Eighty Percent Fur

Not So Furious Anymore

2009-05-11T11:08:00.004-05:00

This weekend I had my first real foray into the world of PvP. Now I've done battlegrounds before, but I hardly consider that to be in the same class as arenas. Now let me just say that I have been and always will be a PvE man. The camaraderie, teamwork, and epic scale of PvE is what I thrive off of.

A Shaman friend of mine and I took the plunge into 2v2s. He went Resto and I went cat-form. Upon discussing it, he did not feel that me being gemmed/enchanted for survivability would impact us too much. I also gave him the disclaimer that I suck at PvP greatly. And, because I suck so bad, I have a tendency to strongly dislike it.

He underestimated my suckiness.

0-8 we went that day before I hung my hat up and moved back into the PvE world. A 10-man Ulduar, to be exact. I daresay I may be done with Arenas until the end of time.

I roll on a PvP server (as if there were any other option), but world PvP (and battlegrounds, for that matter) is such a different beast than Arenas. Maybe 2s shouldn't have been my first foray, since they are so sensitive to mistakes, but I'm content working towards ensuring Yogg-Saron cannot corrupt the minds of Northrend's heroes.

My desire to try my hand at Arenas stemmed from bear's best-in-slot weapon, the Furious Gladiator's Greatstaff. "2200 rating is something I can do. I rock at PvE!" I said to myself. Shoot, if nothing else, I could ride on the coattails of someone good! And then the requirements for the weapon got increased. And now the weapon is nerfed, as of the current PTR build. The only thing that has changed, though, is the agility on the weapon. Where it had 210 before, it has now been halved to 105.

Now Furious Gladiator's Greatstaff has gone from being a great weapon to a good weapon. The stamina is otherworldly, but the agility nerf, coupled with the lack of any other real stats beyond critical strike rating, makes this staff less than desirable for PvE.

At this point, Bears are going to want Twisted Visage, Origin of Nightmares, or Lotrafen, Spear of the Damned. Origin remains our best mitigation staff, whereas I think Visage offers the best all-around bang for the buck. What amounts to about 500 less health between it and Origins, is more than made up for the additional agility. Not having the 800 armor is unfortunate, but the hit, crit, and additional AP all are win.

If Twisted Visage drops for you during a Heroic Ulduar run, do not let a Hunter take it. Fight people if you have to!

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Star Trek

2009-05-08T07:26:00.003-05:00

My intentions for this blog have always been for it to be a World of Warcraft themed blog. I've done a good job of keeping in line with that original objective, but sometimes there are things in this world that are so awesome, so mesmerizing, so important that they must be shared with the world, World of Warcraft related or not.

The newest Star Trek movie is one of these things.

At this point, dear one reader, you should be getting into your car, driving to the nearest theater, and promptly purchasing one ticket for the Star Trek movie. You may stop reading now.

If you haven't left yet, you rebellious soul you, know that Star Trek transcends the geekdom of its television predecessor and sets phasers to "cool." It is a fantastic ride from start to finish. It respects the Star Trek canon, yet also brings it into our time. The characters are so real, so fleshed out (as J.J. Abrams does so well), so alive that it's impossible to pick a favorite.

And the story is fantastic and it feels natural in this world of Star Trek. There's nothing hokey about it. It is just as alive and charismatic as the characters that inhabit it.

Did I mention the action sequences will draw your hindquarters to subconsciously move to the edge of their resting place?

I went into this movie not caring about Star Trek and always viewing it as something for the nerds on the fringe of the geekdom universe. Yet I walked out of the theater waiting for the next installment of this hopefully continuing series. Any fan of J.J. Abrams should be devoted enough to see this. Any fan of Star Trek will surely embrace what he's done. And anyone else who is alive should go see this movie and have a blast!

Until the next U.S.S. Enterprise voyage...

-Lushious

A Little Love for the Lushman

2009-05-07T08:39:00.003-05:00

Last night I had my first full raid with Half-Baked, the feral druid giving me a run for my money.

I can safely say that, after making amends with HB, he and I can peacefully coexist in the same raid. All seems to be well on this front.

3DRealms has, apparently, already shut its doors.What many consider the world's premiere Vaporware developer has, well, vaporized. In a way, it serves 3DRealms right. Over ten years after announcement, we still do not have a proper Duke Nukem sequel. And what we have seen of this new Duke Nukem game, in its latest form, has been less than appealing.

I have been an FPS lover since I first had to fend against dogs, nazis, and a Hitler in a mech. They have been a regular diet of my game playing experience from that point forward. Duke Nukem 3D, in particular, holds a very special place in my heart. It took all of the greatest things about the Doom series and applied a shiny coat of "time to kick ass and chew bubblegum," though it was clearly all out of gum.

Just to date myself, I had used to play Doom modem-to-modem on a 9800 baud modem. Duke Nukem 3D, however, took advantage of my screaming 14.4k modem. I remember being blown away by how much quicker it was.

And how could I forget the times my mother would pick up the phone, only to hear the robotic squeals of a modem connection dying?

Really, in a lot of ways, it saddens me to hear the news of 3D Realms closing its doors. They had made so many games that I enjoyed so much: Terminal Velocity, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Max Payne, and Max Payne 2.

Here's to hoping some competent company picks up the rights to the newly announced Max Payne 3, as well as Duke Nukem Forever.

To keep in line with the WoW theme of this forum, it seems the Bear's best-in-slot weapon just got a whole lot harder to get:

The current arena rating system allows more players to have higher ratings in the 2v2 bracket when compared to 3v3 and 5v5. We are preparing an in-game update that will be improving the rating system of the 3v3 and 5v5 brackets to allow all three of the brackets to have a similar number of players able to achieve ratings on par with what’s currently possible in our 2v2 arena bracket. As a result, we are changing the personal and team rating requirements for the item level 239 weapons from 2200 to 2350, but keep in mind the tooltip will continue to show the requirement as 2200 until patch 3.1.2.

As a result of the above improvements, this change will prevent an excessive number of players from reaching much higher ratings and acquiring the highest grade of weapons in-game. The increase in rating requirements is designed to keep the number of players able to obtain these arena weapons on par with the number of players who are able to obtain the same grade of weapons from Heroic Ulduar.

When Arena Season 7 launches we plan to return the highest rated season 7 weapons back to 2200 while also ensuring that the difficulty in achieving that rating is closer to what is intended, yet of similar difficulty for all brackets (rather than being easier for 2v2).

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

No Love for the Lushman Part Deux

2009-05-05T23:12:00.005-05:00

Remember Half-Baked, the druid bear tank all up in my grill?

He has now moved to tank spot in my guild. Now, he hasn't bumped me out of my position, but, rather, is now growling and mangling right alongside me.

I'm feeling a myriad of emotions right now: angry, scared, and jealous.

I'm angry, because HB seems to have been rewarded for shady behavior. His back-talking me, vindictive comments, and inability to handle his own frustrations in a positive way are all traits I don't think make for a good "team player." I'd have been happier to see him off to another guild.

