Although I was getting revved up for Lich King, I think the time has come to take another extended break from WoW. School started up last week, which means a lot of time spent at work. I’m also about to close on a house in a week or two, which means a lot of time spent moving and cleaning things up.

The first time I took a break, I managed to stay away for about six months. Then some friends of mine pestered me with the stupid, “Let’s roll Hordies together!” idea. And that turned out fantastic.

Although I’m not entirely sure that I’ll stay away from WoW forever, I think this “break” may be for good. The game is fun, but it sucks up far too much time. I’ve got lots of other hobbies and obligations that I want or need to devote time to. Being out in the real world – instead of college – takes a bit of the lustre away from spending hours gaming on the PC.

In the interim, this blog as it exists now will be defunct.

However, one of those “hobbies” I want to devote more time to is web development and blogging. I’ve been working on a few different web projects over the past year or two, but they all got put on the back burner when I took up WoW again.

I plan on incorporating them all into a single parent blog with separate categories, themes, and feeds. One of these will most likely be gaming (mostly tabletop gaming, i.e. Games Workshop, but possibly some video games). Other topics I plan on revisiting include education/teaching, web development, and animation/graphics design. I’ll probably also create a new section about home improvements and maintenance, to document all the work I’ll be doing on my house.

If any of those topics interest you, just keep an eye on this feed for a while. Once I’ve got it up and running, I’ll be posting the information here. I’ll also be migrating the existing posts about WoW to the new gaming section.

In the meantime, you can check out the now defunct projects – Web Cash (Web Development and Graphics) and Babel (Education and Teaching). Most of the content from these sites will also end up getting migrated to the new location in the future.

The topic flared up earlier, and I made a quick post about it when some of the Mage spells moved to a % of base mana cost. Since then, virtually all spells in the game cost base mana, making down-ranking useless.

After many utterly newbish comments, I thought we’d moved on from the naive belief that base mana = unbuffed mana pool. Apparently we haven’t, and the Paladin beta forums are abuzz with stupid comments.

Base Mana, Blessing of Sanctuary, and Rage

I was browsing through a thread on the new Blessing of Sanctuary, and I couldn’t keep quiet about all of these statements. Since I can’t respond on the boards (no beta account, doh), I’ll just have to write it up here.

Our abilities cost a percentage of our base, and granted, with tanking gear we don’t get much extra mana…

Actually, with no gear, we get a decent increase over base mana. At level 70, a Paladin has a base mana of 2953. A level 70 Human Paladin with no gear has 3917 mana. That’s roughly a 30% increase. Add in minimal Int on gear (T4/T5, Badge items), Arcane Intellect, Mark of the Wild, and BoK and raid buffed I’m usually sporting over 6,000 mana. Not alot, but roughly double base mana for a level 70 Paladin.

The argument then arose… do Paladin or Warrior abilities cost more, relatively, of the rage/mana bar? Someone said that Paladin abilities are cheaper, and someone else replied…

Not really, the only difference between Pally and Warrior is the Pally has their “rage” at 100% when they start and it regens poorly. Warrior starts with 0% and fills quickly.

Since Prot is moving to Warrior gear their mana pool is pretty much close to base. Sunder Armor is 12 rage, Devastate 15 rage, Shield Slam 20 rage, Demoralizing Shout 10 rage.

Consecration 22% base, Holy Wrath 20% base, Shield of Righteousness 6% base, Judgements 5% base, Avenger Shield 26% base, Hammer of Righteousness 6% base, Holy Shield 10% base.

Let’s compare for a moment.

On the Warrior side, we’ll look at four basic abilities – Devastate (15 Rage), Shield Slam (20 Rage), Thunder Clap (20 Rage), and Heroic Strike (15 Rage).

On the Paladin side, let’s look at Holy Shield (10% Base), Consecration (22% Base), Judgement (5% Base), Shield of Righteousness (6% Base) and Hammer of the Righteous (6% Base).

