Skilling Up In Arena

How Can I Hit 2200 In Arena?

This is a common question I feel most everyone in the WoW community asks themselves one time or another. The question simply lies in progressively getting better and better. Depending on where your starting, whether it be new player or 1800 hero, your going to have to discuss after any loss what your team can try different. This is the process if trial and error and figuring out what you need to do against different comps. This is a continuous process and may be frustrating at times, patience is your teams best weapon on hitting 2200.
Aside from just grinding out arena you have to know your class inside and out, and if you play multiple classes your going to be a lot better off as you already know most of what other classes are capable of. For example, I currently play a Feral Druid and a Disc Priest. On my Feral Druid I know that Inner Focus has to be stunned through using bear stun or cloned through. On my priest I know that dispelling predatory strikes counters insta clones and strafing whilst kitting makes it extremely difficult for a feral to get shreds off. I simply put myself in the place of the other toon thinking what would piss me off and applying those tactics.
Next, your going to want to get a few addons to make life a little simpler. Right know on my feral I use Gladius, Vuhdo, Interrupt Bar (mostly on priest but it helps on feral), Diminishing Returns, and Tulla Cooldown Count. Gladius is an easier (imo) arena frame to use. Vuhdo is for dispelling curses off my teammates (I usually play with a disc priest). Interrupt Bar is for juking if i need to get a hardcasted cyclone off. Diminishing Returns is probably my favorite addon, it can snap to the gladius frames and will give u an approximate (up to 2 seconds) DR tracker on any of your ccs. Tulla Cooldown Count puts a timer on all your abilities as to when they will be up again, a nice addon if u don't want to manually scroll over the tooltips to find out the remaining cd.
Coordination with your teammates also comes into play. This is a problem alleviated by just playing with your team more often but depending on the comp your going to want to put out as much pressure as possible. If your playing a burst team this means coordinating cooldowns, if its a sustained damage team that means lining up ccs on their team. Another thing i find really useful, don't tunnel anyone, except the healer in certain situations. If you've been on a guy for 2 minutes and he isn't budging then switch, you don't have to have a reason to switch but if you aren't swapping targets then their healer is having an easy time tunneling heals into just 1 person. Another bit of advice is that you have to always be doing something. If your in ice nova trying to get to their mage but the rogue is on you then start beating on the rogue until you can get back to the mage. Or if the rogue is on your partner your in ice nova and your partners going for the mage then freecast a cc on the rogue. Just always be doing something.
My last bit of advice, watch videos, read guides, talk with others because theres always going to be somewhere you can improve on. The main goal is to have a group of people with patience and the willingness to learn. Anyway, that's going to be all for this rant, leave comments suggestions and feedback down below. I am also going to try and get some game vlogs going. More to come in the future, peace.

WoW Patch Notes

What are the PTR notes in WoW?

The PTR notes are essentially notes that blizzard updates periodically that can usually be found on the WoW website. These are just notes to let the public and those testing the PTR know what the current changes are like on the PTR so that players can give feedback on the forums as to what feels balanced. The majority of the WoW player base does not venture onto the PTR unless a major change is going to hit their class and they just cant wait to see how much they heal, hit, or threat they generate.

What is the PTR in WoW?

In WoW the PTR refers to the patch test realm. The name pretty much gives away what is done on these two realms that blizzard has set aside. These realms are used for testing the potential changes that could go into the game, or make it into live as many would say. This is much like a sandbox where blizzard can freely change numbers and algorithms around to see if changes coincide with the direction that they want to take the game. In other words, how terrible would it be if blizzard thought warriors did not do enough damage (this rarely happens) so they buffed warriors damaging abilities by 60% across the board. This may or may not be fine with the current tier of content but what happens when new gear is available in the future? If you do not already know warriors scale really well with gear, pretty much the opposite of a feral druid. The patch test realm is also a place where blizzard releases new bosses in the upcoming patch before they are played on live. What blizzard is doing is having the community test their boss fights for bugs instead of hiring others (probably with more training) to do it for them. This has been controversial amongst some of the players that have witnessed blizzard hotfixing bosses once they had hit live left and right, sometimes at the same time that people are trying to down it on live. Others do not care as long as they can take their guild and practice the boss fight on the PTR and repeat it on live to officially down it faster. However, these are the top guilds that are doing this and most players do not take advantage of the PTR in this manner. All qqing aside, if blizzard did not have the patch test realm, then screw ups lasting a day at the minimum would cause a lot of rage on the forums and probably less subscribers in the long run.

