WoW: GWJ Alliance Guild Primer

Just applied for a transfer of my lvl 80 mage from Tanaris to Blackhand. Hopefully it will go through soon.

Well, you guys have sold me. I've been playing WAR for the last year but that game is in very bad shape, so bad I believe it will never recover. I think I'm going to reactivate my account and I'm hoping you guys will have a spot for me. I've been a long time member of GWJ forum but mostly a lurker.

Just a question on classes because I always tend to play the class that is having the biggest issues. I have a lvl 70 Shaman on Blackhand still, elemental spec'd, but I also have a 70 Priest and Hunter on another server that I can transfer. I know the standard response is play what you want but I would just like to know, for someone that likes to PvP a lot and casually raid, which class is in decent shape with all the changes and which should I maybe steer clear of? I loved playing my shaman in TBC and raided a ton with him, usually topping the DPS charts, but I've read that elemental is not as good a caster dps in the expansion. I'm also interested in maybe trying to the Death Knight. Never played a tank in WoW but I do like tanking.

I would love some input from you guys. Shaman, Priest, Hunter, Death Knight? Out of those 4, which is the more balanced/in good shape for PvP and raiding.

We have a number of DKs... But with the upcoming 3.2 changes you would have the... advantage? Of playing your DK after the "nerfs" to the class, and not knowing any better. Otherwise, shaman, priest, or hunter, all three classes are pretty good at the moment. Shaman are getting some nice UI upgrades with the totem bar, and there's always a need for another Heroism bot. I'll let other, more knowledgeable folk go into greater detail.

NSMike wrote:

Shaman are getting some nice UI upgrades with the totem bar, and there's always a need for another Heroism bot. I'll let other, more knowledgeable folk go into greater detail.

Heroism + Elemental spec is why I loved my shaman. Our raiding group consisted of myself, elemental shaman with totem of wrath, boomkin, scorch mage and 2 others depending on the situation. But yeah, you can imagine the caster dps we could generate with that combination of totem of wrath, boomkin aura, scorch debuff and then add in heroism and you could just watch our group climb the DPS charts (I also had a friend who was discipline priest and he would give me power infusion I <3 1 second lightning bolts). Once we got fights down really well, I would ninja-activate my heroism ability and usually either the boomkin or the mage would die because they would get aggro. LOL

Play what you want! As far as the guild's needs, we need good caster DPS imho.

Of the classes you mentioned:

Shaman - I believe no one's main toon is main-spec Ele. My alt is, and I enjoy it, but I raid on my Ret Pally.

Priest - we have a number of Priest healers, but NO raiding shadow priests atm. Well, I think we have one alt that raids 10s a little, but we never have any spriests in 25s.

Hunters - we have more Hunters than DKs, but I can't count that high.

DKs - everyone and their mom has one. Strangely, we go from having 4 in a 25-man, to 2 one week, to occasionally one. But I wouldn't list DKs, melée, or plate among our "needs".

Thanks Fed. Elemental shaman it is.

I'm considering getting back in and would have to roll a new character to play with GWJ (my old one is horde on a PvP server). Since I'd have to either start from the beginning or roll a death knight, and I'm assuming I'd have to do most of my leveling solo, do people have any suggestions on classes? The only character I've played past 15 or so is a Warlock, so I'd prefer a non-cloth class for a change of pace.

I don't have much to add to my previous thoughts. Welcome aboard!

How bad is it to level a paladin? I tried at launch and it was painfully slow, but that was a long, long time ago.

I levelled mine to about 50 in vanilla, and it was very boring. I didn't really realize HOW boring it was compared to other classes until much later, though.

AFAIK it's still just Judgement, auto-attack, and Consecrate (if your mana allows for it) until get get enough talent points to get Art of War, for instant Exorcisms (Exo can now be used on any target, but has a cast time without an Art of War Proc).

Agree with Fed, it's boring, but easy. 1-70 for me in less than a month, 70-80 in about two weeks.

How about warriors?

Druids seem like they would be fun, but I'd be looking at the same shapechange models for 80 levels. Are there flavors of druid that aren't shifted all the time?

I may be a little biased as my main is a druid, but they're probably the single most versatile class in the game. There's no other class that can fulfill every role the game has to offer, and do them all well. If you get bored of your druid, a new class is a talent respec away, so the long term sustainability is excellent.

Some of the best parts about being a druid?

-Insta-cast flight form. Got a hordie sneaking up on you? Jump off the nearest cliff, switch to flight form in mid-air and watch him fall to his death if he's dumb enough to follow.
- Many quests where you have to pick up items off the ground can be done in flight form, so no killing 37 mobs to pick up one relic, just swoop down, pick it up while they beat on you a bit and fly out of range. Collection quests are FAST.
- Stealth past everything! Wanna solo Anzu for a shot at the Raven God mount? You're the ONLY class that can do it.

