Waldonnis

A few changes/additions to the Netherwing quests... Booterang! The Booterang quest actually starts at Friendly Prior to getting the Booterang! quest, you need to turn in the materials needed to make the booterang to the NPC (non-repeatable - quest is titled "Overseeing and You: Making the Right Choices"): 10 knothide leather Hardened Hide of Tyrantus (looted from a mob in Netherstorm) Killing Balthas' Brother (quest titled "Subdue the Subduer") Prior to getting this quest, you need to turn in the materials needed to make a "Soul Cannon", which is used to kill Reth'hedron the Subduer (quest is titled "The Soul Cannon of Reth'hedron"): 1 Adamantite frame (crafted by an engineer or purchased from the engineering vendor in Stormspire - limited supply) 1 Khorium power core (crafted by an engineer) 2 Felsteel bars (not fel iron, but felsteel - make sure you get the right stuff if you're buying off of the AH) 1 Flawless Arcane Essence (obtained from an event in Terokkar Forest) "Disrupting the Twilight Portal" (honored rep required, daily - quest targets are in Nagrand, Twilight Ridge) Must kill 20 Deathshadow Agents (any humanoid or demon in the Twilight Ridge area of Nagrand should do) There is an additional one-time quest that begins with a drop (Partially Digested Hand) from Arvoar the Rapacious, but I haven't done it, so I can't comment on it. The quest is available at neutral rep and suggests two players.

The spreadsheet has been updated. New stuff has been added in every tab except for the Aldor/Scryer tab. In general, there are probably a few new things not yet discovered, but highlights of the additions: New rep items for The Scale of the Sands (Hyjal Summit) and the Ashtongue Deathsworn (Black Temple) New random drops from Serpentshrine Cavern/The Eye as well as some that appear to be from bosses/mobs in Black Temple New jewelcrafting stuff from The Consortium and the usual random world drops (groan) Altered the drop locations of Enchant Weapon - Major Spellpower and Enchant Bracer - Major Defense New engineering recipe from The Consortium (the only one for engineering that requires rep) Not added but noteworthy: A new alchemy recipe obtained in Halaa (also one from the Cenarion Expedition, which was added to the rep tab) Two new defencive elixir recipes found on trainers Some referenced, but yet-to-be-found defencive elixirs Some referenced, but yet-to-be-found/confirmed dropped jewelcrafting recipes in Hyjal Summit and Black Temple

Honestly, I think Rhoach is correct here. From a pure PvE standpoint, the Hourglass or Bladefist's Breadth are superiour for anyone who already has a high crit rating and even some with lower crit ratings. In PvP, however, I'd tenatively say that the Storms deck would be more beneficial for the reason he mentioned: resilience stacking is becoming common and is effectively reducing his crit chance already, making the strings of non-crits longer and consequently makes the deck more "powerful" than a straight crit increase. If the average resilience encountered in Arena matches reduces his effective crit rating by more than 9-13, I'd say this is better than at least Bladefist's (disclaimer: napkin math here...I can do the full math if desired). I'd have to do real math for the Hourglass, so I won't make that evaluation quite yet. The benefits are obvious for anyone with low-crit (non-arcane frost mages, dest-locks, etc), so I won't go into that.

I'm fairly sure that at least Adranna has also been tasked with contributing to Zuluhed's demise. My playtime is somewhat unpredictable in length this week, but would be glad to help if I'm available.

Have a moo-tastic b-day

Big ball of fire in sky BAD! *noogies Brainah*

More fun...NOT... Blizzard's tinkered with the drops, so I need to make some updates to this. I'll put some time in this weekend and try to get the known changes into the spreadsheet. Some of the new drops have still not been found, but I'll keep checking and get them entered in as soon as some confirmed info shows up on the various source sites.

Actually, from what I'm seeing on the forums, you need 300 riding skill before getting past neutral. If that's true, I won't bother finishing up that quest line until I can afford to pay for that x4

I have a looong way to go for that, but I'll help. I think Kelani's the only one who has completed that quest chain, though, so if you need one of the other of "me", I'll need some help on the hellish final quest

*sighs* Ah, the antics of Sleyvas. I see nothing has changed. I do endorse the classiness of Bruce Campbell, though

I quickly fired up WoW before leaving the house to check if a patch was dropping...and it didn't fire up the downloader (I had already downloaded the 200MB static content pre-patch). I'm not sure whether to rejoice or sigh, since patches seem to simultaneously break and fix various things frequently...

