tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30726998738644340702024-03-14T01:37:28.415-07:00Death KittyA blog by Arielle - writer for The Inconspicuous Bear and World of Warcraft Theorycrafter.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-64733446976527996072012-04-08T01:38:00.001-07:002012-04-08T01:38:15.731-07:00IPL Day 2 (aka Vegas Day 3)Today I woke up with a plan. Despite running on about 5.5 hours of sleep (again), I wanted to go watch a bunch of Starcraft. And I did.
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Woke up, putzed around, responded to some threads on various forums, checked email, etc. Had a shower, and got ready. Headed out to the Cosmopolitan for more SC2.
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I was first in line for the VIP group again (yay!). So I enjoyed my breakfast muffin while I sat on my ass waiting for it to open. Funnily enough the League of Legends line actually wound around past the corner and started overlapping with the SC2 line. Was pretty amusing.
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I saw Painuser, HD, Catspajamas, and Idra walk by while I was in line. At one point the poor security guard almost stopped StarTale Virus from entering the venue because he didn't know what a "player" was. Poor guy :(
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Finally the gates opened and I actually walked in the door next to Idra. I wished him luck during the matches today, and he thanked me. He seemed in good spirits even though (as I found out later) he was already down 0-3 in his group. Was cool though.
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They were having technical difficulties in the morning, and after the first game Painuser's mic was left on and you could hear him say "Fucking Anything!". The crowd laughed and Painuser made a trollface. It was good times. Despite the huge amount of technical difficulties in the morning, it worked out okay. I would eventually leave after watching NesTea dismantle Ganzi to tie their series at 1-1. NesTea would go on to win that series (duh).
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For dinner we went to Binions Steak House. The food was pretty good, but not nearly as good as my dad's BBQ. I dunno. Maybe I'm just spoiled. After dinner Chelsea's boyfriend (Sam) and I headed back to the Cosmo to catch the GSTL finals. That shit was crraaazzzzzy. MKP would go on to take out 4 straight members of StarTale, despite some controversy surrounding having to regame the first match vs Parting.
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After it was over some little kid got lost so they had to lock us all in. Since I had VIP seating I had the good fortune to be sitting 4 rows behind the Blizzard contingent (Mike Morhaime, Dustin Browder, etc.). So I was standing there looking at Mike chatting with people and eventually said "fuck it". I hopped 3 rows of chairs and leaned over the 4th to shake Mike's hand and thank him for making such amazing games. He thanked me for the support and I was super happy with myself. In retrospect I probably should've asked him to tell GC to give me a pony, but I digress.
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I saw Sir Scoots there as well so I worked up the courage to go say hi to him as well. He was super nice and we had a brief chat about how EG had done at IPL4. I'm hoping I'll be able to repay his kindness with a drink sometime this weekend, but I gotta find him again first. Apparently there's tons of stuff to talk about on this weeks LO3, so it should be fun to watch.
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Lastly I caught up with Scarlett and told her that I hope she keeps playing and I thought that her run through the open bracket was super cool. Unfortunately I forgot to ask if she would like to participate in <a href="http://thestoriesofo.net/">Oestrus</a>' podcast (I fail) but hopefully I'll be able to catch up with her again tomorrow to ask.
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The GSTL finals were amazing. Production was a notch above IPL4 for sure. Koreans sure know how to put on a show. Wow.
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After the GSTL my friends and I went for minor drinks and some penny slots. I lost $10 :(
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Lets see what happens tomorrow!Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-11633842871057293172012-04-07T09:03:00.007-07:002012-04-07T09:03:50.480-07:00IPL4 - Day 1 (aka Vegas Day 2)I almost forgot to write this.<br />
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I meant to last night but ended up spending a couple hours watching TV before crashing.
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So yesterday was a fucking FANTASTIC day. Roll out of bed and get ready to head off to IPL4. I had originally intended to pick up some breakfast before heading over the Cosmopolitan, but everywhere had a lineup a mile long (figure of speech).
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I didn't have that much time to waste on it so I just went straight there, figured I'd pick up some baked goods or something. There's a little basically "on-the-run" shop on the 2nd floor of the Cosmo that I picked some grub up at. The chocolate croissant was delicious, however their "Orange Juice" wasn't orange juice. It was some sort of disgusting tropical fruit thing that I immediately threw out. Blech.
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So I get upstairs to the registration desk and pick up my badge. It's a regular spectator pass though. Odd. I start looking for the SC2 entrance. Basically nothing going on in terms of signage (wtf IPL), so it took me about 15-20 minutes to finally figure out the SC2 main stage was in the "Chelsea" hall - hahaha irony.
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I ask the nice guy at the door about VIP passes. Turns out the registration desk had given me the wrong pass. /sigh. Go back, get right pass. Much better.
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Get back in line and I start to feel at home in nerd-dom. The security guard at the door has never heard of SC2 before, but is interested to know what all the fuss is about. Pretty cool lady. Had a lot of fun chatting with her and the other nerds in line. There was one physically disabled person there that had just gotten back from a trip around the world to talk to other disabled gamers and how they play. I thought that was super awesome, and we chatted about who we thought was going to win. We agreed that MKP was likely to take it.
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Doors open, and I get to walk right TO THE FRONT. I was literally 6 feet from the stage. I'm not shitting you. I took a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150771119396438.463079.710031437&type=3&l=3c3082f8a6">bunch of pictures from where I was sitting</a> and uploaded them to Bookface. It's shared globally so I'm pretty sure everyone can see them.
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The games were pretty good overall. Some were obviously better than others. NesTea and MKP looked incredibly dominant. Poor White-Ra :(
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The problem though is the casting was kind of lackluster. Other than Painuser and HDStarcraft it was kinda....."meh". I don't think Doa and dApollo are a good match, and I think the tournament suffered from not having Day[J], Tastosis, Wheat, or Rob Simpson casting. Also the lack of "analysis desk" that MLG has kinda hurts. I still get a lot out of it since I know what's going on in SC2, but anyone that might be checking out the stream for the first time, or is new to SC2 would be lost I think. Even with Anna Prosser and Rachel Quirico (SeltzerPlease) there, still not enough.
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Regardless I'm looking forward to day 2!Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-81715180591119192042012-04-06T01:38:00.001-07:002012-04-06T01:40:08.750-07:00So Vegas.
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I've never been before so I had no idea what to expect. I mean I'd seen it on TV and movies a bunch, but I had no idea what it would be like in real life. It's fun sure, but it's a TON more fun if you come with a significant other. Fair warning I'm extremely drunk right now and listening to The Guild songs.
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I was convinced to come down here by my roommate Chelsea, who is one of the most awesome people alive. There was this flight/hotel deal at the Ballagio, so we booked for Easter weekend. At first glance it didn't seem like something I'd be terribly interested in. Then I find out IPL4 was going to be held the same weekend. In Vegas.<br />
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I was stoked. Even more so after watching the LO3 from yesterday. Apparently the open bracket is going to be sick, and I GET TO WITNESS ALL OF IT.
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If you didn't know by now I'm a passionate fan of eSports. Day<9> is my hero. Tasteless is king of the nerds (behind Deadmau5 of course), and DRG is my favourite player. Suffice to say I was <i>extremely</i> stoked once I heard that IPL4 was going to be the same weekend as I was already going to Vegas. Granted I was a little dissapointed that my favourite people (DjWheat, Tasteless, Artosis, EGiNcOntroL) were going to PAX East, but still. Tons of awesome happening here.<br />
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Now that I've been here for an entire day I have some thoughts on Vegas itself.