Proffesions In World Of Warcraft

What is the best way to make gold in World of Warcraft?

Professions are probably the most notorious and arguably the best way to make money in World of Warcraft. There are two types of professions, gathering professions and crafting professions. I wont be talking about secondary professions, but these include first aid, cooking, fishing, and the new archeology (currently first aid is the only one I can see not being profitable).

Making money with gathering professions

Gathering professions include herbalism, mining, skinning, and partly enchanting (or should i say dis-enchanting). Gathering professions are the easiest ones to profit off of because there are no overhead costs and you make 100% profit. These professions are smart to level early in an expansion to make lots of money but can still be very profitable mid expansion. Gathering professions can go quicker with flying mounts and there are even addons (at least for herbalism and mining) that will show you herb/node spawns on you map so you can trace the best route to farming them. To make the most money out of your time spent requires some research to your specific realm. Go on and look up some materials that you could possibly farm, then check the price with the availability of them (where they spawn and if they are being camped or not by many others). For example, I go out in the river of TB and farm Azshara's Veil because  compared to Vash'jr, it is a lot easier to maneuver around and is usually not overly crowded.

Making money with crafting professions

Crafting professions can make as much money as gathering professions or even more, and in a quicker amount of time. Crafting professions however are not 100% profit, so the more research you do as to what your going to want to make and sell, the better off you are in the long run. In my experience in order to be the best entrepreneur, you have to know what kind of things are popular on the AH at that point in time, this requires some basic knowledge such as popular gems, enchants, BoEs, potions/flasks/elixirs, etc. A popular addon used to buy/sell things quickly (especially for buying now that blizz has added some things) is called Auctioneer. If you use this addon in conjunction with research of cost to profit ratios that you come up with, you can be making money very quickly. With this type of money making however, you cant stick to one method for too long as the profits will go down and you might be better off making some other things.
Those are my opinions on professions in WoW, as always feel free to comment and maybe request a topic for some of my later posts.

Which Is Harder, PvE Or PvP?

You have probably wondered at some point or another, the question that plagues many WoW players, the debate over the difficult of PvE compaed to PvP and PvP compared to PvE. First we have to look at it from both perspectives.

PvE is harder than PvP

The people that think the above statement is true have very valid arguments that can combat the other sides' opinions. Some arguments would be that in PvE, more true in 25 man then 10 man, that it requires coordination of a larger group of people (only valid when comparing to arena). Anyone who says that would probably also say that in PvE, the bosses have set difficulties which are a lot more challenging than some players in PvP that are just plain bad. Another argument would be that as a raider, especially on heroic bosses, you have to treat each boss mechanic with extreme caution because wipes can happen with one wrong move, whereas in PvP you can screw up miltuple times and still live through something that the other player threw at you. The statement I have heard more often than not is that you can suck at PvP and still win, you opponent just has to be worse. With all of those arguments lets shift gears into the seat of a PvPer that thinks he has it harder than a raider.

PvP is harder than PvE

The people who beleive this statemnet is true have some strong selling points, the first one being that you cant plan out a battle with another player, so you have to think on a dime. Another points is that you have to be thinking about and using all your class abilities, not just abilities that your spec uses to heal or dps but both of them. Along with the previous statement the argument that in PvP, CCing is essential even while your fighting another player. One could also say that in PvP, your fighting other players that blizzard tries to balance closely to each other, in PvE, it is possible for blizzard to make the fights to easy (it is also fair to say that they could make them too hard). And with the previous statement in mind it is also possible to class stack for specific bosses (sometimes considered "bug" abusing) that we have seen happen in this expansion *cough*paragon*cough*feral druid*cough*, sorry, I have a cold.
Anyway, from what I laid out above in this post, you decide for yourself which is harder. For me I do both so I cant really decide which is harder, rather that they are both really fun :P. Thanks for coming over to my blog.

