...join 'em.
I now have two toons loaded to the gills with Heirlooms.
However, I have one big issue: just who the hell approved the design for [Mystical Pauldrons of Elements], anyway? They make Tomakan look like he's got antennae sprouting out of his back. He's a Paladin, not a TV repair guy.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Hardware Review
I have a new toy!
I just recently purchased a new mouse, as my old one was on the fritz. I went all out this time, purchasing something that would enhance my game play and give me more readily available buttons for macros.
I just recently started getting into the rated arenas, and found out how nice it would be to set a focus target and have macros scripted to do things to my focus target, and not have to worry about manually swapping targets.
I asked some guild members what sort of mouse they use, and what they would recommend. The answer came back: Razer Naga. So as per usual before dropping a chunk of money, I did some research to find out if it all 17 buttons will be worth the money.
I found a world of warcraft player that actually has become sponsored by Razer, and has started making videos about how it's increasing his game play and giving out free equipment to viewers. It's kinda cool, and amazing that he actually got sponsored. Talk about a dream job...
I have now had about a week of play time with the mouse, and adjusting to the feel of the very sensitive laser as well as the plethora of buttons has been fun. My hand is very comfortable resting on this mouse, and I don't get cramps after long gaming sessions as I used to with my old mouse (Logitech G5).
I'm still trying to figure out how to best use all of the new buttons, but it's giving me something to toy with and in the long run, I feel will help out the gaming experience (and it has 17 buttons). This thing has so many buttons, that in the little packet of papers included, are little rubber pads you can stick on to the keys to help train yourself and develop muscle memory... How crazy is that!?
Ascetically, it's a very pleasing mouse. It just looks nice... the symbol on the palm sorta pulses and the mouse wheel having it's own light is just well, it's gaudy. But it looks nice! And I am very pleased, as I mentioned before, with the way my hand rests on the mouse. The left and right click have sort of a channel where you fingers rest, and even the third finger has it's own spot to rest off to the right of the mouse (sorry pinky, you still get to dangle, but not uncomfortably so).
I just recently purchased a new mouse, as my old one was on the fritz. I went all out this time, purchasing something that would enhance my game play and give me more readily available buttons for macros.
I just recently started getting into the rated arenas, and found out how nice it would be to set a focus target and have macros scripted to do things to my focus target, and not have to worry about manually swapping targets.
I asked some guild members what sort of mouse they use, and what they would recommend. The answer came back: Razer Naga. So as per usual before dropping a chunk of money, I did some research to find out if it all 17 buttons will be worth the money.
I found a world of warcraft player that actually has become sponsored by Razer, and has started making videos about how it's increasing his game play and giving out free equipment to viewers. It's kinda cool, and amazing that he actually got sponsored. Talk about a dream job...
I have now had about a week of play time with the mouse, and adjusting to the feel of the very sensitive laser as well as the plethora of buttons has been fun. My hand is very comfortable resting on this mouse, and I don't get cramps after long gaming sessions as I used to with my old mouse (Logitech G5).
I'm still trying to figure out how to best use all of the new buttons, but it's giving me something to toy with and in the long run, I feel will help out the gaming experience (and it has 17 buttons). This thing has so many buttons, that in the little packet of papers included, are little rubber pads you can stick on to the keys to help train yourself and develop muscle memory... How crazy is that!?
Ascetically, it's a very pleasing mouse. It just looks nice... the symbol on the palm sorta pulses and the mouse wheel having it's own light is just well, it's gaudy. But it looks nice! And I am very pleased, as I mentioned before, with the way my hand rests on the mouse. The left and right click have sort of a channel where you fingers rest, and even the third finger has it's own spot to rest off to the right of the mouse (sorry pinky, you still get to dangle, but not uncomfortably so).
Friday, May 14, 2010
Halfway Houses
I occasionally get strange looks when I'm putzing around in The Barrens or Tirisfal Glades, working on low level quests. I swear that some people must think that I'm the reincarnation of Don Quijote, or that I'm banished by my guild into doing some sort of bizarre penance or something before I'm allowed back into raiding.
Passing through Tarren Mill after having completed a quest from the Hinterlands, I was accosted by a 20ish Hunter loitering around the Bat Handler. "Dude! Yr an 80!" he shouted. "LOL!"
"Yeah," I replied. "I noticed."
"U shouldn't be here!"
"I'm not going to be," I said and took the flight path to Light's Hope Chapel.
