My RL has been a bit hectic lately so I haven't had a whole lot of time to update my blog, but I did want to post a quick update before I too much time goes by.
Guild Update:
I have gone back to WA, but to be completely honest my thoughts on the subject have been jumping all over the place. I am not sure where I really want to be. I guess I should go over the options again.
1. Stick with WA - I think I have to give WA a shot, but I'm not sure how long I will stick around. If I don't see progress I might leave pretty quickly.
Pros:
- I know the people and won't have to prove myself.
- Will give me a chance to raid Graypal when I get him up.
Cons:
- Leadership. It is more stable right now but it isn't solid.
- Membership. A lot of the old WA people left were not that active. They need to increase their play or we need to recruit a lot to get back to 25 raiding.
- Raid level, even with a lot of recruitment it will take while to get back to SSC. I am not sure I want to wait that long.
2. Go to a new Guild - I left Musa in such a way that I am sure I can go back if WA doesn't work out. I wasn't really happy with their style or raid times, but they are raiding content close to what WA was.
Pros:
- A high level of raiding with a hope to see new content.
- Depending on the guild I could be rejoining old friends.
- Depending on the guild I could be leaving most of the bitterness of the split behind.
Cons:
- Not a whole lot of options. Not many guilds are looking for a moonkin.
- Would start at the bottom of the totem pole and won't get a lot of loot.
- May not be stepping into a better situation.
3. Transfer Servers - The server I have been looking at is the Dragonblight server. It is a pacific server so the raid times might be good for me and it has a lot of very progressed guilds. If anyone has experiance with transfering servers or has any suggestions as to which servers I should look at let me know in the comments.
Pros:
- Potential for a high level of raiding with the hope to see new content.
- Its possible to have a lot more options than my current server.
Cons:
- This could just be a grass is greener situation and I would be suck in a strange server with no friends for 3 months.
Toon Update:
Graylo - He ran TK with Musa a few times but didn't down any bosses other than VR. We did get Al'ar down to 15% or so in the second phase but to many people keep dying early. He also ran Kara with a pug of old WA members and some random people. We didn't do to bad. I got the 8 badges I need to get [Starfire Waistband]. I also picked up a two great healing items for my resto set. They are [Light's Justice] and [Signet of Unshakable Faith]. Other than that he did a lot of farming. I am trying to get all the primals togeather that I will need to build The Frozenshadow Weave set and Spell Strike set for Graypal when he hits 70.
Graypal - He is how up to 68. He is so close to 70 that I can taste it. The odd part of this is I spent most of the MLK holiday leveling him and I still have almost a full level of rested exp left. Anyway, as I mentioned with Graylo I am trying to put the mats togeather to make the two tailoring sets a that are good for him.
Grayfel - Just gathering rested XP.
Graytom - I started a shaman this past week also. He isn't a serious effort right now but he may become one depending on what all happens. I build him mainly as a way to do something without having to be bothered by all the guild drama.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Moonkin Macros
EDIT: A majority of this post looks at idol swapping macros. As of patch 2.4.3 these marcos will no longer work and there is no way to rebuild them. If your need information on which Idol is the best to use please check out my Idol post here.
Disclaimer: I am not an expert at writing macros, and will gladly take any advice that anyone out there can give me. These are a couple of macros that I have thrown together base upon information found in WoWWiki and various message boards. I do not claim to understand the purpose of every function in them, but they have worked for me so far. So I thought I would share them.
Idol Swapping Macros:
Moonfire
/cast moonfire
/equip [noequipped: Idol of the Unseen Moon] Idol of the Unseen Moon
Wrath
/cast wrath
/equip [noequipped: Idol of the Avenger] Idol of the Avenger
Starfire
/aftercast +start/equip [noequipped: Ivory Idol of the Moongoddess] Ivory Idol of the Moongoddess
/cast starfire
There is quite a bit of confusion about this type of macro, due to some very strange mechanics. There are a couple of things that make idol swapping macros difficult. 1. Equiping an Idol triggers the global cooldown (GCD). 2. Unlike a spell, an idol can be equipped during the global cooldown. 3. An spell's damage is calculated at the end of its cast.
What this all means is that if you write a macro that equips the idol after the spell cast, then you suffer only one global cooldown and still get the benefit of the idol. This even works for instant casts like moonfire.
It does come with one problem though. If you try and use an idol swapping macro while the global cooldown is in effect, then the spell won't cast but the idol will swap triggering a new global cooldown. For example, If you use your Moonfire macro and use the Wrath macro above a 10th of a second before the GCD is up, then no spell will cast and you will have a second GCD.
I have found two ways to get around this problem. The first is to better time my casts. I am a bit of a button masher so this would involve breaking a lot of habits. This is much easier said then done. The second is using an addon called Aftercast (click on the name to find the addon). The addon is basically a conditional statement saying if the spell casts do this. It does cause a slight delay in how quickly the idol equips. This is why I don't use it on my Moonfire macro or my Wrath macro. When I used it in the Moonfire macro the idol didn't proc anymore. When I used it on Wrath it cause the GCD to reset a little late giving you 1.7 or 1.8 seconds of GCD. Starfire on the other hand is a long enough cast to get the benefit of the idol and to not experience any adverse affects from an extended GCD.
Thanks go out to a people that answered my thread on the wow forums.
Disclaimer: I am not an expert at writing macros, and will gladly take any advice that anyone out there can give me. These are a couple of macros that I have thrown together base upon information found in WoWWiki and various message boards. I do not claim to understand the purpose of every function in them, but they have worked for me so far. So I thought I would share them.
Idol Swapping Macros:
Moonfire
/cast moonfire
/equip [noequipped: Idol of the Unseen Moon] Idol of the Unseen Moon
Wrath
/cast wrath
/equip [noequipped: Idol of the Avenger] Idol of the Avenger
Starfire
/aftercast +start/equip [noequipped: Ivory Idol of the Moongoddess] Ivory Idol of the Moongoddess
/cast starfire
There is quite a bit of confusion about this type of macro, due to some very strange mechanics. There are a couple of things that make idol swapping macros difficult. 1. Equiping an Idol triggers the global cooldown (GCD). 2. Unlike a spell, an idol can be equipped during the global cooldown. 3. An spell's damage is calculated at the end of its cast.
