VIDJO
So uhhhhhh..... Yeah.
I'm not gonna lie, I have no idea what you're supposed to do on this fight. The only thing I do is afk dps the boss. I think there's something about a 4th ooze? Not really sure tbh.
On a serious note, you're going to want to find ooze combinations that benefit from not only your healing set-up, but your dps set-up. We had a raid with lots of AoE potential, and strong healer cooldowns, as well as strong outside cooldowns from the dps and our blood dk 4 piece. Because of these reasons, we chose to go for Red/Black/Yellow phases which are probably the most intense, as it's double aoe damage ON TOP of double add spawns. I was using tricks on different targets based on who was using their cooldowns for each add spawn. (I think we used Berserk swipe, Combustion, Bladestorm/Sweeping Lol, and Infernal) I mean, the fights basically the same except you'll have to deal with purple every once in a while, so it's a steep learning curve for healers. The only thing I suggest is figure out exactly how much dps you need for AoE on the adds and to kill the ooze before it reaches the boss, and try and leave at least one person on boss full time so that you can beat the enrage timer. Oh, and use mana cooldowns when the mana void comes out, that way you can save busting it until another blue phase, and then bust the orb after the new orb spawns for 100% mana goodness TEEEHEEE:DDDD.
As far as my thoughts on the fight go... I feel like Blizzard could have done more with it. It's not a boss limited by mechanics, but limited by pure numbers. It's a heals/dps check in it's core. But it's not badly done, just not wonderfully done.
/guffaw
-Bus
Vortex's Latest Kill!
Heroic Yor'sahj
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Heroic Morchok
Heroic Morchok Video
So Vortex killed Heroic Morchok a few weeks past, but I just now got around to recording a video for it. It's not the best, but it's still there.
As far as the strategy goes, this will assume you already know the basics.
Heroic Morchok adds more complexity to the fight in the way of a double, named Kohcrom. Kohcrom spawns when Morchok hits 90% health, and will then copy every ability Morchok casts for the remainder of the fight. The two share a health pool, ala Valiona and Theralion. The fight is all about balancing the two bosses casting their abilities and beating a somewhat tight enrage timer.
Whenever a player is hit by stomp, they receive a debuff that causes them to take 100% more stomp damage. Because of this debuff and the double stomps the raid is taking, we chose to split up into two 5 man teams, and tank both bosses far away from each other, effectively creating two separate boss fights.
For each group we have:
1 Tank
2 healers
2 dps
Within each group there are:
1 stomp soaker
3 crystal soakers
The crystals still require 3 people, just like normal. However, unlike normal in which you have 2 tanks stacked on top of each other, you need to have 1 person help soak the stomp along with the tank. This needs to be someone with high armor or high aoe damage mitigation. Good candidates are: Sub rogues, feral druids, warriors, shadow priests with glyphed inner fire, and holy paladins (with shields..).
Once you have your jobs assigned, it's just a matter of making sure you soak all of the stomps and crystals adequately, while avoiding black blood during the black blood phase. Repeat all of that until 20%, where the bosses frenzy. It's usually best to hold off on pushing to 20% if possible until a black blood phase, and then popping Bloodlust and trying to push them as far as possible before the phase ends. Remember, stomps and crystals hit harder during the frenzy, so if your soakers are not on their game, you might lose one. Finally, make sure that both bosses die before you celebrate, because if they don't both die, you lose.
All in all, I feel like Morchok had interesting mechanics, but as a difficult fight it was really lacking from a dps standpoint. It was the entry heroic, but I feel it could have done a little bit more.
/guffaw
-Bus
So Vortex killed Heroic Morchok a few weeks past, but I just now got around to recording a video for it. It's not the best, but it's still there.
As far as the strategy goes, this will assume you already know the basics.
