Why nobody plays a lock anymore, as written by a lock

I went from absolutely loving Demo when I swapped to it when ICC came out and it rocked for the 9 months we were stuck in there. Originally I only went Demo to stack spirit and buff that raid as much as possible, but it turned out it was pretty awesome. Molten Core procs were plentiful and often. The Princes in ICC was the greatest, you could maintain a near 100% Decimation up time just bouncing a SB at whichever prince was at 1% hp. Nobody could touch my Demo lock on that one, not even close. Soul Fire under Decimation used to hit like a truck instead of the wet noodle it became in Cata. I'd be 4th or 5th down on the meters going into execute phase, but those SF nukes hit so hard I'd often climb my way to first in less than 25% boss health.

Then Cata dropped a big ol poop on Demo. The spec just seemed like it wasn't working right this whole expansion and they just never bothered to do anything about it.  All we got was another slow-cast nuke in HoG who's main benefit debuff was often negated by the tank or boss moving. Most Demo locks were and still are confused over whether Shad Bolt or Incinerate is supposed to be your filler.  Tier 11 alone saw Demo's using everything from the Succy to the Imp for our main DPS pet depending on the patch. In fact the one pet we haven't used this whole expansion for pure dps is the one only Demo's can use, the Felguard (Blueberry doesn't count). As things normalized heading up to Firelands we got the whole Felguard/Felpuppy/Demon Soul/MWC pet twisting dance, which maximized dps enough to justify doing it, but in reality few locks could master. Not to mention this whole set up completely voided our other main new talent, Impending Doom... "Oh my Meta is up but I still have 35/25/whatever seconds left on my Demon Soul and trinket." What a friggin headache.

In addition if you didn't have an Ele Sham in raid your GM or raid lead would probably be pressuring you to go Demo whether you liked it or not.

Oh and Gul'dan help you if you didn't have this shit down pat, your dps greatly suffered, even being off a little. There was no, "Oh I missed that cd or that HoG Immo refresh on this rotation, I'll get it next time and keep going." No, you were screwed, there was no recovering and keeping up with everyone else.

And your reward for mastering this nightmare of a sitation and pulling it off perfectly? Roughly about the same dps as that shad priest or mage or hunter or any other class who doesn't have to track of half the timers you are, doesn't have to hit a forth of the spells you do. No wonder nobody plays this class anymore. Oh, and only if you didn't have to move too much and could stand in melee the whole fight! Frig that!

Destro is the only spec that's felt right this whole expansion, which is sad cuz you should have just rolled a mage if that's what you wanted to do. But Destro made sense when you looked at it, you weren't scratching your head over the spells you were using, the procs and flow and rotation/priority and ISP getting better and the use of Soul Burn in execute phase plus Bane of Havoc! All the new stuff weaved perfectly into the old standard stuff. Destro is and has been great symphony of a spec this whole expansion, don't know what went wrong with the other two.

Affliction got better once we no longer had to deal with the whole Improved Soul Fire talent/buff. Affliction locks juggling Soulfires? That was just wrong! Then they nerfed the hell out of our only cool new ability Soul Swap (for PVP reasons I'm sure, which is just pouring salt on the wounds) and SS still requires a glyph for something it should just do by default! Soulburn Seed? Oh please... 1 fight currently that comes in handy and still doesn't touch the aoe of most other classes even when combined with a Shadowflame. That's locks using a CD, and 2 separate aoe abilities, not even coming close to Mind Sear, Multi-shot, Swipe, FoK, etc... so on... Oh, btw here we are a year later and Affliction locks are back to using Soulfires because of the tier bonus!!

*sighs and hangs head dejectedly.

Any more confusion over why locks are the least played class?

8 Tips to Minimize Fail When Forming a PUG.

*work in progress, it started off being 10 tips. 

None of them include asking for ilevel!

"Patience is a virtue" and "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

The time you spend putting together a capable and solid pug will be returned ten fold when you're finally in there. Take a little extra time and not just grab the first person who responds out of trade. Getting things set up right from the get go will help eliviate many problems down the line. Save yourself and your raid a ton of frustration by following these simple steps when setting up your next pug.

