February 17th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
Yes, it’s time for another Character interview. Yeah. Not much else to say about this yet.
—
I walked into the bar, checking the letter that I held firmly in my hand, that I am truly in the right place. A small bar, hidden in the old part of Stormwind. Strange place to be meeting with a member of the Horde, I thought.
I walked up the stairs to the upper area, it’s tables filled with surly retired soldiers and adventures, and looked around for the Paladin. The letter said that she would be wearing black, unfortunately, that described about half of the bar’s patrons.
I was getting the evil eye from about the room, so I simply turned around and walked down the stairs. Stepping out into the small alleyway, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“Where do you think you’re going, kid?” A male voice said from behind me, as the hand clamped down. “Nobody walks into our bar, and walks back out instantly, you see, because that’s sus-er-sus-”
“Suspicious?” I offered.
“Yeah! Sus-pee-sush.” I felt his grip tighten, as his other arm wound back. “Nothin’ personal kid, them the boss’s rules.”
THUD!
I was surprised when I wasn’t feeling after effects of the man’s fist on my head, and slightly less so when his grip loosened as he fell to the ground.
“Sorry about that, but you forced my hand.” A female voice said from behind me. “Not that it’s my job to look after you, but you are here on my account, so it’s only fair.”
“It’s good to see you.” I said, before she grabbed my hand and pulled me after her as she dashed down the alley and into another, and another.
When she finally let my legs catch up with me, along with my breath, I looked her over. She was wearing a cowl, along with a cloth mask over most of her face, both were black.
“So, I see you got my letter.” She said, pinching it out from my hand, where it had nearly been ripped in half. She pulled out a small ruby from inside her loose robe, and muttered a few words under her breath, throwing the letter away as it burst into flames.
“Why, here?” I asked.
“Not here, we’re going to go to my place.” She said, starting to walk towards the main road leading out of the district.
“You have a place?!” I said, running to catch up with her, before slowing down to her casual pace. “Just how long have you been here, anyway?”
“A few months now, I was here when they were still building the Argent Tournament.” She said, as we crossed the bridge to the Trade District.
I did the math in my head. “It’s been almost an entire year?” I exclaimed. “Christ, I wasn’t aware how-”
She raised a finger to silence me. “There are too many ears here, it can wait.”
We had walked straight through the middle of the trade district, past the huge number of adventurers who lined the streets between the bank and the auction house. We silently made our way across the bridges to the Mage District, and from there, across to the Park.
As we walked slowly towards her apartment, we heard a loud bell ringing from the Harbor in front of us.
“What does-”
“The Horde.” She answered, before throwing me against the wall, protecting me from being trampled by the platoon of bodies that rushed past, and started fighting on the streets.
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.” She fumbled with the key in the lock, and shoved the door open, pulling me inside, and grabbing a large sword and shield that were sitting next to the door.
We moved back against the wall. “Wait for it,” she said.
“Wait for what, exact-”
Two humanoid figures flew in through the window. Before I could blink, they were both surrounded by bubbles of light, which they pointlessly fought against.
“Now.” She said, looming over the pair. “Nobody, Horde or Alliance, travels through my window and gets away with it.” She kicked the poor Alliance warrior in the face, and turned to the Blood Elf, giving her the once over. “Well, solider, get back out there, before I decide to really hurt you. I’ll deal with her.”
The human freaked out, and ran out the door.
“Now, where were we?” She said, grabbing the wrist of the elf and pulling her upstairs.
The elf, who was half dead, by all accounts, was not too happy with this, and assailed her newfound captor with an assault of the foulest Thalassian that she could muster.
“Calm down, I just had to put on a show for those bloodthirsty idiots out there.” She said to the elf. “Sit still, you’re badly wounded.” She muttered a few words, and the elf’s wounds healed slightly.
She lit a fire under the washtub, and told me to “Get the hell out”.
I took that as an open invitation to look through all of her things, to see what kind of person she was now. Her home was small, and sparsely decorated. There was a grand total of 0 interesting things to look at. At least, zero out here.
