Unfortunately I didn’t manage to drag this goldseller out nearly as long as the BoE folk do, but hey, it was my 1st time OK and I was in the process of smacking Illidan on the backside for being a naughty little boy.

As for Illidan… there is nothing really hard (these days) about Illidan… it’s nearly the easiest fight in Black Temple.

The challenges are:

1. Create a raid
2. Holding the raid together long enough to get to Illidan (and for it to survive the 1st inevitable wipe as someone starts the event)
3. (Not) getting lost (thanks to Spinks aka Copperbird on Twitter for reminding me of that one) – Tip: The guy just inside the raid instance will port you to the top – take the top option!)

Then of course there is the little gem antikris77 threw at me on twitter.

That reminds me of a guildie’s joke in voicechat the other night, when we were recovering from a wipe:
YOU ARE NOT REPAIRED!

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Filed under: Misc WoW Tagged: Misc WoW ]]> http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/08/21/i-bloody-well-was-prepared/feed/ 6 gnomeaggedon Oh Squidly you are kind of cute with your calamari ring hair not quite dreadlocks but Im sure very cool where you come from but one thing is certain you arent the sharpest tool in the spaceship are you if you were you would realise steel bars can never hold me while you get covered in other peoples blood in ICC I get to kick back and read and sip on some lovely conjured foodstuffs made by my own magic as for being prepared ive got something to tell you Squidly I prayed Illidan would die peacefully in his sleep praying for Illidan to die peacefully in his sleep2 but apparently he thought he was better than us he too thought we werent prepared I guess you could say both of you underestimate me I guess I bloody well was prepared oh yeah on another note I was prepared for that goldseller too BoE gave me the inspiration to haggle over goats rather than gold goldseller01 goldseller02 outland raider Creative Commons License http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/08/20/he-was-not-prepared/ http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/08/20/he-was-not-prepared/#comments Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:29:20 +0000 gnomeaggedon http://gnomeaggedon.net/?p=7071 ]]>

Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/08/20/he-was-not-prepared/

Blizzard email

Did you get this email? (It’s below if you didn’t).

I must admit at 1st I thought it was spam… I mean the email is addressed to Account UNKNOWN.

Apparently Blizzard heard our complaints about RealID and have a thread addressing many of the issues.

Who said canceling our accounts would account for nothing… I got a sparkly email!

Still not perfect in my opinion, but heading in the right direction.

Mage Forums

So the Mage forums are trotting along nicely some nice discussion going on, from

• Q: What do you call a warlock… to
• Power Auras Configuration – Fire Spec to
• The Must Have List of Mage Specific Mods to
• Fizzlewitz’s UI to
• Yes, I’m Frost & I raid That Way. On Purpose. and
• Who do I FM? or
• Build 12694 Changes or
• Mage Leveling in Cataclysm and
• Ask A Beta Player (both Gaz and Krizz are in the Beta, as well as a few others)

There is a pile of stuff there and it really is a friendly community, sure some items are discussed from opposite ends of the spectrum, but there has been no hate.

So if you are a nub Mage like myself, or a shirt ripper like Jong, there is a place for you to read, write and share ideas (especially on the appropriate use for a Warlock).

It’s not just the usual names from the Blogsphere either (not that there is anything wrong with that), but also the average Mage on the street through to illustrious names such as Lhivera – yes, THE Lhivera!

Saresa the Nutta

You all know of my love for Warlocks (especially when plated up nicely with seasonal vegetables), and Saresa is probably the one closest to my heart (Yes Fuu & Fulg, you are up there as well!).

My recent love comes from her blog and graphic wizardry related to her headers.. her blog is always fresh, even if she isn’t posting, because you get a new blog header each refresh.  I spent a good part of last night boosting her stats by refreshing her blog to get just one more header.  I was rewarded with a couple of “Mage-oriented” headers.

Yes, yes.. I know… “Small things amuse small minds”, but hey, I’ve got a small body… you know what they say

It’s not the size, it’s what you do with it!

It appears Saresa has done something good with hers.

Cynwise and Battleground Scoreboards

Cynwise has done it again.

In this case distilling BBB’s and my thoughts so well, then going that extra step and improving on it.

