Archive for April, 2007
04.17.07
Posted in Musings at 1:12 pm by Nibuca
In case you’re not a Paladin (or have been living under a rock), the forums are all a-broil with foaming and gnashing over the changes currently on the PTR.
Paladin changes detailed here: Paladin PTR Notes for 2.1
AFAICT, there is an agreed-upon-by-all MMORPG trinity of “required” classes for instances (or even just big fights).
Healers, DPSers, Tanks.
In the purest form,
Healers can’t tank or dps, (Priest)
DPSers can’t heal or Tank, (Rogue, Mage, Warlock, Hunter)
Tanks can’t heal or DPS. (Warrior)
Interesting that there are more pure DPS classes and only one of each of the other trinity.
More interesting still, so-called “pure classes” can hybrid spec to somewhat do a job they aren’t designed to do (Shadow Priest, Fury Warrior). So it looks like the only truely pure classes are Rogue, Hunter, Mage, Warlock, the DPS classes. I believe this stems from the fact that solo play features profoundly in Wow and if you can’t DPS you can’t effectively solo… so everyone needs a little bit of DPS. BUT, in order to do their “pure” job they need to change their spec. (Interesitng idea.. when setting up a group, would a shadow-priest be able to replace the spot of a rogue as dps? If so, then even more interesting that when “pure” classes off-spec they’re still viable.. but when “hybrid classes” specialize they’re still not viable)
Enter the Hybrids. Hybrids are classes of characers that can do two or more of the trinity with moderate success.
Paladin (heal, tank)
Shaman (heal, dps)
Druid (heal, dps, tank)
The rub comes when a “hybrid class” tries to replace the function of a “pure class”.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Tatia at 11:03 am by Nibuca
For West Kingdom Guild night the lowbies (~35-ish) toons decided to do Scarlet Monastery. We started off by getting a couple of quests from Ironforge and then Stormwind.. then we went to Desolace, ( Tatia dinged 37 while “discovering” lands on the way to Desolace) completed a couple of other quests, and finally got the “actual” Scarlet Monastery quest.
Scarlet Monastery is located in baby-undeadland. I’ve never been there before.. well, not really. As Illyah, the baby Blood Elf, I walked out of Undercity to the Zepplin.. but I’d never actually wandered around in the area. Although tempted, Grimr assured me that killing the Skeletal Horse stable master would not cause him to drop a skeletal horse (sigh). Bummed, we instead assalted the Monastery.
To paraphrase: “Established to fight off the invasion of undead in Azeroth, the Scarlet Monastery group have gone all fanatical and zenophobic. They fear and hate all non-human visitors and see all human visitors as potential carriers for the undead plague.” Yippie.
Interesting, what with them all living in a Monastery with a graveyard inhabited by the undead and with them having a boss guy who -is- undead. Wonder if they knew…
The group was Zaramina (36 Mage), Tanuur (37 Shaman) and Tatia (37 Pally). We burned through the Graveyard and the Library with relatively little difficulty. “Judgement of Justice” AKA: “Don’t you go nowhere” came in handy to prevent runners. As we were heading into the Armory, another guildie offered to “run us through” with Chulong (55 rogue). I think we could have handled most of the Armory… the final boss would have been hard though.
After the Armory, Zaramina had to logoff and we added Treasure (35 Rogue), another guildie for a run at the Cathedral itself. This would have been a lot more difficult without Chulong. Even with Chulong we had one unfortunate pull that killed everyone -but- him.
The uber-shield ([Aegis of the Scarlet Commander])didn’t drop so I’ll be trying this a few more times. At the end of the night I hearthed to Ironforge to sell/repair. While in Ironforge a Mage was offering port to Shattrath City for tips. Guildie’s had discussed that hearthing in Shattrath was really the easiest thing to do. So Tatia tipped the nice man 1g, got ported to Shattrath City and is now hearthed there.
Learnings:
- Draenei are automatically “Friendly” with Aldor when they arrive at the City.
- Toons who are “friendly” with Aldor get stomped into smudges of blood and gristle when confronted with Scryer guards.
- Luckily “stomped into smudges” translated into “Transported to outside the city”
- Despite everyone’s warning, Mobs did not run from miles around to “tear little-bitty level 37 Tatia (the uber aggro magnet) to ribbons” just because she went outside the city. That said, I think I’ll try and avoid that in the future.
- The thrill of discovering the “Outlands” is diminished when you are instead ported there. I’m fairly certain I’ll eventually have to do the run through the “real” portal just to have the awestruck feeling of discovering a new dimension.
- The portal to Ironforge drops you off right in front of the Paladin trainer! -sweet- Now if only I had hit level 38. *sigh*
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Posted in Musings at 8:18 am by Nibuca
Grimr, who reads this blog but doesn’t comment on it (the lazy slacker), mentioned last night on Vent that the “orange tiger mount” was a rare drop from a level 60 instance.
