How to gear up a druid at level 85 without entering an instance

Way back in the days of Wrath of the Lich King, I wrote a post about how to gear up a druid without entering an instance due to my own aversion to dungeons and my hesitance to rely on random drops to gear up. Well, now that Cataclysm has gotten underway, I thought I'd write a similar post for this expansion pack. This post is a collection your options for gearing up a Druid before you set foot in any 5-mans. Keep in mind that some slots don't have very good options, and you are probably better served getting gear for those slots from 5-mans themselves, but I included your options for those slots here just for completion's sake. Like last time, I will give you multiple options for each slot so you can pick the one that best suits you. Since balance druids can dip into resto's sections'for spirit pieces with the talent Balance of Power and the two feral druids share many pieces, I tried to avoid redundancy when there are actually different options for each one. In those cases, if you don't like any of the suggestions for your spec, check your corresponding partner spec's section for other options.

Weapon(s):
Balance: Beak of Julak-Doom (drop from a specific rare mob, most likely to be found on the AH), Insidious Staff (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Elementium Spellblade (blacksmithing), Very Manly Staff (quest in Twilight Highlands) Staff of Solemn Secrecy (world drop)
Feral (tank): Spear of Trailing Shadows (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Mobus's Vile Halberd (drop from a specific rare mob), Elementium Poleaxe (blacksmithing), Staff of Old Woes (world drop, most likely to be found on the AH), Staff of Draconic Pacification/Torth-Slayer's Staff (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Spear of Trailing Shadows (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Mobus's Vile Halberd (drop from a specific rare mob), Elementium Poleaxe (blacksmithing), Staff of Old Woes (world drop), Staff of Draconic Pacification/Torth-Slayer's Staff (quests in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Elementium Hammer (blacksmithing), Shimmering Morningstar (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, revered), Gurgthock's Garish Gorebat (quest in Twilight Highlands), Mace of Apotheosis (world drop)

Off-hand:
Balance: Dungeoneering Guide (inscription), Skyflight Beacon/Air Raid Beacon (quest in Twilight Highlands) Book of Origination (dungeon drop, look on AH)
Resto: Heartbound Tome (world drop), Divine Companion (inscription) Bone-Inlaid Sarcophagus Key (world drop)

Idol:
Balance: Tattooed Eyeball (inscription)
Feral (tank): Halted Clock (world drop), Silver Inlaid Leaf (inscription)
Feral (DPS): Silver Inlaid Leaf (inscription)
Resto: Tattooed Eyeball (inscription)

Head:
Balance: Bloodied Wyrmhide Helm (leatherworking), Hood of Lost Solitude (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (tank): Hood of the Crying Rogue (world drop), Dunwald Winged Helm/Shocktrooper Hood (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Hood of the Crying Rogue (world drop), Dunwald Winged Helm/Shocktrooper Hood (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Bloodied Wyrmhide Helm (leatherworking), Wax-Filled Hood/Mechano-Assembler Headguard (quest in Twilight Highlands)

Neck:
Balance: Lightning Flash Pendant/Yellow Smoke Pendant (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Charm of the Muse (dungeon drop), Eye of Many Deaths (jewelcrafting)
Feral (tank): Elementium Guardian (jewelcrafting), Don Rodrigo's Fabulous Necklace (world drop), Acorn of the Daughter Tree (Guardians of Hyjal, revered)
Feral (DPS): Don Rodrigo's Fabulous Necklace (world drop), Acorn of the Daughter Tree (Guardians of Hyjal, revered), Barnacle Pendant (dungeon drop), Brazen Elementium Medallion or Entwined Elementium Choker (jewelcrafting), Nightrend Choker (world drop), Pendant of Victorious Fury (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Acanthia's Lost Pendant (dungeon drop), Lightning Flash Pendant/Yellow Smoke Pendant (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Pendant of Elemental Balance (Earthen Ring, honored)

Shoulders:
Balance: Spaulders of Rolling Incineration (quest in Uldum)
Feral (tank): Aledrinker Shoulderpads/Cult-Hide Spaulders (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Aledrinker Shoulderpads/Cult-Hide Spaulders (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Mantle of Wild Feathers/Spaulders of the Endless Plains (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, honored)

Back:
Balance: Ritssyn's Ruminous Drape (world drop), Cloak of the Dryads (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)
Feral (tank): Zom's Electrostatic Cloak (world drop), Twilight Dragonscale Cloak (leatherworking), Shroud of Dark Memories (dungeon drop)
Feral (DPS): Razor-Edged Cloak (leatherworking)
Resto: Cloak of the Dryads (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)

Chest:
Balance: Chestguard of Nature's Fury (leatherworking)
Feral (tank): Assassin's Chestplate (leatherworking), Sly Fox Jerkin (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)
Feral (DPS): Assassin's Chestplate (leatherworking), Sly Fox Jerkin (Guardians of Hyjal, honored)
Resto: Chestguard of Nature's Fury (leatherworking), Robes of the Loving Ursine (world drop), Wrap of the Fallen City (quest in Uldum)

Wrist:
Balance: Bracers of Caustic Purification (world drop), Keg-Stealer Bracers/Alefire Bracers (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (tank): Bloodied Leather Bracers (leatherworking), Flarefire Bracers/Buildingblast Bracers or Whirlpool Bracers/Dragonheart Bracers (quests in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Bloodied Leather Bracers (leatherworking), Keg-Stealer Bracers/Buildingblast Bracers or Flarefire Bracers/Dragonheart Bracers (quests in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Bracers of Caustic Purification (world drop), Keg-Stealer Bracers/Alefire Bracers (quest in Twilight Highlands)

Hands:
Balance: Aessina-Blessed Gloves (Guardians of Hyjal, revered)
Feral (tank): Stormbolt Gloves/Liar's Handwraps (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Safecracker's Gloves (world drop), Thartuk's Inimitable Gauntlets (drop from a specific rare mob)
Feral (DPS): Stormbolt Gloves/Liar's Handwraps (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted), Safecracker's Gloves (world drop), Thartuk's Inimitable Gauntlets (drop from a specific rare mob)
Resto: Aessina-Blessed Gloves (Guardians of Hyjal, revered)

Waist:
Balance: Lightning Lash (leatherworking), Belt of the Untamed/Withered Dream Belt (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted)
Feral (tank): Belt of Nefarious Whispers (leatherworking), Quicksand Belt (Ramkahen, revered), Belt of a Thousand Mouths (drop from a specific rare mob)
Feral (DPS): Belt of Nefarious Whispers (leatherworking), Quicksand Belt (Ramkahen, revered), Belt of a Thousand Mouths (drop from a specific rare mob)
Resto: Lightning Lash (leatherworking), Belt of the Untamed/Withered Dream Belt (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, exalted)

Legs:
Balance: Blazewing's Furious Kilt (drop from a specific rare mob)
Feral (tank): Swiftflight Leggings/Leggings of the Impenitent (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, honored), Shaw's Finest Leggings/Garona's Finest Leggings (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Swiftflight Leggings/Leggings of the Impenitent (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, honored), Shaw's Finest Leggings/Garona's Finest Leggings (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Blazewing's Furious Kilt (drop from a specific rare mob)

