On hiatus

At this moment in time, I have not played WOW in many months, I had an active sub that I was not making use of so I cancelled it. Uni/child commitments are taking over my ability to play anything but a casual game which is not something I can really do with WOW!

On the Mist of the Panderan expansion: Wow. I dunno what to say. It looks awesome, but Im not sure its wise to blatantly rip off Kung Fu Panda ^.^

Still, it will be interesting to see what it is like when it is out, for sure enough Ill be along to bump my lil mage to 90 and play the new content as always! I may even blog about my journeys properly. :p I see a lot of people still hit the page for the Arcane Mage Shot rotation update post... eek. Maybe I should research and actually update it!

-V

Active!

The account is active. Woot!

I dont plan to play end game, I dont have the time... if I can wiggle something into my schedule I am willing, but for the time being I think Im gonna hit an RP server and be "one of those roleplaying types!"

-V

Mage gear in 4.2

Stumbled on an interesting article on my RSS feed. Basically: getting new gear in patch 4.2 for mages. Daily Quests, crafted epics and raid gear that is new to 4.2, certainly suits my palette! I want to play again! Gah to this busyness!

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WOW: Numbers drop, trial improves. :)

So, ActiBlizz announced that they have had a dip in subscribers recently (about 5% - but thats half a million active accounts!) thats bigger than most other MMORPG's even have.

Now - they have changed the trial - free to play... forever - with a level 20 cap. That gives a good chance for folks who want to play the game to try it out and get a feel for the game and the classes without a timeout. I likey this! I you aint played, go get the trial. Now! :) I see this bringing a chunk of new players in - a good move from ActiBlizz.

-V

So much to post about...

I may have been quiet lately, but I actually have an excess of post ideas and I just cant get organised to get them down on... keyboard.

There are many aspects of the forthcoming patch that interest me, I have been listening to past episodes of The Instance and have a lot to chat about there, my Instance Episode catalogue has more in but the back-episodes have dissapeared from the website so I dont see the point in continuing until I can get access to them to continue downloading and listening to the episodes.

Amongst all this there have been random topics to discuss, such as healing strategies, tanking, my screenshot library to share and more.

Watch this space, I might pick something and roll with it soon!

-V

Flintlock comics

If you have not caught these in your time, I suggest going over to here and having a damn good look... The flintlock comics is by far, at least in my opinion, the best wow comic around. Well, when I say around, I mean in existence - the actual story for it stopped being written a few years ago - but the archives are still well worth a read :)

There are clear references to this character in the game that have been put in - Hellfire Peninsula - you get his pants working for the goblins there, and in Cataclysm you get to actually work with the potentially homicidal Flintlock.

-V

A movie: "Are Wow graphics good"

Found this movie on Wow Insider and just had to link - makes me wanna roll a new char and just amble around on an RP server enjoying the scenery ^.^

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The Instance, ah - the joys :)

I have been listening to some old episodes of the instance as I go about my rounds, driving from site to site as part of the internship. I must say, it has been a good giggle. The news may be old - but the entertainment value is as good as ever. As is the nostalgia value. 

I have been putting together some notes from the shows as I go, as a while ago I decided that it would be awesome to get a list of episodes with nice short decriptions and bullet points of the main content that can be referenced, as well as other info like hosts, run time, and links to the episode blog and audio file.

I now have the latest 4 on my HTC, ready for my trip to Glasgae tomorrow. God help me, I been struggling coping with the drive to/from edinburgh... I better hit the sack!

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Buyable mount: The winged guardian

So, Blizzard have release a new epic mount that players can buy: The Winged Guardian... I must say, I think it rocks :D

When the celestial steed came out - I didnt even get a tingle of oooooh. This one though... this ones shiny... I want to tug his little KittyBeard... in a cute way, of course!

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WOW classes - My thoughts and experiences with them.

Bare in mind, the last time I played was January...

In oder of my experience:

Mage: I love this class. The utility, the flashiness, and how easy it is to get around. My mage was my first character I rolled, and is still the one I regularly return to. With the right technique for fighting the latency, and the right combo's you can do some awesome damage.

Rogue: My rogue was a "fun" character I made to play alongside my wife. He rapidly became my alternating main, and is just so silly. He is a Gnome with engineering... I built him from the word go to have a Gnomish World Enlarger, and it still makes me giggle having a rugby ball sized sprinting rogue running about... As for playability - I really liked the stealth aspect of the game. He must have spent 90% of his life in stealth unless I was needing to ride rapidly from A-B - not the most efficient way to play, but it was fun. I have levelld him through all 3 specs. Combat has been my favourite though, purely for the jump in the fray, burn cooldowns and watch everything die side of things. Oddly, it has proven my most effective PVP spec aswell.

