HOW AM I DOING I WONDER?

For almost 3 years now I have tried to learn how to WOW. My Tuatha Guildmates have been quite helpful and I appreciate that, but I am not getting something so I need some help. What is the thing with dungeons? I have probably done at least 100 dungeons and raids bringing 8 characters to 100 and 7 to 110 now in Legion, and in all those attempts I have seldom if ever received anything (armor or weapon) of value from doing a dungeon. I thought doing dungeons and raids would be a way to get improved gear for my toons - but that has simply not been the case.
Am I doing it wrong?
Or is the whole thing with dungeons and raids simply an end unto itself - where those who participate just like the process?  I have to say I find the raids and dungeons chaotic and exhausting with lots of action and noise that seems mostly random. The teams with powerful members can typically handle every dungeon with relative ease no matter what I do to participate.
I assume there must be some benefit to the guild since it seems to be a priority to get dungeons done each week and I would very much enjoy being helpful - but mostly I don't understand the process. There doesn't appear to be any strategy or planning - just a random get together and a suggestion to do "whatever" dungeon. Am I missing something?
Looking at the current Guild Loot page I see that every item is lvl 900 or below - mostly 880 to 885 - except 1 970 Legendary item for Aoibheil - and I already have 5 or 6 legendary items for each of my toons and can only use 2.

My education & experience is in administration & I've always been a fairly adept organizer / planner / strategist so I feel as if I could be of use if I only understood the reasoning behind doing these dungeons. At one time we added that voice chat app in order to communicate while raiding but I have not seen that in use for months. 
I have a ton of ores and herbs I could donate and over 250 duplicate lvl 25 pets in a collection with 851 unique pets to give or loan to anyone. I only wish to know what I might do to help the guild and to add to the accumulated knowledge of the best way to increase the power of our toons so our guild can be successful (but we have to agree on what "successful" means) I don't see organization - strategy - or planning as an impediment to having fun. In fact it's more fun for me to not be so clueless. I hope that makes some sense. 

Guild Loot

So I thought it best to present my question this way: 

Trying to get a handle on how I am progressing my character's in Legion, I find it impossible to locate comparative data on what is good progress.  The first case in point is this new Aurasdeath Deathknight which I love to play along with my second newest toon the Demon Hunter Aurasmind

It seems to me that after reaching 110 the goal for making strong characters is to:
1 increase item level 

2 increase damage per second
and the way to do this is to get improved armor and to increase AP or Artifact Power Levels

I am not saying that I do not enjoy the achievements and mount & pet collecting, but the best way to make gameplay less taxing is to get your character to a strength or level that makes it hard to kill while making it a more efficient killer.

To that end, I offer these 2 examples of where I am at in terms of DPS and Item LEVEL on my 2 most advanced damage dealing characters so any of you who can might let me know how this compares to where you have managed to get your 'toons'. 
Is Item level from 925 to 928 average? poor? good?
Is Artifact weapon level at 850 to 855 average? poor? good?

CHARACTER LEVELS - NOV 27 2017

DEATHKNIGHT AURASDEATH

Aurasdeath Unholy Death Knight started at lvl 100 in early October.

Level 110  925 Item lvl 

5,916 Damage per second with Apocalypse at Item lvl 950

Head 915 - Neck 910 w 200 Mastery socket & Trained Soldier -

Shoulder 910 -  Back 910 w 200 Mastery socket

Chest 970 Cold Heart Legendary  NOTE: the stacking damage effect of Chains of Ice is awesome with 20 times stacking of 93,957 Shadowfrost Damage.

Wrist 935 Titanforged  Hands 915 Waist 915

Legs 910 Dreadwyrm Battleplate

Feet 915 w 200 Strength socket

Ring one  970 Soul of the Deathlord 150 mastery enchant 200 mastery socket

NOTE: the Bursting Sores adds to the Lash of Shadows on Festering Wounds  

Ring two 910 w 150 mastery enchant

Trinket one Hunger of the  Pack 915  with speed boost

Trinket two Eye of Command with Critical strike increase of 178

Artifacts - ARTIFACT LEVEL 75 ARTIFACT KNOWLEDGE 53 372,750,000%

according to Icy Veins, my artifacts are quite excellent

1 FIRE Rocket Chicken Rocket Fuel lvl 915 + 62 item levels  Deadliest Coil, Chaotic Darkness Darkest Crusade from Netherlight Crucible

2 SHADOW Scornful Reflection lvl 910 + 61 item levels Plaguebearer, Torment the Weak & Deadliest Coil

3 BLOOD Gory Dreadlord Horn +62 item levels Unholy Endurance, Shadowbind, Lash of Shadows

Runeforged with the best Icy Veins choices 

Notes: Despite many attempts to get higher level items with Veiled 

Argunite it has been frustrating.  For some reason 910 has been the best I've gotten from the Vindacaar vendor

unlike my better luck with almost every other alternate toon

So question # 1: How am I doing? Is this average? good?
Terrible? 
Or perhaps better stated as: How does this compare with other guild members & players?

