You shouldent be here.

If you landed here on this blogger blog, you landed wrong. I hope you didnt hurt yourself. Your supposed to be here. If you stay, you will be bored. Go here now.

The Road to Hall is Paved With QQ

Okay, back onto my old gripe, gear planning... In a minute, first, I have some soothing to do.

Its okay MissElf, ppl R stoopid, we know. There there. You should totally tell off whoever inspired this post, and /ignore them. Just sayin'. (Oh.... Ranting is sorta your, thing, isint it? Well disregard then.)

And Z, my good friend. The Ripper is about 1000000^234 times better now. How can that be the straw for you?  I mean, you have been holding back so long on how you really feel about change (read: you fear and despise it,) we know. you could always give the Ripper to me... First thing I did when I saw the change was the first thing you did; run screaming out of the room, throwing various things at the people we saw. But I did it because I was angry I never got the Ripper in the first place! See, my reasons for being rage-a-licious are so much more positive!

And I ask again, what... the... hell... is with Blizzard and Trolls and Axes?

Okay, back to my complaining about gear planning. I was wrong. But not because it doesn't cause some people to put the blinders on, and run only things they 'need.' No, I was wrong because there are so many other good ways to use gear plans, and indeed, they are almost necessary. My issue with gear planning on my blog is really much more simple. I hate gear planning. If I hate something, and I blog about it, its gonna suck. So, I have decided not to blog about gear planning! You see, what I really like about WoW is the game... of WoW. But, there is a problem, almost all WoW bloggers blog about gear planning. In fact, a lot do it almost exclusively. Some have a gift for it, others just compile lists of links. Instead, I am going to do something different. To fill that space on my blog, I am going to write definitive and complete guides to instances. They will be primarily tank oriented, but will cover how things are traditionally handled. What will make these guides different is that they are done by me, so I wont miss things, or gloss over things that are actually important or interesting.

Not A Post

This is not a blog post. You see, I decided to be lazy today, and not post at all. I know, I am a meanie. But, I decided to share some pictures of my first experience tanking in Wrath!

I got asked to tank Heroic Utgard Keep. See?

Wait, thats me playing with a Paper Zeppelin. I logged in, and these two cool dudes (whom I shall call Tweedledee and Tweedledum (up to you to decide which is which.) Started to throw the Zeppelin at me, so we made a triangle of tossing fun, it went on for hours, with giggling and merriment. Its just so cool how Dalaran brings people together, and with all the toys in Wrath, we do stuff now, instead of standing there, staring at some yuppie on his Mammoth. (Btw, no one cares about the mammoth you spent way too much money on, don't AFK in front of the bank.)

But, as all things do, the fun ended. As usual, it ended in a bear attack!!!!

I hate bears, I think they are going to be the death of all of Azeroth.

Anyway, on to the tanking. (And not Bear tanking, remember folks, bears are evil.) So, we went in, and despite my fears, found the going was relatively easy. Even the bosses went down with relative ease, until Ingvar the Plunderer I honestly believe that it was a coordination issue, we made three attempts, the first time, no one told the healer to stop casting just before the Staggering and Dreadful Roars.

This is the first time I have shown these, this is from the addon Eavesdrop, which I highly reccomend. Anyway, at the end of each combat, it prints a summery. It goes Dmg In | Heal In | Heal out | Dmg Out. So, we can see that I took 69.6K Damage, but got healed for 79.6K, that's not bad, it means the ratio is at least survivable. However, something went wrong, as I said, and within the 6 second spell lockout of the Staggering Roar, I was dead.

On the second attempt the Deathknight took a smash, (btw, if your a DPS, its a really simple rule, stand behind the enemy, unless its a dragon, then you stand to the side, c'mon, folks!) The healer got panicked, and took another interrupt while trying to save the DK, and we wiped.

This attempt was a little less peachy, 48.2K in, and only 23.9K healed, a clear healing problem, which as I explained, was due to a mis-targeting on his part.

And then the third and final attempt was bad because, well, it was the final attempt. I really despise people who say things like, "last try." It puts too much pressure on the folks who may be learning or may be undergeared, and most people don't respond well. Sadly, I don't have a picture of the last death, it was obscured by a tooltip, but I don't blame others for failures, mostly because I don't control what others do with that blame, instead, I figure out what I could have done better, there is always some way to improve. After researching, I found that at one point I took a 15k hit from one of Ingvar's smashes. And that was not a crit. Simply put, I need better gear. I need a bigger health pool, 540 Defense, and better avoidance. I took this picture to show you where I was at.

