[Guide] Northrend Faction Rewards

Originally the concept for this post came from my desire to take a look at the various faction rewards to plan out gear and rep grinding for my toons. Hopefully you will find it a useful resource for doing something similar.
I'm going to list every item offered by neutral (i.e. not Horde/Alliance-affiliated) quartermasters in order of reputation level required, adding both the item type and what sort of role it would best suit (healer/dps/tank - my opinion), or the relevant profession.
I won't be going over how to get rep with these factions, you can find that information elsewhere and I haven't experienced enough to be able to make good calls on this.
If you notice any errors, please let me know.

Factions:
The Argent Crusade
Frenzyheart Tribe
The Kalu'ak
The Kirin Tor
Knights of the Ebon Blade (technically not a Northrend faction :P )
The Oracles
The Sons of Hodir
The Wyrmrest Accord

The Argent Crusade
Friendly:
Tabard of the Argent Crusade (75) - Tabard
Honored:
Arcanum of the Fleeting Shadow (80) - Head Enhancement, Shadow resist
Cloak of Holy Extermination (78) - Back, Physical DPS
Special Issue Legplates (78) - Plate Legs, Tanking
Standard Issue Legguards (78) - Plate Legs, Healing
Revered:
Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector (80) - Head Enhancement, Tanking
Argent Skeleton Crusher (80) - 2H Mace, Physical DPS
Battle Mender's Helm (80) - Mail, Caster DPS
Design: Guardian's Twilight Opal - Jewelcrafting
Fang-Deflecting Faceguard (80) - Head, Plate, Physical DPS
Purifying Torch (78) - Wand, Healing/Caster DPS
Zombie Sweeper Shotgun (80) - Gun, Physical DPS
Exalted:
Boots of the Neverending Path (80) - Feet, Leather, Tanking/Physical DPS
Helm of Purified Thoughts (80) - Head, Plate, Healing
Polished Regimental Hauberk (80) - Chest, Mail, Physical DPS
Signet of Hopeful Light (80) - Finger, Caster DPS/Healing
Pattern: Brillian Spellthread - Tailoring

Frenzyheart Tribe
Friendly:
Design: Reckless Huge Citrine - Jewelcrafting
Nepeta Leaf - Misc
Roasted Mystery Beast - Misc
Honored:
Revered:
Azure Strappy Pants (78) - Legs, Leather, Physical DPS
Design: Jagged Forest Emerald - Jewelcrafting
Discarded Titanium Legplates (78) - Legs, Plate, Healing
Giant-Sized Gauntlets (78) - Hands, Plate, Tanking
Muddied Crimson Gloves (78) - Hands, Cloth, Healing/Caster DPS
Scavenged Feathery Leggings (78) - Legs, Mail, Healing/Caster DPS
Sparkly Shiny Gloves (78) - Hands, Plate, Healing
Stolen Vrykul Harpoon (78) - Thrown, Tanking/Physical DPS
Disgusting Jar - Non-combat Pet
Exalted:
Frenzyheart Insignia of Fury (70) - Trinket, DPS

The Kalu'ak
Friendly:
Design: Seer's Dark Jade - Jewelcrafting
Freshly-Speared Empreror Salmon (75) - Misc
Honored:
Cuttlefish Scale Breastplate (76) - Chest, Mail, Physical DPS
Cuttlefish Tooth Ringmail (76) - Chest, Mail, Healing/Caster DPS
Ivory-Reinforced Chestguard (76) - Chest, Plate, Tanking
Pattern: Dragonscale Ammo Pouch - Leatherworking
Pigment-Stained Robes (76) - Chest, Cloth, Healing
Turtle-Minders Robes (76) - Chest, Cloth, DPS
Whale-Skin Breastplate (76) - Chest, Leather, Tanking/Physical DPS
Whale-Skin Vest (76) - Chest, Leather, Caster DPS
Whalebone Carapace (76) - Chest, Plate, Physical DPS
Design: Defender's Shadow Crystal - Jewelcrafting
Revered:
Pattern: Trapper's Traveling Pack - Leatherworking
Totemic Purification Rod (78) - 1H Mace, Healing/Caster DPS
Traditional Flensing Knife (78) - Dagger, Physical DPS
Whale-Stick Harpoon (78) - Polearm, Hunter DPS
Exalted:
Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole (70) - Fishing Pole, Fishing
Nurtured Penguin Egg - Non-combat Pet

Kirin Tor
Friendly:
Tabard of the Kirin Tor (75) - Tabard
Honored:
Arcanum of the Flame's Soul (80) - Head Enhancement, Fire resist
Helm of the Majestic Stag (78) - Head, Leather, Caster DPS
Lightblade Rivener (78) - Dagger, Physical DPS
Shroud of Dedicated Research (78) - Back, Healing/Caster DPS
Spaulders of Grounded Lightning (78) - Mail, Shoulder, Physical DPS (PvP)
Revered:
Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (80) - Head Enhancement, Healer/Caster DPS
Flameheart Spell Scalpel (80) - Dagger, Caster DPS
Girdle of the Warrior Magi (80) - Waist, Plate, Healing
Mind-Expanding Leggings (80) - Legs, Leather, Physical DPS/Tanking
Stave of Shrouded Mysteries (80) - Staff, Druid Tanking
Exalted:
Boots of Twinkling Stars (80) - Feet, Mail, Physical DPS
Fireproven Gauntlets (80) - Hands, Plate, Tanking
Ghostflicker Waistband (80) - Waist, Leather, Caster DPS
Robes of Crackling Flame (80) - Chest, Cloth, Caster DPS/Healing
Design: Runed Scarlet Ruby - Jewelcrafting
Pattern: Sapphire Spellthread - Tailoring

Knights of the Ebon Blade
Friendly:
Design: Deadly Huge Citrine - Jewelcrafting
Tabard of the Ebon Blade (75) - Tabard
Honored:
Arcanum of Toxic Warding (80) - Head Enhancement, Nature resist
Dark Soldier Cape (78) - Back, Caster DPS
Pattern: Nerubian Reinforced Quiver - Leatherworking
Toxin-Tempered Sabatons (78) - Feet, Plate, Tanking
Unholy Persuader (78) - Fist Weapon, Physical DPS
Design: Wicked Monarch Topaz - Jewelcrafting
Revered:
Arcanum of Torment (80) - Head Enhancement, Physical DPS
Reaper of Dark Souls (80) - 1H Sword, Physical DPS
Runeblade of Demonstrable Power (80) - 2H Sword, Physical DPS
Spaulders of the Black Arrow (80) - Shoulders, Mail, Physical DPS
Sterile Flesh-handling Gloves (80) - Hands, Cloth, Healing/Caster DPS
Wound-Binders Wristguards (80) - Wrists, Leather, Healing/Caster DPS
Pattern: Abyssal Bag - Tailoring
Exalted:
Belt of Dark Mending (80) - Waist, Cloth, Caster DPS/Healing
Darkheart Chestguard (80) - Chest, Leather, Physical DPS
Death-Inured Sabatons (80) - Feet, Plate, Physical DPS
Kilt of Dark Mercy (80) - Legs, Mail, Healing/Caster DPS
Design: Glowing Twilight Opal - Jewelcrafting

The Oracles
Friendly:
Design: Vivid Dark Jade - Jewelcrafting
Oracle Secret Solution (70) - Misc
Honored:
Slow-Roasted Eel (75) - Misc
Revered:
Design: Sundered Forest Emerald - Jewelcrafting
Fishy Cinch (78) - Waist, Cloth, Healing/Caster DPS
Glimmershell Shoulder Protectors (78) - Shoulders, Plate, Death Knight Tanking
Glitterscale Wrap (78) - Waist, Leather, Physical DPS
Gold Star Pauldrons (78) - Shoulders, Plate, Physical DPS
Sharkjaw Cap (78) - Head, Mail, Caster DPS/Healing
Shinygem Rod (78) - Wand, Caster DPS
Toothslice Helm (78) - Head, Mail, Physical DPS
Mysterious Egg (70) - Non-combat Pet
Exalted:
Oracle Talisman of Absolution (70) - Trinket, DPS

