http://projectlore.com/blog/melee-dps-101-armor-penetration/
End of Mystery...
Feral Druid goals: Hit cap: 295, Expertise rating: 26-30, Crit: at least 50 percent. Gem Strength, don't bother with armor penetration.
Okay.. more on that...
If you depend no your rip for dps, it is affected by attack power, and not armor pen. If you switch your dps more in favor of Melee hits and Ferocious bite, armor pen helps a lot. If you go for the 4 piece T8 set bonus, it increases Savage Roar, and you can fit in more Shreds and FBs, and stacking armor pen would benefit this dps.
Link to information:
http://www.unbearably.net/2009/05/26/bonus-wickit-examines-t7-and-t8-armor-sets/
---boggle----
Then again... here is an opposing view!
http://www.unbearably.net/2009/06/02/how-to-get-the-armorpenetration-your-pussy-deserves/
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Druid-Kitty Observations....
Druid feral dps is a ponderous thing...
It is a unique combination of 3 debuffs and 1 buff that must be kept constantly up with the burst of 2 bonus abilities that should be used as frequently as possible. Here is my rotation: (Of course this "rotation" is only used on mobs that live longer than a few seconds ---> bosses).
RAKE,
MANGLE,
SAVAGE ROAR (2-4 combo points),
TIGER'S FURY + SHRED to 5 Combo points,
RIP.
Okay, scratch that... It has been shown that starting out with the Mangle is much more dps efficient than the Rake. Rake is actually the lowest priority kitty ability. It should NEVER be clipped and can remain down for numerous seconds for higher priority abilities such as Rip/Savage Roar/and Clearcasting Shreds! So instead the initial sequence should go:
MANGLE
SAVAGE ROAR
RAKE
SHRED (to 5 combo points, use Tiger's Fury if needed)
RIP
All Clearcastings = SHRED
Note*** In order to alert me of the clearcastings without missing them, I have Power Aura's installed. I LOVE that addon! I also have it alert me when there is a Trauma on the mob or a mangle already up from another druid. It is SO useful... and it can have pages and pages of cool popup alerts for you for anything you want! /love My clearcasting also makes a noise too so I won't miss it if I'm looking at all of the other chaos on my screen in a busy fight like Hodir.
Then refresh Savage roar with 5 combo points and alternate stacks of 5 combo points with Rip. If your crit is high enough to stack up the combo points quickly, you can afford some Ferocious bites in there before both Savage Roar or Rips fall off. Whee :D
After this point, each debuff is then re-applied just before it drops off, and Savage roar and Rip are top priority. Some druids will pop their Berserk right at the beginning because RIP is so important to get up with 5 combo points as rapidly as possible... Of course any good druid dps kitty will have a cooldown timer specifically for each of these important fur ripping abilities..
If it's going to be a long fight, I always pop Beserk early so I can hopefully get it in again after it's cooldown.
The rotation is not the biggest challenge though....
The gear accumulation and gemming is much more challenging to perfect...
Of course this is the point of most games.. get you interested in developing your character to the point of hours and hours of game play to put more months of your money into their Blizzard pockets... But we do get a lot of hours of entertainment out of it...
Regarding gear. Currently I have this combination: 2 pieces of T7.5 for the 2 piece bonus. (Increase in RIP duration). In addition to this, I also have the RIP idol that increases the periodic damage. Because RIP ends up being the largest portion of my total dps, the more I can buff it the better. The rest of my gear is basically Rogue dps gear. First priority - Hit cap 295, (note: 295 cap is only for bears, CAT hit caps out around 263, and is not actually crucial!---> See Toskk's discussion forums). Second priority - Stack as much Agility, attack power, and Armor penetration as possible, Third priority (which has proven to be very crutial) Crit should be at or as close to 50 percent. This key factor is what makes it possible to stack up the combo points as time efficiently as possible.
The idea of stacking armor penetration is still a point of contention among kitty druids. If our bread and butter is the RIP and RAKE periodic damage, and armor penetration will not affect this type of damage, should we forget about it and select attack power and agility instead?
Armor penetration seems to be a staple statistic included in most of the high end leather gear, it is actually more and more effective the higher it gets. It doesn't
Not being a math wiz, or a 17 year old boy with plenty of time on my hands, I honestly don't have the time or motivation to work out each calculation of white/yellow hit vs. periodic damage ticks... I have a tendency to try to maximize each piece of gear I have to it's fullest potential rather than selecting specific stats to try to stack... I like to look at a piece of gear overall when deciding to upgrade. Of course there are things like RAWR for this purpose so that individuals with time restraints like myself can still work things out. Thank you genius computer scientists and hard core gamers!
Unfortunately, I find it very difficult to efficiently maximus my kitty dps while constantly on the move. For example, in Hodir, the best dps will result from 1) maintaining constant dps on the boss - this means the tank must keep the boss within range of safe melee locations 2) being able to have the super Storm Power buff - which is pretty easy for melee considering members are required to bring this buff to the main tank, and melee can then share it, and 3) being able to stand in a light well buff while being behind the boss - This is very dependent on the tank dragging the boss close to these rays of light. Between all of these 3 important dps boosts, and running around to avoid falling ice and staying in one place gathering freezing debuffs... A feral druid will need to have expert fingers to maneuver and maintain a perfect feral dps rotation!