Less than 18k health, (the DK had 20k, without Frost Presence.) and 529 Defense, is just not going to cut it. Im shooting for 25k health, 540 Defense, 20K armor, and 40% combined avoidance (Dodge + Parry,) for Naxx, and I have to say this was a wake-up call.

Just before the run, I replaced the last of my BC gear (except trinkets) with Pieces of the Tempered Saronite set, and got my hands on the Daunting Handguards and Legplates, In other words, there are no other crafted items that will help me archive my goals. I am loathe to spend a lot of money on enchants or gems at this point, and I don't think its necessary when the majority of my items are below item level 160.

So, what do I do, other than making a gear list? Well, I am going to identify my three weakest peices, and decide on how to get an upgrade, drum roll please....

***

First up, my Tundra Pauldrons gotta go. Its a shame, because although the values are too low, this is what I look for in a really good item, diversity in stats. Str, Sta, Shield Block, Defense, and Dodge, not bad.

Obviously, there is the Tempered Saronite Shoulders, but 8 more Defense Rating (1 more point of Defense) is not worth the loss of 26 Block Rating and 25 Dodge rating, so it is out.

That left me with this. That's Pauldrons of the Colossus from the Drakkari Colossus / Elemental in Heroic Gundrak or the Iron Dwarf Smith Pauldrons from General Bjarngrim in Heroic Halls of Lighting.

***

How in the world do I replace my Libram of Repentance? Ultimately I have to, 42 Shield Block Rating was 5.3% Block at level 70.... At 80? 2.5% Yet, in spite of this, its still almost the best in slot. Eventually, I will have to pick up a Libram of Obstruction for 15 Emblems of Heroism, but I am not looking forward to it. Maybe I am under-valuing Shield Block Value?

***

I am also going to need to replace my two trinkets Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch, and Dawnstone Crab, but I am nervous. For whatever reason, I can use both of these trinkets at the same time for a mini-Evasion, at 70, I got 22.5% Dodge with both up, at 80, I get  11%. Still nothing to sneeze at, but I know I can do better. First up is crafting me a Monarch Crab, which is just wonderful because of the options the gem sockets give me. If I am still not defense capped, 2 Thick Dragon's Eyes, when I get the cap, I can switch to 2 Solid Dragon's Eyes, I do look forward to that. But as for the other Trinket? There is the Valor Medal of the First War for 40 Emblems of Heroism, but basically, I haven't found a good replacement? Are Trinkets like other items? Are the meant to be replaced? I hear that the Commendation of Kael'thas is still one of the best tanking trinkets in the game. Maybe Essence of Gossamer from Hadronox in Heroic Azjol-Nerub?

***

So, after planning that out, where am I? I need to run Gundrak, Halls of Lighting, and/or Azjol-Herub on heroic. But I also just need heroics, and hell, it wouldn't be bad to go back to Magisters' Terrace? Maybe I hate gear plans so much because I suck at it?

BTW, this was not a blog post, if it appeared to be a blog post at any point, you are mistaken, and should have stopped reading. You had been Post-Warned?

(I don't even know what I am saying.)

Long Live the King

I've been looking for the pillars of the Paladin blogosphere, you know, the BRKs, Phaelias, and BBBs... In doing so, I found Palordin. So far, I like what I have been reading. However, she recently posted about Blessing of Kings. In her post (here) she says that Kings should be required for Tanks. In her comments, she also says that Ret paladins should also have it, and agrees that Holy probably should too.

I guess I just dont agree. But this is for me personally, and before I go into my specs, I wonder, in what situations, should a paladin not pick up Kings? In order to frame that question, we have to understand the history. Kings has been with us since sometime before I started playing, at that point, Blessing of Kings was the protection 11 point talent. It was with the release of Wrath of the Lich King that it was moved to tier one, but as a 5 point talent. (Split, as is required by the technology, into one one pointer, and another four pointer.)

But the interesting bit about the history of Kings is its efficacy over time. No one argues that a flat 10% increase to all stats is one of the best buffs in the game, the argument is whether it is the best buff. If it is truly the best buff, then Palordin is right, all paladins should have it. I am no longer convinced it is best. For some specs and classes, it absolutely is (warlocks, looking at you here.) But that fact tells us a lot. When BC came out, stats other than attributes became far more common, because of the new rating system. In other words, a much higher percentage of your crit chance came from your Critical Strike Rating than it did from Agility. In addition, as was always the case with Spell Damage and Healing (now Spell Power,) Attack Power has become a key stat, instead of being constructed almost entirely from Strength and/or Agility. Kings only helps those classes and specs that stack attributes, for the other classes, Kings is more of a questionable prospect.

