Warlock Therapy

On the Path to Dragonwrath

2011-09-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

Legendary weapons. I used to daydream about them, salivating at the simple thought of owning one on my main someday. Unfortunately, I was never in a position to farm Naxx40 for Atiesh, the only legendary meant for caster DPS through Wrath of the Lich King. So, over 5 years later (has it really been that long?) and needless to say, I was thrilled when Dragonwrath was announced as Cataclysm's first Legendary. However, what is left in the wake of my saliva - after 2 months of working towards the staff - isn't more drool, but a warlock foaming at the mouth.

Here's why:

The Nexus Quest

Upon stepping into a "special" version of the Nexus for the "Through a Glass, Darkly" portion of the Dragonwrath questline, I received an unexpected surprise - a single-player experience so enjoyable, I remember telling guildies that it was a microcosm of everything the 1-player portion of WoW should be. The solo quest is sufficiently-challenging (at least for a warlock) while remaining far from impossible, and incredibly satisfying to complete. The story was there, the mood was perfect; it had everything going for it. But with everything the experience did right for my fire-flinging fingers to enjoy, there existed a distracting and glaring problem: it felt like my warlock wasn't meant to be there.

When I pulled Thyrinar, the final boss of the quest, I immediately felt out of my warlock's element. This encounter was not minion-friendly. The Felhunter - the pet of choice for this encounter - sat beyond the range of the boss and could not attack him with physical or Shadow Bite damage. He was able to get some action after using Spell Lock to interrupt one of Thyrinar's casts, bringing the boss within range as he approached to smack me upside the head. This approach proved helpful, but was definitely not the answer-all to the problems that persisted.

During a number of separate attempts that evening, the Felpuppy bugged in some way, shape, or form. On my first try, for example, the little guy stopped responding about a quarter of the way through the encounter and just stood there, completely frozen in the middle of the platform. I Soulburned a resummon and there he'd reappear, frozen still.

When I was lucky enough to keep the Felpup moving on command, he would periodically ignore my instructions to cast Devour Magic (no, it wasn't on cooldown) or just decide he didn't want to be there anymore and despawn altogether. Without my minion devouring the boss's shield/regen-buff (which mages can spellsteal, btw), victory was out of reach, and it was frustrating to lose the encounter in such a way. And it happened over and over again.

When I finally completed the quest (using the Affliction spec pictured above for sweet survivability) after getting lucky with my Felhunter's behavior, I appreciated the difficulty and the amount of work that went into the event's design and intent. It really is one that every caster should see. However, the pet-related bugs added quite a bit of frustration to the overall experience. Most will never feel it, however - mages, boomkins, shamans, priests ... none are reliant on pets or minions that would potentially bug out and mess things up for them. This is purely a warlock problem. Lucky us.

Speaking of other classes, the obvious ease with which some could faceroll the event without an issue, particularly "lolcane" mages, doesn't make me feel any better about this. I mean, this is seriously slanted, and ridiculously-so. I heard a story about a lolcane mage's pet gerbil running across his keyboard, popping Time Warp, Mirror Image, and then scratching it's back on the Arcane Blast button, blasting Thyrinar and Spellstealing with it's nubby tail on command. True story.

Anyhow, moving on before this becomes a standardized and over-played anti-mage post.

Time After Time

Nothing says "you're not special" louder than a slap of repetition across the face. Doing the same thing over and over again, after all, isn't a very difficult calling, is usually not substantial work by any means, often pays lousy, and even the most simple-minded of individuals (lolcanes, again) should be able to get things done in such a manner, given enough time of course. Doesn't sound too flattering, right? Well, normal-mode 10man raider, sucks to be you.

And in this case, that "you" is me, and I'm all frothy because of it.

To complete Dragonwrath with the guild that I've been raiding with for over 2 years, it will take me about 19-23 weeks to gather all of the required mats, assuming that I get the average number of drops per item per week, post-nerf. That is:

- 25 Eternal Embers: 4-5 weeks
- 1000 Seething Cinders: 7-8 weeks
- 250 Smouldering Essences: 8-10 weeks

And that's assuming a full clear of Firelands each week with no internet connectivity issues, no power outages, no holidays, no family vacations, no baby food flying across the room and onto my keyboard seeping beneath the keys and rendering it useless, no wife tempting me with her goodies during raid time - no issues whatsoever that would prevent me from logging in and getting my items for the week. Unfortunately, in the real world, all of that stuff happens, and far too often (well, not that last one - that can happen as often as she'd like). But even with these slight "breaks" in the pattern, the amount of grinding required for this, for someone like me, is quite ridiculous.

No matter how you swing it, killing the same bosses over and over again, week after week, over the course of half a year isn't something I would call "fun." Nor is it something that I or anyone with at least half a brain would call "legendary," either. In fact, this kind of repetition can be destructive, directly competing with progression as it will with my guild this upcoming week. Say we want to work on heroic modes during our scheduled raiding time. We'll have two options: practice, down new bosses on Heroic mode, and progress ... or just clear all bosses on normal mode so I can get my Seething Cinders for the week. How would the latter be fair to ask of my guildmates? How is that fair to even put me or any one person out of 10 in that position?

Even if the guild did decide to just clear normal mode, it would just be what it has been: the same old encounters that only reward less and less each time through. And that is a very demotivating prospect. I mean, really, I don't work at a fast food chain or gas station for a reason. I don't want to flip burgers. I don't want to make change. I don't want to kill bosses...

Volcanus, taking it up the ... last part of his name.

...over and over again. Give us some flair; something legendary to work with. Then, maybe, we can call the reward as such.

When ~~the Fat Lady Sings~~ 4.3 Lands

So, patch 4.3 is on the PTR as of today, and a new tier of ilvl397 gear drops with it. But wait, isn't Dragonwrath ilvl397, too? What does this all mean?

I'll tell you.

If I and other 10man raiders are to complete Dragonwrath - and that is a very big "if" - it will most likely happen after 4.3 makes it to live servers (patches are usually on the PTR for about 4 weeks). And when 4.3 does go live, how many desperate DPS spellcasters do you think will seriously ask their guilds to skip the new raid content, drops, and goodies and continue to use their limited time to farm questline mats out of Firelands? Very few can ask that of anyone with a straight face, I'm guessing. And those that do will likely be laughed at, ridiculed, and molested by the shiny new ilvl397 staff the mage just got ... because, you know, the warlock is going after Dragonwrath and doesn't need it.

Ugh.

It's bad enough that the legendary weapon we will have worked on for over 5 months will be comparable, in terms of overall performance, to a drop off a boss in the new raid instance. Does it also really need to be harder for us to actually get a group that will be willing to make Dragonwrath happen? I don't think providing a smoother path is too much to ask, do you?

Maybe if the new Raid Finder included Firelands ...

Long Path Ahead

So, here I am. A few hundred Seething Cinders into this questline and several ridiculously repetitive weeks to go before I see Phase 2 of the staff. I hope many of you are having better time and luck than me. If not, well then, like me, I'm sure you'll continue to keep dreaming of a legendary weapon of your own one day. And, like me, perhaps it will turn into a nightmare and have you foaming at the mouth. And again, like me, I hope you will keep trying, and eventually make it happen.

Good luck.

Warlock in Wanting

2011-01-05T04:04:00.000-08:00

Wtf?

Horrifying, isn't it? This awful picture was a failed attempt at a header image for one of my posts at the helm of the warlock flagship at WoW Insider. It was so horrible, in fact, that I never allowed it to rear it's ugly head even behind the scenes. It did lead to one hell of a replacement, though, and an edit that I am still very proud of. But that is neither here nor there. I'll chat about my experiences at the best WoW-related blog on the planet later.

This post is simply a test. I'm trying out a few new options and wondering if a move to a more meaty blogger service is necessary before I start writing again. This site has been kind over the years (especially the one that didn't see a single post), but the lack of certain customization features has left me wanting more even in absence.

Other sites like Tumblr and Wordpress offer a wider, more modern range of alternative templates and basic page setup than Blogger currently offers. When it comes down to it, multiple page clicks are important on the internets, even in the most casual of senses. And to me, it doesn't seem like Blogger offers the best blend of form and function. Just look at the header image of this post. It's just floating there all awkward like... and resizing it to the "proper" size clips the image's border? Wtf?

It could be that my impatience (if you know anything about me, you know that I have zero tolerance for bullshit), I have overlooked some quality features here at this site. But if the list of gadgets is anything to measure things by, than I am indeed on the right track.

Here's looking for more... gadgets, control, and of course, warlock therapy.

A Night(fall) of Affliction

2009-12-23T02:10:00.000-08:00

So Patch 3.3 has finally landed, and with it has arrived many issues the Warlocking community is having to deal with. The hotly-debated Conflagrate nerf, drop in Destruction-spec raid DPS, percentage stacking changes, and Imp Firebolt pre-casting issues are just a few examples of topics that are keeping Warlock discussion forums busy and that I will be covering here within the next couple of days (vacation ftw!). But before we tackle the serious issues that should have your black blood boiling, here's something to wet your appetite... or make fun of... whatever you wish.

I always thought that "of the Nightfall" was an amazing title for any Warlock, and especially those running Affliction as I had done during Wrath's initial release (v3.0). But as soon as the tree was nerfed in 3.1, I decided it was time to assault the Battlemaster title as a Destruction Warlock and became so absorbed by that grind that Sarth and his 3 drakes simply fell to the wayside. It didn't help that I wasn't amazingly PvE-geared or a member of a solid raiding guild, either.

But with the return of chart-topping Affliction raid DPS in Patch 3.3 and a membership in a casually hardcore raiding guild that is currently clearing ICC-25, I decided it was time to scratch the Sarth10-3D itch that I have ignored for too long.

Below is my pathetic attempt not only at video-making, but at the encounter itself. You'll understand what I mean when you watch the clip -- the sizing is all wrong (I couldn't get it to fill the YouTube frame) and the quality could definitely be better... and if that wasn't enough to poke fun at, just don't laugh too hard when I get stuck in the lava or come within 1k health of an embarrassing death in a void zone. >.< Gotta love early-morning zombie raids!

Thanks to the guildies who helped to make this happen. ;)

A Destructive Invitation - No Newbies Allowed!

2009-11-27T22:57:00.000-08:00

Patch 3.3 is less than a short time away, and with it will arrive a couple of changes to the Warlock class, most notably being the return of raid-dominating DPS by the Affliction Warlock. I'm very excited to see our talent trees receive a bit more balance, as I'm sure many of you are too. Destroying raid bosses as a Destruction Warlock is great fun and very effective, but having options is a good thing... especially when Destro is a little too reminiscent of the simple "Shadow Mage" approach to DPS. And really, if I wanted to play a Mage, I would have already cut off my genitals and rolled one (did I really just say that?). But lets not digress or get too ahead of ourselves just yet... we've got some things to do before we can consider which spec to throw when standing within the gates of Icecrown Citadel.

Be it Affliction or Destruction or even Demonology, in order to hit the meters in the neighborhoods of 9-12k DPS, we're going to need the absolute best gear possible. I'm talking a full set of BiS gear, which will eventually include the somewhat-racist-looking abomination that is Warlock Tier 10 (one of the uglier Warlock sets imho). And to have a shot at all of that ethically questionable goodness, we're going to need regular, dependable raid invites. And to get those invites, we're going to need to raid now. We're going to need to raid often. And most importantly, we're going to need to raid well.

As a Warlock, there are a number of things we need and are expected to do at each and every raid that we attend. This includes showing up with a sack full of Soul Shards, calling upon a summoning portal and Soulwell whenever necessary, and dropping a Soulstone on the head of a raid member when it is available. Ignore any of these elementary requirements and we can kiss our raid invitations goodbye. But keep in mind that fulfilling them ensures you nothing, because more important than any of these principles is the amount of DPS a Warlock can produce. Excel there, and we can expect our invitations every week. Fail there, and expect to spend an eternity in Tradechat... *cough*

Here are a couple of classic ways that Destruction Warlocks can improve their DPS. Some are obvious and well-known, and others not so much, but all are very important and have allowed me to make enough of an impression to remain actively invited to guild runs as a PuG raider. Not too shabby, right? Hopefully you will gain something from this list too, and if you have something to add to it, please do so in the comments section.

(~~Backdraft~~ + Rain of Fire) > Rain of Fire
We've all seen it a million times: Onyxia takes to the air in Phase 2, out come the whelps, the idiot who yelled "MOAR WHELPS! HANDLE IT!" is told to shut up, and Rogues, Mages, DKs, and Hunters shoot up with Damage Meter. Baffled Warlocks, spam-casting Rain of Fire cry out, wondering why their AoE spell of choice falls short in situations like this and how to improve it.

The answer is Backdraft, which will increase the speed of RoF ticks by a whopping 30%! The trick is to plan for it and set it up properly - have a Conflagrate ready to go and then begin bathing your targets in fire from the sky at a fantastic rate. Just be sure to have your Soulshatter ready to use too. And to add even more "umph" to your AoE, cast Shadowflame on the targets before you Conflag, as you wait for the tank to establish enough aggro to handle your hate. The raid will thank you. ;)

UPDATE: Apparently, there was a bug somewhere that was allowing Backdraft to impact channeled spells like RoF and even Drain Life, and was patched in 3.2 because it is NOT supposed to work as described above. But then what can explain this image from a raid just last week?

My Rain of Fire channeling time was a mere 4.7 seconds and was pumping out over 20k DPS! When trying to recreate this feat outside of Dalaran, however, the cast time was only impacted by my Haste rating (bring it to 6.7 seconds), and wasn't influenced by Backdraft whatsoever.

May we have stumbled upon something here or was it just a fluke?

More to come!

CONFIRMED! It is a bug, according to a WoW GM. He didn't tell me the details involved, but you better be sure that I'll be trying to recreate it come raid time this week! I will post updates in another post, also explaining how we can still up the damage from our Rain of Fire with a couple of very simple steps. In the meantime, if any of you figure out the exact bug, do tell in the comments section!

Happy 'locking.

Your Imp Needs Love Too
If you are sporting 2-piece Tier 9, you have no doubt noticed the set bonus that increases your pet's critical strike chance by 10%. This may not seem like such a big deal at first glance, and Warlock set bonuses have received quite a bit of criticism for their lack of awesomeness, but consider this: with the Empowered Imp talent (3/3), your next spell has a 100% chance to crit after your imp's Firebolt crits. In other words, increasing your imp's chance to crit also increases your chance to crit, and that's a big deal in terms of potential DPS.

Now we come to one of the biggest and most common mistakes that Warlock raiders make: using Phase Shift on their little fire-cracking minion. Doing so removes the pet from the active field of play, the original intent of which was to maintain Blood Pact on the the raid or party. Phase Shift, however, is removed the moment the Imp is brought into combat, so whatever use it once had is now null and void (and made redundant by the Fel Synergy talent). What it continues to do, however, is make the imp unable to receive raid buffs pre-pull, like Kings, MotW, AI, and anything else that would increase its chance to crit, thereby increasing your own. It's a simple mistake that when prevented, can result in a nice boost to your DPS. Easy enough.

If You're Gonna Get Stoned, Get Stoned Right
Warlock stat ratings are always a hot topic of discussion at blogs and websites like Elitist Jerks and The Warlocks Den. After much number crunching and discussion, they all have pretty much decided that Haste rating is a more important stat for Warlocks than Crit rating. That should make choosing between the Spellstone and Firestone pretty simple, right?

Wrong.

All Destruction Warlocks should be buffing their weapon with the Firestone. Its increase in Crit percentage and overall Direct Damage results in about a 25 DPS increase over the Spellstone, even for Warlocks with sub-standard Haste ratings (below 500 - ideal is about 600-620). The only times a Warlock should ever buff with the Spellstone is if he or she is Affliction spec or has taken the Master Conjurer talent in the Demonology tree. Otherwise, stat up with the Firestone and use your gear to itemize the important stats (Hit, Spell Dmg, Haste) accordingly.

Corruption is Corrupted
Damage per Cast Time, or DPCT, is a great way to gauge the importance of spell casts relative to one another and therefore which spell is best to cast in a specific scenario. To calculate the DPCT for all Warlock spells, simply take the amount of damage a spell produces and divide it by its cast time, taking into account bonus damage and global cooldown (Haste) modifiers, of course.

For a raiding Destruction Warlock with no talent points buffing shadow spells or specific DoTS and many buffing Fire-based abilities, Incinerate has one of the highest DPCT values, easily out-classing shadow spells like Shadow Bolt and Corruption. It is a wonder then that many Destro 'locks still include Corruption in their rotations - doing so is actually a DPS decrease vs replacing it with a higher DPCT Incinerate cast. The only time Corruption should ever be cast is when the Warlock is on-the-move and casting Incinerate is not an option... only then will it result in a DPS increase.

Bask in the Flask
Back in the day of Vanilla 40-man raiding, flasking was an absolute necessity. If you didn't flask, you didn't progress, period. Blizzard began to move away from that requirement in TBC, eventually limiting flasks by number and type, and tuning encounters without even considering their use. To be honest, at that point, I stopped using them because, well, they weren't at all necessary and there weren't many other raiding 'locks to compete with.

Today it is a different story. Raiding is more accessible than ever and that means more players are vying for your raid spot than ever. Every little extra bit of effort counts, and flasking is one of those bits that pays a little towards your overall DPS and, perhaps more importantly, how your fellow raiders perceive you. Both are incredibly worth the small price to pay (about 20-30g per Flask of the Frost Wyrm), and therefore should be given attention at every opportunity.

Call of CoE Duty
I know you've been in a raid like this - one with 3 or 4 Warlocks and wondering which would be the one to cast Curse of Elements instead of the more personal-DPS-friendly Curse of Doom. You run into the encounter right behind the tank and tag the boss with CoD, internally bellowing a "not it!" as you begin your standard DPS rotation. And then it happens... 3 more CoDs appear on the boss, and CoE is no where in sight.

Assigning CoE pre-pull is incredibly important, and that importance grows with each additional magical damage caster that you have in the raid. So who should cast it? Should it be a Destruction Warlock? An Affliction Warlock? Does it matter? The simple answer to that last question is yes, it does matter... but the reasoning behind it is semi-complicated and a topic of heated discussion within the raiding community. The basic position to this argument is that the Warlock who brings the least amount of DPS to the raid should be the one to cast CoE because the raid would lose the least amount of DPS possible with him or her doing so. Many try to complicate the matter by arguing in terms of relative DPS (Affliction DPS suffers more by casting CoE than does Destruction DPS, etc.), but what is important is the overall effect of the cast on the raid, not the individual, and that is what you must consider when looking to maximize DPS.

If all Warlocks in the raid are equally specced and geared, do what I do and call for a /roll. Lowest roll casts CoE. Done. :)

Curse an Off-Target with Doom
Sticking with the curse topic for just another second, one thing that I do not see many Warlocks doing is maximizing their use of CoD and CoE as a collective group. If you find yourself on CoE duty for an encounter that has multiple targets, cast CoD on a tanked off-target for a DPS increase. As a compliment, if you are casting CoD in the same situation, cast CoE on the Doomed off-target. A perfect example of where this works perfectly is during the ToC Beasts of Northrend encounter versus Acidmaw and Dreadscale. Both should have at least one CoD and CoE applied to them.

Again, using curses in such a way takes coordination and planning, so the previous piece of advice about taking care of curse assignments applies.

Running is Bad for the Knees, and Your DPS Too
Demonic Circle is first and foremost a PvP spell, no doubt. Its main purpose is to increase the Warlock's survivability by giving him or her more mobility and a fighting chance against snares, which the ability breaks upon use. A secondary purpose, however, is PvE-related and directly impacts the amount of DPS the Warlock can produce... if only by a small amount.

As we discussed earlier, it is well-established that Incinerate has a higher DPCT value than Corruption when working within the confines of the Destruction tree. That means time spent running around the field should be limited to the absolute minimum so that Incinerate can be cast as much as possible. DC provides a great way to help make this happen and can be applied readily in a number of situations. For example, putting one down on Heigan's platform while he channels his dance and teleporting back to it when it is finished, or planting one as Icehowl prepares for his Massive Crash and teleporting to it once he begins to charge. Another great use is to place a DC by one of the Twin Val'kyr portals, and teleporting to it when they cast Vortex. Oh and of course DC is useful for when you get caught in Sapphiron's Chill and need to move out of it asap, or when Thaddius casts a Polarity Shift and you must move to the other side of him, or when... well... you get the idea.