What this all means is that if you write a macro that equips the idol after the spell cast, then you suffer only one global cooldown and still get the benefit of the idol. This even works for instant casts like moonfire.
It does come with one problem though. If you try and use an idol swapping macro while the global cooldown is in effect, then the spell won't cast but the idol will swap triggering a new global cooldown. For example, If you use your Moonfire macro and use the Wrath macro above a 10th of a second before the GCD is up, then no spell will cast and you will have a second GCD.
I have found two ways to get around this problem. The first is to better time my casts. I am a bit of a button masher so this would involve breaking a lot of habits. This is much easier said then done. The second is using an addon called Aftercast (click on the name to find the addon). The addon is basically a conditional statement saying if the spell casts do this. It does cause a slight delay in how quickly the idol equips. This is why I don't use it on my Moonfire macro or my Wrath macro. When I used it in the Moonfire macro the idol didn't proc anymore. When I used it on Wrath it cause the GCD to reset a little late giving you 1.7 or 1.8 seconds of GCD. Starfire on the other hand is a long enough cast to get the benefit of the idol and to not experience any adverse affects from an extended GCD.
Thanks go out to a people that answered my thread on the wow forums.
Regrowth Macro:
/tar graylo
/cast regrowth
/targetlasttarget
This is very simple and I apologize for insulting your intelligence. It is a relatively new macro that I use and I thought I would list it because it has been helpful for me. Since I got two pieces of T5, regrowth has become one of the better healing spells I can use on myself. It has a relatively short casting time and gives me a decent amount of health back. I have assigned it a hot key, and use it when my healthstones are on cooldown and I need a heal.
Healthstone Macro:
I don't have one of these but I want one. It is not uncommon in raids to have more than one value of healthstone. They currently take up prime real estate on my action bar and I would liked to condense them into one button if possible. Specifically I would like a macro that use the highest value healthstone that I have and then, go to the next one the next time I use the button. If anyone has a macro like this please let me know.
Guild Update:
I am still in Musa. There are a lot of nice people in the guild but I am still not settling into it well. The guild as a whole just doesn't seem to have a whole lot of drive or desire for progression. They give it a whole lot of lipservice, but their actions speak loader. It could be that I am still upset over what happened to WA. To make matters worse it sounds like the new guild that formed out of WA is doing pretty well. They have gotten down Al'ar and got Vashj to 5%. I will probably give it at least another week to see what happens. It that point if things aren't better then I will probably try and apply to some other guilds. There are also some people making a strong push to reform WA, if that happens I may go back their also.
Toon Update:
I really didn't play much this weekend. I am a still a little depressed about what all happened. I want to play but every time I do I'm reminded of where I am stuck.
Graylo - I ran TK last night with Musa. We downed VR and got some attempts in on Al'ar, but not much other than that. I had hoped to get some Kara of ZA done this weekend but not many groups formed and when they did they were at bad times for me. So I am still 8 badges a way from a new belt.
Graypal - Got him into level 65. I also got his enchanting up to 350. I am going to try and hold off on leveling that stuff right now. I don't have the mats and they are a little more expensive on the AH then I would like to spend right now. I am starting to farm the mats for the his tailoring sets though. That way I should be able to raid him as soon as possible if I want to.
Grayfel - Used up most of his rested xp and got him to level 20.
Friday, January 11, 2008
The Moonkin and the Innervate
Phaelia over at Resto4Life has written a great post regarding Mana-Management, and in suggested in the comments that I make a post on my blog from a moonkin perspective. As a good trained monkey I have delivered. Since she has already done a majority of the heavy lifting, I will focus on my mana regen philosophy and how I use my Innervate.
My Mana-Regen Philosophy:
If I have to choose between getting more spell damage or more mana regen I will choose more damage 99% of the time. My trinkets are for spell damage, and all of my consumables are for spell damage. When I finally had a chance to win my T5 Legs I seriously debated even bidding on them because I would lose a little damage if I equipped them even though I gained a ton of Mp5. I eventually picked them up because it brought me one piece closer to my T5 4 piece set bonus, and I thought I could sacrifice a little hit for crit since I was very close to the hit cap. I believe that mana-management is primarily a function of potions, buffs, special abilities, and spell rotation. I usually have no problem with mana during boss fights using these abilities and I usually don't run with a Shadow Priest or Shaman in my group.
The Moonkin Innervate:
If you ask some moonkin for their Innervate they will suddenly shape-shift into Charlton Heston and scream "From my Cold, dead hands." (Press ctrl+F7) While I don't agree with the notion that we should save our Innervate for healers all the time, I do believe it is one of the main reasons we are raid viable. Lets face it. If the healers have no mana then the raid will wipe. Lucky for us I think there is a compromise that allows benefit from our Innervate and make it available to the raid.
The trick is to try and get two Innervates off in a fight. Since I have yet to find a priest that can call for an Innervate early in a fight I use the first one on myself and save the second one for a healer.
Things to consider when using an Innervate on your self.
1. How much mana will the Innervate return? This will take a little math but isn't to hard to calculate. The druid spirit based OOC mana regen equation is ((Spirit/4.5) + 15) * 2.5. My total unbuffed spirit is 237 so my spirit based OOC regen is ((237/4.5) + 15) * 2.5 = 169. To determine how much mana my innervate will return to me I need to multiply that number by 16. Unbuffed I will receive 2704 mana from my innervate. Also, remember that you can cast while your Innervate ticks. Using a standard spell rotation a you will use around 2660 in that 20 seconds. So If your Innervate will return 2700, you can use it when very early in a fight. If it returns 4000 you may want to wait until you have used 1500 - 2000 mana.
2. How long is the fight?
7 minutes or less - I don't expect to use it on myself for any fight that is less than 7 minutes. Plus, I can usually last this long without it.
