Throne of Thunder: Week 1

I can't remember the last time a tier hit with this much content. New dailies to grind, trash to farm, and a massive raid to run in a huge complex.  It's enough to make a busy person swear off the game for some rest and relaxation! I was actually looking forward to time alone where I could just sit in a chair and read for a while and let my son play with his puzzles nearby, but alas, I had so much stuff to do in game.

Anyway - I managed to have some luck this week. For one, the egg I farmed up in the Isle of Giants dropped a mount - the Red Primal Raptor. I know it's very similar to the basic mounts but for a very recent ex-Alliance player, a Raptor mount is a freaking big deal. I also managed to get the 3 stones together for the special summoning quest (haven't done it yet, though) as well as a couple of Elite NPC items and a key to the Thunder King's Vault. So - not a bad haul for the first week.

Oh, the raid? Right, there was a raid too, wasn't there? We extended our raid week by one night to 12 hours. I know - hardcore! Right? Hardly... I wish we could've raided at least 20 hours this week, but c'est la vie.

Anyway, we used those hours quite productively, if not as productively as we'd hoped - 5 bosses down, and while they seemed fine for the most part, Magaera, the fifth boss, was very onerous to work through. Magaera seems a tad over-tuned and is perhaps meant as a gear-check gate-keeper boss, but it took a hard, punishing two nights of raid to get it down with nearly 30 attempts. All other bosses went down in 6 - 12 attempts at the most. We worked up to the sixth boss, but with minutes to go on raid time only had two pulls. Ji-Kun seems remarkably more manageable even with just some test attempts, so I'm confident next week will see us push further in, especially as we do have an extra night planned there as well.

One of our healers, Aliena, has been putting out some amazing guide videos, and they should be good for anyone who might need a bit of help with these bosses. It's so odd to see my name in Aliena's videos after studying her videos back in Wrath to learn how to kill the ICC bosses.

As for my impressions of the raid.... I don't know, I don't feel that gut-churning oomph yet. Nothing has grabbed me by the gut and wrenched my attention the way Icecrown or Karazhan did.

Not to say there isn't a lot of good here:

• It's a massive, absolutely gorgeous raid. The environments are regal, evocative and richly detailed, the  pathways are a bit linear but disguised well so it doesn't feel like one long corridor, and after seeing only half of it, I feel it's on par with Black Temple, Ulduar or Icecrown Citadel in terms of the sheer space it occupies.
• Further, I love the way the raid has different environments, the first 3 bosses are in the external courtyards of the castle occupied by the Zandalari forces. Then, we move into the underbelly, crawling through sewers and caverns, battling against the forgotten and lost and ignored creatures who happen to have mutated by accident in the vicinity of the Thunder King's power. Next will be the flesh-shaped experiments in discarded experimental labs and then finally the inner chambers of the palace itself. This staggered layering of the environments is just amazing for the architecture nerd in me.
• The bosses are challenging and no walk-overs (except the first one, maybe). The troll bosses are linked thematically, I love seeing Gar'ajal back for the Council fight and the Horidon fight has some fun elements to it - I always love fights with streaming adds, it feels very much more like a fight than just fighting one big guy. Plus, Horidon is a huge dinosaur and a very intimidating presence. Tortos is just a speed kill, and while Magaera is over-tuned, it is actually a fight I can see myself enjoying once we get the gear to topple it more easily.
• I like having a reputation grind back in a raid - it feels connected to the external world and there are Valor rewards associated with it, and that always takes me back to Karazhan and the rings and Arcane Resist trinkets that came from the Kirin Ton rep.
• If I had one thing to complain about, it would be the sheer amount of trash. And the gimmicks build around some of these - the bridge in particular is egregious in its implementation of trash mechanics, not to mention the trash leading up to Ji-Kun - holy shit that trash is annoying to deal with.

And still... I don't feel a tug in my belly about this raid. Not yet. Maybe as we go deeper, I'll find something to hook me in.

Right now, I would say this looks like a very successful raid, it looks to be shaping up to be one hell of a tier, and I look forward to spending a few months in here, pulling apart Lei-Shen's secrets.

I'm In The Money And You Can Too!

A few weeks ago, I saw something precious on the AH that I had wanted for some time but had so far been too exorbitantly priced for my taste - in the 80k - 100k range, but I'm guessing someone had to make some quick cash and they posted it for 63k.

I did some quick math, realized that after the 5% auction house cut, a 63k sale was worth 59,850 gold to the seller; contacted them, and offered them 60k cash if they canceled their auction. I'd pay less, and they'd make 150 more gold. They agreed, I had my thing, and I was down to about 10k gold which left me feeling a bit nervous.

At that point, I immediately went on an AH binge and made about 45k over the next 48 hours, and re-posting what didn't sell, I made another 10k over the next 48 hour period putting me back up to 65k leaving me feeling rather comfortable again. In the weeks since, I've been bit by the AH bug and have double that amount, and my goal is to double it again before I head into Pandaria.

I did a sort of quiet celebration on Twitter and was asked by a couple of folks how I did this, and so I thought I'd go over how I make money.

