Tuskarr's Vitality vs Icewalker

You will go 8% faster, meaning:

1) It'll be easier for you to avoid damage, therefore you're helping the healers.
2) Its a DPS gain: you get out faster, you resume DPS faster. Plus: if it saves your life, can you do the math how much DPS you got there? Consider a dead dps is 0 dps!
3) As a healer, it will help you get in range and throw that heal that could save the raid from a wipe.
4) There are a lot of hit gear in Ulduar, Icewalker is not NEEDED to get the hit cap.

Depending a bit in your own guild strategies, this is very useful for fights like Yogg and General (main examples).

Applying to a guild

If you play in The Underbog - or any other recommended low population server - you are probably used to answer things like "is the glass half empty or half full?" when filling an application.. or you're asked to say something funny, just to see you have some kind of sense of humor.

However, you should get to know the real answers the top notch guilds will ask you. The best way to achieve this is to know what these guilds want from you, and of course, a more-than-average knowledge of the game will be required.

What we want from you
A guild wants a reliable player. This means this player has a schedule and is probably always available to raid unless something happens, and when this happens he will let the officers/guild know he won't be making it for that day, using the forums and in-game chat.

It is common that you get asked about your PC. It is important to know if you can handle heavy fights with a good FPS rate, so you can perform at your best. A good way to express how well your video card will do is to go to Start -> Run -> dxdiag -> Display and take a screenshot. This screenshot will show useful information hardware-wise for the guild your applying to.

Also, a decent internet connection is required. Guilds can't afford to trust in someone that will disconnect at any given time on the night, repeatedly. And same happens when your PC keeps crashing. Reliable players keep their PCs clean of viruses or any other malware that can decrease its performance. Theres 24 more people counting on you! What i do is i have World of Warcraft in a different partition. This way if my Windows is screwed by any reason i could just format without having to backup or reinstalling 15 GBs of the game.

So, now the guild knows you wont be limited by your hardware or connection in any way. Also we know you can make it to most of the raids and in case you can't you will be using the forums and the ingame chat to communicate this to the officers and the guild.

We also expect that you know your class. Knowing your class means you know whats your stat priority. (Int > SP > Haste > Spi > Crit; for instance) so you can gem and enchant accordingly. You should know what items are best for you (also knowed as Best in Slots) so you only 'need' on these.

You should, of course, know every encounter. Maybe you haven't been to Yogg-Saron yet, but you can see tons of videos of this fight. This is knowing the encounter. Reading about it and watching videos, knowing how is the hardmode done, etc.

We expect that if you find any aspect of the guild that can be improved you use the appropiate ways to communicate this: the forums. Instead of annoying whispers to the GM or any officer, forums are the best place to discuss anything related to the guild.

Your professions are important to know! I would think it twice if someone is applying having Herbalism/Minning. Theres not much PVE benefit from these professions. Usually Jewelcrafting will always help you, Tailoring, Enchanting, Blacksmith, etc.

Giving it all
At the end, it is not only about your attendance, your hardware or your professions. Actually theres also another important moment worth to mention: your performance on the encounters.

By fully knowing all the aspects of the encounter you can and will perform better. You know how to react ahead of time. Giving it all means if you did 7000 DPS on the first attemp, you'll be doing 7000 DPS in the attemp #20.

Of course, you'll need to bring all the consumables you need. If you can increase your spellpower by having a flask on you and you don't that means you don't want to give all you can.

Also..
About applications that go beyond of asking your favorite colors..., in some of these you will be asked to upload or provide a link of a combat log where the guild can see you in action. In case you don't know what a combat log is, you can record every encounter you fight by writing /combatlog before it, and then /combatlog again when you finish. You can do this when you start raiding and then when the raid is finished. That combatlog can be uploaded to WWS, WoWmeter, etc.

Also, an UI screenshot should be uploaded. There is so much information you will be giving to the guild with this screenshot that makes this a must.

Hope this information can help you get in that guild you want and deserve. I would also recommend that even if the guild doesn't ask for a UI screenshor or a WWS remember they will appreciate your efforts and your time filling the application form.

Problems

“A problem is a chance for you to do your best”.

- Duke Ellington

Oceanlab - Sirens Of The Sea (Radio Edit)

Obstacles

"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere"

- Frank A. Clark

Above & Beyond - Good for Me (Radio Edit)

Epic

"Let's not pretend that things will change if we keep doing the same things. A crisis can be a real blessing to any person, to any nation. For all crises bring progress.

