It’s Always Me Alone in the End

A long, long time ago, a friend of mine got me into WoW. He rolled a mage, and so I followed suit. Originally, we had intended to play together, but he already had something like a 20 level head start on me.

I was supposed to quickly close this gap, instead I fell in love with PvP and spent months at 29, 39, 49, etc, rather than leveling.

We occasionally would try out alts, again with the intention of playing together, but those never lasted for one reason or another. Either playing a warrior was too boring for one of us, or the other would “accidentally” level ten times; so on and so forth.

We never got a chance to avidly play together until we hit end-game. Which didn’t last long, as aforementioned friend quit the game.

He’s back, now. Thanks to Death Knights starting at 55 and me possessing 5 alts within the 59-70 range, we played together. Freakin’ all the time. Nearly every day since February we’ve spent something like 2-8 hours doing stuff in WoW together.

To an unknowing outsider, we probably look like a gay married couple that never argues for no adequately explained reason.

Problem is, neither of us are really capable of playing at all on our own anymore.

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Arena Transcripts

“What do we got?”

“Warlock and a shammy. Shammy is… enhancement? No, has a shield. Not resto. Elemental.”

“Ah. Warlock then?”

“It’ll be an easier kill, he isn’t sporting soul link.”

“Gotcha. Going after the lock!”

“He’s… Bloodlust, oh no…”

“I’m dead.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“What happened!?”

“Behold, the Bloodlust zerg. We basically completely failed to bring our mace and got raped.”

“How… how could we die so fast?!”

“I’m guessing this 4k Chain Lightning mighta had something to do with it.”

“Needz more resilience.”

-=-

“Alright. Hunter and a… dunno. Stealthed.”

“Druid?”

“No Mark, probably a rogue. Wh- Hunter just disappeared?”

“Ah. Night elf. Shadowmeld.”

“Ahh. Kitty!”

“Kill it!”

“Kitty is dead! Yay!”

“Yay!”

“Hunter inc! Is that a… warrior? Yeah, it’s a warrior.”

“Bah, I hate Mortal Str- HOLY CRAP THAT IS NOT A WARRIOR OH GOD OH GOD HOLY CRAAAAP.”

“Damnit.”

“No! S’ok! I bubbled with 162 hitpoints left. We’re good! How’s the hunter?”

“Dead now.”

“Excellent. So that totally wasn’t a warrior.”

“I gathered that from your frantic screaming.”

-=-

“I really hate Ring of Valor.”

“Yeah. Me too. The pillars are such cheap whores.”

“Have we even won here yet?”

“Yeah. Once. Something like 8 losses, though.”

“Poop.”

“Yes. Want to buy reliable humping poles.”

“Warrior Paladin. Kill the paladin?”

“Obviously.”

…

“I don’t think this warrior knows where the hamstring button is.”

-=-

“I see a Death Knight and… nothing. Druid?”

“No mark, probably a rogue.”

“Could be. Or a clev-Death Knight is comin-SAPPED.”

“Aaand, stunlocked.”

“Damn, you’re dying fast. Alright, I… am frozen. And now I’m blind. And now you’re dead.”

“Yep. Damn CC chains.”

“In retrospect, I probably should have bubbled.”

“YOU *&!^@ &*^@ MUNCHING &*@!”

-=-

“Priest aaand… hunter. Discipline, probably. Don’t let yourself get dragged out into the open, that’s what the hunter wants. Stay close to walls and LOS.”

“Hunter first.”

“Pull back, you’re out in the open. Yeah, see, force ‘im to come to us. Feared, trinket.”

“I love being undead.”

“Shut ut up, you. Pull back here.”

“Heh, fight reset.”

“Coming down.”

*Minutes pass*

“Damn, got pulled into the open again. What kinda hunter was that?”

“Survival. Explosive Shot is the stuff of nightmares. S’alright. It’s late, you’re tired, I’m just going to use this opportunity to practice pillar humping. It is our first night after all.”

*Is at 10% mana and 30% HP*

“Heehee. They’re using slash pity on you!”

“Around and around we go!”

“Are you just kiting them around in circles?”

“… Yes.”

*Minutes pass*

“I can’t believe I’m still alive.”

“Why is the hunter not doing any… the hunter disconnected!”

“Did he?!”

“He was jus’ standing there, now he’s gone!”

“Hahaha! Just me and the priest then?”

“Ayep!”

“Pillar humping for the win!”

“Dude, you’re nearly back to full health and mana!”

“Let’s just say that Replenishment is awesome. Oh, he’s drinking! There will be none of that!”

“No, dude, stay outta combat and rez me!”

“… yeah, that would definitely be the far more intelligent thing to do.”

*Casts Redepmtion, Holy Light, Flash of Light.*

“Two against one. Here he comes!”

“Baaaaahahaha! Look at ‘im run!”

“Kill him! Kill him! Aahahaha!”

*Priest dies*

“There is no way that was fair.”

“Oh man. How long did that take? Ahaha! Nearly fifteen minutes!”

“Guy’s probably pissed as hell.”

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Ranting about Pirating

This is a very long post with very strong and unwavering opinions. It has nothing to do with WoW. Read at your own risk.