And as I planned this, it got a bit detailed as well, but I'm going to try to keep it very high-level, accessible and easy and avoid any massive amount of data-mining, spread-sheet keeping, hedge-analysis, purchasing and re-posting massive stacks, or anything like that because that kind of detail turns me off on most of the gold-making sites and guides I've looked at.

Caveat time:
This is how I make gold on any given day when I need it. Please keep in mind that what works for me might not work for you, and while I'm no Goblin, I'm generally quite comfortable gold-wise and enjoy playing the economics game now and again.

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CONTENTS:

- Assumptions
- Auctioneer
- What to sell
- Professions
- Shuffle
- Volatiles
- Premium Items
- Pricing
- Selling

ASSUMPTIONS:

1. Your server/faction has a decent population and a decent Auction House
This is a major factor and can be a non-starter for some people, as one of my two servers has a very lackluster auction house and I have a lot of trouble there when a very small number of sellers have completely  cornered and dominated the market, but my home-server of Moon Guard has a massive population and an even split across both factions, and quite a few AH Goblins (who can work to your benefit.)

Ideally, you want a lot of sellers and a lot of buyers - the more people involved the better things are for everyone.

2. You have access to some maxed out, lucrative professions - namely Enchanting, Jewelcrafting and Alchemy
If you have maxed out all three professions on any mixture of alts, you're going to have no problem making money. Blacksmithing and Inscription aren't bad, but (in my experience) have a much smaller footprint and you can easily get locked out of the market, as the turnover isn't great. Engineering isn't bad for the Chopper and pets, Tailoring is decent for the Threads and Bags, and Leathercrafting is just terrible outside of tank and DPS enchants, but none of them come close to the power and synergy of Enchanting, Jewelcrafting and Alchemy.

I'm going to avoid the gathering professions entirely as we're trying to make money quickly and not from farming for hours.

3. You have some starting collateral - it doesn't have to be significant, even having 3k or 4k gold to invest could be a good starting point depending on the AH and your goals
This is just to start out with, so that when you do need raw materials you can get access to them quickly and easily and then flip it for a quick profit - this is mostly for Ore and Volatiles, which will account for the bulk of your purchases.

4 You want enough money to be very comfortable and not think about gold but aren't necessarily interested in becoming an AH hero
This process is not designed to make you a millionaire or even someone who's raking in tens of thousands of gold every day - it generally works out to be slow at the start but in a few weeks you'll have a good amount of stock and you will have a modest but steady income if you're willing to spend about 10-minutes a day doing a bit of work. This also means that you're willing to settle for lower margins than your competitors and will often depend on these Goblins to buy you out wholesale netting you a quick and smaller profit than an extended, bigger profit.

5 You're willing to install one add-on to make some on-the-fly math easier (Auctioneer) and visit one web-site to get prices (The Undermine Journal)
That's really all you need - a lot of the gold guides overwhelm me with the number of add-ons I need to manage the production cycles of various flips and I'm just not interested in turning my game into something like that - I enjoy the economics and I enjoy playing the AH market now and again, and observing it through Auctioneer but other than that, I want to be in and out as quickly as possible.

AUCTIONEER:

The only thing I use Auctioneer for is to gauge the single-item price on stacked items. If the base UI had a way for me to do this, I wouldn't use Auctioneer at all. I mean, the undercut price from scans is nice... but it's not particularly useful as you're always setting price by hand anyway. There is a toggle check on the lower-left of the window.

I talk a lot below about "check the price" - assume that I'm always talking about unit prices, that's how you want to measure what you're posting for. Check the price of a single unit and price your sales based on where you set your unit price.

If you look at the above example, the two stacks of Shards at 20 and 17 gold are both listed for the same price (84.05/shard) but you can't really get that by looking at the summary values. So if I wanted to sell aggressively, I could reasonably set the price to 80 gold per and quickly move a ton of shards.

The above screen-shot, BTW, is from the web-version of the Auction House, which, honestly, is far, far better than the one implemented in game. Unfortunately, the game doesn't allow you to browse the AH while logged into game, or there would be no need for Auctioneer at all.

It really helps you cut through the mess of prices you see and is a far better way of setting prices than the averaging that Auctioneer's automatic pricing process.

WHAT TO SELL:

More than 95% of my income is from the following three stocks:

- Raw Gems
- Enchanting Mats
- Volatiles

Premium Items will be part of your income, but they're based too much on luck to be a reliable source.

PROFESSIONS:

Enchanting and Jewelcrafting can be very expensive to level-up but they are extremely lucrative, Alchemy is the only other thing that comes close to the money-making potential of these professions and it's a distant second.

The few thousand gold you'll spend leveling them up (if you don't have a tailor to help with enchanting or a miner to help with Jewelcrafting) can seem significant but they will pay you back big dividends. Alchemy is relatively easier and cheaper to level, especially if you have an Herbalist alt. I recently leveled these from zero to cap at the same time on a new character on a new server where I had no access to resources and it was a bit painful, so I empathize with anyone being daunted by these - but if you have farming alts, it gets much, much, much cheaper than buying all the raw mats from the Auction House.

