Friday, December 31, 2010

A Leap of Faith



When I first saw this spell, I thought what the hell? That's my last spell? Blizzard screwed priests over! What am I gonna use that for? Can't they give us a free mana cost heal like Word of Glory or something? I didn't learn it the whole time I was healing normal dungeons. That's how unnecessary I thought it was.

Fast forward 1 week, I clicked on it just to get rid of the unlearned spell option. I'm obsessive compulsive sometimes, I know! Read it and decided to put it on my action bar. Forgot about it all over again and went to Halls of Origination.

All was easy peasy at least until the Setesh' trash pulls. My tank decided to grab everything, 'cozy he's leet with 110k life! He was getting ganked from everything and to top it all, he was in an Anti-Magic Prison from the Void Seekers.

I was panicking on which button to save him, I tried the Power Infusioned flash heal, shield and pain suppression... Immune! Still taking too much damage, I tried psychic scream on the mob, but, DPS was blasting them up breaking the CC. I finally noticed a pale blue icon on the bottom left of my action bar, Leap of Faith... Yes! Clicked the spell, gave me a few moments to catch my breath DPS bombed the voids and I topped the tank! No wipe! Yay!

Now I'm a certified Leap of Faith convert! I use it every time my tank goes down way to fast. Those are my "save me" options, that and Glyphed Psychic scream. It doesn't work every time, because most of the time, tanks charge to the mob group right after being pulled back. I know, it defeats the purpose right? But it gives me the few seconds to cast an expensive Flash Heal to save the whole group. Overall a good utility spell and deserves a nice space in my forever full action bar!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

What did you get this Chrismas from the Old Green Orc?

Great-father Winter is looking at you!




Logged into all my toons today and got our Winter Veil Christmas presents! The usual egg-nog, biscuits, Mechanical Greench, the Snowman kit and reindeer pet came out. I got something new this year!





The Mini-Zep Controller!
Summon and control your own Mini-Zep Lasts 30 seconds.



It's reminiscent of the Tonk cars from the previous Christmas. You can shoot a cannon, drop sky mines that takes 2 secs to detonate, and lastly the Nitrous boost to get out of sticky mines in the air. Sweet!

Little Mermaid's Ursula has a guest appearance in Cataclysm







Now to all those who grew up watching Disney's The Little Mermaid, doesn't Therazane look like her?

I finally started doing the chain for the Therazane reputation and got my shoulder enchant.

+30 Intellect, +20 Spirit!

A couple more weeks of grinding maybe I can get to exalted and upgrade the enchant!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Running the Rat Race

A week after Cataclysm went live, my warlock dinged 85. Leveling with a dozen people after the same mob or loot was stressful. I guess the warlock was the right choice at that time to level.

Now looking back, I should've used my disc Priest first. I have shadow spec and good gear anyways , it wouldn't be that hard to do. I dinged 84 last night, and going into the last level, I really should prepare myself for the stress in healing heroics.

So far from all the reading I've done, mana is the biggest problem and keeping the group alive, not topped off, but just alive. A priest in our guild even said that he'd be returning to holy for now because disc just wasn't cutting it on heroic with the current gear he has and he's pretty diligent in running and farming for gear.

A lot of healers in our server have made DPS Alts in the meantime, hoping that once the initial phase of running heroics with pugs will go smoother or the mana problem will be solved.

I suppose I could fast-track my priest and ding to 85 by tomorrow. After that, It might be better to grind reputation gear first, go through the normal 85 dungeon gear, then go to heroics.

Personally, it's fun running the rat race. I just don't want to be burned out by January from the fail pug groups to my healing inadequacies. As the song says,

"Let's take it slow... So slow..."


/cheese slap

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Screencap of the Day: Nordrassil



Flying through Nordrassil. Awesome cut scenes from Blizzard!



Monday, December 20, 2010

Healing a sensational Tank from LFG

Went online last night just for one run on my disc priest. I wasn't feeling to well but I wanted to level to 82 already. So, queued up and after 17 minutes, finally got a group for Throne of Tides.

5 minutes into trash, I was wondering if Blizzard made a hot fix for priests same as they did with holy paladins. I was going through mana like I was wearing greens. I know I'm level 81 Lk raid gear doesn't mean much now, but it totally helps having them as opposed to wearing greens or blues straight from levelling to 80.

Anyway, pally tank died on the second boss, and the next boss, the dps dk ended up tanking and having more mitigation than the pally ever had. Was it my stupid isp? ( I was healing at like 1200 latency)

On one boss, pally tank asks if he can have plate helm, I looked at the item and it was dps! Dk dps of course went berserk. Pally needed and of course he got it. This should've clued me on what gear he has and why I was healing so bad.( only tank died, all of us stayed alive on all bosses and trash)

Last boss, he died again! As usual dk tanked! I finally looked at his gear. No suprise, he's in all dps gear! Moral of the story? Always check your tank's gear before running the instance, sometimes it can better prep you for what you'll be dealing with. And sometimes, you can just run like hell away from him!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Girls Don't Cry

Ghostcrawler put up a blue post to all the crybabies out there.

