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16
Nov

WoW Baron 45 strategy

By amd 0 Comments
Categories: geek

Some tips I wrote up for our guild when trying the Stratholme Baron: 45 run. Part of my Warcraft Tips series - hope it’s of some use to you!

If you’re unfamiliar, the aim is to get to the Baron and get your first hit in on him less than 45 mins after zoning into the instance.

- we need to optimize the teams, the first few attempts at least

- everyone needs to know the route inside out - so several trial runs following that route

- everyone prepared with all consumables (speed, mana, health, free action, agility, strength potions, 4000hp/mana food/water)

- every trick to avoid downtime e.g.

— during battles mana and hp potions on every cooldown
— continuous chain pulls
— large group pulls on non-fearing mobs, Hellfire, using voidwalker sacrifice & priest shield
— if using druid tank, he can heal a life-tapping warlock, and every 6 mins innervate the priest, charge to next mobs asap
— if wiping for some reason, stop fighting, try aggro more mobs so they kill you quicker (druid tank go to caster form)
— only loot the mini bosses, and then All Greed for speed

- SoulStone suicide run seems like a good plan to save several minutes

- Everyone Teamspeak would be a huge benefit, particularly if they all have microphones

Some recommended reading:

Tags: Wow, warcraft, world of warcraft, Baron, baron 45, tips, strategy

16
Nov

WoW feral druid tanking gear

By amd 6 Comments
Categories: geek

Part of my Warcraft Tips series - hope it’s of some use to you! Do me proud, put those warrior tanks to shame!

Druid tanks don’t need to worry so much about T0/T1/T2 sets. It’s a blessing and a curse - we don’t get stat bonuses, but we do get to look different :)

Here’s the gear I was looking for at L60. Note that this gear list is around WoW version 1.11 so if some changes have occurred (like in 2.0) then some of it will be out of date. Most of it still holds true at this point though!

Update: best feral druid enchant?

I just had a conversation in the comments with Psyx that might be of interest. (s)He asked:

+25 AGI enchant for cat huh?
Last time I checked AP is most important for cat, and since AP is derived from strength, I would go for 15 STR on ur catweapon.

Well, like everything else, that depends!

Yep, +25 AGI gives you by far the best bang for your bucks in the form of +dodge +armor and +crit as well as +AP… yes only half the amount of STR but you’re getting 10 more points!

If it were a question of 15 STR vs 15 AGI then it’d be a question of whether you’re going to be in cat most of the time or not.

I’m tanking 90% of the time and only rarely dpsing. For both cat and bear we get such huge benefits from AGI that makes it more worthwhile considering the bigger number.

So back to which is better…

15 AGI vs 15 STR - take AGI if you ever tank with that weapon. Use 15 STR only on a dps cat weapon and only if you’re PvE only. If you PvP you gotta go for the AGI.

25 AGI vs 15 STR - take AGI unless you are dps cat STR spec and will *never tank*. If you are crit spec cat then stick to AGI for +armor +dodge +crit. If you’re really rich and lucky with drops, get both.

Cheers for that Psyx, good point to bring up!

But I digress - on to the feral druid tanking gear list:

Gloves:
AQ20 Kurrinnaxx (1st boss) Toughened Silithid Hide Gloves (181 Armor +18 Stamina +15 Agility +11 Strength — yes these are superb tanking gloves Smiley )
LBRS Urok Doomhowl (Ogre pile event) Slaghide Gauntlets of …(random enchant - hoping tiger, bear, monkey or defense — see below 207 AC)

Belt:
LBRS Quartermaster Zigris Cloudrunner Girdle (185 AC +14 Strength +15 Agility)
MC crafted Lava Belt (223 Armor +15 Stamina +26 Fire Resistance) (requires 5x Lava Core 4x Cured Rugged Hide 4x Ironweb Spider Silk)

