On the Warlock Forums: Spell Haste and Affliction

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. =)

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Wii Be Rockin'

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. ;)

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Razer Lycosa Reviewed

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. =)

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Tip of the Week: New Realm Name-Squatting

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! =)

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You Call This "Caster Love?!"

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.

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On the Warlock Forums: Nerf Lifetap?

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. =)

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Shelbi's Latest

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. =)

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Favorite 5-Mans

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. ;)

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Battleground Head Starts

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. =)

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SNES Emulator for the iPhone

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. ;)

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Okay, Today's REAL LOL

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

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Today's LOL

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. =)

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Song of the Week

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. ;)

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The Answer to Every Question...

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. =)

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