Dreaming of Hat

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about "Do you play the spec that you enjoy or the spec that gets the job done?" The feeling seems to be in some quarters that if you can't play your preferred spec then that character is no longer "fun to play" and should be abandoned. It is a hard concept for me to understand. Personally if you were to ask what my favorite Rogue tree is I would with out hesitation reply Subtlety. However I have for almost two years now played predominately Combat.

The reason for this was that until Lich King was released if I wanted to do any raiding Combat was the only spec that could "get the job done" for me in the dps department. Let us be honest here, until recently I found my Combat spec rather boring. The reason being the spell rotations were extremely static. Yeah the numbers were great so I lived with it but it was still boring.

Rogues or at least the people who PLAY Rogues seem to have this theme, a hard core dedication to their class. They in general will do whatever it takes to play that class, no matter what spec is demanded, what weapon, gear etc needs to be farmed just so they can continue to be those sneaky sneak ambushers. Pre BC the Realms were full of rogues, the buzz was how they needed to be "thinned out a little" and this was done in a subtle way worthy of the class they were culling.

They put a lot of the Rogue gear DEEP in the dungeons and raids making it difficult to obtain. If you wanted to play a rogue and you didn't have certain trades such as Leather working getting gear was HARD work. Rogues I had known for years began to fall away, re rolling as shamans. In addition to this Blizz was at that time also working on the idea that all classes should be putting out similar amounts of damage so Rogues were seeing their spots in raiding guilds often filled by those aforementioned Shamans or Feral druids who could offer buffs. It was disheartening to say the least.

Then came Beta and the buzz in the Rogue community was Blizz was bringing back Mutilate in a BIG way. Apparently they were tired of the fact that when people envisioned a Rogue they thought "Daggers dripping in poisons" but when you did an armory search just about EVERY ROGUE was sporting duel swords and if they weren't it was considered a "fluke".

Now I will be honest here, of all the specs Mutilate is my weakest. That isn't to say it isn't a fun spec to play. I ran it leveling from 70-80 on Live to try to get a better understanding of it. One of the great things about it is the flow. It is a fluid spec, for Mutilate my finisher cycle would be something like 3-5s/5r or the more complex 3 finisher cycle which looks like 3-5s/4-5r/4-5e. The majority of Mutilate Rogues run the standard 3-5s/5r rotation and with the right talents and even fairly easy to obtain weapons you can put out a nice amount of dps with it.

The biggest problem with Mutilate is that it is a very unforgiving rotation. If you mess it up you have to start from square one all over again. So with bosses that require a lot of movement, stun, etc it can really hurt you. In addition to that out side of Fan of Knives you have no AoE moves available to you. I also discovered that I personally had a difficult time concentrating on my spell rotation along with maintaining my other duties while in a guild raid so I ended up going back to combat.

There is a spec thought that I would LOVE to try....it is spoke of on Rogue forums at present with great love. (Though at one time it was viewed with great suspicion.) High dps? In the SUBTLETY TREE? Yes, it CAN happen HOWEVER it isn't easy. This build is called HAT the title comes from the Subtlety 41 point talent Honor Among Thieves and at one time there was a bug that if you had 5 rogues with this build the numbers you could get could make ppl cry because they would each proc the other's Hat.

Hat's has two great weaknesses that I have been able to see.

First, how much damage you get out of the build is entirely dependent on who all you have in your raid or group. Ideally the Hat Rogue loves to see Raids with at good mix of classes that pack on the crit and crit often.

Another issue which some rogues have when switching to this build is learning how to manage their energy effectively. As a person who ran a Subtlety/Combat spec back in the day with Subtlety/Mutilate was all that you saw, this part of Hat really doesn't have me as concerned.

The biggest thing holding me back from trying this spec now is the lack of consistent group make up in our guild's raids to support it. Perhaps with the up coming patch and the promised Duel spec I can give it a try.

So is it REALLY worth it?

Yesterday (or early this morning if you want to be truthful) I left off with the question. "Is grinding this new rep really WORTH all the effort?