Up until yesterday, my computer was the bane of my dps existance... I was only able to achieve about 3-6 frames per second in 25 man boss fights like Hodir. Today is a new beginning for me. Since upgrading, World of Warcraft has a whole new crisp look to it and flows so smoothly! I now notice tiny sparklies and can see long distances.. Things are no longer a complete mist to me. Of course I had these settings because of my terribly out dated hardware so that I could move without being lost in time with each refreshing frame....
I guess we must keep up with the times as always... and upgrade our out dated equipment to the new and improved technologies. If we don't, we get left behind in the dust... not to mention.. game playing experiences becomes 90 percent frustration and 10 percent enjoyability. My upgrade has shifted the enjoyment factor back in to the 90 percentile again. :D
-Tallyswift
It is a unique combination of 3 debuffs and 1 buff that must be kept constantly up with the burst of 2 bonus abilities that should be used as frequently as possible. Here is my rotation: (Of course this "rotation" is only used on mobs that live longer than a few seconds ---> bosses).
RAKE,
MANGLE,
SAVAGE ROAR (2-4 combo points),
TIGER'S FURY + SHRED to 5 Combo points,
RIP.
Okay, scratch that... It has been shown that starting out with the Mangle is much more dps efficient than the Rake. Rake is actually the lowest priority kitty ability. It should NEVER be clipped and can remain down for numerous seconds for higher priority abilities such as Rip/Savage Roar/and Clearcasting Shreds! So instead the initial sequence should go:
MANGLE
SAVAGE ROAR
RAKE
SHRED (to 5 combo points, use Tiger's Fury if needed)
RIP
All Clearcastings = SHRED
Note*** In order to alert me of the clearcastings without missing them, I have Power Aura's installed. I LOVE that addon! I also have it alert me when there is a Trauma on the mob or a mangle already up from another druid. It is SO useful... and it can have pages and pages of cool popup alerts for you for anything you want! /love My clearcasting also makes a noise too so I won't miss it if I'm looking at all of the other chaos on my screen in a busy fight like Hodir.
Then refresh Savage roar with 5 combo points and alternate stacks of 5 combo points with Rip. If your crit is high enough to stack up the combo points quickly, you can afford some Ferocious bites in there before both Savage Roar or Rips fall off. Whee :D
After this point, each debuff is then re-applied just before it drops off, and Savage roar and Rip are top priority. Some druids will pop their Berserk right at the beginning because RIP is so important to get up with 5 combo points as rapidly as possible... Of course any good druid dps kitty will have a cooldown timer specifically for each of these important fur ripping abilities..
If it's going to be a long fight, I always pop Beserk early so I can hopefully get it in again after it's cooldown.
The rotation is not the biggest challenge though....
The gear accumulation and gemming is much more challenging to perfect...
Of course this is the point of most games.. get you interested in developing your character to the point of hours and hours of game play to put more months of your money into their Blizzard pockets... But we do get a lot of hours of entertainment out of it...
Regarding gear. Currently I have this combination: 2 pieces of T7.5 for the 2 piece bonus. (Increase in RIP duration). In addition to this, I also have the RIP idol that increases the periodic damage. Because RIP ends up being the largest portion of my total dps, the more I can buff it the better. The rest of my gear is basically Rogue dps gear. First priority - Hit cap 295, (note: 295 cap is only for bears, CAT hit caps out around 263, and is not actually crucial!---> See Toskk's discussion forums). Second priority - Stack as much Agility, attack power, and Armor penetration as possible, Third priority (which has proven to be very crutial) Crit should be at or as close to 50 percent. This key factor is what makes it possible to stack up the combo points as time efficiently as possible.
The idea of stacking armor penetration is still a point of contention among kitty druids. If our bread and butter is the RIP and RAKE periodic damage, and armor penetration will not affect this type of damage, should we forget about it and select attack power and agility instead?
Armor penetration seems to be a staple statistic included in most of the high end leather gear, it is actually more and more effective the higher it gets. It doesn't
Not being a math wiz, or a 17 year old boy with plenty of time on my hands, I honestly don't have the time or motivation to work out each calculation of white/yellow hit vs. periodic damage ticks... I have a tendency to try to maximize each piece of gear I have to it's fullest potential rather than selecting specific stats to try to stack... I like to look at a piece of gear overall when deciding to upgrade. Of course there are things like RAWR for this purpose so that individuals with time restraints like myself can still work things out. Thank you genius computer scientists and hard core gamers!
Unfortunately, I find it very difficult to efficiently maximus my kitty dps while constantly on the move. For example, in Hodir, the best dps will result from 1) maintaining constant dps on the boss - this means the tank must keep the boss within range of safe melee locations 2) being able to have the super Storm Power buff - which is pretty easy for melee considering members are required to bring this buff to the main tank, and melee can then share it, and 3) being able to stand in a light well buff while being behind the boss - This is very dependent on the tank dragging the boss close to these rays of light. Between all of these 3 important dps boosts, and running around to avoid falling ice and staying in one place gathering freezing debuffs... A feral druid will need to have expert fingers to maneuver and maintain a perfect feral dps rotation!
Up until yesterday, my computer was the bane of my dps existance... I was only able to achieve about 3-6 frames per second in 25 man boss fights like Hodir. Today is a new beginning for me. Since upgrading, World of Warcraft has a whole new crisp look to it and flows so smoothly! I now notice tiny sparklies and can see long distances.. Things are no longer a complete mist to me. Of course I had these settings because of my terribly out dated hardware so that I could move without being lost in time with each refreshing frame....
