Wrapping Cataclysm Up

  By Tikari | March 12, 2012 - 20:05 | General, WoW
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We’ve reached that point in the expansion where the end of progression raiding is in sight, there are no more content patches to come, and we’re simply waiting for Mists (if you’re not one of those folks hanging up their transmogged hat). It’s a bit of a quiet period, and for me, it’s a time to set goals.

At the end of Wrath, I set a few goals for myself. Some of those were group goals. For example, I wanted the Lich King kill that eluded me. Others were individual goals – I wanted to hit 40 exalted reputations. In the last few weeks of the expansion, I was able to complete both of those goals, with some help from Apotheosis, the guild I had just joined.

Since my guild is now over halfway done with heroic tier 13, I thought I’d sit down and make a list of goals to hit by the end of this expansion. So I did. Here’s what I came up with, separated into goals to complete as a group, and goals I’ll work on individually.

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Fangs of the Father: Tips and Tricks

  By Tikari | February 26, 2012 - 13:46 | Assassination, Fangs of the Father, Rogues, WoW
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So I’ve had a few weeks to play with my legendary daggers, and I’ve learned a few lessons (most the hard way!) about how to make the most effective use of the crazy power they give you.

PvE Tips:

1. Try to convince your raid leader to leave you on the boss wherever possible. There’s not much worse than getting a proc just as you run out to DPS a Yor’sahj slime. If this isn’t feasible for your group/comp, do keep an eye on your stacks. Below 30, and DPS those adds away. As the stacks get higher, be more conservative, within reason. Leaving an add a few second early to get back to the boss may be worth it so you don’t proc and waste DPS. Make sure, though, that you’re communicating these plans with your raid leads/officers. You want to make sure you’re doing what’s best for the group, not being selfish.

2. Try to time your cooldowns for when you’re getting close to 30 stacks, so you’ll maximize a chance of a proc while they’re still up and running. Timed right, you can also get a glyphed Tricks in during a proc so your abilities cost less (I’m assuming you have at least 2 piece T13).

3. Be a bit more conservative using energy as the proc gets closer. Absolutely avoid capping, but try to run in the middle of the energy bar so you have a finisher or two worth of reserves available as soon as the proc fires.

4. Use Power Auras or something similar to tell you how many stacks you’re at and when the proc is active.

Here are my Power Aura strings:

Version:4.23; icon:inv_misc_volatileshadow; buffname:Shadows of the Destroyer; x:-240; stacks:1; owntex:true; size:0.39; y:230; texmode:2; stacks.enabled:true; stacks.LegacySizing:false; stacks.Relative:BOTTOM; stacks.h:1.55

Shadows Power Aura

Shadows Power Aura

Version:4.23; icon:Spell_Shadow_Shadowfury; buffname:Fury of the Destroyer; x:270; owntex:true; size:0.39; y:228; texmode:2; timer.h:1.77; timer.enabled:true; timer.Relative:BOTTOM

Version:4.23; b:0.0745; g:0.9961; icon:Spell_Shadow_Shadowfury; buffname:Fury of the Destroyer; x:270; texture:2; size:1.2; y:228; texmode:1

Fury Power Aura

Fury Power Aura

PvP Tips:

Some of the tips above also apply for PvP, but here are a few additional things I’ve learned specifically in regards to PvP’ing with the legendary daggers:

1. It’s fairly obvious you should save some cooldowns for close to your proc. But maybe not so obvious is saving your pvp trinket if you can. Nothing’s worse than being cc’ed immediately as you proc. A smokebomb and stun as you get close in stacks can also be quite helpful, especially if you’re lucky and proc early.

2. If you have two sources of burst DPS (hint, you do now, at least if you’re Sub!), you can make them more effective through one of two methods: use them at the same time, or back-to-back. Unfortunately, Shadow Dance and the Legendary proc are not mutually beneficial. For the former, you want to spam openers; for the latter, you want to spam finishers – you can’t get maximum benefit out of both at the same time. So chaining them is the right answer. And since you have very little control over the exact timing of the Legendary proc, you’ll want to use Shadow Dance second. Note: at least in my arena experience, if I use Shadow Dance as part of my initial opener, it’s up in time for the Legendary proc.

Your turn! I hope these tips help you out. If you have any others, I’d love to hear them – please leave a comment!

Race to Server First!