I am not suggesting that Kings is not hugely beneficial, or even, in many situations, the best blessing out there. All I am saying, is that Blessing of Kings should be much more thoroughly inspected than it is.

But, all that discussion, however academic and intriguing, is entirely moot for most players. Most players need to be aware of the needs of their guilds or raids, not taking a rule of thumb as the gospel. Only one Paladin should be required to take Kings if there is more than one per raid. And for me personally, I do not take Kings in my Protection build.

I take Pursuit of Justice. That's because I am a freak. (Which, therefore, should make you wonder if you should have even listened to me about Kings in the first place.) This is my protection build. I love it, because for me, the build has to have a certain amount of me in it. I cannot stand cookie cutter builds.

For me, Pursuit of Justice more than makes up for the loss of some of the other talents I have to give up, and I have never had a problem doing my job. (Incedentially, the threat game is over, folks, why are we so focused on Seals of the Pure?) In addition, Pursuit of Justice helps me tank better in many situations where I am required to reposition myself or the boss. And the disarm reduction is a nice bonus, even if its largely meaningless.

There are required talents, so be sure, but Kings doesn't make you a lesser Tank, DPS/Battery, or Healer. Its incidental. We have never been stacked in a raid for it (that was for Salvation.) The buff itself is often not used when raids have no paladins. It is not required. But if you want it, take it, it has immense value. I value the player who makes the decision (one way or the other,) over the player who lets anyone tell them what to do, me included.

(Think about it... Get it?)

Twit! Wait, what?

So, wait, my friend, apparently, is military, or, at least, affiliated with the USO.

I have to say, I missed that. Its funny, only on the internet could you feel comfortable enough with a person to call them a friend, and not know who they really are.

I'm fairly incognito myself, but I tend to be that way cause, well, I'm boring. Funny what you learn.

(I want points, btw, for not making some snarky joke, about how he linked to the USO donate page, rather than the About USO page, or even just the USO front page. =p)

(Oh, crap, I did make a snarky joke.)

DnD and the Scenario Blues

DnD has a problem. It is supposed to be a game defined by the infinite possibilities. But it has become way too bogged down in being a miniature skirmish game. Way too often, the game boils down to a combat scenario, and worse yet, the most basic kind! You kill them before they kill you.

I have decided to start a series of posts called the DnD Scenario Blues. (DnD:SB.) In each post, I will explore another scenario that could be used in place of a standard bash n’ smash. I encourage people to use these, (even though I know only 2 people in the whole world read this blog.) Some will involve combat, some will not, some will be skill challenges, some will not.

***

For my first offering. I give you, the breakthrough. There really is nothing revolutionary about this, but it’s the beginning for me, and so it is the beginning for this series. It started when I had my players face a different kind of challenge. They had to get through a horde of bad-guys to reach a point on the map. Really, it’s that simple. But it has revolutionized my game, and I knew it immediately.

The party was trying to find this oracle, who ran off without her wards for unknown purposes. They had to track her down through various means, but when they at last arrived, they saw hundreds of snake-like creatures attacking a huge warding sphere that was shielding the oracle. When I described the scene, it took a while for me to convince my players that I really meant what I said, "hundreds." I’ve thrown hordes at them, and with minions, and the all the new ways you can move in 4e, they have stopped quaking in their boots at the sight of all those glass beads. But 'hundreds' is a scale they had never imagined they would have to face. They were confused, trying to reason out how they could kill hundreds of monsters. And then one of them got it. "Look, guys, all we have to do is get to the sphere, she will let us in.*"

I saw the wave of revelation dawn over the players, and most of them started grinning and leaning forward, trying to get an idea of how to get through. They were engaged in a way I had only ever been able to achieve once or twice before. In short, it was awesome.

So, the breakthrough definitely fits in any DM's repertoire; but, what are the key points to making a good breakthrough scenario?

First and foremost, there has to be a lot of pressure. And I mean a lot, in most combat encounters; you end up with a 'fair' fight. Meaning it is, on it merits, 'beatable,' the breakthrough has to be a suicide mission if they stay and fight. Not because you are in any danger of players staying and fighting, but because you have to make each movement painful. The flip-side is that it cannot be impossible. Characters cannot pass through spaces that monsters occupy. Knowing this, it would be easy for the monsters to win, by positioning themselves into walls of monsters that would have to be defeated. This does, sometimes, present you a logic problem. If the monsters are smart enough, they would 'use the rules' and block players. There has to be some reason why they are less densely packed.

The second key point is summed up in one word. Minions, minions, minions. (Fine, one word, three times.) Monsters have to be able to be killed easily without entangling the characters for more than a round. Players will not risk attacks of opportunity at the beginning, and strategically, this makes sense; you’re not going to simply run the gauntlet, you would be cut down before you get there. But if the monsters are not minions, it turns into yet another slog fest.