8 to 10 minutes - For fights like Hydross I try and get one off in the first minute or so. I may not get the full benefit of the innervate but it will be available again when the healers will need it most. Also if you are almost full on mana before innervate finishes you can switch to a less mana Efficient rotation like casting Wrath instead of Starfire for a little bit.
10+ minute fights - For longer fights like Tidewalker I wait a little longer to make sure I get the full benefit of the innervate.
3. Can I continue to cast after I use it? Try not to use it right before you get silenced or have some down time. If you cannot cast while innervate is ticking, it may return more mana then you have room for.
4 . If you have a shadow priest in your group cast it on him. Mana for a shadow priest means mana for every one in your group.
My Mana-Regen Philosophy:
If I have to choose between getting more spell damage or more mana regen I will choose more damage 99% of the time. My trinkets are for spell damage, and all of my consumables are for spell damage. When I finally had a chance to win my T5 Legs I seriously debated even bidding on them because I would lose a little damage if I equipped them even though I gained a ton of Mp5. I eventually picked them up because it brought me one piece closer to my T5 4 piece set bonus, and I thought I could sacrifice a little hit for crit since I was very close to the hit cap. I believe that mana-management is primarily a function of potions, buffs, special abilities, and spell rotation. I usually have no problem with mana during boss fights using these abilities and I usually don't run with a Shadow Priest or Shaman in my group.
The Moonkin Innervate:
If you ask some moonkin for their Innervate they will suddenly shape-shift into Charlton Heston and scream "From my Cold, dead hands." (Press ctrl+F7) While I don't agree with the notion that we should save our Innervate for healers all the time, I do believe it is one of the main reasons we are raid viable. Lets face it. If the healers have no mana then the raid will wipe. Lucky for us I think there is a compromise that allows benefit from our Innervate and make it available to the raid.
The trick is to try and get two Innervates off in a fight. Since I have yet to find a priest that can call for an Innervate early in a fight I use the first one on myself and save the second one for a healer.
Things to consider when using an Innervate on your self.
1. How much mana will the Innervate return? This will take a little math but isn't to hard to calculate. The druid spirit based OOC mana regen equation is ((Spirit/4.5) + 15) * 2.5. My total unbuffed spirit is 237 so my spirit based OOC regen is ((237/4.5) + 15) * 2.5 = 169. To determine how much mana my innervate will return to me I need to multiply that number by 16. Unbuffed I will receive 2704 mana from my innervate. Also, remember that you can cast while your Innervate ticks. Using a standard spell rotation a you will use around 2660 in that 20 seconds. So If your Innervate will return 2700, you can use it when very early in a fight. If it returns 4000 you may want to wait until you have used 1500 - 2000 mana.
2. How long is the fight?
7 minutes or less - I don't expect to use it on myself for any fight that is less than 7 minutes. Plus, I can usually last this long without it.
8 to 10 minutes - For fights like Hydross I try and get one off in the first minute or so. I may not get the full benefit of the innervate but it will be available again when the healers will need it most. Also if you are almost full on mana before innervate finishes you can switch to a less mana Efficient rotation like casting Wrath instead of Starfire for a little bit.
10+ minute fights - For longer fights like Tidewalker I wait a little longer to make sure I get the full benefit of the innervate.
3. Can I continue to cast after I use it? Try not to use it right before you get silenced or have some down time. If you cannot cast while innervate is ticking, it may return more mana then you have room for.
4 . If you have a shadow priest in your group cast it on him. Mana for a shadow priest means mana for every one in your group.
Things to consider when casting Innervate on others:
1. What class are they? Priests and Druids should be your primary targets for Innervate. These guys are the primary users of Spirit and will get the most benefit from your Innervate. Paladins and Shaman rely more on other stats to get mana and I will only innervate one of them if a Raid leader calls out for it.
2. Does the person know it is coming? Most quality raiders will have plan on how they will manage there mana. If they use a pot and you give them an innervate at the same time then one of the two is probably wasted. If I use an innervate on someone who hasn't asked for it I will generally say " Innervating John" wait a couple of seconds for objections and then do it.
The exceptions:
1. I will almost always innervate myself after a battle rez unless I have a shadow priest. Rebirth is a mana killer, and I need the mana to stay involved for the whole fight.
2. If the boss has a mana draining effect then I will save my innervate for a healer the whole fight. For example, the hunter in the Fathom-Lord fight has a viper sting that will drain a tone of your mana. It can take a healer out of the game very early in the fight. It is more important for the healer to have mana then for me to DPS.
Moonkin Melee for Mana:
As a side note I thought I would talk about this ability. This is one of the least useful abilities in the game, and can be very hazardous to your health since you have to get into melee range. If you use a proper spell rotation and chug pots regularly you shouldn't need this ability all that often. However, none of this means that it is useless, and it has come in handy for me a couple of times. Here are some general tips on how to use it.
1. Get a feral weapon. All those feral weapons say they increase attack power for Moonkin for a reason. The proc rate is based upon weapon speed so getting a quicker weapon does not help. It is also not a bad idea to get it enchanted with savagery to increase it's AP a little more.
2. Pick and choose the boss. Some bosses like Lurker and Leo are not friendly to melee and therefore this ability. Running in to melee when the healers aren't expecting it can get you killed quickly. Some bosses are very easy to use this ability on as long as you pick the right time. Tidewalker is perfect for this ability.
3. Take your time. Determine how much mana you think you need for the rest of the fight, generate it, and get out. Don't melee, cast, melee, cast. This will keep you in the 5 seconds rule. Get in, melee 15 - 20 seconds, and get out.
Guild Update:
I am in a new guild. The remaining WA officers decided that the best way to get back to raiding was to merge into another guild, so I am now a member of Musa. They are at the same point of progression that WA was but got their sooner and stalled out a little bit. The situation isn't ideal for me. The raid times are significantly earlier and I won't be able to make as many raids. Also, it may pick up later but raids have been going very slow lately. The time between pulls and attempts is much bigger than I am used to. Overall it works for now. I will stick with it at least a couple of weeks and see how I feel later.
