My guild has always been fairly casual.  With the introduction of 10 and 25 man raids, loot systems became a bit more difficult.  Where many only reward points based on loot that drops, those who don’t attend or who were sat, get screwed out of necessary DKP.  My guild has always been fairly drama free when it comes to loot, in fact the only times we have had a problem were from someone in vanilla when we used zero sum, when they disagreed with who should have priority over an item, then someone else in wrath getting an item for their off spec which they later used for their main spec.

So we set out to find something that would be simple enough that if we had a 25 man group we could use it, but also if we had to split up to 2 10s or even 1 10 man the system would still work.  We finally landed on a modified version of Suicide Kings, which we call PoN Kings, PoN being the acronym for my guild, Phalanx of Nod.

Lets dive into the system.

How does it work?
This is a rank based system. When loot is rolled for, the person with the lowest rank value that needs the item wins the item.  It’s that simple.  This will be calculated using our officer add-on.

How is rank determined?
Rank is determined as follows. We consider the last 10 raid nights, and your rank is calculated:
Number of items won divided by number of nights attended

Tie Breakers

• First Tie breaker is “number of nights attended”
• Second Tie breaker is “/roll”

Why this system?
We wanted a system that would stabilize loot distribution but still take into consideration recent attendance.  That’s basically all this is.  It will help equalize “loot won per night attended”. People that attend more frequently will be able to drive their number down more quickly and subsequently, have slightly more access to loot.  It also prevents someone from winning multiple things one raid week, then still being able to edge others out for more desirable gear next week.

Also, if people disappear for whatever reason they will be less able to jump in to a raid, snake take a bunch of loot, and then disappear again.

Other key points

• Raiders will have priority over FnF and they will both have priority over alts, at all time.
• This system is for MAIN SPEC GEAR ONLY, and does not count towards offspec gear, or even alt gear.
• All offspec rolls will continue to be /roll based.
• New guild members will have a probation period of 1 raid night, because we cannot calculate a rank for someone without an attendance record (they can still win just not before everyone else passes)
• Attendance is credited when the raid starts. Exceptions can be made for extenuating circumstances but this is the norm.

Offspec Policy

• If it has Hit on it, it’s purely DPS and Healers may roll on it for offspec
• If it has Spirit on it, the following rules apply:
• It is Main Spec for healers. NO EXCEPTIONS
• Spirit is a valuable stat for all flavors of priest, Shaman (Elemental and Resto) & Druids (Resto and Boomkin)
• If a caster item doesn’t have Hit or Spirit on it, it is considered Main Spec for both healers and caster dps
• Most everything else is common sense

FAQs
Q: How do I know what my rank is?
A: Your rank will change depending on everyone else’s rank in the raid. You will be able to whisper the master looter “rank” and it will tell you. We will also post the ranks of all attendees at the beginning of each raid, using a custom addon used by the officers.

Q: How is my rank being tracked?
A: We do this via the officer note. That way it is visible and you can help determine if its correct. This is managed by the officer addon used to track attendance and manage loot distribution.

Q: When does my rank change?
A: Your relative rank may change whenever you win an item, or whenever anyone else wins an item. This is a live system and we are not waiting until the end of the night for a given person’s rank to change. That said, when the raid is over your attendance and wins for that night will count towards your new rank for the next raid.

Q: Wait so lowest rank puts me higher on the priority to get an item?
A: Yes the lower your rank, the higher priority you are to win an item, just go with it.

Q: Why this and not DKP or similar system?
A: DKP is based on boss kills, and if we split into 10s, DKP favors the group that can down more bosses creating more a of an A vs B team, this system works across raid sizes.

Q: Why not stick with rolls?
A: We found in 25 man raids, which we are doing more, didn’t provide a proper and even distribution of loot, this system’s goal is to fix that

Q: What do the rankings look like with # of items vs # of raids

A:

If you would like to know more about the system or how to implement it or to get more details on the officer addon feel free to contact me on Dalaran US – Alliance in game, the character name is Ceraphus.  Also you can send an email to variantavatar@gmail.com or contact me via twitter.

Recently in the Mists of Pandaria Beta, there was an NPC which sparked some outrage amongst some players.  Ji Firepaw made some allegedly sexist remarks.  But its not just with World of Warcraft there are other games where there have been remarks of a certain nature which has sparked folks to cry out and say, things aren’t equal, things are against women, against gay people, against a certain race.  I remember when Bioware allowed same sex relationships in Mass Effect, people flipped out.  Now I agree that some situations the creative artists behind gaming content (not necessarily the ones I listed above) have taken a situation a bit far.  However are some of these other areas just being taken too far and are people just being hypersensitive?

Ji Firepaw’s questionable dialogue went something like this, “Hello, friend! You’re some kind of gorgeous, aren’t you? I bet you can’t keep the men off of you! Join me! You and I are going to be good friends!” To men, he instead says “Hello, friend! You’ve got a strong look to you! I bet you’re all the rage with the ladies! Join me! You and I are going to be good friends!”  Now what if Ji was a female NPC?  Does that change the context of the statement?  What if to men, Ji said “You’ve got a handsome look to you” instead of what he did say?  Would that have quieted some of the outrage?

