DING

See below.

/dance

Unholy DK Specs, Stats and Talents for Levelling

Playing an unholy death knight has always been fun. When I started messing around in unholy again after 4.0 dropped, I loved the Sudden Doom and Dark Transformation warnings that popped on my screen. I loved seeing my ghoul transform from a boney thing barely hung together to a brutal globbulus abomination. Since Anyah on Twitter needed some help getting to grips with her DK after a substantial break, I thought it might be about time to look at how unholy plays now in Cataclysm.

We'll take a brief look at spec and stats in this post, but I'll mainly be focusing on the talents we have, priorities on attacks and how we can use them both to help in the new Cataclysm dungeons and the flavour that Unholy now has in Cataclysm. There'll be a resource list at the end of the post too.

Spec
I've chosen to run with a basic cookie cutter spec which I got from the ever trusty Deathknightbuilds.net. I'm unlikely to raid in unholy spec so choosing something just to get me from 80-85 in dps gear is enough for now. I've also chucked a point in Runic Power Mastery, because, well, I like it. Stats and gear wise, as someone levelling in unholy, your quest rewards are pretty much dictated to you. You have to choose plate, you'll find some comes with Int and Spirit on it. Obviously these are useless for us, we're far to clever to need any more intellect thank you and spirit? Well, we have no soul any more so that's useless. Hence, grab all the gear loaded with Strength and Stam. Yes stamina is good for levelling, it keeps you alive.

At the moment, mastery isn't much of a boon for Unholy (unlike Blood) so reforge that off if you want to. Haste is a good stat to have now and as we approach 85 you'll want to consider the hit cap. According to those maths gurus at Elitist Jerks, it looks like the hit cap is still 8%. Top three stats at 85 work out like this - Strength - Hit Cap - Haste then it's Crit, Expertise to the cap, Mastery and lastly, Agility.

Talents and Attacks
Now, onto those talents and attacks. I was concerned that as a few people had suggested, Unholy was loosing it's flavour in 4.0. Bone shield was removed and put in the blood tree. On a Pale Horse was stuck over in Frost. Well, I'm happy to say that with such things as Dark Transformation I'm not worried that we've lost the flavour. We are still bad-ass disease-ridden killing machines and as such, our diseases are still the priority.

Icy Touch and Plague strike need to be on those mobs sharpish - don't forget about Festering Strike and Outbreak too, I'll cover those in a bit more depth later on. Scourge Strike is still the big hitter but working up the RP for those Death Coils is important. A Sudden Doom proc grants you a free Death Coil, use it. 5 Death Coils will give you your Dark Transformation and turn your ghoul into a DPS monster. Whilst levelling, if I've had a DT proc at the end of a trash pack, I've been holding off on popping it (there's 30 secs to use it) until we engage in the next pack. If it's on a boss fight, well pop it baby!

Keeping up Diseases
Icy Touch and Plague Strike have long been a part of the Unholy DKs rotation. And they are still the basis of our priorities. In 4.0 (and now in Cataclysm) we are ever more dependant on these diseases to pump out the damage. Add to this two new talents, Festering Strike and Outbreak and we can see where Blizzard is putting the emphasis for Unholy DKs.

A bit more on Festering Strike then. FeS works to extend the length of your blood plague, frost fever and chains of ice effects. Essentially then, rather than hitting IT and PS to refresh your diseases, you can just hit FeS whack the mob for some weapon damage and refresh the diseases at the same time. Sounds good to me!

Outbreak sticks both IT and PS on a mob and comes with a 1 minute cooldown. It won't replace IT and PS because of this longer cooldown, but it will be handy to have for additional mobs. EJ don't seem to mention it on their latest breakdown which I guess tells you quite a bit about it's importance. Or lack of it.

So, we don't have a set rotation any more. Keep your diseases up, use Pestilence to spread them around on groups of mobs, hit Scourge Strike and use those Death Coils!

Dungeons - Now with added CC!
I like Bubbles wrote up a little post this week on the talents that DKs have that can help in the new era of CC in dungeons. For all those Wrath Babies who haven't had to use CC, it means Crowd Control. This is anything that effectively removes a mob from a fight for a period of time. If you see a CC-ed mob, don't hit it. Death Knights do not have CC tools. However, as was pointed out by Ilikebubbles, we do have interrupts and some other tools to help tanks and healers and the whole group in general.

Mind freeze - an interrupt with a 10 second cooldown and 4 second duration on the target. I have this sitting on my toolbar in handy reach as I have found it invaluable in the past. The quick cooldown means you can use it on a couple of mobs if needed.

Strangulate - another interrupt, this time with a 2 minute cooldown - not as handy imho as Mind Freeze due to it's cooldown time, but a good utility for it's silence on non-player victims.

Death grip - when used properly, death grip can be invaluable. I always ask my tank 'Do you want me to DG that caster/range/whatever into the group?' DG causes the target to focus on you for 3 seconds, thus acting like a taunt. Your tank needs to know you're going to DG a mob so they can peel them back off you. Failure to tell them may result in cranky tank. DG also acts as an interrupt and is thus very handy to use on the pesky caster at the back. You interrupt them, and gather them into the group to feel more AoE.

Chains of Ice - have you missed that mob running off to get more friends? Stick him/her on ice until the tank can catch up and you can batter them. Side note - DG + Chains is fun in BGs XDYour ghoul - Your ghoul also has interrupt skills - namely Gnaw, it acts as a 3 second stun whilst your ghoul chews off your enemy's arm.

Using these abilities will help your group through the dungeons. Using this knowledge will help at 85 because you'll know your class a lot better. And one step at a time we can break the Death Knight reputation of being, shall we say, less than clever?!

I hope these little tips have helped in some way to help you find your way to 85 with your unholy death knight.

Resources

Elitist Jerks - you know it makes sense

Death Knight Builds - full listing of all builds, take your pick.

Pwn Wear - for DK tanks, but you might want to have a look :D

Erm .. here?!

If you've got any links and good resources, please leave me a comment and I'll update the list.

Suffer Well!

You've come a long way, Wrath Baby.

Twitter threw up an interesting topic this afternoon. #iblamecynwise. Are you a Wrathbaby and what does the term Wrathbaby actually mean? Cynwise and I use the term to refer to the fact that we starting playing WoW during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. However, some have said that the term 'Wrath Baby' is a pejorative and implies that all you want to do is faceroll through dungeons in tier gear which you bought with tokens (and thus haven't actually seen any raids) or roflstomp through raids which have been easy for way too long. I would call people who do that morons, thus I feel compelled to defend the Wrathbaby in me.

