Rep: Explorers' League

Also known as the Explorers' Guild this Dwarven lead branch of the Alliance Vanguard is really more interested in pursuing their personal agenda of uncovering the origins of the dwarven people than going after the Lich King. However since their research has managed to provided the Alliance with detailed maps, along analysis of all new resources discovered, they do not begrudge them their obsession.

Headquartered out of the Hall of Explorers in Ironforge the Explorers' League has been around since the very beginning of the World of Warcraft on line game and can be found scattered across every part of the globe even reaching into Outland. However it was only with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion that players gained the opportunity to finally earn reputation with this faction. (Much to the joy of many of us.) But prior to patch 3.3 it was NOT easy.

While you will find Explorers' League members scattered all about Northrend, reputation providing quests are located in only two zones, Howling Fjord and Storm Peaks. Of the 36 quests this faction gives only ONE is a daily, Steel Gate Patrol. Thankfully it is a low level one. So prior to patch 3.3 if you wanted to reach exalted reputation with this faction you could expect to do Steel Gate Patrol about 122 times. (That was if you were human, non humans it was even more.) Thankfully that is no longer an issue. Players will now get this reputation as spill over from doing Argent Tournament Daily quests as well as from running level 80 dungeons.

Does this mean that when you enter the Hall of Explorers after you've reach exalted they will greet you with great enthusiasm? Sorry, no. As one commenter put it: "I just try to imagine their indifference as stunned silence."
Lets say you want to try to fit in, look more like the most famous of the Explorers' Leagues Members Brann Bronzebeard. What would you need? It is actually rather simple. The basic uniform consists of a Russet Hat, Rugged Trapper's Shirt, Rugged Trapper's Pants, Rugged Trapper's Boots, and a Thick cloth belt.

In all honesty it looks very similar to my fishing outfit but that is neither here nor there.

How to be that DPS EVERYONE wants

How do you get invited to groups and raids or even more importantly NOT get called "that scrub dps" in a group? It is more than just riding the top of the Dps and Damage output meters despite what many believe. It is knowing what skills and abilities you have and how to use them. It is having the ability to survive a fight to DO that dps, the added bonus of making the tanks and healers jobs easier so they want to take you with them wherever they go.

Lets face it, in the world of DPS, Rogues are not the most popular due to our lack of ability to provide "goodies" unless we have specific trades. Our recent rise in popularity among players was due primarily to our dancing at the top of the damage meters again...so I won't be surprised to see us take a nose dive in the aftermath of our most recent encounter with the nerf bat.

Lets take a look at each ability we have, when we get it and how we can use it so that we can become "That Rogue" EVERYONE wants to take with them on a run.

The first "trick" we get our hands on is at level six called Gouge which stuns the target for just a short time while turning off your attack. I personally like to use it when you have some random mob that has broken away from the tank and heads off towards the healer. I don't have to go anywhere, any damage the mob takes will break it but it is usually enough to stop it in its tracks and give the tank enough time to pick it back up with out ME accidentally picking it up in the tank's place. You can also use it as a back up interrupt when your kick is on cool down. The Combat tree also contains Improved Gouge which you can use to increase the duration of this ability if you chose to do so. There is also a Glyph available which reduces the energy cost.

Level eight gives us the all important Evasion. This is an instant ability with a three minute cool down that increases our dodge by 50% and reduces our chance to be hit by ranged attacks by 25%. There is also a talent in the Combat Tree called Endurance at level 20 which can shorten the cool down by 30 or 60 seconds. Rogues often joke about "Evasion tanking" as this is our "oh crap" button when we pull aggro off  tanks or the tanks go down and we are left facing the boss alone. Some rogues even like to create entire SETS of gear around this premise and for them the Glyph of Evasion is a must.

Level 10 gives us Sap, which slowly scales as you progress up the ranks. When you first obtain it at level 10 all you can do is incapacitate (knock out) humanoids for a max of 25 seconds. By the time you are Level 71 this list will extend to include Beasts, Demons and even Dragonkin and the duration will have increased to about 1 minute. All that is required is that you be stealthed when you bonk them on the head and that they not be in combat. You can even increase the duration by an additional 20 seconds with the use of a glyph.