There is even an article on Kotaku regarding homophobic sentiments in Battlefield 3.  Using terms like “Getting my Sh*t pushed in” and “Getting f*cked in the ass”.  Is this really the signs of an anti-gay video game company or developer?  What if the characters in Battlefield 3 were women and saying this, would that make it less offensive or less homophobic?  Or are people simply looking to make controversy out of something?

Bioware has allowed same sex relationships and even sex in their Mass Effect franchise.  Of course there was some outrage over the lesbian love scenes that could happen in Mass Effect 1 and 2, now with Mass Effect 3 there can be a man on man encounter, and once again the immaturity of some members of the gaming community have shined a spotlight not only on this “feature” but also the lack of progressive thinking of some gamers as written by Forbes.

The thing is many video games are telling a story.  In books, comics, movies and TV you will find characters who do not portray the utopian society of everyone treats everyone with 100% perfect respect and you don’t see the same outrage about people getting offended.  More people seem OK with this type of sexist, racist or homophobic character in a book or movie, but why not in a video game?  Game of Thrones, arguably one of the most popular television series and series of books is filled with characters who belittle women, show man on man and woman on woman sex.  Yet the show is touted as fantastic.  Sure excellent writing and acting help develop the characters and allow the viewers to view characters as creeps, jerks or even heroes.  The TV show House, depicts a doctor who is a complete asshole, he hires hookers and talks down to women a lot, and its award winning and you don’t hear the outcry.

Why is it all of a sudden we cross into video games that we can no longer have NPCs (non player characters) with different personalities towards certain types of other characters.  Hell put in a man hating female character, put gay characters into the games.  Why not, its the world we live in, sure some folks don’t want reality in their games, but not everyone is offended by these things.  As a gamer, I have the right to not be offended by things, just as others have the right to be offended.  I want to see character development, I want different personalities in my games.  I want to dive into the history of a character and determine if they are a creep or misunderstood.

So is the outrage poor execution in video games from a writing and development standpoint that causes more outrage than other forms of media?  Honestly I am not sure, but I just have seen from personal observation people flipping out over these topics in video games more than other forms of media, and I can’t help but think are they sometimes making mountains out of mole hills.

Ultimately as the consumer you have the choice to buy that book, movie or comic, just as you have the same right to participate in a game.  I feel that the spirit of the type of character that Blizzard was developing with Ji had some good building blocks, but was executed poorly, he could have been an ally you just loved to hate because he was an asshole.  But instead of playing with the dialogue for both male and female characters, they completely stripped out the dialogue with what seems like boiler plate discussion now.

I am concerned about the future of games where even the most minor of infraction towards a person’s color, sexual orientation or race could spark outrage from some members of the community, without them looking at what type of character the writers are trying to create and develop.  I personally don’t want all the same personalities, I want a deep rich world with different types of NPCs that I interact with.  However I fear with some people being outraged by anything, many video game creators may not even get the chance to build those characters like many creators of TV, Movies and books get to do today.  In fact they may not even want to deal with the hassle.

I am sure many of you won’t agree with me, but its how I feel.  Some of you may think oh he is desensitized or I am some chauvinist pig.  But the truth is I am EXTREMELY tolerant of a lot of things, and I want to see good story telling, I want different types of characters, I want different personalities.  I want my video games to feel like an immersive experience.  I want something different, I want characters I hate, I want others I love.  As long as things aren’t taken to a level that is truly wrong but in the spirit of good storytelling I say let the creators be creative.  When a company itself comes out against a certain group publicly, sure get offended boycott their products.

However as a gamer, I have my right to not be offended, and those that do get offended I hope can recognize that not everyone needs to be offended.

It is somewhat apropos that as I write this article, I am drinking a nice beer.    Yes, I’m talking about Dwarves, our miniature beer swilling buddies.    Unlike previous articles, where we’ve talked about healing or how to make a great UI, this time:   “I Know Kung-Fu”.

In Mists of Pandaria along with a new race, the Pandarens, we have a brand new class: The Monk.   Like Druids and Paladins, the Monks have a spec for DPS, Tanking and Healing.     In that respect, as a hybrid class, the Monk is not treading any new ground.  However, the Monk brings new mechanics to the game that are an appealing new twist to how the character is played.   Though many people will likely create a Panda Monk, I believe the Dwarf is the penultimate character race for the new Monk class….  Look at it this way. Dwarves like drinking, and are very capable with their fists.  Granted, their kicks may only reach the mid-section of other -taller-races, that in and of itself, is a bonus.  Leveling a Dwarven monk once Mists of Pandaria goes live will be one of my top priorities.    To that end, I wanted to get a feel for the class during the beta so I could make a more informed decision once Mists is released.

Initial Impressions

Leveling around Iron Forge as a Monk is somewhat different than I was expecting.  In the first few levels, you have only a few abilities available to kill the various mobs that inhabit Coldridge Valley.  At this point in your progression Jab is your primary talent.  Jab does a small amount of damage and also generates Chi, your critical resource for future abilities.   It also consumes “Energy” which is your primary resource.   As you use your abilities and attack your target you build up and use Chi for greater and more damaging attacks.   You can’t ignore your energy, of course, because without it you are unable to generate more chi.

