Place your orders for Tux/Wedding Dresses!!!

I'll fill the orders as i recieve mats. I'm finding them off drops now. Just post below with character name to mail to as your order. -TOC only need post, TOunC need not apply

Thank you to Windsong, and everyone else who helped me raise money for my mount.
If you feel so kind, Tuxes, Pants, &Shirts (not including mageweave) costs me 1g40s for mats I believe. Any donations are accepted, but not needed.

I'll be working on other Pimp gear.. ie. purple silk shirts and such. Mix and match for your mount and around town gear for your pleasure.

-Maraco

quick swapping weapons

This addon is really useful for rogues who want to be able to backstab and ambush, but also want the high damage potential of a good sword or mace in their main hand.

http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=110

Install this addon and make a short macro as per their examples. You don't need overflow spots in your inventory to hold the weapons, and you can even use it to quickly arm yourself if you get into a fight while fishing.

LFG Looooong Quest Line

A 20 step quest line beginning with The Disgraced One ends with some nice quest rewards. Any level 55+ 'ers wanna start it with me?

The final quest rewards are:
Demon Hide Sack
Demon's Blood trinket
Necklace of Sanctuary

Emotes

Blizzard has published their comprehensive emote list.

This is related to Wow(!) somehow...

Watch this.

Purple Dagger

We had quite an exciting evening yesterday. The Gut Ripper, our very first guild purple item dropped off of a Naga in STV. Thumbreaker and Maraco both indicated a strong interest in the item, which sparked a lengthy discussion between Scott and myself. While this dagger would undoubtably be a nice item for either of those two characters, it would likely never see it's full potential. Had the item been green or blue, likewise had it been BoP, it would have immediately gone to the highest roller between those two. But since purples are so rare, and since it's BoE and can easily be handed to another player, we'd really prefer it go to someone who can make the best use of it for the longest period of time. (This is only the 2nd time a purple has ever dropped for my party, including CB.) Scott assures me that this dagger is so good, it would easily last a rogue to level 50, and quite possibly to level 55.

Both Thumb and Mar should be looking forward to more class appropriate items in the very near future. Both of these characters are at a level where, as a guild we should be helping them to get equiped for dungeons. For Thumb this means getting a good shield. May I suggest the Aegis of the Scarlet Commander? It's a very common drop off of Commander Mograine in SM. For Maraco, a good mace or staff would be just the ticket. May I suggest the Illusionary Rod, which is a very common drop off of Arcanist Doan in SM? (For end-game content, Rod of the Ogre Magi is about the sexiest thing this side of the Mississippi.) That said, do Mar and Thumb have time to do some SM runs so we can get you this equipment? Perhaps tonight even?

Ok, in need of mats for something super cool ^.-*

iet all you punks, and punkets! This is a call for a higher level mat that i need so i can PIMP all ya'll out.. First off:
Mageweave, i'm finding this on my own, but not enough to clad ya'll out.
most pieces cost 20-25 mageweave to make.
this and...
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=10639
Long Elegant Feathers...
This is for your PIMP hat... its http://www.thottbot.com/?i=12435
some nice stamina for all you stamina whores. If the name goes with what it looks like it should be a sweet intown hat.

Again, i'm not asking for much, JUST YOUR SOUL! mwahahah ...

Assist Macro

The assist macro is essential for every player regardless of class. To access the macro window, open a text box and type /macro. Click New to create a new macro, and a new window appears giving you a choice of icons and a name field. Name it "assist" and choose any icon you like. Click OK and go back to the main macro window. In the text field in the bottom half, type /assist playername where playername is the name of the player to assist. You will need to change this depending on who you are assisting. Click Complete, then drag the icon for your macro to a convenient tool slot. You can now close the macro window. Any time you click your macro button, your character will target the mob that is targeted by the player named in your macro.

Tuesday, 5-24

What's the plan tonight, folks? Who can attend an event if we have one? Anyone for Uldaman?

AH price history

Neat.

