This past week or two has seen several major events. One, the longest day of the year; two, the second longest day of the year... twice; three, my friends wedding in which i was the best man; four, the onset of summer break for all the college students in my area, which drastically reduced traffic during the morning commute; rekindling relationship with my girlfriend; and on and on and on. i hope i punctuated that list correctly. i didnt really have to use semi-colons like that since highschool.
In any event, the end of june means the end of another quarter. and in my case, it requires me to tie up loose ends and call customers to make payments so that the quarter-end financials for the company can look good for the investors. i can understand why. these investors are the reason why this company is here. because i am an employee, i get stock options and stuff, which makes me an investor as well. not really as much as others, but i do have a good chunk of value in the stocks of my company. anyway, all this was to say that work as been busy and i had very little time to update anything. although i do read a lot. there isnt much time to actually reply to anything on other people's blogs. sorry kurn (not even sure you have me on your radar!).
i find myself wanting to blog about real life stuff or at least my real life reaction to things wow-related lately. its kinda nice to add real life into my posts. maybe it just means i have more to talk about than just wow. but it could mean i am doing less and less wow as time goes on. and i think that's just the thing. i am on less. i only play after work before my girlfriend return home from school. when she does come home, the rest of the night belongs to her. some nights tho, she does want to be left alone and tell me to go fishing. which i do. and so i do understand she needs a break from me every once in a blue moon. So because i only get the time between 7:30 and 9:30 to play, i will try to get into a random run or two and do one or two dailies. no more fishing. maybe some jc dialies again. i do not want to do too many things, however. it is because i really do not have to ability (or desire) to sit there for hours anymore.
when i log on, my friends are either doing ICC or RS, or they've been on for hours and are burnt out with randoms or whatever else and so i end up not doing anything with them. it kinda sucks but i understand. i mean they're not just sitting around all day waiting for me to log on so they can do whatever i want them to do. no its not that. so dont feel bad. i understand everyone has their own schedule and we're all here trying to have a good time. so have a good time and try your hardest to like this game. its a game. just relax and unwind. that's what im trying to do with this game. it's not really working. but i think i have plans.
my plans:
1. transfer Aquilla (my pvp-only priest in pve gear) to Ysondre. level her from 72 to 80 through AV and other battlegrounds. and also through instances as she really cant level just in AV. there is really no upgrades in gear until 78 if that is the case. she has a billion tokens for honor, purchased from stonekeeper shards, so she will probably be able to buy about three nice pieces of pvp gear when she does hit 80. i say no upgrades til 78 because there is the crafted pvp gear. boy, expensive. but she's an herber. and last i remember 10 sungrasses were going for 20g. yes... 20GOLD. hello herbalism!!
2. work the AH. that's it. after Devynity hit 80 he'll have the opportunity to work on his glyphs. His encahnting is going well. and to round everything out, i think Aquilla will add herbalism and alchemy to the mix. this, along with Krakken's JC will give me quite a large array of items to sell. although its not like making 20 netherweave bags and selling them for quick gold, it will still be fun to see how i can make some gold with the characters that i have... on a dead server.
3. play with my baby more.
4. "play" with my gf more when she gets home. quite possibly find a cutesy game to play. probably.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday Stuff
I've been itching to post. Really i have.
1. The average wait time for LFD PUGS has not grown in length, but has grown to wear me down. Some days i just want to log on and do a random pug, then log off. That's all i want to do. but sitting there in front of the computer with the average wait time at 19 minutes doesnt help. as many of you know, that number is dynamic. and in 19 minutes that number can change to 25 minutes, or 1 second. it all depends on some force i cant understand. but its wearing on me and i feel my patience diminishing. fishing daily? forget it. cooking daily? nope. so there's no "buffer" in there to help with the wait. and if i alt-tab out to do something, i may miss my queue. bad all over isnt it?
2. Once i get into groups. there's a 50% chance someone will drop and a 75% that a second person will drop after the first person drops. there is a 92% chance that the first two people are either a healer or a tank. there is, after the first drop, a 75% chance that the group will fail before the first pull. these numbers are made up. but that's how i feel about the success of a group, especially in normal Old Kingdom.
3. jerkfaces galore. in all instances. in all places. everyone thinks they're in ilevel245 gear running heroics (that require about ilevel185 to even enter, and will not drop anything above 200 anyway) and thinks that a bunch of level 75s can breeze right through gundrak. right. dont forget you're not in purples. quit acting like everyone's overgeared. we're not. you're not being carried anymore so pull some fucking weight, will ya? thanks. if not, i can just drop group. i dont have to deal with this.
so with the 20 minute wait times, the high chance that groups will fail after that, plus the willingness for me to drop group and log on somewhere else just to chat or farm the baron's mount, i find that LDF PUGS are just not worth the effort. they arent. i've been doing less and less. maybe its because i am running as a dps now and much of the success of a group isnt entirely due to my leadership. i am just a dps. i feel a little powerless. maybe even hopeless as to the lack of direction or lead i can give to a group. heck, sometimes i still want to go back to tanking. but not right now.
1. The average wait time for LFD PUGS has not grown in length, but has grown to wear me down. Some days i just want to log on and do a random pug, then log off. That's all i want to do. but sitting there in front of the computer with the average wait time at 19 minutes doesnt help. as many of you know, that number is dynamic. and in 19 minutes that number can change to 25 minutes, or 1 second. it all depends on some force i cant understand. but its wearing on me and i feel my patience diminishing. fishing daily? forget it. cooking daily? nope. so there's no "buffer" in there to help with the wait. and if i alt-tab out to do something, i may miss my queue. bad all over isnt it?
2. Once i get into groups. there's a 50% chance someone will drop and a 75% that a second person will drop after the first person drops. there is a 92% chance that the first two people are either a healer or a tank. there is, after the first drop, a 75% chance that the group will fail before the first pull. these numbers are made up. but that's how i feel about the success of a group, especially in normal Old Kingdom.
3. jerkfaces galore. in all instances. in all places. everyone thinks they're in ilevel245 gear running heroics (that require about ilevel185 to even enter, and will not drop anything above 200 anyway) and thinks that a bunch of level 75s can breeze right through gundrak. right. dont forget you're not in purples. quit acting like everyone's overgeared. we're not. you're not being carried anymore so pull some fucking weight, will ya? thanks. if not, i can just drop group. i dont have to deal with this.
so with the 20 minute wait times, the high chance that groups will fail after that, plus the willingness for me to drop group and log on somewhere else just to chat or farm the baron's mount, i find that LDF PUGS are just not worth the effort. they arent. i've been doing less and less. maybe its because i am running as a dps now and much of the success of a group isnt entirely due to my leadership. i am just a dps. i feel a little powerless. maybe even hopeless as to the lack of direction or lead i can give to a group. heck, sometimes i still want to go back to tanking. but not right now.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Real ID? No kidding.
Everyone's talking about this Real ID thing, or so it seems. and everyone is either loving it, or hating it, or both. no i think most people are doing both. they love it and hate it all at the same time.
I do too.
Why do i love it? because it gives me the ability to chat with some friends on different servers. that's great you know. my buddy list will no longer be character-specific. some of the things that i hated about having many alts is that my friend, Immortelle, needed to be added to every single alt on her server. with real id, i dont have to do that anymore. i can free up some space for more buddies. like i use them all. but that is what i like about it.
I like that i can see my friend log in and out on different characters. this lets me know that they have nothing better to do than to log on, discover there's nothing to do, then log onto another character, discover the same thing, and log on again to another character. its amusing. but at the same time, it allows me to know that i can keep a constant conversation with them whether they decide to do heroics or mine or do AH stuff.
I can pull their whispers out of the chat box and into a floatable box, if i wanted to. i can also minimize the floating text box if i need more screen space to play. if they do send me a new message, their box will glow. i like all of these neat features.
What i dont love about this Real ID thing is that it is, in fact, showing my real name. Yes, i did sign up for wow using my real name. and unlike some of my friends, i did not capitalize anything. lol. but that's not the issue. the issue is that, i dont want my real name out there at all. maybe my first name? sure. but my last name too? that doesnt jive too well with me. i really would rather have a main "avatar" name or main toon name instead.
What i also do not like about this is the fact that i do see my friends on ALL of their alts. and i believe i will probably see them on all of their other blizzard games too, whenever the functionality becomes available. There are times where i am sure they do not want to be bothered, as there are plenty of times where i just want to be left alone. there is one character i let my daughter play, a level 1 hunter. she takes her swimming around sunstrider isle. no one really needs to know that my daughter is playing this character at the moment.
What if i go on my AH alt and do some AH stuffs? my Real ID friends will know who it is and what im doing. What if i wanted to level an alt on a different server? what if i just want to remain anonymous in this internet? i really never got close to many people in wow because i figured this is a game, and so lets keep our relationships at a game-only level. although some people have already added me to facebook, i would like to keep most of my friends in wow strictly IN wow. and some even strictly within one character's realm of friends. seriously. there are some people who only know me on a single character and do not know my alts.
What else? i do not like how other real id people will be able to know who my other real id peoples are. they're my friends. not my friends' friends. they dont need to know who my other friends are unless we party together, or are in the same guild, or within the same social network somewhere out there.
What i'd like to propose is that Real ID take a step back and actually give us some filters. filter the friends based on levels i guess. depending on level, we'd like to be able to limit the access of who sees what, whether it be our real names, our alts, our friends, or our pictures. heck, why not give us a section to include our bio, our relationship status and our sexual orientation. you might as well know, right? no you do not. i'd like to be able to chat with friends on different servers. but i'd like to limit my "status" somehow.
Filter Overall options: Real name or generic name. Pick a name for your friends to see.
Filter Overall options: Wow only. one day, we'll be playing different games and this will be helpful.
Friend Filter 1: Will see no Friends of Friends.
Friend Filter 2: Can only see same realm only (kinda defeats the purpose of real id, but it can be tweaked).
Friend Filter 3: Friends cannot see. (good for those alts i get on where i'd like to be left alone)
Those are the basic filters i'd like to see.
Hopefully Bliz will get some feedback on this and change a few things. the way Real ID is right now, it gives away way too much information and im not comfortable with that.
I do too.
Why do i love it? because it gives me the ability to chat with some friends on different servers. that's great you know. my buddy list will no longer be character-specific. some of the things that i hated about having many alts is that my friend, Immortelle, needed to be added to every single alt on her server. with real id, i dont have to do that anymore. i can free up some space for more buddies. like i use them all. but that is what i like about it.
I like that i can see my friend log in and out on different characters. this lets me know that they have nothing better to do than to log on, discover there's nothing to do, then log onto another character, discover the same thing, and log on again to another character. its amusing. but at the same time, it allows me to know that i can keep a constant conversation with them whether they decide to do heroics or mine or do AH stuff.
I can pull their whispers out of the chat box and into a floatable box, if i wanted to. i can also minimize the floating text box if i need more screen space to play. if they do send me a new message, their box will glow. i like all of these neat features.
What i dont love about this Real ID thing is that it is, in fact, showing my real name. Yes, i did sign up for wow using my real name. and unlike some of my friends, i did not capitalize anything. lol. but that's not the issue. the issue is that, i dont want my real name out there at all. maybe my first name? sure. but my last name too? that doesnt jive too well with me. i really would rather have a main "avatar" name or main toon name instead.
What i also do not like about this is the fact that i do see my friends on ALL of their alts. and i believe i will probably see them on all of their other blizzard games too, whenever the functionality becomes available. There are times where i am sure they do not want to be bothered, as there are plenty of times where i just want to be left alone. there is one character i let my daughter play, a level 1 hunter. she takes her swimming around sunstrider isle. no one really needs to know that my daughter is playing this character at the moment.
What if i go on my AH alt and do some AH stuffs? my Real ID friends will know who it is and what im doing. What if i wanted to level an alt on a different server? what if i just want to remain anonymous in this internet? i really never got close to many people in wow because i figured this is a game, and so lets keep our relationships at a game-only level. although some people have already added me to facebook, i would like to keep most of my friends in wow strictly IN wow. and some even strictly within one character's realm of friends. seriously. there are some people who only know me on a single character and do not know my alts.
What else? i do not like how other real id people will be able to know who my other real id peoples are. they're my friends. not my friends' friends. they dont need to know who my other friends are unless we party together, or are in the same guild, or within the same social network somewhere out there.
What i'd like to propose is that Real ID take a step back and actually give us some filters. filter the friends based on levels i guess. depending on level, we'd like to be able to limit the access of who sees what, whether it be our real names, our alts, our friends, or our pictures. heck, why not give us a section to include our bio, our relationship status and our sexual orientation. you might as well know, right? no you do not. i'd like to be able to chat with friends on different servers. but i'd like to limit my "status" somehow.
Filter Overall options: Real name or generic name. Pick a name for your friends to see.
Filter Overall options: Wow only. one day, we'll be playing different games and this will be helpful.
Friend Filter 1: Will see no Friends of Friends.
Friend Filter 2: Can only see same realm only (kinda defeats the purpose of real id, but it can be tweaked).
Friend Filter 3: Friends cannot see. (good for those alts i get on where i'd like to be left alone)
Those are the basic filters i'd like to see.
Hopefully Bliz will get some feedback on this and change a few things. the way Real ID is right now, it gives away way too much information and im not comfortable with that.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Less WoW is more life.
On the topic of playing less wow.
I play about two instances every day. Except yesterday because i was trying out the new chat features and adding a few people i know with the Real ID. I do like Real ID. It keeps me closer to a few of my friends in WoW. However, i would like to tweak it a little.
1. My Real ID friends will know when im online on any of my 35 toons. yes, any of them, even my banker alts and my "leave me alone" alt. I guess i can add a DND tag, or an "Away" tag. AFK tags are now changed to "Away". which is a nice change because, lets face it, no tech people (as opposed to low tech) dont know what the hell AFK means anyway. DND tag means Do Not Disturb. heck, if i have to use an ignore list on my banker alt, maybe i will have to.
2. Give me windows and not tabs. Yes, like WIM. i dont have WIM, but if im able to separate my chats with others, then i'd like to be able to choose small windows or tabs. right now, we're stuck with just tabs.
3. the textformbox highlights are awesome. but i can see where i am typing. no need to help me there when im not that handicapped. i dont have 20/20 vision but this awesome glow to my textbox really makes this feel like im on a mac. or googlechrome. nice effect? sure. can i turn it off please? thanks.