Do your Jewelcrafting daily as often as possible and stockpile those tokens. Buy only the cuts you absolutely need and horde the tokens for when you need them.

For your Alchemy specialty you want to go with Transmutation. Elixirs are good at the start of the expansion when we were churning out flasks like crazy but thanks to Cauldrons I haven't bought a flask in ages. Right now, Transmutation is king.

SHUFFLE

At the core of how I make money is the good old-fashioned Ore Shuffle which has been documented in various places and is very popular. But it's also about how your posting strategy works and how often you post, and what you post.

For those who don't know, here is how the Shuffle basically works:

1. You buy cheap ore from the AH or hire someone to deliver ore to you regularly for a set price (say, someone will send you 5 stacks of Obsidium every day for 250 gold so they have a regular income every day regardless of how the ore prices fluctuate on the AH and you have a regular and reliable source).

2. You prospect all the ore with your Jewelcrafter

3. You take your Carnelians and send them to your alchemist and transmute them into Infernal Rubies with a similar number of Heartblossoms (a very cheap and abundant herb on the AH)

4. You craft green jewelry with the other green gems and then disenchant them for mats

5. You sell the enchanting mats, any blue-proc jewelry, and gems for more money collectively than what you paid for the ore

That's the basic shuffle, but serious investors are not going to invest 250 gold into it, they're going to invest thousands and thousands of gold into it for hundreds of stacks of ore and run the mill for hours through add-ons.

What I do different, is that by working on a very small volume, I'm building up a stock to sell when I need the cash and only investing a very small amount of money into the market in purchasing small amounts of cheap ore. It keeps my bank very, very well stocked and it costs me very little money. In the mean time I'm building a lot of asserts that I can liquidate at any given moment for a massive amount of money.

If you want to, you can also make high-demand, high-price enchants like Power Torrent or whatever, but I generally stick to the raw materials - much safer and faster turn around. Obviously, if you farm your own ore this is even more lucrative, but the objective here is to minimize the time spent making gold.

VOLATILES

While enchanting mats and gems are your stock assets, volatiles are your every-day money.

The basic transmute process goes like this:

Every day, look up the average individual price of Volatile Life and then the average individual price of all the other elementals. Typically Fire or Air will be the highest by far and Life will be the lowest. On the average, I buy Volatile Life for ~3 gold per and send it to my transmute-spec'd alchemist who travels to Uldum or Hyjall depending on what I want to sell and transmute them. If I buy a full stack, that's an investment of ~60 gold, and selling 3 stacks of 5 Volatile Air at an average price of ~20 gold per, I get back ~300 gold. Over a week, that's 2,100 gold from an investment of 420 gold.

Here's a visual example of how cheap the Life is and how well priced the Air is:

This is one of those things that farming might make even more lucrative as you can just sell the herbs you gather and transmute the Life for even more profit, and you can likely get enough Volatile Life for a week's worth of transmutes in an hour or two depending on how fast you pick flowers.

I'm aware that you can use your Transmute on MetaGems and TrueGold but on my server at least, those markets are pretty saturated and the margins are pretty low. This is one of those every-day things that takes about 5 minutes and over a period of time will build up a sizable amount of cash on hand.

PRICING

This is where I imagine a lot of people will have an issue with me.

Unlike the Volatiles where the margin is everything, in the case of gems and enchanting mats, I don't really care about how much of a margin I'm making. Generally speaking, I see these as assets to liquidate and anything I get is profit, and a significant one.

For example, during my selling binge, I hit a small patch of time where I was able to sell individual Maelstrom Crystals for 200 gold. I sold 100 crystal and made 20k gold. However, a lot of other people were selling in the 220 - 300 gold range. Yes, I absolutely underbid them, got very quick sales, and made a ton of money by sacrificing a higher margin by lowering my expectations and cashing out quickly. I gave up at least 2k gold in profits, in the interest of a faster turnaround.

That's the biggest thing about the way I look at this game - I'm not maximizing my profits here because I don't care about a long-term trend, market sustainability or price stability - I'm just in it for a quick cash-out and this kind of pricing is absolutely perfect for it. Many times, the people who buy your stock out will be the Goblins who're looking out for the market and trying to sustain high-prices for certain items that they have cornered. Nothing wrong with selling to these guys at all! In fact, I depend on them.

Same goes for gems - put them up at a reasonable, competitive and tempting price, undercut your competition and quickly cash out.

But.

You don't want to wind up selling too low - and how do you know? You might hit your AH during a bear moment and see prices that average out to be significantly lower than where they should be and you might only be a day or two from a correction. That's where The Undermine Journal comes in. And there is really only a couple of things you're looking at here - the average price of the item to see how far the current price is fluctuating and how many of the current items are on sale.

Say you have some Rubies to sell and they are on for 150 gold per and there are seven of them on the AH. Undermine says the trending average is closer to 200 gold. Well, post them for 199 over 48 hours and walk away. Chances are, the lower priced ones will sell and people will purchase your higher priced gems because they are the average and further posts will also elevate the market price and help with the adjustment.

