official World of Warcraft

[ylcard]

You need to find a good guild, being casual is all nice, but if you think you're having fun now, you won't believe how much better it is when you're level 80.

So casual or not, being in a good professional guild is important, it will actually help you level in an indirect way.

ninja edit:

Hah, you're from Israel too :)

[Ran Sagy]

I am :)

Well, Leveling isn't my purpose in the game. I got attracted to WoW because of the actual lore and epic feeling of travling in the Warcraft world.

So while i level more slowly, I enjoy the game itself mid while. I probably won't ever do the huge raids because i don't see myself investing 5+ hours straight to WoW.

I have a guild right now, But it's similarly casual - We just help each other here and there on occision.

[Slane]

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.x...ds&n=Granak

You look fine. I'd try to snag another 2% hit to have all your specials (yellow) attacks hit-capped. But other than that, you'll do fine in 10's and 25's. You want me near the top of charts, but you'll do better than some. If your guild does 10 mans or even 25 mans, I'd start trying to get into those as there's several upgrades you could snag not to mention most people aren't getting many upgrades from them due to running them so long, so it could be fairly easy for you to get geared up. I do recommened getting cheap enchants on all your gear. Agil to cloak, stats to chest, shoulder enchant. Your hands and legs could also use 'em (get the blue version of the leg enchant) and don't forget to enchant your boots.

Most of your non-enchanted gear can be enchanted with fairly cheap enchants (don't need to get the expensive ones as you'll end up replacing the majority of the gear fairly quick) which would help in small amounts.

[Spookie]

You look fine.

Depends what you define as fine. If you don't want to see Ulduar until the top end guilds have killed Arthas 90 times then yeah. He'd be fine.

If you put a bit of hard graft, get your self in to 25/10 Nax. You can get above the wave and comfortably ride your self through the new instances when they hit. If you don't you'll be putting in even more work to play catch up with the other guilds.

I slacked in TBC and regretted it. I never saw Sunwell even though I had 90% attendance in my guild at the time the highest achievement I managed was Illidan attempts.

I'd try to snag another 2% hit to have all your specials (yellow) attacks hit-capped. But other than that, you'll do fine in 10's and 25's.

25 mans, no, most would refuse to take you on a pug. But it depends on how much your raid leader trusts people. 10 mans on the other hand yes you'd fit right in. If you put 110% in a Naxx run your efforts might get noticed.

If your guild does 10 mans or even 25 mans, I'd start trying to get into those as there's several upgrades you could snag not to mention most people aren't getting many upgrades from them due to running them so long, so it could be fairly easy for you to get geared up. I do recommened getting cheap enchants on all your gear. Agil to cloak, stats to chest, shoulder enchant. Your hands and legs could also use 'em (get the blue version of the leg enchant) and don't forget to enchant your boots.

I agree, but don't use cheap enchants. If your guild folds, it happens. Other guilds you apply for will cast a critical eye over what you've done to get the most out of your gear. Make sure to get the most expensive enchant which doesn't use a shard as they are still fairly pricey. Everything else is dirt cheap these days. By the looks of it you've not started the Sons of Hodir quest line. Start it now. It'll take a while to complete it and even longer to get exalted but doing so nets you a rock solid shoulder enchant you can't buy.

This sounds a bit of a hardcore eye for a casual guy. But seriously, a tiny bit of effort now will make life easier when the patch hits.

[Slane]

Depends what you define as fine. If you don't want to see Ulduar until the top end guilds have killed Arthas 90 times then yeah. He'd be fine.

If you put a bit of hard graft, get your self in to 25/10 Nax. You can get above the wave and comfortably ride your self through the new instances when they hit. If you don't you'll be putting in even more work to play catch up with the other guilds.

I slacked in TBC and regretted it. I never saw Sunwell even though I had 90% attendance in my guild at the time the highest achievement I managed was Illidan attempts.

