January 7th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
This is a short little RP piece I wrote in about 10 minutes. It’s not what I originally had intended to write, but it’s okay.
The elf leaned on the door-frame a stern look on his face. The man they called “Twill”, named for a type of cloth he wore as an armband in his adventuring days, was tired, and tired of waiting. The human was late, a strange occurrence when you lived in Dalaran, which felt like the middle of the world, most of the time.
“Excuse me.” A woman said, as she stepped out from the bustling crowd, and stood in front of him. The elf’s eyes drifted to a pin on the woman’s mantle, in the shape of a small T shape, which he assumed was supposed to be a hammer.
“Are you her ladyship’s courier?” He asked, looking over her closely.
“Ye-yes.” There was a slight stutter in her voice.
“Hmm. Well, I’ve got her deck here.” The elf’s eyes narrowed, as he passed the eight cards wrapped in simple brown paper to the woman. “Run along then.”
The woman jumped back a foot when he slammed the door behind him. Hustling up the stairs to his studio, he made his way out to his window overlooking the Eventide.
As always, the courtyard was packed with adventurers. He was lucky, when he was younger he had lucked onto a big pile of treasure in the dungeons of Azeroth, allowing him to retire early, and set up shop as a scribe, and keeping him away from the dangers of Northrend.
Maechall sighed, and grabbed another Darkmoon Special Reserve. It was going to be another long night, in the city that never slept.
Posted in: Roleplay
Tags: Dalaran, Maechall, RP
January 7th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
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).
Posted in: Uncategorized
January 5th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
Now, with that infallible assumption about the size of the world under our belts, I’m going to start on the next argument.
Before I begin, though, I feel the need to state that I enjoy the zones, and their flow, and everything else, and I’m not ‘hating’. I’m simply stating what I feel would be a better direction.
I would like bigger zones. In fact, not even that. I would enjoy having either bigger zones, with more more ‘padding’ OR a larger amount of zones that serve no purpose in the world apart from looking nice (and having rare fishing nodes or something) possibly with some mooks to grind on, but they’d be lower level than the surrounding zone, yellow (not aggressive) and generally leaning towards simple beasts.
These zones would reward exploration. Each one might have a dozen quests, all very simple, often nothing more than courier quests, designed to be a (very slight) reward for visiting them. Here’s an generic example. This is set in a large forested area, like a mix of Elwynn and Grizzily Hills, with occasional houses and stuff. Near one of the trees (spawning at random – spread over a big enough area to make it stupid to farm) you find a book or a letter or something. And then you deliver it. Simple. You might get a few gold too. Who knows.
They would exist entirely for people like me, who have explorer because of a need to know what was on that map before there was an Achievement to clear it all and people with Salty. Because they are fucking crazy, and I wish I was one of them.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: Design, Game Theory, Gaming, World of Warcraft, WoW
January 4th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
This post might be annoyingly long. Chances are that it’s really more of a metapost that needs to be explored over a very large amount of time. Who knows. For now, I’m just going to say that it will have more than a single part. You have been warned.
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.
Posted in: Rants
Tags: Design, Game Theory, Gaming, World of Warcraft, WoW
January 4th, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
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.
Posted in: Uncategorized
January 2nd, 2010 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
Now, this post has a great name, because with such an ambiguious name, I can talk about almost anything, of course, I’m not that imaginative, so this will be about my recent thoughts while leveling the most fantastic of professions, Enchanting, from ~250 to 350 over the last two days.
Point One : Leveling Enchanting When Capped is a Pain in the Ass. (or LEWCPA, if you like acronyms)
Especially if you are a clothie, and can hardly solo Coilfang normals for mats, at least.
However, it did give me one great method to get all the crap I need. Loremaster. Chances are, that you have quests from Outlands (and near definitely from old world, but you can solo 60 instances easy anyway) to do, as documented in the Quests-Outlands tab of the Achievement frame. So, pick a zone (I started with Hellfire, as it was the lowest, and I felt like it’d be fun-ish) and look for quests. You’ll get tons of cash (or a bit, whatever) and enough greens to sate your needs (pick weapons wherever possible though, as they are rarer (as you will get green drops as well), unless you specifically need dusts) unless you need lots.
Protip! If you make an account with WoWhead, you can be a sneaky unit and use their new features to see what quests are left in the zone for you to do, by using their client and uploading data. I personally didn’t need it for the Outland or Northrend zones, but think it might come in handy if I decide to get Loremaster on Selite some time. There are also several addons that will mark questgivers on your map for the quests that you have not yet completed (I’m fairly certain Questhelper will do this, and Carbonite probably will too).
Point Two : Even Then Enchanting Still Costs a Billion Gold. (ETESCBG)
This mainly the point that states why I’ve stopped at 350 (Heroic Greens and Blues DEible) instead of 375 (80 epics DEible) to get much further past 350, you need a certain rod, in this case it is the wondrous [Runed Adamantite Rod] or, to be precise, the hellishly annoying to get mats, otherwise known as [Primal Annoyance (Might)] – now, I know this seems slightly stupid, but you’d be surprised how hard it is to find an alchemist who is willing to transmute you one of those around New Years (perhaps that is the problem).
