I WAS going to post on my addons for Vonya today. But I forgot. So instead, I’m going to talk about my shot rotation, and how I get between 800 and 1,100 dps in pre-Kara gear.

Now that I have your attention, I’ll give some small addendums. The 1,100 dps was with shaman buffs, drums, and I think I also had a pally buff. The 800 is what I normally get when we do instance runs. When I solo, I can’t even come near those numbers, because I’d pull aggro constantly from my pet. Also, I do actually have one piece of Kara gear - my old guild had a slot that needed filling until a missing guild member appeared, so we took down Attumen and got his wrist armor.

However, since I have seen hunters in very very good gear who thought they were doing well to crank out 500 dps, I wanted to debunk the myth.

For hunters, DPS is determined by shot rotation, and augmented by gear.

I’ll say it again.

For hunters, DPS is determined by shot rotation, and augmented by gear.

If your shot rotation is horrid, no gear is going to fix your constantly flagging dps. Sure, you’ll get boosts from gear upgrades, but you won’t see the true benefit of the gear.

I have discussed some of the key tenets of hunter theorycraft in my posts on Hunter Macros and LittleTrouble.

Around the time I made my LittleTrouble post, there was talk of autoshots no longer being clipped quite as mercilessly by steady shots. I didn’t get the opportunity to test that at the time, but based on tests I’ve done recently, that’s a load of horsehockey.

Steady Shot, as of right now, pre WotLK, still clips your Auto Shot, and this still has an incredible adverse affect on your dps.

And here’s the point where I say something that makes half of you stop listening.

I don’t use a shot rotation macro.

I hate them, I have to be completely honest with you. You could give me mathematical, categorical proof that they’d up my dps, and I would still not use one. For me, personally, reducing a complex and enjoyable class to a single button is killing all the joy I get out of that class. I know that MANY players love and rely on macros. Our own hunter uses a macro, and that allows him to pay attention and call out things like infernals on Prince. That’s fine. That’s just not how I personally enjoy the game.

So my shot rotation isn’t going to help people who rely on macros to get their dps.

Let’s see…did I cover all the legalese? Probably not, but if I didn’t leave holes for you guys to poke in the comments, it just wouldn’t be as much fun, now would it?

So I’ll start from the base shot, and add in my rotation from there. Hopefully that’ll make it easy to see what I’m doing.

AS = Auto Shot
SS = Steady Shot
ArS = Arcane Shot
KC = Kill Command

Just Autoshooting
AS………..AS……….AS………AS……….AS……….AS

Nothing special here - right click on the mob and do nothing else, this is what you get. Remember, AutoShot is your Bread and Butter shot. It’s where most of your DPS should always come from.

Adding in Arcane Shot
AS.ArS-…….AS……….AS………AS……….AS.ArS-…….AS

Arcane Shot is the highest DPS shot that we can include in the rotation. It’s very mana intensive, but at the moment, we’re not worrying about that.  It’s instant cast, so it only takes up the global cooldown, but it has a longer cooldown that allows it to be used every fourth AutoShot or so.

I added a dash ‘-’ to the graphic to indicate the global cooldown. During that time, you cannot cast another shot.

I’d also like to point out that I’m using it at the BEGINNING of the AutoShot rotation. I do this for a few reasons, one of which I’ll cover in a moment. Also, although it’s difficult, it is NOT impossible to clip an AutoShot with an Arcane Shot. I’ve done it, but I have to be either very unlucky or trying really hard to accomplish it. The bigger reason is because Arcane Shot trips the global cooldown, which means it can keep me from casting another shot quickly in the next Auto Shot slot. Which leads us to….

Adding in Steady Shot
AS.ArS-…….AS.SS—-…AS.SS—-..AS.SS—–.AS.ArS-…….AS

Steady Shot WILL clip AutoShot if it’s not fired off at the right time. Personally, I use the LittleTrouble Addon so I know exactly when to time it. I’ve found that hitting the button JUST as the AutoShot seems to be ending yeilds the best results for me. Server lag keeps that from clipping my shots (it took me some experimentation to find the right timing) and Steady Shot gets off as quickly as possible, making it less likely to clip the NEXT auto shot.

Steady Shot is more mana efficient than Arcane Shot, but does less damage. On the other hand, it doesn’t have a cooldown, just a cast time. You could, theoretically, chain cast Steady Shot, but that would clip almost all of your AutoShots and drastically reduce your dps.

You’ll note in my totally professional graphic up there that I indicated with a large group of dashes just how much of the AutoShot time is taken up with the casting of Steady Shot. Timing is key - even a second can mean the difference between a clipped shot and a perfect rotation.

But we’re not done! Look at all that time left between the AutoShots on the rounds where we do the Arcane Shots! Surely we can fill that up with something useful….

Adding in Kill Command
AS.ArS-..KC-..AS.SS—-…AS.SS—-..AS.SS—–.AS.ArS-..KC-..AS

That looks much better! Very few dots left (dots being time not spent on DPS). Kill Command may not be the best dps ability we’ve got, but there’s no reason not to trigger it while we’ve got the opportunity. There’s just enough time in that Auto Shot gap for you to slip in both an Arcane Shot and a Kill Command.

