World of War-CRAFT

Keen, from Keen & Graev's gaming blog posted something I agree with quite alot.
Brainstorming ways to make FE even better

Now the post relates to Fallen Earth, which looks like an interesting MMORPG. Definitely one I'll try at some point. But the points he makes really apply to most MMO's.

I'm mainly talking about his reference to Crafting.
In WoW, Crafters are really a so-so requirement. Nobody has to use the services of a crafter... ever. There are numerous ways to obtain armour and weapons of a higher standard then even the greatest crafter can make.
Gems and Enchants require someone to create them and are of a limited time use. Eventually you will find a better piece of gear, and then you'll need to buy that uber enchant / gem again.
But for Weapons and Armour that doesn't apply.

Keen suggests that Durability should be added to Fallen Eath. And I think it should also be added to WoW.

WoW already has a sort of durability, but that's really just a hidden gold-sink for Blizzard to control the amount of cash in-game. And with the amounts of gold available just from dailies, it's a pretty pointless function. It's extremely rare that people can't afford their repairs, no matter what the cost.

In fact I'd bet most people don't even bat an eyelid at paying a 30g repair bill to a vendor, but would be disgusted if they had to give 30g to another player every time they needed repairs.

But why should they? It's the same amount of money, it's not hurting you any more than paying a vendor.

Keen suggests that all items should degrade over time. Make crafted epics the be-all and end-all of quality. Give them the ultimate stats, give them alot more choices, but make every single item degradeable.
In WoW, I'd add 'Take out the huge penalty for dying in your gear'. Does the hit that kills you really need to cause more damage to your gear than the million hits that didn't?

That would create a steady market for Crafters, where people would come to them regularly for their gear, and also return to them for repairs, or renewals of the same gear.

And what if the stats of your gear reduced depending on it's durability? 50% Durability = 50% of the stats?

Or, if you didn't want to go as extreme as that, just remove the NPC vendor repairs from the game. And make it so that only blacksmiths / leatherworkers / tailors can repair the relevant gear. (Of course it would still have a mats cost to make the repairs).
Alternatively, add 'repair-kits' as a craftable item, that way, people can stock up on them, but they'll always be in demand.

I've always seen the crafting system in WoW as a bit weak. That's why, in all the years I've played,  I've always avoided being a BS, LW, Tailor, etc... My Pally is the first toon to get a highish level as an Engineer, but that was a choice relating to the AH in Dalaran, the chance for repair bots, and the low costs involved.

I have never once made anything that serves anyone else but myself. It's just not worth it.
And the few rare items I've required the services of a crafter for (apart from Gems and Enchants) have been more a case of lazyness than neccessity. Rather than spend weeks grinding heroics for the best gear. I simply dropped alot of cash on the AH, and for Mats, and bought myself a bit of a boost. Almost all the stuff I've had crafted has now been replaced anyway.

But what would the mobs drop, if crafted gear was always going to be better? Tokens, and gold. You spend the tokens on special materials, or plans, required to make your gear.
If anyone has played any of the Fallout games, they'll have heard of Power-Armor. It's one of the best gear sets in the game, but you can't use it until you've been shown how.
You have to complete a specific quest chain to gain access to that training, and before then, it's nothing more than heavy trash (expensive trash, but still trash).

I actually preferred the old 'attunement' system for raids. It meant that you were more prepared for what to expect in the raid itself.
So if you scrap gear-drops, you could make Naxx drop gear tokens, which could be spent on any level of gear. But. Until you'd completed Naxx you could only wear tier 7 stuff. After killing every boss in Naxx you're rewarded with the training to use t8 gear. Malygos rewards t8.5, and Ulduar t9.
Remember, they're not rewarding the gear itself, just drops to make it with, and the training to be able to use it.

In that way, someone who grinds Naxx constantly, can amass a huge amount of tokens, but they can't just go and spend them all on the best gear in the game. They need to 'progress'. And without spending those tokens to obtain the gear needed to finish Ulduar, they're never going to be able to use t9 gear. Sure, they can spend their tokens on t9 crafting equipment, but they can't put the gear on, because they haven't 'earned' the right too.

So if you see someone in full t9, you know they're not just a wannabe hardcore, they've put in the effort, and achieved a full clear of at least 2 raids to get to that point in the game.

The crafters can make you anything you like, as long as you have the relevant tokens, and they can maintain it for you. But until you've earned the right to wear it, it's just going to be clogging up your inventory.

Return of the Red-Eye's

I ended up in Ulduar again last night. I logged on with my Paladin (who is also now the GM) and offered my services as a Tank / Healer if they were short.

They weren't short of either, but the guild seems to be back in the fix of lacking ranged DPS. So I was ordered to dust off my Hunter for the the benefit of the others.
I was a little unsure if he was geared enough to be honest. Experience counts for a lot, and with it, you can pull off things that gear can only compensate so much for.
My experiences of Ulduar have been very minimal, but since I was the only other one around, what difference did it make?

It didn't go as badly as I expected. My hunter managed to keep up an average of 2k DPS, and usually more like 2.5k, so I was at least keeping up appearances.
But the problem with being Survival spec'd is that you perform best when you can just stand-still and nuke the targets, which isn't a popular method for Raid Bosses these days. So without all the running around, I could probably have done much better.

