Nuclear Winter

I'm recovering from the hacker. I don't like the hacker. If I met him, I'd buy him a beer (or most likely a pizza and pop, since I doubt he's 21) and pat him on the back for a job well done... just to make him feel like crap at seeing how some of us can be the bigger men in these situations. I won't comment too much on the hacking other than be perplexed at how it was done, since I don't remember installing any new programs or clicking any new sites in the last week... I'll assume the keylogger was imbedded in one of the addons I got long ago, and the hacker just took his time cashing in so as to deflect attention away from which addon could have caused it. In any case, I caught him part way through the act and he was an amateur, not having changed the password as a first step. I salvaged some of my items, reported a ticket and am in the process of having my stuff restored. I formatted my hard drive, changed the security on my wireless, had my password reset for my WoW account and for good measure changed my passwords in my email and other programs/websites I might have used in the last few weeks. I'm also much selective about which addons I am using this time around. Xperl, Omen, Recount, TrinketMenu, DBM, Proximo 2.2, SpellAlerter. This is as barebones as I've ever gone, but hey...

As I wait for full account gloriousness again, I've gotten a bit more involved with my new guild's summertime woes: lots of raw, undergeared recruits with less and less experienced geared veterans. The guild leadership is fairly raw, being in command for the first time, and they're losing their cool at the situation. In fact, for the first time they have realized that there should be requirements to raiders. No more +900 healing Holy Priests in Mount Hyjal, no more mage dps decked out in quest-reward greens and blues being told to tank in Gruul's.

The official decree passed down to the guild plebs is thus:

"If you show up to my raid with green gear, or gear not enchanted, or without proper potions, or unrepaired, you're being removed from the raid. If it happens twice, you're being removed from the guild.

Ridiculous, if you ask me. First of all, there are times when greens are the last remaining piece on someone's gear. My own Holy Priest, for instance, is pushing 1800 healing with a green wand, just because that is the best healing wand available until later 25 man raids. I've seen plenty of fully epic Priests with only 1500-1600 +healing. Who will you take? The "purple" priest or the one who has studied the gear and realizes the best possible game he can bring to the raid involves that green piece? What about dps trinkets? A lot of people will have level 70 quest rewards because they make most sense. An affliction warlock using a green trinket that gives him +26 spell damage is much better off than an affliction warlock using a reputation reward blue trinket which only gives him some +crit on equip, like Xiri's Gift. Sure, it's a blue trinket, and shares the same cooldown... and even has the same 1m30s cooldown... AND the cooldown buff is much better than the green trinket's buff. But it provides spell crit, useless for an affliction warlock, whereas the green provides spell damage, much more useful. A constant +26 spell damage is much more beneficial in the long run. If I know an affliction warlock is debating between the two, I'll suggest the green. Green is UGLY and HURTS THE EYES... but it's not always worst when you consider what you have available to you.

The same applies to all classes. There are times when you just get unbelievably unlucky with drops to replace that very good green. What guilds, like mine, should be doing is not limiting access to raids based on the color of gear but on the quality. While someone with all greens will not cut it, no matter how much time they spent picking that gear out, someone with an assortment of various quality pieces of gear will more often than not be more than suited.

The actual stats on your gear, and your total stats, reflect whether you're suited to a raid or not, not the color you are sporting. Warriors, do you have 490+ defense? Yes, great, as long as your healers are competent, you should be able to tank Karazhan. Do you have green boots of the Champion, and a green belt of the Champion? Great, those are truly amazing tanking pieces most of the time with huge stamina boosts and even bigger defense boosts, almost unnaturally high ones for green gear (**links coming soon**). Warlocks, can you showcase more than 750-800 shadow damage? You can dps Karazhan. Stats, not gear quality. Granted, the better quality gear, the better stats, but not always. That is something raid and guild leaders need to be aware of.