Project Lore

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'm always on the look out for new tools to use to keep track of trends in WoW. And it looks like a favorite of mine, what used to be called TalentChic, recently updated to allow users to find the most popular gear, enchants and gems, depending on a number of filters. I wrote a post a while back about how to use the same site to find talent builds and appropriate glyphs for those filters, so I'll skip over that information this time around. Now, the site is renamed WoW Popular, and has several other useful tools. Here's a refresher on how it works:

"To find the most popular talent builds, the (WoW Popular) system scans both the US and EU WoW armory sites to find the talent points, glyphs, gear, enchants, and gems chosen by characters. It then sorts those according class, spec and playstyle and collates the results."

Now I'm sure this is a debatable point, but the site asserts that the results of this search show the most accessible gear for a class.

"Because there are a limited number of choices, the collective mind of all players usually migrates to the best, most accessible option for players. What’s ‘best’ (top tier raid gear, or top arena gear) is not attainable for most players so it is usually shown a little further down the list."

Time for a little fun. Let's test out the system by taking a look at the most popular gear items among players of ALL classes. Here's the top 5, as of my writing this post!

1. Sundial of the Exiled
2. Band of Channeled Magic
3. Ward of the Violet Citadel
4. Tabard of the Kirin Tor (I guess we have a lot of raiders looking for Kirin Tor rep rewards out there!)
5. Shroud of Luminosity

Now, how about a look at the most popular main-hand weapon, again among all classes:

1. Hammer of the Astral Plane
2. The Turning Tide
3. Wraith Strike
4. Torch of Holy Fire
5. The Impossible Dream

Let's narrow it down a bit - Now a look at the most popular main-hand weapon for a fury-specced warrior:

1. The Jawbone
2. Betrayer of Humanity (I'm envious of that DPS)
3. Titansteel Destroyer
4. Armageddon (You will destroy the world with this weapon)
5. Ironsoul

As you can see, you can narrow down or broaden your search depending on what you're looking for. The search works for each armor slot, and you also can add in another search requirement based on one of five playstyles: crafted, mob, PvP, quest and raid. If it's not gear you're looking for, you can search for glyphs, gems or enchants, too. It's pretty handy and can simplify the dilemma in choosing gear - if you have faith in what other players are using. For the skeptics out there, try it out and let us know what you think. Are the results surprising? About what you expected? ...Laughable?

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This news makes me a sad panda. Currently, Jewelcrafters are able to cut Dragon's Eyes for themselves which give higher stats than any other currently available gems. For example a Bright Dragon's Eye gives +54 attack power, 22 more than the Bright Scarlet Ruby. With a maximum of three socketed in equipped gear, this gives Jewelcrafters 66 extra attack power (or the equivalent in other stats). That's on par with most other professions. For example, Enchanting adds 32 attack power to each ring, or 64 total. Alchemists get added effect from elixirs and flasks, so a Flask of Endless Rage gives 244 attack power to an alchemist instead of the 180 it normally gives (a bonus of 64). The difference is in the prismatics. This quality of the Dragon's Eye gems allow jewelcrafters to activate metagems without sacrificing a single stat. It also allows them to gain socket bonuses that they normally wouldn't get. Bornakk just announced an upcoming change that will remove that feature once the next major content patch lands (presumably patch 3.2):

In the next major content patch we will be removing the prismatic quality of the jewelcrafter-only Dragon’s Eye gems. Like other gems, they will have to match the socket color to receive a socket bonus. When this change occurs, players with qualifying jewelcrafting skill will be provided a yet to be determined amount of Dalaran Jewelecrafter Tokens as compensation.

Using me as an example, Dragon's Eyes being prismatic mean I was able to gem for an extra 66 attack power, gained three socket bonuses of 12, 8, and 8 attack power, and replaced a blue gem that had 12 stamina (something I don't want to gem for in PvE) with a gem that gives a pure stat. The total bonus from switching to jewelcrafting for me? 110 attack power. That's a lot more than any other profession could hope to give me from a Min-Max PvE standpoint. So I switched from Herbalism to Jewelcrafting. Epic gems are coming sometime in the future. Since they should be on-par with the currently obtainable stormjewels, which are unique equipped, Each one will give 40 attack power. Developer's plans to make epic gems much more obtainable than they were in BC mean my bonus from being a jewelcrafter will from 110 attack power to 32 attack power once those become available. Blacksmiths, who get two extra sockets on their gear, will go from a profession bonus of 64 attack power (on par with other professions) to 80 attack power. Looks like there's going to be a new best profession in town.