Fine to start Naxx. I wouldn't take him into Ulduar and if your considering him for Ulduar you have some issues. To start Naxx he's geared fine. Both 25 man and 10 man all content he can do. May not be the best he could be, but he's good enough to start as I've seen far worse geared do perfectly fine. If you think otherwise, then you got to be some sort of failed eltist. The content is to easy not to be doing when you're only halfway geared decently.

25 mans, no, most would refuse to take you on a pug. But it depends on how much your raid leader trusts people. 10 mans on the other hand yes you'd fit right in. If you put 110% in a Naxx run your efforts might get noticed.

If you have eltist pugs who only take the best of the best then sure. But how many PuGs are like that? Sure you have some pugs that require X stats met, or X DPS etc. Most pugs just take w/e they can get. I've seen a TG Fury Warr with full green gear spare his Valourous gloves (Sar) and Betrayer of Humanity (best in slot) with a green sword as his OH. Pugs are pugs, some succed some fail. The fact a full green warrior was able to clear it all in a pug shows how easy it is and how even ****ty geared was able to complete it all. No fight currently spare 6min Maly, and Sar 3d (which pugs wouldn't be doing) have any kind of requirement needed to beat.

I agree, but don't use cheap enchants. If your guild folds, it happens. Other guilds you apply for will cast a critical eye over what you've done to get the most out of your gear. Make sure to get the most expensive enchant which doesn't use a shard as they are still fairly pricey. Everything else is dirt cheap these days. By the looks of it you've not started the Sons of Hodir quest line. Start it now. It'll take a while to complete it and even longer to get exalted but doing so nets you a rock solid shoulder enchant you can't buy.

This sounds a bit of a hardcore eye for a casual guy. But seriously, a tiny bit of effort now will make life easier when the patch hits.

Cheap enchants are fine. As stated above, the content isn't hard. If you want to save some gold use the cheap enchants on cheap gear till you get something that's going to last a good amount of time. If gold isn't a worry (which to be honest it shouldn't be, the amount of dailies and how quickly they can be done easily nets you 200+ gold a day) then use the top enchants. I do say Sons of Hodir is worth it to do, not to mention once you are at Revered, 6 easy dailies.

Still have to say your fine to start Naxx. Nothing bad is going to come out of it other than no gear or somebody telling you your DPS isn't quite high enough. At which point get a few more upgrades out of heroics. If you aren't farming current content you don't need to concern yourself with Ulduar until you can clear all content at your level (whether you are a 10 man or 25 man guild).

@giga:

I see your one of two 80's in your guild, so you're going to need to PuG to get anything or try to find a guild that wants a DPS DK. Also run Heroic Nexus to get the Hit trinket off last boss, it'll boost your hit by roughly 1.50%.

[gigapixels Veteran]

Yeah, I am planning on picking up that trinket as well as the Mirror of Truth (40 Emblems) ASAP. I'm also missing the chest I want (Breastplate of Undeath), the shoulders (Spaulders of the Giant Lords), and the two rings (Hemorrhaging Circle and Mobius Band).

And yeah, my guild is definitely just a social guild. I love all the members, but I'm starting to see the necessity for a more active guild. I might switch at some point (I've already been running a lot of heroics with members from another guild, so I've got an in whenever I want). We'll see about that. The cool thing is there's almost always a group trying to PuG something on my server, so I may not have any problems finding raids for a while.

Thanks for all the advice guys.

[ylcard]

Gear isn't everything, I mean, I'm sure that all of you have seen players who royally screw up at everything they do in raids, yet equipped in equivalent of Twhatever.

You don't min-max on stuff that you can improve in the near future or stuff that you can improve with a little bit of effort (money).

So cheap enchants are fine as long as the item is going to be replaced soon enough (I don't mean like a day or a week, I mean as in next tier of raiding, or next raid).

Elitist die alone, casuals enjoy the game, don't go to the dark side ._.

[gigapixels Veteran]

Tried out 10-man Naxx. #3 in DPS behind a mage and a lock. We couldn't down Maexxna though. Not really sure what kept going wrong since I have no previous experience to compare it to.

