Instance Running 101 Explored Part 10

Raid Icons.

Also known as magic tokens, cookies, lucky charms, 'those icon things' and so on.

Their purpose is to identify, without confusion, what needs to happen to which mob in a pull. The standards change from group to group and server to server, so it's always a good idea to decide at the beginning of the group who will be assigning the tokens (it has to be the group leader) and what each token means.

The UNM standard is as follows:
Skull - This is the target to be taken down first. All DPS hit this.
X - This used to mean 'don't touch', now it either means 'Kill second' or 'Offtank', to be decided at the pull.
Moon - Sheep/Banish/Stun. The first crowd control icon.
Orange circle/Square/pink diamond etc - More crowd control icons, if available. These can be assigned to the respective controller at the beginning.

This is, however, just the 'standard' and can be changed on the fly, of course. It's the assigner's duty to communicate icon assignments clearly, and the rest of the party's duty to check understanding.

That brings to an end the little delve into the basics of casual instance running. Stay tuned for our 102 classes, where we will cover things like loot rules, gearing progression, and when vanity pets are actually useful.

Instance Running 101 Explored Part 9

Crowd control skills.

This is a skill that needs a little practice. The leader needs to identify the target with a raid icon (more on those in the next post), the cc'er needs to control the target, and the rest of the group need to not break the cc!

Example of 'crowd control':
Mages have a polymorph spell. This means that the target gets turned into a sheep, and wanders around randomly. Breaks on any damage. The target also heals as fast as if it were out of combat, so it's not a good idea to sheep an almost-dead target. The spell only works on beasts, humanoids and critters.
Druids have a cyclone spell. This only lasts for 8 seconds, but doesn't break on damage. The target can't be damaged at all while under the effect. Very few mobs are immune to it.
Warlocks have a banish spell. This only works on Elementals and Demons. (including a Druid in 'Tree of Life' form). Can't be broken by damage, and the target can't be damaged.

And so on. As shown, the various crowd control spells have varying durations, allowable targets, and side effects. The short-term ones (cyclone, rogue stuns, etc) are more often used as emergency buttons for a bad situation (stopping a mob on the way to the healer, for example), while the long-terms spells (polymorph, a rogue's 'Sap', banish, etc) are normally used at the beginning of a fight for dealing with a particular target.

The goal behind 'cc' is to make a particular mob in a pull become a non-entity for the duration of the fight. A classic example is the following:
There is a pull with three mobs: Two mobs that heal, and one melee mob that hits hard. The kill order is the two healers first, and then the melee mob... however, the healers will keep each other alive while the melee mob does a lot of damage to the tank.

The leader marks one healer to be killed first, and then the melee mob to be killed second. The third is marked with the agreed 'cc' mark. When everyone is ready, the tank pulls and then the cc'er (lets say a mage, for the sake of the example) 'sheeps' the marked healer. The tank Line-of-sights the other two around the corner and then rest of the party focuses on killing the healer, and then killing the melee mob. The mage alternates between blasting the current target, and keeping the second healer sheeped. Once the other two mobs are down, the party can focus on the sheeped mob and 'burn it down', ie kill it as fast as possible.

A successful pull, due to the powers of cc! ;)

Instance Running 101 Explored Part 8

The healer keeps the tank alive. The tank keeps the healer alive. The dps look after themselves.

We've covered this one before, in the earlier posts on healing and threat and mitigation, but it's worth restating.

The logic is again simple. The tank has the most mitigation, therefore needing the least healing. The tank also has a maximum amount of threat that he can generate, which the rest of the party can easily exceed.

So, the healer has to keep the tank alive, as he's the one who's supposed to get beaten on.
The tank needs to keep the healer alive, as the healer is constrained by having to generate as much threat as it takes to keep the tank alive.

The DPS on the other hand, just have to do damage (and crowd controls etc, but most of those end up very easy with a bit of practice). Their sole constraint is generating less threat than the tank can generate. If they mess up and get aggro, then the healer keeping them alive risks running out of mana and wiping the whole attempt. It's better just to let him/her die and rely on the remaining DPS to be sufficient.

Till next time...

Instance Running 101 Explored Part 7

Line-of-sight.

This is, on the face of it, a simple one. It's amazing that people get it wrong as much as they do.

