World of Warcraft Guides

Mount Guide:Mechanostriders

2007-07-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

Race: Gnome
Available to: Gnome (no reputation requirement)
Dwarf (requires exalted reputation with Gnomeregan Exiles)
Purchase Location: Steelgrill's Depot, Dun Morogh
Riding Skill Cost: 90g (Apprentice) / 600g (Journeyman)

40 Mounts
Requirements: Level 40, Apprentice Riding Skill (75)
Speed Increase: 60% speed increase
Cost: 10g

60 Mounts
Requirements: Level 60, Journeyman Riding Skill (150)
Speed Increase: 100% speed increase
Cost: 100g

Mount Guide: Horses

2007-07-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

Race: Human
Available to: Human (no reputation requirement)
Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome, Draenei (requires exalted reputation with Stormwind)
Purchase Location: Eastvale Logging Camp, Elwynn Forest
Menethil Harbor, Wetlands
Southshore, Hillsbrad Foothills
Riding Skill Cost: 90g (Apprentice) / 600g (Journeyman)

40 Mounts
Requirements: Level 40, Apprentice Riding Skill (75)
Speed Increase: 60% speed increase
Cost: 10g

60 Mounts
Requirements: Level 60, Journeyman Riding Skill (150)
Speed Increase: 100% speed increase
Cost: 100g

Mount Guide: Elekks

2007-07-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

Race: Draenei
Available to: Draenei (no reputation requirement)
Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome (requires exalted reputation with Exodar)
Purchase Location: The Exodar
Riding Skill Cost: 90g (Apprentice) / 600g (Journeyman)

40 Mounts
Requirements: Level 40, Apprentice Riding Skill (75)
Speed Increase: 60% speed increase
Cost: 10g

60 Mounts
Requirements: Level 60, Journeyman Riding Skill (150)
Speed Increase: 100% speed increase
Cost: 100g

Bank Guide

2007-07-18T20:07:00.000-07:00

very Hero needs a place to hide his or her treasures! Visit a bank in World of Warcraft to store items for later use. You can store quest items, weapons, armor, trade-skill components, products for later sale, and more! The six major cities each have a full-service bank for your use, and additional banks can be found at a few special locations around the world. Most minor towns and outposts don't have banks.

Finding Banks
It might be challenging to find the banks, but ask people to help you find them. Banks usually have a sign posted just outside for easy identification. This sign depicts a stack of coins. Inside the banks are bankers, who have the tag under their names.

Tips

Store Quest Items in the bank when you move to a new region. You can go back to the bank and pick them up when you return to the previous region.

Put trade skill components you have collected in the bank to save them for your friends.

Need More Space?
You can also buy extra storage space at each bank, which provides you with slots for storing additional bags of items. The larger the bag that you put in each bag slot, the more space you'll have! For example, you might start with a 6-slot bag in one of your bag slots, but later on you might find a 10-slot bag to put there, which would essentially give you four more bank slots. The price for additional bag slots goes up with each new slot, and the final slots are more expensive! Read more about banks and bags here.

Banking Highlights:
Your bank storage space is protected so that only you have access to it. This space cannot be shared with other players. Each character on your account has its own unique bank space, which cannot be shared with your other characters.
You do not store money at the bank; instead, you carry it along with you everywhere you go. Money has no weight and does not take up any inventory slots, so no matter how much you're carrying, it will never have a negative effect on your character.

Horde players can use any Horde bank, and Alliance players can use any Alliance bank, but these factions cannot use each others banks.
Thanks to an advanced network of secure automated teleportation modules (ATMs) the items deposited in your bank space at any bank will automatically be available for withdrawal from any of the other banks that you have access to. While the bank transfer screen is up, your items cannot be accidentally dropped on the ground. Expect nothing but smooth and speedy service with a smile (or snarl, for Horde players) at the National Banks of Azeroth.

Socketed Items Guide

2007-07-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

A socketed item is like any other item in World of Warcraft, except that it can be upgraded by attaching magical gemstones into the item itself. This imbues the item with additional powers similar to an enchantment. The number of sockets and the types of gems used within the item allow for a wide variety of customizations based upon how you wish to improve your character.

How do I place a gem into a socketed item?
If an item has sockets, shift-right-click on it to bring up the item's socketing window. Here, you can simply drag and drop gems from your inventory to the sockets. Once you are satisfied with your selections, click the "Socket Gems" button at the bottom of the window. Be aware that socketing is permanent - the gems are permanently affixed to your socketed item and there is no way to undo your decision.

What can you put into a socketed item?
There are three primary colors of gems that can be placed into a socketed item: red, blue, and yellow. In addition, there are "secondary colored" gems - orange, purple, and green - that match two colors. Players can place any color gem into a socket; however, matching all of an item's sockets with their corresponding colored gems can award additional bonuses. These dormant bonuses appear in grey text below the sockets. There is also a special type of gem called a meta gem, which fits specifically into a meta gem socket.

Can I put a different gem into a socket that already has a gem in it?
Yes. However, any gems that were already socketed will be destroyed in the process - think of it as "overwriting" the old gem with the new one.

Do I have to fill all the sockets in an item at once?
No. You can fill one socket at a time until you find the right gems for other slots, or fill them all at once.

How do I gain a socket bonus?
As stated above, socketed items have dormant bonuses which appear in grey text below the sockets. This bonus will become active when certain criteria are met - usually when all an item's sockets are filled with gems that match the colors of the sockets. If an item has a red socket and two blue sockets, placing a red and two blue gems into the corresponding colored sockets will activate the socket bonus. The socket bonus stacks on top of the stat bonuses the three gems would normally provide.

Note: If a gem matches the socket it is being placed into, the socket will begin to sparkle.

Do I have to use only gems of a certain color in a socket?
No. You can place a red gem in a yellow socket, or a blue gem in a red socket. The only downside to not matching the colors with the sockets and the gems is not receiving the item's socket bonus.

Again, it's important to note that you can put any color gem in any socket (except meta gems / meta sockets). Thus, you may decide you would rather take the benefits from individual gems that don't match instead of going for the socket bonus. In that case it would be better to ignore the suggested gems and pick the ones you want to use instead. In this way, you can tailor an item to your needs. You can take an item that you might not otherwise use and make it suit your needs by picking your own gems.

What are meta sockets and meta gems?
Meta sockets and gems are rare and provide powerful bonuses. Meta sockets will only accept meta gems, and meta gems can only be used in meta sockets. Meta gems can have their own special requirements unique to each meta gem. If these particular requirements are not met, the gem will not work and remain greyed out.

Meta gems have their own requirements before they will activate. If a gem requires a specific number of other gems, it counts this based on all other gems currently socketed in equipped items on the character. Secondary colored gems will count towards both colors they are eligible for.

Can I put a different gem into a meta socket that is already filled?
Yes, but like all gems, doing so will destroy the one already present in the socket.

Can I use meta gems in a normal socket?
No. Meta gems can only be used in a meta socket.

Future Updates

2007-06-29T21:39:00.001-07:00

Mount Guides
MORE macros
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Maps

Warlock Builds Guide

2007-06-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

Affliction

The DoTs Curse of Agony and Corruption are some of the most mana-effective spells available for the Warlock. That is, the amount of damage per mana is higher compared to Direct Damage spells like Shadow Bolt. The Affliction talent tree can improve on these even more.

There are problems using DoTs in parties and raids. There is a risk that the mob is killed before the completion of a DoT. This is especially bad for Curse of Agony, that causes more of its damage near the end of its duration. If this happens, then mana and time will be wasted.

Level 70 Builds
Unstable Affliction/Shadowburn 45/5/11

This build goes to the end of the affliction tree to get another DoT (Unstable Affliction) which does a large amount of instant damage if dispelled and silences the dispeller. It also has 11 points in Destruction to get Shadowburn and 5 points in Demonology for Demonic Embrace.

Notes:

* 2 points in Suppression gives a 99% chance of hitting an equal level character, which is the most possible. Points from Shadow Embrace or Empowered Corruption may be moved here if combating higher level mobs/players.
* 1 point in Shadow Embrace improves Soul Siphon bonus draining.
* Improved Howl of Terror, Contagion, and Unstable Affliction at the end of the tree make this build much more suitable for PvP.
* Shadowburn and a faster Shadow Bolt give the build an extra punch.

Contagion/Demonic Sacrifice (SM/DS with Contagion) 40/21/0

This build mainly leaves out Unstable Affliction to get Demonic Sacrifice. It combines heavy DoT damage with the main benefits from the Demonology tree, including DS, which offers a lot of flexibility. In general, sacrificing the Succubus for extra damage or the Voidwalker for extra health regeneration is preferred.

The greatest downside of this build is the loss of the minion and consequently one of the most versatile spells--Dark Pact. Furthermore, Unstable Affliction cannot be reached.

The Following are potential evolutions of the old SM/Ruin specs
Dark Pact/Ruin (SM/Ruin with DP) 40/0/21

This first one continues on the Affliction Tree.

Dark Pact/Emberstorm (Natural Evolution of SM/Ruin) 31/0/30

This second one picks up DP for the infinite mana Affliction locks know and love, but moves to Emberstorm as well. Here you will get +10% to both Shadow and Fire spells, which means that the Immolate/Incinerate spam can be changed out for the Corruption/Shadow Bolt spam.

Level 60 Builds

Note: The following builds are designed for level 60 characters and do not take into account talents introduced in 2.0.1.

DP / Shadowburn (35/5/11)

This build dabbles in all three talent trees. It's geared toward low end initial damage, with high yield after a few seconds (giving you the ability to open up with DOTs immediately with any decent tank in the group). 5 points are spent in the Demonology tree for group support purposes(Improved Healthstone, and Improved Imp), and 11 points in Destruction to obtain Shadowburn. This build works great for PvP, PvE, Grinding, and Farming. The sustained "rolling" damage, and shortened cast time of shadow bolt (and the frequent instant cast ability granted by the shadow trance, which is triggered often due to the extreme use of Improved Corruption, and Drain Life) make for a high damage output over the course of any group fight. Coupled with the ability to "Drain Tank" if you should pull aggro from a mob. The aim of this spec is to lay up to 4 DOTs on ALL targets, and move back to drain the life of the MT's target, releasing an instant cast Shadow Bolt every time your Nightfall procs (all targets are now being damaged by you, while also healing you) and finish them all with your Shadowburn. Due to the incredibly high, seemingly uncontrollable constant damage output of this spec, its very difficult to survive in an instance at maximum damage output without a Paladin's Blessing of Salvation and a VERY able bodied Tank. Also, the high level of mana consumed by this build may cause the need to actually use Dark Pact in combat, in conjunction with Life Tap and actually drink between fights (when fighting multiple opponents). Without a doubt, the most fun 51 point build for a Warlock. Everyone will tell you that you are crazy, until they see what you can do. (This is a seemingly, previously unreleased build which has remained my absolute favorite since the day i hit 60, and could create it)

Dark Pact (31/--/--)

This build is perhaps one of the best known builds to grind (killing monsters in rapid succession to get exp) with. It utilizes Improved Corruption, Siphon Life, and Drain Life (along with Fel Concentration) to "Drain Tank" (using Drain Life and Fel Concentration together to be able to take hits, deal damage, and heal at the same time) to kill. Many say that Siphon Life is not worth using unless the full duration is used up, but it can also be used to deal damage as fast as possible. With all the abilities to gain life, Improved Life Tap becomes a crucial component to this build because the warlock can Life Tap to convert HP to mana and then drain some more. This build will usually drain more HP than it will lose which is why Life Tap is used. Dark Pact is used in between fights. It is ideal to use an Imp because it has the largest mana pool of all the pets and also have the highest spirit and, therefore, the highest mana regeneration rate. For this reason it is colloquially referred to as the "mana battery." The Imp will remain Phase Shifted to minimize the chances of it getting killed and to conserve mana for Dark Pact.
SM / Ruin (30/0/21)

This talent spec focuses on Affliction/Destruction, utilizing two main talents: Shadow Mastery and Ruin. Shadow Mastery is the second-to-last talent on the Affliction tree, and increases all shadow damage done by 10% (when maxed out). Ruin is near the end of the Destruction tree, and increases the critical strike bonus of Destruction spells by 100% instead of 50%. This allows your damage over time spells and your Shadow Bolts to be as powerful as they can be, which are your main sources of damage in high level instances. This is an average spec for PvP combat, as you can damage your opponents with damage over time and Shadow Bolt. Notice again that this build is oriented on DPS. You have to decide whether you want high damage output of this build or more survivability from a Soul Link build.

SM / Ruin (PvP) (30/0/21)

This spec is similar to the above SM/Ruin spec but is more focused on getting the most out of your DOTs. This is better geared toward PvP play than raiding due to the 16 debuff cap that will normally be filled by the rest of your raid. In this spec, Improved Curse of Agony is favoured over Curse of Exhaustion, to deal the most damage possible (since the CoA may not stay on the target long enough to deal its final deadly damage). Amplify Curse is also sacrificed in favour of filling Suppression with 5 points.

SM / DS (30/21/0)

This talent uses only Affliction and Demonology. It's two key talents are Shadow Mastery and Demonic Sacrifice. Shadow Mastery is the second-to-last talent on the affliction tree and it increases shadow damage by 10% when five points are put into it. Demonic Sacrifice is 21 points into the Demonology tree and allows you to sacrifice your pet for a powerful buff. This talent build is not very strong in PvP. However, it is generally accepted to be second to none when it comes to farming efficiency. It also can be very powerful in raids if your fellow raiders do not mind you sacrificing your pet. The strategy for farming with this build is to sacrifice your Voidwalker for health regen and then apply DoTs to several targets. For PvP this build is not very effective as it lacks the necessary burst damage. Either sacrifice your voidwalker or succubus for either health regeneration or higher spell damage and then proceed to unload all your damaging DoTs onto the target and try to keep him feared. This same strategy is used for farming high level elites. This build's strength is farming and while it is decent in instances it is fairly bad in PvP.
Demonology
Level 70 Builds

The Demonology talent tree and the use of summoned demons are what mainly distinguishes a Warlock from a Mage.

Demonic Tactics / Ruin (MD/Ruin with DT) (0/40/21)

The ideas behind this talent specification is:

* The Demonology talents gives a lot of +dmg, especially with a summoned pet. It is not unknown to use an Imp on passive which will lessen threat, but a Succubus will add additional 10% damage instead (matching Shadow Mastery in the Affliction tree), as well as acting like a DoT.
* Demonic sacrifice can be used for cases where there is no use of a pet (especially some boss fights and fights with AoE problems).
* Soul Link is as always nice to have in PvP, but also because of the additional 5% +dmg.
* The main damage in this build is based on only doing CoA (in case the mob lives long enough), and then spamming Shadow Bolts. This will take good advantage of the improvements in the Destruction tree.
* While +crit is of less interest for affliction builds, this build will benefit highly from it.
* An alternative build is to spend 5 points on improving the Succubus (Improved Succubus and Improved Lash of Pain) instead of 5% increased crit chance (Demonic Tactics). While this will lessen the Shadowbolts a little, it will allow for a more deadly Succubus with improved seduction. Can be quite useful in many instances.

Felguards "R" US (--/41+/--)

Talent Calculator Build

Some points of interest with this basic talent specification:

* It may be a good idea to set 2 talent points on Improved Health Funnel instead of Improved Healthstone. Especially for solo grinding where you will Health Funnel a lot, but only use the Healthstone sometimes.

Voidwalker/Felguard Perpetual Mana Machine (20/41/0)

Phase One: Voidwalker Final Build: Felguard

These builds are for demonology/affliction based PvE leveling and soloing. The combination of a buffed pet and Improved Drain Soul greatly reduces the chance to pull aggro from your minion. Drain Life becomes viable for damage and health/mana regen at lvl 30, and using your minion as a strong tank leaves plenty of life left to tap. Lay down DoTs, Drain Life or Shadow Bolt spam (mana efficiency vs. DPS) till mob is almost dead, then Drain Soul (rank 1) at last second for 15% mana regen. Life Tap between fights. This maintains mana with high survivability and good DPS. As a bonus, you will have plenty of souls and enough mana for the occasional shadow bolt spam.

A re-spec is recommended while leveling because Voidwalker and Felguard benefit from a few different talents. Since the demonology tree is very defense-heavy until the upper tiers (soul link, demonic knowledge, master demonologist), affliction talents are used before the Felguard becomes available.

Start with Improved Corruption and Improved Drain Soul. Second, fill demonology down to Improved Voidwalker. Finally, increase your DPS with the affliction tree until you reach level 50-55, when you can re-spec to the Felguard based build. This will noticeably increase your DPS, while building up your mana/life regen on the road to 70.

Level 60 Builds
Nightfall / Soul Link (20/31/0)

Soul Link builds perhaps have the best survivability of all the warlock builds. With the build's ability to split 20% of the damage taken to the pet (via Soul Link) and the ability to use Drain Life with a 70% chance of not getting interrupted (through Fel Concentration), the damage taken is very minimal. However, this build requires a rather large amount of +damage/+shadow damage before it becomes efficient (around +300). The pet of choice is usually the Felhunter; the ability to counter (Spell Lock), dispel magic (Devour), deal damage, and have the second most hp and armor next to the Voidwalker makes it an ideal pet to use. On top of those properties, Master Demonologist allows the warlock to receive +60 resistance to all schools of magic at level 60. Above this, Nightfall allows Shadow Bolts to be shot at instant speed.

This will provide with lots of instant Shadow Bolts through Nightfall along with lots of increased HP with Soul Linked pets, near-instant summon of a pet (Fel Domination), along with sacrificed demons for excellent buff opportunities. A strong PvP build that works with PvE end game raids as well.

Soul Link +2 (9/31/11)

Talent Calculator Link

Soul Link, but counters the disadvantage of speccing heavily in Affliction by providing more reliable Burst DPS (2.5 second Shadow Bolts, and instant-cast Shadowburn).

Soul Link Allround (7/31/13)

Not much of a difference to the one mentioned before in terms of numbers... but you wouldn't believe what 2 talent points spent in improved Lash of Pain or improved Firebolt can change. However due to a bug only 1 point in imp. Firebolt is advisable as the 2. one has no effect so put it in +1% Crit or whatever you like. When playing with a succubus or imp these 2 points can significantly increase your overall DPS.

MD / Ruin (0/30/21)

This is a very versatile build that can be used for many purposes. The 2.5 second Shadow Bolts in combination with Ruin will allow you to put out much damage. Pets can be summoned in 6seconds (normal summon 10 seconds). This build includes the talents Demonic Sacrifice and Master Demonologist, which will both allow the Warlock to adapt in many ways. This is a good build for tanking the twin emperors in AQ40. Weaknesses of this build are less powerful DoTs and lack of Improved Life Tap.

Felguard/Drain tank (9/42/0)

This build puts 42 points into Demonology to get Felguard plus 2/3 Mana Feed, coupled with 2/2 Improved Life Tap for quick mana recovery for you and your pocket warrior. Also 2/2 Soul Syphon increases your ability to drain tank.

if you plan on leveling with this build, i would suggest investing in improved corruption before starting on the demonology tree. less casting time means killing things a lot quicker, which means gaining levels a lot quicker.

Destruction
Level 70 Builds
Firelock PvP Build (7/7/47)

This is an extremely high damage PvP spec.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=AV0bZbxZxx0tr0tAuAo

This build empowers the Warlock's direct damage abilities (of which most are Fire-based, which gives the spec its name). It provides the Warlock with good burst damage (mainly due to Conflagrate, Shadowburn, and Backlash) and high crits (Ruin). It is very good against other Fire- or Shadow-based classes (especially Fire Mages, Shadow Priests and other Warlocks). Soul Leech allows the Warlock to heal themselves. The build also includes talents from other trees which are often considered necessary, namely Demonic Embrace, Improved Corruption, and Improved Life Tap.

The downside of this build is its relatively high mana consumption.

DS/S&F (0/21/40)

This is a heavy damage raid spec.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=NZbxczIdzZxx0tr0tVuV Talent Calculator Link

This build is similar to the old lvl 60 DS/ruin build except instead of sacrificing the Succubus to buff your shadow bolts, you sac your imps to buff your incinerates. Not only do the 'locks get +15% fire damage with the DS, but also, they get +10% fire damage from Emberstorm, +20% extra spell damage to incinerate (which becomes more effective than SM with just 300 or so spell damage, easy to achieve in TBC), and they get backlash which not only grants +3% additional crit chance and also 25% chance to have your next shadow bolt or incinerate instant cast when physically struck. With the addition of conflagrate, this is a potent raid build in terms of damage output, but be prepared to make use of your new soul shatter ability!

Comment: While this is a good build for DPS in instances and raids, you'll really have a hard time with PvP, and you'll have to bite the bullet solo-farming shards. There's a synergy between you and fire mages in your party as they will be 15% more effective with Curse of Elements, and you'll be 10-15% more effective with their Scorch. You're basically to them like a shadow priest is to an affliction 'lock.

Be nice to your healers with this build. You won't have as good endurance as say (40/21/0), and your lifetaps won't hit for as much, so you're very reliant on those heals.

To maximize DPS, the pattern for this build is:

* Immolate
* CoE
* Incinerate
* Incinerate
* Incinerate
* Conflagrate
* repeat until enemy is at low health
* Incinerate
* Conflagrate
* Shadowburn

Warlock DPS Calculator

Blazing Fury (7/13/41)

This build is similar to the one above but without Demonic Sacrifice. The basic idea is to keep up Curse of Elements, cast an Immolate, two-three Incinerates and blow up the Immolate with Conflagrate. DS is not to be recommended because it requires you to sacrifice your pet, which means that you will loose Blood Pact, which is very essential while grouping. In my opinion instant Corruption and Improved Life Tap are more useful than the talents beyond 13 points in Demonology. This is a very high damage group build which offers a very good alternative to a heavy Affliction spec. This is a very good spec for both PVE and PVP. If you are looking for a change from spamming Shadowbolt this spec might be just for you.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=AV0bZfx00cZVx0tr0tVuq - View spec
Nightfall / Shadowfury (NF/Conf with Shadowfury) (18/0/43)
Heavy Destruction (Heavy Destruction 2.0.1) (--/--/41+)
Shadow Conflagrate (7/0/44)

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IV0bZZxx0tr0tGuAo [ Talent Calculator 7/0/44 ]

This build is a good balanced PvP and PvE build. It can deal great amount of damage in little time. It also has a variety of talents that help a lot in PvP such as nether protection which will make you defeat shadow priests/other warlocks without it/fire mages 70% of the time with a 30% chance to become immune to most of their spells. The new intensity has a 70% chance to resist interruption in any destruction spell which makes you able to shoot shadowbolts while a warrior/rogue is beating on you. With backlash and devastation you got a total of +8% crit chance with spells. In raiding PvE the DPS is very good. It is comparable with SM/ruin and other older builds because shadow and flame adds a 20% more of spell damage to your shadow bolts which makes up for the loss of 10% damage in shadow with SM or 15% with succubus sacrificed. Improved life tap lets you have better mana efficiency in raids.instant corruption is great for spamming in PvP. Soul leech is more friendly in a PvE environment but still useful sometimes in PvP because it has a good list of spells that have a pretty big chance to heal you(30%). Shadowfury is a great spell to play with in PvP it is an AoE stun doing around 500ish damage with the ability to crit(The only other warlock AoE with this ability is Seed of Corruption). Shadowfury doesn't prove that great in PvE but it isn't bad if you consider it as a shadowburn with no shard cost and a stun.

This build is perfectly balanced between PvP/PvE(raiding)

Level 60 Builds

Note: The following builds are designed for level 60 characters and do not take into account talents introduced in 2.0.1.

Heavy Destruction (--/--/31+)

This build is very similar to being a mage with it's ability to nuke (deal a lot of damage at a short amount of time). Often referred to as a "Firelock" do to the extensive use of fire spells Immolate, Conflagrate, (occasional Soul Fire for PvP) and Searing Pain as main sources of damage. With Ruin, critical hits are 33% more damaging (making every critical hit deal 2 times more damage than normal non-critical hits). With Improved Searing Pain, the critical rate is very high and because Searing Pain has a short casting time, it makes it an ideal spell to use whenever Conflagrate is cooling down. For PvE, The pet of choice is the Imp, with Improved Imp and Improved Firebolt, it can deal 125 every second and it also gives the warlock a stamina buff through Blood Pact. For PvP, the pet of choice is usually a Succubus. The Succubus is used for two main reasons: One, it can use it's Seduce ability to hold people long enough for a Soul Fire to be used, and Two, it is the only way for Warlocks to deal with Fury Warriors reliably. A common PvP strategy for Destruction Heavy Warlocks is to Seduce with a Succubus, then use Shadow Bolt or, if there is time, Soul Fire, then follow up with Immolate, and a Fear. The opponent is the kept feared as much as possible, and Conflagrate used once an Immolate has landed. DoT's are used fairly often, but only as secondary damage.

This build is mainly geared towards PvP because of the threat Searing Pain causes, and unless the tank is very good at holding aggro in a PvE environment, the warlock will be expecting to take some hits, causing the tank some frustration. This build also eats through mana very quickly because of the amount of high-cost spells that are used.

Firemancer / Balanced Destruction Build (7/5/39)

This build is mainly meant for PvP with its majority of destruction talents. It can, however, have a great damage output in PvE too, if played skillfully as it utilizes most of the Must-Have talents, including Improved Life Tap for better Mana/Health efficiency, Demonic Embrace for the additional Health, Bane for increased DPS with the Destruction spells, Shadowburn for an additional finishing move and Ruin for higher Critical Strike damage. 5/5 Devastation gives this build a high natural Critical Strike chance with all Destruction spells and Improved Searing Pain makes Searing Pain a viable PvP tool with a very high natural crit chance. Intensity and Pyroclasm gives the Warlock class better AoE abilities.

Nightfall / Conflagrate (19/0/32)

This build is mainly meant for PvP with its majority of destruction talents. It has the highest potential for burst direct damage of any build (Nightfall, Shadowburn, Conflagrate). Sacrifices 15% base STA (Demonic Embrace) for increased Affliction range, Fel Concentration, and Nightfall procs.

Although this build is more focused towards PvP, this build can also be used in raids and can compete in damage with other raid builds. On the downside, the burst damage potential is an aggro magnet and very mana intensive. Some variations include dropping Emberstorm for Aftermath and Pyroclasm.

Nightfall / Conflagrate (16/0/35)

This build is a variation of the NF/Conflag build above, with important differences.

This build is meant to be a powerful and versatile 2.0.1 level 60 re-spec. Its large burst-damage capabilities, as well as its Improved Curse of Agony, make this build an ideal one for Warlocks who wish to:

* do some serious DPS in both PvP and raid environments
* escape the mundane "Shadow Bolt spam" that DPS Warlocks are so familiar with
* keep improved Life-Tap
* increase the effectiveness of their AoE spells
* not bother with juggling demons / need to keep their Imp out during raids

The build puts emphasis on increasing fire damage, as well as maximizing spell crit chance. This build is powerful and involved, and is recommended for experienced Warlocks, or those who desire to mash a bunch buttons during combat! The raiding Warlock must take care not to draw aggro away from the tank with this build, however the 10% threat reduction provided by Destructive Reach noticeably suppresses threat and effectively increases your available DPS in raids.

How to play it: It's always wise to change your strategy based on how long you expect the target will take to die. Generally: Apply Corruption. Apply Immolate. Conflag (start cooldown). Immolate. Spam Shadow Bolt until Conflag cools down. Conflag. etc. use Shadowburn as a finishing move.

If you are feeling lazy, the tried and true Shadow Bolt spam still works very well with this build.

With increasing level, the idea of this build is to either a) maximize the Destruction tree, filling out Backlash first, then Emberstorm, or b) sacrifice a few talent points at the bottom of the Destruction tree in order to grab Empowered Corruption.

Demonic Sacrifice-builds

30/21/0
19/21/11

One thing you should know: These builds are good for leveling, but still flexible enough to work for both PvP or instancing. Demonic Sacrifice grants the abilities to grind solo without even buying water or food (Sacrifice the voidwalker for 3% health regen every 4 seconds. Seeing as you should have 3000 - 4500 HP pre-MC, depending on your gear, this should be piece of cake). Nightfall is great for grinding as it allows you to fire off instant shadowbolts, improvements on drain life (imp. Drain Life / Fel Concentration) is also great. After these mandatory choices, it's up to you whether you want to put 12 points in Destruction for better PvE DPS or crits, or rather just do Shadow Mastery and Siphon Life for better grinding. Both works well out in any case, it's up to you. Of course, you need to have instant corruption and Demonic Embrace for this talent build to work out. Seeing as there's no better places to put the points anyway in the first tier of Demonology and Affliction, it should hardly be a problem anyway. If you choose to use the 12 points in Destruction after getting Nightfall and Amplify Curse in Affliction, you should also get Bane and Improved Shadow Bolt. This is about what you should need to know here.

7/23/21

This is a variation of the above builds, still centered around Demonic Sacrifice, but paired with Ruin instead of Nightfall for unlimited high damage Shadow Bolts and Immolate in soloing and instances.

Leveling to 60

Before level 60, one must consider whether or not a full-Demonology build is viable, since level 50 is the earliest one can obtain a Felguard. With the availability of respeccing, a warlock might consider taking a hybrid destruction/affliction build with access to Shadowburn and instant-cast Corruption, both of which provide more immediate benefits. Full Demonology builds only start to show comparable benefits around level 40. Around level 50, then, the warlock can respec to receive their Felguard.

Shaman Builds Guide

2007-06-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

Solo/Questing

The by far most popular build for this purpose is Enhancement. Even blue posts in the Blizz forums agree on this. It is very mana efficient and therefore suffers from the least downtime while dealing very high amounts of damage. Elemental is also viable, some actually favor it over Enh. As a remote third choice a Restoration build could be considered, but this is only for the very patient because the damage output is too low. Granted, survivability is very high.

Group PvE

All three trees offer great group talents. The traditionally favored group build is Restoration, because of Mana Tide, and there's never enough healers around. The 10% increase in attack power (Enhancement) or the additional 3% crit chance to spells and melee attacks (Elemental) though make these builds perfectly viable in group environments too. Shamans focusing on DPS would be well advised to look at Enchant Cloak - Subtlety and other aggro reducing items as a way of effectively increasing their DPS since aggro management is a problem for most shaman builds (exc. restoration).

PvP

In PvP again all options are wide open. The extreme durability granted by a full Restoration build is interesting, as are the high damage outputs possible by the other variants. One famous PvP build is Enhancement with a slow 2H weapon, this can yield very quick (nearly instant) kills due to the high possible burst damage.

Elemental

The talents at 11, 21, 31 and 41 points really stand out in this tree, they are among the best available to a shaman. The in-between talents are less attractive, the other trees are more balanced in this respect. It's also difficult to spend more than 41 points in this tree in an efficient way.

All-out Elemental

A basic method to spend 41 points in elemental would be like this. There are 5 points which can be considered "free", those in Unrelenting Storm. Leaving them there is good for a raiding/grouping build where the shaman expects not to draw aggro, but needs more mana for long boss fights. Talents like Eye of the Storm and Storm Reach are more geared towards pvp or solo play. It's also possible to put one last point in Reverbaration for playstyles where the shocks (and not lightning bolts) are the primary nukes (namely pvp again).

Usually the remaining 20 points are put in Resto, in order to get another 5% crit chance for lightning bolts. This leads to 41/0/20, with an interesting problem: Healing Focus (uninterruptible heals), Totemic Mastery (totem range) and Tidal Mastery (5% lightning crits) would need a total of 11 points, but there are only 10 available. There are three possible solutions:

1. not increase the totem range (good when soloing)
2. take only 4% lightning crit increase (compromise)
3. not put any points in uninterruptible heals (good when raiding)

Spending points in Natures Guidance (3% spell and melee hit chance) is usually not necessary, because the build already has 9% spell to hit from Totem of Wrath and Elemental Precision, and it's nearly impossible to avoid getting another 2% from gear (to achieve the useful maximum of +11% for fights vs. lvl 73 bosses).

PvP

The above builds should also perform well in PvP. Still, a little redistribution helps to increase the survivability. For example 40/0/21 increases surviability and adds NS while maintaining very high DPS. Since Lightning Overload is a rather lucky affair, builds like 37/0/24 could be considered, sacrificing a few more DPS for more free points, which can be spent for further increased survivability and/or whatever secondary purposes the build should serve.

Enhancement

A shaman going for the highest possible damage output should take a serious look at enhancement. Dual wielding increases damage output by about 10% (compared to an equivalent 2H), offers greater versatility, and one more useful stat (melee to hit chance). Melee specced shamans are sometimes called "rogues in mail".

This tree is rather rich in good talents outside the "magic" boundaries. It's easy to spend 50 points here, without wasting a single one.

Leveling

When choosing an enhancement build to level, the general theory is to rely on physical damage as much as possible and to use mana mainly to heal in between fights. This way, mana can regen during fights for virtually no down time. In this playstyle, the shaman only uses lighting shield, stormstrike and very rarely a shock while in combat. When starting a new character, the first priority should be to get 31 points in enhancement (for stormstrike). After this some choose to go straight to 41, getting Dual Wield along the way, while others choose to go for less interruptible heals and maybe Nature's Swiftness before returning to the enhancement tree.

Suggested build at level 50

PvE Raiding Build

0/42/19 is a pure raid/group enhancement build for level 70, it gets all the talents required for top group performance while getting enough resto abilities to spot/emergency heal, solo, and even main heal non-heroics (provided you have good gear and an off healer). This build does completely neglect any PvP abilities however and will perform extremely poorly there.

Most of the choices here are obvious. For people brand new to the class/spec I figure I should explain some of it.

* Enhancing totems was taken over Imp. Weapon totems because Strength of Earth is almost always used in PvE (except when you are using tremor totem) while Windfury totem is not as both Grace of Air (which enhancing totems buffs), Wrath of Air (for caster heavy parties) and even Grounding totem find use in parties making enhancing totems a better overall choice.

* ALL +hit talents are useful as a shaman needs AT LEAST 15% to hit (shoot for more we work differently than rogues and warriors).

* Shamanistic Rage gives you a reliable way to quickly regen mana in combat. Important for the long fights that occur in raids and useful to decrease downtime while grinding.

* Imp. Healing Wave is preferable to Tidal Focus because 3 seconds is a long time to wait for a heal and you would need to cast 20 heals before getting a free one out of tidal focus. You heals aren't terribly strong unbuffed so you will REALLY notice the .5 second reduction if you are spamming heals on someone getting hit hard.

* We drop totems all the time making Totemic Focus an obvious choice. If you aren't dropping enough totems to see benefit from it then you are doing something wrong.

* Totemic Mastery is so useful I would never build a shaman spec without it.

* Healing focus may seem an odd choice but since we are melee and often in the range of AoE damage Healing focus is critical to your ability to heal through it. It also allows you to heal tank an add in emergencies. Gives you the ability to heal in battle grounds and is required if you want to main heal in an instance.

Enhancement/Elemental PvP

This 20/41/0 aims for many crits (spell crits increase melee crit chance, melee crits result in increased attack speed and AP). With a little luck, about 6 things will proc every 5 hits or less. Crusader is a good complement.

With good gear (preferably hunter gear, because of strength, agility and stamina) this build can be devastating on your opponents. Survivability isn't particularly high, but it's simply not needed.

"Suicide" PvP Build

25/36/0: The focus is on a high amount of damage in a very short time, so no shamanistic rage or unleashed rage, but improved damage and cooldowns for melee and instant cast spells. For as far as i have tested it in arena, i did this with a guild mate Shaman, you will have a great damage output, caster don't stand a chance, and you always have a partner for some backup heals, in our opinion 2H weapons are best for high damage crits, and 1h+shield for endurance fights versus melee classes.

23/38/0 is about the same, however, it will help slow down running prey a little better, and offer more defense. You sacrifice your fire totems to do it, but then again... how much damage would you do with them vs. another melee hit?