To make matters worse, I feel HB has been schmoozing the leaders of the guild, manipulating them, really. I have been with my guild since January and HB only since the end of March. I had to sit out on Ulduar and Vault of Archavon last night so that Abbazabba could tank (I got to tank, but let's get to this in one moment). And I wasn't offered any explanation until I whispered an officer, who responded stating that "it's not a reflection of you," but went on to say that I had been tanking "better." What?! The only reason why anyone in the guild thinks I hadn't been tanking well is because HB had been filling them with the idea that I was a poor tank so that he could replace me. ARGH!

So, the GM decided to sit out last night so that I could tank, but only after three bosses were already down in Ulduar and there wasn't much time left to raid. HB wound up tanking XT, died, and then I picked up the boss leading us to victory. I felt awesome about this.

The following are my stats vs. HB's stats. This is going to be tougher than normal, since I am in no way linking his armory. My stats are on the left, his on the right.

Stamina
1908 vs. 1764

Armor
7867 vs. 7004
This is me without Origin of Nightmares, whereas he has it.

Hit Rating
199 vs. 212
Mine is so high, because of Twisted Visage. He carries Origin of Nightmares and has gemmed entirely too much for hit.

Expertise
40 vs.33

Crit Chance
27.15% vs. 22.64%

Dodge
31.85% vs. 28.76%

I had originally used my Wowarmory to get the differences between our stats, until I realized I was still in my DPS spec from a boss last night. The stats have been updated and I now see HB had no right painting me in a bad light on account of my way of itemization, gemming, and enchanting.

I am scared, because I feel HB will usurp me as the tank in our guild. He's obviously did something right to get what he wants. Why stop at just coexisting with me?

I am also jealous. I wish I could have made the impression upon my guildmates in such a way that I could so easily get what I want.

My next step to take is a hazy one. I do enjoy running with the guild I run with. We are all very smart, goofy, and are passionate for the game. And, simply put, we get stuff done. I also play this game for fun. The moment that it becomes anything but that, I need to step away. And dealing with this unnecessary drama is not fun.

And since Ulduar came out my social life has been suffering. Weekends have been my only free time, since we raid Monday through Thursday. I know this is terrible, but my love for the game is as such.

So, my three real options are as follows:

* Do nothing.
* Shop for another guild.
* Take a break.

Do nothing is an easy choice, since it requires no action from my part. I simply sit here, continue to do what I am doing, and see how things play out.

Shop for another guild is a tricky one. I'd have to reestablish myself with other people, while turning my back to those I have already befriended. And then my place is not guaranteed in any way with a new guild.

Taking a break seems like such a nice option. No more scheduling my life around this game. I get to see my friends more often. Plus, the weather is getting really nice.

But that also means leaving this game at a time that is the most exciting. Raiding is what gets my blood flowing. I thrive for it. Ulduar is the place to be right now.

Then again, maybe this whole post is a sign that I just may take this game way too seriously.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

No Love for the Lushman

2009-05-01T10:02:00.004-05:00

I had a "discussion" with a guildie yesterday that turned sour. Way sour. Before I go into the details, I know that I cannot be liked by every man, woman, and child. It is an unreasonable thing to expect from anyone.

I am the person that I am, and though I try to be as honest, caring, and compassionate as possible, there are people in the world that will not like me for whatever reason they have chosen. It's not my fault, it's just the way that things are. I cannot fault said person, but at least have the decency to be open with me, explain your dislike, and we can work on at least coexisting in the same space. And so begins my tale...

The guild I belong to recruited a Druid about two months ago. Let's just call this Druid "Half-Baked," or "HB" for short. Though app'd as a feral druid, he took on a Boomkin role. He does a good job raiding and knows his class well, including the feral aspect.

He and I hit it off rather well, as we would often discuss the finer points of bear tanks. I felt they were good discussions, where we would each explain our stances on the bear philosophy. HB's stance leans more towards threat, whereas mine drifts towards straight mitigation. For HB, hit is more valuable than armor and stam. As an example, Heritage would take precedence over Boundless Ambition.

Then a bit of his personality started to enter into these discussions. An air of superiority crept into conversations between him and I. In his mind he was the better bear tank, felt I was vastly inferior to him, and would kill to get my position in the guild as one of the three tanks. Due to this, he began to talk down to me, berate me for my stance. And if I made a mistake in the raid (as humans have a tendency to do), he'd make a mental note and use it as fodder against me.

I began to catch on to his ways. He'd ignore tells, but would speak up if it was an opportunity to put me in a bad light. I told my RL friends about this character, and how I was beginning to dislike his attitude towards me. Though I didn't know what to do about it, except grin and bear it.

But yesterday was the day that broke the camel's back. Simply put, I got tag-teamed. One of his RL friends, also in the guild, both teamed up to attack my character (2vs1 isn't fair). What was a discussion about how running Naxx with the guild is more valuable than running with a PUG, even if it meant waiting five days to run Naxx, turned into a discussion about how HB was an expert and I was a fool. Derogatory remarks were made, and I did my best to maintain composure and still remain civil and respectful.

One thing HB said that made me laugh out loud at its absurdity was, "Not to be a tool, but I talk with some of the best druids in guilds in Europe and I could have introduced them to you for some debate."

Oh mighty HB, would you please bless me with your greatness?!

At that point I knew it was feeble to continue. How could I win what became an argument, when two participants were ganging up on one?

I don't want to be "that guy," but I discussed this with the GM and officers. I didn't want to necessarily get HB in trouble, but I wanted advice. How can he and I coexist in the same guild, when it is so clear his dislike for me and how he wants to bogart a tanking spot I have been proud to have for so long? I'm not one for drama, but I wanted to make my feelings know to the leaders of the guild, lest this snowball into something much worse and more sinister.

The guild leaders listened to me and said they would address it. I was especially happy to hear during this that HB had made it known to the GM his intentions of usurping me, but told a different tale to the officers. I play this game for fun, and an environment like that is not fun. They talked with HB, but what was said is beyond me.

I'm also hurt that I no longer have a guildie that I can discuss the finer points of being a bear with. I'd rather just ignore HB at this point and continue to play my best, but I learned some things from HB and hopefully he learned some things from me.

I still firmly believe mitigation is more important than threat. Before 3.1. threat would've been something I'd have complained about (and have), but 3.1 has brought changes that increase bear threat for the better (crits on bleed, anyone?). Though I will be the first to admit that you should not discount hit as an important stat, bears do have a tendency to want to prioritize armor, agi, and stam first.

And to you, my one reader, feel free to inspect my bear and offer advice and opinions. I have lost that ability within my guild and would love to fill that void.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Hit Me Baby One More Time

2009-05-01T09:47:00.004-05:00

Writing a blog is a lot like exercising: You stop for any period of time and it is damned near impossible to get back into the groove. In addition, I've three posts sitting in the bucket that had gone unfinished. It is customary for me to write up a post, get sidetracked, and then leave said post waiting for a grand finale. I'd like to get these old posts published soon, just for the sake of completion.

I would like to apologize to my readers about the lack of posts, but that would be assuming I had any and that they still exist. I will try harder.

A lot has happened to me in the two months since I last posted here. I found out I would be laid off on June 30, our guild started progressing in Ulduar, and I still haven't gotten Origin of Nightmares. I've had 17 attempts at Grobbulus and still no drop. That's over four months' worth of Naxxramas.

But I digress. I will leave my WoW commentary to a more cohesive and well-designed post. I merely come here today stating I want to be more focused on writing my thoughts here and I intend to do a better job at it.

