This is another cross-post on Big Hit Box….check it out!

You’re here for info.  I’m here to try to help.  3.1 finally dawned on Azeroth, and there are a couple things I’d like to go over.  I won’t cover dual specs, tradeskills, or anything like that.  I’m cherry picking some stuff that I’m personally interested in, and hope you are too.

3.1 Fury Talents

First, let’s talk Fury specs.  Honestly, I don’t think a lot has changed.  The big, BIG thing to note, though, is the removal of Weapon Mastery from the fury tree.  For us Furies, it means it’s time to boost up that expertise.  In the old cap, you only had to get to 18 expertise, which equated to about 148 expertise rating.  Now, without the benefits of Weapon Mastery, you need to get to 26 expertise, which is 214 expertise rating.  That’s a sizable amount more of expertise you will need, and after getting hit capped for yellow damage, expertise is the next thing you want capped.

Seriously, cap expertise.  Do it now before you forget.

Anyhow, here is what I went with spec wise.  It’s pretty standard up and down.  You have a few play points here and there.  Like if you want to look cool on the trash DPS meters you could get Improved Cleave, but I didn’t bother.  Many of the points in arms are negotiable as well. 

Ulduar Weapon Drops

Now for the fun stuff!  I’ve been hurting a bit weapon wise.  I’ve had terrible luck in Naxx 25, and I’m still running around with Demise and the Titansteel Destroyer.

Thankfully, blizz has come to save the day with a handful of new weapons to shoot for, in both 10 and 25 man Ulduar.

10-Man Drops

Ironsoul – Drops from the Flame Leviathan

Very nice weapon, available from what I believe is the first boss in Ulduar.  Strength has always been a great stat for fury, but now that zerker stance boosts str and not AP, it’s even sweeter.  Armor penetration got a big boost in 3.1 as well, so this is another good side stat to shoot for.  The crit is also nice, and it’s overall DPS is even higher than Death’s Bite from Naxx 10.  I will be gunning for this from the start.  Fury DPS LFG Uld 10.

Stormedge – Drops from Hodir

Another solid weapon from Ulduar 10.  The hit is ok, but again we find a good amount of strength and some Armor Pen as a bonus.  The DPS is also solid.  This may be itemized more for an Arms warrior, but still a good weapon nonetheless.  Especially if you have been unlucky like I have. 

25-Man Drops

Worldcarver – Drops from Ignis the Furnace Master

Here we have our first weapon on the “next level” in terms of DPS.  232.5 DPS is higher than the previous BIS, the Betrayer of Humanity.  Now, the stats make it more of a DK tanking weapon.  I don’t know a whole lot about that class/spec, but the stamina budget, expertise and haste scream out tank to me.  Still an excellent choice for a Fury Warrior if you’re still carting around old 186 DPS weapons like me.  I would probably pass it to a DK tank, but I’d roll about anyone else for it.  Strength again, some expertise to help us cap out, and some haste, which isn’t bad.

Rune Edge – Drops from the Iron Council

Another big 232.5 DPS.  If this had strength rather than agility, I would be MUCH more excited, but it’s still a great, great weapon.  (Hell, the Betrayer had agi and not str too!)  Crit, AP and Armor Pen are all high and very welcome.  Beware of hunters if this drops, try to distract or confuse them if possible.  Use the “hey, wait for a spear” argument if necessary.

Voldrethar, Dark Blade of Oblivion – Drops from General Vezax

This is the present King of the Fury Hill in terms of weapons.  244.7 DPS, 999 max damage – I think my head is about to explode.  Strength, 2 sockets, crit, armor pen – it’s a dream come true.  Expect to have lots of competition for this sword, it’s the bee’s knees.  Excuse me a second while I wipe the drool off my keyboard.

So there you have your new weapons to shoot for.  I think Blizz did a much better job of itemizing weapons this time around, the choices in Naxx just seemed a little too limited.  Keep in mind this list does not include loot from the last 2 bosses.  They are still a mystery to all.  I’m sure there’s a big nasty axe in there somewhere, with a DPS number over 250. 

WoW Matrix

To wrap things up, a big BOO to Curse and WoW Interface for blocking WoW Matrix.  Now, I understand there is money involved and whatnot, but can’t they work with WoW matrix in some way?  It really was by far the best updater.  Now I have to use the invasive Curse client, and then manually install my outlier addons that aren’t available on Curse.  I know it’s no HUGE deal, but I have a lot of addons.  WoW Matrix made everything cake, and Curse and WoW Interface have taken that away. 

So Boo to you Curse and WoW Interface!  A Pox on you and both your houses!

That’s all for now – shouldn’t you be in Ulduar right now?

Yeah, I know.  It’s been awhile.  But you see I promised myself something when I first began writing this blog:  I will try my best NOT to write posts JUST to write posts.  It’s not like I have to clock in or whatnot, this is no job.  I write when I have something worthwhile to talk about, or at least I hope so.  Please don’t now inundate me with examples of crap posts from the past, as I’m sure I have many out there.   

With that out of the way, I can tell you that I indeed have something to talk about.  A couple of things, really. 

Bye Bye Maly

For starters, I’ve beaten WoW.  (Save the accolades for later, really.)  I’ve been raiding once a week for the past couple of months, and Friday night we finally accomplished the last real thing I had to accomplish, downing Malygos in 25 man.  Now I know there are things I have not done on my warrior, like OS25 for instance, but between my warrior and druid I’ve really done it all.  I’m itching for Ulduar now just like many of you are.  But I’ll get back to that in the second part of this post.

Back to Malygos – it took us a long time, and a lot of tries.  Overall the fight really isn’t that difficult.  It wasn’t long before we had phases 1 and 2 pegged.  Anyone who’s done Maly knows, however, that phase 3 is the rub. 

Individually, it’s not all that difficult.  Just keep your stack up, and stack as many as you can.  In a way I have some advantages in this area due to my experience with Resto Druiding.  For a long time I made my living on proper stack/HOT management. 

The problem is you have to get SO MANY people doing the same thing.  In other phases, in other fights, you can carry some people through who aren’t performing like everyone else.  In Maly your room for error is marginal at best.  You need most everyone to be handling their stacks RIGHT. 

In a way, it’s reminiscent of the Teron Gorefiend fight from Black Temple.  To take down Gorefiend, you had to play this itty bitty mini-game that Blizz had thrown in, and you needed everyone to be able to play it.  The same thing goes for Malygos.  At least here Blizz had the foresight to institute some in game training.  There is a daily quest near Transitus Shield, Aces High, that shows you how the drakes you will have to use for Maly work. 

I can’t say I’m a fan of that kind of boss fight, but it was very satisfying when we got it done.  Pics or it didn’t happen, I know…

There you go, proof.  Are you happy?  My apologies for the fairly crappy shot, it’s hard to get anything decent with 20+ drakes in the air and whatnot.  Don’t even get me started on the horrors of trying to loot the stupid chest thingy afterwards.  Ugh.  (On a side note, can we have a moratorium on any loot “boxes”?  I’d much rather always have a big old corpse to click on, where we can ALL get in!)

So goodnight Maly, it was fun….ish.

Razor Thin Layers of Progression

My Fury Warrior (who is my present main, in case you haven’t heard) has pretty dang spiffy gear.  I finally got done with the dreaded Nobles Deck to get the Darkmoon Card: Greatness, I have several pieces of near BIS gear from 25 man Naxx, and I’m capped in everything useful and sport over 4k unbuffed AP.  But still, I have a pretty big problem. 

My frigging weapons.