The other reason i didnt do any instances yesterday was because of Amphitheater of Anguish. Me and manda went to the area and asked in the zone for help. a nice level 80 rogue decided to join in since he was just mining around the area. we waited and waited til manda developed a migrane due to the wait. she's not used to having to wait for anything. i mean she's a healer for elune's sake. her queue time is 4 seconds. that's pretty good and only bested by tank's 1 second wait queue times. so she couldnt stand it and logged off. i hope she took two tylenol PMs, rubbed one out, and knocked the fock out (which movie was this from?). hopefully she'll feel better today.
and after that, my desire for instance queue times diminished to zero. i logged and went on facebook to check status updates. yea really. how sad. i dont know which is worse, wow or fb.
in any case, i spent some time playing with my little girl. she's almost three and has a blast "doing my hair" and offering me tea from her tea set i purchased last weekend. she also sings to disney songs. i really love how she enjoys mimicking grownups. and i cherish the times we have together, alone, with mommy at school.
i also spend more time with mommy as well. been trying to give her more attention and actually listening to her tell me her struggles and feelings. its different. i like it a lot. i enjoy it mainly because she enjoys it. i hope she's a lot happier now without a boyfriend who's sitting in front of the computer completing quests and barely listening to what she has to say. my atttenion span, tho, needs some help. i've had a pretty long attention span years ago, but now, has diminished to about 30 seconds before i think about something else. i blame wow for this. its great to have some practice now, and much better that i actually give some kind of feedback to envoke more conversation. lets hope this doesnt end.
we also went jogging last night. it was a first in two years for me. she, being the thinner and fitter one, ran for about a mile and a half while i struggled along for barely a mile. it will get better over time as i used to run 1-2 miles several times a week in the past. and when i had a gym membership in college, i used to be on the elliptical crosstrainer for 1 hour doing 5-6 miles at resistance level 13 (out of 20), inclined.
So there you have it. less wow. more life. and i like it. for a player that gets deeply involved in games and other projects, i find this change a bit comforting. it shows me that there are more important things in life than to play wow. after i write about my daily routines, i figured it wasnt all that important anyway. i mean all i do are daily fishing, cooking, jc quests and then do a random instance or two. repeat that for serveral months and it becomes a dull game. am i hoping for the cataclysm expansion to come? actually, no. i really do not care about cata right now. i dont think i want to upgrade. i dont think i'll be here for the expansion. i've played through TBC and Wrath. the third expansion may not be for me, as i find this little chapter in my life ending and a new one slowly beginning.
I play about two instances every day. Except yesterday because i was trying out the new chat features and adding a few people i know with the Real ID. I do like Real ID. It keeps me closer to a few of my friends in WoW. However, i would like to tweak it a little.
1. My Real ID friends will know when im online on any of my 35 toons. yes, any of them, even my banker alts and my "leave me alone" alt. I guess i can add a DND tag, or an "Away" tag. AFK tags are now changed to "Away". which is a nice change because, lets face it, no tech people (as opposed to low tech) dont know what the hell AFK means anyway. DND tag means Do Not Disturb. heck, if i have to use an ignore list on my banker alt, maybe i will have to.
2. Give me windows and not tabs. Yes, like WIM. i dont have WIM, but if im able to separate my chats with others, then i'd like to be able to choose small windows or tabs. right now, we're stuck with just tabs.
3. the textformbox highlights are awesome. but i can see where i am typing. no need to help me there when im not that handicapped. i dont have 20/20 vision but this awesome glow to my textbox really makes this feel like im on a mac. or googlechrome. nice effect? sure. can i turn it off please? thanks.
The other reason i didnt do any instances yesterday was because of Amphitheater of Anguish. Me and manda went to the area and asked in the zone for help. a nice level 80 rogue decided to join in since he was just mining around the area. we waited and waited til manda developed a migrane due to the wait. she's not used to having to wait for anything. i mean she's a healer for elune's sake. her queue time is 4 seconds. that's pretty good and only bested by tank's 1 second wait queue times. so she couldnt stand it and logged off. i hope she took two tylenol PMs, rubbed one out, and knocked the fock out (which movie was this from?). hopefully she'll feel better today.
and after that, my desire for instance queue times diminished to zero. i logged and went on facebook to check status updates. yea really. how sad. i dont know which is worse, wow or fb.
in any case, i spent some time playing with my little girl. she's almost three and has a blast "doing my hair" and offering me tea from her tea set i purchased last weekend. she also sings to disney songs. i really love how she enjoys mimicking grownups. and i cherish the times we have together, alone, with mommy at school.
i also spend more time with mommy as well. been trying to give her more attention and actually listening to her tell me her struggles and feelings. its different. i like it a lot. i enjoy it mainly because she enjoys it. i hope she's a lot happier now without a boyfriend who's sitting in front of the computer completing quests and barely listening to what she has to say. my atttenion span, tho, needs some help. i've had a pretty long attention span years ago, but now, has diminished to about 30 seconds before i think about something else. i blame wow for this. its great to have some practice now, and much better that i actually give some kind of feedback to envoke more conversation. lets hope this doesnt end.
we also went jogging last night. it was a first in two years for me. she, being the thinner and fitter one, ran for about a mile and a half while i struggled along for barely a mile. it will get better over time as i used to run 1-2 miles several times a week in the past. and when i had a gym membership in college, i used to be on the elliptical crosstrainer for 1 hour doing 5-6 miles at resistance level 13 (out of 20), inclined.
So there you have it. less wow. more life. and i like it. for a player that gets deeply involved in games and other projects, i find this change a bit comforting. it shows me that there are more important things in life than to play wow. after i write about my daily routines, i figured it wasnt all that important anyway. i mean all i do are daily fishing, cooking, jc quests and then do a random instance or two. repeat that for serveral months and it becomes a dull game. am i hoping for the cataclysm expansion to come? actually, no. i really do not care about cata right now. i dont think i want to upgrade. i dont think i'll be here for the expansion. i've played through TBC and Wrath. the third expansion may not be for me, as i find this little chapter in my life ending and a new one slowly beginning.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Ahune
So how the hell do you do this guy? and why does every group i go with say "lol no tank needed" and all that jazz???
And when i do try to dps down the adds, i get aggro. gee, thanks. now im dead. who the hell is the effin tank???
you no-tank people suck.
And when i do try to dps down the adds, i get aggro. gee, thanks. now im dead. who the hell is the effin tank???
you no-tank people suck.
Friday, June 18, 2010
DPS sucks?
If you got a new weapon, respec'ed and see your dps is 41 on a target dummy...
1. Train to higher ranked spells.
2. Switch over to the dummy that's lower level than you.
3. Increase your weapon skill.
Just sayin....
1. Train to higher ranked spells.
2. Switch over to the dummy that's lower level than you.
3. Increase your weapon skill.
Just sayin....
Damn Hoebag
I had a corner. it was a nice corner.
i was standing out there shaking my ass... assets for 350 gold a pop, and usually, they come back for seconds.
How did it feel to log on daily to receive 700 gold in the mail? pretty frickin awesome.
Until someone else came by to work the kitty corner from where i was. it was a little more ghetto where she was though. the customers were a lot cheaper, often vagrants of the server. you know, the ones who sees valuable merchandise and want to pay pennies for because they cant afford or arent willing to pay full price. the ones who will see a man dying on the street and try to search them for their wallet. the one who takes note if you locked your doors or not. those guys. they didnt want to pay the premium for my goods anymore when they can get a similar item across the street. and that whore. that chick selling herself for pennies on the dollar, she's ugly. she's got pimples. and warts. and body odor. yea, although we sell the same thing, i assure you, my goods are far superior than hers.
but she's standing at the corner selling her stuff for 100 gold each. And im sure they come back for seconds. with the money they're saving from not buying from me, they may come back for thirds and fourths.
i, on the other hand, am having zero business. i am trying to wait it out to see if she may actually leave that corner. with all the business she gets, im sure she'll be all out of resources soon. besides, the market caters only to a certain few who enjoy the types of service we provide.
i am certainly not going to drop my prices to her level. i have standards you know. im not going to sell out. win more customers while doing more work? i guess that's a goal. but my goal is to make as much money by doing as little work as possible.
What is she selling? Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Agility.
What else is she selling? Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Fiery.
So i jumped to new customers. i tried to change a bit so that i can actually attract other passerbys. but these people who pass by arent into what i have to offer. they'll gladly go to the whore across the street. my superior items are just collecting dust now, not even worth the effort to sell.
Now i am selling Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Icy Chill.
none have sold. not one. life sucks. i hope that whore gets hit by a semi.
------------------------------------
in all actuality, the mats to make the agility scrolls cost about 70g. selling it for 100g is still profit. i just dont like seeing what could have been 200g profit turn into 30g profit. its dumb. but im not a goblin. i dont want to control the market. i just wanna sell my stuff for a fair profit.
the mats to make the fiery scrolls cost about 20g. they're being sold for 50g now. i was selling them for 100g and they were selling.
/sad
i was standing out there shaking my ass... assets for 350 gold a pop, and usually, they come back for seconds.
How did it feel to log on daily to receive 700 gold in the mail? pretty frickin awesome.
Until someone else came by to work the kitty corner from where i was. it was a little more ghetto where she was though. the customers were a lot cheaper, often vagrants of the server. you know, the ones who sees valuable merchandise and want to pay pennies for because they cant afford or arent willing to pay full price. the ones who will see a man dying on the street and try to search them for their wallet. the one who takes note if you locked your doors or not. those guys. they didnt want to pay the premium for my goods anymore when they can get a similar item across the street. and that whore. that chick selling herself for pennies on the dollar, she's ugly. she's got pimples. and warts. and body odor. yea, although we sell the same thing, i assure you, my goods are far superior than hers.
but she's standing at the corner selling her stuff for 100 gold each. And im sure they come back for seconds. with the money they're saving from not buying from me, they may come back for thirds and fourths.
i, on the other hand, am having zero business. i am trying to wait it out to see if she may actually leave that corner. with all the business she gets, im sure she'll be all out of resources soon. besides, the market caters only to a certain few who enjoy the types of service we provide.
i am certainly not going to drop my prices to her level. i have standards you know. im not going to sell out. win more customers while doing more work? i guess that's a goal. but my goal is to make as much money by doing as little work as possible.
What is she selling? Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Agility.
What else is she selling? Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Fiery.
So i jumped to new customers. i tried to change a bit so that i can actually attract other passerbys. but these people who pass by arent into what i have to offer. they'll gladly go to the whore across the street. my superior items are just collecting dust now, not even worth the effort to sell.
Now i am selling Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Icy Chill.
none have sold. not one. life sucks. i hope that whore gets hit by a semi.
------------------------------------
in all actuality, the mats to make the agility scrolls cost about 70g. selling it for 100g is still profit. i just dont like seeing what could have been 200g profit turn into 30g profit. its dumb. but im not a goblin. i dont want to control the market. i just wanna sell my stuff for a fair profit.
the mats to make the fiery scrolls cost about 20g. they're being sold for 50g now. i was selling them for 100g and they were selling.
/sad
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Paladin DPS (getting started)
How Devynity DPSes right now at level 74.
Lets start with the basics.
I have outland level 70 gear mainly with some northrend gear. my health isnt stellar, but almost hitting 10k health. After getting one-shotted by bosses in Ahn Kahet, i think having a little more health would help. shedding some of this outland gear (although it has served me well) will help to not only increase Devynity's dps, but also his survivability.
Most of my gemable gear are gemmed with strength. this gives me maximum output in terms of base damage. But this gear is also gear i've picked up from outland and are pretty much outdated.
Most of my gear are enchanted with +crit, +hit, and maybe some armor if there is nothing else.
So there isnt much else to say about my gear. it isnt the best. heck, i dont even have the basic quests in northrend to get the quest rewards for nexus, ahn kahet, azjol nerub, or drak tharon keep. although those instances do have decent drops for a paladin, it's not enough to fill out my gear. the rest will need to be quested to get, or crafted. i do not want to really switch out my gear tho. although i know i might be doing a lot more dps if i were to be using the spiked cobalt set instead of outland dungeon gear. we'll see. i might just do a makeover tonight. just for the hell of it. hello AH!!
in terms of dps, devynity is doing about 1k to 1.4k dps depending on instances. in AN, he's doing 1.4k dps. in Anh Kahet, he's doing 1k dps. the level difference could be the case, but i find that i should be doing Drak tharon keep and violet hold anyway at my level.
So anyway, gem str, enchant str, crit, hit. thats it for gear.
So when i actually go out into battle, what exactly will i be doing?
1. I always start off with Judgement. Judgement of Wisdom, in the case of 5mans.... since really, no one really needs healing from my Judgement of Light, my only concern here is that i have enough mana. I have the two judgements on toggle, so if another pally continues to judge wisdom, i will switch over to light. Even though my judgement will return mana, and my first attack (if i am full on on mana) will waste my mana return for that judgement. it is ok though. in 8 seconds i will be judging again and will get more than enough mana back to continue to ass kicking. however, if mana is key, you can always start off with a divine storm and crusader strike, then judge to get your mana back.
Assumption: you have talented for Judgement of the Wise.
2. I follow up my judgements with my other attacks. i usually hit crusader strike and divine storm next. if there's a lot of mobs or if it's a boss that will last a while, i would consecrate as well. i would continue to get a crusader strike off while waiting for my judgement to refresh. when i see the big hammer animation, i know that divine storm (and possibly consecrate) will be ready for use in 2 seconds. and the whole time i am spamming crusader strike. it seems that crusader strike is the oddball when it comes to damage rotations. its on a shorter cooldown than the other abilities. making it the button i spam.
3. Procs: when Art of war procs, i hit exorcism. thats it. sometimes i may use flash of light on people, but for the most part, i will use exorcism when art of war procs. this is instant, so it doesnt break my rotation much.
The other proc is the hammer of wrath proc. when a mob hits 15% health, we can use that spell. it never misses, so thats one great thing about it. it deals a big chunk of damage and can be talented to crit more. those are the only two real procs i look out for. which is enough for me, if you ask me.
4. Special cases. if there's a caster that's far away enough for me to CC, i will CC. i will, honestly.
if we are fighting undeads, expect me to use holy wrath in my rotation as well.
Paladin-centric Battle Buffs:
Auras:
Use retribution aura unless the tank is a bit squishy. then use devotion.
If i am in a fight with lots of fire, i'd use fire resist aura. same for shadow and whatnot. it all depends on the fight. but for most trash pulls, i'll use retribution aura.
Blessings:
I use blessing of kings always. why? because its annoying when warrior's battle shout override my blessing of might. that's basically it. besides, kings rock. do not rely on blessing of wisdom to help you with your mana regen. you should have plenty of regen elsewhere.