I don't know if my experience is limited to just me, but I'd be surprised if it was. As I mentioned in my tweets (and have mentioned numerous times before) I am a gamer noob. I have never played any other game for the duration or with the passion that I have played Warcraft. I have no frame of reference for raiding, for gearing a character, for MMOs, or RPGs, or Thotbot, wow.joystiq.com or Elitist Jerks. I KNEW NOTHING. I still carry this wide-eyed look with me because it enables me to look at things with an open mind and not scream (too loud) at people who clearly haven't been in a dungeon before, haven't tanked before or whatever it happens to be, they've not done it before. Patience is a virtue. I'm not saying I'm perfect or that I don't ever go 'effing hurry up you noob' but I don't say it to people I don't know. I do my damn best to be understanding and offer help.

Back to my Wrath experience. It took me a long time, I mean a L O N G time to get to level 80. I'd been playing 7 months before Deme hit the big 80. That's 7 months of playing almost every day. It then took me another 3 months to grind gear, rep for enchants, and whatever else to get her geared to raid NAXX. Not ToC, not Ulduar, Naxx. I ran heroic after heroic. Every Wednesday night was farming HCs night. I quested dailies and ground rep every minute I had. I spent 3 hours wiping on Loken in HoL. I paid attention to strats on bosses. It did not take 15 minutes to clear a dungeon. We were in there ALL night.

This is where I was naive. Whilst everyone else was running Ulduar and getting hyped about ToC coming, I was gearing for Naxx. Because that's what you did right? You geared for the entry level raid and then got the gear in there to go onto the next level. I did not think of badge vendors for gear and grinding HCs to get badges to buy gear to get me into Ulduar or ToC, I mean 80 badges for that seemed silly when I could get dungeon drops. The raid teams in our guild were a solid bunch but I did get taken along occasionally to help out and I held my own. My gear was better than I realised and despite people telling me this, I didn't progress the raid team I was leading into other content because I thought we needed to bond and work on basic raiding skills in Naxx. Naxx. FFS. I wasted so much time in there.

Anyway, the 1st raid team I was in eventually cleared Naxx and instead of heading to Ulduar or even ICC which was about to arrive (or had arrived?! Memory lapse) we decided to jump into ToC. Disaster. We were all a bunch of noobs. No one was geared properly, people were running round in PvP gear with the wrong enchants and gems. It appeared that as RL I needed to know every inch of every class just to lead a raid. HEAD ASPLODES. I quit. I already knew that I wanted to be in ICC and having run the whole of ToC with another more progressed raid team, I knew I was capable. I felt elitist, but at the end of the day I wasn't enjoying the game as I was playing it so I said my good byes and left to join another guild and another raid team. Thankfully by this time I'd figured out that I needed tier gear and had got 4xT9 for my DPS spec. I wasn't tanking yet.

As a raid team we didn't seem to be able to get a solid tank to go along side our warrior so I offered to swap and gear Deme to tank. Cue another round of grinding daily dungeons, weekly raids and so on for more badges. I did not know how to tank before I stepped into ICC. I have not tanked Ulduar. Or ToC or Naxx. Actually I might have tanked some of Naxx on a silly run now. Anyway, I was inexperienced to say the least. I am still one of the most inexperienced tanks in our guild. I think I'm the only DK tank who tanks as my main spec in a 10 man team within the guild, but I worked hard to know my class abilities, to spot where I could use this cooldown or that cooldown and to know when to do what with what mobs. I still want to learn and want to be as good as I can be. I do not take the skill in playing a tank for granted. It's a role I enjoy and respect.

Deadbeats, the raid team I am now a tank for, cleared ICC at the end of September. Due to RL complications and not being able to find a solid team it took us longer than we would have liked but we did it. And it was hard work all the way. I worked my arse off for that effing kill and I'm proud of it.

I don't see Cataclysm being any different. We are all having to work for gear, for rep, for levelling professions. May be my ineptitude before has stood me in good stead for this expansion. I know about gear lists now, I know what kind of stats I need, I know my raid team and I know where to look for boss strats when I get there. And you know what else? Unless you're in some Uber World Leading Raiding Guild, you're in exactly the same position as me. The only thing separating us is the time we have to play and how fast we can get to that first raid.

Morons will always be morons, but you've come a long way, Wrath Baby.

Wolf/Kitty/Bear/Human = Split personality

Erm yeah. I'm not really here, this blog is a figment of your imagination. Some eejit made Gilneas awesomebarbquesaucewithextrabacon and I finally rolled a druid that lasted longer than level 7. And I love her. I love teh kitteh. I love the bear. I love the AWooOoOOoo Worgen. And soon I get the flippery form too. It's not good if you have split personality.

Rawr

Purr

For Gilneas!

AwwwoOoOoOOOO

Longstrider

As I write this, my very good friend Tony, aka Longstrider, is in hospital. He was admitted with a suspected brain haemorrhage, which this morning has been confirmed.

Longy was my stalwart friend in my first forays into The Monkey Tree. We chatted almost non-stop. It was because of his cheeky alt, Shortstrider, that I decided to join TmT having met him on a Thunder Bluff raid.

Through our chats I learnt how far into that well I’d sunk and how much confidence I’d lost in myself. Longy was one of the people who started me on the road back to finding it.

Longy once surprised me (and left me red-faced) by ringing me at work. He is also prone to sending me text messages when drunk.

Longy loves his wife and his four children whole-heartedly. He is a dedicated family man who works hard and plays harder. Many of us in the guild have encountered his drunken exploits late on a Friday or Saturday night. Guild chat is far cleaner and duller without his filthy chatter.

Here’s hoping you are soon well again my friend.

**edit @14:30 I got a message saying that Tony was being sent home from hospital as there wasn't enough blood to warrant an operation and a CT scan showed no more bleeds. I am tremendously relieved and hope that he will be rested and well again soon.

It's time to see other people. Breaking it off with Warcraft.

You may have noticed that the posts on this blog have dried up some what of late. If you've been following me on twitter you might have an inkling as to why this is. If not, here's the low down. As usual when I post something of a more personal nature, there is a TL:DR version at the end.

Most of you have probably read my post on the personal trials I've been through in the middle of 2010. What most people don't really know though, is how the relationship I've had with Warcraft has evolved and changed in the last 10 months and why it is changing again now, on the brink of the next expansion.

Warcraft is a fantastic game. It is absorbing, thrilling, social and there is an aspect for everyone to enjoy. With all that it offers, it is easy for people to fall into a trap. A trap that the internet provides to all who chose to use the anonymity it grants to allow them to fantasise, to explore and to develop themselves in a way they may not be able to in 'Real Life'. It is only really a trap if you allow it overwhlem you and you sink down that big rabbit hole and the blinkers descend over your eyes. It's a pretty dark, comforting, little trap, but a trap none the less.