I have Demise from 10 man Naxx and the Titansteel Destroyer.  Good weapons, sure, but overall they are really holding me back. 

The problem is that there are very few upgrades in this area.  There are four I’m looking at, to be exact, and to date I’ve only seen one of them drop, and that only once.  In case you are wondering, the four weapons are The Jawbone, Armageddon, Death’s Bite and the Betrayer of Humanity.  3 of them only come from 25 man Naxx, and the last comes from 10 man Naxx.  I can only raid once a week, and I do 25 man Naxx on that one day, and to this day I’ve only seen Armageddon drop, and that only once.  To add to the futility of trying to upgrade my weapons is the fact that I really need TWO in the long run, and there are usually 4 other people in each raid that would like the same drops.

Ugh.

So here I find myself on the narrowest of upgrade paths, and it’s disheartening.  This is why PTD gets bored, and why I find myself wondering what alt to level next.  It gets tough as you approach the upper echelons of gear, and fewer and fewer upgrades are appealing.  I need nothing from heroism badge gear (unless I start looking at tanking gear), and there aren’t many drops left in Naxx 25 that I’m interested in anymore.  I just want a new stinking weapon.  And then one more to boot.

So I keep on heading into Naxx 25, and hope every time that I get lucky.  I do my job, put out very good DPS, and approach most boss lootings as uneventful.

So why are there no good badge weapons?  Back in the BC days, there were some VERY nice weapons you could get with badges.  Now I see nothing at all.  Does Blizz have something against those of us who wield two-handers?  And then, just for kicks, did they say “hey, maybe we should make a class able to use TWO two-handers, and thereby magnify their frustration tenfold!”  I sure hope not. 

Thankfully, there look to be some good choices coming along in Ulduar.  Now where the heck is 3.1??

This’ll be my second cross post on Big Hit Box.  So be sure to check out their site as well, they got’s a good thing going!  I used to say I wouldn’t want to be part of any club that would have me as a member, but that turned out to be a lonely proposition.  Now on with the post!

 

Before I get to the juice, I’ll give a minor update about my guild situation.  I’m still flying solo, and it’s actually quite refreshing.  I’m still able to raid with the same people I was raiding with before.  Also, I was doing a ton of PUGing before, so this is really no different.  My friends list is really growing, too!  Heck, my first run post guild netted me my stupid epic legs from UK.  FINALLY!

Come Geared, or Don’t Come at All

In my estimation, the Warrior is the most gear dependent class in all of World of Warcraft.  (It’s one of the reasons I rated them at the bottom in my old Casual Class post!)  It doesn’t matter what spec you’re talking about either – Arms, Prot and Fury Warriors all rely on good gear to perform.  The good thing about that is that Warriors also SCALE better with gear than most other classes.  With my Druid, for instance, 20 points in spellpower or spirit here or there didn’t mean all that much, not so with the Warrior. 

There are many gear lists out there for Fury warriors, you can use Wowhead, Elitist Jerks, Tankspot, even the armory.  But if you’re fresh to level 80, and want to hit the ground running with your Fury Warrior, this is the guide for you.  No, it’s not about best in slot, it’s about the quickest route to competency.

You’ll notice a lot of Blacksmithing and other crafted stuff.  Blizzard made things a lot easier on us by making so many good recipes BoE, and largely did away with the old style BoP stuff.  It might be a good idea to take up Blacksmithing if you haven’t already, your extra gem slots will thank me later. 

Lastly, before we get going, remember to think about your overall gear picture as you’re making choices from the below.  You want a MINIMUM of 164 hit, which will make it so your specials (yellow damage) ALWAYS land.  Beyond 164 hit, I concentrated on Strength and AP personally, though there are those that would argue for stacking crit or expertise.  I’m no theorycrafter though, so ask someone else for the cookie cutter way to gear up. 

I’ll go slot by slot, starting at the top.

Head

This is one of those easy, cheesy slam dunk slots.  Blacksmiths make the Spiked Titansteel Helm, which will last you for a LONG time.  Nice bonuses to strength, hit and crit along with a meta and blue gem slot.  Money.  You really can’t do much better for a Fury warrior.  I’ve passed on 25 man drops to hold onto this – it’s that good.  Some day they’ll pry it off my cold, dead head (ewwww).  Have the mats ready at 80, trust me.  Oh, and if you don’t know already, go with the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond for your meta, and you may as well put a blue in that slot for the meta gem requirements.

Neck

You can easily go with more crafted goodness here with the Titanium Impact Choker, but I’ve never really been "sold" on this particular piece.  I like the socket, for sure, and the AP and Agil are nice, but not game changing.  I didn’t personally want to invest the mats in this, and used something easier to get – the Choker of Betrayal from a quest in Zul’Drak- until I got the badge neck. 

Shoulders

The head slot is easy, the shoulders slot just plain stinks.  It’s always been a tough slot to fill, and it was the same with my druid.  Do the guys at Blizz just not like shoulders, or what?  Anyhow, the easiest fill are probably the Savage Saronite Pauldrons, also from your local Blacksmith.  The resilience is essentially useless, but the strength and crit are decent.  They’ll do.  (Another option is the Mantle of Volkhan, if you turn out to need the hit.)

Cloak

Kind of a meh slot all around.  There are a lot of easy to obtain options, but none of them are particularly suited to a Fury Warrior.  But since I’m trying to make this easy, you could either go with the epic crafted Ice Striker’s Cloak, or go with the quest reward Cloak of the Buzzing Swarm.  Unless you’re awash in frozen orbs and primals, go with the quest reward to tide you over until you can pick something up down the line.  Maybe work on Argent Crusade rep at some point for the Cloak of Holy Extermination. 

Chest

This is one of the tougher slots to fill.  There are many, many good options as you start farming 80 instances and heroics, but before that things are a bit on the sparse side.  One option is the Battleplate of Unheard Ovation, a quest reward from Icecrown.  The strength is nice, and expertise is an important stat for a Fury Warrior.  This would tide you over at the beginning, and you should be questing in Icecrown to open up the Ebon Hold faction and dailies anyhow.

Wrist

Easy again.  Vengeance Bindings, no doubt.  Easy to make, weighted nicely for a Fury, and there’s not a whole lot else out there.  Heck, I’m still wearing these while I save for the badge bracers.  Find your local blacksmith.  Again.  Or maybe just take up Blacksmithing yourself, extra gem slots are awfully juicy!

Hands

Another kind of crap choice here in Spiked Cobalt Gauntlets, but at least they’re easy to get.  You can live with a green or two for now.    You could also try to get in a regular Strat group ASAP and pick up the Handwraps of Preserved History, though I may actually lean towards the crafted green in this head to head.  More AP and a little hit to help you along.

Belt

Surprise surprise, we need another blacksmith.  And hence we return for the Spiked Cobalt Belt.  But, if you did get yourself in a regular Strat group for those hands, maybe you’ll get lucky and the Spiked Metal Cilice drops.  Then you can make all kinds of Da Vinci Code jokes if you want to. 

Legs

If a top end guild owes you money, get them to take you on a 2 Drake OS10 for Belabored Legplates.  Otherwise, throw a few cobalt bars at a blacksmith and get Spiked Cobalt Legplates in return.  Oh, and I know what you’re saying about all this green cobalt stuff.  "Where’s the stamina?"  It’s really not all that important, really.  You go down like a cloth wearer if you get aggro from a raid boss anyway!

