Water Shield > Lightning Shield

See... as a shammy you pick up this Water Shield spell at level 62, which Keera duly did. Had a look at it and being an enhancement shammy went "pfft! mana! I'm a damage dealer" and kept using her Lightning Shield improved with talents.

Until yesterday when she bumped into a friendly shammy in Nagrand who suggested she really ought to try using the Water Shield.

Revelation! She can now kill more than 3 mobs without having to sit down and drink and without having to economise on shocks.

Why, oh why did nobody tell her this? Why?

PS - I'm going to have to stop calling her babyshamm soon since she dinged 66 yesterday

Guild Progression

A great post from BBB today. And I mean a GREAT post... it really got me thinking about big raids vs. small raids, what does guild progression actually mean, thinking back to the time I made the painful decision to switch guilds and about my own attitude to raiding.

BBB is firstly picking up the issue that a lot of less hardcore guilds are facing; the challenge of getting enough people to move on from 10-man to 25-man content.

Back in the day (oooh... 2 years ago now) the main raiding focus of the guild I was in at the time was Onyxia and Molten Core. Now, we weren't a small guild at around 250 members including alts, but there was no way that we could get 40 geared and attuned lvl 60s together for a raid. But we did have a guild alliance which worked suprisingly well.

Now, as BBB says, there are a whole lotta things that have to come right for a guild alliance to work. Guild drama is bad enough "in guild" but when it spreads across guilds... whooeee that can get messy. Some of the things that need to come right - and did for our alliance - are:

• Culture
• Loot rules
• Clear leadership
• Communication/Organisation

I've put these in my own order of importance and you can choose to agree or not.

Culture - Unless all the guilds are coming from the same place here then don't even start is my advice. This doesn't mean that the culture of all the guilds has to be the same; it does mean that the culture of the alliance has to fit with all the participating guilds. The culture of the alliance has to be stated clear and up-front and a requirement to raid with the alliance is that you've signed up to the culture statement. It's up to the GM (and officers) of the guilds involved to agree that culture between them based on their knowledge of their guild's membership.

I wish the website for our old guildlink was still up because I remember this was almost the first thing on the page (and so that I'd be able to shamelessly rip it off for some good examples) but I'll have to go from my hazy memory. The kind of things that comprised our culture were:

• The reason we started the alliance was that we can't do it alone - remember this above all
• Please have fun but please also remember that there are 39 other people on this run
• Divas don't raid twice

We didn't really have that last statement about divas but I can't remember exactly how it was phrased. We certainly had something with the same sentiment.

Loot rules - Keep it simple and non-controversial. I'm not going to rehash the old arguments for and against DKP here I'm just going to say what we did. Every possible drop was assigned to a primary set of classes/specs and a secondary set of classes/specs. When it dropped the primaries could random roll and if no takers then the secondaries could random roll. That was it - and if you didn't like the loot rules then you didn't raid with the alliance.

Now, you may want to have different rules if you're thinking of an alliance but the one thing I would advise against is anything that allows the tiniest perception of any hint of any flavour of even a tiny soupcon of subjectivity - have I made my point here yet?

Loot councils can work in a guild where everybody knows and trusts each other and the officers. Loot councils or any subjectivity is a recipe for disaster when you have multiple guilds on a run.

Clear leadership - This doesn't just apply to the raid leadership either but to the class leadership. In fact raid leadership is probably easier because there's only one post to fill and not many candidates for the job. Class leadership assignments are both necessary and difficult to sort out.

Necessary, because you may well have 3-4 people used to doing this job and you can't afford to have the pally buffs wearing down while there's an almighty row going on in /raidhunt or /raidheal about how to handle the assignments or encounter. One leader to make the call and if you disagree, take it up after the raid.

Difficult, for the same reason. You may well have 3-4 people used to doing this job and it's easy to get drama when your pally lead doesn't get made class leader (or even second) in favour of pally from guild B. "Why is he/she better than me? Do you think I'm crap then? Why has guild C got most of the class leader roles?". I know this from personal experience. I was used to being the heal lead in our guild and had to work my way up to deputy lead in the alliance over time.