The last key point is supply. Because monsters cannot bunch up too densely, and because they should be minions, you are going to find out that players are easily able to clear out large amounts of monsters, nullifying the difficulty if there is not a large (and I honestly recommend infinite,) supply of reinforcements. Working out how this work obviously depends on the encounter itself.

If you have used the breakthrough before, or have some really savvy players, you may want to throw some complications in there. The vast majority of monsters should be minions, but a few regular monsters, especially soldier-type monsters, make the encounter much more troublesome. Also, make use of the terrain, don’t be afraid to force the characters to deviate from a straight line. We have a house rule where we place pennies where monsters have died, one penny is difficult terrain, two is 'double-difficult' (taking 3 squares of movement to enter,) and three is impassible. This makes even the bodies of minions an impediment. Perhaps the most devious, add a time-limit, perhaps a door is closing or it takes time to open. Or, you could require the players to escort fragile NPCs through. (But remember, nothing should ever turn into something that is impossible, if the door closes, there should be a way to force it open again.)

In my game, the chose to move as a unit. So, I had them all roll initiative, and had them all move at the highest point (they had plenty of time to prepare before charging in, so it didn’t seem fair (or make sense,) to make them all go on the lowest initiative.) They were able to bust through about half the length of the field, but then they got hung up, because I had some non-minion monsters in there. But, they adapted well, eventually they broke off, and moved individually, but the fighter and paladin went first, to soak up the attacks of opportunity. Eventually, they broke through, and got their rewards.

The breakthrough is an excellent scenario for you to explore, but there are some concerns. First, expect to be rolling a lot of monster attacks, thankfully, the widespread use of minions mitigate that by having set damage. Also, a good breakthrough should probably take the place of a boss encounter, because the characters will be forced to expend a lot of healing surges and encounter and daily powers. The last concern is the reward. Experience should not be awarded for monsters slain, because the point of the scenario has nothing to do with killing, likewise, awarding experience for the number of monsters present would yield far too much. My suggestion is to award the same experience you would award for the most difficult encounter the group is capable of undertaking.

***

The short version; breakthrough encounters are when the characters are required to get from point A to point B, and there are massive amounts of monsters in the way. In order for those monsters to provide the challenge, follow the guidelines below.

• Don’t skimp, the monsters should be able to tear the PCs apart if they stop.
• Use minions.
• Have many (infinite) reinforcements for the monsters.
• Make use of complications.



• A few regular monsters.
• Varied Terrain (bodies make difficult terrain.)
• Add a time limit, or maybe even a squishy to escort.

Have fun!

(* I have taken several liberties in explaining this story here, the real game was a little more complicated.)

The WoW Post

So, right off the bat, we have...

That's right, levels 79 and 80, in one post! I posted about getting 78 the other day, the next day, I ran one instance, and because of my rested bonus, I was halfway to 79. I quested the other half out, and then, with the help of some friends (L.X, I'd link ya, but I don't know if you have any home on the net...) we three manned Drak'Tharon Keep, and then did the Northrend Arena quests. And magically delicious, I was 80! (Oh, and I got an axe, so I didnt have to use the stupidist-looking-weapon-evar. (What is with Blizz and their hard-ons for trolls and axes, btw?))

However, after the glee wore off, I came to realize something. The easy, (albeit time consuming) part is over. I'm going to have to make, like, choices on how to proceed. As you know, I am no fan of gear lists. So, to me, any heroic at all is good, but even while running, I have to choose which tabard to wear, which means knowing, and prioritizing, faction rewards.

It also means reputation grinding for factions without tabards, such as the Kalu'ak, and Sons of Hodir, but we will get to those some other time

But, first things first, lets get down to deciding which dungeon faction I am going to work on. There are four to choose from, the Argent Crusade, their antithisis-in-arms (oxymor-who?) the Knights of the Ebon Blade, The Kirin Tor, and the Wyrmrest Accord. Now, right off the bat, I have not quested in Icecrown, and I'm not even friendly yet with the two Lich-Hatin'-Sects, plus, I figure that I would get at least honored by doing their quests once I get to it, so the Argent Crusade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade are out, for now, I'll get back to them. That leaves:

The Kirin Tor

• Tabard
• Fireproven Gauntlets
• Design: Runed Scarlet Ruby 

And the Wyrmrest Accord

• Tabard
• Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions 
• Fang of Truth
  
• Breastplate of the Solemn Council 
• Sabatons of Draconic Vigor 
• Design: Glimmering Monarch Topaz 
• Reins of the Red Drake 

Now, by now, I was already Honored with the dragons, so I went ahead and bought me the Cloak and Fang, (before you ask, the Fang is plenty fine, remember dodge from agility? I may go for a more traditional paladin tanking weapon later, but for now, I'm building the best set for overall avoidance and soak I can get.)

