Nadia Storm

Holy Power

2010-11-02T08:21:00.003Z

Holy Shield’s duration is now extended by Holy Power
Hippy Crap, i trialed this last night. 20 Second duration for Holy shield no matter what Holy power i had. Even if i used 1 Hopo.
So, it comes down to just how much damage

Shield of the Righteous
Instant
Slam the target with your shield, causing Holy damage. Consumes all charges of Holy Power to determine damage dealt: 1 Holy Power: 20% Attack Power 2 Holy Power: 60% Attack Power 3 Holy Power: 120% Attack Power

Ok, so single target shield slamming. Good for Aggro with 3 stacks of HoPo..fair enough. So i dont need 3 stacks of HoPo to activate Holy Shield = 16% Block.

Holy Wrath

Instant	15 sec cooldown
Sends bolts of holy power in all directions, causing (0.3*SPH+398) Holy damage divided among all targets within 10 yds and stunning all Demons and Undead for until cancelled.

Consecration

Instant	30 sec cooldown
Consecrates the land beneath the Paladin, doing 1000 Holy damage over until cancelled to enemies who enter the area.

Consecration just seems to have a flat 1k damage over time, at least Wrath has some type of modifier to increase its punch, 10 yards is a bit short, and i think i would only use Consecrate as a mob collection AE ability

AP - Strength, Strength is the new defense stat for Paladins. Although at this exact moment in time, i dont know the modifiers for what STR goes into, Block is one of them, aswell as AP for a good shield slam.

Had a play around again with the paladin abilities last night...(.in a guild event protecting a level 1 in Northrend, we came second. Great fun with a game called Hunt the Termites). I STILL feel like theres a screw loose with the paladin Tank.....why, something obvious is missing....its time to poke a Blue..

Paladin Patch 4.0.1 Review #3 - Notes

2010-11-01T15:01:00.005Z

Breaking down the changes.

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> #BlizzChat Developer Chat on Twitter -- 7.16
7/16/2010 - Dual Resource System Looks like combo points

Q: What is the goal when re-designing the paladin class? How do you plan to change rotations, talents, etc?
A. All of the paladin specializations will make use of a new resource called Holy Power. Holy Power accumulates from using Crusader Strike, Holy Shock, and some other talents. Holy Power can be consumed to augment a variety of abilities, including:

An instant mana-free heal: Word of Glory
A buff to increase holy damage done: Inquisition
A massive physical melee attack for Retribution paladins: Templar’s Verdict
Holy Shield’s duration is now extended by Holy Power
Divine Storm’s damage is now increased by Holy Power

Level 81
New Paladin Spells

Blinding Shield (level 81): Causes damage and blinds all nearby targets. This effect might end up only damaging those facing the paladin’s shield, in a manner similar to Eadric the Pure's ability Radiance in Trial of the Champion. The Holy tree will have a talent to increase the damage and critical strike chance, while the Protection tree will have a talent to make this spell instant cast. 2-second base cast time. Requires a shield.

PaladinTank Patch 4.0.1 – 2nd review

2010-11-01T10:21:00.000Z

I’m annoyed, ..or am i frustrated? My initial notes on the changes for the paladin tank are the same in assessment. However, after playing for a few days with it, im left with one question.. “wtf have you done blizz?”

With every patch, or expansion, i have watch each improvement work itself out. Although this is still early days, ..i find myself confused with my paladin. Why?

The shared cooldown between CS and HoR. I like being busy, however i dont like waiting for cooldowns. Being locked into a limited array of abilities that i have to choose on the moment or suffer a global cooldown, or ability cooldown, for me, ..is agonising. And the lottery ability of a free avengers shield does little to comfort my *available options* on the moment/fly for something i need to control that suprises the team.

Combat points – Holy Power. I can see how that works for Holy spec, and Ret spec, but, for me, the self heal and Shield of the Righteous buff should be on something else..Im not a rogue...and if i have to use my holy power to activate 15% Shield block, the chances of using 3 charges on a self heal are going to be ...again, a lottery.

It all just feels....CLUNKY and mis-placed. I tried a level 80 Warrior, Consecrate Vs Thunder Clap + Rend, seemed equal...however obviously different in their applications. Cleave seemed improved, vs before the patch, and shockwave in addition. Paladin....Mehhh! lottery..

Druid tanking, seemed a little nerfed with the swipe cooldown increase, although im not able to test a level 80 druid, there didnt seem to be the a whole lot of change at all. However, having lived with the paladin for 4 years (Tank spec) the difference is night a day...unfortunately...for the worst.

Paladin Tanking, Patch 4.0.1

2010-10-18T13:55:00.008+01:00

References:

Maintankadin

ElitestJerks

WoWArmoury

Requirements for tanking Summarised.

Hit Rating 8%

Expertise 55

Glyphs:

Primary Options:

[Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous] (Recommended) - Increase both physical and holy damage components by 10%.
[Glyph of Seal of Truth] (Recommended) - Seal of Truth also grants 10 Expertise while active.

Seal of Truth - What was once known as Seal of Vengeance is now known as this. The ability is essentially the same as before and also remains the principle tanking Seal. Remember to pick up the associated glyph for 10 Expertise.

[Glyph of Judgement] - Judgement deals 10% more damage.*
[Glyph of Shield of the Righteous] (Recommended) - Increases the damage of Shield of the Righteous by 10%.*
[Glyph of Word of Glory] - Increases the healing done by Word of Glory.*

* Build and preference on whether to focus more on single/AoE tanking or WoG will effect these glyph selections.

Major

Prime glyphs have replaced the role of Major glyphs while Major glyphs have now become a middle of the road type of glyph. Being middle of the road these glyphs do not adjust abilities as drastically as prime glyphs. Below are acceptable glyphs for tanking Paladins.

[Glyph of Dazing Shield] - Avenger's Shield now also dazes targets.
[Glyph of Divine Protection] - Increases magical damage reduction of this ability by 20% and removed the physica

l protection benefit.*
[Glyph of the Ascetic Crusader] - Reduces mana cost of CS by 30%.
[Glyph of Focused Shield] (Recommended) - Avenger's Shield hits 2 fewer targets, but for 30% more damage.
[Glyph of Holy Wrath] (Recommended) - This provides an AoE stun and will likely have high utility come the expansion when more dragonkin and elementals will be present in content.

* As of this publishing word is that this glyph does not remove the physical protection benefit however I've been unable to find official confirmation.

Minor

Minor glyph selection remains underwhelming. The most interesting one for Paladin tanks would be Lay on Hands for reduced LoH cooldown. The suggestions below are just that; ultimately the choice of Minor glyphs has very little impact on tanking performance.

[Glyph

of Lay on Hands] (Recommended) - Reduces LoH cooldown by 2 minutes.
[Glyph of Blessing of Might] - Reduces the mana cost of BoM by 50%.
[Glyph of Blessing of Kings] - Reduces the mana cost of BoK by 50%.

The Rotation

The ability priority for single target tanking is as follows:

Shield of the Righteous > Crusader Strike > Judgement > Avenger's Shield* > Consecration > Holy Wrath
For area tanking the following priorities are used (this is a proposed rotation for now):

Hammer of the Righteous > Avenger's Shield* > Judgement > Consecration > Holy Wrath

* This is assumed AS has been glyphed for single target. For the AoE rotation the assumption is AS is unglyphed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review of 2 nights of 5 man heroics.

anking has changed for me in rotations, that's for sure, i must have spent a few moments pausing with my guild mates shuffling abilities around. They also where doing their own shuffling, macro re-writing, it was only the priest in our group that seemed unaffected by any of the patch changes.

Consecrates new cool down is 37 seconds...that just seemed forever for me, even though there's a bug displaying ground level AE, i thought the ability was nerfed, until i realised my Holy Shield wasn't doing the same thing it did before....reactive holy damage from blocking.....or was that me not paying attention, maybe it is, or isn't...something i will have to check up on. Hammer of Righteous and Crusader Strike share the same cool down, so if you miss click, you have 3 seconds until your AE ability or solo ability comes back up...this is unfortunate when you group pull, and click crusader strike by accident! lol

Avenging Shield (Or thy holy frizzbie) hasnt changed, although there is a free AS randomly ...now and again, that triggers. /shrugs even if your frizzbie is on cool-down it is refreshed.

Holy Wrath..well now, works on all mobs, but will also stun/daze undead or demons. TBH, i found myself spamming this more than Consecrate.....since i couldn't see Consecrate anyway...!!

The rotation seemed a little CLUNKY if you asked me, i ended up tying my HR and Avengers Shield to a Macro

#show

/castsequence reset=2 Hammer of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield

This worked better for me, i could click on Hammer of Righteous and hover of the key until it turned back to HoR again, until i got 5 Holy Power. Or i could just spam the 1 key, however i would need to work out figures of threat difference if i do that.

Verdict.

Different, nobody likes change striaghtaway, ..however, its challenging and i think im liking it. Yes, looks like we have been brought down a peg for AE tanking, but im sure glyphs and tweaking rotations and abilities will prove a different style of play, rather than a different character. However, these are big changes to play style.....i'll have to get back to you on this....

Cataclysm Update - Part 3 - DPS < CC, New School Vs Old School

2010-09-30T16:36:00.007+01:00

Anyone Pre-Burning Crusade, will remember Sheep pulls, Shackle pulls, after a rogue sap on a group of 4 mobs. The intense concentration of focusing on your teams individual roles. And then finally, after all that team work, you EARNED your right to stand infront of the boss before the re-spawn kicked in......god-damn i loved Scholomance!

If ever anything got a bad name in Vanilla warcraft, it was the infamous word.....PuG! Try taking a bunch of folk who have no idea on Crowd control, into Scholomance and you'll be loosing the will to live very quickly.

But like wet blankets, Burning Crusade & Wrath presented us with the AE chain pulling trash, the brain numbing, un-challenging wit-less easy mode ...and then "ahh, here's the boss...nuke" for me, Wrath got ..............boring? un-challenging, and im not talking about boss fights, everyone is so focused on the end, the journey there is 80% the experience. "Hey we did Scholomance" for the first time, and folk appriecate the difficulty you went through to get to Gandling. Say, "oh we did, Drak' Keep!" and folk are musingly not really impressed at all. And the reason why is was WOTLK was and is...just plain simple. It's nice, for a while and to be fair, ok, yes new folk will be able to play it etc, etc.

After reading some of the reviews on heroics in Cata, it brough a huge smile to my face. Total Biscuit commenting on *brutal 5 man dungeons with heavy CC focus* was like heaven screaming at me..."Come backkkkk, we where just kidding with Wrath!"

Ultimately, this got me thinking about TDD. It's helped us alot in WOTLK with ICC. But i have an impression there might be a change of hearts and roles, come the expansion. Anyone gauging what class they are going to play in Cata' and didn't play the original wow when the level cap was 60, will be in for a huge shock. But, with a little coaching from our experienced members, im sure we'll pull together very quickly to get everyone i the habit of UN-INSTALLING your DPS meter.

Time will tell, who knows what the future might bring. And if you where a fan of the old-school, maybe... it's time to shine once again ;) and get back into that lip biting tense group pulls

Tanking in Cataclysm

2010-09-29T17:09:00.004+01:00

Source > By Gravity

My custom PC goes into storage.

2010-09-29T12:15:00.003+01:00

My Gaming PC goes into semi-retirement. Due to real life circumstances, i'm preparing to move house and live with the In-laws for an extended period of time. We have recently sold our house looking for a bigger one.

So i have been fortunate with this custom PC build, i have had some problems with it, none to do with cooling! Just windows 7 issues. So it's done its job well, performed great and handled the many tests of wow while tanking and numerous addon's

I think the graphics card, sure could be increased for better performance, but this was a budget PC. And performed really well, it'll be going into a box and kept safe for a while. Meantime i'll be using a Toshiba Satellite P30-145 ..it'll do, it'll do. I need something compact to slide under the bed, instead of hauling out monitors and keyboards onto a kitchen table. And has more performance than my original Toshiba! 17 inch screen though...thats big!

Cataclysm Update - Part 2

2010-09-29T09:53:00.008+01:00

Sources...

Calculator

Talent Tree.

So..quite a difference in the talent tree set-up. It looks a little vanilla doesn't it? but it looks as if they have condensed everything into half the amount of talent point abilities. I'm not going to list all the new spells and abilities, as these could change and tweak in the months ahead. But you get a fair idea of where the paladin tank is heading towards with the script Blizzard is putting out in its message.

Other than sticking Righteous Fury on, and stacking stamina and strength, (depending on the paladin tank conversion) im lost in the "where's my mana pool come from?"

Customisation

Now..come on Blizzard, get with it..every other MMORPG game out there new and recent has colour customisation. I remember 1 year ago raising a ticket for hair colour change & style, a

nd interestingly, we got it. Doubt that was purely down to me, but the conversation with the support Gm was quite a good one.

Yes, we're a bit sick of everyone looking the same, ok fine, the gear can look the same (model) but changing the primary or secondary colour should'nt be much of a head-ache...considering you have mastered the hair cut. More depth of individuality! Thats what we want. ..or maybe just me. So i'm a little disappointed there..since my other half will only wear gear that matches...go-figure ;) and what about some tribal tattoo's....ok i've stepped over the mark with make-up?

Animation

After reading through some of the new spells, it looks like the paladin is going to be pumping out some funky animations. I'm a little worried about being blinded in a tanking match with a boss that im hardly going to be able to see. That aside i'm sure it'll be fine, although FPS might take a hit..

Content Vs Out-dated GFX engine

You can play a game with high end graphics that has complete and utter crap game content, or sketchy RP and quest lines. Blizzard has very successful for over 4-5 years with the same graphic models of your avatar and item gear. Yes, its some-what basic on comparison to other more modern mmo games out now, but none of them come even close to warcraft's game content, and familiarity. Lets be honest, how often do you zoom into your characters face in Dalaran? Vs how long you have played? My bet is out of 12 hours a week of playing wow, you've only looked at your characters graphics for 5 minutes tops...while you put on your new shoulder armour and checked the size of your ass in the mirror? Looks like Blizz continue to keep the game engine simple, accessible for all area's of hardware performance. And i dont think anything will change. :) Prehap's this is where our imagination works the part that blizzard, does not..keeping us hooked in.

Evil Nadíastorm - Deathknight re-visited

2010-09-28T15:33:00.007+01:00

I confess...

..i like my death knight, i like it alot, why?...i dont know. Maybe because its the only class i have at level 80. Maybe because it's Undead..wait alive, unholy..or something. She's got plate, and can duel-weld....and the alter-ego of Nadiastorm.

Last night, while digressing with Micke (aka Punkgirl), i revisited my DK, dressed in 200 ilevel gear (with some exceptions) slapping a Boss dummy in Ironforge.

She pumped out a good 2750 DPS on average over 6 minutes., with the rotation and spec remaining the same as it ever was.

There where some patch changes to Death Coil, and Blood Boil/Blood Strike to make a difference in DPS. But i was happy, which was the main thing.

Spec remains 00-15-53, although the exact spec is still being tweaked. However the rotation hasn't changed either, from previous trials. However the spec and rotation must be right to get

the most out of it, otherwise you look like a fool in Unholy presence.

Evil Nadíastorm is my Alt, and my alt of choice...i like it. So between now and Cata', unless im called opon to ICC, or elsewhere. I'll keep on with the tests of this controversial spec and see what she can do. I hate shoe boxes, and last time i played this spec, i raised a few eyebrows of the masses of Blood and Frost spec dw'ers. ...Remember, this was Naxx level..we're in ICC now.

Gearwise, its all Triumph whoring. So we'll see how LFG goes. ;) Itemisation is Key for this spec, and breaks convention.....just the way i like it. And just as i read this back, i realised i have the wrong runes on my weapons..D'oh!

Cataclysm Update - Part 1

2010-09-24T08:10:00.006+01:00

So, while we're all wondering when Cata will be released offically (As in the actual date) Blizzard roles out it's customary 2 part pre-expansion patch?

So what do we have to play with in the meantime? MMo-Champion has some spoilers.

Well, we have the new talent tree to play with, although probably not final. It's a least a glimpse. other than seeing a lot less there, the abilities almost remind me of pre TBC, Classic wow. Which i'm kinda happy about, because i preferred classic wow (IMO) additionally there are some TBC and WOTLK abilities thrown in there deeper into the tree, to really ensure that a tank is a 'tank' spec

We have a new set of spells (or altered spells) for the expansion.

Vindication for the protection tree..where it should be
Gives the Paladin's damaging melee attacks a chance to reduce physical damage done by the target by 5% for 10 sec.
100 yd range, Instant
Rank 2 - Gives the Paladin's Holy Wrath a chance to reduce physical damage done by the target by 10% for 30 sec.
100 yd range, Instant

And the one im most looking forward to is Guild Leveling - Guild Perks List
Now, i have only briefly looked over the perks, and to be honest, thats exactly some of the stuff i would have liked to have seen pre-TBC. ....USEFULL stuff for guild functionality! and i guess to some extent raid functional also.

But changes for the protection paladin, so far i have seen very little changes. The most likey changes will be, itemisation, spell rotations, and tanking strategy?

Ethos of a GM

2010-09-15T10:33:00.006+01:00

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it."
Theodore Roosevelt

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves." Lao-Tzu

I have always maintained in this blog that the best boss, is a reluctantly appointed one. It's prehap's that mind set that stops any leader becoming egotistical. What would concern me is someone who jumps in-front of the line, someone like this should be a sub-officer, and not an actual officer, as they are unable to practice restraint. Although the willingness, ambition, and drive is there, it is better served at a level where it can be shared with the collective, rather than just the administration. And its with that glint of intuition, resourcefulness and creative positive thinking that the trail of acceptance within the collective guild, is either accepted of rejected.

It is better to select an individual part of a whole, than one having a divide between the many. And it's in the GM's interests to have people close to him who have support from those, who aim to support all creed's across the guild, there should be no corners within it.

Rather than taking complete ownership of responsibility, the trial (whilst unspoken) is aimed at whether an individual can collect the guild as one, in a movement, by sharing in the plan, schedule and delivery of the event or occasion. These are the attributes of officers i look for in people within my guild, and while although some may aim for the heights of titles, nothing fortifies the heart more than respect for the role, the collective appoints onto you,...through your own actions, words, and the conduct you portray carrying the hopes and ambitions of your guild, not just your own, of part of the guild..these breed divides in the long term.

Heroes and Legends

We remark on the gallantry of those players who are crafted with their class. They are looked upon with respect for their experience, knowledge of their class, or role in which they play within a raid, or the guild as a whole. I ask, whether you should label each individual according to their praises? placing each individual into a shoe-box of there own. Or even go as far as to say give them a title? What exactly is a title? a GM, an Officer, a Raid Leader. Simple co-ordinates to direct traffic to its intended destination.

I have a question/.. on your birthday, do you remember the card you got, or the presence of people coming to you to celebrate you? The material things are there for you to remember the occasion post tenths, to reflect on. The moment is stained in your memory and heart of the collective appreciation of you by the presence of people celebrating you. Your guild, if you abandon your rank and join in on the same level as those of the guild members, does your presence, confidence spread upon those now upon the same level as yourself? Does that inspire you're team, or expire your usefulness? Then ask the question, which was more important, Team, or yourself?..and what where you here for again?

Pre-Cataclysm planning

2010-06-29T08:21:00.004+01:00

Althought it's only July (tomorrow), and some might think it a little early to start thinking about it. It's about now that we face the Pre-Expansion Blues. The "im loggin until Cata/TBC/Wrath gets released"
So between now and then, is the ample time to finish off what you have left behind, the loose-ends of achievements.
Although we have cleared Naxx, we've never really had a full clear on farm, achievement wise, i think alot of folk would like that as an achievement. Ulduar is the same, however will require more hard work for Yogg, since we haven't downed him yet.

There's an urgency for badges, weekly raids and achievements by members so they are able to either pug with the achievements or what have you. And also that sense of "I've cleared that with my guild" attitude.

