Monday, August 31, 2009

Monday Morning Warcraft - The Curse has been Lifted...


Morning blog lovers!

Blah...Monday. I have nothing good to say about it other then my Monday should go by fast because I am by myself at work (usually 2 people) and I will be very busy. This should make the day go by faster, but who really knows.

Fantasy Football Draft Prepartions

Anyway, before I get into WoW, I want to talk a little bit about Fantasy Football!

Thats right biatches, the time is almost here. If you been following my blog then you know that I am a huge NFL fan. I love fantasy football and I been doing it for 5 years, so I consider myself pretty knowledge about it. Plus, fantasy football makes me enjoy the NFL season because my team has only won 5 games in the past 2 seasons..../sadpanda

Anway, over at Lincon Freed the Slaves our co-author "P" (yes, he is still alive!) and myself made a podcast (/shock) about one of the most important aspects of your FF season, the draft. I really won't say anything else about it....we covered all the major positions and gave our thoughts behind it. Its pretty long, about 40 minutes, but we cover EVERYTHING you need to know about making your FF draft a sucess.

So go check it out, leave a comment and let us know what you think about it. Even it if you think we were completely wrong, (PFFT...as if...) feedback is always a good thing.

Moving on!

RNG: 75 Me: 1

Oh yes, I have wrote a few articles about RNG (Random Number Generator) and how it has pwned me to no end.

I really think I am cursed when it comes to one item slot, the shield.

TBC

In TBC, I raided mostly with a Holy Paladin. I ran kara a retarded amount of times and I progressed all the way up to BT on her. I was still rocking the blue, crystal pulse shield.

Was it a horrible shield? Absolutely not, but damn...I was in all epic T5 healing gear and had a shield that a level 68 could buy from the AH for 20g. Long story short, I quit the guild that I was raiding with on my Paladin and started leveling a shaman. I loved how Resto Shamans shot out beams on light and completely pwned my little Holy Paladin on the healing meters.

I ding 70 probably 3 or 4 months before the WotLK went live. I was completely decked out in epics from Kara, badge gear, and ZA. I was a cheeseburger....no scratch that, I was a Bacon Ulitmate Cheeseburger on the healing charts with my cow.

But guess what sheild I was rocking? Oh yeah...the god damn crystal pulse shield. I seriously made a point to run Kara and ZA every week to try and get the upgraded shields that drop there. Well, I did it up until 2 weeks before WotLK came out and said F IT out of frustration.

WotLK

I abandoned my holy paladin and decided to make my Shaman my main. I got finally got rid of the crystal blue shield at level 74 with a crafted blacksmithing shield. I was so happy you would have thought that House and Cuddy from "House" finally cut the sexual tention between them and did it like they do on the discovery channel!

I dinged 80 in December and got my very first epic, Zom's Crackling Bulwark. I didn't like the way it looked, but hey...its an epic and it will save me some badges because I won't have to buy the badge shield.

In a few weeks I should get the upgraded shield from the Spider wing in Naxx 10 anyway...

Fast forward 3 months later, Febuary.

I can't believe I am still rocking this shield....We have been clearing Naxx 10 for about 2 months and I never seen that damn shield drop. I am really glad we are finally doing Naxx 25 every week, there are two shields that drop there that are a super upgrade and look badass.

Fast forward 2 and a half months, mid April.

Wow, I have killed the spider boss in Naxx 25 7 times and KT 4 times....still have not seen either shield even drop. I am begining to feel cursed. Have no fear though! Patch 3.1 is coming out and there is a badass shield that drops from a boss in the begining of the raid. Hooray!

Fast forward 4 months, end of August

True, I did take a few months off, but I still killed the boss (XT) that drops the shield 6 times. Still haven't seen the shield drop.

Overall stats on bosses that drop my shield upgrade.
Due note that you can only kill a raid boss once a week.
  • Heroic Anub'Rekhan - Arachnid Quarter - 13 times
  • Heroic Kel'Thuzad - Frostwyrm Lair - 5 times
  • Regular Maexxna - Arachnid Quarter - 21 times
  • Regular XT-002 Deconstructor - The Siege of Ulduar - 6 times
Also, lets say that between my Shaman and my Paladin in TBC - 30 times (I am sure its much higher)

So in a peroid of a little over 8 months I have had a total of 45 chances to upgrade my shield. Out of those 45 times, I have never even seen any of them drop.

Going back to TBC and adding them with my WotLK stats, that is 75 times with no shield drop!

Ladies and gentlemen, that is a full blown curse. RNG has completely pwned me when it comes to shield upgrades from boss loot for over the past 2 years roughly.

The weight has been lifted...

The stars aligned and the WoW gods finally decided that I have suffered enough. It was Thursday night and I logged in to check my auctions and go to bed. I see a guild looking for a few pugs to fill out a 10 man Ulduar group, I decide to give it a whirl for a chance at a new shield.

The group setup is fantasic for me. I am the only healer that can use a shield...so it would be mine if it drops. "IF" being the special word...

The guild I was running with wasn't terrible and they were very nice people, but overall they were not good. They kept on wanting to try hardmode even though they didn't know any of the stratigies for them.

For example, they wanted to do hardmode for XT. Ok, I am game for that, but the raid leader and the rest of the guildies have no idea how to start hardmode on XT...(Kill the heart). Not only that, but they have no idea about the gravitey or light bombs....

Plus, we didn't have the DPS to get the heart down pass 40%, let alone kill it lol. We almost didn't kill XT before his enrage timer. The only dps was a hunter that died because he melee'd a bomb add...

Yes, a hunter melee'd a bomb add.

...

moving on

We kill him and I almost shit my pants. The Pulsing Spellshield dropped and was auto looted to me.

I immediately go afk and call my friend who was drunk and told him about it and how EXCITED I was about the curse being broke. Pretty nerdy thing I know...but fuck it...it wasn't about the shield. At this point it was personal people.

The RNG pwnage that I was a victim too for so long has finally been overcome. I looked at RNG in its ugly face, put some baby powder on my hands, and I back handed that bitch like I was Rick James. I then jumped in the air and pwned him with all of my deliciously cute HATE like Pikachu's electric attack from Pokemon.

That's right people, you know what I am talking about.

I continued the with the raid and we cleared all of the bosses up to Kologan, including the Iron Council before the raid ended.

It was a blast to be healing in a raid again and I couldn't be any more happier that I am rocking a shield that drops from an actual raid boss. I took a bunch of screenshots to post here of my new shield...but I forgot to upload them and I am now on my work PC..../fail

The very first thing I did was vendor my Zom's Crackling Bulwark. It was a good shield and lasted a LONG time for me, but it just didn't look right on a big pound of beef like myself.

Monday Morning Madness!!
  • Due to getting my shield on my Shaman and the excitement it caused, I really only played him this whole weekend. My druid is still sitting at level 51 and collecting as much blue bar as it can get its paws on.
  • I quit the raiding guild I joined up with on my mage a few weeks ago due to not liking anyone in the guild and not getting a raid spot for 2 weeks straight. I went back home to Explicit and now he is just haning out until patch 3.3. (Arcane spec buff)
  • I have decided to go for another title on my Shaman. It is one of the cooler titles in the game imo and its a must for any fat cow that loves to eat. Thats right, I am going for the Chef's title! It wasn't that big of an issue, it was actually quite easy. The only hard parts about it is getting all of the rare recipes drops. Four of the rare recipes come from doing the old cooking daily in Shat. Two come have chances to drop from doing the Dalaran cooking daily. The other four are the emotion foods, happy, sad, angry, and scared. Those are world drops that drop in Northrend dugueons. I only need 3 more before I get my title and they are the ones that come from the old Shat cooking dailies. So hopefully in the next week or two I can get lucky and get them. Hopefully it wont be a RNG battle like my shield...that would make me a sad panda.
  • I still have not decided if I am going to transfer off the server with my Shaman or not...I will make my decision by this week. So we will see how that turns out.
  • Last week I talked about the epic gem market and how I was making all of that CASHMONEY. Well....I am broke now because I spent all my money on my Shaman buying up materials and now the market is flooded. I am not to the point yet of undercutting everyone, I am going to hold on for another week atleast to see what the market does. Stay tuned for updates.
  • I was leveling First Aid on my druid this weekend and I found out that those lower level cloths (Wool, Mageweave, ect) sell for a TON on my server. So if you have any just sitting around, I would recommend you check your server's AH to see what they are going for. Wool was selling for 30g a stack on my server....it was a complete stun and halted my First Aid progress FOR SURE.