[Slane]

Tried out 10-man Naxx. #3 in DPS behind a mage and a lock. We couldn't down Maexxna though. Not really sure what kept going wrong since I have no previous experience to compare it to.

Healers couldn't keep tank up during enrage. Or people not breaking people out of the web's. And if you didn't have someone cleansing the posion on the tank (or anyone really, but the tank mostly) then healing would be nullified.

[ylcard]

Yeah in Maexxna fight you need to wait a bit before her enrage so she'll stun you all, if you try to DPS she'll stun you with the enrage and your tank will be dead in seconds.

The webs aren't really a problem, though, even if people tend to just ignore them..

[Spookie]

Yeah in Maexxna fight you need to wait a bit before her enrage so she'll stun you all, if you try to DPS she'll stun you with the enrage and your tank will be dead in seconds.

The webs aren't really a problem, though, even if people tend to just ignore them..

She enrages at 30%, She then gets a buff called frenzy that cannot be removed. It gives her an increase to physical damage by 50% and melee haste by 50%.

Inexperienced guilds wait round the 35% mark (gives a buffer for lock dots) wait for the webs to hit everyone then nuke her down while over healing the tank.

Elitist die alone, casuals enjoy the game, don't go to the dark side ._.

No offense, but that's such ********. Going hardcore is the only way, in the future, to see the content. It gets the gear and get the novelty mounts/items which come with it. There are guilds who do nothing but scream at members to get things done. But these guilds always go under after 3 months. The guild I'm part of has been going for well over a year and has slowly elevated our selfs to become one of the best guilds on the realm.

[Ran Sagy]

I'd have to agree and say thats a poor way to enjoy the game, Regardless if you see the uber-special-high-end-novelty-mounts or not.

Personally, The moment the game loses its casual appeal, I stop paying and playing.

[Vice]

I enjoy making money in the game. But it annoys me that you can't buy anything you want. I mean what is the point of having currency if you can't use it to purchase the stuff that you actually want to buy.

I used to play Guildwars where you could buy anything with the games currency including the rarest items, these could be traded between players as-well unlike in WoW with its Bind on Equip and Bind on Pickup.. I'm a casual player and so I'll never have any of the good gear that I can't farm in a Battle Ground. I know people will say Welfare epics and stuff but really its the casual players that keep Blizzard in the money I wish they would pay us more attention.. we should get the same stats on our gear as people who raid 24.7 just give the raiders diffent skins.

In Guild Wars it was cheap and easy to get good-specced items that looked like ass, the rarest items were the ones that looked awesome and they would regularly go for 6-8x more gold then the ones that looked like ass. People would still raid to have the best looking armour in the game.

In-Fact the rarest armour in Guild Wars worked out around 1,400-1,800 Platinum but it had the exact same specs as armour of 40 Platinum. People still farmed and worked and played the game constantly to one day get that 1800 Platinum armour just because it looked so fantastic and they had to go inside an instance with some very good players to even get a chance of purchasing that armour. The rarity and high price made it alluring but within grasp of any casual or hard-core player.

[Spookie]

I'd have to agree and say thats a poor way to enjoy the game, Regardless if you see the uber-special-high-end-novelty-mounts or not.

Personally, The moment the game loses its casual appeal, I stop paying and playing.

Your loss. Once you hit 80 and you've done all of the heroics you can do. Raiding is the only way to go.

I enjoy making money in the game. But it annoys me that you can't buy anything you want. I mean what is the point of having currency if you can't use it to purchase the stuff that you actually want to buy.

Do you have any idea how bad gold selling is on popular realms at the moment? If you could go in and simply pick up every item drop from Naxx and sell it on the AH not only would the economy go in to meltdown. It would destroy the game. It would make buying gold a necessity. If you didn't have the RL money to buy gold you would never be able to afford the items. This has happened on other games though the titles of them evade me.

I'm a casual player and so I'll never have any of the good gear that I can't farm in a Battle Ground.

