ANYWAY. Time for business. Post-y business.

So, today, I was totally being lazy in class and checking twitter (boring tutorial is boring), and there was this huge kerfufel (ker-fuf-el , basically a way of saying “silly-ish argument”) about how Volley being removed has made huntering basically the worst thing.

(ADDITION: Before we begin, I’d like to say, I don’t want to get in an argument with any of you, and I respect your opinions (or your right to one, at least). However, this is my turn, and I feel the need to tell you how stupid this whole thing is.

Also, I’m not really ‘for’ or ‘against’ AoE. Would be willing to trade the existance of all AoE spells apart from prettyful explosion (which I’d not be using for AoE anyway, because, well, it kinda sucks), for nothing. Nada. Zip.

ALSO: This post doesn’t really give any solutions to the Volley issuse, but I can probably think of a few. However, I’m not qualified to talk about them.

END ADDITION)

Now, I don’t play a hunt-, wait.

Okay, now that is out of the way, I’m going to say a bunch of stuff now, mainly focusing on how you are wrong and how AoEs are boring and also lame.

FIRST POINT: AoEing is about the most boring thing, and is kinda why this expansion has sucked a fat one.

I mean, really, on the whole, it’s been okay, but man, AoE is bor—–ing. It also doesn’t require any skill or fun. Also blizzard is a frost spell and people get all pissy when I cast Arcane Explosion (probably because it sucks/ed) .

Blizzard are trying to fix this by scaling down AoEs, but they are also trying to bring back CC a bit, so they can’t only have 2 man pulls (as Blizzard becomes worthwhile with 3 or more targets), because that’s boring as fuck. THEREFORE THEY DON’T REALLY WANT EVERY CLASS HAVING AN AOE ATTACK.

SECOND POINT: There are a bunch of people being all like “Now I can’t find stealthers when flare is on CD”. Okay. Fair enough. You know how I do that? BY DYING AFTER BEING AMBUSHED OR ATTACKED BY A STIFF BREEZE.

Seriously, if that is a real reason, then seriously I am going to have to go headdesk now.

POINT THE THIRD: AoE Grinding is the best way to do solo shit.

Two things.

1. Fuck
2. You

Solo AoE grinding is lame and I don’t even think there is a word to describe how lame it is. I’m talking like FFFFFFF- levels of lame here.

I’m going to talk about the past now. Back, before the stupid halls of LOLNAX, LOLDUAR, or ICELOL, back, in the storms of Netherstorm… s.

I was a proud(ish) member of the Scryers, a bunch of Blood Elves that were being all chilled and shit up in Shattrath City, but they totally hated these other Blood Elves, who were led by the King Prince of the Cosmos Blood Elves, but were being total dicks and stuff.

So I’m up there, killing these guys for their books and there shiny signets (which were probably made out of drugs for these chillaxed elves to get chillaxed on or something), and my normal fight pattern was something like this, I guess:

• Pyroblast
• Fireball (Perhaps Frostbolt, once)
• Fireball
• Fireblast

EXCITEMENT. Occasionally, if I accidentally bit off more than a single dude, I would cast the mighty PoM-Pyro, which would be really useful.

AND DEN there was this other mage that was there occasionally (He was Frost (also a Chinese Farmer, but that didn’t bother me so much)) his battles would be more like this:

• Run around gathering like 10-20 dudes and somehow not dying.
• Frost Nova
• Blizzard

THAT’S, that’s…. boooorrriinnnng. Boring as fuck.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE. Paladins, Argent Tourney. Fuckers.

• Fly In
• Gather all the guys
• Consecrate
• Divine Storm
• Etc.

BORING (also like totally unfair).

So, that rant being ranted. I feel that I’ve run out of things to say. So yeah. Hope I didn’t offend you too much.

“Reina?” Sami asked. “You saw her…”

“Die?” A female voice said from the coffin. “Not quite. However, I certainly had left the mortal coil once more.”

“No. You can’t be her. I saw what happened to her with my own eyes. Nothing could bring her back from that.” Mat said, trembling.

The woman sat up, her bedraggled red hair, somewhere in between the hues of blood and fire, sat playfully over her closed eyes. “It’s me, and I’m sure I can think of more than a few things to prove that to you, rusa.”¹

Mat stumbled back haphazardly. “W-WHAT?!” He shouted. “We- no, I-, I-”

The woman’s laugh echoed, warm and sincere through the trees.

“You were always fun to play with, that was for sure.” She smiled at him, opening her blood red eyes slightly. “Although, that was my fault for using a strange dialect just for my own amusement.”

