Some changes in real life

Well, I have finally made the move to college, and though classes have not yet started, I can tell things are going to be different. I am going to have a lot more time to myself, and how I manage that time will determine whether the blog will be able to continue to exist. Classes start on Wednesday, so Wednesday's advice post should go as planned. However, trying to get Friday's post up will determine whether my new schedule will allow me to continue the blog. In all likelihood, I will be able to continue blogging, since they say you get more free time in college, but only time will tell.

My musings on Cataclysm from a story perspective

For those of you who don't know, the next WoW expansion was announced last weekend during Blizzcon. It is called Cataclysm, and you can read up on the story and new features on Blizzard's official site, linked before. Normally I'm not much of a lore nerd, but the announcement motivated me to do some research on the lore behind it, and I noticed an interesting pattern that has been consistent with all of the expansion packs thus far: each one has featured a main villain who was not inherently evil, but become that way when he was corrupted by someone else. Illidan admired the Burning Legion for the purity that lay under their chaotic behavior, and was thus turned by the satyr Xavius and eventually given his power by Sargeras. The Lich King became evil when Arthas Menethil was corrupted by the demon Kil'jaeden. Deathwing was driven insane by the whispers of the Old Gods. It seems to me as if Blizzard is simply having us face the minions of the faces of true evil in the Warcraft universe. Then again, although players were able to kill Kil'jaeden in Burning Crusade, facing a powerful being like Sargeras or the Old Gods would probably mean the end of us.

What interests me is that way that Blizzard transitioned away from the Burning Legion as our main enemy to our main enemies being the old gods. Although the Burning Crusade did have us facing the Legion for the most part, the main villain of Wrath of the Lich King was himself created by the Burning Legion's magic. Thus the legion's influence has really been the subject of two expansion packs, not just one. The Old Gods have also been a part of our adventures thus far, though not prominently as the Legion. We faced K'thun in vanilla WoW, but the Old Gods didn't make a return until we faced Yogg-Saron in Ulduar. Now we are going to be facing a being corrupted by the Old Gods, Deathwing. If Blizzard continues that pattern they started with Burning Crusade, where we players first reactively kill the immediate threat to our world then proactively kill an even greater, related threat, perhaps we will be facing more Old Gods after we face Deathwing.

Another thing of note is that, thus far, both of the evil forces responsible for the conflicts we players have faced (the Burning Legion and the Old Gods) have been motivated by the desire to return the world to it's original chaotic form. For those of your unfamiliar with the Dungeons and Dragons alignment system, it makes a distinction between good vs. evil and lawful vs. chaotic. The distinction is important, for it shows that those seeking order are not always fighting on the side of good. I bring that up because the fact that WoW's main villains are chaotic, not evil, implies that we players are not fighting the age-old fight of good and evil, but we are simply fighting to preserve the ordered world which we inhabit and which the titans created so long ago. If this is true, then our cause is not so noble as we thought.

The motives of the Old Gods and the legion are more clear than ours, as are the reasons for them. Both wish to return the world to its original chaotic form, as I mentioned. The Old Gods wish to do this because that is the world they ruled. When they were defeated by the titans, their power over the world also vanished. Thus they probably wish to rule the world again. Sources suggest that they are now simply sleeping below the earth while their telepathic whispers drive the creatures above insane. Perhaps by driving the powerful creatures of the world insane, they wish to restore the world to some form of chaos. Even if they can't rule that world, I would imagine it would satisfy them to know that the world has become as they left it. As for the Legion, well, spreading chaos just seems to be what they do.

Back on the previous topic, I see two possible reasons for Blizzard continually using secondary villains as the main antagonists in their expansion packs. One reason is that it allows them to continue the story of Azeroth without needing to create new evil forces. If we players were to simply defeat the Burning Legion and the Old Gods as a whole, there would be no one left for us to fight. Of course, getting rid of the Burning Legion as a whole would probably be more difficult than defeating the Old Gods, but regardless, if we players succeeded in removing the true threats to our world, the only conflicts left would be those within the world itself. Sure, there are still many fights to be fought among the mortal races, but those are really more patch material (e.g. patch 2.3 and Zul'Aman) than expansion material. An expansion really wouldn't feel like a proper expansion unless we have a very powerful entity to fight, and though there is probably enough left for many expansion packs, if Blizzard wants to continue the story of Warcraft, their choice is to either let players kill the true antagonists of the lore of Warcraft and need to create new villains, or to protect the villains and allow their plots to continue.

That's the practical reason for the pattern of casting corrupted heroes as main antagonists, but there could be a hidden meaning in Blizzard's decision. As I mentioned before, Illidan, Arthas, and Deathwing were all more or less good before being corrupted by some other evil force. If we were to analyze WoW as a story, then this sort of corruption would definitely be a motif, the deeper meaning of which would probably be that we can never truly expunge evil from our world. Although there are still villains aplenty for us to fight, perhaps future expansions will see the corruption of prominent figures in the lore who are currently on our side and whom we will be forced to face after they become evil. My bets are on Varian and Garrosh. Their anger makes them prime targets for any sort of corrupting force, and to be honest, I know a lot of players that would be happy to see them go.

Then again, perhaps it is not other characters who will be corrupted, but instead it is us. Sargeras, the creator of the Burning Legion, slowly became corrupted as he fought the demons of the Legion in an effort to maintain order in the universe. As I mentioned before, that's all we are really doing, maintaining order in a world that is threatened with chaos, not maintaining good in a world that is threatened with evil, although it may seem that way. Are we next? Will we become the Old Gods' or the Legion's new minions? I wouldn't discount the possibility. Perhaps we will then go from Alliance vs. Horde to Corrupted vs. Uncorrupted. (I doubt that will happen; if Blizzard were to corrupt the players themselves, it would be a gradual thing that we would all be involved in.)

I would just like to add that I got most of my lore from WoWWiki, so if anything I have said here is wrong or oversimplified, please let me know.

How to assume a raid mentality

As I said in my last philosophy post, it is my opinion that the leveling process does not sufficiently help a player develop the mentality they will need to have when they start doing dungeons and raids. For those who wish to raid, 5-mans are usually the way to learn said mentality, and that's where players can practice their roles. Because players may not know how to approach their first 5-man run, I have decided to give a basic rundown of how a player should think about their roll in a run. Think of this as a teaching you the mentality you will need when you are in a group.

First of all, what are the roles that a player can fulfill in a raid or 5-man? A 5-man run is usually made up of a tank, 3 DPS (it stands for damage per second, but it means damager), and a healer. Here are the various classes and specs that can fulfill the three roles.

Tank: Any Death Knights (Frost is preferred, but as long as you are in frost presence and go for defensive talents, you should be all set) Feral Druids (spec'ed to improve bear form), Protection Paladins, and Protection Warriors.
DPS: Any Death Knights (Blood and Unholy are prefered, but as long as you take offensive talents and are in Blood or Unholy Presence, you will be ok), Balance or Feral Druids (Feral Druids will need to spec to improve cat form), any Hunters, any Mages, Retribution Paladins, Shadow Priests, any Rogues, Elemental or Enhancement Shamans, any Warlocks, and Arms of Fury Warriors.
Healer: Restoration Druids, Holy Paladins, Discipline or Holy Priests, and Restoration Shamans.

To describe the roles most simply, tanks take damage, DPS do damage, and healers heal damage. Tanking and healing are generally agreed to be more difficult roles than DPS'ing, as well as more consequential. I would say that tanking is most difficult, while healing is more consequential, but it's really a subjective thing. Considering that all classes can DPS, and that the armor you acquire while leveling can probably serve you as DPS armor, if you are completely new to grouping, it may be a good idea to start as a DPS before moving on to tanking or healing. That said, having some experience tanking and healing will definitely give you a better perspective on what your group-mates go through, so even if you don't think you can handle the roles, don't immediately think that they are beyond your reach. Many of the best DPS'ers I have played with have experience with tanking, as have some of the best healers.

