Project Lore

In the past month or so, I've had a lot more time to really sink my nails into playing WoW. While getting caught up in the hype of gold, dungeons, scoring a hot new flying mount and figuring out how to best spend my emblems is fun, more and more I'm coming to realize that there are so many amazing, intricate aspects to gameplay that I've come to expect to the point of no longer appreciating. Now let me preface this by saying that Blizzard knows its business. If executives want WoW to remain the top MMORPG out there, they undoubtedly know that they have to stay on top of their game and keep coming out with challenging, fun, cutting-edge material to keep players engaged. And, for the most part, they do. There's always insatiable audiences who constantly demand more content, but all in all, I think Blizzard pretty much tops the industry in keeping subscribers happy. Let me also say that I am in no way informed about the actual process behind creating content. I'm happy with myself when I can just successfully get an addon functioning, so make what you will of that. So perhaps I'm in the minority when I say that sometimes, it's those simple things in the game that can most amaze me. I think a lot of this has hit me during my recent jaunt in exploration. Sometimes the large size of a zone would be daunting while leveling. And yes, even annoying. Running back and forth across an expansive area to complete quests wasn't my favorite aspect of the game. But by the same token, I wouldn't have enjoyed the actual questing if everything was crammed into one tiny, crowded area. I remember when flight paths were a godsend. Each discovery of one of those tiny green exclamation points was reason to celebrate. But eventually, they grew to be expected. And when there were areas without enough flight points, it was disappointing because it would throw off my leveling agenda. Certainly I'm not the only one who has felt this way; the Patch 3.2 implementation of mounts at lower levels makes me think I'm in the majority, not the minority. I'm not ashamed to admit that I suppose I also can be demanding of Blizzard. Why shouldn't I be? As subscribers, most of us probably do feel entitlement in some form or another. I just try not to be an ass about it because in the end, I'm still having fun playing. But its during those instances of annoyance that I try to remind myself of just how awesome this game is - without even going into the expansive lore, which alone is enough to draw me in. When I can't find an NPC because (lightheaded isn't working and) their location isn't clear enough on a quest description, I instead find joy in the hunt. When I was leveling and couldn't squeeze in all the quests I wanted because they were so spread out, I instead popped into an inn and decided to make up the difference on rested XP another day. And (before the days of being able to trade BoP items with raid members) when I had to put in a GM ticket to swap a piece of loot, I focused on the fact that Blizzard cares enough about keeping players happy that they will do something trivial like allow me get a gear upgrade. Now I'm even more amazed by some of this after reading WoW.com's report the other day that Blizzard tracks 180,000 bugs at any one time. That's a hell of a lot of content to be weeding through and still find time to make one individual's gameplay experience a priority. So perk up and show some appreciation. We'll always find things to complain about, but there's so much more to be excited about. If you need further proof, just take a look at Project Lore's blog page on any given day and learn about what Blizz plans next.

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It's 5 O'clock Somewhere! The closing of International Talk Like a Pirate Day ushered in another of WoW's seasonal events, the much loved Brewfest.  Ahh Brewfest.  Who could dislike two-week long celebration based upon the ancient Dwarven tradition of drinking?  No one, that's who.  Not even the Elementals, Old Gods or Titans could turn away a good brew, tall mug of ale or flagon of mead.  Each and every being in the Warcraft universe has their vice, thus we all love to celebrate the joy it brings.  Oh, except Coren Direbrew.  He probably hates the event since everyone tries to kill him for his purpalz.  Unfortunately for that Dark Iron dwarf, this year will be no different. The double-fisting dwarf has been updated to a level 80+ boss for 2009's Brewfest, and is complete with a new loot table.  Included in his table are the staples of old, the Ram and Kodo and the summoning remote, alongside some sexy new ilvl 200 trinkets (Dodge/Spell Power/Attack Power/Healing Haste) and the second successor to the dagger that almost forced me to quit the game, Direbew's Shanker 2.0.  Yes, Azerothians apparently label their daggers like we Earthlings label our software. Other than the new loot and raise in level, Direbrew's encounter is essentially the same.  To the tickets! Quests:

