Flux

Are you in a guild that can’t seem to get past the next boss or raid? Or it can’t find enough of the right people? What it needs is more Pocky.

All raiding guilds should have a full course of Pocky. Without it they will likely suffer from loot drama, bump qq, personalities woe, unprepared players, and lack of progression. This can lead to /gquit, guild hopping, splits, merges, or just plain collapse.

A successful raiding guild has three keys that mirror the player stages. With two they may get lucky. With only one they will collapse. Let’s take look at the P.O.C. keys you need.

Progress

Players in raiding guilds want to see the highest level raids and the end game content. These raids are extraordinarily difficult and can be frustrating if everything is not going well. Every guild will get hung up on a raid from time to time but there are some things you can do to help ease the frustration.

(more…)

Why can you stand far back from some bosses and still hit them? Why do people bunny hop in PvP? Why do druids in cat form have trouble with specials? Why can a Tauren tank not get Stomped by Brutallus in the Sunwell raid but every other tank can? It’s all because of hitboxes. Actually, it’s not the only reason people bunny hop in PvP but it does change your hitbox.

What is a hitbox? Hitboxes are an easy way for a game to decide if you can hit a target. For example, in a first person shooter the game doesn’t calculate the trajectory of a bullet though the air and if it would hit the pixels of your target’s leg. It simply determines if you pointed your gun at an imaginary box around the target. Did you aim and hit the box. This is much easier and faster for a game to calculate. Of course there might be a couple different boxes for each target. For example, there might be one for the head, chest, legs, and arms. But they are still boxes or some other shape. WoW has just one.

Let’s take a look at how WoW’s hitbox works and then we’ll offer up some specific tips at the end.

WoW’s Hitbox

How big is a creatures hitbox if you can’t see it? Slowly walk towards the creature and keep melee attacking. When you can hit it, the edge of your hitbox just touched theirs. To make the game feel realistic large creatures have large hitboxes and small creatures have small ones.

If you are melee you have to overlap hitboxes to hit. And if you are ranged then the distance from your hitbox center to the edge of your target’s hitbox must be in range of your ability.

(more…)

When you raid the group number you are in becomes important. Many of the buffs that you get from other players only work within your group number. If you are the raid leader or assistant picking and choosing which players are in which groups, it often makes the difference between success and failure.

As a player it’s helpful to know which buffs are best for you and as a raid leader it’s helpful to understand all the classes so you can decide how to organize the grouping. Let’s take a look at the player group only buffs. These are buffs that only work on your own group. This doesn’t include buffs you can cast across groups and ones that work individually. For example, a priest can cast Prayer of Fortitude which will buff the target and the target’s party. So they can cast it on the entire raid. But Vampiric Touch only gives mana to members in their own own group.

Let’s take a look at the player group only enhancements.

(more…)

If you have been collecting heroic badges and shopping at G’eras for epic gear, you may have noticed the Inferno items and asked yourself. Do I really need that much fire resistance? Ever?

Unless you are a tank, warlock, or melee damage then the answer is no. Otherwise, the answer is yes. Eventually.

There are three Burning Crusades boss fights that require fire resistance. Leothras the Blind in Serpentshrine Caverns, Azgalor in Mount Hyjal and Illidan in the Black Temple.

(more…)

For one reason or another there are several bosses in WoW that most people don’t know about or have been forgotten. Some drop great loot and some are just fun. Let’s take a look at one two.

Doomwalker and Doom Lord Kazzak

Profile: Kill the demon that reopened the Dark Portal and Kil’jaeden’s giant griefing robot. Get some payback and make Illidan happy with you.
Where: Shadowmoon Valley and Hellfire Peninsula
How: Doomwalker and Kazzak
Loot: A wide selection of epic level 120 items. Fat loot before you hit the higher 25 man raids.

My first encounter with Doomwalker was a late night pug raid. Someone decided to to put together a pug group. Recruiting from general and trade along with people arm twisting their own guildies was accompanied by the general choas of organizing a pug raid. Eventually we had our group and converged on the outskirts of the Black Temple. It was a great fight, even though we died that time. But there was nothing like 40 people swooping into the fight with griffons, dragons, ravens, and rays to setup and take him down.

(more…)

For one reason or another there are several bosses in WoW that most people don’t know about or have been forgotten. Some drop great loot and some are just fun. Let’s take a look at one.

Karazhan Animals

Profile: Hound, Bat, and Spider gives phat lewtz. Who knew?
Where: Karazhan, servent’s quarters.
How: Shadikith, Rokad, Hyakiss
Loot: Random epic level 115 belt, wrist, or foot items. Get geared up for Kara. Find specialized role items.

I had always wondered what the servant quarter’s in Karazhan contained besides an infestation of spiders, bats, and hounds. I had been through it a couple times but never saw anything except these mobs, and the groups I had been with all skipped past it and headed to Moroes.

But in these quarters are probably one of the least know groups of bosses in the expansion. Most guilds likely skip them because they don’t know about them, have time constraints, or they are farming the instance for other loot. But these bosses are special and worth a stop if you aren’t on farm status with Karazhan, don’t have a full set of epics better than level 115, need some specialized loot, or are just curious.

(more…)

Zampana over on the WoW forums has a great list of all the class requirements for going into Karazhan. I highly recommend meeting these minimums.