Restoration

There was a time when endgame PvE shamans were mandatorily full resto. Mana Tide Totem was just the single best talent shamans had, so there was no real choice. Nowadays, the resto tree offers still some of the best talents for a raiding shaman, but also has some options appealing to players interested in PvP or solo PvE. The landmark talents are enhanced totem range at 11 points, Nature's Swiftness (which is one of the very best talents overall) at 21 points, Mana Tide at 31 and Earth Shield at 41 points. The restoration tree offers so many extremely good talents that a build with only 41 points already lacks at least one them.

PvE

It's hard to find a good 41 point build, because it would lack some key talent. 0/0/41 may be a compromise, but it lacks uninterruptible heals, the heal crit increase and ancestral healing (the AC buff to the heal target).

Still going resto should be an all-out affair, thus better go the whole way and take (0/0/48), which covers all the important talents for a PvE priest replacement shaman (it still lacks the uninterruptible heals, but in a raid environment they are only marginally useful). 5 points could be saved by either leaving away the totem mana cost reduction, or the 5% heal crit increase.

PvP

In PvP, Mana Tide isn't really important, neither is Healing Grace. Thus a minimal PvP resto build would look like 0/0/41. Nature's Guardian makes a shaman rather hard to kill.

Hybrid Builds

In any group environment (in 5 man PvE in particular) hybrid classes should be able to perform in more than one role. Countless wipes were avoided because a backup healer took over when the priest died. With the right spec, shamans can become very versatile.

Spell DPS/Healer

Usually, hybrid builds suffer from the problem that gear only rarely has useful stats for both roles. Granted, there are a few pieces with melee stats and mana/5, but the other interesting stats for spellcasting (+ heal/damage, spell crit rating) are usually not found together with AP, dodge or other melee attributes. OTOH, damage and healing spells both basically profit from the same stats, thus a balanced Elemental/Restoration build like 31/0/30 will in DPS gear still be a good backup healer.

Jack of All Trades

A good hybrid shaman should be able to shift roles in a second and be decent at all of them. Should the tank die, he should be able to pick up the mobs and tank decently, if only keeping aggro through self-healing. If the main healer dies, he should switch to healing mode in a second. Being a hybrid Shaman in PvE is all about keeping an eye on every aspect of the fight and acting appropriately.

11/29/21 attempts to achieve a good balance between dealing high damage, survivability and successful healing, whichever is more appropriate at the time. While it may look deceptive considering it never really goes further than halfway down any specific tree, it really is useful for whatever may come your way. It works well for soloing, instances, and to a lesser degree, PvP. It allows you to deal some good physical DPS, while being mana conscious, allowing you to save mana for when you need to heal, or if you can go all out with shock spells. If you master your totems and have the skill to keep an eye on everything happening in a party, you'll know when to switch your role from DPS to off-tank to healer, this build will allow you the room to be pretty decent at all of them.

Enhancement/Restoration

This 0/31/30 build is a great enhance/resto hybrid build. The damage output is around 80% of a full Enhancement build and the healing abilities are close to full resto, although of course all the top talents are missing. Still is possible to main heal in just about any situation as well as do very good damage. The advantage is that this build conserves his mana for healing, while the melee damage is done basically for free. Good build for a person that enjoys melee and healing and doesn't feel the need to be the 'best of the best' at either.

Paladin Build Guide

2007-06-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

Holy

For those of you looking to play a Healadin, Holy is the talent spec to go with. In raids, everyone who can heal, naturally heals. A Paladin fits into this natural order by staying back and healing, and thanks to their ability to wear plate, can be one of the most dangerous healers in the raid group, if they're played well enough. Perhaps reading this guide will simplify for the work you need to do in playing a Healadin.

Plate Priest, Healadin (43/13/5)

This build focuses on being a healer/buffer in raids and instances, and is not too shabby as a PvP healer. You can still nuke somewhat with Holy Shock.

Alternate healadin build

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=aVxuMxzhektVMphMc

Has everything you need from holy, as well as some good defences from protection.

Holydin (40/0/11)

Alternative 43/0/18 build

Being a hybrid class a Paladin has the option to both DPS and heal, and it is important to always remember that there is a time for both. Unfortunately there are very few stats that help a paladin in both healing and DPS. Getting gear with +Crit% will gimp your healing and getting gear with +Healing will gimp your DPS. +Healing/Dmg gear fortunately helps us with both. This build focuses on critting your Holy Shock, Seal of Command procs, and Judgment of Command for dps while still being able to adequately support a team.

Now new and improved with the new talent changes post 2.0: You won't be getting big damage numbers comparable to Crusader Strike damage builds, though you can still heal fairly well in raids as well as PvP encounters. You may move points around from the Retribution tree to Improved Seal of Righteousness if you are using a fast 1-hander.

Shockadin (40/0/21) [BC]

Shockadin builds are a popular Burning Crusade Build for a Paladin that is strongly involved in the PvP aspect of the game. Shockadin builds are meant to deal massive burst damage, while still being able to support and heal itself and others.

Shockadin Build I (Greater Healing/Survivability)

Shockadin Build II (Greater Damage Output)

A Shockadin is supported heavily by a Shield, or Offhand (With Spell Damage) along side a weapon with high +Spell Dmg.

Protection

Note: Since Patch 2.0 Reckoning build no longer functions as the talent reckoning got completely changed. Now it is more for tanking purposes, which was probably its original purpose instead of a 2-hander cloth killer.

Tankadin, 2.0 (0/44/7)

* Please see the Tankadin page for a large number of resources regarding 2.0 / XPAC paladin tanking. The information there comes from the Blizzard official Paladin forums, and the ongoing support of the WoWWiki community.

Since Patch 2.0 Paladins have been given three important tools to tank: Righteous Defense (basically a taunt), Spiritual Attunement (Rank 1: 8% mana gained from each heal. Rank 2: 10%), and Consecration (As of patch 2.0 this spell is trainable instead of diving into the holy tree).

The most important talents to take are Improved Righteous Fury (for more holy threat), and Holy Shield which adds 30% chance to block and causes even more Threat for each attack blocked. Ardent Defender, which cuts the damage you take by 50% when you're under 20% health, might seem useless -- but it helps your healers when they can't heal for whatever reason. As of 2.1 Ardent Defender reduces all damage by 30% when you're under 35% health. Also useful are Benediction for less mana from using Seals and Judgments, and Improved Judgment to quickly switch Judgments on a target (i.e., last second use Judgment of Justice so mob does not run away).

Paladins excel in multiple mob tanking. Open up with Avenger's Shield, run in (if possible) and Consecrate, then invoke Holy Shield and be ready to practically never loose aggro. Also helps to add a spike to your shield for that extra damage (and thus extra Threat) when blocking, as well as Blessing of Sanctuary.

This build is also good for PvP when running up to clothies and wailing at them -- they'll wonder why they are dealing less damage (this goes especially for rogues).

PvP Protection/Heavy Tank (10/41/10)

This build focuses on extreme toughness while dealing damage to attackers by Blessing of Sanctuary and Holy Shield. With reckoning you will also have a fairly good DPS even with a 1 hander, especially if the enemy is beating on you. The enemy will realize that they are dealing very little damage to you while they are getting hit hard by an unseen force. Note that Holy Shield and Blessing of Sanctuary will deal damage to hunters' shots that are blocked as well.

The trick of this build is to get the enemies to attack you. Do so by 'aggroing' enemy players either by coming close and attacking them, or by healing nearby friends just to get their attention. Toss an Avenger's Shield either to close the distance between kiters or to slow down enemies that are running away. Note that this build also allows you to tank in raids as well, and allow spot healing as needed.

Ideal gear for tanking requires +STA, +DEF, and +Spell Damage.

Holy Tank, Classic Weapon/Shield 0/41/20)

Alternative without SoC

A build which is centered around the image of shield and sword wielding knights. This build relies a lot on the mobs attacking the Paladin to actually hit the Paladin. Improved Aura of Retribution, Blessing of Sanctuary, combined with Holy Shield, and Redoubt give the enemies multiple ways to inflict Holy damage back onto themselves. Combat consists of Judging either to Wisdom or Crusader depending on number of enemies and cycling through Judgments of Command on the enemy. While block with Redoubt and Holy Shield with Blessing of Sanctuary up its possible to do well over 100 points for each hit blocked. Redoubt and Holy Shield combine for a 60% chance to block nearly ensuring the damage will occur. Concentrate on Stam/Int gear. The shield being used should bear the best shield spike the Paladin can obtain.

PvE Solo/Duo Survivability build, Survivadin (23/38/0)

Survivadin Talent Link

A build with heavy emphasis on the Paladin's ability to survive against near-impossible odds. The deep delve into Holy provides more than enough healing power to be effective in soloing, duoing, and off-healing (Or main healing with proper gear) in instances. The Protection talents work mostly on making the Paladin as hard to kill as possible, including the potential for a 70%+ block chance, heavy near-death 80%+ damage reduction, and the coveted 'uncrushable' status in end-game instances. Reckoning and Redoubt are produced almost constantly when fighting swarms of enemies (that can hardly harm you), which adds a very useful damage and defense bonus. Holy Shield and Blessing of Sanctuary bring a nasty kickback to everyone you block, and Improved Righteous Fury turns that into a constant aggro generating maelstrom that, if given a few moments to generate proper threat, can make aggro loss a thing of the past. Stuns every 45 seconds keep the biggest enemy out as long as possible, and Sacred Duty gives ten seconds of immortality for when things get rough; With proper mana regeneration, this is more than enough time to turn the tide of the most desperate battles.

The Holy tree's Illumination + Divine Favor provide a critical heal every two minutes at a mere 40% cast cost, and since against normal monsters you will rarely have to heal more than once every two minutes this makes a majority of your self-heals cheap criticals. Spiritual Focus makes healing in any battle a cinch, and finally Unyielding Faith provides a startling surprise for Warlocks who think they have you figured out as well as helping to prevent pesky trash mobs from knocking you off your mount when you just feel like ignoring them and turning in your freshly solod Group quest.

The main tactic for this build is to keep Mana regeneration high; Luckily, the Paladin comes equipped with several abilities that make this easy even with semi-low Intelligence and Spirit. Fighting with Blessing of Wisdom on and Judgement of Wisdom blasted at your enemies keeps the mana flow strong, and with Seal of the Crusader to back it up the regens come faster and Reckoning is guaranteed to not waste a single deft blow. Keeping Improved Righteous Fury on at all times adds a hefty +6% damage reduction, and on the off-chance you get below 35% life Ardent Defender is ready to keep you alive for some much needed heals and rebuffs. Retribution Aura makes long lasting battles even more painful to those silly enough to think they can break your defense. Being a wall of sheer Adamantium gives more than enough time to throw a heal to a friend while tanking (outside of instances of course), which your enemies will only translate as a heavy threat increase.

Some people may choose to take 'Divine Intellect' instead of 'Divine Strength' for the first five talent points; This is purely playstyle based and the core of the build is highly effective with either choice.

Retribution

Note: As of Patch 2.0 Paladins have been given the capacity to DPS instead of tanking or healing. This is due in the most part to Crusader Strike, which is the 41st Retribution Point.

Paladin Leveling Build- (5/8/48)

This build maxes out the damage output of you paladin and reduces downtime, enabling fast leveling and soloing.

Retribution Paladin (0/8/43)
(lvl 60).

This spec is heavily in-debt to Judgments and Seals, since Fanaticism adds +15% crit to all Judgments. Sanctity Aura helps with Holy Damage.

The idea is, more or less, to go in from afar and use Repentance, Judgment of Crusader, Crusader Strike, Seal of Command, Hammer of Justice, Judgment of Command, Crusader Strike. This should devastate an opponent or mob whether it be PvP or PvE.

Also since most Raids are skeptical of Paladins make sure to have Imp. Sanctity Aura for the +6% healing done, Sanctified Crusader for the +3% to crit the Judged opponent from all sources. The passive ability Spiritual Attunement helps with mana conservation. Don't forget to also use Righteous Defense to peel off any mobs off the healers have drawn. We're made of plate so we can take more punishment than they, until a proper tank comes along to deal with it. This build should hold its own in PvP and PvE a like. Just don't forget to heal ;)

Heavy Ret, Critadin (5/8/38)

This spec's main focus is on the Retribution Tree, although it invests in the early talents of the Holy Tree and Protection Tree to gain both a strength and armor bonus. This build is meant for Paladins who are more interested in dealing damage rather than playing a great role in a group or in PvP. While this build does have its weaknesses, it does make the Paladin have a much greater chance to be a threat on the DPS scales. This build is usually seen as a PvP build, since many raiding paladins prefer holy or protection variations.

A good Paladin will find themselves busy on any raid if they have a balanced approached to healing, cleansing, blessings, judgments and raid recovery REGARDLESS of their specialization. Never listen to people who try to tell you how a Paladin should be.

(added 10/11/06 by AJC) If you choose to raid with this build there are several considerations to make.

* Keep Judgment of Wisdom (or Light) up on the main mob at all times. Although Holy-spec paladins may need to re-apply these important debuffs only infrequently due to the Lasting Judgment talent, the transit time between the healing zone and the melee zone still cuts into their overall healing efficiency. If you intend to stay in melee range during most of the fight, having you maintain these Judgments is easier on the raid. Don't forget you can still judge Righteousness and Command while your JoW/JoL is up.
* Conserve your mana. If a main tank goes down or a mob is loose in the raid, your priority should immediately shift away from DPS. Either picking up a loose mob and switching to one-hand/shield (if your raid is low on warriors) or landing a few heals during a chaotic moment can help the raid get through a difficult transition.

Rekabution Paladin (0/27/34)

Talent Calculator Link

This spec uses an almost equal balance between the protection tree and retribution tree. This build give a lot of armor, but at the same time lets the paladin deal damage effectively. This build makes it so you don't have to stop your damage dealing to heal as often. It is best against non-caster players, and even more specifically rogues. Reckoning is the main bonus of using this build, and a lot of the talents leading up to the abilities at the end of the tree are variable, such as 2h weapon specialization if you decide to use a 1h.

This build will almost guarantee you a win in any evenly matched 1 on 1 PvP battle. Drop Judgment of the Crusader, activate Seal of Command and wait for reckoning to activate. Once it does, bubble (due to Sacred Duty you are free from any attack slowing effects.) and just lay waste to your opponent. If they aren’t finished by the time your bubble is over, pally stun them and if they are still alive wait for your health to drop, use Repentance and heal.

The primary judgment you will use is Crusader, the primary blessing Might, the primary aura Devotion and the primary seal is Command.

This spec works better with a faster weapon, as you would get all 5 reckoning strikes.

Hunter Builds Guide

2007-06-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

Overview

The Hunter is known for their pets, their long-range, sustained DPS, and their traps.

The three trees of a Hunter are all viable for a hunter to choose for leveling, player versus player combat, or end game raids or instances, but since only two of the three trees allows for the complete use of talent points the player is forced to cross trees, hybridizing into other talent trees. The three trees all have options to offer for utility, open DPS, and survivability.

Beast Master

Most of these talents improve on your active pet and skills that pertain to them, such as Thick Hide, Improved Mend Pet, and Bestial Swiftness. Some of the other talent points improve your aspects (Improved Aspect of the Hawk or Improved Aspect of the Monkey). Beast Mastery is the one of the few trees out of any classes without a level 20 learnable skill from a talent (another example is Shaman's ability to use two-handed axes and maces). The talent attainable at level 30 is Spirit Bond and Intimidation, and the level 40 talent is Bestial Wrath. The level 50 talent is The Beast Within.

The Beast Mastery tree is excellent for grinding. The majority of hunters choose a Beast Mastery when leveling because of how much quicker an enemy mob will go down per mana used by the hunter, lack of downtime due to healing on both part of the hunter and pet, and the ability to still kill mobs while under the affects of Resurrection Sickness.

This tree can also be versatile for PVP. Since the majority of players would attempt to Crowd Control the hunter's pet, Bestial Wrath and The Beast Within enables the hunter and his pet to become immune to Fear, Polymorph, Stun and other sources of Crowd Control.

In addition, some hunters have found success with using a pet in high level raids. It takes diligence to keep your pet alive and active, and the pet can only be used for certain fights. During some boss fights, AOE attacks can kill the pet within a matter of seconds if not healed. With Serpent's Swiftness a Beast Master build can out damage a Marksmanship build during long fights.

* Note: As of 2.1 pets can now gain a 50 percent immunity to AOE spells.
* Note: As of 2.1 pets are no longer effected by shatter by Gruul in Gruul's Lair

Marksman

Most of the talents deal with specifically increasing the ranged damage you can cause. The level 20 learnable talent is the largest single damaging shot a hunter can perform: Aimed Shot. The talent attainable at level 30 is Scatter Shot, which many hunters also consider to be a pivotal talent because it is the only ability usable in the hunter's Dead Zone. The level 40 talent is Trueshot Aura which gives party members increased attack power. The level 50 talent is Silencing Shot which in most cases interrupts the target while silencing them for up to 3 seconds.

The Marksmanship tree is excellent for high-level instances and raiding. With such important talents like Improved Hunter's Mark and Rapid Killing, the Marksmanship tree scales well with gear and it appears that with no matter what gear one can obtain, this tree will still remain the best.

This tree can also be quite good for grinding. With the more damage you can do, the less time you have to spend fighting a mob. Enemies can be killed faster and, when combined with a Beast Mastery spec, grinding becomes incredibly fast and efficient.

Marksmanship is also an option PvP. The talents of Lethal Shots, Mortal Shots and Barrage add great burst damage for a hunter whilst Scatter Shot is a great tool to help deal with players that get in your Dead Zone.

Survivalist

Most of the talents deal with specifically increasing the melee survivability such as Deterrence. Some of the other talent points improve your traps (Trap Mastery) and burst damage (Killer Instinct). The level 20, 30 and 40 learnable talents are Deterrence, Counterattack and Wyvern Sting, respectively. At level 50 the Survivalist Hunter can learn Readiness

Also, the Survival tree is the most complete of any hunter tree with what many hunters consider to be fewer useless talents (although some argue over things like Improved Feign Death).

The Survival tree is excellent for PvPing. With such important talents like Improved Wing Clip and Counterattack hunters no longer have a deadzone. A hunter can choose to focus on improving his traps, his melee fighting skill or his ability to get back to ranged.

This tree can also be quite good for raiding. Although there are not many talents that increase your damage, Lightning Reflexes gets better with higher level gear. It is possible for a hunter to obtain over 700 agility with Naxxramas gear and Lightning Reflexes. Also, many hunters like the utility their characters have outside of the raid.

Some hunters have found success with being Survival and grinding. The trap talents make kiting a much easier task, and skills like Clever Traps and Wyvern Sting allow a hunter to crowd control multiple targets at a time.

Summary

The most important thing to realize about hunters is that you can choose any build and find success with it. Even the seemingly useless builds like a Survival/Beast Mastery spec can be very good for people who solely want to PvP. The idea is to find the build that you like and which best fits your playing style.

Whose the best for ___

Heroics

In heroic instances a hunter is required to CC targets, forcing them into a build with clever traps and the reliance that those traps will work. Heroic CC This build leaves 40 points open for whichever route the hunter wishes to take, either Beast Mastery, Marksman, or continuing Survival.

Raiding

Right now raiding DPS is split fairly evenly between all three trees. Hunters on the World of Warcraft Forums have given numerous examples of a Beast Mastery hunter leading the DPS charts on end game fights such as Void Reaver. But Beast Mastery hunters only give a buff to players in their party, a 3 percent increase in damage after your pet scores a critical strike.

Even though this buff is almost always up, it does not compare to a deep Survival hunter with over 800 agility (The required amount for deep survival). With expose weakness the entire raid can gain upwards of 200 attack power.

Also, Marksman has improved hunter's mark, that gives a permanent increase of 110 attack power to all melee and ranged attackers.

So all three hunters bring something to the raid, either it be for their party or for the entire raid, but bring at least one or you won't be bringing anything home with you that night.

PVP

Once again split evenly between all three trees.

Beast Master builds

With the expansion of The Burning Crusade the talent tree has no longer been looked at singly as a method for the hunter to level easily. Talents that used to benefit just the pet now benefit the hunter to a large degree. Beast Mastery builds are now highly looked upon for Player versus Player combat and end game raiding for sustained DPS, especially because of Serpent's Swiftness

Recommended talents

* Endurance Training
* Thick Hide
* Improved Revive Pet
* Unleashed Fury
* Ferocity
* Improved Mend Pet
* Intimidation
* Bestial Discipline
* Frenzy
* Bestial Wrath
* Serpent's Swiftness
* The Beast Within

The key elements in this build are Intimidation, which provides you with a quick 3 second stun and a large amount of threat against the mob you are fighting, and Bestial Wrath, which is then used to apply a substantial amount of damage to the target.

Examples

* Boonman's Build
* Rapid Fire
* Sharlin's Build

Marksmanship Build

With the expansion of The Burning Crusade and the elaboration of the Marksmanship Build, hunters have received quite a bit of flak for being "overpowered." Hunters were given a silencing spell, along with several talents that directly increase their attack power. But almost since it's conception Marksmanship has been the end game/raid tree. Recommended talents

* Lethal Shots
* Efficiency
* Improved Hunter's Mark
* Aimed Shot
* Rapid Killing
* Mortal Shots
* Scatter shot
* Barrage
* Ranged Weapon Specialization
* Improved Barrage
* Careful Aim
* Trueshot Aura
* Master Marksman
* Silencing shot

This list may seem intimidating, since there are more talent options to take than a player might want to, but that is because the Marksmanship tree has been given almost no "junk talents." Try what works, respec if need be, and have fun.

Examples

* Innerdemons Hemo Build
* Innerdemons Raid Build
* Rifkind's Build
* Ithar's Build
* Clubsoda's Build
* Biron's Build
* Luckymarlin's build
* Beck's build
* Whiteminn's build

Survival builds

Survival tree is about keeping the target out of the hunter's dead zone and keeping them there. With the Burning Crusade expansion the tree has seen a major refurbishing with the addition of Readiness, Hawk Eye, and Master Tactician. Survival tree has been easily turned to for putting a player's extra talent points or for a Player versus Player oriented Hunter.

Recommended talents

* Monster Slaying
* Humanoid Slayer
* Hawk Eye
* Savage Strikes
* Deflection
* Improved Wing Clip
* Clever Traps
* Survivalist
* Deterrence
* Survival Instincts
* Killer Instinct
* Lightning Reflexes
* Wyvern Sting
* Master Tactician
* Readiness

Druid Builds Guide

2007-06-26T16:16:00.001-07:00

Balance Builds
Full Balance

Prior to the expansion Balance had traditionally been considered underpowered due to awkward talent design and poor itemization. With the addition of Moonkin form in 1.08 it gained a certain amount of PvP viability but was still considered unsuitable for PvE raiding. With the addition of several powerful new talents to the balance tree and a significant talent re-design to improve point efficiency, balance druids have been elevated to a level of viability never before seen in the game. WoW 2.0 Moonkins can probably come close to matching the raw DPS of a Mage or Warlock but begin to fall short when it comes to mana endurance and certain types of raid utility such as threat reduction, powerful debuffs, and AoE damage dealing. In PVP, the Moonkin's combination of roots, nukes and excellent damage mitigation make them dangerous opponents for certain classes.

Below are two sample builds, one oriented towards PvE and the other towards PvP.

* PvE Moonkin - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MxzrdicsguAoZxxcz
o Emphasizes mana regeneration and raid utility with talents such as Dreamstate, Intensity.
* PvP Moonkin - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MtcrziIsgzVoZxeh
o Passes on long term mana endurance, since fights are very short in PvP. Improves ability to fight under pressure with Celestial Focus and Nature's Focus and ability shapeshift frequently to heal(or just to escape in travel form) with Natural Shapeshifter.

* Patch 2.1.0 Build (43/0/18) - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MxzrdicsguVZZxxcx
o In Patch 2.1.0, Subtlety will reduce threat done by all spells, instead of just healing spells. As a Balance Druid's main concern in raids is threat, subtlety will become almost required during raids.

Swift Moonkin (40/0/21)

Nature's Swiftness is a potent tool for nuking or healing-- you can even use it to instantly hibernate that pesky feral opponent. So it's only natural with the release of the expansion that a 40/0/21 build would emerge. Wrath of Cenarius and Force of Nature are the two big sacrifices, along with much-missed points from Moonglow. On the plus side, though, you get Intensity to boost your mana regen. Omen of Clarity situationally boosts your situational melee buff from Moonkin form. Natural Shapeshifter helps you drop into caster form for a quick heal, and Improved Rejuvenation and Nature's Focus make sure those heals get off. Finally, Nature's Swiftness is like a free extra life-- if your mana holds out.

It's not as potent as the 0/40/21 feral build, since your heals and DPS both come from the same mana pool, but the survivability is still very strong. One hidden benefit: your +damage and spell crit gear will benefit your heals and your nukes. While you'll still want a separate healing set, your heals will still pack quite a punch in your DPS clothing.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MtcrziIkguZZxVIzco

PVP Balance Full Hybrid

This build combines some of the most useful PvP talents while keeping a Balance build focus. Uncommon from other builds, this dips in to all three trees. It may seem odd, given that when a druid is in one form, he cannot benefit from bonuses in other forms. However, a criticism of druids in PVP is a lack of spell interrupts. The inclusion of Feral Charge and Furor gives the druid a spell interrupt that can be used almost on demand.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0turziIogzZxG0oZVxh

Feral Builds
Full Feral (1/43/17)

Before 2.0, druids wanting to maximize their Feral DPS abilities were forced to spec into an awkward 14/32/5 tri-build that lacked real versatility. The revision to druid talents and the addition of the strong Mangle ability has completely re-made the Feral druid, taking it from a quirky off-spec to a truly viable and powerful build for both PvE and PvP.

There has been some discussion as to exactly how important Mangle is to a feral druid. For druids interested in their cat form DPS, especially in raids, it is essential. Expect your DPS to nearly double with a Mangle build. Ferals focused on bear tanking will find that Lacerate is an adequate rage dump for anything short of main tanking in raids; though even then think the question through completely before skipping this potent ability.

Many feral druids will spend their extra talents points in restoration because of the talents that make feral fighting better, specifically Furor, Naturalist, Natural Shapeshifter, Intensity, and Omen of Clarity.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=zzZxGGsfroxzioVxIz

Feral Mend Spec (0/30/31)

Before WoW 2.0 the 0/30/21 Feral Hybrid was arguably the single most popular non-raiding druid build. In PvP, strong mana regeneration and Nature's Swiftness allows a druid to draw a fight out almost indefinitely. In PvE, the flexibility allowed even raiding druids to offtank or heal as the occasion suited. With the advent of Mangle, druids now have a choice about DPS vs survivability and healing potential. While many have gone full over to the DPS potential of Mangle, many others still treasure the power, survivability and flexibility of the feral hybrid.

For some druids, levelling to 70 will mean the ten more points they need to get Swiftmend, a potent tool in any druid's healing arsenal. Swiftmend provides an oft-superior emergency heal option to Nature's Swiftness, especially for PvE raiding where a druid's heal over time spells are most prized. Heart of the Wild's utility is maximized in this build; for healing situations by allowing for very large mana pools to make up for decreased mana efficiency.

As always, raiding druids might be expected to exchange Furor for the vastly inferior Improved Mark of the Wild. Check with your guild before doing this; in many cases a restoration druid with this talent may offer to handle buffing duties in exchange for you bringing material components.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=zZxhGscbRxZVxIzcq0Lo

Feral's Swiftness (0/40/21)

The other option for feral hybrids is to extend their feral abilities to the limit, stopping just short of Mangle to keep Nature's Swiftness. This is a game-changing decision, whichever way you go. Mangle will vastly improve your DPS. Nature's Swiftness will vastly improve your survivability. For a true feral hybrid, this survivability, plus the bonuses to healing, make the exchange worthwhile. With many of the new encounters tuned with hybrid players in mind, Blizzard seems to agree.

In PVP, druids with Mangle will quickly dispatch enemies, or be killed themselves. Hybrids play the more traditional druid game of attrition, steadily beating an opponent down while relying on escape mechanisms, fast mana regeneration and instant heals to lend a sense of futility to their opponent's attacks. In raiding, don't expect to be called on to DPS unless you have mangle (or unless another feral keeps that debuff up to boost your Shreds). However, off-tanking and healing remain quite viable.

The Feral's Swiftness build is very strong in arena play, where you can operate in feral form but still suddenly shift out to give a strong heal to a teammate (or yourself). Powers like Pounce, Bash, Entangling Roots and Cyclone (not to mention hibernate) don't care if you have Mangle or not, making you an ideal spoiler for other teams' strategies.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MZxhGsfrRxubZVxIzco

Restoration Builds
Full Restoration

Tree of Life remains a controversial talent and may still be tinkered with by the developers. The concept for it is a dedicated healbot, and it is extremely PvE oriented. Some of the major points of controversy have been the movement speed penalty and the lack of defenses available to the tree, it is basically a "sitting duck". Some have also complained of the inability to utilize abolish poison and remove curse while in tree of life form.

Tree form aura was changed just before the release of TBC from increasing the healing done by party members to increasing the healing done to party members. This makes it useful for MT-groups or other groups whose members will require extra healing.

The form is worth taking if one likes to heal with HoTs and Swiftmend. Healing Touch is not usable in this form which greatly reduces the druid's max healing per second, however the mana cost of all available healing spells is reduced by 20%, which combined with the aura greatly increases healing longevity.

It is worth noting that shifting out of this form, like all other forms, costs no mana, which allows a druid healer to shift out and begin using Healing Touch should the need arise.

Some variation remains possible, but since the focus of this build is so narrowly on raid healing it is optimal to place pretty much all of your talent points in the restoration tree, something like this:

* 1/0/60 Tree of Life - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0zZZxEcteqrest

Mana Mend Spec (27/0/34)

Balance has always been a good complement to Restoration. Both talent trees are spellcasting trees and there's a certain amount of gear and playstyle crossover. In the past a hybridized 27/0/24 Balance/resto build was fairly popular for raiding druids. Post expansion, level 70 druids will still enjoy the fruits of this powerful build.

The hybrid balance spec emphasizes maximizing mana efficiency of heals, particularly Healing Touch. It also has significant damage dealing ability, being more than adequate for solo farming, though it falls well short of the level necessary for dedicated DPS in a raid setting. Spirit gear is a great plus for this build, to make sure you have enough use of everything.

PvP druids with this build will greatly miss the survivability and crit bonus of the moonkin form. They might wanna prefer the talent Natural Perfection in stead of Living Spirit.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MxcrzicsZZxxcxcqRco

Restokin Spec (AKA Dreamstate) (34/0/27)

This build is based on the Healing Touch-related Restoration tree talents and the 3-point Dreamstate talent (and others from the Balance tree). It emphasizes intellect as a primary stat and is good for soloing as well as healing.

Dreamstate gives a druid 10% of their intellect in mana per 5 seconds. Lunar Guidance gives a druid 25% of their intellect in +damage/healing. A level 70 druid in pre-raid gear can achieve over 400 intellect, making for 40 extra mana per 5 seconds while casting and +100 damage/healing.

You have to like casting Healing Touch with this spec, since it is a huge heal now, low on costs. And the mana restore you got now, works best while casting. Great spec for PvP and PvE, making you very useful in 5-mans.

Even though it contains more balance talents than restoration, it is still considered a healing spec. The last talent might be wasted in Moonkin Form, and can also be stored in Gift of Nature (in resto).

(In addition, points can be traded around to get 5/5 Subtlety and 2/2 Improved tranquility if lowered threat is a desire and PVP is not in your future.)

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tcrzicsRhZZxgc0faM

Druid Builds Guide

2007-06-26T16:16:00.000-07:00

Warrior Builds Guide

2007-06-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

Introduction

The Warrior Talents you start picking, once you reach level 10, can have a huge impact on how well you fight and how quickly you level. There are a number of choices that, combined, can greatly improve your Warrior Abilities in PvP or PvE. The following shows some of the more noteworthy talents and gives examples of Talent Builds used by high level warriors.

In the middle and high level Instances, the primary job of a warrior is to Tank. Holding Aggro while surviving incoming damage is the only role that warriors can do better than any other Class. However, when PvP'ing, solo PvE'ing, and in the low level instances, Tanking is less important. Instead, being able to generate more DPS is usually needed. The challenge for each warrior is to find the best balance, between the two, that works for them.

Notable Talents

All talents are listed in the Warrior Talents section. The following covers talents that are more or less useful than they seem at first glance, as well as talents that are vital to creating effective builds in one of the Talent Trees. Going over this list is recommended before attempting to create your own build.

Arms

* Improved Heroic Strike (Tier 1) - This talent is useful for warriors who are just starting out and only have Heroic Strike to deliver additional damage. It is also useful to Fury warriors, who may use it to consume their extra Rage, and Protection warriors, who welcome anything that increases their DPS. Ironically, this talent is less useful to an Arms warrior building their way up to Mortal Strike.

* Deflection (Tier 1) - Excellent talent important to all warriors that intend to tank at all. Additional parry chance makes Revenge available more often, which is a very good thing.

* Improved Rend (Tier 1) - This talent increases the damage of the Rend ability. This is useless, however, as rend already scales badly with level. Useful at lower levels, but at higher ones, the only thing you'll be using rend for is to get the Blood Frenzy bonus, so you can safely skip this and pick more useful talents.

* Iron Will (Tier 2) - This talent is more useful in PvP against Rogues and the Fear spell than in PvE. It is often skipped in PvE builds.

* Improved Thunder Clap (Tier 2) - An excellent tanking ability, Thunder Clap generates aggro equal to 2.5 times its damage on 4 targets. Increasing this and making it cheaper is a great thing if you're trying to keep aggro on 2 or 3 Mobs. Charge in, Thunder Clap, and then switch to Defensive Stance.

With the 2.0.10 patch Thunder Clap is now available in Defensive stance as well. So now you can Charge, switch to Defensive stance, and then Thunder Clap. Using Thunder Clap while in Defensive stance helps to keep aggro. It also appears that Thunder Clap now only generates its full 2.5 x damage aggro when in Defensive stance, so it is no longer as useful to warriors trying to tank in Battle stance.

* Improved Overpower (Tier 3) - This talent changes Overpower from a decent ability to a powerful attack. With a two handed weapon, this talent will have a good chance of dealing massive damage, while Dual Wielders will get nice damage plus an easy way to activate Flurry.

* Anger Management (Tier 3) - Generates rage while you are in combat, and slows down its decay while out of combat. This extra rage, while small, can add up over the course of a long fight or give you that last point you need to use an ability and win the battle.

* Deep Wounds (Tier 3) - A prerequisite talent in order to get Impale. It is actually a useful talent as a DoT of say 200 damage, while not impressive, is nothing to sneeze at.

* Impale (Tier 4) - Increases critical strike damage of your skills. Great for overpower with its very high crit, Critical Strike, chance and good with two handed weapons in PvP and PvE.

* Sweeping Strikes (Tier 5) - This 21-point Arms talent allows you to damage two enemies at once. It can allow for large amounts of damage if you have enough rage to use Whirlwind, Mortal Strike, or Cleave while it's active.

* Mortal Strike (Tier 7) - This talent is the single most powerful attack a warrior can bring into PvP, as it combines excellent Burst damage with an anti-healing debuff. Being based off weapon damage, Mortal Strike shines when used with an extremely slow and powerful two handed weapon.

* Blood Frenzy (Tier 7) - With your Rend ability and Deep Wounds talent this increases all melee damage caused to that target by 2-4%. Popular in raids since with many melee attacks hitting a raid boss, the extra damage will stack up quickly.

* Second Wind (Tier 7) - Whenever you are struck by a Stun or Immobilize effect you will generate 10-20 rage and 5-10% of your total health over 10 sec. This talent shines in PvP. Other classes usually try to control you with roots and stuns, this talent will help you survive and deal damage in return.

* Improved Mortal Strike (Tier 8) - Allows you to Mortal Strike, MS, a bit more often and for more damage. Worth taking if you use Mortal Strike a lot.

* Endless Rage (Tier 9) - 25% more Rage from damage dealt. Very helpful in making sure you have enough Rage for your next Mortal Strike.

Fury

* Cruelty (Tier 1) - Increases your chance to get a crit, Critical Strike. Probably the closest thing to a required talent for any warrior build.

* Unbridled Wrath (Tier 2) - Extra rage mainly useful for dual-wielding fast weapons. If you're going deeper in the fury tree, there's nothing better to spend points on.

