Nice Pick-Up!

I have been absolutely bored with WoW since I know the patch is close. I can’t justify leveling anything in Northrend anymore because I want them to do it with not only flying mounts, but faster flying mounts, so I have been playing both the druid and the paladin so much that I’m sure at the login screen they are both thinking, “oh shit, he’s gonna pick me isn’t he.”

Things have gotten so bad that I have done the unthinkable and started to level fishing. A profession I berate people for and tell them if they are that bored they need to turn off the damn game and do something productive. In my defense, we have one car, and the better half has been taking it to work in the evenings, so I am actually stranded at home. My something better to do has included, but is not limited to, watching entire collections of The West Wing, Friends, seasons 1-5 of Will and Grace (that’s all we have at the moment), and The Big Bang Theory, doing the laundry and actually folding all the socks. I am even simultaneously reading one book on Bill Clinton, someone I love, and another on Roger Clemens, someone I despise. Talk about being confused during congressional hearings. Cigars and intravenous needles were going where?

Last night I decided to try and level fishing on my shaman. He has no suga’ mama paladin to finance his every desire because he is on the old server I called home. I just joined LFG for Violet Hold and then sat in Dalaran fishing up trash. After getting an invite, I joined the group and a level 80 tank volunteered. Now, I am in no way bashing this tank because he had respectable gear. He had my favorite shied, a T7 piece, and even some 213 epics. He was still wearing the ring from reg Gun’Drak, but it was a regular VH run so I wasn’t scared. I was tanking that place with 15K health; a level 80 could handle it with 25K easy. Lesson number 1 from this experience is that gear and achievements don’t always tell the whole story.

He had some issues getting to portals, and picking up the split portal that opens up right in front of Zuramat, the voidwalker. It wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle, and again, he wasn’t a bad tank, but you could tell he wasn’t a polished tank either.

On one of the split portals, he went running up the Erekem platform and lost 2 of dragons as they trailed down the other side. I chain lighting’ed them and then drug them over to the consecration. Our healer was a real healer, and definitely knew what she were doing but because of the beating I was taking the priest was being focused with an arcane stream and losing health. Inside all of that mess, I decided to drop a healing wave on the priest to buy the time for the healer to save my stupid ass since I knew I was in range of a chain heal.

After the portal closed, the healer said, “nice pick up Nio.” I thought she were getting onto me for being dumb and grabbing the mobs, so I apologized and said I was trying to get them to the tank. She then said, “no, on the heal.”

I realized right then, I’m not a DPS, no matter what I think. Most of my early WoW days were spent as a lock, and I loved topping damage meters, but somewhere in TBC I leveled the both the paladin to tank and the druid to heal and I lost my original focus.

Now, even as DPS, I am constantly looking at health bars, watching threat for another player who might want a little extra oomph applied to the tank with an MD, and generally more aware of my surroundings. Some of you might think this makes me a good DPS, but it is just the opposite. I’m no longer good at it. I can’t stop playing babysitter in groups or raids long enough to fully meet my damage potential.

I have heard, even made, some of the arguments for hybrid taxes and have always understood them, but hybrid taxing is only important in a subpar group. If the group of players you are running with are all competent and capable, there is little for a hybrid to contribute outside of their intended role. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you will, or even should. Lesson number 2 from this experience is hybrids may be valuable for what they can do, but they never shine when everyone is on their A game.

Taxing a class for what it might do is as bad as Tom Cruise arresting people in Minority Report for crimes they might commit. Don’t forget that for every story a good hybrid has about saving the day, they probably have countless memories when they didn’t react fast enough to pull off the save. Hybrids are the closers of WoW. When a closer walks up to the mound and gets a save, he gets patted on the ass, but when he blows it, he gets hammered with people reminding him that he has only one job and he managed to fuck it up.

Next time you run with a hybrid that manages to save the day, be sure and throw out a /hug or /kneel and let them know you appreciate what they do. It will make their day, I promise.

