World of Warcraft General Discussion

[Bosstone]

@Mister_Rik

That said, I tend to auction pretty much every green or better item I find that I’m not going to use myself.

Absolutely. You can almost always sell any green item for at least 1 gold, because somewhere out there is an enchanter in need of magic essence or dust.

On my server, selling greens tends to be hit or miss, but stuff for tanking classes (mail or plate of the Bear, typically) regularly goes for 5 to 10 gold, and I see Agility gear (Monkey especially) going for anywhere from 20 to 50 gold, especially if the required level is 16 to 19, as those are good pieces for PVPers.

Once you hit 60 and you start venturing into Outland, vendor prices become extremely reasonable; it’s not uncommon to be able to sell an unneeded item for 6 gold or more. However, reserve that for quest items you can’t use, as you can still probably get more on the auction house for bind-on-equip greens you find there.

At the end, though, the market for mid-level greens is relatively pretty small. A lot of veteran players don’t bother with gear beyond what they can get from quests or instances, because they’re eventually just going to outgrow the gear and thus it’s a waste of money. I still like to trawl the market occasionally, in case there’s a really good deal on an item I could use. I recently bought a Twilight Armor of Intellect (cloth, +17 Intellect, level 35 required) for my mage, who’s only level 12 right now. It was only 6 gold, and it’ll be extremely useful to him when he hits 35.

[wonderlust]

@Calatin

An easy way to do that is to place focus on the MT, and then enable “target of target.” Then, you can make a quick click on the mob that is being tanked, toss the DoT, and then focus back on the MT.

This is exactly what I need help understanding. As a ranged class, it’s sometimes hard for me to target the MT, then “f” his mob from a distance. Can someone please explain this in more detail, along with the associated commands or keys?

[Pleonast]

Isn’t there an /assist command? Make a macro with this:
/assist MyTanksName
and drag it to your ui. When you click it, you’ll target whoever your tank is attacking.

Of course, my method is idiotically simple (i.e., don’t blame me when it kills you). I target whatever has the death’s head icon at the beginning of the fight. After I throw out my totems (giving the tank three seconds to solidify aggro), I wade into the thick of things. When my target dies, I hit [tab] and start attacking whatever comes up. If I get a warning sound because I’m getting close to the aggro limit, I hit [tab] again to get a new target. It mostly works. (I’ll wait now for the healers to scold me.)

[Jas09]

@wonderlust

This is exactly what I need help understanding. As a ranged class, it’s sometimes hard for me to target the MT, then “f” his mob from a distance. Can someone please explain this in more detail, along with the associated commands or keys?

To set your “focus” you target the main tank (by clicking him) and type /focus (generally you want to do this before the run starts).

In your interface panel you should be able to enable a unit frame for the focus and the focus’s target (I use the pitbull add-on but I think it’s included in the default unit frames too). Alternatively you can create 2 macros for these - “/target focustarget” will target whatever the tank is attacking and “/target focus” will switch your target back to the tank himself. Personally I find clicking the unit frame to be easier for me.

Also, what Pleonast said will work too: “/assist focus” will attack whatever your current focus is attacking. This can work pretty well for hunters where you set your focus to be your pet when you’re not in a group and the MT when you are.

[wonderlust]

Of course with our guild, there is always that death’s head and I never have a problem with targeting, but PuGs don’t always mark the same way.

It bothers me that there’s a focus/target aspect that I’m just not understanding.

[wonderlust]

@Jas09

To set your “focus” you target the main tank (by clicking him) and type /focus (generally you want to do this before the run starts).

In your interface panel you should be able to enable a unit frame for the focus and the focus’s target (I use the pitbull add-on but I think it’s included in the default unit frames too). Alternatively you can create 2 macros for these - “/target focustarget” will target whatever the tank is attacking and “/target focus” will switch your target back to the tank himself. Personally I find clicking the unit frame to be easier for me.

