Now, I've played this game for a long time. I recall when the AQ event happened, and feeling at a loss for how I can recover my beloved Feralas. I remember what it was like to see a member of the Top Guild, inspect their shinies, and vow I'll be like them some day. I spent a lot of time in cities, rolling my eyes at the meaningless babble. Remember when the global LFG channel was implemented? Scary times, man. But in all those years, I have no memory of the amount of assholeness that I see today.
It's possible it's just me, but have the big, progressive guilds sudden taken a turn for the pricks? The guild in topic has been on server since Day 1, and I've had friends in and out of the guild. They suffered a rough split in early BC, but the group of people as a whole have just been honest, proud raiders. There would always be a jokester member, some who hang out in trade, but they rarely uttered a demeaning word such as "scrub". They had huge egos, to be sure, but they weren't used as a weapon. Yesterday a "discussion" was going on about whether a 500g fee for crafting some ICC patterns was honest. The seller informed on of his accusers that he did not need the opinion of a "scrub hunter." Really? I mean, wouldn't "idiot" equally suffice? "Uneducated imbecile"? "Fool"? Why do you have belittle both his class and his guild membership? When I /who'd the seller, found out he was in the Top Guild, I bemoaned how the mighty have fallen.
I've done my fair share of name calling, don't get me wrong. I've flustered over how the "casual" members of Guild Y managed to down a boss before us. But I've never referred to anyone as a "bad" outside of my guild. I'll specifically trash talk people who are on the same level as me in terms of game play and experience, not people who don't know how to pull pyrite when riding shotgun in a demolisher.
So why have the assholes multiplied? I'm going to make an unresearched correlation and blame the new raid system. Normal vs Heroic. Easy vs Hard. All the loot looks the same, they all have the basic level stats. You couldn't tell the difference at first glance between raider of Guild A and raider of Guild M. Are raiders a bit frustrated by this? I think so. There is considerable more pressure now to prove you are not a bad player, that your iLevel gear was earned with hard work and diligence and not just through a random PUG found in Trade; that you have been playing this class as your main for years, not just as an alt, casually earning your tier through badge runs. And so the inevitable happens when a group of males must prove their manliness when nothing else distinguishes them: They talk shit, and their guild's reputation suffers.
Like I said, it might just be me. I'm in a new position, where I no longer have an assured raid spot. I have to PUG my way through the weekly raid quest. I have to compete for a GDKP raid poisition with alts from the Top Guilds, with friends of the leaders, and with people that buy gold. The world is a bit scarier place for me now, and keeping my eyes open is vital if I want to inch my way through progress.
Of course, this comes from a bad day back. My first two attempts at completing the Random Daily Heroic failed due to Brann bugging out (yes, another HoS...) and people immediately leaving if they find the random heroic happens to be Oculus. The second attempt at Oculus was successful, thankfully. I tried to get into a group for Ulduar 10 to down Razorscale, but I was totally ignored, even after the leader specifically said "need a warrior, mage, or pally dps." Really? This is Ulduar 10, to Razorscale - what can a mage do that I cannot? And are you really concerned that I will be taking gear from another hunter? I just linked Glory of the Ulduar Raider to prove to you I know what I'm doing - I don't think I'll be needing gear. Then came the slew of embarressing WSG defeats, followed by a duo of equally as embarressing WG failures. The Horde has so much promise; why do they have to be so single minded?
The only highlight of my day came when I saved a boomkin from a human pally in between Wintergrasp battles. It was by total chance - I had just sniped a draenei hunter with about 5% mana, and I was flying down to drink up when they appeared in front of me. The boomkin thanked me, and we parted ways. I was doing some fishing before the battle when I got a tell saying that I was an ass for interrupting their little duel and that hunters are always butting in where they don't belong. I asked him how long he'd known of the concept of world PvP and if he considers rape just casual sex, too. Moral of the story, kids: World PvP means that anyone can enter your little "duel".
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The End?
I hope you all had a productive holiday week. I certainly did. Plans were made for the wedding, a copious amount of fatty foods were consumed, annoying family members were endured and/or avoided, and the Boy and I learned a lot about what it means to leave your newly established home for a week.
And in all that time, I haven't had the hungering pains for WoW. I had a small stab of guilt for not updating the Butterfly, but that accompanied the frustration of not having much to post about. A small part of me says "quit now, while you still recognize how easy it is to walk away!" but another part of me says "do you really have something better to do?" I do still want to down Arthas, and make at least 50,000 kills, but they are goals that are very casual and not exactly time sensitive. I feel that my lack of drive is a good thing; this addiction has burnt itself out.
Despite the Boy's warnings that I should get a backup game for the inevitable rebound, I feel like my gaming drive is just dying out in general, like a childhood habit. This has good and bad components. On the good, it means I can devote all the necessary energy to school, research, and home. On the bad, it severs one of the ties that brought the Boy and I together in the first place and ensured our relationship would last through our time apart. Yet I think he will be able to relate - after all, he announced a couple weeks ago that he was growing tired of beer, and I rushed to check if he was feverish. Something tells me, however, that just a good solid break from a gaming console will be a good fast to set me up for another go for another game, should I feel the call again.
This isn't the end, not yet. You'll know when I'm gone for good ;)
And in all that time, I haven't had the hungering pains for WoW. I had a small stab of guilt for not updating the Butterfly, but that accompanied the frustration of not having much to post about. A small part of me says "quit now, while you still recognize how easy it is to walk away!" but another part of me says "do you really have something better to do?" I do still want to down Arthas, and make at least 50,000 kills, but they are goals that are very casual and not exactly time sensitive. I feel that my lack of drive is a good thing; this addiction has burnt itself out.
Despite the Boy's warnings that I should get a backup game for the inevitable rebound, I feel like my gaming drive is just dying out in general, like a childhood habit. This has good and bad components. On the good, it means I can devote all the necessary energy to school, research, and home. On the bad, it severs one of the ties that brought the Boy and I together in the first place and ensured our relationship would last through our time apart. Yet I think he will be able to relate - after all, he announced a couple weeks ago that he was growing tired of beer, and I rushed to check if he was feverish. Something tells me, however, that just a good solid break from a gaming console will be a good fast to set me up for another go for another game, should I feel the call again.
