Back To Live Action

Well, work didn't miraculously become better after a long absence. If anything,the relaxing break perhaps magnified the mundane deluge of everyday sludgery.  Yes, sludgery is a word I made up and I think it describes very well day-to-day life sometimes, depending on your mood.  Mine's obviously as black as last Friday.  Which is to say more of a gray color.  Anyone else thing Cyber Monday is really a clever sexual innuendo?  I guess it really wouldn't be all that clever if it was.   Pretty obvious if you ask me.

I, for one, will be keeping it real.

In a similar fashion, tanking didn't become miraculously easier when combined with raid leading after my semi-break from WoW.  I say "semi", because whenever I hear someone mention taking a break it's for like three months or something.  For me, its rarely more than a week off, and usually means I just failed to keep up with my blog roll and played a lot of console games.  Which is exactly what I did over the Thanksgiving holiday bonanza.  Partly because I was afk at my parents, and partly because I knocked out Assasin's Creed II in about 40 hours of nearly contiguous game play.  Awesome game, great ending, great game play, good length.  All in all, a winner.

Then I picked up Modern Warfare 2 so I could play a bit with my brothers online.  Plus, it appeals to my twitchier side.  So far so good on that one, but I'm not really gunning to beat the game so quickly.  It's more of a change of pace.  Like Aion only on the couch instead of in the Captain's Chair.  (Seriously, does anyone else think of their computer chair as their personal Dr. Evil high-backed brooding post, wishing it had strange buttons for various modes of death?  Sharks with frickin' lasers and a pit of fire?  Or is that just me?)

Which brings me back to my MMO life.  Sunday night is our alt/newbie raid group.  Some of us run alts, some of us are new to raiding, some of us just don't partake of the cornucopia that is progression raiding.  It's a healthy mix.  It's also a group I'm looked upon to lead.  This last Sunday we happened to be short a few regulars (it being the holidays and all), so people ended up in different roles.  For me, this meant main tanking on my DK (usually I'm OT or DPS on Dece).

I feel like I should take this opportunity to reiterate: Main Tanking and Raid Leading often don't mix.

I say often, because some fights are a bore.  Others, however, can been a real pain.  If you're one of the few that can effectively raid lead while main tanking Malygos, kudos to you, chum.  We warmed up on OS (no drakes) and then went to try EoE.  For a lot of people, it was their first time here, and the learning curve for that fight is mighty steep.  It also can be very main tank intensive on the movement side, especially if you're using the strat where the tank positions relative to the sparks to make it easier for the raid to stay put in the middle.  Boy was that a challenge.  We only got past the first phase once, but we were really low on DPS.  Many of our folks are not really geared for it yet, so it's not a knock on anyone, we've just done really well on everything and are trying to not rerun as much as possible.  Having cleared Naxx, OS, the first two VoA bosses, and then OS-1D... a trial EoE run wasn't a bad idea.  In fact, the clear of OS-1D last week was really encouraging, but we weren't missing those regulars who happen to be among the better geared.

In short, the attempt was not meant to succeed, but to be a learning experience.  I've found these are good for a group sometimes, as it really motivates people work on their gear.  Otherwise, if you work on the gear first without ever hitting something where you struggle, people tend to get bored really fast or fidgety.  Every once in a while, a group needs a wipe fest.  It's just good for the soul.

I don't have any clever tricks for tanks for EoE, you just have to position opposite of the sparks.  There's a lot of camera work and movement, plus you want to keep high threat so your DPS can burn, baby, burn.  It's really a challenge, and I'd like to say I was great at it, but at best I was mediocre.  Also, try to use your cool-downs right before his bad breath.  It hits hard.  Recall that he doesn't have a tail swipe (unlike every other dragon), so really you just need to concern yourself with his conic frontal attacks.

On a tangent, I'd mentioned OS before.  Trying to main tank AND dodge flame walls AND call them out is another tanking challenge.  It's really hard to see behind you (even when you have the "flip camera" command hot-keyed).  Well, it's hard to see behind quickly, call it out, and then move appropriately to dodge the wall.  So, here's the trick: find the hole in the wall that would come from behind.  Sit in it so if it comes from behind, you don't have to move.  Then all you have to dodge is the on-coming flames.   It's been mentioned before, I know, but for a newbie main tank, I thought it bears re-mentioning.