Casters need to see you to cast at you. If you annoy them and then run around the corner so they can't see you, then they will run forward to the corner to try get a look at you.

This makes it easy for the tank to get them all in a big group with the melee mobs so he can cleave/swipe/consecrate them all and build threat, so the casters then don't start beating on the healer when a heal ticks.

Unfortunately, while it's a simple idea, it's also simple to break. It's not just what the tank needs to do, it's what the others need to do or not do.

1) The mobs are going to be around the corner. Perhaps everyone else should stand around the corner where they're going to be.
2) Until the tank has started bashing on things, Don't Touch Them. He's probably pulled with a Faerie Fire or single arrow shot or something, and will have little to no threat on most of them. Hitting one will definately switch it to you, messing up the whole pull.
3) Don't heal/buff/drop new totems/etc until the tank has proper threat generated. All of these things applied during the weak part of the pull can get you aggro you don't want.
4) Don't stand near the mobs as they run over. At low aggro levels, untaunted mobs seem to be able to switch to closer targets.
5) If you're the tank, warn people that you're LoSing. That way, they know what to expect. Make a complete warning... don't just say 'LoS', rather say 'I'm going to pull them around the corner here, don't touch till I've hit the caster a few times.'

I think just those quick rules will make LoS pulls a lot more reliable.

Until next time...

A Steamvault PUG.

Hunters are famous for being Huntards. Night Elf Hunters especially.

I grouped up for an "easy" Steamvaults run last night. It should have been easy. My Druid is, in theory, geared for Heroics. Everyone else in the PUG was, in theory, an old hand at this content.

So much for theory.

What happened in practice was that we wiped 2 or 3 times.

What happened in practice was the tank mismanaged the pulls, and didnt use raid icons to mark CC targets for the mage and hunter.

What happened in pratice was the Hunter *insisted* on coming right to the front while the Tank was pulling. On at least two occasions, initiating combat *before* the Tank pulled. And not with a misdirection either.

This made it terribly difficult to pull the mobs right back, and LOS the casters to keep them bunched (and in range of a swipe). So we ended up fighting mobs that can cast fear in the middle of crowded rooms, with untagged casters eventually aggroing on the healer. At least two wipes were caused by overwhelming adds resulting from a 'fear' into nearby mobs.

To cap it all off, the Mage kept randomly going AFK to deal with "His Mother".

The only people doing their job was the Resto Druid, Feral Druid (DPS).

Oh. I was the tank. Sorry guys for wiping out multiple times on trivial content.

Instance Running 101 Explored Part 6

Pulling means mobs come to you.

This is a good opportunity to discuss aggro mechanics.

Firstly, a list of terms:
Mob - a non-player-character enemy. A kobold, or hellboar, or instance boss and so on.
Aggro - When a player has aggro, it means he is the primary target of the Mob, ie is the target that the mob will be attacking.
Threat - Described in more detail below, but basically the numerical value on the threat table.

Each mob has a little list (Referred to as the aggro table, normally) assigned to them. The list is filled with potential targets... the moment someone damages the mob, or heals/buffs someone already on the table, they get added to the table. The person at the top of the list is the person that the mob attacks.

Your position on the table is dependent on the amount of threat you have with that mob. Each point of damage you do to a mob is equal to one point of threat. Each point of healing you do to someone on the table is equal to half a point of threat. Buffs (that are applied during combat) have their own threat value, and so on.

Now, the system is tweaked slightly by giving the main target a bit of a buffer. If the tank has aggro, and one of the DPS's threat value climbs just above that of the tank, there won't be an aggro switch. If the DPS is at melee rage to the mob, he will need 10% more threat than the tank to be switched to as the main target (so, if the tank has 100 threat, the DPS will need 110 threat to get aggro). If the DPS (or healer) is at range, he will need 30% more.

Abilities like the priests 'Fade' temporarily remove you from the table. The threat value is still there, and any actions (eg healing) done during the time are still added to your total, the mob just simply won't attack you. Leaving the faded state will put you back in the relative position on the table, including right at the top if nobody has managed to surpass your threat value in that time. Shadowmeld works the same way.

Aggro dumps like Cower and Feint reduce the total amoutn of threat. Misdirection means that the threat the hunter generates for three shots is assigned to the target's total (hopefully the tank) instead.

