September 19, 2009

wow addons cartographer

wow addons cartographer is a modular, lightweight, and efficient framework for manipulation of the world map. It is based on Rock and other libraries of the wowace community.

  • Battlegrounds : allows viewing of battlegrounds outside of the zone.
  • Coordinates : adds coordinates to the bottom of the world map of the player and the cursor.
  • Foglight : Shows unexplored areas on the map. replacement for MozzFullWorldMap or Unexplorer. Much more efficient, though.
  • Group Colors : turns all your party's and your raid's POIs into circles colored based on class, and shows a number on them based on their raid group.
  • Instance Maps : shows maps of instances.
  • Instance Notes : adds boss notes and such to instance maps.
  • Look 'n' Feel : allows you to change the transparency, position, and scale of the world map.
  • Notes : lets you put notes on the map, similar to MapNotes.
  • Zone Info : on hovering over a zone, it will show the levels of the zone, the instances in the zone, their levels, and the group size the instance is made for (e.g. 5-man, 40-man).

There is a new "experimental" version of Cartographer, called Cartographer3, at http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/12701/

If you are experiencing any issues

You play on a mac and the addon doesn't show up in-game This problem is generally being caused by unzippers on macintosh. You are supposed to put all folders inside the zip directly into your addon folder, not in a cartographer-vx.y.z subfolder! So if your paths are [...]/Interface/addons/Cartographer and [...]/Interface/Addons/Cartographer_"modulename", it should work as expected :D.

Death Knights and Phased Content, Arrow not showing While you are in the starting area the content is instanced and you are, in fact, not in the "real" world of Azeroth. Once you go visit Stormwind / Orgrimmar as final part of the questline the arrow should work again as expected.

If you are having issues related to POI's (the blue dots) please back-up and delete or rename your WTF folder (or just the cartographer 'account' database, WTF\Account\"username"\SavedVariables\Cartographer.lua)

Is the addon showing up as "Out of Date" and you're using Windows Vista?
The addon directory seems to have been moved for people on Vista. Apparently it's in "C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft". If you update plugins in the old directory, it just plain won't notice! At all! And you'll get errors. Update it in the new location.
(explanation courtesy of QuestHelper addon)
Read the whole story here How-To: Trouble-Shoot AddOns under Vista

Bug reporting
Please disable all other addons except those included in this package, then test the issue. If the issue persists, please post on the bug tracker:
http://www.wowace.com/projects/cartographer/tickets/

wow mods coordinates

Minimap Coordinates Addon (3.15)
Readme File:
Changes :
Version 3
-------------
Both the wow mods coordinates on the minimap and on the worldmap may be toggled now:

Usage: /cmc minimap - Toggle minimap coordinates.
Usage: /cmc worldmap - Toggle worldmap coordinates.


Version 2
-------------
Added player and cursor wow mods coordinates when looking on your worldmap.

----------
Supports Game Version: 3.X
Run: windows , os

September 18, 2009

WOW Ask a Faction Leader: Garrosh Hellscream

WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak to major Horde and Alliance leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask A Faction Leader!

We recently spoke to Genn Greymane, King of Gilneas and leader of the Worgen, and he shed some light on several key issues, such as how hot Vereesa Windrunner is, why losing the Blood Elves was no big loss, and how to treat mental illness in the undead. This week, we've got incredibly popular Orc leader and captain of the Horde's Warsong Offensive, Garrosh Hellscream. Sitting in with him is Overlord Varok Saurfang, right hand of Warchief Thrall.

Our first reader question:

Dear Garrosh,
There is a growing number of Horde members who believe "a basic campfire" would make a better Warchief than you. What's your response?
Thank you,
Brakkas


Garrosh responds:

Ah, a coward who refuses to name his allegiance. Undoubtedly an Alliance pig! After all, only an Alliance pig could ever even consider that there are loyal sons of the Horde who wouldn't support me as Warchief. But if there are, then this ... this Abesik Kampfire should state his intentions to my face if he wishes to challenge me in my bid for Warchief! I will grind his bones to dust with the blunt end of my axe! I will see what this traitorous dog is made of.

Saurfang responds:

No, no, Garrosh. A basic campfire. You know, cooks food, you feed it wood --

Garrosh responds:

*snort* Old man, his skills as a chef do not mean that he is a warrior, and I care not what his diet is. I will defeat him in single combat and he will serve as an example to those who would challenge me. LOK'TAR! BLOOD AND THUNDER!

Overlord Hellscream,
Hypothetical: Some adventurers doing some exploring in southern Tanaris happen upon a crystal weapon of great power, and bring it to you for guidance. It is realized that said crystal, upon shattering, would kill every member of the Alliance. Every man, woman, child, human, dwarf, gnome, whoever flies the Alliance banner, would die upon the crystal's shattering. Would you break it?
Taytayflan


Garrosh responds:

Would I break it! Of course I would break it, and if my warriors didn't shatter the crystal then and there, then I would certainly kill them as well! There should be no hesitation in destroying our enemies. One is born Horde. Being Alliance is a choice ... much like speccing Subtlety or being a male Blood Elf. One should be prepared for the consequences of that choice, like having birds and lions all over your armor or being obliterated instantaneously by a big glowing crystal for no reason.

So Garrosh I'm going all Horde with the faction switches now in play. I'm wondering if this is a bad decision since I know practically no one on the horde side, but you all seem to have the better mounts, locations, etc. But all in all, Alliance sucks! And Horde rule! But I still want a worgen Death Knight...but I already have a Blood Elf Death Knight with all the war mounts and I don't want to change realms...you see my problem? What should I do?

~ ßarbossa
Death Knight of the Ebon Blade


Garrosh responds:


Peh! While the Alliance will undoubtedly look upon those who have betrayed the Horde to join the Alliance with great pride, the Horde cares not for your capricious change of loyalties! I will not consider your rehabilitation complete until you've leveled a Troll Priest to 80. This will show your dedication to our cause ... should you survive. Death Knights are not true sons of the Horde anyway, though, so feel free to betray us. You're very likely specced Unholy anyway, and we have a ton of Warlocks already.