Hellfire Isn't Completely Useless Afterall
Hellfire... what can I say about this spell? It is one of the most limited of Warlock abilities, and probably sees the least amount of use amongst Destruction spells in general. I can remember only a few occasions where the spell came in handy to me as I struggled to make it useful in some way. First, there is "Ghost Walking," when upon impending death, a 'lock would Life Tap to near empty health and then Hellfire to death. This resulted in no durability damage being applied to gear and as a result, no repair bill either - not a bad deal. Another application I remember was in Karazhan while fighting Illhoof. A Warlock would be tasked with standing between the boss and his imp portals, and spam Hellfire as heals were constantly thrown his or her way. It was an interesting approach to take through the encounter, and was the only effective significant application of Hellfire in a raid setting that I can think of... until ToC.

In what is surely a feature that will see a nerf someday, Hellfire triggers the Light Essence buff during the Twin Val'kyr encounter in Trial of the Champions. Stacking this buff to 100 results in the Empowered Light buff, which provides a huge DPS increase to the player. I'm sure you all are familiar with this and how annoying it can be... how one must wait until they have collected a certain number of Light Orbs (while dodging the Dark Orbs) that sporadically make their way throughout the field of play and only at specific times throughout the encounter. But using Hellfire, the first proc is a little less annoying to work with, as Warlocks can pre-buff the ability before the pull is even made to a point where it would only take 1 or 2 orbs to set off the Empowered Light buff. Pure win, imho. Get to it before it's gone. ;)

Spread the Hate Around, Fast!
The transition between DPS targets is elementary, but has been a very underrated mechanic in this era of OP AoE. Your raid comes across a bunch of mobs stacked up next to one another? No problem... just AoE all of them to oblivion for the win. Back in the day (I say that too much...) when 40-mans were the norm and even in TBC to an extent, trash mobs had to be CC'd and tanked carefully. AoE'ing was a no no, and individual attention was everything. This made moving from one mob to the next an art form in a way, that when done right, resulted in a seamless transition that did not break up damage produced by the raid in any way.

These days, however, I notice sloppy movement and transitions between mobs. I see Warlocks continuing to begin casts on a target that is about to die, even DoT'ing them, and having their duration or cast interrupted and losing DPS as a result. Instead, what a Warlock should do is switch to another mob before their current target is dead to ensure that damage production is constant and consistent. All this requires is a little bit of attention, and it can result in some noteworthy DPS (depending on how bad your current methodology is =P). Trust me, when you start working on this mechanic, you'll be amazed at how something that is seemingly so insignificant can render such a large impact on your performance. It really is a big deal.

So there you have them - a few items that can help elevate your performance when doing so is as important as ever as we approach 3.3 and the next expansion. If you have any tips or critiques, as always, feel free to leave them in the comments section. Happy 'locking. ;)

It's About Time, Literally

2009-09-16T00:21:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know me well know that I'm a pretty punctual guy. When I say that I'm going to get something done within a certain time frame, it usually gets done. But Father Time definitely throws me curveballs every now and then, as when I first began the Battlemaster grind in 1997 (it feels that way, anyway). Little did I know that 6 short minutes would equate to 3 MONTHS of pain, sweat, and agony on the fields of AV.

[The Alterac Blitz] Achievement, the LAST Achievement I needed for the [Battlemaster] meta, was supposed to be one of those easy, "cheesy" accomplishments. After all, it could be completed via having "Not Enough Players" at the start of an AV game, and indeed, I spent countless nights pissing off my wife and logging into WoW in hopes of finding a thin Alliance team that would sputter towards Galv as the timer ticked from 5 to 0 minutes. But those pesky Alliance players just kept signing in time after time, and to my disappointment, all of the AV games that I queued into continued on to a miserable completion, reminding me just how difficult this process was really going to be.

There was a point where I thought that I would never get the Blitz done. My Battlegroup was and is very much against the idea of rushing past Balinda, all bunkers, and flags on a straight shot to Vann "just for an Achievement," and players were very vocal and derogatory about the "Achievement whores" for sure. The resulting lack of coordination made the Blitz difficult enough in it's own right. And coupled with the flood of low level toons now taking advantage of Battleground XP and leveling in the Valley (read "/afking at the spawn point"), it seemed nearly impossible to find a mostly-empty game or a decent PuG to work with.

Completely frustrated with the process, I began putting together partial premades to help better my chances. But because of face-pulling lowbies (oh how I hate the AV level scale...), a complete disinterest in the Blitz Achievement amongst the well-geared PvE crowd, and even Horde teammates that would pull Vann early and towards the awaiting crowd to purposefully ruin our attempts (I saw this way too often), the string of disappointing attempts continued week after week, and month after month.

But thankfully, the cycle of complete and seemingly infinite fail had an end, and didn't continue beyond last night.

After spending several hours recruiting friends and acquaintances over the past few days, and convincing players to download and install Preform AV Enabler, we finally had a solid group of capable tanks, heals, and DPS to work with. We completed the Achievement on just our second attempt, and when the Battlemaster announcement was displayed to our BG group, most of the guys were just as surprised as I was.

Tonight, each of them is 100g richer (not a bad income for 6 minutes of work, right?) and for the first time, I'm displaying a title other than High Warlord. Battlemaster Jagoex just sounds too good to pass up, doesn't it?

Better late than never. ;)

A Rare and Dreaded Sight

2009-07-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

After playing WoW for about 4 years now, and having almost 360 days /played on my Warlocks, I can honestly say that there isn't much I get blown away by these days. One thing that does stop me in my tracks every time, however, is a Warlock in full Dreadmist gear. Today, that's a given rarity since the rainment is a Level 60 collection of pieces from the heydays of Vanilla WoW. But even back when running Strat and Scholo was the norm, it was still very uncommon to see a 'lock sporting a full Dungeon 1 set. It was inspiring to see, and still is to me.

But that is nothing compared to what you're seeing in the image above.

Resurrected (a fitting name for sure) is a member of my good friend Demordrah's army of alts. Not only did he spend a good amount of time gathering Dreadmist pieces from the several Level 60 dungeons that drop them, but he also invested a lot of questing and gold to put together the super rare and epic Deathmist set. That's DEATHmist, as in Dungeon Set 2 - a full set of which I had NEVER seen before his accomplishment.

To fully appreciate this feat, you really have to go back and actually experience the long and arduous tasks of putting together a full D1 set, and then questing hard to upgrade the pieces to D2. Even today, it would be a hella tedious task, so just consider how difficult it must have been for a Level 60 'lock to get a group motivated enough to help him get the job done. I remember being 7/8 Dreadmist myself (damn Jandice Barov and the shoulders that never dropped for me) and starting the upgrade quests, only to drop them after having put them off for months.

Looking back, and seeing Demo's alt in all of its D2 glory now, I very much wish that I had gone through with the upgrading effort. D1 was more than enough to strike fear into opposing players that loathed getting Feared and DoT'd to death--could you even imagine what it must have felt like for them to come across a 'locked decked out in full D2?! Total dread, imho. The set had, and still has a kind of "oh damn" look to it that just screams Warlock. Even in modern Azeroth, Demordrah was telling me of instances where people in Hellfire were whispering to ask about the "crazy" gear he was wearing. If only all armor design was still that compelling!

Congrats to you, Demo. It's nice to see someone with the motivation (and pain threshold) to get such an epic and true achievement done. I am indeed impressed. Well done, sir! :)

Patch 3.2: Resilience No Longer Only Applies to DoT Damage

2009-06-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

Fellow Warlocks, wannabes (Mages), Shadow Priests, and anyone else with a close relationship to the DoT'ing kind. Go grab yourself some food and a drink, a towel, and then return to your seat, where you will more than likely spend the next few hours frozen in awe and excitement at the glorious news I am about to relay to you. Seriously. It made my wife pee a little.

Hidden deep within the PTR 3.2 Patch notes is a little bit of Warlock love in the form of a major change to Resilience -- the stat that has been the bane of DoT damage for almost 2 years running.

Here's the little nugget in all of it's DoT-loving glory:

Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. The other effects of resilience (reducing critical chance, critical damage and mana drain effects) have not changed.

What does this mean, exactly? It means that DoT damage is getting an indirect BUFF via the direct application that Resilience will equally have against ALL forms of damage. In other words, DoTS will do relatively more damage than they do now, compared to other forms of offensive attacks.

Within the current state of World of Burst-craft, this is a VERY big deal! It not only means that Resilience-heavy Affliction Warlocks will see more survivability, but it also means they will be dishing out a higher percentage of overall damage done!

Shwing?!

Together with all of the other pro-Affliction changes that 3.2 is slated to bring (the Pandemic Buff to Haunt that we will discuss in an upcoming post, for example), this should be a big help to a long-ailing tree in PvP. Only time will tell if it will be a large-enough step in the right direction to make a difference.

Now, go clean up a bit, and be sure to check back for an update on Affliction's performance on the PTR very soon.

See you then. ;)

Warlock 101: "Drain Some Dummies"

2009-06-08T14:18:00.000-07:00

Warlock 101 looks to shed some light on the basic truths of Warlocking, for those that are new to the class, or just may have missed them while QQ'ing about the constant nerfs to Fear.

Ask a Warlock, any Warlock, what changes they would like to see implemented in a future patch, and amongst the calls for "green fire" and a new Megan Fox succubus skin, you are more than likely to find a few that will wish for stack-able Soul Shards.

We 'locks have often complained that our shard reagents are an inconvenience, taking up too much space and taking far too long to farm before a night of raiding or PvP. Even after the recent lifestyle tweak to Drain Soul, we still complained that the shard mechanism was too costly, taking up too much of the the time we could be spending doing something else equally as unimportant as shard-farming.

Well, my friends, the reality is that the Soul Shard mechanism isn't that big a deal, and it is far less time consuming than you think. Check out the video below for a hot tip on how to make Soul Shard farming super efficient, no matter your level or experience.

The Best Questions a Warlock Can Ask

2009-06-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year again. The great (and sometimes sexy) Dr. Eyonix has made his Summer rounds on the official forums, summoning the "questions you may have concerning your class." Playing a Warlock, I know we got a whole bunch of them. But before you go off running to ask why we haven't seen green fire applied to all of our spells just yet, hear me out. There are far more important matters at hand.

Here are 10 of the best questions we Warlocks can ask in the current state of the game. And please feel free to bombard Eyonix's thread with them. Maybe we'll get some much-needed attention!

Will incoming pet/spell-pathing and redirection after a Demonic Teleport ever be tweaked to result in a miss?

While defending the Farm in AB the other day, I was approached by three mouth-breathing Death Knights. After being LOL-Gripped by two of them back-to-back (that's where the "lol" comes in), I Teleported into the shed to escape the ridiculously high damage they were doing... and that's when it happened! A Deathcoil that one of the DK's had fired off came through the wall and hit me square in the face!

If a Rogue Vanishes, a spell headed towards them will miss (unless it's still bugged), and a pet will run back towards it's master. If a Warlock Teleports, a spell will redirect and shoot straight for them, and a pet will hunt them down and continue to attack. Sure, Vanish and Teleport are different spells, but shouldn't their effect on spell/pet-pathing be treated the same? If not, why not? At best, it's an awkward mechanic difference as is, and is in desperate need of a change.

Will our pets ever be allowed to Teleport with us if they are set to Passive?

Our pets. Sometimes I love them. Sometimes I hate them. And I ESPECIALLY hate them when they lead opponents straight to me after I break off a Teleport. They're like the worst little back-stabbing snitches ever, and I often find myself having them attack an opponent and get killed just to keep myself alive. Broken, imho.

Will melee always be able to cut-off spells when "running through" the caster?

At range, Destruction Warlocks are where it's at. They have some of the best combos and burst in WoW (which we'll talk about in an upcoming post), and are game-makers as a result.

In close-quarters, however, they are about as useful as a pair of scissors with no handles. This is mostly because of melee's ability to "run through" a caster and interrupt his class if timed right, and which isn't that hard to do. Melee have a huge advantage over casters as a result, and it is a shame this long-broken mechanic hasn't received the attention it deserves.

Will the Soul Shard cap ever be raised?

Let's face it: Soul Shards will never stack. So the question is, will we ever need anything beyond an Abyssal Bag? Inquiring Warlocks, especially ones that Arena regularly, want to know... because if the Soul Shard cap isn't going to see a change, it's time to get a maxed out shard bag, pronto.

Are there any plans to lower the Soul-shatter cooldown?

Of all the spells a Warlock has in his arsenal, Soul-Shatter is by far one of the most poorly maintained. As a spell, it's fine, just as any aggro-reducing ability is. As a spell that has a 5-minute cooldown and costs a Soul Shard, however, it is not. Almost every other class has an aggro drop on a much shorter cooldown... why not Warlocks?

Are there plans to introduce more consistent burst damage to the Affliction Tree?

Affliction burst is based upon RNG DoT crits that are great during long PvE boss encounters, but not so hot for PvP. In order to make Affliction a viable Arena spec again, it needs to have a controllable amount of burst that is not dependant on an automatic, uncontrollable, and untimable DoT tick. Perhaps make Shadowburn trainable? Or even better yet, give the Afflicton 'lock an ability to consume a DoT for 50% of it's overall damage on-command. That'd be a start!

Are all pets going to scale equally from their master's stats?

When I heard that Ghostcrawler and his development crew had finally decided that it was time to work on pet scaling, I called Hell to see if it had frozen over. It hasn't, so I remain cautously optomistic. We are Warlocks, afterall, and whenever we see something good come our way, there is often a catch.

So I have to ask, when the pets get these incoming buffs, are they going to receive them equally across the board, or are each of their specific weaknesses going to be addressed?

And semi-related to this question comes the next:

Will switching between pets quickly ever become an untalented option?

Warlocks are dependent on their pets, now more than ever at least since the "mushroom" era of PvP. Each has a very specific use and strength meant for a very specific environment. So when we find ourselves stuck in the mud with the wrong pet out... we're pretty boned.

Currently, the only way to summon a pet quickly is to spec at least 10 points into the Demonology Tree, where you'll find Fel Domination. Fifteen points in, you'll find Master Summoner, which will reduce the cast time of your next summon by 9.5 seconds to a mere half-second. Unfortunately, each of these talents is on a 15 minute cooldown, which doesn't do much for the Warlock enjoying World PvP or a day in the Battlegrounds.

We need more... and faster too!

Is Fear going to be tweaked to better compliment the Affliction tree?

After the recent Fear "nerf," the spell seems fairly balanced to a Destruction Warlock. Destro 'locks don't DoT, so the spell can easily be used as an off-target CC or to setup a powerful destruction spell combo.

As an Affliction 'lock, however, whose quasi-purpose and strength is to afflict damage to as many targets on the field as possible, it is quite useless. It cannot be used as an off-target CC, because Affliction Warlocks SHOULD be doing consistant, constant, dependable damage to as many enemy players as possible. And almost any damage to Fear currently breaks the CC, making it one of the worst offensive spells in the game.

And yes, you read that right. I wrote "offensive," because that is how it was originally designed. Afflicton Warlocks are SUPPOSED to DoT their targets and Fear them to death. Now, sadly, that's not the case, and they need Affliction-tree-specific buffs to Fear that will allow them to do so competitively. Add a talent, add a glyph, whatever. Just do it already.

Is Immolate going to get some much-needed dispel protection?

As is stands, Immolate is one of the most important spells in a Destro 'locks arsenal. It increases the damage of Incinerate and Chaos bolt via Fire and Brimstone, and is the opener of choice for an instant-Conflag. However, it's as easily removed as Paris Hilton's panties, yet unlike those panties, it comes with no ~~STD~~ penalty whatsoever.

An Afflicton Warlock's DoTS are the bread and butter of his offense, and protected by Unstable Affliction. Immolate is the core ability of a Destruction's Warlocks offense, and has no protection whatsoever. Without Immolate, we lose the burst damage of Conflagrate, and the CC of Aftermath -- both of which are very necessary to keep the spec a successful one.

So those are my questions -- ten issues that need addressing. Hopefully they won't fall upon blind eyes or deaf ears, and hopefully yours won't either.

Speaking of yours, what Warlock questions do you have for the devs? Is there anything that you see as vitally important to the class and wonder why it hasn't been addressed? Let me know in the comments section -- link to it in the official thread if you wish.

Now, lets get this done, people. Good luck to us all.

What's Up With Ferarro & Paladin Schmaladin?

2009-05-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

I have to take a quick time-out from the norm to outline a concern that I have about the honesty of blogging and bloggers. For those of you who normally read blogs, it may impact you on some level, so it won't be a complete waste of your time.

If you found yourself over at fellow WoW-blogger Ferarro's website today, Paladin Schmaladin, you were greeted with a new message that the "blog is open to invited readers only." According to her Twitter updates, she believes that she has a stalker, and things are getting a bit too uncomfortable with all of the private information she has been posting.

Now let me be serious for a second (it's all I can muster): if she does have a legit stalker, she made the right decision in closing shop. Playing it safe is the only way to go in that scenario. There is nothing worse than feeling exposed, after all (we Warlocks know that all too well). However, I am getting reports that the stalker story is about as straight as Tom Cruise, and that I should have listened to my mother when she told me to never believe everything I read on the internet... that I don't write myself.

According to multiple sources in-WoW and out, Ferarro was outed as a fraud when an astute Warlock posted a convincing link on the WoW Forums, pointing to a website called TechDarling. All over the site are pictures of a girl that we know as Ferarro. In fact, many of the pictures there are identical copies of those we've seen on Paladin Schmaladin. But instead of the WoW game-tester we all know, we see a real-life social-blogger who is into the tech scene and has posted pictures from various blogging expos and web design events -- pictures stolen by and featured on Paladin Schmaladin and that Ferarro presented as of herself, and her job as a game-tester for WoW.

Doing a little bit of digging, it seems that all of the self-portraits posted of Ferarro on Paladin Schmaladin originate from TechDarling and its author's own web pages, including Facebook and Flickr. In fact, there are many images there that authenticate TechDarling as the legitimate source and owner of the pictures and events. Oh, and btw, WoW is never mentioned on these other sites. Not once.

So what does all of this craziness mean, exactly?

Well, for starters, a bunch of love-struck boys are going to experience some heavy frustration when this comes to light, and we are bound to see some nerd rage soon. For bloggers like me, it is a little disheartening. Ferarro has basically been lying about her identity for years, and stealing someone else's content and posting them as her own. She has taken advantage of another blogger and her reader's trust, and that makes my job as a fellow blogger just that much harder.

On a WoW-related front, this mess also means that Ferarro isn't a game tester for Blizzard. The "game-testing" images that were posted on Paladin Schmaladin were relabeled TechDarling images that were taken at a blogging expo.

I gotta admit, just thinking about this gets me a little angry, and my mind is going crazy with a series of difficult questions: what drives a person to do this kind of thing? Why would anyone lead people on like that? And for what means? And do you know what the worst part about this whole thing is? Paladin Schmaladin was a great resource and excellent WoW blog. Why it needed to be masked by someone else's pretty face is straight attention-whoring.

And here's a piece of advice from your friendly neighborhood Warlock Therapist: if you post someone else's picture and get caught, don't take down your blog and try to explain it away as a problem with a stalker. Don't go into hiding and conjure up 7 different identities when that doesn't work either. Fess up, make things right, and move on. It may hurt at first, but it is the only way to help guarantee yourself respect and friendship in the long-run. And lets face it, you owe at least that much to your readers, right?

It will be quite interesting to see where Ferarro goes from here. While watching the changing status of Paladin Schmaladin's accessibility, I wish her, or him, some much-needed sanity.

I am Jagoex. I'm a husband, a father, a professor, and a warlock. That's all you need to know. ;)

UPDATE: Apparently, Ferarro has closed her Twitter account and many of her articles at Retpaladin.com are MIA. Threads started on the WoW Forums linking to TechDarling or this post are being reported as harassment and immediately removed. Also, many young boys are in complete denial.

UPDATE 2: TechDarling is aware of what is going on and according to her Twitter page, she was unaware anyone was stealing her images and content and using them as her own.

UPDATE 3: Retpaladin.com admins played no hand in the posts that were being deleted on their website, and were clueless on what was going on until after the fact. Also, Ferarro's character on Alexstrasza is no longer showing up on the Armory.