Leviathan, Xt-002, Agromer, Auriaya, and Hodir were downed. With only a few wipes, so it went pretty well overall. And on Hodir a T8 emblem dropped for my Hunter and I won the roll. Sweet.

But after getting to the vendor I debated a little about spending it, My Hunter isn't my main, so isn't likely to get very much use out of the gear. and the stats were only marginally better anyway. So weren't going to suddenly make my hunter an uber-DPS again.
I whispered Flow, who'd come second in the roll, and asked him if he wanted the token. He faffed a little to make it seem like he was really thinking hard about it, but before long he realised he was being a muppet and agreed to take it.

It made alot more sense for the progress of the raid team, and the guild, for him to have it rather than me. So that's my good-deed for the week done.

It was a shame I couldn't have gone on my Pally again, there were a couple of exellent plate drops for the tanks, but both of ours are already geared up, so the drops pretty much went to waste.
In fact, alot of the gear dropped was marked for DE'ing, which just shows how easy it is to get epics these days.
Oh well, back to heroics for my Pally, 10 more emblems and he can pick up his new pants. Then it's all up systems go for the full healing set and that's almost ready just through random drops.

Due to all the Heroics I've done with him, he's revered with most of the major factions too, so I don't have to worry about grinding for the vendor enchants.

Vindiana Caputo and The Raiders of the the Lost Cause

Believe it or not. I went to Ulduar last night.

It wasn't planned, or intentional. I simply logged on, asked if the raid had been cancelled, and before I knew it I had a ticket to tank with the big boys... Nice.

Munqui Raiding used to be a lot like that. It was less organised, and more of a case of "if it happens, it happens" but what that used to end up with was pretty much full officer teams. Which put a few peoples noses out of joint.

"Meh" I say.

But that's pretty much what happened last night anyway. It was Officers, ex-officers and Rumido. After a lot of kerfuffle with who was going and who wasn't (we're all too nice and kept trying to offer our spots to others, while at the same time secretly hoping they say "no thanks") we managed to get inside.
Fortunately we had 2 good raid leaders in Vind and Vedd. Unfortunately we also had a few people (myself included) who wouldn't know what a 'Flame Vent' was, even if it jumped up and smacked them in the mouth.

Cue lot's of wipes on the first boss. Leviathan.
They were silly wipes really, the encounter seemed pretty straightforward. And was a sort of re-working of the Big-Bad-Wolf from Karazahns Opera event. But with some interrupts thrown in. Eventually he went down, with a sigh of relief from everyone. (Not to mention hefty repair bills).

Second Boss. Razorscale. Went down first time. Very little problem. And got my first chance to do some real tanking instead of driving a truck. Vind took the MT role (even though he'll swear there was no MT / OT assigned) but it suited me fine, he's the expert and as long as I just did my job everything would be fine. So taunts came when taunts were needed, and apart from a few people standing in the fire too much it all went well.

Third Boss. Deconstructor. Again, a one-shot attempt. I MT'd this time which seemed more sensible, as the OT's job was more complicated. I didn't have to run around like a loony grabbing stray adds. I just had to keep the aggro up on the boss.  All nice and smooth, and another win.

Fourth Boss. No idea. Agromer? Maybe. Can't remember the guys name, but he had big hands and a beard that santa would die for. (If you saw him coming down your chimney at Christmas though, you'd be hoping the next thing you unwrapped was a clean pair of shorts).
I was MT again, while Vind collected the adds. A couple of wipes again on this guy. It was mainly a lack of healing. The healers were too busy dodging his laser beam eyes that they forgot to heal me, never a good idea.
Second attempt, and my Argent Defender had triggered within about 5 seconds, I held on a little longer, but it was a lost-cause.
Third try, and down he went. I was even watching for him grabbing a healer, and managed to bubble Tins when he did, since she'd died every other time.
Somehow things fell into place and we even managed to get the achievement where we killed him within 10 seconds of one arm dying. Vind tells me it's one of the Hard-Mode achievements, I'll take his word for it, but it was a nice way to round off the night.

Expensive on the repair bills, but I also managed to pick up my final epic tanking piece, so I've got new shoulders too. So all in all a good night.


On a side note, I now seem to be over the Def cap. I'm currently at 545, but all except one of my enchants / gems is now +Stam / Dodge / Parry instead of def. And that's before I plant the Hodir shoulder enchant on my new epic, and before I pick up my new Wyrmguard legs that I only need 10 emblems for.

I know that going over the Def cap isn't neccesarily a waste, it still counts for something, it's just not as effective as applying a different stat once you've reached the Cap.

Once I enchant my shoulders, and pick up my new legs, I'll be around 550 Def, so that's 25 Def points I could live without. But no way to not spend them... unless I changed my shoulder enchant?

Rotten to the Core

In the world of raiding, there seems to be a big distinction made between 'HardCore' and 'Social' raiding.

Those who conisder themselves social look at the hardcore raiders, and scoff. They think they waste their lives playing the game wrong. But secretly, the social (or casual) raiders wish they could be as good, and also wish they could have the gear that the hardcore have. They like to think that they have the same skills as the hardcore, but are just nicer people.

