WoW

Maintenance Window Expanded

November 13, 2007 By Growl 1 Comment

D’oh! That’s right folks – hold tight a bit longer – the systems folks over at Blizzard pushed their maintenance window out a couple more hours. Both the US and EU realms have been given a 2 hour extension on the maintenance time in order to complete the installation of patch 2.3.

Drysc passed along the bad news to US players – noting that there was a chance that the servers could be up and running again before the maintenance window completed. He then likely vacated the forums before someone tried to bus-shock him.

Keep an eye on your realms – they should be popping up any time now.

Portable Macros

November 13, 2007 By Growl 5 Comments

Dear Growl,

I love macros – and I have over a dozen of them written for different characters on all of my servers. Last week I bought a new computer and installed WOW on it. But now it looks like I need to re-write all of my macros on this new install! What a pain! Is there any way to bring my old macros over to my new computer?

Thanks!

Wardance
Thorium Brotherhood US

Great question Wardance – and the short answer is “Yes” – you can take your macros with you when you change computers. It’s actually a pretty easy! I’ll even use pictures to show how to do it! If you can’t read the thumbnails – just click the image for a larger view!

First off you need to understand that there are two kinds of macros. For simplicities sake we’re going to call them:

General Macros and Character Specific Macros

What’s the difference? Easy – just open up your macro interface while you’re in game. You’ll notice that the macro creation window has two tabs.

The default tab in the macro creation window are for macros that will be available to *every* character you play. No matter which toon you’re logged onto – you can always open up the macro creation interface and those same macros will be available to every character in your account. The default tab is a great place to put commonly used macros that all of your characters might use – like common emotes, bandage macros, and trade or guild barkers.

The second tab is character specific. In other words – if Wardance is logged on and he creates a macro in tab-2 (Wardance’s Macros) – those macros will *only* be available to that character. This tab is a great place to put macros that your other toons don’t need access to. For example – the hunter you have on the same account isn’t going to need a macro that will help him spam “Sunder Armor and Shield Block.”

Blizzards developer trolls save these macros in text files and store them on your hard-drive. By knowing where you look for the files themselves, you can easily take them with you to another install of World of Warcraft by simply copying the files to a memory-stick or a portable hard-drive. The files are quite small, so you shouldn’t have a problem taking them with you.

The first thing you need to do is learn where your macros live. For most players on Windows Systems you’ll simply need to look on your hard-drive for your World of Warcraft installation.

PC Users:

Most likely your WOW install lives in one of two places:

C:\World of Warcraft or C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft

Mac Users:

Just open your Applications Folder – it’s in there (too easy!)

One thing to keep in mind is that the Mac and PC Installs are virtually identical in regards to the folder structures that we’re going to be working with. I use a mac much of the time – so the majority of the screen shots will be from a Mac. PC users – don’t fear – your World of Warcraft folder looks virtually identical. For what we’re here to do today – all of the folder and file names are exactly the same.

So – the next step is to find the WTF folder (no jokes please) – the WTF folder holds user interface (UI) and addon information for each of your characters. Inside of the WTF folder is a folder called “Account” that includes all of the registered accounts you use to play the game.

Select your account name and open that folder. Inside are a number of files – look for the following:

macros-cache.txt
This is where Blizzard hides your General Macros. To take these macros with you – simply grab a copy of the file and move it to the same location on your new computer.

To find your Character Specific Macros, look at the other folders here. If you play characters on multiple servers, you’ll see a folder for each server you play on. Find the server that houses the character whose macros you’d like to copy and open that folder.

Inside are folders for all of the characters you “own” on that server. Find the character who’s macros you’d like to bring with you and open that folder. Inside you’ll find another macros-cache.txt file. In this file are all of that characters custom macros.

Now this is pretty simple to do, but there’s actually an easier way to bring not only your macros, but also all of your key-bindings, addon settings, and interface settings along to a new computer. Simply copy the entire WTF folder and place it on your new computer.