Boots

Spiked Titansteel Treads will work just fine, and the mats aren’t that bad.  They don’t excite me like the helm does, however, as they are pretty easily replaced when you hit exalted with Ebon Hold.  Boots of Dominance, another quest reward, will work if you want to save your titansteel bars.

Rings

There are so many options here, i won’t bother.  Though I guess picking up the Ring of Scarlet Shadows wouldn’t hurt.  Hit, Crit, AP and a slot.  You could even use this piece for that other blue gem to activate your meta.

Trinket

My first advice for the trinket slot is this:  spend your first 40 badges on the Mirror of Truth.  The trinket slot is quite hard to fill, and that trinket is so good that it’s worth it.  Before that, pick up the Crusader’s Locket from a quest, along with the First Mate’s Pocketwatch.  Underwhelming, I know…hence the Mirror.

Ranged

Hemet’s Trophy Gun is easy enough.  And it looks pretty cool.  I mean come on, it’s made out of some monster’s FACE!  I wouldn’t lose much sleep over this slot in any case.

Weapons

Weapons, weapons, weapons.  Our bread and butter.  I always love to upgrade my big bad 2 handers, the bigger and glowier the better.  It’s not easy to get 2 good ones, though.  For starters, make sure you do the "new" Ring of Blood event in Zul’Drak, as the De-Raged Waraxe is excellent to start out.  This is also an area where a good rep grind will pay off big time.  I didn’t do it this way the first time, but if I had to do it all over again, I’d start grinding Ebon Blade right away so I could pick up one or two Runeblades of Demonstrable Power.  And not just cause they have a long name.  I was using one of these in my off-hand until just last week.  And all you have to do is wear a stupid tabard and do some dailies.  Working on that is also a good idea for the above-mentioned boots.  You could also choose to do Argent Crusade rep first, as the Argent Skeleton Crusher is nice too.  The sword is just better.    An important thing to note about the Runeblade and Crusher is that neither are "unique equipped," so you can use one in each hand!  I really like how 2 Crushers look. 

If you want to jump right into epic weaponry, get a whole crapload of cash and/or titansteel bars and get the Titansteel Destroyer.  It will serve you well, though it is a little unremarkable for me as far as looks.  I like huge, pointy weapons with rotating crap and glowy effects.  The Destroyer looks like it was the leg off some crap throne somewhere.  Meh.  All that strength and a bunch of hit to boot?  PTD likes. 

 

This is by no means the "ultimate" list.  I have no illusions of some secret code of gear, and I’m sure I’ve left off some good options and posted some stupid ones.  It’s the nature of the beast.  So if you have a suggestion about something, throw it in the comments, I’d love to hear it.  If you follow this guide, you’ll be well on your way to a decent starter set, and can start grinding heroics for the "important" stuff.  Some day you too will be doing 5k+ DPS on Loatheb! 

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

                                                     – W. H. Auden

 

PTD is sad, there can be no doubt.  From time to time I’ve spoken about minor issues I have had with my guild.  The fact is that my schedule doesn’t align very well with the rest of them.  I can’t blame anyone for that, it’s just how things are.  I’ve toyed with leaving before, and even transferred over to Draenor at one point to join another blogger. 

I toyed with it, and Friday night I typed in the most difficult of commands:

/gquit

I didn’t come to the decision easily.  I’ve been with the same group since before WoW was even released.  I hooked up with them while playing Horizons, and they are a great group of people.  Things have changed with the guild though, over time.  It’s a different group of people from when I started.  There are quite a few old timers, but we have a lot of new folks as well. 

I’m going to tell you all now what it was that pushed me over the edge.  I won’t name any names, and if anyone from my now former guild reads this, please do not take offense.  The act of blogging, the act of sharing, can be cathartic.  I need a little bit of that right now.

The /gquit Story

My guild is running 25 mans in house regularly since the release of Wrath.  Earlier I mentioned my scheduling conflicts, and they come into play here.  I just can’t raid when they do.  I’ve never been able to.  Quite a few people in the guild think that is the primary reason I left.  I’m here to set the record straight, it actually has very little to do with my decision to move on.  It is related, but not a cause.

Remember that I’ve really NEVER been able to raid with my guild.  This is nothing new for me, and I learned to live with that fact long, long ago.  It’s the reason that I find my raiding outlet outside the guild, and I’ve always been happy to have said outlet.  To be sure, I would LOVE to raid with my guild, but it just isn’t in the cards.

This does cause other problems behind the scenes, however.  Because I don’t raid with the guild, there are many players that are relatively new that I’ve never really played with.  They don’t know me from Adam, and they really have no idea if I’m any "good" or not.  Because of that, they aren’t going to be apt to invite me to fill a heroic group, or a PUG raid or whatnot.  Honestly I don’t really blame them, there are some horrible players out there.

So recently our raid leaders put all 10 man content to "open" status.  That means anyone can schedule and run a raid whenever they want to.  I had been waiting for this, because in BC I organized my own Kara runs under this rule, and they were quite successful.  I hoped to start doing that again with Naxx.  So last week I made a post on the boards to try to set up a run for Friday night. 

Nobody signed up.  I only got 2 replies to my post at all. One person said they would help out if they happened to be around, and the other saying they couldn’t make it.  That was ok though, I figured I’d just try to whip one up that night.

So Friday night I log on, and right away ask in guild if anyone would be interested in running Naxx 10.  I got no response.  A few minutes later, I asked again.  One of the late night guild tanks I often ran with told me to message another guildy, he though he might be putting something together. 

So I messaged said guildy directly, and I got no response.  If he missed my PM or just didn’t have time to respond, I have no idea.  So I asked in guild one last time, and when I again got no response, I headed off to the AH to mess around for a few.

About 15 minutes later, I was trying to put together a heroic group instead, and asked the tank from earlier if he wanted to tank it.  He said he couldn’t as he was just about to run Naxx with some guildies. 

"Huh???" 

I didn’t see anything in guild chat about a Naxx run starting, and I was frankly a bit shocked.  Lo and behold, I look at the roster and see 10 guildies gathering in and around Dragonblight.  At this point, I’m already steamed.  I rarely have time to raid, I tried to schedule something for this exact time, and even asked in guild chat if anything was happening, and from my perspective, I was completely ignored.  From what I could tell, it was a run set up through PM, with someone picking and choosing who to invite.

Then, the kicker.  This is the bit that really pushed me over the edge.  I looked at the guys who were in Naxx, and notice no less than 3 of them were running alts through.  Frigging ALTS. 

/cue smoke coming out of my ears

I know they have every right to have their fun, they have every right to bring their alts to Naxx, especially with the new "open" policy on 10 mans, but it still hurt.  I’ve been in Naxx a total of 3 times, and I’ve never finished it.  With any character.  I thought I could at least do that with people from the guild, and I thought I did quite a bit to try to make it happen, only to see myself left out. 

And I found myself sitting at my desk, with my head in my hands, frustrated, frustrated, frustrated.  I realized that it’s a position I had been in recently, for not dissimilar reasons.  It was time — this is a game, after all.

/gquit

Homelessness

And that’s how PTD found himself adrift in the World of Warcraft.  No place to rest my head, no guild to call home.  And, at least for now, that’s where I’ll stay.  I really don’t know where I will go next, I hadn’t thought that far ahead.  I do have options.

I could go back.  I’m pretty sure I made my exit amicable enough that they would take me back.  And my old guild (and I’m going to have to remember that part…maybe I should call it my ex-guild, in a way it feels like a break-up) is nothing if not forgiving and mature.

I also already know of another guild that would take me on if I should ask.  I know a few of their members, and it’s certainly being considered.  I guess in some ways it seems hard to try to start over again.  (There we go again with the break-up analogies.)  So I don’t know.