Those who consider themselves harcore raiders, lok at the social raiders and scoff. They think that the socials are just not as good as them. And if they weren't so lazy, they could have epic-epix too. But secretly, the hardcore don't want the socials to improve. They prefer the socials to stay at the lower levels of raiding, because that makes the hardocre feel superior. It gives them a justification for investing the time and effort they have, and makes them feel like they are more skilled than the socials.

So where do the Munquis fit in on this scale?

Well, we're a 'social' guild, but 'social' is a subjective word. What I like to do to 'socialize' is not neccesarily the same as everyone else.
All the 'social' means to us is that we're willing to give anyone a try. It doesn't mean that we'll like them, or put up with crap, or drag their lazy asses through dungeons or raids just because we proudly like to call ourselves 'social'.

The tribe is a pretty big guild. So we've got the advantages (and disadvantages of that). If we want to run any 10 man raid, these days, we can almost garauntee enough players of the required class to set it up. If we organise it in advance.
If we don't organise it in advance, we still have a good chance becuase we'll usually have enough members online to give it a go, and have freinds, and other guilds, that we can call on to fill any vacancies.

In TBC, most Munquis didn't make it past Karazahn. In fact, most Munquis didn't even make it 'into' Karazahn. But that didn't stop us reaching the point where, effectively, we had 2 teams that could farm it.
And eventually progress in to other raids was made.

In WotLK we conquered Naxx fairly quickly. We were only just behind some of the hardcore raiding guilds. And we then moved on to Malygos, and now on to Ulduar.
Although I haven't been, I know that Ulduar is still in the learning stages of being conquered by us. Its not on farm yet. But it won't be long, and then it'll be on to ToC.

Now, the 'average' hardcore raider is just mastering ToC at this point so, again, the Munquis aren't far behind. But the average 'Social' hasn't even set foot in Ulduar, never mind made any progress.

So to go back to the original question: Where do the Munquis fit in on this scale?

Let's take something everyone knows about, as an example:    PORN

Don't deny it, you're sat at a computer or digital device right now, and you all know what porn is.
But there's different types of porn, and I don't mean the stuff with Dwarves and Donkeys, and that sort of filth. I mean different ratings.

There's the HardCore Porn. With no holds barred visuals, and usually very bad scripts. but it's effective, and does the job. This is what people usually think of when they think of 'Porn'.

There's also the BBC edited version of sex scenes in mainstream films. It's not really Porn, it's just a little bit of nudity, and usually part of a fantastically scripted story. But it's still too much for some people.
This is what your granny thinks of when you mention 'Porn'. (At least you hope so... although why you and your granny would be discussing porn is another issue).

But in between those two there's the, lesser known, SoftCore Porn. It's not as popular as it used to be. There might be lots of full frontal nudity, but there's also alot left to the imagination. It doesn't leave you in any doubt that it actually is Porn, but it's not as in your face as the HardCore stuff.
Usually the scripts are somewhere between the 2 other versions, with longer storylines, and occasionally 5, or more, minutes where people remain fully dressed.

Now stop thinking about naked ladies (or gents) and lets get back to the main issue:

We're ahead of the average social, and behind the average hardcore. So I'd go with 'SoftCore Raiders'.

We're good at what we do, our experienced members all have the potential to do well in raids, we just don't push as hard as the 'HardCore' do, because that's not what we're about. When we suceed, we do it together, and when we fail, we fail as a team, and try again next time.
We're not in your face, full frontal, 'Raiders'. But we're not pre-watershed, don't let the kids see, 'Socials' either.

So it just goes to show that it is possible to balance 'Social' and 'Raider' at the same time.

You ask any man / woman who's been in the army if they felt closer to their comrades than to any other freind they've ever had. I bet you most would say 'yes'. And for the whole of their time in the military they were being ordered about, forced to do crappy jobs, and putting their lives at risk.

There are always going to be people who disagree. Those for whom the focus, control, patience and effort required to raid are 'not fun'.

But, if you're one of those people, this isn't the army, no one has a gun to your head, so why raid?

For me, I enjoy being 'SoftCore' and I'm proud of it.

And the point is...

Following on from my previous post, apart from the fun-factor, what's the point in raiding Ulduar?

Imagine a Goblin. He likes making money, and lot's of it. He chooses to always try and achieve the maximum amount of profit from the minimal amount of work. But he's not afraid of hard-work, as long as it pays off in the end.
A true goblin would stay the hell away from Ulduar. If you can farm heroics, which are much easier, to achieve a similar level of loot, then why would you want to go raiding?


According to WowWiki, the time taken on each Heroic is quite high, but speaking from alot of experience, they're not. I think you can easily slash about a third off the times shown on there.
e.g. VH is shown as 24 Minutes, but it's easy to do in 15. UK is 25 Mins, but our runs usually average 11-12 (and occasionally 10).
Even then, I still think that's a little high. Gundrak for example is shown as a 90 Minute run, and it's nothing of the sort.



But applying that to the whole of the list (-1/3 off all the times on WoWWiki) gives a total time of 444 Minutes, or 7 and a half hours. If you run all of them in one day, you would receive 52 Emblems of Conquest, + 2 Emblems of Conquest from the Daily Normal, and 2 Emblems of Triumph from the Daily Heroic.