Until the next Faerie Fire...

-Lushious

Someone Done Hoodoo the Hoodoo Man

2009-03-03T13:46:00.002-06:00

I've been stewing about the upcoming Survival of the Fittest and Heart of the Wild changes. And said stew isn't turning out to be a delicious blend of vegetables and spices.

It has even crossed my mind to quit WoW. Things have become fairly mundane for me in WoW. Heroics are a joke; I barely run those now. Naxx, Maly, and Sarth have been on farm for me for the past three months. Ulduar is the only thing up and coming (plus the new Vaults of Archavon boss) that makes my whistle whet. And all of that doesn't help when Blizzard is poised to make bears the same as warriors, paladins, and death knight tanks.

I won't quit WoW, though. Until they have methadone clinics for WoW addicts, I'll forever be hooked.

This massive change has had me reevaluating my current bear build. I used to think my build was pretty good, but I'm seeing some major flaws in it now and for in the future.

First off, Improved Mark of the Wild is a must now. The passive 2% increase to stats that this new talent provides in 3.1 cannot be disputed (thanks, Karthis!)

Why did I have two points in Shredding Attacks? Somehow I thought the two rage points (4 in a rotation) would prove to be beneficial in the long run. Goodbye!

So, I am dropping Shredding Attacks and Brutal Impact completely. Brutal Impact was a talent I appreciated a lot in Heroics, particularly as I was gearing up. If I lost aggro on a mob I could just stun them and have a few extra moments to focus on them. I've always respected it as a PvP talent, but this is just a case of taking some PvP mentality into PvE.

Omen of Clarity: This talent has left me in a bind. In BC I wouldn't have been caught dead without it. Rage is hardly an issue now for any tanks that use that mechanic. I appreciate its usefulness as, say, cat or resto, but no longer for bear. Plus, I've gotten along just fine without it for all of LK.

King of the Jungle is giving me some trouble. It'd be a nice threat boosting talent, at least when initially pulling (I always have enrage up when I pull). However, in the middle of a fight it's not so useful as #1 aggro. It's either two points in this or I cave and put a throwaway point in Omen of Clarity and this for only a 5% increase in damage.

Unless any one of the two readers of this blog decides that Omen of Clarity is more useful than two points in King of the Jungle, I'll be working with this build.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

I'll Be Crying this Weekend

2009-02-27T21:13:00.007-06:00

GhostCrawler's official response to the 10% Heart of the Wild nerf:

In order to keep our goal of having all 4 tank classes capable of handling Ulduar, we need to get tank health pools a little closer together.

While I won't hide that this is a nerf for bears, we also don't want to get to the point of having a "mana sponge" tank, now that we are making mana more of an issue for healers.

If druids slip behind as a result of lack of mitigation, avoidance or cooldowns, we will buff them.

"If druids slip behind..." Why is there an "if" modifier there? Why are we even being nerfed? It's pretty clear we do have a significant lack of mitigation, avoidance, and cooldowns, now that we'll be equal to the other tanks in regards to stamina.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

My Work Related Cop Out

2009-02-27T11:57:00.003-06:00

Work is crazy and hectic today, so gone is the planned post. In its place, though, is a recommendation to read Kalon's latest entry.

My official commentary on this change is that I can only wonder what my role will be in Ulduar. At this point, with the ~6k armor nerf and now a ~3k health nerf, what serious guild is going to pick a Druid bear to tank when Warriors, Paladins, and DKs will be so much better.

I'm already having a tough time, as I pull about 5.5k TPS, whereas the warrior and Pally tank in my guild are pushing at least 2k more. And believe me, it's not for a lack of trying on my part.

I get more and more disheartened about being a bear tank with each successive Lich King patch. I am, though, addicted to being a bear. I will not give up so easily, Blizzard, even in the face of genocide*!

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

* Added for dramatic effect.

Who is the Lushman? Part I

2009-02-25T09:43:00.003-06:00

August 9, 2007. That is the day I got my first "hit." Realistically, it probably was a few days before, but the record books only tell of that day. It was when I first subscribed to Azeroth and all it has to offer.

My friend, Doublevision, separated by 160 miles between us, finally coerced me into playing WoW. It was a way we could "hang out," without actually driving three hours either way to do so.

Now, I'd been adamant about playing WoW since it first came out. As a full-time college student, going to one of the toughest business schools in the nation, the thought of dropping out of college on account of an all-consuming video game was very real to me and, as such, much opposed.

See, I have an addictive personality. :P

Suffice to say, I did get to see my fair share of Warcraft adventures. A good college friend of mine was very active in the game and I watched him play from time to time since launch. I would only sit and watch, never taking the reigns. In time I could carry on decent conversations with players, even though I was not a player myself.

Once graduated and three months into the workforce, on that fateful August day, Doublevision finally twisted my hand and I caved. I joined the ranks of Alliance and Horde to vanquish a common foe.

The biggest decision I had to make, of course, was what kind of character would I be? Double and I discussed this greatly. He was happy to inform me of the inner-workings of all of the classes. In the end, I had it narrowed down to three classes:

* Hunter
* Shaman
* Druid

The hunter interested me because of their pet. How cool would it be to sick Fido on a pack of killer crabs? Having a partner-in-crime as I leveled is a cool component of the class and I nearly rolled the dice on this class.

The Shaman was an easy choice for me. As a master of the planet's natural energy, Shaman's particularly connected with me. I grew up in a house that admired and respected the Native-American culture, and the Shamans embodied their spirits closely. I chose against the Shaman, though, because I fell in love with the following class.

The Druid. That was it. I knew instantly. Incorporating the natural angle of the Shaman (though to a different extent) and the unique hook of shape shifting, there was no doubt in my mind. And, of course, the ability to mimic any other classes' playing style (melee, caster, healz, or tank) only sealed the deal. In a lot of ways, the Druid mimics who I am. I am a vegetarian with strong values that acknowledges, appreciates, and respects the earth's life force. Some might be quick to label that as being a "hippie," but I wouldn't say that of myself. "Eco-nerd" is what I said once to a co-worker, and I feel that describes me pretty accurately.

And that is Part I of my origin story. Part II intends on detailing my venture into bear country and how I survived and only got a t-shirt. Tune in to see what happens next!

In other WoW news, I am totally digging Druid Tier 8 armor (male and female). Tier sets 1, 5, and 6 have always appealed to me. Their art style of incorporating various aspects of nature (and sixth's Native-American influence) embodies the Druid spirit. So, naturally, Tier 7 was a pretty big letdown for me (in addition to it just being a slightly modified tier 3). How does that have anything to do with druids, other than the snake on the shoulder pads and the green color? Seriously.

Tier 8's return to nature, complete with the Ulduar motif of creationism and stone golems, is a sight to behold. Bravo, Blizzard! I will wear Tier 8 with pride!