-Rhab

The Kobolds Have Me Cornered; Advice for Overwhelmed Parents who don’t Play WoW

Today on WoW, Casually, Robin Torres gave some solid advice on playing with your reading aged child. Interestingly, this weekend on the rawrcast, Stomp and Haf hit on some advice and even solicited some words from the ever popular Totalbiscuit for parents and their kids who play WoW. Whether you are playing with your kids or paying for their accounts, the rules that apply to child rearing in real life are very similar to the ones you would apply in the World of Warcraft. Parents who do give a damn may understand the basics, but not necessarily how to translate it all into WoW-speak.

1. Be Involved

You don’t have to play the game to be an involved parent. If you are one of those people who WoW appeals, then by all means get you an account and play with your kid. It will be the best 30 bucks a month you ever spend.

If you are not one of those parents who can appreciate what WoW has to offer, I would recommend a 30 minute homework session. Wow.com is probably the best place to do your homework. It’s clean and concise and they rarely get to in depth about anything. They are an easy one stop shop to catch up on the events going on in the WoW, and you will find communicating with your child about the game they play is a lot easier when you have a clue what in bejesus is going on.

Being involved could mean knowing what class your kid plays as his/her main or even knowing what a main is. It could mean knowing that the game, like your real life, has drama, or it could mean you are just making an effort to understand a social game.

WoW isn’t like buying them an Atari. They have friends they play with, and they have people they try and impress. WoW is a living breathing world full of people who you would be proud to let your kids hang out with and some you might be depressed if you met in real life. Listen if/when they talk about the game and learn about these other real people on the servers they play on.

2. Talk With Them

After reading up on daily WoW events don’t be afraid to talk to your kid about it at the dinner table, if people even do that anymore. Dinner was at 6:15 every night in my house growing up and my parents used it as the opportunity to catch up on the day’s events with me and my 3 siblings.

No matter how you do it, find the time to talk with your kid. Mute the television or pause the TIVO if you must. If you decide to follow a WoW site and come across something interesting like a player getting banned for pwning bosses with a magical shirt, then talk with them about it. Let them know you are interested in what they are doing. This goes farther than you think it does.

3. Listen to Them

If you are so inclined to start a discussion with them about any news in WoW, be prepared to listen to what they have to say. Talking to them about game ethics will save you a ton in therapy bills and allows you direct access into the psyche of your child.

Adult discussions about WoW topics lets them know you take what they do seriously, and you might even teach each other a thing or 2 after you finish up talking about the “right” things to do in-game. I’d even go out on a limb and say your kids will be relieved to talk about something serious after an evening of dealing with “anal trade chats.”

When talking with them remember Robert Greene’s 1st rule from his book, The 48 Laws of Power and “never outshine the master.” WoW is your child’s domain, and since you aren’t an avid player, you aren’t likely to bring their insight or expertise on any subject matter. Your job is to listen and evaluate what they say and do your best to relate it to real life. Even if you disagree with them, never treat them like their opinion is wrong.

Back when my best friend’s little boy was 5, I was at their place, using the f word, like I’m inclined to do. His son walked up to me and kindly told me, “we aren’t supposed to use that word.” My best friend jumped in immediately and let his son know I was allowed to use that word if I wanted to, but it wasn’t something they wanted him or me to use, but they weren’t my boss. They, kindly, let him know that his thoughts were important and sharing them was ok, but sometimes the same rules don’t apply to everyone.

Listen when your kid talks about WoW. Conversations with your kids will tell you as much about them as it does paladins and murlocs.

4. Take them Seriously and Act Accordingly

My parents were formidable foes growing up. Like Haf mentioned, you can have respect for someone and understand the balance of power. My curfew was and I quote, “don’t be an asshole in the morning.” It meant I was allowed to come home anytime I wanted as long as I called sometime in the evening and told them what time I would be home, but I wasn’t allowed to be a jack ass in exchange for the privilege.

It only took once for me to learn my lesson. I came in at like 3 in the morning on a daylight savings time weekend. When I walked in the door, my dad was in his chair and he asked I was late. Having already thought this out, I said, “dad, it’s only 2 after the time changed and I said I’d be home at 2.” He smiled and said, “ok, well we will be cleaning out the shed in 3 hours, no matter who’s time we are on, so you better get some rest.”