The Sons of Hodir
Friendly:
Honored:
Arcanum of the Frosty Soul (80) - Head Enhancement, Frost resist
Giant Ring Belt (78) - Waist, Mail, Physical DPS
Lesser Inscription of the Axe (80) - Shoulder Enhancement, Physical DPS
Lesser Inscription of the Crag (80) - Shoulder Enhancement, Healing
Lesser Inscription of the Pinnacle (80) - Shoulder Enhancement, Tanking
Lesser Inscription of the Storm (80) - Shoulder Enhancement, Caster DPS
Pattern: Mammoth Mining Bag - Leatherworking
Spaulders of Frozen Knives (78) - Shoulders, Leather, Physical DPS/Tanking
Revered:
Reigns of the Ice Mammoth (60) - Alliance Mount
Reigns of the Ice Mammoth (60) - Horde Mount
Broken Stalactite (80) - Dagger, Physical DPS
Giant-Friend Kilt (80) - Legs, Leather, Caster DPS
Spaulders of the Giant Lords (80) - Shoulders, Plate, Physical DPS
Stalactite Chopper (80) - 1H Axe, Physical DPS
Exalted:
Greater Inscription of the Axe (80) - Shoulder Enhancement, Physical DPS
Greater Inscription of the Crag (80) - Shoulder Enhancement, Healing
Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle (80) - Shoulder Enhancement, Tanking
Greater Inscription of the Storm (80) - Shoulder Enhancement, Caster DPS
Reigns of the Grand Ice Mammoth (60) - Alliance Mount
Reigns of the Grand Ice Mammoth (60) - Horde Mount
Design: Smooth Autumn's Glow - Jewelcrafting
Pattern: Glacial Bag - Tailoring

The Wyrmrest Accord
Friendly:
Tabard of the Wyrmrest Accord (75) - Tabard
Honored:
Arcanum of the Eclipsed Moon (80) - Head Enhancement, Arcane resist
Bracers of Accorded Courtesy (78) - Wrist, Plate, Healing
Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions (78) - Back, Tanking
Fang of Truth (78) - 1H Sword, Physical DPS
Sash of the Wizened Wyrm (78) - Waist, Cloth, Caster DPS
Revered:
Ancestral Sinew Wristguards (80) - Wrist, Cloth, Healing/Caster DPS
Arcanum of Blissful Mending (80) - Head Enhancement, Healing
Breatplate of the Solemn Council (80) - Chest, Plate, Tanking
Gavel of the Brewing Storm (80) - Mace, Caster DPS
Sabatons of Draconic Vigor (80) - Feet, Plate, Tanking
Pattern: Mysterious Bag - Tailoring
Exalted:
Dragonfriend Bracers (80) - Wrist, Leather, Physical DPS
Grips of Fierce Pronouncements (80) - Hands, Mail, Healing/Caster DPS
Legplates of Bloody Reprisal (80) - Legs, Plate, Physical DPS
Reigns of the Red Drake (70) - Mount
Sandals of Crimson Fury (80) - Feet, Cloth, Caster DPS/Healing
Design: Glimmering Monarch Topaz - Jewelcrafting


NB: I'd suggest that spirit and MP5 are more healer-centric stats, but DPS do need them to some degree, and some items without them are still good upgrades for healers, since the prominence of "Healing/Caster DPS" and "Caster DPS/Healing".
Also: anyone noticed how few of these items have sockets? Grumble...

Best Place to Farm Borean Leather

Ok for some reason I'm getting a lot of Google hits by people looking for places to farm Borean Leather in Northrend, I'm not quite sure why, since I haven't talked about skinning much, but I'll quickly address it here.
First off, why are you people even searching for this? There are so many things to skin in Northrend. If you'd been looking for Saronite or something, that would've been understandable. Well, I guess Leatherworking takes a lot of leather to level up.

You should be able to get a lot of leather just by leveling through Northrend. If you start in Borean Tundra, right off the bat you can grab leather and Nerubian Chitin from the things skittering around Warsong Hold, as well as Arctic Fur (I'd like to point out that Arctic Fur has a random chance of being skinned off every mob). In fact by the time you leave Borean Tundra, your skinning should be pretty much maxed, owing to the Nerubeans, the odd wolf or Caribou and the plethora of mammoth roaming the Tundra. Since killing the mammoths isn't directly a quest goal, and they travel in packs, it should be easy to kill a bunch and skin them (even Rogues, Shamans and Feral Druids will get AOE in the next big patch). Just stay away from the D.E.H.T.A. if you're on a skinning spree.

If you started in Howling Fjord, then there's Shoveltusks and a few wolves to skin as you quest, but mostly you'll be fighting Humanoids so the pickings for leatherworkers are leaner than the Tundra (much better for cloth though).

Grizzly Hills is also good for skinning, but Sholazar Basin, for those high enough, really stands out for Leatherworkers. Most things can be skinned, and there's also Drakes for Icy Dragonscales. Additionally, in the Basin, the mobs are high enough levels that you won't be skinning scraps.

If you want to try something else, you can get a decent amount of Leatherworking materials from running instances. Violet Hold is good for Icy Dragonscales and Borean Leather, and Azjol'Nerub is great for Nerubian Chitin. Since you'll probably be running stuff with at least two DKs you have a decent chance of being the only skinner, and if you're a Druid or Shaman then the fact that everybody in Northrend is looking for a healer means you'll have an easy time finding groups (tonight during a two hour session there were two groups "LF Healer Utgarde Keep" in Howling Fjord).

I hope that helps all you Skinners who have been directed to Udder Madness.

New Oceanic Realm: Saurfang

So Blizzard finally admitted that 2000+ queues on all Oceanic servers was kind of silly, and we now have a new server: Saurfang. This goes a way towards disproving the theory that Blizzard hates players and just wants to roll in their money.
I transfered my Death Knight across, leaving my other toons on Aman'Thul so I can do stuff with the guild once the queues go away. Naturally I'm not the only one who thought of this, and Saurfang seems to be about 80% Death Kniggets, coming from a variety of backgrounds, but predominantly Jubei'thos, Frostmourne and Aman'Thul, from what I heard while questing last night.
A further note in Blizzard's favour: transfers were really fast, taking about 2 minutes to appear on Saurfang.
And I have no idea what battlegroup it's in. Obviously I could look it up, but that would involve effort and right now....................................................... (<- that's all I feel like doing, the spaces where my teeth were are really sore).
I'm sure I had other stuff to say, but now I'm gonna take the cotton buds out and go swallow a nurofen.

Update: Saurfang is currently closed to character creation, unless you already have a transfered character there. So this server is pretty much restricted only to those who transfered toons there during the transfer period.
It should open up to toon creation in a few weeks.

2000+ (queues, not rating)

All the Oceanic servers seem to have 1000+ queues, around the clock.
Last night I joined the queue at 9:30ish, by 11:30 I was still in the queue and by 12:30 I'd been disconnected from the server.
And tonight there's a 2112 person queue, and Aman'Thul isn't even listed for transfer, so can't pull the DK off...
After coming home from working 8-12 hours this feels worse than being in overcrowded unstable starting zones.
And explains the complete lack of content for Udder Madness :(.

Apparently getting to 80 should be pretty quick though, judging from the fact that the world first to 80 (a French Warlock) came a couple of days ago, and there's even a level 80 DK now (both European). And TwentyFifthNovember, the merger of the elite gaming guilds SK Gaming and Nihilum, has beaten all the PvE content available. Pretty short expansion, and thanks to queues my mains are still not a single bar over 71, and the DK is lingering at 58.