UPDATE 4: Paladin Schmaladin is available for viewing once again, with a long explanation of what has happened -- including a creative story detailing 7 different owners of "Ferarro" the Paladin.

UPDATE 5: WoW.com just posted a very detailed look into Ferarro's explanatory post, basically debunking her statement that Ferarro was operated by 7 different people over the years.

Post Preview: Battlemaster as a Solo Warlock

2009-05-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

In my mind, one of the greatest achievements currently implemented in WoW is the Battlemaster achievement. Aside from getting what many consider to be the "best" title in the game, it is also widely considered to be the ultimate BG achievement, akin to the Rank 14 grind. That, my friends, is up for debate.

I am currently in the midst of a semi-hard push towards fulfilling Battlemaster, and in many ways, it actually does remind me of the High Warlord grind. It is probably due to the fact that it requires a lot of time invested in the Battlegrounds, but thankfully, you can take a break if you want to, which wasn't the case back in the old honor system. As a result of regular break-taking, I have a long way to go to finish the achievement, but I have already completed a good chunk of the chain and am pretty excited about fulfilling the remaining requirements.

I'm hoping I'm not the only one. ;)

Soulstone Resurrection

2009-05-09T02:19:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick post to check the look of the blog. More to come. ;)

A License to Warlock

2008-08-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

Like driving heavy machinery or working in a specialized profession, sometimes I think that playing WoW should require a license to operate. Not that I think the game is difficult to play or anything like that, but so few people actually take the time to learn the intricacies of their class, that it'd be nice to have a simple and clean way to separate those that do from those that don't.

Achievements are a step in the right direction, but won't help in picking out the Warlock in Kara gear that can out-perform T6-level 'locks in Black Temple content (*cough* more on that later this week)... even though the system totally should.

But because we will never see licensing of that kind implemented in-game, I guess we'll just have to turn to our good friend novelty to get our licensing fix. =)

Inspired by Mike Schramm's post over at WoW Insider, I threw together these Warlock "licenses" for the sheer heck of it. They're pretty fun, if I do say so myself, and best of all, they are totally unspoken for in the State of California! I'm actually thinking about picking one of them up myself. =D

So here ya go, friends in curses, and be sure to let us know if you got some of your own novelty statements to share, or if you are sporting an auto-based tribute yourself!

See you guys soon... even on the road, maybe. ;)

20 Silver, 91 Copper

2008-07-24T08:28:00.000-07:00

That's how much money I have across all of my characters this morning, down from about 8000 gold or so. I'm also out 8 Primal Mights, 32 Primal Fires, and just about any other Primal or item of worth that I had in my bags when I logged out late last night. In all, it amounts to well over 10k gold worth of materials lost.

So this is what it feels like... for the second time.

This is really getting old.

I logged into my Warlock expecting to be in Dire Maul, where I usually plant him upon logging out for hopes of finding a rare spawn upon my return. But when I logged in this morning, I noticed immediately on the Character Select screen that he was in Shattrath and felt incredibly uneasy about it. I loaded him up, and indeed found his bags empty. I checked my other toons--theirs were empty too.

The uneasy, eerie feeling I experienced during those first moments were not unlike those that I felt when I logged into my blog and found a vacant, empty space those many weeks ago. It's not so much an "OMG MY STUFF IS GONE!" kind of emotion as it is a "How on earth did this happen?" kind of thing.

Now before you go on thinking about all of the irresponsible actions and behaviors that could result in having an account compromised, hear me out.

I don't visit weird sites. I don't download weird programs.

I scan my HD regularly, and am very cautious and concerned about my internet security. I have set up Firewalls, both software and hardware, and felt pretty secure about all of the extra precautions I have taken.

Obviously, none of this was enough, and even after scanning my drive with two different programs, nothing turned up. I am totally baffled, but will be taking more time to figure out how things went wrong. Hopefully it'll be something to learn from.

In the meantime, I really have to ask myself if this game is really worth all of the trouble it has been lately. And sadly, I don't have an answer for that just yet. Ironically enough, the thief left all of my TOONS intact, allowing me to play just as I have been over the past many weeks. No gear was vendored. All gear is accounted for.

And if this is some sort of twisted joke, it's totally not funny. Not at all.

If any of you could offer up some advice on what to check, where to check, etc, after an account has been compromised, please let me know. And thanks if you do.

The Warlock vs. Melee Conundrum

2008-07-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be wondering why I have a picture of a little Farm boy on my blog this morning, waiting by the fireside by the buff. Indeed a valid question, especially when considering my one-month hiatus from blogging. But whatever you pervs are thinking, stop. It is simply to illustrate a Warlock/WoW-related point, which we'll come back to it in just a second.

But first, one of the issues, if not THE issue PvP Warlocks are facing these days is the lack of balanced survivability against melee classes. Rogues and Warriors are currently the bane of our existence, with an array of tools and abilities that can keep them close in proximity and preventing us from doing anything substantial. I'm sure you've all had the pleasure of experiencing what seems like hours worth of spell push-back due to fast melee attacks, all while getting intercepted, gouged, cheap-shotted, and kidney-shotted all the way to death, and with no real means of escape.

Fear? Please. If it hadn't been nerfed to death with immunities, trinkets, and diminishing returns, maybe. But in it's current form, it is a VERY weak defensive spell, and sadly, it is our class-defining ability. What does that say about Warlocks as a whole?

Deathcoil, while a great stand-alone defensive spell, only delays the inevitable. Warriors can intercept right back to the Warlock and continue smashing their faces in, and Rogues can, well, do about 10 different things that will keep them in control of the encounter--thinking about all of them makes my head spin, actually.

NO class should have absolutely NO chance to win when engaged with another, but in the case of Warlocks and melee, we are pretty close to that point. Even Soul Link, with the lack of Pet Scaling and the 5% nerf it will be receiving soon, isn't enough to handle the obscene amounts of white damage melee can produce. Such unbalanced encounters can make for very frustrating, one-sided experiences akin to the "Warlocks are Mushrooms" days of early WoW PvP. Add to that the multi-crippling effect that Resilience has on our abilities and the availability of Ignore Armor stats to melee and you can understand the up-hill-balance-battle that we Warlocks are now facing.

Things have got to change, and as we approach the beta phase of WotLK production, our question becomes this: what changes would help create balanced survivability for Warlocks against heavy, fast-hitting melee?

We've all heard of the new self-teleporting Demonic Circle ability Warlocks will be receiving in Wrath of the Lich King, and indeed it's sole purpose is to help the Warlock escape from within melee range. But in thinking critically about the spell, you should also be asking yourself a multitude of questions about it. For example, in it's final form, what will it's range limit be? Will it be affected by line of sight? What will be it's cooldown? Will it be enough?

Since the ability, as with all new WotLK abilities, is still under development, it's tough to say. But the short answer is "no," and here's why:

Each combat stat is designed to have a single counter-stat in the World of Warcraft. Or, at least, this is the ideal blueprint that Blizzard used to apply. Spell Resistance was countered by Spell Penetration. Percent chance to Dodge was countered by Hit Rating, etc. It was simple, and for the most part, successful... until the Arena came along and the concept of Resilience was introduced.

Resilience, from the start, was a terrible idea--to minimize Critical strikes in the PvP equation completely gimped Mages, Destruction Warlocks, and a multitude of other classes and specs that are only successful when they are allowed to crit with no penalty. But, it was what it was, and at least it ONLY severly gimped one Warlock talent tree. That is, until Blizzard strayed from their original blueprints and allowed Resilience to counter a SECOND variable, Damage over Time spells, and therefore indirectly affecting Spell Damage at the same time.

At this point, two Warlock staples, Spell Damage via DoTS and Spell Crit Chance, are countered by a single PvP stat. And it didn't stop there.

Soon, Channeled spells were thrown into the mix, becoming the THIRD variable affected by Resilience. This was only done to minimize the effect of drain teams, but a change to the approach Warlock PvP should be played nonetheless.

Lets put everything together now to put this problem into perspective.

The Warlock class has had its defensive spells nullified by buffs to melee. What offense we did have left is nullified by the effects of Resilience on our spells and abilities. What on earth do we have left? An SL/SL build that requires us to ride the coattails of our Rogue or Priest or Druid or whatever other cookie-cutter combo we can team up with?

Things have got to change, and it is up to the Warlock and general player communities to place pressure onto Blizzard and it's backward-stepping e-Sport fetish to refocus the game and help make things right again.

Now, consider the picture of the child at the top of this post again. Notice what he's wearing? Chain mail armor. In a system where Resilience exists in it's current form, THAT KID HAS MORE LASTING POWER AGAINST MELEE THAN A WARLOCK DOES.

GG.

Tay Zonday Does "Pork and Beans"

2008-06-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic weekend. Mine was AMAZING.

I experienced my first Father's Day ever, which was truly an awesome time! I'll write more about it later, when I'm not totally exhausted and drained of energy, cause the day really deserves my utmost attention to convey just how adorable it was.

I've also been working on a few Warlock-centric pieces that I promise I'll put up soon.

But in the meantime, enjoy this clip of YouTube's own Tay Zonday of "Chocolate Rain" fame doing Weezer's "Pork and Beans." It's epic, and for now, it's all you get, so enjoy it! =P

For Temerity Jane, the Marshmallow Queen

2008-06-08T20:06:00.001-07:00

After yesterday's marshmallow-stuffing goodness, a little video just for you!

Next time you invite us all into your web cam space, I hope you use this as motivation. =)

This Week's LOL: New Destruction Spell

2008-06-08T04:54:00.000-07:00

This video is W.I.N. for so many reasons, that I shouldn't even have to explain any more about it. Just watch and if you're an old-school gamer, you'll see what I mean. =)

GH3: Through the Fire and Flames, 100% on Expert

2008-06-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Seriously. I never thought I'd see the day.

The hardest song of any Guitar Hero or GH-like game ever released met it's master yesterday, when some dude named Chris hit every one of the song's 3,722 notes in stride. His reaction at the end of the video says it all... he definitely didn't expect it could be done either.

Grats on an epic gaming moment, Chris. You better not have been cheating! ;)

A Very Good Warlock Gear Guide

2008-06-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

Canadianpimp, aka Kobekid of Kilrogg, is a seasoned poster over at the very constructively destructive Warlocks Den forums. Taking his helpfulness to another, almost deifying level, he has put together an incredibly valuable gearing guide for the Warlock class. In it, he uses an objective rating system he came up with called DP (short for "DPS Points"), which rates gear based upon all of their DPS-friendly stats.

The guide will lead you from your early cloth-wearing days to end-game Sunwell gear, and with a concise clarity that you will appreciate. New and seasoned warlocks alike should definitely take a look, and often, because he updates the guide fairly regularly.

Follow the link below, and if you can, be sure to thank him (on his blog) for a job well done!

Canadianpimp's Warlock Gear Guide

10 Ways Gamers Can Save Money

2008-06-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

While the stereotype of your average modern gamer is an individual that lacks adequate hygiene and lives in his parent's basement, there are actually many of us that are making our own way. We are independent, have families to support, and bills to pay, and in this economic crunch that we all currently find ourselves in, what could be more responsible than searching for ways to lighten our financial load?

Beyond the standard gas-consumption-related advice that you see and hear almost everywhere, here are 10 things that we, as gamers, can do to help our wallets stay just a little bit more chunky during these tough economic times:

1) Rent games with low replay value. How many of you have games in your library that you haven't played in, say, the last week? What about the previous month? Year??? I'm sure there are PLENTY of games on your shelf that fit any one of those categories, and that's just not financially smart, my friend. $50 doesn't go far these days, and especially not when it's collecting dust. Get the most out of your money set aside for gaming and only buy games with high replay value. Rent others that you know you want to play, but will only play a few times at best (i.e., many single-player RPGs).

2) Unplug cathode case lights. Cathode lights, while considered "cool" by some and included in many big-name PC gaming rig designs, are really just an unnecessary accessory we can do without. Their cost can readily add up as well, considering that many will run you between $8-10 and need to be replaced upon extinction. In flipping the switch and turning them off, you will not only start saving money immediately, but you won't have to spend money replacing them when they burn out either - a win on both fronts.

3) Unplug your gaming consoles when not in use. It's well-known that modern electronics, including gaming consoles, can be quite the energy hogs. This is partly due to the fact that many items simply do not turn off when told to do so! Instead, they beam a little red light back at you, stating that they have entered a "standby" mode that continues to drain energy at an alarming rate. For example, leaving a PS3 on standby uses 5x more energy than running your refrigerator for the same amount of time! I'm sure the Xbox 360 and even the Nintendo Wii are guilty of a little post-use drainage as well. So, instead of just flipping the power switch off and sending those trickster consoles into standby, unplug the little leeches until you're ready to get your game on again. Heck, while you're at it, unplug EVERYTHING that can go on standby, like your flat screen TV, sound system, and DVD player, and save even more money! GG, electricity bill. GG.

4) Downgrade your home phone service. Many of us connect to the net via DSL over our home phone line. If you're one of those gamers, you know that in most cases, DSL requires an active, working phone line to function. In this age of cellphones, free minutes and long distance, however, that phone service contract is a waste of money. All you need a line for is DSL, so instead of paying a premium for a bunch of features you will never use, call up your home service provider and drop your service contract down to the bare minimum. No Caller I.D., Call Waiting, nothing. Ask about "per-minute" contracts and pick one up if you can, as their monthly fees are among the cheapest you will find. When that's done, simply unplug your phone, and you're off to saving several hundred dollars a year.

5) Downgrade your broadband to a speed you need. Most internet users are overpaying for their services. Why? Because they sign a contract for a speed that is either much faster than what they actually need or that their computer can even handle. The problem is that, as gamers, we approach this pitfall far too often. We want the fastest graphics, refresh rate, response time, and latency, and will pay more for it even if we don't need it. And trust me, you don't need it. Downgrade to a speed that is around 1500/768 Kbps, and not only will you continue to enjoy reasonably fast online gaming, but you'll also save yourself a large chuck of change too.

6) Make your computer energy efficient. Rising energy costs are nothing to balk at. The price has increased about 50% in the past ten years and continues to rise sharply today. To save you as much money as possible, the U.S. Department of Energy recommends that you turn your computer completely off (and unplug it) in situations when it will not be used within the next 2 hours. That way, the cost of the energy surge needed to power the system up again is offset by the down-time. And this doesn't just apply to computers, but to all of their peripherals as well. Monitors, speakers, printers, you name it, should all be shut down and unplugged when not in use. If you want to streamline the process, have a smart surge protector do it all for you.

7) Turn off the lights. We all know that it's appropriate and energy-efficient to always turn off the lights before leaving a room. We've been drilled by this way of thinking for quite some time, and indeed, it's a great way to lower energy costs. But what about the other way around? What about turning the lights off while remaining inside a room? While gaming, we need no other light source than the tube, plasma, or LCD sitting directly in front of us. So turning off every other light source, and lowering your energy bill in the process, is definitely not a bad way to go. Just be careful not to trip on your way out!

8) Purchase gear only when you have to, and like you're saving money. "Frugal" is the word here, folks. If you can borrow a game, don't buy it. If your friend has a replacement computer part he doesn't need, ask for it. Don't be shy. Be smart. Approach every new or replacement purchase as if it is an opportunity to save money. Want to buy a new title for your gaming library? Buy it USED off of eBay or Half.com. Need a sound card to replace the one that just crapped out on you? Buy it OEM, and don't empty your wallet for newer technology; only buy exactly what you need! Nothing more.

9) Ditch carbonated, expensive energy drinks for tap water. We gamers need energy to get us through those all-night frag fests, and sodas and energy drinks happen to be our method of choice, as they are for the rest of the nation. It's no surprise, then, that they cost consumers hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year, which is pretty fail considering how TERRIBLE they are for our health. Caffeine is a diuretic, which dehydrates the body, and as a carbonated beverage is considered by many to compete with calcium absorption (biochemistry anyone?). Tap water, while not as tasty, requires a fraction of the cost of other beverages, and is much better for you because it hydrates the body and helps with mineral absorption. So kicking the soda can will not only mean that you will save a lot of cash now, but also that you will be healthier, saving countless dollars on potential doctor visits later.

10) Keep playing video games. Gaming, if approached responsibly, can be one of the cheapest forms of entertainment you can find. Yes, it's reasonably expensive to get things started, with what, having to buy either a console or computer to pwn noobs on. But once received and the gamer settled into a minimalist approach, think about how little that will cost him one, six, and twelve months later. And compare that to how much other hobbies or activities would cost in that same amount of time. And hey, it's much more enjoyable too! So ditch the movie, the bar, and the expensive restaurant, and roll some Alliance head with a pizza instead. Poetry to live by, my friends. Game on. ;)

Got any of your own money-saving methodologies to share? Post them in the comments now! =)

Sex, Shadowform, and the Spectral Tiger

2008-05-31T19:29:00.000-07:00

I have lost all faith in humanity.

According to The Numbers, a website that compiles box office data including daily profits, The Sex and the City movie took in almost 27 million dollars on it's opening day yesterday.

Yes, THAT movie. And yes, it seriously did THAT well -- 3rd in 1st-day profits this year, even when people should have known better.

The movie has been receiving scathingly terri-bad reviews since previewed by Hollywood's elite weeks ago. Rotten Tomatoes, a liberal movie site, even gave it a 5.8/10. That's an "F" people! FAIL! And yet somehow, it performs, and I can't even begin to tell you how.

I mean, I know there are some crazy people out there that are fans of the show, but this is definitely beyond "some." If you break down ticket sales and costs, the opening day statistics amount to almost 3.9 MILLION crazy people that forked out hard-earned cash to see this heap of feces on film!

That's way too many crazies enjoying way too many feces!!!

But in all seriousness, what on earth can this movie possibly offer? Thought-provoking adult situations? Seriously smart dialogue? Aging, clucking, borderline-whores, one of which whose face looks like it grew a foot where it's nose used to be, and all of which probably have a raging case of genital herpes?

Well, the latter two, yes, but that's it.

And if you enjoy garbage like that, may you be cursed with the foot-face and STDs you seem to so admire.

/sigh... some people...

Anyway, enough of that nonsense. I'll point my sleep-deprived foul mood towards a WoW moment I had yesterday instead. =)

While running alongside a Shadow Priest from the UC to the Zeppelin tower just outside, I noticed something fairly peculiar about her ride. It was a tiger mount that seemed fragmented, like a broken graphic or something of that sort. At first, I thought it was a glitch of some kind. But as I got closer and started talking with her, I realized that it wasn't a glitch after all:

Turns out that it was a Spectral Tiger in Shadowform, looking both very cool and very odd as it stretched it's limbs out in front and back behind itself, invisibly moving it's armor as if they were supernaturally elevated pieces of plate.

I'm not sure if this graphic is as it was intended to be, and thinking about it now, I've never heard much of a complaint from proud priestly owners of the spectral mount. But I have to wonder if that is because they enjoy the way it looks, or if they simply aren't the types to complain about a mount they surely are happy to display, given it's rarity and worth.

In any case, it's a cool thing to see in motion. So if you happen to know a Priest who owns one, ask them to go dark and whip it out.

Hopefully, they'll know what you mean. ;)

Song of the Week: Pork and Beans

2008-05-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite music videos of all time is what Blink 182 put together for their song "All the Small Things." It is basically a spoof of music videos put out by every trendy girl and boy band of that era, and was hilariously perfect in every way.

This week's SotW, "Pork and Beans" by Weezer, is similar in that it's video is a spoof of the current major trend: YouTubing fame! If you Tube (ha!) often, you'll definitely recognize the cameos you're about to see. The video rocks 'em, and the song is great too! For PvE, PvP, whatevah.

Enjoy!

Mages Can Be So Wrong Sometimes...

2008-05-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

Here we have his mage-ness, Jean-Claude van Damme, performing "Conjure Biscuit" on a balcony somewhere I don't ever want to be.

I mean who does this? Seriously? And with cameras around?

Weirdo.

If you can think of a better line to go with the image than what I have written, let me know. I was too mesmerized to come up with anything good...

New Warlock Talents, Abilities: Wrath of the Lich King

2008-05-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

Since WoW Insider and MMO Champion have opened the flood gates and direct players to once highly-guarded info, I figure I will do the same. Besides, Blizzard wants you to see this information anyway. With Age of Conan out there stealing a bit of their thunder, they're definitely okay with a healthy bit of Wrath leaking. ;) Keep in mind, these are early talent designs, and can (read: will) change.