This isn't the end, not yet. You'll know when I'm gone for good ;)
Monday, December 21, 2009
Happy Holidays from The Angry Butterfly!
Today is the Winter's Solstice, the shortest day of the year, which means the days will only get longer from here until July 21st. This is the reason for the holiday season, so celebrate by eating a lot of fattening foods, staying warm by the fire, and catching up with friends and family.
This is also the time for giving to those less fortunate and in need of assistance. I encourage you to donate time, money, or other goods to a charity of any sort (I highly recommend any on this list - and that does include Child's Play). Donations can extend to WoW as well, where you can extend a hand to those poor noobs out there by teaching them and providing them with basic goods instead of one-shotting them (I know, it's difficult not to).
I will be venturing back to the Midwest this week, to sate the hungering family and plan a wedding (ugh). I won't be on much, but I'm sure I'll still try to snag a present under Grandfather Winter's tree sometime!
This is also the time for giving to those less fortunate and in need of assistance. I encourage you to donate time, money, or other goods to a charity of any sort (I highly recommend any on this list - and that does include Child's Play). Donations can extend to WoW as well, where you can extend a hand to those poor noobs out there by teaching them and providing them with basic goods instead of one-shotting them (I know, it's difficult not to).
I will be venturing back to the Midwest this week, to sate the hungering family and plan a wedding (ugh). I won't be on much, but I'm sure I'll still try to snag a present under Grandfather Winter's tree sometime!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Snowed In
Evidently D.C. and Virginia have declared the current weather emergency-worthy. I'm not gonna lie, it's a lot of snow, but after living in Chicago for four years, I have definitely seen worse. Regardless, the Boy and I are trapped in our apartment for the weekend, and that's not a terrible thing.
WoW has taken a lower priority as the weeks wind down towards the holidays. We are flying back home to Kansas on the 21st (the solstice!) for a week, and I want to return to a clean house. I've been busy cleaning and organizing, which doesn't leave much time for anything besides the daily heroic and battleground, maybe a Wintergrasp or two. My funds are woefully low for this week's GDKP run, so I most likely won't be able to afford anything, and I haven't had time to grind honor to buy gems as a source of income.
I did join a 2s team with a Holy Pally, and we hit 1600 this week - not bad considering we are just goofing off. With the plethora of melee teams we've been encountering, I've finally conceded to going SV for my PvP spec. I've never PvP'd as SV, and while I find it more intuitive and easier to control people with, I find it more difficult to survive in battlegrounds, ironically enough. The double-Deterrence MM offered with Readiness made flag carrying a breeze, while I just don't have the same means of short-term survival with SV.
And with that, I leave you with a WoW Carol:
Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
but my Toshiba Qosmio is delightful,
and since the cables out on the tubes,
time to pwn noobs, pwn noobs, pwn noobs.
WoW has taken a lower priority as the weeks wind down towards the holidays. We are flying back home to Kansas on the 21st (the solstice!) for a week, and I want to return to a clean house. I've been busy cleaning and organizing, which doesn't leave much time for anything besides the daily heroic and battleground, maybe a Wintergrasp or two. My funds are woefully low for this week's GDKP run, so I most likely won't be able to afford anything, and I haven't had time to grind honor to buy gems as a source of income.
I did join a 2s team with a Holy Pally, and we hit 1600 this week - not bad considering we are just goofing off. With the plethora of melee teams we've been encountering, I've finally conceded to going SV for my PvP spec. I've never PvP'd as SV, and while I find it more intuitive and easier to control people with, I find it more difficult to survive in battlegrounds, ironically enough. The double-Deterrence MM offered with Readiness made flag carrying a breeze, while I just don't have the same means of short-term survival with SV.
And with that, I leave you with a WoW Carol:
Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
but my Toshiba Qosmio is delightful,
and since the cables out on the tubes,
time to pwn noobs, pwn noobs, pwn noobs.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Dear Blizzard
Every time I get Heroic Halls of Lightning or Heroic Halls of Stone through the random dungeon finder, I will kill a kitten, as all wrathful goddesses are prone to do. It is on you to prevent these needless slaughter.
Love,
Neg
Love,
Neg
Sunday, December 13, 2009
I spent waaaaay too much on gear today
I can't say I haven't had much to spend my gold on lately. Since all I've been doing is PvPing, I don't get gear upgrades nor have to repair much, and arrows last forever when autoshots don't have time to fly between members of the Alliance. I tentatively have been saving up for epic flying on a couple of alts, but all in all, just hording for a rainy day. Ironically, it rained the majority of the day in Northern Virginia.
Around 10 AM server time, someone in trade started a bid war on a Battered Hilt. Now, unless you have Heroic Hellion Glaive, a MM hunter looks at that very hungrily. Right now, I have 102 stat points wasted on haste, and I would like to get rid of that. So I started bidding, and luckily enough, the seller is in a rush, and I won for 8500g. The poor sap easily lost 1.5k or more, but business is business. Tomorrow I'll have a Quel'Delar to match the Boy's old Quel'Serrar. Even though I loose around 50ish AP, that 99 crit is worth it.
Tonight I hopped in another GDKP run, and while there were some bumps through ToC25 (more on that later), we followed with the pug's first foray into ICC25. We one shotted Morrowgar, then spent the rest of the time on Deathwhisper, and my it was a hunter's night. Morrowgar dropped the hit helm, and Deathwhisper dropped the ArPen pants. I was a bit poorer that afternoon than I was earlier, but I topped the bid with 5.5k, and won. We earned more with two bosses in ICC25 than on all five bosses in ToC25.
