Category: World of Warcraft

Personally, I prefer boomkin with bear off-spec for various reasons.
At times when I pick herbs sometimes getting agro from near by mobs is just unavoidable. Now I don’t like to fight a mob if I didn’t intend to fight it in first place. I like to keep my time short and be on my toes for most herb farming in shortest time possible. When I do get agro, I activate my torrents (trees) it’s a talent in boomkin tree so be sure you take it before Mists of Pandaria.  I send out my torrents at a mob or several mobs and while they fight, I pick my herb,  I slightly move away (not to agro other near by mobs) and I wait for my torrents to die. Once they die I shadowmeld, lose agro, get out of combat and hit instant flight form and fly away!

I used to use bear off-spec to farm herbs in Dire Maul when ghost mushroom was selling very high and also in Hinterlands in ooze caves I’d run around, gather up a pack of oozes, dps them down and collect mushrooms. So it comes quiet handy.

What other classes would be good for farming? Well both hunters and warlocks have pets. You send your pet to fight a mob and pick a herb before someone else flys to you and ninjas the herb from you while you are fighting a mob.

I, personally, if I see a person fighting a mob, I am not going to go and ninja herb/ore from him. It’s his/hers. But there are some people just like in real life who’d walk all over you to get what they want. Same in World of Warcraft. I had it happen to me several times and seen others getting pissed off too about it.

So these are my tips how effectively do herbalism and mining in world of warcraft. 

It’s a no brainer classes that don’t need to dismount or have some sort of pet that will fight the mob while you mine or collect herb in world of warcraft are the best races ad classes. You should always get mining/herbalism professions on your alt and NOT on your main. Simply because neither of these professions give great bonus to your armor. Altho some may disagree because living seed sometimes can be quiet handy and extra armor is good for tank (bonus you get from mining) still getting a 3 sockets as bonus or being able to craft 3 gems that have 17 more spell power per gem than a regular gem still outweighs the bonus.

Why a night elf druid? Because they have a shadowmeld (a racial ability).  What it does if you accidentally agro a near by mob or npc then you can move away and immediately drop agro (go invisible) and the mob will return to it’s original place and you will be combat free!

I find it very handy especially if you are picking flowers or mining in World of Warcraft during pick hours.

My son asked me to make a worgen he just has an obsession with them and I listened to him and created one.  And it was not one of my smart decisions to listen to my 9-year-old. I don’t feel like paying $25 to do a race change.

I also love druids for farming because of stealth ability. When Cataclysm was released and my husband was a casual player, he’d fly to Twilight Highlands, go inside the cave in stealth form and would farm 5-6 stacks of ore easily. Now, sometimes there was competition with rogues but not as much competition as it was when he tried to fly around and when he’d land, there’d be 5-6 people trying to mine same node. It was just ridiculous.

Why druids are best class for herbalism? They don’t even need to dismount to pick the damn herb! Just fly around and pick as you go. Also if you are going to make your alt your primary herbalism picker, I suggest investing gold and buying 310% mount speed! It’s a must! For some reason I thought I had maximum flying speed until I flew to Uldum where I saw 2-3 players just passing me by with ease as they flew by my side…I was wondering how they did it…I was in lvl 23 guild…everything seemed right till I realized that my mount speed was 280 and NOT 310 

Having the same difficulty between 10 and 25 player raids has been something long asked for by what seems like a growing portion of raiders that really enjoy raiding but don’t enjoy organizing 25 people. I count as one of those type of raiders, and for a long time avoided large raids once 10 players were introduced, just because of the complications they bring. There are many players that want a harder more challenging fight than the current 10 player raids provide, but are not up for interacting with an addition 15 players.

What would it be like if this was implemented in TBC?
This balance of difficulty will make that group of players very happy, as they were forced to participate in something they did not like just for the chance at better gear. Many players participated in 25 player raids simply because the loot was better, not because they wanted to be in a 25 player raid. Which brings us nicely to the second point. Now that the difficulty will be balanced more evenly between the two raid sizes, loot will be the same between the two sizes as well. As long as the difficulty is really maintained this is a good thing. If however one is easier or harder than another then players will migrate to that size raid.

Be prepared to read a lot of negative feedback from hardcore raiding guilds about this equalization however as they will see it, and probably rightfully so, as a further degradation and simplification of raiding. To the hardcore raider putting together, organizing, and controlling 25 players is part of the challenge of the game. While I completely agree with that statement, personally I still prefer 10 player raids for exactly those same reasons. For players that work and have jobs, dealing with employees, co-workers, and clients gives me plenty enough social interaction, management, and conflict management in real life, the last thing I want is dealing with it in game.

One of the positive things about sharing loot exactly though is that in theory Blizzard will have to produce less loot and therefore can spend more time on different looking and acting loot. Right now a lot of time is spent balancing two different levels of loot and trying to make them different enough for the different content. Now the loot can be the same because the difficulty will be the same.

Next up, Blizzard has stated that they are really aiming for several smaller raids to start off with rather than a single larger raid. This is apparently to make it easier for players to get in, complete a raid, and get out before they have time issues. While in theory this is good, it does create issues. As we all saw with ToC when a raid gets too short and does not require a time investment, players start treating it like nothing more than a heroic instance with better loot. As such it becomes constantly pugged with people groups as something that can be dropped at any time. Far too many people started treating these short raids as trivial too quickly and they never stuck around in them.

Now onto the far more dicey of the core issues, that of a shared lockout for both the 10 and 25 player raid. I can understand the need for this since loot will be the same in both and therefore being able to go in for two chances at the same items in a one week period would allow players to gear up too quickly. Even though I can understand it, I am pretty sure players will not be that happy about it, I know that I am not. When doing raid progression in a game, I prefer to focus on one character at a time. Up until this point there has always been enough to keep busy on a character for at least a month or so before you really have time to move on to another character.

