Raiding: October 2008 Archives

I wrote yesterday about the mods I sadly had to abandon from my post 3.0.2 world, well today I will talk about the mods that I have found since patch day and have fallen in mod-whore love with. Enjoy this list, and look forward tomorrow to the next in my impromptu series on mods; the mods which never went bad.

As I mentioned yesterday, Skillet is my new mod for crafting my items, be they gems, armor, or potions. Combine that mod, which allows me to search and craft based on a number of parameters, with TradeTabs, which puts a tab for every crafting profession that you know. This is a really simply, very useful way to keep all of my professions easily accessible and usable. I do not know if either of these are, or need to be updated for Inscription, however comments are down below if you want to test them out.

I fell in love, or back in love with TrainerSkills in the beta. I used to use this, or a mod like this, ages ago. It basically tells you when you can learn something and what that is. Whether it be a new class skill on ding, or a new profession item on reaching a certain point, these things are all clearly pointed out to you in the chat window of your choice. A long lost mod, come back and just as awesome as before!

Since I am trying to avoid the crutch of CT Mod, I have been forced to go elsewhere for a few things I loved about the package. TipTop takes care of the tooltip placement problem, though it admittedly took a bit to get the tooltip right where I like it, which is to say center of my screen right below TitanPanel. oRA2 is a mod recommended by a guildie as we prepared for a post 3.0.2 raid, and realized that CTRA had been abandoned. I replaced the bar mods part of CT Mod, which was always more broken than fixed, with Dominos, though I have a Druid in Cat while Prowling bug I had to fix. Lastly I have not yet found a fix for the mail mod, but I am working on it and have a few leads.

The last batch of mods I have come across is the Achievement mods. Overachiever is a nice mod that helps me track where I am on an achievement, and it also changes exploration tracking based on zones and the /love you've given, or need to give to critters all over the world. AchievementSS is a cool mod which takes a screenshot whenever you complete and achievement, no matter where you are. Lastly, we have Urban Achiever, which is accessed by /ua and allows you to search for any achievement, text for an achievement, or criteria in order to find an achievement.

So there you have it. A few of the neat new mods I have found in this, the post 3.0.2 mod world. Like I said before, check back for the strong and true mods that never, or barely faltered for me when modpocalypse hit. [Update: Dominos not only allowed me to turn off the bar changing in prowl mode, but also turn off the moonkin bar change! I have more bars now!]

I was looking over my gear on the different 70s I have, after a productive set of Kara runs, one of which saw my Druid get Staff of Infinite Mysteries, and the other saw my Draenei Paladin, Telaan, get Gorehowl. Before these drops, I already knew I would have a fair bit of my current gear on all but my Hunter when I hit 75, since Medros has only replaced a few pieces of gear by his current level of 76 on the beta. The one thing which has always perplexed me is comparing raw stats to proc stats. For instance, a trinket that gives me XX stamina, XX strength, and XX to crit, versus something like my Skyguard Silver Cross and Darkmoon Card: Crusade. Which would be better? At what point is the new hotness good enough to replace the old and busted?

Another thing that has been throwing me for a loop as I leveled Medros through beta, id the seeming change in 'Ret' gear. Oh, and yes, he is the only one I have actually leveled, as I do not see a need to spend all my time leveling all my 70s to 80 in a world that will be gone in 40 days. I have noticed a lot of gear I am told is 'Ret' gear(or melee DPS plate gear) has Armor Penetration, and while I am told this was scattered on items from Burning Crusade, I cannot recall it being this prevalent on gear, and I also do not know how to equate it to my Burning Crusade gear, which all have what I call the TBC standards, strength, stamina, attack, crit, and hit. How do I account for this new stat when I am choosing gear, and by sticking to the old stats, am I losing out on awesome gear?

I guess what I am asking is whether there is a site that ranks or explains these stats and how the equate to TBC thinking? I have been playing in the TBC world for 2 years, and I just don't know how to make the switch. Anyone have thoughts? Are there conversions that have you stuck? Let me know in the comments and maybe we can all get some help and clarification for our playtime!