That was one of the most miserable days of my life, but I knew to keep my privileges I would have to suffer through it. My dad had a 20x20 shop that he called a shed, so at around 4 in the afternoon that day, we finally had taken everything out, cleaned, and moved everything back inside. There is no governor like a self governor, and believe me I never tried to pull any more shit about what time I would be home again.

In a WoW context, understand your child maybe raiding with 9 or 24 other people. If he has a raid spot, he is valued. Make pacts with your kid about his responsibilities and stick to them. If they expect to raid 2 nights a week and you want certain things to be done, tell him. If he doesn’t comply with your wishes, PLEASE, don’t ever punish them by not allowing them to raid after they have made the commitment. They have made commitments to other people and breaking commitments, no matter the reason, is not, nor will it ever be, a good lesson to teach your child.

Be the patient parent, and hold your tongue. After the raiding is finished, let them know they will need to inform the raid leader as soon as possible they will not be able to attend next weeks raid. This allows the raid leader to fill the spot and it teaches your child that you respect what they do, and they have to respect you as well.

WoW raiding is a team effort, and you wouldn’t punish their baseball team with a forced absence. Respect a raid the way you would any other team effort because, of all the lessons your child will learn from working within a team, the one you don’t want them to learn is it’s ok for them to act selfishly.

The ideas are basic and generic, but I think some parents chalk up WoW as “just a game.” No matter your opinion, I can tell you it is very much more to those of us who play. Respect your kid and you will find they will come to respect you.

-Rhab

Staying the Night at the Hunting Lodge

I recently sent Brigwyn of the Hunting Lodge an email after listening to him on the wow.com podcast. I hit on the hinted overhaul by GC in the hunter Q&A and reached for a little more in the 3.2 patch notes.

Like I alluded to in the email, I think separate trap cooldowns is a step in a direction similar to the rune system of death knights.

I never really considered the runic dumps, and Brigwyn actually came up with a much more sophisticated system than I would have even imagined.

Shots could work like runes, and sticking with the simplicity of the patch notes, hunters would have frost, fire, and nature shots. 6 feels too much like a death knight, but 9 feels like way too many. Depending on the overall cost of the shots, 9 might be an appropriate number.

The runic power bar would be replaced with ammo. The ammo slot on a hunter would then be replaced with a clip or quiver with a certain capacity. The iLvl of a clip would mean more shots in the gun before you would have to reload.

Taking a hunter out of combat for a reload would be similar to a mage who drops valuable seconds of DPS for an evocation. There isn’t a mage alive that likes to have to evocate, but if he wants mana he knows he has to while his diabolical superior, the warlock, can keep casting to his little black heart’s content.

I am excited about the hunter resource news that has been hinted for BlizzCon, and hope it’s as good as the ideas that Briwyn’s been tossing around lately.

-Rhab

Rawrcast Contributions

Stompalina and Hafrot have allowed me to contribute to the Rawrcast, so many of my post will be appearing there from now on.

Please make their site a regular stop of yours as some of the other contributors are quite entertaining.

-Rhab

Respecting a World with Real People

The new piece over at wow.com on drama is absolutely amazing! This week they hit on taking calls or going AFK during a raid, and I was extremely surprised at some of the comments.

For the most part, many of the readers understood the overall feel of the situation. The advice was sound and it really didn’t cover anything most of us with built in respect don’t already know. It’s only the second week, and sadly every piece of advice that has been given reminds me of the golden rule.

Both Lisa and Robin are reminding us that the life lessons we are taught both at home and in grade school are valuable tools is WoW as well. I thought the phone call piece was classic for examining the microcosm that is Azeroth

See, the great irony of an MMORPG like WoW is that every inch popular culture moves towards them as a mass form of entertainment, the more we also move towards being information age lackeys.

Those of us who get the best transfer speeds on our modems and forage the internet for the best addons like we are sophisticated cavemen on a great hunt are some of the same people who become face book freaks with 50K friends and think that our cell phones have to be on us at all times because we never know when we might miss an important call.

Again, I love the column and the perspective, but was saddened by the way some of the commenters twisted the advice.