Feet:
Balance: Treads of Revelation/Vision-Tainted Treads (quest in Stormwing/Orgrimmar)
Feral (tank): Flameproof Treads/Heartstone Treads (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Feral (DPS): Flameproof Treads/Heartstone Treads (quest in Twilight Highlands)
Resto: Tarvus's Poison-Scarred Boots (drop from a specific rare mob), Treads of Revelation/Vision-Tainted Treads (quest in Stormwing/Orgrimmar)

Rings:
Balance: Band of Singing Grass/Band of Lamentation (Wildhammer Clan/Dragonmaw Clan, revered), Diamant's Ring of Temperance (Therazane, revered), Ring of Warring Elements (jewelcrafting), Abandoned Dark Iron Ring (dungeon drop)
Feral (tank): Felsen's Ring of Resolve (Therazane, revered), Red Rock Band (Ramkahen, revered), Elementium Moebius Band (jewelcrafting)
Feral (DPS): Terrath's Signet of Balance (Therazane, revered), Band of Blades and/or Elementium Destroyer's Ring (jewelcrafting)
Resto: Ring of the Great Whale (dungeon drop), Ammunae's Blessing (Ramkahen, honored), Ring of Warring Elements (jewelcrafting)

Trinkets:
Balance: Stump of Time (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Volcano (completing the Volcanic Deck), Talisman of Sinister Order (quest in Uldum)
Feral (tank): Unsolvable Riddle (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Mirror of Broken Images (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Earthquake (completing the Earthquake Deck)
Feral (DPS): Unsolvable Riddle (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Impatience of Youth (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Hurricane (completing the Hurricane Deck) Schnotzz's Medallion of Command (quest in Uldum)
Resto: Mandala of Stirring Patterns (Baradin's Wardons/Hellscream's Reach, exalted), Darkmoon Card: Tsunami (completing the Tsunami Deck), Rainsong (dungeon drop)

How to solo Northrend group quests as an enhancement shaman

My long-suffering shaman alt (which I rolled at the beginning of Burning Crusade) finally hit level 68 a while back and headed for the frozen wastes of Northrend, and I have been enjoying leveling through the new continent significantly more than I enjoyed Outland. Of course, my shaman is late to the game, and is usually one of only two or three Alliance players in the Borean Tundra, unless Blood is Thicker is the fishing daily. This becomes problematic when I need to complete quests like Last Rites and The Assassination of Harold Lane, group quests that involve killing elite enemies. However, in a fit of potential madness, and inspired by my success with solo-ing The Ultimate Bloodsport, I decided to give Last Rites, the first group quest I was charged with when I came to Northrend, a try. So I went in, with only my wits and my quest-reward gear to help me, and after a very tense battle, Valanar lay dead at my feet. It didn't hit me how impressive this feat was, though, until I took a look at my quest log and saw that this quest was orange. Yep, I, a level 69 shaman in nothing but gear rewarded by quests had killed a level 72 elite, alone. This gave me a whole new respect for the shaman class, especially enhancement shamans.

Now, this success had nothing to do with my skills and everything to do with the sheer solo-ing power of the enhancement shaman. What that means is that any enhancement shaman leveling his/her way through Northrend can do what I did with the right instruction. It is that instruction which I aim to provide today.

Before we go into that, though, let's look at the key abilities that will help you while solo-ing elites as an enhancement shaman. You will want all of these abilities to be within easy reach before you try to solo any elites; if not hot-keyed, at least somewhere on your bars.

Earth Elemental Totem: This ability will change your shaman's life when you get it at level 66 and is your main asset while solo-ing a group quest. Dropping this totem releases a greater earth elemental to attack your enemies. He causes a fair amount of threat, and can take quite a beating before crumbling into gravel. The key to successfully solo-ing an elite is to let this guy take damage for you, like a tank.

However, to describe the greater earth elemental as a tank-in-a-totem (tank-in-a-bottle sounds just demeaning) would be a gross over-statement of its power. The Earth Elemental Totem isn't just a set-it-and-forget-it tank. A typical elite can kill your greater earth elemental in much less time than it will take you and him to kill the elite, Also, the amount of threat he causes is very low compared to most player tanks you run dungeons with, and you'll easily cause more threat than him if you aren't careful. However, there is one bright side to this totem that should not be overlooked: you can heal your greater earth elemental. Thus, the key to successfully using the Earth Elemental Totem is to heal him when he needs it and to watch your threat so you don't attract your target's attention. If you don't have an addon to display your threat and the threat of your greater earth elemental, activate the in-game threat display by going to the main menu (escape key), then going to Display and checking off "Show Aggro Percentages". I also recommend you set Display Aggro Warning to "Always", so you'll be able to know immediately if you pulled aggro off of your greater earth elemental.

Wind Shear: Of course, you will sometimes pull aggro from your Earth elemental, no matter how careful you are. An unlucky string of crits will do that to you, and it's when that happens that you'll want to have Wind Shear handy, since it lowers your current threat on your target. Of course, Wind Shear coupled with a ceasing of all of your attacks can only do so much, so it's still important to watch your threat.

Healing Wave: You should have this spell handy while solo-ing, anyways, since being able to heal yourself while leveling is one of the enhancement shaman's greatest strengths. You'll be using this ability to heal your greater earth elemental, and you will make great use of it for that purpose. You might also want to have Lesser Healing Wave handy, in case you space out and forget about your greater earth elemental, then realize you haven't healed him in a while, only to target him and see that his health is low.

Maelstrom Weapon: While this isn't technically an ability, and thus you can't link to it on your action bar, I wanted to bring it up anyways because it makes using Healing Wave on your greater earth elemental much easier. It also serves as a nice reminder to check on your greater earth elemental; any time you hit five stacks of Maelstrom Weapon, check to see if your greater earth elemental is in need of some healing.

Shamanistic Rage: You should keep Shamanistic Rage within easy reach while leveling anyways, but you'll especially want to keep it within reach while fighting an elite because you'll be using more mana. When you fight typical enemies, you usually spend some time out of combat, i.e. not using mana, in addition to the time you spend in combat, i.e. using mana. Thus you don't use mana very quickly while fighting regular enemies. While fighting an elite, however, you are always casting (or at least casting more time per minute than you would be otherwise), so using this ability to get your mana back is critical.

Fire Elemental Totem: The fact is, you will sometimes fight enemies that will outlast your greater earth elemental. He only has a two-minute duration, after all, and what to do when that runs out? Why, bring out this guy, of course. The Fire Elemental Totems summons a greater fire elemental to fight for you, but unlike the greater earth elemental, the greater fire elemental is focused on doing damage, not taking it. Thus, you will be the tank when you take him out, but how will you survive that onslaught of damage in just mail armor with no shield?

Feral Spirit: Why, with your wolves, of course! One of the best benefits of the ghost wolves summoned by Feral Spirit, aside from their taunt, which you will make liberal use of, is that they heal you when they do damage. The healing they do is so significant that combined with a few Maelstrom'ed Healing Waves, you can survive the onslaught of damage brought about by an elite. What could be better?

Bloodlust/Heroism: Ah, yes; this could be better. While you are alone, Bloodlust and Heroism will increase your melee haste, but also the melee haste of your spirit wolves if and only if they are out when you cast it. That means more healing done to you, more damage done by them, and a better chance of successfully killing your elite.

So, now that you have all of the necessary abilities within easy reach (as well as your normal damaging abilities like Stormstrike, Flame and Earth Shock, Lightning Shield--which is a damaging ability with the Static Shock talent--, etc.), you are ready to take down your first elite.

