Won’t rehash everything.  Been done here, here and here.

I have one question though?

Does something seem off about this:

• Hymn of Hope: This spell has been removed.

Then under glyphs:

• Glyph of Hymn of Hope *new*  — Your Hymn of hope provides 3 times the normal amount of mana per time, but its duration is 50% shorter.

0_o…so is Hymn of Hope in or out?

And may we have a moment of silence for Improved Holy Concentration.  IHC, we loved and knew you well.

*Thanks to Kes for pointing it out.

Several months ago, I wrote a post describing guild landscapes and how to make sure you stay true to its image. 

I discussed how dissention in views could become weeds in your garden or even bombs, decimating everything around you.

It is easy enough to see that.  You can feel the mounting frustration, you can hear the tones, you know what to look for when others push in a direction you aren’t willing to follow.

Each expansion brings change to an established guild; some fall apart, others grow, some merge.

What about my guild? Well, AUO’s landscape changed and hasn’t at the same time. 

How?

Here is the description of my guild landscape from my original post on August 2, 2008:

Okay, let’s take AUO’s landscape under the microscope for a sec. Our landscape is similar to an Irish coastline.  The ocean bashing on the rocks, high cliffs, mountains and hills, but in the center, connecting all those elements together is our huge, beautiful meadow.  Everything else is still part of our landscape and they are important elements to our members, but the meadow is the heart and the foundation. Without it, everything would fall apart.

All of this was still holding true through the remainder of Burning Crusade and we looked towards Lich with hope, that maybe this time, we could climb the mountains more often.

What threatened our landscape wasn’t the disquiet among our members, but the very opposite.

I am talking about complete and unexpected success.

Imagine for a moment, we all traveled continued towards the mountain in our merry way, walking through the meadow not even noticing how many more were joined us.  They were new members, all fresh and eager for the climb.  Nor did I notice now we all seem to have spikes at the bottom of our feet, now making the mountain climb easier and more enjoyable.

After first 10 seemed fine, then I looking down, sad faces would stare back, other members wanting to climb but not able to since our rope was limited. 

Then, quite suddenly and without forethought, we threw down 15 more lines and found to our astonishment, they were all grabbed and filled by our members.

We had become mountain climbers without even knowing!

While as amazing and exhilarating as the climbs became, I also worried that our meadow was becoming too small in the distance. And there were many climbing the mountain with us, while enjoyed the trip, also wish to go back to the meadow.

That is when I realized.

We are losing sight of our focus, drunk on the mead of our success. 

AUO, has always been a guild about people first.  It has never been nor would it be, about gear and knowledge.  We have been extremely fortunate to have met some wonderful people, who also happen to be exceptional players, and who enjoy our style.

Causal style that is.

Now, the what is “Causal” and “Hardcore” has been debated numerous times.  I don’t think of myself as causal in the traditional sense, nor would many of my members.  They play when they can, we have a good time, but when it comes time to do something as a group, we are there to get it done.

Except the call to do more, to see more and push harder, forced us to neglect our foundation and I could see brown spots forming in the meadow.

And that could not happen.  Sometimes you have to step back and assess yourself, your goals and the guild’s and make sure all of you are on the same page.

This is what I saw.

AUO was still a causal guild.  Our focus was still on the player and when guild chat and vent became overrun with DPS talk, meters flashed every other second and attitudes on gear and who deserved what, I realized there was major trouble coming our way and the meadow was in danger.

Before anything, I want to say, the majority of our guild likes the way it is right now.  And to preserve that, we did the following.

Banned spamming DPS meters during raids: 

DPS meters can be helpful to a point. But they are generally more disruptive than they assist.  Constant spamming breaks the rhythm in raid chat and fosters a DPS race which can kill.  If members want to share, they are asked to whisper to each other  or wait until the end of a boss fight or the raid.  No spamming after each trash pull.  It is great to be proud, but epreening isn’t.

Loot system:

Our current loot system is a modification of our old system.  2-3 main spec items per night, free off spec roll, free token rolls and one item per boss.  This has been the most difficult part of raiding as 25 people.  Loot and people’s attitude towards it.  This is also where I made a major mistake as a GM and tried to change it to an Officer loot system. It lasted a week before the pressure of distributing loot made me realize we were putting too much weight behind the loot.  Before, we had always been such a considerate guild, people passing on items, telling others to roll, even giving their wins to others.  The gear, while great and necessary, was always secondary.  It was the experience and raid itself which we valued first.  When I realized what was happening, totally my fault, I reviewed the system with my officers.  It has worked wonderfully so far.  People are doing exactly what I expected them to do.  Now a question has come up about giving loot for merit.  But honesty that will not happen.  Whatever system you use, be it a free roll, dkp, whatever, you MUST be constant.  I will not change the system just because we killed Saph, or KT.  Or even if we get Sarth +3.  For us gear is secondary. 