This, I think, was one of the main reasons for the "Divas don't raid twice" part of our culture. It's difficult and needs sensitive handling by the officers and GMs but, hopefully, your class leads are leads because they have a certain level of maturity.

Communication/Organisation - Although BBB picked this up as one of his main points, strangely this wasn't something we had much of a problem with; even though this was in the early days before WWS and online raid rosters made the whole thing much easier. We used GuildEventManager with an alliance channel to both post and sign up for raids. Agreeing raid channels, TS/vent servers, raid chat policy etc. is not really any different to a normal raid other than you have to agree across the guilds.

It is almost a pre-requisite that you set up a dedicated website for the alliance though.

Summing it up...

Expect drama, whatever you do. Your GMs and officers will probably need to spend as much time liaising with the other guild's people to manage the alliance drama as much as their own guild drama. But if you can make it work, there are benefits over and above the fact of seeing more content.

You will have a different atmosphere in the alliance runs to your guild runs. If you get your culture right then this won't be a bad atmosphere just a different one. This can encourage people to raid more often because it feels different; it's not the same as a guild raid.

You'll get a chance to meet a whole bunch of new people and develop the really strong ties that only come from dying together 8-) Seriously, although I haven't raided with the alliance for more than 18 months now I still have a lot of them on my friends list and still smile and have a quick chat when they log on. We all still remember those weeks wiping on Majordomo Executus and we never did get Raggy down. We all remember that pally who always used to get feared into the lava (or so she claimed!). We all still remember that wipe at Onyxia when a late joiner pulled all the respawned guards in the instance to where the raid was waiting to pull. Oh happy days!

The other thing that you will get for free is your own personal LFG channel for non-raid nights. The alliance channel gave us a way of chatting outside of raids as well as in them so we used to be signed into it permanently. Having a group of 40-50 raid quality players that you've played with before altogether in the same channel made PUGs almost a thing of the past.

Sheesh... I told you BBB's post was a good one. I've done a whole post on only the first thing that he got me thinking about. Major catnip to the furry one for the post ideas.

Raid Wipes

There's been a few of these posts on blogs recently. Never let it be said that I miss a bandwagon as it rolls by!

Last Monday we managed to get a 25-man together so off we toddled to the Eye to see if we could kill Void Reaver for the second time.

I was on Ceara who I've respec'd recently to get Circle of Healing - it's actually really helpful in keeping up melee groups on fights like Void Reaver. So, while MT stays at the entrance to the room I'm sneaking round the edges with my rogue buddies to get behind him opposite the tanks.

Raid leader calls the ready, and MT calls the pull...

Now, my usual opener is to drop a frisbee and a renew on MT at the opening of the fight, so I've got MT targeted. Damn, he's out of range so I inch forward a bit. Still out of range, so forward a bit more... a bit more... a bit more...

Yeah, you guessed already didn't you? All of a sudden, VR does a 180 and lil squishy holy priest is going head to toe with 200 tons of metal.

Ah well... at least the wipe was quick.

We did get him on the second attempt though and then went off to clear Gruul again for good measure!

PTR 2.4 Patch Notes

The PTR went up on Friday evening/Saturday morning with the provisional list of changes. Lots to look at and think about but I want to pick up the single most important change that I'm starting a campaign to get changed already...

• Monstrous Kaliri have learned how to chase players going straight up.

(Pauses. Drums her fingers while the laughter dies down.)

First thing to say is that this is an imba buff for Droods. Unlike other classes we can't get dismounted because we ARE the mount, so at least we don't have to worry about falling damage. For other classes though this is going to be a real pain in the butt unless you have an epic mount.

I use the Skettys bombing daily to pay for my raiding. I have 4 level 70 toons so two days of bombing runs pays for the flasks for a night of raiding. This is a nice fun little quest that pays a little bit of gold that is going to be such a major pain if this change stays in.

Join the cause brothers and sisters, fight the good fight, raise a helluva ruckus and get this change reversed.

(edit: Matticus started the fight as well. Extra catnip to Matt!)

