February 16, 2007

Back by popular demand!

Well, I took a brief World of Warcraft break, with the arrival of my twin boys. That brings the family up to 6 strong! Yikes! Well, that's counting me and the wife, so... I guess 5 kids :D Two 3 month olds, a three year old, a five year old, and a twenty-eight year old.

I came back with all the promised glory of the Burning Crusade! I was all about rolling a seksy new Draenei character. Will I roll a shaman like everyone else? Will I be different and roll a Paladin? Well... How did I chose...

I rolled both! The goal for the Shammy was to get to two one handed axes and be a walking death machine. The goal for the Pally was to use Polearms and just be friggen cool. So, I leveled each up to lvl 26, then made the choice. The winner was.... The Pally!

Yes Yes, I may be crazy. And all the shammies out there say, "It feels like cheating." Well, with a little bit of twinkage, the pally is a fat beat machine too.

PvP

The pally is one of the most surviveable PvP classes. In Warsong Gulch, the 8% runspeed talent is amazing, as is Blessing of Freedom and the plethora of aura's. The Shammy gets Earthbind totem. frostshock, and ghost wolf. Fair tossup I'd say. In Arathi Basin, Devine Shield is outstanding for defending a flag, whilst the shammy doesn't have much in additional flag defense tools (at least, nothing anywhere near as cool as devine shield).

A pally beats the ever loving stuffing out of a Shaman in 1v1 combat (either that, or all the shammies I pummeled completely suck). Pally drops blessing of freedom often, and just chase the dude around till he's dead.

PvE

I again prefer the Pally in PvE. There are two reasons for this. One is the wicked awesome polearm attack animations. Shammies can't even use polearms *cries*. The other reason is... NOT DYING. Now, shammies are very survivable. It takes a lot to bring a shammy down. But if a shammy gets overrun by 3-6 mobs, he's dead. A pally hits a bubble and runs and lives! I've lvl'd the pally to 40 now, and he's died all of twice. Not making corpse runs sure grants a lot more useful play time. One thing the shammy has that the pally doesn't is meaningful DPS. The only thing keeping my DPS up as a pally is twink polearms. If I was using greens, I'd be dying of boredom whilst grinding.

That's it for my Pally vs Shammy discussion! Thanks to all the people who keep referencing this site and keeping it #1 on this server, even though I haven't written in 7 months!

Posted by mrh176 at 08:43 AM

July 11, 2006

Queen Pawn to A4

Well, the long awaited chess metaphor will start to come to fruition. I might do it in small chunks, as I don't think I'll have time to sit and write all this out in one sitting. The first part of the metaphor is to slot the different World of Warcraft classes into their composite chess peices.

Chess Piece WoW Class Function
Pawn Any This is your typical sacrificial lamb, any class can fit this role. Its key abilities include dieing and looking scary.
Knight Paladin
Shaman
Druid		 The knight shows extreme versatility on the Battlefield, capable of filling many battle roles and surprising your opponent.
Bishop Rogue
Hunter
Mage		 The Bishop is a piece that has a strong killing force, but is easy to take out. They are used to gain a superior battlefield position.
RookWarrior
Warlock
Shadow Priest		The Rook is a straightforward piece to move, helps setup a strong battlefield position, lasts longer on the field, and is usually utilized later in the game, instrumental to the standard win.
Queen Any The Queen does have a strong killing power. Virtually any class can fill this role in a match, this is your top killer, your most versatile player, this is the ultimate metaphor for player skill.
King Holy Discipline Priest The King has little killing power. In chess, this is the piece that must be alive to win. In World of Warcraft, it enables your pieces to function to a higher ability.

More to come!

Posted by mrh176 at 08:44 AM

July 03, 2006

A New PvP Dawn Approaches

This Chess metaphor for World of Warcraft PvP has been really interesting to build. I've been running around PvP'ing with my Priest (Holy / Disc) and it's been a real interesting adventure. Just this last Thursday night, I had a 30K Honour showing from playing from 8PM till 3AM, with an average queue wait of an hour between matches. This included 2 AV wins (one was a 20 minute match), 4 Warsong wins, and one loss, and two Arathi Basin Losses. We started with Pugs, but teamed up as the night progressed.

The Chess metaphor is very accurate, with each class falling into a specific role as pieces on a chess board do, having very similar pitfalls and attack capabilities, as pieces on a chess board do. I knew in my mind it was a valid comparison, but I didn't know how valid and important it could be.

While I could write the article right now, I'm going to hold off and get all my ducks in a row and make sure I get it right, coherent, and usable to the masses out there. Also, I need to PvP with my Shaman a bunch so I don't leave that class out (as I primarily play Alliance).

So it's coming! Sorry for the wait! And lastly, thanks for your readership! We had a shocking 230,000 hits for the month of June.

Posted by mrh176 at 01:44 PM

June 13, 2006

Check Mate

I'm working on writing an article on how to apply the strategy of chess to PvP in World of Warcraft. If you see an article in the next day (or so) on this topic that'll mean my correlation was a complete success. If you see nothing, the opposite is true. Stay tuned.