The fighting had stopped outside, the horde were pushed back. Not surprising though, as the Alliance and Horde both seemed to be quite fond of these pointless skirmishes.
I turned around at the sound of one of the stairs creaking. “How is she?” I said.
“G-good.” She smiled at me slightly. “I take it that you recognized her?”
“Of course,” I smiled back. “I take it you don’t really want to let her know about you?”
“Well, not yet. I like living here, it’s relatively peaceful.” She said.
“You, uhh, don’t say.” I cocked an eyebrow, and walked towards her. “You want me to take her back to Silvermoon?”
“I don’t think she’ll need your help.” We hugged each other. “I just feel like I need a bit more time.”
We stayed there, letting it hang there for a minute.
“Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be able to convince her to make me a portal to Dalaran.” I frowned slightly. “Come visit me soon, okay?”
She smiled, “Okay.” She waved, as I walked upstairs.
I banged on the door. “Hey, princess, you got clothes on?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” The elf said, opening the door.
“You got a portal to Dal for an old friend?” I asked.
“Perhaps, if you can afford it.” She smiled, and pushed the door open further, revealing a ready to go portal.
We walked through the portal, and found ourselves standing in the streets of Dalaran in no time at all.
“So,” she said. “I didn’t know my sister had decided to defect.”
I sighed. “She’s just going through a rough patch, Sel, no need to be mean.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Anyway, I’ve got places to go, so we’ll have to get together some other time.”
I sighed, and walked back to my apartment.
Posted in: Character Interview, Roleplay
Tags: Dalaran, Iraia, MetaTwill, RP, Selite, Stormwind
February 15th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
(Not so sure about the numbers, not being a huge raider myself, but I’m not exactly going to bother changing them)
This week’s Blog Azeroth Shared Topic is “What kind of Boss would you be?” – which is something that I went “Yeah, I could probably do that”, to. Therefore, I present to you…
M <Lord of the Twilight Realm>
The encounter is a long and arduous one, much like the Lich King encounter, but longer, and questionably harder.
The encounter takes place in a large room, which is hexagonal in shape. The walls and stuff come around to make it look like a big Gothic cathedral style room, complete with several stained glass windows, lit from behind by a purple light.
Phase 1
The fight begins by activating an orb in the middle of the room. M floats down from the ceiling, and lands in front of the wall opposite the entrance door (which closes when the orb is activated).
The first phase is a simple(ish) tank and spank affair, which will only require a single tank, as M has no cleaves, and his sword only hits for a mere 3k base damage (with a swing speed of 2.0 seconds). In addition, he has the following abilities.
Fireball No-cast time.
A fireball explodes in the targeted area (with 5 seconds to get out of the way) dealing 2000 – 3500 fire damage to all players within 15 yards of where it lands.
Arcane Blast 2 second cast time.
Deals 4000 – 6000 damage to the targeted player (the tank) this is interruptible.
Heal 5 second cast time.
M heals himself for 5,000,000. Will cast this every two minutes from when the encounter is engaged.
In addition, there is a single achievement for this Phase.
Phase 2
After the raid has dealt 17.5 Million points of damage to M, the encounter moves into the second Phase.
M instantly casts the ability Dark Wave knocking everyone in the raid onto their backs, and shattering all the walls of the room, leaving the players with a view of a purple-y abyss.
In this phase, two tanks are needed, as M has a number of abilities that deal damage to the two highest threat targets in this phase. He also gains another sword, and hits the two highest threat targets within melee range for 2k (2.5s swing, both swing at once) base damage each.
He uses the following abilities.
Dark Cut instant – 12 second cooldown
M deals 3k shadow damage to all targets in melee range in a 120 degree arc in front of his face.
Dark Bolts 2 second cast time – 8 second cooldown
M flings dark bolts at the two highest threat targets, dealing 2000 – 4000 shadow damage. Interruptible.
