Raiding *Together*???

[Edit: Updated to account for another possible day. Please update your responses to consider this change.]

Hey all!

Alk and I have cooked up a cooky idea. Let's all get together for a raid! I mean, really together! As in, in-the-same-room together! There are one of two ways we could work this.

1. Meet at my place, everyone bring their gear.
2. Meet at the school where the lab has WoW preinstalled.

The nice thing about #1 is that everyone plays on their own computers and you have the setup you are comfortable with. The nice thing about #2 is that it significantly reduces setup time. The lab computers don't have the most fantastic performance, but are definately playable. What's more, you can simply zip up your Interface, WTF, and WTB folders and bring your config with you.

As for setting a date/time, Alk works Thurs - Sat and can't get out of it. He suggested a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. I've got class on Monday and Wednesday, which leaves Tuesday or Sunday. Please reply with a list of the Tuesdays & Sundays that you could attend through the end of August. To simplify, please do not list days that you can't attend, or that you're not sure about.

Also, be thinking about what you'd like to raid. It seems doing a 10-man raid is the most likely candidate. Instances that fit the bill include Dire Maul (I'd say North preferably,) Scholo, Stratholm, Black Rock Depths, and Lower Black Rock Spire. Remember that you will not be able to complete quests for any of these instances while raiding -- this would be primarily for loots and for the fun of getting together.

So, in your response please indicate:

1. The Sundays/Tuesdays you have available between now and the end of August, if any.
   
2. Whether you would prefer my place or the lab.
3. And for the guys, describe the favorite pair of your wife/girlfriend's underwear you like to prance around in when she isn't looking.
   

I'm a newbie trapped in a lvl 60 char

so i know i've used up all my noob question for this week but i'm dying to know.. what is proc? I know it's how often a weapon kicks in its special ability.. but is it an abbreviation or a shortened word?

(WA UPDATE: moved up to allow for more hilarity to ensue...)

Xile... The Fabled... Rant.. (details added)

In CTF he wound up on the aliances' side. He picked up their flag, and would just sit in their base. It was impossible for us to retrieve it. they would steal our flag, he would drop it, as soon as the brought our's back. He was also bitching earler about how if you wern't 60 you shouldn't be doing pvp. Its been a loooong time since i was in and around fabled... but i imagine they don't want shit like that being preformed w/ their name.


.... nuff said, I feel like i should report him.

The Emote That *Should* Have Been

We've already got /applause, why do we need /clap that does the exact same thing?

Instead...
*que transition to fantasy land screen effect and harp music*

... /clap should emote: "You fall ill with the clap. Itchy..."

Submit your own!

Horcruxes and Warlocks

Any Harry Potter fans out there?

When you learned what a horcrux was, did you imediately think of WoW and warlocks?

Warning: Spoilers in the comments, and huge spoilers at the wikipedia entry on the horcrux.

What is the point of our guild?

[Edited the part in bold to be more specific about inaccesible content.]

Since Jay brought it up, what indeed is the point of this guild?

A) Is it to have a chat channel where we can all communicate with each other? Nope. We've already got /engrish.

B) Is it to have a nifty board? Nope. This system was in place before the guild, and there's no reason it couldn't continue without the guild.

C) Is it to gain access to high-end content? Absolutely not. I was under no delusions about this when I created the guild charter. There's no way we'll ever have enough members to do a ToC only 40 main raid, unless one of you wants to take the helm and work on building a larger guild. That means inviting non-rl friends/family/aquaintances, etc. One could argue that we have just enough players to do an UBRS raid, but you have to remember that at least two of those members do not enjoy long commitments to game play (that is, instancing.)

It comes down to a handful of events. Firstly, Alk was a big motivator. He pushed hard for the creation of our own guild, because he thought it would be cool. Second, there were at least three other players who were already in Fabled, but were just too shy to talk in /gchat and go along for quests, instances, etc. Ultimately, they left Fabled and ToC was created so they would have a place to call home. I tried to make it clear to these players that they would be forefeiting end-game content if we went this route, but at the time it didn't matter. I don't know if they still feel the same or not.

Since it seems that it needs to be re-stated, if you want to see end-game 15+ player raid content, you need to find another guild.

Why don't I personally want to grow ToC? It's not the effort I would have to put in, it's more about what I would loose. I believe that growing ToC would mean I have to dedicate all of my game time to this guild. I have very real gaming relationships with many players in The Fabled. These are people I've been playing WoW with for almost a year now, and I don't want to give up on those relationships. It's that simple. If the Fabled was full of assholes, you can bet your arse I'd leave in a heartbeat and focus on this guild. If any of you want to grow ToC, I offer you the helm.