Priest: After my Rogue, when I started raiding - I decided to pick up a priest and play. I found the levelling was fairly slow, but to date it has been my favourite support character. I really enjoy healing, and pulling the group out of near-death scenarios with some tactical healing. I levelled alongside my wifes mage, and it was a good duo - I would bubble and hot, and she would run on in and Arcane explosion big groups (usually of Murlocs. Were not racist, honest!) whilst I would hop in alongside and Holy Nova until she needed another bubble or nuke heal. It also allowed for multi-boxing as I could easily just hit the Arcane Explosion button with one keyboard, and focus on my priest keeping the mage up.

Hunter: I have not gotten a hunter to the end game yet, but I have had a multitude of hunters over the years - I preferred them a lot more when they were complex though. When you had to feed your pet, when unique pets actually had abilities over others (I tamed broken tooth at least three times...) and it took more focus to work them... Im not so keen on the way that they play now, although I am keen to get logged back in and have a play with a fresh one!

Warrior: My latest warrior was a Worgen - I got him into the 30s exclusively with random dungeons as a tank - I love(d) this guy - but alas, I stopped playing one day and started playing my Paladin again, and never went back... :(

Paladin: I have always liked Paladins, but they were always so common and kinda slow that I was never that interested - then I got into Retribution spec about christmas - and found myself playing a LOT - I dual specced as a healer, and found out I really like Pally healing (maybe moreso than the new priest discipline spec) - although mistime something and your likely to wipe the party.

Druid: I go on and off druids all the time. They can be like rogues but without as much utility - Im not too keen on the Boomkin since I have a mage, and I dont trust the HOT healing anywhere except in my wifes hands (Her main is a Resto druid...) I have seen Boomkins do impressive damage lately, but any time I go druid - I am feral. I really got into my druid once the custom forms came out - and I do enjoy them, but as I say - the want to play them comes and goes.

Warlock: I really want to like Warlocks and play one... but I just cant do it, as I always want my Warlock to be Horde - and can never get far as Horde as its usually a foray onto a friends server and they usually not around after a while and I stop playing... my highest was probably about level 40 - I pushed to get the mount then stopped playing. This was back in the day when the RPPVP servers came online and me and some friends started a hordie guild that I kinda stopped playing with.

Shaman: Shaman interest me, they are cool, they are tough, they have utility... they bore the shite outta me... I just have not got one out of the starter area yet... but Im going to do it! I am! I am intent on rolling a Dwarven Shammy and showing the world its ale-right. (See what I did?)...

Fiiine,
-V

Warcraft pen & paper rpg

Well bugger me, I never know of this...

A warhammer D20 game based on Dungeons and Dragons v 3.5 rulesets (well, it says revised 3rd edition rules... I think this is 3.5ed)

Linky to the wiki :)

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Guide to Patch 4.2, by WOW Insider

I been pinching a lot of news articles from WOW Insider lately - but check this link out and you will see why. They have some nicely organised coverage of various areas of the upcoming patch, if you aint found it on your lonesome - go check it out :)

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Wow patch 4.2 - patch note observations

Encounter Journal:

This is an interesting addition to the 4.2 Arsenal - a page of info about the in-world dungeons, the bosses within, their loot drops and the phases that they have... Im not 100% sure just how useful it will be - but I think it is a utility once again aimed at the casual gamer. It allows you to join a random dungeon, and have a quick browse through the expected encounters - pretty good if you dont want to go check the likes of Wowiki.

Lets see, what else is there... New Haircuts... The FireLands raid encounter - this could be interesting.  Raggy with his lava ding dong. (Also known as legs.)

Tier 12 set bonus changes:

It seems there has been some commotion in the masses regarding Tier 12 set bonus changes. Follow the link for Wow Insiders analysis.

I may be reactivating soon so I can come check out the joys of patch 4.1, and maybe hit the PTR to see these upcoming changes :)

-V

Patch 4.2: thoughts and opinions imbound...

Honestly... I just been out of the loop and need to go do some research, then hopefully I will have some insightful posts/rants on whats to come in 4.2 that I like/dislike :)

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Freedom! Exams over.

That is the final exam over and done with. Assuming nothing went drastically wrong, I am now the proud owner of a Bsc in Applied Computing on top of my BEng in Electronics & Electrical Engineering.

Woot!

