Making Gold with Auctioneer

Interested? I’m assuming I’m not the only one out there who needs more money.

I’ve long since wanted to write a series on how to effectively use Auctioneer to make money; living the high life of buying low and selling high. Trouble is, I never really felt like I had a good handle on how best to use Auctioneer effectively. I just couldn’t get my furry little head wrapped around the ins and out of Auctioneer. Maybe us bears get slapped in the head too often, or maybe we’re just not cut out to be accountants, but it just wasn’t sinking in.

Compounding the problem recently is the introduction of Auctioneer Advanced. So now I have to learn two add-ons???

Well, I’ve found a nice little blog that solved my problem for me (and you). I recently found Og’s Ledger, and there are some great Auctioneer resources on his site. Not only does Og have an overview of Auctioneer Classic, and a two part overview of Auctioneer Advanced, he has ongoing threads around how to make money using the Auction House. For those of you that would like to understand the ins and outs of Auction House trading, this is a blog you should have bookmarked.

Og also has a category called “Rags to Riches” where he details his adventures on a daily basis trying to make money buying and selling on the Auction House. It’s from the perspective of low level starting characters, but his detail in describing the process I think could help anyone.

Here’s a summarized list of links into Og’s Ledger for this topic:

• Overview of how to use Auctioneer Classic
• Using Auctioneer Advanced: Part 1, Part 2
• Og’s Rags to Riches category
• Og’s Auctioneer category

Og’s Ledger has a lot of other good information. Most of the posts are concerning with buying and selling and making money. If this is something that relates to you, then add Og to your blog list. I will be right after this post.

Inscription Leveling Guide

Yes, a bit bored today. Can you tell?

I honestly haven’t been trying to read much about WotLK. Despite reports of “Blizzard working hard” and pools to guess when this year the release date will be - we all know it will be a while before it comes out. I certainly don’t mean to sound negative about that. As a long time Blizzard fan (Starcraft, Diablo I and II) I applaud their “quality over deadlines” motto.

Anywho… I’ve been giving some thought to picking up Inscription when the expansion comes out. Probably as a replacement for skinning. I dropped Skinning for Alchemy, then dropped Alchemy and re-leveled Skinning. Same with Herbalism and Mining. I’m not great at farming (low attention span), so using Skinning as a money maker isn’t my gig. What I liked about it was you got stuff you could sell from something you were already doing - killing things. At 70 though, there aren’t a whole lot of things to skin in the instances and raids.

Not to say that the crafting professions don’t have their downsides. Farming for mats, hoping for rare recipe drops, leveling grinds of their own, the list goes on. But something about Inscription intriques me and I’m thinking it can not only be a good money maker, but personally beneficial. I’d love to, as an example, inscribe my kitty Maim talent with extra stun. Or Mangle with an armor debuff. I haven’t read anywhere that you will be able to do that with Inscription, but those kinds of things are what I think of when I read the little that’s been released about the profession.

Still mulling it around. Haven’t made any firm decisions. I do know that it’s been quite a while since I’ve skinned anything…

Alliance Fishing and Cooking Leveling Guide

Sorry Hordies - Alliance FTW!!!

This guide is nothing more than the Alliance portion of the very comprehensive WoWwiki guide I referenced when I started levelling my fishing skill. I had really neglected cooking also, so levelling them both at once had a lot of appeal. What I will do in this guide is to use the Alliance portion as a base, and add my observations as I’ve gone through the process. I find that it’s these personal observations from following the guide that can be most helpful. If you’re just looking for the basic guide, or want the Horde portion, by all means head over to the WoWwiki link above - it’s a great, comprehensive guide.

Things to keep in mind:

• Other than when you first start, cooking will always level faster than fishing. As your fishing increases, the use of lures and equipment with plusses to fishing will become ever more important.
• This guide is strictly for levelling fishing and cooking at the same time - levelling cooking with the fish you catch thereby levelling two professions without having to buy stuff off the auction house.
• I’m assuming you are level 70 and I’m not working in any needed character progressions throughout the process. I assume you can go anywhere in Azeroth as needed.
• I never carried around flint, tinder and wood to cook with. Almost all towns and villages have either an inn with a kitchen or a campfire somewhere.
• Alcohol and background music, while recommended, are not essential to the levelling process. Levelling the fishing profession is a time sink and a grind - be prepared for it. The good news is, you now have something to do while you wait on groups to form, raid members to show up, mobs to respawn, etc.

Levels 1-50

The WoWwiki guide said:

“Go to your fishing trainer and cook and pick up Fishing and Cooking skills. Buy a fishing rod and a stack of Shiny Baubles (a lure that adds +25 to your fishing skill). You are now ready to begin.

The best place to start is in Elwynn Forest. Speak to Tharynn Bouden in Goldshire and buy the recipes for Brilliant Smallfish and Longjaw Mud Snappers. Start fishing in Crystal Lake. You’ll want to catch 50 Brilliant Smallfish to get your cooking from 1 to 50. “

These first 50 levels are by far the easiest you will find in the process. Virtually any starting zone with water will suffice. I started in Auberdine in Darkshore and had these first few levels under my belt in short order. The advantage of Auberdine is you can talk to Gubber Blump and get a fishing quest with a +3 fishing skill pole as a reward. However, since your next stop in this guide is Stormwind City, it certainly makes sense to start in Goldshire.