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<ul>
<li>It's WAY better if you go with a significant other. WAY better. I'm here with a bunch of my friends (practically all of whom are couples), and yeah. Way better if you come as a pair.</li>
<li>OMG THE SMOKING INDOORS. I don't think I could handle coming back here, and I thank god that I'm going to be spending most of my time at IPL4. I don't think I'll come back here unless it's with a group of friends, and I'm attached.</li>
<li>The music at the clubs (at least those I experienced) is kinda meh. Sorta dissapointing really. The clubs in Victoria have better music (wtf). </li>
<li>Food is largely overpriced. Which again is dissapointing. Coming from someone that makes a habit of staying at 5-star hotels in Vancouver that's saying something.</li>
<li>DRINKS ARE FUCKING EXPENSIVE. A Red-Bull-Vodka cost me like $15 in Vegas. Back home (Victoria) it's only like $10. Maybe.</li>
<li>I vastly prefer locations where I know all of the people are nerds (ie. Blizzcon). Chilling out with Lissanna, Sunnier, Murmurs, Oestrus, Perculia, and others was probably one of the best experiences I've ever had.</li>
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You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to experiencing IPL4. Not to mention Blizzcon next year, when hopefully ALL of Team Waffle will be there /crossfingers. Man that would be some sick shit. Imagine having this list of people in a room together:
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<ul>
<li>Me</li>
<li>Lissanna</li>
<li>Reesi</li>
<li>Clay</li>
<li>Rona</li>
<li>Sunnier</li>
<li>Murmurs</li>
<li>Allison Roberts</li>
<li>Alaron?</li>
<li>Fasc?</li>
<li>Juvenate</li>
<li>Beru?</li>
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Talk about epic Druid meetup. Although now I'm just daydreaming.
IPL4 day 1 to follow tomorrowAriellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-37847350282819105792012-03-21T19:04:00.000-07:002012-03-21T19:04:42.458-07:00Mass Effect 3 - So this is still burningSo apparently this whole ending controversy is still burning. Wonder how many bits of internet it will consume before it finally dies out.
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I've already made my thoughts clear on how I feel about the ending. The thing is now the major publications are starting to weigh in. Unfortunately most of them are completely missing the point.<br />
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People aren't upset "just because". There are legitimate problems with the ending. I won't go into them since you can read about them <a href="http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/">here</a>, or better yet, <a href="http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10022779/1">here</a>. But this isn't a post to say whether or not the ending was good or bad. This is a post to question those who are coming out and categorically saying you cannot change the ending of "art".<br />
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I say "Why the fuck not?"<br />
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Many people are holding up examples of things in other media that didn't end as fans had hoped. <i>Lost</i>, and the <i>Matrix</i> trilogy are the most common examples. The thing is these same people are lumping games into the same molding as other forms of media. Games aren't the same. No other form of media (short of a choose-your-own-adventure book) relies on customer/fan/player interaction to move the story forward. Sure you can point out any number of choose-your-own-adventure books that are equally "meh" in their endings, but I challenge you to find me a 6 thousand pager. Go on. I'll wait.
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They don't exist.
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Games are a unique form of expression, and yes they are art. However just because they are art doesn't mean they aren't subject to the unique form of feedback that games are. <a href="http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/mass-effect-3/1220833p1.html">Dan Stapleton wrote a brief piece</a> on a few games that were "changed" by the developers (and one that was a fan creation) for quite frankly, reasons which are far inferior than those cited for <i>Mass Effect 3</i>. The overwhelming majority of people are looking for more explanation and/or exposition than what was provided. We're not "demanding" a complete re-write or anything insane, we're just looking for more information.<br />
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The great (and I'm not being sarcastic here) <a href="http://blog.bioware.com/2012/03/21/4108/">Ray Muzyka himself posted a message</a> to players expressing his concern over the reaction to the ending. Queue craziness from almost every major gaming news site. Has anyone ever stopped to consider that maybe they're concerned that people didn't understand the intended message? What if they set the bar too high for their players, and a huge number of them sailed under it?
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What if they're just trying to help people understand what the intended message was? Is that really so bad?
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The closest thing for me in recent memory is the ending of the Stargate SG-1 teevee series. It ended long before the story was actually finished, and a lot of unknowns were still floating around. The thing is the nature of teevee (and movies, and books) makes it <i>almost impossible</i> to add more exposition once the end is reached. However a couple of direct-to-dvd movies followed that tied up the remaining loose threads (even if they were kinda quick). Of course this is analogous to the DLC that Ray mentions in his open letter.
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Is it preferable to get the message across the first time? Obviously.
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If you fail, does that mean it's impossible to try again? Absolutely not.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-52741832173263271262012-03-17T16:20:00.000-07:002012-03-17T16:20:10.965-07:00Mass Effect 3 - It All Comes Down To The EndI've been thinking about writing something like this ever since I finished my first play through of <i>Mass Effect 3</i>. There's been a number of opinions floating around about the ending, with some people going so far as to start a fundraiser for Child's Play to draw awareness to the "issue". I use quotes because the majority of the critics out there including <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/DanStapleton/status/180075820537217025">Dan Stapleton - EIC of Gamespy</a>, and a number of the PCGamer editorial staff (PC Gamer Podcast US#309) strongly believe in the developer's right to end their stories in a way they see fit.
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However a few others such as <a href="http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/">Ross Lincoln from Gamefront</a> agree with what is largely a "grass-roots" gaming movement. What do I think? Well it's somewhere between the two.<br />
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The thing is you can't really discuss the ending in a vacuum. That completely invalidates the entire experience you took to get to that point. So let's start with combat.
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<b>Combat</b>
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Combat is easily the best yet in the series. All classes are viable and even have more than one "build" that can be used, with one typically favouring melee combat and one favouring ranged and/or powers. Speaking of melee combat it has been significantly improved with a new "Heavy Melee" attack. This attack uses Shepard's Omni Tool to generate a special attack that depends on class. A Soldier for instance uses a simple but effective blade, while an Engineer uses a blade infused with blazing heat.
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Enemy AI has also drastically improved. Melee fodder units such as Husks will charge your lines while basic infantry units like Cannibals lob grenades to force you out of cover. Each faction also functions differently. Cerberus prefers a slow methodical advance behind smoke grenades and Guardians. Reapers will continually throw melee units at your front line to attempt to break it. Geth are a mix between the two, but largely preferring to engage from range with Rocket Troopers and Primes.
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As always the 5 main types of weapons remain, but this time there are far more choices for each one. Not only that, but there are 5 different types of mods for each weapon. Of those mods you can pick two to put in your weapon at any given time. Armor customization is probably the best it has ever been with different pieces you can mix and match your own set from, or you can use a complete set of armor that is meant to work together. On top of that you can pick colours and patterns to individualize your Shepard even further, at least beyond the normal face customization.
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Bioware listened to the criticisms of past games when it came to the combat, and it shows in just how much it has improved in the final installment.
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<b>Character Interactions
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<b>(or ArrPeeGee-Ness)</b>
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Unsurprisingly <i>Mass Effect 3</i> also "turns it up to 11" with regards to interactions with different characters. The quality of the voice over work is probably the best I've seen yet in any game. In particular Jennifer Hale (FemShep), Ali Hillis (Liara), Brandon Keener (Garrus), Tricia Helfer (EDI), Martin Sheen (Illusive Man), Seth Green (Joker), Mark Meer (ManShep and especially Mordin Solus), Courtenay Taylor (Jack), and Ash Sroka (Tali) all hit it out of the park (to say the least). Obviously it doesn't stop there, the direction and rest of the voice cast also performed extremely well. Even Jessica Chobot (Diana Allers) who admittedly raised some eyebrows initially, also performed her role as an Alliance News reporter very well.<br />
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Something that was relatively new to Mass Effect, and even Bioware, are ambient conversations that take place around the Normandy. These add the kind of banter we've come to expect from Bioware games, without necessarily forcing them to happen "in party" so-to-speak.
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Almost every character that you have run into by the time you are playing ME3 will show up in one fashion or another. Some you will actually interact with in the game, while others show up in news messages you read on the Normandy. This sense of being a part of the universe itself is why Mass Effect is so amazing.
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Bioware has even taken it a step further this time with its new "ME3Datapad" iOS application. This free app extends the experience to your Apple device, allowing characters in the game to send you what amounts to "tweets". Not only that, but these messages are directly related to the events that happen within the game you are currently playing. For people (like myself) that value this sort of interaction with the universe it's a truly amazing idea, and extremely well executed.
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When it comes to the romances (which are really just character interactions that attempt a deeper emotional bond with the player), some are good, and others are not as great. Of the three games I have done so far both Garrus and Liara are extremely well written. Both take into account the events of <i>Mass Effect 2</i>, and both continue to act according to how those events played out. Ashley however ... not quite as good. She seems to have a giant goddamn chip on her shoulder for some reason, even though judging by the letter she sends in ME2 she got over it. Apparently not though as she continues to be aloof and well...quite bitchy for the majority of ME3.<br />
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I've heard that both Kaidan and Tali are exceptional, but I have not had the chance to play that road yet myself. I plan to at some point though.