Toon Update:
Graylo - I ran a little of ZA last night and picked up the [Amani Punisher]. I would prefer to have the [Wub's Cursed Hexblade] off of the dragonhawk, but the punisher is still and upgrade for now. Other than that it has been a little raiding, a few dailies, and a little fishing.
Graypal - He has done some leveling and is only 4 or 5 bars from level 65 now. I also got his enchanting up to 340, so I can make my own [Superior Wizard Oil].
Grayfel - Still just gaining rested xp. I will have to use it up this weekend.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The Second Shoe has dropped.
To put it in WoW terms WA now has very low HP. (that was geeky I know) The worst part about it was that I had started to have some hope. We had 30 or so people on last night and actually raided Gruul's. We had a guild meeting and basically said if your going to leave then go ahead and do it, but a lot of people stuck around. I had hoped that a lot of them would give us a couple of weeks to see how things pan out, but it was not to be. We had the meeting and it basically came down that quite a few people where waiting to see what the GM and his two AGMs where going to do. One of the AGMs already had an alt at the new guild the other two claimed to be 50/50, but I could tell from their conversations over the weekend and last night that they were leaning towards leaving. The did eventually leave, taking a 3/5th's of the gold in the Guild bank with them. After they left a flood of our other core raiders left with them.
I am not exactly sure what we have left. The Armory being down doesn't help. There are 3 officers left that I know of, one of which has been out of town lately. We also have a little chunk of core raiders along with and quite a few casual members. We are probably ok for Kara and possible ZA, but we are out of 25 mans for a while. Our biggest problem though is that we don't have a definite leader. A couple of people have said that they can take it for a little while but that doesn't inspire any confidence. If FoC and WA have taught me anything it is that a good GM is essential for good progression and I just don't see it right now.
Just to get it out there I'm not really all that upset with a majority of the people that left. If given the same opportunity I probably would have taken it. As I said in my last post I didn't agree with the way the guild was formed. I also think that if the guild leadership could have gone to a different guild. I am sure that they would have had plenty of opportunities to go to any guild on the server since they were a Tank, and healer, and a mage all with Superior gear. Going to the new guild just a bit of a slap in the face. Anyway, I wish them all the best of luck. I am not convinced that they will have the type of success they are hoping for. I look at their roster and see a hole lot of WA and therefore they are probably taking a whole lot of WA's problems with them. I guess time will tell.
So, the $64,000 question is: What do I do now?
I have a few options but none of them are specific or all that good. Here is what I see:
1. Stick with WA and reevaluate later. There are some people in the guild that are very gun-ho about rebuilding the guild. I also think that quite a few of the people that went to the new guild will not be happy there and might come back if WA still exists. On the other hand, I am not sure everything has played out. This is all still very fresh and I am sure that their are several people that are considering leaving just like I am. With the leadership issue still up in the air I must admit that I have my doubts that WA will survive in any form.
2. Look for a new guild of a similar level. Their are several guilds at a similar level to WA on Eitrigg. Joining one of them would probably be my first choice, but there are several road block to me doing this. First, all of them that I have checked out raid earlier and I know that my wife would not be happy about me raiding earlier. Second, I have only seen one of them recruiting a Moonkin anytime recently. Third, I am sure that a lot of them come with there own baggage. Several of them got to Vashj before WA did and still haven't downed her. So basically none of them fit my current availability, most of them have expressed no interest in a moonkin, and I might just be jumping into the same situation all over again with less seniority.
3. Look for a new guild that isn't as progressed as WA. I am sure that their are several guilds that would be willing to take me due to my experience and quality gear. If I jump this way I may not be downing 4 bosses in one night like in WA but I would be downing similar bosses, and may be able to pick up some of the loot I have missed out on. However, I have to ask myself why haven't they progressed more. I am sure many of them have their own leadership issues and may be a little more casual than I would like.
4. Respec to resto or feral. Respecing would probably open a lot more doors, and I could possibly get in the new guild if I asked. However, my off sets are not the best and I have very little experience with either resto or feral. It is quite possible that I would have to drop down to less progressed guild just to learn the new spec and get gear.
5. Transfer servers and take my shot their. I don't know of any options for a Moonkin on a different server, but if I could find them it might be the perfect opportunity. On the other hand I would be risking a lot. I would be going in almost blind without any of my friends. It could work out perfectly but it could also be a disaster.
6. Level Graypal to 70 and make him my main. There seems to be a lot of demand for shadow priests so I might be able to get into some good guilds. Since I haven't instanced much with him I am sure that their would still be some what of a learning curve but going from Moonkin to Shadow Priest should be easier then going from caster DPS to healer. On the other hand, he would require a lot of gearing up and this also doesn't solve the problem of raid times.
7. Go to a different server and re-roll. To be completely honest this is kind of tempting. I have wondered several times what PvP server would be like. I am also interested in checking out the Horde. It would also give me the opportunity pick the server and I could pick one with a lot of raiders so that I might have more opportunities down the road. Then again I am not a big fan of leveling and If I went to a different server I would do it without the help of my current characters. I don't really want to go out and level without 16 slot bags or enough gold to help me with training and mounts.
8. Take a break from WoW all together. I love this game, but I am not sure I can go grind it out without raiding. I don't know if I would still like the game. I know that my wife would not be unhappy if I quit the game and I might get a little more sleep at night without it, but I'm not quite ready to take this step yet.
So those are my options as I see it. For now I am going to stick with WA at least until I see something better. I may try and talk to my wife about raid times, but I don't have any real clue as to where I should go now.
As far as this blog goes I will keep it up as long as I play WoW. It may not be as moonkin focused depending on what I decide to do, but I won't forget about my moonkin. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask them.
I don't have another Toon update but I thought I might leave you with some of my plans for this blog. None of them technical unfortunately. The first is a couple of Vs. posts inspired by the posts from Resto4Life. I have already done some work on a Spell Damage vs. Spell Crit article. Second, I hope to do a Moonkin gear guide. This would most likely be a multi part series listing what I think are the best options when you are just starting Kara. I may also expand it to being a raiding Moonkin gear guide. Third, I want to do a post in Idol Swapping macros. Their is a lot of confusion on this topic but I have completely figured out my macros yet.
