A day of rest

Friday is usually the night I do not play WoW -- maybe a little just after dinner to move characters, check auctions, work on an alt. But there are no instance runs for me or anything that takes too much time, as Friday night is reserved for Mrs. n00bie, who cannot stand how much time and effort I devote to this game.

I realize its been awhile since I've had a substantive post -- this week was rather dry, but I have some planned -- to go back to helping all us n00bies try and understand this game that affects us so. In the meantime, have a good weekend and hug your loved ones.

From Goat to Hero in Seven Minutes

The following is in no way meant to be a guide or a how to:
I was stupid yesterday and not paying attention and after getting a raid of 25 fully buffed and ready for an assault on High King Maulgar, I wandered a little too far away from the wall and a little too close to the High King. A big red AGGRO flashed across my screen and I won't begin to tell you the terrible words that went through my mind.

After a very quick and ugly wipe, I got some good natured ribbing and I made the offer to anyone who wanted, 1 gold for their repair, and 3 gold for plate wearers (no one took me up on it).

For the fight against Mulgaur, my other hunter in the raid and I were set the task of tanking Kiggler and although my companion hates it when we tank, I like seeing my name up there as an MT on the CTRA list.

Towards the beginning of the fight something goes a awry and my co-tank dies and I am left to tank Kiggler alone. Except the monster polymorphs his attackers and when morphed the tank loses aggro, thats why you need two. Fortunately, right after the other hunter died, I popped a Beast Within and that gave me a little time, after that wore off I got lucky then for the next 5 or so morphs, and for some reason I popped into and out of rabbit form, only losing aggro momentarily.

When the morphs finally did start to take, instead of going after my healer, killing him, then me and causing a massive wipe, Kiggler went after one of the healers who was healing the tank of the High King -- and when I was Polymorphed she did a great job of keeping herself and her tank alive, and then I could grab aggro back when I was myself again. I told people afterwards, I don't think I have ever spammed distracting shot like that before. When the group finally got the seer and the summoner down they all came to attack Kiggler and I could rest a little. Of course with about 10 seconds left in the fight, I drew aggro from the High King and died... but by then the whispers and the accolades were coming in about what a nice job I did tanking Kiggler alone, saving the group from a wipe, etc. I told them I had to, I had to make up for being such a terrible bonehead earlier in the raid.

Guild vs. Fellowship

So here is a pet peeve of mine:

Guilds are not guilds. The guilds in World of Warcraft are not what I consider the definition of what a guild should be. And I don't mean your dictionary, booklearning definition, I'm talking about the "Truthiness" definition. The one that comes from your gut.

And my gut tells me that a guild is a group of like minded people who share a similar profession, goals and the willingness to learn. Sort of like a trade union for character classes.

If it were up to me, I would decree that all Guilds should immediately call themselves Fellowships, since to me that is a more accurate term for these loosely conjoined friends who go raiding together and I then I would allow the creation of character class specific guilds.

And there would not be just one Guild for each class -- there could be dozens or hundreds of Guilds, and while there would be no guild bank or Guild Housing, there would be a guild forum, members on-line to ask questions and it would create a new way to for Fellowships to solicited new members.

Think about it: Your Fellowship needs more warriors for raiding, you as a warrior could go to your warrior guild and start recruiting from the people you have met there.

I just find that, while I like everyone in my guild, I get along especially well in my guild with all the other people who have Hunters as their mains. I also find that I mostly enjoy blogs by other hunters, because what they are saying pertains directly to my character and making me a better player.

Guild or Fellowship or whatever you call it, I think that the more communication you have with others of your own class the more ideas and brainstorming you can do and the more you can achieve and learn.

You don't have to be the best, but you do have to be good

Here is the worst secret ever kept: I am not the best hunter in the world. I am not the best hunter on my server, I'm not even the best hunter in my guild. But I read, I study, I have learned my class and now I am a damn good hunter, I've even been called uber by one deranged person.

In World of Warcraft, being the best is not needed. Doing your best is. Take the time to learn to play your main and any high level alts you have. Research strategies and put some time and effort into it and you may be rewarded with people who want to and enjoy playing with you.