I could also just test the waters and see what’s out there.  I could start running PUGs until my eyes bleed, and see if I find any good folks.  I’m sure that if I PUG without a guild tag and show what I can do, I could catch on elsewhere.

I suppose I could go as far as to look into other servers again.  But I really couldn’t see myself spending the minimum of 100 bucks I’d want to spend to get four characters to a new server.  (80 Warrior, 80 Druid, 72 Hunter [w/ my only epic flyer], and 68 Priest [high level enchanter])

Right now I’m just not really sure what I would want.  So I guess I’ll drift for a bit, and see what happens. 

And with that in mind…

Warhammer Online

Have no fear, I am not quitting WoW.    But they do have a free trial right now, so I went ahead and loaded it up.  I’ll admit that I am having fun with it for the time being.  I seriously, seriously doubt I would leave WoW for it, but it is fun.  The PvP is pretty fun, at least.  The normal questing and mob killing PvE aspect is a little lacking, but the Public Quests are a lot of fun.  It sure is a feature I’d like to see Blizzard steal, that’s for sure!

I even went ahead and picked up the full game, but only because I got it at a local Circuit City (RIP Circuit City) for 10 bucks.  Yeah, that’s right, 10 bucks.  Ahh, to profit from other’s misery.  Though I feel no real shame, it being a corporate behemoth’s misery I am profiting from. 

Anyhow, I won’t really get into it here about WAR.  I am having fun, the RvR is pretty well done, the Public Quests are awesome, and it makes for a good diversion while I try to sort my WoW life. 

 

So that’s it.  Change is in the air, and I’m not yet sure if that’s good or bad.  Have any of you dealt with a similar situation?  How did you deal with it and move on?

Now, you might think this is odd, as I think it’s obvious that I’ve been a pretty big Wrath fanboy.  Still, as time goes by, and I see more and more of the content, and reach many more individual goals, I’ve come across a few big changes that bother me.  I love what Blizzard did overall with this expansion, I’m having a blast and still playing as much as I can, but it isn’t perfect.  Perhaps it’s the curmudgeon in me, but there are a few things that are just plain sticking in my craw.  Let’s take a look!

1)  The Death of CC

Somewhere along the way, CC died.  I didn’t even really notice it for awhile, I just figured we were flat out bludgeoning the content.  I recall it often got like this when we seriously outgeared certain instances, and I didn’t realize how serious the problem was anymore.

Nobody CCs anymore, not anywhere.  I can’t think of a single encounter where a group I was in had to bother marking targets for sheeping or frost traps or anything.  Heck, people laughed when I first began my forays into tanking, and asked for CC from mages or hunters.  It seems every tank has a way to hold several mobs without really breaking a sweat.  And the DPS is so through the roof, even for players in crap gear, that CC isn’t even necessary anymore.  And I’m not just talking about in heroics, I mean in any situation.  Not even Naxx requires anything other than a little Mind Control for a single boss fight. 

Remember that nasty old 6 pull towards the end of Magisters’ Terrace?  And how with the right CC you made strategic, quick work of it?  I do.  I remember what a bastard of a pull it was without any CC.  Frantic, edge of your seat, let’s hope we get through this alive type excitement.  Well, nowadays I guess all we’d need is a Warrior’s TC to grab everyone, eh? 

What happened?  I remember that one Druid change I was quite excited about was the fact that they were going to allow roots to be used indoors.  Wow, I thought, I could actually contribute to CC in a pinch.

Boy was I wrong.  Bye bye CC, it seems we left you somewhere in Magisters’ Terrace.

2)  No Rare Patterns

Here’s another one.  Tradeskill recipes.  Remember when people used to grind for rare drop enchanting recipes, and then were able to make a nice profit off them for quite some time?  Well, those days are long gone, too.  Is it just me, or is everything too easy to get now?  Sure, you have your patterns only available at exalted rep, or the couple tailoring patterns tied to achievements, but that’s not all that difficult.  It’s just a matter of time. 

In the end, though so many good patterns are BoE, pretty much everyone can make them.  The AH, for even good epics, is a pure undercut fest.  Unless, of course, you have a Nobles card to sell.  There’s no profit!  Boo!

It seems maybe I’d be better off going to straight mat farming to make money.  But of course I’ve always been terrible at making money.  I’ve played since beta and only have one stinking epic flyer, and even that seemed to take forever.

PTD is just too dang spendy. 

3)  OP DKs are Everywhere

And they embarrass me with their easy cheesy DPS.  DKs are the locks of Wrath, crazy DPS with crap gear.  Insane DPS with great gear.  To top it all off, they’re competing directly with my for my tasty DPS plate drops.  Doh!  Yes, yes, I know they are fairly complex to play, but I’ve  yet to see one doing under 2k DPS, and most I’ve seen are closer to 3k if not well over.  Hell, even as tanks they put a sizable dent in the DPS meters, it can be disheartening! 

And I thought for sure they would have gotten a sizable nerf by now, but I don’t see it yet.  My new precious TG warrior is getting a nerf, and DKs everywhere are now laughing at me.

In that ultra-cool evil sounding maniacal laugh.  It just ain’t fair!

4)  PUGing Heroics is Now an Option

I mean, it used to be an option before, but now it’s almost too easy.  The only PUG heroic I’ve seen fail is in one instance:  Azjol Nerub.  Every other PUG  heroic I’ve been in, and I’ve been in a lot, has blasted whatever heroic we chose to tangle with. 

I NEVER used to PUG heroics.  Never.

Now I have no real fear of doing so, and the curmudgeon in my doesn’t like it.  "In my day you NEVER PUGed heroics, and you used CC too!"

 

Really though, all these complaints are fairly minor, and not really complaints at all.  The fact is that WoW has changed, just as it did when BC was released.  It’s just that this time everything became easier.  It makes me glad I’m not a hardcore player, as I’m sure I’d be incredibly bored by now.  I do hope that Ulduar is a solid upgrade in difficulty, though.

I still find myself logging in at any opportunity, and enjoying my time running Naxx or Heroics or whatever.  Whether they are "easier" or not, I’m having a good time.  Hell, I even busted out the Druid the other night to heal a 10 man Naxx run, and I found that I’ve still got it.  I intend to keep him dusted off, too, and will continue to pull him out whenever I  hear the cry for a healer. 

So, now that the honeymoon is over, what do you think about Wrath?

Warning!!  Warning!!  PTD is spreading!  I’ve decided to do a little guest posting on Big Hit Box, a melee-centric WoW blog, and I went ahead and cross-posted this over there as well.  Be sure to drop by and add BHB to your reader! 

 

I don’t think I can even split hairs about it anymore.  My Warrior is my main.  It makes the title of the blog a tad bit deceptive, but hell, it’s my blog.  If BBB can spend his time writing about his hunter, I can surely write about my Warrior.  And I’m exceedingly confident that the Resto Druid Blog World has got that corner well covered.  Hell, is there any spec/class with more blogs devoted to it than Resto Druiding?  I really think not.  Maybe there is something about playing a Tree that lends itself to the analytical writing type.  I really don’t know.  I do know that Phaelia, Bellwhether, Leafy and many others have the whole Resto Druid blogging thing down pat.  They won’t miss me.  Much.

Though when I first hit 80 I went prot, a while back I switched to Fury adue to an overabundance of tanks in the guild.  (Strange, I know.)  And I can freely admit that I sucked at first.  I was barely breaking 1k DPS in my sorry Fury gear, as I hadn’t been picking up that stuff at all.  I languished somewhere below the tank on the damage meters my first few runs. 

