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Why would a top guild not use loot council?
A blog post over at World of Matticus caught my eye earlier this week. It's called Why a World Top 10 Guild Doesn't use Loot Council and tells a short story of how our own Matt Low was surprised to find out that a top guild didn't use loot council. While interviewing a potential recruit for his guild Conquest, the applicant explained that his guild used DKP for loot distribution because loot council had proven too time consuming. Matt goes on to conclude that if you're racing for a world first, you probably wouldn't want to waste your time distributing loot of all things. A fair point, seeing as top guilds often get kills within hours of each other. I myself have never been in a world top 10 guild, but having been in several competitive US guilds I've seen my fair share of loot council and DKP. Regardless of the system my guild was using, we were always expected to make (and sometimes post) a list of our best-in-slot gear before the start of a tier. For DKP, this was to reduce the amount of surprises in bidding and help us all get an idea of who needed what before we snagged an upgrade. For the more common loot council, this let the council put together a master list to decide who should get what first. But which one was more efficient?
Spiritual Guidance: Shadowfiends retire, more priest talent news from Mists beta
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers the healing side of things for discipline and holy priests. She also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. Do you want to know the greatest and most amazing new thing priests are getting in Mists of Pandaria? It's a squid. Well, it could be an octopus, but I think it's a squid. It's called a Mindbender, and it's our new level 45 talent. The Mindbender is a flying, shadowy squid that serves as an improved version of (read: replacement for) our old pal, Shadowfiend. Our new squid friend does double the damage of Shadowfiend and thus returns twice as much mana. I can only assume the reason he can do this is because he latches onto the heads of our enemies and sucks out their brains, sort of like a Mind Flayer, the squid-faced monsters from Dungeons and Dragons with telekinetic powers. Mindbender, Mind Flayer ... That's right, Blizzard, I'm on to you. Anyway, I imagine Squiddy will become the prime choice for healing priests in MoP because 1.) mana is mana, and 2.) the other level 45 talents are a bit lackluster. That will unfortunately mean leaving Shadowfiend at home, which is awfully sad, but I've painted up a scenario in my head where Shadowfiend tells me, "Look, Dawn, we've been raiding together for a few years now, and it's about time that I caught up on all the prime time television I've missed. There's Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and I've still only seen one episode of Game of Thrones. I need a break." "OK, Shadowfiend," I say to it, "you can stay home this expansion." "Thanks, dollface," it responds with Don Draper-esque charm and winks an eye at me I never knew it had.
Spiritual Guidance: Discipline and ICC raid buffs
Every Sunday (and the occasional weekday) Spiritual Guidance offers holy and discipline priests advice on how to wield the holy light and groove to the disco night. Your hostess Dawn Moore will provide the music. Last week, Blizzard activated the first stage of the scaling raid buffs in Icecrown Citadel. When entering ICC now, you'll see either Varian Wrynn's hair (and the rest of him, attached) or the conglomeration of cliches we refer to as Garrosh Hellscream. Each NPC grants a faction specific buff to your raid party which increases your health, healing done, and damage done by 5%. Periodically, the strength of these buffs will be raised a notch by Blizzard, thus allowing guilds of various commitment levels to see all of Icecrown Citadel. So, what does this little news item have to do with priests any more than the next other class? Well, if you're a discipline priest and your lip gloss be poppin' bubbles be poppin', you'll notice that they are not poppin' with any more oomph than they did the week before. That's because, for whatever intended or unintended reason, the buff does not apply to Power Word: Shield. Don't have a panic attack, disco priests. In this article I will be addressing the issue, particularly for non-priests who might have misconceptions about the validity of a disc priest. I'll also be rehashing some older arguments. That's right folks: it's that time again! When all of Azeroth asks! *Cue game show music* What good is a disc priest? Update: Blizz has announced in the notes for patch 3.3.3 that Power Word: Shield will now benefit from the ICC zone buff. While that makes portions of this article obsolete, keep reading to learn more about the benefits of bringing a discipline priest to your raid.
