Profession Discussion

Archive for the ‘Profession Discussion’ Category

So Goblins and Worgen are the new playable races (maybe)…

Well that got me thinking what other new features will be in the next expansion for WOW. After many years of playing one MMO or another and always coming back to WOW their have been a few things which i think you will see in WOW in the next expansion.

The first of these is something, which I would bet a very large sum of money, will be in the next expansion of wow PUBLIC QUESTS. What is a public quest you ask. Well let me tell you its a quest which is on a timer and can be run multiple times back to back. Which you can do solo or with a group and is in a area of a zone and when you walk into it you are part of the quest and when you walk out you are not part of the quest. The end result of being part of these public quests is the game has you working with other players without you knowing it adding to the social aspect of the game also giving you a chance to gear up without instances or raids. Its the future. Trust me!

The second of the new features which I believe you will see in WoW are 2 new professions now a lot of people think that wood working or something to do with wood will be a new profession.

Sounds like they have a problem to me, but here is my take on it a Rune Tattoo profession. Matched with a gathering profession, Rune Tatooing would add new looks to your character and also give a buff to the stats of your character. Wait a minute their you say! “We already have enchanting in the game to buff our gear stats.” Well this is true but this new profession would buff the character directly and not the gear.

The third and final of these new items I think we will see in a new expansion is more customization of our characters. If Blizzard continues the trend of all gear looking the same as you level, and all of the gear looks the same, they should have to add the ability for us as the player base the change the color composition of the gear so it gives us the chance to look a little different from everyone.

In closing, this is all speculation, but some of these are features already incorporated in other games. Blizzard seems to be trending towards catering to the cutesy, unique, social, fun and casual. And, changes like these would do more to foster the trend we are already seeing.

Hope you enjoyed my thoughts…

Vars

This week on The Rawrcast Show we will be joined by Tim from El’s Extreme Anglin’! Together we run through the ins and outs of the upcoming fishing changes planned for 3.1, revisit a few changes made in previous patches, and discuss the development of the fishing profession community within World of Warcraft.

So, crack open a Captain Rumsy Lager, whip out your huge rod, and plan to join us for the live show this Saturday at 4 PM, CST on Ustream!~

This week’s Rawrcast was broadcast LIVE from The Argent Tournament on the US PTR realm, Broxigar. Our PTR experiences this week are discussed along with a few highlights, including the still crappy Flask of the Stoneblood, exploring Ulduar, testing the Iron Council event, and mats you may want to start gathering now for new craftables in 3.1. And, Stomp bids a fond farewell to Phaelia.

We also address a Swedish listener’s e-mail regarding the challenges of playing on the EU servers. And, we explain how our hard edge seems to be misinterpreted as a soft chewy center.

All this, and much more is now available for your listening pleasure via iTunes, RSS feed, download, or stream it from our main page.

Current 3.1 Patch Notes: here you can find all of the craftables, glyphs, and class changes discussed
PTR Cookie Recipe
MMO Champion

Don’t forget to tune in for the
LIVE show next week on
Ustream – Saturday, March 7 @ 4 PM, CST
where we will debut the
Tweet Me, Tweet You contest to our listeners.
Listen to WIN a 60-day Game Card!

Music provided by: Forcefeed – Grinder

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

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!

Raid healing as a druid can either be entirely boring, or extremely exciting. It all depends upon the roll that you are asked to play as the raid progresses, and the type of boss encounter you are faced with.

Overall raid healing usually consists of spot healing non-tank-type raiders that take incremental damage, without maintaining aggro. I am specced with Empowered Rejuvenation along with Glyph of Swiftmend and Glyph of Rejuvenation. So, my most effective spot-heal is Rejuvenation followed by a lovely Swiftmend as-needed.

On the rare occasion that I am assigned to heal the Main Tank or Off-Tank, spell rotation is very important to maintaining full hots on my primary target, as well as secondary target, in addition to applying direct heals to my primary target.

The most effective spell rotations take into account the decreased cast time for direct heals and Global Cooldown thanks to spell haste. Once you work out a steady rotation, MT healing should work almost like clockwork. I tend to get into a groove and almost keep steady time with the Global Cooldown, like the beat of a song.

The MT casting rotation that seems to be working best for me is:

My primary healing target picks-up his mob and generates aggro.
As my target drops to around 60% of his HP I first apply a nice, healthy Regrowth.
Follow with a plump little Rejuvenation and a quick stack of Lifeblooms.
I then throw in a Healing Touch or a Nourish and/or a Swiftmend if the cooldown is up to finish off the rotation as needed,
then start again with a Regrowth.

Timing usually works out to where the Rejuvenation is ready to be refreshed as soon as I start my next rotation.

If there is another secondary healing target close by, I typically maintain the same hots on both my primary and secondary target within the rotation, and add in a Wild Growth.

The upcoming change to Wild Growth will add additional healing to Nourish, which will more than likely change my choice of spells and somewhat change of some strategies and MT/OT placement within the raid to aid both and improve use of our mechanics.