Saurfang responds:

It's unwise to send loyal warriors of the Horde away. You just want that legendary axe. Greed is unbecoming of a true son of the Horde.

Garrosh responds:

It just looks so cooool, you know? Got, like, skulls, and spikes. Dad would've loved it. Would've killed, like, everybody with it.

Saurfang responds:

Ah, yes, Grom Hellscream. Not an orc well-known for killing everybody.

Hey Garrosh,

It seems like you would be the best person to ask about this. Jaina and Varian have practically been joined at the hip all expansion. Have you noticed Thrall getting jealous?

Just curious,
Lierni


Garrosh responds:

The Warchief is agitated. He paces. He broods in his chambers. It is that witch!

Saurfang responds:


We keep saying, "Thrall, just, you know, go ask Garona on a date or something, come on, man." It's embarrassing.

Garrosh responds:


He keeps having our mages open portals to Theramore and just closing them and not using them. This is not the behavior of a Warchief! Someone needs to step up and snap him out of this craze ... or replace him.

Saurfang responds:

I'd settle for him just taking down all those photos of Varian and Jaina with Varian's face scribbled out of them.

Mr. Hellscream
Considering the rampant amount of illegal activities occurring in the world of Azeroth, from counterfeit gold, theft, and back-room political deals, what are your views on the current situation and how Thrall and the rest of the Horde leaders are handling it?
Furthermore, if you were to become the new chieftan, how would you address the threatened economy, the growing disputes between the members of the horde, diminishing natural resources, and of course, the political climate between us and the Alliance, namely Varian Wrynn?
~Seishi


Garrosh responds:

What?

My Darling Little Hellscream,

So, how are things? I hope everything is going well for you and my grandson back on Azeroth. Have you been taking your vitamins? I hear it's cold up in Northrend - did you get those mittens I sent you? The weather here in Nagrand has been cold lately, too. And if it snows here, would you mind being a dear and coming back to shovel the driveway? It's been a while since you visited. Speaking of which, how come you never call me? You know, Thrall calls me every evening just to check up on me. Maybe you could be a little bit more like him, hmmm? Your Greatmother isn't getting any younger, you know.

Oh, and while you're out in Azeroth, would you mind picking up a few groceries?

Love,

Greatmother Geyah


Garrosh responds:

I have sent her two messengers since I left! Two! I've hardly ignored her. I cannot spend my days worrying over the state of an old woman! My priorities are in perfect order.

Saurfang responds:


He's come a long way, he really has. He even made a to-do list the other day.

Garrosh responds:

Yes! Yes, I did. Look:

1. Destroy Alliance
2. Destroy Scourge
3. Destroy previous record for most Brewfest Pretzels eaten
4. Destroy old kitchen wall and use French lighting to really open the room up
5. Destroy preconception that male orcs aren't good dancers
6. Destroy Send Greatmother Geyah a letter


I've even bumped her up to above "Destroy (to be announced)."

Greetings, Garrosh,

What is your opinion of the goblins and how do you think that they will fare as members of the horde?

-Alarias of Silvermoon


Garrosh responds:

The Horde has long been at a disadvantage. There are strategies that we were ill-equipped to execute due to the composition of our armies; areas that we could not strike! Well, with the Goblins in our ranks, those areas, such as kneecaps and shins, will fall to the might of the Horde! We will be victorious! LOK'TAR!

I would urge anyone who doubts the warrior spirit of the Goblins to look at one simple fact: green skin. Who else has green skin? Yes, that's right. Just think about it.

Saurfang responds:

Your skin is brown, though, that doesn't even make any --

Garrosh responds:

A trick of the light. An Alliance lie! Swamp gas! A wizard did it! Infinite Dragonflight!

Dear Garrosh,

I've decided to write to you for a simple purpose. On one hand, I like King Varian Wrynn a lot. He seems like a confident and determined guy. On the other hand, I have a feeling for Orcs that I cannot hide; being myself a Draenei, that's a sin, isn't it? That makes me sad. So, I was wondering if you could get me any advice on what to do.

P.S: Got any cute female friends?

Garrosh responds:

Cloven-hooved Draenei scum, romantically pursuing the most perfect race on Azeroth or anywhere else? This is an affront on all that the Horde holds dear, and I will not assist you in muddying our bloodline. You should definitely not send your cutest sister to my room with a personal copy of your letter to plead for advice. Especially not one who wears Black Mageweave attire with "Varian sux, Garrosh rules" written on the back. My advice for you is not to do any of those things. I definitely don't think Draenei women are attractive and I won't like it at all.

Saurfang responds:

. . .

Dear Garrosh,
My recent activities in Ulduar have lead me to conclude that powerful titan weapons could lay just off the southern coast of Tanaris. Have you ever considered tying a large rock to your waist and going diving
for them? The area is shark infested so I recommend you throw a few buckets of chum in the water first to distract the sharks.


Garrosh responds:


Finally! A true son of the Horde that wants to assist his future Warchief in annihilating the Alliance scum that assault us at every turn. Saurfang, alert my naval commanders! We sail to Steamwheedle Port at dawn! LOK'TAR OGAR! THROM-KA!

Saurfang responds:

I don't think th-- Wait. What the hell am I saying? Yes. I'll just go ahead and do that.


That's all for our audience with Garrosh Hellscream and special guest Overlord Saurfang! Next week, we'll be speaking with Prophet Velen, leader of the Draenei!

WoW Patch 3.2.2 madness

The shining feature of wow patch 3.2.2 will be Onyxia's return, and of course, the already infamous Ony mount, but there are some profession changes coming too. As always, they can be found in the latest patch notes, although you'll have to scroll past the Brood Mother to find them.
This week's Insider Trader will analyze these changes and tell you what they mean for you.

A little history lesson
Orgrimmar is a large, bustling city, full of Hordelings going about their business, whether industrious and profitable or the sort that sees them dancing like MC Hammer and contributing to a lively Trade Chat discussion about Megan Fox.

Blacksmiths, Miners and Engineers alike, young and old, eager to advance their crafts, grab as many materials as they can and hike to the back of the Valley of Strength, out through the Drag, and into the back of the Valley of Honor in search of a forge and anvil suitable for their needs. Upon arrival and a quick discussion with their Trainers, they discover that they are missing some materials, and must hike back to the Bank and the Auction House and then back in order to complete their next task.