Oh, and there are different feral models in the game now. If you get bored with one, just go to the barber and change your hair color.

Seriously, I've played many classes and druids are by far the most fun.

Question! I have a level 80 Rogue decked out in early-dungeon blues. I've been a hordie for a long time, but my guild has fallen apart and I'd love the chance to actually see some of this Lich King content before the next expansion. With the faction change I could now be of use to the Alliance ...

Do the GWJers on Blackhand need a Rogue? Do folks do 5-mans anymore? Etc, etc?

There are quite a few five mans going on on a regular basis with the EoC and daily heroic quest changes. We don't have many rogues at the moment I think, but we don't worry much about how many of a class we have (aside from making snide snarky comments once in a while :-D).

w00tz. After great experiences with my new Blackhand lowbie I'm definitely moving my main over. Yay!

I've been away from the game for about six months and I'm currently downloading the updates...I'll see you on Blackhand soon hopefully.

I've been soloing on Suramar for a while since my guild disbanded some time ago. I wouldn't mind some casual dungeon runs or raiding.

What's the current state of the GWJ guild? What's the connection to the server from around the flyover country?

My toons:

Shaerlas - 80 Death Knight
Tarand - 70 Night Elf Rogue
Raelic - 73 Dranei Shaman
Alladriel - 72 Dranei Mage
Davian - 71 Night Elf Druid
Malich - 60 Tauren Hunter
Kaldieb - 70 Human Paladin

I played the DK in beta, had to make one in retail and it was so much fun it was the only one i leveled to 80.

Ive been on for a few days now and haven't noticed noticed the officers who are named in this thread. I'll keep trying, but FYI my toon is Cruunch.

crunchy wrote:

Ive been on for a few days now and haven't noticed noticed the officers who are named in this thread. I'll keep trying, but FYI my toon is Cruunch.

Just do a "/who GWJ" in game and send a tell to anyone in the list. They'll be able to let you know if an officer is online, and there usually is, at least during evening and weekend hours. A lot of the officers play alts, so if you're waiting to see specific names, it could take a while

crunchy wrote:

Ive been on for a few days now and haven't noticed noticed the officers who are named in this thread. I'll keep trying, but FYI my toon is Cruunch.

A /who GWJ should give you a list of guild members online. Just ask any of them to find an officer for you -- there's almost always one on at any given time.

What's the current state of the GWJ guild? What's the connection to the server from around the flyover country?

The GWJ guild is healthy and alive, although we seem to be a bit short on raiders at the moment thanks to typical summer vacations, etc. That said, we still field at least a 10 man run or two a current tier content every week, which are organized in the threads you see here in the forum.

Also FYI, don't insult journey. Or do, it leads to much hilarity, a temporary gkick, and wiping soda off my monitor.

Sticky cleaned and updated

I've never been this happy to be called a fairy princess....

Err.. that doesn't sound right..

See you in the realm

-Sluggo(th)

Hi all, I've been having a great time hanging around in guild chat with people so far - hopefully I'll be high enough level to participate in fun stuff with everyone soon.

Also, I'm very glad to see the new guild band listed officially.

Hey all,

Just joined you over the weekend and looking forward to it. Did a server and faction transfer...so needed a support group

Character's name is Belmirus, so look me up if anyone needs help or wants to group.

Cheers,
Darren

Thanks for all the info here. Have to admit I was late to reading it because I was drawn in more by Mr. Zenke and others.

But I'll do my homework, promise!

Just wanted to say hello to everyone. I also did the server and faction transfer tonight (after listening to Darren and Michael talk about the guild in a recent podcast) with my freshly dinged 80 Priest. I'm willing to help as needed and will be on in the coming weeks working on badges etc... Looking forward to meeting you all.

Lazaretto

Hypothetically, if someone was to want to get in on some dungeon runs (5/10/25 man, whatever), what would be the class least represented?

Been playing horde side for a long time and have a few 80s. I'm recently on WoW hiatus, but the itch is coming back. Probably my best geared 80 is a feral druid (more tank focused than dps), but I have decently geared shaman (Healing or Elemental) and Priest (Disc currently) as well as a few other 80s in pretty crap gear.

Normally, I'd just say "bring my favorite", but I love all my children equally. Are there any roles that typically are needed more than others?

Normally, I'd just say "bring my favorite"

That's the standard guild line too.

Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think our current representation of the class/spec combos you listed is as follows:

Feral druid: one active raider, does both tank and DPS in equal amounts.
Shaman: one active resto/elemental who runs resto more often, one active enhance, a few less actively played toons/alts of various specs.
Healing priest: two to three active, quite a few less actively played toons and alts. Disc or holy I don't really know, I'm just a dirty DPSer.

Obviously this changes quite often though as people join or leave or decide to make an alt their new main. So really you should just bring whatever you like playing the most.