The other ability we get at level 10 is Sprint. At its most basic this allows you to increase your movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds so you can get out of Dodge FAST when trouble or damage is a brewing. Put a few talent points into Improved Sprint at level 25 and suddenly you can not only run away from trouble but get out of movement impairing effects as well. The Glyph of Sprint will increase your movement speed an addition 30% which some pvpers enjoy and there is also a fun glyph that will allow you to run on water.

Level twelve gives us one of the most often used moves in our arsenal, Kick. Quite simply this instant move interrupts spell casting and prevents any other spells from the same spell school from being used for 5 seconds.  It has a ten second cool down but you can enhance this ability by putting talent points into Improved Kick from the Combat Tree which will allow you to silence the caster as well.  Learning to identify casts and managing your energy so you have enough to cast kick while maintaining your normal damaging rotation is key.

At level sixteen we get an ability which at one time was considered so much of a joke the vast majority of rogues didn't even have it on their action bars. It has now become one of my most beloved moves of all time. Feint. When you first get it, all it does is reduce your threat by a small amount...a VERY small amount. So if you see that your building more aggro than your tank the idea is you can use this ability to get it back down. However for the energy cost verses the aggro dump it provides few of us really see the usefulness of this as we level. At level 78 however it gains a little something VERY yummy. In addition to providing a larger aggro dump it also reduces the amount of damage you take from area effect attacks by 50% for 6 seconds. That means if you learn to time it right you can continue to dps on bosses that other melee have to flee from because you are now able to mitigate half of the damage. It is LOVELY. There is even a glyph that will reduce the energy cost of this but I don't think it is that useful personally.

Level 20 grants us the wonderful opportunity to disarm with Dismantle. I remember when I first read this on Beta. The description reads that it "gives the ability to remove all weapons, shields and other equipment carried for 10 seconds." On Beta they had left out the "carried" part, so I had visions of naked Paladins and Warriors in my head for days. It lasts for 10 seconds but has a rather daunting one minute cool down. This ability can be VERY helpful for disarming bosses or certain trash mobs. Learning when to use it for best effect is key as Warriors can also disarm but all other tanks lack this ability.

Vanish, this level twenty two ability is one that is considered part of the quintessential rogue arsenal. Yeah, its buggy, yeah it has been FOREVER. Just learn to work with it. It is SUPPOSE to remove you from sight, break all movement impairing effects and place you in an improved state of stealth for 10 seconds. When it works it can wipe your aggro, free you from traps and save your life. When it doesn't...well yeah...not so much, but we don't play rogues because we like to play it safe.

Detect Traps is one that you get at level twenty four. For a long time it was largely ignored. Those of us who have played this game for FAR to long remember when it use to be an ACTIVATED ability and the lovely swirly ball. Now it is passive, only requiring you to pay attention to what is going on around you and know what various traps look like. In PvP that means Hunter's Traps but in the new Icecrown Citadel that means the Spirit Traps. Having the ability to be able to locate them so others don't accidentally sent them off is a really nice bonus gift to your raid.

At twenty six we get Cheap Shot.  This is an opening stun move that we use coming out of stealth. Word of advice,  most tanks DO NOT LIKE YOU TO USE THIS MOVE AS YOUR OPENER, use Garrote instead. However if you are tasked with keeping a particular mob "stun locked" like in the Faction Champions THIS would be where you would start out.

At level thirty we get Disarm Trap which allows us to then neutralize the traps we have been able to see for the past six levels. This was a long underutilized ability outside of PvP. Not since Blackwing Lair have we seen it truly needed. Now in Icecrown Citadel Raid Leaders will again be calling for rogues to Disarm Spirit Traps so they can avoid the statues, giving raids more time to progress deeper into the Citadel. In that particular case our disarms stay in effect for one hour giving plenty of time to clear a wing and then avoid it completely using the transporters.

The other key move we obtain at level thirty is Kidney Shot. This stunning move gains its power from our combo points. The more points you have when you use it the longer the duration of the stun. This ability can be further augmented by placing talent points into the Assassination Tree's Improved Kidney Shot.

