Leafy Appendages

Back from the edge!

2010-03-01T10:43:00.007Z

Hey people! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, it's been hectic during February, however, I'm back :) and already have a few posts lined up.

Generally, WoW has been good to me. I haven't gotten much done in the way of raiding, but gearing for bear is going great. I'm sitting at 36k health self buffed, which, with a paladin or a priest, quickly becomes 40k and upwards. Dodge is pretty good too, as I'm comfortably just under 40%.

Unfortunately, some instances (particularly the new icc ones) have a few hard hitting spell casters... which is a worry for all healers, when I'm going allong happily, not taking much damage, and then KAPOW! a huge fireball burns my tail stump off!

The only damage reduction I have for spells coming in, is that 140 damage reduction Essence of Gossamer gives me when it procs. Now, that's not alot, and really, I'm considering enchanting for some shadow e.t.c. resistance. Anyone know anything else that can be done to reduce this?

Trigger happy dps, and hunters who don't know when to use feign death... Plate wearing dps, particularily warriors now, with two huge 2H weapons, running in, E-peen flying high, don't seem to understand the concept of tanking! I'm sorry, I'm not an all singing, all dancing bear tank you may have in your 25 man icc raids. I'm heroic and emblem geared. Get a grip, because 11k dps is not neccesary to get a group through even HoR. You only need a combined group dps of around 12k to get you through that stuff! So, you have two options here DpS... Either slow the Hell down, or get smooshed by a loose add. Your desision. Just remember, 0 health = 0 dps.

I'll finish of my few drafted posts later,

Vralk, Guardian of Cenarius

Guarding Cenarians

2010-02-27T09:58:00.010Z

This is a little guide towards helping you do that all impressive druid title 'Guardian of Cenarius'

I don't think there is much more reason to it than this:

I'm a druid, I want a druidy title... As a tank mainly now, something protector-ish would be great! *Look at achievments* Guardian of Cenarius. Looks great, just the kind of druid title I was looking for. Only problem is, you need to be exalted with two factions. Not just that, the factions are old school factions.

As a druid who started seriously leveling after the Lich King made his frozen butt a threat, I've not done any reputation grinds that someone who had seen level 60 or 70 caps will have done. All I've done was friendly with both the Circle and Expedition.

So, where to get started.

At the time I started the grind, I was still getting together my bear gear. So I didn't have much health, this meant I started with the Sillithus grind.

So, what to do.

When leveling, I spent a large amount of time here anyway, so I had done most of the quests. I'm not going to go into much detail here, because there's alot of quests, and the best way to get them done is to start tracking low level quests and get going. While doing these quests, you do one for gathering Twilight texts. (Sorry for all you Vampire fans, it's all about elementals here!)

You collect these in bunches of 10, then hand them into someone who truely appreciates your work. This then rewards you with a bunch of rep. Next to this person, is someone who accepts three abysall crests, for again, a bit of rep. These are repeatable, and going to be your main source of reputation. If you have a bank character, you could do the missions given by someone else, doing the Logistic's assignments, where you just buy a whole load of Gem's, leathers e.t.c. and hand them in. I didn't have the gold at the time (nor really do now), but this isn't a very quick way to grind it.

At level 80, when you find a cultist camp, you will find a bunch of, you guessed it, cultists! Next step is to kill them all. Run around, single shot mangling them in cat form, or whatever you do (for moonkins and some trees, it's possible to double wrath them, or single shot them with starfire) then loot them. collect only the coins, texts and clothing (head gear, shoulders, and robe) keep going untill you have killed the entire place. They'll start to respawn soonish, but you should have gathered atleast one set of cultist robes. Now look for the Lesser stones dotted around the camp. Go to it, talk to it wearing all three pieces (if you don't, you get zapped for a large amount, I was hit for around 3k, does anyone know if it is a percentage hit?).

Talk to the stone, and an abyssal lord will appear. kill his sorry butt, and then loot the crest. do this for all the sets of cultist clothes you have (depending on the elemental that appears, some of the clothing is destroyed). Then, if you've been slow, there will be alot of respawns for you to kill, this means you don't have to move to the other camp. If not, simply go to the other cultist camp, and repeat. (There is a camp within spitting distance of the cenarion flight path, and again one north west of that). When you get bored (or set yourself a timer for this if you get bored easily, I went for half hours at a time), rock on back to the refuge, hand in all of your crests and texts, vendor anything you have picked up (there will probably be alot of it unless you selectively looted texts, crests and clothes)

Eventually, and trust me on this, it'll take a while, you'll get to exalted! hooray, half way there!

