Shit Naz Says.

In Vortex we have 2 warlocks. One is named Bob and he talks as much as the rest of us. The other, is named Nazantia, and he limits his talking on most raid nights. However, when he does talk, it's usually something either highly motivational, or something highly hilarious. These are a few screenshots of some of the more hilarious things Naz has said.

HLK

We killed HLK. Game over.


I'll get an actual post done sometime. I think it's about time for shit Naz says ;)

Arena

Hello Blizzard,


Your arena system is completely retarded. I love how teams rated 250 points above me, gain 20 points when they beat me, yet when I beat a team at my level, I gain 5. I also love how, no matter how hard I try, every plate cleave team with Double DBW and Double Shadow's Edge will annihilate me, because I have 1 cd, with only a 20% reduction. DBW increases your damage by over 20%, so I still lose. I also love how Mages and Hunters and Paladins and Rogues and like every class BUT the 2 I play with have 40 cooldowns that they can pop and have no repercussions. Oh and buff the Cyclone range please and thank you.


Also, you're dumb Blizzard.



Sincerely,


Bus.

My Poor Poor Blog

Alas, I have neglected thee. However, between Football, All-State band rehearsals, Marching band, Calculus, Raiding, and an Economics teacher that thinks A+ means "Perfect Project", I have very limited time on my hands. Oh, sleep. =S.



So, I'm opening my blog up. I know I'm not that big on the whole "who knows who" scale, but if anyone of my like 5 readers wanna do a guest post, let me know and I'll be happy to let you help out.


Contact me ingame on WoW or through email at jab92002@yahoo.com


I'll be working on some stuff this weekend. Hopefully.


/guffaw


-Bus

How To Guide: Healing Heroics with Beranabus!

So, I promised you an ICC guide, and that's coming. However, I have this thrown together that I think you may enjoy. This is my guide to healing heroics using only tranquility, and I'm healing everyone's favorite instance. Halls of Reflection!





Alternatively, going HERE will make the video easier to view =)



Enjoy!


/guffaw


-Bus

OH M GEEE

Ok, I realize I haven't posted in about a week, but I've been working on something big.



A Boomkin ICC 10 Video Guide.



I should have this by Saturday after next, depending on the fights I do next Tuesday. It might only cover a few fights, but eventually I'll cover them all.


Sorry for the wait guys, I sat more than I thought I would today, so I'll try and get a filler post before then. Maybe a normal LK kill from my PoV if I can put some nice music into it, or a "How to heal with only tranq" video for a heroic. =D


/guffaw


-Bus

Death to the King!!

Wellll. I... I mean WE finally did it. My paladins 10 man finally managed to down LK normal. Hoorah to them! And, hoorah to me for being able to lead them to victory! I'm really proud of them, and after yelling and belittling them with hurtful words, I made sure they knew how much I cared about them and appreciated their time and efforts. <3 Death's Raiders.


OH LOOKS LIKE I FORGOT TO BUFF!


/guffaw


-Bus

Raiding, Past, Present, and Future

As defined by Wikipedia: "A raid is a type of mission in a video game, where the objective is to use a very large number of people, relative to a normal team size set by the game, to defeat a boss monster. This type of objective is most common in Massively multiplayer online role-playing game, where the servers are designed to handle the number of users while not significantly impacting performance, thereby reducing server lag. In RTS games like StarCraft, the term is used differently, see Raid (military)." In and of it's essence, this definition is more or less correct, however raiding is much more than "a mission to defeat the boss monster, or internet dargon".


Raiding encompasses many additional challenges along with the up-front difficulty (or lack of) of the boss dargon. Players are more often then not, required to work alongside 9 to 71 other players, in order to achieve the common goal of the group, success. This adds a social aspect to every MMORPG that is widely different from the 1 - max level solo experience. A majority of MMORPG's don't do much to try and familiarize players with group game play before hitting max level, therefore many players are unable to be competitive in a raiding environment until they learn how to play the game further. Thus, this leads into the technical difficulty of raids. Raids today can have any number of complicated mechanics that can and will lead the raid to failure. Players are expected to be at the top of their game, and utilize the skills that their individual classes bring to help the raid succeed.

Some of the types of classes in MMORPG's include:

1. Buffers- augment allies' stats and abilities
2. Crowd controllers- render one or more enemies harmless or reduce their effectiveness.
3. DPS- reduce enemies' hp by doing damage.
4. Debuffers- reduce enemies' stats and weaken their abilities.
5. Healers- restore allies' hp.
   
6. Tanks- hold off particularly aggressive enemies and absorb damage, effectively shielding weaker allies from attack.

All of these classes are integral to the raid's success, thus bringing the ultimate strategical challenge to raids. Raids are almost nearly required to have a "Raid Leader", whom is important in leading a raid to victory. The raid leader is in charge of keeping the raid together, and leading them in the direction of success.

The Evolution of Raiding:

Raiding was most notably started in Everquest. At the time, Everquest was probably the greatest and most played MMORPG. Millions of players would log in to the virtual world, in order to interact with one another, embark on quests, and, once they reached the final level, raid boss dargons. Now, when raiding was first introduced, it was only for the most hardcore players to enjoy, as it required a tremendous amount of time and effort, both inside and outside of the instance walls. Add this to the 72 person raid limit and, you have achieved probably the most grand and socially involving mission gaming activity known to man. To this day, Everquest still holds the record for the largest amount of players required for a raid.

Soon, other games were picking up the raiding banner, including:

• Age of Conan
• Aion: The Tower of Eternity
• Anarchy Online
• City of Heroes
• Dark Age of Camelot
• Dungeons & Dragons Online
• Everquest
• Everquest II
  
• Final Fantasy XI
• Lineage II
• Lord of the Rings Online
• Lunia
• Ragnarok Online
• Rappelz
• RuneScape
• Runes of Magic
• Tibia
• Warhammer Online
• World of Warcraft
• ROSE Online

As graphics and games became more and more advanced, raids too began to get more and more advanced. Boss dargons evolved from simple "Tank and Spank Fights", to complex fights with multiple boss mechanics firing off at different times, all the while requiring raid members to play at the top of their games. After a few years, World of Warcraft (WoW) came onto the scene, drastically changing the raiding world forever.