In this new setup with a few smaller raids, it seems likely that you could be done all the available raids in a few days and still have the rest of the week open for raiding. However, since your character is now saved to a shared lockout you can not simply find an alternate size to go to. You will need to have an alternate character to go to another run. This will probably not hurt hardcore raiders as they tend to have multiple characters but will hurt casuals as they will not be able to participate again in a raid until the following week. 

The first really critical step is to figure out your expectations. This means figuring out what kind of raider you plan to be and what kind of raid group you want to join. Theses are important things to consider, so take your time with them.

Lastly, if you are the ultra competitive player and have a whole ton of time to spend raiding then you may have what it takes to be a hardcore raider. Think carefully about this though, if you do get into a group you will be expected to be there each and every time a raid is going on or risk being kicked. Also if you are DPS, expect to be pushed, if you slip up and fall more than 10% back from the top DPS expect to have to answer as to why. DPS greatly outnumbers all other class types and so there is a lot more competition for a DPS slot in a raid. Therefore DPS players will generally take longer to find a raiding guild and more is expected of them right off the bat.

These are the basic types of raiding guilds. There are others that skirt the lines between the categories, but in general try to determine who you are and where you would fit best. Remember, even if you want to be a hardcore raider, if you can’t dedicate the time don’t waste your time or theirs, do what you are able to do.

Expect Rejection – This is important when you first start out as you are going to be turned down a lot, especially if you are trying to get into a hardcore raiding guild. Looking for a casual or middle tier raiding guild will not be quite as bad, but still takes some time. After all, when you are in a raiding guild you tend to grow a little cliquish. You run with and raid with the same players for a while and it is easy to forget there are more players out there; you get comfortable with what you have.

Therefore, when guilds go to recruit they tend to be very picky. They know they will be spending a lot of time with a player and are looking for someone that either fits with them socially or play style wise or is the absolute best regardless of personality (people can always be muted). Even though you want it, your personality may not mesh with theirs and you may have to keep looking. Expect this and be ready for it, after all if a guild is too easy to get into, would you really want to be there to raid?

Find out which guilds are where in terms of content completionInformation Gathering – While looking find out as much as you can about a guild before you actually apply to them. This may be by asking players in the guild or that have been in the guild about it and how it works. It could also involve checking their progress out online to see where they are.

Beyond where they are in the game, you want to find out some basic stuff about them, such as raid times, raid frequency, their general ages (adults only, kids only, mix), time zone most players are in, raid level, gear level, loot rules used, attendance rules, language rules, and more.

Some of the items on the list may sound small, but can add up over time. If you are an adult and join a mainly kid (under 18) guild you may not fit in due to interest, or just find them annoying, or they may not like you for saying that yes they should be doing their homewok rather than raiding when they complain about it. Also language can be a big issue for some, I am not against swearing at all, but once joined a guild where every other word in vent started with an F, C, A, or B. Not particularly nice to listen to all night. Sure they were great raiders, I just couldn’t cope with it after a few weeks. Some players may not wear a headset, and this wouldn’t go over well if a parent, spouse, or child walked within earshot of the computer.

Prepare for applying, make an effort – We all start someplace, so even if you are fresh to max level and not in a full epic setup, make the effort, show that you care. Sure you may still have some blue items, sure you may need some upgrades, but do the best with what you can before you apply. Don’t expect them to take you in crap gear. Look for best in slot blue items, epic crafted items, badge items and anything else you can. Then gem it, enchant it, and basically make it the best you can.

Even thought you will replace items, it shows you are trying to make an effort and know your character. Raiders can look at a character and see if you truly understand the class. Are you a rogue and gemming for strength, hmm may not get accepted. Following all the gem slot colors? You don’t understand min/maxing. 

This is it folks, the end of the golden age of raiding in World of Warcraft is upon us. As we advance further into Cataclysm we’re watching the curtains fall on everything that we know and understand about WoW and slowly march into the unknown that sits before us. As it stands, the bronze (vanilla) and silver (TBC) ages were advancements into where we stand now where the raiding dynamic allows almost everyone to play who shows a bit of interest in it. Yet, now, with the latest announcement we’re watching as the official forums have broken out into chaos; what civil discourse may have been there is now gone. Marshal Law has all but been declared as people are being temp banned left and right.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Be sure to read Cataclysm to Redefine Raid Progression to learn what the proposed changes entail.

As it stands right now, the game has a very firm line drawn between those that progression raid (the so called hardcore) and those that chew through the content at their own pace (the casuals). The hardcore are the ones who have Arthas down on 10 and 25 man and are working on the hardmodes as we speak. The casuals are the ones who were working somewhere at their own pace through the instances. Yet, with these coming changes, we may no longer have the term casual or hardcore; we may just be left with “raider” and “non-raider” as the content becomes trivialized.

Looking at the announcement it seems as if Blizzard is saying that they don’t want to punish those with a limited amount of time to raid. Yet, using that argument we can simply slide down a slippery slope. Should we be able to buy the best loot from vendors for gold so that we don’t punish the people who choose to farm gold all day (or even better, buy gold)? Should we be able to buy the best items for real life cash from the Blizzard Store so we don’t punish people who have jobs? Where does this argument end?

As Arthas falls to many progression guilds we’re finding ourselves looking to the future… one in which things will be changing drastically it seems.
Traditionally speaking, raiding has always been considered a hardcore sport for those who have the time to commit to it. Casuals are the ones who alt or farm gold or sit around chatting all day. The hardcore are those who take the time to go through the instances, down the bosses, and collect their rewards (and inflate their egos). The casuals use the game as an advanced chat client to talk with their mates and everything else is just a time waster while the hardcore are the ones who play the endgame in order to gloat.