controled.
Goblin Land Mine: Don't work, even when a mob walks right over it.
Small Seaforium Charge: don't open chest like the website states. Either change them our update the website. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/professions/engineering.html
11.7 Fishing
53lb Grouper: This trouphy fish cannot be equiped. No showing off our fishing skills.
Lucky Fishing: Apears to be missing from the game. This was a great item in BETA. UPDATE 02/25/05 by Ordinn - "It accidentally was removed during the fishing fixes that were implemented to prevent gold farming. The developers are now aware, and they are going to work the Lucky Fishing Hat back into the game in an upcoming patch."
11.8 Leatherworking
Rugged Leather: There is no leatherworking conversion from Thick Leather to Rugged Leather. (Is this a bug or intended?) UPDATE This will be fixed in the next patch.
11.9 Mining
Multiple Skillups: Rogues can get another skill-up by picking a lock after their first loot and then mine again. Need to see if crafting has the same effect. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=99638
11.10 General
Bugged nodes: Some nodes will be bugged, such that after trying to loot them you will get stuck in the loot crouch and not be able to loot the node. This is simular to the lag issue, but happens with no lag. This has been found in Herbalism, Mining, & Skining.
Full Inventory Attempting to craft something with insufficient inventory space for the new item results in the item not being produced, but the materials are still consumed (and skill-ups are possible). Instead, the attempt should fail and a dialog to the effect "Not enough inventory space" should be displayed.
Quests: If you're wearing a copy of the item you are turning in, it will take the one you're wearing, enchants and all.
12 - Section 12 - NO SEPERATE FORUMS & POST TAGS
12.1 Seperate Profession Forums
Many have requested that each profession be given its own forum. There is a long Petition to this effect, but Caydem has stated, "we do not plan on splitting the Professions forum, as it would require even more moderation and we are spread too thin as is."
Petition Thread: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=15125
Caydiem's response: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=2310001
12.2 Post Tags
In an effort to help break up the post we are asking people to tag their post with the following tags at the begining of the subject.
12.3 Examples of Post Tages
[ENG] What is the level cap for Artisan Engineering?
[HER] Where can I find Goldthorn?
[ALC] Why does wildvine cost more than the potions?
12.4 List of Post Tags
[GEN] General Question
[HER] Herbalism
[FIS] Fishing
[MIN] Mining
[SKI] Skinning
[ALC] Alchemy
[BLA] Blacksmithing
[COO] Cooking
[ENG] Engineering
[LEA] Leatherworking
[TAI] Tailoring
[ENC] Enchanting
[FIR] First Aid
13 - THANKS & CLOSING COMMENTS
I would like to thank the following people:
A special thanks to Caydiem for giving us a Sticky.
Tyren for the quick answer, even though it was a no. Thanks for the compliment.
Alumriel, Emli, Eran, Faltigoth, Lloran, Raoul, Rasfrackn, Tessie, and Zarzz for coming through with the specific FAQs.
Haze, Terial, Veev, Wilhelm, Zalla, and Zifna for supporting information
Last but not least to all those who have posted on our threads that have helped us impove the FAQs.
Please do not repost this FAQ! Feel free to link it as we are constantly trying to update it.
Professions Discussion -Professions Discussion -: "40"
(Please read entire FAQ before posting in forum.)
If applicable to an existing FAQ, please reply in that FAQ.
* * * Looking for someone to maintain TAILORING and/or SKINNING FAQs * * *
Here is the Unofficial Profession FAQ. Please help me flesh this out. This FAQ is dedicated to those in this forum that helped develop it.
Questions, comments, or suggestions can be put in a reply to this post.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section 1 - FAQ Information and References
Section 2 - Profession Basics
Section 3 - Getting Started
Section 4 - Other Stuff
Section 5 - Links to Specific Profession FAQs
Section 6 - Links to Additional Resources
Section 7 - Training Information
Section 8 - Trainer Locations
Section 9 - Secondary Profession Expert Tomes
Section 10 - Secondary Profession Artisan Quests
Section 11 - Bugs and Issues List
Section 12 - No Seperate Forums & Post Tags
Section 13 - Thanks & Closing Comments
1 - FAQ INFORMATION AND REFERENCES
1.1 Where can I read the official details about Professions?
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/professions/
1.2 What about “Unofficial” details?
Obviously, this FAQ.
