Wife, Kids, dinner, dishes, leaky bathtub, new ceiling fans, a lawn mower, go to the movies, go to church, a dirty garage, etc... keeps it real and real busy some time. For those reasons among a multitude, I limited my raiding schedule to twice a week. I rarely have a conflict now with raiding schedules and conflict of interests with the family, I can just walk away from the game for any of those reasons or others, or just not log on.
To accomplish this, a few things were already in place, I took a hiatus from raiding for a couple months and broke a half million gold... It was fun to spend gold 5, 10, 20 or even over 100K in a day and make it all back and then some in the AH.. A lesson in economics could be taken away from that experience.
Then the raiding bug captured me again. I wanted to get back into it, so I did. The guild I joined up with did and does well, but like many guilds, it has seen its ups and downs, rage quits, mass exodus, recruiting need, failed attempts at a second group. For the most part the main group has continued to do well and are working on hard modes with Ragnaros down. I finished leveling a tank and jumped into the raiding scene and filled the gap for stronger and more consistent leadership of a group with a fixed schedule. Its never easy, and at 2 times for raiding and less than 3 hours each time, progression is a bit hard to make, but the schedule works and we are doing fine, at least IMO we are, and its fun again...
There in is the point of the title... keeping it fun... I still play a lot, I just dont sit down to raid as frequently, and have found myself looking for new and fun stuff to do. Leveling alts has always been fun, so I continue to do that. This round though, I have found myself waiting for another guildee to be on, and we are running as a pair, and have even run as a trio from time to time, with another guildee. The third wheel, quit leveling with us more or less, and then asked us to wait for him to catch up... So, what to do... MAKE A PAIR OF TWINK ROGUES AND BG... That is fun.... BGs solo, have never had great apeal to me. I was only there for honor and the honor for the gear that comes at lower levels from the AB and WSG quartermaster. Some times depending on Dungeon drops, its the best gear you can run with to the point that I have had 2 of the rings from WSG equiped. (ex. the ring from level 18 and 28) It was a duo project and we rarely run solo. We leveled out of Kezan and off the lost isles together for the most part, and we both have a full set of BOAs to play with for greater pain and destruction in the BGs. Being that I have enchanters and gold, and the vendor has vellums, I carry a stack of enchants for Bracers, Boots and gloves, I power leveled mining with just smelting to 225 before the first BG... (mining @ 225 gives toughness rank 3 for 7 stam) and we have been leveling skinning for more benefit. First Aid, was also leveled to 225, Though you can not make heavy runecloth bandages, you CAN USE THEM... they heal for 2K... its pretty OP... As long as dots dont kill you first. Recuperate on a rogue, is pretty powerfull too, just not so much when you are getting burst down. All in all, it is a great time and good fun. 2 rogues well played and coordinated can really wreck some plans the other team trys to execute.
I saw the most amazing new idea in AB... It was altogether novel and brutal. I was the victim and the one brutalized by the alliance plan... We thought we were going in about 4 on 3... to the Gold Mine.. we saw 3 opponents... then, about 6 more JUMPED DOWN off the road... they had a healer that got them back up, and then proceded to hand it to us good... we were wrecked... I thought we were about to take the GM fairly quick, based on what I saw, then I saw it was not as it apeared. The strategy of battle... good one alliance.. you got us...
Later, a new plan seemed to take shape that was repeatedly effective. Again, AB, straight past the farm and the BS to the Stables... 2 stealth in and take the flag... Very rarely in BGs can you predict what people will do, but a few things are fairly consistent... If you take the base closest to the starting point they will fight for it... I guess we had a little going for us since once we did that the alliance REPEATEDLY attempted to take back the stables.... It center the battel to one control point with most of both teams fighting at one place... But, in the cases I saw a couple times yesterday, they kept leaving the GY in small groups for easy pickins. A few would try to run off to the sides and go for LM or GM.. but that was usually small forces and we were able to quickly get em back. If further broke up their team from trying to take back the stables.. brutally effective and a lot of fun.