I fell into the trap early in my Warcraft experience, but I only really saw how far I'd fallen in March this year when I left The Monkey Tree, the guild that had been integral to my early Warcraft journey. That was when the blinkers started to fall off and the cozy little trap started to feel more like being stuck at the bottom of a well.

Whilst in TmT I'd risen through the ranks from a social player, to a member of the guild council, one step down from the GM. I'd taken on a lot of responsibility. I was a raid leader, forum moderator, event organiser, class leader (which I am still crap at), blogger and guild council member. In the end, it was too much. I quit raiding, I quit the guild and I ran as a 'lone ranger' for about 3 weeks until I joined my next guild where I steadfastly refused any level of responsibility more than being a good guildie and turning up on time. This break, stepping away from the guild that had consumed so much of my time and energy (through my own doing I hasten to add, I was never forced to do any of it), forced me to lift my head and look at the light at the top of the well. It forced me to look at the rest of my life and it made me realise what else was going wrong. Both my husband and I had grown to rely on Warcraft. I'd come home from work and we'd decide who was cooking dinner, who was walking the dog and plan our evening around the raid schedule we both had. Then we'd sit in the living room raiding with our respective groups and not talking to each other. In the day time, he'd hide from the real world by playing in Azeroth and ignoring the fact that he wasn't working and how terrible that made him feel. In the evening and at weekends, I'd play to hide from how miserable, drained and depressed I felt having to carry the relationship and household responsibilities.

In late March/early April, I visited my 93 year old grandmother in hospital following the first of several heart failures which would eventually lead to her death at the end of June. I kept thinking during the visit, 'Life is too short to be this miserable'. Two weeks later, I left my husband. Throughout this period, Warcraft, and in particular the raiding I was doing with the team I'm in, were very important to me. Each raid was a time when I completely tuned out the rest of the world and that little well of dark coziness returned to cocoon me from the pain I was enduring in real life. Azeroth, through both the game itself, the blogging opportunities it presented both here and on Chaotic Ramblings, and the Warcraft Twitter community, offered me escape and with that escape came a great deal of strength and the opportunity to vent my anger, depression and tears at something that ultimately, wouldn't get hurt by my outbursts or judge them.

That was probably the darkest moment of the last 6 months, the initial step away from my marriage, and then the clearing of the house and the move back with my mum. Hard, hard, H A R D. Time moves on though and I got through it. Which brings me back to the heading of this post and why things are so different for me now. Azeroth, in those months prior to the end of my marriage, enabled me to be a me I'd forgotten about. Existing in a marriage which had become little more than a flat-mate relationship and feeling caged and limited by the situation, I was able to be the fun, crazy, lewd, crude, filthy, flirting, funny, loyal, proud, caring, obnoxious, feisty Amy I had hidden away in my marriage.

In the last 3/4 months this person, the real Amy if you like, has leaked back into the non-pixelated world. It started as a small drip, drip, and has finally become a torrent. A pouring, gushing, hard-hitting, swelling, take-no-prisoners torrent. And fucking hell does it feel good. I've raised my head to the light at the top of the well and I've climbed up the wall to get out. My life has changed and I now stand in the light. No Pally analogies please. From sitting in a dark, dank, smelly well I've got a bright, spectacular, fun-filled future in front of me, that I'm already planning and working on with the best man I could ever ask for. Now I've seen what I was missing out on, now I've seen how much of my time, energy and thoughts Warcraft consumed, I've realised how much I'd sunk into that well, how much I'd shrivelled and hidden in the dark and how much comfort I'd found there. Add to this the end of the Wrath, the completion of my raid goal to kill Arthas and I feel it's a natural time to move on. I doubt I'll ever leave Azeroth completely, hell there's too many awesome people there that I'd never have got through this without, but I doubt I'll return to it in the same way again, which means I'm unlikely to blog to the level I did in my peak. I'm not saying I'll never blog again, just that it's likely to be limited. As for Tweeting, well, my CPS still needs an outlet some where.

I'd like to thank the entire WoW community for your love, support and humour. And also kick out a few personal thank yous. In no particular order, these are just a selection of the people from Terokkar EU who have stood out for me in WoW. Longstrider. Fireshaman. Verde. Woodstone. Aguacate. Amadela. Moreanna. Moreaulf. Hugregotwo. Candlewaxx. Zetronex. Serkul. Vecio. Grokknar. Gorani. Andycoopsdk. Benvalenn. Demomad. Kurufin. Vos. Kekec. Celesta. Gimmypig. Kellyc. Nobbygnome. Bok. Miskus. Gethin. Grethian. Gluck. Tryphena. Haos. Missha. Iosef. BigJ. Craggy. Rosie. Smoggy.

The WoW Twitter community - too many to thank individually but you've kept me sane, motivated and listened when I've raged. Thanks y'all.

If it wasn't for Warcraft, I wouldn't have ended my marriage. Or met my new man. Or had so much fun in the last 21 months. So I guess thanks to Blizzard for that one.

Finally, two special mentions. Ledzep - the bear who taught me to tank and fixed me up when I was broken.

And Darklive. Who I can never thank or love enough because you took me and loved me for all I am with all my crazy faults and over-confidence and loudness and rudeness and over-excitable nature. I am beyond excited to begin our life together in the New Year. All the way baby!

TL:DR - Life moves on, Warcraft changes, our gaming changes too.

Catch you later folks!

4.0.1 The good, bad and f'ugly.

Following on from Grokk's blog yesterday I was wondering what everyone else was loving/hating/putting up with so far. My list is currently something like this

Love
T11 DK set. RAWR! Big and beefy. Very much looking forward to that.
Char animation on log in screen. Good fun
Glyph prices
The event in SW throne room
Earthquakes
Pretty water
Shadows! Flying and seeing my mounts shadow on the ground keeps making me think I'm being followed by a mob.
Master of Riding. Saved myself 5k. Grinding for Violet Proto for that year is SO inyourface worth it now.

Hate
LAG in Dalalag
The 'my class is broken' QQ. THEY ALL ARE YOU TWAT. Jeebus.


Putting up with
Playing in windowed mode
Not having all my addons and having a screen which doesn't look so hot

So all in all, I'm pretty happy :)

LK Kill Video

Deadbeats Desperado's Lich King Kill Video. Muchos Gracias to Grokknar. Not only is he our fearless and patient raid leader, he's also the camera man. You can read his pink pally blog too if you're that way inclined.

Kingslayer

Very rough and ready post because I've not been here for two weeks because we've been working HARD on this. And tonight it all paid off.

The King is Dead.

In your face Arthas.

Oh Hai Bolvar!

Celebrate Good Times COME ON!

I'll do some edited pics later this week so you can SEE more!

*goes off to change knickers*

Suffer Well!

56 Bosses in 12 hours. The Jane Doe Guild All-Night Raid.

25 men and women. 7 raid instances. 56 raid bosses. 12 hours. The Jane Doe Guild All Nighter.