Adding to the complexity are mobs (usually bosses) that have some kind of aggro switch or dump ability. Sometimes they will stun the person at the top of the list and then switch to the next person down, or go into a new phase of combat that completely clears the aggro table and starts again.
A classic example is the fight at the end of Ramparts. Once one kills the dragon rider, the dragon joins the battle... while it's the same fight, the dragon enters with a completely clean aggro table, automatically pre-aggroed on the tank (in other words, even though no damage has happened, the mechanics of the fight means that the dragon is aware of the tank, and has the tank on the aggro table). If, at that point, a heal over time ticks on the tank, the healer jumps to the top of the table, since the tank will have very little aggro.

Another quirk, already mentioned but worth mentioning again, is the mechanic behind the 'Taunt' ability ('Growl', for druid tanks). This ability increases the Tank's threat value to equal that of the person at the top of the table, and switches the mob's main target to the tank. If the tank is already at the top, it has no effect.

Whew, a long post today. Till next time...

Instance Running 101 Explored Part 5

The dps do not pull. The healer does not pull. The tank pulls.

This is a fairly simple part of aggro management. If someone other than the tank pulls, then that person will have aggro, and the tank will have to do 10% more aggro than that person to get the mob back. If there was a group in the pull, then the tank will need to focus on each mob in the group to get them all back.

If the person pulling is a clothie, by then he's dead.

There are exceptions. The hunter, as a prime example, has an ability for the threat of three shots to be directed to a different member of the group (presumably the tank). It's a good technique for range pulling.

There is also a method for very difficult pulls in raids. The hunter or the rogue pulls, and if the pull goes wrong he feigns death/vanishes to reset the pull (or, if the vanish/feign death fails, simply dies). The rest of the party remains untouched, and the pull is tried again. It's sometimes referred to as 'The perfect zone of ultimate safety'.

In summary: Unless specified otherwise, the tank pulls.

Until next time...

Instance Running 101 Explored Part 4

Kill the casters first.

Why? Poor casters, they always get picked on, right?
There are actually a lot of reasons why the casters need obliteration.

1) They do a LOT of damage. This damage is not mitigated by armor, cannot be dodged or parried, and is generally painful.
2) Sometimes they are healers, extending the health of the other mobs. This is the inverse of why you don't let the party healer die :)
3) They're clothies normally, and go down fast, making it the best way to stop the mobs doing damage.
4) Nobody likes casters anyway.

Ok, the last one isn't true, but the rest are. Taking down the caster first is the quickest way to reducing the mob damage and sometimes the mob health of the whole pull. It's very rare that one should not kill the caster first

A notable exception is the run we did the other night, with the legionary that kept calling more mobs. He had to go first.

Points of contention with Part3

While the first part of the post is correct the last part where it goes on to crowd control and buffs. This is not really the case. They are not purly the domain of DPS. In fact most buffs come from the "multi-role" classes (Palidins, Druids, Priests and Shaman).

It is true that the balance as far as Crowd Control goes is more a DPS activity. An important thing to rember how ever is that there is a form of crowd control called "Off Tanking". It is offten forgoten and is the most versitle form of crowd control as it works on all types of mobs. IT does require that the healer needs to focus on more than one target. The flip side of which is that the mob being off tanked was likly to be beating on some one any way and possibly the healer so...

Instance Running 101 Explored Part 3

DPS.

The third part of the 'holy trinity', the DPS are mainly responsible for damage, and also for assistances such as 'crowd control'.

But first, damage. 'DPS' stands for 'Damage per second'. As a simplified example, if a mage blasted a mob for 5000 damage, and then didn't do any more damage for 5 seconds, he would have done 1000 DPS. Similarly, if he'd opened with 2500 damage and then 2.5 seconds later did another 2500 damage, he's also be maintaining 1000 DPS.

Each point of damage is a point of threat. Tanks typically don't do as much damage as the DPS classes, so they have to rely on other threat-generating abilities to stay on top of the aggro chart. This means that a good, well geared DPSer with a good rotation can very easily take aggro (and then probably die), no matter what the tank does.

