Jun 16

I found a forum post in my Blue Tracker yesterday that I got a kick out of.

Stonewhisper from <The Rat Pack> on Scarlet Crusade:

Mounts are 20, flight at 60… this is insane. Pure insanity. There’s no other way to describe it. All those months, years of grinding and leveling, farming gold, silver, copper… rendered meaningless. Everything I know about life now… soon to be gone. Just with this simple announcement.

So yesterday, resolved to my fate, I spent the day with the wife and kids, trying to keep up a strong appearance but knowing inside everything I held dear was coming crashing to a halt. Last night, as I kissed them all goodnight I silently wept at the losses I was about to suffer for this injustice. Eventually nature asserted itself and I drifted off to my final sleep as a whole being, as a man of pride and honor.

I awoke early but was afraid to open my eyes and face the desolation that my world had most assuredly become. But then… I felt a movement. Daring myself to peek at the horror that awaited me (dear God… mounts at 20…), instead… I see my daughter in bed next to me! Next to her, my wife was still here as well! I gasped in stunned disbelief as I noticed a brightening outside the window… the sun! It was indeed rising yet again! The sun… my son… wait, he wasn’t here! Fearing the worst, I burst into his room, and there he lay, still sleeping, still here… all was well!

Could it be… could it be true?! Is it possible that people getting mounts sooner and easier than me really won’t affect my life or… wait! The game!

It seemed an eternity as the computer booted up and the game loaded. Finally, the character screen… they’re all there! Can it be? Yes! Nothing is changed! No missing gold, mounts, honor… all of it still the same!

Can it be true? Can people have things a little easier than I did and my world not end? I dare now allow myself a glimmer of hope…

TL;DR: In no way, shape or form does allowing people to have an easier path to things today diminish or negate what you have already accomplished. You have nothing to cry about.

While people who disagree with his point will use his severe sarcasm to dance around the point, I find that he makes an excellent statement. I don’t fully understand why people have such a sense of entitlement–”I couldn’t have this nice thing so neither should anyone else.” Play the game, have fun, and leave everyone else alone. As stated by Zarhym: “Mount change announcement not ruining your life? We must fix this bug in an upcoming patch.”

Mar 2

Let’s take a look at this theoretical DPS chart below, comparing the DPS of five members of a heroic dungeon run (not necessarily to scale):

Which of the three DPSers did the best job? The insinctive answer is “the rogue, they did the most DPS.” And in a way, you’d be right.

But what if I told you the rogue stole aggro on half the pulls, refused to sap the correct target, and rolled need on every boss drop? And what if I told you that the hunter consistantly trapped mobs that got loose and ran toward the healer, never Multi-Shot mobs that were CC’d or minding thier own business, and offered a feast every time someone died?

I’ll tell you right now, as a tank and someone who often puts together and leads instance runs, I’d take the hunter anytime they wanted to run, and I’d add the rogue to my NotesUNeed list under “Avoid.”

It is very common to judge the worth of a player quantitatively–that is, based on how much damage, threat, or healing per second they can produce. Partly, this is because we’re human–how often are first impressions the only judge of a person we care about?

In the guild’s first Obsidian Sanctum run, which I blogged about a while ago, there were two particular guildies (who are no longer with the guild) with us: one of them was very well geared and had good DPS, the other one was a bit lacking in both gear and DPS. The first guildie, however, couldn’t manage to avoid the lava walls–I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me he got hit by every single one. The second one, with the lower DPS, avoided almost all of them, if not all of them.

In this situatation, the ability to follow directions and follow WoW Rule #1 (”WoW Rule #1: Don’t stand in the ______!”) was much, much more important than the ability to pump out tons of DPS.

While sometimes the numbers are important, don’t fall into the trap of judging people quantitatively. THE METERS DON’T TELL THE WHOLE STORY! Take the time and make qualitative assessments of party and raid members!

PS: Because I said I would: Yoder is awesome.

Feb 23

Corpse Explosion is a talent in the death knight Unholy tree. It didn’t used to look like this, it used to say something to the fact of:

Corpse Explosion
1 Unholy
Cause a corpse to explode for craptastic Shadow damage to all enemies within 20 yards.  Will use a nearby corpse if the target is not a corpse.  Does not affect mechanical or elemental corpses.

I feel certain that if the WoW tooltip system supported italics, that “craptastic” would indeed have been italicized.