Early Levels

The first level or two as I mentioned earlier you only have your “Jab” capability.  Granted, it doesn’t take much to get from level 1 to level 3, but without anything to really expend Chi on, it doesn’t feel as smooth as it should.   At level 3 you finally gain your first ability to use Chi: Tiger Palm.  NOW we’re talking.   With the Tiger Palm ability,  you are able to start taking down mobs quite quickly.   Tiger Palm damages the target for some amount, dependent upon your level, plus an additional amount if the target is over 50%.

But

That’s it.   No more abilities are added until level 7, when you get Blackout kick (an attack that is tuned to work with Tiger Palm,  as it’s only available when your target is at 35% or lower in health).     Essentially, the monk doesn’t feel like a complete class until you get blackout kick.   You can hit, you can roll (a nice ability, btw)…but that’s about it.   Once you hit level 7 you can punch and kick with the best of ‘em.   At that point, the leveling begins to be more interesting and you begin to feel…well, like a hero.

At level 7-10 you begin to see glimpses of what the Monk’s priority/rotation is going to be at end game.  My initial impression is that it will be halfway between a rogue (and their combo points) and a death knight (with runes).   Since you only have 4 Chi slots, the key will be rapidly building up to your full Chi and then expending it WISELY.

Wrap It Up, I’ll Take It!

The Monk class will be an interesting new experience within the game.   A new hybrid with DPS, Tanking and Healing ability and a new mechanic with which to initiate all sorts of finishing moves.  The Monk feels familiar, but at the same time, very, very different.

Pros:

• A New Resource: Chi.   Chi is somewhat like the  Death Knights rune system, but unlike the DK’s runes, Chi doesn’t seem to  dissapate over time.  Once you build  it up, you can save it for heavy hits at the beginning of the next fight.   The finishing moves that use Chi are unique and as far as I can tell right now, effective.

• I like how smoothly the  animations move from empty hand attacks (jab) to new attacks as you gain  various weapons (jab becomes sever once you have weapons in your  hands).   It feels natural.

Cons

• Early leveling (from 1-7)  feels incomplete from the perspective of power.   Up until level 7, you can basically  smack things with your hands.  At level 7, you can finally use your feet.   Based on my experience,  I would argue that Monks should get some sort of kicking attack earlier in leveling.

It’s still early in my leveling of my Dwarven monk, but it’s proving to be interesting..   Leveling on the older Cataclysm starting areas is not as smooth or as “peaceful” as leveling a Pandarian Monk, but it is proving to be interesting.    Stick with me as I continue to examine the early levels of Dwarven Monk Leveling.

On Wednesday March 21, during my guild’s raid, I happened to log into my Battle.net account and happened to see that I had the Mists of Pandaria Beta available in my list of games.  Needless to say I was quite excited.  Quickly taking pictures to show my guildies who were skeptical who thought I was making stuff up.  Needless to say, and to my guildies who read this I apologize, but I was distracted the rest of the evening.

After finally getting it up and running and transferring over my DK, I immediately spec’d him, though there was nothing more to do with my Death Knight, as the current phase of Mists of Pandaria beta is to focus testing on the Pandaren 1-10 starting zone.

I leveled 1 Pandaren monk through the starting zone, and bugs aside, the experience was extremely well put together.  I expect that once the bugs are fixed it will be even better.  The story has a nice flow.  The different quests where you save folks, collect things, even hopping on poles, give some new yet familiar quest elements to the game.

The entire Pandaren starting zone is very well put together.  The story is clean, the quests are varied and introduce you to a lot of the new mechanics for quests and the new models for mobs.

Next up for testing was running the Temple of the Jade Serpent.  We got to fight some pretty bad dudes.  Interesting but very familiar mechanics, dispell, don’t stand in the bad.  But the enemy models are truly top notch, especially the Sha of Doubt, now I know it says its a place holder model, but damn if it doesn’t look awesome.

Overall the dungeon had a nice flow to it, the art is amazing.  Looks like the loot currently is ilvl 425.

Questing in the new zone was a lot of the same, there was 1 quest that felt different where you had to revive crewmen, however the animation for each took a while, and you have to perform this on 6 people, this felt like an unnecessary slowdown to my pace.  However I do appreciate Blizzard not having us just bandage folks up like in the past.  Parts of the Jade Forest remind me of Sholazar Basin, it definitely isn’t exactly like it.  The bamboo, the mist that permeates the ground, it definitely has its own flair.

Even with all the bugs I have found so far I am really digging the expansion, and what Mists of Pandaria has to offer.

To cap it off here are some screenshots:

Pandaria, looking at the first dungeon area in the Jade Forest

Creating a Pandaren in the starting zone

Pandas in balloons!

 Final boss of the first dungeon

Looking out on the Jade Forest

Some loot in the first dungeon

More loot from the first dungeon

Recently the NDA was lifted and there was a ton of stuff reported that is coming in Mists of Pandaria.  The reveal brought to light several items not previously mentioned and also provided additional details on features brought up at the last Blizzcon.  Some of these changes I am pretty excited for, other changes I am not so excited about, and some things I am left scratching my head as to why are these things not in here?