See Section 5 - Links & other FAQs in this FAQ
It is also suggested that you take a look at these two sites and get to know them: http://www.thottbot.com/ and http://wow.allakhazam.com/.
1.3 I have additional information for this FAQ, how do I get it to you?
Please reply.
1.4 Can I repost your FAQ on my website, guild website, etc?
No. Permission to repost or redistribute this FAQ remains at the authors sole discretion. You may, offer a link to this FAQ however.
1.5 Website X would love to host your FAQ, interested?
No. Maintaining the FAQ in more then once place does not appeal to me in the least, I don’t care how easy your website FAQ engine is.
1.6 What’s the official link to this FAQ?
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=40
1.7 What are your expectations of those that maintain the seperate profession FAQs?
See 6.5.
1.8 How can those of us in europe make suggestions or question your FAQ?
I will check the following thread every so often and will update and or respond her as appropriate. http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-tradeskills-en&t=5790&p=1&tmp=1#post5790
2 - PROFESSION BASICS
2.1 What are the different classifications of tradeskills?
Type: Primary and Secondary. You may choose upto two (2) Primary Professions. You can take all of the Secondary Professions.
Category: Gathering, Production, and Service. Gathering Professions collect resources or materials that can be made into to items by Producing Professions. Service Professions provide services such as enhancing an item or healing a player.
2.2 What are the Primary Professions?
Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Herbalism, Leatherworking, Mining, Skinning, & Tailoring.
2.2 What are the Secoundary Professions?
Cooking, First Aid, & Fishing.
2.3 What are the Gathering Professions?
Fishing, Herbalism, Mining, & Skinning.
2.4 What are the Producing Professions?
Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Cooking, Engineering, Leatherworking, & Tailoring.
2.5 What are the Service Professions?
Enchanting & First Aid.
3 - GETTING STARTED
3.1 How do I learn a Profession?
Train in as an Apprentice in that profession from one of the begining trainers for 10 copper. You will find a few scattered about, but most can be found in the major cities near the starting areas.
3.2 Where are the professional trainers?
Ask a guard! Guards will tell you where to find trainers and other services in most areas. (Right click on Guard. Select Professions. Select Desire profession. Click Goodbye.) Look for the arrow and flag on your radar.
3.3 How do I actually use my profession to create an item?
Open your skill list ("P") and click on the profession icon to bring up the profession's particular creation menu. The menu tells you what you can make, how many you can make given your current inventory (bank not included!), and the required ingredients for your recipe/pattern.
3.4 How do I create several items at once?
In the bottom left corner of the trade interface, there is an area where you can select how many of a specific item you want to create. There is also a "Create All" button that will create as many copies of the item as you can.
3.5 What are recipes used for?
Recipes are instructions on how to make a specific item? They allow you to make the item once you have the required materials and the necesary tools. You must have a recipe for a particular item in order to create the item.
3.6 Where can I get recipes?
You will start with a few recipes when you first train in a profession. Many recipes are available from the same in-game trainers who teach a specific trade skill. Other recipes are found through various vendors around the world or on the corpses of slain monsters.
3.7 Can I fail when crafting
No. When you craft an items, you always make that item, so there are no wasted materials.
3.8 Do you need a new recipe every time you attempt to create an item?
No. Once you have learned a recipe, you will remember it unless you unlearn the skill.
3.9 How do I know what the stats are on an item before I make one?
Hovering your cursor above the item icon and you will see that stats for that item.
3.10 What items are used in crafting?
The list is to long to post. A general rule is to look at the color if the items name. Grey items are vendor trash, sell these to a vendor. All other items are to be used or can be used in a profession. Use Thottbot for more information on an items.