On another lesson learned, from the other side... The Enemy Flag Carrier (EFC) in Warsong Gulch (WSG), never left our base... he got the flag and then hung out on OUR ROOF.. waiting for a team to come and get them. Its instinctive to get the flag and run, its instinctive to think they will get the flag and run, but not this day. They got the flag and went into hiding, since they were alone and vulnerable... I guess you have to do soemething different to get an upper hand, since I repeatedly would catch a lone sprinting travel form druid, or a lone shamman who had the misconceived idea that they could out run me... well they did not know it was me, since I was in stealth... Guess, pick a point to lead the target, run... shadowstep the missing distance from the bad guesswork, and wreck them... Having a speed boost is great for a FC... but using it to distance your team... and then run alone... its all garbage at that point...
I have to thank blizz for the change to the inherited insignias... You can now change them faction to faction and it changes, months ago, I move the "inherited insignia of the alliance" from ally to horde and it was still an "inherited insignia of the alliance" making it useless to my horde toons. NOW, in the twisting nether from horde to alliance...
The rogue has the Heirloom head, and back from the guild vendor. He has both sets of shoulders from honor and justice, running the Honor ones with resilience in PVP, the chest from Justice with a 100 Health enchant. Both swords and both daggers, from both honr honor and justice as well as the bow from justice. I use the daggers in PVP since I am running subtlety... I also have a pair of haste trinkets, though in BGs I use one, and my second trinket is the "inherited insignia of the horde"...
So, what I am left to get from crafters, the AH or dungeons, is bracers, boots, gloves, rings, neck... I keep scrolls for 7 stam to boots and bracers around for when I get UGs, and 5 or 7 agility to gloves. Leveling First aid is very usefull, so you can get and use the heavy runecloth bandages... they are usable at 225, even though you can not make em till much later. Power leveling mining for tougness rank 3 with smelting for 7 more stam... Scrolls and or elixirs for more health and agility, and piles of health pots... to burn too. Lastly for 15 more stam run a toon into the "Old durnhold" instance and down to southshore. go to the in and the barkeep will sell you rumsy rum black lable or some such for your food buff... rumsy rum is an instant effect too, so you dont have to wait 10 seconds while eating to get the buff.
So, all done the things that rogue has that other players may, or may not..
Full heirlooms, lots of good stats in there and in most cases better than what you could get in dugeons.
Low level, You start seeing shoulders drop at level 18ish, and heads about level 30, unless you go engineering and power level it.
100 health on chest
7 stam from mining
7 stam on bracers
7 stam on boots
15 stam from food (rumsy rum)
3 stam from scroll (varies by level and scrolls vs. elixirs, scrolls are cheap)
3 agility from scroll (varies by level and scrolls vs. elixirs, scrolls are cheap)
7 or 5 agility on gloves
15 agility X 2 on weapons, though lifestealing and crusader can both be a lot of fun, fiery is a good option for just extra dmg and low cost
A PVP trinket
A second trinket (~2% haste)
that adds up to 39 stam and 100 health for about 490 health bonus, others may or may not have
and about 38+ agility... for a good bit of crit, and attack power...
If you include the bonuses from heirlooms in stam and agility its even more. In the most extreme cases, its ~500Hp vs. ~1400 or more.. ATM the level 15-19 bracket is where I last looked and take that example from. My ambush hits for around 500..
Thats how I am keeping it fun... Not that I enjoy completely steam rolling the other team, I do like a good battle, I do however really enjoy being able to not get steamrolled, or one shot. Being able to contribute to the team in a valuable way is great... It does not counter stuipd though, so is noth without its frunstrations.
Really.. things to remember, Kill the healer, watch the leader board and kill the top DPSers (often, hunters, druids, mages rogues). And mostly, work as a team. Solo BGs are IMO not a lot of fun, going with a player or 2 or 3.. thats fun... team work...
Have fun.. its still a game and thats why we play.. spend less time running is circles in Shatrath, Dalaran, Org, SW, IF etc... go do something... SOMETHING FUN!!!!
Did you learn anything here? do you have any plans growing in your mind now?
All done, it means I CAN one shot some players, but they can not one shot me.
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