Kill Command, for those who don’t want to look it up themselves, is triggered whenever YOU (the hunter) land a critical strike. It tells your pet to land an extra attack for X amount of damage. So it’s going to be available pretty often, but it’s honestly not impressive (or reliable) enough dps to consider using it instead of either an Arcane Shot or a Steady Shot. Using this method, you don’t sacrifice any of your shot dps, and you still get to use it. You may not get to use it quite as often as if you were spamming the key, but you still use it more often than if you only used shots.

Alternately, you could add a sting in there. I’m very guilty of never using my stings. Things just don’t usually live long enough for it to matter. On bosses, I could probably put up the poison sting in the first Arcane Shot companion slot, instead of a Kill Command, and see if that improved the DPS. That would require me to actually do more instances with Khuuna though, and she mostly solos and farms. Those furious crawdads up in Skettis? Yeah, they’re mad at HER.

And, of course, in the expansion, there is talk about how steady shot will no longer clip auto shots. I know. I’m focusing on the here-and-now, not the what-may-possibly-happen-later. Also, I didn’t add in any of my “special” stuff - my KittyBomb macro (Kittybomb is Bestial Wrath, trinket, and Rapid Fire) isn’t in here, and neither are the sometimes-needed pet stuns and things like that.

USE YOUR KITTYBOMB, beastmaster hunters! Use it! Don’t save it up for the boss fights, go ahead and use it on trash. Don’t wait. Use it. Don’t worry about clipping your autoshot with it. The dps boost from it is too high to try and “slip it in”. And yes, if you’re good, you can still slip Steady Shots in your rotation, even with Kittybomb. I can say from experience that drums + kittybomb + shaman buff pretty much negates steady shots. Don’t even try. But if it’s just kittybomb, you can still slip in some Steadies.

Some interesting WoW news this morning. I’m hardly the first to mention it, but it looks like Blizzard is going to be pushing a large content patch out for all WoW players that will contain some of the Wrath of the Lich King changes.

The official announcement :

With the release of Wrath of the Lich King approaching, we wanted to provide you with some important information. In preparation for the expansion, we will be issuing a new content patch in the coming weeks. Much like the patch made available shortly before The Burning Crusade’s release, this content patch is designed to bridge current game content with that of the expansion and will contain some exciting changes and additions.

We have outlined some of the larger features scheduled to release with the patch below:

New class spells and talents
Stormwind Harbor
Barbershops in capital cities
Zeppelin towers outside of Orgrimmar and Tirisfal Glades
Two brand-new Arenas featuring challenging new layouts, terrain hazards, and moving obstacles
Guild calendar
Hunter pet skill revamp
New profession: Inscription

As mentioned above, this is not a comprehensive list, just some of the major highlights. We’ll post the full patch notes as soon as they’re available. Regarding Inscription, please note that all Burning Crusade players will be able to select Inscription as one of their two professions and level up to a skill level of 375 with it. Upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King, players who purchase and install the expansion will be able to continue leveling in Inscription and the other professions beyond 375.

Big Bear Butt and Matticus both posted on the issue before I woke up this morning, and I think both of them have good points.

Bear is optimistic, looking forward to being able to play with the new talent trees and Inscription before the expansion actually comes out.

Matticus is more pugnacious and pessimistic, viewing the patch as the death of raiding, and pointing out some rather gaping flaws in the logistics of releasing this information early.

Me? I agree with both of them. Matticus is definitely looking from the perspective of the hard-core raider. And Bear is looking from the perspective of the casual raider.

And they’re both right.

I do hope that the concerns Matticus brought forth, especially with regards to Mana Regen and Crushing Blows changes are evaluated before this patch is actually finalized, because he has a very good point. The new talent trees are keyed toward the changes in gameplay that WotLK will bring, and NOT to the gameplay currently in effect. I remain cautiously optimistic that it won’t change so much as to actually kill raiding, though.

Matticus also worries about chugging mana pots and the death of downranking. I imagine I’ll cover those later (after the final information about them goes live) but for me, I’m excited about these particular changes. I’ve always been someone who resented having to use mana potions, and who thought that downranking seemed counter-productive. I’ve been in the minority on these, and I’ve come to the unhappy understanding that they become more and more necessary as higher level content is breached…but in the end, I approve of those particular changes. Not, as Matticus noted, perhaps before the gear that supports those changes is available, as well as the content for it.

But I am supportive and excited, nonetheless.

I’ve been avoiding posting on Wrath updates for the same reason I rarely post on upcoming patches - nothing is REAL and FINAL until it goes live.

I’m posting on THIS because I was very surprised to hear we’d be getting content this soon, and I think that surprise is going to make me do some more detailed research into the talent trees currently available for priests. And if I get the opportunity to do that, maybe you guys would appreciate the heads up as well.