4 - OTHER STUFF
4.1 Which tradeskills should I take to earn money?
This is a much discussed issue, I'll give you my general thoughts on this. First I recomend that you take the ones that interest you the most or compliments your profession. With that said, the clearly most profitable professions are the gathering professions. All other professions need material and they will often buy them from others. So if all you want to ocus on is money, then take skinning, and either herbalism or mining.
4.2 What good is crafting, if most drops or quest rewards are better than most crafted items?
Crafted items aren't meant to totally replace all your items. Rather, it is meant to be worn in a few spots, with the majority of your equipment coming from quests and hunting. - Tyren (Answer given in reference to leatherwork)
4.3 Which professions are a good complement to my class?
Druid - Skining/Leatherwork
Hunter - Skining/Leatherwork or Mining/Engineering
Mage - Tailoring/Enchanting or Skining/Tailoring
Paladin - Mining/Blacksmithing
Priest - Tailoring/Enchanting or Skining/Tailoring
Rogue - Herbalism/Alchemy or Skining/Leatherwork
Shaman - Skining/Leatherwork
Warlock - Tailoring/Enchanting or Skining/Tailoring
Warrior - Mining/Blacksmithing
PVP - Mining/Engineering (provides extra range, damage, and snare capablitity)
Money Making - Minning/Skinning or Herbalism/Skinning
Note these are up to debate. I recommend that everyone takes all the secondary skills. If you solo alot you might want to do Herbalism/Alchemy.
5 - LINKS TO SPECIFIC PROFESSION FAQs
5.1 Where can I get more specific FAQ for my profession?
Roriandris' Alchemy FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=102586
Raoul's Blacksmithing FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=113903
Draznar's Cooking FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?ForumName=wow-professions&ThreadID=118679
Jaywu's Enchanting FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=105145
Rasmfrackn's Engineering FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=43026
Draznar's First Aid FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=118687
Draznar's Fishing FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=74610
Roriandris' Herbalism FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=102751
Emli's Leatherworking FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=43110
Tessie's Mining FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=76478
Zarzz's Skinning FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=88064
XXX's Tailoring FAQ See FAQ Repository let me know if you would take over this FAQ.
Laenis' Lockingpicking (Rogue) FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-rogue&t=20276
[b]FAQ Repository[b] hosted by the Azerothian Trade Union at http://wow.toshimo.com/ hold back-ups of our FAQs incase Blizzard's forums delete them/
6 - LINKS TO ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
6.1 What other information posts should I check out?
Tessie's Auction House FAQ Needs to be reposted
Alumriel's Profession PDFs http://www.streamload.com/bollwerk
Wilhelm's Gathered Crafting Materials List & Beta Server Price List http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=3716&tmp=1#post3716
6.2 What other resources do you recommend?
Thotbott (The quickest WoW DB) http://www.thottbot.com/
Allakhazam (Another great DB) http://wow.allakhazam.com/
Azerothian Trade Union (Invitation only forum to discuse methods of making money in WoW) http://wow.toshimo.com/
Cosmos User Interface (A great help with professions) http://www.cosmosui.org/
Zalla's Guide for Collecting Non-Com/Small Pets http://tkasomething.com/zallafaq.php
Reputation FAQ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-quests&t=43787
6.3 I can't find a good FAQ or Guide for XXX?
Feel free to start one or check through some of the fan sites. See next 2 questions.
6.4 I started an FAQ (or other usefull thread) in this forum, how do I get it added here?
If I have not already added it, reply to this with the link and I'll see about adding it. See 6.5.
6.5 What are your expectations of those that maintain the seperate profession FAQs?
Once a week make sure it is bumped to avoid deletion.
Make revisions as needed. Keep it current. Just a quick reminder these are frequently asked questions, not all questions.
Notify me after major revisions, so we can maintain backups.
If you see questions posted that are answered in an FAQ, point them to the FAQs.
Suggestion for creating the FAQ. Reply imediately after posting a few times to reserve space for expansion.
