5/11/09

Not So Furious Anymore

This weekend I had my first real foray into the world of PvP. Now I've done battlegrounds before, but I hardly consider that to be in the same class as arenas. Now let me just say that I have been and always will be a PvE man. The camaraderie, teamwork, and epic scale of PvE is what I thrive off of.

A Shaman friend of mine and I took the plunge into 2v2s. He went Resto and I went cat-form. Upon discussing it, he did not feel that me being gemmed/enchanted for survivability would impact us too much. I also gave him the disclaimer that I suck at PvP greatly. And, because I suck so bad, I have a tendency to strongly dislike it.

He underestimated my suckiness.

0-8 we went that day before I hung my hat up and moved back into the PvE world. A 10-man Ulduar, to be exact. I daresay I may be done with Arenas until the end of time.

I roll on a PvP server (as if there were any other option), but world PvP (and battlegrounds, for that matter) is such a different beast than Arenas. Maybe 2s shouldn't have been my first foray, since they are so sensitive to mistakes, but I'm content working towards ensuring Yogg-Saron cannot corrupt the minds of Northrend's heroes.

My desire to try my hand at Arenas stemmed from bear's best-in-slot weapon, the Furious Gladiator's Greatstaff. "2200 rating is something I can do. I rock at PvE!" I said to myself. Shoot, if nothing else, I could ride on the coattails of someone good! And then the requirements for the weapon got increased. And now the weapon is nerfed, as of the current PTR build. The only thing that has changed, though, is the agility on the weapon. Where it had 210 before, it has now been halved to 105.

Now Furious Gladiator's Greatstaff has gone from being a great weapon to a good weapon. The stamina is otherworldly, but the agility nerf, coupled with the lack of any other real stats beyond critical strike rating, makes this staff less than desirable for PvE.

At this point, Bears are going to want Twisted Visage, Origin of Nightmares, or Lotrafen, Spear of the Damned. Origin remains our best mitigation staff, whereas I think Visage offers the best all-around bang for the buck. What amounts to about 500 less health between it and Origins, is more than made up for the additional agility. Not having the 800 armor is unfortunate, but the hit, crit, and additional AP all are win.

If Twisted Visage drops for you during a Heroic Ulduar run, do not let a Hunter take it. Fight people if you have to!

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

5/8/09

Star Trek

My intentions for this blog have always been for it to be a World of Warcraft themed blog. I've done a good job of keeping in line with that original objective, but sometimes there are things in this world that are so awesome, so mesmerizing, so important that they must be shared with the world, World of Warcraft related or not.

The newest Star Trek movie is one of these things.

At this point, dear one reader, you should be getting into your car, driving to the nearest theater, and promptly purchasing one ticket for the Star Trek movie. You may stop reading now.

If you haven't left yet, you rebellious soul you, know that Star Trek transcends the geekdom of its television predecessor and sets phasers to "cool." It is a fantastic ride from start to finish. It respects the Star Trek canon, yet also brings it into our time. The characters are so real, so fleshed out (as J.J. Abrams does so well), so alive that it's impossible to pick a favorite.

And the story is fantastic and it feels natural in this world of Star Trek. There's nothing hokey about it. It is just as alive and charismatic as the characters that inhabit it.

Did I mention the action sequences will draw your hindquarters to subconsciously move to the edge of their resting place?

I went into this movie not caring about Star Trek and always viewing it as something for the nerds on the fringe of the geekdom universe. Yet I walked out of the theater waiting for the next installment of this hopefully continuing series. Any fan of J.J. Abrams should be devoted enough to see this. Any fan of Star Trek will surely embrace what he's done. And anyone else who is alive should go see this movie and have a blast!

Until the next U.S.S. Enterprise voyage...

-Lushious

5/7/09

A Little Love for the Lushman

Last night I had my first full raid with Half-Baked, the feral druid giving me a run for my money.

I can safely say that, after making amends with HB, he and I can peacefully coexist in the same raid. All seems to be well on this front.

3DRealms has, apparently, already shut its doors.What many consider the world's premiere Vaporware developer has, well, vaporized. In a way, it serves 3DRealms right. Over ten years after announcement, we still do not have a proper Duke Nukem sequel. And what we have seen of this new Duke Nukem game, in its latest form, has been less than appealing.

I have been an FPS lover since I first had to fend against dogs, nazis, and a Hitler in a mech. They have been a regular diet of my game playing experience from that point forward. Duke Nukem 3D, in particular, holds a very special place in my heart. It took all of the greatest things about the Doom series and applied a shiny coat of "time to kick ass and chew bubblegum," though it was clearly all out of gum.

Just to date myself, I had used to play Doom modem-to-modem on a 9800 baud modem. Duke Nukem 3D, however, took advantage of my screaming 14.4k modem. I remember being blown away by how much quicker it was.

