tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372121442024-03-14T06:12:04.069+10:00ninja chimpI can haz FoK?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-24889691981404585552009-09-29T12:16:00.002+10:002009-09-29T12:22:13.154+10:00outI have quit WoW. There, I've said it.<br /><br />Thanks for all the fun times, the friends and the laughs. I have a lot of good memories.<br /><br />I realised that I was only playing for two reasons: the social aspect and an addiction to improving Cat's gear. The latter is obviously a fruitless pursuit in the big scheme of things, and the former was great but it was taking me away from social time with my own family. It came to a head when I caught myself thinking "damn, I can't spend time with the missus tonight, I have to raid".<br /><br />All the best to everyone. I'll leave this blog up for nostalgia reasons, and out of some vain hope that one of my dribbly rants might help someone with something roguey.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-83364956252280283232009-06-30T20:02:00.003+10:002009-07-01T10:19:57.057+10:00roguecraft spreadsheetJust going through updating Cat's details in the spreadsheet, thought I'd note things as I went. It's a lovely piece of work. However, I've noted a few things just in case Vulajin is reading (yeah right!):<br /><ul><li>Glyphs of Mutilate and Hunger for Blood aren't included</li><li>There is no way to add a scope to a ranged weapon (not that it affects DPS)</li><li>Few Ulduar items</li></ul>About here I gave up. Meh.<br /><br />However shortly afterwards I found <a href="http://elitistjerks.com/f78/t51449-rogue_dps_simulation_spreadsheet/">Mavanas's DPS Simulation</a> sheet and it has the bonus of being user-modifyable, including adding missing gear items. It's not entirely intuitive (especially on gems and slot bonuses) but it's the goods for now.<br /><br />So I discovered a few things:<br /><ul><li>With my current stats (close to the PHC at 302 hit, and expertise capped) choice of food makes no real difference. Fish Feast still works out slightly (0.5%) ahead. However, the sheet has no facility for +40 crit food, which I'd be interested in trying out.<br /></li><li>Talent swaps: 2/2 Murder = 6044. 2/2 Quick Recovery = 5818. Sticking with Murder.</li><li>Talent swaps: 3/3 Master Poisoner = 6044. 3/3 Turn The Tables = 6012. Sticking with MP.</li><li>Grinding Hodir rep to upgrade my shoulder enchant is a net DPS increase of about 30 DPS. Not exactly a huge priority, given the amount of effort required.<br /></li></ul>Next I'll try swapping in +agi gems in place of the current +AP/+Stams and see what happens. Rumour is that +agi is the shizzle. I also want to see if I have some swapsie gear that I can use to reduce my expertise, currently at 36, and what effect this will have.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-71606582820755520672009-06-30T17:23:00.005+10:002009-06-30T19:20:11.707+10:00looking to the starsI want star ratings on my achievements.<br /><br />Allow me to explain.<br /><br />At my level - i.e. an Ulduar- and Naxx-geared endgame PvE 80 - there are certain achievements that are at my level, certain ones that are just below, and some that are trivial. Much of the QQ from the hardcore comes from the fact that post-nerf, muppets can get the same achievement as them and there's no way for them to lord it over the plebs other than with the date of the achievement, which depends on everyone knowing that a certain fight was nerfed on a certain date.<br /><br />My solution (as you might now have guessed): star ratings.<br /><br />If I get an achievement in current content (i.e. currently, content introduced in 3.1) it gets rated 3 stars. So Ulduar on any mode and Emalon, but not Naxx or Archavon. I achieved it before it was deprecated somewhat by new content. 3 stars.<br /><br />If I get it after a certain point, say a major content patch (n.n level) it's 2 stars. So it's still legitimately difficult content, but you weren't in that top end that did it when it was fresh. Heroics, Naxx, etc. Maybe toons 70-79 could stil get 2-stars for non-heroic 5 mans.<br /><br />If I get it after it became trivial, 1 star. Non-heroic 5-mans (for toons at 80), Classic and BC achievements, etc.<br /><br />Now 3.2 comes out, and suddenly Ulduar achievements drop to 2-star with Naxx and the rest. Coliseum acheivements are the only 3-stars available, and they will only be 3-star until patch 3.3.<br /><br />Of course there are always issues. A normal WotLK 5-man is challenging for 5 toons 70-79. It's trivial with 4 80s and a single 70. How should that be handled? I suggest that Blizz looks at the maximum star rating that would have been awarded if no party/raid members had already achieved it. So if you bring a single 80 into that non-heroic 5-man, everyone who doesn't already have the achievement gets a 1-star, not a 2-star. Of course that's not perfect, but it's a start.<br /><br />Do you think that will address some of the legitimate recognition issues that the really hardworking players have? Amaze me with your boundless ability to find QQ.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nCEo4DTLUSE/SknYv4xlnXI/AAAAAAAAAH0/bRTB1Q1iuQw/s1600-h/stars.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 101px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nCEo4DTLUSE/SknYv4xlnXI/AAAAAAAAAH0/bRTB1Q1iuQw/s400/stars.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353047949312367986" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-60506039560894355782009-06-29T00:05:00.005+10:002009-06-30T23:23:11.372+10:00Thorim... down in 25 man after 14 attempts.<br /><br />Shagged.<br /><br />*edit*<br /><br />OK it's the next morning now and I'm reflecting on last night's guild first drop of Thorim. It's an infuriating fight as it can be so dependent on individuals. Neither <a href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Thorim_%28tactics%29">WoWWiki</a> nor <a href="http://www.wow.com/2009/05/27/encrypted-text-rogue-tips-for-raiding-ulduar-part-2/">Encrypted Text </a>offer much in the way of useful strategic advice either, so I will try to explain things from the rogue perspective. (please note: I do generally find Chase Christian's Encrypted Text very useful, and I have a great deal of respect for his knowledge and contribution to the rogue community, but I just don't find that Rogue in Ulduar series very useful. Feel free to disagree with me.)<br /><br />In the first part of the fight, you run in en masse and take out 6 mobs in the arena while Thorim watches. This is dead easy. Target the healer, then the big worm, then AoE the others. Don't pull aggro, DPS, done.<br /><br />The next part is arguably the hardest. The raid will split in two - one group heading off down the tunnel to get to Thorim, and the remainder staying in the arena to take down the spectators who jump into the fight. Rogues will generally remain in the arena and not be part of the tunnel group, due to the extreme usefulness of <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51722">Dismantle</a> and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=1766">Kick</a> for the Dark Rune Champions and Dark Rune Evokers.<br /><br />As a rogue, your priorities are the Champions, then the Evokers. One of each will run into the group about every 25 seconds (on 25 man). That means that with two rogues you can Dismantle two in every three Champions, and with three rogues every Champion can be Dismantled. You need to do this because the Champion's Whirlwind is a healer-killer (and the healers can't stand back due to the charged orbs - everyone is in the middle). The Champions usually start their Whirlwind about 3-5 seconds after engaging in melee, so the 3 second mark is the right time to Dismantle them.<br /><br />I found that Dismantle does not trigger if someone has already used theirs on that mob, so don't stress too much about setting up a rotation (we did it with 3 rogues). If they do get off a non-Dismantled Whirlwind, try Kick. I had mixed success with Kick - sometimes it seemed to work and others it didn't. Same with <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48659">Feint</a> - sometimes it seems to reduce damage from the Whirlwind and others not. Burn down the Champions as fast as possible, ideally within the 10 second window of Dismantle, but as each has 300k HP that's not an easy task. A combat rogue specced for <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51679">Throwing Specialization</a> is invaluable here, and I would say almost a necessity for the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51723">FoK</a> interrupts on the Evokers.<br /><br />Aggro is a big issue in the arena. There are lots of mobs streaming in and it is very busy for the tanks. Help out where you can by <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=57934">tricking</a> the Champions onto your designated Champion tank but be very careful when tricks is on cooldown. If you cop a Mortal Strike, you'll die. If you're like me, you'll cop one very early in what turned out to be a near miss attempt, and realise that if you hadn't died, your DPS would have been the difference between a 4% wipe and a win. Not a nice thought.<br /><br />So you've got the Champions figured out. Whenever possible, you need to help with interrupts on the Evokers. Both Runic Lightning and Runic Mending need to be suppressed wherever possible.