That didn't hold a Kobold's candle to the crowd that gathered around when I was in the Orc/Troll starting area, working on quests. I finished a quest and left Quint standing around AFK for a moment. When I returned, there was a crowd of about eight to ten L1-L5 characters surrounding my Pally.
Okay, I thought, this is weird. I mean, you just go up the road to Orgrimmar and you can see boatloads of 80s around.
I popped out of AFK, and one of them asked "Are u doing the starting zone quests?"
"Yep."
"Y?"
"I'm working on Loremaster."
"Oooohhhhh," came the collective response.
"Yr crazy!" said one.
"Yeah!" said another.
A third challenged me to a duel, which I declined.
A fourth chimed in with a "That's not hard!"
"Maybe not, but not a lot of people do it." I took that as my cue to split.
To be fair, the majority of the time I don't get a reaction at all, which suits me just fine. Other people are doing their business, and I'm doing mine. Since I'm the oddball high level character in these zones, however, I do try to make myself available should someone need some assistance on a quest. What's the point of achieving Loremaster if you don't share your knowledge?
I've even had this Loremaster mentality creep over into some of my alts. My mage, who is at L26, dropped into The Ghostlands to finally try soloing Dhar'khan when she found a L21 Hunter thinking the same thing. I asked the Hunter what she knew of the fight.
"Nothing. This is my first character," she said.
"That's fine," I replied. "Even though this is an alt, I'm still fairly new myself. We'll do this together."
I told her I'd pull the aggro so we didn't have the entire room on us, and then she could let her pet tank attack and take it over. The strategy worked, sort of --I held aggro better than I expected-- but the net result was one dead necromancer, and one happy Hunter.
"Thanks so much!" she said.
"You're welcome. Just so you know, you're about to be doing some traveling on the next couple of quests, so get ready to meet some of the leaders of the Horde."
"Cool!"
Ah, new players.
(Oh, the title of this post? That's simple, really: I'm officially halfway to Loremaster. I'm actually much farther along, but I've only dinged Outlands and Eastern Kingdoms.)
Passing through Tarren Mill after having completed a quest from the Hinterlands, I was accosted by a 20ish Hunter loitering around the Bat Handler. "Dude! Yr an 80!" he shouted. "LOL!"
"Yeah," I replied. "I noticed."
"U shouldn't be here!"
"I'm not going to be," I said and took the flight path to Light's Hope Chapel.
That didn't hold a Kobold's candle to the crowd that gathered around when I was in the Orc/Troll starting area, working on quests. I finished a quest and left Quint standing around AFK for a moment. When I returned, there was a crowd of about eight to ten L1-L5 characters surrounding my Pally.
Okay, I thought, this is weird. I mean, you just go up the road to Orgrimmar and you can see boatloads of 80s around.
I popped out of AFK, and one of them asked "Are u doing the starting zone quests?"
"Yep."
"Y?"
"I'm working on Loremaster."
"Oooohhhhh," came the collective response.
"Yr crazy!" said one.
"Yeah!" said another.
A third challenged me to a duel, which I declined.
A fourth chimed in with a "That's not hard!"
"Maybe not, but not a lot of people do it." I took that as my cue to split.
To be fair, the majority of the time I don't get a reaction at all, which suits me just fine. Other people are doing their business, and I'm doing mine. Since I'm the oddball high level character in these zones, however, I do try to make myself available should someone need some assistance on a quest. What's the point of achieving Loremaster if you don't share your knowledge?
I've even had this Loremaster mentality creep over into some of my alts. My mage, who is at L26, dropped into The Ghostlands to finally try soloing Dhar'khan when she found a L21 Hunter thinking the same thing. I asked the Hunter what she knew of the fight.
"Nothing. This is my first character," she said.
"That's fine," I replied. "Even though this is an alt, I'm still fairly new myself. We'll do this together."
I told her I'd pull the aggro so we didn't have the entire room on us, and then she could let her pet tank attack and take it over. The strategy worked, sort of --I held aggro better than I expected-- but the net result was one dead necromancer, and one happy Hunter.
"Thanks so much!" she said.
"You're welcome. Just so you know, you're about to be doing some traveling on the next couple of quests, so get ready to meet some of the leaders of the Horde."
"Cool!"
Ah, new players.
(Oh, the title of this post? That's simple, really: I'm officially halfway to Loremaster. I'm actually much farther along, but I've only dinged Outlands and Eastern Kingdoms.)
Fully Converted
Hello, I'm Mr. Goodie, and I have two shoes.