It feels good to be free, but my agenda is no less busy. I have a meeting tomorrow for my summer work placement as an IT assistant at a local housing company. I will most likely be starting on Monday. In addition to this, I am going to be starting a web-design business to work on part time over the summer and after I start back at uni after the summer. I have a few projects to get on the go, and I am quite looking forward to getting started on them!

Anyway - we finally got around to tidying/unpacking from the move in 2 weeks ago. Lots still to be done, so I am off back to it!

Exams, Webless, Senile.

So I am onto exam 3 today: Internet programming. I still dont have internet at the new flat... And I appear to be losing my mind!

WHeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Transition Complete.

We are now finally out of the old place, and into the new. boxes EVERYWHERE, but it still feels tidier cleaner and more spacious than the old place... Plus the garden is awesome! Internet will be installed in about a week and a half, but for now: Study must be initiated - I have an exam on Monday...

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Noblegarden time :o

Egg poopin bunnies... #winning

Is it sad that this is actually my favourite WOW holiday? Well, perhaps after halloween.

Why? Im a kleptomaniac... the first year that noblegarden was out I got most of the achievements on 3 characters and enjoyed it on every one... I have two characters (Mage and Priest) with the Noble tag... and Im sitting here up to my pits in study materials wishing I could log in and do it all over...

I may need therapy...

-V

The instance on patch 4.1 - Souvenirs of your adventures.

A souvenir/reward: or pixels for your pixels?

Listening to The Instance podcast episode #223. Currently they are discussing the ability to buy in game items V "earning them" - I must say, I am actually not a fan of buying the items. I like earning the cool items you can find in games - they act as souvenirs of your adventures. For example: My mage has a NetherDrake. This reminds me quite strongly of that time in my life - when I was grinding the Netherwing rep, with a friend or two in game, and the things that were going on at that time in my life (redundancy - or at least the day after I got it I was made redundant - no correlation to the fact I was up 3 times a night from midnight to 6am to gather eggs in quiet time... honest!)

I actually tried through the whole of Wrath to get a Proto-Drake - it turns out it was in vein - but I did manage to get the Bronze Drake from Culling of Stratholm for my Priest, again, this reminds me of the time spent running that instance with friends to get it. As for the proto-drakes, I done the rep grind with my mage - who has the Netherdrake - with the Carebears in Sholazar Basin to buy an egg every 3 or 4 days. Over the months of me doing this religiously, I managed to gather a huge array of pets that I distributed amongst my characters and friends. Little memorabelia's but no Green Proto Drake.

I also ground Utgart Pinnacle to get the Blue Protodrake - but I seen it drop ONCE, and I lost the roll by about 1. DOH!

I also have the turtle mount on my mage from fishing. This proved useful in Vashj'ir - but other than that it is just a funky doodad that I picked up when fishing for mats to make fish feasts for raiding.

Put it this way: My baby blizzard bear is rarely out - but my vampiric bat from the Kharazhan halloween boss before Wrath came out is frequently out and about - I have memories of earning it and I enjoy its presence, like a happy memory flitting by.

Take a look through the mounts on your characters, or the pets: Which ones have the most meaning to you? Your sparklepony? Pretty, yes: it may even have some imbedded memory of sorts in your head. A present maybe? but I doubt it will mean as much to you as a hard-earned rep-mount or boss drop mount. The same goes with pets.

Funny WOW screenshot collection 1:

The screenshots folder. Often added to, rarely browsed. I must have about 5gb of screencaps from my adventures in Azeroth. And thats after using batchconverter on the 5mb a piece screenshots from vanilla wow so they are about 50kb each instead. Since I have so many, I will only include a handful here, but that does make-way for future posts with silly screen caps :D. Below are some of my Cataclysm screen-caps. Enjoy!

Click to embiggen!

I knew I should have gone before getting on that Griffon...

Yes, I really am 12 inside.

O Noes!

No caption required...

WOW Patch 4.1 - Valor Point Changes - Alternative? (again!)

So WoW Insider put up an article regarding the valor point changes in WoW. It basically details the fact that the Daily Heroic system is changing. In my opinion it is changing for the better, but alas, my pessimistic mind has rooted out a number of problems this may cause that make it not seem like a fantastic change to me...

Currently the first random heroic you do each day gives bonus points and awards. This is a fairly nice system that encourages players to try to login regularly and go do at least one run each day. The downside to this is that if you are not able to login for a day or three, or are unable to random it up due to other commitments then you don't get to claim those rewards.