Naxx can be cleared in 3 hours easily. Or you can split the wings in to separate nights. Sarth takes 25 mins max (including clearing the trash) and mally can be cleared in less than 6. There is no excuses any more. Gone are the days in MC where you had to invest 5 hours to clear the content. Raiding is more causal than ever. People have these predetermined ideas of what is required from a raider they have all heard the horror stories. But never took the time to look and even attempt raiding. It's not Blizzards fault you're ignorant.

Edited March 15, 2009 by Spookie

[Vice]

Your loss. Once you hit 80 and you've done all of the heroics you can do. Raiding is the only way to go.

Do you have any idea how bad gold selling is on popular realms at the moment? If you could go in and simply pick up every item drop from Naxx and sell it on the AH not only would the economy go in to meltdown. It would destroy the game. It would make buying gold a necessity. If you didn't have the RL money to buy gold you would never be able to afford the items. This has happened on other games though the titles of them evade me.

Naxx can be cleared in 3 hours easily. Or you can split the wings in to separate nights. Sarth takes 25 mins max (including clearing the trash) and mally can be cleared in less than 6. There is no excuses any more. Gone are the days in MC where you had to invest 5 hours to clear the content. Raiding is more causal than ever. People have these predetermined ideas of what is required from a raider they have all heard the horror stories. But never took the time to look and even attempt raiding. It's not Blizzards fault you're ignorant.

So because I don't play like you do I'm ignorant? I'm a casual player and I spend 1 hour a week on the game, your telling me I should spend 3 hours in a single sitting clearing Naxx. I don't even have a guild.

And I don't really care about Gold Sellers. People are still buying ready-made characters and having items bought to order where these online companies raid for the required items with your login details. If there is a market for it they will offer it. Blizzard should just trace gold coin in there database so poison fruit from a poison tree can be cleaned up during routine maintenance. Gamers will be reluctant to buy Gold if they could lose it after the fact without warning and have there accounts suspended temporarily.

Also if Blizzard was serious about stopping accounts being stolen they would mass produce authenticators, send them to all subscribers and force them to use them to login to the game. According to blizzard something like 80% of purchased gold is from hacked accounts so why don't they give us authenticators for free? - No of course not, I had to buy mine myself. Not to mention requiring someone to use an authenticator at all times would stop power-leveling since the Power Levelers would not have access to the Authenticator Key each time they logged on.

[ylcard]

Well, the real hardcore players are just a really minor percent of WoW's population. I know you didn't say anything about 'enjoying' the game, but I can't help but assume that you mean just that, that you can't enjoy the game while having a casual approach to it.

Well, you're wrong, elitists player are whiners that cut themselves when people around them are happy with their casual status, while they spend each second of their online time being elitist ********.

I'm not 'casual', I don't think it's enough to log in once in a while to do a dungeon and go to bed, to enjoy the game you've got to venture into the supposedly 'hardcore' stuff, but you can still do it in a casual way.

Now that I think about it, I think you're confusing 'elitists' with 'hardcore', I don't have hardcore players, they do whatever they want so they can enjoy the game.

On the other hand, the elitist players are just annoying casuals and whine about whatever theme they could think about.

Well, either way, I think that anyone who plays WoW enjoys it, be it casual or hardcore, so it really doesn't matter.

Edit:

About that authenticator, l can't even find that crap in Israel, and if I were to buy it from Blizzard I'd have to pay like 60$ for shipping, nice going Blizzard.

[Spookie]

So because I don't play like you do I'm ignorant? I'm a casual player and I spend 1 hour a week on the game, your telling me I should spend 3 hours in a single sitting clearing Naxx. I don't even have a guild.

MMOs aren't for you then frankly.

Blizzard should just trace gold coin in there database so poison fruit from a poison tree can be cleaned up during routine maintenance. Gamers will be reluctant to buy Gold if they could lose it after the fact without warning and have there accounts suspended temporarily.

I'm assuming if it was such an easy thing to do they would have done it already. They have tried to go to the root of the problem and remove the most popular bot from the game glider. Which coincidently was shut down this week. They can no longer sell it nor run the servers used to authenticate copies.