Dislike Bucket

No new race models.  Seriously?  The game is going on 8 years old, its time,  update those character models.  This is so long overdue its not even funny.  I know Blizzard said Dwarves may be in for launch, but honestly this should have been a priority.  Its not, and I am a bit miffed about it not happening for launch.

No communication for Pet Battles.  Does this mean I can’t challenge people directly?  Also no tracking losses?  How much you want to bet there will be some mod out there to do a complete track that you can upload somewhere for a true ladder on it.  I am willing to bet someone is already dreaming that up.  But if I challenge a friend does that mean I can’t trash talk him?  Or can I not challenge him directly, I need to queue up?  Though it says you can challenge someone in the world, but then says you don’t see their name.  This is just very confusing.  Right now this is in my dislike bucket until I get more information.   Also where are the details regarding pet battles on iOS or Android?  Lets make that happen, then it goes to my like bucket.

Like Bucket

11th Character Slot.  Now I don’t need to delete a character, well played Blizzard.

AoE Looting.  This has been a staple in MMOs for a while now, its about time Blizzard added this.

Zone Visuals.  These things look fantastic.  I love the differing yet related vistas we are getting.  The eastern theme is truly fantastic looking.

Scenarios.  Instanced group quests, that provide valor and rep, that don’t need tanks and healers?  Awesome!  Only taking 10-30 minutes?  Also great!  One of the things I hated about SWTOR was when I came across heroic quests and couldn’t find anyone to group with, same thing with group quests in WoW, but now they are instancing them and making them doable in a short amount of time.  I am very much looking forward to these.

Raise your own cloud serpent.  Get an egg, do daily quests to hatch it and raise it into your mount?  This sounds awesome, so much better than hey pay your gold here is your mount, something a bit more interactive.

Garrosh the Raid Boss.  This is one of my favorites, Garrosh as the end boss of Mists of Pandaria.  This guy is a giant jackass, and throughout the expansion the story builds up to some reason that we need to kill this guy.  This is exciting.  The prospect of Alliance vs. Horde as PVE I am really digging.  I hope there is more of this concept throughout Mists of Pandaria.

Unsure Bucket

Manage your farm.  This feature I know many people are comparing to Farmville.  However reading over the details it almost sounds like its a form of player housing, or at least Blizzard’s first step into that.  Ways to improve your farm, clear plots, grow food, herbalism nodes, gifts for NPCs to improve rep.  If you can do stuff for other professions too like fishing, jewelcrafting.  Also hopefully the daily quests are varied enough to make it interesting and that the farm concept doesn’t prove to be exactly like a Farmville ripoff.

Challenge Modes.  With gear scaling to be normalized when you do the challenge modes for dungeons, there will always be a challenge there, however the rewards seem purely cosmetic.  Is the time and skill required to get these challenge
modes completed worth the rewards you get out of it?  Right now I am not sure if the transmogrification gear and epic mount are enough of a reward, will have to wait and see how great they look.

Conclusion

There are a lot of features I am looking forward to in the new expansion, now I only listed a few there was a lot more that was mentioned after the NDA was lifted.  However this is what caught my eye.  What about you, what are you most excited, least excited about, and what items are you still unsure about?

So now that I have been able to get back to Unholy from my experiment with Frost, I felt it was time to update my old Unholy how to guide since the last I touched on it which was way back patch 4.0.6.

Since then a lot has happened, Unholy fell out of favor, with the raid DPS crowd in favor of Frost, so my transition to that spec provided the push to create a Frost DPS guide at that point.

Spec & Glyph

Your spec and glyphs haven’t changed too much but you really want to start off with the base 5/0/32 spec, Leaving you with 4 points to play around with.  For one option I highly recommend take 1/3 Runic Power Mastery, anymore than 1 point and you will not get much added value, as per your rotation you should be below 100 RP most of the time with the exception of when you are using your anti-magic shield and gain a sudden bump in your runic power.  Now I do recommend at minimum 2/3 into Magic Suppression, but going even further especially in Dragon Soul, I have found maxing it, along with picking up Anti Magic Zone is very beneficial in a lot of the fights where there is a lot of AoE magic damage.  Also your healers will like you a lot.  Your own real valid PVE option is to put points into Improved Blood Tap, while more runes are good, it can be hard to properly work blood tap into your rotation as unholy, but if you can more power to you.

For me personally I end up with the following spec: 5/1/35

For your glyphs there aren’t many options so you want to use the Prime glyphs of Glyph of Raise Dead, Glyph of Scourge Strike and Glyph of Death Coil.  For AoE you heavy fights you can replace DC and SS glyphs with Glyph of Death and Decay and Glyph of Icy Touch.

Your Major glyphs should be Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell, Glyph of Pestilence, Glyph of Blood Boil.  For these slots there really is no other solid option for us.

For your Minor glyphs, while working in Blood Tap is tough, the glyph can be helpful. I recommend using the Glyph of Blood Tap.  Two other minor glyphs I recommend are Glyph of Path of Frost and Glyph of Horn of Winter.  Glyph of Death Embrace can be useful if you find yourself healing your minion with death coil a bunch.  There aren’t many minor glyphs to choose from and these are just two that I use, but any you want are fine as they won’t noticeably impact your DPS.