One major challange I have run into lately is the fact that I have yet to come across a Grid add-on that denotes Wild Growth. I currently have GridStatusHots that indicates most of my other up-time hots, but not Wild Growth. Hopefully an additional indicator becomes available before the Nourish change since right now Wild Growth is the only whack-a-mole heal since I have no idea who the hot lands on.

The largest part of being an effective raiding resto druid is figuring out what works best for you and your group. Some raids might consist of tanks with less defense, dodge, parry, etc – that might take more damage than initial rotations make up for. It is a trial and error to work out what works best for your gear level at the moment. The best part is, gear improves, tanks take less damage, and healing becomes less stressful over time.

Happy Healing!

Are you a raiding resto? What healing rotation works best for you? Reply and share your learnings, or shoot me an e-mail at MissRawr1337@gmail.com.

In my years playing World of Warcraft, raiding as both a DPS and a healing class, I have made many mistakes, and learned many things along the way. From those growing opportunities, I have compiled a short list of things that every raider should know.

Do Your Homework
Learn where you guild is in progression, study the encounters, know your roll as well as that of others, watch videos, share your insite with raiders in preparation for the encounter well in advance of the raid.

Get Your Buff On
Every single raiding guild in WoW outlines what they expect from their raiding members. 99.9% of them detail that they expect for raiders to show up prepared with consumables. This includes self-buff foods, flasks and elixirs, as well as reagents. If your class isn’t a buffing class, go the extra mile to build campfires for those that need to cook on the fly, and brag about your ubar Cozy Campfire buff for the raid.

Don’t Count on Heals
Anyone other than the main tank and off-tanks shouldn’t count on getting heals. When you do, it is nice and very well appreciated. However, when learning new encounters, progressing in content that is at first challenging, healers are stretched for mana. So, the other raid members who might pull aggro, stand in green goop, etc… need to fend for themselves for awhile. For the sake of your healers, level your First Aid! Carry bandages and use them! Rather than standing around waiting for a heal, pop a bandage and get back to business!

AFK, WTF?!?!
As the raid is forming, go take care of business. Raids take anywhere from 2-10 hours and the last thing anyone wants to do is sit around waiting for your to tinkle, walk your dog, take a shower, unload your mom’s groceries, or any of the other hundreds of “BRB”s I have seen in my day. You have 24 other people (39 back in the day), who are counting on you to be there 100% of the time. If you can’t manage outside influences, think twice about offering yourself up as a dedicated raider.

Take Feedback as a Positive
If you are faced with a situation where you are given a directive from the raid leader, do it. Get clarification when needed, but it is always best to leave the judgment up to those that the guild trusts to make those calls. Don’t take it personal, don’t think that you aren’t doing a good job, just improve the roll you are playing. Use feedback constructively.

Don’t Let Loot Ruin a Relationship
Plan ahead, know which loot drops of which boss and focus on the items that will benifit you the most. If you don’t get an item that you have planned for, don’t sweat it. It will drop again. Congratulate the raid member that received the item and let it go. If the content is on farm, you will see it drop again.

Talk Less, Listen More
Ventrilo is a wonderful tool that is almost necessary to aid raiding. However, logging onto vent doesn’t mean that raid members are welcome to join the Hello Kitty Knitting Club Hour. We are there for a goal. When the first pull starts, vent should become quite and open for raid calls and feedback.

Keep Perspective
Always keep in mind that the overall goal of the raid is to challenge and beat encounters. Often times people get wrapped up and transfixed by shiny numbers, bars going up and down and mashing buttons. And, too often people become meter-whores. Meters are a wonderful tool to gauge improvements and identify areas that need improvement. But, unless an issue is being addressed during the raid, meters need to stay out of the raid. Anyone who is so enthralled by the meters should be looking at them on their own screen. Meters should never be broadcast during the middle of a raid. Save the feedback and backslapping for after the raid.

Feed Your WoW
Nothing will ever grow unless it is nurtured and encouraged. Study your raid WWS report whenever possible, even the raids you don’t attend. Find out what works, what is eating your mana, what is that other guy doing, what buffs is he using…. study it from all angles and improve your play. Most importantly, if you see something that a fellow raider can improve upon talk with them about it constructively.

Give for the Greater Good of the Guild
Great guilds are not born, they are made by their members. The best raiders are not just raiders, they are great members of their guild community. It bodes well to plan ahead for future progression goals and farm materials and consumables in advance. Helping to provide items for the guild not only shows favorably for you, but also encourages others to do the same.

All told, raiding has been an adventure in online etiquette, communication and time management. Through learnings and perseverance (and ibuprofen), progress has come with effort. Any raider should equal and/or surpass the effort of his fellow raiders. Challenge and learn from one another. After all, this is a social game – improve your raiding community by example.

