Am I in a World-class guild?  No.  Have I ever been?  No.  Can I raid more than 2 nights a week?  No.  Do I have any experience or expertise in building a guild, let alone a world class guild?  No.  Should you keep reading?  Probably not.

This is a series on how to create a world-class raiding guild.  I am a project manager IRL.  This is what I do- plan, organize, test, execute.  I really, really enjoy doing that in an IT environment, gaming environment- whatever.  It’s also my blog, and I think I can do this, so just quit QQing and read.

STEP 1:
Re-roll horde.

I’m serious.  Horde quests, characters, racial traits, cities, and characters are just better.  If you have someone who has a character above level 40 for the horde and alliance - I’m pretty sure about 99.8% of them will tell you Horde is better.  Let’s take a gander at the horde racial traits:

Cow: War Stomp/Endurance/Cultivation/Nature Resistance
War Stomp: Activate to stun up to 5 opponents within 8 yards - lasts 2 sec - 2 min cooldown
Endurance:  Max Health increased by 5%
Cultivation: 15 skill bonus to Herbalism
Nature Resistance:  All Tauren get +10 Nature Resistance

Classes:  Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Warrior, Death Knight
Thoughts:  The immediate thought would be to roll warrior here, and that’s ok- but there are other classes to look at as well.  Druid would be a decent choice, the extra health, the stomp, etc.  Hunter could be an option - again for the stomp to get some distance from a mob/player to kite.  Plus cows get to ride dinosaurs.


Undead:  Will of the Forsaken/Cannibalize/Underwater Breathing/Shadow Resistance
Will of the Forsaken:  Activate to become immune to Fear, Sleep, and Charm effects. Can also be used while already afflicted by Fear or Sleep - lasts 5 sec - 2 min cooldown
Cannibalize:  Activate to regenerate 7% of total health every 2 sec. by consuming Humanoid or Undead corpses within 5 yds - lasts 10 sec - 2 min cooldown
Underwater Breathing:  Underwater breath lasts 300% longer than normal
Shadow Resistance:  All Undead get +10 Shadow Resistance

Classes:  Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior, Death Knight
Thoughts:  Undead is a cool class, but wow I think they kinda got screwed with racials.  Will of the Forsaken is nice- but I would argue everything else is kinda trivial.  Shadow resistance is OK.  Maybe priests and tanks?  If they were so cool- I would say maybe skip them.

Orc:  Blood Fury/Hardiness/Command/Axe Specialization
Blood Fury: Increases your damage and healing/AP (whatever) , but reduces healing effects on you by 50%. Lasts 15 sec.
Hardiness:  15% resistance to stun and knockout effects.
Command:  Pet melee damage increased by 5%.
Axe Specialization:  Expertise with Axes and Two-Handed Axes increased by 5.

Classes:  Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Death Knight
Thoughts:  Hunter.  Warlock.  Warrior.  Maybe Shaman.  Hunter.  Hunter.  Orcs are probably the best race in the game?  This race SCREAMS hunter.  And Warlock.  Death knight too.

Troll:  Berserking/Regenerating/Beast Slaying/Throwing specialization/Bow Specialization
Berserking:  Increases your casting and attack speed by 10% to 30%. At full health the speed increase is 10% with a greater effect up to 30% if you are badly hurt when you activate Berserking. Lasts 10 sec.
Regenerating:  10% health regen bonus, 10% active in combat
Beast Slaying:  5% damage bonus to Beasts
Throwing specialization:  Your chance to critically hit with Throwing Weapons is increased by 1%
Bow Specialization:  Your chance to critically hit with Bows is increased by 1%.

Classes:   Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior, Death Knight
Thoughts:  Trolls are underrated.  Berserking would be nice for a tank, I would think a Rogue would die to quick to get the full benefit in a fight.  Regenerating would be really nice for a tank.  The Bow specialization would be nice for hunters.  So tank.  Maybe hunter.

Blood Elves:  Arcane Affinity/Arcane Torrent/Magic Resistance/Mana Tap
Arcane Affinity: Enchanting +10
Arcane Torrent: Silences all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec. In addition, you gain 5 + 1/Level Mana restored per Mana Tap charge currently affecting you - Instant - 2 min cooldown.
Magic Resistance: All resistances increased by 5.
Mana Tap:  Reduces target’s mana by 51 and charges you with Arcane energy for 10 min. This effect stacks up to 3 times. Amount of mana reduced is 50 + 1/Level - 30 yd range - Instant - 30 sec cooldown.

Classes:  Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Death Knight
Thoughts:  The arcane torrent/mana tap thing is nice, it’s a very quick stun - but the mana restore is another nice tool to get some mana back.  Any of the classes listed would be a decent choice if you didn’t like any of the other races.  Or you just wanted to be a BELF chick.