• Brewfest! - This is the simple starting quest to the event (Alliance/Horde).
• Now This is Ram Racing...Almost - You need to do this quest if you want to unlock the other ram racing dailies and/or grab your souvenir stein for Brewfest 2009 (Alliance/Horde).
• Say, There Wouldn't Happen to be a Souvenir This Year, Would There? - You'll be able to grab your free stein once you complete Now This is Ram Racing...Almost (see above), so be sure to do that quest first.  A very simple quest (Alliance/Horde)!
• There and Back Again (10 Tokens) - This is the most challenging, but not the most time consuming, quest.  You have to run back and forth on a temporary ram delivering kegs, while keeping your fatigue in check.  And you only have four minutes to do three runs.  If you do this quest then you can help the quest giver one more time (Alliance/Horde).
• Do you still need some help moving kegs from the crash site... (2+ Tokens) - That bit about helping the quest giver one more time refers to this.  You'll be tasked with doing the same thing as above, but you'll get 2 tokens for each trip made.  However, once your four minute timer is up you are done for the next 18 hours.  It's like a daily quest, only not a quest, or on a daily timer.  I guess it's the tuned up "Do you have additional work" from last year.
• Catch the Wild Wolpertinger! - One of the quests where you need to be completely smashed on booze or wearing the Synthebrew Goggles, available from the quest giver, to complete.  If you can't see any Wolpertinger's at the Brewfest camp grounds it is because you aren't inebriated enough (Alliance/Horde).
• Pinks Elekks On Parade (40 Tokens) - Another 'be smashed (or goggles) to complete' quest.  Only this also happens to be our token traveling quest for the event as well.  Alliance have to hoof it to Azuremyst Isle, Elwynn Forest and Teldrassil, while Horde will have to head to Eversong Woods, Mulgore and Tirisfal Glades to slay the figments of drunken imagination.  Please, no drinking while driving (Alliance/Horde)!

Daily Quests:

• Bark for a brewery! (15 Tokens) - You have to chose which brewery you bark for per day.  You can swap between the two available beer makers for your faction though.  You'll mount another ram, and then run amok in your capital city screaming about how awesome the chosen brewery's bubbly is.  Pretty simple  way to score some tokens (Horde - Drohn's Distillery/T'chali's Voodoo Brewery; Alliance - Barleybrews/Thunderbrews).
• This One Time, When I Was Drunk... (10 Tokens) - The beginning to all good stories...You can only start this quest after a Dark Iron invasion.  They happen every 30 minutes, so you should be able to find a keg to strike a Dark Iron baddie pretty easily.  Once they've aborted the mission pick up the Dark Iron Mole Machine Wreckage on the ground to start the quest.

In addition to the quests and the loot we also have Brewfest's achievements.  Most of them remain the same, so I won't bother running through them all.  The important one is the new Brewmaster (Alliance/Horde), which forces you to complete all the Achievements except Brew of the Year.  For many people, the completion of Brewmaster means they will have completed the monster meta-Achievement of What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, earning themselves a Violet Proto-Drake.  Congrats to those who do. I'll be wondering around "completely smashed" later today to finish off my token collecting for my very own pink elephant elekk.  Already snagged my wolpertinger.  Once that's complete, it's off to BRD for farming of the non-shattered dagger from Direbrew.

