Epic Weekend

This was a GREAT weekend.  I’ll try and list this chronologically:

1) Friday night right after work we went to our Realtor’s office and filled out the paperwork to put an offer in on a house.  We got a call an hour later that they were out of town for the weekend.  GREAT, now I get to be a basket case all weekend.

2) Friday night I got my level 66 mage in 3 different runs and left with 7 new pieces of gear, and dinged 67.

3) Saturday went to Best Buy and cashed in some reward zone coupons to get the game Hellgate London.  This is a Badass game.

4) Spent all day Sunday playing Hellgate.  I now have a level 14 Marksman.  Hellgate London is kind of a FPS RPG.  It was made by the guys that made Diablo, and you can feel it.  The skills and play feels Diablo like, but the character I play makes it a FPS.

5) Monday at 4:30 we had someone tour the apartment.  We still have a year left on our lease, so this has been our major concern in this house shopping thing.  They LOVED the place and want it.  They have a flexible timeline for the move which makes it easy on us.

6) At 7:00 we got a call from our Realtor about the house.  They accepted the offer!!  So, we should close at the end of June.

7) The kitchen needs work, so we have been looking at supplies to re-do it.  At 7:45 we got a call back from a guy that had listed kitchen cabinets for sale on Caigslist.  We asked some questions.  He told us that he owns a kitchen Consignment shop, and currently has 9 different sets of kitchen cabinets for sale.  The ones we like were selling for $500 for all the cabinets we need.  Just as an FYI Very cheap cabinets from Lowes are $250-$300 PER cabinet. 
All together an Epic weekend. 

The computer retarded

I understand ignorance.  Ignorance means you don’t know something.  What I jump on is incompetence.  Incompetence means you are not ABLE to know something.

I work with customers and design custom products for them. 

Monday I got a phone call from a customer asking where his quote was.  I said that I have nothing from his area.  He told me that he sent it in last Monday.  I looked thru my e-mail from last Monday, and there was nothing.  I asked him what it was. He said “I’ll just re-send it.”  And slammed the phone down.

20 minutes later I get another call from him.  He asks if I have received it yet.  I said no.  He says “well, I got confirmation from you that you received it”.  That is strange, I did not accept any read receipts from anyone, and have not gotten anything from him.  I ask him to read me the confirmation. 

It was an automated message from our server saying that the file he sent was too large and specifically said “this message will not be delivered, and can not be recovered from the server”. 

He said “That means you got it, go get it from your computer people”. 

I explained that whatever he was sending me was too large, and that he had to reduce the file size.  He said “FINE” and slammed the phone down harder.

So, 30 minutes later I get a phone call form him asking if I have received anything.  I had not.  Just then he got another “too large” message and hung up on me again.

10 minutes later he called but I was on the line so he left a message saying “I’m mailing this to you since you e-mail is not capable of getting this.”

I come in this morning and find an overnight package.  According to the billing slip he paid almost $50 to get it delivered here first thing this morning.  I opened it and there was a CD inside. 

He took one of OUR product brochures, circled ONE item on ONE page and then proceeded to scan the entire 15 page brochure…in color…at over 1500 DPI. 

The CD contained 5 files.  The first was over 25 meg, it was the entire brochure, then the next 4 were the exact same images split into 4 different files.  Apparently, when the 1 large file would not go thru, he decided to split it up, but then attached all 4 images to the same e-mail message. 

The sad part is that it was OUR brochure to begin with, I have one on my desk.  He could have said “look on page 4, the thing on the top half of the page”.

The sadder part is that he scanned the entire brochure.  If he had only sent the one page it would have gone thru.

The saddest part, he paid $50 to send me a picture of something that not only do I have a hard copy of, but is readily available on our website.

The sad-er-est part, in the brochure there is a note “Visit our website for complete specs of all these products”…so there was no need for him contacting me at all.

I called him and asked him to open the brochure.  I pointed out the website comment.  He got online and found the spec in about 30 seconds on his own.  He hung up on me without a word.