Mat smiled somewhat. “But that was what had, and it was ours, and ours alone.”

“Well, perhaps. I’m sure there are plenty of people who know it perfectly well.”

“You, know what I mean.”

“Risa,macca ne?” The woman asked.

Mat smiled. “Bac, sisa.”

“Ooh, cold.” The woman laughed again, as she stood. She was wearing a simple white dress, made of a cloth that shimmered in the light.

“Still, I feel that we need a bit of an explanation to how you’re standing here.” Sami said, her sword still held firmly within her two hands.

“Fair enough, I suppose.” The woman said, with a shrug. “I am, as Mat here will be happy to confirm, Reina.” Her eyes wandered to the ground as she kept talking. “Do you recall seeing, any time during the last few months, a… I suppose you would call it a wave, of bright, white light?”

The four looked between themselves, not entirely sure.

“I do.” Irith’s voice said from behind them. “It was during the night we stayed at Ostios, you were probably all asleep.” Irith walked past them, and looked into Reina’s eyes. “It was more than just light, however. There was a physical sensation, that didn’t seem to affect anything, but at the same time, felt like it took a small part of me.”

“That, that was when I was placed here. Dead, mind you, but wholly intact.” Reina smiled. “That was the day our war ended.”

“Your, war?” Irith said. “Before Ostios was attacked, there hadn’t been anything close to a war going on here for over a hundred years.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure if I can tell you much more, but I’ll try.” Reina looked skywards. “The Gods War. A challenge set by the last of the old gods to their replacements, and that was the moment it concluded.” She laughed, this time is was much colder. “Of course, it really was an event outside of your convention of time.”

“Wait. You’re not saying…” Mat said.

“Yeah, I am.” Reina stepped out of the stone coffin. “I am a god. I always have been.” She smiled. “There were hundreds of us. Thousands even. All fighting for one of the one hundred and seven pieces of divine essence that were scattered across the material plane.”

“You, really?” Varian said.

“Shut up!” Seena whispered to him, hitting him softly on the back of the head.

“Of course, some of us wanted more power, to become something much worse.” Reina looked Mat straight in the eye. “He, was one of them. The man who absorbed me, and the piece of essence that I had been given.”

She coughed.

“So was your beloved teacher, Sami. She, with the aid of a few mortal souls, rescued us, and shared the essence between us.”

“F-Furoe?”

“Furia, to be precise, but many of us have kept the names we took here.” Reina looked at Sami with sadness in her eyes. “When we landed here, we knew most of nothing. We found out what we could. Hence the book.”

“Did you all-”

“No, just the Goddess of the Wilds there.” Reina’s laugh returned. “Or the hunt, or whatever it was.”

“So, uhh, what are you the goddess of, then?” Mat asked.

“Me?” She laughed again. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m the Goddess of Rebirth”

The group mostly looked at her bewildered, although Irith wasn’t surprised much at all.

“Come on. The phoenix? The flames? The fact I came back from death?”

“Uhh, well, err.” Mat stammered.

Reina embraced him firmly. “Mai haif, busa. Sisa ios, ne?”

Mat waited for a moment, before replying. “Perhaps, but you can’t come, can you?”

“Maiia.” She said, looking into his eyes, sorrowfully. “Sisa, azia busa ios, dina.”

She gave him a sisterly kiss on the forehead. “Don’t forget, okay?” She said.

“Never, not for the rest of my life.” Mat swore.

“And longer, I would hope.” Reina said.

“I’ll see you again, right?”

“I’d like that, but it wont be for a while. Just, be careful. I don’t want to see you too soon, if you catch my drift.”

“Sure.” Mat started to walk away, to join the others at the wagon. “One more thing. We’re kinda… lost.”

“Just follow the road, you’ll be fine.” She said.

“I, I hope you’re right.” He jumped onto the rear of the wagon, as it slowly made it’s way past him. “Goodbye, sister.”

Reina shook her head. “No goodbyes, that would imply that I might not see you again.”

“Fine.” Mat nodded, and he ducked into the wagon, looking forwards, to whatever came next.

She watched them leave the clearing, and wind their way into the woods.

“That, looked difficult.” A voice said in her head.

“More difficult that I let myself realize.” Reina kicked at the leaves that had started to amass at her feet. “I mean, I’m happy to be alive, but part of me, is very sad, also.”

“I think we’re all that way, but we have always had a duty, just like our parents, and those before them.”

“I, I guess you are right.”