Real life ramblings

Other then that...I really didn't do much this weekend in regards to WoW. I worked on my house on Friday for most of the day. I also saw Inglorous Basterds which is a MUST SEE in my opinion.

God I love Quentin Tarantino.

I started drinking beer on Saturday at 1pm because I was at a live fantasy football draft. That got over around 4pm, I then went over to my dad's and continued to drink for the next 3 hours. I then went home and almost passed out and called it a day at 8pm lol, but my girlfriend wanted to be social and I ended up over at my friends house and continued to drink.

So...because of that my Sunday was filled with me doing ABSOLUETLY nothing. Not even WoW. I ate some BBQ and took a nap. When I woke up it was time for a shower and off to work for the week.

I have an appointment for the county inspector to come and pass my house so we can move into it on Tuesday, so hopefully that will pass I can spend next weekend moving into mah house! yay!

So until next time blog lovers, I'm WTFout!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Risk and Reward or Risk and Fail?


That is the question I am asking myself right now. Ever since my return to WoW from my break, I have been looking for a guild to join. I want to join a guild for multiple reasons, but mostly to raid and experience content.

I did an experiment on my Mage last week, I joined a guild that I knew exactly zero people in. A slight change in my real life schedule and I can make their raid times, so I figured F it. I wrote an article about it located here.

I never really liked the guild much and after not getting a spot in this weeks raid, I have the feeling that I am a safe net for them, a certified bench warmer. Doesn't matter if I am the first person to sign up, they have a group they run with every week and I will only get invited if one of them doesn't show up.

I know I told myself that I was ok with this, but I am not. So my journey continues to find another guild that I can have a raiding spot in.

If you read my post yesterday you know that I rediscovered how much I like healing on my shaman.

See where I am going with this? No? Continue!

I was super tired when I got to work yesterday. So tired that right when I got in I immediately attempted to take a nap. My computer chair at work is not comfy at all...its rather blows to try to take sleep in.

So after about 5 minutes of attempting to take a nap, I decided to try to stay awake. I went to the plusheal forums and started looking around.

They have a section for guilds recruitment and for people to searching for guilds. I clicked on a link labeled "AoE Donkey Bombers LF Healers" only because I was so intrigued on WTF a Donkey Bomber is..

Anyway, they are a fairly new guild composed of real life friends and in game friends. They were in a 25 man raiding guild, but split off and decided to conquer 10 mans. Well, they beat all of the 10 man content and have about 20 or active players. The goal being 30 active people to run 2 groups of 10 man and 1 25 man raid.

I decided to check out their website and I was delighted on what I saw. These guys definitely know what they are doing, most of them have the achievement for 3 drakes up OS. They are very organized and well structure.

They application process is exactly how it should be, very detailed and strict. I started to fill out an application mostly to stay awake at work. I spent probably 2 hours or so filling the application out and making it look all pretty.

I took time and gave truthful, detailed, and descriptive answers just to see what they would say about it. I really wasn't excepting much. To my suprise though, they replied first thing in the morning...about 3 or so hours after I posted it.

They wanted to ask me some questions and talk to me. I gave them my email address and they said they would be contacting me.

This is where they really impressed me..

I got critted by their wall of text that the dude emailed me. I wont post the whole email but I will say that he gave me 4 solid paragraphs about what I should expect out of this guild and what he excepts out of me. He gave me a background of the guild and its future plans.

Then he wrote the following...


I talked with our Shaman guru, he pretty lives and breathes Shammy. He looked at your armory profile and said that you seemed to know how to make good decisions in regards to gear so he has no questions just yet. I though have a few questions for you.

Scenario 1

You have a 25-man raid where you have a MT, OT, 6 healers, and the rest dps. You have a resto shammy, 2 holy pallies, 2 disc priests, one of which has is dual spec'd holy, and 1 druid. You are engaged in a boss fight where you will be anticipating heavy raid damage. How would you delegate healing assignments?

Scenario 2

You're running a 10 man raid with 2 resto shammys, and one holy paladin. How would you set up your groups to optimize totems, and how would assignents go?

As a resto shaman,can you spec differently in order to put out more efficient single target healing as opposed to AoE healing? If so, can you show me the different specs? Also, when you typically run 10 or 25 man content, how many healers do you normally bring along? Do you have any questions for us?

Hopefully I don't scare you off with the wall of text. By the way, what blog are you running? Look forward to hearing back from you.

Well if I wouldn't be damned. This dude and his guild is for real people! I f'n love it and you know I am up to challenge to answer his scenarios...Oh fo sho!

So you want to know my reply?

I guess this is a WoW blog uh? Maybe the information that I write down will help absolutely noone someone right?

...

Yup, moving on

My respose

Scenario 1

You have a 25-man raid where you have a MT, OT, 6 healers, and the rest dps. You have a resto shammy, 2 holy pallies, 2 disc priests, one of which has is dual spec'd holy, and 1 druid. You are engaged in a boss fight where you will be anticipating heavy raid damage. How would you delegate healing assignments?

Holy Paladins: One will beacon the MT, the other one will beacon the OT. The one that beacon'd the the OT will then be assigned to raid heals.

Priests: I would have one of the disc priest use his holy spec. The holy spec would then be assigned to heal the raid. The disc priest would handle keeping the MT up with the other paladin handling the OT.

Resto Shaman: Would be on raid healing duty as primary, and tank duty as a secondary. With the new changes to Resto Shaman, we now have very good raid heals and also have alot of ultility to be a strong single target healer. I would assign the shaman to mostly cover the melee dps, that way it will get the tank(s) as well. It is important that you keep an eye on both of the tanks incase they need help.

Resto Druid: First off, I would just like to say that I think that restro druids are the best healers in the game imo. A good restro druid will do wonders for your raid and they especially excel at raid healing. I would assign the druid to raid healing specializing in ranged casters. If the fight involved alot of movement, I would probably reconsider, but given your scenario I am just going to consider a slighty non-moving raid encounter.

With my setup the raid healers would be the holy paladin, holy priest, druid. I guess the resto shaman would be consider raiding healing due to healing the melee along with the tanks.

My Tank healers would be the disc priest, holy paladin, and again...little bit of the shaman.

Scenario 2

You're running a 10 man raid with 2 resto shammys, and one holy paladin. How would you set up your groups to optimize totems, and how would assignents go?

Since your question was very generic, I won't get into detail about different type of encounters that a full raid can have.

I would assign the holy paladin to heal the MT and beacon the OT. Have one of the resto shamans use gear that favors pieces with crit, MP5, INT and SP. Crit should be at least at 28-30% self buffed (which is pretty high). That way with raid buffs it should be around 35%. This is important for a single healer to keep up ancestral healing and have enough throughput to also help out raid healing. This way they should be able to handle and balance both duties with ease.

The other resto shaman should be focusing on raid healing only. Gear should favor high intel, haste, and mp5. This should make the shaman shines in every fight where you cast a lot of spells per minute and require a lot of chain heals over a long time.

Overall - Your healing team should be working together as a team and figure out what the best combo will work for them. All about team work, but this is how I would assign them overall.

Talents

The spec that I am currently rocking is in my opinion the most intelligent spec a raiding shaman should have. The only other spec a raiding resto shaman should have is 0/13/58. The only difference is that you are trading mana regen for spell power.

Even though raid mp5 has been nerfted, we still received a +25% increase to our own mp5 due to our gear.

The difference is very situational and how comfortable you are with your own mana regen. If you are having issues with your own mana regen, taking the mp5 talent over the sp is the way to go. If you are not having issues with mana regen, I suggest you go with the additional sp due to that fact that Resto Shaman gear itemization goes as follows...

spell power>intellect>mp5>haste>crit

With glyphs like Glyph of Water Mastery (the passive mana regeneration of your Water Shield spell by 30%) available, you would probably see how it is better to go for the sp talent over the mp5 talent.

Is the Risk Worth it?

I received a reply back from him stating that I did get accepted into the guild, but a guild "test" run would be needed. So that would be the first risk. I transfer my shaman to his server and go on this "test" run. I screw up and they say don't invite me or I don't make a big enough impression on them and they don't invite me to raid, but I get to wear the guild tag.

Another risk is would be that they are a newer guild. They have only been together raiding as a guild for a little over a month. The long a guild has been together, the better they have a staying together.