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Deeps clothing provided by Ctrl-Alt-Del.

My new guild - can I still call it new when I get personalized greetings at sign on? - has been going through some troubles lately, and it isn't drama related.  I guess you can blame the lack of healers for causing some drama.  On top of trying to solve this ancient MMORPG problem, we have also been hit by scattershot attendance.  Our GM and Officers have done their best to recruit eager players to the raid, but for everyone four recruited, it seems that only one is willing to show up.  Showing up is only half the battle though.  Being an able bodied raider is the other half.  Apparently, they didn't get the Level 80 memo. At this stage in the game, gear is only part of one's ability to generate respectable DPS.  Don't get me wrong, having the correct gear is incredibly important, but like the global warming problem, it is only one piece of the pie chart. Gear: There is gear, and then there is correct gear.  For instance, I could have some sick 1.8 Speed Daggers equipped.  In fact I have one from Naxx but I never use it.  Why?  Because its slow speed doesn't mesh well with Mutilate spec - this may be changing come v3.1.  There are tons of ways to judge gear which can cause tough decisions.  One of the easiest, but not the best, is to let an addon like RatingBuster do the comparisons for you. Making that type of decision means you have already located and won what you need, which is often the most time consuming challenge.  Thanks to Blizzard's constant updates to the WoWArmory, your character profile can give you some tips on what to hunt for.  Take Solidsamm's rings (or trinkets) for instance.  A quick check through the Upgrade link (On mouseover, hover over the arrow that appears to the right of the item) and you are hit with a two page list of items that are side-grades or better to his Ring of Foul Mojo. If you don't have the time to sink into instances or Heroics, then perhaps player created gear is more suitable.  Crafted gear is a quick and easy way to upgrade many slots.  The catch 22 is that these items can be pretty pricey.  However, if you spend your downtime shopping around for the mats while grinding the other non-craftable slots, you should save some serious gold. Spec: A player's spec is incredibly important for everything they do.  A few misplaced points and a toon can be out of 5-20% of potential DPS, making them a poor choice for a raid or PvP partner.  I am not trying to say that we should all be cookie cutter copies of each other, but the pattern exists for a reason.  My suggestion to those trying to eek out more DPS is to look at the cookie cutter version of your spec and analyze any and all differences.  Weigh the differences to see if what you have selected is truly better for what your spec is built to accomplish.  And don't be afraid to ask guildmates for opinions and tips! Glyphs: These bad boys should be used to strengthen your main spells and abilities.  They are relatively cheap compared to other consumables and will remain viable additions to your character until you change specs or new Glyphs are released, which isn't all that often.  Again, select Major Glyphs that modify the main abilities you use.  For a Mutilate rogue like Solidsamm that would be Slice n Dice (for more poison procs), Rupture and Garrote.  Unfortunately there is no Envenom glyph. Enchants: Enchants are often over looked, and with good reason.  As mentioned in one of my first posts, it is hard to justify sinking tens to hundreds of gold into gear that will likely be replaced very soon.  To avoid emptying your coffers repeatedly, only pick-up the most suitable enchantments on gear that shouldn't be replaced in the short term, meaning most epic quality items.  For those blue items, grab the mats and have a guildmate do middle of the road buffs on the cheap.  If you still have a collection of greens, the money and time are better spent just replacing the gear entirely. Gems: Another often overlooked and easily solvable problem.  Follow the same suggestions for enchants, saving the best gems for the best gear.  Gems are also a fantastic way to boost other stats that you could be lacking, such as Hit and Expertise rating.  Once you get those stats on board with the needed numbers, you should re-gem to help your spec, where applicable. When you do get that fantastic gear that you have been working towards for weeks, be sure to gem it and enchant it ASAP.  I always try to keep a handful of gems on hand to apply to new gear on the spot.  Why would I do this?  Two reasons really.  First, I don't want the new piece of loot to look "worse" than the old piece simply because it isn't gemmed.  Second, I try to get my gems at rock bottom prices, which means I have to wait sometimes.  During the interim, I slap a middle of the road gem in the socket as a placeholder.  The trick is that when you do the on the fly gemming or enchanting, you have to remember to go back and replace it.  That is a personal tip to myself, evidenced by my recent gemming excursion to replace all the green gems I had. Don't forget to play the game the way you want to though.  Just because one spec does a little more DPS than the other, doesn't mean you should suffer through mechanics that you don't enjoy.  After all, you should still want to play the game after you make the changes to be a more productive member of your guild!

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