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Howdy, Stranger

2009-02-24T12:20:00.004-06:00

Wow. A lot sure can happen in a month's time. Just a quick recap of where I've been and what my Azeroth adventures have led me to:

* Left my stalemate of a guild to join one that is equally serious about progression as I am. My first week in the guild had my tanking Sarth with three drakes up and led us to our first 3 drake victory.
* I am now best in slot, except for Origin of Nightmares and Gatekeeper.
* I've been working a LOT. This has been counter-productive to my blogging, as any free time has been spent playing the game and not writing about it.
* In my guild I've had to cat-scratch a lot of bosses, when not tanking. This was met with groans initially, but I've come to enjoy the cat rotation now.
* I snagged the Nobles Deck in just one week after posting High Rollers Only. And at the cost of only 8000 gold before the changes to Inscriptionist's ink!

As things begin to wind down in my work life, I should find myself posting more often. On the plus side, WoW news is aplenty right now.

3.1 hit the PTR today. I've had just about 15 minutes to play with it. I wish I had more, but I've been encountering nasty memory crashes every 3 minutes. So, I cannot offer any opinions on the fun stuff, like swimming mounts or dual-specs, but I can speak about the following:

I lost about 6000 armor in bear form with the redone Survival of the Fittest. That stings really, really, really badly right now. I'm sure as I begin to acquire the latest Ulduar gear I'll work my way back to the 33,000 armor I had before the patch.

Yes, I'm still putting stock in armor. I'm not too worried about my crit chance, since I'm already of the mindset of stacking agility. I think as long as I keep my current mindset of stacking armor, health, and agility I'll be in a good place for Savage Defense.

Goodbye Outfitter. Blizzard's new outfitter-esque interface item is awesome. It sits in the Character item screen, in the upper right-hand corner. Ala Outfitter. It works the same way, really. I am of the mentality that the less Add-ons running, the better. So, any opportunity to replace a Group Calendar or an Outfitter is a good thing in my eyes.

Get ready to replace Trollwoven Girdle with Death-warmed Belt.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Momentarily Away from Keyboard

2009-01-08T15:03:00.001-06:00

Sorry for the lack of updates (I'm sure all one of you regular readers are sad), but work has been busy and has been spilling into my personal time.

However, I did want to offer my condolences to Big Bear Butt. I wish you and your family the best during these trying times. Keep your big furry bear head up!

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

High-Rollers Only

2008-12-30T13:52:00.004-06:00

I had this fantastic post planned about why I chose to be a druid in World of Warcraft. It was going to be good, I promise you. You'd have felt a bond with me; connected in a way you never had before. We might have even virtually hugged.

But then I stumbled upon something on my server last night. I cannot simply describe it as anything less than an abomination upon mankind. "Heinous" is not a strong enough word. Some of these ill feelings may also stem from jealousy. I won't admit it if they are, though.

As a Druid bear, two trinkets right now ought to make your balls shrivel (and if you don't have balls, just pretend you feel them shriveling up and tightening against your body). Defender's Code and Darkmoon Card: Greatness. Sure, there are other trinkets that are good, too, but these two beauties are so hard to come by and so powerful, how could you not want to hold them, forever caressing their soft skin?

I've been lucky to have gotten a Defender's Code drop. What I've not been so lucky to get is a a profession that helps me achieve the nobles deck. So, the only way for me to get this trinket is to do one of the following:

1) Buy the mats and have Doublevision's alt craft me a random card and pray I get a full deck eventually.
2) Buy the nobles cards from the auction house or trade chat.
3) Buy the full deck from the auction hour or trade chat.

Let me address these in order. Option number one makes the most sense. Double's a lifelong friend of mine and has said he'd have no problem crafting the cards for me. Of course, though, I'll be getting all sorts of random cards from each crafting and am not guaranteed a nobles card. The Nobles deck is by far the best for just about any class, so I foresee having a tough time selling cards that aren't nobles. The mats, in total, equate to about 750g on my server. This is the cheapest option, though maybe not in the long run if my luck isn't so lucky.

Option two caters to my American blood best. I want it and I want it now. So I just simply drop my currency on the cards and dance all the way to the Darkmoon Faire. The cards on my server go for 1500 to 2000 gold buyout on the auction house. Second cheapest option.

Option three is really just an extension of option two. However, remember that "abomination of mankind" I spoke of earlier? Yeah, it took me a while to get there, but option three specifically addresses this.

31000 gold buyout.

Darkmoon Card: Greatness.

On my server.

I had to pick my jaw up off of the floor.

Some people may have this kind of gold laying around their pockets, just waiting to be spent. I do not. And I'd like to consider myself well off when it comes to WoW gold. But 31000 gold is something I wish I had right now.

Now let's just say I opted for option two and paid 2000g a card. That comes to 16000g. That's a lot of gold. And surely it's an inflated price. I would like to meet the sucker, err... buyer that spends 31000g on that deck, though. I just know that sucker... err, buyer, sadly, won't be me.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

The Ease of It

2008-12-29T10:10:00.002-06:00

A month ago I'd be hard pressed to state that Lich King's content was "easy." I was wiping multiple times in Heroics and my 10-man Naxx group couldn't topple Instructor Razuvious, explicitly marketed as being "the easiest boss in all of Naxxramas." No, I felt that the content was challenging enough and would tide me over well until the Ulduar content patch hit.

Fast forward to today where I've had two back-to-back complete runs of Heroic Naxxramas, am in possession of two pieces of tier 7.5, and the only challenge I face now is whether or not the healz I bring in with me to 10-man Naxx are competent enough to finish the job. Lich King's endgame content is too easy. There, I said it.

By the time I started playing WoW, guilds had already cleared Blacktemple and were fastidiously progressing in Sunwell Plateau. Though that's not to say that I didn't hear of the challenges that awaited people in the Sunwell. Either way, to this date, I still have never completed Blacktemple or Serpetshrine Cavern. Karazhan took some time and certainly was not bested by me within three weeks. So, I'm certainly not the best of the best in any shape, way, or form.

Yet here I am sitting happily upon my spoils of war. Defender's Code, Staff of the Plague Beast, and T7.5 Helm all rest easily on my loins. Sure I may not have Origin of Nightmares yet, but it is only a matter of time.

Really, the point I'm trying to make is that I am blowing through the content and acquiring wicked gear at an unprecedented rate. Sure, luck has a big part in the gear acquisitions, but not in terms of how me and my guild is progressing. And remember, this is the same guild that could not even complete Blacktemple, even after Patch 3.0.

Lich King is, simply put, retardo-easy. Malygos being the exception, but even then I'm sure his defeat will be right around the corner for my lackluster guildmates.

One last point to make. It took me nearly three months of continued Karazhan runs to acquire Tier 4 helm. And it only took me one Heroic Naxx run to get T7.5 helm. ><

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Happy Holidays

2008-12-24T14:01:00.001-06:00

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Take this time to relish in the one thing greater than World of Warcraft:

Your family.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

D-Day Version 3.0.8

2008-12-18T12:14:00.002-06:00

Your realm may be abuzz with talk of what the latest WoW patch brings. Version 3.0.8 hit the Public Test Realm last week and brings about a number of discussed changes to the druid class. The patch notes can be found here.

The biggest change to look forward to (or fear, depending on how you still stand) is the armor change. It's been discussed to death from here to the end of the internet, but it will soon be final. No more bonus armor from trinkets, rings, and staves.

I've already been preparing for this change, while still maintaining gear that allows me to be beastly currently.