Risk number 3 isn't really a risk at all, but I will say it anyway. Missing my own server and my real life friends that I play with. I will still have my mage and all of my alts, so I would still be able to play with them...but I don't know...just doesn't feel right not having my healer avialable if they need him. I am leveling a druid, currently level 51, and I do have plans to make his spec resto. So I will have a healer in due time.

Some other risks in no particular order would be not having my alchemist and people not knowing who I am on my current server. I am not known on the server for my Mage or any of my other alts....I am known for my Shaman. Not that I am well known or anything hah.

The Reward?

The reward would be joining up with an intelligent group of raiders that know how to play their class and completely rock face in raids. Not to mention meeting new people and making new relationships.

One part of the game that I need to in order to enjoy WoW is raiding. I don't need it all of the time, but I do need it. I love going into a place I have never been, learning the strats, and conquering all that stand in my way. The teamwork you and the rest of your raid have to do in order to take down a boss is something that I miss ALOT. So gaining these things would be worth it in my opinion.

I will still be around on my current server, just not on my Shaman.

Role play much?

Thats right biatches! The server is a role playing server lol. I am thinking about making my name something super ghetto and taking on that character while I am on that server lol.

I never role played in WoW, but I think it would be funny to be a Cow Tauren named Detroitbusstop. I can say I'm from the streets of Thunder Bluff and where I'm from, people get murda eva day son! Talk about my childhood growing up in the hood supporting my people by selling herbs and pimpin heifers. You know, just tryin to SURVIVE!

haha...

Good times. No, I am not being serious, I am not a role player. It would be funny thing to do one day though lol.

WTFspaghetti's Dumb of the Week

You knew it was coming...I would tell in your...uh...eyes? Anyway, yeah, this weeks weekly dumb is a winner in my book. All I can do is laugh. As always, the link is work safe.

Song of the Day

"Rapper's Delight"
Erick Sermon, Keith Murray & Redman


Quote of the Day

“Don’t do drugs, don’t have unprotected sex, don’t be violent. Leave that to me"
-Eminem

Till next time people, I'm WTFout!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Oh, Harro therr!

Ahh yeah! Whats going on blog lovers?

Yesterday I wrote an article about mostly random crap, but I did mention about how it was going to be my first guild run with my new guild.

So how did it go you ask?

Well, it didn't go at all. I woke up with plenty of time to spare and logged in. Spoke with the raid leader about if they are going to invite me to the raid or not. He stated that it is on a first come, first serve bases. I said ok, I was the 3rd person out of 11 that signed up, so I will be ready.

I am at the summon stone 15 minutes before raid is suppose to start...and yes...I don't get one. They invited everyone in the guild besides me....complete and utter weaksauce.

I knew there was a great possibility that I wasn't going to get an invite...but when I spoke with the raid leader, I just assumed I was and I got my hopes up. They were nice about it and I understand why I didn't get invited. Still shitty.

DPS are a dime a dozen and raid leaders do have their favorites. People that have seniority over me and what not. Gayness I tell yeah! Understandable, but gayness!

So what to do now you ask?

I logged on my shaman and pwned it up with some real life friends. Heroic UK and UP isn't the same as Ulduar, but I have more fun screwing around with my friend on vent anyway.

It is also fun to have my tank friend pull an ungodly amount of stuff at the same time and try to keep everyone alive. Its the only fun that I actually have healing those easy heroics.

Speaking of which, I been noticing that my earth shield has been criting for 8k! WTF is that about? I will tell you , its freaking awesome is what it is about.

Rediscovering the Power of Nature...

I hop around different toons so much its nuts. I don't do it quite as bad as other people I know, but since I returned to WoW I have been trying to find a "Main" once again. I was on a druid kick for a few weeks straight, then 3.2 came out. So I been playing my Mage just a freaking TON. Little did I know another change was going to happen.

For the past four days or so I been really liking my resto shaman again. The only time I attempted to heal anything since my 3 month hiatus was H ToC and I failed miserably.

After the 4th wipe I dropped group and got an ear full of NERD RAGE from the tank. Stating that I should deleted my Shaman because I was such a horrible healer blah blah. I logged off and was definitely feeling down about my healing skills.

It was like 2am and I was about to log when I decided that I was going to heal H ToC with my tank friend. I still had doubts about my skill level, but I went and did it anyway. H ToC is not hard to heal, it is fun as hell though. You definitely have to be on your toes and at times do some non stop casting. We pwned that placed and it was the first time in about 4 months that I really, really, enjoyed healing.

I logged after that and I was so hyped about the joy healing on my shaman that I couldn't get to sleep for about 15 minutes lol. All I kept thinking about was about my 20k 2 second casts and my chain heal hitting everyone even though they were a good ways apart.

Ahh yes, times were good and ever since then I have been playing my Shaman alot more.

Some Thoughts about Resto Shaman in 3.2...

Haste, Mp5, and Crit has always been very important to restoration shaman. I have been playing around with some of my gear and found that losing some crit to gain some haste is only a good thing.

2.2 seconds chain heals and 2 second healing waves really come in handy now. Since the 3.2 changes, I did respec into healing wave and I must say that I freaking love it. It took some time to get use to, but once I did and got a good sense of what each one of my spells can do...I am one lean mean healing MO CHINE.

Some healing tips

  • Use your mana wisely, but don't be afraid of running out. 3.2 brought mana nerf, but with our totems and 25% more mp5 on our gear, you shouldn't be running out of mana.
  • Doesn't matter what content you are currently doing, 5 man, 10 man, or 25 man. Try swapping some gear around. You should already been collecting and/or have other sets of healing gear (throughput, mp5, crit). With all these new changes, trying swapping a few pieces around and see how you like it. I personally got rid of about 3-4% crit to add 3-4% more haste and I have really been enjoying it.
  • I will be updating my huge Resto Shaman guide to make revisions for all the new changes in 3.2. So expect an update sometime in the next week or so.
Alchemy + JC = Profit!

Here is the best thing about it, you don't even need to be a JC or an Alchemist. You just need to know one or ask in trade.

Usually I don't do "how to make gold" posts. I leave that up to the Goblin, Darraxus, and Kry. However, I can't help but to share my thoughts about this subject...

Epic gems

Oh my, oh my. For some reason, the majority of people, even non-raiders, think you are a noob if you do not use these epic gems. Fine by me, there is gold to be made here people. Alot of gold and it is very easy and take hardly any effort.

First off, these epic gems can be transmuted by a high level alchemist. The materials you need to perform these transmutes are super cheap, so buy them up before people realize it and up the prices.

Follow these simple step by step instructions

Step 1: Go to your local AH
Step 2: Find out what epic gem is selling for the most and would be highly used. Blue / purple gems are a winner because for casters and melee dps due to the fact you need atleast 2 blue gems for their meta gem to work.
Step 3: Buy up the transmute materials in bulk
Step 4: Perform the transmute or buy the cooldown from an alchemist...about 30g on my server.
Step 5: Get a JC to cut the gem and tip them. I have only been tipping the JC about 5g for each cut.
Step 6: Put gem on AH. Uncut the other gems by 1g 95s. If they start yelling at you, pretend you are Asian and say "I GIV YOO VERY BEST DEAL! 329.95!" in Asian accent.
Step 7: ????
Step 8: Make 300g profit
Step 9: Make a toon on Bonechewer and send me 5% of the profit you make =P

I seriously made 2500g in about an hour. It was sick people....F'N sick.

The weekend is almost here my friends! Try to have a good hump day and I will see you guys tomorrow.

I'm WTFout!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Back to the Present...

Morning people

I was planning on completing my post from yesterday...but I really don't feel like talking about the upcoming expansion. I mean...its probably 8-9 months away and I will have plenty of time to talk more about it.

This post is more of and update of what I have been doing and about my first upcoming raid with my new guild.

4 day weekend = WoW pwnage

Oh yeah...it happen. Last weekend was a four day weekend for me. No particular reason...just decided to take some vacation days. Needless to say, I got a ton of crap done in the game.

I had no idea that VoA gives you 2 badges per boss. Call me a noob, but I had no idea. I went to a 25 man VoA with my Mage and got my T8.5 leggings...woot. This is huge because I did not want to get my T8.5 chest to gain the 2 piece set bonus.

Why you ask? Well its because I didn't want to look like a douchebag.