The downside to starting in Auberdine is the lack of both cooking and fishing trainers. However, they are both available in Darnassus, just a short hippogryph ride away. The other downside is acquiring your starter cooking recipies. They are not available in Darnassus, but you can get them in Teldrassil.

50-75

The WoWwiki guide says:

“Go to Stormwind City and fish the canals for Longjaw Mud Snappers. You’ll need 56 of them to raise your cooking to 100. Between levels 50 and 75 go learn journeyman fishing and cooking. Go to Southshore and speak to Lindea Rabonne and buy the recipes for Bristle Whisker Catfish and Mithril Head Trout.”

Again, this will go fairly quickly for you. Around level 75 you’ll notice that it will start taking more than one succesful catch to raise your fishing skill a level. Get used to it - at upper levels it will take ten successful catches to raise one level!

You’re going to be in the area anyway, so fishing for the Snappers in Stormwind does make sense. However, the next step of the guide takes you to Southshore and you fish in the river east of the city for Bristle Whisker Catfish. I ended up catching quite a few of the Snappers along with the Catfish, so you may consider just heading to Southshore. I’m not sure how the levels stack up though and you may find the fishing tough in Southshore without levelling in Stormwind first. Either way, be prepared to catch quite a few Snappers in with your Catfish there.

Fishing and cooking trainers are both available in Stormwind; just ask a guard for directions. Lindea Rabonne not in any of the Southshore buildings. She is located on the docks down by the water. There is also a fishing trainer right next to her. This would be a good time to stock up on lures also.

75-150

The WoWwiki guide says:

“Go to the river to the east of Southshore and fish for Bristle Whisker Catfish. You’ll need about 80-100 of these to get your cooking to level 175. Between levels 125 and 150 go to Shandrina by Mystral Lake in Ashenvale and buy Expert Cookbook. You’ll need to go to Booty Bay and buy a book for your Fishing level. Speak to Old Man Heming and buy the book Expert Fishing: The Bass and You. Alternatively, if you are lazy and are not bothered spending a bit of gold, someone always posts a few copies of this book in the Auction House.”

At this point, you may start having some extra raw fish depending on how your catches go. Bristle Whisker Catfish were the first fish that seemed to sell fairly well on the auction house. I didn’t make a ton of gold, but at this point you can definitely start shipping your cooked fish off to your banker alt to dispose of. However, the raw fish seemed to sell a bit better than the cooked version. My guess is they are being bought to level cooking, but that is just a guess. At the higher levels, the cooked versions start to sell much better.

Old Man Heming is on the lower level of Booty Bay in a shop towards the back. If you jump in the water and start swimming away from the dock, you will eventually come across a little plank leading up out of the water. Go up this plank, take a right turn and he is in the building you are looking at.

150-225

The WoWwiki guide says:

“Now go to the Lakes outside Stromgarde Keep in Arathi Highlands and fish for Mithril Head Trout. You’re going to need about 60 of these to get your cooking up to level 225.”

Right about here is where I noticed the fishing levelling feel like it was really slowing down. It’s all relative really as it’s still not too bad versus where it will end up, but be prepared. The Mithril Head Trout rate here isn’t great, but since levelling the fishing is starting to take longer, it all kind of works out.

Remember Stromgarde Keep and how many times you got killed in there? If you need a break why not wander in and kill some things. It was kind of fun. I ended up helping a small group that was questing there and having some problems. Good karma.

Off Script - Become a Professional Fisherman

Once you make level 200 fishing, it’s a good idea to start accumulating some gear with plusses to fishing skill on it. The best way to acquire this gear is through the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza. This server-wide event happens every Sunday afternoon from 2-4 server time, and is open to Alliance and Horde alike. Several pieces of fishing gear are available:

• Arcanite Fishing Pole - for winning the tournament, you can select this +35 fishing pole
• Lucky Fishing Hat - for catching a rare Keefer’s Anglefish you are rewarded this +5 hat
• Nat Pagle’s Extreme Anglin’ Boots - for catching a rare Brownell’s Blue Striped Racer you are rewarded these +5 boots
• High Test Eternium Fishing Line - for catching a rare Dezian Queenfish you are rewarded with this +5 fishing line which can be used as a permanent enhancement to your fishing pole

To win the tournament, you have to be the first to catch and turn in 40 Speckled Tastyfish. I have not attempted this tournament yet, but there are several good guides out there. From what I read, even though this event takes place in “classic” Azeroth, it is still well attended and hotly competed. Be prepared for all types of tricks both dirty and sneaky, as you compete for that Arcanite Fishing Pole. Here’s a couple posts with some tips:

• Keredria’s Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza tips
• The Game Dame’s tips

+5 to fishing skill may not seem like a lot, but it all adds up and every little bit helps. I will definitely be heading for this tournament every Sunday I’m able.