The Evolution of Raiding in the World of Warcraft:

To begin with this segment, I would like to show you two screenshots. The first, is from Ragnaros' Lair, in Molten Core. The second, is from Ice Crown Citadel, at the Lich King's throne. The pictures represent the whole of WoW raiding, from the first raid, to the last current raid.

As you can see, Blizzard entertainment has done an amazing job of keeping up the visual aspects of raiding. If you can count on one thing, you can count on stunning and beautiful raiding environments, which help you immerse yourself in the expansive lore behind the game. WoW raiding began at level 60, in Molten Core. Molten Core was a 40 man raid, requiring guilds and groups to organize many different people to achieve success. However, 40 man raids more likely than not had very simplistic mechanics. Any particular boss in Molten Core had 3-4 core mechanics. Aggro dumps, mind controls, dispels and interrupts were the most common things raiders has to watch out for. Most of the time, certain classes were assigned to specifically do a certain thing during a fight, such as priests dispelling, or rogues interrupting. This was mainly due to the horrible issue of balancing during the early stages of WoW raiding. Every class had 3 talent trees, but only a few could utilize more than one of them. Warriors were always tank, druids and paladins were always healers. Because of this, Blizzard was able to make completely homogenized gear, usually having every single major stat on a certain piece of gear. Gear was limited to one set per class, and individual pieces dropped off of certain bosses, or certain trash packs. Each class had 8 pieces of set gear they could, and would gain special bonuses for wearing more than 1 piece of their set gear. Unlike in today's WoW, there were no non-tier set pieces of gear for most slots. You were required to use your tier set, lest you raid naked.

With the release of the Burning Crusade expansion, Blizzard began to improve upon their raiding environments. They maintained their elquent scenery, but dwindled their raid size from 40, to 10 or 25. Karahzan was the first 10 man raid instance released by Blizzard, and was a huge success, proclaimed by the general public. Karahzan was also Blizzard's first step towards better gear itemization. They reduced their tier set size from 8 to 5, and began having tier tokens drop off special bosses within the raid instance. The tokens could then be exchanged for spec specific tier gear. This received mixed reactions from the public, but was all in all a great success. With the release of bigger 25 man instances, Blizzard took a bigger move towards more casual raiding. Only the best of the best guilds were able to kill some bosses, such as Muru, but most guilds were able to clear through Black Temple. Sunwell brought back a little taste of the 8 piece tier sets, but was generally met with a lack of enthusiasm, thus Blizzard decided to close that idea out completely.


With the release of Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard moved on to their current method of raid content, 10 and 25 versions of raid content. With the release of Ulduar, Blizzard also introduced their "Hardmode" versions of boss fights, in order to appease to the more hardcore of their player base. With the release of The Trial of The Crusader, came Blizzards newest method of letting players acquire tier gear, through the badge system. Players are able to receive badges whenever they run certain instances and raids, and once they have enough, they can buy their tier gear. This method of gearing has carried into Ice Crown Citadel, and is projected to carry into the new Expansion of Blizzard, Cataclysm.



Now, when you stop and think, what makes raiding truly special, I think everyone can agree that it is in fact the player base. I asked a few key members of my guild why the raided, and these are the responses I got:



Nazantia, a warlock in Vortex, is quoted as saying: "The motivation to raid is the same as it was to enter that first 5-man instance when I started WoW. We are social mammals, and this game does cooperative gameplay consistently better than just about anything out there. Teamwork, at its core, is quite rewarding. I don't know the precise brain chemical released when you overcome an obstacle as a group that you could never approach as an individual, but it is potent stuff."


Scythe, the resident raid leading feral kitty in Vortex, is quoted as saying: " I raid because, at the end of the day, it's fun. I enjoy building a close, high-performing team. I enjoy troubleshooting and figuring out a way to get 10-15 folks to work together better than nearly anyone else in the world. I enjoy doing more with less and doing it better than people who play more and have better gear. I enjoy immersing myself in the lore of the game. After all, if it's not fun, why would we do it?"

And finally, Malicave, who has recently undergone a main change to fit Vortex's raiding needs, and is also an award wining novelist, is reported as saying: "Why I raid:

Clearly, it's about increasing the item-level of my gear. The higher the item-level, the better I feel, because that number directly reflects how good I am at playing this game. My life has always been about showing people how good I am, after all; Blizzard has simply provided me an outlet for showcasing my skill in the virtual world.

End sarcasm.

Raiding is a project I undertake for three primary reasons: the lore of Warcraft, the logistic and performance challenges, and the social environment. To be more specific, I raid because I enjoy the experience; the reasons above are the best way for me to articulate why I enjoy the experience.

First, the lore: Blizzard has hidden many, many story arcs throughout WoW. Many of those arcs are restricted to the world of raiders, though: PvP-oriented players never have the opportunity to see why big baddies do what they do, or what happens to them as a result of their assault against Azeroth. Similarly, many of the quest lines and 5-man dungeons have burgeoning storylines that point players to raids to see "the real ending." I'm a fan of seeing things through to the end, and raiding is the main way that Blizzard relates the end of their stories to the players. As a glutton for good stories, I find myself chasing down lots of plotlines in lots of games. The quest text of WoW loses some of its impact after the first dozen "kill 10 rats" quests, but their raid-oriented dialogues raise that bar up to really showcase the story weaving its way through the game.

Second, the challenges: New add-ons, theorycraft, and increased computer strength constantly empower players to perform better in WoW. Blizzard responds to these new strengths in players through the difficulty imposed by raid bosses. Bosses invoke more mechanics, transition through more phases, and require more co-ordination from raiders with each passing tier of content (Tier 7 aside, arguably). Hard modes on these same encounters are yet another way to add layers of complexity for players to overcome. Because these challenges keep rising, I'm compelled to defeat them. I'm definitely a fan of strategy games, and so planning strategies for engaging raid bosses is a natural and fun leap for me to make. Once the logistics are laid out, I am just as excited to execute those tactics. Performing my role as best I can keeps me mentally engaged, which is one of the biggest selling points of any game for me. Mindless shooters lose my attention pretty quickly, but titles like Fire Emblem and Disgaea held my attention for many more hours than they took to complete. I love challenges, especially from a tactical standpoint, and Blizzard does their best work on delivering these challenges through their PvE content. The only up-to-date content is Raids, and thus raiding becomes my outlet.