Inviting new members:

Because we pugged a little in the beginning and met new players, several liked our style and joined our guild.  Also, we have had an influx of new friends of members, their spouses and what not, thus meaning that we were now able to field a 25 mans without much problems.  But is also meant there were a number of new unknown members in our guild and the possibility of having too many wanting to do 25 man and not having enough space.  To preserve that peace, I have closed the door.  No one new is being invited.  It is also imperative to remind all of our new members that while we are raiding all the time now, it is not our focus.  We are a family and friends guild first, raiding second.  If we lose them, too bad.  Better to let them know up front than them getting frustrated because we aren’t moving as fast as they would like.

Constant vigilance

I sound like Mad- eye Moody, but he had the right of it.  Keeping a daily temperature of the guild is critical. A GM and the officers need to find out if there have been any problems or questions, weeding if necessary, putting stops to overzealous plants and making sure the beds are arranged correctly. This doesn’t mean I want to stunt our growth, contrary, I am limiting it to ensure we will continue to flourish.

So what about now, what is AUO’s landscape in the wading winter of 2009?

I am happy to report that while the mountains seem a great deal closer, our meadow is still vibrant, still strong, and still our heart.

What about you?  Has your landscape changed dramatically during Lich?

Nib, the crafty lock, threw a Curse of Exhaustion on me and won’t let me go until I comply with this meme. 

Here is the 6th screenshot currently in my folder.  Which of course couldn’t be something normal…no it had to be something that I haven’t talked about before.

You see, I have a friend, who one day decided he wanted to make a *privateserver*

*Eyes dart around*

*Clears throats and whispers in a low voice* So, he comes to us and says, Hey why don’t you guys test this out.  So me being a nub, I said yea and jumped on the…

*Cough*privateserver

*Looks around for the Blizz police* 

Before anything, this was a one time deal many moons ago and the server has long since been shut down. And no, it wasn’t my server.  Though, I have to tell you, running around the sky on top of that mount was amazing. 

Oh and those endless bags, Tier 6 and 100k gold didn’t hurt either.

*This post will self-destruct in 5 minutes*

Screw flowers, or diamonds , my man seduces me…with technology. 

I would like to introduce our new addition to the Bre and Theo household, Contessa Rosalita (pronounced rrrrrrrrrrrosalita) Isabel Muñoz, or affectionately known as “Rosie.”

She looks sleek and elegant, but under that glossy cover lies a roaring beast.

Purring under there we have (product specs taken from here):

• Intel® Centrino® 2 processor technology with interrelated Intel® Core™2 Duo processor P8400
• 4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 memory
• Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support
• 14.1" WXGA widescreen LED display
• 320GB SATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
• NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS graphics
  With up to 1GB GDDR3 memory for lush images. Azalia audio chip with built-in stereo speakers; HDMI output and eSATA port.
• Built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam 
• 8-in-1 media reader

I r happy woman!

Big Bear Butt’s feed went a’missing after he upgraded his wordpress.  Seems that evil little update went nomnomnomnom with the feedburner RSS and no one using it has been receiving Bear’s updates since. 

Want more Bear in your life?  Go to his site and re-subscribe or subscribe for the first time!

Image from here

No WoW related anything in this post. Feel free to skip, delete or do what you want.

I was going to write about this on my personal site, but since about five people read it and most are men, I am pretty sure it isn’t going to get the attention it deserves.

I love books.

Especially FREE BOOKS!

*Giddy*

*Glee*

*Squeel*

Harlequin, the people who provided my first foray into romance (after Sidney Sheldon), are celebrating their 60th anniversary! And as a present they are offering, not one, not two, but 16 FREE E-BOOKS!

All the e-books are from 2007-2008 and are full novels from each of their lines. You may download here.

Woot!

Thank you to Smart Bitches for posting about it and making my day!

Enjoy!

Abbott and Costello…remember them…remember this?

Now see this… (Warning! Do not watch while drinking liquids, choking may occur!)

My gaming history is filled with games like Grim Fandango, Gabriel Knight and Jade Empire.  I like story, I like characters, I don’t however, enjoy running around things and shooting stuff.  Just doesn’t appeal to me.  Just like moving with a mouse doesn’t appeal to me.

I won’t call this a rant, because really, I am more confused than angry.  After all, much like a kid that didn’t understand the joke, I am not sure I get the context of the stigma. 

I keyturn. Ummm…so what?  I can’t really see what the big deal is about keyturning or not?

Not to long ago, a friend and I were questing and she asked me how I moved, when I told her I keyturn, her reply was,” I never would have known.” 

Really?  Is being a keyturner so obvious?  I don’t think so.  And really what does it matter?  I am not tooting my own horn, but I do just fine.  Have done PvP, been listed on the top of damage and healing on both toons, survived Heigan’s dance for 21 minutes with most of raid was dead, cleared Kara, Gruuls, Mags, and countless instances all while keyturning.

