Category Archives: Uncategorized

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.

Now, 3.3 has been out for a few weeks now, and I feel like I have had enough exposure to the Dungeon Finder tool to write a post about it. (To be honest, it was prompted by a post by Saresa, at Destructive Reach, http://www.destructivereach.com/2010/01/rants-you-know-you-have-missed-them/ )

Now I’m going to largely agree with Saresa, and also with Matticus ( http://www.worldofmatticus.com/2009/12/22/i-can-carry-you/ – with the exception of the part about Oculus at the bottom ) I don’t care about your gear, as long as you :-

• Push out as much DPS as you can (without standing in voidzones and such) – as long as you’re near 1k, I don’t mind carrying your share of the damage.
• If you’re the tank, you need to be able to hold aggro (at least on a single target, if I die AoEing, then I’ll stop).
• If you’re the healer, you need to keep the tank alive (and heal any non-avoidable damage to the group, like what 90% of the trash in Forge of Souls deal).

Now I’d like to think that I’m not asking much. It kinda makes me sad, because as a DPSer, I can carry the groups DPS requirements (as long as the two others are dealing about 1k, we’ll be fine) but I can’t be a bit more useful (like if I was a healer and could just carry the group by healing through everything).

Of course, not everyone has such a pleasant attitude. Sometimes (and this seems to be (to me) a bigger problem with the tanks and healers, who often act more important with there instant queues) you get a selfish arrogant player who treats the other players like shit. These are usually the ones who are obviously only doing these for their two bonus badges per day, and are decked out in full ToC and ICC gear, and who will be pulling 3-5k DPS, and calling anyone below 2.5k ‘shit’ and ‘scrub’ and ‘fail’ DPS. Worst (but when you get a nice one they are the best thing ever) are the tanks that deal 2k + DPS and call all the DPS crap (even when you are outdpsing them) and who pull whole rooms and yell at the healer when he (the tank) dips below half health.

Of course, this is coming from about 3 or 4 bad experiences I’ve had with the system, and in general, the groups have either fallen into the wonderfully efficient “silent but deadly” groups, where the most communication that happens is that occasionally a mob or two is marked, and the “Thanks for the group” at the end, or the “chillaxed” group, who are cracking jokes, and having a good time (usually I get chill groups in Culling of Stratholme, but sometimes I get them elsewhere), but tend to be a little less efficient, although this is because they let the healer drink after every couple of chain pulls.

The only other thing I have to mention is the tendency of people to bail out of Oculus the moment they get in.  Give it 15 minutes. Please. You should be able to clear the place out (or at least get to the final boss) by then, and now you get 2 bonus Heroic badges, and a chance at a sweet mount (sure, it’s a bribe, but some of us want to do it anyway).

Yeah, this super quick picture post brought to you via my gag reflex.

I look like an Australian athlete, it’s horrible.

Anyway, for explanation’s sake, let’s just say that I’m probably not exactly a patriot because I think Australia is not the best place on earth (in fact, I can say that it is the worst place I’ve ever been to that I can remember), and I hate all of our national sports, and green + gold === bleargh.

Yeah, well, I was thinking, as it is approaching the end of this wonderful, magnificent decade (if you ignore popular music) that it is only appropriate that I make some sort of last ditch effort to get some more content. I’m actually competing with Bind on Equip for the no-content prize (not really).

So, I’m (slightly) proud to present… THE FIRST ANNUAL LIST OF STUFF (Noughties Edition) THAT IS EXCEPTIONAL IN SOME WAY.

1. World of Warcraft

Yeah, WoW. It’s (obviously) big in this list. This decade has given us an (annoyingly) long saga, about Arthas. He was the star of Warcraft 3 (2002) which set the stage for what World of Warcraft has been building towards for the last five years. I’m looking forward to Cat, and new storylines. (Because, to be frank, the two expansions are terribly boring from a plot point of view – at least in relation to the raid bosses – only the sidestories are remotely interesting.)

2. The Sims

This decade, however much we’d like to say that WoW is the defining game of the generation, has been defined by a simple series called The Sims. The first game, was released early in 2000, and has been followed by sixteen expansion packs, as well as two sequels (named, unimaginatively, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3) and has sold roughly enough copies to make sure that EA will never, ever, go out of business.

Of course, there are two types of Sims players. One, the ones who play the game ‘how it’s meant to be played’, and two, the ones who torture their people, ’till they die. (Usually by starvation, fire, or drowning) I use it to play out my dreams of being an architect or civic planner.