Reina stepped outside the clearing, and found herself back in her domain. Sighing, she got back to work, part of her already wondering what was going to happen next.

However, through my many runs this year (like 10, but w/e) I have noticed that most players are either really bad in general, or are just dumb. (Not that I needed a event boss to figure that out, it’s just more exceptional here.)

With this in mind, I bring you…

TwilliK’s Rad Guide to Lord Ahune.

Now, the fight itself is not too hard. Phase 1, gather adds, kill adds (burning the initial big bad add that spawns at the beginning of the phase). Phase 2, burn CDs on the Frozen Core. Repeat if your DPS is too low.

However, there are some really dumb mistakes that I’ve seen people making, and have felt the need to correct, in fancy bullet point form.

• The Tank needs to be at the front, and needs to stand still for fuck’s sake.

Now, I know you’re all thinking that this is elementary, but I’ve only seen two tanks do this, the others are all running around the place like idiots trying to get all the mobs that have peeled off of them. I know that you think it’s important, but it’s really hard to AoE things when the whole pack is moving. Most DPS will stop to kill mobs that have peeled off to eat their (or the healer’s) face, just sayin.

• Every mob in the fight is immune to frost damage.

You know what that means, Fail Mages (as I have seen about 6 other mages do this)? Blizzard doesn’t work. AT ALL. This is a big issue, because it means we have to use Arcane Explosion (mana eater) or Flamestrike (which is a terrible AoE, but is alright here, if point one is conformed to). This also affects Frost DKs, as Frost Fever doesn’t affect them, which has led to many lols and wtfs among our zombie bros. (Just to make this perfectly clear DO NOT CAST BLIZZARD. Thank you)

• When you can attack the Frozen Core, stop whatever you are doing, pop CDs and kill it quickly.

This is the thing that will change the fight from a 5 minute kinda annoying thing into a 3 minute dream. The Frozen Core has about 500k Health, and is attackable for about 30 seconds (maybe? I don’t know, it’s not very long). Try and deal 5k-ish DPS over that 30 second period and he’ll go down without having to wait another 60 seconds or so for another go.

Anyway. That was all rather obvious tips, but the number of dumbasses I’ve been grouped with made me need to vent about it. Stay classy peoples. Twill, out.

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.

If you wish to critique it, I’m more interested in the general ‘feel’ of the piece, instead of the specifics of spelling and grammar. I’m especially interested in opinions on the overview of the Atlant Campaign, as it is probably the most involved part of the whole thing. Probably needs a bit more talk about the world itself, is my only opinion (that I’m going to share).

Introduction to Dreams of Atlant.

This book contains a collection of short-ish stories, focused on various characters. Each one is completely self contained, but the stories are presented in the order that I believe makes them read the easiest for readers not familiar with the world of Atlant, or the various characters that comprise the stories in this volume.

As you might of guessed by the book’s title, Dreams of Atlant, the stories presented within this book are not explicitly canonical, and focus on the characters and how they perceive the world around them, and the people in it. To aid in the comprehension of each story, a short piece on the perceiving character introduces each story, introducing the basic facts about the character, and more importantly, how they live in the ‘real’ world.

The remainder of this introduction is a piece on the history of Atlant, both from a real world point of view, and information on the setting itself.

Atlant was originally conceived early in 2004, as the setting for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that was going to (originally) be run over 2005. To get a ‘feel’ for the world, I started to write a story, the enigmatic Tales of (or as it is occasionally known, A Tale of) Atlant that was primary used as a vehicle for exploring the world, and more importantly (to me) the cities and cultures of a fairly vast area for the PCs to explore.

It was heavily inspired by a number of different fictional sources, but largely by the worlds of Anime/Manga, and to a lesser degree, Japanese Mythology as a whole (but only vaguely, there are more Nordic/Greek/Roman influences than obvious Classical Japanese ones). More importantly were the influences of various Videogames, especially the “old school” RPGs, such as Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, the Gold Box series, and the Japanese RPGs, especially FFs 6, 7, 8 & 11.

The most unexpected influence, that vastly shaped the world in a serious way, was a fair number of assorted High School anime that I watched. These were probably a driving force behind the evolution of the ‘Academy City’ at Abilene, which is undoubtedly the most fleshed out location in the whole setting. Originally a school created by one of the greatest Magi ever to live, eventually it grew a city and town around it, and had become the place for young Nobles (and the vast number of less privileged students) to learn various combat techniques, strategy, and magic.