Heroic Morchok adds more complexity to the fight in the way of a double, named Kohcrom. Kohcrom spawns when Morchok hits 90% health, and will then copy every ability Morchok casts for the remainder of the fight. The two share a health pool, ala Valiona and Theralion. The fight is all about balancing the two bosses casting their abilities and beating a somewhat tight enrage timer.
Whenever a player is hit by stomp, they receive a debuff that causes them to take 100% more stomp damage. Because of this debuff and the double stomps the raid is taking, we chose to split up into two 5 man teams, and tank both bosses far away from each other, effectively creating two separate boss fights.
For each group we have:
1 Tank
2 healers
2 dps
Within each group there are:
1 stomp soaker
3 crystal soakers
The crystals still require 3 people, just like normal. However, unlike normal in which you have 2 tanks stacked on top of each other, you need to have 1 person help soak the stomp along with the tank. This needs to be someone with high armor or high aoe damage mitigation. Good candidates are: Sub rogues, feral druids, warriors, shadow priests with glyphed inner fire, and holy paladins (with shields..).
Once you have your jobs assigned, it's just a matter of making sure you soak all of the stomps and crystals adequately, while avoiding black blood during the black blood phase. Repeat all of that until 20%, where the bosses frenzy. It's usually best to hold off on pushing to 20% if possible until a black blood phase, and then popping Bloodlust and trying to push them as far as possible before the phase ends. Remember, stomps and crystals hit harder during the frenzy, so if your soakers are not on their game, you might lose one. Finally, make sure that both bosses die before you celebrate, because if they don't both die, you lose.
All in all, I feel like Morchok had interesting mechanics, but as a difficult fight it was really lacking from a dps standpoint. It was the entry heroic, but I feel it could have done a little bit more.
/guffaw
-Bus
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Poptarts
Just kidding, but it got your attention... maybe ;)
Today we're gonna talk about raid preparation. As a raider, there's three phases to learning new bosses. You have, 1) Preparation, 2) Execution, 3) Acquisition. We're gonna look at preparation.
Preparation is an important aspect in raiding, and everyone goes about it in their own way. Some look at guides, some watch videos... and some don't do it at all. Personally, I use a combination of guides and my own notepad notes in order to properly prepare for a new boss fight.
Now, I only usually do this for heroics. I'm going to be doing a Madness of Deathwing one, so it will be a bit more structured and informative than my usual ones, due to me already knowing the fight. Here it goes:
Kill Order P1 ----
1) Blistering Tentacles (Platform 3&4)
2) Hemo Bloods (As assassination aoe with DW targeted/As Sub don't do anything teehee)
3) Glowing red tentacle (Save SDance/Vanish/ColdB/Vendetaa for this so maximum uptime)
4) Deathwing Tentacle (Use SDance on CD unless Cataclysm timer coming up then save no more than 20 seconds/Same for Vanish)
5) Elemntium Bolt (Only swap if on ground then it;s #1 PRIO!!!!!! :()
Kill Order P2---
1) Small tentacles (Use Dream if Strapnel)
2) Big adds (Combat cleave nice here, sub can burst them np)
3) Deathwing head (Stay on deathwing if Ange/Scythe say usually 2nd set adds around 8%)
Shadowstep Yay-Nay / Backstab Yay-Nay ---- (Try to shadowstep mobs that are useable on when you can use it close to SDANCE or VANISH CD)
1) DW tentacle - Nay / Yay
2) Glowing Red Tentacle - Nay / Yay
3) Blistering Tentacles - ?(Assuming Nay) / Yay
4) Blistering Bloods - Yay / Yay
5) Elemntium Bolt - Yay / Yay
6) Little Tentacles - Yay / Yay
7) Big adds - Yay / Yay
8) Deathwing Head Nay / Yay
Mechanics to Feint -
1) Bolt Impact
2) Ground slam from glowy tentacle (maybe)
3) Blistering Tentacle aoe
4) DW random AOE
5) Strapnel (Most likely not)
What doooooo?