Seals:
I've talented in seal of command. i use seal of command. do not use seal of wisdom or any other non-dps seal. there's just way too many ways to regain mana at this level its ridiculous. using seal of wisdom usually means you're bad at managing mana with what the game has given you. same goes for blessing of wisdom. dont do it. dont use seal of light, justice, etc. use corruption on bosses and command on trash pulls. always. why? more dps i guarantee. and lets not forget to mention epeen means everything. so top those meters. everyone has a meter. they lie if they say they dont.
Judgements:
Use any. most will use Judgement of Wisdom because it returns mana. You should already have the replenishment effect on you from all judgements. Why i think Wisdom>Light is because the healers should have zero problems keeping the 5man group up. face it, at level 74, no one cares about replenishment either. so what really does matter here is what you think will benefit you the most. you will get healed by healers if they dont suck. but you will not be given free mana by anyone else unless a druid feels generous about his innervate. use judgement of wisdom and let the healers do the healing. besides, divine storm does some healing. if you run with a bear, you get healed every 8 seconds due to crits. why i also think wisdom>light is because they do the exact same damage to the mobs. its the secondary effects that we're after.
Thats basically the gist of paladin dps. i hope this helps others. ask questions if you want, i'll answer them. there's a lot more that goes into paladin play, but this is the basics. questions? comment me.
Lets start with the basics.
I have outland level 70 gear mainly with some northrend gear. my health isnt stellar, but almost hitting 10k health. After getting one-shotted by bosses in Ahn Kahet, i think having a little more health would help. shedding some of this outland gear (although it has served me well) will help to not only increase Devynity's dps, but also his survivability.
Most of my gemable gear are gemmed with strength. this gives me maximum output in terms of base damage. But this gear is also gear i've picked up from outland and are pretty much outdated.
Most of my gear are enchanted with +crit, +hit, and maybe some armor if there is nothing else.
So there isnt much else to say about my gear. it isnt the best. heck, i dont even have the basic quests in northrend to get the quest rewards for nexus, ahn kahet, azjol nerub, or drak tharon keep. although those instances do have decent drops for a paladin, it's not enough to fill out my gear. the rest will need to be quested to get, or crafted. i do not want to really switch out my gear tho. although i know i might be doing a lot more dps if i were to be using the spiked cobalt set instead of outland dungeon gear. we'll see. i might just do a makeover tonight. just for the hell of it. hello AH!!
in terms of dps, devynity is doing about 1k to 1.4k dps depending on instances. in AN, he's doing 1.4k dps. in Anh Kahet, he's doing 1k dps. the level difference could be the case, but i find that i should be doing Drak tharon keep and violet hold anyway at my level.
So anyway, gem str, enchant str, crit, hit. thats it for gear.
So when i actually go out into battle, what exactly will i be doing?
1. I always start off with Judgement. Judgement of Wisdom, in the case of 5mans.... since really, no one really needs healing from my Judgement of Light, my only concern here is that i have enough mana. I have the two judgements on toggle, so if another pally continues to judge wisdom, i will switch over to light. Even though my judgement will return mana, and my first attack (if i am full on on mana) will waste my mana return for that judgement. it is ok though. in 8 seconds i will be judging again and will get more than enough mana back to continue to ass kicking. however, if mana is key, you can always start off with a divine storm and crusader strike, then judge to get your mana back.
Assumption: you have talented for Judgement of the Wise.
2. I follow up my judgements with my other attacks. i usually hit crusader strike and divine storm next. if there's a lot of mobs or if it's a boss that will last a while, i would consecrate as well. i would continue to get a crusader strike off while waiting for my judgement to refresh. when i see the big hammer animation, i know that divine storm (and possibly consecrate) will be ready for use in 2 seconds. and the whole time i am spamming crusader strike. it seems that crusader strike is the oddball when it comes to damage rotations. its on a shorter cooldown than the other abilities. making it the button i spam.
3. Procs: when Art of war procs, i hit exorcism. thats it. sometimes i may use flash of light on people, but for the most part, i will use exorcism when art of war procs. this is instant, so it doesnt break my rotation much.
The other proc is the hammer of wrath proc. when a mob hits 15% health, we can use that spell. it never misses, so thats one great thing about it. it deals a big chunk of damage and can be talented to crit more. those are the only two real procs i look out for. which is enough for me, if you ask me.
4. Special cases. if there's a caster that's far away enough for me to CC, i will CC. i will, honestly.
if we are fighting undeads, expect me to use holy wrath in my rotation as well.
Paladin-centric Battle Buffs:
Auras:
Use retribution aura unless the tank is a bit squishy. then use devotion.
If i am in a fight with lots of fire, i'd use fire resist aura. same for shadow and whatnot. it all depends on the fight. but for most trash pulls, i'll use retribution aura.
Blessings:
I use blessing of kings always. why? because its annoying when warrior's battle shout override my blessing of might. that's basically it. besides, kings rock. do not rely on blessing of wisdom to help you with your mana regen. you should have plenty of regen elsewhere.
Seals:
I've talented in seal of command. i use seal of command. do not use seal of wisdom or any other non-dps seal. there's just way too many ways to regain mana at this level its ridiculous. using seal of wisdom usually means you're bad at managing mana with what the game has given you. same goes for blessing of wisdom. dont do it. dont use seal of light, justice, etc. use corruption on bosses and command on trash pulls. always. why? more dps i guarantee. and lets not forget to mention epeen means everything. so top those meters. everyone has a meter. they lie if they say they dont.
Judgements:
Use any. most will use Judgement of Wisdom because it returns mana. You should already have the replenishment effect on you from all judgements. Why i think Wisdom>Light is because the healers should have zero problems keeping the 5man group up. face it, at level 74, no one cares about replenishment either. so what really does matter here is what you think will benefit you the most. you will get healed by healers if they dont suck. but you will not be given free mana by anyone else unless a druid feels generous about his innervate. use judgement of wisdom and let the healers do the healing. besides, divine storm does some healing. if you run with a bear, you get healed every 8 seconds due to crits. why i also think wisdom>light is because they do the exact same damage to the mobs. its the secondary effects that we're after.
Thats basically the gist of paladin dps. i hope this helps others. ask questions if you want, i'll answer them. there's a lot more that goes into paladin play, but this is the basics. questions? comment me.
Ponies
Me: Can you give me something to blog about?
Manda: Ponies =] can never go wrong with ponies. Or the trollies.
So lets talk about the ponies. there is no real talk about the ponies. i can talk about those celestial ponies, but whatever drama that happened when they first came out died just as quickly. really tho, who the hell would really complain about those things? they're just extras that do nothing much but give the person who has it a good feeling inside. you might get people to stop and stare for a bit, or take screen shots. but so what? its no different than wasting half your day in swamp of sorrows because you wanted an emerald dragonling. or two days killing bloodsail bucks because you wanted the hyacinth macaw. do any of you know what hyacinth means?
so lets talk about trollies. the males are hunched over and the ladies look fierce. they have tusks so how the hell do they kiss, or make love? they dont get their faces "planted" on the ground when they wipe. its their tusks that gets planted. how do they keep it clean? are longer tusks more attractive? why do they carry their sweat in a bottle? where does their mojo come from? what the hell is troll juju? why are they blue? are big toes sexy? what exactly is "the voodoo"? why do they have such a funny accent? so many questions i'd like to ask a troll.
and i find that female troll death knights fit. i mean when i think of a deathknight, the form of the female troll, along with male orcs fit what i would picture as a death knight if someone asked me to draw a male and female death knight. i mean come on, gnomes? blood elves? draenei? really? dwarves? i dont kow. just my opinion really. i sometimes wish my paladins werent blood elves tho, maybe humans or orcs or trolls or night elves. there's just something about being a paladin that doesnt jive too well with blood elves. maybe its the slender, almost fragile frame.
anyway, im supposed to be talking about ponies. and im failing terribly at it.
pony mounts are pretty cool. i wouldnt want one. i think $20 may just be too much for a mount. there's plenty of ways in-game to get mounts other than the $20 one. the one mount i would love to have more than any other is Ashes of A'lar. but who goes to tempest keep these days? and to fight A'lar of all things? skip keal thas. who needs him. i want that frost wyrm they gave to everyone who killed LK in 25man heroic. those two. yes. those two are probably the two largest status symbols in all of wow. not even the mount from anh qiraj or zul aman will beat that. yea... where's your pony? oh nice. let me take out ashes. lets compare. lol
i wish.
------------------------------------------
and so a dumb post ends because i have no content to blog about.
let me update you on my life tho. i havent played wow late at nights for the past several days. it seems to be working. me and my gf are having plenty of togehter time. although i do have to fight with facebook on occassions. overall, things are a lot better than before. there's some interaction going on and it feels more like a relationship now. things change so slowly while i was playing wow that the deterioration of a relationship seemed almost "normal" to me. i do get into my games too much, so i will take some "me" time off as well to do "me" stuff instead of wow stuff. so gone will be early evening random instances and daily quests, but will be replaced with things like cooking, cleaning, playing with my baby and maybe even some exercising. on the off hours, i'll level up Devynity to 80. i dont think i'll want to have my gf play wow. i think its better if i just quit one day. or limit my time on wow more. but im still contemplating this since my gf probably wants to play a game or two... sometimes.
overall, i believe that things are picking up and will be awesome. but this blog may have to suffer. you can see it in the ridiculous post about ponies and trolls. maybe we should get more of those posts in anyway. this blog has too much thinking. as manda put it the other night, "You think too much, =P" maybe i do.
Manda: Ponies =] can never go wrong with ponies. Or the trollies.
So lets talk about the ponies. there is no real talk about the ponies. i can talk about those celestial ponies, but whatever drama that happened when they first came out died just as quickly. really tho, who the hell would really complain about those things? they're just extras that do nothing much but give the person who has it a good feeling inside. you might get people to stop and stare for a bit, or take screen shots. but so what? its no different than wasting half your day in swamp of sorrows because you wanted an emerald dragonling. or two days killing bloodsail bucks because you wanted the hyacinth macaw. do any of you know what hyacinth means?
so lets talk about trollies. the males are hunched over and the ladies look fierce. they have tusks so how the hell do they kiss, or make love? they dont get their faces "planted" on the ground when they wipe. its their tusks that gets planted. how do they keep it clean? are longer tusks more attractive? why do they carry their sweat in a bottle? where does their mojo come from? what the hell is troll juju? why are they blue? are big toes sexy? what exactly is "the voodoo"? why do they have such a funny accent? so many questions i'd like to ask a troll.
and i find that female troll death knights fit. i mean when i think of a deathknight, the form of the female troll, along with male orcs fit what i would picture as a death knight if someone asked me to draw a male and female death knight. i mean come on, gnomes? blood elves? draenei? really? dwarves? i dont kow. just my opinion really. i sometimes wish my paladins werent blood elves tho, maybe humans or orcs or trolls or night elves. there's just something about being a paladin that doesnt jive too well with blood elves. maybe its the slender, almost fragile frame.
anyway, im supposed to be talking about ponies. and im failing terribly at it.
pony mounts are pretty cool. i wouldnt want one. i think $20 may just be too much for a mount. there's plenty of ways in-game to get mounts other than the $20 one. the one mount i would love to have more than any other is Ashes of A'lar. but who goes to tempest keep these days? and to fight A'lar of all things? skip keal thas. who needs him. i want that frost wyrm they gave to everyone who killed LK in 25man heroic. those two. yes. those two are probably the two largest status symbols in all of wow. not even the mount from anh qiraj or zul aman will beat that. yea... where's your pony? oh nice. let me take out ashes. lets compare. lol
i wish.
------------------------------------------
and so a dumb post ends because i have no content to blog about.
let me update you on my life tho. i havent played wow late at nights for the past several days. it seems to be working. me and my gf are having plenty of togehter time. although i do have to fight with facebook on occassions. overall, things are a lot better than before. there's some interaction going on and it feels more like a relationship now. things change so slowly while i was playing wow that the deterioration of a relationship seemed almost "normal" to me. i do get into my games too much, so i will take some "me" time off as well to do "me" stuff instead of wow stuff. so gone will be early evening random instances and daily quests, but will be replaced with things like cooking, cleaning, playing with my baby and maybe even some exercising. on the off hours, i'll level up Devynity to 80. i dont think i'll want to have my gf play wow. i think its better if i just quit one day. or limit my time on wow more. but im still contemplating this since my gf probably wants to play a game or two... sometimes.
overall, i believe that things are picking up and will be awesome. but this blog may have to suffer. you can see it in the ridiculous post about ponies and trolls. maybe we should get more of those posts in anyway. this blog has too much thinking. as manda put it the other night, "You think too much, =P" maybe i do.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Slowness
A little bit of bad news:
There's nothing much to blog about lately. Not only that, work is kicking my butt lately so i do not have too big of a chunk of time to blog at work. the only time i really get to blog at work is in the morning before everyone gets settled in, and that usually gives me about half an hour before i start getting piles of emails about loan documents and rates and approvals and all of that good stuff. not only that, i havent been playing wow as much as i was. i actually play only several instances a night now and those instances are really just for the hell of it. i really dont care too much that akeelah hit 80. she was #2 in damage with all blue gear. heroics are like they once were... just automatic.
there's nothing new and no new story to unfold, at least for the casual player. everything is the same. although i could do some quests out there flying around stormpeaks (since i know theres a taunka camp a warzone where dark iron dwarves are fighting other earthen and a crash zepplin site) since i havent done most of the quests there besides hodir quests. i mean i could... just to get the story down. but im not. its not fun anymore. outland instanaces would be totally fun if it werent for the extremely long wait times and constantly getting Mechanar. i cant even use the random dungeon finder because it will give me sethekk halls all the time. all the fucking time.
So i think i will just level up Devynity to 80 and call it a good three years of playing wow.