Then calling 'em out doesn't become so hard either, except if you're using left/right nomenclature and then realize, as a tank, right and left no longer have meaning to you since you're facing sideways.  You can always switch horses in mid-stream and start using "front" and "back" to indicate hole location.  Not a big deal, but you probably should have gone that route to begin with.  Ah, how different encounters can be through the eyes of a different role.

In any case, going back and struggling to tank on "old" fights was just what I needed to shake of the dust.  Tonight the 'lock gets the call from the bullpen to go pitch a winner in ToC-10.  Last time we got all the way through the Twins.  It'd be really nice to throw a complete game tonight.

Oh, and I think I'm going to try to pull a Miss Medicina (zomg, I actually used your blog name, Jess) and start bolding pearls of wisdom.   Maybe not wisdom or pearls so much, maybe just main points.  Or maybe random sentences, I'm never sure what she's doing over there, but I liked it enough to try and emulate.  What can I say, I'm a skimmer.

Happy Anniversary Generations

On Tuesday, our guild turned 5.  Yep, that's right, the guild has been there since a couple days after WoW began.  That's a long time for a guild.  Fuu and I joined up almost two years ago, and in the last two years alone there have been a metric ton of changes.  We've also seen our fair share of drama, but the guild has endured, thanks mostly to our fantastic guild leader who amazes us with her inner strength in the face of adversity each day (she's there for us while also being there for her child with Leukemia, amazing story, but not really mine to tell).  So thanks go to Kianna and all the other Gens out there who have made our game possible.

We did a short little run from Goldshire to Ratchet via Booty Bay and then got a pic on the surrounding hillside.  To finish things off, our GM had a vendetta against one Scout Manslayer.  She wouldn't tell us why, but we suspect a fishing trip gone bad.  In any case, we exacted our revenge. 

A Dish Best Served Cold, Unlike Turkey

And to everyone else out there: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

AI: Trailer Thoughts

Today's going to be a short Aionic post.  First of all, there's a new trailer out on YouTube here.  Totally worth a watch, even if just for the fun of the cinematic. Some things to remember: It's a trailer that advertises the ideas that NCSoft has for the direction of the game.  We've seen similar things with WoW and other games.  It doesn't mean it'll all come to fruition.  However, a lot of the stuff is pretty neat looking and if just one or two ideas make it to the game, they'd be good adds.  Also, recall that good MMOs take a lot of time to create.  WoW was fraught with problems upon its inception, and now it's arguably one of the most polished and deep games on the market (duh).  That didn't happen over night.  In fact, I would say they're still learning new things today and we're 5 years into the game.

In any case, Fuu and I are still enjoying our time in-game.  I've stated before that we're moving very slowly due to WoW, Assassin's Creed 2, Thanksgiving, and various other important things that get in the way.  I don't think slow is a bad thing.  We still play at least once a week and, when we do, it's fun.  Being "behind" is sort of a double edged blade.  On one hand, you're not on that "cusp" of newness where everyone hasn't been there before.  On the other hand, everywhere you go is populated and active.  In fact, I'm not sure that we're all that far behind a vast majority of the game's populace.  I wonder if where you're at with respect to everyone else has an impact on your in-game satisfaction.  Maybe patience pays off in the MMO world?   

Well, to wrap up this short update: a pic.  Fuu and I were trolling around the Abyss picking fights when we got the message that the Dredgion showed up and it scared the bejebus out of us.  Luckily it was all the way on the other side of the map, great visual though...

Only a Shadow of Death

Divine Sacrifice/Guardian: What spec is this for?

I've been really getting some good playing time in with Fuubaar lately on the higher end content. She's been receiving upgrades like crazy and bosses are slowly dropping easier & easier as the weeks roll by.