Strenght/Agility/Attack Power

Agility
- Increases Armor Class by 2 for every point of AGI.
- Increases the chance of a critical hit with melee and ranged attacks. The amount of the increase is dependant on both class and level. For most level 60 character classes, approximately 20 points of AGI will increase your critical hit chance by approximately 1%. Rogues require 29 AGI for an additional 1% critical hit chance, and Hunters require 53 AGI for an additional 1% critical hit chance, but both of these classes also gain attack power from agility and the items available to them typically have much higher amounts of AGI.
- Increases the chance to dodge an attack. The amount increased is dependant on both class and level. For most level 60 character classes, approximately 20 points of AGI will increase your chance to dodge by approximately 1%. Rogues only require 14.5 AGI for an additional 1% dodge chance. Hunters require 26.5 AGI for an additional 1% dodge chance, but Hunters typically have a high amount of agility, as well as an Aspect spell that further increases their chance to dodge attacks.

Defense
- Increases the chance of being missed by an attack.
- Increases the chance to dodge, parry, and block.
- Decreases the chance of being affected by a critical hit.
- Decreases the chance of being affected by a "crushing blow". Creatures that are higher level than your character can land crushing blows that deal increased melee damage. The chance of a crushing blow increases as the level difference between you and the opposing creature increases. Players never deal "crushing blows", only creatures.

Attack Power
- Attack power increases your base melee DPS by 1 for every 14 attack power.
- Strength increases your melee attack power by 2, except for rogues and Hunters. Rogues and Hunters gain 1 attack power per point of Strength, and 1 per point of Agility.

Thundgot
Community Manager, English

Tuesday Night Plan

Looks like there are a couple of proposals for things to do tonight. Everyone who needed the Crown of Will quest has completed it (so far as I know.) Mar and I still need the library of SM, and Ivers needs Rig Wars. I've got a key for the workshop in Gnomeregan, so what if we take the shortcut through tonight, get Ivers his britches, then hit the SM Library.

Also, for another night this week I'd like to hit a more difficult dungeon with the same group that did SM the other day. What night works (I'd prefer Wed or Thurs) for everyone, and what dungeon do we want to do? I have quests for RFD (easiest) Uldaman (difficult) and Maraudon (very difficult). Please post responses!

SM Run Last Night

Hi All! Just wanted to let you know about the great dungeon run we had yesterday. My initial intention was to just do the library wing of SM. I figured it wouldn't be too difficult, and would give us a good chance to practice. Instead, we pulled it off without a hitch, and without a healer! Maraco wasn't able to join us until after the Library, so we took it slow and steady and made it through even the final boss without a single death.

Since the library run went so well, and since Maraco was at last able to join us, we decided to take the armory. Maraco was off to a rocky start making the transition from solo'ing mentality to party healer mentality, but as soon as we worked through that it was smooth as butter.

Given the success in the armory, we went for the cathedral. Whaddya' you know? We pulled that off, too! We lost Maraco just once on that wing, but didn't loose a single other person. Ultimately, I think Maraco's death only helped to tighten up the groop a little more. Regardless, our first real guild dungeon run was victorious, and better yet a lot of fun!

Participants
Thumbreaker, Warrior: Thumbs first real test at tanking, and whoa what a tank! I'm really looking forward to hitting harder instances now. One indicator of how skilled your tank is, is the cost to repair your equipment when you're done, and my repairs only cost me 9s!
Alkhwarizmi, Warlock: Possibly Alk's first dungeon run without a high-level babysitter, Alk really mastered important tasks like crowd-control (CC) and damage enhancement through curses. At the beginning of the run Alk was overheard saying, "Aww I hate the succubus!" but by the end of the run he was saying, "Wow this succubus is really cool!"
Günther, Hunter: Already an accomplished player, I'll leave you with this thought: A man, a dog, and a gun. What more do you need?
Maraco, Priest: After a long vacation into the land of solo playing, it looks like Maraco is back with the heals!
Tatakikorosu, Mage: I was playing pretty conservatively to keep my threat levels under control for most of the instance, but had to start turning up the heat for the cathedral wing. Even with the increased damage, Thumbreaker still held mobs like a champ. Thanks Thumb!