In Ulduar (10), the Munquis raid twice per week, for around 4-5 Hours per night.And the average raid boss drops only 1 or 2 Emblems of Conquest. (Let's say 2 for ease).
Let's also presume that a good Munqui team can clear Ulduar in the 2 nights. and we'll shave a bit fo the time off too. There's a maximum of 14 Bosses in Ulduar, including optional.

So for Heroics 7 Hours = 54 Emblems of Conquest, 2 Emblems of Triumph, a hell of alot of Reputation gains, and a nice pot of gold to spend on Enchants, Gems etc... And the whole thing can be repeated every single day.

For Ulduar 9 Hours = 28 Emblems of Conquest, 0 Emblems of Triumph, 0 rep gains, possibly some gold (but repair bills might eat in to this), And the run can only be completed once per week.


The next part is easiest to see with a DPS'er. So let's use that as an example.

Let's say the DPS'er has some epic pieces, and can pull off 3k DPS in an average raid. He really wants to reach ToC.

If he grinds heroics, and daily heroics, he's not going to struggle much. It'll be a walk in the park for him, and he can earn loads of emblems every day.
But if he raids, he might get the chance of a random drop which is even better than some of the Emblem gear.

But how much better? Not a lot. And how useful? Again, not as much as it first seems.

Imagine a pair of boots:
The pair you have now has +80 AP. The Emblem / Rep version would have +100 AP, but the random Ulduar drop version has +120AP. That's another 20% increase, that's awesome.. right?
Right, but the Emblem of Triumph version has +150 AP. And you don't get Emblems of Triumph in Ulduar.

Remember though, that you only get a 20% increase in DPS once every piece you're wearing is upgraded too. Until then you only get a small % increase in your stats. There's 11 Equipment slots, not counting tabards. So you'd need 11 upgrades to achieve a full new set of gear.

So, for 3 months of Heroics, the original 3000 DPS -> 3750 DPS in Emblem of Conquest / Rep Gear -> 5400 DPS in Emblem of Triumph Gear


And, for 3 months of Ulduar, the original 300 DPS -> 4500 DPS in Full Ulduar Gear

Even if you didn't get a full set of Emblem of Triumph Gear, you'd still achieve more than the 4500 DPS of the Ulduar Gear. And certainly enough to move on to ToC.

So what's the point in Ulduar?

God Knows, But I'll probably still go.

A tale of 2 Pallies

Once upon a time, in a land far-far away, but that millions of people visited every day, there was a Paladin.

The Paladin had goals. He had things in life that he strived for. He looked at others, and thought to himself 'I want to be like them'.
So he trudged his way up through the levels, until he reached 70. And when he got there, he threw away his tanking gear, that had supported him well up to that point, and began collecting healing gear.

He knew that to get in to groups, he would need to provide something that others couldn't. And at that time, that was healing. There just weren't very many healers around.

He completed long quest chains for some pieces, for others he entered heroic dungeons, to collect random drops, and badges that he could trade for entry-level gear.
Before long he had picked up enough kit, and invested enough time in perfecting his healing, to enter Karazahn. While there he had a great time. Sometimes it went well, other times it didn't. But it didn't matter, it was alot of fun, and for every boss that was killed he would receive random loot, and even more badges. but these could be exchanged for very high level equipment.
The Paladin thought this was awesome, and he could hopefully move on to bigger and better things, which he had no hope of doing without first mastering Karazahn. He didn't make it very far past Karazahn, but he wasn't too bothered. He still felt that he'd achieved enough to sleep at night. And finally, he retired happily.


12 months later, another Paladin was born. This one had similar dreams of glory, so he set off on his mission to reach level 80. Hoping one day to be good enough to enter raids, and experience all the adventures a young-man could want.
But when he got to 80, things weren't quite what he expected.
He also began to complete heroic dungeons, to gather his gear. In this case he didn't forsake his tanking, since it was still highly sought after in most groups.
At first the dungeons were difficult. He felt like he'd been there before, and knew all of the encounters, but being toe-to-toe from the mobs was much different to standing at the back of the crowd and shooting at them.
But before long the Paladin had mastered his art, and along the way he'd collected lots of nice equipment too.
The badges that were dropped by the bosses in the dungeons also provided him with a few extra nice pieces. Until he reached the point where those badges weren't worth very much to him anymore.

So off he went, all psyched up to enter the dreaded citadel of Naxxramas. Only, he found, nobody else was going there. Naxx was no longer a challenge, since the gear that he'd collected from doing heroics was equivalent or better than the stuff dropped in Naxx.
But he wasn't detered, he dipped his toe into the lava pools of Sartharion, and found it no problem, so he set his sights on the mighty gates of Ulduar, confident that he would eventually master it, and then be able to proceed to enter the Trial of the Crusader. Where, one day, he might be found worthy enough to face Arthas himself.

But.... It turns out that the emblems / badges dropped in Ulduar are exactly the same ones that are dropped in the heroics. So he was going to have to rely and nothing but random drops to provide enough equipment to allow him to reach the next level of uberness... ... ... Bugger.

Ulduar was hard, it was difficult. He was sure it would be a lot of fun to do, but the rewards weren't going to be very worthwhile.
But if he stayed doing nothing but daily heroics between now and the time of Arthas's arrival, he'd be one of the best geared Tanks in the land.
The reward for completing those daily challenges was 2 emblems of Triumph. And the only other way to obtain them was in the higher level dungeons.

