There are times when I am a little bit reluctant to give away one of my best-kept secrets.  I’m certainly not the only one who uses what I’m about to show you, but it makes making gold so foolproof, that somehow it hurts my feelings just a bit to tell 40,000 people about it!  Oh well, you can see how dedicated I am to giving you the very best tidbits without holding anything back for myself.

If you’ve been reading DYS for any length of time you’ll know I’m a big AH power broker.  I typically run hundreds of auctions each week and virtually all of my gold comes from being a merchant (not a farmer).  I don’t do dailies except for rep situations, and I can easily afford anything I could ever want.

What I am about to show you is a big part of that process.  There was a time when this was a lot more guess work and expertise, but this little mod has just blown the doors off of making money from trade skills.

Once upon a time, you had to just know a LOT about how each profession worked, and which recipes were good for what.  You needed to know the cost of all the mats for about a dozen recipes in each profession; which things you could vendor, which to DE, what went on the AH - it was enough to drive you pretty batty.

I’ve done articles here at DYS about bags, using DE to make big gold, some rare recipes - in other words, a little bit of all of this.  Well, that was back in the stone ages as far as I am concerned now.  I found a mod that does everything I ever wanted and even a bit more when it comes to trade skills: Lil’Sparky’s Workshop.

Lil’Sparky’s is gold just waiting to be made.  And for some crazy reason this mod has been around for about a year but only around 3,000 people have downloaded the thing.  That is insanity to me.  More than 15,000 folks have looked at it and had no clue how much gold it was worth to them.  Here’s hoping you are smarter than that.  Take my word for it and go grab Lil’Sparky’s right this second.

You can download the latest version here: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info7663-LilSparkysWorkshop.html

Now, what this mod is going to do is tell you what every single recipe you know is worth to vendors, the AH and for DE.  That covers every way you can possibly make money from a crafted item.  You have to use a few other mods to make Lil’Sparky’s do this, just read the requirements in the download screen (I recommend AADV, Informant and ATSW)

Once LS (Lil’SParky’s) is up and running (and assuming you have plenty of AADV data to work with) all you do is open up your profession screen and you are going to see a wealth of new information.

I’m not going to walk you through every single thing in LS, because frankly that would take a fairly long guide, and I figure you’re all big enough to figure it out for yourself.  But the screenshot above illustrates a couple of things I do want to point out.

Whenever you see numbers in bold, bright letters, that means there is money to be made on that item.  On the top you see we can expect to get 116 gold if we sell Soulcloth Gloves at the AH (the little “a” next to 116 means ‘auction,’ a “d” means ‘disenchant,’ and “v” is ‘vendor’).  The number to the right means we can purchase ALL of the mats to make Soulcloth Gloves either at AH or vendors for just 54gold 44 silver - a profit of  61gold 56 silver - so I just pop over to the AH and start buying up everything I can find for these little gems, knowing I will make a hefty profit in no time flat, plus get a few skill-ups to boot!

Even better is the second example.  Remember one thing kids if you hear nothing else in this post:

ENCHANTING WILL MAKE YOU MORE MONEY THAN ANY OTHER PROFESSION PERIOD!

Now we have a mod to help us make even more money from enchanting than ever before possible.  I don’t even have to wait for bottom scanner to pick things up for DE, I can just craft them with the info from LS!  I see here I can make Netherweave Belts for just 7g 19s and then turn right around and DE them and sell the those mats for 21g 11s on average.  Holy cow, that’s about a 200% profit!  I don’t know about the Ah on your server, but I can probably buy 100 stacks of Netherweave at any given time.  That’s a lot of Netherweave Belts - and a LOT of gold about to go in my pocket.

Without LS I would never really know which recipes I can do this with so easily.  Now it’s right in front of me every time I open a trade skill window on ANY of my toons.  Not only that, I can save recipes like this on one toon and it will give me a shopping list like this:

As you can see the shopping list tells me how many of each item I have on alts, in banks, and inventories on all my toons on the server.  Then it will list which things I need to purchase from vendors - it will even auto-buy the exact amount of vendor items I need with the push of a single button at the trade merchants.  Getting excited about this yet?

This shopping list will appear on my banking toon when I log in - my goodness; am I in gold heaven or what?  So I just log all of my toons, pop in a queue for all of the best recipes for each profession, log the banker and go on a serious shopping spree.  As long as I buy the mats for each thing in the queue for at, or below 100% of ah market value, I win big.

