The Ruby Sanctum

So yesterday I got home and The Ruby Sanctum had been released so my guild was throwing together a group.  It was not ideal in any way shape or form either.  We usually do not raid for another 3 hours so most of the hard core raiders, you know the ones I am talking about, the ones that come prepared, the ones that most likely watched the videos weeks ago, the ones that knew the fights and were ready for this, well, none of them where online.  So we rolled with what we had at the chance of a realm first.

We didn't do all that bad.  Wiped on a trash pack once because we didn't know the one guy gave extra power to the others.  Once we know that, we split them up, no problem.  Thing with videos and guides is that they show you boss fights but sometimes trash can have a little trick it would have been really nice to know about before it wipes 1/2 the raid as a surprise you did not know was coming.

All in all I really liked running a raid without Deadly Boss Mods.  I had gotten so used to being told everything.  Move now, something is on you, do this now.  All that stuff makes life easier.  Easier is not always fun however.  I think I had fun actually trying to watch mechanics and react in my own time.  Sad part here is, we were in a group that was not prepared to begin with.  Now you needed to tell people to look for things that they don't have a clue what they are and they do not have a mod to tell them to.

It caused some issues but not many.  The second boss that I needed to tranq shot was my wake up call.  I was so used to tranq shot now popping up whenever I needed to use it that I was stupidly waiting for it.  The first time he enraged he one shot someone.  Oops, okay, now I know what to look for.  He was never enraged for more then 1 second after that.  I adapted.  That is what I think I good player does, not to toot my own horn.  I tranqed his ass every time he was about to enrage that I was timing it that it hit him as he was enraging.  So there was no delay what so ever.  He was never capable of getting off a hit while enraged.

The first boss was the only one we wiped on.  A few times too.  At 200K left, at 180K left and at 90K left.  How sad is that.  Oh well, no biggie, we got him down.  We got the second guy down in one shot even if I missed the first tranq shot, no one else died except the boss.  The third guy was sort of learning as we go as there was no good guide.  I kind of jumped in seeing what was going on and decided the perfect tactic was MT on boss, OT pick up adds, after adds are down, tanks switch.  After next set of adds where down, tanks switch.  So forth and so on.  That way no one had the debuff get high.  Toward the end when he was low I told the OT to grab the adds and everyone to keep o the boss.  We downed him.  So 2nd and 3rd boss where one shots.  Not bad at all figuring we were with a team of people where none of them had any clue what anything here did.

With that in mind I think we did awesome over all.  We got our asses handed to us on the last boss.  In several attempts we got to phase three but called it before finishing it as everyone was getting tired and frustrated being there so long.  Phase two was the killer for us.  We never lost a person in phase one.  We had a few wipes do to bad timing.  Two from healer disconnecting.  One, almost from a tank disconnecting.  He came back with 1 second to spare.  Talk about excitement.  I died a few times to my own stupidity. In the shadow world I stood just to the side of the dragon as close as I could get to the tank without being in the cone of damage.  Three times I got a little too close.  Oops.  One time while running in a circle (strafe of course, so I could still shoot while doing it) I walked right where someone had just been purged and the circle appeared right under me.  I was always low on life so never got out in time.  Bad luck there.  Same for one when it was on me.  Was already on low level, when it was purged off me I died instantly.  Got hit by the line twice.  Yeap, lots and lots of wipes but over all, I think we made a lot of progress.  We could have downed it if we tried a bit more.

I am sure by now someone has realm first, but we were so close.  Getting a first does no matter all that much to me really but it sure would have been nice to say I was part of the team that did it.  With the group we assembled quickly to get into it I think we did fantastic.  Would have been nice if they had see videos beforehand so we did not have to explain everything more then a few times but what can you say.  It is not like they were expecting it.  Oh wait... we where.  I wish some people would be more prepared.

End Game Professions

I've been working on some money making guides for my guild mates to help them in their efforts to make cash.  I got tired of hearing things like "I can only do a few more attempts because I can not afford the repairs I am broke" or "I know the ICC boots are the best in slot for me but I can not afford them."  Things like that pain me.  Sure I can understand it taking time to make the money to get things that are expensive, but try.  Repairs?  You can not afford the repairs for a raid?  What the hell are you doing all week?  Just run your daily dungeon and the weekly raids we do and you can make a profit.  On my main character I do not do much of anything lately as I am working on alts with all my free time and doing just raiding and dungeons I manage to have more money at the end of the week then I did before the week started.  Yes, I profit just raiding.  How can you not even have money for repairs?

Enough of my rant for now.  This is about helping people make money so I do not need to listen to them whine all day about not having money.  In making my guides I noticed that the crating skills like Tailoring, Leather Working and Blacksmith there are all new patterns each time new content comes out.  This means new chances to charge people an arm and a leg to craft gear for them.  Sure, most gear is one time sale.  Not like Alchemy where you will sell the same person an Endless Rage 100 times over and over but still, those three have had things added.  Alchemy, nothing new.  Gathering professions, nothing new.  Enchanting, nothing new.  Inscription, a few more glyphs that no one wants. 

All those other professions where basically said and done as soon as LK came out while the other three keep getting new things to do and make.  It seems a little unfair if you ask me.  At least with Alchemy and Enchanting they are things people will need over and over but with poor old Inscription once someone has their glyphs they are done.  That's it, that character will never, or extremely rarely, need another one.  Runescrolls sell nicely but really, how often do you see a raid without a priest?  Almost never?  Scroll of Stamina sells nicely too, but it is not something you would write home about.

It makes me wonder what they have in store for Cataclysm for other professions.  I know they are adding more glyphs to be used called medium glyphs.  For function I like that idea, but it is a limited gain for Scribes because as soon as someone has the ones they need that is all the buying for them they will do.  Other professions will be maxed out in the first week of release I am sure and that will be that.  For two years they will never have anything else to do.  They need to make upgrades to other professions more often. 

As for gathering professions, they need some serious love.  All others they make sure have increases of some kind that are versatile.  Gathering you are set at what you get and what you get is not impressive at all.  Gathering professions need to be able to make something that you can add to gear to give a boost of some sort to put them on a level playing field with the rest of the professions.  Just my opinion at least.

Even with all that said, from writing them out I have noticed that it is nearly impossible not to make money somehow unless you are completely lazy or a total idiot.  So the next time you hear someone say they can not even pay for repairs ask them which one they are and see which one they will admit to.

Mage Leveling

I played with my Mage a little bit more again this weekend and managed to get it to level 36.  So just spare time between other characters and it is moving along like wild fire.  So far I have played the Mage for 1 day and 7 hours.  Not the fastest time ever I am sure but level 36 in one day and a quarter is outrageous.  At this rate I could hit 80 in around 3 days played if I do not suffer real down time.

The thing is I am leveling professions too which takes some extra time.  I am sure if I did not make the effort to level my professions I would be under 1 day played.  I can't even start to tell you the number of time I stopped to fight mobs to get to an herb when I really could have just kept going.

With that in mind I am amazed at the speed of leveling on the Mage.  If it were not for having to stop and drink after every few fights I would be level 50 no doubt within the time I played so far.  I would say at least 1/4 of the time I play is spent drinking and eating.  Maybe even as much as 1/3 of the time.

I think what helps their speed is the ability to teleport to wherever they need to go to.  I set my hearth to where I am questing and have my teleports to jump around.  That saves a ton of time moving around.  Like after finishing a few quests recently some sent me back to Stormwind and some sent me to Ironforge.  I ported to one, ported to the other and then used my hearth to go back to the area I was questing in.  That saves a ton of time.

I would love to set up a speed leveling Mage one time to see how fast I can get it done.  Based on what I have seen so far I could most likely get to level 80 in less then 2 days played if all I did was work on leveling and totally ignored professions and those stupid Mage quests that always love to send me back to an area I finished 3 or 4 levels earlier.  Did someone actually want to plan these out to be so useless?  Don't you think giving you a quest at level 30 should send you to an area where there are level 30 quests and not back to redridge where you last visited when you were maybe as high as 25?  Sure, it is easy going back at 30 but it is a complete and total waste of time.

Being I never played a Mage before I do the Mage quests because I am not sure if at some point I am going to need to do them for a skill and do not want to have to go back and hunt down low level quests to get it.  At least a level 30 in a 25 area can still get some kill experience.  Better then nothing I guess.  I most likely will not do them next time I do a Mage if I ever do one again.  It doesn't seem, at least up to this point, that they are actually needed for anything.

Either way, I am having a huge amount of fun leveling a Mage.  They are so easy to work with, awesome crowd control even at low levels and a wide selection of skills to work with.  Sure I am usually just hitting one over and over again for my frostbolt but when the time comes where I need other things they are there.  Thing is that about 98% of the time I do not need anything but that.  I have started freezing when they get close and then strafing to get some distance and shooting again.  Not because it is needed but because it is good practice for when it will be needed to do it against things that are not about to kill you anyway.

I tend to use those fights to try different things and see how they work.  Perfect learning experience time.  I even kited this one elemental half way across a zone because I wanted to see how long I could get him to follow me.  Kiting as a Mage is stupid easy.  Makes my Hunter jealous, all sorts of jealous. 

With my Hunter kiting is a skill and only a good hunter can do it decently and only a super hunter can do it good.  You can give someone that has never used a mage in their life and tell them when he starts getting close press this then this and keep running your little ass off and tada, they are now kiting.  They do not even need to turn around to do it either if it is a pure kite that is.  If you are trying to kill and kite there is a little more to it of course, but it is not really all that difficult as long as you know the secret that many hunters know.  Strafe running is as fast as straight running and keeps your target in instant range.  Don't tell everyone that, they might get better at kiting if they knew that and they will take my job away.

