Saturday, December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas
Just wanted to do a little post in this holiday season.
On my list of excellent gifts was my Hugo Boss Jacket (mmm sexy) and my Razer Sphex desktop skin along with a lot of pudding. We decided to keep Christmas small this year so that was pretty much the extent of my presents. I got the first season of Bones on DVD because that show is awesome, and a fleece from my cousin and that will be everything unless i get something small from my gramma.
What about you guys? get anything super awesome for Christmas?
Thursday, December 23, 2010
I'm Still Here
Just wanted to let you know that I have actually decided on a topic to write about for the blog that i will be doing in text, and then when I can talk again (which is taking much longer than i thought it would) i will make a video and narrate it with all the useful information, but im not going to to tell you what it is going to be...oooh surprises.
And if you are wondering...I am doing really good.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
So Far
I can talk, but only barely. I hit about 15-20% of words with my mom and less with my dad but it has gotten better really fast and i hope that changes soon.
my cheeks, the bottom of my nose and my top lip are numb and that is annoying but my mom says that she can see my top lip dropping down.
I was under the impression that I would be having a lot of ensure and whey powder and meal replacements but that has quickly been shattered. I feel like the best thing i have had so far is Boost, which is a fruity energy replacement, and I have been drinking lots of milk. I had liquefied mashed potatoes this morning and that was a nice change but they are harder to get down because they are the same temperature as my mouth so it is hard to know when to swallow.
Ill spare the more gross details but there is the expected drooling and whatnot but the surgeon says that the surgery went really good and i personally will be happy when i stop getting nose bleeds that make breathing harder for me.
If you want to know anything else by all means go for it because i will be pretty much living in front of the Computer, the table and on my bed.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
See You Later
This is just to let you know that I will not be on the blog commenting or anyhting for at least 3 days from this point right now.
You guys have fun with your leveling and dungeoning and i wll see you later.
P.S. I am going to try and get some stuff recorded after i get back from my surgery and feel up to doing it.
Monday, December 13, 2010
I Did It
Friday, December 10, 2010
Bouncing Bear
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Joust
I have been talking with people in my guild who absolutely hate this little series of quests, but i have to say that i loved every moment of it. If they made it into a daily i would definitely go do it. I think that the problem lies in understanding how to control your character. Most of the people that i talked to said that they didn't like it because you have no control over your character. I found that this was easier to control then some of the vehicles that we have that don't seem to turn properly. But there may be some of you that gave up or some of you that have yet to do it or even some that have vowed to never do it on another character again but i hope to change your mind and tell you how to do it.
These ostriches do not function anything like flying mounts. They don't fly the direction your character is facing, they always fly in a straight line, they are always falling unless you intervene, and you can only control speed and direction with one button. But it isn't that hard. You simply need to change your idea of how the mount should work and do what you need to to actually make it work.
When you are flying on a flying mount, the mount will follow the exact direction that you are facing, you can spin your camera around but the instant that you change your characters view direction, whether with the mouse or the keyboard, you will immediately change to be going that direction. Forget this completely. When you want to move forward you simply hold down both mouse buttons or use your keyboard and you immediately move forward. Forget this too.
The only way to make these ostriches move once they are in the air is with the use of your one button. This button will be in the number 4 position and will be called flap. What it does is cause you to move forward in THE DIRECTION THAT YOU ARE FACING and also move upwards a little bit. That is all it does. Lets do an example.
say you are standing on a platform and you want to move north, simply face your character north hit the button a couple times and you are moving north. Now after you stop hitting the button you will start falling and in order to stop from hitting the ground you have to keep hitting it. This is the easy part. Ok, so now you are moving north and you want to move east. Face your CHARACTER the direction you want to be moving and then hit the flap button. You want to face your character there because if you only face your camera and then flap you will just hit the wall on the far side of the room. Also, there is a small amount of momentum taking you in the direction that you are going that needs to be overcome, so when you are trying to go east one flap might not do it and you may have to flap two or three times to get going that direction. For this reason, if you are trying to joust the other guys off you will probably want to lead them a little bit because the change in direction is not exact.
Think of this as riding a bike, the first thing my mother ever told me when i was learning to ride a bike was to look the direction that i wanted to go, this is no different. Simply face the direction you want to go and then flap. The flapping is important because if you don't flap you will never change directions and this may be one of the issues that people are having. I found it was easiest to get the people knocked down by aiming ahead of them and then letting myself fall down on top of them.
also don't hit fireballs or your mount might die, but i think that there is a person with some mounts at the bottom of the cave if you do happen to lose your mount. Oh and the last part where you have to kill the eggs, don't try and fly to them, just land on a platform and walk around the platform killing them.
I really loved doing this, i thought it was fun and unique and i enjoyed it for the 5 min that it took me to complete. And for anyone who still doesn't get how to do it "You can be Goalie" (I just wanted to link this because it is awesome, you should watch it).
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
I am as Rigid as Jello
That isnt going to happen, so i decided that i would get it tomorrow because i have a day off that i can study and play and get to where i need to be comfortably. I was completely dead set that i was going to get it tomorrow.
Come today. I now feel that i must get off of my laptop and study enough that i can justify picking it up today.
Jello.
I hate expansions.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Don't You Worry
Chances are that for the next...say two weeks...i will probably only make 1 or 2 posts because i have exams this week and at the beginning of next week that i have to study for and write and i also have a surgery to get ready for that is on the 15 and i have appointments for that and then after the 15 i have to spend 1-2 days in hospital and possibly a couple more just lying in bed (boy look at that run-on sentence).
But, i will make it up to you. Cata is coming out so I will either drop a nice and meaty post or (even better?) a video.
So don't you worry.