Don't fret this too much - just take a look at the average price, if the undercut price is reasonably close, go for it. And set your own price, don't let Auctioneer do it for you.

PREMIUM ITEMS

If you're raiding, you'll gain access to some premium items that you can use to get a big boost of gold. For example, Epic Gems - when DS launched, I didn't use a single epic gem, and sold every one I got instead, as I knew I wouldn't be using them on my normal-mode gear anyway, and I wanted to make some money while the making was good.

Same goes for BoE's that you aren't going to use on your main that you might win in raids - selling those might take you a few days but you will be able to move it as long as you post consistently and keep it in the market.

Lastly, the Valor gear - it looks like this is going to go away in Pandas with the changes to Valor planned, but either way, what I do is advertise a direct price for the BoEs - say 3k for Boots and 2k for Belts - and you immediately become a lot more attractive than some guy who's just offering to sell BoEs and then the buyer has to negotiate a price. Offer a price right up front and you're far more likely to get sales (or at least I do). Often, I'll even negotiate subsequent sales, and try to keep a good relationship with these people by offering a free enchant or gem cut or whatever, so that the next time they want to buy something they'll use me instead of random dude in /trade.

This is a side-business, and something to do while standing around in Stormwind chatting in guild or whatever. It's a very nice income to be sure, but not something I depend on.

SELLING

How you stack stuff is incredibly important. I absolutely hate sales of massive stock listed one item at a time and there are pages and pages of these posts. I don't care if it's more profitable, I don't care if certain add-ons make it easier to deal with them - people who do this are incredibly inconsiderate to the purchasers and it really kills the pace of interaction.

However, it gives you an opportunity to take advantage - you should split up your sales as well, but stack your items in such a way that they're more attractive right off the bat compared to other, competitively priced items. If you see fifteen individual Shards for prices mixed anywhere from 97.87 to 105.35 and then you see 3 stacks of 5 for 499.99, what are you more likely to buy?

Lastly, retail pricing works. It works because we like round numbers, we like seeing a digit lower than the one we're willing to pay, and even if it means a slight loss of revenue, pricing and stacking things to make them seem more attractive will generate more sales.

For the record, I set stacks as follows:

Gems: 3
Volatiles: 5
Hypnotic Dust: 5
Heavenly Shards: 5
Maelstrom Crystals: 5
Greater Celestial Essence: 3

One final point of warning: you don't want to hold on to stuff for too long. Right now, I'm not stocking anything, pretty much everything I get, once I have it in enough volume to make a few stacks, I'll post and sell. You don't want to get caught with a bunch of devalued assets at the end of the expansion.

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And that's about it. I know it doesn't seem very exciting and it doesn't seem very glamorous and it doesn't promise to make you a millionaire overnight but.... that's kind of how I stay very comfortable with my gold level pretty much all the time.

Good luck, let me know if you have any questions, I'll be happy to try and answer them.

Guest Post: Doing The 'Mog Right

I know plenty of awesome 'Mogeres but none who've decked out every one of their alts in awesome and unique sets like my co-tank and DK extraordinaire, Miss Maara. I've convinced her to write out her process and guide, and she was gracious enough to do a guest post. There are 5 distinct sets listed here, and they really show the breadth of her design, from a very practical outfits for her Priest and Mage to the more ethereal and gloomy outfit for her Druid. The 'mogs on the Shaman and DK are a blending of the two, with more flash and cool-factor built in. If you're looking for some custom and unique sets, these might give you some ideas. I love 'em - enjoy!

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My friend and fellow Turtle Saif has asked me to write a guest blog for Raiding After Dark on the subject of Transmogrification. Here's my go at it, but please don't blame me if it sucks. Blame Saif. It was totally his idea.

I guess the basic root of finding a good 'mog set is determining what, exactly, makes a look "good." This, of course, is extremely subjective. Some people love shiny sparklies while others prefer a more subdued look. Still others favor a look from an old raid set from the Days of Yore.

Buuuuuut, since Saif asked Yours Truly, you'll get my opinion and you'll like it!

Generally speaking, my philosophy for creating a solid 'mog look is to pick one or two items that you want to showcase, and choose the rest of the outfit around that. That piece can be thematic to the character, or simply awesome-looking, but whatever it is, the key is to make it shine (and I don't mean literally.)

To illustrate, I'll go though a few examples of this philosophy.

This is my shaman, Lumena. She's not my main, but she's my most showy 'mog currently. It took me a while to decide how to show her off... the draenei are somewhat under-represented lore-wise, so I decided on a look that was mostly "draenei" with less emphasis on the wild, shaman-y aspect. My starting point was actually the shield, though it was the last item I managed to acquire. It was uniquely draenei-looking, and the set flowed from that. I was lucky that the entire [Steadfast] set fit well, with a sort of aged, yet polished look. The [Mantle of the Sea Wolf] are the dash of shaman, and I chose them for that along with the color scheme that fit so well. The [Vicious Spellblade] I chose simply because its ambient effect overwrites any enchant effect and Power Torrent gives me a headache.