The reason Corpse Explosion sucked so badly was two-fold: first, its cost was an unholy rune. I have so, so many better things to do with an unholy rune, like say for instance, casting Scourge Strike? The second reason it was a horrible talent is because it did very little damage. Put those two things on the fact that you needed a corpse to even use it and you’ve got yourself a truly worthless talent.

My guess is almost nobody took it, because a little while back it was changed. Now, it costs 40 runic power and does significantly more damage. How much more damage? Well, I wasn’t sure, so as I respecced last weekend to pick up Anti-Magic Zone, I decided to nab Corpse Explosion too, and take it for a test drive.

Short version: I like it. A lot.

Long version: In my current tank gear, Corpse Explosion does approximately 1000 damage to affected mobs. That’s not as much as a Death Coil, but it’s AoE, and unlike Unholy Blight it does not take time to do its damage. It’s really good for quick bursts of AoE damage or threat (assuming there is a corpse around). Violet Hold comes to mind, as does the hallway between Noth and Heigan (the one with all the bats and stuff). And in AoE situations, if Unhoy Blight is already ticking, or if the mobs won’t live long, I’d rather toss out a Corpse Explosion than a Death Coil.

Furthermore, if you cast it on your ghoul, he will explode! This includes both pet ghouls and Risen Ally ghouls. I’m not sure if it actually explodes them per the spell or if it makes them cast the “Explode” spell, but either way they do indeed explode.

It also helps that the spell is insanely fun to use anyway. I mean, just look at that picture at the top of the article! Furthermore, it can be cast on player corpses. Raid member die to Heigan’s dance? Take THAT! Completely owned that ganker on a PvP server? Forget /spit, just explode their corpse! Nothing quite as humiliating.

In case your wondering, after a corpse is exploded you’re left with either a pile of bones or a hunk of meat with bones sticking out–both of which can be looted, skinned, mined, and so forth as normal. As an added bonus, the pile of whatever is always the same size, from a gnome death knight (kill it!) to Gruul.

All in all, my test drive is pretty much complete–Corpse Explosion is staying on my action bar.

Feb 10

I alluded to the fact that tanks and healers often share a different bond than most people in a prior post, but as I began to think about this some more I decided to post my thoughts.

The Role of the Tank and the Healer

I’m sure you all know what a tank does and what a healer does, but bear with me.

Tank: A tank’s job, at it’s most basic, is to keep aggro on mobs. There are secondary responsibilities, like not dying, which inlcudes gearing up, etc., but at it’s most basic, the tank is there to make things angry so they don’t get angry at the people that would die if the angry things hit them.

Healer: A healer’s job, at it’s most basic, is to make sure people stay alive, primarily the tank. Ideally (and barring AoE damage, which now days is unavoidable), only the tank should be taking damage, because the tank should be keeping the attention of all the mobs.

Connections to Real Life

This reminds me a bit of a traditional family. The man of the house is generally a protector, running interference between all the things that need to be taken care of–providing money for the family, taking care of the yard work, etc.–and the rest of the family. The woman is traditionally more nurturing, caring for the home and the rest of the family. When I realize that I couldn’t successfully tank without the support of a healer, it reminds me of the fact that I could never take care of everything that needed to be done at home without the support of my wife.

The Instant Bond

As a tank, you’ve got your mind on several things at once, especially if you’re tanking several mobs at once. As a death knight tank, I open with Death and Decay, then make sure my diseases get spread around, then make sure I nab the adds or any mobs the DPS may have pulled, and in it all, I might have a moment to take a look at my health pool and go “Holy cow, that’s low.” But then I notice all the green text flying up the right side of my screen–numbers followed by a name. “Oh, it’s okay,” I say to myself, “so-and-so’s got my back.”

I don’t know how it feels from a healer’s perspective, but for me it’s like an instant bond, knowing that someone’s focusing as much on keeping me alive as I am on keeping them from getting eaten by Erekem and his adds. Perhaps the parallel to a real-life relationship is what makes the feeling so strong and so sudden, particularly, as Phaelia points out, when the tank is a male and the healer is a female.

This “bond” (or whatever you’d like to call it) is very interesting to me. Especially when I know the healer (see the next sections), I feel a lot less at edge, to the point that I feel more secure when the healer has me as their target (my mind almost equates this to catching someone’s eye).

