Logitech g15 BG Honor Farming AFK

You need a logitech g15 in order to do this, or any other
"keyboard/mouse" input devices that allows macro repeation, not a physical program that World of Warcraft could scan for.

I use my logitech g15 keyboard and four macros in World of Warcraft to AFK BGS, to accumulate up to 400k honor in 4 days~.


The prerequisites:
- Preform AV Enabler (curse.com has this)
- SSpvp3 (curse.com has this)
- A logitech g15 keyboard or any other input device that runs macros with out a program running.


Creating the Macros:
You will need 4 macros to afk AV properly and not be stuck in the cave getting reported.

Macro 1:
/script PreformAVEnabler_Queue(1)

Macro 2:
/script AcceptBattlefieldPort(1,1)

Macro 3:
/cast [nomounted] Stormpike Battle Charger

Macro 4:
/stopmacro [target=focus, dead]
/targetfriend
/follow

What each macro does:

Macro 1: This will queue you up for AV, you can also replace the number 1, with any other number to queue up for other battlegrounds as well. The reason I use preform AV's queue macro, is its a lot more stable, and you don't have to open up your battlegrounds tab and choose a selection first, which you would have to do if you used the alternative macro /script JoinBattlefield(0); but I find that that macro fails now with 3.3, I highly suggest preform av enabler.

Macro 2: This simply accepts the queue and physically joins the
battleground, this doesn't need to be changed for other battlegrounds, it'll
accept all.

Macro 3: This macro mounts you up when you aren't mounted only, if you are currently mounted, it won't dismount you when the macro is pressed again... a lot better than pressing you mount button and being dismounted over and over again.

Macro 4: The granddaddy of all the macros, this macro simply targets the nearest friendly and /follows them, this is what gets you out of the starting area in BG's as well as to move from spirit healer. It's also been made to ONLY follow people if your focus is Alive, you want to set yourself up as your focus (/focus playername). The reason I added this part of the macro was, when you died and ended up at the spirit resser, there was a small chance that you would end up following people when you were a ghost, so adding this part of the macro allowed me to only follow people when I was alive. Thus solving that problem.

Setting it up:
Next you are going to want to place the four macros in order of 1,2,3,4 on your hotbar, and assign them all hotkeys, I simply did f9-f12.

Then you simply open up your macroing functions of you logitech g15 keyboard, or any other input device, and have it press f9 f10 f11 f12, and set it to repeat.

And enjoy queuing up for AV and not being stuck in the cave!

Bonus:
Setting it up with Logitech g15:

1.  Open up the Logitech G-series Key Profiler.
2. Click one of the six G keys (g1-g6)
3. Click assign macro -> Create New Macro
4. Give it a name like ANTI AFK
5. Make sure to check record delays inbetween
6. Start recording you pressing f9 f10 f11 f12
7. Myself personally, I waited 3 seconds in between each button, so it would go f9 (2 second delay) f10 (2 second delay) f11 (2 second delay) f12
8. Adding the delays allowed me to only press the follow button every 6 seconds, so you aren't constantly targeting friendlies and following them every second, this allows it to run smoother and not get stuck in the cave targeting AFKers around you.
9. Click okay
10. Now click the button you assigned it to, and go to Repeat Options -> Check Toggle, this means you press the button once, and it'll repeat till you press it again
11. You're all done!

That's how simple it is to afk AV and other battlegrounds, alot safer than using a program / bot. Simply because a) the logitech g15 keyboards are legal to use within reason and b) you're not setting up any flags by using a program that wow can detect and scan in your processes...

Now I am not saying this is 100% safe, you could still get reported for AFKing
and abusing the battlegrounds, but from what I've read about people using g15 keyboards, they were only suspended for at most 3 hours... plus the way I have it all set up and macrod, I have not gotten reported once, as it looks just like your actual in the game on the field, and people don't honestly care or notice.. I've used it for over a year now on other characters and have been safe since then... but like all afking methods, there's a risk involved, and im not garunteeing 100% safety!

Happy AFKing!

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How to find farmers and how to communicate with them

Hey guys, this guide is dedicated to those players who have specific items that they routinely craft with professions to sell on the Auction House, and often craft those items in bulk.



There is nothing better than having a personal farmer or two which you can always rely on to provide you daily materials at very reasonable prices.

Part 1: How to find material farmers:

Pretty much every single server will have at least 5-6 farmers per faction, most servers having more. However the trick is actually finding those people.

When ever I am in the city or on my bank alt I check trade chat for good deals and farmers selling their wares. You just need to look for players who tend to sell a LOT of items. If you watch chat each day often you can pick up the same sellers selling the same things every few days. That is a good indication that they are a farmer. Also if you find someone selling farm able items for very good prices, you could ask them if they would like to farm the items specifically for you and you will buy them each time for that price.

On my bank alt I have Trade is for trade! addon enabled which allows me to filter out all the crap. On most servers the LFM / LFG spam has loooong over taken the WTB / WTS. So you can use Trade is for trade! addon to filter out all sentences that begin with LFM / LFG etc

The next addon that is a HUGE goldmine is TB_ChatEnhancements . What this handy addon does is it highlights keywords and phrases in trade chat that may be of interest for you. So if you are looking for a farmer for Saronite Ore, just add the phrase Saronite Ore to the list and each time someone mentions it in chat, that keyword/phrase is highlighted.


http://www.wowconfidential.com/wp-co...-highlight.jpg


The easiest way of course is to search the Auction House for your desired items. If you then see a large amount of the same items all listed together by the same seller, there is a good chance they enjoy farming those items in bulk, or possibly have many more of it to sell.




Part 2: How to communicate to farmers:

I think it is safe to say without sounding too racist (because I most definitely am not) that the majority of farmers are Chinese or Asian, simply because they have a better attention span than most and can actually manage to concentrate to farm over a considerable length of time. Therefore you need to be very careful how you approach them.
Say too much and you scare them away / confuse them, speak to little and you offend them or they think you are an idiot.

If possible, ALWAYS choose to speak to your farmers via Whisper to reduce any confusion or language barrier errors. If you notice a farmer or a possible farmer add them to friends and talk to them when they are online and not busy.

Always first approach them in English, but keep it very simple, almost like keyword or summary form. In otherwords a form of shorthand only using very basic words that if they are foreign, they will probably know.

Keep your sentences short and to the point, be friendly but do not bother with small talk. You will only piss them off / confuse them / loose their interest.

"Hello, me/I WTB [Item Link] for [Price] each."
"Hello. You sell [Item Link]? Me/I WTB [Item Link] for [Price] each."

Your next option is to send them an in-game mail. Often after I have talked to a farmer I send him an in-game mail AS WELL just to remind him and confirm with him what I want. It shows enthusiasm and dedication from my part making him more likely to farm for me before someone else.

Keep your mail messages something like this: (if this is a follow up mail after talking to him in-game, introduce yourself again and remind him that you spoke with him earlier too).




Part 3: Worst case scenario - they don't understand you:

I mentioned to my friend that I was writing another quick guide for MMOverload and when I told him the topic he gave me a link to this post with the following english:chinese translation table to help you communicate to your farmer if you get stuck at the language barrier and lost in translation.




Hope this helped y'all, peace.

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Ingame Costumes and how to obtain them

So I decided to make a list of all the ingame costumes for mmOverload, and now I am going to post it here. I hope you enjoy it and if I did forget any costume (or maybe I just did not know of it) just tell me and I will add it along with your name!