  By Tikari | February 23, 2012 - 21:53 | Assassination, Fangs of the Father, Rogues, WoW
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Three weeks ago, I acquired my legendary rogue daggers. Now that I’ve had some time to play around with them, I thought I’d blog, both about the acquisition of the daggers, as well as lessons I’ve learned from playing around with them in PvE and PvP.

So the questline itself was pretty amazing. I’m not much into lore (I can be fairly impatient, so reading quest text is tough), but I really enjoyed using abilities I rarely have use for in a PvE setting.

A little bit about each stage, from my perspective:

Pickpocketing Hagara: This went smoothly and happened earlier in the tier than I expected. Our 25-man guild (now recruiting!) was able to get to (and two shot) Hagara on our first night of raiding. Both our raiding rogues pickpocketed Hagara before the kill and were able to get our 24 hour timers running early. In later weeks, we opened up pickpocketing for alts and non-raiding members of the guild so most max-level rogues in our guild now have the stage 1 daggers.

Killing Creed: I found stealthing here a bit of a pain at first, but got the hang of it after a while (and after a lof of failed routes). For this quest, I grouped up with our other raiding rogue who had a bit of a head start on me. He had just gotten past the stealth part and was working on the boss when I showed up. Unfortunately, soon after I grouped up with him, he downed Creed. Since I was in his group, I got quest credit as well, meaning I never actually got to fight Creed. So that was a bit anticlimactic, but who knows – maybe I’d still be on that phase of the quest!

Killing Nalice: Stealthing seemed much easier here (as well as a good deal shorter). While I found stealthing to Creed annoying and frustrating, I found sneaking underneath Karazhan to find Nalice enjoyable. And the fight itself was amazing. It stretched my capabilities and key bindings as I used abilities I hadn’t in a long, long time. A list of abilities I used other than my usual rotation: Expose Armor, Blind, Shiv, Kidney Shot, Cheap Shot, Kick, Sprint, Recuperate. Quite a selection. I probably would have had a tougher time if my PvP experience hadn’t trained me to maintain control of an opponent.

So after all of that, plus just over a month of collecting elementium gem clusters, and I was on the cusp of getting my legendary. The other 25-man guild on our server close to us in raiding progress was just behind us, but some quick napkin math showed the exact gem number didn’t matter – server first would be determined by who killed Deathwing first during the next reset.

Since our Sunday raid was going to be cancelled anyway due to the Super Bowl, we decided we were going to make a push for server first. With that, the race was on.

We found out the other guild had decided to start an hour earlier than usual to match our start time, so it was clear they were making a push as well. When we got started, they had already downed Morchok. As a guild, we approach raiding seriously, but we like to have fun and our raid leader likes to spell out instructions in detail, so speed runs aren’t our strong suit. Nevertheless, we tried to hurry things along. After clearing of trash and handing out of assignments, we pulled Heroic Morchok and we were underway.

One thing to point out – we were sacrificing progression attempts, but we were going to try the heroic modes we’d already downed (Morchok and Hagara), so it was extra exciting when we one shot Morchok. It was about this time that the rival guild shut off their DBM whispers, so we couldn’t tell which boss they were on directly. Later in the raid, we started using the armory site to check in, but all we knew at this point is that we were behind.

Yor’sahj and Zon’ozz normal modes went down quick, even though we had issues with Zon’ozz and ping pong the week before. With these two kills, I had enough gem clusters to complete this stage of the quest, so with the pre-arranged help of guildmates (Thanks, Jaymz and Srsbusiness!), I was summoned to Ravenholdt Manor to turn in the gem clusters and pick up the last quest, which called for retrieving a fragment of Deathwing’s jaw, looted from Madness. So close!

I was summoned back and on to Heroic Hagara we went. For those of you who haven’t done Heroic Hagara on 25 man, there’s a lightning phase, which for our strat requires most of our raid to create a cross formation, with players just inside 10 yards from each other so they can almost instantly chain lightning from one pillar to three others. Because of this formation, there is a good deal of pre-pull setup required, and it can be time consuming. With the pressure of the race, and knowing the other guild wasn’t going to be doing Hagara on Heroic and therefore could skip this organizational step, it felt like it went on forever. When we finally did pull, though, it went smoothly, and we soon had another heroic mode boss fight, and arguably, our least likely one shot, behind us.

About this time in the night (90 minutes in), we’d normally break, but we knew we had to push on to have any chance of getting server first. Ultraxion went down without issue, as did Blackhorn, and it was around that time that we started to use the armory site to determine how far the other raid had gotten. Based on their loot, we could tell they had just downed Blackhorn minutes before we did, so it was close. We dropped a feast, ate up, and started in on Spine.