Also, what Pleonast said will work too: “/assist focus” will attack whatever your current focus is attacking. This can work pretty well for hunters where you set your focus to be your pet when you’re not in a group and the MT when you are.

Thanks, I’ll check out the interface thing. Unit frames are another mystery I’ve yet to plumb.

[martu]

@Mister_Rik

Install the Auctioneer addon if you haven’t already. One way it’s especially handy is in deciding what to do with white-text items. You’ll discover that some white items sell for a premium, particularly those needed for different crafting professions. For example Arakkoa Feathers, obtained from birdmen in Outland, are used by Leatherworkers and sell for a high price (when they sell, that is). Deeprock Salt, obtained from various earth elementals, is required by Leatherworkers for curing some hides, and sells well.

So the fact that I only visit the AH once maybe twice a week doesn’t hinder me at all?

[Pleonast]

To get useful auction prices from Auctioneer you need to scan it at least once a week. Obviously, more frequently will give you better data. But once a week will give you good info on the most common items, which is the most useful (since that’s what you’ll most likely be buying or selling). For prices on more rare items, if you don’t scan a lot, just check one of the third-party websites. I prefer wowhead.

The best way to use Auctioneer is to make a dedicated auction house alt. Create an alt and run it to the nearest capital city. Use this alt for storing excess materials in the bank, and for buying and selling stuff on the AH. Mail is cheap and instant between alts of a single account. Once a day, after you’re done playing, log onto this character and run the Scan function on Auctioneer. The data Auctioneer gets will be shared among all your characters on that realm.

[Gary_Robson]

@ShibbOleth

I used to pull with frostbolt like that, but found that I like the DOT effect I get with pyroblast, plus almost always have time to throw in frostfire bolt which has a similar (same?) slow effect as frostbolt.

I’m specced deep frost, so pulling with fire (especially a short casting-time spell like pyroblast) doesn’t do as much for me. The reason I pull with frostbolt instead of frostfire is that (a) although they both slow, frostbolt slows more and (b) frostbolt has a better chance of freezing the target.

When pulling, I always use a long casting-time spell first, because the casting time happens before the fight that way.

As a deep-frost mage, when a target is frozen, life is good. My next frostbolt is almost certain to crit, and I can fling an ice lance to arrive at exactly the same moment, which gains triple damage. If that pulling frostbolt freezes the target (while doing about 2,500 damage), my next hit (frostbolt/ice lance combo) will be for over 7,000. If the pulling frostbolt crits and freezes, the target’s damned near dead, and I can easily kill him off with a cone of cold or pyroblast before he even gets close to me.

@jayjay

the fp gryphons go considerably faster than your personal one.

After getting my epic flyer, I did a few races/time trials against my son riding the “taxi” gryphons. What I found is that the taxis fly faster, but I fly straighter, so I can usually get to the destination faster on my own mount than I can by hitting a flight point.

@Pleonast

When my target dies, I hit [tab] and start attacking whatever comes up.

Communicate with the group leader before doing that. My groups usually have a kill order, and if you don’t follow it, you can screw things up. For example, if it’s a tough pull, the tank will hold the nastiest guy, all DPS will focus on the next one, a mage will sheep one, a hunter will trap one, and so on. If you randomly hit [tab] and attack the mob I’ve sheeped, I will not be a happy mage, because unless you hit it pretty hard, it’s coming after me.

@martu

So the fact that I only visit the AH once maybe twice a week doesn’t hinder me at all?

No, but if you want to hit it more, create an “auction mule.” Just start a new level 1 toon and run him straight to the nearest capital city. This is pretty easy to pull off with tauren or humans, but other races may die a few times on the way to the capital. From then on, that toon lives at the auction house, bank, and mailbox. When you’re questing with your main and your bags get full, just find a mailbox and ship everything off to the auction mule.

ETA: That’s what I get for composing slowly - Pleonast already covered the auction mule thing.

