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As we all gear up for the annual broadcast of the Super Bowl of commercials…. and some football game-thingie… It is worth mentioning that the omnipresent Guild Master of The Knights of Good (aka. Jeff Lewis) will be making a “brief” (har, har) but memorable appearance in a CareerBuilder.com commercial set to air.

Just proves my point that smart middle-aged gamers are sexy.

Over the course of the last few weeks, our guild has been trying Heroic Sartharion with all three drakes still alive and we’ve been met with some… challenges. Stomp and I have mentioned several times on the podcast that it’s a very difficult event under the best circumstances, but when anything goes wrong for us, it leads to a wipe. Up to this point, I have been raiding with an Unholy spec because, for me, it was far superior damage to Frost or Blood with my gear. That all changed this week, when I was asked to spec Blood for the Abomination’s Might and Blood Aura. With the gut-wrenching changes to Unholy (overstating, hehe) and the challenges with Obsidian Sanctum’s Flying Foursome, it seemed as good a time as any to try something new. So… with a heavy heart (Goodbye, Glacierslobber or whatever your name was. /sniffle) and a respec bill to boot, I took the plunge.

Things to consider when changing a Spec
1) What are you doing in your current spec that you like or don’t want to change?
Well… the things I loved most about unholy, changed. The gargoyle got nerfed to only 30 seconds (not that I enjoyed managing my runic power while he was up) so I wouldn’t miss him too much. My ghoul was always a good source of dps but it’s a bit too deep into the unholy tree for me to be able to get two points in Blood Aura and still be able to reach Master of Ghouls so that was out as well. I still can summon him every once in awhile, but I don’t get to giggle at his name. /shrug

2) What do you want out of your new spec?
ZOMG FACE PWNAGE! Sorry… lost it there for a second. The first thing I wanted out of the Blood tree was, of course, Blood Aura. The additional healing is a boon to our healers who have a lot going on in Obsidian Sanctum and in that fight, every little bit helps. I also wanted to pick up Abom’s Might in case we don’t have an enhance shaman handy (aside from the constant 2% strength it gives me). Also, since Gargoyle and Dancing Rune Weapon were arguably similar dps prior the the patch and Gargoyle got nerfed a bit, then it made sense to dive all the way down to the 51 pt talent in blood.

3) Do I have the gear for the change?
I know there are alot of folks that don’t really care about this and change specs whenever the mood strikes, but let’s be honest. If I only have 250 hit, do I really want to try out the hot new Dual Wield spec du jour? Probably not, since your misses will more than negate any possible increase to your damage that you might enjoy if you had the gear to carry the spec. In my case, the gear I had for Unholy works quite well for Blood. I have passed on items with armor penetration in the past since most Unholy damage is magic and not physical, so that’s something I might change a little bit, but for the most part, I’m set for Blood. I’m hit capped for two handers (or at least very close), have gobs of attack power and plenty of crit… GOOD TO GO! I was also really fortunate to get the Sigil of Awareness from Heigan in Heroic Naxxramas and decided to pick up the Glyph of Obliterate to help out with my Obliterate damage.

4) Lastly, what is going to change in my rotation?
One of the great things about Blood is that it’s strike, Heart Strike, only uses 1 Blood Rune! That makes managing a rotation a little simpler and gives more options. And now it hit’s two targets to help with AoE which has always been a bit of a downfall to blood in raiding.

Results of the Blood Experiment
I love it!! I won’t say that it is better dps than Unholy or that I’m never going back… but I will say that I find it easy to play and it does a fair amount of dps with a couple of really good raid buffs. If you like big shiny yellow numbers then I highly recommend it. During the Thaddius event in Naxxramas, there is a damage buff that you get from being near raid members with the same polarity that you have and I hit for 24K obliterates. I also was hitting Malygos (with 2 sparks stacked) for 26K dmg. You can’t help but giggle when you see numbers like that!

I have PvP’d with it as well and the burst damage is formidable. I also like that I don’t have to manage the pets or runic power as much. Once I pop the ghoul, that’s that. He does what he wants and I don’t have to worry about him (although I’m still responsible ). It’s possible to cut off your own gargoyle well before the 30 second duration is reached if you happen to time an Unholy Blight or a Death Coil improperly.

So, I won’t say that I am a convert or Unholy is a thing of the past or everyone switch to Blood because it’s the bestest thing since the Javachip Frappaccino… but I will say that I’ve had alot of fun and don’t mind staying this spec to raid as long as we need. Try it out if you get a chance!

Through my years of playing WoW, and actively participating in raids, I have come to notice players that sometimes have challenges giving their fellow raid members the attention they deserves when raid invites are accepted. A true raiding guild is comprised of a group of people with little in common outside of one goal; kill bosses, get loot. They typically aren’t very social, they are driven and focused. Yet, somehow the mission of the guild is sometimes not enough to attract the best in people when it comes to consistently giving their undivided attention to the game.