Aura of Despair
Every 30 seconds (except for the first one, which is 35 seconds after the beginning of the phase) M adds another stack of this to the raid, increasing shadow damage taken by 10% This fades at the beginning of Phase 3.
Phase 2.5
After the raid has dealt another 7.5 million damage, M leaps away, forcing the raid to follow him across several smaller hexagonal platforms, to another large Hex. Then the raid re-enters Phase 2. After the raid deals another 7.5 million damage, the encounter moves on to Phase 3.
Phase 3
After leading the raid across another set of smaller platforms, M runs through a portal (more like a hole, the raid can just jump through) to the next arena. This ‘room’ looks like a city square, with a fountain in the middle. M uses the same abilities as in the first phase, but Heal has been replaced with Summon Shadow (see below) there is only one tank required for M in this phase, but the Off-tank will need to be on adds, probably.
Summon Shadow
Every 30 seconds, M casts this on a random player in the raid (think like the 1st boss in Forge of Souls, with the whole beam of doom and whatnot) knocking them down & dealing 3k shadow damage, and spawning a Shadow next to them. These are either Healer Shadows, Melee Shadows, or Caster Shadows, depending on the player beamed (the MT will not be targeted; if the OT is targeted, it’s a Melee one). Every 2 summons, the number of beamed players increases by one (so at 30s & 60s, 1 beam; at 90s & 120s, 2 beams, etc).
Phase 3.5
After dealing another 60 million damage to M, the raid transitions into the next sub- phase, where M can take no damage (he needs to be tanked though) and the DPSers need to collect 32 [Shards of Shadow] and throw them into the fountain in the middle of the ‘room’. In addition, M stops casting Summon Shadow on members of the raid, (but they start coming 4 every 15 seconds by themselves) when killed, the shadows drop the [Shards of Shadow] on the ground (like the harpoons with Skadi in Utgarde Pinnacle) to be picked up by the raid.
In addition, every 60 seconds, M enrages slightly, increasing the damage of his Melee hits, and Arcane Blast by 10%.
Phase 4
Once the 32nd shard has been thrown in the fountain, the whole world explodes (again) and the raid finds themselves falling down through the clouds. In this phase, M transforms into a massive dragon thing, and gains several new abilities. This stage of the fight is on a strict timer, as after 5 minutes, the raid will hit the ground, wiping them out.
M gets a generic breath attack, and cleaves, but otherwise is fairly simple. As the fight is in mid air, the players can move around as if they were swimming. On occasion, he also summons Kael style doom balls, that chase the raid, for 20 seconds.
Once the players deal another 60 million damage, he dies, and the players find themselves safely falling onto a platform, where a chest with their loot awaits.
Not that I’ve thought of that, and I’m getting hungry. I might think of some later though, who knows.
Achievements
Lord of Time
Kill the <Lord of the Twilight Realm> without letting himself heal himself in the first Phase of the encounter. (Is only awarded after the boss has died)
Free of Despair
Kill the <Lord of the Twilight Realm> without letting Aura of Despair reach 5 stacks. (Is only awarded after the boss has died)
Shadow Keeper
Prevent the <Lord of the Twilight Realm> from stealing the shadows of 40 group members.
Quicktime Killer
Kill the <Lord of the Twilight Realm> with more than 2 minutes left before your inevitable demise.
I wish I could do more, but I have other things to do (like eat, or something) will probably add some more (loot and achieves) later, and might sure up the math, too.
Posted in: Uncategorized
February 15th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
Yeah, well, I’ve got about a week left ’till I have to start up the school train again (or university train, but that just seems a little unwieldy) and I’ve decided to play a bunch of games (on a screen the size of my wall, gogo HD projector).
As such, I’ve decided to make a quick list of what I intend to play (and beat) this week.
- Bayonetta – Just started 1st playthrough (normal) intend to probably play through on hard also.
- Tales of Vesperia – Part way through (10 – 20 hours, perhaps?) intend to finish it, depends on how much time I spend on other games.
- Infinite Undiscovery – Just bought on the cheap, I’d like to give it a fair play – at least.