Posted by mrh176 at 03:13 PM

June 07, 2006

Grammar's House

Improper grammar is both my biggest problem and my biggest pet peeve. I drive myself insane.

(lifted from zdnet)

#1: Loose for lose
No: I always loose the product key.
Yes: I always lose the product key.

#2: It's for its (or god forbid, its')
No: Download the HTA, along with it's readme file.
Yes: Download the HTA, along with its readme file.
No: The laptop is overheating and its making that funny noise again.
Yes: The laptop is overheating and it's making that funny noise again.

#3: They're for their for there
No: The managers are in they're weekly planning meeting.
Yes: The managers are in their weekly planning meeting.
No: The techs have to check there cell phones at the door, and their not happy about it.
Yes: The techs have to check their cell phones at the door, and they're not happy about it.

#4: i.e. for e.g.
No: Use an anti-spyware program (i.e., Ad-Aware).
Yes: Use an anti-spyware program (e.g., Ad-Aware).
Note: The term i.e. means "that is"; e.g. means "for example". And a comma follows both of them.

#5: Effect for affect
No: The outage shouldn't effect any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage shouldn't affect any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage shouldn't have any effect on users.
Yes: We will effect several changes during the downtime.

Note: Impact is not a verb. Purists, at least, beg you to use affect instead:
No: The outage shouldn't impact any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage shouldn't affect any users during work hours.
Yes: The outage should have no impact on users during work hours.

#6: You're for your
No: Remember to defrag you're machine on a regular basis.
Yes: Remember to defrag your machine on a regular basis.
No: Your right about the changes.
Yes: You're right about the changes.

#7: Different than for different from
No: This setup is different than the one at the main office.
Yes: This setup is different from the one at the main office.
Yes: This setup is better than the one at the main office.

#8 Lay for lie
No: I got dizzy and had to lay down.
Yes: I got dizzy and had to lie down.
Yes: Just lay those books over there.

#9: Then for than
No: The accounting department had more problems then we did.
Yes: The accounting department had more problems than we did.

Note: Here's a sub-peeve. When a sentence construction begins with If, you don't need a then. Then is implicit, so it's superfluous and wordy:
No: If you can't get Windows to boot, then you'll need to call Ted.
Yes: If you can't get Windows to boot, you'll need to call Ted.

#10: Could of, would of for could have, would have
No: I could of installed that app by mistake.
Yes: I could have installed that app by mistake.
No: I would of sent you a meeting notice, but you were out of town.
Yes: I would have sent you a meeting notice, but you were out of town.

Posted by mrh176 at 09:44 AM

June 02, 2006

New Zul'Gurub Loot in 1.11 Screenshots

Hello People of the World! I've found some screenshots of the new ZG Loot! Enjoy!

ZG_item1.jpg
ZG_item2.jpg
ZG_item3.jpg
ZG_item4.jpg
ZG_item5.jpg
ZG_item6.jpg

Posted by mrh176 at 03:50 PM

June 01, 2006

New Zul'Gurub Loot in 1.11

Not really much more to update than what I have below. I am still having a tough time finding info on all the new loot. Rumour has it that each boss has an epic added to their loot table. I've heard that there's a main-hand/off-hand axe set as well....

Please contact me and send me screenshots of this new stuff, I'll keep scouring the Entire Internet and post real information as soon as I can.

Email: mrh176@mail.usask.ca

Posted by mrh176 at 04:44 PM

May 31, 2006

Scours with the power of Pine

I've been hunting through the entire Internet to find what the new loot is that drops in Zul'Gurub in the upcoming 1.11. So far, all I've found was an epic ring dropped by Venoxis. +13 stamina, +2% to hit, +40 attack power. Not too shabby.

Edit: More Details... I screwed up the item above ;)


Venoxis
Seal of the Gurubashi Berserker
Epic,Ring,Unique
+13 Stamina
40 ATP

Jeklik
'Have to get the name again'
Rare,Leather,Helm
+22 Agility
+21 Stamina
%2 to Hit

Posted by mrh176 at 09:57 AM

May 29, 2006

Humour lifted from the Forums

Found this on the warrior forum. Cut-and-paste for your enjoyment.


"I get a randon tell for Scholo, when it was still 10 man, i figured, hey i need mage water and accept.

Warrior makes first pull, no sunders, no taunt, mage in full tier 2 gets tired of waiting, attacks, pulls aggro. He lives, but we all are a little confused, but shrug it off and move on. We clear to razor in pretty much the same fashion.

warrior pulls razor, no taunts, not sunders, mage crits, spends the rest of the fight tanking. We kill razor and i noticed the tank has a full rage bar. I get a whisper from him.

warrior "i did good"
me "you couldnt keep aggro off mage, he tanked the boss, kinda not so great"
warrior "but didnt you see my aggro bar?"
me "agro bar?"
warrior "have you never played a warrior before?"
me "no ive played one"
warrior "you must have forgot, you know the agro bar, the red bar under your health that goes up if you pull good aggro"

i died a little inside"

Posted by mrh176 at 01:41 PM

May 23, 2006

You could get SHOT playing WoW!

