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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Sindragosa!

We killed her!

So- I'm going to put down lots of words that you can read. They're essentially our strategy to the fight. It took us a bit short of three hours allotted to her to kill her- however, due to the long encounter time and the assessing/rebuffing period we got in about 6-7 attempts total (I would guess- maybe more).

Glory of Ulduar is Awesome!

So, on Friday night, I was invited to go to a Ulduar hardmode/achievement run dealio. Now, I've done the Kologarn hard mode previously (one of our warlocks wasn't paying attention and blasted the wrong arm for the whole fight).

Anyways, I haven't really done much of Ulduar (well, ok, now I've done 12/14) so it was great to see the encounters- especially on hard mode.

For Flame Leviathan, with all four towers activated, that field which is normally so plain, and boring, and easy- well- its a mess. A very glorious mess. There are fires, frost beams, lightning storms, plants, vehicles running everywhere... I loved wiping on that fight for a while. We then decided that four were too many and just did three- but it was still fun.

We moved onto Razorscale, which just takes a lot of time and focus on not killing the adds, and then bringing them down to the appropriate health. We reset it at one point (I'm not sure why, I think it was to avoid the enrage timer) and on our next attempt we brought her down twice and the second time we got our achieve so we knocked her dead and got another achievement.

For Ignis, you tank him in the water so he doesn't have to get moved around- as long as you kill him within the achievement parameters, the extra 20% damage per add shouldn't be an issue for your tank. Its a simple enough fight.

For XT-002 Deconstructor, taking out his heart is easy. Now, while it says its only a 15% increase in damage, his tantrum damage is easily 100% more. Other than that and some void zones (from gravity bombs) and little adds (from light bombs) its a tank and spank.

We ended the night on Kologarn, but there was some timing error and one of his arms died too quickly, so we didn't get the achievement.

Mah Motahcycle

Sure, its not the 20k one, but hey, does yours carry volatile blue liquids in the side-car? As a further note, if you have the motorcycle, you should be able to use it as a vehicle for the Flame Leviathan fight.

War Sorceror

Or, as a friend likes to call it, the Warceror. I took the basic premise from the War Mage (Complete Arcane) but I felt that that class wasn't really strong/focused enough- all it did was give the caster more armor, but fewer spell options.

The Warceror also has fewer spell options (a lot fewer in fact (but more can be added at the DM's discretion)) but they are focused and the class abilties help him too. He does increased damage with his spells as he levels, and if he gets bad luck (25% damage or less) he gets a free spell- and it doesn't count against his daily limits. In theory, if you have a chain of "terrible luck" as in- you get 1/4 damage or worse for 10+ attacks in a row... well, then you might be able to get some nice damage out.

Plus, if you get lucky, you might get Empowered Spell Casting during your streak of bad luck and get crits. Just like Hot Streak crits! Woohoo!

Anyways, without further ado The Warceror.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Ghost Striker

Another D&D class. This one was based slightly off many of the sneaky/assassiny classes. It has touches of Rogue, Assassin, Ninja and a few others. I originally was going to go with Ghost Crawler, but looking at his abilities, he had to many "stikes"

So, he sneaks around, and then either roflstomps them, or slays them. Again, I haven't had time to playtest these classes.
You can click on the link to see the detail. If you're interested in more, the next few days should have me posting the other one that I've completed so far. It is a caster and imho, it is really bad. This is why I'm not showing it to you.

Heroes, Frozen in Time

Or a block of ice. Whatever. We decided to wipe on Sindragosa, so we stacked for her Ice Tomb. Apparently, from the inside, its one big thing and we all look fairly ghostly/transparent. I think its a fairly cool effect.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Swordmaster

Another D&D class. This one came from the Holy Weapon ability that clerics get- but made awesomer. It also has that deep specialization feel. I made it so that the player could choose one of two distinct tracks and then switch if they wanted to- similar to WoW.

Anyways, the idea of the Swordmaster is to drag a bunch of swords around with you and use them to get in extra attacks, to attack enemies it would be dangerous to get near, and to increase your defenses.

So, without further ado- the Swordmaster.
You can click on the link to see the detail. If you're interested in more, the next few days should have me posting the other two that I've completed so far. One is a caster and the other is a melee DPS.

Loot Horse!

Putricide is not a horse, but the silly tanking trinket dropped again. And I didn't get it again. Of course, Alenena is so far geared that its much more of an improvement for the raid for someone else to get it (so long as they tank regularly).

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Juggernaut

So, I'm really stretching things here. Anyways, the past few weeks, I've had some spare time and I've thrown together a few new classes for D&D. I can't quite figure out how to easily post them up here so I've taken screenshots and you can look at them yourself and evaluate.

The first class is the Juggernaut. The point of the class is to charge around, knocking enemies over or just shoving them back. It is extremely durable and because of the sheer amount of ability in Overrun, Bull Rush or Grapple, it can be effective at CC.

You can click on the link to see the detail. If you're interested in more, the next few days should have me posting the other two that I've completed so far. One is a caster and the other is a melee DPS.

Fun and Games

Fun and Games with doom elementals! yay!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Officer

So, apparently I'm an Officer in my guild now.