WoW Insider Show Episode 119 with special guest Mary Varn
Our podcast was live on the air as usual last Saturday, and the show is now up for your listening enjoyment. Artist Mary Varn was aboard to talk with us about her comic and her Warcraft career, and Matt Low of World of Matticus also jumped on to chat with Turpster and I about the latest WoW news, including the impending patch 3.3, the recent server outages, and the Taiwanese player who picked up all of the achievements in the game (which, probably not entirely concidentally, is the subject of Mary's comic today). And of course we answered your emails as well. For those of you wondering about our Podcast Awards nomination, voting has ended, and the winners are supposed to be announced next Saturday in a ceremony online. We'll keep you updated -- remember, if we win, we'll be giving away any prizes we get to one lucky listener, and we'll be recording a Warcraft bedtime story for all of you to download. Cross your fingers for us! Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page:
WoW's 5th anniversary: Our writers' memories
We at WoW.com are a sentimental bunch. I always privately thought that, but now I've got the sort of ironclad proof beloved by canny blackmailers everywhere. In the weeks before WoW's 5th anniversary, a backchannel team discussion sprang up on our memories of the game and the players with whom we've had the great privilege of playing, and we decided to collect them here in honor of WoW's birthday. Some of us are hardcore gamers with lots of experience with other games. For others, WoW was their first (and in some cases, only). Most of us raid, and some of us PvP or theorycraft. A few of us are nuts for hardware arguments, but others are surprised to discover that WoW does not actually play on our toasters. Many of us are pretty easygoing in our approach to the content; others would sell their grandmothers up the river for a server-first. One among us hates warlocks, and everyone else just hates rogues (unless you're Chase). But we do share one thing in common, and that's that we love the game no matter what we're doing while playing it -- and we hope you do too. From all of us at WoW.com, happy birthday, World of Warcraft!
The Daily Quest: You face Jaraxxus
We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. MrVoletron is at it again over on Youtube, coming to us with a Jaraxxus remix this time around. People have been requesting this one endlessly from the poor guy, and I must say, he did a good job with it. Utterly hilarious. This past week, Blog Azeroth's Shared Topic was RPG Nostalgia, with many World of Warcraft bloggers throwing in their two cents. What's yours? The new information released today on Icecrown access progression makes this post a little outdated, but it's a good read nonetheless: Matticus makes a case for the limited attempts approach in raiding. Slice and Dice teaches fledgling rogues the difference between Envenom and Eviscerate. OutDPS strikes again with their great hunter content, this time with a guide to timing your cooldowns. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
The Daily Quest: It's 8:30 a.m., on a Tuesday, in Stormwind.
We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. All Things Azeroth is doing a podcast a day during the month of November. Myth Busted: Fast Weapon Upgrades at Big Hit Box. World of Matticus talks about his guild's recruiting strategy and how he's using the World of Raids recruiting tool. Moonglade talks about the Aim for Hybrid DPS. Pikestaff of Aspect of the Hare looks at the Long and Winding Road in WoW and the WoW-blogosphere. Go Phillies! Click here to submit a link to TDQ
The Daily Quest: Pets, podcasts and more
We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Episode 11 of the Hunting Party Podcast is available for download! The team lineup for the MLG tournament in Anaheim upcoming in just a couple short weeks has been officially announced. Mania's Arcania speculates on how many new hunter pet families we'll get in Cataclysm, or if we'll get any at all. Episode 64 of the Twisted Nether Blogcast is in a round table format, featuring bloggers Graylo (Gray Matter), Honorshammer (Honor's Code), Matticus (World of Matticus), Saresa (Destructive Reach) and Stoneybaby (Big Hit Box). Speaking of Honor's Code, the blog has started a series on setting up a UI for Protection Paladin. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
WoW Insider Show Episode 112: We got segments