<br /><br />I find /target macros very useful in this fight as there are a LOT of mobs and picking out the Evokers and Champions can be hard. Some suggest using an /assist macro, but I think that the tanks are going to be switching targets too often for this to be a viable strategy. I have one /target macro for each type, and simply keep an eye on the edge of the arena waiting for one to run in, face it, and hit the macro to target. Don't just spam it, because you will target Champions and Evokers in the bleachers who haven't joined the fight yet.<br /><br />Mutilate rogues may find that they are way down the meters on this phase. It seems to be a particular mechanic, with waves of tough trash, that the fights are too long for our nice opening burst to make too much difference, but too short to be able to reliably keep SnD and HfB up. Combat rogues own Thorim's arena.<br /><br />So you do the arena for some time while the other group fights their way to Thorim. If you lose anyone in the arena, it will start to overwhelm you and you won't last long enough for the other group to bring Thorim down. Stay alive, take care of the Champions and Evokers, and clean the last of the adds down when Thorim jumps down. Then it's time for the final phase.<br /><br />Aggro shouldn't be a problem in the final phase, but use Vanish offensively anyway. Depending on your raid makeup, you should consider trading tricks with another rogue to maximise DPS to beat the enrage timer; however if you find that DPS with no threat wipe ability (e.g. Shadow Priests) are having to back off, give your tank a hand.<br /><br />Two of Thorim's abilities will kill you very quickly. <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62466">Lightning Charge</a> is relatively easy to see and avoid - one of the orbs will start to zap Thorim with lightning, and you need to stay out of a 60 degree cone around the lightning stream. Or you will die. It can be <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=31224">cloaked</a> if you get caught.<br /><br />The other is <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=64390">Chain Lightning</a>, which chains up to 8 times. If my math is correct, the 50% increased damage on each chain means that if you're 8th in the chain, you'll take between 79k and 92k damage. One shot much? You don't want to be more than fourth in that chain or it's crispy rogue for Thorim's post-wipe snack. So how do you avoid it? You don't, but you can minimise it same as you did on KT. Put lucky charms on two melee DPS, and have them at 4 o'clock and 8'oclock with the tank at 12 o'clock. Split the melee stacking on those two marked melee. Stay out of range (set DBM /range to 11 yards) of the other stack and the tank, and you shouldn't have more than 4 within range of an arc. If your group is very melee heavy, you're in trouble. The 5th arc is 23-27k.<br /><br />Of course it will be chaos during the regular Lightning Charges, when you have to abandon your lovely 12-4-8 triangle and avoid the lightning cone. But as soon as that's done, go back to your stack. It's tough on melee. Real tough. And someone else's positioning mistake can and will cost you your life.<br /><br />Good luck my roguely friends.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-36418653394395406282009-06-22T23:25:00.007+10:002009-06-26T16:39:42.176+10:00the top 1%?Interesting observation tonight: WoWRanked has Cat as rank 102,928 for gear in the world.<br /><br />If there are 12 million accounts, and each has on average just one toon over level 10, that's well into the top 1% for gear.<br /><br />In the <span style="font-style: italic;">world</span>.<br /><br />That kinda made me feel good. Then I looked at my brother-in-law's rogue. Ranked 7,455. In the <span style="font-style: italic;">world</span>.<br /><br />Bubble: burst.<br /><br />*EDIT*<br /><br />But then we dropped Hodir again, and Freya 25 for the first time tonight (25/6). And what did Hodir give up? The <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=46123">Conqueror's Terrorblade Breastplate</a>. Which catapulted me to 13th on the guild DPS roster (the 3rd highest rogue) and 77,668 on WoWRanked.<br /><br />In the <span style="font-style: italic;">world</span>.<br /><br />Oh and did I mention my <a href="http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-0rtnFYcHq5yUecEZ/sum/damageDone/?s=2766&e=3166">spot on the Hodir meter</a>? #1 for the first time ever in a guild progression raid. 6k DPS baby.<a href="http://profiler.wowhead.com/?profile=us.nagrand.catheryna"><br /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-37236275125658624262009-06-21T22:53:00.002+10:002009-06-21T23:10:03.088+10:00Hodir down25 man Hodir down in an epic 4-wipe attempt. We lost to the enrage timer twice and had 2 quick wipes but he went down with about 10 seconds to spare on the final attempt. <br /><br />I love that fight.<br /><br />Even better: I was crushing the <a href="http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-48t8KirxgOUI8TIe/">meters</a> tonight. I mean <span style="font-style: italic;">crushing</span>. I don't for a minute believe that pure DPS is the only measure of a rogue, but it is certainly high on the list. I was on the ball, wasn't dying, and everything was going in slow motion. I was spotting who was going to get iceblocked on Hodir while scouting for a sunbeam and shooting and standing on the snow pile; I only got iceblocked once due to a late knockback from a cave-in hidden under a bunch of spell effects; I was swapping my tricks to the highest DPS that had a safe margin on Omen; I was just <span style="font-style: italic;">on the ball</span> tonight. I love it when that happens.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-84067416470875941032009-06-21T13:39:00.000+10:002009-06-21T13:40:02.334+10:00A look at gear post 3.2 from the grinder's POVA quick look at the best PvE gear available in 3.2 from EoC/V/H plus crafted and Argent Tournament rewards (i.e. totally available from 5 mans and grinding, with no 10-man or 25-man or arena rating required) from a rogue perspective:<br /><br />- ilvl 213 helm<br />- ilvl 226 3rd best in slot neck (3rd only to items available on Freya and Vezax hard modes)<br />- T7.5 ilvl 213 shoulders<br />- 2nd best in slot ilvl 226 chest, 2nd only to item from Thorium hard mode<br />- 2nd best in slot ilvl 226 belt, 2nd only to item from Yoggy hard mode<br />- 4th best in slot ilvl 226 legs, next to items from Uld25<br />- best in slot ilvl 226 boots from leatherworking, or ilvl 213 boots from emblems<br />- ilvl 213 bracers<br />- ilvl 226 gloves<br />- ilvl 213/200 rings<br />- ilvl 200 trinkets<br />- ilvl 213 cloak<br />- ilvl 200 thrown weapon<br />- ilvl 200 weapons for pretty much every major spec<br /><br />So it is possible, without even considering what gear might be available in 3.2 or for EoT, to completely deck out a rogue in ilvl 200 or better PvE epics without ever doing 10 man, 25 man or arena - completely from grinding "heroic" 5 mans, gold and tournament dailies. Some of those items are 3rd, 2nd or best currently in slot. I suspect other classes are the same.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-50463772518380325002009-06-20T22:01:00.002+10:002009-06-20T22:57:05.907+10:003.2 QQWell, what a stink. The 3.2 PTR patch notes have put the cat amongst the pigeons with regard to the new Tier 9 of PvE gear, the associated Emblems of Triumph and the changes to 5-mans which mean that you can now get the new top-end emblems from running daily 5-mans.<br /><br />OK raiders, cease foaming at the mouth now. Take a deep breath.<br /><br />I'm all for casuals. Hell, I'm a casual by most definitions - I have 1-2 largely uninterrupted approved WoW nights a week (which I use for raiding) and otherwise it's on a no-commitment, as-available basis. And yes, WoW is a game dominated by casuals. <br /><br />But - and it's a big but - I don't believe participation trophies should be the same size as the winner's trophy. I believe in the beauty of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf%27s_law">Zipf's Law</a> which is, essentially, that the glory of being #1 is exponentially bigger than the glory of being #2, and so on down the chain. Life is competitive, and competition is healthy. WoW reflects life in that only the most talented and dedicated people who persistently attempt the most challenging content (should) get the best rewards.<br /><br />I am not #1 in WoW. Nor do I have the time or dedication to be so (though I like to think I have the skill, or at least the ability to develop the skill). However, I believe that my gear accurately reflects my circumstances - when someone sees my T7.5 shoulders, they know I've been doing Nax25. When someone sees my dual Mongoose, they know I'm serious about my spec but don't have the time to get the money for dual Berserking. When they see my neck piece, they know without doubt that I have dropped 19 bosses in Ulduar25, and/or know my way around Emalon pretty well.<br /><br />Blizzard, in their increasing desperation to retain their flattening user base, are resorting to participationism. There's a back door to the grand finals, if you're prepared to play enough little league. But as most people know, you may get to the grand final that way, but when you start to play it doesn't matter how shiny your uniform is. You're going to die in the fire. And when you stand on the podium to collect your runner-up trophy, you'll have a hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach and you'll feel like a fraud.