The questline for Quel'Delar is fun, and I won't spoil it for you. You do get to venture into the other faction's side of Dalaran, which means I finally got to explore the beer garden:
Tonight's GDKP run of ToC25 hit a stressful note when we hit Twin Valks. Last time I mentioned that their strat is to put all the melee on black and all the ranged on white. Well, this strat is easy enough to explain, but not exactly optimal on damage, mainly because a class of great dps is severly gimped: The hunters. So I said in raid "I'm going to go white with the melee", took the white attunment (watched the other hunter do the same), and we stood together on one side. About halfway in, the raid leaders noticed we were white, and while I said we were fine (and we were), they were not happy.
Once the bosses were down (in less than three minutes), one of the leaders asked me why I was the "wrong" attunement, and I explained: By keeping the hunter's on the caster target, you are severely gimping the overall DPS of the raid. I tried to explain it wasn't a matter of not getting to do "leet dps" or being purposely annoying - having hunters dps a target that have the appropriate debuffs makes the fight shorter. She tried to say that having multiple attunements in the range made it more stressful for the healers, but I pointed out that we would only get splash damage (neither of us hit an orb) and by having more dps, the fight would be shorter and the healers would heal less. Obviously I was in the wrong for not doing what the raid leader said, but it was not maliciously - it was to better the raid. It was smoothed over, but I'm debating whether or not I want to do the fight with them again, or discuss the strat with the leaders. It's just silly.
Anyway, we are going to finish the ICC25 tomorrow, and I am quite eager :3
Around 10 AM server time, someone in trade started a bid war on a Battered Hilt. Now, unless you have Heroic Hellion Glaive, a MM hunter looks at that very hungrily. Right now, I have 102 stat points wasted on haste, and I would like to get rid of that. So I started bidding, and luckily enough, the seller is in a rush, and I won for 8500g. The poor sap easily lost 1.5k or more, but business is business. Tomorrow I'll have a Quel'Delar to match the Boy's old Quel'Serrar. Even though I loose around 50ish AP, that 99 crit is worth it.
Tonight I hopped in another GDKP run, and while there were some bumps through ToC25 (more on that later), we followed with the pug's first foray into ICC25. We one shotted Morrowgar, then spent the rest of the time on Deathwhisper, and my it was a hunter's night. Morrowgar dropped the hit helm, and Deathwhisper dropped the ArPen pants. I was a bit poorer that afternoon than I was earlier, but I topped the bid with 5.5k, and won. We earned more with two bosses in ICC25 than on all five bosses in ToC25.
The questline for Quel'Delar is fun, and I won't spoil it for you. You do get to venture into the other faction's side of Dalaran, which means I finally got to explore the beer garden:
Tonight's GDKP run of ToC25 hit a stressful note when we hit Twin Valks. Last time I mentioned that their strat is to put all the melee on black and all the ranged on white. Well, this strat is easy enough to explain, but not exactly optimal on damage, mainly because a class of great dps is severly gimped: The hunters. So I said in raid "I'm going to go white with the melee", took the white attunment (watched the other hunter do the same), and we stood together on one side. About halfway in, the raid leaders noticed we were white, and while I said we were fine (and we were), they were not happy.
Once the bosses were down (in less than three minutes), one of the leaders asked me why I was the "wrong" attunement, and I explained: By keeping the hunter's on the caster target, you are severely gimping the overall DPS of the raid. I tried to explain it wasn't a matter of not getting to do "leet dps" or being purposely annoying - having hunters dps a target that have the appropriate debuffs makes the fight shorter. She tried to say that having multiple attunements in the range made it more stressful for the healers, but I pointed out that we would only get splash damage (neither of us hit an orb) and by having more dps, the fight would be shorter and the healers would heal less. Obviously I was in the wrong for not doing what the raid leader said, but it was not maliciously - it was to better the raid. It was smoothed over, but I'm debating whether or not I want to do the fight with them again, or discuss the strat with the leaders. It's just silly.
Anyway, we are going to finish the ICC25 tomorrow, and I am quite eager :3
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Updated!
Raiding Hunter Loot in 3.3 has been updated with all the new loot (sans Arthas, of course) along with my thoughts.
Good luck in Icecrown!
Good luck in Icecrown!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Get the info out
In my brief life in a hard core raiding guild, there was a lot of fuss about managing who got certain gear first. Since the goal was to down content as quickly as possible, each item of gear was given out with the mentality that it would go to a class/spec that offered the maximum amount of efficiency for the item (hence, I got Hellion Glaive on our first Anub'arak kill - oh look! My picture is on wowhead!).
I strongly encourage you to repost Rilgon's analysis of the new trinket from ICC25, Deathbringer's Will, on your guild's forums for discussion among the physical classes. Let them know what proc they are getting, and how much the proc will benefit them with gear from Icecrown.
I strongly encourage you to repost Rilgon's analysis of the new trinket from ICC25, Deathbringer's Will, on your guild's forums for discussion among the physical classes. Let them know what proc they are getting, and how much the proc will benefit them with gear from Icecrown.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Reflections on the new LFG system
I spent yesterday in a queue, and I'm not complaining. I tested out the new LFG system on the PTR a month or so ago, when the old GM couldn't stop singing it's praises, and I had to admit it was great all around. I instantly plotted my goal to finish off 1000 Stone Keeper Shards and then get the subsequent achievements for the new system.
I logged in, queued up, and got H:Halls of Reflection. Then H:Pit of Sauron. Then H:Halls of Stone. Then H:Drak'tharon Keep. At that point, Wintergrasp had started, so I went over to deal with that, but we lost since the graveyard spirit rezzers were a bit biased and refused to rez us, resulting in everyone in the workshop graveyards having to run to the Horde emcampment. So while WG was down, I did a random normal instance, and got Halls of Reflection. I had no intention of just doing a slew of normal instances, so I did the PvP daily (25 arena points = awesome), and even jumped into a 10 man Eye of Eternity to do the weekly raid. Once Horde won the Wintergrasp again, I ran H:Halls of Lightning, then another H:Halls of Stone, followed by another H:Halls of Reflection (methinks computer random is at work here), and then finally a H:Culling of Stratholm, where I completed my 1000 Stone Keeper Shards.