Ten minutes and a few useless hammers later, the process repeats itself. Again and then again. The lengthy smelting ritual combined with the complicated and material-intensive schematics common to both the Blacksmithing and Engineering trades can make this a time-consuming endeavor indeed.

In wow patch 3.2.2, history will be made. After years of begging, an anvil and forge are finally being installed at the General Store, allowing most business to be conducted within a few strides of a mailbox and the Bank and Auction House. This is revolutionary stuff people!

Engineers to be less strange looking
The Mind Amplification Dish will no longer modify the appearance of your helm. You might be tempted to pass over this purely cosmetic, minor change without a second thought. You might not even retain that you read it. But wait a minute; since when are Engineers afraid to fly their freak flag?

Engineers are rooted in a rich tradition of the wild and wacky. They get a thrill out of taking risks and often willingly endure unexpected and nonsensical inconveniences just to brighten up their days. They march to the beat of their own, experimentally tinkered with, untested underwater rocket drums.

Here are but a few examples of their fun-loving fashion sense:


Farewell, funky helmet. Soon, if you desire too look like the mad scientist that you truly are, you'll have to sport an outdated Gnomish Mind Control Cap instead.

Quicker campfires
Basic Campfire is having its cast-time reduced from 10 seconds down to 2. This small matter of convenience will come in handy in our impatient in-game environment, although anyone seriously annoyed with its current incarnation should really have taken up Blacksmithing in Orgrimmar. Blizzard is only trying to teach us patience, you know.

Seriously though, this is a minor, but handy little change, although it did raise one question in my mind. Wouldn't it have been more fun to link the quicker cast-time to the Chef's Hat? Sure, this would mean that lowbies would make slower campfires, but hey, they do a lot of things slower. Especially now that they get super cheap mounts very early, they probably don't need to be spoiled any further.

More raiding buffs!
This has been covered, but not by Insider Trader, so I thought I'd do a quick review for those of you who aren't in the loop. Some of the most coveted class specific buffs are becoming craftable. The reagents for these items are still undergoing changes.


  • A Scribe will be able to grant a raid-wide replacement Power Word: Fortitude using the Runescroll of Stamina. This translates to 165 stamina for a period of 1 hour.Now, you won't feel like you have to bring a Priest.

  • Leatherworkers will make Drums of Forgotten Kings and Drums of the Wild, which grant Kings and Gift of the Wild, respectively. This will help out your raid should it lack a Paladin or a Druid.


The primary function of these items is to help out 10-man raiding guilds who don't want to be stuck bringing players for buffs that they might otherwise leave behind, or don't even have available, and it is more common than you might think. In the absence of a class, anyone with the above professions will do instead.

While this isn't a fully fledged, inclusive system yet, it does mean that crafting professions will once again be playing an important role in the world of raiding.

WoW Warriors: Old Mechanics

This week, The Care and Feeding of Warriors looks back at the legacy of the Warrior class through the original game and two expansions. Matthew Rossi remembers when Taunt cost rage. Remember that? Makes you shudder, doesn't it?

I don't mean crotchety guys in stained overalls working on your car.

No, what I'm talking about is the foundation of the warrior class itself, those abilities that are holdovers from the very beginning of the game. It's hard to remember sometimes, with a game that changes and flows with time the way WoW has, that things were once very, very different... I still remember when they fixed the bug that kept dodges, parries and blocked attacks from generating any rage, hoo boy was that one a killer for warriors... and some of our abilities date back to the very beginning of the game or shortly after it. (Pummel was removed in patch 1.1.0, for instance, and returned in patch 1.2.0, when Maraudon was introduced.) I personally have a very hard time remembering not having Pummel, which is probably because I didn't use Berserker Stance enough before that patch went live. It's even more interesting to note that before patch 1.2.0 Berserker Stance granted a flat 10% melee haste instead of 3% crit, the kind of stat that probably would have had me scratching my head in confusion back then. (I don't scratch my head now, I just kind of grunt softly and bang on the monolith with a bone.)

Having been ridiculously sick this week, I've had plenty of time to sit and think about the game and how it has changed over the years, since I couldn't actually play much. (I tried logging on and I got so dizzy I nearly passed out, it wasn't until today that I could even stomach it for a few minutes.) With Cataclysm looming on the horizon (and man, it feels like it's coming out next month or something to me, I don't know why) I started thinking about abilities and mechanics that could be revamped or even tossed out entirely. One easy one? Take Mortal Strike and Bloodthirst off of the same cooldown. That one's kind of a non-issue, admittedly. I mean, you could spec for both, if you wanted to, but you wouldn't. It just annoys me that they're on the same cooldown, I don't really care if anything is done about it.

What do I care about, then? I'm glad you asked.

Heroic Strike. It's possible that no other ability (outside of Charge, anyway) has as much claim to be an iconic, everyman ability for Warriors as HS does. You have it no matter what spec you are. It's useful for DPS and tanking. Sure, it's not as flashy as Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst, or Devastate, not as sexy when you're tanking as Shield Slam, not as impressive when DPSing as an Bloodsurge Slam or an Overpower or Execute made possible through one of Arms' proc abilities But HS is still there, helping to bleed off rage and convert it into damage or threat (or both, depending on what you're doing) pretty much the same way it always has.

The problem with HS is twofold: first off, it's basically constantly in use when tanking. Especially as damage taken increases and Warrior tanks have to worry less and less about rage generation and more and more about survival (meaning that they gear almost exclusively for survival when tanking) all the rage that comes in is almost immediately converted back out via constant use of the Heroic Strike ability. I actually have HS macro'd to my Devastate and Revenge keys so that when I use either of them I queue up a Heroic Strike as well. Quite frankly, when I'm tanking, it's very unlikely that I'll get a 'not enough rage' error even with the macro in place, especially when tanking in raids. (In five mans, I may have to adjust my gear for more threat stats, as if I wear my raid tanking set I can avoid too much damage to keep up with DPS threat, I simply won't have the rage. That's a different issue, however.) By itself this might not seem like that big a deal: make Heroic Strike something you don't want/need to spam, you might say. Change it to have a cooldown, jack up its threat to compensate, we're good to go.