And the answer is: At this point, we really don't know. I have yet to find a "Silver Covenant" Vendor so they don't seem to have anything specifically CONNECTED to them. Like the Frostborn and the Explorers League they seem to be there more for the Achievers who are after their Exalted Title.

Now on the other hand, if you were to ask the question, "Are doing the daily quests PROVIDED by this faction worth it?" Then the answer in my opinion would clearly be YES. For several reasons.

One would be the funds it will put into your pocket. If you have yet to obtain you epic flying skill this will be just one more way to help you on your way. The quests are fairly straight forward, result in little to no damage to your gear and if you are willing to take the time to avoid the time saving flight paths, inexpensive to complete.

Some of the quests are actually quite enjoyable. Riding the various mounts around and participating in the long awaited mounted combat is a great deal of fun once you get the hang of it. While designed for pve it can also be done as pvp which opens up even more options for players.

For the achievement mongers out there, yes there are indeed achievements tied to these daily quest. There are also some quest chains that I have refrained from discussing yet. One of the best ones is leads to the achievement called "Just a Flesh Wound" .

Of course another reason would be the rewards you can obtain with the quest currency. There are a large variety of items available, from mounts and vanity pets, weapons and armor.

Now some of you might be complaining. WHAT?!!? Another currency? Why?! Mike Schramm of WoW Insider gives a GREAT explanation of why all these currencies are SO necessary for progression. Go check it out at WoW Insider.

In conclusion everyone is in for a treat with this new quest hub.

Introduction to Argent Tournament Grounds

The plan was simple. Get on PTR. Complete the last few daily quests and get on to the next stage of the new quest Hub. However, plans seldom last past the first engagement as they say.

First it was Thursday. For those of you not familiar with PTR Thursdays are "maintenance day" so "world server is down" is the norm. Second, it seemed I was to have a house full of sick children today so play time was out of the question.

So instead, once again, we will focus on something else. Let me begin by describing the new quest hub.

The Argent Tournament Grounds as I have mentioned before is located just north of Sindragoa's Fall. It is dominated by a large Construction site, the to be completed at a later date Coliseum. Flanked by three large tents, numerous fighting arenas, stables, booths, out houses, wagons and other paraphernalia it is a thriving hub of activity.

The Largest tent is of course the Argent Crusades' located on the west side of the Tournament Grounds and it is to this tent you will first wish to head when you come to this area. Here you will pick up a quest which sends you the your respective faction tents located on the East side of the Tournament Grounds.

Once there you are introduced to your new role as a Aspirant. You will now learn how to use all the new toys Blizz has given us and travel from Ice Crown, Crystal Song Forest, Dragonblight, Howling Fjord and Grizzly Hills attempting to complete the new daily quests. Some of these quest are actually kind of funny (they seem to have a thing for the "Maiden in the lake") but annoyingly time consuming.


It will take you 3 days of doing these quests before you will be able to do the next level of quests (many of which are the exact same quests just with different rewards) called Valiant. Again it will take a week (7 days) of doing THESE quests before you will FINALLY be able to get to the Title that REALLY matters and get you the rewards you want. The CHAMPION tokens.


You will notice from the screen shots that the mounts and and flags change based upon your faction and your rank. The higher your rank the more "flags" you have. Aspirants have 1 flag, where Champions have 3. Also, once you go beyond Aspirant your mount is based on your faction. I am a human so I ride a horse. The Champion Gnome I am sitting next to is on a Mechanostrider.

Over all these quest levels go quickly and if you are the type of person who has other reps you are grinding you can easily fit them into your daily rotation. The question will more importantly be, will you WANT to? Other than the non combat pets and mounts what other things do these guys have to offer? That will be a discussion for another day.

WoW's Community

These past few days have been interesting ones to say the least on Wow when it comes to player interactions.

I was in Storm Peaks working on good ole Son's of Hodir daily quests when someone asked in general how to start their chain. After the usual smart remarks at his expense that are the norm on our server had made the rounds and I saw no one was going to help him. I whispered him and gave him the name of the starting quest. He replied that he had done those and was somewhere mid chain but did not know WHERE.