Rotation

Gone are the days of follow this rotation, don’t deviate.  The Death Knight, especially the Unholy requires you to manage your resources and understand the priority of each ability so you know when to use it.

Single Target Priority

Make sure you are doing this priority rotation in Unholy Presence!

1. Get Your Diseases Up! – Use Outbreak to apply, and use it to reapply when its not on cooldown
2. Dark Transformation
3. Death and Decay/Scourge Strike (If Both Unholy Runes or Death Runes are up)
4. Festering Strike (If Both Blood Runes AND Both Frost Runes are up)
5. Death Coil (If Sudden Doom Procs or your Runic Power is high)
6. Death and Decay / Scourge Strike > Festering Strike > Horn of Winter

Why Death and Decay for single target?  Because it provides a great tick of damage, with the exception of high movement fights, and its easy to get it down on the ground when its not on cooldown to provide a nice damage increase.  Think of it almost like another disease you can apply.

Remember Scourge Strike is our main attack and should be used properly as much as possible.  However using Scourge Strike without diseases is a DPS loss, so make sure to get those diseases up and keep them up, keep the diseases up using Outbreak and Festering Strike.  Very rarely should you ever have to manually apply each disease.

AoE Priority

You will want to perform the below priority rotation in Frost Presence

1. Get those diseases up, then hit Pestilence
2. Dark Transformation
3. Death and Decay/Scourge Strike (If Both Unholy Runes or Death Runes are up)
4. Blood Boil (If Both Blood Runes AND Both Frost Runes are up)
5. Death Coil (If Sudden Doom Procs or your Runic Power is high)
6. Icy Touch (Burn those unused Frost Runes)

This set of priorities is mostly used just for trash packs or on bosses with a lot of adds.  Most times with a few adds, you will want to stick with the single target priority.

Stats, Gemming & Enchants

With patch 4.3 things are a bit different, but mostly the same below is the order for your stats.  As always though, use Ask Mr Robot to help automate your reforging decisions.

1. Strength
2. Hit to Cap (961 hit rating, 841 for Draenei)
3. Haste
4. Critical Strike
5. Mastery
6. Expertise to Cap
7. Attack Power

For 4 piece Tier 13 (ilvl 397, not LFR) and the 403 Gurthalak, stat weights are slightly different, but as always use Ask Mr Robot as a helpful guide in your reforging needs.

1. Hit to Cap
2. Strength
3. Haste
4. Mastery
5. Critical Strike
6. Expertise to Cap
7. Attack Power

Because of this you will mostly use a red gem Bold Inferno Ruby or the epic, Bold Queen’s Garnet.  If you are a jewelcrafter make use of the Bold Chimera’s Eye.  Now if the socket bonus is +20 strength or more that is where you will want to think about using another gem.  Your best options are in these cases are:

Yellow Slot: Fierce Ember Topaz or Fierce Lava Coral

Blue Slot: Etched Demonseye or Etched Shadow Spinel

For your Meta gem you should use Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond.

Now your enchants will mostly follow the below recommendations, however once again, these are the best of the best, if you don’t have access to them, find something similar and use Ask Mr Robot.

• Head – 60 Strength / 30 Mastery – Wildhammer/Dragonmaw reputation
• Cloak – 65 Critical Strike Rating
• Shoulder – 50 Strength / 25 Critical Strike Rating – Therazane reputation.  In you are a scribe use the scribe shoulder enchant.
• Chest – +20 Stats
• Bracers – +50 Strength
• Gloves – +50 strength
• Feet – +50 Haste
• Legs – +190 Attack Power +55 Critical Strike Rating – Dragonscale Leg Armor
• Belt – +1 Socket- Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
• Weapon – Runeforged with Rune of the Fallen Crusader

Managing Your Cooldowns

You have 7 main cooldowns

1. Empower Rune Weapon

The ability to activate all your runes can be very powerful in the right circumstances.  Where I like to use this is once I hit 2 Festering Strikes, thus turning both sets of my blood and frost runes into death runes, and both my unholy runes are down.  This lets me cast 6 Scourge Strikes in quick succession.  When would you do such a thing, well you need to time this up with a Heroism or Bloodlust AND after you blow through your runic power on Gargoyle and Death Coils to activate Dark Transformation (if available).

2. Blood Tap

The best time to use this, is in situations where you find yourself suddenly with an extra blood rune available, usually this will happen if you are in the middle of using Death and Decay or if your Festering Strike misses (which it shouldn’t) or you need to reapply diseases and your Outbreak is still on cooldown.  But as I mentioned earlier try to work this into your rotations where you can without sacrificing the priority order too much, could also be a good opportunity to use this right before a Heroism to have one more Scourge Strike to bump up runic power in order to prepare to summon Gargoyle

3. Outbreak

Outbreak instantly applies all your diseases to a mob.  This should be used beginning of the fight to get your diseases up immediately.  Also use this mid fight to refresh your diseases when they fall off.

4. Army of the Dead

This is a channeled spell so its best used before a boss fight starts.  If you aren’t able to cast it before the fight starts you want to try and cast it during phase transitions to limit your DPS downtime.  Remember while channeling the spell you do no DPS.  Also fear not the ghouls will only taunt adds and not bosses.  The summoned ghouls will taunt non-boss mobs, so be careful and mindful when using this.