For starters, I've replaced Badge of Tenacity with Essence of Gossamer. I find that Gossamer is an excellent trinket pre-3.0.8 patch and post. The 111 Stamina is a hefty stat and should offset the loss in bonus armor from Tenacity. The only thing I miss is that I relied heavily upon Tenacity to make it easier on the healers' job during some Naxx fights. That and Gossamer seems like it never procs.

Though I still lug around Enraged Feral Staff (the armor bonus can't be beat), I've Staff of Trickery sitting in my bank. As discussed previously, the bonus armor makes this blue much more desirable than the Staff. Trickery drops from H VH and shouldn't be too difficult to acquire. You may want to get started on acquiring this, if needed, before the patch goes live. Though any Naxx staff will trump trickery.

I know I've been trying to mask my famous identity from this blog. For this purpose, though, I must subject myself to a league of paparazzi. More important than me discussing a few key changes I've made to my bear, it's more important to give a real world example of the kind of changes us bears can expect from the latest patch.

My WoW Armory profile is here, for gear reference.

I now currently have 29660 armor.

With the new armor changes I now have 32114.

Your mileage may vary, but Ghostcrawler was right. This is a mild buff. And when I say "mild," I mean "almost 3k armor for free?!" I'd say an 8.27% increase is more than a mild buff.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Heigan the Hobo

2008-12-11T09:34:00.006-06:00

Wow. No one ever said blogging would be easy. I just never figured it'd be this hard. Work's been rather busy, so I've not been able to devote the time I've wanted to this blog. But fear not! I've had a post cooking up for some time now!

I would imagine you have started tanking Naxx. And if you're luckier then me, you've completed Naxx. My guild is having some problems, but that's another post for another time. First off, let me say that I love Naxxramas. The instance is fun, challenging, and the different strategies on the bosses always has me looking forward to the encounters.

One encounter I love, not only because he drops Staff of the Plaguebeast, but also because it's so unique, is Heigan the Unclean. It's a simple fight once you know the mechanics, but I am finding guildmates that still have a tough time with Heigan. WoWwiki has a good strategy (read it, it's good!), but I'd like to expand upon what they've already relayed.

The Heigan battleground can be separated into four zones. Each zone is a safe spot for when he does his mass AOE that bubbles up from the floor. Area 1 and Area 4 of his AE are straight-forward. Area 1 is right by the entrance and area 4 is the farthest zone away. In the below image keep your party below the line. I often tank Heigan parallel to the line. When you and your party goes back to this area during Phase two, be sure to not travel too far below the line. This will make transitioning to area 2 tough, as you will have more ground to cover.

There are some key focal points in area 2 and 3, though, that will make this fight easier. I find directing fellow players to these stones will help them with establishing the right safe zone for each AOE.

This circular stone, closest to the entrance, is an excellent landmark. I've highlighted it in yellow. As you can see in the picture, there is a natural green outline that makes this an easily identifiable safe spot

Area 3 has a similar stone that I run to every time. It's easy to distinguish through all of the chaos. It's not dissimilar to area 2's stone.

Area four is simply beyond the safe zone in area 3.

All in all, Heigan is an easy and straight-forward fight. The biggest challenge is simply knowing where to be at the right time. During Phase two he unleashes his AOE a lot quicker, so it's a matter of moving from safe spot to spot in quick succession. After one or two tries, and reading my blog, you'll be on to victory in no time. :D

If you're like me, you'll go 0 for 3 in Staff of the Plaguebeast dropping.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Now I Get It

2008-11-24T11:38:00.007-06:00

Karthis, from Of Teeth and Claws, has been an anchor of realism, championing the recent druid changes as being good for us and not the axis of malevolence that some of us are guilty of assuming (Who? Me?). I am ready for these changes, though I still do not welcome them with open arms. I at least get the reason for why these changes have occurred.

We all know by now that the reason for the change is to increase our itemization palette. I still have badge of tenacity. My bear paws grip it with a fury and a tightness the world has never seen! So, when I say goodbye to my beloved badge, I will make another choice in my gear itemization, replacing my current staff with another I've picked up along the way. On Friday I snagged Enraged Feral Staff from the final boss in heroic Utgarde Keep.

Let's take a moment to revel in its beauty:

700 Armor
This stat makes this staff damned near ungodly. Provided you have three points in Thick Hide (which you should), then this 700 armor becomes:

700 x 3.7 x 1.1 = 2849

From this blue staff we get a very, very large amount of armor. Why would I want anything more? But wait! This staff has more than armor on it.

52 Strength
This gives us an additional 104 attack power. That is pretty good in its own right, too. More AP equals more damage which equals more threat. I am not complaining here.

78 Agility
Of course diminishing returns is going to determine what kind of mileage we got out of this number, but I'm never one to look an agility horse in the mouth. As bears we love agility and the fact that we get 78 agility out of this staff is icing on the cake.

117 Stamina
Now, provided my theory-crafting is correct (if not, please correct me!), then we get the following:

117 x 1.25 x 1.2 x = 175 stamina, or 1750 health, for Night Elves
117 x 1.25 x 1.2 x 1.05 = 184 stamina, or 1840 health, for Taurens

Nothing like some good old fashioned health to soak up the attacks!

Attack Power
1602 AP in feral forms. As if we needed anything else on this staff.

Of course this is all going to change when the next big patch hits. As for now? This staff rocks. It rocks me on the water. So hard does this staff rock that I have not replaced it with Staff of Trickery, which I received from the final boss in Heroic Violet Hold. And this is why I get it. Keep with me here, I'm getting to the point soon.

Let's disseminate this staff's stats, too!

90 Strength
This gives us an additional 180 attack power. 76 more AP than what we get on Enraged.

89 Agility
Here we don't see a big jump. And with diminishing returns, this may not be the deciding factor for you.

133 Stamina
133 x 1.25 x 1.2 = 199 stamina, or 1990 health, for Night Elves
133 x 1.25 x 1.2 x 1.05 = 209 stamina, or 2090 health, for Taurens

Attack Power
1845 AP in feral forms. Wow!

These are all amazing stats in their own right. Remember how I said I'd get to the point? Here it is.

Why would I lose 2849 armor to gain 250 health (190 for Night Elves)? I don't remember the exact number, but choosing Enraged over Trickery netted me around an additional 4% physical damage mitigation. At a 10,000 HP hit would become 9600 HP with that mitigation. The additional health only, in theory, nets us 9750/9820 HP (assuming all we did was increase health and not mitigation). 'Cause Lord knows we'd gain HP at the cost of losing mitigation in this scenario.

"What about magic, Lushious? That's not affected by armor," you might say. And you'd be right. Though I state my case again. I find the additional 250/190 health not worth the upgrade, considering how much the armor mitigates the rest of the damage you'll face. The AP is a non-factor, if you ask me. Threat isn't an issue for us now and should we even care about our DPS? Nah, leave that to the ones that do it best. As for the agility? It's too small of an increase that I am broken hearted over choosing Enrage over Trickery.

And this is exactly the type of behavior I feel Blizzard is trying to avoid. For now I stick with the blue. In the future I go with the purple. And if I was a kitty, I'd probably sleep a lot.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Mommy, Wow! I'm a Big Kid Now!

2008-11-24T00:07:00.004-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Mine was good and was filled with fun social activities both in and out of the World of Azeroth. One must not forget about the adventure that awaits in real life!