Lastly, the social network: As I said, I loved games like Disgaea and Fire Emblem. Tactics games can invoke a lot of strategy, and they definitely have good storylines that keep me engaged (usually). But I find that I can't keep playing those games because I get lonely. It's fun for a couple hours after work, maybe, but they won't do for a whole Saturday off. I'm big on connecting with other people, and MMOs have provided a great way to facilitate that kind of interaction. We can chat and make jokes and do whatever else we might do over a phone or instant messenger. But then, I'll get bored of just idly talking unless there's some important discussion going on, or some other underlying activity. Playing cards with friends while chatting? Great. Trading snide remarks while duelling in an FPS? Perfect. Chatting through IM without something else to do? I burn out pretty quickly. But then there's WoW: same chat interfaces with a game attached directly. Suddenly, we're talking about that awesome kill we just pulled off in PvP, or that epic save that made a boss fall over in a raid. Raiding definitely emphasizes the need for social interaction, too: you don't stand a chance against current big bads when running solo.

So, that's my story: I love stories, I love the feeling of being challenged, and I love interacting with similarly-minded people. Stories I can get from anywhere, I can be challenged by lots of things inside and outside of games, and I can interact with people at work or through my friends; There are stories with challenges in many single-player strategy titles, Social stories I build with friends through role-playing campaigns in D&D and Shadowrun, and challenging social settings come up with many FPS duels or through WoW's PvP engine. Blizzard has provided one of the few avenues that actually synthesizes all three of these qualities for me, though, and is therefore one of my favorite things to do. WoW raiding provides a story-driven, mentally-challenging, and socially-involved experience that very few, if any other titles can parallel.

Put simply: WoW Raids are three great tastes that taste great together. Unlike so many other combinations (I still can't stand spicy chocolate, while I'm definitely a fan of each spicy food and chocolate in its own time), this particular synthesis is one that keeps me coming back."


As for me? Why do I raid?


I raid because I'm a creature of habit. I've raided all through Wrath, and I honestly feel like I should continue. Raiding is what I excel at. I've dabbled in PVP and it's just not my thing. I've tried playing First Person Shooters, I've tried playing RTS's, and I've failed miserably at all of them. I guess it seems like a continue with raiding because I enjoy doing something I'm good at. I'm a competitive player, as you can tell by the location of my Skada. I like to be the best, thus I try and do that with whatever I do. Raiding lets me do just that, compete against others in a controlled environment. However, at the end of the day, I love the social aspect. No matter how bad things may seem, I love the social closeness you get in a raiding guild. You meet those special people, whom you can talk about real life problems with. It's honestly a great thing, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love my guild, and the closeness that we have together. Plus I enjoy carrying Malicave in 3's.



/guffaw



-Bus

And Down She Goes!

Heyoooo,


The past few weeks I've been holding off on posting on Thursdays and Mondays, in hopes of being able to say this: We've finally downed Sindragosa!


As some of you may or may not know, I semi-raid lead a 10 man progression group on my off-nights. This group is co-lead by my uncle and I, and it is pretty successful. Now, this group is basically strict-10, but they do do some 25 mans, but they are by no means over geared for the content. We have 2 Shadow's Edge ret paladins and a warlock with DFO, but other than that, everyone is in run-of-the-mill 251/264's.


The group did great in the first week, downing everything up to Sindragosa, however the Queen gave us quite a bit of trouble, requiring 4 weeks, and 2 extended lock-outs to kill. However, through our valiant effort, and my awesome raid leading, we downed her. On the first attempt of the night might I add. GOGO 30% buff.

In other news:

• I've reached level 20 in LoL (league of legends). For those who don't know what that is, they should really check it out. It's a really fun and free game, and I enjoy playing it in my off time, which I have none of since I raid 6 nights a week -.-.
• Grommsol of Vortex has completed his Thunderfury. Grom and I have been running MC for weeks, trying to get my T1 set. 2 weeks ago we got the binding off of Garr, and this past week we got the binding from Baron AND the Eye of Sulfurus. All I need to do now is collect the Sulfuron Ignots and I'll have myself a nice hammer to go along with my Tranq spam set.
• Vortex is making great progress on Halion 10 HC. I expect a kill coming soon.
• Malicave's computer spontaneously combusted during our raid Wednesday Night. He needs to fix it so we can play 3's. Our 3v3 SpellCleave team is very close to hitting 1400, and I feel like we can make it to at least 1900 by the end of the season.
• Vortex is still recruiting a Ret/Holy paladin or an Enhance/Resto shaman. If you're interested, please have a greatly maintained off-set as well as your main set. The healing set is a requirement, as it will make me not have to heal anymore <3.>
• I have a date Saturday, with a real girl. =S

That's all for now. Expect a video or me healing a heroic with just Tranquility soon. I just need to get with Bobbyobyoby and get some free time. But, Gooood-bye for now!



/guffaw



-Bus.

I haz new UI

So, since my guildies all think my UI is complete mess, I decided to build my own. What I came up with seems to please most of them, especially the 50 female raiders we have.


Oh, and to kill two birds with one stone. I got my full t1 set today =D. TRANQ SPAM FTW



/guffaw



-Bus

Get on the Bus!!

So, I was sitting on vent complaining about how I haven't updated in like a week. We were discussing what I should blog about, when Bobby yells, GET ON THE BUS. Now, Get On The Bus is a recurring joke in Vortex. When I transfered over I was originaly Rolarda, but I changed to Beranabus after being threatened with the nickname Lard. So, Bus has stuck, and now Get on The Bus is said quite often.


Get on the Bus.




/guffaw


-Bus

Halion Bested!!