* Piercing Howl (Tier 3) - A dazing shout with longer range than Hamstring. Very useful in PvP. Also good for escaping or safely distracting multiple opponents in PvE or PvP.

* Dual Wield Specialization (Tier 4) - Increases offhand damage to 125% of 50%, making your offhand deal 62.5% of normal weapon damage. Tooltip is slightly deceptive, but with Flurry this is a great talent for Fury builds.

* Enrage (Tier 4) - Most PvP oriented warriors go 20 points into Fury for this talent. PvP is so focused around having a high crit chance, that this will be active a lot. Almost useless in PvE, but you have to take this to get Flurry, so take it.

* Improved Slam (Tier 5) - Since the global cooldown is 1.5 seconds, this talent won't actually let you Slam any more often than you already can, but you only have to stand still for half a second. Mostly useless talent in PvE. (Slam itself may still be useful in PvP)

* Death Wish (Tier 5) - Great talent for an off-tank DPS role. Prevents Fear and picks up aggro while the main tank flees. Required for Bloodthirst, so take it.

* Improved Berserker Rage (Tier 6) - Provides another way to gain a burst of rage. Useful when you need to Pummel or Intercept, after changing stances, or when just starting a fight. Nice but not essential.

* Flurry (Tier 6) - The heart & soul of the Fury tree. A high crit rate is essential and will keep this active most of the time. This leads to a massive 30% white DPS increase, essential for Fury focused builds.

* Bloodthirst (Tier 7) - An instant attack that is much more effective than Whirlwind or Heroic Strike. Scales very well with attack power, AP, and does not require a slow weapon. Essential for all Fury builds. This attack is also available while disarmed

* Precision (Tier 7) - Increases chance to hit by 3%. No brainer for dual wield, or any build this deep into Fury.

* Improved Berserker Stance (Tier 8) - Increases your attack power by 10% in Berserker stance. Great for raid DPS, or any warrior planning to be in Berserker stance most of the time.

* Rampage (Tier 9) - 41-point talent for Fury increases AP after a crit if you can hit it in time. Not an essential talent due to high rage cost and unreliable renewals.

Protection

* Tactical Mastery (Tier 1) - Was once the most prominent talent among all of a warrior's choices. Now you can train Stance Mastery, at level 20, to retain 10 rage during stance changes. Tactical Mastery allows you to retain an additional 5, 10, or 15 Rage when changing stances now instead.

Combined with its move to the Protection tree Tactical Mastery is no longer a required Talent for warrior builds.

* Last Stand (Tier 3) - A "panic button" for surviving lag spikes, damage spikes, or just slow healers. At one talent point it is worth taking for Protection builds.

* Improved Shield Block (Tier 3) - Two blocks every time you use Shield Block. That is two hits from a boss that cannot be Crushing blows. This is extremely valuable for tanking.

* Improved Revenge (Tier 3) - Essentially worthless outside PvP. Mobs that matter are immune to it.

* Defiance (Tier 3) - Must-have talent for any serious tank. Mathematically, provides 11.5% more threat than you had before in Defensive stance.

* Improved Sunder Armor (Tier 4) - A controversial talent. Great for holding aggro when you are short on rage, but many tanks find themselves at full rage during Boss fights. If you are burning your rage down with heroic strikes, this will still help.

* Improved Taunt (Tier 4) - Somewhat useful in instances, but most warriors agree that if you need to taunt this often, you are probably doing something wrong to begin with.

* Concussion Blow (Tier 5) - Excellent for PvP and required for shield slam. A valuable Protection talent.

* Improved Shield Bash (Tier 5) - A nice way to pull caster mobs back, since if they are prevented from casting, they'll chase you for a melee attack. Not essential but helpful in certain situations. Often a mage, hunter, or even rogue can do this for you, or you can use your normal shield bash as long as you catch them in the middle of a cast.

* One-Handed Weapon Specialization (Tier 6) - A 10% bonus is great. You will generate more rage, get more threat from white attacks, etc. This can also give you a little solo viability while dual-wielding.

* Shield Slam (Tier 7) - A protection warrior's primary threat ability. One of the only threat generators that scales with better gear (along with Devastate). Use this to start fights, and use it every time it is cooled down.

* Focused Rage (Tier 8) - The best new addition to the protection tree. Reduces the rage cost of nearly all your abilities. This will save you a lot of rage, and make it much easier to begin fights with solid aggro.

* Devastate (Tier 9) - An instant attack designed to be used on bosses after 5 sunders are applied. This is the first scalable threat talent on the global cooldown. This means it will get better as you gear up. Generates more threat/time than sunder, but may be slightly less rage efficient if you have the improved sunder talent.

Level 60 Build Examples

With the release of The Burning Crusade expansion in January 2007, Level 60 Builds were no longer the final word for how to have your Warrior Talents setup. Instead, for many players, Level 60 Builds simply became another step in working their way up to the Endgame Level 70 Builds.

31 Arms/20 Fury

This is probably the most common build for the solo or PvP-oriented warrior. 31 points in Arms provides many talents centered around burst damage, while 20 points in Fury provides some support skills as well as the all-important Enrage that warriors thrive on in PvP.

Key talents here include:

* Improved Overpower
* Impale
* Sweeping Strikes
* Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
* Mortal Strike
* Cruelty
* Enrage
* Piercing Howl

Filler talents that can be removed or added as you like include:

* Improved Heroic Strike
* Deflection
* Improved Charge
* Poleaxe Specialization
* Mace Specialization
* Sword Specialization
* Improved Hamstring
* Booming Voice
* Improved Demoralizing Shout
* Improved Cleave

Other notes:

* The example build has 5/5 Poleaxe Specialization, but you can change this to whatever weapon you prefer or have to use.

31 Arms/5 Fury/15 Protection

This is the classic 31/5/15 hybrid build. It is a great build for those seeking the 'best of both worlds'. The Arms and Fury talents give the warrior respectable damage output, while the Protection talents greatly enhance tanking ability.

Key talents here include:

* Deflection
* Improved Overpower
* Impale
* Sweeping Strikes
* Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
* Mortal Strike
* Cruelty
* Defiance

Filler talents that can be removed or added as you like include:

* Improved Heroic Strike
* Improved Hamstring
* Shield Specialization
* Anticipation
* Last Stand
* Improved Shield Block
* Improved Thunder Clap
* Tactical Mastery

Other notes:

* The exact points in the Protection tree is the subject of most variations on this build. Last Stand and 1/3 Improved Shield Block can greatly enhance a warrior's ability to stay alive, but you cannot get both those and 5/5 Defiance with only 15 points. To get these talents, you will need 4 extra points--this is done by taking points out of any or all of Cruelty, Toughness, or Defiance. A perfect hybrid with everything is, of course, not possible; you will need to sacrifice either some crit, some armor, some threat generation, or some mitigation.

17 Arms/34 Fury

Fury is generally considered to have a greater number of strong talents deep in the tree than Arms. Therefore, Fury warriors generally put more points into Fury than Arms warriors put into Arms. 17 Arms allows for Impale to increase burst damage and overall DPS.

Key talents here include:

* Improved Overpower
* Impale
* Cruelty
* Unbridled Wrath (if dual wielding only)
* Improved Battle Shout
* Enrage
* Death Wish
* Flurry
* Bloodthirst

Filler talents that can be removed or added as you like include:

* Improved Heroic Strike
* Deflection
* Anger Management
* Improved Cleave
* Piercing Howl
* Blood Craze
* Dual Wield Specialization
* Improved Execute
* Improved Slam
* Improved Intercept
* Improved Berserker Rage

Other notes:

* This build can easily work with any kind of weapon, one-handed or two-handed. If you often find yourself playing with different types of weapons, then avoid Unbridled Wrath and Dual Wield Specialization and you will have no talents that require a certain kind of weapon to work well.
* A Fury build with Impale allows for only 34 points in Fury at maximum--you will probably need to choose between Dual Wield Specialization for increase damage, or Improved Berserker Rage/Intercept/Execute/Piercing Howl for greater utility abilities.

18 Arms/33 Fury

This build is a variant on the 17 Arms/34 Fury. The build is for a dual wield warrior and tries to maximize the overall DPS. Points are spent only in talents that burst damage, with a particular attention to rage generation. In fact this build doesn't spend a single point in talents like Improved Intercept or Deflection that aren't useful for DPS. Just pay some attention to aggro when spamming Heroic Strike. This build is useful when you try to be the number one on the damage meter list of your raid.

Blackmourn's Devastation 0/48/3

This is a newer build created by the PvP Warrior, Blackmourn. It was created to utilize the talents of the fury tree, while wielding a two-handed sword. If you want to be different, but still lethal in PvP, you may enjoy this build.

5+ Arms/31+ Protection

Good for main tanking, particularly at high-end instance raids. If you look at the talent calculator, not all the points have been spent--this is because there are many, many variations on these heavy Protection main tank builds. The example build is a good place to start, from which you can move some Protection points around and/or fill in some parts of the Arms or Fury trees.

Key talents here include:

* Deflection
* 2/3 Tactical Mastery
* Shield Specialization
* Toughness
* Last Stand
* Improved Shield Block
* Defiance
* Concussion Blow
* One-Handed Weapon Specialization
* Shield Slam

Filler talents that can be removed or added as you like include:

* Pretty much everything else

Other notes:

* Common places to finish up and variations in Protection points for this build include:
o 11 points into Arms to get Improved Heroic Strike and Anger Management
o 11 points into Fury to get Piercing Howl
o Sacrificing Shield Slam and all Arms talents to go 21 Fury and get Death Wish
o Swapping points between Improved Revenge/Sunder Armor/Taunt/Shield Wall/Shield Bash

Montronax's Mixed 25/11/15

This build doesn't really specialize in one tree but creates a warrior which can build up a lot of rage while tanking (Unbridled Wrath & Shield Specialization) and having Piercing Howl which is quite important in Blackwing Lair at Razorgore. I took Sword Specialization because most high-end tanking warriors have either a Quel'Serar or a Thunderfury.

Talent Calculator Link

Arms Talents - 25 points

* Improved Heroic Strike
* Deflection
* Improved Rend
* Improved Charge
* Improved Overpower
* Sword Specialization

Fury Talents - 11 points

* Cruelty
* Unbridled Wrath
* Piercing Howl

Protection Talents - 15 points

* Shield Specialization
* Improved Bloodrage
* Toughness
* Last Stand

Level 70 Build Examples
41 Arms/20 Fury

This includes the new skills that TBC has brought to the Arms Talent. Note that Booming Voice was replaced for Improved Intimidating Shout (underrated skill in my humble opinion). This is a nice PvP build that allows a very nice DPS output in PvE too.

Remember to put the 5 points of the weapon specialization in the type of weapon you currently use (I use a nice polearm. That's the reason of the 5 points in the Poleaxe Specialization :P)

33 Arms/25 Fury/3 Protection

This is a strong Warrior PvP build, giving you Mortal Strike, Second Wind, Improved Intercept, Death Wish and Tactical Mastery. It is intended to be used with a 2-handed weapon. Replace Poleaxe with your Weapon Specialty of choice.

Tarkenn's 31 Arms/30 Fury Hybrid

If you're looking for a spec to dominate PvE DPS, this is the way to go. DW fury used to be the best build hands down because of flurry, however, flurry benefits slower weapons. Now, with the extra ten talent points you get for reaching level 70, you can have Flurry in conjunction with a nice two handed axe such as Lunar Crescent and Mortal Strike and it is simply devastating. With high crit gear you will out DPS every single class or at least share the top because you will always stay in flurry. As an added bonus, it is also a pretty good PvP build.

5 Arms/41 Fury/15 Protection

This is the alternative hybrid build that focuses primarily on Fury tree to provide warrior with strong offensive abilities while at the same time points invested in Protection tree allow better damage mitigation and increased threat in tanking role. This build also generates threat better than Arms/Protection build because of increased damage due to Flurry and Enrage proc effects. Rage generation is also one more strong side of this build because Warrior has access to both Unbridled Wrath and Shield Specialization.

Key talents in this build include:

Arms talents:

* Deflection

Fury talents:

* Cruelty
* Unbridled Wrath
* Improved Cleave - alternative to Sweeping Strikes
* Piercing Howl - great ability for PvP or PvE
* Improved Battle Shout - only 1 point in this. Basically a filler to get deeper in Fury tree.
* Dual Wield Specialization - build focuses on using two 1-handed weapons so this is a natural choice
* Enrage - very useful for threat generation while tanking and it is prerequisite for Flurry
* Death Wish - nice for increased damage and getting out of fear regardless of stance
* Flurry - bread and butter of dual-wield Fury build. Good for damage and increased threat while tanking
* Precision - more +hit modifier, more damage, simple as that
* Bloodthirst
* Improved Berserker Stance
* Rampage

Protection talents:

* Tactical Mastery - extremely use full for everything except pure damage role in raid
* Anticipation - not really useful because it doesn't scale well with gear, but better option than Improved Bloodrage
* Shield Specialization - increases damage mitigation and threat generation (Block can be followed by Revenge and additional rage can be used for all abilities)
* Last Stand - great for getting out of tough situations
* Improved Shield Block - natural extension to Shield Specialization
* Defiance - huge boost in threat generation

Raelor's Build 42/17/2

This build, created by Raelor of Duskwood, is designed for a slow, 2-hand axe or polearm Arms build, yet incorporating items from Fury and Protection that any warrior would find useful. This would be more useful in PvE or Raiding to maximize damage output, but not as much in PvP because it skips Iron Will which would be useful against rogues.

Arms Talents:

* Improved Heroic Strike
* Deflection Required if you plan to tank at all.
* Improved Charge
* Anger Management
* Deep Wounds
* Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
* Impale
* Poleaxe Specialization
* Sweeping Strikes
* Weapon Mastery I find this useful for PvE even though it is more focused to PvP.
* Blood Frenzy Useful for groups, but if you wish, put only 1 point here, and put the other in Tactical Mastery to get the full 3 points in that skill.
* Mortal Strike
* Second Wind Again, this is more PvP focused, but good for PvE too.
* Improved Mortal Strike
* Endless Rage

Fury Talents:

* Unbridled Wrath This talent, as of patch 2.0.10, has been changed to benefit 2-handed MS-spec warriors as well as fury and protection warriors. It is now an extremely good choice for this build.
* Cruelty
* Improved Cleave I find that once my sweeping strikes is up, I like to cleave a lot, so this would be useful for maximizing my damage output if you have the rage to spend.
* Piercing Howl Very useful for PvP, also useful for PvE, a good alternative to Hamstring.
* Improved Battle Shout Used as filler mainly.
* Improved Execute It should be self-explanatory why I chose this ability. I get a heck of a lot of use out of execute and this not only lets me execute sooner, if I need to quickly finish a runner, but also gives me more damage if I execute with more than the required rage.

Protection Talents: (only one)

* Tactical Mastery Every warrior should have this and due to my build, I could only spare 2 points for this talent. It is extremely useful for just about everything and in order to be an effective warrior, you should learn how to effectively "stance dance". Put 3 points in here if you have only put one in Blood Frenzy from the arms tree.

Conclusion: This build lets me effectively maximize my burst damage, and with a 30% crit chance (or more) in parties, I consistently top the damage charts, even outdoing rogues, mages, and warlocks. Feel free to email me for comments on this build and your experience with it. My WowWiki username is DoubleA, and you can find my email on my profile page.

Tips:

* Personally, I like poleaxe specialization because I have a huge crit chance which helps a lot with soloing. But I have also heard great things about sword specialization. Imagine popping MS for a crit, then having that proc an extra attack and having that crit too. Or imagine even using whirlwind against 5 targets and having each of those also proc an extra attack. Now, I admit, these situations are rare, but if you desire, take your chance with sword specialization if you wish. Mace specialization I will say does not appeal at all to me, because eventually the targets you will want to stun will end up being immune. But it is definitely more for PvP and if you have The Unstoppable Force and love stunning those pesky flag runners. However, this is not meant to be a PvP build. In the end, it's all up to you, of course, so choose wisely ;)
* Improved Execute means that your execute ability now costs only 10 rage. Therefore, if you ever fail to finish off a runner, you also have the option of popping Bloodrage and executing them again with the instant 10 rage bonus.

MTX's Leveling Spec 13/43/5

My leveling spec is based on doing damage fast and hard, without being too overly-reliant on bandages and food (always helps to be undead, too). With blood craze and blood thirst, it is possible to keep our life up high enough while leveling that you can pull many times in a row without the need to eat. The Mark of Conquest, an item received using PvP Thrallmar marks (and no doubt honor hold marks are the same) will also help keep you alive, as the proc rate on the heal is actually quite high.

Arms: 13 points (this can be slightly changed how the user feels, but my set up has worked quite well for me)

* Improved Heroic Strike This is basically a must-have for any fury warrior, any warrior pretty much in general. with fast weapons, heroic strike will be far more spammable.
* Deflection This will help keep you alive, and gives the 2 necessary points to get to the next tier.
* Improved Charge This will increase your rage generation, and is incredibly useful for this build. coupled with tactical mastery, and the new passive stance mastery, up to 25 rage will stick when you go into other stances, making the charges extra rage worth it.
* Improved Thunder Clap This will reduce the rage needed to use it, increase the damage done, and by far the most important, decreases an enemies white DPS by an extra 10%. This will keep you alive a lot long, and will also grab more aggro for less rage when used tanking in those situations you must. while it is not a lot of aggro, the initial aggro will at least keep multiple enemies on you for a few seconds.
* Improved Overpower This is almost a must, as the crit chance will become somewhere between 65 and 80% depending on your crit. your crits will give you flurry, extra rage, and allow you to use rampage.
* Anger Management 1 rage every 3 seconds is not a lot, but this will keep your rage bar filling steadily, helping with many fights. It has saved me multiple times when i was just a tiny bit too low to use an execute and near death, or running away for my little life.

Fury: 43 points

* Cruelty Self explanatory. crit= good.
* Unbridled wrath: with fast weapons, which a fury warrior should be using, this will get you a lot of rage, a lot of the time, allowing for more damage or utility.
* Piercing Howl The daze effect will allow you to run when need be, and increases the damage from heroic strike past level 66 (some say it is bugged and does not work, but i have tested it, and my damage did indeed go up with my heroic strikes)
* Blood Craze Blood craze will get you back some of that missing life when you get crit. no, it is not a lot, but any bit helps. i cant tell you how many times 300 life could have saved me, or someone else from me tanking.
* Improved Battle Shout It now is commanding and battle this increase to AP is necessary for large hits, large heroic and victory, and to make you feel cool. get it!
* Dual Wield Specialization You are a dual wielder with this spec. you want to hit fast, and hit lots. it is needed to have that extra offhand damage. kill the enemy faster, get more rage. no brainer.
* Enrage Whenever you get crit by a mob, you will proc this, and blood rage, which will allow you to deal massive damage for a short time.
* Death Wish This increases your damage by a ton on those fights where you may need that extra bit to finish off an enemy fast. it makes you more vulnerable, but it is worth it overall.
* Flurry This is one of the mainstays of your arsenal. the more you crit, the more this procs, the faster you attack, the more often you crit, the more it procs. extra rage, extra dps. it is lovely.
* Precision The extra hit % is something of a last point increase, but it is worth it to put other points here if you wish. 3% hit can be a godsend
* Bloodthirst Get this. now. everyone. with the increased AP, and increased crit, this sucker can put out a lot of damage, and heal you a little bit. couple with blood craze, this can help keep you alive.
* Improved Berserker Stance 10% AP boost may not seem like a whole lot at first, but by level 65 or so, that will be increasing your AP by up to 200 self-buffed on some people. in instance, i have gotten to 2400 AP due to an extra 200 or so AP from this guy. this will increase all damage, especially victory rush and blood thirst.
* Rampage With all the crits you'll be getting, and as fast as you'll be hitting, this is a wonderful little skill. for minimal rage, you can keep yourself buffed to an extra 150/200/250 AP, increasing all damage.

Protection 5pts

* Improved Bloodrage This can be used when tanking, when you find it necessary, to grab extra aggro quickly. it has saved my life, and the lives of my companions many time. however, it may be wise to put these 2 points into precision if you do not intend to tank at all.
* Tactical Mastery A must have. you will be charging in, using a few skills, then going to berserk stance in many fights. maybe switching to defensive to flee, or back to battle to survive. you need that rage.

Tips:

* I suggest you charge in, use demo shout and thunderclap to lower their damage output and then switch to berserker stance.
* If you get the chance to use rampage, do. if you get the change to overpower, do. these 2 skills will keep you happy, trust me.
* If it becomes necessary to heal, use an intimidating shout (if 1 enemy) and bandage, then run back a short distance from the enemy so you can intercept it to stun. if you cannot get this in time, piercing howl works wonders.
* Piercing howl + defensive stance will save you many times. Get used to switching on a shield, into defensive and booking it. even the best warriors will grab extra aggro they cannot handle now and again.

Iwontpku(Ursin)'s Max DPS 17/41/3

A Dual-wield build that gives the attack power increases typical of a fury build plus the increased critical strike damage of arms.
12 Arms/5 Fury/44 Protection

A build based completely on the protection tree. This build's primary function is to tank.

Key talents in this build are:

* Improved Bloodrage
* Shield Specialization
* Last Stand
* Improved Shield Block (Blizzard fixed this talent)
* Improved Shield Bash
* Defiance
* Improved Shield Wall
* Concussion Blow
* One-Handed Weapon Specialization
* Shield Slam
* Shield Mastery
* Focused Rage
* Vitality
* Devastate
* Deflection
* Iron Will

Fillers:

* Improved Charge
* Cruelty
* 1/2 Improved Taunt
* Improved Sunder Armor

Mike's Tanking Build- 10/5/46

This build enables warriors to pull alot of agro right off the bat, something that can be hard for warriors because their abilities require time to build up rage. Use a slow two handed weapon to charge in and generate alot of rage, then drop into defensive stance and equip a one hand and sheild and use all of the high threat moves at your disposal. It also helps to have the Titan Bar mod, this mod can be set to automaticly use a two handed weapon when in battle stance and then to automaticly equip a one hand and sheild when you switch into defensive stance. Note- The Improved Revenge, Improved Sunder Armor, and Shield Mastery Talents are all interchangable and two of the three should be taken depending on your play style.

Orcane's Arms/Fury Warrior (36/22/3)

This build's main function is do cause as much damage as possible using a 2h-weapons (preferably an axe or polearm because of the weapon bonuses giving you +5% crit.

This build is the perfect PvP build due to its high damage output and high versatility. Every talent is chosen for a specific reason to increase DPS and survivability.

With this spec, one will normally be in berserker stance, but will change to battle stance if they need the extra armor, but mostly change to use Overpower. Since, with this build, one uses a 2-h weapon, the damage caused by overpower is huge. To fight efficiently in Battle or Berserker stance, against a warlock or priest, you need to be able to be immune to fear. To do this, in berserker stance you use either Berserker Rage or Deathwish. In battle stance, your only option is Death Wish. Death Wish, although it makes you take more damage, gives one a staggering increase to one's damage.

Improved Demoralizing Shout is a very controversial talent to get because it seems as though it has limited use; this is completely false!!! IDS can cause every single melee class to cause so much less damage it isn't even funny. In the arena, one of the most common teams is Warrior/Paladin, both melee classes. By using demoralizing shout, you can seriously hamper their damage output.

In this build, you want to save all of your rage for Mortal Strike, Overpower, Deathwish, Hamstring, and shouts. Shouts are probably the most underrated aspect of warriors and used effectively, can change the entire course of a battle. If one has an excess of rage though in a fight, feel free to use abilities such as Whirlwind and Cleave.

Another very "looked-over" talent is Sweeping Strikes. This talent, in PvP/arena, is very effective but is very difficult to use (especially in open PvP; IE: Eye of the Storm, Alterac Valley, etc). In Arena however (especially 2v2 and 3v3), it can be used amazingly effectively if your partner(s) are intelligent and of the right class. If you are teamed with all melee classes, try and stay as close to each other as possible and use sweeping strikes as much as possible, that way all your attacks do basically double the damage. If your partner, however, is a caster or a hunter, you may want to stay away from that tactic because it could end with the quick death of your opponent.

Eques' Maximum PvE build 26/35

This build is specially designed for using an one-handed axe in main hand and off-hand. It's a very nice build for killing multiple enemies (monsters) without losing health too quickly. The build also provides a huge crit chance to keep Flurry active at almost all times! Note: Flurry increases your (white) DPS by 30% for the next 3 strikes after dealing a critical hit.

How to use this build successfully when starting a fight:

1. Use charge on an enemy...the improved charge talent provides you with the necessary rage to;

2. Use the improved thunderclap talent (decreases enemies' melee-DPS by 20% and to;

3. Use a an improved Demoralizing shout;

4. Once this is done spam with heroic strikes, bloodthirst etc.

5. If you are facing multiple enemies use sweeping strikes :)

6. With this build you will not have any problems to handle at least 3 non-elite mobs on your own without using potions!

Note: This build is only useful when soloing. It's NOT designed for raiding nor PvP.

Slayer's 2H DPS Build

Warrior Talents Talents Minimum Required Level: 70 Required Talent Points: 61

Arms Talents - 5 point(s)

1. Deflection - rank 5/5

Fury Talents - 45 point(s)

1. Cruelty - rank 5/5
2. Unbridled Wrath - rank 5/5
3. Improved Cleave - rank 3/3
4. Piercing Howl - rank 1/1
5. Blood Craze - rank 3/3
6. Commanding Presence - rank 5/5
7. Dual Wield Specialization - rank 5/5
8. Enrage - rank 5/5
9. Death Wish - rank 1/1
10. Flurry - rank 5/5
11. Bloodthirst - rank 1/1
12. Improved Berserker Stance - rank 5/5
13. Rampage - rank 1/1

Protection Talents - 11 point(s)

1. Anticipation - rank 5/5
2. Toughness - rank 5/5
3. Last Stand - rank 1/1

Unorthodox Builds
Protection/PVP "Stunlock" Build (35/0/26)

This is a rather obscure build based on the philosophy that you will take less damage if your enemies are unable to attack you. The build focuses on all the stuns possible for a warrior including the Mace Stun, Improved Revenge, and Concussion Blow, as well as other talents to reduce the efficiency of the target such as Improved Hamstring, Improved Shield Bash, and Improved Disarm. The build includes mortal strike instead of Shield Slam because I feel that the 50% healing debuff is much more brutal to enemies than a chance to remove a buff from the target. The warrior is meant to be in defensive stance for most of the time to maximize use of revenge, especially now that it has had its damage upped significantly in the last patch. Finally, you should find a good mace to wield because of the mace specialization stun talent. Being a blacksmith with hammersmith specialization doesn't hurt.

Rogue Builds Guide

2007-06-26T16:07:00.000-07:00

Level 70
Dagger Builds
Mutilate - 41/0/20 - PvP

Mutilate replaces backstab since they both cost 60 energy so an IMP Backstab wouldn't be necessary at all when choosing Assassination (unless of course you go Sealfate/Premed). With the combination of Subtlety, you also have the high burst damage combined with stunlock for PvP and such. Having 3/3 Initiative, and 5/5 Sealfate makes it very simple to stock up on combo points when opening with a CS; Ambush. This comes very handy in PvP when you have the upper hand on another player.

Mutilate - 41/20/0 - PvE

This build is a more pve friendly spin on the mutilate build. DW Spec improves Mutilate damage and precision helps to lower your hit cap as you work toward that to ensure you minimzie your white misses.

Combat Daggers - 15/41/5

This build is a natural evolution of the classic Combat Daggers build. Major new inclusions are Combat Potency and Surprise Attacks. Like the combat daggers builds of the past, it will likely claim the #1 spot for DPS on raid bosses.

Seal Fate / Premed - 30/0/31

This build takes burst damage and combo point generation from Seal Fate and adds cooldown management with Prep. Dirty Deeds, Premed and Iniative offer the ability to open with 5 CP for huge opening and CB for high finishing damage. Imp Ambush with CB for big openers, and Elusivness for shorter CDs.

Shadowstep Build - 20/0/41

This build allows for extremely high burst damage, allowing the use of all of the good subtlety talents and just enough of the assassination ones to give you the extra power you need. It also provides +10% Attack Power and +15% agility.

Combat Shiv - 21/40/0

A build that bases its strengths off of high crit rates, fast energy regen, low energy CP, constant applications of daze and amazing stunlocking, Combat Shiv is for players who like to let off a flurry of hits capped by one big finisher. The new talent Shiv takes advantage of Dual Wield Specialization and Combat Potency like never before. With a fast OH (1.3), allows 3 shivs per 100 energy. Combat Potency effectively takes 3 additional energy off Shiv (20% proc = 15 energy in 5 Shivs = 3 less energy per Shiv). In practice, the energy gained from Combat Potency (from both Shiv and white swings) allow for near nonstop Shiv spamming. The flurry of Shivs ensure Blade Twisting procs and free up a Crippling Poison slot (Daze effect is preferred as it dismounts and is virtually undispellable). Assassination tree can be twiddled with depending on your preference of Eviscerate or Envenom. The current build allows for max Eviscerate and Envenom damage, depending on situation.

Sword/Fist/Mace Builds

Combat Swords - 20/41/0

A pretty typical upgrade to combat swords that includes combat potency. Make sure you find yourself a quick offhand, Latro's Shifting Sword from Black Morass for instance, and hold on to it until you get an epic upgrade.

You can easily switch out swords for either mace or fist spec. For fists you'll want to grab the Reflex Blades from Arcatraz and Warp Splinter's Thorn from Botanica. The 1.3s offhand dagger will work out much better for you than any offhand fist currently in the game, other than the Gladiator's Left Ripper.

This is generally a pure PvE build due to the high DPS at the cost of defense/stuns. However; the consistently high DPS can burn things down quite well in the arenas as long as you're getting some heals.

Seal Fate / Hemo Swords - 31/0/30

This build takes the hemo build up to lvl 70 with the addition of Seal Fate for even faster combo point generation and Vigor for the extra 10 energy. The points in Master of Subtlety and Deadliness help bring up the damage output of the spec. Typically, this build is avoided as there tends not to be high enough critical strike percentage to make Seal Fate shine without dagger talents.

Seal Fate / Combat Fists 30/31/0

The sword/fist/mace version of seal fate / combat. A great build for mixed PvE/PvP viability. It will lag behind a full combat build in PvE, but the +20% healing from quick recovery makes it much easier to survive a boss fight. In PvP you'll have plenty of combo points for stuns and eviscerates along with high damage output, and in arenas it will be easier to heal you with quick recovery. You still would be better off using a full combat fist build, but this offers something different for those that wish it.

A high crit chance makes all the difference in stacking combo points on a target quickly, so this is best suited for a fist build. Unfortunately, you are still not going to be able to take full advantage of SF without the higher crit rates of dagger skills like Improved Backstab and Improved Ambush, or even Mutilate.

Hemo - 27/3/31

A standard PvP hemo build for your best stunlock efficiency. You can achieve near perfect stunlocks with hemo. While this build is lackluster at best versus what it was at level 60 with proper weapons and high AP, some people still enjoy the stunlock. For PvE purposes this build is awful and cannot compete with a combat variant because of the lack of 2.8 and most importantly, 2.9 speed weapons at 70.

This should be used as a pvp build only. You can also use sleight of hand in this build for an extra 2% resilience instead of something else in the sub tree.

Old level 60 builds

Please see Rogue builds/Level 60

Leveling to 60

For soloing, grinding, and leveling, you will want to focus on swords and put a majority of your points into the Assassination and Combat trees. Leveling with daggers is possible, especially with a group, but is less efficient soloing than leveling with swords. Until you start partying regularly, and doing instances, you will want to stick with swords as your primary weapons. Sword/Dagger is perfectly fine until you take sword specialization, after which time you will want to get yourself a speedy, high DPS sword for your offhand.

Levels 10-39

* Improved Sinister Strike [2/2]
* Remorseless Attacks [2/2]
* Malice [3/5]
* Ruthlessness [3/3]
* Malice [5/5]
* Relentless Strikes [1/1]
* Lethality [5/5]
* Murder [2/2]
* Improved Eviscerate [2/3]
* Cold Blood [1/1]
* Improved Kidney Shot [3/3]
* Improved Eviscerate [3/3]
* Seal Fate [3/5]

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=fGebox0scZM

Level 40 (Respec)

* Improved Sinister Strike [2/2]
* Improved Gouge [3/3]
* Deflection [5/5]
* Riposte [1/1]
* Endurance [2/2]
* Precision [5/5]
* Dual Wield Specialization [5/5]
* Blade Flurry [1/1]
* Sword Specialization [5/5]
* Aggression [1/3]
* Adrenaline Rush [1/1]

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=wZG0Ed0Vzx0oo

Levels 41-60

* Aggression [3/3]
* Improved Eviscerate [3/3]
* Malice [3/5]
* Murder [2/2]
* Malice [5/5]
* Relentless Strikes [1/1]
* Lethality [5/5]
* Ruthlessness [2/3]

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=whgboxZG0Ed0Vzx0ho

Priest Builds Guide

2007-06-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

Level 10 - 69 Builds
Blackout vs. Spirit Tap

If your emphasis is on PvP, you should select Blackout instead of Spirit Tap whenever it is listed. Note that most lower level builds focus on leveling, not PvP.

Holy Damage Builds

Despite the improvements to the Holy tree, the Shadow tree is still considered the best route for leveling. See the Level 70 Builds section for templates you might want to use if you want to concentrate on the Holy and Discipline trees. With the 2.0.1 patch, holy is looking good, with the pseudo-Nightfall and the spell damage increase.

Level 10 - 20

Emphasis on Shadow talents. Taking down mobs fast and reducing downtime are the most important things. Your built-in healing abilities will be ample for any groups you are in. Your talents at level 20:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?rZZxMhz

* Spirit Tap: Faster mana regen between mobs.
* Shadow Focus: Allows you to concentrate on mobs of a higher level than yourself.
* Improved SW:P: As the harder battles last longer than 18 seconds.
* Mind Flay: The most useful talent in the Shadow tree. It has high DPS and high mana efficiency.

Level 21 - 30

Stick with improving damage dealing talents. You can still heal fine. Your talents at level 30:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=rZZxMxtM0o

* Improved Mind Blast: Reduces the cooldown of the highest DPS attack we have.
* Shadow Reach: Allows you to attack targets from farther away.
* Vampiric Embrace: Allows you to greatly reduce dependency on Power Word: Shield, in favor of taking and healing damage as you go.

Level 31 - 40

More Shadow Talents. Around this point your healing will become somewhat gimped, though still acceptable. Your talents at level 40:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=rZZxMxtMxo0p

* Shadow Weaving: Increases DPS by about 10% over all. Stacks with a Shadow damage wand.
* Darkness: Increases damage by 10%.
* Shadowform: Increases damage by 15% and reduces damage taken by 15% for a single talent point.

Level 21 - 39 Alternate Route: Fast level grind

This build minimizes downtime between fights. Start with the level 20 build from above: Level 20. Then, for each level add Wand Specialization and after that Improved Renew. At level 28 your build should look like this:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=dVZcZxMhz

After level 28, spend your points in the shadow tree like the shadow builds in this article. When you hit level 40, respec to get Shadowform.

How to use this build:

* At max range start with Power Word: Shield
* Pull with Holy Fire or Mind Blast, which ever does more dmg for your level.
* Start your Shadow Word: Pain DoT
* Do some more damage with Mind Flay, 1-2 applications should be good.
* (If you expect to take lots of damage, use Renew)
* Finally, use your wand until the mob is dead
* After five seconds of using your wand the spirit regen will start filling your mana.
* Spirit Tap will kick in when the mob is dead, which should return you to full mana by the time you reach the next mob

This way you can grind mobs and almost never stop for a mana break.
Level 41 - 50

Even More Shadow. Your talents at level 49:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=rZZEMgtMto0t

* Blackout: Reduces damage taken in PvE, and is invaluable in PvP.
* Silence: A very useful talent in PvP and PvE instances.

