Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
Non-Weekly Goal
On my list: Seal of the Exorcist. Once my honor gear is finished off, I'll use all my play time I can to farm Spirit Shards. Anyone with this ring...how long did it take you to farm the shards?
I've Been Bad
Okay, okay, feel free to post comments about what a jerk I am...but today some guild mates and I had fun at noobs' expense with creative use of the Ritual of Summoning.
First, we used the duel/fear-or-sheep bug in Ironforge to knock us down into Old Ironforge. Then we tried to summon people off the balconies into the open air over the lava. I KNOW! What a jackass, right?
But wait! There's more! Stay with me, our experiments have yielded important information for the 'lock knowledge base.
For one, we can confirm that the Blues did in fact fix open-air summoning...it just summons right on top of you if you're standing on the ledge. Damn.
However! If one were to say...jump down into the lava at the bottom of Old Ironforge and MC-raider-style lava hop into a barely safe nook in the cave wall, one might discover that lava counts as solid ground for the purposes of Ritual of Summoning, meaning that if you and two mischievous guild mates stand in said nook an open a portal, it will open over the lava.
Hopefully I will have video later today. :) ROFLMAO!
If I get banned, you know what happened.
First, we used the duel/fear-or-sheep bug in Ironforge to knock us down into Old Ironforge. Then we tried to summon people off the balconies into the open air over the lava. I KNOW! What a jackass, right?
But wait! There's more! Stay with me, our experiments have yielded important information for the 'lock knowledge base.
For one, we can confirm that the Blues did in fact fix open-air summoning...it just summons right on top of you if you're standing on the ledge. Damn.
However! If one were to say...jump down into the lava at the bottom of Old Ironforge and MC-raider-style lava hop into a barely safe nook in the cave wall, one might discover that lava counts as solid ground for the purposes of Ritual of Summoning, meaning that if you and two mischievous guild mates stand in said nook an open a portal, it will open over the lava.
Hopefully I will have video later today. :) ROFLMAO!
If I get banned, you know what happened.
Gooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllll!!!!
The Veteran's Dreadweave Cuffs are mine, complete with a +12 Stamina gem and a +7 Stamina enchant. That brings my self-buffed spell damage to +839, and my Stamina over 700! Wewt.
This week's goal: Veteran's Dreadweave Stalkers.
This week's goal: Veteran's Dreadweave Stalkers.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Kara Busted
We took down the Big Bad Wolf tonight after several wipes...on our successful attempt I slapped my felguard on him and then proceeded to be Red Riding Hood three times. Turns out I'm very good at running away. :)
Still no loot. Still not Honored with Violet Eye.
And the instance servers crashed. &^%$$### I'm trapped.
Still no loot. Still not Honored with Violet Eye.
And the instance servers crashed. &^%$$### I'm trapped.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Like I Said...
...heroes have heart, but villians have style.
Mystic Worlds has a great post (essay?) on why warlocks are the new villians of WoW, and explains the problem with most player complaints about the current state of locks:
Mystic Worlds has a great post (essay?) on why warlocks are the new villians of WoW, and explains the problem with most player complaints about the current state of locks:
Everyone hates Warlocks unless their in your group and working toward the same objectives. And even, then some people just flat-out hate the class now, and screams for nerfs and laments of how over powered they are, flood the forums on a daily basis. Chief complaints are DOTs, 2 instant cast Fears, burst damage, high HP and pets. The problem is that when people complain about Warlocks they consider all of the talents together as though every Warlock as them, which isn’t the case.Read the full post here.
Off the Bandwagon
Recently I've tried to restrain my WoW playtime during the week to one night. However, this past week I've failed miserably and felt horrible for it. It's like I'm on autopilot...if I'm not doing something else, I tend to log on. This week, though, I think I can easily get back on the wagon for a few reasons:
1) I am on a 2v2, a 3v3, and a 5v5 (and hold the charter for the 3v3 and 5v5). Why would this restrain my playtime, you might ask? Simple, really: unless you're blowing through people and winning every game, you have an incentive to play ten games and stop. That would get me weekly points on the way to epic items, and that would satisfy me.
2) My guild's raids have recently come off the rails. This may be temporary since our guild leader / main tank has temporarily lost his Internet access, but until he comes back and gets everyone back in line, I don't see us having *any* success in Karazhan.
3) I am getting *very* close to having all of my honor point epics, and that accounts for a lot of my play time. Next week it's possible that I will get the remaining items. That means that I can raid / run instances / PVP quite a bit on weekend nights that I usually reserve for battlegrounds.
Here's to getting back on the wagon.
1) I am on a 2v2, a 3v3, and a 5v5 (and hold the charter for the 3v3 and 5v5). Why would this restrain my playtime, you might ask? Simple, really: unless you're blowing through people and winning every game, you have an incentive to play ten games and stop. That would get me weekly points on the way to epic items, and that would satisfy me.