Then I just mail all that stuff to the trade skill toons, make everything, send it back to the bank or enchanter for DE, and it’s CHA-CHING, CHA-CHING, CHA-CHING.

Don’t waste another minute - go get this mod and start Dominating with crafted items right away.

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37 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Wrath of the Lich King will be introducing a new profession to the game upon release that stands to have a very large impact upon the game economy.  There is currently little in the way of comprehensive information available about Inscription but what little we do know puts you in a position to exploit the changes that Inscription implementation will have on the game as a whole.

So what do we know about Inscription?

To begin with, we know Inscription is a crafting style profession that is fueled by the gathering profession herbalism.  All inscriptions seem to be created by a mixture of inks and parchments; parchment is bought from a vendor while inks are created either directly from raw herbs, or from a pommace.

A pommace is created by the process of milling herbs; this works in a similar fashion to a jewelcrafter’s prospecting ability but renders down stacks of 5 herbs rather than ore.

Once an ink is made an inscriber can create a variety of items with them, all of which have the potential for resale. The first items that are created by an inscriber are scrolls such as a scroll of intellect.  Previously these were only found randomly throughout the world to give yourself temporary buffs to your raw stats but will now also be created by an inscriber.  By utilizing scrolls, a player can ensure they remain fully buffed even when soloing.

The second important creation from an inscriber is the combination of Bleached Parchment and Treated Vellum. These two items can be utilized by enchanters to store enchants within.  With an enchant stored within, an enchanter can then place the item on the auction house for use by others to use on their own equipment without needing to directly trade with an enchanter.

Finally an Inscriber can create Glyphs.  Each character in the game will be given 6 Glyph slots of varying power.  A Glyph will act to change the properties of certain spells either cosmetically or through significant increases in power; as such Glyphs will be in demand from all high level players capable of utilizing them.

Minor Glyphs will largely only be cosmetic changes to add more character to spells or slightly increase usability without any real change in a spells’ power; effects will include increasing the duration of buffs or changing of a spells’ graphics.

Lesser Glyphs provide small game play changes to a spell by reducing its costs or providing minor power boosts without massive changes to the ability; examples would be reducing the rage cost of debuffs or increasing the chance of certain attacks hitting.

Greater Glyphs will significantly improve the way in which an ability works and will be the most sought after glyphs.  An inscriber will get an additional Greater Glyph slot compared to other players as a profession advantage.  Examples of Greater Glyph effects will be to improve your spell damage or add secondary effects such as snares or knockback resistance to them.

So, how can you exploit this profession to the fullest?  The answer is simple; when inscription is implemented the demand for herbs is going to skyrocket.  Not only will people need low level herbs to raise their skill level in inscription, but in the long term, Inscription demand for herbs will continue to be high as other players demand Scrolls and Glyphs.

Those who are prepared will be able to stock up on a large variety of herbs and sell them for a fortune on release of the expansion; you won’t even need to be an herbalist to benefit.  Simply scour the auction house to build up a stockpile and seek to dominate the market.

(Keep in mind that the last time Lithanial gave a gold-making tip Lawbringer tested the information on several servers - and made more than 15,000 gold on one toon in less than two weeks.  You have several months before the xpac comes out, if I were you I would follow Lithanial’s advice and buy every herb you can get your hands on for the next couple of months.  The release of the expansion will mean massive profits as demand rises through the roof if you can control the supply of herbs of all levels to the ah!)

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31 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

From time to time I remember Benjamin Buford Blue (Bubba) from the movie “Forest Gump” as he went through all the dozens of ways you could cook shrimp.  It’s one of my all-time favorite movie bits.  While I can’t say that there are hundreds of things you can do with a bear flank, I do “know everything there is to know about cookin” them.

The reason I chose these as a tip is because these two recipes have a very different buff from most cooked foods until you get to the Outlands recipes.  The other reason is that it’s pretty easy to get the bear flanks, so these two recipes make sense for almost every class if stamina, spirit or just a little health regen is not your main concern.  Finally, these recipes were only added in patch 2.4 so many of you may not even know they exist.