Tonight on Fox news at 11. Is playing WoW dangerous to your health? This man was nearly SHOT! That'll learn him for playing a Horde Alt... (see pictures).

http://antiotter.livejournal.com/144625.html

Posted by mrh176 at 03:01 PM

May 12, 2006

Think outside the box

Sort of World of Warcraft related. Some people really need to learn to think like this guy. If you don't know what you're doing, at least have a clever sense of humour about it!


Posted by mrh176 at 06:58 AM

May 09, 2006

New Alliance Race: E3 Billboard Pic

11472062531519sa1om.jpg

Posted by mrh176 at 04:15 PM

New Alliance Race

Well folks, The new Alliance Race for World of Warcraft will be dished out to the unwashed masses tomorrow. But I'll give you a bit of a scoop here! With Pictures!

My Theory is that it is the Eredar race, which is extremely cool. A lot of the Main Stream Game Media believe that it is unmutated Draenei, but Draenei don't have hooves. I've been wrong on this front before, so we'll see. Below is some reading, as well as pictures for your bemusement. (Pics from E3)

http://www.wowwiki.com/Eredar


800px-4116772yv.jpg


800px-4116784fb.jpg

Posted by mrh176 at 03:02 PM

May 07, 2006

Photoblog

Our guild, Alliance Guard, has started up a Photoblog! Check it out!

Posted by mrh176 at 12:11 AM

May 03, 2006

ORA-08103

Life is an ironic beast. Tonight I venture into the dungeon of Zul'Gurub. If more of the title doesn't happen, I should have plenty of time to write about it tomorrow!

Posted by mrh176 at 08:25 AM

May 01, 2006

Taking out the Trash

As I said in my previous entry, I've been spending a lot of time exploring PvE content, as opposed to my usual PvP fare. Most of my experience has been running with Untold Tales, where I've been joining their Zul'Gurub and Molten Core raids, both of which have been loads of fun. Today's entry, however, I'd like to focus on taking out the trash! Trash mobs that is.

On Saturday my friends at Alliance Guard sent an underhanded raid to Zul'Gurub. At any point in the evening we had between nine and eleven people. So we ran around and killed trash mobs. (That is, no boss enemies, just the regular kind). This was quite profitable as we ended up collecting enough Bijous that some people got two, and enough coins that people got upwards of five or so each. We were there for three hours. Some of our attendees were very new to the experience of a more challenging dungeon (In my opinion and in my experience, 20 man ZG is harder than 40 man MC). Getting some good combat under their belts is sure to improve us for the next time out.

I strongly encourage sending underhanded raids into the big end game dungeons to learn the trash mobs. You'll grind out some faction, you may get some nice drops, and you'll have loads of fun challenging yourself on encounters where you feel no pressure to "win".

So go, take out the trash, and be merry!

Posted by mrh176 at 08:25 AM

April 26, 2006

PvE Madness!

I've been PvE'ing for nearly a month or so. Turned on by the incredibly cool new Priest talents, I dusted off my level 60 Priest and have been engaging in end game raid content, including Molten Core, Ahn'Qiraj, and Zul'Gurub. Hence the lack of entries in the blog! I feel like I have nothing of value to contribute if it isn't PvP strategy related anymore!

Anyway, I'll try and get some pictures and Total Priest Success (TPS) reports up on here as soon as humanly possible. I've got a ZG run tonight, so it should be a gas. Last Wednesday's run was some hot-peanut-butter-love-action, so I'm guessing tonight we'll be all-that-and-a- bag-of-chips as well.

Posted by mrh176 at 03:53 PM

April 03, 2006

Horde, your doom approaches....

Stay tuned for the begining of the end!

(to be continued....)

Posted by mrh176 at 08:39 AM

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!

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 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 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

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

February 27, 2006

Cute young thing?

I'm a bit slow witted this morning, so I had to use the entire internet to come up with a definition for twink. I found some pretty risque looking titles, so I ended up going over to Dictionary.com to find a definition. What I saw was rather apt. I suppose that's how it became gaming vernacular.

I decided to write a followup on Twinking in World of Warcraft, after my last entry was immensely popular. This, of course, center's on twinks for BG's.

There are two classes that lend themselves excessively well to twinking. Cloth wearers are much more difficult to twink effectively, as their effectiveness is more skill dependent than gear dependent. Shaman, Druids, Hunters, and Paladins are all very twinkable, but not as easily as Rogues and Warriors.

Twink Chart
TwinkabilityClasses
HighRogues
Warriors
MediumShaman
Druids
Paladins
Hunters
LowMages
Warlocks
Priests

Finally, the most important part of twinking out your character is gear planning. Goto Thottbot or Allakhazam to look for gear that you might want for your World of Warcraft Twink!

Enjoy!

Posted by mrh176 at 08:41 AM

February 24, 2006

Additional Congratulations

One of my kind readers alerted me to the fact that the illustrious "The Rising Shadow" member, Poseidon, aquired his Ahn'Qiraj mount as well. Congratulations to Poseidon and TRS!

Posted by mrh176 at 09:41 AM

February 23, 2006

Congratulations Raperty

The gate is open. Congratulations to Raperty of the Leftovers on Silver Hand!

zomgwtfbug4ql.jpg

Posted by mrh176 at 09:10 AM

February 21, 2006

Look and Feel

Hug a Carebear today!