Also if Blizzard was serious about stopping accounts being stolen they would mass produce authenticators

To all 10 million active accounts? Be reasonable.

[Ran Sagy]

If you think MMO games are only for your kind of players who can invest multiple hours each day to play, You're sadly mistaken. You're barely a few percentage from the total of the world's MMO player population on ALL titles.

[Spookie]

If you think MMO games are only for your kind of players who can invest multiple hours each day to play, You're sadly mistaken. You're barely a few percentage from the total of the world's MMO player population on ALL titles.

Really, where was that study published?

I should really rephrase. Most MMOs (be it the popular ones EQ II, WoW, EVE, FFXI etc) cater to the hardcore. If they weren't so valuable why do blizzard constantly put in new time sinks, rep grinds and dungeons for them?

Edit:

http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart11.html

Asia is a lol-super-duper-150% hardcore market (they demolish the arena scene & look at their pro gamers who play Starcraft). They even have a different payment method, though I'm not completely sure. They pay by the hour but receive the game for free. By the looks of it. They dwarf both American and EU subs.

Edited March 15, 2009 by Spookie

[Vice]

MMOs aren't for you then frankly.

Yeah sure :rolleyes: - I think you have me confused with someone that thinks your opinion is important.

I'm assuming if it was such an easy thing to do they would have done it already. They have tried to go to the root of the problem and remove the most popular bot from the game glider. Which coincidently was shut down this week. They can no longer sell it nor run the servers used to authenticate copies.

They could do it, they just don't. Anything can be programmed they are unwilling there is a difference.

To all 10 million active accounts? Be reasonable.

What isn't resonable about that? The Authenticator costs the same as 1 months Subscription and is small enough to be mailed in an envelope. If they ordered 10 million units they could get a serious discount on them too. It's doable they just see the Authenticators as a Fix to a problem + an extra money making opportunity simple as that. They could even attack it from a different angle. Making an Authenticator Software solution that you click when you run the game and it generates a very strong pass key that is transferred to Blizzards servers. A key is generated based on your game serial code and linked in to your account as per normal and you use that to authenticate with high encryption. Its all doable.

[Spookie]

Yeah sure :rolleyes: - I think you have me confused with someone that thinks your opinion is important.

Yet you feel the need to reply... :shifty:

Its all doable.

I'm sure it is. But blizzard are there to make a profit. If you can't look after your account it's your own fault.

[Vice]

Yet you feel the need to reply... :shifty:

I reply because you called me ignorant, it warranted a slap from the back of my hand.

I'm sure it is. But blizzard are there to make a profit. If you can't look after your account it's your own fault.

Who said anything about looking after my own account? I bring this up because you said about how much Gold there was floating around and according to Blizzard most of that purchased gold is from Hacked accounts. Are you seeing where I'm going with this?

Authenticators = No Hacked Accounts = Greatly Diminished Gold Supplies from Real World Transfers.

I already have an Authenticator which I purchased with my own money since Blizzard didn't want to do it for me.

[Slane]

@Vice

What exactly do you play this game for?

What exactly do you do in-game?

[Vice]

I'd say my play-time is divided in to 30% Auction House Buying and Selling. 20% Leveling my Main (his level 74 at the moment) 20% crafting items with my Alt and 30% playing Battle Grounds (And getting my ass kicked :p)

[Spookie]

I reply because you called me ignorant, it warranted a slap from the back of my hand.

Yuh huh.

Authenticators = No Hacked Accounts = Greatly Diminished Gold Supplies from Real World Transfers

Most of the gold on servers is botted though (Borean Tundra Bor'gorok Outpost, use to have 9-10 bots on the elementals there). Less hassle trying to get people to fall for key loggers, no investment needed and it's automated. Apparently you could, in the past when glider was going, make a lucrative biz out of it. I had an ex-guildie who ran 4 accounts over a PC and a laptop and made ?400 a month!:ss