An outfit doesn't have to "match" though, to be a solid look. My mage, Kaelie, for example, or my priest, Lilienne, both sport looks that are more subdued. My mage I picture as something of a woodsy, active sort of person. I started with the [Legwraps of the Master Conjurer], a texture I'd noticed and loved back in Wrath. The rest just sort of fell into place... so many chest items look great with them! Once more, I chose a dagger based on mageyness and the ability to nullify the Power Torrent appearance.

Similarly, with my priest, I wanted her to look like a priest-on-the-go. (She served at the Cathedral in Gilneas, but is now at home in Stormwind). Her mace was the main piece of the set, and I let it carry the rest, keeping her simple and (I hope) subtle.

The set I am most proud of at the moment is my DK's frost gear. I started with a shoulder model, [Chilled Shoulderplates], that I absolutely loved. I wanted to convey the idea of a frozen, fallen Sentinel, so I chose smooth armor that matched the plate of the shoulders. I also loves the pattern on [Permafrost Cape], so when weapons don't clip it, I turn it on. For the weapons themselves I am currently 'mogged to [Stellaris] because it feels almost like a Night Elf glaive, but I've also enjoyed the look of [Teldrassil Protector], because it is very much in keeping with Maara's theme and color scheme.

Most recently I've put together a look for my resto druid, who is something of a wanna-be-devotee of Malorne (and the self-appointed intern of Elrahd). The center item for her was the [Druidic Helmet of Second Sight] and the rest followed easily enough. I find that matching your cloak to either your helm or your shoulder piece allows for a consistent look while still contrasting nicely with any given look. I'm not entirely happy with it, but the ideal black leather pieces drop from ToC and will take longer to get! For now the  basic leather set works nicely and [Brutal Gladiator's Staff] is perfect to accent it.

Yeah, maybe I have a 'mogging addiction. Maybe it's some deep-seated girly urge to play dress-up. Whatever it is, I love transmogrification!

The next set on the table is going to be a tougher one to tackle: my little gnome Gnelly is convinced that she's a hunter and once she's 85 I'm determined to have her look like one. My plan is something along the lines of this, but I guess we'll see how it goes!

For anyone wanting to play with hunting down great transmogrification ideas, Mogit is a fantastic addon, if you have the space to run it. Otherwise, just find an item you love, and just choose everything else with it its awesomeness in mind! Even if you have a favorite pair of boots, or an extra lucky hat, you're already halfway to an awesome 'mog!

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If you're interested, here are the complete looks above:

Lumena (Shaman)

Head: Steadfast Coronet
Shoulder: Mantle of the Sea Wolf
Chest: Steadfast Breastplate
Wrist:Steadfast Bracelets
Hands: Steadfast Gloves
Waist: Steadfast Girdle
Legs: Steadfast Legplates
Feet: Steadfast Stompers
Dagger: Vicious Spellblade
Shield: Aldori Legacy Defender

Maara (Death Knight)

Head: Warleader's Crown
Shoulders: Chilled Shoulderplates
Chest: Heroic Armor
Hands: Truesilver Gauntlets
Waist: Grimscale Belt
Legs: Heroic Legplates
Feet: Vicious Gladiators Warboots of Alacrity
Axes: Stellaris
Back: Permafrost Cape

Lilienne (Priest)

Shoulder: Double-stitched Woolen Shoulders
Chest: Aurora Armor
Shirt: Rustic Workman's Shirt
Wrist: Archmage Bracelets
Hands: Heavy Linen Gloves
Waist: Bloodthirsty Embersilk Belt
Legs: Regal Leggings
Feet: Archmage Slippers
Mace: Mogor's Anointing Club
Offhand: Divine Companion

Celaen (Druid)

Head: Druidic Helmet of Second Sight
Shoulder: Hide of the Lone Hunter
Back: Proudmoore Cloak
Chest: Vest of Discovery
Shirt: Stylish Black Shirt
Hands: Infectis Puffer Gloves
Waist: Ghostwalker Belt
Legs: Golly Gosh Leggings
Feet: Grazle's Sandals
Staff: Brutal Gladiator's Staff

Kaelie (Mage)

Shoulders: Laughing Skull Shoulderpads
Back: Cloak of Insomnia
Chest: Mooncloth Vest
Shirt: Blue Lumberjack Shirt
Wrist: Laughing Skull Bracelets
Hands: Black Mageweave Gloves
Waist: Black Belt of Knowledge
Legs: Legwraps of the Master Conjurer
Feet: Kayser's Boots of Precision
Dagger: Jaded Crystal Dagger
Offhand: Globe of Moonlight

Guest Post: Furtive Father Winter

Hello All!