If you choose to do this – use caution. Corrupt or overly large WTF folders are often the cause of a great deal of problems for WoW players, including graphical problems and increased lag.

That said, if your current install is problem free, it’s often not a bad idea to keep a backup of your WTF folder on a thumb-drive or external hard-drive. I travel a lot and often swap between a work laptop (with WOW on it) or any of two or three different Mac or PC laptops that belong in our family. I always keep an updated copy of my Addons folder (to keep all of my addons updated) and a copy of my WTF folder. If I’m going out of town and plan on playing a little WoW – I’ll make sure to update the install on the computer that I’ll be bringing with me – with the most recent versions of both of these folders. That way – all of my addons are current – and I don’t have to recreate any of my UI settings or rewrite any macros!

When Things Don’t Work

I found my macros files on my old system and went to copy it to the WTF->Accounts->Account Name folder on my new computer. But the folder wasn’t there. Did it get deleted? Am I looking in the wrong place?

No – chances are – you’re working with a brand new install and haven’t yet logged into the game or played a character on this new install. Until you log into the game and into the game world on a character – the folders you’re looking for won’t exist. The same can be said for your character specific macros. If you’ve never logged that character in on your new system – that characters folder won’t exist. Log into the character first – then close out of the game and find the folder!

That’s all for today! Macros are great tools and can help give you the edge in a number of situations. Don’t lose all the hard work you’ve put into those macros by not knowing how to back them up! If you run into questions or know of other great ways to make your WoW more portable – e-mail to us here at Gitrknowswow!

It’s Patch Day – US Realms Offline

November 13, 2007 By Gitr 3 Comments

I woke up too late this morning (well, after my shower) to get in an nab some last minute bid auctions. I’m pretty pumped about the patch. This is the day we’ve been waiting for. I have my lowbie alts in Orgrimmar for a quick flight to Duskwallow Marsh and can’t wait for tonight’s class at university to end so I can get home and log in.

Growl will be bringing you more stuff shortly, so be sure to check in later, if you can make yourself stop trying to log in to your account.

2.3 – The Patch We’ve All Been Anticipating

November 12, 2007 By Gitr 14 Comments

It’s coming tomorrow morning, and I personally can’t wait until 10pm to get to play. Right… gaming life sucks when you go straight from work to a 3 hour night class, but what am I going to do? Last week, I caught the Background Downloader grabbing the patch for me and I’ve since been mulling about what I’m most looking forward to.

Being an alt-aholic like Growl and Kinless, not to mention 60-less PhiLogical, I’m very much mainly interested in the improved leveling for sub-60s. Then there is the newly added guild bank, which has my mules and the guild banker happy about. Oh, and the nixing the gossip pane on the flight masters and bankers. Doh! What am I most looking forward to? I’ve got a brand new druid (level 5 after 1 hour) because I couldn’t resist the alt-itch again and a 44 paladin going for 60 by Christmas. Depending on how much the patch improves leveling, I may succumb to starting an all new frost mage again.

According to the PTR patch notes that Blizzard has up right now, there is a lot to look forward to. Oh yeah! I almost forgot the hunter dead zone is going away, too. Tuesday night is going to be a fun night! The list is seriously too long to put up here without looking like news regurgitating, so go check out the list and chime in on what you want most.

Shaman Nerfed – World LOL’s

November 9, 2007 By Growl 11 Comments

With 2.3 on the horizon and most of the WoW playing population eagerly waiting for the new content and various fixes that come along with each patch, there remain a group of stalwart players that are once again dreading it. Of course – I’m referring to the venerable Shaman.

At one time, the Shaman class was an unmistakable hurricane force in world PvP. Feared by all, this versatile hybrid could burst melee like a warrior, kite like a hunter, and nuke and heal in ways that made druids prowl away in shame. They were *monsters* a horde only superclass and long did the alliance dramakin sing to the devs begging for them to be nerfed.