New Warlock Talents, Wrath of the Lich King (Alpha)

AFFLICTION

Eradication: 3 pts; requires 25 pts; Your Corruption, Siphon Life, and Curse of Agony ticks have a x% chance to increase your spell casting speed by 1% for 8 sec. This effect has a 10 second cooldown.

Death's Embrace: 3 pts; requires 40 pts; Increases the amount drained by your Drain Life by 30% while your health is at or below 20% health, and increases the critical strike chance of your Shadowbolt and Haunt spells by 15% when your target is at or below 20% health.

Soul Depletion: 3 pts; requires 40 pts; Your Corruption spell ticks have a 15% chance of consuming w% mana, x energy, y Rage or a z Runic Power on affected targets.

Everlasting Affliction: 5 pts; requires 45 pts: Your Corruption, Siphon Life and Seed of Corruption spells gain 20% more of your bonus spell damage effects, and your Drain Life and Shadow Bolt spells have a x% chance to reset the duration of your Corruption spell on the target.

Atrocity: 1 pt; requires 50 pts; You devastate the area, causing Corruption (Rank 8) to all targets within 15 yards. In addition, your Corruption spell will do 434 Shadow damage to the target when it finishes its duration.

DEMONOLOGY

Demonic Empowerment: 1 pt; requires 30 pts; Grants the Warlock's summoned demon Empowerment.

Succubus: instantly vanishes, turning the Succubus invisible and restoring it's health to 100%. The vanish effect removes all stuns, snares and movement impairing effects from the Succubus.

Voidwalker: Increases the Voidwalker's health by 20%, and it's threat generated from spells and attacks by 20%.

Imp: Increases the Imp's damage by 20% and chance to critically hit with spells by 20%.

Felguard: Increases the Felguard's attack speed by 20% and breaks all stun, snare and movement impairing effects and makes your Felguard immune to them.

Felhunter: Resets all the Felhunter's cooldowns.

Empowered Imp: 3 pts; requires 35 pts; Increases the damage done by your Imp by 15%, and all critical hits done by your Imp have a x% chance to increase your spell critical hit chance by 100%. This effect lasts 8 sec.

Fel Synergy: 2 pts; requires 35 pts; Your Summoned Demons share an additional 10% of your Armor, Intellect and Stamina, and you have a 100% chance to heal your pet for 15% of the amount of damage done by you.

Love Struck: 3 pts; requires 40 pts; While the Succubus is active, physical attacks done to you or your Succubus have a 15% chance to heal you or your Succubus instead of doing damage. The healing caused by Love Struck will not exceed 50% of the Warlock or Succubus' total health. This effect has a 6 second cooldown.

Demonic Empathy: 3 pts; requires 40 pts; When you or your pet is critically hit, the other has a x% chance to have their casting or attack speed increased by y% for z seconds.

Demonic Pact: 5 pts; requires 45 pts; Increases your Spirit by w% while your Demon is active. In addition, your pet attacks have a x% chance to increase your party's total Health and Damage by y%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts z seconds.

Metamorphosis: 1 pt; requires 50 pts; You transform into a Demon, with full health and mana. While in Demon Form, you gain Demonic abilities and your armor is increased to 360%, but your pet no longer is summoned. When leaving Demon Form, your health and mana is returned back to normal and your pet is re-summoned. Lasts x seconds.

DESTRUCTION

Molten Core: 3 pts; requires 5 pts; Your Shadow spells and damage over time effects have a x% chance to increase the damage of your Fire spells by 10% for 6 sec.

Kindling Soul: 2 pts; requires 35 pts; Your spell damage is increased by 10% of your Spirit, and your spell criticals increase your Spirit by x% for 10 sec.

Backdraft: 3 pts; requires 40 pts; Increases the critical chance of your Conflagrate, Immolate and Shadowflame spells by 10%.

Torture: 3 pts; requires 40 pts; After you critically strike with a Shadow spell, your next Searing Pain or Immolate spells have a x% chance to become instant cast. This ability has a 20 second cooldown.

Eternal Flames: 5 pts; requires 45 pts; Your Searing Pain and Incinerate spells have a x% chance to refresh the duration of your Immolate spell on the target, and increases the critical strike damage of your Destruction spells by an additional 10%.

Decimate: 1 pt; requires 50 pts; Your next Shadow or Fire spell is instant cast, and does damage in the form of Chaos damage, ignoring all resistances, absorption, and immunity mechanics. After the end of the Decimated cast, you become exhausted, disabling you from casting a spell of the same school for 3 sec.

New Warlock Abilities; Wrath of the Lich King (Alpha)

Shadowflame: Rank 1; Level 75; 745 mana; instant cast; 15 second cooldown; Targets in a cone in front of the caster take 934-1020 Shadow damage and an additional 492 Fire damage over 8 sec.

Haunt: Rank 1; Level 80; 650 mana; 30 second cooldown; You send a corrupted soul into the target, doing 800 damage over 2 sec. Haunt will continue to travel between targets who suffer from your Corruption spell. After traveling from up to three targets, the corrupted soul will return to you, healing you for 50% of the total damage done.

Sift through the material -- we'll talk more when I post more details about each spell (and others not made public just yet) later on. Have fun. ;)

"All Gladiators Are Not Created Equally"

2008-05-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

There is a hierarchy in all that we do. No matter how successful we may be, there is always a perception that it can be done better. The following is a portion of a conversation that I had weeks ago, with one of the world's most competitive Warlocks. He is a Season 2 Gladiator, tournament winner, Blizzard insider, and all around stellar guy. Here, he offers great insight as we discussed class balance in the outside context of WotLK development.

...
Jagoex: Changing PvP or PvE is one thing. But merging the two is impossible, especially when they require totally different elements that are a part of the game's design. If they want to make it work, EVERYTHING needs to be reworked.

SN: I'm not sure you are seeing it as I do. What do you think the motivation is behind what changes are made?

Jagoex: I compare it to taking reactive prescription drugs. Your first set has side-effects, so you take a second set to take care of them. But that second set also has side effects, so you take a third set, and so and on. You're simply plugging holes that will eventually affect your first set of drugs, which now need to be tweaked because of the other drug side-effects. That leads to a constant circle of change and never any stability.

SN: The game isn't as sensitive as you think it is.

Jagoex: The Affliction tree.

SN: ?

Jagoex: DoT coefficients were nerfed to balance out changes that were made before it. Together with other changes, it rendered Affliction useless in high-end-game raiding. And we know what's happening in WotLK.

SN: Okay.

Jagoex: You can't keep chipping away at something without eventually having an impact on what you just changed. Kaplan fails to understand this, apparently.

SN: He understands it. It just isn't a part of the Warcraft formula.

Jagoex: WoW + Kaplan = WTF?

SN: Lol. Kaplan, Chilton, all those guys aim to keep the game changing. They are smart. Always remember that. And they want to keep as many people paying their 15 a month as possible. You're a psych guy. Figure it out.

Jagoex: Reinforce everyone.

SN: But not at the same time.

Jagoex: So you end up with imbalanced classes and a cycling of class power. They're the same exact things that the devs are advertising they are trying to fix.

SN: But they "can't." Not because it's impossible, but because it wouldn't be a good business decision. It's a very effective business. Frustrating, but effective. It has been the same way since release.

Jagoex: So how can you create a serious and competitive environment around it?

SN: You can't. Especially not in Player vs. Player.

Jagoex: It doesn't seem like it. That pretty much dooms this whole e-sport thing then, being pigeon-holed into whatever class or compositions are at the top of the power cycle.

SN: From the player's perspective, sure. But not from a business perspective. The power cycle, as you call it, keeps players and their money coming back. E-sport brings in big money advertising. The company wins on both fronts.

Jagoex: Makes sense, but that still takes away from the game I think -- especially PvP accomplishments.

SN: Very much so. All Gladiators are not created equally, my friend.

Jagoex: Lol, you're such a battlegroup whore.

SN: It's true, I am, but that's beside the point.

Jagoex: Oh I know. I get what you're saying -- it was the same with Rank 14ers back in the day.

SN: Getting to the top of the PvP ladder is based on so many things that have nothing to do with the easily accessible ability to play one's particular class or roll correctly. The server. Battlegroup. Arena maps. Opposing composition randomness. They all matter just as much, collectively, as a player's gaming ability.

Jagoex: Hmm.

SN: They are what create the top tier players, not the players themselves.

Jagoex: I'd be so inclined to disagree with you if I haven't seen just those variables come into play myself. Grinding to HWL, my biggest challenge had nothing to do with skill, but was more a factor of how much spare time I had.

SN: And more importantly, how much free time OTHERS ON YOUR SERVER had.

Jagoex: Exactly. And also how ass-hatted they were when pitched an honor cap to save everyone some time. I've also seen entire PvP guilds up and leave a server and move to an "easier" Battlegroup and do exceptionally well.

SN: It happens all the time. Like I said, all Gladiators aren't created equally.

Jagoex: It's still pretty impressive, though. All skill being equal at that level, Glads usually have more dedication.

SN: All skill isn't equal at that level. That's the point. And it's not that impressive. Any stable, dependable team can rank Gladiator in time. Rank 14 was much harder to get. I'd trade my title for yours any day, Jag.

Jagoex: Only if I get your Merciless Drake.

SN: Small price to pay.

Jagoex: Lol. So what of skill then? Where does it come to play?

SN: In Bloodlust.

Jagoex: Lol...

SN: I'm serious.

Jagoex: I know you are. That's why it's funny.

SN: Lol. It's true. Every real Arena junkie knows that unless they rank Gladiator in Bloodlust, they aren't really Gladiators. The best play here, and the best elsewhere aren't good enough.

Jagoex: "All Gladiators are not created equally."

SN: Exactly.

Jagoex: What about tournament play?

SN: It's too concentrated. In a system plagued with imbalance, it is impossible to gauge skill in only a few games.

Jagoex: Understood.
...

Interesting perspective. What do you guys think? Agree? Disagree?

Thanks for the convo, SN. ;)

The Story of Arthas

2008-05-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

The original to the image below is a work by Paul Kwon, a regular contributor to the Blizzard Fan Art Program and who has created some spectacular images. Go to the Screenshots Page to see more of his work, on display now!

The World of Warcraft is the first and only game in the Warcraft series that I have played. So it is no surprise then that when I first began playing, I was very unaware of the vastly developed storylines embedded within the game. And, to be honest and quite sadly, I'm still a total lore noob even today.

With the Wrath of the Lich King in the Alpha stage and the ruckus being made about Arthas falling victim to only ten men, I figured it would be a good idea to learn a bit about the Death Knight, his sword, and his history; to help me appreciate the game more, I guess. After a quick Google search, I found a series of 12.5 videos on YouTube, called "The Story of Arthas."

The clips are compiled by user Glyndis08 who used in-game footage from various Warcraft titles to follow Arthas from his days as a lowly Prince studying the ways of the Paladin to the moment he takes his seat atop of the Frozen Throne as the Lich King.

The videos are quite lengthy, running at about 10 minutes a piece, but they contain a lot of vital information about Warcraft's history that I was simply unaware of before! The story does not stick to just Arthas either, but implements the storyline of many others as well, including Illidan, Sylvanas, and Kael'thas.

There are a few issues I experienced with audio, when it would just disappear and reappear quite annoyingly. But other than that,I found the clips to be well made, easy to follow, and very helpful in leading me to understand the story behind the game.

I highly recommend giving them a peak when you have the time -- definitely worthwhile if you have some catching up to do on your lore, like I do. ;)

New "Low-Cost" Alienware Gaming Rig

2008-05-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Looks like Dell has come out of the woodwork to say that the XPS brand will coexist with the Alienware brand. That doesn't mean they won't share components at the low-end, however. It'll be interesting to see exactly how this pans out.

When Dell, makers of the under-whelming and over-priced Warcraft laptop, picked up Alienware, hardcore, rich gamers freaked. Buyouts like this usually only mean one thing: the degradation of quality of the superior product line -- in this case, Alienware and it's powerful computing lineup.

Dell, very aware of the reaction the acquisition received, promised that they wouldn't meddle in Alienware's affairs. But unfortunately, promises in the business world are about as dependable as Blizzard's oceanic servers -- not very.

After yesterday's announcement that they will be dropping the XPS gaming line (which includes their WoW laptops) and shifting focus onto Alienware, Dell (yes, Dell, not Alienware) just announced a new, "low-cost," AMD-based gaming rig for release later this month. It will be branded with the face of a bug-eyed space invader, and target a chunk of the market that Alienware has ignored in the past: people who won't spend $4000 for a machine to play games on.

If that isn't a tell-tale sign of Dell applying what it learned in Business school, I don't know what is.

GG, suits. GG. And for anyone that is suckered into buying one of these systems, "Dude, you're getting a PoS." Grats. ;)

M'uru World First Kill Video by SK Gaming

2008-05-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Hey all. I wanted to drop in and offer a quick apology for the lack of activity on the blog over the past week or so. The baby is on her way and quite frankly, WoW takes a back seat to a baby seat. Things will start picking up again once she arrives and we are all settled in.

And trust me, on the development front, there is a lot to talk about -- there will be no shortage of posts for sure.

For now, however, let me help you pass the time with a great vid of SK's world first kill of M'uru in the Sunwell Plateau. It's an amazing and complicated encounter with very little room for error -- probably the hardest in the game. Grats to the SK Gaming crew for a fantastic job well done. Watch the video carefully. There is a lot of goodness to be had, and more we'll be talking about later. ;)

Oh, and if you want to see the details more clearly in a much higher quality copy, head over to SK Gaming's site for the full download.

Murumorphrevision.wmv

"The Running of Da Bulls"

2008-05-03T23:41:00.001-07:00

A week ago, I wrote about the amazing plans made by Big Red Kitty and his friend Ratshag to honor their lost friend and member of their WoW family. Today, those plans came to be, as seemingly hundreds of Taurens trekked from their starting area in Mulgore to the Horde city of Hammerfall in the Arathi Highlands -- all in the name of fun and Sharvan.

If you missed the incredibly epic event and the raid on Ironforge and Stormwind that ensued, or if you just want to relive it, check out the video below, posted by Wincefish of Stonemaul (kudos for getting it online so quickly!).

Props to all who planned and participated in this very worthy event. For Sharvan, and anyone that has ever lost a friend.

/moo

World of Warcraft Music is FTL?

2008-04-30T23:38:00.000-07:00

Something occurred to me the other day while I sat in my office, scouring the pages of YouTube. I search ~~long and hard~~ diligently through my library of music trying to find a good audio/video combo for the blog's Song of the Week, but not once have I ever wondered "why."

I don't mean that in an existential "damn it Jago, you should be spending more time with your family instead of being on the interwebs!" kind of way or anything like that. I'm not a troll, afterall, and nor am I that philosophical (well, at least not right now). I don't spend enough time browsing to have to worry about it.

This moment of clarity was more along the lines of asking "why are you searching for music for a SotW when there is plenty of music in WoW to begin with!"

"Why" haven't I ever considered the music of the WoW OSTs before?

"Why" do we tend to play our own music instead of listening to the in-game ear orgy of tunes?

I asked the most elite of jerks, the chatters of the Elite Jerks forum, just these questions, and omg did it end up in an amazing conversation. We started with the basics of WoW music, and then got into the topics of the game's overall design, emphasis, and direction since it's conception to the present.

During these exchanges, I found that people were incredibly passionate about the MMO experience, and that a huge majority felt that the World of Warcraft falls incredibly short in terms of it's immersive properties when compared with other MMOs. The game's music, many who felt this way stated, is a part of the problem. It is "repetitive" and is extremely lacking in variety, almost to the point where it lacks any real identity.

It's no wonder that most of the players I was chatting with don't even have music enabled... and haven't since pre-TBC!

Here's how a part of the epic conversation played out, after I asked how they would describe WoW's musical experience:

[01:37] Jagoex: ah, assumed it was a typo, and very few wow music pieces are good for more then a listen or two
[01:37] oh, the word you're looking for is "in-game ear infection"
[01:37] Jagoex: but orgrimar music is kinda nice for a few run throughs
[01:38] I disabled the sound back in uhhh, MC or BWL
[01:38] Molten Core theme is written in 17/8
[01:38] or polymeter
[01:38] err, music
[01:38] I haven't had music enabled since, it was more of an annoyance than anything else
[01:39] falk|hiding: so they wrote music in polymeter the only place they cant polymorph anything?
[01:39] evil
[01:39] Especially when I got an external player pumping them beatz!

That pretty much sums it up, in my honest opinion. I guess there is a legit reason why no WoW track has been a SotW afterall.

So what do you guys think? Do you enjoy listening to the original WoW OSTs while you play or is it just not enough auditory goodness for ya? Let your thoughts be known!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Sunday's Poll

2008-04-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

Check back every Sunday for a new poll question posted by Warlocks, for Warlocks. And if you've got an idea for a question, send it my way!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

For the WoW Family

2008-04-26T00:05:00.000-07:00

Big Red Kitty posted this picture on his blog the other day, and for a reason you might not expect. Read on to find out more, and how you can help.

Playing in the World of Warcraft, we are all accustomed to the entrance and exit of others. Whether it be in a PuG group, a guild, or even the servers we play on, people are always coming and going -- so much so, in fact, that it's sometimes hard to get to know those that we play with. To some, this act of nameless-passing in a fantasy world doesn't matter; it's simply a part of the MMO experience.

But to others who do value the individuals beyond the toons that they play, a real social experience is a very big deal. It is an important part of their gaming that they cherish greatly, and it is because of these players that WoW is more than just a hunt for epics. It is a family, of sorts, that creates a sense of belonging, and therefore, keeps us coming back for more.

This past week, the guild Aetherial Circle of Drenden lost one such member. Her toon's name was Sharvan, and her passing has hit her WoW family in a fierce kind of way. Her guildmate, Bigredkitty, describes the pain as only one close to her possibly can, stating that he and the AC are "reeling from the shock and loss" of one of the "sweetest and kindest" people they have ever known.

It says a lot that internet acquaintances can feel so strongly about a loss like this. I can't even imagine what her family and RL friends are going through. It must be immeasurably tough.

BRK has set up a donation system on his website to help the family deal with the most horrible of expenses during this tragic time. If you wish to help, head over to Big Red Kitty and click the "Donate" button on the right-hand side of the page. Go over there and check it out. Help out if you can.

And for those interested in paying your respects or simply respecting the grandeur of the experience, check out BRK's Running of Da Bulls for Sharvan, which is coming up in about a week or so.

In the meantime, remember your guildies, your friends, and your family, and don't forget to tell them how much they mean to you.

Do it now. Do it often.

For Sharvan. "/moo."

On the Matter of Arena Ratings

2008-04-25T07:46:00.000-07:00

Read this comment over on WoW Insider, and thought it does a pretty good job of summing up one angle of the anti-Arena perspective:

Terrible changes. This is what I posted to my raid's forums (and yes, we're high-end raiders working on Sunwell):

I think comparing PvP rewards to PvE rewards is ridiculous. You don't fight other players in the Sunwell, so it doesn't matter how strong your gear is compared to what other people are wearing. It does, very much so, in PvP and according to this system the "rich get richer". Those who already have the perfect spec and the perfect class and the good gear and the perfect team setup (which means being unable to play with friends more often than not) now gain even more of an advantage over the people who lack these things. If the gear was only usable in the arena and people were in the brackets were they were supposed to be it wouldn't be that much of an issue, but when 30% (or more) of the arena games you fight at 1600 rating are against people in full s3 who are supposed to be at 2100, it suddenly matters a -lot-. And that's not getting into the effect on battlegrounds, which is pretty ridiculous already. My ret paladin, who is in mixed S1/S3 gear with very few of the honor rewards, -destroys- many people in the battlegrounds. It can't be much fun to be a fresh 70 and unable to do much of anything.

The point of the arena system was to limit the gear gap in pvp by letting everyone have a chance at the good gear. The reward for being good was getting it much, much faster, and having a shot at the end-of-season rewards. The mistake Blizzard made was making the gear so ridiculously good it upset raiders who based their enjoyment of the game on comparing the arena gear to the gear they get from PvE encounters (yes, an over-simplification, I know). Now people are focused on ilevels and trying to prevent people from having the same quality gear they do because of pride without ever really considering the impact restricting the arena gear has on the game.

