*Please Read* World of Logs

I posted about this a while ago, but Tal had asked me to do another post on the subject given our recent successes in ICC. So here it is.

For those that don't know, World of Logs is a site that allows users to upload combat logs from raids for in-depth analysis. Think of it like Recount on steroids.

Anyone that is a member of the guild can upload reports. You just have to register on the site and apply to join. To do that, go here and do the following:

• Create a free user account
• Go to the realms page and find US-Farstriders
• Find the Natural Order Guild - not Natural Order, or Natural Order (Meraxes) or anything else - just Natural Order Guild, and click to join the guild. I'll get a message saying there's a new application to join, and I'll approve you and promote you to Veteran status, and then you should be good to go!

Now, to log and upload reports, you have to do the following to get set up:

• While logged in to WoW, type /combatlog in chat
• Sign in to your World of Logs account
• Click on the Client link to run the client. If you are asked to Save or Run/Open the file, select Run/Open. Alternatively, you can save it and run the java program from your computer
• The client will ask for access to the file system - it is used to save your preferences in your home directory and to read WoWCombatLog.txt.
• Enter your account settings and configure where WoW saves its logs.
  • On windows XP, it's usually C:\Program Files\Blizzard\World of Warcraft\Logs
  • On windows Vista and Windows 7, it's C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\Logs
  • If you have installed WoW in a different directory, like C:\Games\WoW, it's C:\Games\WoW\Logs
  • You can use the "Find/Test and save" button to let the client find the WoW directory. It checks for the default locations. The combat log has to exist first for this to work, henec why you type /combatlog in the first step above

Now you are ready to go! To start logging, click the left button on the Client (Start Live Report Session), then type /combatlog in WoW. To stop logging, type /combatlog again.

To view the combat log, click the middle button on the Client (Open the WoW Log). This opens the Combat Log and lets you upload directly from it to World of Logs. You can also split and zip logs after you are done to save them away for the future.

To open the Combat Log, or other past saved logs, click the first button on the Client (Open a File) and select the file from the new window.

Our logs will stay on the website for 4 weeks, unless we get a subscription for the site, which I don't think is necessary. Four weeks is plenty of time!

Now, why do we log our combat sessions? Because they contain a LOT of useful information. We don't log them to assess people's performance and see "who sucks and who doesn't." We log them because they're a great resource for assessing individual and group performance, causes of death, survivability, damage output, healing output, damage intake, event procs...I mean the list goes on and on. So if you were curious as to how many times your new trinket proc'd in a fight, or wondering how you measured up dps-wise against others of the same class (including spell/skill rotations), or what your top 3 healing spells are, or why you kept dying in a particular fight, etc., then you definitely want to check this feature out.

And if you have any questions, post here or let me know in-game. :)