There are two reasons for using food from cooking.  One is to regenerate health, although it’s often easier to simply buy food from vendors for that.  The other reason is for the buffs.  A hefty number of the cooking recipes give you a boost to stamina and spirit if you spend 10 seconds eating, but there are others that have different variations on the food buff theme.

Bear Burgers and Bear Kabobs are one of only a few old world recipes that give buffs that are different from stam/spirit.  And these two buffs can be pretty useful.  Combine that with the fact that neither of these recipes require a spice to make, and it’s a winner.

Now, some will argue that the best non SS food buff from old world foods is the recipe for greater Sagefish, Sagefish Delight.  The problem with this is that Raw Greater Sagefish are a pain in the butt to get since they can only be fished from schools.  But bear flanks drop from 11 different mobs in four different zones.

Combine these things with the other fact that bear flanks are normally available in fairly high quantities for really low prices on most servers and it’s certainly something you should consider picking up if you’ve leveled cooking - which I highly recommend.

Part of this phenomenon is because this recipe was only added in patch 2.4, so those guys already in Outlands tend to ignore them; as well as folks who are just rushing through on their way to Outlands.  The recipe was added to help you level cooking from 250-300 without having to fish or cook fish to do so.

I already did a series on fishing and cooking because it’s the best combo to speed up the leveling cooking process, but if you’re one of those people who just refuses to suffer the time sink of fishing you are going to need these recipes - and the nice thing is that the benefits are terrific in every direction.

Here’s what these two recipes look like from wowhead:

I had Lawbringer stir us up a batch of these things while we were leveling through the 50’s, and we still keep some around now that we’re in Outlands until he gets those killer fish recipes.  As a hunter, the +24 attack power is terrific, while Lawbringer’s Shadow Priest get a sweet little +14 to all spells.  That’s the equivalent of wearing another blue item with those stats for each of us.

You can purchase these new recipes in Felwood at the Alliance and Horde General Goods vendors in each faction base.  Malygor is the Alliance vendor and Bale is “FOR THE HORDE!” 

Kudos to Lawbringer for grabbing these and recognizing that they were new as we ran like mad through the Felwood segment.  We picked up enough flanks in Felwood, Winterspring and Western Plaguelands to last us quite some time, and we put that buff on every 15 minutes or so while questing.

All in all, it’s easy to get the mats for these, gives a nifty buff, and will help you non-fishing style folks gain a couple dozen points to your cooking skill = win.  Go Dominate, and may the bear never get YOU.

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5 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

If all has gone well with your arena preparation, and your opening tactics have put your opponent on the back foot, it becomes time to hunt for your first arena kill of the match.

There are many ways in which you can force a kill against the other team, each with their own complexities of execution, ranging from the simple to the devious, listed here are just a few of the most popular ways of squeezing that kill in past the enemy healers.

Drain them dry

By far the simplest method of winning an arena match is to outlast your opponents’ mana pool; while lacking any particular flair it is effective. Through a mixture of mana drains and healing efficiency de buffs such as wounding poison you can ensure that your target can no longer be healed simply because of a lack of mana.

Many an even fight in which no team can tactically gain the upper hand comes down to a mana war such as this; particularly with defensive orientated teams accompanied by many healers. It is important to ensure you are capable of winning in the outlasting game to prevent a slow and frustrating loss.

Control the healers

This method is generally the standard way a kill is earned in the arena. It relies on your team having moderate burst capabilities and crowd control skills.

Simply use a crowd control ability on an opposing healer when your designated kill target is moderately low on health to prevent heals from landing. Typically your kill target will be another healer if present allowing you to easily interrupt further heals.

This method is simple to execute and the one most teams utilise when starting out so as a healer it is important to learn how to defend yourself from enemy crowd control by attempting to stay out of line of sight from enemy crowd controllers.

Split DPS

Slightly more complex is a split DPS method, most healers have emergency healing measures that can rapidly heal one target or mitigate large amounts of damage to one target. Many healers however struggle to heal multiple people efficiently.
As such, by splitting your DPS between two targets when the opposing team has a low amount of healing power can cause them to rapidly be overloaded when concentrated damage could be countered.

Target switching

Reliant on fast reactions from your team to voice communicated information, target switching is by far one of the most effective methods of claiming a kill and is commonly how tournaments level teams win matches.