Personally, i would like my full T10, and gear level up to scratch before Cata comes. Ok, i might not get 25 man level gear, but T10 is enough for me to screen shot, and say....i managed that pre-cata, not post

March 2010

2010-03-02T11:56:00.002Z

I hate this time of year sometimes. It's mostly because it's about change, always is..and no-body likes change.
And it's always about raiding....
The best part of my game is teaching, whether thats class or raiding roles, i am better developing folk, rather than sometimes spear-heading. However i think some people would dis-agree with that.
I enjoy supporting Tarnya in a raid, a small /w here and there about some encounters goes to help a long long way. The best part of my gaming experience - as a GM - is supporting new folk in the guild and getting to know them, and in the recent months i have not had that opportunity due to the spear-heading.
The Pro's of the raid spear -heading (Rank 16 on the realm for strict 10 man progress) and guild morale on 40% of the guild involved in that spear-heading. Con's Meanwhile there is a void building behind, of new people with no support and flakey dis-organised raids struggling to get together and be successful. Although you can put people in charge of these things, it will never quite feel the same as having your GM suddenly turn up for these beginner raids, and actively taking an interest in your development as a player/raider in your guild.
In reflection, i have done this before, look back to go forward, and so far i have done it annually. Not because it seems to be that time of year or a schedule of annual events, but it just seemes to develope in the guild every year...and i have to act opon it.
Those able to raid at the level of Saurfang, which we are still wiping at 15% when he enrages/beserk's should be able to manage by themselves. They have been their enough times, know the routine, and it should all be second nature by now. Removing the RL from it and passing it onto someone else, should'nt have that much of a disruption. However, i could be proven wrong. With a chat on ventrillo i stated the responsibility as a raid member supporting the raid leader to keep order in a raid, not just to turn up and expect everything on a plate, but to come with the attitude of business.
I often think that being the GM and the raid leader, and the main tank is a big role to fill. Somewhere along the line, something is going to slip, while spinning all three plates. But having influence on the new raiders developing in our guild, in both attitude to raiding, and learning abilities of working as team-player, are much more long term in value.

TDD 2010

2010-02-09T08:49:00.003Z

To start 2010, I and the other raid leaders talked about what gave us a headache. Usually, if you thought about simply, you organise a raid, you beat a boss, and you roll loot, and move onto the next. Let’s complicate it a little, and add 4 weeks worth of 3 raids per night. Add no shows from newer raiders. Add absent raiders back into a raid, and cringe when the loot roll goes up, knowing that the regular raider lost out because of a lucky roll, and you have no leg to stand on other than say….that’s life..(Add that winner then doesn’t come back online for 1-2 weeks).
Raiding morale takes a hit, signups go down. Faith and interest in raiding drops; certainly in the fairness of raid rewards. Raid leader/s start getting frustrated, having to answer difficult questions about raiding and rewards, where no rules are in place for returning raiders.
And the difficult thing is you’re a casual guild, so how do you find a balance between raiders, and guild members. Blizzard has focused WOTLK on raid progress and easy 5 man instances (because it is now so so accessible to everyone, not just the big 25 man guilds, but the casual 10 man raiders aswell) we all see the same place, in 10 man, 25 man, Normal, and Heroic mode….options options and more options. Everything is available…everything is now in, certain cases a nightmare for a raid leader/guild master.

All of my raid leaders have basically agreed to distinguish the raider in the guild from the member. We have folk who 5 man, pug raid, quest and do achievements. So folk have outside commitments, where they can’t raid week by week, some do and are still able to raid, and each player has a different take on raiding availability. We decided to rank raiders, and guild members, putting trial between them.
People join the guild specifically for raiding at a TDD pace, or to socially join the guild, but would like to be involved in raiding.

Raid organisation goes out on the calendar inviting all 3 ranks.
Raid is then organised by class, not rank.
Raid rewards is defined by Raider on 1st roll, Guild member/Trial on 2nd roll, aka Open roll.

I personally don’t give a monkey’s about my own gear, items and rewards. I figure if I can’t tank in the gear im wearing, then I need to upgrade something, however I do have to sort this out for others. Having a clear, crystal clear definition of raid reward system is simple, no headaches, and no frustration. Every guild has raiders, wanting to see new things, wanting to play out the story line that blizzard has set for the game. I think people lose sight of that, and think its all about gear. Yes...gear helps you along the way, as an example, TDD won’t get past Saurfang, until all 5 dps can pump out enough dps to beat his enrage timer….and that’s with the best dps in the guild at the moment. So we have hit our glass ceiling there…and the only thing that will let us past is gear from TOTC and ICC, and that’s a fact, a game mechanic, not a raid leader’s whip, or raiders perceived elitism.
And every guild has members wishing to enjoy the content outside of raids. The 2 are very different, and there’s no simple way of gathering both types of folk together under one umbrella and saying…”Y’all roll and let the best roll win” ….they call that a pug, and as a reminder, that’s a group of folk not all in the same guild crawling over themselves with no regard/respect for one another to get what “they want” and log off.
I’m tired of that attitude, and folk don’t play honourably…we’ll make them

Patch 3.3 & Xmas

2009-12-17T10:09:00.002Z

Well its certainly improved the game. I have tried the random Dungeon and Heroic Dungeon feature and damn its no time at all. Simple, easy….fun.
Of course, you will get the occasional tool in your pug, but that’s just a fact of life in wow..there will be more tool’s.
Guildwise, I am pleased that our newest members have caught up with our current raiding level of gear with the triumph emblems. This patch has made the gap almost disappear, although the only limiting factor is time really, on whether you have the time to do these heroics for triumphs or not.

After this week, the guild breaks from raiding. It’s not until the second week of January we pick up again after the holidays. Raid leaders need a break too you know, and I think with all the work we have all done as a guild so far, social time will help to bond the guild more as a raiding/guild team even more for 2010.
We re-entered TOTC 10 last night after staying away from it for a month to play catch up on Ulduar, and whipped through the northrend beasts and x2 shotted Jaxx. The Champions are a pain in the ass, and I will have to read up some more on the mechanics of that fight, we made some headway on killing one paladin but needed work after the first 15 seconds.

So ticking away with the random heroics, getting my T9, and may even pug some raids for the next few weeks.
Im leaving ICC until the new year. But i despirately want to clear Ulduar for the guild achievement, and bring everyone up to spec gearwise and experience wise with tying up a raid instance. Having everyone together, just helps much more with bringing everyone together...

Defining your guild?

2009-11-26T14:48:00.007Z

Social Guild! Raiding Guild! Casual Guild!
You can see the guild recruitment channel in towns, many folk advertising raiding guilds. Some maybe hard core, some just raiding when they can raid, even if thats every day. Then theres the Hard-Core raiding guilds which,...really dont seem to advertise much anyway, the progressive raiding guilds, Casual raiding guilds, and then theres the social friendly guild. Pretty clear cut isnt it? or is it?
Taking my own experience of running TDD, i think (and quietly hope) that i have seen all manner of player types come, go and stay. We naturally keep those people who wish to stay, and those that leave, leave peacefully or, somewhat with a little drama to make their point. And i cant remember kicking someone of of TDD for a good year +! And while we maintain a reputation of a good friendly well run guild, i wonder sometimes how...

By the nature of word of mouth, TDD is a social guild, however, we do raid with the pupose of progressive raiding, and theres nothing casual about the focus of our raiding, only our attitude towards wipes, and mistakes. We pick up our feet, advise, and try again. The guild is structured and organised enough to use the gold anvil, financed by the Raid Bank and Guild Bank plus dontations from guild members to have debt free repair bills. We are also labelled a casual raiding guild also, along with "end-game raiding".
Week by week, we work with and along side new members (new to raiding sometimes) and develope these players into confident raiders. It takes time, some find that difficult to cope with, when they see the potential of the talent of the over-all guild, and wonder why Ulduar isnt cleared yet. And that largely comes down to every individual members goals, where do they want to be?

My thoughts, as a GM is where do i want my guild to be together, and how happy are they as a collective raiding team working with each other. Socially, there could be problems, and that is the blight of every GM's guild. How do you sort out the social, from the raiding? You cant really, the two come hand in hand, you either like someone or you dont. And then communication of your raid breaks down into them and us!
The trouble i have found with TDD, is not screening enough, or willing to step on action of players you instinctively know, will move on to a more harder core of raiding. This is probably something i need to get back into personally and take over, however the trouble is defining the guild outline of Social, progressive raiding stance, how do you advetise a guild like that ...or do you need to if it already has a reputation?
TDD does have the potential, however, individual members, dont have the same time as dedicated raiders. We have famillies that work, students that study, parents with young babies, and teenagers in their finishing years at school. ....Maybe i should hold a competition for the best Social Progressive Raiding Guild slogan?
I personally have got into an arguement over ventillo as to whether TDD was a hard-core raiding guild. Again, mention of the ability of players within our guild. But take into account that individuals background and previous guilds, shows they where pushing to thier own expectation of what TDD *could be* for their own aims, which isnt a bad thing, if the rest of the guild was able to meet those expectations, but they cant..for RL reasons and commitments. It's at that point you have to consider is this relationship the right one? between the established Guild and the Experienced Individual? There are some months where the guild will *click* in raids and steam through everything without any hiccups, and at those points folk see *potential* to do something more, and push for it. I guess at the heart of things, we do things in..moderation, to balance real-life and gaming hand in hand.

And thats what TDD is good at. And i guess, the biggest advertisement TDD has, its achievements, in relation to other guilds out there on our server

Greatly Improved - The respec

2009-11-26T10:38:00.005Z

Well that was certainly an improvement, although it was only a 5 man Daily Dungeon and Heroic Daily run, there was allot more AE control. And my health bar hardly moved at all.
So the confidence is back, and my mana starvation has now gone, thanks to the respec. I have an Ulduar raid tonight, so hopefully these changes and glyph changes will see a real difference.
I cant wait for Onyxia on Monday either, as im sure the changes will make a great improvement on whelp control.

I had to wipe out my remix ui, i began to hate it, but took what i did like about it with me. And customised my own personal one. Which is much much less cluttered, and im able to see alot more multiple trash easier. I'll upload a screen shot later. For now, its time to test out the respc in raids this weekend.

Refining the Tree

2009-11-25T16:43:00.003Z

Respec Talent Update
While having a read through EJ, i felt i needed to catch up on some talent abilities and read up their explinations. Seems i had over looked a few things from my original spec, which was put together very quickly when i turned 80. Old Spec

Gearwise, i am happy, bang in the middle of what i was aiming for, not too high, and just right for 10 man raiding. Although i may jump into the occasional 25 pug on the weekend too, and chance my luck. Looks like i could use some more hit rating, and a re-think on my rotations aswell.

[Hammer of the Righteous] (HotR): Excellent threat against up to 3 mobs at a low mana cost, or 4 with the [Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous]. Damage per target is not as high as ShR, but total damage against 3 targets is greater than ShR damage. Do you know what?...2 weeks back playing, and i dont think this ability is even on my action bar!!

Glyphs.
Hammer of the Righteous
Divine Plea
Righteous Defence

Some work to do tonight i feel...

Macro Collection

2009-11-19T10:06:00.002Z

http://www.wowwiki.com/Useful_macros_for_paladins
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=2 Holy Shield, Sacred Shield

Hand of Protection (HoP) Macro
I use this a lot on my squishies – they love it because most paladins don’t use it, unfortunately.
BoP Aggroing Party Member This BoPs your current targets target (i.e. use it if a party member pulls aggro from the tank on your current target). If you are not partied it will BoP yourself. Pressing it again will cancel the BoP if cast on you (get rid of the BoP on yourself to resume DPS or if the BoP was accidental).

#showtooltip Hand of Protection
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
/cast [nogroup,target=player][target=targettarget,party] Hand of Protection
/raid %T is protected!

Tanking
Divine Shield This Macro will allow a tank to cast Divine Shield and remove it in two clicks. This will allow a tank to remove all debuffs, DoTs, fears, and other harmful spells and then remove the shield so you can pick up aggro. This can also be used with blessing of protection and Divine Protection.

/cancelaura Divine Shield
/cast Divine Shield

Increased Max Camera Distance
You can see more so it’ll help you increase your situational awareness!

/console cameradistancemaxfactor 50

Holy
Holy Macros Holy Shock + Divine Favor
#showtooltip Holy Shock
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/use Divine Favor
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/cast Holy Shock

Improved Cleanse, Holy Light, Flash of Light Simple macro to
Cleanse/Holy Light/Flash Light the mouseover or your target or your target's target, press alt/shift/ctrl to do the action yourself directly:

#showtooltip
/cast [mod,target=player][target=mouseover,help,nodead]
[help,nodead][nogroup,target=player][target=targettarget,help,nodead]Cleanse
#showtooltip
/cast [mod,target=player][target=mouseover,help,nodead]
[help,nodead][nogroup,target=player][target=targettarget,help,nodead]Holy Light
#showtooltip
/cast [mod,target=player][target=mouseover,help,nodead]
[help,nodead][nogroup,target=player][target=targettarget,help,nodead]Flash of Light

Redemption
Resurrect your target and warn the group. The macro will not warn if the target is hostile/not dead.

#showtooltip Redemption
/cast Redemption
/stopmacro [nohelp][nodead]
/p Resurrecting %t.

Normal mount else Flying mount with Crusader's Aura Macro
#showtooltip
/castsequence [nomounted, noflyable] !Crusader Aura, Summon Charger
/castsequence [nomounted, flyable] !Crusader Aura, Flying Mount
/cast [mounted] !Devotion Aura
/dismount
/dismount

Re-inspired

2009-11-16T09:35:00.001Z

I returned to wow after a month or so offline, it was a break i needed for sure.
I was aware of the issues going on in the guild durin my time off, and just before. Things had to run their course, people, players, interests and motivation etc. Somethings work, some dont, and the quicker people accept those idolologies the better, and we can all move on and continue as before.
My return to wow see's me bring back the paladin tank, only this time to see warcraft trhough to its end. I managed to grapple the gear system eventually after all my own confusion of wtf do i do now to get any kind of gear upgrade, to oh...badges and triumph badges.
Ofc i knew this before, but having my partner Leni on the same page helps my own game time and enjoyment more, in having an actual lifestyle again in playing warcraft as a couple rather than an estranged silent living room with us both doing different things. Brings that sense of family, and team back into my own game time, and hopefully for Leni too.
My main drive is to clear Ulduar once and for all. And drag everyone into heroics to get their badge gear. The raiding is for pure achievement, not gear, as i doubt their is anything of real importance in there worth getting for myself, although some might think they still need this and that badges are probably the most reliable source of any gear upgrade.

So whats left, Ulduar, Onxyia and then Totc 10? and the expected patch of ICC? best we get our butts motivated for a new challenge then.

I think i managed to fix my wow freezing up on me now and then, i removed a GB of ram, lets see how we go

AION - Continued..

2009-10-02T23:20:00.010+01:00

Continuing with the assessment of AION, i am delighted to say NCSoft have addressed the Q'ing issues from the weeks before, launching new servers, and compensating those willing to move with a XP bonus item which has a couple of hourly charges.

My own waiting time has been reduced from 2 hours, down to 1 hour, and they have implimented a disconnect relog feature that skips you out of the Q and striaght back into the game..awsome!!

So what have been up to? Outside of tweaking my PC to get the best graphics out of my midrange PC, i have been looking at the professions. Tailoring mostly, although i picked up Alchemy for making mana potions too.

As you can see, there are similar thngs to warcraft. However there is a addition work order quest, which the NPC provides you with a item to make unvaluable things like underwear..helps to increase your profession level also, although i have started it yet! but i will give details of it later. However you can fail to craft something, apparently also at top level too, to make rare items, but i will confirm that later. Crafted items also are more prominant relative to your level, and more practical to you in the here and now, rather than the warcraft system of tailoring crap until you get to the level cap epic items. You can only use your profession (IE create something) by going to the capital and using the loom, or Anvil (Like warcraft)

When i started AION, i had a bonus XP item, like i mentioned above, which i have been using to level, its down to its last charge now, but i have made level 15 without much fuss. I havent really being paying attention to the time it takes to level, as im only logged in for maybe 1 or 2 hours a night, so you can get an idea of how long its taken me so far.

The Sorcerer's spells continue to get better, and more animated. But theres something im not used to, or something that doesnt quite qork with it? maybe im used to warcraft global cooldown or something but clicking on the next spell seems to have a delay, or lag, its not clear what. But if you ignore it, its not much of a problem and you have to pace yourself with the abilities. everything else movemt wise, is fine. However i do think NCSoft will improve this.

Flight is a mis-conception, if you believe you can fly all the time in the world of AION, you cant. Only designated areas where magic resides are flight areas. However you can glide, if you jump and then jump again while in the air. Flight time, whether gliding or not, is limited to 60 seconds. However you can wear items that extend that time by a few seconds more.

Flight paths, and Teleports. You can move between one land and another by these two methods. It costs money, but not all that much. Teleport is the quickest, but costs a bit more, and the spirit bird is slightly less.

The games graphics continue to make me smile though, heres me standing next to one of the city guards.

Gaming PC

2009-10-02T11:32:00.007+01:00

I had to upgrade my computer after a week of AION. However it was something i needed to do with Warcraft also. I stuck with 1GB (x2 512MB sticks) of RAM for a long time, running at DDR333.

I went and bought x2 1GB sticks at DDR400, and the difference in AION is very significant. However i have not yet tried Warcraft, which will be interesting to see, especially places like Dalaran.

There is another graphics card much better than the Sapphire HD 2600 XT, the ATI Radeon HD 4670 which is nearly double the FPS in performance. However i have to watch my wattage. This PC is a midrange PC and not an ultimate gaming machine. Built on a budget, so any upgrades done to this machine will be done over a long period of time. Tested..trialed..overclocked...tested, and trialed again. My main problem at the moment is the noise the current graphics card has when warmed up, and i started considering a passive card like SAPPHIRE HD 4670 ULTIMATE Edition, its also had some good write ups, and is silent, yet maintains its operating temperature comfortably. While im at it, i would need to upgrade the CPU aswell...but thats something for next year..prehaps

Temperatures running AION;

Case 34 Degrees C

CPU 45 Degrees C

GPU 58 Degrees C (peak)

RAM 1678 in use. (peak)

Semi Retirement & the AION assessment so far..

2009-10-01T14:48:00.007+01:00

Well my blog has been pretty stagnant for the last month, the reason being I have gone into semi retirement in warcraft.
RL is pretty busy outside of the game with our new baby Charlotte, so at best, I’m able to get online somewhere after 8:45pm UK. This reason, along with my need to unwind from a day, including work has left me wound-up more than anything else. However, taking a complete break from wow has made a huge difference these last few weeks to my personal life and frame of mind.
That’s not to say im ready to come back, I’m far from that. The first thing I know when I log in will be “right, what needs to be done” and that’s what’s got me into this situation in the first place. I also have the issue in my head which is..Warcraft itself. Blizzard’s got lazy, for me..It feels for me anyway..The common saying, “same **** just different smell”
It was perhaps the 4 years of constantly playing warcraft that’s made it turn a shade of magnolia for me, a game shouldn’t be a heavy sigh before you double click the wow shortcut. And the announcement of the re-facing of Azeroth and the re-introduction of Onyxia. Heroic version of Deadmines…..tell me there’s going to be a heroic Molten Core too?......please no. I have spent 4 years playing this game seeing and hearing about the same things..Repeating them in an expansion or patch would be like listening to George Michael on CD rather than a cassette tape.. Interesting & quirky, but quickly worn off. Some have said, that Blizzard made the game too easy, in some cases they have, but as the post before…what do we do now? I’m at a complete loss with no direction.
I was asked if I would roll an alt and level that up, but the thought of that almost made me sick. Another questing alt, in the same content, that’s looked the same for the last 3-4 years? I wouldn’t even be reading the quest txt, but marching through them as quick as I could to ding as much as I can to get any kind of fulfilment out of the game, which wouldn’t be much.
I had to think back to what I originally loved about the game, in my original guild I loved the PVP aspect of the game, and the world raiding,..back at level 34+ and there’s basically next to no hope of getting anywhere in that side of the game with those that are. Dedicated players geared and pre-focused on PVP of me standing any chance of competing. I guess along with the break from warcraft I needed something to bounce my *in the habit* brain out of wow and try something new.
Now, you’ll notice, way back I posted a link and some you tube links to a developing game called AION. And since im not committed to anything online, and apart from designing a depron foam F14 tomcat (RC) and my online time is about 9pm onwards, I decided to give it a shot while it was still in its infancy stages of launch.
Ok, let’s get this out of the way first, this is not a Warcraft Vs Aion blog, first and foremost. I have a solid understanding of WoW, and something that’s just launched will NEVER compete with warcraft which has developed itself over 5 years..Seriously. AION, while it was in open beta in Korea is nothing compared to the North American and European markets.
There are two areas’ I will discuss separately, the game, and the service.
The Game.
Its solid, no bugs (as yet) and the game play is alike wow in its player movement controls. Spells and abilities have a UI much like WOW’s standard, and abilities like fireball, with progression in levels links to activate a chain spell with half the casting time of the main spell. The Auction house doesn’t have you running back and forth to the post-box either, but its still needing refinement. All gear has sockets, which you can insert manastones into, which have HP, MP, and Accuracy etc into, your class determines what you put into them, and you can also ask a vendor to extract them so they are not destroyed. The game IS pvp based, with some PVE content, the main endgame content is the Abyss, where both factions, call it horde and alliance converge in a big landscape along with a AI 3rd faction which charges in on the faction loosing (some kind of trigger goes off, I don’t know what though as im not level 25+ yet)
I could go on, and on, and as I said the game is still in its first month of launch, and there are loose ends which they need to tie up, which im sure will come in time…much like Blizzard.
Service.
Ok, this is where the horse has had the proverbial bullet shot up its ass. Since going live there have been 2 hour ques to get into the game, and some technical issues along with it. Getting into the game at present, is the issue. However NCSoft stand by their comments that each server needs a balance of both factions to work for each server so that the game works for both sides. Which in the long run is perfect (think Alliance vs. Horde ratio per server) however in the short term, it’s killing the game softly and flamed the players wanting to get in and play it. “You are 2348/2350 in the Queue, approximate time 2 hours 30 mins”, they have recently launched some servers to ease the problem, however they do not have a character transfer in place, which is also aggravating the situation, there quote “will take a few months to put this in place” …cough..you need it NOW people! And make it free while you populate your servers as required. At the moment they seem to be depending on the players shuffling over to newer servers, however guilded players and those as groups of friends playing on the server of choice…aint moving.
This week will show the worst of AION…what they decide to do this week, will determine its long term future success. However, do not under-estimate, HOW popular this game is..