(P.S. I didn’t have the heart to mention this in the story above.  The guy’s title “Technology Integration Designer”)

Update

Well, the house we put a bid on fell thru.  It was a forclosure that the state owns, and they changed the rules on bidding, so our bid was rejected.  Then they told us that we had to actually bid MORE than the asking price if we wanted the house because they were responsible for the closing costs, and they wanted to NET the actual asking price, effectively making me pay the closing costs. 

I very politely informed them of exactly which dark smelly orifice they could place the house in, and that if they were to do so, their head would probably appreciate the company.

So, we have been looking at other places.  We saw one on Saturday that looks very promising.  Last night we saw 4 more, none of which I would live in even if they gave me the house free and clear.  We may end up making an offer this week on the one we like.  The nice thing is that the financing on that one is pre-approved, so the process will be very fast, and in the end our house and utility payments will be about half of what we are paying now. 

AND…

I get to play MAN!  We made a trip thru Lowes so I could tool shop for everything that I would need to do the repairs around the place.

I’m looking at all Dewalt.  1/2 Corded drill, Circular Saw, and Chop saw.  The only Non-Dewalt was the Table saw, and that one was a Hitachi.  All in all we plan on dropping almost $2500 on tools so we can Start construction, and that does not include any actual building materials.  On the plus side, the house has a concrete basement, so I can work year round and not have to worry about putting the tools away every day, or rain / snow / theft.

If anyone lives in the lower half on Michigan, and has a truck, and wants to earn a weekend of Pizza and Beer….I know someone that is getting ready to move. 

Mistakes

I am human. I have made mistakes. I know this. I try my hardest not to, and I try to repair the damage once I realized I make a mistake.

A long time back I made some hurtful comments to someone when we had a disagreement. I’m a very calm and patient person, so I very rarely get angry. When I do get angry it is a strange place for me, and I was not able to control my words. After the disagreement I got rid of the thing that caused the fight in the first place.

Keep in mind, I didn’t kick a puppy or eat a baby or anything, I simply said some harsh words.

After some time went by realized what an ass of myself I had made, I made a public apology.

I know that an apology is not enough to make us best friends, but I assumed it but us at the very least back on terms where if we walk into the same room one of us will not burst into flames. A recent hello led me to assume that we have come to terms where we can at least acknowledge each others existence.

I know that you read this, even if it is under a pseudonym. I’m not asking for a big hug or anything, but deleting a comment that was not addressed to you, and was meant to help someone else…that is just…as verbose as I can be, I can’t come up with a word for that. I want a word that if I were to look it up in the thesaurus the synonyms would be: Sad, hurtful, unnecessary, childish, spiteful, cutting, and callous. I don’t know a word that means all that, but I wish I did so I could use it right now.

So, for the rest of you readers out there that are NOT this person, I guess the moral of the story is watch what you say. There is an old phrase that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. That phrase had to be thought up by the same people that came up with the cold war era defense against a nuke bomb attack, the “Duck and Cover” defense, because both ideas have a fatal flaw…they are wrong.

If I were to do an experiment, if I were to break someone’s leg and at the same time say something that was very hurtful. Weeks later they would be in physical pain, and in a cast. Months later the cast would be gone and the pain would be gone, but they would remember what I said. Decades later the words could still be in that persons head causing them pain.

I don’t know the meaning of life…I’m not even sure that there is one. I do know what I want to accomplish with mine. I have two goals: Have fun and make other people’s life better. Sometime I do things that are only in pursuit of one of the two of those goals, but I try not to neglect one for the other. I try to find things that I can do that are fun that will make other people’s life better. For example, I play WOW because it is fun. I run guildies thru low areas and help with quests because I get more fun out of helping them than I do just playing for myself. I write here because I like to write, and because I hope that some of the things I say can help someone else have more fun, or accomplish their goals.

When I say that I want to make other peoples life better I don’t mean building homes, or digging wells in Africa. There are other things, smaller things, that increase the Quality of someone’s life. For example, at the grocery store a few weeks ago I saw an older man with his arm in a sling struggling to push his cart to the car. I spend 1 minute helping him load his groceries in his car and his life is better. There is a family across the street with 4 kids. Judging by the quality of the toys in the yard they don’t have much money. I went to the store to get a birthday gift for my nephew and they had a sale going on. I bought a soccer ball for the kids across the street. I don’t know them, and had never said so much as hi to them, but that tiny thing made their lives just a tiny bit better.