To be entirely honest, as I approach 60 I'm even starting to wish my mage were in Fabled. I still want and prefer to party with the people on this board, and I agree that a set gaming night would be helpful. On the other hand, this small group is not always able to support instancing, and it's nice to be with folks I can play with during ToC down times. Also, until everyone is 57+, we can't all participate in the same content together.

Alk, I really think that Fabled is about as casual as it can possibly get and still have access to raid content. Fabled does not have attendance requirements, and I hear that's rare for a guild that does as much raiding as we do. Nobody should be relying on myself, Cal, or Alk to get them into MC runs with Fabled. Many people put many hours into the game to make raids happen, sometimes without getting even a single piece of loot for a very long time. The question of who gets what loot is one that Fabled and other guilds take very seriously to be sure everyone who puts in the effort gets fair treatment. Loots going to non-guild participants so completely complicates the situation that most guilds won't invite non-guildies, and if they do only on the condition that that player understand they won't have access to loots. I understand the problem, and without a better system I support that decision.

Comments welcomed. :-)

fuckers took my umlauts

We all knew it was going to happen someday. Günther will henceforth be known as Guenter.

Errr... you have to pay for you epic mounts...

... I mean. I'm a warlock, they're not suppose to charge me for my mounts.

it explains the goatee...

So I blinked up to Everlook with my handy-dandy dimensional ripper.

I found that there was a debuff on me:

The text says:

MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

First rule of suicide missions...

... if you're going to wipe the party so you can grab an item (like, I don't know, the documents for the Warchief quest), make sure you have room in your inventory. Time is of the essance when 4 folks are aggro'ing 20+ mobs away from you.

I've been working on the first step of the Onxyia's key quest chain for a couple days now (a week). The quest is called Warchief's Command and it begins an interesting plot line. I suppose you wouldn't expect less for quests that eventually lead you to Onyxia the Big Ass Dragon. Anyway, I've ran lower Black Rock Spire everyday since Sunday trying to collect some documents and kill the appropriate bosses. In many of those runs, Cynapse has been on the team. A brillant priest, I enjoy playing with him.

Tonight, Cynapse was in my party and I finally got all the bosses and the documents. Yeah! That was hour two... Phew. Just in time to help Maraco in Mauradon.

"Hey guys, all I need is the documents," Cynapse says interupting my whisper to Mar, "can you help me get 'em."

We learned earlier that the documents respawn at a random Boss's lair. By the way, you may read that they only spawn once per instance. Anyway...

"Sure. Let's see where they've respawned at..." And we began to run back from Boss Wyrm's den to Boss Omokk. It turns out that there's in one of the cracks in the wall there's a hole where you can drop down into Omokk's lair. This crack in the wall is very close to Wyrm's which is is the furthest boss from the zone in portal. Finding shortcuts in LBRS is a happy thing.

"Hey," chimes in our spunky, yet competent pick-up tank, Ulysses, "I'm getting tired. Can we do a suicide run?"

"Sure."

"Yeah, kamikaze.... Sounds like fun."

"Ok, I'll take the VW and aggro the first bunch... Uly, you take the second bunch."

"Cool."

"Ok. Go!"

We rush in like the bad ending of a bad Western. Guns ablaze. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (and I guess their sidekick). The VW lasts about 5 seconds. I use sacrifice last 5 seconds more. Cynapse gets to the documents as Uly goes down. He should have plenty of time. I count... "one one hundred, two one hundred, three one hundred, four one..." He's down.

Silence.

More Silence.

"Cyn? Did you get it?"

Silence.

"Cyn?"

"Inventory Full!" he says. "I can't fucking believe this." And he logs.

"No, way." I think to myself. "This is stupid," Uly writes, "we have to get him those documents."

3 hours later (all the mobs respawned and the documents relocated(?!)) Cyn got his documents.
Postscript: the WC quest turn-in leveled Cyn up to 60. Yeah! He also got all the components for the UBRS key and he got a drop he wanted. For him, a good day...

Private Chat Item Link Add-On

http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=896

Check it out!!

New Chat Channel!

Hi All! Well Wifi has been grinding on many people's nerves quite a bit lately, so we've chosen a new chat channel. We're abandoning "ToC" for "Engrish" so c'mon over! The question of his guild membership will also have to be addressed in the near future. Also, don't forget about your ignore list for anyone who you find offensive or annoying. Just type "/ignore playername" and you'll never hear from them again! :) The one catch to the ignore list is that, like your friends list, you have to maintain a seperate one for each character.