A lot of my time was spent running heroics this past weekend. My main goal is to acquire the T7 chest piece and gloves. The chest piece is first on my hit list, as I'd like to replace my badge chest with it. T6 gloves, on the other hand, well, they can stay.

Don't let me fool you into thinking this post is going to be about how challenging even the easiest heroics are with a crummy healer, or how Heroic Nexus is the Mechanar of Northrend (5 badges for a full clear!). No, this post is not about any of that.

This post is about my first ever Naxx'ramas run.

"Lushious is ready for Naxx," a guildy healer said when discussing how easy it was to heal me. I've never been a healer, but I respect this member's opinion and, apparently, I am easy to heal. Now, it's hard not to let something like this get to your head. I'm not egotistical (though having a blog may immediately discredit that statement), but it's a nice morale booster.

Our official guild Naxx run doesn't start for another week, but I've been a little antsy to get back into raiding. The Guild Leader gave me blessing to run Naxx before our official time, so, with five other guildmates in tow, we PUG'd two healers and two more DPS to round out a Naxx'Ramas run that consisted of the following:

1x Yours Truly as Main Tank
1x Prot Warrior as Off Tank
1x Holy Paladin for Healz
1x Holy Priest for Healz
1x Ret Pally for DPS
1x Mage for DPS
1x Death Knight for DPS
1x Shadow Priest for DPS
1x Hunter for DPS
1x Enhancement Shaman for DPS

Let me just say this right now: Us bears can main tank Naxx bosses no problem!

The above group cleared the entire Spider Wing. It normally took us about three tries to get the hang of the bosses and formulate a strategy that worked. You can certainly go to Wowhead or Wowwik i and read about the strategies for each boss, but I would like to share with you my experience tanking each boss and what our group did to be successful for the first three bosses of Naxx'Ramas.

Anub'Rekhan
I tanked Anub right where he sits awaiting our arrival. The OT took care of any crypt guards that spawned, with DPS focusing on any adds immediately. All DPS stood in the center of the room. Once we understand the boss' rotation and I was able to play my part, we were able to down him.

During this fight I went into cat form. Crazy, right? So crazy it worked. Anub will cast locust swarm every minute and a half to two minutes or so. Locust swarm prevents any and all attacks and casts (even white attacks), on top of dealing damage. It is not good. As he casts Locust Swarm he stops and strike a pose. At this point it is crucial that no one in the party gets hit by this. The tank will want to get ahead of Anub and kite him during this phase so that he, along with the rest of the raid, do not get afflicted with Locust Swarm. So, I popped into cat form the moment he did locust swarm and kited Anub around the circumference of the room to the area where you enter. At that point I continued tanking until the next locust swarm, performing the same manuever around the room to the other side.

Now that I think about what transpired during the locust swarm phase, going kitty may not have been the best option. When Anub strikes a pose for locust swarm you have about one second to gain some ground and then he will follow at 25% reduced speed. In kitty form the 30% speed boost works indoors, so I now had a 55% speed advantage on him, not counting the one second head start. At a few intervals (one including a wipe), I was so fast that rather thank successfully kiting him around the circumference of the room, he just cut across the room taking the shortest path to get me and smacking most of the raid with locust swarm.

Next time I will remain in bear form and kite him. As long as you react in time, having the one second head start should afford you enough ground to not get hit by locust swarm, as well as keeping Anub away from the rest of the raid.

Grand Widow Faerlina
She's pretty manageable. As the tank you will simply want to tank her about 10 yards, maybe a little more, away from her cohorts. Have your OT focus on her four adds, with DPS choosing one cohort and bringing them to low health, but not killing them. The strategy here is that she will frenzy every minute or so doing massive damage to the tank. Killing one of her four adds will immediately stop this effect.

I tanked Faerlina close to the adds, ensuring that I moved her out of her AOE rain of fire when she casted it. Our OT and DPS did a fantastic job of managing her four adds, bringing each one of them to low health as needed. Once frenzy hit, they did massive burst damage and quickly stopped Faerlina's frenzy. This fight is not overly complex, it just requires excellent communication and coordination.

Maexxna
This gargantuan spider proved to be the most daunting for this group. Of course, spirits were high. We just downed two bosses in Naxx and felt like kings of the castle. Maexxna put us in our place.

I tanked Maexxna in the center of the room. As we wiped more and more I began to formulate a routine that maximized my avoidance and mitigation, because she hits hard! I will get to that in a moment, but here is what we did to down her:

For the first 20 seconds DPS just hit her as hard as they could. When she web wrapped three members to the wall, ranged DPS would focus on them to bring them back into the fray. After 20 seconds she summons spiderlings beneath her, which was quickly AOE'd and DPS'd. Then, at 40 seconds, she casts web spray which incapacitated us for 3-5 five seconds. The cycle then rotated until she reached about 600,000 health, where she enraged and beat my face in.

Web spray was the hardest part for the healz. It wasn't hard on me, I just soaked up the damage and sometimes died. The ensure that I lived through a period where no one could do anything, I made sure I had proc'd two things. The first was demoralizing roar. To further assist in taking less damage, I would also save my barkskin for this phase. These two abilities every bear will have.

Lucky for me (and maybe you, too), I still have Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch and Badge of Tenacity. I proc'd one of those right before her web spray, starting from the second web spray forward (since healz would be fatigued a little by that point). All three of these in conjunction certainly increased my survivability.

Her enrage was the tricky part. I needed big healz, else she would stomp all over me. She was hitting me for in excess of 10k damage a hit. I had even seen it hit 14k damage. Even completely buffed at 30.7k health this was a challenge for the healers. For this phase I completely relied upon Survival Instincts. Of course, the same abilities and items I used for web spray were used during enrage, if available. With Survival Instincts I had 42k health, but, again, she hits like a mack truck during this phase.

I did die during this phase, but our OT picked her up and through some awesome healz we managed to best her. This fight took more attempts than the rest, but we did down her through perserverance, intelligence, and coordination. And so can you!

And no, I did not get any loot during this time. Not even any drops remotely good for a druid bear. Today, though, we work on the Death Knight wing!

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Clarification on Druid Changes

2008-11-22T16:14:00.004-06:00

Ghostcrawler dropped us a rather lengthy post about the 66% SotF change. I really needn't say much more on the matter. It's clear, to the point, and it looks like us bears will be just fine.

Here is a thread where you can continue your discussion on the previously mentioned Feral druid changes.

I do urge you to confine the discussion to the armor and FAP changes only. The threads fill up too quickly as it is, so this is not a great place to chime in with totally unrelated questions, even druid ones.

The changes should be a buff for any druid not in full Naxx 25 gear (and I'm pretty sure that means ALL druids for the moment). One of the reasons we are announcing this change early is so you can make your preparations accordingly. A druid with every possible item from Naxx 25-level content loses about 3700 armor, but to be honest, those armor trinkets and weapons were so insanely good that they were likely going to be nerfed anyway.

Also note this is a reasonable buff for PvP, since you typically don't wear a bunch of +armor trinkets in those situations.

We don't want to make any changes to the way Feral druids work at this point to make them more like warriors. Now we also don't want druids to be inferior tanks to warriors, but we see no evidence that is happening at the moment and only speculation that it might happen in the future, at which point we will make additional changes if needed. You can say you don't believe we will make changes, which sort of ends the conversation.