My point is that I have tried to make the lives of those around me better, but with someone that was my friend I made their lives worse by using words that were hurtful.

I have good news and bad news.

The good news is my wife and I have put a bid in on our first house. Things are Crazy! We are getting 5 phone calls a day asking different things to try and make this all happen. If it all works out we could move in as soon as a month, we just have to find someone to take over our apartment.

The Bad news is not only that, but work is SUPER busy, so I have not had any time to write, much less play. So, for a little while the posts will be fewer and further between.

We did get to do Kara Sunday night. Being able to Decimate Kara now that most of us have two pieces of the new badge gear is great. However, when you go thru Morose, Opera, Curator, Illhoof, Shade, Chess, and Netherspite all in one night, it is kind of a letdown when the second night is only Attuman, Maiden, and Nightbane. We started at 8pm and were done by 9:45, and we were not hurrying.

SGA

SGA is a new term (to me). It stands for Small Guild Alliance.

The premise is that most small close knit guilds run thru heroics like they are not even there. A lot of small guilds are raiding / clearing Kara. Then, they hit a brick wall. The jump to ZA from Kara is a gear check, and even guilds that are farming Kara may not be able to make that leap without some better gear. The problem is that better gear comes from 25 man content, and small guilds just don’t have enough people.

Allong comes the concept of the SGA. There is a group of guilds that agree to be in this alliance. They retain their own autonomy, but are also part of the SGA. Being in the SGA has no requirements as far as you must run raids or anything like that.

Basically, picking up people from other SGA guilds is like an improved PUG. In a PUG there is no accountability. You can be a jerk, and there is nothing they can do to stop you. In the SGA there is some accountability. If you are a jerk, then your guild can be kicked from the SGA.

We have Kara on farm. We raid two nights a week. On the first night we kill Morose, Opera, Curator, Illhoof, Shade of Aran, Chess, and Prince. Night 2 are the two dragons Netherspite and Nightbane, and then back to Attuman, and Maiden for badges and shards (and sometimes to gear alts).

Three of our guild members live together. Last week they had to move. So, on our night 1 of Kara, we were 2 people short. We are new to the SGA on our server, so when we said we need 2 DPS for Kara it took a while to get people to come. That night we cleared all the way to prince with those two people. Because we have most of the gear we need, they got a LOT of gear. There was a mage that got 3 epics and their tier piece from Curator, and there was a rouge that got 3 epics. Neither had been past Opera, so they were blown away at how fast we moved thru the place. Neither had seen chain pulling. .

When word got into the SGA chat that the two people that came with is ended up with 7 epics total, we were popular all of a sudden.

So, night 2 came around Sunday. Interestingly enough we had NO trouble getting 2 DPS to come with us. We got the two dragons, Attuman and Maiden that night. The two DPS each got an epic.

Last night we went to Kara again. Our Boomkin was having connection issues and finally just disappeared. We went to the SGA channel and asked for help. We got our last DPS person, and had the best night in Kara yet. Killed Morose, Oz, Curator, Illhoof, Shade of Aran, chess, Prince, and Netherspite. We have gotten thru prince on the first night 4 times now, this is the first time we did that by skipping Illhoof, and this time we didn’t and we also got Netherspite.

So. If you are in a guild that does not have enough people for a 25 man, then look into joining / creating a SGA on your server. They are WAY worth it. We have been doing 3 times more heroics than we ever did because we now always have a reliable source for better players.

On a side note, I had an EPIC night last night. The Legacy axe FINALLY dropped off OZ. We have been doing Opera since August and this was the first drop. Then I got a leather belt and headpiece. The headpiece is a rouge one, but the stats were a serious upgrade, and the rouge had better. It is a hood. Wearing a hood with a big ass axe makes me look like an executioner. After gemming the axe, getting Savagery on the axe, and equipping all three I gained 78 RAP, and a tiny bit of Crit.

Glossary

There are a BILLION of Acronyms and phrases out there.  Decoding them can be confusing unless you have played since release.