With the help of some resident web guru's, we are proud to present a brand new look and feel to the blog.

Yes, it's true, we are now both cool and swanky!

Enjoy!

Posted by mrh176 at 09:49 AM

February 16, 2006

Where are my pants?

While this wont help me with the aformentioned garment I appear to be missing, it is spectacular non-the-less.

http://www.mapwow.com/

Posted by mrh176 at 01:39 PM

February 15, 2006

New and Improved, with Categories

Hello People of the World!

I'm not Willy Wonka, but I did manage a treat today, I organized the site into Categories, so you can see how my strategic and tactical thinking has evolved over the course of time. (Like my changes of thought on Farm First for Arathi). Anyway, you can now read this site by Topic. One topic for each Battleground, and a General topic for humour, random stuff, and my Highly Effective World of Warcraft Player series.

I have some other nik-nacs in my brain, we'll see if it translates to site improvement.

Oh, and thank you for making this the most read BLOG offered by blogs.usask.ca!

Posted by mrh176 at 12:04 PM

February 14, 2006

Who's that comin' from somewhere up in the sky?

Which Carebear are you?

I'm Grumpy bear, I yelled at the cute little grandma.

They often claim that Silver Hand is a carebear server. To that I say, WSG rocks! 4-3-2-1.

Posted by mrh176 at 08:42 AM

February 03, 2006

The Amazing Power of Two

Two?

Two Party Members?

Two Professions?

Dual Wielding?

No, none of these, the amazing powers of two keyboards! It's even easier than ever now to slap two keyboards onto your PC. Just plug one into one of those USB ports on the front of your computer. Why do this you ask?

Simple!

You mount the keyboard beside your mousing arm, or above your normal keyboard, facing up. In the first scenario, your keyboard's numpad can be mounted so it's very near your mouse. If you're adept at using the "ADSW" keys for movement on your regular keyboard, reaching over with your pinky finger to mash a hotbutton on your numpad isn't a hard thing to do. You can script these keys to cast specific spells (or use abilities). If you're a mage, for example, you can have one for blink, and another for frost nova. If you aren't as handy having you're hand off the mouse, having the second keyboard facing you (as much as a 45 degree angle), it can serve as a place to mash keys that you may not have memorized. Always looking down for that 'L' key to look at your quests? Well, now you can see the 'L' key in your line of sight, just mash it.

A while ago, I had purchased a backlit keyboard (pictured below). It kinda sucked, as the decals for the keys wore off after a few months, not a huge problem for me, as I've largely got the keyboard memorized. However, this second keyboard mounted above my normal keyboard functioned great as a tasklight (blue light increases alertness, like caffeine), and as a place to mash those rarely mashed buttons. And wouldn't you know it, 4 wins 2 losses in WSG over 3 hours!

Posted by mrh176 at 08:25 AM

February 02, 2006

Becoming a Highly Effective WoW Player: Part Seven

First off, I'd like to start with, "HOLY UPDATE BATMAN!".

Ya, I got a little lazy over the holidays, not exactly one of the habits of highly effective people. Lets just say my saw wasn't sharpened. And now onto the 7th Habit.

The 7th habit is called "Sharpen the Saw". Which is highly metaphorical. The best real life example I heard was from Dr. Covey himself, "Are you ever too busy driving to buy gas?". The whole idea of the saw is that the first time you cut down the tree, you do it very quick and very well, but with each tree you cut, the saw dulls. The idea is, if you don't "Sharpen the Saw", you'll get slower and less efficient at cutting trees.

Basically, it's a period of reflection. Every once in a while ask yourself, "Am I still doing everything that made me great at World of Warcraft?".

My Answer? Not right now. I gotta get my rear in gear and get back to writing fantastic tactics and strategy articles for PvP type love action. Part of my absence can be attributed to me goofing around with a new hunter (Kherghan) and a new Mage (Firaxii).

Huzzah! Happy Hunting!

Posted by mrh176 at 09:13 AM

January 04, 2006

Becoming a Highly Effective WoW Player: Part Six

This entry in the series deals with Synergy. This habit is more like an epiphany. It's something you begin to notice happening after you've mastered habits one through five.

You'll know you've reached a state of Synergy with your teammates when you're nearly as effective without Teamspeak as you are without it. Synergy means you know what you're fellow players are thinking in the moment. You know, instinctively where they are. This is the level you can reach when you understand why they are in battle with you, why you are in battle with them, and what your goals are.

If you're in a Warsong match, and no-one has a flag, you'll know instinctively who's getting the flag, who's protecting the flagroom, what the exact strategy is, etc...

Building this Synergy can take some effort, in the form of building something like a play book, or tactics guide for your close friends, but sometimes it comes naturally. If you see yourself at this point in Battlegrounds, then look at what you did to achieve it, and ask yourself, "Can I apply this to any other aspect of my game?".

You'll be a better player, not only for yourself, but for those around you.