The goal was not to make you ignore +armor trinkets. The goal was that a bear lacking those trinkets wouldn't be at such a disadvantage. We would rather you use a new level 80 trinket with a little bit of wasted block on it than a blue trinket from level 62 or something with silly amounts of armor.

It is fine, helpful even, to alert us to situations where you think bears might not be competitive at surviving encounters compared to other tanks. Our goal is they are roughly similar and we will continue to make changes if they are not. While I understand some of you want more different tanking stats to focus on, that is not our goal for the moment. We think it is perfectly possible given the current design to make bears able to stand up to the damage they need to. In other words, the numbers may still need to be tweaked on occasion, but there is nothing inherent to the calculations that says a tank must have block and parry as tanking stats in order for the math to work.

Some more details to help answer some of the questions we've seen:

-- Cloaks do have base armor which gets multipled by the bear bonus.
-- There is no multiplier on any bonus armor. Not the bear bonus. Not the talent bonuses.
-- There is a 2% armor benefit you can get from a metagem.
-- The ultimate bear modifier should be 4.7 (Dire Bear form) x 1.66 (Survival of the Fittest) x 1.1 (Thick Hide) x 1.02 (meta gem).
-- The best bear we can create in current itemization has 35,907 armor, which is 68.34% mitigation vs. level 83 bosses or 70.21% mitigation versus level 80 mobs.
-- Before these changes, you might have been able to build a bear with nearly 40,000 armor, but that relies on using Defender's Code and Origin of Nightmares, items of such ridiculous power that we were going to nerf them anyway before this change. (Now they're fine.)
-- Note how close that 40,000 armor is to the cap already.
-- We do have concerns block may be too good a stat for future raids, and we'll keep an eye on it.
-- Equipping a weapon will still boost Savage Roar (and everything else) the way it does currently.

Bottom line: armor was too good for druids. That was a blessing if you could get the items and a curse if you could not.

The counterarguments we get are: 1) Well, I can't be competitive without that armor, or 2) Give me something else to focus on then.

We think number one is a concern, but we're not convinced it's a problem at the moment and totally solvable if it gets to be. Number two is just a different design. We designed Ferals with fewer mitigation stats than other classes. You still have tanking stats, and gear can still provide upgrades. That's not to say it will always be the case, but we have no plans to change it at the current time.

The sky is, after all, not falling.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Ding!

2008-11-21T08:58:00.006-06:00

Near 8:00 PM CST on November 20, I finally reached level 80. It was a rather monumental occasion, made even better by the story I am about to tell.

A guildmate, let's call him "Malady*," is a rather talented hunter (I am resisting the urge to refer to him as a "huntard"). Simply put, he knows how to play his character. His DPS is always strong, he knows his rotation, and he gears appropriately.

He is also a sponsored professional video game player.

Maybe you can see where I am heading with this. He is a very competitive individual. I'm sure you know of a couple of people like this. And if they play WoW, they are probably a DPS class. The two just seem to go hand in hand. His competitiveness is a blemish on his personality, if you ask me. He lets it consume him. And, in general, makes him a little douchey.

Either way, Malady here issued up a sort of challenge. "I'll beat you to level 80," he said, with me already having at least a good level and half jump ahead of him (this was around level 72). Again, being competitive, this was the taunt he used as the backbone of all of our future conversations, in game or in vent.

I didn't believe it. Here Doublevision and I were doing a four-day marathon of World of Warcraft (this will be documented one day). How could he catch up to us? He was flying solo and here Double and I were tromping across Northrend in a flurry of fur and evil magic unlike which Vrykul and Gorloc have never seen!

Through a strategy of endless instance runs and unemployment, he did eventually surpass me and Double. And not once did he ever let us forget it.

Do not worry, though, this has a happy ending.

Double is what you might call "barely employed." He makes good money, but he doesn't work more than a couple of hours a day. This was the perfect formula to match Malady. Double quickly caught up with Malady's level (level 76), which then lead to a pissing match of who would reach level 80 first.

Double did. And it was joyous.

Malady's personality, of course, caused him to be a little disheartened. Not one to accept defeat, in a private conversation with Double he prided himself that he would, at least, still beat me to level 80.

You don't push a bear and not expect him to ravage you with claws and teeth, with a dash of rabies tossed in.

Unlucky for Malady, his clanmates were demanding a lot of time from him to train for an upcoming professional video game tournament. During this time I gained a lot of ground and by yesterday morning we were both 79. I had spent quite a bit of time trying to be as efficient as possible with my questing, though you will remember my zone-specific strategy lends itself greatly to maximizing XP.

As I was leveling in Zul'Drak I was getting closer and closer to 80. Yet Malady was nowhere to be found. And then I saw a green bit of text that nearly made me jump to joy. "Malady has come online." Looking to me XP bar, I only had five bars to go and a quest log that would easily garner me a bar and half, once complete.

"Malady, how many more bars until you get to 80?", I asked in guild chat. "10," he quickly responded. Not one to give away my elation, I lied. No, I liked like a motherfucker. "Damn, looks like you are going to hit 80 before me after all. I just hit 79. :\"

And then I shut up and leveled as fast as I could, completing quests at record time. As I went to turn in my final quest, the one that would push me into level 80, I saw he had gone offline. It didn't matter. I was 80 before him and he would hear the tales of how Lushious had reached level cap and had been showered by scores of hot ladies swooning over him.

He did hop online shortly afterwards and was quickly teased by me.

At his own game, one which he was sure he could not lose, I bested him. And I wasn't even on a payroll to do so.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

*Names changed to protect the innocent

The Sigh of Relief Heard Around Azeroth?

2008-11-20T09:36:00.009-06:00

After announcing the drastic change in our item armor contributions and initially giving a somewhat vague assurance that the upcoming druid bears' "net mitigation does NOT go down with these changes," Ghostcrawler has unveiled the curtain covering what has been pessimistically hanging over my head for quite some time. Yes, that is right, he has now explained how we will get all of our lost armor back.

And it's a doozy!

"As previously announced, we are changing the way bear armor works so that bonus armor on items does not receive the bear armor multiplier. Specifically this means that weapons, trinkets, rings, necks and cloaks with bonus armor will not be multiplied by the bear bonus. Only cloth and leather will benefit from the Bear and Dire Bear multiplier.

We are compensating Ferals for this armor loss by improving the Survival of the Fittest talent. In addition to its current effects (stats and crit prevention), it will now also increase armor contribution from cloth and leather items by 22/33/66%. That should be very close to your current armor bonus. This makes Survival of the Fittest rather over-budget by talent standards, but we figured it was one talent we can be pretty certain most tank-oriented druids will have (and to be honest nearly all Ferals)."

Survival of the Fittest has always been a mainstay for us furballs. One time I respec'd and forgot to put all three points into this talent. Upon noticing this I quickly double-punched myself in the balls. It was the only sufficient form of punishment.

So, is Ghostcrawler right? Will this additional 66% armor contribution still keep the same mitigation as I currently am?

Turns out, not so much. I'm no theorycrafter (this post is actually a day old, but got held back by my vain attempts at trying to theorycraft all of this), but some very intelligent people in the WoW forums have proved that us bears will still walk away with another compounding nerf (one so strong I think Hasbro might try and make a product out of it).