Spine went smoothly as well, and when we checked the armory while buffing on the platforms of Madness, we still did not see another Spine kill for our competition. Through some discussion after raid, we found out the other team had disconnect issues on the fight, leading to a wipe, and allowing us to take the lead. We continued on, taking Madness down in a one shot. I looted the jaw fragment, and now all I had to do was turn it in and pick up my daggers first, and we’d win the race and server bragging rights.

For those of you who have seen The Amazing Race, you have probably witnessed a team caught up by the frantic nature of the game and suddenly turn blind, unable to see their objective, despite it being smack dab in front of their face. Usually at this point, the cameraman will pan from their faces frozen with “Where is it??” looks to the item in question to underscore how oblivious they are. Yeah, that was me. I was summoned back out to Ravenholdt, ran into the manor and found… the building in flames with no quest giver inside. Confused, I thought maybe I was out of phase with the rest of my raid group and couldn’t see the NPC, so I flew to the bottom of the hill, dropped group, and came back. No luck. I then hearthed to see if that would solve it. Again, I was summoned back to the same burning manor. Finally, after taking a few seconds to survey the area, I saw the NPC outside but near the manor and I was able to complete the quest, retrieving my legendary daggers. I guess getting outside of a burning house is smart, even if you’re an NPC.

The guild headed to Stormwind to announce to trade chat took some screenshots in front of the Stormwind Cathedral. You can see me in the middle of the pack, falling with my batwings. About twenty minutes later, our competition got their legendaries, and it was a big celebration for us all.

Fangs of the Father

Fangs of the Father

All in all, it was a great night for me, and I hope for the guild as well. I wish there had been a guild benefit for completing the legendary (other than me doing more DPS), like there was for Tarecgosa’s Rest, because obviously there was no way I would have gotten it without all of them contributing, sacrificing playing time and some time on progression for me. So my sincere thanks to Apotheosis for all of their assistance.

I plan on posting some tips and tricks on legendary use soon, including power auras, but I have a few other posts to get out there first. Look for more updates to the blog soon!

Blogging Challenge Day 11: My Flaws (or: Gauze)

  By Tikari | December 29, 2011 - 11:50 | Blizzcon, Blogging Challenge, WoW
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So it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I think you’ll understand after reading today’s blog entry why I’ve been avoiding this subject. Well, no more avoiding things. On with Day 11 of the Blogging Challenge – today’s topic: My Flaws.
 
Writing about your own foibles can be tough, but I don’t want to shy away from the topic. I could write about something in-game such as how I keyboard turn (gasp), or I could pretend I’m in a horrible job interview and say my biggest flaws are “working too hard and being too much of a perfectionist.” But those seem like copouts to me. So I’m going to write about two closely related flaws. Warning: this is going to get personal.
 
Flaw 1: I procrastinate. I’m not talking about small things here, like waiting too long to take out the trash (although, I occasionally do that too – the recycling does need to go out). No, I’m specifically talking about waiting on larger things. I want to travel and explore places I’ve never been. I want to go back to places I haven’t been in years and rediscover the past through my older eyes. I want to see shows – concerts, the symphony, spoken word, Cirque du Soleil – anything and everything. I want to go to fantastic restaurants and run down the tasting menu, taking my time with each plate. I want to see friends and rebuild relationships and spend time with people. I want to write. Some in public, like in this blog, but mostly in private – just for me and maybe a few others I trust. I want to express myself through words and record the stories and thoughts I’ve had floating around for years but never “found the time” to work on. But right now, I’m doing none of those things (well, okay, I’m writing – it’s a start).
 
Why haven’t I done these things? To be fair to myself, I’ve done some of the above. But for every opportunity I’ve taken, three others have passed by. Excuses abound – it’s so easy to not make time to do things. I’ll wait until I have more vacation time. Ticket prices will come down soon. No good seats are available. I can go see that band next year. And the big reason: it’s easier not to. It’s easier to sit down on the couch, get on my laptop, log on to WoW, and watch TV. I feel as if I’ve been living a life wrapped up in gauze, not feeling anything beyond hoping Omar gets away and Dexter takes care of the season’s big bad. I don’t want to be wrapped up any longer. I want out. And with this new year starting, I will stop giving power over to everything else and letting life pass by. I don’t expect to have full control over where my life goes. As John Lennon famously said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” But, at least I’ll start to act on those wishes and dreams I’ve always had.
 
