Who is this kid and why is his portrait everywhere?

Real Clear Politics - News - Mid Term Elections - Elections 2008 - Opinion - Commentary - TIME

Real Clear Politics - News - Mid Term Elections - Elections 2008 - Opinion - Commentary - TIME: "Favorable/Unfavorable Ratings
Giuliani: 43/17 (+26)
Obama: 36 /21 (+15)
Thompson: 25/12 (+13)
McCain: 33/28 (+5)
Edwards: 32/28 (+4)
Romney: 24/20 (+4)
Richardson: 19/15 (+4)
Huckabee: 16 /12 (+4)
Bloomberg: 20/18 (+2)
Biden: 21/20 (+1)
Clinton: 39/42 (-3)"

Does anyone still check this Blog?

So Google Calendar seems to be pretty cool. The invite/appointment deal based on the iCal standard is working pretty well for me. Lets play with it some more and get some runs scheduled.

Ok, it appears that there’s some momentum building to turn SMASH into an umbrella for some concerted efforts to run some of the Outland instances. I’ve come to believe that part of any successful run in an instance is preparation, and so as an attempt to create a shared baseline, what follows is my take on what preparation for an instance means.

Gear:

Come to the instance with your gear at no less than 90%. Any death in WoW incurs a 10% degradation to your gear. 90% means you can die, at the most, nine times before you must repair, though this is unrealistic, since you’ll also take damage throughout the fights that will also contribute to the degradation. It’s important to note that a piece of gear functions at FULL capability until from 100 to 1%; then at 0%, it gives no bonus at all – it’s as if you didn’t have anything in that slot.

Obviously, it’s our goal NOT to die, but that’s gonna happen even under the best of circumstances. I actually try not to keep too much gold on Twink, but I do keep enough that I can sustain 30g of repair costs. As your gear improves, the repair costs climb – get a sense of what a full repair costs, and then try to keep at least two repairs worth with you.

It’s also appropriate for people as they approach 70 to begin collecting a second set of gear. For some classes, this might mean a set for soloing and a set for grouping (I keep a +damage and a +healing set), or it might mean just having a second set of similar gear that you can swap out in a pinch. As a matter of etiquette, I’d suggest that if you’re looting in an instance for a second set of gear, you should check with the group before doing so.

Potions:

Potions are a matter of class and preference. The issue with potions, of course, is their cost, and the fact that death wipes all their benefits. In the low level Outland instances, potions are generally optional – I like to have them up for boss fights, but don’t always use them for the initial clearing of trash mobs. One method you might consider is using the pre-TBC versions of potions for trash mobs, or for learning a new instance, and then go full out when you’re more comfortable that you’ll get at least 30 minutes of benefit from the potion.

Regardless, I recommend bringing a full stack of any potion that you use – that’s 5 potions. If the run goes right, you should only use 1 or 2 of them. If it goes bad, well, you’ve got a bit more in backup.

Both Viamedia and Twinkleheal are high level alchemists – if you need potions made, let us know. We may have the mats, or we can tell you what you need to buy off the AH. Something to remember – mats are almost always more compact than the resultant potions. Say it takes 20 dreamfoil, 20 gromsblood and 20 vials to make 20 Potions of Ubergoodness – that’s three bag slots of mats, but four bag slots of made potions. Factor accordingly.

Water and food:

If you’re running with a mage, this is generally not an issue (unless Turb is feeling pissy, hehe). Otherwise remembering food and water is a must. I generally assume an instance run will take between 20 and 40 water for a caster, 20 and 40 food for a tank. If you get involved in raiding down the road somewhere, don’t be surprised to use 60 to 80 water as a caster. Always remember to thank the mage – that conjuring talent is a blessing and a curse.

Damage and mana mitigation:

All classes should carry 20 to 40 bandages if at all possible. Some instances are so healer intensive that only the tank and the caster will get heals; dps classes like hunters and rogues will be told to use bandages in order to get by. Netherweave piles up in the Outland; turn it into the Heavy Neatherweave Bandages and you’re good to go.

Tanks and melee classes should carry 2 stacks of the best healing potion they can get their hands on. Casters should carry 2 stacks of healing and mana potions. Priests should carry 1 stack of healing and 3 to 4 stacks of mana potions. I also highly recommend the Felwood plants Whipperoot Tubers and Night Dragon’s Breath for their immediate health and mana regen capabilities. Demonic runes for casters are also a nice option, albeit a tricky one, since they trade health for mana.