Last night, 9 other people & I decided to run in and make a mess of things in 10-man TotC. It was a freakin BLAST! We took down the Northrend Beasts after a minor glitch when the fire on the floor decided to run rampant and sit under the boss the whole time. It then proceeded to flare up all over the place during the Worm fight. We ended up wiping because of it. After that, no biggy. Heck, I even took an Enraged Yeti to the face after an unfortunate Mage incident and lived. Go Go healers go!

We dropped the Faction Champs & freaked out because we've only successfully defeated this once. It was funny because we slowly took them out at the end with two tanks & one healer left. We then proceeded to two shot the Twins and got our first taste of Anub. The night was perfect!

Ok, rewind *presses rewind on the tape recorder*

Before the Faction Champions one of the healers asked me if I had Divine Sacrifice. Ummm, that sounds familiar... how do I know that? Well, every paladin spell has the word Divine Righteous Sacrifice Protection combination in it so that's probably why. I flipped through my spell book & through my Protection pages. Nope, nothing. Why don't I have a spell?

Then it hit me like a brick wall. NA DOY! It's that new talent thing in my Protection Tree. HA! I remember that. If you are unfamiliar with these newer talents in the Protection Paladin tree, more or less, it's a raid wide shield wall which concentrates the damage to the paladin. When it first presented itself to me in some recent patch, I specced into it to try it out. The first time I used it was on a really nasty Raid damage fight which I figured it would be the most useful. I think I was Main Tanking so I popped my Divine Protection (the 50% wall) and threw that on. You know what happened? HELL YES I DIED! I died so fast that the healers probably just went WTF?! Is this tank naked?

"Fuu put your plate back on!"

Once I left the raid that night, I went to a trainer & respecced to spend my precious talents elsewhere. I looked at those & laughed. What Main Tank would EVER spec into those let alone use them?!

This got me to thinking of who would actually use this talent. Someone with the ability to use the 100% Damage reduction and Divine Sacrifice at the same. This rules out the Main Tank because if you pop the 100% reduction, you lose ALL threat and the boss runs & eats everyone. Maybe the Off tank? Nope, Same Problem. If the Off-tank is you know... tanking something lol. What about a Retribution Paladin? Nah, this would only hinder their ability to DPS. This leaves our Trusty Holy Paladins left. This makes the most sense because they now have the control to mitigate a TON of Raid wide damage and they know when to use it best out of anyone with in the raid. Wonderful Deduction!

The problem that I have here is WHY THE HELL IS IT IN MY DAMN TREE! Seriously?! Why put an ability in a tree that that specific spec cannot physically use?! That's stupid. I know that Paladins are suppose to be a caring & giving type but Damn, I have to give my talent tree up too? Sheesh. Yes, I know that every good Spec dips into other tree for their talents but those talents that you are dipping into are still useful to that tree.

Blizzard has been really making a mess of the Protection tree when they were still deciding on how to deal with Kings. Hell, I felt the same way with Kings in my Talent tree. I use Sanctuary when I'm tanking not Kings but heaven forbid no one specs into it because well, I don't want to think about it really.

You know me & Paladin Buffs.

This post is mostly educational and sort of a rant.

What is your spec & does it have spells in it you know aren't actually made for you? This excludes PvP stuff and talents that you "could" use but just choose not to.

I really want to know what other trees have talents in them that are just big elephants in the room.

Note: That picture has nothing to do with anything other than it's funny. kthxbi

<3 Fuu

Trophy vs. Upgrade Gamers: A Scientific Study

Last Thursday I posted a bit about console games and had a like question area at the bottom. I'm going to take it a step further and make a bit of a conjecture about gaming habits and how they apply to WoW.  It would be great to get some feedback on this one, so I'll try to phrase this "study" into a multiple choice question that you can answer in my comment.  Then I'll tally up the results and we can see what we have.  Oh yes, and for fun, I'm going to revive the old (or new, depending on who you are) scientific method that comes straight out of grade-school science texts.  Not that what I'm doing is an exact science, but that it'll be a fun structure for the engineer in me.

