This looks frickin' awesome!

It could be as soon as March 25th but who knows? It is coming soon though so make sure you brush up on all the major changes as this is going to be a huge patch and, unless WotLK is delayed, the last major update before xPac2 (v 3.0).

Yeah. Sorry about that folks! The guild forums are now up & running again but [insert apology] you will need to re-sign up again. Oh well... uh... group hug?

...but probably as buggy as Patch day!

Yep, you probably landed here from being redirected hither and dither - apologies for that. Everything, but everything will be featuring in this new clean and crisp format but it is just a case of doing a stack of behind-the-scenes twiddles and database clean up.

Tags: wow, motivation, funny

Tags: commerical, wow, youtube

Welcome to Patch 2.3, kids! Lots of important changes to our gameplay and life as we know it! Have a careful read through the patch notes.

For starters, your lovely tuxedoed GM has begun to make use of the new Guild Bank feature! ALL guild members MUST read the following post in our guild forums here. If you have questions or concerns, please post them in that thread as well so we can discuss and tune accordingly!

Remember that Heroic Keys now only require Honored faction. Be sure to grab your keys from the faction Quartermasters! Do keep in mind it's highly adviseable to run the regular instance a few times before attempting heroic - they are significantly more difficult and having the gear from the regular instance makes a huge plus!

Many, many changes for our classes and professions as well, so be sure to read up. Or below, for that matter.

The following classes will need to head to their nearest class trainer:
Mage - All (New level 70 spell, Ritual of Replenishment)
Priest - Dwarf/Draenei (New level 20 spell, Chastise)
Priest - Human/Night Elf (New level 20 spell, Fear Ward)
Shaman - (Weapon Trainer, really - 2h Maces/Axes available to all Shaman)

The following classes will need to have a look at their talent points:
Paladin - Retribution (Pursuit of Justice is now 3 ranks instead of 2)
Priest - Discipline (New talent spell: Focused Will)

The following crafters will need to head to their respective trainers:
Leatherworkers: Several new items learnable from Grand Master Leatherworker in Shattrath
Alchemists: New potion learnable from Grand Master Alchemist in Honor Hold.
Enchanters: New enchant (+res to shield) available from Grand Master Enchanter in Honor Hold.
Engineers: New flying mount learnable from Niobe Whizzlespark in SMV.

FYI, Manticorians membership is CLOSED at the moment to allow new recruits time to settle in.

Friends and players interested in joining are welcome to talk to guild management (Azra, Imperia, Kobai, Zummoner, Relikadin) regarding their wishes to determine the best way forward. Applicants will be considered of course, but at this time we really need to focus on our current members to ensure uber eternal happiness!

Thanks to everyone who have wished us well! May karma be kind!

-Azra

P.S. Happy 1-years-old, Manticorians (10/13/2007)!
P.S.S. Ze missiles are coming! Fire our sheet!

We here at Manticorians are proud to be a low-key, casual guild. We have never once recruited but in recent days several members and friends from other, larger and raiding/end-game guilds whom we have forged friendships from these very forums, have expressed interest in having their alt join our ranks. After giving it much thought, we feel it is time to allow our doors to be wide open. This could, perhaps, make this an unusual recruitment thread because it is more of an open invitation as opposed to recruitment.

If you are interested in an invite, please read on for some insight into what is all about! If you see us in-game please feel free to send a tell as well!

Read on for more information...



Progression:
Because of the hours available to the core officers in the guild we are not at current end-game quite yet. We have our goals and our objectives of hitting heroics and Kara in due course but certainly do not feel the pressure of having to be there right now. It is coming and it is exciting for us. We're happy and secure in who we are and we know and we believe the rumor that the content isn't going away anytime soon. However, the days are drawing closer and our target is in clear sight! Excited, we are. Yoda, we are not.

We have had many many offers from many who are at the top level to help us at end-game and we look forward to working with you soon. We have had guild invites and merger invites but our core leadership have declined not because we feel superior but because we are happy in our current direction.

We will be looking to push through content though as the fall and winter seasons kick in and we can do less sun bathing. =P

Drama-free:
We are a drama free guild. The talk and language is considered NSFK as banter and larking often abound. Having said that, sometimes you could see a pin drop as members sometimes just put their heads down and concentrate on what they are doing. Random comments often prove the most popular.