At level thirty four we get Blind. This ability has changed quite a bit over the years from when we were required to keep stacks of Blinding Powder to now where the assumption is we take whatever we find and toss it. (Like dirt and snow.) It has also changed from a Poison type ability to a Physical one. What that means is that while it can no longer be dispelled it CAN be resisted. Our Hit Rating ALSO effects this ability. Blind (when it works) will disorient the target for about 10 seconds unless something happens to disrupt it, giving you the opportunity to heal, get away or allow a tank to pick up. Blind is also part of the "Stun lock" arsenal which includes Cheap Shot, Gouge, Kidney Shot and Blind. It does have a 3 minute cool down so you want to use it wisely.

Level Sixty Six gives us one of my FAVORITE rogue abilities, Cloak of Shadows. This is another ability that has changed quite a bit since it was first introduced. As it now stands Cloak of Shadows is available to ALL rogues via their trainers and will grant the ability to instantly remove all existing harmful spell effects as well as increase your chance to resist all spells by 90% for 5 seconds. It does not however remove any effect that prevents you from using Cloak of Shadows in the first place (like a disorienting effect.) It's biggest weakness is against damage over time effects as it doesn't always remove those or bleed effects. Still against things like poisons and AOE damage is very effective especially since the cool down is only a minute and a half. This ability can be made even more powerful with a Glyph which decreases the amount of PHYSICAL damage you take by 40% when used as well.

Things stay pretty quiet for a while until level seventy five. It is then you will get your hands on an ability that can make or break how you interact with your tank and healers, Tricks of the Trade. Don't underestimate this ability, it is a LIFE SAVER. Put this on your tank who is struggling with aggro then fan of knives all the mobs right to him. I have this move macroed in before I do a blade furry/killing spree combo to go directly to the tank just to offset the aggro generated. For the small cost of 15 energy you can save yourself a lot of frustration. While it CAN be used as a pulling tool it is MUCH better to use this as a way to help your tank build and maintain aggro. You may find that the 30 second cool down will not allow you to use it EVERY pull so just learn to use it when it is MOST effective and your newbie tanks will bless you for it.

Now I have mentioned a variety of options here that you won't necessarily want to do or even have access to. (Not all of us are Level 80 Rogues sporting Tier 9 or 10 gear who enjoy raiding.) The idea was to share with you the tools we have and when we gain access to them, so that no matter where we are or what we are doing we are aware of all the options we have available to offer our group mates. (Granted some will never give us the CHANCE to show them our skills but that doesn't mean we can't develop them.)

There are a few additional things to keep in mind as well.

- Always attempt to fight from BEHIND the target when applicable to avoid cone, and cleave effects.
- Keep stock piles of food, bandages and healing potions on yourself at all times.
- Restock your poisons at regular intervals so you don't run out and keep small amounts of even infrequently used poisons on you "just in case"
- Never be afraid to ask questions, sure they may blow you off but better to risk looking foolish and get the information you need than keep silent and not improve.

Hot Fix Nerfs

Today when I got on to do my daily dungeon for my Frost Badges I finished my run and did a quick check of my Recount as usual. I about fell out of my chair...what happened to my dps? Granted I was running with out any buffs but it shouldn't have been THAT low.

Tonight for my husband's Birthday run he decided to he wanted to do Black Temple so we 15 manned it. Again I finish the run, looked at the numbers and almost cry...WHAT HAPPENED?!?! I check and find THIS lovely piece of information:

As many of you have suspected, we think rogue damage is too high. We will be making hotfixes to lower the maximum damage output of Assassination and Combat rogues. The Combat nerf will be slight. Both specs should still do just fine on damage meters (assuming skill, gear etc.) but shouldn't be beating out other specs to such a large degree.

The thing that bothers me the most is this post was made AFTER the Hot fix had ALREADY been implemented.  At least the one regarding the rogues. If they are going to Nerf us at LEAST have the decency to TELL us about it. Not AFTER the fact.

So what all got nerfed?

• The base damage bonus from Hunger for Blood has been reduced from 10% to 5%.
  
  
• The bonus damage rogues gain from attack power for poisons has been decreased. This applies to Instant Poison, Deadly Poison, and Wound Poison.

The only NICE thing we got out of this hot fix was that Stealthed rogues should no longer trigger traps in Ice Crown Citadel from long range and that is a debatable as one of my FAVORITE jobs in ICC was to break the traps. With Cloak of shadows I could just wipe the aoe and sprint away so the tanks could pick up the Statues.