<br /><br />Apparently the idea is that a) people will go back into heroics, and b) more people can see the endgame content. Well let's see. <br /><br />The first is probably accurate, but it will be at the expense of Ulduar. In half an hour with four other people, you can faceroll 5 EoC and 2 EoT from H Nexus if it's the daily. Follow up with H VH and H CoS and it's EoC city within another hour. Why would you get 24 other people and spend twice the time getting past Iron Council for 5 EoC and no EoT? The only people that will be running Ulduar are the hardcore raiders, for item drops that they can't buy with welfare emblems, to gear up for Coliseum. Blizz are actively encouraging grinding rather than attempting hard content. How disappointing.<br /><br />The second: an unskilled raiding group will still fail on every fight in Nax, even in T9 welfare epics. Never mind (presumably) the Coliseum. Gear is only one part of the equation, and I suspect it won't affect the numbers of people dropping KT at all.<br /><br />Any guild that relies on pugs to make up a 25 man (such as, often, ours) is going to have a nightmare time with the abundance of notionally geared folks in LFG. Expect more achievement linking, more assessment, less trust. Guilds that use pugs must establish a whitelist of known good pugs to raid with and find a way to integrate them into their loot system, or they will ruin raid nights with trial and error pugging. If you're a habitual pug, you'd better establish a rep with a number of guilds, because nobody's going to trust your gear anymore.<br /><br />That said, gear is definitely one factor that can prevent an otherwise decent raider from seeing the content they crave, and the new system will help alts. <br /><br />I'm not going to say that it's necessarily bad, because there will be pros and cons. I guess the meritocrat in me dislikes grind-based backdoors. I'm going to think some more and try to be a bit more Zen about the whole thing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-8613854048521260282009-06-18T00:39:00.003+10:002009-06-18T13:34:35.597+10:005kIgnis the Furnace Master. <a href="http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-zNZ0H9TPpYEsDN66/sum/damageDone/?s=4095&e=4419">5027.7 DPS</a>.<br /><br />Strut.<br /><br />Downed up to Kolo tonight in Uld25 and followed up with H VoA. The very tasty <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45141">Proto-hide Leggings</a> and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41649">Deadly Gladiator's Leather Tunic</a> dropped for me. Also bought the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45820">Broach of the Wailing Night</a> with vadges. 16th ranked guild DPS now.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-55409151103534453012009-06-15T09:58:00.004+10:002009-06-15T10:21:35.636+10:00more lewts25 man Nax clear (I almost typed Kara there...): <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40368">Murder</a> for my PvP offhand, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40499">Valorous Bonescythe Helmet</a> to upgrade my T7, and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40260">Belt of the Tortured</a> which was a nice upgrade. <a href="http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-kQj4tYBEvCZ7Vdn7/sum/damageDone/">Stats</a> were OK. Not happy at all with my deaths on Heigan and Patchwerk (opened too early with a mis-hit TotT and copped a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=28308">Hateful Strike</a>), but it was otherwise smooth; one-shotting everything (except one wipe on Gothik as the dead side was undermanned) in 4 hours.<br /><br />I was actually pleasantly surprised at the benefits of some PvP practice for raiding. During the Gothik wipe, as we were getting overwhelmed on the dead side, I was running about with tricked fans trying to pull adds off the healers. At one point I must have done a fan too many, and ended up 1v1 with a big DK. Now with evasion and vanish already on CD (as I say, we were struggling undermanned), normally I would have been a bloody mess by now, but my PvP training kicked in and I twitch-hit <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51722">Dismantle</a> and Blinded another that was running loose. Not any great achievement, but they were reflexes that had degraded over a long time of hardly needing them in raids, and all it took was a bit of PvP to sharpen them again.<br /><br />Current plan is to get everything over ilvl 213: that means Nax25, EoE10/25, OS10, OS25+2 and Ulduar. All that remains at ilvl 200 are my neck, chest, one ring, one trinket and cloak. Also working on Heirloom shoulders for Merry and PvP set by grinding Wintergrasp. Alarm set!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-51717019731472261732009-06-11T10:29:00.006+10:002009-06-12T12:29:30.401+10:00Uld254 new bosses (for me) in <a href="http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-b2il4E4iajjSbsbM/sum/damageDone/?s=3804&e=14773">Ulduar 25</a> last night: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=32857">Assembly of Iron</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=32930">Kologarn</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=33515">Crazy Cat Lady</a> and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=32845">Hodir</a> (who we called after 3 attempts).<br /><br />Iron Council was a bit of a poop as I died in the fire. I was doing my best to run out of the big circle, but forgot to cloak and paid the price. Nuts.<br /><br />Kologarn finally went smooth as butter for me. The only other time I've seen him was in 10 man and we had a wipefest, so it was a nice relief to one-shot him, especially as I pulled 4.3k DPS and didn't run myself off the edge. Sexah.<br /><br />Auriaya was... confusing. I had read up on <a href="http://www.wow.com/2009/05/20/encrypted-text-rogue-tips-for-raiding-ulduar-part-1/">Encrypted Text</a>, but soon found that it didn't really cover the sort of detail that one really needs on the first attempt. It was basically a mess of "stand in front" and "DPS the add" over vent, and at some point I died. That said, after a brez I still managed to punch out a useful, if not overly respectable, 3k. I'm going to need to review the logs and the detailed fight notes to figure that one out.<br /><br />Hodir is my new favourite fight. for those of you who haven't done it, it is MENTAL. 8 minutes of crazy running about and trying to not die. You really have to have your head on a swivel - people getting iceblocked that need to be freed, icicles to stay away from, big icicles to initially stay out of then go into, buffs to go into, roots, AoE... it has it all. I was actually really happy with my performance on Hodir - 4.6k averaged over the 3 attempts, and a <a href="http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-b2il4E4iajjSbsbM/sum/damageDone/?s=13933&e=14445">3rd on the meter 4.9k</a> on the final attempt. By my reckoning the raid needs 68kdps total to beat the enrage, which is about 4k each assuming 17 DPS toons. In the end the enrage timer beat us, though we had him to about 5%. Tonight, big guy... tonight...<br /><br />My gloves and boots have hitherto been impossible to replace, being my last two blues. Guess what - <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45325">Gloves of the Stonereaper</a> dropped for me on cat lady and I understand I'm to be ticketed the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45232">Runed Ironhide Boots</a> from Iron Council. How bout that - now my two best items, upgrading blues. And both from fights that I died on. Must be something in that... I say to you: woot.<br /><br />I also finally got around to clearing VoA25. No loot though, which is a shame as I'm keen for my PvP gear to drop now.<br /><br />*Edit* I got the boots thanks to Talendos's generosity. Nice one mate, I owe you an EPGP priority. I'm now up to 21 on the guild's DPS list (29th overall) which, with alts and inactive raiders, means I'll rarely be unable to get into the 25 mans. Tick!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-33239587429275720322009-06-09T22:07:00.005+10:002009-06-10T14:30:58.296+10:00frost magesBah. Damn their eyes. I found some good ones in Strand of the Ancients today, and 1v1 they always leave me a chilly blob on the ground.<br /><br />My rogue instincts say that this is not because they are good, but because I am bad. A rogue can beat anything. So: introspection (note: written from the 41/5/25 Mutilate/Prep perspective).<br /><br />What happens? I was opening <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=1833">Cheap Shot</a>, but it seems they would simply <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=1953">Blink</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=42917">Frost Nova</a>/<a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=42931">Cone of Cold</a> and pew pew until I died. Not fun. Of course, the correct opener on a mage is <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48676">Garrote</a> for the silence effect. A proper rogue/mage fight starts at the 3 second mark, with the mage the victim of a couple of <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48666">mutilates</a>, 5 combo points up, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=3775">Crippling Poison</a> on and 15 sec of DoT remaining. A nice place to start, but then what?