Also, I’m inordinately excited about the hair stylist. Vonya’s hair, although lovely and excellent, cuts through 90% of the helms available to her. The only ones that have ever actually looked good were halo-types - ones that float above her head. And even though it’s not in-character for her, if I can get the flying propeller braids of my beloved dwarf priestess on her, I may have to seriously consider it.

It’s a well-known fact that twirling and spinning braids actually increase your healing power. It’s science.

And, of course, Khuuna is excited about the hunter pet skill revamp being available. If that comes hand in hand with the “tamed pet levels up to you” change, she’ll be sporting a bear sooner than you can say “democrats.”

Also, I love that Inscription is going to be available soon. As Bear mentioned, with JC you couldn’t access the skill until the expansion came out, resulting in an explosion of Auction House prices that took ages to die down.

Hopefully, this will allow people to get the skill up to 375 in preparation for the expansion content, so they don’t have to spend all their time in lowbie areas, ganking plant nodes from each other.

I currently have no thoughts on the Guild Calendar. Time will tell on that one, I think. The question is really - what guilds is it aimed at? Very small guilds probably don’t need one. Medium guilds may, but also may not have structured raiding and soforth that would need a calendar. Large guilds already have complex websites to do the raid signups.

My prediction? It’ll be used for RP guilds and to post birthdays more than it will for raiding.

The patch itself indicates to me that they feel the Expansion is almost ready. To release talent trees, they must feel confident that they’re balanced (enough) for live players, and to release that MUCH content, and say it’ll happen “in the coming weeks”, they must expect the expansion to come out relatively soon afterwards. Since I was half-wondering if next Christmas might be a reasonable guess for release date, that bumps up WotLK sooner than I’d personally expected.

And…I think that’s enough rambling. I’d intended to post on a few other non-patch related things, but I don’t think I have time. Hope y’all are having a lovely week!

Some people would have you believe that what you’re wearing doesn’t matter, especially as a healer.

“Oh it’ll be fine, you’re not going to be taking damage.”
“Oh don’t worry about it, there are four other people there to help.”
“Oh don’t worry, those monsters don’t REALLY want to kill you.”

I’m sorry, but if you’re the one in the dress, twiddling your sparkly fingers in the back, you are the ONE PERSON the monsters want to kill the most.

And recall, we’re not talking about a well-oiled machine in which all members work well with each other and know what they’re doing. They are not highly geared with the choice tidbits from prior dungeon crawls. They are not trained in precisely the right way in order to fulfill their position in your little posse.

They are wearing greens from Ragefire Chasm, and the destro-lock has just announced, “ok, good2go, Hannah is healing my VW is tanking and I need summuns lol”.

Welcome to a pug group for Scarlet Monastery. (And don’t call me Hannah!)

Your first priority is your own survival. Do you have a chance in blue blazes to make it out of this fracas within the maximum of 3 wipes? That’s my max, by the way. I really don’t care what the rest of the group does – if I die 3 times, something is horribly wrong and I’m better off with the dwarves in the wetlands. The things I look for to ensure my survival is: my spec, my gear, my group.

I may not have a cookie cutter spec, but I need to be able to hop back and forth from soloing giant stone statues to healing a group pummeling scarlet zealots. This blend actually works well, especially when my group often forgets that I’m back there, and I wind up having to solo-kill occasional zealots that thought I looked tasty. Admittedly, my wardrobe is classy and appealing, and these guys have been locked up with “Blades of Light!” Herod for so long that even a orc woman might get their little hearts racing. But still! Bad touch! /grrface /holyfire

These guys are used to running on their own, too, so a lot of their gear is probably built around surviving. Unfortunately it’s actually rare to find that. More often, these days, someone of the higher echelons swings by and escorts them through their troubled times. Now they’re grouped up with you because they just need a couple more levels in order to wear the gear their friend helped them get. Meanwhile, RFC greens.

If I were running with a set group of individuals that knew what they were doing, were wearing the appropriate gear, and were capable of working as a team, I could focus more directly on just healing the tank and then sipping a latte. However, with two hunters, a rogue, and a warlock, there is not one but seven tanks. Seven. I’ll let you count and figure it out. Take your time.

We done here? Alright, moving on!

So with all that going on, it’s actually BAD if I wind up throwing a heal down on everyone. Seven different tanks. One healer. All that grrface from the monsters winds up consolidated on me. It’s especially bad if one of those tanks suddenly drops off their radar (vanish, feign death, actual death), because then they come after me. I can guarantee you that none of them have the wherewithal to turn around and blast that joker off of me. Even worse if the tank is a paladin.

What, you say? How is that bad? Plate armor, reactive agro, self heals, self-righteous smirk? How is any of this a bad thing?

Because, in my experience, when I suddenly pull agro off of him, and am screaming for help between trying to fade, bubble, and resist the urge to psychic scream – Mister “I sucked on a Naaru for this knowledge!” turns around and STARTS HEALING ME.