That would be fine, except that HS isn't just a tanking ability. Arms Warriors use it infrequently to bleed rage, but Fury uses it (especially glyphed so that an HS crit will generate 10 rage instead of costing rage) as a crucial part of its rotation. Since it serves a role in DPS rotations, making it a Junior Shield Slam (cooldown, big threat) is untenable unless it is replaced for DPS. Taking HS out of its current 'jack of all trades' functionality without a replacement of some kind would neuter Warrior DPS (especially Fury). Similarly, just adding a toggle so that you didn't have to press the HS button at all (the way some Hunter pet abilities work, firing whenever the pet has enough focus) doesn't seem likely or desirable.

The two solutions that seem most obvious to me (and please, feel free to suggest your own) are either to split HS into two abilities, a 'tanking' HS that had the extra threat and a cooldown of some kind or some other limitation that would prevent it from being spammed (but again, this runs the risk of transforming it into Junior Shield Slam or Junior Revenge, both of which we already have) and a 'DPS' HS that doesn't have the added threat (frankly, I've always hated that HS has added threat when I use it in my DPS rotations, especially since Arms/Fury Warriors have no threat dump). Another possibility would be to change the ability so that the added threat is only provided when it is used in Defensive Stance, perhaps by altering it into an instant attack with a short cooldown instead of an on-next attack ability, while removing the threat when used in Battle and Berserker Stance but retaining its on-next status. Since rage generation is much more of a concern for DPS, this might be tenable.

Then again, I could be missing the fact that in Cataclysm, warrior tanking will be far different and not nearly so 'stand there and soak ridiculous amounts of damage' oriented. Perhaps HS will become a rage generation attack, similar to how some Death Knight abilities generate runic power, which will make it something warriors use when they specifically need rage for other abilities (perhaps that Mortal Strike/Bloodthirst combo once they're not on the same cooldown calm down and put the pitchforks away it was a joke sheesh people).

Next week, hopefully I will have been able to sit in front of my computer for more than 20 minutes without hurling so that I can talk about gearing a new Arms warrior at 80 like I promised two columns ago.

WoW: Phat Loot Phriday: Black Jelly


It's the third anniversary of Phat Loot Phriday and in celebration we bring you an item that we can all enjoy. So raise a pint and enjoy the feast before you!

Name: Black Jelly (Wowhead, Thottbot, Real life)
Type: Common FoodDamage/Speed: N/A
Attributes:

  • Why are we featuring a food on Phat Loot Phriday? Because it's only the best food in the game right now -- this baby restores 45,000 health and 38,400 mana in one sitting. For both of those, this is the biggest gain you can get.


  • Unfortunately, it restores those over a period of one minute, which is a pretty long time to be eating. In fact, the Conjured Mana Strudel (the highest level Mage food) restores exactly half of the health and mana in exactly half the time. In terms of a ratio, this food isn't that great (not to mention it costs way more than a Mage's mana -- see below).

  • But on the other hand, if you want to /afk while eating and you have a ton of health and mana to regain, this is the food for you.

  • And I can already hear you all complaining: "Mike, not everyone can use it!" You're right, there's a level 75 level requirement on it. But other than that, regardless of race, class, or creed, everyone can use it.


How to Get It: It's a cooking recipe, put into the game in patch 3.1. So you've got to hit 400 Cooking skill, and then the chef over at the Argent Tournament Grounds, Bethany Cromwell, will teach it to you.

After you get the recipe, you'll just need 3 Borean Man'owar per Black Jelly you want to make. The best place to get those is around the edges of the Borean Tundra, so fly through there on your daily quest rounds, pick up a bunch of Borean jellyfish, and then you'll never have to bother a Mage for food again.

Oh, and while you can pick up the recipe at 400, it goes green at 412 and gray at 425. So if you're leveling cooking up right now, it's probably not a bad thing to make to get those skill points, as you'll always be able to use the item as food later on.

Getting Rid of It: You can sell it on the AH for a relatively nice price (for a lot more than you can sell a Conjured Mana Strudel, I'll tell you that), or you can give it away to vendors for 2s 23c.

September 16, 2009

WoW FigurePrints price reduction, armor sets available

Our friends over at FigurePrints have a few pieces of news to share this weekend: first of all, they've dropped the price in the EU from €129.95 (which was about $166) to €99.95, which lines up with the US price of $129.95. The reason given for the original higher price was exchange rates, but they now say things have settled down enough where they can line up the prices. No word on if EU people who ordered them at the higher price will be getting a refund, so I'd assume they won't.

Also, they have now implemented the Tier armor sets we were told about in our interview at BlizzCon -- instead of ordering a FigurePrint with your usual gear on it, you can instead choose to dress your character in Tier 1, 2, or 3, dungeon set 1 or 2, or the original PvP Rare or Epic armor sets. That's designed so that characters don't have to go back and collect all of those pieces -- if you'd rather remember your character in that original armor from the vanilla game, there you go.

And finally, everyone who purchases a FigurePrint before November 10th will be entered in a sweepstakes to win a Magic Rooster TCG card that you can exchange for an in-game rooster mount. Probably not enough to make you get a FigurePrint out of the blue (there are, of course, other ways to win those cards), but if you've been planning on picking one up anyway, it could be a nice bonus.

2v2 team hits 3206 team rating, 3585 personal rating

A 2v2 team on US-Ruin has somehow achieved an unheard-of 3206 team rating. Paper Cut Your Eyelids' team leader is Cäke, a Blood Elf Priest in three-piece Deadly, one-piece Furious Gladiator gear. His Orc partner, Kwamo, a nearly full Furious Assassination Rogue, has somehow amassed a 3585 personal rating on the curiously successful team. This is pretty amazing when you consider the highest 2v2 team last season was rated below 3000.

Red flags are going up over this one, folks.

The team has a strangely unimpressive win ratio of 82-71. If each of their losses brought the team down 0 points, (which we know is untrue from their match history), each of their wins would average out to slightly greater than ~39 points per win. As they are nearly 400 team rating above the next highest team on the battlegroup, one would assume their gains would decrease dramatically the higher they ascend.