I had good fortune with the puggers as well - except in the Halls of Lightning, where the main tank was chatting more than he was pulling, then told me off for pulling for him. Chatter was rare, but if it was, it was mainly concerned with topics clearly covered in the patch notes, and I grew increasingly more impatient with people who were surprised that the 5mans were dropping Emblems of Triumph.
Dealing with other servers loot rules was an unforeseen surprise - afterall, how often do you think about other server's codes of conduct? We started labeling servers for how they roll on Frozen Orbs - the PvP servers nearly always Need, the PvE servers nearly always Greed, and the RP servers are a toss-up. It took me awhile to get used to the new Disenchanting system as well, only because if no enchanter was in the group, everyone just started Greeding the BoP blues and epics. This makes sense of course, I just wasn't ready for the sudden lack of "no enchanter in group? guess we can just roll for vendor."
I only grouped up once with someone from a Big Name Guild, and that was a ret pally from CUTIES ONLY in my first Halls of Stone. I enjoyed it - he was silent, but did all the work on the Brann event, and all I had to do was drop traps.
Now that I am one day in, I don't think I have any reservations about the new system. I haven't had the chance to use the "Vote to Kick" option yet, and I hope I don't have to, nor have we really carried any new-80 in blues and greens either. I'm 22 of the 50 away from a new chuckle-worthy title. What I am rather pleased about is that once the novelty of the system wears off, and all the titles are gained and badges farmed, it won't be nearly as painful to pick it back up again.
I logged in, queued up, and got H:Halls of Reflection. Then H:Pit of Sauron. Then H:Halls of Stone. Then H:Drak'tharon Keep. At that point, Wintergrasp had started, so I went over to deal with that, but we lost since the graveyard spirit rezzers were a bit biased and refused to rez us, resulting in everyone in the workshop graveyards having to run to the Horde emcampment. So while WG was down, I did a random normal instance, and got Halls of Reflection. I had no intention of just doing a slew of normal instances, so I did the PvP daily (25 arena points = awesome), and even jumped into a 10 man Eye of Eternity to do the weekly raid. Once Horde won the Wintergrasp again, I ran H:Halls of Lightning, then another H:Halls of Stone, followed by another H:Halls of Reflection (methinks computer random is at work here), and then finally a H:Culling of Stratholm, where I completed my 1000 Stone Keeper Shards.
I had good fortune with the puggers as well - except in the Halls of Lightning, where the main tank was chatting more than he was pulling, then told me off for pulling for him. Chatter was rare, but if it was, it was mainly concerned with topics clearly covered in the patch notes, and I grew increasingly more impatient with people who were surprised that the 5mans were dropping Emblems of Triumph.
Dealing with other servers loot rules was an unforeseen surprise - afterall, how often do you think about other server's codes of conduct? We started labeling servers for how they roll on Frozen Orbs - the PvP servers nearly always Need, the PvE servers nearly always Greed, and the RP servers are a toss-up. It took me awhile to get used to the new Disenchanting system as well, only because if no enchanter was in the group, everyone just started Greeding the BoP blues and epics. This makes sense of course, I just wasn't ready for the sudden lack of "no enchanter in group? guess we can just roll for vendor."
I only grouped up once with someone from a Big Name Guild, and that was a ret pally from CUTIES ONLY in my first Halls of Stone. I enjoyed it - he was silent, but did all the work on the Brann event, and all I had to do was drop traps.
Now that I am one day in, I don't think I have any reservations about the new system. I haven't had the chance to use the "Vote to Kick" option yet, and I hope I don't have to, nor have we really carried any new-80 in blues and greens either. I'm 22 of the 50 away from a new chuckle-worthy title. What I am rather pleased about is that once the novelty of the system wears off, and all the titles are gained and badges farmed, it won't be nearly as painful to pick it back up again.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Raiding Hunter Loot in 3.3
So here we are, the last content patch of the expansion. I'm slightly depressed that after all this time, the vast majority of the loot I'll be outlining here won't be available to me, but I can seek solace in the fact that others who will use this list will get the gear and use it well. I am happy that they are bringing back a faction to get rep with, along with a dungeon with many many bosses. I enjoy such instances, because they make me nostalgic for the raids of old. Hopefully I can get some raids in to see the content before I call it quits.
Fortunately, this time the annoying Horde- and Alliance-only names are left behind with the Argent Tournament. Normal and Hard Mode loot still exists, but it won't be as painful to list them out.
Tier pieces work in a similar way again, with three levels: 251, 264, and 277. Ilvl 251 can be bought with Emblem of Frost (the new Emblem of Triumph - just like the last patch, every instance except Icecrown 10/25 now drops Triumph, and everything new drops Frost) - 60 for the shoulders and gloves, 95 for the helm, chest, and pants. Ilvl 264 requires the 251 piece plus a tier token from Normal; ilvl 277 requires the 264 piece plus a heroic tier token from Hark Mode. As of right now, it is still unknown where the tokens drop.
As of the patch release, not all the loot is known (what with Arthas not being tested and all), so these will be updated as the instance progresses. For the most part, I will not be listing loot from the 5-man dungeons. However, some items (such as stat-sticks and trinkets) are notoriously difficult to have drop and/or win in some raids, so some upgrades may exist in the new 5-mans.
"Neg's Notes" are my eyeballing estimate of what is the best of the gear. I don't plug anything in to the spreadsheets, so I may very well be wrong with what is the optimal piece, but I'm fairly certain I'll be in the ballpark ;)
Helm
Taldron's Short-Sighted Helm - Normal/Hard Mode - Rotface 10
Snowserpent Mail Helm - Normal/Hard Mode - Lord Marrowgar 25
Tier 10/10.25/10.5
Neg's Notes: All three are acceptable, but since 4-piece tier is priority, gonna have to go with t10.25. Snowserpent is a nice alternative for a hit piece, which hopefully you won't need.