The premise is that your DPS can switch target faster than the enemy healers can react. With enough burst damage you can have a target down to low health before the opposite team get a chance to react. Coupled with well timed crowd control or preliminary damage from a split DPS tactic and kills can come thick and fast.

This is the tactic that all teams should aspire to learn, but it does require your team to have competent leadership as timing is everything.

The almighty Cyclone

This tactic is only available if you have a Druid in your team and requires precise timing to work. The plan is to hit your target with a large burst of damage to get him low on health, normally he would then be healed up but by landing a cyclone you prevent him being healed.

From there you have 6 seconds to line up a killing burst of damage as soon as cyclone breaks so timing is everything; time your attack too late and heals will land preventing the kill, time it too soon and your attack will do no damage.

While complex, this is my favourite personal tactic for 5v5 arena and is a fantastic way of stealing a kill from under the noses of teams with a high amount of healers.

Using the right tactic at the right time is pivotal to success in the arena, but now fully informed, you should be able to put them into practice with your own teams as you prepare to dominate all who stand before you.

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31 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Recently the non disclosure agreement surrounding the next expansion to World of Warcraft was lifted and beta testing has begun. Over the past few days a flood of new information has come forth regarding all aspects of the game and many things have slipped through relatively unnoticed in the excitement.

While it would be entirely possible to run through each class reviewing the upcoming changes in depth, let us instead look at a few of the key changes to game play mechanics that will have a widespread effect throughout the game for a vast majority of classes.

Spell power

Rather than there being separate stats for improving a spells’ damage or healing capability, Blizzard has combined both statistics together into the new spell power stat. In turn the coefficients for all spells have been adjusted, particularly for healing spells since there is no longer a pure healing stat.

The net change of this is that a healer will be receiving a vast increase to their damage capabilities, while offensive hybrid casters will be able to heal far more effectively than before.

Hit/Crit/Haste

All three of the above stats have been consolidated; no longer will there be separate hit, crit or haste stats for melee and spell casters, instead both your melee attacks and spells will benefit at the same time.

This mechanics changes is massive for any hybrid capable of both melee and spell attacks such as paladins and shaman. As an example of how big an impact this may have, enhancement shaman will be able to obtain a decent crit rate to their shocks; this in turn can be combined with the talent elemental devastation for brutal synergy.

Note that this only applies to the raw stats of those individual statistics, critical strike chance increases due to stats such as intelligence or agility will still only apply to either spells or melee.

Threat

Blessing of salvation has been radically changed and so many classes which relied on it for threat reduction may be in a bit of a panic about how threat management could be an issue in WotLK.

Fear not however, tanks in the expansion have had their threat multipliers boosted in compensation; for instance a warrior’s basic defensive stance now boosts threat generated by 45% rather than the current 30%. Equally, threat reduction talents for all dps classes are now present and much easier to access.

Raid Wide Abilities

Many effects which only had an impact on your own group have now been changed to be beneficial to your entire raid. Auras and totems will now be beneficial to all those nearby but the change does not only apply to buffs.

Several healing spells will affect raid members nearby regardless of grouping and many of the new abilities such as a paladin’s Judgement of the Wise talent, will affect raid members too.

The net impact will be a much wider variety of group compositions along with more fluid PvP combat within battlegrounds where groups naturally get split apart and group composition is generally random.

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33 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

A light went on for me a few days ago as I was feverishly working on my current speed leveling run.  I always run a hunter for speed runs and I don’t take a single second longer than I absolutely have to for anything.  That means I’m not spending precious time at the ah looking for every teeny tiny gear upgrade, or anything else for that matter.

As a result, I can end up having mana issues.  I’m not able to spend the time to get all the exactly right gear and spec MM to make that sort of issue go away, since that would defeat the purpose of trying to break records anyway.  Think about it, if I can save just 5 minutes in every level it will take 5 hours and 45 minutes off the total time.  So spending even 10 minutes running to the nearest AH to get minor gear upgrades is completely out of the question.

But taking 10 seconds between every six to ten fights or so to mana back up is also a time killer.  But if you back off on your skill shots, you don’t mow them down as fast - you can see the dilemma.  Kill fast = more down time to drink.  Slow down a touch = slowing down (I hate that).  But I found a really nice little exploit for this issue.  It doesn’t work for more than 10 levels or so.  But at levels 51-60, when the quests all seem like gathering quests, a little speed boost to down-time is just the ticket.