Observations
Based on my last article I observed that there are two distinctly different camps of game ownership.  On one side, we have the gamers who buy games and keep them ad infinitum as a sort of "trophy" of their kill.  On the flip side, we have the gamers that will beat a game and then subsequently trade it in, "upgrading" for a newer title.  For the sake of discussion in this article, we'll call the first type Trophy Gamers and the second type Upgrade Gamers.

With the relatively recent (with respect to gaming) introduction of trophies and achievements built into games and networks (such as in WoW, Playstation Network, XBox Live, etc...), I have also observed that this split in game buying approach seems to be a relatively new one.  That is to say, several years ago, I don't think either extreme was as prevalent.  For one thing, game trade-ins weren't always offerred.  My other point of reference here is just that game developers have certainly noticed a desire in gamers to generally want to benchmark and compare their gaming feats, and are delivering new and diverse ways of accomplishing that goal.  As gaming culture becomes more mainstream, I believe we'll also see a natural diversity of different benchmarks that individuals take pride in.  This diversity may affect the two type of gamers in question differently. 

My final observation should lead into the hypthesis.  Very simply, it is the observation that within the WoW community, there exists a very diverse gamer culture making it an ideal place to seek knowledge from the gamers themselves.  In other words, it may be that the WoW populace is (or is not) representative of the larger gamer community that encompasses it.   In any case, it is a large subset that is a good place to start any sort of gamer psychological study.  WoW has acheivements.  WoW has both Trophy and Upgrade gamers.  The question then is how each type handles achievements.

The Hypothesis
If you are an Upgrade gamer outside of WoW, then inside of WoW you are an achievement completionist.  Conversely, if you are a Trophy gamer outside of WoW, then inside of WoW you are NOT an achiement completionist.

Predictions
Based on my past experiences and questioning some of my WoW-playing friends, I believe the hypothesis will be supported by any findings herein.  Thus, Upgrade gamers will correlate directly with being a completionist when it comes to achievements in WoW.  I believe this is because, for Upgrade gamers, they see these "electronic trophies" as being their benchmark for success or failure in a game.  They don't need a physical representation of their past, since it is all laid out and described very nicely in an easy to view electronic format.  I think these gamers tend to be younger and may not be as diverse of a gamer outside of WoW (these extra hypothesises, yes it's a word, won't be tested here, but I wanted to point them out since they're interesting correlations as well).

In addition, Trophy gamers will correlate with not being completionists.  I believe this is because Trophy gamers tend to place their pride on a tangible, out of game item that can be prominently displayed (in a dusty case?).  Similar to the college kid that lines the top of his cabinetry with empty alcohol containers as a show of conquest (which I still am know to do with "pretty" bottles even though I've been out of college for almost three years now), the Trophy gamer likes to have that physical representation of their past.  Electronic copies are all well and good, but they can't quite replace the old school, physical method.  I think this will be the trend among older, more diverse gamers.

It would also be my guess that the line between "old" and "young" would be drawn somewhere in the 20-24 age range.  Since those terms are heavily referential in society, I thought it important to throw the "gray" range out there with respect to my side musings.  Apologies if I offend anyone by calling them old, but yes, some of you are damn near ancient in gaming years.  However, I applaud that... adult gamers are awesome!  And stuff.  (Plus it's something that's becoming more and more common, though perhaps 5 to 10 years ago people would look at you funny.  Maybe they still do, but for every 5 that look at you funny, there's probably one that wants to sit down and chat about the SNES days or something).

Experimentation
Like a threesome but not as wild and crazy, here is my multiple choice "test" of the hypothesis.  I'd be delighted if you guys could respond in comments and feel free to mention the other side notes such as your age or any other thoughts you may have.  I'm not testing those here, but I think it's certainly interesting.

First, classify yourself as one of the following:

1. Trophy Gamer - A person who hangs on to old game copies for various nostalgic reasons.
   
2. Upgrade Gamer - A person who wants to get rid of old games in order to hasten the arrival of new games, even if just to free up space on the DVD rack.

Second, choose the best answer for the following:  In WoW, I see myself as a(n)...