Regardless of what role you take, there are certain ideas you should include in the mentality with which you approach raiding or 5-mans. These may seem like common-sense things to veteran players, but then again, so will most of the things in this post. If you haven't grouped with other people in WoW before for longer than it takes to complete a group quest, think of these rules as ways of thinking about grouping with other people.

-I will recognize that there are other people behind that characters I play with, and I will recognize that they also have goals and things they wish to accomplish with this run.
-I will use abilities I may not frequently use while solo-ing if they benefit the group.
-I will not use my solo-ing/PvP spec while in an instance, unless my spec contains all necessary talents for both grouping and solo-ing or PvP.
-I will not stand in any fire/black zones/"bad stuff" unless that is part of the boss strategy.
-If I have not run the instance before, I will say so and listen carefully to and follow all boss directions given to me.
-Better yet, I will read the boss strategies on wowhead or wowwiki beforehand so I only need a reminder when I go into the instance.
-I will not run an instance I am not prepared for, gear-wise or skill-wise.
-I will bring the reagents I need for my spells as well as any buff food if I need it.
-I will not distract myself by talking on the phone or browsing the web, unless we are waiting for someone to come back from being AFK.
-I will not go AFK unexpectedly, for longer than is reasonable (5 minutes, usually), too frequently, or in the middle of a fight. I will use the bathroom before the run and will limit myself to one bathroom break during the run.

Now that we've gotten those out of the way, let's look at the mentality you need for each role.

Tanks:
-I will be willing to lead the run, unless I have very little experience with instances.
-I will make sure that all of the mobs we are fighting are fighting me, not any of my group-mates, unless letting them attack someone else is part of a boss's strategy.
-I will focus on causing maximum threat per second, not damage per second. (This is not as much of an issue as it used to be, since damage is now more tied into threat than it used to be, but it's still important to keep in mind.)
-I will face enemies away from my group in case they have a frontal area-of-effect attack, like breathing fire.
-I will only use taunt when an enemy is not attacking me.
-I will always protect the healer.
-I will set the pace of the run to be fast enough that the group doesn't loose steam but slow enough to let the casters regenerate their mana.
-I will use a healing potion when I need to.
-I will move the enemy if he needs to be moved.

DPS:
-I will not cause more threat than the tank.
-I will cause maximum damage per second using the right talents, spell/ability rotation, etc.
-If the enemy attacks me, I will not interpret it as a sign that I am doing enough damage.
-If I can heal myself (through spells or bandages) I will do so if the healer needs to focus on healing the tank.
-I will recognize that I am the most replaceable member of the group and will thus do as much as possible to be a keeper, i.e. to motivate the group leader to not drop me.

Healer:
-I will not spend my precious time or mana casting offensive spells unless I and my group-mates far out-gear the instance.
-I will do everything in my power to not run out of mana.
-I will heal the tank and myself first, then the DPS, then any pets if I have extra mana.
-I will keep a watch on myself to make sure I don't take too much damage or stand in a compromising position (in some "bad stuff", in front of the tank, etc.)
-I will focus on endurance healing when healing during a boss battle.
-I will use my most mana-efficient heals and will avoid overhealing unless the tank is taking a lot of damage and could die if I don't pump out the maximum healing possible.
-I will bring water to each run to regenerate my mana, in case there is not a mage to conjure food.

That about does it. As I said, if you have experience grouping with other players, then there will probably be nothing new in this post for you. This is simply a guide to how you should approach the prospect of grouping with other people and fulfilling your role well. If there are any important things that I missed, let me know so that I may make a more complete list.

How Blizzard could make shifting more attractive for druids

One of the things Blizzard revealed with the druid class Q&A was that they want to make shifting more attractive for druids. Currently, we druids spend most of our time in or respective shapeshifting forms rather than in our caster form, so we rarely get to see our armor or take advantage of our class's hybrid nature. It seems the Blizzard wanted to start doing this immediately, as we can see with one of the changes coming in patch 3.2.2.

Predatory Strikes: This talent now also causes the druid's finishing moves to provide a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make the next Nature spell with a cast time below 10 seconds instant cast.

This means that cats will at least have the chance to see their caster forms more often, with each finishing move allowing the use of an instant healing touch or regrowth or maybe even rebirth. I could see other such changes to make shifting out of our forms an attractive option. A similar talent for bear form could look something like this:

Protector of the Pack: This talent now also causes barkskin to allow you to retain bear form's damage reduction, armor and stamina increase, threat increase, and all other benefits of being in bear form for 33/66/100% of its duration if you leave bear form.

This would allow a tank to leave bear form and heal his allies or use a crowd control spell, without him loosing his increased defenses. Admittedly, a druid using this kind of ability would probably cause less threat with his spells than he would with by staying in bear form, but the goal here is simply more utility. I'd probably use an ability like this to throw down tranquility when the going gets tough. Your healer would love you for that.

Although it would be easy to suggest using similar talents to motivate druids to leave moonkin and tree form, the fact is that most balance druids have no real reason to leave moonkin form, and most resto druids have no real reason to leave tree form. Sure, a moonkin could cast the occasional side heal, and a tree may need to use cyclone in an emergency, but for the most part, there's little reason to make caster druids leave their forms aside from simply doing it for its sake. Feral druids do need to shift out to heal, so such talents are useful to us, but they wouldn't be as useful to casters.

This only applies to PvE, though. In PvP, it's a different story. A moonkin fighting on his own can only count on himself for heals, and a tree needs to use his defensive spells to stay alive. Thus, in PvP, pretty much all druids have a reason to shift out of their forms already, and the change to predatory instincts will simply make it easier for feral druids. Perhaps moonkin and trees could get a talent reducing the cast time of their restoration and balance spells, respectively, by 50% after they leave their forms. Aside from that, I think that casters are all set in the see-their-forms department when it comes to PvP.

Like I said, though, in PvE, there is very little real motivation for caster druids to leave their forms currently, so Blizzard would need to create that motivation, and doing so without nerfing the forms themselves would be quite difficult. One of my initial thoughts on a way Blizzard could motivate casters to leave their forms without nerfing the forms themselves was to give casters a buff to their forms that contrasts the benefits of moonkin/tree form. The problem with that idea is that both forms increase damage/healing and either reduce the mana cost of spells or have a way of giving the druid mana back. Thus there isn't much that the two forms don't currently offer druids who use them.

Truly, the only drawback of moonkin/tree form is that they don't allow the use of most restoration/balance spells, respectively, but in a PvE environment, this is not a cause for concern. Unless this simple fact changes, caster druids will be forced to stay in their forms unless Blizzard can somehow change druids fundamentally.

Why the leveling process doesn't help a player learn their class

One of the most frequent arguments I see used in debates on whether or not to let players with high-level characters start new characters at a high level (say, 55) is that those 55 levels help a player learn their class. Although there are many reasons to go through the whole leveling process (as I mentioned here) I do not see the "it helps you learn your class" argument as a legitimate reason to force players to go through the leveling process after they have done it once. In other words, I do not think that the leveling process helps a player learn their class.

First of all, when many people refer to "learning one's class," they mean learning one's class for the purposes of raiding. In PvP situations, most people don't mind as much if they fight with someone who doesn't know their class, and most people are quite happy to fight against someone who doesn't know their class. In raiding, however, if someone doesn't know how to play their class, then everyone suffers. Thus, when I say "learning one's class," will from now on be referring to "being prepared for raids." This also applies for 5-man instances, which are meant to be a stepping stone between solo-ing and raids.