Well, since then I’ve made huge strides in gear and skill, and can happily pump out 2300 or so DPS in heroics without much of a problem.  I can put out about 3k or so in a 25 man raid, with upwards of 3500 DPS on boss fights.  Not the best, to be sure, but not bad.  So in the interest of helping any other fresh fury warriors out, I’ll list five things you should know to help you avoid some of the problems I had in the beginning. 

1)  Don’t Level Fury

Ok, maybe I didn’t need this one.  I didn’t level Fury myself, that much you’d know if you read regularly.  I leveled Arms, and I’m a big proponent of the spec for leveling purposes.  For one thing, Arms is far FAR less gear dependent than Fury.  All you need for Arms is one good 2 hander.

To add to that, many of the plate DPS quest rewards are geared more towards a DK or an Arms spec warrior.  They normally favor crit over hit, which works great for an Arms warrior, but isn’t as big a priority for Fury.  You need a good deal of hit as a Fury warrior just to get your DPS off the ground.  At a bare minimum you need 164 hit rating, and that only serves to make sure all your specials will land.  A TG Fury warrior with only 164 hit will have very poor rage generation – and there’s nothing worse than a rage-starved Fury Warrior. 

Besides all that, Bladestorm, the 51 point Arms talent, is still perhaps my favorite warrior talent.  There’s nothing quite like mowing down 5 or 6 mobs in about 20 seconds.  Trust me, stick with Arms until 80, you won’t regret it.

2)  Don’t Spec Stupid

You don’t need to kid around as a Fury Warrior.  A lot of classes and specs have a good deal of variance.  Maybe they’ll have a Raid DPS spec or a 5 man DPS spec.  With Fury, there’s a fairly standard spec you can go with from the start.  18/53/0.  The Arms points are basically for Deep Wounds and 2 handed spec.  I’ve seen very small variants, like a 19/52/0 array, but for the most part 18/53/0 is the de facto spec for a Fury warrior.  So don’t go trying to get all fancy with a weird hybrid spec, the standard will give you all you want. 

3)  Learn to Love Your Threat Meter

It doesn’t matter which one you use, but make sure you’re using some kind of threat meter.  Fury Warriors can pump out a LOT of DPS, but at the same time they don’t have a Get Out of Jail Free card.  There are only two aggro dumps for a Fury Warrior, stop attacking or die. And nobody likes to stop attacking. You can’t Ice Block or Fade or Feign Death or even beg for mercy.  If you draw aggro in a heroic or raid, chances are you will die.  And don’t go thinking plate will save you, it doesn’t make you THAT much more resilient than any other DPS class.  You might last half a second longer than a clothie, but not much more.  So don’t be lazy, and watch the threat, Mister.

4)  Learn Your Rotation and Positioning

Like your spec, your skill rotation is pretty straightforward.  Whirlwind and Bloodthirst are your best friends, make sure you can use them whenever they are off cooldown.  After that, watch for instant Slam procs, and use them immediately (UNLESS WW or BT are off cooldown!)  If everything is on cooldown, and you’re sitting on 50 or more rage, go ahead and throw in a heroic strike on single targets or a cleave in multi mob situations.  So the hierarchy is WW –> BT –> Instant Slam –> HS/Cleave.  Rinse and repeat.

Now the Warrior is my first melee DPS class, so I had to learn positioning.  With my Hunter I just stayed at max range and went to town.  With the warrior I have to try to make sure I stay BEHIND the mobs as much as possible, ESPECIALLY if it’s a boss.  They can’t parry if you’re attacking from behind, and you’ll do more damage.  Be careful not to pull extra packs, but try to stay to the side or behind as much as possible.

5)  Don’t Expect Big Numbers Right Away

As I’ve already mentioned, Fury warriors are fairly gear dependent.  Some people consider them THE most gear dependent DPS class. As I mentioned before, my DPS sucked when I first respecced.  I didn’t have 2 good weapons to use, and I didn’t have a lot of hit, not to mention poor AP and crit numbers.  Now a good fury warrior CAN lead the damage meters, but only with really good gear.  You don’t get to pump out 2500 in crap gear like a DK – not everyone gets to be OP you know!    Expect your numbers to slowly ramp up as you gear up.

Now ABOUT that gear.  I won’t get too far into it, but here are a few pointers.  Focus on hit until you’re at least at 164 hit rating.  After that, while you shouldn’t flat out ignore hit, you don’t need to go out of your way to find it, it comes naturally on gear that you’ll want.  You also want a good deal of Strength, as we get 2 AP for every point of strength.   I almost ALWAYS gem for pure strength.  I’ll put +14 str gems in minor upgrades, and I make sure and plug in +16 str gems in the really good stuff.  Don’t focus on socket bonuses, chances are you’ll be wasting your time.  Once you get close to 4000 AP unbuffed, then you can start thinking about gemming for Crit instead of straight strength.  But 4k AP is a long way off at the beginning.   

For some easy upgrades, work on Ebon Hold rep.  They have a nice 2 handed sword at Revered that will serve you well, along with the AP helm enchant.  At exalted they have a very nice set of epic boots you can pick up.  The other easy avenue for upgrades is Blacksmithing.  The Spiked Titansteel Helm is one of the best helms you can get period, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to make.  You also might want the Spiked Titansteel Treads and you will surely want the Titansteel Destroyer.  Get those upgrades, and you’ll soon be rocking the DPS meters.

There you have it.  I’ve found playing a Fury Warrior quite enjoyable, and I don’t regret the switch from Prot spec at all.  In higher end guilds, Fury Warriors are often at the very top of the damage meters, and I can see why.  I’m putting out 3.5k+ on bosses right now, and I still have some significant holes in my gear.  I can’t wait to see what I can do when I REALLY get geared out!  It should be fun! 

This is actually one of the earliest posts I wrote for my blog.  I found it interesting because while I was once utterly devoted to the Druid class, I now find myself playing my Warrior almost exclusively.  It’s interesting that I actually rated the Warrior LOWEST at the time.  My, how things change!

Also, if I had to rate the Death Knight, I would probably stick it in Tier 1.  They are still incredibly powerful, even after some nerfs, and they can fill two roles, and fill them well.  My only caveat is that you have to have a 55 to make one, and this article was geared more towards the new casual player.

 

 

Ok, maybe my title is misleading. I’m not going to blog about whether casuals have any class. I thought I would take a completely biased, totally subjective look at what I thought the "best" classes were for a casual, solo player. Casual players, by definition, don’t have the time to devote to the game that others do. Given that, it helps if we can focus on one character more heavily. We’ll divide these rankings into three tiers, starting from the bottom. There will certainly be multiple complaints and an abundance of hurt feelings – just don’t take it personally.

Tier 3

Warrior. If there was a tier 4, the warrior would be in it. So what’s the problem? Groups always need tanks, right? They do. The problem with the warrior is their extreme level of gear dependence. The one-trick-pony rogues and mages can at least get by with sub-par gear in many end-game five mans, heroics and Kara. The warrior, on the other hand, must be tricked out in great gear to attempt many of the same instances. Casuals often have the most difficulty "keeping up with the Joneses" gear-wise. Also, have you ever seen a warrior’s repair bill? Ugh!

Aside from the gear problem, there is also the issue that as the tank you are often tasked with leading the run. You are often responsible for marking kill targets, assigning CC, pulling and more. It can get to be a bit much.