Oh and have fun to all of those people who can actually go to the midnight release tonight and play the game tomorrow, or for those of you in EU servers have fun in like an hour and a half. Let me know how it goes as i will still be checking the comments on the blog and responding up until i go in for the surgery. Also if you are leveling and you have any questions you want answered or videos you want made when i get back from my temp. break then just let me know-contact info in the sidebar----->
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Lowbie Bears
Most of you probably came here from BBB in which case you probably already know about Reesi's blog, but this is for everyone anyway.
There is a post there, at www.theincbear.com about lowbie tanking for bears that you should go check out. I still plan on doing my own when i get more time but you can go check that out if you want the info now.
Monday, November 29, 2010
The Perfect Resource
Anyway, I started to think about my hunter and how focus has changed the way he plays significantly and how i am not sure that i like the way it plays. My mind then wandered to how the different resources affect the way all the different classes play and i came to a realization:
Energy is the perfect resource.
Think about it. When you play a class with energy, you are never starved for your resource and you are never swimming in too much of it. Sure, you can hit 0 energy but you know that you wait for a couple seconds and you will have enough energy for another attack. You can also be full on energy, but you can only do 2-3 consecutive attacks without running out of energy and having to wait again. and when you are running around killing monsters you can watch as your energy comes back instead of watching your rage tick away or the water in your bags disappear.
You could flip my argument and say that you are always starved for energy but i would disagree. When i think of being starved, I think of being without my resource for a long period of time when i should be hitting something. When you run out of energy, you are given a small portion of time in which to pause and look at your surroundings, plan your next move, and then use it. I never feel that when i am out of energy, I am not doing anything.
Blizzard has stated that they dont want classes to be GCD capped and always be hitting a button. The moderate regen that energy has seems to remove that GCD cap while at the same time making it so you always have that next ability incoming. There are talents that give you instant energy or make things cost no energy and they add the unpredictability to the rotation. Combo points, which are perfectly tied to energy also make the rotation and the game play less predictable.
It seems to me that energy is the only resource system that is immune to starvation and excess just by its nature (or is easily tuned that way). It seems to me that mana using classes are always in excess. They always have way more mana than they need. That is, until they run out, then they are completely starved for mana and they must resort to potions or CD's in order to get more mana. Yes, the good players will conserve mana well and will be able to go for a very long time, but not indefinitely; However, when you are casting a spell for 250 mana and you have 35k mana, you have an excess.
Rage seems to have the largest swings between having too much and having too little. Because rage is tied to hitting things or being hit by things, it is preone to very steep swings between 0 and 100. The new rage system has improved this, but a bad string of misses, dodges or parries can gimp your rage income. Yes you can become hit capped and soft capped for expertise for a dps class and you will not get these really low points but then you may get the really high rage situations that led to inflated dps in wrath. But there is always that situation where you hit the wrong button and drop really low again.
Focus, oh focus. The redheaded step-child of resources imo. I always feel like i am starved for focus when i play my hunter. The regen is not high enough on purpose so that you must use steady shot in order to get that focus back up. This has led me, in my short time playing my hunter after 4.0.1, to always be thinking, "ah crap i need to SS again." I think it sucks. You may disagree with me, you may love focus, but i always feel like i need more in order to develop any sort of rotation or priority.
I think energy and combo points allows for the most interesting and dynamic rotations or priorities in the game thanks to its unpredictable nature and its almost perfect regen rate/ability cost ratio. But what do you think?
The Shattering So Far
I started off with a run of ZF and then moved on to do Stratholm. I gotta say that i really like how all your quests are at the beginning of the instance now, it really cleans up the process for getting the quests. It basically allows you to knock out all of your quests in one go and not have to worry about losing a potential upgrade because you were not doing quests in the same area. I know some people probably feel some nostalgia for the old "run around and get my instance quests" mentality but i am glad to see it go. It makes sense to me to have all your quests at the beginning of the instance since it allows all players to grab the quests and lets all the players see them. I would not be surprised if a lot of the effort that went into making the instance quests got wasted because people were too lazy to run around and get them (I know i was).
There is also the newer, more stream-lined instance layouts that are there now. I know some of the old world instances like strath and mara used to basically be giant mazes, if you have ever tried finding the entrance to mara...not fun. I was farming the Piccolo of the Flaming Fire in strath on my druid and i got lost a couple times, even though the route there was pretty direct. If you have ever run strath and have a general idea of how you used to unlock baron, then the run is a lot easier to figure out and I never found myself wondering what to do.
Lowbie instances actually have bosses now. I know its hard to believe but yes, you can actually tell when you are fighting a boss. It could be because the instances are higher level ( i will let you know my thoughts on the lower levels when cata drops) but the instances felt a lot more epic than before. Trash generally seemed harder and bosses didnt seem like trash with a little extra health and cool ability that sometimes didnt get used. The bosses no longer die in about the same time as a trash pack and it really allows those classes the dont have the best aoe but have good single target to shine. I found myself actually having to react a little bit to some of the bosses abilities in order to stay alive, as well as occasionally healing myself or others to help the healer out. I would say that i thoroughly enjoyed doing low level instances again.
The second thing i did was work my way through ungoro crater. I have always like ungoro, it felt like it flowed well and was kind of interesting. It didnt really seem to have a concrete conclusion but I didnt care because the zone felt like it worked. I think the new layout for the zone is better than the old one. All the quests seem to flow a lot better between the different areas. There was actually a resolution to the plot with the crystal pylons that never used to make sense and I was actually laughing out loud while doing the Maximillian of Northshire quest line. Overall i would say that i am very impressed with the leveling and instances in cata.
But what about you guys? What do you think of the new instance design? Or the new quest design? And have you come across any funny quests that you think i should check out first when i get some more time?