I Hate Stupid People

We recently had a new addition to the guild.  New additions are good and those first few days can make or break how you feel about them.  This new guy I had pegged even before he joined.  He signed up at the guild website just as all applicants need to.  His app was nothing special but nothing stand out either.  From reading that along you see it as, might be worth a shot to add him.

The day he submitted the app he messaged me in game.  Guess he saw my name as being in the guild.  He asked me about when the GL would be on so he could join.  I told him that his app would need to be accepted first before he would be sent an invite.  Told him who to contact once it is accepted and figured that was that.

No such luck.  I get another message from him a few minutes later.  Is he on an alt or something?  Can you tell him to accept my app?  I respond, give it some time, they read the apps and either approve or disapprove every other day or so.  To wait and then seek them out.

Then he messages me, I really want to get into an ICC 10 tonight and it says you start raiding at 7, can you get him to invite me so I can get into ICC 10 tonight.  I tell him once again that he needs to wait.  Things do not happen instantly.  Wait for them to get on and read the app and accept it before you worry about the invite. Then I add, nicely mind you, that we do not raid ICC 10 on Wednesdays, we do it on Tuesdays.  So even if he got into the guild tonight, he would still not be raiding ICC 10 as we use Wednesdays for the weekly.

He then starts in with tons of messages.  How many mages do you have?  What is their gear score?  How much DPS do they do?  Do you think I have a chance at being the #1 Mage?  Are they on yet to accept me?

Okay, by now I have come to a conclusion that this person is either 12 or mildly retarded, no disrespect to people with mental disabilities, but outside of 12 year olds no one else besides the mildly retarded would need the same things explained to them over and over and over and over again.

There is a third option there and that option is that he is just plain straight out stupid.  As it turns out he is older then 12 so it was not that option.  So he is either mentally lacking or flat out stupid.  I am starting to think flat out stupid.

So he joins a few days later, ask his 101 questions as you would expect seeing what he is like already and get everything explained to him.  Tuesdays and Fridays or Tuesdays and Mondays are the 10s, Thursdays and Saturday are the 25s and Wednesday is the weekly.  He asks a few times, we explain it a few times.

He never shows for the Saturday 25 man and we did need to fill some spots.  Okay, no biggie, he was new and not expected to be there so soon.  Sunday night however he is saying, hey lets do a 25.  Everyone says they are saved. 

We where doing some old world raiding and had a small group of about 7 people doing told 25 man stuff.  He sees us talking in chat about the raid and starts asking.  Hey invite me, I want in, invite me.  We tell him what we are doing and he says, screw that, lets do ICC 10.  We again explain we are all saved and Sunday nights we usually just mess around with old stuff or trying to get achievements.

Monday comes around and I am assembling my group from Tuesday so we can take a run at Sin.  We where missing our mage that was originally with us.  So he would have been more then welcome to come.  He was online just before I started setting up again asking, lets do ICC 10 over and over in guild chat.  We all said we are saved.  Someone was even so kind to point out to him that raids do not reset until Tuesday and if everyone was saved yesterday that are still saved today.

Seems that some of the people where finally starting to get the idea I did after just one conversation with this guy.  I still think he is 12 because no adult, even if mildly retarded, is that fucking stupid. 

After it finally starts to sink in that people are saved he starts asking about the other mages again.  About how much better geared they are and that he will never be able to get into the #1 team.  I explain to him that we are a team, one large group, we do not have an A team.  We work with peoples times to make the best 10s mans we can based on when people can get on and continue with them and of course, when capable, with appropriate class break down.

He doesn't get it.  The whole "team" concept does not click at all with him.  I say to him that if someone that needs gear can be on I usually drop out to let them have my spot.  I am only there to help the team, I do not need anything from there.  This is where the comment comes that bothered me some.  I would not run something if I didn't need anything from it.  Yeap, the whole "team" concept it completely lost on this one.

Tuesday comes around and of course Blizzard screws up another simple job making it takes hours longer then a monkey could have done it in.  We finally get into our server and it is about an hour before I normally go to bed.  Which means less then an hour before the end of raid time.  Of course anyone with even half a brain would even need to ask the question of it we were raiding tonight, the answer was no.  If you needed to ask you are an idiot.  Raids can start 30 minutes late, maybe even 60 minutes late but not 120 minutes late.

He asks, more then a few times, are we raiding tonight?  Lets start the ICC raid?  Did invites go out yet for the ICC raid? Everyone answers the same, it's to late or we will do it later blizzard ruined tonight's chance at raiding.  So of course what does that mean to him.  He says in guild chat that because we are not raiding ICC 10 this week he is going to pug it.  The Guild Leader points out that we are not that we are raiding ICC 10 this week, we are just not doing it tonight because the server was down.

This goes on for a while, the whole raiding days is explained to him all over again.  He finally gets the clue that just because we did not run as a guild on Tuesday does not mean we have not plans to.

Wednesday comes around.  There he is in Guild Chat again, anyone want to pug and ICC 10?  I point out that tonight is weekly night and 10 will be done on Friday.  He says, but I want to run ICC 10, I am going to pug a raid for it.  The guild leader tells him not to, guildies run with guild runs, we do not like people pugging when we are doing it as a team.  This, again, goes on for hours.  He does not grasp the concept.

Thursday comes and it is ICC 25 night.  You would figure the guy would be excited, the first time since he joined that he can actually raid with us.  About an hour before the raid he starts in again in guild chat about how he is assembling an ICC 10 run and needs some more spots filled.  AGAIN! Me, two others, the guild leader, the co leader all tell him.  You do not pug guild runs, you run with the guild on guild runs.  Fucking asshole still does not get it.

I was also smart ass enough to point out one minor detail he over looked.  Why the hell are you pugging an ICC 10 1 hour before the guild ICC 25 starts?  No answer.  You know why?  Because there is no answer for that level of total stupidity.

25 invites start going out and he is no where to be found.  Even though for the last hour all he did was talk about it.  We are 4 people short so go looking for some friends of the guild.  Fill two spots with them as two more guild members come on.  He is no where to be seen so he is not in the group.  We run 25, down the first few bosses and the bonus boss and set up the continuing run for Saturday.  5 bosses in 2 hours is not great, but not bad either.  As soon as we are done guess who comes online?

So are we doing ICC 25 tonight?  We just finished the run.  You knew when it was starting.  Oh, I forgot, anyone want to pug an ICC 10?

Yes, again, even though he has been told every day at least 6 times per day, that we do not pug the current end game stuff, we do that as a guild.  Some people are just too stupid to be allowed to play this game.  If I were the guild leader he would already have been kicked for being a total idiot.

Link Gearscore and Achievement

When the week resets I always start mt Tuesday out with looking for VoA spam.  I want to get those 10s and 25s out of the way as fast as possible.  I can not tell you the number of times I have forgot to do them completely.  Add to the fact alliance suck balls at PvP and I am alliance it is not like we have VoA often enough for me to pick up a group whenever.  I've gone days without seeing us have WG so when I see we have it I do VoA as soon as possible.

I really do not need much of anything in any VoA.  I do it for the frosts more then anything.  I want to get the mount drop as well.  So that is a motivator to do it.  I can always use the T10 PvP gear and the T10 Sanc legs, not like I would ever use them.  All of those things would be nice to have but none of them are required.

I have personal rules when I look to join a pug and one of them is that whole Gear Score craze thing and the ever classic Achievement thing.  If someone posts in trade, LF more for VoA pst with GS. I completely ignore it.

Back when I first hit 80, before GS was the rage, I still had problems getting into raid.  Back then the raid leader actually "looked" at your gear.  Amazing as it might sound, they looked and said it was not enough.  So it took forever to gear up being I would spend 3 hours spamming to end up raiding for 1 hour.  Maybe that would mean 1 raid a week.  So if I bitched about gear score then it might back sense.  The thing is, now I am geared well, I have the achievements for tons of stuff and many people in the pug assembly line that is trade already know me because they have ran with me.  Sometimes they invite me even without me looking for it.  You know what?  I still do not support the whole GS crazy.

I will go all old school if I am assembling a raid.  I will look at the person.  If they have all the right gear, it is all gemmed correctly, it is all enchanted correctly and their spec does not look like a monkey was just choosing where to put the talent points I will run with them.  Sure, there are times that I will tell someone they are undergeared.  I am not going to invite the average player with 200s into an ICC25 but I will look and see that they have 200s.  I will not take the word of some GS app.  Sure, I know people are clearing ICC in all blues, I read about it.  Those are highly skilled people. I figure the average player is... well, average.  So to preform up to what would be expected it is not possible in 200 gear.

I hate people that ask for GS and ask for achievements.  Achievements, which was the big thing before GS came out makes even less sense.  So being I do not have the achievement for clearing something means I can not do it?  Wow, if that is not completely retarded I do not know what is.  Maybe I did it on an alt, maybe I did it on 10 but not 25, maybe I just never got around to doing it.  I never cleared Ulduar, that does not mean I am unable to.  Just means that no guilds run that any more and none have since the time I first hit 80.  So unless someone throws a old school raiding event for things like that I will never clear it.  I have great gear now, good experience now and lead the DPS charts all the time in close to everything I do but because I do not have an Ulduar achievement I can not get into a raid for it?  That is one thing GS is better for.  People would just see my GS and not even give a shit if I have done it before.  They know I should be capable of helping them blow through it.

Now, as to what made me think about this, VoA, I have to interesting stories about that, this one come from one of them.  Only one person was doing VoA 25 spam so I was tempted to mesasge him.  However, his stupid pst with GS part turned me off.  I would have never ran with him.  I ended up running with him anyway because some guildy of mine was in the group and invited me.