Level 50 - 59

Instance Healing
Concentrates on healing efficiency while retaining Shadow spec for grinding and PvP.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=rZf0xZxMgtMtRht

* Improved Renew: Improves mana efficiency and healing per second.
* Divine Fury: Allows you to use Greater Heal rather than Flash Heal, improving mana efficiency.

Fast Grinding
Maximizes damage output for PvE.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVMbZZxMGdMtRhtVo

* Vampiric Touch: An extra DoT that will restore your mana at the same time.
* Wand Specialization: Increases DPS.
* Improved Vampiric Embrace: Increases healing output from Vampiric Embrace.

PvP
Concentates mostly on maximizing damage, with some survivability.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bx0MZbZVMGtMtRhtMo

* Vampiric Touch: An extra DoT.
* Unbreakable Will: Improves Survivability.
* Martyrdom: Allows constant damage against melee.
* Misery: Improves your and your party members' spell damage.

Level 60 - 69

PvE
Maximizes damage output in PvE.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVMhzoZbZxMgtMtRhtVo

Healer
This build is very popular among Priests looking to heal on raids. It aims to improve the power of your healing while stretching your mana pool out for a long as possible using Inner Focus, Improved Healing, Mental Strength and Meditation so you can keep healing through the long fights in MC and BWL. Very hard to level solo level with this build.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxRhzhxtZfhtcc0qVh

PvP
A heavy emphasis on the Shadow Tree gives you the maximum raw DPS. This build generates a lot of threat, and so is most suited for PvP. For tough instances try the Shadow Raider build below.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=rx0GzZbZVMGtMtRhtAo

Notes:

* Swap some points for Spirit Tap, this gives less DPS but longer killing in for example BGs before having to pause and drink again.
* Healing Focus. This is only 2 points and a huge 70% of a chance not to get casting interruption while healing, so vital to most Priests. The problem is that you can't heal while in Shadowform, so this talent isn't for those who don't like to shift out of face-melting mode occasionally. Furthermore, in many situations Martyrdom will allow casting without interruptions, anyway.

Holy Warrior
This build focuses on maximizing Holy damage. The DPS and DPM is not as good as the Shadow build, but healing is better. The basic build:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxrMzhxt0tZfxx0cbVb

* Force of Will and Searing Light beef up the DPS of your main damage spells: Smite and Holy Fire.
* Martyrdom and Healing Focus improve your survivability against Rogues and Warriors.

Level 70 Builds
PvP "Face Melter"

This build is a pure PvP build, and going right to the end of the shadow tree to get a second DoT. It includes only healing focus in the holy tree, and a few points in discipline for buffs. The build is hardly viable for raiding, but in the new arena system, as well as normal PvP, it will truly "melt faces."

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMGzhMZbZVMGdMtRhtVo

Notes

* Misery over Shadow Power, since hoping for a Shadow Word: Death crit doesn't usually work.
* Healing Focus is powerful for healing against quick striking foes like rogues, warriors, druids, or hunter's pets. However, against mentioned classes, Martyrdom often is up all of the time, making Healing Focus useless.
* May substitute Improved Vampiric Embrace for Improved Mind Blast.
* Mana Burn is a powerful tool. Depending on whether you use it, the two talent points might be vital.
* Silent Resolve's dispel resistance no longer affects Shadow spells.

Shadow Raider

As of recent changes, this spec is often preferred by guilds, despite the general lack of priests, over holy/discipline. With the the new expansion having 40 debuff slots, there is room for a priests Shadow Weaving (increases shadow damage by up to 10% by just casting shadow spells).

This build has all the main elements of PvP, but with Shadow Affinity included. It also contains the new 41 point shadow talent, which is a second DoT that restores some mana to all party members when you deal damage.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=rxMhzhZbZVGgzMtRhtqo

Alternate Shadow Raider Build

This build is centered around the concept of mana efficiency of instants/dots. The idea is to use the non crit shadow spells to maximize damage per mana spent. Mental Agility, Inner Focus, and Focused Mind along with the mana regen from Vampiric Touch allow the shadow priest to be as efficient as possible. By avoiding talents that are not expressly for raiding, enough talents are freed up in shadow to go 20 points into disc to make this build possible.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMhkhxZZxGxzMxRhtVo

Shadow Priests, however, should not be underestimated in their ability to dish out dps. With the proper talents, gear, and skill, they can very well out-perform equally, if not better geared classes with high damage output. Their gear should focus on +shadow damage/+damage and healing, with + to spell hit and then intellect being second priorities. Using DoTs extensively, mana conservation, and learning how to manage aggro, is crucial.

Holy Raider (Healer)

Unfortunately, the Holy tree is currently something of a disappointment for PvE raid healers. However, the majority of raid healer priests will still spec deeply into the Holy tree for the most impressive heals possible.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxG0khxzZfLxccMVVhV (suggested build only, see notes below)

Notes

* Avoid Holy tree abilities that require a critical hit on the priest to proc, such as Blessed Recovery and Blessed Resilience. These are generally PvP talents; being critically hit in a PvE raid usually results in a priest's death. Similarly, talents that improve a holy priest's offensive abilities but have no healing benefit are not advised, in particular Searing Light and Surge of Light.
* Critical heals are often a waste since they have a tendency to overheal, especially in raid situations with multiple healers. However, with Inspiration critical heals gain an important secondary effect. Depending on the fight and the raid makeup, it may be worth it to spam rank 1 Flash Heals on a tank to try to keep this effect in play as much as possible, and in this situation it can be helpful to have several points in Holy Specialization.
* A great deal of threat reduction is unnecessary, unless you have an incapable tank or a boss that wipes its threat list, but putting a few points in Silent Resolve is still helpful. Unfortunately, for fights that involve buffs being dispelled, the resistance to this is generally too low to make much difference (e.g. Epoch Hunter).
* Mental Agility gives a mana reduction on most of the spells affected by Absolution, but given the scarcity of useful low-tier talents in the Discipline tree, Absolution is a popular choice. Some priests choose to put extra points in Wand Specialization, but many guilds ask healing priests not to use their wands in a raid as doing so can delay healing at a critical moment.
* Lightwell has been changed to give a great deal more healing and Spirit of Redemption now lasts 15 seconds after death and increases spirit by 5%, so depending on your playstyle and the amount of Spirit you have these may be viable talents.
* Given that raid healing for a priest generally emphasizes Flash Heal over Greater Heal, moving 2 points from Empowered Healing into Improved Divine Spirit may be a wise choice, as Empowered Healing gives less benefit to Flash Heals than it does to Greater Heal and the improved damage and healing output Improved Divine Spirit gives to your fellow raiders can be very valuable.

Holy Warrior

Designed for maximizing holy damage, and while less powerful than a shadow build, it allows some effective healing when situation calls for it. Holy damage is not subject to resistances and as such provides consistent and reliable damage.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMrzhxtbtZbxthbbVb http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?500222013050512051000205051302020052000000000000000000000000000

Notes:

* Divine Fury, Searing Light, Spiritual Guidance, and Surge of Light for maximum damage from holy tree.
* Divine Spirit, Force of Will, and Power Infusion for further increased spell damage.

Discipline

Most priests invest in the Discipline build to some degree, at least high enough to obtain Inner Focus. Discipline increases the power of buffs (Power Word: Shield, Fortitude, Divine Spirit, etc.), balances DPS and healing, and most importantly, conserves mana.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=dxgGuIMtMzgofVx

Notes

* Refer to the previous builds for a good investment in Discipline as a complementary tree.
* Martyrdom, Improved Inner Fire, Power Word: Shield, Reflective Shield, Force of Will, Focused Power (and sometimes Mana Burn) are mainly PvP skills, so invest in these appropriately.
* Talents past Focused Power are "too little too late" to be of much use. One would be better off investing their talents in one of the other trees.
* PvP healing-focused build concentrates on the survivability of a priest healing in PvP.

Support 40-Man Raid Healer

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=dxMhuhxtbzZfotcfdVb

This build should not be widely used. Its main focus is enabling the support healer (as opposed to the main healers) in the raid to efficiently assist in healing the raid while the main healers heal the tanks. Since not many raids actually need support healers this build is very specialized for 40-man raids. The build retains enough Holy talents to replace any main healer that was killed in case the need arises but sacrifices the really spectacular heals for the sake of numerous utility talents that improve the general raid's performance. The key benefits are:

* Healer Support Talents - Most main healers for 40-man raids will opt for getting Circle of Healing in the holy tree. This will give them a very tough choice of what to do with their remaining 10 points. A support healer with improved Power Word: Shield, Fortitude will allow them to spend much needed points on reducing the threat caused by spectacular healing.

* Emergency Heals - By using the Holy Specialization, Inspiration and Inner Focus talents combination these priests will be able to dish out those oft needed emergency heals to needy tanks. A good emergency heal can be the difference between a downed boss and a raid wipe. Holy Nova can be used to dish out quick heals to ranged raid members (specifically hunters, mages and warlocks) without generating any threat as they are usually grouped together away from the main healers' focus.

* Caster Boosting - Using both the Improved Divine Spirit and Power Infusion talents these priests can improve the performance of any caster in the raid dramatically. This combined boost of spell damage and healing can boost a raid's DPS or healing dynamically as required during raid engagements.

* Improved Decursing - Decreased mana cost of decursing spells, combined with a larger mana bank make these priests decursing machines. When facing one of those pesky raid bosses or even trash, who take a fancy to debuffing the entire raid or large portions of it, these priests prove to be a valuable asset indeed.

Mage Builds Guide

2007-06-26T15:55:00.000-07:00

Cryomancer

Frost mages sacrifice the pure damage capabilities of a Fire or Arcane mages for survivability and control. The survivability comes from spells such as Ice Block and Ice Barrier, which protect a Frost mage in PvP and PvE encounters. The control is gained from the debuffs of most Frost spells. Frost debuffs usually decrease an opponents attack and movement speed.

Example Frost Builds

Deep Frost - 10/0/42 [1] Deep Frost builds are good all-purpose builds. The mage gains the survivability of Frost and can easily handle two or three creatures. The survivability of deep Frost builds make it a solid choice for PvP, but its lack of damage capabilities make it a poor choice for raiding. The build provided includes all of the core talents, and has nine points to be distributed at your discretion. Arcane Meditation is recommendable if you mostly do PvE content, but Shatter, Permafrost and Frostbite are best for PvP, in which case points should be removed from Winter's Chill.

PvP Deep Frost - 17/0/44 [2]

Drops talents from frost to gain Improved Counterspell which helps to shutdown casters.

Raid Frost - [3]

This build maximizes damage with Frost with Spell Power and Arcane Instability. Spell Power will increase your damage by about ten percent alone. For this build to shine, however, you need one or more mages in the raid with Winter's Chill to maximize your benefit from Spell Power.

AoE Grinding - [4]

It is generally accepted that Frost is the better Tree for AoE grinding, due to its slow and root capabilities. To create a successful AoE build Artic Reach, Permafrost and Improved Blizzard are essential. Frostbite is actually detrimental here and should be skipped over, as it has a tendency to split up your tight pack of mobs that is required for AoE grinding. Ice Barrier also helps you from taking any damage as you round up mobs (even hits from mobs below your level will start to add up).

Pyromancer

Where Frost builds offer control and survivability, Fire builds are the ultimate in damage dealing. From Ignite, which burns your target for additional damage on crits, to Critical Mass and Fire Power which enhance your damage potential, Fire Mages are feared and respected the world (of Warcraft) over.

Typical Fire Builds

Heavy Fire - 10/48/3 [5]

This is a well-balanced PvE and PvP build, with one point to distribute at your discretion. It can dish out large amounts of damage, and Dragon's Breath and Blast Wave help massively in PvP. However, if your focus is on PvP, it is best to remove points from Playing With Fire and put them into Blazing Speed.

Hybrid Arcane/Fire - 33/28/0 [6]

An extremely devastating Arena PvP build which is only barely beaten by Heavy Fire in PvE environments. There are few enemies which cannot be buried by a critical hit of an instant-cast Pyroblast backed by Arcane Power.

PvP Fire - 17/41/3 [7]

Another PvP build. focuses on using scorch for quick criticals. magic attunement and improved counterspell for when you run into casters and arcane impact for when you get up close and personal.
[edit] Arcanist

With the addition of several new talents in the Arcane tree, it is now viable to play as a heavily Arcane spec'd Mage. From Empowered Arcane Missiles, which offers a high damage output at the cost of increased mana, to Mind Mastery (Spell Damage increase) and Spell Power (Critical Strike Damage Bonus), the Arcane Mage has truly arrived.

Typical Arcane Builds

Arcane Overload - 61/0/0 [8]

Sure to inspire heated debates, this exclusive Arcane build offers heavy damage and amazing utility. Mind Mastery and Spell Power provide more than enough fire power to your Arcane Missiles, having Arcane Power is icing on the top. Presence of Mind can also be used very creatively in this build to quickly sheep your foe, or to blast out a Fireball (handy for the DOT) or Frostbolt.

PvP Frost - 41/0/20 [9]

This build has been growing more and more popular among mages. With the combination of Shatter and Ice Shards in the frost tree, stacked with Arcane Power and Spell Power, this enables the mage to experience the maximization of all the critical strike bonus talents. While relying heavily on chance and burst damage, this build allows the mage to have close to 100% critical strike chance if used properly. While the target is frozen, you gain 50% critical strike. At level 70, your base critical strike will be around 15-20%. If you are clear casting, you gain 30% critical strike. 50% + 20% + 30% = 100%! Stack that with ZHC and Arcane Power and your enemies will be shattered to pieces!

Arena Frost - 33/0/28 [10]

This build is currently a very popular build among high rating mages. This build has maximum controlled burst damage with Shatter, Ice Shards, Spell Power and Arcane Power. Ice Block is included and is considered by many mages in arena as required.

Balanced Arcanist - 43/11/7 [11]

All the bonus damage you can get from arcane tree, amazing utility and "3 Minute Mage" talents for those moments when you really need blow up something fast.

Variant 3 minute mage - 31/30/0 [12]

This varies from the normal 3 minute mage builds in that it tries to be viable for both PvP and PvE (arcane meditation). Few enemies can withstand the "arcane power - pyroblast - PoM - pyroblast - fireblast - blast wave" combo with enough HP left to be a threat.

Elementalist

Very uncommon before the 1.11 Mage Talent review. Several mages abandoned the (element)/Arcane builds and began using Fire/Frost builds that utilized the synergy between the two trees. These builds are very effective in PvP, and can see use in Raids as well. Elementalists may want to inform the raids leader of their build beforehand, since there are unique problems associated with this style in PvE.

Many Elementalists tend to focus on one element of the other, often using Fire for DPS and Frost for control and Shatter. A balanced approach offers more versatility, and similar damaging power. It’s also alluded to by its users as requiring more skill, since the “crutches” from the Arcane tree (usually Imp. Counterspell and PoM that see much use in PvP builds) are never present in these builds.

Typical Elemental Builds

Balanced - 0/24/27 [13]

This build mixes the survivability of Frost with the burst damage of Fire. A solid PVP or RAID build depending on your personal preference.

Fire n Ice - 0/30/21[14]

Whereas the build above aims to walk the line of surviving and dealing high damage, this build is a PVP machine. Frost is used mainly for Shatter to set up heavy damage via an array of AoE attacks. This template is supreme for burning down multiple foes in rapid fashion.

Frost Over Fire - 0/20/41[15]

This build is less for mage who want the high max damage, but want more survival options. This build will give you the survival capabilities of frost, with the high damage with pyroblast. This build is more for PvP, because of the higher use for frostbite. Shatter+Frostbite will make your spells crit a lot when used correctly, and with Master of Elements, that is a lot of mana regained. The extra frost nova from the water element only increase this, plus the extra DPS never hurts. There are 4 extra points, two in frost and two in fire if you don't like to increase your range,(Flame Throwing and Arctic Reach) but for some end game raid bosses the extra 6 feet can take you out of some of their spell ranges.

Basic Beginner Guide

2007-06-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

Your first few levels

Now that you've entered the world, you will find yourself in the starter area specific to your character's race. The following tips will help you through the first few levels in your new adventuring career.

Use the in-game help menu
The in-game help system is designed to teach the basics of the interface and the game mechanics. Click on the flashing exclamation marks that appear near the bottom of your screen. In addition, the red question mark on your main menu bar at the bottom of your screen will open the GM assistance menu.

Learn the controls
You should first familiarize yourself with the interface. If you're unsure how to control any aspect of your character, go to the Interface menu in the Options menu. Besides changing how you move your character, you can change any key binding to your liking.

Load up your quest log
Quest givers have exclamation marks over their heads. There will be some in your immediate vicinity, and you will find more as you explore more of your surroundings. Pick up as many quests as possible. Hit your "L" key to bring up your quest log, which will display all the quests you have accepted as well as their objectives. It's a good idea to do several quests at the same time if possible, when multiple quest objectives take place from defeating the same foes or in the same general area.

Find your class trainer
One of the first quests you will be offered will direct you to your class trainer. The class trainers that you will encounter in the game's capital cities are where you can learn new skills and spells for your character. The class trainer in the starter areas will always be close to the first group of questgivers.

Combat
Right-clicking on an enemy will attack it with your weapon. To use spells or abilities, click the buttons on your action bar at the bottom left of your screen. At times you may need to run from combat if you are in over your head. After chasing you for a short distance, the monsters will return to where they were.

Regaining health and mana
Food and drink will replenish your character's health and mana. By default, your character will start with a small supply of food and/or water, which you can consume by clicking on their icons in your action bar. You are unable to eat or drink when your character is considered in combat, and moving or entering combat will cancel the effect.

Leveling up
Every time your character gains a level, you get an increase in stats. Every even numbered level, your character gains access to new skills, which can be learned at your class trainer. At level 10, your character begins gaining a talent point per level, which can be used to learn new talents. Access your talents page by hitting the "n" key.

Using new abilities or spells
You can move new abilities to your action bar for ease of use. Open the abilities panel by pressing the appropriate button on your main menu bar at the bottom of the screen (or hit "P"). Once you find the ability you want to place in your hotbar, simply click and drag in into an open spot. You can also use a spell or ability from the abilities page by clicking on it.

Moving to a new area
After you've finished the first few quests, you will be given a quest to move to a different quest hub. This is usually a small town of some sort, with vendors, class and profession trainers, an inn, and a mailbox. When you arrive at the inn, its a good idea to bind your hearthstone there by talking to the innkeeper. This will allow you to teleport to the inn by using your hearthstone.

Learning professions
If you've decided what professions you wish to learn, you will be able to learn them from the profession trainers near the starting area. You can learn up to two main professions (such as mining, leatherworking, and herbalism) but all of the secondary professions of fishing, cooking, and first aid. First aid is a particularly useful profession for new characters, regardless of class. If you're undecided as to which primary professions to take, there's no need to make a decision now as trainers are readily accessible in the capital cities. On the other hand, you can always unlearn a primary profession if you change your mind along the way.

Finding the closest city
Your quests will eventually lead you into your race's capital city. Each capital has a bank, auction house, class and profession trainers, a flightmaster, and many other areas to conduct business and associate with others. It is where you will also find transportation to other capitals, whether by boat, air taxi, or zeppelin.

Reputation changes
You can look at your reputation with different groups in the world in the character panel under the reputation tab. This will show what they think about you and how they will react. You can change your reputation through various methods in the game such as combat and quests.

Storage space
Bag space will be a premium in the early levels. Your initial backpack holds up to 16 items, but you may find that it fills up all too quickly. If you access a bank at a capital city you can unload items such as tradeskill materials you may wish to simply store for the future. In addition, you can acquire more bags for your character by either buying them or making them. Tailors can make their own bags, which is a very useful ability. You can also buy bags from NPC vendors and from other players. The bags you can purchase from player tailors will frequently be less expensive. Place an empty bag in one of the bag slots on the lower right part of your screen to use it.

Communicating with other players
Communicating with others is one of the core elements of World of Warcraft. To speak to players in your immediate vicinity, hit the enter button, type your message, then hit enter again. Players that are near you will see your message. To send a player a private message, type /w followed by the character's name. Your text field should change color and indiciate that you are sending that player a private message. To respond to a private message, hit the "r" key and type your message. Making friends with others will broaden your enjoyment of the game and help your character in many ways, including teaming up for quests or to defeat powerful monsters.

Conclusion
Enjoy your journey through the beginning stages of the game. Take your time and enjoy the content at your own pace, while hopefully making a few friends along the way. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a long and fruitful adventuring career. Enjoy your travels through Azeroth!

Quickstart Beginner Guide

2007-06-26T15:40:00.000-07:00

Quick Start Information

In-Game Help System! - If you are new to the game, we recommend you take advantage of the in-game help system. By clicking on the flashing exclamation mark icon that appears at the bottom of your screen, you can learn about the basic elements of the game such as starting quests, initiating combat, and training your character.

If you should have any questions about anything on your interface, hold your mouse over the item to bring up a tool tip box with information on the relevant item.
To move in the game world, use the arrow keys or the WASD keys on your keyboard. You can adjust your character's view by using your mouse.
If you encounter an object, monster, or character that you can interact with, your mouse pointer will turn into an icon that will indicate that you can do so.
To select an object, monster, or character, left-click it. To interact with it, right-click it.

Read Your Manual!

We highly suggest you take the time to read your World of Warcraft manual. It was written for new users and contains many things not mentioned in this guide.

Logging into the Game

Now that you have created your account, you can enter the game and begin playing. Once you start the game, you will be prompted to read and agree to our Terms of Use Agreement and End User License Agreement. At the log in screen, enter the account name and password that you chose when you created your account.

I read the entire thing word for word, honest!

Select Your Realm

First you need to select your realm (also known as a "server"). You will need to contact your friends and pick the same realm so that you can all play together; characters on different realms cannot play with each other.

To learn more about what types of realms are available, visit our Realm Type Guide.

Once you log in, you can create a character for yourself by choosing your race, appearance, and class. To learn more about classes before making your decision, visit our World of Warcraft Class Guide.

Choose the realm you wish to play on.

Horde vs. Alliance

In the world of Azeroth, the Horde and the Alliance are opposing factions locked in a struggle for control of the land - and neither side is backing down. Horde and Alliance players can battle each other, but they are unable to group together, trade, or even talk to each other. Thus, if you wish to play with your friends, make sure you select races that belong to the same faction.

You can create both Horde and Alliance characters in a Normal realm, although they will be subject to the same restrictions such as not being able to mail something from an Alliance character to a Horde character that you both own. On Player vs. Player realms however, you can only create characters from one of the two factions.

Horde Races:

Alliance Races:

Orcs
Tauren
Trolls
Undead
Blood Elves

Humans
Dwarves
Gnomes
Night Elves
Draenei
Creating Your Character

The first step in creating your character is to choose his or her race, gender, and class. It's a good idea to do some research before making this choice, either by reading your manual, clicking the class and race links above, or both - one's race and class are the defining traits of your character. The gender of your character on the other hand is purely a cosmetic feature and has no impact on that character's abilities or statistics.

Customize Your Appearance

You can customize various aspects of your character's appearance. All characters will have selectable hairstyles, hair colors, and skin colors. Other features such as facial markings, earrings, horns, and facial hair will be specific to certain race and gender combinations.

If you find this takes too much time, simply click the "randomize" button to randomize your character's appearance. You can continue to push this button until you are satisfied with the results.

Choose a Name

The name you choose will represent you to everyone you meet in Azeroth, so choose wisely! Be aware of the naming policy so that you do not risk penalties such as having to rename your character.

Once you've picked your name, your character will be ready to begin his or her adventuring career. Click the "Enter World" button to enter the World of Warcraft!

A Note on Dying

She looks vaguely familiar...
It is more than likely that at some point in your adventuring career, your character will meet an untimely demise. However, in World of Warcraft character death has no lasting consequences. You will immediately be able to release your spirit as a ghost, at which point you will be transported to a nearby graveyard. As a ghost, you must run back to the vicinity of your corpse to revive yourself. Your minimap will display an arrow pointing towards your corpse, as well as back towards the graveyard if you get lost.

Paging a Game Master (GM)

If you need assistance at any time while you are in the game, do not hesitate to contact a Game Master (GM). Our team of GMs are available to assist you with a wide range of problems and issues you may encounter. To contact a GM, follow these simple steps:

Click on the "Request Help" button on the Interface Panel at the bottom of your screen. It's the one that looks like a red question mark (?).

Select the "Issues that GMs can Assist With" button.

Choose a category that encompasses your problem.

Type in your problem and click Submit.

A ticket will appear on your screen. A GM will contact you shortly thereafter to help you resolve your situation.

Warcraft Hints

2007-06-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

So now that there are more high level characters in Liquid Courage we officers would like to alleviate some confusion that some guild members may be having regarding how strict they are finding high level instance runs.

So what do I mean by “strict”? Due to the intense nature of the high level instances, the time it takes to complete the instance, and the increase in loot drops, the party or raid must be very organized with everyone understanding and performing their role in the party. This organization is necessary and it is up to the RAID leader or manager to ensure that everyone is following the guide lines identified below. No one wants to be in an instance where the party is regularly getting wiped (killed) because people cannot follow directions. If you have not experienced this yet let me tell you it is not fun!

We already started to do a lot of high level instances and we want everyone to enjoy them as they really are a lot of fun! So please read the information below so you will be better prepared to enter high level instances.

Some terms for you to know:

* RAID/Party Leader: The person with the overall responsibility of the RAID. Adds removes players, organizing each party, and gives general commands. This person is the leader and they have the FINAL word on any disputes.
* RAID Boss: Person directing the raid. Basically this may or may not be the RAID Leader , could be the person with the most knowledge regarding the instance.
* Loot Master: Controls the looting of rolled items. Ensures everyone understands the Loot rules before RAID begins. Controls rolling and clearly identifies winners!
* MT: Main Tank. Normally a Warrior with overall responsible for holding as much agro as possible; character will be running/ attacking as many enemies as possible. Unless otherwise specified by RAID leader or MT this person normally is responsible for pulling.
* MA: Main Assist. Hits a single target until it is dead. Takes on high threat targets. Depending on size of party/raid there could be more than one.
* AOE: Area of Effect. High close damage dealt by Mages, Warlocks, and Hunters; usually a Mage. Note: Warriors should make every effort should be made to pull the aggro off of the caster while they are casting AOE. Priests may need to shield caster and be ready to provide strong heals.
CC = Crowd control. For example Polymorph, SAP (Rogue Attack), Traps, Sleep, etc…
* PAT: Patrol coming

ADD: Additional Enemies attacking or incoming
* BUFF: Command to stop party so everyone groups up and receives party buffs. Move close together!
* DRINK: lets the party know to wait for mana drinkers to refill their mana reserve. No one should pull during this time until everyone in the party is ready.

If you have any questions about the following then get with an LC Officer:

Do's:

* Follow all instructions from RAID and Loot Leader as well as the RAID Boss.
* Be sure to follow the instructions from the designated puller; this may or may not be the MT.
* Communicate in Party or RAID chat. “/raid” or “/party”.
* Read and understand the Loot Rules from the link on home page of guild website.
* Stand next to body or chest when rolling for an item. The Loot Master must see your roll for it to count.
* Feel free to type “STOP” if you need to stop party movement or communicate concern.
* Stick with the group.
* Stay aware of the immediate area. There are many times rooms are skipped or enemies are in adjacent room. Wandering, backing up in combat, or casting fear could cause a party to be wiped.
* Dismiss Pet when jumping off ledges. Nothing worse than a pet dragging ton of enemies to easily wipe the party…..you will not be making many friends this way.
* Add a macro assist the MA using “/assist”. Ask Raid Leader for more info.

Don'ts:

* Do not get in front of the MT when walking into regions. The MT is the guide.
* Do not pull enemies. Let the MT (or designated puller) do their job.
* Do not loot in combat. Wait until all enemies are dead before jumping on corpses.
* Do not open chests or crates w/o asking permission. Most chests will be rolled on and in many cases in high level instances there will be a trap or monster spawn when something is opened. Dwarves are great for identifying actual treasures.
* DO NOT roll on BOP even if it is an item set. (There are very few exceptions to this rule but will be covered by Loot Master prior to RAID. For example: Fair Cards, Corrupter Stones in Scholomance and Strathome.)
* Do not explore on your own!
* Argue in RAID or party chat. You have a problem with something in the way the instance is going then contact the Officer or Guild Leader in private chat.

Please remember that if you have any problems in instance runs with LC members be sure to contact an LC Officer as soon as possible. If possible have some screenshots of player's dialogues if necessary.

Alliance Powerleveling Guide

2007-06-26T15:38:00.002-07:00

This guide is for advanced player who want to level a second char or going for level 60 quick.

Level 1-20: Newbie lands, stick to the friendly zones (not contested). Just grind. The quests are a waste of time up to level 20 if you are focusing on maxing out xp per hour. 20-26: Wetlands quests and raptors/slime/orcs for grinding. Redridge mountain Lakeshire quests.

Level 26-30: Duskwood quests and undead for grinding. Hillsbrad critter roamers for grinding.

Level 30-35: Did these all in a day on Daggerspines in Hillsbrad right next to Southshore along the coast. Huge spawn, very fast respawn rate, easy mobs to kill. Purgation isle (island in the very far Southwest water area of Hillsbrad) also a nice secluded place you can grind on undead.

Level 36-40: Hillsbrad southshore quests. Desolace quests and kodo grinding for 36-38, then Undead Ravagers in the southeast for 38-40. Cresting exiles at the circle of outer binding in Arathi also for 37-41; extremely easy mobs with a fast respawn. Alterac ogres from 35-40 for grinding. Drywhisker kobolds in Arathi east of Hammerfall for 36-39 for grinding.

Level 41-45: Hinterlands trolls, owl beasts, and wolves for grinding and quests. Badlands ogres, gnolls, and quests.

Level 45-48: Tanaris quests and pirates on the eastern paninsula for grinding. Stranglethorn vale quests (only if you need rewards imo). Badlands greater elementals for grinding.

Level 48-52: Felwood deadwood gnolls for grinding and quests from the sanctuary in the south. Blasted lands dreadmauls for grinding. Un'goro crater (best started at 50) for primarily quests and grinding off the plants and tar elementals. Azshara undead highbornes and thunderhead hyppogriffs for grinding.

Level 52-55: Azshara blood elves for grinding. Burning steppes dreadmaul rock ogre caves firegut ogres (very low AC) for grinding. Felwood irontree woods and cave for grinding (great spot). Western plaguelands questing for argent dawn and grinding on undead throughout the various camps.

Level 55-58: Eastern plaguelands quests from the sanctuary, grinding on undead at the ruined towns. Winterspring grinding at winterfall village or Lake Kel'Theril undead highbornes (my personal favorite camp). Blackrock Stronghold in Burning Steppes for grinding.

Level 58-60: "The" yeti cave in Winterspring, due Southeast of Everlook (very nice place). Grosh Gok compound ogres in Deadwind pass (great spot, no one knows about it). Eastern plaguelands Fungal Vale undead grinding and argent dawn token farming. Moonowls in northeast winterspring for grinding.

Horde Powerleveling Guide

2007-06-26T15:38:00.001-07:00

his is for advanced players who prefer the quick way of leveling up!

General Twinking, Addons, Level from 1 to 20 in 14 hours
1-12 Mulgore, Durotar, Tirisfal
12-23 Barrens, Silverpine
20-24 Wailing Caverns (instance)
20-24 Stonetalon, Silverpine, Ashenvale
24-27 Shadowfang Keep (instance)
25-27 Hillsbrad Foothills
27-30 1000K Needles
27-30 Blackfathom Deeps (instance)
31-34 Arathi Highlands, Alterac Mountains, Desolace
35-37 Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Duskwallow Marsh
38-40 Razorfen Downs (instance)
38-40 Alterac/Hillsbrad, Desolace, Badlands
38-41 Scarlet Monastery (instance)
41-45 Stranglethorn Vale, Arathi Highlands, Tanaris
44-46 Uldaman (instance)
46-50 Feralas, Swamp of Sorrows, Hinterlands, Searing Gorge, Blasted Lands, Tanaris
47-51 Maraudon (instance)
Zul'Farrak (instance)
50-54 Un'goro Crater, Felwood (Timbermaw), Azshera, Winterspring
52-54 The Sunken Temple (instance)
Blackrock Depths (instance)
55-60 Western Plaguelands (Argent Dawn), Silithis (Cenarion Circle), Eastern Plaguelands
57-60 Lower Blackrock Spire (instance)
Upper Blackrock Spire (instance)
Strathholme (instance)
Dire Maul (East, North, West) (instance)

Enjoy the updated Horde Power Leveling Guide!

Horde Grinding Guide

2007-06-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

Horde Grinding Spots:

* 0-15 - Questing fastest possible XP
* 15-18 - The Barrens - Harpies (loc: 38,16) *
* 18-22 - The Barrens - Bristleback(s)(loc: 52,44) *
* 22-24 - The Barrens - Bristleback(s) (loc: 41,79) *
* 22-24 – Hillsbrad - Tarren Mill: Bears and Spiders (loc: 59,30)
* 24-26 – Hillsbrad - Across the road from Tarren Mill Bears and Cats
* 24-26 - Thousand Needles - Galak Scouts (etc) * (loc: 45,42)
* 26-28 – Hillsbrad – Spiders/Bears (back of Syndicate Tower)
* 26-30 - Hillsbrad - Mud Gnolls *
* 28-30 – Hillsbrad – Nethander Stead: Cats/Spiders
* 30-32 – Thousand Needles – Harpies inside the cave*
* 30-38 - Shimmering Flats - All monst,ers. *
* 38-40 - Dustswallow Swamp - Very North East Islands, Murlock Warriors/Oracles.
* 40-46 - Ferales - Woodpaws (stay away from the ones that disease for slow casting speeds)
* 46-48 - Ferales - Frayfeather Skystormers
* 48-50 - Ferales - Harpies
* 48-51 - Southwest of Gadgetzan - Thistleshrubs
* 50-54 - Western Plaguelands - First 'field' to the left, assorted monsters.
* 54-60 - Western Plaguelands - Scarlet Lumberjacks

Alliance Grinding Guide

2007-06-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

Alliance Grinding Spots:

Level 1-12:

* Newbie Zone :: You may have to leave at level 11.

Level 12-20:

* Westfall [Sentinel Hill, Westfall Lighthouse]
* Loch Modan [Thelsamar, Farstrider's Lodge, Stonewrought Dam]
* Darkshore [Auberdine]
* Elite Area: Mo'grosh mound (Loch Modan)
* Instance: Deadmines

Level 20-22:

* Redridge Mountains [Lakeshire, Tower of Azora in Elwynn]

Level 22-30:

* Redridge Mountains [Lakeshire, Tower of Azora in Elwynn]
* Duskwood [Darkshire, Sven's Camp, Abercrombie]
* Wetlands [Menethil Harbor, Greenwarden, N. Loch Modan (The Algaz Gauntlet)]
* Ashenvale [Astranaar ?]
* Stonetalon Mountains [?]
* Elite Area: Dun Modr (Wetlands)
* Instance: The Stockades
* Instance: Shadowfang Keep
* Instance: Blackfathom Deeps
* Happy Loot: Naraxis' Fang (Duskwood)
* Happy Loot: Tiny Crimson Whelpling (Wetlands)
* Grind Area [26]: Dragonmaw Encampment (Wetlands)
* Grind Area [26]: Whelgar's Excavation Site (Wetlands)
* Grind Area [28]: Rotting Orchard (Duskwood)
* Grind Area [28]: Raven Hill Cemetary (Duskwood)
* Grind Area [29]: Vul'Gol Ogre Mound (Duskwood)

Level 31-37:

* Stranglethorn Vale [Rebel Camp, Nesingwary's Expedition, Booty Bay]
* Hillsbrad Foothills [Southshore]
* Arathi Highlands [Refuge Pointe]
* Desolace [32]
* Thousand Needles [31]
* Instance: Gnomeregan
* Happy Loot: Howling Blade (Skhowl, Alterac Mountains)
* Happy Loot: Toxic Revenger (Gnomeregan)
* Happy Loot: Tiny Emerald Whelpling (Swamp of Sorrows)
* Grind Area [31]: Kurzen Encampment (Stranglethorn Vale)
* Grind Area [33]: Stranglethorn Raptors (Stranglethorn Vale)
* Grind Area [33]: Growless Cave (Alterac Mountains)
* Grind Area [34]: Gallow's Corner (Crushridge Ogres
* Altarac Mountains)
* Grind Area [36]: Venture Co. Base Camp (Lake Nazferiti
* Stranglethorn Vale)

Level 37-43:

* Stranglethorn Vale
* Arathi Mountains [Refuge Pointe, Faldir's Cove]
* Badlands [Various camps around the zone]
* Desolace [37]
* Elite Area: Stromgarde
* Elite Area: Mosh'ogg Mound
* Instance: Scarlet Monastery
* Instance: Uldaman
* Instance: Razorfen Downs
* Happy Loot: Tiny Black Whelpling (Badlands)
* Grind Area [37]: Lashtail Raptors (Stranglethorn Vale)
* Grind Area [37]: Water Elementals (Stranglethorn Vale)
* Grind Area [39]: The spider cave north of Brackenwall (Swamp of Sorrows)
* Grind Area [39]: Rock Elementals (Badlands)
* Grind Area [39]: Elder Crag Coyotes (Badlands)
* Grind Area [41]: Scalding Whelps (Badlands)
* Grind Area [41]: Agmond's End (Badlands)
* Grind Area [41]: Ziata'jai Ruins (Venture Co. Stuff, Stranglethorn Vale)
* Grind Area [43]: Naga Explorers (Stranglethorn Vale)

Level 43-46:

* Feralas [Feathermoon Stronghold]
* Tanaris [Gadgetzan, Steamwheedle Port]
* Instance: Zul'Farrak
* Grind Area [43]: Wastewander Bandits (Tanaris)
* Grind Area [44]: Isle of Dread (Feralas
* Inside Cave; South of Feathermoon Stronghold)
* Grind Area [45]: Feral Scar Vale (Feralas)
* Happy Loot: 14slot bag! Cortello's Riddle quest, starts in one of the ships in Stranglethorn Vale for the end of the Bloodsail Buccaneers line of quests.