Conclusion.
It’s not a warcraft killer, nor is it competing with Blizzard at any level. However in time, development and some steep learning curves, it will be a great alternative to warcraft, but let’s say..for this week…NCSoft need to pull it out of the bag to save themselves.
Great game, bad..terrible preparation for the mass player base that expected to play the game in its first launch week. I will write more, and further posts this month while I trial this game for 4 weeks free subscription.

Oh, and dont come anywhere near this game unless you have 2 GB RAM, and a half decent midrange graphics card, and a processor over 2.2 Ghz, if you can converge Stormwind, Ironforge and Dalaran into one city, its called Pandaemonium for a reason the Captial of the Asmo's

Which Raid..what level, which is best.

2009-08-27T14:56:00.006+01:00

After posting on our forum a raid poll, it seems other guilds on Khadgar (and prehaps other realms) are (almost) doing the same, finding what is their focus?, and what is the point almost…especially with the announcement of the next expansion.
Lets think back to TBC and the WOTLK announcement. …..ahh ok…apathy. However the poll put Ulduar 10 in focus, along with ToC 10 and Malygos. Suprising when i thought the outcome would be biased towards 25 man raiding however i think they all have a lasting impression of waiting 20 minutes to try and fill the last 5 places and then going something, with just 20...

I have what seems like a more focused role this month also, this new emblem system needs some focus. Some members of the guild haven’t quite understood it aswell as they should, or maybe they have and haven’t spoken out and got involved in the guild with getting a group together and doing it. Ontop of that some players haven’t quite got used to WOTLK and its new group AE and kill everything, and maybe too used to the old pause CC and pull routine. BLITZ is propably what I should call dungeons these days.

The new content of ToC has raised the promotion of putting other people (geared) in charge of their own Wednesday 10 man raid, im happy with that, and it should build some new relationships in leading the way through that event. Went well for them last night on an organising level and discussion level, however they had an unlucky spell at the last boss. But that’s not important, the team developed into a more structured 10 man, without an official RL in it.

The gold anvil has been a carrot on the stick, for new content or guild firsts, I think not having this causes …”Mmm im saving for an epic flight skill” type of sign up. If the raid is free of repair bills then the only think spent is time, and for those without emblems to farm or items to spend money on crafting (Capped geared players) you need to keep the fire fuelled, until the rest of the guild catch up. An endless game of catch up. And yup, im the main player in getting those folk caught up.
If in doubt where to go, ask your people..

Something I noticed when typing NadiaStorm into google, I do appear a lot, so maybe I should spend a bit more time writing something rather than adding notes to myself now and then to reflect on.

Interesting post here by Gevlon and it really really should be read without any "doubts" or "but that.." and "oh he...".

3.2 Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes...

2009-08-25T09:20:00.016+01:00

Since my return to tanking (from being a DPS Death Knight) and taking advantage of the new 3.2 Emblem system. I have had to list the gear here so i dont loose track. It's pretty bad to say that i need something to refer back to constantly. But thats now become the nature of the game, and a few people in my guild have fallen into that abyss also..more on that later.
So here goes..i will grey out what i have managed to achieve.

[Conqueror's Aegis Faceguard] 58 [Emblem of Conquest]
[Conqueror's Aegis Breastplate] - 58 [Emblem of Conquest]
[Shieldwarder Girdle] - 28 [Emblem of Conquest]

[Conqueror's Aegis Handguards] VoA25
Conqueror's Aegis Legguards VoA25
Or [Gauntlets of the Royal Watch] - 28 [Emblem of Conquest]
Or [Wyrmguard Legplates] - 39 [Emblem of Conquest]

[Regal Aurous Shoulderplates] TOC
[Dreadscale Bracers] Northrend Beasts
[Platinum Mesh Cloak] - 25 [Emblem of Valor]
[Spiked Deathdealers] - Crafted

I have spent more time on my paladin than my death knight since patch 3.2 came out, nobody needed dps for ToC5, only tanks in the LFG channel. On top of that, there has been an inconsistant attendance of tanks for our current raiding schedule, ..and quite frankly im getting a bit tired of asking folk to use their offspec to see us through a raid night. Although they dont mind it, its hardly the point, can i still roll on dps stuff, or tanking stuff Q. A vaild question, but not something i don't want to answer going through a raid in whisper. Quicker loot is done with, the quicker we move on, or rejoin the raid party progressing.
The guild vote on the forum pretty much spoke louder than words.
I also find it easier to talk on vent with the paladin, the DK is pretty much key mashing to keep your dps up. Paladin, i have about 5 seconds of nothing to do but look about and check where everyone is. I think for the sake of understanding and clarity, i will remove my death knight from the guild and park her somewhere..Yes, this is a permanent change.
So, its about time i got on the Heroic bandwagon, and farmt he hell out of Northrend, and pray to god that we win Wintergrasp this week.

We have had to reshuffle our outlook in 3.2, because we found ourselves locked in confusion about which raid..is higher than the other..25man Naxx Vs 10Man Ulduar. Ontop of that, some of our "2nd language is english" havent quite grasped the emblems for T8 head gear yet either. Ontop of no confident of getting in there with a pug and farming away. So i have had to take stock of all this and re-do the raiding back to 10 man, and re-focus everyone into the emblem system (both Conquest and Triumph) ..sounds odd right? a little, but these things do confuse you when you dont have as much dedicated time as someone who doesnt have a partner and 2 kids and a job to keep paying the bills!

So thats where the GM and Raid leaders have to consult each other and get the momentum and direction back, and im glad to say after a guild wide poll (which will be ongoing) we have that now. Ulduar 10 and ToC 10, lots of Heroic ToC 5 man and Heroic Dailies..C'MON! get in there :D

Raiding will still be 3 nights a week, but wednesday's will be more of a non-official ToC 10 while i manage the Mon Tues Uldar 10, backed up by Tarnya on Thursday's Ulduar. HaG continues on Friday,....which i hope to get folk not doing ToC 5 and daily heroics..on the right path of confidence. Position as tank and GM is easier, being able to lead this way round seems to be more practical, being one of the key roles in a group..the tank.

Ahh almost forgot

/script dr=function(x)return 1/(1/16+0.9560/x)end;DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Need 102.4 with HS for block cap. Currently at: "..string.format("%.2f", GetDodgeChance()+GetBlockChance()+GetParryChance()+5+dr(GetCombatRating(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL)/122.962)))

The game has changed...almost completely

2009-08-17T12:51:00.004+01:00

I one heard, or read, that the bosses in Uldar were too difficult, or complicated. It took all of 10 seconds for me to have a think about the XT fight, and then realise....actually, Heroic SteamVaults was harder..
Trash for every raid is, almost...nearly none...in comparison to TBC i remember endless pulls to get to Void Reaver. And that also involve something called....pulling tactics.. "sheep this" "Banish that"
Theres no doubt that the game is more accessable to the casual player, or casual raider. But please dont confuse accessable with ..the need to make a raid instance AE boring.
There is no danger, not that i have felt, going through trash, only the achievement of downing a new boss for the first time. Part of the challenge was getting there..."you know that old saying"

I think the game has now developed a very much pug a raid attitude. And again, not that im complaining about that accessability, as i have benefited myself from it, but if Uldar is the endgame content..i hope to find some sort of challenge in there, as so far, other than AE'ing everything to death and having gear checks on patchwerk and Co. Theres nothing really that stands out as a challenge or challenging ...so far in WOTLK. Maybe im too used to playing wow? i never did Molten Core or Black Temple....prehaps i just prefer to strive, to maybe one day achieve,.......... rather than here now AE tomorrow.
Undecided...

2009-08-05T01:12:00.001+01:00

Khadgar and Autumn Season starts - Watch Out

2009-07-29T12:02:00.000+01:00

It’s come to the end of the summer holidays, and already the swing in online attendance has increased, and those offline returning back online. Our latest numbers on tanks jumped up to 7 (myself included) so I have set my Death Knight as an Alt as a backup tank, as obviously at some point we will have another tank shortage again.

This is the time of year we also see an increase in applicants to the guild, some good applicants which are long term members, and others who are the froggers of guilds to get to eXperience or Iron Brew etc for the top end raiding, and see TDD as a stepping stone to get there. Which don’t get me wrong, it’s a compliment to know we can facilitate that need on Khadgar…but no thank you? Sometimes we shut down the guild recruitment all together during Autumn and Spring, because you can get some right “spare wooden tool’s to the workshop” that you spend more time looking after and educating your guild policy to, just to have them apply to another guild when they reach the minimum gear requirement. TDD has always recruited on a referral system. You know someone from TDD, and TDD has pugged or quested along side with for an amount of time with, then that individual has more chance of being accepted than Joe Blogg…
It’s soft ground for us at the moment as we tread on 25 man territory, it’s not an overly large swing from Uldar 25 itself, and that’s almost the game content played, so TDD people walking, running around in any major city is an advertisement of the progress level. The important thing to do, (as we always have) is make use of what we have and consolidate it firmly to establish ourselves as a new habit (25man) and get a system of habit consistent weekly. Make sure that all members of your guild/raid are hugged, find out what’s ticking, and make sure there is contentment. We have what we need, and if there is any short fall, turn around on the off nights of raiding and support them. Recruiting to fill a lack of something is ignoring a simple problem and potentially recruiting another.
August can break a guild if managed flipantly, remember a mass increase in numbers means more work looking after 5-10 new faces that may or may not move on in 6 weeks time.

The next 4 weeks are going to fascinate me, greatly. I will keep you posted in August <3 Khadgar

This Week

2009-07-27T08:53:00.003+01:00

The weekend went quite well, however i didnt get any trinkets from either Halls of Lightning, or Azjol Nerub. However i did score with the legs from heroic Violet Hold, and accumlated enough badges to buy the Heroic emblem belt.
Now im still stuck for trinkets, and i also need to fill the ring slots too. So i need to research what is available, ....and has the highest defense on it to give me some flexability

Main Trinket
Seal of the Pantheon - Halls of Lightning (N)
Repelling Charge - Thaddius / Gluth
One of these trinkets is very essential as a base for a tanking set with epics...in blues the def cap is fine, but upgrading your gear to epic level your defense plumets!
It's without this trinket im suffering with my current gear, and need's to solve this first.
The other trinket is normally stamina based. Essence of Gossamer from Azjol Nerub in Heroic mode.

Optional Rings
Dragonflight Great Ring - Oculus 38 (N)
Gal'darah's Signet - Gundrak 36 (N)
Epic Rings
Rings are not really that much of a worry at the moment, the ones i am wearing will do. The priority this week would be, trinkets still.

Shoulders are not really important this week, however if any Teir shoulders drop, then that would be a bonus. Or even those listed in the link.

The Weekend Gear Run

2009-07-24T13:15:00.007+01:00

After the week of leveling to 80, and then the following week gearing from Heroic level entry gear to,..now Naxx 25 entry, there are 5 items outstanding. Before the Naxx 25 next Monday + Tuesday

1 crafted ring
Legs from either Violet Hold, or OS 25
and 2 trinkets, one from (H) Azjol-Nerub and the other from Halls of Lighting Normal
And the Belt from (H) Azjol-Nerub

That pretty much will cover all of the low level gear items im still wearing, so i will either be deep in 5 mans this weekend or trying to get an OS25 going (pug)

PuG Naxx 10 - Leading from the front

2009-07-24T09:42:00.007+01:00

We have all been there havent we? Ok, yes i have been also with my DK into a PuG 5 man, or 10 man raid, and looked at the tanks gear and thought, "Ahh cool if he/she is wearing that, we'll be ok" .......Then 5 minutes later reading a tank bleeting in raid chat after a wipe about no heals...and thinking, "...im sure you where trying to tank with your backside, aimlessly running around?!"
This wasnt the case with a PuG Naxx 10 i joined last night. Alongside a "Euphoric" Alt Tank Gélion who was on the ball, and i was always in constant whisper with, we worked well as a team. The raid leader was good also, kept everything clear, and soon enough we had 3 wings done and heading upto 4 Horsemen in no time.
Unfortunately we didnt get to finish it, but the hope is to reschedule for tonight. But i dont know if i will make it or not. However, i did managed to get 3 bits of tanking gear to help me along the way. What did i get..necklace, bracer and sword. Tier token that dropped was always for warriors etc, and classes we didnt have with us!.
"Nad" -It might also boil down to a reputation, not many people call my character by its nickname, and although it might seem an obvious nick, "Nadia" is the common saying, "Nad" is the familliar. And there was an awfull lot of "Nad" in the raid. So i will go with the assumption they knew the GM of TDD by mention, or they got a lucky guess. However i am always pleased to know that if there is any familliarity with TDD, and a good reputation, then im a happy GM for it.
Gear progress has now jumped from Naxx entry to Heroic Naxx entry in one evening, i need to pull out my crafted cloak again, to see if i managed to hit defense cap with it on, the blue seemed to fill the gap. And im 20 badges short of the Emblem tanking belt. or 14 if i want to convert the Valor tokens from the Naxx 25 from last week.
Garland has been getting hit pretty hard for expenses, after the crafted armour and gems and enchants, 3k has been spent. And last night 4oog on sorting out the 3 bits of gear i gained last night...where will it end ....

ULDAR - TDD also managed to kill Ignis on their 3rd attempt and 1 shot on Kologarn. Looking at it, we might look at extending the 10 Man Uldars for progression when 3.2 comes until the Naxx 25 geared the guild enough for Uldar 25 entry. However i need more people to have a look in the door of Uldar 25 to get an idea of what to do, on a smaller scale, however if i know 10 folk are familliar, thats half the battle in itself.

Guild Management

2009-07-21T00:53:00.009+01:00

I take a screenshot for every compliment the guild gets. Not to show off, or brag, but when eventually when warcraft has its last day, i can look back on my guild slideshow and reflect back on some good times, and some brilliant achievements "they" made.
It's also a morale boost for myself, as sometimes, you get that doom feeling. And you need a good kick up the arse to put you back on track sometimes. Last night after the raid (25man) there was almost a debrief not just of the raid, but of the guild.
To keep you up with current affairs, Realm (Our co-operative raiding guild) split into 2 halves, their guild leader came over to TDD, and with him brought who he considered his friends. We are delighted with this, as it has been something we have been waiting for, for almost a year. We know them, and they know us, and..we have raided together, and know we all work together well.
Our 25 man looting rule was going to be daunting. We had full members, Switched main members (Considered on 4 week trial), New members (on 4 trial) , and Ex-Realm members (on 3 week trial). And on top of that...offspec.
How do you make a simple rule for that?, so after consulting with the officers int he raid, i decided to announce to the guild, 1 Main roll (main spec and full member), followed by an open roll if no full member rolled. That was now simplified, and easy to maintain and importantly - efficently quick, and also vocally prompting fairness. My officers did really well to poke any obstructions, questions and debates out of raid chat, to keep the raid running smoothly.

For 25 man, for me, you really need a team behind you supporting your raid leading to take care of the "fussy" details you could do without being distracted from. And more voices backing your decisions, help everyone toe the line. This blog by Pwnwear is at the heart of what needs to be done, and i kept reminding myself of it last night. This *mindset as a team* got us, for the first time, through 2 wings of Naxx25, with laughter, (with tears sometimes), and a great sense of guild teamwork, regardless of membership level. We've done it before in TBC, however i think during that, time we forgot how to work in a larger scale raid.

Expectations - It is very easy to get swept away with the momentum of progress. I find it myself..thinking "gogo go while the rythmn is good, book another day's raid" The fall-out from that is, your loosing your guilds focus as a "casual guild that raids" We're a grounded guild, that raids 3 nights a week, and fills the rest with supporting each other, and making those 3 days *count* Consistancy being the paramount. If your away from home for a while, you will know that TDD will be raiding Mon/Tues and Wed and Thurs no matter what..
What we also felt was, raiding (offically) more that 3 nights per week turned us from a "casual guild", to a "raiding guild" even if that meant 4 nights a week....that leaves 3 days to have a social life...or even just a life! Remember remember, theres 7 days to a week!
And with children, babies, and homework etc etc, thats just not a reality, ....we learned it before, and we'll learn from it again and we'll aviod the inevitable burn-out.

Guild Leadership - One thing i will always remember from an old friend Tem, was his encouragement in /w regarding guild leadership. He had a heir of roll play in his conversations, and would always re-assure me on my choices. Now Tem, was a much older man than myself, he was a healing paladin and a mighty one at that, with such a great personality. He had no ambitions to be an officer or GM. And was probably "one of" the most loyal members of my guild/s, over 4 guilds in 4 years.

It was that people expected a strong leader, but a subtle one. A confident leader, but a humble one. And a generous leader to thought of his guild first, before himself.

And if all those things where accomplished in a leader, he would follow, no matter where it lead to. As long as the guild leader believed in him, he would return the loyalty for it . I think the same can be said of officers too, as a team doesnt just depend on its leader.

Its knowning what is good for the guild, and what will break it (by your learning experiences) and apologise for any bad choices you do decide to make. Your human, not immortal, and your allowed to make mistakes to learn from, we all wernt born GM's or raid leaders. But its in those moments you realise who should be in your guild, and who needs to move on.

First Dungeon & First 10 man raid

2009-07-20T12:23:00.002+01:00

My defense was only 528, a mixutre of tempered and Titansteel and Defense gems to boost myself tot he cap. We did a normal UP and got the chest quest reward which helped, then heroic VH, and got a blue cloak, which then took me over the def cap..after a chest defense enchant.
Sabriel, returned to healing, which for me, is a confidence boost in having my pre-TBC healer back onboard. Micke (aka Punkgirl), Leni, Scota (Trivia) and are new chap Baconburger all came to help out in me getting backinto the tanking brain train, which to be fair in reflection, didnt take all that long.
VH kept bugging on us in heroic mode, and we had a go at normal instead, which seemed ok and we did get through it without fuss. I re-arranged some spell abilities, and decided to goto the LFG channel and pick up a pug. I was asked if i would tank Naxx 10.
Offtanking for a Warrior Tank Uldar geared, i was in good company. I would catch the strays, and at this point i should mention my threat is a problem at this time, as Punkgirl mentioning in H VH, he had to mis-direct alot to ensure i kept aggro in the company of T7 and Heroic geared dps.
Naxx wasnt generous however, Spiderwing and Military done, (except the 4 horsemen) as nothing tank worthy dropped :( but it was a great practice for me, and a good team we where in. Which has me confident to off-tank tonight with the guild, and raid lead it without tanking gear concerns. I think for the most part, OS 10 and VoA to try and get hold of some T7 gloves and legs.

Level 80 - Ding!!

2009-07-19T11:29:00.003+01:00

Started out at 8PM UK time, and finished at 23:45, from 3 bars into level 79 and hit level 80 after the Undercity Quest chain fighting alongside Mr Stormwind King himself.
So roughly, thats 1 level per night, each night 4 1/2 hours of leveling. DONE!!
Im relieved that i ts now out of the way, which leaves the rest of the week now before the reset to concentrate on gear from heroics and the missing bits or crafted armour like rings and a necky. The titansteel was all done within 1 hour, with the help of Micke. Theres not much point in buying anything from the Ah thats expensive at the moment, with 3.2 on the way, its time to prepare a 5 man team (loosely) for the day it goes live. Meantime its worth getting whatever gear is available from the 5 mans to cap the defense. Last night with only the titansteel and some tempered Saronite armour i think i managed 520 or something, but im ungemmed and unenchanted also (except the shield) .
Need to get into the Son's of Hodir rep, and Head enchant folk as a priority now. Bt things are looking good so far.