Look, that’s not as generous as it sounds. Paladins get this neat effect where they can heal with less rage-effect on the monsters around them. I think it’s innate. Maybe it’s just the fact that most of their armor has spines while mine has a touchable softness. Who would you rather tackle?

Don’t answer that.

So, ideally, I should be decked out in gear that should help my healing. But in fact, most of my gear is set for mana regeneration and stamina. I throw down quick heals, slip back into the regeneration state (5sr) and hope I have the hitpoints to survive the beating when the hunter pets die, the hunters feign death, and the warlock has sacrificed the voidwalker to get that nifty shield that outclasses mine.

The rogue has been stealthed and afk for the past three pulls.

I loved Hildi’s not-so-anonymous guest post so much that I let it take the Tuesday slot instead of making it wait for the next available day - Friday.

The gist of the post was that all guilds have a Core - a tightly knit central group of people who, sometimes quite unintentionally, end up determining the guild’s personality, flow, direction, and demise.

I agree, and judging by your comments, y’all do too.

But how is the core different than a “clique” and how do you keep it from becoming an “us versus them” mentality?

It’s certainly a common situation. I submit to you that any guild which doesn’t have a core is either so large that it actually has multiple cores, or so small that all guild members are a part of the core.

Good or Bad?
The first question to ask is whether or not the Core is a good or a bad thing.

To me, it is good. Always. For every guild to have a core, that means every guild has a root, has a solid base, something to stand upon. You cannot build a house without a foundation, and you cannot build a guild without a Core.

And that’s a good thing! It is!

As Hildi said, the Core may or may not be officers or leaders in the guild. That’s normal, and that’s fine. Those of you who ARE leaders need to determine who your Core is. I’ll bet you already know, though.

If you don’t like your Core, get out of the guild. It doesn’t matter if they’re raiding Black Temple and even the priests are running around with double warglaives - you will never be happy in that guild.

But if your leadership is listening to the Core - if they’re paying attention, they will know exactly what they should do with the guild. Does the core want to raid, or does the Core want to roleplay? Does the core want to spend all its time goofing off in Shattrath, or does the Core want to raid, but not to take it too seriously?

This is good advice even for people looking at a new guild. If you get accepted to a guild, the very very first thing you need to do is find out who is in the Core, and then evaluate their actions. What do they say? And more importantly, what do they DO?

Then sit back and ask yourself if that meshes with your goals.

Because where the Core goes, so goes the Guild.

If you have a highly motivated and friendly Core, you’ve got an incredible guild, regardless of what content is being farmed.

The Core is the barometer for the health of the guild.

The bad part of this is obvious - when you build a guild on top of something, and that thing collapses in on itself, it becomes very difficult to pick up the pieces and recreate what was lost.

What’s the Difference?
So what’s the difference between a Core and a clique? I will absolutely grant you that the difference is small. However, I believe even that tiny quiddity is a world’s worth of importance.

A Core cares about the Guild.

A clique cares about itself.

You’ll find that your Core is the one pushing the guild’s goals (as well they should - they’re the ones who probably determined what the goals are!). They’re the ones doing their best for the guild - whether that means they’re the ones building guild-wide RP story arcs (more difficult than they’re given credit for), or they’re the ones posting boss killer guides on the forums and farming extra mats for potions. Whatever it is they’re doing, they care about the guild.

A clique cares more about themselves than the guild. They worry more about how they appear to other people, they will deliberately exclude people and often refuse to have anything to do with people who aren’t in their clique.

Want to know a secret, though?

A solid clique makes an AWESOME guild.

Really. If you’ve got a hardcore RP clique in a raiding guild that’s causing problems, they can almost certainly branch off and become the Core for a killer RP guild.

Beware the clique that thinks its a Core. They believe that their own goals are the same as the goals of the guild, and will constantly undermine the Core’s stability while trying to push their goals.

Wondering if you’re a Clique or a Core?
So how do you tell which one you are?

Look to the guild, my friend. What does the GUILD want to do? Write down the major guildmembers, or guild groups (if in a really large guild). What are the goals of those people/groups? If you don’t know - ask them! People love being asked their opinions.

Evaluate your answers and make sure what people SAY they want matches what they’re doing with their time. If someone says they support RP and want to do more guild-wide storylines…but they spend all their time raiding, never join RP night, and never speak in the in-character channel…then you should note that. Don’t just lump them in with whatever group you want them to be in (or even whatever group they think they want to be in).

Once you see that, you can get an idea of where the guild’s goals are. Do they match with yours?

Congratulations, you’re part of the Core!

And that is true even if you’re brand new to the guild.

Let me Explain That
That last sentence may have been a little confusing - let me explain.

One of the problems with Cores/Cliques is the us/them mentality. The feeling that you’re a third wheel, or left out, or not really wanted. Tagging along like a cute but annoying terrier puppy, trying desperately to impress and play with the mastiffs.

How do you fix that?

If you’re the puppy, you make absolutely certain that you want to be part of the Core. That the goals of the Core are the goals that you have. If you’re the mastiff, you have to be willing to see what that puppy can do, give him a chance to prove himself.