2) My guild's raids have recently come off the rails. This may be temporary since our guild leader / main tank has temporarily lost his Internet access, but until he comes back and gets everyone back in line, I don't see us having *any* success in Karazhan.
3) I am getting *very* close to having all of my honor point epics, and that accounts for a lot of my play time. Next week it's possible that I will get the remaining items. That means that I can raid / run instances / PVP quite a bit on weekend nights that I usually reserve for battlegrounds.
Here's to getting back on the wagon.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Set
I finally got a 5v5 team together...and it was awful lol. The first five of us together paid equal shares of the charter, and then proceeded to lose 4 in a row.
But then the second string came in.
The original group had to break up for the day, and I wanted to get the team to go active for the week with ten games, so I recruited four other people. This time, instead of one healer, we had two, and three straight DPS. We didn't start off with Vent, so we had a very simple strategy: I used my Arena Master add on to quickly id the targets. I'd locate the main healer. I'd say "set." Everyone would hit /assist. And we'd focus fire my target. Then their backup healer, then their DPS, etc. ect. ect.
We went three and one immediately.
One of the healers had to leave, and I brought back one of the previous team members. We ended up with a 1450+ rating. Not good, not bad. Good points, though.
Now we just have to keep the rating up until Tuesday...by not playing until then. :) Woot.
But then the second string came in.
The original group had to break up for the day, and I wanted to get the team to go active for the week with ten games, so I recruited four other people. This time, instead of one healer, we had two, and three straight DPS. We didn't start off with Vent, so we had a very simple strategy: I used my Arena Master add on to quickly id the targets. I'd locate the main healer. I'd say "set." Everyone would hit /assist. And we'd focus fire my target. Then their backup healer, then their DPS, etc. ect. ect.
We went three and one immediately.
One of the healers had to leave, and I brought back one of the previous team members. We ended up with a 1450+ rating. Not good, not bad. Good points, though.
Now we just have to keep the rating up until Tuesday...by not playing until then. :) Woot.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
A Question for the Masses
This week I will pass for the first time into the fun realm of "I can now afford some Arena gear." I'm facing a fun dilemma: do I buy the first armor pieces I can afford (the gloves, shoulders, etc.) or save up all my points for a couple more weeks and go for the best pieces first (legs, head, chest, etc.)?
The horns of the dilemma:
1) If I buy the cheaper items first, I'm significantly improving my stats faster. That means I win more often earlier, which contributes to higher lifetime points...right?
BUT
2) Our guild (hell, our server) is nowhere near the progression needed to see the higher end pieces, so saving up for the chest piece and the like makes sense. Plus, we *are* in the areas where the smaller pieces drop, and it's possible that I could buy the gloves only to have their PvE equivalents drop on my very next raid.
Right now I'm inclined to lean towards #1. I'm relatively new in my guild, which means that if any other casters want the pieces that drop ahead of me, they will get them. And, improving my stats rapidly means that I will fare better, especially as we're fighting to get our teams into the higher brackets.
What do you think?
EDIT: I think I just answered my own question...the math looks like I should go with #2 (edit...good lord i had #1...Durthoo suggested #2) as suggested by Jedi master Durthoo. The reason being is that the stat increase I would get by saving up for a couple of more weeks for the chest piece is more than twice what I'd get for the lower pieces, but it would be far less than twice the wait...
The horns of the dilemma:
1) If I buy the cheaper items first, I'm significantly improving my stats faster. That means I win more often earlier, which contributes to higher lifetime points...right?
BUT
2) Our guild (hell, our server) is nowhere near the progression needed to see the higher end pieces, so saving up for the chest piece and the like makes sense. Plus, we *are* in the areas where the smaller pieces drop, and it's possible that I could buy the gloves only to have their PvE equivalents drop on my very next raid.
Right now I'm inclined to lean towards #1. I'm relatively new in my guild, which means that if any other casters want the pieces that drop ahead of me, they will get them. And, improving my stats rapidly means that I will fare better, especially as we're fighting to get our teams into the higher brackets.
What do you think?
EDIT: I think I just answered my own question...the math looks like I should go with #2 (edit...good lord i had #1...Durthoo suggested #2) as suggested by Jedi master Durthoo. The reason being is that the stat increase I would get by saving up for a couple of more weeks for the chest piece is more than twice what I'd get for the lower pieces, but it would be far less than twice the wait...
A Safety Net for the Poor
Last night my usual partner was getting levels on an alt (grats Onmyoji!) so I needed some quick Arena points to stay on track. I bought a 3v3 charter and just grabbed...gulp...a PUG Arena team.
Much hilarity ensued.
Our lineup: a lock (me), a hunter, and a druid. I think I may have been the most experienced person on the team in Arenas, which is scary, but you'd never know it for how fast I dropped under focus fire (note the lack of healers). In the end, we went 2-8.