Thing I wish some people would realize is that not everyone with a high GS is a GS jerk.  I have a high GS even if I can not tell you what it is.  I do not care.  I know many people that are like that.  They will not even talk to anyone that asks for GS.  Maybe, by asking people to tell you their gear score you are losing many possible good raiders?  I know you lose me if you ask for it

My theory is this...
"If someone has to tell you their gear score they either suck and got carried and that gear score is all they can offer to the raid or they have a very small sense of worth and telling people their gear score makes them feel better."

I've been "Truckin'"

If you do not get the reference in the title of this post you are either very young or do not like classic rock.  The in game achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been comes from a classic song from the Grateful Dead named Truckin'.  My long journey finished last night and I went for a ride on my brand spanking new Violet Proto Drake.  Have to love being 310 riding now.  Even more so that my X-53 Touring Rocket is now 310 as well.

I may have done a lot of achievements in the game and some of them where quite satisfying to finally finish but so far none of them compare to this. Loremaster might come close but in the end I think finishing that was more a sigh of relief that it was done then a moment of joy that I actually did it.  When I finished my "Trip" I actually had a smile on my face.  Yeap, in real life I was actually smiling.  I had put on the song and was blasting it on my headphones while I was turning in that last quest.  Timed it so the song said "What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been" at the exact time as the achievement popped up.  Sure, I just let my geek flag fly there but it was worth it.  It actually felt like an achievement.

Every achievement in the game has something that makes it hard to get.  Remember, hard does not mean difficult.  This one achievement had a little but of everything.  Some parts where beyond easy, some where beyond frustrating, and some part where outright torturous.  I can't really complain about that however as that is the reason that finishing this achievement actually made me smile. 

Now that I am done I will share my long trip's experiences with you.

Brewmaster was by far the easiest.  I was not even 80 yet when I did it.  I was lucky that I got carried through the Direbrew fight but I got it done.  Otherwise it was just grinding easy as sin dailies to get enough to buy the junk needed.  The dailies where all in one place which made this very easy.  If all "trip" parts where like this one then it would not feel like much of an achievement as this one did not take a lot of work.

Hallowed Be Thy Name was one of those things that had a lot of luck involved with it. I got the Sinister Calling part from getting a helm in a candy bag which helped.  I did get the pet later anyway. That Sparkling Smile was also easy because I got that from my first candy thing.  Most parts where easy.  Killing the headless Horseman was a bit easier for this one as I was not 80 so finding a group was not an issue. G.N.E.R.D. Rage was the hardest part for me.  Back then I had never PvPed, that is the only reason that it was an issue.  Had to eat the candies each time you died because they did not last through death.  Not really an issue as I ended up with tons of them.

Pilgrim was fun over all.  A bit of running around but nothing to crazy.  The Turkinator was the hard part of this one being getting an area where there were not many others trying to kill them was hard.  I waited a few days and headed over to undercity and did it over there.  Seemed no one was ever there doing it which made it easier.  First try I just missed it by 1 second, second try I got it no problem.  Turkey Lurkey was an effort in patience but not as hard as similar ones I had to do later.  Needless to say this is where I first learned that 90% of all Horde characters are Blood Elves. The Troll Rogue was where most got stuck, I was lucky and got that early.  Couldn't find an Orc for what seemed like forever.  After 3 hours of waiting I finally found one and it was a done deal.

Merrymaker was the next stop on the trip and two things I had already experience became the same issues.  Finding an Undead Rogue was a lot harder then it should have been but I got it and the with a little helper achievement was the second time I found myself thrown into PvP against my will.  I got it done but after doing it is when I decided that I was going to start a PvP gear set and learning how to PvP. 

Fool For Love was the hunt for the Troll Rogue again and this time he was more elusive then the first time I had to find him.  Over all however, this set of quests was pretty easy.  Not as easy as brewmaster but still not one of the ones I will ever remember as a bitch fest.

To Honor One's Elder's was the first time I actually started to bitch about some of the things we needed to do.  Maybe this is the point where it was starting to get a bit to long and too much to do for me.  The running around to honor all the elders was time consuming and a bit annoying.  I did not mind going into Horde towns any more.  I had some PvP gear now and had been doing battleground and wintergrasp so I was starting to become a better PvPer.  All that running around really annoyed me.  I think the reason it annoyed me was that really that was what everything was about.  There was nothing else much to do really.  Just do all that crap and kill a boss.  Nothing else really that took any effort.  It seemed like this was an achievement build to test "how much do you really want this".

Noble Gardener was the point where I started to wish I could jump through the screen and kill people. I started running around to collect eggs which seemed almost counter productive.  I found a lightly traveled area that had 3 eggs appearing close to each other and parked myself there and just picked things up as they appeared.  I watched TV, chatted in game, chatted on Vent.  Basically kept myself busy while doing it.  It took hours, lots of hours really, to get all the things I needed to get for all the achievements.  Ended up with something like 4 pets before I got the last piece of clothing. 

That is not what I found frustrating.  What I found frustrating was the large amount of people that saw me camping a spawn and still would try and take it from me.  Or the few times that they saw me getting eggs there so they sat right next to me and started to camp with me.  GO AWAY!  Find your own spot asshole.  That is what was annoying.  I had this tiny patch of land, you have the rest of the world, leave me the fuck alone.  I am not bothering you so do not bother me.  If you like the spot I am in, wait for me to be done and then take my spot. 

Now as annoying as that was and how time consuming as that was, I was not done with annoying and time consuming things needed for this achievement.  Now I need to find a female dwarf and a female orc.  That took longer then it took to get all that crap from all those eggs.  I was starting to think that I might give up on doing these things.  I couldn't however, I made it this far and I am an achievement whore.  I can't stop now.

For The Children time came around and I knew this would be a hard one.  I had been planning ahead for this one for a long time.  Now I was in full PvP gear, I was on an arena team and fought in wintergrasp and battlegrounds all the time now.  I knew how to PvP, sure I am not great, but I could surely hold my own.  I learned to PvP just because of the school of hard knocks part of this achievement.  Doing it was hard, very hard and if not for the help of a few friends that we all went into them together to we could work as a team to get everyone the achievements one at a time I don't know how long it would have taken me to do this one.  First off, this was not just a PvP one like the others are.  This was a "do something" in PvP one.  Not only did I need to do something in a PvP setting but I needed to do something that was counterproductive to actually winning the battlegrounds.  I have been playing battlegrounds to win for months now and had to throw that all out so I could do something that is against my character? 

Assaulting a flag in AB is no problem, I'd done that before.  Returning one in WG was not a problem either.  Now I need to assault a tower in AV.  I did not even know where the hell a tower was.  I am a hunter, it is not my job to be going up towers, it is to be defending them.  Turns out that was the easiest one.  The entire battleground was in one tower clicking back and forth so everyone could get it.  The one that annoyed me was the eye of the storm one.  First, let me remind you that I am a hunter.  If I am ever even near the flag I am doing something wrong. My job is to defend a base, stop a runner, or protect a runner.  Now I need to get the flag?  Not to mention that everyone else there was trying to get the flag too.  No one was capping areas.  Did anyone ever consider even for a moment that getting the flag means nothing if you do not have a place to put it?  Do people not realize that if you take 3 towers then you can win the game without ever capturing even one flag?  The flag is not the main part of this battle and they made it the main part.  Lucky for me that in my crew of friends were a warrior and a shaman (among others) that made it a bit easier.  The shaman ran up and blew all the Hordies off the edge, the warrior grabbed the flag and gave it to me to turn in.  Or at least tried to because some asshole followed him and as soon as he walked up to me to pass me the flag he stole it so he could get his achievement.  Hell, we would have helped him, but that flag was not meant for him.  This achievement made me really hate people as a whole.  Well, not really.  I hated people to begin with.  By far the hard knocks was the hardest part of all of these to get in any of them.

The Flame Warden was another one of those annoying "lets send you all over the world" for no good reason achievements.  The PvP I encountered here was fine and dandy.  Had to kill a few guards here and there and a few players here and there.  The only area I had any problem was getting into Org, died like 5 times.  It seemed like 1/2 of all the horde that were online where sitting in the fire waiting for people to try and get it.  Like the idiot I am it did not occur to me until the third time trying to grab it that I have deterrence.   I hit it as soon as I revived on the fire.  Clicked the fire and got it no problem and then died on the way out with a trail of 8 horde and some guys all wanting me dead.  Who cares, I got what I came for.  It was fun doing it.  That was the only hard part of this one, getting into Org.  TB was not much of an issue, one set of guards to deal with and that was it.  UC was walk in and walk out and SMC was the same, even if I did have like 20 guards on my ass at once.  You can easily out range them so they go back.

With all that done I can say that I will never do any of that crap again and I am glad it is over with.  I am also very happy to have achieved something that took a huge amount of time and dedication to get to.  It took PvP skills, PvE skills, even mapping skills to know how to get back and forth where you need to the fastest way.  Everything you will ever need to do for any achievement in the game is represented here.  So doing this one achievement is like doing them all wrapped up in one.  I guess that is why I was smiling.  Or maybe I was smiling because I never have to do this again.  Either way.  I am quite happy to say I have finished it.

Real ID

The real dope on Read ID.

A smart player will try everything within his/her power to secure their account.  They will not buy gold, they will not visit gold or account selling sites and they will usually have an email address set up just for wow that is not used for anything but that.