• A - achievement completionist.  I feel a deep seated desire to collect them all and take pride in what the achievement panel shows I've done.  If a friend were to come over an ask about what I've done in WoW, showing them a list of achievements would be a good way to accomplish this task.
• B - non-completionist.  I don't feel a desire to neccessarily collect achievements.  They're nice when they come, but I don't really look at the panel.  If a friend were to come over and ask about what I've done in WoW, achievements would probably not be mentioned or, even then, only in passing as part of a broader picture.

Results
So, very simply, you can respond as a 1A, 1B, 2A, or 2B.  Like I said, feel free to add more, but I'd be happy if I can get some of those answers from people.  I'm sure the response won't be as crazy a "non-meme" healer questionnaire, but it might be fun if we get a decent number of people. If I get enough, I'll try to cook up an excel bar graph or something for reporting these results in a subsequent post (oooh, excel bar graph, exciting).

Since this is entirely based on self-reporting, I totally expect for there to be a bias and/or a skew in the results since if you're reading here you probably don't represent a healthy slice of the gaming community at large along with the problems with self-reporting serveys.  Not to say we're not healthy here, what with our sporks and fire, but more to say that I recognize this isn't nearly as scientifc as I'm pretending.  At the very least, I hope this rez of the old school scientific method has brought back deep seated, conflicted memories of your grade school days.  WTB old year book?  Can haz fire?

Of Course The Mages Made It

Fulguralis squints and raises a hand in an effort to shield his burning eyes from the bright light that assails them. He stands lamely in front of the Crusader's Coliseum wondering how the hell he got here. Vague recollections of a recent foray inside of the Coliseum remind him of the activities of the previous day, but after that... nothing. Had he really just been standing here the whole time?

Shaking his head at the confusing conundrum, the warlock attempts to refocus his mind.  Who the hell cares anyways?  Another beautiful day in Azeroth, another lineup of beasties to kill.  Life is good.

Above Fulguralis, the canopy catches the softly falling snow and keeps the cobblestones in front of him dry and clean.  Looking around reveals that several vendors have set up shop just outside of the wrought iron gates of the arena, peddling their wares.  This was nothing new as the tournament grounds had been crawling with seedy salesmen ever since it's inception.  War is a profitable business for opportunists.

These vendors are of a somewhat different ilk, however.  It only takes a simple glance to reveal their obvious alligence with the Argent Crusade.  Their clothes sparkle with the same strange infusion of Light that Fulguralis had come to expect from these self-righteous crusaders.  The warlock hadn't cared much for their urgings of peace and unity, but did rather enjoy the rewards for service in their name.  Being somewhat of an opportunist himself, Fulguralis had been in their dubious employment for some time now, facing the challenges of the tournament with his characteristic aplomb and a "can do" attitude.  Want something killed?  Here's your man.

Apart from the cash, the obsequious Argent folks had been showering him with emblems.  He had heard that these emblems could be exchanged for gear, similar to his past experience working as a mercenary in Naxxramas and Ulduar.  As before, Fulguralis had visited the vendors in Dalaran first in order to view the wares.  He had been unimpressed.  Some of the Dalaran trinkets and accessories were nice, but he was looking for the type of gear tailored specifically for warlocks.  Each of the various groups he had assisted in previous dungeons had prepared a matching set for his kind and Fulguralis had found that the sets were rather to his liking, with special attention given to the intricacies of warlockery. 

Dalaran did not have the gear.  After a bit of research, the warlock had been pointed in the direction of the vendors he now stood in front of at the Crusader's Coliseum.  What on earth were they doing with their deliscious gear all the way out here?  Wouldn't they have been more comfortable in the city?  Wouldn't that have been more convenient for adventurers such as himself. 

A quick memory of the crowds in Dalaran provided the counterpoint.  The Coliseum, at least, wasn't nearly so crowded.  Still, thought Fulguralis looking around him at the throngs of adventurers, the Crusade was certainly working on it.  The vendor in front of him smiles brightly as the warlock steps up to a booth.