And maybe some good news:
Or i can play with my gf. which i did set up an account for. but i do not know what's going to happen. i do not know if she will like the game or not. knowing her tho, she's more into games like bejeweled or halo. they're games where you go in, play the game and leave when you're done. there's no leveling, no building, no progressing, no gear-collecting. she just does her challenge and calls it a night. thats the difference between us i guess. which makes her perfect for pvp... but only if she has the hardened determination to level a character (or two) to 80. its ok. there will be more games out there for us to play.
and i've thought about this for a while now, whether playing this game has really caused less of a bond between us. i think she wants to be an active person and i just want to progress through a game world... in our spare time. i think its better if she just tries wow for a while. or just play once a week even. that's enough to get her to know what i like and all that. truth be told, she was the one who wanted to play the game first. i KNEW i was going to be addicted to it so i avoided it as much as possible. but she got a demo disk at walmart for $2. and, like most things we buy, end up sitting around the house for months. finally, one day, i picked it up and decided to play it because it was just "wasting" away. and there you have it. no it really hasnt been three years. almost though. three years this october. i remember it well because it happened a few weeks after my baby was born. we couldnt live the life of a young couple anymore. we had a baby. so we stayed home and there you have it. she watched ghost hunters and chatted on AIM while i played wow. now i think she's sick of it. i am too.
well i am going to plan out a few activities i guess. so that we'll have something to do. you cant just break a bad habit by doing nothing. it needs to be replaced with something else. and im hoping that this something else will be something good and something that will promote bonding. because i really think we do not get enough of that.
in any case, i am thinking of rolling a shaman with my gf. it really depends what she wants to level as. we can just be newb players and play the same class badly too. although i might have to "teach" her about her class. it might be just too much for a true social/casual player like her. Maybe i should change the name of the blog now. its not really about a tree healing anyway. although, in th beginning, this is what i wanted to blog about. a tree, healing, alone. but i guess i will never have that chance. maybe i should roll a third druid. who knows.
my server is yet to be known. i might not go back to ravenholt or ysondre. One of the best guilds in the US is on Ysondre, however, and it gives me a little pride just knowing they walk hordeside with me along the streets of dalaran. but other than that, i rarely see my friend on there. i may as well just go back to ravenholt. the economy is a lot bigger, which means i dont have to "/2 WTB xmute master, tipping" for 2 hours straight. imagine trying to get a port to dalaran. also, i have 9 characters above 60 on ravenholt, five are 80s, and one lv.1 banker. my second WoW account (oh yes i do have a second account) has four level 70s. yea, i was a bit too cheap to buy Wrath when it came out for this account. not like i play it anymore anyway. so it could be hers. and we can play together.
together. i think that is what is missing. we dont do things together as much. we need to do it more often. so with that said, in the future, i believe you'll get fewer posts from me, with less content and more rant. but ranting is fun in and of itself.
-----------------
PS. To add to this, has anyone seen the movie Click, with adam sandler? i do believe i often act like him with the remote. although my body is there, my mind is not. it is stuck in the clouds thinking of how to play a game, although not going anywhere. in the movie, he lives through several years with his wife and kids before they get a divorce. he sees nothing of it coming and every other "unimportant" event in his life gets skipped over. but that's the very point of the movie. that these very unimportant events in his life are just as important as every other moment. and when he skips these events on auto-pilot, it costs him and his family a little bit of... something. until it breaks apart. before he knows it, his life is about to end. i guess for me, playing wow gives that same "auto-pilot" effect and has been for a while. although i do function outside in real life, the time i spend with my gf is spent in front of the computer with me playing wow and with her on facebook commenting about how bored she is.
With that said, i think its time to get off auto-pilot and start living.
There's nothing much to blog about lately. Not only that, work is kicking my butt lately so i do not have too big of a chunk of time to blog at work. the only time i really get to blog at work is in the morning before everyone gets settled in, and that usually gives me about half an hour before i start getting piles of emails about loan documents and rates and approvals and all of that good stuff. not only that, i havent been playing wow as much as i was. i actually play only several instances a night now and those instances are really just for the hell of it. i really dont care too much that akeelah hit 80. she was #2 in damage with all blue gear. heroics are like they once were... just automatic.
there's nothing new and no new story to unfold, at least for the casual player. everything is the same. although i could do some quests out there flying around stormpeaks (since i know theres a taunka camp a warzone where dark iron dwarves are fighting other earthen and a crash zepplin site) since i havent done most of the quests there besides hodir quests. i mean i could... just to get the story down. but im not. its not fun anymore. outland instanaces would be totally fun if it werent for the extremely long wait times and constantly getting Mechanar. i cant even use the random dungeon finder because it will give me sethekk halls all the time. all the fucking time.
So i think i will just level up Devynity to 80 and call it a good three years of playing wow.
And maybe some good news:
Or i can play with my gf. which i did set up an account for. but i do not know what's going to happen. i do not know if she will like the game or not. knowing her tho, she's more into games like bejeweled or halo. they're games where you go in, play the game and leave when you're done. there's no leveling, no building, no progressing, no gear-collecting. she just does her challenge and calls it a night. thats the difference between us i guess. which makes her perfect for pvp... but only if she has the hardened determination to level a character (or two) to 80. its ok. there will be more games out there for us to play.
and i've thought about this for a while now, whether playing this game has really caused less of a bond between us. i think she wants to be an active person and i just want to progress through a game world... in our spare time. i think its better if she just tries wow for a while. or just play once a week even. that's enough to get her to know what i like and all that. truth be told, she was the one who wanted to play the game first. i KNEW i was going to be addicted to it so i avoided it as much as possible. but she got a demo disk at walmart for $2. and, like most things we buy, end up sitting around the house for months. finally, one day, i picked it up and decided to play it because it was just "wasting" away. and there you have it. no it really hasnt been three years. almost though. three years this october. i remember it well because it happened a few weeks after my baby was born. we couldnt live the life of a young couple anymore. we had a baby. so we stayed home and there you have it. she watched ghost hunters and chatted on AIM while i played wow. now i think she's sick of it. i am too.
well i am going to plan out a few activities i guess. so that we'll have something to do. you cant just break a bad habit by doing nothing. it needs to be replaced with something else. and im hoping that this something else will be something good and something that will promote bonding. because i really think we do not get enough of that.
in any case, i am thinking of rolling a shaman with my gf. it really depends what she wants to level as. we can just be newb players and play the same class badly too. although i might have to "teach" her about her class. it might be just too much for a true social/casual player like her. Maybe i should change the name of the blog now. its not really about a tree healing anyway. although, in th beginning, this is what i wanted to blog about. a tree, healing, alone. but i guess i will never have that chance. maybe i should roll a third druid. who knows.
my server is yet to be known. i might not go back to ravenholt or ysondre. One of the best guilds in the US is on Ysondre, however, and it gives me a little pride just knowing they walk hordeside with me along the streets of dalaran. but other than that, i rarely see my friend on there. i may as well just go back to ravenholt. the economy is a lot bigger, which means i dont have to "/2 WTB xmute master, tipping" for 2 hours straight. imagine trying to get a port to dalaran. also, i have 9 characters above 60 on ravenholt, five are 80s, and one lv.1 banker. my second WoW account (oh yes i do have a second account) has four level 70s. yea, i was a bit too cheap to buy Wrath when it came out for this account. not like i play it anymore anyway. so it could be hers. and we can play together.
together. i think that is what is missing. we dont do things together as much. we need to do it more often. so with that said, in the future, i believe you'll get fewer posts from me, with less content and more rant. but ranting is fun in and of itself.
-----------------
PS. To add to this, has anyone seen the movie Click, with adam sandler? i do believe i often act like him with the remote. although my body is there, my mind is not. it is stuck in the clouds thinking of how to play a game, although not going anywhere. in the movie, he lives through several years with his wife and kids before they get a divorce. he sees nothing of it coming and every other "unimportant" event in his life gets skipped over. but that's the very point of the movie. that these very unimportant events in his life are just as important as every other moment. and when he skips these events on auto-pilot, it costs him and his family a little bit of... something. until it breaks apart. before he knows it, his life is about to end. i guess for me, playing wow gives that same "auto-pilot" effect and has been for a while. although i do function outside in real life, the time i spend with my gf is spent in front of the computer with me playing wow and with her on facebook commenting about how bored she is.
With that said, i think its time to get off auto-pilot and start living.
Monday, June 14, 2010
I wanna [heal] with no pants on
Blah blah blah.... or have the tank tank with no pants on. lol
becaues, your love, your love, your love, my drug...
wait... wrong song.
so i got back on my druid the other night because i was trying to get Akeelah, my lock, some emblems. she just dinged 80 and i was hoping to get enough emblems for one last piece of armor before i logged. well, she got into a heroic nexus run with some folks. then the unexpected happened... the healer dropped group. what?? okay so that's not sooo bad. but we wouldnt queue because one of my friends had the deserter debuff. it wasnt like we could move on. we were missing a healer. so here i was, in a bit of a hurry, wanting to get things over with, thinking about whether i should just hop on to my druid and heal. understand that probably no one cared that i did switch, nor did anyone thank me for saving them 13 minutes of wait time without a healer. but i did it anyway.
and we went off and killed everything. and you know what? it was boring as hell. yes. it was rightclick, rightclick, rightclick... etc. and every once in a while, nourish.
thats it. boring as hell.
so my solution is this. im going to take off my pants.
and im going to ask the tank to take off his pants.
and we're going to dance. and sing. and play kesha songs on youtube while playing wow.
that would be bomb. mai thais optional.
-----------------------
sorry for the short post. last weekend was busy and i was doing RL things mostly. you know. that nasty stuff you do between gaming sessions. but i'll hope to blog more about crazy dps hunters and stuff next week!
becaues, your love, your love, your love, my drug...
wait... wrong song.
so i got back on my druid the other night because i was trying to get Akeelah, my lock, some emblems. she just dinged 80 and i was hoping to get enough emblems for one last piece of armor before i logged. well, she got into a heroic nexus run with some folks. then the unexpected happened... the healer dropped group. what?? okay so that's not sooo bad. but we wouldnt queue because one of my friends had the deserter debuff. it wasnt like we could move on. we were missing a healer. so here i was, in a bit of a hurry, wanting to get things over with, thinking about whether i should just hop on to my druid and heal. understand that probably no one cared that i did switch, nor did anyone thank me for saving them 13 minutes of wait time without a healer. but i did it anyway.
and we went off and killed everything. and you know what? it was boring as hell. yes. it was rightclick, rightclick, rightclick... etc. and every once in a while, nourish.
thats it. boring as hell.
so my solution is this. im going to take off my pants.
and im going to ask the tank to take off his pants.
and we're going to dance. and sing. and play kesha songs on youtube while playing wow.
that would be bomb. mai thais optional.
-----------------------
sorry for the short post. last weekend was busy and i was doing RL things mostly. you know. that nasty stuff you do between gaming sessions. but i'll hope to blog more about crazy dps hunters and stuff next week!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Dumb chicken
IIC geared, 6k dps makin, lazer chicken annoyed me the other night.
I was on krak trying to get some more ilevel200 gear and ended up with utgarde keep. got a paladin tank (and i know paladin tanks!) thats pretty well geared, ilevel 230+ which seems to be a nice mix of emblem gear, ToC and ICC gear all up in there somewhere. Boomkin was similar. The healer? not too sure but he kept us up pretty well. There was a warrior in the group who just dinged 80 the night before doing about 1.6k dps. nice dps. =]
So there we go, boomkin doing his hurricane spell hitting everyone and getting 6k dps out of an easy aoe fest (since you know, paladins are king of tanking aoe) and im having a blast timing my howling blast and managing my killing machine procs. sure, the mobs die after two hits (no really, for most of these pulls, i couldnt even get past the 5 second mark on the first mob. and for dk's 6 seconds is when pestilence comes in (1.5 seconds wait + 1.5 seconds icy touch + 1.5 seconds plague strike, then we can do pestilence at the 6 second mark) so my dps was pretty much crap. for many fights, i've realized that the longer the fight, the better my dps becomes. this is true because the first 6 seconds of the fight, i am setting up my diseases, which really doesnt do much damage. it isnt until everything kicks in and my diseases have good time to tick away that the dps numbers level out to where im usually at, which is 2.0k dps. some days 1.8k, some days 2.2k, it all depends really. so i round it out to 2k.
So after the second boss fight (you know the two guys who's starin at each other) the boomkin says that the dps should be doing a whole lot more dps than the tank. i replied with, no, no we shouldnt.
then the boomkin laughs and says no, you should. in which i replied with, take a look at the tank's gear and our gear, dumbass. then i said to better check himself before he wrecks himself. i didnt wanna complete the phrase since, you know, its pretty obvious.
he then went on and i went on but he did seem to realize he was in error. that a dps dk with ilevel 200 gear (about five or six pieces only, the rest are 170+) should be doing 2k dps. should be. heck, two years ago i was stuck in a naxx group who couldnt do it because there was one dps who was doing 2.2k while the rest were doing 1.2k, 1.4k, etc. i was doing 2.0k dps in my "crap" gear. heck, i dont even think i upgraded anything since that run. you can armory me now. krakkenskull on ysondre. go ahead. he's got purple bracers and probably purple pants. the rest were blue. he's got hodir rep shoulder enchants but is too cheap to get the head enchant from the ebon blade. also his gems are not epic, they're rare "blue" gems. he's got one tbc enchant on his bracers and maybe on his gloves. his weapons are the hodir rep axes with mainhand enchanted with fallen crusader and offhand enchanted with razorice. ... ... ... doing 2k dps. i think thats fair. i think thats great. actually i dont think you can maximize dps any more than you can unless the fights were a bit longer so that i can keep my diseases uptime at 100%. maybe also get a few lucky procs and crits in there too.
but yea, i was a bit annoyed. the warrior spoke up at the end of the instance, telling the boomkin to stfu and that he just dinged 80 the other night, so theres absolutely no way he'll be out-dpsing a tank thats basically doing IIC runs. a druid, maybe, but a paladin? nope. not even gonna come close.
and again with the ilevel200 (and maybe the higher level gear from Trial, Forge, Pit, and Halls) i dont expect krakken to get past 2.5k dps in group fights and 2.0k dps in single boss fights.
Why does it matter what my dps is? it really doesnt. i am only doing heroics. heroics that are a precursor to NAXX. yes, NAXX of all things. so with people doing 3k dps, and others doing 2k dps, we more than out-dps heroic instances by 2x already. why should my dps be higher so that this boomkin could breeze through H.Utgarde keep faster? and how much faster? not too sure. its already on ludacris speed, why do we need to go any faster? srsly, i wasnt able to "pestilence" at all in most of those fights. we killed kileseth before he even did a frost tomb on us, which got me the achievement, "on the rocks".
so now, hopefully, we have a better boomkin whos able to actually inspect people who are doing "lowly" 2k damage and see that maybe they're just starting on their heroic runs (actually i have 190 triumph emblems i havent used, about 80 from finishing the bg's and the rest looted from bosses. i keep my fingers crossed that these guys dont remain "fail" in life, but are actually able to become better people through this experience.