And of course, props to everyone for great teamwork!

SM Library, etc. on Tuesday

Mar and I need to run the SM Library again on Tuesday night. We'd appreciate any assistance. :) Also, Thumb and Lil'Tat need to do The Crown of Will, the step where you kill 3 nameds. Please join us!

SM run, tonight at 7

Four have confirmed (Thumb, Alk, Mar and little tat).

UPDATE: Make that five... Gunther's Günther's in.

Guild Tabbard

One of the first things Destro asked about when he joined the guild was the status of a guild tabbard. It costs 10g to register the design. I was thinking about how hard the Pants design made me laugh, so while toying with this online tabbard builder I was jokingly considering:




but then I came across this: (!!)




Now, I don't know about you, but for me nothing says Top of Cool like a huge purple hairy crank. Still, Will insists on providing his own idea of cool, so I present for your consideration:



I invite you to toy with the online tabbard builder linked above and come up with your own design ideas. =D

Introducing a new member

Hi All!

I'd like to introduce you to our newest member, Destro. I met him as a member of Fabled back in CB (which was then Legion of Pain) when he was named Size. Now his main is Prowl which is a member of a larger guild, but his alt Destro was looking for a laid back, intimate group to spend time with. He's always been very kind to me and to Tsuno, so I think he'll be a real good fit here. Please welcome him when you see him!

I can take her...

Guild Status

Hi All! This is a conversation starter, so please post comments!

Günther and I have just been having a conversation about the state of ToC. I know some of you are eager to gain access to higher-end content, and given how small we are this is going to take some doing. One could say that DM is the beginning of "high end" content, and that's being very generous. In truth, it's probably more like UBRS, Strath, & Scholo. These are 10 and 15 man raid instances, though if you want to do quests you'll need an über party to 5 man it (mosts quests cannot be completed as a RAID group.)

Most larger guilds are not too keen on inviting non-guildies along on these kinds of raids. The reason is simply that the loot is too rare & too good to let it go outside of the guild. Given that, there's a chance though that we could hook up with other smaller guilds (I've got a possible connection to Quad Damage through Prowl, and Tittlywink has connections to Pants) who are also in the same position as us and possibly interested in teaming up. Of course, in a perfect world we'd have enough players in ToC to do at least the 15 man and below raids. With a requirement of 40 lvl 60 players, I don't expect we'll ever be in a position to do Onixia/Azuregos encounters on our own. We'll definately need the assistance of other guilds for that.

Even before we get to teaming up with other guilds, I think we as a group need to become more practiced at dungeons. Unfortunately, our current class landscape is not very supportive of this. Mar needs to get to 56+, and Thumb/zeeboo need their tanks to get to 60. A 15 man raid dungeon needs at minimum 3 highly skilled warriors and 3 priests w/ supportive secondary healers.

Spirit not Int for casters?

Well, It looks like for pvp, being able to regen your mana pool fast is better than just having tons of it. Any thoughts?

Legplates of the Chromatic Defiler

The quest for these (which ultimately turns into a collection of mats to make them) starts in UBRS.

Attention Rogues!

Blademaster Leggings drop off The Beast in UBRS.

Tanking 101

This was written up by a very skilled level 60 Warrior. I would link to it, but it's inside a passworded site, and so instead I'll present it here in full:

Tanking-

You should almost ALWAYS be in defensive stance with a 1h wep and shield. There are very few exceptions to this (getting an initial charge on a boss or group where you don't have to worry about agro range and pulling other groups/adds), but this is the config where you will spend the most of your time.

When starting a new fight it is good to have Battle Shout going, and if you don't have it then burn a quick Bloodrage to get some instant rage, then use Battle Shout first. You can then get a small heal and be ready to go.