Now, the first thing one needs to know when preparing for raids is where he fits in. I am, of course, referring to the three key roles: tank, DPS, and healer. It is my opinion that the leveling process does not adequately prepare players for any of these roles. For example, when it comes to tanking, one concept frequently lost on new tanks is that tanks always need to hold the attention of the enemies, with rare exception. Let's imagine a warrior solo-ing his way to 80. Since has has only fought for himself, he has no concept of keeping a monster attacking him, even if he is low on health. He may be glad to see that monster run away once it gets low on health. That gives him an opportunity to bandage up or loot another guy he killed. If he has high health, then he will probably be just as glad to see that runner grab an extra guy; it means that the monster and the loot it drops will come to him, rather than him needing to run to it. Of course, everyone who has ever done an instance knows that this kind of attitude towards runners is a guaranteed way to cause a wipe. More adds means more damage means healer heals more means healer runs out of mana means everyone dies.

Now that he's gone, we can focus on the other one, right guys? ...guys?

Now let's say our little lonely warrior is out fighting a gnoll and another one runs past him to attack someone else. He is the same level as the gnolls, and his gear isn't the greatest (he is leveling, after all, and will soon replace it), and thus he can't take on two at once. Thus he lets it attack the other player, and if it comes back to attack him, he runs away. Put that warrior in an instance, and you have a tank who lets adds attack the mage and actually runs for the instance entrance when it all goes wrong, both of which are bad to do. (Note: I did both of these things when I first tanked Deadmines, so I am not making these things up.)

As for DPS, while leveling, more damage=faster kill=better chance of survival. While raiding, more damage=likely out-threat-ing the tank=death, or potential wipe. The leveling process teaches DPS nothing of threat, one of the most basic concepts necessary for a DPS to know for raids. Leveling creates a mindset that more damage is always good, and that moderation of damage is never necessary. Obviously, when raiding, the opposites of both facts are true, yet it seems that many a DPS that I have PUG'ed with have no concept of threat or damage moderation.

Healing is also a difficult concept for solo-ers to grasp. Put a priest who has always had to fend for himself in a group and he'll probably at the very least keep a shadow word: pain up on the boss. Leveling also requires strategies for survival that are not viable in groups. A solo-ing priest will use power word: shield a lot to protect them from damage and allow them to cast spells unimpeded. However, unless a priest is spec'ed deep Discipline and the tank is a high enough level (read: 80) that he doesn't need to depend on taking damage to generate rage/mana (if a paladin), then the shield will be a liability. Solo-ing also frowns upon overhealing, as it wastes mana, which means more downtime. In a group, overhealing is certainly not the ideal, but it's better than a dead tank.

Most importantly---and this can be applied to all players regardless of the roll they play in raids---solo-ing teaches a player to be self-reliant, and the habits of self-reliant players are often detrimental to the success of a raid, where everyone needs to work together. Now, when I refer to self-reliant behavior, I'm not talking about a shaman DPS healing damage he took from an AoE effect if the healer is busy healing the tank. I'm talking about a priest using psychic scream when he is attacked, a druid tank shifting out of bear form to heal himself, a mage using ice armor for its defensive capabilities rather than mage armor for more mana or molten armor for more DPS, a mana-using DPS going OOM because he was using his highest-damage abilities rather than his most mana-efficient ones, a frost mage going into an instance spec'ed for survival and not for damage and putting out sub-par DPS as a result, a hunter using distracting shot to "save" a tank because he does it when his pet is low on health and he can usually take the damage, or an elemental shaman using stoneskin totem in a raid rather than strength of earth totem because he has no use for strength or agility. All of these are mistakes I have seen players make, even in level 80 instances, where players should know better.

Just like in real life, methods you use to protect yourself in WoW are often counter-productive to the success of the group, impeding others from accomplish their goals. Oh yeah, I just combined WoW, philosophy, and political commentary with one picture and one caption. I'd like my medal now.

"But," you may say, "we all had to go through the leveling process, so why don't we all suck?" First of all, Dr. Dennis Leary would disagree with your assumption. Second of all, players learn the above-mentioned concepts not by leveling, but by doing low-level instances and/or group quests. That's how I learned about tanking, and it's how anyone who wants to learn the basics of grouping gets started. However, anyone who has already reached level 80 and is leveling a second character probably isn't going to want to run a low-level instance, so they won't get any experience with their new class in groups. And since they probably already understand the basics, why would they need to learn anything anyways?

"But," you say, "if someone has been a tank all the time they've been playing WoW, how can they learn another role?" I recently had this experience. For as long as I can remember, I was a tank on my druid. With the advent of dual-specs, I could finally become a healer, a role which I had always wanted to try out but never did for fear of losing my solo-viability. Having never healed an instance before, I read some online guides to druid healing, did the math to figure out my most mana efficient heals, familiarized myself with my new keyboard layout, and started in an instance I was already familiar with---Violet Hold. Not only did I heal really well, but I even got complimented on my healing, and I now heal raids in my guild frequently. Point is, though not all roles are created alike, learning a new role and learning it well has nothing to do with leveling.

"But," you should be saying now, "what about learning the nuances of your class? Put a level 50 shaman in the hands of someone who isn't familiar with the class and they will be overwhelmed." First of all, anyone who is lucky enough to receive a level 50 shaman should get on their knees and thank whichever god, gods, deity, or deities they worship for what they have received (unless they already have one, of course). I will admit, it would probably be overwhelming to learn a class from scratch at level 50. I think that if a "start a new character at 55" system where ever implemented, it would need to be like the Death Knight starting quests. It would grant players their talent points and abilities slowly, allowing players to become acclimated to their class at a comfortable pace. These quest-lines could also be class specific, allowing players to learn the intricacies of their class better. With the news the Cataclysm may completely change Azeroth, such a system may be possible. Imagine starting a new soldier of Stormwind/Orgimmar in a war-torn world where only a few fragments of the old conflicts remain. Since the various leaders need more troops fast, they could use these new recruits to clean up the mess left in Azeroth's old zones while using the experience to help them prepare for the coming battles. I think that quests like that would make for a good story. I'll post next Monday on ideas I have for how such a system could be implemented. (Edit: I never did this, for lack of ideas, and I apologize.) That is, unless Blizzard comes out and says the leaked Cataclysm details were hoaxed and MMO Champion was wrong.

Would they lie to us? Well, maybe... You can't really blame them if Blizzard was using the alleged leak as a foiler to test the waters with player's reaction to radical changes.

Coming back to the main point, leveling does a lot of things, but the only thing it does really well is prevent a player from getting to the new content with a new character in a timely manor. Blizzard has already said that they think end-game is where it's at, so why they won't let players get on the fast track there is beyond me.

How to most effectively level your crafting professions

I recently had the experience of power-leveling jewelcrafting twice; once with my shaman, and once with my death knight. It taught me a few lessons about power-leveling that I think can be applied to any profession you wish to power-level. Please note that the tips I provide here are based on the assumption that you are farming the materials yourself. If you wish to power-level your profession by buying stuff from the AH, then use these power-leveling guides. They are also really good for leveling your gathering professions, although you will sometimes need to do your own research on wowhead to see which zones are truly best for leveling your herbalism/mining based on the density of spawn points. Anyways, on to the guide.

The way I went about leveling jewelcrafting is that I looked for an area that was good for farming the general material I needed. For jewelcrafting/blacksmithing/engineering, this means farming copper/tin/iron etc. ore. For leatherworking, this would mean killing beasts to skin. For alchemy/inscription, this would mean farming herbs. Farming herbs for the specific purpose of leveling alchemy gets complicated, but if you are leveling herbalism along with alchemy, just use the herbs you obtain. A good farming area should have spawn points that are really close to each other or create a path you can follow for maximum yield. It's also a good idea to look for an area big enough that you won't need to wait for your mining nodes/beasts/herbs to respawn. An example of an ideal area is Mulgore for mining copper. The route is a simple circle, and the zone is big enough that you shouldn't have a problem with respawns.