I mean, cmon! I am a Mage. I am suppose to wear a robe that gives me badass powers to conqueror and destroy my enemies....not a freaking tunic. You know who wears tunics? Not evil, undead sorcerers that use fire to make things go BOOM.

Don't get me wrong though. If I didn't get lucky and get those leggings, I would have spend the 58 conquest badges on them. I had 55 badges after the VoA runs, so it would have gone to them. However, now I got the two piece bonus for both T7 and T8 and I am happy that I do not have to wear that ugly ass tunic T8.5.

Plus, my robe chest piece is sexy. It would only be a side upgrade for me and because of that, I rather rock the robe.

Rawr bitch Rawr!

So WTF am I going to do with all these badges that I have collected on my Mage? Well buy the 10% xp leather chest! DUH! I was very against downgrading conquest badges for a heirloom chest because it just didn't seem right.

After 20 days of doing Argent Tourney dailies and not even being exalted with my home faction...I decided to give up on my dream of getting the crusader title on my Mage in order to buy the heirloom items for champion seals. It would just take way too long.

On the other hand, my druid, is damn near exalted with her home faction and revered with everyone else. So I should have no problems getting the crusader title on her to unlock the quartermaster.

Speaking of the druid...he was 45 at the begining of the weekend. With his shoulders and chest giving him an extra 20% xp for everything, he is currently 51. Funny thing is that I didn't even play him that much compared to my total WoW playing time. Maybe 40% or so....that extra 20% xp is silly.

First raid with New Guild

So the day has finally come! Tonight will be my first raid with my new guild. I do have some worries about it, but overall I feel pretty good.

My concerns are
  • Am I even going to get an invite?
  • Will I make a fool of myself lol?
  • Will I wake up on time?
Will I make a fool of myself is totally up to me. I plan on just sitting back and doing my job...not saying much if anything on vent. I know all of the fights, but not the hardmode versions. So I guess I need look that up before raid time.

Will I wake up on time is a big one for me. I plan on going to bed early enough to be awake for atleast an hour and a half before raid time. However, I just hope I can do it lol. I tend to sleep through alarms and natural disasters...so I only wake up when I am not tired anymore.

It kinda sucks really....I never used to be such a heavy sleeper....I guess that is one of the things that working the graveyard shift does to your body.

Moving on!

Am I even going to get an invite is another thing that I am wondering. I signed up before half of the other did, but noone was confirmed besides 2 people. I won't be mad if I don't get picked, I understand that I have to earn my stripes. So I won't be upset, but I will be disappointed.

I am ready to pwn the shit out of Mimiron! That over-grown, nerdy, bitch ass robot and me still have some unfinished business.

Upcoming posts

I could get into some topics now, but I will save them for later on this week. Plan on reading about some resto shaman action and a indepth look on how to play your class better.

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Monday Morning Warcraft - Information Overload...

Morning blog lovers!

Now that Blizzcon has come and gone, we now have a TON of information that is floating around our heads making us feel light headed and dizzy.

Seriously...I have never had so much stuff I can talk about since I started this blog back in 2008. WoWinsider really has all the changes on lock, so I am not even going to try and pretend out do them...I mean, they have a video of costume and "sound a-like" contests from Blizzcon lol.

Yes, I did just say a sound a-like contest. People have no shame of their nerdyness and I for one salute you...even if you can make a really good murloc impression.

I do want to cover some of the changes and write down my thoughts about them.

  • Warlock changes
  • LFG cross server 5 mans and Icecrown (patch 3.3)
  • Guild leveling system
  • Removal of stats
  • Terrain changes
  • Rated battleground and pvp titles
That is seriously only a small % of the news that was released over the weekend. Lets get started mmmk?

Warlock Changes
You know, I am not sure why Blizzard decided to hold on to this for SOOOO long. Yeah, you know what I am talking about, Soul Shards. Very cool lore element for the warlock class. They use the souls of other people that they have killed to do something badass...ect kill more, health pot, soul stone, summon a demon.

I love warlocks even though I do not have one at max level...they are definitely a class I like to follow up on. Anyway, I was talking about the change to remove Soul Shards from your inventory and make it apart of the warlock's user interface.

Not only that, but Soul Shards are not consumed by any Warlock spell other than the empowering ability, Soul Burn. In other words, you will only have to use a Soul Shard to do a so called power move. Pretty dope. Also, you can only use them while in combat and again...they are not in your inventory.

I thought Shamans had it bad when Blizzard made us carry around 4 totems in our bags lol. Congratz warlocks everywhere, the days of farming 20+ shards before a raid or before a pvp grind are over....maybe lol.

LFG cross server 5 mans and Icecrown (patch 3.3)
Patch 3.3 is coming out sometime around the holiday season. MMO-Champion is predicting November, so still a little bit aways from the present. However, the new cross server LFG system will be out with it AND the final raid before the new expansion, Icecrown.

First off...fuck yeah. I am all about the cross server LFG even though it is just for 5 mans currently. My main playing time is an off-time, so usually I don't run 5 man heroics due to the lack of people.

Now, there should be a crazy amount of people just waiting to pwn face. Plus, they are going to give rewards to the leaders of this 5 man instances if it is a successful run? Ha...I will lead everytime, why the hell not? Blizzard hasn't release any of the rewards, but like I said....might as well....we are only talking about 5 man heroics here people. When was the last time you had a fail run of heroic Nexus or UK?

Ok, don't answer that, but you get the point.

This is also going to help tremendously with lower level instances, such as ZF or Sunken Temple. That is if they are still around. Can you imagine the cross server queue for WC or Deadmines? Just the thought makes me chuckle.

Icecrown

I don't really have anything to say about this other then I hope I get into a guild so I can experience some of this content. I was reading a few weeks ago that they might be a 5, 10, and 25 man version of this place. If that happens, atleast I will get to see the content, even if I don't raid.

Guild Leveling System
Time to bust out the "OH SNAPFIZZLE" on this one. I mean...what else can I say...its a great idea. Your guild gets experience points for each member that has completed certain content. If your guild is a very small and casual, you will still gain points from your members completing certain tasks, like 5 mans.

Of course if your in a 25 man raiding guild, you are going to have more experience points, but its nice to know that there is stuff for everyone in this new system. This experience is going to be converted into guild currency.

Not, that isn't gold...this is different. This "guild currency" can be use to by different professions recipes, reagents, mounts, tabards...stuff like that.

Blizzard also has plans for a whole guild to transfer servers at once...

Wow...WTF is going on here. Should be very interesting to see how this actually works when it goes live.

Removal of stats
This change is also very game changing. Actually, I would say its the most game changing of all the changes that were revealed over the weekend. Here is a small breakdown...
  • Attack Power on gear is gone. Instead, some classes will get 2 AP from each point of Agi (Rogues, Hunters, Shamans, Druids), and other classes (presumably Warriors, Paladins, and Death Knights) will get 2 AP per point of Strength.
  • Spell Power is gone. It comes from Int now.
  • MP5 is gone. Spirit is the mana regen stat, and all classes that need it will get some form of Meditation.
  • Hunters, never fear - you don't use mana any more.
  • Armor Penetration is gone.
  • Defense is gone. Tanks are now defense-capped from talents, like Druid tanks.
  • Haste now increases your rate of resource regeneration (mana, energy, rage, runes, focus).
  • Block Value is gone, but blocks now mitigate a percentage of damage.
  • Stamina is going to be more equal across different armor types - no more "plate HP envy."
Spell power is gone? Attack power is gone?!? Hunters no longer use mana? Shamans and Pallies now need spirit for mana regeneration?

I am on the fence about this one really. I agree that some of the stats...ie Armor penetration...make the game slightly harder then I think is necessary. I mean, if I have to look up a spread sheet and do some math to figure out how much of whatever stat I need to perform at the best level. Then I think its an ok thing to get of rid them and get back to basics.

Now, on the other hand...this is quite a shock to most of us. All of my max level toons are mana based and one of the main stats I always went form either spell power or healing. Now all of a sudden that all goes away? Makes me kinda sad...especially since the only stat I will be stacking is intellect and spirit. Plus I am going to have as much hp as a tank?

Its going to be wild, that is certain.

I wanted to get into alot more, but I got pwned in the face at work and ran out of time to write my article.

Weaksauce....

More to come tomorrow, that is FO SHIZZLE. I'm WTFout!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Cataclysm World Map.../intrigued



So there it is...

Kinda blew my mind. Wowinsider has Blizzcon coverage on lock, so I'm not going to say anything about the next expansion now...just go check them out.