When I heard about the stigma, I tired to change, tried the mouse to move.  But you know what, I just kept running into walls. 

I don’t like it.

Just like I don’t like keybindings for my spells.  Just the way it is ladies and gents.  That is how I play.  And I am sure there are many of you who do the same.  It has nothing to do with your ability to play. 

I am not the best player in the world.  I am not the best hunter or priest, but I do pretty damn well.  Does that mean I might be better as a mouse turner?  I don’t think so.

It is moments like this, that I think about my grandfather when he was a child.  He was a natural left hander and because left handers were thought of as “wrong” or “sinful”, the teachers would bind his left hand behind his back so he would be forced to write with the right.

He could write with his right, but always performed tasks with his left.  Isn’t that more a hindrance? Forcing someone to do something one way because it is deemed to be the only way?

Kinda short-sighted.

I am a keyturner. 

That is just how it is.

/shrug

Sounds like McHammer for a second there!  The following post is written by our resident “hardcore” hunter, Fitz.  He explores the value of haste for Beast Master hunters and welcomes discussion on the topic!  Numbers people, lots of lots of numbers!

BM Hunters, your T7 is worthless, give it to me!

Well, maybe not worthless, but certainly not optimal. Let’s take a look at the T7 gear for hunters, and haste in general, shall we?

Most hunters’ rotations involve a combination of auto/steady shot to maximize their DPS. Basically, we want to cast steady shot every time it’s up,  and autoshot “woven” in between.

The cast time on Steady Shot is 2 seconds, which means that every 2 seconds we can fire off another one, if we’re spamming our patented IWIN macro. Of course, we also have shots like Arcane shot and serpent sting that we weave in when they’re available, as well.

Now, the Global Cooldown is 1.5 seconds. Haste decreases cast time on our abilities, including steady shot. The theory is that you’ll do more damage if you get Steady shot down to that 1.5 seconds or less so that you fire one off every global cooldown.
Here’s where things get a bit tricky:

A.)    It is useless to have more haste than it takes to get your steady shot down to 1.5 seconds. If you have a steady shot of 1.3 seconds, you STILL can’t cast it again until the 1.5 second GCD is up. The GCD is ALWAYS the limiting factor in how fast you can fire off steady shot.

B.)    BM hunters worth their salt pick up Serpent’s Swiftness, which gives you a 20 percent increase in ranged attack speed. Near as I can tell, any level capped hunter with this talent will now have below a 1.5 second steady shot. I’m fairly sure your weapon speed doesn’t matter for steady shot, but if I’m wrong, someone please correct me.

C.)    Therefore, Haste is a worthless stat to BM hunters, unless they aren’t taking Serpent’s Swiftness, in which case they’re bad and need to have their hunters taken away from them.

Now let’s take a gander at that T7 gear, m’kay?

• Valorous Cryptstalker Tunic
• Valorous Cryptstalker Handguards
• Valorous Cryptstalker Headpiece
• Valorous Cryptstalker Legguards
• Valorous Cryptstalker Spaulders

This stuff is loaded with haste.

Total, we see 227 Haste rating. It requires 32.79 haste rating to give 1% haste, which means our 227 haste rating is worth 6.92% haste. If we want to decrease our steady shot cast time to 1.5 seconds, we need to increase our attack speed. Remember, we’ve already got an increase of 15% from our quiver.

Our quiver reduces our cast time to 1.73 seconds.

Our additional haste rating  from the T7 set reduces the cast time further to 1.62 seconds. If we wanted to get fully haste capped, we’d need 523 haste rating total, or 296 more than the T7 set provides.

Now, sparky, don’t go re-gemming for haste. Would it be worth it to sacrifice those 32 ap gems (or 16 agi, if you’re survival) for haste?

We’re only talking about less than a 10th of a second speed increase on Steady, which is, theoretical assuming, your macro spamming is PERFECT.

For all intents and purposes, the T7 haste rating gets you as close as you need to be to a 1.5 second steady. Your gems and enchants should be focused elsewhere. As always, ensure hitting the hit cap is your highest priority.

Unfortunately, BM hunters are a little hosed at this point, because haste is fairly useless for them.

The item budget, assuming haste is equal to AP, means that they’re losing out on potentially 227 AP  in favor of haste. I’m using no proof here other than seeing ilvl 200 items with and without haste, and it LOOKS to me like haste is budgeted equal to AP. Once again, tell me if I’m wrong on this.

Assuming haste is a key stat on T8 gear, BM hunters will continue to be itemized poorly.  I envision haste being kind of removed from hunter itemization, and serpents swiftness being moved lower in the trees to make it accessible, but then again, what do I know?

In closing: BM hunters, give  your T7 to me, kthxbai. You should be picking up epics from raids that don’t carry any haste, if you know what’s good for you.

Special thanks to the EJ forums and BRK for the numbers.