I guess we must keep up with the times as always... and upgrade our out dated equipment to the new and improved technologies. If we don't, we get left behind in the dust... not to mention.. game playing experiences becomes 90 percent frustration and 10 percent enjoyability. My upgrade has shifted the enjoyment factor back in to the 90 percentile again. :D
-Tallyswift
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Journey Through Ulduar
Well my guild HAT managed to actually defeat Yogg-Saron this past Sunday, April 19th. It was very challenging to defeat the last boss. Our melee dps had to squeak out every last little bit of dps on the brain below...
My roll as a feral druid went like this:
Phase 1: Gasseous clouds with adds spawning - Tank in my full feral dps gear and spec.
Tanking these was slightly tricky. The biggest thing I learned was to always go behind an oncoming cloud.. because if you try to beat the cloud, you end up halfway around the circle and could get out of range of heals, and it just slows the whole process down. Slowing processes down on this end boss is a bad idea. Other than that, we had melee dps stop attacking adds that got down to the 50 percent life mark, then proceded to drag the add into the center for range dps to finish off when it was next to the boss in the middle. We had 3 tanks picking up the adds, each of us would mark our specific add and "claim it". If we performed this first phase optimally with zero clouds producing extra adds (other than the very first cloud that we intentionally activate), we would have only 2-3 total adds left by the time the second phase dawned upon us. Oh.. yes, I also talked my lead tank into letting me zoom into the room in kitty dash mode to activate the first cloud.. which is rather fun!
Getting the optimal phase one took numerous attempts.
Phase 2.... DPS down the remaining adds and pull them away from the raid before they blow up on people. Then we focus fired down the small tentacles, (I switch to kitty mode from this point on)... and the other two tanks work on de-activating the large tentacles that the range DPS focus on. There is approximately a minute and 10-20 seconds from when this phase starts to when the portals to the brain appear. The key to this fight is having every single melee dps ready to take those portals as soon as they appear. Usually I was one of the last ones to enter because I have kitty speed, and let the slower ones in first knowing I can easily catch up once I enter. I hardly could get in enough hits to hit my Savage Roar, but I do get it in before: Fairy Fire the Brain, Feral Charge the Brain, DPS rotation the Brain, exit through the portal when the melee leader tells us when to exactly get out!
Don't pick a portal with a translucent brain tentacle over it... you can't click through the tentacles or waste extra seconds trying to click it....
Phase 3: Only took us 2 tries. (because our lead tank Katrina is insanely awesome). I would look for any non picked up adds and pull them toward the raid to dps down. Of course they hit like a freight train the moment you pick it up, so I hit all of my "don't die" buttons. The other two tanks kept the rest of the adds on them for the full duration of phase 3. The tanks never faced the brain to avoid excessive insanity and could tank for a prolonged period. My pick ups in the begining basically gave them both a chance to grab an add and fully charge their sanity and then get into position for full time tanking.
We got Yogg-Saron down with zero people going insane, and only one combat rez I believe...
I sat rather stunned once it was over. Usually we take more learning attempts to get down an end boss that what that took us. It was a lucky night for us, and we also got the Server first kill on that boss as well as several of the other bosses in Ulduar.
After Tuesday, the nerfs started... and we notice some significant nerfings of the medium mode bosses we managed to get down before Tuesday. We actually tried Council on Hard mode first, but it seemed getting the DPS to kill Steelbreaker (the huge dwarf) at the end was unreasonably demanding and probably impossible for us at this point before our tanks are destroyed.
I assume the other larger percentage of players who are able to complete Naxx.. even pug Naxx sucessfully... complained about finding "Easy mode" Ulduar to be "not so easy" and complained... And so.. thank goodness there are multiple levels of difficulty for the smaller percentage of players who are not drunk or drugged during our playing experience who enjoy the strategie and the challenges of HARD content.
My roll as a feral druid went like this:
Phase 1: Gasseous clouds with adds spawning - Tank in my full feral dps gear and spec.
Tanking these was slightly tricky. The biggest thing I learned was to always go behind an oncoming cloud.. because if you try to beat the cloud, you end up halfway around the circle and could get out of range of heals, and it just slows the whole process down. Slowing processes down on this end boss is a bad idea. Other than that, we had melee dps stop attacking adds that got down to the 50 percent life mark, then proceded to drag the add into the center for range dps to finish off when it was next to the boss in the middle. We had 3 tanks picking up the adds, each of us would mark our specific add and "claim it". If we performed this first phase optimally with zero clouds producing extra adds (other than the very first cloud that we intentionally activate), we would have only 2-3 total adds left by the time the second phase dawned upon us. Oh.. yes, I also talked my lead tank into letting me zoom into the room in kitty dash mode to activate the first cloud.. which is rather fun!
Getting the optimal phase one took numerous attempts.
Phase 2.... DPS down the remaining adds and pull them away from the raid before they blow up on people. Then we focus fired down the small tentacles, (I switch to kitty mode from this point on)... and the other two tanks work on de-activating the large tentacles that the range DPS focus on. There is approximately a minute and 10-20 seconds from when this phase starts to when the portals to the brain appear. The key to this fight is having every single melee dps ready to take those portals as soon as they appear. Usually I was one of the last ones to enter because I have kitty speed, and let the slower ones in first knowing I can easily catch up once I enter. I hardly could get in enough hits to hit my Savage Roar, but I do get it in before: Fairy Fire the Brain, Feral Charge the Brain, DPS rotation the Brain, exit through the portal when the melee leader tells us when to exactly get out!