Level 46-50:

* Tanaris [Gadgetzan, Steamwheedle Port]
* The Hinterlands [Aerie Peak]
* Instance: Zul'Farrak
* Instance: Maraudon [49]
* Instance: Temple of Atal'Hakkar [50]
* Grind Area [47]: Undead in Western Ashzara (Azshara)
* Grind Area [47]: Dunemaul Compound (Tanaris)
* Grind Area [47]: Elementals/Golems around The Cauldron + N of it (Searing Gorge)
* Elemental Leatherworking Supplies

Level 50-55:

* Searing Gorge [Kalaran Windblade]
* Blasted Lands
* Un'Goro Crater [Marshal's Refuge]
* Felwood [Emerald Sanctuary]
* Burning Steppes [Morgan's Vigil]
* Instance: Temple of Atal'Hakkar
* Grind Area [50]: Deadwood Village (Felwood)
* Grind Area [51]: Ruins of Eldarath (Azshara)
* Grind Area [52]: Dreadmaul Rock (Firegut Ogres - Burning Steppes)
* Grind Area [52]: Legash Encampment, Thalassian Base Camp, Ursolan (Azshara)
* Grind Area [52]: Jaedenar (Felwood)
* Grind Area [52]: Sorrow Hill (Western Plaguelands)
* Grind Area [53]: Ironwood Trees in northern Felwood
* Grind Area [54]: Temple of Arkkoran (Azshara)
* Grind Area [55]: Jadefire Run, Felpaw Village (Felwood)

Level 55-60:

* Winterspring [Everlook, Starfall Village]
* Western Plaguelands [Chillwind Point]
* Eastern Plaguelands
* Instance: Blackrock Depths
* Instance: Blackrock Spire [60]
* Instance: Stratholme [60]
* Instance: Scholomance [60]
* Grind Area [55]: Felstone Field, Dalson's Tears, The Writhing Haunt, Gahrron's Withering (Western Plaguelands)
* Grind Area [56]: Northridge Lumber Camp (Western Plaguelands)
* Grind Area [56]: Corin's Crossing (Eastern Plaguelands)
* Grind Area [56]: The Pillar of Ash (Burning Steppes)
* Grind Area [56]: Winterfall Village (Winterspring)
* Grind Area [57]: Blackrock Stronghold (Burning Steppes)
* Grind Area [57]: Ice Thistle Hills (Wintespring) - Rugged Leathers

WoW Search Box

2007-06-25T23:54:00.000-07:00

Search all the world of warcraft items,quests,instances,npcs and much more!

Talent Calculator

2007-06-25T23:46:00.000-07:00

NOTE:We must renew the Talent Calculator Every Page,this is becuase it starts to get lost and the program stops working...it will work everytime we renew it,Thanks ! :)

Instance List

2007-06-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

= Alliance

= Horde

NOTE: Instances with Horde and Alliance faction symbols beside them mean, they are both accessable by both factions.

Layout-
NAME:
FACTION(s):
LEVELS:
LOCATION:
WoW DESCRIPTION:
PLAYER LIMIT:

Instances-

Deadmines

Levels 15-28
Westfall
Once the greatest gold production center in the human lands, the Dead Mines were abandoned when the Horde razed Stormwind city during the First War. Now the Defias Brotherhood has taken up residence and turned the dark tunnels into their private sanctum. It is rumored that the thieves have conscripted the clever goblins to help them build something terrible at the bottom of the mines - but what that may be is still uncertain. Rumor has it that the way into the Deadmines lies through the quiet, unassuming village of Moonbrook.
10 Player Limit

Wailing Caverns

Level 15-28
The Barrens
Recently, a night elf druid named Naralex discovered a network of underground caverns within the heart of the Barrens. Dubbed the 'Wailing Caverns', these natural caves were filled with steam fissures which produced long, mournful wails as they vented. Naralex believed he could use the caverns' underground springs to restore lushness and fertility to the Barrens - but to do so would require siphoning the energies of the fabled Emerald Dream. Once connected to the Dream however, the druid's vision somehow became a nightmare. Soon the Wailing Caverns began to change - the waters turned foul and the once-docile creatures inside metamorphosed into vicious, deadly predators. It is said that Naralex himself still resides somewhere inside the heart of the labyrinth, trapped beyond the edges of the Emerald Dream. Even his former acolytes have been corrupted by their master's waking nightmare - transformed into the wicked Druids of the Fang.
10 Player Limit

Shadowfang Keep

Level 18-32
Silverpine Forest
During the Third War, the wizards of the Kirin Tor battled against the undead armies of the Scourge. When the wizards of Dalaran died in battle, they would rise soon after - adding their former might to the growing Scourge. Frustrated by their lack of progress (and against the advice of his peers) the Archmage, Arugal elected to summon extra-dimensional entities to bolster Dalaran's diminishing ranks. Arugal's summoning brought the ravenous worgen into the world of Azeroth. The feral wolf-men slaughtered not only the Scourge, but quickly turned on the wizards themselves. The worgen laid siege to the keep of the noble, Baron Silverlaine. Situated above the tiny hamlet of Pyrewood, the keep quickly fell into shadow and ruin. Driven mad with guilt, Arugal adopted the worgen as his children and retreated to the newly dubbed 'Shadowfang Keep'. It's said he still resides there, protected by his massive pet, Fenrus - and haunted by the vengeful ghost of Baron Silverlaine.
10 Player Limit

Blackfathom Deeps

Level 20-35
Ashenvale
Situated along the Zoram Strand of Ashenvale, Blackfathom Deeps was once a glorious temple dedicated to the night elves' moon-goddess, Elune. However, the great Sundering shattered the temple - sinking it beneath the waves of the Veiled Sea. There it remained untouched - until, drawn by its ancient power - the naga and satyr emerged to plumb its secrets. Legends hold that the ancient beast, Aku'mai, has taken up residence within the temple's ruins. Aku'mai, a favored pet of the primordial Old Gods, has preyed upon the area ever since. Drawn to Aku'mai's presence, the cult known as the Twilight's Hammer has also come to bask in the Old Gods' evil presence.
10 Player Limit

Gnomeregan

Level 24-40
Dun Morogh
Located in Dun Morogh, the technological wonder known as Gnomeregan has been the gnomes' capital city for generations. Recently, a hostile race of mutant troggs infested several regions of Dun Morogh - including the great gnome city. In a desperate attempt to destroy the invading troggs, High Tinker Mekkatorque ordered the emergency venting of the city's radioactive waste tanks. Several gnomes sought shelter from the airborne pollutants as they waited for the troggs to die or flee. Unfortunately, though the troggs became irradiated from the toxic assault - their siege continued, unabated. Those gnomes who were not killed by noxious seepage were forced to flee, seeking refuge in the nearby dwarven city of Ironforge. There, High Tinker Mekkatorque set out to enlist brave souls to help his people reclaim their beloved city. It is rumored that Mekkatorque's once-trusted advisor, Mekgineer Thermaplugg, betrayed his people by allowing the invasion to happen. Now, his sanity shattered, Thermaplug remains in Gnomeregan - furthering his dark schemes and acting as the city's new techno-overlord.
10 Player Limit

Razorfen Kraul

Level 24-40
The Barrens
Ten thousand years ago - during the War of the Ancients, the mighty demigod, Agamaggan, came forth to battle the Burning Legion. Though the colossal boar fell in combat, his actions helped save Azeroth from ruin. Yet over time, in the areas where his blood fell, massive thorn-ridden vines sprouted from the earth. The quillboar - believed to be the mortal offspring of the mighty god, came to occupy these regions and hold them sacred. The heart of these thorn-colonies was known as the Razorfen. The great mass of Razorfen Kraul was conquered by the old crone, Charlga Razorflank. Under her rule, the shamanistic quillboar stage attacks on rival tribes as well as Horde villages. Some speculate that Charlga has even been negotiating with agents of the Scourge - aligning her unsuspecting tribe with the ranks of the Undead for some insidious purpose.
10 Player Limit

The Scarlet Monastery

Level 29-45
Tirisfal Glades
The Monastery was once a proud bastion of Lordaeron's priesthood - a center for learning and enlightenment. With the rise of the undead Scourge during the Third War, the peaceful Monastery was converted into a stronghold of the fanatical Scarlet Crusade. The Crusaders are intolerant of all non-human races, regardless of alliance or affiliation. They believe that any and all outsiders are potential carriers of the undead plague - and must be destroyed. Reports indicate that adventurers who enter the monastery are forced to contend with Scarlet Commander Mograine - who commands a large garrison of fanatically devoted warriors. However, the monastery's true master is High Inquisitor Whitemane - a fearsome priestess who possesses the ability to resurrect fallen warriors to do battle in her name.
10 Player Limit

Razorfen Downs

Level 33-47
The Barrens
Crafted from the same mighty vines as Razorfen Kraul, Razorfen Downs is the traditional capital city of the quillboar race. The sprawling, thorn-ridden labyrinth houses a veritable army of loyal quillboar as well as their high priests - the Death's Head tribe. Recently, however, a looming shadow has fallen over the crude den. Agents of the undead Scourge - led by the lich, Amnennar the Coldbringer - have taken control over the quillboar race and turned the maze of thorns into a bastion of undead might. Now the quillboar fight a desperate battle to reclaim their beloved city before Amnennar spreads his control across the Barrens.
10 Player Limit

Uldaman

Level 35-52
The Badlands
Uldaman is an ancient Titan vault that has laid buried deep within the earth since the world's creation. Dwarven excavations have recently penetrated this forgotten city, releasing the Titans' first failed creations: the troggs. Legends say that the Titans created troggs from stone. When they deemed the experiment a failure, the Titans locked the troggs away and tried again - resulting in the creation of the dwarven race. The secrets of the dwarves' creation are recorded on the fabled Discs of Norgannon - massive Titan artifacts that lie at the very bottom of the ancient city. Recently, the Dark Iron dwarves have launched a series of incursions into Uldaman, hoping to claim the discs for their fiery master, Ragnaros. However, protecting the buried city are several guardians - giant constructs of living stone that crush any hapless intruders they find. The Discs themselves are guarded by a massive, sentient Stonekeeper called Archaedas. Some rumors even suggest that the dwarves' stone-skinned ancestors, the earthen, still dwell deep within the city's hidden recesses.
10 Player Limit

Maraudon

Level 40-58
Desolace
Protected by the fierce Maraudine centaur, Maraudon is one of the most sacred sites within Desolace. The great temple/cavern is the burial place of Zaetar, one of two immortal sons born to the demigod, Cenarius. Legend holds that Zaetar and the earth elemental princess, Theradras, sired the misbegotten centaur race. It is said that upon their emergence, the barbaric centaur turned on their father and killed him. Some believe that Theradras, in her grief, trapped Zaetar's spirit within the winding cavern - used its energies for some malign purpose. The subterranean tunnels are populated by the vicious, long-dead ghosts of the Centaur Khans, as well as Theradras' own raging, elemental minions.
10 Player Limit

The Sunken Temple

Level 44-60
Swamp of Sorrows
Over a thousand years ago, the powerful Gurubashi Empire was torn apart by a massive civil war. An influential group of troll priests, known as the Atal'ai, attempted to bring back an ancient blood god named Hakkar the Soulflayer. Though the priests were defeated and ultimately exiled, the great troll empire buckled in upon itself. The exiled priests fled far to the north, into the Swamp of Sorrows. There they erected a great temple to Hakkar - where they could prepare for his arrival into the physical world. The great dragon Aspect, Ysera, learned of the Atal'ai's plans and smashed the temple beneath the marshes. To this day, the temple's drowned ruins are guarded by the green dragons who prevent anyone from getting in or out. However, it is believed that some of the fanatical Atal'ai may have survived Ysera's wrath - and recommitted themselves to the dark service of Hakkar.
10 Player Limit

Blackrock Depths

Between Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes
Level 52-61
Once the capital city of the Dark Iron dwarves, this volcanic labyrinth now serves as the seat of power for Ragnaros the Firelord. Ragnaros has uncovered the secret to creating life from stone and plans to build an army of unstoppable golems to aid him in conquering the whole of Blackrock Mountain. Obsessed with defeating Nefarian and his draconic minions, Ragnaros will go to any extreme to achieve final victory.
5 Player Limit

Blackrock Spire

Level 52-61
Between Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes
The mighty fortress carved within the fiery bowels of Blackrock Mountain was designed by the master dwarf-mason, Franclorn Forgewright. Intended to be the symbol of Dark Iron power, the fortress was held by the sinister dwarves for centuries. However, Nefarian - the cunning son of the dragon, Deathwing - had other plans for the great keep. He and his draconic minions took control of the upper Spire and made war on the dwarves' holdings in the mountain's volcanic depths. Realizing that the dwarves were led by the mighty fire elemental, Ragnaros - Nefarian vowed to crush his enemies and claim the whole of Blackrock mountain for himself.
10 Player Limit

Dire Maul

Level 54-61
Feralas
Built twelve thousand years ago by a covert sect of night elf sorcerers, the ancient city of Eldre'Thalas was used to protect Queen Azshara's most prized arcane secrets. Though it was ravaged by the Great Sundering of the world, much of the wondrous city still stands as the imposing Dire Maul. The ruins' three distinct districts have been overrun by all manner of creatures - especially the spectral highborne, foul satyr and brutish ogres. Only the most daring party of adventurers can enter this broken city and face the ancient evils locked within its ancient vaults.
5 Player Limit

Stratholme

Level 56-61
Eastern Plaguelands
Once the jewel of northern Lordaeron, the city of Stratholme is where Prince Arthas turned against his mentor, Uther Lightbringer, and slaughtered hundreds of his own subjects who were believed to have contracted the dreaded plague of undeath. Arthas' downward spiral and ultimate surrender to the Lich King soon followed. The broken city is now inhabited by the undead Scourge - led by the powerful lich, Kel'thuzad. A contingent of Scarlet Crusaders, led by Grand Crusader Dathrohan, also holds a portion of the ravaged city. The two sides are locked in constant, violent combat. Those adventurers brave (or foolish) enough to enter Stratholme will be forced to contend with both factions before long. It is said that the city is guarded by three massive watchtowers, as well as powerful necromancers, banshees and abominations. There have also been reports of a malefic Death Knight riding atop an unholy steed - dispensing indiscriminate wrath on all those who venture within the realm of the Scourge.
5 Player Limit

Scholomance

Level 56-61
Western Plaguelands
The Scholomance is housed within a series of crypts that lie beneath the ruined keep of Caer Darrow. Once owned by the noble Barov family, Caer Darrow fell to ruin following the Second War. As the wizard Kel'thuzad enlisted followers for his Cult of the Damned he would often promise immortality in exchange for serving his Lich King. The Barov family fell to Kel'thuzad's charismatic influence and donated the keep and its crypts to the Scourge. The cultists then killed the Barovs and turned the ancient crypts into a school for necromancy known as the Scholomance. Though Kel'thuzad no longer resides in the crypts, devoted cultists and instructors still remain. The powerful lich, Ras Frostwhisper, rules over the site and guards it in the Scourge's name - while the mortal necromancer, Darkmaster Gandling, serves as the school's insidious headmaster.
5 Player Limit

RageFire Chasm

Level 13-22
Orgrimmar
Ragefire Chasm consists of a network of volcanic caverns that lie below the orcs' new capital city of Orgrimmar. Recently, rumors have spread that a cult loyal to the demonic Shadow Council has taken up residence within the Chasm's fiery depths. This cult, known as the Burning Blade, threatens the very sovereignty of Durotar. Many believe that the orc Warchief, Thrall, is aware of the Blade's existence and has chosen not to destroy it in the hopes that its members might lead him straight to the Shadow Council. Either way, the dark powers emanating from Ragefire Chasm could undo all that the orcs have fought to attain.
10 Player Limit

The Stockades

Level 22-30
Stormwind
The Stockades are a high-security prison complex, hidden beneath the canal district of Stormwind city. Presided over by Warden Thelwater, the Stockades are home to petty crooks, political insurgents, murderers and a score of the most dangerous criminals in the land. Recently, a prisoner-led revolt has resulted in a state of pandemonium within the Stockades - where the guards have been driven out and the convicts roam free. Warden Thelwater has managed to escape the holding area and is currently enlisting brave thrill-seekers to venture into the prison and kill the uprising's mastermind - the cunning felon, Bazil Thredd.
10 Player Limit

ZulFarrak

Level 43-54
Tanaris Desert
This sun-blasted city is home to the Sandfury trolls, known for their particular ruthlessness and dark mysticism. Troll legends tell of a powerful sword called Sul'thraze the Lasher, a weapon capable of instilling fear and weakness in even the most formidable of foes. Long ago, the weapon was split in half. However, rumors have circulated that the two halves may be found somewhere within Zul'Farrak's walls. Reports have also suggested that a band of mercenaries fleeing Gadgetzan wandered into the city and became trapped. Their fate remains unknown. But perhaps most disturbing of all are the hushed whispers of an ancient creature sleeping within a sacred pool at the city's heart - a mighty demigod who will wreak untold destruction upon any adventurer foolish enough to awaken him.
10 Player Limit

Warrior Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

The Warrior in Instances

The job of the Warrior in an instance group is almost exclusively that of Main Tank. The Warrior has access to a huge array or weapons and armour, an immense Armor Class, a large pool of Hit Points, and a large suite of abilities designed to make enemies focus on the them, and not the less robust members of the party around them.

The only time a Warrior is likely to find themselves in an instance, and not Main Tank, is if there is another Warrior doing that job already. Extra Warriors then become Secondary Tank/Main Assist, or Damage Dealers.

As a Warrior

* Warriors generally have far more aggro management options than Paladins, Voidwalkers, Bear-form Druids or Hunter pets - you will be expected to tank.

* If there is more than one Warrior in the group, decide beforehand who is to be the Main Tank.
o A higher level helps hold aggro slightly, but isn't as important as skillful use of special abilities.
o A Protection talent build is by no means necessary to be an effective Main Tank, particularly before instances where a raid group is required, where a Fury or Arms specced Warrior can do just as well.
o If you can't decide who is to do the job, select the Warrior with the highest AC, including their Shield.

Main Tank

See the Tank section. Also:

* Always use Defensive Stance with a shield and one-handed weapon--unless a situation calls for the use of a skill in a different stance and you have the talent Tactical Mastery. An example of the latter: Healer pulls aggro, you switch to Berserker Stance and Intercept the mob, stunning it and giving you time to regain aggro.

-- This is a broad statement and should be taken with a grain of salt. There are many Tanking abilities that are good in a Main Tank role that can not be called upon if you solely remain in Defensive Stance. Hamstring Mobs that are "Runners", and Execute. I understand this is a guide for a Main Tank just getting his feet wet. I just want to make that beginner knowledgable to the fact that you dont need to stay in Defensive Stance to be a good tank. I tend to Stance Dance all the time based on the situation. If a mage is about to aoe, I use Bloodrage mass taunt, and cleave/ sweeping strikes and whirlwind.

-- While the above statement about a single handed weapon and shield is broad, the reason why it's still useful is because it does tell you what most people are going to expect. Even if you don't stay in Defensive Stance, if you don't have a shield, casters in particular tend to assume that you either want to dps rather than tank, or that you don't know what you're doing.

* Spend a bit of time and money beforehand acquiring good armor and a decent shield - you'll be taking a beating and having a decent AC helps the healer help you. Never use leather or cloth items, no matter how good the bonuses, and switch to plate as soon as you can afford it, after level 40.
* Be aware of which special abilities to use to generate threat quickly, in particular; Shield Slam, Sunder Armor, Revenge, and Heroic Strike.
* When tanking boss mobs, alternate between Shield Block and Revenge for maximum threat and survivability. Shield Block will almost always light up Revenge immediately afterward. Time these two special abilities well to allow for the most Revenge opportunities.
* A successful Shield Bash also makes caster enemies very angry, as well as locking their spellcasting and forcing them into melee. Practice the timing needed to get this right while soloing.
o In addition, most of your high-aggro moves are disabled if you get Disarmed. Listen for the shhhing! noise of that happening, and start off your being Disarmed with a Shield Bash, which causes decent threat on its own! Follow up with Battle Shout and Demoralizing Shout spam until you get your weapon back (better yet, get a weapon chain and don't get Disarmed at all).
* You cannot Charge in Defensive Stance, so if you're pulling, use a ranged weapon and lure them back to your group. Assuming you have tactical mastery, you can charge and then switch to defensive stance to start a fight with more rage--but be extremely careful that you don't aggro more than you intended to if you take this approach.
* If a hunter, rogue, or mage is pulling, you can charge, switch to defensive stance, and use Demoralizing Shout to cause aggro on all enemies to gather them up, without causing damage that might break sheeps. If charge is not appropriate, use Bloodrage to get the rage for the shout.
* Taunt momentarily forces a mob to attack you and permanently brings you up to the level of aggro of the mob's target. However, if you needed to taunt, it's most likely because they were causing more aggro than you, and are likely to continue to cause even more. Follow up a Taunt immediately with a hate-generating ability to cement your aggro. In extreme cases (e.g., a higher-level mage or rogue), it can be better to stockpile rage until you do lose aggro, then taunt and unload to try and hold aggro longer.
* Taunt has no effect on an enemy that is already fighting you.
* Mocking Blow is temporary aggro only. Use the time it gives you to swiftly generate real threat using Sunder, Revenge, etc. The same applies to Challenging Shout - an AOE taunt. Unless additional threat is generated during these durations, the taunted enemies will return to their original target afterward.
* Only Ragedump if you are confident you have all aggro under control. Otherwise, keep reapplying Sunders - slam each target with 3 sunders before moving on to the next target. Apply up to five on each. Better is Shield Block/Revenge for maintaining hate.
o One good quick Ragedump in a hectic situation is: Berserker Stance, Berserker Rage, Whirlwind, Defensive Stance. This causes a satisfying amount of AOE damage, and generates extra rage to counter the Stance Swapping. Works best with Tactical Mastery Talent (3/3), allowing 25 Rage carry-through.
o Charge followed by Demoralizing Shout, Thunder Clap, Defensive Stance is a good way to get all the enemy mobs to focus on you right off the bat. Generally works best to Charge the moment your party's crowd control (if any) goes off, Demo Shout to immediately get attention, then make sure you dragged everyone far enough back to NOT break the crowd controlled mobs before Thunder Clap. If the crowd is particularly large, it's a good idea to follow up with the previous ragedump Berserker Stance, Berserker Rage, Whirlwind, Defensive Stance to solidify that much more aggro on everyone before starting to throw sunders. Don't be afraid to ask your party to hold off on all DPS for the first few seconds while you do this.
o In the event of a VERY large crowd, (the Lyceum in Blackrock Depths comes to mind) tanks will want to be alternating Thunder Clap and Whirlwind, and while both are on cooldown jump to Defensive and spam Battle Shout. This gets a small amount of aggro on pretty much everyone around you -- usually just long enough for the artillery to AoE them down.
o Experiment to find other effective pressure release combos, but always finish with a Stance move back to Defensive. Don't spend too long in other stances, as this puts the rest of the group at increased risk.
* As a main tank in higher-level instances, you will be "punted" fairly often. This reduces your aggro, takes you out of the fight for a moment, and can cause falling damage as well. If you have Tactical Mastery, it is possible to switch to Berserker Stance and intercept out of the air, potentially avoiding falling damage and getting you back into the fight a couple of seconds sooner. Remember to switch back to defensive stance and taunt afterwards. If you have a full rage bar, it may be better to just stay in defensive stance and take the damage.
* Main tanks can pop Battle Stance just long enough to Execute a target near death (following up by resuming Defensive and throwing sunders once more). Indeed if he's being beaten on particularly hard, his rage bar will spike the moment he stance switches and the Execute will be exceedingly powerful and may well finish off the mob. On bosses in particular, repeated Executes will usually out-threat your threat moves! Use discretion though; if you're having trouble holding stuff, keep your focus on holding it and only do this in situations well under control.
o If there is a Warrior offtank present however, it's best to let him do this while the main tank focuses on keeping aggro.

Secondary/Off Tank

* Use Battle Stance and a big two-handed weapon, or Berserker Stance and two fast one-handers. A shield is unecessary in this role. Also, Slam with a two-handed, slow weapon is good for both dealing damage and avoiding stealing aggro (since it doesn't generate as much hate as Heroic Strike and it reduces your weapon speed to a 1.5s 'cast').
* Avoid threat specials, and instead concentrate on the more subtle Warrior attacks: Rend, Hamstring, etc.
* Take on the Shouting for the both of you: Battle Shout and Demoralizing Shout. Keeping these going frees up the Main Tank to concentrate on generating threat.
* Thunder Clap can help, but watch your spacing, avoid drawing new enemies into the fray with it, and avoid breaking crowd control with it.
* Be aware that without being beaten on, you will generate rage at a much slower rate; make best use of Bloodrage to compensate. Charge is also a good quick burst of free rage, but be careful when getting a run-up, that you don't trigger fresh enemies. Rage Potions can help - collect Sharp Claws for this.
* Act as personal bodyguard for the healer. Be ready to switch to 'Tank Mode' if any mobs get through, and the real Main Tank can't get to them in time. Switch to Defensive Stance and Taunt until the tank can get there. Switch back again once the situation is under control (Mocking Blow can help in an emergency, but a stance swap is more reliable).
* Execute stuff that's about to die, as many times as it takes. (The Main Tank is certainly capable of doing this as well, but his focus should be on aggro management and shouldn't divide his attention unless the situation is well under control)

All Warriors

* Piercing Howl (Fury Talent Shout) helps chase down runners and is worth investing in.
* Shouts do not break Polymorph (commonly known as 'Sheep') or Sap. Thunder Clap will.
* Be wary of using Intimidating Shout in an instance--it rarely helps due to the fact that it's a fear-type effect. Intimidating Shout is particularly dangerous as it affects up to 5 nearby enemies, not just one, like the Warlock version of Fear It can be used in situations where all enemies have been cleared out in a large area, so that you don't have to worry about adds. Also, the enemy you have targetted when you use this skill will not be feared, but frozen in place. In a close fight where there's just one enemy left but your party needs a few moments to bandage and get enough mana for another spell, this can buy you the time you need.
* Hand over any drink loot/Mana Potions to those who need them, especially the healer.
* A full Rage bar grants no additional bonuses. Should your Rage bar become full, you still have plenty of available attacks, and you should use them as soon as possible. If the main tank starts raging up past 40'ish it's probably time to ragedump by spamming Heroic Strike with the sunders and Slam (see here)---> [1].
* All warriors should have a good shield and good one hand tank weapon.

Working with a Warrior

* Warriors actually do best when being beaten on - their Rage, increases when damage is dealt and when taken. Check your skill's tooltips and avoid using anything that increases 'threat' where at all possible, as this will make the enemies more likely to turn to you.

* Don't run from an enemy that is attacking you. This is very important: call for help, but stand still! Usually the first thing people do is to start running to get away, but this will make it more difficult for a warrior to help getting that mob off you. Warriors generate threat quite quickly and can Taunt to lure the enemy into attacking them, but these actions take a few seconds of uninterrupted fighting to charge up and have an effect, and this is difficult at best if the Warrior has to chase the enemy down first.

* Buffs to Stamina are particularly useful to the Warrior, greatly increasing available HP (Power Word: Fortitude, etc.). Buffs that increase the damage done, either via Strength, by the weapon itself, or damage shields (Thorns, etc), will help the Warrior maintain aggro.

* Avoid using damage absorption buffs on Warriors, as this can slow the rate their Rage charges up. Best saved for when the Warrior is unable to be healed normally for any reason.

* Avoid using pets that actively Taunt themselves; Bear Growls, Voidwalker Taunts, etc. 'Rogue' or 'Mage' type pets work best if a real Warrior is on tanking duty. Shamans should avoid using Stoneclaw Totem.

* Warrior Crowd Control is practically non-existent, being mostly Snare-type movement debuffs, so it generally falls to others to finish off runners, and deliver killing blows. Watch the main fight and save a bit of mana for a few instant casts; either Frost-type lockdowns, or large Direct Damage nukes.

* Casters: Standing outside melee range helps the Warrior to maintain Aggro. Characters standing out of melee range will not draw aggro until they exceed the threat level of the mob's current target by 30%. Inside melee range, characters draw aggro when they exceed the threat level by only 10%. Make a warrior's job easier and back up a few steps before unleashing your fury.

Warlock Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

The Warlock in Instances

Damage over Time vs. Nukes

* Avoid "I'm an Evil Mage!" syndrome. Warlocks are not mages. This tactic consists of placing DOTs on MA target, pummelling target with Shadow Bolt, and finally running out of mana. Yes, you can refill your mana bar from the priests, but he probably has better things to do with it. This only time this is viable strategy is when, you either lack proper DPS classes or are mainly defensive in party make-up (ie, warrior, paladin, druid, priest). A second healer adds viability to this, but Life Tap is just as handy when playing more efficiently. Also note that the target the MA is on should be dying MUCH too quickly to get the most out of your DOTs. Notable exception: this tactic has its merits when you end up being the primary damage dealer, mainly because you are higher level than your DPS compatriots and your targets. Using bandages will also keep a nuking warlock going longer, which is especially important for Destruction warlocks, given their chosen tree's emphasis on nuking spells.

* If a mob is going to go down very quickly, DoTs like Curse of Agony just aren't going to cut it. Use DD Spells like Immolate and Shadowbolt on mobs that are going to be downed quickly. Searing Pain also comes into play here, since there's is not harm in taking aggro from a mob which will be down a few seconds later.

Pets

* Make sure your minion is on defensive or passive. Passive is preferable, just in case you break a sheep, or shackle etc.

* Unless your party needs a secondary tank, don't use your Voidwalker. Use a damage dealing minion such as the Imp, Succubus, or Felguard. Imp is often preferred because although the Succubus does more DPS, the Imp isn't far behind, and also provides your party members with an important buff - Blood Pact. Succubus may be requested by your party leader in instances with large numbers of Humanoids, due to its Seduce ability. The Felhunter is more specific, and might be useful in a variety of situations, such as crippling casters (Devour Magic and Spell Lock), detecting stealthed mobs (Paranoia) or mitigating melee damage (Tainted Blood.)

Note -- Due to Master Demonologist, Demonology specced warlocks have additional considerations when selecting pets.

* In a skilled group, the above comment about the Voidwalker is generally true, with one notable exception. The buff gained from using Sacrifice, combined with Power Word: Shield, means you can sustain Rain of Fire or Hellfire for a LOT longer. Most useful against non-elite mobs, and when combined with a mage's AoE.

* In less skilled groups, the Voidwalker can still be very effective as an off-tank. An important thing to realize is that the more off-tanks in the group, the more targets can be hit with with the Warlock's supremely efficient DOTs. This not only leaves you with more mana to play with (compared with "I'm an Evil Mage!", above), but also the additional off-tank means the main healer is spending less time healing the MT, leaving him with more mana to heal you if you do need to Life Tap. The Voidwalker's target becomes an ideal "next" target for the MA, since it has had your DOT on him for some time, and thus will die quickly. You can then decide if the Voidwalker has enough health left to pick a new target off the MT without the main healer healing him, or you can keep him in reserve to take aggro off a caster or to Sacrifice to protect yourself. Certain Demonology talents can improve your Voidwalker's ability to off-tank, and whether or not your Talent spec includes them will determine if you should be using this strategy.

Aggro/Threat Management

* Better me than him! If the other party members are busy, you can use Searing Pain to pull aggro from other casters. Even better if this means the mob has to run 2-3 secs across the battle field, quite possibly back toward the MT.
o It's easier for the priest to heal you than himself.
o You probably have higher Stam bonuses on your gear than other casters, because of Life Tap, meaning you can take more punishment without dying.
o If you have your Void out you can Sacrifice, further extending the time before the MT has to come save you, or before you die.
o Any target which is attacking a Mage has normally suffered fairly heinous damage (or else the mage wouldn't have pulled aggro), and pulling the mob off the mage can allow the two of you to finish the job. With stronger elites, the two of you can continuously exchange aggro, and watch it run back and forth, until dead. Combine with Curse of the Elements for extra fun.
o In very high level instances, your chances of gaining aggro before the caster dies are reduced, so you may well find it necessary to use Fear, but given the risks involved (see below), it is probably only worth doing so in order to save a priest.
* AoE belongs at the end of the fight, not at the beginning. Leave some time for DOTs to do their dirty work, and for Tanks to build threat. If you are Destruction specced, and have a Paladin in the party, the combination of Intensity and Concentration Aura can make your AoE options much, much more mana efficient.
* At level 66, warlocks gain the Soulshatter ability which reduces threat to all mobs in a 50 yard radius.

Crowd Control

* The following are a warlock's crowd control abilities: Fear, Enslave Demon, Howl of Terror, Seduce(succubus), Banish. Sometimes Deathcoil is lumped in here as well, especially in PvP. In PvE, the Voidwalker's AoE taunt Suffering can sometimes be used to engage/distract several mobs if you consider off-taking to be crowd control.

* Be extremely careful with fear. If you decide it's absolutely necessary, keep Curse of Recklessness on hand. This will not remove the fear effect, but will cause the mob to act normally. Replacing the Curse of Recklessness with another curse will make them start running again. You can use this to permanently lock down a mob if you have room to work with. Another thing to note is that the suppression and renewal of the fear effect will cause the mob to change the direction they are running.
o Priest is low on health and is getting pounded on. If you tank isn't getting aggro and you can't kill in time go ahead and fear but try and nuke it while its feared so it will come to you and not priest.
o There is no chance to aggro any adds. The more thorough the group is being clearing the instance, the more opportunities you will have to use Fear.
o Its your only chance of surviving. If you are 100% going to die if you don't fear, do it. A small chance is better then none.

* Learn to look for Demons and Elementals to banish. You may be very surprised what sometimes constitutes a demon in WoW. Check out Sunken Temple for example. One tell-tale sign is that they tend to be immune to curses.

* Though not as reliable as the mages' Polymorph, your pet Succubus' ability to seduce can help occupy a humanoid mob.

* Just about all of a warlock's crowd control abilities are shadow based. On mobs and players with high amounts of shadow resist, Curse of Shadow may aid in helping the spell hit and stick for the entire duration of the spell. Curse of Shadow can also help mages' Polymorph stick better on mobs and players resistant to arcane magic.