Just a few extra notes. Mining nodes will only appear on rocky slopes. This usually means the edges of zones and any mountains, and also means you won't find many in flat zones. Some herbs will only appear on a flat area, while others only appear next to trees, and some only appear on rocky slopes. Respectively, those herbs tend to look like flowers, leaves, or roots.

Once I had a plethora of materials, I went back to my profession trainer and used my materials to make stuff next to them. Every time I increased my skill by five, I checked to see if a new recipe was available for training. The key to this method is how you use the materials at your disposal to level your profession of choice. It's good to create a priority list for which recipes and which materials you will use first. The idea is to use your materials as efficiently as possible while using as many as possible. Materials become less useful as you level a profession, so you will want to use your materials in such a way that none go to waste. For example, in leatherworking, there is a recipe that allows you to turn ruined leather scraps into light leather. There is also a recipe that allows you to turn light leather in light armor kits. Both are very efficient ways of leveling leatherworking when you are at a skill level of one. Also, the first recipe is the only one that uses leather scraps. So, suppose you have a bunch of light leather and a bunch of ruined leather scraps. If you use the scraps first, you can still use your light leather for more advanced recipies later on, allowing you to get some skill ups out of both materials. If you make the armor kits first, however, and skill up that way, you will have lost the opportunity to use the scraps for skill-ups. Thus you will not have leveled as efficiently as you could have.

As should be clear now, efficiency is not only about using as few materials as possible in each recipe, but it is also about getting as many skill-ups as you can out of your pool of materials. Thus it is important to make a priority order of which materials you will use when. Some professions may not allow for that kind of flexibility, but just do what you can. Here's my priority order for power-leveling professions.

1. Recipes that use materials that don't have any other use
These include the recipe I mentioned above by which scraps can be turned into light leather. I also encountered a similar situation while leveling jewelcrafting. While farming ore for jewelcrafting, I got a lot of stones that had no use other than making statues. Thus I used the stones first and crafted as many statues and I could before moving on the using the ore. That way I used less ore to level jewelcrafting than I would have if I used the ore first, and the stones did not go to waste.

2. Recipes that make items you will use in later recipes
The professions are full of these. Alchemy has you making oils out of fish, blacksmithing has you making grinding stones that are used in other recipes, engineering has a plethora of such parts, as does jewelcrafting, and leatherworking allows you to combine pieces of leather to crate the next teir of leather. Be careful that you don't make too many of these parts, however. Some recipes require both the parts you make and the materials you make them from, such as the engineering recipe for a rough copper bomb. This recipe requires both a copper bar and a handful of copper bolts, which are made from copper bars. Thus, if you used all of your copper to make bolts, you'll be out of luck. A good guideline is to try not to have more of the crafted material than the original material. If you have, say, 40 copper bars, you wouldn't want to make more than 20 bolts. This would leave you with 20 of each. If you use them all and end up needing more bolts while needing the bars less than you thought you would, you'll be able to make more. If you end up not needing that many bolts, you'll still have gotten the skill-ups with wasting too many of the bars. You should also just look ahead to see whether or not you will use a certain part. Still, making parts is often the most efficient way to level a profession, so don't worry too much about going overboard.

Once you have gone through these two options, you'll want to use the recipes that use the fewest materials. It's important to also look to see what your trainer will be able to teach you in the future so you can plan which recipes you use. For example, let's say you are leveling jewelcrafting. If you have some shadowgems and some malachite, you'll want to use the recipes that use the malachite first. Why? Because shadowgems are used in higher-level recipes than malachite, so they stay useful for longer. You won't encounter too many situations like this, you should keep an eye out for them.

Aside form that, just use the recipes that use the fewest materials possible. Also, it's worth mentioning that if you are a higher level than you would normally be if you were leveling your profession while leveling in general, recipes that are yellow will almost always give you skill-ups. If you have a skill level of 50 at level 60, yellow recipes will probably give you a skill up. If you have a skill level of 50 at level 10, this probably will not be the case. Thus, don't be afraid to use a recipe that is yellow if it uses less materials than an orange recipe (as it probably will) out of fear of not getting a skill up.

What classes bring what buffes/debuffs to raids, Part II

My last post on this subject listed the various buffs and debuffs that each class brought to raids, organized by the buff itself. I decided to repost that list with the entries organized instead by class, rather than buff. Like the last post, if a certain buff can only be brought by a specific spec of that class, I'll say so, and if being a certain spec improves that buff, I'll list the spec in parentheses, and ditto for hunters' and warlocks' pets. Items in italics are debuffs, while the rest are buffs.

Buffs

Death Knights: +strength/agility: Horn of Winter
Death Knights: water walking: Path of Frost
Blood Death Knights: +10% attack power: Abomination's Might
Frost Death Knights: +20% melee haste: Improved Icy Talons
(Balance) Druid: cause damage to attackers: Thorns + Brambles
Balance Druids: +5% spell crit chance: Moonkin Form
Balance Druids: +3% haste: Moonkin Form + Improved Moonkin Form
Feral Druids: +5% melee crit chance: Leader of the Pack
Feral Druids: heal self on melee crit (unique): Leader of the Pack + Improved Leader of the Pack
(Restoration) Druids: +armor: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
(Restoration) Druids: +arcane resistance (unique): Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
(Restoration) Druids: +fire resistance: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
(Restoration) Druids: +nature resistance: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
(Restoration) Druids: +frost resistance: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
(Restoration) Druids: +shadow resistance: Mark of the Wild + Improved Mark of the Wild
Restoration Druids: +6% healing received: Tree of Life Form
Hunters: +nature resistance: Aspect of the Wild
Hunters: detect stealthed/invisible enemies: Flare
Hunters: +ranged attack power (unique): Hunter's Mark*
(Beast Mastery) Hunters: +movement speed (unique): Aspect of the Pack + Pathfinding
Beast Mastery Hunters: +3% damage: Ferocious Inspiration
Survival Hunters: Replenishment: Hunting Party
Marksmanship Hunters: +10% attack power: Trueshot Aura
Mages: +intellect: Arcane Intellect
Mages: +healing/spell damage taken (unique): Amplify Magic*, -healing/spell damage taken (unique): Dampen Magic*,
Frost Mages: Replenishment: Enduring Winter
Paladins: +fire resistance: Fire Resistance Aura
Paladins: +frost resistance: Frost Resistance Aura
Paladins: +shadow resistance: Shadow Resistance Aura
Paladins: +10% stats (unique): Blessing of Kings, gain mana on dodge/parry/block (unique): Blessing of Sanctuary*, +mounted speed (unique): Crusader Aura
(Holy) Paladins: +mana per 5 seconds: Blessing of Wisdom + Improved Blessing of Wisdom
(Holy) Paladins: not loose casting time: Concentration Aura + Improved Concentration Aura
Holy Paladins: +resistance to poisons, diseases, magic (unique): Cleanse + Sacred Cleansing, Concentration Aura + Improved Concentration Aura
(Protection) Paladins: +armor: Devotion Aura + Improved Devotion Aura
Protection Paladins: -3% damage taken: Blessing of Sanctuary
Protection Paladins: +6% healing received: Improved Devotion Aura
(Retribution) Paladins: +attack power: Blessing of Might + Improved Blessing of Might
(Retribution) Paladin: cause damage to attackers: Retribution Aura + Sanctified Retribution
Retribution Paladins: Replenishment: Judgements of the Wise
Retribution Paladin: +3% damage: Retribution Aura + Sanctified Retribution
Retribution Paladins: +3% haste: Swift Retribution
Priests: +spirit: Divine Spirit
Priests: +shadow resistance: Shadow Protection
Priests: reduced fall speed: Levitate
(Discipline) Priests: + stamina (unique): Power Word: Fortitude + Improved Power Word: Fortitude
Discipline Priests: -3% damage taken: Renewed Hope
Shadow Priests: Replenishment: Vampiric Touch
Shamans: +fire resistance: Fire Resistance Totem
Shamans: +nature resistance: Nature Resistance Totem
Shamans: +frost resistance: Frost Resistance Totem
Shamans: water walking: Water Walking
Shamans: water breathing: Water Breathing
Shamans: +spell haste (unique): Wrath of Air Totem
Elemental Shamans: +spellpower: Totem of Wrath
Elemental Shamans: +5% spell crit chance: Elemental Oath
(Enhancement) Shamans: +strength/agility: Strength of Earth Totem + Enhancing Totems
(Enhancement) Shamans: +spellpower: Flametongue Totem + Enhancing Totems
(Enhancement) Shamans: +armor: Stoneskin Totem + Guardian Totems
(Enhancement) Shamans: +20% melee haste: Windfury Totem + Improved Windfury Totem
Enhancement Shamans: +10% attack power: Unleashed Rage
(Restoration) Shamans: +mana per 5 seconds: Mana Spring Totem + Restorative Totems
Restoration Shamans: not loose casting time: Earth Shield
Warlocks: water breathing: Unending Breath
Warlocks: detect stealthed/invisible enemies: Detect Invisibility
Warlocks (Voidwalker): detect stealthed/invisible enemies: Consume Shadows
(Affliction) Warlocks (Felhunter): +intellect: Fel Intelligence + Improved Fel Hunter
(Affliction) Warlocks (Felhunter): +spirit: Fel Intelligence + Improved Fel Hunter
(Demonology) Warlocks (Imp): +health: Blood Pact + Improved Imp
(Demonology) Warlocks (Imp): +fire resistance: Fire Shield + Improved Imp
(Demonology) Warlocks (Imp): cause damage to attackers: Fire Shield + Improved Imp
Demonology Warlock: +spellpower: Demonic Pact
Destruction Warlocks: Replenishment: Soul Leech + Improved Soul Leech
(Fury) Warriors: +health: Commanding Shout + Commanding Presence
(Fury) Warriors: +attack power: Battle Should + Commanding Pressence
Fury Warriors: +5% melee crit chance: Rampage
Protection Warriors: -3% damage taken: Vigilance