We may have not met before, but I'm Mia from Chronicles of Mia. Today, I am writing a guest post for Raiding After Dark for BlogAzeroth's Annual Holiday Post Exchange (a.k.a Furtive Father Winter)! I'm happy to write this post, mainly because I've never came across Saif's blog before. I may not celebrate the holidays, but I figured I would do something out of the ordinary for a new friend. I was a bit off guard when I had to think up a quick post or gift to Saif. I thought I had my blog's email account set to be forwarded to my personal gmail account. That wasn't the case. It was not set up, and I basically received a couple of emails late. This included who my gift recipient was , which was Saif. After looking around Raiding After Dark, I noticed the helpful Raid guides that Saif made. So as a gift, I decided to make my own little guide! Enough chatter. Let's begin! :D

How to Farm a Low Dungeon Pet on a New Server...

This guide will be helpful if you are looking to make some gold or to surprise a new friend.


What You Will Need:
- Having a character at least 55 or above
- Lots of Free Time

Directions:
1) Start off by picking your server - I chose a role-playing server named Moonguard. It's also the same server that Saif has a couple characters on, so I'm assuming it's his main server.
2) Next, make a Death Knight Character - I suggest you make your Death Knight's race based on what pet you are farming. If you are farming for the Deviate Hatchling, make a Horde character. If you are farming for the Green Wing Macaw, make an Alliance one. This will help you save time in the long run, and avoiding PvP. You are also going to be using free time to farm for a Dungeon pet, and it could take a while. Make sure you are able to have a bit of fun with your Death Knight's Race.
3) Do ALL the Death Knight Quests! - You should be at least level 58, and have 25 talent points by the time you do all the Death Knight Quests. You should also have all your equipped green items replaced by Blues from Quest Rewards. The last Death Knight quest takes you to Stormwind or Orgimmar depending on your Death Knight's faction.
4) Head out to the Dungeon and begin to farm! - I chose Deadmines to farm for the Green Wing Macaw. It only drops off the pirates at the end of the dungeon. If you are farming for the Deviate Hatchling, you have it much easier. The Deviate Hatchling drops off of Raptors at the beginning of the instance. Keep in mind that it may take multiple runs in order to get your pet to drop, but it WILL drop! Don't give up!
5) Sell or Gift your Pet! - After about three full dungeon runs of Deadmines, I got the Green Wing Macaw pet!

That's the end of the guide and I hope you all enjoyed it!
With Love,

Mia

P.S - In case you haven't noticed by now, that Green Wing Macaw is for Saif ^_^ Even though I don't celebrate the holidays, I hope everyone has has created lots of good memories from the year ^_^

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Thank you Mia! I had just started reading her blog a few days ago when I got this post (and the pet) in the mail. As I've been crawling my way to 100 pets, and didn't have the Macaw yet, it was the best gift. Very kind of you. And as I have a rather cash-strapped DK on Argent Dawn, I think this guide will be helpful in getting some quick money when she needs it.

If you're curious about the post I gifted, it's here, on Bossy Pally. :-)

HOW TO: Dragon Soul 10 - The First Half

Dragon Soul has been a fun raid to tackle, the early fights are a bit easy, but they do scale up in difficulty as you go on, and while the encounters might not feel particularly original, they let you revisit old content with new skins and the old encounter models feel updated.

It's almost as if the Encounter Team was doing a best-of retrospective release, and instead of just picking old songs, they decided to remaster the sound, fix the levels issue on certain early tracks, and add in demos, alternate versions and extended takes.

I buy a lot of music.

Anyway - for the first four bosses, tanking is super straightforward in the Normal-10 mode. Quick and dirty tips follow.

Morchok (safe and easy with 2 tanks, can be done with 1)
Swap as 3 stacks, and then each time the Armor debuff drops off. When you're not tanking, you can go help soak a crystal so one of the DPS doesn't have to. You can easily solo tank the fight as long as you save CDs for when stacks get high before he goes into phase 2, and they should reset while you're running in and out. But two tanking it isn't a problem, unless you're doing some kind of speed-run. Use Divine Guardian if people are low on health and there's a stomp coming with a crystal up. You can cast Judgement and throw Hammers of Wrath while you're running away from the blood, but don't Exorcism spam or you'll OOM yourself.


Yor'sahj the Unsleeping (2 tanks)
Two tank this to avoid accidental death to Void Bolt. Remember that the adds aren't tankable, they focus random people. You can help with the slime when necessary, but they don't have a lot of health, and the DPS can kill them easily while the tanks just sit and swing on the boss. Use  Divine Guardian as per usual in a set rotation with the healers to mitigate the AoE and voila. This is slightly more difficult for the DPS and healers, what with chasing the Mana Void and getting the adds down in time. We're just literal meat-shields on this one. Yawn.


Warlord Zon'ozz (1 tank)
The trash before this can be solo-tanked, as only the Claw really melees someone specifically. Burn down the eye, then the ranged on tentacles while melee swap to claw. The Claw might fling you away, you can just rush back with a ranged taunt if the Claw is trying to mutilate one of the melee while you're flying.

You also want to solo the boss so that you don't have to worry about the enrage timer as he does have a chunk of health. You want to line up 3 raid markers in a row. You'll be facing the boss away from the raid except for when he's about to cast the Orb. Keep a healer in melee with you, and try to split in a 5/4/1 formation, even if some ranged have to move into the melee clump just to keep the splash damage at a minimum.