1) Stab tentacle
2) Move to other tentacle
3) Stab Tentacle
4) If bolt land (kill)/ Move to other platform
5) Stab tentacle
6) move other tentacle
7) stab tentacle
8) If bolt land (kill)/ move to other platform
9) Stab tentacle
10) Move other tentacle
11) Stab tentacle
12) Kill blistering tentacles
13) Move platform
14) Stab
15) Kill other tentacle
16) Group up for bolt impact
17) Kill bolt
18) Stab tentacle
19) Kill blistering tentacles
20) Hop platform
21) Stab Deathwing
22) Kill adds
23) Kill deathwing
24) Loot useless loot (for me)
Most important note - Never shadowstep non shadow-step moves or you diiiie.
So there you have it. This is basically what my notepad looks like on any given fight. Note that it's completely rogue based, and more tuned towards Sub spec. This is not to be used by ranged for kill order. But basically, preparation is very important, and it helps for you to know almost exactly what you'll be doing before you even get to the fight. Good luck!
P.S : Sorry for the spelling/grammar mistakes, but I wanted it to be as authenticate as possible.
/guffaw
-Bus
Today we're gonna talk about raid preparation. As a raider, there's three phases to learning new bosses. You have, 1) Preparation, 2) Execution, 3) Acquisition. We're gonna look at preparation.
Preparation is an important aspect in raiding, and everyone goes about it in their own way. Some look at guides, some watch videos... and some don't do it at all. Personally, I use a combination of guides and my own notepad notes in order to properly prepare for a new boss fight.
Now, I only usually do this for heroics. I'm going to be doing a Madness of Deathwing one, so it will be a bit more structured and informative than my usual ones, due to me already knowing the fight. Here it goes:
Kill Order P1 ----
1) Blistering Tentacles (Platform 3&4)
2) Hemo Bloods (As assassination aoe with DW targeted/As Sub don't do anything teehee)
3) Glowing red tentacle (Save SDance/Vanish/ColdB/Vendetaa for this so maximum uptime)
4) Deathwing Tentacle (Use SDance on CD unless Cataclysm timer coming up then save no more than 20 seconds/Same for Vanish)
5) Elemntium Bolt (Only swap if on ground then it;s #1 PRIO!!!!!! :()
Kill Order P2---
1) Small tentacles (Use Dream if Strapnel)
2) Big adds (Combat cleave nice here, sub can burst them np)
3) Deathwing head (Stay on deathwing if Ange/Scythe say usually 2nd set adds around 8%)
Shadowstep Yay-Nay / Backstab Yay-Nay ---- (Try to shadowstep mobs that are useable on when you can use it close to SDANCE or VANISH CD)
1) DW tentacle - Nay / Yay
2) Glowing Red Tentacle - Nay / Yay
3) Blistering Tentacles - ?(Assuming Nay) / Yay
4) Blistering Bloods - Yay / Yay
5) Elemntium Bolt - Yay / Yay
6) Little Tentacles - Yay / Yay
7) Big adds - Yay / Yay
8) Deathwing Head Nay / Yay
Mechanics to Feint -
1) Bolt Impact
2) Ground slam from glowy tentacle (maybe)
3) Blistering Tentacle aoe
4) DW random AOE
5) Strapnel (Most likely not)
What doooooo?
1) Stab tentacle
2) Move to other tentacle
3) Stab Tentacle
4) If bolt land (kill)/ Move to other platform
5) Stab tentacle
6) move other tentacle
7) stab tentacle
8) If bolt land (kill)/ move to other platform
9) Stab tentacle
10) Move other tentacle
11) Stab tentacle
12) Kill blistering tentacles
13) Move platform
14) Stab
15) Kill other tentacle
16) Group up for bolt impact
17) Kill bolt
18) Stab tentacle
19) Kill blistering tentacles
20) Hop platform
21) Stab Deathwing
22) Kill adds
23) Kill deathwing
24) Loot useless loot (for me)
Most important note - Never shadowstep non shadow-step moves or you diiiie.