The plan.

Take down 56 bosses in 12 hours from 6pm until 6am in one glorious night of raiding fun.

Black Temple

Sunwell Plateau

Naxxramas

Eye of Eternity

Obsidian Sanctum

Trial of the Crusader

Ulduar

The preparations.

Some choose Red Bull, some ProPlus, others stuck to coffee and some choose cider. Here's the fuel I choose to get through the night.

The final tally.

33 bosses. 18 achievements for Deme. Realm 4th for Poke in the Eye. Realm 4th for Must Deconstruct Faster. Realm 6th for The Keepers of Ulduar. I realise most people will have these ticked off for months (if not a year or more!) but our little realm was only created with Arthas and there was a stronger focus on 10 man in the beginning.

Maiev gets a bit depressed.

Personally, I had a few bumps along the way last night. My tanking wasn't up to par in my own opinion and having only ever done Ulduar in any progression sense, once (in 10 man and I've never seen Yogg), it was tough to take it all in. To get up to Yogg, before we decided we weren't going to get any further, was a great achievement in itself. I think that was about 2 or 3am.

Mimiron 25 man. /flex

We then went on to Sunwell Plateau where I had a loregeekgasm moment when I saw Kalecgos. ZOMGWTF he's bad?!! Oh no, he's not he's been possessed. Having not played the game in BC, I wasn't fully aware of Kalecgos's story, so I got a little bit over excited at the end of that raid when I realised I could click an orb and become a blue dragon. Not ride one, not talk to one. BE AN INTERNET DRAGON.

Deme has a quiet moment to herself.

Having seen the blues in Sunwell, we felt it only fitting to head over and see the Patriach himself, Malygos. Love him or hate him, this fight is a lot of fun in my book. I'm riding a dragon ffs!!

Dying is the only way to get a decent picture.

Finally with about an hour to go (I could be wrong my mind is a little fuzzy on this now) we headed over to Naxxramas. Sure it's old. Sure it's been cleared by every man and his dog and no one cares about it any more. But at 5am after 11 hours of raiding, with people now falling by the way side and 19 left fighting through the sleep deprivation, it's like a welcoming old friend who has a cozy mattress waiting for you. We cleared the Spider Wing, got Arachnophobia for those who hadn't got it and then someone mentioned the Plague quarter.

With something like 20 minutes left we headed in. Tiredness was clearly apparent as we died on trash. A quick run back and a dash through and we were good for Patchwerk. With Verde saying "10 minutes to go folks!" we dropped it like it was hot. And then some clever sod said "Let's do Grobbulus!". I cried inside and felt all the pain of last autumn coming back to me. Not him, please not him. I don't want to die to that stinky fucker at this time of night. Haven't we done enough? Aren't we happy now? Apparently no, we had not done enough. No we were not happy yet. I don't think he made it 1/2 way round the room. Take that bitch. Take that in your stupid injection arm. Take that in your ugly face.

All in all, 33 bosses went down. The rest are on notice. God dayum it was fun. Shoddy video below of our Dragon Parade high above Dragonblight at the end of the night.

Off to sleep,

Deme

A New Beginning!

A wee while back I posted something personal and off topic. I've now got another space to post up all the random emo shit that plagues me through my current turmoil. You can find it here if you want to. Otherwise stick around on this one and I should be back to posting on a more regular basis this week. COME ON BROADBAND!!

The final new beginning isn't really a beginning. More of a return home as myself and the majority of the raid team I'm in, left our guild and went to join the original crew we used to be guilded with for a bigger, brighter future in Cataclysm. Hi honey! I'm home!

Deme Versus The Lich King - Complacency is Bad.

Tanking. Crotch Watching. Getting your head stoved in with a dragon claw/giant hammer/cleave. Whatever you call it, it's a great job to hold in a raid group. It's not only a position of responsibility, it's also to some extent, a position of power. Cue Spiderman quotes of 'With great power … yadda yadda yadda'. And sometimes we forget about the power we have. And we forget to be responsible and we get a wee bit too comfy in our raid team and then we get a bit of a wake up call. That's what happened to this little DK tank on Tuesday night this week.

TB#1 who I referred to in a previous post, wasn't raiding. That meant that where I would normally be tanking the adds on LK, I was on Arthas himself. I tanked Sindy, for the entirety of our time on her. How hard could this be right? Well. Pretty bloody hard it turns out. With a sweet warlock in the group who is readily able to kick out more dps than I'm used to holding against, and not being able to use DnD or the other AoE abilities to hold Arthas, I found I lost him. Not just once. We had a group make up which meant we had two DKs tanking. That meant the other DK was laying down DnD under Arthas to pick up the ghouls in phase 1. It also meant I couldn't really spam Howling Blast or Blood Boil as I'd thus pick up the ghouls. So I was relying on Icy Dick Punch, Dark Command, my hits and the use of Death Grip to keep Arthas looking into my pretty glowing blue eyes. It was tough. I suspect that there was an element of distraction, sleepiness and complacency sneaking in too.

We worked on Sindragosa for a long, long time. To the point where I felt the rhythm of the fight and was able to call things consistently and felt almost as if I could predict the way the fight was going. This made me complacent. LK is a very different tank fight. There is a lot more movement required of the tanks, constant communication in the transition phases and passing around Arthas when Soul Reaper is up. Tanking Arthas, even though I get to stand in one place for the first part of the fight, felt infinitely more taxing then tanking Sindragosa. It's nice to have the challenge again.

The Queen is Dead ....

Bubye Bitch!

Long Live the King.

Sneaky Work Time Quickie

Just to say ...

RL is hectic. Blog is abandoned probably till end of the month unless I find some time over this weekend.

Thanks to Aggrojunkie for the link love and I hope browsing my older posts will keep some of you interested till I can post up something again.

Also.


My magic still betrays me.
Fuck that dragon.

Tank Buddies - why knowing the other crotch watcher matters

This little DK has been tanking now for the whole of our time in ICC. Which is still on Sindy. But this week we will kill her so help me god!! I can't start another week of blogging saying she's still up. I've also been running the odd guild 25 man run and we've done a swap out with the other raid teams in guild to share experience and skills.

All of this has led to me gaining the chance to tank with all the other classes, warrior, pally and druid and, also other DKs. I could talk about the different class tanking abilities and how well a DK frost specced tank (as Deme is) works with these other classes, but that's not what this post is about. It's about the affinity and relationship your tanks have to have to do the job properly and the consequences that occur if the synergy between the two just isn't there.