Creativity is born from anguish, just like the day is born form the dark night. It's in crisis that inventive is born, as well as discoveries, and big strategies. Who overcomes crisis, overcomes himself, without getting overcome. Who blames his failure to a crisis neglects his own talent, and is more respectful to problems than to solutions. Incompetence is the true crisis.

The greatest inconvenience of people and nations is the laziness with which they attempt to find the solutions to their problems. There's no challenge without a crisis. Without challenges, life becomes a routine, a slow agony. There’s no merit without crisis. It's in the crisis where we can show the very best in us. Without a crisis, any wind becomes a tender touch. To speak about a crisis is to promote it. Not to speak about it is to exalt conformism. Let us work hard instead.

Let us stop, once and for all, the menacing crisis that represents the tragedy of not being willing to overcome it."

- Albert Einstein

Modeling: shortcut to excellence

When i first started playing Counter-Strike i had only one thing in my mind: whos the best player and what team hes in. It is simple, i like gaming because it is very competitive. In my opinion, you can't start playing any competitive game without having in mind whos the best on it. You want to know it because, in order to be 'number one' you'll have to beat them, so this is important information. Essential id say. Now that you are aware of 'where you need to be' its much easier to start working. You know where you are and you know wheres the finish line.

What i first did in order to get closer and closer to be 'the best' was watching the best. I watched tons of games and demos. I reviewed them with my team, and i told them it was pretty easy: let's do what they did. Watch them. Analyze them. Do it. It worked, pretty well id say. At first, we didnt know how 'doing what they did' was working for us, we just did it and got good results, so we kept doing it. I always saw 'this' as a shortcut.

What is 'this'
I didnt know this was stated already, but it is. It is called modeling (NLP). You can google it for a bit but to make the story short it is about using others experience/skills to help you achieve something. For instance a skill: dancing, painting, singing, and finally, healing.

Kids are natural modellers: the first time you were brushing your teeth you probably didnt need anyone to tell you how to do it. You saw your parents brushing theirs for so much time you just repeated it: and it worked. A child has the potential to learn anything. To learn a language, people serve as a model from which to learn from. And so on.

"If you know a person who performs extremely well or even exceptionally in a particular setting, and you would like to be able to have the same degree of grace and agility, presence and panache then Modelling is perhaps the ellegent method for aquiring that skill. "

The modeling process
So, in order to get this going the first step would be to find someone that has that skill you want. Someone that does what you need to do better than you. Then, you will have to watch it in action. Observation is pretty much everything you need. Do what they do. You'll have a 99.9% success rate.

1. Find a model, hero or idol.
2. Watch what they do and analyze how they do it.
3. Knowing why they do what they do will improve your performance: you know why this is working, you have more information to work on now.
4. Try it out!

Modeling and World of Warcraft
If you have a friend that plays a sport, or its just a big fan of some sport, and you ask them about the best players or they favorite ones they will probably know what to answer. If they watch the F1 they'll probably talk about Michael Schumacher, Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen. For golf it'll be Tiger Woods. For soccer maybe Messi, Pelé, Maradona, Kaká, Xavi. If it's tennis you'll hear about Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Sampras. And so on. You need heroes, everyone does. You need to be pointed out where you have to move, you need to see the finish line so you know what way youll be following.

One of the best things of modeling, besides it is 'easy' and it works, is you will have the opportunity to meet amazing people; it is good to point out that 'modeling' is all about observing and analyzing ONLY the person's attribute you want to improve on yourself. You don't care if they are lazy, short, tall, fat, you focus on their skill, and nothing else. However, as attitude is the key on achieving important things in life, you will be most likely reading/watching about a great person. They're often talented in what they do because they have a great attitude. You'll learn more than just that skill.

You can't be competitive in this game if you dont know where you are standing. You need to know about the best. They're #1 for a reason. Find it

Recruiting and application forms

recruit - a recently enlisted soldier

Application forms is the tool many guilds in the world use to get talented people to join them. It is some kind of filter that will allow you to recruit the people you want (the ones you actually need). I've been thinking of some questions that are really important, and i noticed are missing in many application forms.

Keys for recruiting people:
* ATTITUDE over GEAR or EXP
* Their understanding of the guild as a whole
* Their priorities in the game. Guild objectives should be first than personals.
* What websites or method they use to keep themselves updated (both the game and their class)
* Their understanding of looting: loot proccess goal is providing the raid with +DPS and +HEALING.
* Their position on critics. What they think about it. Do they take recommendations from other players into consideration. What is his/her position regarding this
* What players they model (if any).

Creating my own application form
Before listing the questions, it is important to mention important information the applicant NEEDS to know, for instance:

- It is good to state that the more time the applicant dedicates to the application, the more time we'll take to review it
- Also, they need to be awared that the raid spot will always be competitive and that they should never take it for granted.