So there you have it. This is basically what my notepad looks like on any given fight. Note that it's completely rogue based, and more tuned towards Sub spec. This is not to be used by ranged for kill order. But basically, preparation is very important, and it helps for you to know almost exactly what you'll be doing before you even get to the fight. Good luck!
P.S : Sorry for the spelling/grammar mistakes, but I wanted it to be as authenticate as possible.
/guffaw
-Bus
Monday, December 19, 2011
Healers!!
Sooo, I downloaded TF2 this week, and I've already logged 8 hours :3. I wanted to play a spy/scout combo, but in order to unlock the tutorials for some classes (spy), you have to first complete the tutorials for some of the other classes. Well, I was impatient, so I decided to play a medic instead after a bunch of fail spy games. It's great, I'm not a detriment to a team, because every team needs a medic, and I can almost always do good on the scoreboard. It got me to wondering though.. what kind of people play the healer classes in video games? Let's take a look at healers in a PVP aspect in the 3 games I play.
WoW Resto Druid: I'm using Resto Druid because it's the only healer I've ever played. Resto Druids possess many tools in their arsenal. They have hots, which are very effective for the run and gun aspect of PVP. Standing still and casting can most of the time get you killed if your opponents are semi-competent. A resto druid can also maintain healing on multiple targets at a time with their hots. They also have a couple forms of CC in the ways of roots and cyclone. The really good ones can even go bear form and bash for an extra stun. Resto druids also have a couple DoT's they can put up, in order to add some pressure. All in all, Resto druids are really balanced in terms of damage/healing/cc, and can be very versatile.
LoL Support: Supports in League of Legend are not all healers, but I'm going to group them together for the sake of this post. Let's talk about Soraka, cause she's my favorite :D. Now while Soraka only has 4 abilities, she almost as much versatility as a resto druid. Soraka has a silence/mana return ability, which is very good for CC. Silence is one of the most powerful CC's in LoL, because it prevents 90% of ability and summoners spells from being used. She also has a damage ability/debuff that deals damage to everyone in a short radius around her, and increases the amount of magic damage they take, and is pretty spammable. She has two heals, one moderately strong and an average cooldown, and the other large aoe on a long cooldown. All in all, she's very strong.
TF2 Medic: The medic in TF2 also has some characteristics of a resto druid. The medic posses 3 weapons, a gun that damages enemies, and gun that heals allies, and a meele weapon that damages enemies. Now, the medic doesn't have any CC, per se, but he does have 2 ways of dealing damage, as well as healing. He also posses the ability to charge a meter, which when full can be activated to make him and his heal target invulnerable and deal bonus damage for a short time.
Now, what do all these have in common? Well they all posses damage and healing in some way or form. They all have the ability to support their teammates, and enhance their play styles. What does this say about the people who play them? Well, the people who play healers are almost always team players. They are willing to sacrifice the guts and the glory or being the top contributor in kills for being the person that allows that top kill person to be at the top. Healers also have to be able to keep a calm mind. Smart teams will instantly target and attempt to focus down the healer. If you choose to be a healer, you will die a lot, and you have to be able to accept it and move on. If you do well enough, your team will keep you alive no matter what. Basically, healers are awesome.
/guffaw
-Bus
WoW Resto Druid: I'm using Resto Druid because it's the only healer I've ever played. Resto Druids possess many tools in their arsenal. They have hots, which are very effective for the run and gun aspect of PVP. Standing still and casting can most of the time get you killed if your opponents are semi-competent. A resto druid can also maintain healing on multiple targets at a time with their hots. They also have a couple forms of CC in the ways of roots and cyclone. The really good ones can even go bear form and bash for an extra stun. Resto druids also have a couple DoT's they can put up, in order to add some pressure. All in all, Resto druids are really balanced in terms of damage/healing/cc, and can be very versatile.