Somewhere around WoW 2.0 – that wish was granted. Worse, like a spurned ex-girlfriend the devs seemed to find new and entertaining ways to include at least one or two new nerfs in each successive patch. Still stinging from a botched (read ignored) review several patches ago and a string of setbacks that whittled away the classes best tools, Shaman seem to truly have a bitch worth scratching. Today, the Shaman is the least played class in the game and the few remaining stalwarts are hugging their totems and raising a QQ that would make a ret-pally blush.

Tenebreon from the Maelstrom server summed things up pretty well in the official class forums:

This started as a reply to Wylde’s thoughtful, mature post about his take on the state of shamans. He touched briefly and gently on one point, the destruction of enhancement PvP that took place in the transition from old world to new world. The original post is HERE:

My reply follows:

I’m not going to be as nice. You touched on one point that I really want to ram down Blizzard’s throat, so here goes.

To start, yes, I’m posting on my warlock. Yes, he is my new main, at least as far as PvP is concerned. My shaman is a Legionnaire with over 60 days /played, had a TUF before getting it was trivialized, and was, for a very long time, the most enjoyable class I’d ever played.

The implementation of TBC and patch 2.0 destroyed a unique, highly enjoyable, viable play style: enhancement PvP. This is unique in the history of WoW, with the possible exception of the demise of the reckoning bomb, “HIT ME IN THE JIMMIES! AGAIN! AGAIN!” paladin. (And even in that case, the spec remained viable, just changed in play style.)

Many- and by many, I mean tens of thousands- of us rolled shamans expressly because we enjoyed this play style. In fact, I would venture to say that the majority of PvP-minded shamans came to the class with this in mind. Most of the most recognizable names in the history of the class arose from this play style and spec. (Quick word association game: I say “Pre-2.0 PvP shaman video,” you say: _____. If you didn’t say “Unbreakable,” try again.)

To shamelessly quote myself, enhancement shamans were, in the eyes of the alliance, the over-powered boogiemen of the battlegrounds, fearsome killing machines that shot lightning from our eyes and fireballs from our arses. And we loved it.

Okay, so that last bit was from Braveheart. But you get the picture. However, come 2.0, that was gone with nary a goodbye.

Why doesn’t it work anymore? There are a lot of reasons:

1) Enhancement PvP was a burst-based spec, through and through. Snare a clothie, pop the bubble, run in, and flatten them. Lather, rinse, repeat; with WF, SS, and ES, it was *typical* for us to be able to kill cloth in one to two swings.

~nostalgic grin~ There was this one time with a shadow priest in AB… Sorry, I digress.

Our burst, though, did not scale with player HP totals. You can’t WTFPwn even a shieldless mage in blues now. Add in resilience and the staggering life totals from arena gear and the situation gets even worse. A single player *cannot* burst down another player unless there is a substantial gear or spec difference; this is the reason for defensive abilities like CloS, TBW, Blazing Speed / Dragon’s Breath, etc on classes that never needed them previously.

Enhancement shamans never received that defense mechanism, never received any mechanism to deal with being kited or CCed, and by consequence fell far behind the curve.

2) Other classes received talents and abilities to deal with their weaknesses in PvP, while enhancement did not. I touched on this above, but it’s a significant problem. Shamans received no form of CC (even weak CC a la repentance), no way to close the gap, and no way to cope with being focus fired. Given that our targets could weather our burst without issue, even in the chaos of BG PvP, this is a crippling problem.

3) Finally, the nature of “real” PvP changed drastically. As a class / spec with limited closing mechanisms, no CC, and very limited survivability, we extraordinarily dependent on being able to get the first shot in on an unaware or distracted target and swing the fight in our favor from the outset.

That simply doesn’t work in the arena. A decent team will know where you are, and also know that if you are so much as slowed, your contribution to the match will be quite effectively and suddenly ended. This makes for a rather nasty combination with the proliferation of defensive and escape mechanisms granted other classes in 2.0; there is no class in the game at this point that cannot render an enhancement shaman ineffectual, bar only (perhaps) a holy priest.