Well, after only 2 nights of attempts, we managed to down Halion 10 man! This was definitely a difficult fight to pick up at first, but once you know what to expect, it's a simple execution fight. I'll outline our strategy below:



Our raid comp:

1 Feral Tank
1 Protection Paladin Tank
1 Disc Priest Healer
1 Holy Priest Healer
1 Resto Druid Healer
1 Balance Druid
1 Hunter
1 Destruction Warlock
1 Arcane Mage
1 Elemental Shaman



Phase 1: This is the phase in which your entire raid fights Halion in the physical realm. Halion has 3 main abilities. The first is his Combustion marks. Halion places a sheath of fire on a random raid member, which deals damage every 2 seconds until dispelled. Every time it deals damage it adds a combustion mark to its target. The sheath and marks are dispel-able by anyone who can remove curses or magic. When the marks are removed, a void zone is placed at the feet of the player. The zone deals fire damage to anyone who stands in it, and shoots anyone who is on top of it when it spawns, across the realm, dealing damage. Halion will periodically fire a meteor at a random raid member, much like rocket strikes in Mimiron. The meteor will explode upon touching the ground, dealing massive damage to anyone within a 12 yard range. Upon explosion, the meteor will shoot flames across the map. The flames should be avoided at all cost. Halion also does regular dragon type abilities, including a flame breath, tail whip stun, and cleave. Halion stays in this phase until he reaches 75% life. Below is a drawing to illustrate void zone placement and where our tank tanked him.




Phase 2: When Halion reaches 75%, he opens a portal to the twilight realm. Upon entering the twilight realm, you will be fighting Twilight Halion, therefore make sure your off tank goes in first and picks him up quickly. Twilight Halion has mostly the same abilities as regular Halion, yet with a few changes. The Combustion Marks concept stays exactly the same, except they are now Shadow Marks. When a shadow void zone is dropped, it will pull nearby players in, such as the gravity bombs from Hardmode XT. They can still be cleansed by curse or magic removal. While you are in the Twilight Realm, there will be 2 magic balls flying around the outside edge of the room. Every 20 seconds, these balls will fire a beam between them, lasting for 10 seconds. The beam will kill anyone who touches it, so the raid must avoid them at all costs. There will be an emote to show when the balls are about to start the beam. There is also a raid wide AOE going out, much like the BQL aura, or the trash before DW aura. This phase continues until phase 3. Below is a illustration to show how to rotate the dragon and raid during the beam.




Phase 3: In phase 3, the raid must split, much like in the Kalecgos encounter from SWP. You can stay within the same realm the entire phase however. You can also travel between the two as needed, by using portals throughout the zone. Phase 3 has all the same abilities as phase 1 and 2, on their respective realms, with one added ability, corporeality. Corporeality causes Halion to deal and take more damage, based off which realm is dealing more damage. As the physical realm does more damage, the physical realm deals and takes less damage, but the twilight realm deals and takes more damage. If the corporeality becomes to high, the shadow damage can destroy the raid. Phase 3 is all about keeping the corporeality equal.



Our raid split up like so:

Physical Realm:

1 Feral Tank
1 Holy Priest
1 Elemental Shaman
1 Arcane Mage
1 Destro Lock


Twilight Realm:

1 Prot Paladin
1 Resto Druid
1 Disc Priest
1 Huntard
1 Balance Druid

B-E-R-A-N-A-B-U-S

Hello, my name is B-E-R-A-N-A-B-U-S. Not Bernabus, not Bernybus, not Bernbus, Beranbus, B-E-R-A-N-A-N-U-S.




Thank you.




/guffaw



-Bus

Age Limitations?

So I was reading a thread on mmo-champion earlier today, and it really got me to thinking. How fair is it to put age limitations on joining a guild? I know there are a majority of guilds who have an 18+ limit for their guilds, and I respect that they are able to do whatever they want since it's their guild, but I'm here to take an in depth look about both sides of the argument.



1) Maturity:

Most of the guilds with the 18+ rules say it's strictly for the fact that 18 year olds are just more mature than people under 18. This, in any case, is an irrational generalization. I've met 20-30 year olds that are incapable of making it through a raid without pitching a fit because something doesn't go their way. I've also met players under the age of 18 who are exactly the same. What I'm saying is, regardless of age, you're going to meet immature people, and assuming that someone is going to be immature based off their age, is just going to make you seem like an immature bigot. To put things into a more personal perspective, I'll use my self as an example. I'm 17 years old, I'm the youngest raider in Vortex, and I'm also the most immature. However, I'm not immature in a "gimme muh lootz, QQ, I'm a lil kid" kind of way. Outside of raids, I joke and laugh and act like an idiot. Inside of raids, I joke and laugh and act like an idiot on most easy/farm bosses, however when we get to a difficult encounter, I'm able to put my serious face on and get my job done. I'm sure my guild gets tired of hearing me on vent on any given raid night, but when the fight starts to escalate in difficulty, you can tell I've started to focus. Now, you can take me and compare me to the oldest raider in our guild, Naz. Now I think Naz is like 50, Scythe says otherwise, but until I get a confession from Naz himself, he's 50. Naz is probably the most serious raider we have. He keeps vent clear most of the time except for intelligent discussion about boss strategies. However, he does have a sense of humor, albeit dark. Just the other night, me and him participated in some, witty banter back and forth during a break. The main difference between Naz and I, is that he is serious but knows when to be fun, and I'm fun but know when to be serious. Both of these traits are good to have within a guild, and are both shown by the oldest and youngest members of the guild.


2) Scheduling/Parental issues:

Another "excuse" used by those selective guilds, is that players under 18 don't have complete control over their schedules, or may have parental issues. I agree with this to an extent. I personally was under restrictions with my mother until I was 16. This really put a damper on my trying to raid during Ulduar, as my guild was an 8-12:30 guild, but my mother decided to have me in bed by 10:30 every night. I'd already been a member of the guild for 6 months at this point, so the event proved how, unpredictable, a minors schedule could be. However, this just overlaps into the "maturity" issue. A player that is mature enough to join your guild, will also be mature enough to: finish their homework on time, do their chores before the raid, maintain good grades, and keep a good standing with their parents. Adults, while on the other hand have a more stable control over their schedule, do not have complete control. Most adults have significant others, in some shape or form. They sometimes have children to attend to. They have family issues that need attending to. The only difference between an adult and a minor is that the adult can chose his/her own work schedule, and controls their play time. They also usually pay their own subscription fee, thus eliminating the chance of mom or dad canceling the account at a moments notice.