Funny notes: with our 1398 end rating (ouch!) we earned as many points for this week as my 2v2 team got for a 1508 rating the previous week. I now have more than 1,000 Arena points thanks to that little excursion, and I need to start making decisions as to what my first piece of gear will be. Also, our abysmal record is exactly equal to the first week Durthoo and I played 2v2 together. That's just sad LOL.
The team serves its purpose, though...a last resort when my regular team isn't available to grab points. It's more of a safety net.
Oh, and its name: Social Security. LOL.
Much hilarity ensued.
Our lineup: a lock (me), a hunter, and a druid. I think I may have been the most experienced person on the team in Arenas, which is scary, but you'd never know it for how fast I dropped under focus fire (note the lack of healers). In the end, we went 2-8.
Funny notes: with our 1398 end rating (ouch!) we earned as many points for this week as my 2v2 team got for a 1508 rating the previous week. I now have more than 1,000 Arena points thanks to that little excursion, and I need to start making decisions as to what my first piece of gear will be. Also, our abysmal record is exactly equal to the first week Durthoo and I played 2v2 together. That's just sad LOL.
The team serves its purpose, though...a last resort when my regular team isn't available to grab points. It's more of a safety net.
Oh, and its name: Social Security. LOL.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Weekly Goal: Veteran's Dreadweave Cuffs
This weekend is the Eye of the Storm PvP holiday. I am pretty burned out from this past weekend's honor grind, so I'm opting for the cheapest PvP epic left on my list: Veteran's Dreadweave Cuffs.
Next week is Alterac Valley (drool), so I'm saving the two expensive items left for then: Medallion of the Alliance and Veteran's Dreadweave Stalkers.
Next week is Alterac Valley (drool), so I'm saving the two expensive items left for then: Medallion of the Alliance and Veteran's Dreadweave Stalkers.
Once Upon a Time in Kara...
...a second Kara team failed to take down Illhoof, wiped on trash, and watched as a member QQed the raid leader and /gquit the guild.
So I guess you could say we did not win at WoW on Saturday. ;(
So I guess you could say we did not win at WoW on Saturday. ;(
The Day is Mine
That's right, people...Veteran's Dreadweave Belt.
Ugh...honor grinds like that on an AB weekend make my head hurt.
Ugh...honor grinds like that on an AB weekend make my head hurt.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
Community Managers on Lock Forums (U.S.) MIA
I posted a grumpy thread on Bliz official lock forums about the total lack of community management there. If you look at the post tracker, the amount of good community management that goes on in the WoW Europe forums compared to the U.S. forums is ridiculous.
Trolling is against the stated forum policies...I would interpret nerf threads to fall under that category per the bolded text below, and the WoW Europe folks agree. But any time you come into the Warlock forums on the U.S. side, there are always several multipage threads posted by trolls and QQers, and I have *never* seen one locked down.
From the Forum Guidelines:
Trolling is against the stated forum policies...I would interpret nerf threads to fall under that category per the bolded text below, and the WoW Europe folks agree. But any time you come into the Warlock forums on the U.S. side, there are always several multipage threads posted by trolls and QQers, and I have *never* seen one locked down.
From the Forum Guidelines:
Spamming and TrollingI am fairly sure that Blizz is paying someone to moderate these forums. They need to fire them.
This category includes:
* Excessively communicating the same phrase, similar phrases, or pure gibberish
* Creating threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest on the forums
* Causing disturbances in forum threads, such as picking fights, making off topic posts that ruin the thread, insulting other posters
* Making non-constructive posts
* Abusing the Reported Post feature by sending false alarms or nonsensical messages
* Numbering a thread, IBTL, TLDR, or any other fad statements
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Why Warlock
I was thinking about starting an alt (finally) this morning, and it made me think about why I picked this class in the first place.It turns out that I just like villians.
Lex Luthor. Darth Vader. The Shredder. The good guys have heart, but the bad guys have style.
The WarCraft Universe is full of moral ambiguities, and the warlocks are the epitome, especially on the Alliance side. Yes we're fighting the Scourge, the Forsaken, the Horde, the Legion...but we gather under a rundown inn called The Slaughtered Lamb and summon demons and steal souls.
And we do it with style.
Shadowmoon Valley Vacation
Thought I'd share some fun screenshots from this week:
The night of the Gruul's run that wasn't, Durthoo, Meltnface, Legales, and some other friends of mine did The Battle of the Crimson Watch quest, which is a lot of fun and gives you the coolest looking tabard in the game, imho. It also gives a nice chunk of gold if you have already hit the level cap.
This morning I discovered the joys of my Improved Enslave Demon talent points with an enslaved pit lord. The best part of this little jaunt over to Legion Hold was the use of an enslaved pit lord to pwn another pit lord. The low point came when I discovered that the second pit lord was NOT enslavable, but still doesn't appreciate you trying...
The night of the Gruul's run that wasn't, Durthoo, Meltnface, Legales, and some other friends of mine did The Battle of the Crimson Watch quest, which is a lot of fun and gives you the coolest looking tabard in the game, imho. It also gives a nice chunk of gold if you have already hit the level cap.