Dropped by High Priest Thekal in Zul’Gurub (NE Stranglethorn Vale, Eastern Kingdoms)
[Swift Zulian Tiger]
With a 0.50% drop rate.. and 20 people in the instance.. it looks like I’ll be running this a million times 
I wonder if you can run it with fewer people if they’re all 70s.
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04.16.07
Posted in Tatia at 3:35 pm by Nibuca
Oooo, I want [Flurry Axe]. Rawr!
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Posted in Tatia at 12:00 pm by Nibuca
Tatia is now half a bubble away from 37. “Half a bubble? Who the hell stops at half a bubble?” you say? Well.. I say anyone who in wandering around Booty Bay falls off the pier twice because she’s falling asleep at the keyboard (it was only 11PM but I’d had a very busy weekend).
So as 40 approaches I’m looking at my options and evaluting my faction to see where I need to change. Since Tatia’s a Paladin she already gets a pretty cool horse. I’ve been told the level 40 paladin quest is of the “get me that book off the shelf” variety. Dead easy and requiring no thought or effort. That leaves me to consider the other mounts available. I mean there should be something…
Tatia’s too big for a Mechanical Chicken (Thank God) and I’m left cold by the idea of a Ram. With the Pally mount I’ll already have a horse.. so getting what (for all intents and purposes) looks like a farm horse seems silly. The idea of Tatia on an orange tiger kitty is making me somewhat happy. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like “orange” tiger mounts are available.. so I’m back to “Meh”.
So I guess it’ll be a Pally mount.. and then maybe a Talbuk at 60. That sounds somewhat interesting.
On the other hand, on Illyah and Daimoon (Blood Elf Paladin’s) I’m all ga-ga over the idea of a Skeletal horse. I’ll definately be getting UnderCity rep for them.
I wonder if an Alliance toon could kill the Skeletal Horse stable master and get a Skeletal horse. Hmmmm. For -that- I’d cheerfully flag PVP.
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Posted in Musings at 9:49 am by Nibuca
I studied Management. In fact I have a degree in it (shhh, don’t tell my boss. I’m pretending to be a simple Software Engineer. If my manager finds out I have a double degree in Computer Science and Management he’ll start trying to make me into a manager or something). I did the dance for 4 years and came to the conclusion that 90% of all management theories were either common sense or crap. Only one managment theory ever struck me as true and worthwhile. Unfortunately I’ve completely forgotten the name.. “Golden .. something”. Anyway.. that theory says that if you want to improve a system you examine the whole process and find the choke point. Then you improve that one choke point. Then you re-examine the whole system again to find the new choke point.
It makes sense when manufacturing widgets.. and I think it also makes sense in managing an MMORPG.
Let’s say that Blizzard has identified that instances are too easy (choke point). And let’s say that they’ve decided that it is the free availability of consumables and easy healing that has devalued the end-game instances. That is, because it’s so easy to get +gear, +potions, +flasks and for healers to heal, the instances which were supposed to stop us in our tracks have been made too easy.
At that point Blizzard has two choices:
1. make the instances harder
2. eliminate the things that are making the instances too easy.
#1 has the draw-back of making it harder and harder for casual gamers to get into those end-game instances.
#2 has the draw-back of initially making the instances -much- harder and of hitting many classes and consumables with the nerf-bat (large out cry, followed by chest beating, followed by “I’m gonna take my shiny red ball and go play [insert alternate MMORPG of your choice]”)
The problem is that because of their slow release cycle Blizzard had to change a whole bunch of things all at once. They don’t have the luxury to change only a single variable and then to see how that effects the game. Instead through the patch they have poked a whole bunch of things and hope to see this “fix” the system.
In effect, the nerf to flasks and paladins have made the instances harder.
Though.. the scope of the 2.1 changes is too broad for me to hold it all in mind. Am I right? Do you agree that “make instances harder” was the main goal of the patch beyond simple bug fixes? Is there a different goal that I’m missing?
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04.13.07
Posted in Macros at 10:57 am by Nibuca
I didn’t write these (though in some cases I did re-write them).
Stealth Detector:
# showtooltip Consecration
/cast [combat] Consecration; [nocombat] Consecration(Rank 1)
Pally Taunt:
# showtooltip Righteous Defense
/cast [help] Righteous Defense ; [target=targettarget] Righteous Defense
Announce Resurrection:
# showtooltip Redemption
/cast Redemption
/stopmacro [nodead]
/script local C; if(GetNumRaidMembers()>0) then C = “RAID” elseif(GetNumPartyMembers()>0) then C = “PARTY” else C = “SAY” end SendChatMessage(”Resurrecting %t.”, C)
[Edited: I’m not sure the previous still works but the following does:
#show Redemption
/stopcasting [nodead][harm]
/say Rezzing %t.
