Totemic Recall

Hmm still working on the name for the posts about my new shaman...not sure what it will end up being. Anyway, back to the matter at hand: MY SHAMAN! Rhommel dinged lvl 10 last night! Woots! I decided that I hate the draenei starter zone so I ran to the human starting area which is a lot easier to do now since there is a boat from Auberdine to SW harbor. As someone who had to do the long death run from Menethil Harbor to IF/SW back in the day, I really appreciate this shortcut.

So far the biggest concern I have for my shaman is bag space. I only have a 4 slot bag that I got from a quest reward, I suppose I'll have to start selling herbs on the ah for moneys to buy some more bags. So far playing my shaman is fun because of the limitations I set for myself. I think it makes the game a little bit more challenging and closer to what my experience was the first time I leveled a character. Oh and by the way murlocs are the bane of my existence once again! Especially the murlocs that decide to use a potion when they are nearly dead, I mean who does that anyway? How dare you use a pot when I've nearly killed you...and then you kill me! The outrage! The horror! The exclamation point! 

I think I got a little side tracked there, anyway I put my talent point into enhancement and picked up a sexy gray two handed axe which cost me all my hard earned silver to train in!(well technically it was also training 2h maces and then 2h axes) I can't wait for level 15 when I get to start using the LFD tool. I think it will be interesting actually running lowbie instances with fellow lowbies instead of run through. Oh VC boat wheel, how I have missed jumping on you to avoid a group wipe! My shaman's future is looking bright!

A new look at enhancement shaman

So I've decided to level a new shaman character and to level him as enhancement. Not only that, but I am going to level him with no BoA gear, no run throughs from higher level friends, no special help from anyone. This alt will be played just like someone who has just started playing the game. The only thing that I will do that a new player cant do is that I will put the new shaman in my guild. I think I would lose interest real quick if I didn't have access to my guilds chat lol.

I have decided on a name already(after a few hours of trying to come up with a good one): Rhommel. This name is the closest I could get to the original Rommel's name. What can I say, I'm a history nerd as well as a WoW nerd. I'll be doing my best to document how my progress is and how different it is to level again with no outside help. One thing is sure, it's going to be interesting.

Hello world, meet Rhommel:

Jed's Top 10 tips for Guild Leaders

Well the other day I mentioned that I had been both raid and guild leader since I created my guild the second day that the Ursin server was launched. (Stupid people not signing my charter keeping me from being open for business the first day!) Ursin was opened for character creation on July 22, 2005, which means that my guild has been around for almost 5 years now.(woo hoo) In that time we've been raiding, we have raided in Molten Core, Onyxia, Karazhan, Gruul, Naxxramas, and finally Icecrown Citadel, with a few other random raids in between. We've had our ups and downs and have held together, in part because I am too stubborn to give up as well as the fact that I strive to create a fun atmosphere for people to play the game in.

Would I consider myself an expert in leading a guild? I would loudly answer NO! But I think I could offer a few tips for anyone looking to start a guild or even someone who is currently leading a guild. So without further ado, here are 10 tips that all guild leaders should know, I'll list them out and after the break I'll go into more depth for each tip:

1. Have a clear goal
2. Be confident
3. Don't be afraid to be picky
4. Be fair
5. Be patient
6. Delegation is your friend
7. Know your limits
8. Study up
9. Be willing to change
10. Relax

Pugs and Not Healing them

So a guildee brought this blog post to my attention and after reading it and giggling a little bit I started thinking about all the pugs I've had to heal since the LFD tool was introduced. As a healer or tank you hold all the power in the group and sometimes...that power can corrupt! I think all tanks and healers that have had to pug runs have a list of people they either don't heal or intentionally let pull agro so they will die. Now please don't read this as I'm bad and let everyone die because I hate people and puppies and all that is good including pie. I LOVE PIE! And rightfully so, it is a wonder food after all.

On the subject of alts...

So when you have 11 80s on the same server...can you really have a main or alt character? I constantly have people ask me how many alts I have and they are amazed/disgusted/shocked when I respond that I have 11 80s. Yes...I am serious I have that many 80s, and no I didn't bot them to 80. People instantly respond that I have no life and spend all day on WoW farming something or other because there is no way a normal player could have that many high level characters. My typical response is that leveling has been nerfed so much since the original game came out that you cant help but level fast. I remember the horrible grind to 60 and even worse the horrible grind to get gear from 5mans back then. The game has also been out since 2008 and that is plenty of time to level more then one alt.

But which alt is my main ?

ICC Raiding Tips

So ICC has been out a while now and people have been finding out all sorts of little tips and tricks to get it cleared. From all the reading I've done and my own personal experience I've decided to share some of these fun little tips for ICC! Some are known already and some may be new but for anyone who is just now getting into the raid, they will hopefully all be helpful.

Oh and a quick note, I am trying out a new thing in my blogs: breaking them up a little so readers don't have to scroll through a wall of text to read past blogs. I will also be trying to mess with the graphic part of the blog but that might take me a little bit longer lol. If anyone has any feed back please be sure to leave some.

ICC zone buff

So last night we went into ICC for our weekly raid and we got to enjoy the new fancy pantsy zone buff that was introduced with tuesday's patch. After reading through many other blog sites it seems that this zone buff is very controversial. One side claims it makes clearing the zone too easy and further dumbs down the game while the other side claims that it allows more people to get into the zone and get past certain bosses. Personally...I'm for the buff. The biggest reason for this is that the hardcore progression guilds have the option to not use the buff if they don't want it on. Blizzard was smart enough to allow us this option.

I had wanted to experience the zone buff before I wrote on it because I wanted to see if it helped my guild a ton or if it was an over hyped buff. We managed to clear the first wing of ICC faster than we had ever done it before which was pretty amazing. Part of it was we had great dps/heals/tanks and part of it was that everyone was pushing out just a little bit more of everything that made the raid work due to the buff. I feel that while the buff will help you move faster in the zone, until it is increased(which it will until it reaches a 30% in increase) it wont help you down the Lich King unless you were already getting close to down him. Right now its just a little push to your stats but once it increases further, more people will be clearing the entire zone.

Will a fresh 80 with blues be able to run ICC and clear it with the maxed 30% buff? No. Will a guild who was struggling with a certain boss be able to down it and move on further in the zone with the maxed buff? Yes. Ultimately this is what the developers want to happen. Whats the point of having an end game raid that only 10% of the wow population can clear on regular 10 man mode? This buff will allow struggling guilds to get further and see more of the content before the next expansion. No guild will go from struggling on Deathbringer Saurfang previously to downing the Lich King with the buff.

To summarize, I like Pie. Oh and the zone buff is helpful and full of smexyness. The end.
- Jed