There are many things you can do to protect yourself from being hacked but none are more important securing your email account.  If a hacker has your email account they essentially have you, they essentially are you.  I have never once in my life received an e-mail from anyone selling gold or accounts or pretending to be from blizzard.  That alone makes me 1000% more secure then most of the WoW population.  No one knows how to find me to try and hack me.

Your email address, when it comes to something like this, should be held as closely as your social security number.  You would not post your social security number online because you know that it would followed shortly by identity theft and years of battle trying to restore your credit.  Online, your email address for WoW is almost as valuable  Giving your email out is like giving your social security number out.  Once it is out there then there is a chance that someone can and will get into your account.

The best way to secure that account is to not allow anyone to have that email address.  To use it for wow and wow only.  Sure, you can get hacked even if you do not give it out but the chances are so much lower.  Like sure you can get hit crossing the street but if you look both ways first you drastically lower your chances.  Same thing, keeping that email yours and yours alone drastically lowers the chances.

Now that I went over the importance of keeping your email safe you should get where this is going.  RealID wants you to use your email address, that one you use only for wow to protect yourself.

Lets step back one moment and see what you do to protect yourself, besides keeping your email address unknown.  You do not go to untrustworthy sites.  You do not go to gold selling sites.  You do not go to power leveling sites.  You make sure to keep your computer safe.  All of which is completely under your control.

Now back to RealID.  You give your email address to your friend so you can talk.  Now you have to ask yourself, does he go to power leveling sites, gold selling sites and other sites that you would avoid like the plague.  Can you be 100% sure that the person that you gave your RealID to will never get hacked?  No.  You can not be. Even if you would trust them with your life you can never be sure what they do on their computer.  You can never know how secure they are.

If you do everything in your power to protect your account (email as it may be) then do not, let me repeat, DO NOT use RealID.  Using RealID is like giving the email address you tried to protect to everyone in the world that might want to hack an email account because you can never know if the person you gave it to has a secure computer.

So, in summation, while the concept of RealID would be a huge asset to the game it is not a smart one yet.  Wait until they make a special identity thing where you can create a username for your RealID before you use it.  As long as I need to use my battle.net login email I will never be using RealID but as soon as I can make a user account named TheGrumpyElf or something else, then I will gladly use it and be happy to have it.

Don't be a Dick.
Don't share your e-mail.
Don't use RealID.

Unreasonable downtime again.

So yesterday was patch day and as normal on every patch day things went wrong and it took longer then expected.  Not just longer but much longer.  In my one year of playing this has been the worst since passing the second worse by about an hour.  I am not one of those people that are going to QQ about wanting my money back or wanting a free day to make up for it.  What are we talking about there?  Pennies?  I am a reasonable person and I understand that the servers need to undergo updates and clean ups and the such once in a while to keep my game play running smoothly.

I love reading the forums and seeing people cry about it.  It is actually quite amusing how some people get so frustrated.  They all come to that "I pay to play" argument when complaining.  No one ever seems to point out that while they pay to "have access" to the servers there is no promise of your server, or any others for that matter, being up at any given time.

This will be a bad example but it is the basic concept.  You go into a coffee shop and order a coffee.  It takes them 2 hours to get your coffee to you.  That is horrible service for sure, that is way too long and it not something I would have ever even waiting around for.  But in the end, no matter how long it took, you ordered a hot coffee and got a hot coffee.  You might never go there to get your coffee again being it takes forever and the service sucks but that will be your decision.

Same goes for blizzard. You pay a fee to access their servers and play the game they made on those servers.  You pay for access over the course of a month.  You do not pay for a months service.  Those are two different things.  If over the course of the month you have access to their servers then they are holding up to their end of the deal.  Sure, the service might suck just like at the coffee shop but the same goes for blizzard as the coffee shop.  If you do not like their service you do not need to shop there any more.  Do not order another coffee at the coffee shop because it takes too long for it to some and do not pay for 30 days access because there is too much downtime for your liking.  It is your choice.  Don't complain because you made a bad choice.  It is not their fault you made a bad choice.

Now for my problem with all of this.  Five years Blizzard has been around doing these patches and they still have not figured out how to do it right.  Millions upon millions of paying customers and they still have not even taken the effort the test an upgrade before installing it?  That is just simple bad business practice.  The have a PTR to test the game and might even have another test upgrade server.  If they test it in game play and test it in uploading then how to they always manage to run into problems? 

I don't know about you but if I owned that company and had an upgrade set to install and my workers botched it that badly on a regular basis there would be a lot of unemployed people the next day.  As a business owner I would find it unacceptable for my workers to be working at that level of complete incompetence.

It basically comes down to this.  If you can not do the install then wait until you figured out how to do it before trying.  It is not that difficult.  Where is the company ownership on this matter?  Why are the people in charge of running the updating process still employed this morning?  I do not think of myself as a hard boss where I work but if one of my employees continued to work at that level of inefficiency they would not longer be working for me.  That simple.

A world without Sin.

Well, for my faction we are not quite there yet but we took to Sindragosa as a learning experience and it sure seems like we came away with a lot of learning.  One thing I noticed more then anything else is that it was not quite as hard as people kept talking it up to be.  I am not sure why that is. Either I am becoming better at picking things up or the mechanics for this one sounded a lot scarier when it was talked about as compared to when it was in function.

Either way, we did not down her.  He got her to 3rd phase 2 times, got her under 50% 5 times and all that out of only 8 tries I think.  Not bad for a crew of 10 that I was with that had never been to her before.  Heck, we needed to tell people to head over to tank spot because some of them never even saw the video for it before.  With that in mind and a less then ideal team set up I think we did fantastic.  We had 3 pallys and 2 death knights.  No druids, which would have been really nice.

The thing is, this is what progression is and I am proud of the 9 others I was with.  None of them cried to change bosses we were working on, none of them said they had to leave after a few wipes, all of them were in it to learn it and that is the number one thing you can ask from any good player.  A good player is someone that will take the time to learn it even if the learning hurts a little bit.  A good player, a team player, will wipe a few times if needed.

Over all I think we did fine.  The whole time I was thinking "we got this" and I really believed that.  Unlike Rot and Fester when we first got to them and where wiping over and over.  I did not feel like we were ready for those.  This one seemed a ton easier.  I wonder why everyone says that this is a killer and super hard.  It sure as hell did not seem it.  The times we got to the 3rd phase we did not even get the 5 minute berserk warning yet even.

Our first wipe was more of a case of everyone seeing everything for the first time.  We did amazingly well for a team that never saw it before.  Made it through the first set of ice blocks and the second set of ice blocks before it fell apart.  I can damn near bet you that 95% of the guilds did not do that well on their first ever try.  Oh, did I mention we were also doing this with only 9 people at first?  Make it seem a little better on how we did right?

I made a few stupid mistakes myself.  Twice I died super early do to my own fault.  Stupid line of sight is quite literal it seems.  I was behind the block just as I was supposed to be but I guess my big toe was sticking out a little bit and I got hit.  Oops.  That is how we learn.  I did not mind it happening once, that is learning, when it happened the second time, well, no sugar coating that, that was my own fault 100%.


As odd as this sound I think our biggest problem was DPS.  Not as you might think.  We did not have too little, we had to much.  With the exception of twice, once when we were clueless and one of those WTF moments, all of our wipes where from breaking down the ice blocks to fast.  One run we had going we were below 50% and everyone was alive and the two blocks come out.  As normal we took our time to start.  Blast one falls, blast two falls, we burn down the block on the left and break it just after blast three falls and everyone moves to the one on the right.  Barely tapping it waiting for blast four to fall and oops, it breaks just as blast four lands.  Oh crap!.  Nearly everyone dies.

That was the story of our wipes basically.  I think only 3 times did someone die from the deathgrip type thing, so everyone got that down pat once we knew it was coming.  I decided to play with it some being the hunter that I am and I ended up as one of the 3 death from it once because instead of doing the mouse turn and run I was going to try something different and by habit mouse turned and disenganged..... right back into her. ~LMAO~  Oops.

I noticed a few things from a hunter perspective.  Or any ranged really I guess.  I can out range that effect and keep dropping the pew pew while everyone else is running for their lives.  I will note, I do not have the hawk eye skill.  That is standard range attacks that I would range it with.  I also tried the keyboard turning thing.  Only because I am one of those people that get annoyed with everyone calling keyboard turners bads.

Needless to say I never died once even while keyboard turning.  You can keyboard turn and get out of range WAY ahead of time.  Actually, after trying the 4 ways I did it mouse turning is the last of the four options.  Option one, out range it.  Option two, Disengage from it.  Option three, keyboard turn. Option four, mouse turn.  Yeap, I just said that.  Mouse turning is the worst option for that.  Contrary to what everyone seems to say online whenever I read about it.  Mouse turning, unless you are prefect at it can sometimes leave you on a weird angle.  I ran into the wall once.  Was far enough away but I do not like running into walls even if it does not hinder my play.

There is a problem with all four of these options.  Sometimes out ranging it does not work.  Do not ask me why.  I have no clue.  Sometimes I was at the edge of my range and did not get pulled in, sometimes I was.  Disengage works nicely if you hit it fast enough.  If you do not plan right and a global just started you need to move to option three or four.  Four I mentioned already, sometimes you can go a little more or less with it.  Not a big deal, just annoying.  For me at least.  I pick my one spot and I always like to go back to that same spot.  Keyboard turning gives easier control of direction even if it does seem to cut it close if you are not quick enough. I think in future attempts I will try to out range and if I get caught keyboard turn.  I will not even worry about disengage or mouse turning.

I think with the experience we had last night if we can just learn to stop DPSing the ice blocks, then we will finish it no problem.  I never thought I would say something like this but with that fight we have to slow down our DPS big time.