But if the puppy’s goals already match those of the Core, then sooner or later, they will become part of the Core. They won’t be able to help it. It will probably take a while to get the amount of trust to truly merge - you have to prove more than just your willingness, you have to prove that you’re in it for the long haul, and earn the respect of the matiffs.

But what makes a Core a Core? Blood relationship? Thhhbbbbt. Of course not. So how does this group of near-strangers become something as solid as a Core?

Shared goals.

It’s as simple as that.

And THAT, my friends, is how you join any group, Core, clique, bowling group, job, hobby group, Alcoholics Anonymous…

It doesn’t matter what group you’re trying to join. It’s the shared goals that are going to make the group work, that are going to make you a part of the Core.

You didn’t think I was ONLY talking about Warcraft, did you?

My oh my. Sorry about the lack of posts for the last 2 weeks. A lot has happened, my Priest hit 70 last week… Thursday or was it Wednesday night? I don’t remember, so much of it’s a blur.

My played time to 60 was 4 Days, 15 hours. For my first “pure” caster I think that’s a pretty good time and it was pure old quest grinding. I did two instances as I leveled SM and ZF one run each just to get the experience from all the quests.

I hit 70 in 2 Days, 19 Hours for a total played time of 7 Days, 10 hours. Quickest 70 yet for me. Means I’m getting better at it or something! I had a lot fun with leveling the priest. Even more fun at 62 when I got Shadow Word: Death. I dunno why I like the spell so much but, everything about it is fun to me. It hits like a truck and the casting animation is cool, and while it can save durability if needed, I rarely died. I think I maybe kicked the bucket around 10 to 15 times and I know a couple of those were to drowning. Wee for paying attention.

It took me about 4 hours to get to 375 Tailoring and then I had a lot of the gear so many Shadow Priests take months to accumulate. Full Frozen Shadowweave, The Spellstrike Set, Belt of Blasting and Bracers of Nimble Thought. Started my honor grind Friday to get the Season 2 Gavel and Off-Hand, took me till Monday to get both. I quickly slapped a Soulfrost Enchant on the weapon because I’m not one to skimp and 14 Shadow Damage is 14 Shadow Damage. Man, DPSing as a Shadow Priest is a lot fun and I enjoy being a Mana Battery!

Monday, the EgoCrew did a normal Magister’s Terrace and got me some more gear. Gloves, Ring and Cloak all on the same run. I swear that instance loves me. I get all the loot I want there so quick! Here’s hoping I can get Timbal’s my first couple runs in Heroic mode.

Then later I got invited to a guild that was recruiting a Shadow Priest for their T6 runs and understood I just had rerolled. They had just finally killed Kalegos in Sunwell but didn’t have the time to get serious attempts on Brutallus, and from what I understand, he one shotted the tank the first time he ran in. I really hope to see some of Sunwell and the rest of Black Temple before Wrath of the Lich King hits.

Anyways in Hyjal, we did Rage Winterchill and I promptly died to Ice Bolt due to low life of my current gear, and not having my PvP trinket yet. No big deal, I wasn’t the only one to die to it. Also got to experience Anetheron. I took a Carrion Swarm to the face! And again I bit the dust. It happens especially to me as I have NO stamina. Nothing to new here as I’ve experienced all of Hyjal on a Rogue just not a caster. Looking forward to it none the less.

The Hammer of Judgment dropped of trash, so in two days I did two Soulfrost Enchants in one day. That was fun.  And to think I use to think Mongoose was expensive. I don’t like being handed gear but they could really use a Shadow Priest and I love running out of Internet fires.

Tuesday I got to see Black Temple for the first time in several months. Did the first 6 Bosses, 3 of them being new for me. I was worried about my HP pool on Najentus, as a min of 8.5k life is recommended for the fight, I’m not quite there. However, Power Word: Shield gave me a decent buffer to make sure I didn’t die.

Supremus, was fun as a caster even if the fight was a lot longer then it needed to be. The off-tank wasn’t building enough rage quick enough and didn’t get high enough on threat. This lead to the melee taking all the Hateful Strikes thus dropping a lot of our DPS. Was fun none the less, all the melee were giving the off-tank crap and it got kind of close at the end, but it was a one shot.

Shade of Akama was easy mode and nothing new. I helped DPS the channelers down and collected loots.

Teron Gorefiend was fun. All the spell push-back makes my damage output suffer a bit, but I have yet to learn the tricks to maximize my it on fights like this. I got Shadow of Death’d which I was dreading, because I’ve heard its easy to mess up the constructs. Well I did it so quick I thought I lost track of one of em, just turned out I killed it super quick. Anyone thats played the flash game online, its about 100 times easier then that so if you can do that don’t sweat it.

BloodBoil and Reliquary of Souls we’re pretty fun but very sensitive DPS fights, so I had to watch my threat like a hawk. They we’re a bit worried about my HP on Bloodboil but I didn’t get Fel Raged so it was a non factor.