While neither BBB nor I can take credit for the inspiration, as Cynwise had it all along, I will take the credit (and BBB can too) for helping to coalesce the thoughts into the final product.

At the beach buying Icecreams

My personal household god has told me he wants Icecreams at the beach.

Well, it’s a bit cold in Melbourne this time of year for either icecream or the beach, so we are hopping on a plane and flying a silly distance up the coast to Queensland for a little break (and yes, Icecream on the beach).  Meanwhile “Uncle” TreeHuggerDave is driving a stupid distance down the coast to meet up with us.

Which has really got nothing to do with anything beyond the fact that for once, I have an excuse not to post for a week.

Hopefully when I get back there will be a month worth of reading over at the Mana Obscura Mage forums.

Until then, may your beer and icecream (Mmmm Beer Spider!) be cold, and your beaches be warm!

The letter from Blizzard.

As threatened earlier, here is the letter in full, just in case you didn’t receive it.

Greetings UNKNOWN!

We noticed that you recently cancelled your World of Warcraft® subscription for account UNKNOWN. The comments you left with your cancellation mentioned the new policies we had announced for our official forums, so we wanted to make sure you were aware that we have changed some of our plans with regard to the forums and our in-game Real ID system as well.

One of Blizzard Entertainment’s core values is that Every Voice Matters, and feedback from players like you is what helps drive our direction and decisions. After considering your feedback and that of other members of our community, and weighing it against our goals for improving the forums, we ultimately decided not to move forward with the plan to require real names to be displayed when posting on the forums. Blizzard Entertainment CEO and Cofounder Mike Morhaime made the official announcement of this decision here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?
topicId=25968987278.

In addition to changing those plans, we have also listened to player feedback regarding the Real ID Friends-of-Friends feature. We understand that not everyone is comfortable being displayed on friends-of-friends lists in this fashion, so we are developing an option to allow players to opt out of this feature. The full announcement and FAQ can be found here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?
topicId=26137024221.

We hope that this will allay some of the concerns that led to your departure from World of Warcraft. Your characters are waiting for you, and you can renew your subscription at any time through Account Management at this link: http://us.battle.net/account.

If you have further questions or concerns, we’d love to hear from you. Simply e-mail realidfollowup@blizzard.com, and we’ll have a representative respond within 10 days.

Thank you for giving us this opportunity to talk—and best wishes to you!

Regards,

Customer Care & Loyalty Team
Blizzard Entertainment
http://www.blizzard.com

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/08/06/mixed-bag/

Now this was in the midst of what is otherwise (as usual) a very good post about the pain of PvP achievements in a world filled with (differing sorts of) PvE.

What got to me (and this is a really bad paraphrase that will make BBB sound worse than he is) was the sentiments that:

• PvE is for teams
• PvP is for individuals

• Teams of PvE players unite to defeat bosses.
• Individuals go Chuck Norris to win PvP.

What about PvP (Player vs Player)? How is it any different?

In PvP, it’s all about personal excellence against other living, thinking, reacting and planning opponents.

Real people, fighting against each other and using every trick they can think of, all in a fluid combat environment that requires various Battlefield objectives be met for faction victory.

But whether or not your faction reigns supreme, the focus is entirely on personal accomplishments, on excellence in playing your own character as an individual.

The line may seem to get blurred a bit, because overall success or failure within the Battleground hinges on how many players to a side both kicked individual ass AND were able to work together towards these Battlefield objectives.

At the end of the battle, however, it’s not just win or lose for a side. No, in a PvP Battleground, there is a Leaderboard that pops up which breaks the results of the entire battle down into individual accomplishments.

The leaderboard does show information that relates to team play. Who captured or assaulted flags or towers, etc. But all of the information, including numbers of honorable kills, is clearly presented, by intentional design, to single out and recognize excellence in individual effort. To put things in a ”MVP” perspective.

edit: I need to point out that at the time of his post, he did clarify his position and it wasn’t what “I had read”.  Still BBB & I have a long and happy tradition of throwing things at each other and there was also a point to be made to a greater less informed audience.  Apologies to BBB for an anger directed at him.

STOP THE ROT!