5. Gargoyle

This spell will eat up 60 of your runic power and will take a snapshot of your Attack Power and Haste at the moment it was cast.  So its best to time this up with a heroism or bloodlust.  Know when that will happen because you will want to make sure you have the 60 runic power to cast this.

6. Unholy Frenzy

This is an enrage that grants 20% melee haste for 30 seconds.  Awesome stuff especially when used with Gargoyle.  However this does not stack with heroism or bloodlust, so use before or immediately after.  Also this will cause you to take damage, so be mindful of that especially of incoming damage during particular boss fights where there can be a lot of incoming damage.

7. Anti-Magic Shell

As Unholy you should have spec’d into Magic Suppression, thus allowing AMS to absorb more damage, and also converting it into Runic Power.  you want to use this as much as possible during times when you are about to take magic damage.  This will obviously provide you with more runic power to start dumping into death coil and ultimately getting Dark Transformation ready to go as well.  So before you use this, make sure you empty most of your runic power as to not let the RP you generate from using AMS to go to waste.

Useful Macros

Scourge Strike + Ghoul Claw

Because having claw on auto attack still doesn’t optimize the use of this ability for your Ghoul, macro’ing it to your Scourge Strike will improve its use and increase your pet’s DPS

#showtooltip Scourge Strike
/cast [target=pettarget,harm,nodead][] Claw
/cast Scourge Strike

Death Coil Modifier for Pet Heals

Replace your normal Death Coil with the following, so that you can sometimes heal your pet if need be.  This makes it that if you hit Death coil while holding your ctrl button down you will target your pet and heal him, else you will just cast Death Coil like normal.

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:ctrl, @pet][] Death Coil

Unholy Frenzy + Gargoyle

This ties your Gargoyle to your unholy frenzy so it benefits from the extra haste if you cast it on yourself, as long as Bloodlust or Heroism wasn’t already cast.  Be mindful of the damage you do to yourself when hitting unholy frenzy.

#showtooltip Unholy Frenzy
/cast [nomodifier] Unholy Frenzy
/cast [nomodifier] Summon Gargoyle

Helpful Add-Ons

1. IceHud

IceHud will show you your health, runic power, your target’s health along with your buffs and debuffs.  It will also show your runes and the cooldowns of them.

2. NeedToKnow

NeedtoKnow is a buff and debuff timing mod.  I use it to track Blood Plague, Frost Fever and Ebon Plague on my target, and keep these bars front and center.  You can also use it to track your periodic buffs like Horn of Winter and Unholy Frenzy, to help with timing of gargoyle and army of the dead.

3. OmniCC

OmniCC is just a great little utility mod that works well with most addons to include a countdown timer on the spells and effects that are on cooldown.  It works great with IceHud and Bartender (both of which I use).

As a fledgling blogger, when Cer requested (he didn’t give me a choice in the matter!) that I write for Variant Avatar as a guest, I was equal parts nervous and excited.  It’s something I’ve definitely wanted to get into, but have never felt like I had enough time to dedicate to a blog.  That, and I can never quite wrap my mind around the notion that there actually might be people out there that are interested in what I have to say!

Some of you may know me either as a fellow guildie of Cer’s from “Phalanx of Nod“, or as one of the three co-hosts from the greatest podcast ever “The Sundering” (ok, so maybe I’m a little bias on that one) For those who don’t, some quick background on who I am.  I’m a 26-year-old student in pursuit of my Master’s degree in English (yes, I am quite the masochist).  I have lived and breathed gaming since I could finagle a controller (or mouse!) in my hands…and no, before the jokes come in, that doesn’t mean I learned how to use them yesterday!

As such, much of my day is spent listening to other people talk about how great literature and literary theories are.  Nearly everyone has a specialty in something that sounds really grown-up and fancy.  I’m still coming to grips that I don’t love crap like Victorian romance novels as much as my classmates. That’s not to say I don’t love literature or writing (although writing research papers can be pretty lame).  Conversely, none of my classmates love video games the way I do. I have an edge in that I recognize the textuality of things that exist outside of just novels.  Of course, admitting this out loud in a professional setting is a hurdle I still need to jump. That said, no one is allowed to pass judgment on my atrocious pictures (I wanted to add some humor to this, because I didn’t want things to become like another one of my damn classes).

One theory that has run rampant in video game studies right now is that of looking at them through a Feminist lens.  There’s nothing wrong with this, although I would argue that there are too many of these papers that view broads solely as being victims and/or are over sexualized, versus pointing out women who hold roles that are empowered.

But I’m not looking to talk about that right now.  I want to talk about men.  Not so much about how they have weens and the fact that having one would be freaking sweet (I would physically pee off EVERY ledge I could find) but how men have been portrayed in video games.

One of the things that bugs me is how a great deal of attention is paid to the size of a chick’s breasts and waist, yet no one takes a minute to point out the outrageous sizes that male avatars are given:

Seriously?  I’m pretty sure I don’t look like a plastic doll, and Cer doesn’t look like a kitchen appliance (the only similarity is that both can store a serious amount of bacon in inside of them).  In a lot of ways, society (some would argue that it does completely) determines how we define what it means to be masculine and feminine.  In gaming culture especially, I think we find that they can be very binary, black and white things.