I was on krak trying to get some more ilevel200 gear and ended up with utgarde keep. got a paladin tank (and i know paladin tanks!) thats pretty well geared, ilevel 230+ which seems to be a nice mix of emblem gear, ToC and ICC gear all up in there somewhere. Boomkin was similar. The healer? not too sure but he kept us up pretty well. There was a warrior in the group who just dinged 80 the night before doing about 1.6k dps. nice dps. =]
So there we go, boomkin doing his hurricane spell hitting everyone and getting 6k dps out of an easy aoe fest (since you know, paladins are king of tanking aoe) and im having a blast timing my howling blast and managing my killing machine procs. sure, the mobs die after two hits (no really, for most of these pulls, i couldnt even get past the 5 second mark on the first mob. and for dk's 6 seconds is when pestilence comes in (1.5 seconds wait + 1.5 seconds icy touch + 1.5 seconds plague strike, then we can do pestilence at the 6 second mark) so my dps was pretty much crap. for many fights, i've realized that the longer the fight, the better my dps becomes. this is true because the first 6 seconds of the fight, i am setting up my diseases, which really doesnt do much damage. it isnt until everything kicks in and my diseases have good time to tick away that the dps numbers level out to where im usually at, which is 2.0k dps. some days 1.8k, some days 2.2k, it all depends really. so i round it out to 2k.
So after the second boss fight (you know the two guys who's starin at each other) the boomkin says that the dps should be doing a whole lot more dps than the tank. i replied with, no, no we shouldnt.
then the boomkin laughs and says no, you should. in which i replied with, take a look at the tank's gear and our gear, dumbass. then i said to better check himself before he wrecks himself. i didnt wanna complete the phrase since, you know, its pretty obvious.
he then went on and i went on but he did seem to realize he was in error. that a dps dk with ilevel 200 gear (about five or six pieces only, the rest are 170+) should be doing 2k dps. should be. heck, two years ago i was stuck in a naxx group who couldnt do it because there was one dps who was doing 2.2k while the rest were doing 1.2k, 1.4k, etc. i was doing 2.0k dps in my "crap" gear. heck, i dont even think i upgraded anything since that run. you can armory me now. krakkenskull on ysondre. go ahead. he's got purple bracers and probably purple pants. the rest were blue. he's got hodir rep shoulder enchants but is too cheap to get the head enchant from the ebon blade. also his gems are not epic, they're rare "blue" gems. he's got one tbc enchant on his bracers and maybe on his gloves. his weapons are the hodir rep axes with mainhand enchanted with fallen crusader and offhand enchanted with razorice. ... ... ... doing 2k dps. i think thats fair. i think thats great. actually i dont think you can maximize dps any more than you can unless the fights were a bit longer so that i can keep my diseases uptime at 100%. maybe also get a few lucky procs and crits in there too.
but yea, i was a bit annoyed. the warrior spoke up at the end of the instance, telling the boomkin to stfu and that he just dinged 80 the other night, so theres absolutely no way he'll be out-dpsing a tank thats basically doing IIC runs. a druid, maybe, but a paladin? nope. not even gonna come close.
and again with the ilevel200 (and maybe the higher level gear from Trial, Forge, Pit, and Halls) i dont expect krakken to get past 2.5k dps in group fights and 2.0k dps in single boss fights.
Why does it matter what my dps is? it really doesnt. i am only doing heroics. heroics that are a precursor to NAXX. yes, NAXX of all things. so with people doing 3k dps, and others doing 2k dps, we more than out-dps heroic instances by 2x already. why should my dps be higher so that this boomkin could breeze through H.Utgarde keep faster? and how much faster? not too sure. its already on ludacris speed, why do we need to go any faster? srsly, i wasnt able to "pestilence" at all in most of those fights. we killed kileseth before he even did a frost tomb on us, which got me the achievement, "on the rocks".
so now, hopefully, we have a better boomkin whos able to actually inspect people who are doing "lowly" 2k damage and see that maybe they're just starting on their heroic runs (actually i have 190 triumph emblems i havent used, about 80 from finishing the bg's and the rest looted from bosses. i keep my fingers crossed that these guys dont remain "fail" in life, but are actually able to become better people through this experience.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Death Knight Frost DPS (Power Auras)
This is just a quick post about Power Auras. I've mentioned this to some folks already. This has helped me a lot, especially with classes that have procs.
What power auras does is ad visual cues to your screen to show you what's happening in terms of procs, poisons, cooldowns, debuffs, etc. I use it on my DK for Rime and Killing Machine procs.
Import Strings are basically my settings for a certain "Aura" in text form. use it by opening up power auras (typing /powa) and then making a new event.
Then click on the "Import Set" button and paste my import string below into the dialog box.
Save, and it should work like a charm.
This is my import string for Rime. Please use responsibly.
Set=@
Aura[1]=Version:st3.0.0E; gcd:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu1; g:nu0.40392156862745;
optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Frost_ArcticWinds; size:nu1.2999999523163; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.21176470588235; y:nu-30; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue;
timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; raid:bofalse; texture:nu2; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; symetrie:nu0; owntex:bofalse; isResting:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; anim2:nu0; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; spec2:botrue; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; InactiveDueToState:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; sound:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; id:nu1; inParty:nu0; HideRequest:bofalse; Active:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; buffname:stFreezing Fog; inRaid:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; customtex:bofalse; stance:nu10; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; spec1:botrue; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:botrue; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1@
Aura[2]=Version:st3.0.0E; gcd:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu6; g:nu0.75686274509804;
optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\INV_Sword_122; size:nu1.0799999237061; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.54901960784314; y:nu-30; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; raid:bofalse; texture:nu4; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; symetrie:nu0; owntex:bofalse; isResting:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; anim2:nu4; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; InactiveDueToState:bofalse; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; sound:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; id:nu2; inParty:nu0; HideRequest:bofalse; Active:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; buffname:stKilling Machine; inRaid:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; customtex:bofalse; stance:nu10; spec2:botrue; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; spec1:botrue; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:bofalse; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1@
Aura[1]=Version:st3.0.0E; gcd:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu1; g:nu0.40392156862745;
optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Frost_ArcticWinds; size:nu1.2999999523163; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.21176470588235; y:nu-30; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue;
timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; raid:bofalse; texture:nu2; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; symetrie:nu0; owntex:bofalse; isResting:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; anim2:nu0; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; spec2:botrue; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; InactiveDueToState:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; sound:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; id:nu1; inParty:nu0; HideRequest:bofalse; Active:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; buffname:stFreezing Fog; inRaid:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; customtex:bofalse; stance:nu10; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; spec1:botrue; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:botrue; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1@
Aura[2]=Version:st3.0.0E; gcd:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu6; g:nu0.75686274509804;
optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\INV_Sword_122; size:nu1.0799999237061; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.54901960784314; y:nu-30; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; raid:bofalse; texture:nu4; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; symetrie:nu0; owntex:bofalse; isResting:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; anim2:nu4; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; InactiveDueToState:bofalse; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; sound:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; id:nu2; inParty:nu0; HideRequest:bofalse; Active:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; buffname:stKilling Machine; inRaid:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; customtex:bofalse; stance:nu10; spec2:botrue; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; spec1:botrue; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:bofalse; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1@
This is my import string for Killing Machine.
Set=@
Aura[1]=Version:st3.0.0E; gcd:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu1; g:nu0.40392156862745; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Frost_ArcticWinds; size:nu1.2999999523163; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.21176470588235; y:nu-30; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; raid:bofalse; texture:nu2; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; symetrie:nu0; owntex:bofalse; isResting:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; anim2:nu0; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; spec2:botrue; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; InactiveDueToState:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; sound:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; id:nu1; inParty:nu0; HideRequest:bofalse; Active:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1;
buffname:stFreezing Fog; inRaid:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; customtex:bofalse; stance:nu10; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; spec1:botrue; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:botrue; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1@
Aura[2]=Version:st3.0.0E; gcd:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu6; g:nu0.75686274509804; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\INV_Sword_122; size:nu1.0799999237061; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.54901960784314; y:nu-30; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; raid:bofalse; texture:nu4; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; symetrie:nu0; owntex:bofalse; isResting:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; anim2:nu4; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; InactiveDueToState:bofalse; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; sound:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; id:nu2; inParty:nu0; HideRequest:bofalse; Active:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; buffname:stKilling Machine; inRaid:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; customtex:bofalse; stance:nu10; spec2:botrue; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; spec1:botrue; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:bofalse; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1@
Aura[1]=Version:st3.0.0E; gcd:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu1; g:nu0.40392156862745; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Frost_ArcticWinds; size:nu1.2999999523163; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.21176470588235; y:nu-30; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; raid:bofalse; texture:nu2; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; symetrie:nu0; owntex:bofalse; isResting:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; anim2:nu0; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; spec2:botrue; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; InactiveDueToState:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; sound:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; id:nu1; inParty:nu0; HideRequest:bofalse; Active:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1;
buffname:stFreezing Fog; inRaid:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; customtex:bofalse; stance:nu10; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; spec1:botrue; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:botrue; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1@
Aura[2]=Version:st3.0.0E; gcd:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu6; g:nu0.75686274509804; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\INV_Sword_122; size:nu1.0799999237061; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.54901960784314; y:nu-30; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; raid:bofalse; texture:nu4; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; symetrie:nu0; owntex:bofalse; isResting:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; anim2:nu4; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; InactiveDueToState:bofalse; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; sound:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; id:nu2; inParty:nu0; HideRequest:bofalse; Active:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; buffname:stKilling Machine; inRaid:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; customtex:bofalse; stance:nu10; spec2:botrue; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; spec1:botrue; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:bofalse; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1@
(Note: i looked at both import strings and see that the are probably identical. this may mean that the string is for the "page" so that every event will be recorded. so with the import string you copy, you'll get both events, the killing machine and the rime events. not sure if this is how it works, but try it out. you might only have to copy it once.)
This is what my Killing Machine proc looks like on-screen.
This is what my Rime proc looks like on-screen.
This is what my Killing Machine and Rime procs look like together.
Death Knight Frost DPS (a quick guide to get started)
There are a few basic ideas that are very similar with their DKs. I know moz was blood and kylie was unholy and blood, so DK play isnt that new. but frost brings two things that you wont be able to get from the other two specs: dual wield and procs. All dk's start off with the basic (IT+PS) to start their diseases going. what they do from there depends on spec. even tanks often start off with IT+PS, or use IT+PS right after they drop their Death and Decay. This is the back bone of every DK. and like all backbones, it supports your other spells and attacks. you dont use your backbone when hitting someone, you use your arms, so the backbone only supports your arm. if you have a broken backbone, your arms do not swing for as high of damage as with a healthy backbone. sound like preaching, but IT+PS is not your damaging abilities. they are the backbone-- the backbone for all specs, for that matter.
One very important thing to watch out for is Death Runes. like unholy spec, frost spec'ed dk's produce deathrunes by using blood strike, blood boil, or pestilence. any of those spells will use up a blood rune and will cause the blood rune to refresh as a death rune (so you can use it for a better attack, like obliterate). managing deathrunes is another fun factor in playing a dk. first you have your basic runes, then you have your runic power, then you have this "deathrune" thing going. what more do you want to watch? well with frost spec dk's, you get to watch "killing machine" and "rime".
what the hell is that? Well killing machine is a talent in the frost tree that procs while you're attacking. when killing machine does proc, your next icy touch, frost strike or howling blast becomes a guaranteed critical hit. yep. sexy.
and rime? when this procs, you get a free howling blast (costs no runes, and cooldown resets so you can use it right away). and look at the killing machine description above, it says that if that procs, you get as one of three spells, howling blast, to proc. so rime+killing machine = USE HOWLING BLAST NAO!!!
There ya go. thats all there is to frost dps. yep. easy peasy lemon squeezy.
The Nitty:
Ok. to go a little futher into the art of frost dps. i've explained almost nothing above. except that you get two juicy spells to play react to. lets go and see what the differences are.
1. Frost uses Blood Strike to convert blood runes to death runes (Blood uses deathstrikes to convernt frost/unholy runes to death runes; Unholy uses blood strikes to convert blood runes to death runes).
2. Frost uses Frost strike as their primary rune dump spell (Blood and Unholy use Death Coil). as frost, use Frost strike always. Heck, take death coil off your bar and use it only during ranged encounters.
3. Use Howling Blast often when in AoE situations. Death and Decay is less of a factor in dps, so dont use it as often as you would if you were another spec. now if there were 4 mobs in a group... you may want to use it. but you have better aoe abilities with howling blast anyway, especially with the two procs going off at once. i am not saying do not use DnD. just saying that you have another option that's not so expensive.
4. Use two 1handers. two maces, swords or axes. do not use a 2-hander, even if it looks good. even if the stats are a lot better. the reason for this is that you have three or four different talents that buff up your dual wielding damage and also, you have the benefit of two runeforge enchants processing.
4a. In terms of weapons, use slow 1handers if you can. fast 1handers are fine if the dps increase on the weapon is significant (say, you're upgrading from a 90 dps mace to a 130 dps mace). try to avoid fast tanking weapons, as you're not only gimping your dps with the speed of the weapon, but also with the secondary stats the weapon may have (like +defense rating, +dodge, +shield block).
4b. In terms of stats, weapons with Agi are meant for hunters and rogues, but can be used by the DK as well. Agi will add to your physical crit rating but you will benefit less from that than if you picked a weapon with +Str. Most 1handed weapons, however, have +agi so go with that if there are no other alternatives. you can always get more weapons. Devyn has two Black Icicles from H. Halls of Reflection, which have +Agi. so although we prefer str, agi is fine.
5. Use Obliterate (Blood dks use Hearth Strike. Unholy dks use Scourge Strike) as your major attack. no folks, do not think that two icy touches and two plague strikes will equal two obliterates. They do not. Dont waste your time using icy touch or plague strike unless you're going to refresh your diseases. use it ONLY to refresh diseases. Use Obliterate. (blood strike to make death runes and then use the deathrunes to do more obliterates).
Note: if you're low on health, you can use deathstrike to regain health instead of using obliterate. you trade a little dps since deathstrike will do a lot less damage than obliterate. if you have runic power, summon your ghoul and kill it for about 50% health back to you. personally, i'll summon my ghoul and sacrifice it. its "cheaper" to me, ie. i'd rather use runic power than runes to regain health.
The Gritty:
Now that we understand a little bit of the differences between the three DK specs and what frost should be focusing on, lets move on to how a battle should be played out. There are always two types of battles. The multi-mob battles and the single-boss battles. Lets start with the single-boss variety.