Everyone KNOWS that PvE is about team cooperation.

Many people THINK that PvP is about 10,15,40,120 individuals doing their own thing.

I want this message to stop right now – this is the reason BGs turn to shit. New and even old players think that “going hero”, playing by themselves wins BGs.

• Chuck Norris is a NOOB!
• Being a hero loses BGs!
• Being a hero loses PvE encounters too!

We have all been in instances & raids where “a” player goes all Chuck Norris and tries to defeat an instance solo.

• The Tank charging ahead alone.
• The Healer pulling for the Tank.
• The DPS, so full of themselves, pulling aggro every fight on every mob, because their DPS is so uber that they could solo single pull the instance with one hand tied behind their back.

Do we approve of this behaviour?

Hell No!

When LFD was introduced, the root of 51% of the QQ was heroes forcing us to play their way, wiping the group and hearthing.

When you put this in a 10 or 25 man PvE environment you get 9 or 24 people screaming for blood and repair money.

Weekend at Bernies

Individuals AFK

Yeah they do.

It’s a nightmare in PvP because sometimes the win goes to the side with the least AFKers.

Of course individuals AFK in PvE as well. Ohhh they might do some damage… White damage… but they aren’t a part of the team.

People HATE Premades!

Battle Grounds are the original 10 man raids. Back when you were dealing with 40 man raids WSG and AB were the mini raids of the future, with AV the 40 man equivalent.

No one hates organised guild raids, yet say “premade BG group” and people cry.

PuG raids are fine, but PuG battleground groups make people cry.

I’ve play the range of Premade to Pug, in both PvE and PvP. 25 man guild raid, guild raid with PuGs to fill the numbers, full PuG raid. The same in PvP, exactly the same.

The issue is that In BGs, Blizzard mechanics (and people’s attitudes) forces a predominance of PuG groups. Not just that, but there isn’t any sophisticated LFD style “select your role” which gives you the perfect balance of classes and roles in BGs.

But PvP Guilds are coming?

Yeah, this has me a bit confused.

The reason it has me confused is that PvP Guilds = Premades and at this point in time Blizzard is actively discourage, nay completely stopping Premades.

You want to run some BGs with your mates… make sure you only have 4 mates, because Blizzard has now limited the the number of people that can join as a group to 5 – half a WSG, a 1/3 of an AB, SotA or EotS, and 1/8th of an AV or IoC.

You can’t even enter the 120 person battleground that is Wintergrasp as a group of any size… well, I guess you can, but you don’t get extra bodies, thus you don’t get the benefits of playing with more of the 120 body pool.

BBB may think we are a bunch of Chuck Norris, but in reality Blizzard has made this so – or at least, removed the ability to prepare and act as a group without certain tricks.

Premade Tricks

The trick, which even Blizzard is trying to stop via changes to interfaces, is to join a premade group.  You might have a premade/PvP Guild on your server, but for those of you that don’t there are options such as x-server Battlegroup Premade.

On Bloodlust battlegroup, there are two that know of specifically and I believe there are others (as I have seen similar macros and vent details exchanged).

Hordeside: Proudfather Airlines (Also Alliance side Rampage battlegroup)

Aliiance: QueueQ Premades

Military Operation

When you run with groups like this, you realise how ridiculous BBB’s statements are.  They are as fine tuned as Guild Raid groups.  There is no more “I” in the battleground than there is in a Raid.  Yes individuals make important contributions at times, but just as in raids, it is a rare day that a BG is won by an individual.  There is an expectation that everyone will play their character correctly, not make stupid mistakes and the group will win.

Occasionally a player will get singled out for top heals or dps – which is no different than in raid, even if you need a 3rd party product to show it for PvE.  However this is frustrating, because normally the top DPS got there with top support, the top healer had lots to heal and had covering fire to keep them alive.

There are some BGs where I am top damage or top heals – that isn’t because of me, it’s because of circumstances.  Other times I am bottom of the rung.. maybe I volunteered to guard a base that didn’t have any conflict.  I could have chased the conflict to increase my numbers, but that would have been against the needs of the team.  Does the kiter in a raid, drop the kiting for some uber dps? Does the tank go for the damage meters or stick on the boss?