On the face of it, the Paladin abilities might look roughly on par with the Warrior abilities. Until we adjust “base mana” to mean “percentage of mana pool.” Remember, base mana for a level 70 Paladin is 2953. Let’s assume a small buffed mana pool of 5,000.

That brings the abilities to – Holy Shield (6% Mana Pool), Consecration (13% Mana Pool), Judgement (3% Mana Pool), Shield of Righteousness (3.5% Mana Pool), and Hammer of the Righteous (3.5% Mana Pool).

Consider that every major warrior ability costs 15% more of their rage bar, while only one Paladin ability (Consecration, on an eight second cooldown) costs more than 10%. The mechanics of Rage and Mana are different in a lot of ways, but Paladin abilities certainly cost less of a full mana bar than do Warrior abilities.

Will be nice to have this talent in raids or instances to help us out.

However Soloing having this Blessing up as it is gimps Protection Paladins DPS a bit. Almost all of our spells with some exceptions now scale on AP and benefit from it. Before the patch I was using BoM which was also before the Judgement of Wisdom big nerf. I could do more DPS and scale my spell abilities by having BoM up while using a damage seal then. That also scaled up Judgements at the time for mana, but has since being nerfed.

No shit. We have to trade out a DPS buff (Blessing of Might) in order to get unlimited mana while grinding? I’ll gladly make that trade, kill ten guys at a time, and not have to drink before I move on to the next pack.

BoS is certainly a trade-off with Kings (Str/AP, Agi/Crit, Stam/SP, Int/Mana) or Might (Raw AP). However, while solo-ing, I think it’s a trade well made. In many cases, it will also be a great trade off in raids/dungeons, unless you’re taking so much damage that mana is not an issue.

There was also this sad note for Warriors and Druids and them getting 10 rage…

They don’t.

It’s a typo. Test it

Warriors gain 1 rage.
DKs gain 2 RP.

If that’s true, I feel sorry for them. 10 Rage may have been OP, but 1 Rage is certainly UP. It doesn’t compare at all to 2% mana, if the blessing is indeed returning that to Paladins.

And finally, to the OP…

Blessing of Sanctuary changed to give all members of the raid or group that share the same class with the target the Greater Blessing of Sanctuary, reducing damage taken from all sources by 3% for 30 min. In addition, when the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack the target will gain 10 rage, 20 runic power, or 2% of maximum mana.

Seriously… I should have heard the squeals of joy from across the boards at this change, why have I not?

Because we don’t want Blizzard to smack us with the nerf bat…! Duh.

/endrant

This recipe is one of two +30 Stamina foods in the game. The other – Spicy Crawdad – also comes from fish. The Crawdad can easily go for 50-60 gold per stack.

If you’re observant and lucky, you can get the Fisherman’s Feast for much cheaper.

Here’s the trick. For each Huge Spotted Feltail that you use, you get 6 Fisherman’s Feast. That’s right. One fish plus some reagents turns into six pieces of stamina food.

People often fish up the Huge Spotted Feltail and either a) don’t know what it’s for, or b) don’t know that the recipe makes six pieces of food (it originally made one). As such, people will sell them on the Auction House for very little money. I’ve picked them up for as little as 10 silver, and I’m comfortable paying up to a gold for them.

In addition to the Feltail, you’ll need some reagents. You’ll need 5 x Goldenbark Apple (50s) and 5 x Soothing Spices (8s). You’re overall investment, then, is 58 silver plus the cost of the Feltail.

If you snagged a Feltail for 1 gold on the Auction House, you’d be paying 1g58s for six pieces of +30 Stamina food. That works out to an average of 5g27s per stack of food or 26s per piece. That beats the hell outta 50g per stack or 2g50s each for Crawdad.

So the next time you find a Huge Spotted Feltail in your Barrel of Fish or on the Auction House… don’t scoff at it. That cooks up into some awesome food.