<br /><br />At this point the mage can do a few things. <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=45438">Ice Block</a> clears off the DoT and poison and buys them some time. They can throw down <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=42917">Frost Nova</a> or <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=42931">Cone of Cold</a> to root you, probably in concert with a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=1953">Blink</a> to get some range on you. Either way they'll get their <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=31687">Elemental</a> out for 45 sec, which gives him another 2 abilities independent of your CC: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=33395">Freeze</a> and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=31707">Waterbolt</a>. They'll also be spamming <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=43039">Ice Barrier</a> to limit incoming DPS.<br /><br />Now I'm not going to get into "if they do this, do this" because I definitely won't remember and I doubt 90% of rogues will. But understanding what's up the mage's copious and effeminate sleeves is half the battle. The rest of their abilities fall into 2 camps: pew pew and a PvP trinket. The roots are their biggest weapons, and after the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=45438">Ice Block</a> you've got 30 seconds to kill him or you're at a serious cooldown disadvantage. Against the roots, you've got a trinket (or <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=59752">EMFH</a>), <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=31224">CoS</a> and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=26889">Vanish</a>. He also can't cast if he's incapacitated, and for that you've got <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=1833">CS</a> and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=8643">KS</a>, plus <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=2094">Blind</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=11305">Sprint</a> and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48674">Deadly Throw</a> to let you close the gap. Plus there's <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=14185">Preparation</a> to make all the goodness come once more.<br /><br />TBC...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-78492074277329468172009-06-09T17:57:00.002+10:002009-06-09T18:16:56.131+10:00the return of PvP CatHere's me saying that PvP is boring and all I'm interested in is raiding, and in the space of 2 days I've gone and bought dual-specs, have started experimenting with <a href="http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=4&tal=30500310530210252210320100000500000000000000000000000005320032030202120000000000000">41/5/25 Mut/Prep</a>, have bought me some <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41765">Hateful Gladiator gloves</a> and started an arena 2v2 with my brother's <a href="http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Nagrand&cn=ponendus">ret monkey</a>. <br /><br />I'm under no illusions about the likelihood of doing well in T7 raid gear with a rogue/retadin combo, but it's just for fun and practice really. When another brother finishes levelling, we might try rogue/retadin/huntard in 3v3 and really tear up the DPS.<br /><br />I love my PvP spec, it destroys everything. I'm even remembering all those things that have been sitting unused on my action bars, like <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51722">Dismantle</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48668">Eviscerate</a> and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48674">Deadly Throw</a>, and have started getting used to when to use or not to use <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=14185">Preparation</a>. All my recent PvP experience has been in Wintergrasp though, which is nothing like arena, so I'll update ye all on the progress of Unresilient as we go.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-55797738351621020002009-06-04T15:56:00.004+10:002009-06-04T19:09:33.334+10:00alternate MMOsThere are two MMOs that have a chance of having me swap off WoW. <a href="http://www.swtor.com/">Star Wars: The Old Republic</a> will tap into a deep-seated part of my medulla oblongata that has been fantasising about being a Jedi since the original Episode IV came out. I will definitely try it, and as I probably only have room in my life for 1 MMO, it will be an interesting time to see what happens.<br /><br />But even more exciting is the prospect of an <a href="http://www.totalvideogames.com/Saints-Row-3/news/Saints-Row-3-Red-Faction-4-Sighted-In-THQ-Report-13937.html">MMO</a> based on the <a href="http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/landing.jsp?catId=cat1490545&rootCatGameStyle=wh40k">Warhammer 40,000</a> IP. I played the original 40k way back in the Rogue Trader days, and over the years have amassed many armies of miniatures. Sadly, when we moved home from the UK, I ebayed it all but I have lately been considering getting back into the tabletop as a result of reading some of the incredibly rich and well-written WH40K <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Library">fiction</a>. Make no mistake - if a quality 40K MMO is released in 2012 as rumoured, I will not only quit playing WoW/SWTOR but I will also probably quit my job and mutate into a half-man, half-chair gaming automaton, existing purely on cheezels, Dr Pepper and forty-first millennium pure WIN. Please, THQ, I beg you: make it full of win. It is an epic franchise that absolutely must not be sullied with an inferior product.<br /><br />Although 2012 is a long time to wait, THQ will have ample time to learn from the SWTOR MMO and apply those lessons. There are a few things that interest me greatly about how it might be implemented:<br /><ul><li>Presumably Humans would be one of the initial races, as would Orks. This immediately lends itself to a "faction" system similar to WoW. But what about Eldar, Tau, Necrons, Chaos etc? Nobody really fights on the same side as anyone else. It's almost going to have to be everyone versus everyone, possibly with server-wide or even zone-wide temporary alliances between certain races? Even then, can you imagine Eldar and Slaanesh Marines being allied for any reason? Not me...<br /></li><li>Taking Humans first: there's a hierarchy in the various arms. The Astartes report really to nobody except the Emperor, though they have some respect for the Inquisition. Would anyone want to play an Imperial Guard toon when there was absolutely no way they could be as powerful as a Space Marine toon? the only way to even it would be to have the MMO less "individual toon" based and more "warband" based - so a level-cap marine may have a squad of marine "combat pets" but a max level Guard commander may have a whole platoon plus heavy weapons, etc? Then it's almost a fair fight. Balance is going to be a hard thing to achieve, but it would be awesome to have a bunch of NPC combat pets doing your shooty bidding.</li><li>There are degrees of "freedom" in the various denizens of the 40k milieu. Marines for instance are loyal only to their Chapter and the Emperor. They do what they're told - simple instruments of war, with little thought to personal advancement. How does that work for levelling/gearing up? Is a rank and file marine or Guardsman even an appropriate toon, or would it be too restrictive? Will it need to focus on the more "individual" characters in the milieu - Inquisitors, Harlequins (Solitaires?), Rogue Traders, Fallen Angels (aaaawwwweeeesome), etc.<br /></li><li>"Quests" - it would be great to have these race-specific. So for example for a marine toon, the missions would be handed down by the chapter in a level-appropriate way, possibly for a zone-wide PvE "instance" - so you could solo it as a skirmish, or group up with others from the chapter or allied factions to tackle a larger 5- or 10-man instanced zone quest. For Ork toons, maybe you're a small cog in a Waaaaagh, following your Warboss from world to world and occasionally encountering PvP resistance from opposing factions. Then the level-cap zones would be the epicentre of the fighting - where the Waaaaghs meet the Crusades, the Hive Fleets, the Craftworlds etc and all fight against each other.</li></ul>Holy cow I wish I was working on this project. THQ, if you need a project manager, I could not be more motivated to see this MMO kick ass.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-21734337466089501052009-06-03T00:14:00.002+10:002009-06-03T00:16:31.918+10:00podcast reviewAdam of The Noisy Rogue gives us his <a href="http://thenoisyrogue.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/podcast-reviews-part-1-wow-insider-show/">first scathing WoW podcast review</a>. His first target: The <a href="http://www.wow.com/category/wow-insider-show/">WoW Insider Show</a>. Enlightening and entertaining reading :)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-18508386282936093122009-05-28T10:01:00.006+10:002009-05-29T13:33:27.581+10:00everyone gets nerfedSo I read the 3.1.3 patch notes, which seemed to elicit more than the usual QQing on <a href="http://www.wow.com/">wow.com</a>. Of course I'm stoked about the buff to <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=58426">Overkill</a>, which for PvE rogues is a nice addition to our trash FoK DPS. But it also inspired me to write yet another song, so here goes. I'll definitely record this one soon:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Sung to the tune of "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M.