Debuffs

Blood Death Knights: -movement speed (50%): Heart Strike + Glyph of Heart Strike
(Frost) Death Knights: -melee attack speed (20%): Frost Fever + Improved Icy Touch
Frost Death Knights: -movement speed (50%): Chilblains
Unholy Death Knights: +13% spell damage: Ebon Plaguebringer
Druids: -armor (5%): Faerie Fire (Feral)
Druids: -melee attack speed (20%): Hurricane
Druids: -movement speed (20%): Hurricane + Glyph of Hurricane
Druids: can't flee: Rake + Glyph of Rake
Druids: can't stealth or turn invisible: Faerie Fire (Feral)
Balance Druids: +13% spell damage: Earth and Moon
Balance Druids: +3% spell hit chance: Faerie Fire + Improved Faerie Fire
Balance Druids: -3% chance to hit (melee): Insect Swarm - Glyph of Insect Swarm
(Feral) Druids: -attack power: Demoralizing Roar + Feral Aggression
Feral Druids: -melee attack speed (20%): Infected Wounds
Feral Druids: -movement speed (50%): Infected Wounds
Feral Druids: +bleed damage (30%): Mangle
Shadow Priests: +3% spell hit chance: Misery
Hunters: -3% chance to hit (melee): Scorpid Sting
Hunters: -movement speed (50%): Wing Clip
Hunters (Sporebat): -armor (3%): Spore Cloud
Hunter (Carrion Bird): -attack power: Demoralizing Screech
Hunters (Serpent): +casting speed (25%): Poison Spit
Beast Mastery Hunters (Wasp): -armor (5%): Sting
Beast Mastery Hunters (Worm): -armor (20%): Acid Spit
Beast Mastery Hunters (Core hound): +casting speed (25%): Lava Breath
Beast Mastery Hunters (Rhino): +bleed damage (25%): Stampede
Beast Mastery Hunters (Wasp): can't stealth or turn invisible: Sting
Marksmanship Hunters: -healing taken (50%): Aimed Shot
Arcane Mages: +casting speed (30%) Slow
Arcane Mages: -movement speed (60%): Slow
Arcane Mages: -ranged attack speed (unique): Slow
Fire Mages: +5% chance to be critically hit by spells: Improved Scorch
(Frost) Mages: -movement speed (70%): Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt + Permafrost + Chilled to the Bone
Frost Mages: +5% chance to be critically hit by spells: Winter's Chill
Frost Mages: -healing taken (20%): Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt + Permafrost
Paladin: can't flee: Judgement of Justice
Paladin: limited to normal movement speed (unique): Judgement of Justice
Paladin: heal attackers (unique): Judgement of Light
Paladin: restore mana to attackers (unique): Judgement of Wisdom
Retribution Paladins: +3% critical strike chance: Heart of the Crusader
Retribution Paladins: -attack power: Vindication
Shadow Priests: -healing taken (20%): Mind Blast + Improved Mind Blast
Shadow Priests: -movement speed (50%): Mind Flay - Glyph of Mind Flay
Rogues: -healing taken (50%): Wound Poison
Rogues: -armor (20%): Expose Armor
Rogues: +casting speed (30%): Mind-numbing Poison
Rogues: -movement speed (60%): Deadly Throw + Glyph of Deadly Throw
Rogues: -movement speed (70%): Crippling Poison
Combat Rogues: +4% physical damage: Savage Combat
Subtlety Rogues: -melee attack speed (20%): Waylay
Subtlety Rogues: -movement speed (70%): Waylay
Shamans: -melee attack speed (10%): Earth Shock
Shamans: -movement speed (50%): Frost Shock
Elemental Shamans: +3% critical strike chance: Totem of Wrath
Warlocks: +13% spell damage: Curse of the Elements
Warlocks: -armor (5%): Curse of Weakness
Warlocks: +casting speed (30%): Curse of Tongues
Warlocks: -movement speed (70%): Shadowflame + Glyph of Shadowflame
Warlocks: -resistances (unique): Curse of the Elements
Warlocks: +swim speed (unique): Unending Breath + Glyph of Unending Breath
Warlocks (Voidwalker): -10% chance to hit (unique): Suffering
Warlocks (Succubus): -melee attack speed (10%): Soothing Kiss
(Affliction) Warlocks: -attack power: Curse of Weakness + Improved Curse of Weakness
Affliction Warlocks: -movement speed (30%): Curse of Exhaustion
Destruction Warlocks: +5% chance to be critically hit by spells: Improved Shadow Bolt
Warriors: -armor (20%): Sunder Armor
Warriors: -melee attack speed (20%): Thunder Clap + Improved Thunder Clap
Warriors: -movement speed (50%): Hamstring
Arms Warriors: +4% physical damage: Blood Frenzy
Arms Warriors: -healing taken (50%): Mortal Strike
Arms Warriors: +bleed damage (30%): Trauma
(Fury) Warriors: -attack power: Demoralizing Shout + Improved Demoralizing Shout
Fury Warriors: -healing taken (50%): Furious Attacks
Fury Warrior: -movement speed (50%): Piercing Howl


*I only included these buffs for completeness sake. I know Hunters Mark only helps the hunter, that Blessing of Sanctuary only helps the paladin, and that Amplify/Dampen Magic suck.