My guess is this change is going to force us to be looking at Agility again over Attack Power...yet ANOTHER re gem....come on guys this is getting stinking EXPENSIVE and I have access to free gems via PvP. But complete regems every week is ridiculous. I am not a big one on QQing and I will leave it to the experts at EJ's to figure out all the math but even I can see this is going to be causing us some head aches.

Know Your Rogue Lore: Galkara the Assassin

Wandering about the Underbelly of Dalaran is our Lore figure for today. Galkara the Assassin, is a member of the infamous Dalaran Player NPC's.  A rather extensive group representing every class for both the Horde and the Alliance on the streets of Dalaran.The idea behind these guys is that they dress and walk around in a similar manner of the average player.

An Orc Rogue, Galkara represents Arena when it first began. She is dressed in the easily obtainable Opportunist set but carries no weapons. (With her name one would expect daggers, though for the time she represents many used Maces). This was the gear many Rogues wore when they first ventured into the Arenas at level 70. However Galkara has an inside deal somewhere which has allowed her to also optain a matching pair of boots and belt which are not available to players.

She is most frequently spotted at the Alchemist Cinesra purchasing poisons before she heads down to the Arena of Wills to see the Vendors there, at that point she will head up towards Krasus' Landing then disappear as she is called into an arena battle. She can also be spotted coming from the inner room at the Cantrips and Crows Inn then making her way around the Arena of Wills before disappearing. Unlike the majority of the other Dalarn Player NPCs Galkara is never found above ground. Like the rogue she is her home is in the lower levels and the shadows as she works her way up the Arena rankings.

Many have been filled with curiosity about her but she doesn't have time to stop and chat. You can't even get information about who her partners are or in which brackets she is competing. Perhaps she is only just participating in practice ones. At this point we may never know as she again fades away.

Extreamly Messy yet successful Runs

Lets just set the stage here for what all has been happening so far. Our Healing Lead's Daughter is getting married this weekend so she has been busy all week. IF she manages to make a raid is she often late so the rest of the raid leads just look to see if we have enough healers. We have no clue about specs, abilities, etc like she does. It just isn't our job, oh we have a GENERAL idea, but that is about it.

In addition to this we tend to do all of our Alt and quest runs earlier in the week then our progression runs later, this just works better for our guild membership. Tuesday's are usually our "Weekly Quest" night, Wednesdays is "Dragon Night" (We go kill all the Dragons from Onyxia through to Malygos.) This leaves Thursdays for TOC and Fridays for ICC.

So this week the raid boss quest was Instructor Rezuvious. Lets be honest here, how long has it been since the vast majority of us set foot inside Naxxramas beyond heading up to Sapphiron? We had 25 people on. The debate was, do we just run 10 mans, (since we were planning on doing a bunch of alt runs ANYWAY) or do one big 25 man THEN do the Alt 10 mans. We had two priests so we decided to just do the 25 man.

Our secondary healing lead looked at all the healers (we had 6 INCLUDING the priests) and said "Great! with all these healers I can go Boomkin." We had to remind him that two of them would not be healing but mind controling bringing that total back down to four healers. So rather disappointed he remained a tree.

The tanks decided to take the entire first floor in one pull. This was fine other than the occasional whirl winding warrior who would break loose to go wade his way toward a mage. We managed to clear it all with only a couple of deaths. The majority of us knew the instance well, even if we were a tad rusty and even our brand new level 80 who was raiding for the very first time in his LIFE was over geared for it.

We headed down to the second floor where the tanks picked up the Trash and we cleared up to the Boss easily. This is when the trouble began. By this time the tanks were getting cocky and wondering if they were geared enough to Tank Razuvious on thier own and ignore the use of the adds completely. (They always hated having to rely on the priests anyway).

One of the priests suddenly realized he was only one of a PAIR and was going to need to Mind Control. He then began to have second thoughts about the whole idea of doing this in 25 man after such an extended break and attempted to talk someone ELSE into bringing THEIR priest in to do it instead.

Our temporary healing lead had gone off to hide when the tanks started their delusions of grandeur talk declaring loudly that he refused to be turned into kindling on their behalf. This confused the other healing druid and we suddenly saw a tree start down the ramp headed straight for Razuvious.

The boss is pulled.