Reputation:
We pride ourselves on our reputation. If anyone hears of a member of our guild who behaves poorly, please bring it to our attention. However we are fully confident that our current members act according to the best standards and policies in the game and, no matter what level you are, you are likely to enjoy our company.

We will not tolerate abuse or bullying of members. Anyone found doing so will be subjected to 1000 thrashings and fed to the dogs. We've never had problems before but, with any open invite, anything can happen.

Talent:
Because we are casual does not mean we are inexperienced or incapable. It just so happens that much of our online time to play does not fit in with current regular raiding hours. Azra and Zum are currently living in England for a period of time which, therefore, plays merry hell with regular raiding times, other key members only have access at certain times of the week or are heavily involved in other leisure activities. Again, this does not show any lack of commitment but instead we set our priorities in a different manner.

The experience of our officers is strong with many having played other MMO's to a high level or succeeded well in pre-TBC. However, we also know we have a lot to learn and anything that other members can bring to the table is always welcome. We tend not to like arrogant talk and are not impressed with name dropping.


Attendance:
The unusual times that many of our key members are on also means it is a suitable for alts from other guilds to play and find company as peak times are often pre or post raiding times. By the same token, however, sometimes there may not be many members on - hey, we're a small family and sometimes members like to go on dates...

There are no attendance requirements. We have some members who play a lot and some who have not logged in for a while as they are taking a sabbatical. Recently a couple of our members who took a break from the game have returned and are focused on leveling up quickly.

Ranking:
Ranking in the guild is unusual. If you can work it out and how it works, please let us know. There really is only 3 ranks in the guild. Guild Master, who does very little other than be that bald, world dominating persona often found in Austin Powers. Officers, who are members that have proven their service through sacrifice (this doesn't require a rabbit from Dun Morogh at the Temple of Atal'Hakkar finding a peaceful death btw) and Plebs. Well, not really plebs, more minions. Seriously, if you have hang-ups on the issue of ranking in a guild, then you may need to reconsider... we all get to sit at the table here. Some just have comfy chairs.

Tabard:
Yep we have a tabard. Wow. Doesn't that just make us an uber guild? Eventually we would like every member to have the Sporeggar tabard. This is not a requirement but if this has not been achieved by 2012, we will introduce taxes and make everyone wear Hillman's Cloaks.

Power leveling and run-throughs:
We will not power-level alts on demand. We don't care how important you are in your current raid group in your other guild. Don't care how many bosses you have downed or what kind of tier gear you have. We do care, however, about you. Sometimes our higher members will organise or offer a power run through instances but, just as your time is precious, so is ours and each member has their own personal goals. Having said that, we also have a strong sense of dedication and have helped out guild twinks clear for a specific item. A couple of our officers can also be seen farming old world instances for various reasons and will, if asked politely, consider taking you along for a ride.

History:
The Manticorians have actually been running for nearly 2 years now. Initially formed on the Oceanic Server, Khaz'Goroth (named Mantecorians) some guild members have since moved here after taking a brief stop at Steamwheedle Cartel. Manticorians of EI opened up on October 10, 2006! We have been running drama-free since.

Conclusion:
With all that said, if you still want to join the likes of Azra and Zum and their merry band of fun-loving freelancers who have been working together for almost a year now, then contact us via this web-site (prospective members are welcome to sign up) or in-game!

I've attempted to implement an official online guild roster for the website. The new roster includes information certainly not limited to a list of all our members - but also keys, guild bank inventory, player statistics, and quick, easy access (hey, anything beats trying to search the Guild Pane in-game for info!) to player notes, professions, and can even list PVP data such as lifetime HKs, duel win/loss records, etc. if we so choose.

At the moment it is not loadable in this lovely, seamless little frames area but is still hosted and administrated by myself. It is perfectly safe, though there are a few minor cosmetic glitches (such as item icons not appearing) I hope to smooth out in the next couple of days.

If you would like to see this roster utilized to the fullest as being a super information source for our members, PLEASE help us keep it up-to-date by taking two minutes to download an add-on called RPGO CharacterProfiler and follow the very simple instructions to manually take an occasional data-snapshot of your Manticorians-guilded toons so that either you or I can upload them to the roster. If everyone can utilize the new add-on we can get a good deal more helpful information up.