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Yarr mateys, landlubbers and scallywags! This Saturday be the grandest, greatest o' world events in all o' Azeroth. Why, I'm talkin' about Pirates' Day, o' course. Ye may recall that last year the fearsome Dread Captain DeMeza an' her crew shipped in t' Booty Bay in thar Stranglethorn Vale. Well, we be makin' ourr return fer another round! Saturday, we be takin' the liberty o' sendin' some pirate commoners to shack up in all o' yer cities. All ye scurvy dogs have t' do is speak with me pirate mateys an' agree t' don some fine pirate garb o' yer own fer up t' 12 glorious hours. Then get ye t' Booty Bay, talk t' me Captain t' become an honorary pirate, an' partake in the pillage alongside ye Goblin brethren. Just keep ye away from me booty! Lily-livered lads and lasses, ye need not attend: PvP servers will be rife with swashbucklin' and riotin'. But ye adventurers with half a backbone arr invited to join in on the dancin', eatin', drinkin' and shootin' o' fireworks. Listen t' the piratey music an', if ye dare, take a nice, long look at the fine, partially dressed pirate ladies. Me drunken corsairs might e'en fire ourr cannons int' the bay. I' ye want t' converse with me mateys, try First Mate Hapana, his talkin' assault parrot Nyuni, Cap'n Slappy an' o' course Ol' Chumbucket. Find a hearty bottle o' rum an' enjoy a years' worth o' celebration packed int' a mere 24 hours. Share a drink with me Captain DeMeza, an' being the fine lass that she is, the pirate lass will bestow on ye an achievement fer participatin' on this grandest of all holidays. Don' be gettin' greedy, though, fer a title ye do not deserve! I expect ye t' be there, lest feel the wrath of me wench!

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Activision-Blizzard and several other leading developers of MMORPGs are the targets of a a lawsuit recently filed by Paltalk Holdings, according to an article in the Boston Globe. The complaint alleges that the makers of many leading MMORPGs have infringed upon Paltalk's patented technology that allows players at separate computers around the world to see the same images in-game simultaneously. According to the article:

"In 2002, Paltalk purchased two patents from a company called HearMe, covering technologies for sharing data among many connected computers so that all users see the same digital environment. Paltalk claims that the data-sharing technologies used in games... violate those patents."

Other developers named in the suit include Sony Corp., which created Everquest; Turbine Inc., the makers of Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online; South Korea's NCSoft Corp., maker of Guild Wars; and British firm Jagex Ltd., which makes Runescape. We've reported in the past on several other lawsuits involving Blizzard, such as one on a "Virtual World" patent, and it seems that there's always something new coming up that they must defend. Perhaps what sets this case apart is that Paltalk already defended the same patent against Microsoft Corp. In 2006, Paltalk sued Microsoft for its alleged use of the technology in Halo. The case was set to go to trial in March until Microsoft opted to settle out of court, paying Paltalk an undisclosed amount to license the patent rights, and in the process conceding that the patents are valid. And it's obvious that Paltalk means business just based on where the case was filed: the U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas, "one of the nation’s most popular venues for patent lawsuits," because of its label as a "plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction." Looks like Blizzard could have a bit of a fight ahead if the technology it uses can be proven to be different from Paltalk's proprietary designs. Or, it may need to pay up for licensing rights.

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Earth, Wind, And Fire is arguably one of the toughest achievements in the game, requiring that you kill all three Vault of Archavon bosses within 60 seconds of each other, but the 10-player version has was completed by both Premonition (first) and Mediocrity (second) this week. Thankfully, the latter recorded the whole affair so we can see just how they pulled off this monumental feat!

I'll admit that when I first heard about the achievement, I thought it would entail engaging each boss at the same time, with the raid separated into several 2-3 man groups, but it turns out that they can be pulled out of their respective rooms without resetting. This ends up being key to Mediocrity's strategy, and it allows them to make the groups a little more even. They start with the newest Vault boss, Koralon the Flame Watcher, first, and while whittling down his health, drag him all the way over to the dungeons' namesake, Archavon the Stone Watcher. At this point, it's important, even when tanking two separate bosses at once, that both of the tanks stay near each other in order to reduce the effect of Koralon's Meteor Fists attack. Presumably, a second group is staying on Emalon the Storm Watcher this entire time, who would be much harder to lead around the instance with all of his adds in tow. Sadly, we don't get to see precisely how they handle the Overcharged minions, since this video is only filmed from one perspective. Besides, I really can't imagine having to deal with all three bosses' area of effect attacks at once! It looks like we'll still have to wait a little while before anybody nails it on 25-man, but I imagine that it couldn't be significantly harder since your numbers wouldn't be spread quite so thin. The real important thing here just seems to be getting the strategy down and knowing each boss well enough to automatically respond to their individual abilities. Tough or not, I'd love to see more achievements like this thrown into the game. It reminds me a lot of the live raid they did at BlizzCon this year, where they pit the aforementioned Premonition against several different raid bosses at once, arena style. How about you, readers?