Don't pick a portal with a translucent brain tentacle over it... you can't click through the tentacles or waste extra seconds trying to click it....
Phase 3: Only took us 2 tries. (because our lead tank Katrina is insanely awesome). I would look for any non picked up adds and pull them toward the raid to dps down. Of course they hit like a freight train the moment you pick it up, so I hit all of my "don't die" buttons. The other two tanks kept the rest of the adds on them for the full duration of phase 3. The tanks never faced the brain to avoid excessive insanity and could tank for a prolonged period. My pick ups in the begining basically gave them both a chance to grab an add and fully charge their sanity and then get into position for full time tanking.
We got Yogg-Saron down with zero people going insane, and only one combat rez I believe...
I sat rather stunned once it was over. Usually we take more learning attempts to get down an end boss that what that took us. It was a lucky night for us, and we also got the Server first kill on that boss as well as several of the other bosses in Ulduar.
After Tuesday, the nerfs started... and we notice some significant nerfings of the medium mode bosses we managed to get down before Tuesday. We actually tried Council on Hard mode first, but it seemed getting the DPS to kill Steelbreaker (the huge dwarf) at the end was unreasonably demanding and probably impossible for us at this point before our tanks are destroyed.
I assume the other larger percentage of players who are able to complete Naxx.. even pug Naxx sucessfully... complained about finding "Easy mode" Ulduar to be "not so easy" and complained... And so.. thank goodness there are multiple levels of difficulty for the smaller percentage of players who are not drunk or drugged during our playing experience who enjoy the strategie and the challenges of HARD content.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Preparing for Ulduar
What can we do to be prepared for this upcoming exciting new challenge?
First, we can educate ourselves with the actual bosses and possible strategies.
Second... Attempt to experience these things first hand!
Hat guild requires attendance on the PTR to get in on this Ulduar goodliness. We all copied our characters over stacked with our best gear and stashes of consumables to burn through with great anticipation of being able to see new content and new challenges... Unfortunately, the Realm is riddled with connectivity instabilities. Hundreds upon hundreds of players are all attempting to connect and zone into the new instance simultaneously, and you're lucky if you aren't stuck in a zoning screen. Unfortunately, this pre-Ulduar preparation method seems
to be getting even more popular making it even harder for a full guild to assemble at all on the PTR at open test raid times. Our only option around this instability is to keep on trying to get through, or... our guild can rent a meeting room in California next to the test server with T4 servers hooking us all up through a LAN. YEAH! Let's Do it! Okay, so I guess that's just a
wow-head fantasy. Back to option "Try try again till you get into the instance" method.
First, we can educate ourselves with the actual bosses and possible strategies.
Second... Attempt to experience these things first hand!
Hat guild requires attendance on the PTR to get in on this Ulduar goodliness. We all copied our characters over stacked with our best gear and stashes of consumables to burn through with great anticipation of being able to see new content and new challenges... Unfortunately, the Realm is riddled with connectivity instabilities. Hundreds upon hundreds of players are all attempting to connect and zone into the new instance simultaneously, and you're lucky if you aren't stuck in a zoning screen. Unfortunately, this pre-Ulduar preparation method seems
to be getting even more popular making it even harder for a full guild to assemble at all on the PTR at open test raid times. Our only option around this instability is to keep on trying to get through, or... our guild can rent a meeting room in California next to the test server with T4 servers hooking us all up through a LAN. YEAH! Let's Do it! Okay, so I guess that's just a
wow-head fantasy. Back to option "Try try again till you get into the instance" method.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Super Dailies Routine
How does my pack rat friend manage to make so much gold?
He doesn't play the auction house much... no... he actually tries to save every little item that he possibly can. He actually had to create a new guild just to get access to a guild bank to fill up with all of his "randomly could be useful at the right place or time" items.
Need some Strong Mojo? Yep, he has some.
Need reputation with Thorium Brothers? He has stacks of turn in items for them too.
Need fish hooks? Yep, at least 3 stacks of 20 of those...
So how does he make his gold? He has a ritual...
And I got him to show me the ritual path he takes...
((SUMMARY FOR THE SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FOLKS))
1) Dalaran --> Cooking Daily
2) K3 --> K3 Blow up stuff Daily
3) Brunhilda --> Challenge Sister/Exhausted worker Daily ==> Polar
4) Sons of Hodir --> Pick your favorites
5) Ice crown --> King of the Mountain daily
6) random other reputation dailies... Oracles, Frenzyheart, Kalu'ak etc.
Route: Start point---> Dalaran = Cooking Daily - almost all of them are quick and easy.
Second: Fly to K3 = K3 daily dropping mines to blow stuff up.. Again very quick and easy.
Third: Brunhilda daily = Most of these are very fast and easy. (challenge a sister) and the beating of the exhausted workers... yeah I hate doing this one emotionally, but I get over it pretty fast... lol.. PLUS the reward could contain the cute Polar bear mount.
Fourth: Dailie(s) for Sons of Hodir --> Yes I'm already exalted but.. it's still worth the gold to bang out a few of these. My pack rat friend selects the Lance daily where you lance one of the proto drakes and beat him to death with your fists while maintaining a grip on the angry flying dragon at the same time. I personally prefer to quickly gather a few of the viscous oils for the helm, and throw snowballs at the giant worms and watch them get eaten by the Hodir Giant ghosts.