When I log onto the paladin, if see anyone out in the fighting world, I will bless them. Hell if they are fighting and low on health I will heal them and even if it is a Hordie, I often run in with reckless abandon, though not in the dramatic fashion that some other classes can, and help drop the SOB that is trying to kill them.

Helping people out comes with living in the real world, I just wish more people knew it was part of playing in Azeroth. I hope the drama mamas bring more of the golden rule to the servers in weeks to come.

-Rhab

Petition for Strength Improvements Part 3; Healers

Though this is a subject I have hit on previously, I thought it might be important to round out the petition for strength improvements series by re-examining holy paladins.

Both Brains from Brawn and Light Infused Armor will fix this holy paladin trash clogging up the loot tables.

Brains from Brawn would be a talent in the holy tree to boost a paladin’s intellect. It would ncrease your intellect by 33/66/100% of your str. The only foreseeable problem here is that intellect gear like cloaks could be less attractive to a paladin because they might want the one with equal str if they get bonus from divine str. The spellpower and MP5 on caster cloaks and rings will keep most holies honest though in my opinion. Few are going to pass up a cloak that has intellect and spellpower only for in the intellect bonus they get from strength.

Light Infused Armor would Increases spellpower by 4/8/12% of your armor. A pally with 20K armor would then have 2400 spellpower. Last I checked Degenerus, a holy paladin in my guild, had about 20K armor and 1800 spellpower. That number may need to be tuned down to 3/7/10% of your armor, but it allows a paladin to scale as their gear improves and, in the same vein as punishing the warriors in leather, discourages them from using mail caster gear. Mail will now make paladins feel even more dirty that cloth does on my resto druid. Similar stat itemization or not, a paladin isn’t going to roll on a marginal upgrade that happens to be mail if they are going to lose a significant amount of spellpower due to the drop in armor.

Allowing holy paladins to use dps hear as healing gear will give them same privilege as any other healer. There will still be drops that are obviously useless to a healer. Hit rating is not a healer stat, and any good raid leader is going to know that before they distribute hit gear.

Spellpower plate for tanking and ret paladins is a long lost memory from TBC, and maybe the last remnants of spellpower healing plate should be left in Icecrown once Artha’s is dealt with.

-Rhab

The Elvis of Blues

No, not those kind of blues, the kind we all think of when we hear the phrase “Blizzard Forums.”

In the world of WoW sites, no other man’s appearance on the forums can spark quite a response as Ghostcrawler. He is the Elvis Presley of blues and the Warcraft community swoons like little girls who just saw him shaking his hips on the Ed Sullivan Show. What I don’t necessarily get is why?

It is here that I liken the Ghostcrawler phenomenon to that of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. For so long Cowboys quarterbacks have held a mystique. Roger and Troy are the Cher and Madonna of the NFL. Merely uttering their first name is enough. It doesn’t take a Cowboy fan to appreciate the greatness of either of them, but I will admit it does help.

Enter Tony Romo. Cowboy’s fans, like the WoW players, want to cheer for someone. They want to feel after years of mediocre quarterbacks, the answer (no not that answer, geez people work with me) has arrived. Cowboy’s fans have, for better or worse and with the help of Jerry’s money, latched onto Tony Romo because he is the last hope after an entire generation of boys who went from kindergarten to 12th grade and NEVER witnessed a playoff win, much less a Superbowl.

Ghostcrawler, like Romo, is a gunslinger who if I had my guess loves Brett Favre as much as he loves his gin. The problem with gunslingers though is for every great pass zooming pass defensive backs into the hands of your target, there are interceptions that leave your fans in tears, and no matter how much you hope you can’t have both.

You can’t cheer the cerebral Tom Brady and the fly by the seat of your pants Tony Romo. You can’t applaud Kaplan’s work and then worship the great crab. You have to choose your sides. Ghostcrawler is loved by so much of the WoW community for all the reasons teenagers in the 50’s loved Elvis. My question is long after Ghostcrawler has moved on, will we remember the fresh new face that changed our realms forever or will we remember the one whose mystique had cooled into a smoldering pile of bat guano? We will all have to decide just like the USPS made us choose once before.