All in all it was a nice attempt and much easier to grasp then I had expected.  I think the more I play I am also learning that most people that talk about fights really like to make it sound harder then it was so they can feel better about doing it themselves.  Never trust anyone that says something is amazingly hard.  Same as never trust anyone that says without mouse turning you will die on that fight.  Both those people are plan out morons.

Did some serious leveling this weekend.

I got my hunter alt that I rolled on the RP server up to 20.  The other 2 1s are still sitting in goldshire waiting for their day to come.  I just made them so they can build some rested experience.  Makes life a bit easier for when I decide to level them.  My DK on that server that will be mining and jewelcrafting is still sitting around.  Did not start working on that yet.

On my main server I did some work on my priest and mage.  I had not intended to work on the mage.  I was just going to walk him to an inn so he could start getting rest experience as well but being it was the gnome starting area I figured I might as well do the quests in the starting area first before going there to park him.  I was level 6 when I got there and decided, well let me go pick up my professions first and then park him.  Then notice there were so many herbs all over the place and said to myself, self, lets just do some quests while I grab all these herbs.  Low and behold before I knew it I was level 20 on him too.  All because I decided to make him a herbalist and that area was just covered in herbs. 

Needless to say, if you want to start a herbalist go to the ironforge area and start grabbing, you will be over 100 in no time.  The place is littered with herbs.  I'll have to try and remember that if I ever make another herbalist.

So here is how my current roll call on my main server looks at the moment.  One of each class of course.

Hunter - Night Elf - Male - Level 80 - Herbalism & Alchemy
Druid - Night Elf - Female - Level 80 - Mining & Jewelcrafting
Death Knight - Human - Female - Level 80 - Enchanting & Inscription
Rogue - Night Elf - Male - Level 48 - Skinning & Leatherworking
Priest - Human - Female - Level 40 - Tailoring & Enchating
Shaman - Draenei - Female - Level 38 - Mining & Blacksmith
Paladin - Draenei - Female - Level 23 - Undecided (ditched old ones)
Mage - Gnome - Male - Level 20 - Herbalism & Alchemy
Warrior - Dwarf - Male - Level 6 - None yet
Warlock - Human - Male - Level 1 - None yet

That leaves me with one of each and I plan to get them all to 80 some day.  I have several professions still not maxed but working on it and one that I have never even thought of touching, engineering.  I currently have 6 open slots for professions as I am going to be dropping the Paladins skinning and Leather-working.

At the moment this is what I am planning.  Either the Warrior or the Paladin will end up being the engineer and will have mining to go with it.  The other, which ever it may be, will end up being mining and jewelcrafting.  So that leaves the Warlock undecided.  I plan to do tailoring on that one being a warlock on a flying rug just seems too good to pass up.  As the locks secondary profession I am not sure yet.  It can be anything as I will have 1 skinner, 2 herbalists and 4 miners in my stable to work with.  Actually, if anything I might drop someone of those miners when I get to max level and just keep one as a miner for gathering.  I just like having gathering professions while leveling.

There is also another option for me.  When my Mage hits 80 and is a maxed herbalist then I might drop herbalism from my hunter and make that one engineering.  Being that is my main and engineer will give me lots of useful things for PvP that does seem to be a fantastic option so far.  It is the way I might go.  If that is the case, I might go something different on either the Paladin or Warrior.  Wow, so many characters and so little time.  I am sure it will be figured out.  As long as at the end of the day I have all classes at 80 and all professions maxed out.  I don't really care.

It might be time to jump into gearing up again.

Not for my hunter of course, for my bank alt DK and my Druid.  My hunter seems about as geared as I can get it out outside of getting 3 marks to upgrade my chest, shoulder and head.  Past that I need King kills for weapons and heroic ICC for others.  While the crew I run with is solid and getting better as we get more people geared I really do not ever see that happening in the near future.

So it is either run my hunter through the same content over and over every week even though I do not need anything or start gearing up some alts so I can run with my guild with the alts that can actually use the gear.  Sure, if we are short on DPS I am happy to bust out my hunter and kick some boss butt.  I never have a problem with helping guildies.  I just need to have something to aim for when I raid 3 nights a week.  I know my hunter will not be getting any gear so might as well get another one of my characters geared up.

So how do you gear up a new 80?

I hear people cry all the time about how hard it is to gear up a new 80.  It is not that I do not understand their plight but that I think they just refuse to put the effort into it.  So it is their fault, not everyone elses.  Gearing up now is as easy as it gets.  It's so easy a caveman can do it.

Unless you are a tank that is.

Gear up a tank is like pulling teeth but quick. 
Gearing up a healer is okay mostly and does not take long. 
Gearing up a DPS is long and boring but pretty easy.

Tank:
Instant query.  'Nuff said. 
If you are willing to spend the time doing randoms you can gear a tank up to a reasonable level in less then 3 days, maybe even one if you do not sleep much.  Not kidding at all.  Anyone that tells you otherwise is lying.  The LFD tool will assure that you are in a dungeon 24/7 if you wanted to be with no down time at all.  That makes gearing up quick.

People give new tanks no love. 'Nuff said.
Trust me, I tried gearing up my bear.  Didn't make it 5 randoms before I swore to never tank again.  Partly my fault.  While I did read every scrap of information about bear tanking and could quote you what is the best for each situation and how to gear and gem and enchant and nearly everything that needs to be known I did not ever actually do any tanking with it.  No matter how much you read or how many videos you watch you need to learn how to handle situations by doing them.  Not very hard if you run with reasonable people.  Very hard, beyond words hard, when you run with people that will not let you move at your own pace. 

Just one example.  I was looking to get The Black Heart drop from normal ToC5.  We all zone in and one of the DPS says immediately, you are wearing a green trinket, you shouldn't be trying to tank this.  I replied, that is why I am tanking the "normal" version, so I can get the trinket.  I had over a 3K gear score already, more then enough to be tanking heroics, but wanted to get a better trinket because I like to have the best things I can when I do my job, whatever it may be.  Idiots like that make working to gear up as a tank hard.  Those are the same assholes that open up on the packs before you even reach them.  Dude, I am a bear, let me get to them and swipe first before you start pew pewing.  Aggro problems happen all the time while you are learning to tank with people that can not give you a second to get going.  I hate it.

Healers:
3 to 5 minute query.  How can you not love that?
Nearly the same as a tank, if you are willing to take the effort and spend the time you can gear up in no time at all.

The run can go either way for you.
If you have some super tank it is not like you will really ever need to drop more then a DoT on him.  If you get an average tank with stupid DPS you just bitch to the group, let the tank get aggro first and most of the time they listen.  As long as he is geared enough to do the instance and you are geared enough to heal him through it and DPS does not do anything stupid it is easy.

Stupid DPS will still be your bane.  Making you spend time healing them because if they moved they might not be able to do their leet DPS in a heroic.  Dude, if you are doing over 1.5K in a heroic you are doing fine.  That is more then you really even need to do.  Do you think it really make a difference if you do 6K DPS or 7K DPS in a 5 man?  Nope.  And you can not even extend your epeen by doing it because I will probably never see you and your uber leet deeps again.

DPS:
15-25 minute query.  I hope you have a gathering profession to keep you busy and make you some money while waiting.  You will not be gearing yourself up in a day or two like a serious tank or healer could.  Not even three or four.  For even the most dedicated player it is going to take close to a week if only because you will get into a lot fewer dungeons which means less badges which means slower gearing up.  Personally, I suggest doing all the northrend quests and gathering while you wait.  By the time you have enough badges to gear up you will have enough money to buy yourself some ICC crafted gear too.

As a DPS you have the easiest of the jobs in a 5 man.  I say easy, but it seems 90% of the DPS can't do this.  Being you are just gearing up, it will be a lot easier for you.  The idea, say hello when you start, thanks for the run when you end and during it you should always watch your threat and always move when you are supposed to.  If you can do that, even if you have 1K DPS, you will not get much grief.  One of the best things to say if anyone questions your DPS is something polite along the lines of, this is just an alt I am gearing up and learning because I am tried of running ICC 10 and 25 every week on my main and wanted to try something different.  Most people will not question that being it means at the least you know what you are doing.  Remember, even if that is a lie, it will work.

Unless there is some elitist jerk in the group no one will even notice you did 1K and if they did, they will not say anything, they will just joke to their friends about it later.  In most runs I do I am over 50% of the DPS, even on more even runs I pull 40%.  I have never even once mentioned anything about another persons DPS in a dungeon, if anything I would be the one in the position to say something.  There have even been a few times where I ran with someone with such a low DPS that it made me wonder if they were AFK and when someone wanted to kick them I said, no need, we are almost done and we don't need them anyway, let them get their badges so they can gear up.

On the rare chance you do get kicked, which will happen because most people are jackasses online, you are screwed with another 20 minute wait.  Gearing up as a DPS will take time.  Lots and lots of time and just a bit of luck hoping you do not get grouped with jerks.

So my Druid, the Bear/Tree will have to query as a Tree and my DK which is blood DPS/Blood Tank will have to query as a DPS.  You might ask, why do I have two tanks if I don't want to tank.  Thing is, I do want to tank.  I just do not want to tank with the type of people I tend to run into when I use the LFD tool.  Learning how to tank is hard when no one gives you the time to learn.  Also, with them geared up, I can help my guildies when they need instant queries.  If I go with all guildies I do not mind tanking.  Heck, once I am raid ready I can tank raids no problem.  Raids are easier then heroics any day.  In a raid you are basically there to hold threat and get beat on.  Single target most of the time and with people you know and that know you.  No stress in raids as compared to running with the morons that use the LRD tool.