Here's a list of all the things you can transform into, and below you can find how to do it. (Some are obtainable in multiple ways.)

List: black whelp, enemy faction race, skeleton, ogre, forbolg, arakkoa, iron dwarf, , ninja, pirate, dark iron dwarf, pigmy gnome, basilisk, roach, locust, whelp, blood elf, wolvar, wasp, tuskarr, mage, fish, gorilla, wolf, overseer nuaar, murloc, worg, scarlet crusade member, christmas gnome, bat, ghost, leaper gnome, wisp, snowman, rabbit, member of dread captain demeza's crew, red ogre.

Here is how to obtain them:

This item is obtained from(sold by) Wyrmcult Provisioner in Blade's Edge Mountains and turns you into a black whelp.

This item is a very rare azeroth wolr drop. It does however drop from the Dire Maul (outside) arena bosses with a decent droprate. It will turn you into another race if the opposite faction.


Sold by Marin Noggenfogger in tanaris - gadgetzan. It has 3 diffrent effects: Slowfall for 2 minutes, Shrink for 30minutes and Turn you into a skeleton for 30minutes.

Gordok Ogre Suit
Tailors may learn this pattern in Dire Maul north, it requires: Bolt of Runecloth(2), Rugged Leather(4), Ogre Tannin(Drop from Dire Maul), Rune Thread. Turns you into a big, awsome, ogre!


Alliance only.
Obtained from a level 18 quest in ashenvale. Turns you into a furbolg


Drops from Terokk in Skettis in Terokkar Forrest (outlands). Turns you into an Arakkoa.

-
Sold by 2 vendors in Storm Peaks for 10x Relic of ulduars. Turns you into an Iron Dwarf.

Savory Deviate Delight
Made with cooking, made from fishes at Wailing Caverns. Turns you into a Ninja or a Pirate


From the Tavern in BRD. Turns you into a Dark Iron Dwarf.


Made with alchemy, shrinks you for each one you eat until you finally turn into a gnome.


A northrend (dalaran sewers) fish that turns you into a random of the following: Basilisk, Roach, Locust and whelp.


Dropped from a random boss in Magisters Terrace. Turns you into a blood elf.


Turns you into a wolvar, obtained from the Frenzy Heart tribe in Scholazar basin.


Found in the dalaran sewers.Turns you into a wasp, a Tuskarr or a mage.


Obtained from STV fishing contest, turns you into a fish with 35% increased swim speed. Does only work in water.



Drops from random trashmobs in level 80 northrend instances. Turns you into a Gorilla for in an arcane sphere.


Crafted ofhand with Inscription. Turns you into a giant wolf on use.

Overseer Disguise
Turns you into "Overseer Nuaar" for 3minutes. Created by 5x Costume Scraps (which drop from any Wyrmcult mob in blade's edge mountains.


Crafted with alchemy, makes you go shadowformish.



Bought during lunar holidays, but can be used any time 'round the year! Makes you glow with moondust!

Quest costumes:

Turns you into a murloc, obtained from this quest: Surrender... Not!


Obtained from the quest: In Worg's Clothing in howling fjord.Turns you into a worg.


Obtained from the quest: Nathanos' Ruse. Turns you into a member of the scarlet crusade.


Obtained from Holidays / Holidays only:
Winter christmas machine turns you into a Christmas gnome

hallowed wand
Obtained from trick or threating inn keepers during Hallows End - turns you into either of the following: Bat, Ghost, Leaper Gnome, Ninja, Pirate, Skeleton, Wisp.


Obtained from the Winter Veil holidays, requires a snowball and turns you into a snowman.

Rabbit Costume
Obtained from Noble Garden holidays. Turns your target into a rabbit.

Dread Corsair
Turns you into a member of Dread Captain DeMeza's crew. Obtained from talking to Dread Captain DeMeza in Botty Bay during pirates day.

TCG Lootcards:

From a TCG lootcard. Makes you look like an red ogre.

Blizzcon:

Obtained from attending blizzcon 2007.

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How to boost your raid's icecrown performance by 500%

Have all of your raiders download the following 2 addons:

AVR - Addons - Curse
AVR Encounters - Addons - Curse

The first is the base mod structure for drawing a virtual overlay on your screen. The second is a plugin that integrates with the first, with some very wonderful bossmods.

What do they do? They make the difficult gimmicks in icecrown trivial, if you have any degree of hand/eye coordination. In short, they draw actual circles and lines on your screen, showing exactly where to go, or where not to stand. Bossmods are good and all, but a text warning can't hold a candle to a visual aid.

Examples of what the mod looks like in action:

Heroic marrowgar -



Putricide malleable goo -


Just install both mods, and go into your raid, and it will automatically give you a visible cue "hey you shouldn't be standing here, here, or here".

The best part is, it will work even if you are the only one in your raid who uses it! The other raiders will not get to see the circles of course, but you will be able to see exactly what to do, guaranteed.

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Fun way to make 1000g+/hour

A while back (I may have been a bit drunk at the time) I was bored and decided to grind something on my paladin tank. Since I didn't have the bloodsail admiral title at the time, I decided to go zerg booty bay. To my surprise, the bruisers melted away like nothing and the title was achieved in short order. Looking at my clock, less than 3 hours had passed since I started, and I had taken a small break. This gave me an idea. Selling the Bloodsail Admiral Title.

Though it is an extremely easy title to get, it remains one of the rarer titles. Why? Well, firstly it can involve pvp, which a lot of people are squeemish about, and secondly squishier classes (lol rogues) can't pull this off nearly at the speed tanks can. My solution? Charge for the title! Add somebody to your party and just romp all over the bruisers while your customer chills out in the bay. Charging 2,500 gold for this (a more than reasonable amount) you easily get 1,000g an hour if you're ICC10 geared(where my paly stands). If you're better geared or can find customers who'll pay more, it can easily be 2k gold an hour or more! Get multiple customers at once for max profits.

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Celstial Steed - Underwater Speed 100-150%

Currently as we speak there is a bug with the new Celestial Steed Mount.

If you do not have flying enabled for the horse you are able to exploit the way water and flight mechanics work.

In order to do this, you must be in Northrend. While in Northrend you cannot have cold weather flying, otherwise it will not work.


This exploit is simple.

Mount up, hit the water, aim your character down, and hit space. You now "Fly" underwater at 100-150% speed. It varies, and I don't know why, however it allows you to travel VERY fast underwater.

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Massive profit over inscription powerleveling bundles.

 Have you powerleveled inscription letely? It's a pain in the ass when you need all those low level herbs that are scarce and very expensive since hardly anyone farms them. Well you're not alone out there since many late comers, raiders and pvpers are trying to level their profession.

This is a big opportunity for business savvy people, you can offer inscription powerleveling packs! (for an hefty profit off course)


The basics
How are you supposed to overcome the scarcity of low lvl herbs? Well you should know if you're a scribe but since not everyone has that profession I'll explain; there's an ink trader in Dalaran named Jessica Sellers she has pretty much every ink needed by players for crafting glyphs and you can buy them by trading Ink of the sea to her.
She's the resource that you as a maxed scribe (well you need 350 skill to mill northrend herbs) have access to while the people wanting to powerlevel do not, and we'll exploit her services in this guide by milling cheap Northrend herbs such as Icethorn, Adder's Tongue and Lich Bloom, then crafting Ink of the Sea and finally buying low level inks!