Neck
Precious' Putrid Collar - Normal/Hard Mode - Festergut 10
Rimetooth Pendant - Normal/Hard Mode - Sindragosa 10
Wodin's Lucky Necklace - Normal/Hard Mode - Trash 25 (Stinky and Precious?)
Sindragosa's Cruel Claw - Normal/Hard Mode - Singdragosa 25
Neg's Notes: Rimetooth Pendant is where it's at, with Wodin's Lucky Necklace as a hit alternative.
Shoulder
Pauldrons of Lost Hope - Normal/Hard Mode - Gunship Armory 10
Shoulderpads of the Morbid Ritual - Normal/Hard Mode - Professor Putricide 10
Dual-Bladed Pauldrons - Normal/Hard Mode - Rotface 25
Tier 10/10.25/10.5
Neg's Notes: Tier wins with no haste.
Cloak
Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape - 50 Emblems of Frost
Shadowvault Slayer's Cloak - Normal/Hard Mode - Gunship Armory 25
Neg's Notes: Arthas better have a better piece of cloth up his sleeve, since there is nothing dropping for hunters at the moment. Save up your Frost Emblems, and make that cloak one of your first purchases for an easy upgrade if you never got chest loot in ToC10/25.
Chest
Longstrider's Vest - 95 Emblems of Frost
Hauberk of a Thousand Cuts - Normal/Hard Mode - Deathbringer Saurfang 10
Carapace of Forgotten Kings - Normal/Hard Mode - Festergut 25
Tier 10/10.25/10.5
Neg's Notes: This is tough to eyeball (sans the wowhead comparative loot table), but I'm just going to call tier for this as well, since I don't doubt that the set bonuses will outweigh any stats on better chests.
Bracers
Icecrown Rampart Bracers - Normal/Hard Mode - Gunship Armory 10
Scourge Hunter's Vambraces - Normal/Hard Mode - Gunship Armory 25
Neg's Notes: This one will depend on your hit and ArPen. The 10man hit bracers also have a nice little chunk of more AP.
Gloves
Logsplitters - 60 Emblems of Frost
Handgrips of Frost and Steel - Normal/Hard Mode - Lady Deathwhisper 10
Anub'ar Stalker's Gloves - Normal/Hard Mode - Valithria Dreamwalker 25
Tier 10/10.25/10.5
Neg's Notes: Well, here's a nice batch of guarenteed hit, so go with tier - though, those two red sockets on the 10man gloves are tempting...
Belt
Band of the Night Raven - 60 Emblems of Frost
Linked Scourge Vertebrae - Normal/Hard Mode - Lord Marrowgar 10
Blood-Drinket's Girdle - Normal/Hard Mode - Blood Prince Council 10
Nerub'ar Stalker's Cord - Normal/Hard Mode - Festergut 25
Neg's Notes: Once again, depending on your hit and ArPen, either the Festergut 25 or the badge belt are good - just stay away from the BPC10 one (ew, haste). I'm actually going to weigh in favor of the badge belt over the heroic Marrowgar10 piece as welll; the stats are identical, except for the sockets. The Marrowgar10 will be better if you don't have a better place to put your Nightmare's Tier, but if you do, those two yellow sockets in the badge belt are more welcoming than the blue and red.
Pants
Draconic Bonesplinter Legguards - Leatherworking made
Legguards of the Twisted Dream - Normal/Hard Mode - Valithria Dreamwalker 10
Leggings of Northern Lights - Normal/Hard Mode - Lady Deathwhisper 25
Tier 10/10.25/10.5
Neg's Notes: No competition here - Deathwhisper25 pants all the way. The LW pants are different by the normal version by a matter of 16 AP vs 8 Agil - and when the iValues are balanced, I still weigh in favor of Agil.
Boots
Rock-Steady Treads - Leatherworking made
Wyrmwing Treads - Normal/Hard Mode - Sindragosa 10
Taldron's Long Neglected Boots - Normal/Hard Mode - Festergut 10
Treads of the Wasteland - Normal/Hard Mode - Blood Prince Council 25
Neg's Notes: Once again, it depends on your hit and ArPen and what you can get vs what you need. Go for the BPC25 boots over the Sindragosa10, and both the Festergut10 and the LW made are good, just depends on your ArPen balance (though the LW sockets are fairly annoying).
Rings
Saurfang's Cold-Forged Band - Normal/Hard Mode - Deathbringer Saurfang 10
Seal of the Twilight Queen - Normal/Hard Mode - Queen Lana'thel 10
Band of the Bone Colossus - Normal/Hard Mode - Lord Marrowgar 25
Frostbrood Sapphire Ring - Normal/Hard Mode - Valithria Dreamwalker 25
Ashen Band of Vengeance/Greater Vengeance/Unmatched Vengeance/Endless Vengeance - Increasing rep with the Ashen verdict from Ormus the Penitent
Neg's Notes: I'm going to make a sweeping generalization that every ring with haste is bad, which leaves the Valithria25 ring and the rep ring. There, that was easy.
Trinkets
Herkuml War Token - 60 Emblems of Frost
Needle-Encrusted Scorpion - Devourer of Souls, Heroic Forge of Souls 5
Whispering Fanged Skull - Normal/ Hard Mode - Lady Deathwhisper 10
Deathbringer's Will - Normal/Hard Mode - Deathbringer Saurfang 25
Neg's Notes: Badge trinket bad, NES not as good as Mjolners/Grim Toll (10% proc on crits vs 15% proc on hits), the Fanged Skull is meh, and the Deathbringer's Will is awesome (for hunters). The spreadsheets will tell what combos will be at the top, and your luck will determine if you want to stay with the ArPen-procing trinket or reach the ArPen cap through gear/gems.
Stat Sticks
Orca-Hunter's Harpoon - Marwyn, Heroic Halls of Reflection 5
Quel'delar, Ferocity of the Scorned - Quest reward started from the Battered Hilt, a drop from any of the heroic new 5mans.