My guild leader whispered me, asking if I had a moment to talk- not having anything better to do (other than wait for people in front of Rotface) I said sure.

And then he asked if I would be ok with being an officer.

I was kinda flabergasted. Of course, I love my guild, and it wouldn't be much more responsibility than I've had before, but it seems like a huge step.

So anyways...

/Squee.

Its a Demon

And it looks sooo purty.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Death by Class

A round up, including all 10 Death by articles!

Death by Death Knight
Death by Druid
Death by Hunter
Death by Mage
Death by Paladin
Death by Priest
Death by Rogue
Death by Shaman
Death by Warlock
Death by Warrior

This is my post. It is like my song. My song is amazing.

I'm not a fan of the captions

The default formatting is boring. Anyways, demons are cool! Yay demons!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Death by Warrior

And we have come to a close- finally.

Arms: Well, first you get hit by a blade in the face. Followed up by that same blade in your stomach- repeatedly. Then you are wounded and your medic can't help you get up. And then you get an axe in your torso and you are sad. And dead.

Fury: Walking along, without a care in the world, when all of a sudden this juggernaut of a juggernaut jumps out of some juniper bushes and bushwacks you with his wacking weapons called Shadow's Edge and Bryntoll! And then he spins like a drunk top, lopping off heads and legs and arms and heads until you collapse over dead.

Protection: Again, you're walking along without a care in the world when a shield appears in your face. Then a sword appears in your gut- rinse and repeat. If you run away, the shield magically charges after you, stabbing and rending and slicing and ripping.

Teh Park

It will be missing in Catalcysm. Also, caption option on images? Sweet!

Oh look!

So, some changes have happened in my guild. Rather than think when I can't, I decided to copy-paste my message I put on the guild forums.


On Thursday this week Amphitrite announced that she has gotten a job that partially conflicts with our current raid schedule and asked me to fill in as raid leader.

So- now that I'm in charge (to a degree), I'd like to say a few things.

1) If there is someone who has been a TOC raid leader and wants this position, let me know.
2) The goal of this is maximum fun- not loot, not progression. Fun.
3) Progression is more fun than wiping and loot is more fun than wiping- so I'll try to avoid wiping.
4) I take raiding somewhat seriously, so I would like to see some effort. However, it is supposed to be fun- so I'll be talking alot (like I normally do) and you can too.
5) I don't know the healing portions of fights all that well. I'll watch the videos and try to learn, but I may ask one of our experienced healers to be heal lead and coordinate the healers.
6) If you haven't lead before, but are interested in leading in the future- talk to me. I'll try and have you do Loot Master or explain fights to new people if necessary.
7) If you have any questions or issues with the way I'm doing things- let me know through a whisper or a mail and I'll do my best to fix it. If you would rather, I'm ok with you posting here to get other opinions- if everyone thinks I'm fail, I'll ask someone to step up to replace me or try even harder.

Now, onto how I'll invite people to a raid.

1) I'll do my best not to show favoritism- that means I won't try to invite friends over other people.
2) People who accepted and are early have first priority. People who accepted and are on time have second priority.
3) People who are tentative and were early have third. People who have tentative and are on time have fourth.
4) Finally, other guild mates who did not respond but are geared and have run before, but not many times have fifth, then people who we can carry- so a DPS or two, maybe a healer- so that we can get new people in and so that they can use the loot, and then geared people who have run many times before. Then we go to pastry and if the group wants to- Trade Chat, otherwise we do something easier. If we're doing progression (usually Thursdays and some Mondays) we are less likely to be able to carry someone.
4) Getting a suitable group take priority over everything- therefore if we have two tanks, but they're geared for LS and not, say, Sindragosa, while they will get invites according to the above rankings, getting two geared tanks and two (or three) healers that can keep the raid alive will take priority- if we die, we're not going to get far.

So, I hope I'll live up to my standards, much less yours and I hope everyone has fun. Of course, these are all open to change, but I think they're fair and they make sense.


En Garde!


Yeah, duel-wielding is awesome. Cuz awesome.

Death by Warlock

Long time no death! Here it comes!

Affliction: First you feel a little ill. Then you get this burning sensation. Then some more illness- and then sheer agony. You feel as though spirits are ripping through you and you begin to feel weak. Suddenly you are confronted by your greatest fears, and you flee in horror. As you do so, you finally collapse and die.

Destruction: You get hit by fire. Then more fire. Then more fire. Then, rather than this normal looking fire, some green, missile shaped fire hits you and you fall over- somewhat dead.

Demonology: Walking along you are stunned as giant axe wielding demon charges you. You begin fighting with this enemy, but he doesn't seem to be taking damage- you look behind him to see a Warlock healing his minion, however, before you can attack the true threat, he transforms into a demon himself and charges you. He has an aura that burns you and his melee attacks are as bad as his minions. Before you can do anything, he makes you run in fear and begins burning away your soul with a fire spell. You collapse, your soul eternally captured- at least until he wants to summon a demon again.

Wide View

Valithria is chaotic and since everyone is so spread out and fighting all sorts of things, its great for battle sequences.