Material Breakdown
Wanting to know all the materials needed to powerlevel inscription by using jessica sellers, I tried looking for a guide, but everythingI've found was tailored for people who manually milled their herbs.. So I said "screw it
you'll write your own list!" and went straight to wowhead where they show the skill ranges (red/yellow/green) for each craft.
After some work that's my powerleving guide:

1-375 materials needed
35 ivory ink
57 moonglow ink
25 midnight ink
60 lion's ink
65 jadefire ink
65 celestial ink
50 shimmering ink
55 ethereal ink
20 ink of the sea


367 inks

124 light parchment 0,186g
155 common parchment 1,9375g
130 heavy parchment 16,25g
85 resilient parchment 42,5g

375-386 materials needed
28 ink of the sea
1 snowfall ink

30 resilient parchment 15g



- 1-35 Scroll of int/Spi/Stam 35 ivory ink 35 light parchment

- 35-60 scroll of recall 25 moonglow ink 25 light parchment

- 60-79 armor vellum 31 moonglow ink 62 light parchment

- 79-80 minor inscription research 1 moonglow ink 2 light parchment

- 80-105 any red glyph requiring midnight ink, train new glyphs every 5 skillups 25 midnight ink 25 common parchment

- 105-150 any red glyph requiring lion's ink, train new glyphs every 5 skillups 60 lion's ink 60 common parchment

- 150-200 any red glyph requiring jadefire ink, train new glyphs every 5 skillups 65 jadefire ink 65 common parchment

- 200-205 glyph of detterrence or glyph of rip 5 celestial ink 5 common parchment

- 205-250 any red glyph requiring celestial ink, train new glyphs every 5 skillups 60 celestial ink 60 heavy parchment

- 250-290 any red glyph requiring shimmering ink, train new glyphs every 5 skillups 40 shimmering ink 40 heavy parchment

- 290-300 scroll of stamina VI 10 shimmering ink 20 heavy parchment

- 300-310 any red glyph requiring ethereal ink, train new glyphs every 5 skillups 10 ethereal ink 10 heavy parchment

- 310-355 any red glyph requiring ethereal ink, train new glyphs every 5 skillups 45 ethereal ink 45 resilient parchment

- 355-360 armor vellum III 5 ink of the sea 10 resilient parchment

- 360-375 scroll of stats, train new scrolls every 5 skillups 15 ink of the sea 30 resilient parchment

- 375-385 any red glyph requiring ink of the sea 25 ink of the sea 25 resilient parchment

- 385-386 northrend inscription research 3 ink of the sea 1 snowfall ink 5 resilient parchment

My main goal is to make my customer always skillup on red recipes to have a predictable material consumption, but there are 3 ranges where raising 5 skill points on yellow recipes is unavoidable.
In those cases I've considered a very unlucky 75% chance of failing (instead of the effective 25% you have when skilling on yellow recipes) and added 4 inks and parchments for each skillup.
You may assure your customer that you'll send other inks in case he's really really unlucky.
I've decided to stop my powerleveling pack right when Northrend Inscription research begins because at that point your customer will be able to mill and do researches by himself.
But I guess you can include enough materials to make it to 400 for the shoulder enchants without big issues.

The Math Behind
How much does it cost a single ink? Well since milling is an rng based skill I can't tell you exactly how many stacks of herbs you should mill, but I can give you a statisticallly accurate number;

quoting from greedy goblin


I'll consider only high level herbs since they usually yeld more snowfall inks that can be sold for a good profit.

Each stack of herbs will give on average 6 ink while costing on average on my server 15g per stack (this is an high price, sometimes you find botters posting for half of that.. yum big profits), so each Ink of the Sea will cost 2,5g

For this powerleveling pack you'll need to mill slightly more than 65 stacks of herbs assuming on average 6 inks from each stack (395/6=65,83).


That's a lot of herbs! How much will it cost to you?
Rounding at 66 stacks each costing 15g you'll spend 990 gold.
You could pretty much double that amount asking 2k gold just for the inks and people would still buy your bundle since it's basically cheaper than low lvl herbs, faster and simpler, but 1k gold for 1 hour of milling is not good enough!

We've left behind snowfall inks!
If you milled 66 stacks of high lvl herbs you'll get on average 132 inks (66stacks x 4 millings x 0,5 snowfall ink on each milling) that on average sell for 12g on my realm; that's 1584g right there just for a "side product".

FINAL PROFIT CALCULATION
In the end you milled for an roughly 40 mins, crafted inks for 20 mins and spent 990g what you'll get for all this boredom?

2000g for the powerleveling bundle+1584g from the snowfalls-990g=2595gold of net profit

That looks like good stuff to me if you consider that you don't need any gear or skill whatsoever and you can try to completely rip off people asking a bigger premium for your service!


Approaching the customer
- Publish my powerleveling guide on your website (blog platforms works for this), it'll serve as a good reference for your customers so they don't waste materials. Do not link this thread expecially in world of warcraft.. linking mmowned in game is never a smart move

- You'll get your customers from trade chat mainly during the weekends when casuals log in and people care about stuff like profession that they can't fix during the week; don't spam your advertising macro, just every now and then while you're doing your usual milling routine.

- Use the mailbox to trade the inks, it's just more convenient for you and for him (he won't fill his bags right at the start), make consistent shipments (only one type of ink and the respective parchments for each shipment)

- Agree for a payment method, try always to ask for instant cash right assuring that you're going to be banned if you scam him since you won't risk of dealing with a smartass that keeps your inks under hostage for 3 days without paying the cod.

- If you agree on cod spread the amount your customer has to pay evenly across shipments to avoid scams

- Ask your customer if he wants vellums too (no big deal, I's less than 70g for the entire bundle), it's a good opportunity for asking another premium

- This kind of deal takes time so don't start advertising if you can't spend some time helping your customer since he's probably going to screw up at some point


Why helping other people raising their inscription skill won't hurt you
- Most people are clueless, they just want inscription for the raiding bonus or just because they're completionists, they're literally cash cows waiting to be milked

- You can end up helping your biggest competitor, but it's quite unlikely since inscription has an high entry barrier (months of daily research and several books) so they won't compete seriously in at least 3-4 months

- If you help a fearsome and ruthless competitor which will mercilessy undercut you by 1copper several times a day it'ss totally unrelevant since he'll find a way to your market no matter what you do.. so better ripping him off now and eventually deal with him at due time with price wars

- It's late into the expansion, the current recipes are going to be outdated (or severely less useful) in few months, people will reroll professions and roll new toons, what you do is irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things, just take what you can now!


Tips and tricks
Milling is boring as shit, use this button mashing macro while you're watching tv

/cast Milling
/use Lichbloom
/use Adder's Tongue
/use Icethorn

Hope you'll find this guide useful and please report any error I could have made.

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Inner Fire, Dual spec trick

Speccing to Improved Inner Fire on one spec, then swapping into your offspec, the improved Inner Fire remains. Even when not talented into it.


Shadow Spec 28 stacks of Inner Fire specced 2 times into inner fire out of 3.

Disc Spec, specced 3 times into Inner Fire, 32 stacks.

Shadow Spec, 32 stacks of inner fire with extra spell power. You can now spend 3 points out of improve inner fire.