This morning I discovered the joys of my Improved Enslave Demon talent points with an enslaved pit lord. The best part of this little jaunt over to Legion Hold was the use of an enslaved pit lord to pwn another pit lord. The low point came when I discovered that the second pit lord was NOT enslavable, but still doesn't appreciate you trying...
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Special QQ of the Day Report: Blizz Has a Sense of Humor
Check out the YouTube link the Blue posted in response to this thread.
Ramshackle Raid Schedule Crits You for -98876 DKP
I am horribly frustrated with my guild's raid schedule.
We have a calendar on our website. We are supposed to sign up for these things on the website. We are docked DKP if we sign up and don't show. These are all good things.
What is not a good thing is a recent trend in which I log in at random times in the week and find a note saying "Kara tonight, be there" in the guild message of the day, or when I'm asked to assist on a Kara boss (thereby keying me to that instance of Kara until the reset, instead of keying me to the second instance of Kara that I'd prefer on a more convenient date) with the promise of a full run the following week, only to log in and find a "Gruul's!" announcement for the date of our scheduled Kara raid. Insult to injury: I log in for the random Gruul's Night Out (as soon as I can after getting off of work) only to find them not actually in Gruul's, but in a full Kara instance...the one I was assured I'd have a spot in.
W.
T.
F?
Little rant there, sorry.
EDIT: To be fair, I should pull something out of the comments section and post it here with my original comments:
We have a calendar on our website. We are supposed to sign up for these things on the website. We are docked DKP if we sign up and don't show. These are all good things.
What is not a good thing is a recent trend in which I log in at random times in the week and find a note saying "Kara tonight, be there" in the guild message of the day, or when I'm asked to assist on a Kara boss (thereby keying me to that instance of Kara until the reset, instead of keying me to the second instance of Kara that I'd prefer on a more convenient date) with the promise of a full run the following week, only to log in and find a "Gruul's!" announcement for the date of our scheduled Kara raid. Insult to injury: I log in for the random Gruul's Night Out (as soon as I can after getting off of work) only to find them not actually in Gruul's, but in a full Kara instance...the one I was assured I'd have a spot in.
W.
T.
F?
Little rant there, sorry.
EDIT: To be fair, I should pull something out of the comments section and post it here with my original comments:
I do have to say by way of disclaimer that my experience with my guild has been 90 percent positive. The guild leader has excellent people skills, doesn't let guild chat turn into a cesspool of flames, etc.So it turns out, no Gruul's. And no Kara. And no play time until Friday.
This is a recent thing, and hopefully not a trend.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Gruul School
In preparation for our first Gruul's attempt tonight, I went looking for good YouTubage. Here's one that shows off the positioning needed, people breaking line of sight for shatter, etc.
Also, here's a good article with great illustrations of the positioning as well, which will be key to prevent Shatter from killing us all. This article does contain a severe bit of misinformation: it erroneously claims that pets can be affected by Shatter. Everything else I've read says that this is not the case. Also, a key point:
Also, here's a good article with great illustrations of the positioning as well, which will be key to prevent Shatter from killing us all. This article does contain a severe bit of misinformation: it erroneously claims that pets can be affected by Shatter. Everything else I've read says that this is not the case. Also, a key point:
NOTE: Don't kid yourself. If you don't have at least 15 good DPS (Rogues, Mages, Warlocks, Shadowpriests) you are just wasting your time and money. Later, with better gear on the tank, this fight can be done with less.I am worried about our ability to field this particular team. Not sure if we'll have enough DPS online at once for this.
Watch Out! The Graphic on the Right Will Kill You in PvP!
Hypnos has done some tabulating on his abacus and has concluded that felguards are FTW. From his forum post:
top 50 5v5 lock specs:Here's his source.
50th = 2127 rating
felguard (x/41+/x) - 24 (48%)
affliction (41+/x/x) - 12 (24%)
Siphonlife/soullink (21+/31+/0) - 6 (12%)
SL/intensity (x/34+/17+) - 4 (8%)
destro (x/x/40+) - 3 (6%)
weird(30/21/10) - 1 (2%)
top 150 5v5 lock specs:
150th = 2047 rating
affliction (41+/x/x) - 62 (41.33%)
felguard (x/41+/x) - 48 (32%)
Siphonlife/soullink (21+/31+/0) - 26 (17.33%)
SL/intensity (x/34+/17+) - 6 (4%)
destro (x/x/40+) - 5 (3.33%)
weird(30/21/10 - 21/0/8 - 0/40/21) - 3 (2%)
Monday, July 16, 2007
Gruuling Raid Calendar (Hardy Har Har)
My guild is making its first Gruul's attempt tomorrow. This should be interesting. I better fix the macros LOL.
Looks like Megan is already all over it, though.
Looks like Megan is already all over it, though.