LoL Support: Supports in League of Legend are not all healers, but I'm going to group them together for the sake of this post. Let's talk about Soraka, cause she's my favorite :D. Now while Soraka only has 4 abilities, she almost as much versatility as a resto druid. Soraka has a silence/mana return ability, which is very good for CC. Silence is one of the most powerful CC's in LoL, because it prevents 90% of ability and summoners spells from being used. She also has a damage ability/debuff that deals damage to everyone in a short radius around her, and increases the amount of magic damage they take, and is pretty spammable. She has two heals, one moderately strong and an average cooldown, and the other large aoe on a long cooldown. All in all, she's very strong.
TF2 Medic: The medic in TF2 also has some characteristics of a resto druid. The medic posses 3 weapons, a gun that damages enemies, and gun that heals allies, and a meele weapon that damages enemies. Now, the medic doesn't have any CC, per se, but he does have 2 ways of dealing damage, as well as healing. He also posses the ability to charge a meter, which when full can be activated to make him and his heal target invulnerable and deal bonus damage for a short time.
Now, what do all these have in common? Well they all posses damage and healing in some way or form. They all have the ability to support their teammates, and enhance their play styles. What does this say about the people who play them? Well, the people who play healers are almost always team players. They are willing to sacrifice the guts and the glory or being the top contributor in kills for being the person that allows that top kill person to be at the top. Healers also have to be able to keep a calm mind. Smart teams will instantly target and attempt to focus down the healer. If you choose to be a healer, you will die a lot, and you have to be able to accept it and move on. If you do well enough, your team will keep you alive no matter what. Basically, healers are awesome.
/guffaw
-Bus
Friday, December 16, 2011
Hi
So it's most definitely been a while since I last posted. (Almost 11 months). In that time life has been pretty hectic. So far in that time I've:
- Graduated from highschool, with a GPA of 89.73 (0.27 short of being an honor graduate.. Not bad for someone who didn't study much :P)
- Started college (First semester is over, and the second semester will be held off until I figure out just exactly what I want to do in life)
- Entered a relationship with someone who I thought was, "The One"
- Subsequently exited that relationship 9 months later
- Main swapped to a rogue (no more pew pew, but now I can stab stab ;D)
- Taken a break from WoW, and came back in full force
- Had a birthday, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
- Taken to spamming raid chat with kirby's giving away free waffles, #<(^_^<)
Either way, I've been busy, but now I'm going to try and put forth the effort to keep this updated! I'll be posting about all kinds of thing, raging from Rogue raiding, to hunter pvp (maybe), to LoL, to even some TF2. Hopefully you guys can stay occupied!
/guffaw
-Bus
Friday, January 21, 2011
Big Fish in a Small Pond
I'm sure we're all familiar with the "Big Fish in a Small Pond" concept, or it's partner, the "Big Fish in a Large Ocean". When confronted with this concept, most people will refer to the transition of middle school to high school, or high school to college, or even college to the real world. Case in point, most people relate this to schooling. As I was driving home from school today, I realized that this could also define my WoW career.
When I began raiding, it was a medium population server called Durotan. Now, back in Vanilla, Durotan was home to quite a few predominate raiding guilds, including the Nightcrawlers. When free server transfers to Argaloth opened up, many of the top naxx clearing guilds left the server, for hopes of greener pastures. The server dropped down in overall progression rankings, with only one guild really progressing anywhere. This guild only managed up through Felmyst in SWP during BC, so they were not a high caliber guild. The emergence of 2-3 more skilled guilds during WoTLK helped the outlook of the server, yet to this day the server remains one of the least progressed PvE servers in the US. As a side effect to only having a few progressed guilds, Durotan's player base is lacking in the PvE department. The average player on Durotan is only skilled enough to kill Lich King 10 man with the 20% buff, if that helps you get a feel for how skilled they are.