I am not exactly sure what we have left. The Armory being down doesn't help. There are 3 officers left that I know of, one of which has been out of town lately. We also have a little chunk of core raiders along with and quite a few casual members. We are probably ok for Kara and possible ZA, but we are out of 25 mans for a while. Our biggest problem though is that we don't have a definite leader. A couple of people have said that they can take it for a little while but that doesn't inspire any confidence. If FoC and WA have taught me anything it is that a good GM is essential for good progression and I just don't see it right now.
Just to get it out there I'm not really all that upset with a majority of the people that left. If given the same opportunity I probably would have taken it. As I said in my last post I didn't agree with the way the guild was formed. I also think that if the guild leadership could have gone to a different guild. I am sure that they would have had plenty of opportunities to go to any guild on the server since they were a Tank, and healer, and a mage all with Superior gear. Going to the new guild just a bit of a slap in the face. Anyway, I wish them all the best of luck. I am not convinced that they will have the type of success they are hoping for. I look at their roster and see a hole lot of WA and therefore they are probably taking a whole lot of WA's problems with them. I guess time will tell.
So, the $64,000 question is: What do I do now?
I have a few options but none of them are specific or all that good. Here is what I see:
1. Stick with WA and reevaluate later. There are some people in the guild that are very gun-ho about rebuilding the guild. I also think that quite a few of the people that went to the new guild will not be happy there and might come back if WA still exists. On the other hand, I am not sure everything has played out. This is all still very fresh and I am sure that their are several people that are considering leaving just like I am. With the leadership issue still up in the air I must admit that I have my doubts that WA will survive in any form.
2. Look for a new guild of a similar level. Their are several guilds at a similar level to WA on Eitrigg. Joining one of them would probably be my first choice, but there are several road block to me doing this. First, all of them that I have checked out raid earlier and I know that my wife would not be happy about me raiding earlier. Second, I have only seen one of them recruiting a Moonkin anytime recently. Third, I am sure that a lot of them come with there own baggage. Several of them got to Vashj before WA did and still haven't downed her. So basically none of them fit my current availability, most of them have expressed no interest in a moonkin, and I might just be jumping into the same situation all over again with less seniority.
3. Look for a new guild that isn't as progressed as WA. I am sure that their are several guilds that would be willing to take me due to my experience and quality gear. If I jump this way I may not be downing 4 bosses in one night like in WA but I would be downing similar bosses, and may be able to pick up some of the loot I have missed out on. However, I have to ask myself why haven't they progressed more. I am sure many of them have their own leadership issues and may be a little more casual than I would like.
4. Respec to resto or feral. Respecing would probably open a lot more doors, and I could possibly get in the new guild if I asked. However, my off sets are not the best and I have very little experience with either resto or feral. It is quite possible that I would have to drop down to less progressed guild just to learn the new spec and get gear.
5. Transfer servers and take my shot their. I don't know of any options for a Moonkin on a different server, but if I could find them it might be the perfect opportunity. On the other hand I would be risking a lot. I would be going in almost blind without any of my friends. It could work out perfectly but it could also be a disaster.
6. Level Graypal to 70 and make him my main. There seems to be a lot of demand for shadow priests so I might be able to get into some good guilds. Since I haven't instanced much with him I am sure that their would still be some what of a learning curve but going from Moonkin to Shadow Priest should be easier then going from caster DPS to healer. On the other hand, he would require a lot of gearing up and this also doesn't solve the problem of raid times.
7. Go to a different server and re-roll. To be completely honest this is kind of tempting. I have wondered several times what PvP server would be like. I am also interested in checking out the Horde. It would also give me the opportunity pick the server and I could pick one with a lot of raiders so that I might have more opportunities down the road. Then again I am not a big fan of leveling and If I went to a different server I would do it without the help of my current characters. I don't really want to go out and level without 16 slot bags or enough gold to help me with training and mounts.
8. Take a break from WoW all together. I love this game, but I am not sure I can go grind it out without raiding. I don't know if I would still like the game. I know that my wife would not be unhappy if I quit the game and I might get a little more sleep at night without it, but I'm not quite ready to take this step yet.
So those are my options as I see it. For now I am going to stick with WA at least until I see something better. I may try and talk to my wife about raid times, but I don't have any real clue as to where I should go now.
As far as this blog goes I will keep it up as long as I play WoW. It may not be as moonkin focused depending on what I decide to do, but I won't forget about my moonkin. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask them.
I don't have another Toon update but I thought I might leave you with some of my plans for this blog. None of them technical unfortunately. The first is a couple of Vs. posts inspired by the posts from Resto4Life. I have already done some work on a Spell Damage vs. Spell Crit article. Second, I hope to do a Moonkin gear guide. This would most likely be a multi part series listing what I think are the best options when you are just starting Kara. I may also expand it to being a raiding Moonkin gear guide. Third, I want to do a post in Idol Swapping macros. Their is a lot of confusion on this topic but I have completely figured out my macros yet.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Wandering Alliance Down????
It is not official yet, but it looks like Wandering Alliance may fall apart. I will be the first to admit that things have not been perfect at WA but I am a little disgusted by the way things are going down.
About 3 months ago a resto druid (we will call him Mem) applied to the guild with very little gear, but he was a friend of one of our Class Assists and posted one of the best applications I have ever seen. This is not all that surprising since I found out later that the druid is or was not his main. He also had a rogue on another server that had cleared Black Temple. He was a great pick up for the guild and preformed well from the start even with sub par gear. Also due to his experience he quickly took an unofficial leadership roll explaining raid strats and organizing some 10 man raids. After about a month we started to see new apps from Mem's friends. Like him most of them didn't have the best gear but they were classes we needed and submitted pretty good apps.
I also started to hear a few rumblings about Mem's "clique." Some people were worried that they would leave to go to a new guild, and others worried that they might try and start their own guild taking a few or our members with them. I dismissed most of this as paranoia for a couple of reasons. First, if you look back to one of my first posts you will see that we had a group of friends leave to join another guild. I thought past experience was just making some of the members nervous. Second, WA was doing pretty well. We had our ups and downs but we were downing bosses.
