Thursday 30 September 2010

Cataclysm Update - Part 3 - DPS < CC, New School Vs Old School


Anyone Pre-Burning Crusade, will remember Sheep pulls, Shackle pulls, after a rogue sap on a group of 4 mobs. The intense concentration of focusing on your teams individual roles. And then finally, after all that team work, you EARNED your right to stand infront of the boss before the re-spawn kicked in......god-damn i loved Scholomance!
If ever anything got a bad name in Vanilla warcraft, it was the infamous word.....PuG! Try taking a bunch of folk who have no idea on Crowd control, into Scholomance and you'll be loosing the will to live very quickly.

But like wet blankets, Burning Crusade & Wrath presented us with the AE chain pulling trash, the brain numbing, un-challenging wit-less easy mode ...and then "ahh, here's the boss...nuke" for me, Wrath got ..............boring? un-challenging, and im not talking about boss fights, everyone is so focused on the end, the journey there is 80% the experience. "Hey we did Scholomance" for the first time, and folk appriecate the difficulty you went through to get to Gandling. Say, "oh we did, Drak' Keep!" and folk are musingly not really impressed at all. And the reason why is was WOTLK was and is...just plain simple. It's nice, for a while and to be fair, ok, yes new folk will be able to play it etc, etc.

After reading some of the reviews on heroics in Cata, it brough a huge smile to my face. Total Biscuit commenting on *brutal 5 man dungeons with heavy CC focus* was like heaven screaming at me..."Come backkkkk, we where just kidding with Wrath!"

Ultimately, this got me thinking about TDD. It's helped us alot in WOTLK with ICC. But i have an impression there might be a change of hearts and roles, come the expansion. Anyone gauging what class they are going to play in Cata' and didn't play the original wow when the level cap was 60, will be in for a huge shock. But, with a little coaching from our experienced members, im sure we'll pull together very quickly to get everyone i the habit of UN-INSTALLING your DPS meter.

Time will tell, who knows what the future might bring. And if you where a fan of the old-school, maybe... it's time to shine once again ;) and get back into that lip biting tense group pulls

Wednesday 29 September 2010

My custom PC goes into storage.

My Gaming PC goes into semi-retirement. Due to real life circumstances, i'm preparing to move house and live with the In-laws for an extended period of time. We have recently sold our house looking for a bigger one.

So i have been fortunate with this custom PC build, i have had some problems with it, none to do with cooling! Just windows 7 issues. So it's done its job well, performed great and handled the many tests of wow while tanking and numerous addon's

I think the graphics card, sure could be increased for better performance, but this was a budget PC. And performed really well, it'll be going into a box and kept safe for a while. Meantime i'll be using a Toshiba Satellite P30-145 ..it'll do, it'll do. I need something compact to slide under the bed, instead of hauling out monitors and keyboards onto a kitchen table. And has more performance than my original Toshiba! 17 inch screen though...thats big!

Cataclysm Update - Part 2



Talent Tree.
So..quite a difference in the talent tree set-up. It looks a little vanilla doesn't it? but it looks as if they have condensed everything into half the amount of talent point abilities. I'm not going to list all the new spells and abilities, as these could change and tweak in the months ahead. But you get a fair idea of where the paladin tank is heading towards with the script Blizzard is putting out in its message.
Other than sticking Righteous Fury on, and stacking stamina and strength, (depending on the paladin tank conversion) im lost in the "where's my mana pool come from?"
Customisation
Now..come on Blizzard, get with it..every other MMORPG game out there new and recent has colour customisation. I remember 1 year ago raising a ticket for hair colour change & style, a
nd interestingly, we got it. Doubt that was purely down to me, but the conversation with the support Gm was quite a good one.
Yes, we're a bit sick of everyone looking the same, ok fine, the gear can look the same (model) but changing the primary or secondary colour should'nt be much of a head-ache...considering you have mastered the hair cut. More depth of individuality! Thats what we want. ..or maybe just me. So i'm a little disappointed there..since my other half will only wear gear that matches...go-figure ;) and what about some tribal tattoo's....ok i've stepped over the mark with make-up?
Animation
After reading through some of the new spells, it looks like the paladin is going to be pumping out some funky animations. I'm a little worried about being blinded in a tanking match with a boss that im hardly going to be able to see. That aside i'm sure it'll be fine, although FPS might take a hit..
Content Vs Out-dated GFX engine
You can play a game with high end graphics that has complete and utter crap game content, or sketchy RP and quest lines. Blizzard has very successful for over 4-5 years with the same graphic models of your avatar and item gear. Yes, its some-what basic on comparison to other more modern mmo games out now, but none of them come even close to warcraft's game content, and familiarity. Lets be honest, how often do you zoom into your characters face in Dalaran? Vs how long you have played? My bet is out of 12 hours a week of playing wow, you've only looked at your characters graphics for 5 minutes tops...while you put on your new shoulder armour and checked the size of your ass in the mirror? Looks like Blizz continue to keep the game engine simple, accessible for all area's of hardware performance. And i dont think anything will change. :) Prehap's this is where our imagination works the part that blizzard, does not..keeping us hooked in.