The Paladin, being good at maths, sat down and thought it through:

'If I go to Ulduar, and I'm lucky, I could get some more emblems of conquest, and the chance to roll on some random loot. But I'd probably die alot, and waste alot of time. And I can only repeat it once per week.'

'But, if I just spent the same amount of time doing heroics, I'll earn tons of emblems of conquest. Probably enough to buy a full set of healing gear. Loads of cash from quest rewards and mob drops. AND if I do the daily challenge at the same time, I'll also pick up 2 Emblems of Triumph every day too.'


So did the Pally go to Ulduar?

Of course he did. But why?



The same reason a man does many things in his life................ Because his freinds were doing it.

Frequent Forum Miles

The use of the Munqui Tribe forums seems to have faded off recently. I'm not sure why that is.

The in-game activity still seems to be pretty high, with good numbers of guild members online. Usually at least 10-20, and sometimes reaching 30.
But the forum seems to be slowly dying. People either aren't bothering to read what's written on there, or they have no interest in the guild other than as a place to find groups in-game.

It's a bit of a shame, because the forums used to be a good place to have a chat, or a whinge, or just generally piss about when you were supposed to be doing something else... The good old days.

Luckily, I don't just have to tell you that this is true because I say it is. Brast was kind enough to give me Admin access ages ago, so I can pull some stats from the admin tools:

So here they are: (Keep in mind, these are only since the forum reset, where the original service provider went bust).

Registered Members: 123
Total Shoutbox Posts: 598
Total Forum Posts: 2398

Top Posters:

• 393 - Smyth
• 318 - Knicks
• 184 - Night
• 158 - Vind
• 155 - Funk
• 153 - Vedd
• 139 - Bronze
• 123 - Lewt
• 117 - Flow
• 106 - Rad
• 53 - Bolle
• 38 - Brast
• 38 - Zuchi
• 37 - Biafra
• 29 - Spud
• 27 - Grenthal
• 21 - Rumido
• 21 - Trig
• 16 - Tinsell

So what do those figures tell us about the forums, and about the guild itself?

Well firstly, Apart from Tins, I only counted people who've made more than 20 posts. So thats 18 People. So out of 123 registered members only 18 of them have been 'active' on the forums. Although it depends how you define 'active'. The forums were reset at the beginning of January, so 20 Posts is still only an average of 2 per month.

Secondly, if you add up all the posts that those 18 have made, you get 2110 posts. That's 88% of the entire forum community being provided by 14% of the members.
It gets worse if you raise the bar to, let's say, 50 posts (around 1 per week).That means 11 people have posted 1899 times between them. So the figures change to 79% of the community being provided by about 9% of the members.
Effectively, only 11 people are investing any real time and effort in to the forums. And 2 of those are Rad and Bolle, who are also in other guilds.


Next, let's look at 'who' is doing the posting, and their status within the guild. Unsuprisingly, the officers and ex-officers are generally the most active. (Above 50 Posts)
The ones with between 20 and 50 are generally the long-serving and loyal members of the guild.
And the ones with less than 20 posts are a mix of everyone.
Maybe the Officers and loyal members feel more inclined to contribute to the guild, rather than just using it for their own ends. That seem to be the case in game, with things like the guild-bank. Officers and loyal Munquis often contribute to, but rarely take from, the GuildBank.

Finally, if you raise the bar for considering a member to be 'active' to 100 - Still only an average of 2 posts per week. It means the whole forum is being maintained for the benefit of just 10 people. And those 10 names at the top of that list are generally people who also have lots to say to each other in-game, and least likely to need the forums.

And as a P.S. to all this... Tins only has 16 Posts since January?!?!
What the hell is going on there? In-Game you can barely get her to shut up.
And Myself and Knicks need to shut-up a bit more on the forums. But if we did, maybe things would be even quieter.

Anti-Raidism?

To raid, or not to raid. That is the question.

Vind asked me a couple of days ago "When are we going to see you in Ulduar with us?"

The answer flew off my fingers without thinking about it. "Whenever you want me."

My Pally is geared enough now to cope with the basics of raid tanking. He still has blue shoulders, but one night of raiding would give me enough emblems of triumph to replace them quickly anyway. Apart from that, and a couple of 'better' epics I can still get through emblems of conquest, I'm as geared up as I can be at this point.

I'm Def capped, my average HP in a 5-man is a little under 40k, I've got my macros all worked out and my layout and Ui configured well now. So what's stopping me going raiding?

Do I really want to?

I've enjoyed the laid-back approach to Heroics. You know that you're never going to be commited to the game for more than 15-30 minutes per time. It's rare that a run goes badly wrong these days, so emblem grinding is more just a case of scooping them up of the dead bodies every few minutes.
I just find the heroic-scene very sociable.There's no pressure, there's no fuss. There's very little discussion of boss tactics, apart from the occasional "shall we try for the achievement". Things just happen, smoothly, and it feels like things are being achieved.

While my Tanking set is almost where it should be, my healing gear is much more mis-matched. It's pretty epic. I know I've only got a few blues left anyway. But I'm in plate, and mail, and leather, and there might even be some cloth in there too
I know that armor type isn't as important for healers. My last Pally was a mis-match in Kara, and he healed just fine. For healers, it's stats-stats-stats. But it's all wrongly gemmed and I know there are better upgrades out there if I look for them.