Friday, August 6, 2010

The Edge of Shadow

In other words, Shadow's Edge. A friend got it today- a big deal considering that we're a 10 man raiding group.

Two Month Roundup

I forgot to do this at the end of June. Then I forgot at the end of July.

So I continued the Death by series (which I'll finish up this week, I promise) and then seriously leveled my rogue for a bit.

There was this streak where all I was doing was leveling him in fact. 40-60 in five days. It was crazy and it was all I talked about.

More recently I've been talking about Cataclysm and Ulduar and Raiding.

What on earth did I spend two months talking about?

You know what, you should go look. Go read all my posts. Jack my hit count way up there.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Raid Leading

So, I have led a few raids before- mostly Naxx or Retro raids. Other than that, I haven't done much.

Anyways, tonight, I lead our guild on the Weekly and then into ICC.

It was interesting.

I know I have a couple faults. I mean, I don't quite realize when other people die. I mean, I notice it when they die, but I don't make the connection that I need to wait for them to be res'd before pulling.

Also, I'm very aggressive in my pulling strategies. I would rather pull the next group than waiting. Ever. I mean, as a tank, if I see a healer, and its not a boss, I WILL pull. If everyone is buffed and knows the fight and its a boss, I WILL pull.

But I have to temper myself while leading. I can't just make those decisions without seeing who is there and who isn't.

But I also have to make decisions. Normally, I have opinions on why we should go to each of the different wings. But I can't just make suggestions and make someone else take the load. I have decide and then carry out my decision.

I could have spent five minutes deliberating with myself and raid after clearing LS about which way to go. But instead, after not hearing any very strong opinions, I picked one and went with it. And now I realize that it didn't really matter what I picked. I mean, if we were gonna do well, we woulda, but I can't know.

So, it was interesting.

Tomorrow I get to pass responsibility back.

Tricks with your mind!

If you look through me, water doesn't exist!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Sucky Wiping

Sucky wiping is sucky.

Sucky wiping is when you're wiping on something repeatedly. And there is no excuse for it.

When I wipe on Valithria, I get mad. Generally this is because there is other stuff out there that I know I can kill. I know that I can kill Festergut and Rotface and Putricide and Blood Princes and Blood Queen.

This isn't a new challenge. Its just something we're not prepared for.

And I don't like it.

We've done the fight enough that everyone should know the kill order by heart.

Everyone should be able to pick out the silhouettes.

Everyone should not have a problem with the fight. But apparently there is a problem.

And it distresses me.

But I digress. I'll have happier news tomorrow.

And then on Friday I'll have time to look at stuff.

Tractor Beamed!

Its the Death Star Hanger.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Looking at the Beta

So, I haven't looked at the beta information (read: talent trees) in a long time.

WoW.com usually reports the news as it happens. But it didn't.

I was curious if there were some minor builds, and there were. And there were some major builds.

Whats interesting is how I feel about them.

I mean, I like them so much that I don't want to seriously level any toons until Cataclysm hits.

I like them so much- they're just amazing.

Now, to really exhibit my point, go ahead and put together a Blood Tanking spec here and now try it here.

Which one felt like a more natural process? Which one was easier? Which one made more sense to you? Which one had fewer extraneous talents?

For me, the answer to all of those questions is the Cata Beta Build.

The current trees are just so bloated with unnecessary talents. I will (as I've promised before) be looking into the trees but hey. I'll get to it.

The Problem with Leveling

See, in Cataclysm leveling is going to be so much better. I mean, for Shamans, Warriors, Hunters and Rogues specialization, and some general reworking will make everything so much better. Enhancement will make sense, rage mechanics will work, Focus instead of mana and a way for rogues to heal themselves.

Now, lets look at the list of classes I want to level- Enh Shammy, Warrior, Hunter and Rogue. Now you can see my problem.

If I start leveling them now, I'll get used to a very different style of play and that will confuse me when we get to Cataclysm. I also want my warrior and hunter to be Worgen and if I start now, I have to wait a long time and pay money to switch em over.

Some people might say that there is the same thing with raiding for the loot- it will all be worthless in Cataclysm, so why bother- but my gear on my paladin at least should hopefully last a significant while.

So, yeah, sorry about another laaaaate post.

Another Wipe

Oooooh! Magic Whirly of Whirly!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Gettin all srs!

Strangely enough, I've been getting somewhat serious about WoW these days. With my 9-5, I usually don't have a chance to log on until around 7 (I have to eat sometime). I may do a daily heroic or something, and then my JC daily. And then I raid. Four days a week. Once the raid is over, I log and wait for the next day.

Its really weird being in this state. Normally I would be leveling alts, or playing on other toons.

But right now, I'm all about gearing them up, maxing them out. Its strange.

Especially since it will all be undone when Cataclysm hits.

Perhaps my subconscious recognizes this and wants to just get me ready for Cataclysm. I won't be able to do my dailies or raid on a regular basis for a month or two after Cata hits, we just won't have enough geared people that quickly. So I'll be left with leveling alts (which I desperately can't wait to do), but I if I don't level until then, leveling will be all the more exciting.

So- what is your subconscious making you do? Also, sorry for the late post.

Angry Furblog

...is Angry