-Rhab

It’s a Bullshit Encounter

One of my favorite movie scenes of all time is from My Cousin Vinny when Ms. Vito (Marisa Tomei) puts the prosecutor in his place for asking an unanswerable question. I couldn’t find a youtube, but below is the transcript. Believe me it’s a great scene, and reading it doesn’t do it justice.

D.A. Jim Trotter: Now, Ms. Vito, being an expert on general automotive knowledge, can you tell me... what would the correct ignition timing be on a 1955 Bel Air Chevrolet, with a 327 cubic-inch engine and a four-barrel carburetor?

Mona Lisa Vito: That's a bullshit question.

D.A. Jim Trotter: Does that mean that you can't answer it?

Mona Lisa Vito: It's a bullshit question, it's impossible to answer.

D.A. Jim Trotter: Impossible because you don't know the answer!

Mona Lisa Vito: Nobody could answer that question!

D.A. Jim Trotter: Your Honor, I move to disqualify Ms. Vito as an expert witness!

Judge Chamberlain Haller: Can you answer the question?

Mona Lisa Vito: No, it is a trick question!

Judge Chamberlain Haller: Why is it a trick question?

Mona Lisa Vito: 'Cause Chevy didn't make a 327 in '55, the 327 didn't come out till '63. And it wasn't offered in the Bel Air with a four-barrel carb till '64. However, in 1964, the correct ignition timing would be four degrees before top-dead-center.

D.A. Jim Trotter: Well... uh... she's acceptable, Your Honor.

As of a couple days ago, Stars, a Chinese guild who rerolled on Taiwanese servers so they could play WotLK, took down Yoggy with 0 watchers.

What’s most interesting about the encounter is when last we heard Exodus had been punished for using a bug to exploit the encounter. Ensidia had insisted they used a bug because by all accounts, the encounter was mathematically impossible. Ensidia has long snagged world firsts, and according to even Michael Sacco over at wow.com, who used to be a blue, they have a close relationship with some developers at Blizz. He made some pretty vague comments recently on their podcast, but the gist of it is pretty basic. Yes, Ensidia uses bugs in the programming, and yes, Blizzard listens to them. This makes the Exodus 72 hour ban even more disgusting when the developers are playing favorites, but it has allowed an even greater irony.

See up until now, Ensidia has been the Marisa Tomei of WoW guilds. Blizzard puts them on the stand, and they cry out, “that’s a bullshit encounter.” Somewhere along the way Blizzard made a fatal error and instead of cross examining them they decided to make them their very own expert witness. It’s great for Ensidia, but bad for WoW. Now when they cry out that an encounter is mathematically impossible, everyone, including the devs, all tend to agree. Blizzard isn’t morally against making guilds bang their head against an encounter that’s impossible. If you listened to Sacco on the podcast, you even get the feeling that they revel in it, and I think it’s commendable.

It has been a way of pushing players to theorycraft and then implement ideas that have never been used before. There, according to Blizzard’s recent action, has always been a difference between exploiting a bug compared to exploiting a failed game mechanic. Mob evading vs spellstealing is a good example, and though none of us really understand Blizzards rationale, I’d hope they have enough internal protocols that whether I agree with the Exodus punishment or not, Blizzard’s big men are able to sleep at night not because of their pillows made of real world gold but because they treat their player base fairly.

Top end guilds are the checks and balances for the developers. Just like any system with a similar mechanic, whether it is a government or a financial hierarchy, the system will fail if those that monitor another are compromised. Ensidia has become that compromise. When your developers’ greatest adversary then becomes their lapdog, it hardly suggests a system where one is trying to expose the other. When did Ensidia stop being Marisa Tomei (if they ever really were) and start becoming the star expert witness?

Well, it doesn’t really matter anymore now does it? While Blizzard was busy making a star, there was another star for the players being made in Asia. Who would have thought that a guild of Chinese players would defect to Taiwanese servers level all the way to 80, organize their guild to get the 2nd Mimiron hard mode achievement and then devise an ZOMFG plan to take down Yogg?