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Austin GDC Panel Unveils Some Fun Facts About Blizzard For those of you who don't follow every video game convention - shame on you! - you may be surprised to know that the Austin Game Developers Conference has been going on all this week.  The Austin festivities are generally lower key than the San Francisco show, because the Texas show tends to be more focused on developer aspects, and not announcements.  In conjunction with the more professional tone, rather than public relations, Austin happens to be a focal point of MMOG companies in the country.  This causes the show to lean in that direction more than any other.  Not a company to miss a beat, Blizzard sent Executive Vice President and Blizzard Co-Founder Frank Pearce and Production Director J. Allen Brack to the show. In sticking with the more professional tone the pair didn't make any big announcements or tease any new Cataclysm information.  Pearce and Brack did give us some juicy information during the panel they presided over, The Universe Behind World of Warcraft. TheGameReviews.com has a fantastic recap of all the juicy numbers here, but I'll highlight some of the more interesting topics. World of Warcraft fun facts: 5,500,000 – Lines of code.  I wonder how long that would take to scroll through. 7650+ - Quests spread across WoW, TBC and WotLK 4,449,680,399 – Achievements earned since inception during Wrath's launch era.  The figure is already a few days old, making it outdated as soon as it was reported to the audience. 126 – Different versions issued of every patch.  Don't forget, they come in incremental upgrades, full upgrades, and streamed flavors for each of the 10 supported languages. 1.3 - Petabytes (1300 terabytes) of storage. 28,000+ - BlizzCon 2009 attendees. 0 - Blizzard employees got in to the show for free.  Despite each person paying their way, the company still operates the convention at a "substantial loss." 400 - Licensed Blizzard products including books, manga, plushies, apparel, and comics. 12,000,000+ – Battle.net accounts, a number that will only increase when Battle.net 2.0 is launched alongside StarCraft II and WoW players are forced to migrate. 400 - The number of employees before WoW launched, 60 of which were on the development team. 4600+ - The current number of Blizzard employees, including 2,584 customer service personal. 4 - Projects Blizzard is currently working on - Cataclysm, StarCraft II, Diablo III and the unannounced original intellectual property MMOG. God I love numbers. For those of you that are interested in game development, you can listen to the whole discussion here.  Needless to say, it's a lengthy chat.  If you don't find the above fun facts interesting, then passing on the mp3 would be a wise decision.