Battle Damage Summary

My inner narcissist wants to know how much damage I did in some of those battles tonight in the raid on UBRS...

Is there a way to get this data?

BTW, here's Tat being a rockn' raid leader:

The Economies of WoW

Yet another reason why the druid was a bad class to recommend to my wife...

http://blogs.parc.com/playon/

The whole blog is very interesting, but particularly check out the "Leveling Time By Class" section.

Gettin' Lucky at the AH

A few tips and tricks.

1. Look at the bid price, not just the buyout (b/o) price. Some sellers will fail to increase the starting bid price to something reasonable and you can get a real steal on these items. Just place a bid and cross your fingers nobody else finds it. It works often enough to be worth the time!
   
2. Use wow.allakhazam.com to look up the item's AH pricing history. Look for items that typically sell for much more. Buy them out and resell them! I like to use Allakhazam's "most common price" index.
   
3. Check the AH between 2am and 3am. Many auctions are getting close to expiring at this time. Combined with tip #1, you can score a lot of deals this way.
4. If you are constantly looking for high-end mats, set a limit on what you'll pay. I'll only pay less than 21 gold for Arcane Crystal, for example.
5. If you can get mats at a good price, buy more than you need. Prices fluctuate on these kinds of goods, so having extra will hold you over when the price is high.
6. Sometimes the price really spikes on higher end mats. In these cases, you can take your extra mats to the AH and resell them with no modification at a good profit, and without blowing a cooldown!
7. If you regularly sell a particular kind of mat, check the other auctions for the same item before you put it up. If there are too many auctions going, just skip it. I won't auction anything if there is more than 1 page of listings.
8. Check the pricing of those mats as well. If the price is too low, hold on to it and sell it later.
9. When pricing your own mats, don't undercut everyone else as that damages your market. I like to go for a price that's a few steps above the cheapest deals, but still a fair price. The cheapest deals will go so fast, your item will be all that is left and will still sell.
10. If you know your item will sell easily and the AH is doing high volumes (say from 7pm - 9pm pst) put your item up for only 2 hours and save some coin on the listing fee.
11. Only use the 24 hour listing for items where your target market is small. Good examples of this are blue/purple level 50 - 60 weapons, armor, etc. Consider not setting a b/o price on these items.
12. Make sure your auction will expire during high-traffic AH hours. Start 8 hour auctions at noon, and 2 hour auctions at 6pm.

Anyone else have tips or tricks?

Mar(something instance run)

Lets do it, say wed, or thursday? feed back?

How Cal Fixes a Computer

Because Macs really do require divine intervension...

300 Tailoring!

w00t! I finally made it! I'm now taking orders for Mooncloth Bags and Mooncloth Robes.

*Ducks Sherie's flying tomatoe*

Mooncloth Bag Pricing
(Allakhazam puts the most common price at 25g ea.)

1. I provide all mats = 15g + 8 day min. wait.
   
2. You provide 2 mooncloth, I provide remaining mats = 5g.
3. You provide 4 felcloth, I provide remaining mats = 12g + 8 day min. wait.
4. You provide 2 mooncloth and all other mats = free
   
5. You provide 4 felcloth and all other mats = 5g + 8 day min. wait.

Mooncloth Robe Pricing
(Allakhazam puts the most common price at 100g)

1. I provide all mats = 65g + min. 16 day wait.
   
2. You provide 4 mooncloth and all other mats = free
   
3. You provide 4 mooncloth and 2 golden pearls, I provide remaining mats = 5g.
4. You provide 8 felcloth and 2 golden pearls, I provide remaining mats = 15g + min. 16 day wait.
5. Assume each golden pearl provided is worth a 20g credit.
6. Ask about other combinations of mats. :)

pic dump

More screen clips-

Only Joe... (click for big)


Every get the sense that the quest designers were getting a little punchy?



W-T-F

Alk's new talent build

Alas, I'm not a mage. I've completely moved away from the destruction branch (that was my concentration before) and now Alk is a demonology build. BTW, I use this cool tool to play with various builds...

Saved Template

Class: Warlock
Level: 60


Affliction Talents (21 points)

# Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Corruption spell by 2 seconds.

# Improved Drain Soul - 2/2 points
Gives you a 100% chance to get a 100% increase to your Mana regeneration for 10 seconds if the target dies while while you drain its soul. In addition, your Mana may continue to regenerate while casting at 50% of normal.

# Improved Curse of Weakness - 3/3 points
Increases the effect of your Curse of Weakness by 20%.

# Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points
Increases the amount of Mana awarded by your Life Tap spell by 20%.