The new system basically allows you to do randoms until you have done all 7. This then refreshes every week. Advantage: If you miss a day or two, you can still do them when you are free. This adds great flexibility to the game and reduces the pressures to login when you do not want to play just to claim those points.

The negatives?

Cluster questing:
As soon as the weekly quest allotment refreshes, people will start cramming in early runs. Think of it like "payday" - for many: you get paid, you go out and buy all the stuff you want/need or just party or go on a shopping spree. You are then left scraping to make ends meet until the next payday, which in turn encourages you to go straight out as soon as you get paid again and start spending. A bad habit. With this system I see it being pretty much the same. The quests refresh - and you hit the randoms to claim those rewards, and keep doing it until you have none left. This makes sense - if you know you are free to do them in the first day or two but don't know if you will have time later in the week, or have other in game commitments then you might miss out on rewards, and you are inclined you do the randoms as soon as you can.

I had a couple of other points that I have nullified whilst re-reading the article. At least with the system in place they avoid one problem that I anticipated:


Chain-lockout:
Undoubtedly there is always one dungeon that people just don't like, don't enjoy or cannot get their head around. If you were required to actually go collect the quests one at a time and progress through them in a linear fashion - then what if this dungeon becomes your daily? you would be stuck with it until you get it done, or possibly until the next weeks refresh. As it is explained it is the first 7 heroics that you complete that give you these rewards, which makes perfect sense to me as long as they are clear in displaying that you are in a dungeon that will give you the bonus rewards and you don't have to manually track.

Personally I would like to see the system get a further tweak - an alternative so to speak:
To avoid this initial cluster of dungeon romping, they could perhaps allow for the first random in a day you complete be your daily heroic - and if you miss a day, then you get to "stockpile" that daily so the next day you can do 2, if you dont do one that day, the next you can do 3, etc. This basically differs the rewards to reduce the initial influx - and to keep people questing throughout the week without them getting penalised for missing a day. At the end of the week if you have a number of unclaimed heroics, they can rollover into your allotment for the following week. Allow each player to have say, 10 stockpiled daily rewards to claim - and if people are having a break from the game, or go on holiday or are really busy and cannot do their daily randoms, then when they come back they have access to all these rewards and are encouraged to start doing the randoms.

Follow this example:

Tuesday: Patch day& Daily Allotment Refresh. 1 Reward available.
Wednesday: 2 rewards available.
Thursday: 3 rewards available. you do 2 randoms and get the daily heroic reward for both. 1 day rolls over.
Friday: 2 rewards available
Saturday: 3 rewards available
Sunday: 4 rewards available
Monday: 5 rewards available - do 2 randoms and get the daily heroic for both. 3 days roll over.
Tuesday: Patch day& Daily Allotment Refresh. 4 rewards available.

Etc, Etc. Or is this system too convoluted/complicated to implement in a game that is aiming to be fairly simple when some people we stumble seem to lack the cognitive capacity to pick their nose? Anyway, I think it could be an interesting system although I will admit, I am quite happy with the change they are making. After writing this I answered some of my own critical analysis queries so that it didn't have as many holes as I was expecting!

/Ramble.
-V

Wow: Account wide achievements. Nay, Achievement Inheritance?

I have been reading an article on Wow Insider (again) that piqued my interests. The topic was on making achievements account wide. I understand why folk want this to be done - if you have done a particular heroic/raid boss on one character and got the achievement, then surely you should be able to prove to that pug raid that is asking for the achievement to be linked as a requirement for entry. You earned it, why cant you prove it? There are also achievement score points and rewards that go hand in hand with gaining certain achievements.

My thoughts on all this after the quote:

Q: When will achievements finally be awarded account-wide?

A: Making achievements Battle.net account-wide is something we'd like to do, but it's not a goal we could provide a current timetable for. All of the original World of Warcraft coding was done with the expectation that the data on every realm would always be independent. Now that we are trying to make as many things as possible account-wide, we’re having to rebuild all of those systems. It is absolutely something we want to do, but it will take a lot of time away from other features.

I fully understand the mechanics behind this. Over 6 years worth of archived data, as well as live data would need to be transferred onto a new database system with a different architecture to allow for Blizzard to make things account-wide. I'm not sure why they couldn't just modify the database so that achievements tie to account owner instead of character, I guess its cleaner and if it is something they are going to do anyway it makes no sense to go through the motions of implementing "A" feature, when doing it properly will unlock loads of features (allowing anything about a character to be account related, not just achievements.)