Addons In World of Warcraft

What do addons do in World of Warcraft?

In World of Warcraft and pretty much every other PC based MMO game there is something called addons. Addons are exactly what they sound like, they are something added on to the game to serve a specific purpose. Addons specifically in World of Warcraft display information that the game has but is not showing you. For example Deadly Boss Mods, an addon many World of Warcraft players are familiar with. What it does is show you boss timers that are counting down to let you know when a specific ability will happen. All of the boss timer information is stored within the game, Deadly Boss Mods, just lets you see that layout of information in a very organized way. This is just one example of an addon, there are many other addons such as those to help you with your dps rotation, let you know the cooldown on your mitigation abilities, and the widely used raid frames for healers and raid leaders alike. All of these things display information on your screen in a more desirable and neat fashion to let you know whats what when your in the middle of a boss encounter where every second matters.

Are addons necessary to play World of Warcraft?

Addons are a preference and are not necessary to play the game because if they were then Blizzard would have included them in the game to begin with. However, addons in certain situations are extremely helpful and whether in a raid encounter, arena match, or rated bg, are widely preferred to be used rather than not. In a sense they make the game easier to handle when your in a situation where you need to know a layout of information without going through each tooltip or looking at each players health. Personally I could not do without my raid frames as a healer that has been use to click-to-cast his whole raiding history.

Should using addons be considered cheating?

Addons aren't necessarily cheating, because they aren't playing the game for you. The definition of cheating in a video game, however, is defined as making the game easier through non-standard methods. But if you take this definition and apply it to the situation, using addons in World of Warcraft has become a standard method and as far as Blizzard is concerned, isn't against the rules of the game. So if someone without and addons is fighting someone with an addon and the second guy wins because he has an addon, he isn't cheating. Because the first guy is allowed to use those same addons if he chooses to.

Fastest Way To Level In WoW

So your either playing World of Warcraft for the first time or leveling an alt.

What is the fastest way to level in WoW?

And

What is the best method to use when leveling in WoW?

I have heard this question asked many times in the World of Warcraft community of what is the fastest way to reach max level. If you have been searching all day and have stumbled upon this post you aren't going to be surprised that my answer isn't much different from the many other ones circulating the web. The fastest way to level varies from person to person but I am going to explain in depth the different methods of leveling. First and foremost you want to obtain any level enhancing equipment pieces or any guild perks to make leveling go faster. If you have a toon with enough justice points or honor points you can buy a chestpiece and shoulderpiece that each increase xp gains by 10% from monsters and quests. If your guild is level 2 you get an extra 5% xp bonus and when it reaches level 6 you get a 10% xp bonus. Additionally, when your guild reaches level 10 and you are honored with them you can buy a cape for 1,200 gold that increases xp gains by 5%, and when it is level 20 and you are honored with them you can buy a helm for 1,500 gold that increases exp gains by 10%. Adding together all of the above that is a total 45% extra xp gain. Now that the static xp gains are out of the way there are four ways to level up your toon. The first way is to quest and follow the questing storyline, this method is the slowest out of all of them and is fun and relaxing if you are leveling you first toon in World of Warcraft. If you choose this method your going to be reading each individual quest and go out performing tasks according to what it says, again this is the slowest of the all but if it is your first toon, it will help you with understanding the lore behind the game. The second method is quest grinding. With this method you are still questing but are less focused on why you are doing the quest and more focused on the objective of the quest and getting it done as fast as possible to get xp from the quests and monsters involved in the quests as fast as possible. This method is very fast and even faster if you follow a leveling guide that can be found for free in many places online. The third method is to follow the second one but in addition stay queued in the dungeon finder tool, this way there is no downtime and you are switching between questing and clearing out dungeons which is a nice break after hours of questing. This method is the most preferred and can at times be better than the second method depending on if your group knows what their doing. The fourth method is to level only through the dungeon finder. This method is very controversial and is the method that most people would hope to be the most effective as it is the most fun. However unless your a tank or healer, or have a tank or healer friend going in with you it is not very practical as DPS queue times are very long leading to a lot of downtime. This method can be effective especially if you are well rested but in most cases unless the mobs are at just the right level it is a little slower than method two or three. A fifth method that I'm not going to go into much detail as it is not widely used anymore is to just grind mobs out in the open world. This is the method that was used to obtain worlds first 85 but blizzard didn't really like that. There are many factors that come into whether this method is effective, one of which is that for it to beat out the others, you have to be ungrouped with at least 5 other people killing elites for you while you tag them. Even if you do get 5 other people to help you out, whether blizzard frowns upon this or not is widely unknown as they have been known to ban people for this. Thanks for taking the time to read this guide, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below. If you have a topic for me to talk about you can also leave that below in the comments section.