Fifth: It's back to Ice crown, and my friend does the "King of the mountain" quest that is SO SO easy to do, it's insanity! (unless there are players of the opposite faction around to mess with you).
Hmm so that accumulates over 50 gold, and a chance for a Polar bear mount, and some Hodir rep if you haven't already gotten exalted with them. I also have been working on the Oracles reputation dailies. I keep picking up eggs, but all that comes out of them are those little tickbird hatchlings! Rumor has it, there are dragons in those eggs, but it's rather rare. One must be a patient little cricket!
Total time doing the quests is about 20-30 minutes. I'm a little slow about it, but if I was as religious about doing them, and as orderly and meticulous as my friend, I'd get a lot faster.
I just have "female hormone" syndrome.. or maybe it's the fact that I gave up coffee for the next several weeks, but I tend to function at a slower more laid back level than a lot of people.
It doesn't stop me from trying to be as competitive as the rest of my guild members!
I tend to waste a lot of time fishing but... I have finally caught the Giant Sewer Rat pet! :D
He doesn't play the auction house much... no... he actually tries to save every little item that he possibly can. He actually had to create a new guild just to get access to a guild bank to fill up with all of his "randomly could be useful at the right place or time" items.
Need some Strong Mojo? Yep, he has some.
Need reputation with Thorium Brothers? He has stacks of turn in items for them too.
Need fish hooks? Yep, at least 3 stacks of 20 of those...
So how does he make his gold? He has a ritual...
And I got him to show me the ritual path he takes...
((SUMMARY FOR THE SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FOLKS))
1) Dalaran --> Cooking Daily
2) K3 --> K3 Blow up stuff Daily
3) Brunhilda --> Challenge Sister/Exhausted worker Daily ==> Polar
4) Sons of Hodir --> Pick your favorites
5) Ice crown --> King of the Mountain daily
6) random other reputation dailies... Oracles, Frenzyheart, Kalu'ak etc.
Route: Start point---> Dalaran = Cooking Daily - almost all of them are quick and easy.
Second: Fly to K3 = K3 daily dropping mines to blow stuff up.. Again very quick and easy.
Third: Brunhilda daily = Most of these are very fast and easy. (challenge a sister) and the beating of the exhausted workers... yeah I hate doing this one emotionally, but I get over it pretty fast... lol.. PLUS the reward could contain the cute Polar bear mount.
Fourth: Dailie(s) for Sons of Hodir --> Yes I'm already exalted but.. it's still worth the gold to bang out a few of these. My pack rat friend selects the Lance daily where you lance one of the proto drakes and beat him to death with your fists while maintaining a grip on the angry flying dragon at the same time. I personally prefer to quickly gather a few of the viscous oils for the helm, and throw snowballs at the giant worms and watch them get eaten by the Hodir Giant ghosts.
Fifth: It's back to Ice crown, and my friend does the "King of the mountain" quest that is SO SO easy to do, it's insanity! (unless there are players of the opposite faction around to mess with you).
Hmm so that accumulates over 50 gold, and a chance for a Polar bear mount, and some Hodir rep if you haven't already gotten exalted with them. I also have been working on the Oracles reputation dailies. I keep picking up eggs, but all that comes out of them are those little tickbird hatchlings! Rumor has it, there are dragons in those eggs, but it's rather rare. One must be a patient little cricket!
Total time doing the quests is about 20-30 minutes. I'm a little slow about it, but if I was as religious about doing them, and as orderly and meticulous as my friend, I'd get a lot faster.
I just have "female hormone" syndrome.. or maybe it's the fact that I gave up coffee for the next several weeks, but I tend to function at a slower more laid back level than a lot of people.
It doesn't stop me from trying to be as competitive as the rest of my guild members!
I tend to waste a lot of time fishing but... I have finally caught the Giant Sewer Rat pet! :D
Friday, February 27, 2009
Druid Stamina - How much can we truely afford??
As a tank for a very high end guild, I honestly cannot stack Stamina in the extreme manner that numerous other druid tanks tend to do. No, this won't work at all for me simply because the guild members I run with have such extreme dps, I would never get a chance to tank anything! Jingle (top mage dps) can break 7000 dps now on a regular Naxx 25 run. Rather than specialize on maximum hit points, I have put more points into hit and crit and expertise than other tanks and trust my healers to keep me alive with my 40k total health with full raid buffs. I off tank in my dps gear to get the immediate crit agro with my swipes, and hardly have time to enjoy the big numbers before the mobs are wiped out. I keep my emergency buttons at hand and always watch my health bar as any good tank should. As my guild continues to rip through the current game content, we have been maximizing our damage and skimping on hit points. Our healers are top notch and have pulled us through our second successful Immortal run, and about 5 Undying runs now. (Yes they amaze me sometimes). The amazing teamwork my guild exhibits also amazes me. Due to some previous connectivity issues, I was unable to join my guild on their first Immortal run, and also was unavailable for the second one until most of the way through. They still had no problem stepping out for me at the very last boss so that I would get the opportunity to earn the Immortal title... (warm fuzzy). (Thanks Phoenix!) (Okay so he already had the title and didn't need gear but... He did ALL of that hard work getting up to that point! OMG). (sheepishly greatful feeling!).
