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
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