I almost always start a fight with a pull with my bow 99% of the time unless it is a trivial group or I am familiar enough with the area to know there are no roamers/pathers and the mobs won't run away to agro more. When pulling, make sure you target the mob that you want to kill first and shoot it to pull back to your group. If it is a caster, make sure you coordinate with your mage so they counterspell the mob, or if no mage is present you can also do Bloodrage then Shield Bash so they don't just sit back and peg you with ranged magic damage. Another good way to pull is to use your environment to help you pull. If there is a mob of casters, shoot the closest one, then back away behind a corner where the mobs no longer have line of site on you. Without LoS, they will stop casting and rush you, which works out perfectly! Sometimes if you have a warlock mob, they will sit back and start summoning instead of rushing, so you have to be aware of this and what type of targets you are dealing with.

Regarding grabbing and keeping agro- This can be challenging if you have others in your group that are well equipped (or even moreso if they are much better equipped than you are), because they can outdamage you and get high on the hate list pretty fast with a few crits in a row, or even worse, just attacking normally without any crits or abilities. Being able to hold agro is not something that relies solely on the warrior, but also other requires other classes in the group to know how to manage their own agro. A tank's job is to try to keep as many mobs on his as possible, for as long as possible. If you are losing agro early, or losing it late, then you need to communicate with your group to let them know (usually this isn't necessary since they'll usually have a mob jump in their face to deliver the news personally). Here is what I usually do to grab agro and keep it (assuming it is a mob of melee classes):


Shoot one mob in the group (this is usually enough to get the entire group to agro on you)
The entire group should now rush you and begin swinging away while you begin attacking the mob you initially shot. Both attacking and being attacked builds up rage.
Once you get 1-2 swings off then everybody else in the group should focus on the mob you are attacking, this should be enough time for you to build initial agro. As soon as I have enough agro the first thing I do is Demoralizing Shout which builds a small amount of agro while reducing the mob's Attack Power. Next I pretty much spam Sunder Armor on all the mobs. This builds very good agro and reduces their armor so you can take them down faster. This is the primary tool you will use for agro management, and you'll need to not only spam the mob the MA has targetted, but also other adds so they don't peel off when you get a heal.


If your healer gets agro, the first thing you do is ignore whoever it is you are attacking and run to the healer ASAP. You should be able to Taunt the first mob, get a swing in, and use Sunder Armor once, then move over to the second mob (if there is one) and swing away while spamming Sunder Armor as fast as you can. This is usually enough to get agro, if not, use your taunt once the timer is up on it, get another hit or two, then switch back to the first mob and build up some more hate on him too. If there is more than 2-3 mobs then Challenging Shout is your AE Taunt, but it has a 30 min cooldown, so don't get used to using it. Also, if there are more than 1-2 mobs on a healer then you can Taunt one, do War Stomp to buy some time, then use taunt on the second (while swinging and Sundering between). Also, depending on how you are spec'd, you can also use the Stun ability you get through talents to help give you more time and take an additional mob off the healer temporarily. Disarm also works good here to lessen the damage they are dealing while you are waiting on the taunt timer and trying to pull agro.

In battle stance you have "Mocking Blow" which is almost always useless, but it can be used properly in a few scenarios. The problem is that you have to switch stances to use it, and usually you will lose quite a bit of rage if so. This will make the mob attack you for 6 seconds, but then he runs straight back to whoever he was attacking before if you haven't topped his hate list. Piercing Howl is a good AE kiting ability that slows everybody down, which can help give you a few more seconds if you know a big heal is coming and mobs are about to try to jump the healer. Kick this off first and it'll slow em down when they rush the healer, which can give you enough time to peel em off before they make it there.

Being a warrior is probably one of the most exciting rolls to play IMO. You pretty much lead the group through instances, pick who and when to pull, and are in charge of keeping the healers alive. One mistake can wipe the entire group, but knowing what to do when the crap hits the fan can save the entire group from what would ordinarily be a complete wipe. It is hectic being a good warrior because you basically have to be able to control any mob at the drop of a dime.

This is also the most equipment reliant class, and you'll find that you need to be +1/+3 levels higher than the rest of the group for most instances and be at the high end of the recommended level for instances. STA should always be your primary stat, and after that you can go either STR or AGI. I prefer AGI since it directly contributes to your AC and also helps your dodge percentages, where STR will help with blocks and dealing damage.

Star Wars

Ok, I'm not going to get my hopes up, but...