Success is driven by the sheer desire to play our own character to the best of our ability which includes being fully prepared for every run and sometimes helping others be prepared by bringing extra consumable to share. Constantly evaluating our own gear with the gem selection and enchantments to find what works best for us, and keeping well read with all of the gaming excellence resources.
Encouragement and fun and friendships through teaming ... that is why we play the game in the first place, isn't it? There's also the friendly competition to try to get the most achievement points, but it seems no one can catch up with Rulla's lead... He's one of the top achievment gatherers of the world! (bows reverently) (wonders what else he does in his Real life time... lol)
My next post will include the most current efficient ways of farming some daily gold...
First I have to make exact notes to the efficiency of the whole process and time it. :D
---- Glee and playfulness as always --- Your furry bear tank --- Tallyswift.
Oh btw.. try typing your character name into a google search and see what comes up! Interesting stuff.... sometimes that you were not yet aware of...
Success is driven by the sheer desire to play our own character to the best of our ability which includes being fully prepared for every run and sometimes helping others be prepared by bringing extra consumable to share. Constantly evaluating our own gear with the gem selection and enchantments to find what works best for us, and keeping well read with all of the gaming excellence resources.
Encouragement and fun and friendships through teaming ... that is why we play the game in the first place, isn't it? There's also the friendly competition to try to get the most achievement points, but it seems no one can catch up with Rulla's lead... He's one of the top achievment gatherers of the world! (bows reverently) (wonders what else he does in his Real life time... lol)
My next post will include the most current efficient ways of farming some daily gold...
First I have to make exact notes to the efficiency of the whole process and time it. :D
---- Glee and playfulness as always --- Your furry bear tank --- Tallyswift.
Oh btw.. try typing your character name into a google search and see what comes up! Interesting stuff.... sometimes that you were not yet aware of...
Monday, February 9, 2009
Back to Biology... The Herpes virus family... best friends forever?
Just a note to my World of Warcraft readers: This isn not at a game blog-post by any means, so just ignore it if you were looking for tales of furry bear clawings and glamorous loot rewards... But continue to read on if you are interested in the biological manifestation of viruses and the way our body handles them...
My personal background is in biology. I'm a Medical Laboratory Technologist. I recently read some articles on Wikipedia regarding the Herpes type viruses and found them to be very fascinating.
First, I'd like to state: In our current world the incidence of illness and disease has been on the rise... Ever since this observation, scientists have been continually seeking the reasons for our high incidence of healthcare problems. I suspected that the foods we have slowly accepted into our typical daily diets have played a large part in supressing our immune systems making us more susceptibe to develop illnesses. Foods that are highly processed. Foods that contain high carbohydrates, sugars and preservatives as well as artificial sweeteners. What is the result of this? We gain weight, and we get sick more often. It has been shown that even a few teaspoons of sugar is enough to weaken our immune system for a whole day, and aspartame (neutrasweet) is actually 180 times sweeter than sugar! Our intake of sugar and sweeteners has increased significantly over the past 10 years. What happens when our immune systems are weakened? We get sick. Colds, flu, diabetes, fibromyalgia, heart problems, thyroid disorders, bleeding disorders, infertility and the list goes on and on...
What does this have to do with viruses though? I'll attempt to explain:
Viruses are all over and people are constantly passing them around. For example the common Coronavirus. This one is believed to be responsible for a large percentage of the colds that we catch, and is transmitted through droplets in the air. Colds that are caused by viruses are not curable through medicines. You can only alleviate symptoms of the cold and wait the 3-7 days for your body to develop its own defenses against the specific strain that the body is infected with.
The Herpes virus is also not curable. Once exposed, herpes strains stay with you for life. I'm not just talking about the commonly known sexually transmitted genital herpes disease, but the whole Herpes type virus family.
Here is a list of all 8 (known) Herpes simplex virus (HSV) strains:
HSV 1 = Cold sores, fever blisters (HWJ-1)
HSV 2 = Genital Herpes virus (HWJ-2)
HSV 3 = Varicella Zoster (Chicken Pox) (HHV-3)
HSV 4 = Epstein-Barr Virus (HHV-4)
HSV 5 = Cytomegalovirus (HHV-5)
HSV 6 = Sixth disease (HHV-6)
HSV 7 = Roseola virus (HHV-7)
HSV 8 = Kaposi's Sarcoma (KSHV)
If you take a look at these viruses, you may notice that we have been exposed to many of them in our society routinely. Haven't nearly all of us been exposed to Chicken Pox at some point in our childhood? Also, millions of people have cold sores or fever blisters and think nothing of them, but once infected with HSV-1, it stays with us forever... Our immune system has to fight off outbreaks and put the virus into latency. Later on, if something stresses us and lowers our immunity, we could end up with another cold sore outbreak. Further reading shows that these innocent cold sores could be associated with Alzheimer's disease!
"In the presence of a certain gene variation ... HSV-1 appears to be particularly damaging to the nervous system and increases one's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. The virus interacts with the components and receptors of lipoproteins, which may lead to the development of Alzheimer's disease." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsv_1
So this virus harbors itself in our own DNA and then can be re-activated to do it's harmful things again when our immune system is down. Each of these viruses harbors itself within specific tissue types. Here is a list of the target tissues:
HSV 1, HSV 2= Human nervous system - persists notably in neural ganglia (neurotropic and neuroinvasive) (latent in the cell bodies of nerves in the infected area) Shed through saliva (type 1) and genital secretions (type 2).