Level 79

2009-07-18T08:01:00.007+01:00

Well this one was a little slow. With a little help from guild i was able to complete some elite group quests. Cissen also pointed me in the direction of some new quests in Zul Drak and off i merrily went. There were some guild events going on later in the evening which slowed things down, but it was worth it. After a ding on level 79, i was happy to call it a night at 3 bars in again.
Nad now has 1000g in the bag, and Garland is now over 1k. I will have to update Garlands post!

It might be possible to achieve 80 tonight/today. It would be nice to get level 80 done and out the way before Sunday.

Level 78 and a Half

2009-07-17T08:10:00.005+01:00

Again, i started with 4 bars to go until the next level (78) and ended up halfway through the level. K3 lead onto the Son's of Hodir quest, however i think i will need some help with the Thorim guy down in the corner of the map to continue the quest chain.

At that point, i moved back into Zul Drak and started cleaning up my loose ends with quests. Seemed easier now just to put carbonite on Auto trak itself and then follow the arrow arround. Its now friday, and i have noticed that the background downloader trigger last night..3.2 is looming, so the timing was just right. I havent taken much notice of the gear for dps on the way through all these quests, and will have to stick pawn back on to i can quickly check upgrades and downgrades. Most of the time i fling the blue stuff on without thinking.

Reputation Enchants - Argent Dawn i believe was the head enchant for tanks, and then of course the Son's of Hodir for the shoulder enchant. Then theres the exalted tanking gear from each faction, ...BUT i have the enchant rep for the TBC tanking enchants, which will do as a fill in, so its NOT that immediately important at the moment. And then theres the crafted tanking gear which i will have to request to be made (again).

I will have to sort out a routine for Son's of Hodir rep, and wear the tabbard of the Dawn as a habit.
Gold is now back at the level it was (not bad for 2 days work) and a little more (Garland =860g) and (Nad= 580g) before i bought cold weather flying. I will consolidate both funds together and start Garland off with 100g again. Total would be about 1300g, with the weekend coming up its ideal timing, ....again. Another 600g in the next few days would be helpfull with the crafting side of gear for the guild bank if i could deposit 2k into it. I'd say 2k, for covering the armour, rings, cloak and anything else i can think of (enchants & gems). The gear is crafted by matts created by the guild and sold to any member half the price of the AH. So when would the right timing be for that? probably today actually...with it being the weekend, and no raids scheduled, so i'll have to set that in motion later today.

Dis-enchanting my T4 and T5 badge rewards..Its going to hurt, but if fok in TBC who did Black Temple have replaced their gear around Naxx level, its time to re-think what im doing hanging onto them. It might also be my 600g im looking for too.

Respeccing Not entirely sure when to respec as tank, i did think on the 5 minute of dinging 80, and probably still will. I did have a fleeting thought of respeccing at 79, but then that would kill the leveling to 80, so maybe not such a good idea after all.

Patch 3.2 Naxx? Well, lets have a think. Emblems now turn into a global currency, which can buy Conquest items..Heroic Dailies also drop these Emblems...And i want to catchup as quick as possible? I am below the current gear level of the guild at the moment. Will folk be inspired to goto Naxx with the emblem change? I dont know...some are sick of Naxx already, which is why we moved to Uldar. I may have to pug, but a 10 man will do. But i have a joker up my sleeve, and in a typical Tenacious Nad style i already have a backup plan should the guild decline the invitation ;)

How Much Mister? - Netherdrake Vs Red Drake

2009-07-16T14:00:00.010+01:00

Aproximately 4 days worth of quests including dailies (making sure you do the eggs quest shortens the time taken to reach exhalted.) and 160g to buy the Drake by being exhalted anyway with the faction, however you get to choose a Drake as a quest reward anyway.
4000g for Artisan riding if i bought the skill from HonorHold (exhalted rep discount in patch 3.2...i thought you bought it in Shadowmoon Valley...will have to look that up!)
or 2000g just to by the red drake after getting exhalted, and 4000g for the riding skill too (Artisan) ...with comments on wowhead about the animation etc not being very good, the classic *and my first love) Netherdrake, wins on budget and on looks..Thats of course, after i tank up in gear first! Which, i will have to work out a schedule for, see now theres a new idea for the casual raider to read prehaps?

Edited - Egg Quest was written wrong

Level 77 - Cold Weather Flying

2009-07-16T10:55:00.005+01:00

For a while i didnt hink i would make 77 last night, 75 and 76 seemed very progressive, i had no distractions. And again i had to go to past mid-night to ding and then..sort out Garland afterwards.

Cold Weather flying was bought up, as i had to do the Feryn quest line to get the Ding! And i kept thinking to myself, have i run out of rested bonus or forgot to put my Shoulders on, but until this very second....i just realised what was missing...the realm exp buff from WinterGrasp! Ahwell, that will be why lol. But i was scratching my head thinking, "damn! im sure something is missing"

Already the trash selling and quest rewards on Nad has the Bag funds upto 580g (not including Garland's) after the cold flying buyout. My leveling guide peaked out at S'Basin, and i have made a leap over to K3 to start the quest line for Son's of Hodir ASAP, once thats done i'll assess Rep with enchant factions and work from there. And then stop, and pile into Evil Nads mining with a vengence, and Artemís "Herbalisim" and Daily farming. Thats the plan anyway..just have to get to that level 80 as soon as i can.

But for now, 1 level per evening is nearly slipping out of my grasp.
3 levels to go - StormPeaks and Icecrown left (With some Zul Drak Quests remaining)

That means Sunday 19th July? as a goal.

Garland - Week 1 ~ Auctioneer

2009-07-15T13:53:00.020+01:00

arland, is my Alt banking character. Using Auctioneer pre-LK i accumlated 1k gold just by reselling under priced AH items, starting her off with 5g, she reached 500g in 5 days. And after 1 weekend upped it to over 1k. I WILL update a Garland post weekly as i OBJECT to pay for gold guides on how to use something we can all learn for free. If infact their methods are the same.

Today, with both Evil Nad (miner & JC) and Good Nad (Enchanter & Engineer), plus a herbalism Hunter (level 67?) doing dailies and random drop grinding. I will be constantly feeding Garland this week and scanning the AH for this weekend. Nad, doesnt need green item gear, and uses the Soulbound quest equipment, if not DE'ing it and sending that to Garland also.

There are 3 main priorities here which is aiming for around 4k gold.

1- Cold weather Flying

2- Craftable Tanking Gear

3- Duel Spec

.................and a Dragon flying mount.....why? because i damn well deserve one lol, for months i ached, literally ached for a blue Netherdrake..in TBC. Never got one...can you hear that violin?

Anyway, after wiping my addons and using the standard UI with the leveling addon, i now need the following. Auctioneer, Enchantrix, Postal & BeanCounter.

Im kind of excited, and all i can think about is getting home tonight as quick as i can, installing everything and powering on with the leveling. And i just...cant wait to get back into pala tanking again. .....Home....home sweet home.

Update**Here is the first screenie with the opening balance. And the second after 4 hours of leveling. So what did i do?

To begin with I transferred 100g, I didn’t need to but I did anyway for deposits etc. I could have just transferred 10g, it makes no difference.
Then with the white and above items I had collected with Nad, including dis-enchanted items, I scanned (as you see on the first shot, what everyone else was selling for, and under cut them by 2%....why 2%, the default is 5% and for what its worth, so long as your items appear before anyone elses, why lose 1g, or 50s if you can undercut your competition by 90 copper? Or similar..you want yours the cheapest…but not that cheap!! Items like enchanting, I mark up right smack bang in the middle of the average and ..again, undercut by 2% when I have enough data from auctioneer, I will buy up the blue PCT (which means under market priced value) and resell them.

That’s the basic’s of it.

Next Garland post will be about the weekend AH

100g Start to 580g 4 hours later half of the first stock sold, Auction set for 48 hours., Plus the additional items you see in screen shot 2 where listed on the AH the same night also..

Level 76 - Still but close

2009-07-15T08:14:00.003+01:00

very opportunity i had was plagued with problems. It was my own fault for bring Nad back into the guild so soon, i have no-one else to blame but myself. for 1 hour approximately i stood still answering questions between 19:15 and 20:15, then after that, lag, and some guild issues ensued (recruitment) and by 21:45 i finally managed to get the 3rd bar of my experience bar on the move.
I thought by starting earlier last night i would get a good ramp on through, but the Addon Alliance QuestUp kept crashing me too, because it was using so much memory. And i had to tackle a recruitment issue to resolution, as it effects our guild in a positive way and needs to be checked during this delicate process. So almost 3 hours later, and a new addon.
I made my way to S Basin and made a start there, my last addon and the new one did'nt quiet gel for Zul, and i couldnt match up quests, so i though i would just leave it and move into the level 77 area, and take it from there. So from 22:00 UK time until 00:00 i got from the begining of level 76 with 3 bars, to needing 4 bars to level which i thought was quite good, PunkGirl and Nyessa helped a bit with some outsanding group quests they needed done in Dragon Blight. So everything came good in the end.
Gold is now 1330g, and i have started throwing none soulbound greens to Garland (My Alt Auctioneer). If i manage level 80 with both cold weather flying and duel spec payed for before then, it will be leveling enchanting and selling the enchants in the AH.

Casual Guilds #1 - from a GM's PoV

2009-07-14T13:25:00.012+01:00

Our guild did'nt have the best of beginings, and like most guild formations, they are either created by a break up of a guild or a reformation of one from previously. Ours was born from the ashes of a feud around the officers, GM and guild member pockets, otherwise known as cliques'

I had experience of leading a guild previously, but we only played the game to socialise and enjoy some world pvp in Astranaar previous to TBC, we didnt aim for Molten Core, or Dire Maul. We were around level 30-50. Our social group joined another guild, prior to the creation of TDD, which is where we pick up this record of events from.

Officers
Our first officers evening was guildless, we stood about Stormwind cheese shop discussing between 10 members what we where going to do. I was asked if I would be the GM of the guild, but I made it quite clear I would have officers of my choice. Loyal folk who I had grown to know well throughout my gaming and those that I thought each having a quality (whether you would consider them good or bad personally) where a quality that assured a balanced argument no matter what the subject was, and have that argument on a mature level without a stigmatic level of Ego. This took some months to balance out however, we started with 4 officers, but with some real life issues and disputes both in and out of the game 1 retired and moved onto another guild, and today has returned. But was replaced in consideration of the circumstances of the previous leaving (IE too close to RL in issues), so we picked someone outside of the RL circle so to speak.
Knowing your officers as well as you can do, in RL and ingame is a careful balance of too much and too little can cause long term aggro within your officer chat and guild decisions, AND cause aggro outside of the game too.
You also need to know that your officers are reluctant to lead your guild too. The right frame of mind is "I will support you, if you support me as an officer" not, "I said this last week to XXX and you have gone completely over my head" If you can work with your officers and forgive any mis-understandings, you're guild is more the better for it. You should be able to consider your officers your best mates either in game or out of the game with a trust on the same level as faith! If you can't work with your officers, or they cant work along side with you, who the hell do you expect to follow you as a team, as a guild being lead by a group of disputing non-communicating fools? Start your guild... as you mean to go, and always maintain that team of officers.

Raiding
If you're running a casual guild, what we learned, was having the balance of raider and casuals always in question "Are we raiding too much?" and "are we progressing?" and finding that middle ground of acceptable commitment to raiding. We found that at the very limit, 3 Nights per week was the most we could consistently have a regular sign up without burning the guild out, or our raid leaders.
3 was, and still, is the magic number. (Limit it to 2 nights per week if you want a 25 man raids instead of 10, then you're making a narrower window of raiding opportunity, and always start your raids from Wednesday reset day followed by Thursday night). This seems to work for us on a regular basis. Sometimes the guild will get carried away with progress and commit themselves *by request* to an additional raid night to achieve something. Let it happen, and then bring it back down to the regular nights again straight after, you want folk to request extra raids like this by majority.
But this is the most important thing of all about raiding, DO NOT advertise yourself as a raiding guild, no matter what YOU think it means, will mean one thing only, ....YOU raid...never mind anything else....you "RAID" that’s it, and you know when you've gone wrong is when they login without checking the in game calendar and ask.......are we raiding tonight?
I cannot tell you how many times we have had to fight off mis-informed players who have got through the recruiting net, because someone told them we where a raiding guild, or they mis-understood we where a casual guild first..Raiding second. And to date, this one issue has been our one gripe in guild issues.

What...is casual?
I work 5 days a week, 1 week I finish work at 5:30pm and home for 6pm UK time, and the other week I finish at 4:30pm and home at 5pm UK time.
I eat, I help put our baby girl to bed after a bath, clean up and get ready to settle down by 7:30pm in the evening relaxed and ready to login to warcraft. Raids start from 7:45pm/8pm UK time and I log off by 11pm or, set to finish the raid by 10:30pm earliest (UK time), because like the rest of the world, I have a job to go to the next day, others have children and school/college, and in Europe its 11:30pm.
I login on a Wednesday, Thursday for a raid, Mondays to help anyone needing help with quests or dungeons, heroics or world events etc. So 2 nights of the week I will commit to a guild raid. (We'll have a raid on Tuesday also).
Our raids are buffed, organised, and each member of the raid picks his or her food buffs and flasks from the Gbank tab call...raid buffs.
We have a guild turn over of about 2 members per month recruited, and maybe 1 leaving within that month or two. And we recruit players we feel have a personality that wont clash with the rest of the guild.
I would rather recruit a player who didn’t know everything, and learned by asking his/her guild for advice, rather than boasting it in guild chat, or linking achievements. If someone is really that good, they would not need to speak up for themselves...others would do it for them. And you will see it in /g chat how you notice good people, or good players...
Players and People, It is easier to learn to be a good player, "good people"..Now, there's the gem in the crown, and you should build your guild from that small insight of information, if you're building a casual guild.

People are more human than players.

Members & Ex-Guild Members

If those stats show the majority people leave TDD to join End Game raiding guilds, or stop playing. In the "guild circle" of relations, TDD is considered to be one of the "best" casual guilds on Khadgar with feedback from Ex TDD members applying to End Gaming guilds.

Level 76

2009-07-14T08:31:00.006+01:00

reat, im now in Zul Drak, and that made the difference as Grizzly Hills was starting to fade out and i only had 3 bars left to go. As yet nothing comes close to the tanking gear T4 and badge gear of TBC ..yet (tank wise) but i know thats about to change sometime soon.
Im guessing by 78 ...
I now have every green and blue DE'ed in my bags that i had to pit stop in Stormwind to offload both my tanking gear and enchanting mats into the bank. While i was there i rechecked the def cap and total health wearing my old gear. 16k unbuffed, and still with the old enchant stuff on them. and 490 def. Compared to one of our offspec tanks Kalloss 29k health at the defence cap. So some way to go, and some gear to upgrade! However im sure the trinkets will go a long way, including the rings.
Im not signed up to a raid tonight, and i re-inserted Nad, (Or Good Nad as the guild call her) back into the GM spot in TDD, replacing the Death Knight. So thats me now on a 4 week character swap cool down. This stops raiding loot being dispersed to flighty character swappers within the guild.
Gold is now 1100g, i plan to level up my enchanting and sell the enchants on the AH to get a bit more cash for both cold weather flying and duel spec, plus matts for craftable gear. At a rough estimate i would need about 3k...i think.

Oh, the wireless keyboard and mouse came yesterday.
I was surprised at how thin the keyboard was, and how light the mouse was, but they didn’t *feel* cheap. In-fact felt very solid, and quiet. And the mouse...normally you have that lag delay with wireless mouse's, but no, instant movement and accurate, so im very pleased with it. £23.99 from www.play.com
The old wired keyboard and mouse have now been retired, and after a whole evening of levelling, im 110% satisfied in the Cherry Sirus XT kit. And would recommend it to any friend or stranger looking to go wireless, on a budget! It was a simple plug in and thats the job done, no install disk etc.

Level 75 & 5th day of no smoking

2009-07-13T07:57:00.005+01:00

his one i had to say up a little later for on Saturday night to hit 75. It was a combination of little quests and jumping from Dragon Blight to Grizzly Hills alot that hempered the progress. Post 75 Ding, Grizzly Hills seems to have been consistant, however im looking forward to moving into a new area with unspoilt quests to really benefit from a good leveling session.

The old mightiness of Nad is returning, (not me personally), but the abilities she has to survive and move across ground quickly, shield and drop 900ft with bubble to commando drop in on a town and round up 6 mobs and clear a small village quickly.
Such is the versatility and flexibility of the class (which i missed on the DK), i think the only class that comes close to it (in my eyes) is the druid. Which was an equal contender as a class for me to play. (But time and leveling from 48 was its downfall in choice).

It's be 5 days now since my last cigerette, and i can honestly say this last week and weekend have not been the best weekend i have had in a long while. And twice (including this morning), i have just wanted to light up and say "F**** U!!" but i didnt give up smoking for anyone else, i gave up for me, and that would have been childish and meaningless.
I have remained quite sure throughout the weekend i will not light one up.
The hardest part of stopping smoking is between 3 and 5 days (today) and although i didnt feel i got off to a good start, im pretty sure today i should be alright. I have a 15 year habit, to keep breaking, every day, and remain in the *right* frame of mind about it. I know im going to be spikey, and impatient sometimes due to the "pangs" but even i have the self control not to act like a complete twat, when i dont get my own way. And think about what i say before i say it.
But regardless of where reality actually is, i pretty much feel alone in this struggle against addiction (which i guess it should be), as i constantly seem to be adjusting my lifestyle to suit not going out the front door for a smoke every hour. ......wtf..!! did i just have a Monday morning rant?...this is new.

Ret Specced & Armed and dangerous - While im on the subject, i'll return this topic back to wow. And while i am in this transition of the old "/afk Nad out side smoking to non smoker", its better that i am not in my own guild, making decisions or responding to any guild member until i have defeated my own demons meantime. Last thing i guess anyone wants is Nad' in the purest form of literature, bearing down on individuals, and i know i can get very direct and unwavering when the red flag goes up. However it doesnt mean you have free license to use that as an excuse lol

870 Gold in the savings account!!

My Gaming PC

2009-07-10T10:25:00.014+01:00

I guess i should do a post on my infamous PC.

Appart from the obvious hardware internals, the PC is inside a briefcase. Yes, and small briefcase, with 4 vent holes in the top! I will upload some pictures of it later...

Meantime, since its nice and compact, i have been thinking of making it mostly wireless. Its already wireless network connected. But i was looking at keyboards and mouse.

Now im not overclocker expert etc, but i wanted something nice, affordable and not blowing stupid amounts of money away.

So with some vouchers from Raen for my birthday i have bought a Cherry eVolution Sirius XT

Most of the reviews i have read seem to say its good, and isnt cheap enough to miss key or mouse lag. So we'll have to see,...as Leni has a hateous for cables trailing over the floor, and it wasnt until i started getting tangled myself i decided wireless could be the best option!
The PC was put together after a friend used donated hardware to make us a newer computer with unwanted stuff he had in his house. I bought the graphics card off ebay, it was a reasonable price for reasonable performance. With the case area being quite small, i didnt want to install something that would pump out quite alot of heat.

Ding 74

2009-07-10T09:17:00.003+01:00

oly cow did i go for it last night.

Im sure the leveling will slow down at some point, in between levels, but even Leni was getting annoyed at me with the "Quest Complete" being broadcasted by Carbonite every 5 minutes. Crusader Aura has alot to answer for, aswell as QuestUp Alliance (Which seemed to use 40MB of game memory in the end, and lagged my game, and ended up having to switch it off) I just kept going and going. I think with one good evening 75 is also possible, if i put the same amount of time in, but i have to make sure QuestUp Alliance doesnt lag my game as much...i'll have to look into that.

Im not sure how far T4 tanking gear will meet its match in WOTLK, but so far the blue and greens havent quite matched the dps gear which was slightly under par to my tanky TBC days.

I have to focus on the Hodir and Argent enchants. And at some point i will reach that chain and have to follow it through.

On the gold side, i just reached 750'ish last night..theres cold weather flying, or duel spec.....Hmmmm which is more important?... heart says cold weather../sigh, but duel spec might be better for getting into the tanking role quicker..and get any drop items along the way.

However my bags are chocking with disenchanted gear, and there room to vellum the stuff and AH it all.