If you have tried all those things and people still don't want to group with you, if you just don't have an innate talent for the class you're playing it may be time to re-roll -- test the waters and see if there is another class more to your liking. If you have rolled every class and you still suck, hey switch to Age of Conan, at least you may get laid!

I figure I'm kinda preaching to the choir here, because if you are here, chances are you found me from some better fount of information than my short blog has to offer. But I give most of my post as much effort as I possibly can and I hope that they are helpful to all of us who feel a little left out.

So whatever you choose to do, work hard, put in some effort and try to do good. It will be appreciated.

For want of a Warlock

So our Warlock left our Kara group and was replaced by a Shadow Priest. Since then we have not gotten down Illhoof or through Shade of Aran. So it was suggested that on Sunday we skip them and attempt the Prince. I had informed my RL that I would be between 30 to 45 minutes late for the raid and they could replace me or I could catch up with them.

When I signed on 45 minutes late, they had replaced me, but told me to come back in two hours as someone was leaving and they would need me. Sure no problem I said.

Two hours later I signed on Vent and I asked how it was going. "Terrible" our RL tells me, "Netherspite is kicking our butts."

At that same moment I get a whisper from my fellow Hunter Guildie/confidant saying "Your team took down the Prince and the bow dropped."

"You took down Prince!" I say. Ten people slowly mumbled their assent, at least they all felt bad enough to try and hide it from me, but it felt like a ton of bricks hitting me. Sure I put on the happy patter and said, oh don't worry it will drop again.

Now I will be counting the weeks before I see that bow.

Spend gold or farm?

I hate waiting, and since I got my epic flying mount, I have not had too much use for my gold, so I decided to finally level up my Leatherworking from 373 where it had been stuck for several weeks to 375. The quickest way, would be to create Heavy Clefthoof Boots so I went to Nagrand and gathered 60 Thick Clefthoof Leather -- that took several hours. I bought the Primal Earth at 4 gold each and went to work, I figured since the recipe was yellow, 2 out of three would not be bad if I could get it up there. So with very little in expenses but time I set to level up. The first creation brought me to 374. The next did not level me, no problemo, there is another. Aaaannnd, nope no 375 on the third. Do I go back to Nagrand or do I buy the expensive leather on the AH? Portal to Darnasus (because I would need to go to the Dragonscale Leatherworker for the new recipes) Head over to the Ah to spend 90 gold on 20 Thick Clefthoof Leather, a stop by the bank to pick up my last two rune threads and... Damn... three in a row no level.

Back to the AH 95 Gold this time (still have plenty of Primal Earth) but no Rune Thread, I head over to the Leatherworkers place to get some thread, and as I am standing there, my avatar busy working on the boots, I think how nice it would be, to come full circle and hit 375 in the very place that I first trained to become a Leatherworker and BAM 375.

Then the gathering for the chest peice. Had the Primal Nethers, had the scales, had the leather, did not have the primal shadows or primal fires. A Guildie gave me 5 Primal Shadows, I bought five at a low AH prices (spent about 30 on the 5) and farmed six more.

Then I went to farm the Primal Fires, they were selling for about 30 each on the AH and I did not want to pay that much. So early morning I started farming Elemental Plateau, got four primals before 3 other people showed up and chased me away. Then I started to go to other places with fire elementals to gather up the motes of fire, and I learned something as every place I went usually had one or two other farmers. The more something is farmed, the lower the rate it drops, I finally hit a 1 for 41 skid on motes and I was ready to drop kick the computer.

Thats when I went back to the AH and spent 200 gold on the final 9 primals I needed, crafted the chest piece and spent another hundred gold on the gems.

So 500 gold down, but I got a good chest piece out of it, really cool looking too.

One more thought about the Auction House

Whilst I am busy in my own private hell know as farming for Motes of Fire for my Ebon Netherscale Breastplate (yay I hit 375 Leatherworking Friday night) and I won't buy them at the crazy weekend prices on the AH, I realized I left a thought off about the Auction House.

Prices vary on the weekends. Popular items go down in price (Leather, cloth, etc.), rarer items are a little bit higher (as there are more eyes to see the items you can mark your blues up a little bit).

I decided to write this after I went on a 1 for 21 skid of motes of fire -- take a little break, have my bank alt scan the AH and clear my head.