“That Healer”

I’d be willing to bet that most tanks have a “that healer.” “That healer” is the healer that healed you in that one instance things went so swimmingly in. “That healer” is the person a tank asks “do you want to run X” before he asks anyone else, because he knows that “that healer” is good at what they do and knows they’ll do their best to keep them up. A relationship between a tank and “that healer” can extend beyond that, in time, as experienced by Jessika.

As someone who spends their time in WoW taking hits for the team, there’s nothing better than not only knowing intellectually that the person keeping you alive is a good healer and will do their darndest to make sure you don’t bite the dust, but also that they’re a friend and that the relationship extends beyond just “I get hit in the face and you make it feel better.” That’s the kind of person that brings out the “Hey, I was gonna run an instance, but only if you’d like to heal!”

Types of Healers

This is a subject that I was thinking about last night when a friend of mine was healing me for The Amphitheater of Anguish in Zul’Drak. Each type of healer–priest, paladin, shaman, and druid–heal quite differently (a druid with HoTs, a shaman with lots of Brain Heal, etc). It struck me that it feels different, psychologically, to be healed by these different classes. The joke I made to my friend (a priest) was “Ah, familiar heals. Not those strange, unfeeling paladin crits.”

This particular friend has a pattern I’ve noticed near the beginning of every pull: a self bubble and a cast of Prayer of Mending for me. Waiting for the mob to run down the stairs, watching the little buff icon above my character frame show up, is when I realized that each class’ heals really do feel different. For example, the priest’s shields, “preventative” heals, and HoTs (and especially the way this priest friend tends to use them) makes me feel secure (”I notice you’re about to pull and tank for us–here, take this, it’ll help :)”), while being healed by a paladin, which is much more reactive and critty, feels more like heals are being thrown at you at a hundred miles an hour (”FEEL BETTER NOW DAMMIT!”).

Conclusion

I’ve rambled on long enough. Now it’s your turn. I’m very interested in what others of you have to say. Tanks, do you notice this relationship at all? Have you formed a stronger relationship with “that healer?” Does the relationship extend beyond tanking and healing? Healers, do you notice it to? What about the relationships with your tanks? You folks that play DPS, do you form bonds like this, or is it all about the meters, like it was for Elad?

Jan 27

As I mentioned before, I recently (about a month ago) rerolled on a new server with some friends of mine. I started a character and leveled it to 55 so I could recreate my death knight tank, who is currently level 74.

I’m in my friend’s guild, and as folks have start to turn 80, talk of running Naxxramas has started to buzz around. The raid leader for my guild has posted minimum requirements for Naxx on our site, though I don’t think terribly many people are taking it seriously. It’s the same thing you see on the Internet: “Naxxramas is ez-mode,” “raids aren’t hard anymore,” “we’re doing Naxx in blues and taking people in greens,” etc etc.

But, besides making the content that much easier, gearing up for Naxxramas matters to me for one reason: it shows that you, as a guildmate, in a run with me, have taken the time to run heroics, get some emblem gear, enchant your nicer items, and so forth. If I’m leading a raid, and I have to put a team together, I’m far, far more likely to take the person who runs heroics every day, comes to me with questions about his spec and gear, makes an effort to get better, than the guy who turned eighty two months ago and has sat around complaing that people aren’t leveling fast enough to raid, but has no gear past what he had when he dinged.

Improving yourself shows that you care how the guild does, and that you’re willing to put forth a bit of effort to be a meaningful part of our team.

Jan 6

While I do have quite a few toons (see outdated banner image/blag name for more info) across several servers, all my high-level characters are on Shadowsong-Alliance, including my only level 80 character. Recently, I created a troll shaman on Nazjatar to play with a coworker (and good friend/BUDDAY) of mine who plays a prot warrior. Since then, I’ve gotten my shaman to about level 50. Now, I have quite the predicament–what do I want to do on this server?

I really enjoy tanking. I’ve only healed a little, and it was pretty fun, but I’m not sure if it’s what I want to do. I enjoy melee DPS, but caster DPS is a bit to passive for my tastes.

Here’s my thought process:

Option 1: Level my Shaman

My first thought was just to get the shaman the rest of the way to 80, and when dual-specs hit I could heal and DPS. Playing a healer means that my buddy and I would always be able to find a quick group for a heroic. However, I’m not sure if healing is really what I want to do, and I’m not sure if I really like the feel of shaman healing anyway. I could always just level my shaman as a DPS character.