3) Legality Issues:

I name it this because I can't think of anything else to name it. This point mostly pertains to vent/gchat. I know most of the restrictive guilds don't like to force members to censor their gchat or vent conversations just because one of their other members is 15 or 16 years old. I know personally in Vortex, Scythe likes to make sexual jokes. A lot. A whole lot. Pretty frequently. I'd say 1/3 of what he says on any given raid night is some sort of sexual innuendo. Anyways, Vortex is mainly 20-30 year olds, and it is clearly stated on the site. I know that guilds are afraid that a mother or father of a younger player is going to walk up to the computer or in to the room and see/hear things that their child just shouldn't be subjected to. However, the game is 12+, but on the box it clearly states that, "game play may be altered with on line play". Parents allowing their children to play the game should know that the children will be subjected to, less than desirable chat. Now, there's nothing stopping a parent from removing their child from the guild, but again, a mature child will be able to compromise with their parents, and you, as a guild leader, should be willing to compromise as well. If the player has proven themselves as an asset to the guild, then you should be more than willing to limit vent chat a bit, so that the child can stay within the guild. Gchat can be fixed by just asking the player to turn on their chat censor.


As you can see, most of the issues can be boiled down to maturity. If a player has an overall maturity level high enough, and is more than capable of performing to your guild's standards, you should highly consider excepting them. Guess that's all I have for now.


/guffaw



-Bus

Thanks Kae!

So Kae over at Dreambound drew me a pretty awesome doodle of Bus wearing a loincloth after I relayed my, adventures, of Scout Camp to the Guild. I took it into my favorite tool, MS paint ftw, and added a few colors. And a smiley face. Thanks Kae =D

The Real Life Shanagins of Bus.

Heyoooooo, as you can probably tell, I kind of stopped posting for an entire week. *Gasp*. This may or may not be due to the fact that I've been spending this past week roughing it in the wild outdoors, at a Boy Scout Summer Camp.

I've been an avid Boy Scout since I was 12 years old, I'll soon be 18, ending my journey :(, and I've enjoyed every single minute of it. For those that may not be familiar with the organization, here is a brief history:

Scouting began in England in 1907-08, created by General Robert Baden-Powell. B-P, a 50-year old bachelor at the time, was one of the few heroes to come out of Britain's Boer War. He was known primarily for his unusual ideas about military scouting, explained in his book Aids to Scouting. Startled to discover that many boys were using his military book as a guide to outdoor activities, he began to think how he could convert his concepts of army scouting for men to "peace scouting" for boys. Gathering ideas from many sources (including Ernest Thompson Seton, who had founded a boys organization in the US), he tested his program on a group of boys on Brownsea Island in 1907. The island camp was successful, so B-P rewrote his military book, calling it Scouting for Boys. The climate was right for a youth program like Scouting, and it spread quickly around the British commonwealth, then to other countries. Throughout the years scouting has evolved and grown, and now encompasses over 2 million boys world round.

The earliest Scouts could earn only three ranks: Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class, which covered basic Scouting skills. The BSA soon added three higher ranks to recognize First Class Scouts who earned merit badges: Life (5 merit badges), Star (10 merit badges), and Eagle (21 merit badges). In 1925, Star was placed before Life (because the five points of a star could represent five merit badges). Over the years, the advancement plan has changed little in its overall structure, but specific requirements have been changed many times.

I myself, have managed to acquire 23 merit badges to date, and I'm currently working on my final Eagle Scout required badge and 2 extra badges that will net me a Bronze Palm. An Eagle Scout must acquire 12 badges off a set list, and 11 more of their choice, every 5 after that will give them a palm, in order of Bronze, Gold, Silver. (This continues after the first 15 as Bronze2, Gold2, Silver2, so on so forth). In order to achieve Eagle Rank, I must also complete a 15 hour service project that I plan, and lead construction on. If I manage all of this, I'll become the first Eagle Scout with a palm of any kind chartered to my troop. =D I know right?

So now that you know a little about the amazing organization that takes up my time out of game... let me outline my week for ya.



Saturday: We were tasked to handle our own transportation to the campsite. I'm able to drive so that wasn't a problem. The problem, however, was the meeting time. Nine A.M in the morning. Yeah, that was definitely 4-5 hours earlier than I wanted to wake up. Good news is I managed to make it there only 30 minutes late. After arriving, I helped finish setting up tents and whatnot, and was called into our makeshift kitchen. (Which is actually a miniature cabin that we've built, that is fully stocked and could probably be used as a fall out shelter in case of a hurricane.) It was then that I was told that I was to be our Senior Patrol Leader for the week. Awesome. For those that are unaware, the SPL is basically like the President of the Troop. They are the ultimate authority. This means I'm in charge of 15 10-15 year old boys. Woopty-freakin-do.

Sunday: We went to church. We came back to the campsite and pretty much chilled, nothing to special.

Monday: Merritt Badge classes began. I was looking forward to teaching my rowing and canoeing classes, but was informed that I would not be teaching any classes this week. I would, however be taking 6 classes within 3 time blocks. How? I don't even know.

Tuesday: My friend and I went hiking during our hiking class, and got lost in the woods. After about 45 minutes we found our way to the road, and ended up hiking approximately 10 miles to reach our campsite. We were gone for about 3 hours, and the best part was, noone noticed we were even gone. -.-.

Wednesday: The Boy Scouts of America has a sub-organization called the Order of The Arrow. Basically, once scouts reaches a certain rank and age, they are eligible to be "initiated" into our Order. It's fun =D. So we were doing a Tap-Out ceremony on our beautiful lake, when a thunder storm rolls in. The ceremony consisted of me paddling across the lake in a little john-boat. So there I am, going across a lake wearing nothing but a loincloth, as gail force winds rock my boat back and forth, fun stuff.