Moreover, the team's match history is incredibly weird. Before the team's ridiculously large -938 point loss (at 1220 rating), their match history seems to be perfectly normal. As they ascend the ladder, their winning gains gradually decrease from 47 to the mid 30s. Losses count 0 against them (this is normal), as their match making rating ("MMR") is presumed to be greater than 1200.

The -938 point loss is where things start getting fun.

The armory recording a large point gain or loss "between games," or "in one game," is not necessarily rare. Sometimes, during armory updates, the match history doesn't keep track of games. If a team plays a lot of games in that period, the system will sometimes record teams as going +200 points with no real recollection of how they got there.

So, not necessarily a big deal there... except they went down 938 points from 1220 to 282. To go down that low means your MMR has to be sub-282. Attaining an MMR of those ridiculously low proportions would entail lots and lots of defeat, on purpose, to exceptionally poorly-rated teams. The time this would take would be staggering.

Of course, this wouldn't make much sense either, as a win is registered as giving the team +47 points. To gain 47 points, your match making rating has to be vastly above your team rating. Players who have an MMR of 800 are still vastly above 0, which explains why even they get 47 point wins when starting a new team.

Now, let's take a look at their losses: You would assume that for 47 points won, they would lose 0 points on a loss. Not so. They actually lose 47 points as well, giving them that very weird two point line effect that you see during the second half of their match history. They bounce from 282 to 329 and back many, many times, ending at 329 although the armory has them recorded at 3209. No, Office Space fans, I doubt this is a decimal error.

The mystery doesn't stop there, however: the games themselves are odd.

In most of the team's peculiar wins, Cäke was 1v2ing and got 1 killing blow. Cäke's rogue partner, Kwamo, was nowhere to be found in most of these games. If he entered the arena but disconnected previous to combat initiating, the Armory would show the rogue on game history with 0 damage done, 0 damage received, etc. -- but none of that appears. Virtually all of the teams are different, so it is extremely unlikely that win trading is going on, but something obviously isn't right.

Regardless of what's going on here, it will be interesting to see what happens.

Update: Armory has updated to show the team has played a few more games, and is now rated 2677 with a record of 95-94. Kwamo's personal rating is 3056, down from the 3585 armory had him at earlier.

2v2 team hits 3206 team rating, 3585 personal rating

A 2v2 team on US-Ruin has somehow achieved an unheard-of 3206 team rating. Paper Cut Your Eyelids' team leader is Cäke, a Blood Elf Priest in three-piece Deadly, one-piece Furious Gladiator gear. His Orc partner, Kwamo, a nearly full Furious Assassination Rogue, has somehow amassed a 3585 personal rating on the curiously successful team. This is pretty amazing when you consider the highest 2v2 team last season was rated below 3000.

Red flags are going up over this one, folks.

The team has a strangely unimpressive win ratio of 82-71. If each of their losses brought the team down 0 points, (which we know is untrue from their match history), each of their wins would average out to slightly greater than ~39 points per win. As they are nearly 400 team rating above the next highest team on the battlegroup, one would assume their gains would decrease dramatically the higher they ascend.


Moreover, the team's match history is incredibly weird. Before the team's ridiculously large -938 point loss (at 1220 rating), their match history seems to be perfectly normal. As they ascend the ladder, their winning gains gradually decrease from 47 to the mid 30s. Losses count 0 against them (this is normal), as their match making rating ("MMR") is presumed to be greater than 1200.

The -938 point loss is where things start getting fun.

The armory recording a large point gain or loss "between games," or "in one game," is not necessarily rare. Sometimes, during armory updates, the match history doesn't keep track of games. If a team plays a lot of games in that period, the system will sometimes record teams as going +200 points with no real recollection of how they got there.

So, not necessarily a big deal there... except they went down 938 points from 1220 to 282. To go down that low means your MMR has to be sub-282. Attaining an MMR of those ridiculously low proportions would entail lots and lots of defeat, on purpose, to exceptionally poorly-rated teams. The time this would take would be staggering.

Of course, this wouldn't make much sense either, as a win is registered as giving the team +47 points. To gain 47 points, your match making rating has to be vastly above your team rating. Players who have an MMR of 800 are still vastly above 0, which explains why even they get 47 point wins when starting a new team.

Now, let's take a look at their losses: You would assume that for 47 points won, they would lose 0 points on a loss. Not so. They actually lose 47 points as well, giving them that very weird two point line effect that you see during the second half of their match history. They bounce from 282 to 329 and back many, many times, ending at 329 although the armory has them recorded at 3209. No, Office Space fans, I doubt this is a decimal error.

The mystery doesn't stop there, however: the games themselves are odd.

In most of the team's peculiar wins, Cäke was 1v2ing and got 1 killing blow. Cäke's rogue partner, Kwamo, was nowhere to be found in most of these games. If he entered the arena but disconnected previous to combat initiating, the Armory would show the rogue on game history with 0 damage done, 0 damage received, etc. -- but none of that appears. Virtually all of the teams are different, so it is extremely unlikely that win trading is going on, but something obviously isn't right.

Regardless of what's going on here, it will be interesting to see what happens.

Update: Armory has updated to show the team has played a few more games, and is now rated 2677 with a record of 95-94. Kwamo's personal rating is 3056, down from the 3585 armory had him at earlier.

Patch 3.2.2 Hunters see changes to Bestial Wrath

Ghostcrawler has reached into his mysterious bags of tricks and drew out the Hunter card once again it seems. Last week we discussed the recent change to Armor Penetration. While we all agree that it is a nerf to Marksman Hunters and will reduce their DPS. The jury is still out on whether it is a game mechanics correction (which I tend to believe) or some evil plot to cause Hunters to spend more gold.

Well the changes continued to happen. Last Thursday we heard more from Ghostcrawler regarding a new change that will be hitting Beast Master Hunters in Patch 3.2.2. The interesting thing about this recent change is it is both a buff and a nerf. To help explain what I mean let's take a closer look at how Ghostcrawler explained the change on the Damage Dealing Forums.

"Since the changes seem to be causing confusion, here is the new tooltip.

'Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 10 sec (down from 18). While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed.'

The tooltip doesn't say this, but it now breaks all forms of CC that a PvP trinket would break (including Cyclone, Sap, etc.).

'Increases all damage you deal by 10% and while your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 20% for 10 sec (down from 18). While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.'

So the changes are:
Duration lowered.
Passive hunter damage buff added.
Now breaks all forms of CC (whatever a PvP trinket breaks, including Sap and Cyclone)."

So let's compare that to what we have today with Bestial Wrath and The Beast Within:

Bestial Wrath says, "Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 18 sec. While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed."

The Beast Within now says, "When your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 20% for 18 sec. While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed."

So what's changed?

First we notice that the Bestial Wrath's duration of the pet's additional damage is down from 18 to 10 seconds. Next we notice that the decrease of The Beast Within's duration from 18 seconds to 10. So I'll admit that change is a nerf. There's an 8 second reduction in the amount of time Hunters and their pets can do some serious face ripping of their opponent. That's going to hurt the Beast Cleave teams in PvP and Arena for sure.

But then let's look at the positive side of things, the buffs.

Taking a look first at something that Ghostcrawler states is not in the tooltip, but is in the game mechanics. The Beast Within will break all forms of CC. This will include Sap and Cyclone. That's got to be something to look forward to in PvP, right? It might be considered a waste to some, but consider it an extra PvP trinket. Get Sapped by a nasty Rogue, pop your trinket. Then if you get Cycloned, pop BW and then you get to just take out all your frustration on that overstuffed furry chicken called a Moonkin Druid. And if the PvP-ers don't think that this is a buff, I know several PvE players that will love the idea of having an ability to break CC and get right back to pounding out massive DPS.

The next good thing to come out is kind of hidden in there. Because of the effect now being part of Besital Wrath, it seems if your pet gets killed in the middle of the battle, you may not lose the Hunter buff. At first I thought I was the only one with this understanding, but then I came across this post by Pike of Aspect of the Hare explaining the exact same thing. Now if that is what Ghostcrawler meant by the passive Hunter buff, then this will be a great way to get BM back into the raiding scene again.

Basically, I think I agree with Ghostcrawler on this one. PvP Duration is a nerf, and will do serious harm to the Beast Cleave arena teams. However the change seems to be balanced out by the PvE buffs to Hunter damage and the ability to break all forms of CC. So tell me, what do you think? Agree? Disagree?

WoW Tanking the Northrend Beasts

The Argent Crusade has assembled a number of trials for champions, crusaders, and grand crusaders alike to fight through as they decide what forces they will take in their assault against Icecrown Citadel itself. Today, we'll take a look at the first of the events in Trial of the Crusader which is the Northrend Beasts encounter. They've assembled Magnataur, Jormungars, and Yeti (Oh My!) to test the mettle of those wishing to compete. We'll take a look at tanking each of these beasts after the break.

In the first phase, you've got a large and very nasty Magnataur named Gormok the Impaler. As his name implies, he will be throwing down a debuff called Impale which will stack up to ten times if you let him keep beating on you. This means that you'll be taking 1750 to 2250 damage every two seconds per application in the 10-man version or 2188 to 2812 in 25-man. Being that it will last 30 or 40 seconds depending on your raid size and it gets refreshed with each application, you will have to use two tanks in order to stay alive. As a tank, this will feel a lot like the Gluth fight from Naxxramas.

After accumulating anywhere from 2-6 stacks depending on both your gear and your healer's skill, you'll swap tanks to let the debuff dissipate. As a paladin, you can use some tricks to help make this easier. Hitting Divine Shield on yourself will instantly clear the debuff once the other tank has taken over. You should make sure to clear your bubble immediately though. A good macro for doing this is:

/cancelaura Divine Shield
/cast Divine Shield

Clicking this macro once will cast Divine Shield and clicking it again will then cancel your Divine Shield. This is a great macro for tanking as it can occasionally save your shiny, armored butt if you accidentally stand in Bad Stuff (tm) or just need to clear debuffs (other uses include: Hodir's Flash Freeze and Razorscale's Fuse Armor before you've completely become a statue).

Now that you have your debuff cleared and the other tank has taken their appropriately deep stack of Impale, it's time to taunt and start the process back over again. One thing you can do to help out the healers is after taunting, you can cast Hand of Protection on the other tank to clear their Impale stack. I'm sure the healers will love you for it. Just make sure you let the other tank know you're doing this in case you die for some unexplained reason and they can't figure out why the boss is ignoring their threat.

After a couple swaps back and forth and hearing people in Vent complaining about Snobolds and patches of fire (neither of which should really affect you tanking), Gormok will die and your next two challenges will appear.

The second phase has Acidmaw and Dreadscale as your opponents. They're a pair of highly agitated Jormungars (aka: worms) that the Argent Crusade dug up from somewhere. Each worm must be tanked separately, so each tank should designate their target. At the start, Dreadscale will be slithering across the surface while Acidmaw will be sticking its head up through the floor of the coliseum and will be stationary. Every so often, they'll both duck underground and change positions. There is a little cloud of dust on the surface that you can follow to see where they're going. After they pop back up, the opposite worm will then be mobile while the originally mobile one will be stationary.

Acidmaw uses nature based attacks and Dreadscale uses fire based attacks so make sure that you or another Paladin swaps over to Fire Resistance Aura. Both worms have a spew area effect when stationary and a spray cone effect they do mobile. Acidmaw's spray leaves a Paralytic Toxin debuff which reduces movement speed by 10% in addition to 3k nature damage every 2 seconds. The only way to remove Paralytic Toxin is to find someone who has been attacked by Dreadscale and gotten the Burning Bile debuff from his spray or bite. Burning Bile causes 3238 to 3762 fire damage every 2 seconds to all allies within 10 yards. This means that unless you're fixing someone who has Paralytic Toxin, you should keep your distance from your fellow raid members. As the Dreadscale tank should often be the only one with the Burning Bile debuff, they'll occasionally need to go over and help remove the Paralytic Toxin from the Acidmaw tank and melee dps.