I do want to make sure you get check out the new Cataclysm trailer...pretty freaking crazy.

More thoughts on Monday...Until then, I'm WTFout!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

So it begins...


Morning people!

Tuesday uh? Blah is the only word that comes to mind when I think about Tuesdays. Nothing good on TV, 90% of the time WoW is down due to maintenance, the weekend seems like it came and went way too fast and now it seems so far away...

Ah yes...aren't I just cheering you up right now?

Few things on my mind before I get into what this post is really about...
  • Clearcasting has a really good article about all of the possible changes coming in the new expansion. She copied and pasted the "likely" changes from an article that mmo-champion posted and I must say....WTF! They are super detailed and from reading through it, I can't believe that they would post this kind of stuff without being 99% sure that it is going to happen. I mean, it sounds like Blizzard itself wrote it. That isn't a leak, that is a full blown hole the size of Rhode Island in the Blizzard Dam. She is going to write her initial thoughts on it throughout the week, so that should be interesting.

  • Druid is now level 44 and I am really loving feral spec. I made the druid because I wanted to rock out turkey form, gobble, gobble, and pwn some face...but I am really rethinking that. There isn't alot of good feral druids out there and the ones that are good, bring alot to a raid. 5% more melee and ranged crit anyone? I heard the rotation is hard, but hell, I am looking for a hard rotation to keep my interest. As of now, I am pretty sure that his main spec is going to be feral dps and his off spec is going to be healing. Mostly because I want to do some pvp and when I was into pvp, resto druids were unstoppable. I haven't been into pvp lately, so I don't know if that has changed or not, but I am assuming that they are still very powerful.

  • I was looking at my google analytics today and I realized that people are starting to read my blog again! yay! Before my 3 month break from playing I was averaging about 200-300 unique views a day. During my break I was still getting roughly 100 unique views a day from previous articles, but now it is starting to get back to where it was before...right around 200. So a big THANK YOU to all of my readers that keep an eye on me during my off time. I am going to try and post 3-4 articles a week, so stay tuned!

  • I added a bunch of blogs to my blog roll. River from High Latency and Shy at WoW are good ones that I have been enjoying. Repgrind, Wild Growth, and Boombaloo's are also new adds. Go check em out.
Alright then, now that I have gotten that off mah chest. Time for the main reason why this article was written.

So It Begins...

I posted last week about my struggle to find a guild that will fit my personality and at the same time allow me to raid and to see content.

Yesterday, before I went to sleep. I was trolling my realm's forums and stumbled on a guild that seems like it would be a perfect fit. I filled out an application and just a few hours ago, I was accepted.

Good stuff right? I don't know, I am still pretty shaky about the whole thing really. The application process was really bland and didn't give me the option to express what I wanted to get express. Also, once you filled out an application, it was hidden in the officers forum. So I couldn't even see how it looked or answer any questions they might have had.

I got to work today, about 12 hours after I placed the application, and found a private message stating that I was accepted into the guild. Yet, their website is setup super weird and I wasn't really able to navigate through it like I wanted to.

Another issue I have with the guild is the name....its so unoriginal it pisses me off. I am willing to bet that both factions on every server has its name.

Any guesses?

No, no, its not pew pew laserz beamz or something gay like that. It's name is Rerolled.

Yeah, I know...pretty horrible. However, they are ranked 4th on our server for 10 man content and are recruiting for hard modes in Ulduar. They also seem to be pretty active and state that they are a strong family guild that has fun, but takes raiding seriously.

So, WTF...might as well give it a try. If everything works out I know that I have 3-4 friends that are just as geared as me that would join because of me, so that would be the overall goal of this.

We shall find out...I just really wish their name wasn't so LAME.

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Monday Morning Warcraft: 3.2.2 Mage Changes and Other Highly Entertaining Things...

Monday Morning Warcraft is a weekly post that illustrates random thoughts and events that occurred over the weekend in the life of a wowhead. Feel free to e-mail me with questions, suggestions, hate mail, ect... mlange0385 at yahoo dot com

Morning blog lovers!

That is right, Monday Morning Warcraft is back in full action. I couldn't ever leave you guys for good, me love too much.

Before I get into anything, I want to make an apology to all Shockadins (lol.../chuckle) and Ret Pallys. I forgot to add you in my new poll and I feel really bad about it. However, I can not edit it without completely deleting it.

So yeah, I am just going to leave it how it is....BUT know this....I feel silly, kinda sorta anyway.

You might be thinking right now...
  1. Tell me the damn changes Doc before I go look them up elsewhere!
  2. Shockadins....lmao
  3. Highly entertaining things? /Intrigued
Have no fear people of the blogmosphere, this article is going to cover the following...
  1. Patch 3.2.2 Mage changes. Even more awesome, Arcane Mage changes. Oh yes, get excited!
  2. Other highly entertaining things....lol
Let's get this boat rocking then shall we?

Arcane Mage's get serious PvE buff in 3.2.2

Before I crit you all with my wall of text, let me first post the new, juicy changes...

Mages

  • Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 130% instead of 200%.

  • Talents
    • Arcane
      • Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it.

I AM SO CEREAL right now guys. This is a huge buff that the arcane spec really needed in order to be a viable high level raiding spec again.

Think about it, the mana cost for Arcane Blast has gone down by almost HALF! As it stands right now, a fully stacked Arcane Blast is going to cost like 1850 mana. With this change a fully stacked Arcane Blast is going to cost about 650 mana.

1850 mp < 650mp

Missile Barrage

Oh snapfizzle. This change is game breaking. It completely removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. Say it with me...

It completely removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles.

I AM SO CEREAL about this guys! Not only that but it also allows Arcane Blast a 40% chance to proc Missile Barrage....that is currently double from what it is now.

So what does this all mean? It means that you are going to have a TON more mana then you are use to is what it means! Which ups your DPS, blah, blah. It is still going to do the same amount of damage per spell. Missile Barrage is just going to proc more and cost nothing. Pretty F'n sweet and, at least I think, will put the arcane spec on the map for raiding again. Hell, it might even surpass the top raiding spec currently, deep fire. Especially when you consider the Glyph of Arcane Blast. That an 18% damage increase....per stack!1!111!

zomgfishsticks people, it really sounds like Blizzard is just messing around with us and after testing they will find out that its too powerful and get nerfed.

Rotation

Rotation, ah yes, I am going to have to mess around with it a little bit to find out if it is worth passing on the Missile Barrage procs until you have 4 stacks of Arcane Blast or if it is going to be just Arcane Blast until proc, then Arcane Missiles, then repeat.

If you do ABx4 and MB has not yet proc'd yet, (lets face it, the random number generator is going to pwn us from time to time), you would keep on spamming Arcane Blast until it did proc. This will also come in handy when you need to do burn down the last couple percent of a boss. You can just spam AB and not feel like you have to clear it with Arcane Barrage or Arcane Missiles.

Other highly entertaining things...

I must admit, I lied. I really don't have anything else that is highly entertaining at all, but I will tell you how my weekend went in regards to WoW.

I spoke on Thursday about my goals I had set for myself. The break down is that I wanted to get as many Champion Seals on my mage and do the Tourney dailies so I can buy my 10% xp chest.

Come to find out...that is gonig to be alot harder then I thought. In order to buy heirlooms using champion seals, you must be exalted with the Argent Crusade and all of your main factions...Org, TB, UC, ect.

Huge upside down simile face. I am not even exalted with UC and I am a undead. So that is going to take awhile to do. However, I did get caught up completely and I unlocked all of the dailies. Now I just got to keep on doing the dailies until I reach that goal. By that time I will definitely have enough seals to buy my 10% xp chest for my druid...I only hope he is still going to need it lol.

I almost got enough motivation to start a 10 man ToC with a few friends, but decided not too...mostly because of lazyness. So that goal failed.

Zoo Tycoon FTW?

So, if you are one of the few many people that follow this blog, you might know that it was my girlfriend's and I two year anniversary this weekend. I was clueless what to get her, so I decided to get something for her that will also work in my favor.

Intrigued? I know you are!

My girl loves to play Zoo Tycoon. However, there has been 4 expansions out and she only plays the original. So I went ahead and got her the collectors edition (All four expansions in one) and she was excited as can be.

It was rather funny really, I never seen her act like that for a video game. Anywho, she played the game pretty much all day Sunday.