It took us about five minutes but eventually we were able to figure out that he had to go find the eggs and help Thorim recapture his protodrake. It wasn't much, just a little bit of time and I made a new friend. All because I was willing to take the time to talk him through a quest chain I was familiar with since I had recently completed it. I didn't even have to stop what I was doing.

Another friend of mine and fellow guild member had an experience on his hunter in which he was in the process of taming Loque'nahak only to have another alliance player show up, inturpt his taming, and kill the rare Spirit Beast. Poetically the very next day that same friend had ANOTHER person see Loque'nahak, and hold him until he got there so that he could tame him.

Just today I was part of a 25 man VoA group only to have the raid leader (another rogue) kick me and all the other rogues in the raid because he didn't want to compete with us for loot. Sadly this is not the first time this has happened nor I am sure will it be the last. (In fact it happened just last week.) If they had bothered to ask I would have told them all I was after was the badges since I already HAVE all my Hateful Gladiator and Valorous Bonescythe pieces.

The PTR forums (as usual) are full of individuals who spend the majority of time complaining about any and all changes being made to their class, profession or the game rather than really TESTING and giving true feed back on how the game is really working or not working. I find it fascinating how people seem to think that everything needs to revolve around them and their wants. Add a little bit of a challenge and it is TO HARD you need to nerf it. Balance something out for some reason and it is "TO EASY" they dumbed it down.

Over all I have to say that Blizzard has done an excellent job with this game. They can't make EVERYONE happy and they know it. But they try to do what they can to keep as many people involved and engaged on as many lvls as they can. From the Heavy hard core raiders that make up just a small part of the Wow community to the casual player that logs on just a few hours a week that are the Biggest part of their consumer base.

That isn't to say I haven't had my moments of railing as well. Hey, I play a rogue....I wailed with the best of them about the vanish bug only to finally hear Vaneras of Blizz say:
"In regards to Vanish, we do believe that there may still be some bugs with it, but we are having trouble replicating those bugs in in order to get to the core of the issue. Whenever we try, Vanish simply works perfectly. "

Some times you just have to enjoy the game enough deal with it and the other people who play it or walk away. For now I am here to say, Stupid people and all. Over all I have ment more good people playing this game that they counter all the bad ones. Turn the music up high enough and it will drowned out all the whining.

New Fluffys (well some aren't so fluffy)

I was originally going to write about all the fun new daily quests up at the the Argent Tournament Grounds which will be coming with this next patch.

This new area is located just North of Sindrgosa's Fall in Ice Crown and can most easily be reached by taking the Flight path to Bouldercrag's Refuge in Storm Peaks and then flying West. Once there pick up the flight path at the under construction Coliseum, and you are set for all further visits.

The majority of the daily quests located in this area will be giving us the long awaited Silver Covenant rep that all those rep junkies have been anticipating. At one point this rep was tied into The Winds of the North Achievement and the fact that there was no way to gain rep with them was very distressing to people.

But a funny thing happened as I was wandering around scouting out the place. I stumbled across the various vendors. There I discovered something that I know will be more near and dear to many peoples hearts...That and I know it will motivate people to do more of those a for mentioned quests than any thing else Blizz has EVER devised for the casual gamer.

The Non combat pet.

Each race has it's own unique one and what is going to drive some pet fanatics nuts is how are they going to be able to get the ones that belong to the OPPOSING factions?

Here are the Four from the Alliance side.

For the Exodar the Ammen Vale Lashling
For Darnasuss the Teldrassil Sprout
For Stormwind the Elywnn Lamb
For IornForge the Dun Morogh Cub
and for Gnomeregon the Mechanopeep

Each costs you 40 Champion seals. These seals are acquired by doing PvE quests for the Silver Covenant.

There are other things you can purchase with these seals which include gear, mounts (both land and air which are faction specific), tabards, and numerous other fun items.

I will work my best to try to obtain screen shots of each of the new pets.

Ghoul head is back

I first caught sight of this set back in WotLK Beta and the rumor mill was that this would be the T7 set for Rogues.

Now again the Ugly thing is back and MMO Champion is speculating that this is the T8 gear.

It has NOT gotten anymore attractive.

It will be interesting to see what the proposed stats on this set will be but I do know one thing for sure...That helm will NOT be showing.

