Hi

Today I have reached 26. It’s not that important but let’s look back at that list I made at the start of the year and see how I’m getting on shall we?

1. The Insane

Got to Exalted with Steamwheedle – Leaving 3 factions left, Ravenholdt next methinks.

2. Mechano-Hog

Done

3. Try and post on topics you’ve created

Posting has been semi-active lately but we’ll see

4. Get those alts to 80!

Warrior is currently being levelled on a break from The Insane.

5. Spend more time raiding

Raiding 2-3 times a week at the moment and enjoying it Even if my guild does repeatedly wipe on Rotface!

6. Do Officer related duties

I’m enjoying this immensely

So all in all I’m keeping up and with the resilience buffs am looking forward to the new Arena season – let’s get it on like Donkey Kong.

Recently, one of our pally tanks decided to apply to a 25 man raiding guild (I only raid 10s out of preference). We were all shocked and dismayed and after some drama he decided to gquit while awaiting the response from the guild (a major player for our faction and server as it went).

I’m not sure how the app would have turned out but they also accepted another paladin. Now, the pally in question makes an application to our guild asking to re-join us apologizing for his mistake of applying to another guild (I didn’t see it as a mistake, just not perhaps a wise decision).

Of course the rest of the guild are all lovely people and accepted him back with no problems at all. The caveat is that a few of us can’t be sure if he would have come back had he been accepted to the new guild. I myself do wonder, but he’s a great tank and a nice guy so I’m willing to give him another chance.

I know in the past I’ve been given another chance by a guild I left and later re-joined so why not anybody else? The guy came back in as a trial and will have to pass said trial to be a raider, from there on I doubt he’ll go back up to Officer again.

We’re all friends and we’re all casual so perhaps we need to be more laid back about it – but perhaps we need more structure to make sure things like this don’t happen again in the future.

Lately, security has been playing on my mind a lot.

I’ve become friends through association with another player who uses bots to make gold and power level characters and then sell them on various sites (I wont link them because I don’t approve of them). He doesn’t have a problem with what he does and claims he’s never compromised an account etc… The guy is young, at college and uses it to keep his “tech addiction” flowing. Fair enough, he’s not hurting anyone, is he?

When I was levelling quite some time ago I used to see bots a fair bit and the fuckers would be doing a circle round and round getting the mobs I needed, I played on a PvE server as well which meant I couldn’t just ambush their asses into next week. We’ve all seen gold seller ads and we’ve all seen the services people offer. These guys are destroying the game experience:

1. The economy gets ruined, those who work for their gold are de-valued because some asshole with a VISA can buy all the gold he wants.
2. The play experience gets ruined when you’re in trade or minding your business and get THOSE whispers (although some times I do ask for a 56 which garners no reply!)
3. For the people buying the gold or the power levelling or the honour grinding… YOUR experience is worsened.

Point 3 is what I want to focus on.

Where’s the satisfaction in buying a hog after waiting 30 minutes for your gold to be delivered?  Where do you get the joy from with a level 80 pre-made for you – that’s not your work, hell in all likelihood a programme did the work, not even a human being.

Don’t people feel cheated by this?  Don’t they feel inhuman?  Do they not feel cheap?

I know people have busy lives and that’s the reason for buying gold etc but as long as people buy gold there will be a market for it.  Getting people to stop buying gold though, well now, I fear that’s an impossible situation.

Nice to have some recognition!

Forum watch link

Screenshot from WoW-Europe:

So we all have too many buttons right?
Imagine a world where 1 action bar button could do 2 things.

Well it’s actually relatively simple!

The macro above is a simple macro addon (and when used with IronChef is awesome!) It tells the button when the left hand mouse button is clicked to Use (open) Cooking and when the right hand mouse button is clicked to cast Basic Campfire.

Pretty simple stuff eh?

Well let’s put it into perspective for rogues:

This macro applies Deadly Poison on your offhand if you press the second mouse button and otherwise will place Instant Poison on the main hand.

Now let’s look at an even more complicated macro with more options:

This macro will first check to see if you have a fishing pole equipped if not it will equip a gearset called “Fishing”.
Then if you click normally you will fish if you have a fishing pole equipped.
If you click with shift your Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat is used to provide a lure.
If you click with alt pressed you’ll equip your gearset called PvE and switch to your primary spec.

This is a simple list for Rogues on how not to raid in 3.3 but still enjoy the PvE experience and get some decent gear.  If like me you’re not a fan of raiding every single night or just like to relax a bit more (my guild luckily is very accomodating for this) then here’s a list of gear that you can get without popping your cash on flasks, pots and fish feasts.

Head:

For those willing to save up all their daily badges (and weekly raid if you enjoy PuG raiding…) there’s the Shadowblade Helmet for 95 Frost Badges, failing that go get a T9 helm for 50 Triumph Badges, Mask of Lethal Intent is also nifty at 75 Triumph Badges or if you’re into pure drops then the Frayed Scoundrel’s Cap from the Devourer of Souls in Forge of Souls may be for you.

Neck:

With the amount of trash farming going on in IC25 don’t be surprised if you’re on a high pop server to see Wodin’s Lucky Necklace on the AH, it goes for 6k BO according to wowhead but I’d imagine on some servers it will be much more inflated.  Short of this monumental BoE you can also get the Barbed Ymirheim Choker from Forgemaster Garfrost in Forge of Souls and lastly Broach of the Wailing Night is simple to pick up at 19 conquest badges.