Pull the boss facing the raid, let the orb come out, then flip him 180 degrees so his back is to the melee clump and the ranged clump. Try not to use any personal cool-downs until his stacks start to get high. We bounce the orb 5 times, sometimes 7 if melee doesn't get out of the way and the orb gets bounced back to ranged. I wind up WoGing a bit here, just to keep things stable right after a bounce.

When he goes into phase 2, group up, use  Divine Guardian on a set rotation with the healers, and then back to Phase 1. Make sure you're not facing him towards the raid when you clump up.

After the transition, I like to keep him turned away until he casts his life drain, and then very quickly turn him around, but you don't really need to do it if you don't want to. The amount of health is regains can be a lot if he gets the entire raid, but with the amount of extra damage he takes as the fight goes on, it shouldn't be an issue.

If you do try to do this and mess up the timing so he winds up casting the orb behind you in no-man's land, you can run as soon as the cast starts, tell the healers you're moving, and you can catch the orb and bounce it back towards the raid. It's pretty fun to do this! :-) But the healers don't think so. :-(

Hagara (1 tank)
Remind your second tank to swap specs for the trash. You can solo the boss, but it's easiest to duo the trash. The gauntlet in front of her is annoying, just keep in mind that after the first set of adds, you'll get a few waves and these will have two clumps each, one from either side of Hagara's platform. Pick a side, and stick with it, while the other tank sticks to their side. Kill the casters first. Bring them together for an AoEfest, interrupt their casts, Avenger's Shield to silence them, Death Grip, whatever, but just be careful of the Tornadoes and Lightning Storms and Blizzards.

It's probably not your druids, shaman or mages casting those - if they are, ask them to stop and focus down the casters first. At the end of the gauntlet, there's a mini-boss who doesn't really do anything except put up some kind of Deathgripping snowflake thingie. The boss will move in when the mini-boss dies and float to the middle of the platform so pull the dude off to a side so you can prep before pulling.

Another boss to solo - doesn't really matter how you tank her as long as you're the only person in front of her. Watch the timer for Barrage and strafe away at a second or two left and you'll take minimal damage from it. Keep Hand of Freedom handy as she will slow you when you're out of range. When Tombs come out, have the raid clump up right before and that way you can help cleave them with Hammer of the Righteous.

During the Ice phase I don't do much except chase the walls, swing at whatever comes close, throw some Judgments and Hammers, and dodge falling snow. Yawn. The Lightning phase there is slightly more to do - kill the elemental on a node to make it explode, and then just stand there while the rest of the raid chains ahead of you while you twitch spasmatically as electricity courses through your veins.

Good luck!

Holy Shield & Paladin Block Capping

This is a tanking post and I'll go on a bit excessively about Paladin tanking, so you may skip it if you're not too interested. Go ahead, I won't be offended.

/jam hands in pocket
/kick a rock
/sulk

And I don't even play a Blood Elf. Zing!

Tier 11 done - again

My first major project on this blog is now finished. I wanted to write detailed and full guides to doing every boss in Tier 11 and I posted the last of it yesterday.

It's very gratifying to wrap up writing projects, and I hope the guides will be of some use to people, particularly the guilds going into T11 after 4.2. I will likely do a pass over all the bosses in one post as an addendum after the nerfs hit but the guides should work fine after 4.2 as well. If anything, they'll play things a bit too cautiously and that's never a bad thing.

Whew. I'm kind of exhausted after that and I'm surprised how much I thought about having to finish this up - but I'm glad it's done. Here is everything:

• How To: Nefarian
• How To: Chimaeron & Maloriak
• How To: Atramedes & Trash
• How To: Magmaw & Omnotron
• How To: Conclave & Al'Akir
• How To: Cho'gall
• How To: Ascendant Council
• How To: Valiona & Theralion
• How To: Halfus

I'm hoping to be more timely with the Firelands guides - I'll probably wind up writing them up as we kill bosses.

Speaking of killing bosses in Firelands, we seem to have had a steep drop-off in raiding interest since killing Nefarian and I'm looking for some folks who actually want to continue raiding consistently and pushing into heroics - I play Alliance side on Moon Guard and raid twice a week (Tuesday and Wednesday nights from 7 to 10 server, which is Central).

You should come help me kill Ragnaros. Hit me up here, or on our guild forums.

HOW TO: Cho'gall

This is part 4 of a series where I'll cover the way my guild does all the normal-mode encounters on the 10 person difficulty in the current raiding tier. I'll cover the fights in general but also talk specifically about tanking from a paladin perspective and give any hints I can about how we assign DPS and healing.

HOW TO: Ascendant Council

This is part 3 of a series where I'll cover the way my guild does all the normal-mode encounters on the 10 person difficulty in the current raiding tier. I'll cover the fights in general but also talk specifically about tanking from a paladin perspective and give any hints I can about how we assign DPS and healing.