I'm just liking the amount of rewards from the dragons best, so I am using their tabard, for sure... Expected more? Comparisons of the items against each other and others? Agony-inducing lists of items? This is what I am getting at about item planning. I am going to be wearing a tabard anyway, right? I don't need to bother comparing the pieces available against the Tempered Saronite* pieces, or even against pieces I would be getting from various heroics, because if I have better when I get around to buying, I just wont buy, and move on. A detailed item list would only make me less likely to want to run a heroic at this point, that is the only purpose it would serve. (Though, I admit, this may be an entirely personal thing.)

So, as I am doing my thinking, I see a LFG for heroic Violet Hold, and I jump on it. They need DPS, which is fine with me; I'm still specced Ret. Man, it was a blast (even though I didnt get anything.) And look at this....

Yeah, I don't know whats going on with her either, is she dying, or hacking up a scale-ball? Either way, without really trying, we get the "optional"** achievement, Defenseless. And since it was the first time for me (hell, it was the first Wrath heroic at all for me,) I got the completion achievement too.

When both achievements popped up, I thought, "Wrath really is too easy." But then I saw the damage meters. We had a hunter in there, and he had 42% of the dps without even popping trinkets. Meanwhile, myself and a kitty druid were working our tails off to even compete with the paladin tank! I know Z is gonna be mad, and I have to say, I dont know a thing about PvP, but in PvE, I really do think Hunters are OP. And before you ask, he was not substatially better geared than us.

So, there you have it, some announcements about levels, some philosophy on how to plan, some achivements, and a topping (bottom-ing?) of QQ, thats a WoW blog post if I ever did see one.


(* The Tempered Saronite gear is really good, but man, it is boring, Str, Sta, Defense, thats all. Ill be useing a buncha peices of it, to be sure, but I am going to avoid it as much as possible. Why arent these sets with set bonuses?!?)

(** Are any achivements really optional?)

(Palordin, I'm going to get you tommorrow, just you wait....)

The Future of the Ogre

Im not going to stop blogging, before you even ask. Ive seen way too many blogs slow down, then the blogger comes on and spouts his excuses, and then the blog is silent forevar!

I promise you that if I quit blogging, Ill just ubruptly, and without warning, stop. I wouldent want to be like other people.

Anyway, back to what I am going to do, as opposed to what I am not. I am working on a self-hosted (sorta) wordpress platform for teh Ogre. Its going to be kindly donated to me by the fine folks at Raid Nazgrel. We will see if it works.

They already set it up for me, and I gleefully went into the admin section to play... And promptly broke it.

Im an Ogre, what can I say?

As for now, I am going to go ahead and post two more posts, one from the world of WoW, and the other from the world of DnD. Call it an apology for not posting. (Or, call it for what it is, soul-shattering guilt over not posting for too long.)

Twit! Nerf RNG-based EQ attacks, n00bs!

Seriously, Blizzard has no foresight at all, to not nerf earthquakes now risks the future stability of their game. I mean, sure, the chance is real low, and even when they do proc, they hardly ever do any damage, but they also cause a fear effect that cannot be dispelled, and sometimes, when they crit, they crit bad.

Blizzard needs to nerf earthquakes, or the class that uses them, the earth, to the ground, baby! Amirite? If they dont do this, I am going to reroll my life.

Things I see...

I am a seer, a oracle, I can see the future. Trust me, it works every time, without fail. Honestly, if I couldent see the future, do you really think I would claim to be able to? Or, perhaps I see the future, and know that my claim, though false, causes some good outcome for me or you. Point is, you should take everything I say as truth, if you dont, I cannot promise that what I say will actually come true. Blizzard released the 3.0.8 patch notes. In it, and the other rumblings of the blogosphere (the modern day chicken entrails,) I have seen the following bits that interest me, and therefore, you. These are in no particular order (or, are they?)