Get ready to fight your opponent by laying down your fire, water, and air totem of choice, leaving your earth totem slot reserved for your Earth Elemental Totem (yes, it actually counts as an earth totem, so you can't have your earth elemental totem and Strength of Earth Totem active at the same time. It sucks, I know.) I use the Flametongue, Mana Spring, and Windfury totem, respectively. I know Magma Totem would probably lead to a greater DPS output, but I personally prefer a totem I can set and forget to one I need to cast every twenty seconds. And did I mention that the one that needs to be re-cast every twenty seconds costs two and half times more mana than the one you can set and forget? Still, if you just want to cause as much damage as possible, then it's your prerogative to go with Magma Totem. I'm not here to tell you how to play, just to give you advice that you can decide whether to follow or not. If you do go with Magma totem, don't drop it until your enemy is in range, so you won't waste any mana on a blast of fire that doesn't damage your enemy.

So, you have your totems ready. Now just wait some time to regenerate your mana, and once it's back at 100%, it's time to fight. Open with a Flame Shock to bring your enemy into range, then cast Earth Elemental Totem. Your greater earth elemental should start attacking your target quickly, but be ready to heal yourself if you do take some damage before your elemental gains control. Now, you want to give your elemental some time to build up threat before you start attacking; think raiding pre-Burning Crusade. While waiting, you might do well to click on your greater earth elemental, then right-click his portrait and set him as your focus so you can always see how much health he has.

Now, once your elemental has established threat, start attacking your target. In these early stages of the fight, you'll probably shoot up from zero percent threat to almost pulling aggro rather quickly if you blow all of your short-term cooldowns, so just be careful. Since you have an effective cap on how much damage you can do (since you don't want to out-aggro your greater earth elemental), you'll want to focus on causing your damage in a way that is as mana-efficient as possible. Assuming you aren't at 95% threat (compared to your elemental), always auto-attack your target so that you can build up charges of Maelstrom weapon to allow you to quickly heal your greater earth elemental. However, don't use your damaging abilities unless you are around 80% threat or below, so that you can cease your attacks if you get a huge crit and get a lot of aggro.

If you are at that magic 80% mark, use your special abilities with the following priorities, stopping if you reach or pass 90% threat. If you have Improved Stormstrike, then use Stormstrike, since it will give you mana back. Then use Lightning Shield if you have the talent Static Shock, since it's free damage. If you don't have Improved Stormstrike, but you do have Static Shock, prioritize Lightning Shield over Stormstrike. If you don't have Static Shock, then don't bother with Lightning Shield. If you still have threat to spare, use Flame Shock, since it's more efficient than Earth Shock. You probably won't use Earth Shock much, since you should use the more efficient Flame Shock if it has run its duration, and you might cause too much threat if you use a shock more than once every 20 seconds or so. You'll probably never use Lava Lash. If you do cause too much damage, use Wind Shear and then stop attacking your target, even auto-attacking, until you greater earth elemental gets its attention again.

As you are doing all of this, you'll want to keep an eye on two things: the threat you have on your target, and your greater earth elemental's health. If your threat falls below 80%, use a damaging ability. If your elemental's health falls below 50%, heal it. Heal it sooner if you don't have many stacks of Maelstrom, and it will thus take you longer to cast the heal. When your mana starts to dip below 50%, check to make sure you aren't approaching dangerously high levels of threat, then use Shamanistic Rage while auto-attacking. I wouldn't recommend doing much else during this time unless you are sure you have threat and mana to spare, since using damaging abilities always poses the risk of out-aggro-ing your greater earth elemental, meaning you'll need to stop attacking, and you'll thus lose mana you could be gaining by attacking.

This strategy alone should be enough to help you with elites that a quest says only require two people to take down, but sometimes you'll need an extra "umph". Sometimes those two minutes won't be enough, and you'll find yourself with an angry elite looking at you and no earth elemental to help you. That's when you pull out the big guns: Feral Spirit, Fire Elemental Totem, and Heroism, in that order. The spirit wolves will heal you with their attacks, the greater fire elemental will damage your target, and Heroism will increase the damage you do, the damage your wolves do, and the healing your wolves do to you. This phase gives you about a minute to finish off your target, since your wolves only last 45 seconds, and you probably won't last longer than 15 seconds against an enemy you couldn't kill in two minutes.

So what to do in that minute? First of all, save your Shamanistic Rage cooldown unless you run desperately low on mana, since that 30% damage reduction could give you the extra time you need to finish your target off after your wolves die and aren't healing you anymore. Until then, make sure your wolves are attacking your target, make sure they use Twin Howl whenever it is off of its cooldown (to divert some damage away from you), and heal yourself if you find yourself below 50% health. Assuming you have taken care of all that, then just unload on your target with all that you have. Since you are now the tank, you don't have to watch your threat anymore. Thus, unload with Stormstrike, Flame and Earth Shock, Lightning Shield, and Lava Lash per usual.

If your wolves disappear and your target is still alive, then pop Shamanistic Rage and hope you can heal yourself and finish him off before he destroys you. Otherwise, you may have to try this whole performance again, or even worse... try to form a group. *shudder*

Of course, pulling this off method of killing an elite off by yourslef is an extremely satisfying exercise, so take what you now know and try it yourself if you are leveling a shaman through Northrend and are skipping the group quests because you can't or don't want to find anyone to help you with them. You don't need anyone to help you with them; you are a shaman.

The "naked" button; more useful than you think

I dun goofed up.

What you see above is a recreation of what happened to me when I logged in on December 8th, 2009, the day patch 3.3 was released. Because so many people had logged in, eager to try out the new dungeon finder, my high-population realm was lagging like I had never seen it lag before. I, too, wanted to try the new dungeon finder, but I had the misfortune of leaving my character in Dalaran before the downtime for the patch. The lag was so slow that I decided to fly down to Crystalsong Forest, where there are never any other players, hoping the lag there would not be so bad. I made the ill-advised decision to dismiss Swift Flight Form, hoping to cast it again once I was closer to the ground, as I had done so many times before without incident.

This time, however, things were different. I suspected that the lag would make my recast take a while, but when I started to hit that button to recast Swift Flight Form, my druid kept falling. And falling. And falling. I knew, at that point, that he was going to die, so I started spamming my "naked" button, which removes all of my druid's armor. What happened next was quite tense. My druid kept falling and landed on the ground in Crystalsong Forest, where he stood for about fifteen seconds (did I mention that the lag was really bad?). He couldn't move or do anything; he just stood there... with all of his armor still on. However, much to my relief, after those fifteen seconds were up, a naked Night Elf crumpled to the ground in front of me. I did have to run back to his corpse, but I had saved myself a few gold on the repair bills.

I have had quite a few incidents like this where stripping my character saved me money on my repair bills after dying from a fall I thought I could make, then realized mid-descent that I wouldn't. I know it seems like something that wouldn't be all that useful, but you don't realize its utility until you need it. I may have only used it three or four times to save myself repair bills since I made it, but that's because I can cast Swift Flight Form while falling in most places; a class that can't re-mount mid fall would probably get much more use out of a "naked" button than I do. And let's be honest, that isn't the only use for a button that strips your character of all his/her armor. ;-)

In all seriousness, if this idea appeals to you, then let me tell you how to make such a button for your character. There are certainly addons that will allow you strip your character at a moment's notice, but this method doesn't need to be updated after every patch.