Our newbie, never has done a raid before in his LIFE does the only logical thing. He yells "RUN!!!" over vent....half the dps go with him. The priests scramble and manage to pick up two of the Understudies as they run past in pursuit of the fleeing dps. The Tanks, thinking to save the healers start beating on Razuvious but the priests have got him under control, soon they are just dpsing away along with the few dps that remain. Eventually the Understudies decide the cowardly dps are no fun and return...to the arena. That's right they completely ignored the fight going on and raced back to their target dummies to get some more practice.  By this time I am yelling at my dps to get their sorry butts back down there and kill the boss. Sheepishly they all return.

It isn't until Razuvious is at 35% that is other two students get a clue that they have been missing out on the fun. Finally they decided to join us with the tanks picking them up allowing the priests to pull Razuvious back towards the arena and away from the patting Death Knights.

Razuvious goes down as do the students and we explain to our Newbie that this is how NOT to do a raid fight. We all also lament the fact that NO ONE had recorded it.

Then last night we headed into Onyxia. This time our healing lead is up to her eyebrows in wedding stuff. She is THERE...kind of. She is on the phone with her daughter. So while she can keep the main tank alive, she is paying absolutely no attention at all to the rest of the healers in the group. She doesn't even know who all we have with us.

So the raid leader just counts healers, two priests, two Paladins and a Shaman, what could be wrong with that? Off he goes. BOTH of the Priests were Discipline spec. Yep, that's right, we headed into Ony with only ONE healer that could heal multiple targets. In addition to that we were melee heavy. Our secondary healing lead had been on his Mage to try to balance out the melee issue. Once she realized what the issue was and had him switch back to his druid, Success!!

There is nothing more frustrating that wiping on stuff you have on farm....only to find that it is due to simple over site on your part because you are SO use to individuals taking care of certain aspects of a raid you failed to take the time to consider that they are not there to do it. So I think I am going to have to make a special effort this week to make sure that Schaikera knows how much I appreciate her.

Rep: Warsong Offensive

Last week we looked at the Alliance Expedition this week we are going to look at its Horde counter part the Warsong Offensive.  Lead by the controversial Garrosh Hellscream this branch of the Warsong Clans original objective was to gain a foothold and establish strongholds in Northrend in order for the Horde to advance their fight against the scourge. This would later change. This is a faction that is fighting tooth and nail every step of the way as it progresses across Northrend just to survive let alone achieve its objective.

When the Horde arrived in the Borean Tundra it was to find that the Alliance had already claimed the only harbor for their own. This forced them to locate their own fortress further down the coast. Warsong Hold, the main base of operations for the Warsong Offensive was plagued with difficulties from the onset not the least of which being their continued struggle with supplies. Garrosh is of the opinion that simply removing the Alliance will solve all the problems while his more experienced Co Commander High Overlord Varok Saurfang has made it quite clear he will remove GARROSH if the need arises rather than revisit the failures of the past. Tension within the command structure is common in this faction and players will quickly become aware of it as they journey along the quest hubs.

The Warsong Offensive also works closely with a second member of the Horde Expedition, The Taunka. I am not going to go into detail about these cousins to the Tauren at this time other than to say that it is the Warsong Offensive that is responsible for rediscovering them and Garrosh specifically for encouraging pursuing their recruitment into the Horde forces.

The tensions between the Horde and the Alliance are the least in Dragonblight, more due to their separation than true cooperation. With the Alliance focused more on Naxramas and the Horde on Azjol-Nerub the areas of conflict are minimal between the two factions. This of course completely dissolves after the events at Wrathgate. From that point on it is open warfare.

The leadership tensions are also at there most dramatic when Horde players head into Grizzly Hills shortly after and encounter the Sisters Krenna and Gorgonna. Here not only are you dealing with the conflict over the zone but a leader who cares not one wit about you as a trooper. Even going so far as ignoring vital information since it is not part of her personal agenda. The final showdown is one few players will want to miss.

From there players have a choice as to wither they will go into Icecrown or Stormpeaks. The play experience is very different as is the lore.

In Icecrown Horde players will find themselves chasing down the Zeplin Orgrim Hammer as they combat not only the scourge but the Alliance as well. A sharp contrast to the Argent Crusade's call for unity at the tournament close by. Some of the individuals you will find on the Orgrim Hammer like the Death Knight Kolitra Deathweaver of the Knights of the Ebon Blade are a good representation of both the internal conflict as well as the conflict of interest some players may have while questing. Those who have read the recent release World of Warcraft: Death Knight will be more aware of  Kolitra's close relationship with his Alliance counterpart Thassarian.

