Oh, the Arcanity!

Ever heard of a mage called Fireangel?

Fireangel is the result of what happens when a mage asks “I wonder how high I can make my damage go…”. He specced himself to 40/0/21, and proceeded to drop magely jaws around the world when he posted what kind of damage he was doing.

To put it bluntly, Arcane Blast was spammed. A lot. Like a lot a lot. As in over the entire course of the fight, he casted about two dozen spells that weren’t Arcane Blast, and those were frostbolts that he used when Arcane Power was up.

Oh yeah, just for reference purposes, frostbolt was critting for over ten thousand damage.

And all those chained Arcane Blasts? Over the six minute fight of their first Brutallus kill, Fireangel produced 2200 DPS. Ain’t that fancy? Push it a little harder, and he could have put out 2700 DPS.

And guess what? Brutallus is one of the worst fights in the game for an arcane mage. Arcane mages are best at fights like Leotheras, where DPS needs to stop and start constantly. At a straight up DPS fight like Brutallus? Arcane should be lagging behind.

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On Burnout

See, this is why I try to avoid blogging about Wrath of the Snitch King.

So many massive changes all the time, it’s impossible to really place… well, anything.

Take fire.

A mere week ago, it was the weakest mage tree.

Three days ago, it was a horrendously bad tree filled with awful talents.

And now it’s pretty damn good.

So here’s an example of why you shouldn’t take anything too seriously coming out of the Beta.

Burnout. Wow. This talent has gone from hated to loved.

5 point talent, increases your critical strike damage bonus with fire spells by 25% (meaning, of course, that fire has the most powerful crits, mage wise, by a large lead).

It also used to cost you an additional 5% of your total mana every single time you critted.

Yes, that’s right, if Scorch critted 4 times, that’s a fifth of your mana pool gone. Just like that.

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The Hunter Issue

Upon reaching Outland on the hunter, I met no less than five other hunters while doing the “Welcome to Thrallmar, punk” quests.

I grouped with another hunter to do that pirate patch Orc guy. Grilled Darkeye or something.

I grouped with a different hunter to do the whole Zeth’Gor thing, out of convenience. Hey, if one hunter can handle five mobs easy, two could handle ten, right? Right. Stupid spellcasters.

There was someone in general looking for a group for Cruel’s Intentions. A hunter.

I went after Blacktalon the Savage, with another hunter.

While questing on Void Ridge, I was all by myself… until a party of three hunters showed up.

No less than six hunters questing in the Den of Haal’esh.

That guy doing Cruel’s is looking for a healer. Apparently he found another hunter to group with.

Fallen Sky Ridge? A pair of hunters there clearing.

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Alrighty, Arcane It Up

Today I’m going to talk about Arcane. This blog has been depressingly devoid of arcane knowledge, and I mean to remedy that before Rash of the Itch King goes live.

So. Arcane. A tree that through the ages can best be described as “wonky”. A tree that, more than anything else, leaves one with both an impression of sheer awesome and utter bewilderment. A tree that can make you say “YEAH! AWESOME!” and a split second later “Huh? What the hell was that?”.

It’s a tree where you the end tree talent could just as easily be “Arcane Rage – instantly kills your enemy and all of their loved ones” or “Epic Slow Fall – while under the effects of Slow Fall, you throw feathers at your enemies, causing them to be delighted or annoyed, depending on race.”

The history of arcane is a… strange one. Way, way back, long before Burning Crusade, there really wasn’t such thing as “arcane mages”, because the tree simply was not capable of standing on it’s own. Arcane was nothing more than a support tree for either fire or frost. Both of those trees were far superior in both PvE and PvP.

It’s key talents were Evocation (yes, you read that right), the ability to make Arcane Explosion instant cast, and the silence effect for Improved Counterspell (thankfully, some things do stay the same) and of course the always awesome Presence of Mind and Arcane Power.

But things have changed, oh how they have changed. Arcane Blast, it’s safe to say, changed everything.

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Why I Don’t Play AoC Anymore

This post is not about World of Warcraft, so feel free to mark as read, skip it, whatever it is.

I will hide the majority of this rant behind the page jump so those of you who do not wish to read this do not have to.

Also, there is adult language. Things like Stupid and Dumb, but in their somewhat meaner forms.

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M&M; Shatter

VOLUME II – DEALING DAMAGE

Don’t hesitate! Call in now, and for just $15.99 a month, killing innocent animals in strange places can be THIS FUN for you too!

*WARNING: May cause death and diarrhea.

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A Follow Up, And A Warning

Last post was not meant to be combative or argumentative, it was meant to illustrate the fallacy of believing that DPS is any easier than some other archetype.

As I stated then, it is really easy to be a terrible DPS player. You can get to level 70 as a DPS class with no knowledge of anything without much difficulty. You can play a rogue, and stack feral druid gear because you think Strength is the shiznit. You can play a hunter, never train or feed your pets, and stack spirit gear; you’ll be fine!

However.

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Boy Howdy, DPS is Shoor Hard

DPS is easy. All you do is sit there and spam two or three buttons, and watch shiny numbers show up on your screen.

It takes no skill.

DPS is easy, it’s low stress, and you don’t even have to pay attention to what you’re doing. So you could watch TV and raid or something.

ALL LIES.

Well. Almost all.

We do watch shiny numbers show up on our screens. That is true.

But the rest of it is LIES. Borderline HERESY.

Dare I say… BLASPHEMY?

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This Made Me Giggle…

Right now, if you go to the wikipedia page for WoW developer Tom Chilton, you have the following rather amusing picture accompanying the article:

*Edit – Obviously, this has been removed. It is preserved here for giggles*

The article currently states the following:

Although Chilton was on the developer panels at BlizzCon 2005 in October 2005, it is clear he has no sense of game balance, and shows blatant favoritism towards warlocks and rogues. It is no surprise that with this love comes a deep loathing for the mage class. His hatred for mages knows no bounds. Unsurprisingly, due to the fact that he was scarred by a mage as a child, every time he hears the word mage, he compulsively clutches to his precious nerf bat for dear life.

Obviously, somebody is a little bit bitter about something, and doesn’t know too much about World of Warcraft. Or any MMO, for that matter.

Let’s take a step back, and look at this from an objective angle for a bit.

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Invisibility – More Info Than You Need!

So. Invisibility. Let’s get this out of the way.

More often than not, misinformation about Invisibility is quoted pretty much everywhere, including by yours truly.

*Warning: The following post contains math, although not a lot of it*

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