From my experiences in QQ, anyone that goes Chuck Norris, off doing their own thing will be shown the door.  We have commanders, when they tell you where to go, whether you like it or not, you jump, not even wasting the breath to ask “How high?”

Individual Achievements

BBB mentions the recognition of individual efforts and I have already covered the ingame DPS charts (I wonder why they haven’t introduced this to PvE?), but as for BG Achievements, some can be achieved by individual actions, but most call on a group effort – or at least the best way to achieve it is a group effort.

Maybe once again, the fault in Blizzard’s past is that by not providing better BG grouping options.  Maybe they designed the achievements based on a system they had let become a “single queue”.  Although I missed the early days of BGs and the titles and the constant grind to stay at the top, I have heard of many stories where the BG teams would work towards ensuring a specific person gets to the top.  People sacrificed their own honor for the team.

The changes are coming.

Premades will gain some respectability in Cataclysm. In fact it will be the only way to gain the mid-level rewards for PvP.  Arena will still give the best, Random BGs the worst, but there will be official premades.  This is a good thing, as it will enable people that enjoy PvP, are geared for PvP, to play with a TEAM of others in the BGs.

Unfortunately, this will leave the lower eschelon of BGs where people may not play nice – even though that is the way to win.

I dare say I will be in a server based group, of some description.  It wont be a guild – I am already in a guild, but I guess it will be a lose collective of PvP fans. I guess I can dream that Blizzard will introduce some way of belonging to multiple “organisations”.

As for the “I” in team

It carries as much weight as the statement there is no “I” in Team.  Of course there is… but, not at the expense of the team.

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/07/31/there-is-no-i-in-pvp/

There have been two exciting developments over the weekend.

Mana Obscura Mage Community Forums

Not one, but TWO new community forums have opened, both dear to my heart.

TotemSpot Shaman Forums

These community forums run the risk of being missed by many, so I think it’s worth spreading the news far and wide.

If you blog or podcast on:

Hunters, Warriors, Paladins, Priests, Rogues, Death Knights, Druids, Warlocks, or of course Mages or Shaman…

Then spread the word!

If you are in a guild with a forum…

Then spread the word!

If you are running laps around Dalaran…

Then spread the word!

We all know that most people either play more than one class, or would like to play another class and will go looking for resources to help them perform at the highest level.  Yes, even Hunters have closet Mage alts, DK worship their ancestors on their Shaman.

We know this because we do this.

So, spreading the word can be as easy or hard as you want to make it.

Give them a simple plug:

New Mage and Shaman forums have opened – go sign up and join in the discussion.

Hide a link to the forums cryptically in your posts.. a little Easter egg for those that choose to be curious:

Warriors are a class unlike others that fling fireballs or lightning bolts

Blame me:

Gnomeaggedon said I have to/should/could/will tell the world under threat of a fireball up the blogroll about the new Mage and Shaman forums.

Whatever you do, whatever your write (or read about), start spreading the word

2 big new community forums!

and they don’t require RealID!

Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/07/26/mage-and-shaman-forums-start-spreading-the-news/

First Australians vodcasts from SBS

Right, let me state right up front this isn’t a WoW post, it’s a post about hatred and my hatred of people that are depicted in this series that were in the best cases misguided to the point of hatred, but in the worst were hatred incarnate.

If you thought Australia’s history was about convicts, the poor deported, you are wrong. the history is about the disposed.

To think that I was proud that my great-grandmother went and marked out a selection for my grandfather.

I know the truth now.

It wasn’t his land.

When I was in South Africa I visited the Apartheid Museum and was disgusted, yet, I had no understanding of the atrocities committed in my “own” land.

Unhealthy government experiment

I think this series is the 1st time I have seen Godwin’s law invoked and it mean something, the argument isn’t lost, it just strengthens the hypocrisy of the Australian people.

I was born in the year that the First Australians were first given some initial recognition, the right to be counted in a census.  No I am not old, but it appears I live in a country that is still backward. (At the time, students from Sydney were fighting for the rights of American Blacks, until it was suggested they look closer to home)

There is no other law

Coming from an English/Irish ancestry, I struggle after watching the videos I link below, to honor the white fella blood in my son.  It feels much better to honor the Indian blood, the Indian culture.