So whilst I was speeding through Azeroth wondering how to better manage my mana drain, I had to go to Org to turn in a quest in the valley of honor.  And then it hit me: Alterac Manna Biscuits!  I logged out for a minute to check Wowhead for these little nuggets of goodness.  Here’s the tale of the tape:

See that?  4410 health AND 4410 mana on one food.  Well I didn’t waste another second, I logged back in, jumped into an AV and bought 10 stacks of these.  A little pricey, but well worth it.  At level 52 these things will fill up your mana bar in about 5-7 seconds, talk about speeding things up!

You’ll notice that you can’t use these until level 51, so it’s a bummer for you until then.  You can’t join AV before level 51 anyway, so you just have to wait until then.  These are available at Gruunda Wolfheart for horde in Frostwolf Village, and Gaelden Hammersmith in Dun Baldar for Alliance.

A little more research showed that there is not anything to compare to the Alterac Manna Biscuit (AMB’s) until well into outlands and level 60.  So for ten levels I’ve got the very best thing available to fill my mana bar - so fast, in fact, that I can just sit down to munch and send my pet to the next mob.  I can virtually fight non-stop all the way to Hellfire.

Now I was looking at this from the purely mana-regeneration perspective, since I normally don’t have a lot of health damage running on the hunter.  These things are a great boost to all the mana-using classes as we will see below.  But there are also big benefits to the warrior and rogue who have no other way to heal themselves after a tough fight than by using bandages or food if they are running solo.

As a matter of fact, you might think that the only class that might not get a big boost from these is the mage.  Mages get to conjure all their food and water for free, but until they get to train rank 7 of conjure food and water at level 60 (Rank 7 food from a drop tome as well), these things are much better than the rank 6 conjured items.  Past that, rank 6 of conjure food and water only regenerate 2148 health or mana, so AMB’s have twice the punch and give health and mana simultaneously!  So every single class wins with AV Manna Biscuits.

So as you slog through the 50’s on your next toon, be sure to hop an AV match and grab some of these, they will certainly do more than anything else out there to keep you on your feet - dominating!

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18 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

We did a post on the Artisan cooking quest, as well as a two-part guide to the Artisan Fishing quest.  There was a bigger purpose to all of that.  Some of the best raid buffs come from cooked foods, and even more specifically, cooked fish.  We don’t want you to have to always buy everything from the AH, so here’s how to put those two secondary profession skills together to make leveling cooking a breeze.

(We have yet to find a way to make leveling fishing faster, so you’ll just have to grind that one out)

Cooking fish is the easy way to get from 1-375. The recipes are easier to find, the mats are easier to get. It’s is much faster to fish up 3 or 4 stacks of fish than to grind out 3 or 4 stacks of raptor eggs.

To find where to go to get each type of fish, just click the Thottbot link and then sort the fishing list by clicking the Drop % on the list with the header that says “From Fishing.” These pages will give you the very best location to catch the maximum number of each fish per type.

1 – 50: Brilliant Smallfish = 80. Mats (1 Raw Brilliant Smallfish)

• 80 Raw Brilliant Smallfish

51 – 100: Longjaw Mudsnapper = 80. Mats (1 Raw Longjaw Mudsnapper)

• 80 Raw Longjaw Mudsnapper

101 – 175: Bristle Whisker Catfish = 120. Mats (1 Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish)

• 120 Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish

175 – 225: Rockscale Cod = 80. Mats (1 Raw Rockscale Cod)

• 80 Raw Rockscale Cod

Here you’ll go do your cooking and fishing quests.

226 – 275: Spotted Yellowtail = 80. Mats (1 Raw Spotted Yellowtail)

• 80 Raw Spotted Yellowtail

Before you move on to the next step, go get the Master Cookbook so you don’t have to stop and run all over the world to go get it in the middle of cooking.

276 – 325: Your Choice – or combination of the following = 80.