Macros 1, Noobsauce 0
Most of the bugs with my UI setup have been worked out. Now I'm just having to tinker with my macros and keybindings a bit. Last night my pet was freaking out in the Arenas, which I thought was just due to the intercept being on auto, but now that I look at my keybindings in tandem with my macros, I see the problem, and I am very, very embarrassed (although our record was a respectable 6-4, and we've brought our arena team up out of the < 1500 sinkhole).
Bottom line: read your macros carefully, especially if you get them from other places, and then compare them carefully with your keybindings, noob!
PROBLEM: My focus Fear, focus Curse of Tongues, and focus Intercept macros were not working, or only working half of the time.
REASON: Spell keybindings and macro modifiers overlapping. Example:
So again, I had to pretend my focus didn't exist and just tab-switch back and forth between targets. We lost the first few games because of this, I have no doubt.
Sorry, Durthoo!
But, we still pulled a winning night off, and this is easily fixed.
This is why I could never be a programmer...simple crap like this drives me crazy.
Don't lie. This is why you read my blog. You like seeing me screw up and it makes you feel better about the crap you've all pulled when trying new things. :)
So to help you wash off all the noobsauce you just got all over you by reading this post, here's the new Drakedog video:
Bottom line: read your macros carefully, especially if you get them from other places, and then compare them carefully with your keybindings, noob!
PROBLEM: My focus Fear, focus Curse of Tongues, and focus Intercept macros were not working, or only working half of the time.
REASON: Spell keybindings and macro modifiers overlapping. Example:
- Macro for focus Fear casts Fear on your target when you press "I"; casts Fear on your focus when you press "Shift + I".
- Macro for pet special attack (Intercept, Seduce, etc.) bound to "Shift + I"
So again, I had to pretend my focus didn't exist and just tab-switch back and forth between targets. We lost the first few games because of this, I have no doubt.
Sorry, Durthoo!
But, we still pulled a winning night off, and this is easily fixed.
This is why I could never be a programmer...simple crap like this drives me crazy.
Don't lie. This is why you read my blog. You like seeing me screw up and it makes you feel better about the crap you've all pulled when trying new things. :)
So to help you wash off all the noobsauce you just got all over you by reading this post, here's the new Drakedog video:
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Fudging on the Weekly Goal
Okay, okay, I know! This is the second weekend in a row when I've not attained the weekly goal. But before you get all judgemental, lets state right up front that I was helping friends move into a new apartment and that it was the Warsong Gulch PvP holiday (just saying that makes my soul hurt). And, let's not overlook the fact that I did pick up a nice substitute: the Veteran's Pendant of Dominance. This little guy raised my spell damage by 13, plus an additional +5 critical strike rating, meaning that for raiding purposes it is actually better for padding my deficient stats than the Veterans Dreadweave Belt. So eh, I'm not worried.
Friday, July 13, 2007
New UI Blues
Wow, Pitbull has a LOT of optional target bars! Last night I jumped in for an hour with my guild to kill Shade of Aran, and the first time we wiped in large part due to me not adequately cc'ing the elementals. But let me tell you, it gets hard to CC when a new unplaced target bar pops up in the middle of your display every time something new happens, and then the spell/debuff indicators on your target start overlapping with other displays. Plus, I had repeated spell fumbles while trying to get used to my new keybindings. What a Charlie Foxtrot! NOOBSAUCE
The second time I ignored any displays and just eyeballed the baddies and threw the banishes and fears around and we did fine. No real warlock-related loot dropped. I continue to have *zero* Karazhan loots. But that will hopefully change this weekend, on like my 6th or 7th Kara run. :(
DKP sucks until you get some seniority in the guild, let me tell you. But after the next run, having not spent any of my points, I will be right there in the mix with the other guildmates. Thank God!
The second time I ignored any displays and just eyeballed the baddies and threw the banishes and fears around and we did fine. No real warlock-related loot dropped. I continue to have *zero* Karazhan loots. But that will hopefully change this weekend, on like my 6th or 7th Kara run. :(
DKP sucks until you get some seniority in the guild, let me tell you. But after the next run, having not spent any of my points, I will be right there in the mix with the other guildmates. Thank God!
QQers 198987, Warlocks 0
Incoming nerfs! It's a mixed bag in the test patch notes, but it is a definitively net negative for 'locks in PVP.
Lock related highlights:
Crap!
Lock related highlights:
GeneralRadikal Noise has thoughts on what the resilience change will mean for lock vs. mage matchups.Warlocks
- Resilience Rating: The reduction to the percent chance to get a critical strike now also reduces the damage dealt by damage over time effects by the same percentage.
- Banish, Seduction, Enslave Demon and Fear duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds.
- Drain Life: The tooltip for this spell will now update correctly when a Warlock is affected by spell haste.
- Inferno: This spell will now cause the Infernal's attacks to put the Warlock into combat with neutral town guards.
- Intercept (Felguard) will now cause damage to targets that are immune to stun.
- Nether Protection: This ability can now trigger while the Warlock is sitting.
- Nightfall: This ability can now trigger while the Warlock is sitting.