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All in all however, ME3 does stand head and shoulders above the rest in this regard.<br />
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<b>Evolution of Storytelling</b><br />
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I'm not going to sugar-coat this. ME3 is dark. Really dark. Characters will die. Very early on it's possible to have Mordin Solus (the Salarian scientist from ME2) sacrifice himself for the greater good. From what I've been able to find out, this only happens if certain conditions exist - otherwise it's possible to dissuade him. The very first time I watched helplessly as Mordin completes his work (much like Spock dying in Star Trek 2) it hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt bad. I felt like I had lost a friend.<br />
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This theme continues throughout the game. Depending on your choices it's possible for other people to lose their lives as well, and you're helpless except to watch the consequences of your actions and wonder what you did wrong. I haven't been drawn into this sort of emotional response since ... well I don't really remember to be honest. I had never felt this sense of loss before - likely because I've never taken part in a series of interactive media that can span over 100 hours of actual playing.<br />
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It's not just the scenes either. The music is instrumental in drawing out these sorts of emotional reactions from the players. The musical score for <i>Mass Effect 3</i> is easily the best in the series.
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All of these elements combine to create a storytelling experience that frankly, has not yet been attempted. And Kudos to Bioware for doing an amazing job.
<b></b><br />
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<b>And It All Comes Crashing Down</b>
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Which leads us to the ending. All stories must eventually come to an end. Luke Skywalker defeated the Emperor and the Rebels destroyed the Death Star. Frodo destroyed the One Ring, defeating Sauron. Later he and his friends would return to the Shire to save it from its own corruption, before finally heading west over the Ocean. You'll notice that the two examples I used are from arguably the two most popular and beloved trilogies in popular culture, with Mass Effect set to become the third. The problem is, Mass Effect <i>doesn't really end</i>.
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Many people are divided into two possible camps regarding the ending. It either did, or did not, actually happen. Personally I'm of the opinion that it was in fact an intentional attempt to mess with player's heads. The amount of evidence pointing to this as the desire is absolutely astounding. <a href="http://www.gamebreaker.tv/pc-games/i-hate-you-shepard/">Mike B does a great job</a> of laying it all out there for you to absorb. I encourage you to go watch that video, and I believe it will convince you. If that doesn't, then remember that the "actual" ending to Mass Effect 2 was the <i>Arrival</i> DLC, not the ending of the original game. This wouldn't be the first time.
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The thing is, the only alternative to the "indoctrination theory" is that Bioware somehow intentionally created an ending that is so full of holes that you would be forgiven if you thought someone tossed a frag grenade at it. Past experience has shown me that great developers (like Bioware) adhere strongly to their canon, and don't intentionally suddenly decide it's all meaningless. I refuse to believe that actually happened.
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Do I believe it was wrong to give us and ending that wasn't actually an ending? Yes. As Ross Lincoln states in the article above "That kind of terseness, in addition to just feeling cheap, also manages the particularly nasty trick of completely robbing players of closure." This is exactly how I felt after completing my first game. I was so confused by the ending that I literally just sat at my computer for almost an entire half-hour, at 3:30am. I wanted to know what happened to my Liara. How did she make it out alive? Why was Joker in a relay jump? How could I have been responsible for stranding her on some random alien planet?<br />
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I felt terrible. I wanted to cry. I actually felt so bad that I had to go back and re-do the ending just make a choice that Liara would've approved of.
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And the same damn thing happened. At least this time a piece of me would always be with her though.
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I don't particularly agree with the rest of his article, but the closure part definitely hit home with me. Apparently it also did with Casey Hudson as well. A <a href="http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/324/index/10089946">post went up on the Bioware community site from Casey last night</a>. In it he mentions "we also recognize that some of our most passionate fans needed more closure, more answers, and more time to say goodbye to their stories—and these comments are equally valid. Player feedback such as this has always been an essential ingredient in the development of the series." Some are quick to point out that this doesn't necessarily mean anything. I disagree.<br />
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Later on in the article Casey also mentions "An outpouring of love for Garrus and Tali led to their inclusion as love interests in Mass Effect 2. A request for deeper RPG systems led to key design changes in Mass Effect 3. Your feedback has always mattered. Mass Effect is a collaboration between developers and players, and we continue to listen." I choose to be optimistic.
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I choose to believe that I will finally get closure.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-51801091153973305552012-03-16T23:35:00.003-07:002012-03-16T23:38:32.636-07:00DKKitty RelaunchHey Everyone,<br /><br />So I've been wanting a place to write sort-of more personal view blogposts for a while. I've been hesitatnt to use TiB for that since it may be viewed as more of an "official" writing rather than just my own personal opinion.<br /><br />So I've come back to use Death Kitty as my platform.<br /><br />I'll admit that this was partially inspired by the whole "controversy" over the Mass Effect 3 ending(s) and my desire to add my voice to it. As such, I'll be putting something up tomorrow about my views on Mass Effect 3. It'll probably be really long but well (I hope) worth the read.<br /><br />I've updated the style as well to be a bit more modern. Let me know what you think. <br /><br />~AriAriellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-85921227699431784202011-02-19T01:13:00.001-08:002011-02-19T01:16:03.066-08:00Arielle's Bear Threat Spreadsheet - V2.0Hey kids,<br /><br />I finally finished out v2.0 of my threat spreadsheet, which is up-to-date with 4.0.6a. I calc'ed out mangle (within a 0.0005% variance - which is good enough for me) and added it to the sheet.<br /><br />While doing so, I found another bug.<br /><br />The base damage of Mangle is not multiplied by MSS. It's nothing game breaking or anything, but I mean, come on. It can't be that hard to miss. That's just fucking pathetic.<br /><br />/rage<br /><br /><a href="http://www.teamwafflecast.com/Resources/Threatv2_0.xlsx">Here's the sheet yo.</a>Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-2713320142266305732011-02-10T19:20:00.001-08:002011-02-10T19:23:23.728-08:00Tank Threat Part 1 - ScalingTanks serve a really simple function in principle, but a really wierd one in practice.<br /><br />The principle is to control. Control damage output, where it is directed to, and positioning. The implementation varies from class to class. However there are two basic principles they all share:<br /><br />1) Damage intake reduction. They should all take fairly similar amounts of damage, although the methods by which this is controlled may vary.<br />2) Threat output. All tanks should be able to output enough threat to keep the target focussed on them. This of course has to scale upwards to keep pace with DPS output from other classes.<br /><br />I'm not going to examine the first one, I'll leave that to others. I'm going to focus on #2 - Threat Output.<br /><br />The first big thing about Threat Output is that it needs to be fun. Now while fun is a subjective term, the universal truth of RPGs is that people like big numbers. Big numbers are awesome.<br /><br />Now you could just say "Well then make tanks do 0 damage, and just generate threat numbers." That might be enough for some people, but the universal truth about MMOs is that people like competition. They need some way of comparing themselves to others. In WoW specifically this comes down to Damage, and Healing.<br /><br />This means that just dealing Threat numbers isn't enough. Tanks need to do damage as well. However problems start arising when you need to be able to scale the Damage (and therefore threat) as content progresses along tiers. How do you pick a method to do this that allows your character to grow and progress, but doesn't hamper you or your raid's ability to clear content?