The stories are not pretty, they discuss the fate of the traditional owners of the land I call home, owners for some 40,000+ years that were disposed by people that have been here for little over 200 years.  They discuss the  stories of people, that for all that things have changed, really aren’t in a significantly better position than they were 43 years ago, 100 years ago, 200 years ago.

The history depicted in these stories is not the history that I was taught at school and to be honest, I doubt it is taught now.  Considering it took until 2 years ago for the Australian government to utter one simple word…

Sorry

I doubt that even this current government has changed the “noble” white fella history taught in schools, to reveal the brutal black fella history.

First Australians from SBS

The 3rd episode, Freedom for our lifetime, is set primarily in my state, and my city, in the very suburbs that I have lived in for all of my life. My land, My house, My home, is on their land.  Taken long ago to be sure, yet still their land. To think we reduced the black fella’s numbers in Victoria from 60,000+ to 300.  Thank god they survived, against the odds, against the white fella’s wishes.

Too many words of my own, when they can tell their tale better than I ever will.

Each episode is about an hour – so…

7 hours worth of hard viewing.

They can be downloaded onto you iPhones, iPods your whatevers.

I don’t recommend them if you are in a poor emotional state.

I do recommend it if you are Australian, or care about atrocities that humans can commit in the name of civilization.

You can get the vodcasts by clicking on any of the images in this post:

First Australians vodcasts

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/07/23/im-sorry/

One of my favorite targets is Blizzard’s inability to communicate even the simplest, yet most important things to players – downtime.

Now because I am a fair and balanced Gnome (OK, I know both of these statements are debatable… how about just balanced?  Ohh.. I am a Fire Mage, and slightly unhinged… yeah ok.. whatever.. come closer and say that!) I will give credit where it’s due (just wish that was my bank account).

It’s a running commentary of the continuing downtime, which is quite simply awesome.

Well done Blizzard.. I’d love to suggest that I have a direct line to BlizzardHQ, but we all know they can’t see me on the other side of the customer service counter, when when I jump up and down, waving and shouting.

The GMs do good.

Which isn’t to say that I ma never heard.  It does take 2-3 days for any in-game request I place to be resolved, which 99% of the time is OK, I’m not planning to take the LK down in a hours time, so a little delay is fine.

But they always find the time to send me that item I forgot to loot, or the purple weapon I vendored instead of the purple cabbage.

So thanks to you guys and gals as well.

A Gnome with a Gadget

I will come clean and tell you I had a heads up about the extended downtime on Tuesday night.  Not a long term heads up, but after getting home from work, doing the parent-teacher thing, getting the little Gnome to bed, I flicked on the PC and as soon as it started up, I knew there was no WoW for me.

I have me one of those desktop gadgets that you can use in Windows 7.

That’s it, the small bit on the bottom corner, I just thought I’d show you what happens when you use it to search for essential, life changing information.

It basically does two things.

1. Give you a realm status for your choice of realm
2. Gives you a search field and a choice of places to search.

A Gnome with an idea

Gazimoff is at it again.

Not satisfied with being the Mage Archivist, he’s thinking about opening a whole discussion space for Mages, something along the lines of Mage Forums.

He’s looking for a little push, and I dare say a little commitment.

• If you are a Mage that would love forums.
• If you are  Non-Mage only because you are too scared of rerolling Mage without some sage advice behind you
• If you are Jong, wondering if there are more that two buttons to press
• If you are a Non-Mage that wants a barrel full of Mages to play with

Go give Gaz your support, and if you have the time, energy and commitment to help the crazy Gnome out, offer up your soul… err services…

Do I sign up for another 12 months?

My domain is about to expire… which leaves me with a little dilemma.

I could renew it, Blizzard disappoint me, and Armaggedon’s Coming becomes a (cough cough) gardening blog.

I could let it expire, Blizzard excite me, and find out that a gardening blog has taken my domain.

What do you think?

Will you stick with me for another 12 months, whether I am talking FireMage awesomeness, or Garden Gnome stupidity (yeah, OK, what’s the difference…)?

