Pawn Pleas

So at the advice of a fellow min/maxer (much more hardcore than I), I decided to give the addon "Pawn" a try. The basic premise behind this addon is that it allows you to set your own "value" to a piece of gear. You do this by giving each type of gear stat a static number that acts as a multiplier to what is actually on the gear. The numbers get added up and, viola, you get a simple rating system. This should allow you to compare two pieces of gear quite quickly and discern which is better.

The problem for me with using this tool is: how does one weight each stat? I just went in a basically put some random numbers in to see what was up, giving some preference to the stats that I look for in a piece of gear. For instance, spell power and +hit were highly rated, but strength and agility didn't see any type of rating since they're not useful to me as a Warlock. What I'm wondering is if someone knows of this addon and, if so, they also might know where there exists example Warlock values that someone else has taken the time to figure out. I did some basic google searches and looked in the usual places and either missed it, or they don't exist. Either way, help is needed.

Also, if you happen to use the addon and would like to share your personal numbers, please do. If there seems to be interest here, I'll pop my own numbers up for viewing, but be forewarned that they're based more on feeling than math.

Edit: I had originally put this and the following post in one big post, but felt that I wanted to split them up... Thus two posts today! :-)

Edit Edit: Courtesy of Inga in my comments, you can find some good values at Elitist Jerks here. In case you can't find it, they refer to Loot Rank values here. Thanks!

Share Your Story

The second part of today's posting can be directly linked to my emotionalism displayed yesterday. I got a lot of wonderful comments and thank you all for sharing. I got to thinking... I stop in at Blog Azeroth from time to time to check on the Shared Topics. It's fun, and sometimes you come across something really interesting that you wouldn't have otherwise found. Putting two and two together, I thought, if the world could use a little more hope right now and we, as gamers and/or bloggers experience hopeful stories often, why not share the wealth? In other words, I think what I started yesterday could be a good Shared Topic. It would be nice to see an outpouring of digital goodwill online (though I harbor no personal delusions that a response would be that huge or widesweeping, I can hope right?).

So I call upon you, fellow bloggers, share your stories. Put 'em up on your blogs and let people know to look. Put as much or as little personal stuff as you want, just share some hope. Then, when people ask: "why do you spend so much time on a silly game?" We can emphatically point to a plethora of hope filled stories and say: "that's why."

Or such is my hope.

Even though it may not be in line with my whole Warlockiness, I think I'd like to try and link as many such stories as possible and tag them appropriately on here. The thought being, perhaps some day down the road, when you're having a bad day, you can stop and lose yourself in a trail of stories. Grandiose? Maybe, but as a great theologian (ha) once said: "You might as well jump."

Edit: Larisa over and The Pink Pigtail Inn stopped by and her comment reminded me that part of my inspiration for this was a rather good post done by her. You can find it here, and I just love the analogy to sandcastles, as I still love building sandcastles even as an adult, and are they not just the ultimate example of futility?

Faith, Hope, and Love

I wanted to write today about raiding 10-man Naxx last night. I wanted to write about downing my first boss in there (Noth) and how the "dance" on the second part (Heigan) was ridiculously fun for how much we died, never finishing, but having a blast because of awesome people. I wanted to write about levelling my DK, Friday night retro raiding, and enchanting my gear. I wanted to write about escapism.

The truth is, I can't focus on my fantasy world today, for once. I mean, every day since I can remember (and probably many before that), I've roused myself out of bed (I hate mornings) and put on a happy face (with a lot of grunting as Fuu can attest to). I approach life with the idea that each experience holds a lesson to be learned. If you find yourself in a cyclical downward spiral, you're not learning your lesson. It doesn't make you dumb, just... some lessons can be harder than others.

I've been in downward spirals, I've been through some shit. Losing your father at 18 doesn't help these things. Being the oldest of four doesn't help these things. Being a role model doesn't help these things. Feeling responsible doesn't help these things.

I've learned that you get through it by focusing on your blessings and learning your lessons. By keeping your head down and running against the wind. I've learned that I have a wonderful mother who is the epitome of a strong female heroine, fit for any inspirational movie about the human spirit. Her unshakable faith and unflappable courage continue to inspire me on a daily basis. Dating at 50? Yeah, not as easy as one would think.

I have a wonderful, close family and a loving, beautiful soon-to-be wife. I have a *job*, though I'm not sure how long its going to last. I have a degree, which is something to be thankful for. I have friends. I have a roof over my head. I am blessed.

I've learned things along the way. I had an extremely rocky relationship for five years in high school and early college: I learned not to take my significant other for granted. I've puked enough that I learned not to binge drink. I've coughed enough that I learned smoking isn't for me. I've been there for friends and had friends be there for me. I've learned that it isn't the material things in life that you take with you to your grave.

