Yep, it’s that time again. Time to rant and bitch because I like it oh, I like it so much.

Since my early days on the Karazhan server, playing AV was not so fun because we, Allies, always lost. Not because we were outnumbered, not because we were outgeared, just because we were outplayed. And why were we outplayed? Because people seem not to agree on the same tactic. And we all know what that brings to the /bg chat, right? Right now I’m sorry that I didn’t print screen some of the epic conversations during AV matches. It seems to me some think that if you type a lot and not move a muscle to actually be useful, you gain more instead of just shutting the hell up, letting others to concentrate on the play and not dragging them into your pathetic and pitiful attempts to be someone over the Internet just because life treats you unfairly.

Moving to Daggerspine somehow improved this, meaning the same thing happens only on some matches instead of all the matches. It’s almost a 50-50 chance to run into pizza-boys (if you play on Daggerspine, you know what I mean). People here seem a bit more smart in their play and more willing to play as a team. But in the end it all comes down to luck and time you play AV. I tend to play in the morning until 14:00 game time, when school is over and AV gets a bit… crowded. Then I resume my honor farming at around 22:00 but we only start to really win around 23:00 when bed time is up for the ones that crowded AV.

But all troubles aside, AV is still the best honor resource and after 2.4 it’s actually one of the fastest battlegrounds if played wise. What do I mean by wise? Just read these easy-to-understand tips and you’ll see what I mean.

Tips for playing Alterac Valley as Alliance

• Don’t fight in the middle - although being fun, it’s the most stupid thing to do. Looking at the honor you gain by doing this, just stickying to normal tactics is more rewarding. Not to mention that by doing this, AV gets too long and boring;
• Try not to run/get feared out when killing enemy generals - nothing is more annoying then a reset at 10%, is there? Also, if you are the one tanking, do it in the back of the room. It’s safer;
• Skip Galv if he is heavily defended (more than 5) - every time you wipe at Galv, God kills a kitten;
• Don’t cap IB GY while rushing towards the Relief Hut - this is really important and you need to think about it for a second: you just killed Drek, horde killed Balinda and are going for towers, capping Stoneheart GY on the way. Only GY you have right now are the Aid Station and Stormpike, along with Snowfall being Contested. They only have the Relief Hut and Frostwolf, along with Stoneheart being Contested. If you take Iceblood GY, they will be left to respawn at FW and thus bringing a lot of them to defense. And you don’t want that. If instead you just ignore it and only take IB and TP towers (very important to also defend them) and rushing towards FW GY to cap it, horde that respawn at IB will just rush forward. Later in the game when they have a more advanced GY, IB can be capped, but not sooner;
• Stay and defend Frostwolf GY with a reasonable amount of people - that means 5 but no more than 10. Cry for help if you get crowded. Rest of the attacking people should rush the Relief Hut;
• Don’t fight if you get bottlenecked - just gather around, mount and run pass them. If you die, try again until you succeed or find an alternate route. Fighting will just mean less time spent in offense;
• If the game is close, taking both mines puts a bit of pressure on your enemies;

An unconventional tactic I saw work many times was to heavy defend (also called to turtle). This requires you to:

• Defend Balinda;
• Defend Icewing and Stoneheart Bunkers;
• Form a defense line between the three of the above points;

This type of game would bring a nice amount of honor (maybe even more than a rush game) and is based on making the opposing faction run out of resources. It’s important to move back and recap bunkers in Dun Baltar if any get pass you or they stealth. Also having a group stealth to the Relief Hut and try to ninja the towers puts lots of pressure. Hell, might even be lucky and destroy them if defense is really weak.

These being said and my anger having went away after this post, I leave you with Alterac Valley - Newbie Guide and Alterac Valley - Standard Battle Strategy over at wowwiki.

I salute you.

The idea

The idea came to me after I saw some good videos on Youtube about another Paladin doing it so I thought why not do it myself? I took enchanting and leveled it to 300 just for this reason: to take advantage of my character (Protection Paladin) and farm instances for money.

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So, you got your gear all pimped up and think you can raid? Excellent! Here is a list of consumables to bring the best out of your Protection Paladin.