Then patch 2.3 came out. A few more of Mem's friends were joining the guild, and he started organizing ZA runs without making announcement in Guild chat. He also started organizing Kara runs without making an announcement in guild chat and included his non guildie friends in the runs. To make matters worse. Most of these runs were right after our regular raid time. I often asked after the raids if anyone was interested in ZA or Kara, and generally wouldn't get a response, but then 10 to 20 minutes later I would start to see guildies in Deadwind Pass or in ZA. So, it wasn't just that they ogranized it without telling people, they flat out ignored people.
At this point the rumblings started to get louder, now with an added rumor that some of Mem's friends from his BT guild were transferring to Eitrigg with T6 gear to join a new guild Mem was forming. While I did admit that it was a possibility now, I just couldn't see how it would happen. Even if Mem took all his friends in WA, a few WA members and had some off server friends I didn't see how he could get more then 20 people. Also, Eitrigg is probably one of the worst servers for raiding. Of the hundreds of guilds that have cleared BT, not one of them is on my server, and a lot of people that want to be hardcore raiders on Eitrigg transfer to other servers. In fact, the top guild on our server regularly goes through purges where several top members transfer. As a result, I didn't think there is anyone that would want to transfer here, and I didn't think there were enough quality players willing to leave their current guilds to join a new guild.
This leads us up to about a month ago. We were downing the first 4 bosses in SSC in one night and getting Leo the next night. We also started to talk about working on TK a little more to get the other two bosses in their down. However, we were having a hard time even getting attempts on Vashj. WA has a Core of about 15 to 20 hardcore members that show up to at least75% of the raids. Then we have a layer of casual players that fill in the gaps. This does slow down progression some because you don't have a real consistent group but it was nice to know that you didn't have to show up all the time. So, on nights that we were clearing to Vashj we would have 35 people online. On nights we wanted to do Vashj we would have 20-25, and rarely got the right make up for the raid usually having to many healers and tanks and not enough DPS. Basically Hardcore members showed up, and the casuals did not. However, to be fair, I should say that a lot of this started to happen around the holidays and when a lot of players had their Finals.
The rumblings continued for the past month. Also there were some issues with how loot was being distributed in ZA runs that Mem or one of is friends were leading. Some people said that they were showing favoritism as to their own friends by not letting some people roll. I tried to ignore it all, by saying that if they leave they leave and WA will survive. It is one of the oldest guilds on the server with a lot of really good people. We have been through worse and can do it again.
Unfortunately, I found out over the weekend that the cancer has spread farther than I had thought. Apparently Mem and his friends have been approaching quite a few of the hardcore WA members over the past month that to join their new guild including the top three leaders of our guild. I never thought thought they would be open to it but apparently they are strongly considering it, and by this simple fact I think WA is probably dead.
I understand the frustration of the hard core members that want to progress faster. I consider myself to be one of those hardcore members and have been frustrated as well. I want to see Hijal, BT and Sunwell before the expansion. So I can understand why Mem wants to form a guild that is more focused and progresses faster. As to the guild leadership, I can understand why they are tempted to go. Our GM formed this guild over 2 years ago, and has rebuilt it many times. I understand the frustration and desire for a break from running a guild, but the way it is all happening is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
As you can probably tell form the tone of this post, I am not one of the people who has been asked to join the new guild. So, I will freely admit that part of my disappointment is jealousy and some sour grapes. One of the officers of the new guild is a WoW friend of mine going back to FoC (We will call him Gnome). When I had found out that many of my other friends in the guild had been asked to join the new guild, I asked Gnome, why I had not been asked. Apparently they don't see Moonkin as all that raid viable. This isn 't all that surprising since this is a common attitude in WoW, but this was from my friend who had previously always wanted to have "his boomkin." It just hurts. In my opinion they should have opened up the new guild to all WA members but make the new guild rules known. This way people know they are expected to play 75% to 100% of the time and that raid performance will evaluated and criticized if needed. Cherry picking WA members of desired classes just seems wrong.
Anyway, I don't know what is going to happen but I think that WA is done. The GM told me over the weekend that they will talk to the members about it tonight. If the leaders stay then we will go on but it will probably take a month to get us back on track if not longer. As I look at the roster of the new guild I see 14 (old) WA members now there. One other WA member has gone to a different guild and a couple of others I know have applied.
What this all means for me, I don't know. I have several options but none of them seem all that good right now. I will talk more about that later after I see what happens tonight.
Toon Update:
Graylo - I did some kara and ZA with him but only got badges.
Graypal - I got him to about halfway through 64 and made him Scryers. Going Scryers as a Drianie is not fun. I don't recommend it unless you really want to.
Grayfel - Still building rested XP.
About 3 months ago a resto druid (we will call him Mem) applied to the guild with very little gear, but he was a friend of one of our Class Assists and posted one of the best applications I have ever seen. This is not all that surprising since I found out later that the druid is or was not his main. He also had a rogue on another server that had cleared Black Temple. He was a great pick up for the guild and preformed well from the start even with sub par gear. Also due to his experience he quickly took an unofficial leadership roll explaining raid strats and organizing some 10 man raids. After about a month we started to see new apps from Mem's friends. Like him most of them didn't have the best gear but they were classes we needed and submitted pretty good apps.
I also started to hear a few rumblings about Mem's "clique." Some people were worried that they would leave to go to a new guild, and others worried that they might try and start their own guild taking a few or our members with them. I dismissed most of this as paranoia for a couple of reasons. First, if you look back to one of my first posts you will see that we had a group of friends leave to join another guild. I thought past experience was just making some of the members nervous. Second, WA was doing pretty well. We had our ups and downs but we were downing bosses.