CONTINUES IN NEXT POST
[ post edited by Draznar ]
2. Draznar's Ultimate Profession FAQ p. 2 | 11/24/2004 12:54:04 PM CST
Draznar's Ultimate Profession FAQ & Links to other FAQs - P2
7 - TRAINING INFORMATION
7.1 What are the different levels/ranks in the professions?
Note: Gathering, Cooking & First Aid Professions do not have level requirements.
Rank (Min - Max Skills), Min Level, Cost.
Apprentise (1-75) Lvl 5, 5 copper
Journeyman (50-150) Lvl 10, 5 silver
Expert (125-225) Lvl 20, 50 silver
Artisan (200-300) Lvl 35, 5 gold
Note: Secondary Professions do not train for Expert & Artisan. See below.
7.2 How do I do I become an Expert or Artisan in Secondary Professions?
Expert: By reading that Professions Expert Tome. They cost 1 gold.
Artisan: By completing a quest. Must be level 40.
Details can be found below.
7.3 How do I know which resources or recipes will boost my skill?
Resources and recipes are colored-coded according to the likelihood that harvesting/creating the item will increase your skill.
Red items are items that you may not yet make or harvest.
Orange items will always increase your skill when created or harvested.
Yellow items will sometimes increase your skill when created or harvested.
Green items will rarely increase your skill when created or harvested.
Gray items will never increase your skill when created or harvested.
7.4 Why am I not getting any more skill-ups?
You have reached the highest skill points for your Rank. Go train to the next rank.
You need to move to a harder recipe or material. Each item has a range where it is to easy to make/gather to continue to earn skill-ups. Go find the next recipe/resource.
7.5 How do I "unlearn" a profession?
Go to your skills panel (hit "K") and highlight the skill you want to forget. It'll show up in the lower panel and next to it you'll have one of those circle with a slash "No" symbols. Click on that symbol to forget the skill. A dialogue box will confirm your choice.
Any items that you had equiped that required required the un-learned skill will be un-epuiped next time you login and will be in your backpack.
If you ever want to learn this profession again you will just start out as a novice (0 skill) with only the starting recipes.
Warning: Unlearning does not clear specialization.
7.6 How do I do I become a "Master"?
Master is an NPC only title for those that can train Artisan. The highest a player can train is Artisan.
[b]7.7 Complete Trainer List
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/guides.html?guide=361
8 - TRAINER LOCATIONS
8.1 Where can I find the Journeyman & Expert Trainers?:
I am not including these at this time, since they are so many of them and easy to find.
Ask a guard! Guards will tell you where to find trainers and other services in most areas. (Right click on Guard. Select Professions. Select Desire profession. Click Goodbye.) Look for the arrow and flag on your radar.
8.2 Where can I find the Gathering Profession Trainers?
Gathering Trainers (Herbalism, Mining, & Skinning) can train all levels of that profession. So go visit the closest trainer.
8.3 Where can I find the Artisan Trainers (For training in Expert)?
Alchemy - Ainethil in Darnassus (A) or Doctor Herbert Halsey in The Undercity (H)
Blacksmithing - Bengus Deepforge in Iron Forge (A) or Saru Steelfury in Orgrimmar (H)
Enchanting - Kitta Firewind in Elwynn Forest (Tower of Azora) (A) or Hgarth in Stonetalon Mountains (H)
Engineering - Springspindle Fizzlegear in Iron Forge (A) or Roxxik in Orgrimmar (H)
Leatherworking - Telonis in Darnassus (A) or Una? in Thunder Bluff?
Tailoring - Georgio Bolero in Stormwind City (A) or Josef Gregorian in The Undercity (H)
8.4 Where can I find the Master Trainers (For training in Artisan)?
Alchemy - Kylanna Windwhisper in Feralas Feathermoon Stronghold) (A) or Rogvar in Swamp of Sorrows (Stonard) (H).
Blacksmithing - Brikk Keencraft in Stranglethorn Vale (Booty Bay) (A/H).