This is a long one, as the trash between Valiona and the Council is annoying, and the Council itself has a lot of stuff going on.

HOW TO: Valiona and Theralion

This is part 2 of a series where I'll cover the way my guild does all the normal-mode encounters on the 10 person difficulty in the current raiding tier. I'll cover the fights in general but also talk specifically about tanking from a paladin perspective and give any hints I can about how we assign DPS and healing.

HOW TO: Halfus

This is part 1 of a series where I'll cover the way my guild does all the normal-mode encounters on the 10 person difficulty in the current raiding tier.

I'll cover all of Bastion of Twilight first, then Throne of Winds and the lastly we'll go over Blackwing Descent. I'll cover the fights in general but also talk specifically about tanking from a paladin perspective and give any hints I can about how we assign DPS and healing.

H:ICC 10-man Progression

So, after a week long break from Heroic ICC we went back in last night, and it went a lot better than I was expecting.

I've written about the lower tier of bosses before but since we've seen most bosses on heroic now, I think I have a better gauge of the difficulty level. Last night, in about 3 hours we were able to clear 5 heroic modes and worked on 2, and gave up on 1 just to keep going.

Anyway - if I were going fresh into ICC, here are the bosses I'd tackle on Heroic in order. Each list goes from easiest to hardest in its block.

EASY: First time in, I'd focus on these five, though I could skip Marrowgar, he can be a bit finicky until you learn the rhythm of the fight and H:BQL is a moderate DPS gear check but really shouldn't be an issue at this point. These are bosses most groups can consistently kill every week, I think.

• Gunship (What is this. I don't even.)
  
• Rotface (3 healers make this easy, ranged stay at, uh, range, and avoid the puddles.)
  
• Festergut (If 5 of your DPS can beat the enrage timer, 3 healing this makes it very easy.)
  
• Marrowgar (3 heal this and coordinate the Bone Storm park locations on tanks, everyone else stack in the middle and kill spikes.)
  
• Blood Queen Lanethil (Just a very strict DPS gear check. Tanks will take increasing damage as you make more vampires, otherwise it's the exact same fight.)
  

MEDIUM: These can take work, especially Deathwhisper - she has a number of new abilities on heroic, and Phase 2 can be challenging if you don't have any rogues or hunters. They are rewarding fights, though, and worth the glory of the kill.

• Dreamwalker Valethria (Remind the healers to heal themselves while they collect stacks, tank the blistering zombies, and if you can, solo tank and go with 4 healers to make it go super fast. Tanking this is fun. And will give you an ulcer.)
• Blood Princes (This is a stupidly long fight just because your ranged will spend all their time juggling kinetic bombs who drop very fast and take a lot of focus to stay juggled. 3 ranged make this a lot less complicated, and 3 healers give you breathing room, 3 tanks will also make this less stressful which leaves you.... one DPS killing the bosses full time. Better geared teams might be able to get away with 2 healing this. Shadow Prison is a bitch. Just make sure people stay spread out for Empowered Shock Wave, that bombs get juggled, that targets of Empowered Flame Orbs get absorption shields and kite the orbs, and you should be fine.)
• Lady Deathwhisper (lots of new mechanics make this challenging - phase 1 more or less the same, just kill the Adherents first their bubbles are stupidly powerful. Taunt immunity and Mark of Insignificance make phase 2 very interesting with incoming adds, actually dangerous ghost explosions and Mind Controls. Having two rogues (or two hunters, or a rogue and a hunter...) makes the threat thing a non-issue. Make sure DPS sit on their hands, use their own threat-drops, and get Hands of Salvation from paladins. Fun fight!)
• Deathbringer Saurfang (2 heal this if your DPS is good enough to kill him before he gets 3 marks out, otherwise use 3. Paladins are OP healers on this fight. Add-kiting and killing is actually challenging if you don't get slows/stuns on them. I am thinking of swapping my spec around for this fight just so I can guarantee stuns on every add-wave.)

HARD: Bosses we haven't killed yet just because they're actually tough with new mechanical differences or just severe gear-checks.

• Professor Putricide (the two-add transition is not that bad, but juggling the unbound plague is what makes this hard.)
  
• Sindragosa (haven't spent any time on this yet, and while the exploding unchained magic looks like it's challenging, the real threat on this fight will be her massive health pool and whittling it down before her enrage while coordinating phase 3 and the unchained magic.)
  

Really Hard: Bosses I don't think are going to be within our grasp yet due to gear.

• Lich King (I don't know if our 10-man geared guild can kill LK yet - I see one guild in strict and small handful on casual progression having pulled it off worldwide, and our last buff to ICC comes in a couple of weeks so we'll see what happens then, but I'm not holding my breath. The super-strict comp (which we can actually meet!) and gear requirement makes me doubtful we'll get this but I do want to spend some time on him.)

So, that's all of ICC Heroic in order of difficulty in my experience. I think we're on track for wrapping up Glory of the Icecrown Raider sometime this month, unless I'm vastly underestimating the amount of time we'll need to spend on Sindragosa.

Here's hoping I'm right for once!