Blessing of Sanctuary: Gives all members of the raid or group that share the same class with the target the Greater Blessing of Sanctuary, reducing damage taken from all sources by 3% for 30 min. In addition, when the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack the target will gain 10 rage, 20 runic power, or 2% of maximum mana.

This is an amazing change to a blessing that has been sub-par for a long time. Despite being a mandatory grab for Protection Paladins (you need it to get Holy Shield), it’s main use was for AoE grinding. In raids, Blessing of Kings and Wisdom generally come before Sanctuary.

Not anymore.

Mitigation Change

First, let’s take a look at the mitigation change. Previously, BoS reduced all damage taken by 80. Now, it reduces damage taken by 3%.

In the old form, this was helpful for AoE tanking/grinding. As I understood it, the damage reduction took place before all other damage reductions (i.e. armor). So if a mob would hit you for 2k (with 0 armor, think Ghouls in Mount Hyjal), it would instead hit you for 1920. After armor mitigation (~60%), you’d take 800 damage without BoS and 768 with BoS. Not a big difference, but it helps I suppose.

Compare this to a boss that would hit you for 8k with 0 armor. You’d take 3200 without BoS and 3168 with BoS. In the scheme of things, that 32 damage isn’t going to matter.

Now, the damage reduction scales. On small trash mobs, it’ll be slightly less effective. For example, on the MH Ghouls, 3% damage reduction would be about 60 (2k * .03 = 60). The real benefit is on boses. That 8k swing from a boss would be modified by 8000 * 0.03 = 240 damage before armor.

Still not a ton, but closer to being “significant.” You can also think of it as being enough armor to give you an extra 3% mitigation (3-4000). In that respect, it is more effective than Devo Aura by far.

Although the damage reduction isn’t insane, it’s a nice little “bonus.” The fact that it scales with a bosses damage makes it more useful than it used to be. Previously it scaled backwards – being more useful on mobs that hit for less, and less useful on mobs that hit for more.

Rage/Mana/Runic Power Generation

This is by far the better part of the Blessing. It is amazing.

Every time you block, parry, or dodge an attack, you regain 2% of your total mana (or 10 Rage or 20 Runic Power for those non-Pally tanks). The average BC Prot Pally has around 6k mana with some minor buffs, yielding 120 mana with every block/dodge/parry.

Let’s say you’re attacking one mob. He swings every 2.5 seconds. If you blocked or dodged one out of every two attacks, you’d regenerate 120 mp5. That blows Blessing of Wisdom out of the water. Chances are, you’ll block, dodge, or parry close to 85% to 90% of incoming attacks – yielding something closer to 200mp5.

However, that’s only against single mobs. Now think about 3+ mobs. You could be regenerating 500 mp5, or more.

Better for Instancing or AoE Grinding?

This begs the question: will BoS be better for instances or AoE grinding? Answer: It’s awesome for both.

If you’re out AoE grinding, this pretty much guarantees you’ll never run out of mana. Find 5-6 mobs to beat on you. Your block value should be high enough to mitigate most of the damage, so a Judgement of Light should keep you alive. Your BoS will help you regenerate a _ton_ of mana, so you can spam Consecrate, Holy Shield, and Hammer of the Righteous.

On the other hand, it is a boon to instance tanks. Without BoS, you face a bit of a conundrum. You want high avoidance and mitigation so you don’t die. Yet avoiding or mitigating damage greatly reduces your available mana pool. If you take no or little damage, you don’t regain mana through Spiritual Attunement.

This becomes far more apparent in instances that you outlevel. I couldn’t wear my tanking gear and go back to a regular level 70 instance – I’d run out of mana 15 seconds into every pull. Now, I can just pull extra groups, tank 8-9 mobs, and never run out of mana.

With the new BoS, rage/mana starvation should be a thing of the past. Either you take a lot of damage – causing you to generate plenty of rage or mana – or you mitigate a lot of attacks – causing you to generate plenty of rage or mana. Win win situation.