• Mightfish Steak. Mats (1 Large Raw Mightfish, 1 Hot Spices, 1 Soothing Spices)
• Baked Salmon. Mats (1 Raw Whitescale Salmon, 1 Soothing Spices)

After you reach 325, go get all of the Outlands fish recipes:

• Blackened Trout – Mats (1 Barbed Gill Trout)
• Feltail Delight – Mats (1 Spotted Feltail)
• Blackened Sporefish – Mats (Zangarian Sporefish)
• Grilled Mudfish - Mats (1 Figluster’s Mudfish)
• Poached Bluefish – Mats (1 Icefin Bluefish)
• Golden Fish Sticks – Mats (1 Golden Darter)
• Spicy Crawdad – Mats (1 Furious Crawdad)

Seriously, that’s all there is to it. The Trout and Feltail will get you to 340, the next four to 365, and Spicy Crawdads to 375. Short and sweet – and very Dominating!

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14 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Back at the release of the arena system and throughout the duration of season 1 there was one rule of thumb, DoTs were king. Resilience never used to reduce DoT damage and as such warlocks and shadow priests dominated almost every bracket due to overwhelming amounts of shadow damage.

A counter however was found as people began to access The Black Temple. Shadow resist kit began to see widespread use throughout top end arena which caused the end of the domination of shadow caster classes.

As time has gone on though it is no longer possible to swap into resist sets mid arena fight and resilience now affects DoTs. But is the same principle still applicable? Can spell resist be just as effective now or in the future for high end PvP?

While it is no longer possible to equip yourself with pure resist kit specifically tailored to the opponent you are fighting, there are a number of options available to you for increasing your spell resist without significantly reducing your combat capability.

The first consideration before thinking of going for a spell resist build is your basic resist level, paladin auras, shaman totems, certain buffs, racial traits and other class abilities all act to provide a good base level to work off when aiming to resist a single spell school. Should you not have access to these skills, it is very hard to reach significant levels of resistance and as such will probably not be worth your while.

The second consideration is just what spell school you would like to become more resistant to. The most potent options are shadow and nature. The other spell schools, while effective in the right situation, only generally apply to mages who have many spell schools to rely upon for damage in an emergency.

Being able to resist shadow spells will give you a degree of protection from mana burns as well as a chance to resist the application of DoTs to yourself and each individual tick of damage, while becoming nature resistant will enable you to resist a druid crowd control along with poisons and a bulk of the damage from elemental shaman or moonkin.

If you have chosen a spell school to aim your spell resist efforts at, and have access to a decent baseline resist, then it is time to work on your equipment. The main way of increasing your resistances is through the resist all stat. This can be found on numerous enchants along with void spheres created by enchanters.

Each void sphere will provide you with 4 spell resist to every spell school and you are able to enchant your cloak or shoulders with a further 7 each with an additional 5 resist to your shield should you have one available. As a blood elf holy Paladin for example it is currently possible to reach a basic 56 resistance to all spell schools with little trouble.

The next step is spell school specific enchants, a glyph on your helm will add 20 resist to any single spell school of your choice. Armour kits with 8 spell resist to a single school are also available for your chest, legs, hands and feet, though your normal leg and hand enchants are more valuable.

By utilizing these single spell school enchants you can reach around 90 spell resist to a single school without buffs or 160 with an aura effect active. This level of spell resist is enough to resist around half of the incoming damage from that spell school and significantly reduce the chance of non damaging effects landing on you, all without using any pure resist equipment. Add the effect of any spell mitigating abilities such as a higher fear resist chance and you can become a formidable opponent for casters which used to be your nemesis.

Unfortunately, with current arena itemization most casters can pickup 74 spell penetration without any real effort severely compromising this tactic for now. With Wrath of the Lich King however, all spell resist abilities will continue to scale and we may see reduced levels of accessibility to spell penetration, possibly allowing for a return of spell resist to competitive PvP.

For now however, the ease of gaining spell penetration prevents its widespread use outside of PvE content.

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6 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

If you have been following my arena guides lately then you should now be entering the arena with a strong team setup coupled with a sophisticated communications setup to enable your team to perform to its best.

But all that planning is for nothing if you cannot execute your attack in the right way, as with the preparations you make before attacking, the way in which you initiate your attack is vital to winning in the arena.

Should your team end up confused and scattered in the attack it is a fast road to a lost match, likewise should you be able to force confusion upon your enemy it can make your wins easier to obtain. The trick is to force the other team to play into your own hands and style; make them dance to your tune and victory is assured.

One basic and effective opening tactic is a rush, this favors high burst dps teams to take advantage of the confusion for an easy first kill. The plan is simple, hit the other team hard and from an unexpected angle before they have a chance to identify what composition they are against.

