f13.net

I've been finding little bits and pieces out which might help some people so I thought I'd start compiling them in a new thread, since the cataclysm megathread is getting a bit hard to search.

 - For the Alliance cooking daily "Orphans like cookies too" you can buy the sugar from vendors, you don't have to loot it from respawns. The <General Goods> vendor in the store in the centre of SW had two quest items (limited stock) when I checked.
 - The easiest way I have found to get volatile fire is fishing in lava, either around Sulphuron Spire in Hyjal or Cannon's Inferno in Twilight Highlands. Pools spawn which can be fished 2 or 3 times, each cast giving 1-2 volatiles. Fishing into the open water has a much lower drop rate for volatiles (~10% cf 100%) but the pools seem to respawn semi-quickly. I managed to get 30+ in about 30 mins while questing around the area.

Leveling is fast, really fast.

If you're stagnating in an area and your quests have gone green, if you move to a zone with yellow and orange quests, you'll level 3x without much hassle.

Tip for people (specifically DPS) starting heroics: The healer's core, main and (essentially) only responsibility is "Keep the tank alive" because that's about all they have the mana for. If you're a DPS, as well as the obvious things like "Don't stand in the fire" and "you aggro it, you tank it", this also means that when the healer has called a mana break then you sit down and eat. If you're in combat and signficantly hurt, step back and bandage or heal pot (remember them?). Or use an offspec heal/death strike/recuperate/etc. It's your job to make sure that you don't die nowadays, not the healer's.

Oh, and most of you have interrupts. Please use them when a mob is casting "Ultimate spell of Total Party Wipe part 2 Electric Boogaloo".
Thanks.

This floors me. Running through Scholo (at level 40? wtf?  :uhrr:) yesterday people were leaving these superior heal pots behind on the corpses that I would mop up the loot from. As a priest, I fully expect to be in situations where I have to manage my mana pool which is why I am leveling alchemy for mp pots. Everyone seems to be on this Woe-is-Me for priests and such, but really - the party dynamic changed and once people figure this out, healing won't be an issue.

Indeed.

Avoidance Cooldowns :  Fucking Use Them.

This. They lowered the cooldowns on almost all of the damage mitigation/avoidance cooldowns. Pop the fuckers.

I'm horrible about trying to save my cooldowns when healing/dpsing. I've gotten better about "is rune tap up? Am I lower than 90% health? TAP!" Still terrible about figuring out when to refresh bone shield, because it's an idiotic mechanic.


Anywho, my general advice: Got a quest in Cata? Does it not involve killing some common mob in the area? MURDER ONE ANYWAYS. There are so many quests that are started by simply killing one of a random mob in the area that isn't on your existing quest hit list.

Yeah.  I am pretty sure this is also the ONLY way to get the Uldum Quest achievement.  Rule of thumb for me now is: have i seen this mob before? If yes, have I already killed one?  If no Kill it.  Becasue there are at least 7 or 8 quests like that in uldum that only pop up when you kill a mob.

This is a big tip that returning players need to remember.  Most of the time, your quests will go green in the middle of zone's storyarc.  You can finish it off, but if you just care about leveling, move onto the next zone.  I knocked out Azshara and Ashenvale before I figured it out in Stonetalon.

Does this persist through Outland and Wrath, or does the speed taper off? I'm slightly tempted to come back and play around, but all my old characters are somewhere between 60 and 70, and I don't want to trudge through the previous high level content slowly.

If you are levelling Archaeology you can skill up to 100 just off looting fragments you survey. If you want to level the skill most efficiently save all your fragments until 100 skill and then start completing projects.

The green archaeology items are not soulbound and can be traded (although nobody seems to fancy buying Troll or Dwarf ones, Tol'vir might be more appealing).


This is the big difference I'm coming to notice between groups. Whether we die because I oom has a lot less to do with the tank and a lot more to DPS not avoiding shit they should avoid. I am still seeing a lot of incautious play that is a hangover from WoTLK and it's a real problem. Healers really cannot afford to mong around healing retarded DPS who are failing to avoid damage that should be a non-issue.

As a disc priest I'm now in the habit of popping PW:B on top of the pull, and I'm finding that getting in the habit of starting with big heals when there are more mobs (more damage) and then scaling down is much more successful than starting with small heals and trying to heal efficiently through the whole fight. Also renew is really good since people are almost never topped off, so you have very little overheal. Lastly I find I prefer binding inner focus to PoH rather than GHeal, since I generally need to soak up a bit of group damage every 45s or so, and putting a shield and hot on everyone for free as well as a 9-12K heal is a pretty nice little ability. I'm also thinking of ditching the PW:S glyph and getting either renew or barrier in it's place.

I agree with the sentiment that cooldowns aren't something to save for a rainy day anymore, I was popping them constantly last night even in normal HoO.