I am now the proud owner of three high level Alliance characters.
These last few weeks have been a great deal of fun! I'm a good guy! I'm all shiny and crap! I can take on an entire group of horde in WSG all by my lonesome (Ok, I've not tried that, but there's got to be some sort of appeal to it, as I saw a lot of Allies do that when I was horde).
I've been noticing and have been discussing with my guild the differences in the two factions. And I'm terribly interested in how playing one faction seems to sway your (you the player, and you the character)attitude while playing the game. It's the small things that you don't notice that influence your game play until you you've made the change yourself.
For instance, you just click an NPC and they don't want to bite your head off, instead they greet you nicely. And Jaina in the new ICC dungeon's attitude is completely different than Sylvanas' (well.. for obvious reasons). But the overall impression you get from her is sort of sad. They're there to kill the Lich King, but there's a sort of grief about it. Like they're still getting over the loss Arthas' father and the loss of even Arthas (there's always hope for redemption) - albeit he's a murderous sod who unleashed his minions and inflicted mass genocide on everything living.
It's like the Alliance has been pushed around by the Horde for a while, and they're just now getting back on their feet and establishing themselves. Which should be interesting, seeing as the new Stormwind King is rather confrontational.
But back on topic, it's interesting to just sit and read trade chat. Sure there's the occasional asshats that like to troll, but the majority of the talk is pretty decent. That was not the case Horde-side. I was absolutely boggled the other day by trade chat as a matter of fact. Somebody asked a somewhat noobie question and got a REAL ANSWER almost immediately.
I think this carries over to PUG groups as well. I've not seen too much bashing of other players. At least not as frequent as on the Horde.
I'm looking forward to jumping into the leveling group of players in the LFD and really seeing if my observations hold true.
I am now the proud owner of three high level Alliance characters.
These last few weeks have been a great deal of fun! I'm a good guy! I'm all shiny and crap! I can take on an entire group of horde in WSG all by my lonesome (Ok, I've not tried that, but there's got to be some sort of appeal to it, as I saw a lot of Allies do that when I was horde).
I've been noticing and have been discussing with my guild the differences in the two factions. And I'm terribly interested in how playing one faction seems to sway your (you the player, and you the character)attitude while playing the game. It's the small things that you don't notice that influence your game play until you you've made the change yourself.
For instance, you just click an NPC and they don't want to bite your head off, instead they greet you nicely. And Jaina in the new ICC dungeon's attitude is completely different than Sylvanas' (well.. for obvious reasons). But the overall impression you get from her is sort of sad. They're there to kill the Lich King, but there's a sort of grief about it. Like they're still getting over the loss Arthas' father and the loss of even Arthas (there's always hope for redemption) - albeit he's a murderous sod who unleashed his minions and inflicted mass genocide on everything living.
It's like the Alliance has been pushed around by the Horde for a while, and they're just now getting back on their feet and establishing themselves. Which should be interesting, seeing as the new Stormwind King is rather confrontational.
But back on topic, it's interesting to just sit and read trade chat. Sure there's the occasional asshats that like to troll, but the majority of the talk is pretty decent. That was not the case Horde-side. I was absolutely boggled the other day by trade chat as a matter of fact. Somebody asked a somewhat noobie question and got a REAL ANSWER almost immediately.
I think this carries over to PUG groups as well. I've not seen too much bashing of other players. At least not as frequent as on the Horde.
I'm looking forward to jumping into the leveling group of players in the LFD and really seeing if my observations hold true.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Class Attachment
So, as we're nearing the next expansion, I've had a nagging feeling lately to finish leveling my warrior. Currently, he's level 73. This guy originally started out as a level 29 Tauren warrior who was a BEAST in the level 29 bracket. This was back when having a "twinked" character was just becoming popular. I did so much Warsong Gulch with him that he earned the rank of Sargent in the old ranking system, while my main character was a stone guard.
My point being, the warrior has been around for a while, but has NEVER been at max level and doing end game stuff.
I've always had a sort of fondness for warrior tanks, as being a squishy rogue raiding Molten Core, I was amazed when our main tank could take up to two of the giants at the same time!
And not only that, but watching old pvp videos like those of High Warlord Pat, just gave me an awesome feeling. (It's funny, now, how small those numbers in the video are)
Warriors are raw, they fully commit to the fight or they die. There's no nifty get out of jail free card.