Friday, November 26, 2010
My Surgery
I just want to start off by saying that i'm sorry i havent done anything with the blog in a few days, but i am really busy with school right now.
So i am getting a major reconstructive jaw surgery on Dec 15th in order to fix a major over-bite and to close the gap in my teeth. As it stands, i can not eat tomato slices unless they are in large sandwiches, pizza without the toppings all sliding off, or pretty much anything that is remotely flat. I am getting both upper and lower jaw surgery, or maxillary and mandibular osteotomies. Basically they are going to lengthen my bottom jaw and shorten, and move my top jaw. Now because i am bored i am going to do some MS paint pictures (or i would have if it didnt make me look like a rat, lets try something else).
So this is essentially what it will look like after it is done i believe. keep in mind that i am no surgeon and that this is all information i have gleaned from appointments i have been to.
Top Jaw:
The surgery for the top jaw entails cutting a small wedge out in order to make the jaw shorter. After they will move the detached top jaw put it against the remainder of the top jaw, and then slide it forward slightly and then pin it in place.
Bottom Jaw:
For the bottom jaw surgery they will have to make a cut to each side of the mandible. There will be a cut in the same place on each jaw. The cut will be vertical and will start near the back of the mandible. They will cut outwards till they are about halfway through my jaw, then they will switch directions and cut down the length of my jaw and finally they will switch directions and continue to cut out wards. once they complete that cut the jaw will be in 3 pieces and they will slide the lower portion forward and then pin it in place with a metal plate. This is the more interesting part in my opinion.
So you can see why i may be out of it for a while. I will be spending at least one night in the hospital, probably two nights before i can go home. My mouth will be tied shut with extremely strong elastics for 6-8 weeks and I will be on an entirely liquid diet for that time (Maybe ill make a list of Jeys fav. liquid meals for you all). The recovery time is about 3 months before i am allowed to do anything physical and then who knows how long after that.
I am extremely excited for it but i am just starting to realize how big of a undertaking this surgery is. I am curious to see how it changes my appearance (hopefully for the better). So there you have it. If you have any questions i will be happy to answer them to the best of my knowledge and i will be doing more WoW related posts and hopefully a low level feral leveling guide when i have more time, which will probably have to wait till after my surgery. So there you go, now when i make a vague reference to my surgery you will know what i am talking about.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
When I'm Right...
Well i was logged in for about 2 min before i saw someone yelling in org that Gamon was alive and about 30 sec later i saw him being kited around org and being nuked down. He doesnt appear to get DR's on slows so he was just being kited around while people attacked him. Every once and a while someone would pull off the kiter and Gamon would turn around and one or two shot them and then turn back to the kiter and keep going. I saw him die about 3 times in the half hour i was running all over org. This was not any major prophesy that i made but i think it shows you that you cant break a 6 year habit of killing a level 12 neutral npc by simply making him a level 85 elite with 2mil health.
Oh, and i have only been inside Org and ZF but so far i am very impressed. Can't wait to see the 80-85 zones, especially deepholm.
It's a Matter of Character
Me? I am sticking with my Druid, I will probably level him tank specced and do some instances with my guildies. Gonna hit 85 and tear through some instances so that i can get into heroics as soon as I have the time. my next character i want to level will probably be my Goblin Rogue or my Belf Hunter.
Also, what is the first thing you are going to do when the servers go live to day? I know ill be checking out Peacebloom vs Ghouls if i have the time.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Patch 4.0.3a
First off, obviously this will completely change the old world so you will have some alt leveling to do if you want. I know that I will be leveling my shaman who is just about 50, to 60 if i can find the time. This means that for any of you who don't have a druid...get on that.
You will be getting access to the new race/class combinations for the expansion so you will be able to roll your tauren paladin or blood elf warrior if you want. That being said, anyone who rolls a troll druid, you are a bad person. I don't know why but i just have a serious issue with trolls, they just don't look right.
There are going to be some class changes going in with this expansion that you have to look forward to. Your health will drop, your swipe damage will drop, your LotP heal will be reduced and your brutal impact debuff will be less potent. Aren't things looking up? On the plus side, if you are ever in cat form you will not have to target something before you can swipe.
None of these nerfs seem too bad tbh though. We will make it.
If you you are a Druid, Paladin, Priest or Shaman your talents will be reset. this leaves us with a free respec going into cata that we can use to get ready. I dont know how many of you used the last reset as your "lets get ready with a cata spec" reset but this patch is close enough that i would advise you to just spec for cata this time around. The last reset i went for the (I think) optimal build so that i could do better in my raid. This time, no chance.
That being said...you may be wondering what the spec you should be going for is. well have no fear because I am here. This will be the bear spec only because there are more knowledgeable people out there that can give you a cat one. If you really want me to take a stab at it i will but i am far less comfortable making decisions about cat than bear.
So here we have the bear spec that you should be pushing for at 85 that will be your general raiding spec for tanking:
This will cover all your needs for tanking. The one point in stampede can really be put wherever you want but that will be where i am leaving it. This is the spec you should be working towards as you level from 80 to 85.
At 80, if you are planning on working towards this you will probably want to take this spec:
Natural shapeshifter is not the best choice but it will allow you to move into the third tier as soon as you hit level 81. You can start off with points in perseverance and then move to master shapeshifter or go the other way. I would suggest going with perseverance first because i think damage will be quite high when tanking dungeons. If you are having issues with threat though, you may want to grab master shapeshifter on your next level as it is basically a 4% threat increase (not exactly but roughly). The last point you have left over after that can be put wherever you want, i chose stampede but if you have somewhere else that you would want to put it then go for it.