A tank’s job is to protect the group. A big part of that is controlling the enemy. A big part of controlling the enemy is staying alive. Tanks have a lot of tools to stay alive, and mastering those is a major component of learning to play a tank. On the other hand, some of these tools are on long cooldowns, and on some encounters they are intended for use at specific moments in the fight. Furthermore, staying alive isn’t the sole responsibility of the tank, because there will always be one or more healers present whose job it is to keep the tank alive. As such, staying alive can’t be the only thing tanks have to focus on.

So, let’s back up a moment to controlling the enemy. “Control” includes things like positioning the boss, or doing specific things at specific times, such as swapping with an off tank. It also includes making sure the boss doesn’t attack anyone else. That’s where threat generation comes into play.

If threat generation is too easy then the entire risk of the encounter drops. Newsflash: we don’t actually want encounters to be easy. We want encounters to be fun, and for most players, that includes both rewards and risks.

We want tanks to care about the buttons they hit instead of just relying on auto-attacking to control their target. We don’t necessarily want very complicated tank DPS rotations, because as I mentioned above, tanks do have other things to keep track of. But we want their combat abilities to be engaging. Good tanks should be those who control, survive, and generate sufficient threat.

On the other hand, when threat is too hard to maintain, it can be exasperating. Tanks get understandably frustrated when the game is asking them to do something but not giving them the tools to do it. The non-tanks in the group also become frustrated, because they feel throttled. It’s one thing when overcoming the boss is challenging. It feels worse when you know that another player is standing in your way, keeping you from achieving your top performance.

We don’t usually want DPS classes to have to stop attacking in order to keep from generating too much threat. We do want players to pay attention. We don’t think it’s too much to ask for DPS and healers to wait a couple of GCDs for the tank to get the enemy under control — we’re not asking for five stacks of Sunder Armor these days. What we really mean by proper threat management is knowing things like when it’s time to go all out, when it’s appropriate to use a threat-reducing cooldown, and most importantly, which is the right target to be attacking. I’m not trying to bash pugs here, but I am amazed at how often a nuker will pick a random target instead of the one being tanked, then blame the tank for not holding aggro (and then blame the healer when they die). In short, if threat is too easy, the game is boring. If threat is too difficult, the game is frustrating.

How then do you guys (and the developers!) know when threat is a problem? Here are some handy guidelines.

– If a tank is trying to generate threat on a single target, and it runs off to kill a DPS class, that’s a problem.

– If a tank is trying to generate area threat on a group, and the tanked things are running off to kill healers, that’s a problem.

– If Vengeance falling off causes the tank to lose threat, that’s a problem.

These problems can have a couple of causes. It could be a problem we caused, meaning that even an expertly-played tank has low threat generation because our numbers are undertuned. Or it could be that only an expertly-played tank can generate threat because you’re asked to manage too many abilities. Or it could be that Vengeance is the only thing allowing you to generate enough threat because the size of the buff is masking low threat generation from your abilities. It could also be a problem you need to fix on your end: if someone is nuking or cleaving a random target on a group pull instead of assisting the tank, that’s not the tank’s fault.

Now, there are things we don’t like about threat as a mechanic. It’s fairly gamey as game mechanics go and we think there are probably better ways to communicate it to players. There are some mods that do a very credible job given the limited information we provide, but overall we’d like to present threat better since we’re asking you to take it seriously in the PvE game.

-Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street is the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft and the skipper of a very nice ship where they serve cute sandwiches with the crust removed. And gin.


/clap

Thank you! Hopefully we'll be seeing less tank and spank strategy. This development will clearly separate the pre-Lich King players from the endless AoE monotonous gameplayers.

Honestly, I missed using Crowd control, single target dps of a 5 pull mob, days when AoE meant lowering your dps. I missed wiping on trash like in Steamvaults back in BC where if you pull wrong, Fear will get you. Bringing back lock-tanking, off-tanking, and off-healing! Yum!

Truthfully, I had to get my Banish and Seduce macros from my spellbook. Dusty as it is, it certainly brought back a lot of memories.

I'm glad that WoW devs have noticed that the game has seriously been compromised in terms of strategy and difficulty. BC and Vanilla- like content is what brought the game to where it is now. I just hope that they continue to give challenging content at the same time make it available for non-hardcore gamers.

You weren't born in BC or Vanilla

Just hit level 85 with my warlock yesterday and it's my first time to run an 85 instance. LFG put me in a group with a warrior tank, druid healer, a mage, and another dps. First pull and we almost wiped!