Note: When obtaining a group quest you should only take part in one if you know you can solo it or if there is already a group forming to complete that quest. Looking for a group yourself creates a lot of downtime in most situations. Don't feel bad not completing group quests.

Coming Prepared To Raids

If you are a new or old raider you may or may not know what the norm is for showing up to raids with. You have probably asked yourself the question,

What items should I bring to a raid?

Raids in WoW are something most of the WoW community looks forward to when hitting max level, it is the content meant for either 10 or 25 players to venture into and battle different bosses with different fight mechanics. A lot of preparation can go into putting a raid together whether it be a PuG or guild run it isn't something that's easy to start. Because of this it makes it so much easier for the person or people that put it together if you come prepared. Some things you should do when called for to join a raid is to know the fights, meaning know what you should do or not do and when to do or not do it. The most popular way to accomplish this is through strategy videos commonly found on YouTube. Along with these videos however I find it very helpful that after I watch the video to search the boss on the Internet and look at each specific ability, because sometimes in these videos they only show you their strategy and don't go in depth on what the abilities actually do. Knowing the fight ahead of time is also beneficial and will make you an important asset of any raid group regardless of your role because if others haven't watched the video you can give them a quick run down of the fight. The next thing to do is come prepared, not only in game but outside of the game. There isn't anything more annoying than a raider that comes in to a raid, gets in the group, and right before the boss pull they need a BIO to either go to the bathroom, get water, food, etc. Coming prepared in game also means that you have proper food, flasks, water, etc. Depending on who your raiding with you may or may not be allowed to show immaturity to a certain degree. Be sure you know how your group likes to do things before cracking jokes during a boss fight, if their friends then its probably OK. If its a PuG or a hardcore group of guys I would refrain from doing so unless others have already gotten away with doing so. If it is the GM I wouldn't join him, some GMs assert themselves as the only joke-makers in the group, and doing anything but laughing whether it be funny or not could be HAZARDOUS :). And above all have a good time, remember why your raiding and don't let anyone take the fun away from you. That's gonna be it for this post, leave comments on anything you would like me to talk about next and feedback about how I am doing.

Finding A Guild In WoW

If you are new to the game, the server, or just got the boot from you old guild you might ask yourself this question,

How do I find a guild in World of Warcraft?