I find all of my toons now at level 110 with item levels from 923 to 928 

This Deathknight is my first to Artifact level 75 making all three artifacts at 3 filling each of the Netherlight Tiers leading to question 2:

Once artifact level 75 has been breached filling out the tiers is it better to start to boost something like the Tank or Blood specialty or should I continue to add my AP to the Unholy DPS specialty?

The Demon Hunter is close to closing out level 75

DEMON HUNTER AURASMIND

Level 110  Item Level 926

Twinblades of the Deceiver Item lvl 925 4,683 Damage per Second

Head 915 Neck 915 Amulet of the Last Guardian  Shoulder 915

Back 970 Legendary Chaos Theory enchant 150 Agility

Chest 920 Wrist 920 Hands 915 Vestment of Second Sight

Waist 970 Legendary Cindaria, the Symbiote

Legs 915 Feet 910

Ring one 915 enchant CS

Ring two 915 enchant crit strike socket 200 critical strike

Trinket one 914 3 toed Rabbit Foot

Trinket two 910 Void Stalker Contract

ARTIFACTS

1 FEL IMPLODING STAR  level 910 + 61 item levels - Chaos Vision, Light Speed, Critical Chaos

2 SHADOW ETHERAL ANCHOR  level 915 + 62 item levels - Demon Rage, Infusion of Light, Wide Eyes

3 FEL FELSWORN COVENANT level 920 + 64 item levels Demon Rage, Infusion of Light ( need approx 150 billion to reach lvl 75 for full 3 tiers)



I would appreciate any feedback you might offer including the levels for your top characters and the best way to find those rare 920 to 935 level armor items that seem to be the most desired to get a toon past the 925 to 928 ceiling.

I find my 2 highest level toons - MONK at 928 item level & Beast Master Proton with a 956 weapon level both benefit from the LUCK of finding 2 Artifact Relics at level 930 and 935  when the average is 915. The only way I know how to get Artifacts is to do the Veiled Argunite grind and to roll the dice with 80% results of 910 - 15% at 915 and only some 5% at 920 or above. 

NETHERLIGHT CONFUSION

idHavoc Demon Hunter Aurasmind is lvl 110 - Item lvl 926 with:
1 Fel Relic a 910 Imploding Star with Chaos Vision
1 Shadow Relic a 915 Ethereal Anchor with Demon Rage
1 Fel Relic at 920 Felsworn Covenant with Demon Rage

According to Icy Veins, the key trait is Critical Chaos far above any other consideration

Originally I had 3 920 Relics in the 2 Fel and 1 Shadow slots but none led to Critical Chaos on any tier.  So I took a chance and switched to the 910 Fel and 915 Shadow that gave me access to Critical Chaos

My 1 Fel Relic leads to Light Speed on tier 2 and Critical Chaos on tier 3 with the 910 Relic
before the traits were in the BAD or useless categories as described by Icy Veins.

My Shadow Relic leads to Infusion of Light and Wide Eyes
and the 2nd Fel Relic has a Tier 2 Infusion of Light.

 

 

So the traits I now have like Infusion of Light are at the top or in the Best categories
and the Critical Chaos is the top tier three trait although Wide Eyes is not particularly good the other choice on my tier tree was worse.

However going from 920 Relics to a 910 and a 915 diminished my weapon DPS yet Icy Veins and Wowhead do not say which is the more important - higher lvl relics OR the tier traits.

I can continue to purchase Relics with my Veiled Argunite, but even if I receive a higher lvl Relic by chance like a 920 or even 930, when I replace the existing lower lvl relic it re-rolls the tier tree so there is no guarantee that new tree will contain Critical Chaos or perhaps "BAD" or useless tier traits.