[SteveG1]

@Calatin

An addendum to these rules: At some point as a healer, you will run into a group-leader, raid-leader or guild master who believes that you are always responsible for the well-being of every person in the group or raid. This should be a red flag. A giant red flag. Groups like these don’t tend to do very well, in the long-run, as it shows a very naive understanding of how encounters should work. (That being said, if you are assigned to heal a certain person / group, then yes, you should shoulder the responsibility.) I’m talking more about people who tank void zones, don’t dodge fire walls, etc.

I’ve run into this sort, and I am not shy about saying “You need me more than I need you”, and then simply leaving. I like seeing content, and I like my loot (a lot), but some things are not worth the aggravation. I play to relax, have fun, and blow shit up. I don’t play to babysit a bunch of “bads”. If I am responsible for the tank, fine. If I am respnsible for my group in a 10 or 25 raid, fine. If I am responsible for the entire raid, See Ya. If someone goes “all Leeroy” when I’ve already told them “Wait dammit I’m OOM”, then See ya.

[martu]

@Pleonast

To get useful auction prices from Auctioneer you need to scan it at least once a week. Obviously, more frequently will give you better data. But once a week will give you good info on the most common items, which is the most useful (since that’s what you’ll most likely be buying or selling). For prices on more rare items, if you don’t scan a lot, just check one of the third-party websites. I prefer wowhead.

Thanks

@Pleonast

The best way to use Auctioneer is to make a dedicated auction house alt. Create an alt and run it to the nearest capital city. Use this alt for storing excess materials in the bank, and for buying and selling stuff on the AH. Mail is cheap and instant between alts of a single account. Once a day, after you’re done playing, log onto this character and run the Scan function on Auctioneer. The data Auctioneer gets will be shared among all your characters on that realm.

Now why didn’t I think of that?? I can stop flying to Ironforge at the end of every session!

[SteveG1]

@Calatin

Whenever I see there’s a lull, I try to toss off a quick Shadow Word: Pain. Depending on the intensity of the fight, you can also try a Mind Blast or a Smite, but since there’s a casting time, it may not be the best thing to do, until you get the hang of certain battles.

An easy way to do that is to place focus on the MT, and then enable “target of target.” Then, you can make a quick click on the mob that is being tanked, toss the DoT, and then focus back on the MT.

I drag the main tank down from the raid “window” onto the “main screen”. That way I can watch his health easily and if I want to melt some face, I can select the tank, hit F, and know I will attack whatever he is targeted on. I confirm BEFORE attacking, by checking that this mob has the sunders, mangles, lacerates, DOTs, etc on him.

[SteveG1]

@InvisibleWombat

As a deep-frost mage, when a target is frozen, life is good. My next frostbolt is almost certain to crit, and I can fling an ice lance to arrive at exactly the same moment, which gains triple damage. If that pulling frostbolt freezes the target (while doing about 2,500 damage), my next hit (frostbolt/ice lance combo) will be for over 7,000. If the pulling frostbolt crits and freezes, the target’s damned near dead, and I can easily kill him off with a cone of cold or pyroblast before he even gets close to me.

I have my own “frosty”, and I just love that shatter combo.

[Mekhazzio]

@wonderlust

This is exactly what I need help understanding. As a ranged class, it’s sometimes hard for me to target the MT, then “f” his mob from a distance. Can someone please explain this in more detail, along with the associated commands or keys?

The game has built-in raid frames now, to make this doable without mods. Somewhere in one of the UI pages (social, maybe?) you’ll find a “Raid” tab, which will display a list of everyone in the raid group and how they’re arranged by sub-party. If your raid likes to put all the tanks in group 1, for example, you can simply click-and-drag out the Group 1 into its own stand-alone display that will float on the screen. You can use the icons on the side of the Raid display to pull out all Warriors. Or you can hold alt and drag a single name out to get a little frame box just for them.

