Posts with tag World-of-Matticus

A blog post over at World of Matticus caught my eye earlier this week. It's called Why a World Top 10 Guild Doesn't use Loot Council and tells a short story of how our own Matt Low was surprised to find out that a top guild didn't use loot council. While interviewing a potential recruit for his guild Conquest, the applicant explained that his guild used DKP for loot distribution because loot council had proven too time consuming.

Matt goes on to conclude that if you're racing for a world first, you probably wouldn't want to waste your time distributing loot of all things. A fair point, seeing as top guilds often get kills within hours of each other.

I myself have never been in a world top 10 guild, but having been in several competitive US guilds I've seen my fair share of loot council and DKP. Regardless of the system my guild was using, we were always expected to make (and sometimes post) a list of our best-in-slot gear before the start of a tier. For DKP, this was to reduce the amount of surprises in bidding and help us all get an idea of who needed what before we snagged an upgrade. For the more common loot council, this let the council put together a master list to decide who should get what first. But which one was more efficient?

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers the healing side of things for discipline and holy priests. She also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast.

Do you want to know the greatest and most amazing new thing priests are getting in Mists of Pandaria? It's a squid. Well, it could be an octopus, but I think it's a squid. It's called a Mindbender, and it's our new level 45 talent. The Mindbender is a flying, shadowy squid that serves as an improved version of (read: replacement for) our old pal, Shadowfiend. Our new squid friend does double the damage of Shadowfiend and thus returns twice as much mana. I can only assume the reason he can do this is because he latches onto the heads of our enemies and sucks out their brains, sort of like a Mind Flayer, the squid-faced monsters from Dungeons and Dragons with telekinetic powers. Mindbender, Mind Flayer ... That's right, Blizzard, I'm on to you.

Anyway, I imagine Squiddy will become the prime choice for healing priests in MoP because 1.) mana is mana, and 2.) the other level 45 talents are a bit lackluster. That will unfortunately mean leaving Shadowfiend at home, which is awfully sad, but I've painted up a scenario in my head where Shadowfiend tells me, "Look, Dawn, we've been raiding together for a few years now, and it's about time that I caught up on all the prime time television I've missed. There's Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and I've still only seen one episode of Game of Thrones. I need a break."

"OK, Shadowfiend," I say to it, "you can stay home this expansion."

"Thanks, dollface," it responds with Don Draper-esque charm and winks an eye at me I never knew it had.

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• I Am a Paladin offers tips and tricks for healing 5-mans as a holy paladin.
• The Hunter's Mark offers a refresher on gemming your hunter.
• World of Matticus discusses the Flash of Light spec for holy paladins.
• Listen to this week's edition of the Twisted Nether Blogcast. This week's special guest is Tristan from The Elitists.
• This isn't particularly WoW-centric, but happy anniversary, Anna.

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• World of Matticus's Lodur discusses five common misconceptions about healers.
• Are you a protection paladin working on Rotface and Festergut? Righteous Defense has some tips for you.
• Check out the most recent Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: When Wrath was young.
• Is buying Primordial Saronite even worth it?
• Affliction warlocks, think you might be underperforming? Check out Mystic Chicanery's affliction DPS checklist.

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Tales of a Priest discusses tunnevlsion for healers, and how to prevent it with better mod placement.
• World of Matticus's Lodur brings is more PUG tales, this time detailing the Val'anyr curse.
• Gray Matter asks, was Chill of the Throne enough to keep WoW raiding under control until Cataclysm? Should it have impacted DPS, too?
• Forever a Noob keeps the great rogue advice coming. Deathbringer Saurfang is your next target.
• This is our last link of the day, but it's the most important. Vigilance, a new warrior blog, honors the memory of a fallen guildmate. Rest well, Revanx. A word to the author, from me personally, is that you guys are not alone. Hang in there.

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• MrVoletron is at it again over on Youtube, coming to us with a Jaraxxus remix this time around. People have been requesting this one endlessly from the poor guy, and I must say, he did a good job with it. Utterly hilarious.
• This past week, Blog Azeroth's Shared Topic was RPG Nostalgia, with many World of Warcraft bloggers throwing in their two cents. What's yours?
• The new information released today on Icecrown access progression makes this post a little outdated, but it's a good read nonetheless: Matticus makes a case for the limited attempts approach in raiding.
• Slice and Dice teaches fledgling rogues the difference between Envenom and Eviscerate.
• OutDPS strikes again with their great hunter content, this time with a guide to timing your cooldowns.