My husband has been quick to point out that guys don’t really give a damn that their avatars can sometimes have a 60’’ chest and a 28’’ waist.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say he’s probably right (although I’m careful to categorize an entire group in one fell swoop).  Which may be a reason why we don’t have a lot of discussion about it at a professional level like we do regarding women.  But that doesn’t mean it’s something we shouldn’t think about or just sweep under the rug.  One of the great things about this industry is that the sky’s the limit, and the more that we push ourselves to think outside of the box, and to turn stereotypes on their heads, the bigger variety of games and characters we are going to see (and that’s always a good thing).  I think the industry is moving in a healthy direction (I love what Bioware has done for FemShep, for example).

Since I know how boring this stuff is, I won’t go on and on about how males in video games always seem to fit this mold of what we define as “manly”.  I also don’t want to imply that they should be emasculated in some way.  But having a character that doesn’t look misshapen, and that has some sense of emotion wouldn’t be a bad thing in my opinion (just like having a strong female protagonist can be a good thing too).

I just want to say thanks for having me on to write a bit Cer; it’s refreshing to write something for once without fear of having the hammer of academia smashed down upon me by a professor.  And of course, thanks to anyone who took the time to give this a read; I’d love to hear what your thoughts are on the portrayal of characters within the games we play, or if it’s something you even pay attention to!

A while back I co-authored the Frost DK guide on my site.  Well most recently I have found that Unholy once again can be on top, all it took was the right gear.  So when I felt forced to go Frost I did so for the good of the raid team, but now I no longer have to make the sacrifice of playing the role I love vs what is good for the raid.  With that my DK has been reborn once more as an Unholy Death Knight, and I couldn’t be happier.

There is just something about the Unholy build that I have always liked, the control of the ghoul, the swinging of a big 2 handed weapon, the use of one of the most awesome debuffs in the games, Ebon Plaguebringer, the spreading of diseases, its just everything I picture a Death Knight to be.  Its a playstyle I have enjoyed since the DK first appeared in Wrath of the Lich King.  Shelving that playstyle all but made me think I should just go back to my Paladin, Frost while fun at first, became a boring playstyle for me.  I get how Frost works, and I executed that play style at a high level.  However Unholy is what I loved about it the class.  Its that awesome mixture of Melee and Warlock type abilities.  It feels dark and bordering on quasi evil.  Like you are always walking that line of am I doing the right thing with this evil power, and yes of course you were.

So once again I find myself fully enjoying playing my Death Knight again, as he was meant to be played, a disease spreading, 2 handed wielding, plated Juggernaut!  I find myself having to work a bit harder to be on top of the DPS charts, but still get there, which is OK in my book, because I get to play in the style I enjoy while being competitive.  Unholy is also much less RNG based than Frost in my opinion, but requires the player to keep an eye on diseases and manage rune refresh rate.  For the most part my old Unholy guide still holds up quite well, and being out of the Unholy game since the original tier of Cataclysm raiding I found that it was like riding a bicycle, you never really forget (as long as the style hasn’t changed of course).

In conclusion, my main character is back to Unholy.  I have found myself enjoying the game much more because of that.  Its amazing how playing a game the way you want to changes your enjoyment of it.  Thats exactly whats going on right now for me, a renewed love of playing my DK.

Recently my guild finished the normal mode of Dragon Soul.  That’s right we are the coveted 8 out of 8.  Sure we finished it with the 5% “nerf” but as a casual guild what we value most is the accomplishment while having fun with our friends.  Now I know what some of you are thinking”you aren’t done, there are hard modes”.  Very true, but for my guild we have typically never spent much time in hard modes, they appeal to a very small % of our members.  However that being said, with no announcement yet on when Mists of Pandaria is coming out, as the guild leader, we need to start thinking, whats next for our casual guild?

Well first thing is, we want everyone in the guild who wants to have the achievement of completing Dragon Soul to have it, so that is definitely on our list, this is very similar to how we handled ICC in Wrath of the Lich King.  So we are continuing to run to get folks their achievement.  We find it important to give everyone who has worked for it and even our newest raiders the opportunity to at least see normal mode completion.  Also we still have our rogue who is working towards his legendary daggers, just like the staff before, we are committed to helping him complete it.

Second is we are continuing our recruitment to be more consistent in 25 man raids.  With the holidays many folks went on extended breaks.  Now we have 25+ raiders, but not all can raid at the same time, so it creates a challenge.  While we want to recruit more folks to consistently run 25s, we also don’t want to over recruit to make others feel like they no longer have a place.  This has always been a tight rope my guild has walked, but hey we have been around for 7+ years so we must be doing something right in this regard.

Third is we have started scheduling off-night LFR and old school Transmog runs.  These runs don’t count towards attendance or anything but for folks who can add another night to their schedule, they can log in and just kick back on some fun easy content with their guildies.  Transmogrification especially has opened up a lot of interest in running older content, but not something we would spend our scheduled raid nights doing, at least not currently.