1. Tab Out:
Look up all potential and unfamiliar pugs at wowarmory.com. This is an easy and informative resource for getting an idea about who you're dealing with. You can check their raid progression and even use the gear audit function to see if they even bothered to gem and chant. Don't know about specific class specs/gear set up? Ask someone who does to give them a quick look over.

Obvious signs of fail - no gems/chants, shamans/druids wearing cloth, 0 actual raid kills and waaaaay too many in Raid Finder.

2. Ask for a Commitment:
If you're planning a full clear then ask everyone if they have 2+ hours to get through Dragon Soul. An experienced group can easily blow through regular mode and still have that first flask ticking. If you think the group can handle some heroics ask if theyr'e going to freak out on the first or 2nd wipe and bail. When you clarify the situation for the raid and give an estimated time for it's comlpetion then it's on that one player who bounces before it's done.

3. Have a Raid Leader:
If you aren't up on every aspect of each encounter from the boss abilities to the tanking to the healing to the melee to the range... then get someone in there who is. If you know all this stuff but aren't good at marking and explaining mechanics or even talking in vent/mumble, then get someone who is. In a pug even experienced players are going to go about things differently and you need someone steering the ship and keeping everyone on the same page. Which brings me to...

4. Get Everyone in Vent/Mumble:
My rule is no Vent/Mumble, no invite. It takes way too much time typing out line after line of instruction at every pull. More so, most of what you type out will be forgotten once you do pull. Fact is, unless you are yelling "melee out" or "hit buttons" most players will fail at it.

5. Loot Rules:
Clearly state the loot rules at the beginning and be thorough. Hopefully are you familiar enough with the loot to know when to step in and say, "hey that item has hit and you're a resto druid so that's not main spec" and other such situations. PuGs will roll on anything and everything.

My rules for a mostly pug filled run.
- Main spec over Off spec
- 1 tier piece and 1 non tier peice per person (when rolling against the same players).
-  BoE's are Main spec then open roll, if taken for Main spec I ask them to equip right then.
-  Patterns are up for whoever in raid has that profession then open roll if nobody can use it. I check for that "glow" and "chime" that they learned it and ask for a link in their book.
- Essense of Destruction I like to gather up and offer at the end of raid to those players who didn't get any loot. It's a small consolation prize to go with those gems. That can be a pain so a simple /roll when one drops is simple enough. On that note, pocketing the Essence is a dick move unless half or more of the raid is made up of your guildies and then they better end up in the vault.

Link the drops in a raid warning /rw and mention them in vent such as...
[Sexy Love Mace of the Gerbil] MS Roll!
To help avoid confusion I will specify what kind of item is up for roll while linking it. "tank bracers", "agility leather, "healer cloth", etc...

Reserves are a touchy situation, but can be totally justifiable. If you find a tank in full tier and mostly 397s and he really just needs a ring or that damn shield off Blackhorn, then I say, hell ya. If it's one of those low drop rate trinkets that any of 4 bosses can drop then I say hell no. This is also where Vent/Mumble and communication comes in handy. You'd be suprised how giving and accomidating players can be when you're straight up with them. Yes, that hand of Morchok is a great Frost DK or Fury Warrior weap, but it's also the only viable tanking weapon in Dragon Soul until Souldrinker off Madness, which a Frost DK or Fury Warrior probably wants too. If you notice that you're going to be rolling on the same drops as other players then get some chatter going and see what can be worked out. Often in my pugs we bypass rolling altogether because we've already figured who gets what and people are cool with it.

6. Keep Things Moving:
This applies to any raid, but especially a pug. Nothing will grind and tire out a group of random players more than down time. In guild you know good or bad what time that raid is ending. In a pug you have no idea until you're there. Don't make it any longer than it has to be.

Dedicate a break time at the start if it's going to be a full clear to minimize the AFKs and Bios. If you're the tank or a healer make a dps the Loot Master so you can keep pulling trash after the boss dies. When things go bad and you're 2 dps and healer down call for an immediate wipe to get things moving again [CITATION NEEDED]. If you just failed on a fight and you see there's problems, don't just rush back into another attempt until you've identified the problem and figured out it's solution. Talking it over a for a couple minutes is a lot qucker than dying 4 mins into a fight and spending another 5+ getting ready for another pull.