Shoulders:

Again, T10 shoulders are awesome if you can get the 60 Frost Badges for them. Failing that the Duskstalker Shoulders/Pauldrons are awesome for 45 Triumph badges and then there’s also the T9 shoulders for 30 Triumph badges.

Chest:

If you really save up your Frost Badges (95 to be exact) you can get a Shadow Seeker’s Tunic, alternatively there’s also the T10 chest for 95 Frost Badges, but it comes in at much worse stats and for the casual might not be worth it.  Also worth a mention is the Knightbane Carapace which you can get crafted, the main ingredient being Crusader Orbs which can be bought for Triumph badges.

Waist:

For the waist we have Vengeful Noose for 60 Frost Badges, followed quickly by Death-Warmed Belt, a lovely leatherworking recipe which uses runed orbs (Ulduar and Conquest badges) or Belt of the Twilight Assassin for for 28 Conquest badges – slim pickings!

Legs:

T10 set pieces once again own and once again costs a shitload of Frost Badges, 95 to be more on the money.  Fleshwerk leggings drop from Scourgelord Tyrannus in Pit of Saron heroic or the Tier 9 legs for 50 Triumph Badges and you can pick up some BOE goodness in the form of Proto-Hide Leggings, also worth a mention are the Leggings of Wavering Shadows for 39 Conquest Badges.

Feet:

Footpads of Silence are faily cheap to create from a Leatherworker or get the Blighted Leather Footpads from Halls of Reflection (please note though this is the hardest heroic to run!).  Otherwise Treads of Dismal Fortune from Trial of the Champion heroic are a pretty good item also.

Wrist:

Bracers of Swift Death are a cheap item to create from a Leatherworker and if not you can pick up Wristwraps of the Cut-throat for 60 Valor Badges.  (Note: If this is an alt those badges can come from anyone as they’re BoE!)  And don’t forget Armguards of the Wary Lookout from Eadric’s cache in Trial of the Champion heroic.

Hands:

Cat Burglar’s Grips and T10 hands both come in at 60 Frost Badges, alternatively why not use the Tier 9 gloves for 30 Triumph Badges.

Rings:

You can get Runed Band of the Kirin Tor for 11′500g, Dexterous Brightstone ring is 35 Triumph Badges and for drops there’s Band of Stained Souls from Scourgelord Tyrannus in Pit of Saron heroic and Ring of Carnelion and Bone from Forgemaster Gorefrost from… yup Pit of Saron.

Trinket:

Your first Emblem of Frost spend should be the awesome Herkuml War Totem, combine this with Needle-Encrusted Scorpion and you’re onto a great little combo.  Alternatives for 50 Triumph Badges include Mark of Supremacy and Shard of the Crystal-Heart.  Don’t forget about the uber cool Darkmoon Card: Greatness which you need to get by combining the ace through 8 of nobles (Inscriptionists can make these with a chance of 1 in 4 to get a nobles card – better to buy it!)

Back:

For your cloak you can get Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape for 50 Frost Badges, there are also a few BoE cloaks you might be able to pick up such as Cloak of the Untamed Predator or Shawl of the Shattered Giant.  Both go for a fair whack though on the AH.  There’s also a new drop: Accursed Crawling Cape from Devourer of Souls in Forge of Souls heroic.

Ranged:

Pick up Shrapnel Star for 30 Frost Badges or Crimson Star for 25 Triumph Badges.

Combat Weapons:

Mainhand - The ultimate bad boy is of course Quel’Delar, but failing this (by now they’re on the AH mind you) your options are Nighttime for you Hack n Slashers which is dropped from Bronjahm in the Forge of Souls, Black Icicle for you blunt freaks from the Halls of Reflection chest or Seven-Fingered Claws for CQC players from ICC-hc trash.

Offhand – Unsharpened Ice Razor is from the trash in all the ICC-hcs and is a great offhand dagger.  Unfortunately the mace selection for casual offhands is so bad I suggest you pick up a sword, fist, axe or dagger as the best you can get is a Furious Saronite Beatstick.  Liar’s Tongue drops in Halls of Reflection from the end chest also for swords/axes and has a nice graphic to boot too!

Mutilate Weapons:

Mainhand – Pick up Blood Weeper or Heartshiver from Devourer of Souls in Forge of Souls (Heartshiver is from normal).

Offhand – Unsharpened Ice Razor again is awesome, drops from the trash in all ICC-hcs (is there an echo in here?)

This macro places Tricks of the Trade on your focus target (it could be used on anything, for example a DK’s Hysteria). To set a focus with Blizzard frames right-click the target and press focus, for any other unit frame you have to select the player and type /focus manually. This is an issue in WoW’s API, not a lot addon authors can do about it unfortunately.

It will also whisper the tank. Please note if you’re doing X-Realm PuG’s it will attempt to whisper the name of the tank on your server which can result in embarrassing apologies – so feel free to remove this line.

This is a fantastic macro for helping non-AoE tanks rocket through instances, especially in Halls of Reflection when using the peekaboo method!

You may remember in my 2010 looking forward post one of my achievements was the to get the lovely mechano-hog. Luckily last night I turned badass… I even had a full set of leathers! (arf arf)

This macro allows you to change spec and corresponding gear with 1 click. It presumes that your first (primary) spec is connected to a gearlist called PvE and your second is connected to a gearlist called PvE. This could easily be changed to Tank and DPS or any other combination.