HSV 3 = Human nervous system (dormant in trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia)
HSV 4 = Human B-lymphocyte (bone marrow?) (persists within the cell as an episome)
HSV 5 = Human body fluids: (urine, saliva, blood, tears, semen and breast milk)
HSV 6, HSV 7 = Integrated into chromosomes - can pass on to fetus during development
HSV 8= Lymphocytes: exists as a naked circular piece of DNA (episome) Shed in saliva?
So once infected, it stays with us for life, and some viruses (like the Roseola viruses HSV-6, HSV-7) can even be passed onto our offspring through our infected chromosomes! The HSV-8 virus is not as well known because it only presented itself in individuals with extremely compromized immune systems such as AIDS patients. It seems we can fight off that virus easier than some of the others higher up on the list.
What happens to us if our immune system can no longer keep these viruses in check? Here is another list showing the possible effects that each virus can cause:
(Possible effects with compromised immune system)
HSV-1 = cold sores --> Linked to increased risk for Alzheimer's disease.
HSV-2 = Genital Herpes STD --> future genital sore outbreaks, low (~1%) risk of developing aseptic meningitis.
HSV-3 = Chicken Pox (Varicella zoster)--> Rare occasions: encephalitis or pneumonia --> Later in life: Shingles (Herpes zoster) with possible complications: postherpetic neuralgia, zoster mltiplex, myelitis, herpes ophthalmicus, or zoster sine herpete.
HSV-4 = Epstein-Barr --> Infectious mononucleosis, Burkitt's Lymphoma.
HSV-5 = Cytomegalovirus --> pneumonia, gastrointestinal, retinal and neurological disease.
HSV-6, HSV-7 = Roseolavirus --> Exanthem subitum (sudden rash), three day fever, (typically appearing between 6 months and 3 years of age). Rare: Liver dysfunction. Adult: signs of mononucleosis.
HSV-8 = Kaposi's Sarcoma --> (This is the disease from compromised immunity) --> Pigmented sarcoma of the skin.
Some compromises of the immune system can include things as simple as: "cold, influenza, eczema, emotional and physical stress, exposure to bright sunlight, gastric upset, fatigue or injury, menstruation" (as listed under HSV-1), or as extreme as: HIV or AIDS infection, leukemia, organ donation treatment, chemotherapy, radiation treatment or any other method that severely affects immunity.
Another example of a virus that has become more prominent over the years is the Papillomavirus (HPV). This virus is rather wide spread and has been known to cause abnormal papsmears and genital warts in women, and some strains can even cause cervical cancer. The negative affects of this virus also have become more prevalent... Why have our immune systems become so negatively affected?
What is the best way to fight or prevent these viruses? The most effective way is with antibodies that have been developed specifically to target these viruses. Exactly the way your own body will fight them off given time and a functioning immunity. Immunoglobulin developed into the form of vaccines help fight and prevent the diseases caused by many viruses. There have also been some anti-viral agents developed that may be effective for certain viruses.
One might conclude from all of this information so kindly accumulated by my favorite "let's find out" source --> Wikipedia, that our best way to stay healthy and disease free is to 1) avoid contact with any or all viruses and bacteria (which is basically impossible) 2) be sure to get vaccinated with the available current vaccines, and 3) avoid foods or other substances that can compromise the immune system. The food topic is another huge discussion all in it's own, but from reading articles about anti-oxidants from berries, health advantages of fresh vegetables, and whole grains, and visiting http://hacres.com/, there is definitely truth to "You are what you eat". The numerous healing stories from people who changed their diets is likely directly related to a recovering immune system that is less supressed by bad foods.
These are my own observations based on accumulated information over the years.
Here are some more links to informative medical information sites:
American Academy of Family Physicians
MedConsult.com
Wikipedia
My personal background is in biology. I'm a Medical Laboratory Technologist. I recently read some articles on Wikipedia regarding the Herpes type viruses and found them to be very fascinating.
First, I'd like to state: In our current world the incidence of illness and disease has been on the rise... Ever since this observation, scientists have been continually seeking the reasons for our high incidence of healthcare problems. I suspected that the foods we have slowly accepted into our typical daily diets have played a large part in supressing our immune systems making us more susceptibe to develop illnesses. Foods that are highly processed. Foods that contain high carbohydrates, sugars and preservatives as well as artificial sweeteners. What is the result of this? We gain weight, and we get sick more often. It has been shown that even a few teaspoons of sugar is enough to weaken our immune system for a whole day, and aspartame (neutrasweet) is actually 180 times sweeter than sugar! Our intake of sugar and sweeteners has increased significantly over the past 10 years. What happens when our immune systems are weakened? We get sick. Colds, flu, diabetes, fibromyalgia, heart problems, thyroid disorders, bleeding disorders, infertility and the list goes on and on...
What does this have to do with viruses though? I'll attempt to explain:
Viruses are all over and people are constantly passing them around. For example the common Coronavirus. This one is believed to be responsible for a large percentage of the colds that we catch, and is transmitted through droplets in the air. Colds that are caused by viruses are not curable through medicines. You can only alleviate symptoms of the cold and wait the 3-7 days for your body to develop its own defenses against the specific strain that the body is infected with.
The Herpes virus is also not curable. Once exposed, herpes strains stay with you for life. I'm not just talking about the commonly known sexually transmitted genital herpes disease, but the whole Herpes type virus family.