So what's holding me back from leveling it out fully? The frustrations I get when tanking. It has to be a world of difference once you get geared up, but tanking at my level (while I can do it successfully) seems to be more work than it's worth. It's not so much that you have to change targets and weave in some cleaves and a devastate or revenge here and there, it's feels like a constant struggle to keep everything focused on me.
Maybe I've been spoiled with my DK's abilities like placing an AOE anywhere I want to grab incoming enemies and having a spiffy pulling mechanic to get casters all lined up nice and pretty for AOE.
I'm thinking now's the time to at least max out level and wait and see how the DK revisions are panning out. I still love playing my DK, but with a reworking of the entire mechanic, a reworking of the DK talent trees to make blood THE tanking tree, and a reworking of the vital tanking stats, I'm afraid of another brutal balancing act by Blizzard. At least this way I'll have options once Cataclysm is released.
But this all raises an interesting question; and one I've been thinking about recently. What drives you to play a certain class? It is role choice? FOTM? One ability you love and can't do without?
My point being, the warrior has been around for a while, but has NEVER been at max level and doing end game stuff.
I've always had a sort of fondness for warrior tanks, as being a squishy rogue raiding Molten Core, I was amazed when our main tank could take up to two of the giants at the same time!
And not only that, but watching old pvp videos like those of High Warlord Pat, just gave me an awesome feeling. (It's funny, now, how small those numbers in the video are)
Warriors are raw, they fully commit to the fight or they die. There's no nifty get out of jail free card.
So what's holding me back from leveling it out fully? The frustrations I get when tanking. It has to be a world of difference once you get geared up, but tanking at my level (while I can do it successfully) seems to be more work than it's worth. It's not so much that you have to change targets and weave in some cleaves and a devastate or revenge here and there, it's feels like a constant struggle to keep everything focused on me.
Maybe I've been spoiled with my DK's abilities like placing an AOE anywhere I want to grab incoming enemies and having a spiffy pulling mechanic to get casters all lined up nice and pretty for AOE.
I'm thinking now's the time to at least max out level and wait and see how the DK revisions are panning out. I still love playing my DK, but with a reworking of the entire mechanic, a reworking of the DK talent trees to make blood THE tanking tree, and a reworking of the vital tanking stats, I'm afraid of another brutal balancing act by Blizzard. At least this way I'll have options once Cataclysm is released.
But this all raises an interesting question; and one I've been thinking about recently. What drives you to play a certain class? It is role choice? FOTM? One ability you love and can't do without?
ZOMG I CAN DO 28K DPS ON AOE TRASH I'M BETTER THAN YOU!
Ok, so this past week we had a new Boomkin join our guild. His gear was good, and at first he didn't really say a lot. Which I could understand since he was new to the guild and I guess getting a feel for who we are.
Last night in raid, we found quickly that it was a mistake to invite him. I should've known that someone with a gearscore as high as his that is unguilded is so for a certain reason, but we gave him a shot.
Now what I want to know is how someone who was able to get the gear he as not know what LoS means or not know to stop DPS when he pulls aggro off a mob the tank is not on... Not to mention why someone like this feels the need to whisper people asking for a mage table or tell them how to play their class.
After globally muting him in Vent, we continued our run. We get to Rotface and we decide to go ahead and take a 5 min break to wait for our Sated Debuff to wear off. What does this boomkin do? Hearths and goes to Orgrimmar... We didn't have a warlock in the raid last night so we couldn't summon him back.. /facepalm
He then asked us for a summon. Uhm... no lock.. so what does he do? Starts spamming trade for a mage portal.. instead of you know... taking the zep to Borean Tundra and flying over to ICC. No, I guess that would be easy... so we booted him from the raid and from the guild... and OF COURSE, I get the whisper from him asking why he was booted. It was explained to him that he was annoying everyone when whispering them about how to play their characters, how when a tank was trying to LoS a mob (scientist), he would start dpsing it and keeping the mob from coming around the corner... AND how when he pulled aggro on a mob the tank wasn't targeting, he wouldn't stop dps. Me and the other healer purposefully let him die because he continued to do so and I was sick of seeing the aggro indicator come up on his name.
It was then he decided to call Nate a little bitch and that he was the best player in our guild. No, sorry... when you do 6k dps on a boss and NEVER switched to adds when you're supposed to, have no situational awareness, and consistently annoy the piss out of everyone in the raid, you're not the best player in the guild. No one gives a fuck if you can do 28k DPS on AOE trash when you die 30 seconds into a pull.
I swear I'm a magnet for retards. This is why I added the question "Do you have Downs?" to our guild application.
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