3. Anime & Manga

Now, to be fair, not only is this more than one thing, they’ve been around much longer than ten years. But, with the modern, TV, generation, it, like all TV things, is getting bigger and better (also in HD). Also, to be fair, older Anime feels… dull, after some of the modern stuff (although it could just be my taste in storylines changing). Now, this is going to get it’s own super mini list, as I really don’t think you need to have the rest of the list be full of shows that you might have no interest in (like that would stop me though).

So. 3-A Code Geass (including R2) – It’s majestic. Also, who doesn’t love robots? 3-B Lucky Star // Haruhi – These are similar enough (mainly in the Anime adaptations) to not warrant two entries. But they’re both great. Watch them, then lol all the way home. 3-C Azumanga Diaoh – This 4-koma manga (and it’s Anime) are wonderful. It’s like high school, only more fun. 3-D The rest! Hey, it’s all good!

(I for one, don’t understand his obsession, but I guess it’s as good as any other way to unwind after a long day’s work)

4.  War

Hey, it sucks, but it sucks exceptionally.

5. The Star Wars Prequals (aka Return of the Cash Cow)

Honestly, I don’t dislike them, that much, but they did bring back excuses to watch the original films. THEREFORE THEY ARE FANTASTIC!

Last. THE INTERNETS

I love it all. Twitter, especially (considering 90% of my readers come from there for sure (not that I’m sure, just guessing/assuming most of you didn’t come from that one link on WoW.com or from TNB)) also all the fun people are there, and a vast amount of my fellow bloggers.

Okay, this is a bit out of nowhere, but I figure that it’d be good to get this on ‘paper’. Although, this will be super short and not on paper at all. As such, I’ll forget to come back and fill this out properly later on. But hey, I might remember tomorrow (unlikely) let it be said “I finished my D&D campaign with a nice, although befittingly odd, ending.” Nice way to cap off school, too.

Alright. Blizzcon was this previous weekend. Not many interesting things came out from it, apart from MONK CLASS IN DIABLO III.

Of course, I kidd. World of Warcraft : Cataclysm (LOLCAT, for short) was announced, and a large chunk of infomation was released. Sadly, alot of it was leaked before Blizzcon, ruining the surprise somewhat. A summary after the break.

Continue reading →

Flying over Mulgore.

((Okay, first things first, this post is going to be in character. Why? I don’t know, it just is. Therefore, all the text here is supposedly the voice of Selite, and will be white, instead of the light purple-ish colour I would use in her sidenotes if I have something that can’t be expressed in normal text, I’m not sure what I’ll do. Probably more brackets like this. Enjoy!))

Alright. I found out my nigh good for nothing sister was in Thunder Bluff recently, and I asked her to take the newly established Zeppelin route from Thunder Bluff to Orgrimmar and for her to take some pictures of the trip with one of her strange engineered ‘gadgets’.

The dock on the spirit rise at TB.

Here she is, on her fancy paladin horse, flying away from the Spirit Rise in Thunder Bluff. She commented on how there was not a single soul nearby apart from the ship’s crew, but I think she’s going a little crazy, as any plebeian knows that it is an airship, lord of the skies. None the less, she said it was quite entertaining.

She flew over the plains of Mulgore, throwing down the light’s blessing on whomever would take them, but she found only a few young Tauren in the entirety of her trip. Infact, she only saw a single soul on the ground along her whole trip. I for one wonder if she was looking to the sky more than the ground, as she still hasn’t experienced the feeling of being able to fly wherever she pleases.

She made her way across the Barrens, and she admitted that the trip wasn’t that scenic, to her immense disappointment. I told her that she should be happy that she doesn’t have to take a detour in Desolace, but she mentioned that she had been there in her quest for self-fulfillment. The fool.

A great view of Orgrimmar.

None the less, she managed to get a great view of the gaping big hole in Orgrimmar’s defences. I mean, really. The Alliance could just waltz in the side there, and they’d be hardly more than a skip and a jump away from Thrall himself. Good news is that the Horde are much less retarded than the Alliance, and have not allowed them to kill our warchief. (Ha, our warchief, what am I thinking, I don’t have no warchief.)

Well, that concludes her trip on the Zeppelin, but I must admit, I will be sticking to the good old teleport if I ever need to goto Thunder Bluff ever again.