Clearly, this is best for Paladins, who should still be able to mitigate nearly all incoming attacks with Holy Shield. Warriors will love it, but with the changes to Shield Block they won’t mitigate nearly as many attacks. Druids aren’t able to Block or Parry, but they still reap the rewards now that Dodge is in the equation.

What are the chances this will be nerfed severely?

My guess they’ll add a hidden cooldown to prevent it from proccing too often. Depending on the cooldown, it could still be useful. If it could proc once every five seconds – yielding 120mp5 as we illustrated before – it would be nice to have. Anything less than that, and it will probably once again be overtaken by Blessing of Wisdom.

Here’s to hoping they don’t add a cooldown.

So it is AV weekend… and that means a lot of time spent in the Valley. I post this scorecard not for e-peen. Although I landed near the top in killing blows, it was not a very good AV in terms of “PVP.”

The teams rolled deep and zerged the bases, our flimsy defense was over-run, and it looked as if the Horde was going to win the race. As I stood and watched Vann get pummeled, our offense was frantically trying to find a tank. Whoops.

Then, out of nowhere, appears the wonderful message… “Alliance wins.” Woot! We pulled it out. Last time I saw Vann, as I was trying to smash the face in of whoever was tanking him, he was at 1%. That’s what you call a close call.

However, take a closer look at the picture above. Vann is dead. He died. Ker-splat.

It would seem that the Alliance killed Drek and was granted the victory. The Horde reinforcements were reduced to zero, we all got our honor, yada yada yada.

Then, perhaps a split second later, Vann died. When the game is over, it seems that everything stops. So either Vann died at the exact same time as Drek, or maybe a DoT kept ticking for an extra second or so.

Man, I bet there were some pissed off Hordies after that game…

That happened to me today. I waited a little over fifteen minute for the queue to pop. I got in and saw the Reinforcements count: 150 to 250. That doesn’t bode well…

The Horde were gathered in DB getting ready to pull Vann. The Alliance were down in FW, with one tower in conflict and one tower still belonging to the Horde.

The game was over about two minutes after I joined it and I got a whopping 0 bonus honor. Woot! Glad I sat through that queue…

Queuing Multiple BGs

When I go into a BG, I typically queue at least two. On the Alliance side, I can be reasonably sure that an AV will turn out in my favor and net me a couple hundred honor. Anything else could be a win but will more often than not be a loss… sometimes with little or no honor.

Solution? Queue up for one BG, i.e. Arathi Basin, along with Alterac Valley. After fifteen minutes of the Basin, the AV will pop. If AB is going well, I’ll stick it out for some tokens and/or honor. If not, I jump over to AV. It’s a pretty standard strategy, and you’ll often see Basins lose 4-5 Alliance members as they all jump ship for a Valley.

How frustrating would it be, though, to leave a close Basin where you might get some tokens in the long run for a Valley that you’re going to lose in a matter of minutes? Grrr…

Should People Be Pulled Into Losing BGs?

When this happens, I can’t help but think – should people be pulled into losing battlegrounds?

At some point, a BG is lost. No matter how hard you try, your team just can’t salvage it. In Basin, if you’re down 1800-200… you can give up. In EotS, if you’ve been 4-capped, it’s a matter of time before it’s over.

If you’re looking to win (for example to complete the daily or to get the maximum number of tokens for your time), it can be very frustrating to join these games late. Sure, you’ll get a token, but you’ve wasted some time and a chance to get a win.

It would be nice if there was a cut-off point, after which no new members would join a BG. Think of it as a mercy rule of sorts.

Or, you could allow people to “preview” the game before they head in. They could see the score – victory points in AB/EotS, flags in WSG, or Reinforcements in AV – before they choose whether to stay or hide. If you’re looking for one quick token, you can jump into the losing game. Otherwise, you know to hide and take another queue later.

Or… Stop People From Leaving Early

Of course, one reason there are so many openings in these losing games is that people leave.

You can’t very well make people stay. If they want to quit and become a deserter, then that is there choice.