Overall, 0 Deaths on bosses in BT and felt my DPS was average, still finding my way on this toon, but it has been a lot of fun. Hope to see Illidan and the rest of BT as soon as I can. I’ve missed running out of internet fires quite a bit, especially with a guild that doesn’t tolerate people messing up repeatedly and doesn’t slack off.

Expect more posts from me now that I have stuff to ramble on about.

I leave ya with a pic of Genuflect.

Friends, today we have a guest post from one of our more…*ahem* advanced readers. This, I think, might be Book 1 of a series. Enjoy, and let the guest poster know if you want more!

—

The Core

Hai. Der Ego crew asked me to write something (I have no idea why because frankly, I’m usually just full of if!). I asked, “about what?”. Two months later, I got a response: “…the trials and tribulations of dealing with that high end content might make for some interesting…”.

Um…yeah.

**Kwane here - to be fair, he went on vacation and didnt bother to notify anyone *stern look*…also, replying to the question may have slipped my mind…now we return to your program already in progress**

That can easily be a series of articles, poems, traditional country songs, an encyclopedia, or a good ole soap opera.

So, lets just start with The Core.

Every guild has one and they come in all shapes and sizes. They make up the heart, soul, and impetus of the guild. The Core is the glue that holds a guild together and can also be the catalyst for one to explode. A guild will almost always go as the Core goes, good or bad. The Core is the muscle that moves the guild and the heart keeps it alive. Lose your Core and your guild is gone or at the very least it is no longer effective, especially if you do like I do and raid in the high end. Yes, I’m one of *those* guys. The hardcore raider chasing high endgame content. I may actually introduce myself later if the Ego crew deems me somewhat useful for their further nefarious purposes. If anything, I can fend off the other village

Officers are sometimes part of the Core, but not always. Quite frankly, they are part of the Core less often then you would think. The long lived guilds understand this and typically their officers aren’t part of the Core. They spend their time tending to the structure and planning and keeping the guild informed. This allows less time for them to play, but provides better playing time for everyone else. It is up to the officers to make sure the Core stays in tact, or when it changes that is still viable in the long run.

Recruiting has a lot to do with this, which is why sometimes you see an applicant who looks like a shoe-in to your guild, get ganked in the process - or suddenly a raid spot opens up and you have no idea why. It has been my experience (did I tell you I’m old?) that guilds lacking this structure eventually go away.

“Hildi…wth is the Core then?”, you ask.

Easy, these are people who show up ready to go all the time. They interact with the guild with positive outcomes. Drama doesn’t follow them (until they leave!). These are the players the officers trust enough to award the first sets of gear or recipes to. They are there in the hard times and the good times. They know their class ridiculously well and likely know yours too. They interact with the rest of the people in the game, not just your guild. They bring in new people, find strats, do the farming required for mats, etc… Essentially, these are the people spending a lot of time in game for your guild and not just doing dailies for themselves.

If you’re thinking, “wow, not too many of those people around”, you’d be right, and thats why Cores tend to be small.

“What’s this have to do with the trials and tribulations of a high end guild?” you wonder.

Everything. High end guilds go no further than their Core allows. Period. When the Core starts to fail and is not repaired, it is a long, painful decline, inevitably resulting in the break up.

As an example, I just lived through one of these. (I’ma suhviva!) Unfortunately it happened to my favorite guild. Ironically, when I left my previous guild a lot of people told me not to go to this one. (details to come if approved by Ego) I actually was planning to transfer off server and had been talking to some people that seemed pretty cool, but a friend of mine asked me to try these guys out before I transfered. Since leaving a server you have been on since day one is difficult, I stayed.

Turns out, the group of people I met were hands down the funnest, most inviting and welcoming bunch I have ever had the privilege of meeting in a game. We all hit it off, which was good because this was back in the days when people didn’t understand the uberness of a holy priest, never took them on raids, and even few priests understood the new order of healing in TBC. Things were good back then. We had a very solid group of players who in my opinion could nuke anything in game - and we did. I joined and two days later Kael was ganked. (/flex. lol no credit to me tho. It was all them). Hyjal and BT after that was simply awesome. We tore, and I mean TORE through content big time and fast (and yes, I understand the deal with MH and BT). I think we downed Illidan after just two weeks from our first sighting of him, and council was faster (and harder) than that.

Well, there is only so much arena/bg/dailies you can do before people like us become bored. The rotting of the Core started to happen in the off time between Illidan’s ‘dramatic’ speech and when Sunwell came out. In retrospect, we should have known by our performance on Kalecgos and Brutallus that we had not replaced our Core the way we should have, or at all. That bitch Felmyst was the straw that killed us. Actually it was probably Muru, since we knew with out troubles on Felmyst, Muru was really not an option. Sometimes we would miss 2-3 raid nights because we couldn’t even field an entire raid, and that was in between miserable attempts due to people not paying attention or the under geared people we recently recruited to fill voids in our ever diminishing raid army. The Core had no choice but to raid every day because the fringe members couldn’t be there.