- Rain of Fire: This spell is now affected by area damage caps. Its bonus damage coefficients have also been increased.
- Seed of Corruption: Dead targets will no longer be erroneously counted toward the damage cap on this spell.
- Shadow Embrace: The effect from this talent will no longer last indefinitely if applied while charmed by an NPC.
Crap!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Working Toward an Uber UI
Jayna's posts have inspired me to set up a better combo of my UI, hotkeys, and macros. I absolutely loved the screenshot of her UI, so I'm basing what I'm working with off of that. I am not finished messing with this, but the basic layout has emerged.
Screenshot #1: You can see the basic theme here. What's missing from this shot is the target frame, which is identical in placement and look to Jayna's. I'm just dumb and forgot to focus on a target to get it in the shot. The pet bar is enlarged, and the Demonology abilities are offset from the others to reduce clutter in the main set of buttons and to make them easier to find. The abilities I left on the bar are either abilities on a cooldown or those that I don't use often enough in the middle of combat to justify a hotkey spot. What you can't see from this is that I moved my direction keys over to the right by one key, allowing me to keep my fingers on the home row so I can mash buttons easier without looking.
Screenshot #2: This shows my spellbinder bindings. This is where I differ somewhat from Jayna's setup. Rather than heavily utilize the number keys, I set up my keyboard to place my most-used abilities on the home row.
The main difficulty I can see with this setup so far is the lack of a hand on a mouse during combat. Jayna's setup seems to have this problem too, though. Basically I plan to use an addon to grab both targets when the match starts via mouseover, and then move my hands to the keyboard.
Screenshot #1: You can see the basic theme here. What's missing from this shot is the target frame, which is identical in placement and look to Jayna's. I'm just dumb and forgot to focus on a target to get it in the shot. The pet bar is enlarged, and the Demonology abilities are offset from the others to reduce clutter in the main set of buttons and to make them easier to find. The abilities I left on the bar are either abilities on a cooldown or those that I don't use often enough in the middle of combat to justify a hotkey spot. What you can't see from this is that I moved my direction keys over to the right by one key, allowing me to keep my fingers on the home row so I can mash buttons easier without looking.
Screenshot #2: This shows my spellbinder bindings. This is where I differ somewhat from Jayna's setup. Rather than heavily utilize the number keys, I set up my keyboard to place my most-used abilities on the home row.
The main difficulty I can see with this setup so far is the lack of a hand on a mouse during combat. Jayna's setup seems to have this problem too, though. Basically I plan to use an addon to grab both targets when the match starts via mouseover, and then move my hands to the keyboard.
Resilience Over Time
WoWInsider's Blood Pact column (which I have ridiculed) regains some (starts building some?) cred with me with today's post on the resilence/DOT issue.
Remember that yesterday the forums were blowing up after Kalgan dropped a bomb on the DOT-reliant community, announcing for the first time that resilience would soon mitigate DOT spells.
I posted why I thought this was a weird solution yesterday.
But, Blood Pact dives into the math and Blizzard's possible thinking. The highlights:
Remember that yesterday the forums were blowing up after Kalgan dropped a bomb on the DOT-reliant community, announcing for the first time that resilience would soon mitigate DOT spells.
I posted why I thought this was a weird solution yesterday.
But, Blood Pact dives into the math and Blizzard's possible thinking. The highlights:
So why is resilience being brought in to fix this problem? If DoTs themselves are the issue, it seems to make more sense to alter the DoTs themselves instead of changing an anti-crit ability into an anti-crit, anti-DoT ability. Blizzard certainly hasn't explained their motivations here, but despite that, I have a guess at what's going on here:Regarding the math:
Blizzard wants to moderate Warlock damage in high-level PvP encounters without hurting their PvE abilities.
And that's exactly what a chance to resilience will do. Monsters don't have resilience. Low-level PvPers don't have resilience. By not altering the DoTs themselves, Blizzard maintains Warlocks' current strengths in PvE and lower-end PvP. If this is, in truth, what they wanted to do, perhaps it's not such an inappropriate solution.
However, the stats on what's currently the best PvP set in the game don't worry me very much. Looking at the worst of the resilience stats from above, we're only seeing a 4.4% damage reduction. Let's look at the highest rank of Curse of Agony, for example, which (base) does 1356 damage over 24 seconds. 175 resilience will reduce CoA's damage by 4.4%, or 60 damage (rounded up). In the grand scheme of things, the reduction sounds pretty minor.Good article, good reasoning. I'm okay with it, even though I think it's making resilience into a funky hybrid stat that's drifting from its original purpose.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Resilence to Affect DOTs....In Other News, Massive Crack Stash Found in Kalgan's Desk
Blizz is about to screw up arena gear. Kalgan says that DOTs will be affected by resilience in the future.
This makes no sense. Resilience protects you from critical hits. DOTs can't crit.
