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March 28, 2006
What is, once was, and always will be
The new weather system in World of Warcraft works great. All of Azeroth is a whiteout. Must be some sort of Blizzard.
All kidding aside, the new priest talents look pretty nice. I respec'd my priest to 21-21-9. Holy to Spirit of Redemption, Shadow to Silence, and Disc for fear/stun/silence resist and some threat reduction. We'll see how that PvE's out (which is why I rolled my Priest). I'm also fairly sure that lightwell is garbage.
The increased faction gain for Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin intrigues me. I'll post about it as soon as I have the numbers. I'll see you all back in Azeroth as soon as this weather clears up.
Posted by mrh176 at 09:39 PM
March 26, 2006
Planning for the 30-39 Bracket: Mage
I know the title looks like I'm doing another series, but I'm not committing to that. This follows the progression of my BG Twink Mage, Firaxii into the World of Warcraft Battleground system for the 30-39 bracket. I'll be moving her in as soon as she reaches Honoured with the Silverwing Sentinels. Currently, I'm at 4700/6000, so hopefully I'll make it before the holiday weekend is over.
It's always a good idea to plan out your gear for the BG bracket you're going to move into. This move isn't just prompted by me salivating over the gear I'm soon to be able to use, but also driven by the fact that some of my friends have made the 30-39 plunge. Anyway, here goes!
- Head: Electromagnetic Gigaflux Reactivator then Whitemane's Chapeau
- Chest: Robes of Power with a +100 health enchant.
- Waist: Deathmage Sash
- Pants: Stoneweaver Leggings
The rings, necklace, and cloak will all be PvP rewards, the shoulders will be the ones I have now. All I'll have to do is round it out with enchants. I will continue to be a beat machine! I look forward to the competition.
Posted by mrh176 at 07:44 PM
March 20, 2006
Beware the Ides of March
Well, fun's over, and I'm getting back into the grove of work. I'm facing a few hundred unread emails, just imagine if I didn't try to keep up with it.
Today's post is about setting up a Warsong Gulch team on the Alliance Side. I imagine that many non-pvp servers have a very similar population imbalance issue (more Alliance than Horde). When it comes to PvP, that creates challenges for the up-and-coming team. These are the following things that our team is having to over come.
1) One hour+ wait times make it difficult for us to get a feel of the tactics of players on our team. To further make this difficult, our "team" officially only runs on Fridays. During the week I play my alt rogue (getting to 60!), and my BG Twink Mage (lvl 29). Many other team members have other commitments, some are hard-core, 100% of the time, PvP'rs. Our time together as a team is limited. Our time together in smaller groups, joining PuGs is more plentiful, but that doesn't help us as much as it could.
2) Horde Teams are really good. Why? Because they get a heck of a lot more time in the Battlegrounds together. So they get better, faster, and roll Alliance PUGS faster and faster. However, when there's 80+ Alliance waiting, and only two matches of warsong going (one Horde PUG, one Horde Team). The chances of drawing the horde PuG are very slim. The Horde PuG's matches last an hour or more (stalemate against an Alliance PuG). The Horde Team rolls a PUG in 10 min or less. This means, we face the phat, well practiced, well strategized, well planned horde team after our one and a half hour queue time. I don't mind playing them. In fact, it's good for us, as we can pick up some cues from their play style. However, we'll never get a handle on our own play style if we get rolled by them in 20 minutes once every two hours (queue time plus game time).
3) Finally, this one isn't based on population... Lack of a Voicecom server. If we ran ever single night, this might be easier to co-ordinate with the team. I would argue, it's one of the critical things to have, as a team, in 60's BG's. I almost wish Blizzard had it built into the game, for use in Raid Groups only. But then I'd think of the extra lag... :D
So, if you're setting up a team, three things to remember.
1) Try to figure out as many times as possible that the bulk of the team can meet.
2) Try to schedule play time during more prime time hours, to increase the likely hood of facing a Horde PuG.
3) Get yourself Teamspeak, Ventrillo, or any voice communication software.
Posted by mrh176 at 08:22 AM
March 14, 2006
Is there anybody out there?
I'm on vacation from work at the moment, which means, my daily routine of get-to-work-and-post-on-blog-before-starting-my-day has been interrupted. (Award for longest hyphenated word goes to...)
Anyway, I'll be back to work on Monday, the whatever day that is of March. :D
I'll try and get a meaningful post in before then, but it'll come at the expense of ice fishing, or tobogganing, or other real life activities. I also have to get myself an epic car, and perhaps some bubble weapons.
Have a good one!
Posted by mrh176 at 10:51 AM
March 07, 2006
Becoming a Highly Effective WoW Player: The Series
Being that my "Highly Effective World of Warcraft Player" series has garnered a fair amount of hits these last few days, I thought I'd make it easier for the peoples to read.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Enjoy!
Posted by mrh176 at 08:22 AM
March 06, 2006
Chuck Norris
The man is all the rage in the on-line gaming community.
But here is the icing on the cake.
Posted by mrh176 at 08:38 AM
March 03, 2006
Building Character
Kind of a vague Calvin and Hobbes reference for a title today. I should've googled something better. That'll learn me. (Nevermind the grammar)
Today I want to talk about two things in Warsong Gulch. Tactics for Dwarf Priests, and Mages.
- Dwarf Priests: Fear Ward is for winning games. I like winning games, everyone likes winning games, fear ward makes you win games. Cast Fear Ward on everyone. When there's a Dwarf priest in a match, you can deny the enemy horde a powerful CC (crowd control) mechanism. Use it, and use it lots. Get CTRaid and track who has it. For those of you playing against fear warded targets, disenchant and purge are your friends!
- Mages: Some Mages (myself included) don't know how to properly time the following spells; Polymorph, Rank 1 Frost Bolt, Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, and Blink. These are the most important spells in a mages repertoire during a Warsong Gulch match. Some tips
- Don't Polymorph DoT'd targets
- Don't Polymorph Druids
- Don't Blink near building exits. It doesn't work.
- Don't blink right after grabbing the flag, unless you're rooted. Save it for when you're rooted
- Cone of Cold is an instant that does good damage, use it.
- If Frost Nova doesn't root someone, Cone of Cold is out of range, use frost bolt rank 1
- Polymorph the healer
That's all on the Warsong Gulch front today. I might get in some Arathi Basin this weekend too, that'll be different. I might shake things up with some old school PvE action too!
Also, special thanks to all you readers, again, for making this, by far, the most popular blog offered on blogs.usask.ca! If you keep reading, I'll keep writing!
Posted by mrh176 at 08:42 AM
Movie Potpourri
Some old school geekin' Summoner Geeks
Some new school geekin' World of Offline
Posted by mrh176 at 08:40 AM
March 02, 2006
Potpourri
Not much of an entry today. Our Warsong Gulch opponents stop queueing after they lose a match, so I only get in one a night :(
Posted by mrh176 at 10:47 AM