And how could I forget the times my mother would pick up the phone, only to hear the robotic squeals of a modem connection dying?

Really, in a lot of ways, it saddens me to hear the news of 3D Realms closing its doors. They had made so many games that I enjoyed so much: Terminal Velocity, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Max Payne, and Max Payne 2.

Here's to hoping some competent company picks up the rights to the newly announced Max Payne 3, as well as Duke Nukem Forever.

To keep in line with the WoW theme of this forum, it seems the Bear's best-in-slot weapon just got a whole lot harder to get:

The current arena rating system allows more players to have higher ratings in the 2v2 bracket when compared to 3v3 and 5v5. We are preparing an in-game update that will be improving the rating system of the 3v3 and 5v5 brackets to allow all three of the brackets to have a similar number of players able to achieve ratings on par with what’s currently possible in our 2v2 arena bracket. As a result, we are changing the personal and team rating requirements for the item level 239 weapons from 2200 to 2350, but keep in mind the tooltip will continue to show the requirement as 2200 until patch 3.1.2.

As a result of the above improvements, this change will prevent an excessive number of players from reaching much higher ratings and acquiring the highest grade of weapons in-game. The increase in rating requirements is designed to keep the number of players able to obtain these arena weapons on par with the number of players who are able to obtain the same grade of weapons from Heroic Ulduar.

When Arena Season 7 launches we plan to return the highest rated season 7 weapons back to 2200 while also ensuring that the difficulty in achieving that rating is closer to what is intended, yet of similar difficulty for all brackets (rather than being easier for 2v2).


Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

5/5/09

No Love for the Lushman Part Deux

Remember Half-Baked, the druid bear tank all up in my grill?

He has now moved to tank spot in my guild. Now, he hasn't bumped me out of my position, but, rather, is now growling and mangling right alongside me.

I'm feeling a myriad of emotions right now: angry, scared, and jealous.

I'm angry, because HB seems to have been rewarded for shady behavior. His back-talking me, vindictive comments, and inability to handle his own frustrations in a positive way are all traits I don't think make for a good "team player." I'd have been happier to see him off to another guild.

To make matters worse, I feel HB has been schmoozing the leaders of the guild, manipulating them, really. I have been with my guild since January and HB only since the end of March. I had to sit out on Ulduar and Vault of Archavon last night so that Abbazabba could tank (I got to tank, but let's get to this in one moment). And I wasn't offered any explanation until I whispered an officer, who responded stating that "it's not a reflection of you," but went on to say that I had been tanking "better." What?! The only reason why anyone in the guild thinks I hadn't been tanking well is because HB had been filling them with the idea that I was a poor tank so that he could replace me. ARGH!

So, the GM decided to sit out last night so that I could tank, but only after three bosses were already down in Ulduar and there wasn't much time left to raid. HB wound up tanking XT, died, and then I picked up the boss leading us to victory. I felt awesome about this.

The following are my stats vs. HB's stats. This is going to be tougher than normal, since I am in no way linking his armory. My stats are on the left, his on the right.

Stamina
1908 vs. 1764

Armor
7867 vs. 7004
This is me without Origin of Nightmares, whereas he has it.

Hit Rating
199 vs. 212
Mine is so high, because of Twisted Visage. He carries Origin of Nightmares and has gemmed entirely too much for hit.

Expertise
40 vs.33

Crit Chance
27.15% vs. 22.64%

Dodge
31.85% vs. 28.76%

I had originally used my Wowarmory to get the differences between our stats, until I realized I was still in my DPS spec from a boss last night. The stats have been updated and I now see HB had no right painting me in a bad light on account of my way of itemization, gemming, and enchanting.

I am scared, because I feel HB will usurp me as the tank in our guild. He's obviously did something right to get what he wants. Why stop at just coexisting with me?

I am also jealous. I wish I could have made the impression upon my guildmates in such a way that I could so easily get what I want.

My next step to take is a hazy one. I do enjoy running with the guild I run with. We are all very smart, goofy, and are passionate for the game. And, simply put, we get stuff done. I also play this game for fun. The moment that it becomes anything but that, I need to step away. And dealing with this unnecessary drama is not fun.

And since Ulduar came out my social life has been suffering. Weekends have been my only free time, since we raid Monday through Thursday. I know this is terrible, but my love for the game is as such.

So, my three real options are as follows:

* Do nothing.
* Shop for another guild.
* Take a break.

Do nothing is an easy choice, since it requires no action from my part. I simply sit here, continue to do what I am doing, and see how things play out.

Shop for another guild is a tricky one. I'd have to reestablish myself with other people, while turning my back to those I have already befriended. And then my place is not guaranteed in any way with a new guild.

Taking a break seems like such a nice option. No more scheduling my life around this game. I get to see my friends more often. Plus, the weather is getting really nice.

But that also means leaving this game at a time that is the most exciting. Raiding is what gets my blood flowing. I thrive for it. Ulduar is the place to be right now.