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So, have you found a guild to join yet? If that's the case, then you might be wondering how to make yourself a bit more attractive to the guild leader and/or recruitment officers. Of course, there are several ways to do this. I mentioned yesterday that applying for a guild is a lot like applying for a job. Well, gearing up would be the equivalent of building your resume. Before I give you some suggestions, though, let me point something out: in theory, player skill is infinitely more valuable than gear. You'd be hard-pressed to find a top-level guild that doesn't agree with that statement, so learning to play your class is the number one, most important thing you need to improve. There are plenty of sites you can go to in order to find out how to perform like the best, but two of the most popular are TankSpot (as the name implies, chiefly for tanking classes) and Elitist Jerks (for just about everybody else). Elitist Jerks, in particular, has even been praised by World of Warcraft's Lead Systems Designer Ghostcrawler for their approach to theorycrafting (hint: they create their ideal builds from what exists in the game, instead of whining about what they think their classes deserve). So click on over to their site, scroll down to the class forums, and find the one that applies to you. They also have a handy Guild Recruitment forum for you to browse if you haven't found a suitable one to apply to yet, and considering the types that usually hang around Elitist Jerks, I'm willing to bet that many of them are top-tier choices. Of course, all the theorycrafting in the world means jack if you don't have the experience. This may seem like a bit of a Catch-22 -- "how do I learn about raiding if I can't find a guild to raid with?" -- but the game has different tiers of content for a reason. Whether you're a tank, healer, or DPS, run as many 5-man dungeons as you can. Is someone asking for help with the Amphiteater of Anguish in Zul'Drak? Go lend a hand. Sure, most groups, even PuGs, steamroll through these parts of the game these days, but that doesn't mean you can't test yourself. Take the things you've learned online and apply them as best as you possibly can to these encounters. Something else you might consider engaging in, oddly enough, is PvP. I wouldn't rely too heavily on this option, since specific strategies and class specs are going to be different in a raid environment, but its a good way to prepare yourself for the more chaotic encounters in the game. Being able to keep on your toes and respond well in a crisis is key to defeating many bosses later in the game. In fact, Faction Champions in Trial of the Crusade is basically a mock PvP battle. Those of you out there who play DPS classes may also want to check their level of damage against target dummies that can be found in every major city, but for any class looking to place a value on their play skill, I'd recommend downloading the Recount add-on. I can't emphasize enough how important knowing your class is. If you think you're already good enough, I guarantee you that you're not. There's always room for improvement, and people are rarely aware of their own shortcomings. I've encountered far too many people who acted like they knew what they were doing, but couldn't raid their way out of a wet paper bag. They'd stand in the fires or void zones, their dps barely broke 2000, and they often weren't where they were supposed to be in any given battle. Repeated wipes will quickly show which players aren't pulling their weight. By "gearing up," we didn't mean to level Engineering! So keep that in mind. Good guilds won't recruit you based on your word. They're going to look for bonafide proof that you know what you're doing. How about that gear then? As much as I've rambled on about experience in the past few paragraphs, the suit you wear is still important. An insightful recruiter might still pick up someone who shows potential (and they should if they want to increase their potential pool of applicants), but don't think you're going to be a first-, or even second-, stringer if you haven't got the right equipment. There are certain bosses in the game that some of us like to call "gear checks." These often exhibit relatively simple, predictable mechanics that taxes players to their limit. Think "target dummies that actually hit back." Of course, the most notable of these is Patchwerk in Naxxramas. He's kind of old news now, but the massive amount of damage to tanks pushed both them and the healers to do their absolute best, while a strict enrage time required damage-dealers to take him out before he wiped the entire raid. "Gear checks" and other tough encounters ensure that you need a minimum level of gear to compete. And unless they've opened their hearts and plan on giving you a little charity, any guild you plan on applying to is not going to feel very good about carrying your under-geared ass through a dungeon. At that point, you're reaping all the rewards while they're stuck with the dead weight. As for obtaining the gear that you need, following is a list of viable options:

• Run 5-Man Heroic Dungeons: If you've been building your experience through 5-man dungeon runs, then you've probably already picked up a few pieces of epic equipment just from defeating their end-bosses.
• PuG A Raid: This isn't my favorite option of all, but if you act smartly, it can be a viable resource. I'd warn against joining PuGs for the current tier of content (Ulduar or Trial of the Crusader), but Naxxramas should be fair game now. Both Sartharion and Malygos are fundamentally easy to kill, but the mechanics of their respective encounters are still too complex for some people to follow.
• Spend Your Emblems of Conquest: Well, thanks to the new badge system, gearing up is easier than ever. Each boss in a Heroic level dungeon or regular difficulty raid will cough up Emblems of Conquest. While they won't get you net you the latest tier of gear, you can still pick up a few pieces that are equivalent to what drops in Ulduar. So hop on over to your faction's badge vendor (they're both located in Dalaran).
• Craft Your Gear: Gather materials and make your own or have someone else make them for you. Some crafted purples are actually far better than the average dungeon drop and they're handy for filling in those empty spots when a potential recruiter looks up your Armory profile (speaking of which, always log out with your best PvE gear on when attempting to apply for a progression raiding guild).
• Pay For A Run: This may seem like cheating, but many top-tier guilds out there will allow you to pay for a spot in their raids. You're probably not going to get to run ToC this way, but you might be able to score a trip to Naxx or Ulduar. This might seem to conflict with my advice of PuGing above (since that's free, unless you put a price on time, and I do), but there are some advantages to paying -- you'll be running with an experienced group, which more or less guarantees success. The people running with you may already have better gear, reducing competition on drops. And, if you prove yourself to be a good, consistent performer, who knows? They might just invite you to join them permanently. Of course the limiter here is your own, personal gold reserve. If you're an industrious player who works the Auction House and spends a great deal of their game time doing dailies, it might not be a big deal, but for the rest, it can get quite expensive. The top Horde guild on my server (Anvilmar) lists a raid spot at 1k, which only buys you the run itself (and whatever else is given out to all players, like badges). If you want a piece of equipment or a tier token, you're going to have to shell out even more. But, hey, if you can afford it, they're happy to have you along. It funds their guild bank, while you get a quality service in return.
• Shop On The Auction House: Another option for the wealthy player. Just buy gear. Some bosses drop Bind-on-Equip items that guilds will then sell on the Auction House in order to help fund their own banks. Some of them are quite good and there's nothing shameful in purchasing them if you've got the money.
• Get Creative: If you've got a crazy idea for obtaining loot, make use of it. Propose an offer to a guild recruiter and see if they'll take you up on it. Maybe they're willing to help gear you up if you can, in turn, help them in one way or another. You scratch their back and they scratch yours. If they get kickbacks for bringing in quality new members, then it would be in their interest to make you improve. Don't be afraid to get a little dirty, as long as you aren't stealing gear from other people (progression guilds tend to frown or  black list known "ninjas").

If you need a guide to gear, LootRank is a good general resource. There are also some class- or spec-specific pages out there like ShadowPanther (Rogues) and ShadowPriest (speaks for itself). The class forums at Elitist Jerks often provide Best-In-Slot gear lists if you can sort through the rest of the information. The last piece of advice I have for you today is this: once you've got your gear, gem and enchant it. And do it is much as you can possibly afford. If you can buy epic, purple gems, do it. If you can buy the best enchants, get them. It will show a recruiter that you mean business and that you're willing to be one of the best if they allow you to join. If you don't have the money, earn some. At least load up on blue-level gems, and make it known that you're poor right now. Having under-gemmed and under-enchanted gear is one of the top reasons why people get turned away, so don't fall into that trap. All of these options can and do work for people who do not yet have access to the latest tier of content. If you want to get there, then yes, you're going to have to work your way up the gear ladder. It can take a few days or it can take a few months, but I hope I've proven to you that it's not impossible. And, as always, experience and knowing your class are key. On the next edition, I plan on addressing issues of guild etiquette and why no matter how hard you try to get into them, certain guilds might just not be for you.

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If you can drown out all the players on the official WoW forums QQing about how their class is underpowered, QQing about how easy new content is, and QQing about the price of Goldthorn Tea in Teldrassil, you may hear players QQing about things that were once difficult becoming too easy - such as obtaining mounts. You used to have to get to level 40 to get a mount, and it was a serious chunk of change to do so. And once you hit 60, you had to grind out quite a bit of gold before you could even consider getting an epic mount. For most players these days, its hardly become an afterthought to pick up their mount at level 20 for five gold and upgrade it to an epic mount at level 40 for pocket change. Flying mounts at 60? Only the norm. And with the Tome of Cold Weather Flight, the joy of first flight just isn't what it used to be. What is the value of being on the cutting edge? There is the notoriety of being a great player and the fleeting rewards, like the Plagued Proto-Drake. There is also the assurance that you will experience content before it is changed or removed, such as the classic Naxxramas or old world content before Cataclysm. But, for the most part, content becomes easier as time goes on. Some players did Ulduar weekly to get Emblems of Conquest, which are now farmed in heroics. Mr. Pinchy used to take players days to farm, and now you can get him in just a few casts. I got mine just yesterday in 5 minutes:

Speak with Mr. Pinchy and be granted a Wish! Maybe something good...maybe something bad.... Mr. Pinchy does not know!