Here are some of the common ones that I can think of.  A lot of these are hunter specific, the rest are just ones I use commonly.  If you come across one that is not on this list feel free to ask. 

(I tried to alphabetize this, but have flashes of illiteracy, so there are probably some things out of order.)

Add = extra mobs.  Sometimes adds mean something that accidentally gets pulled, most of the time it means that there is a group around a main mob.  The group is referred to as adds.

Aggro = Who the mob is targeting.  Supposed to be the tank, but can be anyone.

AGI = Agility.  The bread and butter for a hunter.  Increases RAP, Crit, and a few other things.

AH = Auction house. AKA money sucker.  Avoid at all costs, unless you are selling.

Aimed Shot = hunter shot gained via talent.  If you don’t know what this is…you are probably lost.  This heavily nerfed shot is 70% useless as the damage is not much higher than steady shot.  In a recent patch it got the buff making it like Mortal Strike, reducing healing against the target, giving it some PVP use. 

AOE = Area Of Effect.  Damage that hits everything within a circle.  Some multi target attacks are mis-labled AOE, such as Multishot.  This is the enemy of CC, and usually causes you to get aggro.

Arcane Shot = hunter shot.  Our instant attack that does decent damage, and it is arcane damage, not physical.  Despite what some hunters have geared to, it is NOT affected by +spell damage.  Handy against highly armored opponents, or on the move.  Higher mana cost than Steady shot means it can drift out of shot rotation when low on mana.

Aspect = think of it like a hunter Aura that normally only applies to them.  Hawk increases RAP.  Viper increases mana regen.  Monkey increases dodge.  Cheetah increases run speed.  Pack increases party run speed.  Wild increases party nature resistance.  I spend 90% of my time in Hawk, and only switch to viper at less than 50% mana on a boss fight.

BC = Burning Crusade.  If you don’t know what Burning Crusade is…you are probably not reading this.

BM = Beast Mastery.  One spec that hunters can choose if they like having high DPS and survivability.  BP = bucket full of win.  BM is “usually” the highest DPS in PVP and PVE.  The play style is different than the other specs.  Properly geared and in the right situation both Mark and Survival can out DPS a BM hunter.  However, with low class gear, and less that 100% perfect gameplay, BM usually will pump out more DPS and is much more forgiving.  BM is the best Solo play and leveling spec hands down (speaking as someone that leveled Mark). 

Buff = Something that increases a characters power / abilities.  Debuff is the opposite. 

BW = Beastial Wrath, aka “Going big and red”.  Hunter talent ability from beast spec.  Makes our pet immune to fear and other CC affects, and increases their damage by 50%.  Always found in conjunction with another talent (the beast within) that when BW is used the hunter is also immune to fear / CC, and mana cost is cut in half.  This is the hunter iWin button in PVP.  If you see a big red hunter try to run and hide.  You may also want to administer your last rights. 

CC = Crowd Control.  I never understood the Crowd part, but basically anything that incapacitates a mob is called CC.  Polymorph, Ice Trap, Sap, Sleep, Banish, etc.  Breaking CC is punishable by death, dismemberment, or worse…deletion of your epics.

Conc Shot = concussive shot, hunter shot that slows targets movement speed for a couple seconds. 

Crit = A crit hit is a hit that does 150% damage of a normal hit.  Many things modify that percentage.  Hunters gain crit from Agility, or stats that directly increase Crit Rating.

DE = Disenchant.  Break apart a green level item or better into enchanting mats.  Very common to do to loot that drops off bosses that no one can use. 

Ding! = In EQ there was a little ding noise that sounded when you gained a level.  In WOW the noise is a swirly swishing sound.  Since that is harder to spell, Ding took precedence. 

DKP = Dragon / Dungeon kill points.  A system of distributing loot to the people that have been there the most, and have not received the most gear.  AKA one of the largest headaches in running a raid.

DOT = Damage Over Time.  One time cast that does damage spread out over time.  Primarily the work of Warlocks.  Serpent sting, bleed, and some rouge poisons are also DOT’s.

DPS = Damage Per Second.  The more the better.

Epic = In general terms it means very very very good.  In game terms it means desired, and expensive to repair. 