Having said that, if I dropped some gold on the AH, I could probably gem my healing gear up nicely, and at least cope as the 2nd / 3rd healer in a 10-man.

I'm also a big believer that skill and experience can make up for lack of gear. There's no point trying to convince me otherwise. I know that it's the truth. The voices in my head tell me.
But in Ulduar, I have no experience, and since I've never even set foot inside, my skills are generic.
It'd be like dropping a freshly dinged level 80 in to the Noth encounter in Naxx. 2 seconds in, WTF, and the group wipes... I don't want to be that nooby.

Tanks are generally the group leaders, it just goes with the territory. And I can't lead what I don't know.
I'd be sat there waiting for Vind to tell me what I need to do, when it would just be simpler and probably more effective for him to do it himself. Why should every body else wait for me? And why should they have to die just because I don't know the encounters that well? They've done their dying, and paid their repair costs to reach the point they're up to.

So do I want to raid in Ulduar?

Yes.

Will I?

I'm not sure right now.

But until I make up my mind, I'll be available for heroics almost any time you see me online.

The Importance of Being Patient

Continuing from my previous post on cornering markets, here's a few extra tips for you.
They're a little bit anti-goblin, so if you're in to mass production and accepting low profit margins, this is not going to be for you.

Let's say that you've managed to pick up the Titanium Plating plans. (They're only 15g, but I just noticed that you also need Exalted with the Vanguard too... not too big a deal).
If you suddenly start churning out loads of them, people will start to notice. And you might do quite nicely out of it for a while. But before long, people are going to realise there's money to be made and start undercutting you.

Tobold posted something similar recently. And I agree with his theory.
If something is expensive, people will only buy it rarely, and will be less willing to part with it, or buy it more than once. But if it's what they need, they will still buy it at least once.
If something is cheap, people will buy it over and over and over again. But they'll also buy something else if it suits them better.

So which is better?

The Goblin (Gevlons) model is mass-production. Make something as cheap as possible, and sell it as cheaply as possible, but in large quantities. Almost all markets end up this way in the end.
But they don't need to start off that way, and if you're starting up a new market, the last thing you want to do is devalue it too quickly.

Think of  DVD players. When they first came out, they cost hundreds of pounds each, that soon dropped below the £100 mark, because more people wanted them. Now, you can pick up a brand new one for about £10 from ASDA (Walmart).

So when you start posting the Titanium plating, keep supply low, and prices high. If other people start undercutting you, undercut them. And not by a few silver. Halve your price. If they go for 120g this week, other people will want a piece of the action. So they'll invest all the time and effort into their production. When they do, slash the value to 60g and they'll be much more wary of competing against you. Because their expectations of profit will be badly shaken.
Repeat the process until the point where either they stop competing, or you can no longer make a profit.

Once the war is over, slowly raise the prices again. If the competition re-appears, lather-rinse-repeat.

So make sure you keep supply low, and only a couple of them on the AH at any one time. Make sure they're priced high. And make as much money you can before the competition tries to muscle in.

Healing Hands

I ran a few heroics last night. And managed to pick myself up a new set of tanking Bracers a new emblem belt, and a few offspec upgrades. I just need to replace my shoulders now and I'll be fully epic, and a new chestpiece would be nice, since I'm currently using one with +Frost Resistance, and Gemming it up to the eyeballs to add +Def.
So my HP now hovers around 33k SelfBuffed, which would mean 30k Unbuffed (since the BoS is +10%).
And I'm at the defense cap. And I don't struggle with my threat generation as much anymore.

I spent most of the night healing. Since that was what we seemed to be short of at the time. But it was a raid night, so it's sort of understandable.

My healing gear is all a bit mix and match, with some cloth, mail and leather pieces. But at the end of the day, I'm a healer.. I shouldn't be getting hit. But It's almost a full epic set now too.

Speed was the key last night, trying to fit things in with guildies before and after Ulduar (although I wasn't raiding myself). In Culling of Stratholme we cleared the extra boss with about 9 minutes to spare, and I was even having a go at DPS'ing while healing, since the damage was so light
.
In Utgarde Keep, the entire place was cleared within about 10 minutes. We litterally chain pulled the entire place, bosses included. No breaks, no downtime, no deaths, no problem. There really should have been an achievement for that. 3 Emblems in 10 minutes makes it the most worthwhile instance in the game.
Vind was tanking though, and he knows his stuff, it might have been harder with a less experienced tank. But we still managed to boost my brothers DK during the run, and he's never set foot in anything but ToC.

In all of my healing encounters last night, my mana rarely dropped below 70%. Even on the bosses. And no one even came particularly close to dying.
I can't take all the credit for this, the gear and abilities of the teams I was with obviously made up for alot.
But now I've mastered the whole 'Beacon of Light' and 'Sacred Shield' thing, it feels alot easier.

My 2 attempts at tanking last night were AN and AK, An went nice and quick. but AK was a little bit of a mess at one point. A bad placement from myself pulled an extra group of mobs and we wiped. Flow managed to ressurect himself and then me, and Bronze, but our position left us in the path of the 1 remaining mob, who promptly spanked us back to death. So we missed out on the 22g Bonus. Shame.