This is where the true skill of DPS comes. Getting the best rotation for the most damage per second without passing the tank's threat generation. This involves trying to smooth out damage burst (doing 1000 damage every second is better than doing 5000 damage every 5 seconds), using threat dump abilities, and speccing the talents that reduce threat.

Once the DPSer is sure he's not going to out-threat the tank, then the fun begins... maxing out the magic DPS number. Huge arguments fill forums over the best spec, the best gear, the best stat priorities per class.

Crowd control is another element that the DPS is normally responsible for. Mages sheep, Locks seduce and banish, rogues stun, druids root, shamen have totem pets... there are also buffs, totems and auras that help the rest of the party, many of whom come from the DPS classes.

In summary, the DPS's job is to damage the assigned target to death as quickly as possible, while not taking the targets attention from the tank, and staying away from damage as much as possible.

Instance Running 101 Explored Part 2

The healer. That's me.

The healer basically casts a spell on a friendly target that gives hit points back to the target.
In extension, this means that the healer's mana bar is an extended health bar distributed amongst the rest of the group.

Extending from that, this means that any healing done on anyone other than the tank is directly reducing the tank's health bar for that encounter. This also means that killing the healer immediately and dractically reduces everyone else's health bar by a large amount.

Healers stack spell power and spirit depending on the type of healer (so that each healing spell does more healing), intellect (so that their mana bar is bigger) and mana regeneration (so that their mana... everyone's health... comes back faster). Good healer gear means extra life for everyone else.

Instance Running 101 Explored Part 1

I thought it might be worthwhile to investigate exactly why those are some of the golden rules to running instances.

Part 1: The tank.

The reason the tank tanks is mitigation, primarily. This is, in essence, the ability to reduce damage taken. Armor is the first step here... a good tank has huge amounts, so that bosses who do direct 'physical' damage can't do as much. There's a straight mechanism here, more armor means more damage absorbed.

Other mitigation involves parry, block and dodge. Parry is a chance to block a strike, block is the chance to block a strike with a shield (doesn't apply to bear tanks, since they don't have a shield), and dodge is the chance to totally avoid a strike.

Magic damage throws a curveball here... it ignores armor, and it can't be blocked or parried. This is where the tank's health comes in to play... the more he has, the more damage he can absorb. This isn't the ideal approach for all tanking, as the healer will then need to heal the damage and could run out of mana. No healer mana = wipe.

Magic can be mitigated by resistances, which come sometimes as armor properties, sometimes as enchants, and sometimes as potions or other temporary effects.

Finally, there are magical mitigations that have no direct assoctiation... bear tanks are an example here, as they have a straight mitigation in bear form. Warriors have stances that offer more mitigation, and so on.

Finally, the rest of the party want the tank to be hit, as the more he's hit, the angrier he gets. Rage is the tank's mana, and the more he has, the more he can hit back, and the more likely it is the mobs will keep hitting him.

This is why the tank needs to be the one the mobs are beating on.

Instance Running 101

If this is your first time running instances for the purpose of gear progression:

1. You need 1 tank. A tank is specced for mitigation and health. His gear focuses on mitigation and health. And is gemmed and enchanted for mitigation. and health.

2. You need 1 healer. Healers are specced for healing. Wear gear that focuses on mana, mana regen, and spell power. And are enchanted for mana, mana regen, and spell power. But mostly spellpower.

3. The dps can spec and gear however they feel.

4. Kill the casters first.

5. The dps do not pull. The healer does not pull. The tank pulls.

6. Pulling means mobs come to you.

7. line-of-sight. learn it. It pulls and bunches casters.

8. the healer keeps the tank alive. the tank keeps the healer alive. the dps look after themselves.

9. If the dps have crowd controll skills; use them

10. raid icons. The group leader must set raid icons to mark the kill order. Skull goes down first. If the group leader isn't comfortable setting raid icons, pass on leadership to someone who is.

Deathknightus Interruptus

Whether it's illness, tiredness, horse race meets or internet/patchnight troubles, sometimes getting playing time can be a pain in the posterior.

Still, levelling the gathering skills is going okay. I hate it, with a very great passion, but it's going okay. Skinning isn't too much of an issue... although I have a bad tendency to end up in a new area, kill the first thing, and get 'You need skinning 240' in big red letters. Check the skinning skill... 239. Scream imprecations at the monitor, head back to the flight path.