Blizzard really destroyed any semblance of PvE/PvP reward balancing by their insane item inflation. That's fairly well established. Trying to balance it at the end of the Burning Crusade serves what purpose, exactly? People already have ilevel 141 epics, what's the point in restricting ilevel 151? All it does is upset the people who are into pvp and have relied on it for personal character progression, but are unable to make it to the higher ratings for some reason or another. And what many skilled pvpers fail to understand is if you take away the incentive for lower rated players to participate, the entire arena ladder shifts down. If 1,000 players who were previously at 1400 rating quit the arena because there is no reason for them to play, then 1,000 players who were ranked above them will shift down to 1400, making the higher ratings that much harder to obtain. If the players who are NOW at 1400 quit playing, then another 1,000 will shift down. And so on, and so on.

All in all it's a terrible decision. Blizzard messed up so badly with the arena for Burning Crusade, that they're trying to "balance" the rewards now when it's already way too late for BC is nothing more than a bad joke.

Truth.

Song of the Week: Knights of Cydonia

2008-04-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... SotW posts are total content cop-outs and require absolutely no effort to post whatsoever. But in my defense, it has been an incredibly busy day, and imho, there's no better way to wind things down than with a great, kick-a__ song. ;)

This week's SotW is Knights of Cydonia by Muse. If you've never heard of them or this song before, try to imagine a more modern and alternative (read: better) and less flamboyant version of Queen and you'll have a pretty accurate idea of what you're about to see and hear. If that sounds absolutely awful to you (hey, I'm not a fan of Queen myself), don't worry! The song is truly fantastic, and the video is totally zomg epic in it's own right. It's like an old western, complete with a hero, heroine, horses, villian... and robots, and laser beams!

Yeah, definitely awesome.

So without further ado, here's the vid. Enjoy!

PvP Isn't Dead... It's Just Being Tortured

2008-04-22T19:47:00.001-07:00

Things have been ridiculously hectic around here lately, and I apologize for the lack of posts that I've completed over the last few days. But as busy as I've been, I feel like I just have to say something about a post Drysc made on the official WoW PvP Forums today, where he announced that some "honor" items would have an Arena point requirement during Season 4.

It's garbage. Absolute garbage.

In a time when they are supposedly cracking down on point selling and other illegal activities, they are willing to saturate the system with unmotivated, low-ranked, farm-able players? That makes no sense whatsoever!

For some reason, perhaps e-sport motivated, Blizzard is making everything about Warcraft PvP centered around Arena play. With this S4 change, it is essentially forcing all PvP'ers to engage in the Arena, even if we've never had the desire to and for goals we have never had to enter the Arena for, ever. Total B.S, if you ask me.

Way to pigeon-hole players into doing your bidding.

Just stop already, for the love of the game.

War Tools, for the Theory-crafter in All of Us

2008-04-20T22:58:00.000-07:00

While doing my daily creeping on the official Warlock Forums, I stumbled upon something totally sexy. It is a link to War Tools, a slick new(ish) website that offers customizable talent trees for your inner tweaker. And yes, it's addicting as it sounds.

I've already wasted way too much time putting together an "improved" Affliction Tree for Warlocks, just for the heck of it! Thankfully, the work is save-and-sharable, so all the theory-crafting anyone does is easily retrievable and review-able. Pretty sweet!

Happy crafting. ;)

The Immolate Effect and Rotation Down-time

2008-04-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

For Affliction Warlocks, Immolate is a giant, raging, burning pain in the rear. Since the release of The Burning Crusade, it has been one of the most uncertain of spells in the Warlock's DoT arsenal. Questions abound about where in a spell rotation it should be used, and like a hemorrhoid that just won't go away, those questions remain. Sure, we 'locks have got ideas about when the spell is most useful, but unlike the Corruption/UA issue, nothing has ever been burned in stone. The data just isn't out there, and as a result, the spell still displays an aura of mystery that has many still scratching their heads. Just check the Warlock Forums and see for yourself.

But if you've ever specced Affliction, where Immolate is considered viable at certain gear levels, you already know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm sure you've asked yourself when you should cast the spell, and if it's poor damage-to-mana ratio is even worth casting it in the first place. And I'm also sure you've noticed that you must refresh it every 13.5 seconds, faster than any other 'lock DoT, which regularly cuts into Shadow Bolt spam.

And perhaps worst of all is the fact that Immolate is responsible for a majority of lost GCDs in a DoT rotation. This is usually because the spell ends up competing for refreshment with another DoT. Again, this is an after-effect of it's short 15-second duration, but it can result in some major issues with DPS maximization. Not a good thing.

Unfortunately, even given all of this poor design and it's interrupting character, the fact still remains that for some (mostly those who have just hit 70), Immolate is a DPS boost that should still be used in their spell rotation. And luckily, I'm beginning to understand what it'll take to figure out where exactly it should be.

While compiling some numbers regarding Affliction raid specs, I noticed something. The MaxDPS spell rotation, which puts Immolate at the end of the DoT application cycle, results in two lost GCDs just 12 spells in! What happens is that both UA and Imol end up requiring a refresh at the same time, the exact kind of situation we do not want to find ourselves in:

1) Agony* -> Corr -> UA -> SL -> Immol -> SB spam (41/0/20)
2) Agony* -> Corr -> SL -> Immol -> SB spam (40/0/21)
3) CoS -> SB spam (0/21/40)

Stats: +1000 Spell Damage, 202 Spell Hit, 17% Spell Crit**

*Avg damage will be used.
**Random number generator used to calculate critical hits
________________________________________________

UA

1) 0.00... Agony… 24 secs… 234 dmg every 2 secs… 2805
2) 1.50... Corr… 18 secs… 421 dmg every 3 secs… 2525
3) 3.00… UA… 18 secs… 412 dmg every 3 secs… 2475
4) 4.50… SL… 30 secs… 179 every 3 secs… 1793
5) 6.00… Immol… 15 secs… 531 DD, 253 every 3 secs… 1265
6) 7.50… SB… 2.5 secs… 1574
7) 10.00… SB… 2.5 secs… 1574
8) 12.50… SB… 2.5 secs… 1574
9) 15.00… SB… 2.5 secs…1574
10) 17.50… SB… 2.5 secs… 2361 (Crit)
11) 20.00… Corr…18 secs… 3030 (ISB)
12) 21.50… UA… 18 secs… 2970 (ISB) >UA and Immolate Compete for Reapplication

Surprised by this result, I moved Immolate to the very front of my DoT rotation, hoping that would minimize lost GCDs. This sequence resulted in the equivalent loss of two GCDs after 17 spells or about 30 seconds:

1) 0.00… Immol… 15 secs…
2) 1.50… Agony… 24 secs…
3) 3.00… Corr… 18 secs…
4) 4.50… UA… 18 secs…
5) 6.00… SL… 30 secs…
6) 7.50… SB… 2.5 secs
7) 10.00… SB… 2.5 secs
8) 12.50… SB… 2.5 secs
9) 15.00… Immol… 15 secs
10) 16.50… SB… 2.5 secs
11) 19.00… SB… 2.5 secs
12) 21.50… Corr… 18 secs… -0.5
13) 23.00… UA… 18 secs…
14) 24.50… SB… 2.5 secs
15) 27.00… Agony… 24 secs -1.5
16) 28.50… SB… 2.5 secs
17) 31.00… Immol… 15 secs -1.0
18) 32.50… SB… 2.5 secs
19) 35.00… SB… 2.5 secs
20) 37.50… SB… 2.5 secs

Pretty interesting stuff for sure. And the most important part about these observations is that I'm beginning to think that all of these lost GCDs eventually even out in time, no matter where you place Immolate in your initial sequence. Of course, I can't be absolutely sure without actually testing that hypothesis, but the data seems to hint that is the case.

Be careful though! If this idea pans out to be true, it still doesn't mean that you should cast Immolate anywhere in your rotation.

You want to settle down with a sequence that minimizes early losses of GCDs. That way, you are more likely to see the mob you are working on go down before ever having to deal with a lost GCD! Keep that in mind the next time you're clearing your way through trash mobs. ;)

Anyway, I'll work more on these rotation calcs this weekend. Hopefully they'll help us find something more conclusive about these effects on rotation downtime. In the meantime, however, use Immolate wisely. It can burn you too. ;)

On the Warlock Forums: Is Demonic Sacrifice a Problem?

2008-04-17T23:51:00.000-07:00

Draele of Thunderhorn started what is perhaps one of the best discussions that is currently receiving a good amount of attention on the official Warlock Forums. In it, he questions the current talent tree designs, and more specifically and significantly, the synergy between Demonic Sacrifice and Destruction.

Draele argues that because Destruction and DS go together so well and form the standard of Warlock raiding, Blizzard will have a very hard time creating a raid-worthy 51-point Destruction talent that players will choose instead of Demonic Sacrifice. He sees DS, therefore, as a limiting agent in the progression of the Destruction tree, and Warlock design in general. He attacks the issue from many different angles, relating DS's power to the poor status of Warlock pets in a raiding environment, for example.

Truly, this is one thought-provoking discussion that is a fantastic and definite must-read. It is full of great ideas and theory-crafting, and touches upon the basic nature of Warlock design. We can only hope the boys over at Blizzard are paying close attention to this one.

Kudos, Draele. Job well done. ;)

Warlock Poetry is FTW

2008-04-16T23:48:00.000-07:00

I never would have imagined that a post of mine would have a picture like this start things off. I mean, it doesn't set a great precedent for the rest of the post, does it? It's just so dark and depressing... even for a Warlock!

But the fact remains, and as the title says, there's some poetry out there that is just excellent, and while I am not a poetry connoisseur, I know a good rhyme when I read one.

And this, my friends, is a good rhyme.

Onibrak of Laughing Skull posted an epicly poetic piece of anti-QQ on the Official Warlock Forums back in September of 2007. I missed it back then, but thankfully, the thread was bumped earlier today for no apparent reason other than it's pure awesomeness, and by a Mage no less!

Here's the piece if you happened to have missed it too:

Twas the night before WotLK, and all through the game
Not a creature was stirring, or acting quite lame.
Warlocks in the forums, talking about gear
I had just settled down for a nice post on fear

When out on the forums arose such a crying
I clicked from my peace to see what insults were flying
And what to my wondering eyes would appear
But a QQ post titled "Warlocks and Fear"

They ranted and cursed up and down the page
A mindless QQ by a rogue, druid, or mage.
I began to read, knowing as I got started
That the OP of this post must be #*@!ing retarded

On Skill coil! On Stamina! On Soul link and Drains
The bad grammar and logic gave my tired mind pains.
More rapid than epics these QQers they posted
Thinking their jeers cause my class to be roasted

But at the end of the day, we were still throwing Dots
And the criers still crying posted more of their thoughts
And the Warlocks continued to melt faces quite free
So please stop the QQ and bend over for me.

Lol, it's good and you know it. It definitely put a smile on my face, and the last line is so appropriately inappropriate, that it actually works!

Kudos to Onibrak for the excellent piece. Keep the works coming!

Warlocking 201: Timing Your Trinkets, Part 1

2008-04-14T21:04:00.001-07:00

So you've done it! You've got the gear, the spell damage, and finally found a great DoT rotation and cast sequence to work with. You're ready to take your Warlocking to the next level! But before you can graduate to the almighty 0/21/40 raiding spec, you've got some growing to do, and those trinkets sitting in your inventory are a great place to start.

Let me just start by saying that trinkets, while awesome and completely necessary, are really quite a deceptive bunch. They let on to be much more simplistic than they actually are, advertising that they increase your spell damage for a duration of time, but saying nothing about where in your DoT rotation you should use them, if anywhere at all.

When I first started raiding with an Affliction spec (first as UA, then Ruin), I wasn't really worried about buffing my DoTS with added damage. I popped my trinkets AFTER applying them, hoping to have the added damage affect as many Shadow Bolts as possible. I assumed that was where the most DPS was, and I never questioned it because the approach performed extremely well.

However, I recently began to question that long-standing assumption, and after chatting with fellow 'lock and blogger Psychonia, actually crunched the numbers to see exactly what is going on behind those sexy trinket animations, and what damage I was or wasn't missing.

Assuming that the Warlock is level 70, has 1000 bonus damage, no talents (simplifies things greatly), and is using the Icon of the Silver Crescent, here's what I calculated:

Popping a trinket AFTER applying DoTS and BEFORE Shadow Bolt spamming would result in 155 x 0.8571 (trinket's added dmg multiplied by SB dmg coefficient) x 8 (number of SB casts within 20 seconds) = 1062.8 overall bonus damage. Pretty straightforward and simple enough, right?

Well, the math involving the DoTS is a little more complicated and difficult to keep track of, so I calculated them the long way just to keep myself from missing something important down the line. Sorry for the number-orgy in advance. =P

With the same assumptions as before, except this time popping the trinket BEFORE DoTS have been applied, the numbers looked like this:

DoT - Coefficient - Base Damage - Damage After Bonus - Damage After Trinket

CoA -- 120% -- 1356 -- 2556 -- 2742
Cor -- 93.6% -- 900 -- 1836 -- 1981
UA -- 180% -- 1050 -- 2850 -- 3129
SL -- 100% -- 630 -- 1630 -- 1785
Imo -- 20%DD,65%DoT -- 327, 615 -- 1792 -- 1924

DoT damage difference totals PLUS Shadow Bolt x 5 (number that can be cast in the remaining time the trinket is active) = 1561 overall bonus damage.

Hmm, interesting.

So the result is that you get about 30% GREATER damage production trinketing before going through a DoT sequence than when using trinketed Shadow Bolts alone.

But wait! There's a pretty serious problem with our data! The base numbers do not take into account critical strikes and Improved Shadow Bolt procs, which have a significant impact on our would-be conclusions.

It turns out that if you average one critical strike every four Shadow Bolt casts, or a crit rate of 25% (the magical Ruin > UA threshold), popping a trinket AFTER applying your DoTS equates to more DPS. This was exactly the situation I found myself in, which helps explain why spamming trinketed Shadow Bolts worked for me. However, if this is not the case you find yourself in and you are also very lacking in the Spell Hit department, than you should definitely trinket BEFORE applying your DoTS.

Make sense? I hope so! But if not, let me know, and especially do so if I made a mistake somewhere. ;)

Next week, when Warlocking 201: Part 2 lands, we'll take a look at WHERE in your DoT sequence is the best place to pop a trinket, if that's where it needs to be. In the meantime, however, go grind your Hit and Crit gear buy some high-end gems if you need to. Because the sooner you have the stats to go 0/21/40, the sooner you won't have to worry about these DoT sequences anymore.

And the sooner that is, the better. ;)

It's a Conspiracy

2008-04-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

With statements like this, it's no wonder we are the bane of the WoW community!

A Vision of Fire-Lock Raiding

2008-04-12T23:22:00.001-07:00

SK Gaming, known for their ground-breaking encounters and incredibly drawn-out video introductions, has taken down the Eredar Twins in fiery fashion. Fiery Warlock fashion, that is.

In this video of their Sunwell encounter, the raid is comprised of 3 Warlocks, all of which are specced for Fire DPS. It's a little surprising and out of the ordinary to have zero Shadow Warlocks in a raid, but as you will see via the performance of the Fire 'locks, it actually works out very well!

What it must come down to is raid composition in this case. I see a few Mages on the field, but I don't believe there are any Shadow Priests (no Shadow Weaving?). Such a composition would definitely tilt the scale into Fire 'locking's favor, and boy does it ever.

But still, I wonder how Shadow Warlocks could perform in a situation such as this... but that's a topic for a different time.

Here's more fuel for the Fire vs. Shadow debate. Enjoy. ;)

It's Time for a Warlock Flying Mount

2008-04-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

Original image taken from an ad for "Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire" for the Nintendo Wii.

When I first decided to roll a Warlock more than two years ago, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I had no clue that we would become the most hated (read: best) class in PvP, generally dominate ~~range~~ DPS in PvE, and, perhaps best of all, received ridiculously awesome land mounts for very little cost at all, and with no training required!

I first laid eyes on our wonderfully-free Dreadsteed while being proudly displayed by it's rider in the Undercity, and gasped IRL when he told me that it was "free." The idea of a summon-able mount transcended everything I knew about the game at that time (but hey, I was stacking intellect back then, so wth did I know?), but I quickly learned that they were a staple of the Warlock class, and even help to define it.

So, where are our fiery summon-able flying mounts, then?

I was surprised and disappointed when The Burning Crusade turned up nothing for us (that makes sense on so many levels, doesn't it?). But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if summonable flying mounts were in our future, they wouldn't be at level 70.

Here's why:

Giving Warlocks a summon-able flying mount at level 70 would mean that we would receive "free" mounts in back-to-back brackets. And considering the cost of obtaining the training for a flying mount, I don't think that Blizzard could justify the inevitable fallout that would occur. I mean, we get enough heat as it is already.

That being said, I believe there is a good chance that we may be seeing summonable flying mounts soon, and even in the next leveling bracket to be introduced in the Wrath of the Lich King. By that time, most players will already have experienced the trials of obtaining the upper ranks of Riding Skill, and with everyone on an even level, they will be much less likely to perceive a new Warlock mount as a freebie of sorts, and therefore, an unfair advantage.

Another reason I believe a summon-able flying mount is not too far off is that we didn't see a new summon in our current bracket. That is the first time that has happened in WoW's history, and I can't see Blizzard doing that to the class two brackets in a row. So, we are due for something good for sure.

And lets not forget the theory that Warlocks will be receiving a summonable mount every 20 levels. I'm all for that one!

But even with all of the signs that point to a new mount very soon, I personally don't see why Blizzard couldn't have just added a Riding Skill requirement to a potential Warlock flying mount at level 70. I know the social outpouring of hate would have been overwhelming and all, but it really would not have been a big deal.

And considering all of the nerfs we have taken since the expansion's release, I think we already deserve it. ;)

Anyway, here's to our new mount - as unpredictable it's appearance may be.

Cast Sequence Corruption

2008-04-08T23:42:00.000-07:00

There's a Warlock on the Official 'lock Forums that is a frequent poster of all things Affliction. He is Fallenman of Mal'ganis, and he believes himself to be quite the authority on DoT cast sequences. So much so, infact, that he can often be found arguing with other posters about the most unimaginative of issues. In his most recent squabble, for example, he argues that Corruption should "ALWAYS" be cast after UA in a DoT cast sequence.

Fallenman, I don't mean to sound (or read) like a pompous prick, but that's just plain wrong!

I'll try to explain why, but be warned... it's late, and I tend to banter on and on when I'm tired. Proceed with caution, and caffeine.

Casting UA before Corruption is a bad idea from a logistics standpoint. It totally limits what you can cast AFTER Corruption, because you start dealing with global cooldowns and potential DoT down-time at that point. For example, if Immolate happens to require a refresh right after the UA/Corr cast somewhere down the line, you'll eventually have 3 DoTS to reapply and all at the same time! Since it is our ideal to have DoTS expire one GC away from each other, this is definitely not a good thing.

Fallenman recognizes this, and even states that you should "NEVER" cast Immolate after a UA/Corr sequence. But using his approach, you'll eventually find yourself in just that situation.

So what can you do to help prevent that experience and keep your DPS as high as possible?

Ignore Fallenman's faulty logic and cast Corruption right before Unstable Affliction... always.

Consider these two points.

1) Casting UA and Corruption back-to-back in any order results in the same amount of damage spread out over the same amount of time. Both DoTS are ticking for 18 seconds within a 21-second window. When switched, the two spells will also fall into the same portion of your cast sequence as before. The only difference created by changing their order of application is when they tick in relation to one another -- that's it.

2) Cast sequence theories such as Fallenman's are strictly based on a mathematical approach. More specifically, they hope to solve a temporal problem, looking to minimize DoT down-time based on the synergy of each individual DoT's duration and global cooldowns. The goal is to make sure that DoTS don't all expire at the same time, because if they do, global cooldowns will eventually delay their timely reapplication and ultimately lower DPS.

Casting Corruption and then UA ensures that you can cast ANY spell after that particular sequence and with minimal potential ill-effects. The two DoTS will not expire at the same time, do not introduce any GC conflicts, and this, therefore, is the most logical sequence.

And, incase you need another reason to switch your corrupted cast sequence, here's what the boys over at MaxDPS think is the ideal (sans Immolate):

At this point, it should be an easy switch. Corruption before UA, always.