I have no idea if popping my little AE heal on my paladin was helping or not, but by God I was doing it. <3

Cooking supplies lady in the Pig n' Whistle also had two for sale. <3

I'm still not sure how poor PUGs can manage things like the last boss in Halls of Origination.  Seriously, when he's down to 25% and just starts AoEing everyone and you have to pray you saved mana to be able to do a big burn through the adds and AoE, that can be rough.  And yes, plz to not stand in fire.  We ran guild dungeons last night and our healer let a DPS die who stood in the fire too long ;-)  And ALWAYS stop for mana when the healer requests.  Tanks... that's YOU.

I just had my first Terrible Pug of the expansion as a healer. Dear god, if I'm at 20% mana because you just pulled a group and didn't CC any of them or bother interrupting a single ability according to recount, don't run into the next pack.

And when I point out we have 3 CCable DPS, and the rogue agrees he can sap, don't drop DnD in the middle of the next pack as a response.

Ok I need a handy hint.  A blue wand dropped from a non-boss mob in Stonecore and I rolled Need as it was an upgrade.  I was accused of being a ninja and kicked from the group and reported.  What did I do?  Only thing I can think of is Needing on a non-boss.  What etiquette did I break?

Some people for some reason don't think anyone should roll need on BOEs, everyone greeds to put it up for auction. Kind of dumb, imo, but there you go.

Thanks Ingmar.  TMYK.

There's no foolproof way to verify that you're not full of shit.  Plus, everyone can make an argument for needing gold. 

That being said, it doesn't really bother me much when it happens unless it's  like a spell caster needing on a purple melee ring.  That gets an eye roll and a boot back in WoLK if I was running with friends.

I usually ask, then need on anything I'd immediately equip (or equip post runeforging it)

I got yelled at for it once, but it was a minor argument.

Bottom line is if you're going to use it, then roll need. Selling ain't using; that's a greed roll.

Bottom line is PUGs suck ass. Alliance is far worse. Goblin priest, no problems. Gnome priest, wipe after wipe. COMMUNICATION people... it works.

And can someone inform me as to the best way to heal a Bear tank? I am under the impression it was because he was 18 and we were doing SFK that has HP was dropping in HUGE chunks, but unless I am missing something... I have a rough time healing druid tanks at the lower levels.

This.  If it's an upgrade or even if it's a potential upgrade for you, AND it matches your class (cloth for casters, melee weapons to melee, etc) roll need.  Anyone who bitches is a fucktard and if they kick you they are even bigger assholes.

Sure, I'll ask first sometimes if I feel like being nice, but there's no guarantees.  As long as you don't wait until a ton of time has gone by after everyone rolled greed, the chances of them being justified in bitching about you being a ninja is nil.

Plus it was a PUG. You're never going to see any of those stupid fucktards again and when some GM reads that report they'll mutter "stupid fucktards" under their breath as they hit the "Generic reply #23 then Delete" button.

Yes, people can report it all they want (and I doubt they even submitted one to be honest), but the game let you need on it and you could actually use it.

As for Bears, the big downside to them at low levels compared to Paladins and Warriors is a lack of self-healing.  Paladins only have Word of Glory to spend Holy Power on until 39.  On trash, Warriors who get the killing blow on something can heal with Victory Rush for 20% of their health.  I can't see anything else that would leave them that far behind the other two otherwise, apart from possible Timmy the Itemization Intern issues.

Interrupts and CC are all over the place now; smart people will use both liberally.  On every class I play with an interrupt, that ability is mapped to a mouse key for instant use when I see a casting bar appear on my target.  It's made a pretty big difference on some of the monsters that have annoying abilities.

Victory Rush and Word of Glory aren't terribly convenient for bursty moments right off the pull, because they're both low threat and consume a GCD.

Gear, spec, or LERN2PLAY was bad, there's not much else to it.

You expected people in a PUG to be reasonable, selfless, non ASSHOLES.

If you rolled Need on something you needed and was an upgrade and can then prove it's currently sitting in the right equipment slot, then they can just FUCK OFF.  Getting kicked for that is utter clownshoes and you should thank your lucky stars you at least got something out of it, because this type of group is usually full of the ASSHOLES who will kick YOU for doing that and then roll Need on EVERYTHING the last boss drops due to their own sense of fucking entitlement.

Assholes.

Heh, last week I tried the dungeon finder for the first time with my little 71 Death Knight to complete his quests in the Nexus. An awesome set of fighter shoulders dropped and I rolled Need on them because they were an obvious upgrade for my class that I'd use right away.  The main tank guy also rolled Need and then quit the group in a huff when he didn't win.