Fourth is looking more seriously at hard modes.  Our raid officer is currently investigating strategies and preparing to have our guild begin work on Dragon Soul hard modes.  As we evaluate that we have enough folks with the right gear, we plan on starting to work on Dragon Soul hard mode encounters.  However depending on when MoP is coming out, we are also talking about going back for previous hard modes in Tier 11 and 12, especially encounters that have extras, like Sinestra and Ragnaros.

Finally I am looking at what non-raid activities can be done.  One of the items I am focusing on is our guild finishing up the Stay Classy achievement.  We currently only have 3 class / race combinations left as of writing this.  This would help us get our final guild bank tab.  Some folks have asked about  potentially PVP related activies, and even out of game meetups due to a lack of a Blizzcon for 2012.

Is this all enough to keep folks interested before the next expansion?  Hard to say, but as with any expansion we will due what we can to have fun community based activities, continue to recruit fun folks for current activities and future expansion fun.  However I am wondering what else we may be able to do?  What kind of activities is your guild doing?  How is your community staying busy before Mists of Pandaria?

And of course a shameless plug for my guild

Phalanx of Nod – A 7+ year old casual raiding guild on the Dalaran (US) server, we are Alliance side.  Raid nights are Monday, Wednesday & Thursday from 8pm-11pm ET.  I have been the GM since the guild was born in the original closed beta of World of Warcraft.  If you want to know more visit http://phalanxofnod.com or contact me on twitter @ceraphus.  You can also find me on The Sundering podcast.

While I have been slack in updating this site, my other post will have to be put on hold.  Blizzard recently announced there would be no Blizzcon in 2012, so that they could focus on getting out Diablo 3, Warcraft Mists of Pandaria expansion and the next Starcraft 2 expansion.  Pushing Blizzcon back to sometime in 2013, yet to be determined.  So for many Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo players, they see Blizzcon as a way for the communities of all the games to come together and mingle.  With tons of after parties, the time after the conventions has almost become a bigger spectacle than the convention itself.

However now we sit realizing that Blizzcon 2012 is not to be, but yet many folks still yearn for the comradery of their fellow geek gamers.  So what is the community to do?  While some have taken up to petition to Blizzard to still hold their convention, I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon, and if they did, we may end up with the 2010 Blizzcon presentation of “Geek Is…” which I am sure is OK for some, but many were left wanting after that.  Well folks you are in luck because outside of Blizzcon there is a plethora of conventions during the year that are hosted in many parts of the country that you can organize meetups during, while still having a geek central theme.

San Diego Comic Con

Probably one of the largest conventions of geekery, from TV, Movies, Comics, games, its 75000+ people flocking to find out whats in store for the coming year in media.  People in costumes, celebrities mixing it up with fans, its quite the spectacle!  Its located in…you guessed it San Diego.  Not too far from where Blizzcon was held.  This is easily a valid option, in fact Blizzard has participated in this convention in the past, so you can still get your fix!  Though tickets are similar to Blizzcon, difficult to get, have to be quick with your refresh button on your browser.

Info: http://www.comic-con.org/cci/

PAX East

PAX East is in well their terms a “festival” for gamers, video & tabletop.  It is being held in Boston.  There are panels, contests, tournaments.  For those on the east coast always complaining about Blizzcon only being west coast, where here is a valid option.  Though at the time of me writing this, the 3 day pass is sold out, so only individual tickets are for sale.  Being held from April 6-8th.

Info: http://east.paxsite.com/index.php

PAX “West”

PAX was last held in August of 2011, so you can expect it to be held around that time in 2012.  Its held in Seattle, so another West Coast option for folks.  Similar to PAX East.  Here is another option targeted towards gamers.

Info: http://prime.paxsite.com/

DragonCon

Dragon Con is one of those conventions that focus on sci-fi and fantasy.  Usually drawing a lot of Star Trek, Star Wars.  Of course there is gaming, comics and many other things as well.  Located in downtown Atlanta, GA.  Typically held in late August.  This is another great option for east coasters.  Also for you cosplay fans, there is tons of it at Dragon Con.

Info: http://dragoncon.org/

New York Comic Con

Comics, cosplay, video games, TV, movies its a plethora of all things geek.  Also its in the middle of Manhattan!  So not only can you go to the con, but also you are in the big apple.  See the sights, hang out in Central Park, climb the Empire State Building and much more.  Usually the con is held in October, and for 2012 its scheduled for October 11-14th.

Info: http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/

Wizard World – Chicago

This one is from August 9-12, and a great option for those closer to the middle of the country.  Plus this con is in Chicago, go get some deep dish! They got a lot of great stuff, need a Warcraft connection, they got William Shatner, if you remember he played a shaman!  Plus many more comic, sci-fi and geekery to be had!

Info: http://www.wizardworldcomiccon.com/home-ch.html

So there are a few options.  Of course if you and your guild want to get together you don’t need a convention.  All you need is some planning and a location.  Plan some events, maybe some trips.  Go to a fun location where you all can sight see, or whatever.  You don’t need Blizzcon to bring together the sense of community many of you feel, you just need to organize on your own.

So in light of no Blizzcon 2012, what are you doing?  Any other plans to get together with your guildmates your gaming friends?