Mining, on the other hand... we hates it, yes we do.

The disease spreads

Left Ebon Hold... epic storyline and quest line, I must say, seriously excellent... and headed to the draenai area, as I love doing that area. The damnable summon of the felguard at the Nax monument is broken, though, which is annoying.

I continue to enjoy the DK. It's a spectacular looking class to play, the mechanism is interestingly complex, and it's new, which is never a bad thing.

The only problem is levelling the tradeskills.

Damn their eyes.

AddOns that we all need.

Combat Addons

* PartyBars - An ultra lightweight addon that makes it far easier to buff and heal in groups.

* FocusFrame - Blizzard has a focus frame, but this one shows buff timers.

* VisualHeal - adds a casting frame to show the expected result of a healing spell.

Questing and Gear

* MapNotes - keep notes on the map

* RatingBuster - tells you how much attack power your agi and str is worth.

Tradeskills

* Auctionator - An auction house addon that is really lighweight and helpful.

* Gatherer - Only if you really get into farming herbs or minerals.

* WowEcon - displays auction and vendor pricing as well as disenchanting info

Addons that I look for-

* A heads up display addon that puts my health, mana, runes, and spells I need to re-apply in the center of the screen.

* A latency predictor that shows us when it should be safe to try cast a next spell.

Rubber arm twisting performed here

The time that will tell turned out to be about three hours. With the greatest thanks to Fahdge and Shamandrel, shiny copies of WotLK (in virtual form, that is) were dropped onto our machine and duly installed.

Deathknights are the shizznizz, if rather fiddly to play. We likes them, yes we does, *gollum*.

More news after we actually get out of Ebon Hold.

To expand, or not to expand...

We're facing a dilemma. There is opportunity (after some effort) to get the expansion and all of the ensuing joys... Northrend, Deathknight tastiness, etc etc.

However, this comes with potential penalties... the download, the cost, the potential issues, and of course the lag, bugginess and overpopulation of the oversubscribed areas.

We made the assumption that the digital download would take a while to kick in. As non-americans, this meant we had an excuse to not play the new areas, allowing for them to clear out a bit and for problems to be resolved before we stepped foot in the new content.

Now, however, the flimsy excuse has departed, testing our strength of will. Can we resist?

Time will tell.

The beat goes on.

By all accounts there's a big world event on at the moment. Attacks on capital cities, Thrall fighting someone in the arena, etc etc. The final push before WotLK, I guess.

We did Steamvaults last night, which actually ended up being harder than Shadowlabs... mostly due to some horrible AoE effect that the various Bog Lords had. No real problem, and no wipes, just made me press more heal buttons than normal :P

Still, the aggro handling seems to be better. Other than the 'lock trying to grab it all the time, that is :P

Triumphal return!

So, Shadow Labs. We tried it a while ago, flush with the innocence of 70-instancing youth, and armed witha Leeroying paladin pug. It didn't go well.

We have returned and vanquished, however. Dunno if it was our vastly improved gear, or the nerfing reputedly done to the various bosses, or both, but it really wasn't too much of a problem. Couple of hairy moments, and a couple of deaths... oh, and one wipe, when a pull went badly. Still, for our first 'real' keyed instance, it was damn good.

Couple of things we need to work on though. DPS need to let the tank grab a little more aggro (the aggro mechanic seems a little more fragile in there) before kicking in, and I need better gear before we climb much higher. Generally, though, we seem pretty competent.

The very last minute end game.

Under New Management carved new ground this weekend. Beinga alt-oholic casuals it has taken us a long time to start attemting the proper end game.

Nonetheless, we got it into our heads to try and get Karazhan attunement this weekend. Which involves running Shadow Labyrinth to get the first key fragment. Which needs a key to enter. Which is found in a chest behind the final boss of Sethekk Halls.

Both of which we did.

We still need the second and third key fragments. Which are found in the Steamvault and the Arcatraz respectively. As a guild we have done the Steamvault, but the Arcatraz is another keyed instance (and thus, extra hard) - requiring items from bosses in the Botanica and the Mechanar. Two instances that, prior to the gearup offered by the Scourge Invasion, were seemingly off limits to our guild.

Then, we need to take the restored key into the Black Morass where Medivh gives us the Masters Key in exchange. Karazhan attunement FTW!