Legs:
UBRS The Beast Blademaster Leggings (154 AC, +1% Crit +1% Hit +2% Dodge, +5 Agi)
Strat:Baron Baron Shadowcraft Pants( 150 AC, +12 Str +25 Agi +12 Sta)
Scholo Six Teachers Cadaverous Leggings (150 AC, +52 Atk, +18 Sta)
Strat:Baron Baron Wildheart Kilt (150 AC, +13 Str +12 Agi +14 Sta +14 Int +14 Sp)

Relic:
Strat:Baron Magistrate Barthilas Idol of Brutality (Equip: Reduces the rage cost of Maul and Swipe by 3) note: Diaros has

More on the random Slaghide Gauntlets of …

Slaghide Gauntlets of the Tiger 207 AC +14-15 Agility +14 Strength
Slaghide Gauntlets of the Bear 207 AC +14-15 Stamina +14-15 Strength
Slaghide Gauntlets of the Monkey 207 AC +14-15 Agility +14-15 Stamina
Slaghide Gauntlets of Defense 207 AC +21-22 Skill Defense

There are several others, the only other one that appears useful to tank is the “… of Fire Resistance” one for MC.

Feet:
PvP AB Revered Leather Boots (181 AC +16 Atk, +12 Agi +16 Sta, Minor Speed)
Scholo - Six Teachers Cadaverous Walkers (118 AC, +24 Atk, +20 Sta)
LBRS - Halycon Pads of the Dread Wolf(116 AC, +14 Sta, +40 Attack)
Scholo - Rattlegore Shadowcraft Boots (115 AC, +21 Agi +9 Sta)
MC crafted Corehound Boots (126 AC, +13 Agi +10 Sta, +24 FR)

Head:
UBRS - Rend Eye of Rend (143 AC, +2% Crit, +13 Str +7 Sta)
MC crafted Molten Helm (150 AC, +1% Dodge, +16 Sta, +29 FR)
ZG crafted, 300 Eng req. Bloodvine Lens (147 AC, +2% Crit, +12 Sta, stealth detect, ) (One of the reasons I got Eng to 300, but I dropped it as mats were too difficult to get)
Scholo - Gandling Shadowcraft Cap (141 AC, +13 Str +20 Agi +18 Sta +5 Spi) (Better than Bone ring if you have plenty of +sta already)
Scholo - Rattlegore Bone Ring Helm (141 AC, +6 Str +5 Agi +30 Sta +6 Int +6 Spi) (Great +sta here)

(Forgive different format, stolen from Feral Druid Equipment thread)

Bracers:

R63, 77 AC, +1% Hit, +5 Str +13 Sta, +10 SR: Blackmist Armguards (UBRS - The Beast)
R63, 77 AC, +10 Sta, +45 Atk vs Undead: Wristwraps of Undead Slaying (Scourge invasion - Silver spawns)
R62, 76 AC, +10 Agi +9 Sta, +24 Attack: Bracers of the Eclipse (DM west - Tortheldrin)
R60, 74 AC, +9 Str +10 Agi +10 Sta: Wristguards of Renown (BRD - Emperor)
R58, 72 AC, +7 Agi +16 Sta: Malefic Bracers (random Scholo)
R57, 71 AC, +15 Agi +7 Sta: Shadowcraft Bracers
R57, 71 AC, +9-10 to two or +15 to one stat, +10 FR: Cinderhide Armsplints (BRD - Incendius)

Cloak:
R62, 214 AC (+170 AC included), +5 Def: Cloak of Warding (crafted) (Terrlock can make)
E62, 48 AC, +1% Dodge, +17 Agi +8 Sta: Shifting Cloak (crafted)
R63, 115 AC (+70 AC included), +17 Sta: Sergeant’s Cloak/Cape (PvP R3)
R63, 45 AC, +20 Atk, +15 Agi: Cape of the Black Baron (Strat dead - Rivendare)
R63, 45 AC, +17 Agi +7 Sta: Shadow Prowler’s Cloak (UBRS - Drakkisath)
R63, 45 AC, +15 Sta, +7 Def: Redoubt Cloak (DM north - Tribute)