Then patch 2.3 came out. A few more of Mem's friends were joining the guild, and he started organizing ZA runs without making announcement in Guild chat. He also started organizing Kara runs without making an announcement in guild chat and included his non guildie friends in the runs. To make matters worse. Most of these runs were right after our regular raid time. I often asked after the raids if anyone was interested in ZA or Kara, and generally wouldn't get a response, but then 10 to 20 minutes later I would start to see guildies in Deadwind Pass or in ZA. So, it wasn't just that they ogranized it without telling people, they flat out ignored people.
At this point the rumblings started to get louder, now with an added rumor that some of Mem's friends from his BT guild were transferring to Eitrigg with T6 gear to join a new guild Mem was forming. While I did admit that it was a possibility now, I just couldn't see how it would happen. Even if Mem took all his friends in WA, a few WA members and had some off server friends I didn't see how he could get more then 20 people. Also, Eitrigg is probably one of the worst servers for raiding. Of the hundreds of guilds that have cleared BT, not one of them is on my server, and a lot of people that want to be hardcore raiders on Eitrigg transfer to other servers. In fact, the top guild on our server regularly goes through purges where several top members transfer. As a result, I didn't think there is anyone that would want to transfer here, and I didn't think there were enough quality players willing to leave their current guilds to join a new guild.
This leads us up to about a month ago. We were downing the first 4 bosses in SSC in one night and getting Leo the next night. We also started to talk about working on TK a little more to get the other two bosses in their down. However, we were having a hard time even getting attempts on Vashj. WA has a Core of about 15 to 20 hardcore members that show up to at least75% of the raids. Then we have a layer of casual players that fill in the gaps. This does slow down progression some because you don't have a real consistent group but it was nice to know that you didn't have to show up all the time. So, on nights that we were clearing to Vashj we would have 35 people online. On nights we wanted to do Vashj we would have 20-25, and rarely got the right make up for the raid usually having to many healers and tanks and not enough DPS. Basically Hardcore members showed up, and the casuals did not. However, to be fair, I should say that a lot of this started to happen around the holidays and when a lot of players had their Finals.
The rumblings continued for the past month. Also there were some issues with how loot was being distributed in ZA runs that Mem or one of is friends were leading. Some people said that they were showing favoritism as to their own friends by not letting some people roll. I tried to ignore it all, by saying that if they leave they leave and WA will survive. It is one of the oldest guilds on the server with a lot of really good people. We have been through worse and can do it again.
Unfortunately, I found out over the weekend that the cancer has spread farther than I had thought. Apparently Mem and his friends have been approaching quite a few of the hardcore WA members over the past month that to join their new guild including the top three leaders of our guild. I never thought thought they would be open to it but apparently they are strongly considering it, and by this simple fact I think WA is probably dead.
I understand the frustration of the hard core members that want to progress faster. I consider myself to be one of those hardcore members and have been frustrated as well. I want to see Hijal, BT and Sunwell before the expansion. So I can understand why Mem wants to form a guild that is more focused and progresses faster. As to the guild leadership, I can understand why they are tempted to go. Our GM formed this guild over 2 years ago, and has rebuilt it many times. I understand the frustration and desire for a break from running a guild, but the way it is all happening is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
As you can probably tell form the tone of this post, I am not one of the people who has been asked to join the new guild. So, I will freely admit that part of my disappointment is jealousy and some sour grapes. One of the officers of the new guild is a WoW friend of mine going back to FoC (We will call him Gnome). When I had found out that many of my other friends in the guild had been asked to join the new guild, I asked Gnome, why I had not been asked. Apparently they don't see Moonkin as all that raid viable. This isn 't all that surprising since this is a common attitude in WoW, but this was from my friend who had previously always wanted to have "his boomkin." It just hurts. In my opinion they should have opened up the new guild to all WA members but make the new guild rules known. This way people know they are expected to play 75% to 100% of the time and that raid performance will evaluated and criticized if needed. Cherry picking WA members of desired classes just seems wrong.
Anyway, I don't know what is going to happen but I think that WA is done. The GM told me over the weekend that they will talk to the members about it tonight. If the leaders stay then we will go on but it will probably take a month to get us back on track if not longer. As I look at the roster of the new guild I see 14 (old) WA members now there. One other WA member has gone to a different guild and a couple of others I know have applied.
What this all means for me, I don't know. I have several options but none of them seem all that good right now. I will talk more about that later after I see what happens tonight.
Toon Update:
Graylo - I did some kara and ZA with him but only got badges.
Graypal - I got him to about halfway through 64 and made him Scryers. Going Scryers as a Drianie is not fun. I don't recommend it unless you really want to.
Grayfel - Still building rested XP.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Educational Materials
I have added a couple of links on the right for two web resources I really like that I don't think a lot of people know about. Here is a review.
WoW Pro
Description: Guides, Guides, and more Guides. The site includes guides for a wide range of topics including, Leveling, Instances, and Gold Making. The guides are written by both Administrators and Users of the site.
Pros: Hands down this site has the best free leveling guides I have seen for both Horde and Alliance. Also has a few really good instance guides for lower level instances.
Cons: Many of the user created guides are horrible. The best leveling guides start at levels 20 or 30. The quality of the lower level guides varies significantly. The site is very slow about updating guides after major changes to the game.
Why I like the site: Lets face it. A majority of the guides available out there either suck or cost money. This site is a nice exception to that rule. The sites administrator Jame has put together some very nice guides that will help you get from fairly low level all the way to 70.
I first picked up the guide after I had wasted a lot of time going from 1 to 30 with a higher then needed play time. These guide greatly increased my leveling time and I used it from 30 to 60. The guides where recently updated to include the leveling changes in Patch 2.3 and they added guides to get you from 60 to 70.
As I said in the cons, the site does include a lot of bad guides. However, most of won't take much of your time and you can be confident that anything with Jame's name on it is a quality guide.
Balance One Stop Shop (WoW Druid Forums)
Description: A ton of basic information on Moonkin and how they should be played in PvE.
Pros: Best compilation of Moonkin related info, and answers most of the basic info on how to play a Moonkin. Cons: Primarily focuses on PvE and Raiding. Has very little info on PvP. Has a little to much math in some spots and not enough in other spots. Can be a little slow to be updated.