In WoW I think the biggest contributing factor as to why the game is so appealing to others as well as myself is the community of players that the game has within it. For instance, when you are logging on to raid, yes you probably want to go down content but your also coming because you know that the group needs you. You want your friends to see you as dependable. So obviously if you haven't found a guild or individual players that you enjoy playing the game with your experience in World of Warcraft is not going to be as enjoyable as it could be. For many players in WoW they have been in their guild or group of friends for years, even if they have never met them in real life. They enjoy playing with them even if they aren't the best. So the first step to finding your group of people that is going to be the players you end up playing with during your time in WoW is to find out what you want to do in the game. If you aren't maxed level yet, don't worry, that just means your probably going to fit in best in a leveling guild. These make up most of the guilds in WoW where people both max level and still in the process of leveling hang out in a friendly, usually family oriented community and is probably the most welcoming of all of the guilds. The next type of guild is a casual pve guild, this is the guild that likes to run dungeons with each other and like to down raid bosses when it suits them but aren't too serious about the game. This is the type of guild most people go to after reaching max level in a leveling guild. The next type of guild is a hardcore or semi-hardcore pve guild, this is where you want to go when your max level and no sooner. I say this because unless your super close to max level its going to take some time to level up in order to be able to get into raids and they aren't going to hold a spot for you. These guilds are friendly to the players that have been in them for a long time and is going to take some work to get into the in-crowd within the guild. The last type of guild is a pvp guild where now that rated battlegrounds are in the game, are more popular than the use to be. I haven't had any experience being in a pvp guild but they can be lots of fun if you enjoy player versus player solely. No matter what type of guild you join just make a good first impression. Be playful and talk to people that respond to your playfulness because those are the type of guys that your going to connect with best. Another way to do this is constantly offer up your time to run dungeons, battlegrounds,arena, or old raid content with guild members as it will give you time to introduce yourself and will be appreciated by other guild member, in other words it will get you good guild reputation within the guild (not literally like the guild xp you get). Well that's it for this post thanks for reading. Feel free to leave comments and let me know what you guys would like me to write about next. I am very open to any topics.

Being A Good Raider In WoW

Being a good raider in World of Warcraft is something that many PvE players should strive for.

What makes a good raider in World of Warcraft?

Or

What is the definition of a good raider in World of Warcraft?

So in this post I will be talking about being a good raider in World of Warcraft and how to avoid being a bad raider. The first step to being a good raider is to know your class. If you have played with others in a group setting you have probably heard this phrase before. Knowing your class does not simply refer to knowing what spells do damage, heal, or cause threat. It refers to your classes' optimal rotation that will allow you to achieve the highest number possible with your gear. Knowing your class can be attained through either reading each individual tooltip and devising a rotation on your own which is not advised, some more favorable methods are going online and doing a search on your class rotation or talking to other players that have the same class or spec as you in game. But make sure whoever you talk to in game knows what they are talking about and not just speculating. Most players just do a search on their class and research it, yes, they actually do work to attain high numbers. Some would argue that doing work is not what is intended in the game because playing a game is having fun and research is obviously not fun. Well I will answer this with a short tirade, there are two types of people in WoW, "casual" and "hardcore" or "semi-hardcore". Casual players will say that they don't care whether they are doing it right or wrong but the important thing is that they are having fun playing the game. Hardcore or Semi-Hardcore players will say that they don't mind research, some even say the research itself is fun. But their mindset is that it will all pay off in the end when they down those bosses and feel good that they finally attained their goal through all of that work. The second step to being a good player is to be aware of your surroundings and react accordingly during a boss fight while still adhering to step one. This is really what most top end guilds look in a raider and what maybe not so hardcore guilds tend to not look at so much as the numbers. This step, however, is something that will set you apart from the rest if you are consistent in adjusting with boss mechanics. Some common sense boss mechanics are in most situations fire is bad, move, and if your radiating with an effect its probably not good to stand next to others (the Ascendant Council in BoT contradicts both of the above statements but that's about it). Watching videos ahead of time or just reading the bosses abilities are also a good thing to do if its a raid boss that your going against and not just some dungeon boss (although props to you if you look up dungeon bosses for when they are just released). In most guilds for achieving both steps 1 and 2 you will be rewarded with loot which leads me to the last step, step 3, don't be a loot whore. You may or may not know this but some people actually think they deserve everything that is an upgrade for them that drops. Other than your guilds loot system or random rolls nobody likes someone who thinks they deserve any upgrade that drops. That being said not getting as much loot as another, lets say mage in the raid, doesn't mean that he is going to do more dps. The game is heavily skill dependant and lets say the other mage is doing 80% of his potential dps and your doing 90%, if he has one or two items that are better than yours he isn't going to beat you. And if your both playing your mage's right there isn't going to be that much of a difference between your numbers. The way I see it as long as it is going to a competent individual whose dps, healing, tanking etc. is going to help the raid progress then its loot well distributed. Well thanks for reading my post here on blog spot, feel free to leave a comment about one or two of my posts or suggestions.