Protip! Be a Blood Elf, they get a bonus to Enchanting, so they can use lower level enchants to level their enchanting higher! (Also we are sexy, what more could you want?)
Now, to solve the mystery of why this post is called what it is, for the 3 people who will read this thinking it is something to do with some speech a guy made in the past (not that they would read to here). This is called what it is (obviously to anyone who has done a heroic since 3.3) because of the frankly scary number of [Dream Shard]s that you get running Heroics non stop.
Posted in: Project Loremaster, Selite
Tags: Enchanting, Mage, Selite, WoW
December 29th, 2009 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
Now, let’s be honest – I’m not the world’s best blogger. I post once or twice, and BAM! No posts for weeks/months. (I also tend to use terrible English fairly often) But, (see) this is hopefully about to change. Here is the list of new years resolutions (or should that be new decade’s resolutions?).
- 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.
Posted in: Rants
December 27th, 2009 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
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.
Posted in: Uncategorized
November 15th, 2009 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
So, to kick off this (hopefully) epic post, I guess I’ll quote the prompt. (If you aren’t familiar with my post style, things in pink/purple coloured brackets are from the mouth of my wonderful mage, who feels the need to interject every so often. (Shut up.))
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!!!
Posted in: Rants
Tags: Consoles, Gaming, Shared Topic, Swears
November 14th, 2009 / No Comments » / by TwilliK
Yeah, there’s a DPS Meme going around at the moment, so I thought I’d give it a shot.
Got it from Some Crazy DK lady who made this meme up or something. I don’t know.
WARNING. There’s a lot of snark here, but it’s all meant in the name of fun. If you are offended by swearing, caps, or me slagging off your class, then don’t read it.
What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?
Selite, ARCANE MAGE! Bringer of portals to Stonard and level 70 tables.
What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
I am a solowhore. (Which is really bad for a Mage, ne?) I’ll do 5 mans, occasionally, and I’ve been known to switch to fire and go LBing in AV, or playing any BG that isn’t Arathi ‘Hellhole’ Basin.
What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?
Frostbolt? I’ve used that less than 20 times EVER. I think. Out of spells that I might actually use, on occasion, it’s Pyroblast or Arcane Bearage (Barrage). Both are talent-obtained in my solo spec, neither gets used much.
What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?
Our fantastic ability to not die in fires as much as you’d expect. When you can only take one tic of damage before dying, you get fairly good at not failing at the Safety Dance (lies) or at Thaddius (So good at Thad.).
What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?
The fact that we are not glass cannons, we’re glass ‘the same as everyone else, kinda’. If a mob even looks at us, we tend to be half dead. So, to put it better, we can’t do shit solo (because we DIE) and we deal okay (= lower than some hybrids = ANGER) DPS.
In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?
Single target damage, PEW PEW PEW ON THE BOSS LADYMAN.
What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?
None. Preferable ones are ones that don’t need gear (because I never have anything drop EVER for me T_T) and if they post recount stats, they get /ignored ’till I remember to take them off.
What tanking class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?
No preference. I am not so keen on DKs, as they can do everything and are SUPER OP TO THE FUCKING MAX. So DKs. Hate those fuckers, from a mechanical standpoint.
What is your worst habit as a dps?
That I hate everyone else in the raid for some reason or another, chances are, and I’m expected to fucking cater for them and port them out (or get kicked after the first boss in VoA for no reason whatsoever. Isn’t it funny that the fail DPS are always the leaders?)
What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?
DPS that do more DPS than me, and spam recount in 5mans. NOBODY GIVES A SHIT. NO ONE. (that cares. You’re doing the best DPS, mr feral rogue? Get fucked, me and my hunter mates will be over here, crying.)
Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?
Yeah, we’re the ‘baseline’ that they’re balancing everyone else to. Don’t believe me? We haven’t had a significant change (in number or severity) since pre 3.0.
What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a damage dealer?
Did the boss die? Yes? Carry on then. No? Get kicked, sulk.
What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?
That I would be happy to be their fucking meals on wheels taxi vending machine. GET FUCKED, YOU SHOULD OF ROLLED A SHIT CLASS IN BC TO GET THE PRIVILEGE OF PORTING TO PLACES THAT ARE USEFUL. Ofc, with a tip, sure, I can take you where you want.
What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?
There’s something hard about pressing two different buttons? If they leveled a mage (not a fage, or a fail mage, or frost mage, whatever you prefer, they might need to learn to be good, who knows) they should know how easy we die.
What dps class do you feel you understand least?
… I have no idea. Warlocks, despite not understanding why, I understand how. Rogues, I dislike playing, but I understand. Hunters have guns, they shoot them. I’m fairly certain that that is all the DPS classes that would be DPSing in any of my raids. 
What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?
I use a fuck ton of addons, but none are ‘dps’ enhancers. SBF, I guess, I have it give me easy to see bars for my procs/AB debuff.
Strength over other stats or balanced stat allocation, and why? Spellpower. Sure, haste is okay (but lame) and crit is fun (but for FIRE). There’s a reason we only gem +23 or whatever it was SP apart from setting up our meta gem or getting hit.
Posted in: Selite
Tags: Mage, Selite, WoW
