Posted in In Other News, tagged Birthday on January 31, 2009| 22 Comments »
It’s my birthday today, so I highly doubt there will be any proper blog post today or tomorrow.
As with any birthday, I’m setting some time aside to get drunk have some fun with friends family.
I’ll see y’all monday if I’m not still hung over having fun!
Posted in Rant, tagged Squeegee on January 30, 2009| 26 Comments »
Much has been made of these newfanged “morality” style quests. Rohan, for instance, railed long and hard against them, and more recently, little “death by fire” gnomey has had some… issues with the whole deal.
My question is this: where and how, precisely, does the whole idea of “morals” translate to the game?
The real me would probably think twice (or three or four times) before killing another person, would never intentionally torture someone, and most certainly wouldn’t mindlessly slaughter hundreds of annoying things (as much as the real me would like to).
The in game me, the Euripedes, the terrifying mage inside me, wouldn’t hesitate to do any of those things.
Sentence a tribe of Furbolg to death? Sure thing!
Extinguish the leaders of the Scarlet Monastery? Done and done!
Slaughter dozens of alliance children? FOR THE HORDE!
Kill fifty elves on a whim? It’ll be fun! (more…)
Posted in Anecdote, tagged Paladin, Squeegee on January 28, 2009| 8 Comments »
I’m probably not the first one to observe this, but has anyone noticed that Ret Pallies are the primary source of Mage QQ? I’m serious!
The largest group of people yelling that mages need nerfs? Ret Paladins. All those threads that start with “mages are overpowered” or “arcane is OP”? Nearly all of them started by a Ret Paladin or a Ret Paladin’s alt.
Occasionally, a warlock or a warrior, or even a hunter, will show up and cry, but most of them are Ret Paladins.
What gives?
Is there some sort of weird logic where Ret Pallies think that they’re forum avatar will confuse people? It does look very similar to a mage’s avatar, and an untrained eye could easily miss the distinction. Even the symbol doesn’t really help. A glowing stick with a knobby bit on the end or a glowing stick with a somewhat larger knobby bit on the end.
If you’re ever in doubt, the Ret Paladins will be the ones screaming for the mage class to be nerfed. Occasionally, you’ll see a mage calling for nerfs; don’t be alarmed, this is merely a Ret Paladin in a clever disguise.
Why the hate? Why the spewing of bile?
What did we mages ever do to you? (more…)
Posted in Discussion, tagged Arcane, Patch on January 27, 2009| 12 Comments »
Can I call it, or what?
So yeah, in case you haven’t noticed, the nerf bat has swung and arcane was smacked upside the head.
First, as I foretold, the ability to clip Arcane Missiles to sneak in an ABarr (so both benefit from the stacked ABlast buff) has been removed.
Arcane Missiles consumes the charges immediately, rather than at the end of the spell.
Alas, Arcane Shatter. I barely knew thee.
This means, of course, that if an arcane mage gets struck by something while they’re channeling AM, and they don’t have Arcane Stability, they just lost the whole stack for basically nothing. ‘Course, you’ll still lose the whole stack if you get countered or silenced, but that can’t really be prevented.
Losing damage to random AoE crap is, however. Arcane Stability is worth the points. And if there’s a Holy Paladin sporting Concentration Aura that you can count on (even better if they’re specced for it), you can afford to go with four or even three points into Arcane Stability. (more…)
Posted in Discussion, tagged Frost, Raiding on January 27, 2009| 7 Comments »
A long, long time ago, the rogue class had this concept called “combo points”. And druids, too, I guess, though who cares about druids?
Since then, the whole “combo point” thing has spread to every corner of the WoW game. You can even ride around on dragons that are obsessed with combo points.
At it’s most basic tenet, a combo point system is where you cast something, which stacks something, so you can cast something else. The higher the second something stacks, the more powerful the final something becomes.
Sometimes, the first something stacks easily without any required input from the user, as in Enhancement Shamans. All they need to do is wait for it to build up, and the only decision is what the final something is.
Sometimes, the first something stacks rather easily, but requires input from the user, as in Rogues. They build up combo points using a small amount of abilities, and then choose what the third something is based on spec and current needs.
Sometimes, the first something stacks at cost; the higher it stacks, the more it costs to continue adding to the stack. Arcane mages are exemplary of this.
It’s an extremely basic mechanic system, representing real time decision making at the next step up from a simple “Yes/No” option. (more…)
Posted in Anecdote, tagged Frost, Talents, Theorycraft on January 26, 2009| 9 Comments »
Goals:
And do it all within the frost tree itself. Making changes in the early arcane or fire tree can be part of the solution, but shouldn’t be the solution.
The point is to buff frost mages, and that should be done in the frost tree.
But hey, gotta start somewhere, let’s look at the other trees.
First, the arcane tree is the obvious off-spec tree of choice. It always has been, I suspect it always will be, and I see zero reason why that should change.
Hunters, regardless of spec, spend points in the Marksman tree. Every priest spends points in the Discipline tree. So it really isn’t a stretch at all to simply shun the early fire tree and use arcane instead. (more…)
Posted in Discussion, tagged Frost, Raiding, Spec, Spells on January 25, 2009| 12 Comments »
In true mage fashion, mere days after being handed a massive pile of steaming buff, I’m back here complaining up a storm.
QQ, as some might say.
Yes. Yes it is.
QQ moar, some might say.
To them, I say: Very well.
So Frostfire Bolt was fun. Unreasonably huge crits, easy to play, and took the other specs DPS and rap… royally thrashed them. Fireball was a little behind, but basically the same. Frost sucked, and so did arcane.
Arcane gets buffed so much it spewed sticky juices all over the wall. Fireball gets better, too, as TTW becomes a far more powerful talent. Who cares about Fireball, though? Have you seen the new spell animation? Blech.
Anyway, point is… where’s the love for frost? So far, this poor neglected tree has been depressingly low in it’s damage potential.
Sure, it’s devastating in Heroics and solo play, but toss it into a raid with proper boss fights, and the poor thing falls apart.
My opinion is that the problem is two fold. (more…)