1. If you haven't activated the Equipment Manager yet, do so.
Go to the game menu (escape key), then interface, features, and make sure Use Equipment Manager is checked.

2. Remove all of your armor.
There's no easy or fast way to do this (that is, until you finish this process). Just open the character screen and manually move all of your armor from your avatar to your bags. If you are a bit prudent and don't want to totally strip your character when you use this button, then just remove the armor pieces which have durability, while leaving your tabard, cloak, shirt, and jewelry (you will need a tabard if you don't want your character to be functionally naked when you use this button). This has the added benefit of leaving you with more health when you return to your corpse, since the stamina on your gear will increase your maximum health pool and the amount of health you have when you return to your corpse is a percentage of your health pool, so you won't need to heal yourself as much when you come back to life. Note that if you choose to go this route, you will need to update your button every time your tabard, shirt, clock, or jewelry changes, whereas a purely "naked" button never needs to be updated.

3. Save this "set".
Go to the equipment manager (it's the little button in the top left of the character screen) and click "Save". Give your nakedness a title (I went with the very creative name, "naked". You can use a name like "Panic Button" if you don't want such an obscene title.) and an icon (I went with the icon of the hunter's pet ability Dust Cloud, since it's just a bare face, which I felt captured the way my druid would look after I used this button.). Then click "Okay".

4. Drag your new "naked" button to your action bar.
Place it somewhere where you can click it easily, but you aren't likely to click it by accident. I keep an empty space between my "naked" button and any other buttons on my bars, on both sides, to avoid clicking it accidentally while trying to click something else.

And you're done! Now you too can save five gold when you least expect it. Yes, you will need to do this for each of your characters that you make, so I recommend you do it early on (as in levels 1-10), while you have less armor to remove. Just remember, though you do need to set it up each time you re-roll a character, it's more reliable than an addon since it's an official feature of the game.

Disabling Real ID for great justice

While this post started as a philosophy post, the direction it took as I was writing it resulted in it being more of an advice post. Considering it is scheduled for Wednesday, I am quite content to leave it in that form and ruminate on the subject more on Friday. Also, because All Your Base Are Belong To Us is apparently an endangered meme, I would just like to add that the title of this post was indeed a reference to All Your Base.

I know I have discussed the Real ID issue already, and the entire blogosphere has discussed it ad nauseam, but with the dust finally starting to settle from this frenzy over the announcement that Real ID would be integrated with the forums, it's time we finally reach a middleground in our reaction. The past week has seen us, the WoW community, go from frenetic opposition and rage to jubilant elation and relief in the span of a few days. With those two extremes out of the way, it's time we look at this event critically and consider what it means for us and the future of WoW.

I was planning on writing this post by examining the various possibilities of whether Blizzard actually thought this through and really doesn't care about our privacy or whether this was just a one-time big mistake on their part. However, rumination may not be necessary, as a post on the official forums that was since deleted but reposted on Team Liquid may give us the answer to that question. Now, this is hardly direct information. This is a page on a community site linking to a supposedly since-deleted post on the official forums written by someone retelling something he supposedly heard from an ex-roommate who's sister supposedly works as a GM at Blizzard. That makes this fourth-hand information, so take it for what you will. Here's the post in question, in case you haven't read it yet:

Nachtjäger, Suramar, 59 Night Elf Death Knight (post 35821 in epic thread) wrote

Got in touch with my ex-flatmate, whose sister works as a GM for Blizzard, to see what the internal buzz on this was. Apparently, at the moment the employees are largely as pissed as the players, and she stated that despite attempts to keep it hushed, it has become known that the big creative players within Blizzard are pretty much as unhappy about this as we are. Everybody has been told they are not free to comment on this situation outside of specially prepared statements.

It's still going ahead, however (and here's where in-house rumours and hearsay really start coming into play): from what they've picked up, the Blizzard leads have been told in no uncertain terms that the non-gameplay-related direction of the game is working to a different blueprint now. GC and company are free to play with shiny new talent trees all they like, for example, but for the first time the decisions regarding Battle.net implementation, Real ID, and plans for the general acquisition of new players for the business are no longer in Blizzard's own hands, and that's not going down too well.

If this is true, then to all those who cried foul when Blizzard and Activision merged (assuming that, if the direction that Real ID is taking is out of Blizzard's hands, it must be in Activision's) who were subsequently dismissed by the larger community, we owe you a massive apology. To all those who cried foul when Real ID was first implemented in the game and were dismissed by people who said that it wasn't a mandatory feature, we also owe you a massive apology. It looks like we brought this on ourselves by not catching the warning signs earlier, and now the past nay-sayers can sit back and chuckle as they play the world's tiniest open-source violin as background to our complaints.

But how to put a stop to it? When it comes to big business, money is everything, so they only way to discourage Activision from forcing Blizzard to take the Real ID system in a direction Blizzard and the players don't like is for us players to hit Activision where it hurts (their wallets) without hitting Blizzard where it hurts (their wallets). How to do this? Well, if Real ID is out of Blizzard's hands, but the rest of WoW is still in their control, then the best way to target Activision is to stop supporting Real ID while still supporting WoW. I have already disabled Real ID on my account as a show of opposition against the direction the system seems to be taking, and I encourage you to do the same, unless you use it extensively in-game, and even if you do use it in game, you should consider the disabling it anyways for the sake of your privacy. (If you don't know how to disable Real ID, WoW.com has a good write-up about how to do so here.) As Greedy goblin says, whining is useless to make Activision change their minds; "If people turn Real ID off in masses, Blizzard will see it. If using RealID becomes "n00b" thing, if people with voice and with respect (like top players) refuse to use it, RealID will die."

Now, whether it should die is another matter, one I will consider in my next post. However, if you don't want Real ID to die, keep in mind that there is always the possibility that Activision will reconfigure it to not be such a threat to our privacy so that more players feel comfortable turning it back on.

Higher Learning: Waiting around for fun and profit

That's right, the advice column is back... for one week, at least. Then it'll go back to the retirement home for blog columns, where it will lounge on the beach and complain about how the miscellany and philosophy columns never write anymore ever since they had to start working overtime to make up for his absence. Ah well, c'est la vie.

One of my goals that I want to accomplish before Cataclysm comes out is that I want to earn the achievement Higher Learning. For those who don't know, Higher Learning requires you to read eight books that spawn in predetermined spots in Dalaran. They spawn every three to four hours and last only five minutes (three if someone reads them) before they disappear, and you need to read all eight to finish the achievement. Did I mention that there's a fairly high chance of a dud book spawning in place of the book needed for the achievement? And that if that happens, you have to wait another three to four hours for another chance at the book you need? Yeah, it's annoying.

Why do I want to finish this achievement before Cataclysm? Once Cataclysm hits, I will likely be too busy with all of the new content to consider going back to Dalaran and running around just to look for the books I need to finish that achievement, and thus I will have no chance at the pet or the ability to teleport to the secret room above the Violet Citadel (which, for a loner like myself, is a pretty good reward). Luckily, the pre-expansion slump gives me the perfect opportunity to take the time I need to get this achievement, and in going for it, I have discovered a technique that I would like to share with you all.

If you are going to attempt this achievement, I highly recommend that you read Breanni's guide on Higher Leraning. It covers all of the basics that you need to know to understand how this achievement works, and this post will assume you know the basics about Higher Learning.