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How I made 1,000g in 15 minutes

*********************WARNING*****************************
I have not tested this out on any other servers besides US. If you are in EU
You are doing this at your OWN RISK of being banned. US does NOT ban for
casino's or in game gambling. However there have been Reports of EU players
getting in trouble for gambling. In US as long as you PAYOUT, and not be a
cheapskate you are doing fine. Remember its all Social Workings. You are
selling PLAIN LETTERS! You are not selling the chance to buy anything. You
are selling PLAIN LETTERS and some of them are vouchers for gifts.
*********************************************************


First this is NOT A SCAM If you SCAM, you WILL be a SCAMMER and YOU WILL BE BANNED! Everyone in this will get gold. Even the losers.. this is how you stay out of trouble.


Posting, like the screenie below. I am posting on my Alt. Kookies in which I had a GM reply.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...38770873&sid=1
==============================================

LEGAL, any person who gets banned for this is a retard and did not follow my directions. If you do not pay out, its a scam. Scam = Ban. I have been doing this for 5 years now. Don't tell me your getting banned for it.


Requirements: Alt in a city - Same Faction.

Step 1. The boring part, copy this sentence.

"Thanks for trying to find the prize. This is not a winner! However, if you return this to (your name) you will get 1g back."

Step 2. Using your Alt, create alot of mail to yourself. When I say alot.. I am talking like 700-800 plain letters. It really doesn't take a long time. Mail to your main.

The Reason you are mailing to your main is because it creates a "created by" this is used for tracking purposes. Now if someone comes to redeem it, you can tell if its your alt or not. Its also a way to people cannot dupe you by sending themselves mail.

Step 3NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A COUPLE WINNERS!
Step 3. Create 2-5 winners. I use 25g, frozen Orb, and trash in my bag usually. Mail this sentence to yourself.
"Your a Winner! You won [insert prize]. Take this back to XXX or send back to XXX for your prize!"

Step 3NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A COUPLE WINNERS!

Step 4. Log onto your main. Go to your Mail Box, and then open each letter up. MAKE SURE YOU SAVE A COPY OF THE LETTER!

PUT IT IN YOUR BAGS!!!!

Step 5. Upload all the letters to the AH. I use 5g Buyouts.

Step 6. Social Engineering. Talk about it in trade. I use this Macro.

"Step right up.. are you lucky? Some people may win a Primodial Saronite. Some may win a Frozen Orb... could you be the lucky 1000g winner? Buy [Plain Letter] in the AH from me [Name] 5g per try! garunteed 1g back!"

Step 7. Profit from people buying your letters. When they come to claim the prize, just check it out. If its from your ALT when you hover over the letter, your fine. If its not, someones trying to scam you.

*****************
QUESTIONS:
*****************
Q: Why do I pay 1g back to people that return the letter?
A: Because its a pain to have to rinse and repeat every 10 minutes. The 1 gold is to make people bring your plain letters back. Now you dont have to remail everything from your alt as you will have people giving your letter back to you.

Q: Is this bannable?
A: " From US Tanaris - ******* while this is not a bannable offense you may have people dislike you in the long run. What you are doing is complete and legal. It is not against Blizzard WoW TOS in any means, people will pay for anything won't they? .... However, I do suggest making sure you reword yourself carefully. Ingame advertisement is not allowed, but you are allowed to state you posted auctions, which you did."


*****************
SUCCESSFUL SCREENIES
*****************

CRYSTO


I do this every day. Last night I pulled in close to 51k.

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Walk behind walls! [no macro required]

Now you don't need this macro anymore to pass wall:

/run if(not scm) then scm = SendChatMessage; end; function SendChatMessage(msg,type,lang,chan) scm("\124cFF00FFCC\124Hitem:19:0:0:0:0:0 :0: \124h" ..msg.. "\124h\124r",type,lang,chan);end;

/say DISCONNECT RISK: TRUE.

What you have to do is just to summon your mount near a wall like before. But you don't have to use the macro, you will not be dismounted like before the last patch. You character will be able to walk behind walls.

Try to cross the bubble in the eye of the storm for exemple, you will see it is easy to cross it.

You just have to go near the wall and summon your your mount.

To jump through the wall you have to beable to jump over the wall.

This was the first spot i was able to get over the wall.


2nd spot jumped through and fell through dalaran.

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Invisible as shadow priest!

Shadow Priest Only

How it's done

1. Enter Shadowform
2. Mount up
3. Use Dispersion (51p shadow talent)
4. Before dispersion ends go out of Shadowform
5. You are now invisible!

If you cast spells or dismount you become visible again but you can take damage. As long as you stay mounted you will be invisible and you are invisible to other players aswell. If a player relogs he will be able to see you again.

This could be put to good use in BG's for example (go to AB flags without being seen etc.)


Picture before:


Picture after:

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Cataclysm Preview Coming This Week

Blizzard has recently announced that they will be giving small previews of the upcoming class changes in it’s latest expansion Cataclysm. The preview will give a glimpse at the various spells from 81-85, the new passive mastery bonuses, talent changes, and some additional spells for lower level characters. On the official World of Warcraft forums, Bashiok said..

Beginning Wednesday, April 7 we will begin releasing class previews containing an overview of some of the changes currently being planned for each of the 10 World of Warcraft classes. The type of information you can expect from these posts are a list of the new spells from 80-85, the new passive mastery bonuses for all talent trees, a brief outline of some of the talent changes we’re currently planning, and in some cases new low level spells for select classes.
These changes will by no means be comprehensive, and are subject to change between now and the launch of the expansion. It’s also important to understand that some classes are currently further along in the development process than others, and as a result the amount of information will vary from class to class. Please do not let this frustrate you should your class be amongst those which are on the “lighter” side of things, as all classes will receive the same level of design attention before the expansion is released. Additionally we’ll be providing more information for all classes, especially as we move into the beta phase.

Below is the schedule for each class:

Shaman – April 7
Priest – April 7
Warlock – April 7

Warrior – April 8
Death Knight – April 8
Rogue – April 8

Hunter – April 9
Druid – April 9
Mage – April 9

Paladin – April 16*

These posts are being coordinated internationally so they’ll be posted at different times throughout the day and night on the given dates to give players around the world the ability to see posts made at a convenient time. This thread will be updated with links directly to each class preview as they’re posted.

*The paladin is still deep in development. Instead of giving a preview that would be potentially less comprehensive than the other classes we made the decision to post it when it’s ready, in order to properly honor the paladin class and those that play them. The wait isn’t too long however as we’re expecting to be able to post it on April 16th.

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Analyzing Raid Mechanics

Introduction

Hello there and welcome to my newest guide - Analyzing Raid Mechanics. This is in many ways a continuation of my previous guide - (Guide: Joining High-End Guilds) but, because the scope is completely different (actually talking about raid mechanics), I decided to make a new thread.

Once again I must apologize in advance for the wall-of-text. I'll try to format this in the best way I can, but this is another content-intensive guide.

The idea of this guide is to dissect the core components of raid bosses in a way that allow you to comprehend through the means of a technical method how the bosses are fundamentally designed and what, essentially, are your tasks in a fight. Ultimately because of the limitations inherent to the fact it's a game, there aren't as many components as one might be led to think.

However one must also understand that they're actually more developed than many other game genres - in fact, many games that are hard can be dissected into very few core components that exploit few skills such as strategy or bare twitch reflex. Contrary to popular say, the raid designs in WoW offer a fairly complex gameplay, which might be the reason so many people feel interest in it nowadays as the game developed and matured from an Everquest model.

As with every aspect of game design, these components can be tuned to be either hard or easy. Many classic games that are very hard follow simple components and patterns that, while easy (and in many ways easier to understand than WoW) to understand, are very complex to execute properly. A particular example would be Battletoads - Dodging the lava waves in Sartharion is not fundamentally different than dodging obstacles in Battletoads, but while the former doesn't offer nearly as many components as the Sartharion fight, the execution is considerably harder due to the speed of the game.