- Some Warcraft (of course) – Iraia is at 76, I’d like to get her to 80 in the next few days.
- Assassin’s Creed II – Finishing up the achievements, to properly 100% the game.
As you can see, that’s a fairly Xbox 360 based list (all but WoW are on there) – which means that they’re only going to get played during the evening, really, as the projector is kinda useless during the day (from about 12 - 7:30 , as it is summer here in Australia, and the room I’m using for projecting has a huge amount of windows in on the North/West facing walls) so there will still be plenty of time for WoW, and getting various achievements (like Peedlefeet now he’s not a random luck thing).
So, with that, I bid you adieu for now. Catch you in a few days, I guess.
Posted in: Rants
Tags: Consoles, Gaming, Iraia, Leveling
February 10th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
Now, technically, it is Wednesday, but to be fair, I’m using Tuesday in the sense of ‘Oh hai server maintenance’. So, while I wait for the server to retrieve my character list – and then try logging in, I’m going to blah out words like I am prone to doing on occasion.
So, first things first, I’ve been leveling the paladin. Or, as she prefers to be known, Iraia. She’s currently sitting at 74, and I’d like to get her to 80 soon(tm) which will be no later than next Tues/Wed but honestly, I’m expecting her to ding 80 on either Saturday or Sunday (probably Sunday). Then she has to do a bazillion heroics to get geared, I guess. She also needs to get herbing up. Either way, I’m not jumping out of my skin about it, which leads me to….
Pezty. Rogue, Human. Yes, I made an Alliance toon. This is no real surprise, as I have loved humans mechanically since forever, and they were the character I fell in love with when I started WoW (A human mage, to be exact). Anyway, she’s at 29 (where she’s been since mounts were at 30, because I can’t remember if the land mounts got changed in BC or early LK.
GRATUITOUS PICTURE (not really)
Catch you later, blog (I logged in about half way through writing this)
Posted in: Uncategorized
February 7th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
So – as an aspiring RPer, (and more so as a writer,) I tend to try and write my characters. Not in a ‘they do this’ narrative fashion, but in a ‘they think this’ fashion.
When I plan out my characters, I get a piece of paper, and write down 3-5 traits that they have. These can (and should) change over time, but they represent the character at the current moment.
For instance, let’s take Selite. (Oh yay.) When I sat down and did this she was level 70 – and had been ’shaped’ a little, and she’s been ’shaped’ since, but she’s one of my more static characters.
Selite, at 70.
- Wants to help people. This is her primary motivation.
- Wants to obtain more knowledge.
- Independent.
Now, this is much earlier, and is quite different to the current style I use to write these. But still, these give a good idea of what her motivations and wants will be at a given time. As an example of ‘evolution of character’ I’ll now show you what she’s all about at level 80.
Selite, at right now.
- Independent.
- Mercenary disposition.
- Vengeance to the Scourge.
So, Selite now is much more about killing undead, and getting payed for it. You might notice that I wrote ‘Independent’ first this time. This is what I call the ‘primary motivation’ of a character. While the other factors are a part of her, the higher up the list it is, the more it means to her. (Well, you forgot “likes things to be shiny” and “likes cats” :p)
This whole post isn’t about Sel though. (Boo.) It was inspired by her wonderful younger sister Iraia. (You’ve been hitting on my sister?)
Iraia has recently gone through Dragonblight. Now for those of you not familiar with Warcraft, Dragonblight is a big zone, filled with lots and lots of quests (over 130 of them, at least). The main quest chain in Dragonblight, however, is about the Wraithgate, which is where the forces of the Alliance and the Horde have decided to prepare for their initial assault upon the Lich King. Unfortunately, bad things happen, and they get killed by a dangerous splinter group of undead.
Then a few more quests happen. But before that last part of the quest, you have probably spent the best part of the last 3-5 levels perfecting that plague for the undead. Now, this has changed Iraia dramatically.