Here is a list of all 8 (known) Herpes simplex virus (HSV) strains:
HSV 1 = Cold sores, fever blisters (HWJ-1)
HSV 2 = Genital Herpes virus (HWJ-2)
HSV 3 = Varicella Zoster (Chicken Pox) (HHV-3)
HSV 4 = Epstein-Barr Virus (HHV-4)
HSV 5 = Cytomegalovirus (HHV-5)
HSV 6 = Sixth disease (HHV-6)
HSV 7 = Roseola virus (HHV-7)
HSV 8 = Kaposi's Sarcoma (KSHV)
If you take a look at these viruses, you may notice that we have been exposed to many of them in our society routinely. Haven't nearly all of us been exposed to Chicken Pox at some point in our childhood? Also, millions of people have cold sores or fever blisters and think nothing of them, but once infected with HSV-1, it stays with us forever... Our immune system has to fight off outbreaks and put the virus into latency. Later on, if something stresses us and lowers our immunity, we could end up with another cold sore outbreak. Further reading shows that these innocent cold sores could be associated with Alzheimer's disease!
"In the presence of a certain gene variation ... HSV-1 appears to be particularly damaging to the nervous system and increases one's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. The virus interacts with the components and receptors of lipoproteins, which may lead to the development of Alzheimer's disease." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsv_1
So this virus harbors itself in our own DNA and then can be re-activated to do it's harmful things again when our immune system is down. Each of these viruses harbors itself within specific tissue types. Here is a list of the target tissues:
HSV 1, HSV 2= Human nervous system - persists notably in neural ganglia (neurotropic and neuroinvasive) (latent in the cell bodies of nerves in the infected area) Shed through saliva (type 1) and genital secretions (type 2).
HSV 3 = Human nervous system (dormant in trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia)
HSV 4 = Human B-lymphocyte (bone marrow?) (persists within the cell as an episome)
HSV 5 = Human body fluids: (urine, saliva, blood, tears, semen and breast milk)
HSV 6, HSV 7 = Integrated into chromosomes - can pass on to fetus during development
HSV 8= Lymphocytes: exists as a naked circular piece of DNA (episome) Shed in saliva?
So once infected, it stays with us for life, and some viruses (like the Roseola viruses HSV-6, HSV-7) can even be passed onto our offspring through our infected chromosomes! The HSV-8 virus is not as well known because it only presented itself in individuals with extremely compromized immune systems such as AIDS patients. It seems we can fight off that virus easier than some of the others higher up on the list.
What happens to us if our immune system can no longer keep these viruses in check? Here is another list showing the possible effects that each virus can cause:
(Possible effects with compromised immune system)
HSV-1 = cold sores --> Linked to increased risk for Alzheimer's disease.
HSV-2 = Genital Herpes STD --> future genital sore outbreaks, low (~1%) risk of developing aseptic meningitis.
HSV-3 = Chicken Pox (Varicella zoster)--> Rare occasions: encephalitis or pneumonia --> Later in life: Shingles (Herpes zoster) with possible complications: postherpetic neuralgia, zoster mltiplex, myelitis, herpes ophthalmicus, or zoster sine herpete.
HSV-4 = Epstein-Barr --> Infectious mononucleosis, Burkitt's Lymphoma.
HSV-5 = Cytomegalovirus --> pneumonia, gastrointestinal, retinal and neurological disease.
HSV-6, HSV-7 = Roseolavirus --> Exanthem subitum (sudden rash), three day fever, (typically appearing between 6 months and 3 years of age). Rare: Liver dysfunction. Adult: signs of mononucleosis.
HSV-8 = Kaposi's Sarcoma --> (This is the disease from compromised immunity) --> Pigmented sarcoma of the skin.
Some compromises of the immune system can include things as simple as: "cold, influenza, eczema, emotional and physical stress, exposure to bright sunlight, gastric upset, fatigue or injury, menstruation" (as listed under HSV-1), or as extreme as: HIV or AIDS infection, leukemia, organ donation treatment, chemotherapy, radiation treatment or any other method that severely affects immunity.
Another example of a virus that has become more prominent over the years is the Papillomavirus (HPV). This virus is rather wide spread and has been known to cause abnormal papsmears and genital warts in women, and some strains can even cause cervical cancer. The negative affects of this virus also have become more prevalent... Why have our immune systems become so negatively affected?
What is the best way to fight or prevent these viruses? The most effective way is with antibodies that have been developed specifically to target these viruses. Exactly the way your own body will fight them off given time and a functioning immunity. Immunoglobulin developed into the form of vaccines help fight and prevent the diseases caused by many viruses. There have also been some anti-viral agents developed that may be effective for certain viruses.
One might conclude from all of this information so kindly accumulated by my favorite "let's find out" source --> Wikipedia, that our best way to stay healthy and disease free is to 1) avoid contact with any or all viruses and bacteria (which is basically impossible) 2) be sure to get vaccinated with the available current vaccines, and 3) avoid foods or other substances that can compromise the immune system. The food topic is another huge discussion all in it's own, but from reading articles about anti-oxidants from berries, health advantages of fresh vegetables, and whole grains, and visiting http://hacres.com/, there is definitely truth to "You are what you eat". The numerous healing stories from people who changed their diets is likely directly related to a recovering immune system that is less supressed by bad foods.
These are my own observations based on accumulated information over the years.
Here are some more links to informative medical information sites:
American Academy of Family Physicians
MedConsult.com
Wikipedia
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