(quick explanation about the colored numbers: lowest, recommended, hardcore)

Regents

• Symbol of Kings (200+)
• Symbol of Divinity (5+)

Food and drinks

• Fisherman’s Feast / Spicy Crawdad (20+) - 30 Stamina and 20 Spirit = winner;
• Blackened Sporefish, Buzzard Bites, Feltail Delight, Mok’Nathal Shortribs, Tabuk Steak (20+) - to replace the above two;
• Blackened Basilisk, Crunchy Serpent, Poached Bluefish (20+) - take this if you need spell damage;

 Potions

• Ironshield Potion (5 10 20) - pop this up while a boss enrages, it’s quite useful;
• Super Mana Potion (10 15 20);
• Super Healing Potion (5 15 20);

Elixirs

• Elixir of Mastery (Battle Elixir) (5 10 15) - +15 stats for 1 hour, who wouldn’t want that?
• Adept’s Elixir (Battle Elixir) (5 10 15) - only use if your spell damage is low, otherwise it’s pretty useless;
• Elixir of Brute Force (Battle Elixir) (5 10 15) - a good way to get your HP a bit higher. Use in fights where Stamina is everything;
• Elixir of Major Mageblood (Guardian Elixir) (5 10 15) - very useful while OT-ing or being the extra tank on trash when we receive no healing;
• Elixir of Major Defense (Guardian Elixir) (5 10 15) - +550 Armor is always a nice little buff;
• Elixir of Major Fortitude (Guardian Elixir) (5 10 15) - not that good, +250 HP and +10 HP every 5 seconds are not really worth. Take this only if you can’t any of the others;

Flasks

• Flask of Fortification / Shattrath Flask of Fortification (1 2 5) - the +10 Defense will probably go to waste and +500 HP is not that much;
• Flask of Mighty Restoration / Shattrath Flask of Mighty Restoration (1 2 5) - good when you are not a MT;
• Unstable Flask of the Sorcerer (only works in BEM and Gruul’s Lair) (1 2 5) - a nice flask, shame only works in limited places;
• Flask of Blinding Light

Oils

• Superior Mana Oil (5 10 15)- use during trash;
• Superior Wizard Oil (5 10 15) - use during bosses;

What do I use?

Hmm, hard to say. I only recently went for my first 25-man raid and I can say that, looking at the list above, I was kind of unprepared. I only had Regents, Health/Mana Pots, buff food and, by a fortunate coincidence, 5 Superior Mana Oil which a guildy gave me right before I was invited.

But, to be fully prepared I would go for: 20+ Mok’Nathal Shortribs, Super Mana Potion and Super Healing Potion (10+ of each), 5+ Elixir of Mastery, 5+ Elixir of Major Defense, 5+ Superior Mana Oil. If it were Gruul, I would replace the Elixirs with 5+ Unstable Flask of the Sorcerer.

OK, so you started a blog and you are very excited about it. You have a lot of ideas but something just keeps going wrong. Well, here are a few tips to help you improve your blog and your status as a blogger.

Your blog

• Your Feed doesn’t work! Subscribe to it and make sure it works as you intended. Customize your feed (if you can). If it doesn’t work, how am I suppose to read what you post?
• Chose a proper theme for your blog! So you write about World of Warcraft but have a theme with fluffy kittens? That’s not going to work. Content is king but if you have an ugly theme with lots of things flashing at the same time, I’m not going to come back.
• Always state the source! There is nothing nastier, even on the Interwebz, than to steal from others. Always link back to your source.
• No contact method! I want to praise you and I have no means to contact you. Put an e-mail address visible on your blog or even a contact form. People will eventually want to ask you things and if they don’t know how to contact you, chances may fly by.
• No author page! Who are you? What do you want from me? Write a bit about yourself, people want to know who is the guy they are reading.
• No links to other blogs! Best way to get yourself known without begging. Link to blogs you enjoy and admire. They will notice and if they like what they see, will link back.
• Let everyone comment on your blog! Enabling user registration = instant death. People will not register on your blog just to comment. Let everyone do it. That’s why there are moderation options.
• Subscribe to comments option! I comment on several blogs. I don’t have time to come back to each of them to check if someone replied. Get it now?
• Use Wordpress! True story.
• Backup your blog and do it often! You never know what may happen.

Yourself

• Read other blogs! And learn from them. Don’t steal.
• Get involved! Comment on other blogs, participate in communities with good insights, get yourself noticed without spamming.
• Write! Do it often, do it good. If you like to write insightful posts, take your time. Even if you write a post once every week or month but it takes me 5 hours to fully understand it, you have me as a faithful reader.

Advertising/monetizing your blog

• Learn how to use Adsense! Don’t just put it there. Read ahead.
• Keep it simple! Don’t crowd your blog with lots of widgets or adverts. Usually, if I see more than 3-5 advertisements on a blog I don’t get past the first page. Blogging should not be about making money. That’s a consequence of being good at it.

Write good content, be active and creative. If you do these, people will come back to read you.

There is a lot to be said on this subject. Many forum posts have been made, endless topics have been written about why you should/shouldn’t twink and yet a conclusion is still to be found.

What is a twink?

Let’s take the definition from wowwiki:

A twink is a player character that is disproportionately powerful for its level, possessing potent items and high-end enchants that are generally far beyond the means of other players at that level.

“More powerful you say? ZOMG, I want that!” Hold on there junior, keep reading.

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