Why hard modes are a better option than hard raids

Wrath of the Lich King brought many new things to WoW. One of them was the advent of Hard Modes. Although they became more prevalent with the addition of Ulduar, the original hard mode battle was Sartharion with three drakes. For those of you who don't know, Sartharion was the last Wrath boss before Ulduar was added. His lair contained him as the main boss and three drakes as sub-bosses. The drakes could be killed before Sarth, or they could be skipped. Each drake that wasn't killed would help Sarth out during the battle, making it more difficult as more drakes were left alive. If all the drakes were killed, however, Sarth became an easy run for easy epics. The rewards for leaving the drakes up were better loot, and if you left all three up, a chance at a drake mount and titles to show off just how badass you were.

Ulduar followed this model for many of its bosses, allowing 10 of the 14 bosses to be engaged in "hard modes," making them more difficult but allowing for better loot, as well as achievements, including this meta-achievement that rewards a cool-looking drake. This is a departure from the vanilla and BC model of raiding, in which the raid bosses were just very hard, meaning only well-coordinated raiding guild could kill them. It amazes me that this was Blizzard's design philosophy for raids for so long. After all, the majority of new content that we got from patches came in the form of raids, and yet raids were inaccessible to most people. This was especially true in the days of 40-man raids. Burning Crusade changed this somewhat when it allowed people to ease into raiding with the 10-man dungeon Karazhan and made the rest of the raids 25-man. Still, many guilds were not able to make the jump from Kara to the 25-man raids. Though organizing 25 people is significantly easier than organizing 40, the few people who knew that first-hand probably made the jump with no problem, while the rest of us were left behind in Kara. Thus raiding was still the land of the few.

Wrath of the Lich King changed this in multiple ways. First, Blizzard implemented two versions of every raid: a 10-man and a 25-man version. Although the belief that the 10-man versions are easier is debatable, that wasn't the purpose of implementing two versions of each dungeon. The purpose was to allow guilds to raid the way they are most comfortable raiding. Although the 25-man versions do give slightly better loot, the fact that these dungeons could be done in 10-man versions meant more people would actually see the raids. This makes a lot of sense from a design perspective. After all, why spend the majority of your time on content that the minority of your player-base is going to see? As I said in one of my other posts, Blizzard's main goal with Wrath of the Lich King seems to be to get more players into raids, and making each dungeon doable with ten people certainly makes that possible.

As I said before, Sartharion was also implemented with a hard mode so that casual players could enjoy seeing the battle while serious raiding guilds can still have something to brag about. Blizzard liked this idea so much that Ulduar got the hard mode treatment, meaning less serious guilds can still see the fights, experience the lore, and be amazed by the art design, while hardcore raiding guilds can still feel special about the difficult fights they have beaten. From a business standpoint, this is a really good idea, as it allows a wider swath of players to see the work that Blizzard puts into its content without completely taking out the challenge or denying the hard-core guilds the chance to show off just how good they are.

Some hardcore players felt quite indignant that raids, previously their own exclusive right and domain, were now being downed by more casual players PUG'ing their way through. I can understand their anger that raids themselves were once their exclusive right and no longer are, but I think they are being selfish. Asking Blizzard to continue to develop content for a small percentage of its player base is quite selfish on the part of those who got to raid in the old days. Besides, the one thing they always seem to complain about is that there is no more glory in being a raider. Now that anyone can raid, saying that you have full tier gear doesn't have the same impact it used to, nor does saying that you have finished a certain dungeon. This belief of theirs implies that there is less glory to be found in beating a hard mode encounter than simply beating a hard encounter. Perhaps this is true, but if you raid for the glory of it anyways, that's a pretty bad reason to raid. The true fun of raids is the personal satisfaction of defeating a difficult encounter, and I fail to see how defeating an encounter that is difficult itself is somehow less satisfying than defeating an encounter that you chose to make difficult. They are both equally difficult (I need a thesaurus, I know), so they should thus give raiders an equal amount of satisfaction. If they don't, I think the difference is really just in the raider's head.

How to pick a side hobby

WoW is a big game. There is a lot to do in this game, and though you should experience all of it in some respect, it's good to have one activity to fall back on when you just want to pass some time. Raiding, battlegrounds, and arenas are nice focuses for your game, but when you have a few hours before your guild's Ulduar run is scheduled to start or your full arena team isn't on yet, it's nice to have something to do on your own. That's what this post is concerned with; side hobbies. Here I will discuss various side activities and whether or not you will find them fun. I will also link the associated meta-achievement or max achievement.

Pet Collecting
Non-combat pets are those little companions that follow you around wherever you go. They are quite nice as a flavor item, and as a pet-collector myself, I can tell you that collecting them is an enjoyable pastime. In the days of pre-Wrath, when pets took up space in our inventory, pet-collecting was not a very lucrative hobby. Each pet you had took up one space in your bank or bags, thus making them rather cumbersome. With the new pets interface, that has changed for the better, and you can now have as many pets as you like without running out of bag space.

One of the nice things about collecting pets is the variety of activities involved in pet collecting. Some are gained through reputations, while others must simply be ground for. (I think that's the past tense version of grind. Edit: Confirmed) Many holiday events also give you a pet of some kind, which gives you even more motivation to participate in them. It you want a more focused activity with a more tangible reward, then you may not like pet collecting. Then again, most of these activities won't have tangible rewards. If you want to do something with valuable rewards, run some 5-mans or do some dailies. Also, pet collecting isn't something that you can really brag about, so if you want a hobby that will bring you fame and glory, look elsewhere. It's a shame that you can't display more than one pet at a time, but it is still nice to have many to choose from, especially when a pet showoff session happens in your raid. In the end, if you like varied activities with frequent rewards, pet collecting is a good choice for you. A good database for the dozens of pets available in the game is WarcraftPets.com.

Mount Collecting
Mounts are an important part of the game. They get you from point A to point B faster than hoofing it on foot will, and some even allow you to fly. Thus, collecting them can become a fun pastime. Since mounts are a good deal larger than pets, it's easier to show off your rare mounts than your rare pets. Like pets, mounts once took up space in your bags, which means you wouldn't want to have more than two; one for the ground and one for flight. The new pets interface also has a pane for mounts, which makes collecting them even easier.

Unlike pets, mounts often take more effort to get but come in groups. For example, many mounts require long reputation grinds, but once you finish those grinds, you get six or eight mounts that you can buy. Some mounts are also rare dungeon drops and take even longer to farm than rare pets. Of course, this means that getting one of those mounts can be a real status symbol. If you want something that requires more effort than pets but has more impressive rewards, mount collecting could be for you. Warcraftmounts.com is a good database for mount collectors.

Completing Old-world Quests
There is a lot of lore to be found in WoW, and most of it is found in the quests. Some give you engrossing storylines that also motivate you to go through those old-world dungeons that you missed, while others are just plain fun. Of course, some will make you pull your hair out with their low drop rates, but overall, old-world quests are worth doing. They give you reputation to help you get your crusader title, and though the money you make with them may not off-set the repair bills you build up, it's still worth seeing what you missed if you decided to grind through your levels like I did.

It can be difficult to remember which zones you cleared out in terms of quests, as well as which quests you did that were started by a zone drop. This can lead to long hours spent searching zones for quests you already did or grinding for items you already got. Still, doing old-world quests is really it's own reward. These quests were put in the game for you, so you may as well try them out. Although I don't know of any resources that allow you to see which quests you have already done, I know that wowhead is a great resource for finding quests that you may not have known about.

