A Feral Druid Ruminates on Cats Versus Bears

Of Claws and Paws asks why most feral druids are playing as cats and comes up with a four letter answer-gear.  The rest of the article explains how gear for cats and bears has changed over the life of the game.
http://ofclawsandpaws.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/winter-hibernation/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Guildwatch: Guilds at the Center of the Universe

It is Wednesday again and Guildwatch is back!  My favorite drama involves the guild Legion Unleashed whose GM just left.  The replacement was kicking out members right and left, complaining about the officers, etc.  It was a mess, enough so that the replacement GM applied to another guild and told them right on the application he planned to ninja his old guild bank.  There's honesty and then there is honesty, I guess.  Not surprisingly, the new guild didn't accept the replacement GM, especially after the forums had his fellow members piling on complaints about him.  Our hero (or villain) has a classic quote in the forums in response:  "these guilds in which this game is revolved around is udder bull*%#*".  He also claims that everyone will fail without him. So guilds are not the center of the universe but he is?  I'd be more impressed if his grammar was better, frankly.
http://www.wow.com/2009/11/18/guildwatch-these-guilds-in-which-this-game-is-revolved-around/

As usual, there is more drama in the link above, where you'll find many guilds downing instances and others recruiting but none of them on the Solo MMO Players' guild.

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Key Binding for Multiple Healer Alts

Miss Medicina talks about how she organizes her key bindings for the multiple healers she plays so she doesn't get too confused when switching among her characters.  The Comments section has other interesting organizational ideas.
http://missmedicina.blogspot.com/2009/11/multi-healer-organization.html

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Independent Battlegrounds Players

Cassandri at Hots and Dots (who is a healer) has an interesting article up about Battlegrounds and how independent players work there.  She calls them Lone Rangers.  They aren't exactly solo players but they act independently.
http://www.hotsdots.com/2009/11/battleground-independence/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

BBB's Looking for Group Adventure

Big Bear Butt Blogger has done a faction change and is now a Blood Elf Paladin instead of a Dwarf Paladin.  So what does he do?  He goes Looking for Group (LFG).  What happens next may foretell what the new LFG across realm experience will be like.
http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/11/17/tales-from-the-lfg-tavern/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Gold, Leveling and Drama

You may not have noticed this week's heavy drama playing out over several prominent blogs about guides to making gold and for leveling.  Honor's Code summarizes the issues well here.  It's a good read if you are sitting around waiting for Guildwatch's next episode.  It also brings up some questions about ethics.
http://honorscode.blogspot.com/2009/11/gold-and-leveling-guides.html

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

RAWR Interview: DK Tanks Lead Developer

Here's an interview with the contributing developer for Death Knight tank information at RAWR.  He talks about what RAWR does poorly for DKs and what it does well.  Shazear also talks about what he'd like to do in the future.  If you have a DK and use RAWR, you'll want to read this.
http://pwnwear.com/2009/11/17/rawr-tankdk-guest-post-from-the-lead-developer/

Not everyone thinks the RAWR simulations provide good in-game data since the numbers used are squishy.  Such sims also seem to feed the Great Gear Myth, but as long as you know what you are getting, this can be a useful tool.

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Effective Health Formula (Tanks and Tenacity Pets)

Big Red Rhino has posted an article about the Effective Health formula, used by tanks to choose gear.  He uses this formula to calculate how much damage his tenacity pet can take.  To quote the Rhino himself-- "Simply put, it’s a mathematical calculation of HP and armor that calculates how much raw damage the tank can take before dying."
http://bigredrhino.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/effective-health/

Tanks and tenacity pet owners alike may be interested in this.

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Thoughts on WOW Challenges

Spinksville has written an essay about challenges in WOW, how players research instances before they run them, and rate themselves "good players" if they have great reflexes, not if they run instances with less-than-perfect gear.
http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/thought-of-the-day-how-we-define-challenge/

The Solo MMO Player has been wondering why more folks don't run instances blind, or at least come up with new strategies than the ones that have worked in the past.  If you look at the game this way, there are many many things still to do, no matter how long you have played.

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Guide to Leveling a Healer Druid (Solo)

Restokin has a guest posting by a solo healing druid who realized there isn't a lot of help for druid healers who are not Level 80 yet.  So he's written one with eight tips and a rotation.
http://www.restokin.com/2009/11/leveling-healing-guest-post-by-verdantazia-of-silverhand/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com