Oh look, only 154 minutes left in the queue...


EDIT: screenshot fixt.

[WOTLK Spoiler] Borean Tundra vs. Howling Fjord?

NB: If you came here looking for places to farm Borean Leather, go to this post.

So, unlike the jam-packed entry to Outlands, we have two [jam-packed] places to enter the Frozen Wastes of Northrend (in around 24 hours time unless the servers totally blow up):
Howling Fjord:
This place isn't exactly the icy wastes that spring to mind when we think of the frozen North. I mean there's farms and stuff. And also a heavy Alliance presence in the form of a keep that Arthas' abandoned men built, and to a lesser extent, Forsaken waging their own war against the Scourge.
And a humongous keep, smack bang visible as soon as you get off the boat (and a bit of a walk away if you came by zeppelin). In fact there's a nice battle going on all the time, between Alliance, Horde, and the vrykul from Utgaarde Keep.
Beta reports I've read suggest that scenery, music, and, for Alliance, the questlines are better than 'Boring' Tundra, but this is coming from the faction that takes Gnomes seriously, so I'm not sure how much I can trust Alliance opinion ;).
But yes, Utgaarde Keep is the first instance in Northrend, so being near it is a nice plus point to this zone.

Let's take a look at what Borean Tundra has:
Tuskarr live here, and they breed penguins (I just hope they don't look as stupid as the ones you get from polymorph)! That's pretty much win right there.
Also there's Rhinos for all the hunters out there who have an inferiority complex (I will get one for PvP at some point) and there's a lot more opportunity to farm leather for all the leatherworkers out there (leatherworking hunters win). Where else would you expect to get Borean Leather?
Borean Tundra is a bit more what you'd expect that far north, lots of ice and random creatures and random bad guys (a few trolls and scourge and stuff), although it does border on a jungle that's basically Un'goro in the arctic circle: Sholazar Basin (which, apparently, is a really cool place place with Nessingwary and an anti-Nessingwary faction).
And did someone mention Gnomes? There's totally a Gnome airfield there, much easier to get to than the one in Dun Morogh. And it's totally asking for every Hordie within the zone to come trash the place. Totally.
Here's a quote taken from some other place from someone who's been to the Tundra:
"This zone had snowy shorelines with huggable, walrusy Tuskar (Kaplan described them as little Wilford Brimleys, which was the right thing to do), flat frost-burned plains, pockets of evaporating water that looked like a sinister environmental reclamation project, volcanic terrain, an area that was covered with a magical "mist" that I mistook at first for the realm of the dead, a Gnome airfield, and a crashed Necropolis with tons of displaced Scourge milling about."
So basically if you're a Horde Leatherworking Hunter, you deserve a prize, and Borean Tundra is your place to be.

Can't decide? Don't worry, it's pretty simple to get from one to the other: on the back of a giant [riding?] turtle (there's a platform on the back of the turtle - it may or may not be supported by 4 elephants). In all seriousness though, it's a carrot powered turtle... It has a carrot dangling in front of it (for the movespeed bonus?).


Oh yeah. I almost forgot. There's a third place to enter Wrath of the Lich King territory: Acheron the Ebon Hold in Eastern Plaguelands. I'm going to level me a DK (somebody has to).


And for those who want to know where to go at which point, here's a list of the Northrend Zones, together with rough level brackets:
Borean Tundra - 68-72
Howling Fjord - 68-72
Dragonblight - 71-74
Grizzly Hills - 73-75
Zul'Drak - 74-77
Sholazar Basin - 75-78
The Storm Peaks - 76-80
Icecrown - 77-80
Wintergrasp - 77-80 PvP Zone, requires flying mount
9 zones, which by my count is 2 more than TBC.

[Hunter] I want more stable slots

So, I journeyed into the land of trolls. I figured since I am a troll, I might be able to survive. I did, and made it back here, but I left small parts of my soul and sanity behind. Seriously, the new 'Damage Dealing' forum is insanely busy, and full of annoying people. It takes between 10 and 30 minutes for a post to disappear off the first page. Anyway, I digress.

I made the following post:
I, and pretty much every hunter out there, want more stable slots.
Pets that come to mind that I might want at 80:
1: A Worm, for any 10 man without a warrior (presumable won't happen in 25 mans)
2: A Wolf, for any raid without an AP buff (again probably 10 man)
3: A Gorilla, for AOE grinding, and tanking stuff
4: A Rhino, fo'shizzle
5: A Devilsaur, for raid dps as a 51pt BM
6: A Spirit Beast
7: A Spider or some-such, for non-Beast Mastery, non-drain PvP
8: A Scorpid, for drain PvP (yes I know dispels will now remove the whole stack, but it's still a 50% chance of masking your Viper Sting as dispels currently stand)
9: A Core Hound. White.
10: A cat or something for raid DPS, when I'm not a Devilsaur-taming spec
11: My Elder Mottled Boar, because Hunters are a sentimental bunch

Just looking at raid (10-man) min/maxing I'd foreseeably need to choose between Worm, Wolf, Devilsaur and something else. And for arena if on a given night there's a lot of casters around, a Core Hound might be nice, or an Owl/Silithid/Spider/Chimaera if it's melee-heavy. Sure I could go tame something new, but it'd involve considerable inconvenience in obtaining and possibly leveling a new pet.

Adding more stable slots would not particularly imbalance the game in any way, since it doesn't directly affect Hunter performance. It would act as a gold sink. And it'd make people happy (well, happier, we'll always find stuff to QQ about)

Self explanatory really.
Charge me 200 gold per slot, and I'll buy another 5.
Charge me 1000 gold per slot and I'll still try to buy at least 1 or 2 more.

And on the plus side, I found the ignore button in the forums. Now I just wish there was an "ignore level 1 alt" button.

[NZ] Midnight release

EB Games in Lynn Mall (and I assume elsewhere in NZ) are doing a midnight release for WotLK. Although if you haven't pre-ordered you're out of luck, since they've sold out. And they sold out of Collector's Edition copies ages ago (I know this because I went there at around 2pm on the day the CE came out for pre-orders, only to hear "sorry, we just got an email saying we've reached our quota").
There is a very very small chance I will be getting my copy at midnight, although I've got to turn up to work the next day. Either way there won't be a meet and greet like some other bloggers are having, mostly because if you read this and live in Auckland you already know me.

And apparently Gamesman New Lynn is also doing a midnight release.


Since none of this is really content, I'd like to share the following pxt with you:

Bwuh?

[WOTLK Spoiler] So, like, whoah

Was busily procrastinating, when I came across this [mega SPOILER warning]:


WOW_Wrathgate_1024.avi

That's pretty ****ing epic.

Part of a really awesome questline, and explains a lot of stuff about the Forsaken.

The full questline, courtesy of BlizzPlanet can be found here [more spoilers]:
Alliance version
Horde version
And they're... (author has run out of superlatives, will now resort to 'cool') really frickin gob-smackingly... cool

All I can say (apart from "wow") is that now I'm really looking forward to Wrath, and DKs.

A brief look at the crafted PvP blues in WOTLK

BRK recently made a post displaying his awesome new blue PvP gear, which has replaced a large chunk of his 70 epics (although he still has his 2-piece Tier-5 bonus, /jealous).