--

Heres where it gets cute. The quest to get the keys is given by a mage called Khadgar - who was Medivh's apprentice. Medivh gave him a key to Karazhan, but Khadgar broke it into 3 pieces, that he directs the player to collect. Khadgar cannot reactivate the restored key, so he sends the player to the Caverns of Time to travel to Medivh in the past where the player trades the restored key for Medivhs own key. Medivh - in the past - restores the key, which he then gives to his apprentice; Khadgar. Who breaks the key and loses the 3 fragments.

Tirion Fordring

Lord Tirion Fordring was governor of Hearthglen, father of Taelan Fordring and founder of the Order of the Silver Hand. He was exiled by Uther Lightbringer for showing mercy to an Orc Shaman during events that unfold shortly after the Warcraft III storyline arc begins.

Do his quests and *know* his story because he is going to have a major influence on the Deathknight lore.

Golf

WOW is golf. Yes I know it sounds wierd but they are actualy simmilar in a lot of ways. 

1. In golf even when you play with other players it's a personal thing. You against the course. Much the same is true of WOW even in a party it's about your personl performance. You against the MOB/Boss.
2. There are vast amounts of strange and arcane golf equipment to help improve your game. Well I don't think I need to elaborate on this one to much.
3. Then there is the 19th hole. Where after a round of golf you go to go over the current and past games with a your friends. Getting tips or may be a little ribbing. Plus there are number golf magazines with info on the afor mentioned equipment. Now what you may ask is the WOW analoge. Well that is actualy easy. It's the Forums. 
4. As rumour has it golf is only realy understood by those that play and once you start you are hooked. Deffinatly the same thing with WOW.

I know this comparison falls down a bit when you get to PVP but then... 

nothings Perfect.

Casual Epix and the End Game.

It is important to understand that World of Warcraft is divided into two basic phases - The level grind, and The End Game.

The level grind contitues the bulk of the game for casual players. It starts when your character is level 1, and ends when your character reaches the max level (70 at the moment, and 80 for Wrath characters) and completes the available world quests.

The End Game is a confusing place for casual players who spend much of their time questing and levelling. Its not entirely obvious what to do when the quests run out. The end game si about gear progression. Not character progression. The gold standard of gear progression are the sets of gear available to raids. Raid gear is ranked into tiers according to which raid dungeons the gear drops in, and the general expectaion (and balancing) of each progressive dungeon is that, in order to survive in the raid instance that drops Tier X+1 gear, most of the raid members need to be equipped in Tier X gear.

WoW Classic's endgame - at level 60 - was: Run Stratholme, Scholomance and Lower Blackrock Spire in 5 man groups to get Dungeon set 1. Quests in the above dungeons, and Dire Maul, would upgrade this to Dungeon Set 2 which was the original Tier 0 gear. UBRS was run to attain Tier 1. Molten Core Tier 2, and Naxxramus was the source of Tier 3 gear.

Then Burning Crusade came out, and by level 64, most of the tier 3 epic items had been replaced by green drops from Outlands quests. The burn. The terrible burn.

Burning Crusades end game - consists of a Tier 3.5 set of items available from Heroic Dungeons, and then an amount of 10 to 25 man raid content yielding Tier 4 items from raiding Kharazan through to Tier 6 from Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau.

In Burning Crusade there are also what are called "welfare epics". Which are called welfare because casual players can get them without comitting to a raid schedule. Welfare Epics are obtianed via crafting, PvP and doing heroic dungeons and are usually rated in terms of the equivalent Tier of raid gear. For example, the Engineering crafted epic helms are regarded as being T4 or even T6 equivalent

For a casual player, finding out how to progress through the welfare epics gives a lot of motivation to play an end game otherwise entirely targetted at hardcore gamers.

Report from the front lines

It's been two and a half weeks now since the last Armory update came through. With the loss of the Horseman, and the reduction of the invasion pressure... well, we're holding the line against boredom, but just barely.

Bad attempt at military-related humor aside... there's a question that every casual player needs to ask himself, and that's the question of alts.

One definitely needs a main. With achievement chasing, rep grinds, instance-dropped recipies and so on, one needs to assign a 'favourite' character that will get the majority of the attention. The big factor here is tradeskills, and the Bind-on-pickup rewards that only the holder of the tradeskill has access to.