</span><br /><br />EVERYONE GETS NERFED<br /><br />When the maintenance is long<br />and the news from the PTRs seems wrong<br />and the patch notes talk of nerfs to your class<br />hang on<br /><br />Don't let yourself QQ<br />'cause everybody cries<br />and everyone gets nerfed<br />sometimes<br />sometimes balance is all wrong<br />now it's time to sing along<br /><br />when your salvation is gone<br />and you feel like speccing ret<br />and you think you've had too much of death knights<br />hang on<br /><br />Everyone gets nerfed<br />take comfort in your skill<br />everyone gets nerfed<br /><br />Don't whine on the official forums<br />ooooooooh no<br />Or if you do, at least whine in an amusing rap battle<br />When you feel like you're alone<br />2 million people playing warlocks say you're not alone<br /><br />When your buffs are gone<br />and the cooldowns on your favourite skills are long<br />and you think you've had too much of death knights<br />to hang on<br /><br />Everyone gets nerfed<br />sometimes everybody whines<br />everyone gets nerfed<br />sometimes<br />everyone gets nerfed<br />sometimes<br />so hold on<br />hold on<br />hold on<br />hold on<br />hold on<br />nerf hunters<br />hold on<br />hold on<br /><br />everyone gets nerfedUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-22351974926167461382009-05-27T22:07:00.005+10:002009-05-27T23:14:34.622+10:002 more songsTurpster's music kind of inspired me to finish off two more songs I've had in the works for awhile. Again, both are based on <a href="http://dosgringosrocks.com/music.html">Dos Gringos</a> songs, for no reason other than that was what I was listening to at the time I was inspired to write them.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Sung to the tune of "The Bitch Spent All My Money" by Dos Gringos </span><br /><br />MY ALTS SPENT ALL MY MONEY<br /><br />I make a thousand extra gold each month<br />and you would think with that amount<br />I'd have a positive number inside my backpack account<br />How many times can one druid hit<br />the auction house in a day<br />you can bet your ass that a pvp bitchslap is on its way<br /><br />I got a story to tell to you<br />and man it ain't funny<br />I've been grinding daily quests<br />and my alts spent all my money<br /><br />I know when you go into Deadmines<br />you want to wear something leet<br />but who the hell spends a hundred gold on level 16 purple feet?<br />And how bout that three hundred gold<br />on just one pair of pants<br />Hell I only spent 25 on my repairs from the Heigan Dance<br /><br />Yeah I got taken to the bank today<br />by my own lowbie dummy<br />I've been grinding daily quests<br />and my alts spent all my money<br /><br />You know I still love you baby<br />Yeah, but something's missin'<br />yeah I can't believe you spent last week's earnings levelling up Inscription<br />Besides, it's not even going to matter in Outland<br />No matter how epic your gear<br />You'll replace everything in a matter of minutes, including those Molten Core Tiers<br /><br />Yeah it's not fair<br />I still want to level you honey<br />I've been grinding daily quests<br />and my alts spent all my money<br />Yeah don't laugh 'cause it could happen to you<br />and man it ain't funny<br />I've been grinding daily quests<br />and my alts spent all my money<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Sung to the tune of "Jeremiah Weed" by Dos Gringos</span><br /><br />TASTY THISTLE TEA<br /><br />When I was a young'un my trainer said to me<br />Son I wanna know what it is you wanna be<br />I said I'll never wear a dress, But I love to PVP<br />I think I'm gonna be a rogue! The stealthy life for me<br /><br />Well I heard my guildies cheering cause I said it over voice<br />My trainer said that I had made a pretty awesome choice<br />He gave me a quest to find a journal and a key<br />And on return he hooked me up with a simple recipe<br /><br />Press 1! To stab them in the knees<br />Press 2! To slip away unseen<br />Press 3! When you're low on energy<br />A big chug from a green mug of tasty Thistle Tea<br /><br />Now if you play a mage you make dinner for the team<br />And if you have a priest you make bad guys run and scream<br />And if you have a hunter you never find a group<br />'cause you're running round in Stormwind picking up your tiger's poop<br />And if you play a death knight you ninja all the plate<br />And if you play a pally then your raiding buffs are great<br />And if you've got a warlock, then my advice to you<br />is to moan about the nerf bat, there's nothing else to do<br /><br />Press 1! To stab them in the knees<br />Press 2! To slip away unseen<br />Press 3! When you're low on energy<br />A big chug from a green mug of tasty Thistle Tea<br /><br />The greatest raiding rogue that ever I did see<br />came in one day and took his place at the tank's side next to me<br />I knew he was a killer, his DPS was off the tree<br />The fucker had rotations that included Thistle Tea<br /><br />Now everyone is curious, they all wanna know<br />Will it raise your stats, will it make your e-peen grow?<br />Well it won't bring you women, and it won't bring you luck<br />so why do we drink it? Cause our DPS rocks!<br /><br />Press 1! To stab them in the knees<br />Press 2! To slip away unseen<br />Press 3! When you're low on energy<br />A big chug from a green mug of tasty Thistle TeaUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-73047324598478341722009-05-27T14:52:00.004+10:002009-05-27T21:52:59.985+10:00lolI like a good WoW song, and Turpster has <a href="http://turpstervision.tv/songs/">a bunch of them</a>. Warning: he's a godawful singer, but he's the Ricky Gervais of WoW lyric writing - witty, dry and slightly rotund (sorry Turpster!).<br /><br />I'm currently working on recording "<a href="http://ninjachimp.blogspot.com/2008/10/evasion-tank-ftw.html">Evasion Tank FTW</a>", but have had problems knocking the lyrics out of the <a href="http://dosgringosrocks.com/music-23.html">original song</a> due to its somewhat garagey recording. Might have to get my brother to do an original guitar backing track for it.<br /><br />In other news: <a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17345394763&sid=1&pageNo=1">loot drama rap battle</a>. Full of win.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-62983463649749479172009-05-26T09:34:00.009+10:002009-05-26T15:03:45.016+10:00how not to suck at powerlevellingLet me say before I start that while this post is inspired by two twink runs through Stratholme last night, it is not meant as criticism of those involved. I actually had a bit of a laugh despite the numerous, numerous deaths, and the points below are as much for me as for anyone. So please take it as intended :)<br /><br />To begin: You may find yourself, dear reader, at a point where you are levelling an alt or indeed levelling your first main on a server with some high level friends. With the XP rate boost as it is, you may also consider that running high level instances (as high as you are permitted to enter) is a good idea. You may also realise that having one of the said high level toons along may make said instances rather quick and, quite frankly, a loot and XP pinata.<br /><br />All good and sound thoughts.<br /><br />What you may <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> have thought of is that this run has the potential to be one of the more frustrating, demoralising and painful experiences in your WoW career to date.<br /><br />For the purposes of the exercise, let's look at a typical twink run of a single level 80 toon and one or two lower level toons.<br /><br />Your twinker pretty much must have a strong AoE attack. Until recently, that meant no rogues; however with the advent of <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51723">Fan of Knives</a>, rogues are now viable twinkers. It would also be extremely useful if the twinker were survivable and has a rez ability. Pallies probably make great twinkers. Make no mistake though: twinking is not the same as soloing. When soloing, all you care about is your own progress through the instance. When twinking, you've got one or two utter aggro magnets along for the ride and if they keep dying due to proximity pulls you will have an abysmal time of it. You must:<br /><ul><li>Destroy everything in the instance</li><li>Keep everything off the twinkees</li><li>Keep the twinkees in XP range</li><li>Allow the twinkees time to loot</li><li>Not let anyone die (except maybe twinkee DPS/tanks in emergencies, if you have a rezzer in the party)<br /></li></ul>Finding the balance between speed through the instance and time for looting can be hard, especially in a loot-heavy instance like Stratholme. Furthermore, depending on the relative levels of the twinkees to the mobs, the aggro radius may be fairly close to the XP radius, which is challenging. The twinkees have to stay close enough to you to get the XP, but not so close that you're constantly pulling mobs off them. They also have to loot FAST and they will be watching their bags more than they're watching the mobs. Generally speaking, closer is better, especially if the mobs use stuns, roots and disarms, which can affect you no matter how high level you are and keep you from intercepting mobs wailing on your twinkees.