Listed below are the item sets, plus the stats specific to each set (resilience and stamina are ubiquitous):
NB: set name links to the set on wowhead, the helms are linked for mouseover goodness and comparisons.
Eviscerator's Leather (agi, crit, AP) - Rogues, Feral Druids (Eviscerator's Facemask)

Overcast Leather (int, spirit, spellpower) - Resto/Balance Druids (Overcast Headguard)

Stormhide Mail (int, stam, MP5, spellpower) - Resto/Elemental Shamans (Stormhide Crown)

Swiftarrow Mail (agi, int, crit, AP) - Hunters, Enhancement Shamans (Swiftarrow Helm)

Frostsavage Cloth (crit, int, spellpower) - All clothies (note that wowhead lists this set as requiring level 80, while the others require 78) (Frostsavage Cowl)

Ornate Saronite Plate (spellpower, MP5) - Holy Paladins (Ornate Saronite Skullshield)

Savage Saronite Plate (str, crit) - Warriors, Retribution Paladins (Savage Saronite Skullshield)

Since they're made through tailoring/leatherworking/blacksmithing, these items seem really accessible, requiring basic ingredients for each (frostweave cloth, borean leather, or saronite bars respectively) plus one eternal (apparently the new motes). Since the items are BOE they'll really boost profit margins from crafting professions and also provide solid entry-level gear for 80 PvP (and probably represent a few PvE upgrades during questing).

Sadly the gear seems extremely streamlined. While Moonkin now benefit from spirit, I'm not sure that DoT-based Warlocks scale all that well with crit, and there's probably other sub-par itemisation offered by the new gear for other classes/specs I'm less familiar with.

One thing you might notice is the complete lack of sockets on this gear, and the complete lack of hit rating. While the lack of hit on shared healer/dps gear makes sense, not being able to socket for it will mean quite a few resists/misses especially given things like the nerf to the Hunter talent Surefooted (from the BC Surefooted).

Overall though, I very much approve of these items, and will probably be leveling the hunter for the Leatherworking love.

Also, turns out Ghostcrawler is male, and I have no idea why the forums kept refering to him as a "she". Lots of blogs did it too. Man, my world just got turned upside down. That being said, does it really matter?

Udder-Madness on arena

If you haven't read WoW Insider's take on PvP (now and in Wrath), go do it now (thanks Toresh for the link, I don't have the time anymore to keep up with all the WoW Insider stuff).
While you're at it, take a look at what Kalgan writes about Blizzard's philosophy of PvP (also linked to from the WoW Insider article).

So I thought I’d write my own thoughts on PvP the way it is at the moment, and the changes Wrath will make to the arena setting.

First, those changes the way I understand them:
-There will be a set of PvP blues that will be obtainable through crafting.
-There will be a set of Arena epics (requiring no rating) that will be obtainable for arena points: the Savage gear (I suppose similar to Season 3 gear available in Season 4, barring Shoulders and Weapons)
-There will be a full set of gear that requires rating from between 1665 and 1850 rating (I think): Hateful gear
-There will be honor-obtainable gear for Bracers, Belt and Boots, Necklace and Rings, set a bit higher than the craftable blues
-There will be a plague of locusts o’er the land (brought by those silly Death Kniggets)

Secondly I want to state where I’m coming from. My hunter (Darksentinel) started arena maybe around 10 weeks in to Season 3, with a resto druid partner (Meellow) and both of us in mostly non-heroic instance blues, needless to say we got steamrolled. But we had a lot of fun, and after dipping as low as 1280 we climbed back up to the mid-1300s and I earned my Waraxe []. We’d pretty much found our niche, hanging with a bunch of other misfits like us (and the occasional Season 3 geared team that really sucked), but not near the bottom. During this period we also started Drunken Hobbits, a 3v3 team with Stupidcow, Damah and Arkanon (3 other guildies with PvP inclinations), but didn’t play regularly due to timetable issues.
Season 4 came out and we upgraded our gear to the reputation blues (so sad), and then hung around just under the 1400 mark. Now Darksentinel is in a mix of Season 1 – Season 3 gear (probably S2 on average) and we’re somewhere between 1400 and 1450.
Towards the end of Season 3 I started levelling my Druid (Beathooven) more seriously, with the aim of seeing how broken restoration actually is at 70 (quite broken, actually), and I hit 70 in the first week of September (well into Season 4). That same week I started Multiboxing, a 2v2 team with Damah (elemental shaman), to start earning points. A few weeks later, Stupidcow (SL/SL Warlock) joined Multiboxing and we’re currently pushing for a title (any title) that we can bear into Northrend with pride – hopefully we’ll make 1600, although for the last 2 weeks we’ve been pretty stable just over 1500. But just having broken the 1500 mark felt like an awesome achievement, since most of the teams had far more experience and significantly better gear (for reference, my druid currently has: Engineering epic goggles, Scryer SSO necklace, S2 shoulders, reputation chestpiece, Karazhan cloth bracers, S2 Mace, questing blue offhand, S3 gloves, S4 belt, reputation legs, Heavy Clefthoof Boots, S2 ring, blue quest ring, PvP blue trinket, Goblin Rocket Launcher – i.e. really crap gear), and I’m kind of being carried by Stupidcow (who is one of the best gamers I’ve had the honour of knowing).

Thirdly: a lot of work seems to be based on balancing PvP against PvE. I’d hesitate to say it can’t be done, but Blizzard keeps trying, and players keep QQing about their perceived discrepancies. While the arguments range both ways from “good PvE gear just involves joining an experienced raid group and taking stuff no one wants” to “damn PvP welfare epics”. My druid has been in both situations: a week after turning 70, I healed a part of lower Kara and Maiden dropped her mace, which should have been a significant upgrade over anything else I would normally have had at that point, except I already had the S2 mace.

The actual point I want to make here is rather simple: I want to gauge myself against other players within the system that Blizzard has set up. I like working hard to earn rewards (which I haven’t yet, and probably won’t), and the rating requirements mean that I have something to strive to. I like the challenge, the intense competition and the satisfaction of slowly increasing my rating through playing well. I find that the gear takes slightly too long to earn (15300 honor takes me about 10 hours to farm all up through AV, more if it requires marks from a battleground Horde don’t win very often (e.g. AB, which often takes 20-30 minutes for a single mark).

Some of my other views on Kalgan's post: the craftable gear idea is awesome. Easily obtainable Savage gear is also nice. And I don’t have a problem with the way Hateful gear is obtained: I like arena. A few people complain that Blizzard are pushing arena too hard, and that they feel forced to do arena in order to get the good gear. This may be the case, but personally, I don’t like raiding and if I so much as want to experience the end-game content in MH, BT and SWP (and being a deep fan of WoW lore I kinda do want to) I first have to spend a lot of time in T4 and T5 instances, working with a guild and forcing my cramped timetable to fit their raiding schedule – it’s the price you have to pay, at least if you want to, you can experience arena at any time.

WOTLK Arena:
So, what class will I play in Season 5 arena? Not sure. Here follow my personal opinions on the different options:
Death Knights: unknown how strong they will be, but definitely an option. Since I haven’t played beta or PTR I don’t really understand their relative power and mechanics enough to comment, but I suspect they’ll be good, if somewhat overplayed.
Druids: given the Lifebloom nerf (and other efficiency decreases), restoration won’t be the powerhouse it was in TBC, even with armoured Treeform, but will still be an incredibly versatile healer with a lot of cc potential. Feral I’ve never been entirely comfortable with from a PvP viewpoint (not enough cc, no drain, not enough burst). Balance is a viable option, but will need to see how it works out, since gear can be a bit finicky.
Hunters: although Wrath has given hunters an almost-ridiculous amount of love, I’m not sure whether I’ll try to push arena seriously with Darksentinel (even though I consider them to be the best drain class with a scorpid pet, especially with new instant cast Aimed Shot). There are 2 main reasons for this: hunters are still incredibly weak at melee range (Disengage notwithstanding) and Crippling Poison+Shadowstep/Hamstring+Intercept combined with my New Zealand lag make some classes a nightmare to play against, and additionally hunters are really easy to LoS. And while I think I play a decent druid, I don’t play a hunter nearly as well as I could.
Mages: I’m not really a fan of mages in arena, although that’s probably because as a resto druid with a warlock partner they don’t offer a lot of challenge (shift out of Shatter combo, LoS+heal and wait for DoTs to finish the job), and don’t really see the appeal. Although, given the decreased mana costs in Wrath they may become more attractive.
Paladins: Stupidcow and I are seriously considering Retribution paladins. They seem to have massive burst, decent survivability and efficiency. We may even run Ret/Ret. From what I’ve heard though, Holy paladins need some serious work before they become viable for anything at all.
Priests: not sure. Discipline/Holy will probably still be nuts, and hopefully Shadow will be both more mana efficient and have more burst.
Rogues: ah the infamous OP class. Seems like they’re even more OP. I might decide to roll a rogue, but doesn’t really seem to suit my playstyle.
Shamans: I love Shamans, all 3 specs. And while resto and elemental may seem more suited to 5s, they should be pretty viable for smaller brackets too, especially with the buffs Enhancement is getting in the patch.
Warlocks: I’ve always found warlocks scary in PvP (at least since hitting 70, before then my BM hunter would eat them with gusto), although more so as a non-BM hunter than as a resto druid, and I suspect that Demonology-heavy locks will be quite nuts in Wrath even if I haven’t heard the verdict on Demonform.
Warriors: yawn. They may be good, but they don’t appeal to me. They’re just too boring in the way they play.