Here's a few tips for breaking up the grinding:

Take breaks, you'll go insane otherwise! every three or four trips, take a break, do something not involving WoW, eat something, have a drink, just shut your eyes for alittle.
Queue up in the LFG tool as a DPS. Queueing as a healer or tank is a very short wait, so doesn't let you do much grinding. This is bad, as you don't do what you need to!
Listen to some music, preferably fast, or something you can sing to, again, this helps to break up the grind, and make it less of a grind. I even have my own grind music for just these occasions!

Now for the higher level bits, You have two options really for this.

You could grind this in Borean Tundra with our little PETA friends. The mobs around Kaw, the mammoth killer respawn very quickly, and they drop Nessingwary Lackey's Ears, which you can turn in to a very sadistic druid for some Expedition rep. I don't know what he does with these ears, but I'm pretty glad he doesn't tell you.

The other option, is to go to Outlands. Go and do the quests there, and hand in Unidentified Plants, and you'll get to honored pretty sharpish. From here, the only way to raise your rep, is to do more quests, or hand in Coilfang Armaments. The heroic Coilfang Resivoir instances will still give you rep, and so will normal Steamvaults. I grinded out normal Steamvaults, because the naga will drop coilfang armaments, and you still get rep for killing them, the bog lords, and the bosses. When you first go into the instance, kill them until you get 'Orders from Lady Vashj' This starts a quest, accept it, and go back out the instance, to the outpost leader in Zangramarsh.

After this, go into Steamvaults (preferably normal, as it is quicker to solo) and kill all the naga you can find! Tips for this place really, are:

Don't over pull, it's easily done, and very easy to get over confident. Remember that some of the mobs stun, heal e.t.c. when you are stunned, you can't dodge! so you only have the base 5% avoidance chance.
Remember to activate the control panels behind the Mechagnome boss and the Hydromancer lady! beyond those doors, are about 25 more naga, and the final boss! that's a lot more Armaments, and the chunk of rep you get for the boss and his friends!
Again, don't get too bored, however, if you go into the LFG tool, you'll be teleported to the nearest GY when you get back from the instance.
Remember to run out and RESET the instance once you are done with each run. You can't just run back in, it doesn't work, and you'll just be running around an empty instance, wondering why there are no mobs until you realise what you forgot to do!

Eventually, after a large number of runs (I took about 20-30 I think) You'll get exalted with the Exped! Now all you have to do, is go to your character pane, and click on that title of druidy epicness, and feel pro in your random instances!

:) Enjoy your grind, it's worth it at the end!

Vralk

Obliterating Oculus

2010-01-28T17:20:00.001Z

So then, after a huge read up into bear tanking, gearing up, and making a phenomenal number of new macro’s, I’ve finally ventured into an instance. I decided to go for a level 80 normal instance, so that if anything went wrong, our magical guild healer could keep us alive till I got it back together.

After long debate of which instances we did and didn’t want to go to, Oculus, surprisingly was chosen! The first few pulls went smoothly, and we easily smote down drakelings left, right and centre. The first boss went nice and easily as well! I just made sure, that every time he pulled us all in, I backed off towards the cages, and then everyone knew where they should be standing very quickly J

The drakes, since we had all done oculus e.t.c. before, and there were no achievements for anything in normal, we decided to go for five amber drakes to make it go quicker, as opposed to going for the typical set up of one red and green, and three amber. We landed on the centrifuge ring, and I must say... There’s a lot of moving for a bear tank! Given that I have virtually no resistance to frost, except for the Frost aura our healer kindly donned, I had to get out of the blizzards sharpish. All said, as long as I mangled and lacerated two out of the three mages before they started to blizzard, I could keep aggro on them all simply by growling and IFF’ing the un-lacerated mob... The big guy was easy, as maul hit him, and a few swipes made sure he followed me when I moved from the blizzards.