You have your options, start picking up roles.
Tank:  Cow, Troll, BELF*
Melee/DPS:  Orc, Troll, BELF, Undead(meh)
Healer:  Undead, BELF, Cow
*pally tanks

The point is- you want to be able to justify your race.  If someone wants to be a Blood Elf hunter - make them tell you why.  Because they want a “hawt toon” is not a good answer.  You are looking to match the best races up with the best roles.  Make sure these arguments you are getting are PvE centered.  Because I want to pwn stunned n00bs is again - not a good excuse for the BELF hunter.  We are creating a World Class PvE guild that will pwn BOSSES.  Always think “Will this help me in a boss fight?” and remember that some/most bosses are immune to stun effects.  Sure there will be a boss or two in the entire game where you could prove some moderate utility - but over the long haul using our example, an Orc hunter is probably the best race/class combo.

So - do you disagree with my thoughts on each race?  Which horde race is best for which class?  LET ME KNOW!

It’s official, my 2v2 rating is now 1337. I pleaded with the general public loitering in Nagrand to join me for 10 2v2 arena matches. My pally buddy was not on. He did not answer his cell phone.

A guy - dotdottab, told me his resilience wasn’t really that great but he would join up if I wanted. I sent him an invite. We joined up and started in without many expectations. Game 1 - we win. Huh, pretty cool. Game 2 - two rogues, loss. Game 3 win. Game 4 win. Game 5 win.

Woah. This is officially fun.

Game 6 - Hunter/healer? - loss. We tried killing the healer first, and it didn’t work very well. I got killed pretty quick and that was pretty much it. The next game - we had the same team, killed the hunter - controlled the healer, we win.

Game 7 - Warrior/shaman - loss. Tried killing the warrior, never saw the healer. Warrior killed my lock. Game 8 - same team. We found, killed the healer - controlled the warrior. The warrior killed my lock again, but I was still alive and had trap cooldowns up and kept him at distance, killing him to win.

We ended up 7-3, giving me my leet rating. That was VERY fun.

HAHHAHAAHAH.

Score one for me. I thought I would have some fun with my 5 year old. The one who likes to burn my hearthstones and leave me out in the middle of no-where when I log in.

I’ll double cross the double crosser! I took my “bird lady” to Darnassus (she’s kinda just chilling there anyway receiving Runecloth and turning it in for faction rep at the moment) and HID her in the city. Next I think I’ll strand her on some floating piece of wreckage in Netherstorm.

What are some places I could strand a level 70 with a flying mount that would surprise my 5 year old? Calling all cartographers!!!

Aww. How cute, my hunter wants to be a good PvPer. So, um…how does one become a good PvPer? I imagine it takes some of the following:

Knowledge of your class
Fearlessness
Quick reaction time
Planning
Thinking quick on your feet

So far, I have none of those things. I’m in Ironforge. I remember that I need to train my level 60 abilities, and spend 50+ gold on them. I respecced my pet for good measure. I go up to the ramp, and queue up for AV. Now, I’ve NEVER been to AV. EVER. I do know that it is a large battleground, filled with towers and there are bases and NPCs and bosses and that’s about the extent of my knowledge. I must read up on AV.

Below is a commentary on the video of my first AV action.

So anyway, I’m in a cave with some birds and stuff, so I figure I should probably not stay here (I cannot find anything worth defending). Ah! The map! I should check out where my teammates are! The map instantly confuses and intimidates me. Where do I go? What do I do when I get there? HEY! There is a cow trying to take what looks like one of my flags.

/kill cow

ALRIGHT! Now we’re smokin! Ohh, look there are lots of horde right here. BRK says to find a squishy and let your pet eat them. OK! Done. Another kill. Aww look at the kitty with horns behind me. Cute little guy. OW BAD KITTY. GET AWAY! WHOA - what are these guard guys doing here? Feign Death. lol. Ok, I should be doing more killing. Multishot, Aimed shot, Bestial Wrath, WHOOHOO!

ahh. I’m dead now.

There may or may not be a WWS report of this encounter.

Things I learned:

• AV could be fun if I learned more about it
• I think I can handle pretty much any class in PvP if I do things right
• I do not know how to do things right
• Don’t go into Battle with an unfamiliar or messed up User Interface
• If I got “lost in the crowd” I could be pretty effective
• It feels pretty good to see my kitty pwning clothies
• I suck at kiting

It was a fun experiment, something I wouldn’t mind trying again. Any advice for me? What my strategy should be?

Link Dump:
http://www.bigredkitty.net
http://wowwebstats.com/okiuagiu4vic5
http://www.wegame.com/user/wrathofgod/