If you haven’t hit Stranglethorn yet, or don’t plan to, and are finding that you need some fishing plusses past your lure, then there is an easily obtainable fishing pole with +20 to fishing skill. Seth’s Graphite Fishing Pole is yours for completing a simple farming quest just outside Shattrath. Head to Shattrath and look up Seth to get the quest Rather Be Fishin’. (Seth is in the Lower City area - and he’s a kid not a grownup). Once you get the quest, the lake you can find the eels in is just over the wall toward the northeast. Ironically, you kill the eels, not fish for them. Also, they are underwater, so either bring a means to breathe underwater, or be prepared to kill quickly and swim to the surface. The drop rate on the quest item isn’t too bad and I had my 8 in about 10 minutes.

225-226

The WoWwiki guide says:

“At this point you should now have level 225 fishing and level 225 cooking. If you’re not level 35 yet, then this is as far as you can go. If you are level 35+ then you have two quests to complete before you can continue.”

Well - you may or may not be level 225 fishing depending on how it all works out. I wasn’t. Just keep fishing until you are.

First quest: Cooking

Requirements: Level 35, 225 Cooking.

“Go to Gadgetzan in Tanaris and speak to Dirge Quikcleave. He is in the tavern. He’ll want you to bring him 12 Giant Eggs, 10 Zesty Clam Meat and 20 Alterac Swiss. You should actually be able to buy the eggs and clam meat off of AH, but in case you can’t here’s where to find them. Now according to the quest Giant Eggs drop off of Rocs in Tanaris or any large bird. The best place I found for the eggs, was the owlbeast in The Hinterlands. Only needed to kill about 20 of these to get my 12 eggs (about a 25% drop rate). They are about level 43′ish, so if you’re not that high a level, get help or wait till you can handle them. The clam meat comes from clams, naturally! Well to save you swimming around the sea looking for clams, you’re better off killing turtles at Steamwheedle Port or Revantusk Village. The drop rate is quite high and you’ll have your clam meat in no time. The levels are 41′ish for Steamwheedle Port and 49-50 for Revantusk Village. The Alterac Swiss is the easiest part. Go to the Cheese Shop in Stormwind, and buy them from the cheese vendors there. Hand them all in and you’ll get your Artisan Cooking.

Since the opening of the Caverns of Time, the provisioner inside, Galgrom, sells Alterac Swiss. You can now get all the drops necessary for Artisan cooking in Tanaris.”

Hmmm. I departed from the script a little bit here. I did indeed try to fulfill this quest via the Auction House and was able to get my Zesty Clam Meat there. I found a few Giant Eggs, just not enough. Plus, they were very expensive. I smelled opportunity, and started farming my own Giant Eggs. Instead of heading to The Hinterlands, I went into The Wetlands and started killing those little purple dinosaurs. They drop Giant Eggs pretty good too. I got enough for Dirge, then farmed a 20 stack to repay myself for what I had spent at the Auction House. My cheese I just picked up at the Cheese Shop just inside the front gates at Stormwind while I was visiting the Auction House.

The Zesty Clam Meat was a little pricey, but still in the silver, not gold, range.

I have a banker alt, so I wasn’t flying all around doing this. Anything I need from the Auction House is processed by my alt. She’s parked in Stormwind, which means I also have access to most all general goods items I may need. If you don’t have a banker alt, I highly recommend one. You can start a level one human character in Northshire Abbey and make the run to Stormwind without having to level.

Second Quest: Fishing

Requirements: Level 35, 225 Fishing.

“You need to go and find Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh. He is standing on a small island to the West of Theramore (58,60). He’ll ask you to catch four rare fishes for him. This quest is actually really easy and the only hard part is the amount of travelling involved. The fish you need to catch are:

Feralas Ahi - West from Camp Mojache. Fish the Verdantis River where the small bridge is by the Ogres, you’ll soon catch one.

Sar’theris Striker - South or North or Shadowprey Village. Make sure the area comes up as Sar’theris Strand.

Savage Coast Blue Saffin - Just outside Grom’gol Base Camp. Make sure the area comes up as Savage Coast.

Misty Reed Mahi Mahi - Directly East from Stonard and the Sunken Temple, all the way on the east side of the map. Just avoid the Murlocs. You should be in the Misty Reed Strand area of the minimap.

(Note: There isn’t a particular spot that is best to fish at. As long as your mini-map zone name matches the zone name in the quest log, you are in the right spot. You DO NOT need to move around once you are in the correct zone. You should hopefully catch these fish within 5 to 25 casts at each location. So it wont take long.)

Now go back to Nat and get your Artisan Fishing. (There is apparently a bug with this quest, if go away from Nat before getting your fishing level to 226, the quest can bug and you’ll be stuck on 225 for good. Didn’t happen to me, but I’ve seen a few posts from people who it’s happened to.)”

Well, this is a bit of running around, but certainly manageable. Most of the fishing spots were pretty easy to find. The only one that took a little bit of extra fishing was the Verdantis River. I had to fish about 10 minutes there before I got my rare fish, but that could just be random odds.