The most important part of this fight is to keep both the worms facing away from the raid to prevent the debuffs above from hitting them. You can organize this ahead of time that you'll always have them face a certain direction (ie: north, east, etc) or you can play it by ear and call out the direction over chat.

When you're tanking the mobile worm, it's a bit like Grobbulus where you have to kite the boss around while keeping it facing away from the raid. Every so often, the worm will drop a Slime Pool on the ground which inflicts around 2k nature damage every second. Definitely not something you want to stand in while tanking.

Unless you're going for the Not One, But Two Jormungars achievement that requires killing the two within ten seconds of each other, the DPS should be concentrating primarily on Acidmaw during this fight and then swapping over to Dreadscale when Acidmaw is down. As soon as you have killed one worm, the other will enrage and start doing 50% more damage than he was earlier. If you still have some people affected by Paralytic Toxin at this point, you may want to swap tanks on Dreadscale and have the other tank unsticking people.

Once Acidmaw and Dreadscale are both worm food themselves, a giant Yeti will lumber into the arena.

As far as third phase goes, it can either be very easy or a spectacular amount of suckage depending on how well your raid group moves. Icehowl looks like a massive and extremely scary yeti, but he's a pushover if people just stay out of his way.

Feel free to tank Icehowl where ever you like, because he'll be moving soon anyways. During the tankable phase, the only major attack you need to watch out for is his Ferocious Butt attack that hits for between 60k-70k on 10-man and 70k-80k on 25-man as well as stunning you for a little under 3 seconds. All of that damage is before mitigation so don't panic too much as that comes down to around 22k or so. While one tank can do this fight, it is safer to have a second tank taunt when the headbutt hits and tank him while you're stunned. Switch back accordingly or as cooldowns permit. That said, as a Paladin with the Ardent Defender talent, you can take a substantial amount of damage during the short time you're stunned if your healers are on their game.

He'll also occasionally pick a raid member and do a cone attack called Arctic Breath that freezes everyone in it's path for five seconds as well as doing 3000 to 4000 damage per second. This is a pain, but you can get out of it with that little Divine Shield macro I mentioned earlier and back to tanking. As this is a channeled spell, if you do get caught in it you don't have to worry about Icehowl rampaging through the raid eating all healers and rogues in his wake.

The part that everyone should be looking for is Icehowl's Massive Crash followed by his Trample. This is where he knocks everyone in the raid back against the walls, stuns them for a moment, and then picks one raid member to charge. This includes a nice little emote message to let you know who he's going to pounce. After you get knocked back to the walls, you'll get a speed buff called Surge of Adrenaline for 8 seconds. Use that speed buff to get the heck out of Icehowl's path. This whole section is telegraphed by his movements and there is plenty of time for everyone to get clear as well as see which direction he is going to charge.

Let's just take a moment here to say what happens if you don't get clear of his charge. Everyone in his path will be hit for 50k damage. Besides that, he goes into a Frothing Rage that increases both physical damage and attack speed by 50% unless a Hunter with Tranquilizing Shot or Rogue with Anesthetic Poison can bring him out of it. This sucks. This is a blow all cooldowns type of tanking moment presuming you weren't the person hit and are now lying dead on the floor (or wall, or ceiling, or where ever you corpse landed). If the person hit was a tank or a healer this may cause a wipe.

Luckily, it's fairly easy to avoid this. In that case, Icehowl runs into the wall and falls into a Staggered Daze during which he's stunned and takes 100% extra damage for fifteen seconds. There is some debate whether damage taken during this time period causes threat or not. Regardless, this is a perfect moment to pop Avenging Wrath and try for some of that non-existent Protection Paladin DPS.

When he wakes back up, he usually seems to do an Arctic Breath and then you tank a while until the process repeats. As long as your raid avoids the tramples and you can survive the headbutts, the fight goes quickly and easily. All that is left is loot at that point.

What types of tank gear can you expect to find in his fuzzy remains besides three Emblems of Triumph? Well, as gear is now segregated by faction even though it has the same stats, we end up with the following.

In 10 man you might find...

Dreadscale Bracers for Horde
Dreadscale Armguards for Alliance In 25 man you could get...

A Trophy of the Crusade which is the universal armor token for the Horde and Alliance armor sets.
Crystal Plated Vanguard for Alliance
Forlorn Barrier for Horde
Chestplate of the Towering Monstrosity for Alliance Hauberk of the Towering Monstrosity for Horde

Shifting Perspectives: WoW Leveling 61-70

Only one more leveling guide after this, and then we'll be heading into an array of new articles I've been planning for a while, and a Druid perspective on tanking issues raised by Matt Rossi's article. I will probably be turning some of this material into just plain Druid posts rather than Shifting Perspectives columns, though, as otherwise it'll take longer than I'd like to get them all posted.

LEVEL 61

In Outland and Northrend, you'll be training new ranks each level as opposed to every other level, so don't forget to hit your trainer promptly with each level-up.

Shred, rank 6: standard upgrade. Wrath, rank 9: standard upgrade.

LEVEL 62

Cat form gets a non-stealth stun approximately a billion years after its Rogue counterparts, but that's it for the new stuff.

Maim: An unholy mating of the Rogue abilities Eviscerate and Kidney Shot, Maim is Cat form's only interrupt (unless you count Pouncing a mob or player whose attention is directed elsewhere) and is a Stun effect as of patch 3.1, as opposed to the Incapacitate it was previously. What's the difference? Incapacitate effects can be broken by damage, while stuns can't be. While this sounds like a good deal for Druid PvP, it also means that the Maim stun shares diminishing returns with Pounce and Bash. Don't forget that Maim is a baseline ability and you can use it on a mob/player even if you're not Feral. Building combo points on an enemy player to Maim them at a later point is a classic technique of Resto PvP (though considerably more common in BC arena than it is nowadays). Maim also comes in handy versus PvE mobs; if you're fighting a caster or healer, you've got a double interest in opening from Pounce, because in decent gear it's possible to take a mob from 100% to 0% without allowing it to get a cast off. What are your odds of doing this versus a player? Not all that terribly high. Even if you switch to Bear in order to get Bash off, a Druid's ability to "stunlock" is considerably less than that of a Rogue's even if you've talented into Brutal Impact, but the damage that Maim applies is also useful (particularly combined with Pounce's DoT and Rake) in draining their health. While out grinding, Maim can and should be used defensively to stun an enemy or mob if you're low on health and need to pop out and heal -- or if you need to make a break for it and get a head start.
Demoralizing Roar, rank 6: standard upgrade. Healing Touch, rank 12: standard upgrade.
LEVEL 63

Rollin', rollin', rollin', keep that Lifebloom rollin', you don't have Lifebloom just yet, Raw-HIDE.

