"We're a guild formed from RL friends..."
"We used to play with RL friends, but decided to strike out on our own..."
"If we join, we have some RL friends who might like to join too..."
If you've been around WoW long enough, you've seen entries like that describing guilds and players alike. This isn't unique to WoW, of course; my experience with the Internet dates back to the 80's, and people would differentiate between real life (RL) friends and online/virtual friends as a matter of course. Online friends were the equivalent of an electronic pen pal, only with a bit more instant gratification. While nice, they were considered secondary to the people you met face-to-face.
The convention has continued to this day, but I wonder if by now the convention has it wrong.
How often do you get online to play WoW? Text/Tweet people? Visit chatrooms/webcams? Update Facebook? And then, the obvious question: how often do you spend time talking/hanging out with your RL friends?
You may not have all the visual cues that you get from a true face-to-face conversation, but for a lot of people their online friends are the real life friends. The transient nature of a lot of jobs --especially in IT-- means that your coworkers may be in the cubicle next to you, or half a world away. If you can work on a team with someone overseas, why is it so unusual to have a raiding buddy a continent away as a friend?
It isn't unusual at all. Not anymore.
The world has shrunk, and tech --MMOs included-- has changed the dynamics of friendship. As a shared activity, an MMO such as WoW fosters friendships where the common denominator is the game itself.
Of course, most in-game interactions are of the "polite stranger" or "general acquaintance" variety,* but it doesn't have to be. Perhaps you hang with your guildies due to a shared goal, but after raiding with people three nights a week for months on end, are you so sure you've remained merely acquaintances?
I know people in my neighborhood who would think I was a special type of crazy for suggesting that online friendships should be given equal footing with RL ones. "What sort of crackpot are you, anyway?" they'd ask, then go back to sitting in their garage, drinking their beer and discussing high school sports.** But replace the garage with a computer, and sports with Tol Barad, and what do you have?
It's important to have perspective in all of this, but the one thing that I've been struck by time and again is that WoW friendships shouldn't take a back seat to anyone.*** Don't try to put the WoW friends into a little compartment and pretend that they're inferior to your "real" friends, because they aren't.
*Or the nerd rager type. Or the OMG FAIL! type. But I digress.
**Yes, that sort of thing really does happen in my neighborhood. All the time.
***Well, except for your family.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Coming to Terms With My Outer Darkness
As has been well documented, I play several Paladins. You know, the Goody Two Shoes of the WoW world.* While the other ostensibly "good" class that draws power from Holy Light --the Priest-- has a Shadow Spec, the Paladin is free of any direct taint of Darkness. They are the rigidly Lawful Good characters who embody what Roland, Saladin, and Perceval strove for.** Not only pure of heart and mind, but able to kick some serious ass.
And they're also cloying. The constant preaching of the Argent Crusade and from those who hang out in the Cathedral of Light can be grating on people. Paladins have a reputation of being the sort of person that would stand side-by-side with you in a fight, but are too self-righteous to go hang with you at the World's End Tavern afterward.
So naturally it follows that I've started a Warlock toon.
If you thought that Paladins were on the uber-good end of the class listing, Warlocks have to be on the opposite end of the spectrum. Whereas the Death Knight's intro story pretty much sets up their redemption at the Battle of Light's Hope Chapel, there isn't anything so warm and fuzzy about a class that revels in wielding "true power" and "secret knowledge".
The entire concept of the Warlock as a playable class kind of flies in the face of the current World of Warcraft setting. With Guldan and the Shadow Council no longer in charge of the Horde, Warlocks would be persona-non-grata in official Horde circles. Yes, there is still an undercurrent of approval and "those were the good old days" in the Horde, but all that time spent fighting against the Burning Legion in Outland would have driven that sentiment deeper underground. The only official place --Cataclysm Era-- where the philosophy of "I don't care where it came from but I'm going to throw it all against you" would find a home is in Sylvanas' camp.
As for the Alliance, there's even less of a reason why a Warlock is a playable class. The Alliance fought not only the Burning Legion but the old Horde, and if there's any class that the Alliance would despise more than the Warlock, I'm not sure what it would be. Yes, I know that there are always people who are tempted by power, but when WoW tries to set your toon up as a hero, a Warlock is typically not what the general populace has in mind.