Our raid group make up means that I tank with a warrior as our other tank. Predominantly he main tanks and I off tank. I've known this warrior, let's call him Tank Buddie Number 1 (TB1), about 9 or 10 months and although I've not always tanked along side him, we have been in the same raid group on and off for that length of time. We know each others game style well. I like to charge in after his initial pull and rip the aggro off him, he always takes the right hand mobs. We talk and check we know what we're doing, we have a rhythm and a style that seems to gel well and we have a mutual respect. Now recently, due to RL issues, we haven't tanked together very much.

This brings in Tank Buddie Number 2. TB2 is a Teddy Tank. And probably the person I learnt more about tanking from than anyone else by running endless heroics with him. He is the off-tank for the most progressed team in our guild, a sarcastic cynical fucker and a hoot to have around. However, when we tanked together, admittedly only the once, the chat I'm used to, kinda dried up a bit. So I watched. I watched what he was doing when I was behind frost tombs on Sindy. I watched where he ran out to at the end of the tombs and when he ran out. TB2 is the person I always ask for OT advice. He doesn't remember the names of the bosses but if I describe the mechanic of the fight, I get a succinct, clear and helpful answer and no judgement. Just what us noobie tanks need.

Tanking Buddie 3 I have tanked with a few times on 10 man and a couple of times on 25 man. TB3 is well geared, knowledgeable and skillful. But I don't always enjoy raiding with him. Unfortunately I always feel pressured to perform and that usually makes me screw up. Don't get me wrong, I always want to do my best and always aim to give my best, in any raid environment, but sometimes we put enough pressure on ourselves without having another person pile on more. I will also readily admit my own mistakes, to me it's far easier to own up than have some one point them out to you across mumble. Tanking with TB3 makes me uncomfortable and lessens my enjoyment of the game.

In addition to these three I've tanked on and off with a couple of other guys, 2 other DKs and a pally. I've only encountered the pally once in 25 man, but I was impressed. Either he was shit hot or he just learnt fast but I'd have no problem tanking along side him again. The 2 other DKs are great fun to have around and the more diminutive of the two, is an alt for our raid teams rogue. The Sindy fight we had on Monday night was our best run yet and that was in large part down to his ability to communicate and call for stacks, drops off and the like. He does a great job of standing in for TB1.

Which brings me back to my original point. TB1 gives a shit about what happens to the team, as do I. This means we both work hard to be a solid tank team. TB2 told me recently that in his raid team he'd reached the point where he hardly needed to talk to the other tank about what was happening in the fight and when to do what, they had just reached the point where they instinctively knew who would pick up what mob, when and how. This is where I would love TB1 and I to get to. I really don't think we're far off and I really don't think you can under estimate the power of a solid tanking relationship.

This was again re-iterated in a chat I had with an friend about the change over of tanks in his raid team. This is a very solid team I'm talking about, the most together bunch of folks I've ever seen. They've been through everything in Wrath together and are still running stuff for fun and giggles, despite a touch of burn out here and there, they've kept it together. When they were faced with a tank shortage and one of the healers stepped up to the plate, they were naturally tentative. You could argue that at least they were in the same raid team, but to my mind tanking is so different from healing (I have a level 40odd priest so clearly I know everything about healing and about tanking) that it's just as nerve wracking as taking in a totally fresh person. These team is very lucky, they have survived to tell the tale and are a now rollicking their way through ICC.

The solidity of your tank team should not be underestimated. As someone who originally specced DPS, in my DPS role, I only felt accountable for myself. Yes as a member of the team, but the people stood next to me had to watch their own backs, I didn't need to watch them for them. In a tank partnership, I feel duty bound to not only protect my raid team, but to protect the other tank. To call out his or her stacks (come on female tanks where are you on my server?!), to watch for the bad under their feet when they have aggro and to do my damnedest to live long enough for them to do what they need to do whilst I have aggro.

I'm sure there are strong bonds between other teams, maybe those of you with healers in your character list find there's a similar bond between healing teams, maybe there's a class link you have with someone, I'd be very interested to hear about your experiences.

Suffer Well,

Deme

Sucking it up on Professor Putricide

Yeah I know, get with the times, but you know what, not everyone is on ICC HMs and not everyone has even got past Sindragosa in normal with the 30% pity buff. Yet. 11 freaking % is like our raids new stonewall. Anyway, Professor Puddles!

@Asros on twitter mentioned that he was going to be doing this fight on Sunday as the Abomination Driver (aka Sucker/Off Tank) and he thought he'd better read up on it and watch the vids so I offered to email what I did on this fight. Then I thought I may as well get a blog out of it.

When you enter Puddles chamber he's standing at his table mixing cocktails. You won't pull him until you get close enough to the table. Which is where you need to be to drink the potion. Although you're off tanking in this fight, it's helpful to know what the rest of the team will be doing and where they're gunna be, because your PoV changes when you're in the abom. Hence the pretty picture.

Click for embigen

You want to move into the table at the same time as the Main Tank, if Puddles whacks you he will hit hard and at this point you've probably not got a healer watching you. You can run towards the pack once you've drunk the potion, but I prefer to wait at the table till I see the abom, because you never know some over-zealous healer type might cleanse the 'poison' off you.

Once your in your new suit, you've got three buttons.
Number 1 = Suck it up!
Number 2 = Stop that ooze
Number 3 = Hit the ooze.

That's it. That's all you are going to be doing for the next few minutes so get used to it.

Pretty much as soon as you are in the suit, DBM will go off telling you there is a slime puddle imminent. Puddles chucks a couple of vials up in the air and where they land the puddles of suck appear. Don't worry about spotting the vials, the puddles are obvious enough for you to spot them and you should have time to suck 'em up.

You will need to run over to your raid group and start spamming number 1 on top of some slime puddles. Not next to them, on top of them, IN them even. And by spam, I mean your finger should hurt at the end of this fight. If it doesn't you're not hitting it enough. Ignore the cooldown, ignore the burning session in your tendons. HIT THAT BUTTON! Not only does sucking up the ooze leave your comrades with safe space to pew pew in, it also gives you the goop you need for button number 2.

If you're raid team does it the way we did it, you'll be sucking up goop under the brown spout. As you do so, you'll be able to watch the green spout start to pour. DBM will announce the 'Unstable Experiment' and out it'll come. Watch it form. Even if you are still sucking up, which let's be honest you don't need to look at goop getting smaller. You need to watch that green ooze forming because the second it's formed, you target it and hit number 2.

Number 2 puts a slowing effect on the ooze and will save your pew pew/healer buddies arses when they get targeted by the ooze. Now, at this point, if you have goop to suck up, keep doing that. If you don't, feel free to wander over and whack Number 3 on the green ooze that just spawned and to keep doing so until the slimey goop appear again.

Then it's a rinse and repeat on the brown ooze. As Off Tank, you're in a pretty good position to keep an eye on when those oozes spawn, everyone else is watching the boss and trying not to get hit with malleable goo and staying outta the goop. I'd recommend you call the oozes spawning and when they are up so that the rest of team know what's coming and can act accordingly..