***

Nine spells have had a bug-fix whereby the 'correct damage modifires will be applied to the spell based on the target's creature type.' This bug-fix was applied to four classes, Druids, Paladins, Priests, and Warlocks; however, only one class has a talent that increase their damage against spicific opponents, Paladins: Crusade will now interact properly with:

• Judgement of Blood
• Judgement of the Martyr
• Judgement of Command

Druids have no such talent, and yet Entangleing Roots got the same treatment, as did the Priest's Shadow Word: Pain, and the Warlock's Corruption, Haunt, Soul Siphon, and Unstable Affliction. As I said, I can see the future, and I see; nothing. All these spells changed because they all share similar coding. Could Blizzard introduce creature spicific damage bonuses in the future? Absolutely. Will they? Maybe, but these bug-fixes dont indicate that. Like Mystic Chicancery said, any assumption that this indicates anything is 'crazy talk.'

***

Clams can now be opened while sitting (read, eating and drinking,) and while mounted (taxi or normal.) Some may scoff, and others even bitch about how other more important things should be fixed, but I always welcome 'quality-of-life' changes to the game.

***

Apparently, we didnt unlearn the old Paladin talent, Precision. It has been hotfixed, along with several other talents that were removed/merged. Basically, Im loosing chance to hit; RAAAGE!

***

The official patch notes were written by a 4 year old, or someone with no time at all. Here is what they said about Entangling Roots.

Entangling Roots: When determining if a new Entangling Roots should overwrite an old one, and will now calculate the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.

Now, it sounds like to me, that there are two parts to that. One, as I discussed above, is a big fix to another spell entirely that made sense there too. The other is one a friend of mine noticed. So, S, if your listening, I dont think you should be having a hard time re-rooting after 3.0.8! Yay!

***

Lots of cool profession changes are incoming. Here is one that interested me.

Jessica Sellers, a new vendor in the Dalaran inscription shop, will sell most inscription inks for the cost of one Ink of the Sea. She also sells Snowfall Ink for multiple Inks of the Sea.

Inscription never made sense to me, because it doesent scale. Take Glyph of Spiritual Attunement, for a Paladin Tank, thats about as required as they come, aggree or not, but the point is, its a level 18 glyph. To make it, you have to have one Midnight Ink, and one Light Parchment, the Midnight Ink requires two Dusky Pigment, which you get from milling Mageroyal, Swiftthistle, Briarthorn, Bruiseweed, or Stranglekelp, all low level herbs. But the glyphs that are made are required at all levels of play. And because Glyphs are not permanent, anyone from level 18 to 80 may need a new Glyph of Spiritual Attunement at any time. This scaling schema makes no sense, and there is no corrolary to any other profession. Now, you will be able to use your Ink of the Sea (made from Azure Pigment, milled from Northrend Herbs) to trade down to the Inks you will need. No more requirement for you to go herbing all over this world and the next to get the proper pigments. Its a crappy solution to a stupid problem, but its a solution. Next up, Jewelcrafting, looks like we are getting our Brilliant Glass for WotLK, its called Icy Prism, and instead of 3 of each of the green gems, it will require 3 of the purple, blue, and green (color, not rarity) gems, and a Frozen Orb, early reports suggest it will drop at least 2 of the blue (quality, thats Autumn's Glow, Forest Emerald, Monarch Topaz, Scarlet Ruby, Sky Sapphire, and Twilight Opal) gems, and has a chance for a 3rd, is also has a small chance to drop a Dragon's Eye. I wonder what we are supposed to do with surpluses of the other three green gems. In Mining news, we will only have to tap the mine node once, instead of multiple times. Call it quality-of-life, ultimately, its better this way, but I do admit, I will miss being different than herbalism. (I suppose the secondary benefits of herbalism, mining, and skinning will have to do.)

***

Im looking forward to 3.0.8, over all. Here is my prediction, someone will think that patch 3.0.8 sucks. Prove me wrong, I dare you.

The 'Good' WoW Player

As a new Blog Azeroth devotee, I am writing my first response to a shared topic. The question is, what is a good WoW player? To me, its actually elegantly simple. This may well come from a long time spent tanking, but its how I perceive it. To me, whenever I want to improve myself, it is so I can spend more attention on this one thing. What is it? Situational Awareness. WoW has a metric tonne of stuff going on, and that's when things are going according to plan! When a standard ton of do-do hits the industrial sized fan, you have to be aware of even more. If you are capable of cultivating this awareness, everything else, in my opinion, can be taught. The first step to solving a problem is to state the problem. If you have no situational awareness, you have no idea that there is even a problem. When I try to improve my skills, even something completely unrelated to my awareness of the game, (like trying to figure out which is most effective against one target, Crusader Strike or Divine Storm?) I do so so that I can spend more of my time devoted to perceiving the virtual environment, and widening my situational awareness. Players without this awareness are the type to stand in really bad spots, or they move when they shouldn't. But outside just positioning, they either blow their cooldowns to early or too late, or not at all, they might as well be machines. Obviously, some classes require this situational awareness more, and some less, but that doesn't mean one can do without. And before you ask, no amount of study of a strat can replace it. Because I value it so highly, it is why I cannot stand people who watch TV and play or even play other games while playing. Situational awareness, get some. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. Except GI-Joe is wrong, its the whole frikken battle!