So there is your specs for 85 and 80. You could choose to go with the better spec for right now and put two points into stampede instead of natural shapeshifter but the difference is negligible so i would just go with the one i posted with it being so close.
All that being said, have fun in your newly shattered Azeroth!!!
Friday, November 19, 2010
ToGC and the Pre-Expansion Lul
I just think that if you were on a sports team, you wouldn't stay on the team very long if simply just decided to not go to some games without letting anyone know. It is not exactly the same situation as raiding but really, how hard is it to get a hold of someone and say that you wont be able to make it. Most guilds have a forum you can post on, my guild leader has his cellphone number available to people, and it is really easy to send an in-game mail.
You may feel otherwise but i think that just because you dont have to personally man up to the situation, doesnt mean that you should do something that would be really frowned upon in real life. I think a lot of this problem stems from how easy WotLK is. Wrath has enabled people who probably need to do more challenging heroics, to simply blow through them and get relatively good gear. The learning curve is not steep enough for new players at the moment. I am not trying to be elitist and say, "casuals shouldnt be able to raid," but i think that raising the barrier to entry would do a lot of good for the general state of raiding. This is why i am optimistic that the new stance on heroics will be good.
Having the ability to be able to raid by putting in less effort is a good thing. During Vanilla and BC, I think they lost a lot of good potential raiders because you had to do so much front end work before you could get into raids. I never got into raiding before WotLK because I just didnt have the time to get all that gear, gems, and enchants.
That was quite the tangent to what i wanted to talk about. Anyways, so we didnt raid ICC on Wednesday because we didnt have the people for it, so we decided to do 10 man ToGC and get the mount that drops when you have 50 attempts left. That was actually a lot of fun. Our gear trivialized a lot of it and it was pretty easy, but it was a lot of fun.
Our raid leader still insisted upon marking the faction champs and explaining the fights in detail, even though during the first fight we only got 4 stacks of the bleed, the worms only burrowed once and Icehowl only charged once. Me and our rogue had a lot of fun listening to "You Face Jaraxxus" to get us in the mood for some ToGC action. When we actually faced Jaraxxus we got one portal and one volcano and blew him apart but i couldnt get that song out of my head. Faction champs is a joke now with our increased health and damage. Valks was originally a really cool idea but it was never really that hard on 10 man in my opinion. anub'arak was pretty easy until P3 when he almost killed me because he was melee'ing me at the same time his aura was ticking for about 10k a second.
Overall it was pretty fun. Good light hearted time. There werent really an big challenges despite our GM saying that "Icehowl still hits hard guys" and then having him hot me for penuts. While i wish we had done our ICC i had a good time and i would do it again.
And if you are wondering about the mount, i had the highest roll with 91...until the pug rolled 100 :(
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Comments
I have rectified this situation.
As of a min ago you can now post as an anonymous user without having to input any information. You have to do one of those hard to read word verifications but that is relatively painless. If you plan on leaving multiple posts on the website make sure to throw your name at the bottom of your comment so i can link them to each other or if you just want me to have a name behind the comment.
I didnt test it, but i think you can also post a comment by putting in a name and an associated URL to go with it.
I hope that helps push some of you over the commenting fence and get you involved more.
Now i have to do some homework. Have a good day
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
YouTube'in
I plan on releasing videos showing the instances, including strategies for the instance bosses as well as all the mechanics changes from regular to heroic. When I get to raiding I will start working on bigger videos for those with similar information. But I would also like to hear from you. What would you like some videos on (strategy, guides or otherwise)?
20k Gold
Our core raiders just finished up running a guy through ICC to get his 10 man drake. He paid us 20k to get it and it took 2 weeks to get everything but Orb Whisperer. We finished up and got Orb Whisperer yesterday and pulled in the full amount from him. I think I made a little over 2k gold from the whole thing and overall i would say it was worth it. It did not really feel like we were carrying him, just that he was tagging along to get the achievements.
It wasn't too bad but i dont really want to do any of the achievements anymore. Except maybe the Lich king one for one of our recruits who says he will give us 20k for that one ahieve. We are planning on just extending the lockout and working on H Lich King until Cata.
I remember when people were paying good one to just kill the Lich King on regular and now you have to get people the whole drake, what is the world coming to?
Monday, November 15, 2010
My Plans for this Blog
Sunday, November 14, 2010
CC post updated
It now contains a section on silences and some more pretty pictures for the Priest- Mind Control and Shackle Undead abilities that were sent to me by tufva.
So go check it out and as always leave any feedback.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Run Along Now...
I have a confession:
I, Jey, Druid of Darkspear, am a compulsive run-on sentence creator.
And i always have been. If you have read any of my posts i probably have a run-on or two, and pretty much any comment i write contains a massive run-on sentence that i hit the "Post Comment" button too fast to catch it (upon revision, I have found this sentence to be a run-on). I know i have a problem...but guess what? It probably aint gonna change. It something is really unclear i will change it or clarify (if it is a comment) it but I will still have run-on sentences and that is just a little quirk you will have to get used to. On the plus side, my English Class in university has made me a lot better at punctuating, so they may diminish.
That is all.
New Raid Boss?
In other news there a was a recent buff reported to have happened on the beta to a NPC that horde players know and love to kill.
Gamon was recently buffed on the beta to a level 85 elite. For those of you who dont know who Gamon is, he is a level 12 neutral npc in the inn in orgrimmar. Typically he is killed within seconds of spawning and finding him alive is pretty rare.I suggest that if you have never seen Gamon, that you go roll a low level orc or troll alt and run to org. The inn is i believe the second or third building on the right and you should go take a look for his dead body.