I'm only 24, but I think people who know me would say I've been "around the block". Sometimes that happens I guess.

Right now, on a global scale, things are pretty rough. People are losing jobs, losing homes, losing lives. Like everyone else, I'm worried sick. I'm scared. How does one plan things in the midst of all this chaos? What are the lessons we need to learn from this? Where are our blessings?

I have to say, I'm not sure all the time. I can find the answers about warlock gear, boss strategies, and super DK specs. Those answers are out there. But what I can't find is the answers for life's "mini"-bosses.

I read something the other day about the benefits/downsides of online gaming. The topic has been overworked, overthought, overblogged, so I won't bore you with another list of things. We all know the benefits. It's why we're here. I just wanted to relate a few personal touches, from someone who knows. From someone who's "been through some shit".

Just about every night, I log onto a game and escape for a bit. I talk with people who's face I've never seen, and I'm comforted by their words. I share stories, share victories, share lives. I've met some of the most courageous people I know online. Take, for instance, my guild leader. She is the mother of a child with cancer. Daily she amazes me with her profound optimism and inner strength. How does she do it? Or look at the raid leader I know who is a single father and has been through some personal upheaval of his own, yet he remains one of the most positive and loving people I know. Or for the RL touch, I have a good friend who I almost never get to see any more because he is over serving his country in Iraq. I only get to chat with him when he gets online. There is a good story where he was grouping with a guildmate and left suddenly, not returning for a couple days. Turned out, in the middle of playing WoW, the place he was staying had been bombed and he had ripped his power cord out of the wall in his haste to seek cover. He wasn't shaken by the fact that he was bombed, but more apologetic that he had left without saying "good bye".

These people inspire me. These people give me hope.

There is a good bible passage (even if you don't believe in such things) that says: "Left are these three: Faith, Hope, and Love. The greatest of which is Love." Now, my priest said that the thing people need most right now, in a climate like this, is hope. How strange that I get that from a "silly game".

Why am I writing all this? Well, every morning, I still get up, still hate mornings, and still put on my "happy face". Lately though, going into work is like dipping yourself in a vat of negativism. In fact, so is watching the news or reading the papers. It seems like there is no hope. It seems like people have no faith. It seems like we've lost sight of love. But, every night, I enter a fantasy world where all these things are very real. I enter a world filled with hope, with love and laughter, with faith in the unknown, with magical stories, many of which have nothing to do with cartoon characters on the screen.

So thank you, all of you. Thank you for reading me and inspiring me with your comments, thoughts, and caring. Thank you for your stories. But most of all, thank you for sharing the fantasy with me. I hope each of you find your faith, find your hope, and find your love. I hope each of you are able to learn your lessons. I hope you won't let the world get to you, even though it tries so hard to beat us down every day. Remember: "This, too, shall pass."

"It's just a game," they say.

Every morning, I get up to a world that is just a little bit less bleak because of a game. For that, I am blessed, and if that is the only thing I ever get from the game, I'll consider it time well wasted.

Hey Group, Want To Do Something Crazy?

Such was the question asked by me in a Heroic Nexus run last night over vent. You see, I had very recently finished the chain of quests to allow me to willfully summon a Doomguard. That is to say, prior to completing said quests, I could only hope for a Curse of Doom proc, and, lets face it, that wasn't happenin.

So, demonic figurines in hand, I trudged happily off to tackle a heroic. From the start, I could tell that this run was going to be something special. You see, my protection specced Paladin familiar decided she was going to try her hand at healing for the night and respec. Previously, she had only healed once, protection specced, as we had done a regular UP run. The group we had ran with were vastly overgeared for the encounter and it wasn't really a challenge, but she still did a very good job and enjoyed herself. If you've been following me, you'll know that she's suffered from a bit of "tank anxiety disorder" (or TAD), so perhaps a little change of role is just what the doctor ordered.

So she goes off, respecs to some cookie cutter online thingamajig, puts on her heal gear and rejoins us in the instance. This time, we're not really overgeared, so we fully expect a challenge, especially with a fresh new healer. She takes a moment to go install a few addons to help (namely, healbot for you curious types), and off we go!

As most H-Nexuses (or Nexii?) start, we veer left and approach the "Hall of Stasis", so named for the Han Solo-esque dragon frozen in what appears to be carbonite behind the dias in the room. (Thanks go out to our tank, Gordin, for the Star Wars shout out on vent).