Tuesday 28 September 2010

Evil Nadíastorm - Deathknight re-visited

I confess...
..i like my death knight, i like it alot, why?...i dont know. Maybe because its the only class i have at level 80. Maybe because it's Undead..wait alive, unholy..or something. She's got plate, and can duel-weld....and the alter-ego of Nadiastorm.
Last night, while digressing with Micke (aka Punkgirl), i revisited my DK, dressed in 200 ilevel gear (with some exceptions) slapping a Boss dummy in Ironforge.
She pumped out a good 2750 DPS on average over 6 minutes., with the rotation and spec remaining the same as it ever was.
There where some patch changes to Death Coil, and Blood Boil/Blood Strike to make a difference in DPS. But i was happy, which was the main thing.
Spec remains 00-15-53, although the exact spec is still being tweaked. However the rotation hasn't changed either, from previous trials. However the spec and rotation must be right to get
the most out of it, otherwise you look like a fool in Unholy presence.
Evil Nadíastorm is my Alt, and my alt of choice...i like it. So between now and Cata', unless im called opon to ICC, or elsewhere. I'll keep on with the tests of this controversial spec and see what she can do. I hate shoe boxes, and last time i played this spec, i raised a few eyebrows of the masses of Blood and Frost spec dw'ers. ...Remember, this was Naxx level..we're in ICC now.
Gearwise, its all Triumph whoring. So we'll see how LFG goes. ;) Itemisation is Key for this spec, and breaks convention.....just the way i like it. And just as i read this back, i realised i have the wrong runes on my weapons..D'oh!

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Ethos of a GM

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it."
Theodore Roosevelt

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves." Lao-Tzu

I have always maintained in this blog that the best boss, is a reluctantly appointed one. It's prehap's that mind set that stops any leader becoming egotistical. What would concern me is someone who jumps in-front of the line, someone like this should be a sub-officer, and not an actual officer, as they are unable to practice restraint. Although the willingness, ambition, and drive is there, it is better served at a level where it can be shared with the collective, rather than just the administration. And its with that glint of intuition, resourcefulness and creative positive thinking that the trail of acceptance within the collective guild, is either accepted of rejected.
It is better to select an individual part of a whole, than one having a divide between the many. And it's in the GM's interests to have people close to him who have support from those, who aim to support all creed's across the guild, there should be no corners within it.
Rather than taking complete ownership of responsibility, the trial (whilst unspoken) is aimed at whether an individual can collect the guild as one, in a movement, by sharing in the plan, schedule and delivery of the event or occasion. These are the attributes of officers i look for in people within my guild, and while although some may aim for the heights of titles, nothing fortifies the heart more than respect for the role, the collective appoints onto you,...through your own actions, words, and the conduct you portray carrying the hopes and ambitions of your guild, not just your own, of part of the guild..these breed divides in the long term.

Heroes and Legends
We remark on the gallantry of those players who are crafted with their class. They are looked upon with respect for their experience, knowledge of their class, or role in which they play within a raid, or the guild as a whole. I ask, whether you should label each individual according to their praises? placing each individual into a shoe-box of there own. Or even go as far as to say give them a title? What exactly is a title? a GM, an Officer, a Raid Leader. Simple co-ordinates to direct traffic to its intended destination.

I have a question/.. on your birthday, do you remember the card you got, or the presence of people coming to you to celebrate you? The material things are there for you to remember the occasion post tenths, to reflect on. The moment is stained in your memory and heart of the collective appreciation of you by the presence of people celebrating you. Your guild, if you abandon your rank and join in on the same level as those of the guild members, does your presence, confidence spread upon those now upon the same level as yourself? Does that inspire you're team, or expire your usefulness? Then ask the question, which was more important, Team, or yourself?..and what where you here for again?