Thanks RedKiwi, i will have a listen to it tonight when i get home from work! last night i wasnt too bad questing away and either ignoring the urge to smoke or too busy to think about it...but i did have moments. Its better to be isolated for the early days of the habit kicking, imagine being in the fray of guild stuff...

Raiding & Smoking

2009-07-09T12:06:00.002+01:00

I have always been critized for going afk and having a smoke. I guess that can be quite annoying to those who dont smoke, and like Rezinar (who used to smoke) can be especially annoying.
Since yesterday 17:45pm (17 hours ago) i have stopped smoking.
Now..i started smoking when i was...Mmm maybe 15, 16. Im 34 years old now.
So its probably ideal in that case, that im not raid-leading for the rest of this week, or raiding either. I'll let you know how it goes, but for the most part, i prefer no fuss, no mention or celebrations of that fact. I have 3 weeks (or 5 days) to get through, or just that moment of "Hmmm i think i have done it"

Level 74 and a shopping list

2009-07-09T11:03:00.003+01:00

Titan Steel Eq - (Head Feet and Shield)
12 Saronite Bars
10 Titansteel Bars
3 frozen Orbs
Titanium Earthguard Chain
2 titanium bars
4 dragons eye
6 Eternal Life
6 Eternal Earth
1 Frozen Orb
Titanium Earthguard Ring
2 Titanium Bar
4 Dragons Eye
4 Eternal Earth
4 Eternal Life
1 Frozen Orb
Durable Nerubhide Cape
2 Artic fur
40 Nerubian Chitin
1 Frozen Orb

There looked to be enough people signed up for Uldar tonight, and with a quick check last night my pala is about 500g up and 200g transfered from my DK. As much as i can, i have to save enough money for Duel Spec at level 80, and a Cold Weather flying. That shouldnt be too bad to reach, considering daily's and Quests along the way.

I now have from Tonight, until next....Wednesday to concentrate on leveling. Things might go quiet until then..this is going to be a bit ...furious!

GM Notes v2 - Summer Review

2009-07-08T16:21:00.006+01:00

I was on the back foot this year, both Leni and i took a time out from gamaing to have a baby girl. I had an overwhelming urge..not to play my paladin in WOTLK. I cant remember what i thought at that time, however something that suprised me was Blizzard saying..."Look Duel Spec" ............damn you! and then i remembered why.
I remember from TBC the gear for both tanking and the offspec healing gear, but then little room for a dps option. Sure, Tanking would be my main spec, but what would my off spec be? There are always 2 evils...not enough Tanks, and or not enough Healers. I would rather offspec DPS purely for questing, dailies etc. I did try to tank with my Death Knight, but that was like trying to train an old dog (me) new tricks, it didnt gel, it wasnt right, and it was completely alien, and maybe i am too set in my ways....after all i did play a tank, tank specced for 3 years + Heyho! ...nothing like being licked in a 5 man as a paladin tank?

The role of playing a dps within a raid was....interesting, you can completely switch off while the RL and the MT and Main Healer sort out whats happening, pre raid and during. No responsibility! And i think thats where, in Leni's eyes, things havent been..right? For me, its different, seeing my guild without me as the main tank, and watching the pull...and i have to admit, sometimes i think "I wouldnt have done it like that" but i wouldnt be human if i didnt really? Although we have some great tanks in the guild, there always seems to be (and even i have felt it) the dependancy to both acknowledge your main tank, and trust / have faith in that one individual to be foot to foot perfect in a fight, a pull, a switch etc etc, and sometimes, its just not there...for me, and Leni, and im not sure about everyone else.. You know a bad pull when you can almost see it in slow motion, and you look up at your raid grid and see the lights go out one by one..a few sigh's on vent, and that long silence when your tempted to ask..".........anyone there?"
Why do guild raids have those moments, moments of lack of control, a boss fight you could do with your eyes closed in 10 man, suddenly becomes a UN summit of tactical debate. Having a 10 man limit on a 25 man raid probably didnt help, but thats now solved with a 26 man ventrillo.

Compared to TBC the guild has progressed alot more, alot is down to the officers poking at the guild and encouraging them, we have had some dis-heartening times, but again pulled through them. Sometimes you have got to persist to get things moving, and to encourage folk to make a brave step, yet again.

I dont know how much of a role i have been as a GM when i returned to playing, but some assured responses said that it was needed for me to return to the game and put a face to the guild leadership, and steer the guild back into the rythmn of things again. But, like i said above, somethings have thrown the rythmn out, Co-Op raids etc, /gquits and farewell's and so on. Butu nothing dramatical in comparison to last year!!

All thats really left to say is.....watch this space.

Nad returns - Level 80 Paladin Tanking Field Manual - WOTLK

2009-07-08T09:19:00.015+01:00

Craftables
Tempered Titansteel Helm
Titanium Earthguard Chain
Tempered Titansteel Treads
Titanium Earthguard Ring
Durable Nerubhide Cape
Titansteel Shield Wall
Swords

Son's Of Hodir - Lesser Inscription of the Pinnacle
Arg' Crusade - Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector

Spec 5-54-12
3.2 Gear
Link to EJ.com

Defence - A level 83 mob (e.g., a raid boss) will have a 5.6% chance to crit a level 80 player with 400 defense. Accordingly, the player will need an additional 5.6 * 25 = 140 defense skill, or a total of 540 defense skill to be uncrittable by raid bosses. This is equivalent to 689 defense rating.

Defence - A level 82 mob (the highest level found in heroic 5-man dungeons) will have a 5.4% chance to crit a level 80 player with 400 defense. Accordingly, the player will need an additional 5.4 * 25 = 135 defense skill, or a total of 535 defense skill to be uncrittable in heroic 5-mans. This is equivalent to 664 defense rating.

Hit Rating - Against a raid boss, melee and ranged attacks have a base 8% chance to miss (this is changed from TBC, where ti was 9%), so 263 hit rating is required to eliminate all melee misses if there are no other bonuses to hit.

26.23 hit rating = +1% chance to hit with spells. For our purposes, this only applies to Righteous Defense.

26 expertise

Gems and Enchants

Head
[Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector]: 37 stamina, 20 defense rating. Argent Crusade: Revered
[Arcanum of the Defender]: 16 defense rating, 17 doge rating. Keepers of Time: Revered

Shoulder
[Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle]: 20 dodge rating, 15 defense rating. Sons of Hodir: Exalted
[Lesser Inscription of the Pinnacle]: 15 dodge rating, 10 defense rating. Sons of Hodir: Honored

[Greater Inscription of Warding]: 15 dodge rating, 10 defense rating. The Aldor: Exalted
[Inscription of Warding]: 13 dodge rating. The Aldor: Honored
[Master's Inscription of the Pinnacle]: 52 dodge rating, 15 defense rating. Requires Inscription (400)

Cloak
[Enchant Cloak - Titanweave]: 16 defense rating
[Enchant Cloak - Major Agility]: 22 agility
[Enchant Cloak - Mighty Armor]: 225 armor
[Enchant Cloak - Superior Agility]: 16 agility
[Enchant Cloak - Steelweave]: 12 defense rating

The raw efficiency of Major Agility is mitigated somewhat by the fact that agility is not an optimal tanking stat, but it's still the best enchant to get if you're interested in pure avoidance. Mighty Armor is good if you're going for mitigation, and Titanweave is obviously the best enchant to get if you're still looking for defense.

Note that the high-end enchants are pretty expensive (Titanweave requires two Titanium Bars, for example) so if you're tanking on a budget the weaker enchants will give you more value for your gold piece -- especially if you're still using a blue cloak, for example.

Chest
[Enchant Chest - Exceptional Resilience]: 20 resilience
[Enchant Chest - Super Health]: 275 health
[Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats]: 10 to all (primary) stats
[Enchant Chest - Greater Defense]: 22 defense rating
[Heavy Borean Armor Kit]: 18 stamina
[Enchant Chest - Super Stats]: 8 to all (primary) stats

Greater Defense is the most itemization-efficient, and definitely the way to go if you still need/want defense, or if you can use the enchant to switch defense gems to something else. The super and mighty health enchants are only worth ~15 and ~10 stamina, since they don't get any effect from BoK or stamina talents; generally the stat enchants are going to be better than these if you don't want the defense. Resilience should only be used if you absolutely need it to reach the crit cap (such as with resistance gear). The armor kit comes out to 227 hp on average with talents and BoK; not as good as the health enchant, but not far off and a great deal cheaper.

Wrists
[Enchant Bracer - Major Stamina]: 40 stamina
[Enchant Bracer - Major Defense]: 12 defense rating
[Leatherworking: Fur Lining - Stamina]: 90 stamina (req. 400 leatherworking)

Major Stamina is the most efficient option here by a significant margin. The only reason to go with the defense enchant is if you absolutely need it to reach the crit cap and you have no other options.
(Blacksmiths have an option to add a prismatic gem slot to their bracers. This does not count as an enchant.)

Hands
[Enchant Gloves - Armsman]: 10 parry rating, +2% threat
[Enchant Gloves - Major Agility]: 20 agility
[Enchant Gloves - Precision]: 20 hit rating
[Enchant Gloves - Expertise]: 20 expertise rating
[Heavy Borean Armor Kit]: 18 stamina
[Enchant Gloves - Major Strength]: 15 strength
[Reticulated Armor Webbing]: 800 armor (req. 400 engineering)
[Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket]: 1035-1265 fire damage, 1 min cooldown (req. 400 engineering)

All of the WotLK enchants are viable choices here, depending on what you want/need. Personally I'd recommend skipping Armsman until you get to the point where threat is actually a concern. The Major Strength enchant is from TBC, and should only be used if you're hell-bent on maximizing block value and dps. The armor kit is less efficient than the other options but if you really really want stamina, there it is.

If you're an engineer, the armor modification is excellent. At normal armor levels for a prot paladin, it'll reduce incoming physical damage by roughly 1.5-2% before blocking. The hand-mounted rockets are a fun toy, but between Hand of Reckoning and Exorcism, they're not likely to be necessary.

zeida: A note about the pyro rocket modification: They have an extremely wide firing arc (nearly 180 degrees) and a 45 yard range. Although the new single target taunt obviously offers superior damage and threat, and doesn't consume an enchantment slot, it will not possess this range or arc of the glove enhancement. I must confess I do use these, because I like to chain pull trash and they cut downtime substantially, but from a pure tanking standpoint, they are indeed hard to defend in terms of utility and worthiness.

Waist
[Eternal Belt Buckle]: Extra prismatic gem socket

The one and only good thing to put on your belt. Doesn't affect the belt socket bonuses in any way, so fill it with whatever you need most.

Legs
[Frosthide Leg Armor]: +55 stamina, +22 agility
[Jormungar Leg Armor]: +45 stamina, +15 agility

(Leatherworkers get a cheap leg armor patch with the same stats as the epic armor kit, but they can only use it on their own armor.)

The blue armor kit is a good deal cheaper than the epic kit, so plan accordingly if you're expecting upgrades soon.

Feet
[Enchant Boots - Greater Fortitude]: 22 stamina
[Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality]: 15 stamina, +8% run speed

The run speed improvement on Tuskarr's Vitality does not stack with the 15% increased run speed from the Pursuit of Justice talent. Take this into account when planning your build and your enchants.

There's also an engineer-only boot gadget, [url=http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55016]Nitro Boosts][/b], which increases your run speed for 5 seconds on use, with a 5-minute cooldown. At first glance, this looks like a nice answer to one of the weak spots of paladin tanks: the inability to close distances quickly (e.g., Intervene, Feral Charge, Death Grip). However, the rather unfortunate drawback is that the boosters have a chance to backfire and launch you straight up in the air. When this happens, mobs that you're tanking will lose aggro on you and run off to beat up other people, and you'll die from falling damage when you come back down unless you have Divine Shield ready, or your cloak has the parachute gadget. While this can obviously be an entertaining effect, your 25-man raid won't be particularly pleased if they wipe on a difficult fight because your boots malfunctioned. So use these only if you're really sure they won't get you into trouble.

zeida: The nitro boost boots modification may in fact malfunction and knock the user high into the air, dropping aggro, but should this occur, he will not fall to the ground and die instantly; instead he receives the Parachute buff (just as he would being dismounted flying over Wintergrasp or Dalaran) and will fall slowly to the ground. I do not know whether this breaks on damage or not.

They have an additional possible malfunction not mentioned - they will sometimes be fully ineffective and do absolutely nothing.

I personally do have the nitros on my tanking boots as a PoJ specced paladin, simply because I believe having the capacity to quickly cover great distance (even unreliably) is far more potentially decisive than 22 stamina. Obviously, using these things when I am actively tanking a major mob would be irresponsible except in dire circumstances; nonetheless I like having the option available to me."

Finger
[Enchant Ring - Stamina]: +24 stamina (req. 400 enchanting)

This is the "perk" for being an enchanter: you get 48 extra stamina from enchanting your rings in a slot where non-enchanters get nothing.

Weapon
[Enchant Weapon - Accuracy]: +25 hit rating, +25 crit rating
[Enchant Weapon - Exceptional Agility]: +26 agility
[Titanium Weapon Chain]: +28 hit rating, 50% reduction in duration for disarm effects.
[Enchant Weapon - Potency]: +20 strength

The Titanium Weapon Chain is very nice for hit-capping, and until patch 3.08 it's probably the best overall value even if you have Pursuit of Justice (they don't stack). Accuracy has almost as much hit rating and a lot of crit, so it's a solid enchant but extremely expensive right now. Exceptional Agility is the only option if you want avoidance. Potency is included because it's the only +strength enchant, so it's the only way to increase block value if that's what you're really after.

(The planned Titanguard enchant for +50 stamina to a weapon has been removed and won't appear in the game.)

Shield
[Enchant Shield - Defense]: 20 defense rating
[Enchant Shield - Major Stamina]: 18 stamina
[Titanium Plating]: 40 block value

Defense or block value is generally the way to go here; Major stamina is a TBC enchant and should only be used if you really really really want stamina and you can't get it anywhere else.

Quick and Dirty guide to getting level 80 gear

This is a list aimed at tanks starting leveling in Northrend who need to put together a set of tanking gear quickly, but can also be useful for people looking for pieces in a slot or two. All the items listed here are blue quality, and can be obtained through quests, reputation, or crafting. Drops are not included because the intent is to give a list of gear that can be obtained quickly.
Starting at 71-74, do all Wyrmrest quests at the Wyrmrest temple. Once you've completed these, purchase a Wyrmrest Accord tabard and put it on. (Don't let the first level 80 instance catch you by surprise.) Continue wearing the tabard, and do the daily quest at Wyrmrest temple every day as you level until you reach at least Revered with the Wyrmrest Accord.
At level 74, get yourself a [Tempered Saronite Belt] off the Auction House or have someone make you one. Buy and attach an [Eternal Belt Buckle] to it, and socket it with a [Thick Sun Crystal] for a total of 69 defense rating. Optionally, purchase other pieces in the Tempered Saronite "set" to use as leveling gear or as fallback pieces in case you can't get one of the recommended items before you start raiding or doing heroics.
Head to Zul'Drak as soon as you can. (level 74 or so) and find a partner to do the "Wanted: Ragemane's Flipper" quest at given the first Argent Crusade camp. Get [Crescent of Brooding Fury] for completing the quest.
Still in Zul'Drak, follow quests to Argent Stand (the major Argent Crusade base in the zone). Do quests there to improve your Argent Crusade rep, including the dailies. Continue to do these daily quests every day as you level until you reach Revered with the Argent Crusade. (There are more quests that give Argent Crusade rep than Wyrmrest rep, so don't take off the Wyrmrest tabard until you're finished with Wyrmrest rep.)
Move back to the west edge of Zul'Drak and do the quests from the Argent Crusade Forward Camp for more AC rep. Also do Stefan's quests from Ebon Watch to acquire [Betrayer's Choker]. Socket it with a [Thick Sun Crystal] for a total of 29 defense rating.
When you reach an appopriate level (76-ish) start keeping your eyes open for a Gundrak group to complete the "For Posterity" quest and get [Solid Platinum Band].
When you go to train at level 77, get a [Saronite Bulwark] off the Auction House.
When you go to train at level 78, get some [Daunting Handguards] off the Auction House. Once back in Northrend, go to Wyrmrest Temple and purchase [Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions], and then go to the Argent Crusade camp in the southeast corner of Icecrown and purchase [Special Issue Legplates]. Apply a [Jormungar Leg Armor] to the legplates and socket them with a [Stalwart Huge Citrine] for a total of 87 defense rating..Also buy an Argent Crusade tabard and have it handy to switch when you do this.
Starting at level 78, keep your eyes peeled for groups for Halls of Stone to do the Brann Bronzebeard event and get [Pauldrons of Reconnaissance], and for an Oculus group to do the quests inside for [Bracers of Reverence].
Optionally, also keep your eyes peeled for Utguard Pinnacle groups; the instance will give you Rep with whatever faction's tabard you're wearing, and the plate chest reward from the quest in the instance is a useful intermediate and backup piece if you have trouble completing Wyrmrest rep.
Starting from the Argent Crusade camp where you purchased the legplates and tabard, complete the quest chain given by Tirion Fordring through the building of the new tower, and obtain [The Crusader's Resolution].
Follow the breadcrumb quests to your faction's airship and do quests for Thassarian (Alliance) or Koltira Deathweaver (Horde) to establish the new Ebon Blade base at the Shadow Vault. If/when you reach Honored, purchase [Toxin-Tempered Sabatons].
When you reach Revered with the Argent Crusade, purchase [Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector] and apply it to your helm.
When you reach level 80 and Revered with the Wyrmrest Accord, purchase [Breastplate of the Solemn Council].
As soon as possible, go to K3 in Storm Peaks and follow the chain starting with the quest "They Took Our Men!" until you get access to the Hodir quartermaster. Then begin working on dailies and other quests until you reach at least Honored with the Sons of Hodir and purchase [Lesser Inscription of the Pinnacle] and apply it to your tanking shoulders. This does not need to be done to become uncrittable with the recommended set if you follow the instructions, but you should start on it as soon as you can find the time in order to work your way up to Exalted for the epic inscription.
If you have not already, obtain the following enchants:
A +12 defense rating enchant to cloak.
A +22 defense rating enchant to chest.
A +40 stamina enchant to bracers.
A +20 hit rating enchant to gloves
A +22 stamina enchant to boots.
A [Titanium Weapon Chain] to weapon.
A +20 defense rating enchant to shield. In total, you should have an additional 54 defense rating from enchants.
----------------------------------------------------------

Enough is Enough,...With 3.2, new heroics, and an overhaul of the badge system before Maelstrom..whenever that is, im bringing Nadiastorm back into the game. There are a number of reasons why, many of which i should or should not say, but the main difficultly has been finding my role as a DPS ..limiting to what i am used to, and damned annoying when there is no tank available. Plus i have played this class for 3 years and feel alot more comfortable with it, and im not messing about with any indecision about it....Nad's coming back out of retirement

link to half term is up

00-18-53

2009-06-27T10:14:00.010+01:00

******************EP CALCULATOR************************

EP :WeaponDPS = 352
EP :Strength = 280
EP :AttackPower = 100

EP :ExpertiseRating = 80
EP :CritRating = 70
EP :HasteRating = 63
EP :HitRating = 63
EP :ArmorPenetrationRating = 57

EP :Agility = 36

Ability	Total	%	Landed	Hit%	Crit%	Miss%	Average
Plague Strike	843164956	6	792096	52	42	4	1064
Icy Touch	1494154689	11	799443	53	46	0	1868
Death Coil	1533817417	11	566565	69	30	0	2707
UB	625518468	4	3260197	100	0	0	191
Frost Fever	381581352	2	789760	100	0	0	483
Blood Plague	379980906	2	786893	100	0	0	482
Necrosis	687503849	5	4312361	100	0	0	159
Blood Caked Blade	416656380	3	1228983	95	0	4	339
Wandering Plague	278273262	2	576097	100	0	0	483
Blood Boil	1028563312	7	734301	69	30	0	1400
Main Hand	1976447745	14	1607240	41	38	19	1229
Off Hand	1147211815	8	2705121	42	38	19	424
Ghoul	1356296298	10	3430946	80	12	6	395
Gargoyle	1137506101	8	653319	84	12	2	1741
DPS 3691
Total Damage 13286676550 in 1000 h
Threat Per Second 2447
Generated in 1071s
Template :DW 00-18-53 NAD2.xml(C:\Documents and Settings\Storm\Desktop\DK\DKSimulator0.8.4\Templates\DW 00-18-53 NAD2.xml)
Priority :Dual.xml(C:\Documents and Settings\Storm\Desktop\DK\DKSimulator0.8.4\Priority\Dual.xml)
Presence :Unholy
Sigil of :FrozenConscience
RuneForge :FallenCrusader / FallenCrusader
Pet Calculation :True

After respeccing and double checking my Glyphs where right, i tried out a VOA25. Im alot happier with the result, and flexability the spec gives to both ranged and melee.
Next ground test will be any raid 10/25.