At this point of the story, it's probably necessary to point out that they "mini"boss there in the ice block hall is really a misnomer. There is nothing "mini" about this boss. He comes fully stocked with adds and a couple nasty attacks that can one shot leather wearers and clothies alike. These attacks can be troublesome for an experienced healer, but are an absolute nightmare for the newly minted.

Needless to say, we struggled on that boss and got quite upset with fears and adds and whirlwinds... oh my! Forget this, lets go do the plant wing.

We waltzed through the plants and then that Anamolus fellow. I think it helped that this kept our pally healer focused on mainly one target. As you may or may not know, Pally healers are not very good party healers, but do just fine on single targets.

Sneaking up behind the Grand Magus, we cleared up to her and then attempted to kill her a few times. She also can be quite the little B on heroic mode. Mind you, she IS the boss I've killed most in the expansion (check your stats if you wanna find yours), mostly because we needed the darned winter hat off her. I've run through the fight A LOT. Heroic is a whole different ball of wax though, especially when you're group heals are still in the learning mode.

I do this thing, as a Warlock, where I fear kite and dot the purple B around when she splits. This keeps her out of people's hair while they deal with the AoE portions of the fight. It usually works well, especially with a single target healer as the polymorph and timestop can be quite the PITA.

In any case, we were unsuccessful after a couple of tries on her, though I did fear kite like a pro. We just couldn't really keep up with AoE damage, especially after the second split. It kinda sucked.

So, we decided to go back to the "mini"-boss, and I said: "Hey guys, wanna do something crazy?" You see, we had a healer pally, a warrior tank, then a rogue, a hunter, and me. It really helps to have someone to OT the adds, but we didn't have really anyone that could take the damage. So, I thought: lets try using the Doomguard like I'm all demo (kind of like emo only with more D) or something.

We group together and pull this guy out and... WOW 31k health. They really did buff these guys. Let's see if he can hold aggro and lets waste this guy.

/pull
/wipe

Nope, guess not. Though he took some solid hits and we got one of the adds down.

The fears and whirlwind were just too much for us. It was still really fun since we were all pretty much trying weird stuff that we don't normally do, especially in heroics, which is always a good learning experience and something you should do from time to time. I also got the sweet trinket drop (the purple bell, Je'whatever), so it wasn't a total waste, though it was expensive.

The moral of this story is that Warlocks everywhere should complete the quests to get their Doomguard and try whipping him out for some boss fights. I believe he stays enslaved for a solid ten minutes and can add some good DPS. Just don't expect him to tank despite the appearance of large health. That or get a good AoE healer. That's not a knock on Fuu, she did wonderful for just learning, it just doesn't help that her class isn't built for that... even with a respec.

It looks like the Warlock's Den has a guide to the quests here, check it out if you're looking for some tips. (I think that link works... I can't check it at work, let me know if its bogus).

Old Gear FTL

If you're raiding more than I am, you will probably want to go check out the gear list that Nibuca has compiled over at the MC. Good work and a good listing of what you should be looking for. I'm not quite there yet, as we have yet to take down a single boss in Naxx (though I have set foot inside).

The good news is that my professions are steadily climbing and my DK is about to ding 75 now. Can anyone tell me why they nerfed all the other enchanting requirements, but the stupid rod still costs friggin 40 dust? And, is it just me or do there seem to be a lot more blue drops than green ones? With also being a tailor and needing dust for imbued frostweave (because everyone wants bags), dust is by far my scarcest commodity right now. The best way I've found to get it without paying an arm and a leg is to convince Fuu to run my DK through some lower 70 instances (we can duo those pretty handily). You can come out of there with a good handful of greens to DE.

Here's hoping I get some more good raid action on Wednesday and maybe getting into heroics tonight. I did the heroic Culling of Stratholme the other day, and we attempted to go for the bonus boss (time limit), but failed when we wiped on some trash. It's kind of fun to try and rush through that one, as it isn't too difficult if you take your time, but keeps you on your toes when you're running around. I may try to get people together tonight to do that one.

I also finally got to see Hall of Stone. What a pretty instance. I like the storyline in it, kind of gives you an out-of-the-ordinary epic feel. We just ran it on regular, but still fun. I've found that most of the people I run with are in that awkward gear phase where regulars are a breeze but heroics are still touch and go. I need badges and to get a chest upgrade bad... I'm still wearing that rep chest from the walrus people that I got back around 75. There was one nice blue drop in a heroic I ran, but the priest won it :-(. I just have not had luck there.

I also need to finish off my WA rep to get the mount I've wanted and then work on Kirin Tor for the dagger so I can stop being a schlub and lugging around the dumb staff from the amphitheater. Oh well, I guess I'd rather be slow than be one of those hardcore people that are done with all the content already and bored. At least I have plenty to do!