Expose Weakness = debuff from talent…in survival tree.  Reduces targets armor.  Very nice debuff, I have only seen it a few times.  When used in conjunction with Sunder Armor debuff it turns bosses into cloth wearing sissypants. 

FD = Feign Death, hunter ability.  Basically Play Dead.  The hunter is forgiven of all threat by all mobs.  This is the Hunters “iWin” button in PVE.  It allows us to go all out on damage then feign and continue going all out without having to worry about threat.  

FI = Ferocious Inspiration.  Buff.  When your pet scores a crit, everyone in the party gets a 3% damage buff.  Applies to all sources of damage. 

Growl = Pet ability, attack that generates a lot of threat. Similar to a warriors Sunder, but without the armor reduction.

HOT = Heal Over Time.  The healing version of a DOT.  Our new mend pet is a HOT.  Druids are the king of this heal.

Huntard = A team of endearment used to describe those hunters that play in a style that make the rest of us look REALLY good.  Used in a sentence “After playing with a huntard, our Main tank loved playing with me, as I never broke CC”

Hunters Mark = Debuff, cast on mob.  Increases Ranged attack power against that mob.  With talents the debuff also applies to melee attacks. 

IAOTH = Improved Aspect of the Hawk, hunter talent.  When aspect of the hawk is active it gives a chance to proc an increase in attack speed. 

Instance = a map that you can play in that is specific to your group.  For example, if you go into Dire Maul.  The area in the courtyard is open to anyone, and you can see people from both factions there.  Once you walk thru the instance gate you are entering your groups own private copy of the content for that area.  Many instances are listed below.

INT = Intellect.  Driving factor for your mana pool, and somewhat your mana regen. 

Intimidation = BM spec hunter pet ability.  It stuns the target for a few seconds and causes high aggro.  In PVP this is how we stop someone from charging / break casting.  In PVP it can stop casting also. 

Leet Speak = that random jumble of characters that resemble words, but only to a handful of people.  To other people it looks like a cat walked across your keyboard, or as if you are having some sort of aneurism. 

LFG = Looking for Group.  This means you are one person and want to join a group, or form one.

LFM =  Looking for More. This means you have a group and want to fill it.  It is nice to put what you need i.e. “LFM Shattered Halls, need tank & 2 DPS”.  The more literate you sound the better the response.  ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS tell what instance it is for, or what quest. 

Mark = In a group, the group leader can assign icons to float over the heads of monsters or players.  There are about a billion uses for this. It makes communication and finding mobs in a group easier.

Marksman = Hunter spec type.  Prior to 2.0 this was the most popular type of hunter.  Now Mark hunters choose mark either because they want the burst damage, silence, and scatter shot that Mark offers…or because they are old players that are unwilling to learn how to play a new spec.  I was in that category.  I leveled from 1-70 as mark…then discovered the glory that is BM spec. 

Misdirect = hunter spell.  Cast on party / raid member.  Aggro from your next three damaging hits is given to the target you cast Misdirection on.  So, cast misdirection on tank then shoot three hard hits and give the tank some starting aggro.  Misdirect to your pet while running to give you a clean getaway (aka use pet as meatshield).

Mob = Monster.  Whatever you are fighting against. 

MP5 = Mana Per 5.  This is mana that regenerates every 5 seconds in or out of combat.  While marginally useful, you are often better served by having more INT.  You will get some MP5 on gear simply blizzard seems to think that hunters like to wear Shammen gear.

Multishot = hunter shot that hits three targets.  AKA sheep breaker.  A recent patch was supposed to make it so Multishot would not target CC’ed targets.  That patch failed. 

NPC = Non Player Character.  Computer controlled monster.  This is what you probably spend 99% of your time fighting, even on PVP servers.

OT = Off Tank.  Not the main tank, but one that handles ads.  OT can be another character that could be the MT, or a MT in training, or a DPS character that can take hits (i.e. DPS warrior, Feral druid that can switch to bear form, hunter pet, or rouge that can Evasion tank. 

Own = To completely dominate.  Think attack helicopter vs. paper airplane.  See WTFPWN.

Pot = Potion.  When someone says “they potted” it usually means they took a mana or healing potion.