But apart from that cock-up all seems to be going well with the tanking. And the healing is working out nicely as an offspec.

Strange though, in the CoS run, we had 4 potential tanks in the group to choose from, but only 1 healer. The Munquis used to lack good raid tanks, now they seem to be coming out of our ears. But healers are now a little thin on the ground. Luckily it doesn't affect me at this point, since as long as there's one or the other online, I can fill the alternative spot.

Block and Tackle

While levelling my Paladin as a tank, I've been looking into the best way to gear him up.
Tanking isn't always as straightforward as DPS.

With most DPS classes, you focus solely on Attack Power, or on Spell Power or on a particular stat that equates to the same. With Tanks (particularly Pallies), it's more of a juggling act.

You need the +Hit to make sure you're not missing the mobs, and they're not Parrying your attacks, which makes them attack faster.
You need +Defense to reach the point where mobs cannot slam you into the floor with one shot.
You need +Stamina to enable the healer to have time to heal you up before the mobs belt you with their next round of attacks.
And +Spell Power comes in handy for Paladins who need to generate enough threat to keep the mobs on them, and off the squishies. (Presumably Warriors have a similar problem, but use Attack Power or something similar to do the same).

So which is more important? They all are.

+Spell Power is probably the least important of the bunch, since it basically just for extra DPS. If everyone is using Omen, and isn't a noob, they shouldn't pull much aggro anyway.

+Hit isn't as essential, but it helps alot. When mobs parry, they attack quicker, which means they're going to do more DPS to you. Which is never a good thing.

+Stamina IS essential but, while not quite subject to the rule of diminishing returns, once you reach a certain point do you really need any more? If you have 40k HP and your healers can keep you up against any raid boss, is having 50k HP actually of any more use? Yes, but it's minimal.

+Defense IS defintiely essential. Getting critted by Heroic and raid bosses is never a good thing. And if one crit takes you from 100% HP to dead, the group is going to wipe.

But then there's other things to consider. +Block, +Dodge and a whole host of other things too. So what should you aim for with Enchants and extras?

In the post before this, I claimed that the +Block from Titanium plating was better than +Stam. (The -50% Disarm is also a great Bonus stat) And here's why:

Block reduces the amount of damage from melee attacks from mobs standing in front of you (It doesn't work from behind, or too much from the side, that's why you see tanks re-positioning themselves alot when surrounded by trash... or why you should see them re-positioning alot).

The amount of damage that's blocked is basic maths: Amount Blocked = Block Value + (Strength / 2) and that is done after all other reductions from armor, dodge, parry, Righteous Fury etc..

(BTW: These are totally random numbers I'm using here)
So if a mob hits for 1000, and I don't dodge it, my Armor mitigates 60% of that, so the amount that actually gets to me is 400. But I also Block some of the damage, so with 100 Block Value and 100 strength (really 200 but halved) only 200 damage actually reaches me.

1000 Damage - 600 from my Plate Armor - 200 from my Block = Only 200 Damage that hits me.

You don't always block, it's a % chance, but for a Tank, it's a very high %. And those figures soon start to add up to alot more than +18 Stamina would give me.

Using my analogy from above - I have 34k HP SelfBuffed, in good groups I have reached a little under 40K fully buffed. The healers no longer have much of a problem keeping me alive. So adding more HP doesn't really add to my usefulness.
However, when grouped with good DPS'ers I struggle to hold the aggro.
Adding +Block not only reduces the overall amount of damage I'll take throughout a fight, but also adds extra DPS to some of my abilities. For example, my Shield Slam, does more DPS the higher my Block is, so it's not only protecting me, it's increasing my threat generation too. Win -Win.

My other choice of Enchant. The weapon 'Potency' one, is a little bit more straightforward, but continues where the last one left off. 'Strength' directly increases the amount of melee damage I do, and increases my Block Value. So more strength is always handy. The melee damage increase for a Pally is minimal, since most of my threat comes from magical damage, but it all adds up, especially in longer fights.

So does that mean I should ignore Stamina, and Dodge, and Parry, just because I can survive on the Armor and Block stats alone?... No.

That's why there's 2 main schools of Tanks. Mitigation (Who can take huge amounts of damage) and Avoidance (Who try to take a little damage as possible).
If I can dodge an attack, I get zero damage, and that's even better than only 20% damage. If I Parry an attack I might still get some damage, but I also get to attack faster myself.

The problem with trying to increase those stats though is that they're more difficult to do. And even if you manage it, they're subject to the rule of diminishing returns. That means that every time I dodge / parry an attack, I have slightly less chance of dodging / parrying the next one. (Block doesn't have that problem).

As an avoidance tank, eventually you WILL get hit, and when you do, if you've sacrificed too much mitigation that hit is going to hurt... alot... and then some more... and then again.... and your healer isn't going to be able to keep you up.

So Balance is the Tanks best weapon. In one particular boss fight, an avoidance tank might do better, in another mitigation is the answer. But overall, balance is everyones freind.

The Munqui's aren't a hardcore raiding guild we're not likely to start pulling extra tanks out for individual boss fights. Although raid guilds do, and this is why.