Considering all that, I felt distinctly uncomfortable when Genn Greymane and Co. would call my new toon an 'old friend' and a 'hero' during the Gilneas starting zone. "Hello? Can't you see the Imp following along behind me? Doesn't that make you just a WEE bit uneasy, Your Majesty?"
Dominating members of the Burning Legion like a Warlock does is splitting hairs. Really. You can't look at the Warcraft universe and say "well, they may be demons, but they're on our side." To paraphrase Azrael from the movie Dogma, "But they're f@$#-ing demons!" Warlocks are playing with the worst kind of fire, WoW-verse speaking, and I am surprised that Blizz doesn't tweak things a bit so that they are more obviously shunned a bit more.***
In spite of all that, Warlocks are a bit refreshing. Most people --virtual or real-- tend to hide their dark secrets. Locks put their own Darkness right out on display. Hell, they'd probably charge admission if they thought they could get away with it, in their own Ray Bradbury-esque dark circus.
So playing a Warlock --especially in an RP environment-- is all about power and domination.
Of course, that's not the reason why everybody plays a Lock. Some of us are in it for the DoTs.
If you've ever been in a BG, you know what it's like to have someone out of melee range dump several DoTs on you, then sit back and laugh --or maybe cast a Fear-- while you bleed to death. If you're lucky and you're playing a class that can dispel those DoTs, you'll end up wasting time dispelling them while there's a Warrior or Kitty Druid beating on you. Having been on the receiving end of that tactic enough times, I finally decided that I'd had enough and I want some of that too. After all, how hard could it be?
Um....
If you come from a melee or Hunter/Mage background, harder than you think.
The hardest thing I had to deal with during the Worgen intro zone was the waiting. Your direct attacks aren't that powerful, so you have to wait for the accumulation of those DoTs to have the desired impact. I suppose I could run around, kiting the enemy, but that could be disastrous if I ran in the wrong direction. So there you are, clad in cloth armor, watching some enemy wail on you. It's only when you finally get a Voidwalker minion that you have a viable mini-tank to take the pressure off.
But that leads into the second hardest thing as a Lock, and that's the accumulation of threat from all those DoTs. Threat spikes have always been the bane of DPS, but you can mitigate some of the danger of threat spikes by slowing down your rotation. With DoTs, however, you don't have any sort of control once you cast your spell; your only option is to determine whether or not to cast that DoT in the first place. Finding a way to control threat in this back handed manner is probably where a lot of Locks fall down in instances.
So, what's up for the little furball of Evil now?
I'm going to keep him questing through Darkshore, and now that he's high enough level to queue for Ragefire Chasm, I'm going to find out how Warlock dynamics work in an instance setting.
Oh, and of course I'll queue up for Warsong Gulch. I can't resist giving the old DoT/Fear trick a whirl!
*Blood Knights notwithstanding. And Lady Liadrin, the Blood Knight Matriarch, has since corrected things during her audience with A'dal in Shattrath City.
**Yes, I know that Roland is the chief paladin of Charlemagne's court, that Perceval was a literary construct, and Saladin was more complex than his Medieval admirers believed. Give a guy a break, will ya?
***Even though it's not in the WoW-verse, there ought to be a chance, however small, that the demon would break free from your control and turn on you. I'd tweak it such that the likelihood of a demon breaking free from your control goes up when you get into a fight; after all, your toon is under increased pressure, so naturally something bound against its will would try to break free when you're distracted.
EtA: Warlocks are a class, not race. That'll teach me to not write and edit early in the morning.
And they're also cloying. The constant preaching of the Argent Crusade and from those who hang out in the Cathedral of Light can be grating on people. Paladins have a reputation of being the sort of person that would stand side-by-side with you in a fight, but are too self-righteous to go hang with you at the World's End Tavern afterward.
So naturally it follows that I've started a Warlock toon.
If you thought that Paladins were on the uber-good end of the class listing, Warlocks have to be on the opposite end of the spectrum. Whereas the Death Knight's intro story pretty much sets up their redemption at the Battle of Light's Hope Chapel, there isn't anything so warm and fuzzy about a class that revels in wielding "true power" and "secret knowledge".