Our podcast is now ready for your downloading pleasure, and I have to say -- it was a good one. Nothing flashy, no once-in-a-lifetime guests (though both Turpster and Matticus were on with me, and those guys are definitely one-of-a-kind), but it was just a good solid podcast, with some great discussion about the latest PTR build and Lord Marrowgar, the Battle.net changeover, and our very first predictions about when we might see patch 3.3 on the live servers. Turpster's even got some money riding on his guess already.Plus we answer your emails as usual, and that's always a good time -- you can email us anything you want (including some mp3s for intros if that's your thing) at "theshow AT wow dawt com". If you like the show, don't forget to go hit us up on iTunes -- you can subscribe to the show there, or leave us a good rating or review if you like. Thanks for listening as always, and enjoy the show!Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
The Daily Quest: Rawr, chalk, and more podcasts
We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Episode 62 of the Twisted Nether Blogcast is available for download, with special guest Spooner of Spooncraft. Gray Matter discusses the ups and downs of Rawr for Moonkin. Not only has OutDPS released episode 10 of The Hunting Party Podcast, but they have a new author on board to tackle hardcore raiding. Today, Heroic Anub'Arak! World of Matticus asks, why play a healer? This World of Warcraft chalk art is pretty incredible! Really old, but also really cool. It's worth a second look. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
The Daily Quest: Insane in more ways than one
We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Matticus's UI blog, No Stock UI, takes a look at six different tooltip addons you may be interested in. We've talked about the Insane in the Membrane achievement ourselves, but The Unconventional Priest has a guide of her own that may help you out on your quest to become completely and utterly insane. Make sure you check out parts I, II, and III. Haven't gotten your hands on your epic flying mount yet? That's alright. Here are some tips on how to make that 5000g with the Art of Soloing. Many players are getting deeper and deeper into Ulduar with every passing day. Are you hybrids ready for General Vezax? Click here to submit a link to TDQ
The Daily Quest: Of Titans and Moonkin
We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Lorecrafted asks an important question: What came first, the Titans or the egg? Wait, I meant Old Gods. Titans or Old Gods. World of Matticus's Sydera takes a close look at healing through Freya in Ulduar. As always, a great resource for healers of all flavors. Sacred Duty is making the most out of Mining in Icecrown, and they're willing to show you how, too! The Druid Team goes where many have hoped someone would've gone before: Balance Druid spell rotations. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
The Daily Quest: Of orphans and officers
We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Our sister site Massively asks, "What's in a name?" You have a few days left to get your Children's Week achievements taken care of, and Herding Cats has a few tips for everyone's bane: School of Hard Knocks. Less QQ, More Pewpew has continued their Ulduar video series with their latest addition, Mimiron. You can watch it at the top of this post, or over on their site! World of Matticus's Lodur takes a very close look at the transition into becoming a raid leader. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
The Daily Quest: There is nothing Nobel about Noblegarden
We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.Everyone has something to say about this lovely little world event going on, and we've selected some of the best blog entries from around the net for you to enjoy today: Mend Pet has some good egg spots for Horde. BlizzPlanet has a nice Noblegarden guide. Be sure to check out ours too. Wobin writes over at WoW LJ about a great add-on to get your attention when finding an egg. Biker Bunny. And for the non-noblegarden related post today, Matticus knows why you're Frustrated by Ulduar. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
The Daily Quest: Ulduar
Despite all of the instance server problems last night, a number of bloggers throughout the community marched into Ulduar to give the place a whirl on live realms for the first time. We Wipe On Trash downed a few bosses. They also, amusingly, wiped on some trash. Luckily, that trash was hotfixed today. Honor's Code had a whole lot of fun figuring out Flame Leviathan. If you haven't tried that boss out yet yourself, it might be worth reading before you do. First hand experiences are even better than regular ol' strategy posts sometimes. Hoof n' Healz came to the realization that Naxxramas made him a worse player, and Ulduar trash surprised him a little bit. I fear that most of my raid will come to that same realization tonight when we give the place a whirl. Of Teeth and Claws is just a little bitter about the current state of the game, and hopes Ulduar will revive the endgame.