Thursday: We went to the Okefenokee Swamp park. One of our kids almost got eaten by a croc, nothing special.

Friday: We went to Summer Waves and I got shot down by 2 of the lifeguards that work there. Oh well.

Saturday: I was burnt as a piece of toast, but we packed up camp and I waved farewell to my final Summer Camp as a youth. I'm gonna miss it, for sure.


Oh, so I guess I should stop boring you. WoW related, we didn't put in any HM LK attempts Sunday, but I heard that my guildies were managing phase 1 transitions while I was gone. Great Job guys =D



/guffaw


-Bus

The World Of Warcraft is Square?!

So, last night Ithson, Gromslol and I were messing around in BWL, when I suggested that we go see the edge of the world. First attempt resulted in 3 deaths and 3 spirit resurrections. We loaded up and tried again. This time we made it to the edge, and I managed to find a spot where I could refill my fatigue bar.... Ithson, not so much. He jumped and tried to bubble, but it didn't work. Gromslol died as well. I started running along the edge and managed to find this spot, which proves that the edge is a square. I followed the edge farther until my Water Walking ran out, and I was unable to refill my fatigue bar. So I fell and died, being forced to rez in Azshara?!. We started in Durotar :O.

Oh and also. The picture explains itself

Cloth vrs Leather vrs Idiotic Raid Leaders

(Disclaimer: I've been awake for 32 straight hours at the time of this post, and I've been fueled on Hot Pockets and Diet Pepsi. If there are any spelling, grammatical, or common sense mistakes, I apologize. I'M SORRY MY GRAMMAR IS BAD SCYTHE.)

Heya, I'd like to take the time away from my normally mind numbing posts, to address an issue I've seen pop up quite frequently over the past few days. Thankfully, my guild is unaffected by this plague of stupidity, so it's only limited to pugs and my ret paladin's "Guild" (I use the term lightly, because honestly I wouldn't be in there if not for my uncle needing me to be there for progression).

This "Issue" is, boomkins (and other classes, however this post is focused primarily towards boomkins) rolling on cloth gear as main set, over being forced to only roll for leather main set.

I'll start with a couple points on the way blizzard itemizes gear.

1) Every piece of dungeon gear in game and every piece that will be implemented in the future has a certain amount of points alloted to stat location. The higher the Ilevel, the more points alloted. This is why you see gear with intel, stam, and 3 stats, or intel, stam, spirit, and 2 stats. It should be noted, that plate dps gear only has str, stam, and 2 stats, because blizzard puts a lot of itemization on stamina.

2) There are currently 2 classes that use leather gear primarily in game atm. Out of those 2 classes, there are 5 possible specs. (I've bunched all 3 rogue specs into a dps category, and I've seperated Feral-Tank and Feral-Dps.) Out of those 5 specs, 3 use agility and physicial stats, and 2 use spellpower and caster type stats. With this in mind, Blizzard itemizes a majority of leather spellpower gear with spirit, thus leaving out a 3rd caster stat, most likely crit or haste. Boomkins do benefit slightly from spirit, converting roughly 10% of our total spirit into spellpower. Therefore, Blizzard finds no problem in just itemizing leather spellpower gear with spirit, and offering boomkins an opportunity to roll on cloth gear. In fact, it is a common belief that Blizzard itemizes cloth gear with the intentions of boomkins actually competing for it. (Of course I have no official source for this, but it seems to be the general consensus of a majority of players on mmo-champion.com).


All of that being said above, of course, is more than enough proof of why Boomkins should be allowed to roll on cloth with any other caster. (In my opinion of course :) ). However, if you still need further persuading, I've taken the liberty of uploading MY PERSONAL BiS STRICT 10 BOOMKIN GEAR LIST into a simulator that I use, called "Team Robot WoW Simulator". I do not use Wrath Calcs because I do not have Open Office on my laptop, and I find the simulator more than sufficient to help me figure out what gear is best. I say My Personal list because, I did do a few 25 mans before joining my current strict 10 guild, and I was able to acquire some 264 gear that is better than 264 gear in 10 man ICC. I will include alternatives in those cases. Also, to further affirm my point, since a few items in my BiS list are cloth, I will include the Leather alternatives, and post the dps lost of using that item over the BiS cloth.


Weapon- Heroic Tel'thas, Dagger of the Blood King (63 SP enchant, 23 SP gem)

Offhand- Heroic Scourge Lord's Baton (23 SP gem)

Idol- Idol of the Lunar Eclipse

Head- Sanctified Lasherweave Cover (Kirin Tor Enchant, 21 Crit meta, 23 SP gem)

Neck- Heroic Soulcleave Pendant (Sp/Haste Gem)

Shoulders- Sanctified Lasherweave Mantel (Sp/Crit Enchant, 23 SP gem)

Back- Heroic Lich Wrappings (23 Haste enchant, 23 SP gem)

Chest- Sanctified Lasherweave Vestment (10 Stats enchant, 23 SP gem, Sp/Haste gem)

Bracers- Heroic Bracers of Dark Blessings (30 SP enchant, 23 SP gem)
Leather Alternative: Heroic Wrists of Septic Shock (30 SP enchant, 23 SP gem) 4.5 DPS loss

Gloves- Sanctified Lasherweave Gloves (28 SP enchant, 23 SP gem)

Belt- Belt of Petrified Ivy ( SP/Haste gem, 23 SP gem, 23 Sp gem)

Legs- Heroic Kilt of Untreated Wounds (Sp/Spirit Leg enchant, 3 23 SP gems)
Leather Alternative: Leggings of Unrelenting Blood (Sp/Spirit Enchant, 23 SP gem, SP/Haste gem, Sp/Spirit gem) 100 dps loss

Boots- Plague Scientists Boots (15 stam/minor speed enchant, Sp/Spirit Gem, 23 SP gem)
10 Man Alternative: Heroic Boots of the Frozen Seed (15 stam/minor speed, SP/spirit, 23 SP gem)

Ring 1- Ashen Band of Endless Destruction (Sp/Haste gem)

Ring 2- Loop of the endless Labyrinth (Sp/Spirit gem)
10 Man Alternative: Heroic Cerise Coiled Ring (23 SP gem)

Trinket 1- Heroic Muradin's Spylgass

Trinket 2- Reign of the Dead, Illustration of the Dragonsoul, Eye of the Broodmother, Abyssal Rune (In order of best to worst).