Anyway, I has assignments to do, and rating points to earn. There’ll probably be more PvP commentary from me next week.

EDIT: hopefully fixed some formatting issues.

Apparently if I used a logical posting system, life would be easier

But who wants an easy life?

/begin preamble [EDIT: can't spell "begin" /facepalm [target=player] ]
Anyway. Without a laptop I find I'm falling behind on a bunch of stuff, like reading blogs, writing posts et cetera. I keep meaning to, but generally I find that the places I'm most likely to write well (or rather, lots) are:
- late at night, possibly in bed
- in lectures
- whenever I should be doing assignments/essays/most other duties
On the plus side, the laptop got sent back to ASUS (apparently "ah-zeus") on Wednesday. At least, they told me to leave the laptop outside my front door on Wednesday and the courier would pick it up. So, being a good boy, I placed the laptop in its box inside 2 plastic bags (it was raining) leaning against the front door (reasonably sure it's not visible from the road), and 2 hours later it was gone. Didn't hear a courier, or anyone else though. I'll never see it again, will I?
/end preamble


On a random side note, I got this email from a colleague of mine:
Hi,
In your free time could you please make us a recording of the troggs Wild thing we just want the first verse repeated several times and some animal roaring and teeth gnashing and claws clawing, don’t you just love evening story times

I don't know what it means. Apparently punctuation can be used to both clarify the meaning of chains of words and make them easier to read like totally yeah see what I mean seriously l2punctuate.

EDIT: apparently, I'm meant to be making a recording of the song 'Wild Thing' by The Troggs (some 1960s band, go figure) for an evening storytime at the library next week. Actually if I'd been a bit more awake I might have worked this out, but still, punctuation = win.


Alright, onto some WoW stuff:

- pre-Wrath content patch: 14/10/08 (a month before expansion). No further comments

- honor and marks of honor will no longer reset when the expansion hits. So saving up 75k honor and 100 of each mark might give you a bit of a headstart in 80 PvP.

- Hunter talents changed. Basically, Scatter Shot = 11 points in Survival, Readiness = 21 points in Marksman, Trap Mastery = 41 points in Survival. Readiness in Marksman? ZOMG! See below

- Aimed Shot is now instant cast (and lasts 10 seconds, with a 10 second cooldown). No more 3.5 second cast that resets autoshot and is ridiculously easy to avoid in Blade's Edge Arena. Now it's a 35 yard (41 if talented) Mortal Strike, BAM! Win. Which means a 0/41/20 PvP build could do stuff like: Multishot, Scatter Shot healer, Aimed Shot, Silence healer, Arcane Shot, Readiness, Scatter Shot healer, Aimed Shot, Silence healer, Multishot, Arcane Shot, or something like this. Hunter burst = win.

- Druid tanks are awesome again. Sort of. Swipe has been upgraded (now hits all enemies in a cone in front of you, providing some degree of AOE damage), threat and dps are nuts, and mitigation seems pretty nice too. So nice in fact that apparently they have to nerf them a bit because they're eclipsing other classes in Naxx-10. Oh look, a link to a Big Bear Butt. It's all about feral tanking post-patch. More words on the new, improved, Swipe below (taken from a separate post I never got around to finishing):
With a single word ("done"), Ghostcrawler announced the removal of the 4-target limit to Swipe.
Swipe now hits everything in a cone in front of you.
Enough to keep aggro off healers? Probably.
Enough to keep aggro off mages in AOE pulls? Probably not.
Enough to snap-aggro stuff that spawns behind you? Definitely not.

But, a good change nevertheless.

In BC there is 1 tank that can reliably hold aggro through Warlock and Mage AOE without a massive threat lead: Paladins.
In Wrath we can then add Death Knights to that list. Warriors, having also lost the target limit on Thunderclap, may or may not be able to do this. Druids probably can't generate enough threat from Swipe and Demoralizing Roar to achieve this.

A long long time ago (a few months or so), during the early stages following the announcement of WOTLK , it was stated [can't dig up the link atm, WoWInsider has too many posts] that Paladins would be the AOE tank of choice, with Warriors excelling at bosses, Death Knights being the best at tanking casters and Druids apparently doing whatever dirty job remained. For whatever reason, these niches are beginining to be less clearly defined. And thankfully Druids, being the swiss army knife class, don't seem to be getting penalised for this.

- Resto druids are in fact being looked at, and have had a few fixes. Contrary to what /trade thinks, Blizzard do not in fact hate us all (they just love Rogues more than everybody else). Apart from the fact that they refuse to restore Lifebloom to it's currently broken levels, the changes are really looking good. Naturally, Phaelia @ Resto4Life talks about this, and if you've read this much of my posts, you have no reason not to go read hers.


- Gearing a second character for PvP is such a grind, I can't believe I've got the patience (or for that matter, the time) to do it all again. Still, should pay off. Since we managed to reach 1515 last week, and the 2v2 team ('Multiboxing') has between them gotten 3 upgrades this week - Veteran's Band of Salvation, Guardian's Dreadweave Belt, Vengeful Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves - we should be able to do better this week. Since season 4 finished on the 14th I'm having to get a lot of S2 gear in order to be able to afford as many upgrades as possible. Currently working on the 40 EOTS marks for Vindicator's Kodohide Boots, which, at a 30% win rate, is going to take forever. This whole week seems to have been one long AV grind (around 20k honor).

There's a few other things I want to mention, but in an attempt to create some form of "logical posting system", I'll cover those later. And given the amount of AV and EotS I still need to do, probably a lot later.

In conclusion, I'm at work at the moment, so don't have access to my screenshot folder.
So here's a lolcat.




Isn't it cute? Sharing is caring (except for HIV).

Udder-madness. Caring since 2008.

[Insert clever title here]

If I take a look at the blogs I follow (half a dozen or so), it pretty quickly becomes obvious that in terms of most-recently-updated there is one conspicuously at the bottom of the list. Mine. /facepalm. That being said it's been an eventful week for me:

1) My laptop (one of those cute white Asus Eee things) has died. Something about memory errors and not being able to save stuff or access external data storage (so no backing up files). Fail. This means I’ve lost access to a bunch of stuff (like the internet from any point in the house), and also links to stuff I’ve recently viewed, and a couple of drafts of (let's be honest) drafts of articles.

2) I procrastinated on a 3000 word essay on Euclid's Elements of Geometry. I thought it was due on Thursday, in reality it was due on Monday. I got an extension to Thursday (/win). Today is Thursday and I still haven't finished it... errr, started it (/golfclap).