A word of advice for would-be tanks though. If you're new to tanking or freshly-dinged level 80. +Stam and +Def are the key to survival. The rest of it is just icing on the cake until you're geared up more. If you go tanking heroics with only 20k HP (like I first did) you'd better have alot of healers in your freinds list, because they're going to be exhausted trying to keep you alive.

So for now, I'm happy with my Tank design. I won't be trying to ebb every last point of one stat or another, I'll just go with the flow. As long as my Defense stays at 540, I'll take the rest of my stats a little less seriously.

Market Niches

Now I know that not everyone plays WoW for the same reasons. Or enjoys the same kind of things.
But persoanlly I like to keep an eye on the AH market. To try and make a few extra gold whenever I see an opportunity.

I don't consider myself an expert on the matter. If you're looking for expertise I'd visit Gevlons site (http://www.greedygoblin.blogspot.com/). But I occasionally come across area where alot of money could be made, from simple recipes that people don't usually seem interested in.

I have 2 examples at the moment:

The first is Titanium Plating. This recipe is sold for only 15g from a vendor. Yet no one seems to have it. The mats are 4x Titanium Bars and 4x Eternal Shadows. And it is generally considered one of the best shield enchants possible at end game. Particularly for Tanks who are already at the Def cap. The extar Block is great, and adds DPS and threat from shield slams, and then throw in the -50% Disarm and it sort of speaks for itself. Some people prefer the +18 Stam enchant, but is +180 HP really that useful?
Anyway, to get back to the point, this item can be crafted by Blacksmiths for only a handful of gold, but the average price I've seen them on the AH for is between 120g-240g each. I've yet to buy one, because I missed my opportunity, and the next time I saw one it was going for over 300g.

The second is Enchant Weapon - Potency. This is a Burning Crusade drop, that can be found anywhere within Outland or in any BC instance (including Karazahn). Apparently it's got a pretty low drop rate, but the scroll isn't BoP so can be traded.
Again, this is probably the single best enchant for a Prot Pally, as the +Strength brings more benefits through talents than any other enchant. (I hate to use the 'single-best' line, but from what I can see, it's true).
And yet you very rarely see it.
Finding the scroll to learn it might be a bugger, but once you know it, you'd have the market cornered for quite a while, and could easily sell a cheap enchant for large amounts of gold on the AH. I have never managed to find anyone on Darkspear who can make this. Never seen it on the AH, and no one in trade knows what I'm talking about. There's big money to be made.

Openish Invitation

I'm a little busy at work recently, so this blog isn't being updated as often as I'd like it to be. So, rather than let it go to waste, I'm opening it up a little.

Any Munqui Officer, or personal freind of mine, can now also post to this blog.

It's as easy as sending an email to a special address, so there's no technical know-how needed.

If you want to post something, either whisper me in-game, leave a comment on this post, or send me an email.
Once I give you the email address, that's it. You're free to post as little or as often as you like. Or never, if you can never be bothered.

You don't have to agree with all my ideas to post here, and the posts can be as superficial or as detailed as you choose. They should mainly be focused on WoW based issues, or stories of your characters development. But comments on other MMORPGS, excellent game reccomendations, or interesting anecdotes of real world events are just as welcome.

I'll still be moderating the blog, so I'll clean up and formatting problems whenever I see them. (It happens occasionally when things are sent in by email).

Let's hope that at least a few people become regular posters and the blog gets a new lease of life.

Am I Psychic or Am I Just Always Right?

Another night of heroics for me yesterday. With a bag-full of balls-ups to go with it.

I was tanking in healing gear, players were lying dead, people were casting aggro generating abilities on everyone but the tank. Still, it was alot of fun. Because it was all with the Munquis.
Wasn't very good for my EPH though (Emblems per Hour).

The first run was the daily. Nexus.
Myself, Bronze, Barry and Lis brought along a new guildy (who I won't name here). From the very start of the run I had a bad feeling about him. (I don't know if it was a he or a she, but it was a male toon).
He wasn't doing anything particularly wrong, apart from the jumping up and down, all the time, thing that the PvP kiddies seem to do (That really irritates me). I just found myself thinking less and less of him as the fights went on.

He was polite enough, and ready when he needed to be ready. But he seemed to be a little irritating. No sooner had I mentioned my dislike in Officer Chat than things began to get a little worse.
He started spamming the DPS meters in Party, and in Guild. And he cast Army of the Dead the very second the Keristraza activated, meaning that Bronze had to mash his buttons to try and keep aggro in his direction. After we all survived the fight... luckily.
Myself and Bronze pointed out his error with Army of the Dead and explained about the Dragon Boss NoseCone damage. The new guy apologised, again politely.

And then 5 minutes later he left the guild.

Now me and Bronze weren't particularly hard on him. And anything I said about my concerns was in officer chat only. So why did he leave?

Because I was right all along. There was something Not-Munqui about the guy. Maybe he was just a little immature, maybe he bought his account on eBay, or maybe I'm just Psychic.
Either way, he'd be welcome back into the Tribe, because he didn't do anything 'wrong', and he even said goodbye before he /GQuit, so maybe we'll all see him again.

Do you think we were too harsh on him? Maybe us older and wiser players expect too much of newbies. We all know the rules about dragons facing away from the group, and that it's not socially acceptable to spam DPS meters between every trash fight. But how would a newbie know?