Deathchill Cloak

I was going to make a better post today, but I found out that my company, who shall remain nameless, despite being in bankruptcy, can afford to purchase a new URL blocking solution that had spread the infection to even more blogs and research sites. Needless to say, I was quite peeved until a found a small loophole around it. So, I'm in the clear for now, but REAL pissed about the principle of the thing. In any case, I'm not really in the best frame of mind, so I'll try to be short, helpful, and unranting. I made that last word up I'm pretty sure.

Deathchill Cloak - I haz it!

Taking the advice left by some after my emblem gear list the other day, I finally was able to finish up my Loremaster of Northrend achievement and picked up this pattern from the trainer. The stats on it are great, but I found it suspiciously lacking in +hit. Lucky for me, I was able to make this up elsewhere, but be warned... you may lose some +hit depending on what you're using now. The other stats are probably worth it, especially if you can make up that hit in gems.

With that said, you'll notice an expensive ingredient list, the Siren's Tear and Frozen Orb being the most expensive on that list. Both of those sell for 100+ gold on my AH (closer to 200 even). Well, we know that the Frozen Orb can be purchased for a paltry 10 emblems of heroism at the vendor, so I spent a few of my precious emblems there.

The siren's tear, if you recall, can be purchased for 100 Winterfin clams from a vendor at the murloc place in Borean Tundra. This may seem like a lot, but when I actually went there to farm them, I found it to be really easy. You can still click and pick up the ones on the ground (even though they don't sparkle at you), plus they'll randomly drop from the mobs there. Run around that village wreaking havoc and you should be able to farm one of these bad boys in less than an hour.

There is a limited supply at the vendor with a couple hours restock timer, apparently, but I did not run into that issue. With any luck, neither should you, but don't dismay if it isn't there right away.

The cloak also requires some eternals. If your faction owns Clustergrasp, head on out there to farm these up. I really like what they've done with this, by the way. It is really pretty easy to farm them up. Shadows are much easier than Fire, but you can probably knock both of these requirements out in a couple hours as well. I even stayed around and got the drop on the battle. Keep in mind while you're farming that you are flagged PvP though. For some reason, death knoobs kept showing up to harass me. Normally, Warlock v DK equals dead 'lock for me, but some of these guys just really sucked... in any case, I wouldn't concern myself with possible PvP ramifications too much.

Mats in hand, make your new cloak and enjoy. It looks quite pretty too. Now, embroider or haste enchant?

Are They... Evil?

I got into Naxx last week, but we didn't have a whole lot of success. Mostly, we just had to PuG too much which made it unorganized. No one really knew what we were doing yet, so back to the drawing board and heroics.

I did get a good picture of a famous cat hiding in the ziggurat. I sent my imp to sneak up on him and see if he was... evil. Turns out he was pretty ill tempered. You can see Fuu fuming in the background, pissed about tanking and needing a break. I gave her a good pep-talk and she got a few good things done this weekend to lift her gaming spirits.

First of all, she only needs one more elder for the title, which I'm sure she'll get today. Now, I don't care much for that kind of stuff, but she's all about it. I'm more excited that I got my DK to 74 and hope to give her a break with tanking when I can. The second thing she got done was the stupid books in Dalaran. She's now got a mini-voidwalker running around with her. I didn't see the need to camp books when I already have a large voidwalker that attacks things. Plus, I don't really use him much anyways.

I also participated in a sweet, timed heroic run of CoS. We didn't win do to a stupid trash wipe (sometimes when you're rushing... things don't go so well), but it still ended up being a very quick and fun run. Bringing a mage in there to control all those stupid respawning adds is totally clutch. Do it. Also, it makes for a decent use of Shadowflame. Yay semi-useless warlock spells!

Finally, thanks go out to Abigore over at fear.dot.win and his guild Vae Victus for letting us tag along on retro raid night. We like to drop in on them on Fridays, and with the recent opportunity to make a DK on any realm, it was pretty easy to get a toon to 60 over there. Thus Fuu and I RP on our blood elf DK's on Friday nights and go back to experience old world stuff that we never got to see. It's one of those things I suggest people do, just because. Often times, especially on a non-RP server, there is little push to go back to these old runs. Acheivements? Maybe. Loot? Definitely not. Perhaps a random rare drop. Still, they're fun and its good content to see. Bust out of the phat-lewts-or-die lifestyle and just go have some fun :-). Here is a good picture of my toon, Decedor Duskrunner, after successfully slaying the dragon (the corpse despawned really fast, but I thought it was still a cool pic).

For the Sin'dorei