Enchanting - Annora in Uldaman (within instance, near bats) (A/H) to get to her you go right from the "Raiders of the lost ark room". After you go right there are 3 passages you go right past a pit full of non-elites then there is a fork and go right once more. There you will fine another pit full of non-elite scorpids you have to kill them all before the trainer will come out.
Engineering - Buzzek Bracketswing in Tanaris (Gadgetzan) (A/H)
Leatherworking - Wark Nightsky in Hinterlands (Aerie Peak) (A) or Hahrana Ironhide in Feralas (Camp Mojache) (H)
Tailoring - Timothy Worthington in Dustwallow Marsh (Theramore Island) (A) or Daryl Stack in Hillsbrad Foothills (Tarren Mill) (H)
8.5 Where can I find the Special Trainers?
Master Dragonscale Leatherworker - Peter Galen in Azshara (Near base of road to The Forlorn Ridge) (A) or Thorkaf Dragoneye in Badlands (H)
Master Elemental Leatherworker - Sarah Tanner in Searing Gorge (A) or Brumn Winterhoof in Arathi Highlands (North of Stromgarde Keep, west of cross roads) (H)
Master Gnome Engineer - Tinkmaster Overspark in Ironfprge (Tinker Town) (A) or Oglethorpe Obnoticus in Stranglethorn (Booty Bay) (H)
Master Goblin Engineer - Nixx Sprocketspring in Tanaris (Gadgetzan) (A) or Vazario Linkgrease in The Barrens (Ratchet) (H)
Master Shadoweave Tailor - Jalane Ayrole in Stormwind City (Westside of Mage Quarters) (A) or Josephine Lister in The Undercity (The Magic Quaters) (H)
Master Tribal Leatherworker Caryssia Moonhunter in Feralas/Thousand Needles (A) or Se'Jib in Stranglethorn Valley (Mouth of River to Lake Nazferiti) (H)
Note: Use Thottbot or Allakhazam to map these people if you need help finding them.
9 - SECONDARY PROFESSION EXPERT TOMES
9.1 Where can I find the Expert Tomes?
Expert Cookbook: Shandrina in Ashenvale (Silverwind Refuge) (A) or Wulan in Desolace (Shadowspray Village) (H)
Expert First Aid - Under Wraps: Deneb Walker in Arathi Highlands (Stromgarde Keep) (A) or Balai Lok'Wein in Dustwallow Marsh (Brackenwall Village) (H)
Expert Fishing - The Bass and You: Old Man Heming in Stranglethorn Vale (Booty Bay)
Each book cost 1 gold.
See individual Profession FAQ for more information on finding these vendors.
10 - SECONDARY PROFESSION ARTISAN QUESTS
10.1 what are the requirements for the Secondary Artisan Quests?
Level = 40
Skill = 225
I repeat you need to be at least level 40 and have maxed your skill at 225.
10.2 Where can I find the Cooking Artisan Quest:
Note: See 11.1 on Artisan Bug.
Alliance Start: Starts with Daryl Riknussun in Ironforge near the grif platform at the forge. http://www.thottbot.com/?q=3002
Horde Start: Start with Zamja in Orgrimmar in the third house on the right on the near the Valley of Strength in the Drag. http://www.thottbot.com/?q=3131
You can skip the starter and go directly to Dirge Quikcleave.
Both send you to speak with Dirge Quikcleave in Tanaris (Gadgetzan). http://www.thottbot.com/?q=829
Dirge is the slayer of sorrows for anyone not high enough to hunt the rocs in the area. You need to provide the quest giver with 12 giant eggs, 10 Zesty clam meat, and 20 alterac swiss.
Bug Warning: Make sure you have ingredients to cook something for a skill up to 226 before leaving the area. You can cook with the huge bon-fire in Gadget. It's around the corner behind the inn.
Giant eggs Are a commin drop off Level 40+ Rocs in Tanaris (plenty near Gadgetzan) or Owlbeasts in The Hinterlands.