Hersir's Greatspear - Normal/Hard Mode - Blood Prince Council 10
Shaft of Glacial Ice - Normal/Hard Mode - Rotface 10
Bloodfall - Normal/Hard Mode - Bloog-Queen Lana'thel 25
Distant Land - Normal/Hard Mode - Festergut 25
Oathbinder, Charge of the Ranger-General - Normal/Hard Mode - The Lich King 25
Neg's Notes: We now have a stat-stick that does, indeed, say "Hunter Weapon". I'm also fairly positive that when you loot Oathbinder and equip it, a chorus of naked men/women (depending on your sexual orientation) will decend from the heavens in glorious trumpting for your disposal.
Range
Njordnar Bone Bow - Normal/Hard Mode - Lady Deathwhisper 10
Stakethrower - Normal/Hard Mode - Blood-Queen Lana'thel 10
Zod's Repeating Longbow - Normal/Hard Mode - Lady Deathwhisper 25
Windrunner's Heartskeer - Normal/Hard Mode - The Lich King 10
Fal'inrush, Defender of Quel'thalas - Normal/Hard Mode - The Lich King 25
Neg's Notes: Well it's obvious now, what with the Lich King loot out. Too bad the best of the lot has haste (and is a bloody xbow...), but the second best of the lot is actually very pretty.
I would say they definitely got it right for loot this instance. Everything has a secondary option than you can balace with your other gear, though it does mean you will be accumulating a lot of gear to enchant and coordinate.
Once again, tell me if I missed something or my rational is screwy.
Have fun in Icecrown!
Fortunately, this time the annoying Horde- and Alliance-only names are left behind with the Argent Tournament. Normal and Hard Mode loot still exists, but it won't be as painful to list them out.
Tier pieces work in a similar way again, with three levels: 251, 264, and 277. Ilvl 251 can be bought with Emblem of Frost (the new Emblem of Triumph - just like the last patch, every instance except Icecrown 10/25 now drops Triumph, and everything new drops Frost) - 60 for the shoulders and gloves, 95 for the helm, chest, and pants. Ilvl 264 requires the 251 piece plus a tier token from Normal; ilvl 277 requires the 264 piece plus a heroic tier token from Hark Mode. As of right now, it is still unknown where the tokens drop.
As of the patch release, not all the loot is known (what with Arthas not being tested and all), so these will be updated as the instance progresses. For the most part, I will not be listing loot from the 5-man dungeons. However, some items (such as stat-sticks and trinkets) are notoriously difficult to have drop and/or win in some raids, so some upgrades may exist in the new 5-mans.
"Neg's Notes" are my eyeballing estimate of what is the best of the gear. I don't plug anything in to the spreadsheets, so I may very well be wrong with what is the optimal piece, but I'm fairly certain I'll be in the ballpark ;)
Helm
Taldron's Short-Sighted Helm - Normal/Hard Mode - Rotface 10
Snowserpent Mail Helm - Normal/Hard Mode - Lord Marrowgar 25
Tier 10/10.25/10.5
Neg's Notes: All three are acceptable, but since 4-piece tier is priority, gonna have to go with t10.25. Snowserpent is a nice alternative for a hit piece, which hopefully you won't need.
Neck
Precious' Putrid Collar - Normal/Hard Mode - Festergut 10
Rimetooth Pendant - Normal/Hard Mode - Sindragosa 10
Wodin's Lucky Necklace - Normal/Hard Mode - Trash 25 (Stinky and Precious?)
Sindragosa's Cruel Claw - Normal/Hard Mode - Singdragosa 25
Neg's Notes: Rimetooth Pendant is where it's at, with Wodin's Lucky Necklace as a hit alternative.
Shoulder
Pauldrons of Lost Hope - Normal/Hard Mode - Gunship Armory 10
Shoulderpads of the Morbid Ritual - Normal/Hard Mode - Professor Putricide 10
Dual-Bladed Pauldrons - Normal/Hard Mode - Rotface 25
Tier 10/10.25/10.5
Neg's Notes: Tier wins with no haste.
Cloak
Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape - 50 Emblems of Frost
Shadowvault Slayer's Cloak - Normal/Hard Mode - Gunship Armory 25
Neg's Notes: Arthas better have a better piece of cloth up his sleeve, since there is nothing dropping for hunters at the moment. Save up your Frost Emblems, and make that cloak one of your first purchases for an easy upgrade if you never got chest loot in ToC10/25.
Chest
Longstrider's Vest - 95 Emblems of Frost
Hauberk of a Thousand Cuts - Normal/Hard Mode - Deathbringer Saurfang 10
Carapace of Forgotten Kings - Normal/Hard Mode - Festergut 25
Tier 10/10.25/10.5
Neg's Notes: This is tough to eyeball (sans the wowhead comparative loot table), but I'm just going to call tier for this as well, since I don't doubt that the set bonuses will outweigh any stats on better chests.
Bracers
Icecrown Rampart Bracers - Normal/Hard Mode - Gunship Armory 10
Scourge Hunter's Vambraces - Normal/Hard Mode - Gunship Armory 25
Neg's Notes: This one will depend on your hit and ArPen. The 10man hit bracers also have a nice little chunk of more AP.
Gloves
Logsplitters - 60 Emblems of Frost
Handgrips of Frost and Steel - Normal/Hard Mode - Lady Deathwhisper 10
Anub'ar Stalker's Gloves - Normal/Hard Mode - Valithria Dreamwalker 25
Tier 10/10.25/10.5
Neg's Notes: Well, here's a nice batch of guarenteed hit, so go with tier - though, those two red sockets on the 10man gloves are tempting...
Belt
Band of the Night Raven - 60 Emblems of Frost
Linked Scourge Vertebrae - Normal/Hard Mode - Lord Marrowgar 10
Blood-Drinket's Girdle - Normal/Hard Mode - Blood Prince Council 10
Nerub'ar Stalker's Cord - Normal/Hard Mode - Festergut 25
Neg's Notes: Once again, depending on your hit and ArPen, either the Festergut 25 or the badge belt are good - just stay away from the BPC10 one (ew, haste). I'm actually going to weigh in favor of the badge belt over the heroic Marrowgar10 piece as welll; the stats are identical, except for the sockets. The Marrowgar10 will be better if you don't have a better place to put your Nightmare's Tier, but if you do, those two yellow sockets in the badge belt are more welcoming than the blue and red.