Courtesy of one Thorbalt of the Operatives guild on Detheroc:

pre nerf

armor from leather: 3326
other armor: 3980
total armor: 7306
bear armor: 37772
mitigation %: 69.42

after this nerf takes effect we will see the following, with no gear being changed out.

armor from leather: 3326
bear armor: 28544
other armor: 3266
total armor: 31810
mitigation %: 58.46

sweet....there is now no reason to consider bringing a bear to tank any boss when we have less mitigation and no other tools to avoid things like all the other tanking classes have. thanks alot blizz. might as well go back to being a healbot when you decide moonkins doin a bit much damage and drop it down as well. thanks for removing 11% mitigation. go diaf.

I bolded the important stuff.

I'm going to remain passive about this. Do I like this seemingly unending changes? No. Do I like the mathematically sound proof of our loss? Absolutely not. Can I do anything about Blizzard's plans? No, but maybe we can if united.

I haven't done the number crunching on my own personal set of armor, but I don't like how we are, yet again, losing armor. Why are we even losing more armor? Hasn't Blizzard kicked us bears into submission already? Must they defecate on our battered bodies now?

There may be hope yet, though. Ghostcrawler followed up with a new post:

"On the subject of armor, the intent of the change is to give you more options in which trinkets and other jewelry you use, instead of always having to rely on the (relatively rare) bonus armor pieces. (We don't think the solution of just dropping bonus armor pieces everywhere is a great one either -- no single stat should trump the others by that much.) The change isn't intended to be a nerf at all. A lot of numbers have been thrown around in this thread. Give me some time to review them and see where any discrepancies lie"

I just hope he realized he lied to us.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Breath Taking

2008-11-19T08:31:00.003-06:00

(Click on image for bigger size)

Simply breath taking. I snapped this last night on my way out of Dragonblight. I've finally found myself moving on to Grizzly Hills, which, in my opinion, isn't that conducive to leveling fast. I've reached 78, but my progress has slowed remarkably. I'm hoping I can reach level 79 tonight, but it will be a daunting task.

Grizzly Hills is beautiful, though. And there's even a very nice bear-centric quest, too. I'll leave you readers to discover the quest yourselves. No spoilers here!

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Leatherworking On Ice

2008-11-18T09:16:00.002-06:00

Big Bear Butt stole my topic for today. That or bears are part of a collective conscience.

Well, I lied. The topic is a little more focused. Rather than cover the whole profession mechanic of WoW, I'm going to stay within my realm and focus on something I understand and use: Leatherworking.

Leveling up my LW skill is proving to be particularly troublesome. And not troublesome in a "Catholic priest caught naked with 2 year-old" kind of way. Rather, Blizzard has made it a point to make the last 25 levels of this profession a proverbial bitch. With the right amount of dedication, farming mats is not all that challenging. Time consuming, sure, but everything in this game is designed around being time consuming.

ThinkTank was kind enough to share with us his LW leveling guide. He writes, "At 425 I'd also recommend pimping out yourself and looking for work so that you can get skillups on frosthide leg armor and icescale leg armor with their mats." Here is where the trick lies for me:

I am not a salesman.

Even if I were, I'm sure my skills would surpass simply repeating "Leatherworker LFW."

So, the mats for items around 420 or so get tricky, in that they require elemental items. I've not even made it out of Dragonblight yet (level 77 now, btw)! There's a lot of uncharted land for me in Northrend. Though I am sure I am going about that all wrong, but in clearing one zone before the next I am maximizing my gold acquisition substantially once I hit 80 and then am completely surrounded by high-level quests. I'll write about it when I do it, trust me, but this methodology of leveling isn't conducive to acquiring high level mats.

At this stage, I am looking at getting elemental items either through farming or through cold, hard gold. Since I am intently focused on reaching 80 by 11/20 (I am well on my way), farming is not an option. At least not the variety of "okay, for the next three hours I will perform a mass genocide upon Howling Cyclones." So, cold, hard gold wins here.

But I've been thrifty. Really thrifty. I'll write my thoughts about this later, in an effort to remain on topic. So, here we've got 25 levels where the mats required aren't very prevalent, you need a huge pocketbook or some real time dedication to farming, and you need to sell the Catholic Priest's pants right offa him.

It may be a while before I see 450.

Until the next Faerie Fire Pull...

-Lushious

Rend and Tear

2008-11-17T15:34:00.008-06:00

Yesterday afternoon I reached level 76 with my best friend, Doublevision (you will surely hear more about this joker). This was quite a moment for me. I had, at that point, reached the apex of my journey into Northrend.

Double and I, like 95% of you, picked up Lich King at midnight on 11/13/08 and then drove as fast as we possible could (never exceeding the speed limit, officer!) to install the game as fast as our DVD-Roms would spin. 16 cans of Bawls, 14 frozen pizzas, and a slew of frozen asian food later we had toppled six levels and had only experienced Howling Fjord, Bornea Tundra, and Dragonblight. Our plan was simple, yet extremely effective: Never leave an area until we either got the achievement or there were no more quests to be had (they normally went hand in hand).

Once I turned 72 I knew exactly where I was going to spend my next five talent points, which led to me awaiting finally reaching 76. Yes, Rend and Tear. Why was I, and still am, excited for the ability?

At five points my maul will hit bleeding targets for an additional 20% damage. Holy cow! Maul already hits for a ton of damage and generates pretty beefy amount of threat. Sure, maybe not as much as mangle, but with a nice size can of Rage, a Mangle, Lacerate, Maul combination is huge. I'm no theory-crafter, but I can safely say the threat generated by that combo is nasty. Almost too nasty.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Welcome

2008-11-17T13:04:00.003-06:00

Welcome to the very first entry for Eighty Percent Fur. This is, by far, the hardest article for me to write. Being my first blog, I’ve been confronted with the enormous question, “How do I kick things off?”

Let me start off with what this blog is about, and then followed by who I am and why I have decided to express myself in the vast anonymous sea that is the internet. Eighty Percent Fur hopes to be another voice in the community of World of Warcraft players. Inspired by Big Bear Butt, Of Teeth and Claws, and ThinkTank, I want to share in my excitement of a game and a class that I enjoy greatly (read: fanatical about). I do not hope to become as popular or as successful as the aforementioned bloggers (they’re in a league all their own), but rather simply to have an outlet for my own thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Hopefully I’ll succeed.

Is this getting a little heavy? Bear with me, this is the first post (see what I did there? :P )

I am Lushious, a feral Druid bear on a PvP server that shall go unnamed (maybe I will disclose this later, perhaps by accident?). I’ve enjoyed the world of Azeroth, Outland, and now Azeroth again for a little over a year (exactly one year, three months, and 8 days, but who’s keeping track?). I love tanking, I love being a druid, and I love being a bear. I find the utility, history, and play style of the Druid to be so much fun it should be illegal. So much fun, that is, that I’ve gone from playing it to writing about it.

I guess I’m just a big nerd. :D

So, I hope you enjoy my ramblings (and when I say “you” I surely mean just my friends who I have informed of this blog’s existence).

Until the next Faerie Fire Pull…

-Lushious