After I am done with my refer a friend stuff I might have to start gearing up my alts.  Of course that will come while I get my other 7 characters up to 80 as well.  One of each class.  Did I really want to do that?  Nope.  I am doing it so I can learn better what each class can do.  Once I know that better I will become a better hunter and that is my goal.  Remember what I said, I read about everything but reading and doing are two different things.  Reading about a priest I never though I would like it and I love it.

I love idiots... I hate idiots.

Okay, it is more of a love and hate at the same time thing.  Mouse Turning vs. Keyboard Turning arguments are at it again on one of the forums I read.  I never post there but I read it all the time.  I should say something because some people are not only stupid, but they are beyond stupid.  There is just no real word to describe it really.

I am not talking about taking a side here.  I have done both and continue to do both.  I personally believe that both have their time and place.  Since I downloaded heal bot for my priest I have been doing more keyboard turning personally.  More so out of functionality then anything else.  I might just be a complete spaz but I find it 1000 times easier to keyboard turn when using heal bot.

I will quote a few comments that just got me thinking that some people should really keep their mouths shut sometimes.

Here is one of the lines from some half wit's comment.  Again, not siding with him or against him, just pointing out that he really made himself look like a fool because apparently he did not think before he wrote.

"But don't think just because you can play a certain way it's the most efficient. It isn't, acknowledge it and acknowledge that you don't use it and move on. The best players mouse turn and keybind. Accept it and move on."

Now lets move those words around a little bit here.  "The best players mouse turn and keybind." and follow it up with his very own logic "don't think just because you can play a certain way it's the most efficient."

You can't tell people that their opinion doesn't not mean they are right and then give your opinion as proof they are wrong.  If you are going to try and prove someone wrong at least give a reason.

And not a bad reason please... like this example.

"Tell me you can keyboard turn out of blistering cold and defile effectively and I will call you a liar."

This guys just invited himself to the world of "Here's your sign".  Just because you can't do it does not mean someone else can't do it.  So how is someone a liar if they say they did it?  Because they were skilled enough to do it and you where not?

I read an article not so long ago where one of the first groups to down the king was interviewed and someone said that mouse turning was required to get out of blistering cold and another of the members said that if you know when it is coming you really don't need to but it makes it a hell of a lot easier.

That part, "you really don't need to but it makes it a hell of a lot easier" proves that previous comment maker is a total moron, not to mention a complete asshole for calling someone a liar because of his inability to do something.  It also, in effect, shows how to make an argument, something the first quote needs to learn how to do.

The turning argument on the forums is always one I find enjoyable. It seems like people come out of the woodwork to comment on it.  I sometimes read them and think that half of the people posting insulting keyboard turners are most likely keyboard turners themselves and just doing it so they look "leet" to everyone else that reads the forums.

You can almost always tell who is really a mouse turner and who is trying to pretend they are a mouse turner.  A mouse turner will almost always say that mouse turning is more effective.  A keyboard turner will not be that forgiving while he is pretending to be a mouse turner.  It is usually, mouse turning is all win and you are all fail if you don't mouse turn.  Then of course they will justify it with some sort of bull crap like, because I can kick any keyboard turners ass in PvP.

I would love to see what the actual numbers are of keyboard to mouse turners are.  It would not surprise me if 90% or more of the people that play WoW are keyboard turners.  I would say there are a lot of players that keyboard turn and are just afraid to say they do because they do not want to be insulted.

I freely admit that on most fights that I would rarely need to move I do all movement with my keyboard.  If all I need to do is side step one way or another to avoid the fire there is really no reason to ever be "turning" to begin with.  There are (outside of PvP) maybe 2 or 3 times per raid that "turning" is ever an issue.

Now kiting or heavy movement.  I find mouse turning helps me.  Jump shots with keyboard turning I screw up 80% of the time.  So I don't do it.  I do not mouse turn when doing it because it makes me "leet".  I mouse turn when I do it because it is easier... for me.  Those last 2 words are the key.  FOR ME!

I personally don't give a rats ass if you mouse turn or you keyboard turn.  Is the boss dead?  Did everyone live through it?  Are we rolling on awesome loot?  If the answer to all three of those questions are yes then how you did your job doesn't mean anything to me.  What means something to me is that you did the job.

Dreamwalker Down

Finally got Dreamwalker down in ICC.  It was my first dreamwalker kill.  I think a couple of the people in my 10 man had downed it before but I had never downed it in a 10 man I was in.  It was nice to make some progression but kind of sucks that no one could use anything that dropped from it.

The guild leader is having some work issues that are going to keep him from being online for a while and the co-GM didn't feel like running last night being we did not have enough for two groups.  That meant that I had to play raid leader again.  I do not mind it so much but always feel a little nervous doing it.  Kind of like all decisions are on me and if I make the wrong choice and we fail it is all my fault.  Contrary to popular belief, even though I am a hunter I do not end up with the, it was all your fault, thing often.  I keep my huntard moments to a minimum if I can.

I was a little off at the beginning, trying to keep an eye more so on what was going on and not as much of an eye on my cooldowns for DPS.  I guess it is a skill to be the one that announces everything and still crank out the DPS.  I was still number one on the DPS charts but did not play to my maximum potential.

The few times that I needed to make a decision it seems I made the right one.  I choose to have a normal DPSer do the add tanking in the weekly on Deathwhisper.  It worked out well.  I choose to not collapse after the first blight on uncle fester which lead to a record time downing him. And I figured soloing healing dreamwalker would work.  That was more of a guess, I knew the other two would work.  I was pretty confident in those.  This one... well, not as confident.

We wiped the first time around but that was fine.  Second time around I put one person on suppressor duty.  They where to kill them and them only.  That seemed to be the difference.  It was a hectic fight but with no, or few suppressors on dreamwalker and the pally healer using my pet as a healing amplifier it went well.  The entire time I kept thinking, this is it, we are about to wipe and it never happened.  Everyone did an amazing job.  Everyone was low on life, bam, a timely heal came out.  Lay waste was about to rip us apart, bam, sucker was dead nearly instantly.  Everyone did everything they had to do and they did it well.  I was impressed.  7 bosses in 2 and 1/2 hours of raiding was not a bad night at all.

Tips and Tricks : Making your new character a minor mogul.

Okay, I am not talking getting rich at level 5 here.  I am talking about making enough money to train all of your professions and get all your new skills when you level up while not having to worry about not having enough.  Sure, you can extend it and do it more, but this is just enough to get you rolling on a new server with no more then 30 minutes of your time invested.

As soon as you pick up fishing you can make enough money to get rolling.  Go to the docks in Auberdine and walk up and down the docks looking for fishing pools.  The docks are the perfect place to fish for a lowbie.  No creatures sneaking up on you while you try to fish and lots of quickly respawning pools to fish from.

Take all the oily blackmouth you get and list them on auction (check listings to see what price to sell for).  Hopefully you will end up with a few trunks as well.  Open them up and sell the bolts of cloth, the leather and whatever goodies they give you on auction as well.  In about 30 minutes you should easily have enough stuff that you can make 8-20 gold, depending on the server.

Whenever you are in a city check the trade chat.  Anyone that says they are paying for guild sigs, sign up and take their gold.  If they are willing to give it out then you should be glad that you are able to assist them in taking it from them.  Again, without any time spent, just passing through a major city and sending a whisper, you made some more gold.

A few of those with your 30 minute fishing trip and keeping a hold to any white item you get to try and sell on auction, you can easily have at least 20 gold, if not 50, by the time you are level 10.  All greens that you do not need (and are not spellbound) should always be auctioned off.  Check your local market and look for items of the same item level.  On many servers you can get 1 gold each for level 8 green items.  Enchanters with lots of money and no free time are always buying from the auction market to disenchant. From here on, quest as normal and sell everything that you can and you will never have to worry about money for training again.

Now you will not be rich but you sure as hell will not be saying "I wish I had enough" when you hit level 20 and it is time to buy your mount.  That alone makes playing that much more fun.

Tips and Tricks : Gearing a low level hunter.

First things first.  If you are under level 40 you should not care so much about your gear.  I am not saying that you should not care at all.  I am saying that having some stats that are not exactly ideal for a hunter is not really a bad thing at all. 

If you are leveling a hunter you know what a hunter needs.  All end game hunter gear comes with 3 base stats on it.  Agility, Stamina and Intellect.  For a low level hunter those are still the stats you want.  That does not mean if you get something with strength or spirit on it that you sell it without even considering using it.  It might actually be a better piece for you.

You might get called a huntard for wearing gear with spirit on it but you need to remember one thing.  You know what you need, you are only using what dropped that is best for you.  There might be a better piece out there for you, but this piece is the best you have seen.  So who cares what they say about you.  Wear it with pride... until more suitable loot drops.

If you are currently wearing a Tribal Vest and you get a Ceremonial Leather Harness drop it is perfectly fine to equip it and lose the tribal vest.  Sure, you will lose 1 stamina (which hunters want) and gain 3 spirit (which hunters do not need) but you have to look at it differently.  You are moving up from 2 agility to 4 agility, which is the number one stat for hunters and you are going up from 65 to 74 armor, which doesn't suck at all.  Add to that the fact that you will not be wearing it that long.

You might look like a fool running around with a spirit chest on to people that don't know better but you will know that compared to what you were wearing, it is a HUGE upgrade.

Do not worry so much about someone possibly calling you names because you have gear with spirit on or strength on.  If it is the best for you at the moment, then it is the best, use it. 