If you have any questions or concerns whatsoever, please don't hesitate to send me a message in-game, in the forums or via comment/private message here!

As we are all well aware, Manticorians have always prided themselves on being good players, polite groupers, and respectable people. We are also known to have a nice collection* of alts per member and those alts do, on occasion extend all the way into another faction!

For the few of us who have been working on alt characters Hordeside, there is now a way to have your daily Manticorian injection even in Durotar! You are all welcome, if you have horde toons of course, to join the new sister guild to Manticorians, Really Bad Eggs.

While we do have Manticorian blood in RBE, there are also some new additions - people who were kind enough to help fill out the guild charter! They have chosen to stay in the guild now it's formed and seem to be very nice people so let's make sure we keep to our great guild standards! One thing that is only a slight different is that as we are mostly made up of low-level alts (Promkween tops the list at lvl 32) we do not have the easy access to guild banks and items as our Alliance counterpart but hopefully in time that will change! Items that are needed desperately can always be crossed over using the Neutral Auction Houses in Ratchet, Everlook and Gadgetzan but obviously at a slight cost due to AH cuts.

One thing about Manticorians is that we all like to help where we can and that certainly does not change under Thrall's watch!
...even though we're technically Really Bad Eggs :P

If you would like to join, you can message Promkween in-game (that's me, Azra) or just do a /who Really Bad Eggs and ask anyone online to invite you. The guild is rather small at the moment and every member has been given the ability to drag in new meat! Hope to see you there!

I must confess, I got a little confused on reading so many different opinions on how to use focus since it was introduced a patch or two ago.  But this morning I read a fantastic article from Big Red Kitty (a hunter blog) which spent a little time touching on this subject with perfect explanations.

Although it is written from the viewpoint of a hunter and aimed at hunter, the principle remains the same for anyone: a warlock, a rogue, a mage... anyone.  And I really would like to encourage everyone to make the macros and add them to your hotbar for when we next instance together.  It will make Ty's job easier as a tank and my job easier as a healer and we will be one step closer to where we need to be for endgaming!

So without further chatter, click 'read more' to learn more about how to use focus (I have edited the article to use names we are familiar with) and how to apply it to a macro:

Target Versus Focus You have a Target. WooT! Your Target is the mob or friend with whom you directly interacting. Your Target changes, of course. It changes when you select a different mob or friend. Blizzard was kind enough to allow us to use our Target as a variable that can be used in commands and macros. If you want to emote "Hello" to Tyrand, you could type: /hello Tyrand If your Target was Tyrand, you could also type: /hello target This is an example of using Target as a variable. For our little hello-command, Target is set to Tyrand and the computer handles the rest. Simple. Now you also have a similar variable called Focus. Whereas your Target changes when you select a new mob or friend, your Focus can only be set, reset, or cleared explicitly. If you want to make Tyrand your Focus, you would type: /focus Tyrand Target and Focus are separate entities. If you click on your friend Azra, your Target is automatically set to Azra but your Focus continues to be Tyrand. If you click on a murloc, your Target is now that murloc but your Focus continues to be Tyrand. The only way you can effect a change in your Focus is to do so explicitly: /focus Azra /focus murloc Before we get into what we can do with our Focus, let's make it easier to set it.

Set Focus Macro /focus target Again, assign it to an icon and put it on the action bar. We don't have a keystroke assigned to our Set Focus Macro because, although we use it daily, we use it very infrequently and almost never in combat, just at the start of an instance run.

What the macro does is assign to the Focus variable whatever is being targeted. Supposing we are on a run and Tyrand isn't able to come so we have a PuG tank (God help us)! If we wished to make our party's tank our Focus, we would target him and click this macro. How efficient is this? It depends on how creative the tank was when he chose his name. Do you really want type: /focus zomgtherealslimshady or /focus Fflingerhoôszefr Of course you don't. Use this little macro to simply and quickly assign your Focus. Now let's do something with it. The Assist feature of Warcraft is wonderful. If you click on your tank and follow with clicking the Assist button (default hotkey F), your target will become whatever the tank is targeting. If your tank is holding multiple mobs, we can Assist and always be sure of attacking the mob he is directly tanking. This will help us not to pull aggro from the tank, which would be bad. But to use the Assist feature, we have to target the tank and then hit the Assist key. That's two steps and wasted time that we can eliminate with a macro.

