Resto Nation

Here is the first film in my new Covenant Raid Series. There is no audio. I am working on fixing that in the future.

Ret Paladin Vs. Holy Priest by NO DRAMA is being featured on The Rawrcast this week!

I am super excited. Stompalina and Hafrot have an amazing show and I am honored to be a part. Make sure to tune in tomorrow Saturday May 2nd at 5PM Undermine time (EDT). Listen live at the following link and make sure to join the live chat.

NO DRAMA represent!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-rawrcast-show

Writing code for a living has given me the constant need to tweak, adjust, and hack anything I can to make it better, faster, and more useful. I like to call this being productively lazy.

I am a self proclaimed add-on and UI whore. In fact, next to raiding, add-ons and the add-on community may be the biggest reason I play WoW.

I am constantly reviewing and trying new add-ons, setups and configurations to tweak my UI. Patch 3.1.1 gave me an excuse to overhaul once again. Here are few of the winners and losers in my own personal add-on war:

Unit Frames: PitBull vs. oUF

I have used Pitbull for a very long time. It is great, but I have decided to switch over to Ovarti Unit Frames (oUF). oUF is a base framework to which Layouts and Plugins can be added. This provides near infinite flexibility without the complex configuration pages and high resource demands of Pitbull.

I am using the Nivaya layout and these plugins: oUF_AFKIcon, oUF_BarFader, ouf_DruidHots, oUF_Experience, oUF_HealComm, oUF_ReadyCheck, oUF_RuneBar, oUF_SpellRange, oUF_Swing.

Healing: Healbot vs. Vuhdo

I have finally made the switch. Vuhdo is the way to go. It is everything you always wished Healbot could be.

Economy: Auctioneer Advanced vs. AuctionLite

The only thing that I miss from Auctioneer is batch posting. I am working on a macro to fix that. Skillet and LilSparky’sWorkshop are also required for anyone wanting to profit from crafting.

HUD: IceHud vs. DHud

I recently switched from IceHud to DHud. DHud broke in the patch. I switched to IceHud. I am switching back to DHud as soon as it is fixed.

Buffs: PallyPower vs. ZOMGBuffs

I just switched to ZOMGBuffs. I think I like it. I think.

Check these out and let me know what you think.

Itemization is a funny thing in WoW. Almost everything we know about it has been “divined” through reverse engineering and a massive amount of player testing. The thing is, by massive I mean tens of thousands of man hours.

Last week in Heroic Naxx it came to me that the majority of players care about two things when looking at raid drops:

1. Is it a tier piece token?
2. Does it have sockets?

If neither answer is yes then the player regards the gear as trash loot.

Personally I think this is a terrible waste of good loot. Itemization and gearing your toon is much more complex and anyone who is serious about min/maxing should take the time to know what they should be using.

There are a number of tools out there to help players with gear selection. While none of them is perfect, if used together they can give us a good understanding on how to rise on the charts and, as a group, not fail.

When gearing my toons I use the following resources:

1. RatingsBuster: This is a great addon that will break down stats into numbers you care about and compare them with the gear currently equipped.
2. Rawr: This Is a stand-alone simulation program that is invaluable. It covers, gear, spec, buffs, and much more. This is the ultimate in toon simulation tools.
3. ElitistJerks.com: This community of math wizards has all the answers.

Using these resources will help you make an educated decision when it comes to what to wear. Don’t fall into the tier gear trap. Many best in-slot items are not part of the Heroes and Valorous sets.

The pwnage of <No Drama> plus PUG continues. Last night we reassembled some of our PUGgers, found some new ones, and headed into the Construct Quarter of Heroic Naxxramas. I’m not sure why we skipped the Plague Quarter and went straight for Patchwerk, but it worked out quite well.

Getting started was a bit rough as there were multiple slime wipes due to a lack of communication and Blizzard’s technical issues. For the beginning of the run we had multiple simultaneous disconnects. It happened to me multiple times and I have a solid connection and a very good system.

After a classically comic Vent episode and once the cats were properly herded found our self in front of one of <NO DRAMA>’s biggest brick walls (second to the BBF of course), Heroic Patchwerk.

The first pull was pure fail. The tanks hit an insta-death and we wiped. The second was better although some of the healers ran into mana issues and we wiped again.

The third time was a charm and we downed the big guy! However, once again I DCed at 15% due to Blizzard’s server issues. I reconnected and passed out the loot.

There are few things more frustrating in WoW than being the Master Looter and passing out pieces of loot you have waited months for to other people because you have terrible rolls. I don’t like to QQ about loot, but man did it suck. On a more positive note, grats to all who got the phat lootz, including our new 2^nd Holy Paladin.

After Patch we wiped once on Grobbulus due to bad cloud and add management. Our usual main tank dropped his nicely geared Shaman and jumped on his DK to save us from Fail. Attempt two was clean and well executed. Grobbulus loot rained from the sky.

One more quick QQ, the trinket that I want most in the game right now, Forethought Talisman, dropped. I lost the roll to a priest. Seriously a Priest? Really? As a Paladin this trinket is my only chance in the game to get a HoT, which as a Main Tank healer would make a gigantic difference, and it goes to a PUGged priest who can roll HoTs for days already. Wow. /endQQ

After Grobb we headed to the pipe and into Gluth’s room. Attempt was as fail due to Zombies not being killed. After the wipe we brought in a new Survival Hunter and we downed the Zombie Dog. More phat loot and some tank QQ and we called it for the night. Thaddius and the Heroic Construct Quarter achievement will have to wait.

I’d also like to welcome the Warlock that joined up with us last night. These PUGs have been great for recruiting.

Stats and lootz:

WWS Report

Patchwerk: Waistguard of Divine Grace, Totem of Hex, Girdle of the Gambit, Seized Beauty

Grobbulus: Depraved Linked Belt, Twilight Mist, Desecrated Past, Forethought Talisman

Gluth: Bands of Impurity, Breastplate of Tormented Rage, Mantle of the Lost Vanquisher, Legplates of the Lost Protector

My name is Byron and I play WoW. Lately I have been bored at work and when I can’t play WoW, I’ve been reading about it. This has caused me to become something unexpected: good at WoW. I have learned a lot from other bloggers and other players as well as my own noobish “life lessons”. With all this new found free time I have decided to give back and start my own blog about WoW.
I play a Level 80 Blood Elf Holy Paladin, Koramoor. I am in a really great pseudo-casual guild, NO DRAMA on Undermine-US. I like playing Kora quite a lot and I really like my guild. We run Naxx a bit, although we can’t seem to clear it all in one week due to RL, hopefully that will change soon. Kora has very nice 10 man gear and so do most of the other guildies. This has lead to Naxx becoming very easy.
Because we have hit a plateau for the time being I have started something else, Multi-boxing. I am currently playing 3 Alts to level cap a the same time. They are Soulsnatcher, a Forsaken Rogue, Koramiir a Tauren Druid, and Koramaar an Orc Shaman. This started as a way for me to get Alts and I could not stand the thought doing it one at a time. It has been more fun than I thought possible. They are currently level 33 and I plan on 60 by this time next week. After that I want to complete my harem with one of each class so I have can explore the game from all angles. I am very excited about this.
Through this blog I plan on writing about casually raiding as a Holy Paladin, Leadership and Guild dynamics, and the joys of Multi-boxing. I have quite a bit to say and more things come up all the time so I am hoping that there will be no lack of content. Please check back as there will be more to come soon. Thanks for stopping by.
Hope you enjoy it,
Kora