Option 2: Level my Warrior

I have a level 10 warrior on Nazjatar as well. I’ve leveled a warrior before, and it wasn’t very easy. I found it to be one of the harder classes to level. However, I generally like the feel of playing a warrior, especially as prot. However, playing a tank of any sort means that, in heroics, I would only be able to DPS while my friend tanks, or the other way around. But, we would be able to tank raids together, which could be a ton of fun.

Option 3: Level a Death Knight

I love playing a death knight. I mean, I really love playing a death knight. I enjoy the way they tank, the way they DPS, the way they gear.  However, the tank problem mentioned in option two still applies, and there’s also the fact that Nazjatar-Horde has a lot–and I mean a lot–of death knights already, although how many of them are talented or will even stick with it is yet to be seen.

Option 4: Level a Tank/Healer Hybrid

My old main was a druid (who is now balance, but was once feral). I’ve healed with her before, and I really enjoyed the way a druid heals. However, I’m not as fond of tanking on a druid. I could also level a paladin, which I really love tanking with (in my limited paladin experience), but I am very much not fond of healing on a paladin. So really, neither of the two hybrids really excite me with their ability to tank or heal with a change of spec and gear.

So, that’s where I stand right now. Any input is appreciated!

Dec 25

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Oct 21

Patch 3.0.3 is coming soon, and several big changes are coming our way. A few of those caught my eye in particular:

Druid

The Swift Flight Form is now available on the trainer at level 71, requiring 300 riding skill, and Flight Form learned.

Paladin and Warlock

The epic ground mount is now available on the trainer at level 61, requiring 150 riding skill, and the non-epic mount learned.

So, I guess this is the end of those epic mount quests. I feel a bit mixed on the topic; I’ve done both the Warlock and Druid quests, and they were a lot of fun; however, I can see how getting folks to go back and run Dire Maul and Heroic Sethekk Halls could be annoying and bothersome.

For better or worse, though, there it is.

Oct 15

So, as most of you know, today’s patch didn’t go perfectly. And that’s normal–it’s not like there are a lot of practice runs, the PTR and internal testing is all Blizz gets, and it’s not like that can prepare you for rolling out software for hundreds of servers with tens or hundreds of thousands of users each.

But no. No, once again, the stupidity of the average WoW player has me gritting my teeth. A kind person posted a thanks to the IT folks at Blizzard on the official forums:

I noticed that today, the people who set up the new patch, are working a 12-hour shift. It probably would not be that bad, but they do it in the middle of the night all the way to the afternoon. I was also just thinking about those times when it goes into extended maintenance and the patch is not up for an extra hour or so. I do not know exactly what they have to do, but since it takes so much time to be finished, it must be a lot of work.

What I am trying to get to is a thanks for putting up with having to work such a long shift and in the middle of the night so the majority of players will be able to play the game during the day.

And, of course, in come the idiots.

I can’t imagine what is so hard about copying patch files and pushing the restart button.

And another.

Boohoo IT people do it all the time. I don’t like the days worth of downtime. East Coast gets screwed.

And another.

my dad (a pilot) just made a 16 hour flight and after a few hours of sleep will make a 14 hour return flight.. QQ more because of a job plz?

im sure they’re trying their hardest, but it isnt something that they should receive an award for lol

And yet another.

This company is NEVER ready on patch days, and strands people (bare minimum) 2 hours and up to twiddle their thumbs.

Sorry, but i’ll award my medal elsewhere, where support and reliability is CONSISTENT.

So, once again, the WoW community (and I know I’m preaching to the choir here, you guys tend to be mature and understanding and…well, not trolls) shows its complete ignorance for (1) any semblance of a smidge of knowledge about high-load servers and (2) any crumb of kindness and thanks for people that most definitely work very hard to do their best to make sure your game–and let’s make sure we get that–your GAME is running smoothly.

I mean, seriously, is it that hard to be nice to people, even if you’re not happy with the way things worked out? Can you really not go without your WoW addiction for a single day? Can you really not put away your stupid, stupid assumptions of "what’s so hard about copying files and pushing a button" because it is most definitely a million times more complicated than that? Seriously.

</rant>

Oct 7

Although this article contains the barest minimum of spoilers, I thought I’d break it behind a "read more" link for those of you that don’t want any information whatsoever. Read more… »