At some point Puddles is going to run over to his table and you'll be stunned for a moment. Then you go back to sucking up goopy slimey goop and slowing oozes. Until you get to about 36%. Then you'll trip over into phase 3. At this point, you DO NOT want slimey goop on the floor, nor do you want ANY green or brown oozes up. If you're about to tip over to that point and have any of that around, stop whacking Puddles, hit the oozes and suck it up like you've never sucked before.

The final phase of Proff P is a bit of a head fuck to be honest. When you tip him over into it, chances are Puddles and the Main Tank will be on one side of the room whilst you are on the other, possibly stood in a pile of slimey goop. You've got to peg it like you're arse is on fire to the Main Tank because he's going to be taking damage like a very hungry damage eater. Now between the two of you, share the stacks of damage, kite him round the room so your raid can batter him with out standing in goop and you're done. Yes! It's that easy. Except it isn't. It's like Grobbulus on steroids. And if you remember how long I was tortured with Grobbulus you'll understand that this isn't fun. Having said that, once you nail it, you should be able to nail it every time. There's a definite rhythm to get into and once you nail that, well then you'll nail Puddles to the wall. (hahaha).

And this is one time, when it's expected, nay, accepted, to be told the following.

Been AFK

Yeah, hi blog, it's been a couple of weeks.

Between work, raiding, chasing paperwork for solicitors and other boring real life stuff I've neglected you. Many apologies.

On the bright side, I've got a few things hidden up my sleeve for the up coming weeks. The biggest of which is that there will soon be a www.demethedk.com, my own lovely new home to play in. Of course the blog will be the basis of this shiny new homestead but it might take on an evolution of it's own, we'll have to see. There may be some room for some new thing I started playing called StarCraft2 as well ....

Coming up on the blog over the next few weeks, I've managed to snag some great people to interview on aspects of Azeroth I either don't indulge in, or don't consider myself to be much of an authority on. A few topics I'll be covering include healing from the paladin perspective, role-playing (an area I know nothing about) and PvP for the hardcore. Whether they'll be up on here or on the new place remains to be seen as my website building skills are sadly lacking so I am in the hands of some great friends for help and guidance getting the new place up and running.

Right now, I'm off to write something for @Asros off of twitter. Stay tuned because it'll be up later tonight!

Friday 5 - Music to Kill Dragons To

Verde Werdy over on his roguey blog did a cute little thing this week on his top songs to kill dragons to. I've totally ripped of his idea.

Here's my top 5, in a classic DJ stylee.

In at number 5 it's

Foo Fighters - In Your Honour

Holding at number 4 it's

Leftfield with Phat Planet

Sliding into number 3 screaming at the top of it's lungs is

The Prodigy - Breathe With Me

And knocked off the top spot this week after 3 months at number 1 it's

Rage Against the Machine with Killing in the Name Of

And this week, hooting and a'hollering into the top spot with a bottle of Jack in one hand and a stash of dope up it's sleeve is

Underworld - Born Slippy

I love the beats and the build in these tracks, like a Dragon fight they work themselves up in a frenzy to reach that geekgasm when the Dragon gasps it last breath and we all get the achievement whoosh. Good Times.

Death Knight Talents in Cataclysm

So ... the 31 point talents dropped. I'd been hoping to be in the Beta to look at these myself but I've not been able to get there yet. Anyway, lovely people like AmberianAnex have been blogging about it in the beta and the talents are now all over the web. Let's take a look at them shall we? Well you go over to MMO Champ and take a look and I'll wait here. Hurry back now!

Blood ....
Now the tanking tree of choice! Well kinda. Cos you got no choice. WTF I hear you cry?! Yes that's right in case you didn't know, Blizz have binned off the Great Death Knight Three Tree Tanking experiment. AND! Holy Smoke Batman, but there's no def rating any more! I know! I died in shock too. We are now all Drood Bears and get our defense from our talents. Bah! And I don't want to talk about blood worms. Yuk.

Unholy ....
Well we've lost bone shield. What next? Sticking our ghoul out there as a tameable hunter pet? Oh no wait, I know, give Army of the Undeath out to the Warlocks as a new minion. Will Unholy be the PvP tree of choice? I'm going to say yes. Woah! Look at that, no sitting on the fence for Deme today!

Frost ....
Hai Howling Blast as the top (ZOMGWTF?) talent. I see Frost languishing in the raids as a PvE DPS spec that never quite works out like you think it will. Hey! Maybe the Dual Wield thing will make it big, maybe they'll give us a Titan Grip equivalent.

Runic power. Well let's assume it works like rogue combat points. Fooking shite. If I'd wanted to play a damn squishy rogue I'd have rolled one Blizzard! Let's assume it works like a warriors rage. EVEN WORSE! C'mon man! Give me back my swirly coloured six runes.

Of course you must now spend 31 points in any tree to get the key abilities so where will you chuck the others? Arrh well wild speculation (look if you've not picked up by now that this is a silly speculation post you're not going to), let's say you're a tank. Then right now I have absolutely no idea what you want. And frankly, if you think anything is going to stay the way it is now, you're madder than a box of frogs.

I promise to post something more constructive. Maybe. Probably about 2 weeks before the launch when I eventually get on the beta. Damn you Blizz!

Suffer. You can't suffer well this post so you'll just have to make do with suffering.

Deme

*You must forgive me. I was on holiday last week and missed all the RealID blogging opportunities and I have lots to say on it. For another time though I feel. Anyway, it's left me feeling a bit bereft of topics. Stick with me though, I promise to make up for this lame effort.

Lunch Time Quickie

I go on holiday for a week and the innernetz asplodes with RealID, Beta information, Blood tanking pointers and general Warcraft junk.

Despite Blizzards climb down at the end of last week, I am still unsure about this whole RealID thing and I will be covering this and a few other related topics when I've got time to investigate it further.

In connection to the new Blood tanking tree, I'm hoping I'll be able to get in on the Beta. There's some discussions around blood boil too and how AoE tanking will work. Since I rely heavily on DnD and HB at the moment to grab aggro I'm concerned how this will affect my play style. That's really why I want in on the Beta, so I can get a foot up on it all. As a nooby tank I've not got much experience to fall back on when they mess stuff around. I really want to be ready to raid as soon as I can come Cata and this is a part of that. Expect a post on that in the future too.

Someone I know has been pimping out his PC. Go visit Verde and see his crazy-arse PC.

Other than that, it looks like Azeroth is still standing and we're all ready to go kill Internet Dragons.

Things to DIAF come Cata

I'm on me hols but I've been wanting to post on this since I saw the topic over on Blog Azeroth's boards.

