*Stands In Bad* is recruiting!

I don't usually tout stuff about my guild, but i'm going to follow my GM's lead. You should read the post of hers that I linked, because she words things well... And her blog is just fucking awesome.

So... Who are we?

Stands In Bad is a casual/progressive raiding guild that exists Alliance side on the US - Azgalor server. We've only been in existence since July of 2010, but since then we've been kicking ass at our own pace. Currently we are 5/12 in normal mode raiding, after only 3 weeks of raiding. We focus solely on 10 mans (because 25 mans are like herding goddamn cats, and i'm not up for that), and we are looking for people to fill out our just-forming second 10-man group. We are a very mature, open-minded group of people. Racist, sexist, sexual orientation-...ists.... (what do you call them?) Are *not* welcome. We welcome all types in our guild, so all types should FEEL welcome.

What do we need?

Well, as I said, we are filling out a just-starting second 10-man group. We basically have *Exactly* 20 people, but are looking for a couple backups and alternators. If you can only raid every other week, or have no issues sitting out semi-regularly, then we might be worth looking for. We're welcoming all classes, but we currently have no rogues, mages, or boomkins. Any kind of hybrid (tank/dps, dps/heals, tank/heals) is also welcome!

When do we raid?

Wednesday and Thursday evening, at 7-10 pm Central (our server time).

What's expected of you?

While we're not a "hardcore" raiding guild, we do ask you to do your best when you come along for a raid. If you sign up, you're expected to be fully gemmed and enchanted. When I lead raids, I always check gear before I post the final roster. While we do raid "seriously", we also have a lot of fun with it too.

Are you interested? Sound like we might be your cup of tea? Drop an email to Amber, our GM, at endingfire@gmail.com, make sure you include a link to your toon's armory and such. If you can use full words while typing instead of "text speak" it's a bonus! We don't have an official "raid applicant" form for you to fill out, so just tell us a bit about yourself. I'd also recommend reading this first, as it is our guild's charter. Look forward to hearing from you!

ARGH! Sorry folks, I had the wrong email address listed. NOW i've got the correct one. Sorry.. /headdesk

Raid level gear for Da Bears

As you can assume, I don't mean this for the football team... This is going to be the gear you want to look for in normal mode raids. Obviously the heroic versions are comparable if you're doing heroics, but if you're in that point of raiding, you probably don't need me to tell you what gear to look for, who it drops off of, and I'll even mark your "best in slot" with an asterisk, then give a brief explanation afterwords. It should be noted that i'm leaving out crafter-only slot items (engineering head-slots and etc)

Chest

Assassin's Chestplate - Leatherworking

Morrie's Waywalker Wrap - Random drop*

Sark of the Unwatched - Atramedes*

Stormrider's Raiment - Tier 11

Haste is a bad stat for bears, plain and simple. And the 2-piece T11 bonus is really pretty crummy, which is a shame cause the 4-piece bonus is nice... and expertise isn't a bad stat. Have to wonder what Blizz was doing with this tier. The LW crafted piece is nice, but it's lack of gem socket (Compared to the *two* sockets the other pieces have) REALLY hold it back.

Feet

Storm Rider's Boots - Halfus Wyrmbreaker

Treads of Fleeting Joy - Valor Point Vendor

There's really no "best in slot" between these two. They both have haste, which is blah, but can be reforged off. The Storm Rider's Boots have a better secondary stat in mastery, but the socket bonus is meh (only 10 mastery. Better socketing for agi/stam or stam really). The VP boots have a better socket bonus (10 agi), but crit being it's other green stat is kind of eh. Personally, I think the boots Halfus drops are better, but JUST barely, and too close to call.

Gloves

Double Attack Handguards - Chimaeron*

Liar's Handwraps/Stormbolt Gloves - Dragonmaw Clan/Wildhammer Clan (H/A)

Stormrider's Grips - Tier 11

Again, the tier 11 is kind of blah, green-stat wise. Expertise and Mastery, offered by the Double Attack Handguards make a tasty combination, but the rep gloves are by far the easiest to come across in this list.

Head

Membrane of C'thun - Cho'gall

Tsanga's Helm - BoE zone drop in Bastion of Twilight*

Stormrider's Headpiece - Tier 11

Tsanga's just barely edges out the T11 piece, because crit and mastery are valued higher than hit or expertise. Haste brings down the Membrane, and giving haste to the socket bonus really drags this way under the other two pieces. 30 agi is a damn sexy socket bonus, and both the t11, and Tsanga's have, so you could really go either way.

Legs

Aberration's Leggings - Maloriak

Stormrider's Legguards - Tier 11*

I'm quite disappointed to only see TWO pieces of 359 legs even viable for bears. Tier 11 is a CLEAR winner between these two pieces as well. Farm Baradin's Hold for them, because they're really just worth it. Good sockets, good bonus, good stats, easily obtainable.