Sorry, Fallenman. Maybe next time. ;)

Just for LoLs

2008-04-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not quick to admit it, but I'm a big fan of all of those Chuck Norris jokes floating around the internets. After dealing with Trade chat chaos and flying through The Barrens about a million times, I should be sick of them, I know. But there's just something about them that keep me coming back for more.

Here are some of my favorites:

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

Macgyver can build a plane out of gum and paper clips, but Chuck Norris can kill him and take it.

Chuck Norris lost his virginity before his dad did.

Chuck Norris is suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.

Chuck Norris does not wear a condom. Because there is no such thing as protection from Chuck Norris.

Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas.

When the boogeyman goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.

If you have five dollars and Chuck Norris has five dollars, Chuck Norris has more money than you.

Apple pays Chuck Norris 99 cents every time he listens to a song.

Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because he only recognizes the element of surprise.

Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.

Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris’ hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush.

Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.

Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter.

Chuck Norris can divide by zero.

Chuck Norris grinds his coffee with his teeth and boils the water with his own rage.

Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.

It takes Chuck Norris 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.

If at first you don't succeed, you're not Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris does not play the lottery. It doesn't have nearly enough balls.

When chuck Norris does division, there are no remainders.

Chuck Norris doesn't fear Warlocks. Warlocks Fear Chuck Norris. (HA!)

Nihilum Does Brutallus - Some Quick Observations

2008-04-06T22:31:00.000-07:00

A little raiding guild by the name of Nihilum is at it again, making headlines with videos of some big-time encounters. Their latest, posted last Friday, features the smooth take-down of Brutallus -- so smooth in-fact, that the video goes perfectly with a plain bagel, and is actually just a tad boring.

But aside from being a borderline 4-minute snooze-fest, there's actually quite a bit to see that is totally worthwhile. And, with 3 Warlocks in their raid group, we could all probably learn a thing or two as well.

For starters, it's interesting to note that all 3 Warlocks are 0/21/40 (or a variant of such) and that all have sacrificed their Succubus for the added Shadow damage. I know that shouldn't be all that surprising, but it's interesting that Blood Pact isn't being utilized in their setup to help pad the tank from Brutallus's damage. What's even more surprising, in this regard, is that they are actually increasing the Brut's damage by using Curse of Recklessness!

Using Recklessness against a casting boss is one thing, but I definitely wouldn't expect it to be used against a T6-level melee'ing boss.

Also of interest is how quickly the DPS picks up after Brutallus is pulled. The Warlocks don't even have time to cast Corruption before they start Shadow Bolt spamming! One 'lock does get off an Immolate (which I believe is argued as a better choice than Corruption in a situation like this), and does so more than once during the duration of the battle. But that's it as far as Shadow Bolt compliments go. And with Buzzkill doing almost 2400 DPS at one point, it's hard to argue that they're not doing it absolutely right.

Anyway, enough of my boring banter. Here's the video.

Enjoy. ;)

Warlocking 101: Orc, Undead, or Blood Elf?

2008-04-05T23:33:00.000-07:00

"Warlocking 101" is a series that attempts to answer newbie questions about the Warlock class. Articles will include information ranging from the creatiion of your Warlock to basic leveling strategies, etc. For more advanced information, keep an eye out for high-level articles to come. =)

The Burning Question

So, you've decided to roll a Warlock. Congratulations on making a fantastic decision! The class is incredibly fun to play, solo or in a group setting, so your choice is a very smart and understandable one. If this is your first Warlock, you undoubtedly have questions about how to maximize your performance as you fulfill your role. I am happy to help out if I can, and the Warlocking 101 series will aim to do just that.

This session, we'll start by looking at one of the most basic and common questions I am asked by new Warlocks:

"Which race's racials are better for Warlocking? The Undead or Blood Elves?"

Short answer: Undeads make better Warlocks than Blood Elves. No question about it.

The Blood Elf racials are nice, and can be useful in certain situations, but the Undead racials are much more complimentary to the Warlock class. To understand why that's the case, treat each combination of racial traits as if they were a trinket, and consider how useful that trinket would be to Warlocks.

The Racials

First, lets consider the Undead and their Cannibalize and Will of the Forsaken abilities. Cannibalize is a health regenerating ability that is useful in-combat or out. It is effective on humanoids (all playable characters) and undead targets, and regens 7% of your total health every 2 seconds for 10 seconds, with a reasonably short two minute cooldown. Will of the Forsaken breaks Fear, Sleep, and Charm effects, can be used preemptively, and provides a buff that makes you immune to such effects for 5 seconds.

These abilities would make an incredible Warlock trinket that any Warlock in their right mind would pursue. Cannibalize compliments the Warlock-defining Life Tap spell VERY well, and minimizes downtime and increases efficiency in many different situations. It's also on a separate cooldown timer than potions and Healthstones, offering a 3rd option for in-combat healing!

As for Will of the Forsaken, any trinket effect that restores control to your character and prevents loss of control for a period of time is an immeasurably great ability, for obvious reasons. =)

Now lets take a look at the Blood Elves and their Mana Tap and Arcane Torrent abilities.

Mana Tap is a "free" no-mana-cost spell that reduces your target's mana by a set amount that scales with level. It applies a buff that charges you with arcane energy, stackable up to 3 times between the spell's 30 second cooldown. Arcane Torrent silences enemies within 8 yards for 2 secs, and increases your mana by a set amount based on the number of Mana Taps you have stacked.

Warlocks can pretty much ignore the mana-regenerating abilities of these spells, since the class is built around converting stamina to mana and need not concern themselves with other methods. The silence and mana-draining abilities, however, are definitely a draw.

But are they worthwhile enough to trump the very Warlock-strong Undead racials?

In my opinion, the answer is a definitive no.

The distance-limitation of Arcane Torrent is a significant hurdle one must jump in making the spell useful in a variety of situations. And Mana Tap just doesn't drain enough mana to make it as effective as it should be.

Sorry, Blood Elves. At least you look good though. ;)

Orc Warlocks Need Love Too

Now, lets take the question a bit further and introduce another, very important variable. Orcs can roll Warlocks too, and make incredibly effective ones at that. Some even say that their racials are the best for Warlocks, arguing that they directly compliment our strengths and weaknesses very well.

They definitely are complimentary, but the best? Lets take a closer look:

Orcs have Blood Fury, which increases spell damage by an amount that scales with level (up to +150 @ Lvl 60, for example) for 15 seconds, and with a short 2 minute cooldown. Hardiness increases resistance to stun effects by 15%, and Command increases pet melee damage by 5%. All are fantastic abilities/qualities for a Warlock to have in any situation!

The Hard Part: Orc vs. Undead

So which set of abilities would make for a better trinket? Would it be one that increases spell damage, helps resist stuns, and increases pet damage, or one that restores control to your character and offers quick in-combat health regen? Which would you pick up as a Warlock?

Obviously, this is a very subjective question, and to answer it would be situationally or focus-dependent. PvEers may find the Orc racials better for raiding while PvPers may find the Undead racials better for Arena matches, or even the other way around, for example.

Personally, I consider the extra pet damage of the Orc racials to just be okay. The real strength within the Orc lies in the extra spell damage and stun resists, which would be very nice against the Warlock counter-classes -- Rogues and Warriors.

But when it comes down to it, in my honest opinion, both of those abilities are not as dependable as the Forsaken racial abilities. Both are limited by either a "% chance to proc" or an "up to x amount of spell damage" variable, which require a bit of luck to get the most out of. Neither Will of the Forsaken or Cannibalize function in that manner, and will always perform at a specific level, no matter the situation.

That being said, Orcs make very good Warlocks. Better 'locks than Blood Elves for sure, and sometimes, even better than Undead 'locks, based on the situation.

Personal Preference FTW

Racial abilities aside, another question you should ask yourself is this: how important is all of that information to your own perception of your character? If your answer is "very important," than you should probably choose an Undead or Orc Warlock to level. If your answered "not very important," than choose whatever you will be most happy with (read: "looking at"), period.

I wonder which race that will be...

;)

*The bulk of this post is a re-post from an August 17, 2007 topic.

Sorry about the Mess

2008-04-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

I'll be tweaking the site a bit throughout this weekend, so if you could just ignore the fugly for a bit, that'd be great. Thanks. =)

Song of the Week

2008-04-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

In my mind, there are three types of music that are great compliments to WoW. First, there is the grinding/farming music that for me, is usually relatively mellow. Second, there is PvE dungeon/raid music that is a little more upbeat, but like the encounters they sing to, aren't too fast melodically and can even be a bit drawn out. And finally, you have the lightning quick, booming music that is totally win with a side of PvP.

Not all types of music fall distinctly into one of these categories, and can often even fill two of them nicely. One such example is this week's SotW, which works beautifully for both PvE and PvP, imho. It's a little song by the name of Denied, by the great Swedish band Sonic Syndicate. The video is very low-budget and not-so-good, but the audio is where it's at. Enjoy. =)

"The Death of PvP"

2008-04-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

Take a trip through the Plaguelands these days and you'll notice a very loud and obnoxious silence that permeates the air. The same can be said of Stranglethorn Vail, Blackrock Mountain, and anywhere else world PvP used to take place. For the old-school PvPers out there, the emptiness of these once booming lands is incredibly depressing, and the following video will definitely jerk a tear or two. For the new-schoolers, it'll show you what you missed during the glory days of WoW, pre-TBC, and back when PvP actually meant something substantial.

The_Death_of_PvP.wmv

/salute to High Warlords, Grand Marshals, and Old World PvP. To fighting on the ramps of Blackrock and in the sands of Silithus. To the tradition of cross-faction competition, rivalry, and truly knowing your realm. To the best of days WoW has ever seen, and the hope to experience them again someday.

Thanks for linking the vid, Fuhz.

Tip of the Week: Mouseover Fear Macro

2008-04-01T22:40:00.001-07:00

This week's TotW is a quick and easy way to further manage your Fear targeting. For situations where you need to stay on your current target, Focus-cast another, and still be able to Fear on-the-fly, this macro will allow you to Fear opponents simply by mousing over them. No sloppy targeting or Focusing issues need apply here. Just point, and Fear.

/cast [target=mouseover, harm] Fear

Happy mouse-overing. ;)

Is MagT's Kael'thas Too Easy?

2008-03-31T23:57:00.000-07:00

When I first heard that Kael'thas Sunstrider, the Lord of the Blood Elves, was going to make an appearance in a heroic 5-man in 2.4, I nearly wet myself. At the time, I had never ventured into Tempest Keep and only heard epic stories and lore about one of the fiercest personalities in all of WoW. I was very eager to get into Heroic MagT asap to witness the grandeur of Kael'thas first-hand... that is, until I heard that the encounter doesn't do him any justice whatsoever, is incredibly easy, and to some, even tarnishes the image of the once-great Blood Elf.

At first, I thought the complaints were coming from a few overly-passionate RPers who were disappointed that Kael'thas was tweaked down into 5-man form. However, after talking with a good number of players, who definitely don't RP, btw, I'm beginning to think that there may be some truth to this story after all.

This YouTube video shows a Holy Priest solo'ing the once-mighty raid boss from about 40% down to nothing -- definitely not something I would expect a single player could do against a character of Kael'thas's caliber:

Gimmicky slogans and music aside, the video is a great example of Kael'thas's level of ease that people are describing.

Looking at it myself, I can't help but believe that there is definitely something worth complaining about.

Today's LOL: YouTube's Rollin'

2008-03-31T20:34:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is April 1, "April Fool's Day," and YouTube's celebration of the ultimate practical joker's holiday is total W. I. N. Since the moment the clock struck midnight in the U.K., every single European visitor to the YouTube website has been "Rick Rolled," being redirected to Rick Astley's music video for "Never Gonna Give You Up." And why not? The song has become a pop phenomenon (again), and especially in the gaming community, including WoW. It's fitting, then, that the largest video website in the world would play on it's popularity, and especially on April 1!

Here's the vid, in case you've somehow missed it and don't plan on visiting YouTube tomorrow:

It's amazing, isn't it? Just, amazing. I think an old guildie of mine put it best:

"They dance like gods." - High Music and Dancelord Boneybologna, of Ghostlands

I couldn't have said it better myself, Boney. ;)

Patch 2.4: Undocumented Devour Magic Nerf?

2008-03-30T00:58:00.000-07:00

Word on the Warlock Forum is that our Felhunters' Devour Magic ability has been nerfed, returning less health to the pet upon the removal of a magic effect. Such a change was not documented in the official Patch Notes, so either this change was a ninja nerf, unintended, or ill-observed. Hopefully, it's one of the latter.

More info to come.

Fear the Chef

2008-03-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

At last year's Blizzcon, the WoW class discussion panel stated that Warlocks are the "best dueling class" in the game. Having enthusiastically played a Warlock for over 2 years, I can honestly say that there were very few duels that I should have lost. The ones I did lose were those where I either messed up (which happened plenty of times, especially against certain Rogues I know...), or didn't take all too seriously -- a side-effect of playing a very dominant 1v1 class. But when I did take things seriously, to say that those duels were a walk in the park would be a gross understatement.

I know that sounds kinda egotistical, but it totally isn't. It has just been a part of the class is all. And not much has changed in Patch 2.4.

Warlocks in general have an uncanny ability to rock opposing players to their core. The pressure of facing a class that can do immense damage over time is indeed overwhelming to some. DoT, run, burn. This can cause hesitation, and at the same time, a debilitating, hurried effect that can easily press the enemy into errors of approach. The fact that Warlocks are built in such a way makes them very difficult to overcome, and watching a Warlock that has mastered the art of exploiting his abilities is definitely something to appreciate. Kinda like a chef in a kitchen of terrible ingredients, and who can kick your butt all over the place without ruining the soufflé he's got cooking in the oven.

To me, that's what Warlock PvP is all about. It's about controlling the battle via finesse and forcing that 1v1 scenario we dominate so readily. Being able to do so lets everyone watching know that you're in control. And, that if needs be, they're next.

Changes are incoming, however, as Blizzard has already stated that the Warlock-Mage relationship will be undergoing a transformation in the WotLK, which will make Mages much more competitive against the Warlock class. Other classes have already seen buffs based upon Warlock dominance, and many more changes are probably still to come. But the fact remains, even with all of these changes, that 'Locks have quite the trickery up their sleeves and are indeed the best 1v1 class.

With the proper gear and class-knowledge, we will always be extremely competitive, as long as we take ourselves and the things we do seriously.

Bon Appétit.

Warlock, version 2.4

2008-03-27T23:24:00.000-07:00

Patch 2.4 is finally live, and after a few days to take it all in, I think the general consensus is an immensely positive one. The new content is gorgeous, and WOW Insider is even calling the Magisters' Terrace one of if not the best instance ever made. Even class changes seem surprisingly palatable, with only minor dissent cropping up here and there over relatively minute changes. And what is perhaps best of all, at least in my mind, is what the Warlock class saw in terms of functional change: next to nothing. There was no Life Tap nerf, and all the other changes were relatively minor in application, which isn't a bad thing for an already very powerful (and dare I say "balanced?") class.

So, where exactly does this leave us?

In many ways, the work of a Warlock is fairly straightforward. We show up, spec either 41/0/20 or 0/21/40, and spam Shadow Bolt DPS like a scorching case of herpes (trust me, it pwns the meters), and maybe CC a bit when we need to. Post-2.4, not much will change, even when considering the cast-time buff to Incinerate. The buff, while welcomed, is just not enough to off-set the huge advantage the Improved Shadow Bolt talent gives to our shadow damage, and therefore is not raid ideal.

But what of the other changes? Not significant enough to worry about, imho. I know that some will argue that the Demonology 3% damage nerf is a big deal, but really, it isn't. Missing the equivalent of one Shadow Bolt in about 100k worth of damage won't make much of a DPS difference, and Demo-specs will still be doing quite a bit of damage without changing a thing from their pre-2.3 raiding approach. Not such a bad deal, am I right?

Anyway, I know it's a rarity to be happy with getting absolutely "nothing," especially after the application of a content patch that, like a birthday or Christmas, is full of so much goodness. But I think us Warlocks should be thrilled. We dodged a bullet with that potential Life Tap nerf, and can go about our business as usual. So, here's to getting out there, and doing what we've always done, and still being able to do it well.

Here's to herpes.

/salute

World of Warcraft, the Movie

2008-03-26T23:46:00.000-07:00

Forget Patch 2.4. Here's a clip from the upcoming WoW movie, and it's totally WIN:

I can't wait.

WoW Warlock Commercial

2008-03-18T23:16:00.000-07:00

My good friend Star sent me a link to the "official" WoW Warlock commerical that's been making rounds on YouTube. It stars Vic Mignogna, a popular anime voice actor that is well known for his work as Edward Elric, the Full Metal Alchemist. He is definitely an interesting choice for this series of commercials, considering the wide-spread recognition of the others that Bliz chose for their previous ads. This struck me as quite odd, and as I watched the commercial unfold, I couldn't shake the strangeness that set in. Turns out, there's a good reason I felt that way. Check out the video and see if you can catch what I'm talking about. ;)

Thanks again for the link, Star!

Tip of the Week: Multi-Draining Goodness

2008-03-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

We Warlocks have very many sexy spells and abilities we'd all like to use. But unfortunately, we also have a very limited place to put them. I always ran into trouble with my action bars, running out of space and having to constantly ditch an ability or two (mostly due to macros -- oh the irony to come). I was always looking out for ways to lighten the load, per say, and this week's TotW aims to do just that by linking your three drain abilities to one, super sexy button.

The process is simple: 1) Type /macro, and choose an icon and name for your new hot button. 2) Copy the code below and paste it into the macro text box. 3) Replace the 3 drains on your action bars with this one macro ability.

Here's the code:

/stopmacro [noharm]
/cast [nomodifier,nochanneling:Drain Soul(Rank 1)] Drain Soul(Rank 1)
/cast [modifier:ctrl,nochanneling:Drain Mana] Drain Mana
/cast [modifier:alt,nochanneling:Drain Life] Drain Life

Now you might be asking yourself, "How the heck do I choose between three drains if I'm only using one button?" Well, if you take a look at the last two lines of code, you'll notice two modifiers: ctrl, and alt. Pressing one of those two buttons while pressing the macro hot button will dictate which drain is used. Pressing the macro + alt will cast Drain Life, the macro + ctrl will cast Drain Mana, and just the macro will cast Drain Soul (Rank 1).

And hey, if you don't like them in that order or want to use different modifying buttons, just adjust the code as necessary.

So there you have it. Three drains, one button, two spaces saved. I hope this comes in handy for ya. ;)

Orc Warlock Shoulders

2008-03-17T21:30:00.001-07:00

So, the size of these Warlock shoulders on an Orc...

...maybe they're a little much?

Signs Your Guild is Breaking Up... Soon

2008-03-16T22:40:00.000-07:00

This week, many of my fellow guild members posted "goodbye" threads on our guild forums, and walked away from the game for good. It has resulted in a sad collection of moments indeed, especially since these guys were great people and a pleasure to enjoy the game with. But what makes things even worse is that many of them were officers or top tier players, which has really hit the guild hard.

The whole situation got me thinking about the warning signs of guild doom-hood (is that even a word?), and after talking with a few good buddies of mine from the EU, we've come up with a list of characteristics that seem universal... to me, anyway. =P

Check them out (they're in no particular order), and let me know what you think!

- You spend more time outside an instance in an evening than actually raiding it.

- You have to wait an extra 60 mins for "backups" to sign in to fill your raid party.

- You're on your 3rd newly recruited "MT" in as many weeks.

- You only have one player filling a "main" tanking role.

- The guild transferred servers.

- Summoned raiders always arrive flagged for PvP.

- Ventrillo is silent... or way loud... after a wipe.

- "Farm" encounters are farming you.

- You have more canceled raids than raid sign ups.

- Officers disband a raid when everyone else wants to try new content.

- Many guildies quit the game, only to be found playing an alt on another server.

- No one signs on for so-called "Wipe Nights."

- The guild's "best" attend raids less and less.

- You have more "farm" content scheduled than new content.

- Guild chat is all about the new PvP epics.

- Farming honor or doing daily quests take greater priority than prepping guild members for raids.

- Your GM takes an extended leave... twice...

- Everyone jumps into different vent channels after a raid.

Got anything else to add? Let me know in the comments.

Beware of Links in Blogger Comments

2008-03-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

After doing a bit of blog hopping earlier today, I noticed many links being posted in the comments section of many different blogger sites. They seemed very shady to me, since the commenters don't provide any information about their hyperlink destinations and what not. After a bit of research, I found that these links are indeed malicious, and will attempt to install a trojan on your hard drive.