She used to be all about (exclusively) ‘Seeing new things’. Being responsible (at least in her eyes) for the deaths of not only a bunch of mooks, but the greatest hero the Alliance has ever know (or so she thinks) has made her quite the introverted Blood Knight (fancy way of saying ‘Paladin’ if you’re a sexy elf). (One more thing, Iraia is technically part of the Horde – not that she feels like she has any reason to hate the Alliance)
Iraia, after Wraithgate & battle of the Undercity.
- Introvert.
- Wants to help people.
- Is inclined to pacifism.
Now this has already changed in the course of the last 12.5 hours, but there’s no rule against that. I say ‘inclined’ as she is still leveling, and as such, is still a Retribution Paladin (basically she hurts things) out of necessity (and don’t say “why don’t you heal randoms”?) – but she’s changed slightly.
Iraia, after completing the quest [Mystery of the Infinite] (level 73 version).
- Wants to help people.
- Has come to grips with the fact she needs to use violence.
Now, this quest has some funky time travel bits, so most of this is due to the influence of FUTURE IRAIA! *Cue Twilight Zone music*
Anyway. I’m not sure if that helps you guys think about your characters, but it’s always nice to throw out some examples of what I’m thinking.
New post “Character Interview – Iraia” coming soonish. (I’m thinking before friday, but we will see)
Posted in: Roleplay
Tags: Gaming, Iraia, RP, Selite, WoW
February 4th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
This post is not really to do with videogames, or anything else, but I wanted to post this up for some critique, and wasn’t going to go out of my way to find somewhere else to put it. If you’re interested, you can continue after the break. Read more…
Posted in: Rants
January 26th, 2010 / 2 Comments » / by TwilliK
So, I’ve been inspired by this Shared Topic idea, by Azryu of The Arcanery, and have decided to steal it for myself, and perhaps will end up doing all my characters in the future (and I mean all my characters, both from Warcraft and elsewhere). Therefore, today I have decided to go ahead a have a chat with Selite. This shouldn’t be too hard, everything I say she comments on anyway (at least in my head).
The crunch of leaves can be heard underfoot, as I step into the autumnal clearing.
There she is, sitting on a tree stump, with a tired look obvious upon her face. As I enter the clearing, she looks up at me, and says softly…
So, you’re here at last, huh? I was wondering when you would get here.
I go to open my mouth, but she continues regardless.
Are you surprised to see me here? Are you that daft?
“I- well,”
You should know that I have a life of my own when you’re not looking through my eyes. You’re smarter than that.
I sigh, and step towards her, into the clearing. “Sure, but here, why here?“ A small clearing in the middle of Eversong Woods, of all the places in Azeroth, why right here?
Really? This is my home, you idiot.
She kicked up a bunch of orange leaves, which floated slowly to the ground in between us.
We stared at each other, assessing each other, for minutes.
“Anyway, how’s magic working out for you?” I asked clumsily. ‘Oh god, this is even worse than unresolved sexual tension.’ I thought.
F-fine.
She looked at me like I had asked her to stab her mother in the face, mixed with the slightest hint of concern.
And what about you, how’s whatever you’re doing going?
I smiled. “Nice to know for all of your powers of precognition aren’t all powerful.” She glared slightly, before she gave me a strange look and smiled a little, realizing it was a joke. “I’m fine, by the way.“
Good, good. Anyway… I’ve got to go. Uhh, take care of yourself, eh?
“You too.” We smiled nervously at each other, before we both walked away.
Well, I’m not sure what to think of that. Both me and Sel are amazingly shy? Perhaps it is just the whole privacy thing. We would of been better off conducting this chat somewhere more public, like in Dalaran. Perhaps next time, eh? (Perhaps)
Posted in: Character Interview, Roleplay, Selite
Tags: Eversong Woods, RP, Selite, Shared Topic
January 21st, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
I’m sure that this post is going to be messy, but I was inspired after having some words with Rilgon about raiding & stuff. So, I present to you, the reasons I am a fail raider and the logical ways to stop them from applying.
1.