Zesty Clam meat can be looted out of Big-mouth Clam (container) that drop off of the Muckshells and Threshers in Dushwallow Marsh, Naga Explorers in Stranglethorn Vale, or Hatecrests in Feralas.
Alterac Swiss sells for 40 silver per stack of 5 from Ben Trias in Stormwind City (Cheese shop just inside gates) (A) or Inkeeper Sikewa in Desolace (Shadowsprey Village) (H). For other vendors (http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?i=842).
10.3 Where can I find the First Aid Artisan Quest?
Note: See 11.1 on Artisan Bug.
Alliance Start: Starts with Nissa Firestone in Ironforge near the Military Ward at the forge. http://www.thottbot.com/?q=2225
You are sent to speak with Doctor Gustaf VanHowzen in Dustwallow Marsh (Theramore).
Horde: Start with Arnok in Orgrimmar in the Valley of Spirits. http://www.thottbot.com/?q=2735
You are sent to speak with Doctor Gregory Victor in Arathi Highlands (Hammerfall).
Triage: He will have you triage 15 patients in a certain order before 6 die. You will be in a room with 6 cots (make sure you can see all 6 cots). You will have special triage bandages (add them to your action bar) which should be applied to Critically injured, then Badly injured, and then injured.
Bug Warning: Make sure you have plenty of Mageweave Cloth to make some bandages for a skill up to 226 before leaving the area.
10.4 Where can I find the Fishing Artisan Quest?
Note: See 11.1 on Artisan Bug.
Alliance Start: Starts with Grimnur Stonebrand? in Ironforge? http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?q=834
Horde Start: Start with Lumak in Orgrimmar (Valley of Honor).
Both send you to speak with Nat Pagle in in Dustwallow Marsh (Theramore Island). http://www.thottbot.com/?q=1281
Nat Pagle wants you to four different fish; Feralas Ahi, Savage Coast Blue Sailfin, Sar'theris Striker, & Misty Reed Mahi Mahi.
Bug Warning: Make sure to right after for a skill up to 226 before leaving the area.
Feralas Ahi is a rare drop in Feralas (Verdantis River).
Savage Coast Blue Sailfin is a rare drop in Stranglethorn Vale (The Savage Coast)
Sar'theris Striker is a rare drop in Desolace (Sar'theris Strand)
Misty Reed Mahi Mahi is a rare drop in Swamp of Sorrows (Misty Reed Strand)
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Draznar's Profession FAQ http://tinyurl.com/6d56o
3. Draznar's Ultimate Profession FAQ p. 3 | 11/24/2004 1:13:58 PM CST
Draznar's Ultimate Profession FAQ & Links to other FAQs - P3
11 - BUGS AND ISSUES LIST
11.1 Secoundary Profession Artisan Quests
Several users have completed the quest and had level changed to Artisan, but skill is maxed at 225, not 300. Bug was discovered in mid December. Last update from GM was "Unfortunately, as of yet we have no resolution for this issue." (1/25) or "Unfortunately at this time our staff is still looking into what is causing the issue. We have no way of resetting secondary professions at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience." (2/2)
To prevent bug, make sure to skill up to 226 before leaving the zone. This means you should have all the stuff you need to make at least one skill up with you, when you complete the quest.
11.2 Training
Trainers for certain professions (e.g. enchanting) show all required materials when listing formulas/recipes/plans etc. available to be learned. This information is clearly quite helpful in determining whether or not to spend the money to learn a given formula/recipe/plan etc. However, this information isn't displayed for all professions (e.g. blacksmithing, tailoring).
11.3 Alchemy[/b]
Gift of Arthas: Every time it goes off it automatically removes another potion from the players inventory. This can be avoided fixed by taking one off the stack and using that one.
11.4 Cooking
Dragonbreath Chili: Every time it goes off it automatically removes another chili pot from the players inventory. This can be avoided fixed by taking one off the stack and using that one.
Winter Squid: No longer being caught in the game.