Gah, I wish I could commit, but just can't right now...I'm stretched too thin lately between work and alt-itis Are you planning on keeping it just AQ or were you thinking of rotating through the other older instances weekly/monthly? I'd love to get back into BWL to learn elementium smelting, personally...and have a score to settle with Razorgore

Ah the joys of running raids....time conflicts, attendance problems...and that's before anyone steps into an instance Verissi's first rule of being a raid leader/organiser: DON'T TAKE ANY OF IT PERSONALLY There will always be raids on the same days, times, and places. There will also always be people that just don't show up or cancel despite reassurances that they can make it. None of these things are done on purpose to screw with anyone in particular, they just happen and shouldn't cause bad feelings or stress. Barring having a formal raid schedule that's dictated by a GM or similar rank, it's just not always feasible to plan raids so they don't overlap in either attendance or time slots. Existing raids frequently reschedule to accomodate their regular attendees' schedules, which theoretically shouldn't impact other raids, but does hurt the pool of "alternates"/attendees for newly-formed raids...such is the way of things and something to consider for every raid leader. Leading a raid sucks, always has and always will. It's a ton of work with little reward and requires some pretty thick skin at times. Since I (nor any other elder that I'm aware of) want to dictate a raiding schedule, we generally ask that each raid leader is considerate of each other when planning their raids AND that the participants in those raids don't "overbook themselves" in order to hedge their proverbial bets (don't sign up for two raids at the same time slot or if you cannot attend both due to raid id conflicts). I understand your frustration, Vendes, as I've run into past problems with scheduling and had to make some hard decisions (putting off entry into BWL for an extra month or more wasn't popular, but it was necessary to avoid overcommitting the attendees and putting some strain on attendance in other raids). I encourage the current (and any prospective) Karazhan raid leaders to get together for a brief chat soon to iron out what appears to be a growing scheduling problem and to at least clear the air. I don't like seeing messages that reflect frustration when I know this can all be worked out easily...we're all friends here I'd be happy to sit in on the chat if moderation is needed, but I'm confident it won't be necessary Incidentally, since Calendar is the raiding warmonger, perhaps this discussion will lead to establishing some guidelines for new raid formation and rescheduling of existing raids...*nudge nudge*

Definitely a valid point. I suppose I've just seen too many pissing contests and headaches happen in the past when people begin to rely too much on getting "their buffs". As a paladin, I learned early on that most people shouldn't get the buffs they most want (if they didn't like what I gave them, too bad ...and if they upset me, melee got concentration aura to boot ). As to aggro wiping abilities, this is true, but cooldowns come into play heavily for two of the three classes mentioned. Mage invisibility is usually up once per fight in raid settings, but rarely more than once (ice block is NOT a threat wipe...it's equivalent to a paladin bubble, e.g. immunity, just for info). Rogues can vanish, but that's also on a longer cooldown and burns reagents (not a limiting factor often, but it can be in extended raids)....feint can be used more often , but it's effects can be marginal if you're fully buffed and outputting strings of heavy crits. In essence, the only true dump on a managable cooldown still belongs to hunters, which is why they are one of the few classes that I would actually strive to buff heavily for damage-dealing. Other classes like mage or rogue, despite their threat reduction abilities, would tend to warrant more threat mitigation than damage buffs, if any at all....I'd rather keep them alive and dealing damage, even if the scrolly damage numbers aren't as big for them individually. If a rogue can pop even one less feint or a mage not use the mana for invisibility, that's more energy/mana to put into damage and will likely end up with them outputting more sustained DPS, despite the lack of a direct buff to their damage. It's really the whole "fury warrior vs. rogue" scenario on a grand scale....a fury warrior can often output more damage than a similarly-geared rogue in a short amount of time, but due to lack of threat management, often doesn't live long enough to outdamage the rogue by the end of the fight. I know I keep harping on threat management, but it's really just an example of one of the avenues buffs provide that doesn't fit in the "maximise DPS through direct buffing" box that many people fall into. My goal with the posts are more to open up other avenues of thought about group and buff dynamics in a raid setting (it's one of the things that I have a hard time letting go of these days in 5-mans, which seem to lack the ability to exploit that additional axis ), so I hope nobody is taking this as a "you should do this"-style lecture If maximising direct damage buffs makes sense for the circumstances (e.g. it's boiled down to "everyone's staying alive, we just flat-out need more dps"), then I definitely encourage it and there are about 3-5 workable group arrangements to buff the melee and ranged damage with what I've seen on the last signup or two, most of which were covered by Kailand and Scryll.