Stompalina hit 80 about a week ago now, nearly a month after a majority of my guild. The late start on raiding has required a bit of planning and preparation on my part to ready me for jumping right into raiding. Here are a few points that have helped me obtain my goals this week:

Gear Check
In my quest to research gear I came across a wonderful listing of pre-raid gear posted by our friends at Elitist Jerks. And, knowing what an organized freak I am, I reworked the listing into one that can be sorted by instance/boss/etc – here. The listing is a great resource for scoping out instances with gear upgrades, along with important quest rewards and gear obtained by collecting Emblems of Heroism – all of which are helpful in preparing for raiding.

Game Face
Another important piece of the raiding puzzle left to be reconfigured and prepared is my raiding UI (user interface). As with most add-ons, WOTLK totally put the shut down on compatibility for my pretty raiding UI. Since release I have been slowly resetting my raiding UI with new add-ons that are wrath-compatible, and keeping them current is now very easy-breezy with the Curse Client.

Setting up your UI for raiding is important, not just to look pretty, but to maximize your on-screen real estate. As a healer, it is easy to get bogged down in looking at bars going up and down. Unfortunately, that is only half the battle of being a good healer. The other half is being aware of your surroundings and being about to react quickly. To further maximize view perspective, there is a simple macro that adds additional camera area between you and your character. It is a must for any raider!

/script SetCVar("cameraDistanceMax",30)

Skirmish Raiding
PVP raiding is an excellent way to get back into the swing of raid healing. Once you get used to the fact that you are destined to die (a lot), you can use the raid to set up your raid frames, as well as use and test your key bindings and clique combinations for both offensive and defensive spells. Additionally, PVP is an opportunity to work on personal-defensive reaction times (barkskin, war stomp, etc). Keeping yourself alive with quick reaction time is just as importing as shiny green numbers.

Secondary Skillz
As lame as most people think it is, cooking and fishing are a vital part of the game. And, to fully be prepared for raiding, most people are required to provide self-buffs including food. Unless you have a crutch buddy who is willing to cook for you every couple of days, it is almost absolutely necessary to level cooking to provide your buff food. The new cooking dailies are quick and nearly painless to get done on a frequent basis. The best part about the new cooking quests is that you are able to select the newly obtainable recipe that benefits you the most from the get-go by using your Dalaran Cooking Awards.

All in all, I have put about a week now into gearing up via craftables and drops, and I entered Heroic Naxxramas tonight with my guild. It was nearly painless, and I was able to contribute with much needed healing. From here, I still have a bit of catching up to do, but being prepared and dedicated lends itself to being able to post the numbers needed to be a successful raiding guild in Wrath.

With the Death Knight on the back burner for the time being, I am hitting Howling Fjord hard and heavy. The questing is so very well planned in the Wrath of the Lich King, and the stories are amazing. The zones have many sub-zones this time around with quest-hubs with chains anywhere from 5-20 quests deep. And, with the linear chains lead to each of the various sub-zones. All are very well thought out in efforts to avoid overcrowding in various areas.

So, with these amazing stories comes little lessons in lore and happenstance along the way. Today’s adventure in northern Howling Fjord lead me to Gjalerbron, where after slaying Queen Angerboda for the quest The Slumbering King, the Lich King yells:

which equates to the fact that I will see Ymiron again. And now, having done the quest line leading up to that moment, I understand why he is angry. But, I have to do some reaserch on why he is so sleepy.

Winding down the zone I was able to get into a party for Utgarde Keep, one of the two instances within Howing Fjord. The story about the Keep’s existence, and how it relates to the zone is very evident. And, much to my amazement, the first boss was the good ol’ Death Knight teacher-guy from back in Eastern Plaguelands – none other than Prince Keleseth. Knowing that he is a hard and fast member of the scourage, which I am working to exterminate throughout Northrend, I was happy to take part in kicking his ass.

Overall, Utgarde Keep was a great first WOTLK dungeon experience. The story lines were great, and the imagery and interaction was amazing.

While the Death Knight class comes with first aid pre-leveled to 270, no other professions are trained or leveled. So, anyone serious about investing time and effort into the class has to also spend quite a bit of time playing catch-up with both primary and secondary professions.

I found a handy guide on El’s Extreme Anglin’ that details steps to level fishing and cooking simultaneously. I have still had to invest quite a bit of time running all over creation, and I tend to space out and start doing other things rather than fishing, but it has been more productive than past power-profession-leveling experiences.

And, when it comes to leveling herbalism or mining, having Gatherer is a major help. It tracks the nodes and adds a mini-map display for noted locations. Additionally, I just learned of MapWoW.com today – which has captured the same node information and displays it utilizing the same type of googlemaps technology. Either or both is helpful in searching for an locating the often rare node.

Whatever profession you are leveling, don’t be afraid of doing some research and following guides that are available all over the web. No matter what you are leveling, there are thousands of people that have leveled that profession before you. Why not learn from there experience and make yours faster and more enjoyable.