Ferocious Bite, rank 6: standard upgrade. Moonfire, rank 11: standard upgrade. Rejuvenation, rank 12: standard upgrade. LEVEL 64

The much-beloved (and much-nerfed) Lifebloom makes its debut!

Lifebloom: Lifebloom is one of those abilities that seems doomed to a life of endless tinkering, as we've previously observed. During BC, the spell was significantly cheaper than it is nowadays (and also wasn't possible to extend beyond a 6-second duration), to the point where Trees who were healing multi-tank fights were little other than glorified Lifebloom-bots. In Wrath -- at least at the present time -- it's a very mana-intensive (and usually ill-advised) proposition to roll Lifebloom on more than one tank at a time. Lifebloom adds another insta-HoT to our healing arsenal, but it requires a little more thought and attention than Rejuvenation or the talented Wild Growth. For PvE raiding, it still finds its best use being stacked and "rolled" (i.e. not allowed to reach its final heal, or "bloom") on a tank unless you deliberately allow it to bloom to deal with sudden burst; in 5-mans, you can still stack it if needed but can a little more liberal with the bloom due its mana return; in PvP, Lifebloom is one of our more annoying abilities versus an enemy due to its forced bloom upon dispel (screw 'em, if they didn't want it to heal than they shouldn't have tried to dispel it in the first place). As an interesting note, the threat generated by Lifebloom will belong to you during the rolling portion, but the threat of the final heal belongs to the person to whom it's applied. If you're a dedicated tank healer, you will want to pick up both Glyph of Lifebloom and the Balance talent Nature's Splendor (although it bears mentioning that any kind of Tree will want Nature's Splendor). It can be difficult for new Druids to keep track of the HoT's they have on targets; Tree Bark Jacket (which has recently moved; this is the old site) had an excellent post back in January on modifying Grid for this purpose that you'll want to read.
Rake, rank 5: standard upgrade. Swipe (Bear), rank 6: standard upgrade. Thorns, rank 7: standard upgrade.

LEVEL 65

Bears can start mumbling to themselves, "One more level to Lacerate...one more level to Lacerate..."

Dash, rank 3: standard upgrade. Regrowth, rank 10: standard upgrade. LEVEL 66

Another way to bleed things to death. Feral seems curiously focused on that sort of thing.

Lacerate: Lacerate needs to be stacked to 5 in any high-threat rotation versus a boss mob. For 5-man and trash-tanking, odds are good the mob's not going to live long enough to justify spending much time stacking it (the individual application of Lacerate does less threat than Swipe, and that's your primary concern while holding aggro against your LOLDPS), but it's still in your best interest to get at least one Lacerate going on as many mobs as you can. Why? Two reasons: a). Rend and Tear (you do have Rend and Tear, don't you?) and b). Primal Gore (you do have Primal Gore, don't you?). Rend and Tear is a significant contribution to Maul's threat, and the only way to get a mob bleeding as a Bear is to apply Lacerate (Mangle applies a debuff increasing bleed damage, but it doesn't actually cause a bleed in itself). If you're tanking, you want Lacerate up on your primary target at all times, and if you have Glyph of Maul (which you generally should in a dedicated Bear build), you also want it up on whatever secondary target the additional Maul is hitting. Also, because Savage Defense DOES proc from the Lacerate bleed crits granted by Primal Gore (and because Lacerate's threat is significantly better with the talent), you want to get Lacerate going early, triggering an SD proc and threat boost with each crit.
Pounce, rank 4: standard upgrade. Ravage, rank 5: standard upgrade. LEVEL 67

Claw, rank 6: standard upgrade. Redundant skill is redundant.
Maul, rank 8: standard upgrade. Rip, rank 7: standard upgrade. Starfire, rank 8: standard upgrade.

LEVEL 68

Get thee to Northrend, yongge wastrel, the lande of ices ynd snoo ynd very broun-colorred gears.

Entangling Roots, rank 7: standard upgrade. Nature's Grasp, rank 7: standard upgrade.

LEVEL 69

Cower, rank 5: standard upgrade. Largely useless skill is largely useless. Healing Touch, rank 13: standard upgrade. Rebirth, rank 6: standard upgrade, but don't forget to pick up some Flintweed Seeds.
Rejuvenation, rank 13: standard upgrade. Revive, rank 6: standard upgrade. Wrath, rank 10: standard upgrade.

LEVEL 70

Ah, 70...I miss you somewhat. Or maybe I just miss the days when people were actually putting Nightmare Seeds up on the auction house. Farming those things is a pain.

Cyclone: Oy. Possibly the second most-hated ability in BC PvP (the first would have been Fear), Cyclone is a short-lived but often ass-saving Banish effect that renders its target unable to do anything but float in midair mentally composing another apoplectic forum thread on the need to nerf Cyclone. The short duration makes it mostly useful as an escape mechanism in PvE and as the Druid's only baseline interrupt in caster form, but it's really in PvP that it, er, shines. I've embedded an early video from arena's Season 1 by a well-known EU Balance player named Tradix to demonstrate how Cyclone can be used both offensively and defensively. One of the things you'll also notice is that Tradix makes additional use of Cyclone by frequently timing Starfire casts (ordinarily difficult to get off in PvP) to land immediately after Cyclone breaks, providing a good source of burst on a target that can't avoid it.

Gift of the Wild, rank 3: standard upgrade, but don't forget to pick up some Wild Quillvine. Hurricane, rank 4: standard upgrade. Mark of the Wild, rank 8: standard upgrade. Moonfire, rank 12: standard upgrade. Shred, rank 7: standard upgrade. Soothe Animal, rank 4: standard upgrade. Tranquility, rank 5: standard upgrade.