<br /><br />Blizzard has chosen to use something called "Vengeance". This increases a Tank's attack power by a 5% of incoming damage, up to a maximum of 10% of your Base Health + Buffed Stamina. Unfortunately there are inherent problems with this method.<br /><br />The first and most obvious is that it doesn't scale backwards (or downwards I guess) as well as DPS does. By this I mean a DPS class will continue to do high amounts of DPS at lower tiers of content (be they raids or 5mans), but a Tank will not be able to do as much relative Threat. Of course you could always follow the "tank off your pants" method to solve this problem, but that shouldn't be necesarry. A tank should be able to generate sufficient amounts of threat to hold off equally geared DPS, regardless of the level of content they are doing.<br /><br />The second is that any Tank that has mitigation that scales off of AP, cannot have their mitigation and threat independantly balanced while Vengeance exists. Increasing mitigation will decrease opening levels of threat, but increasing opening levels of threat to compensate for this makes the Tank completely overpowered at high levels of Vengeance.<br /><br />I'm speaking of course, of Druids.<br /><br />If we were to do away with Vengeance, we would have to find some other method of scaling Threat output with gear progression. So what does each Tank have in common with relatively similar values?<br /><br />- Item Level<br />- Health<br />- Mastery<br />- Incoming Damage<br />- Outgoing Damage<br /><br />Item Level is a pretty hokey concept, and I'd rather it remain simply a descriptor rather than an actual gameplay mechanic.<br /><br />Mastery I like as a concept, but you could only have it increase the amount of threat generated, not damage. This seems to go against the concept of "fun".<br /><br />We've already tried a combination of Health + Incoming damage, and look where that got us.<br /><br />But what about Outgoing damage? It's much more constant than incoming damage, making it a much more reliable scalar for both future and past content. But how do you determine how it caps? Well, why not use the existing Vengeance formula?<br /><br />That means 5% of your outgoing damage is added to your AP, with a maximum cap of 10% of your base health + your Stamina. Thia makes Vengeance:<br /><br />1) Much more of an "active" scalar than a gear/encounter dependant one.<br />2) It becomes much more constant and reliable for threat generation. This makes it much easier to balance around.<br />3) Tank switches become less of an issue since both should be building up equal amounts.<br />4) Avoidance strings become a good thing and don't cause your threat to suffer.<br />5) It scales downward infinitely better than the current model.<br /><br />The only problem is that it becomes more of a constant in PvP. The solution? Disable it when PvP flagged.<br /><br />And no, I don't give a rat's ass if you want Tank-specs to be viable in PvP.<br /><br />I'll be making a post later on about what could be done to balance or improve Druid threat specifically.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-76380876272801310782011-02-08T01:02:00.001-08:002011-02-08T16:26:44.990-08:00Team Waffle Podcast Episode 4Is now up. <br /><br />Check it.<br /><br /><a href="http://teamwafflecast.com/?p=103 ">http://teamwafflecast.com/?p=103</a>Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-82371330513269330172011-01-16T15:06:00.000-08:002011-01-16T15:13:00.173-08:00Arielle's Threat Spreadsheet - V1.1I updated my spreadsheet with more accurate Live values, mostly at <a href="http://www.theincbear.com">Reesi's</a> behest. I was slacking >.><br /><br />Most of my calculations were accurate within a very, very tiny variance (less than 1%). However Thrash is just completely messed up.<br /><br />I've tried every way I can think of to use Blizzard's datamined Tooltip information, and I just can't get correct values when I use it. Not even close. It doesn't make any sense.<br /><br />If anyone has any insight they'd like to share with me I'm all ears.<br /><br />I've also added Pulverize damage with 3 different weapons (Heroic Seliza's, Malevolence, and Herioc Malevolence). I was going to add Mangle, but I had a small damage variance that I just couldn't account for. Maybe I'll try and figure it out again later, but eh. Part of me feels like it's counting the bonus from MSS twice. Maybe I'll respec later to test that theory.<br /><br />Anyways, <a href="http://www.teamwafflecast.com/Resources/Threatv1_1.xlsx">here is the sheet</a>.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-35972432522538758052011-01-13T23:01:00.001-08:002011-01-13T23:02:24.972-08:00Team Waffle Podcast - EP#2Hey Ya'll,<br /><br />I forgot to tell you, but Episode #2 of the Team Waffle Podcast is now available.<br /><br />Check it here:<br /><br /><a href="http://teamwafflecast.com/?p=78">http://teamwafflecast.com/?p=78</a>Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-88507175398477422472010-12-21T18:22:00.001-08:002011-03-03T07:58:01.275-08:00Gearing your pre-raid Bear Pt. 3 - Post-RaidI've constructed a normal mode raid gear list that has what I am pretty sure are the BiS items/enchants for a Bear. This list was constructed with the following restrictions:<br /><br />1) No BoP profession specific items. This is not a "is Profession X better than Profession Y" debate.<br />2) Randomly enchanted BoEs from Temple of Wind were ignored. These cannot be relied on. In some cases they will definitely be better than the static drops, but are incredibly random.<br />3) No PvP gear was used. I'll be making a post later on regarding PvP vs PvE gear.<br />4) Avoid Haste if it all possible. It is a terrible, terrible stat for Bears.<br />5) The least desirable secondary stat was reforged to Dodge Rating, regardless of what it was.<br />6) This is for maximum <strong><em>MITIGATION</em></strong>, not <strong><em>THREAT</em></strong>. If you are having threat issues when you start raiding (not likely) you can drop some of the Hit / Expertise reforges.<br /><br />Gemming:<br /><br />For the most part gem Agility, unless the socket bonus warrants something else. If you are having survivability issues (ie. not enough health), then switch to primarily gemming Stamina unless the socket bonus warrants it. You will still need 2 Yellow (+Dodge) gems to make your Meta work.<br /><br />Reforging:<br /><br />As previously mentioned, reforge the least valuable secondary stat to Dodge Rating.<br /><br />Item List:<br /><br />Helm: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=60202" class="q4" rel="gems=52294:52238&ench=4206" target="blank">[Tsanga's Helm]</a><br />Reforge: 67 Crit Rating -> 67 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Trash Drop in Bastion of Twilight.<br /><br />Necklace: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=59517" class="q4" target="blank">[Necklace of Strife]</a><br />Reforge: 50 Haste Rating -> 50 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=45992" target="blank">Valiona</a> in Bastion of Twilight.<br /><br />Shoulders: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=59120" class="q4" rel="gems=52212&ench=4204" target="blank">[Poison Protocol Pauldrons]</a><br />Reforge: 59 Crit Rating -> 59 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: The "Tron" encounter in Blackwing Descent.<br /><br />Back: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=59348" class="q4" rel="ench=4090" target="blank">[Cloak of Biting Chill]</a><br />Reforge: 50 Crit Rating -> 50 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=41378" target="blank">Maloriak</a> in Blackwing Descent.<br /><br />Chest: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=59318" class="q4" rel="gems=52212:52229&ench=4102" target="blank">[Sark of the Unwatched]</a><br />Reforge: 79 Crit Rating -> 79 Dodge Rating<br />Obainted: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=41442" target="blank">Atramedes</a> in Blackwing Descent.<br /><br />Wrist: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=59329" class="q4" rel="ench=4086" target="blank">[Parasitic Bands]</a><br />Reforge: 50 Crit Rating -> 50 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=41570" target="blank">Magmaw</a> in Blackwing Descent.<br /><br />Hands: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=59223" class="q4" rel="gems=52212&ench=4107" target="blank">[Double Attack Handguards]</a><br />Reforge: 59 Expertise Rating -> 59 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=43296" target="blank">Chimaeron</a> in Blackwing Descent.<br /><br />Waist: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=56537" class="q4" rel="sock&gems=52212" target="blank">[Belt of Nefarious Whispers]</a><br />Reforge: 73 Hit Rating -> 73 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Leatherworking.<br /><br />Legs: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=60288" class="q4" rel="gems=52229:52238&ench=4127" target="new">[Stormrider's Legguards]</a><br />Reforge: 75 Critical Rating -> 75 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Purchasable with 2200 Valor Points.<br /><br />Feet: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=59469" class="q4" rel="gems=52212&ench=4105" target="blank">[Storm Rider's Boots]</a><br />Reforge: 59 Haste Rating -> 59 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=44600" target="blank">Halfus Wyrmbreaker</a> in Bastion of Twilight.<br /><br />Ring: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=68812" class="q4" target="blank">[Hornet Sting Band]</a><br />Reforge: 52 Haste Rating -> 52 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: 1250 Valor Points.