The spec is exempt from the coming 3.2 patch incoming with regards to Scourge strike, however Death Coil and Descration might be something to look into further to plan ahead.

The main issue would be that i cannot take out Descration, and still have the end talent of Gargoyle. 3.2 new talent might be the balancer of lossing Gargoyle, however tests would need to be trialed to see if it would be the case or not.

Nevermind, i found a beta talent builder. looks like the talents would be as linked...more later

Duel-welding Returns

2009-06-16T15:21:00.044+01:00

00-13-58 changed to 00-15-56

00-18-53

I started out with the simulator and tried out various duel welding options, and liked the 00-13-58. However I found the timing of rotations a bit awkward and decided to shuffle the placements of a few. By placing 2 points in Improved holy presence seemed to make the whole rotation alot more smoother without pausing for runes or global cool downs. So the whole combat rotation phase was consistant and constant
Several tests on Kahorie's DK simulator Beta 0.8.4
Priority FF and BP > Rune Dump = UB > Gargoyle > DC
-------------------------------------------
Plague Strike 103047977 8 79466 54 40 4 1296
Icy Touch 132752469 10 79991 69 30 0 1659
Death Coil 131219938 10 50760 69 30 0 2585
UB 61160980 4 326990 100 0 0 187
Frost Fever 38823622 3 79246 100 0 0 489
Blood Plague 36859074 2 79068 100 0 0 466
Necrosis 63069682 4 431209 100 0 0 146
Blood Caked Blade 40309395 3 122930 94 0 5 327
Wandering Plague 26260749 2 54915 100 0 0 478
Blood Boil 103737864 8 77267 69 30 0 1342
Main Hand 179751762 14 160619 44 36 19 1119
Off Hand 107042080 8 270590 44 36 19 395
Ghoul 133463420 10 343063 80 12 6 389
Gargoyle 108113478 8 62147 84 12 2 1739
Raz 3210009 0 270590 100 0 0 11
DPS 3525
Total Damage 1268822499 in 100 h
Threat Per Second 2321
Generated in 196s
Template :DW 00-15-56 Nad.xml(C:\Documents and Settings\mowatc\Desktop\DK\DKSimulator0.8.4\Templates\DW 00-15-56 Nad.xml)
Priority :Dual.xml(C:\Documents and Settings\mowatc\Desktop\DK\DKSimulator0.8.4\Priority\Dual.xml)
Presence :Unholy
Sigil of :FrozenConscience
RuneForge :FallenCrusader / Razorice
Pet Calculation :True

******************EP CALCULATOR************************
EP :WeaponDPS = 365
EP :Strength = 280
EP :AttackPower = 100
EP :HitRating = 69
EP :CritRating = 68
EP :ExpertiseRating = 65
EP :HasteRating = 61
EP :ArmorPenetrationRating = 58
EP :Agility = 30
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_5tzf65DSkx0/Sjx9Y3-Ri7I/AAAAAAAABcE/coS9pQvv4q4/WoWScrnShot_061909_225827.jpg

Gear
Uldar - Iron Riveted War Helm - Flame Leviathan
10 Man Naxx - Helm of the Unsubmissive - Sapphiron
Nax - Shoulderguards of the Undaunted
H Naxx - Chestplate of the Risen Soldier
H Naxx -Girdle of Chivalry
H Naxx - Riveted Abomination Leggings
BS - Battlelord's Plate Boots
H Naxx - Gauntlets of Combined Strength

Necklaces & Rings
Trinkets - Pyrite Infuser - Flame Leviathan
Most gear found in the Construct Quarter of Naxx

Weapons

H Naxx -Torment of the Banished -Widow's Fury

Uldar Razorscale Talon

Full Weapon list

DPS Dummy test 23/06/09

Addons

2009-06-16T10:23:00.001+01:00

http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/tellmewhen.aspx
Something to help with Frost procs, will trial tonight.

Co-operations raids can either work,

2009-06-16T09:00:00.002+01:00

...or fall appart with some serious damage to (both) guilds.
You get to see how one guild compares to another with regards to loot, and organisation. Its all based on trust, and sticking to your word, break it and you lose all honour you earned.
You cannot bring internal guild looting rules to the table of a co-op raid and expect the other guild to accept it and roll with it. Especially a EPGP system or DKP one.
You have to keep it basic, as the concept of a co-op raid is…simply an organised pug.
And organised pug is about as organised as you will get with looting rules. 2 Epics max, and because your co-operating, you have to make consessions for Alts, as in being…they can have whats left over, NOT roll along side main roles within the raid, IE main characters.
The decision came to end the co-op was based on 2 things, 2 of their members leaving their guild due to their internal looting system, and secondly having a dis-regard for another guild. In respect of thats system.

If you find yourself arguing about whether an Alt can roll alongside your main tank, healers, and dps classes who are struggling to gear up to the same level as your top 5 dps on recount, ..something is fundamentally ....wrong in perspective of the co-operation, you may aswell pug in that respect.

That's better

2009-06-11T10:15:00.001+01:00

After my previous post, I gained a sense of *ugh* about levelling my paladin, gearing and rep etc etc. The guild still has a sense of..wheres our tank tonight (not directed at me ofc) but we seem to be using a lot of Off-spec folk to fill in the spots for Main Spec tanks. Lots of RL reasons, so no-body can complain, and nobody hasn’t either, but im distracting myself now from what I intended to write.
I paid for a character re-customisation, changed my name and made Nuadah, look like Nad. And to be honest about it, I was much happier seeing that, without logging into the game…strange huh?
I like to have a sense on continuity, and I guess others within the guild do too. So the name was changed to Nadiastorm (*Note the funny i*) which is name more familiar inside and outside of TDD. (And I refer back to the earlier blogs about association, names and familiarity).
Guild-wise the progress of WOTLK continues in a very progressive and steady course, with very little left to get from Naxx 10 from individuals, im pointing the Wednesday (Hug a Guildie) to OS 10 first, then starting on Naxx afterwards for a head start for Tarnya's Thursday event. The following week will be Malygos (If we can get some instant group heals & HoT along for the vortex stage), otherwise it will be a repeat of OS / VoA and Naxx again from the week before.
Our co-op raids have increased from Monday's to both Monday's and Tuesday's. Last Monday saw a clear of 2 wings, leaving Military and Construct left over. Those looking to see the 2 end bosses of Naxx will be able to on Tuesday's…and they had better read up on them.
In a discussion with Tarnya last night, along with Saaj and Trivia, we talked about changing the scene weekly. Instead of posting the regular set days of 10 mans, to mix them up a bit more and add some variety, and I quite agree..how bored would you get plugging on through the week with the same raid on each day, every day of the week. /yawn
We set a simple ruling on Co-Operative loot, 2 epics max each per night, and an open roll to all (inc those who have 2 epics already during the night) for unwanted epic loot. No EPGP, or DKP system, no red tape of debate. Simple fast and in the long term, fair

Half Term is up, and the result is...

2009-06-04T13:13:00.002+01:00

I have to say…I didn’t think it would come to this. I have spent numerous times contemplating it, over the months. Debating on this blog and in everyday life, while at work and so on and so on. After struggling for some years, and persevering through difficulties, and decisions, I think it is safe to say I have finally come to the conclusion after seeing the duel spec option within the game. It will take some time and some stealth pug's to get to the same level as TDD, and that could take some time over-all, but questing outside of the guild and pugging shouldn’t be a problem, never has been really. And outside of the Monday Wednesday ad Thursday, theres ample time to play catchup.
With enough experience from Nuadah, Nadiastorm shouldn’t have much problem tanking the 5 mans and raiding pugs in LFG. Challenge is, how quickly can it be done?
The DK is certainly an awsome class. Many of its abilities as a DPS class, and Tanking class make it an astonding all rounder, however its complicated by minor nerfs, and the "curse up & spam" a finishing move. Retribution seems far simpler and easier to rotate without growning a 6th finger on my left hand. I have'nt got used to the "1 hand on keyboard, and the other holding down the left and right button for moving" setup of playing before, and lthough with time I have got used to it, it does feel,….alien. If I had a chocie between a dps DK and Ret paladin, I think I would opt for paladin due to the familiar rotation of skills and timings. To play the DK well, I feel you need to be really commited to it. And I am not, so while i lead and envolve myself in raids i will be picking up the unwanted items only.

Guild Banks.

2009-05-19T10:14:00.002+01:00

Our system is quite striaghtforward. We have a general Guild Bank where guild members can donate items, like pre level 80 items etc and consumables like scrolls etc and metal bars, green items & blue. They request anything they would like off the guild forum.

Things get more complicated for raiding. We have a Raid Buff bar, which currently holds food buffs created by guild members. This year I plan to expand on the self service feature of it, by adding flasks. Since Blizz has nerfed the potion consumption during a fight to one potion, the potion side is not much of a priority, ..more of an added extra. Permissions are set so that members of the guild can take 2/3 stacks of raid buffs. (3 for hunters) with no special ranks or permissions set it is a guild supporting itself and feeding itself.

In WOLTK, Leni and I have been offline, and the raid flask/potion addition to each raid has not been as it was in TBC. The amount of time distributing these items slows down the raid organisation and initial setup when summoning. So the plan is to setup Flasks and food on 1 self serve tab, I am planning of appointing the Alchemists and Leni to organise this back into production, and putting forward the food buffs required.. This Tab needs some direction and motivation, and I will be looking to put the raid buff self serve back into full swing as it was ment to be.

The Crafters Tab.
Initially we tried this once before in pre-TBC, and TBC. It didn’t work…primarily because its function, and direction got itself lost and failed to adapt to the changing demand of both the guild and the AH market. I didn’t have any involvement in the process of it, but could see the potential of it, this time round I wil be taking a big role in its function. In making sure that it works and develops into what to can be.

There are 3 professions which could develop the guild profitably in progression
Jewelcrafting.
Enchanting
Inscription.

Gearwise, these three professions lower the consumable cost of each raiders gear. And de-crease the down time pushing the potential of upgraded gear.

Outfitting.
Leather
Tailor
Blacksmithing
Leg enchants, cloaks and Titansteel. The single most Pre-raid gear is craftable. And with long standing members of the guild, still without these items looking for heroics, slows the guild down in raid progression. Make a list of all the titansteel wearers, titansteel smelters. Cloaks, and ebonweave's line up a wardrobe, outfit the raid, and sell off the rest. But keep a stock of 1 remaining for main spec raiders.

Buy the matts for these Epic BoE, craft them and sell them. Use the profit fto suppliment supply of herbs for Alchemists flasks and Cooks for food buffs.

Think of it like an army to feed. And that costs. The specifics of who and what currently is under wraps by myself until i am happy with the overlay of the setup.

GM Talk - Raiding

2009-05-15T10:23:00.006+01:00

Over-view the Raiding
Over the last few weeks I put together a Thursday Raid. The guild appears to have 2 levels of progress. Uldar & OS level and Naxx level. While I can understand the frustration on both sides, there seemed to be little happening to enage the problem. And that’s prehaps the area where the GM of the guild who was RL AFK with a new baby girl steps back into the game and guild. I heard there was a lack of interest in raiding at the high end, by the mid-geared players, and non raiders (wtf non raiders in your guild?) feeling cornered into filling a missing spot, and being undergeared & inexperienced. Many have expressed dissapointment when coming to help out fill a spot, being a good thing, to read the expression, not enough DPS tattered across raid chat. It wasn’t until Leni (Mother of above baby girl and Officer of TDD, stepped in and confronted the comment head on, and explained the reasons why it was so offensive.
…the smallest things, mean the greatest.
"Not enough DPS" / "Too many new folk to the raid who havent done it before" /………………... "DPS isnt good enough" someone would state that as a fact, the reader would see that as an ungrateful slam at their effort, experience & gear. Take the comment into context of a raid, and ask me where the enthusiam went to sign up?...now you understand.
Last Thursday, I assigned Patchwerk as the boss to bench test members of the raid with. I deliberately picked out the lesser members of the guild who wanted to raid, and assessed with recount addon, their failings. 30 minutes spent with a rogue pumping out 800 dps, turned into 1600+ dps under 1 hour of suggesting rotations…No respecs, no buffs, and using a blue and a green dagger. Sometimes we forget that some of us will research and understand websites such as Elitest Jerks, and those who play for the joy of playing hoping that others will take time with them to develop their characters together, within their guild. Players have an expectation of their guild to support them, and in turn they will respect and support you. That’s part to do with life skills, and lets not forget, we still exist outside of warcraft too. I absolutely hate sweeping statements with no direct link to its relevance, person or group if you don’t follow it up person to person later. Get them in a party and take them somewhere, where they feel they are being supported, by you, and working with you to get things right. When I offer spots to guild members who havent signed up for the raid, their first initial question is, "is my gear at the right level?"
The standard of raiding is one of 2 things.

How balanced is your raid and can it support an undergeard, inexperienced healer/dps/tank ?

And how much commitment are you prepared to give to support that member joining your raid, and what preparations have you made to include this member?

Being a raid leader, you can ask/tell a raid member, more experienced, to whisper and buddy the new member along. While the Tanks /w each other and inform the Raid Leader of their tanking assignment (MT or OT) and healers are free to assign themselves in their own chat channel, while you over-view the rest. We've practiced this in TDD and it seems to work out. DPS has 2 groups, ranged and Melee. And its easier to buddy them according to which group they belong to.

Communication crossing
Tanks, DPS and Healing. While suggestions and observations are welcome always, too many instructions from multiple groups will confuse the individual they are directed to. There is a raid leader, a Main Tank, a Lead Healer and an assistant raid leader. These 4 are the only ones who should be giving out instruction to each group.
Raid Leader
Assistant RL
Main Tank - DPS - Lead Healer
The raid Leader and Assistant are 1 group and are the ones finalising the plan & stratagey on Vent
Tanks speak to that RL Group, as does the DPS and Lead Healer.
MT, DPS and LH speaking across each other, does not work. And that’s where your drama will start up. This includes loot, recount (in all its information and statistics) & disagreements. Take it up with the RL Group and it will discussed AFTER the raid, and not during.

Keeping a Log
I keep a raiding progress thread for the Thursday Group, so that things like wow stats and my personal thoughts about the raid are available for those raid members to reflect on, and to take note where things need improvement for the next raid. This also allows them to go out for the rest of the week, and 5 man some instances, or take the experience of these raids and what they have learned to 25 man pugs, or even 10 or 5 man pugs, with a lot more confidence.
It's also your single most opportunity to show your appreciation of those who attended and show your commitment to them. After all, YOU depend on them to come next week, right? Better to show your commitment to them as a leader, than someone who logs in on the raid night, smash some bosses and then log off with "GJ all" …theres no development in that, of your team, your team work, or team building.

Addons to Download

2009-05-06T15:50:00.002+01:00

Debuff Filter This addon filters out the debuffs and buffs that you don't care about. If you're a melee class, you can filter out everything but CoR, FF and Sunder. If you're a caster, you can just show debuffs like CoE and Winter's Chill. Healers can filter out everything but their buffs and HoTs, etc.

After trialing this addon, i would recommend it for Unholy DPS, as you can constantly monitor which deases are up and when to use S'Strike to its full potiential. The Unholy Blight /dfilter needed to be added to both debuff and self buff. A recommended addon for sure 19/05/09

Unholy 2H Spec

2009-05-01T17:13:00.009+01:00

After spending lots of gold, and my next respec being 50g, i copied Rezinar's Unholy spec and dropped the DW idea.
I am now happy(ier) with my DPS, but a little sad about losing the DW. Ohwell.
I now have to work on gear, and anything BLUE craftable from the AH, is up for priority grabs.

Crafted
Vengeance Bindings
Chestplate of Conquest

Cloak of Holy Extermination

Ring of Scarlet Shadows

Quest

Trollkickers & Ring of Foul Mojo Gundrak

DW - Options & being a GM

2009-05-01T12:48:00.007+01:00

Unholy DPS Duel Weld Both Rezinar and myself read up on some forums about DW'ing and came across the Elite Jerks forum. The frost tree pre 3.1 worked fine, but with the moving of specific talents up and down the frost tree and basically killed of the cookie cutter build. Unholy seems to be the other option to save the DW build/stlye of play. Initially this is a started build for the gear that i currently am wearing, the more advanced spec's scale with higher level gear (Which i dont have) so practicing these rotations and reaching levels of spell hit etc will not be so expensive etc.

GM, Main Tank, Raid Leader & Master Looter .....(no more) The Tanking role i initially took up, i am now retiring from. The point being is that i do not have the same ample time to catch up with the 3 existing tanks within the guild, and those on trial membership i hope will pass onto full membership. I used to be GM, and RL, and Main tank there was alot to be learned from that experience. But being a DPS, within a raid itself i much easier for me to see what is going on around the whole of the raid without having the boss or (insert mob here) in my face blocking my view. And also able to feedback on erros made by players within the raid better. That for me is a new interest, and a better style of play. Guildwise i prefer to concentrate more on, and Raid Leaders who have the energy and ability to research and lead the guild to continue having that role, as they currently do. Having the drive to do it is much more inspiring for a guild. My strength is a co-ordinator, and i guess "assisting the raid leader" is much more ideal. Have a fight, wipe then feed back to the RL what needs adjusting etc etc. Anyway..moving on Officers within a raid need to have an authoritive role, being Master Looter, Or Raid Leader etc. They are your back bone of the guild and need presence within a raid, even for the old veteran players to (and espically) the new members of the guild on trial. This goes back to the saying a good guild isnt based on 1 GM, but the support/framework the GM has to support him/her. Be it by accident or just events of late, me having to be offline for a month or 2 out of the game, has shown what the officers are made of. And how well the guild has continued onwards with the administration group in place, and well versed on the specifics of what the guild is about.. If you're officers do not know what the guild etho's is, then you will have a tear in the team which will cause friction. However communication/discussion are the most important aspects of your officers, and the ability to debate guild issues without spite. I am lucky to have a wealth of officers, nominated by officers who are able to function without a GM present, and assume the lead roles without complaint.

Revised DPS cycle #2

2009-04-30T00:18:00.005+01:00

Testing on the dummy, the original idea did not work out so well, the timing was off and a cycle lock would happen.

With some adjustments, the final dps cycle goes like this..

#show
/castsequence reset=3 Icy Touch, Howling Blast, Plague Strike, Blood Strike, Blood Strike, Frost Strike

Talent points where then respecced to remove the tanking skills and added them to the blood tree..

DPS went from 1300 to 1500. Which was an improvement. Now looking at gear and a better main hand weapon to improve that further.
Check the armur for my current talent tree.

Main DPS Cycle

2009-04-29T12:46:00.006+01:00

One touch macro revision.
Old
#show
/castsequence reset=4 Plague Strike, Icy Touch, Blood Strike, Blood Strike, Howling Blast
(If Rime Proc's hit Obliterate)

Revised for testing
#show
/castsequence rest=3 Icy Touch, Howling Blast, Plague Strike, Blood Strike, Obliterate, Blood Strike,

Following some fights in Naxx, i noticed i was looking at Obliterate, and Frost strike within the cycle, adding 2 extra abilities within the cycle screwing things up.
With some tests on a dummy, i should be able to see if this cycle locks out at all.

To Get : Glyph of Howling Blast

TANK GEAR 3.2

2009-04-27T14:40:00.003+01:00

Duel Spec's & UI's

2009-04-27T12:03:00.005+01:00

With the duel spec available i was playing around with 2 separate specs for Tanking and DPS'ing.

Frost Blood DPS Spec Taking out all of the tanking abilities, this build is based on crits, AP and rune generation

Frost Unholy DPS Spec is more about auto attack curses in addition to the forst crits and runic generation, the macros remain the same, in rotation. Although i prefer the 1st spec

Tanking Spec is pretty much what i am specced at the moment....

Decided to wipe my UI after being offline for so long, and try out Roth UI
I added Omen, Wardrobe2, Baggins and something else...oh yes fubar for wardrobe. Carbonite was being an ass, so i took it off again, kept spewing some lua message. Screen shot is an example from the UI download page. Ui looks good, need to scale down the target bars though, and see what its like ina raid, but we will see.

Musing....