Total DPS lost: 104.5 dps.



Now... You might look at that and say "Hey, that's not that big a deal!" Well, you're wrong. Assuming a raid with 6 dpsers, if they were all forced to lose 104.5 dps by not using their ideal gear, the raid would lose a total of 623 dps. Which, in a 15 minute boss fight (*Cough HM LK Cough*), equates to 560,700 damage lost over the course of a fight. Believe it or not, when it comes down to it... that's a lot of wasted damage... Damage which could be gained by simply allowing your druid to /roll on gear that is clearly itemized better for him than that PoS leather.



Long story short, I think boomkins, ele shamans, resto shamans, holy pallys, w/e, should be allowed to roll on gear that is an upgrade, even if it is not in their armor class. Any clothie, or even a leather wearer or mail wearer who complains about loot competition, are just loot whores at heart, and are most likely going to be detrimental to their raid, and their guild.


K I'm done ranting :D


/guffaw


-Bus

I wanna blog something, but I don't know what to talk about....

It's 5:30 in the morning, and I'm on vent talking to Ithson... AGAIN... so here's a best in slot cat.

This is what happens when I run out of content to do.

This is Scythe. He's a cat. He likes to rage on people.




This is Rul. He heals things




This is Ram. He tanks stuff.




This is Naz. He's a warlock with big boobs.




This is Mujae. She shoots lightning out of her hands




This is Kuchki. She heals and makes you run fast with bubbles.




This is Kae. She's a tree.




This is Ithson. He doesn't even raid, but he has 385 hit.




This is Grommsol. He has a wolf, cat, dinosaur, turtle, and a pet chicken. He's like BiS Hunter.




This is Calla. She has a staff and a spyglass. She shoots arcane stuff.





This is Bob. He has a pet that he likes to keep on passive.




This is Beranabus. He's the best boomkin this side of the mississippi. He is really good at stuff. He also spams Starfall like noone's business. Fear him.




This is Alyae. She tanks.




This is Attack. He's bad and quit WoW. So i drew him as Twisted Fate cause he plays LoL alot.

Glory of the Lolcrown Raider

Yep so, after about 1 1/2 months with Vortex.. they decided to drag me through all my missing achievments. Honestly, the achievments are harder than the hardmodes for some fights... stupid mechanics like Full House and Festergut with only 2 spores, are all stupid. :D


(My MS PAINT skills are pro i know)

/guffaw

-Bus

Good News Everyone!

Welp, we did it... Yay! Malecimo! We did it! *Que Dora music*


But really... We finally managed to kill Putricide this past Tuesday, pushing us up to 11/12 HM. Honestly, even though we wiped on him for countless hours and about 3 weeks, after it was all said and done... I found myself asking if we had forgotten to put it on HM. The fight was just to easy. I mean, even phase 3 seemed like a joke, as I didn't have to move for slime AT ALL. Now this may be due to some lucky placement... but really.

I'm gonna go ahead and outline our basic strategy here:

Our Raid Comp:
1 Prot Pally
1 Feral Druid Tank
1 Balance Druid
1 Hunter
1 Arcane Mage
1 Elemental Shaman
2 Destro Locks
1 Resto Druid
1 Resto Shaman

Before the fight we went ahead and assigned a disease order which went something like this:

Hunter-->Lock-->Balance Druid-->Mage-->Elemental Shaman

If the disease started anywhere within the chain, we would continue it like normal, but if it started on a healer or our other lock, we would have the hunter pick it up off them and begin the chain. The diseased person stood as close to the center of the circle in PP's room as possible, as this was the disease pick up-drop off point. It was the responsibility of the person picking up the disease to make sure they made it on time, with vocal communication of course.

When a green slime spawned, we all grouped up in a predetermined spot (as shown in the photo below), and faced a predetermined direction, and usually used myself (the giant chicken), as a marker. We usually would kill the slime before it reached us, or we would just be knocked back into the alcove facing Festergut's room. We used the same location during the transitions as well. If the green slime targeted the person with the diseased, we decided as a group to let them die. (We had 2 brezes 2 shaman pops and 1 soul stone available during the fight, so this might not work as well for you).

When an orange slime spawned, it was kited like normal and dpsed down quickly. Both slimes were slowed during the transition by our Abom. We would also normally only have only 1-2 slime spawns before the phase 1 transition, allowing the disease to die off before the transition slimes target.

We used blood lust during the phase 2 transition, to clean up the slimes as quick as possible.

Phase 3 was done like normal, with out tanks taunting every 2 stacks. We did have a warlock pre soul stone himself, and take the disease and stand in a corner to die, to remove the disease from phase 3, however our resto druid was like NOOOOO and saved him, so his death was not needed.

Picture key:
P-Putricide
Triangle-Tank
A-Abom
X-Dps
O-Healer
XD-Diseased Dps
T-PP's Table

Regular Phase 1 and 2 Positions:


Transition Positions:

The Good, The Bad, and The Fluffy

So, I was lurking the blog of the better of the 3 druids in Vortex (Kaelynn over at Dreambound) and came across her first post, which basically out lines her life story right down to the log cabin she was born in on that lonely winter night. :P

But really, I figured I would take a few moments to tell you guys (all 1 of you :D) about the man (or boy, however you wanna look at it :|) behind the feathers.


Who is Beranabus, IRL?

Well, Hi! I'm Alex. I live in the US (although I have a certain fondness of Canada that just can't be explained). Unfortunately, I still attend that crap-hole called High School, and I won't be 18 until later in the year. I guess that gives me plenty of time to play WoW huh? I play instruments, you know, stuff the chicks dig.

Book Nerd Moment: Beranabus is actually a book character from a series I read a few years back. It's by an author named "Darren Shann". The series is called "Demonata", and consists of ~10 books, which are still currently being released. He also has another series that he is more known for, called "Cirque De Freak". Basically Demonata is about demons and the struggle between humans and demons, and Cirque De Freak is the struggle of a young teenager becoming a vampire. I recommend these series to EVERYONE, although the latter being a bit more kid friendly than the former.