Fast forward two years, and 200 – 300 pages, later, we finally get around to starting the Atlant campaign – we never really get a chance to finish it, but after figuring out that we’d never finish it, I write a canon ending to it, which I’m unsure if I ever shared (before now). In this, the PCs are students at the impractically big (from a logical point of view, but it had already become ingrained as an integral part of the setting by then) Academy of Abilene. They partake in a number of apparently simple adventures early on in their careers, but stumble upon a map to a secret temple where they accidentally get caught up in a war between the gods. (I never said it was groundbreaking story wise)

They find out, that to save the world from the God of Chaos from becoming all powerful and doing random (but evil) things to every mortal being, they have to travel to the Isle of the Gods, and stop him from completing the ritual that will allow him to absorb the power of the other gods.

So they make their way there, fighting a ton of dudes, and then fight a ton more dudes getting to the top of the world (it was the top of an insanely high mesa, that was the tallest point on the planet) where they confronted him and eventually defeated him, but at a ‘terrible cost’. To be able to defeat him properly, they needed to complete the ritual, and destroy him before the divine essence finished collecting itself, and he became impossibly strong.

The story that inspired this (which has been heavily modified, and is here as Sami’s story) was set immediately after this encounter, in another instance of the world. Once I had written that story, I was inspired to write the remainder of the stories in the collection, each one focusing upon how a character perceives themselves and the world around them.

Now. I’m a gamer. Obviously. Like many of you, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft for a long, to very long, time (longer than I’ve played any other game with the possible execption of Diablo 2, and possibly the first Disc of FF7 (not on purpose, that second one)), and as I mature as a gamer, and look back at what I want from a game, I still find Warcraft worthy of playing – and I’m sure I’ll still play it for as long as it is around. However, I feel that the game is… drifting away, from where I really enjoyed it, and for now (this post) I’m going to focus on one simple, succinct point.

The world (of Warcraft) is getting smaller.

I know this is not technically true, but with the release of Cataclysm sometime this year (I’m guessing before Blizzcon, myself, but I could be wrong (really hope not)) the world will shrink enormously. Now I know what you’re thinking. “But TwilliK! You’re stupid, they’re adding more zones and stuff!” But let me ask you, once you get the chance to fly around Azeroth, not just Northrend, the world will shrink down tiny small.

Remember when you got your 60% flyer at level 70? (If you got a 150% flyer at 60 for your first, then this whole post might be lost on you, missing out on the mount/world curve the way you did) Even though you were going slower, because you could fly over gigantic cracks in the ground, mobs, the Fel Reaver, and anything else, you got wherever you were going faster than if you were on your epic ground mount.

Now imagine that in Old World. Wanna go from Orgrimmar to Winterspring? No 5 minute taxi or 30 minute mount ride (plus the five minutes running through the furblog cave) just hop in your flyer, press the space bar for 30-60 seconds, and fly north. You’ll be there bloody quick I bet. Remember those old horrible non optimised flight paths? They did one good thing. They made you appreciate the scope of the world that Blizzard had built.

Anyway, that’s some food for thought. Also, please don’t say “why don’t you just not fly anywhere?” because I know that to be able to go anywhere worth going, I’ll need to be able to fly.

- Draw more often. Like start a web comic and post 3 times a week or something.

- Pay more attention to this blog. Like what I am doing right now – will most likely lead to diversification of the content on this blog (slightly less WoW, more misc videogames, will try (and fail) to keep RL stuff to Twitter).

- Lose some weight. (What, I need something ‘normal’ in there, right?)

Okay, so, chances are, that with some (major) tinkering, Arcane Envoy will soon be a bit more lively.  I might even try and do a podcast for new years (By the 7th) where a bunch of us talk about games for ages and ages (by us, I mean RL mates, as well as any awesome tweeps that are willing to join in (most likely over Skype).

Anyway, that was the sort of short, sweet, post that I’d like to get into producing fairly often.

Hopefully I’ll be back soon, with a podcast.

Via Triv of Raid Naked.

How about a shared topic on RPG Nostalgia? Something along of the lines of your first love in the rpg universe, possibly even mmorpg universe.
For me it harkens back to the days when I first discovered MUD’s. I could actually play a game and interact with other people outside of my own home. It was amazing to me and so varied. MUD’s were the dreamchildren of individuals, and since they are individuals each MUD had it’s own flavor.
I would also add my initial rpg experiences such as Nethack or even console based games like Phantasy Star 3.. (awesome game). I would love to hear how other people fell in love with the genre. I think it would be a great topic to share because it expresses our individuality as well as our community in gaming. (we are all different but the same)
What do you think?