Twit! Quit yer bitchin'

I forgot to post this yesterday. I post late at night, so I was posting in the very early Tuesday am hours, meaning this was Monday. Ding! And this post was directed to a particular person, you know who you are, mostly because you are my only reader... Did you sign up to Blog Azeroth yet? No? Quit beating the obese and get on it!

The Saga is over

At last, I have a working computer, a working copy of WoW, and my addons are (mostly) back up to snuff. Ive been quiet about my ordeal, but I think it is time for this story to be made public, but I warn you, some of the images and reenactments you are about to see may be distressing to some viewers. First, we have to cover the tragedy that started this whole thing in motion. You see, my computer broke. At the time, this reporter was unaware of the true scope of the tragedy. Some sources quoted me as saying there was magic smoke, other sources did not. What I really said, based on the remains was, "My god, their must have been smoke." At the time, I had no idea how right I was. You see, the English, jealous of my good teeth, stole my computer, and did evil things to it, only to return it later without my knowledge. (No doubt they were in league with the underpants gnomes, and that is how they got in and out so stealthily.) I wouldn't believe me either, but after long and extensive archival research, I was able to uncover this archival footage of the incident that day. Sadly, the massive loss of Bothan life could not be avoided, (they are too delicious.) It was either that, or this... And after the filming of that degrading piece of filth, my computer committed suicide. Either way, I blame Gnomes (underpants or otherwise.) From the point it became clear my computer was lost to me, I became distraught, despondent, and otherwise dis-something-a-whosit. My dear brother went out of his way, and bought me a whole new computer. There were some... http://inspiredogre.blogspot.com/2008/12/twit-i-am-so-mad.html, with the delivery, and though UPS delivered on time after all, I make no apologies for any of my words or actions. (Incidentally, you can totally blame me for the crappy "What can brown-and-bloody do for you?" ad campaign, I went a little overboard with the stabbing.) However, budgets being what they are, the video card I had was, less than suitable. But I did learn something. When the login-dragon laughs at you in 1 FPS, just don't log in, turn back around, and get a new video card. So, I did, and now, I am sitting high and happy, ready to play as soon as I get home this morning. ... ... ... ... ... ... DAMNIT!

Twit! The WoW Me.

I cannot seem to figure out a good way of displaying the pictures I made of my characters, so I will just display my main. And in case you missed em, (or are watching my feed,) here he is, a picture is worth 1000 words, which means they are worth... 50 of my words. I give you, Ludux. And here is my Death Knight, Luduex. And me as a mage, Luduz. And the token hunter, required for me to blog, Ludeul. (Careful, she has crabs.) Real post inc...

Twit! Why I like GC

Omg, a GC-Love post? From me!?! Yeah, this is why I like GC. This comes after a post in which he says he would check on some bug or other.

Q u o t e:Anyone else get a mental picture of a half naked GC in a room full of strippers and blow, excusing himself to 'check on his crew' at the closest computer? Q u o t e:I see him sitting in a dark room around a large round table of devs who sit there and conspire how to nerf priests and make us bow to our dps overlords It's actually a beach with sand the color of cookie dough where mysterious ladies bring mixed drinks and blow sand off my laptop keyboard. The drinks have names so full of vowels that I can't pronounce them. When it rains, the wifi goes down so nobody can post and everybody dances. You can hear the little pink crabs tiptoeing down at the waterline and the splash of coconuts that fall from the palms and there are no mutilate spec rogues on the entire island.

Or maybe that's the gin talking.

It whispers: nerf me.

Good night!

BTW, this post was not sarcastic! To my wide, and varied audience, how do you see GC?

Twit! OMG, Computer!

Remember how mad I was? Well, my package is 'out for delivery' now! Thats a delivery on time, the 2nd. I dont know why the tracking web page was so confused, but I wanna kick it. Oh well, computer today, yay!

The Rule of Cool, and I just cant do it.

LTF! Guys, Im going to get back to WoW, someday, but trying to blog about something you are unable to actively do is hard. I wish I could tell you how long I have spent trying to come up with something WoW related to say. My computer will be fixed before the 10th, until then, you will have to put up with whatever swill I put up here. (Incedentally, that is why there was no post yesterday, had nothing to do with new years.)