If you read their strategy, you can’t help but be in awe. That is some serious scheming and they didn’t do it with some of the questionable techniques that Sacco suggests of Kungen in the podcast.

My only remaining question is what becomes of Stars now? Everyone who saw the summer games in Beijing knows there is an enormous amount of national pride among the Chinese. Everyone who sees the hero that Yao Ming is to his people also understands this. I can’t help but wonder if and when the Chinese government learns and understands the scope of Stars kill and just how is has put Ensidia in their place as a Chihuahua to the Paris Hilton that is Blizzard if they might work to get their people WotLK and subsequent expansions sooner. The Chinese government, despite what anyone may think of them, aren’t likely to pass up on an opportunity for such national pride long term, especially when their biggest rivals are a euro guild adored by the prince of Dubai and Americans.

-Rhab

A Serious Talk about Faction Changing

So after some serious thought, I have decided that faction changing sounds absolutely amazing. I do get the picture of the Sneetches in my head, but I have been playing the same toons for about 2 years now, and the only reason I rolled a gnome lock over a troll mage was the intel bonus and the free mount.

I love the trolls, and have always thought they had the most kick ass mounts. After that decision, the choices seemed obvious since I had a high level toon that could bankroll all of the alts. Once you have more than one 80 (70 at the time) it becomes increasingly more difficult to roll a Hordie, since you have to start with nothing.

The choices would be easy if I did faction transfers…

Gnome Lock -> Undead
NE Druid ->Tauren
NE DK -> Tauren
Draenei Shaman -> Orc
Dorf Hunter ->Troll
Gnome Mage -> Troll
Draenei Priest -> Undead
NE Rogue ->Orc

And the one that would break my heart…

Dorf Pally -> BE

As you can tell from all of my toons, there is a race missing from my Alliance toons. Humans…I can’t stand them. I hated them before Variann returned and now have an even greater disdain for them than I did previously.

The only problem is that the race I hate more than the humans is the Blood Elves. The crack addicts of Azeroth who stole the power of the light and twisted it to learn to harness the powers of a paladin.

If the time ever came and I was faced with seriously considering changing factions, I really think that the BE I would have to make the paladin would break my heart. She would be the reason I couldn’t change factions. The thought of taking my dorf and turning her into some bulimic whore willing to slob a knob in Undercity for a taste of arcane goodness is just too much to bear.

If only there was an alternative for my little fat girl that tanks.

-Rhab

“We think talents probably account for too much of a character's power already.”

At the end of a shadow priest Q&A, GC closes with those words. It appears as though Blizzard is weary about raising the talent tree bar every time they release an expansion. It’s a fair concern. How many times do we feel we need the 51 point talent to do our job? Can someone say Hammer of the Righteous, Riptide, Haunt? The problem arises when the general philosophy of the community is they do need the 51 point talent and then Blizzard doesn’t deliver. Leveling a frost mage, I have completely ignored the 51 point talent (Deep Freeze) only because I have enough control over encounters. I will admit than when you look over at the other trees, frost mages have to feel cheated when they see Living Bomb and Arcane Barrage. When you enjoy playing frost, but know that you are cheating your groups at level 80 if you stay frost, it only adds insult to injury when your 51 point talent doesn’t do ANY damage.

I would have personally been happy with a 51 point talent that provider a better spell coefficient (over the 14.29%) of Ice Lance, or to allow ice lance to proc a deep freeze than even an entirely new spell. If the flat multiplier increase and a chance to stun, say 20%, ice lance becomes a lot more appealing, and doesn’t feel that OP since you aren’t using it all the time, and you aren’t getting the stun all the time either. Not a sexy solution, but at least it could boost damage for a frost mage.

I’m digressing now, but ultimately what does Blizzard expect? They set the general rule that each talent point should be worth 1% dps. They are the ones facing more levels and probably 10% more damage from talent points alone with every expansion. Sometimes I wonder if with all the changes to make leveling easier, if Blizz wishes they had maybe released vanilla WoW with 30-40 levels and then applied 5 with every expansion instead of the 60+10 format they are using now.

Numbers wouldn’t be so inflated and the old world wouldn’t be quite as abandon as it is now.

-Rhab