Some minor examples:
Two pieces with 70 armor and one has 2 agility and the other has 2 agility and 2 spirit.  They have the same armor, they have to same agility, the only difference is that one has 2 spirit on it as well.  Might as well use the one with the 2 spirit.  You are not losing anything by using it and while we might not want spirit we won't exactly be hurt by it being there, so use it anyway.

You run across a piece of gear that has 4 agility and 4 stamina on it but it also has a bonus of 4 expertise.  Normally you would not put it on, that is not hunter gear.  A hunter will never need expertise.  However, if the gear you currently have on has only 2 agility and 2 stamina and 5 less armor that is a sweet upgrade for you.  Sure the expertise is going to waste but it is better then what you have on.

As you get higher you will find more items that fit your situation better but at the low levels you should worry about what has more armor and more agility and more stamina.  If something has more agility and more stamina even if it has spirit, strength or expertise on it as well doesn't make a difference.  Look at what it DOES have.  It has more of what you need.  Use it.  Just pretend like the other stats are not even there.

One word of advice however.

If you are using the dungeon finder and a piece with "off stats" like expertise or spirit or strength drops on it, let someone else that it is more designed for roll first.  If they do not roll need, then you can take it if you need it.  If they do roll need, do not challenge them, roll greed.  It is better for them because they can use all of it's stats, not just some like you would.  Be respectful of the players you play with even if you might never see them again.

The Baby Hunter

I only played for a few minutes last night.  Had a raid to do, so not much time to work on my new hunter.  I do not mind really.  It gives me a chance to get some rested experience so when I do go out and kill something I get more for it.  I am not going to rush leveling this new hunter.  I want to try different things and have a little fun running around the old world being it will all be gone soon.

I have noticed one issue so far with leveling.  I keep forgetting that I am a skinner.  I am not used to that with my hunter.  I guess I need to pay more attention with it.  On my rogue, which is a skinner, I love skinning.  Whenever I see other peoples kills I run around following their path skinning everything they left behind.  Hey, free money, can you blame me?  I'll get into that habit with my hunter I am sure.

I have been leaving my cat in stealth all the time.  Different from what I originally did.  I am doing things a lot different.  I used to attack and my pet would go in or send the pet in first and attack.  Now, I do it different.  I attack, let the creature come to me, as it gets close I send my pet to attack.  The growl makes the creature change its attention instantly and I never take a hit.  I never have to worry about my pet playing the dancing game with the creature and running back and forth half way through the zone and I never have to worry about my pet running up to it and ending up with 3 mobs instead of just the one at a time I want to do.

It is a sign that I have really grown as a hunter I think.  Stupid little things like that.  Things that maybe I should have realized when I first started playing but I didn't.  It seems like a slow process but it has been effective so far for me.  I guess that most of those things would escape a new player just as they did me.  I also notice that reading all the hunter sites that none of those beginning tactics are mentioned.  Everyone mentions how to play a hunter, how to do rotations, how to spec, how to gear, and a million other how to's.  I do not think I have seen any beginning hunter tips like the stuff I am doing now.  Maybe if I get the time I will write them up as I notice myself doing them. 

At level 11 there is only so much you can do, or some would say almost nothing, but I can tell you that so far I have noticed there is indeed a hell of a lot I can do.  A lot more then I thought I could do when I first started.  Who would have ever though of a level 11 hunter pulling from a pack of 10 level 12 and 13 murlocs would treat it as a heroic dungeon pull.  Yet I pulled only one murloc at a time, I killed them all without being hit once and I had fun playing the strategy of it.  A level 11 can do a lot more then even I had expected.

Starting out new.

I did not get a great deal done leveling my refer-a-friend stuff this weekend but got up to 34 with my team mate at 32.  Next weekend getting to 40 should be a breeze.  I did not have a great deal planned for this weekend so I took the time to make place holders for my next two characters on that server, a mage and a warlock.  That gives me 10 characters on that server which also has me standing neatly at 1 of each class.

I think I need to get another account.  Maybe I can refer a friend to myself. I guess that is possible.  What would I do with a second rocket mount however?  I could easily power level myself running myself through dungeons and then using the grantable levels from that char to get my others up.  Oh hell, now I am getting away from my train of thought here.  That defeats my purpose.  While I want more characters so I have all professions I also want to level them and learn while leveling them.  Having a level 80 you burned through the game to get yo level 80 does not give you the time needed to really learn that character.  It can be done, but it is a different type of learning.  I like to learn while doing, not learn after it is done.

I am a hunter, will always be a hunter.  The reason I think like that mostly is because I know how to play a hunter.  Not trying to toot my own horn but being realistic here.  I leveled a hunter from 1 to 80.  I made about every mistake you can make along the way and I survived.  It made me better, it made me realize how to play my class better.  I know a hunter inside and out because of that leveling experience.  That is why I think it will always be my main.  While I love the pet and the ranged style, I know it best, and that is what will make it my main end game character.

Because of the refer-a-friend I am starting on a new server with my friend.  Being it is a role play server I am making role play characters of course.  Three to start out with.  Made my main there a paladin because that is the character I have role played forever it seems.  Made a warrior, which is the brother of the paladin and made a deathknight that is the sister of the paladin.  I set them all up to be ready to go and walked them to an inn so they can build some rested time while I am waiting to go over there so we can level them together.

After setting them up it occurred to me that I do not really like playing a pally or a warrior, they where just made because they fit the role play.  The deathknight was not supposed to be a sister but the name of the character I was trying to make was taken, so I rolled with it and made it something different.  The DK is really just there to help make me some cash.  Made it mining and jewelcrafting.  That is always a nice and simple way to make money.  Starting on a new server I do not have massive amounts of gold just sitting around to help myself out with starting a new character.

So here I was, all set up with the role play characters when I realize that if I ever get to 80 on that server I would not be playing at end game level because I really do not like playing those classes.  I love playing a hunter.  The hunter I made as my first character was one of the role play characters names I had, so it would fit there as well.  So a new hunter was born.  I could play that one with the idea of end game in mind and I could role play with it.  Best of both worlds.

I made a hunter and set it up and decided that I would not use that one for refer-a-friend.  I would level it naturally, on it's own, as if I just started and never played this game before.  I already have no gold there and being I would be doing this on my own, no triple experience.  It was starting new.  I was interested with the idea to start off but once I started playing, it went from interested to full blown love.

I love leveling again with nothing to help myself along the way.  Sure, it is a lot harder, or longer at least, but it feels as if everything is brand new.  I hate the lack of bag space, it is killer, but in a way it fits for the level.  I have to go back often, so I just sell more often.  I will need to get some bags however.  Picking and choosing what to carry is a game in and of itself.  Wow, I did not remember what that was like.  Whenever I start a new character I deck it out with all the bags before hand and never have to worry about space.  I am liking this.

I ran out of arrows once.  It was not because I am forgetful either.  I have been a hunter long enough to know to carry enough for the task I am doing and then times that by 6.  So 6 times more then I need for anything.  I ran out because I could not afford to buy any more.  I had to run around and melee kill some nightstalkers hoping they dropped that one thing that is 33 bronze so I could get some cash to buy some arrows.  I got lucky, got a few of them and went back to buy arrows and turn in some quests.

Woohoo, had a stack of 1000 now, that would last me a small bit plus I had some extra silver to get some professions.  Level 6 now and got a quest to send me to darn.  I figured I wanted to go there anyway to grab my professions and put some junk in my bank, like food and cloth I knew I would need later to level cooking and first aid.

On my way there I grabbed skinning and leatherworking from those people in the middle of nowhere on the path to darn.  Only had a few copper left now.  Get to darn and turn in my quest.  Consider picking up cooking or first aid for a bit but decide I am better off keeping the little I have now.  I know I can get fishing for free soon from Gubber Blump so I am not worried about that.

At that moment I see someone say they are paying 5G for guild sigs.  I whisper them saying I am in darn and they say they are too.  Deal.  5 gold for me just for joining someones guild and I did not even need to take a break in my stride to do it.  Then I see another, and another.  One offer was in darn so I took it.  Here I am, 10 gold richer for all of 2 whispers worth of my time while I was running around there anyway.

10 gold is more then enough for all I would need to start a new character.  A hell of a lot more then what I had my first time I started playing.  I did not know any better then.  Now I know what bank alts are and I know people will pay you to join and you do not have to stay.  I took advantage of that.

I picked up my first aid and cooking now that I had to cash and headed back to do some more questing.  Having played a hunter before and having a better understanding of how things work I did things differently now then I had at first.  No pet means melee hunter time.  However, I am a learned hunter now, not a noob one.  I know how to kite and wow does it make leveling easier.  When I first got concussive shot when I started I asked, what is this BS, it is useless.  Now, as soon as I got it I said, woohoo, killing just got a whole lot easier.

I swear leveling a hunter the second time around and actually having to work on it is awesome.  I did get myself an 8 slot bag for 20 silver.  Just because I got 10 gold does not mean I am going to waste it.  The little extra bag space does help.  I can stay out longer while killing.

How times change?  When I first leveled it was serpent sting and auto shot until it got to me and then I would turn into melee hunter.  Now, I open with concussive, sting it, arcane shot it, oh, that is after marking it.  Needless to say, even with no greens, no heirlooms, no enchants, nothing but junk from quests and mobs, more then half the time the creature was dead before it got to me.  The few times it was not I dropped a raptor strike on it and did a back jump with a concussive again if it was needed.

The first time around I would get slaughtered by packs too.  I guess after all my soloing I was able to perfectly pull only one mob at a time.  Leveling with knowledge is so much easier.  Even without the gold and items and help from, well, myself.