The screenshot on mmo-champion shows a low level player getting hit for 150k dmg which suggests that he will hit significantly hard on even a well geared 85 player early in the expansion. I am curious though if this will help Gamon's life expectancy. I forsee that with people moving to hanging out in the old cities that Org will become well populated and that it will be very common to see "Gamon is alive, need a tank and some healers" in general chat and bored level 85 players will rush over to kill Gamon.
We may not see formal raids but i predict that we will see large groups of people waiting to beat down the NPC as soon as he spawns for a while after cataclysm drops.
Piece of Cake
Yes, I got hacked.
So my dad went and changed our account info and filled out the form that confirmed that we were hacked and blizzard then proceeded to reimburse all our items on all our characters. All of this happened on Wednesday while i was at school and before I got home.
I have to say that overall I was very impressed with the speed of the process and the monitoring that is put in place by blizzard. I would say that this was a relatively painless process for getting your account restored. I was able to log in to my account on the same day that it was hacked and go to my mailbox grab my gear and go to my raid an hour later.
But i was wondering, am I alone in this experience? If you have had an experience with being hacked were you impressed by the response time or not? I know blizzard used to be bad about stuff like this so also give a little info into how long ago it was.
And I will curb the comments right now:
No, I do not have an authenticator
Yes, it was dumb
No, I do not visit compromising websites
No, no one else has my account info
Yes, I plan to order an authenticator very soon.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
That Awkward Moment
You both look up and find your way blocked so move to avoid. Finding yourself in peril once again you stop to regain your hold on the situation. Both members are unable to move, for fear has taken over. Afraid to make the first move, you hold position until your courage has returned. You move, but undoubtedly the other has chosen this opportunity to move also. Again you are overloaded by the situation and again must regain your courage. You move again, and once more the other moves along with you. Frozen again. You move quickly this time, before the other has regained composure, and move past. Thus ends "The Awkward Moment."
If you haven't caught on yet i am talking about walking in a hallway. You know that moment when you are walking down the hallway and you are about to run into someone and you both move the same direction to avoid the other person. BAM!!!!! Awkward moment. I really hate that feeling. Both people know that they need to move but neither one wants to be the first to go, but without fail you both choose the same moment to move and you both stop again. This can happen 2, 3 maybe even 4 times if you are really unlucky.
This may seem really random to you but i walk a crowded hallway everyday.
I have recently (say, 2 weeks) started just going for it. Here is what i decided:
1) People often feel that this is rude to simply cut someone off. I disagree. In the event of an Awkward Moment you have both already essentially cut the other person off. When you stop, it is because you think that you will hit the other person if you continue. the other person, thinking the same thing also stops. If you continue walking instead of stopping,that other person will still have the same reaction and you will pass by unhindered.
2) Always go right. If we are going to stop the Awkward Moment from controlling our lives we must set rules of engagement. When you walk down the hallway, stairs, street you typically walk on the right hand side. This is to say you should always be on the right side of people, and so if you are going to make the move to simply carry on through with your movement then go right. If this is flipped in your country then you should probably go left.
3)Be decisive. This has to be a conscious decision and one that you don't hesitate on. If you hesitate that other person may think faster than you expect and keep going that direction causing an actual collision or a close proximity Awkward Moment and that is even worse
OK serious time over. I have been doing this for about 2 weeks and i have yet to have an Awkward Moment and it has been pretty awesome. So what do you say? Join me in this initiative to stamp out the Awkward Moment.
Oh and i have pictures from a reader for the priest section of my CC guide that i will be throwing in, probably tomorrow, along with a section about silences so go check it out and leave some feedback.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Crowd Control Basics
For thousands of years prior to the coming of the Lich Kings Wrath there were mystical abilities that were used to ensnare and entrap, incapacitate and slow, these abilities belong to a sect of ninjas that were part of an ancient cult called “lolwarriorsnocc”. The wrath brought by the Lich King forced all these CC’s in to submission and they were not seen from for a solid 2 years. But there is an ancient prophesy that tells of the coming of the great black dragon that will free the CC’s from there submissive state. And that time is coming to pass.
Wow that was lame, but really fun to write. So anyways yeah I am doing a guide on CC for anyone who didn’t read that above or figure it out from my lame story. We haven’t really needed to do any crowd control in wrath but we still got some new abilities for pretty much every class so that all-1 classes have a CC ability. So what I am going to do in this post is outline what every class has, what it is usable on, the practical applications for it and pictures, because who doesn’t love pictures?
I am also going to do a rundown on other types of crowd control that are not abilities but instead rely on player skill, as well as the joys of marking targets for CC and how to properly do that. Also LoS pulls. So here we go.
CC AbilitiesI am going to go through this class by class and tell you a little bit about the CC, how it breaks, whether or not it is a single use ability and what spec it belongs to if it is part of a talent tree. Oh and pictures, because I like pictures. Also anything listed here is not going to be abilities that only last for like 6 sec or 8 sec unless I have a reason for adding them which I will explain in its description.
Death Knight
Chains of Ice
This ability slows the target by 60% for 8 sec this used to go down to 0 over 8 seconds but unless the tooltip is wrong, it now stays at 60% for the full 8 seconds. This is not a CC in itself but given that it slows the enemy you could use this while kiting an add in order to keep it controlled and not hitting the group. With DK’s having a taunt the kiting should be rather simple just keep it slowed and run away while taunting .
Druid
Entangling Roots
A long time ago Entangling roots could not be used inside and many druids rejoiced when you became able to use it indoors as it gave them a CC to use. Entangling roots immobilizes one target so that they cant move, but that is all that it does. It does not silence then or stop them from attacking so you want to use it on a melee add that is out of range of everyone. If you use it on an add in the group then he will hit the closest target regardless of how good your threat is unless you are also in melee range. This breaks from dmg but a little incidental aoe shouldn’t break it, so just use it on a melee and refresh.