Now, as Breanni's guide says, there are two approaches one can take to earn this achievement: pathing, and camping. Pathing involves running around Dalaran past all of the spots where the books you don't have will spawn, and while it might take less time than camping, it's likely to make one go insane (trust me on that one). However, the boredom intrinsic in camping carries the same exact risk, so the question becomes, how to mitigate that risk? I have a few steps that will help you with that, steps that are very reminiscent of the advice I give in my post on how to avoid boredom whilst leveling fishing.

1. Pick a spot to camp.
Simple, really; just pick a book you haven't read yet and go to the spot where it will spawn.

2. Go into windowed mode.
If WoW is in full-screen mode, this strategy won't work: press command-M if you are on a Mac or control-M if you are on a windows computer.

3. Open another window.
Now comes the hard part. You need to pick something you can do for an extended period of time that won't require your total and complete attention. That can be working on something semi-mindless for work or school, chatting it up on your favorite forum, or going on a wiki-walk or archive binge (incidentally, the website that those two links will take you too is a great place to go if you are bored and want to spend a lot of time doing something on the internet). Whatever you chose, it must fit two criteria: you must be able to divert your attention away from it at least every minute or so (only for a split second), and it cannot take up the full screen. You'll see why in a bit.

4. The set-up.
With WoW in windowed mode and your character near the book's spawn point, set up your camera so that you'll be able to see the spot where the book will spawn while your second window is over WoW. Once your camera is set up that way (some picture demonstrating what I mean can be found below), simply engage in whatever activity is in your second window, and when you think of it, take a look at WoW. Eventually, a book will spawn, and when it does, you can click WoW's window and read the book. Simple, really.

Here's a picture of me with my WoW camera set up to employ this method, with a helpful arrow to show where the book will spawn.


Here's what my screen looks like with WoW in windowed mode and Firefox over it.

You can click on the picture to view a larger version with better detail. As you can see, I can see the spot where the book will spawn on the left side of my screen, and I am free to do as I please while I wait for the book to spawn. If you choose to do something similar to what I did, you can re-size the window of your internet browser of choice to give yourself more space to see the book; I just have it set up this way because I always have that little space on the left side of Firefox (it's quite convenient for me).

And in case you are worried about not being able to see the book when it spawns, worry not:


As you can see, the book is clearly visible when it spawns, as long as you set up your camera so that you'll actually be able to see the book. You may need to work your second window around seeing the book if you can't work your WoW camera to make the book visible, but do whatever you have to do.

This strategy is a slow one, but I have already found two books (as well as three duds) after using it for a bit under a week, which is pretty good, considering that it doesn't actually require much time spent in WoW itself, so I can guarantee that it does work. Best of luck, and happy waiting!

Edit: I forgot to add that you are quite likely to get Manabonked by Minigob Manabonk while using this strategy, so if you are trying to get The Mischief Maker as well, you can kill two birds with one stone with this strategy.

Raiding advice for people who raid infrequently

I am part of a unique group within World of Warcraft: I have a character at the level cap, and yet I rarely raid. I do raid occasionally, but I do it so infrequently that the way I approach raids is fundamentally different from the way regular raiders approach raids. I know I'm not alone in this. Some of us don't raid because our schedules are so inconsistent that we can't commit to raiding with a guild at specific times each week. Some of us don't raid because we play the game to relax, and having all of those other people depending on you performing your job perfectly, ready to pounce on you if you mess up, is anything but relaxing. Some of us simply don't want to repeatedly fight the same bosses over and over again just to earn the right to fight more bosses over and over again. Whatever our reason, we simply would rather not group up with 9 or 24 other people to fight bosses on a regular basis.

That doesn't mean that we don't ever raid. Sure, there are people out there who never do step into the raiding scene, but some of us do dip our feet. We come along when our guild says they need a healer, we PuG a single-encounter raid (like Onyxia or Sartharion), or we may even get bored one night a run a longer raid all the way through. Hell, we may even enjoy it. However, stepping into the raiding scene from heroics can be a scary prospect, which brings us to this post. What follows is advice for people who wish to raid infrequently, just to see what it is like, but don't know how to get started. If you raid regularly or at least have raided, this advice isn't for you. However, if you don't fit into either of those categories and would like to fit into the latter, then to quote Wowhead, "OK HERE IS HOW SO LISSEN GUD."

1. Start small.
The single-boss raid dungeons are good places to start if you want to dip your feet into raiding. They don't require much more time than a heroic, so they will allow you to adjust to all of the other aspects of raiding that will be new to you: the increased number of people, the increased complexity of the encounters, etc. Running those raids also means only needing to learn one boss strategy (or one and a few more simple ones for the sub-bosses). As such, try to start raiding with Obsidian Sanctum, or, if you gear is good enough, Onyxia's Lair.

2. Be realistic about what you can handle.
If you don't raid frequently, you may not have the skills and habits common to most raiders that you need to carry you through the raid. As such, you may need to make up for that lack of skill with your gear. As a casual raider, I can tell you that out-gearing content is a great help when you want to dip your feet in raiding but don't think you have the skills for it. Sure, gear can only take you so far, but it certainly helps. If you just want dip your feet in raiding, use a site like be.imba to gauge the general quality of your gear, then try running a raid that won't offer many upgrades for you. If you get more comfortable with raiding, you can move up into the "upgrade range," meaning you can try running raids that may help you upgrade your gear.

You may be asking, how can one over-gear a raid without ever raiding? Heroics. Heroics these days are an easy ways gear up for raids without needing to raid, helping you catch up with other people in terms of your gear. Even in the days when heroics only dropped Emblems of Heroism, I used heroics to get the best gear one could get without entering a raid, and was more than prepared for Naxx-10. Since then, getting gear through heroics has only gotten easier.

3. Know the strategies
If you don't raid frequently, it isn't worth your RAM to download a mod like Deadly Boss Mods to help you anticipate a boss's attack. As such, you need to know the in-game cues that make raiding without DBM possible. It's imperative that you read the strategies for the bosses in whatever raid you plan on running so that you can be prepared for them. Knowing what attacks are coming and knowing when they will come is an integral part of raiding, and you need to be intimately familiar with the strategies to do that. As a guild I was once in said, casual raiding is not sloppy raiding. You don't get to do this frequently; give it your all. If that all seems like too much to take in, then as Saniel said bellow, ask for a brief reminder of the strategies before each boss fight. Sometimes one little reminder is all it takes to bring back what you read earlier.

4. You are in this for the long-haul.
One of the biggest shocks for a first time raider is just how long the bosses take to kill. Bosses can take anywhere from five to ten minutes to kill, so get used to being in this for the long-haul. If you are a healer, use your mana-restoring abilities early and often and make sure you have enough MP5 so that you don't run out of mana. If you are a DPS, use your cooldowns early and often (unless you need to save them for a burst phase) so that you can cause maximum damage. Above all, don't be surprised when you see how slowly the boss's health meter falls. Also be prepared for how long a raid will take; most non-single-encounter raids will take you a few hours unless you run with a group of people who know the raid inside and out and out-gear it immensely. You probably won't finish the raid in one night, so don't be surprised if your raid leader asks whether you plan on showing up the next night to continue.