7. Schedule to Finish:
It's a pug and the group is capable of finishing, but a few wipes caused things to run long and now people are getting tired and want to leave because it's been over 3 hours on a run YOU STATED AT THE BEGINNING that would only take 2 and half. Understandable. Try to find a time to get everyone back together to finish. In all honesty, this often doesn't work out, but it does enough to give it a go. It's kinda like that 4 am after party with all your new BFFs you've just met at the bar earlier and you make these glorious plans to get breakfast or "do lunch" the next day. You know it's probably not going to happen by you say it anyway. But sometimes it does and it's usually pretty good! Even if you only get half your original raid to log in the next day that's enough to get even more pugs to try and finish it out. There's a reason most of the best loot is at the end. I have a couple toons I wouldn't mind at all coming into a DS on Blackhorn or Spine with.

8.Provide a cauldron and feasts:
*This might be more effort and gold than you're willing to offer, but it does 2 key things. First it gives everyone flasks and food buffs for a stronger raid. 2nd, it demonstrates faith and commitment to the success of the raid right from the get go.

So there ya go, a handful of tips, suggestions to help create that winning PuG.

Is WoW better on busy servers?

Reply to MMOChamp forum post. Is WoW better on busy servers?

After playing on my medium pop BC-era realm for a couple years I started rolling and leveling random alts on various realms in an effort to get a feel for their differences. I leveled on Full realms, Day 1 launch realms, new player realms, RPpvp realms, about 15-20 realms in all. I spend some time on these realms too, not just running a lvl 1 to Org or SW to check out trade chat, but leveling them to 20, 40, 60 or even 80 during Wrath and into Cata.

*This is subjective and only my perception of things in regard to how I like to play, but... 

In my experience, it's not so much that busy servers are better (though they are, but that's not the point), it's that low pop and even many medium pop are worse. There's realms out there where not a single word is said in trade for hours on end, except the occasional LFW or LFG. It takes forever to find someone to craft something for you. There's like 1 semi-big guild who still hasn't killed that last boss on regular in whatever tier. Servers that don't even have enough player to pug a BH.  These low pop realms often have greatly jacked up Auction Houses where 1 guy will monopolize any given market because he just doesn't have any competition. PVP realms where you might run into 1 opposing faction player every couple weeks or every 10 levels. If you're lucky you might find one guy that's half way good at arena and hopefully you make a good 2s comp, cuz you're probably not going to find a decent 3rd and pretty much no chance on 2 more for a 5s team. Going from my comfy medium pop realm and playing on these lower pop ones just flat out made me depressed. I enjoy single player questing and can get lost in that for hours on end, but whenever I hearth into a deserted city it just just felt sad and wrong. 

The worst part is that more and more servers are degrading into these inactive, lower pop realms due to years of paid realm transfers and dropping subscriptions. There's about a dozen realms that just keep getting "better' while the other 200 just keep getting worse. (pulled that number out of my butt, don't know how many total servers there are, but my point is valid).

So yes, busy servers are better for the most part and in my estimate will continue to get even better. They definitely offer more activity and options in how you want to play. I actually feel sorry for people stuck on these really low pop servers and I wonder what WoW is for them on their realm. 

"How I made 10,000 gold by level 1"

Blog reply to How I made 3k gold by level 30

I farmed all those same armor set greens on my 85 with 310% flying in about 1/100th of the time. Then mailed them to my level 1 who sells them.

Yes, xmog is in full swing on most servers and those lowbie greens you wouldn't even bother to mail to your enchanter to DE are now worth a lot of gold to the right buyers. Your server hasn't caught the fashion bug yet? Then help create it. Get to know which pieces are HOT and when you see them on the AH for pennies, snatch em up and repost. Trust me, on every single server there will be a rogue or 10 or 100 that are going to want that Scouting or Bandit set. Posting the full set at the same time helps too for the unfamiliar buyers who are just randomly looking through the AH for a new xmog set. There are many more desirable sets out there across all armor classes that are raking it in.

