A Return to the Internet

Ah... life has been busy to say the least. First it was mid terms, then it was spring break and finally when I think I can return to WoW and blogging I have another hefty burden of real life to take care of. So I apologize for my absence and hope no one missed me too much.

Well it's Monday and I'm getting back in the swing of things so I hope to have some new stuff out soon and with life being so busy that I haven't had much time to play. I also don't think I will be to active on the PTR, wich is a bummer because I was really looking forward to tackling some new content before it released, but oh well. I'm sure I will get to it when it comes out.

Also last week lots of guild happenings occurred. For the past couple weeks the guild had been struggling to find itself, as to say that we had progressed nicely and were looking to be one of the top guilds on the server, then it suddenly dropped off. Attendance has been a problem, the raid leader has been inactive for a couple weeks and then he has decided to quit playing WoW... Our guild leader was debating about telling the guild what all happened, not sure if he ever did and since not that many guildies read this blog it's not to big of a deal to mention it here.

Because this is a blow to the guild. We have had a few officer talks about what to do and we need to regain our leadership. The guild leader has decided that promotions are in order. With that said, I would like to congratulate my brother on becoming an officer. He has quietly been gunning for the position as well as some others in our guild that feel they bring leadership to the table and will benefit the guild. But alas they did not get the job... maybe in time... but for now they will just have to be a raider.

Well anyway our guild is kinda stuck. However last weekend, that I unfortunately missed, was very successful and it would seem that our guild is getting back on track. I hope this continues and that we can get through this slump.

My only concern is that we still need to be recruiting and from the new faces that I have seen in the guild we are doing just that. We need to be recruiting because we haven't had the numbers we need to even field a full raid. And with that all the dedicated raiders that come every week, now have fresh or close to fresh 80's that they want to get in raids that we have on farm.

This is where my true concern lies. Sure we have content on farm and the player playing the fresh toons are good players that know the fights and everyone knows you can always carry some people in 25 man raids. BUT if we are only running with 21 or 22 people trying to carry alts will really cripple the speed and efficiency of the raid. It's really not worth it, they can only take one toon at a time. I don't want to waste extra time gearing someones alt. Maybe that's selfish and I am spoiled gearing myself twice since I am hybrid. But I can only play one spec at a time. I will talk about hybrids later, that's a whole other issue. I mean it's cool to have an alt and all, but please gear them on your own time in a pug or something. When someone is doing around 2.8 K dps on a main then they bring an alt in that only is doing 1.8k dps, sure they are doing good dps for only having blues, but that's a lose of just too much dps, imo. And that's all I am going to say.

It's Not Orange, But Close

I recently made a discovery for myself about the Bind on Account gear. Below I have everything listed with links and its only the PvE gear, so nothing from the wintersgrasp vendor. I thought this would be an interesting post. Most people have their main toons geared and ready for the next patch, or are currently gearing a lvl 80 alt. But for those of us that are slower to lvl an alt or want to start over or what ever, I am highly recommending the Bind on Account gear.

The shoulders grant a 10% XP bonus for killing mobs which is always nice for anyone lvling and you can't get shoulders til around lvl 20 and you can't get good shoulders til mid twenties at least.

Then for any physical dps class you can't beat a good weapon. Let's face it, having a good weapon lets you kill things faster but especially when you are starting out your abilities are pretty lame and cost more than they benefit in terms of downtime.

Of course for any caster I would hold off before getting the spell power staff or mace and just invest in as good of wand as you can and update it constantly. It will do far more damage per mana effcieny compared to casting spells.

Basically, these weapons though they aren't orange as in Legendary status but they are legendary for there lvl. I mean these weapons are godly compared to at level items plus it's a lot less work to get them.

Weapons:Bloodied Arcanite Reaper (2H Axe)Balanced Heartseeker (1H Dagger)Venerable Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge (MH Sword) Charmed Ancient Bone Bow (Bow)Dignified Headmaster Charge (Staff)Devout Aurastone Hammer (MH Mace)

Armor:Polished Spaulders of Valor (Plate)Champion Herod's Shoulder (Mail - Hunter)Mystical Pauldrons of Elements (Mail - Shaman)Preened Ironfeather Shoulders (Leather - Caster)Tattered Dreadmist Mantle (Cloth)

Trinkets:Swift Hand of Justice (AP Trinket)Discerning Eye of the Beast (SP Trinket)

I was messing around on an alt pally. She was decked out with bind on account gear (Bloodied Arcanite Reaper and Polished Spaulders of Valor.) Well I had just hit level 40 and trained plate. So I run to the bank and grab my Polished Spaulders of Valor and put them on, previously I had been using the mail hunter shoulders (Champion Herod's Shoulder) since I couldn't wear mail yet. Then I venture down to STV to do some more quests and come across a lvl 32 pally with the Arcanite Reaper, but also sporting the Polished Spaulders of Valor the plate bind on account shoulders.

WTF!! How is a 32 wearing plate? He road off before I could inspect him... so I send my shoulders to my bank toon who happens to be a lvl 1 pally. He was able to equip the shoulders. How you may ask? Well as it just so turns out when he put them on they were considered mail. Lame and now I feel like an idiot. I just wasted 40 emblems of valor on mail shoulders and leveled 40 levels with them on.

Luckily I have my shaman that still needs to level and since he is enhancement he will used them, but I still feel dumb for not figuring out that I could use the plate shoulders all along. This doesn't seem to be common knowledge because when I just started my toon and was about level 8 in Elwynn Forest I saw a low lvl warrior sporting the leather dps shoulders (Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders)

So for all those out there that want to lvl fast and efficiently farm the emblems on your main and hook your alt up. Go out and level and good luck.