Let’s Talk

When Blizzard introduced the in game voice chat I was so happy that there was a voice service available to almost everyone that plays WoW…. Then I tried it.
At times it works just fine but for the most part WoW voice chat really lacks the quality that it takes to understand people on the other side. That’s why I looked into Ventrilo or Vent for short. Right now I am running a Vent service on my server that will hold up to 8 clients. It’s not as much as others but it was free so I’ll stick with that for now. So far I haven’t ran into any problems hitting the max users.

My Vent server is free for anyone to use at anytime and I would encourage everyone to do so. All you need is to install and setup the Vent client on your computer. You can download it for free at http://ventrilo.com/dlprod.php?id=1

When setting up to connect to my server you will need the following information:

Host= vent.walguild.info

Port number= 3784

Ventrilo uses a VoIP type service so you get phone quality chat. It is set up so there are several rooms so more than one group of people can have separate conversations at the same time. Right now my Vent server is underused so feel free to use it as much as you like, even non WoW related things. If you have any questions just ask I am happy to help.

I plan on using this for any future guild raids and dungeons so if you have a mic and want to participate in voice chat with everyone please take some time to download and install the vent client on your system. And even if you don’t have a mic you can still listen.

Clark-

Time for Twinks

Recently I have started a few Twinks. Just in case you don’t know what that is I’ll go over it quickly. Basically twinks are characters that have the best gear for the current level they are at. Usually they are maxed out at level 19, 29, 39, and so on… this is because the highest levels in the PVP brackets end in 9. Except for Alterac Valley which will cap at levels 60, 70, and 80, and Eye of the storm which cap at levels 70, 79, and 80. Although you could create level 60 and 70 twinks it’s not very common. Usually people only twink at these levels because 60 and 70 was the max level and they didn’t want to lose the gear they had earned when the level cap was raised.

Are twinks only for PVP? Yes but before the Battle Grounds where created people would twink for PVE reasons to see how well they could do, although it didn’t last long because they would eventually level up. Using twinks for PVP is more common because you can’t level while killing other players.

Level 80 characters aren’t considered twinks because all the gear and enchants are meant for their current level. Twinks will use gear and enchants that you wouldn’t expect to have on a character for 40+ more levels. This where twinks get the advantage over non twinks.

Right now I have a level 19 rogue twink and just to give you a comparison as to what kind of difference there is between a twink and a non twink I will compare my rouge to a basic rogue at level 21.

My Twink
Health 1,321
Dodge% 41%
Attack power 261 138
Crit% 29.2% 9.9%
Weapon damage 37.5 (Main hand) 16.6 (Main hand)
Agility 182 71
Strength 61 45

Regular Rogue
Health 556
Dodge% 16%
Attack power 138
Crit% 9.9%
Weapon damage 16.6 (Main hand)
Agility 71
Strength 45

The difference between a twink and a non twink is so huge that my first attack (which is usually the hardest hitting attack for rogues) will sometimes kill a non twink on one shot. Some people think that this is unfair to the non twinks and if you have ever gone into any lower level battle grounds as a non twink like I have it seems that way but now that I have played as a twink I have found that both teams usually have a balance of twinks and non twinks playing and although hard, it’s not impossible for non twinks to beat twinks.

What does it take to make a twink? There are 2 things to consider when creating a twink fist is your gear. Because you can’t level past a certain level you must plan ahead of time what gear you want to have. If the item is a quest reward you must be ready to do that quest at the lowest level possible and sometimes you will need to do runs at the lowest level possible because the worst thing you can do to a twink is to level past your goal level. If you need help picking out what gear is best for your twink you can always ask me. I’ll be glad to help you pick out and get the gear you want.

The second thing you’ll need to consider is what enchants you want. At level 19 and most of level 29 you can’t use the best enchants out there. Each item has what is called a level item you usually don’t see this number but you can look it up at www.wowhead.com or there are some addons that will tell you what the item level is in game. Most enchants require, item levels of 1, 35, and 60. There is only 1 item that can be used by level 19 twinks that is above level 35 that is “Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots” which are cloth which means they can be used by and class and are the best item for any level 19 twink to have because they can have enchants that were added during the burning crusade expansion. You can looks these up or I can tell you where and how to get them and any other enchants/gear if you would like.

What should you focus on as a twink? A big part of being a twink is having huge amounts of health so a lot of your enchants will give you health or stamina. But you will need to choose what to focus on; either surviving a long time or dealing a huge amount of damage.

One last thing I need to cover. With the release of Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard introduced “Bind on Account” items that can be passed back and forth among your own characters on the same realm. Some of you may be familiar with the “Baby Blizzard Bear” pet which was given to everyone near the end of last year. The main items that can be very useful for twinks are Shoulders, Weapons, and Trinkets, that can be passed to your Twink. More important are the Trinkets because they are nearly impossible to get at level 19 and even 29. Other is the shoulders because they are much better than any other shoulders you can get at those levels.