As for making the achievements themselves account bound... I was not so keen on the idea at first:

1. I actually like gaining the achievements as I level an alt. It makes it feel like I am achieving something as I play (OMG Rly!?)
2. Just because you gained an achievement on a Raid Boss on one character does not prove you can do it on another. You will have different gearing, a different level of experience with that character and possibly a different role. 
3. Seasonal/Holiday achievements and awards (E.G what a long strange trip it's been) should probably be shared, but how to work it? Different characters will have different stages on these achievements - and its tricky to roll them into the one big achievement...

I thought it would make more sense to implement some way for players to reference an alt/main that has said achievement, and for it to be tagged as the same account as the player linking... But, as I was typing point 3 above something occured to me: Achievement Inheritance.

Make the achievements account bound - BUT have the achievement state which of your characters has actually earned the achievement... E.G my priest may be flying a Violet Proto-Drake but when people look up my achievements or I link them - they will see that it is my Mage's character that is the named earner and that the priest has inherited the achievement benefits. 

Sound reasonable? Your achievement benefits and points are awarded account bound - but you can see both account and character achievements seperately (Simply have your achievements table have an account-tab with the first character who achieved it to be named, and any others who have earned it to be listed aswell... This opens up other potential achievements like: Level a character of each race to level 20, 30, etc, etc.) This should be no more difficult to implement than what they are already thinking of doing - but will cater to both sides of the coin (those wanting to earn, those wanting to have achievements be shared) as well as allowing those that are linked achievements to see that you have done the work to earn it - but that it may be on a different character (or multiple characters). This could be a good or a bad thing as far as pug raid leaders are concerned, but hey: If the person has done the achievement on another character and they can see that the player is sufficiently geared, whats not to like?

Anyway, I hope that waffle gave some food for thought.

-V

Wow roles: Are tanks special? R.E Call to Arms.

The current state of affairs ^.^

Taking a look at the latest Wow Insider post on the subject >linky< on the Call to Arms feature - there is mass debate being sparked regarding tanks and whether or not they are "special"...

Well, I dunno!
Lets speculate :)

3 Roles: Tank, healer, dps dps dps.

All roles are required for a successful run that is of the appropriate level. (I.e your not over-geared or running low level dungeons.)

All dungeons require someone to tank*. Some fights may allow for momentary use of a dps for tanking - or maybe a hunters pet (check out big red rhino's blog for more on that!). Without a tank then the healer will have to spam heal to keep whomever is getting hit alive, who just wont be able to keep aggro against the healing threat.* This results in deaths, unless you are very lucky, skilled, or both.*

All dungeons require someone to heal. For various group pulls there may be sufficient self-healing for the tank to stay alive (especially if they are a paladin) but on any serious encounter - they need to be kept up by someone - and bandaging aint gonna cut it. (Pun intended.)

All dungeons require DPS - although depending on the dps output of the other two dps and the tank, the skill of the players, any tricks they have out their sleeve, etc - then you can often run with a DPS down (or two once you are geared, but thats against my premise up top.)

Ergo: I am going to take the standpoint that the DPS are nothing particularly special. They are easily replaceable - they can do most things faster in the outside world since they are killing things faster, or before they are even hurt, and tend to level quicker. They are also ten a penny and tanks and healers can DPS in an alternative spec*. Tanks and healers are both vital roles. DPS are important but not vital.

There, my deduction. All classes can be fantastic if you put the right person behind the controls, and everyone plays what they want to (well, I assume so unless maybe you are getting paid to play!) so if everyone get in eventually - whats the harm? Other than the "special people" getting a treat for what is usually a trickier role. If nothing else it is certainly more prone to blame if things fail. Im happy to stick to my DPS despite the changes, although I do have a priest, and I had a tank in Wrath - both of whom I enjoyed thoroughly.

Hopefully there is no offence in this post, there is none intended, but, if anyone out there does happen to take offence... well... your offended. I cant help but deduce that DPS are less vital - but people opt to play them, and in general in my experience - have been more fun.* :p Have a nice day!

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*There are of course exceptions...

Wow Dungeon Finder - Call to arms: again.

Looks like this topic has continued to gain momentum, and some strong opinions. Wow Insider put an interesting post up on the topic that is worth a read, that also links to a number of the big bloggers out there, and their opinions on the topic. Im almost tempted to hit up the main forums and see what the thoughts of the masses are!

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WOW Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms - Alternative?

I posted my thoughts up yesterday on the new call to arms feature that Blizzard have decided to drop on the WoW community, and generally my thoughts on it were positive, but, after having read a number of other views and opinions on it - it is clear that this feeling is not shard across the community, and I can understand why. Some see it as "tank-bribing" - which in a way it is, since tanks are normally the class that is lacking - and DPS will never see this tick for them.