In WoW, however, speed and twitch reflexes are not everything. You're constantly being forced to take decisions, including how to best deal with performing your core role (DPS, Tank or Heal) with the haphazards being presented by the boss mechanics. Although you do have a Global Cooldown limiting your actions in-game, the amount of actions per second you as a person are performing can be considerably bigger, since you're also paying attention to timers, health bars, cooldowns and the environment.

Because of this, the maximum complexity of either execution or strategy of the boss mechanics in WoW is ultimately limited to an amount that is always gonna be inferior to the amount presented in other games, for example Starcraft. This is obviously to compensate for the inherent challenges the game presents, most related to your task.

While reading this guide you'll realize that these components can be reduced to simple tasks that add up to form the challenges the game present us. The goal of this thread is to assist players in understanding the raid environment and develop a more technical approach to the strategies of the bosses to come, so that you can better project in your mind the situations to be presented better either before experiencing them (but watching videos or reading about the fight), or within the first attempts.

It's also important to understand that the mechanics listed here don't represent all issues you're gonna face, rather the base blocks that are used to create these issues. Many things such as buff/debuff management and character rotation in specific events or situations are either caused by the way these blocks are arranged, or solved by the means of properly organizing them into your raid strategy.

The best players I've witnessed are capable of mastering a fight within one or two attempts, even fights as complicated as Yogg-Saron. This is because they understand (even if they don't realize they do) the core elements that compose the fight and how to predict them. By fully comprehending these patterns you'll be able to use your past experience to master almost any boss to come.


The Core Elements


Damaging

The core of most fights is that you need to damage the boss to death. This is the most absolute truth to most bosses with exception of few like, say, Valithria Dreamwalker (whom you need to heal instead of damaging). An empirical proof for this is that when outgearing or outleveling enough a content, one can abolish the use of a tank or ignore the mechanics of the fight. While there are many exceptions to it (I'm looking at you C'Thun and Twin Emperors), this holds true to one too many old content bosses.

Damaging might include add killing or pushing during certain moments, which may require you to save cooldowns and consumables. Usually these are phase changes or "berserk" modes that happen to certain bosses.

In the early days players didn't have to bother much with DPS classes because if you had enough healers, you would just never die. They added Enrage Timers to force the raid to actually care about DPS later on.


Healing

Healing is as basic as damaging and as important, if not more, on most bosses that are not yet trivialized by gear or level difference. A Healer has to keep the tank and everyone else alive, usually being tasked with one group of people (the raid, a raid group, the tanks, the main tank, etc).

Again, some fights play a bit with it, such as Dreamwalker (where you heal the boss to win) or Frostmourne's room in the Lich King's fight (where you can heal a NPC to kill entities for you), but the core seldomly changes, although a Healer may have to endure certain debuffs some bosses cast (such as Loatheb's) to silence, interrupt, slow down or just reduce the effectiveness of his healing spells.


Aggro Pull and Threat Management

In most fights, albeit not all, there's a designed tank or tanks. These are the players with the obligation of keeping their threat up.

Pulling Aggro however might not be just the initial act of pulling a boss - it may be a necessity. Some fights force a second tank to pull aggro from the boss, for example, because he applies a debuff to whoever he hits that causes an undesirable effect. Other fights need a second (or third, or even the main tank) to keep pulling aggro from adds as they spawn.

There aren't many variations of this theme, although they're present. Some bosses also split damage between the top people on the threat list, so multiple tanks need to keep their threat high.

Regardless of there being a dedicated player in tanking gear and spec, there's always a tank - someone who's taking the damage. There are also some very few gimmick fights where the game forces you to have someone of an unusual class (such as mage) to tank a boss or an add.



Fight Gimmicks


Move to



Almost every fight in this game requires you to move in one way or another. This is usually enforced in terms of instant death, extreme damage or undesirable debuffs to anyone that doesn't move to a certain position.

By far most of the relevant bosses mechanics of WoW fall within the movement category. This is extremely basic but to make life easier make sure not to be a keyboard turner - use WASD to move and remap A and D to strafe left and strafe right, and the mouse to turn.

Move tos can be presented in form of Damage Novae, where bosses will start casting a spell where everyone in proximity to him (or variants, like in proximity of another player) will take damage. They can be presented in form of AoE damage around an object or target. Some fun variants happen on the Lich King fight - at a point you need to move away from him because he'll create a massive Danger Zone and stay on the icy edges of a platform. Then these borders will break and you have to move back to the center, least you'll fall into your death.

In Professor Putricide's fight some players may have to run away from gas slimes, or they'll not only take but cause massive raid damage. In that same fight but in Heroic mode, some players will take a debuff that they'll need to spread to someone else after 10-15 ticks of it. In this case they must first move away from the raid, then move to someone else to give them the debuff (and then move away to not get the debuff back again).

Movement requirements may also abuse of proximity awareness, that is, deal with effects that depend on your proximity to other players. These usually require you to stay away from others.

Because moving is such a quintessential part of the game, many variants can be made using this theme with the widest effects, such as the portal positioning requirements and character rotations in Netherspite.


Danger Zone



Although this is a sub-product of the "Move to" category, the Danger Zones are so present in WoW that it deserves its own remark. Many players will refer to them as void zones or fire, and it's common to say that in raid all you need to do is "dodge the fire".

In fact, I don't think there's any mechanic in WoW that's more characteristic than this - it might as well be the signature of this game's bosses. The Danger Zones are usually round places on the ground that require you to move away from it so that you're not stepping within it's area of danger. Danger Zones are usually preceded by a visual aspect on the ground before they either happen or, in lieu of that, wait a few seconds before the first tick of its effect proceed, so that players may have a moment to dodge. They may also be of long duration or instant.

The most common occurrence are in the form of circles with magic symbols that deal damage to everyone standing inside them, but there are many variations. Koralon himself literally puts fire on the ground around him and players should dodge to avoid stressing the healers.

One variant are fire patches that move around. Examples are in Archimonde fight where a fire patch will spread around the room, or in Lord Marrowgar fight where multiple fire patches come away from him and spread in straight lines.

Most environment hazards may be disguised but are pretty much just Danger Zones. For example, both Putricide's gas bottles and mallible goos are danger zones - round areas you have to avoid. The first are static and take some time before the first tick, while the later is preceded by a visual aspect and causes an instant full effect.

Because Danger Zones usually give you obvious visual cues, it's imperative that you're paying attention to your character's feet at all times. Put the relevant bars and timers need the center if that will aid you, but do not let it obscure your vision of what's happening.

Learning how to dodge these zones is crucial to raid and should be fairly obvious. If you can dodge the fire, you've defeated a considerable part of every content of the game even if you don't know the specific fights.


Add Control



Add Control involves using non-damage dealing abilities in order to prevent an add from doing something undesirable. There are many examples - Moroes' adds required to be controlled so the players could focusing killing them one by one, for example. A lot of bosses cast a Heal spell that needs to be interrupted with maximum urgency. Add Control can be anything - from preventing an add to move by using a trap or shackle (or anything that stops him) to interrupting him.

Sometimes a player may need to kite an entity, which could be (Add Control + Pulling Threat + Moving To) or any combination of these.

Karazhan was filled with these, as examples can be find in Romeo and Juliet on Karazhan (interrupt Juliet's heal), Moroes' adds as mentioned, Shade of Aran's Elementals, amongst others.