3) I borrowed 2,200 gold from the guild bank and got myself Epic flying. And it's pretty damn epic, being able to cross any Outlands zone in 2 minutes. My reasoning for borrowing the gold, rather than earning it first: if I borrow the gold I have motive to pay it back, whereas if I save up the gold I'll keep thinking "meh, expansion soon, can't be bothered farming gold if I can't fly in Northrend anyway and the price might come down", and also doing the Outlands dailies is much faster when you can fly... faster. Also if I die today (e.g. suicide/homocide because of unfinished essays) I will have FLOWN (really, flown, that 60% stuff doesn't cut it). And now I can earn gold from the Swift Flight Form questline, to pay the guild back.

4) I spent $100 (NZ) on a pair of headphones. This was a big deal since previously I tended to spend about $10-$15 on headphones, barring my computer headset ($45). Will spending that much more make the 3.5mm headphone jack last longer (or rather, the bit of cable directly above the jack, which always seems to get damaged over time)? Probably not. Does anyone really care about my buying headphones? Probably not. But the Sennheiser PX100s fit very nicely into a case that the cable wraps around - meaning it doesn't magically get tangled in storage in a way that makes quantum-entanglement look like crochet - and THIS IS A GOOD THING (although I don't really get the analogy... quantum entanglement, crochet, wtf am I thinking?).

5) My credit card seems a bit messed up. After buying a bunch of things and making a large payment onto it all within the last week, my account shows zero activity since the 8th of September, which worries me slightly.

6) My Hunter got the S3 Chestpiece, which put him at 11k health until I came to my sense and swapped in some blue DPS rings. In terms of set gear he has 3x S2, 1x S4 and 1x S3. And a bunch of other S1-S3 gear in most of the remaining slots. Which isn't a big deal to most arena players, but it means I'm generally one of the best geared in BGs and is quite satisfying. And now I get to try to obtain all of that again on the druid, in the space of about 2 weeks (or whenever the content patch comes out and messes with the status quo).

7) I suffered through 2v2 again. By 'suffered' I mean that we played 10 games, going 4-1 for the first 5 and reaching a record rating of ... 1465 (/golfclap2) and then went 1-4 for the second lot of 5 (seemingly having jumped a bracket), so gained a total of about 3 rating points (/facepalm2). It appears that my druid (who has the grand sum of 7k hp, buffed, 8k if I swap in some tanking gear) and his Elemental Shaman partner are actually doing better than the significantly better-geared and much more viable hunter/druid combo. And while I play a mean drain game, we lose to enhancement shamans, a lot, like 80% of the time (on the plus side we win around 75%+ of our drain matchups, people in this bracket haven't heard of Scorpid Poison or Star's Tears). One memorable match we played Hunter/Druid (and by that I mean we played against it). My pet was killed twice, while the opposing Raptor remained untouched, but we still won - something about me resurrecting my pet twice, and managing to drink half a mana bar.

8) With the knowledge that Honour (yes, this is how you spell it, no matter what Blogger, Blizzard or anyone else thinks, 'honor' is for the uneducated :P), Marks and Arena Points will be wiped in the expansion, I cashed in all my marks on the druid and got the Guardians Kodohide Belt at about 2:30am this morning (yay for 4.5 hours sleep), which was a minor upgrade over my level 65 int/spirit/healing green. Now I just need to replace the level 66 green boots (I was using Heavy Clefthoof Boots socketed for 8 Resil, 12 Stam from my tanking set, but they've mysteriously disappeared from my inventory, and they're not in my bank either).

9) I think the current Brewfest is pretty cool. I have downed Coren Direbrew 18 times, with 7 Direbrew Hops, 5 Coins, 4 Stam trinkets, and 2 AP trinkets. And my Hunter has the Remote (slightly faster than flying to Kargath and riding to Blackrock Mountain and then winding our way to BRD... ever so slightly). These trinkets are stupidly easy to get (barring the really weird droprates) considering how good they are, and eventually everyone will end up with a full set long before they have their festive mount. Given the other stuff I have to do (farming honor, and gold) I'm not going to be participating in any of the other Brewfest stuff, especially since I spent way too much time on it last year (and got my faux-engineering goggles, I mean, how could I not? They're hunter loot, right?).

10) Hunters in Wrath are going to be awesome. Hunter pets in Wrath are going to be awesome. I've said this before? Well, repeating it doesn't make it any less true ^_^.
BRK has shown that a Gorilla is an awesome AOE tank with Thunderstomp, if you haven’t seen his latest movie, check it out here. Note that the cooldown on Volley has been removed, AND that you can use Autoshot while channelling it (…wow…, and also wtf?). Combined with Explosive Trap this should allow Hunters to push out some mean AOE DPS, and with a Gorilla all you need is a healer (or a nice T5 set bonus). Awesome, or awesome? I haven’t yet decided.
Given the Guard Dog talents, you no longer need to find your Gorilla Fungus to eat, and apparently they can now also eat bread (possibly even Manna Biscuits, but I’m not sure on that). And whereas before, you had to go out and tame a new pet to learn higher ranks of pet skills, they now learn them automatically.
Given the very high damage that Thunderstomp deals at the moment, I expect a nerf to be forthcoming, but it should still be the best AOE tanking skill. The other good AOE tanking pets are the Bear with Swipe and the Crocolisk with Bad Attitude (which has been changed to have quite a long cooldown). All of these should be able to hold threat through Mend Pet aggro, and probably any other incoming heals – at least at melee range.
And although you’d be missing out on Blood of the Rhino and Spirit Bond plus the various other BM-based pet improvements, you can get any of these pets as Marksman or Survival (Explosive Shot, anyone?). But how do these compare to the Exotic Tenacity pets, which should, strictly speaking, be better than their non-exotic equivalents (otherwise Beast Mastery becomes a 51 point vanity talent)? And the reality is that neither the Rhino nor the Worm are particularly dominating in terms of AOE threat (and if they don’t do AOE threat, then heals will draw aggro on any additional mobs, not fun when soloing and definitely not fun in a party where you pet is tanking). Stampede does some AOE threat (through damage), but not a lot and it has a very long cooldown (for the purposes of tanking) – although it’s still a cool talent in PvP, I can’t wait to use it in Alterac Valley on the Stormpike Bridge, or in Iceblood Tower *evil grin*. Acid Spit is probably the highest threat single-target pet skill there is, but unless you macro it to hit adds (and the cooldown is a bit long to rely on it) it won’t hold threat through heals. I really think that the Exotic tenacity pets should not be outclassed in their main roles (i.e. tanks) by apes from the southern jungles of the Old World. Someone please mention this to the devs.
Overall, however, pet (and Hunter) changes in Wrath of the Lich King are nuts (oh right, repeating myself again). Expect people to QQ when we solo every 2 man quest Northrend has to throw at us (and possibly a lot of the 3 mans as well, and some of the easier bosses in Kara). We might even be able to take on Hogger in Nightmare difficulty (although chances are that a Lightning Enchanted Multishot Hogger will blow up Gorillas pretty fast). On that note, what happened to Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2?

11) This one goes up to 11. And it's almost 11 now and this as-yet unwritten essay is due at 5. /Facepalm.


PS: I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information or links on this page, so if anything is wrong, please let me know.

Warning: Contents May Occur

Ok, so it's been a few days since I last made a post. And even longer since I made something actually worthy of the title of content. So prepare for quite a random sprouting of stuff. And quite a bit of it.
Why the delay? The usual suspects of an essay, and a test, and some arena to do. And generally having to sort out my future, my education, finding possible solutions to various problems (oil alternatives, fresh water alternatives, and the epic fail that is NZ politics at the moment).

Prepare for a reasonably long post. It was originally so big (well, cluttered), I've added a table of contents. Normally each issue would have a separate post, but I don't want the blog to become cluttered simply because I have a couple of hours I can dedicate to writing, and quite a bit to cover. But, knowing the importance of organising stuff nicely, I've added in sections and subsections.

Also, rather than my own takes on stuff, I'll post quite a few links to other peoples' posts.