Cyclone
Cyclone whips the target up into the air and immobalizes, silences, pacifies, and makes them immune to everything. It only does this for 6 seconds however and after the third cast DR will stop it from working. It is not really that reliable for CC but it has a good use while CC’ing. When you use Entangling roots too many times the mobs will go immune. With a little luck and some well timed casts you can reset the DR on entangling roots by keeping them cycloned for long enough. Oh and don’t use this on the kill target because it really ticks people off.
Hibernate
Hibernate puts the target beast or dragonkin to sleep for 40 sec allowing you to pretty much forget about it. This breaks as soon as the target takes dmg but it is very reliable if used on a target outside of the group. This also means that if you have a melee and a beast or dragonkin you can keep them both locked down if you are a boomer or a tree.
Hunter
Freezing Trap
Welcome back freezing trap. This spell has a 20 second duration and traps the target in a block of ice which breaks on any dmg. With the 30 second CD on the ability you may be thinking that it is not very reliable, and you would be wrong. Back in the day you judged hunters on how well they could chain trap. I know hunters that were really bad at it and you would wait for 20 seconds later when you had to taunt that add back, and I know hunters that you could tell to trap a target and 4 min later (exaggeration) after the next two trash packs were dead you could walk back and grab the mob that was still in the block of ice. I would make a video and show you what it looks like but if you got HERE by Lassirra of The Hunters Mark, I am not going to imbed it so that you have to go watch it on youtube and because it is not my video and she deserves the credit. It is old but it is good. And with the adding of trap launcher it is much easier.
Wyvern Sting (Survival)
This sting out of the survival talent tree puts the target to sleep for 30 seconds with a 1 min CD. This breaks on any damage and doesn’t last for as long as the other ones because it cannot be reapplied. This target should probably be the first CC you break after the main kill target is dead as it only lasts 30 seconds which is long enough to kill the kill target and maybe an off target but not any longer.
Mage
Polymorph
This normally turns the target into a sheep that wanders around in a small area until it takes any damage. It lasts 50 seconds and is usually the last CC that you break as it is really reliable when the mob is far away. It can be reapplied indefinitely as long as you don’t run into DR cap. I say this is usually a sheep because some mages have polymorph-turtle or polymorph-pig or into a penguin or baby monkey if it is glyphed for that.
Slow (Arcane)
This ability comes out of the arcane tree and slows the target for 60% for 15sec. Like the Chains of Ice from the DK this will need to be accompanied by kiting in order to be affective. If you leave it alone slowed it will just walk up to someone and kill them instead of run up and kill them.
Paladin
Repentance (retribution)
This ability incapacitates the target for 1 min with a 1 min CD. This means that it is refreshable on one target but not useable on more than one ( but most CC isn’t useable on more than one target ). That being said it is really reliable and is only not useable on beasts. Think of it as useable on sentient beings and you will be good.
Priest
Shackle Undead
This roots, silences and pacifies the target for 50 sec as long as it is undead. While the applications may not be as widespread as they could have been in Wrath it may be useful at some point. Thanks to Tufva for this picture.
Control the mind of the targeted mob for up to 1 min. This spell is more likely to break the farther away you are from the mob you are controlling but has some interesting consequences. It is only useable on humanoids and results in trading your priest for the MC’d mob. There are 2 basic ways to use this: MC one mob in a group and let the grou kill it and then resume the pull with the rest of the CC or MC the mob and resume the pull as normal using that mob to help you fight. Remember however that the priest controlling the add is indisposed so having your healer do it is a bad idea unless you are just going to let the other guys beat the one guy down and then complete the pull. Thanks to Tufva for this picture.
Rogue
Sap
Sap is a very standard CC ability that incapacitates the target for 1 min as long as the target is not in combat. This ability breaks on any dmg and cannot be reapplied. This is a good way to have some fun with your rogues as they must be relatively close to their target to get a sap off. So give them the target at the back of a group against a wall with a dog with true sight in the front ( yes I have done that, and yes he did get it). This not being able to be reapplied should be one of your first CC broken and killed, but remember to have fun with it. Remember however that this CC has the advantage of not causing combat to start when it is applied to its target so that makes it useful for guaranteeing that someone is out of the fight.
Smoke Bomb (85)
I know this isn’t in the game yet and I know that rogues don’t get it till level 85 and that it is not technically a CC ability but it forces mobs to run to you instead of casting and is basically a portable LoS device. I cant get a picture yet but at 85 if I remember I will try to update it with a picture.
Shaman
Hex
Hex is basically Polymorph and lasts for 1 min, has a 45sec CD, turns them into a frog, allows the target to take some damage before breaking...so I guess it isn’t like polymorph all that much. This can be used on multiple targets now and can by glyphed down to a 30 sec CD although CC'ing 2 mobs isnt really possible by yourself with the CD.
Bind Elemental
So this is basically the polymorph for elementals. It lasts 50 sec, breaks on damage, and stops elementals from doing anything, so you can use this in basically the same way that you use polymorph
Frost shock/Earthbind Totem
Frost shock has a 6 second CD and slows the target by 50% for 8 sec, while also causing a high amount of threat. This combined with Earthbind Totem, which slows targets within 10 yards, allows shamans to be very strong kiters
Warlock
Banish
This spell is like a 30 second Druid Cyclone that only works on demons and elementals. This can not break on damage and can only end by running out of time or by having the warlock recast banish on the same target. This is basically THE CC for demons and elementals if you have a warlock with you, and although I don’t see there being that many demons in cata there should be a ton of elementals.