Dispellable Effects



These are any kind of debuffs that are cast upon a player or players that players with respective dispelling capabilities can and should dispell. Some fights may require you to wait until a certain moment before dispelling probably because of a secondary effect (like "Move To", etc).

The best way to improve your skill on this is by playing Arena - a lot - and by keeping up every skill you have, dispells included, keybinded.


Pick-Up/Activate Item/Doodad



Some fights require you to pick-up and/or activate an item. These can be doodads or actual items looted, and can be any of combination (pick-up doodad, loot item, active item; or activate doodad; or get item from a NPC and activate it) of these.

Once you have the item, you'll have to use it at a specific time to proceed with the fight. Examples are Archimonde (where you use Elune's item to avoid falling damage that would kill you) and Vashj (where you throw an item around to other players until it reaches a specific place).

A curious item pick-up would be the Pyrites in Flame Leviathan, where you use a vehicle to pick-up objects from the ground with a hook.


Vehicle Activation

There are many fights that are dependant on vehicles, including two on Icecrown even though not many people realize it (Gunship Battle, with the Boat Guns, and Putricide with the Abominations). These usually include right-clicking on a doodad to get inside a vehicle-like object, where you'll usually get an unique task only your vehicle can perform.


Use Special Skill

Some fights will require you to use an unique, special skill at a certain moment. Such skill may or not require a target. An example is the Blood-Queen Lana'thel who gives a debuff that greatly increases your power, but forces you to choose someone to turn into a vampire after some time.


These sum up the core mechanics of the fights - pretty much every fight in the game will follow these gimmicks in one way or another. There might be some other gimmick that wildly escapes these that I'm missing since I didn't analyze every single boss fight in the game, but the main boss fights can be divided by these components or variants.


Examples:

Yogg-Saron

Not including all mechanics, just the ones I can remember. This fight is VERY complex, so I picked it up as a good example:

Phase 1:

Move To: Avoid Gas Clouds on the ground; Keep moving following their direction.
Pull Aggro [Adds]: Keep Pulling Adds; Rotate adds with other tanks
Move To: Move to the Center of the room before the adds die
Damage [Adds]: Damage adds, wait until they're at the center of the room before killing.

Phase 2:

Dispellable Effects: Curse of Doom, Apathy, Black Plague, Draining Poison
Danger Zone: The big crusher tentacles, DPS and Healers should avoid.
Damaging [Adds]: DPS should focus on killing Constrictor Tentacles, then Corruptor Tentacles if Melee, Crusher if Ranged
Move To: Move to green lights to increase your Sanity Meter.
Move To: Targets who get Brain Link need to move close to each other.
Move To: Move away from the Death Ray.
Move To: Move to position around the boss to prepare to click the portal.
Activate Doodad: Click on Portals when available.
Move To: Face the skull faces with your back.
Damaging [Adds]: Kill tentacles around the room, fast.
Damaging [Boss]: Attack Yogg-Saron's brain, use cooldowns and reagents in this moment.

Phase 3:

Pull Aggro [Adds]: Tank keep pulling aggro on the adds. Multiple adds keep coming.
Damaging [Multiple]: Certain players attack the adds, others attack Yogg-Saron.
Move To: Face Yogg-Saron with your back during certain moments.


Mimiron:

Mimiron's "Nova" is a funny example of mixing Danger Zones with Move To. The boss spreads mines around the room randomly and the player needs to get away from him before he casts a Nova, which requires him to prepare in advance by dodging the bombs.


Gunship Battle:
Fairly straightforward fight.

Pick-up Item: Get the jetpack before fight and equip it.
Activate Vehicle: Players get in the boat guns.
Damaging [Boss]: Players at the guns need to shoot and damage the enemy boat.
Danger Zone: Rockets keep falling from the sky around your boat.
Pull Aggro [Adds]: A tank picks up the adds spawning on your boat.
Damaging [Adds]: Players clear adds in their boat.
Use Item + Move To: Players use the jetpack to get to the enemy ship.
Pull Aggro [Adds]: A tank pick up the adds in the other boat.
Damaging [Single]: Players kill the sorceror on the enemy boat, use cooldowns.


Conclusion:

I hope this guide was useful to you in one way or another, even if just as a curiosity. Game Design is my field of expertise and I find studying the theory behind these mechanics relevant, so why not share?

Although I'm not sure when I'm going to write, my next guide will be about PVP, probably focused in Arena.

Thank you very much for reading.

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1960 gold an hour spot.

Depends on server!

Hello, The place im about to introduce aint well known and was not as profiting as it is untill 3.3.3, Since the release of 3.3.3 the prices of Iceweb Spider Silk skyrocketed up to the stars this place is now one of the best farm spots. Also now as i post it here on masterofwarcraft the prices will problemy drop alot so use it while it lasts.

We are going to farm Trapdoor Crawlers.





They are found here in zul drak.


They drop Iceweb Spider silk wich sells for 20 gold each at my server.



------------------------------------

In fiften minutes i was able to farm
22 Iceweb spider silk wich calculates 440 GOLD
Vendor trash for 20 gold
and 2 greens wich i disenchanted 30 gold ~~

This nets an income of 490 gold in 15 minutes, Take that multiplied by 4 and you get the number 1960 gold an hour!

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Joining High-End Guilds

This is going be a slightly different guide - it's going be a guide on how to kick in high-end raiding.

However, I'm NOT going discuss in detail things like raid strategy or addons. These have been done to death. You can look for these almost anywhere. Wowwiki usually does a good job at keeping the strategies, and Tankspot releases very decent videos.

No, this guide is about the more humane issues. After playing MMOs for 7 years I've realized what everything boils down to - politics. While most of this guide can be seen as "common sense", I am sure there are things in it that can be useful to you. In this guide I'll teach you the most psychological aspects.


About Me

I'm a "casual hardcore" type of player. The things I learned over the years while writing this guide were aimed at one goal - I wanted to do some "high-end raiding", but I wanted to have free time too. I've been playing WoW since the beta, and I always felt very frustrated at how I could never kick in the top guilds back then.

I was also an avid EVE player, and, for a long time, my guild in EVE was the top guild of the game. Now, EVE is a game entirely about politics. During that time I considered trying to apply the things I learned from EVE in WoW and, to my surprised, they started working.

I then found out my main fun in this game was starting from zero, and going all the way up to the top again, being completely unknown in a new server. From then on I played on multiple top 100 guilds until finally realizing with WOTLK it was no longer worth it (no time to do that anymore) and sitting on my druid.

I'll share the things I learned and the tricks I used.


Concept

For the sake of simplifying things, let's consider high-end raiding guilds the top 400 World guilds. That may seem a lot but it's actually slightly less than one guild per server.

The first thing is - high-end raiding guilds want good players.

The main idea you have to understand to be a good player is that WoW can be a game that requires skill. Now, I never said that it requires >a lot< of skill. However, every game can be a game pushed to the extreme. While almost everyone can beat Sonic 2, almost no one can do the crazy speed run stunts that some hardcore players have tried to. The majority of the players of WoW like to bash the very game they play because this makes them feel comfortable. When you're in a server first guild you'll see a lot of comments like "lol u guys suk" from people in considerably worse guilds. It's because they expect you to be better than you are because "dis game is easy lol" even though they can't do these things themselves. Calling the game easy makes them feel comfortable because it makes it seem like they could if they wanted, they're just not even trying. Furthermore you, the player who is trying and not killing Lich King Heroic on 25-man is clearly inferior.