This is the time of the xpac where players are getting "Luxury Capped". They've got all the gear they're going to get, no more chants/gems to worry about, etc... They're buying Mammoths and Hogs and Sand Drakes and many players will pay a premium fee for not having to wait or farm for the set they want.  

Dungeons are a great place to gather up random greens, but Rare mobs are really where it's at. They guarantee to drop at least 1 and there's a half a dozen or more per zone. Go to Wowhead, look up a specific zone, click the NPC tab, then FILTER these results and click the rare and elite rare classification. Once you've mapped out the zone and know where they are you can do a full sweep in minutes on a flying mount.

Blasted Lands is a double bonus for this kind of farming. Every rare mob in the zone will drop either a Flawless Draenethyst Sphere or Imperfect Draenethyst Sphere which is a drop quest item that can be turned in for a goodie bag that contains a rare boe for the Perfect (often a green too) or a green for the Imperfect one. So you're getting at least 1 green off the mob then as least 1 more green off the turn in, sometimes you can get 2 from each. This is also the zone to find the highly sought after Swashbuckler's Eyepatch leather helm.

Start doing your research into armor sets, try to gauge your local market, see what competitors are selling what for and somewhere in there you'll see how much you can expect to make in this racket and whether it's worth it or not for you.

Enjoy farming that sexy old gear for fun and profit!

The biggest problem with WoW for me

The enjoyment I get out of the game relies on too many factors outside of my control. i.e. other players...

I've always said my least favorite part of the MMORPG experience was the MMO part.

WoW Brilliant Idea #384 - The JP Store

Want that Argent Tournament pet or mount but hate doing random dailies? What about that rare world drop enchanting recipe for Int/Str/Agi on the bracers? How about a Netherwing Drake? You can get it all at The JP Store.

Blizzard upside: Keeps players mindlessly grinding 5 mans to stock up on points long after weekly VP cap and gear needs are met.

Player upside: Players have choices and greater access to the stuff they want without it being an unbearable pain. Achievement whores will still do all the original content to get that precious 10 points. The rest of us will just grind JP to get that 1 item we want.

The 90s called, they want their Chuck Norris references back...

Nothing says your product is still hip, cool and current like getting Chuck Norris to promote it... >.>

Chuck Norris' ironic popularity and jokes are older than WoW itself and when I see this commercial I just scratch my head baffled that someone thought this was a good idea. It leaves a negative impression, WoW is dated, Chuck Norris is dated and the 2 of them together just remind me of those facts. Whoever OK'd this promo should be moved to a different department.

On the flip side...

Whoever thought of putting Aubrey Plaza in a WoW spot is a genius. He/she should be promoted and given a big ass Christmas bonus. Also whoever had the idea to put her in a Horde shirt deserves some kudos. Even if the spot is kinda random and weak (mine diamonds? Yes I know there's Azerothian Diamonds, but really it's a pretty loose WoW reference) just the fact that it's Aubrey makes this one a home run. Bravo!

Problem with Raid Finder #27 - "No loot for you!"

"I don't need <insert whatever item you just lost the roll on> who wants to trade for <insert another item you didn't win the roll on>."


I've seen this comment or one similar in just about every raid finder I've been in. Players rolling need on anything everything they can regardless of whether they need it or not for the purpose of trading of another drop.

This is a new kind of ninja unique to the DF in addition to all the other forms or Needing loots that screws other players, i.e.. mages/lock rolling on spirit gear, rogues on strength trinks, warriors on agility polearms, that last being redundant since all polearms are agi based now. Eh... just observations, still better than doing nothing and rolling on no loot. RF loot rules have already and will continue to be fine-tuned so things are looking good. Just wish my computer didn't choke in 25s now days. On one occasion while on my priest I made it through the Siege and when Hagara was at 15% or so I finally DC'd, my resources being choked from this 2 hour raid. By the time I logged by in she was dead, looted and I was locked out on her. Sad indeed, maybe Greatfather Winter will drop a new PC down my hut chimney this year.

How to Gear Up for Raid Finder

Step 1. Keep running Hour of Twilight heroics until more of your gear is ilvl 378 than isn't.

Step 2. Check to see if you can queue for Raid Finder.

Yes? Enjoy RF!

No? Repeat Step 1.

It's not rocket science and I know some rocket science.