Table of Contents:
Section 1: Wrath Stuff

Subsection 1.1: Latest Update (8962) - mostly links
1.1.1: Druid updates
1.1.2: Crafting

Subsection 1.2: Other Stuff
1.2.1: Hunter Pets
1.2.2: Personal Plans in Wrath

Section 2: Not-Wrath Stuff
2.1: Review of the PvP Bible (aka: What Not To Buy)
2.2: Should I finish 'Gearing a Druid Tank'
2.3: My Addons
2.4: Other

Section 1: Wrath Stuff

Subsection 1.1: Latest Update (8962)
So, the newest patch (8962) hit the Beta realms yesterday (or maybe the day before :S), and naturally there are a few changes, many of which I won't discuss, mostly because there's going to be a new patch soon anyway (I hope) and lots of people are bound to have discussed the changes relevant to their class.

1.1.1: Druid updates
Since for me the important question at the moment is what is life going to be like for my druid, I will summarise what I read: bears got buffed, moonkin got rearranged, and trees got nerfed. Oversimplification, but for me this was the essence. Phaelia, in her straightforward manner, did a very useful analysis that can be found over at Resto4Life and she also provides further links for the non-resto changes. The bear changes are quite good, in my opinion, and will probably see me tanking, rather than healing (unless I really like tanking as a Death Knigget, apart from making silly Monty Python references, I don't know what else I'd do with a DK... bite peoples' legs off?) and Runycat takes a good look at them (with innuendo) at Unbearably HoT.

On the note of druids never going oom... my 2v2 (druid/hunter) fought warlock/druid last night. The druid was PvE geared and spec'd, by the time my druid was oom and had used Innervate, the other one was at about 6k/9k mana, despite a masked Viper Sting. Then he ran off, in Treeform, to try to Cyclone my partner and oops... lock died (about the only time I've had an advantage in Ruins of Lose), then it took me another minute to kill the druid, since he'd regen 220 mana a tick, and I had no mana myself (had to save up mana for Aimed Shot+Silencing Shot+burst). Apparently gear != skill, who would've thought?

1.1.2: Crafting
Some more details on WotLK crafting have emerged. Horns at Locksucks did a nice summary a few days ago, and MMO Champion has the details on the 8962 changes. My Hunter, who will likely be my main in Wrath, is currently a leatherworker, and the idea of a LW-only wrist-enhancement, although pretty strong, paled in comparison to the profits that other crafters could make (I didn't sell nearly as many Armorkits in BC as I'd have hoped, mostly made them with a lot of my mats for guildies), but more BoEs seem nice. Hopefully we get some snazzy BoP stuff too, because I wasn't all that impressed by the Ebon Netherscale gear, although the Breastplate was good.

Subsection 1.2: Other Stuff
Couple of other points I want to mention, not directly related to 8962.

1.2.1: Hunter Pets
If you haven't heard/seen/been told yet, hunter pets are the bees' knees in Wrath (foshizzle?). They are sheer awesome. Proof? BRK solos a Fel Reaver (remember those massive screen shakers that would ambush you in HFP?And 3 shot fresh 70s?) and shows off two other pets in this movie.

I spent some time yesterday browsing the Petopia list of Pet Skills in WotLK, with an eye on possible PvP pets once the pre-Wrath patch hits. While the Core Hound's Lava Breath looks awesome, especially against Paladins and Shamans, the Chimaera's Froststorm Breath is also pretty impressive - with the right talent it should have a cooldown of 7 seconds, and slows by 50% for 5 seconds, which sounds pretty nice, especially if it stacks with Concussive Shot. I very much look forward to using my favourite spec in Arena, Marksman just doesn't do it for me.

1.2.2: Personal Plans in Wrath
So, what am I going to do in Wrath of the Lich King? Well once it comes out I might just level my 42 Paladin to escape the crowding in Northrend and Eastern Plaguelands. Well, maybe. I'm really looking forward to levelling my Hunter as BM (ty 4 da love, Blizz) and getting an earlier start in arena (started 3/4 of the way through Season 3 in BC). My Druid will also be levelled at some point, and will probably end up being a Bear, because at the moment Resto isn't too appealing to me (BC Resto really spoiled me, especially for PvP), and I suppose a Death Knigget is compulsory, especially since I am a big fan of WoW lore (if I wasn't a Hordie, I'd totally play a female gnome DK with pink pigtails, 4lols).

Actually, there's a good chance I'll just take Darksentinel through the Old World, taming everything in sight.

Section 2: Not-Wrath Stuff
Stuff not directly related to the upcoming expansion, and therefore not as interesting...

2.1: Review of the PvP Bible
I bought a guide the other night, the PvP Bible. The site is impressive, the promises were extravagant, the price (I thought) fairly reasonable at $37US (moan, crappy NZ dollar, moan) and I thought it'd give us a nice chance to see 1600 and get that S4 chestpiece (feel free to laugh, or /golfclap). I paid, downloaded it, read it (skimming sections), thought about it, and became slightly pissed off.

The guide is an impressive 237 pages in the form of a 20MB pdf. Over 130 pages (i.e. more than half) are about duels, and to me dueling is a fun pastime to be undertaken outside Orgrimmar or in Gadgetzan. Among its more stellar points are a 4/41/16 Hunter build touted as "the best talent build" (note that the 4 BM points are in Improved Aspect of the Hawk) and the comment that "Warlocks have a tough time against Mages". Now, I don't play a Mage, I don't play a Warlock, but from those people I know who do play them the general sentiment I hear is "the only way a mage will beat a warlock is if the Warlock is AFK, has no pet and has res sickness, and even then you might want a rogue to help". Again, I might be wrong, but I dug up this old WoWInsider post (god, that thing is lols) and it roughly confirms my view.
Now I know the disclaimer on the site states: "The website disclaims any responsibility for the accuracy of the content of this website. Visitors assume the all risk of viewing, reading, using, or relying upon this information. Unless you have otherwise formed an express contract to the contrary with the website, you have no right to rely on any information contained herein as accurate. The website makes no such warranty." (i.e. I'm a sucker for buying it), but I'll briefly list here the things that occured to me just while I was reading it, and only in relation to Hunters in 2v2 and 3v3, and just basic points:
- vs. a Warrior or other melee it is imperative that you keep Wing Clip on them at all times
- a Viper Sting macro (and liberal use thereof) is compulsory for draining
- Frost Trap is vital to aid a partner to kite melee.
- a Scorpid pet is necessary to mask Viper Sting from dispel effects using Scorpid Poison
- a Hunter should use Aspect of the Viper against Healer/DPS, and have two weapons with +30 int enchants macro'd for regen phases
- when Rogues Vanish, be ready to Flare them out.
- using your trinket on Cheap Shot is generally a bad idea, because it will always be followed by Kidney Shot
And this was only some of the really obvious stuff I thought should've been in there. A lot of other errors abounded, such explaining how to tank the Marshals in Vann's/Drek's room in AV, without stressing the importance of despawning them by capping towers (and getting 63 bonus honor). There is one focus macro, but no explanation on how to actually use focus. I could go on, for quite a long time, in fact.
i actually emailed the author of the PvP Bible with a lot of these points and got the following response "Thanks for the feedback. It’s much appreciated. I’m looking to continuously update the guide so you can expect all these points noted." Hmmm...