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/07/22/downtime-well-played-blizzard/

It all started when I was bored in Dalaran, my finger hovered over the ESC key, preparing to log off. Something that has become remarkably easy since the RealID stupidity.

Just as I pressed the ESC key and the system menu popped up, I noticed someone

LFM Tempest Keep.

I thought to myself

Why not?

Invites out, summons accepted, in we went.

Buff time

We engage in the usual start of raid ritual of buffing. No one is bothering with fish feasts or flasks – it’s a level 70 raid and it’s filled with 80′s.

A quick glance at my raid UI shows there’s one other Mage in the raid, so I automatically select them and plant a big fat Focus Magic on them.

My Focus Magic is accompanied with my usual pithy macro:

Focus Magic on you, bring on the crits!

Then I stumble.

Rather than the usual automated “thanks for FM” message, I get

Thanks, you want me to respec Arcane?

You play your game, I’ll play mine.

I play Fire, I always have.
I love Fire. It could be as weak as a Warlock and I’d still play Fire.

Krizzly plays Frost, he always has.
He loves Frost. It could be as weak as a Hunter and he’d still play Frost.

Larisa plays Arcane. She loves Fire, but right now loves Arcane more. I think she’d respec Fire with the slightest nudge.

TotalBiscuit plays Arcane because it’s the only spec to play. Playing anything else, particularly Frost proves you’re an idiot. He plays Arcane because as the best Mage spec, you would be gimping your raid by a good 50 dps if you played anything else.

He isn’t sentimental, he doesn’t play a spec because he loves it. He only plays it because it is the best!

Which of course makes me wonder why he isn’t playing the current best raiding spec… Fire.

Let’s face it, if Jong finds Arcane Mages simple and boring… they are simple and boring.  He wont be their poster boy.

Do whatever is fun for you!

Apart from the fact that I was a nobody amongst nobodies in a PuG retro raid, thus really had no right to tell anyone what to do, I replied the only way I know.

You do what makes you feel good

Frost

Gota love a Frostie that loves Frost

I felt a little sorry for the player, living under fear that they should respec from love to practicality.

I chuckled to myself on the 1st boss fight, while the string of

IMMUNE
IMMUNE
IMMUNE

Popped up on the screen.

Ahhh Fire, on a Fire boss.

I was soon laughing hysterically, wondering if I should have done a quick respec to my secondary spec.

Of course exchanging PvE Fire for PvP Fire really wasn’t going to fix things.

It was irrelevant anyway, I just popped open my spellbook and cast Frost spells directly from the book (you don’t think I’d waste space with Frost spells on my toolbar do you? Next you will be wondering if I even bothered spending the gold buying Arcane spells from the trainer).

Seriously folks, when it comes to WoW, a game, play it the way you want to play it.

Fire, Frost, Arcane, Wand Spec – whatever floats your boat, do it.

You may be the only person in the game to spec that way, but just remember.

Contrary to popular opinion, 10,999,999 people can be wrong!

If it’s right for you, then it is right.

Arena Fire

I’m lucky I play with a few folk that don’t care and subscribe to my play whatever you want attitude.

Every now and then they ask if I have a particular Frost talent that is an Arena winner. I gently remind them I am Fire and, everything cool, we move on.

I’ve been seeing more and more people in BGs running with Fire. It’s still a bit of a surprise.

Natural for me, unnatural that I am fighting against Fire.

The other night we came up against a dual Fire Mage team. I didn’t realize at 1st, but the Dragons Breaths and Blastwaves gave the game away.

I almost felt sorry for burying them both, almost and not for long.

I am happy they are playing fire because let’s face it, you wouldn’t be playing fire in the Arena unless you loved it.

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/07/20/play-the-way-you-want-to-play/

let me check…

Ummm no, not really, err, maybe kinda.

No Yankees, but there is some Fire Mage Talent commentary

** WTF! **

So, how ’bout that new 31 point talent tree?

Is the question I got asked, to which I responded…

31 point talent tree?

Yeah, a Gnome with his finger on the pulse… wrong pulse, but there is a pulse there somewhere and a vein, maybe just give me another dozen attempts to jab that needle in…

So what’s the best way for me to approach this… yeah leave it to someone else…

Celeglin writes:

So, how ’bout that new 31 point talent tree? Can’t wait to see your write up.