Posted by mrh176 at 08:42 AM

Back in the swing of things

Well, during the holiday, I managed to keep my yuletide gay. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but there was gifts, and beverages of a fortified nature that ensured a rather smooth holiday. Unfortunately, most of the festivities occurred in remote locals where the Internet is merely a faint dream and quiet whisper among the lands' art swapping male teens... *ahem*

Back to reality! The patch came out last night, and I feverishly downloaded it so I could revel in multiple battleground queues. So I joined all three, and got into an Arathi Basin PUG.

We won the match, but I scored a horrible 0 killing blows o_O, managed to get 16 HK's though (essentially, kills I assisted in, for you non-player types).

I've got brewing in my head a bunch of fascinating Warsong Gulch ideas, which I'll be writing into an article soon. This will be a lot more comprehensive than my older Warsong Gulch Strategy and Tactics entries, as it will deal with the four different stages of a Warsong match, and perhaps even a state diagram of how you get from stage to stage.

First and foremost, this entry, will be followed up by Part Six of my Covey-ism of World of Warcraft.

Stay tuned!

Posted by mrh176 at 08:34 AM

December 14, 2005

Becoming a Highly Effective WoW Player: Part Five

I'm getting a little behind in getting this stuff out. Real life is rearing its ugly head this holiday season, in the form of work around the house, and work around the work! This part in Becoming a Highly Effective World of Warcraft Player deals with seeking to understand people before you make yourself understood. To illustrate this end, I'm going to use some Warsong Gulch Tactics and Strategy as examples.

Warsong Gulch matches (with Pick Up Groups, aka PUGS) are the perfect example of a scenario requiring leadership. To lead people, you must understand their wants and needs before you can command 100% of their loyalty. This is sometimes difficult given the wide geographical location of many players (and thus language), as well as the limitations of the text based communication environment (with which, Teamspeak helps).

There are several strong Warsong Gulch Strategies, but until you get your group of 10 players organized, the best tactic is to turtle in your base. This gives you time to talk to your players.

This is when you can take the time to determine why people are in Warsong Gulch. Maybe you've got a few people that don't want to join the group, and want to run around and kill stuff. Now you've identified them, and you know they'll be midfield. Heck, they're probably dying already.

Maybe you also hear that Johnny the Paladin wants to run the flag all game, and he's excited about it. Make him the flag runner. Pick one of your min-maxing strategies, and have a blast. Now that you've talked to everyone about what they want to do (maybe it's just win ;)), you'll be able to accomplish your task. If you do this, you'll find that you'll have a lot more fun, and win more games in WSG.

This does apply to tactics as well, during the game. It's not very nice to pop that invisibility potion without your healer knowing you've gone invisible. Tell them! Tactic execution and communication is a lot harder in a text based medium than strategy. Here is where building a 10-man team and having them in a Teamspeak channel is a lot more critical. It is a lot easier to execute a tactic when you can hear it and speak it rather than type it and read it. You can always hear your team mates on Teamspeak, but when your getting a sword in the face, it's a little tougher to read what people are doing.

Again, the whole point is, If you know what people want, and need, you'll be able to communicate to them in a way that will inspire them to listen.

Posted by mrh176 at 08:35 AM

December 07, 2005

Hiatus

Sorry, my dear readership, for not continuing the series as of yet! I'd like to do some more reading before I get into parts five, six, and seven. I just got back from "The Four Roles of Leadership", so I'll also be tracking the progress of my, "Leadership Initiative" here.

Back to more important topics... Alterac Valley, or as it is also known, The Bane of my Existence (picture that as a zone, where any monster that strikes me turns into two monsters of equal proportions).

So I'm in the Valley queue for a good two hours, and I get called in. I'm pretty excited. I right-click the battle map, and find that every resource is horde owned, and the game was nearly over. So I honour and faction farmed till the game ended (might as well?).

I think the leaving the battle penalty coming out in the next patch doesn't punish people enough for Alterac Valley. I also think that Alterac Valley should be a little easier to "Finish off" when there's little hope left.

I'll edit in how much honour I got for the 60 kills I got before the end of the match, we'll see if my two hours of waiting and one hour of killing was worth the wait. I gotta learn this somehow right? I'm sure tonight will bring me back to Arathi Basin.

Edit: I got 2000 honour and ~200 faction for my time in the Valley.

Posted by mrh176 at 08:24 AM

December 02, 2005

Becoming a Highly Effective WoW Player: Part Four

Today's entry is the start of the public victory. When you've achieved this level of thinking, your entire community will start to improve. The Covey Habit is Habit 4: Think Win-Win. Think Win-Win is one of the biggest cliche's I've ever heard. When you put it into the context as a habit of a highly effective person (or in our case, a World of Warcraft player), there's a paradigm shift in how this phrase is perceived. I'll describe it first by using the non-World of Warcraft example, then WoW it up, so to speak. I'll then describe the non-win-win ways of thinking with concrete examples, so you can monitor your own behavior.