Now... once that was complete, the next boss. He fell quickly, although there was a little slip, where I forgot to move from the laser. That’s right, I was nearly shot down by a laser! KFB (Kentucky-Fried Bear) isn’t that tasty, I guarantee you, but that big blue drake man seems to think otherwise.

The trash was easy getting to the next boss, as we had a lot of dps there. Only real issue I have with this boss, is that the mobs are just slightly too far away from each other. I did work out though, if I tag the boss with IFF, then he summons, and if I’ve enraged, I’ll have enough rage to charge in, then hit at least two out of the four mobs instantly. From there, I’m normally able to get a decent amount of aggro before anyone reaches the mobs. The boss himself however, isn’t too bad, I just have to be very careful about that empowered arcane explosion! All in all, a not too bad boss.

Now then... The big bad dragon. Was fine, as we simply had to do it as a dps race (given our drake set up) which, considering it was a normal level instance, was no issue. High dps, and a quick kill made for a very happy group!

Now that I’ve dabbled in tanking, I have to say, I really enjoyed it! It’s harder than healing by any means, but overall, feels a lot more rewarding. I’ll keep tanking, and keep posting to you all about how I’m going with it.

Just also want to say happy birthday to the blog Druid main! Well done Ice!

Vralk

Stepping into the Arena.... for PvE?

2010-01-23T12:45:00.001Z

The bane of my life. It always has been, and will probably always be PvP. I’m not the quickest on the uptake, but when it is raids, I can reasonably predict what damage is coming, from where, to who, and how hard. In PvP, it isn’t that simple. You can’t look up boss mechanics, you can’t just step up and be carried through the fights, you have to fight it through, drastically adjust, and more importantly, move tons!

Yesterday, I made a 2v2 arena team called ‘Cenarion Combat’ and we stepped into our first arena. My friendly Paladin and myself, a lonesome tree. Proudly displaying our ‘guardian of cenarius’ titles, we were promptly steamrolled by another team. I really do mean steamrolled. The paladin got stun locked, and I was nuked by an unfriendly warlock. Things couldn’t have ended faster if I had tried. It was all over too quickly, and we queued up for round two. This went equally badly, but we kept going until we realised what we had to do for different scenarios. I now, some-times even start stealthed! I know, right? Crazy tree!

We’ve won some games, and lost some, but it’s a lot more fun than I expected. AND, I’ve made a paladin friend!

The reason I’ve done this, is to get together some gear in an alternate way. If my arena buddy and I group up, then do a few matches, we can do some instancing when we get bored or frustrated! Then, when we come back, with some fresh emblems and a little more gold, we can go back into the fray, trying to get some arena points. This to me, seems like a really good way, getting emblems for emblem gear, and arena points and honor for PvP gear. The PvP gear I’m aiming for is going to bolster my Tank set, as there is no shortage of stamina and agility on the feral stuff! I’m still healing a lot, and doing the weekly raid all easily, so I’ve not lost my branchy touch. I’m just trying to get a nice tank set before I jump into the world of tanking incase I make a huge mistake, I’ve aways got a moderate amount of gear to fall back to to save my behind!

Bark and bite,

Vralk

Bearing with boredom

2010-01-22T14:48:00.001Z

The leap into bear form is going pretty smoothly, but I’m still at only 28k health in bear form, which seems miserable, since I run around healing warriors and paladins with 33k health! I’ll get there soon though.... as soon as I get rid of this damned healer chest! Hehe. Ashen verdict is being reasonably nice to me, although I haven’t been able to get together another rep run, not even in 10 man. I’m soo close! All I need is another two mob kills, and I’m done. Then I’ll have two nice shiny healer rings, and two epic level tank rings.

Anyone got any opinions on what are nice enchants? The new disenchant tool is pretty handy towards hoarding the infinite dust and abyss crystals I need for the enchants, as things like blood draining require 40 infinite dust! That wouldn’t be too hard to get off of the AH, or to grind 78-80 greens and get a disenchanter to help out, but when I’m trying to put together a whole tank set, I’m not too keep on forking out thousands of gold for infinite dust, especially when people sell them in stacks of one all the time!!