What to ask

1. Name, age and timezone: Basic information about the player.
2. What raiding role you want to fill up and why: Asking why will reveal important information about the player, such as the knowledge they have about their class and the current content patch. "Id like to fill up the role of raid healing, Holy is at the moment the best spec for it and allows me to produce a high amount of HPS which is more important now than ever since the raid damage has been increased dramatically"
3. What are your in-game goals: Player's in-game goals should be the same as the guild's. If the applicant has the same vision of the game and is looking forward to the same objectives you probably can stop reading the rest of the application, this is really all you need to know to recruit someone. When both the player and the guild have the same goal, player's performance and motivation will always be at its best. This feeling is what enables people to achieve important things in the game.
4. Why would you like to join us: This question reveals honesty. This question is related to #3. Player has X goal and thinks joining the guild will allow him to achieve it. We need to know what motivated him to spent 20 or more mins filling up this form. We'll know what the player wants from us.
5. Explain how you can benefit the guild: It is very common to see "Id like to join the best guild in the server!", but very often they explain HOW they plan to do so. You want them to impress you, you want them to answer something you didnt expect. "I will benefit the guild because:". This question is key. Player is most likely explaining why we should pick him/her and not any of the rest. Let the player impress you. They can't lie in this: you know what will be good for your guild. you know what you need.
6. Explain how you keep yourself updated about both the game and your class: Unless you're in the top guilds around the world, you probably NEED to read some guides and some theorycraft in order to keep yourself awared on what is best to do your job (items,enchants,gems,stats). This questions will help the player even if at the end we never recruit him: he will probably start reviewing sites and reading more about the class and the game.
   
7. In five words, describe yourself both as a person and as a player: What qualities does this player has that helps him as a player: "Responsible, honest,.." etc. Remember we want reliable players, people we can trust, not just a well geared character to throw out some heals.
8. Armory Link: If the player is really interested in joining, you'll most likely get him in the right spec and gear. Useful to check gemming and some other tecnical stuff.
9. UI Screenshot: "One image is worth a thousand words". No, really, the UI screenshot tells you a LOT about the player, most of the times it reveals if the player is reliable or not.
10. Any recent combatlog: Anything such as WWS, WoWmeter, any parsed combatlog where we can see your skills in action.
11. Any additional information the player wants to add: Gives them a second chance to impress the guild!

In my opinion, this questions are attitude-related. This means we want to know more about the person, the player, and not much about that 8.5 warlock that is standing in Dalaran. If you have the right attitude, you will probably achieve wathever you want. You set your own limit, my recommendation is to listen to everyone, even when they are wrong, its a reminder that you're MORE than the average player, and probably deserve to be in a very good guild :)

Happy raiding!
And pardon my english :))

Ouch...

Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target's maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch, Judgements of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech).

(Upcoming in Patch 3.2)

Upcoming Priest changes. PTR 3.2

Priest will be receiving the following changes:

- Prayer Of Healing: "The percentage of spell power this spell gains in healing (per target) has been reduced from 80.7% to 52.6%."
- Penance: "Cooldown increased to 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds."
- Inspiration: "The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor."

Poptisse from Ensidia interviewed

Interview made to one of the best (if not THE BEST) Holy Priest; Poptisse. Member of the top guild Ensidia. Made on Friday, April 10th 2009.

Original interview link

neto: Hi! Id first like to know where are you from, what is your name, your age and how much time you have been playing WoW?

Poptisse: My name is Therese, im 25 and been playing since January 2006. I’m from Sweden.

neto: Do you remember why you started playing? Did you start playing for fun? You knew when you first got into WoW that you were going to be part of a world known-top guild?

Poptisse: I started playing because I saw my brother doing Molten Core during christmas when I visited my family. At first it was for fun, but as soon as I dinged lvl 60 I got sucked into raiding pretty quickly.

Poptisse: And no, I could never imagine that. I still can't believe it!

neto: Does this hard raiding style has made you do some sacrifices? For example, getting late to bed having classes tomorrow morning? How do you handle this?

Poptisse: I did sacrifice some time with my friends, but I dont think I ever sacrificed my work while I still had one. I quitted my job way before I got into Nihilum. And before that I never had to consider progress etc.

Poptisse: And Ive always been a nightly person, so going to bed late is something ive done since childhood.

neto: What do you think a person needs to become good at something? What do you think was the key for you to become part of Nihilum, and to keep yourself at the top level? Is it the attitude, the time, the dedication..?