I have an alternative though... The rewards seem to be seen by those that would be bribed as defunct, and a bit crap - and by those that will never benefit as wildly unfair. They already see the tanks getting "insta-proc" runs as benefit enough  -which, whilst it will be - is not enough to draw most of them in...

My alternative proposal is this: Extra gear points, 1 run per day when call to arms is active.

This will mean that a lot of tanks will aim to go for that run each day. They may not do any others, but if they were not going to go at all - that is one cluster of dps that get their run. The same goes for healers when they are called - it is basically a bit of extra incentive to push for an extra run each day to make things flow a little smoother. The small and limited bonus will not also result in a mass of instant career-changes, bringing in an influx of tanks or healers that have never tanked or healed before - just because they want to be the one to see all the benefits.

Naturally the downfall of this is that highly geared tanks are still not given any additional incentive to go on these runs because a) they are not running with anyone they know, and b) they don't see any tangible reward, save being able to get heirloom gear - if they are not already maxxed out. The additional items that are up for rewards just now could instead be put on a vendor and bought with the additional points... Then everyone has access - should they chose to spend their rewards on them.

Ok, its not a perfect system, but this is all about compromise. Give the called role a little incentive to get the queue times a little lower for the others, whilst not detracting from the gameplay of the others, and denying them the things the called roles can get - the called roles can just get things a little bit quicker - which in the way of things, is not a bad thing as it solidifies them in their role by increasing their potential effectiveness. (Watch the wording on that one ;) - gear doesn't make the player - but it helps!)

To be fair - the biggest + I see with the call to arms, is that it actually informs the players of who is needed most - this in itself is information being handed out to those in the appropriate role, whom will clearly see that they can get an instant run, and may feel like they can do a service to other players. It may not have a huge effect, but it WILL have an effect. I know that at least I would go on a few more runs when playing if this information was provided easily and visibly, and on occasion would be inclined to go on an extra run just for the fun of it and to help out some anonymous players (charity work? :p ) - anyway, the point is every little helps. Making it clear that certain roles need filled at any point in time will itself encourage a number of extra runs. How many? couldn't say. Statistically however, it will - and is a good thing to have.

Just my 2c :)
-V

Wow Dungeon Finder - Call to arms: Yuz!

In my foray into Cataclysm and the new and improved dungeon finder, I found myself taking a liking to healing and tanking random pugs - although sometimes you still had fairly lengthly queues to join as one or the other if you were not the class that was lacking.

I think the Call to Arms addition to the dungeon finder shall prove to be a great thing, for many reasons - although I can single out a few potential niggles at the same time.

It is great because it should indeed shorten queue times, since those that may not be thinking of pugging a dungeon can see that their class is lacking and either through a sense of noble responsibility - or the fact they will get into a dungeon instantly - they are more likely to hit that join button. It is also great because it will encourage those that normally DPS, or dont normally pug - to give it a blast since there is more incentive to get in there. And lastly, who doesn't like free stuff - especially if you were already planning on hitting up a random! (This also however, leads to '1' below)

The downsides I can see to it are:

1) That it may push potential tanks or healers over the precipice from DPS who may not be geared or experienced enough to perform. Whilst it is good to get them practicing right away, that kind of breaking in is in my experience usually best to be done with a group of friends as the group you crash may not appreciate you causing them to wipe way more than they should, and also the backlash of this may put you off of pugging as the abuse and echoes of "Noob" rattle around in their noggins. It may not even be their fault that the group wipes, but lack of confidence and the rest of the group just doing their normal thing and not accommodating for the inexperience can pull what it cant handle or rush.

2) Blackmail. If your role is flashing as "Call to arms" - the douchebags are going to crawl out of the woodwork. People will (its inevitable, even if rare) start to demand certain drops go to them or they will /quit and leave the party in a lengthly (although not as lengthly as before) queue. They may just act like total idiots and ruin everyones experience knowing it is unlikely they are going to be kicked and replaced, and that folks are more likely to just grin and bear it.

Amendment: 3 below does not exist: You must queue up solo. This leads me to a new 3: I see this as a bad thing as it encourages you to do everything without people you know... Not very sociable >:-(
(Invalid)3) Working in a pre-set group with friends or guildies, it is, in my experience, common to find more than one person queuing up as a tank or healer - this might produce conflict if one is not willing to back down or of they both go multi-role that one person might keep getting the role that gets the goodies.(/Invalid)

Overall as I say - I think this is a positive thing, but unfortunately the conflicts mentioned above ARE going to happen from time to time, although you may be lucky enough not to witness it.