Stones

* Create a Soulstone for the healer. That way, should she die and be the only one capable of rezzing, you can bring her back. The Warlock should pay close attention to the timer, and ensure a new Soulstone is placed as soon as the previous one runs out. It is better to Soulstone a Paladin then a Priest if you have one in your party as they usually live longer then the priests.

* When you have more than one warlock in the party, it's not advisable to have all Soulstones active at the same time. It's enough to have one Soulstone "in action" (cast on a healer) and all others "in reserve." This way, after a wipe and a rez, someone can immediately cast a new Soulstone.

* Create Healthstones for your party members. In instances it is easy to use Drain Soul fairly often, so it shouldn't be a problem to keep everyone around supplied with healthstones all the time. Don't forget to tell everyone to ask for a new one, if they used theirs.

Curses

* Curse of Recklessness is a useful spell in crowded instances, as it will stop the normal 'run and get help' reflex of enemies when they reach low health, instead forcing them to fight to the death. This can go a long way toward wipe prevention. Also, each rank of this curse is completely useless, all it does is up the bad effect. Use Rank 1 to reduce the +AP boost the mob receives and to save yourself some mana.
* Whenever you have multiple warlocks, mages, or a shadow priest in your party/raid, Curse of Shadows becomes a very useful spell that contributes to damage of every shadow/arcane spellcaster. It is also notable because it does not interfere with crowd control - when cast on frozen or polymorphed target, it does not break freeze/polymorph. If for some reason you find yourself targeting a sheep, consider quickly putting Curse of Shadows on it before you move on, as this saves you the trouble of applying a curse later when you do get round to killing the target, and it reduces the chances that the mob will resist a refreshing of the Polymorph. Curse of Shadows is also appreciated by Shadow-specced Priests (see Priest talents for more information on the Shadow tree).

Summoning

* The meeting stone has largely replaced the need for a warlock to summon party/raid members to the major instances. However, occasionally, summons are used inside instances to bring latecomers to the party. Also handy when a party member falls off a ledge into lava.

Working with a Warlock

* You will often see a Warlock's health rapidly dropping in the middle of combat. Don't be alarmed, this does not necessarily mean that they are being attacked and in immediate need of healing. It is quite common for Warlocks to use Life Tap spell to convert health to mana if they run out of mana. It is usually not necessary to heal a Warlock unless he/she draws aggro or his health falls below 50%. On the other hand, during long encounters ( more than 2 minutes without resting ), actively spellcasting Warlocks may run out of both health and mana and will depend on healing for continued DPS.

* If a Warlock is scouting using the Eye of Kilrogg (a little floating green ball), watch their body--they can't see or hear what is happening to them because they're off elsewhere. Don't forget that they use it to help you too. Nothing worse than scouting for the group to come back to see they've left you behind and now you're being attacked. This spell doesn't stop once under attack, and the Warlock doesn't hear anything. In essence, the Warlock is only there physically, similar to Hunters using Eyes of the Beast.

Shaman Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

As a Shaman

* Don't forget to use your totems, particularly the ones with party-wide effects. If there is another shaman in the group, coordinate totems as the effects of party-buffing totems do not stack.

* Avoid Searing Totems as they may aggro additional mobs.

* Use Earthbind Totem and Frost Shock to slow monsters from running away.

* Unless you're a tank, avoid Frost Shock or Stoneclaw Totem as you'll pull aggro away from the tank. However, these abilities are very useful as an off-tank or in an emergency situation.

* Avoid Frost Shock like the plague, as it will draw aggro from the tank. The exception may be when you need a quick shot of threat to deflect attention from a squishy. (Edit: As above, only use on a mob that is running away.)

* Should it become obvious that a wipe is about to occur and you can use your Reincarnation, take precautionary measures and find a spot clear of mobs to die. This enables you to use your Reincarnation ability safely and resurrect the entire party.

* Keep an eye on the main healer's mana as you may need to switch to secondary healer. In a difficult fight, conserve mana by avoiding shock spells so you have plenty to heal with.

* Remember your totems have an aggro radius too. Don't set them too close before a fight. If a patrol comes, you may need to reset your totems to a new location to avoid adding them.

* Remember to clean up your totems with Totemic Call to avoid having a patrol aggro to them and attack your group at an inopportune time.

Shaman as Primary Healer

* Heal the pet! - This may seem obvious but is often overlooked. If the pet lives longer less people have to get chewed. Pets taunt so are better able to hold aggro allowing you to pump more heals into them. The more punishment they receive the less there is for everyone else. Anyway don't focus too much on pet healing because you need to give priority to heal the party and save your mana. Hunters and Warlocks usually know this and should never get upset on you if their pet die.

* Unlearn what you have learned - Stay back, give little heals to reduce threat, use your totems to bolster your team (as always!) - Stoneskin, Grace of air, Healing Stream Totem, Frost resistance (if applicable) etc. Ensure that you're totems suit to the composition of the party: usually you will have 2 casters with you, that makes Wrath of Air Totem more convenient than Grace of Air. Healing Stream Totem may appear useless to you because of the low regeneration it gives, but remember it will gain benefits from your +Healing gear. If made by a well-equipped Shaman it can often heal 100 health every 2 seconds. This can work greatly with a Shadow Priest's Vampiric Embrace, helping you not to waste mana by healing all the party members with Chain Heal and focus on the tank, allowing you to last longer in fights without going OOM.

* Mana regen - Spirit won't help you in fight because of the 5-second rule (your mana won't regen from spirit after 5 seconds from a cast). You're gear must be focused on mana/5secs, that will assure you a constant regen even while casting and after a cast. If you're specced in Restoration you will be able to set a Mana Tide Totem that will restore 24% of the whole party's mana in 12 secs. Ensure that you bring potions and a lot of drinks. Your Water Shield can also help you to regen you're mana.

* Proactive healing - You need to avoid off-tanking, even if you're a mail-wearer with a shield. As main healer, you just mustn't have aggro. If you're Restoration specced you will have some talents that will help you to cast even while taking damage. Earth Shield will also help you in you get aggro. Anyway in end-game istance this is not enough: if you gain aggro you can't resist long, as you will waste mana and time by heaning yourself instead of the tank, so it will hard to keep him up. The other inconvenient is that Shamans don't have any ability to drop the aggro, so it will hard for your party to regain the aggro of the mobs that are attacking you. You can't just Vanish, Feign Death, Ice Block or Fade as the other classes do.

* You aren't a priest - You're not going to work in the same way as a priest. Instead you must read the fight and adjust your tactics accordingly. You need to learn when it's time to wade in and smack the mobs and when it's time to hold back and heal.

* Don't be afraid - Like any healer, it is important to know when to use your smaller heals to control aggro and when to let loose with a large heal. It's far better for your tank to receive a massive blast of extra health and then have to pull the mob off you than for the tank to die and you end up with the aggro anyway. You should also have the talent Nature's Swiftness, that will help you intantly healing a target. This ability has only a 3 mins cooldown, so it will often be avaiable more than once for each boss fight.

* Wipeout! - Wipes are going to happen. It's part of the game. However, it's important to know how to handle a wipe to keep the group running as smoothly as possible. When it becomes clear that a wipe will occur, try to expend as much of your remaining mana as possible to ensure that the remaining members of your group can continue to fight for as long as possible. Make sure to die away from enemies so as not to aggro mobs after reincarnating.

* Preparation - Very often you won't be well looked as main heaaler by people, because they think a shaman can't heal as well as a druid or priest or paladin. The only way to show them they're wrong is to do your best as a healer and always get to a istance with the right preparation. This means you always need to have some Ankhs with you, some potions may be useful as well as the water to drink, if your party hasn't got mage. Even if there's a lock with you, don't forget the ankh, because you can reincarnate during a fight to save the party from a whipe so you'll spend the soulstone. The Soulstone Ressurection got a quite long cooldown so if you can count on your reincarnation your party will feel safer in case of a whipe.

Working with a Shaman

* Stay close to the totems he drops. Many of them affect any group members (or enemies) within 20 yards (distance may vary), and if you run away, drawing the monsters with you in most cases, you're basically wasting the shaman's mana. On the flip side of that, if the mobs start to stray a bit, try to draw them closer to the shaman's totems.

* If the Shaman is taking on an Area of Effect role, do not draw the mobs away from the Magma Totem which has only a 8 yard range.

Rogue Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

Tips For Rogues

* Crowd Control
o Rogues are well placed to handle stopping, stunning, and otherwise debilitating enemies at all stages of an encounter.
+ Crippling Poison and Kidney Shot can help slow down or stun fleeing enemies.
+ In fights where it is necessary to kite a target, Crippling Poison can also help a great deal.
+ Kick is an invaluable tool in stopping enemy casters and healers. Keep tabs on any enemy magic users. If they are preparing a spell, a well-placed Kick can silence them temporarily, occasionally sending them running into the melee, where they are much less dangerous. If Kick is still cooling down, Gouge can be used in a pinch.
+ Sap is incredibly useful in managing the number of enemies in a fight. As of Patch 2.1, Sap no longer breaks stealth, which significantly reduces the danger to a rogue tasked with knocking out a mob. This also means that a party with more than one rogue can more easily Sap multiple targets.
* In the fight
o There are a few important safety tips that can increase your usefulness as a rogue.
+ Opening a fight with Cheap Shot is often a bad idea, as stunning the target can prevent the tank from taking damage and thus building rage. A tank with little or no rage will not be able to protect you! The obvious exception to this is fighting solo or taking out a target the tank has not engaged.
+ There are very few scenarios where Expose Armor is a wise use of combo points.
# While a single Expose Armor may have a greater effect than a warrior's individual Sunder Armor, the cumulative effect of 5 Sunder Armors is much greater.
# Using Expose Armor can cause a warrior to receive the error "A more powerful spell is already active" when trying to use Sunder Armor. Being completely unable to use this ability can seriously reduce his aggro. Also, if he can't use it once, he obviously can't stack 5 levels of the ability. As mentioned previously, a single Expose Armor does not weaken the target's armor nearly as much as 5 Sunder Armors, and this means that the party will do less damage.

Working With A Rogue

* Don't follow a Stealthed rogue if you don't have a similarly sneaky ability. The last thing a rogue wants while trying to sap an enemy is some plate-wearing, axe-wielding idiot standing on his heels.
* Don't use a rogue as main assist in a raid. Raid members in other parties cannot assist a Stealthed rogue. However, in single parties, rogues make excellent main assists.
* The order of crowd control abilities is very important. As Sap only affects creatures out of combat, it must be the first crowd control ability used before a fight. This means that everyone else in the party must wait to use their crowd control abilities (Polymorph, Banish, etc).

Priest Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

As a Priest

* You will generally be expected to be the primary healer. See above in the Healers section for more information.

* In a five-man instance, when all is well, you should generally use Greater Heal for efficiency on the tank and Flash Heal on any other players who are being hurt. Use Renew on hurt players as well, it is nice as it creates healing aggro against you slowly thus allowing the tank to build up aggro at the same time.

* When all is not well and the group needs significant healing during a fight, switch to using Power Word: Shield, Flash Heal and Renew.

* Fade when you get aggro. If you have monsters on you and you can't Fade or it didn't work, inform your group immediately so they can help you. Usually you will want to use fade as the monster is about to reach you, so it will be out of the fight longer as it will take all the time running to you, just to run back again.

* Don't use Psychic Scream except in very specific circumstances. See the "additional notes" below.

* Pre-battle, a Priest should make sure that everyone in the group has Fortitude, and if your talents give you that ability, Divine Spirit. Unfortunately, casting this tends to completely deplete your mana. Make sure other players allow you some downtime after you rebuff.

* Don't adhere to the stereotype for your class of behaving like a woman with severe PMS. Specifically:-

*
o Unless people are doing something that is genuinely damaging to the progress of the group, don't threaten to cease healing them just because they're doing or saying something you don't like. People aren't there purely to conform to your expectations; they're there to also enjoy themselves.

*
o If an inexperienced player rolls Need on an item you want incorrectly, but it is bind on equip and they give the item to you, accept that graciously on the first and possibly even the second time they do it.

*
o Don't whine about potential players being too low level for the instance in question, if you don't concretely know that they are too low. (Even then, you most likely still shouldn't)

*
o Don't DPS at all, and don't complain about not being able to DPS either. As a Priest, you're there to heal. If attacking is something you want to do, create a character in a DPS class and play that instead.

*
o Don't hold illusions about your class being more important than it genuinely is. Yes, it is valuable...but so are the others. In addition, the Shaman, Paladin, and Druid are now all entirely viable options for healing. You are not irreplaceable.

A note on power word shield

Ideally, if you're going to shield someone, it should be pre-combat, which gains no aggro. The only other use for shield in a battle is as a "don't die" button. Shield is very mana-inefficient compared to Renew, Flash Heal and Greater Heal. The first mistake a new priest makes is shielding the puller just after he has pulled. Although shield is threat-efficient, it happens all at once upfront, and you will see the mob run at you every time you do that. On the other hand, shielding a character who is dying because they've unloaded a massive amount of damage will rarely make you a target.

This must be said: if you find yourself using Shield a lot during a battle, it's a sign that one of the following things are wrong:

* You're not paying enough attention to your Heals.
* Your Tank isn't holding Aggro.
* Someone in your group is pulling Adds when they shouldn't.

The people who will typically need Shielding are Mages and other low-armor Nukers who have temporarily gained Aggro. Watch the life bars of your Mages in particular, as one large Nuke can gain them a lot of unwanted attention from mobs.

Although shielding is much less mana efficient than any other heal there are situations where shielding is more mana efficient. Particularly in higher level instances many mobs and certain bosses cast a curse on party members. Without a mage or druid removing the curses any heals given to that party member will be reduced by 75%, This will turn a flash heal which normally heals around 1,000 hp down to 250 hp healed. You will run out of mana very quickly trying to keep everyone alive. A good counter is to shield anyone taking damage. Your shields will allow people to stay alive longer and on less mana, as your shield is a buff and is unaffected by the curse.

Working with a Priest

* See the Healers section for more information. You need to keep aggro off the Priest and stay within range and line of sight.

* A priest cannot focus on healing the group if he is spending time healing himself.

* Hunters especially need to watch their threat. All too often they take a bunch of damage, a priest will heal, the hunter feigns death and sends the mob(s) running straight for the priest.

* Take care of your Priest. Primary healing is an important and sometimes thankless job, and they also tend to enjoy some extra attention. Specifically:-
o Assign one of the DPS classes to keep an eye on the Priest and alert the tank if the Priest gets aggro. If the class is a Hunter, this can work very well because they can use their pet's Growl to pull the mob away from the Priest.
o If you don't have a Mage in group, and you're a caster yourself, try to carry some extra drinks in case the Priest is out. They'll appreciate it, and you'll also get healed more effectively because they can regain mana faster.
o Make sure the Priest has ample opportunity to check items being rolled for to see if they need it, and allow them to roll Need for it if appropriate. Given that a Priest typically engages in no combat in an instance whatsoever, getting items thus becomes one of their strongest incentives for being there at all, and they can have a tendency to hearth out unexpectedly if other people roll Need on items they want, especially if the item in question is bind on pickup.

Paladin Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

As a Paladin

* At the beginning of the Raid/Group, set a macro to use Divine Intervention:

/target [Party Member Name]
/s <<< Casting Divine Intervention on %t >>>
/cast Divine Intervention

If the leader announces a wipe is going to occur, cast Divine Intervention. You must weigh whether or not the spell is worth the effort into the instance thus far, as the cool down is 1 hour on the spell. Discuss at the start of the raid who you have targeted and what Divine Intervention does. Target someone who can resurrect, and who will be safe from mobs (they are out of combat and cannot be attacked until the spell wears off, but cannot move either). The targeted person can begin to res people after the mobs have dropped aggro.
MAKE SURE you bring reagents for the spell!

* Watch the healer's life bar. Casting a Holy Light on them can be an effective way to draw aggro away from them, especially if the Main Tank has fallen or can't make it to the healer in time, but Blessing of Protection is a better choice when available.
* Use your healing if the main healer(s) can't keep up with all the healing required. It's helpful to set a macro to notify when you're healing someone. Keep an eye on the main healer's mana bar so you know when they're running short.

* Cleanse disease, poison, and magic debuffs. Some fear affects are magic and can be Cleansed.

* Buff Party Members. Blessings can be a pain to manage because of their limited timer, but they are beneficial. Be sure to coordinate with other Paladins for strengths of buffs (buffs don't stack) and to give multiple types of buffs to party members.
o Recast your Blessings often - do not wait for them to expire. However, casting them in combat can draw aggro, so be careful.
o Buffs for Party Members:
There are fairly standard buffs for different classes, depending on their roles in the group. However, everyone knows their own character best, so if someone asks for a particular buff, it's probably best to be accommodating (within reason).
+ By role
# Tank or Offtank: Blessing of Light, Blessing of Sanctuary. They need healing and damage mitigation.
# Healers, DPSers: Blessing of Salvation. This helps keep aggro off them.
+ By class
# Warriors/Rogues/feral Druids: Blessing of Might
# Paladins: Blessing of Wisdom, Blessing of Might
# Everyone else: Blessing of Wisdom
+ Blessing of Salvation is the most effective blessing currently in game and unless your group manages aggro spectacularly (ie a non-PUG) then everyone in the group except the tanks and (most) paladins should expect to have this blessing cast on them.
+ Blessing of Kings is useful on anyone, but when you're limited to only one or two blessings in a group, there are often better choices.
+ If you've got spare paladins, Blessing of Light is marginally useful on anyone, since they might need healing.
+ As of Patch 2.0.3 Blessing of Might affects ranged attack power, so it is useful for hunters.

* Use auras effectively. If the primary source of damage is physical, use Devotion Aura. If the instance is fiery, use Fire Resistance. If there are more than one paladin in the party, coordinate auras and ask who has improved talents. They don't stack.

* In AoE Nuke sessions, it's effective to combo Righteous Fury with Consecration while the Nuker takes out the group. The holy damage from Consecration can draw aggro away from the mage and to you. A Sanctity Aura can assist with this.

* Know how to use your seals and judgements.
o Judgement of Justice is one of the best root spells in all of WoW, it will stop any target from running when they get low on health, and when they have already started running, they will come back. However, it will not stop them from running for other reasons, such as after getting off a Frost Nova. Also, it's function is scheduled to change with the expansion. It is useful in PvP as it now prevents moving faster than 100% on player characters.
o Judgement of Wisdom is extremely useful during long fights, as it will help the casters regain mana.
o Judgement of Light is a useful way to heal the tank without drawing aggro. It can also be used to heal otherwise non-healable NPCs, if they're in melee combat.
o Judgement of the Crusader increases holy damage and is stackable with the Sanctity Aura (also stackable with the Draenei's racial ability as well when expansion comes out).

Working with a Paladin

* Ask for Blessings if the paladin is not diligent in giving them out. They require very little mana, and while they last only 5 minutes, they do benefit. Remind the Paladin between battles to reapply blessings, if they don't remember on their own. Please however do not demand blessings or changes to applied blessings.

* If the paladin has recently been resurrected, ask him to put up his aura if he has failed to do so. And if you want a specific aura, request that.

* Ask for Cleanse if you need one. It's hard to keep track of lots of people's buffs/debuffs.

Tips

* If you are going to resurrect someone resurrect another rezzing class if one is in your group. This is will speed up the process, and less people will be left waiting.

Mage Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Mage in Instances

As a Mage

* Before heading off to the instance, make sure you have enough reagents for portal and Arcane Brilliance spells.
* There is almost always someone waiting before the group is ready to start an instance. Use that time to make plenty of food and water for everyone. As you move through the instance, it's a good idea to maintain an extra stack or two in your inventory so you can just hand it off instead of wasting time creating it on the spot.
* You should not pull aggro unless you are using AoE attacks. If you are getting aggro on a regular basis:
o You aren't letting the tank build enough hate. Wait a little longer before attacking, or slow down your casting (especially if you are getting a lot of crits).
o You aren't paying attention. If the tank switches targets because of an add or because the healer grabbed aggro, don't mindlessly attack the same mob unless it's going to die relatively quickly.
o Your tank isn't doing a good job.
o If you're using Fire spells, consider switching to Frost or a wand if you have one. Frost still does damage, but it does a lot less than Fire, and so will cause less aggro.
* Frost/Ice Armor vs. Mage Armor:
o Frost/Ice Armor is good for situations when you expect to get hit (mostly when using AoE). In addition to the extra armor, it slows down a mob's movement and attack rate, reducing the damage you take and making the healer's job easier.
o Mage Armor lets you regenerate mana while casting, and gives you some extra magic resistances. Since you generally shouldn't be getting hit (especially in high-end instances where one or two hits may be fatal), this is a good general choice for keeping your drinking downtime to a minimum. Also, the extra resistances are useful if you are expecting magical attacks (such as Baron Rivendare's damage field in Stratholme).
* Blink/Frost Nova combos or Rank 1 Frostbolts are good for stopping/slowing down runners. You can sheep as well, but it's not recommended unless the mob is very likely to bring adds and you don't think the group can handle them.
* If there is a bad pull or difficult adds, don't be afraid to unload your mana bar quickly on the mobs. With your AoE attacks, you can dish out more burst damage than any other class. You may go down, but the extra damage you do may be enough for the remaining party members to prevent a wipe.
* Try to give your healers a heads-up if you are going to AoE.
* Sheeping tips:
o ALWAYS keep an eye on your sheep. They seem to break at the worst times. There is also a nice addon called SheepWatch that shows a progress bar that greatly eases the job of resheeping. You can get it here.
o NPCs are not affected by diminishing returns. Feel free to resheep early and often. Resheeping a sheep before it breaks is a good idea.
o If you can, try to keep your sheep a little bit away from the main fighting. It's easier to watch it, and you don't have to worry about unexpected AoE attacks from other party members breaking it.
o Presence of Mind works with Polymorph. Use it if you need a quicker sheep or if your casting is being interrupted.

Working with a Mage

* Don't break the sheep!
* Mages generally use AoE to kill mobs that aren't Elite. When they do this, try to hold the aggro of the Elites and let the mage (and other AoE attackers) handle the non-Elites.
* For large swarms of non-elite mobs, it's helpful for the tank to gather the mobs into a tight unit before the mage starts AoEing. This gives the mage time to fire off a Flamestrike, Frost Nova and Flamestrike again before getting up close and personal with Arcane Explosion. It also gives the tank time to be throwing some AoE and shout spam of his own, which generally holds the mobs on him just long enough for them to die from mage AoE.

Hunter Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

The Hunter in Instances

Pet Management

* Make sure your pet is on passive, fights will descend into furballs and you will lose track of your pet. Also, this is a great way to get yourself booted from a raid or party. Keep your pet on passive.
* Note, the one and only exception to this rule is dealing with Area of Effect mobs.
o You only have two Area of Effect attacks and your pet can retarget faster than you can (keep your pet on passive). In this single case is it acceptable to put your pet on defensive, and only when you are positive you can survive the pounding you are going to receive.

* Don't send your pet in until the mob is fully pulled away from any adds and make sure you do not have your pet set to automatically taunt. It is bad to pull the aggro off of your main tank, it makes it tougher for the healer of the group to heal multiple targets. Your pet does not have the damage mitigation of the main tank and will require more of your healer's mana and attention to keep him alive. When/if the pet dies, any mobs that he was aggroing will propagate to the next highest source of threat and if the healer has been doing a lot of healing, it could migrate right to them.

* In most cases, you and your pet will make for a great offtank role (moreso when you have achieved the ability to use mail armor at level 40). Your pet's taunt will easily help to pull mobs off of the softer cloth wearing members of your party, just remember not to activate it for automatic usage.

Tracking

* Use your tracking skills to alert the party of any incoming patrols.

* Use your tracking skills to safely check if the area is clear of mobs when needed.
Pulling

* Hunters make great pullers, however don't assume you'll always be pulling, as in most groups the warrior will be pulling. However in the cases where your group agrees to let you pull, do not stand where you shoot. After your initial shot, you should back up to pull mobs back through your group. If you do not move back, you have negated any point to you being the group puller.

* Pulling with Misdirection on the main tank is also quite effective. You should also notify the main tank before doing so. Redirecting threat caused by your next 3 attacks on the target to the tank easily secures the tank on the mob, but remember that you can't use misdirection for every pull due to the 2 minute cooldown. It can be ideal for certain bosses in higher level instances too.

Traps

* If you're using a Freeze Trap, make sure you specify in some way which mob will be drawn into the trap so your party members will know not to attack it. You may choose to say not to attack the one with Hunter's Mark on it, or to assign a symbol to indicate the mob will be trapped. Also note that, especially as Hunter's Mark increases ranged attack power against that target, it's typically easiest to mark a mob and tell your party to attack it. Then, pull with Concussive Shot to slow it down to make sure one of the other mobs reaches the trap first. Alternatively, get your party leader to put a Lucky Charm on the mob designated for being trapped.

* Traps can now be placed in combat and take 2 seconds to arm. They also have a cooldown before you can place another one. Now hunters need to find the best strategies to integrate traps into normal combat operations. (left next sentance for tips) (A hunter with experience in in combat trap usage can probably tune this paragraph up)
With the changes in burning crusade you can crowd control 2 mobs easily, first mark mobs accordingly: one to be trapped, one to be off-tanked, one to be killed first, another to be sheeped, etc. Before doing the pull, lay down the Freeze Trap and wait till the cooldown on the trap is about half way finished. Whichever mob you soot first will start running to you before the rest of the group gains social aggro, with practice you will see how much distance the mob you want to trap can have from the mob closest to you. If you shoot a mob that is all the way to the back, you can quickly change targets to the mob closest to you and concussive shot it. You can even do distracting shot, wait a few seconds and pop silencing shot on a caster mob to have it run straight into your trap. With some practice it is easy to change targets before the first one reaches the trap (so as not to break it) and send the pet to off-tank a second mob. Be sure to grab some aggro on the mob you trapped, move away from the group and lay down the second trap as soon as you can, once the first trap breaks the mob will go straight for you and get trapped again, at this point, the first mob should be dead and you can kill the mob the pet was off-tanking. Just be ready to do silencing shot as soon as the trap breaks if you are CC'ing a caster. If a healer gets aggro after the first trap breaks, distracting shot is your friend.

To split groups, have your group stay out of range from a group and out of range from a path you will run back. Get close to group and put a frost trap on the ground. Shoot a mob in the group and start running away from your party, they should not do anything but stay out of aggro range from the mobs. The first mob to reach the trap will be frozen in place. Run for about 15-20 seconds and then feign death. The frozen mob will reset and reach it's starting location at which point the tank can pull it whil the rest of the group 'evades' its way back to their starting position. Just make sure to get it away from aggro radius before the rest of the group resets.

* (deprecated as of 2.0.1) Maybe you've heard about the Feign Death + Trap combo. This works because if you and your pet are not fighting anyone (attacking or being attacked) and you Feign Death, you leave combat. As you stand back up, you are still out of combat, and can lay a trap. Use this to your advantage to re-freeze an enemy in crowded situations or drop an Explosive Trap for some good AoE damage.

* On the same note, when you use Feign Death, your health and mana bars drop to nothing as if you were really dead. This can give your healers a heart attack, so you may wish to make a macro that alerts them in party chat that you are, in fact, not dead and will be getting back up as soon as the action around you cools down.

* Learn how to set up and properly execute a Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety. Know what to do when a pull goes bad and be prepared to educate others.

Working with a Hunter

* Don't think you can pull better than he can. Nothing draws less aggro than rank 1 Arcane Shot, you can't outrange him, you don't have a pet to sacrifice, you don't have Disengage and you can't Feign Death when the pull goes horribly wrong. However many hunters do not know how to use these skills, so do not be afraid to teach them this, or tell them to let the main tank do the pulling.

* Those cute little blue things the hunter is always placing on the ground are Freezing Traps. They affect the first mob to come within range. Do not attack the first mob to come around the corner if you see the hunter laying one of those down. Attack the second. Do not put a DoT on something that may become trapped. Wait to choose your target.

* A good hunter can use their Detect skills, traps, Eyes of the Beast, Eagle Eye, and Hunter's Mark to plan and setup a pull before it begins. If they ask you to not attack until the mobs reach a certain point or to go after a certain mob first (usually indicated by Hunter's Mark), it's usually a good idea to listen to them (unless of course they're bad at this).

* Learn how to set up and properly execute a Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety. If a pull goes bad, leave the pulled mobs alone. The hunter should be able to abort the pull and the mobs will go back where they came from. If the hunter dies, the mobs will also go back where they came from (if left alone), and the hunter can be resurrected to try again.

* It's important to remember that a Hunter has a minimum range in which to perform his attacks. Many players who suddenly find themselves the target of a mob may instinctively begin to back up. This does not help your situation at all, but you may be pulling a targeted mob out of range of the Hunter's abilities. A Hunter can not attack while he his moving backwards to put more distance between himself and the mob you are pulling backwards. If you still feel you need to continue to move around in panic, make sure to avoid bringing mobs out of a Hunter's range.

* Do not assume a Hunter's pet is meant to be a tank or hold aggro. There are some Hunters who do not teach their pet any rank of Growl. If you intend to work a Hunter's pet into your plans, inquire as to what it's abilites are.

* If the hunter is not pulling, and you are, please be considerate of hunters when you pull; always try to give them at least 10 yards from them to the mob at the position of tanking. Remember to Line of Sight into consideration too. Hunters are severly gimped in their damage dealing if you force them into a space of less than 8 yards; they must melee or be stuck in their deadzone.

Tank Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

Tanking:

Classes: Warrior, Druid, Paladin

Regardless of which class is Tanking, it must be remembered that the primary job of the Tank is to hold Aggro. Much as Priests must avoid the temptation to Nuke, the Tank must avoid the temptation to try and duel one mob at a time. The Tank absolutely must realize that they are there to keep the mobs off the Cloth classes. If you see an Add go after your healer, it's your job to pull it off. Far too often Tanks will just stand there, slugging it out with one mob, while the rest of the party dies. If your group is working properly, a Tank ought to be able to hold Aggro on multiple mobs at a time. Remember, as a Tank, it's not your job to kill the mobs. It's your job to keep the mobs from killing your other group members. As long as you have Rogues, Mages and Hunters to dish out damage and a Healer to keep you alive, the one and only thing that you need to worry about is making sure that every mob in the fight is hitting you, not someone else.

What you need to know as a Tank
Your job is to hold Aggro. Period. Especially keep mobs off your Healer, as the Healer is the guy keeping you alive. Use taunt(if you lose aggro), sunder armor, and the shield block/revenge combo for the best effect.
You need to do your best to mitigate damage so that the healer isn't streaming their mana into you. Increase your dodge, parry, block and melee defense ratings the best you can and most of all wear a shield and sit in defensive stance. In addition to this, you should not be using spells like Death Wish when you are the main tank, especially for boss fights and larger battles. These skills and stances have their value, just not when you are the main tank.
Remember to change your targets. Once you have generated sufficient aggro, you should move onto the next in the attacking group (not an idle mob out of combat) so that when the rest of your party is done killing the original, you have already instilled some hate in their next target.
Keep an eye on every mob and make sure they are all attacking you or possibly secondary tanks, and not someone else. Watch for remarks such as "add" or "on me" in the party/raid channel. "Add" means that new unexpected mobs have just joined the combat. Not managed properly, adds often lead to wipes. "On me"(or "aggro") means that one of the mobs broke aggro and is attacking someone who's not supposed to be attacked, usually a healer or a caster.

What you need to know to assist the Tank
Do not pull Adds. The Tank has a hard enough time without you pulling extra mobs on to him. Assist the Tank, and kill what he's fighting. If you're a Healer, know the Tank's health bar better than your own.
Avoid AoE damage as this will aggro all the mobs onto you and then the tank has to herd them all back onto him.
If you're getting attacked DO NOT RUN. Running does nothing but make it harder for the tank to target the mobs attacking you. Stand still or move towards the tank.
If the tank doesn't notice you're being attacked, say something. The phrase "on me" or "aggro" is commonly used in this situation.
Allow time for the tank to build aggro before attacking. Generally, healers should try to avoid healing the tank for the first few seconds of the fight, and other classes should avoid doing massive amounts of damage or threat at the outset.
If you are a caster with a lot of +dmg or +crit gear and/or higher level than your Main Tank, damage from your critical hits will occasionally outweigh threat caused by the Tank, and the mob will go after you. In endgame instances such as Molten Core it usually means instant death unless the Tank can regain aggro in 2-3 seconds it takes the mob to cross the distance between tank and you. If this happens, STOP ATTACKING.
Warlocks and Hunters, turn off auto-torment/auto-growl on your pet or voidwalker, since this draws mobs away from the tank and prevents him or her from being able to build aggro. This cannot be emphasised enough, and it is a mistake novices in these two classes make constantly.

Wait for the Leader and/or Main Tank to announce that you should start assisting the Main Tank. Only then start dealing damage. Useful macro for assisting the Main Tank: /assist

Scout Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

Scout

Classes: Rogue, Druid, Warlock, Priest, Hunter,shaman

Usually a rogue or druid with their stealth, a Warlock using Eye of Kilrogg, or a priest using Mind Vision. The scout is anyone who can stealth to scout ahead around corners and inside rooms to avoid the party running smack into a pile of mobs. While not a critical part of a party they can be useful in tight, twisty, dense instances. Also, remember that Hunters can scout ahead, behind, around corners, through doors, etc. all at once provided their tracking is set to an appropriate type.

Hunters can also scout using Eyes of the Beast, and stealth scout if their pets have Prowl. Be careful if you use your pet to scout, even if it can stealth. You need to control your pet to either safely return before Eyes of the Beast timer's run out, or it is sufficiently far away enough that your pet disappears from your control. Otherwise, if your pet is still in controllable range when the timer runs out, it will return back to you. This is potentially a major problem because it can aggro mobs on the return trip.

Hunters remember, if there is a chance that your pet will bring mobs to your group in this before mentioned situation, make sure that you put your pet on stay. Your pet will be killed, but that way you make sure no mobs will get to your group. It is always better to sacrifice your pet, than your group. And if the mobs still get to your group, gain aggro on yourself and handle the situation just like aborting a pull.

Should the scout draw a lot of aggro, too much for the party to deal with, let them die. Do not attack, do not assist, do not heal. Allow the scout to die. Once the scout is dead the mobs will have no targets and the battle is over. They can then be rez'd and the party can continue on their way having avoided a wipe. A good scout knows they're expendable. See Surviving a Wipe for more details.

About the most important thing you can know about working with a scout is this: If the scout is stealthed and moving forward do not follow him/her! This may seem obvious but it happens all the time: The scout sneaks stealthly into a room filled with mobs only to find a party member lumbering behind them. There's a natural urge for other party members to want to edge forward and have a look. Even if you can stealth too, resist the urge to go forward and take a peek, you'll just get in the way.

Puller Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

The Puller

Classes: Hunter, Rogue, Warrior, any

The ideal attributes for a puller include:

* Ability to draw enemies from a distance (almost any class with ranged attacks)
* Ability to abort a bad pull (hunters via feign death or by sacrificing their pet, or rogues via vanish)
* Ability to track targets in order to detect additional mobs concealed around corners. (Mostly the Hunter, and to a lesser extent Paladins, Warlocks, and Druids (cat form))
* Ability to lose aggro quickly (hunters and rogues via various methods)
* Ability to survive long enough to transfer aggro to main tank (any character with leather or better armor.)

It is always preferable to let a hunter pull in a group, as their tracking ability, and multiple means of fully aborting a bad pull allow maximum safety to the group. If a hunter is not available, a rogue can also pull effectively and have the ability to abort a bad pull, but the five minute cooldown required for vanish is less than optimal. Using the main tank as a puller should be avoided, but is the best choice if no hunter or rogue is available.

This may seem counterintuitive, as most people will, wrongly, want the tank to pull because of the "problem" of aggro transfer (For more information on this subject, see Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety). Unless there are no mages sheeping or rogues sapping (a highly unlikely event), then transferring aggro is no more complicated than usual and much, much safer. Only a hunter or rogue is equipped to safely turn a bad pull into a full abort, saving the party from a wipe and the healers from resurrecting the puller. See The Pull for more information on this topic.