POM = Presence of Mind.  Mage spell.  It lets the player cast most spells as an instant; usually used in conjunction with a very high damage attack.  i.e. a mage will cast Pyroblast (6 second cast and HIGH damage) then POM and Pyroblast again.  Two giant fireballs launch within a second of each other.  See WTFPWN.

Proc = an effect that can happens.  Some procs happen when a particular thing happens (i.e. adds a debuff whenever you crit).  Most procs are passed on a percentage (i.e. gives 5% chance to stun target).  Some do not mention a percentage, and are based on the weapon speed to achieve a PPM or Proc per minute.  Attack / cast speed increases are the only way to make these proc more.

PUG = Pick Up Group.  If you are saying LFG / LFM into a chat other than guild chat, then it is a PUG.  PUG is actually a Latin term that means “bad run with many wipes”.

PVE = Player vs. Environment.  You against NPC’s.  Combat against NPC mobs can be easier because it is all a matter of learning the strategy and exploiting their weakness. 

PVP = Player vs. Player.  You against other actual people.    Arguably both the easiest and hardest thing to succeed at.  Hard because other people can adapt unlike mobs.  Easy because the average person has the IQ of a murlock, so out thinking them is pretty easy.  The hard part is you don’t know if they are good until it is too late. 

Pull = Getting a mob to engage in combat, either intentionally or accidentally.

PWN = Leet speak for Own.  See Own.

Raid = A group of more than 5 and less than 40 (aka raid group). Can also mean an attack on an opposing factions city (i.e. let’s go raid the crossroads…again). Raids are considered the pinnacle of PVE content. 

RAP = Ranged Attack Power.  This is the base amount that determines most of how much damage a hunter does.  RAP is usually the most sought after stat for a hunter.  Survival hunters stack AGI to attain more RAP, other hunters stack RAP directly.  

Rapid Fire = hunter spell.  Increases attack power by a large percentage. 

RL = Real Life.  If you are laughing right now, you probably don’t have much of a RL. 

Scatter shot = hunter shot attained thru talent.  Is a short duration CC that makes the target wander around like a drunk looking for a bathroom for a few seconds.

Serpent Sting = hunter shot, DOT attack.  Deals little damage, but is useful to keep rouges from stealthing. NOT affected by +Spell damage.

Serpent swiftness = hunter talent.  Increases attack speed by 20%.  This is one of the single largest reasons to take MB spec. 

Sheep = Polymorph.  Mage CC spell.  Applies to the pig form also.

Spirit = a stat that increases health and mana regen when out of combat.  For hunters this is 99% useless.  If you are depending on Spirit to regen mana you are in trouble.

Steady Shot = hunter shot.  This is the bread and butter of hunter DPS.  Heck, this is the bread, butter, butter knife, plate, dishwasher, and table of hunter DPS.  When in doubt of which shot to hit, you should probably be hitting steady shot. 

STR = Strength.  If you see a hunter with strength…it is usually a bad sign.  If they have it intentionally, ask them to press ALT + F4

Survival = A hunter spec type.  Survival is the rarest selection because their DPS is considered gimped.  If mated up with the proper group they can increase the groups DPS more than they could by re-speccing.  Survival is known because they are a bitch to kill.  They control the battlefield much more than other hunters.

Threat = Things you can to go get a mob to aggro you.  Damage, healing, and many abilities generate threat.  Generally, the one with the most threat has aggro. 

TSA = True Shot Aura, hunter talent from Mark tree.  Increases attack power of everyone in the party.  Only a buff for melee and other hunters, as casters do not use Attack Power. 

Viper Sting = hunter shot, drains mana from the target.  Not a HUGE mana drain, but enough that in PVP it can make a difference. 

Volley = The one true hunter AOE attack.  Volley has the highest mana cost per DPS and the lowest DPS of any AOE in the game….and it has a long cooldown.  Volley is Blizzards attempt at a joke.  It is as if they are saying “here is your AOE…..PSYCH”  (if you didn’t laugh at that, ask your parents what saying Psych after a sentence means…and stop reading my blog….you are not old enough.)