So if you happen to see one of these in my blog comments or any other blogger site, ignore it, and report it if you have that option.

Kael'thas is a Pervert

2008-03-13T17:32:00.001-07:00

So I was in Tempest Keep the other day, clearing some trash on my guild's way to Void Reaver, when something hit me about the place. All of that amazing ~~Blood Elf~~ Naaru architecture - the giant purple crystals and intricately designed doorways - they're all a little dirty, aren't they? And when I say dirty, I don't just mean "dirty," I mean Christina Aguilera "Dirrty," if you know what I mean. Just look at this picture for goodness sakes:

Now just try and tell me that those giant throbbing crystals aren't phalluses and that the doorway in the distance doesn't look like a vagina.

I'm not sure who designed TK or all of these erotic structures, but one thing is for certain: Blizzard needs to provide much more lore on the floating instance's apparently perverted taskmaster, Kael'thas. We all know he's addicted to magic and that the Blood Elves are really into themselves and what not, but how does all of that tie into Kael'thas's brothel-inspired Keep as his dungeon of choice (all current lore aside, that is)?

A bit creepy if you ask me. :)

I am obviously totally joking, by the way, but the above picture does offer up some interesting-looking objects, doesn't it?

I wonder what those designers over at Bliz were thinking...

Mean People

2008-03-09T00:30:00.000-08:00

We've all come across people in the WoW Universe that aren't "nice." Trolls, anti-socialites, etc, they all fit into that category. But have you truly met someone that is downright mean and nasty? Today, over two years after activating my WoW account, I can say that I finally have. And, as per usual, my psychology background moved me to completely waste my time in over-analyzing the details of the experience.

I will not bore you with the complete details of what happened, but I will give you a quick recap.

I was put in touch with a crafter on my realm that can make a specific item that I have been after for quite some time. He said he would get it made for me as soon as he gained enough Nether Vortexes to do so. Today, he was in SSC and I shot him a quick whisper to get an update on his progress.

"How's it going in there?" I asked.

"Don't you ever whisper me while I am on a raid ever again or you will never get your item. Do you understand?!" he shot back.

Raiding is apparently such serious business that a little purple text ruins it completely. LEWL.

"Sorry," I responded. "I didn't see a DND tag." Hint hint.

He continued on with his attitude and, for fear that he would become too angry with me to continue on with our little agreement, I let him do so without interference.

People who have this kind of behavioral issue NEED interactions of this sort to make themselves feel worthwhile. But as soon as anyone gives them any kind of heat, they withdraw, unable to take any kind of criticism, and find a new place to express their desire for control -- a strong ingredient for building self-esteem. Responding to this guy in an effort to defend myself would have only pushed him and my crafted gear away.

For me, this wasn't a matter of being insulted. It was simply a matter of an individual with a social personality issue trying desperately to regain a sense of control in an environment where he feels un-threatened and free to do so. This game creates a perfect environment for that kind of thing, doesn't it? It's surprising there aren't more like him out there.

Anyway, I never did find out if I'll be getting my item this weekend or not. But, whatever. I got to do some old school psycho-babbling, so all wasn't a total loss. =)

/sigh... I should have majored in Biology.

Zomg? Kalgan Reverses Warlock Life Tap Nerf

2008-03-05T20:32:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, hell has indeed frozen over. Kalgan, the great Warrior and Mage-loving lead developer for Blizzard Entertainment officially declared the Life Tap nerf null and void. The nerf has been totally reversed, and better still is the fact that Kalgan also stated that there are no further plans to nerf Warlocks in Patch 2.4, period. Awesome news, for sure.

Sadly, however, the motivation to reverse the change did not come via the fact that the nerf was totally class-breaking (stat-wise) and required a complete and utter PvE-revamp. In fact, it wasn't PvE-motivated at all, which is odd because the chief legitimate complaints came from that angle. The change was reversed because of a fluctuation in PvP/Arena demographics, which show Warlocks comprising a lower percentage of high-rated teams than what Blizzard expects them to. As a result, our class's performance in both PvP AND PvE is being left alone... for now.

As you're probably understanding (and probably have understood for a long time now), this change isn't a good thing overall. While this change is great for us Warlocks, it completely emphasizes the fact that Blizzard is 100% arena-oriented. This is an incredibly unfortunate reality for the raiding enthusiast out there, and I'd imagine it's not so hot for PvE devs as well. It means that PvP numbers will change your PvE experience, as Kalgan implied in his comment today:

Locks are doing pretty well overall, but what had us worried was that it appeared to us a month ago or so as though warlocks were on an uptrend. However, the evidence is strong that that trend is reversing, which means significant nerfs aren't really what we want right now (we really don't know where those numbers will settle down).

So, basically, if one class becomes overly represented in the arena, it will get nerfed. When a class is under represented, it will get buffed (as we saw with Druids back in the day). THAT, my friends, is Blizzard's master plan.

Given the outrage of the populace over the PvP/PvE issue, you'd think Blizzard would take note, actually listen to their paying customers, and change their approach to implementing game "balance." Given these recent changes, their motivation, and Kalgan's comments, I guess that's simply not the case.

Maybe hell would have to freeze over again for that to happen.

Life Tap in 2.4: How Will it Affect the 0/21/40 Build?

2008-02-29T23:08:00.000-08:00

I don't have much time to post tonight, but I will leave you with this thought for the weekend. If Blizzard insists on making Life Tap scale negatively with Stamina, therefore forcing us to allocate our Talent points into worthless Talents (especially in the Demo tree), they also have no choice but to reconstruct our talent trees to make them more efficient and complimentary to this change. There is no question about it -- it just has to be done during the next class review, and soon!

I mean, just take a look at the state of our 0/21/40 end-game DPS build (and yes, I know these aren't the best talent allocations, but just bear with me so I can make my point):

The way things stand now on the PTR, we'd be foregoing Demonic Embrace and Fel Stamina (once staples of the Demonology Tree) for talents that buff our soon-to-be sacrificed pet. How backwards is that? And don't even get me started about having to drop 5 points into Cataclysm -- what was a "meh" talent now becomes a must, sacrificing the investment of points for more important talents down the tree.

In any case, both trees are in desperate need of a review and much needed action. And when you're considering changes, Blizzard, please remember that you've already created a Mage class.

Kthx.

PTR: Life Tap Tweaked

2008-02-27T22:17:00.000-08:00

I hate amusement parks, mostly because I hate amusement park rides. I've never been able to stand them, not because I'm frightened of heights or anything like that, but because in my mind there's nothing fun about making yourself nauseous. How does turning your stomach inside-out equate to a good time? I just don't get it, and I just refuse to take part. While dating a girl in high school, I made her go on a roller coaster by herself. Harsh, but I just didn't feel like vomiting the rest of the evening, ya know?

Anyway, I'm getting off track (lol...).

A new build of the PTR came online today, featuring the Life Tap changes that Bliz Blue Hortus told us were coming. This change, from my perspective, and by the way Hortus had written his comment, seemed like it would be an all-out improvement on the Life Tap issue based upon the feedback Bliz had received over the last few days. However, the end result has left me, and pretty much all of the Warlocks I have spoken to, scratching their heads.

Down. Up. And down yet again.

Life Tap now, at Rank 3, converts 20% of a Warlock's maximum health into 20% of his/her maximum mana -- a more amplified version of the change that got Warlocks, and raiders in general, into a frenzy. Why should a PvP-motivated change affect PvE at all?

People are angry, no doubt. The grandeur of posts on the official forums makes that clear. But what is even more pronounced is how confused people seem to be over this most recent change. Instead of taking a step back from their original plan, which is what Hortus's post seemed to imply would be happening, the devs have taken another step "forward" in a direction players did not want to see them heading. Is it simply a matter of lazy implementation in nerfing PvP, or is there something to this change that many of us just aren't seeing?

I'm still trying to figure that one out, personally. With the reintroduction of Life Tap ranks, the sting of the initial nerf is definitely less painful since we'll be able to down-rank where necessary. But, the change is still a nerf to PvE, and is quite the annoyance for the average raiding Warlock for sure.

Changes will likely keep incoming, however. So don't get too comfortable just yet. Just keep your fingers crossed, and hopefully we'll see an up-turn in this carnival ride yet.

Tip of the Week: Google Pack Goodness

2008-02-27T02:04:00.001-08:00

As WoW players, we are frequented by the idea that all of the hard work we put into our toons can disappear in a flash the moment our account is compromised. I'm sure you know of someone, maybe even a small crowd of people, that has been hacked and seen all of their gear destroyed or their toons deleted. The experience is harsh, and the process of recovery is a long and daunting task. So what can we do to help ensure we do not experience these issues first hand? Google offers a few options, and they're free. ;)

Head on over to the Google Pack front page where you will see a collection of software programs that you can install at no cost whatsoever. Among this excellent list are two key proggies that are a must-have for anyone looking to help secure their system: Spyware Doctor and Norton Security Scan. Both do a great job at catching potential risks and removing them without a hitch. In my experience, they are catching items even my corporate anti-virus program is missing. Not bad for a couple free programs!

So grab those programs asap and run those scans regularly. I'm sure you'll be happy with the result.

PTR: Life Tap Progress

2008-02-26T11:09:00.001-08:00

The last 48 hours have introduced quite the predicament for Blizzard developers:

Thankfully, it doesn't look like it'll ever come to that.

Warlocks, and the WoW community in general, came out in great numbers to oppose the Life Tap nerf and Bliz's blatant disregard for PvE while making PvP-focused changes. And while it didn't quite get to the point of erecting billboards and forming picket lines, it may as well have, as a multitude of threads were started all over the interwebs, arguing against the ground-breaking change. As a result, Blizzard has taken note, and the nerf will be tweaked in a PTR patch to come.

Obviously, this isn't the end of the story and there will be much more to follow... but there is still something tugging at me about this whole ordeal. See, Blizzard is a smart company, with very intelligent developers (even though sometimes, that's hard to believe). How could they make such a grand mistake with the mechanics of one of their most popular classes?

Call me crazy, but I'm thinking that this Life Tap nerf is only the beginning of a change Blizzard already has in store for the Warlock class. Introducing this huge nerf first may be a way to make the upcoming change more palatable -- making it the lesser of two evils, if you will.

Heh, look at me sounding all conspiracy theorish... but whatever. I'll just leave you with that thought and let time do the rest.

For now, I'm off to lunch, where I won't be feasting on Bliz babies. At least not today. ;)

Lady Sylvanas: New Model FTW!

2008-02-24T17:26:00.000-08:00

After word spread via WoW Insider that the new skins found in the updated PTR files may belong to Lady Sylvanas, commenter Meira went to work. She produced this wonderful WoW Model Viewer image of how the new Banshee Queen's skins would look in her current gear, and I must say, I'm liking it big time.

Hopefully we'll be seeing this as our Forsaken leader very, very soon.

GG Meira!

PTR: New Skin for Sylvanas?

2008-02-24T12:19:00.000-08:00

Poster Gurluas over at the MMO-Champion member forums uncovered an interesting skin within the files of the updated PTR. As he states, they resemble a female Blood Elf with red eyes and gear that closely matches those worn by Lady Sylvanas Windrunner, the leader of the Horde's Forsaken.

Currently, Sylvanas is modeled using the Night Elf skin, which according to WoW lore, is a very inaccurate portrayal of the Banshee Queen. This "new" skin (and I can only hope that's what it is), however, would better depict Sylvanas's history as a High Elf, a race that eventually took on the name of "Blood Elf" in honor of their fallen brethren - a pretty sweet story imho.

Here's to hoping we see this skin on the Live realms soon, and as Sylvanas for sure! And a big thanks to Gurluas for uncovering it. Good work!

PTR: Regarding the Life Tap Nerf

2008-02-24T01:36:00.000-08:00

Currently on the PTR, Life Tap is removing 16% of a Warlock's max health and returning 16% of the Warlock's max mana. Anyone familiar with the Warlock class should immediately recognize a major problem with this class-defining mechanic -- it reinforces the stacking of Intelligence over Stamina, which is contradictory to the Warlock's history and design (which encompasses talents, spells, and especially gear).

I'm saving my thoughts, and tears, until the Life Tap nerf becomes official, but given the fact that the Emberstorm change isn't "official" and yet is accepted as true, this situation is definitely not looking good.

PTR: The Fire Warlock Materializes

2008-02-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

So just as expected, Blizzard updated the Emberstorm talent in the latest PTR build to provide a 10% cast time reduction to Incinerate. We knew this was bound to happen after MMO Champion's recent report on the very odd, 1-rank change to Emberstorm in the last build. But quite frankly, I'm surprised it (the new PTR build, that is) was sprung on us so quickly. And yet I am pleasantly surprised to find that, imho, they got it right this time -- reducing Incinerate's cast time between 2% and 10% based on the investment of up to 5 talent points.

The change will obviously make raiding with Fire much more reasonable for our class, but what is not immediately obvious is the new dimension this may provide to the raiding Warlock. When choosing between throwing Fire or Shadow, it's always reasonable to consider what gear we have (most of our available gear tends to favor Shadow), but now it will also depend on who we are complimented with in-raid. If we are partied with a Shadow Priest, curse with Curse of Shadow and spam Shadow Bolts -- as per the usual. If partied with a Fire Mage, however, it might be more beneficial to curse with Curse of Elements and take advantage of the Scorch effect. Not only may this result in very competitive damage, but based on usual raid compositions, it may be a greater benefit of the raid as a whole (CoS vs. CoE with more DPS taking advantage of CoE post-2.4). Lots of potential here, for sure.

It'll be interesting to see how these changes play out in-raid and how many Warlocks will be swayed to the lighter side of the dark side. Time will tell, I guess. But in the meantime... lets just sit back and enjoy the moment. This is a buff for our class, after all. Who knows when the next one will come around. ;)

Incinerate Buffed, Shadow Warlocks Laugh Mildly

2008-02-20T21:57:00.000-08:00

In the World of Warlocks, there has always been one unequivocal truth: Shadow beats Fire. Even with the introduction of the fire-based Incinerate spell, the Improved Shadow Bolt talent and the Bolt's great scaling has kept Shadow-'locks seeing their fire counterparts fall behind them in DPS meters very regularly. It's a sad reality for pyro-fanatics for sure, and no matter how hard they try and much damage a Fire-'lock is able to put out at any given moment, a Shadow-'lock can always do better. And oh how Fire-'locks have cried.

Well, Blizzard is apparently (some would say "finally") looking to give Warlock fire DPS a bit of a boost, and as soon as Patch 2.4, even!

In what is listed as an "Undocumented Change" over at MMO Champion, PTR Fire Warlocks have received a slight buff in the form of a tweak to the Emberstorm Talent. Instead of just increasing damage done by fire spells, the first rank of this five point talent will also increase the casting speed of Incinerate by a whole 2%!

If that number seems small and relatively insignificant, it's because it is. A 2% increase in the base casting speed of Incinerate amounts to only a 0.05 second decrease in cast time. So instead of firing off Incinerates every 2.5 secs, Fire-'locks will be able to cast them every 2.45 secs instead. To put that into perspective, it would take 50 Incinerate casts at 2.45 secs to gain enough time to fit in one extra Incinerate, compared to the current 2.5 sec standard. Not very impressive.

When considering Spell Haste and how it will affect the Incinerate "buff," I don't see the changes being relevant, especially since you would need a great deal of Spell Haste to have a profound impact in the first place. And in most cases, stacking Spell Haste is usually at the expense of Spell Hit and Spell Crit, which Destruction Warlocks currently live by in end-game (and which Bliz seems to be leaning back towards in Sunwell). Quite a disappointing and frustrating mechanism to say the least!

But all is not totally unsubstantial. At least Blizzard is finally listening to the Fire-'lock's complaints and moving to make their situation a little better (even if it's painfully obvious they have no idea what they are doing atm). Hopefully they'll tweak things a bit more on the PTR to make the changes more significant. I'm thinking that taking this relatively minor change a few steps further and offering a 10% increase in casting speed of Incinerate with 5/5 points in Emberstorm is where this change will end up going. Given the weak performance of the current status of things, I can't see how Bliz could justify NOT making such a change.

But until that happens, whenever that day may be, my Shadow Bolt-spamming self is just going to sit here and snicker a little. ;)

Good times.

Song of the Week

2008-02-13T16:30:00.000-08:00

Growing up as a child of the 80's, one of my favorite music videos was Genesis's Land of Confusion. It was a video that was chopped full of hilarious puppet goodness and an awesome beat -- two things any kid would enjoy. Being so young, little did I recognize the motivation behind the song and the powerful message it was sending. These days, the message is just as applicable, and even more clear with Disturbed's remake of the song, which is this week's SotW. A great song to raid to, PvP to, or just listen to. It's a decent animated video too. ;)

Enjoy!

Tip of the Week: Milk Valentine's Day Seasonals

2008-02-12T13:22:00.001-08:00

I know the title of this post is a little odd considering the content of my last one, but trust me, it'll make sense when this post is all said and done and I've explained to you how you can get everything you want out of this year's Valentine's Day seasonal event... except a girl or boyfriend, that is. But who needs those expensive luxuries anyway when you've got Romantic Picnic Baskets and Lovely Black Dresses to find? ;)

To have a shot at one of these seasonal items, you must first purchase a bottle of perfume or cologne and a stack of Valentine's notes/cards from a vendor that sells them (Innkeepers in the main cities do). Put on the perfume if most of the guards around you are male, or the cologne if most are female, and wait for hearts to appear over their heads. When they do, talk to them, and choose the option at the very bottom that gives them one of your cards. In return, they will give you a box of items, very few of which contain the items we're looking for. Either that, or they will reject you, but we're not worried about that. You can only receive one of these gift boxes once per hour -- but that means you can do this incoming tip every hour!

Here's what you do: make several level one alts and run them to the nearest capital city. Send each of them 2 silver (enough for a bottle of cologne/perfume and a stack of cards), and login with each toon every hour to receive a gift box from your guard of choice. If you don't want to have that much downtime in-between attempts, start a single alt, run him/her to the nearest capital city, send the toon some gold, buy the items, interact with a guard, check your box, delete the toon, rinse and repeat. Pretty simple, and it cuts your wait-time by about 50 mins! This will greatly increase your chance at receiving either the Romantic Picnic Basket or the Lovely Black Dress.

The basket is a really fun seasonal novelty item that every collector will enjoy. It's soulbound, so you can't move it between toons readily, but the trick is to keep the basket INSIDE the gift box you are given by the guards. That way, you can move it to whatever toon you'd like... even a prospective buyer. ;)

The dress, well, it kinda speaks for itself:

The great thing about this item is that it is NOT SOULBOUND and can be freely sent from one player to another. Since they are fairly rare and sexy as hell, they also sell for a decent amount on the AH, often going for 200-300g. Very easy monies ftw.

So there you have it -- very easy tips to milk the current season of all of it's lovely goodness. Good luck with those gifts, and Happy Valentine's! <3

Live: Valentine's Is Upon Us

2008-02-11T23:42:00.000-08:00

As most of WoW's community keeps busy scouring the webs for new Patch 2.4 info, my good friend and fellow High Warlord warlock Demordrah decided he'd rather spend his time making a Valentine's day gift to celebrate the holiday's kick-off in Azeroth today. And I must say... it's quite "dairy-ing," as you can obviously see.

I'm so taking that to Kinko's and making me a mousepad! LEWL.

Thanks Demo, and a happy start to the Valentine's seasonal to all. <3

2.4: Timbal's Focusing Crystal

2008-02-10T23:10:00.000-08:00

I could write in great detail about a trinket being introduced in Patch 2.4 and how wonderful it will be for Affliction Warlocks... or, I could just post a picture and let it do all the talking for me. =)

Hello DoTS??? I mean can you even imagine what kind of damage this item can do with multiple DoTS ticking on multiple mobs all at the same time? There is definite PvE and PvP potential here, as long as the internal cooldown isn't too lengthy. But even if that is the case, this sweet little item should be VERY high on every Warlock's list come Patch 2.4, and at the top of Affliction Warlock lists for sure.

PTR: New Fire Animation

2008-02-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

Guildmate Jezpadoo pointed me in the direction of this YouTube video that shows the new fire animation in WoW Patch 2.4. The video isn't of incredible quality (and seems to abruptly come to a end) and is very short, but it's enough to show the vastly improved fire presentation that I can only hope will apply to fire spells as well.