What was I doing while she was playing her computer game you ask? You already know, playing some WoW, leveling my druid lol. I felt kinda bad for tricking her, but hell...she really likes the game, so it worked out for both of us.

So I failed on my last goal I set for this weekend. I didn't hit 45 on my druid. I did get 43 and a half though. I could have reached it but I decided to play with some friends and do some raids that took up alot of time.

Again I say, Zoo Tycoon FTW...who would have thought.

What did you guys get into this weekend of WoWage? Anything cool or drama filled? Inquiring minds would like to know. Please feel free to comment!

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Thursday Morning Ramblings...

Holla, holla, holla, blog lovers!

Its Thursday and for most of you that means that the weekend is almost here, hooray! This is my second full week working 4 days a week, 10 hours a day. So when I get off today, I am on my weekend. Double hooray!

You are probably thinking 1 of 2 things right now...

  1. You SOB! I don't want to hear that you have a 3 day weekend. I still have to work, so STFU mmmmk?
  2. ZOMGFISHSTICKS! 3 days off in a row every week, how fantastic is that?
First is understood, I don't mean to rub it in and make you feel like punching a baby in the face. Secondly, its not fantastic until you are actually on your days off. The four days that I do work suck ass and are only filled with sleep, food, the word "fuck", and drive time to and from work.

I didn't even have time to watch "The Notebook" marathon on Lifetime today. OMG, I can't believe I missed the pain, anger, sadness, and of course the LOVE that is in this epic movie.

...

In fact I woke up today to my girlfriend watching this movie. She looked at me while I was standing there in my boxers, half wake, and said "Babe, The Notebook is on and its a marathon!"

She said it such a way that she expected me to glee with excitement, go get some popcorn, a bottle of wine, and a box of kleenex while I cuddle up next to her under the covers.

Guess how that went?

Yup, right back to bed for the next 2 hours lol

I swear this blog post is going to be about warcraft though....me promise.

Lets get into shall we?

Where is my people???



WTFspaghetti's 15 man choir: "LETTTS BREAK IT ON DOWNNNNN!!"



Random Thoughts about WoW

Onyxia 10 and 25 man? Come again??

So I was going through my google reader and I noticed a story on wow.com about Onyxia returns in Patch 3.2.2!

How badass is that? For those of you at work that can't access wow.com or if you just don't want to click the link, I will give you the cliff notes.....I know, I know...I rock face.

WoW's 5 year anniversary is coming up in November and to commemorate it, they are releasing a new 10 and 25 man instance of the dirty ho. There is going to be new purples, some of which will look just like the old teir 2 helms from vanilla WoW. wow.com also stated that one of the new items will be a 310 flying mount modeled after the Onyxia herself.

I am pretty excited about it really. Back in the old days of vanilla WoW, the 40 man version of Onyxia was my favorite and first raid EVER! It felt good to kill that ho after spending weeks on her attunement quest chain.

Plus, my all time favorite favorite loot that I ever received, the Quel'Serrar, was forged with Onyxia's blod and fire breath. Thinking back on it, Blizzard did a great job on setting up that quest line for the Quel'Serrar. It started with a book, which you could have bought from the AH or get as a drop. Then go on a journey that lead you through multiple 5 mans and ended with killing Onyxia.

You had to get Onyxia to fire breath on the blade, then go pick it up and stab her with it. Then she had to be killed, because if you wiped. You have to start the whole thing over again!!

It was epic and if you succeeded, you got a badass tanking blade. Blizzard really needs start doing those again. They are freaking awesome and make me miss the good old days of vanilla..../sniffle.

WoW Goals for this Weekend

I am not sure if I am going to have alot of time for WoW this weekend. Alot of stuff going on in my real life. I am getting my home appliances delivered on Saturday. My water heater installed on Friday.

Plus, its 2 year anniversary with my girlfriend and she has been telling me that she has "stuff" planned. Speaking of which, I got to find some time to go get her something...yes, I must not forget that lol.


  • I definitely want to try out the 10 man version of TOC. It sounds easy and after reading Shy's write up on it, I am now positive that I can do it.
  • I need to do the heroic daily on my Mage and continue to gain as many champion seals that I can get my hands on. That way I can get my additional 10% xp chest for my little druid.
  • Which brings me to leveling my druid to 45. This is going to be tough, but I think I can get it accomplished. Right now he is 39.5 with no blue bar, so with all the things going on in my real life....it could be difficult. Fuck it though, its still a goal lol.
WTF's Weekly Dumb!

That's right, I know you have missed it just as much as I have. I mean, who doesn't like laughing at dumb criminals? Anyway, this dipshit wins for this week. The link is work safe....me promise.

Song of the day

Mest
"Moving On"
Wasting Time

Check out the video on the work friendly video site, Daily Motion.

Quote(s) of the day

“I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.”
-Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)

New Poll Question

Don't be scared! Minds like mine need to know! Go go gadet vote...thing...uh?

That's it for me, until next time...I'm WTFout!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

To Guild or not to Guild

Yes, that is the question people.

Since I have been playing again, I am feeling the urge to raid. Not only that, but to actually belong somewhere and have green chat again. Back in Vanilla WoW, I was in a huge guild. This was due to the fact that if you wanted to raid, you had to be in a big guild because every raid required 20 or 40 people.

When I made my own guild we had an average of 5-10 people online pretty much at all times. During our active times we had more along the lines of 15-20 people. Times were good and it was by far the funniest time I ever had playing WoW. This all changed when I took a 3 month break from the game. 90% of the guild left on their own and we had about 8-9 people left in the guild that were active. I decided to kick the active people and make the guild a friends only guild.

However, this was done before I realized that I would be playing again. I probably wouldn't have done it if I knew that I would get back to playing normally again. So now when I log in I am usually the only one in the guild. I still talk to friends via whispers, but its not the same thing.

Thus my problem...

To guild or not to guild

So yes, I do want to be in an active guild. I have two toons that are ready to step into Ulduar 25 and not be a liability to the raid. Sounds easy right? Just go fill out some applications and get yourself a guild.

Not as easy as it sounds.

I want to make sure if I do join a guild, its a good one. However, I lack some of the requirements to make it into most good, established guilds.

For one, I never got the exalted shoulder enchant. I only have the honored one from the Hodir reputation. This looks very poor in most established guild's eyes. Mostly because it shows that you didn't put in the time to get it done. Its not like its an instance drop that you just never got, it something that everyone has the option to do...you just have to do it.

Secondly, I can not make the attendance requirement for most of these guilds. As of right now, I could make at TOPS, two days during the week. I can easily fit that into my schedule without too many absences. However, top guild's usually raid 3-5 times a week...not something that I want to do again....LIKE EVER.

So where does that leave me? Asking a top guild if I could be a social member or apply for a raid bench spot. Not a bad idea IMO, but most guilds are going to pass on that chance.

My other option is to get into a super laid back guild that raids, but doesn't force you to do anything. As a former guild leader, I know that those guilds usually end up failing and drama tends to happen a little more.

I could just say...

F it and just be the free spirit that I am. Continue to level my druid (level 40 now, yay) and log into my main to do some dailies. Maybe run a heroic or get invited to a pug 10 man.

This is more likely what I will do, but there is something intriguing to me about joining another guild and taking my chances.

I am at a lost. What to you guys think I should do? Any suggestions? They will be mucho appreciated.

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Wanna be a Baller...


Morning blog lovers!

This post is going to be touching on a few topics that I have been thinking about lately.
  1. Arcane Mage Rotation
  2. New expansion leaked and the two new playable races
  3. The Greedy Goblin - A breakdown of his BS
  4. Gearing your toon up enough for the content you would like to do
So lets get into this biatch shall we? Tell em how we do it round here...

WTFspaghetti's 15 man choir: "THIS, IS HOW, WE DO ITTTT!"

Arcane Mage Rotation

Since the new patch hit, I have been mostly playing my Mage. He was my the toon that I played when I wasn't playing my Shaman and the only alt that I had that was level 80. When I was leveling him from 70 to 80, I completely feel in love with the arcane talent tree. Life was good and I was a beast that was spitting HOT HOT white fire.

Then in patch 3.0.9....they nerfed us. They pretty much pwned our rotation because we were doing too much damage. I would have been ok with them just nerfing out spells, but no no. They had to go and fuck with our rotation and make us come up with another one. It was a sad day and I really stopped playing my Mage after that really. I only got on him to mess around with pvp and dailies.