Okay, as a LONG time gamer, I’ve gotta go back a suitably long-ish time to find the first love of my RPG affair. It was probably one of the SNES Final Fantasy games.  Let’s say FF6. I know for a fact that I LOVED that game. No joke. I played it (in an emulator, how daring and pirate like) non stop for two to three weeks over the summer (christmas) holidays one year. Now, chances are that I’m looking back at it with rather rose tinted glasses, but it was a good example of an amazing JRPG.

Not too long after that, (years, that is) there was a game, that while I’d be hard pressed to call a proper RPG as we understand WoW, or FF, or DnD, was a masterpiece. It was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. OH MY GOD. It was beautiful. Music, graphics, gameplay, it was magical. This sparked a love affair with the Zelda series, and to date, I’ve 100% ed most of the games in the series. (The main ones, so, 1, 2, GB/GBC, SNES, Oracle games, OoT, Wind Waker, Majora’s Mask (I know it’s not a main one, but /shrug), OoT: Master Quest, Minish Cap, and one of the other ones, who’s name escapes my recollection.) In fact, I’m playing the SNES one (on GBA) and Link’s Awaking again at the moment. (Mainly because Link’s Awaking is hard as nails. Like soloing any content from 62+ on a squishy, not well geared mage hard, plus some more)

Then, the next game that really stands out for me was NEVERWINTER NIGHTS. This game was so, so, so awesome. It was my first Bioware game that made me go “WOW!” (because I never had a chance to play any of their older games) and despite the relative badness of the story campaign, the infinite number of AWESOME modules that had been created by members of the community made this one of my favorite games for a very, very long time. Then there were the two x-pacs, which had GREAT main adventures, and expanded the ruleset, adding in prestige classes and epic levels, making the game EPIC FUN. (Ho ho!) I must of spent about 4 years with that as my primary game on the PC.

Other games, that I can’t place on a timeline so much include, the time I played EQ1 at my aunt/uncle’s place, and was entranced by the vastness of it all (then I got killed by some crazy hard mob half a zone over), the first time I played Diablo (once again at their place), which (although mainly these are D2′s hardcore mode’s fault) has been the downfall of several mice.

Anyway, when it comes to the best RPGs of the various generations, we’ll have to go with the following.

SNES: Chrono Trigger – A masterpiece. If you haven’t played it, or gotten all the endings (and there’s tons of them, some radically different, too.) get the DS version. NOW.

GB/GBC: Pokemon Silver. Loved this game, too.

N64: Ooh, tough one. I’ll say Zelda, but I’m forgetting something else.

Gamecube: TALES OF MUTHAFUCKING SYPMHONIA. SO GOOD. One of the best RPGs, with a great story (there’s a great twist near the ‘end’ although, it doesn’t take much thought to see that it’s not the end for real) good length (40+ hrs, that’s focusing on the main quest), and fancy graphics. Loved it so much.

DS: Chrono Trigger. LOL JK. Actually, there are quite a few decent DS RPGs, but it’s hard to give a solid winner, when the best are all remakes of old SquareEnix games. I mean, really, look at the number of FF, DQ, and Crono Trigger remakes on there (like 6?).

PC: This is a hard one. Nethack, is awesome, and crazy crazy crazy tough. NWN is crazy good. More recently, other games have done allright. But the best is Diablo 2. Still racked up more hours on one character in that than I have with all my WoW toons combined. (Well, that’s a lie, D2 toon is at ~20 days though, so /shrug, WoW main is at well over 31, at last check (July-ish?))

Allright, I can’t be bothered writing any more. It’s still a good 500+ words for my portion, probably around 700+, in fact. Also, TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY?!!?!?! WOAH!!!

I’m a year 12 student, who lives in Austrailia. I am also a dude. I play generally female Belfs. Why? I guess it started when I started playing and everyone I knew was all “Come play hordeside on my server!” and I was all like “But I wanna play a pretty character!” and they were like “Look, blood elves.” and I was all like “DO WANT.”
So, I rolled my main to this day, a Belf Mage. I managed to level from 1 to 70, and then from 70 to 80, without paying for a respec, rolling a 11 point fire and then mainly arcane style spec.

This blog will largely be focused upon my stable of alts, from my Rogue, to my Pally, to my DK, to any other toon I decide to level past 20. There’ll be a large RP congingant, as despite not rolling on an RP server, I like to RP.
That being said, I’m mainly interested in seeing if I can complete the ’60 day challenge’. Expect a decent post once a week, and possibly a couple of smaller, more tweet-y posts.