As to why there are 4 color combos for it, again no one is certain. Pvp, Heroic, Normal? Well that is three, but why Four? Just because all the OTHER classes got different color options? That is just pure silly. Of the four color choices we see the Black and the Red will most likely win the most votes with the general rogue community no doubt.

Where do I fit?

I warned you all that I am obsessive. I am one of those people who reads Elitist Jerks to keep updated. (Though I know I will most likely never do OS+3 I want to understand it.) Recently I have been thinking a lot about guild and raid make up. This of course leads to me spending hours looking to see what the latest information is I can find on it.

Sebastian has does a series of EXCELLENT articles that cover this topic in great detail so I am not going bother re doing his work. I would encourage you to go check them out. For now I am just going to summarize.

First, what kind of GUILD should you be in? There are basically 3 types.

The Hard Core raiding guild.
The Raiding Guild and
The Casual Guild.

Despite what a lot of guilds claim There are really only a few TRUE Hard Core Raiding Guilds. They make up about 2% of the WoW population. These guys and gals are the BEST OF THE BEST. They are the RANKED guilds. The top in the WORLD. Their members LITERALLY have little to no life outside of WoW. 40-60 hours of game time is not only normal it is DEMANDED. It is a full time job and EVERYONE in the guild knows it.

The second most common guild make up in WoW is the Raiding Guild. These are made up of people who WANT to raid but in general HAVE lives, jobs, kids, school, etc so are unable to be a part of a Hard Core raiding guild. There are of course different levels of them, Some are more casual or hard core than others but these guilds tend to flux a lot more both in longevity and guild membership.

The third is the Casual guild sometimes called the Social guild. These are the MOST common guilds and are made for a variety of reasons. They can at times be so large that members are not even aware of who their Guild Master IS or so small as to be no more than real life friends.

After you have an idea of what type of guild you are either in or looking for then you have to think about your role IN that guild. I am not just talking about your ranks. Sure you need Guild masters, Officers and Members, but there is more to it than even that.

There is a gamer personality test that will tell you the type of gamer that you are called the Bartle Test. If you have never taken it before it is a lot of fun and will give you some insight into the type of gamer you are. This breaks you down into Four basic types.

Achievers are the type of people who like to gain points, lvls, equipment, or other concrete indicators of advancement.

Explorers prefer to discover, create maps or find hidden areas. Easter eggs, unrestricted movement, those types of things are enjoyable to this type of player.

Socialites - The name says it all, they have a friends list that is bursting at the seams. All they really want to do is chat. Everything else in secondary.

Killers - They want to be on EVERYONE'S most wanted list. They thrive on competition against others on a personal lvl.

Seldom are you just one type but you generally are dominate in at least one area.

The guild I am leading Eternity Matters started out as a Casual guild. However with the advent of the 10 man raids of Burning Crusade we BECAME a Raiding Guild. It was NOT an easy metamorphosis and it was one that was debated long and hard before we made the official transition.

Once you make that transition you notice the body of your guild will begin to change as will your member base to a certain degree.

Sebastian again gives a good description of the Four basic types you will see.

The Visitor
Or as we like to call them "The Gear Ups". They are only there to get what they want or need so they can move on to that better place. Often they are braggarts. These are often the most hated of all your guild members. And feels can be mixed when and if they go.

The Loyal Soldier
They are the stalwart member that have been there from the beginning and won't depart until the guild disbands. Need a run through an old world instance on an alt? These are the people most likely to help you. Looking for some kind of low lvl regent? They most likely have a stock pile on one of their MANY MANY alts.

The Troll
Another term is "Griefer" or "Drama Queen" Basically these are high energy individuals that once they have reached a certain point become easily bored and then spend the majority of their time complaining, using Wow and the guild as their place to vent.

The Newbie
Making up the rest of the guild are the New players. The inexperienced and/or under geared. They take time, guidance and you don't KNOW what you may find in there. Personally I generally enjoy working with these types of players. While it can be difficult when they finally emerge and reveal themselves to be Visitors or Even Trolls, The Loyal Soldiers make it worth it.