Making gold is going pretty well, as there is still the need to get potions for raids, and everyone keeps swapping glyphs until the cookie cutter spec is found. I’m pretty fond of all the gold people can spend on random things, but I am definitely NOT a fan of how high the AH prices are on my server... It’s making nearly everything so much harder!

Also, thanks to Icedragon’s spectacular effort at druid main to put together some instance guides, I’ve not got Essence of Gossamer for my gear! I’ve never been able to complete the instance before, let alone heroic mode, (hadn’t tried since 80, and the LFG just never put me in there) but I went in this time, with knowledge I couldn’t have gotten otherwise. I knew exactly what to expect, and we even got a few achievements for killing the first boss with all of his guardians alive! Boy did we all feel pro!

Leaves and Love,

Vralk

A new twist to the branch!

2010-01-20T15:48:00.001Z

Ok, so I haven’t posted in a while.... Now I’ll explain why. I’ve recently been getting back into the flow of WoW, after an extensive break. I’m 80, with a new shiny healer set, and I’m just losing interest. So, I’ve decided to get together a tank set. I found tanking with my death knight a blast! And now, I’m going to try it out with Vralk. I’ve already gotten a few of the leather items from the new WotLK instances, heroics, and working (really close now) towards Ashen Verdict friendly for the rings.

So then, how to get started tanking... I think I’ll start with a few normals with guildies, something nice and easy to begin with, not too many mobs at once, and easy to heal through. I’m thinking maybe even some of the lowest level ones I can find in the LFG system. From there, I’ll start to get some heroics in, probably not using the random dungeon button quite yet, as I’m not going to be ready for the Rise of the Lich King heroics for a while...

Getting a lot of gems e.t.c. with honour and badges, and I’m considering going to get a 2v2 arena team! I don’t know whether to go feral and try to learn catting/bears, or if I should just stick to trees and run round healing my partner. I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon. The relentless gear for ferals has a healthy amount of stamina, and I’m sure I’ll love that. The only difficulty is, with my reduced play time, getting in the matches for any arena points, if not to get our rating up, will be challenging. I might have to stick to using whatever gladiator gear I can from arena/honor/badges for now, as I’m still using my healer top for tanking! I might also give naxx and Ulduar a whack, as I’m pretty sure a lot of people won’t mind a healer rolling offspec on that ilevel of gear.

That’s all for now,

Bark and Bite,

Vralk!

Naxx Certified... Nope...

2009-12-10T21:22:00.000Z

Gearing is sadly slow. I’m trying to get gear together quickly, and the new pug system is really helping. I’ve yet to try out the daily raid as I only see it ending in tears at the moment.

Hodir inscriptions now BoA? I love the idea! It has always been easier to grind items on my better, stronger death knight... little dwarfs in caves practically hand me their relics of Ulduar! That really hakes my life easier now, I’ll grind relics on Mancøw (DK) then get the inscription.

I’m still levelling Mancøw’s inscription, so soon she should be drooling money, as the inscrptionists on my server (no offence to any of y’all) don’t seem to be capable enough to work the AH well. I’m also making money from my alchemy, transmuting jewels into meta gems, and saronite into titanium whenever the CD’s up.

Wow is churning over slowly, but soon (hopefully) my guild will start trying to raid a little more, starting in Ulduar 10 (I know, a little late, but great for Vralk) soon, thinking of a dedicated raid team. Mercykillers shall shed blood (or oil) once more!

Leafy rawr! Vralk(/Bloodsail Admiral Mancøw)

PS, new title on me ol’ DK! I’m going for the Insane in the Membrane in my more, boring moments... I’m not too far from it though, I’ll keep yall up to date.

Four Score and Heroics

2009-11-26T19:24:00.001Z

That’s right, anyone who loves old ways or using numbers will have guessed the topic!

Vralk is now, 100%, positively level 80!

She swirled in yellow fireworks on Monday, gracefully meeting the level cap in Icecrown, just smiting a Crypt lord for the Argent Crusade.

We managed to get into Azjol-Nerub and ToC heroics that evening. ToC was with my good ol’ guildmates, and AN was Vralk's very first heroic Pug! J

ToC heroic wielded no drops for me, although, I did secure a lot of cloth/leather from normal earlier in the day.