What you need to know as the Puller
Don't pull from the middle of a group. Each mob has an aggro radius other mobs crossing this radius will pass their aggro on and follow into the melee. So always pull the mob closest to you, and move your self to the mob that is away from the others. Try to pull as few mobs as possible. If you are not the Tank, keep the group well away from you so that if you have a bad pull, they don't fall into the aggro radius of the extra mobs - you can be resurrected to try again. Bring the mobs to the party, not the party to the mobs. If you're pulling a ranged mob or caster, make sure you go back all the way to the group, and even beyond. Another particularly useful tactic for ranged mobs and casters is the line-of-sight pull, whereby you run around a corner immediately after attracting a mob's attention: leaving their line of sight forces them to follow you around the corner, which means that you may not have to run very far at all to get them where you want them.

Only pull mobs specified by the Leader and only once he has given you permission to pull. Also make sure you are not pulling the mob that is targetted by the Sheeper for crowd control.

Request that the party leader use Lucky Charms to designate who you should pull, and who should be sheeped, to ensure that you're not pulling the mob that is targeted by the Sheeper for crowd control.

What you need to know to assist the Puller
Under no circumstances should anyone other than the Puller cause Aggro during the Pull. If you're a Mage, do not Poly into the group unless the Pull gains Adds, and then only when the Adds are expected. Unexpected Adds will cause the pull to be aborted by the puller, aggroing mobs on an aborted pull will hurt. Remember to give the puller plenty of room so that in the case of a bad pull, only the puller dies. When a ranged mob or caster is being pulled, stay where you are until the puller goes even farther back from the group so that you don't aggro any more than the puller did.

All Pullers: Whenever pulling, you should employ a three step process.

1. Assess the situation, and place yourself to allow safe distance for the rest of the party.
2. Pull onto yourself first. Make sure the pull is good.
3. Only after you make sure the pull is good should you pull back onto your party.

Hunter Pullers: Hunters should use their tracking abilities to fully assess the number and placement of mobs before pulling, and position themselves well ahead of the group to allow room for aborted pulls.

Feign Death is the primary means of escaping a bad pull. You should be positioned such that no other party members will be able to attract aggro.

Rogue Pullers: If no Hunter is present, use stealth carefully and from a safe distance to scout, return to an intermediary position a safe distance from the party, and use a ranged weapon to pull.

Vanish should be ready in the event of a bad pull, however, you should exercise caution, as vanish has a five minute cooldown, and while it's cooling down, any further aborts require taking one for the group and waiting for res. Vanish should not be used to gain additional ambush or backstab attempts when pulling as a rogue.

Warrior Pullers: If no Hunter or Rogue is present, the pulling job can be combined with Main Tank role, as the inital aggro gives the Tank a head start on Threat.

Resist the temptation to Charge. Use Defensive Stance (with Shield), and a ranged weapon to do the actual pulling. It is important to bring the enemy back to you, rather than plunge into it, as this helps reduce the likelyhood of extra enemies joining the fray ('adds').

- Charge is an exceptional tanking ability when done correctly. It also places the tank far enough into the mob to achieve the Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety if the Charge draws more mobs then foreseen. The initial rage generation is huge when it comes to gathering up aggro; speeding up the nuking of tough encounters. Ive noticed that some things in this guide assume that the party can survive long enough on every pull to wait for 3/4+ sunders. This is not always true. While I am not advocating that every pull must be initiated with a charge, there are some situations where a Charge is a good idea; Especially on Boss Fights. As a tank myself, on some "pulls" I charge into the mob and use Demoralizing Shout and one Sunder Armor, Stance dance to Defensive Stance and apply another sunder or revenge. This takes a fraction of the time to build up enough rage for 3 sunders, and its nearly impossible to pull the aggro off of the tank. The casters, cc and healers can almost immediately begin to do what their roles suggest. I just think that a guide that suggests for no one to do anything until the main tank has aggro is a bad idea, there are some pulls where waiting for all those sunders leads to a quick Main Tank death.
Be sure to coordinate carefully with any Mage Polymorphers, or Rogue Sappers on what enemy to hit, and when.

Off-Tank Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

Off-Tank

Classes: Warrior, Druid, Paladin, Shaman (talents permitting)

In Raids (10 people and more), more than one tank is available. In these cases, one tank becomes the MT, and the others are designated off-tanks. An OTs job is usually to be second on the aggro list of the mobs, so if the MT dies, he's able to quickly draw aggro and replace the MT. Where an offtank is present, it is also the best idea for the offtank to intercept a lone target-changing mob, so the main tank can handle the other X number of mobs.

It is possible to take an off-tank in five-man parties. While Holy Trinity is preserved with three indiviuals (Tank, Healer, and one DPS), that leaves two places open for other roles. Normally the fourth party position is another DPS, but the fifth spot can house a class such as a Paladin or Shaman who can make acceptable off-tanks.

Group Leader Instance Guide

2007-06-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

Group Leader

Classes: Any

Normally, the Leader will be the character that started the group. However, sometimes the Leader will be the group member who has the best knowledge of the task at hand. The Leader charts the path through the Instance, decides when Pulls should be made, and makes sure that everyone else in the group knows what role they're expected to play and is ready to play it.

A leader ideally has considerable prior experience running the instance. The best leaders know by heart what every single pull consists of and an effective way to take the pull out and move to the next one, as well as to expect the unexpected during the fight and communicate to the group a strategy to deal with it if it happens.

What you need to know as Leader

People are counting on you to hold the group together. If the group starts to devolve into chaos, it's your job to restore order. Better yet, stop it before it starts. Use /wait when applicable.

Equally important to a good leader is the ability to distribute loot effectively. Loot is a huge part of the reason that most people run instances, and as the person who can set loot privileges party members will look to you to make sure they get a fair shot at what drops. Most groups use a Need/Greed roll system; ensure that it is not being abused, and watch for ties on rolls for bind on equip items. Find out whether a disenchanter is available before bind on pickup loot drops that nobody needs. Don't tolerate loot ninjas; know how to use the Master Looter option (and use it fairly) or get rid of them and find replacements before they waste your time. If you are in a raid, make sure that Master Looter is set before a boss fight.

Party Leaders also have the unique ability to designate Lucky Charms, and will need to use them wisely in marking targets for crowd control, pulling, and so forth. Group members will appreciate consistency in charms. Establish what the marks mean beforehand, don't switch the meaning of the marks from pull to pull, and if you need to use a mark for something other than what you originally established then let the party know about it – if the moon is a sheep, keep the sheep a moon and don't use it for anything else, and if the moon isn't a sheep on this pull then tell the party what it is before the pull is done. Good leaders will go through a rundown of what every single mark means before the first pull in an instance happens. (If you often find yourself leading a group, consider binding keys for marking mobs with the various charms.) Leaders will also establish a kill order for the pull and communicate it to the group before it happens.

As leader you need to maintain the pace of pulls while ensuring that your party has enough health and mana for the next battle. Don't allow people to go afk for ten minutes after every pull. If a party member is significantly delaying progress, ask that they drop the group in favor of someone who can devote more attention to the instance run.

Generally it is the leader that announces if the party is going to wipe. (Good leaders will be watching for a character to have wipe recovery in place before this happens, especially on boss fights.) After a wipe, the leader will evaluate the situation. You need to decide who in the group will release and run back to the instance entrance.

In raids, the leader can appoint raid assistants who have many of the privileges of a raid leader.

What you need to know to assist the Leader

Don't wander off on your own.

Don't pull Aggro on the group.

Don't argue. If you don't feel that you fit in the group, leave. And when the leader or the puller says "Stay," then stay.

When to get a new Leader

Beware of any leader that sets the loot rules to Master Looter without a good reason. They may be a loot ninja in disguise.

If a party member demonstrates better knowledge of the pulls than the leader, consider asking the leader to make that member leader.

If the leader uses marks inconsistently (or not at all), ask that they start to use them, or volunteer to be leader so that you can mark mobs.

Healer Instance Guide

2007-06-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Healer

Classes: Priest, Druid, Shaman, Paladin

Every instance group will have at least one healer. Priests are considered by many to be the most versatile healers, but Druids, Paladins and Shamans are also capable of being primary healers, especially when correctly specced and geared. The primary healer's job is to maintain the health of the rest of the group throughout the instance.

Often in a five-man group there is also a secondary or off-healer. This character is usually a dpser who will switch to healing when the situation demands it.

As a Healer

-Don't waste mana on anything but keeping group members alive, unless you are absolutely sure you won't run out of it before combat is over.

-The most important party member to keep alive is you, the healer. Don't be a hero, you can't heal anyone if you're dead (unless you're a priest, and then not for long).
-The second most important member to keep alive is the tank, they will always take damage, but at a (relatively) slow and predictable rate. Hopefully. Help them build threat by not healing them at first (or if you're a priest, casting Prayer of Mending on them before combat begins), as immediately after the pull it's easy for you to pull aggro by being overzealous in healing.

-Your job isn't to keep everyone at full health, it's to keep everyone alive. If, at the end, everyone has 2% health, it's better than one character dead and everyone else at 100%. Keeping party members from dying can also save you an aborted run or wasting time by characters leaving the instance to repair. This is especially important if you're a druid, as you can only rez once a half hour.

-However, there will be times that someone will die while you're saving the rest of the group. When it happens, apologize and, if necessary, explain why you did it.

- Be prepared to quickly heal and/or Power Word: Shield clothies, especially mages when they cast AoE spells, as their health bar drops like a stone when they're attacked. (Warlocks and druids also have AoE attacks, but these tend to be weaker and these classes also have more survivability – warlocks usually have a lot of health because the class revolves around using health as a source of mana, and druids usually have more armor from wearing leather armor and/or being in moonkin form.)

-It's true that mail and plate wearers are going to be lower on your priority list than leather and (especially) cloth wearers. However, armor doesn't protect against spell damage, so against the wrong mob they can die just as fast (or faster) than cloth wearers. Be aware of who's getting hit by what.

-As much as you can, keep an eye on what's going on around you, not just the party's health bars. Watching a mob suddenly run across the room can give you a hint on who will soon need healing. This will also help make sure you keep line of sight and range on party members – this is more their responsibility to maintain, but running into an alcove where you can't see anyone is not going to make you any friends.

-If for any reason you have aggro, stand still – or better yet run to the tank – and let the party know. Keep your emergency skills (Fade, Divine Shield, etc.) at hand and use them quickly. It is difficult for party members to get the aggro of the mob off you if you (and it) keep running away from them. If you don't know where to go, then stay put. Be aware of the difference between having aggro and a mob that randomly charges party members then goes back to the person with the most threat.

-It's a good idea to keep an eye behind your back for patrols coming up from behind the group, since you are usually hanging behind the others. It might take a while for the tank to realize you are under attack by another mob. Also you are often the person best suited to watch crowd-controlled mobs and make sure they don't escape it.
-Consider making a macro such as:(Macros help a lot when your a healer)

/cast Holy Light(Rank 3)
/s <<< Casting Holy Light on %t >>>

This macro lets the party know who's getting heals, so that they don't drink a potion or a secondary healer doesn't start a heal on them. If you do this, make sure that from where you'll be standing, the comment will reach the relevant people. (The reason for the /s is that in most cases, people will be talking in party chat, and healing should stand out for anyone to see.)

An off-healer should start healing if:

-The primary healer goes out of mana. The primary healer should notify the group as soon as (or better yet before) this happens, by typing /oom, having a macro that says something to that effect, or simply typing 'oom' in chat. (Depending on your party makeup, this may also be the time for a druid to Innervate the healer.)

-The primary healer is being attacked. In this case, the group's first priority must be to pull the mob's aggro off of the primary healer. Not only is it difficult to heal when being attacked, but if the healer casts more heals, it will generate more threat and thus make it even more difficult for the group to pull the mob(s) off. (See Aggro lock.) So you as secondary healer will heal the main healer, thus saving their threat generation for until the tank has re-established aggro.

-It is a tough pull and the healer can't keep up on the healing. Some boss fights in particular are difficult for one healer, especially healers on the low end of the instance level range, to keep up with.

-The primary healer dies. Guess who's the new primary healer?

Working with a Healer

-On most fights, the healer should be sending at least 90% of their heals to the tank. If this is not the case, or worse if the healer is pulling aggro from the amount of healing done, there is something seriously wrong. DPSers need to ensure they are managing their threat and are not pulling aggro off the tank or otherwise being damaged needlessly. (Note that many boss fights, and in some instances even the trash pulls, will not follow this guideline.)

-Healing causes threat differently than damage, as all mobs in combat accumulate threat from healing. To assist the healer, keep aggro off of them – if there's even a small non-elite on the healer, his healing capability will be drastically reduced. No matter who you are, it's better that the mob is attacking you than the healer.

-Stay in range and in line of sight of the healer. Your healer can't heal what he can't reach or (with a few exceptions) see.

-Also remember that the healer likes to gain experience, loot bodies, and activate quest items, just like you. Since the healer is in back of the group, he/she has to do all these things after the battle is over, so do not simply run off looking for the next group of monsters. Also be aware that while the Healer is filling your Health bar, they're draining their mana bar. Be considerate and allow them to recharge.

- If a priest and a druid are to be working together, use mana effectively. In raids, some over-zealous priests take the challenge to constantly heal everyone around and therefore burn mana fast, leaving druids (and their slower heals) at almost full mana at the end of a mob. Don't let these awkward situations take place, work with each other by dividing the group between healers. The druid is not as versatile in their abilities as a priest is, lacking quick saves such as Power Word: Shield and Flash Heal, and cannot respond as quickly to heal a clothy, but are generally very capable healers on tanks and other well-armored group members.

- If a fight is going badly, try to work with the healer(s) to find a better way of organizing the fight. It can be simple things, like where the boss is fought or the direction it's facing, that turn a wipe into a victory.

Priest Healer Macros

2007-06-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

This is a Heal macro for priests also letting your group know...also that %t is replaced when targeted.

/p Casting Lesser Heal on %t
/Cast Lesser Heal(Rank 1)

This is a Resurrection macro for priests also letting your group know that the targeted person is being resurrected.

/p Resurrecting %t
/Cast Resurrection

This is a Renew macro for priests also lets the group know that the targeted person is being renewed.

/p Casting Renew on %t
/Cast Renew(Rank 1)

Future Updates

2007-06-22T13:17:00.001-07:00

Future Updates List:

druid twinking guide
shaman twinking guide
warrior twinking guide
rogue twinking guide
priest twinking guide
warlock twinking guide
hunter twinking guide
paladin twinking guide
druid build guide
shaman build guide
warrior build guide
rogue build guide
priest build guide
warlock build guide
hunter build guide
paladin build guide
Jewelcrafting Profession Guide 1-300
Instance Grouping Guide Hunter
Instance Grouping Guide Leader
Instance Grouping Guide Mage
Instance Grouping Guide Main Assist
Instance Grouping Guide Off Tank
Instance Grouping Guide Paladin
Instance Grouping Guide Priest
Instance Grouping Guide Puller
Instance Grouping Guide Rogue
Instance Grouping Guide Scout
Instance Grouping Guide Shaman
Instance Grouping Guide Tank
Instance Grouping Guide Warlock
Instance Grouping Guide Warrior
Reputation Guide
Guide to Engineering
Useful buffs Guide
Guild Guide
Auction guide
MORE Tips
MORE Hints
MORE PICTURES

AND MUCH MORE!

Druid Builds Guide

2007-06-22T13:16:00.001-07:00

Balance Builds

Full Balance

Prior to the expansion Balance had traditionally been considered underpowered due to awkward talent design and poor itemization. With the addition of Moonkin form in 1.08 it gained a certain amount of PvP viability but was still considered unsuitable for PvE raiding. With the addition of several powerful new talents to the balance tree and a significant talent re-design to improve point efficiency, balance druids have been elevated to a level of viability never before seen in the game. WoW 2.0 Moonkins can probably come close to matching the raw DPS of a Mage or Warlock but begin to fall short when it comes to mana endurance and certain types of raid utility such as threat reduction, powerful debuffs, and AoE damage dealing. In PVP, the Moonkin's combination of roots, nukes and excellent damage mitigation make them dangerous opponents for certain classes.

Below are two sample builds, one oriented towards PvE and the other towards PvP.

* PvE Moonkin - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MxzrdicsguAoZxxcz
o Emphasizes mana regeneration and raid utility with talents such as Dreamstate, Intensity.
* PvP Moonkin - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MtcrziIsgzVoZxeh
o Passes on long term mana endurance, since fights are very short in PvP. Improves ability to fight under pressure with Celestial Focus and Nature's Focus and ability shapeshift frequently to heal(or just to escape in travel form) with Natural Shapeshifter.

* Patch 2.1.0 Build (43/0/18) - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MxzrdicsguVZZxxcx
o In Patch 2.1.0, Subtlety will reduce threat done by all spells, instead of just healing spells. As a Balance Druid's main concern in raids is threat, subtlety will become almost required during raids.

Swift Moonkin (40/0/21)

Nature's Swiftness is a potent tool for nuking or healing-- you can even use it to instantly hibernate that pesky feral opponent. So it's only natural with the release of the expansion that a 40/0/21 build would emerge. Wrath of Cenarius and Force of Nature are the two big sacrifices, along with much-missed points from Moonglow. On the plus side, though, you get Intensity to boost your mana regen. Omen of Clarity situationally boosts your situational melee buff from Moonkin form. Natural Shapeshifter helps you drop into caster form for a quick heal, and Improved Rejuvenation and Nature's Focus make sure those heals get off. Finally, Nature's Swiftness is like a free extra life-- if your mana holds out.

It's not as potent as the 0/40/21 feral build, since your heals and DPS both come from the same mana pool, but the survivability is still very strong. One hidden benefit: your +damage and spell crit gear will benefit your heals and your nukes. While you'll still want a separate healing set, your heals will still pack quite a punch in your DPS clothing.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MtcrziIkguZZxVIzco

PVP Balance Full Hybrid

This build combines some of the most useful PvP talents while keeping a Balance build focus. Uncommon from other builds, this dips in to all three trees. It may seem odd, given that when a druid is in one form, he cannot benefit from bonuses in other forms. However, a criticism of druids in PVP is a lack of spell interrupts. The inclusion of Feral Charge and Furor gives the druid a spell interrupt that can be used almost on demand.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0turziIogzZxG0oZVxh

Feral Builds
Full Feral (1/43/17)

Before 2.0, druids wanting to maximize their Feral DPS abilities were forced to spec into an awkward 14/32/5 tri-build that lacked real versatility. The revision to druid talents and the addition of the strong Mangle ability has completely re-made the Feral druid, taking it from a quirky off-spec to a truly viable and powerful build for both PvE and PvP.

There has been some discussion as to exactly how important Mangle is to a feral druid. For druids interested in their cat form DPS, especially in raids, it is essential. Expect your DPS to nearly double with a Mangle build. Ferals focused on bear tanking will find that Lacerate is an adequate rage dump for anything short of main tanking in raids; though even then think the question through completely before skipping this potent ability.

Many feral druids will spend their extra talents points in restoration because of the talents that make feral fighting better, specifically Furor, Naturalist, Natural Shapeshifter, Intensity, and Omen of Clarity.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=zzZxGGsfroxzioVxIz

Feral Mend Spec (0/30/31)

Before WoW 2.0 the 0/30/21 Feral Hybrid was arguably the single most popular non-raiding druid build. In PvP, strong mana regeneration and Nature's Swiftness allows a druid to draw a fight out almost indefinitely. In PvE, the flexibility allowed even raiding druids to offtank or heal as the occasion suited. With the advent of Mangle, druids now have a choice about DPS vs survivability and healing potential. While many have gone full over to the DPS potential of Mangle, many others still treasure the power, survivability and flexibility of the feral hybrid.

For some druids, levelling to 70 will mean the ten more points they need to get Swiftmend, a potent tool in any druid's healing arsenal. Swiftmend provides an oft-superior emergency heal option to Nature's Swiftness, especially for PvE raiding where a druid's heal over time spells are most prized. Heart of the Wild's utility is maximized in this build; for healing situations by allowing for very large mana pools to make up for decreased mana efficiency.

As always, raiding druids might be expected to exchange Furor for the vastly inferior Improved Mark of the Wild. Check with your guild before doing this; in many cases a restoration druid with this talent may offer to handle buffing duties in exchange for you bringing material components.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=zZxhGscbRxZVxIzcq0Lo

Feral's Swiftness (0/40/21)

The other option for feral hybrids is to extend their feral abilities to the limit, stopping just short of Mangle to keep Nature's Swiftness. This is a game-changing decision, whichever way you go. Mangle will vastly improve your DPS. Nature's Swiftness will vastly improve your survivability. For a true feral hybrid, this survivability, plus the bonuses to healing, make the exchange worthwhile. With many of the new encounters tuned with hybrid players in mind, Blizzard seems to agree.

In PVP, druids with Mangle will quickly dispatch enemies, or be killed themselves. Hybrids play the more traditional druid game of attrition, steadily beating an opponent down while relying on escape mechanisms, fast mana regeneration and instant heals to lend a sense of futility to their opponent's attacks. In raiding, don't expect to be called on to DPS unless you have mangle (or unless another feral keeps that debuff up to boost your Shreds). However, off-tanking and healing remain quite viable.

The Feral's Swiftness build is very strong in arena play, where you can operate in feral form but still suddenly shift out to give a strong heal to a teammate (or yourself). Powers like Pounce, Bash, Entangling Roots and Cyclone (not to mention hibernate) don't care if you have Mangle or not, making you an ideal spoiler for other teams' strategies.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MZxhGsfrRxubZVxIzco

Restoration Builds
Full Restoration

Tree of Life remains a controversial talent and may still be tinkered with by the developers. The concept for it is a dedicated healbot, and it is extremely PvE oriented. Some of the major points of controversy have been the movement speed penalty and the lack of defenses available to the tree, it is basically a "sitting duck". Some have also complained of the inability to utilize abolish poison and remove curse while in tree of life form.

Tree form aura was changed just before the release of TBC from increasing the healing done by party members to increasing the healing done to party members. This makes it useful for MT-groups or other groups whose members will require extra healing.

The form is worth taking if one likes to heal with HoTs and Swiftmend. Healing Touch is not usable in this form which greatly reduces the druid's max healing per second, however the mana cost of all available healing spells is reduced by 20%, which combined with the aura greatly increases healing longevity.

It is worth noting that shifting out of this form, like all other forms, costs no mana, which allows a druid healer to shift out and begin using Healing Touch should the need arise.

Some variation remains possible, but since the focus of this build is so narrowly on raid healing it is optimal to place pretty much all of your talent points in the restoration tree, something like this:

* 1/0/60 Tree of Life - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0zZZxEcteqrest

Mana Mend Spec (27/0/34)

Balance has always been a good complement to Restoration. Both talent trees are spellcasting trees and there's a certain amount of gear and playstyle crossover. In the past a hybridized 27/0/24 Balance/resto build was fairly popular for raiding druids. Post expansion, level 70 druids will still enjoy the fruits of this powerful build.

The hybrid balance spec emphasizes maximizing mana efficiency of heals, particularly Healing Touch. It also has significant damage dealing ability, being more than adequate for solo farming, though it falls well short of the level necessary for dedicated DPS in a raid setting. Spirit gear is a great plus for this build, to make sure you have enough use of everything.

PvP druids with this build will greatly miss the survivability and crit bonus of the moonkin form. They might wanna prefer the talent Natural Perfection in stead of Living Spirit.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MxcrzicsZZxxcxcqRco

Restokin Spec (AKA Dreamstate) (34/0/27)

This build is based on the Healing Touch-related Restoration tree talents and the 3-point Dreamstate talent (and others from the Balance tree). It emphasizes intellect as a primary stat and is good for soloing as well as healing.

Dreamstate gives a druid 10% of their intellect in mana per 5 seconds. Lunar Guidance gives a druid 25% of their intellect in +damage/healing. A level 70 druid in pre-raid gear can achieve over 400 intellect, making for 40 extra mana per 5 seconds while casting and +100 damage/healing.

You have to like casting Healing Touch with this spec, since it is a huge heal now, low on costs. And the mana restore you got now, works best while casting. Great spec for PvP and PvE, making you very useful in 5-mans.

Even though it contains more balance talents than restoration, it is still considered a healing spec. The last talent might be wasted in Moonkin Form, and can also be stored in Gift of Nature (in resto).

(In addition, points can be traded around to get 5/5 Subtlety and 2/2 Improved tranquility if lowered threat is a desire and PVP is not in your future.)

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tcrzicsRhZZxgc0faM

Raiding Guide

2007-06-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

Raiding-running instances with 20 or more people

Contents:
* 1 Golden Rule
* 2 Motivation
* 3 Progression
* 4 Timescale
* 5 Hierarchy
* 6 Talent builds
* 7 Behaviour
* 8 Loot

Every successful raiding group has a core of regular attenders. In the "normal" case, all members of a raid are in the same guild, but there are many other methods possible (up to so-called "pug raids"). Invariably after a few runs, either a reliable core group forms, or the raid doesn't take place any more. One problem for newbies (especially guildless newbies) is to find (or create) such a group. In order to faciliate getting a place in a raid, some understanding on how raids function can help.
Golden Rule

Raiding is a long term team effort. Thus have patience, and be a good team player.
Motivation

A common misconception is that raiding is all about epic loot. Unfortunately, there are these pesky end bosses who need a coordinated and determined effort to master them. In reality raiding is about learning the boss encounters. The most happy raid members are those who join a run because they like the challenge form the encounters.

People with selfish goals, especially when it comes to loot, usually lose their raid places quickly. If not some kind of formalized loot distribution system (like DKP) is used, epic loot is normally distributed on the basis what's best for the raids future success, and not what's optimal for an individual player. So be polite and don't put your personal goals over those of the whole raid (see the golden rule above).
Progression

Prior to the Burning Crusade, partying, and specifically raiding, began at the 5 and 10 stage, progressing to Upper Blackrock Spire. The first 'real' raid instance was Zul'Gurub, and then the beginning of the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (aka AQ20). At some point during these two instances there was the Molten Core. Onyxia, next on the list, was begun as early as the beginning of Molten Core, or held off until Majordomo Executus or another boss toward the end of Molten Core had fallen. Following this was Blackwing Lair, and while it was possible to begin the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (= AQ40) (next on the list) near the beginning of Blackwing Lair, it also is not suggested. It is generally established that once your guild is at or defeating the Twin Emperors in AQ40, your guild should begin Naxxramas.

Nowadays, with level 70 and the expansion, a player can simply do quests and solo all the way to level 70, and start running instances only then. A group of 40 level 70 characters with the normal blue/green quest rewards should easily be able to clear BWL, and find AQ40 mildly challenging, all lesser instances should feel rather easymode (rumor has it that Onyxia was 5-manned). The only instance with interesting drops is Naxx, but since the top of the line instances in Outland require faction grinding (and this is best done in the lesser Outland instances), nearly nobody goes there any more.
Timescale

When soloing it is reasonable to expect a reward every 30 minutes or so (after solving a quest). In 5 man instances, it is normal to get at least one good item per run (2-3 hours). The interval between such "successes" in raids is measured in weeks. The 40 man instances reset once a week, so each boss can be killed only once in seven days. Assuming 10 bosses and two drops per boss, this yields 20 items per week, so every member of a 40 man raid can expect at most one item every two weeks. In reality, a wait time of one month or even more is much more realistic. Clearing Molten Core (i.e. from the very first pull until Ragnaros is down) in less than half a year is very fast (when the raid starts at lvl 60 with the usual mix of blue/green equipment). Raiding is a very long term effort.
Hierarchy

In a 5 or 10 man instance group, one group leader can do all the management neccessary - one person can organize healing, crowd control and target assignment without there being much danger that something is forgotten or out of sync. In a raid the tasks are much more complicated and specialized, and sometimes require detailed knowledge of class (or build) capabilities, so that actually quite a lot of the management tasks get delegated to "officers", and the raid leader himself mainly focuses on keeping things synchronized. As all hierarchies, this structure can either be maintained out of necessity, because it makes things easier and better organized, or it can be used as a means of suppression. For newbies it's sometimes hard to distinguish these two forms.

Normally each class should have one officer, and a separate chat channel where all issues specific to that class are discussed. The officers and the raid leader have another separate chat channel where strategy and synchronization are discussed. An exception is the healer channel - this one is usually not limited to priests, rather all healing classes (Druid, Shaman, Paladin) join it, and don't all have a separate channel of their own.
Talent builds

There are certain builds which make it easier to be accepted into a raid, and others for which it's more difficult. Especially before the release of Burning Crusade, all Hybrid classes were expected to heal (which means Resto builds for shaman and druid, Holy for Paladin). Warriors should be able to tank, so at least 15 points in Protection are very much appreciated. Some raids may go as far and demand very specific builds, others may be less strict, but in general, most raiding guilds expect that all hybrids are specced for healing, and all warriors are able to tank.

With the release of Burning Crusade, many talent tress were re-evaluated and changed, the end result being that Hybrid classes are now apt for more than just healing. This has been a source of controversy amongst many guilds, where many new level 70 Paladins wish to tank, or Druids expect to DPS. As a new raider, a hybrid class should be up front with their Guild Master about what they wish their role to be, and expect that the guild may not need that specific job filled (example, you want to be a DPS druid, but the guild really needs Resto druids.)

Be willing to fit the role your guild needs, or to find another guild where you can function in the role that you wish to.
Behaviour

Unless the task at hand is totally routine (e.g. the 20th MC run before the lava packs), chat should be kept to a minimum. Raids are not a good place to get to know the other members. There are too many people, and there's too little time. When it comes to tactics, newbies should really be careful and first try to understand how this particular raid works. Although on many bosses there are widely accepted strategies, some raids may do things different, and still have success. It is not a good idea to try to teach long term raid members things on the first occasion, justified as it may be. Discussions should not take place during a raid. If you have an issue with anything, catch the relevant officer later in /w or in some forum, not during the raid.

In particular, predicting doom and failure before the pull even begins, or declaring "wipe" when one person dies is a good way to quickly lose your raiding spot. It is important for the success of the raid to stay positive, especially when learning new content.
Loot

The drops are usually distributed by a loot master during a raid. The loot rules are normally agreed on beforehand. Most raiding groups use some kind of formalized loot system. Drops which are of no immediate use (like Core Leather or the Nexus Crystals from disenchanted epics) usually go to the guild bank. Newbies need to be prudent once more, but don't despair - even if things look like you'll never get anything, you'll quickly find out that there are many items which nobody else wants to take, and thus you'll get decent gear quite fast. Of course, getting the top of the line drops takes much more... patience.

Healing Twink Guide

2007-06-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

Suggested Gear

Head-Shadow Goggles
Neck-Scout's Medallion or Sentinel's Medallion
Shoulders-Talbar Mantle
Back-Battle Healer's Cloak or Caretaker's Cape with Superior Defense Enchant.
Chest-Tree Bark Jacket with Greater Stats Enchant
Wrist-Mindthrust Bracers with a +24 Healing Enchant
Hands-Magefist Gloves with a +30 Healing Enchant
Waist-Keller's Girdle
Legs-Darkweave Breeches With Golden Spellthread Enchant.
Feet-Scouting Boots of the Eagle With Minor Speed Enchant
Ring 1-Advisor's Ring or Lorekeeper's Ring
Ring 2-Lavishly Jeweled Ring
Trinket 1-Insignia of the Horde, Insignia of the Alliance
Trinket 2-Arena Grand Master
Weapon-Staff of the Blessed Seer with a +55 Healing Enchant
Total +healing +120
Estimated Gold Spent... 550g
Healer Talent Builds
Druid

An essential healing talent that most healing druids need is Nature's Grasp. It is good for exiting combat when Combat classes are attacking you.

Mixed 1-0-9
This build is for the all around healer who will be BGing in premades and solo.

Spontaneous Combat Healer 1-0-9
This build is best for healers going out in the solo world.

Efficiency Healer 1-0-9
This build is best for healers in a premade Twink group.

Priest

Priests happen to have the best Talents at lv 19 for healing.

Powerhouse Healer 0-10-0
The only logical build for a lv19 priest healer.

Paladins

Paladins have the strongest heal casts at lv 19.

Miracle Healer 10-0-0
The only logical build for a lv19 paladin healer.

Non-Instance Dungeons List

2007-06-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

Kalimdor

* Ashenvale: Bough Shadow
* Azshara: Lake Mennar
* Bloodmyst Isle: Vector Coil
* Dustwallow Marsh: Alcaz Island, Wyrmbog
* Feralas: Dream Bough, Isle of Dread, Oneiros
* Silithus: Hive'Ashi, Hive'Regal, Hive'Zora
* Stonetalon Mountains: The Talon Den
* Tanaris: Land's End Beach, Sandsorrow Watch, Valley of the Watchers
* Un'Goro Crater: Terror Run
* Winterspring: Darkwhisper Gorge, Frostwhisper Gorge, Mazthoril

Eastern Kingdoms

* Alterac Mountains: Ruins of Alterac
* Arathi Highlands: Stromgarde Keep, The Tower of Arathor
* Badlands: Lethlor Ravine, The Maker's Terrace
* Blasted Lands: The Dark Portal, The Tainted Scar
* Burning Steppes: Draco'dar, Terror Wing
* Eastern Plaguelands: Tyr's Hand
* The Ghostlands: Deatholme
* Hillsbrad Foothills: Dun Garok, Purgation Isle
* Loch Modan: Mo'grosh Stronghold
* Redridge Mountains: Stonewatch
* Searing Gorge: Firewatch Ridge
* Silverpine Forest: Pyrewood Village
* Stranglethorn Vale: Mosh'Ogg Ogre Mound
* Swamp of Sorrows: Sorrowmurk
* The Hinterlands: Jintha'Alor, Seradane
* Western Plaguelands: Hearthglen
* Wetlands: Dragonmaw Gates, Dun Modr

Outland

* Blade's Edge Mountains: Death's Door
* Hellfire Peninsula: Fallen Sky Ridge, Stair of Destiny, Throne of Kil'Jaeden
* Nagrand: Forge Camp: Fear, Forge Camp: Hate
* Netherstorm: Arklonis Ridge
* Shadowmoon Valley: colossi area south of Eclipse Point

How To Kill A.... Guide

2007-06-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

Introduction:
In PvP, most classes will likely attempt to kite a Rogue rather than engage one in melee combat. Warriors, other Rogues, Paladins, and occasionally (brave) Shamans are the exceptions. To avoid excessive kiting, make smart use of your cooldowns (Sprint, Blind, Vanish, Preparation) and Crippling Poison. Specific play style and strategy may vary quite widely according to the Rogue's talent build.

Strategy

Re-stealthing is an important Rogue skill, and mastering this tactic may greatly improve survivability. This skill can enable a Rogue to:

* Blind, run out of combat.
* Gouge, Sprint, run out of combat.
* Vanish.
* Apply Crippling Poison on the target and simply run away from combat.
* Kidney shot, run away from combat.

From stealth, a Rogue has many options available to him:

* Sap, bandage.
* Sap, wait for debuffs or a Priest/Warlock shield to run out, then Cheap Shot.
* Sap, Cheap Shot, run away and restealth for extra points on the target.

Against melee characters, stuns are everything. Melee characters usually have high chances to parry/block melee attacks. Since all the Rogues moves are melee, this can easily throw off your timing. Stunning an opponent (and running behind them, forcing them to turn around) removes his ability to parry (and possibly block) your attacks, and lets your moves go through much smoother.

Against melee characters wielding a slow weapon, stuns are even more important. A carefully timed kidney shot/gouge can mean avoiding an ugly chunk of Windfury. The best time to stun them is right before they swing. The worst time to stun is right after a swing. Just think of [Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros] as a big spell with a 3.70 casting time. You wanna interrupt it as late as possible.

Against pure casters (and even Paladins and other classes like elemental Shamans which rely heavily on spells), consider opening with a Garrote instead of cheap shot. Since garrote now silences the opponent for three seconds (completely shutting down Mages, Priests, and locks), you can think of it as a three second Cheap Shot that costs 10 less energy and leaves a significant dot on the opponent.