Rings:
150 AC, +9 Sta: Ring of Protection (EPL Battle of Darrowshire questline)
50 AC, +10 Sta, +5 Def, Reflect 3 Arcane: Nagelring (BRD)
50 AC, +8-9 to two or +12-13 to one stat: Archaedic Stone (ULD)
120 AC: Band of the Great Tortoise (Tanaris)
+1% Crit +1% Hit, +16 Atk, +11 Sta: Don Julio’s Band (AV Exalted)
+1% Crit +1% Hit, +6 Str: Band of Earthen Might (Silithus)
+1% Crit, +16 Atk, +7 Sta: Painweaver Band (UBRS)
+1% Crit, +6 Str +7 Sta: Magni’s Will (BRD; Alliance only)
+1% Hit, +4 Damage, +8 Sta: Might of Cenarius (Silithus)
+1% Hit, +30 Atk, +9 Sta: Ring of Fury (TAQ)
+1% Hit, +20 Atk, +6 Sta: Blackstone Ring (Mara)
+1% Hit, +15 Agi: Tarnished Elven Ring (DM north)
+14 Str +13 Sta: Band of the Ogre King (DM north)

Weapons:
46.5 DPS (89-134 @ 2.40), 260 AC, +11 Sta, +10 Def: Warden Staff (random world) (Diaros: main tanking weapon for endgame bosses)
53.0 DPS (135-204 @ 3.20), 250 AC, +12 Sta, +8 Def: Unyielding Maul (DM north) (get this from DM:Tribute if you can’t get Warden)
55.7 DPS (158-265 @ 3.80), +1% Hit, +22 Str +22 Sta: Doomulus Prime (RAQ/ZG) (superb DPS tanking weapon for trash mobs)

Other options:
53.8 DPS (129-194 @ 3.00), +1% Crit, +30 Str: Bonecrusher (DM west) (superb for cat form and tanking if no +sta concerns)
51.4 DPS (160-241 @ 3.90), +29 Str +12 Sta: Slavedriver’s Cane (Strat dead)
51.4 DPS (135-204 @ 3.30), +29 Str +12 Sta: Fist of Omokk (LBRS)
49.7 DPS (147-221 @ 3.70), +14 Str +21 Sta +12 Spi: Twig of the World Tree (random world) (sufficient weapon for mid-50s ferals)

Trinkets:
180 AC, +1% Dodge, +10 AR: Mark of Tyranny (UBRS reward - don’t pick Blackhands Breadth)
150 AC, +7 FR/FrR/NR/SR: Smoking Heart of the Mountain (Enchanting 265 crafted: Binds on Pickup - if you’re serious about tanking bosses, you should get this)

On trinket choice I quote the Feral Druid Equipment List post:
Quote:
Mark of Tyranny and Smoking Heart are the two biggest Bear trinkets. Many Druids switch to Enchanting and raise skill to 265 just to make the Smoking Heart (you can drop Enchanting afterwards and continue to equip the trinket). For Cat, Blackhand’s Breadth is good but I would choose the Mark of Tyranny over it. It is easier to find a substitute for offensive trinkets than for defensive since there are so few that raise Armor directly and since we take such great advantage of them.

Weapons Enchant:

For both Cat and Bear druids there is only 1 choice: +25 agi to 2H. Anything else is criminal given the benefits we get from agi (crit, dodge, armor, attk power in cat).

If you’re using 1H then there is +15 agi available, however I’d be interested to see a 1H that beats our 2H options, before BWL or AQ at least.

16
Nov

Why you should create a startup now

By amd 0 Comments
Categories: geek

A positive but realistic post by Chris over on Particletree:

Even though the odds say you’ll mess up on your first go (and even your second), just like walking, talking, or even snowboarding, business success comes through persistence and basically knowing more than you know now. This is why failures do better than newbies and also the reason why you (especially if you’re young and without attachments) need to get your feet wet as soon as you can. To help convince you of the values of getting one under your belt, we’ve gathered the following five reasons why your first startup, regardless of whether it’s a success or not, is more valuable than you think because of the lessons you’ll learn.