<br /><br />Ring: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=62362" class="q4" target="blank">[Signet of the Elder Council]</a><br />Reforge: 50 Haste Rating -> 50 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Exalted Reputation with The Earthen Ring.<br /><br />Trinket: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=56394" class="q3" target="blank">[Tia's Grace]</a><br />Reforge: Nothing<br />Obtained: Heroic Dungeon drop from <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=44819" target="blank">Siamat</a> in the Lost City of the Tol'Vir.<br /><br />Trinket: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=58181" class="q4" target="blank">[Fluid Death]</a><br />Reforge: 128 Hit Rating -> 128 Dodge Rating.<br />Obtained: Purchasable with 1650 Valor Points.<br /><br />Weapon: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=59474" class="q4" rel="ench=4227" target="blank">[Malevolence]</a><br />Reforge: 91 Crit Rating -> 91 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=44600" target="blank">Halfus Wyrmbreaker</a> in Bastion of Twilight.<br /><br />Relic: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=64671" class="q4" rel="gems=52212" target="blank">[Relic of Golganneth]</a><br />Reforge: 28 Haste Rating -> 28 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Purchasable with 700 Valor Points.<br /><br />Additional Trinkets that you will want to pick up, should you need them:<br /><br />Trinket: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=59332" class="q4" target="blank">[Symbiotic Worm]</a><br />Reforge: Nothing.<br />Obtained: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=41570" target="blank">Magmaw</a> in Blackwing Descent.<br /><br />Trinket: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=62471" class="q4" target="blank">[Mirror of Broken Images]</a><br />Reforge: Nothing.<br />Obtained: Exalted with Baradin's Wardens.<br /><br />Trinket: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=59515" class="q4" target="blank">[Vial of Stolen Memories]</a><br />Reforge: Nothing.<br />Obtained: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=45992" target="blank">Valiona</a> in Bastion of Twilight.<br /><br />Trinket: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=59473" class="q4" target="blank">[Essence of the Cyclone]</a><br />Reforge: Nothing.<br />Obtained: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=44600" target="blank">Halfus Wyrmbreaker</a> in Bastion of Twilight.<br /><br />Notes:<br /><br />There is very little choice when it comes to gearing your Bear at T11. Since our stat priorities are very clearly defined, there is only 1 piece of gear that fits those priorities per slot. In some cases, there's only even 1 option (Relic, Weapon). Talk about removing "choice" from gearing. Jeezus.<br /><br />The two trinkets listed in the main set are what I would use for regular tanking. The additional trinkets fill niches that you may find uses for. Additionally, the BiS Heroic Level raid set will be identical to this one except with Heroic versions with the exception of the helm. The helm will be replaced with the T11 helm.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-55006726584117047822010-12-21T14:28:00.000-08:002010-12-21T14:30:23.815-08:00Team Waffle Podcast - Ep 1Hey y'all,<br /><br />I wanted to let you know that I finally finished the post-production <a href="http://www.teamwafflecast.com">Team Waffle's</a> first podcast episode.<br /><br />Get it <a href="http://teamwafflecast.com/?p=57">here</a>.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-89448189467876003852010-12-14T23:26:00.000-08:002010-12-15T00:00:20.215-08:00Arielle's Spreadsheet V1.0So I did a spreadsheet. It shows the AP coeffecients for our threat abilities, except Mangle. I chose to ignore Mangle since it is far, far, far and away our best Threat ability, so modelling it is kind of pointless.<br /><br />So what I've found so far while doing this, after hours of math:<br /><br />1) Thrash does not currently consume Omen of Clarity procs. This has to be a bug.<br />2) The bleed portion of Thrash is affected by Armor. This is contrary to the very definition of a bleed. This has to also be a bug.<br />3) Pulverize scales like crap. Although since its only purpose is to grant 9% Crit, that doesn't really matter.<br />4) There's a breakpoint around 9500 AP where Thrash becomes better than Lacereate for Threat. However since Lacerate will trump Thrash for mitigation this won't really matter until possibly T13 or T14.<br />5) There is also a breakpoint around 20,000 AP where FFF becomes better than Lacerate for threat. However again since Lacerate is better for Mitigation, and that this also depends on the Spell Damage debuff existing, it doesn't have any practical application.<br />6) All of the Bear damage ability tooltips are incorrect, except FFF.<br /><br />You can find the spreadsheet <a href="http://www.teamwafflecast.com/Resources/Threat.xlsx">here</a>. Let me know if you find anything or have any questions.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-1688510856600001452010-12-06T16:32:00.000-08:002010-12-06T16:34:05.983-08:00EJ = Sad PandaTook EJ off my link list because their theorycrafting is mostly crap now.<br /><br />Plus they use Rawr for choosing tank gear.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-36954277881293726162010-12-05T12:54:00.000-08:002011-03-06T19:03:39.954-08:00Gearing your pre-raid Bear Pt 2: ItemsI've constructed a pre-raid gear list that has what I am pretty sure are the BiS items/enchants for a Bear. This list was constructed with the following restrictions:<br /><br />1) No BoP profession specific items. This is not a "is Profession X better than Profession Y" debate.<br />2) No crafted items that require BoP materials. This means nothing that needs Chaos Orbs.<br />3) No enchants that need Maelstrom Crystals. I'm pretty sure they are not reliably obtainable outside of raiding, and since this is a <strong><em>pre-raid</em></strong> gearset, well, you see where I'm going with this.<br />4) Avoid Haste if it all possible. It is a terrible, terrible stat for Bears.<br />5) The least desirable secondary stat was reforged to Dodge Rating, regardless of what it was.<br />6) This is for maximum <strong><em>MITIGATION</em></strong>, not <strong><em>THREAT</em></strong>. If you are having threat issues when you start raiding (not likely) you can drop some of the Hit / Expertise reforges.<br /><br />Gemming:<br /><br />For the most part gem Agility, unless the socket bonus warrants something else. If you are having survivability issues (ie. not enough health), then switch to primarily gemming Stamina unless the socket bonus warrants it. You will still need 2 Yellow (+Dodge) gems to make your Meta work.<br /><br />Reforging:<br /><br />As previously mentioned, reforge the least valuable secondary stat to Dodge Rating.<br /><br />Item List:<br /><br />Helm: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=56344" class="q3" rel="gems=52294:52238&ench=4206" target="blank">[Helm of Numberless Shadows]</a><br />Reforge: 72 Hit Rating -> 72 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Heroic Dungeon drop from <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=42333" target="blank">High Priestess Azil</a> in Stonecore.<br /><br />Necklace: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=56338" class="q3" target="blank">[Pendant of the Lightless Grotto]</a><br />Reforge: 44 Crit Rating -> 44 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Heroic Dungeon drop from <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=42188" target="blank">Ozruk</a> in Stonecore.<br /><br />Shoulders: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=58134" class="q3" rel="gems=52212&ench=4204" target="blank">[Embrace of the Night]</a><br />Reforge: 52 Hit Rating -> 52 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Purchasable with 1650 Justice Points.<br /><br />Back: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=63473" class="q3" rel="ench=4090" target="blank">[Cloak of Thredd]</a><br />Reforge: 44 Crit Rating -> 44 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Heroic Dungeon drop from <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=42753" target="blank">Helix Gearbreaker</a> in Deadmines.<br /><br />Chest: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=56455" class="q3" rel="gems=52212:52212&ench=4063" target="blank">[Vest of Misshapen Hides]</a><br />Reforge: 64 Crit Rating -> 64 Dodge Rating<br />Obainted: Heroic Dungeon drop from <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=40484" target="blank">Erudax</a> in Grim Batol.<br /><br />Wrist: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=63454" class="q3" rel="ench=4086" target="blank">[Double Dealing Bracers]</a><br />Reforge: 44 Crit Rating -> 44 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Heroic Dungeon drop from Lord Walden in Shadowfang Keep.<br /><br />Hands: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=62433" class="q4" rel="gems=52229&ench=4061" target="blank">[Stormbolt Gloves]</a><br />Reforge: 67 Haste Rating -> 67 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Exalted Reputation with Wildhammer Clan.<br /><br />Waist: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=57918" class="q3" rel="sock&gems=52212:52212" target="blank">[Sash of Musing]</a><br />Reforge: 52 Expertise Rating -> 52 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Purchasable with 1650 Justice Points.