I will now get to the point. During my time on Durotan, I was always in either the best or number two guild. I always thought I was great, one of the best. What I was experiencing, was being the best of a very limited player base. As one of the original Durotan residents puts it, blunlty, "You can be the best on Durotan, but it's kind of like winning the Special Olympics, when it comes down to it, do you really win?" Although I don't agree with the thing used in the analogy, it's pretty spot on. I never realized how true this was, however, until I transferred to Turalyon.
The people of Turalyon; they're what makes the server great. The community of Turalyon is one of the best communities in the game in my opinion. Not only is the commmunity nicer in general, but they're also more knowledgeable of the game. That, plus the addition of some US top guilds, makes Turalyon a much better server than Durotan in terms of progression. Upon transfering, I was unaware that so many great guilds were located on server. I was shocked. The playing ability of the people around me was amazing. I feel like it has really made me the player I am today. I take pride in being the top in whatever I do, whether it be a guild raid of a pug. Being top in pugs is actually difficult on Turalyon, as you'll always find good players from guild guilds who are able to play multiple characters to great proficiency.
Basically, the server change has greatly affected me as a person. I feel that I would not be as good a player as I am today if I hadn't gone to a better server. I love the people on Durotan, but they're no where near as good as the people on Turalyon, as a whole. So, I ask you, next time you want to think that you're a great player, take a step back and think of it all in context. You can be the best player in your raid or even on your server, but if the other people you play with are not playing to an acceptable proficiency, you are most likely not playing as good as you really think you are.
I will now get to the point. During my time on Durotan, I was always in either the best or number two guild. I always thought I was great, one of the best. What I was experiencing, was being the best of a very limited player base. As one of the original Durotan residents puts it, blunlty, "You can be the best on Durotan, but it's kind of like winning the Special Olympics, when it comes down to it, do you really win?" Although I don't agree with the thing used in the analogy, it's pretty spot on. I never realized how true this was, however, until I transferred to Turalyon.
The people of Turalyon; they're what makes the server great. The community of Turalyon is one of the best communities in the game in my opinion. Not only is the commmunity nicer in general, but they're also more knowledgeable of the game. That, plus the addition of some US top guilds, makes Turalyon a much better server than Durotan in terms of progression. Upon transfering, I was unaware that so many great guilds were located on server. I was shocked. The playing ability of the people around me was amazing. I feel like it has really made me the player I am today. I take pride in being the top in whatever I do, whether it be a guild raid of a pug. Being top in pugs is actually difficult on Turalyon, as you'll always find good players from guild guilds who are able to play multiple characters to great proficiency.
Basically, the server change has greatly affected me as a person. I feel that I would not be as good a player as I am today if I hadn't gone to a better server. I love the people on Durotan, but they're no where near as good as the people on Turalyon, as a whole. So, I ask you, next time you want to think that you're a great player, take a step back and think of it all in context. You can be the best player in your raid or even on your server, but if the other people you play with are not playing to an acceptable proficiency, you are most likely not playing as good as you really think you are.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
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.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
HLK
We killed HLK. Game over.
I'll get an actual post done sometime. I think it's about time for shit Naz says ;)
I'll get an actual post done sometime. I think it's about time for shit Naz says ;)
Monday, September 6, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, August 27, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
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
Alternatively, going HERE will make the video easier to view =)
Enjoy!
/guffaw
-Bus
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
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
Friday, July 30, 2010
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.
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:
- Buffers- augment allies' stats and abilities
- Crowd controllers- render one or more enemies harmless or reduce their effectiveness.
- DPS- reduce enemies' hp by doing damage.
- Debuffers- reduce enemies' stats and weaken their abilities.
- Healers- restore allies' hp.
- 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
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
Friday, July 23, 2010
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.
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:
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'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.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
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
Oh, and to kill two birds with one stone. I got my full t1 set today =D. TRANQ SPAM FTW
/guffaw
-Bus
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
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
Get on the Bus.
/guffaw
-Bus
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
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:
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