In other words, for me the PvP Bible was not a lot of help. In fact after reading it, I did arena and lost some rating (although don't blame the PvP Bible for that), and I really feel it doesn't deliver on what it's marketed as (yes, I did read the disclaimer, but I have yet to find the "3 hours of tutorials", although I am notoriously bad at finding things even after I trip over them, like a stepladder at work the other day...).
On the POSITIVE side, I think the guide could be quite good (if a bit overwhelming) to someone new to PvP and arena, who doesn't know their class and really is interested in the correct spell rotation required for a Warlock to beat a Rogue. But between WoWWiki and ArenaJunkies, you can get most of that (and more, and more reliably) for free and you don't even need to brave the WoW Forums.
I'm fully tempted to write my own quick guide to Hunters in Arena. And despite me having around 900 less rating than what the author of the PvP Bible claims he has, I will say that I'm confident that in terms of Huntering my guide will be better than what I downloaded. I'll even email him a copy.
Conclusion: from what I've seen, for anyone with some arena and PvP experience, the PvP Bible is not worth the cost of the bandwidth used to download it, and for everyone else it's not worth the cost of purchasing it and then taking the time to read and learn it.

2.2: Should I Finish 'Gearing a Druid Tank'
Self explanatory, really. This refers to part one of my guide, "New Druid on the Block: Gearing a Bear Tank". Part two, which is in the process of being written, is actually about the items that an adolescent feral tank should consider when beginning tanking.
But. Wrath of the Lich King is what, 8 weeks away? Is anyone intending on hitting 70 as a Druid during this time who wants to tank and won't be dragged through Kara and Heroics to get gear? If there is, let me know, especially if you think continuation of the guide might help you (or them). Otherwise there's a good chance that I'll work more on feeding other teams in BG9 my arena rating, and the guide will go to the same place that New Years' Resolutions go. Yes, my sense of timing is sh*t.

2.3: My Addons
Now, my system resources are limited to whatever Dell sold me in 2003. They're so bad that I ended up buying both an AGP and a PCI-E graphics card before realising that my mobo had, in fact, slots for neither (I do have 3 PCI slots, which don't match the 4 slots cut into the case).
In short, this means that if I run X-PERL unit frames in EOTS, I get about 2 fps. So I can't use a lot of addons. What I do use has been carefully selected:
- Omen. The must-have Threat Meter. To anyone who wants to know if they're winning on threat, this is for you.
- Recount. A nicely detailed dps meter that has around 2^16 other functions (margin of error, 2^17).
- Lootlink. Less commonly used, but I really like this addon. It keeps track of items you've seen and allows you customised searching while in-game. Almost as good as an in-game WoWHead for items. Sort of. As long as it doesn't reset.
- Outfitter. My favourite Addon, helps me keep track of the 5 sets my Druid uses (cat dps, tanking, moonkin, PvE Heal, PvP Resto). And an interesting method of encountering my personal vocabulary of obscenities when it resets.
- Cartographer. Useful for viewing Instance Maps, coords, keeping track of key points and a few other things.
- Cosmos UI. A collection of addons, but currently I only use the 'clock' addon, which shows a big clock (surprise) with tooltip information so I can see how much I've procrastinated/how much sleep I've missed.
- Grid. A recent addition, following the debacle of me trying to use the default UI to heal Kara and BGs. This thing is pretty lightweight (compared to say, the Perl derivatives), very nice and customisable, and Phaelia provides a great tutorial that is pretty much a must-see for any Druid who wants to use Grid to heal.

2.4: Other
Thanks for bearing with me so far. In conclusion, Draenei are awesome (they have the best questline EVER, you learn a new language, get transformed into a beautiful, fast, invisible cat and free some baby Furbolg who are locked in cages - I found this out when Aman'Thul went for it's two-hour maintenance on Tuesday, although three hours later it still wasn't up so I went to bed) and I hate Ruins of Lordaeron (we went something like 15-11 yesterday in 2v2, and we won about 3 of the 12 matches that took place in the Ruins). For now, I'm going to sleep, and I'll reread this post tomorrow, correct all the stupid erorrs that crept in and probably delete large chunks.

If you have any questions, requests, comments, arguments, flames, feel free to comment (a reasonably level of maturity is encouraged) on this post, or send an email to (maturity optional):

Emo Gladiator's Carrot of Devastation [+12]

So I was reading a post on WoWInsider regarding season 5 gear.

And really, who thinks up the names?
Tiered Gear (5-piece)
Season 1: Gladiator - ok, nice.
Season 2: Merciless - yep still good.
Season 3: Vengeful - sounds like you're grasping for names here.
Season 4: Brutal - wtf? Degenerated a bit
Season 5: Hateful - thassabit strong, no?
Quality of their names seems to be getting a) really negative, b) lacking originality somewhat. I mean, how about Emo Gladiator's Razorblade? Or Moderately Angry Gladiator's Pocketknife? Or even Accounting Gladiator's Ledger of Doom... yeah, so Blizzard aren't the only ones lacking in originality, but then, I'm not making the game.
Also, the non-set gear will also be Hateful:
Season 1: General/Marshal's
Season 2: Veteran's
Season 3: Vindicator's
Season 4: Guardian's
Season 5: Hateful Gladiator's - huhwhut?
Personally I think these names are pretty cool, although I'm not sure what a Vindicator actually is (one of those Aldor guys, but what do they do?), but I've always been a fan of the 'Guardian' title. So I don't like this particular change (should it persist).

Anyways,
QQ moar.

In Stores 13.11.08

"In stores 13.11.08"

Source: wowhead.
Need I say anything else?

And yes, that has been corrected to DMY, because MDY is silly and counter-intuitive.

Personally, I was hoping it'd be a while longer. 8 or 9 weeks won't be enough for me to get my Druid some nice Arena gear and rating, especially with the new content patch messing stuff up.

/cry

[Hunter] LF4M Utgarde Keep have DPS and Tank

So. Hunters can have their pets tank. Damn that is awesome. I've tanked stuff (non-heroics) on my hunter using a weird 17/0/44 build and a lot of PvP gear, and having the DPS using Omen, and Blessing of Salvation. But having my pet tank stuff generally resulted in a dead pet. But no longer, with worms having Acid Spit (think Sunder Armor), and some really awesome Tenacity talents, they not only do increased threat, but also are easier to heal, have a taunt (although 3 minute cooldown is a bit harsh) and higher survivability. A chance to have 4 dps in an instance? I sure hope so. Just need to work out how they will tank multiple things, otherwise the healers will /cry. A bear or gorilla might be able to hold threat at melee range, but would still have problems with casters.
Still, even if it requires 5 cc/dps, should provide some interesting flexibility in group composition during the race to 80. Although it will mean Hunters become even more imba in solo content (yes, you can solo Hogger in Hell Difficulty), which will mean that a lot of hunters will have even more difficulty doing well in group situations. QQ.

Things to do while waiting for Wrath

So, you're waiting for Wrath to come out.
You've stopped raiding.
Essentially, you're like this.
And you don't have beta access because you sold it for the price of a new computer (I wish).
So, while doing the dishes, I thought up a few things to do:

- Get epic flying. Finally. (Currently about halfway there).
- Level an alt. Got alts already? LEVEL MOAR ALTS! Level that paladin who's sitting at 61 because you couldn't bear grinding in HFP, even as ret (or alternatively wait for Wrath to come out so you can do play around with ret).
- Grind some arena gear.
- Grind more arena gear.
- Get to 2200 rating so you've got a nice shot at a gladiator title. It will last you a long time, and give you a nice fuzzy feeling as you quest around Northrend.
- Realise that to get 2200 rating, you probably want to get to 1500 first.
- Get back to 1400 rating (omg this week was bad).
- Gear an alt for arena.
- Get an alt epic flying.
- Stack up mats for Inscription. Seriously, grab a hunter alt, grab herbalism and skinning or something, and stock up.
- Bellwether at 4Haelz recommends finding a raiding guild to join in preparation for Wrath content.
- Catch up on sleep. 8 hours sleep a week during maintenance is not enough, especially when they just do rolling restarts.
- Earn some irl money, pay some bills, write an essay, acknowledge your spouse, claim the "missing person" reward your parents are offering... all those things you've been meaning to do but never got around to (because you were too busy sleeping during maintenance).
- Steal somebody's beta access.
- Play Warhammer Online.
- Start a blog.