Rogue. The mind-numbing, explosive DPS can make casual play sessions seem VERY worthwhile. The ability to stealth is also a boon for a casual player, as it can help make gathering skills a little easier, and allow a player to see more of the game solo than they could with any other class.

The problem with the rogue is that it’s a one trick pony. You are a pure melee DPS class, plain and simple. Although there are big differences with spec choices, it only affects how you deal your melee damage.

The problem doesn’t come with leveling, it comes when you reach the later stages of the game and instancing becomes more of a concern. Asking a group if they have room and hearing "full on rogues" makes a casual’s heart heavy.

Mage. The mage is another pure DPS class, only this time from range. Again, this can make the leveling fun, as a casual player loves to kill stuff FAST to maximize playtime. Then, of course, you find yourself on your fanny drinking after every other fight or so. Casuals no likey downtime. Give the mage class bonus points for the teleportation and portal spells to make travel quicker and easier.

As with the rogue, no matter the spec, a mage is still a mage. Ranged DPS. Period.

Mages do provide a touch more to group situations with their slightly more useful CC and their AOE abilities. Also, who doesn’t like Ritual of Refreshment? You do find yourself fighting with a handful of other classes for DPS spots, however.

Tier 2

Paladin. You’ll quickly notice a theme with Tier 2. Healers. Healers, like tanks, are always needed. Unlike warriors, you can often get away with lesser gear. Paladins make great healers with the safety of plate to help out a bit if you happen to pull aggro.

Paladins are also VERY hard to kill. One thing that can help a casual player is to NOT DIE so much. Paladins are great in this respect. The tradeoff is that they can take a LOOONG time to kill stuff. Paladins are the kind of class where you can engage a mob, go make a sandwich, and not really miss anything or fear dying. Heck, the mob could still be up when you return.

Paladins also have a good deal of versatility when it comes to spec. They are now one of only two classes that can fill any role in a group depending on spec. (I’ll get to the other class later.) You can be a tankadin, a healadin, or a retadin. I’m not familiar with how much DPS a retadin can supply, but it is at least an option. Pallys do lose a few points because they have a certain degree of gear dependence, especially if you plan on tanking.

Priest. You won’t have any problems finding groups with a priest, most likely. They are probably the class that receives the most random group invites. They make great healers, and are not especially gear dependent. (The caveat is that gear ALWAYS helps, some classes can just get away with lesser gear.)

Priests also have a good deal of flexibility with spec. You can spec to be a face-melting DPS class with some utility (shadow), or take the more traditional healer/utility route with Holy/Disc. From what I understand, leveling as a shadow priest is not to be missed. I’ve often watched in awe the way a shadow priest can burn down a mob with impunity.

I’m taking away a point or two due to the fact that before 40 as shadow, or the whole way as disc/holy, leveling a priest can be a somewhat frustrating experience. (Hence the reason my priest still sits at a dusty 31.) Unless, of course, you have patience and/or a good group to roll with often.

Shaman. Yeah, I know, another healer. As a casual player, it just helps to have a lot of group viability. Healers seldom complain for lack of groups. Shammys with their totems and chain heals can be quite the powerful, versatile healing and utility class.

The shaman trumps the versatility of the priest, but doesn’t quite reach that of the paladin. You can spec to be a pure healer, or spec to be either a ranged or melee DPSer. That kind of versatility is golden.

Leveling a shaman, with the right spec choices, can also be a great experience. An enhance shammy, once they get windfury, can be quite the fierce solo DPS machine. I’ve also heard that it can be hard to beat a well-geared elemental shammy for pure DPS. Add to that the ability to heal yourself and totems, and you have a leveling winner. If my main weren’t a druid, there’s a good chance it would be a shaman.

Tier 1

Hunter. Now here we are, to the meat and potatoes. Why the hunter? Because it is one of the best leveling/grinding/solo classes there is. A well-played BM hunter can be a DPS machine, and they can also get away with lesser gear and still get spots in heroics and beyond.

It’s hard to beat a BM hunter in a leveling competition, as they can pump out huge DPS numbers with little or no downtime. They can also farm anything you need with reckless abandon.

They don’t have the kind of versatility as some other classes, so why do I rate them so high? Because I am assigning more value to pure soloability and ease of leveling than versatility. It is nice to be able to respec to fulfill other roles, but that practice can be expensive, and also necessitate multiple gear sets. With a hunter, you can focus and just pump out mad DPS with a great deal of survivability and little downtime.

Warlock. I would be hard-pressed to decide which class is better for the casual, the Warlock or Hunter. They have a good deal of similarity. Both are great solo classes that are easy to level and can really pump out the DPS. They can also both get away with subpar gear for longer.

Who doesn’t want a class that you can roll your face on the keyboard and have success? That’s the warlock. Easy to play, easy to level, and a great farmer. (Although I will add that though it’s easy to play a warlock, it’s tough to be a GREAT warlock.) Again, there isn’t much in the way of versatility, as you are a pure DPS class. What casual wouldn’t want to be the class largely considered "OP?"

Druid. I told you this would be biased! For me, the druid is hands down the best class for the casual player. They are the only class other than the paladin that can fill ANY role based on spec. The advantage with druid is that you can cover both melee DPS and tanking with the feral spec, and you can even fill the role of ranged DPS as a Boomkin as a balance druid.

The druid can be like three characters in one. I have gear for feral DPS, feral tanking and resto healing. If a group is ever short DPS, I can easily respec and hit the bank to join in the fun.

It can be tough through the first 20 levels, but the druid blossoms at 20. Once cat form hits, they level with fiendish speed. They can’t quite compete with a lock or hunter, but they can get close. A feral spec druid is, IMO, the best leveler in the game. The reason for this is that you can solo wonderfully and also almost always find a spot in a group as a tank. This is all out the window if you want to try leveling as a resto, but I know Phaelia at Resto4Life did just that.

In addition to all that goodness, you get to fly before any other class, without having to pay out 900g. You can’t beat that!

So there you have it. I told you it was biased, didn’t I? I do honestly believe that the Druid is the best class for a casual player. Their combination of versatility and soloability is unmatched in the World of Warcraft. The first 19 levels can be a bit of a pain, but from 20 on it’s like every day is Christmas. Thanks for reading!

WoW is a game about carrots.  When you start out, there are a whole slew of different carrots you can chase.  One of the great things about WoW is how many carrots Blizzard managed to stuff into the game.  Instances, raids, PvP rewards, badge gear, vanity pets…there is just too dang much to list. 

But, things aren’t always perfect.  Just because there’s a whole mess of carrots, that doesn’t mean they can keep everyone interested.  Even fanboys like yours truly can get tired of the game.  I have been playing since the dawn of WoW, and even a little before, so it wouldn’t be surprising if I became a little burnt out.

But no, I am not tired of WoW.  Not yet.  I have, however, discovered a little something that irritates me.  As we go on, the paths of real progression grow ever narrower.  Before we really get into it, I’ll get into what I’ve been doing in game.

In Game Update

I do like to talk about what I’ve been up to in game, but I don’t wan to devote entire posts to it.  So from here on out I’ll try to separate these journalistic endeavors into an "In Game Update" within the body of larger posts.  If you don’t care what I’ve been up to, feel free to skip ahead to the next heading where I’ll get back to the meat of the post.

My Druid has essentially been functioning as a bank toon in Dalaran.  I am not done with the druid, and I’m happy to have a heroic ready healer in my back pocket, but he hasn’t been my focus.  Part of the reason is that I hate soloing with him, but the real crux is that I’m enjoying my warrior too dang much to log in my Druid.  If someone really needs a healer, I’m more than willing.