AN however, was another story. I had to pick between two drops! Two robes dropped, and, I went for the cloth one, as the leather had worse stats except for the armour, which I don’t really need (hopefully)

Haven’t tried to heal yet, I’m waiting to gear up first, for now though, I’ll stick with moonkin-ing until I have a nice set, preferably around 1000-1300 healing power in ToL. Might try healing some normals later,

Love and Leaves, Vralk

Welcome to the Darkness

2009-11-09T22:04:00.001Z

I’m sure everyone finds this with many or most of their characters...

You get really far, perhaps even further than you have before with other classes, you feel good about a character, then suddenly, hit a brick wall, almost halting you in all process.

I’ve hit my biggest yet. Vralk is at level 78, and not moving very far. I almost can’t bring myself to log in...

Hope I get through this, don’t know what I would do if my days persisted in being boring.

Wow has always been there to escape to, but now, it’s a looming giant of dread, taunting me, daring me to return, but I’m just not ready yet.

Lost in the Darkness, Vralk

Who Will lend a helping hand.

Lest We Forget

2009-11-05T22:34:00.001Z

As a keen believer that we should do whatever we can to help our soldiers during, and after they have been in action, I’m sending out my thanks to what the poppy appeal does for us, and our brave uniformed men and women. The Poppy Appeal sets out, every year, with a total of roughly 130 men and women working to put together a multitude of poppies, wreaths and crosses for the use on November the 11^th on Remembrance Sunday.

This got me thinking, such a small token of appreciation, and thanks for what these people have done for us (a pound or two) for a poppy, causes such a benefit to those injured in action, and the partners who have been left behind when loved ones have passed away.

All it takes, is that we say thank you for what they have done.

This made me consider that actually, a lot of what we do in WoW is quite similar. When we get ready for a group or a raid, we all buff up, and possibly put down a feast if we have one. This in turn, from a small act of kindness, from a single party or raid member, in turn, increases the ability of all others around them. This of course is not on the same level of kindness and generosity as our soldiers, or even that of the Poppy Appeal in their fundraising efforts. But, this is a small token of friendship, that helps people to get things done.

One thing I don’t find grateful, is when one person thinks that the wiping of the group is so definitely not their fault, that they refuse to pay their repair bills without at least subsidisation from the group or raid members. When a member is so selfish, that they believe that they should not be held responsible in any way, and that even though everyone is trying their hardest, (no one would purposefully wipe a raid I hope) they still believe that they should be compensated when it was no one’s intended fault. Most classes have a multitude of buffs they bring towards a group or raid, and a whole host of buffs your professions can bring as well. When a member takes no heed of this, ignoring things from mats cost for consumables, and the cost of a battle res, or rebuffing gift of the wild e.t.c. then it saddens me to see that they can shun all that aside, ignore the sacrifices (no matter how small) from their fellow players, and then bluntly blame them for everything going wrong, demanding repayment, THAT, is when my blood starts to boil.

So, In an act of remembrance, thanks and praise for everyone who has ever risked their lives for my country, freedom, and right to be happy,

Every single one of my toons, will be carrying the red roses in game.

Vralk,

Lest We Forget

Druid Main!!

2009-11-01T22:02:00.001Z

Hey people, this is somewhat of a test, I don’t know

what the formatting for this is going to come out

like, but I’m hoping it won’t be awful :D I’m trying

out this E-mail function as I can’t actually post atm...

Anyway! Over at Druidmain, Icedragon has been

holding an art contest. With a prize for the winner!

I’m sorry I didn’t post this earlier, I’ve been tied down

recently... The competition ends on the 5^th.

http://druidmain.blogspot.com/2009/10/artwork-contest-ice-cant-draw.html

for more information, look there! All art submitted will

be used!

Go show your stuff people!

Vralk

Gearing? Who says?

2009-10-27T08:31:00.002Z

So then, the big crunch,

We've all hit it before, you hit the level cap, then after a few seconds of self satisfaction, blizzard tell you, no, hang on a sec, we're going to make you slave for hours more, earning things we call epics.

Wonderful.

so, in my hours of boredom, or complete interlag, I've made a gear sheet, with the help of Aertimus and Wowhead

So, without further ado, the gear list!