Poptisse: I think it’s a lot about dedication. Loving what you do, and being able to focus and read and understand the game from all aspects. I honestly dont know why I got to be a part of Nihilum, but I guess after all I had what they were looking for. A dedicated, good, reliable player.

Poptisse: It’s not always easy to be a female gamer and to prove yourself at those levels either.

neto: Would you like to tell us a bit more about being a female gamer? Is it common in your guild? Are you the only female? You feel good?

Poptisse: I wouldn't say its common in our guild, but I honestly don't think there is any anti-female-gamer attitude. Right now it’s me and a resto druid, at the release of wotlk and the merge with SK we also had a warlock, whom later decided to leave however. I feel awesome, but Im a bit boyish myself, so I dont really have a problem with the sometimes harsh guy attitudes. I do think I am respected as a player and not as a female.

Poptisse: At least I hope I am!

Poptisse: I can imagine girls having issues in those guilds though, because the environment can be really rough sometimes.

neto: Im guessing you and your guild have already cleared some content from the PTR. Many players complained about actual content being too easy. Do you think Blizzard will disappoint the community again with Ulduar? In terms of difficulty.

Poptisse: Hmm, I do think it will disappoint the real hardcore raiders.

Poptisse: I mean, I remember myself clearing the first MC, BWL. And the epic feeling of epic was fucking epic. Now it’s more like a brainless zerge where people fight about purples, rather than screaming over a dead boss. I remember wiping for days on Ragnaros, with my first guild. "Riders of Thulsa Doom". But when he died…the screams! Dont get those feelings anymore. Blizz wants to make all content open to everyone, even those who dont get the term "dont stand in fire". May so be it, it’s their game after all.

neto: Have you thought of a solution for this? What should Blizzard do? What about hardmodes, will they fix this issue?

Poptisse: Thing is, basically it’s all about world’s first. Weather you get it on hardmode or not. But I dont see a solution either, it’s too late for that. Everyone is used to wellfareepics and zergfests.

neto: From all the encounters you had the chance to participate on; can you rank these in terms of difficulty?

Poptisse: Freya 3 adds as #1. Mimiron as #2. Thorim as #3, maybe.

neto: Is there any particular encounter that you had really fun wiping on? Vent laughs?

Poptisse: Mimiron. For sure. Everyone loved that encounter! It’s an epic fight, 4 phases. You fight a robot, first his lower part, then his torso, then his head. On phase 4 you fight the whole body together, but then also p1-3 at once. So it’s a LOT of raid damage, tank damage, crowd control, special awareness.

neto: Im guessing it’s pretty easy to fail in the first tries.

Poptisse: Yeah well, when you have 8 melee getting blown up in a second by mines you start rubbing your head! It’s a great fight, much credits! Can’t wait to fight it for real on hardmode. Freya is great too, esp on hardmode, but hard!

neto: You feel like the majority of players will enjoy the new content?

Poptisse: I expect a lot of qq from "casual" players. But I dont see why people want to faceroll all content for free epics. What’s wrong with a little bit of challenge?

neto: So in terms of difficulty, you would rate Naxx 1/10. Ulduar would be like…?

Poptisse: Easymode on all bosses I’d say around 6-7ish. It’s a great step. As blizz said themselves, not something you pug at once.

neto: Would you like to give away some predictions? Can you tell how much time will it take for the new content to be cleared at least on the easymode?

Poptisse: Wow, well. Its 14 bosses, it’s really hard to judge. I think the top 20 guilds will clear it in 1-2 resets. Even 1 maybe. I’d say around 2-3 weeks in average the top 100 guilds will.

neto: It will definitely take longer than Naxx, but not longer than old instances like, for instance, Sunwell maybe?

Poptisse: Sunwell had 6 bosses, but brutallus and muru was insanely hard. At least Brutallus could be a cockblock if you had bad geared tanks. Muru took weeks. Hard to say really, guess ulduar will take slightly longer due to the amount of bosses.

neto: So, I have heard you play a Priest =)

Poptisse: I love my priest =). Played priest since day 1 and will until I quit.

neto: I know you wrote a gear-guide for Sunwell. Do you have in mind writing another guide for Ulduar?

Poptisse: Im not sure Im going to be responsible for that, Im sure we will have some once our website is up running though. I really hate writing guides for holy priest, because there is no real theorycraft for it. We're all so different.

neto: I will personally tell you that my character looks a lot like yours, and I think im doing good =P

Poptisse: Well I got a lot of questions why I socket for int, for example. Big manapool. And the fact that replenishment is the best mp5 you can have. Specially now in 3.1 when they nerf spirit.

neto: You’re saying you will keep socketing int in the next patch

Poptisse: I will focus even more on it. I like the spirit and spellpower I get on my gear/enchants, but I dont see SP being the mandatory factor atm. As for me I value int > haste > spirit > sp > crit.

neto: Can you give me your values for the patch?