WOW = World of Warcraft.  AKA “World of Warcrack”.  AKA “I stare at a screen for 6 hours and am happy when I get to virtually pick a plant”

WTB = Want to Buy.  Usually spammed in Trade chat by someone too lazy to look in the AH.

WTS = Want to Sell.  Usually spammed in the Trade chat by someone that wants to gouge people.  The only exception is people trying to legitimately make money from enchanting.  There are precisely 4 people per server that use this phrase for that reason. 

WTFPWN = “What The Feck, I got owned” or “What The Feck, I owned someone”.  When someone gets the jump on someone and decimates them.  See POM. 

Wyvern Sting = hunter shot from talent…in the survival tree.  A sting that CC’s the target for a short period of time, then applies a DOT.  There are only about 11 Survival hunters worldwide, not much is known about Wyrven sting.  This is partially due to Survival hunters disguising as other specs via using Aimed shot, or sending their pet to attack then autoshotting.

 

Instances:
I’ll try and list these in the order that an alliance toon would hit them by the most common abbreviation, then the lesser common ones.

VC = Deadmines.  Named VC for the boss Van Cleef.  Not named DM because that is used for a different instance.
Stock = Stockaides, instance inside Stormwind. 
Gnomer = Gnomerang.  i.e. the most confusing instance in the world. 
Uld = Uldman…aka the one with the tall girl.
SM = Scarlet Monastery.  First multi-wing instance, AND home to the lowest purple in the game.
Mara = Mauradon, aka the one with the fat pig.  Not a very popular instance, as it is one of the hardest instance for the level requirements…and it is in the middle of nowhere.
DM = Dire Maul.  Great instance with many wings that are complete instances all to them selves. 
BRD = Black Rock Depths.  If you plan on seeing Onyxia, get to love this place. 
BRS = Black Rock Spire.  Divided into two wings, UBRS and LBRS for Upper and Lower.
Ony = Onyxia.  Big badass dragon that dropped most peoples first purple.  (STAY OUT OF THE WHELPS)
MC = Molten Core.  A 40 man raid that is collecting dust.
BWL = Black Wing Lair, harder than MC, most guilds never beat this instance.
Naxx = I’m not even going to try and spell this one.  Not many guilds made it into this instance, as it was a HUGE gear check for the 40 people taken to beat it.

BC instances: (keep in mind, I soloed all the way to 70, so a lot of these I have very limited experience in, but here are my favorites.

Hellfire Citadel: in the middle of Hellfire Peninsula.  Contains 3 instances.
Ramps = Ramparts.  The first post 60 instance.  Pretty cut and dry.
BF = Blood Furnace.  The other wing you hit about Level 60.
SH = Shattered Halls.  The level 70 instance in Hellfire Citadel.  Not bad, heroic is Hell.

Tempest Keep: up in Netherstorm, requires a flying mount to access (i.e. must be 70)
BOT = Botanica.  With a pally tank this place is a cakewalk.  It was my first Heroic, and I did not know it was Heroic until half way thru it.
ARC = Arcatraz.  Not one of my favorites.
Mech = Mechanar.  I’ve had good and bad experences.  Overall not too bad.

Coilfang Reservoir: In the middle of the lake in Zangamarsh.  There are three instances.
UB = Underbog.  The only one out of the three I like.
SP = Slave Pens.  Not horrible on regular.  One of the worst Heroics I have done. 
SV = Steamvault.

Caverns of Time (COT): instance in Tanarris that ports you back to the past.  Two instances.
Old Hilsbrad = go back to southshore a long time ago and fight alongside Thrall. 
BM = Black Morras.  Fighting dragons in a timed event.  I really enjoy this one.  It is a dance of coordination. 

Auchindoun: big area in the middle of Terrokar Bone Wastes.  Contains 4 instances:
MT = Mana Tombs
Crypts = Auchenai Crypts
Setth = Sethekk Halls. Required for Druid epic flight form.  The summoned boss fight is funny to watch.  This place is no joke on Heroic.
SL = Shadow Labs.  Murmur drops some good hunter gear.  Get to like this place.