***

So, the 'Rule of Cool.' I have not done my due dilligance, I am afraid, to find out who coined this phrase, but I first heard about it through Chatty's DnD Blog, the post is here. (I wasent even reading his blog when he posted it the first time, and thus, it is a re-run.) Now, Chatty got it from here, a site called TV Tropes.org, which discusses much of the same stuff I have been discussing when I talked about Chekhov's Gun and the Unreliable Narrator. Recently, he made another post about it here, I guess there are some people out there who think the Rule of Cool is uncool. (In case you were curious, as I was, what is a Trope? Well, according to Wikipedia, a Trope (in literature,) is a "...common pattern, theme, motif in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning.") I will be exploring TV Tropes.org in more detail in the future, I am sure Ill be posting my nerdgasms here. But back to the Rule of Cool. The Rule of Cool is easy to understand. According to TV Tropes, "The limit of the Willing Suspension Of Disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to its degree of coolness. Stated another way, all but the most pedantic of viewers will forgive liberties with reality so long as the result is wicked sweet and/or awesome. This applies to the audience in general, as there will naturally be a different threshold for each individual in the group. " In DnD, we use this rule all the time, anyone who says otherwise clearly does not understand our hobby. We sit around a table, and play make-belive with eachother! Without the Rule of Cool, we would all surely laugh at ourselves. As I said, there is some argument about the Rule of Cool. I belive that the people who are disagreeing with Chatty are doing so for the wrong reason. They arent against the Rule of Cool, they are against Chatty's implimentation of it. To them, gritty, hard, and rules-driven is cool, and thats cool! Im not joining the flame-fest, all I am interested in is; how do I use the Rule of Cool? For me, its all about being adaptable. I do not have any control over my players, (I want a cookie, it takes a man to admit that.) They will do whatever they want, and it will be different than what I expect. In order for my responses to be cool, I have to accept that they wont do what I want, and plan accordingly. How do you plan for the unplannable? Dont plan at all. The number one tool of a good DM is improvisation. You have to be able to improvise on the spot. Those improvisations have to be cool. If your upset that your super-cool-construct is unusable, your improvisations will suffer. So, when I make an adventure, I state to myself the goals, I limit myself to 3 or 4. These are the things that I want to achive. When I write, I would then plan a beginning, middle, and end, in whatever order I wish, and write. But when I DM, I dont plan that rigidly. Instead, I create or research the creatures and characters involved. For combat opponents, this means reveiwing and understanding their abilities, (and often, tweaking them.) For NPCs, this means an understanding of their goals, personality, and capabilities. Once I have that done, I imagine a few cool scenes or encounters. Sometimes, for more traditional adventures, this involves making a floor-plan, for a dungeon or something, but for less linear adventures, this means imagineing these scenes and encounters as sort of rooms, I create more than I need, and come up with a guideline for the rules I would need to run those scenes or encounters. (Often, there are none, Role-Play wins over Roll-Play with my group, every time.) After that, I write it down, and do not put them in order. I am a very structural guy, I tend to get caught up in the idea that things have to happen in certain ways. So, to force myself to be on my toes, I do not put these scenes and encounters into any order whatsoever, its up to the players to navigate, not me. Every time I DM, my players will hit on some of my pre-made scenes and encounters, avoid others, and go in entirely different directions. Here is where Chekhov's Gun meets the Rule of Cool. The players have taken a hostage, rather than fleeing the city, like I expected. It was a cunning plan, the hostage would logically hold back the town guard. Now, we are at an impasse. I had no plan for this. But, I did plan for the players to meet a recurring villain, Lord Kallinfruend. I cant let that not happen, he is the Gun! But, Rule of Cool dictates that the player's cool action (taking a hostage,) has to give them results. But, here is the cool part. As a DM, cool is not always equal to success. Failure can be cool too, so long as that failure imparts more cool into the story. "A bolt flies from a window in the corner of the warehouse, striking the princess in the breast with a sickening thud, she doesent even scream as she slumps, dead, in your bindings. Your eyes follow the bolt's path, and in the window, in black leather, is Lord Kallenfruend, smirking at you. The Lord-Knight is not nearly as honorable as he made you belive!" I planned Kallenfruend to be an implacible, but honorable enemy. Plans have to be malliable. Kallenfuend is not at all what he seems. And thats cool. The players are forced to flee the city after all, and they have a new villain. They may be upset, mad even, that their plan failed, but it is still very cool that their enemy has proven to be a true villain! (And before you ask, my players would so totally take a princess hostage, they are just those kinds of people.)

Twit! Lolcat Resolutions

BTW, I have had just about ENOUGH of Blogger. I cant cut-n-paste the way I want, the blogger editor does not properly maintain formatting, especially when I use bullet lists. I'm at my wit's end!