---Single target stuffs in BLUE.
---Multi target stuffs in RED.
Single? Why hello nurse!! (single-mob)Every instance has boss encounters and most of them are basic tank-and-spank. some require a little running, but all will focus on you, the dk, dps-ing down a boss (not the orbs ala Toravon).
What to look for when encountering a boss:
1. Know your rotation. Know where your buttons are. Know where in your HUD your runes cooldowns/runic power displays are so you know what you will be needing to do next. Efficiency is key as a frost dk. so always be on the lookout.
2. Stay behind the boss. Always.
3. Stay out of flames, fires, ooze, void zones and other bad things. (Strafe left and right to avoid it, easy). 4. Watch for Killing Machine procs and Rime Procs. using Mik's or any other scrolling battle text addon really helps with this. Also, there's Quartz procs and Power Auras Classic. They do more than show procs. they will show procs as long as its active and give you a big fat icon covering everything until you use it up. So instead of looking at your fist for a white glow (killing machine) or at your character for small shiney rays of light (rime), you can have a more noticable message when your procs do proc. seriously, the in-game indicators that you have rime/killing machine processed is hard to see. and during any instance, i see my fists turn red, blue, yellow, orange, green, etc. so figuring out if the glow means "killing machine" is kinda tough. use addons for this.
Quadruple Grande Americano for Tri at the bar! (multi-mobs)
What i love about frost dps is that i get choices. choices to use DnD or Howling Blast, or if i should use howling blast without rime procs, or if i should spread diseases now, or refresh diseases on my main target, depending on remaining health, ofc.
When encountering multiple mobs, like say, four mobs. the priority shifts a little. of course, we'll always start out with the same, icy touch and plague strike. the rest is a big mess.
Again, always stand behind the mobs. and stand clear of bad things.
Since there isnt an obvious target, you'll have to target the same mob the tank is targeting. that's the best choice since you probably will not pull aggro if you attack the tank's mob. let the other three mobs get a pestilence, and maybe a blood boil or howling blast. if you get a killing machine proc, you can use howling blast, as this will cause more damage than an obliterate or frost strike. that's basically the only difference in rotation between a single target and multiple targets.
ROTATION:
(rotation is subject to priority. read this first, then read priorities. they'll make sense one day)
A-single. Always start out with Icy Touch and Plague Strike. (there are people who say do PS first, you get 10 more dps. gimme a break) But always start with those two. doesnt matter which comes first.
A-multi. Start with IT/PS. Then pestilence + Blood boil. then follow the rest.
B. Then use Obliterate.
C-single. Then use Blood Strike to use up your blood runes (to change them to death runes).C-multi. you should have already used your blood runes. skip C.
D. Use Frost Strike for your runic dump. never use deathcoil--it doesnt hit for that much anyway.
E-single. When "Killing Machine" procs, use frost strike as soon as you can. yes, delay your other attacks and just use frost strike to "use up" the proc. you want to use up the proc because you want it to proc again as soon as possible so you can do another juicy crit frost strike. saving it up makes no sense. just use it. you'll get it again later anyway.
E-multi. When "Killing Machine" procs, use Howling Blast if you have enough runes. sometimes its better to wait for the runes to cooldown and use howling blast than it is to use the KM proc on frost strike or icy touch. just wait it out. its only a few seconds anyway. when the mobs start to die off tho, like when you're down to two mobs, use the KM proc on a frost strike instead.
F. When "Rime" procs, use Howling Blast. This is a free attack. so use it even if howling blast is an AoE attack. It still does damage to one boss, and its free. do not use it if it will cost your runes (aka, no rime proc). use your runes for Obliterate. never use your runes for Howling Blast. always use your "Rime" for howling blast. get that? hope its not confusing.
G. Refresh Diseases. when your frost fever and plague strike nears its end, or ended, use icy touch and plague strike once again.
Rotation Priority:
1. STAY ALIVE (even if this means running away for a few seconds).
2. Always keep your Diseases up. unless your mob is almost dead.3. Rime (if you see it, use howling blast).
4. Killing Machine (if you see it, use Frost Strike/if you see it, use Howling Blast)
5. Obliterate
6. Blood Strike (to covert runes)
7. Frost Strike (without Killing Machine Procs)
Stat priorty:
Again from earlier on about the weapons, prioritize Strength above all else. gem for strength as much as you can. if you need to activate a meta gem, use a prismatic gem (it counts for all gem colors).
Primary Stat priority:
1. Strength
2. Agility
(stamina will come with just about everything. dont worry about it much. int will come with some gear, dont trash it, just evaluate if the STR or AGI will give you better results. same with armor, etc... in outland, i had some mail drops where i can gem that tripled by STR for that slot (gloves, helm, pants) and i used that instead. gear becomes more defined for classes in northrend, but in outland, its fine to use mail gear or paladin plate gear so long as the STR is higher, or that you can socket some bold bloodstones, bold scarlet rubies or whatevers)
Secondary Stat priority:
1. Hit to 8% at 80. if you're leveling, dont worry too much about this.
2. Attack power. its great to have. although str is preferred, attack power should never be scoffed at.
3a. Crit from crit rating. it is very important to understand that crit rating increases the critical strike percentage of your physical attacks and spells. Agility only increases the critical strike percentage of your physical attacks.
3b. Expertise to 26. I think its 26. but make sure you get that up at level 80. while leveling tho, dont worry about it; gem strength only.3c. Haste rating. although your attacks are dependent on your runes and not your global cooldown, having haste will help late in the game, when you're maxed out with Hit, Expertise, and ripping at the seams with crit.
One last last thing... about howling blast. It will apply damage to specific mobs individually. there is not "cap" i dont think, and the more mobs you have within range, the more damage you will do.
lets say you have three mobs and each howling blast you do will deal 2k damage to each mob. that means your howling blast will do 6k damage to three mobs. if its one mob, you only do 2k damage. lets say. what if you crit? you'll do 150% more damage. so that's 9k damage total, or 3k to each mob. now lets say you're killing those man crystals running around halls of stone. there's 10 of them, and you get a killing machine proc. 3k x 10 mobs = 30,000 damage.
major dps boost there huh? probably. although i've only seen my crit howling blast do 30k damage at most (see ss above), im sure it can do more if you have enough mobs together in one place.last last last note: runeforge the main hand with fallen crusader. if you dont have it yet, use cinderglacier. for the offhand, use razorice.
excited yet??? go respec already!! lol go leave me questions if you have any. hopefully i've explained enough to get you guys started. hope i was clear. sorry, no pictures. =[
Friday, June 4, 2010
My friends... my friends!!!
Hi guys. I just wanted to thank you guys for reading my blog and, to some, for commenting. i do feel a little more introspective when writing the blog and felt that i wanted to do one after many days driving home from work with the radio off. instead of listening to the latest songs about how someone can make my "bedrock" (which is a really bad song, btw) or how i can brush my teeth with a bottle of jack (in fact, alcohol does kill germs, so squishing with some Jack Daniels can work) and instead, contemplate things related to wow. I will, however, pause my thoughts only for lady gaga. and then i will resume my internal momologues, waxing so elloquently with broken thoughts and clauses that lead to even more broken thoughts and interrelated clauses. think of it as thought association for the drive home.Again, i thank every one of you for reading my stuff, some of whom i do know and some of whom are pretty anonymous. i dont think i have to many visitors and those that do visit me are probably not even looking for a WoW related blog to read anyway.
So to Carlyn, Tim & Dez, Taylor & Beth, Kylie, Amanda, and my gf who sometimes reads this stuff... thanks for keeping me going, as i believe (believe is the key here) that some of you guys are actually enjoying my blog! And thanks to all the anonymous folks who i think are visiting and benefiting somehow from my blog.
My friday musings is dedicated to my friends as i have them in mind as my audience when writing this stuff.
Friday Musings
I dont feel like i am my characters. well i did before. but i find that im only controlling someone else. it's not my story really. its their story and im the one helping them make the decisions that leads to new experiences and whatnot. it gives me a sense of completeness at the end of the day to know my DK has gotten her 400th dungeon emblem. or that my paladin has reached grand master fishing. or something of that sort.
i logged on to devyn last night, just to see if immortelle was online so i can tell her that i got a ticket for using my speakerphone in the car. aparently, even with the speakerphone on, im still holding the phone. so thats technically not "hands-free". which will lead to a ticket that's about $100. but life sucks. its not a FML kinda thing. actually i never say FML. i dont enjoy my life much but im glad for the only life that i have. so i deal. in any case, break the law, pay the price. i got a ticket so im going to pay the fine. no biggie. live and learn.
so anyway, going back to logging on devyn. she's my dk since the start of wrath, has leveled up as a dps until northrend and then switched to tanking. tanked a few. pissed off a few people, but finally learned to tank well with her. i wasnt stellar. i wasnt great. i thought of myself as a "good" tank. the tank that turns the mobs away from the group (you know, to avoid cleaves and such) the tank that taunts when he can, the tank that use IBF often, and not just one encounters where there's 5 mobs on me, or when the boss is about to drop me like a bad habit. no... i try to incorporate everything i've mentioned before about tanking. im the tank with the stam/def gems. im the tank with, when my def went from 540 to 560+, decided maybe i should gem for strength since i will have issues keeping aggro from those ToC and ICC geared 6k doing dps. the heroic content that im doing is very trivial now, and having more than 560 def really is a waste. now if im tanking icc, then maybe i should gem for more def, and zero str. in anycase, even with the gear that i have, the cooldowns and all the nifty tanking stuffs that i have, i still cant seem to do a decent heroic halls of reflection run. nope. being the worse tank of the four classes, i have a slight handicap when it comes to tanking heroic halls of reflection. heck, sometimes i have problems with pit of saron. on my paladin, never. on my bear, never.
ok wall of text over.
i didnt feel like devyn belonged to me anymore. she's been sitting idly by for so long she feels like a stranger. the buttons are the same. the gear is the same. the face is the same. but somehow the soul is gone. she's not the same anymore and im not the same inside her doing her actions. i guess you can say the fire is gone. there is no excitement, no determination, no purpose and no life. i hold both of her black icicles dripping with runeforged energy oozing out of it, in the dalaran sewers shifting my weight from one hip to the other, looking bored. devyn was bored. i was bored. we were both bored with nothing else to do. we didnt want to go to icc, because i had to go in an hour or two. we didnt want to do any more heroics, because devyn has no use for it. maybe if she had to collect healing gear, then maybe.... no. (i have healers. they're not in plate. my paladins are prot and ret. healers in plate kinda makes no sense to me. but they're there in the game. healers in mail seem a lot more believable. mail is a lot lighter and helps when you need to carry a wounded ally to a ditch in order to bandage him up. plate is what a warrior wears. not the warrior class in wow, per se, but just any generic warrior who will be taking a lot of damage. this is why prot palas make sense and maybe ret palas. but healy palas?) in any case. tangents... lets get back on track.
so devyn is dying. dying a slow and sorrowful death. the pain is not physical, but real nonetheles. the soul is gone and eventually she'll be no more useful than the titanium guards inside halls of stone, lifeless, robotic, empty. but alas, this is the fate of all toons, of all life in azeroth and elsewhere. we will all leave our bodies in time. but in azeroth, their deaths are slow, their souls leaving their bodies long before their bodies decay. on earth, our souls are intricately tied to our bodies and will never leave until our bodies themselves die.
i find this interesting as it speaks of the permanence of our souls. within the worlds of azeroth, our souls are activated when we log in, and live until we log out. eventually, we never log back in and the life begins to die. the body will still be there. but the fire, the ferver, the desire to play this blasted game fades to nothing. it becomes nothing. just a shell.
the souls in our world seem to remain forever in its body, until its body dies. then, it goes somewhere. in most beliefs in our world, the sould goes somewhere else. the energy transfers, the soul lives elsewhere in other beings or finds an eternal home in a fiery lake. whatever the belief, the underlying assumption is that the soul remains somewhere. it does not die. it goes off and becomes something else, something no one really knows. and when we get there, there's no way to get back to this world, to tell others what the new existence is like. but even with the lack of support, we stil believe in a permanence that our souls have. it is within our nature to be forever.
i wonder how long it will be before our characters become nothing. where they will be deleted forever. there is no permanence. the'll just be a memory.
i logged on to devyn last night, just to see if immortelle was online so i can tell her that i got a ticket for using my speakerphone in the car. aparently, even with the speakerphone on, im still holding the phone. so thats technically not "hands-free". which will lead to a ticket that's about $100. but life sucks. its not a FML kinda thing. actually i never say FML. i dont enjoy my life much but im glad for the only life that i have. so i deal. in any case, break the law, pay the price. i got a ticket so im going to pay the fine. no biggie. live and learn.
so anyway, going back to logging on devyn. she's my dk since the start of wrath, has leveled up as a dps until northrend and then switched to tanking. tanked a few. pissed off a few people, but finally learned to tank well with her. i wasnt stellar. i wasnt great. i thought of myself as a "good" tank. the tank that turns the mobs away from the group (you know, to avoid cleaves and such) the tank that taunts when he can, the tank that use IBF often, and not just one encounters where there's 5 mobs on me, or when the boss is about to drop me like a bad habit. no... i try to incorporate everything i've mentioned before about tanking. im the tank with the stam/def gems. im the tank with, when my def went from 540 to 560+, decided maybe i should gem for strength since i will have issues keeping aggro from those ToC and ICC geared 6k doing dps. the heroic content that im doing is very trivial now, and having more than 560 def really is a waste. now if im tanking icc, then maybe i should gem for more def, and zero str. in anycase, even with the gear that i have, the cooldowns and all the nifty tanking stuffs that i have, i still cant seem to do a decent heroic halls of reflection run. nope. being the worse tank of the four classes, i have a slight handicap when it comes to tanking heroic halls of reflection. heck, sometimes i have problems with pit of saron. on my paladin, never. on my bear, never.
ok wall of text over.
i didnt feel like devyn belonged to me anymore. she's been sitting idly by for so long she feels like a stranger. the buttons are the same. the gear is the same. the face is the same. but somehow the soul is gone. she's not the same anymore and im not the same inside her doing her actions. i guess you can say the fire is gone. there is no excitement, no determination, no purpose and no life. i hold both of her black icicles dripping with runeforged energy oozing out of it, in the dalaran sewers shifting my weight from one hip to the other, looking bored. devyn was bored. i was bored. we were both bored with nothing else to do. we didnt want to go to icc, because i had to go in an hour or two. we didnt want to do any more heroics, because devyn has no use for it. maybe if she had to collect healing gear, then maybe.... no. (i have healers. they're not in plate. my paladins are prot and ret. healers in plate kinda makes no sense to me. but they're there in the game. healers in mail seem a lot more believable. mail is a lot lighter and helps when you need to carry a wounded ally to a ditch in order to bandage him up. plate is what a warrior wears. not the warrior class in wow, per se, but just any generic warrior who will be taking a lot of damage. this is why prot palas make sense and maybe ret palas. but healy palas?) in any case. tangents... lets get back on track.