# Improved Curse of Agony - 3/3 points
Increases the damage done by your Curse of Agony by 6%.

# Amplify Curse - 1/1 point
Increases the effect of your next Curse of Weakness or Curse of Agony by 50%, or your next Curse of Exhaustion by 20%.

# Grim Reach - 2/2 points
Increases the range of your Affliction spells by 20%.

# Improved Drain Mana - 2/2 points
Causes 30% of the Mana drained by your Drain Mana spell to damage the opponent.

# Curse of Exhaustion - 1/1 point
Reduces the target's speed to 90% of normal for 12 seconds. Only one Curse per Warlock can be active on any one target.



Demonology Talents (30 points)

# Improved Healthstone - 2/2 points
Increases the amount of Health restored by your Healthstone by 20%.

# Improved Imp - 3/3 points
Increases the effect of your Imp's Firebolt, Fire Shield, and Blood Pact spells by 30%.

# Improved Voidwalker - 3/3 points
Increases the effectiveness of your Voidwalker's Torment, Consume Shadows, Sacrifice, and Suffering spells by 30%.

# Fel Intellect - 4/5 points
Increases the maximum Mana of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter by 12%.

# Improved Succubus - 3/3 points
Increases the effect of your Succubus' Lash of Pain and Soothing Kiss spells by 30%, and increases the duration of your Succubus' Seduction and Lesser Invisibility spells by 30%.

# Unholy Power - 5/5 points
Increases the damage done by your Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter's melee attacks by 20%.

# Improved Enslave Demon - 5/5 points
Reduces the Attack Speed and Casting Speed penalty of your Enslave Demon spell by 10% and the resist chance by 10%.

# Master Demonologist - 5/5 points
Grants both the Warlock and the summoned demon an effect as long as that demon is active.

Imp - Reduces threat caused by 20%.

Voidwalker - Reduces physical damage taken by 10%.

Succubus - Increases all damage caused by 10%.

Felhunter - Increases all resistances by 1.0 per level.



Destruction Talents (0 points)

# None

Chance to hit, crit, and miss

The original posts for this info are long gone, but they were blue text on the WoW forums. Enoy:

Hi all, this is motive, the QA lead tester for WoW and fellow rogue =). I have some information on how Rogue crit is calculated that will hopefully clear up some of this confusion.

The way WoW calculates crit rate is over ALL attacks. Crit rate is not based on hits only. In other words, if you have a 5% crit rate, that 5% chance includes misses.

All crit rate adjusting abilities, items, and talents add the flat % to the base % crit rate. So if I have a 5% base crit rate and then use an item or talent that increases that crit rate (let's use Improved Backstab talent for example - +30% crit), my new crit with backstab is 35%.

Regarding how defense decreases the rate of critical strikes, each point of defense that a target has over the attacker, the attacker loses 0.04% chance to crit. So, for example, if a level 60 Rogue is attacking a level 60 Warrior who has 25 defense, the rogue's crit rate will be decreased by 1%.

I hope that helps!

And a follow-up to that:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Wait, motive can you verify some theoretical numbers for me? (assuming ideal distributions)
1) 1000 swings with a 50% chance to hit and a 50% chance to crit (against an equal level unarmored/no defense enemy) would result in
a) 500 crits, 500 misses (chance of regular hit = to hit - crit)
or
b) 500 crits, 250 hits, 250 misses (chance of regular hit calculated independently after crit roll)
or
c) 250 crits, 250 hits, 500 misses (chance of crit calculated independently after to-hit roll)

Sounds like you use option A as your calc, which is cool although not particularly intuitive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Option a) is correct. But keep in mind that 50% hit AND 50% crit is not a possibility since in your example the % chance to miss stays the same. The way this works is that when your chance to crit increases, your chance to hit is consumed by that increase. So if I initially have a 25% chance to miss and a 50% chance to crit, then I have a 25% chance to hit. If I increase my crit chance to 55%, then my chance to hit (not crit) becomes 20%.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
As for attack skill vs defense skill, am I correct to assume that the formula is crit adjustment = (ATTACK SKILL - DEFENSE SKILL) * 0.04?

So if rogue with 325 dagger skill and 50% crit attacks an enemy with 300 defense, the rogue's effective crit is 51%, and attacking a warrior with 425 defense the effective crit is 46%?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, this is correct, applying the formula to a rogue with 325 dagger skill vs. a target with 300 defense increases the rogue�s crit chance to 51%.

(325 - 300)*0.04 = +1%

Your second assumption is also correct, applying the formula to attacking a warrior that has 425 defense yields a -5% to crit rate, dropping this rogue�s crit chance vs. the warrior to 46%.