Children's Week

If you haven't noticed, an orphanage has been added to Orgrimmar in celebration of Children's Week this week. You can get a pet orphan for free, who will then give you a series of quests. They're very simple quests... mostly "take me around sightseeing" kind of things. In the end, you'll get a respectable faction increase with all Horde races. Well worth the effort!

The orphanage is located near the Orgrimmar Arena.

I'll be running Big Tat and Lil' Tat through the quests tonight if anyone wants to join me. =D

STV Tonight?

Todd, Joe, and I are planning to hit STV tonight and get ourselves some XP! STV is so heavily developed a zone, one can easily go from 30 to 45 almost without ever leaving!

WoW Interface Secrets

Variables:
%wow% = your WoW installation folder.
%accountName% = your account log-in name.
%characterName% = your character's name.

WoW:
I deleted my WTF, WTB, and Interface folders from WoW the other day trying to kill off the severe mess my various chat channels had become. To my chagrin, I discovered macros are stored locally on your computer at %wow%\Account\%accountName%\macros-local.txt. This is a plain-text file. I find it very difficult to read the in-game WoW font when it comes to creating/editing macros, so if you're even somewhat good at reading computer syntax you might find it easier to edit that file directly using notepad. The format of a single macro looks like this:

MACRO 1 "Assist" Ability_CheapShot.blp
/assist Zaxxon
END

Unfortunately notepad doesn't correctly process the carriage returns (know one that might Scott?), but you'll figure it out. "Macro 1" defignes the slot it occupies in the /macros window. "Assist" is the name you gave the macro when you created it. "Ability_Cheapshot.blp" is the icon you assigned to it. "/assist Zaxxon" is the macro itself. "END" ends that macro. If there were two macros in this example, "Macro 2" would follow "END" Macros are global to an entire account, so whatever I create for Big Tat also appears in the /macro window for Lil'Tat.

---

I put a lot of work into laying-out chat windows and assigning specific channels to them on Big Tat. If only there were a way to copy all those settings to my alts so I don't have to do it over and over.... oh wait, there is! Channel assignments, chat window location, and chat window size are all stored in %wow%\WTF\Account\%accountName%\%characterName%\chat-cache.txt. This document is also plain-text, but without an editor that properly processes the carriage returns, I've not looked at it hard enough to offer specific advice on hand coding it. It's pretty long. What I do is log in to Big Tat, get everything set up just how I like it, then exit the game and copy this file to each character that I want to use it on. I also back it up on my desktop since my channels always eventually get screwed up again.

---

Cosmos Specifics:
SkyChannels. You don't really know quite what they're for, and they're always spaming your chat channels. I've finally figured out a little bit of how they work. Basically, Cosmos uses these channels to pass information between your client and other players. Even though I don't use it, I know Raid Minion is an example of one of the add-ons that uses this system. The reason we end up getting screwed up is Sky automatically joins a chat channel that it constantly reads this information from. These channels are supposed to always remain hidden from you. Nevertheless, if you then go and disable the Raid Minion or Sky add-ons the channels un-hide, but the game does not remove them. That's how you end up getting Sky spam.

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HTML Special Character Codes

I'm always needing to reference a chart for special HTML character codes, particularly when trying to put up error messages and macros on the blog.

Pls Help w/ Macro

This is something of a follow-up to my previous macro post. I'd like to pare down that more complex macro into something that simply casts a spell and sends a message. No testing needed. I want to use this on my resurrection spell, Ancestral Healing Rank 3. Here's what I came up with:

/script CastSpellByName("Ancestral Spirit(Rank 4)")
SendChatMessage("Rez'ing %T","Say")

The problem I'm having is that this throws an error. I get something about expected near 'end'. WTF does that mean, and does anyone have ideas on fixing it? [Edit: Problem Solved! The recent patch that fixed a problem with the font now allows me to see that , is needed where some . are. Also, ";end" will generate an error in a simple script like this. It is only required to end condition testing. The above script has been updated, and now works.]

RFK this Tuesday?

Ivers needs to get the swinetusk shank, and many other folks just have quests there. What do y'all think?