Also chiming in from the "not in the raid, but some observations on mechanics" standpoint... I think it'll all be situational. You can maximise inter-class buffing for DPS, but if effective DPS isn't the shortcoming, then you haven't done much (e.g. if healing is a problem, positioning for shatter, etc.). There are several options for group setups that may improve whatever the weakness is. For instance, I know the default "desire" of rogues is to increase their AP (making WF, BS, et. al. desirable), but if threat becomes a problem, then aggro-reduction may be a better fit. Same goes for healing on primary melee damage dealers...if they're dying too fast, placing them into a group with a resto and feral druid would end up helping on many counts (HoTs and ILotP, along with the regular LotP boost). In the end, it's all situational and will likely change depending on who you have and their specs. In short, when it comes to DPS analysis, think about the whole picture and remember the key principle: effective, sustained DPS...meaning if they're remaining alive and doing the best that their specs and gear allow but it's still not enough, then start down the "let's maximise this through buffs" avenue (my suggestion). If they're dying too quickly or getting caught by bad positioning, then all of the totems and battle shouts in the world isn't going to win the encounter. Traditionally, min/max-style raiding guilds solve this by reducing the variables, i.e. dictating specs and enforcing attendance. This allows problematic fights to analysed in simplistic terms, usually ending up with a "we don't have enough <healing/ranged dps/melee dps/cc>", making it easier to solve. If you have variable attendance from week to week, it's probably best to squeeze in as many different group arrangements as possible per night in there to see which works best for that night (and maybe gather some info for trend analysis) since each raid will be different enough to introduce more variables. Eventually, you'll find a trend that's successful regardless and can cope with even a 25% variable roster easily. Also, there's one thing that can never be discounted and that's how well people work together within the same group...some healers function better as off-healers assigned to one group, while others are better at timing heals for MT/OT...or even raid-wide off-healing. Same goes for DPS, although in a slightly different capacity....there are some circumstances (and people) where I would not lump all rogues together in a single group, for instance. Some have strengths due to spec or gear that warrant additional, counter-intuitive measures, such as threat reduction due to high crit chance or high sustained white damage...or may need some dedicated healing. And then there are those people that just don't get along and giving them a group chat together can lead to even more bickering/distractions *shrugs*. Ah, the joys and complexities of running a raid I know the advice is unsolicited and probably well-known by the folks here, but it's something to think about regardless. Buffs are nice...but if you're banking too much on <person A with spec 2> to be there every night so they can cast/provide <buff/aura IV>....good tactics executed by good players with adequate gear win fights, not buffs

You're just laughing because you want the hat too and would be jealous! *shifty*

Well no wonder he's cranky...he's mummified! Good to hear that all is ok and, don't worry, he'll get to sleeping more regularly soon enough I love the hat too...wonder if they make adult-sized hats like that...

Priests start slow and ramp up in speed above 20-25 to the point where I had less downtime on my priest than I did on my mage between 20-50 (where AoE starts getting good and priest shadow damage starts levelling out). Paladins are tricky, though. I levelled my initial paladin ages ago before the past two class reviews and it was by far the slowest class to level back then. These days, it seems that a good ret build early on (later replaced by a holy build, tastes depending) is pretty efficient and comparable to most of the other classes in speed. Personally, my paladin is and always will be holy...I'm just most familiar with that and not comfortable as ret or protection...and it's somewhat slow at lower levels, but definitely viable for solo play on the track to 70.

It's the inevitable curse that comes with your job, Ghules...just admit it and move on Oh, and I'm still jealous of the umbrella/picnic prop you have...

On a side note, either I'm incredibly unlucky or Blizzard is doing tricky things with drops (again)... I spent some time this past week farming for the Khorium Band of Shadows pattern in Shadowmoon Valley (by "some time", I mean about 6 hours or so) right after hitting 66 on Adranna. I never got the drop, despite having accumulated almost half the xp needed to hit 67. I finally gave in last night and went back to questing, figuring I'd go back at 67 and see how it worked out then. Well, less than five minutes of farming at 67, the pattern dropped. I'm wondering if they've "min-level" limited the drops in some way...nothing would surprise me, but something to keep in mind...

Hehehe, glad my boredom time produces useful things I originally planned to add the tabs after the 2.1 patch (since it alters some drop locations for existing things, forcing me to make changes anyway), but they're dragging it out a bit longer than I was willing to wait. Future hopeful goals: Multi-column sorting (may need to move it off of Google for this...and the other stuff below) Making the names into links Isolating professions/flexible filtering

<insert obligatory warlock ability reference here> Actually, I've been playing Verissi late at night to see if I can find some strength to distinguish her abilities from Waldy's...and in my opinion, Waldy is just superiour in almost every way. There is a certain satisfaction to being able to 2-3 shot pretty much any non-elite (when the stars align, of course), but the trade-offs make it tough to find the silver lining these days. Some of it is V's lack of decent gear, admittedly, but the versatility of the mage class abilities is akin to the plight of rogues right now: most of what you can do well is so severely situational that it might as well not exist (snare or root-immune mobs are plentiful, damage nerfs, survivability issues, etc). Meh, not the thread for the discussion and, truthfully, mage is still fun to play...I guess I'm just a bit bitter about how poorly we "scaled" and how radically our role has changed in the past few months. It says something to me that even Adranna, at 65, has the tools and damage to destroy a 70 mage...

Mages exist??? *shifty*

I added two new tabs to the spreadsheet: Reputations Tab - Lists patterns obtained through rep (includes Aldor/Scryer stuff) Aldor-Scryer Tab - Lists patterns specific to Aldor and Scryer reputations for easier comparison/reference I found myself consulting the reputation lists more lately, so I had to include them. Enjoy!

I know the details, but would rather not post anything about it until after a fix is in place and it's confirmed to work as intended. Personally, I'm not sure I'd consider this an exploit as much as it's a goof on Blizzard's part and shouldn't be too difficult to fix. Let's hope they can get that worked out and re-enable discoveries soon