Happy hunting!
-V

Wow mobile apps? Mobile guild chat.

Wow Insider just released this article about the Mobile Guild Chat app for mobile phones...

I gotta say, it looks awesome! I wish they had it years ago - it would make guild management so much easier. I remember a time when helping run a guild that I was logged in for about 6 hours per evening - this was after a full time job and having to look after kids - to keep an eye on and help run the guild. The guild was fun and pretty successful when it came to raiding, but the amount of time needed to do all this was overwhelming, and burned me out big-time. Ive never been able to properly get back into the game since.

Being able to have guild chat open on my phone, and peek in from time to time, and answer questions should they arise whilst I do something else that doesn't involve sitting at the PC would have been great!

I was never a big fan of the Wow Armoury mobile app - which you need to pay for, it just seemed to overdo it. How freely do you need access to your armoury page anyway? The funny thing is, external guild chat I WOULD probably pay for.

As I understand it - you subscribe for "remote access" now rather than for the remote armoury - so I wonder what else blizzard has up their sleeve. I remember back in the early days of Star Wars: Galaxies - I regularly visited a website (it may have been the in game forums but I honestly cannot remember.) where I would post up the materials that I had prospected/mined up and then meet a "buyer" in game and sell them the mats. It was awesome. Blizz kind of already have this with the auction house which is much easier to use than the Bazaar was, but still!

-V

My top 5 WOW music videos.

I find myself returning time and time again to YouTube and listening to a variety of WOW themed music videos, so I thought I would link in my top 5 ear drum thumpin songs from the likes of Cranius, Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain and more. :)

1.) Cranius - Big Blue Dress. 

  2.) Level80 Elite Tauren Chieftain: I am Murloc.









3) Cranius: Tie between: Darrowshire and Happy Place :).


4) Percula: Wow - Blind. - not such a fan of the music, though it is catchy: The animation is awesome :)


5) Taverncast: If I had a murloc. 


I must admit that this was a hard list to compile...  I have a whole load of them in my head that I wanted to consider but couldn't find them to review, and I still aint 100% sure that is my top 5(6) list... E.g. many more cranius songs, "shes too fat for me", Do you want to date my avatar... oh and of course: The Internet is for porn, (music by Avenue Q.)

A career from WOW? Indeed you can!

Everyone has probably heard of the tales of people getting jobs because of their in-game credentials - some may be true, they may be false, but the fact is: You CAN get a job from Wow... By being able to identify and analyse the transferable skills that you learn along the way, to include on your CV.

Whether you are a loner, a raid leader or even run a guild - there are many skill sets that you develop and use on a regular basis.

It is not just World of Warcraft that gives you these transferable skills. Most MMORPG's will share a similar skill-set, as well as many single player games.

So... What are these skills you may ask? Well... lets analyse!

From the moment you pick the game up from the shelf you are analysing the product and will need to figure out if it will work on your machine, how to install it, register an account and get it working. A little bit trickier than your normal plug and play console game! This develops some basic I.T skills surely?

What if you play the game for a while? Well - you likely have a main character and multiple alts. These characters all have an inventory, a bank, trade skills, talents, be working in different areas on different things... This all requires a level of organisation to get by. In your day to day gaming you are likely to work in a group with others, trade items, ask/answer questions and perhaps interact within a guild. This helps to develop your communication skills, as well as your reading and writing comprehension. (Although it all this is solely through the use of trade chat spam, the point is questionable! :p)

Most of these skills don't sound impressive - but being able to evidence these skills is a good thing and can be transferred to almost any job position. Now, what if you are a raid leader, or run a guild? On an almost daily basis you are responsible for managing a group of people, to problem solve, work as a team, communicate through issues and organize the team/guild/guild bank/officers, etc. You may even be required to build or maintain a website or forum - more reinforcement of your I.T Skills as well as some web-design abilities.

One last area that pops to mind is Macros and Mods. You may just use them, or modify them to suit your own needs - but you might also be involved in the creation which requires some basic programming skills. Again, maybe not something that may relate to the job you are looking at getting, but it shows your willingness to learn and take on new challenges.

There may indeed be a day where you can put on your CV "Plays World-of-Warcraft, 3x level 85's" but I wouldn't be this blatant on your CV - the fact is more likely to be frowned upon than praised - but the transferable skills are there, and they are real - especially if you are a raid leader, or a guild leader or officer.