They also hide behind the fact that being in a high-end guild is for "people without a life". In my experience, you can spend more time raiding in a bad guild than in a good guild, simply because the bad guild will take a long time in every boss, while a good guild will clear everything very fast, giving you time to do whatever else you want. Exactly because of this reason that their guilds don't succeed. Because it's always "someone else" who is screwing up. Because they can't take the fight seriously enough or else they'll be like the no-lifers.

You see, the main difference here is the attitude. The attitude that distinguishes a good player from a bad player. The attitude that you can be the one who could be doing better, and that you're not skill-capped. To be a good player you must accept first that you're not the best, and you're probably far away from it. Second, is to understand skill doesn't refer exclusively to twitch reflex.

This seem to be the main issue with a lot of people - they assume you don't need skill in WoW because the game isn't fast enough to require skill. Second, is that none of that can be necessarily true. You see, there are different types of skillsets - Twitch reflex, Strategy development, Theorycrafting, Politics, Leadership, and even being good at economy can be a relevant skillset in WoW. Like I said, top raiding guilds want good players. However, the only relevant thing when it comes down to that is not that you're a good player yourself - but that they see you as a good player. I call this "the bullshit factor", because while it may be true, it might not. People are easily influenced by a lot of different things that can cloud their judgement. To read more on this, I recommend the book "Influence" by Robert Cialdini.

So the point is - not all of the skills you develop are made to be put to use inside the game, but outside it. And this is again something a lot of players don't even realize - the metagame. Anything you can use to increase your chances of getting up to a good guild should be used and, if you master enough of these skills, you'll be able to join any guild in the world, as long as they're not overly full on your class and, even then, I'm pretty sure there are skills to fix that issue. So, with this overly verbose introduction, let's get to the beginning, shall we?

The Start

So let's assume you've quit WoW, sold your account, and now decided to get back. Aside from the obvious fact you'll have to level up a new character, you'll also have to pick a role. So which role should you pick up?

Well, the one you like. Choose the class you want, the race you want, and the role you want. Even the race is not relevant, although if you want to start with the attitude of a min-maxer, choosing the best PVE race would be good.

As for roles, the only role that will give you trouble is, surprisingly, tank. This is because most solid guilds already have tanks, and tanks don't guild-hop as much - they're called "career roles".

Otherwise, you can be any combination of class and race as healer or dps and it will not influence the final result as much. Very few guilds on the 100-400 range are really anal about these things and, if they are, you should avoid them like the plague.

The reason I'm assuming you'll be rerolling (I know you won't) is because I want you to comprehend the entire process as if you had zero assets.

The best moment to reroll and start your crusade to join a top guild is slightly before a new expansion come out. That's because by then a major reset will happen, and you should have time to be max. level, so now would be a good time Similarly, the very first months of an expansion are good. During the mid-end good guilds tend to already have their core, so it's harder.

Ideally you'll want to start with friends. WoW is a social game. You need to have social skills to succeed or, in lieu of that, to be an excellent player. You should treat your group of friends in the game as a network, as the bullshit factor can be elevated much more this way. For example, assume the following - you just meet someone and say:

"I'm a very good player." while wearing greens and blues or not even at level 80.

They'll not be amused.

Now, if someone elseAttitude

Attitude can be a deciding factor. The first rule is - Don't be a prima donna. People don't like prima donnas. So, in the example given above, you'd have to be careful to sound humble.

You: Hey uhm... do you do ICC?
Him: Yup
You: Damn, that's cool. You know, I had to stop some months ago so I didn't get to see it. How's it?
Him: Good, we just killed Saurfang, neat fight.
You: Neat.
You: I really enjoyed Ulduar, reminded me of a lot of old-school Naxx.
You: We got to down Yogg but I had to quit right after so I never got to see Algalon.
Him: Ooh that sucks

You can probably sound less assholish than that, the point is trying to include everything casually as part of your conversations. Never go with the "Did you know I ......?" route. EVER.

Similarly don't ever talk or be smug about your achievements. Specially if they involve numbers. No one wants to hear about your exploits in your OMG TOP 100 GUILD. That's why networking is good - it allows you to give people the necessary information without sounding like an *******. Plus the more humble your friends are, the more people will be compelled to listen to them. That's why you need to be humble too.

Being humble is essential. Being nice is essential. Guild Leaders don't like *******s. Your guildies don't like *******s. Most people don't like *******s. When you're being smug no one will stop and think "Damn he's good", they'll think "Damn he's an *******". On the other hand, when you're nice, humble, and outplays them (or have them think you outplay them) they'll admire you, and that's what you need to get higher.

Good guilds will ALWAYS pick up people with good attitude first, unless their guild master is also someone with bad attitude. In this case, you'll want to avoid the guild like the plague. I'll talk more about this later.

Ultimately, this is not just about wearing a mask. Try to be genuinely nice to people. The best players I've seen in this game are always calm, polite, nice. They have this soothing aura of confidence. People want to play with them simply because they inspire confidence. The moment you argue with someone on ventrilo over something stupid, this aura fades. Being a "diplomat" is the best thing you can do - making people feel like they're playing a game, not working.

Jungian psychology works great here. Try to be a figure others will look up to. This can be either a father or a mother figure in a smaller guild even if you're not an officer for example, but it will obviously not work when you're looking for a top guild (because they already have it in the guild leader). In other words, try to be the living representation of an archetype. As such an entity, you're above their mundane needs - So no loot-whoring, avoid whining. You'll want to use your influence to change things the way you want, but never complain about anything as this may reduce your aura of confidence.
About any quality you have can be used to build a great archetype.

For example, if you're a model in real life, try to combine it with extreme humbleness, and others will see you as someone who combines both physical and mental perfection - mens sana in corpore sano. They'll see you as "that person who show us you can be great inside and outside the game" and, through your image (that's what guild forum picture threads are for), think of you as something above. And the line that divides that from calling you a "faggot" if you're a man or an "attention whore" if you're a woman is EXTREMELY thin, so you need to time it correctly. Rushing to the forum to post your picture on the first day would do you no good in this case, for example. Ultimately it all boils down to being nice and always agree on disagree.

Last but NOT least here - writing correctly will do you wonders. It shows maturity and seriousness. Always try to spell the best you can. Know the difference between their, there and they're. Know the difference between lose and loose, then and than. Our is not are. Guild leaders are usually people a bit more mature than the common player, and chances are they pay attention at those things.

Unnecessary to say but almost all of this session also applies to your job or to your job-hunting.

The Middle Road

Once you're at the maximum level of the current expansion, you'll need to gear yourself up.

Remember when I said to befriend people from common guilds? You'll have to find guilds who are relatively bad in progression and make a trade. In exchange for your presence and your help, you'll have gear. The idea here is to join a guild, be helpful to them, then move to higher grounds when you can no longer progress with them.

Now this guild-hopping might sound a bit assholish. The point is - you STILL have to keep a good image for yourself as you leave guilds, or else you'll burn your reputation before getting to the top. What this means is - you'll have to do it in a way that the guild understands your situation and don't find you an ******* for it.

This is where you put to practice what I told you to when it comes down to attitude, but not just that. This is where you start to make the difference - players from top guilds don't behave or play like players from bad guilds. You have to literally make the difference. How? Using the skills you have.

Strategy - Always show to be on top of your game when it comes down to bosses. Read about the bosses, know what other classes have to do. Say on Ventrilo things you know about this fight. Talk about the strategy with the officers, but NEVER correct them, just give "helpful suggestions". Know the fights. Post on the guild forum about the fights. Be active.