Each of these boxes display the health and rage/mana/etc of the people in them, and you can click on them to target the person just as if you had clicked on them in the game world, for spells and everything. You can also right-click the boxes, and get several options to display - for instance, always showing their target in ANOTHER box to the right. Clicking your tank’s target box serves the exact same function as assisting off them, with no fuss about finding out where they are or selecting them out of the mess.

It’s essentially the same thing as the 4-man display you get for your own party, for dungeons and the like.

Unit frames are how healers do their magic, and while they’re generally of less use to damage dealers lacking buffs, cross-heals or debuff removal, the information can still frequently be useful.

[Pleonast]

@InvisibleWombat

@Pleonast

When my target dies, I hit [tab] and start attacking whatever comes up.

Communicate with the group leader before doing that. My groups usually have a kill order, and if you don’t follow it, you can screw things up. For example, if it’s a tough pull, the tank will hold the nastiest guy, all DPS will focus on the next one, a mage will sheep one, a hunter will trap one, and so on. If you randomly hit [tab] and attack the mob I’ve sheeped, I will not be a happy mage, because unless you hit it pretty hard, it’s coming after me.

Good advice. I can get away with it because, as an Enhancement Shaman, I’m standing in the main melee. Mobs that have been controlled are typically outside that area, because a good tank will pull the scrum away. So any thing that I tab will be actively attacking the tank.

Until this latest patch (3.1), I probably would’ve stolen aggro from you. Enhancement Shamans had almost no threat mitigation and a ton of burst damage. Our threat has been significantly reduced now, so I should be more careful. Although we do have one high-threat attack that I could use if I was paying attention.

[wonderlust]

That sounds great, Mekhazzio. I wish WoW were up now so I could play with it…that, and to find out whether my disappeared talent points have been fixed by the newest patch.

[Bosstone]

I don’t bother with most aspects of Auctioneer, honestly. What I do when I have a stack of things to sell, like say some mithril and iron ore, is I go to the AH and do a search for the thing I’m selling, having Auctioneer scan however many pages of auctions there are, then I go to the Post tab, chuck the item in there, and examine the table showing the buyout/each listings. I list my stack at the buyout/each price near the bottom of the list and let it run. Even if I could get a few more gold if I held out, it always sells quickly and I have that much more gold available immediately.

Of course, if it’s too low a price, I’ll hang onto the stack until the price looks better. This weekend my server got flooded with silver ore. It usually sells for 4-6 gold each, but it was running at 1-2 gold each. I bought up a bunch and I’ll let it sit for a little while. whistle

[Demo]

@InvisibleWombat

Communicate with the group leader before doing that. My groups usually have a kill order, and if you don’t follow it, you can screw things up. For example, if it’s a tough pull, the tank will hold the nastiest guy, all DPS will focus on the next one, a mage will sheep one, a hunter will trap one, and so on. If you randomly hit [tab] and attack the mob I’ve sheeped, I will not be a happy mage, because unless you hit it pretty hard, it’s coming after me.

You mean there are still encounters that use CC? Pretty much every dungeon I run it’s: Pull that group and go AE crazy!

[Jas09]

@Demo

You mean there are still encounters that use CC? Pretty much every dungeon I run it’s: Pull that group and go AE crazy!

So true… I keep hearing rumors about all these BC-era dungeons where hunters actually got to use traps and mage’s got to sheep and if you broke CC your group might wipe… as a new player I only really use traps for solo play and PvP. It seems to be intentional too - Survival hunters now have a shot that shares a CD with traps. Obviously Blizz doesn’t like trap-dancing!

That’s why even though I use the raid frames and focustarget and stuff like that it rarely seems that necessary… for DPS it seems to just come down to “don’t stand in the bad stuff” and watch your threat…

Some of the new encounters seem to have upped the ante considerably though - the new boss in Vault for example is a raid-killer if you can’t switch targets quickly.

[Demo]

Yeah I wish they would change the name on the overcharged mob in that new encounter so you could easily macro targetting. It seems impossible to target it quickly when it’s standing next to the 3 other guards.