Fire Mage DPS Rotation

This blog entry is dedicated to helping you understand how to better play a Fire Mage.

The rotation is as follows:

• Start with a Scorch to get 5% Crit Debuff up
• Cast Flame Orb (Be sure to be facing the target!)
• Put up Living Bomb
• Cast Fire Ball and be sure to re-apply Living Bomb, 5% Crit Debuff via Scorch, and pop every instant Pyroblast which procs.
• Use Combustion when you have Living Bomb up on the target and get a Critical Strike with your Fireball. Be sure to cast it the instant after the Fireball crits to ensure you get the maximum effect of the Ignite ticks (All critical strikes cause the target to burn for a few seconds, and Combustion takes the total DPS of all DoTs and re-applies them as a second DoT. Seeing as the Ignite ticks go away after a few seconds, being sure to pop Combustion the moment you crit is necessary in order to get all the pending ticks of Ignite in with Combustion. Also works well when used in conjunction with cooldowns, etc.)

And that's really it! Be sure to be using all damage cooldowns whenever they are available and don't stop casting! The #1 flaw I see in those trying to maximize their DPS is taking time to think about their rotation while in combat and not doing anything while thinking what they should be doing. If you ever get confused during your rotation and don't know what to do, try to establish a fall-back spell. For myself, it was Fireball when I first started learning the Mage class. If I were ever confused and lost my place in my rotation, I would default to Fireball for a few seconds (which is better than not casting at all!) until I found my place and could continue on with the rotation.

Also, the addon I used was called CombustionHelper which tracks how much DPS you have currently on your target, if Living Bomb is active, if you have Ignite ticks, Pyroblast, and will also let you know if you missed an instant-cast Pyroblast (from waiting too long) or re-applied Living Bomb too early (which I did once. Oops).

The addon I used to track my Damage Per Second is called Recount. It can track DPS, HPS (Healing Per Second), Deaths, and a slew of other in-combat statistics.

I hope this write-up has helped to add clarification; and, as always, good luck!

Macro - Linking Professions In Trade Chat

This blog entry is dedicated to being able to effectively link your Professions to others.

 Below is the Macro text I used to have it display either Alchemy or Enchanting as "[Profession Name] Looking For Work":

For Alchemy:

/run local a,b,c,d=SendChatMessage,GetSpellLink,"CHANNEL",GetChannelName("Trade - City")a(select(2,b("Alchemy")).." LFW",c,nil,d)

For Enchanting:

/run local a,b,c,d=SendChatMessage,GetSpellLink,"CHANNEL",GetChannelName("Trade - City")a(select(2,b("Enchanting")).." LFW",c,nil,d)

As you may be able to tell, the blank template for the Macro is as follows:

/run local a,b,c,d=SendChatMessage,GetSpellLink,"CHANNEL",GetChannelName("Trade - City")a(select(2,b("PROFESSION NAME HERE")).." LFW",c,nil,d)

All you have to do is replace the BOLD text with the name of your Profession, copy the text into a Macro, and you're all set! (Note: Be sure to keep the "parentheses" that surround the name of the Profession. It won't function properly without them.)

I hope this write-up has helped to add clarification; and, as always, good luck!

Making Gold With Raids - Karazhan

This blog entry is dedicated to Making Gold through raiding Karazhan.

In the beginning, I ran from the start of The first boss to Attumen the Huntsman himself, killing all the trash and, eventually, Attumen in one-minute-thirty-seconds flat.

In terms of loot, I had 6 Gold, 23 Silver from mobs and 26 Gold, 4 Silver from vendoring items. Since this was in 90 seconds, with some simple math: 60 minutes / 1.5 minutes = 40 minutes; 40*32.27 = 1,290g80s

We are able to find that the GPH (Gold Per Hour) rate is roughly 1,290g80s assuming that same rate of Gold stays the same throughout. It's also worth mentioning that Attumen the Huntsman has a 1% chance to drop the Fiery Warhorse's Reins, so go out there and farm Karazhan!

I hope this write-up has helped to add clarification; and, as always, good luck!

Making Gold With Jewelcrafting - Cutting Gems!

This blog entry is dedicated to Making Gold with Jewelcrafting by cutting gems.

While it may seem obvious to most, there may be a small minority who do not know about the potential profit of the Gem market. Jewelcrafters have the ultimatum of Gold making devices at their disposal.

The process is deceptively simple: buy uncut gems, cut them, and re-list them. And that's it. Generally speaking, for those who are just now getting into the market, get the Bold Inferno Ruby, Delicate Inferno Ruby, and Brilliant Inferno Ruby cuts first. While they may not have as large of a profit margin as the 40 Parry / 40 Expertise, they sell much quicker and allow you to re-invest your profit into getting more Inferno Rubies and cutting even more Gems.

Once you've acquired all the Inferno Ruby cuts, I'd start to try to get some of the more Popular Demonseye / Ember Topaz cuts. I really recommend using Auctionator and typing in either Demonseye or Ember Topaz to see which cuts sell for the most by which are listed as the highest in price.

I hope this write-up has helped to add clarification; and, as always, good luck!

Druid Macro - Swipe (Bear and Cat)

This blog entry is dedicated to helping you better play your Feral Druid.

The Macro is as follows:

#showtooltip
/cast [stance:1] Swipe(Bear Form); [stance:3] Swipe(Cat Form)

Just throw those lines into the Macro screen and you're all set!

I hope this write-up has helped to add clarification; and, as always, good luck!