So here's my pick of shut I'd like to see roitously fucked up come Cata.

In at number 1, STV. The whole pigging place. Hated levelling there. Hate it at level cap for Loremaster. Hate it hate it hate it. And I'm not even on a PvP server.

Number 2, Nesingwary. See above.

Number 3, Nesingwary. Yep. I hate him that much.

Those are my most hated things in Azeroth, but there's a few others I'd like to see wiped off the pixelated face of it too.

Grobbulus for one. Even now, being OP for this dude, I still cringe when people want to do a 'nostalgic run' through Naxxramus. So while we're talking about raid bosses to ditch, please take XT too. If I hear that whiney bitch once more my ears will bleed.

I'm sure there's more but I'm writing this on my iPhone and frankly it's hardwork. And I don't have my notes with me. #DumbDeme.

People who shouldn't raid

*incoming rant*

People who forget flasks shouldn't raid.

People who put on tentative shouldn't raid.

People who can't turn up on time shouldn't raid.

People who fuck around and waste the teams time shouldn't raid.

People who turn up and ask for money for repair at the beginning of the raid shouldn't raid.

People who can't get on mumble (or won't) shouldn't raid.

People who don't put in the effort to learn bosses shouldn't raid.

People who want to raid 'casually' don't get that it takes a certain amount of effort and dedication and there fore, shouldn't raid.

People who can't gem, enchant and gear correctly (ie not wearing spell plate when you are a FUCKING DK YOU NOOB) shouldn't raid.

People are shit.

/end generalised rant.

Friday Five - 5 Top WoW Blogs

Now I've got the Emo shit out the way, here's a WoW post.

My Friday Five is 5 WoW blogs I love.

Let's hear it for the F5!

In at number 5, a relative newbie to the Warcraft Blogosphere. In fact, he's so new, he posted for the first time today. Grokknar is my buddy and Raid Leader for the team I'm in. I have high hopes for his blogging future. Show him some love and add him to your feed.

Number 4 is one of the stalwarts of Warcraft bloggers, HotsandDots. A great look at raiding and life in Azeroth, some alt adventures and general Warcraft stuff all wrapped up with a Resto Drood and Shadow Priest.

At joint 2nd place (I can't decide on which one I love more) are Zal's Blessing of Fish, and Amber and Cel at Ilikebubbles. Things you didn't know from Zal and Friday Flowcharts from ilikebubbles are two of the bestest things on the internetz. Eva.

In first place, for the blog I return to time and again, that always provides useful, clear, concise and helpful information is Cynwise's Battlefield Manual. I've mentioned it umpteen times here I'm sure and I'm always talking about Cyn's blog on twitter. I love it. I don't play a warlock. I don't PvP and yet Cyn's stuff is so well written and so helpful it makes no odds. I also owe Cyn a huge debt of gratitude for de-mystifying key binding, BGs and tube maps for me.

Did you know if you google "demethedk" it asks if you meant "demented". Trufax!

Suffer Well!

Deme :)

Off Topic - A Personal Thank You

This is not a post about WoW. It's got nothing to do with Death Knights. It's a personal thank you and a bit of a splurge about the shit I've been dealing with in the past few months. If you want the TL:DR version, it's at the bottom. If you don't want to know why I've been all emo on twitter and facebook, I wouldn't bother reading.

Go get a cup of tea and a biscuit. You're going to need it.

OK, take a deep breath and here we go.

Back at Easter, my fabulous, wonderful 93 year old Granny had a heart attack. Two weeks later, I ended my marriage of 3 years, we'd been together for 6 years in total. Then at the beginning of this month, I packed up the marital home, put my life in storage and moved back in with my Mum. Two weeks ago my lovely Granny had another heart attack and then last week she had a big stroke. Sometime in the middle of all of this I joined match.com in the hope of meeting some un-complicated chaps to go to the movies with. Yesterday I discovered that the only one I'd bothered with had blocked me. Oh, and I'm trying to buy my sister's house and move in within the next 6 weeks as I've planned a big party for the end of August.

For some people this would just seem like a stressful time in their lives. For me, it's pushed me to breaking point on several occasions, and I'm not out of the woods yet. As my beliefs around marriage and the most paramount relationship in my life have come tumbling down, the woman who has inspired more love, more care and more warmth than anyone I've ever known is reaching the end of her life. My Granny is the most incredible woman. In all her years I have never heard a cross word from her, her love for her sons and her grandchildren and all 15 of her great grandchildren (including various step-brothers and sisters) is unparalleled. Her heart is so big that the love she has given out is now coming back to her in floods of light, comfort and tenderness. I can only hope that when I reach that point in my life I have half of what she has. I love you Granny.

The end of my marriage is extremely personal. It's a long process to the road back to love and every day something pops up that makes me think "Did I make the right decision? Is this pain, this anger worth it?". I have to remember just how miserable I was, how broken the marriage had become and how much more both of us deserve.

Through out all of this, there have been several things that have kept me sane.

1. My family and friends.
2. WoW
3. The WoW Community, some of whom now fit into number 1.

Warcraft has been a great distraction. Raiding is one of the few times I totally forget about everything else. The WoW community, via twitter and in game, have been tremendously supportive. A special shout out and thanks to Shammie, Shatterbound and EntropiaWoW. As a whole, I've never met a more supportive group of people than the WoW community. From coast to coast and continent to continent, you guys pwn.

My guild
Aww shucks, you bunch of gay noobs are great. I love you all!
My raid team, the Deadbeat Desperados
What can I say? GIEF ME NIPPLE! Thanks for letting this noob OT do her thing 3 times a week. Love you a lot!
The WoW crowd on Wave
My special Warcraft friends. Thank you for listening to my various rants and emo moments. xxx

Trusty Crutch
You know who you are. You'd better be reading this! I'd say something sappy about "love you!" but that'll just scare us both. Thank you for being my rock, for making me laugh every single day, for listening to my crazy talk and for believing in me, even when I don't.


My two amazing sisters and my fabulous Mummmmmy
Words can never say how much I love you or how grateful I am to have you so close to me at the moment.

My bonkers and loving Daddy
Spending time with you and Granny is incredibly special for me. I love you Pops.

My Bestest Girls and Brothers from another Mother
Your strength, humour and drunkenness are a real tonic, even when you are having shite times, you're there for me. I love you all.

My extended family and friends from all over the world
Your messages of support carry me through and I'm grateful for each and every one of you.


TL:DR - THANK YOU.

The Grind for Loremaster

There are some POSSIBLE SPOILERS for lore here. You have been warned.

Recent posts have strayed a little ways off the Death Knight path. This one attempts to find our way back, albeit with a-round-about route.