<br /><br />You may also be dealing with inexperienced twinkees, who will pull aggro in all sorts of unforeseen ways. A typical twinkee will be two- or three-shotted by trash, and one-shotted by bosses, so you haven't got much time. Make sure your twinkees know that they are not to do anything offensive (including healing and buffing) when anyone is in combat.<br /><br />Looting is a hard one. You'll really want Free For All set on in the interests of speed, but your twinkees have to understand that they mustn't take BOPs that are useful for another twinkee. Even with Free For All and autoloot, they will get a warning when they try to loot a BOP blue and they <span style="font-style: italic;">must</span> stop and think before they grab it. This might be different to what they're used to, especially if they've done a lot of soloing and are in the habit of blindly taking whatever drops. It's easy for experienced raiders to be critical of this looting instinct, as our instincts are now to immediately stop when we see blue or purple; but I remember a time when I did the same thing.<br /><br />As the twinker, you may need to brief the twinkees on loot etiquette, especially if there are multiple twinkees and/or an enchanter along. Anything DE'd can be used to immediately enchant the nice new blue drops after the run! You might also want to consider flicking master looter on before a boss pull. BoEs aren't an issue, as being picky about those will just slow things down. Sort out BoEs after the run.<br /><br />For the twinkees, your role is both simple and complex. You must:<br /><ul><li>loot as fast as you can</li><li>do not mis-loot</li><li>do not pull aggro</li><li>do not die</li><li>stay in XP range of the twinker</li><li>know and use all of your survivability abilities</li><li>know and use all of your buffs</li><li>heal the twinker when out of combat</li></ul>Learn your proximity pull range in a safe environment at the start of the instance. Burn it into your brain. If you get aggro - run to the twinker and don't actively defend yourself (with heals and DPS), you will just make it harder for the twinker to pull them off you. Burn your passive defensive/threat wipe abilities (PW:S, Fade, Evasion, Vanish, FD, bubble etc) and stay alive.<br /><br />There are also slight role differences as a twinkee. Any twinkee with a rezzing ability should give first priority to their own survival. DPS and tanking toons: I'm sorry, but you are the sacrificial lambs. If your death will save a rezzer, even briefly, do it. They can rez you. You can't rez them. Your intervention may save a corpse run, which saves time and frustration. Die, get rezzed, move on.<br /><br />And my final tip: use voice. Vent, Teamspeak or ingame, it will help immensely as your twinkees <span style="font-style: italic;">will </span>get aggroed and <span style="font-style: italic;">will </span>need help right away.<br /><br />When it's done right, the rewards are astounding. My 55 and 3 quarters priest (fully rested) went to 57 and a half from <span style="font-style: italic;">one run through Stratholme</span> (with quests) and took a fistful of nice blues as well, and picked up about 40 stacks of Runecloth for Cat's Gnomeregan rep. Even when it's done wrong, you'll level fast but the angst factor might be higher. Hey, the more you do it, the better you'll get and it's sure as hell better than doing "fedex and kill-x" out in the world.<br /><br />Enjoy your twinking!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-38321879531117252022009-05-26T09:30:00.001+10:002009-05-26T09:32:28.278+10:00RTA few great posts on leadership in WoW:<br /><ul><li>The Noisy Rogue part <a href="http://thenoisyrogue.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/how-to-be-a-guild-leader/">1</a> and <a href="http://thenoisyrogue.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/how-to-be-a-guild-leader-part-2/">2</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://wordywarrior.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/10-things-ive-learned-the-hard-way/">The Wordy Warrior</a><br /></li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-80052132470408413452009-05-25T16:56:00.003+10:002009-05-25T17:43:23.616+10:00the dedicated fewScene: It is approaching 9pm on Saturday. I thought I'd do a few dailies and retire early, so as to be fresh for the traditional 25-man on Sunday night. Then the call goes out for Nax10. Sucker!<br /><br />As it turns out, we have at it with only 8 people and decide that we may as well have a go at <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=578">The Dedicated Few</a>, which I believe nobody had yet achieved. We had (according to WoWRanked for my guild): healer #1 and #12, tanks #7 and #9, and DPS #2, #20, #48 (me), and #49. So a strong triumvirate at the top, but alts and newbies (myself included) under that.<br /><br />The half-hearted shorthanded <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=2187">Undying</a> attempt ended almost straight away, to everyone's relief. Nobody seriously thought we could pull it off with 8 people anyway. Still, we dropped Heigan with 8 left standing and didn't meet any serious resistance until Four Horsemen, which wiped us 3 times before we found our rhythm. Sapphiron also gave us a wipe, but it was KT that both made and ruined the night for me.<br /><br />By the time we hit KT it was past 0130. AM. I was completely shagged and sore, having had a single 3 minute bio break in the entire raid. I'd also not had a single piece of loot, burned almost a full stack of Fish Feast, and was on my fourth <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=46377">flask</a>. KT casually wiped us twice, and we started to wonder if it was going to happen.<br /><br />The third attempt started in the worst possible way. I'm going to claim tiredness - I managed to get myself out of healing range while cleaning up the last of the adds in Phase 1, ate a Frost Blast and despite mashing pots, died. The raid, though, settled into a rhythm and burned KT down towards 50%.<br /><br />I was hoping that the drood OT would throw me a brez at 50% before the add phase, but sadly it wasn't to be. The adds came out and the real race began, with 3 DPS, the MT and our main heals covering KT and the OT and off-healer covering the Nerubians. At that point I felt we simply wouldn't have the DPS.<br /><br />Then just when it was looking good, with KT below 10%, the OT wore a Frost Blast and went down. The adds went straight for the main healer and she went down faster than a cheap tent. The off-healer shortly followed and we prepared to wipe it up. I felt gutted, as with my DPS it would have been over by now.<br /><br />I reckoned though without the DPS. With perfectly timed cooldowns, they ran him down before he could finish the job, at 02:08 AEST. Left standing: Hunter, Rogue and DPS DK. Both tanks dead, both healers dead, me watching from the tiles. Huzzah, epic finish. And he dropped my <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39561">hat</a>.<br /><br />So yes, I got the aptly named <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=578">achievement</a>. Yes, I finally got a Northrend helm, after an accidental need from one of the others saw it ticketed to me. Yes, I made few mistakes and <a href="http://worldoflogs.com/reports/ebYVeE4vM6xXEC3W/sum/damageDone/?enc=bosses">pulled my weight</a> on the meters. Yet somehow, that last fight that I missed out on largely ruined it. I found myself cheering for the others, not for myself. It's irrational, but there it is.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-79220128788578343372009-05-20T23:29:00.003+10:002009-05-21T00:00:52.205+10:00UlduarFinally set foot in Ulduar 25 tonight!<br /><br />I wasn't really set up for raiding unfortunately - normally raid night requires pre-notification to She Who Must Be Obeyed. Fair enough too, as it takes me out of the loop for household tasks for an entire night, and she then has to respond to any child-based dramas. We try to stick to sunday nights, I make sure everything's squared away in advance, and she stands guard duty over the kids.<br /><br />Anyway, I digress - the point is, I wasn't expecting an invite to Ulduar, and couldn't turn it down when it came. Luckily, the whole family was asleep at 7pm. So.<br /><br />Flame Leviathan was FUN. I was a gunner on a siege engine, and simply blasted the crap out of stuff for a good 20-30 minutes. I still have no idea what was going on, but we one-shotted him and it seemed to go OK. Seems like a hell of a thing to have to redo if one wipes on it, but luckily I didn't find out.<br /><br />XT-002 Deconstructor was a more straightforward fight, and I feel I did OK over the two attempts. Phase 1: DPS the boss, run more than 15 yards away from everyone if you get a bomb debuff, feint during tantrums. Assist on adds if required. Phase 2: DPS the heart. Rinse and repeat. Averaged 3.5k DPS over both attempts, and we got him (her?) on the second.