A Tauren Warrior protecting his land with a mace in hand.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The Hot Topic: WoWs Current Loot System


Since the release of Mists of Pandaria the Loot System in WoW has been under heavy criticism. Whether it be the gating of Valor gear behind reputation grinds that could only be doe through dailies, or the LFR system of loot.

This Expansion Blizzard decided to give us a new way to obtain loot, by giving us Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. By collecting 90 of these thing, through dailies, you could then turn them in for 3 tokens which grant a bonus roll on a boss. This system for the first tier of raiding was under scrutiny because of the frequency that you got gold from it, especially if you got gold from your normal loot roll as well. People dont see it as a bonus roll they see it as something that should guarantee them loot, as the old saying goes the only thing guaranteed in life is death and taxes, and for a WoW player that just means death and lots of time (the tax) grinding.

The last couple days there has a been a heated debate between EU forum posters and Blizzard Blue Draztal (summary found here), about the need for a better way to guarantee PvE loot to players, this case weapons, much like the PvP loot system.

After the break I will talk about my thought on the subject.


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Tanking With the General Public


A Tanks Guide To Surviving LFD/LFR:

So we all have been there, whether as a Tank, DPS, or Healer, that point in a LFG where we realize some of the people in the group clearly have no understanding of what they are doing let alone the mechanics of the dungeon/raid. We have also been witness to or been the person who's sole goal is to get in and out as quickly as possible but have made it slower by causing a wipe.

Today we will go over ways to survive in the wonderful tool known as LFG

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Tauren Warrior Transmogification RP


So being a Lore nerd and playing a warrior in every RPG I play I like to look like a Warrior of the race I play. I have had the hardest time finding a set the makes me FEEL like a Tauren Warrior with out the use of leather.

After the break I will show some sets, none of which I have, that I think do a pretty good job of mainting that Tauren feel as a Warrior.

Monday, April 8, 2013

The Protective Bull Rises Again


As a fledgling Warrior I began my journey as Arms because I thought hey why not carry around a big 2 handed weapon that made me look unstoppable. Sadly this journey ended when I reached level 60 in The Burning Crusade. It became apparent that in order for me to be able to run Dungeons I needed to tank and the group of friends I had made needed a tank so it seem to fit I tanked until level 70 and even then I kept my tank set to run dungeons but I wanted to raid so I picked up a DPS set I joined a guild and tried to raid as Arms but I was told to go fury or gtfo, so I went fury which didn't last long. After a couple weeks I was asked to off tank, where I stayed until Sunwell Plateau was released.

Even though it was only a year I learned to not only tank but excel at tanking better than I thought I would, teaching any young warrior I could how to tank, I am not going to lie though I had a great teacher myself (a player that when we were DPS in Firelands could out DPS players in epics while wearing greens and blues). 

After the release of the Sunwell I switched guilds and was asked to go back to DPS where I stayed until March 2013 (I had a brief hiatus from Warrior raiding during Wrath after Ulduar was released to raid on my Paladin where I spent a few months as Holy and the rest of the Expansion as Ret).

Last Month my current guild was running into problems keeping a consistent Off Tank on hand. Since the beginning of Mists I told my self I would never tank, especially after a brief attempt during Cataclysm. Tanking in Wrath and Cataclysm seemed broken to me it didn't flow like it used to fr me in TBC and to be honest  I was having fun as DPS. 

Fast forward to last month, As a Warrior DPS I found myself getting bored especially as Fury weather I was Titans Grip or Single Minded it was just boring and Arms was tempting because I was at the ilvl where Arms was actually better DPS. Even after declaring to the guild in 5.1 that I would never tank, some how I had slowly gathered some off pieces and had accumulated Tier tokens I didn't need for DPS. So I volunteered to become the new tank for the guild.  As much as I loved DPS I love raiding in general more and I saw an opportunity to cut down wasted time trying to pug an off tank. 

Learning to Tank again, this time tanking actually felt fluid for me like not the same as a remembered of TBC but much better than the how I felt in Wrath and Cataclysm. Sure I had to learn new things like keeping your new active defenses on CD or when to use them on certain fights, however overall I have learned very quickly how to tank again. My first week tanking we downed Jin'rokh with my 480 ilvl tank set (with DPS neck, shoulders, ring and, trinket).

This is the beginning of the new Blood Sweat and Honor blog focus.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

One of those OMG moments


So I occasionally every couple months pick up a few of the current release of the WoW TGC booster packs, or even the Archive Booster packs if my local Target has them. I have even purchased a couple sealed cartons of booster packs off ebay when the price is right. Last month I purchased a sealed 8 pack of the Cataclysm era booster pack, which also has a guaranteed single loot card (from a couple different Booster pack series) aside from whatever you get in the booster packs.

Finally today I opened that 8 pack box and to my great excitement I found [Spectral Tiger]. Now my previous mounts I earned in from a sealed carton of WoW TGC Archive booster packs I bought off ebay in the same carton I found [Wooly White Rhino] and [X-51 Nether Rocket].