Shoulders

Poison Protocol Pauldrons - Omnotron Defense System*

Stormrider's Spaulders - Tier 11

The tier 11 has a decent (at best) socket bonus... but it just doesn't outweigh all that nasty haste it has on it.

Belt

Belt of Nefarious Whispers - Leatherworking

Dispersing Belt - Twilight Ascendant Council

This is a tough call. The Dispersing Belt has a socket, whereas the crafted belt doesn't, but the crafted belt has better secondary stats. Take whichever one you like, really.

Bracers

Parasitic Bands - Magmaw

Well.... these are the only 359 leather agility wrists.... Guess what your BiS is? (Ugh.. i'm pretty disgusted about that, honestly). At least they're good statistically.

Neck

Don Rodrigo's Fabulous Necklace - BoE world drop

Necklace of Strife - Valiona & Theralion

There's almost no statistical difference between the two. DRFN edges out the other by way of having more mastery, but it's REALLY a tossup, because you can reforge more off of the Necklace of Strife into dodge.

Ring

Hornet-Sting Band - Valor Point vendor (new in patch 4.0.6)

Gilnean Ring of Ruination - BoE world drop

Lightning Conductor Band - Omnotron Defense System*

Signet of the Elder Council - Earthen Ring Revered*

You can kind of go any way with these three. I starred the two that I did because they kind of have the best combination of stats, overall. Mastery, Crit, and Hit. Haste on the rep ring, of course, will be reforged into oblivion.

Weapons

Malevolence - Halfus Wyrmbreaker*

Vicious Gladiator's Pike - PvP

Vicious Gladiator's Staff - PvP

I'm not one to advocate pvp gear in pve content, but there's really SO few choices for 359 gear. Again, i'm completely disgusted at the lack of options. Obviously, if you can get the drop from Halfus, have at it. Shame that resilience can't be reforged off of gear.

Trinkets (i'm going to rank these in order from best to worst IMO)

Symbiotic Worm - Magmaw

Vial of Stolen Memories - Valiona & Theralion

Bedrock Talisman - Valor Point vendor

DMC Earthquake - Stones deck

Mirror of Broken Images - Baradin's Wardens/Hellscream's Reach exalted

Hoo boy.. Trinkets are a bit more titchy than other slots, so let me give a brief rundown of why I ranked these like I did. I'm like trinkets with stamina on them for tanks. I'm also a big fan of passive or proc trinkets, over on-use trinkets. (Thus, Symbiotic Worm > Vial of Stolen Memories). Bedrock Talisman seems a bit underbudget with the bonus armor it grants, but the dodge proc is pretty nice. The Darkmoon card has a really nice dodge bonus, but an on-use battlemaster's trinket? And ONLY 11.5k health, at that? Really? Not worth the cash. Mirror of Broken Images will take a long time to grind, it gives mastery, which isn't bad, but not as good as dodge, and offers a spell-resist usage that's situational at best. It really isn't worth the time, or BH/HR marks, you'd spend on it.

Also, don't forget that my guild, Stands in Bad, is recruiting! See my previous post for details.

20 days... maybe?

Well, I really don't have a whole lot of other stuff to post, and my friend SpellboundSaga decided to come up with a new "20 days of..." blogging challenge. I kinda failed my last one... miserably... but it was all Cataclysm's fault! Anyway, the entire list for *her* 20 day... thingy... can be found here, and I think i'm going to attempt to try this one. So with that...

Day 1 - Introduce Yourself

I've never been much for giving a *lot* of personal details online, but I suppose people could probably find enough about me based on what I have given out, so whatever. Anyway, my name is Chris, i'm 29 years old and I live in a moderate-sized city in middle Tennessee.

As you may or may not have noticed, my main toon is a druid. Feral druid, tankish by nature. I've gone through so many "mains" in my time playing, but this one has really stuck with me for a lot. I've even become a pretty good raiding tank, which is something I didn't think I would see myself doing a year ago.

I've been playing WoW for about 2 1/2 years, but only been blogging for... a little under a year. Since I started blogging, i've come across an AMAZING community of fellow bloggers and twitter folks, an awesome guild that I can call home, and found myself generally having a lot more fun in game than I had in a while. I didn't even realize I wasn't enjoying the game as much, until I started enjoying it more... if that makes sense? Anyway...

Aside from my current main, i've been a long-standing altaholic. I've levelled something like 10 toons to level 80, and not all of them even exist anymore. Right now, my "primary alt" is a priest. I actually healed my first heroic on him a few days ago, and that went okay... Did another one earlier today, and that ended up going not so well, but we all have good and bad days I suppose.

I'm rambling now, and i'm sure that you all don't want to know much about the IRL me. I'm not that interesting really. ;)