It was on the Sar’theris Strand that I had a couple fishing revelations. Yes, yes - everyday knowledge to you fishers, but for first timers reading this guide, maybe they haven’t figured these out yet either:

1. By now you’ve probably seen those specific pools of fish in the water. They look like big bathtub rings and if you hover over them, the tooltip tells you what kind of fish it is. You can also find pools of “floating wreckage” that you can fish for crates, supplies, even sellable gear. I know now that it was dumb luck, but the first time I tried to cast into one of these pools, my bobber went right into the middle of it, leading me to believe that was normal. It isn’t. If you want to catch something out of a pool, then your bobber has to be inside the pool. Simply re-cast until your bobber is located inside the ring.
2. It took a while to sink in that I didn’t have to let my current cast time out to re-cast. If you’re trying to get your bobber inside a fish or wreckage pool and it doesn’t land there, no need to wait until you catch something. Simply re-cast your bobber until it lands where you want.

At the Sar’theris Strand in particular I found two pools of floating wreckage to fish - the first I had found anywhere. I got a number of chests that contained bolts of linen and silk that sold well on the auction house. Never pass up the opportunity to fish out floating wreckage. You should get 3-4 successful “catches” out of it, containing anything from trade goods to green BoE gear.

——–> More details coming soon. Look for announcements of further updates via my blog <———

226-250

Go to Steamwheedle port and speak to Gikkix, You’ll want to buy the following two recipes: Spotted Yellowtail and Poached Sunscale Salmon. Either fish for Spotted Yellowtails at Steamwheedle Port or go to Revantusk Village (well… not to it, just a little North of it) for the slightly better drop rate. You’ll need about 30 to get your cooking from 225 to 250.

250-275

Now go to Bloodvenom Falls in Felwood and fish for Sunscale Salmon. You’ll need about 30 to get your cooking from 250 to 275. You may also fish for Sunscale Salmon and Nightfin Snapper in Lake Elune’ara

275-300

Then go and speak to Vivianna in The Feathermoon Stronghold of Feralas and buy the recipe for Mightfish Steak. Whilst you’re there buy about 40 Hot Spices and 40 Soothing Spices as you’re going to be making the food that you will want as a level 60 (without going into instances that is). It gives a +10 stamina buff for 15mins which is always helpful.

Now go to Scalebeard’s Cave (54,49) in Azshara (it’s one of the islands to the East) and fish for Mightfish. (This is also one of the best fishing spots for Stonescale Eel, a profitable fish, used to make Stonescale Oil) You’ll need about 30 to get your cooking from 275 to 300. You may need to bring some lures with you at this point, as your cooking will level up faster than your fishing and Azshara is a 330 fishing zone. You will need something in at least the 380 skill range, so if you try to come here right at 260 fishing bring a +20-25 rod and +100 lures. Once your cooking is a 300, keep fishing till you’ve maxed out that too. It will take 7 to 10 catches to get one skill up at this point, so take your time. At first, you may experience “Your fish got away!” quite frequently, but as your skill level goes up, you will catch more and more fish.

Powerleveling Fishing from 300-375

Ok, first things first. A quick shopping trip. Buy lures!! +75’s preferably. Now go and buy the Master Cookbook, to give yourself master cooking level. If you are Horde, buy it from Baxter in Thrallmar (Hellfire Peninsula). If you are Alliance, buy it from Gaston in Honor Hold (Hellfire Peninsula).

Master Cookbook is also sold by Naka in Cenarion Refuge

Now go buy Master Fishing - The Art of Angling from Juno Dufrain in Cenarion Refuge (Zangarmarsh).

Now go buy Recipe: Blackened Trout. If you are Horde, buy it from Gambarinka in Zabra’jin (Zangarmarsh). If you are Alliance, buy it from Doba in Orebor Harborage (Zangarmarsh). Whilst you’re here buy Recipe: Feltail Delight.

Horde can go back to Swamprat Post and buy Recipe: Feltail Delight from Zurai.

Head back to Cenarion Refuge and fish for Barbed Gill Trout and Spotted Feltail. You only need to catch about 25 in total to get your cooking up to 320. Your fishing level will probably only be about 305 by this stage, if you’re lucky (it’s a long, slow process and not for the easily bored). Cook up the Trout and Feltails.

Now take a trip to see Nula the Butcher in Garadar if you are Horde or Uriku at (56,73) in Telaar if you are Alliance, both are in Nagrand. Buy Recipe: Poached Bluefish and find a nice quiet spot in Nagrand to fish for Icefin Bluefish. You are really going to need to have lures attached here, unless you spent a lot more time in Zangarmarsh fishing. Keep fishing till you have about 40 Bluefish and then cook them to take your cooking to 350.

By this point, your fishing will probably only be about level 320. You might want to go to Terokkar Forest and fish for Golden Darters. When cooked, these give a +44 healing and +20SPI buff, so they are great to sell to healing classes. Or you can head back to Nagrand and fish for Figluster’s Mudfish, which give a +20AGI and +20SPI buff when cooked. Either way, to get to 375 you’re going to have to make about 650 successful catches. That should take a normal person about 8 hours, so you’ll want to break that up into something like 30-60 minute chunks, spread out over a period of time.