Pre-Kara Tanking Gear

Friday's post reminded me that I promised I'd set out the tanking gear that I built up and where I got it from. Same rules apply to this list as applied to my DPS list:

• I'm a care-bear so PvP is out


• I hate farming the same instance for a rare drop so the focus is on quest and crafted items


• Badge items aren't covered because at this stage you're getting geared so you can go and farm some badges

Head
Stylin' Purple Hat - A 360 skill leatherworking recipe that drops from Blackheart the Inciter in Shadow Lab. It can normally be picked up quite cheaply from the AH if you can't find a crafter. Best tanking chant for it is Glyph of the Defender (Revered with Keepers of Time) but that's not easy to get without repeated runs in Caverns of Time. Glyph of Ferocity (Revered with Cenarion Expedition) is an easier substitute.

Neck
Necklace of the Deep is a great tanking neck with nice dollops of agi and stam and two (count 'em) gem slots. The only thing that stops this being ideal is that the slots are red when you really want to put be using stam gems. But hey, it's a BoE jewelcrafting item that doesn't need rep so easily attainable.

Shoulders
Shoulders are actually a pain if I stick to my rules about quests and crafted only. The best I could come up with was Living Grove Shoulderpads from the quest Protecting Our Own in Blades Edge. Do yourself a favour instead and pick up some Demon Hide Spaulders from the AH - they're a pretty common BoE drop from a number of places so you can normally get them quite cheap. Chant them with your Scryer/Aldor tanking chant and away you go.

Back
For my cloak I took the Cloak of the Valiant Defender from the Ar'kelos the Guardian quest in Netherstorm. This is a bit of a tricky choice though because the Core of Ar'kelos is also a nice DPS trinket. If you prefer to take the trinket then Cloak of Eternity is a tailor-crafted BoE that is a pretty fair alternative. Enchant with +12 agi.

Chest
Here we get to the no-brainer Heavy Clefthoof Vest. Leatherworking vendor recipe from our friends at the Cenarion Expedition (Honored). I put +6 all stats on it.

Wrists
Umberhowl's Collar from the Cipher of Damnation quest line in Shadowmoon Valley has a great lump of armour on it as well as some valuable strength for threat generation on top of the usual stam and agi. +12 stam is probably the best enchant but, at this stage, +12 defense is a viable alternative if you need the additional defense to get crit proof.

Hands
Verdant Gloves is from another group quest line in Shadowmoon Valley (Akama's Promise) and has nice dollops of armour, strength, agi and stam. Enchanted with another +15 agi these gloves will last you until you get the drop from Curator.

Waist

Manimal's Cinch is actually from a pre-quest so you should pick it up while working on Umberhowl's Collar. Don't let the fact that it's green fool you - this baby is better than many purples.

Legs and Feet
I've rolled these two in together because they are the remaining items of the Strength of the Clefthoof set. All the recipes are vendored from our Cenarion Expedition buddies. Chant the legs with the matching Clefthide Leg Armor and your favourite boot chant (I chose +12 stam) and you've got a solid tanking set that will last you a good while.

Rings

Wind Trader's Band is a good tanking ring from a soloable quest in Netherstorm (Dealing with the Overseer). Ring of the Stonebark is another decent ring from another solo quest, this time in Blades Edge (Exorcising the Trees).

Trinkets

One easy one here and one expensive one. The easy one is Mark of Tyranny. Yes, you are seeing correctly, that reward from a UBRS quest to kill Drakki. If you don't believe me, go check Emmerald's lists - this baby is better than a lot of lvl 70 instance drops.

The other one is Badge of Tenacity. There are two ways to get this: be incredibly lucky and have the Depleted Badge drop for you while doing dailies in Blades Edge; be incredibly efficient and buy it from the AH. Depending on your server, this will cost you around 900g but I have never regretted it.

Idol

Don't spend a lot of time worrying about this one. Idol of Terror for 20 badges will be an easy buy after a few trips to Karazhan. Idol of the Wild from the early quest in Hellfire Peninsula will be more than adequate.

Weapon

Earthwarden is the one to go for which is a good combined weapon for both tanking and dps. If the rep grind might take a while, though, check AH for Braxxis' Staff of Slumber. Like the Demon Hide Spaulders, it's a world drop that seems common enough to keep prices down. I got mine for 30g. Whichever staff you end up with +35 agi is the only chant really worth it.

Gems

Gem for as much stam as you can without sacrificing crit-proof. Solid Star of Elune wherever you can squeeze them in around +defense gems.