Supporters of this change say that the introduction of resilience affects burst-damage dependent classes but not classes that rely on damage-over-time spells, thereby overpowering us vs. burst damage classes. I can see that point of view. However, I offer the following rebuttals to support my feeling that DOT damage mitigation via resilience is not appropriate:
For a better explanation, this guy has a nice critique (a mage, no less).
In this thread, Archon has an interesting suggestion: drop resilience completely, and use the item point budget freed up to just up the Stamina bonuses. Makes sense to me.
This makes no sense. Resilience protects you from critical hits. DOTs can't crit.
Supporters of this change say that the introduction of resilience affects burst-damage dependent classes but not classes that rely on damage-over-time spells, thereby overpowering us vs. burst damage classes. I can see that point of view. However, I offer the following rebuttals to support my feeling that DOT damage mitigation via resilience is not appropriate:
- DOTs can't crit, unlike burst damage.
- DOTs can be dispelled, unlike burst damage, meaning that you're not even guaranteed the smallest possible base damage listed in the spell description in exchange for your mana expenditure.
- DOTs can be healed through, unlike burst damage, giving groups with healers an advantage vs. a DOT-based class.
For a better explanation, this guy has a nice critique (a mage, no less).
In this thread, Archon has an interesting suggestion: drop resilience completely, and use the item point budget freed up to just up the Stamina bonuses. Makes sense to me.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
WTB Massive Website
What the hell is wrong with Massive Magazine? I picked up what I thought was a great MMO game magazine of the newsstand a few weeks ago and thought "Hey, this is pretty good. I wonder if they have a website." Nope. Just an "Under Development" sign on a blank homepage.
Okay, no biggie, right? They'll get it up.
Wrong.
I'm sorry, but if you're going to be taken seriously as an authority on massively multiplayer online games, shouldn't you get your crap together and put some content online before you publish a print version? You don't even need fancy graphics and Flash goodies...just a basic graphic layout with good content. This is just pathetic, and I'm very disappointed.
Okay, no biggie, right? They'll get it up.
Wrong.
I'm sorry, but if you're going to be taken seriously as an authority on massively multiplayer online games, shouldn't you get your crap together and put some content online before you publish a print version? You don't even need fancy graphics and Flash goodies...just a basic graphic layout with good content. This is just pathetic, and I'm very disappointed.
Arenas
Well, I have a whopping 500-something points from two weeks of 2v2s....ugh. I'm a third of the way to getting the shoulders. I really, really need to get in a 3v3 or 5v5 team to get more arena points faster.
Read up on calculating arena points over at WoWWiki. The gist of it is that I am earning honor points at roughly half the speed of someone on a 5v5 team with a similar rating.
Unfortunately, that also means that my partner from last night, who was already on a 5v5 team, probably gained nothing from our hour of play (6 - 4 win - loss, not bad) since his 5v5 yielded more points, and you only get points from your highest scoring team for the week. Sorry dude...but thanks!
Read up on calculating arena points over at WoWWiki. The gist of it is that I am earning honor points at roughly half the speed of someone on a 5v5 team with a similar rating.
Unfortunately, that also means that my partner from last night, who was already on a 5v5 team, probably gained nothing from our hour of play (6 - 4 win - loss, not bad) since his 5v5 yielded more points, and you only get points from your highest scoring team for the week. Sorry dude...but thanks!
Monday, July 9, 2007
Weekly Goal: I FAIL
I failed to obtain my weekly goal. No Veteran's Dreadweave Belt for me. Nope, not even with 5 days off from work in a row that coincided with an Alterac Valley PvP holiday. I'm walking into work this morning with a whopping 6.3k honor points. That's it.
But I have excellent excuses.
After our last failed attempt on Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan, our guild leader asked us to spam heroics and gear up for an attempt on Saturday. It occurred to me that I only had access to the Caverns of Time heroics, and I never see people LFG for those. I heard good things about Tempest Keep heroic instances, especially The Mechanar, so I decided to get revered with the Sha'tar faction to get the Warpforged Key. That led to me running Botanica, The Mechanar, and The Arcatraz for days on end. I did finally get revered, but I didn't get a chance to run any heroics before Saturday.
But that's fine, because on Saturday we finally downed Prince Malchezaar on the third try of the evening. (Check out our guild chat...it vaguely reflects the Vent chat :) ) It was a great kill: lucky infernal placement, a quick burn through phases 2 and 3, etc. He dropped Malchazeen, Adornment of Stolen Souls, and the Helm of the Fallen Champion. I lost the rolls on the necklace, but hey, it was my first Prince kill.
I also finally got around to turning in enough Arcane Tomes and Sunfury Signet rings to get revered with the Scryers. Combined with the Sha'tar revered status, I got shoulder and hood enchants that upped my +damage and my spell crit rating.
So no belt. But it's this week's weekly goal, and I'm gonna get it, dammit.
But I have excellent excuses.