Maybe these things sound familiar. They’ve all been QQed about before, at great length and many times since TBC beta began. Hundreds if not thousands of posts have been made asking for solutions to one or more of these problems.

“Please give shamans CC, we’re the only class without!”
“Please give shamans anti-CC, we’re getting murdered out here!”
“Please give shamans a way to deal with getting focus fired, we’re so squishy!”

I’m sure all three of these topics are represented within the first three pages of both the US and EU forums, so I won’t belabor the point here.

So what?

I’ll just return to my original point:

Blizzard destroyed a unique play style in their treatment of enhancement shamans in 2.0 and TBC. Thousands of players were effected by this set of decisions, and, for many, it was enough to drive them from the class or from the game entirely. Those who remained in the game had, in some cases, *hundreds* of hours of time devoted to their characters invalidated, all without a by-your-leave.

I, for one, am still pissed. Does 2.3 contain buffs to enhancement shamans? Yes. Do those buffs address any of the crippling problems outlined above and make it such that the class spec is once again usable for what so many of us rolled it for? NO. Enhancement PvP is still dead. The closest proxy?

Ret paladin. How’s that for delicious irony?

/rant off

Edit: No, I’m not requesting or recommending a return to the days of 1-2 shotting people; several repliers have gotten that impression. The point is that now that we can no longer do that, we need talents and abilities that will allow us to actually survive a sustained DPS fight. Other burst classes received exactly that sort of buff; enhancement did not.

So what do you think? The official class forums are filled with angry Shaman claiming that unless the class is fixed – and fixed soon – they will either abandon their toons or abandon the game altogether. With no real visible relief in sight are Shaman justified in abandoning the class? Are they in the same boats Druids used to be? So gimped into their hybrid role that they can’t do anything effectively? Has the class truly not kept up with the rest of the game – or are Shaman simply pining for their bygone glory days?

Only time will tell – but with nothing positive being reported from the test realm and with a fairly hard date for 2.3 burned into the collective consciousness of the playing public – patch day may be another dark day indeed for one of WoW’s most recognizable and revered classes.

Growl’s Guide to Taming Rak’shiri

November 7, 2007 By Growl 16 Comments

Hey Folks, Growl here – and today we’re going to talk about bagging one of the rare cats of Azeroth, the sublime striped beauty, Rak’shiri from beautiful Winterspring.

Now Rak’shiri for those of you that haven’t seen her is a big white saber cat with aqua stripes. See her there – a real beut ain’t she?

Nothing like seeing those glowing green eyes staring out at you from the dark I can tell you that much – crikey!

Anyway – enough of that. First things first – to get Rak’shiri, you need to be in your 57th season (or level 57 for you folks that don’t grok Ar-Pee) and it helps if you have an addon that can show you your coordinates on the world map. Growl uses and recommends Titan Panel for this, but there are lots of options.

The next thing you need in fair amounts is patience – I can’t stress this enough. Rak’shiri is a rare spawn that shows up approximately every eight hours or so. Some of you will follow this guide and nab her on the first try. Others won’t be so lucky and it could take days. If you plan to lay in a semi-permanent camp for this fine cat, I’ve scouted a good spot for you already and will detail the location later on.

So first things first – get your fuzzy-loving self to Winterspring.

Remember though, this is a high-stakes tame in contested territory (for those of you on a PvP server) and the area you’re hunting in is positively *full* of other deadly cats. Make sure to bring plenty of bandages and don’t forget to bring along a stack of meat or fish. After all you’re likely going to need to accomplish not *one* but *two* tames to successfully camp Rak’shiri. Why two tames? Because unless you plan on abandoning your existing pet in favor of Rak’shiri, a temporary companion is highly recommended.