When we started the "Public Victory" section of my Franklin-Covey course, we did a group exercise. Being the introvert that I am, I was intensely thrilled... Anyway, in pairs we were told to win as many tic-tac-toe games as we could possibly win in one minute. I immediately drew as many boards as fast as I could, then me and my opponent had at it. I totally decimated her, 6 games to 2. As we told the group our scores, my score of 6 was hard to beat! I thought, "Alright, I totally rock". However, the final team had a different strategy. They drew as many boards as they could, then filled in the games. They got 24 and 23 respectively. That's what thinking win-win is all about. Working together can always provide a better solution than not thinking win-win. Of course, in the World of Warcraft world, the world rules don't allow us to think Win-Win with the members of the opposite faction (and if they did, we'd likely be in trouble). But that doesn't stop us from thinking Win-Win with those players we are allied with.

Thinking Lose-Lose
In a think lose-lose paradigm, you can see that you're going down in a flaming wreck, and decide to take everyone down with you. I've been the victim of a lose-lose scenario (I reacted win-lose, but we'll get to that later). What had happened was, during a Stratholme raid, we had one player who ninja'd (ninja: to take items dropped from a slain monster without permission) a drop from Magistrate Barthilas. We (as a team) scolded the player, saying he would not be permitted to get any more loot from the instance. So, upon getting to the Abominations, this player ran in and pulled all of the abominations to us. We promptly wiped, and the gate was closed, thus ending our raid.

Thinking Win-Lose
In this paradigm, your goal is to win at the expense of the others around you. This is the typical ninja looting way of thinking, "Thanks for the Bindings of the Windseeker, see ya later!". This is also the typical way of thinking for the free-for-all loot in Gurubashi Arena.

Thinking Lose-Win
This is what you're doing when you listen to people and do what they say without considering your own desires or feelings on the matter. So when someone asks you for money consistently, thinking lose-win, you'd give them the money just so they stop talking to you. Thinking Win-Win, you might take them on a dungeon run, or offer them some money making alternatives.

Thinking Win
This is kind of a mixed bag. Your goal, when thinking win, is to win without care of benefit or loss to other players. You are going to Win, it's nice of other people benefit, but it doesn't matter if they do. This is what you are doing when you setup a raid for a particular loot item, set yourself as master looter, and give yourself that item. You'll gladly share other loot with other members of the raid, but you don't really care, because you're getting what you came for.

Thinking Win-Win or no deal
This is a special case too. In this paradigm, you're striving to setup a Win-Win scenario, and if that's not possible, you don't proceed. An example of this would be setting up a raid in advance, then, if that raid wasn't ready to roll out on time, simply canceling it.

Thinking Win-Win
I've already covered thinking win-win with a tic-tac-toe example, but a fantastic example of thinking Win-Win is what raiding organizations do. The group that I occasionally roll with has a point system. Everytime you go on a raid, you get so many points, items that drop during the raid can then be purchased by using these points (modified by the class of your character). Any Bind on Equip items that drop, and remain un-purchased by the attendees, are opened up for purchase by members of the organization that didn't attend this specific raid, instead of greedily being sold for money.

In conclusion, thinking win-win is a way to improve the overall quality of your entire server. If someone desperately needs an item, don't price gouge them just because you can. If a guild member needs help with something, give them a hand if you have time. Our community becomes a better place when we stop the negativity and drama, and focus on not only improving ourselves, but improving our peers as well. The next entry in the series is "Seek to understand, then be understood".

Posted by mrh176 at 12:10 PM

December 01, 2005

Becoming a Highly Effective WoW Player: Part Three

Today's entry deals with how to achieve your goals. The Covey-ism is to use "Big Stones". The habit is called, "Putting First things First". Basically, you need to figure out the best way to meet your goal, and achieve the most important steps forward before the "little things" get in the way. In real life (outside of the World of Warcraft), people sometimes feel like issues keep rolling forward and they keep getting hit by wave after wave of problems and issues. The same thing happens in World of Warcraft. While you don't personally gain anything by doing that 100th Baron Stratholme run, it's something we still do. This is especially important for us "Casual Gamers", as we have limited time during the week to grow our characters.

First thing I want to get into is the quadrants.

  Urgent Non-Urgent
Important 1 Crisis mode: operating here means your meeting a deadline, and it needs to be done right away. If your BWL raid is running too long, for example. 2 Planning: This is the place you want to live. Planning and organization begets crisis. If you plan the steps of your BWL raid, it's less likely to break into chaos.
Non-Important 3 Other Peoples Crises: This is, essentially, urgent stuff that other people need help with, and only impacts you directly. This would be like filling a spot vacated 1/2 way through a BWL raid. 4 Totally Lax: This is the quadrant your in when your having a pint of Dark Dwarven Ale at the Thunderbrew Distillery. You aren't planning, or doing anything constructive, but are unwinding. This is a very valuable task, but too much of it can be bad.

The point of the table is to put some things into perspective for you. The most valuable task is planning. If things are well planned, they will succeed. This is where many guilds and raiding groups that have completed Blackwing Lair (BWL), Molten Core (MC), and Onyxia (ONY) have good success. They often have websites dedicated to the strategy, and have signups to go to the raid weeks in advance, instead of just going on a lark.

Being in the 2nd Quadrant allows you to discover what is important for you to achieve your goals. My Goal, for example, is to reach Rank 10 (maybe 11) in PvP, which will get me a cheap horse and the hat that makes my eyes glow blue.

