Help for the New Kids on the Block: A bit of a Start Me Up

I've recently made a new alt (Berniemadof - a Rogue, of course) so that I could create a bank/guild of my own. I now have my own personal guild: Ponzi Scheme. In the process, I had to chat up a bunch of very low level characters. Many of them were completely lost. I'd explain a few things, point out a few things and explain what some of the acronyms mean.

But enough of the history of HOW I came to this decision, but here it is: many of the guys running around have NO CLUE what to do, since they are starting out on their own, with no RL friends or anything to help them out.

So, from now on, every few posts or so, I'm going to dedicate a post to the newest of the new guys. I'll delve into some topics in fair detail, others in deep detail, and some in just passing. But the point will be to answer some of the most basic questions. Yes, many questions are easily searched for, but some players may not even realize it. I may not have my nominal musical pun in the titles of these, but we shall see... Regardless, it seems that so many websites & blogs focus of the "end game" or top level players (how do I gem, theorycrafting, dailies, etc) so I want to put together some basic info for folks new here.

First & foremost is a list of places to get information, as well as what types of information you can get. (note, I will embed links in many areas, so look for funny colored bits for links to click)

1. Google - Google is the friend of almost everyone in WoW. Chances are you will never think of a question that one of the other 12,000,000 players hasn't thought of, and posted about. Anything from "How do I equip new armor WoW?" or "How do I kill Hogger WoW". Just type in your question, (it may help to include the word "WoW" or "warcraft") and keep tinkering with your wording, and you will probably find the answer.
2. The WoW "blogosphere". Go to WoWheadlines.com, AzerothUnited.com, BlogAzeroth.com and look around for some blogs that fit your interest. Then, once you find a couple/few blogs you like, look to see what THOSE bloggers read. Before you know it, you'll find a plethora of places to go.
3. The WoW online databases & wikis: Thottbot.com, wowwiki.com, wowhead.com, Alakazam.com are the biggies for general (and some very specific) info, and places like Elitistjerks.com for more advanced info.

Between these 3 groups of sources of info, you should be able to get a LOT of needed information.

The other "HUGE" topic I think beginners need to become familiar with are the "addons". These are pieces of software that are used INSIDE of warcraft to make the game easier, more accessible, and just plain PLAYABLE. The big ones (In my opinion - if others have better/other suggestions, please reply!!!!) are:

• Carbonite - This does a TON of things: tells you where your quests need to be done, where they need to be turned in, as well as providing MUCH better maps than the standard ones that ship. It also lets you add notes, and "waypoints" on your maps.
• Quest Helper - Similar to Carbonite, but a bit less functional. They can work together. The one thing this has that Carbonite doesn't is a flight time timer. It tells you how long you will be on the flight path.
• Gatherer - It tells you where ore, plants and chests are. It puts these on your minimap, as well as showing them on your world map.
• Cartographer - Along with Carbonite, it gives you better/more usable maps.

There are a bunch of others, but for the basics, I think these are the ones you need to start with.

They can be downloaded at the following places:

• http://www.curse.com/
• http://www.wowmatrix.com/
• http://www.wowinterface.com/

I'm not the best with installing these, so I'll leave that for another day, or you can dig around. They aren't HARD, but it's just not something I do regularly, so I can't remember...

Cry Havoc! Let Loose the Dogs of War, Vengeance is MINE!!!!

I just dinged level 64, and with that I now have Seal of Vengeance!

Um, ok…. and?

Until now, I have been using either Seal of Righteous (SoR) or Seal of Justice (SoJ). For straight damage/DPS, SoR is preferable because the seal deals extra damage, but against casters (or frikkin Rogues) SoJ is my preferred seal because it can stun/interrupt. I catch some flack for this in some of the forums I visit, (they also strongly argue against my sword & board preference) But hey, it works for me.

I have read in numerous places (for example, Elitistjerks.com) that Seal of Vengeance (SoV) is the new hotness. Especially after Seal of Blood sorta went away and Seal of Command got reworked.

But how different in DPS are all these judgments?

I am NOT a theorycrafter, and I don’t even know where to begin to realistically make any calculations. This means I gotta do thing the empirical way: clobber stuff and check out the numbers (Most folks – me included – use Recount, the add-on that records DPS and all sorts of other data: Recount (at curse.com) )

The ideal way to do this is to find a medium level boss that will take ~2 minutes to kill (solo, obviously) and fight him using the normal attack rotation, one fight each with each seal being used in only one fight. This gives you real world fighting DPS for each variation. There are a couple issues with this that make it a “last line” type of test:

1 – Boss fights are rarely exactly the same, so you end up questioning whether the differences were performance (DPS, etc) or were just a fluke of the fight. Realistically, you need to try at least 3 attempts with each judgment/variation, and with 3 options (in this case) that means 9 individual fights. That takes a lot of time.

2 – Your armor & weapons lose durability every time you fight, and the tougher the fight, the worse it will be. This means you have to trudge to someplace and repair armor/weapons between each test. So an already long procedure just got a LOT longer.

So I did what many folks do and use the test dummies. (this is really only an option when you get to higher levels, since the lowest level dummy is level 60 – meaning anyone below level 56-57 or so would have a hard time doing ANY damage )

First I thought I would just use the judgments alone and see what happened. Due to the nature of Recount, and the 8 second cooldown between judgment spells, it recorded each judgment as an individual battle, and didn’t add/average them.

OOPS.

To avoid this, I decided to alternate casting Judgment and Consecration. Consecration should work well because it produces a pretty consistent damage over time (DoT) with ~87 damage every second.

The results? Very strange: SoR was best and SoV was worst. WHAT?!?!?