Then again, maybe this whole post is a sign that I just may take this game way too seriously.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

5/1/09

No Love for the Lushman

I had a "discussion" with a guildie yesterday that turned sour. Way sour. Before I go into the details, I know that I cannot be liked by every man, woman, and child. It is an unreasonable thing to expect from anyone.

I am the person that I am, and though I try to be as honest, caring, and compassionate as possible, there are people in the world that will not like me for whatever reason they have chosen. It's not my fault, it's just the way that things are. I cannot fault said person, but at least have the decency to be open with me, explain your dislike, and we can work on at least coexisting in the same space. And so begins my tale...

The guild I belong to recruited a Druid about two months ago. Let's just call this Druid "Half-Baked," or "HB" for short. Though app'd as a feral druid, he took on a Boomkin role. He does a good job raiding and knows his class well, including the feral aspect.

He and I hit it off rather well, as we would often discuss the finer points of bear tanks. I felt they were good discussions, where we would each explain our stances on the bear philosophy. HB's stance leans more towards threat, whereas mine drifts towards straight mitigation. For HB, hit is more valuable than armor and stam. As an example, Heritage would take precedence over Boundless Ambition.

Then a bit of his personality started to enter into these discussions. An air of superiority crept into conversations between him and I. In his mind he was the better bear tank, felt I was vastly inferior to him, and would kill to get my position in the guild as one of the three tanks. Due to this, he began to talk down to me, berate me for my stance. And if I made a mistake in the raid (as humans have a tendency to do), he'd make a mental note and use it as fodder against me.

I began to catch on to his ways. He'd ignore tells, but would speak up if it was an opportunity to put me in a bad light. I told my RL friends about this character, and how I was beginning to dislike his attitude towards me. Though I didn't know what to do about it, except grin and bear it.

But yesterday was the day that broke the camel's back. Simply put, I got tag-teamed. One of his RL friends, also in the guild, both teamed up to attack my character (2vs1 isn't fair). What was a discussion about how running Naxx with the guild is more valuable than running with a PUG, even if it meant waiting five days to run Naxx, turned into a discussion about how HB was an expert and I was a fool. Derogatory remarks were made, and I did my best to maintain composure and still remain civil and respectful.

One thing HB said that made me laugh out loud at its absurdity was, "Not to be a tool, but I talk with some of the best druids in guilds in Europe and I could have introduced them to you for some debate."

Oh mighty HB, would you please bless me with your greatness?!

At that point I knew it was feeble to continue. How could I win what became an argument, when two participants were ganging up on one?

I don't want to be "that guy," but I discussed this with the GM and officers. I didn't want to necessarily get HB in trouble, but I wanted advice. How can he and I coexist in the same guild, when it is so clear his dislike for me and how he wants to bogart a tanking spot I have been proud to have for so long? I'm not one for drama, but I wanted to make my feelings know to the leaders of the guild, lest this snowball into something much worse and more sinister.

The guild leaders listened to me and said they would address it. I was especially happy to hear during this that HB had made it known to the GM his intentions of usurping me, but told a different tale to the officers. I play this game for fun, and an environment like that is not fun. They talked with HB, but what was said is beyond me.

I'm also hurt that I no longer have a guildie that I can discuss the finer points of being a bear with. I'd rather just ignore HB at this point and continue to play my best, but I learned some things from HB and hopefully he learned some things from me.

I still firmly believe mitigation is more important than threat. Before 3.1. threat would've been something I'd have complained about (and have), but 3.1 has brought changes that increase bear threat for the better (crits on bleed, anyone?). Though I will be the first to admit that you should not discount hit as an important stat, bears do have a tendency to want to prioritize armor, agi, and stam first.

And to you, my one reader, feel free to inspect my bear and offer advice and opinions. I have lost that ability within my guild and would love to fill that void.

Until the next Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious

Hit Me Baby One More Time

Writing a blog is a lot like exercising: You stop for any period of time and it is damned near impossible to get back into the groove. In addition, I've three posts sitting in the bucket that had gone unfinished. It is customary for me to write up a post, get sidetracked, and then leave said post waiting for a grand finale. I'd like to get these old posts published soon, just for the sake of completion.

I would like to apologize to my readers about the lack of posts, but that would be assuming I had any and that they still exist. I will try harder.

A lot has happened to me in the two months since I last posted here. I found out I would be laid off on June 30, our guild started progressing in Ulduar, and I still haven't gotten Origin of Nightmares. I've had 17 attempts at Grobbulus and still no drop. That's over four months' worth of Naxxramas.

But I digress. I will leave my WoW commentary to a more cohesive and well-designed post. I merely come here today stating I want to be more focused on writing my thoughts here and I intend to do a better job at it.

Until the next Faerie Fire...

-Lushious
 
Love All Animals
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