(NOTE: Highlander’s guide originally discussed fishing for Furious Crawdad before maxing your skill. However due to the extreme difficulty of the highland lakes — requiring 430 skill to even cast there and 525 to completely avoid fish getting away — I would not recommend fishing there without very high skill and good equipment.)

The final challenge of fishing in Outland requires a flying mount, as the best fish are only found in Highland Mixed Schools in three lakes in Terokkar Forest, all of which can only be accessed with a flying mount. In these schools you can catch Furious Crawdad, used in Spicy Crawdad the only cooking recipe that will take you to 375 easily. Spicy Crawdad is also valuable because its food buff grants +30 stamina, more than any other food in the game.

The three lakes are:
Lake Jorune - north west of Stonebreaker Hold.
Lake Ere’Noru - south east of Allerian Stronghold.
Blackwind Lake - in the south east corner of the map, in the Skettis area.

If you are Alliance, go see Innkeeper Biribi in Allerian Stronghold (Terokkar Forest) and buy Recipe: Spicy Crawdad. If you are Horde go see Rungor in Stonebreaker Hold (Terokkar Forest) and buy Recipe: Spicy Crawdad.

Attack Power Explained

Well, attack power is fairly easy to break down. For my previous post, I relied mainly on two wowwiki.com pages: Attack Power and Damage per Second (DPS). (Note: if you’re a stats junkie be aware I don’t think wowwiki has been updated much since The Burning Crusade. Everyone’s probably having too much fun…)

I’m not going to go over the DPS page, you can check it out on your own if you wnat. It just talks about how DPS for individual weapons are calculated and how certain individual stats and talents affect that base rating.

What was interesting to me was how AP added to that base number and how the additional damage is computed. For that, check out the Attack Power link.

Us Druids have different AP calculations depending on what form we are in:

Druid form: AP = (Strength * 2) - 20
Bear form: AP = (Strength * 2) + (Character level * 3) - 20
Cat form: AP = (Strength * 2 + Agility) + (Character level * 2) -20

So you see where my basic comments came from saying strength was most important for Bear AP and both strength and agility for Cat. As was correctly pointed out in comments to the post was that strength added in double for cat form. However, as agility benefits us in many other ways (dodge, crit, etc.), I recommend a balanced approach to the two attributes for your cat form.

The wowwiki page goes on to show us some very simple formulas for how AP translates into damage. At the simplest level, each 14 attack power translates in 1 additional damage per second. So the final computation of dps for your weapon ends up as:

DPS = (Min weapon damage + (AP/14)) / 2 + (Max weapon damage + (AP/14) / 2) / Weapon Speed

I really don’t think about formulas too much when looking at new gear, but it is interesting to understand how the different attributes affect final damage. Especially for our cat form, when damage is what we are interested most in.

So, take the wowwiki formulas with a grain of salt. If anyone out there can either verify these formulas are still valid, or point me in the direction of updated formulas, I will update this post to be current.

Otherwise - happy shredding…

How to find a guild

Hey, it happens. All of a sudden you’re without a guild.

I’ve been playing this game close to two years and I’m on my third guild. No drama, no guild meltdown, just life. My first guild had a couple officers leave due to personal issues, which resulted in several sub-segments of the guild forming their own new guilds. My second guild saw several of it’s officers leave to start a more hardcore raiding guild, which resulted in a mass exodus. There were no hard feelings either time, just time to move on.

My second guild breaking up happened early fall 2007. I say it broke up, which isn’t really true. Once the officers left, then the second wave left to either join the new raiding guild or move on. The guild (which was once 500+ strong), dwindled down to around 50 or so folks with only a handful of 70s. I ended up leaving the guild to go solo for a while. I had some personal issues going on and wasn’t playing much anyway.

Fast forward to early 2008 and I was ready to get back into the game. I really needed a guild, having fallen so far behind in so little time. People talk about how quickly players eat up new content, but I think the reverse is also true. You can take just a couple months off from this game and really fall far behind. So I started the process of looking around for a guild. I really wanted to find a good guild that fit my play-style, my play times, and had the kind of attitude that matched mine. I wrote briefly on this topic before and got a lot of great comments. At that time, I promised to make this topic into an overall guide and here it is.

Obviously, there is no right or wrong way to find a new guild, and this writeup simply reflects my experiences. Use your own best judgement as to what works for you or not. If I’ve missed anything or you would like to add to what I’ve laid out here, leave me a comment and I’ll consider including it.

Ground Zero - Get your house in order

Okay, if you’re not level 70 or not looking for a raiding guild then you can probably move on to Step 1. If you are a level 70 and you are looking for a raiding guild then this step is a must. Also, even if you don’t fit one of those two categories, this step probably still has some good advice.

First of all - do an inventory on your gear and make sure you understand where you are. Is your gear appropriate for your class? Are you under-geared? What about gems and enchants? If you’re looking to get into a raiding guild and hit SSC, but you are missing enchants and you have inappropriate gear - then you most likely will be turned down. Just make sure what you have is a fit for what you are looking for and be prepared to talk about your upgrade plans.

I’m gonna assume you know your class and role and are proficient. If not, be realistic about the type of guild you are looking for.