The entire concept of the Warlock as a playable class kind of flies in the face of the current World of Warcraft setting. With Guldan and the Shadow Council no longer in charge of the Horde, Warlocks would be persona-non-grata in official Horde circles. Yes, there is still an undercurrent of approval and "those were the good old days" in the Horde, but all that time spent fighting against the Burning Legion in Outland would have driven that sentiment deeper underground. The only official place --Cataclysm Era-- where the philosophy of "I don't care where it came from but I'm going to throw it all against you" would find a home is in Sylvanas' camp.
As for the Alliance, there's even less of a reason why a Warlock is a playable class. The Alliance fought not only the Burning Legion but the old Horde, and if there's any class that the Alliance would despise more than the Warlock, I'm not sure what it would be. Yes, I know that there are always people who are tempted by power, but when WoW tries to set your toon up as a hero, a Warlock is typically not what the general populace has in mind.
Considering all that, I felt distinctly uncomfortable when Genn Greymane and Co. would call my new toon an 'old friend' and a 'hero' during the Gilneas starting zone. "Hello? Can't you see the Imp following along behind me? Doesn't that make you just a WEE bit uneasy, Your Majesty?"
Dominating members of the Burning Legion like a Warlock does is splitting hairs. Really. You can't look at the Warcraft universe and say "well, they may be demons, but they're on our side." To paraphrase Azrael from the movie Dogma, "But they're f@$#-ing demons!" Warlocks are playing with the worst kind of fire, WoW-verse speaking, and I am surprised that Blizz doesn't tweak things a bit so that they are more obviously shunned a bit more.***
In spite of all that, Warlocks are a bit refreshing. Most people --virtual or real-- tend to hide their dark secrets. Locks put their own Darkness right out on display. Hell, they'd probably charge admission if they thought they could get away with it, in their own Ray Bradbury-esque dark circus.
So playing a Warlock --especially in an RP environment-- is all about power and domination.
***
Of course, that's not the reason why everybody plays a Lock. Some of us are in it for the DoTs.
If you've ever been in a BG, you know what it's like to have someone out of melee range dump several DoTs on you, then sit back and laugh --or maybe cast a Fear-- while you bleed to death. If you're lucky and you're playing a class that can dispel those DoTs, you'll end up wasting time dispelling them while there's a Warrior or Kitty Druid beating on you. Having been on the receiving end of that tactic enough times, I finally decided that I'd had enough and I want some of that too. After all, how hard could it be?
Um....
If you come from a melee or Hunter/Mage background, harder than you think.
The hardest thing I had to deal with during the Worgen intro zone was the waiting. Your direct attacks aren't that powerful, so you have to wait for the accumulation of those DoTs to have the desired impact. I suppose I could run around, kiting the enemy, but that could be disastrous if I ran in the wrong direction. So there you are, clad in cloth armor, watching some enemy wail on you. It's only when you finally get a Voidwalker minion that you have a viable mini-tank to take the pressure off.
But that leads into the second hardest thing as a Lock, and that's the accumulation of threat from all those DoTs. Threat spikes have always been the bane of DPS, but you can mitigate some of the danger of threat spikes by slowing down your rotation. With DoTs, however, you don't have any sort of control once you cast your spell; your only option is to determine whether or not to cast that DoT in the first place. Finding a way to control threat in this back handed manner is probably where a lot of Locks fall down in instances.
So, what's up for the little furball of Evil now?
I'm going to keep him questing through Darkshore, and now that he's high enough level to queue for Ragefire Chasm, I'm going to find out how Warlock dynamics work in an instance setting.
Oh, and of course I'll queue up for Warsong Gulch. I can't resist giving the old DoT/Fear trick a whirl!
*Blood Knights notwithstanding. And Lady Liadrin, the Blood Knight Matriarch, has since corrected things during her audience with A'dal in Shattrath City.
**Yes, I know that Roland is the chief paladin of Charlemagne's court, that Perceval was a literary construct, and Saladin was more complex than his Medieval admirers believed. Give a guy a break, will ya?