Dungeon list:

Nexus

- Cleric's Linen Shoes -Stoutbeard Kolurg

- Helm of Anomalus - Anomalus maybe?

- Warmace of Unrequited Love - Keristrasza

Occulus

- Frostbridge Orb (OH) - Trash

- Malygos Favor (2H) - Eregos

- Staff of Draconic Combat (2H) - Eregos

- Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape - Eregos

- Drakewing Raiment - Drakos

- Sash of Phantasmal Images - Mage Lord Urom

Azjol'Nerub

- Insect Vestiments - Anub'Arak

- Grotto Mist Gloves - Hadronox

Drak'Tharon Keep

- Temple Crystal Fragment (OH) - Novos

- Leggings of the Winged Serpent - Tharon'ja

- Overlook Handguards - Tharon'ja

- Spectral Seal of the Prophet - Tharon'ja

- Reanimator's Cloak - Trash

Stratholme

- Forgotten Shadow Hood - Salram

- Band of Guile - Dark Runed Chest

- Enchanted Wire Stitching - Meathook

And, last but not least, ToC, the great epic giveaway

ToC

- Abyssal Rune - Normal

- Binding of the Tranquil Glade - Normal

- Gaze of the Somber Keeper - Normal

- Handwraps of Surrendered Hope - Normal

- Leggings of the Haggard Apprentice - Normal

- Tears of the Vanquished - Normal

- Embrace of Madness - Heroic

- Gloves of Dismal Fortune - Heroic

- Leggings of the Snowy Bramble - Heroic

- Mariel's Sorrow - Heroic

- Symbol of Redemption - Heroic

Also, here's a list of items I hope to get through reputation during my heroic grinding:

Kirin'tor

- Robes of Crackling Flame - Exalted

- Ghostflicker Wristband - Exalted

- Arcanum of Burning Mysteries - Revered

- Shroud of Dedicated Research - Honored

- Helm of the Magestic Stag - Honored

Wymrest Accord

- Sandals of Crimson Fury - Exalted

- Arcanum of Blissful Mending - Exalted

Knights of the Ebon Blade

- Belt of Dark Mending - Exalted

Sons of Hodir

- Greater Inscription of the Crag - Exalted

Argent Crusade

- Signet of Hopeful Light - Exalted

Horde Expedition

- Darkspear Orb (OH) - Revered

Oracles

- Fishy Cinch - Revered

I plan on raising Kirin'tor rep first, then Wyrmrest or Ebon Blade, dependant on whether belt or boots drop in the mean time, and if either or both, which ever is higher will be raised first. Argent Crusade and Sons of Hodir can be ground through dailies, and if, by the time Ebon/Wyrmrest are Exalted, Argent isn't, I can just finish it off with the tabard and heroics.

Another, Massive thanks goes out to Aertimus, for his wonderful gear list (I used the Pre naxx gearlist of this)

More later!

Vralk,

Eats shoots and leaves....

Macro Mania

2009-10-21T08:58:00.009+01:00

Here is a fearful sight for many, but the thing is, alot of people couldn't live with out them.

Macros range from the Paladin's Righteous Defence Macro to cause it to act like a taunt, to a simple healer's mouseover, To much, much more.

First, I'll epxlain different functions (cast e.t.c.)

/cast --this casts the spell you put here (shift click a spell to put it in exactly)--

/focus --this 'focuses' on your target (you know, that rarely used focus box in your UI)--

/target --this targets whoever's name you put in here, be it a boss, life spark, or another player--

/say -- this will simply 'say' whatever you have to say--

/raid, rw -- types your text into raid chat (or raid warning)--

/party, guild, yell, whisper, 1, 2, 3... --types your text into the relevent channels--

That's all the most basic functions, and realistically, the only ones I use (bar one, which isnt a slash function)

Now, for conditions, as in 'only cast this spell if this is true' as in [target=dead] for instance, you wouldnt want to try and revive a living player, now, would you!

These functions always go in square brackets [ ] and always right after the function (cast, target e.t.c.)

[target=dead,nodead,harm,help,party,raid,] -- if the target is dead, alive, enemy, friendly, party or raid member, cast it.

[mod=alt,shift,ctrl] -- if you are pressing the correct button (alt, shift or control) then cast it. useful for multi spell macro's, this is potentially one of the more used macro conditions.