Feral Druid DPS Rotation

This blog entry is dedicated to helping you better play a Feral Druid.

Well, I should clarify - it's not really a rotation. It's a priority system. For the short-and-sweet version, there really isn't all that much to know. Ideally, this is how I would get into my rotation. After I'm in, it's all a matter of keeping up bleeds, debuffs, and buffs.

• Feral Charge
• Ravage
• Savage Roar (1 combo point)
• Mangle
• Rake
• Shred (Until 5 Combo Points)
• Rip
• Shred (While maintaining Rake + Mangle Debuff)
• Ferocious Bite if there is more than 10 seconds left on both 5 Combo Point Rip and Savage Roar

And that's more or less it. Again, be sure to keep up Mangle Debuff, Rake, 5 Combo Point Rip, 3 stacks of Faerie Fire, and Savage Roar. After that, it's all a matter of dumping energy accurately with Shred, knowing when to save Combo Points to refresh cooldowns, and when to blow them on a solid Ferocious Bite.

I hope this write-up has helped to add clarification; and, as always, good luck!

Making Gold With Tailoring - Bags

This blog entry is dedicated to Making Gold with Bags via Tailoring.

For starters, to download the Excel Spreadsheet, click here! Once that's downloaded, continue reading below.

The design of the spreadsheet is pretty intuitive. It's a very basic rule - if a cell is colored, don't type in it. The only cells that are designed to be typed in are those that are white. (Feel free to modify the file, but don't forget to save a clean back-up of the file if you do irreparable damage to the file and can't re-configure it.)

Now, onto the lists you need to set up. Set up both of the following lists:

List One: PPU (Stands for Price Per Unit)

• Dream Shard
• Embersilk Cloth
• Frostweave Cloth
• Greater Cosmic Essence
• Greater Planar Essence
• Hypnotic Dust
• Infinite Dust
• Linen cloth
• Mageweave Cloth
• Netherweave Cloth
• Primal Mooncloth
• Shadowcloth
• Volatile Life
• Wool Cloth

List Two: MPPU (Market Price Per Unit)

• Embersilk Bag
• Frostweave Bag
• Hyjal Expedition Bag
• Linen Bag
• Mageweave Bag
• Neatherweave Bag
• Otherworldly Bag
• Woolen Bag

Once you've set up the lists, it's time to input the data. With the MPPU list selected, click the Search for All Auctions button and let it run. Once it has the data, open up your spreadsheet and enter in the numerical values (ex: 11.78 = 11g78s) until all 8 options are filled.

(Side note: If there are none of a bag, you have 2 options:

• Enter in the number .01 for that cell. There is no way that the materials cost less than 1 silver and will therefore be voided by final material / cost calculations.
• Enter in the price you plan to sell them for and be sure to list them at your specified price when it comes time to sell them.)

Once all 8 cells are filled out, move on to the PPU list and click Search for All Auctions.

Once the search has finished, enter in all the data to their respective slots (ex: Dream Shards are 1g50s. Enter 1.5 into the Column under the yellow Price Per Unit Column (B7:B20)) until all cells are filled. 

(Side note: If there are none of an item on the Auction House, I generally just hit a random sequence of numbers (effectively rolling my face against the keypad). This will assume a price which is unrealistic; but, at the same time, will calculate that price and more-or-less void any items that require said item from being created.)

Once all data cells are filled, it's all a matter of interpreting the Graph. I will break this down by color-coating.

Purple: In the purple color-coating, there are two rows:

• Crafting Expenses Per Item Set - This is the total cost of creating (1 Hyjal Expedition Bag or Otherworldly Bag / 4 Linen, Woolen, Mageweave, Netherweave, Frostweave, or Embersilk Bags (I intentionally set up the spreadsheet to calculate out crafting bags in those amounts. They seem to sell best that way in my experience.)). It simply takes the information you entered via the Price Per Unit column and manipulates it with the amount needed to craft any bag and gives out the totals to create it given those prices.
• Total Net Profit / Loss Per Item Set - This is the total profit / loss you would hypothetically gain / lose from creating an item with the prices you specify in the Price Per Unit category. Positive gains will be in standard black text while Negative losses will be in red. All losses will not be tallied into the Materials To Be Purchased (explained below) and you will not create bags which are a loss.

Green: In the green color-coating, there are 15 rows:

• Each row is associated with the item that is specified in the "A" column (A7:20). In the "B" column (B7:20) it lists the prices you entered via Auctionator. For the rest of the cells between D7:J20, those are the amounts of those raw materials that will be needed to craft the item in it's respective column.
• For example, in Column "E" between cells E7:E20, there is a 24 in the "Linen Cloth" row. This implies that there is a required 24 Linen Cloth in order to make the 4 Linen Bags as titled by the Column in cell E1.

Light-Blue: In the light-blue color-coating, there are also 15 rows:

• This section is different in that it gives the numbers of materials you actually are going to purchase. After doing the calculations, the numbers you find corresponding with the items under the Materials To Buy Column (B23:B36) are the amount of items you need to craft all the bags which are profitable given the prices you have input. The numbers to the right are simply the by-item breakdown of how many items are needed for what recipe using If/Then statements and are the numbers referenced when figuring how many items are needed to purchase.

In the tan color-coating, there are only 3 rows:

• Investment - The total amount of Gold you will spend to craft all bags that are profitable
• Income - The total amount of Gold you will acquire from the Auction House when selling said bags.
• Net Profit - Income minus Investment; the amount of money you make.

I hope this write-up has helped to add clarification; and, as always, good luck!