Exploration
Filling out your in-game map is a simple task that lets you see parts of the world you may not have seen otherwise. You will probably complete some of the exploration-related achievements by doing all of the old-world quests, but exploring for its own sake can also be rewarding. Aside from the title and tabard, you also get to see all of the effort the art team put into this game. Although, to be honest, aside from Jenkins, The Explorer is one of the most unimpressive titles in the game. Just saying...

Fishing
Although I did list the meta fishing achievement, fishing in general is a fun activity. You get to catch fish which can be turned in valuable food for raids, as well as some other interesting things. It's a relaxing activity that I myself enjoy a lot. In the olden days, fishing was less rewarding than it is now and was only a source of food. You may have been lucky enough to win the Stranglethorn Fishing Contest or fish up the 1 Ring, but aside from that, fishing was rather one-dimensional. These days, not only is fishing a source of some fantastic buff food, but you can also strike at rich with the dailies involved in fishing.

One of the nice things about fishing is that it's low key and peaceful (for the most part), and thus won't incur any repair bills. It's also possible to fish while waiting for other things. You can fish on a dock while waiting for a boat or fish next to a dungeon while waiting for your group to get there. Fishing is one of the few activities that you can do almost anywhere, making it quite a versatile hobby. If you seek something more action oriented, then fishing isn't for you. Also, though there are a variety of locations you can fish in and things you can catch, the basic motions are still the same. Still is you want something relaxing to do that you can do almost anywhere, you'll like fishing. A fantastic resource for fishing is El's Extreme Anglin', which has information on anything and everything fishing related.

Reputations
This is probably the most time-consuming hobby in the list. Many people grind reputation to some extent, but some are obsessive about it. Some get try to get exalted with as many factions in the game as they can. The rewards of reputation grinds aren't as great as they used to be, but back in the old days, you could acquire many things by being liked by the right people. There are also some reputations that don't really have great rewards, but people still grind them just so they can have another "Exalted" on their reputation tab. Those of you with no life could also go for Insane in the Membrane, if you really think it's worth it.

Although the ways you gain reputation with different factions vary quite a bit, they all have one thing in common: they take a long time. Grinding reputations as a hobby is not for those who play casually. This is an activity for those who really have nothing else to do and who just want to do something that takes a long time. Again, I don't know of any resources specifically for grinding reputations, but wowhead can probably help you. WoWWiki also has some good guides on effectively grinding various reputations.


It's worth noting that some of these hobbies bleed into one another. For example, pet collectors trying to get the Mechanical Chicken will need to do the old-world Distress Beacon quests, and as I mentioned, doing old-world quests will fill out a large portion of your map. You can also gain some of the rarest pets in the game by fishing. And, of course, many factions gives pets and mounts, so you will probably need to grind some reputations for those two hobbies.

So there you have it! Whatever your hobby may be, just remember to enjoy it. There's no point in playing WoW if you aren't having fun.

A philosophical analysis of the barrel series on XKCD

Edit: Blogger cut off the right edges of the comics. Click them to see the whole thing.

XKCD is one of my favorite web-comics, and though most of them are humorous in nature, some of the early ones seem to be more philosophical. This is particularly true of the barrel series. I recommend you read it and think of your own opinions on it before you read my musings on it so that you may develop your own thoughts rather than simply taking in mine.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Important aside
Part 5

Did you read it? They are all really short, so you may as well. They always confused me a bit, until one of my friends pointed out that they are meant to be meaningful, not funny. Thus I began to think about them, and these are the conclusions I came to. I present them to you strip by strip. Note that these are only my thoughts on these strips, and I do not by any means think that my opinion is the only correct one. Feel free to present your own opinion in the comments.


Thus our nameless protagonist starts on his adventure. The fact that he is never named means he could be anyone, and thus any of the trials he faces in his adventure could be faced by any of us. You will notice that proper capitalization is never used in this first strip. This represents a sort of rejection of society's conventions, or at least those of academia. And yet, after rejecting these conventions, our protagonist finds himself utterly alone in a vast expanse of sea. Perhaps the conventions that he rejected now seem to him to be something that connected him to the people around him. His face shows a lack of emotion, which to me shows that he must be feeling equal parts happiness and sadness. After all, how could someone lost in the ocean in a barrel not be at least nervous? Thus I think that he is happy that he is now free from the conventions that he rejected, but now realizes that they were simply part of the social system he too was a member of. By rejecting this system, he has rejected everyone else in his life.

Our protagonist now has only one option, and that is to abandon his society and wander. Without this familiar world, however, all he can do is wonder where he will float to next. What is interesting is that the panel of him lost in the sea is smaller than the panel of him wondering where he will float next. Perhaps the message in this size inconsistency is that it is more important to wonder where your life is going than it is to actually go there. After all, our protagonist has lost all that he knew with his rejection of society, and this society is now part of his past. He has thus rejected his past, and can now only look to the future. The future, however, is not guaranteed to be any better than his past. This is why his floating is trivialized by the size of the panel; it's not something he should actually look forward to. As we shall discover, the future can be fraught with danger and sadness.


One could interpret this to mean simply that there were no mothers where our protagonist floated, but I see more meaning in that. While he could mean there were no mothers in the places he floated to, I think it means that the places themselves had no mothers. I mean mother in more of the sense of a creator than the sense of a woman with a child. And who supposedly created all the places in the world? God. Thus, our protagonist has rejected not only his society but also his God.

You may think I am reading into this too much, but think about it. The protagonist makes his statement with a lot of certainty. None of the places he floated to had mommies; not a single one. That could not be a coincidence, and thus the only possibility is that there are no mommies in his world. This could also be simply a consequence of his rejection of society, but if this were the case, it would not be as much of a surprise to him, and he wouldn't feel the need to state that there were no mommies where he floated.

Staring into the abyss, our protagonist can see his inevitable demise, and yet he shows no worry; he is simply amazed by what he sees. It is important to realize at this point that our protagonist has abandoned his society and his God. Left floating in an endless sea, he has nothing to live for. My guess is that this is why he finds his doom interesting; if his life isn't worth living, then he may as well simply enjoy whatever it brings to him, even if it it brings him his own demise.

Of course, a maelstrom is no guarantee of death. People have survived them before, if not in reality, at least in fiction. Thus it is also possible that our protagonist is amazed simply because he knows he could survive the experience. And what an experience it would be; I can't even begin to conjecture on what it must be like to be sucked into a whirlpool, but it would certainly make a good story at the very least. If this is the case, then the larger lesson is that we should not fear that which may kill us. We could end up with an amazing story afterwards, or we may just be exaggerating the dangers. And if worst comes to worse, well, you can't really regret anything that kills you, can you?


At this point, the fate of our protagonist is unknown. We are left only with an image of his barrel floating semi-submerged in the water. It will probably sink at some point, disappearing from our protagonist's world forever. If he is still alive, he has now lost his only connection to his former world. In a way, this barrel was his world, and now it is on its way to a watery grave. In my opinion, this is meant to symbolize how when a man is removed from a world he has created, that world falls apart, and he cannot return. If our protagonist had made the ocean itself his home, he would still have a home to return to upon escaping the whirlpool. Instead, he tried to create his own artificial world, even while trying to escape the normal world. Now that he no longer has his barrel, he cannot return to it.

In a way, the barrel is symbolic of everything people try to do to make their lives easier. These include developing a Peter Pan complex, trying to shut out the tragedy in the world by avoiding the news, or using the idea of an afterlife as a way to not fear death. Often people do this because they find reality too difficult to deal with. Like the barrel our protagonist inhabited, these coping mechanisms are unreliable and can't protect people from the harsh realities of the world forever. At some point, these people are going to have to face the reality that they have been so diligently avoiding. And once they have done that, their old world and their old coping mechanisms will be gone. Having abandoned them, these people will now need to find some way to face the realities of existence without getting depressed. Life may be grim, but that doesn't mean that people need to be.