Poptisse: int > haste > sp > spirit > crit

neto: How do you prepare as a player/raider/person to achieve the 'First kills’?

Poptisse: Ulduar is going to be the first REAL progress for me. Sure we had Malygos, Sarth and even a lot of Naxx was new to me, but everyone knew everything already so…I will prolly prepare myself IRL with a lot of water, energy drinks and make sure I eat enough. In game I've stocked up on elixirs/manapots/food/haste/sp pots. Enchants, gems, and all that. Just so that I never have to go to AH during the progress :)

neto: Outside the game, but still game related, do you have a gear-list prepared for yourself? Like what you will be needing (in terms of loot) in each encounter. The enchants, gems, are you used to plan this stuff? Or you just do the math whether what suits best for you at that moment?

Poptisse: With Ulduar that is really hard, since not even 50% of the loot has been revealed. I guess at the start you'll do the math at the spot.

neto: You will follow the int > haste > sp > spirit > crit rule

Poptisse: More or less yea

Poptisse: I have a pretty decent rule when it comes to managing mana: My manapool's % should always be in line with the boss %HP. I’m just a fan of regen.

neto: And inside the team/guild/organization/raid you feel you fill up the role of a hardworker, leader, friend, how can you describe your work/role? the funny girl. the serious one. the mad. the ihatetofail..?

Poptisse: Im probably the perverted, unpredictable retard. I think some people see me as pretty funny though. I’m usually pretty quiet in raids. I dont say much unless I have too.

Poptisse: Or if I nerdrage :D

neto: Do you feel this is good for a guild? Like you have a raid composition and you also need a vent-environment, especially when it comes to long hours of wiping. How would you describe the perfect environment? The whole guild feelings? You want it to be serious still funny? A balance..?

Poptisse: It has to be a balance. If you dont laugh you aren’t having fun and then I dont see the point, but you shouldn’t laugh too much either. And I dont want a gun to my neck. I think we've had a nice balance on PTR, I enjoyed it a lot!

neto: Can you tell me anything you have done in a raid (With Nihilum/Ensidia or any serious raid) where you screwed it up?

Poptisse: Haha! Yes. Twins. Sunwell. If you've ever done the fight you know the ledge… ive seen so many fails there so I always pressed slowwalk, walked up, positioned myself, then turned slowwalk off.

neto: so one day =P…

Poptisse: So one day, I walk up, but instead of pressing slowwalk again to turn it off, I press numlock.

Poptisse: = autorun.

Poptisse:And I seriously felt my trial go down the drain. But at least I laughed! I swear 90% of everyone that ever did twins did that mistake too. “The ledge of doom”

neto: When something like that happens in a serious raid, let’s say it won’t happen next week in Ulduar, but a special First Kill for your guild or any special achievement. You hear laughs in vent, it is all quiet, or what?

Poptisse: It really depends. Im human, everyone can fail. But let’s say you've been wiping 10 hours on X boss, which has X ability, let’s say conflag, as on twins. You finally have it close, then this X doesn’t move out with conflag. I'd get mad, mad, mad! But let’s say, you've been wiping for 10 hours, X gets into the raid, X never done the fight, X fails at that, you have to accept it. Swallow it and move on. It’s really situational.

neto: I was asking this because I believe it is very important to keep the group focused. So sometimes you have a really good try and at the end someone fails, and I wanted to know like how the topguilds react to this

Poptisse: I think the patience goes down hour by hour. You can’t blame people for being human either. Progress for 15 hours, and you have to expect mistakes from some corner

neto: Speaking about failing. Have you seen in your WoW career any ‘fail’ because of the Internet?

Poptisse: Lots of times.

neto: Does your guild prepare in any way to avoid internet failing?

Poptisse: I think people's net is generally monitored. For myself, my net has been shit from time to time. But then I always tell whoever is leading the raid that my net is shit that day or whatever. So they at least know! I mean, I wouldn’t want to ruin a worlds first because I dont want to admit my net is dodgy.

neto: Would you like to lead a raid sometime?

Poptisse: I did weekly Hyjal/BT pugs pre WotLK.

neto: Funny raids :D?

Poptisse: I think most people had a lot of fun, yes :)

neto: Thanks so much for your time! Any final words, a /wave maybe?

Poptisse: More girls to WoW!