2009-04-17T15:06:00.004+01:00

Nadiastorm
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sV0bZE0tAbuMhoIufzE000b Prot
#Show
/castsequence Judgement of ####, Holyshield
offspec http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sV0bZVZEfbtbIhhdIfsu Ret
...to be continued

Respec, Respec

2009-03-03T23:55:00.005Z

It was all trial and error, my first venture into Naxx was great, but opened up the floor to improvements that i needed.
Mostly, the above picture is a respec after the Nax run, and my DPS was half of that shown on Recount. Then after some further tweaking, the below is the result ..

There is alot of work gone into Macro's purely for rotations, so everything is neat, and easy to access other abilities. On top of the DPS talents are the core frost tanking abilities also. With TDD advancing, i would constantly playing catch up with the leading tanks. And with the baby almost here, i just dont have the time as i did before to commit some time towards gathering taking gear readily to main tank in Naxx or other places.

Rotation is ... PS -> IT -> BS -> BS -> HB -> (Gargolye / Death Coil)
#show
/castsequence reset=4 Plague Strike, Icy Touch, Blood Strike, Blood Strike, Howling Blast
(If Rime Proc's hit Obliterate)

(With Gargolye on cooldown spam Death Coil to use up your Rune Power. Otherwise hit Gargolye)

AE
#show
/castsequence reset=4 Icy Touch, Pestilence, DeathChill, Howling Blast
Always use the ? icon for the macro, it will auto change the button icon to the spell in the current rotation

Death Knights’ Hit and Expertise - sounds cool, what’s it about?

2009-03-03T14:30:00.003Z

Now as a Death Knight you have to worry about two types of Hit. Spell Hit and Melee Hit. Yes, they are different. Then, if you want to add in a side complication, there is the Melee Hit for DK’s who dual wield (DW).

Melee Hit
Versus a Raid Boss your special attacks (Read: yellow damaging attacks) all have a 9% chance to miss. This is for DW (dual wield) and 2H (two handers) DK’s.
32.79 Hit Rating is equal to 1% Melee Hit
295.11 Hit Rating is equal to 9% Melee Hit (this is the Melee Hit cap)
DW imposes a penalty, requiring 24.6% Melee Hit to reach the Melee Hit cap with white attacks
DW still only has a 9% Melee Hit cap for special attacks

Spell Hit
26.23 Hit Rating is equal to 1% Spell Hit
445.91 Hit Rating is equal to 17% Spell Hit (this is the Spell Hit cap)
Improved Faerie Fire (Balance Druid debuff) or Misery (Shadow Priest debuff) increases your spell hit by 3%, or 78.69 Hit Rating.
Virulence + Misery = 6% spell hit, or 157.38 Hit Rating

So what are the automatic bonuses to Hit for your character?
Unholy Spec: Virulence 3% spell hit
Draenei Racial: Heroic Presence 1% melee/spell hit

In a typical raid environment with Virulence and Heroic Presence you will only need 288.53 Hit Rating to Spell Hit cap, which is less than the 295.11 Hit Rating required to Melee Hit cap.
So what is your Hit Rating cap? Well this is where you have to sit down and do a little figuring on your own. Do you have a SP or Boomkin in your raids? Does your spec include Virulence? Do you get into the same party as a Draenei in a raid? Once you answer those questions, you can find out your hit cap with this information very quickly.

Taken from SkeltonJack

Dual Wield Tri-Spec

2009-03-03T14:01:00.015Z

This spec focuses on the scalability of dual wielding and massive proc generation. It also makes particular use of Howling Blast as its main “strike” since HB is independent of weapon damage. For this build, you want a slow mainhand and a fast offhand. The fast offhand maximizes procs, while the slow mainhand maximizes Blood Caked Blade (BCB) proc damage (since offhand procs of BCB are based off mainhand damage).

Benefits brought by a Dual Wield Tri-Spec
The tri-spec offers the same raid utility as a deep frost build. The haste (especially the 5% personal from Imp Icy Talons) is essential to generating as many procs as possible, which is what makes this build viable.8.4.2.
Talents Choices 15/37/19: All of the points in this build are designed around maximized white damage and proc generation.

BCB, Howling Blast, and Killing Machine are absolutely required for a tri-spec to minimize the penalty of reduced strike damage when compared with a two-hander and to maximize procs to compensate.

8.4.3. Rotation
PS = Plague Strike
IT = Icy Touch
BS = Blood Strike
HB = Howling Blast
OB = Obliterate
DC = Death Coil

Note in the “DC” section, continue using Death Coil until you can’t cast anymore, meaning you have less than 40 RP remaining. Also, all Rime procs will be used in the “DC” section to cast HB. However, HBs usage must be primarily restricted to Rime procs.
Rotations are shown over ONE cool-down per rune, with full rotations lasting approximately 10 seconds.

X = HB unless a Rime proc is up, OB if Rime is up
PS -> IT -> BS -> BS -> X -> DC
(There are no death rune talents, so you will simply repeat this cycle)

Glyphs
There are no particular helpful Glyphs for this spec. Mostly the Blood Glyphs fit the Tri-Spec theme quite well, so for Glyphs help for DW Tri-Spec, see Blood Glyphs.

Taken from Elitest jerks DPS compendium

Macro's

#showtooltip Mind Freeze

/cast Mind Freeze/cast Strangulate

#showtooltip Chains of Ice

/cast Chains of Ice

/cast Death Grip

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PS -> IT -> BS -> BS -> X -> DC
#show
/castsequence reset=target/Plague Strike, Icy Touch, Blood Strike, Blood Strike
/castsequence Trinket 1, Trinket 2
#show
/cast DeathChill
/cast Howling Blast
#show
/castsequence Icy Touch, Pestilence, Howling Blast
/cast DeathChill

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jZG0etuedRho0oZfM0Ixckx0o

2009-01-26T15:22:00.005Z

Final Tank spec - Beta

I have been looking about and reading the talent trees on all three options, and picked out this.
To be able to tank and DPS (Quest or raid assist offtank etc) this seems the best balance for me.

Nadiastorm

2009-01-08T10:27:00.001Z

I have this question a lot, from ..mostly players enquiring about the guild and about joining. Our last recruit who has posted an application associated NadiaStorm with Tuatha De Danann. As a "I know of that name".
It curious to see that kind of comment from a player in a realm with like ours. Im also curious as to why Blizz decided to allow a sex/appearance change too. Some folk in the guild commented on how Nad should have turned to a death knight, fallen from the paladin class, into the Lich Kings power. Story in there somewhere…

Something to consider when I reach level 80. Meantime, when I do log in as Nadiastorm I get the usual ex TBR members asking silly questions, and taunting about how Nad is level 70 and not 80 yet etc etc. Competition, rivalry and past discretions, you may find it strange that old ex-TBR members /w me from time to time. You could probably tell by the tone, that its not the best characters of old TBR that whisper me. Strange huh? Come 80 I will rename Nad to the alt that’s in TBR with the funny í and rename Nuadah, and pay for the toon change.

Guilds been quiet over the holiday period, but come through good. Some of the very quiet members who joined on a *see what we are like* and *see what happenes* basis have moved on, some to other realms, and other just guildless. There will always be movers and shakers about this time of year, it goes with the mood of change.

Tanking

2009-01-07T16:06:00.001Z

I settled for blood spec, it has a good dose of dps, self healing and some minor defence talents.
Picking up 5 point in Frost and Unholy, adds a bit more aviodance and mitig' so a simple change of gear for quest/dps'ing is much easier to do than a paladin, in the same case.
I managed 2 five man runs to UK and Nexxus which proved pretty well for the DK, although the gear was lacking the class does show alot of promise for later on. I had a look at Darkstorms main tank (DK) and it was interesting to see him Unholy spec. Although alot of people say that either of the 3 trees are fine for tanking, any of them are suitable, some more so for AE tanking than others.

Level 74 and 20% left to get to 75. Nearly there.

Somethings coming for Blizz......

2008-12-17T23:26:00.010Z

I have been a long believer in nothing stays ahead for all time, sooner or later something rises up against the leader of all MMO games. I have searched for a good 2 years for comparison game's to warcraft, knowing that sooner or later, Blizzard will have it's competition, come from nowhere.

Im not the usual person to say something is a wow killer, or this will be wow's new competition. I had reserved feelings about warhammer online, knowing it didnt quite look quite there, and other games like age of conan...
However, i am willing to stick my head out firmly here, and say..this will..put pie in warcraft's soup. Look at the character creation, and just about every other aspect of the game, and you just have to think....that cannot be real? seriously?

All you have to do, is sit back, and watch.. Out in May 2009, watch your watching is live closed beta in Korea. within 48 hours, NCSoft had to power up 25 extra servers. And eventually handled 170,000 + players in there first 3 days

You thought bosses where big in wow?

And here is the selection of classes, i recommend you watch the HD version

Character Creation

Part 2

And some ingame footage

Unholy to Blood

2008-12-10T11:59:00.004Z

After playing from 55 to level 68 as full unholy, i noticed my dps never seemed to climb any higher (on average) than 300 DPS.
Alot of the talents in this tree focus on pets, tanking abilities for AE tanking, (Trash) and so on, its almost like a prot pala. Other than the pet, it feels a little un-exciting over a period of leveling.

So im opting to have a go with the blood spec. Its more of a High DPS single target, single tank class role, with self healing done by damage output.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfEMqh0IcfotzAoZb im 68, so this would be a good start in the tree for me to dive into.
I have tried duel welding, (in Unholy) and the DPS doesnt match the 2 hander sword, so i will try this with blood spec, and see if there closer. Im told DPS is x2 when switched to blood spec, so we'll see tonight!

Death Knight

2008-12-03T08:28:00.003Z

3 levels to go So far, outlands has been good to rush through. The DK has proven worthy of leveling solo, and capable as hunter almost in that class of leveling with a ghoul. Im still wearing the same blues at level 65 as i did when i left the DK starting area. Mostly because i like the look of it, but i am collecting gear and banking it as i go along, defence gear etc, and dps quest rewards and trinkets. 5 more evenings hopefully and i will be there. How is everyone else?

Well i managed 52% on level 65 so should hit 66 tonight. Then only 2 levels to go before i can catch the boat.
Im daunted about looking in the AH for any gear, before i head over, its probably all inflated to high hell.
Still saving for my flying skill, I wont need that anyway until level 76-78 anyway for NorthRend? If I can get away without getting a flying skill at in TBC. …but I probably will have to get one at some point for Netherstorm. Thats my next port of call after Nagrand, and the last area i level in before going to North Rend.

No professions at the moment, none, i'll think about that stuff after capping 80 though. Makes more sense to find out what im using, and then choose.

Non-stop. Compared to the paladin, the DK can non-stop (Depending on health) chain pull mobs constantly one after another, without breaks. This has been a world of difference in play, questing and ginding. And a welcome difference for both play style and play time..nothing worse than having to sit down after every fight for mana. But the same can be said for eating to get health back..;) and bandages, both at the same time is a pain lol

3.0.2 Gear Spreadsheet

2008-10-22T15:57:00.005+01:00

And Deeper into the gear charts for current patch
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pxRKUgjn9TRr-KY-8OzuQRQ

POW-PPPPPP-POW

2008-10-22T14:23:00.002+01:00

Well, that didn’t last very long at all did it?
After playing a little on the PTR before the patch came out I wasn’t too impressed at the changes made. However in my typical subburn self of double checking and taking a leap of faith I hooked up Nad's shield and Sword and had a blast around the Isle of Dailies.
Much to my surprise, I appeared to be cleaving my way through mobs with very relative ease. I was addicted to the RSI & bunny staring at the head lights syndrome of right click, left click, 12121212 (Hammer of Righteousness and Holy Shield). Bagging my Armani Punisher and switching to the Blue rep reward sword from SSO, I found a new level of glee watching HOR crit for over 1k. Then higher when I switched to the Aldor rep epic sword, for 1.3k Holy damage.
WTF have you done to my pala Blizz? I think I love it.
No more crushing blows 102.5% bollox, just 490 Defence and get on with it…And about bloody time, feels like the paladin class have been relieved of its pink condom and allowed to breath, DPS, and tank with a decent proper tanking sword, mana issues sorted out with a buff that was more relevant to tanking (Sanctuary). Spell damage in relation to total stamina. Hammer of Justice interrupts spell casting on bosses…..who ever you are on the side of paladins, you deserve a Christmas bonus my friend, from both Ret and Protection paladins alike!
The pain in the ass now, is now getting a sword to get me back upto 490+ defence. -20 defence from anticipation, replaced by 5% dodge.
There's Honor"s Call and then there's The Sun Eater and its rpeety much a gamble of whether i will get HH rep first or H mech gets lucky.

Whats in a name...Nadiastorm Retires

2008-10-07T16:21:00.004+01:00

A name means alot to folk that follow it, who are familiar with it. It has it's pro's and con's and all balances between good and bad reputation that name has earned throughout its gaming career.
I'm happy to say I have loved every moment, both good and bad as my career as a protection paladin. From the early days of tanking, when it was'nt a paladins role to tank at all other than be Ret or Holy specced.
As a GM, nothing changes, im the same player through and through, with the same mindset for a casual guild. Making good use of those who share the ideal of casual gaming and raiding and getting somewhere on the night.
It had to come to a point where I questioned whether I would play another class sometime, and I thought that time would have been on the release of The Burning Crusade, but circumstances prevented that, a guild split etc brought Nad up to the fore-front again by the members remaining to get a new guild going, …TDD. Otherwise i would have rebuilt TBR.
Im confident today that the guild will remain stable through the TBC to WOTLK expansion, folk are beginning to relax, think ahead, and enjoy the game for what its meant to be, a game. And the pressure of driving forward has subsided a little and people are more focused on their roles. Some new faces having also the oportunity to shine and show their skills and personality too. Everything seems to look, long standing, and even if there was a blip again, im sure we would still continue to survive as we always have, and a team fo friends. They have stood the test of adverse conditions of guild drama and politics to still remain loyal with the guild.
Other than enchanting people who still need enchanting, before the patch, Nad will remain dormant within the guild until the expansion, where I hope to return her back to where she belongs. She will be up for tanking 25 man's as required byt as a status of ALT should any ask if i want loot.
I have a lot of fond memories and experiences as a paladin, and will remember them all. And for what i really wanted to do, instead of doing what i felt was nessesary to keep online friends together within a guild, with something to do, now is the time to bid farewell to Nadiastorm.

WOTLK Talents

2008-09-24T17:31:00.003+01:00

http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZE0xIxcz0gqekGoVbx
I have been musing over the new talents for the expansion. And wanted to draft up form talents for when patch 3.0.2 comes, while we are still in TBC at level 70.
Redoubt, has changed!! i didnt notice it, but 3 points in it actually gives you 30% Block Value flat rate, plus 10% to add 30% to Block chance. Where before, it was just, 19% chance to get 30% block chance, nice, and about time. I think this build will be ok to finish off TBC.
Level 80
I so want to have Reckoning back....So badly
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZE0xIxcz0gqekGoVbx
Some more info:
Most paladin abilities are being changed to scale with both AP and SP.Since we are going to be sharing our gear with warriors and DKs, most if not all prot and ret gear is going to have AP/Strength on it since it is one of the main stats for warriors and DKs.Here are a couple of examples of how mechanics are changing, via mmo-champion.com:
Avenger's Shield: Hurls a holy shield at the enemy, dealing [ 7% of AP + ( 754.35 to 765.27 ) ] Holy damage.
Shield of the Righteous: Slam the target with your shield, causing Holy damage equal to 200% of your block value. This spell causes a high amount of threat. (Strength provides you with block value, and the conversion rate is being increased in the expansion)
Holy Shield: Increases chance to block by 30% for 10 sec and deals 211 Holy damage for each attack blocked while active. Damage caused by Holy Shield causes 35% additional threat. Each block expends a charge. 4 charges. (this means that even though we will have less SP, HS will still scale with it, and cause 35% more threat so it should end up causing equal threat to what we cause now)
Consecrate: Consecrates the land beneath the Paladin, doing [ 32% of AP + 940.16 ] Holy damage over 8 sec to enemies who enter the area.
Seal of Righteousness: Fills the Paladin with holy spirit for 2 min, granting each melee attack [ 5% of MWS (weapon speed) * AP ] additional Holy damage.I think that's most of the abilities that paladins use while tanking to build threat. Exorcism and Holy Wrath are used situationally, and will also scale with AP. Judgements are also going to cause damage based on AP. [edit] Looking at Judgements a bit deeper, as they work on Beta right now, all Judgements deal damage based on both AP and SP, the Seal is no longer consumed. Instead, the Seals modify the damage dealt by the Judgement. JoB/JoM and JoC increase damage based on weapon damage (which is modified by AP) and JoV/JoC and JoR are modified by a set percentage (10% per application of DoT and 25%, respectively). All seals now scale with AP either directly (SoV/SoC and SoR scale with both SP and AP) or indirectly (SoC and SoB/SoM scale with weapon damage, which scales with AP). SoV/SoC and SoR scaling with AP means you won't lose out on threat by using a warrior/DK tanking weapon since we will be getting SP and AP from gear and more SP from Stam via a talent. [/edit]When you include some talents in the prot tree: +15% Strength from Divine Strength, +10% Strength from BoK. That's a nice amount of extra AP for threat gen.Tanking gear is also going to change to match new mechanics. Look up gear here on Wowhead and see how it is itemized.Seriously, before you start QQing about the new abilities, look at the whole picture and realize that the game mechanics are also being changed and then think about how the new mechanics are going to work with the updated talents and spells. Yes, with the current prot paladin gear, these changes might suck, but they aren't meant to work with the current gear.Everything I've mentioned seems to point to Blizzard wanting Prot Paladins to use the "regular," warrior tanking weapons since they would deal more damage with Hammer of the Righteous. It is also likely that we'll see warrior/DK tanking weapons include strength in their stat bonuses.
Last edited by atticus on 08/13/2008 (Patch 2.4.3)

WOTLK and TDD

2008-09-16T12:46:00.001+01:00

It great that wotlk is being released. We have had a hand full of members leave for raiding guilds to see new content (before the news was announced), im quite happy about folk moving on to do things like this. If they leave with a positive memory of TDD, all the better, and I prefer that. If not, it was probably better that they moved on too, to find new joy in the game with another guild that could offer them more of the game with folk that have more time to play it. Folk sitting brewing over issues they don’t agree with rubs off on others, whether they mean to, or not.
We can only do so much with the time we have online, with our IRL commitments, and that is the design of the guild, that’s what we are, and that’s when we play. Online when we can be, offline when we need to be.
I love running this guild, it's practical to play the game and enjoy it without harming IRL issues. I still play this game with the same enthusiasm as I had when I first installed the game.
Stop, Regroup, then Continue.
I don’t think everyone new to TDD entirely understands the method behind that strategy.
From the outside it would seem like maddness I guess. Guild closes shop, puts up the gate and says nobody allowed in, access denied, and a public statement that we are no longer recruiting.

Other than it has been something we have done before in TDD, most TDD members expect it, and some new folk can read between it. And while I cant say blunty im shacking the tree to see what leaves fall off. ...That’s basically the idea.
It might appear to be a crisis being posted on the front page, but that depends on your point of view. It's difficult to gauge things when people are undecided, or quiet in their indecision, to suddenly up and leave while we made plans for them.

2008-09-03T11:38:00.001+01:00

http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZE0xIxcz0gqekGoVbx

1,2,3 Done

2008-08-26T23:51:00.003+01:00

Tonight we did it, HKM, Gruul and Maggy down (Maggy took 2 tries after an accidental pull) But a real boost for the guild confidence to finally run its own 25 man raid without assistance.

... 5 more please

2008-08-22T08:32:00.006+01:00

The co-operation raid didnt come together last night. Our co-op guild had a very bad sign up and maybe not enough to gather 5 folk. However, TDD did have 20 folk signed up. 26 if you include those who cancelled.
We got a little help from some friends in Home of the Ghostlords, and it was very much appriecated. I did feel a little noobish in their company though lol. Never the less, i hope they had fun, however we didnt get Maggy down, which was a shame, because we kept getting him down to 35-37% and making silly mistakes, with cube clicking and the MT dying.
With that in mind, i am canvasing the guild about Tuesday, and Kiddman's Challenge. Some folk who i thought would have known about it, did'nt, so just aswell i mentioned it in guild chat. The challenge was if TDD could gather its own 25 man, and defeat Gruuls, Kiddman would do anything for TDD, ...and being the jesters we are..we are going to hold him to it!
The Wednesday is looking like the TDD 25 man night, along with the Thursday. The high sign up for mid-week is something to be capitalised on, and the weekend posting of Kara raids seems to be taking on, so some adjustment in the organisation there, i think we'll have to transition that across in the next week. As there is a que for 10 man raids equaling upto 15-20 people. Pop a 25 man in there and i think it could be obtainable.