***Even though it's not in the WoW-verse, there ought to be a chance, however small, that the demon would break free from your control and turn on you. I'd tweak it such that the likelihood of a demon breaking free from your control goes up when you get into a fight; after all, your toon is under increased pressure, so naturally something bound against its will would try to break free when you're distracted.
EtA: Warlocks are a class, not race. That'll teach me to not write and edit early in the morning.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Go go go!
My guild and I have made some pretty steady progress recently on the raiding front, and we're close to getting 11/12.
I have enjoyed the raiding content so far in the game, but we're really feeling the pressure to down all of the current content before it gets nerfed to oblivion in patch 4.2.
We're pretty casual - only raiding 6 hours over two days each week. Only raiding so little time each week usually leaves us limited time to get attempts in on final bosses, but it all works out.
Wish us luck as we push to get everything down!
I have enjoyed the raiding content so far in the game, but we're really feeling the pressure to down all of the current content before it gets nerfed to oblivion in patch 4.2.
We're pretty casual - only raiding 6 hours over two days each week. Only raiding so little time each week usually leaves us limited time to get attempts in on final bosses, but it all works out.
Wish us luck as we push to get everything down!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
WoW in Popular Culture, Part Whatever
Yes, I've been around (so has Soul and Ehna), but I've been very busy at work and home. But yes, there are new blog posts coming.
In the meantime, here's today's Working Daze comic:
In the meantime, here's today's Working Daze comic:
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Atari to Sell the Maker of Star Trek: Online
Apparently Atari's Cryptic Studios has lost $25 million the past two years, and therefore they're looking for buyers.
Gamespot: Atari Unloading Cryptic Studios
Gamespot: Atari Unloading Cryptic Studios
What We Need NOW
After having seen the proliferation of "these" sorts of games....
It only makes sense what ought to be developed next.
LEGO World of Warcraft!
It only makes sense what ought to be developed next.
LEGO World of Warcraft!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Attack of the Pug
One nice side effect of the reduced queue time for Tol'vir has been the return of the pug story. Sure, I've got BG stories that are more interesting than your typical nerd rage variety, but I'd missed a good old fashioned pug tale. There's something compelling about a group that puts the 'fun' in dysfunctional, making you grateful for your blissfully silent instance run.
My first couple of runs through Tol'vir were uneventful. I'd prepared ahead of time in much the same fashion as people study raid videos, but of course that didn't stop me from making a few boo-boos. Once I settled in, I got the feel of how the instance flowed, and got to watch group dynamics in action. There was the tank who thought that the party could bypass the Croc boss, but that wasn't anything major. On the whole, people were efficient and courteous, pointing out what to do where without so much whining. I was starting to wonder if all the nuts had migrated to Cata heroics when I entered Tol'vir as Tomakan, proceeded to buff folks, and watched as the first pull turned into an adventure when the tank dropped.
Two of us were L85, so even if we weren't geared for Heroics we were able to put the trash down without anyone biting it. "That was annoying," I said.
"Very," the healer replied. "If he didn't like the instance, he could have dropped before we started."
So we waited.
Five minutes later, a new tank zoned in and decided she wanted to go in the opposite direction. So we reversed course and took out a few more groups of trash.
"I've gotta be honest," one of the DPS piped up. "I'm only here for the rep. Once I ding Exalted, I'm outta here."
"That sucks," the tank replied, and dropped.
Another DPS dropped as well.
"Thanks a lot, asshat," the healer griped to the DPS.
I had really nowhere to go, so I waited. Tol'vir is quick enough of an instance --think SM:Library, Blood Furnace, or Utgarde Keep-- so I figured that it'd take even longer to requeue than go grab some coffee and wait for two replacements.
About 8-10 minutes later, a DPS and a third tank zoned in and we continued our run. This time, the tank was a touch overeager on trash, attempting to pull multiple packs until the healer chastised him. "If I don't have mana, you don't get healed," she said.
Things went well until the last boss. On one of the DPS' request, the healer sketched out the strategy: kill the ads, then in the second phase go after the boss. So what did the DPS do when the fight started? Went straight for the boss and managed to get himself killed via the deflections. Luckily, the lack of DPS didn't mean a wipe, but it did mean that dropping that last boss took a lot longer.