Good luck out there!
-V

Wow patch 4.1 - Heirloom items, Battlenet and Arcane Mage changes O my!

I took a look at Wow Insiders notes for patch 4.1 that is on the PTR and there are a number of changes that interest me.

#1 on the list is most definitely the changes to Heirloom Items.:

Heirloom items are now properly "account bound" - tied to your Battlenet account, so that you can send them to any character that you have. Yey! I have been waiting for this change for years! I don't want to move any characters about but I have been wanting to play with friends on other servers and have wanted the new characters to have access to the heirlooms. This bodes well for my return *plots*

It looks like Zul'Gurub will be making a return, along with some snazzy new mounts :) mayhaps if I find time to do some raiding, I will return - I quite liked the experience I had with the original version.

Lastly: one that I like that is tempting me to make an up to date Arcane Mage Guide is the changes to Arcane that are going through.

• Arcane Blast:
• Damage increased by 13% and cast time reduced to 2s from 2.35
• Arcane explosion damage increased by 30% 13%. (Umm... what?)
• A Frost tree change: Fingers of Frost bonus damage applied to ice-lance is up from 15% to 25%

If you have not seen the patch changes, checkout this >Link< to wow insiders breakdown and enjoy! :)

-V

Work in progress: Instance "catalogue"

So here is a little preview of something that I'm hoping to put out in the near future that may be of interest to any fans of Scott Johnson and The Instance podcast/community.

I have been slowly putting together a list of all of the instance episodes - and have been attempting to make some notes on interesting topics etc that have been brought up during the show. The list is basically going to be an episode guide with links to the live feed - and the actual blog post tied to the episode in Scott's archive. I have already received consent from the big man himself to do this, and I am quite keen to do so. I have only managed to get 20-or so episodes into this in the last month thanks to a huge list of university assignments that have been due - but as a taster I will include the first 5-episodes as I have them catalogued. Feel free to give me any feedback, or leave comments on what you think can be improved upon - or even if you just happen to have any comments that you wish to be added to the list. I will get something more complete through the year.

(a summer internship that may result in 4+ hours driving per day will likely allow me to get through a good chunk of the earlier episodes! :) )

Note: The table below is excluding the post date, time and hosts sections as it wouldn't fit in this blog post... I will have it hosted on a site with a bit more real estate once I have finished the list - or fill it as I go - it all depends on how fast I go. I have already heard these episodes through at LEAST once at my old job. I estimate there must be at least 14 days (>330 hours) of quality podcast to treat my ears to, so it will take some time. Reader submissions are welcome, just throw up a comment.

Ep#	Title	Main Points	Comments	Links
1	More Deadly than the Deadmines!	1. Introduction 2. Discussion of upcoming expansion: The Burning Crusade.	Introductory episode. Scott and Andrew discuss their origins and their hopes for the future, aswell as podcast layout.	http://theinstance.net/2006/01/the-instance-1-more-deadly-than-the-deadmines/
2	Go Go Dancing at the Gurubashi Arena!	1. Ahn'Qiraj discussions 2. Upperdeck card game rumours	Following up on feedback, and discussing the Ahn'Quiraj war effort.	http://theinstance.net/2006/01/the-instance-2-go-go-dancing-at-the-gurubashi-arena/
3	Casual / Hardcore peace talks begin on Mount Hyjal!	1. Upperdeck card game confirmed. 2. "leaked" Dranei information.	Check Time-Stamp 23:55 - Could that be Randy Deluxe's first contribution? ^.^	http://theinstance.net/2006/01/the-instance-3-casual-hardcore-peace-talks-begin-on-mount-hyjal/
4	Is the Scarab Gate gonna be a bughunt, or a stand up fight?!?	1. Ahn'Qiraj war effort - first gates opened.	The guys discuss the Ahn'Quiraj war effort, realm lockdowns.	http://theinstance.net/2006/01/is-the-scarab-gate-gonna-be-a-bughunt-or-a-stand-up-fight/
5		1. Dialled a mage! 2. Discussed controversial ban by Blizzard on GLBT guild	Mage special. Scott and Andrew call up the player of a lvl 60 mage to talk "Mageing", and discussed Blizzards latest bans.	http://theinstance.net/2006/02/the-instance-5-glass-cannons-the-players-who-love-them/

Update:

Shall hopefully be back in action over the summer in WOW. I have many many musings to post about - and I didnt realise just how many hits this blog recieved so... expect some content to be added in the near future :)

-V