This used to be pretty simple - The higher the Lvl the better - now it seems to be a crap shoot with pitfalls outside the control of the player.

Hunter Artifact Weapon Confusion

My artifact weapon is Titanstrike - it appears as the weapon in each of the three Hunter DPS designations and it has been upgraded no matter which - Beast Master, Marksmanship or Survival I have chosen at the time of adding artifact power. 

This is unlike any of the alt characters I have - Monk, Warlock, Shaman, Rogue or Demon Hunter. Each of those has separate weapons for each specialty - example - The Monk has Fists of The Heavens for the Windwalker Damage spec - Staff of the Mists for the Mistweaver Healer spec - and FuZan the Wanderer's Companion for the Brewmaster Tank Spec.  Each of these has completely different Artifact Power "trees" and the AP applied is specific to each spec. 

THIS IS THE ICY VEINS IMAGE FOR BEAST MASTER HUNTER  

NOTE THE 5 CIRCLE GROUP LOWER RIGHT 

COMPARE THAT WITH MY TITANSTRIKE FOR BEAST MASTER 

NOTE THE 54 IN THE UPPER LEFT CIRCLE - I have now received a message that my Titanstrike is at maximum level and the AP I have on hand cannot be applied to the weapon 

NOW LOOK AT MY ACTIVATED MARKSMANSHIP SPEC

EXACT SAME WEAPON AND AP TREE 

THE SURVIVAL SPEC TREE AND WEAPON ARE THE SAME 

So what is the deal here?  When I open the appearance window I see this 

This shows a number of additional weapon names and appearances - I no not if these are actually different weapons or if it is simply a cosmetic thing having nothing to do with Specialization as in the Monk example above; or are there more weapons I somehow missed??  I find that odd since I have every weapon for the Shaman, Warlock, Rogue and Demon Hunter as well as the Monk. 

SO I HAVE 2 VERY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:

1) Is this as it should be?

and if it is 

2) What to do with all the additional AP acquired in invasions, Emissary Quests, and other activities so common to WOW.  I spent the time to get this character capable of doing battle and now that is done I can't use the most common reward?? 

WTF?? 

MYTHIC DUNGEON - PLANS OF ATTACK & STRATEGY

After working with our fearless leader Aoibheil and other Tuatha Guild members on several long and difficult Mythic Dungeons, it seems to me that strategy and plans of attack prior to launching a dungeon or raid would give better results - quicker, less confusion, more rapid success.

To wit I offer these limited observations -

ONE that comes to mind at this moment is my Monk's Engineering ability - now close to 800.

That gives me the ability to make and use
1) GUNPOWDER CHARGE - This current one star recipe makes a bomb that deals 388 thousand fire damage to the target
The Gunpowder Charge can be used by anyone with no engineering profession and can be use with the:
2) DEPLOYABLE BULLET DISPENSER: This 3 Star current recipe summons a turret that fires bullets at the target that total damage of 200 to 300 thousand

• Need to have 350 Engineering skill to use
• Can use in dungeons
• Deals ~25 hits 8.2-.85k each (can crit)
  200-300k damage total.
• Shared cd with  Gunpowder Charge (they deal 300-600k damage)

3) FAILURE DETECTION PYLON - These resurrect party members when placed within 5 yards "after combat has ended" when spirits have not been released. This would help when all 5 party members die - like with the Dragon & eggs in Darkheart Thicket.

4) PUMP-ACTION BANDAGE-GUN:  this heals party member or allies up to 40 yards away with over 155 thousand healing in 6 seconds. - I don't think the player has to stop action to get the healing

• It does not do the entire heal at once, rather it applys a hot.
• The hot lasts for 5 seconds and does 6 ticks of healing
• The ticks were either of 25923 or 25924 for a total of 155,541 healing.

These two items add healing to the team with any Engineer in addition to the team healers

There must be other professions that offer similar additional damage and healing actions to a dungeon team.

When a group of the guild gets together for a Mythic it seems to me that someone should lead who has familiarized themselves with the dungeon and who can lay out a strategy for the team. I've been lost on the few Mythic's we have done together and some simple but detailed instructions prior to the start would be very helpful for me and I believe would add to the team's chance of success and reduce the time required to complete.

Darkheart Thicket Dungeon Strategy Guide

For instance, in our Darkheart Thicket Mythic attempt, we got stuck at DRESARON the Dragon because team members were blown into the eggs causing them to hatch and some of us got caught in the BREATH OF CORRUPTION.