Enslave Demon
This is situational as, unless it has changed, this replaces their demon but with soul shards gone now, warlock who flat refuses to do this if they are already using their banish is just being selfish. Basically it just enslaves the demon for 5 min and then when it ends the demon is released; however, the demon gets an attack and cast speed nerf. After the fight is over you can either release the demon and kill it or use it for the next pull and then release and kill it.
Fear
This causes the target to run away in fear for 20 seconds. The problem with this is that it can run into another pack of mobs and aggro them to you. This is however eliminated by the glyph of fear which causes them to cower instead of run in fear and gives the ability a 5 second CD. This means that for PvE purposes it is significantly better allowing the warlock to keep the mob locked down for a little while.
Curse of Exhaustion (Affliction)
And just when you thought that your warlock couldn’t do anything else, you realize that they are affliction and that they can slow a target by 50% for 30 sec and kite it around just like a mage or death knight.
Seduction (succubus)
Oh wait, waht was that, you mean that the demon you were going to enslave is actually a humanoid? Well have no fear because once again the warlock can handle that. Getting out his succubus and using seduction allows him to lock down an enemy humanoid for 15 seconds as long as it channels the spell. So pretty much the warlock can lock down 4 targets if it is the right mob pack. This might be even more fun than giving the rogue a crappy sap target.
Warrior
And not to be outdone by warlocks the warrior is going to...well I mean he can...no? huh....what can a warrior do? Oh right...
Hamstring
Slows the target by 50% for 15 sec. Read the DK-chains of ice or mage-slow cause I’m not typing it out again. Also this has no noticeable effect so sorry warriors no screeny, unless you want me to just take a picture of me running.
So there you have it that is, I think the full list of CC abilities in the game but there is more than just abilities that can be used as CC. These are the CC skills, not abilities, skills. These are only partially determined by class but mostly have to do with player skill and their ability to actually execute them.
Kiting
Kiting is named after a kite. The idea is that you are “attached” to your mob by the invisible threads of aggro; however the mob is never allowed to reach you, as if you were to be pulling a kite along after you ( this may or may not be true but i am going with it ). Usually kiting is done by having a move speed difference between you and your kiting targets, either they have a slow on them or you have a speed increase. If they have a speed increase or you a movement slow then you may want to try kiting a different target after you run back to your corpse. Hunters are basically able to kite anything due to having aspect of the cheetah which allows them to move faster as long as they are not getting hit, however any mob that is not immune to slow can be kited by anyone as long as you have a DK, Arcane Mage, Affliction warlock with the curse or a Warrior. That being said though, if the mob is slow moving you can kite it regardless of group comp, like the deformed fanatics on the LDW fight in ICC.
Off Tanking
Sorry clothies this one is not for you unless you are a warlock (/facepalm). This can be done with any tanking class for a short period of time if you absolutely need to. This can also be done by a hunter pet or a warlock blueberry or felguard. This is as easy as it sounds. Taunt or gain aggro on a mob and then pull him away from the group and tank him till the first target dies. This is not the same as what happens in Wrath right now where you just aoe until the mobs start attacking you and then keep going, giggling to yourself because if your healer has half a brain and your gear is good enough then you won’t die. Don’t just offtank the add because you will die. This needs to be something that you decide to do with your whole group and more specifically your tank and healer. If you are just going to pick it up there are three likely outcomes: 1) you pull it off and healer and tank don’t notice or the healer can’t keep up with the new dmg going out and you die. 2) You pull and have a good tank and immediately lose agro. 3) you pull and the tank decides that you are not worth it in which case situation 1 becomes your reality. If you just pull it off you may live but don’t count on it.
Line of Sight Pulling (LoS)
This used to be needed but pretty much never happened in wrath except to move trash in some raids. This involves pulling a target and then moving around a corner or pillar so that the enemy casters stop casting and run towards you so that you can pick them up easier. This enables you to pick everything in a confined area. This is used when the CC needed is non-existent. When you have a large amount of very weak casters that you don’t need to CC such as non-elite, but they are in the way of a patrol of strong elites so you can aoe the casters down but need them out of the way so that you don’t aggro the strong patrol because you will need to crowd control them. LoS pulls use changes in elevation, pillars, walls, corners, outcroppings and in cata possibly a rogue smoke bomb in order to cause the casters to run to you. Here are some pictures so that you know what I am talking about. I am going to pull this pack with casters in the first picture to where I am standing. I am going to pop out and hit one target then immediately tuck back behind the corner. If you do it right the mobs will be all bunched up just like in picture number 2. And thats all there is to it. Just make sure that you look for places where you can LoS.
Silences
So the commenters have spoken, and I shall respond in kind. They ask for silences and they shall have them. Silences are not directly CC in a PvE environment (imo) but they are very important to have. Silences, and by extension, inturrupts cause a caster mob to stop casting and run towards the target that has highest aggro on. These are extremely useful in situtaions when the tank wants to tank a caster but he wont move or if you are trying to stop a large damage attack or heal that you dont want to go off. There is pretty much no bad thing to inturrupt, there may be better choices but if you see a spell being cast and have presence of mind to inturrupt it, go for it. Chances are that anything that absolutely needs to be inturrupted is being watched closely by your tank or you will be told to inturrupt it. These are very valuable abilities and if you are askied to use them for a specific reason, you should. NEVER assume that someone else is going to inturrupt something important unless they expressly say that they will, and even then you should be on edge a little. This is a list of CD by class with the name(spec) Duration and CD in that order as well as any potential quirks. As always, leave a comment if i miss anything (keep in mind that these are direct silences and not things that you can inturrupt casts with or i would be looking for abilities all night).