"Show me the wares for warlocks," Fulguralis orders. 

If the attendant was put off by the warlock's rudeness, he doesn't show it, "Certainly sir, right over here."

The attendant indicates a box of robes and other cloth pieces that had been stowed beneath the makeshift counter of the stall.  Fulguralis begins to idly wade through the merchandise under the watchful but respectful eye of the Argent stooge.   Standing up and comparing the pieces to what he's wearing, a frown carves it's way across the warlock's face.  This cannot be right, he thinks.

He says as much, "This is the wrong stuff."

"No, sir.  I assure you it's not," the man replies brightly, tapping the side of the box on which warlock is clearly written.  "Only the finest for our crusaders!"

Fulguralis resists the urge to punch the man in the throat.  "I think you're misunderstanding me, sir.  This stuff sucks."

The directness actually flusters the clerk this time, "Um, sir?"

"This is clearly meant for a warlock of the destructive arts!  Look here, idiot, this sleeve.  It's going to hinder my casting making me slower not faster.  And here!  Look at the stitching, while it might make one get lucky now and then with a powerful spell, it's certainly not sewn for consistency.  This is wrong, all wrong!  Maybe those destruction junkies could deal with this shoddy craftmanship, but a true master of the arts of affliction like myself needs to be swift and accurate in his spell casts... and this helps neither! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?  THE GEAR FROM MY LAST TWO JOBS COMBINED IS OF BETTER QUALITY!"  Fulguralis roars, sparks shooting from the tips of his fingers as he gesticlates wildly.

The area around the stall is quiet now, all eyes turned towards the confrontation.  "Well... sir," the man sputters, "I will, respectfully, have to disagree.  It was designed by some of the finest mages in Dal-"

"Mages? Mages?!  MAGES CRAFTED THIS CRAP?"  Fulguralis fumes outrageously.  The warlock then narrows his eyes and drops his voice, "Well I guess that makes sense then, this is certainly the kind a gear a mage might appreciate." 

The warlock takes one threatening step towards the helpless clerk and reaches out, snagging a handful of the man's crisply pressed tabard.  The man begins to squirm under Fulguralis's murderous gaze as he slowly lifts the man from the ground. 

Toes dangling in the air, the man chokes out, "Please sir, I'm just the distributor.  It's not my fault."

Fulguralis releases his hold and the man drops to the floor, clutching at his neck where the tabard had abraded his skin and gasping for breath.  The warlock straigtens his robes, composing himself before slowly lowering himself down onto one menacing knee.  The man looks up with wide eyes at the angry face that is only inches from his own.

"I'll give you a pass this time, but if you want us to assault Icecrown for your pansy sit-on-the-sideline-and-cheer-argently asses, you'd better get the next batch right," Fulguralis growls.  As if to emphasize his point, the box beside the two bursts suddenly into flame.   The man nods fearfully. 

"Mages, unbelievable..." Fulguralis mumbles.  He then straightens up, and in a swirl of robes, turns and stalks away from the row of stalls, pushing through the astonished spectators and out into the dazzling white afternoon.

The Workplace Firewall Strikes Again

They finally did it. The work nazis got to the blogspot blogs. Now I can't view my own blog from work.  Woe is me.  Fie to the fickle firewall fudgeruckers.  Some day, I will have my revenge.  *Raises Fist*.

(The good news is that I can still log into my google stuff and thereby make posts.  The bad news is I won't be able to catch any formatting errors or rearrange things on the blog proper.  Apologies in advance for anything that slips by, and feel free to bring it to my attention if I miss something big.  Also, this is going to severly cut back on my commenting some more, so for the cats I troll via blogger, I shall become scarce.  Apologies.  I'll try to do better at commenting from home, but that's game time.  Sad panda).

For now, I shall keep up my rebellion by continuing to post, unconcerned by your pitiful walls of fire.  Fire! Ha!  I was born in this. 

(I've also contacted a friend with some IT experience and urged him to find me a workaround.  I hope they find this post and call me into the dark, dank HR office for a nice little chat.  *Sharpens Soul Shard*)