Vortex's Latest Kill!

Vortex's Latest Kill!
Heroic Yor'sahj

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

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

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

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

Friday, June 25, 2010

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

Thursday, June 24, 2010

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

Monday, June 21, 2010

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

Monday, June 7, 2010

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

Saturday, June 5, 2010

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

Friday, June 4, 2010

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.


Tuesday, June 1, 2010

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.