Druid healing in heroics, part II

I have already covered the basics of healing in heroics with this flowchart, but a flowchart cannot give the whole picture (see what I did there?), so this post will be a companion guide to that flowchart. For the record, the strategies herein are for druids who are still using heroics to gear up; if you already out-gear heroics, then just follow Jen's strategy:
1. Rejuv the tank
2. (Optional) WG the group
3. Afk until the Rejuv runs out
4. Collect emblems
What follows is advice for people who don't have good enough gear to follow this strategy. This advice is also meant to help healers build the habits they will need when they enter the raid scene.

1. Get some sort of HUD mod that puts your health bar in plain view.
One of the main issues new healers face is forgetting to heal themselves; they get so focused on keeping everyone else's health bars topped off that they forget about their own. That's why I recommend you get a mod like IceHUD (that's the one I use) that puts your health bar in the middle of the screen so it is right in your face. Here's a picture of it in action:














It may seem like it would just be in the way, but trust me, this bar is a life-saver. Having my health Bar right there is the only way I can remember to heal myself. You may want to man it out and try to watch your own bar along with everyone else's, but though your intentions may be good, they won't be worth anything when your carcass is on the ground not healing your party. Trust me; get the mod, or one similar to it. I use it all the time, so it's not a bad addition to your usual mod lineup.

2. Healing Priority: Tank, you, DPS
In heroics these days, you aren't likely to encounter situations where you will need to prioritize healing, but these situation do arise. Your tank may get overzealous with his pull, or you may get Moragg in Violet Hold, or you may be plopped in a Frozen Halls instance. Either way, remember this: the tank must survive. When you need to decide between dropping a heal on the tank and anyone else, the tank's survival comes first. Your survival comes next, for, without your healing, the party will drop like flies. Now, this does not mean that your should not heal your DPS; without them, the boss won't die. However, most DPS these days are in such good gear that they don't need to be healed immediately; still, clothies will be clothies, so if you and the tank are all set for healing, make sure the DPS gets their share.

3. Use Barkskin if you are attacked.
Nothing too complicated about that. Barkskin reduces the damage you take and allows you to heal without your spells being delayed by damage, so if enemies decide to head your way, toughen up a bit with this spell. I also recommend using it before using Tranquility so as not to lose ticks of that spell.

4. Use Innervate when your mana reaches 10,000 less than its maximum.
Innervate restores 7866 mana at level 80, or about 8,000. Since it is your main way to get back mana, you want to have it available frequently, especially when you move into raids, where boss fights will be long enough to allow you to use Innervate two or three times. As such, you want to use it early, but how early? If you use it when you are lacking exactly 8,000 mana, you may regenerate mana in the time that Innervate is active, causing you reach maximum mana and waste your innervate. If you wait until you are lacking 10,000 mana, you probably won't regenerate enough mana to cause you to waste the mana you gain from Innervate. So, if you have 30,000 mana, use Innervate when you have 20,000.

5. Rebirth the tank if the fight is salvageable; rebirth a person capable of resurrection if it is not.
Let's say your tank has died on a boss fight, but that Death Knight DPS went into Frost Presence and took control. He can tank it for now, but you know he won't last long (of course, in a heroic, he will, but we are building habbits for raids, here). In this case, the fight is salvagable, so use Rebirth on the tank and heal him as quickly as you can so he can get back in the game and start tanking again. Now, suppose the tank has died and none of your DPS can off-tank. In this case, the boss will probably rush through and massacre your party before you can resurrect the tank and get his health back up, and if no DPS survive, the fight will take forever. As such, if any of your DPS can resurrect, it's better to use Rebirth on them once they have died. They can then wait for the fight to end, then accept your rebirth and resurrect everyone else. That way, people don't need to run through the heroic again. Note that, in most heroics these days, you are unlikely to encounter a situation where using Rebirth on a DPS is better than using it on the tank, but again, you are building habits for raids here. In fact, you probably won't ever use Rebirth in a heroic, but still, if you encounter a situation where you do need to use it, it's important to know how.

I accidentally posted this early, so you get your advice early this week.

Druid healing in heroics in flowchart form

I have resigned myself to doing heroics so I can get a cloak for when I level from 80 to 85, and in order to save my sanity, I have decided to run them as a healer. I find healing to be a much more relaxing job than tanking, and with all of the gear everyone has, healing in heroics has become quite simple--so simple, in fact, that it can be reduced to a flow chart, which is exactly what I have done here. For the sake of ease of use, I have highlighted the starting point of the chart in a red box.

















Click for the full size.

When spells are put in pairs or triplets, use them in order from let to right. For the sake of space, I used icons rather than spell names. Here's a visual guide in case the spells aren't familiar to you.

= Healing Touch




= Lifebloom




= Nature's Swiftness




= Nourish




= Rejuvenation




= Regrowth




= Revive




= Swiftmend




= Tranquility




= Wild Growth




Note that this post is only meant to visually cover what spells to use for restoring health. For a more complete guide to druid healing, I highly recommend Lissanna's healing guide. I was going to write more on the other points of druid healing, but I am too busy to do so this week; expect more info on druid healing in heroics next week.

Advice on blogging, part II

In my last advice post, I went over advice for the beginning blogger who is just getting starting in the blogging game. That advice was mostly for bloggers who have not been noticed yet; however, once a blogger is noticed, blogging becomes a different ballgame. Once you reach the point of being a read blogger, you will likely have already internalized all the basic blogging advice anyone can give you, so consider this post Blogging 201, advice on blogging once you are noticed.

How will I know when I am noticed?

You can always use a service like Google Analytics to find out how many people are visiting your blog and whether they stay to read it or not, but objective numbers can be misleading (ironically enough). Statistics can only tell you so much about your readership, so how can you gauge your readership more subjectively? Comments certainly serve this purpose. While you should not ignore the silent majority that reads your blog, comments give you a unique cross-section of your readership. People will usually comment only when they feel strongly enough about what you have said to want put their feelings into words, so comments let you see just what about your posts really struck a chord with your readers. Most importantly, comments show you what your readers think of what you posted, which is ten times more important than any objective measures of your readership. With that out of the way, let's get to the advice.

Having a readership means being more discerning about what you post.

When you are blogging for yourself, you can put up anything in your posts since no one is reading them, and you may get in the habit of posting things you may not have posted if you were worried about quality. That changes when people are actually reading your blog. When you are writing your posts, you'll need to ask yourself, will anyone get anything out of this post? Will someone walk away wiser, or a better player, or more amused? There are a wide array of responses you can evoke in your readers, and as long as the responses you evoke aren't boredom, frustration, or the like, then you have succeeded as a blogger.

With that said, allow me to quote Matticus when he gave the two questions you should ask yourself before putting out any post:
1. If I write this post, is ANYONE going to give a crap?
2. If I write this post, is someone going to benefit from it in some way?
Now, granted, the second point isn't as important as the first; it mostly applies to advice posts, which you may not want to be a part of your blog, and that's perfectly fine, but you should still ask yourself the first question before putting out a post. As long as someone will give a crap, then go ahead and post it.

Respond to the comments you get.

While you don't need to respond to every little inane comment you get, or even most of the comments you get if you get a lot in a short time, it's nice to let your readers know that you appreciate them taking the time to comment on your post. If one of them asks a question, answer it. If one of them brings up a point that you hadn't considered before, give your thoughts on it. Even if someone says something simple like, "Great post," a thank you is still a good idea. Most of the challenges you face after being noticed will have to do with how you respond to various types of comments, so I'll go over some more specific advice pertaining to certain types of comments.