WoW 7th Anniversary Gift Package, the gift that keeps on giving... oh wait

This ones a couple days old be still high up on my irked list. You might have noticed that little present from Blizzard sent to all your toons was auto-deleted this weekend. When the anniversary started and I received this package on my first character I thought it was great. "I'll totally use this more than another dumb vanity pet", I told a friend at the time. Fooled me though, not having it's limited duration listed on the item and not catching news of this fact elsewhere most of mine just sat unused in the bags of alts I could have been power leveling or rep grinding on. I actually did a bit of rep work on my shaman, got exalted with Cenarion and Sporgarr and almost with Thrallmar, but this was pre-patch week, then patch week and I had much higher priorities at time time then going and grinding some old reps. Even if I knew of it's soon to be deleted status I probably wouldn't have made much use of them due to the coinciding time frame of the patch, which ultimately just made this a rather crappy present and I'm now wishing it was just pet of any sort, at least that's something!

The Trip Falls of Race in the Age of Transmogrification

Let it be said here and now, that NOT all races are created equal in the World of Warcraft, especially in regard to how well that epic armor set will look on them.

I have 1 toon of every class for both Horde and Alliance. Draenei shaman/Orc shaman, Undead warrior, Human warrior, Belf pally, Dwarf pally, etc... and so on. I love playing both sides, muhahaha.... I started out Horde and after reaching 8 85s I loaded up my heirlooms and realm/faction transferred one of them to start up my new stable of alts on the other side. Now that Transmogrification is here I'm being reminded about how some physical aspects of some races have always bothered me and that is not all races work well for dress up.

The undead faction are missing elbows and kneecaps and their spines split right though there armor and tabards on the back. Trolls, Taurens and Draenei go bare-foot (bear-foot lolz) leaving basically just a shinguard type piece visible from their foot armor. Goblins just like Gnomes are so small and squat that many armor sets look squished and diminished in their otherwise epicness. Orcs are blessed with godly like shoulders and practically look like bosses in some armor whereas Taurens and Worgens have long extending heads/necks that can really warp and skew the way a helm looks on them. Humans are often cited as the most balanced physique (and for the women I say hell ya!), but in my opinion the males hips are way too thick and straight and have always bothered me regardless of was class or armor they were. They're somewhat reality based, but perhaps human males in WoW would look cooler if they were modeled more after He-Man action figure versus G.I. Joes. Anyhow... things to consider while you while away the hours piecing together that perfect armor set for Transmogrification. Ultimately, beauty is in the eye of the beholder so if you're stoked that's all that matters, this is just my opinion.

Case in point The Deathbringer Garb warlock tier 8. First seen by players on Apothecary Putress in the cinematic for the Battle of Wrathgate. This set imo is one of the more awesome and iconic sets from all expansions and classes. Go figure it's looks perfect on an undead, with their rotting appendages only complementing the bird's skull helm and image of ritualized death. On my worgen though, it loses it's epicness due to their weird bodies, that tuff of fur sticking out of the back of it's stretched out helm. On a human or blood elf it looks more like a halloween costume than the demonic spine-chilling gothic garb as we first saw it on Putress. On a goblin or gnome all you can see is the big giant beak overpowering all the other aspect of the set. This specific set of warlock tier belongs to the Forsaken and nobody will be able to convince me otherwise.

Coming soon... My epic tale for putting together the perfect Blood Knight xmog set. Stay tuned!

Not a Bullseye...

You sure about that?

Void Storage aka trinket and wand storage

Void Storage is limited to soulbound items, non-stackable items and any gear you place in there will be stripped of all gems and enchants. Though implemented along with transmogrification it should not be looked at as long term storage for your transmog gear, not just yet anyway. Firstly, it's a brand new patch and everyone is getting upgrades left and right from the new dungeons, LFR and guild raiding. If like me you had your xmog sets ready to go last week on patch day and then started running the new content you'll be re-xmogging every upgrade you get to keep your set matching. If you keep putting those collected gears back into void storage you'll be spending a lot of gold just to keep your toon looking good. Just keep your xmog gear in your bank or bags for those continual upgrades you'll be getting over the next few weeks.