Burnout for us was coming soon, if it hadn’t already hit. I know I was close to calling it quits. It was a sad spiral, that ended one day when the remnants of our Core got an offer we really couldn’t refuse.

Another guild had done what we didn’t. They recognized way earlier than we did that their Core was starting to go the road ours did (and several other guilds actually. Sunwell is having remarkable success in killing raiding guilds coughDnTcough). Propositions, what-if’s, counter proposals were made and finally the handshake happened and the remnants of our Core essentially was enveloped by the other guild. In the end it has turned into a win-win really. The new guild is a lot different and it is not exactly like the good times and fun we had before, but also a lot better. In fact, it is better than I thought it would be, and some of us even get some time off because the guild has so many competent raiders to field a raid.

Hence, there is my conclusion - it is more advice to you guild officers/leaders/and core members. Or even to people who watch the hardcore guilds. Watch your Core. With it you have a chance. Without it, you are nothing and unhappy.

So….what’s in your Core?

It’s a weird situation, seeing Fluffy out in front, chomping away at three orcs while a rogue stands behind them doing their stabbity thing, and everyone else is back here with you, pewpewing like crazy. Weird.

But it works.

And things tell me that we might be seeing a bit more of it.

The bad part about this is that your friendly, neighborhood huntard is going to have even more of the spotlight when he screws it up.

The good part is that the good hunters have one more chance to shine in that spotlight. And that is so happyface that my cheeks hurt after seeing it happen.

This magic doesn’t happen on its own, though. You still have to have people paying attention to how angry they’re making the monsters, and the hunter has to make sure that Spot is making ALL the monsters angry at Spot - not just that one orc she first attacked. Yes, Spot is a she, get over it.

It’s the kind of teamwork that should be happening no matter who or what is up there playing meatshield, really. The trouble comes from the fact that warriors and blood knights are so good at it. Yeah, I said it. They’re so good, people get lazy about what they’re supposed to be up to back in the back. Heals are going to sleep, fireballs are all over the place, the hunter is sublimating Tobasco sauce and the rogue is going “lol dodge tank!” just before dying to a critical strike called AXE TO DA FACE.

I hate axe to da face. I usually eat one when the melee hunter feigns death after pulling aggro and I have to slap a big heal through the back of his head. Grr!

Right, right, magic.

So there’s a right way to treat your meatshield, and it’s even more critical when your tank doesn’t have all the nice pretty tricks that a warrior or blood knight or even a bear druid might have (yes, sorry, I forgot about the druids a minute ago, I HAVE OTHER THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT).

The dungeon crawl will go a lot slower, because it’s more critical that Fuzzy gets all grrface on everything. It’s more critical that targets get hit by focus fire. It’s more critical that AOE is kept to a minimum. It’s more critical that Boots up there is taking the most damage and everything else is just monsters doing their aoe thing - the minimal stuff that can be dealt with via a quick Renew or Rejuvinate or whateveritis Blood Knights do.

Also, unlike most situations, the hunter shouldn’t be healing Spike. Yeah, I said it. The hunter should not be using ‘mend pet’ at all.

Here’s how that works. Tigger is up there doing his thing, trying to keep all the baddies angry, and doing some damage too. Most of the damage, though, is probably coming from the paindealers in your group, including the hunter who’s keeping an eye on his friend. He’s going to be staying right underneath that level of making the baddies come chase off after the fellow shooting them in the face. If he were to toss in some heals at the same time, that’d just make them angrier. You, however, should have ways of reducing the angry you’re causing, and the priests out there have our handydandy fade thing. The hunter will be playing dead whenever it’s available, but most of his attention should be spent on killing those things as quickly as Sparky will allow it to happen.

See, the longer the baddies are alive, the more mana you’re using to keep Rover alive. The longer you’re throwing sparklies, the angrier the baddies are getting, too. Fast battles will be your goal, kiddos.

So through focus fire, spreading around the aggrivation through all the baddies, and minimal targets to heal, Scruffy can definitely tank with his face right up there with the regulars.

ps: Seeing a cheerleader-slash-druid night elf wench in a ‘tanking teddy’ would be worth almost any price.

pps: Until she went bear form.

Right, so I find myself in dire need of entertaining podcasts.

I’m a podcast n00b, so be gentle.

As Kwane so perfectly stated, “Podcasts are still like Bigfoot to me, I am sure they are out there, but not sure I want to know about them and they scare me a little.”

I’m looking primarily for entertainment value. It needs to engage my attention from the start, without long lulls of boring in the middle. It doesn’t have to be Warcraft related, but it does have to be easy to add to my iPod - huge preference for freebies I can subscribe to and get via iTunes.

Anything about writing, books, gaming, comedy, movies, cartoons, or just flat out fun stuff to listen to. I have a high swearing tolerance, but would prefer something that included a broader vocabulary than the average street corner conversation.

Hopefully I can find Twisted Nether that way - if not, it’s one of the very few I’m willing to try downloading and getting into my iPod the hard way.

Suggestions?

_Help?