Make sure your talent spec makes sense. If you’re not sure on this one, there are plenty of resources out there to point you in the right direction. Need more help? Trying searching for some bloggers within your class. The WoW community is rich with insightful and helpful bloggers of every make, model and color.

Lastly - grow up! Of course I don’t mean you, but there are lots of, forgive the language, asshats out there. If you are one of them, then you can probaby stop reading right now. My guess is you bounce from guild to guild every month or so, and are fine with that. If that isn’t you, then here’s my simple suggestions:

• If you are a fan of leet-speak, instant message shorthand or swearing, stop. Now. Most organized, well run, mature guilds will not accept applications written this way. Correct grammar, along with the ability to communicate effectively in the language of your server, is generally a good thing.
• Learn to show a little humility. You may think you are Elune’s gift to raiding, but believe me you are not the only good player in the game. If you come off as overly arrogant, then what that tells the guild you are applying to is that you are simply out for yourself. Not only will you probably leave as soon as you get what you want if not before, but odds are you won’t be stepping up to help others in the guild. This is another sure way to get your application rejected (from the good guilds at least).
• Be realistic in your expectations. It’s okay to convey what you are looking for in a guild in no uncertain terms. Just realize that are not going to be the only person with expectations.

Before anyone gets their shorts in a bunch and comments to tell me I’m discriminating against younger players, let me stop you right there. I’ve grouped with players in their young teens as well as grandma’s and grandpa’s. Believe me that maturity is not limited to older players. Likewise, age appears to be no remedy for stupidity.

Step 1 - What are you looking for?

Okay, okay. You’re chomping at the bit to get started and I’m asking you some lame question like “what are you looking for”? What gives?

Well, if you’re reading this guide, then you are either without a guild or you are in one that isn’t a good fit for some reason. Before you get involved with another guild that potentially isn’t a fit either, take a little time to figure out what you are looking for and what would make you love your new guild. For some folks this would be a casual play attitude, for others it would be raiding every night of the week. Unless you have a good idea of what you are looking for, how will you know when you find it?

Here’s some of the things I thought about:

• PvP, PvE, simple instance help, or Raiding?
• Am I looking to be a guild officer or not?
• How often do I want to raid, and what nights?
• What am I willing to offer the guild?
• What do I want out of the guild?

This doesn’t have to be a science project, and you should probably know most of this already. However, our gameplay and our expectations do sometimes change over time. Taking a few minutes to make sure you understand (and can communicate) what you are looking for in a guild will not only help you find a guild that fits you, but should help make the application process smoother.

Step 2 - Do some research

Okay, you know what you’re looking for but how do you find it?

Unfortunately, there are no simple solutions here. However, there are some tools to help you develop a list of candidates.

1. Wow Forums - I tend to avoid the WoW forums like I would a black cat infected with rabies covered by fleas carrying The Plague. Seriously. However, by way of comment in my previous article, Graylo recommended the realm forums as a reasonable place to start your search. The forums offer you a couple places to start your search. The general Guild Recruitment forum is a place where any guild from any server can post messages. What may be a better option are the realm forums that Graylo mentioned. The realm forums are broken up by battlegroup, so start on this page, organized by battlegroup. (There’s even a handy guide if you don’t know what battlegroup you are in). Again relying on Graylo since I haven’t used these forum - he mentioned they are a good place to research a guild’s reputation also.
2. WoW Justu - WoW Jutsu is a site that ranks guilds based on their raid progression. It can be very helpful in tracking down guilds on your particular server that match the area of progression you are looking for. Don’t rely on this site for specifics however. There are many aspects to how the site runs and collects data that you should take into account. For instance, if a guild progresses through Gruul’s Lair, then all their raiding members leave, they will still show Gruul’s as their current progression level. Also, I’ve heard from a number of people, that the farther down a guild is on the progression list, the less frequent their stats are updated. Finally, if a guild isn’t currently raiding, or just started Karazhan, they might not even be on this site. Don’t write this site off though. The guild I eventually joined I found on this site and their progression level was accurately stated.
3. Guild Cafe - Guild Cafe is a social networking site for gamers. While not specifically stated, the site seems to be particularly focuses on RPG games, with MMORPG games and WoW in particular, being well represented. In addition to offering some fun goodies (like the gaming personality test), I did find some guilds on this site advertising for new members. It’s been a while, but if I remember correctly, they were even organized by server, making it pretty easy to find them. You may not find your new guild on this site, but if you are a hardcore gamer, you may end up liking the community aspect of this site. (Guild Cafe also offers free, although ad-sponsored, online guild homes. I haven’t tried the service, but it includes raid scheduling).
4. You can also keep your eyes open in game for potentials. Have the good players in your PUGs consistently been from one or two guilds? Did someone help you on a quest (what guild were they from)? Sometimes you just seem to see a particular guild everywhere. Bigger isn’t always better, but if they are always everywhere you are, maybe you have similar goals.