Summary

With this gear you should be around 23,000 in armour, crit-proof and around 12,000 unbuffed health. That's quite good enough to start tanking Karazhan. Enjoy it!

Kitty's First Raid

Back to talking about my kitty after the last post 's diversion to my priest 8-)

The guild had their usual "casual" run to Karazhan last night and I signed up and got a place. The casual run is mainly for alts or progressing guild members so that they can get geared up and have fun, so it's a bit more light hearted than our speed runs which I posted about last time. Having said that, 1 or 2 of the core raiding team normally tag along for the fun.

I got another shining moment on one of the big trash pulls before Attumen. We totally missed the pull and our two main healers died in pretty short order so I popped out and combat rez'd one of them and started to help out with healing. Problem was the rez'd healer was having to do so much healing on the two tanks that she got aggro again and pretty soon it was back to me trying to keep the remaining tank alive virtually OOM. Needless to say, the remaining tank went down.... so I popped a mana pot, shifted into cuddle-bear and ended up tanking the last remaining mob. Nasty when those moments happen but always nice to know that you have options.

For the majority of the time I was dps, but I was asked to OT on one of the bigger pulls and to hold one of Moroes buddies since we only had the one priest for a shackle. Karazhan is not ideal for a kitty since undead don't bleed... meh... but it did give me a chance to rack up some nice numbers on the Ferocious Bite crits... yay... I just love those numbers over 3,000 8-)

At this point I have to give credit to our MT Awar. The man is a god! He gets snap aggro so fast and builds threat so quickly I almost gave up looking at the threatmeter because it didn't matter. Hail to the master.

Drop wise I was blessed. Curator dropped the right gloves and the only other guildy who needed passed to me (big hugs and catnip to Thornrage) so I'm now the proud owner of a pair of Gauntlets of Malorne. I also popped rep to Friendly and picked up the tanking ring so my armour is now just over the 25,500 mark without buffs/pots. I have dropped a little defense rating though so will have to swap back one of my stam gems for a defense one.

As this is only my first tier piece I'm stuck with keeping my dps gloves (Fel Leather Gloves) until I get the second for the 2-piece bonus.

Finally, I did OK on the meters. I was 3rd behind one of our core raiding rouges and a very promising lock despie the fact that I was tanking and healing for some of the time.

All in all, a satisfying first raid for kitty. Extra catnip last night!

Shock and Awe

I know this is a blog for my kitty, but today I'm writing about a guild run I went on yesterday with my priest. Don't like that? Tough it's my blog 8-)

Now, I haven't had a stable internet connection for the past couple of months so my raiding activity has been very low. In the meantime, the guild has got Kara to farm status but, as always, there are still those drops that... well don't. So, as well as a "casual" run to Karazhan they also do a weekly "speed run". There are no formal rules about who can go on which run but, if you want to go on a speed run, you're expected to know the bosses and keep up the pace.

The reason for the title of this blog is that I went on my first real speed run yesterday afternoon. Three and half hours later we've killed every boss except Maiden and Attumen and I have 19 badges in my bags from 9 boss kills. A quick bit of math and that's clear the trash and kill a boss every 23 minutes; it's actually a little faster than that if you allow for wipes and mishaps but not a lot since there weren't many of either of those.

1. Moroes
2. Opera (Big Bad Wolf)
3. Curator
4. Chess
5. Aran
6. Nightbane
7. Netherspite
8. Illhoof
9. Prince

Now, fine, some of you guys out there may read this and say "It took you that long, pfft" but to me this was a revelation. The skill, co-ordination and sheer attitude of these speed raiders was just fantastic to experience.

Everybody knew their job and just did it. If we got an unlucky death, somebody else knew what job needed doing and just did it.

No master looter or loot discussions. If you needed it you chose need and you were trusted to know what was a need for you and what wasn't.

No long pauses for buffs and drinking. We buffed on the run and we went into most fights at less than full mana and we still kicked serious butt.

I could get pissy that nothing on my need list dropped but that would be silly. The pleasure of experiencing a raid like this is worth more than any purple. Besides, I did actually get enough rep to upgrade my Violet Signet and enough badges to buy Wristguards of Tranquil Thought so I have no complaints.