Theorycrafting - Always show to know your shit, no matter how irrelevant it is. Gem perfectly. The importance is not to gain a small edge on dps or heal, but to show you care. Talk about spreadsheets or - even better - talk about simulations such as SimCraft. Display excellent math knowledge of your class. There's no shortcut here. The importance, again, is not to actually gain an advantage on dps or heal, but to show others you know what you're doing.

Once you get these two done, people will be much more lenient on your actual gameplay skills, since they'll see your mistakes as "something that just happens". After all, you seem to be on top of your game all the time.

Diplomacy - All is for naught if you can't have the items. Remember, you're in the bad guild to gear up. Join a guild that you know will give you access to items. The best guilds for this are ones that do officer loot - there are much higher chances they'll want to gear you up if you know what you're doing AND you befriend the leadership, so this is where diplomacy is important. The more active you become, the more they'll trust the items to you.

Avoid like the plague guilds whose mindset is "if he's doing less dps than you, then he must be geared first.", unless it benefits you.

Also beware of loot officer guilds where they'll just try to explore you so you can carry them while not receiving anything. First you must be seen as a top asset of the guild. If you're not getting anything, leave and be open about your discontempt. If you were really important, they'll reconsider the situation and you'll get more loot.


Actual Raid Skills

All these tricks are very important and relevant, however in order to shine you need to do things others don't when it comes down to actual gameplay.

Topping damage and healing charts is always good, but it is NOT everything. As a matter of fact, if you're starting, you'll probably not be able to do anything remotely close to good damage or heal. If you have friends you can just chain-run heroics like mad with them to get at least Triumph-level gear, but even then you'll probably not be topping charts.

For a DPS Class, the best way to show complete mastery of your class is to do what everyone else doesn't, even if this costs you DPS. Do NOT TUNNEL-VISION.

This may seem common sense but it's clearly the biggest fault I see on bad or mediocre players.

YOUR DPS IS NOT AS IMPORTANT AS YOU THINK IT IS.

Odds are if you're caring about DPS you can top it or you're near the top. Odds also are if you're not in a good guild, you're farming mediocre content. So odds are your guild has more than enough DPS for it, or outgears it.

Which means, DON'T TUNNEL VISION YOUR DPS.

DO NOT TRY TO COMPETE WITH OTHER MEDIOCRE PLAYERS.

I can't say this enough times.

The reasoning is - If you're in top 5 it's pointless trying to compete. Everyone knows you're capable of doing good DPS. If you're not in top 5, then chances are no one cares. Jumping from 9 to 7 will not make much difference. You're still not doing good DPS.

So it's always better to focus on doing what others can't or don't.

For example, as a Druid, you have the power to save raids with your battle-rez. In many fights with more than one tank, a fast battle-rez can save the raid from a wipe, but you need to be fast. If you know the issues your guild are having in this fight are related to the tank dying, it's better to tunnel vision the tank health even as a dps, than tunnel vision your recount. Hell, make a macro to revive him.

Because the moment you throw that rez as soon as he dies he'll be impressed. If he's an officer, he'll notice it. You'll mind-boggle him.

Find creative uses for your other skills. Tranquility can save a raid. Feral Charges can sometimes produce impressive results. Look at your environment. Just don't tunnel vision your dps. Ever. And don't aggro either.

If you do something outstanding, brag about it, just don't be too smug. Do it just to make everyone aware. "Man, that was a good ____, can't believe I pulled it off" and never talk about it again.

If you're a melee class with tanking capabilities (Frost Presence, Bear, etc), you can also increase your bullshit factor by tanking a boss after the tank dies. Pay attention to it, and call on vent as soon as it happens. Remember, it's gonna be more important for you (and probably, for the raid) than increasing your DPS.

If you're a DPS class with healing capabilities, pay attention to the health bar of your mates. This works great as a Shadow Priest. Do 5-man runs with your guildies, and toss them heals if you're a shadow priest. People will notice these things and be impressed at your stunts.

In other words, do stuff you're not supposed to. A good player doesn't play like he's "doing what he has to". You also do what you don't have to. Because you can. That's how good you are.

It's vital that you develop your environmental awareness. Make a mental rule to pay less attention at your damage and timers than at what's happening in the fight. Take your sweet time to practice this while in a bad guild. What will happen if you fail? Get kicked? Hardly. Yes, you're trying to build a reputation and make a good network, but learning one or two things is worth it.

To look like a good player, it's more important to dodge the gimmicks from the fight than anything else. Remember, dead DPS is no DPS at all. Dead healer is probably a wipe.

Also, and this is very important - KEYBIND EVERYTHING.

Ending the Middle Road

You'll want to have gear good enough to be accepted in a good guild. Keep trying to get to guilds that run the newest content, even if they do just the first boss(es). Try to do it through contacts rather than formal applications, to that you don't get burned.

Being the "top player" of "bad guilds" will usually net you a lot of advantages if you chose the guild correctly. If the guild is not entirely bad you might even get to do the newest content. With the badges system you'll also be able to gear rather quickly but remember you don't have all the time of the world.

As soon as you reach a gear threshold where you can go to something better, do it. Make sure that "something better" will give you the chance of picking up good items but sometimes it's worth even if you can't. For example, if your guild is hopeless and can't do anything past the first wing of ICC, a guild that can do the first two wings will give you twice the emblems of frost, which in the long run might be better even if they won't give you the epic drops.

In fact, once you get to that point, you're probably ready to gear yourself to try something more serious.


The Application Process

The best moment to apply is when new content has just been released, because that's when you can gear yourself the fastest to the level the top players were, and the difference is cut considerably, albeit not entirely.

If you're in a moment like now, when the latest content has been out for a while, it might be worth to wait until something new, and keep gearing yourself up.

Once you think it's the time, you choose a guild. It might not be in your server. Avoid the following guilds:

1) Guilds with outrageous requirements, such as being a top 300 guild requiring experience as a top 100 player
2) Guilds famous for having poor leadership or being *******s
3) Guilds with DKP

And think for a while about what you are or, according to this guide, should be:

1) Polite.
2) Nice, don't write like a retard.
3) Avoid fights or drama.
4) Geared.
5) Can think outside the box and do things others don't.

That's what people are looking for. For everything else, you embelish however you want.

For one, there's NO ONE who will dispute your old-school claims. You don't need to say the truth about the dungeons you've done or not. Say this is your fourth character for what is worth. Although I always say the truth, no one ever asked for proof that I did vanilla or tbc. No one have the time for it, really. Just be sure you know about what you're talking about if people ask later.

Second, writing an application for a guild is a lot like a job interview. Treat it like so. I like to practice real-life skills in the games I play, so it's never really time wasted.

If you're denied do not lose your calm. Be polite. I often see people getting declined and then taking that time to show their "true selves" - calling people morons, and being jerks overall. Don't. If you show you have a great attitude even when you're declined and, SPECIALLY if they were rude to you or to your decisions, you're showing you don't lose your head even when facing these situations. The next time you apply again, they'll look at you with different eyes. This has once worked for me, and I got accepted on my second application because of the attitude I displayed in the first.


Conclusion

There's still much more that could be said, this is a synthesis of it. I'll write more in the days to come, with some other tips on how to actually play better, and how to deal with people.

And remember, do not treat the game like it's automatically easy. There's always room to improve. Know this, and show you know this.

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