Death Kinght
Mind Freeze-4 sec, 10 secCD
Strangulate-5 sec, 2 min CD (1 min talented in Blood)
Druid
Skull Bash-5 sec, 1 min CD (10 sec talented Feral)
Solar Beam(balance)-10 sec, 1 min CD (must be standing in solar beam to be silenced)
Hunter
Silencing shot(marksmanship)-3 sec, 20 sec CD
Mage
Counterspell-8 sec, 24 sec CD (only silences that school of magic. ie.frost, fire, arcane, nature...)
Paladin
Rebuke(Retrobution)-4 sec, 10 sec CD
Priest
Silence(shadow)- 5 sec, 45 sec CD
Rogue
Kick-5sec, 10 sec CD
Shaman
Wind Shear-2sec, 8 sec CD (only silences the school of magic that was being cast, like counterspell)
Warlock
Spell Lock(felhunter)-3 sec, 24 sec CD (if used on a target while they are casting it will also lock out spells in that school of magic for 6 sec, otherwise it is simply a 3 sec silence)
Warrior
Shield Bash-6 sec, 12 sec CD (must be in battle or defensive stance with a shield equipped and only silences the school of magic being cast, 3 sec CD if talented Prot)
Pummel-4 sec, 10 sec CD (must be in battle or berserker stance)
Heroic Throw-3sec, 30 sec CD (must be talented in prot for this effect)
Raid Icons
Raid icons are useful in more than just a raid and allow you to put a mark above the head of a mob that will show up on their portrait for all party and raid members when you target them. This allows you to easily mark which target you want to have CC by who as well as who is your main kill target/secondary kill target. Back when I learned to tank there was something that every tank said after looking at his group and it went something that went like this...”sap star, sheep moon, trap square. Kill order is skull, X, star, square, moon.” After that was said everyone knew what was going on and the tank would mark and pull. Knowing what to mark for what CC isn’t hard but there is something of an art to it. That caster in the back behind the mob with true sight...that is a perfect target to tell your rogue to sap. The melee in the group is good to have a hunter chain trap. Generally it is good to sheep as it is a ranged CC and allows you to pull with it and have that mob way out of the group. Generally at the start of the run you want to look and see what kind of party members you have and think about all your possible CC options. What are your CC options you ask? Really. You need to read better. After you have decided what you have then you need to remember what each one is effective against as well as its weaknesses. You don’t want to tell your warlock to banish the humanoid. Then you want to assign each CC ability, or each party member if you have more than one of each class, a raid icon. Then move to the pull. You want to look at the group that you are attacking. Generally there is going to be a mix of ranged and melee targets to CC and it is your job to know which to use which CC on. I would love to tell you that there is a best way to do this but it is personal preference at some point, just try and be predictable and consistent. There is no right or wrong way to go about assigning marks but remember that Skull is always the kill target and historically star is sap and moon is sheep which may make it easier to appeal to the older group of raiders. One last thing about this is that if you are the tank, get used to doing this. If you don’t want to then run with a guild and have someone else do it, suck it up and do it, or stop tanking because that was the tanks job back in the day and I think that that is not going to change. And for DPS and healers, in wrath there was no consequence to checking off that you would be the group leader, but with the new (old?) instance philosophy you might get made to mark things if you choose to be group leader so just make sure that you are ready for that. If you are a tank and you flat refuse to mark targets then, in my books, that is reasonable grounds to vote kick you from the group, if you don’t want to do it then ask if anyone else is comfortable, never demand the group fill a role that has, and probably always will be reserved for tanks and raid leaders. The raid icons are Skull, X, Square, Moon, Star, Circle, Diamond and Triangle
So this is everything that I have for right now. As always if you have an idea that you think will help throw it in the comments and if I add it in you will get credit. I hope this doesn’t go unnoticed because I think it is a good thing for everyone to know. Until next time, have a good one.
Hardest Boss in the Game
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Spoooooky, but not really, just awesome
Oh and just to cut off anyone saying that i didnt actually carve this pumpkin, I did. I am not going to try and convince you other than simply stating it so just take it at face value.
Have a happy halloween and all those of you with kiddies going out tonight, have fun.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Reforging
Monday, October 25, 2010
WHOOSH!!!!!!
Friday, October 22, 2010
On the Wings of Death
A busy schedule has been kind of reducing my output a little but I am going to try and get this off in between two of my classes.
First off anyone at Blizzcon I hope that you are having fun and I totally wish I was there. A student’s budget does not make for a very whimsical traveler.
So after a little hard work I would just like to report that Jey, Guardian of Cenarius is now the proud owner of a Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher. I can’t post pictures right now because I don’t have any access to wow but I will try and get some up within a few days. Overall I found that the ICC Meta achievement was pretty fun to work towards. Some of the achieves became a lot easier after the patch so I would say to anyone that is looking to get their drake to go for it and not wait till Cata.
Generally we have been doing pretty well but we did have about a month where we were losing to the pre-expansion attendance boss so I would say that about 4 months worth of time to get us our drake doing at most 9 hours a week, usually about 6, was pretty credible. We have finally, within the last 3 or so weeks, gotten 10 people who are reliable and good players *crosses fingers* and if they all stay for Cata I think we should be a force to be reckoned with when 10 and 25 are on par for difficulty.
As for our plans for the rest of the expansion...well if you know what is involved in the Meta achievement then you know what the only thing left is. That’s right, it is time to smash our face against the wall that is Heroic Lich King and hopefully get our “Bane of the Fallen King” titles. And if we do get them, you can bet that I will make a post about it.
One last thing. I am planning on doing a post about crowd control that should pretty long like my basics posts but I have yet to start on it, as well as, if I am quick about it, a general walkthrough of the Meta for 10 man. So stay tuned for those (if there is anyone tuned in anyway).