Assist Focus Macro /assist focus This one definitely goes in a good spot on the action bar with a key mapped to it. Make sure this is an easy key you can drop into your mind, heart and soul.  This key will save us all from wipes.  Really, it will.  This one gets used a lot. Things go awry in an instance and your battle plan of Skull, X, Star can be changed the second the first trap fails. No worries! When Skull goes down just smack your Assist Focus Macro and you'll be attacking whatever it is the tank picks up next. No guess-work, no miscommunication and little down-time between attacks.

A Quick Demonstration Our party forms outside the instance and goes through the rigmarole of getting ready to start.

One of the preparation steps is to make the tank your Focus, so you click on Tyrand and use your Set Focus Macro. Poof, it's done. You enter the instance and off you all go. The first pull is easy, just two mobs. One gets sheeped and the tank takes the other. What's our job as a hunter? Target the tank's mob and burn it down. Instead of tab-targeting and perhaps accidentally attacking the sheep, you press your Assist Focus Macro and you're immediately targeting the tank's Target. If you have set your system's configuration so that you commence attacking upon Assisting, you'll actually start firing your ranged weapon, too. But what about your pet? Oh yes, you smack your Pet Attack Macro and that mob gets lit with a Hunter's Mark and your pet rushes in to help DPS. Now this is all well and good, but hardly revolutionary. Where this all really shines is in more complex situations. Let's build one and take a look.

Putting It All Together - A Bad Scenario You're in Steamvaults pulling the four-mob packs. You're sapping one, trapping one, mind-controlling one, and DPSing the Skull. Nice plan. The rogue saps, the feral druid pulls the skull, you tag your mob and start pulling it to your trap. You run run run to the safe place you put your trap, you wait for him to get to you, pop he's trapped. Now what. You want to DPS the Skull, of course. You tab-target and accidentally select your trapped mob but are able to keep from shooting it. You see the Skull mob and try to select it but there are too many things in the way and you cannot get a good click on it. With a growl of desperation, you tab-target through the mobs... circle, moon, Skull! Yes! Start firing! OMG it's been 10 seconds and we we haven't sent our pet yet! Get going you! We're not topping the DamageMeters today as it seems we're always a bloody, bleepin' step behind.

Putting It All Together - With Macros You're in Steamvaults pulling the four-mob packs. You're sapping one, trapping one, mind-controlling one, and DPSing the Skull. Nice plan. The rogue saps, the feral druid pulls the skull, you tag your mob and start pulling it to your trap. While you are running to your trap you hit your Assist Focus Macro and you immediately switch to targeting the Skull. While you are still running to your trap you smack your Pet Attack Macro. As long as your Target is in line-of-sight, you'll cast your Hunter's Mark. Did you know you don't actually have to be looking at the mob to cast Hunter's Mark, it'll work as long as line-of-sight rules are not violated? That's pretty spiffy. The mob is marked and your pet races to engage. You arrive at your trap, the mob you tagged arrives and pop he's trapped. Now what. Well, you've already marked the Skull, your pet has been DPSing it for the past eight seconds, you're already targeting the Skull, so just run into position and commence firing. How simple, elegant and clean is that, we ask you.

Below is an updated version of the combat rating system with the appropriate level 70 values for patch 2.1.  Enjoy!


Combat Ratings conversions at level 70 (rounded to 1 decimal point):

Weapon Skill Rating: 3.9 rating grants 1 skill point

Defense Rating: 2.4 rating grants 1 defense skill.

Dodge Rating: 18.9 rating grants 1% dodge

Parry Rating: 22.4 rating grants 1% parry

Block Rating: 7.9 rating grants 1% block chance

Hit Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% hit chance

Spell Hit Rating: 12.6 rating grants 1% spell hit chance

Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% critical strike chance

Spell Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% spell critical strike chance

Haste Rating: 10.5 rating grants 1% haste

Spell Haste Rating: 21 rating grants 1% spell haste

Resilience Rating: 39.4 rating grants 1% less chance of being struck by any type of critical strike, and 2% less damage taken from critical strikes