/cast Redemption
I really want a “Bless You” macro(or addon).. where I can select a player (some random person I run by on the roads of Azeroth) and based on their class, the correct Blessing will be cast. With button mashing now I often find that the player is out of range before I can decide which blessing would be best for them. I can’t seem to find a macro that will work like this post BC.
I found an addon that will do this for people in my party.. but I want to give out blessings on the road…
Addon: Cirk’s Blessings
Good:
- Easy to configure blessing by class (overridable on a per character basis)
- One click per blessing handed out (blessing type automatically determined)
Bad:
- Installation reset some of my key binding(and redefined right-mouse-button). I had to reset keybindings to default and then re-setup my one keybinding (X to flip camera to look behind). If you had a lot of custom keybindings this could be a PITA.
- If someone in the party is “out of range” the addon halts there. I can’t find an option to skip them.. and when they come back into range the addon does some weird thing where it blesses that one person multiple times (to make up for getting stuck on them before). I may need to try a different add on.
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04.12.07
Posted in Bawk Bawk at 9:54 am by Nibuca
What to do with a guild of level 19 Horde toons? Why toddle off to Westfall and raid deadmines of course.
The night started off slowly. I logged into my account and found that someone in our Alliance guild needed help with his level 20 Paladin quest. Fiancee and I offered to help him until Bawk Bawk guild night started (we had about an hour to spare). Part of that quest involves retrieving wood from the Shredder room in Deadmines. We had just finished that and decided to just leave the mines instead of going all the way through Van Cleef when people from Bawk Bawk were starting to use the meeting stones to summon Bawk Bawk guildie’s to Deadmines.
On Ventrillo one of the Bawk Bawk guildie’s said “Hey, this alliance guy is flagged PVP and AFK.”
Fiancee perked up and said “Wow… Kill him. I’d kill him if I were there.”
All of Bawk Bawk in Westfall attacked the AFK player and killed him. This marked them all as PVP.
Fiancee and I were running out of Deadmines. Fiancee (70 Rogue) kicks on sprint and runs for the door.
I was protecting level 20 guildie (the one on his paladin quest) from all the miners so I was a little bit distracted. I say on vent “Hmmm, so you’re marked PVP in Westfall.. an Alliance zone.. That doesn’t seem like a good idea”. At the same time, through vent I hear cursing and yelling.
Fiancee, 70 Alliance Rogue, had dashed for the door of deadmines.. and slayed Bawk Bawk to a man. OMG. It was -SO- wrong! I mean he told them to do it.. and they listened to him.. and then he killed them all!
There was a lot of cursing and swearing.. to tell the truth I was laughing my ass off. I mean I was glad I hadn’t been logged in (it would be even more WRONG to be slayed by your fiancee in pvp) and I wouldn’t have killed them in pvp. But DAMN!
After everyone’s flag had cleared we made a raid and raided Deadmines. It was our first time with all of us killing together. We discussed strategies.. and the raid flagging (moon for sheep, deathhead for first target, etc). It was very enjoyable.
At the end of the night we ran off to Saldean’s farm to get chicken pets for everyone. How on Azaroth can you have a guild named “Bawk Bawk” and -not- have chicken pets.
Any player can /chicken repeatedly at a chicken and get the quest “CLUCK“. Unfortunately, Farmer Saldean will only sell his special chicken feed to Alliance.
What’s a Horde guild to do? There are actually two solutions.
1. Have an alliance toon buy the feed and put it on a Neutral AH to transfer across faction lines.
2. Have an alliance toon get the quest, /cheer at the chicken and then feed it. BUT have a horde toon pick the egg up off the ground.
We went with #2. Fiancee got back into Bawk Bawk’s good graces by squawking like a chicken repeatedly.
I’m tickled absolutely pink by the idea of a guild named Bawk Bawk running around with pet chickens. 
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04.11.07
Posted in Musings at 10:38 am by Nibuca
So last night I hopped a bird from Stormwind to Southshore.. about half way there I realized that I had a quest to turn in (and another one to pickup) in Ironforge. I kicked myself since I was going to be flying right over Ironforge.. and now I’d have to pay to come back. Then I wondered “hey, what happens if I log off in the middle of a flight?”
It turns out that if you log off in the middle of a flight you log back in on a bird.. but the bird is uncertain of where you were originally heading.. and instead drops you off at the next stop (Ironforge in my case). Yeah!
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04.10.07
Posted in Musings at 9:20 am by Nibuca
A while back I spotted this link on Peter’s Blog AGGRO MANAGEMENT - TEAMWORK, ASSISTS, HEALING, AND TANKING
Somehow when you get into an instance everyone expect you already know this stuff. I suppose it’s because there’s a higher number of people running the instance for the 100th time than people running it for the first time. Even then, no one bother’s to explain about slow aggro building or assisting.
I found the article immensely helpful. Posting the link here so I can find it again in the future.
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