I’m woefully inexperienced. I have done, in WotLK, the four first wings of Naxx, OS twice (+0 & +1), Flame Leviathan, & ICC trash farming. That’s it. To be honest, this ‘inexperienced’ part of the equation is terribly self serving, in that it will make me too nervous to sign up (or inquire about) raids that we more or less have on farm (read: ToC-25) and even more nervous about my numbers in raids, but that’s a whole ‘nother section of fail.
How to fix it:
This is fairly easy – go do some raids. Of course, this means complying with my other ‘reasons of fail’ to a satisfactory standard.
2.
Numbers. I’m the sort of person, that wants to ‘pull above their weight’. When I go in as a DPS, I expect to be doing exactly 1/(number of DPSers) of the raids total DPS, and hopefully much more. My biggest problem, is that I have no real way to see what my numbers might be – without being in a raid. Now, I’ve been running some tests in Rawr, to get some reports on what my “theoretical maximum DPS” is.
Firstly, I try and get it to give me an accurate number for my DPS against a target dummy, It’s saying that for my basic AB to 4 stacks then Missile Barrage – I should do 3696.59 DPS. This is assuming no raid buffs, and now I will go and test it out for accuracy’s sake.
So, one test later, and I’m sitting at 3402.9 DPS, which is fairly close, considering lag, and the fact that I stuffed up the rot a few times. Doing a quick check of raid DPS, I’m projected to do about 4.5k DPS, which I’m not sure if I’m happy with – what should my DPS be like, for 25s?
3.
This is slightly not really at all to do with anything – go figure.
Okay, this isn’t really a reason, but I’m extremely self critical. I’m that rare DPS who thinks that it’s never the tank or healer’s fault, it’s always the DPSs fault. Because in this game, every fight becomes easier with more DPS.
Now this is a rather stupid stance to take – of course it’s the healer’s fault if half the raid dies to unavoidable damage – but what if half the raid had been eating extra ticks of whatever the avoidable damage is on that fight? Of course it’s the tanks fault if he’s not Defense capped, gets 2-shot, and wipes the raid.
But in the vast majority of cases, I will take the fail-burden, and attribute it to myself, and I’m not the kind of person who enjoys wiping. Especially when the only damage being dealt to the raid as a whole comes from people who are STUFFING UP THE ENCOUNTER. I might not play a healer, but I expect you NOT TO STAND IN SHIT. Gah, people are EXTREMELY STUPID. So I guess that comes to the real reason #3 – I don’t want to waste my evenings with a bunch of people who aren’t bringing their A game in regards to STANDING IN SHIT.
Seriously.
No excuse.
Ever.
Posted in: Uncategorized
January 19th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
Yes, it is true, I am working on a new template for Arcane Envoy. This is (part of) why I’ve not posted much recently. (I’ve also been playing DA:O)
So, you can expect a new post in the next few days (by friday) about DA:O (with spoilers up the wazoo) and the new layout in the next two weeks.
Posted in: Uncategorized
January 15th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
Yeah. Someone has been playing some alts. (Hint: that person is me)
Been playing the paladin, who is now sitting at 63 after fully clearing Hellfire (gaining over 5 whole levels in the process), and I did gain a level on the DK (or like half of one), with the drastic reduction in leveling speed in the 70s, I’m not feeling terribly enthused (I’m really just going on Cobalt farming runs and killing things at the same time).
I also started a HUNTARD. He is an orc, and that is the sex. Sexy orc sex, with their sexy oversized shoulder armor. (Disclaimer: He really isn’t the sex at all, Bayonetta is “the sex”.)
Now I’m not the only one leveling alts (mainly because Rilgon is leveling a Mage (awesome) that is frost ( … ) and is a lady Gnome (awesome)) but I am the only person who’s leveling an alt that also happens to post on this blog. ((Why did I feel it necessary to post that, anyway?))
So, what about you guys? Are any of you leveling alts?
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: Iraia, lazy post, Leveling, WoW, Yarrthis