<br /><br />Legs: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=58132" class="q3" rel="gems=52238:52212&ench=4127" target="blank">[Leggings of the Burrowing Mole]</a><br />Reforge: 64 Expertise Rating -> 64 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Purchasable with 2200 Justice Points.<br /><br />Feet: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=63435" class="q3" rel="gems=52229&ench=4076" target="blank">[Boots of the Predator]</a><br />Reforge: 52 Hit Rating -> 52 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Heroic Dungeon drop from Baron Ashbury in Shadowfang Keep.<br /><br />Ring: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=52348" class="q3" rel="gems=52212" target="blank">[Elementium Destroyer's Ring]</a><br />Reforge: 35 Crit Rating -> 35 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: BoE from Jewelcrafting.<br /><br />Ring: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=62362" class="q4" target="blank">[Signet of the Elder Council]</a><br />Reforge: 50 Haste Rating -> 50 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Exalted Reputation with The Earthen Ring.<br /><br />Trinket: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=56347" class="q3" target="blank">[Leaden Despair]</a><br />Reforge: Nothing.<br />Obtained: Heroic Dungeon drop from <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=42333" target="blank">High Priestess Azil</a> in Stonecore.<br /><br />Trinket: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=56394" class="q3" target="blank">[Tia's Grace]</a><br />Reforge: Nothing<br />Obtained: Heroic Dungeon drop from <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=44819" target="blank">Siamat</a> in the Lost City of the Tol'Vir.<br /><br />Weapon: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=56382" class="q3" rel="ench=4227" target="blank">[Seliza's Spear]</a><br />Reforge: 54 Crit Rating -> 54 Dodge Rating<br />Obatined: Heroic Dungeon drop from <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=44577" target="blank">General Husam</a> in the Lost City of the Tol'vir.<br /><br />Relic: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=56316" class="q3" rel="gems=52212" target="blank">[Sandshift Relic]</a><br />Reforge: 25 Hit Rating -> 25 Dodge Rating<br />Obtained: Heroic Dungeon drop from <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=39705" target="blank">Ascendant Lord Obsidious</a> in Blackrock Caverns.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-66394760720395563392010-12-05T01:32:00.000-08:002010-12-21T11:55:18.258-08:00Gearing your pre-raid Bear Pt 1: StatsThere are a number of pre-raid gearing guides floating around out there. Some of them (like Ri's) are good. Some of the other ones (like people assuming parry-haste still exists) are not.<br /><br />I've put together a gear guide for a "pre-raid" bear using <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1083360391">Fasc's spreadsheet</a>. You may not choose to believe me, but I've tried pretty much every viable combination including gems. I do not however claim it is perfect, and there may have been something I have overlooked. If you think something doesn't fit please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know (see the right hand side for how).<br /><br />I've split this into two parts. Part 1 will discuss the various stats, what they do, and their relative values. Part 2 will have the actual gear list. So here weeee goooooooo!<br /><br /><strong>Stats:</strong><br /><br /><strong>Agility:</strong> <br /><br />Agility is the "bread n butter" stat of any Feral Druid, be they Cat or Bear. It increases Attack Power (AP), Critical Strike Chance, and Dodge %. The amount of Agility is mostly tied to the iLvL (Item Level) and quality (Uncommon / Rare / Epic) of the gear. There can be some variation but there usually isn't much. At entry-level raiding Agility is an amazing stat because it has such a huge impact on Savage Defense uptime and effectiveness. You will find yourself mostly gemming Agility in your gear, unless the socket bonus warrants otherwise. Actual stats below:<br /><br />1 Agi = 2.5 AP (2.625 AP) [2.8875 AP] <br />1 Agi = 0.0030783% Crit (0.0032323%) <br />324.85 Agi = 1% Crit <br />1 Agi = 0.0041054% Dodge (0.0043106%) <br />243.58 Agi = 1% Dodge <br /><br /><strong>Strength:</strong><br /><br />Strength is now the bastard step-sibling of Agility for a Feral Druid. It grants Attack Power but nothing else. In the past it actually granted more AP per point than Agility, but no longer. You will only find it on cross-class tanking accessories. However those accessories are generally sub-par when compared to an Agility-based accessory of the same level due to how awesome Agility is. For the most part avoid it like the plague unless the secondary stats on the item warrant it.<br /><br />1 Str = 2.5 AP (2.625 AP) [2.8875 AP] <br /><br /><strong>Stamina:</strong><br /><br />Stamina increases your health. It also has a side-effect of increasing the amount of Attack Power granted via Vengeance. So in a roundabout way it is a mitigation stat. However it is not as effective as actual mitigation stats like Mastery. Stamina is directly linked to the iLvL and quality of the item. <br /><br />1 Sta = 17.1402 Health (17.99721) <br /><br /><strong>Critical Strike Rating:</strong><br /><br />Critical Strike Rating increases the chance that you will critically hit an enemy. This makes it a valuable threat and mitigation stat for Bears as crits proc Savage Defense. It is generally the second most important secondary mitigation stat behind Mastery.<br /><br />1 Crit Rating = 0.0055779% Crit <br />179.28 Crit Rating = 1% Crit <br /><br /><strong>Haste:</strong> <br /><br />Haste is garbage. Avoid it at all costs. It is the crappiest secondary stat for Bears by a factor of 4. STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM IT IF IT ALL HUMANLY POSSIBLE.<br /><br />128.05701 = 1% Haste <br /><br /><strong>Dodge Rating:</strong><br /><br />Increases your chance to Dodge. At a pre-raid level of gearing this will be the stat you Reforge to. Reforge everything except Mastery to Dodge. Mastery is the second most valuable secondary stat behind Dodge, and since every piece of gear will come with 2 secondary stats, you pick whatever isn't Mastery.<br /><br />1 Dodge Rating = 0.005687% Dodge <br />176.71899 Dodge Rating = 1% Dodge <br /><br /><strong>Hit Rating:</strong><br /><br />Increases the chance to hit your target. It also increases your White and Yellow crit caps. However that isn't something you have to worry about in a pre-raid environment. As Hit is only the 2nd least valuable secondary stat, reforge it into Dodge whenever possible. If you find yourself having threat problems, get more Expertise before you get more Hit.<br /><br />Increases chance to hit. <br />120.109 Hit Rating = 1% Hit <br />1 Hit Rating = 0.0083256% Hit <br />8% Hit = 960.872 Hit Rating <br /><br /><strong>Expertise Rating:</strong><br /><br />Expertise reduces the chance a mob will Parry or Dodge your attacks. Since Yellow attacks are on a "2-roll" system, it is actually more valuable for mitigation than Crit until you reach the Expertise "softcap" (6.5%). However since Expertise (specifically Expertise+Mastery) pieces are so rare, it isn't a stat you should be actively seeking out, let alone reforging/gemming for.<br /><br />30.0727 Expertise Rating = 1 Expertise <br /><br />Level 85 mob = 5.0% (Dodge) / 5.0% (Parry) = 601.454 (20) / 601.454 (20) Expertise Rating <br />Level 86 mob = 5.2% (Dodge) / 5.2% (Parry) = 631.527 (21) / 631.527 (21) Expertise Rating <br />Level 87 mob = 5.4% (Dodge) / 5.4% (Parry) = 661.599 (22) / 661.599 (22) Expertise Rating <br />Level 88 mob = 6.5% (Dodge) / 14% (Parry) = 781.890 (26) / 1684.071 (56) Expertise Rating <br /><br /><strong>Mastery Rating:</strong><br /><br />Mastery increases the amount your Savage Defense bubbles absorb. This is great. You should be seeking it out on gear, and reforging whatever it comes with to Dodge.<br /><br />179.28 Mastery Rating = 1 Mastery <br /><br /><strong>Armor:</strong><br /><br />Armor decreases the amount of physical damage taken from attacks. It is directly tied to iLvL and quality of the item. You may see some items with a "green" value for their armor. If you see one of these, remember that the bonus portion of the armor does not get multiplied by the Bear armor modifier. The "regular" portion (which is directly tied to iLvL/quality) still does.<br /><br />1 Armor = 3.2186 Armor (Bear + Thick Hide) <br />1 Armor = 3.282972 Armor (Bear + Thick Hide + Meta Gem) <br />Armor cap (75% DR) for Lvl88 Boss mobs = 97717.5 Armor <br /><br />Your secondary stat priorities: Dodge > Mastery > Expertise(until softcap) > Crit > Hit = Expertise(after softcap) >>>>>>>>>> Haste.<br /><br />This ends part 1.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-48986331098399186822010-11-30T17:24:00.000-08:002010-11-30T17:28:19.529-08:00So I've been really wrapped up with this whole "Swipe is now useless" problem which is currently plaguing Bear tanks. I've done a lot of math on the problem (which has been linked everywhere from Ri to MMO Champion - go me!), and apparently people just don't understand how Base Damage + AP Coeff abilities work. It's very frustrating.<br /><br />Regardless, I should be updating this more often.<br /><br />Anyways, latest info in the Bear world.<br /><br />1) Swipe iz broke.