11.5 Enchanting
Enchant Gloves - Minor Haste: Lowers your dps, has since beta.
Enchant Weapon - Fiery Weapon: Causes problems with abilities like heroic strike, and raptor strike, ie, attacks that add so and so much damage to your next attack, the attack goes through, but you don't do your weapon damage, just your proc damage from the enchant.
11.6 Engineering
Cloaking Device: Quite often the "ten second invisibility" only last for three seconds. Any enemies that had you targeted before you activated the cloak can still see you and follow you around, and any damage dispels the cloak.
Gnomish Rocket Boots: Sometimes the speed boost only lasts for ten seconds instead of the listed 20.
Gnomish Universal Remote: After about 5 seconds everyone disappears except the robot deing controled.
Goblin Land Mine: Don't work, even when a mob walks right over it.
Small Seaforium Charge: don't open chest like the website states. Either change them our update the website. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/professions/engineering.html
11.7 Fishing
53lb Grouper: This trouphy fish cannot be equiped. No showing off our fishing skills.
Lucky Fishing: Apears to be missing from the game. This was a great item in BETA. UPDATE 02/25/05 by Ordinn - "It accidentally was removed during the fishing fixes that were implemented to prevent gold farming. The developers are now aware, and they are going to work the Lucky Fishing Hat back into the game in an upcoming patch."
11.8 Leatherworking
Rugged Leather: There is no leatherworking conversion from Thick Leather to Rugged Leather. (Is this a bug or intended?) UPDATE This will be fixed in the next patch.
11.9 Mining
Multiple Skillups: Rogues can get another skill-up by picking a lock after their first loot and then mine again. Need to see if crafting has the same effect. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=99638
11.10 General
Bugged nodes: Some nodes will be bugged, such that after trying to loot them you will get stuck in the loot crouch and not be able to loot the node. This is simular to the lag issue, but happens with no lag. This has been found in Herbalism, Mining, & Skining.
Full Inventory Attempting to craft something with insufficient inventory space for the new item results in the item not being produced, but the materials are still consumed (and skill-ups are possible). Instead, the attempt should fail and a dialog to the effect "Not enough inventory space" should be displayed.
Quests: If you're wearing a copy of the item you are turning in, it will take the one you're wearing, enchants and all.
12 - Section 12 - NO SEPERATE FORUMS & POST TAGS
12.1 Seperate Profession Forums
Many have requested that each profession be given its own forum. There is a long Petition to this effect, but Caydem has stated, "we do not plan on splitting the Professions forum, as it would require even more moderation and we are spread too thin as is."
Petition Thread: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=15125
Caydiem's response: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=2310001
12.2 Post Tags
In an effort to help break up the post we are asking people to tag their post with the following tags at the begining of the subject.
12.3 Examples of Post Tages
[ENG] What is the level cap for Artisan Engineering?
[HER] Where can I find Goldthorn?
[ALC] Why does wildvine cost more than the potions?
12.4 List of Post Tags
[GEN] General Question
[HER] Herbalism
[FIS] Fishing
[MIN] Mining
[SKI] Skinning
[ALC] Alchemy
[BLA] Blacksmithing
[COO] Cooking
[ENG] Engineering
[LEA] Leatherworking
[TAI] Tailoring
[ENC] Enchanting
[FIR] First Aid
13 - THANKS & CLOSING COMMENTS
I would like to thank the following people:
A special thanks to Caydiem for giving us a Sticky.
Tyren for the quick answer, even though it was a no. Thanks for the compliment.
Alumriel, Emli, Eran, Faltigoth, Lloran, Raoul, Rasfrackn, Tessie, and Zarzz for coming through with the specific FAQs.
Haze, Terial, Veev, Wilhelm, Zalla, and Zifna for supporting information
Last but not least to all those who have posted on our threads that have helped us impove the FAQs.
Please do not repost this FAQ! Feel free to link it as we are constantly trying to update it.
Professions Discussion -Professions Discussion -: "40"
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