Although this strip is not technically a part of the barrel series, it still plays into the series's conclusion, and thus warrants analysis. We begin with a man who has whimsically put wings on his ferret, but his whimsy is ruined when his friend tells him his ferret could never fly. He is quick to assimilate to his friend's ideas of what is reasonable, not wanting to look silly. What is interesting is that the man's friend dismisses his fantasy and then suggests that they go indulge in a different kind of fantasy, i.e. video games. Perhaps his friend views video games as less silly than imagination because the fantasy is not his own, but someone else's. In other words, this man believes that having your own fantastic ideas is silly, but reveling in someone else's fantasy is perfectly acceptable. Then again, this man could be playing a realistic video game, in which case he simply rejects all forms of fantasy.

In the end, the first man forgoes playing video games in favor of indulging in his own fantasy of seeing his ferret fly over a lake. The proximity of their faces in this final panel suggests a great intimacy between them. Anyone who has ever felt that intimate with anyone, be it a person or an animal, can attest that it is a great feeling. One feels safe, comfortable, and happy when he or she is that close to someone, physically and/or emotionally. It's quite possibly the greatest happiness one can achieve. The message of this intimacy is that there is more happiness to be found in one's own fantasy than the fantasies of someone else.


And so we see our protagonist left drifting on a piece of wood in the vast expanse of ocean. The wood itself is probably of little comfort to him, since he is still submerged in the water. Then in flies our furry little winged friend to save him and they both fly off into the sunset. A touching ending, really. More important is the message of it, and I believe that message is that we can only be saved by our dreams. As we learned in part 4, most coping mechanisms for dealing with life's harsh realities don't work. The problem that these mechanisms have in common is that they all deal with shutting out part of the world. Dreams, on the other hand, deal not with blocking out what is but with imagining what could be. That is why our protagonist is saved by the ferret.

If you think I read too deeply into those comics, your probably right. Of course, considering the wealth of philosophical possibility in them, I'd like to imagine that Randall Munroe intended them to be analyzed in this manner.

Why I don't enjoy PvP

I'll admit it; I'm a carebear. I have a set of PvP gear left over from my Wintergrasp phase, but for the most part, I don't enjoy PvP. It's not because I don't enjoy PvP gameplay itself. I know a lot of PvP'ers think that us carebears don't enjoy PvP because it's actually a challenge, but if that were the reason, we wouldn't raid either. I quite enjoyed the challenge of PvP, since no two players ever fight the exact same way. Each battle is always different, and the thrill of it lies in the unpredictability.

But I digress. There is one reason that I don't enjoy PvP'ing, and it's more of a matter of principle than anything. Though I enjoyed PvP after I had gotten good at it, those days when I was just starting were really rough. I was always dying, and each death meant at least 30 seconds when I wasn't involved in the battle. In Wintergrasp, those 30 seconds could easily become two minutes in the right situations. Those were two minutes of me not being able to contribute to the fight at all, gain any honor, or have any fun. And those deaths happened a lot.

As I got better gear and became more skilled in the art of warfare, I began to die less often and actually be able to kill some players in fair battles. This should have been enjoyable, but those deaths I suffered back when I was starting out had done their damage. I realized that every time I killed an opponent in PvP, I was denying someone else that minute of action, of honor, of fun. All the things I didn't enjoy about PvP, I was now inflicting on someone else. That was my definition of victory: preventing another player from enjoying themselves. PvP in my opinion can best be defined as having fun by preventing another player from having fun.

Perhaps I'm just spoiled by PvE, but I find cooperative gameplay to be a lot more fun than competitive gameplay. In cooperative gameplay like raids, everyone has fun as long as everyone does their jobs. It's a win-win situation. Even if someone doesn't get gear from the encounter, they still get emblems and the satisfaction of killing someone more powerful than them. In PvP, however, every time someone wins, someone else needs to lose. I'm sure there are people who can walk away from a defeat, use it as motivation to play better next time, and be that much more satisfied when they do win, but I'm not one of those people.

Short post, I know, but there isn't a whole lot of explanation needed, really. Keep in mind that I am not saying anything against PvP; I'm just offering my reasons for not liking PvP so that maybe you PvP'ers can realize why we PvE'ers don't enjoy your part of the game.

How to avoid those "What do I do now?" moments

When I started playing WoW, I had one goal: to get to the level cap. I didn't think about why that was my goal or what I would do when I got there; all I knew was that was what I had to do. When I did get there, I had a moment I dreaded having: I thought to myself, "What do I do now?" After messing around in Outland for a while, I decided to make getting epic flight skill my next goal. Getting the Ogri'la dailies made that significantly easier, and though it took a while, I saved up that 5,000 gold. I knew I was going to have another WDIDN moment if I didn't think of something else to do after getting my epic flying skill, so I decided to go for exalted with Netherwing. I thought their mounts were really cool, and I had always heard people talking about how much money one could make with their dailies, so I figured it was a good goal. Well, when I did finally get my Netherwing drake, I had another WDIDN moment. I won't bore you with the continuation of my story. To sum it up, I've had quite a few of those moments where you complete a goal and realize you don't know what to do next. This post is about avoiding them.

The key to preventing a WDIDN moment is rather simple: always have a goal. It helps to have both short term and long term goals, since you may not have enough patience to see your long-term goals to the end if you don't try other things. You could make your long term goal making enough money to buy epic flight or getting one of the meta achievements. With the advent of achievements, nearly everything that you do in the game has a reward. Pet and mount collecters have their own achievements, cooks and fishers get their own titles, and even raiders and PvP'ers can get in on the action. These meta achievements often have their own rewards that make them worth doing, but just doing them is really what makes the game fun.

So, once you have decided on a long-term goal, you need a short-term goal to keep you entertained while trying to achieve that long-term one. These goals could be getting exalted with a certain faction or grinding the materials for a certain item or just doing dailies for money. It helps if your short-term goals help your long term goals. For example, if your goal is to save up enough money for epic flight, you could make a short term goal out of getting exalted with Ebon Blade or the Alliance Vanguard, both of which have dailies that reward a good amount of money. You could also make your short-term goals completely unrelated to your long-term goals if you just need a break. If you are tired of grinding reputation for 40 Exalted Reputations, you could try running a heroic instance for a specific item or doing the daily instance for extra emblems to buy something with those.

Raids and PvP are also good options for things to do. They both give you cooperative experiences that are rarely the same and give good gear to boot, although the gear is really just a side reward. In fact, if you are raiding or PvP'ing on a regular basis, you are much less likely to have a WDIDN moment, so you probably don't need to worry about it. People who mostly do solo content are the ones who are likely to have those moments, so it's them that need to keep goals in mind.

To give you an example of the goal mindset, I'll give you my current goals. I want to eventually save up enough money for the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth. My main method of doing this is dailies, but just to keep me from being bored as I do those dailies, I'm also saving up Champion's Seals. I was collecting them for the pets at first (I did use them to upgrade my weapons, so the pets were my secondary goal), since I am an avid pet collector, but with the promise of new items for people with the crusader rank in patch 3.2, I decided to save them up instead. I'm also doing the fishing dailies in hopes of getting the Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat. I enjoy fishing a lot, especially now that it is a great source of raid food, so the hat would be a big help.

As you can see, for some, goals are really about biding your time between raids or battleground or arena battles. They give you something to do when you aren't working toward a common goal with other people. And if you don't enjoy any of the above activities, then goals are really what it's all about for you. After all, if you aren't helping others succeed, you'll only find satisfaction in your own success, so you need to create that feeling of success.