(325 - 425)*0.04 = -4%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
As for the original poster, Blizz you might want to reverify the (ATTACK SKILL - DEFENSE SKILL)*0.04 formula, as if that suddenly become (0 - DEFENSE SKILL) * 0.04 while tweaking defense, it would explain the ~12% drop in crit percentage.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't make any assumptions about the original poster's data because the weapon skill and target defense ratings were not posted. As many people have stated above also though, probability distribution is not always perfect and there is still a chance that once can be "unlucky". It's not impossible to toss tails 50 times in a row, it's not impossible to only crit 40% of the time when the chance to do so is 50%.

Some of the language in the above article can be confusing. When they say "chance to hit" remember that what they actually mean is "chance to get a normal hit" (as opposed to your chance to crit.)

Attack Power, Strength, and Agi

Just for you, Joe :)

Attack power increases your base DPS by one for every 14 attack power.

Each one point of strength increases your melee attack power by 2 for all classes except Rogues and Hunters. In the case of these two, attack power increases by one for every one point of strength, and also one for every one point of agility. Basically strength and agility both contribute to attack power, but at half the rate that strength alone does for all other classes.

In the case of Hunters & Rogues, +7 strength and +7 agi = +14 attack power = +1 to base dps.
For all other classes, +7 strength = +14 attack power = +1 to base dps.

Also, remember that agi has the added bonus of increasing your armor class*, increasing your chance to dodge an attack**, and of course increasing your chance to crit***. :)

Finally, a druid's feral forms' attack powers are both calculated on strength only. Even though the feral cat is considered a pseudo-rogue, it does not use the strength/agi formula to calculate attack power. The cat feral form attack power calculation is the same as that of a Shaman (see below.) If you want to increase your dps in either of your feral forms, collect + to strength gear.

Here are the specific formulae that the game uses to calculate a character's base attack power:

Warrior/Paladin/Druid Feral Bear Form Attack Power:
Character Level*3+Strength*2-20

Rogue/Hunter Attack Power:
Character Level*2+Strength+Agility-20

Shaman/Druid Feral Cat Form Attack Power:
Character Level*2+Strength*2-20

Druid Caster Form Attack Power:
Strength*2-20

Mage/Priest/Warlock Attack Power:
Strength-10

---

* AC increases by 2 for every one point of agi.

** 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.

*** Rogues require 29 AGI for an additional 1% crit chance, and Hunters require 53 AGI for an additional 1% crit 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. All other classes gain 1% chance to crit for every 20 AGI.

---

This post was compiled from:
-about 60% three main articles
-about 20% two smaller articles
-about 20% my own understanding and explanations

None of the articles are still available in a public location, or I'd link to them for reference.

The new 1.6 patch is up on the server in the usual place. I'm doing a server rack cutover from the old network to the new network today, so if you can't connect that's why. I hope the impact is minimal though.

New 'lock skill: Master Demonologist

Kick Ass! When I have the pet out I get these benifits:

Imp : threat reduced by 20%
VW: physical damage reduced by 10%
Succy: Damage done increased by 10%
Felhunter: Resists added at 1 per level



I may have to respec for demonology...

Two things I'd like to do...

Blackrock run (working on the first step of Onyxia) and kill the lich in Andorhal (working on Scholo key).

Ready. Set. Go!

Lone rangers

Phat Lewts

w00t! Tonight's MC run with Fabled got me Earthfury Bracers and Earthfury Breastplate! Add that to the Earthfury Belt I had from a while back, and the three together netted me my very first Earthfury set bonus of +10 yard range to all totem buffs!

Here's a screenie of my new look:

funny comments on thott

bah, just read this.

Not really engrish...

...but this will work.

Resistances Explained

Looks like resistances are calculated twice on two different stats.

Oooo I'm So Sneaky!

As a step in the chain to obtaining the key to Onyxia's Lair, one must talk to Emberstrife; a drake in the south of Swamp of Sorrows. How does one approach a drake for a friendly discussion without being turned into a crispy meat popsicle? Like so...

Beating Tat to the punch...

Thotbot

I assume we all know about the wonders of thotbot. Here's a great discussion relating thotbot to google (scroll down and check out the comments too).

BTW, I use allakhazam almost as much as thot.

BRD tonight? - Take Two!

This is a call to everyone level 58+. Calhoun needs to do Attunement to the Core and a number of other things in BRD tonight. Please join us if you have the time for an instance run! Be at Kargath or in Black Rock Mountain by 7:30. See you tonight!