Class Consumables:

These are very class-specific, and I don’t know all of the classes and their needs, so I’ll list what I know.

Priests: Sacred Candles are used for the Fortitude, Spirit and Shadow Resist buff. If you’re buffing a group with all three, that’s three candles a pop – so 20 candles means 7 buff cycles. I always try to keep 40 on hand for a 5-man run, 80 for a 10-man raid

Druids: You guys get screwed by Gift of the Wild and Rebirth, because each rank of the spell requires a different reagent. Know your rank and have 20 of each reagent on hand.

Warlocks: Soulshards. Nuff said – you need lots of those bad boys. At 70, some of the mobs in Ramparts/Blood Furnace may not yield you a shard, so make sure you’ve got 20 at least, and 40 is better. I know this is a real burden on you, but I’ve seen ‘locks show up to raids with 60 and use every single one, plus what they could suck along the way. Nasty stuff.

Hunters: Ample pet food, and a full quiver of whatever ammo you use. I’m not an expert on hunters, so there may be something else. Hunters get a bad rep for poor prep when they say “anyone got any arrows?” – don’t be a huntard.

Paladin: The reagents for all those nifty blessings. Bring hundreds. I don’t understand how they work, but since even the best pally bufs are 15 minutes long, you’re looking at 20 buff per hour for a 5-man group (at a minimum), and easily more than that when things are going badly.

Mages: Arcane powder sufficient for 20 cycles of Arcane Brilliance. 40 preferably.

Rogues: Poisons are something I don’t understand, but you seem need them every 30 minutes. They do last through death, so I’d suggest having enough for 10 cycles. That seems excessive, but better safe than sorry.

Warriors: Please - you jokers wouldn't know a reagent if it bit you in your heavily-plated behind...

Shammies: We’re Alliance. What are shammies?

Food Buff Consumables:

These, I think, are the most underrated components of the WoW instance process. +20 to Stam and Spirit for 30 minutes is like an extra two priest buffs, but a lot people don’t think about it that way. I personally think that running with the food buffs should be adequate for most trash mobs in most instances, but they’re essential for bosses, and combined with potions, they’re hard to beat.

There are a lot of different food buff consumables, and different consumables benefit different classes. As a priest, I like the +healing of the golden fish sticks, the +mana regen of sporefish and nightfin soup, and the +damage of the blackened basilisk. I have to choose only one, but I keep all three on hand. I know there are also +strength and +agility food buffs to be had, as well as the more common +stamina.Viamedia, Assamyrass and Turbulence are all high level cooks who can make you what you need. Part of successful raiding, and instances to a lesser degree, is farming the materials for your food buffs. I believe showing up with a stack of your preferred food buff consumable is typically adequate.

With all of this said, let me reiterate - this is a guide. In my raiding guild, there's social pressure to show up to raids with a full complement of consumables; I like to think of SMASH as somewhat of a refuge from this sort of hardcore thinking. Do what's fun, and what you want in order to get the most out of our runs.

Hello and welcome back to the SMASH website. I know I've been gone for a while but what I'd like to do is set up some structure for the group of us in Phant, SMASH and Fellowship that enjoy playing together.

There are ton of instances in the Outlands and there are a ton of quests as well. Now the issue is that all of our characters need all sorts of different instances and group quests.

What we would like to do now is allow people to schedule help if they need it for instances.

One thing that we would also like to have as a goal is to get people keyed for Onyxia. The prevailing school of thought is that we can 10 Man ony as 70's. I'm not sure it will work but I'd sure like to try. So far I know that Twink, Via and Turb are keyed. Anyone else let us know.

Since the 5 man instances are pretty challenging, we really want to schedule runs to get everyone through Ramparts, Blood Furnace, Under Bog and Slave Pens. Once we have most of us to that level, we will schedule runs for Mana Tombs, Setthik Halls and Old Hillsbrad.

PLease tell us your thoughts.

Turbulence

Dear SMASHers,

Given the on coming new year, and the advancement of numerous players to higher levels than 19, ;) I have decided that SMASH would better serve our family oriented gaming fun if we merged with another larger guild.

Phantasomagoria, please correct me if my spelling is off, is a casual guild based on helping each other. Most of their players have been together through Night Shift and Crimson and so have been together for a long time. We have been asked to join their guild to add some leadership and new blood.

We will be giving up our SMASH moniker, but gaining new friends and more opportunities, so that if I'm busy Donagi can still run through Scarlet Monestary.

Please contact me in game, more details as they happen.

Thanks,

Turbulence
SMASH Master