For the hard-core raider, this is less of an issue. The gear from raiding is going to be better, and one can assume a friendly guild that will assist the raider in the initial gearing up process. Outside of raids, though, tradeskill gear can often be amongst the best one has access to, and this makes tradeskills even more tempting. Over and above that are tradeskills like enchanting and inscripting, which allow you to optimise or improve your gear even further.

This does lead to the temptation of two tradeskills, in the hope that an extra slot or two might get even further optimised. Unfortunately, tradeskills need a range of reagents, and this is where alts come in.

The first question is: Alt or Auction House. Are you willing to level a second toon for the express purpose of grinding for your main, or are you instead willing to drop gold into the vagaries of the AH?

For me personally, as a healer-specced class, grinding gold for the AH is less of an option... I need to use an Alt anyway (or continually respec), so I might as well make the Alt feed my tradeskill needs directly. This does, annoyingly, take time away from the various things the main needs to do, but I guess I can console myself with the knowlege that the tasty new purples the main will eventually make will certainly make the main's grinds a bit easier :D

Feel the burn!

So, Headless Horseman. Yeah, that was fun. We ran HH every night (well, might have missed one), pugging to fill in the shortfall at first.

Well, we stopped pugging when the mount dropped. The reason was that the Pug got the mount.

Guess what didn't drop again. Arrrrrrrghargharghargh@#($&@#($&#@!

Yep... two weeks of four to five attempts at the Horseman a night, and not one mount. Vast numbers of rings, enough of those sugar rush sweets to make an entire school district suffer from severe diabetes, but no mount. We only just managed to get everyone a squashling for the achievement. I hate that pug so very very much right now.

The invasion event, on the other hand, was brilliant, especially when I discovered that the purples one could buy with the necrotic runes could be disenchanted. I have some 50-odd void crystals now. Tasty! :D

The ending of the halloween event, and the steady dropoff in interest of the invasion event, has led us to a new casual-guild-specific quandary... what to do now? See, as a casual guild, our biggest problem is that we tend to only have four people online at any one point. This makes a serious instance run at our level difficult.

We're restricted to:

• Pre-BC instances, for rep and/or achievements and/or the fun of it. We're now all sick of Dire Maul and Stratholme.
• Grinding for various bits and pieces. Primals, leather and herbs seem to be our primary needs, with metals for all those future Death Knights lurking on the distant horizon.
• Low-level BC instances are an option... problem is, most of them are pointless. Limited to no rep grinds, and crappy loot... honestly, been there, done that. For actual productivity, we need either 70 instances or Heroics, and that needs a 5th person. I suppose we could Pug, but the last time we did that we ended up looking really stupid.
• Other questing, like dailies. Also, a really great cure for insomnia.

Yep... not a clue what to do.

First!

This is the blog for the casual World of Warcraft Alliance guild 'Under New Management', hosted on the US Stormrage server.

We don't raid (other than as occasional pugs), we don't PvP (except for when we do) and we don't even have regular instancing nights (except for when we do). We do, however, thoroughly enjoy WoW, burning a lot of work time discussing gear and strats and mechanics, and getting online pretty regularly to actually play.

Guild mains are, in no particular order:

• Simetra, a kitty DPS Druid and off/emergency healer.
• Fahdge, a Druid, and our main tank. Yep, he's a masochist.
• Molt, (that's me), Resto Druid and the main healer.
• Shamandrel, Draenai Shaman, for tasty totems and DPS, and an off/emergency healer.
• Tasar, a demon-specced warlock of delicious dps, who sometimes thinks he can emergency tank, much to my panic.
• Kaytln, a gnome mage, who normally gets online just in time to see the rest of us log off.

We all have alts for various reasons, and I'm sure we'll meet them in time.

Anyway, the reason I decided to add to the contamination of the blogosphere with these ramblings is, well, every other blog/guide/wiki editor/etc I've met seem to be horribly focused on Raiding or hardcore PvP. And yet, if Blizzard are to be believed, casual players are by far the vast majority of the player base.

I think it's time for a casual player blog (although there probably are lots, and I just havn't found them. I don't care. It's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).

Consider yourselves warned.