So let’s talk about that warrior.  I had been playing him as a tank for the first couple weeks after I hit 80.  I made great strides in his gear, and got him defense capped and comfortable tanking heroics.  I enjoy controlling the runs I am on, as it allows me the opportunity to pull like a madman.  I don’t like to mess around too much with long-winded explanations and stuff, I just like to roll in and blast stuff apart. 

The problem is that there are just too many tanks floating around my guild.  I was having an inordinately difficult time getting groups together.  Well, about 2 weeks back, someone was practically begging for a DPS to fill a heroic run.  While I had never really played as a fury warrior, the idea of slinging around two huge two handers was awfully enticing.  So I went ahead and took the plunge.  I made sure to let the tank know that my DPS gear sucked (and it truly did…I was using a two hander from a Borean Tundra questline for an offhand) and that I didn’t have a lot of experience.  He didn’t care, he needed a body.

So it was that my days as a Fury Warrior began, and I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever look back.  I am enjoying the hell out of the spec.  My DPS on that first run was admittedly poor, I was one of those chumps who couldn’t even keep up with the tank.

Well, a host of heroic runs and an investment in a whole mess of titansteel later, I began to see the true power of a Titan’s Grip Warrior.  I have probably four great pieces of gear, and a whole lot of filler everywhere else.  I’m still quite easily pushing 2k DPS in heroics, and have been as high as 2400.  That’s with mostly meh gear.  I can’t wait to see what happens when I upgrade my chest, boots, bracers, legs, and trinkets.  Visions of 3k DPS are dancing in my head.

So I find myself farming heroics as a DPS Warrior and having a grand old time.  I also found a late night group to run with, and can almost always find a heroic when I log on.  It’s great, and I only feel a little bad for my poor, neglected Druid.

More on Progression

When you first hit level 80 in WoW, it can be a little overwhelming trying to decide just what the heck you should do first.  Work on Hodir dailies for rep?  Grind instances or heroic instances for gear?  Do some PvP to grind for THAT gear?  Plan your eventual assault on Naxx?  There are many, many things you can do.  As you check things off that phantom list, however, your focus naturally narrows. 

I think that is where I often run into problems.  I’ve been a bit of an altoholic since I began the game.  I took way, way too long to get to 60, because I couldn’t stay focused on one character.  It wasn’t until quite recently that I figured out why I did that.

As my focus on progression narrows, I start to lose interest.  If I realize that to continue to improve I only have one or two choices, I start thinking about alts.  If I have to farm one or two heroics, and hope that ONE boss drops that ONE piece of loot that will really make a difference, I start to lose my nerve.  The trouble is multiplied if said drop or two comes from a raid instance.  Because then I have to make time or find a big old group of people to help me out.

Alts, on the other hand, can be a nice change of pace at that point.  You get your constant progression just from the act of leveling, and along with it you acquire new shiny gear, new skills, and perhaps work on a new tradeskill.  Suddenly all of these avenues for advancement are opened up to you again.

I can’t fault Blizzard for my particular form of dissatisfaction.  Like I said, they stuffed an awful big variety of carrots into WoW.  It just so happens that I have no real interest in a few of them.  PvP, for example, is something I wouldn’t get into, at least not on my server.  (If I want PvP, I’ll go to a PvP server…all or nothing there, if you ask me!  Hell, I even have a level 50 undead warrior on Warsong!)  I’ve also never gotten a lot of enjoyment out of dailies.  Yes, gold is great, but I prefer when it comes as a side effect of my natural adventures.  And yes, I know there is usually rep attached as well, but I’m not into rep grinds either. 

I also have to give Blizzard a lot of credit for the Achievement system.  This has helped alleviate my Progression Problem, as it gives me a lot of things I can do on my own for fun.  Soon I plan to go on a grand tour of old school instances.  There are still a few I have never seen, and it will be fun to go back and just destroy some of that old content. 

So What Can Be Done?

Sadly, I’m not smart enough to know.  It’s not a fault in the game, it’s just natural that as you go on, you have less to do, and your options narrow a bit.  Especially if you’re not interested in certain aspects of the game.  I wish I had some groundbreaking idea for the genre, some interesting way of keeping players occupied, but I don’t.  The only thing I could really come up with is this:  avoid making ONE drop from ONE boss in ONE heroic be the end-all for pre-raid gear.  I suppose it could be argued that its my own perception that makes those purple pants so precious.  The blue ones I have ain’t too shabby, but, well, they’re blue! 

Don’t take this post the wrong way.  I’m still enjoying the heckfire out of my Warrior, and I have plenty of work I can do on the Druid, not to mention my Hunter that languishes at 70, and my new DK.  Uh oh…there I go again….talking alts…

There may not be another issue revolving around World of Warcraft than loot and its distribution.  Once you get your character to max level, the only "leveling" beyond that is through loot.  It’s no surprise, then, that so many people take it so seriously.  I’ve always been somewhat vocal on this issue in my guild and elsewhere, and for a long time I’ve wanted to discuss it openly on the blog.  Before we get started, realize that this post will be chock-full of opinion, and I both expect and hope for much disagreement in the comment section.  Everyone has their own ideas on what is most "fair" and I’m sure I’ll rub at least one or two readers the wrong way. 

The good thing, though, is this:  I love a good fight.  Let’s get to it.

In the simplest terms, loot systems are designed to make the random distribution of loot less random.  Before you even get to the question of who should get a particular piece of loot, Blizzard’s calculators in the background must determine what will drop.  Therefore, before the players can even get involved, loot is already incredibly random.  With loot systems we normally try to remove as much of the randomness as possible. 

The goal of the many loot systems is to make that non-random distribution method "fair."

What is "fair?"

This is the crux of any loot system, and therefore the number 1 stumbling block.  Before you decide what loot system you should be using, or if you should use one at all, you have to determine what is "fair," at least in terms most of the people involved can agree on.  You won’t find a loot system where everyone agrees, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many out there!

There are many different ideas on what is fair when it comes to loot distribution, here are just a few:

• People who put in more effort are more entitled than those who show up occasionally, if at all.
• Everyone who participates in a particular raid should have the same chance at any loot that drops.
• Loot should go to those raid members who will benefit themselves and the raid the most.

I believe a lot of what makes a particular philosophy fair depends on your guild and membership.  If you aim to create and foster a hardcore, bleeding edge raiding guild, chances are you value who will benefit the raid most along with those who put in more effort.  If your guild is more casually focused, you are more likely to focus on a more equal distribution of loot that skews things less to the top end raiders.  Fair is too subjective a term to label any one system superior to the others in all situations. 

The problem is that many guilds could not classify themselves as either extreme:  all hardcore or all casual.  There are many gray areas, and trying to find where your "fair" should rest is questionable.  What if most of your guild is casual, but you have a hardcore contingent that wants more progress?  What if your guild is mostly hardcore, but you can’t seem to find all hardcore members, and have to pad your roster with more casual players? 

The Long View vs. the Short View

In the long view, the regular, random /roll is a fair system.  Over 100 raids, the numbers will normalize.  Sure, there will be spikes here and there, but a random  system is fair by definition.  The problem is that players don’t get the long view, and we rarely raid anything more than a dozen times or so.  Also, in my experience, the more a particular instance is raided, or the longer it is "on farm," the more loot rules tend to loosen.  Where in the beginning everyone is often interested in drops, as time goes on, and people begin to get focused, the pool of people interested in particular items naturally shrinks.  Toward the end of our Karazhan raiding, loot could be just short of a free-for-all, with new 70s getting many drops on their first run.