Pants
Draconic Bonesplinter Legguards - Leatherworking made
Legguards of the Twisted Dream - Normal/Hard Mode - Valithria Dreamwalker 10
Leggings of Northern Lights - Normal/Hard Mode - Lady Deathwhisper 25
Tier 10/10.25/10.5
Neg's Notes: No competition here - Deathwhisper25 pants all the way. The LW pants are different by the normal version by a matter of 16 AP vs 8 Agil - and when the iValues are balanced, I still weigh in favor of Agil.
Boots
Rock-Steady Treads - Leatherworking made
Wyrmwing Treads - Normal/Hard Mode - Sindragosa 10
Taldron's Long Neglected Boots - Normal/Hard Mode - Festergut 10
Treads of the Wasteland - Normal/Hard Mode - Blood Prince Council 25
Neg's Notes: Once again, it depends on your hit and ArPen and what you can get vs what you need. Go for the BPC25 boots over the Sindragosa10, and both the Festergut10 and the LW made are good, just depends on your ArPen balance (though the LW sockets are fairly annoying).
Rings
Saurfang's Cold-Forged Band - Normal/Hard Mode - Deathbringer Saurfang 10
Seal of the Twilight Queen - Normal/Hard Mode - Queen Lana'thel 10
Band of the Bone Colossus - Normal/Hard Mode - Lord Marrowgar 25
Frostbrood Sapphire Ring - Normal/Hard Mode - Valithria Dreamwalker 25
Ashen Band of Vengeance/Greater Vengeance/Unmatched Vengeance/Endless Vengeance - Increasing rep with the Ashen verdict from Ormus the Penitent
Neg's Notes: I'm going to make a sweeping generalization that every ring with haste is bad, which leaves the Valithria25 ring and the rep ring. There, that was easy.
Trinkets
Herkuml War Token - 60 Emblems of Frost
Needle-Encrusted Scorpion - Devourer of Souls, Heroic Forge of Souls 5
Whispering Fanged Skull - Normal/ Hard Mode - Lady Deathwhisper 10
Deathbringer's Will - Normal/Hard Mode - Deathbringer Saurfang 25
Neg's Notes: Badge trinket bad, NES not as good as Mjolners/Grim Toll (10% proc on crits vs 15% proc on hits), the Fanged Skull is meh, and the Deathbringer's Will is awesome (for hunters). The spreadsheets will tell what combos will be at the top, and your luck will determine if you want to stay with the ArPen-procing trinket or reach the ArPen cap through gear/gems.
Stat Sticks
Orca-Hunter's Harpoon - Marwyn, Heroic Halls of Reflection 5
Quel'delar, Ferocity of the Scorned - Quest reward started from the Battered Hilt, a drop from any of the heroic new 5mans.
Hersir's Greatspear - Normal/Hard Mode - Blood Prince Council 10
Shaft of Glacial Ice - Normal/Hard Mode - Rotface 10
Bloodfall - Normal/Hard Mode - Bloog-Queen Lana'thel 25
Distant Land - Normal/Hard Mode - Festergut 25
Oathbinder, Charge of the Ranger-General - Normal/Hard Mode - The Lich King 25
Neg's Notes: We now have a stat-stick that does, indeed, say "Hunter Weapon". I'm also fairly positive that when you loot Oathbinder and equip it, a chorus of naked men/women (depending on your sexual orientation) will decend from the heavens in glorious trumpting for your disposal.
Range
Njordnar Bone Bow - Normal/Hard Mode - Lady Deathwhisper 10
Stakethrower - Normal/Hard Mode - Blood-Queen Lana'thel 10
Zod's Repeating Longbow - Normal/Hard Mode - Lady Deathwhisper 25
Windrunner's Heartskeer - Normal/Hard Mode - The Lich King 10
Fal'inrush, Defender of Quel'thalas - Normal/Hard Mode - The Lich King 25
Neg's Notes: Well it's obvious now, what with the Lich King loot out. Too bad the best of the lot has haste (and is a bloody xbow...), but the second best of the lot is actually very pretty.
I would say they definitely got it right for loot this instance. Everything has a secondary option than you can balace with your other gear, though it does mean you will be accumulating a lot of gear to enchant and coordinate.
Once again, tell me if I missed something or my rational is screwy.
Have fun in Icecrown!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Every which way
It's our first snow day here in Virginia, and I'm aching for something to do. Which is slightly ironic, because I want to do everything. I have an urge to do everything that I've had on my mind for ages, but I feel like starting one will somehow betray the others, so doing nothing seems like the safest alternative. But I wanna do something!
When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the Animorphs series. It got me hooked in the second grade when one of the main characters shared my legal name. Now that I'm grown and more knowledgeable about such things - even if it was possible, the animals the kids turned into would have to somehow reflect their biological age instead of the full adult animals they always turned into - I still get the urge to reread the series, as redundant as they were towards the end. I even had a dream last night about having to infiltrate a top secret enemy underwater compound, and I had to morph into a fish to do it, but had to get past the keeper first.
Now that I'm no longer raiding, all my old hobbies are resurfacing. I used to write - a lot. I know most readers are familiar with my RP writing, but the stuff I used to write would keep me up until the wee hours of the morning in dedication. I had a book I was working on in high school, and while I still skim through it from time to time, I more or less abandoned it when WoW came along. Now that urge to work on it is resurfacing, helped along by reading Pike's little writing adventure, and I can't think of a better time to start back on it than when the world is covered in white, and I'm snug indoors.