So Mr. Tank asks,

Tank: Can you Banish one of the mob for me?
Me: (Gasp!) Um.. Those are humanoids, Mr. Tank.
Tank: Oh! Never mind then. Guess healer will just have to heal it through...
Me: We could try my pet Succubus...
Tank: Ok! Ready? Sheep pull please mage.

Mage sheeps.

Succubus seduces.

Tank charges, thunderclap!

/facepalm


- mobilefey

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Cataclysm Reputation Guide Horde

2 1/2 bars until Lvl 85, and server went down for maintenance! So, I searched and compiled a list of Cataclysm Reputation Factions, the location of the quartermasters, the glorious item rewards for you guys. A very productive maintenance day indeed. 

Tabard - All reputation gains while in level 85 Cataclysm dungeons will be applied to your standing with them.

Some claim that you can use your tabards and gain reputation for your respective faction even while on normal dungeons, but officially it has been stated for use only on Heroic Dungeons. Almost all of the factions have tabards that can be purchased with a Friendly reputation and a little bit of gold. 


Helm enchants and Shoulder enchants are also available in these factions. 

 *************************

Guardians of Hyjal (lvl 80-82)

Location: Nordrassil, Mount Hyjal
Tabard: Yes
Daily Quests: None
Rewards: view list

Info: 
  • The Mt. Hyjal Quartermaster is located in the building after you land in the area just enter there and he is somewhere on the right.
 *************************

Earthen Ring (lvl 82-83)

Location: Vashj'ir
Tabard: Yes
Dailies: None
Rewards: view list
Info:

 *************************

Ramkahen (lvl 83-84)

Location: Uldum -Ramkahen
Tabard: Yes
Dailies:  
Mount: 
  • Reins of the Brown Riding Camel
  • Reins of the Tan Riding Camel
Rewards: view list
Info:
  • Quest hub in early Uldum leveling; begin gaining reputation throughout the questing experience. Quartermaster becomes available sometime in the early portions of Uldum. 
  • Dailies: 1 South East of Ramkahen.
 ************************* 


Therazane (lvl 82-83)

Location: Deepholm
Quartermaster: D’Lom the Collector, Therazane’s Throne
Tabard: Yes
Daily Quests:
Rewards: view list
Info:
  • Earn reputation during the main Deepholm quest chain,access dailies and quartermaster upon completion of restoring the world pillar.
  • Dailies: 5 per day, Total 1250 per day up until Revered, additional quest(s) at that point
 *************************


Dragonmaw Clan (lvl 84-85)

Location: Twilight Highlands
Tabard: Yes 
Dailies:
Rewards: view list
Info:
 
 *************************

Hellscream's Reach  (Battle 80+, Peninsula 83+)
Location: Tol Barad Peninsula
Tabard: No
Dailies: view list
Mount:
  • Reins of the Drake of the West Wind
  • Reins of the Spectral Steed
Rewards: view list
Info:
  • Dailies: 6 on island when your faction controls it and an additional 5 on the peninsula at any time. 
  • Similar to Wintergrasp. Tol Barad battles start at regular scheduled times. Whoever wins the battle holds the area for the specified duration.

 *************************

Friday, May 28, 2010

Raid Vs Real Life

I started playing WoW a couple of years ago, all my friends look at me funny when they hear I play. I had to balance a lot of things, work, my bf and of course WoW and it wasn't easy. I skip raids, dinners, and was usually late for work. I was stressed from managing a small guild with my bf thatvwe didn't even start. We just inherited it from a GM that quit.

It was a short run, apart from the sudden absence of 3 of our officers, we had trouble crossing the language barrier. Our communication skills weten't that great and the looy dystrm was killing us.

Now we're in a new guild. I see it start all over again. Not to us personally but to the other guildies. Is it really like this ? It just repeats over and over. No wonder several toons in my realm are guildless. With the new LFG system and the lower raiding difficulty, people are going guildless. Less drama, less hassle.

There are pros and cons definitely. But going guildless is definitely easier on your real life. You play when you have time leave when some emergency xomes up. No drama on attendance, no additional stress. You just have to accept that Pugs are pugs and guild raids are guild raids and you'll be fine.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Loot System: Epgp

So i joined a new guild on my 80 priest. 3 weeka ago they were on a roll system. After a couple of new people got the good gear over the regular raiders and the Raid Leader (lolz), they immediately change it
to EpGp.

I have nothing against the system but from experience people, say they like it at first because they get loot. But once u have more GP( gearpoints) they begin to change their minds.
 
Of course they dont want to wait for more EP (effort points) beforethey can get gear. Nowadays pugging = free badge, freeloot! Why would you raid 8 days a month on 25 wihout getting any gear? Just because a your mainhand weapon was worth 1000GP! Over a trinket worth 400Gp.

I've done EpGp, raided and lead raids with it. Honestly imo, it just leads to slow death of a guild.