Patch 2.4: Badge of Justice Priority

2008-02-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

Big changes are incoming to the way most guilds are likely to approach their daily operations. As WoW Insider reported earlier today, new, Black Temple-level gear will be available via Badges of Justice come Patch 2.4. The vendor is on Sunwell Isle, and probably won't be all that difficult to get to (selling raid spots, anyone?). But the items themselves are probably going to be VERY expensive, on the order of 100 Badges and up I'd imagine, which would take several weeks of farming raid instances to acquire.

So, that begs the question... are Heroic Dungeons going to see a much larger role in the average guild's list of priorities, come Patch 2.4?

In the guild I am currently in, there is a standard hierarchy that is applied to certain objectives in-game, and which seemingly never fail. Daily quests are easily at the top of the list, with many guildmates spending hours logged in on mains and alts for the sole purpose of completing them. When those are done, PvP then takes precedence with many taking to the Battlegrounds to grind Honor Points. A distant third are the lonely Heroics, which at best are only run once a day by a small minority of the guild.

Currently, it's understandable why Heroics aren't that big of a deal -- the motivation to run them, the Badge of Justice, drop like candy in raid instances, which are scheduled, weekly runs. For example, where you would only receive 3-4 badges in any given Heroic, you would receive over 20 when clearing Karazhan. Sure, the raid takes more time, but it's time set aside and planned for, which is not the case for Heroic Instances (at least not in this guild), and hence why Heroics are a distant third to dailies and the Battlegrounds.

However, I can't see that approach remaining popular once extremely high level gear is introduced via the Badge-vendor system. Even when raiding several 10 and 25-mans a week, it would take several weeks to acquire the number of Badges that will probably be needed to purchase these BT-level items. Complimenting the raids with Heroic Dungeons, which are not limited to a lengthy reset time-table, would be a great asset in acting to acquire these items asap. Thus, it would be very unreasonable for a guild to not make running Heroics (and gearing up their members for Sunwell) a much bigger priority.

Draining a Long Ways Away

2008-02-08T21:57:00.000-08:00

While not the result of any 2.4 changes that have hit the PTR earlier this evening, my Warlock's Drain Soul saw an incredible range buff earlier today. I was minding my own business, collecting Soul Shards in Terokkar, when all of a sudden the beast I was draining was propelled a huge distance in front of me and out of site. My Drain Soul spell kept ticking, however, and I eventually received a Soul Shard even though the target was well out of range.

Strange, isn't it? The phenomenon was probably due to lag, but the fact that the spell was still doing damage and that I received a shard still has me scratching my head. Oh well, at least it makes for a good picture.

WTB range like that on all our spells pls, kthx! =)

Song of the WeeK

2008-02-06T17:12:00.000-08:00

This week's SotW is the result of an email I received from "Gregory" in the UK. In it he asks "Jagoex, why no trance music for your songs of the week?" Honestly, Gregory? I have no idea! I LOVE good euro-dance, like DJ Encore and even a good amount of old school E-Type and Scooter. So, how about some of the awesome DJ Tiesto and one of my favorites, Love Comes Again? Enjoy! ;)

On the Warlock Forums: Spell Haste and Affliction

2008-02-04T18:29:00.000-08:00

Spell Haste has been a very hot topic since it was announced that it will decrease the global cooldown in Patch 2.4. Where most of my interest lies regarding the change is whether or not it will have a significant impact on Affliction Warlocks and their end-game raiding DPS. Some seem to think that with faster, less spread-out DoT applications, a Warlock will be able to throw in another Shadow Bolt or two before it would be time to refresh, therefore increasing damage output by a decent amount. Others, however, don't believe the change will add up to much of a DPS difference at all, and are looking forward to more tweaks that would better help the Affliction tree in end-game.

Two threads worth reading on the matter are HERE and HERE, with the first doing a bit of theory-crafting about the changes and it's impact on Affliction while the second asks why Spell Haste doesn't speed up DoT ticks and offers up some valuable responses.

I'm sure this topic of discussion isn't going to go away anytime soon, so expect more info to be incoming at any time. =)

Wii Be Rockin'

2008-02-03T20:48:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of Guitar Hero III. I've posted about it several times, play it almost every day, and talk about it with my students waaaay too much -- almost as much as WoW, even. But even still, as excellent and fun that game is, I have always been a little jealous of PS3 and Xbox 360 owners. No, not because of better graphics or a more substantial library of titles. I'm jealous because along with GHIII, they get to rock out to Rock Band as well.

Well I am thrilled to say that I am jealous no more!

EA confirmed that Rock Band will be coming to the Wii sometime this fiscal year, and oh how Wii owners should be rejoicing. Not only do we get to play the hottest game on the market today, BUT WE GET TO DO IT WITH WII-MOTES! HA!

The 2009 fiscal year begins in April, so we'll be seeing this game sometime after that. And like its PS3 and Xbox 360 counterparts, I'm sure it'll cost a pretty penny.

Wii owners, start saving. ;)

Razer Lycosa Reviewed

2008-02-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

Back in October, I was in the market for a new desktop keyboard and posted about a new, gamer-centric board produced by Razer. The Lycosa had many attractive features, including a variety of macro functions, back-lit keys, and a price well within even the most frugal gamer's budget. On paper, it seemed to be a WoW-player's perfect fingering companion (O.o), but how would it stack up IRL?

To help answer that question, CNET recently put the Razer Lycosa to the test. And while they went into the review with high expectations and found some qualities in the board to get really excited about, they came out of it just a little disappointed.

To sum the review up, CNET praised the macro functions of the board and it's solid feel and build quality -- some major points if you ask me. What they didn't like about it, however, was the dim and unadjustable keyboard back-lighting, which they said wasn't strong enough in a well-lit room (lol?). They also were not impressed with the single USB slot on the board itself and it's apparently flimsy software offering -- items that are relatively minor imho, but they may matter more to others and are definitely things to keep in mind.

All in all, they gave the board a "Very Good" 7.7/10 rating. Not bad at all. =)

Tip of the Week: New Realm Name-Squatting

2008-02-01T17:05:00.000-08:00

Blizzard has announced another round of free transfers for players of select realms. My realm happens to be one of them, and many players on the server are scrambling to take care of last-minute preparations before hitting the transfer button and moving their toons. All the while, because the destination realm is a new server closed to new character creation, many are worried about their character names being taken by same-name individuals that beat them to the transfer-punch. Thankfully, there is a simple solution to this potential identity crisis.

Instead of rushing a transfer in order to keep your name and potentially missing something important along the way, find a source realm that doesn't have a toon with your name on it, create a character with that name, and then immediately transfer it to the destination realm. Then, when you are ready to transfer your own character to the new realm, delete the newly created toon and transfer yours over with name intact.

Easy enough, right? But understand, it's not a sure thing.

In a scenario in which your name is very common or popular, you may be unable to find a source realm without a character with that name already. In such a case, it'd be best to take care of your business quickly and efficiently, and then transferring asap. It takes a little bit of patience and luck, but unfortunately, it's your only option.

Good luck! =)

You Call This "Caster Love?!"

2008-02-01T15:28:00.001-08:00

After a lengthy period of practically no substantial news on the WoW front whatsoever, the internets has just about exploded with activity regarding some new and interesting information about Patch 2.4. Many people are incredibly excited, and even Warlocks seem happy about what they are seeing. However, not all information is straightforward information, and unfortunately for us Warlocks, it looks like Patch 2.4 offers us the short end of the buff-stick yet again.

As Eyonix explains in a thread on the Warlock Forums from earlier today, Warlocks will be able to use their Ritual of Summoning to summon a player into an instance from anywhere in the world. In other words, the restriction that prevented players from being summoned into an instance will be removed, allowing them to be summoned from the outside, in. And, that's it. Seriously.

To put things into perspective about just how dull this "buff" to the Warlock class is, take into account what other clothies are receiving. Mages will see their DPS much improved thanks to the synergy they'll have between their Icy Veins talent and a newly tweaked Spell Haste system, which will lower the Global Cooldown of spells that are cast in under 1.5 seconds. And lets not forget about Priests, who will be allowed to cast Fear Ward in Shadowform, removing the need to switch forms to cast it while saving some much needed mana -- a very functional change.

Those changes, THAT is what you call "caster love," my friends. What the other casters are getting? THOSE are buffs, people. What Warlocks are receiving, well, lets put it this way. The change makes life more convenient for those being summoned, and does next to nothing for the summoners themselves. It's not a buff to the Warlock class -- it's just another tweak we receive to a non-combat ability, while seeing many other classes have their combat skills improved. This is not a buff.

It's a back-handed slap in the face.

On the Warlock Forums: Nerf Lifetap?

2008-01-28T10:51:00.000-08:00

Another day, another Level 12 alt trolling the Warlock Forums with a "QQ NERF" thread. Except that this particular thread is currently at 8 pages long and involves some pretty interesting discussion. The OP suggests that adding a cast time to Lifetap would be a good way to help balance the Warlock for PvP play. However, many 'locks point out that it would also gimp PvE DPS, and would have varying effects on each talent tree and what not. Definitely a read worth looking into. And yes, even if it entails sifting through some standard "gtfo noob" spam.

Have fun. =)

Shelbi's Latest

2008-01-28T10:12:00.001-08:00

Shelbi of The Bronze Kettle has turned out another excellent Warlock-related piece using that tablet skill of hers. This latest Voidwalker is much truer to it's in-game form, and looks absolutely fantastic.

Great job, Shelbi!

If you haven't already, head over to TBK and take a look at her other work. Pretty sweet stuff. =)

Favorite 5-Mans

2008-01-27T15:11:00.001-08:00

Those of you looking for a post about mansex, look elsewhere. This is a post about a recent poll posted by Blizzard Blue Bornakk that asks WoW Players, "What is your favorite 5 person dungeon from The Burning Crusade?"

A great question. There are many fantastically designed instances in TBC that look amazing offer some extremely fun and original content for players to enjoy. My personal favorite is the Shadow Labyrinth in Auchindoun, which is always fun and just a bit awe-inspiring, especially in Heroic Mode. There's just something sinisterly exciting about having your entire party Mind-Controlled during a boss encounter and wailing on one another, hoping to see someone, anyone take a fall. >=) Also, having to down a Warlock boss amidst an army of Voidwalkers is definitely something awful and fantastic to see and experience. And lets not forget about seeing that last doorway open for the first time, and seeing the Ragnaros-esque Murmur standing at the end of the hall. Epic for sure.

But to my surprise, the Shadow Lab isn't even in the top 3 picks of favorite 5-mans. And while the poll is still on-going, SL is only in 5th place, so things look bleak for my pick for sure. Here are the results so far:

The Caverns of Time are kicking butt, gathering over 55% of the votes so far! I can totally understand Old Hillsbrad getting the most votes. It's like an RPer's wet dream, freeing Thrall and fighting alongside of him in the Tarren Mill of old. It's pretty sweet to say the least, and well deserves a spot at the top.

But what the hell is Black Morass doing up there?!

BM, I thought, was one of the most hated instances in TBC. When it was first introduced, it was bugged as hell and multiple portals would spring up at a time, making it exceptionally and unintendedly difficult (this was before the instance got nerfed too). Even after it was fixed, all it entailed was the repetitive and almost redundant clearing of spiders, gators, and whatever else outlines the actual event site, then running from portal to portal downing adds until a boss shows up every 6th portal. How can such repetition be anyone's favorite instance?

Now, I must admit, while I do not like the actual gameplay of the instance, the story behind Black Morass is pretty sweet. But unless we have almost 25% of the WoW playing populace actively role playing, I don't see how that many people could choose BM as the best TBC 5-man. Because really, it's not even close.

My two cents. ;)

Battleground Head Starts

2008-01-26T13:09:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed the frequency with which you enter a battleground and find that the opposing team has already assaulted contested flags? It happens to me very regularly, and I hadn't really thought about why until recently, after reactivating my account (to show a friend around Azeroth) and partaking in a little bit of PvP.

Upon zoning into either Arathi Basin or Eye of the Storm a few times this week, the same story would unfold time and time again. Many teammates were still spawning at the starting point, slowly trickling out onto the field of play while the other team was busy capping just about every banner in sight. Snarls and QQs of "wtf Bliz!" would ring out in the BG channel as half of the team would decide to give up and HK farm while the other half would spend the rest of the match yelling at those farmers, while doing next to nothing goal-oriented themselves.

I had become very used to these experiences, as they have been a regular occurrence since the implementation of cross-server battlegrounds, and hence, the luxury of shorter queue times and more casual play. But what got me thinking was a question that was asked in BG chat earlier today by a disgruntled Orc Warrior. He asked, "Why has't Blizzard fixed this nonsense yet? Can it really be all that difficult?" Indeed, the problem has been brought up many, many times and to no avail. But can Blizzard fix the head start issue? Should they? What could they do?

The basics of the problem itself are fairly simplistic. A new battleground is created and a number of invites (based on the capacity of the BG) are sent out to the players highest in that BG's queue. They are given a specific amount of time to respond to that invitation, and if they do not choose to enter the battleground within that period of time, the invitation is revoked and sent to the next highest players in the queue.

Where it gets a bit more complicated is the fact that while those first invites are sent, a countdown to the BG's start begins ticking and extinguishes just about when those first invitations expire. As a result, if players don't enter a BG in a timely fashion or allow their invite timers to expire, the BG can actually start while the second wave of invites are being sent. Hence all of the "Omg it's 5 vs 15" and "It's already a 5-cap" that goes down.

What it basically boils down to is this: players are not entering battlegrounds fast enough, or are ignoring their invitations (via "Hide," perhaps) completely. Maybe it's because they are actively engaged in a quest. Maybe they are in combat. Maybe they are checking the progress of another BG. Whatever be the case, their actions are creating a problem for those in the queue behind them. So, what could be done to help remedy these behaviors and the ill situations they cause? And as the Orc asked, why hasn't Blizzard done anything about this issue yet?

The worry is that changing the current system will revert it back to an era of insanely long queue times, which was the bane of PvPers back in the day. One suggestion I have heard that would do just that is limiting each player to only one BG queue at a time. While it would solve the BG-hopping issue that nurtures BG Head Starts, it would lengthen the queue times for each individual BG overall. Bliz understands that this is not acceptable, as it would be reintroducing the original issue in satisfying the current one.

So how about this.

Keep everything the same except the length of time a player has to accept a BG invite. Give players only 20-25 secomds to decide whether to take an invitation or not, instead of the current 60+ seconds they have to hit the "Enter" button. That would help secondary and tertiary invites to go out promptly and ensure a sizable team to be present for the start of the battle, while not lengthening queue times whatsoever and possibly even shortening them.

It would probably take a few tweaks to make it work, but I'm sure it would all be worth it.

Less BG head starts ftw. =)

SNES Emulator for the iPhone

2008-01-23T03:36:00.000-08:00

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is one of the greatest gaming consoles ever released. No bones about it. Those of you lucky enough to own one or to have grown up in the SNES gaming era know exactly what I mean. It was leaps and bounds above the competition in terms of it's hardware technology, and it's software title library offered a variety of amazing titles, some of which are considered the best of all-time even today. And some even call the SNES the greatest console ever created.

So what would that make an Apple iPhone that emulates the SNES natively?

The best phone ever made, that's what. ;)

Okay, Today's REAL LOL

2008-01-22T13:23:00.000-08:00

Omg you guys just have to watch this. It's freaking hilarious! And it's especially enjoyable if you've seen some of Tom Cruise's films, and think he's an absolute "douche." =)

Enjoy!

Oh, and I swear, I'll get back to this Warlock thing soon. But for now, just enjoy the random video nonsense I post, kthx. =P

Today's LOL

2008-01-22T11:22:00.000-08:00

Stumbled upon this video over at 1up about a few guys that put together a "Top 10" list for SNES game intros. Decently funny, but it's more interesting to see what they chose in their list. Super Metroid ftw imho. =)

Song of the Week

2008-01-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

With so little going on in the World of WoW, at least with regards to all things Warlock, I'm grateful that we have our songs to keep us entertained. =)

This week's SotW isn't new. It isn't a hardcore PvP anthem (not for me, anyway). Nor is it raid-worthy (it's too short imho). What it is, is a damn good song from a band that's just a little metro, if not a bit weird as well. Here's the ground-breaking band Orgy with a "live" performance of their song Opticon. Enjoy. ;)

The Answer to Every Question...

2008-01-14T22:15:00.000-08:00

Saw this the other day, and fell out of my chair.

The story is that this student's teacher plays a 'lock, and the kid decided to have a little bit of fun with that fact, but unfortunately, at his test score's expense. Pretty funny, but even more impressive is the level of effect an image like this depicts of the gaming culture. How cool is it that students and teachers can interact and be passionate about video games?

Pretty fantastic, if you ask me. =)

Sharp Mouse, Hawt Deal

2008-01-13T18:53:00.000-08:00

This post is a little late in coming, so there isn't much time to act on it, but if you're one of those looking to improve your RL gaming gear and are in desperate need of a new mouse, take heed. WooT is offering a Razer Copperhead gaming mouse for only $33, plus $5 shipping. It's a slick mouse with 7-buttons of binding goodness that usually retails for $60ish or more, so this is quite the decent deal. The sale ends at 10:00 PM PST, so if you're thinking about it, don't sit on the fence too long. ;)

Song of the Week + Today's LOL

2008-01-12T19:15:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard a song by a band you've never seen, and imagined what the group members might look like? Well, in the case of the band The Darkness, upon seeing them for the first time via their video for "I Believe in a Thing Called Love," all I can say is "LOL." Definitely unexpected, but funny as well. Great song too. =)

Enjoy!

McDonald's, Obesity, and Video Games

2008-01-11T23:46:00.000-08:00

Ask anybody what the pinnacle of fast-food enterprises is, and they will likely answer McDonald's restaurants. That's a pretty impressive position to have amongst the social perception, but unfortunately for the golden arches, serving billions and billions (especially to low-income households) of their fatty meals has led to another conception. Ask those same people what factors have influenced the epidemic of childhood obesity, and many will cite "McDonald's" and their "Happy Meals" as a regular answer once again.

Bic Mac is definitely not happy with this common perception.

In an interview with the Times UK, McDonald's executive Steve Easterbrook takes a general approach in explaining the obesity problem. He states that a variety of things support a sedentary lifestyle, and that eating habits is only one of multiple variables involved with a child's overall well-being. All very true and well thought-out, but while Easterbrook remained seemingly professional throughout the interview, his frustration did express itself just a bit.

In an effort to displace some of the blame on his own industry, he calls out urbanization and video gaming slyishly, stating that:

...there’s a lifestyle element: there’s fewer green spaces and kids are sat home playing computer games on the TV when in the past they’d have been burning off energy outside.

In effect, Easterbrook is saying that kids are exercising less due to other activities, specifically video games, and that fast-food is only one part of the entire picture that is obesity. Some may find this reasoning to be completely saturated with hypocrisy, given that it stems from an executive whose company's products promote unhealthy weight-gain, therefore making exercise more taxing and difficult.

I'm pretty sure video games don't do that.

I know many gamers who eat healthy and are in great physical shape. I also know of many who don't eat healthy and are a little overweight as a result. The point is, it's not the gaming itself that requires complete changes in lifestyle in order to fulfill a healthful physique. It's one's diet that does.

"You are what you eat," as the saying goes.

The focus on the fast-food industry as an active, main player in the grandeur of obesity was further strengthened in a movie released a few years back. Some of you may remember the film Super Size Me, which displayed a healthy, young male partaking in a fast-food only diet, and the health effects he experienced as a result. The low-budget film had big-budget success, and gained a very wide range of appeal, even among health professionals. In reaction to the film and the public outrage that ensued, McDonald's added "healthy" items to their offering, changed many ingredients in their products, and removed "Super Size" as a menu option, hoping to show that the company does make an effort to support healthful living habits.

However, given that their unhealthy offerings remain the huge majority of their sales, and the defensive tone Easterbrook seems to take with regards to the issue, one has to wonder if McDonald's has done enough. Obesity is still on the rise, and McDonald's is still the #1 fast-food source in our culture. Perhaps Easterbrook and his fellow execs should eat only their company's food for a month. Maybe then, they'll eat their words too.

There's probably more nutrients in those letters anyway. =)