Raiding and new Recruits (trial members)

2008-08-21T09:18:00.010+01:00

he suprising thing is, the time between i was last in Karazhan with TDD Main Tanking trash, and Offtanking bosses as a backup. Maybe its my approach to raiding, being the GM and leading the raid everyone gets their focus head on, and see's the raid push on, be on the ball. And maybe it isnt. I dont know.. Shade down on the first night after the reset, and maybe 15 mins downtime in total. It was good overall. And i think folk who clear Kara in one evening must be starting their raids at 6pm and finishing at 11:30pm, we start at 8pm and finished at 11:30pm last night. Would another hour made the difference? Not likey with the setup we had, mostly Melee and 3 ranged DPS (Mage, Hunter and Warlock) But not all the big guns where not in this raid, Burlok, Gallbatorix, Leni, Shaylee, Adremelech, Tem etc Although Triv and Logum there made the DPS group work out and without them i think the run could have gone south very quickly. BUT, the whole point about Wednesday runs, is for those not within the guilds raiding gear average, a chance to catch up in gear to join in with the 25 man events, and i think it worked out well all round. Our Trial member for the night was Mickes friend (in RL) Amyss, and i had no concern about loot handing out.
yjal, amongst nobody else i have been reading up on Mount Hyjal. Tonight our co-operative raid goes to Maggy instead of Gruul as normal. If Maggy is one shotted, then SSC would be the normal avenue to go. However, looking at the state of play, between both guilds at this present time, and no preparation with Frost and Nature Resistant gear, i am reluctant to goto Lurker below for maybe 2-3 shots before a respawn. However reading up on MH eveything is local, you can run back into the raid halfway through trash waves etc (except from the boss fight itself), i had a play around myself, aggroing the Alliance NPC with the various waves, and it looks pretty easy from a paladin tanking point of view. Norritt has signed up, so hopefully Maggy will be one shotted, the co-operation will go fairly and smoothly, in hindsight of the previous weeks. We will see...

I had to poke two members of the guild this week, about their trial membership, Cesaya and Selass. 1 month trial and both havent really intergrated into the guild as well as i would have hoped. Selass has been working, but it turns out Cesaya has been playing a Shaman on another server, and has lost faith and enjoyment in the resto druid. Just aswell i asked though, so i have placed her on Visitor status until the end of her trial period to make up her mind, and then i will remove her from TDD if things are still grey on the decision area. Cesaya was ok about it, and there were no hard feelings if she was removed before hand. Talking like this in the open helps, not just you as a GM, but the over all attitude of your guild. Guild see's you poking politely and asking questions, members respond, and everyone knows whats going on. If a member leaves your guild on good terms, the leave with a positive impression, that rubs off on other guilds, players, and party (pug groups) they form, and word spreads. It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and respect, and 1 minute to destroy it. And after all, it doesnt hurt to talk about things, as after all, this is a game we play...not a life we lead.

A GM's work is ....

2008-08-18T12:03:00.008+01:00

We re-established the co-opertaion raids again. However there was a combination of circumstances prior to the raid TDD had to deal with. One member of the guild switching class and specc and then asking to switch his main character again after winning loot from other main raiding characters during that time, was met with swift resistance from the guil dofficers on our forum. The player then left the guild. On the edge of that, the raid setup for the co-operation raid was complete from the TDD side, however our co-operation guild had some Alts, and new to the co-op raid players. Me not being able to voice chat due to toothache (which got fixed on Friday hurrah!) couldn’t really intervene. Needless to say there was a lot of, Alt rolling against main raiders, and new folk rolling against tanks for T4 legs, while wearing epic gear anyway, over TDD's feral druid in blues, and our Micke. Meantime our Priest's, all passing for the tanks, that nobility didn’t pass onto the co-operative guild, nor did that sense of Raid first, individuals after.
It might have been a lax of continuity from previous weeks, since the hold on co-op's. And the out of practice dilemha of working together, however key members of TDD have gotten a little fed up, of rolling against people they havent seen raid before, or against an Alt.
We dealt with our issues of Alts and Trailist members rolling after Main raiders, and it’s a ruling that TDD fully and completely understands, without question. And questions are being asked of the co-operative guild whether any kind of ruling on their guild structure has this in place, akin to our own, or any rule. Needless to say, there is unrest at the prospect of another co-op, and something similar again would definitely be the certain death of the co-operation raiding altogether.
Which is a shame, as the accomplishments both guilds have achieved displays promise, for future instances. And for something as daft as putting Main raiding characters first and alts, and offspecs last (common sense).
We're going to try and rise to Kiddman's challenge, for me personally, I would like to see one day a week for the guild maintaining its own 25 man raid. Whether that’s SSC or a TK run, it doesn’t matter. I would just like to have the confidence that TDD could and can hold its own numbers for that 1 day. And hopefully Tuesday or Thursday would be that day, however IF Thursday doesn’t go well at all, Thursday would be the night for TDD instead.
We moved Karazhan to Saturday and Sunday sign ups. Sunday went well with a full showing of members and I heard it went well. That leaves room for ZA during the week, and I will need to speak to Nyt Ryders Alliance about weekend run's along with TDD's Alts. They are a young established guild, who where leveling together but now have reached the 70 bracket with something more to do. We had a suprising application from their GM to join TDD, and we all supported him by telling him to continue with his guild, and seek a co-op to bring up is level 70's with the knowledge to do Karazhan, rather than guild hop.
On a GM side, I have lots to sort out this week. Folk to poke, and folk to prompt. And guilds to organise and re-establish links and relationships with. I think this will be a busy week indeed.

Bad Ass Badge Loot. 330!

After running through all the BoJ rewards i managed to look up the gear that would improve my current gear. Other than T5, which i would probably need to compare against 330 would be the total cost of badges for everything on my wish list...time to start looking for alternatives i think!!

Settled

2008-08-13T14:26:00.001+01:00

After a long ingame voice chat with our fellow co-op guild, we made it clear that both guilds would continue the co-operation raids together as a team, and remain as 2 individual guilds. Realm did offer a merger, however after a discussion on both guild building up a reputation and developing as guilds, the name above the guild members head, ment more to them. The proposal was a /gdisband and reformation of a guild under a new name. I heard out the proposition, and respected the plan, however I felt that officers and a GM could not speak for the members of the guild who applied to join a guild under its own name, and the history of TDD's continous strides to push on as a group of friends, the same goes for our co-op guild. And with out further worries, but parties logged off content that the relationship between the 2 guilds will get stronger and lasting for the future. Including wotlk.

Survival of the fittest

2008-08-06T12:10:00.005+01:00

I have long wondered how TDD survived its time since its small beginnings. We where humble, a little bruised and dis-heartened during its formation, but we where hardened by our experiences, our troubles and strife's.
First TheBlackRoses, DarkStorm, then back to TheBlackRoses and then to DUTY, and now TDD. A history spanning 3 years under the name of Nadiastorm for all the guilds except Duty, where I was content as the raid leader.
The truth of it is we have survived together as a group of online friends, up against the raid race of other guilds on Khadgar. And kept true to our values of game play and honourable conduct. And now we are on the dawn of something new to us, which is absorbing another guild.
Usually we would ask for applications as a general rule, however if this was to be the case, something quick would need to be done to avoid separation of the co-operation. We have a short listing of those folk, and tonight I will be discussing the details with 2 of their senior members.
Much like the co-op it is an offer of invitation, their GM knows that we are not interested in any merger of any kind due to our past experiences, and being like TDD is, there is no issue of power or dominance with our guild structure, just plain and simple rules a set out as we have learned from experience.
We had quite the chat in TDD last night on ventrillo, and broaching the subject with the guild had me a little on edge as to what their reaction to it would be. On one side of the fence you have 10-13 active players who you know will be equipped for the job of raiding 25 mans, and on the other you have the social intrusion of 1 establish guild social structure intruded by the previous administration of a former guild. How that mix would blend with 10-13 member suddenly introduced into TDD would be a guessing game. However, our experiences with the guild have been positive, however the newer members seem very hard work, as you and I know as all new members can be, to get them up to speed with raid organisation and preparation. It's a lot of patience and instruction, and I don’t think we have the time for that, to go backwards to come forwards again.
TDD is now past the point where we are stuck with Karazhan, and I am looking forward to the guild pushing into ZA more frequently. And at the same time being able to establish its 25 man raiding team too. Again, this is another step in progression as a guild towards something more set in stone than something which is a quick fix to get us by. Confidence is high, and so is morale, and I like to see it continue that way, by what ever means possible if required.

Farming for gear

2008-08-04T08:59:00.005+01:00

Belt of the Guardian
We all need our goal's in the game. And some time ago while i was enquiring about co-operative raids with some friends online, Soulplaya spoke to me on MSN offering to make the above. A dropped pattern in SSC. I have some of the matts, the rest is just farming gold for 2 nether vortex's which are about 350g each on the AH, and 10 primal Waters, i already have the 5 primal earths & i also need 5 Hardened Adamintite Bars (which are 23g each)
The the rest of the gear is purely Badge rewards (exception of Shades ring) this ring Ring of the Stalwart Protector would be easier to get rather than waiting on chance. If Shade drops the ring, woot, wearing both would be great.
Just the Legs and the boots together is 160 Badges. Plus 60 for the ring and 35 for the cloak..
Looks like it will be a load of daily Heroics, Karazhan runs, and ...god knows what else. But the priority at the moment is the Belt, get that out of the way and then focus on daily heroics. Kahir by far is the quickest character to get this done with the herbing and questing both at the same time.
I may have to smash my offspec healing gear into prismatic shards, which isnt such a bad thing, due to the T4 set and gear i currently have, my healing isnt that bad as a backup and tbh i could do with the room in my own bank, and stick with the offspec DPS gear since i spent alot of time farming for that while i was in Ret Spec. And offspec DPS is my daily quest and questing gear (Looking ahead leveling gear too!)

I finally decide...

2008-07-31T17:21:00.004+01:00

So the big debate from now until Mr Lich King is, what will I do?
I played a tank warrior for some guildies in 5 mans, and tbh that didn’t work out too well. But that’s a comparison to the paladin tank which I think is very unfair. If I had to toss two comparisons together and ask which of the 2 classes I would tank with, I would say paladin. Truth of it is, I hate the rage, I hate the taunt limited range and the lack of Crowd AE CC control. But that’s just something I take for granted. Maybe I thought it would be easier to gear being a warrior? Who knows. But hats off to those warriors who are tanks, and I can appriecate how difficult and challenging (and rewarding) it is. For me the paladin has a MASS of utility in tanking, and saved by the button skills. And that works well for me to plug gaps in group configs, CC and healing. The warrior is very focused, and my style is more jack of all trades, ...master of none, and i like that, that appeals to me.
My alt is and will remain my faithfull dancing Kahir. Which is my, "Remove brain and autoshoot and chat" character. As Nad is full 375 enchanting for the guilds benefit, im looking to Kahir as my gatherer, atm with herbalism, and Mining, I do wonder is Jewelcrafting wouldn’t be better? So I guess at the end of this story is, Nadiastorm will be my main original character for WOTLK.

Raid UI

2008-07-30T00:35:00.002+01:00

Theres still some more tweaking to do with the strata of bartender3 for the raid frames, as it stands over the top of any trade or social window that comes up. Bad when you want to check the raid setup, or ready checking..
The finer tweaks would be the casting text size (fishing) and mana bars (as I cant see them) but having the casting bars is good.
SCT and SCTD where added, im not 100% sure I like it, or whether its something I need to setup some more, healing spam is annyong me but I can set the minimum amount. And I'll probably set that for the damage also. Displaying damge above 3k would probably be good for raids, and heroics, so may aswell do the same for healing.

2008-07-18T23:40:00.000+01:00

Weekly update

2008-07-17T17:28:00.003+01:00

Well, since the last blog, i have recently been playing a rogue from level 1.
Gearwise, i have everything but the kitchen sink. Just those things on my To Get List to the left which are Maiden and Shade, with a few badge rewards added in.
The guild has a good base of tanks, both young and well geared. And TDD has new life injected with enthusiastic glee, for the likes of Karazhan and so on. Great!
I have every faith the guild will continue to progress in Kara and gear where required. Hopefully Ragewind will get his gear back from Blizz after a recent hack on his account which left him with nothing.
Tonight is the joint raid with Realm, and i am playing Leni's character to tank the Mage. I have high hopes that we will kill Gruul tonight, and i am trying to be carefull and selective about the players going tonight to make sure we have ample dps to take him to 20% health in 10 grows. And with 2 well geared tanks. Torten and Micke.

My rogues name is Ceilidh, and i am quite enjoying the dps side of things, its a very pure class. And very different from a paladin. However i am still keeping an beedy eye on the WOTLK talents for the prot paladin as they have not yet been published or even hinted at, while other classes have either been leaked, or guessed.
Could this be the end of Nadiastorm for WOTLK?
Over 2 years of playing this game with one character. I dont know which is worse, ...knowing everything there is to know abou a prot paladin, or putting behind a sea of history of playing wow under that name. Anyone and everyone outside of the guild would effectively be cut off. Is that a good thing or bad, who knows. However TDD has always had a history of wandering rogues, leaving for other guilds etc, or asked to leave due to their personaility clashing with others. The GM being a rogue would help releive that, and always give the guild a raiding rogue along with Wega (Jinns brother).

2008-07-13T12:47:00.001+01:00

Rusty

2008-07-09T09:23:00.001+01:00

ZA was a good test ground for the increase spell damage from the mace.
The swing is a bit slower than the crystal forge by 0.1 sec, but the aggro generated was very good to keep a hold of things.
The bear boss was ok, but for some reason I felt very rusty last night tanking. But I think I managed ok in the end.
The new gemmed items of avoidance and increased spell damaged over-all worked well and I am quite happy with it. Although I think I may need to adjust my spell rotation with a slower weapon to use Seal of Vengeance instead of Righteousness for boss fights. I had to hold back on using any abilities on the bear boss so I didn’t pull aggro off Jinn before the troll to bear change. But that is a good sign, knowing that with a few abilities I could jump aggro to take aggro back again, if needed, without using taunt.
It's been a while since we have been to ZA but downing the first boss was a good come back, and we had new faces for the eagle boss, and ZA in general. So I think over-all it was a good run to get us back in the ZA saddle.

First time tanking Gruul's

2008-07-04T11:30:00.003+01:00

With Spell Damage at 330 and wearing a combination of T4 and stamina gear, my aviodance was pretty good. On 15 grows was where the problem became a pain on the healthbar. But this was also down to the amount of dead raiders in the group with all the party bouncing and cave in's on folk. DPS race it is indeed.
For the next attempt i will go for MT again, to begin with i didnt put myself forward to MT him, until later.
I have been reading up on Maintankadin on the fight, and seems that putting the MT's threat as high as possible so the DPS can go FULL out is part of the key to killing Gruul on around 12 grows, on average. So i think a little raid co-ordination and experience put together for the next run will have the cat in the bag so to speak.
It wasnt until 10-13 grows i noticed my health bar start to bounce to 50% and back so if i could maintain a lead until then to allow the DPS to really smash some dps on him, so that by the time he is at 20% health he should be at about 10 grows. Allowing the MT to live a little longer, and having the OT as backup incase the MT gets thumped!
Healthwise, i think my total health is ok to sacrifice some HP for agility & Def gems on my shoulders and gloves, more aviodance is less damage, and it becomes a balance of more HP for less aviodance and vise versa. 18K buffed is fine, 17.5K buffed is also fine.
Some buffs where missing from my regular raid setup, wizard oil and probably sorcerer flasks purely for threat, if i boost my spell damage to 35) or even 400 then that should give ample room for the DPS to go for it. Also in hindsight, some MD's would help too...

Agility Enchants

2008-07-03T11:50:00.006+01:00

Enchant Boots - Dexterity +12 Raging Skeleton [Auchenai Crypts]
Enchant Weapon - Greater Agility +20
Exceptional Stats +6 all stats (+6Agility)
+4 stats on Rings (+4 Agility x2)
+12 Agility Leg Armour
Enchant Cloak Greater Agility +12
Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility +15

Never again….for the meantime

2008-07-03T11:23:00.002+01:00

I finally managed to get the mace from Magisters Terrace, I have lost count on the amount of times I have gone to that place. But now that I have the mace I have no plans to ever return to that place unless anyone from TDD wants a tank to go there.
I managed to gem up the stoic chest piece with the 2 gems I was looking at, together with a Def and Stam gem for the yellow socket. I managed to play around with various plate and found I could stretch my dodge to over 28% but however my stamina comes down by 1k doing so. Im thinking about using the same gems for the T4 shoulders and the 2 socket belt rather than using the heroic drop belt & shoulders. Compromising slightly on the stamina, and also looking at switching the stam enchant on the boots to agility also. I think with some tweaking and carefull planning I could get my dodge to 30%, block for a paladin would benefit more with lots of strength to reduce the blocked damage but looking at the reduction of blocked damage I am better off with more armour and dodge, while keeping the uncrushability.
Mitigating (passively reducung damage) with armour over 16.9K is 61% reduction. Parry at 16% and dodge at 28% Miss 6.08% gives me 50% chance to aviod any melee hit. While without using the holy shield block 13% to block
And 53% to shield block and aviod crushing blows, reducing damage through armour and block value. And that’s where agility comes in. Agility does add to your armour, and currently adds 406 armour alone.

And that’s the only weak spot tanking wise for mitigating damage for a paladin that I can see, is the block damage & being hit without shield block (Holy Shield) up. Failing to block, your life depends on armour to reduce the damage taken by the hit, and or dodging, parrying, or being completely missed are the others.

Gems for Chest Armour

2008-07-02T11:49:00.004+01:00

Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst

Need 2 of these with the new chest piece. Also looking at yellow socket gems..
I finally managed to get my 75 badges for the stoic chest piece, im releived to be honest to get rid of the PVP gear finally, but the lamanar piece was a good filler until i managed to get something like the badge reward.
Next i guess is the Mace from H MgT. I have done 4 good run's there and still not seen it drop, so im guessing it going to be a little like the Shoulders from Sethek Halls. We had a good run of Karazhan last night, through Opera, Curator and Prince. And got finished around 11:30pm Uk time, which was pushing the time limit on raids a little but i think folk wanted the achievement for the night ..done. 2 wipes on prince down to bad luck, but got him fair and square in the end, with some well timed DI's.

Daily Night tonight, and i think i will pug a H MgT, for the faint hope of that damned mace.

UI Development

2008-06-20T00:08:00.001+01:00

The Ui is coming along ok, i need to tweak the order of decursive a bit into maybe 2 rows of 12 and 13, or 3 rows of 10, 10 and 5. Buffwatch is ok, but pally power has been recommended to me by a new member of the guild which i might try out. Hopefully it wont suck up too much memory.

Other than that, i cant really complain about the UI, other than adding Clique back into the addons folder.

HKM down

2008-06-20T00:05:00.002+01:00

I was so so loooking forward to this raid, working together with Realm. During the week speaking to Morgim and Baconburger, i was excited for TDD's future in 25 man raiding, purely as both guilds, on paper seemed right for each other to raid. I was so proud of both guilds to be able to come together and work a a seemless team, wipe after wipe and still maintain a great attitude.

It was both a shock and an expectation that we did get HKM down. We had made good progress with the pull, the adds (killing one by one) working to the boss himself. And when he went down, it was a testiment to all individuals skill and presence of mind to stay with it, and get the job done. There is great talent across both guilds, and it looks to be a great future ahead of us both for both guilds. Its very exciting!

The after raid chat with Realm was great, Realm sounded very pleased and excited also about the co-operation raid setup, we worked out some final details like raid sign up's and organisation. So the next raid should be alot more smoother.

Great humour, big smiles, and now im always going to be looking forward to Thursday's

Gruul's Flask's

2008-06-05T11:31:00.002+01:00

Unstable Flask of the Physician Use: Increases Intellect by 20, Stamina by 30, and healing by up to 44 for 2 hrs.

Unstable Flask of the Bandit Use: Increases Agility by 20, attack power by 40, and Stamina by 30 for 2 hrs.

Unstable Flask of the Elder Use: Increases Intellect by 20, Stamina by 30, and grants 8 mana per 5 sec. for 2 hrs.

Unstable Flask of the Soldier Use: Increases critical strike rating by 20, Strength by 20, and Stamina by 30 for 2 hrs.

Unstable Flask of the Sorcerer Use: Increases Intellect by 20, Stamina by 30, and spell damage and healing by up to 23 for 2 hrs. Coords 54,11

Unstable Flask of the Beast Use: Increases Agility by 20, Strength by 20, and Stamina by 30 for 2 hrs - Coords 29,81