Trolling/Spam
If someone posts a comment on your blog that is blatantly advertising a WoW website (especially one that is against the ToS) and has no relevant content to the post, delete it post-haste (get it?). Nothing good can come of leaving those kinds of comments on your page. Trolling usually requires a less systematic approach. If a comment is trollish but still a legitimate comment, I usually leave it and ignore it, trusting my readers will do the same. If the comment is simply irrelevant trolling and could detract from discussion of the post, I usually delete it. For example, on one of my advice posts, someone commented saying, "Lol u mad." Had he left such a comment on a rant, I probably wouldn't have been so quick to delete it, but such a comment has no place bellow an advice post, so I deleted it so that he wouldn't distract from any constructive commentary. Whether you make such a distinction in moderating your own comments or you take another approach (either leaving all such comments up or deleting them without discrimination) is your call to make.

Corrections
Sometimes you will make an objective error in your post. You may wrongly list the spellpower coefficient of a spell, or you may make an egregious grammar mistake. If you make such a mistake and someone points it out, it's best to just make the correction and thank them for pointing it out. Don't do what some bloggers do and make the correction while deleting the comment to save face; own up to your mistakes; after all, it's only through our mistakes that we learn. Some extra pointers: don't respond with antagonism to people who correct your posts, and don't be spiteful of people who only left a comment to correct a mistake without commenting on any other aspect of the post.

Respectful disagreement
If you say anything of worth, at some point, someone will disagree with you. This can be a jarring experience the first time it happens to you if you aren't prepared for it; it certainly was for me. Allow me to share something with you that would have done me well to hear it when I first started blogging: you don't need to make everyone agree with you. Your commenters may have different view-points from you, and that's ok. As long as it isn't a misunderstanding that lead them to disagree with you, there's nothing wrong with agreeing to disagree. That said, don't feel like you can't defend your viewpoints. Quite the contrary; as a blogger, it is your prerogative respond to disagreement with further reasoning to support your point. Just don't make it your goal to convince everyone who disagrees with you that you are correct.

It's also worth mentioning that only people who respectfully disagree with you deserve this kind of response. If someone resorts to ad hominem and attacks you rather than attacking your point, you don't owe them a response. Treat comments of personal attack in the same way you treat trolling, because that's all they really are: ignore them; you'll be surprised how your readers can come to defend you when someone mocks you in this way.

And remember, disagreement is a good thing; it means you are discussing things that are worth discussing. If you get a lot of comments and not a single person disagrees with you, you probably aren't taking enough risks as a blogger.

Advice on blogging

Though I haven't been blogging as long as some of the more established bloggers here in the WoW blagoblag, I have been blogging long enough to learn my fair share of lessons about blogging. Blogging is an interesting hobby, and a fun one for those who enjoy writing and want to be read without the usual pressures of writing for a commercial outlet. Though there are certainly other great articles out there on the interwebs with advice on blogging, it never hurts to put one's own wisdom out there as well, and that's exactly what I intend to do here.

1. If you want to blog, you better enjoy writing.

I'll be honest; I put this rule here more to discuss it than to just state it. I say that because, before I started blogging, I thought I didn't enjoy writing. However, that was mostly because the extent of my writing had been academic writing, hardly a fun form of it. The few times that I wrote of my own volition, I did enjoy it, but I was never able to stick with any one project because I simply had no motivation to stick with it. Blogging was my savior in that it gave me the perfect medium to exercise my writing muscles. Blogging is a good outlet for writers who enjoy writing but can't stick with any one piece for very long. The fact that most posts are self-contained entities means that you don't need a long attention span to blog successfully, since posts don't take a long time to write (compared to writing short stories or novels). The prospect of being read is also good motivation to stick with it, but even that will only take you so far.

Here is where I would say that if you don't enjoy writing, you shouldn't blog, but what I will instead say is this: if you feel that blogging itch, then even if you think you don't enjoy writing, give blogging a chance. It may be the outlet you were looking for to start writing consistently. If you don't want to make the commitment of starting a blog, then try just writing some entries in a Word document for a week or so. That way, if you do start blogging, you'll have some starter material to work with, and if you find out you don't like writing in a blog-like format, no harm done.

That said, you'll figure out pretty quickly whether or not you enjoy writing. To paraphrase WoW.com, unless you already have a reputation for thoughtful commentary, useful advice, or for being entertaining (if Alamo had a blog, I would read it), you'll be starting from scratch. If any of those cases apply to you, then you probably enjoy writing already, since you probably had to write a lot to build up such a reputation (unless you had one funny post that made you infamous for life). If that's not the case, you'll need to build a reputation of some kind if you want to be read, but that takes time. Until that happens, you'll be writing for the sake of writing. Some can do that, as I did for my first five months of blogging. Some, however, will find that, without anything tangible motivating them to write, they just can't do it, and there's nothing wrong with that. Blogging is a hobby, and if you don't enjoy it, you shouldn't force yourself to do it.

2. If you want to be read, you need to have something to say.

The great thing about blogging is that you can add your own unique voice to whatever you write about. That's why people read more than just two or three blogs: even if people say that same thing, no one says it quite like how another person says it. That's why people want more from your blog than links to other posts. Sure, there's a place for such posts, but that place is as a starting point for your commentary. We have already established that to successfully blog, you need to enjoy writing, so a blog consisting of unoriginal content is really a cop-out of real blogging. If you want people to read your posts, you need to give them a reason to read them, and if you are simply posting things they can find elsewhere, why should they read your post at all?

To put this advice into practical terms, avoid posts that only consist of a brief introduction followed by something you copied and pasted from elsewhere. This means no posts whose only purpose is to contain patch notes, blue posts, other blogger's posts or anything like that. It's far better to post those things and follow them with your own commentary. Even if you feel as if you have nothing to say about it, sometimes the simplest comments are the most effective at getting people thinking and commenting on your post.

3. Be consistent.

When I say be consistent, I mean it in two ways: One, keep your topics consistent. Two, post consistently. People read blogs because they like what they read, so if you want to keep people reading, it helps to stick with a theme. Even if that theme is something simple like stories from when you play, commentary on other posts, a class or two, or anything else, people will come to expect that theme from your blog. Keeping readers happy requires giving them what you have taught them to expect, so don't write posts that are all over the place in terms of topic.

On that note, it helps when your readers know when to expect a new post. Believe it or not, some of us still check blogs manually rather than just subscribing to them and forgetting them until our feed is updated. As such, we like to know when a post will go up so we don't need to check constantly to see if the blog has updated yet. Not seeing a blog update can be disheartening to your readers and make them less motivated to read your blog, but if they know when to expect a post, this will not be an issue. Keep to a schedule, even if it's only a loose one, and let your readers know if that schedule is going to change.

4. Write about what you know and what you enjoy writing about.

I write many of my advice posts about the Druid class because I know a lot about the druid class. I write my philosophy posts because I enjoy philosophy and I enjoy philosophizing about... well, everything, so that includes WoW. As I said earlier, one of most important aspects of blogging is keeping yourself motivated to write. If you write about what you know, then writing will be easier since you'll be able to draw mostly from your own knowledge, rather than needing to research your information, and writing about what you enjoy writing about will certainly make writing more enjoyable, further motivating you to stick with it. Both of these points simply make blogging more fun, and as I have said, if you don't enjoy blogging, why do it?