I haven’t really covered how to make a twink because it is different for every class and spec so if anyone is interested in creating any level of twink please talk to me I would love to help you out and it is more fun to play twinks with others. I am also working on making a level 29 shaman twink. Have fun and see you in the BGs.

Clark-

Mind your manners

I want to take a moment to go over a little “WoW Etiquette” and yes believe it or not it’s a real thing. There are no official rules enforced by Blizzard regarding how dungeons or raids are to be conducted but just some unwritten ones that is supported by most players. There is only 2 ways to learn this etiquette, first is to read it somewhere, like here for example. The second one is the way that I learnt it, the hard way. After my druid hit level 70 I started to do raids and other such things to improve my gear. I quickly learnt that when you’re in a “PUG” or group of people who you don’t know they aren’t very reserved when it comes to chewing you out if you do something wrong. This is where the Etiquette developed.

Let me cover need and greed rolls. Need rolls are meant for people who need that item for any reason like a profession or for an upgrade to their gear. This is stuff that the person who rolls need is going to use. Greed is for the people who don’t need it for anything other than for selling to either the Action House or to vendors. Need rolls will always supersede the greed rolls so if someone rolls a 100 on a greed roll and another rolls a 1 on a need roll the need will always win over greed’s. This way if no one needs the item it will just be given to the highest greed roll. (Rule No. 1: Never roll need on an item you don’t need.) That is what will piss people off the most, trust me I know.

There are some classes that can only wear cloth others can wear leather, mail, plate and so on… sometimes if you are one of those classes that can use mail, leather, or plate you will see an item that is better than what you got but it is cloth or something less than what you can wear. It’s alright to roll need on them because armor is the only thing different about what type of armor it is. But it’s polite to ask before you need that type of gear. This mostly the case with casters because armor is not that important to casters but, sometimes some mail gear will be better than plate for some melee classes. (Rule No. 2: Ask before rolling need on an armor class that is less than what you can use.) The only reason this rule applies is because people who wear cloth never get the chance to roll need on any other types of armor. It just makes things fair to them. Always be nice to them and roll greed if they need them.

Is there ever a time to pass on rolls? The answer is yes but very few times. The most common is when you’re doing a run that is a much lower level than your own. It is polite to just let the lower level people if any divide the loot among themselves. The only other time I’ve seen passing. If there is a name for this type of loot method I don’t know what it is called so I’ll just call it “Enchanter Loot”. This still keeps the standard loot system but everyone passes except the enchanter unless the items needed by someone. Then if that is the case they just need and the item goes to that person instead of the enchanter. At the end of the run all the items that are received by the enchanter is disenchanted and divided among the players. The alternative method is for everyone to roll greed then the enchanter rolls need if no one else does. The down side of the second method is that the enchanter has to stop and wait for everyone to roll that way he/she knows wither or not to roll need. The main thing is that the stuff that comes from disenchanting is more valuable than the item it’s self. There are times that the enchanter would like to keep all the stuff they get to further their profession. That is alright but it’s best to only take the BOP items that are not needed because those items are only going to be sold to a vendor where as the BOE items can be sold on AH or given to other characters. This brings us to (Rule No. 3: Arrange how loot is going to be distributed before the run starts that way there isn’t any conflict or assumptions.)

Well enough about loot there is some other things to cover. You should all know by now that the mobs that you find in dungeons all much different than the mobs you will find out side. Main thing is that they will do tons more damage, in some of the higher level dungeons some of them can kill you in a single shot. This is why every raid has a tank. Warrior, Druid, Paladin, or Deathknights are the only classes that can tank, and even then they have to have the right spec and the right gear to do so. Because of this tanks are usually made the leader by default there are a few times that other roles will lead the run either because they are more familiar with the run or because the tank doesn’t want to lead. Tanks usually lead because they are going to be the ones to pull the next group of mobs to be killed. There are a few times that the tank won’t pull usually these pulls will be done by hunters because they have an ability called “Misdirect” which will cause the mob to attack the tank instead of the hunter. But usually the tank will ask for this type of pull. (Rule: No.4: Never be in front of or pull groups unless you’re the thank or are asked by the tank to pull them)

Get to know other classes. You don’t need to know everything about every class and spec but it’s always good to know what type of gear they use and what their main abilities are, this way when rolling on gear or making pulls you can kind of expect what other people are going to do. This isn’t a rule but it’s good to know so you know why people do the things they do. Again at some point I’ll make a post on what classes and specs use what type of gear and what is best for them.

This is all I’ll cover for now. This isn’t caused by any single event or single person. I do not want to lecture or chew anyone out for anything I just want our guild to be able to quest and runs and raids that we do and hopefully avoid any conflicts. Just know that this all comes from my own experience of getting ripped into by other player for making simple mistakes they expect everyone to already know. And remember that everyone is at different levels of knowledge and ability in this game and to be patient and also be patient when someone tells you if a mistake is made, it happens to everyone and just take it like it is. The last and probably most important rule is, (Rule No.5: This is only a game and should be treated as such.)

Clark-