Why I like the site: As I look around the web I see a lot people asking moonkin related question and then a lot of other people giving then very bad advice. The two guys that created this post did their home work and provided a resource that answers a majority of the questions I see floating around. I would have like to seen a bit more math to help readers better evaluate their gear upgrades and a little more Talent Build info. Adding PvP info would also be very helpful. However, anyone that reads the post should have a better understanding of how to play their moonkin.
Toon Update:
Graylo - The guild isn't doing any formal raiding until Monday the 7th, so Graylo has been doing a lot of ZA and Kara. Wandering Alliance as a guild has cleared ZA several times but it is difficult given that we don't spend regular raid time to run it. As a result I have not cleared it yet but I did finally get Hex Lord down this week. I am also starting to think that ZA doesn't like me or the casters in my guild. There are three items I want from ZA and none of them will drop. Graylo has also run Kara we didn't clear it for the week yet but I did get to do Moroes and Nightbane. These are the only two bosses that drop anything I want and I was able to pick up the [Brooch of Unquenchable Fury].
It's only a very slight upgrade to [Adornment of Stolen Souls] which I also have, but it brings me very close to the hit cap. I mainly picked it up for the options it provides. I am at a point in raiding where I need to be very close to the hit cap, but I don't want to waste stats by going over the hit cap. So I need options. Items that I can switch in and out to increase and reduce my Spell Hit and Spell crit, depending on the new pieces of gear I get. For example, I hope to get [Wub's Cursed Hexblade] . If I equipped it right now it would put me 10 or 11 over the hit cap. I this case I would probably switch back to the [Adornment of Stolen Souls].
So with this in mind I am trying to pick up as many of the hit and crit items that I have passed on in the past. I would also like the [Talisman of Nightbane] off of Nightbane, the [Brute Cloak of the Ogre-Magi] off of High King Maulgar, and a few other things.
Graypal - I did a few quests with him but he is still only about half way through level 63. As many of you know leveling is just so slow in this range and I just don't have the time to sit down and put 6 or 7 hours into him that leveling would require. I end up doing a lot of it while I wait for a raid to start or something like that. So he is going pretty slow right now.
Grayfel - I used up all of his rested XP and got him to level 19. I am glad to have a soulstone. I just wish I could find some Tin nodes to level up my Mining and Jewelcrafting.
WoW Pro
Description: Guides, Guides, and more Guides. The site includes guides for a wide range of topics including, Leveling, Instances, and Gold Making. The guides are written by both Administrators and Users of the site.
Pros: Hands down this site has the best free leveling guides I have seen for both Horde and Alliance. Also has a few really good instance guides for lower level instances.
Cons: Many of the user created guides are horrible. The best leveling guides start at levels 20 or 30. The quality of the lower level guides varies significantly. The site is very slow about updating guides after major changes to the game.
Why I like the site: Lets face it. A majority of the guides available out there either suck or cost money. This site is a nice exception to that rule. The sites administrator Jame has put together some very nice guides that will help you get from fairly low level all the way to 70.
I first picked up the guide after I had wasted a lot of time going from 1 to 30 with a higher then needed play time. These guide greatly increased my leveling time and I used it from 30 to 60. The guides where recently updated to include the leveling changes in Patch 2.3 and they added guides to get you from 60 to 70.
As I said in the cons, the site does include a lot of bad guides. However, most of won't take much of your time and you can be confident that anything with Jame's name on it is a quality guide.
Balance One Stop Shop (WoW Druid Forums)
Description: A ton of basic information on Moonkin and how they should be played in PvE.
Pros: Best compilation of Moonkin related info, and answers most of the basic info on how to play a Moonkin. Cons: Primarily focuses on PvE and Raiding. Has very little info on PvP. Has a little to much math in some spots and not enough in other spots. Can be a little slow to be updated.
Why I like the site: As I look around the web I see a lot people asking moonkin related question and then a lot of other people giving then very bad advice. The two guys that created this post did their home work and provided a resource that answers a majority of the questions I see floating around. I would have like to seen a bit more math to help readers better evaluate their gear upgrades and a little more Talent Build info. Adding PvP info would also be very helpful. However, anyone that reads the post should have a better understanding of how to play their moonkin.
Toon Update:
Graylo - The guild isn't doing any formal raiding until Monday the 7th, so Graylo has been doing a lot of ZA and Kara. Wandering Alliance as a guild has cleared ZA several times but it is difficult given that we don't spend regular raid time to run it. As a result I have not cleared it yet but I did finally get Hex Lord down this week. I am also starting to think that ZA doesn't like me or the casters in my guild. There are three items I want from ZA and none of them will drop. Graylo has also run Kara we didn't clear it for the week yet but I did get to do Moroes and Nightbane. These are the only two bosses that drop anything I want and I was able to pick up the [Brooch of Unquenchable Fury].
It's only a very slight upgrade to [Adornment of Stolen Souls] which I also have, but it brings me very close to the hit cap. I mainly picked it up for the options it provides. I am at a point in raiding where I need to be very close to the hit cap, but I don't want to waste stats by going over the hit cap. So I need options. Items that I can switch in and out to increase and reduce my Spell Hit and Spell crit, depending on the new pieces of gear I get. For example, I hope to get [Wub's Cursed Hexblade] . If I equipped it right now it would put me 10 or 11 over the hit cap. I this case I would probably switch back to the [Adornment of Stolen Souls].
So with this in mind I am trying to pick up as many of the hit and crit items that I have passed on in the past. I would also like the [Talisman of Nightbane] off of Nightbane, the [Brute Cloak of the Ogre-Magi] off of High King Maulgar, and a few other things.
Graypal - I did a few quests with him but he is still only about half way through level 63. As many of you know leveling is just so slow in this range and I just don't have the time to sit down and put 6 or 7 hours into him that leveling would require. I end up doing a lot of it while I wait for a raid to start or something like that. So he is going pretty slow right now.
Grayfel - I used up all of his rested XP and got him to level 19. I am glad to have a soulstone. I just wish I could find some Tin nodes to level up my Mining and Jewelcrafting.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