5. Write down any ideas you have

There have been a few times when I had a great idea for a post and it was never written because I simply forgot it (or maybe they were horrible ideas; we'll never know). If an idea for a post strikes you, write it down or make note of it somehow. Even if you don't use it immediately, it helps to have a reserve of back-up ideas when you want to stay consistent with your posting but can't think of anything to write about. That said, it's also important to write down a bit of exposition about your ideas. I have a few ideas languishing in disuse because I never wrote down any details to them and can't for the life of me figure out where I was planning on going with them. So, when you write down your ideas, think about them for a while and jot down a few notes of where you could go with them.

Where should you jot those ideas down? I personally have a draft post that I have set to be published in the year 2020, and I keep my ideas written down in that post. Why 2020? Because, that way, it's always on the top of my list when I go to the "Edit Posts" page, and if I accidentally hit the Publish button, there's no risk of all of my ideas being open to the world. You can also keep a plain text file on your desktop to hold your ideas, or use the Stickies application if you are on a Mac. Just do whatever works for you.

6. Don't be afraid to evolve, and don't preclude yourself from doing so.

People change; it's a fact of life, and your interests are no exception. You may be a dedicated raider now, but you may one day find more entertainment in PvP. You may be dedicated to one class now and be dedicated to another in the future. You may stop playing casually and get really into theorycraft. If those changes happen, you're blogging habits will likely reflect those changes, and you'll be forced to change the direction and focus of your blog. This is not a bad thing. Writing about a part of the game you no longer enjoy or engage in just makes no sense. As such, don't be afraid of changing the focus of your blog; while you may lose a large part of your readership if they have grown accustomed to one thing and you start writing about something else, there's just no way to avoid that.

With that stated, you should be proactive and not preclude yourself form making such a change should your interests shift. Don't lock yourself down with a blog name or domain name that is too specific unless you are very sure you won't be deviating from that subject area. I called my blog "WoW Philosophized" because I knew that I love philosophy, a fact that is not likely to change in the future. There is nothing else entailed in that blog title, so it was a good choice. Now, if I called my blog "The Philosophical Tank," that would have made my title a misnomer when I switched to restoration being my main spec or when I went from being a frequent tanker of heroics to being more of an ineffectual loner. Had I called this blog "The Philosophizing Druid," that would have made things sticky when I started focusing more on my Shaman or Priest alt.

I think you see where I am going with this. Though it helps for your blog name to reflect the focus of your blog, don't pick one that locks you into writing about something you may lose interest it. If you give your blog a more general title and use the description to say what your focus will be, you can change the description when your interests change without needing to make a big adjustment to the site, like changing your URL. And hey, if you end up going through your entire blogging career without making any changes to your focus, no harm done.


There's my advice for you start-up bloggers out there. If I were to try to summarize all this advice in one sage tidbit, I wouldn't be able to, but I will leave you with the most important piece of advice I can give any beginning blogger: enjoy it. Blogging, like WoW, is a hobby, something done for pleasure to occupy oneself in one's spare time. As much as some of you may do it for your readers, who may depend on your advice, wisdom, or commentary, if you get nothing out of blogging, it's not worth doing. Keep your blogging experience fun, and you won't regret it.

This post last edited for grammar and spelling issues on 11/1/10, 10:40 PM. No changes to the actual content were made.

Advice for emblem-gear-fueled dungeon speed runs

I don't think it's a controversial statement to say that the new emblem system has changed the face of the five-man dungeon scene, making it near unrecognizable compared to what it once was. Heroics these days are more comparable to running Scarlet Monastery at level 60 than Blackrock Depths. It's safe to say that much of we thought we knew about five-man dungeons has changed, and new assumptions need to replace old ones if we are to evolve to face the new challenges (or lack thereof) that await us on the other side of those instance portals (now replaced by an interface). Many have made these changes subconsciously already, but some may have avoided heroics during this time of great change, and this guide is for them. Note: This guide only applies to heroics, and only to the original Wrath heroics. The advice bellow doesn't apply to raiding or The Frozen Halls.

Tanks:
-Focus on whatever the DPS is attacking.
When it comes to trash, kill order is mostly meaningless these days. As much as you may want your DPS to attack the healer first, you will encounter DPS that just won't want to do it. Rather than getting worked up over them, it's better to just go along with it and focus on causing threat to the enemies they are attacking. Why? Let's say you focus on causing threat to the target you think should die first. This makes it easier for the DPS to over-aggro, so you will lose control of the mobs, making the battle slower. If, however, you focus on what the DPS is focusing on, you stay in control on the situation and the mobs will die faster, making the run faster, and because the mobs won't be running around doing damage to everyone, the run will be more enjoyable in general.

-Focus on AoE threat while fighting trash.
Back when kill order mattered, you would try to cause the most threat to the enemy highest on the kill order while not causing too much AoE threat because your DPS would be focusing on the target of highest priority and not trying to cause massive AoE damage. These days, DPS just want to AoE everything down, meaning if you try to focus on causing most of your threat to one target, you'll end up only holding on to that one target. Though you should use your auto-attacks to cause extra threat to whatever your DPS is attacking (as per the previous piece of advice), you should focus on using your AoE abilities rather than your single-target abilities.

DPS:
-Try to attack what the tank is attacking.
The tank losing control of trash is bad. Sure, with the kind of gear you're wearing, you can probably afford to take a few hits, but if the tank can't keep control of enemies, he can't cause as much damage to them as he could otherwise. As such, the run will be slower. The tank will be causing the most damage to his target, so it helps to focus your attacks on whoever your tank is targeting. You can turn on target-of-target in the options menu to make this easier.

Healers:
-Do some damage if you don't need to focus all of your time on healing.
If you and the tank are in great gear, you probably don't need to spend all of your time healing him and the group. In the olden days, it was considered unthinkable for healers to do any damage to enemy targets. After all, they need to heal when people take damage, and healing causes threat. The DPS can stop doing damage if they cause too much threat, but healers don't have that luxury. Extra threat was just something healers didn't need; it was something they couldn't afford. These days, however, you'd be lucky to break 1% of the tank's threat in an average heroic run. As such, consider dropping some damage on your enemies to make the fights go faster. This will be easier for Priests and Shamans than for Druids and Paladins, of course, since Druids need to leave Tree of Life to do damage, loosing a healing boost in the process, and Paladins can't do much damage without entering melee range, but Priests and Shamans should definitely consider dropping the odd offensive spell when they have nothing better to do. If anything, it will make the run more fun for you while you wait for your tank to drop bellow 95% health.

-Forgo mana efficiency for spell potency.
If you out-gear heroics and are rocking tier-nine or ten gear, you don't need to worry about mana. You do, however, need to worry about wiping. Heroics have become so easy these days that players simply have no patience for wiping. Now, granted, wipes are a near impossibility these days, but you still don't want them to happen. An unexpected development (adds, runners, etc.) can cause a sudden influx of damage, even in these heroics that we have all run before, so you need to stay on top of your game. In fact, being so comfortable with heroics likely leads us to make mistakes we would not have made in the days when they were difficult, if only because of sloppiness. Anyways, your main goal is to avoid a wipe, and knowing that running out of mana is a near impossibility unless you are blatantly overhealing everyone, you should feel free to use your larger, more expensive heals to reduce the chance of a wipe to near zero. It may feel wasteful, but it's only wastefulness if you can run out of whatever you are using.