More often than not, though, these openings come up because of AV. Alliance members play 15 minutes in a Basin and jump ship – creating 5+ openings for newcomers to fill. Usually, these games are hopeless, or else they would have stayed instead of taking the Valley queue.

You could easily remedy this. Once you join a battleground, you get dropped from all other queues. You’d still be able to queue for multiple BGs and join whichever popped first. However, you wouldn’t be able to wait in an AV queue while simultaneously playing in another BG.

The only problem is that Alliance players in my battlegroup (and players of one faction or another in most battlegroups) will have to wait around for 15+ minutes with nothing to do in between Valley queues.

Now that I’m looking for blacksmithing mats – and I’ll most likely need about 600 Thorium bars – I’m once again looking for a place to mine Thorium. This time, I found it.

Head to Silithus

I’d heard people say that Silithus was a great place to farm, but I never liked the place. I leveled there on my Mage, and I thought the zone was crowded with mobs and somewhat dangerous for a 57-59.

On my level 70 Paladin, protection wasn’t a problem. As an experiment, I headed over there during an AV queue to see how much ore I could find. I had roughly 15-20 minutes to get there and mine.

First, I took the teleport from Shatt to the Caverns of Time. Then, I rode up to Gadgetzan. Then, I flew straight to Silithus. That process takes roughly five minutes… fairly convenient.

After checking out Wowhead (click on the map above to go to the Wowhead data on Ooze Covered Rich Thorium Veins), it seems that the best veins are centered around the three insect hives in Silithus. In the caves, and occasionally on ground level, you’ll find Ooze Covered Rich Thorium Veins and Ooze Covered Truesilver Veins.

And they are plentiful. In a ten minutes or so, you can scope out one of the hives. On average, you’ll probably find two to three veins. Don’t be afraid to jump down and run through a cave – you’ll usually be able to find a vein in there (although not always).

I made a half dozen or so passes through Silithus this weekend while running AVs. With the average Alliance queue (15-20 minutes), that gave me just over 10 minutes each time to mine. That was plenty of time for me to snag an average of 2 to 3 veins, and I scooped up around three stacks of Thorium Ore in all. I also got a handful of Arcane Crystals and a few Truesilver Ore.

So… you want Thorium? Go to Silithus.

Weekend At a Glance

Saturday, we headed into SSC. It was a successful night, with just a few hiccups on trash on Tidewalker. Leo and FLK both went down in one shot – bosses we’ve had trouble perfecting in the past. We cleared 5/6 bosses with time to spare, and called it a bit early for the night.

Unfortunately, FLK didn’t drop a World Breaker for me to snag.

Sunday, we headed to TK. I thought we would be doing 3/4, but it turns out our goals were just A’lar and Void Reaver. I guess nobody wanted loot from Solarion. A’lar went down in two shots… woot!

Void Reaver was a breeze, too. We brought in an old friend who used to MT for our group before he jumped ship for a bigger guild. The two of us battled back and forth for aggro, and the poor third warrior never got to the top of the threat meter. There was a poor Enhancement Shaman that bit the dust, though… oops.

The highlight of the night, though, was the Seventh Ring of Tirisfalen. This is a great tanking ring. The other Warrior we brought in didn’t have it, despite moving on to bigger and better things with his guild. This was only time I’d ever seen it – but I only ran TK a few times. Scooped it up with a 95. Woot!

We finished Sunday by killing Rage in MH. We headed back to MH on Monday, and it was a sloppy, sloppy night. Anetheron went down after a few attempts, and Kaz’rogal eluded us. We got him to 1%. Boo.

Why No More Raiding?

Although I enjoy the raiding experience, I think it’s time to get out.

For one thing, the school year is about to begin and I’ll be teaching every day. While I can certainly play around my teaching schedule, I hate having a commitment hanging over me every weekend.

For another, I like weekends. It seems pretty common for a raiding guild to raid on the weekends, and ours was no different. Two of our days were Saturday and Sunday. At some point, you don’t want to give those up on a weekly basis.