That Tol'vir run wasn't the only one where being L85 came in handy.
I tried branching out on instances and queued for Vortex Pinnacle, but the 35 minute queue time was more like what I expected with Cata instances.
Quintalan zoned in --remember him? Blood Knight, about so tall, red hair, last seen taking a vacation on a park bench in Dalaran-- and listened in to the basics about the instance given by the Mage. "...and you have to get in under that triangle before he starts his attack," he was saying, "otherwise it's instant death."
"And don't try to release and run back during the fight," I added. "His attack is instance-wide. Don't ask how I know that."
That earned a round of chuckles.
The first couple of pulls went okay, although there was a tendency to keep attacking the air elementals that were added for "flavor". That's about all I can say about the elementals that see you and vanish without invoking my extensive vocabulary of profanity. The first boss fight went well, but one of the DPS dropped off the platform instead of clicking on the whirlwind to move to the next section of the instance. Oh well.
Then things began to get tricky. Right before the first drake, the healer expressly said to the L82 warrior tank to "pull [the drake] out of the heal zone." Well, the tank pulled, and then stopped with the drake half in and half out.
"Pull him!" the healer cried.
The tank kept the drake stationary, and then bit it.
I cursed, slapped on Righteous Fury, and started tanking. The drake dropped, and the healer rezzed the tank. Properly chastened, the tank proceeded to dutifully pull the next drake out of the heal zone without a problem.
Then we got to the section with the Neferset lackeys.
The first pull there, the tank ran in without marking or requesting that the Neferset healers be sheeped. After realizing that the tank wasn't concentrating on the healer at all, I pulled off of the tank and started dropping as many interrupts as I could on the Neferset healer.
"Let me sheep him!" the Mage cried.
"Okay...." I peeled away and stepped back. "I'm off. Go for it." I remembered to breathe when I saw Mr. Lion Man become a friendly little lamb on the ground. As is typical, once the healer went down, the rest of the mob followed suit.
The Mage then rounded on the tank. "Next time, let me sheep the Healer first; they have to be CCed or this takes forever."
"Got it."
Well, the tank didn't quite get it, because on the last of those packs he bit it again. Because he didn't wait for the Healers to be sheeped, I got to play tank again. All I can say is thank goodness for Lay on Hands.
I did not have a good feeling heading into the final boss, but I comforted myself in the knowledge that we'd covered all this beforehand.
Silly me.
On the first Supremacy of the Storm cast, the tank stayed outside the grounding field, and...
I knew the drill by then. Slap on Righteous Fury and start spamming stuff to keep my threat up. When there's a Mage in your party with more health than you, you know that there's a good chance that you'll lose threat, especially with the way Ret is specced these days. You simply don't have the tools (or mana) to swing tanking for long stretches. However, I don't think I lost threat more than twice in that fight, and each time Hand of Reckoning dragged the boss back my way. I don't know exactly what that healer did, but whatever it was worked: he kept myself, the Mage, and himself upright throughout the rest of the fight.
The Mage was thoroughly disgusted with the way things went that he quickly passed on the two items and dropped group. I can't say I blame him.
My first couple of runs through Tol'vir were uneventful. I'd prepared ahead of time in much the same fashion as people study raid videos, but of course that didn't stop me from making a few boo-boos. Once I settled in, I got the feel of how the instance flowed, and got to watch group dynamics in action. There was the tank who thought that the party could bypass the Croc boss, but that wasn't anything major. On the whole, people were efficient and courteous, pointing out what to do where without so much whining. I was starting to wonder if all the nuts had migrated to Cata heroics when I entered Tol'vir as Tomakan, proceeded to buff folks, and watched as the first pull turned into an adventure when the tank dropped.
Two of us were L85, so even if we weren't geared for Heroics we were able to put the trash down without anyone biting it. "That was annoying," I said.
"Very," the healer replied. "If he didn't like the instance, he could have dropped before we started."
So we waited.
Five minutes later, a new tank zoned in and decided she wanted to go in the opposite direction. So we reversed course and took out a few more groups of trash.