World of Warcraft, A Hobby?

Is World of Warcraft a Hobby?

And

What defines something as a Hobby? 

Hey guys, I am writing this post as my first real entry because I would really like to share with anyone who doesn't play World of Warcraft why we as casual and semi hardcore gamers enjoy the game. Many are considering WoW a hobby now and it is definantly a very unique experience if you have not played it before. Typically when someone thinks of a WoW player at least in my experiences they either think of a pansy kid who likes to skip around in fairy land all day or someone who can't get away from the computer, someone who whenever they are not playing are thinking of playing and get all emotional over the game. I am not saying those are true or false for a very few select people who play the game, but for the majority of us it is a way to turn off from our lives and relax in a world where you can engage in various activities with random people you enjoy playing the game with. If you have not played the game before, when you first enter the game it seems very overwhelming and you really do not know what to do except talk to various NPCs. Once you figure things out you start to talk to real people, asking questions, going out and questing or running dungeons with them. Those are the people, those first people who you meet in the game that you are probably going to be the ones you play with for the next few years or however long you decide to play the game. And the moment you reach max level you want to take your friend(s) and get a few more people together to start raiding. If you have played WoW and have not even been in a raid hardcore or not you are missing out on quite a bit. It is a very fun experience if you go in there with the people you enjoy playing with.
The first time I raided they threw at me this very foreign term "ventrilo" and I had no idea what they were talking about. They explained to me that it was a voice communication program and that during a boss fight we wont be able to type because so much will be going on. I said to myself ok that seems reasonable, and I plugged in my mic and logged into ventrilo and heard their voices. The people I had been playing with for years actually hearing their voices was very weird to me but nonetheless we walked into my first raid. The moment I stepped in there I was amazed at the structuring that went into building raids and we pulled the first boss. Now I have to say my first raid seemed to me like dungeons on steroids, I think to me more than any other role it felt hectic because I was healing and I just saw so many health bars start spiking, nothing any dungeon had prepared me for. But at the end of the night after coordinating we got a few bosses down and I was immediately sold that raiding was something that should be experienced by everyone at least once in their lifetime.
Now even my words can not describe the experience of WoW and raiding alike which is why I am very excited for a documentary I have been tracking that goes into the lives of WoW raiders and asks them what makes the game such a unique experience. The documentary is called "The Raid" and has not released yet but is in the works. You can check for more info at jointheraid.com, that will be it for this post, I hope you enjoyed reading.

Intro

Hello to anyone reading this, this is my first post in what I hope will be many blogs of me talking about the things I like. Since I spend more than my fair share of time online, gaming, watching television and other related activities I started wondering if I could feel that same enjoyment but also be doing something that (hopefully) will benefit others (you guys). Some specific video games that I enjoy playing are the popular mmo World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and NBA Live. I play other games here and there but that list would be far too long for me and would require a lot of memory which isn't something I exactly retain while partaking in these activities. Some television shows that I would also be talking about if I have anything to say about them are Warehouse 13, Psych, Rookie Blue, The Big Bang Theory, Human Target, Flashforward (if they ever decide to bring it back), Community, and V.
I am really new to blogging, and not the best at writing so excuse me if I ramble on with big blocks of text or use some bad grammar. I am going to aim to blog at least every other day but I just hope that I have enough to talk about and that I don't get caught up in anything else because I can get really distracted really fast. Well that is it for the first post, ill make them longer next time but really wanted this to get a post to summarize and start things off about my blog and about me.