These kinds of commitments also become increasingly burdensome when you fill an important position in the raid. A Rogue or a Mage can take a week off and everything should go fine. The AoE tank goes AWOL, and shit can hit the fan. Always makes for a fun “day after” when people complain about how badly the raid went…

Finally, it’s becoming increasingly futile. Sure, we could make a little progress. We might get one more boss in MH, and we might foray into BT. But we’re never going to get to Illidan or a real Sunwell Run. I doubt we’ll get Kael or Vashj down. Rather than bang my head against a wall from now to Lich King, it’s time to leave gracefully.

That leaves me with some time to focus on my other goals. I’ve gotten most of the mats for blacksmithing, except for the Thorium and a little Steel/Iron. My Alliance rep is coming along nicely, too. I had a nice defensive game last night, adding about 500 rep to my name.

Throughout these dozens of games, the same exclamations emerge from certain people. There are certain “strategies” – some might call them myths or assumptions – about how an AV should be played out. I want to take a minute to think about three of these AV maxims.

If you’re not familiar with the layout of AV, take a look at the map to the right (courtesy of wowwiki). Clicking on it will open the full size image in a new window.

Maxim #1: Never, Ever, EVER Take IBGY

This is by far the most quoted maxim of Alterac Valley. Rarely does a Valley go by where people are not warned not to cap IBGY and where anyone who does so is not labeled an absolute newb.

Why is this? The assumption is that capping Iceblood Graveyard will instantly cause a Horde turtle. It seems that everyone in Alterac Valley wants to be in and out in 15 minutes, so no one really likes turtles… although summoning Ivus can be fun every once in a while.

The reason is that IBGY is the northernmost graveyard that the Horde begins the game with. The Alliance has a similar position at Stonehearth Graveyard. If IBGY is capped, the Horde offense will be rezzed either at Frostwolf Graveyard or Frostwolf Relief Hut. Since people tend to stop and fight anything they see, rezzing in the defensive area causes most people to stay and play defense.

The result? Horde turtle. Or, if you’re on the Horde team, capping SHGY will cause an Alliance turtle. Most of the time.

Despite what the wise elders of Alterac Valley say, there are indeed times where capping IBGY is a wise tactical move. They will deny it to the very end and claim you are a newb for even considering the thought, but that’s because they don’t like logic.

Scenario #1: Horde is bottle-necking at Iceblood Tower and preventing the Alliance from capping the towers or moving through to Relief Hut. To some extent, this can be remedied by people getting on their horses and riding straight through. A few will be shot down and killed, but a good amount can make it through – especially if 10+ people ride through at the same time.

An alternative is to cap IBGY. When this sort of bottle-necking occurs, it’s typically a well organized Horde team (Pre-made, anyone?). They won’t be accidentally forced in to a turtle. By capping IBGY, you give the people inside Iceblood Tower and Tower Point some breathing room. And let’s face it: if you can’t take them, then it doesn’t really matter what the Horde does in Frostwolf.

The game may slow down some as the Horde adjusts to the new situation, but it will weaken their defense and also push back their offense. If you continue to plow head first into the Horde blockade, you’ll probably a) cap no towers and b) watch in agony as all of the Alliance towers are capped and Vann is slaughtered.

Scenario #2: The Horde has taken Stonehearth Graveyard. Although the Horde will admonish their “newbish” players for taking it, sometimes it happens. This often causes an Alliance turtle, and it gives your offense a long ride down to Frostwolf.

If Stonehearth actually belongs to the Horde, nothing bad comes from capping IBGY. The Horde still have a forward graveyard. However, the Alliance needs a forward graveyard. IBGY will probably be less defended and more easy to cap than FWGY. If your defense holds up, this will give your team time to recover and recreate an offensive push.

Maxim #2: Never Cap Frostwolf Graveyard Before Relief Hut

This is quoted somewhat less often than the first maxim, but there are still many firm believers. BRK observed an interesting macro that someone used to profess their belief in the RH-before-FW-maxim. A week or two after BRK posted about this, I saw a similar macro in my own battlegroup. Must be the new craze.