[combat,nocombat,swimming,noswimming,flyable,noflyable] -- if your character is under certain constraints, e.g. in combat or not, swimming or not, and able to fly or not. useful for a combat rez/resurection macro, or an aquatic form/travel form macro, or even a mount macro (select the flying one if you can, or if not, take a land mount)

Now, the target can be used in a different manner. It can be used to select your target instead of using it as a condition.

[target=player,focus,pet,targetlasttarget,targettarget] -- by puting this in, your spell, will target you, your focus, or your pet, your last target, or your target's target.

The only other part of every macro that I use is the '#showtooltip' function. This will cause your macro to show the tooltip of the spell it will cast when pressed. (This changes if you have alt/ctrl/shift mods in the macro)

Now, for some practical examples:

--Death Knight Macro's--

#showtooltip /raid [target=player,raid] %S just activated Unbreakable Armor, 20 seconds left! /party [target=player,noraid] %S just activated Unbreakable Armor, 20 seconds left! /cast Unbreakable Armor

This Macro will inform your raid (or party if you aren't in a raid) that you have just activated Unbreakable Armor, and that there are 20 seconds left on your buff.

#showtooltip
/y Army of the Dead used, watch for mob taunts!
/cast Army of the Dead

This Macro will shout to everyone that you have used Army of the Dead, and inform your tank/other party members, that there will be random taunts from the ghouls while they are alive.

Druid Macro's

I'm not going to bother listing all the /cast [target=mouseover] functions, as that takes a long time, and can basically be used for all of the spells we have (especially rejuv/wild growth when we are blanketing the party/raid).

Now, for a beastly revive macro :D

#showtooltip
/raid [target=help,dead,raid,nocombat] Reviving %T, better luck next time!
/raid [target=help,dead,raid,combat] Rebirthing %T, Battle res on 30min CD!
/party [target=help,dead,noraid,nocombat] Reviving %T, better luck next time!
/party [target=help,dead,noraid,combat] Rebirthing %T, Battle res on 30min CD!
/cast [nocombat,target=help,dead] Revive
/cast [combat,target=help,dead] Rebirth

WOW, thats alot of conditions! Basically a simply macro though! It will inform your raid or party (depending on which you are in) that you will use Revive or Rebirth, if you are targeting a friendly dead player, and then uses the spell that is appropriate for your situation! Useful hey?

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,target=nodead,party] Gift of the Wild
/cast [nomod,target=nodead,noparty,noraid] Mark of the Wild
/cast [mod:alt][target=help,nodead] Thorns

This is simple, if you are in a party (or raid, a raid is a colection of parties as far as WoW is concerned) it will cast Gift of the Wild, if you aren't pressing any mods. if you aren't in a party or raid, you will cast Mark of the Wild on your target, again, assuming the target is alive, and you aren't pressing any mods. If you are pressing the button ALT, you will cast Thorns onto your target if they are friendly, and not dead (which is always useful)

Hunter Macros

Again, I'm not going to list things like pet attack macro's, as they are far to many an numerous.

#showtooltip
/cast [target=harm] Hunter's Mark
/cast [pet=dead,nocombat] Revive Pet
/cast [pet=nodead,nocombat,nopet] Call Pet
/s [target=harm] Hunter's Mark cast on %T, Hit them while you can!

This is nice and easy to explain...

If the target is unfriendly, cast Hunter's Mark. if your pet is dead, and you are out of combat, cast Revive Pet (Beast Masters might want to change this because alot of your dps comes from your pet) If you are out of combat, and have a not dead pet, you will cast Call Pet.

If you are targeting someone nasty, you will tell everyone that Hunter's Mark is active on %T (which will type in the name of your target) and tell them to hit them before the Mark runs out :D

Thats all from me today!

Happy Macro Mania!

Vralk

PS, now level 75 :D

Healing time!