So when I started playing my Mage again, I did some research and found out that there is alot of confusion out there when it comes to our rotation. Now, I do not raid with my Mage and I can't say that I am 100% correct...

...but really I am

Arcane rotation changes every fight and multiple times during the same fight. This is due to how much mana you have and how long encounter is going to be. To be a good Arcane Mage you have to master your mana usage to make sure you always have mana as long as the fight is going on. A Mage with no mana is like a ghetto without a "BBQ - Fish, Chicken, and Shrimp" shop....it just isn't right.

However, this article isn't about mastering your mana consumption, its about rotation. I just wanted to make that known so I don't confuse the little ones.

Maximum DPS rotation under normal circumstances

Arcane Blast, Arcane Blast, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles. If you proc Missile Barrage, you want to cast it immediately. This is because your next Arcane Blast could trigger another Missile Barrage.

That's it. Its not AB, AB, AB, Arcane Barrage anymore like it used to be. Even though I do see alot of Mages still doing this. I also was reading that to maximize your dps as arcane, you should just cast arcane blast until your out of mana. So wrong and also dumb if I may add.

Now you can join me and chuckling at them. If they start talking shit back at you, just start speaking in made up language. Its fun and entertaining. Example

You: You could probably do alot more dps, especially for longer fights if you change your rotation a little bit

Arcane noob: Yeah right....my gear is Uld25 ok? I know how to play....god...you think I don't know how to play or something? Just compare you achievements to mine and you will see that you are the one that needs to L2PLAY nub

You: Uligh es togni huagh

Arcane Noob: What? You need to learn how to speak english to as well i guess

You: Wesig en su tuago riend? LOL

Arcane Noob: dude...seriously?

You: U bang bang long time yes? togni huagh LOL

If you are anything like me, you will get a good laugh out of it.

Moving on!

New expansion leaked and the two new playable races

So I read an article today...

"WoW.com has learned through multiple sources close to the situation some details on the next expansion, to be called World of Warcraft: Cataclysm."

Two new playable classes, Worgen for the Allies and Goblins for the Horde. There is also going to be another 10 levels added on to the cap and a new island to the south of the world. I don't have much to say about other then GAY.

When are they going to make Pandas a playable race? I don't even care if you could only be one class, I would so rock a Panderan.

Player Versus Developer also wrote an article on it that is worth reading.

Greedy Goblin

First off, let me say that I enjoy reading this dude's articles. I also want to state that I pretty much hate him as a human being. Yes it is true that most of the time he comes off as a chillen dude, but then he writes an article about his imaginary girlfriend and how he a ninja in real life, ect, ect.

He also goes off on casual / social players calling them morons and idiots and then going into depth about how they are morons. Sometimes he is right, sometimes I couldn't disagree more with him.

Jong, the gangsta that he is, went off on him a few weeks back and when I read The Greedy Goblin's article today it made me think of Jong's article....and how he pwned the goblin. I replied to the goblin's article today, but he deleted it....lol

All I said was...

" "oiled the door down so you can sneak up on your secretary at work?"

I think you could have made up with something better then that Gelvon"

Oh well. Go read it and then go read Jong's meme to Gelvon. It will make you laugh.

Gearing your toon up enough for the content you would like to do

PvD commented on my article yesterday and it got me thinking. If my Mage is already geared for heroics and 10 mans, why should I even bother getting the better loot knowing that it is going to be worthless when a new patch comes out or the new expansion finally hits...

Its a valid point. If all you plan to do on a toon is completed, then why stress about getting better gear? I thought about it alot and finally came to the conclusion that even though I know my gear will be worthless soon, I still like upgrading my toons.

I like the feeling when I get a new item. Another reason why I like getting gear is because, well, my Mage only has 3 pieces that are item level 213 or above. That being said I am always beating other Mages with better gear. I want to see what kind of numbers I would have if I had their gear.

That is what motivates me to keep on upgrading my gear...even though I know that once patch 3.3 comes out and Blizzard decides to keep it raining purples. I will find better gear...

What do you guys think about? Use the comment section and let us know!

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Random Thoughts on 3.2 and Trial of Champions Loot...


Morning blog lovers...

Well, this was the first weekend that we had with all the new goodies that is patch 3.2. I played alot this weekend, in fact, I will go to say that I played too much lol. WoW is a totally different atmosphere since the new patch has gone live.

It has brought back alot of players that stopped playing the game, not enough in Blizzard's eyes I'm sure lol. It has never been easier to get into 5, 10, or 25 man group. I ran every single heroic this weekend, even the Occulus. I also did a few wings of a Naxx 25, a clearing of 25 VoA and OS.

It was crazy! Trade and LFG channel was consistently popping looking for people to run stuff.

However, it should be.

3.2 - The Alt Patch...yeah F'n right or true???

Blogger queen Larisa wrote a post last week that touch on the subject I am about to dive into. 3.2 is being called the "Alt patch" by many due to the changes in leveling and the new mounts restrictions.

However, this is not the case. Blizzard is basically saying

"Peons, as long as you put in the time and keep abusing our drug playing our game, we will reward you with loot that you can use at the highest level"

With that being said, your level 80 really doesn't have any excuses on why he/she isn't geared. You can't blame it on loot not dropping, not having enough DKP, or any other RNG pwnage story you may have. There is no were to hide anymore people and I am on the fence about how I feel about it.

On one hand, I am all for it. I hate loot not dropping and getting OWNED by the random number generator. It sucks and it can make you get burned out quickly. This new system also allows for your additional toons to get gear without spending multiple weeks in Naxx 10, then another month or more in Naxx 25 to be geared up to move on to additional content (Ulduar and above)

Its not only for your additional toons, its for newly level 80 players that from this point on will not have to experience the gear grind in Naxx 10/25 if they do not want to. They still can, but it is not forced on them like it was the rest of us before patch 3.2.

I am assuming that Blizzard did some research and found out that it is a good thing for them to get as many people involved in their new content as possible. Atleast give them options to gear up, different routes, yet ending in the same place.

However, its not like my main wasn't geared enough to heal or dps anything in the game currently. I will state that there is no way that I would level a new character and go through the gear grind that was...

Ding level 80 > Heroics > OS/VoA/Naxx 10 > OS/VoA/Naxx 25/Malygos > Ulduar

...just to get to where I need to be for the new content. Only way I would do that is if I took a long break from WoW and then came back. Which I have done in the past, but Blizzard does not want that. They lost roughly 90 bucks just from me during my 6 months break back in TBC.

Final thoughts on 3.2

For the fan boys that are calling this patch the "Alt patch", I can not disagree 100% with you. It is true that this patch is leaps and bounds over other patches in terms of buffing the leveling and gearing process. Which is very valuable for older players alts and newly level 80 toons.

However, because you are now given the option to run 5 mans and get the same loot as one would get from a 25 man raid of the highest level....you should really be making sure your main is updated with all the of the best gear. Which makes you play your main more then you would be playing your alt.

Take me as an example. I been leveling a druid for the past two weeks, only playing my main to check the AH (for my alt) or send money to him.

Patch 3.2 hit and I played him about 5% of the total time I played WoW over my three day weekend.

Alt patch or main patch, you decide.

Now for the new, juicy stuff...

Trial of Champions and its loot

Wow, just wow. Regular instance dropping loot that is on par with tier 7? Quite a change from how things were being run in WoW the past 4 years. I ran ToC multiple times (6-7) this weekend and I must say....I like it overall. There is a thing that is slightly bothering me about it though, its the quality of the loot.

The regular version of ToC is pretty simple. I only wiped once during it and it was because my group was filled with fail. I am ok with the quality of the loot in this version though. It is slightly less then epics that are found in 10 mans. However, the trinkets that drop in this version are pretty badass. Definitely not the best in slot, but nothing to frown at. Worth your time to mess around with different options.

I got the caster dps one on my mage and I replaced it with +100 sp trinket. Was this the right thing to do? I'm not 100% sure, but I do know that procs ALOT! Off the top of my head I would say that it procs around once every 30 seconds. I could be wrong but I think that +600 sp once every 30 seconds is better then a consistent +100 sp. Its not like I am doing any hardcore raiding or anything, just pew pew heroics and 10 mans.

Heroic ToC

Heroic ToC is not an easy instance, but its not a hard instance either. You need a decent group that knows whats going on and a good healer. A good tank always makes thing easier, but a good tank in ToC makes this instance alot easier. I wiped a bunch with a few groups, but come to find out, they just were not good and didn't know what was going on.