Going on the quest to get my pet was like learning to love the game all over again.  I had become disheartened in the game recently and doing that quest line reminded me of why I loved playing.  It reminded me why I got addicted to the game to begin with.  It felt like a real accomplishment.  It also gave me something to run beside me while I quest.  A sense of being complete.  I always feel weird on my other characters.  No little buddy to follow me around where ever I go.  No friend there to help me out no matter what happened.  I was once again having fun with the game.

I got myself a nightstaker named Fang just like I did originally.  I leveled to 80 with Fang and Fang only.  Never got a grinding pet or anything else while leveling.  My cat did good by me.  I plan to do the same this time.  But I might grab a turtle when I get to southshore later.

My night ended as a new hunter with me fishing on the docks for Mr. Blump's quest.  I dropped a fire while I fished and cooked up the food so I could get some experience in both.  Occasionally I would throw Fang some fish, after it had been cooked of course, and I felt complete again in the game.

That is what made me fall in love with WoW, that is what made me fall in love with being a hunter.  It was awesome to feel that way about the game again.  A total rebirth.  I suggest others try starting over again with nothing on a new server with the class they like to play the most.  It is very fun.

BTW:  I kept fishing up trunks, which gave me lots of bolts of cloth and other such goodies to sell at auction.  I won't be trying to get rich on this server, but I surely will not be hurting for money.  Starting new is not as hard as I thought it would be.  Having Fang with me makes it a lot easier.  Back to questing with the first friend I ever made in WoW.  My nightstalker.

Are Two Specs Enough?

I often see people posting on one forum or another about tri-spec.  They want it and they get shot down completely with the usual argument of two specs are more then enough.  I would like to point out something to those people that say two specs are more then enough.  Two specs are one spec to many.  You only use one spec at a time, one spec is all you need.  So saying two specs is enough is mildly retarded.  One is all you need.  The only difference between dual spec is one spec you are not using and tri spec is two specs you are not using.

I personally would love to see unlimited specs.  That way I do not have to keep changing things.  Make each additional spec cost another 1000.  There you go.

I know what you are going to say, I am a hunter.  I am DPS.  I can only DPS.  Why would I ever need more then one spec?  With two specs I have more then I could need.  All I have to say to those people that might come up with a response like that is that they have either A) never played a hunter or B) never played a hunter well.

Now, just a short list of specs I would probably keep if I were able to have unlimited specs.  Mind you, this is not a complete list of possible hunter specs that have their uses.  Just ones I could find use for at least once in a while and ones I would be willing to pay 1000 gold to keep available.

Beastmaster Specs
Cookie Cutter Spec
PvP Spec
Soloing Spec
Extreme Soloing Spec

Marksman Specs
Cookie Cutter Spec
ArP Spec
Ranged Stamina Spec
PvP Spec
PvP Spec v2

Survival Specs
Cookie Cutter Spec
PvP Spec

As you see, that is 11 Specs right there and I did not even list ones that I would not consider using at any regular point. Even at that, I can only see me using 5 of these on a weekly basis.  So at the very least I can imagine needing 5 specs at bare minimum.

So I can only imagine if me, as a hunter, can find 11 useful specs and at least another 15 I did not mention that would have usage, then other classes that are actually meant to have more then one use could have upwards of 50 different situation specs that they might want.

Sure, I could keep respecing but all that is, is annoying.  Even more so if it is something I might only want to test out or use for a single fight once in a while.  Respecing for one fight then going back?  Madness I tell you.

Hopefully being Blizzard has been catering to casuals more and more they will cater to me as well and the many others that want more specs.  If I were only allowed 5 I would already know what they are but I would most likely find a way to limit it to 4 so I have that one extra space to play with.

Refer-A-Friend

So this weekend I started out my refer a friend program with a friend of mine.  I paid for the games and time, he supplied us with bag and he said he will help me out leveling my blacksmithing.  I am hoping to get a blacksmith and an engineer done during the course of this.  Those are the two professions I need to work on most as those are the two I really do not want to have to deal with slowly.

For this first set up I rolled a Shaman with Mining and Blacksmith and he rolled a Warlock with Herbalism and Skinning.  We are both horders of sorts so with his help I should have no problem leveling the blacksmith.  So far we are rolling along.  The triple experience is insane.  We did not play what would be considered a hell of a lot.  Spent lots of time learning the new characters (he had some experience in his type) and leveling up skills.  From a purely time spent questing stand point we have not played much.  I am already level 23 and he is 21.  I have heirloom gear on so that might be the little difference there.

Good thing about the triple experience is that if he ever falls 3 levels behind he will still get triple while I will not.  This means that we will always been within 3 because if he ever falls behind he will catch up almost instantly.  The summon to each other thing has been great so far as well.  I am liking everything about this so far and it sure as hell seems like it was worth the investment.  Sadly it is only for 90 days but I would actually be willing to pay $20 per month instead of $15 per month to keep the accounts linked.  In my opinion it would be worth it.

Of course I am saying that from this standpoint where I still need a lot of characters and classes and professions.  Once I get everything I doubt I would really care about leveling so quickly.  Heirlooms would be more then enough should I choose to level another character.

What I hope for is this.  Level my Shaman to 60 with his Warlock.  Have him use the Warlock to grant my Priest 28 levels.  So I can go from 30 to 58 and be outlands ready.  Level once you hit 58 is a joke anyway, even without heirlooms, so that would be enough for that one.  The other 2 levels he can put on my Rogue.  That would get him from 48 to 50.

Next one we do when we hit 60 I would ask him to level my Paladin (if I do not make one) from 23 to 45 and my Rogue from 50-58.  Reason being there is now my Priest and Rogue are outlands ready and my Paladin is past that level 40 barrier that now I can AoE grind to level and fly through the levels.

The Priest is my 2nd Enchanter / Tailor and my Rogue is a Leatherworker / Skinner.  Being at 58 you can learn max profession that is another reason I want to stop there.  High enough for outlands and max professions.  I am sure I can make out those in no time.  The Enchanting for sure.  I have a maxed Enchanter already and have LOADS of stock.  No joke, nearly 2 bank tabs worth of enchanting material.  Leveling will not be an issue.  And being I have a maxed Scribe as well, I will throw everything I make on vellums, which are cheap enough to make, and try to sell them.  Better then just enchanting your own gear over and over again like I was stupid enough to do the first time around.

This leaves me with 4 open spots to work on.  My Paladin is leatherworking and Skinning as well.  I decided that I do not want that, so going to drop them both.  So that opens 2 spaces.  Then there is the other new character I will make.  Mage, Warlock and Warrior are all I have left to make on that server.  I do have a warrior at level 6 but that was just something I did out of boredom one day.  I do not think I set him up with bags and such yet. If I have, then I will not start him over.

I guess what I make next will depend on a few things. If the warrior was set up then I will not make one of those.  So that means either a mage or a warlock.  If he chooses a mana user I will go mage, as that will help us both a lot. If not, a warlock.  I guess if I had to choose I would want to make a mage or a warrior.  Warrior leveling will help me learn some early tanking which I need to learn if I ever want to do some serious tanking later.  Mage would be nice to have for PvP and ports, not to mention, awesome ranged DPS which is my favorite thing to do.  Also, from what all my mage friends say, the stupid easy 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 BS rotation to top DPS meters is nice to do once in a while when you really do not feel like thinking much while playing.  Being Warlock is changing in Cataclysm I might want to wait for that.  I have enough to worry about with the hunter changes.  I do not want to completely relearn 2 classes, even if the warlock changes are no where near game changing like the Hunters are going to be.

So Mage or Warrior it is.  If I had started to deck out my warrior, then Mage is the way I will go.  If I go Mage I will either do Herbalism and Alchemy or Herbalism and Inscription.   If it a warrior it will be either Mining and Jewelcrafting or Mining and Blacksmith.  I already have one of both those combos, but that would be best for a warrior.  Also, at that point I will be thinking more about what works for the character better as I will have one of everything.

For the one (maybe 2 depending on how much time we have left over) character I put on the RP server with him I am going to be a Paladin.  That goes without even a thought.  If I am going to role play it will be a paladin, the same character I have role played for the past 13 years.  Might as well keep with it.  I would go mining and skinning there.  Reason being is I will need to make some money as I do not have any characters on that server already to play sugar daddy for me I will need some skills that can make money for me.  Mining is the best money maker, hands down, it is like stealing money with that profession and I can't do tracking for the two professions (herb & mine) at the same time so the other has to be skinning.

When I get to 80 and make some cash I would like to make the character a Jewelcrafter and a Scribe.  That will come later I am sure as that would be my secondary server, not my main.

It is going to be nice when it is all said and done.  Have all professions (except for engineering which I will likely throw on the reformed Pally) and have all but one class within end game range.  Then it will be the effort of getting them all to 80.  Which, with rotating rest and heirloom gear, should not take a very long time at all.

Wow, how times change.  When I used to read on the forums about people having all classes at 80 I wondered how the hell could they do that.  I have barely enough time to play my hunter and do everything I want to.  Now that I am end game on my hunter, have most of the reasonably obtainable achievements and only sit around waiting to raid with it, I look at it differently.  The other characters are all for fun, and professions of course.  Soon I will have one of each at level 80 on the same server.  That is sick.  I think of it as a way to make me a better hunter however.  The more I know how other classes work, the more I know how I can interact with them to the best of my ability.

Next task after that... saving up for epic flying for 6 more characters.  Only my hunter and Druid have it.  Not even my 80 DK has it.  That and I am going to need another bank character for sure.  My DK is one, might make the Rogue the other bank character.  I do not see myself ever really playing the Rogue anyway.

I am in love with Refer-A-Friend.  I suggest every good geek takes part in it one time or another.  It is worth it.