What used to be difficult, cutting edge achievements, like Sarth 3D, are now puggable. Instead of spending dozens of hours being the first to down content, why not wait? I think Blizzard answered this question long ago when discussing the declining participation in arenas - players will go to where they can get the greatest rewards for the least amount of effort. While the amount of effort to do content when its new is much higher than when its months older, the relative reward is much higher. Hardly anyone would give you a second glance if you were in gear from Naxxramas 25 now-a-days, but it used to be a stamp of a pretty decent player. You could breeze through today, but if you struggled through it last December and reaped the rewards, you had the best gear available. Even though the gear is still the same, the fact that it was the best you could obtain gave it special value. Its hardly a good reward for something that is still a bit of effort. I personally spend a lot more time doing older content. I prefer to breeze through older content than spend lots of time being among the first to accomplish something. I like getting the stranger achievements and doing long-abandoned quests, like the Scepter of the Shifting Sands questline. Are you one to be on the cutting edge, or do you wait awhile before you attempt content?

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It started out great. Hitting 80, jumping into dungeons, my first downing of the Black Knight and subsequent farming of ToC. Then came the daily heroics. I was slowly building up my collection of purples, and it showed as my DPS jumped from really crappy to only moderately crappy (still working on that part - hoping rounding out with more purples helps!) Yes, Locomomo's advancements in Azeroth made me giddy. What did not was the depletion of my bank from a couple thousand gold to only a couple hundred; mostly from high repair bills and buying gems to socket into my shiny new gear. Those stupid jewels, if you want the good ones, are ridiculously expensive. And I DO want the good ones, at least for the gear that I probably won't replace for a while. I haven't even started looking at enchants yet, unless it's something a guildy can help me out with. In the grand scheme of things, what I've spent so far isn't all that much gold - I'm sure I could make it back pretty quickly if I really needed to. But therein lies the problem. If I take the time each day to run the dailies I need to make back gold, I lose out on raiding time. If I raid, I get more awesome gear that needs gems to make it even more awesome. Not to mention higher repair costs. What's a girl to do!? I'm thinking it comes down to time management. I don't play as much during the week anyway, but if I can manage to pop on for a few dailies each day, then save up longer raiding sessions for the weekend, that might be the key. Finishing up my exploring may have to be put on hold. Another possible solution - finishing off leveling up my leatherworking so I can get my buffs from the profession, and maybe even making some money off what I can make. Then once I get the leatherworking up, I could drop skinning and pick up another crafting profession. But then there's the issue of leveling it up without the gathering profession - of course, that takes more money! Then again, if it's jewelcrafting I pick up, then I won't have to buy jewels anymore, just the reagents. Ack, too many decisions! Any readers out there with two crafting professions? For that matter, any with dual gathering? Do you use it more for the benefit of your own buffs, or for money making? What other methods have you found to manage gold-making and gold-spending?