However, my new little goal in WoW is to get Battlemaster, and that means a lot of PvP. I typically do the weekend battleground, but I pop in from time to time in others just to shake up the monotony. I only have one Veteran, so I have many games to do in the other BGs. I almost have the Wintergrasp meta, so I frequently jump into those games when the time comes. One guy shared quests, including one that confused me. It was a quest to go into AV and kill a named NPC. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't find him in wowhead. Then it hit me: It was an old quest from vanilla, before they did the complete overhaul of Alterac Valley. The guy that shared the quest had it in his log for over two years, and now it was mine, like a sad little virus that you could never satisfy. I should just delete it, but it brings back happy memories of the way AV used to be, with the mini-goals, the support troops, the summoned gods, and the 1-, 2-, 6-, 12-, 24-, 48-hour games. I think I'll just keep it.
What I should really do is clean house, since the boy is away at some military function. I'll think about that one.
When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the Animorphs series. It got me hooked in the second grade when one of the main characters shared my legal name. Now that I'm grown and more knowledgeable about such things - even if it was possible, the animals the kids turned into would have to somehow reflect their biological age instead of the full adult animals they always turned into - I still get the urge to reread the series, as redundant as they were towards the end. I even had a dream last night about having to infiltrate a top secret enemy underwater compound, and I had to morph into a fish to do it, but had to get past the keeper first.
Now that I'm no longer raiding, all my old hobbies are resurfacing. I used to write - a lot. I know most readers are familiar with my RP writing, but the stuff I used to write would keep me up until the wee hours of the morning in dedication. I had a book I was working on in high school, and while I still skim through it from time to time, I more or less abandoned it when WoW came along. Now that urge to work on it is resurfacing, helped along by reading Pike's little writing adventure, and I can't think of a better time to start back on it than when the world is covered in white, and I'm snug indoors.
However, my new little goal in WoW is to get Battlemaster, and that means a lot of PvP. I typically do the weekend battleground, but I pop in from time to time in others just to shake up the monotony. I only have one Veteran, so I have many games to do in the other BGs. I almost have the Wintergrasp meta, so I frequently jump into those games when the time comes. One guy shared quests, including one that confused me. It was a quest to go into AV and kill a named NPC. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't find him in wowhead. Then it hit me: It was an old quest from vanilla, before they did the complete overhaul of Alterac Valley. The guy that shared the quest had it in his log for over two years, and now it was mine, like a sad little virus that you could never satisfy. I should just delete it, but it brings back happy memories of the way AV used to be, with the mini-goals, the support troops, the summoned gods, and the 1-, 2-, 6-, 12-, 24-, 48-hour games. I think I'll just keep it.
What I should really do is clean house, since the boy is away at some military function. I'll think about that one.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
GDKP'd
Since I can no longer raid with my guild, I'm happy to have an excuse to pug a 10 or 25 man from time to time. Of course, it's also tough to get into a run that won't take me past midnight, as well, so if I can get into a scheduled raid, I'm happy to.
On my server, a group does three GDKP runs a week, and the one I partake is at 2:30 PST (so 5:30 my time). If you are as unfamiliar with the concept of GDKP as I was, it goes something like this: If you want an item of loot from a boss, you place a bid of gold. In our case, everything (except Crusader Orbs) starts at a 500g bid, and each increasing bid must be 50g or more. People have five seconds from the last bid to place the next one until a top bidder wins. The gold is paid to the master looter, and at the end of the night, the total gold of all items sold is then divided up equally among the raiders. For really good nights of weapons and trinkets, the payout can be around 5000g; for a poor night, it might be 1500g or less. My first run was 1950g, and I loved it.
There is only one thing I need out of normal ToC25 now, and that is the highest bid item, so I essentially see this as me helping out 24 other people that need gear, and getting paid for doing something I love. Win-win all around.
It was strange doing new strats for old fights. I'm so partial to our Twins strategy, and then approaching the fight in a very simple way was sorta disheartening, not to meantion DPS-draining. (They had all range black-attuned and all melee white-attuned, meaning I only had a 1/3 of the debuffs I needed on the boss, and mana sucked kodo testicles. Next time, I'm stealing the melee's white orbs.) Doing Anub the safe-safe-safe way meant there were so many frost patches down, it looked like it was week one of the encounter. It was amusing, if bittersweet. However, the strangest thing was at the end, when everyone lined up nice and straight to get the pay-out:
It's like we're British, or something!
Doing only normal-modes does make me realize how much I'm starting to miss the challanges of hard-modes. I might coerce the Boy into letting me stay up late this weekend for a 10 man. Shhhh....
On my server, a group does three GDKP runs a week, and the one I partake is at 2:30 PST (so 5:30 my time). If you are as unfamiliar with the concept of GDKP as I was, it goes something like this: If you want an item of loot from a boss, you place a bid of gold. In our case, everything (except Crusader Orbs) starts at a 500g bid, and each increasing bid must be 50g or more. People have five seconds from the last bid to place the next one until a top bidder wins. The gold is paid to the master looter, and at the end of the night, the total gold of all items sold is then divided up equally among the raiders. For really good nights of weapons and trinkets, the payout can be around 5000g; for a poor night, it might be 1500g or less. My first run was 1950g, and I loved it.
There is only one thing I need out of normal ToC25 now, and that is the highest bid item, so I essentially see this as me helping out 24 other people that need gear, and getting paid for doing something I love. Win-win all around.
It was strange doing new strats for old fights. I'm so partial to our Twins strategy, and then approaching the fight in a very simple way was sorta disheartening, not to meantion DPS-draining. (They had all range black-attuned and all melee white-attuned, meaning I only had a 1/3 of the debuffs I needed on the boss, and mana sucked kodo testicles. Next time, I'm stealing the melee's white orbs.) Doing Anub the safe-safe-safe way meant there were so many frost patches down, it looked like it was week one of the encounter. It was amusing, if bittersweet. However, the strangest thing was at the end, when everyone lined up nice and straight to get the pay-out:
It's like we're British, or something!Doing only normal-modes does make me realize how much I'm starting to miss the challanges of hard-modes. I might coerce the Boy into letting me stay up late this weekend for a 10 man. Shhhh....
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