<br /><br />As previously mentioned, Swipe is broken. It doesn't do what its supposed to do. Worse than that, it does less damage (at least according to current info) than Thrash. This means that once you hit 81, you take Swipe off of your actionbar. Period.<br /><br />WTF?!?!<br /><br />Granted I won't know for sure what will be happening until I hit 85 myself, but that just sounds absurdly dumb. More info will follow after Dec 7.<br /><br />Additionally the tooltip for Swipe doesn't account for the recent 17% nerf. So if you're attacking an unarmored target and wondering why the numbers don't match, multiply your TT damage by 0.83 to get the actual damage. The TT also includes any damage modifiers to Swipe (2pct10), so don't remove things that shouldn't be.<br /><br />2) Fasc made a spreadsheet!<br /><br />Link: <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1083360391">http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1083360391</a><BR><br />This is Fasc's Bear Mitigation spreadsheet. It breaks down the various stats into different weights to give you an idea of what stats are valuable, and what aren't. As expected Haste has the lowest value of all (by a factor of 4 - lol). So if you find Haste, change it to Dodge ASAP.<br /><br />In that thread I asked him about the possibility of making a "Bearpoints" mod. If you have (or still do) tank as a Plate tank, you'll know of a mod called "Tankpoints" which breaks down the various stats on an item to tell you how valuable it is with a common value. It'd be pretty cool if Bears finally got something similar.<br /><br />3) Ri made a levelling guide to 85<br /><br />Ri (Reesi, @Reesify on Twitter) made a levelling guide from 80-85. I'm a big fan of her work, it's all really good stuff. Go check it out.<br /><br />Additionally we're trading back and forth on a pre-raid gear guide. I'll hopefully have my selected choices up this weekend. Maybe. We'll see.<br /><br />If you're interested in following her stuff, go to <a href="http://www.theincbear.com">http://www.theincbear.com</a> - I definitely recommend you check it out.<br /><br />4) Thick Hide iz broke.<br /><br />It's granting far more bonus armor than it should be. Don't know why it hasn't been fixed yet, but it sure is amusing.<br /><br />5) I'm going to be making a Bear damage / coeff spreadsheet from 10-85.<br /><br />That's right. I'm gonna be doing a spreadsheet.<br /><br />To be fair I will likely only do this once. I don't fancy re-levelling a Druid every time Blizzard introduces some changes to Bear abilities. That said it is definitely something I'm interested in doing, if only to give myself a better understanding of how the abilities all work. I'm scared I might find out things that I don't really want to know.<br /><br />That's all for now. Hope to do another post this weekend.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-2164183940290199232010-11-23T08:49:00.000-08:002010-11-23T08:52:06.628-08:00Fail.So I promised a post last night. However my procrastinating nature got the better of me, and I decided that since nobody actually reads this thing, I can just do it later.<br /><br />I may or may not end up doing a post tonight. League of Legends and TV tend to take up most of my free time. And trolling the WoW forums.<br /><br />List of things I need to cover:<br /><br />Patch 4.0.3a.<br />Fasc's Amazing Bear Spreadsheet<br />Lissanna's Levelling Guide <br />Reesi's Waffle game.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-52868560593422541922010-11-15T23:48:00.001-08:002010-11-15T23:49:49.913-08:00So you want to be a Bero....DeathKitty Tanking Guide Part 1: "So you want to be a Bero..."<br /><br />I hope at least one person gets that reference.<br /><br />In order for me to impart my knowledge and experience unto others, it's important to start from the basics - From the most basic functions and actions which make a tank what he/she is. With that in mind, what exactly is a "tank"? What do they do? What do they not do? How do they know when to do what?<br /><br />Those are the sorts of questions that a lot of people and/or tanks out there don't really understand or know the answers to. If you don't know these simple things you can perform the task of being a tank, but you'll never have the awareness to be exceptional at your role. However if you do, there's nothing you won't be able to beat.<br /><br /><b>What is a "tank"?</b><br /><br />A tank is someone beefy. That likes getting beat up. Like an actual tank.<br /><br />In all seriousness though. A tank has 3 main responsibilities:<br /><br />1) Make sure the <i>right</i> big baddies are hitting him/her and not the squishies.<br />2) Make sure said baddies <i>keep</i> hitting him/her until they die or circumstances change.<br />3) Do their best to not die.<br /><br />#3 tends to disqualify pretty much everybody that isn't built to tank in the first place. It's fairly easy to make people hit you as any class, and still fairly easy to make them keep hitting you. It's hard to stay alive while doing so. Thus you end up with specific talent trees in specific classes that with the correct items, are designed to survive a long time in that situation.<br /><br /><b>What does a "tank" do?</b><br /><br />To examine this, lets simply elaborate on the previous three responsibilities.<br /><br /><i>Make sure the right big baddies hit you.</i><br /><br />If you've been playing any sort of MMO for any length of time, you'll know that certain fights can have many different monsters in them. As a tank, it's important to know which ones you are supposed to have beating on you, and which ones you're not. A simple example to illustrate this would be the Blood Prince Council encounter in Icecrown Citadel. The tank that is responsible for tanking Valanar and/or Taldaram <b><i>never</i></b> wants to have Keleseth turn around and start casting Shadowbolts at him. This will usually constitute an instant death.<br /><br /><i>Make sure the baddies keep hitting you.</i><br /><br />It's one thing to get something to start hitting you, it's another to make it keep hitting you. You need to know the best way to use your abilities to maximize the amount of burning hatred the baddie has for you. This is a term called "threat". The more of it you have, the more damage or healing someone has to do to make the guy angry at them. Remember the goal is to have the baddies hit you, and not the squishy ones in the dresses.<br /><br /><i>Don't die.</i><br /><br />Most big bad boss monsters have an ultimate abilitiy that they use to inflict severe pain on whoever they are hitting. In some cases the healers will not be able to keep up with the level of incoming damage. In these cases a tank would burn a "cooldown". That is they would use an ability that reduces the amount of damage they receive for a short period of time. Doing so allows the healer(s) to catch up with the incoming damage and prevent you from dying. This is a good thing, because if a tank dies everyone else usually quickly follows suit.<br /><br />Which brings us to....<br /><br /><b>How do you know when to do what?</b><br /><br />Honestly, this is more practice more than anything. I've tanked for about 3.5 years across 3 different sets of raid content. I've done 40 person raids, 25 person raids, 20 person raids and 10 person raids. They're all different and they all require you to adapt. Even 5 person dungeons are different from each other. The way you learn how to properly tank an encounter is simply through repetition. However there are certain skillsets and knowledge you can learn without repeating an encounter over and over again until its drilled into your skull.<br /><br />That will bring us to Part 2...Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-17733788085666875912010-11-05T20:35:00.000-07:002010-11-05T21:15:06.121-07:00OMG MORE SKY FALLING QQQQSeriously guys, this is really getting old.<br /><br />This week we had two epic batches of "QQQQQQQQQQQQ", and one justified concern from the Feral community. One of them was vaguely justified, however it was based on false and/or incomplete information. The other epic one was completely unjustified and makes me /facepalm. The third is definitely justified and just confuses the hell out of me why it would even happen.<br /><br />Change #1: Abilities based off of weapon damage (like "% weapon damage") now scale. Everyone thought that the abilities were being uber nerfed. However within 10-15 minutes it was clarified to be scaling (like spells) from 1 - 85. I saw at least 6 Feral rage threads within 15 minutes when this showed up on MMO-Champion. All of them made me /facepalm<br /><br />Change #2: Leader Of the Pack Self Heal changed from 8% heal to 4% heal. This is in line with other self-healing ability nerfs to DKs and Warriors. At most it hurts soloing. Oh noes. At the root of it it's a scaling issue with huge health pools. Self healing for 12k every 6 seconds is kind of an absurd proposition, even if your max health is 150k.<br /><br />Change #3: Leader Of the Pack mana return reduced from 8% to 4%. This is ridiculous. This basically kills Feral PvP outright. Unless mana pools somehow double without increasing spell costs (which is impossible) this makes any sort of competitive Feral PvP impossible. I think this was either a typo, or an over zealous coder hitting both numbers without intending to. I fully expect it to be reversed.<br /><br />That's your Feral changes for this week.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-78918808912450267782010-11-01T23:00:00.001-07:002010-11-01T23:34:12.929-07:00ZOMG THE SKY IS FALLING QQQQQQOr at least that's what a lot of the ignorant Feral Druids out there think.