so devyn is dying. dying a slow and sorrowful death. the pain is not physical, but real nonetheles. the soul is gone and eventually she'll be no more useful than the titanium guards inside halls of stone, lifeless, robotic, empty. but alas, this is the fate of all toons, of all life in azeroth and elsewhere. we will all leave our bodies in time. but in azeroth, their deaths are slow, their souls leaving their bodies long before their bodies decay. on earth, our souls are intricately tied to our bodies and will never leave until our bodies themselves die.
i find this interesting as it speaks of the permanence of our souls. within the worlds of azeroth, our souls are activated when we log in, and live until we log out. eventually, we never log back in and the life begins to die. the body will still be there. but the fire, the ferver, the desire to play this blasted game fades to nothing. it becomes nothing. just a shell.
the souls in our world seem to remain forever in its body, until its body dies. then, it goes somewhere. in most beliefs in our world, the sould goes somewhere else. the energy transfers, the soul lives elsewhere in other beings or finds an eternal home in a fiery lake. whatever the belief, the underlying assumption is that the soul remains somewhere. it does not die. it goes off and becomes something else, something no one really knows. and when we get there, there's no way to get back to this world, to tell others what the new existence is like. but even with the lack of support, we stil believe in a permanence that our souls have. it is within our nature to be forever.
i wonder how long it will be before our characters become nothing. where they will be deleted forever. there is no permanence. the'll just be a memory.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Plans at 80 on Ysondre
My leveling days in Ysondre are coming to a close pretty soon. I started a few days before i started this blog and figured it would be something worth writing about. besides, there's so many tree healing blogs out there that anything you may get from me would probably be less valuable than the many other tree healing blogs out there. besides, they're all anticipating cata changes at the moment while im still QQ-ing about 5man loot. heroic, or whatevers.
So anyway, back to my two characters on Ysondre. I've past 10k gold in little time. all while leveling. i have my DK at 79, ready to hit 80. just 10% more on my experience bar and i'll be bathed in that goldeny swirl of light they call a ding. or something. My pala is 72 and will simply do daily randoms, do daily fishing, cooking and try his best to get into more outland dungeons (this is where he excels anyway, being level 72 and all). Not to mention, having Ingvar's axe, it makes dps a breeze. most of my other gear is really from TBC. maybe the rings are not. but my chest, shoulders, headpiece, gloves, boots, etc. my shoulders and headpiece are the pvp honored rep variety. still, i pull off over 1k dps in utgarde keep. i think its due to the bold bloodstones and bold scarlet rubies he has.
My plans for my DK, Krakkenskull is this: To have him run heroic dungeons to collect gear. he will have only gear from heroics. that's it. no triumph or t9 gear. what he gets he'll get from running heroics. but he can get a boost with ToC, FoS, PoS, and HoR. these isntances are higher tuned and will drop better gear. i am still wondering if i should equip any of the gear i get from these instances tho, since i really want Krakken to have only ilevel200 gear. i dont know why. just to see how well he can do in "crappy" gear vs people who have all i232 or i245 gear. i know my other dk, Devyn, has pretty decent gear. no icc gear tho, but still, triumph gear gets me icc ready correct? whatevers. people are in blues doing the first wing so let me see how well my i200 gear will hold up against better geared people. we'll see.
The other reason i am having krakken just run heroics for gear is because he's in a guild of about 12 toons. this means a few things actually. in terms of unique accounts, there's much less. im a "Lord" in the guild but i really do not know what that means. We are called Knights of the Round so i am assuming we're all kngihts and pretty "round" IRL. it also means that i usually see no one online. not a single soul. not for most of the times i've been on. i did see one other person online last night, for about two hours, but that was it. the other times i find that its really dull and boring. i guess i could recruit, but i really dont know any of the guildies well to even want to recruit for the guild. i do know one person in the guild. but she's off playing other toons on other servers. i think i will just drop guild one day. but not sure when. not sure if i should just keep krakken there to run randoms since, really, you dont need a guild for that. Sorry Manda, its really lonely.
My plans with Devynity is still to do the same as what im already doing. namely, to gain rep with outland factions, to collect more enchanting recipes, to get more outland gear and gem it with bold bloodstones, to fish, to cook and to make a killing off the AH. actually, i havent really made as much as i hoped. mainly because the JC market tanked and my initial plans backfired somewhat. now, i am going to go farm some mats (i know farming sucks, but hey, 50g for a stack of cobalts is nothing to scoff at) or something. my fishing is making some gold (glacial salmon, icefin angelfish, darkclaw lobsters), my scrolls are selling well and my gold is over 10k. hoping to double that once i get a footing on northrend JC and enchanting recipes. It will be a fun ride i hope, as this may be my final project playing wow. we'll see how that goes.
By the time Devynity hits 80 though, i hope he can raid with his guild (at least do the weekly as a raid). they have quite a few people with at least 20 on during the weekends. this leads to the possibility of raiding. we'll see. during the week though, there's maybe 10-15 on, but by the time im winding down for the day, there may be 2-5 people left (1am, pdt). Although the guild Devynity is in is more of a social/leveling/casual guild, there is still talk about raiding and doing content together. there will be odd "fun" things to do like the jenkins achievement or doing 5mans together. they also have a lottery/raffle we can join (although it does seem a bit skewed since alts join in too) on a weekly basis, with an entry of 5g. we usually get over 100g, with about 10-20% of the funds going to the guild bank (all of which i dont see... yet).
i am hoping this guild will do things together often. they have a decent player base and some showing of leadership. although i do not see much else happening in the guild, if enough people hit 80 with intentions of raiding, we may pull something off. we'll see. as far as i can tell though, we're not much more than a bunch of casuals who kinda know what they're doing. a lot of us are pretty smart and can do more than just spam a single spell. i've partied with a few and, although i do see some elitists in the guild, i do hope that they will be a bit more laid back even in raids.
So anyway, back to my two characters on Ysondre. I've past 10k gold in little time. all while leveling. i have my DK at 79, ready to hit 80. just 10% more on my experience bar and i'll be bathed in that goldeny swirl of light they call a ding. or something. My pala is 72 and will simply do daily randoms, do daily fishing, cooking and try his best to get into more outland dungeons (this is where he excels anyway, being level 72 and all). Not to mention, having Ingvar's axe, it makes dps a breeze. most of my other gear is really from TBC. maybe the rings are not. but my chest, shoulders, headpiece, gloves, boots, etc. my shoulders and headpiece are the pvp honored rep variety. still, i pull off over 1k dps in utgarde keep. i think its due to the bold bloodstones and bold scarlet rubies he has.
My plans for my DK, Krakkenskull is this: To have him run heroic dungeons to collect gear. he will have only gear from heroics. that's it. no triumph or t9 gear. what he gets he'll get from running heroics. but he can get a boost with ToC, FoS, PoS, and HoR. these isntances are higher tuned and will drop better gear. i am still wondering if i should equip any of the gear i get from these instances tho, since i really want Krakken to have only ilevel200 gear. i dont know why. just to see how well he can do in "crappy" gear vs people who have all i232 or i245 gear. i know my other dk, Devyn, has pretty decent gear. no icc gear tho, but still, triumph gear gets me icc ready correct? whatevers. people are in blues doing the first wing so let me see how well my i200 gear will hold up against better geared people. we'll see.
The other reason i am having krakken just run heroics for gear is because he's in a guild of about 12 toons. this means a few things actually. in terms of unique accounts, there's much less. im a "Lord" in the guild but i really do not know what that means. We are called Knights of the Round so i am assuming we're all kngihts and pretty "round" IRL. it also means that i usually see no one online. not a single soul. not for most of the times i've been on. i did see one other person online last night, for about two hours, but that was it. the other times i find that its really dull and boring. i guess i could recruit, but i really dont know any of the guildies well to even want to recruit for the guild. i do know one person in the guild. but she's off playing other toons on other servers. i think i will just drop guild one day. but not sure when. not sure if i should just keep krakken there to run randoms since, really, you dont need a guild for that. Sorry Manda, its really lonely.
My plans with Devynity is still to do the same as what im already doing. namely, to gain rep with outland factions, to collect more enchanting recipes, to get more outland gear and gem it with bold bloodstones, to fish, to cook and to make a killing off the AH. actually, i havent really made as much as i hoped. mainly because the JC market tanked and my initial plans backfired somewhat. now, i am going to go farm some mats (i know farming sucks, but hey, 50g for a stack of cobalts is nothing to scoff at) or something. my fishing is making some gold (glacial salmon, icefin angelfish, darkclaw lobsters), my scrolls are selling well and my gold is over 10k. hoping to double that once i get a footing on northrend JC and enchanting recipes. It will be a fun ride i hope, as this may be my final project playing wow. we'll see how that goes.
By the time Devynity hits 80 though, i hope he can raid with his guild (at least do the weekly as a raid). they have quite a few people with at least 20 on during the weekends. this leads to the possibility of raiding. we'll see. during the week though, there's maybe 10-15 on, but by the time im winding down for the day, there may be 2-5 people left (1am, pdt). Although the guild Devynity is in is more of a social/leveling/casual guild, there is still talk about raiding and doing content together. there will be odd "fun" things to do like the jenkins achievement or doing 5mans together. they also have a lottery/raffle we can join (although it does seem a bit skewed since alts join in too) on a weekly basis, with an entry of 5g. we usually get over 100g, with about 10-20% of the funds going to the guild bank (all of which i dont see... yet).
i am hoping this guild will do things together often. they have a decent player base and some showing of leadership. although i do not see much else happening in the guild, if enough people hit 80 with intentions of raiding, we may pull something off. we'll see. as far as i can tell though, we're not much more than a bunch of casuals who kinda know what they're doing. a lot of us are pretty smart and can do more than just spam a single spell. i've partied with a few and, although i do see some elitists in the guild, i do hope that they will be a bit more laid back even in raids.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Please Understand Me
.
.
.
http://missmedicina.blogspot.com/2010/06/dungeon-chores.html
Something i wish my gf can understand sometimes. lol.
It would make life a lot less stressing.
Thanks to this post by a pretty entertaining blogger, i may have finally found an advocate for my /facepalm experiences IRL. i hope my gf reads it and maybe understand.
I would get less of the "please get me the shampoo because i forgot it again and i really really really need it now, like now, because i wasnt thinking ahead and forgot it" b.s. i get. you can substitute shampoo with anything else really.
Well, my other option is to try to get her to play. she'll understand one day.
.
.
http://missmedicina.blogspot.com/2010/06/dungeon-chores.html
Something i wish my gf can understand sometimes. lol.
It would make life a lot less stressing.
Thanks to this post by a pretty entertaining blogger, i may have finally found an advocate for my /facepalm experiences IRL. i hope my gf reads it and maybe understand.
I would get less of the "please get me the shampoo because i forgot it again and i really really really need it now, like now, because i wasnt thinking ahead and forgot it" b.s. i get. you can substitute shampoo with anything else really.
Well, my other option is to try to get her to play. she'll understand one day.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The General Concept of Tanking
I just wanted to post a little about tanking, taunting, pulling, etc. There was a paladin running halls of stone with me the other night who wanted to know how well he did. so i chimed in with a suggestion. i was running nexus with manda and met a paladin who, although never asked for help, was criticized by the two dps (two fury warriros, unfortunately also in my server) who stated that the tank was fail because he was using seal of wisdom. i chimed in with some spells and some suggestions. he took it really well. the two warriors left after the instance without much help, no suggestions, nada. way to go. Sons of Liches, i wont be partying with any of you any time soon. anyway, that aside, i've also noted some very interesting behavior among many tanks throughout my LFD experience.
Lets pick this up from the very basic, high level concept. Tanks do not evolve. That's basically it. they dont evolve. either because they went dual spec at 40 and is forever stuck at the level 40 style of tanking instances while leveling/questing in dps spec, or they simply do not get anyone in their group to tell them they suck. well actually they might not suck. they might just be getting zero feedback. i am guilty of some of this, where i find myself in a group with an ok tank or even a bad tank, but just wanna get things over with and hope that, for the tank's own sake, he goes and looks up some tanking blogs/sites/videos. but i do not know how often that happens. i wonder if they even think their tanking isnt stellar and would look something up without anyone in the group complaining or mentioning, productively, that the tank should L2P.
I have been thinking about doing several blog posts on tanking. one about pulling. another about positioning. another about cooldowns, taunts, resource conservation, etc. maybe the positioning/pulilng should be one post, as it is closely related.
In any case, the first pala tank asked in halls of stone, after the instance was over, how he did. i mentioned that he should turn around and look at his party in order to see adds and such. the instance where the two warriors were attacking the paladin, i simply spelled out what i used to conserve mana since the tank was using seal of wisdom. the warriors figured he was a fail tank. however, he was doing just fine, but he could have been doing much better with actual "tanking" seals and blessings. you know. those designed by bliz to tank with.
Lets go through the basics of each class.
The Stance:
1. Warrior: Defensive Stance. you get this at level 10 through a quest. use it. it increases your threat and allows you to do certain moves that's reserved for Defensive stance.
2. Death Knight: Use Frost Presence. this is not a talent spec. this is a "Stance" that you use. the other two presences do different things but is only beneficial for dps. tanks should stay with the defensive Frost Presence.
3. Druids: Bear Form or Dire Bear Form. This form, like frost presence and defensive stance, adds high threat to your attacks and increases your survival.
4. Paladins: The tanking Stance, Form, Presence for the paladin consists of two parts. one, he must use Righteous Fury. this is a buff that stays on forever, until the paladin dies. This increases threat and, if improved, will reduce a bit of damage. The second part is found in a blessing, Blessing of the Sanctuary. This blessing will increase health and will return mana to the paladin after every successful dodge or parry. this is THE blessing for the tanking paladin. As for "seals", we'll worry about that later.
The Pull:
All tanks are gifted with some very nifty pulling abilities. some pull by charging into a group of mobs while others pull the mobs to a common, middle ground. vary rarely should you see a tank pulling mobs to where the group is standing (which causes a lot of problems for the ranged dps who, for the most part, would like to remain... ranged).