In the short view, /roll can be horribly distorted.  Because this system is truly random, each /roll is a separate entity, so individual players can (and often do) get high rolls an entire run, or for a few runs.  Obviously this is potentially quite irritating for other players who feel, for one reason or another, that they have put in more effort  and therefore deserve more.  It’s sort of like clearing the spawns around a couple of resource nodes only to watch another player swoop and in and take the rewards. 

In the short view, then, people understandably feel some kind of loot system is necessary — preferably one that rewards their level of effort.  Really, with the way raiding works in WoW, there really only IS a short view.  So how do loot systems try to address the problem?

The Question of Effort

Most loot systems try to translate your level of effort into gear.  If you raid more often, you will have more DKP or whatever your system uses in order to have more leverage when it comes to gear drops.  Conversely, if you raid less often or give less "effort," you are likely resigned, at least at first, to the drops that those with more points or what not don’t have an interest in or already have.  It makes sense.  If you raid more often, you should get more and better loot.  It’s good for you, and it’s good for the raid when a reliable raider gets better gear.

The problem with this thinking, in my opinion, is that those who raid more often already get more and better gear naturally.  Your effort is already rewarded by more chances at whatever piece of loot it is that you want.  In a way, loot systems will punish those who put out less "effort" when the RNG that determines what gear should drop is unkind to regular raiders.  I think the issue is with drops that are more rare than others.  No, I’m not talking about Legendaries like the Warglaives of Azzinoth, but just pieces that drop with less frequency than others.

These excessively rare pieces are often sought by many.  Does someone who raids more often really have any more right to it than anyone else?  I’m not sure.  I’m really not.  But I do know that chances are the people who raid more are better geared than those that raid less.  In fact that’s one of the only things of which I am fairly certain.

The Fix

So what can be done?  How do you make everyone happy?  Well, like I already said, you really can’t.  Loot systems are designed, for the most part, to try to appease both groups of players in some way.  The difference is in how the systems are managed and how much they are slanted either way.  Straight, capitalist DKP systems favor the hard core more heavily.  More liberal systems like weighted rolling systems and Suicide Kings tend to favor the more casual contingent, as they reward loot a little more evenly. 

In all honesty, there are only two systems that I believe are both fair and honest.  Loot council systems, and /roll.  Loot council systems at least don’t try to hide behind the machinations of a fictitious bureaucracy – real people make real choices.  There is blame to be had, yes, but at least those systems can be honest.  If your goal is to gear up regular raiders first, my opinion is that you should quit hiding behind a mechanical "system" and come right out and assign loot as you see fit.

That’s just me, though.

The regular old /roll system has its drawbacks, honestly, but it does give everyone a fair shake.  If you were in a group that helped kill a boss that dropped loot, you have as good a chance at anyone at getting said loot.  You don’t have to hear "sorry, player A tried more, so you can’t have it."  If you win the roll, you get the loot. 

I’d also like to add that I believe in the context of 10-man raiding, you should be able to just work things out without a system.  Honestly, if most of the loot that drops is only of interest to 2 or 3 people most of the time,  can’t we all just get along?  Especially if you are in a good guild?  Don’t you know that Player A has been begging that the loot Gods let that particular epic to drop while he’s around?  I know I would.  I know I’d step aside and let him have it, no matter my level of interest.  That’s just me, though.

I suppose part of me likes to rock the boat.  Part of me enjoys the random, slot machine nature of /roll.  I’ve been as burned as anyone else, but I’ve also come out on top.

My name is PTD, and I have a WoW jealousy problem.

And it’s high time that I admit it.  If you haven’t guessed from the blog’s title or from previous posts, I don’t have a whole lot of time to play WoW.  Now, I’m not a 2 hour a week guy, but my play time usually hovers around 10 hours or so a week.  Not a bad amount, but it comes in fits and starts, an hour here, two hours there.  I also have trouble scheduling raids with my guild, as their times just plain don’t mesh with mine.

I can’t blame them, though.  My times kind of suck.

Anyhow, what happens is I spend time wishing I had the time to raid.  I sit around and wish I could run back to back to back heroics, too.  But it just doesn’t happen.  It’s nobody’s fault, I just happen to have a family and, well…

Family >>>>>WoW

It’s a pretty simple equation.

Still, I can’t help but be a little jealous sometimes.  You see, I like to think of myself as a fairly SKILLED player with an absence of TIME.  I routinely beat out those better geared than I on the lovely little meters.  (And yes, Matticus, I know what you think about meters..)  I’m also very, VERY good at staying mobile when healing (I am a Tree, after all, a Tree that stands around too much is not a very good one in my estimation!) and I tend to pick up things very quickly. 

Honestly, there’s no way through the blog I could really illustrate my skill, but the most I can say is that I think I’m pretty good. 

So when I see people far better geared than I, I sometimes get jealous.  You see I may have grouped with you, and outhealed you, yet I don’t have all the shinies you do.  That just gets me thinking:  How much better could I be if I DID have another 400 spellpower to play around with?

There’s the jealousy.  I wish I had more time to farm heroics, but I don’t.  I wish that I could raid 3 nights a week, but I can’t.  And when I see other people that can, I sometimes get irrationally jealous.

I know it’s irrational, but that doesn’t stop it from happening.  Sometimes I get overly critical of other trees, poring over meters and thinking "this guy doesn’t use his tools!  He never even uses Nature’s Swiftness!"  Then I feel kind of bad about it, and I really must stop.  Hell, maybe that player would be jealous of my family, or my job, who knows.  I just need to knock it off.  So I ask myself, what’s the real problem?

Success in WoW is Nearly All About Time

And I won’t kid you, that bugs me.  This whole hardcore versus casual argument, for instance.  It’s rarely about real, measurable skill — chances are one guy just has a lot more playtime than the other.  After all, what constitutes leveling past the cap?  Gear!  How do you get the best gear?  Some kind of grinding!  Be it heroics, raids, farming, PvP, what have you.  The way you get better gear is spending a lot of time grinding for it in one way or another.

And time, my friends, is something I flat don’t have.

Think about this for a second.  You’re a raid leader, and you get two apps for one spot.  Both are tree druids, and just for the sake of argument, let’s say their gear is roughly equal.

Tree #1:  Able to raid up to 4 times a week, a total of 16 hours.  Can guarantee at least 3 nights per week.  Performed well, though not exceptionally, in a trial heroic run.

Tree #2:  Can only raid once per week, period.  Can’t guarantee more than that.  Performed well beyond expectations in a trial heroic run, same group, same instance.

Who gets the spot?  Tree #1, of course.  No questions asked.

In fact, in today’s WoW, I doubt it’s even a competition.  Unless there are some sort of mitigating factors, like Tree #1 being a know asshat, Tree #2 is out of luck.  He hopes to find a guild or some kind of outlet that will allow him to raid, but the prospects are dubious.

I am that Tree.  And honestly I can’t outright complain, that’s just the way things are.  WoW is a game that’s built as one giant time sink, in the end the guys that have more time to dump into it will come out on top.

This mentality spills over not just from basic game systems but to guild structures.  Besides, there are few good ways to accurately measure WoW skill, if there are any at all. 

So never mind me, I’ll just head back to the corner and snark about your play time.  Gripe to myself about how I wish I could run 4 heroics right in a row.  I’ll just envy your pull of 25 Heroic badges from one solitary play session, a number that takes me 2 weeks sometimes.

Oh well, I have beautiful kids.