Some of the things I found interesting:

  • It’s not uncommon to hear of two friends who spend a lot of time on planning out the perfect idea, but break up soon after they actually start.
  • Founders often call it quits when they just aren’t passionate about an idea anymore.
  • you can only really bank on 1% or 2% of your total customers on the paying plan
  • now is a great time to begin your first startup because there is usually a lot to learn before your first real success

Link:
5 Reasons to Create Your First Startup.

16
Nov

How quick can you make a cappuccino?

By amd 0 Comments
Categories: geek

We have a really good Gaggia espresso machine in our building. It’s a pleasure to use, right up there with what most dedicated coffee shops are using, and much better than the rubbish you’ll see in a lot of bars. One of the guys here with me appreciates a top notch coffee as much as I do. We know how to make a sweet espresso or our standard superb cappuccino. We have a routine to making 2 cups which we have down pat. Although we appreciate quality over speed, for amateurs we’re fast, very fast.

How fast exactly? Well, our boss sends an email:

Reminder 2pm Room 16b, meeting with Amy & Joe - be on time.

It’s 1.55pm but for this meeting we know we’ll need serious caffeine hits - can we get downstairs, make 2 cappuccinos, clean up after ourselves and be back at the meeting room ontime? Sure we can!

Walking into the meeting room at 1.59pm with 2 fantastic coffees, dusted lightly with chocolate powder, knowing we’ve left the steamer and the rest of the machine spotless? The coffee was superb. Anyone need a couple of baristas?

15
Nov

Answering: What are your weaknesses?

By amd 3 Comments
Categories: business

People sometimes worry about this interview question where you’re asked what your weaknesses are. If you read the interview advice books, half of them will tell you to make something up that’s untrue but can be turned into a strength, like “I’m a perfectionist, which makes it hard for me to finish things, but I’m also a workaholic so I’ll be here 90 hours a week to make sure I do”. I think that’s a load of rubbish. (The other half of the interview advice books are even less useful.)

I think this is a BS question, but I don’t want to give a complete BS answer, so I try to answer the question straight up.

This is a question where people usually come up with faux weaknesses that they can turn into strengths for you, like I could say that I’m an obsessive, perfectionist, workaholic with a habit of arriving at work too early.

Well, actually I’m not a perfectionist or workaholic. Not sure about obsessive.

One weakness I do have is that I tend to be bluntly honest and sometimes that offends people. On the other hand, oftentimes people really appreciate the honest approach and lack of bull.

That’s my answer - your mileage may vary. Let me know if you think it’s dumb or brilliant, or somewhere in between, via the comments box below.

02
Nov

Using del.icio.us and Live Bookmarks

By amd 3 Comments
Categories: geek

This is a quick overview of how to use del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks. Why is it so good? You’ll find out!

First you’ll need a del.icio.us account - go to http://del.icio.us/ and register:

Using del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks

Once you’ve completed registration and logged into del.icio.us you should drag the bookmarklet up to your Tool Bar:

Using del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks

Using del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks

Using del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks

You can see that after I dragged up the bookmarklet I renamed it to “BOOKMARK” so I remembered to use it instead of using the normal browser bookmarks.

Here I’m at a blog post that I want to bookmark, so I’ll click on my BOOKMARK icon…

Using del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks

Ok so here’s where some of the magic happens. This box that says “tags” - this is where you enter whatever descriptive words that you want to tag the link with. If you’re not sure what to use then imagine this: it’s a year later and you need to find this page in the middle of 2000 bookmarks. What words might you use to describe it?

In this case I’ll tag this blog post with:

Using del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks

Hit save and we’re done - back to the original page we were looking at.