In Stormpeaks on the other hand Horde players are facing a completely different issue. This zone is almost all about history. Here Horde players encounter the intrepid Brann Bronzebeard for the first time along with the Horde version Xarantaur the Witness.  If you are a Lore nut don't skip the quests in this zone but as for reputation gaining quests there are really not that many of them at the two quest hubs located here.

One of the largest changes to effect this faction took place in patch 3.1. when this faction became the Command force for the Horde in the Stand of the Ancients Battleground. Another was in Patch 3.3 when players we able to begin gaining reputation with this faction by killing mobs and bosses in level 80 dungeons.

Over all this is a fairly easy faction to gain reputation with in that it has a total of 145 reputation granting quests over five zones and seven quest hubs. Of those 145, nine are repeatable daily pvp quests. Four in Grizzly Hills and Five in Icecrown.

Is the New LFG Destroying Guilds?

In the Ghost Town that was guild chat just after the new Dungeon finder system went live a quite a solemn conversation took place.

"Where is everyone?"
"Running Pugs. Need achievements, want the pet."
"...Isn't anyone going to TALK to each other anymore?"
"...Hop on Vent."

So that is what we did. Despite being more raiding focused now our guilds roots are in the social and that still effects our interactions even today. The majority of us LIKE to spend time with each other. We role play in Guild chat and on vent. We tease and joke with each other. Over all we try to remember that World of Warcraft is a GAME not a second Job and should be treated as such.

So when the New Dungeon Finder system hit and our once active guild chat turned barren there was quite a bit of concern on the part of some. As a good many of us are over achievers, taking the opportunity to work on not just our MAINS but long neglected alts and get THEM up to speed became a driving goal.This ment that fewer and fewer individuals were available for "guild" runs.

Having played this game for over four years I tried to reassure everyone that we just needed to let the "fad" stage happen. Sure things would be a little quiet for a bit but no it wouldn't STAY that way. We also as guild leadership made sure that there were still guild EVENTS taking place even over the holidays that we knew would bring guild members together. Our annual Secret Santa event, raids, Christmas Party, etc all of them helped to contribute to a continued sense of connection even while we were running separate dungeons.

We also encouraged people to get on vent and chat with each other. With the hectic pace of most instances in this day of the "over geared" run, few actually have the TIME to type out a comment let alone attempt to hold a conversation. How can you accomplish this? All it takes a is a co conspirator. For us three on vent with a "Miss Type" of SOME sort of funny comment in guild chat followed with "Oh talking on vent while we are pugging" would usually bring more on to join in the fun.

By this time ALL of us have funny or annoying pug stories to share. Telling them AS they happen brings a whole new feeling to the experience. It also allows you to hear more POSITIVE pug stories rather than just the negative ones which are frequently all people think to share after the fact.

Now that things have somewhat died down due to many finding themselves burned out on the whole "LFG" system this is a PERFECT time to re introduce the idea of guild runs. You can do them as randoms so everyone can get the frost badges but you can avoid many of the "negatives" of pugging. Another option is to  chose specific dungeons like the new Frozen Halls dungeons or ones individuals may have achievements they still need in. The added bonus is if you CAN'T get a full group even just getting more than one to run with can help. The only negative is unless you manage to get yourself a Tank/Healer combo (something My husband and I enjoying doing) it can lengthen your que times.

By this time the vast majority of people have gotten everything they could possibly want on their mains and are running on alts or secondary specs so the que times are slowly increasing. Soon, as more wings of Ice Crown Citadel open more will drop from the ques as even the incentive of Emblems of Frost starts to erode. For the casual or guildless player this may cause more of a hardship than those in established and active guilds.

The thing to keep in mind is this system is here to stay and the popularity of this feature in usage is going to ebb and flow. I am certain once the next expansion hits the new system will again increase in activity as people begin to level at different rates than their guild mates.

What will be interesting is seeing how the proposed "Guild Ranking" system will fit into all of this. Guild Leaders just need to be proactive rather than reactive. So having a basic plan and communicating effectively with your guild will help you to weather the storm. The LFG system is NOT a guild breaker but it CAN erode on your guild cohesion if you allow it. Just a little work on your part can reap big benefits in countering it.