The past 3 times I have done it though, I have completed it. This is making sure your group is decently geared and that they know the fights before you accept the summon or fly out to the instance.

WTFloot

Healing mace dropped off the second boss. Come to find out it has the exact same stats as the healing dagger that drops off the 6th boss in Uludar.

6th boss?

Ulduar?

5 man heroic?

2nd boss?

I know that I just said a bunch of stuff about how it Blizzard wants to close the gear gap in order for more people to experience new content when it comes out.

But damn...it slightly pissed me off

I guess I know how hardcore raiders feel about the whole conquest badges changes. Oh well, try to remember not to hate and roll with the punches. Lets face it, we all love WoW and we will continue to play until they decide to they make a change that will ultimately destroy the world


...of warcraft.

Until next time, I'm WTFout!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

3.2 Shaman Changes and MORE...


Hola blog lovers!

I know I am super behind on all of the new, juicy action that is happening in WoW's upcoming patch, 3.2. However, there has to be other losers people like me that don't know what is going on right?

....no?

In either event, here is a break down of some of the upcoming changes (pve) to the Shaman class and my thoughts on them. When I say some, I do mean the important ones....you know, Restoration, Elemental, and the general ones. I am a total noob on enhancement, so I don't embarrass myself comment on those.


  • Blizzard is actually decided to implement its own totem bar instead of having a 3rd party addon do it for them. This totem bar will allow you to press one button and BAM...all four of your totems are down in one global cooldown. You can save up to three different combinations with this new totem bar and they are named, Call of Air, Call of Fire, and Call of Water. This is definitely going to get some taking used to, but my god, its what the Shaman community has been asking for YEARS!

  • Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes. Nothing else I can say about this other then OMGNERF. Maybe now I can survive long enough to get away from assholes rogues stun locking me to death...even with my earth shield up and spamming war stomp / lhw.

  • All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards. I know a few Shamans that were hanging on to their s5 gloves for this sole purpose. Again, a nice change that Shaman have been asking for, especially sexy for Elemental specs

  • Ghost Wolf can now be learned at level 16. Hooray for little / wannabe Shamans everywhere! yay!

  • Nature’s Swiftness cooldown is now 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes. Nothing major, but it is nice. For spike dmg, this is really going to help out....i.e. Mimiron.

  • Healing Way has been reworked. It used to provide a chance of increasing healing wave spells on a friendly target, this talent now increases the effectiveness of the shaman’s HW by 8/16/25%. Damn, this is going to make me get a talent change. 25% more off the bat isn't something trivial, that is alot. It is going to be interesting to see how much this is actually going to change healing as a Shaman. It might change it alot or the change might be minimum, either way I am going to mess around with it.

  • Tidal Waves no longer reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave by 30%. It will now provide an additional 25% critical strike chance to Lesser Healing Wave and still make our HW cast time 30% faster. In addition your HW gains 20% and LHW gains 10% of your bonus healing effects. Very very interesting and sexy. Blizzard definitely wants us to use our HW more. Combined with the new HW talent, this can only help us. That extra crit is also going to do help us with proc'ing Ancestral Healing....which by the way is changing too.

  • Ancestral Healing's buff now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target’s armor. Probably the biggest and most beneficial change, we will have to find out. The increase armor was nice, especially for druids, but now it is going to reduce dmg by 10%....thats REDONKEYOUS people! This will make new encounters alot easier and make old encounters even more easy. Can you imagine critting with chain heal? Redonkeyous people, redonkeyous...

  • Chain Heal's jump distance has been increased to 10 yards. Also, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%. Dang! Now I can really bind all of my keys to chain heal instead of just half. In all serious though, this change is proof that Shaman are falling behind other healers in regards to raid spots. Blizzard just gave our "niche" healing spell 10% more healing per jump. I'll take it!

  • Improved Water Shield talent now has a 10/20/30% chance to be triggered by Chain Heal, and the charges of Water Shield are no longer consumed by this talent. I dont know about this one. I been reading up on it, but I will do my own testing when it goes live. It could be amazing if the 30% trigger chance is every jump...but that would seem too overpowered. Then again, with the replenishment nerf (1% of maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of .25% per second), maybe it will help fill that gap.....we shall see
Other changes that intrigue me

Tier loot changes

First off, all tier loot is changing. Instead of dropping your glove token, or your head token, everything is going to be generic now. You can use your generic token to purchase whatever piece of loot you would like.

I don't troll the forums anymore, but I would put money on it that there is a bunch of QQ'n and AHMGAD L2P idiots out there. They are probably saying that Blizzard is making the game too casual and now people don't have to run the same instance OVER and OVER and OVER again for one piece of tier loot like they had to...blah blah blah

Tell them to stop using their own tears to stoke their epeen and listen. Do you really like running the same raid instance over and over until you are burned out on the game and it is no longer fun? Of course you don't, that is why this change is good for all of us.

Period. Nough said. Wipe those tears fat boy, moving on.

Mount level restrictions

Oh yes, this change has got everyone that has played the game for over the past 2 years and beyond all nerd raged out. Seriously, people are very vocal about this change....its hilarious.


Before I get into it, here are the changes...


Apprentice Riding (Skill 75)
60% land mount speed
Requires level 20
Cost: 4 gold
Mount cost: 1 gold
Mail will be sent to players at level 20 guiding them to the riding trainer

Journeyman Riding (Skill 150)
100% land mount speed
Requires level 40
Cost: 50 gold
Mount cost: 10 gold
Mail will be sent to players at level 40 guiding them back to the riding trainer

Expert Riding (Skill 225)
150% flying mount speed; 60% land mount speed
Requires level 60
Cost: 600 gold (faction discounts now apply: Honor Hold [Alliance]; Thrallmar [Horde])
Mount Cost: 50 gold
Can now be learned in Honor Hold (Alliance) or Thrallmar (Horde)

Artisan Riding (Skill 300)
280% flying mount speed; 100% land mount speed
Requires level 70
Cost: 5,000 gold (faction discounts apply)
Mount Cost: 100 gold

Movement Speed Training By Class

Druid
Travel Form: Requires level 16
Flight Form: Requires level 60 (150% flight speed)
Swift Flight Form: Requires level 70
Hunter
Aspect of the Cheetah: Requires level 16
Shaman
Ghost Wolf: Requires level 16
Paladin
Warhorse: Requires level 20
Charger: Requires level 40
Warlock
Felsteed: Requires level 20
Dreadsteed: Requires level 40

Not going to lie, from a player that has been playing since 2004...roughly patch 1.3 or so. It was a huge WTF crazy factor. Thought to myself....

ZOMGFISHSTICKS, Blizzard is making this game so easy! I remember back in the day when...

After going on in my mind for the next minute about how "hard" the game used to be, I started laughing at myself. If you had the same ZOMGFISHSTICKS reaction to this change, answer these questions.

1. Does getting a mount quicker and moving faster make the game any easier?
2. Does this really effect any of YOUR max level toons?
3. If Blizzard is making this game easy, when was the game hard?

1. No, it does not make the game any easier. It makes leveling faster, yes, but that is no reason to get upset. I mean, instead of looking at the back on your toon running, you are looking at the back of you toon on a mount. Nothing changes content wise.

2. Nada....it has no effect on anyone max level characters...again...no content has been changed.

3. The only part of the game that is/was hard is content....not time invested into the game.
Also think about the position Blizzard is in as a business. The level cap is already 80 and within the next year or so I bet it will be 90. That is pretty crazy for a new person picking up the game for the first time. Blizzard had to make a way to make leveling faster and more efficent to gain new players. Besides that, how many of us want to try out another class, but never did because it would take too long to level? I am sure its ALOT. Believe me when I tell you that Blizzard isn't making leveling faster because they are a bunch of carebears. They are doing it to make more CASH MONEY.

So overall...the people that are pissed off about this are people that are mad that they had to spend more time traveling. GET OVER IT. No one cared when your grandpa said he had to walk to school, up hill, both ways, in the snow, back in his day. It is just as annoying now when you are saying it.

So again I say, wipe those QQ tears tubby. No one cares how much time you spent traveling during your leveling days and you are as annoying as old people talking about how no one had TVs or the internet back in their day.

This article is getting pretty long, so I will end it on that note. I write again this week about the other changes 3.2 and my thoughts on them.

I know you are dying to know what is on my mind lol.....come to think about it....I am too =P

I'm WTFout