"I've gotta be honest," one of the DPS piped up. "I'm only here for the rep. Once I ding Exalted, I'm outta here."
"That sucks," the tank replied, and dropped.
Another DPS dropped as well.
"Thanks a lot, asshat," the healer griped to the DPS.
I had really nowhere to go, so I waited. Tol'vir is quick enough of an instance --think SM:Library, Blood Furnace, or Utgarde Keep-- so I figured that it'd take even longer to requeue than go grab some coffee and wait for two replacements.
About 8-10 minutes later, a DPS and a third tank zoned in and we continued our run. This time, the tank was a touch overeager on trash, attempting to pull multiple packs until the healer chastised him. "If I don't have mana, you don't get healed," she said.
Things went well until the last boss. On one of the DPS' request, the healer sketched out the strategy: kill the ads, then in the second phase go after the boss. So what did the DPS do when the fight started? Went straight for the boss and managed to get himself killed via the deflections. Luckily, the lack of DPS didn't mean a wipe, but it did mean that dropping that last boss took a lot longer.
***
That Tol'vir run wasn't the only one where being L85 came in handy.
I tried branching out on instances and queued for Vortex Pinnacle, but the 35 minute queue time was more like what I expected with Cata instances.
Quintalan zoned in --remember him? Blood Knight, about so tall, red hair, last seen taking a vacation on a park bench in Dalaran-- and listened in to the basics about the instance given by the Mage. "...and you have to get in under that triangle before he starts his attack," he was saying, "otherwise it's instant death."
"And don't try to release and run back during the fight," I added. "His attack is instance-wide. Don't ask how I know that."
That earned a round of chuckles.
The first couple of pulls went okay, although there was a tendency to keep attacking the air elementals that were added for "flavor". That's about all I can say about the elementals that see you and vanish without invoking my extensive vocabulary of profanity. The first boss fight went well, but one of the DPS dropped off the platform instead of clicking on the whirlwind to move to the next section of the instance. Oh well.
Then things began to get tricky. Right before the first drake, the healer expressly said to the L82 warrior tank to "pull [the drake] out of the heal zone." Well, the tank pulled, and then stopped with the drake half in and half out.
"Pull him!" the healer cried.
The tank kept the drake stationary, and then bit it.
I cursed, slapped on Righteous Fury, and started tanking. The drake dropped, and the healer rezzed the tank. Properly chastened, the tank proceeded to dutifully pull the next drake out of the heal zone without a problem.
Then we got to the section with the Neferset lackeys.
The first pull there, the tank ran in without marking or requesting that the Neferset healers be sheeped. After realizing that the tank wasn't concentrating on the healer at all, I pulled off of the tank and started dropping as many interrupts as I could on the Neferset healer.
"Let me sheep him!" the Mage cried.
"Okay...." I peeled away and stepped back. "I'm off. Go for it." I remembered to breathe when I saw Mr. Lion Man become a friendly little lamb on the ground. As is typical, once the healer went down, the rest of the mob followed suit.
The Mage then rounded on the tank. "Next time, let me sheep the Healer first; they have to be CCed or this takes forever."
"Got it."
Well, the tank didn't quite get it, because on the last of those packs he bit it again. Because he didn't wait for the Healers to be sheeped, I got to play tank again. All I can say is thank goodness for Lay on Hands.
I did not have a good feeling heading into the final boss, but I comforted myself in the knowledge that we'd covered all this beforehand.
Silly me.
On the first Supremacy of the Storm cast, the tank stayed outside the grounding field, and...
I knew the drill by then. Slap on Righteous Fury and start spamming stuff to keep my threat up. When there's a Mage in your party with more health than you, you know that there's a good chance that you'll lose threat, especially with the way Ret is specced these days. You simply don't have the tools (or mana) to swing tanking for long stretches. However, I don't think I lost threat more than twice in that fight, and each time Hand of Reckoning dragged the boss back my way. I don't know exactly what that healer did, but whatever it was worked: he kept myself, the Mage, and himself upright throughout the rest of the fight.
The Mage was thoroughly disgusted with the way things went that he quickly passed on the two items and dropped group. I can't say I blame him.
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