Flaw 2: I wear my heart on my sleeve. I learned a few years ago that I have very little control over my body language and other non-verbal cues, so it’s easy to know how I’m feeling, even if you don’t know me that well. And I feel deeply. When something affects me, it can take over my thoughts, whether positive or negative. I’m not a man who can shut off his emotions and refuse to feel. I envy the people who have the ability to deal with personal trauma and through will power don’t let it affect them. That’s certainly not me. After a period of introspection lately, I realize what I’ve done instead (see Flaw 1) is put myself in a situation where I don’t have to feel. I live in gauze because it’s easier. If I don’t give anything the chance to reach me, I never have to worry about the lows. I’m never disappointed, because I never look forward to anything.

 

But – and this is the crux – I also never experience the highs. And as of now, I’m done avoiding. In 2012, I’m going to travel – Las Vegas, New York, Europe (Greece sounds perfect). I’m going to go to shows. And I’m going to go to amazing restaurants. No more excuses; no more waiting. I’m going to let myself experience highs, and yes, I’ll experience lows as well. But at least I’ll be living. It’s been too long.

All in Good Fun?

  By Tikari | December 14, 2011 - 20:20 | Blizzcon, WoW
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Although I attended Blizzcon in 2011, I did not attend the closing ceremony. Frankly, I’m glad I didn’t, since the Corpsegrinder video would have bothered me. For those of you who haven’t read about that controversy, go check out some links. I’ll wait for you.

Welcome back! When discussion of the content of the closing ceremony picked up steam, I didn’t have much to say that wasn’t said better by many others.  Two things stood out to me, though.

First, I read a few tweets regarding the ceremony asking why there was such an uproar over someone trash-talking the Alliance. I was a bit thrown by that take on the events. When I saw them, I did my best to explain the issue wasn’t Alliance bashing, the problem was Blizzard’s tacit endorsement of Corpsegrinder’s homophobic, pejorative language. My responses fell on deaf ears, as the conversation continued about how people are too sensitive and that the game is set up to be faction vs. faction.

Second, in the initial “apology” post by the band, these two sentences particularly bothered me: “The Corpsegrinder bit was never intended to be taken seriously. We are sorry that we offended anyone; everything at our shows is just meant in fun.” The implication here is that if you are offended by the things they said, you are at fault for taking it too seriously.

Those events transpired a month and a half ago, and I wouldn’t be bringing them up again, if it weren’t for a similar situation that took place yesterday. A fairly well-known blogger and podcaster whom I’ve followed fairly closely (but will no longer) tweeted about recruiting a work friend of his to play World of Warcraft. He recounted the story of his friend choosing to roll Horde after asking, “Why are Alliance so gay looking?” That in itself is cringe-worthy, using “gay” as a negative adjective, but it didn’t stop there. Further references (not quotes of his friend this time) followed: “dancing nancies” and “prancing… fairies” were two of the “milder” ones. There were several that went much further, but I do not feel comfortable quoting those on my blog.

Okay, fine. This guy’s a homophobic tool. But why write about one person’s tweets? Well, the answer to that comes in the tweets after. Here are two examples:

“I guess I’m held to a higher standard than others, even when it’s common knowledge I hate an Alliance (sic) all the time.”

“People just get butthurt instead of going with the fun of talking trash.”

See a connection here? Similar verbiage, both in the original messages (video/tweets), and the attempted justification that followed. In both cases, Alliance-bashing is thrown out as a straw man, when that wasn’t the issue. In both cases, the excuse “it’s all in good fun!” is put out there. Finally, both use the same technique to deflect blame on the offended rather than accept wrongdoing themselves.

To be very clear here: the issue lies in the homophobia and slurs. This isn’t good fun, it’s divisive speech, and the intent does not matter. The blame lies squarely on the offender, not the offended. Also, don’t get this confused with a free speech issue. Corpsegrinder and the blogger can say whatever they like. But we can judge them for doing so, and we can judge Blizzard for giving the former a platform. Say whatever you want. But realize if you say bigoted things, people will call you a bigot.

I am not suggesting I think Blizzard is responsible for this individual’s bigotry. I’d bet he had his beliefs set well before he started playing. What I am saying is that Blizzard sets a tone of what is acceptable in the game and in the larger community. When Blizzard tolerates these views, gives them a platform, and is slow to react when their player base expresses legitimate issues, they are perpetuating those views. Blizzard needs to implement and adhere to a zero tolerance policy, or we can expect similar things to happen. You know, all in good fun.