<br /><br />Here's the relevant changes:<br /><br /><UL><br /><LI>Savage Defense reduced to 35% of Attack Power from 65%. No longer procs from Lacerate tick crits.</LI><br /><LI>Bear form Stamina bonus lowered to +10% from +20%. Stamina bonus from Heart of the Wild lowered to +6% from +10%.</LI><br /><LI>Survival Instincts lowered to 50% reduction from 60%. Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes from 5 minutes</LI><br /></UL><br /><br />The first two are merely balance changes. However they also happen to be the ones people are most upset about. Why? Because people don't know how to lern2math before crying "OMGWORLDISENDINGBBQ!!!!11oneone"<br /><br />Bears were massively overpowered in Cataclysm before these changes were made. I mean really, how could 20k absorbs triggered on crit not be overpowered? What about health pools 20-30k larger than other tanks? How is that not overpowered? It was actually so bad that tanks other than Bears were getting 2-3 shot by bosses. I mean if what you want is to be overpowered then fine, cry nerf. But if you want a game worth playing you'll know that's a really stupid idea.<br /><br />The main opposition to the 3rd change comes from people that dislike "homogenization". Homogenization is necesarry for adequate tank balance. You can't design encounters to be equal for all tanks if some of them lack the necesarry abilities to tank the encounter correctly.<br /><br />Lern2mathb4qq.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-72090160112546321032010-10-25T20:02:00.000-07:002010-10-25T20:57:08.025-07:00Blizzcon: Question ReactionsSo I watched the Blizzcon live stream over the weekend. And since I really, really, really haven't been playing for a long time, I thought that I would throw down my reactions to some of the WoW related questions and announcements that are Feral and/or Druid related.<br /><br />Credit to <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/content">MMO-Champion</a> for making it convenient for me to see the Q&A so I don't have to re-watch all of the panels.<br /><br />- I'm really excited about 5mans actually requiring skill. I'm also excited that the CC changes made in Wrath will make it so that most classes will be able to CC effectively.<br /><br />- In-Game AtlasLoot continues the vein of Blizzard adopting community mods into the stock UI.<br /><br />- "Cutting out the suck" of Classic Dungeons earned massive approval, mine too. So much of the suck of Classic Dungeons makes me aggro.<br /><br /><strong>"Are we going to see another caster legendary weapon that isn't a mace?"</strong><br /><br />I think it is actually the caster's turn to see a Legendary, and you can even make it cross-class if you make it a Dagger or Staff. Granted I would rather see a Feral weapon, but I think I can survive without one.<br /><br /><strong>"That said [Vengeance] shouldn't feel mandatory."</strong><br /><br />This made me very, very, very, very, very, very, very angry. I actually made an absurdly vulgar tweet about it. Vengeance is extremely mandatory for raiding, especially at 80. When you have Mages that can pull 15k dps without even trying too hard, Vengeance is most definitely required. <br /><br />At best on a spank-n-tank fight Mages end with around 75% of my threat. If I didn't have Vengeance, they would pull every 5 seconds. To be fair I suspect that DPS and TPS are balanced around 85, but still. That's a blatantly false statement with the information I have available right now.<br /><br /><strong>Wild Mushrooms, currently it does a lot of damage if you stack 3 on top of each other. It has a small range though, and the targeting makes it a bit hard to stack on them. Are there any plans to change it at all?</strong><br /><br />They completely dodged this question. It was asked by a Balance Druid that wanted to know if there were any plans to make the spell easier to use. Granted the answer of "Ferals use it to pull adds" was kinda interesting. However, when a Moonkin asks you directly "This spell is terrible to use for DPS, can we make it easier?" It's generally a good idea to answer it.<br /><br /><strong>[NomNomNom's] an internet meme that will be less funny in a year, and will embarrass us in 3 years.</strong><br /><br />Ok, now at least I understand. Granted I was in love with the name "NomNomNom" when it was first announced as a talent name. However I understand their reasoning.\<br /><br /><strong>Hunters are the only class in the game with a minimum range. This hurts us a lot in raids. They can stand directly in front of you, they can repeatedly stand in front of you and use a ranged attack, why can't Hunters do the same thing and stack near the boss? <br /></strong><br /><br />This guy was an idiot. You would've have to have heard his voice to understand why, but he's stupid. You can't shoot a bow at something that's right in front of you. Deal with it. Scrub.<br /><br /><strong>I love what you guys have done with WoW, I love that there's a lot of strong female chars, though I wonder if we can have some that didnt look like they came out of a Victoria's Secrets catalogue?<br /><br />Which catalogue would you like them step out of then? We feel ya, we want to vary our female chars more in the future. So yeah we'll pick different catalogues.</strong><br /><br />I had mixed feelings about this. While on one level I agree with the person who posed the question, and I felt the response from the devs was a bit chauvanistic, I then sat down to think about it. The only really "badly" dressed women are the badguys. All of the PCs are basically fully clothed in armor, and Jaina is pretty darn conservatively dressed. Granted characters like Alexstraza are pretty revealing, but they're dragons. They're allowed.<br /><br />That said, I wouldn't really mind if things changed.<br /><br />That's all for now. You can expect kill videos and fun stuff once Cata launches and I get to 85.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-52175637332604318052010-01-18T22:28:00.000-08:002010-01-18T22:44:54.927-08:00Marrowgar VideoSo I got myself a copy of Fraps and I've taken to recording our boss kills.<br /><br />Why?<br /><br />Because it's fun. Because sometimes other strategy videos miss things. And perhaps because it amuses me.<br /><br />Below you will find our Marrowgar kill video.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KYFKx7kq9Bw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KYFKx7kq9Bw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Yes that is really what I sound like. Next up should be Lady Deathwhisper if I remember to record it tomorrow. I think I will.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3072699873864434070.post-28417006760730896912009-12-18T10:45:00.000-08:002009-12-18T11:06:28.059-08:00ICC 10m - First ImpressionsSo we've had 3 nights in ICC so far - which comes out to about 6 hours give or take.<br /><br />Night 1 we killed Lord Marrowgar after about 5 or 6 attempts. Mostly to get the group composition right and getting the tanks to wake up after the comatose zone that was ToC.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.blacksheepraid.com/screenshots/Marrowgar.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 360px; height: 213px;" src="http://www.blacksheepraid.com/screenshots/Marrowgar.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Tanks actually have to pay attention during this fight, which is a welcome change. I'd recommend starting with 3 healers on this fight - if one gets impaled it can get quite messy if you only have 2.<br /><br />Other than that it's a classic "Don't stand in the fire" fight.<br /><br />Lady Deathwhisper is easily the hardest of the first four:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.blacksheepraid.com/screenshots/LD.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 360px; height: 213px;" src="http://www.blacksheepraid.com/screenshots/LD.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />We barely squeaked by on the 10 minute enrage timer. This is a careful balance between killing adds and DPSing the boss. If you lose anyone in this fight (especially early) things can get out of control really fast. I'd recommend having a Feral Druid or DK for your offtank so they can provide additional DPS (Kitty / Blood) during P1 as you only need 1 tank. If you have 2 DPS with your tanks on the adds you should be okay.<br /><br />Target switching is essential. Ranged has to switch to certain types of adds to kill them quickly to prevent a wipe. <br /><br />I'd reccommend having 3 healers for this fight as well.<br /><br />Gunship is absurdly easy.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.blacksheepraid.com/screenshots/gunship.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 360px; height: 213px;" src="http://www.blacksheepraid.com/screenshots/gunship.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />You only need 2 healers for this fight - but it's still a lot of fun.<br /><br />Kill guys that come on your ship, jump over and kill the mage, jump back, repeat.<br /><br />Sounds simple but it's still REALLY COOL.<br /><br />We had a couple of attempts at Saurfang before our night ended and got him down to ~25%. Once we learn how to manage his power generation and focus fire beasts down quick we should be fine.<br /><br />But for now we are adjourned until January 5th.Ariellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17819636914123538794noreply@blogger.com0