So I had to ask myself, what gets me towards my goal? Doing Battle Grounds is one thing, and I do my fair share of Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch (Alterac Valley is the bane of my existence). However, better gear makes me more effective in Battlegrounds, so to gear up, I need to do higher level dungeons, so I should also do some higher level raids, like Zul'Gurub (an appropriate challenge considering my current gear of all blues (rare quality)). PvP Holidays double the bonus honour and faction rewards. Holidays occur on Friday through Monday of most weeks. That means I get the biggest bang for my buck for Battlegrounds Friday through Monday. That leaves Tuesday through Thursday to split between raiding and PvP'ing. So, I'll sign up for raids in that period. Also, being that I'm a casual gamer, and have a Wife and Two kids that need attention, I can now plan the time that I'll spend with them!

Everyone wins! Once you have achieved this, you have the Private Victory. This is the foundation upon which we, as players can use to make our entire server a better place to play. The next three entries in this series deal with the Public Victory. Tomorrow, we'll talk about the fourth habit, "Think Win-Win".

Posted by mrh176 at 08:32 AM

November 30, 2005

Becoming a Highly Effective WoW Player: Part Two

Today's entry deals with Part Two of being a highly effective WoW player. The "Second Habit", as taught by the Franklin-Covey group is to begin with the end in mind. In that thread, you want to know what the goals are for your character.

Goals by example;

There are many goals in World of Warcraft, and the game doesn't really end at the 60th level (as the new releases always give us more content to explore). One of the things that makes this game fun is that goals stack on top of each other. If your goal is to reach level 60, then you have to get levels 1 through 59. That might seem like the most obvious thing you've ever heard, but that kind of mentality is spread throughout the entire game. Another example, to be effective raiding Blackwing Lair, you need to have been effective at Molten Core.

For those of you who suffer from "Altoholism", ask yourself why you're rolling that brand new character. Ask yourself how that relates to your goals for your other characters (level 60 or otherwise).

If you don't know where you're going, how do you know if you got there?

Posted by mrh176 at 08:19 AM

November 28, 2005

Becoming a Highly Effective WoW Player: Part One

I thought I'd spend the time to apply the Stephen Covey-ism's to the World of Warcraft experience. I'm not sure how to best "credit my sources" in this medium, perhaps best by giving you the Franklin-Covey link. This will be a seven part series on how to be the best World of Warcraft player you can be. Parts One through Three will deal with the private victory, Four through Six the public victory, and part Seven is all about staying at the top of your game.

The Private victory is all about what you do for yourself, knowing what you want to accomplish, and laying the foundation for your future accomplishment.

This section deals with being proactive. Being proactive is best summed up by a few examples;

In short, you need to help yourself, and not wait for other people to help you. Don't let yourself be dependent. Go out there, play, get what you want to get, do what you want to do, and be a leader!

Continued later this week, part Two deals with setting goals....

Posted by mrh176 at 08:28 AM

Rise Thunderfury

A quick entry, which will be followed up by a series I'm developing. I was playing some Basin this weekend (I know, you're shocked), and played a few matches with a fellow named Dhrakyn. He wields Thunderfury, a fairly nice sword.

Anyway, he's coined what is now my Arathi Basin mantra, "Never die in the same place twice.". If you're assaulting the lumber mill, for example, and get chopped into tiny bits, upon resurrection, don't go back to the lumber mill. Might seem like common sense, but common sense isn't so common.

Posted by mrh176 at 08:22 AM

November 23, 2005

Change

This morning brought me to an interesting hallway conversation. We may see some look and feel changes to the BLOG, finally! Also, I found a notification list while I was perusing through the configuration utilites. If you'd like to get email for every new post in Airazel's World of Warcraft BLOG, then toss me an email with your email address! mrh176@mail.usask.ca.

Posted by mrh176 at 09:16 AM

October 26, 2005

A good read for you Strategy Buff's

I'm linking to Sun Tzu in wikipedia.

This'll be good for all you Strategy / Tactics buffs. Sorry for the lack of posts, I'll become more prolific when I hit the lvl 60 bracket for PvP.

Posted by mrh176 at 03:58 PM

October 17, 2005

Moral

Hopefully a short entry today, again, about Arathi Basin.

Alliance members, we don't "always lose". Stop using it as an excuse to be stupid. A large number of my team members and I have a winning record for this week. If you're in games that "always lose", you may want to question what you bring to the table. I know at least one thing in common with all the games you lost...

Posted by mrh176 at 08:41 AM

October 11, 2005

And the MVP is...

Me!

Every week for a few weeks now, our guild Alliance Guard has a newsletter, and someone is nominated as MVP, this week it was me *blush*.

I had a pretty un-eventful week, besides hitting lvl 56 and finding a lifestone off a Blackrock Warlock.

The question I face now is, to raid or not to raid. I don't need to do a lot of PvP to maintain my rank. I don't think I can rank much higher without jumping into the lvl 60 bracket either.

Raiding, while not giving a lot of experience, does provide a fair amount of good gear and money. I'd really like to get the Battlegear of Valor set. So far, I have the bracers (phear me)!