Using del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks

Ok, so what’s the big deal here? Huh? Oh yeah, the Live Bookmarks!

Using del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks

Using del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks

Here you need to type in (with your userid you registered) http://del.icio.us/rss/userid/:

Using del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks

Check to make sure it’s in the correct folder (called “Bookmarks Toolbar Folder” in Firefox 2.0 or “Personal Toolbar Folder” in older versions) and it should appear as an orange icon on your toolbar! If you click it a drop-down will appear with the latest 30 or so of your bookmarks.

Using del.icio.us with Firefox Live Bookmarks

Advanced or “How it gets really cool”

Let’s say you have 5 websites you check every day. When you bookmark them on delicious add the tag “daily” to the tag list. Then add a Live Bookmark with the address http://del.icio.us/rss/userid/daily (with your correct userid of course). This will show your daily sites on one dropdown.

If you know my del.icio.us user id then you can tag something with “for:userid” and it will show up on my del.icio.us page - cool for sending on a link.

You can Live Bookmark the http://del.icio.us/rss/popular and you’ll have a live drop-down that shows the top 20-30 most popular webpages on del.icio.us right now.

Play around with del.icio.us and you’ll find it’s a very powerful and useful tool.

Other stuff you can do with do with Live Bookmarks: bookmark http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/front_page/rss.xml and you’ll have the latest BBC news headlines.

If you’re interested in the latest posts on a vBB bulletin board like the boards.ie Rugby board you can bookmark http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/external.php?forumids=388 to show a dropdown of the latest posts.

Anywhere you see “XML”, “RSS”, “Feed”, “Syndication” or the orange buttons you can more than likely “subscribe to the feed” using Live Bookmarks

31
Oct

Game Time Expires: How I quit World of Warcraft

By amd 0 Comments
Categories: geek

60 druid, The Venture Co, EU. (13/33/5 feral tank spec)

I quit WoW on 26 August 06 03:32 CEST. I decided to quit on the 25th, and luckily the 26th was when my monthly game time was expiring. I’m not sure that I would have gone through with it had I had a longer run out period. I quit the payment and removed my credit card number from the payment system, so I’ll have to consciously enter it again to restart my character.

Although the temptation is there I haven’t gone back yet. I feel like an AA guy saying “one day at a time”. I didn’t delete my character or bank because I was telling myself I might consider playing the Burning Crusade expansion, but that’s probably a real bad idea so I think I’ll pass.

I was not the worse of the addicts, I played 6 to 8 hours a day for about 4 months and I considered myself a “casual player” - haha, what a joke! I was considering back in July that I wasn’t enjoying it as much any more - I was part of a small guild and didn’t want to join a large raiding guild, but at the same time I am really competitive with myself so wanted to try out the tough stuff. We joined with a coalition of other small guilds and tried that for a month or 2.

It was good, with some really cool people, but when I see people complaining online about 4 hour raids I laugh - we took 8-9 hours at a time due to people leaving, getting substitutes etc. I led one of the ZG raids, which was a good learning experience, but boy that was tough. At the time there was no DKP which didn’t help matters, we were rolling on each drop so it was really hard to get people to commit to the raids and see them through.

The coalition started changing a bit, deciding to get more organised, with DKP etc. I was asked about whether I was going to keep doing the coalition raids. They just loved the ~12,000 armor druid tank, and I was good with tactics and a trusted master looter. I asked what kind of commitment is necessary, because I will not commit to something I am not able to follow through on. They told me minimum of 2 runs per week (AQ20 and/or ZG).

I just couldn’t afford that any more… I was willing to commit 1 evening a week to a regular event, and possibly a second or even 3rd evening depending on the week.. but I could only ever guarantee 1 to them. Unfortunately that was not enough for them so I bowed out as a regular member. I said if they need a substitute tank, I was happy to step in. Pity, because some of those guys were really, really cool people.