The Daily Quest: Welcome to Patch 3.1
We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. The official Ulduar cinematic showed us another glimpse of King Varian Wrynn. Want to know more about him? Check out Lorecrafted's Varian Wrynn character study. Speaking of the official cinematic, if you're having trouble with Blizzard's flash player, MMO-Champion has put the video in full on its YouTube channel. If you're a healer looking to start Ulduar, World of Matticus has just about everything you could possibly need to be prepared tonight. The Death Knights in our audience may be at a loss as to how to spec tonight. Your talent trees have gone through a lot of changes in patch 3.1. Luckily, Death Knight Tactics has some build suggestions for you. Too Many Annas uses Dual Spec to try something a little more unusual. If it doesn't work out, you can always change it, right? Click here to submit a link to TDQ
WoW Insider on PixelatedLIVE tonight
Bummed that, unlike last week, our podcast is back on Saturday this week? Worry not -- we've got a special dose of WoW Insider podcastery goodness midweek for you. Tonight, over on PixelatedLIVE's Ustream page, they're broadcasting a special World of Warcraft-themed show, and they've asked us to appear, along with our good friends Matticus (from World of Matticus and our own Spiritual Guidance Priest column) and Medros of All Things Azeroth as well as Erin from Eringames.com and Darren of MyGameMug. Whew! It'll likely be a Warcraft extravaganza, and as a bonus (or a penalty?), they're even broadcasting video, so you'll be able to see my ugly mug on screen while I'm on. Make sure to send your young children and weak-willed women out of the room first.The show starts at 7:30 pm Pacific (use this to figure out what time that is where you are) over on Ustream. And they're having a trivia contest, too -- they're looking for people who have a Ustream account (you can get one here), Skype installed, and a good headset to come on the air with them and answer questions to win prizes.Seems like quite a party. Definitely stop by and tune in tonight (I'll probably be Twittering while I do it, so you can follow us there as well), and of course if you can't make it, our official podcast will return to our own page on Ustream this Saturday at 3:30pm Eastern.
Power Word: Barrier may not be coming
I may prefer Shadow as my Priest's primary spec, but the Discipline tree has also made a special little place for itself in my heart. When I need a change of pace, playing Discipline is really enjoyable. I probably pay attention to changes to the Discipline tree almost as close as the Shadow tree for that reason. Even if I don't play it a lot, I love it. When they announced a new spell coming for the spec, Power Word: Barrier, I geeked out over it just as much as Matticus, our resident Discipline Fanatic.Unfortunately, Power Word: Barrier has yet to make an appearance on the PTR, and it turns out that we may not see it at all. It's still a possibility, but that's the extent of it. I can sort of see why they would hold off on it, or even change their mind about it. Discipline has gone through a lot of changes in patch 3.1, most of it a really big numbers game. Discipline is a great tree, and while most players might not 'get' the damage mitigation/prevention thing, it's a really powerful mechanic and probably one they need to be careful with.
The Daily Grind: How do you say 'shut up'?
Yesterday, Matt Low of the our sister site WoW Insider and the very awesome World of Matticus blog pointed out a fairly interesting conversation going on over at PlusHeal. Apparently, the original poster had been using the phrase 'shut up' during a raid to try to quiet down people cross-chattering over voice comms, but after dealing with the upset it caused, they're looking for something new and more effective instead of 'shut up'. Having been a group/raid leader myself, I can say in all honesty that this is absolutely one of my pet peeves; talking during instructions/pulls or loot distribution. It distracts from the important things and can cause quite a bit of confusion. On the flip side, clamping down on cross-chatter too much will make a group or raid feel less like fun with friends and more like a second job. As such, this morning we thought we'd ask you - how do you tell your group to quiet down without sounding like the guy from the Onyxia Wipe animation? (Link language NSFW) Are there any phrases or methods you've found effective to quiet a noisy group down without ruffling feathers? Or sometimes are you justified in telling people to shut it?
Breakfast Topic: Pick a title, any title
While doing my nightly pass through my RSS reader (even we bloggers read dozens of blogs per night, blogging is our lifeblood), I came across a fun little post from Aspect of the Hare. If you could give your character any title you wanted, what would it be?They don't mean picking from what's available via achievements or quests, but what would you make up to give yourself? I asked this question to the WoW Insider HQ before writing this up to see what the gang would want, and Michael Sacco was the first to chime in. His joke answer was 'Ancient Chinese Wizard' as a nod to Zhang Bao, a character made infamous by the Dynasty Warriors series. Being a Shaman, he's pretty good at the whole Thunderstorm spiel. His more serious answer was Stormcaller. That's a pretty good one, I think!