Reading the Wowhead guide is one solution - a team leader likely knows most of this already so it will be easier to succeed with a strategy based on what the team leader knows and available guides.

Mythic Difficulty

Run against the Down Draft to avoid triggering Whelplings

Dresaron is a primarily single-target fight with heavy movement requirements. If players fail the Down Draft/Corrupted Dragon Eggs mechanics, there may occasionally be small groups of trivial adds to kill.

In Patch 7.2,  Down Draft will push players back with more force, making them play as close to Dresaron as possible. Pets will also not pop Corrupted Dragon Eggs when they stand on them.

The Tainted Burrow in which players fight Dresaron is encircled by Corrupted Dragon Eggs, which, when disturbed will hatch into Hatespawn Whelplings (just like the trash).

When Dresaron uses the  Down Draft ability, players will be pushed away from him.

•  Down Draft is more forceful further away from Dresaron
• If players do not run forward to fight the winds, they will be pushed back into the Corrupted Dragon Eggs
• Move close to Dresaron to minimize the amount of running you will have to do
•  Down Draft also deals heavy periodic damage
• Healers should use mobility abilities, instant spells, HoTs, or raid cooldowns to keep the party alive

A properly executed  Down Draft should spawn zero Hatespawn Whelplings. However, if any Whelplings do spawn, the tank should pick them up.

Side-step out of Breath of Corruption

 Earthshaking Roar will also deal heavy party-wide damage.

• Following the  Earthshaking Roar,  Falling Rocks will appear over a random player's locat1on
• This can be particularly dangerous if it happens just before or after a  Down Draft, or if it targets the tank
• Players should quickly move out of the  Falling Rocks and use a damage-reduction or self-healing cooldown if on low health
• Tanks should move Dresaron away from  Falling Rocks that threaten the melee DPS
• Healers may need to use emergency healing to keep the affected players alive

Maybe I'm way off base here but it's exhausting for me to find myself clueless and useless so I need to be instructed.

This is just a start to coming up with a plan to strategize our Dungeon and Raid capabilities. I will be glad to do some of the research and as Guild Leader, I think you should assign us to tasks for planning Dungeons.

Rushing off to to dungeons is one way - but if a team knows the plan -
1) Which dungeons we are going to do on which level
2) Who on the team has what capabilities - like the engineering abilities shown above
3) As an Engineer I can craftt the items listed above and give them to group members but to maximize the usefulness it requres a bit of a plan

DOES ANY OF THIS MAKE ANY SENSE TO YOU?

TUATHA DE DANNAN LINKS and SECTIONS

THIS IS THE ENTRY POST AND PAGE to the TUATHA DE DANANN GUILD home on the web.

Please offer your comments & criticisms in the comment section and add your name and email address to become an "author" with full post creation privileges.

THE PET PAGE - this section is dedicated to Pet Battles. A list of members who will loan pets & give advice on Achievements and the Celestial Tournament. And links to the best videos and information on what pets to use to defeat the WOW trainers.

ACHIEVEMENTS PAGE - Is there an achievement you are working to complete? Would it be better to have guild companions on this quest?

PROFESSIONS PAGE - Need a Rogue to open a locked box? Find the Rogue here. Need something enchanted? A specific Glyph? A Blacksmith's armor or weapon? A jewel-crafter's ring or necklace? This is where members with those skills can post their offerings and members can request help.

QUESTS PAGE -  Example - I have a level 57 character in the SWAMP OF SORROWS today who just got a Quest from the NPC in the TEMPLE OF AKAU HAKKAR that obviously requires more than one player to compete.   There have been others like this. The ZUL'FARRAK in TANARIS, KALMIDOR for instance that I have been forced to skip since it too required at least 3 players (according to the script) to accomplish.  This page could be used to form teams with times to meet in order to get through these Quests that require teams.

GUILD BANK PAGE - How to make the best use of the Bank for Guild Members

THE RAID PAGE - A list of upcoming RAIDS and how to prepare for them

THE DUNGEON PAGE

THE LEGION PAGE - A look at the upcoming expansion and how we can best prepare to take full advantage as a group

Once these pages have been set up the ALL CAPS TITLES above will become links to those sections and this post will be pinned at the top of the website - the first or second thing you will see entering the Guild home on the web so you can navigate quickly to what you need.  I have created a PET PAGE and done the link to show how it will work.