After I stopped raiding I did a lot of the 5 and 10-man instances, I got my UBRS key, running Baron to figure out Baron 45 strategy, and having lots of fun with my guild. The game became fun again! I was really enjoying myself, and our guild started expanding from 8 to 10 to 20 as we had un-guilded guys be the 5 man into instances or join us in UBRS when we needed a sub. We got a good rep on the server as decent, friendly, non-a$$holes, with some fairly skilled players.

Then it started going wrong again. We grewing too fast as a guild, and that caused its demise. We wanted to get us to ZG and AQ20 raiding level quickly and we were a lot less discriminating than we might have been in accepting new candidates. Older members didn’t get on with the new guys and things started to disintegrate. Lesson: Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither is a raiding guild.

I had 3 goals playing WoW:

  • Fun: Have fun playing
  • Competitive: Do stuff that’s challenging
  • Reality: Don’t let the game affect real life negatively

Ultimately I was hitting 1/3, and that only about 50% of my time playing.

One of the guys at work is in an old school guild of about 50 mates with MC on farm and working on BWL - they go every Wednesday to either of them, and play little or no WoW besides that one evening a week. I can see the attraction of that, that’s a great way to play. If I could get to that, I would love it, but I’d have to sacrifice playing with my friends.

I guess I have to be thankful that our guild imploded, otherwise I’d probably still be playing from 6pm to 2am every day and longer on weekends. I wouldn’t be out cycling or playing rugby or going to bars or any of the normal activities of a semi-healthy 28yr old.

When I was levelling my druid I was averaging about 6-8 hours a day for almost 4 months.. that’s fuckin crazy! That’s 6-8 hours 7 days a week - more than my full time job and they pay me a lot of money for that privilege! One job is enough.

29
Oct

Do you Google? Victims of their own success?

By amd 1 Comment
Categories: geek

Google thought it was time they offered the rest of the world a quick semantic primer:

A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device that identifies a particular company’s products or services. Google is a trademark identifying Google Inc. and our search technology and services. While we’re pleased that so many people think of us when they think of searching the web, let’s face it, we do have a brand to protect, so we’d like to make clear that you should please only use “Google” when you’re actually referring to Google Inc. and our services.

Gee, thanks guys. Before the multi-billion dollar google (oops, Google (r)(tm))disappears the way of Hoover Corp I’m sure.

23
Oct

How Shit Happens

By amd 0 Comments
Categories: geek

Only recently seen this, explains some management decisions we’ve all experienced.

In the beginning was the Plan and then came the Assumption.

And the Assumptions were without form, and the Plan was completely without substance, and darkness was upon the faces of the workers.

And they spoke amongst themselves saying, “It is a crock of shit, and it stinketh.”

And the workers went unto their supervisors and sayeth, “It is a pail of dung and none may abide the odor thereof.”

And the supervisors went unto their managers and sayeth unto them, “It is a container of excrement and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it.”

And the managers went unto their directors and sayeth, “It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength.”

And the directors spoke among themselves saying to one another, “It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong.”

And the directors went unto their vice presidents to sayeth unto them, “It promotes growth and is very powerful.”

And the vice presidents went unto the president and sayeth unto him, “This new plan will actively promote the growth and efficiency of this company, and these areas in particular.” And the president looked upon the Plan, and saw that it was good.

And the Plan became Policy

And this is how Shit Happens.

totse.com | How Shit Happens

27
Jul

Learning through doing … CSS

By amd 0 Comments
Categories: web

Under construction

Remember back in the 90s when half the web had the tacky “Under constuction” animated gifs? I sure do. Well anyway, I’ve decided in order to learn CSS properly I’m going to create me a Wordpress Theme. Who knows, if I manage to make it half decent I’ll make it available for download.Under construction sign

… yep, I’m lazy so I’ll hack it live: if something looks majorly wrong, hit shift-reload and see if I fixed it. If it’s something minor (i.e. site is still almost readable) then I might be slow to fix it - sorry. The RSS feed will continue to work.

Until then, be warned: this site is under construction!

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