So.

Some of you are probably aware that there was a trial involving some of the people behind The Pirate Bay. These people were convicted, fined $900k, and are to serve a year in prison for their despicable crimes.

Yes, you read right. Providing the means with which to pirate files is a crime worse than rape.

To summarize in a quick and dirty fashion: “the industry” (essentially the companies and other businesses) for music, games, TV, movies, etc, don’t respond well to seeing their product distributed to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, for absolutely free.

So they try to stop it. Branding the people behind it as criminals, and trying them as such, all in a vain effort to preserve their own paycheques.

And vain it is.

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A Glimpse of the Bacon Judging

So there’s this show on TV called “24”. It’s wrapping up it’s 7th season, so if you wanted to see one of the freshest and most entertaining shows in the past decade or two, you’re too late. But I digress, as usual.

24 has a catch phrase. Y’see, the gimmick of the show is that it plays out in real time. 24 hours, and there’s this malign clock constantly ticking throughout the entire show. The clock is everywhere. It is always there, mercilessly recording the passage of time, counting down to a major character’s death more often than anything else.

Every episode, at least one character will say “we’re running out of time” or “we’re out of time” or some variant thereof. Sometimes they’ll say “you’re” or “almost”, but the phrase is basically always the same.

As a family, we began to ritualistically watch the show starting in season 2. It got to the point where we would all cheer whenever the catch phrase was spoken.

And then… we began noticing the phrase elsewhere. In fact, everywhere. It’s to the point now where it’s nearly impossible to watch anything that does not include the phrase “running out of time”.

Take, for instance, a recent experiment where we collected a random plethora of TV shows and movies that have nothing at all to do with 24.

We watched Zoolander, for instance, a highly odd comedy about mildly insane morons. The catch phrase in question was used twice.

A coincidence? I think not.

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Pointing the Spotlight Outwards

A little girl with cancer

As with all things logical, we start in a place of utter despair and sadness.

There exists a little girl named Eleanor Sultan. She is five. She is also dying.

I won’t go into too many details, because there is a far better and more emotional post here over at Skeleton Jack.

Suffice to say, she has a 40% chance of survival if the planets align correctly, and Skeleton Jack is hosting quite the raffle in order to raise some cash. All the details are in the same post.

But anyway, for the gold mongers among you, this is the rundown:

Donate $10, you get a raffle ticket. Donate $50, you get six of ’em. Donate $100, you get 14.

The award of the raffle depends on how much is donated. As of this writing, $2500 has already been donated, 10000 is currently up for grabs with the raffle, and that is only increasing.

Comedic Relief

In a classic Shakespearian move, it’s time for the comedic relief.

If you haven’t yet, WoW Relief is an awesome and extremely well done blog and you should go read it. Like right now.

Then add it to your feed burner. Or bookmark it if you’re still living in the caveman age of internet browsing.

I keed, I keed.

But seriously, the site is awesome.

It’s got numerous and excellent articles, stories that range from the hilarious to the heartbreaking, and most importantly, an interview with the hunter heart throb herself, Pike.

The site has a month of excellent blogging under it’s belt now, I don’t expect this to change any time soon. Here’s to a year of writing, you crazy dancing pirates.

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Raiding as Frost

Common Spec

18/0/53 is the best spec for frost mages. There is some variation, though with a spec that requires a minimum of 50 points in one tree and 18 points in another, there isn’t a lot of wiggle room.

Most mages in earlier gear levels will put three points into Brain Freeze for the extra damage that provides for them. Some invest in Ice Barrier, some in Blizzard talents… generally, whatever you wish to have.

See my detailed guides to specific talent trees for further information to choose your talents.

Abbreviations

BF – Brain Freeze, a talented proc that gives you a free fireball.

FoF – Fingers of Frost, a talented proc that allows to to treat any target as frozen.

FrB – Frostbolt. FB typically stands for Fireball, so I’m using FrB (pronounced “furbie”) until someone tells me what it’s supposed to be.

IL – Ice Lance.

IV – Icy Veins.

WE – Water Elemental, your little personal squirtle.

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Raiding as Arcane

Common Spec

57/3/11 is, by far, the favored spec for arcane mages. There are some variations in the arcane tree, based on personal style and taste.

Where those final points are spent vary from mage to mage and what they deem to be the best options for themselves. Ones concerned about pushback invest in Arcane Stability, ones that cannot depend on a slow from a tank pick up Slow, some pick up Magic Attunement for the extra range, some fill out Student of the Mind…

You get the idea.

See my detailed guides to specific talent trees for further information to choose your talents.

Abbreviations

AB – Arcane Blast, your bread and butter nuke.

ABarr – Arcane Barrage, the end tree talent.

AM – Arcane Missiles, Captain Pew Pew himself.

AP – Arcane Power, a talented cooldown vastly increasing your damage dealt in exchange for a higher mana cost.

IV – Icy Veins.

MB – Missile Barrage, a talented proc that greatly reduces the cast time of AM.

MBAM – An Arcane Missiles casted under the effects of Missile Barrage.

PoM – Presence of Mind, a talented cooldown allowing you to make your next spell instant.

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