There are several common misconceptions held by other classes which you can use to your advantage in PvP combat:

* All Rogues use daggers and consequently must attack from behind
* The fight will open with high burst damage. Between bursts, the Rogue is helpless
* A Rogue will not rely on dodge during the fight
* Every Rogue has Preparation
* Combo points are lost on switching targets

Additional Notes

* Stunlocking is not always the best option. It depends mainly on what talent tree you've invested your points in. This is a technique done mainly by combat Rogues or Rogues fighting a high armor enemy.
* Subtlety Rogues are strongest against soft enemies. We typically open up with a Shadowstep (it doesn't matter if you're already behind them - Shadowstep is a 20% increase on damage) and ambush. This can take anywhere from 75% to 100% of the enemy's health. As for tanks, we have to resort to DoTs, such as shadow step, premeditation, garrote, rupture, evasion, and then wait it out. However, in this case, stunlocking works very well when dealing with high armor enemies.
* Assassination Rogues should depend mainly on debuffs. When it comes to fighting a cloth wearing enemy, cheap shot, mutilate, eviscerate is a great opener. As for tanks, you may want to use expose armor instead of eviscerate, because the battle will most likely last longer. However, in this case, stunlocking works very well when dealing with high armor enemies.
* Shadowstep is MORE than just a way for an opener. It can be invaluable when soloing quests for extraction (such as filling a vial, putting out a brazen, something where you simply have to click, wait for about five seconds and you're done). You can Shadowstep behind mobs that are several levels higher than you and walk off, versus getting caught by trying to walk past them.
Classes

Rogue

In fighting a fellow Rogue, gaining the initial attack is critical, and is often the winning factor of the fight. However victory is not guaranteed; many conditions can prolong or even lose the fight. These may include: having necessary abilities on cooldown (unavailable), using far inferior equipment, or having your pivotal attacks resisted/dodged/parried.

If an opponent Rogue manages to re-stealth, he may easily turn the tables on the attacker. To prevent this, try opening with a Cheap Shot, and instead of using five combo points for Kidney Shot or Eviscerate, use Rupture instead (now the other Rogue can't re-stealth or Vanish for 16 seconds). Vanish, open up again with Cheap Shot and stunlock the Rogue until he's dead. Keep an eye on your health, and Blind/heal as necessary.

Remember, Deadly Poison from a Rogue can be cleared with Cloak of Shadows then a Vanish can be used for restealthing.

Warrior

If you're fighting a good warrior you do not want to get hit at all. Well-geared warriors can cut you down in a few attacks, as well as resist or dodge many of your abilities. Be ready to blow some cooldowns. Here's a basic attack plan:

* Cheap Shot, sinister strike (or Hemorrhage) then gouge, turn on sprint and rupture as you run through him. If you're unable to get it off fast enough to restealth then make good use of Vanish.
* Reopen and kill him.

Using evasion against a warrior is generally accepted as helpful (rather than harmful) for the following reasons:

* The warrior skill Overpower will hurt, but is generally much less painful than absorbing the damage from all of his attacks.
* The warrior will likely generate less rage.
* The Rogue will be dodging some of the warrior's attacks anyway.

Priest

If you catch a Priest without his shields up, the fight is already yours. Stunlock him and kill him.

If he does have his shields up, hit him a lot to take them down. Before he puts his shield back up, blind him and wait for the Shadow Word: Pain to fade. Vanish again and open up with Cheap Shot, stunlocking him until you've killed him. Trinket his fear if necessary.

Mage

Stunlocking is what you want to do versus a Mage. Open with Cheap Shot (see Discussion for discretion against using other abilities, such as Ambush), and after he Blinks run the other way to re-stealth or simply vanish and reopen (the latter being preferable due to the fact that it takes less time). If you don't accidentally run into his Frost Nova any semi-decently geared Rogue should be able to kill a Mage within the cooldown of his blink. If he's about to come out of this stun and still not dead, blind. With the addition of the Cloak of Shadows skill at lvl66, being caught in the Frost Nova is not as damaging as it used to be. With a bit of luck you'll be able to gouge before your 5 seconds of virtual spell-immunity is over.

Tips: -If you see him channeling a frost spell, kick him. This will prevent him from doing any spell that have the highest chance of allowing him to kite you easier (with the obvious exception of frost armor) for the next few seconds. If you do suffer from frost armor, sprint and kidney shot if you have 4 or 5 CP built up. This will help the most against frost spec Mages. -If you see Pyroblast, run through him while it is near completion. Don't bother to run around him as he will just spin around. Normally running through confuses them and they take an extra second to decide which way to turn. The goal of a Rogue is to be sneaky, after all. -if you get hit by frost nova, vanish. this will break it and stop them from casting at you. If possible, wait until you have 4 CP built up (3 if you're subtlety) so you will come out of stealth with 5 CP.

Also, if your a combat-specced Rogue (or just have the improved sprint), you can use sprint to break frost nova or any slowing effects he has on you. Combined with a crippling poison on him, he'll be going nowhere in a hurry, least of all kiting you (that is if you've already forced him to blink, if not he may try that.)

Feral Druid

The inherent weaknesses of the feral forms are as follows:

* Cat Weaknesses (see Cat Form)
o Cat Form gives Druids twice as much armour as a Rogue of equal level, but lower agility; they usually only have at best 75% of a Rogue's Dodge. Autoattacks will hit (and crit) for as much as a combat Rogue, and their attack speed is normalized to 1 sec. Shred is equivalent to a Backstab, Claw and Rake are equivalent to more powerful versions of Sinister Strike and Shiv, they have no directional requirements, and there are talents which greatly increase their damage. However, Druids have no Feral talents for increased energy regeneration.
o In addition, Feral Druids can get the equivalent of 5/5 MoD in 3 talent points, so expect every Druid to have improved stealth.
o If fully specced feral, a Druid with Mangle (increased Shred and bleed damage by 30%) can pose a significant threat to rogue. If allowed to get off a Rip with 3-5 combo points and mangle up the rogue can bleed for up to 3.5k over 12 seconds and it cannot be removed. Be weary of the druid finisher Maim as well, it works like Gauge but can load 1k damage before incapacitating for 6 seconds.
* Bear Weaknesses
o Bears have almost 5 times your armour and around 1.5 times your health. Of course, bleed and poison abilities ignore armour, and the form itself gives no inherent stun or snare resists. In addition, Bears have at their disposal fewer Rage-based instant attacks.

It is common to see three types of Feral Druids:

1. The shift-crazy Druid
* They may start out in cat form, switch to bear to stun you, heal and snare, switch to travel form to get out of range and combat, then repeat by switching back to cat form. The key is to catch them in cat or caster form, where they are relatively weak.
* If you are hit by a pounce (which has a bleed effect), blind the cat (they cannot shift out of it), wait for the DoT to end, bandage and reopen the fight. Alternatively, blow Evasion and melee them down. If you have no cooldowns to use, or wish to save them, keep them stunned and make sure to Expose Armour them.
* If a cat senses that you are trying to kite them, they will promptly Faerie Fire/DoT/stun you and shift to bear for the long haul. See below on how to handle bears.
* Keep in mind that using Evasion is a signal for the Druid to root you. Use this to your advantage, as they will no doubt try to flee from melee range; root them yourself.
2. Bear-only
* A bear will always open with a stun. It's safe to eat the first stun and resulting damage, as the Druid probably has no intention of shifting out. If you're a dagger Rogue, begin to bleed the bear. If you're a combat Rogue, don't be afraid to blow Adrenaline Rush, speed modifiers (Slice and Dice, etc), Expose Armor and just burn him down. Be wary while blowing any cooldowns as the bear will mostly likely try to stun you to reduce their effectiveness.
* Once the Druid reaches 1/3 health or feels that he's losing, it's likely that he will try to Bash (stun) you, and either shift and heal or use Frenzied Regeneration. Keep Evasion for this moment or alternatively keep a Kidney Shot / Gouge ready (his stun will end before yours).
* Improved Leader of the Pack has a chance to heal 4% of a Druid's total health relative to what form they are in. For a bear, this is a large chunk of health. Unfortunately, as with Frenzied Regeneration, this is not a spell and cannot be interrupted by anything.
3. Cat-only
* Treat as another Rogue. Many cats will use Dash and run erratically in order to desync your client and land blows to your back (which cannot be dodged). Stunning the cat or using Sprint will resolve this problem.
* A cat will most certainly spam Mangle, Claw, and Rake, but like all melee attacks, they can be dodged.

Balance

Jokes aside, a Balance Druid will try to Moonfire/Starfire you to death. Expect every Balance Druid to have Nature's Grasp, which has a (base) chance of 35% to afflict you with Entangling Roots for every one of your hits. Either Vanish or CloS, and quickly catch up to them, making sure to apply a snare. Alternatively, wait until they start casting Starfire (this is the hard-hitting spell) and use CloS at the last minute. In summary, remove their ability to kite you while Moonfire/Starfire spamming, and don't be afraid to use Expose Armour.
Restoration

Druids specced 41 talents into this tree gain Tree of Life form. An important note is that they will have Nature's Focus, which at 5/5 points gives a 70% chance to resist spell interruption from your kick (but the silence effect from Improved Kick is not affected). In addition, Nature's Swiftness allows for instant heals. The downfall to shifting into Tree of Life is that they are effectively in caster form - no armour bonus, no melee abilities. Stop all the heals you can and do not expect them to run out of mana in a hurry.

Hunter

The Hunter will try to kite you and you will try to avoid being kited so you can kill him. Hunter fights are reaction-and-cooldown based, so they vary greatly from encounter to encounter. Here are a few guidelines to remember, though:

* Crippling Poison is the way to go against a Hunter, because it slows down his movement speed.

* Hunter abilities that counter your Stealth are aggressive-mode pets, Flare and Serpent Sting. You can Vanish out of Hunter's Mark and Cloak-Vanish out of Serpent Sting, but Cloak of Shadows does not negate the Flare effect.

* If a Hunter sends his pet on you from range and you stealth, the pet will keep chasing you and eventually unstealth you - this is not considered a bug or exploit. You may Vanish to get the pet off you.

* Keep traps in mind at all times. You'll probably run into Freezing Trap, so the Hunter can get some distance on you. Don't freak out if you see the trap go down, just remember that it has a two second arming time, giving you some time to step away or use Cloak of Shadows. To avoid getting Scatter Shoted and wandering into the trap, you should pop your cloak in most of these situations.

If you are afflicted with Serpent Sting or another damage over time effect, the DoT will free you from the Freezing Trap the next time it ticks. Note that skilled hunters may hit you with a debuffing sting such as Scorpid Sting inside the frost trap to remove their DoT. If you get immobilized in a Frost Trap, Snake Trap etc. due to Entrapment, the only way to get out is Cloak-Vanish or the Gnome racial Escape Artist.

* Remember Insignia of the Alliance/Horde, which gets the hunter out of slowing effects and stuns. Most hunters will use the insignia after you Kidney Shot him, so always watch the hunter when using Kidney Shot on him, if you notice that a white animation is thrown at his head, he used his trinket - so use Gouge to regain control and/or Shiv him to re-apply Crippling Poison.

* If you see the hunter use Aspect of the Cheetah don't bother to sprint first. Use your thrown/bow/gun or Deadly Throw first, then sprint. This will ensure that the Hunter stays put and he will be forced to switch aspects (if they have any idea how to play).

* Cloak of Shadows will not remove flares or prevent you from being flared.

* It's a bad idea to sap the hunter and kill his pet. You'll need at least 40 seconds to kill his pet, while Sap lasts 12 seconds max. Usually, the damage from the pet will not be too much of a threat, but if you feel that the pet is inflicting too much damage on you, pop Evasion.

Warlock

The trick to Warlocks is to kill them as quick as possible. If you linger in killing a Warlock his DoTs will eventually bring you down. DoTs also prevent re-stealthing, so completely stunlocking a Warlock is even better.

Fear is generally predictable because the Warlock will use it:

* If he is low on health
* After he DoTs you
* If you approach him dealing a lot of damage. Warlocks are soft (cloth-only) and won't tolerate a Rogue quickly bringing them down.

Since Fear has a 1.5 second cast time, it gives you plenty of time to use Cloak of Shadows and become immune to his fear effect after he casts it on you. If you're an Undead Rogue, your racial Will of the Forsaken gives you a HUGE advantage over Warlocks since it can be used whilst feared. If you possess a PvP trinket capable of dispelling fear once it is cast then all the better. The best strategy is to Sap the Warlock, kill his minion, re-stealth, then stunlock the Warlock. If you don't see the pet, it's best to avoid the Warlock. If he death coils you, you're likely dead.

Paladin

This is one of the most difficult classes for Rogues to beat. Paladins are basically tanks that can heal themselves, so it makes it that much harder. There are several things to remember whilst fighting Paladins. The basic rule is "trick them into popping their shield, then restealth and kill them".

* Never let them Divine Shield/heal themselves. That effectively restarts the fight for you minus some of your health/cooldowns. If they cast Divine Shield, simply waste 1 second checking if they're going to heal themselves, if you see them beginning to cast heal, use bandage fast, and when you're done, or they begin moving to you, move back, you must be out of combat at the moment, so stealth fast, and reopen the fight, with you and the Paladin full on HP, but he's probably low on mana.
* If a Paladin knows you're coming, they will spam Consecration so they can break your stealth. There are two things to do when they do this, one is to stay waiting until they feel like you left, or just give up and try attacking him between two Consecrations, which is not preferred.
* Keeping a Paladin stunlocked is essential, therefore
* Cheap Shot is a valid opener against a Paladin unless your ambush gives a guaranteed kill. However many Paladins will simply Divine Shield out of it and kill you, which is a low chance that they might do it, usually a Paladin prefers the big chance that he wins against you, which means saving his Divine Shield for a rainy day -When low on HP-, so wasting the Divine Shield only for stopping stunlock is useless, and a waste of a 5 minutes cooldown, and a making-sure he's free from Divine Shields for 1 minute, thanks to Forbearance. Once they know you're there, level 1 consecrates will easily prevent you from getting another opener.
* Evasion is invaluable against a Paladin. This will allow you to dodge every hard-hitting 2-hander blow.

Retribution trees have their own versions of stunlock with hammer and repent and will slam you with a lot of damage in that time with Seal of Command, Consecration, and Crusader Strike. Never open on a protection tree unless you're very sure of what you're doing; holy shield, Redoubt, and Reckoning easily tear Rogues apart. Probably your easiest fight will be with a Holy tree since Rogues fare better against casters. Good Paladins will shield themselves out of stunlocks at all the right times, spam Consecration to stop Vanish, and keep you slow and unhappy with Judgement of Justice. Hammer of Wrath can be used in a far range and the 1 sec casting time makes it very hard to counter, so once you're low on HP, and you see the Paladin casting his Hammer of Wrath, say your prayers.

Shaman

Rogues fare pretty well against Shamans because they have no crowd control. You can use Evasion to negate their melee damage and Cloak of Shadows + Deadly Throw to avoid being kited. Provided you maintain a certain degree of control over your opponent during the entire fight, you should be able to kill most Shamans without problems. Anticipate the trinket as you stun them and have energy for a Gouge ready. You should stunlock and control Elemental and Enhancement Shamans, and try to rush down Restoration Shamans. Wound poison is a must against Resto Shamans, because you want him to waste as much mana as possible. If you see a poison cleansing totem being dropped, kill it fast and get back in his face. Resto Shamans cannot kite you well because they waste the Earth Totem slot on poison cleansing, and will waste too much mana/global cooldown on using their poison removal spell.

Note that if the Shaman sets you up you may lose the fight, this is especially true for Windfury bombing enhancement Shamans. As of patch 2.1, Earthbind Totem removes stealth on each pulse, so you could either use Sprint and get the opener, use Cloak of Shadows and get the opener, or if you have 2/2 Dirty Tricks simply sap him and kill the totems, then restealth and get the opener.

Tips for New Players

2007-06-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

DON'T BEG
We have money because we go out and earn it by doing quests and running dungeons - not by sitting around in cities and inns begging for it. If you go out and complete your quests your money will accumulate quickly.
READ YOUR QUEST DESCRIPTIONS
If you carefully read the quest description you are usually told exactly where to go and what to do. Don't be lazy.
NO MEANS NO
If someone declines your invitation for a party, guild or duel do not spam them after they have declined. Don't abuse or insult them in private chat either. If you feel rejected you are taking it too seriously.
NODE RAGE
You don't have automatic rights to every node, herb or chest that you see - this isn't an offline solo game. If another player is fighting a monster near a node/herb/chest you shouldn't rush past them while they are busy to steal it.
BE HELPFUL - BUFFS
Buff players that you pass on the road - the tiny mana cost of a single buff will replenish long before you reach your destination.
BE HELPFUL - MOBS
If you see another player in trouble consider helping them out by healing them or taking a few swings at their monster. However, make sure the monster's title bar has turned grey so you don't steal their kill.

ASK BEFORE OPEN
Ask a rogue to open your lockbox before you interrupt them with a trade window and an expectation that they will automatically drop whatever they are doing to help you. In fact, always ask before opening trade for any reason.

WE DON'T SPEAK COMMON
Horde characters can't understand what Alliance characters /say to them - their default language is Orcish instead of Common. All they see on their screen is gibberish. Also if you custom emote they will only see you 'making strange gestures'.

How To Look Like A Pirate Fun Guide

2007-06-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

Costumes

By far the easiest way to be a pirate in the game is to have a pirate costume. There are a few options, and they require very little time or monetary investment.

Savory Deviate Delights

Savory Deviate Delights are a consumable food item, and are the easiest way to give yourself a human pirate costume. You have roughly a 50% chance to become a pirate and a 50% chance to become an assassin (a ninja). Savory Deviate Delights are crafted by players with the cooking trade skill, using one Deviate Fish and one Mild Spices. The recipe is a random drop in the barrens, which also happens to be where you can fish for Deviate Fish in the assorted oases.

Hallowed Wands

Hallowed Wands are a prize from trick-or-treating at an inn during the Hallow's End event every October. There is a specific pirate wand, and a random wand which has a chance of making the target a pirate. The downside to these is that you can only cast them on party members, not on yourself. The upside is that these wands will make you a pirate of a random race (Undead, Gnome, Human, or Goblin!).

Pirate Gear

If you're in it for the long run, acquiring a set of pirate gear will be more cost effective, and worthy of much greater respect. Here is a list of some suggested gear (much of it is cloth to be usable by all classes, but some suggestions for leather armor would be appreciated). The most complete pirate outfit comes from gaining reputation with the Bloodsail Buccaneers for The Bloodsail Admiral's Hat and full attire.

Head

* [Bloodsail Admiral's Hat] (quest)
* Admiral's Hat (crafted) (Thottbot)
* First Mate Hat (extremely rare drop) (Thottbot)
* (any of the assorted eye-patches in the game)

Chest/Shirt

* Bloodsail Shirt (quest)
* White Swashbuckler's Shirt (crafted) (Thottbot)
* Red Swashbuckler's Shirt (crafted) (Thottbot)
* Black Swashbuckler's Shirt (crafted) (Thottbot)
* Captain Sander's Shirt (quest) (Thottbot)
Hands

* [Black Mageweave Gloves] (crafted)
* (other simple gloves)
Waist

* Bloodsail Sash (quest)
* Azure Silk Belt (crafted) (Thottbot)
* Captain Sander's Sash (quest) (Thottbot)
* (other simple belts)
Legs

* Bloodsail Pants (quest)
* Aurora Leggings (random world drop) (Thottbot)
Feet

* Bloodsail Boots (quest)
* (other swashbuckling boots)

Main Hand

* Battlefell Sabre of * (random world drop)
* Zorbin's Mega-Slicer (quest) (Thottbot)
* Ebon Scimitar of * (drop) (Thottbot)
* Light Scimitar (grey drop) (Thottbot)
* Blackwater Cutlass ([1] Thottbot)
* Cutlass (from various weapon vendors)(Thottbot)
* Defias Rapier (Thottbot)
* Speedsteel Rapier (Thottbot)

Off Hand

* Ritual Stein of * (random lowbie world drop) (Thottbot)
* Seer's Fine Stein (random lowbie world drop) (Thottbot)
* Disciple's Stein of * (random lowbie world drop) (Thottbot)
* Lapidis Tankard of Tidesippe (drop) (Thottbot)
Ranged

* Hunter/Warrior/Rogue
o Any good looking gun
* Other Classes
o Egan's Blaster (quest item) (Thottbot)

Money Making Guide

2007-06-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

Basics

This guide will only cover the basics of making money. Many players have "secret" strategies for making money that they wouldn't want to put in a public info site, since it gives them their edge in the marketplace. If you can gain the trust of a successful WoW tycoon, you should ask them some of their techniques. One piece of advice that players should follow before starting new WoW characters is to choose the proper server. Lower population servers generally have lower prices in the AH, and less demand for items. This is good news if you already have enough money, as things are cheaper, but for poorer players (with gathering skills), a more populated server will garner you more money for what you gather and sell.

Saving

The most important step in saving up for your mount should be self-evident: saving. You can burn through thousands of gold before level forty if you visit the auction house for new equipment at every opportunity. The improper use of your production trade skills can cost a small fortune. Before engaging in a crafting profession under level 40, read a suitable leveling guide in order to gain whatever skill level you desire for the least amount of money. Keep in mind that, typically, equipment you produce will be slightly worse than equipment otherwise obtainable at your level.

Equipment

The most important part of saving is to never buy equipment unless you're positive that it will increase your earning potential. This means that virtually all armor is right out the window. A common mistake is to invest in headgear and neckwear at the earliest available levels. While it might seem foolish to leave an available slot empty, you will eventually find something to fill it. In the mean time, the 1Gold or more you save will serve you well. The only equipment purchases that can be justified at times are weapons. Since an improved weapon can greatly increase the speed at which you kill enemies and thus gain their loot, weapons are often a worthwhile pickup. Still, try to find deals. Look several levels above and below your own for bargains. Don't buy weapons that you won't hold onto for at least 5 levels. It should go without saying that you should never purchase any equipment from vendors; always use the auction house. And don't always use the buyout. Some of the best deals come from bidding.

The two best ways to get good equipment for your level are:

* find quests with rewards that will be useful to you. If you can get yourself in a good guild, or team up with some higher level players in group quests, you can often get higher level quest equipment that you couldn't get on your own.
* Use the Looking for Group interface, or join a good guild, and do instances that are around your level. You'll learn valuable grouping skills, and the level of loot in an instance is typically much better than what you could find on your own. If possible, concentrate on instances with humanoid mobs, since cloth is one of the best trade resources. I find it a good idea to add those players who are capable and friendly in instances to my friends list, and to do more instances with them as you level up together.

Training

There are a lot of skills and spells you can train as you progress, and not all of them are useful. As a mage, do you really think you need to invest 88Silver 20Copper into the first two ranks of Amplify Magic? Are you still using Heroic Strike at level 32 as a warrior? Think long and hard about how valuable each skill is before splurging on them.

This goes doubly for trade skills. If you are dead set on getting a production trade skill instead of two of the more valuable gathering ones, remember that not everything your trainer offers is worth buying. While it might be nice to have a long list of shirts and dresses to produce as a tailor, they offer very little in the way of revenue. Also keep in mind that, generally, whatever items you make at lower levels will not likely sell for more money than you could have made by simply selling the materials you used to make them. For this reason, two gathering skills are recommended.
Spending
Auction house

The auction house (AH) is a brilliant way of making money if you know the tricks on how to do it. The trick with the AH is to buy things cheap and to sell them high, or even better to get Items from drops then sell them on the Auction House.

Some of the best things that can be sold in the auction house are special items or "Pets" that can only be found in certain areas. For example, the Savory Deviate Delight recipe can only be found in Horde areas, and for this reason sells really really well on the Alliance AHs.

Here are some tips to always remember when your using the Auction House:

Buying

* Always check each of the prices of the item, and look over a spread of several days. This is not so major on small items but anything that you are spending hundreds of gold on you need to check prices carefully. It is also a good idea to check a website such as Allakhazam, Goblin Workshop, or Wowhead to see what an item normally sells for.
* Make sure you have an idea of how much you should be spending on an item. The best bet is to ask other players who already have this item, or ask members of your guild. This can prevent you getting ripped off.

Selling

* Check the prices of other auctions of the same item as yours, make sure that you are not pricing way above the others; the best bet is to aim higher if you know it will sell before it expires, or at the same price or lower if there is lots of competition.
* Know the price of your items and how much they are worth; make sure you check this as the more accurate the price, the more sales you will get.
* Be patient. If you are trying to sell an item for a large amount of money you might have to post it for several days in a row, or post it then wait a week and post it again.

To close, I wish you luck with your Auction House buying and selling. If you can improve your AH skills, it is an exceptional way to make tons of money; however, if you are inexperienced, it can be a serious money drain.

Auctioneer

Auctioneer is an addon for WoW that assists players in the auction house by automatically gathering price information and displaying statistical information about prices:

* The auction house window is augmented with additional functionality to search current auctions for cheap deals and buyouts
* Using the BottomScanner module of Auctioneer, it is possible to have an alert displayed when an unusually cheap item is listed in the AH -- the item can then be bought for resale or disenchanting
* Several convenience functions for searching, listing items and displaying past transactions have been added
* All statistical data, and some additional information such as vendor prices, the stack size for an item, and what trade skills it is used in is displayed in an extension to the standard item tooltip in-game.

Many players find Auctioneer to be an invaluable addition to WoW with regards to trading on the auction house. This is true especially for inexperienced players who can't correctly judge the value of an item yet. Also, since Auctioneer uses data collected on the specific realm the player is on, it is more reliable with regards to the current market situation than databases such as Allakhazam and Thottbot, which base their pricing information on global market data.

Neutral auction house

The goblins of the Steamweedle cartel have set up several neutral auction houses about Azeroth. Gadgetzan, Booty Bay, and Everlook all house neutral auction houses. The neutral is useful for making money, as commodities that Alliance players can get easily can be sold to a cheap price to Horde players (or vice versa), and then sold at a higher price at a major city.

Vendors

Although you usually don't want to buy items to sell from vendor, some items can be sold for much more than you pay for them from the vendor. Keep an eye out for these types of items. A key example of this is the Gnomish Lighthouse vendor in Azshara, who sells the Deepdive Helmet Schematic for 36s. Only one may be purchased at a time, but many Engineers will pay upwards of 1g for this schematic.

Some players even turn this into their profession by systematically "plundering" vendors in the game world and then selling the items on the auction house at a significant markup. The reason why this works (even for items which are on unlimited supply at vendors) is, that many players don't want to spend time travelling to specific vendors to get hold of a recipe or skill book. They rather pay a slightly higher price at their local auction house. In some sense, they use the auction house as a "super market" or "convenience store". So it is completely reasonable and legitimate to be the supplier for this concenience store and make money out of it.

This scheme works particularly well with items such as

* skill books to gain access to higher levels of professions such as First Aid
* all kinds of recipes (cooking, alchemy, etc.)
* more or less rare items that can only be found at certain vendors (eg. Strong Fishing Pole)

Revenue streams

World of Warcraft offers a lot of ways to make money.

Begging

Everyone hates beggars. Don't do it. It can hurt your reputation in the marketplace.

If you don't care about etiquette, you can make a small amount of money this way, but it isn't as efficient as the regular (and respectable) ways of making money. It will also get you on ignore lists, fast.

Dancing

Believe it or not, some characters make money from tips they get while dancing (see /dance under Slash Commands). This usually only works if you have a Human, Night Elf, or Blood Elf female and have unequipped everything (stripped down to your underwear).

Like begging, this practice can irritate people and hurt your reputation. It isn't as bad a breach of etiquette, but like begging, the returns are not that great.

Dueling

This is a harder way to make money but it might work in Ironforge, Ogrimmar, etc. Start by telling a lvl 30-35 that if he beats you in a duel you will give him 30 gold but if you beat him he has to give you 4 gold. This is a slow way of making money (and often the other player won't cough up the money anyway) but I've heard of people getting upwards of 50g over several days in Ironforge.

Enchanting

Selling enchants can make some money, but usually only when you have very high level (over 225) enchants and only the most sought after ones (weapon enchants and large attribute bonus enchants), so it isn't really recommended as a good early money making source.

Disenchanting

If you farm lots of magical items you can't sell, you can convert them to valuable ingredients that other enchanters will buy (usually at the Auction House). It can often be lucrative to check the auction house for green items with unpopular suffixes, such as "of the Gorilla," with low starting bids. These items usually disenchant into the same ingredients as equal items with more desireable attributes and can be had for a bargain price in comparison. The ingredients obtained from disenchanting these items are often worth more than you'll pay for the item itself in the auction house.

Depending on the market situation on your server, you can turn disenchanting into your main method of earning gold. Especially on developed, "end-game" realms, the demand for enchanting materials is very high, as many players tend to have a lot of money they want to put into improving their gear by getting expensive enchants. Also, typically there are many high level enchanters on these realms, so the materials sell quickly. It is not unlikely that almost any green item in this case will sell for a lot less than the materials it disenchants into. If you find this is the case for your realm, either get Enchanting as a profession or make a dedicated character to work as your disenchanter. The Enchantrix addon helps you with deciding if an item is worth disenchanting.

Lockpicking

Rogues can make some money by picking locks for people and getting tips. Not a great revenue source, but a decent one to supplement multiple strategies for making money. Generally, the usual lockpicking tip is between 10 silver to 1 gold, the most common being 50 silver. Sometimes, you can get lucky and have someone tip up to 5 gold for lockpicking several (or even just one) boxes. It's always beneficial for a rogue spending time doing repairing, training, etc. in a city to put up a lockpicking advertisement on the trade channel. Just make sure you let the buyers decide the price and that your lockpicking level is high enough.

Run Throughs If you can solo an instance, SQUEEZE EVERY LAST DIDDLY COPPER OUT OF IT!!!... or you could offer to run people through it for a price. Some people get so desperate to run a certain instance for whatever reason, be it rep, be it specific loot, whatever the reason, you can turn that desperation into a tidy profit.
Loot
Magical items

Magical items are almost always worth something to vendors, but should generally be saved and sold at the auction house.

Vendor Trash

Any item with a grey name is considered Vendor Trash or Poor quality. White items are used in Tradeskills or as spell reagents, so you may want to check some web sites (as listed above in the AH section) to see if they're worth more than the vendor price. Keep your eyes out for regular quality weapons, as even the worst of these tend to sell for several silver. Also, white (or even grey) shoulder armor under level 20 sells regularly on the auction house, mainly because there is nothing better available at that level.

Unless low quality items have some known quest use or are coveted by other players, you should try to sell it as soon as possible to create bag space. ALWAYS (or almost always, see above exceptions) keep things like cloth, leather, herbs, or large stacks of white/gray items over other loot when you have to decide what to keep when your bags get full. It might be worth your while to invest in larger bags (8-10 slot), especially if you know a tailor.

Auctioneer, mentioned above, is useful for maximising profit gained from vendor trash - it augments the tooltip for each item with details on that item's vendor sell price (as well as auction value, if it has been seen at auction), thus allowing you to decide what to throw and what to keep.

AutoProfit is a particularly handy addon if you regularly bring home several bags' worth of trash all mixed in with the rest of your inventory - it allows you to sell all gray items to the vendor with a single click.

Quests

Nearly all quests offer cash or items as a reward, and often both. While completing quests shouldn't be your main form of wealth generation, it is something you are going to do anyway. The key to making the most of quests is picking your reward items wisely. Don't always pick the item that most fits your class - if it isn't demonstrably better than your current item, instead go for whatever reward sells for the greatest amount to the vendor. You can use Thottbot to check each item's value individually, download a UI mod such as Auctioneer to display it in the tooltip, or you can follow the general guidelines for equipment value laid out later in this guide.

Twink items

Many players who already have higher level characters create alts that they level to a certain point and then stop. Often, these twinks are level 18-19, 28-29, 38-39, etc. for the purpose of going to battlegrounds at the top of their tiers and kicking butt. Since these twinked characters are owned by higher level players with lots of cash, they usually outfit them with the best gear available at their level. Thus, items that require level 17-19, level 27-29, or any other items around this level, with good stats or dps, often sell for much higher prices than they normally would. This is especially true on an older server.
Trade skills (Professions)
Gathering

Mining and skinning are good money professions. From the moment you can smelt copper, you can make good money selling stacks of the bars in the auction house - although you should make sure to check the relative prices of ore versus bars before smelting, since depending on the server economy and the time of week, low level ores may sell for up to double the price of the equivalent bars. As your skill increases, so does your earning potential. The only gathering profession that can come close to the miner in raw earning potential is the skinner. A skinner starts by collecting relatively worthless ruined leather scraps, but soon moves on to light leather, which can be sold for a good profit. Higher grades of leather yield higher profits, just as higher grades of metal are more valuable. A skinner/miner has potent earning power through the auction house, but often runs out of inventory space.

Herbalism is also a good source of money. Unlike ore which is found only in rocky areas, herbs can be found in many places, depending on the exact plant. The more the gather, the better you can predict where to look for it. Be sure to check on the auction house for what herbs are in demand for a high value; often a lower level one is very valuable, so you can farm an area you already know for quick money.

Production/Crafting

Usually, you'll want to produce Uncommon or better quality items to sell. Look in the Auction House for items that sell for good prices, but don't have many of people selling them, which usually drives down the price.

Common item recipes to look for:

* Blacksmithing
o Plans: Iron Shield Spike (drop)
o Plans: Steel Weapon Chain (drop)
o Plans: Iron Counterweight (drop)

These items sell well for decent money, even though they are common quality items. Beware, these recipes can be pricey if you buy them, so try to get a bargain and ask around to see if you are getting a good price.

Sometimes you can make money by making items with ingredients supplied by other players who give you a tip to make the item for them. Not a reliable source at low levels, but a good supplemental income source at higher levels with good recipes.

Blacksmiths: watch the prices for "Needed by" items such as the metal rods used by enchanters, and compare the price for the raw materials. For example, a Golden Rod requires

* 1 Gold Bar
* 4 Coarse Stone

There's a good chance you can buy the raw materials for 25% - 75% of the going rate of the finished item, or mine them for free. The fee for an 8 hour auction is only 1 silver, so you can afford to re-auction rods that don't sell the first time.
[edit] Conclusion

Although there is no "silver bullet" that will make you rich with no effort of your own (apart from illegal methods such as bot farming), new players should focus on the following. It will work for anyone, require no boring grinding sessions and generally offers a high reward-to-time ratio:

* Your first profession should be Mining -- get it at level 5 and start using it right away. The only equipment you need is a Mining Pick, and they are sold at General Goods Vendors for a few copper.
* Another viable profession choice is Skinning -- it only requires a skinning knife, it doesn't require tracking, and it's very easy to incorporate into your levelling.
* Check the market situation on your server. If it is a long running server, possibly enchanting materials such as Strange Dust and Magic Essences will be very expensive (for example, a typical price of 50Silver or more for one Lesser Magic Essence is a strong sign that your realm has a healthy enchanting market; also get suspicious if players keep asking for high level enchants on the public chat channels, as usually this means the server has a high demand for enchanting materials). You should seriously consider getting Enchanting as your second profession in this case -- mainly to disenchant anything you find and sell the materials you get from it. This has the second major advantage of being able to turn useless quests rewards (which are soulbound) into a lot of gold right from the beginning. You can also disenchant any old gear you're not using anymore, instead of having to vendor it.
* If the server is new, possibly Skinning will yield better rewards than disenchanting in general, so go with this as your second profession.
* I generally don't recommend Herbalism, since Mining and Skinning yield more gold. If you plan on becoming an Alchemist later, however, Herbalism is an option (and it should replace Skinning in this case).
* Don't, and I repeat, DON'T get any of the crafting professions in the beginning. Save this for later, possibly after level 40 when you have bought your first mount. Drop one of the gathering professions then and learn the crafting profession of your preference. None of the crafting professions offers significant profit margins at low levels, so it's generally a lot better to sell the raw materials (ore, bars and skins) instead.
* Install and learn the Auctioneer addon and use it to your advantage in the Auction House. When you have saved around 5Gold (and you will quickly, due to having Mining), you can start investing money and selling your investments at a profit.
* Don't spend any money on gear, except for the most essential items such as a Greater Magic Wand for priests, for example.

If you follow this basic advice you should have no problem at paying for the mount at level 40, and you will always be able to afford skill training, food and potions along the way.