2009-10-19T15:45:00.003+01:00

My first northrend instance!! Earlier this week, I took my first healing instance in northrend! and my word did it feel good. Equipped only with a few PUGies who grabbed me at the last moment, and my one spirit trinket, I entered UK, even if I was level 74, I was in full mookin gear minus a trinket. I must say, I loved it I never knew healing with a druid could be so almost tranquil. My mana was never an issue, except for one hairy spot, I used a Crazed Alchemist's Potion for a mana boost, and it procced Wild Magic! Convenience? Thy name is RNG :D Simply rejuving the tank, and double tapping him with Lifebloom was enough to out do all but crits, and when they happened? the bloom sorted it! Nicely uprised with Wild Growth aswel! I expected it to be a tiny little HoT, just to hit the group when I wanted to hit something new. However, I found a spell, who would heal nicely in every situatoin! Although, our warlock rarely benifited from it, as she was slightly too far away for most of the time. Healing is deffinately more fun than Starfire/Wrath spammin, and I have decided now, that I definately want to heal at endgame. Happy Growing! Vralk

Alittle more about me.

2009-10-16T20:54:00.003+01:00

Alittle more about me. Started out with WoW when the begginning came. Started a hunter, and loved it! Leveled to 70, (took a long time, I never saw level 60 cap) and by then, everyone was about half way through BC. The most raiding I saw then, was half of kara. I remember getting to the opera event, and loving the big bad wolf, simply because I could keep most of my dps up while moving, which was more than almost everyone else cood. When wrath hit, I leveled my hunter, Hitting level 73 just, and deciding to roll a Death Knight (I know, gasp!) Mancow, now sits at level 80, with a naxx25 eady tank set, and an Uld10 ready dps set. Haven't managed to raid as much as I wanted with Mancow, but I have managed to see Flame leviathan, and the XT-002 as DPS, and the whole of Naxx25 as OT. Much fun, but when deciding to level another character, I decided I didn't want to relive the nightmare that is hunter leveling. I'm survival, and I don't plan on changing that any time soon. So, leveling is harder, but much more rewarding. So, instead, I continued on a lowly little druid toon, Vralk. Now leveled 74 (as in my previous post) I'm getting alittle quicker with flight form, and almost half the way to the gold for epic flying. Proffession wise, my hunter is sitting with 294 chanting, and really low mining. (I'm going to have to solve that some time soon). My DK, has maxed out tailoring (yes, I've gotten comments about my flying carpet, but its awesome, I'm not going to lie there) and also maxxed skinning(thinking of getting inscription, JC or some similar proff, given that skinning doesnt churn the revenue I need). My druid has maxed herbing and level 440 alchemy. Not doing badly overall, but not doing as much as I want in terms of money (although, transmutes for meta's are doing really well) Later, I might make a post about macro's (which I pride myself on :D ) and things like my UI, tactics, gearing/tips and tricks e.t.c. more bloggy stuff to come! Laters, Vralk

Welcome to the world

2009-10-16T18:12:00.000+01:00

Hi, I'm Vralk, a resto druid (or will be), and I'm new to blogging... Alittle about myself: I'm hoping to raid socially (if that's possible) once I hit level 80, and keep people alive! I'm currently questing through northrend, and trying to reach level 80 with a nice large SP base, and then, I'll start to do heroics and normals, to get some healing kit (guild runs with Mercykillers) so that I can go into naxx10 and hopfully heal! this would be along with ToC (free items inside) so that I can hopefully get nice and quickly into ulduar, and possibly even ToC10. Restricted with my internet time, i try and play when i can, advancing as much as possible. Not ever having played a druid before, i decided to roll one and stick with it. Rocketting into outlands as a cat, I hit there just after 3.2 hit, so I was rewarded on entry to outlands, with a new simba outfit! Then continued for a while as feral, getting some spell power, and a whole load of moonkin gear, I entered northrend for the first time, having completed all the quests in hellfire, all in zangramarsh, all in terokar, none in nagrand (I cant stand the place) and only a handful of quests in BEM. I went into borean tundra, and loved it. Having respecced to moonking, I was running around, hitting things for up to half their health with a crit! addored it. Now in dragonsblight, I'm leveling my alchemy along with now (gogo skill points) maxed out herbing! Really enjoying the instances, although, not doing much healing, as my spirit is awfully low at the moment. Will have to remedy that when I get to 80! and fairly quickly at that too! Thanks for reading, I'll post later with alittle more about myself. PS, I'm new to the blogging side of things (as I've already said) so, any tips and things you want to see would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Vralk