<br /><br />Ignis the Furnace Master was a bit of a douchbag. I'm not sure if it was because I was the lowest-geared melee DPS in the raid, but over the 5 attempts I was pulled into the codpiece twice, and just died. I can understand that I might be pretty low on the list for bomb heals, but it's a shame to have one's best efforts cut short by the RNG. Most of the later fights consisted of the following inner monologue: "OK keep SnD up, keep Rupture up, keep HfB up, Tricks, is Cold Blood up? Don't stand in the fire, gosh I hope I don't get pulled into the codpiece." 3.7k DPS on the drop, pretty happy considering the rogue company I was in. He dropped <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45162">Flamestalker Boots</a>, but they went to another more dedicated raider, and I'm glad (but still a wee bit sad).<br /><br />That's where my run ended in a cacophany of screaming children and glowering wife, as the family roused all at once.<br /><br />Overall I'm happy that I can still consistently pull 3.5-3.8k DPS on T7/8 content while staying alive through largely unfamiliar fights. Considering I'm still rocking some blues, a T5 helm (!) and a BC necklace, I go to bed satisfied that my raiding skills are returning.<br /><br />To dream of Ulduar...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-53145373509601849442009-05-19T12:35:00.004+10:002009-05-19T15:14:08.292+10:00pug loot rulesMany of you will probably have come across this issue: you pug somebody into a guild run, it's all going swimmingly and then, just when you're getting a nice sense of comfort, something epic drops.<br /><br />And the pug wants it.<br /><br />Now hopefully you've told them before the run started what your guild's approach to looting with pugs is. If you didn't, you're probably in a world of hurt right now - and to be honest, you probably deserve to be. Pugs have a right to a share in the loot, and the RL has a responsibility to ensure they're happy with the loot rules before they get saved to the instance. So, rule 1: define and communicate the rules upfront.<br /><br />But what is a fair rule? Guildies quite rightly feel that they should not be disadvantaged by pugs, especially if they've been saving DKP/EPGP for specific items. That said, if you've got to the point of pugging a slot, you probably wouldn't be running right now without that pug so wouldn't have had any shot at the loot anyway. Then again, the pug presumably hasn't had a chance to build DKP/EPGP priority. But wait, without the 24 guildies in the raid kindly pugging them in, they wouldn't have had a shot at the loot either! Oh, the confabulation and bother!<br /><br />The watchwords should always be transparency and consistency. Whatever your rules are, from <a href="http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/3126/bluedrakeroll.jpg">RAR GUILD PRIORITY</a> to a pure /roll, if the pug knew about it before they saved, they have no complaint.<br /><br />SO that brings me to my suggestion. My guild uses EPGP, and we tend not to have issues with pug loot (at least not in Nax and OS, I'm not in Ulduar yet but I believe we don't pug slots there anyway) due to most of our folks being geared past there. An undergeared pug can look forward to a loot pinata. That said, an EPGP+pug strategy is always useful to have in one's back pocket. I'm thinking from an EPGP perspective, but I suppose this will work with DKP too.<br /><br />What are the guidelines? My thoughts are:<br /><ul><li>a system that neither unfairly advantages nor unfairly disadvantages pugs on loot rolls</li><li>a system that can be clearly and unambiguously explained in advance<br /></li><li>a system that can be transparently applied</li></ul>OK. So with EPGP, all guildies get a need/mainspec roll first. If nobody elects to go for that, there is a greed/offspec roll. If items are still not taken, it is DE'd and the mats go in the GB.<br /><br />To integrate a pug or pugs into this, the three phases should be regarded distinctly. So first, here is a rule:<br /><ol><li>The pug will be judged as need/mainspec based on the spec they bring to the raid.<br /></li></ol>Now dual specs present a problem, but in general the raid will need specific roles and the pug will be brought in to fill that role primarily. So that, for the purposes of loot, is the pug's mainspec.<br /><br />On the need roll: pugs who want to need/mainspec an item simply /roll when the item is announced during looting. Guildies use EPGP votes. One of three things will happen:<br /><ol><li>One or more guildies has needed, and no pug has rolled. The item is distributed by EPGP.</li><li>One or more pugs have rolled, and no guildies have needed. The item goes to the highest pug roll.</li><li>One or more pugs have rolled, and one or more guildies have needed. Take the number of folks that either needed or rolled, n, and apply the following formula, rounding up: <span style="font-weight: bold;">x = 100 - (100/n)</span>. So with 2 guildies needing against two pugs, the highest pug roll must be greater than x (in this example, 75) in order to win the item. If the highest pug roll is <= x, the item goes to EPGP.</li></ol>the first two make perfect sense. I believe the latter is reasonably statistically consistent. I ran a monte carlo simulation on the odds with 5000 samples, and from the perspective of a pug, it scales well with multiple guildies. There is a minor issue with multiple pugs, especially when they are rolling against few (but not 0) guildies. This is simply due to the fact that they must beat all the other pug rolls as well as getting statistically high roll; however the difference is not going to be more than a 5% chance overall and of all the formulas I tried, this is the best balance of simplicity and fairness.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nCEo4DTLUSE/ShJACHYeEcI/AAAAAAAAAHs/06_NIHsb0F4/s1600-h/chance.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 351px; height: 208px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nCEo4DTLUSE/ShJACHYeEcI/AAAAAAAAAHs/06_NIHsb0F4/s400/chance.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337398913473057218" border="0" /></a>The outstanding issue is on multiple rolls. There is no disincentive for a pug to roll need on anything that might be the slightest upgrade, and there is no penalty for continued wins (as there is with EPGP priority). A pug has the same chance to win every time, whereas from the point of view of a guildy, their chance to win reduces with every loot win (assuming they're rolling against other guildies).<br /><br />We could weight rolls with item history, but that would make the calculation too complex. Instead, I would propose that a simple limit is imposed; maybe say maximum 1 need upgrade for every 3 bosses (unless no guildies need/mainspec, in which case go for it). You don't want to put a hard cap on pug upgrades, because they may just decide they have to go, and leave your raid in the lurch.<br /><br />Greed/offspec simply uses the same rules, but on the second loot round.<br /><br />The simplest way for shards to be handled is for everyone to /roll on each shard. If a guildy wins, into the GB. If a pug wins, they get it.<br /><br />Many raids will roll for shards at the end; so if there are 10 shards to distribute, get everyone to roll and the top 10 rolls get a shard (or in the case of guildies, into the GB).<br /><br />Well that was an epic post. I'd like to hear what you have to say about pug loot distribution, and whether you think this is fair and workable in a real situation.<br /><br />Stay epic!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-47409582158274199722009-05-18T11:15:00.003+10:002009-05-18T11:41:31.974+10:00the pressure, the pressure!It's been a good week. Got my <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=892">artisan flying</a> (finally!) and became a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=2781">Champion of Stormwind</a>. Rode the loot train to Epicville last night in a 20-man H Nax and walked out after 3 wings with <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40281">Twilight Mist</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39714">Webbed Death</a> (both now avec Mongoose), <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40256">Grim Toll</a> and the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40717">Ring of Invincibility</a> from emblems. Pretty happy with 3.8k DPS on Patchwerk (new 25 man record).<br /><br />But the majority of the run was done under the crushing pressure of achieving <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=2186">The Immortal</a> - pretty ambitious when we had only 20 in the raid. You could feel the tension grow on Vent as we strode nervously into Heigan's room, and the more experienced players simply waved it off as a fait accompli that someone would bite the dust on the dancefloor. Personally, I was pooping myself - having only seen the dance twice before, and only surviving it once.<br /><br />Once it started, it was obvious that the achievement pressure was weighing on our DPS greatly as we kept one eye firmly on the ground (and the other too, as often as we could). In the end, despite the flares being dropped out of position and having to compensate for that ("run 2 meters to the right of the 2 middle flares!") and due in no small part to the awesomeness of our healers, we <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=2139">all lived</a>.