PLEASE OFFER YOUR ADVICE, COMMENTS, CRITICISMS, and particularly your SUGGESTIONS for pages that would be of use to you in the comment section below 

TUATHA De DANANN - GUILD HOME ON THE WEB

TUATHA De DANANN blog - WOW Guild Tuatha De Danann

Make the LINK tuathawow.blogspot.com a common destination when preparing to play WOW as often as possible. This website will be an easy way to improve and facilitate communication within our WOW Guild that does not require a FACEBOOK membership.

Blogger is a completely independent app from GOOGLE that can be used in concert with Google Plus or additional GOOGLE Apps but does not require any additional memberships or applications. This website is a stand alone method for sharing information, communication, instruction and shared experience.

A quick visit to tuathawow.blogspot.com can update guild members on upcoming events and serve as a sounding board for your ideas and desires for Guild related activities.

Many of us use FACEBOOK to voice our political and religious views along with personal information that has no relevance to WOW. Here we don't have to deal with differences of opinion or perspective on anything that does not relate to how the Guild should function.

The Guild should be a strong resource for WOW play to enhance GUILD participation and interaction.

Any GUILD member who wishes to do so can participate by adding comments OR by requesting 'author' status. To do so simply send add your email address in the comment section and you will receive an email that allows you to access the "NEW POST" option.

One of the great features of Blogger allows image uploads and the capacity to place the image on the page like the inventory on the left

From here you can place text relating to the image making it possible to easily ask a question, make a point, or offer information.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO THE LEFT
and you will be able to view a much larger version of the image to make it easy to see everything.

So if you wish to inquire about how something works or the best method to use to achieve a result you don't have to rely on words alone to make your point.

By use of the Snipping Tool available with Windows and a number of other screen capture applications you can easily create images like these to illustrate a point you would like to make.

FOR EXAMPLE: AOIBHEIL our wise and fearless Guild Mistress and I discussed the best use of the GUILD BANK. At present the PET PAGE looks something like this:

It is quite obvious when viewing this that the LEFT SHARK comes in such abundance that it takes up over two vertical rows in the bank. That should make it obvious to all of us that placing these in the bank only serves to eliminate a space that might be used to greater Guild benefit.

At the same time we can find slots on the Enchant page occupied by Glyphs that belong on the SCRIBE Page. Antiseptic Bandages that occupy an entire vertical row here and on other pages are also available in enough abundance to make it obvious that placing them here is of little benefit to Guild Members.

The Guild Bank should serve the guild by offering useful items that are somewhat difficult to acquire.  One idea would be to use this website as a place to ask guild members for items that you need and to offer items you might be willing to trade.

Use some discretion when placing items in the Guild Bank. If more than 7 of the item you are placing already reside in the bank you can do more good by selling the item and placing the proceeds in the bank.

The key is to see if your proposed donation is already available in sufficient quantity to make the donation of marginal value and to try to use the pages as designed so it is easy to locate what you need.

TUATHA DE DANANN - PET COLLECTING AND PET BATTLES PAGE

With 670 unique rare level 25 pets in my collection I am more than willing to offer specific pets by loan to Guild Members who need a specific rare pet or pets to take on the Pandarian Trainers at the Celestial Tournament.

The Celestial Tournament is unique since a player has to defeat 3 trainers and 4 Celestial Pets in succession without healing any pet for the duration of the event. It takes 4 weeks to complete the Tournament and collect these 4 Celestial Pets.

Guild members who wish to borrow some pets from my collection to get this achievement should contact me in the comment section and I will send the requested pets to you via WOW mail and you can return them the same way at the end of the day you choose to do the quest.

CHI CHI 

XU FU

YU' LA

ZAO 

I found that viewing the videos by hazelnuttygames on YouTube was most instructive for most of the Pet Battles in Pandaria. A player can acquire 11 green bags a week from Pandaria Trainers and another 3 doing the Beasts of Fable I, II, and III quests. These bags give Rare Upgrade Stones, Pet Bandages, and a lot of junk worth some gold but most importantly offer the best way to level up pets using the hazelnuttygames videos as a guide. Two great battle pets and one "leveling" pet per battle can yield a lot of levels to your collection.

This site WARCRAFT PETS is one I have found to be most useful in knowing how to find and acquire pets - and how to evaluate which attributes (attacks and mitigations) to apply in certain circumstances.  This is probably the one area of the game where I feel most competent.