Who is Beranabus, Ingame?

Beranabus is a male tauren balance druid, rocking a fail resto off set. However, he hasn't always been that way, heck, he hasn't always been a he! Beranabus began with the aspirations of being a Kick Butt Meele Tree (and honestly, after 2 years I'm happy to say he has still retained that dream, all be it in a different way). When Beranabus first began, he went under a different alias, and gender. Beranabus was known as Rolarda of Durotan-US. She was a night elf female. Rolarda was started shortly before WoTLK came out, about 2 months before. She never reached 70 and raided, and infact didn't reach 80 until a few months before Ulduar was released. Rolarda leveled slowly but surely as a resto druid, running the odd instances here and there. (This is before LFD had been implemented, crazy I know).
When free realm transfers were opened to Nessingway-US, Rolarda migrated over there to join up with a friend (who quit on me 2 weeks later :| danngit Groz <3). After migration, Rolarda stayed innactive, as WoTLK had just came out. I began focusing on my current main (Rolard, Gnome rogue), leveling him up to 80 as quick as possible, 3rd 80 in my casual guild, amazing feat I know thank you. After my Rogue was 80, I began focusing on my DK tank, (Rolardo, Gnome, you can see the trend in my amazing naming right?). Before long Rolardo was 80, and Rolarda was still on Nessingwary-US, at level 55. Finally, I decided I was gonna do it, I was gonna level Rolarda. So I payed to transfer Rolarda back to Durotan-US and quickly leveled her.

My Raid Experience:

As I said, I didn't start until shortly after Sunwell was released so, due to the attunments, I was pretty much screwed about trying to get in to a decent raiding guild. I did Kara runs with my casual guild on my rogue, and that's about it. So i suppose you can call me a WoTLK raider. When WoTLK hit, I made quick progress in finding a raiding guild. I located a guild who was recruiting rogues, and made my way in. They happened to be 3rd on the server and 2nd on alliance. I then raided from Naxx all the way through Ulduar with them, clearing everything in 3.0 and all of Ulduar with a couple odd HM's. I also raided Naxx and Ulduar two other times a week on my DK and Druid, as Tank and Resto respectively. When ToTC hit, I had to take a break from raiding (Late nights were messing with my school work). I was able to come back, however, within 3 weeks. This time though, I was back on my resto druid, in a strict 10 man guild. We managed to finish all the Ulduar HM's and do 4/5 ToGC 10 before the guild desenegrated. R.I.P Prophets of Fury <3. It was around this time that Faction Changes were released.
Well, a majority of my old 25 man Naxx/Ulduar guild went horde side, and merged with another guild. I put in an app over there and got in on my rogue, and raided 4/5 ToGC 25 man up until the week before ICC came out. During this time, I brought Rolarda over horde side, but I made her a male tauren, however I kept the same name. TBH Female Taurens are ugly to me. :|. The week before ICC came out, I was approached by my Officer and asked if I could become the new guild feral druid. I accepted, and began to gear myself up. ICC in 232 badge gear FTW. But, I raided up through Blood Wing as feral, but finally decided to take another break, I just wasn't enjoying feral dps in 25 mans (to much lolag) After I came back from my break I found Vortex and it's been love ever since.

Scythe says I play to much:

Yeah, I currently have 4 80's, IDK if this means I play to much but yeah. My new main alt is actually my Ret Paladin, whom I love facerolling as. My DK also managed to make the trip to Turalyon-US, however my Rogue was left behind, my way of keeping in touch with my friends and family.


Well, That's it. That's me. Hopefully I didn't crit you to hard with my Wall of Text :P.

/guffaw

-Bus

This Past Week

Sooo, to put it lightly.... Putricide Hardmode is a definite cock-block in our progression. We've been putting serious attempts on him for about 3 weeks, however this week I really feel like we made great progress, despite being at only 9 during our Sunday raid. I feel like a kill is gonna be coming in shortly, 2 weeks maximum. *knock on wood*


Since we only had 9, we figured that we would chill on our HM attempts and get me my awesome achievment. We succeeded, and quite frankly, compared to the HM, it was an absolute piece of cake. I honestly felt like the achievement didn't do the boss justice, but of course none of them really do :P. The only somewhat difficult achievements, imo, are Sindragosa and Lich King, and that's only because they artificially extend the fight, something that might be a problem if you're fighting enrage timers.

Oh, we also 9 manned LK, and actually were only a few seconds off of our fastest kills (at least the ones I've been a part of). This may or may not be due to the fact that we ran 2 healers, as opposed to our normal 3 healers.




^ kill shot


Oh and also, just for the lulz:


Watch live video from Vortex 10 Man Raids on Justin.tv


This is what happens when I'm not at the top of my game. :P


That's all for now.

/guffaw

-Bus

Are you a female WoW player?!

Welllllll, my RL is single and looking. If you're a cool female WoW player, feel free to hit him up. He's a pretty cool guy!



On the real though, raid night one of the week is over, and we've made it through 2/3 of plague and 2/2 of blood. I'm pretty sure we're gonna be working heavily on PP HM this week. We've made quite awesome progress, getting him to around 7% last week. Here's to hoping for a downing this week!

Oh btw, justin.tv/damorons

^ That's our stream, Warlock PoV. Check it out anytime 7:30-11:30 Tues/Wed/Sunday... and maybe Thursday if Bob can peel himself off of Starcraft long enough to do our alt runs. I'll be the big sexy chicken :D


/guffaw

-Bus

Sup Guise

Oh hai, Beranabus here. I guess I'll start with a few things about muh self. I'm the resident Crit Chicken in on Turalyon, a strict 10 guild. We're pretty legit, just sayin'. My intent for this blog is to offer insight into strict 10 raiding as a moonkin, and occasional advice on some restoration (as my guild seems to think I'm worth-while as a healer). I might even have some RL anecdotes thrown in as well, who knows.

That's all for now, I hope you enjoy what's to come :D.


/guffaw
-Bus