Well, in the reading I did, there’s something about SoV proc-ing (a proc is when a special action/result/attack/etc “proceeds” – ie it happens, and the word is shortened to “proc”) and stacking, often with melee auto attacks. (it actually said a lot more, but I’ll be honest; I only understand half of it. What’s a “white attack” anyways? I dunno…)

So I then repeated, using auto attack, and alternating judgment and Consecration every 4 seconds. I let it run for about 2 minutes, stopped and took a screenshot of the results so I could review them later. Here they are:

Seal of Vengeance

Seal of Righteous

Seal of Justice

I put the numbers into a table and did a little calculating so I could see the DPS (and not the %) of each type of attack.

Now we’re getting somewhere!!!

SoV CLEARLY has the advantage. BY ALMOST 100 POINTS!!! And SoJ has a MUCH bigger loss of DPS than I had realized. I still like the stun effect, but I will need to “swap Seals” in mid fight so that I can maintain DPS, and still try to get some stun effects.

I then tried the test dummy with SoV and my normal full attack rotation. (I haven’t had the time to repeat this with the other 2 Seals yet)

And this data put into the chart for comparison:


That’s roughly 609 DPS. Based on some quick addition, I would expect my SoR to be roughly 520 DPS and SoJ to be roughly 475 DPS. THAT IS HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!

My next work will be finishing up "full rotation" data for SoJ and SoR, since it's clear that the Seals *so* get affected by other attacks. So things may be better (or worse)

I will think about doing the tests on some Bosses, now that I have an idea, but we shall see.

I also plan to try out a 2 handed weapon to see just how much damage I'm losing out on. (but that will require a re-spec - theoretically - to get the 2 handed specialization talents) We shall see how much time I want to spend doing this, instead of questing or farming.

I Owe My Soul to the Company Store: Tips for a Mining Beginner (and other professions)

Part 1

As may be obvious, I have tried to slant this blog towards folks that are fairly new to WoW. I spell out all acronyms I use (I try to, anyhow) and provide as much explanation as I can, given my own "newish" point of view with WoW. With that in mind, I want to explain a few things to those folks that don't have someone around to explain things.

The Basic Basics:

Can you make some good money off of mining and the other professions? Yes you can, but it can vary widely. "Gathering" professions (mining, herbalism, skinning, fishing, etc) are profitable right from the get-go. You collect your stuff, and sell the stacks in the auction house. No muss, no fuss. (well, other than the occasional flood/glut of raws - especially from the professional farmers that sell gold for dollars over the internet) One note: low level fishing won't pay much at low levels, and your best bet is probably to just sell it to vendors...

That leaves the "Craftsmen" professions (such as blacksmithing, engineering, leatherworking, alchemy, and MANY others) I have only direct experience with Leatherworking and Blacksmithing, but I've read a good bit on other blogs (Alterac Volley among others) that all seem to say the same thing: Craftsman professions CAN be profitable, but depending on the item you make and your server, it can be a challenge at best. I would also say that they are NOT profitable at lower levels (ie, skill level below 150)

Some more in reading from wowwiki.com : LINK (note much of the information I cover here is present in some form at wowwiki, but is not always an easy read)

So Why Bother?

There are a few reasons to get into a profession. Some tangible, some not. The reasons would include:

• Make some extra gold
• Get "cheap" items that you can use
• Add depth/playability to the game
• Because every primary profession gets a special perk or ability.

The perks vary widely from profession to profession but they can be VERY useful:

• Herbalism - "Life Blood" an ability to heal
• Mining - "Thoughness" increased stamina
• Skinning - "Master of Anatomy" an increased critical strike chance
• Alchemy - "mixology" improved performance from all potions
• Blacksmithing - Ability to add gem sockets as well as making Skeleton Keys (which open locked boxes)
• Engineering - various goggles and other gadgets
• Leatherworking - cheap leg & bracer enchants
• Tailoring - some cheap enchants and flying carpet mounts
• Jewelcrafting - epic gems and special trinkets
• Enchanting - Ring enchants
• Inscription - shoulder enchants and scroll of recall

The Not Quite so Basic Basics...

Professions are all "controlled" by your skill points in that profession. The more skill points you have, the more things you are capable of doing, and some things you simply can't do until you reach a certain skill level. With mining, when you first start, all you can mine is copper, and all you can smelt is copper. Later you can do tin, silver, iron, etc... At certain points, you will have to find a trainer before you can advance any more:

Level..............................Name..........

Zero - 50/75 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Apprentice

50/75 - 125/150 . . . . . . . . . Journeyman

125/150 - 200/225 . . . . . . .Expert

200/225 - 275/300 . . . . . . .Artisan

275/300 - 350/375 . . . . . . .Master

350/375 - 450 . . . . . . . . . . . Grand Master

(the range for the top & bottom of each level is because you can "level up" at the lower number, but aren't forced to. However, if you do not train at the top number, you will not advance any more without training)

There are also character level requirements that you must meet. For example to become a Journeyman Blacksmith, you must be at least level 10.

Also, every item you gather or make will have a relative difficulty based on the item and your current skill number:

Grey . . . . . . . . doesn't increase skill

Green . . . . . . . increases skill, but only a little (might need to make/gather 10-30 to get 1 skill point)

Yellow . . . . . . .moderate increase in skill: you get 1 skill point for every 1-5 items

Orange. . . . . . highest skill return. You get 1 skill point for each & every item you get/make

Red . . . . . . . . . you can't make/gather that yet

So, if you are trying to level your profession, it is much faster (per item made/gathered) if you work with orange/yellow items as much as possible.

Lastly, the color of the item/recipe has no bearing on the "color" of the final item. (ie, if an item is common, uncommon, rare, epic, etc)

More stuff from wowwiki.com: Beginner's Guide and Choosing a Profession.

Due to length, I'm going to pause here, and finish this up in Part 2