Step 3 - Narrow the field

Now that you have a “short list”, you can start some specific action to either weed the list further, or build the case in support of others. Again, there are no simple shortcuts here, but some of the actions I took were:

• Do a search to see if the guild has a website. Guild websites are treasure troves for things like conduct rules, raid schedules, DKP systems, etc. If their application is posted, take a look at it and see what kinds of questions they ask. If their forums are open, there are great for giving you a real glimpse at what their members are like. Forums tend to be more informal and frequented by the most active guild members. Also, make sure their site has a means to schedule raids that makes sense to you.
• Look up the guild in The Armory. It’s all basic information, but you can get current class and race breakdowns, along with an idea of how big the guild is and how they are geared.
• Ask around. If you’ve got a lot of in-game friends, ask them if they’ve heard anything about any of the guilds on your list.

That’s all I have for this step. When I was looking for a guild, the best resource I came across were guild websites. They were very helpful in both taking prospects off the list and helping identify the ones that had real promise.

Step 4 - Quest (Daily) “Make Some Contacts”

At this point, you may be ready to apply to a guild. You’ve seen everything you need to see. If that’s the case - great! You may skip this step, but please read the next step before applying.

If you’re still not sure you’ve picked that one special guild, hopefully you’ve at least narrowed the list down to 2 or 3 candidates. At this point, you’ve got to leave the research laboratory and get out there in the field.

Keep your eyes peeled for members of the guilds you have in mind while you’re playing. When you see one, invite them to quest with you. Maybe you catch them getting ready to do a daily and you offer to help them (the escort daily in Skettis is perfect for this). Strike up a conversation with them and get a sense for what they are like. Ask a few questions about their guild and whether they like it or not. Just be sure to keep in mind this is just one opinion, so don’t put too much weight into it for good or bad.

You might even ask who the most active officers are for the guild. Check and see if any of them are online. If so, whisper them and see if they are open to talking for a minute or two. I did this with one guild officer and simply said I had done some research on their guild and it looked like a potential fit for what I was looking for and just wanted to ask a few questions. Guild officers love this as most players simply apply to the guild and consider the guild lucky to have them.

If you get an officer in a conversation, what you ask them has to be relevant to you. For me, I was looking for a raiding guild, but could only commit to couple nights. So I wanted to understand if that level of committment would exclude me from raiding. These interactions are also great for getting a simple read on the maturity level and personality of the guild. Again, this is just one person, but it is often the guild officers who set the overall tone for the entire guild.

Step 5 - Make it official

Okay, you’ve narrowed down the field and found a good candidate that fits your criteria, fits your progression level if you’re a raider, and seems to have a complimentary attitude to yours. Time to apply.

Notice I said “a” good candidate. Don’t apply to more than one guild at once; it’s simply bad form. As Graylo also commented in my first article: “Most guild officers I know tend to look at the other guilds forums, and may have played with members of the other guild. Seeing that you have apps at a lot of guilds can hurt you even if they are closed. No guild wants a guild hopper and no guild wants to be used as a stepping stone. App to one guild. Give it a week. If nothing happens look for your next opportunity.”

As you fill out the application, it might be a good time to go back to Ground Zero and review the basics there. Okay you’re busy and in a hurry, what were those basics? Write in full sentences, using proper grammar and spelling words in their entirety. Remember that a little humility never hurt anyone. Also remember you are not the only one in the guild - a few sentences about how you can help guild members will go a long way.

Step 6 - Success! Or not…

If you’ve followed the steps I’ve outlined your application should be met with approval and you will soon be told “invite incoming” followed by that familiar stream of green messages in your chat box. Welcome!

If not, don’t be discouraged. Just like real life, some relationships are just not to be. Dust yourself off and try to figure out what went wrong. Head back to Step 3 or 4 and start all over again. There are plenty of guilds out there and one of them is bound to be a fit for you.

I suppose the other option is to start your own guild. I have never started a guild and really don’t have the desire to, but it might be the right answer for you. Play with a bunch of real life friends and you all get along great? Why not start your own guild? Have tons of players on your friends list and a lot of them are un-guilded? Why not start your own guild? Not at endgame yet and think it would be a fun experiment starting a guild? Go for it? One of the things I love about this game is the endless opportunities it offers. Starting a guild is not one I’m interested in taking advantage of, but it might be a perfect fit for you.

Wrapping up

I hope you have found this little guide helpful. Please feel free to comment and add to it as makes sense. There is a great sense of community amongst the WoW bloggers (and readers) and I look forward to making this writeup even better with your additions.

I’ve had the good fortune to be part of now three great guilds. I’ve found all of them to be helpful, fun and dedicated to getting better. If you currently don’t have a guild, or are in one that just doesn’t feel right, start working through this guide today. I’m confident there is a guild for you out there - you just have to find them.

Druid Gems

With the release of The Burning Crusade, we began to see “socketed” items. Items may have one or more sockets, into which you can place different color gems. Each socket has a color, and while you can place any color gem into any socket, matching all the sockets with gems of the same color enables a “socket bonus”. There are also Meta gem sockets. Meta gems generally add a greater bonus, but have requirements; usually a certain combination of gem colors already socketed.

Different than Diablo II which this mechanic reminds me of, is that a new gem can be re-socketed over a gem already in place. Socketing a new gem does replace the old gem (which is lost forever), however this allows you to put whatever gem you can find at the moment into a socket for bonuses right away, then upgrade the socket when you find or buy a better gem.

