Matticus

Matticus is the founder of World of Matticus, a World of Warcraft blog.

Murphy’s 13 Laws of Raiding

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Who exactly is Murphy and what are his laws? Regardless, I came up with this briefly last night before going to bed and I’m sure several of you can relate to it. Curse you, Murphy!

1: That heal that you casted on the tank at the last possible second will land but they will always die.
2: The item that you want will drop when you’re not there on the character that needs it.
3: When working on Teron Gorefiend, the player who has never done it before will always be chosen to do Gorefiend ghosts first.
4: If you have 2 Druids and a player dies, both Druids will use their battle res on the same person at the same time.
5: Key players will somehow be prevented from showing up on progression nights.
6: Dropping heals after activating trinkets will result in a 100% overheal because that nefarious Paladin managed to top him up before you did.
7: The new item you spent half your gold on in order to enchant and gem will be replaced within a week.
8: The word “oops” will always precede a spectacular wipe.
9: One person signalling a bio break will cause a chain reaction throughout the entire raid for the rest of them to use the bathroom.
10: When summer is here, odds are good that established raiding guilds will disband.
11: Rolling 100 will occur when you least expect it and will be used on items that you don’t really need or want.
12: Heroism will be used to kill a boss and you will still end up with having 30 seconds left over.
13: Spell procs kick in after the target’s already dead.

Would you add any others to this list?

Time Saving Tip in Black Temple

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Black Temple’s a sickeningly long instance. My guild only logs about 12 hours a week raiding. I’m hoping to appeal to some raiding readers for some help. Aside from the usual time saving tips in Black Temple, can you think of other ways to shave minutes or even seconds off while clearing through?

Here’s an example:

A variety of tricks can be used in conjunction with Blessed Medallion of Karabor. This means your Guild will have to have killed Illidan. Anyways, when you kill Teron Gorefiend, equip the Medallion and use it to port to the entrance. Hop on to your mount of choice and zoom into the entrance. Talk to the Draenaneanainnie ghost (thanks Ratshag), and you’ll get ported to the other Draenaneanainnie ghost. While it may not seem like much, it has the effect of shaving five years off the run down (to me at least).

Aside from that, do you have any time saving tips? Are there any particular mobs that can be skipped? Shortcuts that no one knows about? This doesn’t have to even be limited to Black Temple. I’m thinking about compiling a future post on raiding shortcuts and I’d love to hear some more from the readers!

(On other note, approaching the 500k traffic mark. Oh boy.)

AFKing with Etiquette: 4 Things to Remember

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Image courtesy of nintaro

It’s inevitable. Everyone needs a break at some point. It’s difficult for a vast majority of people to sit still for hours on end without having to get up at some point while raiding. There’s a certain set of hidden rules when you decide to disappear for some time. Following them ensures that you won’t be viewed as an ass and that you’ll be on top of the raid invite list.

1: Announce it publicly – Let the raid know you need to disappear for a while. No one appreciates it when a player stops all activity without warning. If you were in charge of something important like healing the tank, then announcing that you’re sitting out is crucial so that another player can temporarily fill the role that you had.

2: Provide an ETA – ETA stands for “estimated time of arrival”. In other words, how long is it going to take before you’re back in front of the screen and mashing buttons? In some cases, it can be difficult to gauge how long you’ll be gone. It’s still courteous to provide a quick estimate.

3: Give a reason (within reason) – Although it’s not necessary, it’s been an observation of mine that players want to know the reason behind actions and AFKing is no exception. Whether it’s to grab a drink or saving a cat from a tree, it’s reassuring to the other 24 players to know what’s going on.

4: Offer to bench yourself – If you’re going to be gone for a prolonged amount of time (over 20 minutes), offer to hearth out. This provides the raid with an option of bringing someone else in. If you’re in the instance AFK, you can’t exactly be kicked and auto-hearth’d out (if you’re saved to it). Don’t worry about getting back in since a recent patch allowed Warlocks to summon players individually into instances.

Even though WoW is a game, never forget the fact that there are real people behind the virtual characters. Show them respect for their time and I guarantee that it will be appreciated.