So yesterday, I logged Vonya in for the first time in well over a month.

Did you ever have a really bad breakup? One where you stopped going to the same bars, hanging out with the same friends, eating at the same restaurants, and even listening to the same radio stations, just so you wouldn’t be reminded of what you were so very strongly trying to forget?

That was me.

But I’m back now. And it still gives me a twinge when I hear the wrong song on the radio, and I still can’t order the General’s chicken from our favorite restaurant, but I am hanging out with the mutual friends again and tentatively starting to go back to my old haunts.

I had a brief relationship with another MMO, and it really helped get me back on my feet. The relationship was a short one - City of Villains was a great rebound game, but as time went on, I grew less and less excited to spend time with it. We broke up amicably - we both knew it was a short-lived affair, and there were no tears shed on either side when the breakup was done.

So here I am, back in Azeroth. And I feel like I’ve come home, and maybe some of the furniture’s been moved around a little, but it’s still home.

I healed a regular MrT last night, trying to get some of the rust off. I only wiped half the group once, so I count it as a success. I killed off Kwane and Zasp, and who cares about them anyway, right? =P

Also, Zasp is playing a shadow priest, and doing a hella good job at it. Poke him about it.

Some of our old friends from a previous server are lifting their heads up, having taken similar hiatuses after that old guild broke apart. It sounds like some of them are wanting to guild up with us and rebuild some of what we’d lost.

I think we all needed the time to collect ourselves, but it seems like our return has lit up the sky, much like the Thundercat beacon, and now we’re assembling to kick Mum’ra…err…Outland back into shape.

I think it’d be fun if we could get some bear mounts for people before the expansion comes out and the bear mount is gone for good. That’s a good goal.

I also want a baby phoenix hatchling and Anzu. And I’m not afraid to barter, bribe, and blackmail to make it happen. *cracks knuckles*

The exciting part about running through a dungeon with a bunch of scrubs is that you can’t go through it in a daze. You might come OUT in a daze, but going in, you have to be on your toes and ready for anything. That’s one difference between me and miss “Yes they cut glass”. She can sip her filtered draenic water (water, right), and twiddle her fingers. I have to chug back my MGD as fast as I can, or I won’t get to pick up any goodies off the corpses before my so-called-compatriots are running down that hallway.

It also means each dungeon crawl is a learning experience.

I told you I wouldn’t go off and rant and rave about horrible events and woe-is-me, everyone-is-stupid. Well last week turned into that anyway, it seemed. I lost track of things. IT HAPPENS. Nevertheless, I want to share with you what I learned from it.

First thing, as a random crew of miscreants, there’s a lot of psychology involved. Not really in-depth stuff; we’re talking adventurers that are accustomed to leaping off of cliffs, face planting, and then charging into a herd of bovine that have stopped chewing cud long enough to stare at the humanoid meteor. No, I’m talking about the psychology involved in such things as making sure you’re on your way to the summoning stone the moment you know you have a full group. If all five of you sit around and wait to get summoned, it won’t take long for at least one person to decide wellfugthat and go do something else.

AS MUCH AS YOU MAY WANT THIS, it isn’t conducive to getting through that dungeon. So head to the stone, be ready to summon, and keep the useless complaints to a minimum. If it were a guildy, or a friend, maybe they would learn from your reminders and not do it next time. But these random jokers expect to never see your pouting face again, so they’re going to blow you off as you warn them about being flagged, about just sitting in a major city playing on the auctions until summoned, or about forgetting to repair. Even if they do all three at once.

And make sure you don’t do those things. That’s just rude.

When the battle actually starts, take a moment to watch who does what, and get a feel for people’s tactics. Last week’s story had that uppity younger hunter who liked to throw everything he had at the monsters, and then play dead so they went away. After the first time that happened, I knew not to even bother healing him until after he fell over, that way the monsters didn’t turn the stink eye on me. Mages tend to do this a lot, too, but without the added bonus of being able to hear their deathscream every time. They just morph into popsicle form, and – unless they’re the last one’s standing – will watch from their icy prison as the monsters run off to the next poor sap. So if I know that Mr Freeze has his popsicle available, I may hesitate to heal him when he does that super-fireball plus fireball plus arcane explosion combo.

And if they, then, do not use their play-dead or popsicle thingy? Fool proof response right here, write it down.

“I thought you knew what you were doing.”

Alright, so. We’ve got screaming, sobbing, and suicide. What else.

Oh right! As you saw in a lot of the comments, healers actually have a saving grace when things go terribly awry. We’re so used to focusing on the health of our little play-pen-pals, we’re often the first to know when things go suddenly south. We may not even see exactly where their corpses are currently laying, prone and bloody with wolves leering over them, but we’ll know they are quite dead via our connection to the whatsits that lets us know if they’re dead.

That’s when you can decide if it’s worth tracking them down and fixing them up, or put on the happyface because of the stuff you’ve picked up, declare the evening a success, and hearthstone home.

After all, it’s not an adventure unless somebody dies!

…What do you mean it’s not Monday?