There are several key considerations to take before, during and after the pull.
Consider before the pull the makeup of the mobs. Healers? Casters? Melee? What is the mix? can you also pull a group without pulling pats (patrols)? or if you're pulling pats, can you pull without pulling another group with them?
Also before the pull, consider where you want to pull them and, most importantly, where you want them to face. it does matter greatly where the mobs face after the pull.
Consider during the pull whether all the mobs are running to where YOU want them to run. During the pull, watch out for stray bullets from happyhunter, or deathgrip from doopidDK. i've done this a few times and apologize profusely for it.
Also during the pull, look out for your timing, as the pull may be too late and you may end up pulling some patrols or another group, or even the pather that's behind your group.
Consider after the pull whether you are on the target you need to be on. Know that changing targets often can confuse dps, will definitely cause more damage done to you (and subsequently, more healing needed to you) prolongs the fight and may cause loss of aggro. You may want to consider using raid icons if you do switch targets often. This way a dps will know who to target no matter who you may target yourself. Consider whether the group is safe where you're tanking. Remember that you should, for the most part, have your party in view. meaning, you turn the mobs away from the party. remember, as the tank, you're the one taking all the damage. so keep it that way by facing the mobs away from your party. if a mob does a knockback, make sure your back is against a wall. if the dps can be knocked back into another group, make sure you posistion yourself so that they will be knocked back "safely". If the group is safe from new adds and the possibility of pulling unwanted groups during the fight, then your next concern will be on the dynamics of the group of mobs itself.
Since there are four different types of tanks, and some odd ones, i will not be covering them specifically in a fight. however, i will state the common, overall concerns of every tank. Threat.
The ultimate goal for any tank is to control an encounter, whether its a group of mobs or a boss fight with adds or enrange timers, the whole game is about control. This has to be in the tank's head before anything else. how he gains control is different for every class he plays, as well as for every situation/encounter he experiences. but the goal is the same. he needs to control the situation. when i tank, this is my goal. i want every mob to do exactly what i want it to do.
For example, society controls the individual through laws, values, mores, etc. Individuals control a car through its pedals, steering wheel, fancy use of toe-heel, lol, etc. Tanks control their game through threat. Think of it that way. your threat is your key to control. and how you move around the gameboard of the dungeon will only enchance or hinder your control. i'd say, 75% of the "control" fight is through use of the dungeon layout, in positioning, in pulling and movement. only 25% of the fight is really a battle between you and your dps. it should be even less. but we dont live in a perfect world. so lets just round it to about 25%.
Again, i dont want to get into further details on how to pull without really discussing specifics, as in, specific tank, specific instance, specific party and specific mob group. What i do want to emphasize is that there are many variables to consider while tanking and how we plan out the pull will really be the determining factor as to whether a pull is a good pull or a bad pull. note, i consider bad pulls to be any that involves the melee dps having to run around the tank. this leads to less time for the dps to dps and also provide a possibility for the dps to accidentally pull another group.
So with that though, let me just list a few pointers when tanking.
1. Know your rotations. yes, know them inside and out. know when you will get your Runes off cooldown, know when you can use DnD again, know when you're able to use your taunt, avengers shield, charge, intercept, mangle, bash, etc. know your rotations and know your ohsht spells.
2. Know your taunts. put them on your action bar. do not make them mouseclicks only. taunt often. practice it. Some classes have two taunts.
3. Know your backup taunts. they are not really taunts. but ways to get aggro should your taunts not work. some would prioritize this before your taunts, or use it depending on the situation. Charge, deathgrip, intercept, silences, stuns, bubbles.
4. Zoom OUT. see the big picture. dont get sucked into tunnel vision tanking. looking at closeup graphics of a boss' crotch is great, but you still want to see the big picture. if im against a wall, i usually just use the bird's eye view.
5. Face the party. This means the mobs face away from the party. this helps the dps in many many ways. a) melee will not have to run around you to attack, thereby reducing the chances they may pull another group. b) the mob's frontal area of effect attacks will not hit the party (think Ingvar's Smash and Anub's Pound). c) You can see your party members and taunt when stray mobs attack them. how else will you sue your taunts and back up taunts? you have to see the party to do this.
6. Do not pull with a taunt. folks, please, for the sake of all kittens everywhere, pull with an actual attack or pseudo taunt. heck, use heroic throw, back up, then charge. yes. do that. its not as easy as using a taunt, but still. some classes get cool ones like avenger's shield. i even pull with exorcism sometimes. bears can fff. or feral faerie fire. then charge. dk's, i know you like deathgrip, but only do that if you know you wont need it in the near future. you can pull with deathcoil if you have enough runic power, or strangulate. if you have enough room you can run in and icy touch, switch to a caster and strangulate him, then go back to your main target. its not that hard to avoid the taunt. its actually more fun. srsly folks. save your taunts for when you actually want to taunt. pulling is something entirely different.
7. use your defensive cooldowns often. this helps the healers. every class has one. they are all played the same now. no really. every tanking class is the same now. IBF, Barkskin, Shield Wall, Hand of Protection. as well as the "plus % health" spells we all get. i forgot the names. but they're there. last stand, survival instincts. heck, paladins can sacred shield themselves. i know i do! dk have different abilities depending on spec. know they're there and they are very useful.
8. STOP GEMMING STAM. please.. you get enough stam from your gear. stop gemming stam and please gem defense (or agi for bears). i hate, absolutely HATE healing tanks who gem stam. unless you're doing an easy instance and are ICC10/25 geared, then sure, youre avoidance rocks anyway and stam doesnt really matter, its icing on the cake. but if we're doing difficult content (ie. emblem of triumph geared bear doing heroic forge, pit, or halls of reflection in ALL stam gems and stam chants) i'll hate you for it. you might live longer, but im doing nonstop healing. NONSTOP i say!
I am sure i'll think of more pointers. but these are the ones i can think of right now. anyway, hope this is a good general guideline in tanking (although i'll probably get zero feedback on this post). i will try to post more about positioning later. as well, i will try to post about priorities as well. sometimes i do wonder why clothie mobs dont all die first.
Lets pick this up from the very basic, high level concept. Tanks do not evolve. That's basically it. they dont evolve. either because they went dual spec at 40 and is forever stuck at the level 40 style of tanking instances while leveling/questing in dps spec, or they simply do not get anyone in their group to tell them they suck. well actually they might not suck. they might just be getting zero feedback. i am guilty of some of this, where i find myself in a group with an ok tank or even a bad tank, but just wanna get things over with and hope that, for the tank's own sake, he goes and looks up some tanking blogs/sites/videos. but i do not know how often that happens. i wonder if they even think their tanking isnt stellar and would look something up without anyone in the group complaining or mentioning, productively, that the tank should L2P.
I have been thinking about doing several blog posts on tanking. one about pulling. another about positioning. another about cooldowns, taunts, resource conservation, etc. maybe the positioning/pulilng should be one post, as it is closely related.
In any case, the first pala tank asked in halls of stone, after the instance was over, how he did. i mentioned that he should turn around and look at his party in order to see adds and such. the instance where the two warriors were attacking the paladin, i simply spelled out what i used to conserve mana since the tank was using seal of wisdom. the warriors figured he was a fail tank. however, he was doing just fine, but he could have been doing much better with actual "tanking" seals and blessings. you know. those designed by bliz to tank with.
Lets go through the basics of each class.
The Stance:
1. Warrior: Defensive Stance. you get this at level 10 through a quest. use it. it increases your threat and allows you to do certain moves that's reserved for Defensive stance.
2. Death Knight: Use Frost Presence. this is not a talent spec. this is a "Stance" that you use. the other two presences do different things but is only beneficial for dps. tanks should stay with the defensive Frost Presence.
3. Druids: Bear Form or Dire Bear Form. This form, like frost presence and defensive stance, adds high threat to your attacks and increases your survival.
4. Paladins: The tanking Stance, Form, Presence for the paladin consists of two parts. one, he must use Righteous Fury. this is a buff that stays on forever, until the paladin dies. This increases threat and, if improved, will reduce a bit of damage. The second part is found in a blessing, Blessing of the Sanctuary. This blessing will increase health and will return mana to the paladin after every successful dodge or parry. this is THE blessing for the tanking paladin. As for "seals", we'll worry about that later.
The Pull:
All tanks are gifted with some very nifty pulling abilities. some pull by charging into a group of mobs while others pull the mobs to a common, middle ground. vary rarely should you see a tank pulling mobs to where the group is standing (which causes a lot of problems for the ranged dps who, for the most part, would like to remain... ranged).
There are several key considerations to take before, during and after the pull.
Consider before the pull the makeup of the mobs. Healers? Casters? Melee? What is the mix? can you also pull a group without pulling pats (patrols)? or if you're pulling pats, can you pull without pulling another group with them?
Also before the pull, consider where you want to pull them and, most importantly, where you want them to face. it does matter greatly where the mobs face after the pull.
Consider during the pull whether all the mobs are running to where YOU want them to run. During the pull, watch out for stray bullets from happyhunter, or deathgrip from doopidDK. i've done this a few times and apologize profusely for it.
Also during the pull, look out for your timing, as the pull may be too late and you may end up pulling some patrols or another group, or even the pather that's behind your group.
Consider after the pull whether you are on the target you need to be on. Know that changing targets often can confuse dps, will definitely cause more damage done to you (and subsequently, more healing needed to you) prolongs the fight and may cause loss of aggro. You may want to consider using raid icons if you do switch targets often. This way a dps will know who to target no matter who you may target yourself. Consider whether the group is safe where you're tanking. Remember that you should, for the most part, have your party in view. meaning, you turn the mobs away from the party. remember, as the tank, you're the one taking all the damage. so keep it that way by facing the mobs away from your party. if a mob does a knockback, make sure your back is against a wall. if the dps can be knocked back into another group, make sure you posistion yourself so that they will be knocked back "safely". If the group is safe from new adds and the possibility of pulling unwanted groups during the fight, then your next concern will be on the dynamics of the group of mobs itself.
Since there are four different types of tanks, and some odd ones, i will not be covering them specifically in a fight. however, i will state the common, overall concerns of every tank. Threat.
The ultimate goal for any tank is to control an encounter, whether its a group of mobs or a boss fight with adds or enrange timers, the whole game is about control. This has to be in the tank's head before anything else. how he gains control is different for every class he plays, as well as for every situation/encounter he experiences. but the goal is the same. he needs to control the situation. when i tank, this is my goal. i want every mob to do exactly what i want it to do.
For example, society controls the individual through laws, values, mores, etc. Individuals control a car through its pedals, steering wheel, fancy use of toe-heel, lol, etc. Tanks control their game through threat. Think of it that way. your threat is your key to control. and how you move around the gameboard of the dungeon will only enchance or hinder your control. i'd say, 75% of the "control" fight is through use of the dungeon layout, in positioning, in pulling and movement. only 25% of the fight is really a battle between you and your dps. it should be even less. but we dont live in a perfect world. so lets just round it to about 25%.
Again, i dont want to get into further details on how to pull without really discussing specifics, as in, specific tank, specific instance, specific party and specific mob group. What i do want to emphasize is that there are many variables to consider while tanking and how we plan out the pull will really be the determining factor as to whether a pull is a good pull or a bad pull. note, i consider bad pulls to be any that involves the melee dps having to run around the tank. this leads to less time for the dps to dps and also provide a possibility for the dps to accidentally pull another group.
So with that though, let me just list a few pointers when tanking.
1. Know your rotations. yes, know them inside and out. know when you will get your Runes off cooldown, know when you can use DnD again, know when you're able to use your taunt, avengers shield, charge, intercept, mangle, bash, etc. know your rotations and know your ohsht spells.
2. Know your taunts. put them on your action bar. do not make them mouseclicks only. taunt often. practice it. Some classes have two taunts.
3. Know your backup taunts. they are not really taunts. but ways to get aggro should your taunts not work. some would prioritize this before your taunts, or use it depending on the situation. Charge, deathgrip, intercept, silences, stuns, bubbles.
4. Zoom OUT. see the big picture. dont get sucked into tunnel vision tanking. looking at closeup graphics of a boss' crotch is great, but you still want to see the big picture. if im against a wall, i usually just use the bird's eye view.
5. Face the party. This means the mobs face away from the party. this helps the dps in many many ways. a) melee will not have to run around you to attack, thereby reducing the chances they may pull another group. b) the mob's frontal area of effect attacks will not hit the party (think Ingvar's Smash and Anub's Pound). c) You can see your party members and taunt when stray mobs attack them. how else will you sue your taunts and back up taunts? you have to see the party to do this.
6. Do not pull with a taunt. folks, please, for the sake of all kittens everywhere, pull with an actual attack or pseudo taunt. heck, use heroic throw, back up, then charge. yes. do that. its not as easy as using a taunt, but still. some classes get cool ones like avenger's shield. i even pull with exorcism sometimes. bears can fff. or feral faerie fire. then charge. dk's, i know you like deathgrip, but only do that if you know you wont need it in the near future. you can pull with deathcoil if you have enough runic power, or strangulate. if you have enough room you can run in and icy touch, switch to a caster and strangulate him, then go back to your main target. its not that hard to avoid the taunt. its actually more fun. srsly folks. save your taunts for when you actually want to taunt. pulling is something entirely different.
7. use your defensive cooldowns often. this helps the healers. every class has one. they are all played the same now. no really. every tanking class is the same now. IBF, Barkskin, Shield Wall, Hand of Protection. as well as the "plus % health" spells we all get. i forgot the names. but they're there. last stand, survival instincts. heck, paladins can sacred shield themselves. i know i do! dk have different abilities depending on spec. know they're there and they are very useful.
8. STOP GEMMING STAM. please.. you get enough stam from your gear. stop gemming stam and please gem defense (or agi for bears). i hate, absolutely HATE healing tanks who gem stam. unless you're doing an easy instance and are ICC10/25 geared, then sure, youre avoidance rocks anyway and stam doesnt really matter, its icing on the cake. but if we're doing difficult content (ie. emblem of triumph geared bear doing heroic forge, pit, or halls of reflection in ALL stam gems and stam chants) i'll hate you for it. you might live longer, but im doing nonstop healing. NONSTOP i say!
I am sure i'll think of more pointers. but these are the ones i can think of right now. anyway, hope this is a good general guideline in tanking (although i'll probably get zero feedback on this post). i will try to post more about positioning later. as well, i will try to post about priorities as well. sometimes i do wonder why clothie mobs dont all die first.
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