An example of an effective place to rush is Blades Edge, most teams generally line up at opposite ends of the bridge and spend some time scouting out the other team, an effective rush will instead mount up and ride to the opposing teams ramp up to the bridge to hit them in the side.

The big downside to a rush is that while the other team will not have time to scout you out, neither will you have time to identify an effective target to nuke and so it is easy to end up with your own team confused without proper leadership.

A second effective opening tactic, and my personal favorite is harassment. This generally relies on having dispell classes move forward and purge one or two of the enemy buffs before backing off again quickly. In this manner you can weaken the enemy without fully engaging them and try to make one of their members panic and charge you.

If harassing, remember to land an attack from a distance on warriors in order to put them in combat; this stops them from utilizing charge against you which is the most common way you will be chased down as a harasser.

You can also harass with mana drains such as viper sting and by utilizing low rank DoT spells which cost far more mana to be removed than they do to cast. Further harassment tactics extend to the killing of hunter and warlock pets; these are sometimes left on aggressive stance and will charge out when attacked, enabling them to be killed alone.

The third tactic involves mass AoE crowd control and is effective when combined with a slightly delayed rush.   What it typically involves is a class such as a rogue sapping enemy healers or a mage polymorphing them before/as you charge in. This forces them to trinket in order to begin healing.

It is at this point that you hit the entire team with an AoE fear such as intimidating shout or howl of terror. The healers, having previously trinketed will now be out of control and likely to run out of line of sight of their team mates, causing chaos in the enemy’s organization.

This tactic does however rely on the other team being bunched up and you being the attacker.

The final opening tactic is the stealth hunt, if you know the other team has a stealth class, especially a rogue, then the chances are high that they will be sniffing around your team scouting you out. If you can catch them out with a low rank AoE to detect them or by utilizing the shadow sight gems then you force the other team to attack in order to rescue the stealth member.

This can lead to the opposition lacking organization in their attack making them much easier for you to dominate.

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We walked you through getting to Nat Pagle for this quest, and it’s high time I showed you how to catch those four fish.  Before you head out, be sure to bring along your shiny baubles otherwise you’ll kick yourself when you get to the first fishing hole!

Here’s the link to the Quest on wowhead - http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=6607 Nat asks you to go catch four fish and then return to him when you get them all. What we’re going to do is show you the fastest order to go get these fish, and the best spots to fish.  For reference, paths in yellow are for Alliance, and Horde is red.

FISH #1 - Feralas Ahi

For the Feralas Ahi just fly to Feralas (Feathermoon for Ally, Camp Mojache for Horde) and run to the little lake in the middle of the map to catch the Feralas Ahi. The map is pretty easy to follow here. Just run down to the bridge that crosses over the waterfall and jump off the road. There’s a little spot that sticks out into the pond with no roaming mobs. This one is easy for both factions.  I normally get the Ahi in just a few casts.

FISH #2 - Sar’Theris Striker

After you get the Ahi, fly to Desolace for the Sar’Theris Striker. Horde will only have to get off the bird at Shadowprey Village, run a bit south down the coast, and fish.  Be sure that you leave Shadowprey village completely, your sub-zone on your minimap should read Sar’Theris Strand, you cannot catch this fish while the zone map reads Shadowprey Village. Ally have a little longer run from Nijels Point down to the coast.

FISH #3 - Savage Coast Sailfin

Now fly back to ratchet and take the boat to Stranglethorn Vale. As soon as the boat lands, just hop off the north end of the dock and swim over to the first place you can stand near the little camp of pirates. This fish, the Savage Coast Blue Sailfin takes about 2 minutes to get. You might even try to catch one right off the end of the dock.

FISH #4 - Misty Reed Mahi Mahi

Now for the last (and hardest) fish to nab, the Misty Reed Mahi Mahi. Horde toons can fly to Stonard, but Ally Chars will have to fly to Nethergarde Keep in the Blasted Lands, or to Darkshire in Duskwood and run around Stonard to catch up

When you get to the beach, avoid the Murlocs and you’ll find a little spot just after the sand ends where there are no giant crocs or Murlocs patrolling and you can fish in a little peace. Once you’re done here, hearth out.

Now all you have to do is go back to Nat Pagle and turn in your fish, and you’re done! Congratulations and happy fishing! Oh, and always remember to Dominate.

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6 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post