The belief here is similar to IBGY. If you cap FWGY, you force the Horde defense to rez at Relief Hut. This puts them near the RH flag, preventing you from capping it, and it gives them easy access to the towers to try and recap them.

Instead, it is often suggested that people ride straight through to Relief Hut and cap it, preventing any Horde from rezzing inside the base.

This can be a great strategy if and only if there is no Horde defense to begin with. If Frostwolf is empty, it’s easy for one or two people to ride in and ninja the flag. From there, a small team of Alliance can guard the towers and the graveyard… just as the Horde would turtle in their own base.

On the other hand, let’s consider what happens if the Horde is defending. Let’s say there are five Hordies – a couple hunters, a shaman, and maybe a mage or two – defending at the choke point.

A small team of Alliance will be stopped dead in its tracks from freezing traps, blizzard, frost shock, etc. It’ll take a decent sized force to be able to break through the line and have enough people alive to cap the graveyard.

Frostwolf Graveyard, on the other hand, is often undefended. It is easy to take, whereas a defended Relief Hut will take 10, 15, or more to snag. By taking Frostwolf Graveyard you create a forward base for the offense. It’s a much shorter ride from FWGY than it is from Snowfall or IBGY.

If the Horde decides to come re-cap FWGY, you’ve also accomplished something. You’ve broken their front line, divided their forces, and created an opening for a team of Alliance to rush in to the towers and/or graveyard.

Capping Frostwolf Graveyard really has no ability to cause a turtle. If there are people playing defense that will be rezzed inside Relief Hut, the Horde has already chosen to play defense and they have chosen to create some sort of turtle.

If no one is playing defense, then capping Frostwolf Graveyard is harmless because there is no one on defense to be rezzed inside Frostwolf. The Horde offensive is happily chugging away, and any rezzers come back to life at IBGY.

My personal strategy is to rush into Frostwolf to cap the towers and/or the RH flag. However, if there is a defensive force big enough to repel me and anyone that followed, I’ll happily take Frostwolf Graveyard.

Maxim #3: Snowfall Graveyard Is For Noobs

This one I never quite understood. People claim that Snowfall Graveyard has no strategic value. Capping it is a noobish move, and you would be better served attacking something else… like Galv or a Tower.

This may be true if you spend the entire game defending it with five people. However, it takes very little time for one person to run by and cap it on the way to a tower. Therefore it can’t be a colossal waste of time. If anything, it’s a minor waste of time…

But is there a strategic purpose? Absolutely!

Refer to Maxim #1. Capping IBGY causes a Horde turtle. Conversely, capping Stonehearth GY causes an Alliance turtle. If the Horde cap Stonehearth, the entire offense shuts down as everyone rezzes back at Dun Baldur.

But… what if we own Snowfall? As soon as Snowfall belongs to the Alliance, those killed on offense will be rezzed halfway down the map and outside of Dun Baldur. This allows them to return to offense fairly quickly. It’s a long way from Frostwolf, yes, but it’s a convenient place to attack IBGY (if the Horde has a northern graveyard) or IBT and TP.

In most games, Snowfall won’t play a role either way. Hordies rarely cap Stonehearth GY early in the game. However, if they do attempt to force an Alliance turtle (which can play out well for them if they cap two of the towers), Snowfall graveyard is a backup plan to jump start your offense.

Final Thoughts

It is my firm belief that the only true noobs in battlegrounds are the ones that assume there is one, and only one, successful strategy. They are the ones that enter EotS and say, “3 Towers > Flag!!!” over and over again. They go into Basin and say, “Cap 3 bases and hold!!!”

For them there are no tactical alternatives. There is one way, and one way alone. If the other team fails to react to it, then it will succeed. If the other team does react to it, they will win.