<br /><br />In the end, it was Gluth that got us. There were 2 deaths to Zombie Chow. One of them messaged the raid to express his sorrow at borking the achievement, and I whispered back "dude, there are 18 people who just breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't them that borked it" at which he laughed. It's true too - the remainder of the raid was much more pleasant though it must be said, less disciplined - and I count myself too, taking my eye off the ball on Thaddius and getting fried for my trouble.<br /><br />Maybe next time eh. For now, rejoice in the madness of purple fever (and grind for enchants).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37212144.post-46377360231140691032009-05-13T13:43:00.020+10:002009-05-13T23:46:55.749+10:00the WormholeA while ago I was thinking about the hassle of levelling an alt from 1-80 and how daunting that is for casuals like me, who make up the bulk of the WoW player base. I mean, I love the endgame but having levelled Cat 1-80 and Merry 1-55, I just can't face taking Merry through another 25 hard levels of Outland and Northrend despite my very real interest in endgame raid healing. Even less appealing is levelling a drood 1-80, despite the fact that I really am interested in trying out a drood.<br /><br />Try as they might, Blizzard just can't sell the "bring the player, not the class" story to non-hybrid classes like the Rogue. It doesn't matter how good a player I am (listen to the peanut gallery and their sniggers!) I simply cannot tank or heal and those roles are necessary. I need a max-level alt to fill those roles.<br /><br />So my brain, as is its wont, got to a-thinkin. (wavy dream sequence starts...)<br /><br />Imagine, if you will, a 10 man instance in the Caverns of Time called The Wormhole (or something more imaginative and consistent with the lore). This is available to characters in certain bands, similar to the battlegrounds: 10-18, 20-28 etc all the way up to 70-78. Only toons in a raid group who are all in the same band are permitted to enter. Importantly, it is also only available if <span style="font-style: italic;">each </span><span style="font-style: italic;">of those toons are owned by an account with at least one level 80</span>. So it is an instance for alts, not for mains.<br /><br />The mechanics of the instance are largely unimportant. However, I had envisaged something like a trash gauntlet on a moving conveyor belt in a tunnel, dragging you "back in time" while you fought onwards through the wormhole against a raid timer to a portal and a single final boss at the end. Dead toons are slowly dragged backwards towards the other end, where another portal exists. Every toon gets a single-use "rezzing stone" that they can use on any other toon except themselves, and if any player corpse hits the rear portal or the raid timer expires, it's game over for the whole instance. Teamwork! Drama! Sacrifice! Tension! Sounds cool huh? Wait till you hear the best bit.<br /><br />If you "win" the instance (defeat the final boss, every toon is alive and exits via the final portal in the allotted time) all those toons get instantly levelled to the level below the next bracket. If you go in at level 10-18 and win, you come out at level 19. Grind out one level (and level up your weapon skills, learn your new spec etc), and you're eligible for the Wormhole again in the 20-28 bracket. Incidentally, the bands are 10-18 not 10-19 to stop a newly Wormholed 19 going back in and stacking a Wormhole attempt for some friends.<br /><br />If you "lose" (any player - live or a corpse - enters the rear portal, or the timer expires), every player in the raid goes back to the previous bracket, a quarter of a level below eligibility for the Wormhole. At bracket 10-18, you go back to level 9 3/4. That serves two purposes: it makes you take it seriously, and it stops raids stacking higher level toons to trivialise it, because the consequences of failure are much bigger for someone at the top of the bracket than someone at the bottom.<br /><br />So what does that mean to someone who has a level 80 and wants to try endgame with a different class, but not spend months levelling an alt? They roll their alt, level it to 10 and get a bunch of like-minded individuals to try The Wormhole. They win, they come out at level 19. Grind out a level, gear up (with your level 80 sugar daddy providing the cash) and go again at level 20, coming out as lv29 and so on up to 80. You grind 17 levels, and win the Wormhole 7 times, and you're a level 80.<br /><br />What does Blizzard get out of it?<br /><ul><li>An alt means more reason to spend time in the game at the endgame stage. Rather than gearing a main up, you're now gearing two or three or more toons up. Rather than losing interest in WoW because your main is tooled to the hilt and you've run out of content and you can't face levelling an alt, you stick around and try the endgame from a different perspective. "Bring the player, not the class" takes on a whole new perspective, because that player may now have one toon in each major role.<br /></li><li>It's a gold and time sink, and creates a new market for outdated crafter items. Suddenly all those low level patterns are useful again. People are grinding dailies to get heirlooms (which this dovetails perfectly with). People might run all the old content again, especially if things like special mounts etc are available only at certain levels). People are spending money to pimp out their alts to make sure they win the instance.<br /></li><li>Take the wind out of the levelling services' sails - people can now quickly level alts themselves.</li><li>All these new alts will probably have low profession skills - so more time spent levelling those professions, more olde worlde mats and items on the market, demand for gems and enchants etc.</li><li>When the next expansion drops, players will level their main through the new content, Wormhole all their alts and then spend two or three or four times as much time and gold doing the endgame stuff as they would have with no max level alts. It broadens the appeal of the endgame content without cheapening the levelling content. Also, it <span style="font-style: italic;">slows people down</span> through the new endgame, so there's less clamouring for new content a week after the release of the expansion.<br /></li><li>Casuals are no longer limited to the role decision that they made (probably without even knowing it) when they rolled their first ever toon. Blizzard can push their broad appeal agenda without all of this ridiculous class homogenisation that's been going on.<br /></li></ul>What do players get out of it?<br /><ul><li>Try the endgame with a different class without having to grind 80 levels!</li><li>Extra raid/PvP utility by being able to fill alternative roles</li><li>Got a friend on another realm and want to raid/PvP with them, but don't want to leave your current server with your main? Level your alt and server transfer them, or roll your alt on that server and level it there.</li><li>Guild bonding</li><li>New content (you could have a different end boss at each bracket?)</li><li>Players levelling their mains the hard way will suddenly find there's a market for their BoE green and blue drops, other than people levelling enchanting.<br /></li></ul>How could it be abused?<br /><ul><li>Stacking the raid with higher level toons. They have more to lose if they fail the raid, and in any case the instance could be scaled according to the levels of the raid toons? In any case you're only going to get to do it once before you have to grind out levels in order to stack again. There could also be a disincentive to stacking, for example giving a stacking 5% stat debuff for every level over the minimum?<br /></li><li>Levelling services? Maybe, but why would you bother paying for a levelling service (except maybe if it's your first toon) when you can level an alt so quickly yourself?</li><li>Gold services are probably the biggest downer, as this instance would create a massive demand for gold. </li></ul>Balance and other issues:<br /><ul><li>Making it hard enough to present a worthy challenge that needed preparation and gear, but not so hard that it actually takes longer to level an alt through the Wormhole by being constantly defeated</li><li>Scaling it so that it is not unbalanced by high level stacking</li><li>What happens if a player DCs?</li><li>What can be done to prevent players simply hearthing out, or deliberately DCing, if the timer is about to expire?</li><li>Will this create a wasteland in the 10-80 zones, as alt level grinding becomes a thing of the past? Will this be disheartening to brand new players, as the 1-10 zones are full of life and there is nobody to party with for the next 70 levels, apart from other noobs and the odd n9 powerleveller?<br /></li></ul>So that's the idea. It will be especially relevant as the level cap goes up to 90, 100 etc. I reckon if Blizzard doesn't implement something like this, one of their competitors will. What do you think, I'd love to hear your opinions?<br /><br />Blizzard, my terms are very cheap. One shiny United States penny each time a toon enters my instance. Bargain!<br /><br />*edit* on second thought, made the bands n0-n8 rather than n0-n9. Makes more sense from an abuse point of view.<br />*edit* the 10-80 zone wasteland problemUnknownnoreply@blogger.com6