Pre-Burning Crusade
Aside from the obvious attractiveness of progression, pre-BC raiding was monotonous and pretty boring. Raid trash pulls were large, requiring much CC (crowd control) and were kind of “same thing, different room”. With forty people in the raid, classes that weren’t absolutely necessary to each pull weren’t payed much attention when moving from boss to boss.

Many raiders would go AFK (away from keyboard) during trash pulls, or inadvertently disconnect then reconnect when we arrived to the boss. One more memorable AFKs happened in Molten Core during trash pulls when a main tank said over Vent, “I need to go take a shower. I will be right back.” The thing is, with forty people in the raid, the absence of one, two, even three players was not detrimental to moving on from boss to boss. It was an accepted part of raiding with a group that large.

Pre-Wrath of the Lich King
With the introduction of Burning Crusade, raid structure was trimmed down to a lean 25 people. Most guilds who over-recruited with the intention of filling the standard 40-man raid were now inundated with people who waited on the sidelines to raid. Initially it seemed as if the best-of-the best were glanced over for those the simply leveled to 70 first.

Obtaining the level cap first simply means that any one player had more time available than another, and soon those that were left on the sidelines thinned out and began looking elsewhere, forming new guilds, etc. Guilds lost good people due to the fact that they were over populated.

The BC 25-man structure left little to chance by way of CC and attention to play style. It was much more obvious who wasn’t pulling his/her weight, and much easier to manage the smaller number of raiders.

Today
Again, more importance was placed upon reaching the level cap, and great raiders who had less time than others were left to the sidelines while raids formed, and progress was made. Unfortunately, recruiting was necessary in most cases to fill the ranks. And, yet again many guilds have lost many great players due in large part to the theory that reaching the cap readied players for raiding. The fact that great players who have time and time again shown a great level of commitment in the past are, at times, looked over or replaced is sometimes unavoidable as the goals for progress remain the same, no mater how much time any one player has available to invest in his/her character.

The ever-present meters have become even more involved in the selection of who is selected to fill raid spots, and what is expected of their play, their class, and their attention. It is evident to all that run and check meters exactly who is not maintaining a minimum level of attention needed, dying a more than acceptable number of times, not using the expected consumables, inconsistent spell rotation, or basically riding the coat tails of those that are putting in 100% effort on a consistent basis.

I say this all to point out the fact that I expect for my fellow raiders to give the same amount of attention to raid encounters that I/others give, show the same amount of consistency and expertise that we know we are all capable. As someone who entrusts my raiding experience to the mercy of the raid leaders, I also expect that those leaders identify raid members that might not be fulfilling what is needed of his/her raid spot to achieve the one overall goal that we all have; kill bosses, get loot.

Different people may play at different levels, and may focus on a varied number of goals. But, on thing is evident in any guild: If a guild has a vision and a set of goals they strive towards, it is up to each member support that vision, and to act as a community to address and tackle challenges on an ongoing basis.

On this week’s show Haf and Stomp tackle change and progression. While beating our heads against Sartharion +3 for final raid progression, time off has been spent reminiscing about Old World WoW and important quests and rep factions that newly leveled characters should not miss.

We also answer our first listener question regarding restoration druids and the dreaded overheal meter, chit-chat about the pending patch, and debate the mains vs. alts theory when it comes to fairly distributing loot within a raiding guild.

Links to items discussed:

• WoW goes 3D with NVIDIA® GeForce® 3D Vision™
• Learn all Eternal transmutes in one swoop!
• Rothin the Decaying promises to stand still and let you beat him for the Master at Arms acheivement

Visit our rawrbitchrawr to listen to the current episode, or subscribe via iTunes.

Enjoy!

Music provided by: 137 – Wrecking Ball & 81db – Nice Trip

With another tanking (able) class out there, some people think Death Knights (DKs) should put in our time and do the “grunt work” of tanking. Pay our dues, so to speak, before we change things up and take someone’s spot as a damage dealer (DPS). On our server, there are constantly groups in the Looking For Group channel trying to find a tank so, many see this as an opportunity for DKs to step in and fill a role they (the people that are asking) don’t want to or just plain can’t fill. So… what do we do? Fulfill their needs or ours? Hopefully, both.

To Tank?
I wish I could say that tanking as a DK is easy, but it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong… we wear plate, we have a presence that gives us extra threat and extra armor and we have ways to mitigate the incoming damage beyond the protection offered by armor. Death Knights are definitely a class that CAN tank. But should we? That’s a decision you will have to make for yourself.