There are all kinds of gems, with more and more showing up in each patch. In order to always give you the most up to date gem listings, I will not be providing simple lists of gems; rather I will provide links to wowhead with various filters so you can see all gems that match the socket and/or stat you are looking to fill.

I have my filters broken into three categories: simple lists for basic research, lists by playstyle, and lists by instance/raid. At the end of this page you’ll find some other gem research resources on the web.

These lists will return primarily gems that can be socketed, but may also return “simple gems” - gems that cannot be socketed (yet) and are used in crafting recipies.

Simple Gem Lists for basic research

Simple Gem list by color (highest level gems first)
All | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange | Simple | Prismatic | Non-Socketable gems
Crafted gems - You’ll need to ask your guild JC to make these for you.
All | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange
Gems by Rarity
Epic | Rare | Uncommon | Common
Dropped Gems - Wowhead doesn’t currently allow filtering on gems that are “drops” (except by particular instance), but here is a list of all gems that are BoP which should be close to the same.
BoP Gems

Gems by Playstyle

These links will help you narrow down particular gems by the type of build you want to augment.

Balance Enchantments - Plusses to Intellect, Spirit, Spell damage, Spell Crit, Spell Penetration, Spell Haste, or Mana Regen.
All | Epics | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange
Feral Enchantments (Tanking) - Armor, Defense, Dodge, Stamina or Agility.
All | Epics | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange
Feral Enchantments (DPS) - Agility, Strength, AP (feral), Crit, Haste or Hit.
All | Epics | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange
Resto Enchantments - Intellect, +Healing, +Spirit, Spell Crit, or Mana Regen.
All | Epics | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange

Gems by Heroic Instances and Raids
While maybe not as useful as the other lists above, these filters will let you see what gems are in each particular instance and raid. I’m only referencing Heroic instances to identify the better gems you are probably looking for. I’d love to provide a comprehensive list of gems with the instance/raid they are in, but wowhead does not current offer that feature. (Note: at the time I put this together, the only raid with any worthwhile gem drops was The Black Temple).

Heroic Instance Gems
Arcatraz | Auchenai Crypts | Black Morass | Blood Furnace | Botanica | Hellfire Ramparts | Mana-Tombs | Mechanar | Old Hillsbrad Foothills | Sethekk Halls | Shadow Labyrinth | Shattered Halls | Slave Pens | Steamvault | Underbog
Raid Gems
Black Temple | Gruul’s Lair | Hyjal Summit | Karazhan | Magtheridon’s Lair | Serpentshrine Cavern | The Eye |

Druid Enchants

Enchantments are probably the first thing we think of when we’re ready to start augmenting our effectiveness past pure gear. There are different types of enchantments though, offering benefits beyond those that your guild Enchanter can offer. While Enchanter enchantments tend to be the best you can get, don’t overlook the many other ways to “buff up”.

Also note that since I am using stats-based filters, in some instances an item or two may be returned in the results that might not be appropriate for us Druids.

You may also want to check the very nice WoWwiki page summarizing permanent enchantments.

It appears that WoWhead may have changed their search structure as I just noticed many of my links aren’t working now. I’ll get to fixing them, in the meantime use the WoWwiki link above for your research.

Enchantments by Slot

These links let you research various types of enchants by slot, with no filtering as to effect. You’ll find lots of “non-druid” stuff in these lists, but you might also find some surprises too! Also be sure to keep in mind that any new enchantment replaces any enchantment already on the item.

Enchanting Enchantments - Placed on your gear by an enchanter using the appropriate enchantment spell and materials.
All | Back | Chest | Feet | Finger | Hands | Main Hand | Off Hand | One Hand | Two Hand | Wrist
Permanent Enchantments - Different than enchanting “spells”, these permanent enchantments include such things as armor kits, glyphs, arcanums, and other miscellany.
All | Chest | Feet | Hands | Head | Legs | Main Hand | Off Hand | One Hand | Shoulder | Two Hand
Temporary Enchantments - Different than enchanting “spells”, these temporary enchantments include such things as poisons, oils, stones, and other miscellany. These temporary enchantments do not replace existing enchantments, so they’re great for a little extra boost.
All | Chest | Feet | Main Hand | Off Hand | One Hand | Two Hand

Enchantments by Playstyle

These links will help you narrow down particular enchantments by the type of build you want to augment. Unfortunately, wowhead does not currently allow filter by stats on Enchanting enchantments, so you’ll have to use the complete slot links above to search.

Balance Enchantments - Plusses to Intellect, Spirit, Spell damage, Spell Crit, Spell Penetration, Spell Haste, or Mana Regen.
Permanent | Temporary
Feral Enchantments (Tanking) - Armor, Defense, Dodge, Stamina or Agility.
Permanent | Temporary
Feral Enchantments (DPS) - Agility, Strength, AP, Crit, Haste or Hit.
Permanent | Temporary
Resto Enchantments - Intellect, +Healing, +Spirit, Spell Crit, or Mana Regen.
Permanent | Temporary