In my off-time in game, i.e. when I'm not raiding or running a quick HC for frosties, I've been working on the Loremaster achievement. Until I started it I had no idea quite what I'd let myself in for. Deme is a DK. That means 55 levels of questing have been effectively by passed on that character. By my reckoning, that amounts to about 300+ quests on your "home" continent and probably 200+ on the other. Now with a DK, you're lucky to have 150 on each. So rather than having to make up 400 or 500 on each continent, you might as will be starting at nothing. And boy does that feel like a lot.

As someone who loves Warcraft Lore, I've enjoyed taking Deme through a lot of the older content, especially now I understand more about what is actually happening. The first time I levelled in Westfall and the Deadmines I couldn't have told you a thing about why I was there other than the fact that some dude called Marshal Dughan sent me there. This time round I've paid attention to the quest text. I know why Van Cleef is pissed. I've taken the time to go through Stranglethorn Vale. I hate STV. I hate Nemingway. But I've done it. I've revisited Duskwood, where I would quite happily camp Deme permanently if I could. It's dark, forboding, has worgen, big spiders, undead, ogres, a gothic town and some interesting (ie SPOILER ALERT DON'T CLICK IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THEM!) lore points. I can tick off Stormwind's quests and Elwynn Forests. I've done 1/2 of the ones in Gnomeregan. Which is far more fun than I remember it was. I reserve judgement on whether that is a level thing until I do again on an alt.

As for how I'm doing it, well I'm using everything I can lay my hands on! I read the Add on Spotlight post at wow.com then downloaded the add-ons it recommended. I've always got my "low-level quests" flag on the map and it's taken me weeks, nay months to get to where I am now. Which is 450/700 on Eastern Kingdoms and a paltry, piffling, 146/700 on Kalimdor. I'm not too worried about Outlands or Northrend simply because they aren't about to get (CATA SPOILER) nuked to buggery. If the Loremaster requires this much dedication, I have no qualms in saying that those who try The Insane, deserve their title.


For MOAR Lore, try these guys on for size
For the Lore
LoreCrafted
Know Your Lore

For Shatterbound

Shatterbound is a very cool dude over on Twitter that I bumped into with this whole Warcraft thing. He's also got a thing about English words and accents. So as a thank you for bigging me up lately, here's a little something for you buddy! English words, music and scenes of the countryside. Contains Swears!

Cross Faction Relations

I have a horde friend. There I said it. Damn me and curse me for being a traitor to the Alliance. Actually I have two. In fact, if I properly thought about it would probably be more. But I have one particular horde friend who I chat with regularly via Skype and trash talk during world PvP.

Yep World PvP. It still happens on my server. And it's bloody good fun because there seem to be a few regulars that turn up and kill each other on a consistent basis. I can sit on Skype and listen to him cursing me and my friends and swearing when things go wrong. When you hear your friend getting very cranky because you just killed him, it's extremely funny. I can also log onto my hordie and trash talk him whilst he logs onto his ally and returns the favour. I have Ally friends who just LOVE to rip him a new one and frequently do, /2 channel tends to get a little blue to say the least. But I've never known someone brush it off and secretly enjoy it quite so much.

All in all it makes for a good evening when you need a break from raiding and frankly, when your horde mate is an infamous and argumentative as mine is, well you want to whack him as often as possible. Here's to horde bashing. /cheer

Authenticate and Ignore the Latest Hoax.

Just a warning guys, I got the following email to my demeternoth@aol.com account today. I'm not stupid enough to use this account to log in to WoW with so they've fished the address from here I expect. THIS IS A HOAX. There is NO need to click on any of these links or do anything. If you read the obvious typos in the email it's clear it's a piece of crap. I expect with the rush on Blizzcon tickets they're pushing their services .... Love the little "if you already have an authenticator ignore this email" pointer at the end .... Stay Safe!

Greetings!

Recently, the problem of account invasion is getting worse and worse which cause enormous players’equipments and virtual currency stolen. This severely damages the benefits of mass players, also causes our company lose a lot of customers.

Our company has to adopt some measures to safeguard our common benefits in order to strengthen the safety of mass players'accounts, and firmly resist the account to be stolen again.Through our company's research and investigation to xxx customers,we will make the following decisions: we launch a package of updated code strengthen system and dynamic code protection card which can effectively prevent the accounts invaded. We will send this package of code protection system to players free of charge.

Please open this connection: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/secure

If your account passes the check successfully, we will send this package of dynamic code protection card to you in the form of e-mail.

In 3 days after you receiving the e-mail, if you don't submit your information, we have right to freeze your account, every player is obligated to protect the safety of the account. You must work together with us to be determined to crack down all the behaviors of destroying games.

If you had already authenticator your account, please disregard this automatic notification.

Regards,

The World of Warcraft Support Team
Blizzard Entertainment
http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowindex/

Leveling and hitting the raid tier in Cataclysm, some thoughts.

Having read Zal's blog post about levelling to the new cap and raiding in Cataclysm, I got to thinking.

How is my current guild going to handle this? As a guild it was formed quite late into Wrath from 2 teams who were disgruntled in their current raiding guild. I joined later having failed to get where I wanted to be in raiding with my old guild. I play on a server which appeared when Wrath did. For many this will be the first time we're levelling a "main" to a new cap to then start in on the first tier of raiding at the right time. Currently the guild focusses on 10 man and plays around in 25 man. I'd like to say we're more progressed with 25 man but frankly we've not pulled it together. I've grown to enjoy 25 man a lot and I'd love to continue with it in the Cataclysm. I expect the guild will raid 10 man till the first tier is clear and then start on 25 man on that tier once we can focus 10 man on the next content. So that's all the guild stuff, but then what about me and Deme, my main?

Bearing in mind that Deme is going to get shafted into blood spec whether I like it or not, it's raised a lot of questions for me. Do I level Deme like mad to catch that first wave of raiding that I missed by a country mile in Wrath or do I grab another char and make that my raiding main?

Let's say I stick with Deme, is our team destined to stay together, level and play together through the new content or will we disband and have to rebuild again once we're ready to raid? Frankly that would suck in my mind. I've played in two raid teams. The first one was not stable. At all. It was a ball ache to try and get people in the right place at the right time and to raid level specs. The second one, where I am now, is probably one of the best groups of people I've ever mucked about with. We have a great atmosphere and we get shit done, but we're still struggling to nail down a regular 3rd healer.

If I stick with Deme, then I'll likely be able to catch that first wave one way or another and thus coast on through the rest of the Ex pac with my gear up to date. Especially if I stick to tanking. I've NEVER levelled as a tank though so that would be interesting.

If I dump Deme, hmmm well what are my options? A level 65 warrior, a level 41 priest and a couple of lowbie alts. Anyone who knows me, knows I level slowly so I don't think that's going to help the team.

And then there's the worgen.