I know the difficulties of tanking, having done it on both a warrior and a druid at 70. It’s a role I enjoyed, but one I stressed over quite a bit. The idea of tanking on my death knight is a little daunting given that there are new things to consider with the mechanics of the runic power and runes that DKs use, it will take some experience before I am as comfortable tanking with my DK as I was with my other tanking toons.

Experience aside, there is also the gear to consider. If a tank is under geared a group will very likely struggle or just completely fail. They may be taking too much damage or not putting out enough threat and then mobs will start eating the faces of the rest of the group. Having 535 defense or more is the only way to become immune to critical hits from bosses in Heroic dungeons at level 80 and it takes 540 to become immune for the level 80 raids. Given that there are no talents to increase the defense of a DK like their are for Druids (Survival of the Fittest) or paladins (Combat Expertise) and we don’t wear shields like warriors, our gearing options are greatly limited. There are no 2-handed weapons currently that offer any defense other than green “…of the Champion” items so that limits us further to generally only dual wielding (DW) as a tank, or taking our chances with eating crits. DW can cause some threat issues, especially if you don’t have a “perfect” spec, so tanking is nothing that a DK should just run into without any preparation beyond just leveling.

Or to Spank?
As a DPSer, being productive was just a matter of learning the right order to mash my buttons and where to stand. A DPSers job is rarely complicated by the group they’re in, whereas a tank’s group can make things very difficult on them.

Gear-wise, it is less detrimental for a damage dealing class to enter an instance with a spec or gear that is not in sync with their role. In the gear that I got from quests as I leveled and some craftables I was able to hold up my end of a group, dps-wise, very comfortably.

I like playing a class that, in a pinch, can take a couple of shots from a boss if something goes horribly wrong and still be a productive DPSer. As a death knight specced Unholy, I can do a good amount of area of effect (AoE) damage, still do decent single target damage and between Bone Shield, Icebound Fortitude and Frost Presence, stand toe to toe (if only for the few seconds my cool downs last, ) with many bosses hopefully, to give a few more seconds for the DPS to kill them!

All in Good Time
I say, “Play how you want to play.” For me, that means doing what I can in a DPS role while I pick up tanking hand me downs along the way. Once I am comfortable with my gear, I will try to get comfortable with tanking. Until then… I shall spank!

We are all happily trudging along, exploring new zones, following new and exciting quest lines following good ol’ stories we have followed since the beginning, as well as elaborating on new stories we are just now discovering. Through it all, I have been reminded of the “old days” and how hardcore I feel when I think about the fact that Haf and I have been playing this game for 4 years now.

A few of the blogs and podcasts I follow have made mention of, “If you could bring anything back from the original WoW, what would it be?”. Here is how I would answer…

1. The Suppression Room – I think that every heroic-level raiding instance should have something along the lines of the suppression room in Blackwing Lair. It was one of the few times that I heard, “Screw your mana, we gotta move NOW!” It also made good use of the underused rogue talent – Disarm. WTB more things to DISARM! Aside from the hilarity that ensued, it was a great test of communication and coordination – two attributes that are crucial to any successful raiding guild.

2. Rank Honor System – I invested days, and days to obtain the Knight-Captian rank on my warlock. And, I suppose now that title is more of a badge of old-school-ness than anything else. Personally, I liked the old honor system. It had good points and bad points, but I liked the idea that I had to push week after week to obtain and maintain the rank I achieved. I am sure there is some way a sub-rank honor system of some kind can be combined with the current rack-em-up system to achieve the effect.

As many things change, many more remain the same. Luckily we can still go back and relive many of the old instances that bring back so many fond memories…

We have had a huge positive response from the community, along with many real-life friends asking for more information. So, Haf and I have decided to enter the uncharted waters of podcasting. Our first show will be recorded LIVE on Ustream - eek!

Please feel free to send us any questions or topics you would like us to discuss. And, be sure to join us this Saturday @ 4 PM, CST on Ustream!

The podcast feed will be posted to the site on Monday.

Wish us luck!

Too often random questions are asked in general chat – simple, easily answered questions. And it makes me wonder; am I the only one that occasionally does and alt+tab and actually looks stuff up?

Moreover, when patch notes come out, much like the upcoming patch... we all talk about the changes well in advanced within the blogging community. We listen to each others input, discuss how it will effect the various classes, give opinions on changing our view point on things, etc. It baffles me when patches come out and for a full day people in /g are saying, “OMG! Now does this!”

*facepalm*

“Do you spend any time outside of the game learning how to better yourself as a player, planning ahead for next-steps within the game?”

The evident answer is, “No.”

I feel that within the blogging community we take the time to read and expand our knowledge of game mechanics. It also appears to me that bloggers communicate more effectively inside and outside of the game, know what is going on the WoW-related sites, have great sources and experience locating new sources of information….. Does this make us better players?

What are your thoughts?
Reply with your opinion, or e-mail the head bitch at MissRawr1337@gmail.com.