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Mania of Mania's Arcania has some interesting ideas as to what Blizzard should do with Hunter pets to improve them and the whole system around them. I'm glad I'm not the only one that finds Spirit Beasts a little odd.
• Blog Azeroth's shared topic this week is, "Relationships within Azeroth." Check out what many bloggers had to say about it!
• World of Matticus's Mimetir has kicked off a two part series on his 10 golden rules of raid leading.
• You asked, The Stoppable Force answered. What happens when Lil' KT and Mr. Bigglesworth are stuck in a room together?

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Episode 11 of the Hunting Party Podcast is available for download!
• The team lineup for the MLG tournament in Anaheim upcoming in just a couple short weeks has been officially announced.
• Mania's Arcania speculates on how many new hunter pet families we'll get in Cataclysm, or if we'll get any at all.
• Episode 64 of the Twisted Nether Blogcast is in a round table format, featuring bloggers Graylo (Gray Matter), Honorshammer (Honor's Code), Matticus (World of Matticus), Saresa (Destructive Reach) and Stoneybaby (Big Hit Box).
• Speaking of Honor's Code, the blog has started a series on setting up a UI for Protection Paladin.

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Episode 62 of the Twisted Nether Blogcast is available for download, with special guest Spooner of Spooncraft.
• Gray Matter discusses the ups and downs of Rawr for Moonkin.
• Not only has OutDPS released episode 10 of The Hunting Party Podcast, but they have a new author on board to tackle hardcore raiding. Today, Heroic Anub'Arak!
• World of Matticus asks, why play a healer?
• This World of Warcraft chalk art is pretty incredible! Really old, but also really cool. It's worth a second look.
  

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Episode 54 of the Twisted Nether Blogcast welcomed StoneyBaby of BigHitBox to the show.
• All Things Azeroth #125 is waiting to invade the inner sanctums your ears, too!
• World of Matticus and 4 Haelz both have guides to healing Lord Jaraxxus, this week's Trial of the Crusader boss.
• Too Many Annas discusses roleplaying different genders in WoW.

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Grey Matter really dislikes the Moonkin set bonus on the recently unveiled Tier 9 armor.
• Pink Pigtail Inn has a pretty convincing argument for why "more epics" does not equal "new content."
• Burnout? With all of the new patch 3.2 information coming down, Pike doesn't know anything about burnout.
• Rhii of ISheepThings, on the other hand, isn't real happy with the World of Warcraft today.
• And finally, Sydera over at World of Matticus waxes philosophical about exploits and how Blizzard is punishing them.

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Many of our questions today are related to Patch 3.2 again, but don't take that as an indicator that it's all you can ask of us! We'll field pretty much anything WoW related in The Queue, so don't be intimidated. Just hit the comments and ask away!

Also, I'm going to make all of you listen to the Beer Barrel Polka because it has been haunting me since Polish Fest this past weekend. Augh. Get it out of my head.

Sedawk asked...

"Will there be more things to buy for Champion's Marks? Or should I go ahead and buy that hippogryph?"

• European folks can win a trip to BlizzCon in Blizzard-EU's costume contest.
• OutDPS takes a look at the Freya encounter.
• While not strictly WoW related, many of you will like to know that D&D Online is going free to play.
• Lodur over at WoM looks and Friends and Raiders: Raider Accountability.
• Holyform writes the Complete Idiot's Guide to Discipline Priest Spells.
• Our friend Medros of All Things Azeroth has a new podcast out called Group Quest. Check it out!

We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Our sister site Massively asks, "What's in a name?"
• You have a few days left to get your Children's Week achievements taken care of, and Herding Cats has a few tips for everyone's bane: School of Hard Knocks.
• Less QQ, More Pewpew has continued their Ulduar video series with their latest addition, Mimiron. You can watch it at the top of this post, or over on their site!
• World of Matticus's Lodur takes a very close look at the transition into becoming a raid leader.