Kara = Karazhan.  The first 10 man instance.  Requires coordination, and knowledge of the instance.  Wowwiki can give enough about the boss fights that you should be able to do it after a few tries.  There are many funny little things you will see and hear in here.  The instance contains 10 boss fights, one of which there are three different bosses that could spawn, and you do not know which until the fight starts. 

Go to Wowwiki and search for “instance”.  You will get a complete breakdown and geographical location of each.  That is a great resource for that info, I am not.  Once you get there, bookmark that page.  If you are going to an instance, read the page.  I STILL read the Kara pages even though we have been raiding there since August.  There are good tips and strategies that do not make sense the first time you are in there, but once you know the fights, the tips make them easier (i.e. poisons still affect Morose when he vanish led me to snake trapping him.)

If you have more to add, or things you are questioning, let me know and I will see what I can do.

Bob the goat: the WOW Financial Planner

I have gotten 2 e-mails after my “how to make money post” saying that they want epic flying, but just can’t seem to save for it.  The problem that both people had is that they see the money, then hit the AH for that new Gem, or blue, or to level some craft, and then the money for their mount is gone. 

The solution: Tax yourself.

Set up an alt that you don’t play somewhere near a mailbox.  Send them money to save.  Out of sight, out of mind.

I gave the same advice to some in my guild.  They would get up to 2-3K gold, then blow it on something sparklie at the AH and have to start from scratch.  Here is the “tax” structure I gave them.

1) First, Never Ever have more than 500G on you.  If you have more than 500G immediately send money to the savings toon.  Do not wait until the end of your play day to do this.  This is separate from all other money to be sent to the savings. 

2) Every single day at the end of your play day send a percentage of your gold to savings.  A good rule of thumb is 10% per 100G whenever you are ready to log out.  i.e. if you have 110G send 11G.  If you have 230G send 46G.  If you have 310G send 93G

3) Every single thing you buy from the AH, send a duplicate amount of gold to savings.  Drop 50G on a flask, drop another 50G to savings. 

Obviously this is a very harsh savings plan, so if you need to tap that account to flask or repair for a raid, then you are free to do so, but it makes it more difficult, increasing the likelihood that you will save.

 

So, here is a timeline for spending:
-Get to 60.  After 60 start doing the tax yourself thing.

-Get to 70.  If you have not touched your “tax” money, then you should not only have enough for flying, but a good bundle of money for gear.

-Buy yourself the best gear that makes sense.  Do not spend more than 10G for a green.  Period.  No more than 20G for a blue.  Period.  Do not buy a purple unless it is less than 30G…AND a huge upgrade.  If you are starting Kara / Heroics, then look at the gear you can get.  If you are likely to replace it soon, then do not buy the purple at all.  There is no rule that says you have to buy new gear within hours of getting to 70.  Take your time, and shop the AH.  Things that are expensive are likely to get cheaper soon.  There are a TON of level 70 greens out there.  Don’t settle, only buy the one that is perfect, and the one that is a good price.

-Continue taxing yourself.

-Start doing the dailies.  The skettis ones, cooking, and the SSO ones are all available.  Do the quests in Shadowmoon to unlock the Netherwing dailies.  They are not only good gold, but you get a freakin DRAGON to ride.  The coolest looking and sounding mount in the game (and take this from a mount collector). 

-If you keep to that taxing you will have your epic in no time. 

I can say this with certainty because I hit 70 THREE months after our Pally tank.  He had thousands of gold coming into BC…I had dozens.  I never put the work into getting a group to unlock the Netherwing dailies, so the only daily I had was the Skettis two, then later the cooking one.  I would spend an hour or two a day gathering herbs, skinning, or grinding humanoids for cloth to sell.  It took over 3 months of effort to get the 5000G for my Epic flying.  A month later the pally was doing the blades edge daily and STILL did not have Epic flying. 

A total of four people in our guild had no epic flying, and they were all doing the Blades edge dailies (which I was not).  I came up with this taxing idea.  All three started doing it to different degrees.  Two guys just did rules 1 & 2, without the AH matching, and they got their epic in 6 weeks.  The third guy did all three, and had his in under 4 weeks.  The fourth guy came up with his own rule: Send the savings alt 150G per day, whether you play or not.  He stuck to it, and 34 days later he had his epic flying.