After our last failed attempt on Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan, our guild leader asked us to spam heroics and gear up for an attempt on Saturday. It occurred to me that I only had access to the Caverns of Time heroics, and I never see people LFG for those. I heard good things about Tempest Keep heroic instances, especially The Mechanar, so I decided to get revered with the Sha'tar faction to get the Warpforged Key. That led to me running Botanica, The Mechanar, and The Arcatraz for days on end. I did finally get revered, but I didn't get a chance to run any heroics before Saturday.
But that's fine, because on Saturday we finally downed Prince Malchezaar on the third try of the evening. (Check out our guild chat...it vaguely reflects the Vent chat :) ) It was a great kill: lucky infernal placement, a quick burn through phases 2 and 3, etc. He dropped Malchazeen, Adornment of Stolen Souls, and the Helm of the Fallen Champion. I lost the rolls on the necklace, but hey, it was my first Prince kill.
I also finally got around to turning in enough Arcane Tomes and Sunfury Signet rings to get revered with the Scryers. Combined with the Sha'tar revered status, I got shoulder and hood enchants that upped my +damage and my spell crit rating.
So no belt. But it's this week's weekly goal, and I'm gonna get it, dammit.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
That's How We Roll
More tomorrow, but the highlights from the vacation:
- Sha'tar revered
- Scryers revered
- Warp Splinter down
- Pathaleon down
- Shade of Aran down (sorry, no screenshot)
- And finally...Prince down.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Sarah, Come Back!
Don't do it Sarah, don't do it!!! KEEP TEH WURLOK!
Is she paying for that Mountain Dew in pennies? LOL
Is she paying for that Mountain Dew in pennies? LOL
Monday, July 2, 2007
I Have a Green Thumb and a Long Post
This weekend consisted of 2 Kara raids and Tempest Keep instance runs.
So. Much. Fun.
I have a new guild (Set in Stone) and so far they've been fantastic: good guild leadership, a Mac compatible Ventrilo server, and a steady raid schedule that's not too crazy. This weekend I joined in for a kill on the Shade of Aran, and the Mantle of the Mind Flayer dropped. I would have loved it, but as it was my first raid with them, I had no DKP to bid with. :(
After Shade we made for an Illhoof kill. This encounter is probably the reason I was recruited, as Seed of Corruption can be essential to a successful Illhoof kill. There were two of us in the raid group, and the other lock was wearing full Arena gear. We spammed SoC the whole fight, and the imps weren't really a problem, but we could not get enough DPS on the main boss to take him down. We gave up after several wipes.
We decided to try for the Prince, and had a great time getting pwned by him. A lot of this fight comes down to luck with infernal placement. Over the course of two nights we took him down into phase 3 a few times, but our tank got nailed by crushing blows each time. We never took him down. This week, the guild leader asked us to do heroic instances to get our gear up to par for these fights, and we'll try again later.
After the Kara runs I ran the Botanica several times and the Mechanar, clearing them each time. I got lucky and grabbed the good warlock gear out of Botanica, but the Mechanar was stingy. I really, really have to find and finish the Arcatraz Key quests, because I've cleared every Tempest Keep instance besides the Eye and I still am not keyed for Arca. However, I am over halfway to "revered" with the Sha'tar, and once I run Botanica 3 more times, I'll have access to heroic Tempest Keep instances.
Here's the damage from the Botanica:
So. Much. Fun.
I have a new guild (Set in Stone) and so far they've been fantastic: good guild leadership, a Mac compatible Ventrilo server, and a steady raid schedule that's not too crazy. This weekend I joined in for a kill on the Shade of Aran, and the Mantle of the Mind Flayer dropped. I would have loved it, but as it was my first raid with them, I had no DKP to bid with. :(
After Shade we made for an Illhoof kill. This encounter is probably the reason I was recruited, as Seed of Corruption can be essential to a successful Illhoof kill. There were two of us in the raid group, and the other lock was wearing full Arena gear. We spammed SoC the whole fight, and the imps weren't really a problem, but we could not get enough DPS on the main boss to take him down. We gave up after several wipes.
We decided to try for the Prince, and had a great time getting pwned by him. A lot of this fight comes down to luck with infernal placement. Over the course of two nights we took him down into phase 3 a few times, but our tank got nailed by crushing blows each time. We never took him down. This week, the guild leader asked us to do heroic instances to get our gear up to par for these fights, and we'll try again later.
After the Kara runs I ran the Botanica several times and the Mechanar, clearing them each time. I got lucky and grabbed the good warlock gear out of Botanica, but the Mechanar was stingy. I really, really have to find and finish the Arcatraz Key quests, because I've cleared every Tempest Keep instance besides the Eye and I still am not keyed for Arca. However, I am over halfway to "revered" with the Sha'tar, and once I run Botanica 3 more times, I'll have access to heroic Tempest Keep instances.
Here's the damage from the Botanica:
Yes, Sensai
I am not a destruction lock...I love demonology. But watching Drakedog take care of business can make you reconsider your spec.
drakedog7-tbc.wmv
drakedog7-tbc.wmv
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)