Similarly, those that blindly hold to these AV maxims are the true noobs. Sure, capping IBGY can be a poor choice at times. But it can also be tactically important. Likewise, capping FWGY may be the boost your offense needs, and Snowfall Graveyard just might save you from a long defeat at the hands of a Horde killing machine.

Winning battlegrounds consistently requires tactics and organization. That is why pre-mades often win. They can react to how their opponent plays. And that is why the blind adherents to Maxims #1, #2, and #3 fail. They actively disbelieve in the value of all reaction and place their entire stock in a single, premeditated plan.

Clearly I need some other goals, or I’ll run out of things to do before Lich King is released. I might have to go back to raiding… /shudder

Enter goal #2: Gather the mats necessary to level blacksmithing. Currently, my Paladin is a Miner and Engineer. I chose Engineering in BC because the Goggles were insane, and I love the flying mount. Mining was a logical choice to complement Engineering and provide materials.

I currently have a Rogue (Miner/Skinner) at level 66. He should be level 70 by the time that Lich King is released, providing me with another gatherer. He’s also a better gatherer than a Protection Paladin – he can kill things more quickly, and stealth into caves to quickly snag up mining nodes.

It seems logical, then, to ditch mining for another crafting profession. I thought about Inscription, but I’m not sure what the benefits are or if they’re worth it. Enchanting was a possibility… but I think Blacksmithing is the way to go.

Blacksmithing Benefits

In Lich King, every profession is going to have some kind of benefit. This is intended to persuade people to keep gathering professions, rather than opt for two crafting professions. In BC, the BoP items available through professions like Blacksmithing and Engineering far outweighed the gains (for a raider) of a gathering profession like Mining.

Mining, now, will grant the miner a +35 Stamina Boost. Not bad. Is Blacksmithing going to present something better?

All of the end-game BoP patterns are yet to be seen, but we can assume there will be some good ones. Aside from that, there are still some benefits that should match the stamina boost offered by Mining.

Blacksmiths have two abilities to add sockets to their own gear – Socket Bracer and Socket Glove. From what beta testers have said, this is indeed a self-only enchant, so only Blacksmiths will have these extra sockets. (Note: There is also an ability Socket One Handed Weapon, but it appears that this can be used on anyone’s weapon; it is not a Blacksmith only buff)

BoP patterns notwithstanding, the major benefit of Blacksmithing then is two extra gem sockets. They are colorless, so you can socket them with whatever you want. How much can we expect to gain from these sockets? A lot.

The rare quality stamina gem – Solid Sky Sapphire – offers +24 Stamina. Two of these would yield 48 Stamina. That definitely beats out the Mining bonus. In addition, you can itemize as you wish, mixing Stamina, Strength, and Defense rather than maxing only one stat.

Gathering Mats

It seems clear to me that Blacksmithing will be superior to Mining for a raider, despite Blizzard’s attempts to boost the appeal of gathering professions. That leaves the un-fun part… gathering all the mats.

For the most part, I’ll be buying them from the Auction House. I’ve made a few brief forays into the old world to gather some Iron, Mithril, and Thorium, but I really don’t want to farm them all myself. I wish this stuff wasn’t so expensive.

I took a look at a Blacksmithing Guide I found, and it seems pretty well put together. Based on its suggestion, I’ve calculated I’ll need the following materials to get to 350 blacksmithing:

• 90 x Rough Stone
• 24 x Coarse Stone
• 150 x Heavy Stone
• 60 x Solid Stone
• 5 x Silver Bar
• 5 x Gold Bar
• 5 x Truesilver Bar
• 310 x Copper Bar
• 120 x Bronze Bar
• 230 x Iron Bar
• 190 x Steel Bar
• 240 x Mithril Bar
• 600 x Thorium Bar
• 155 x Fel Iron Bar
• 120 x Adamantite Bar

Oi, that’s a lot of mats…

At least I don’t have to grind to 375. Several of the Lich King patterns are available to make at 350, so I won’t have to grind through the most expensive part of Blacksmithing.