I'll be on tonight, I'll either be laying some smack down in Arathi Basin, or driving my sword into Baron Rivendare's face.

Posted by mrh176 at 08:39 AM

October 03, 2005

Alterac Valley....

So, I was pretty pumped on Thursday when I learned that the Stormpike Dwarves would be having a holiday this weekend.... little did I realize that Holiday or no, there are forces that cannot be overcome that drive me away from Alterac Valley. I think it might possibly have something to do with the four hour waits in the queue, and the twelve hour matches.

Needless to say, the only Alterac Valley game that was up, that I was able to attend was Friday Night. There was no game Saturday, or Sunday, and I was unable to play on Thursday. So I'm waiting in the queue... for three hours, it's getting mighty close to my turn to get in...

Then... the shocking realization that we have guests, the computer is in the guest room, the guests are sleeping over, and it's frigging midnight sets in.

No Alterac Valley for me... again. I've done more than my fair share of waiting in that queue, and I've never ever ever been in a match of AV. Like I said, forces that cannot be overcome. The last time I waited five hours, so decided to do BRD (this was right when BG's came out). The notice came up! It was finally my turn! But I was in the middle of BRD and didn't want to leave the peoples hanging... So I hit "Hide". Box pops up two minutes later, so I hit "Hide" again, only to be dequeued entirely.

More of those forces.

Next time I wait in the queue for many hours, the power will go off just before I am to be let in.

I hit lvl 54, I'm 1/2 way to 55, hopefully people well let me into their beloved LBRS or Stratholme raids.

Posted by mrh176 at 08:19 AM

September 27, 2005

DING level 53

Airazel is now level 53 and grinding away at her Argent Dawn faction. I'll also, likely, hit Seargent this week. I'll login over lunch and see. Again, feel free to buzz me in game if you'd like to hit up Sunken Temple, BRD, or even LBRS.

I can start collecting my Valor Set.

Posted by mrh176 at 08:11 AM

September 26, 2005

It is your Destiny

Well, the weekend brought me a great many things!

Thanks to a generous loan from a fellow guild member, I was able to purchase Destiny for a very reasonable 200G! I also gained lvl 52, and am closing in on 53.

There wasn't a Battle Ground holiday this weekend, so I just did a couple of Arathi Basin matches, which are fun, but there are a lot of bad, un-coordinatable alliance members. It should be enough honour for me to hit Seargent tomorrow, so good enough for me!

I toyed around with an Arms tree talent spec, after purchasing Destiny, and found the DPS to be lower than a Fury spec. When Flurry goes off, Destiny swings every 1.8 seconds. When Destiny procs, I get 400 attack power (bringing me to 1200), which allows my Bloodthirst to hit for 400+. It's a great combination. If all my abilities go off, my DPS goes up to 250 (not counting instants like Whirlwind and Bloodthirst). With other buffs, my DPS can go as high as 300! That's almost as much DPS as a mage! Sometimes I feel like a rogue.

I'll be up for BRD and Sunken Temple runs this week. Message me if you feel like dragging a lvl 52/53 warrior along.

Posted by mrh176 at 08:11 AM

September 23, 2005

Defeated the Shade of Eranikus

Well, lastnights foray into the Sunken Temple was an astounding success. Finished it in a very respectable four hours. We did the whole meal deal. Started upstairs, killed Hakkar, Morphaz, Dreamscythe, Hazzaz, and the Shade of Eranikus (woo, got my trinket!).

Then we doubled back and mopped up the maggots in the basement.

I didn't get much loot wise, I almost rolled for a headspike, but with the new changes coming up to melee weapons, I think I'm happy with my sword spec. Warrior's Embrace also dropped, but I'm already wearing Hydralick armour.

Warrior's Embrace is pretty nice, but it doesn't lift -AND- separate.

Truth be told, I like the fire resistance, and +2% dodge isn't worth losing the stat bonuses from the Hydralick armour (which I paid 60G for!).

I wouldn't mind finding Drakefang Butcher, so chances are I'll be going again.

Thanks to Allen, Vagary, Jusmatic, and Adaon for a very succesful run!

Posted by mrh176 at 09:36 AM

September 22, 2005

The Temple of Atal'Hakkar

I have a strong desire to kill some Undead Trolls and not-so-undead dragonkin.

If you feel like coming along, please send me an in-game tell to Airazel. I'll be online around 8PM this evening.

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/zone.html?wzone=73

Posted by mrh176 at 01:24 PM

Just started up the World of Warcraft Blog

Hi Everyone,

I decided to start a BLOG to help K-LO have a dry run of the new blogging software at the UofS... so I chose fun subject matter! World of Warcraft!

I'm an avid player on the Silver Hand realm. I'm an officer of the Alliance Guard guild, a well known guild on the server. I have a large number of characters;

- Airazel lvl 51 Human Warrior (PvP Centered)
- Prixy lvl 60 Human Priest
- Rhalghor lvl 47 Dwarf Rogue
- And some other lower level alts...

I'll post on this blog with my weekly exploits!

Also, feel free to visit our Guild Website, where you can apply for membership!

http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=26875

Posted by mrh176 at 09:25 AM

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