There are a lot of options in Winterspring when it comes to finding a temporary pet. So keep on the lookout as you travel. Good options that are very close to Everlook include the Shard-Tooth Bears and Winterspring Owls. If you don’t mind a bit of travel (and if you’ve enough level for them) any of the graceful, Frostsaber Huntresses or Frostsaber Stalkers found near Rak’shiri’s hunting grounds are also excellent companions.

Once in Everlook, talk to Azzleby and stable your existing pet. Check your bags one last time for meat/fish and prepare to move out.

Ready? Good – mount up and lets go find Rak’shiri!

First off, best thing to do is know where you’re going – so lets do a bit of map recon. Open your world map and mark a waypoint around 51.14. That’s the spot I recommend you set your camp up on. The route is simple – just follow the road south to Frost Saber Rock. There are depressions east and west of the road. Both are full of cats. The westerly valley is the one we’re after.

Now a word of warning: while never a particularly traveled environ, Winterspring is even more devoid of other players now that the Burning Crusade is live. That said, it’s still advisable for those on PvP servers to keep their professional sense of paranoia on at least medium alert. Not only are there are stealthed Wintersaber Stalkers nearby (so watch out for them) – but the scent of a rare pet attracts other hunters…particularly those from the opposite faction.

So – once you arrive and clear out one or two of the stealthed cats, you can mount the crest of the small hill around 51.13 – 51.14.

This is a good point for your high-hide. None of the big cats path through the hill and you have a commanding view of the deceptively empty valley to your north.

Okay – here’s where the patience part comes in. Remember that 8 to 10 hour spawn rate? Right. Get comfortable. A number of big cats prowl the western depression. Most are the solid white Wintersaber Huntresses or Stalkers. From time to time though, a black striped Wintersaber will path into view and get your heart racing.

Be calm – make sure to check your target – you’re looking for the tell-tail silver dragon icon to mark your quarry. When you catch the big azure striped cat he’ll likely be pathing straight toward you (or away.) Use caution – that peaceful snowy lowland is a furry valley of fang filled death. Stealthed Frostsaber Stalkers fill the valley around Rak’shiri’s patrol path. For lower level hunters, simply setting foot off your hilltop will invite an immediate attack. Unless you’re worried about your quarry getting sniped by another hunter or killed by some clueless schmuck, hold your position and watch the rare cat patrol its territory. With some careful killing or creative use of feign death you can work your way into taming distance. The rest is fairly simple – drop a freeze trap – concussive shot – and start taming.

Taming a rare spawn like Rak’shiri is one of the best parts of being a hunter. While rare spawn pets no longer have special skills or faster attack speeds, many, like Rak’shiri have skins that are unique in the game.

In fact, the only other big cat that shares the same skin as Rak’shiri is the mighty Shy Rhotam – who is the target of a Horde only quest – and almost impossible for Alliance characters to tame.

Tips For Making Your Hunt Successful

Create a simple macro to make your hunt easier – bind it to a key for spamming while you’re camping: /target Rak’shiri
Park your character on our camp spot and log off. Play an alt or spend some time with the spouse. Check back at the top of each hour. While it’s tough to guess Rak’shiri’s actual spawn cycle – checking back on a regular interval lets you live your life while also camping this rare spawn
If you *can* – check for Rak’shiri right after server maintenance or nightly server resets. These actions should restart the spawn timers. It’s also a good time to catch the big cat and not have to worry about other hunters beating you to the tame.
If you’re a skinner – and don’t mind killing some time farming – clear the valleys of all the cats. Lots of rugged leather to be had. Killing the Wintersabers won’t make Rak’shiri spawn any faster, but the leather can be sold or crafted. Use the time to practice jump-shots or level weapon skills.

There you go folks – while Aunty Growl can’t guarantee you’ll find Rak’shiri on the first try – ifyou follow this guide, you’re guaranteed (eventual) success! Stay focused, stay positive and try not to squee too loud the first time you see those bright emerald eyes gazing back at you!