The rest of the group assured me that I hadn't done anything wrong and we waited for another tank to finish the dungeon but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

I can see being pissed off about missing a great drop when you're at max level but at level 71? Chances are it'll get replaced four or five more times before I hit 85.

Bears are terrible at low levels right now. If heavily twinked, they'll have avoidance. Otherwise, they're mana sponges. It doesn't help that their "block" mechanic isn't trained until level 40.

Further to this:

If there are rare items from a particular background that you're really after (e.g. http://www.wowhead.com/spell=91227 ) then don't solve any artifacts in that area while you're levelling and just save the fragments. You'll collect loads and you'll get to a level where you have more chance of discovering the artifact rather than wasting the fragments on trash.

It took me until L42 to realize that the red parts on my map were archeology sites.

Not sure if that's a tip to anyone.

Thanks for the rest of it, had no idea that's what I was suppose to do with those fragments.

Basically, when you get 100 or whatever, you can combine them into an item?  And that item is random?

When you open the Archaeology tab you'll see logos for each of the races, some will be shaded out. Those are races for which you haven't discovered any fragments yet. If you click on any of the lit up logos (which at your level should be any of Dwarf, Troll, Fossil and Night Elf) you will see the current project you have going for that race. You are randomly assigned a project when you first discover archaeology for a race, these will generally be a common project. At the bottom of the project page is a bar showing a number that is <total fragments> / <fragments needed to complete current project>. You also have a button marked "solve" which will form the current artifact provided you have enough fragments. You may also speed up completion using green items which drop occasionally from surveying. There will be 0-3 grey hexagonal boxes under the progress bar where these can be added (provided you have them) 75 skill.

Solving a project gives a fixed 5 skill points and is the only way to level up after 100 skill. Every time you solve a project you get assigned a new random project. As far as I know you can only solve blue-item level projects from 75 skill, and epic-item level projects from 450 skill. Blue and epic projects are both called 'Rare' projects and can only be solved once for each item. Grey projects ('common') can be solved infinite numbers of times, however you will not get a project twice until you have solved every common project for that race. The projects you get are otherwise random.

You need 300 skill before sites appear in outland, and 375 skill before they show up in northrend, and 450 skill for them to show up in the new Cataclysm zones (Uldum and Vasjh'ir).

I haven't got my archaeology up to 300 yet, so I don't know if you can skill up off the new zones.

You don't.  :sad:

Thanks!

Don't buy your 7th GB slot with someone who isn't the Guild Master.

Pain in the arse.

If you happen to have the somewhat unusual combination of Enchanting and Alchemy, crushing the epic Alchemy Trinket is a cost effective way to make Maelstrom Crystals and could net you a decent profit for the next week or so.

I'm sort of annoyed that I need to crush epics to buy and create the only good caster weapon enchant in Cata. :(

Hurricane isn't terrible if you're poor; haste is generally a useful stat for most casters.

It's the only other option, and I'm using it. But the difference is huge. Haste may be useful for some casters, but it's usually at the bottom of the list. I'm seeing mostly Int > Hit > Crit (>= depending on class) Haste or Mastery.

Mostly annoyed in the sense that in the past, the "best" enchant may be pricey and hard to come by, but was usually only a few percent off from the easy to come by version. In this case it's what, a 450 haste proc versus a 500 int proc? That's not a close choice for any caster.

I'm mostly whining because while abyss crystals were in plentiful supply in Wrath, all the maelstrom enchants are absurdly good compared to the non maelstrom enchants, and there's no repeatable way to get them besides raiding. At least in Wrath the last boss in a heroic dropped epics for crystal creation.

Bridge jousting! If you can't get into TB but still want the honor, stand on the bridge between TBP and TB itself and run in and out when your team gets close to winning. This works better if you have someone on the inside on vent or guild chat, who can tell you when the node is about to flip. If you time it right, you'll get all the honor at the end of the battle, including the 1800 honor if your side won on offense (gg win trading).

This was possible in WG (by flying above the zone) before but limited by the fact that your rewards were dependent on rank, which was difficult if not impossible to get without actually being in the zone. Now, however, there's no such limitation.

Guilds are dinging level 10 today, which means heirloom cloaks,

Any Enchanter who can do Enchant Cloak - Stealth (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=25083#comments) might want to consider getting some scrolls up on the AH. There was only one on my AH and all the small prismatics and Fel Lotus were going for less than one gold each, so I bought out all the Fel Lotus, bought some planars (11-14g a go) and stuck up a load of scrolls at 275g. Will see how well they sell I guess.

Why Stealth ?

Easiest way to abuse the twink market: sell rogue stuff.

It's +8 Agility and +8 Dodge Rating, which is the best enchant for any non-caster by a long way.

My level 11 rogue has 35% Dodge thanks to that  :awesome_for_real:

Probably a good call. I bought one for my rogue/druid/hunter twink(s).