So what about those full sets of tier I've saved from my 3, 4, 5 or 6 years of raiding? Well I like having those old epics in their original condition with the enchants and gems from their time. They remain as they were when I raided in them and I'd like to keep them that way. I do not want them stripped of their epicness and thus will continue using 3+ bags in my bank just for my old tier and weapons.

Vanity, holiday, archaeology, miscellaneous on-use goof items. This accounts for another 2+ bags worth of slots in my bank and these are the kind of items you bust out on a whim while kicking it in town with friends or whatever. I don't want to drop a couple hundred gold just to play with some of the random toys I've collected over the years. So Brazier of Dancing Flames, you'll be staying in my bank, but Gnomish Gravity Well you'll always have a spot in my bags cuz you're just too much fun.

So what it came down to was those unmodified items that I for sentimental reasons can't delete but will never use, equip or show off again. Mostly trinkets, wands and old tier I farmed since hitting level cap and thus never chanted or gemmed. So my Dislodged Foreign Object now sits snuggly in the Void, but my Rigomortis stays in the bank.

All in all the limitations are my issue with void storage, not the cost, but still I found this to be a great addition for WoW and I managed to free up about 20 some odd slots in the bank on my main which was an absolute blessing having struggled to make due with as few as 12 empty slots altogether for the last year or so and being forced to delete items I didn't want to. So despite my initial impression (scroll down) I'm all about Void Storage just wish it was a little more accommodating.

The only problem with the new Darkmoon Faire - PvPer's

Every time I've gone to Darkmoon Island since it launched last night I zone into an epeen match between at least 2 dudes and several others that need to chime in. This results in me adding about a half a dozen new names to my ignore list. Thank you Blizz for upping the cap on the ignore list awhile back! While in a capital city I couldn't care less about the idiocy of Trade Chat and my home realm is a lot worse than others I've played on. Medium population, not a lot of capable pvp/raiding guilds, so a lot of people just sitting around bored and lonely and needing attention. We have several Trade Chat stars who've been trolling the /2 for years on a pretty consistent basis. But that's in Org or SW, this is Darkmoon Faire Island.

In a game with War in the title that revolves mostly around a lot and a lot of killing, the new Darkmoon Faire is a warm fresh breath of dare I say, family orientated gameplay. And it's fun! All the classic midway/carnival games are represented, there's daily quests for the Faire that grant rewards like prize tickets for pets/mounts/novelty items and even profession skill up points! There's rare and exotic beasts on exhibit from all around Azeroth and Outlands, tasty treats and drinks to enjoy, a dancing bear, pony and ram rides, a fortune teller who gives a sweet +5% dmg buff, and the fishing around the island is very lucrative. All in all the new Darkmoon Faire is a grand addition to WoW and another wonderful surprise from patch 4.3 (possibly my favorite patch in years). DMF will keep new and old players alike entertained for a very long time to come, either as a small diversion to the usual questing and dungeons or for the lengthy pursuit of one of the new pets and mounts available. It's just too bad this 'other element' is also here thanks to the Deathmatch Pavilion.

Don't get me wrong, I love that Blizzard is putting an effort into 'world pvp' again. As soon as I got to the Deathmatch Pavilion I swapped in my pvp spec/gear and hopped into the fray, finally bowing out after my rez timer hit that 2 minute limit haha. My issue is that I just don't think it should be here. Put it back in Gurubashi and the other world arena's and give them their own separate chat channel once they enter the area so questers, passersby, revelers and the rest of us don't have to listen to them. Then again, its' very possible that these guys will eventually get bored with this arena just like all the others and this will all be a non-issue in the next couple months. We'll see.

The all new Darkmoon Faire is here!!!

My review coming soon, but need to get back to patch up some banners, aid some injured carnies and waste another stack of tokens on that damn canon til I get my bullseye, but so far it's looking pretty good.

Hot Tip:
Stock up on some Elixir of Water Walking and while everyone is busy with the festivities hit the coast and fish in those shipwreck debris pools. They hold the same Sealed Crates commonly found in the waters of Tol Barad which contain random selection of Cata crafting mats in addition to unique DMF items such as Darkmoon Firewater, sure to be a big hit on the AH. Very quick respawns too.