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I've never played World of Warcraft without being in a guild. When I first started playing way-back-when at the games launch, I joined a starter group with a few people from a forum I frequently post on. Since those rarely last long (and this one certainly wasn't breaking the trend), I eventually hopped servers and fell in line with my roommate's guild.  They were focused on end-game raid progression and we had some wonderful times fighting through Molten Core, Onyxia, and Blackwing Lair, but by the time Burning Crusade rolled around, the leadership started to crumble. Our guild leader got fed up with the drama and quit, while I had my own sort of "falling out" with my own roommate. Needless to say, I had to find a new home in more ways than one. In real life, I finally moved in with my girlfriend, but the lack of viable options in WoW meant that I was taking a hiatus from the game for a little while. Several months later, I decided that I wanted to get back on the wagon and found out that several of my female friends were actually playing together. One had hooked up with a group of players she had met through playing Final Fantasy XI previously, so I figured it wouldn't be a terrible idea to throw my chips in with them. I started leveling a Warlock and eventually pulled my level-capped Rogue (which is still my main character) over since I so dearly missed playing her. We were a small, close-knit guild, but we hungered for more. Several mergers, and a complete take-over later, and I find myself in a fairly dedicated progression raiding guild once again, with a fair group of people that I generally enjoy interacting with. So what's the moral of the story? That I've been exceedingly lucky in my choice of companionship so far. The reality of things, though, is that most people have trouble finding a guild, let alone one that they actually enjoy being a part of. Joining a guild can feel a lot like applying for a job, and much to the chagrin of most of you out there reading this, I have to admit that this is not an empty comparison. But don't fret! It's not quite that dire. Unless you're seeking a spot in one of the guilds at the absolute pinnacle of raiding in the game (almost every server has at least one or two), you're not going to have a whole lot of competition. In other words, while a lot of progression guilds can be picky, they're willing to take on just about anyone who makes themselves an attractive addition, and in a series of articles over the next few days, I plan to help you do just that. WoWProgress is a wonderful resource for scouting out the perfect guild! Where do we begin? Well, people are starting new guilds every day, making empty promises of "one day hoping to raid" and hawking their "sweet tabards" and "two bank slots" in an attempt to swell their numbers. If you're at all interested in becoming a progression raider, you need to avoid these guilds like the plague. So, the first thing you need to do is educate yourself. Figure out what the serious guilds on your server are. The easiest thing to do is ask around in general or trade chat, but the top groups often require you to apply at their websites for consideration. If they're openly recruiting, chances are that they'll have posted something on your realm's official forum. In general, that's a good place to look when figuring out who is prominent on your server. If they maintain an active presence, this also allows you to figure out whether or not your personality is going to conflict with theirs (this is something I'll get into in the future). But if you're looking for pure stats, sites like WoW Progress can help. Simply find your realm and it will give you a ranked list of guilds on it, based on level and speed of progression, as well as any special achievements they've earned. Some guilds even list the classes or specs they're actively looking for and provide a link to their individual websites. If you think you're already geared and experienced enough, I'd suggest aiming for the top. If you don't make it in, then they're likely to give you a few tips as to why you weren't up to snuff. At that point, it's up to you to follow their advice and try again at a later date, or start working your way down the list to find a guild that will accept you as you currently are. It should go without saying that most top-tier guilds have extremely high standards, but you'd be surprised at the kinds of people that end up applying. Something else to consider, and you should come across it at some point if you're doing your research, is whether or not you can make the raid schedule. In my guild, we have three core raiding nights a week, and each one generally lasts three hours. Now, due to the nature of our guild we don't technically enforce attendance (even though we do encourage it). However, what we require is often the bare minimum. Stone-cold serious proression guilds may raid four or five days a week and they may ask you to put in longer hours. Chances are good that they also make many of their raids mandatory, meaning that if you can't make it, or you don't have a reasonable excuse for missing a given night, you won't find yourself in the guild for very long. At the least, you'll be put on the second or third string, at the worst, they'll toss you right out the door. Keep in mind that a lot of guild officers take their job setting up and running raids seriously. They want you to be successful. They want you to get better gear and become a star player. If you can't show them the appropriate appreciation or respect, then they won't want you around. But I'm getting ahead of myself now and, looking at my word count, it's about time to wrap things up! Shopping around for guilds is one thing. Making yourself a top candidate for admission is another completely. In the next edition, I plan on covering basic gear requirements. Any questions or thoughts, readers?

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