Honestly, I’m worried. We’re losing a good chunk of our PvP talents and are getting no new ones inside the Fire tree itself.

The Good

• Increased range of Fire Blast. Luvs it.
• Molten Shields affect to Molten Armor now affects spells as well. Too bad I still have no desire to use that armor.
• +20% crit chance on Scorch
• Arcane Repulsion and Improved Blink. Not in the Fire tree, but both very well suited for our PvP play style.

The Bad

• Impact’s proc chance reduced by 3% (this is huge)
• We’re losing our Spell Reflect from Molten Shields
• No more Interrupt immunity from Burning Soul
• Scorch effect only has a 66% chance to proc
• No more instant, free Flamestrikes
• Redesigned Pyroblast does not seem conducive to PvP
• Combustion is just ASKING to be dispelled
• Fiery Payback GONE. No more anti-Execute and no more disarms.
• First tier of Arcane is still pretty lackluster to get at Arcane Repulsion and Improved Blink
• Improved Counterspell is no longer reachable (I didn’t use it anyway); Magic Absorption and Arcane Fortitude are gone.
• The entire Fire tree seems far more geared toward buffing Fireball/FrostFirebolt… But dammit, I don’t want to be casting those spells.

Sorry to vent… got up this morning, saw this and just went “blaaah”. Doesn’t help that the PvE Frost tree is sad too (no more Winter’s Chill and Focus Magic make me a sad Frostie).

Celeglin

To which my real reply was:

Awesome… I was wondering how to post on this… you just did it for me!

My take on going all the way and 31 point talent trees.

On going all the way… Larisa, she of the “I don’t theorycraft Magecraft mentality” has already discussed this.

Personally I like Gnome girls that go all the way, I even like 1/2Gnome/ 1/2Elf girls that go all the way.

When it comes to Fire, it’s just natural that you would go all the way, in fact it feels so natural that I wont call it the fire tree any longer, to me it’s the Nature tree.

When I was a young Mage, I went all the way.. with Nature, (or fire for you non-believers) and I have to say it was so much fun that I forgot that I was 8th on the DPS meters (yeah, that was in 5 mans… ohh well).

To me there was nothing better than mixing Blastwaves and Dragon’s Breath and other “PvP” talents with PvE raiding, in fact forsaking rading talents for PvP talents seemed just natural

THEY WERE FUN!

Sure, they were also useless in a PvE environment (which is where I was at that point in my WoW-life), but I’m not the sort of Gnome that listens to folk that tell me I am doing it all wrong… if I was, I wouldn’t Arena as Fire.

There are two ways of looking at this right now.

• The WoWhead Talent calculator, which gives you a 31 point talent tree and 76 points to spend (err whoops… that’s not right, but you can do just about anything), or
• The MMO Champion “I’m going to bring you right back down to reality” talent calculator.

You know I like options, so if I have an option in this, I am going with WoWhead… I don’t like reality so much, so leave me with 76 points to spend in a 31 point tree and I am almost happy.

Only almost, because knowing that things will change between now and 3.3.666 (the pre-Cataclysm-talent-reset-patch-whose-number-I-just-made-up) I can’t get too worked up about the current state of the talents.

I will say, that if they stay the way they are, we are going to have some fun talent trees, where the talents will be fighting between PvP and PvE It will be kind of a PvPE tree.

The thing I really like, is if you put all your talents into one tree, the ONLY tree, you only have one point left!

What are you going to do with one point?

Just ignore it until it goes away!

Seriously, any noob can see that this will be the only viable spec!

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/07/15/so-how-bout-dem-yankees/

I need to point out that I don’t mind the concept of AnID, I’m just not all that keen on RealID, still, in it’s current form.

This comes from the “optional” part of RealID.

• It’s an option to use it or not.
• It’s an option to apply parental controls to your (maybe adult) account, or not.

Which really comes down to:

a). use it, or

b). not.

Currently I choose option b).

There are other options in the game that don’t effect gameplay in the same way.

• You can choose to purchase trading card in game novelty items – or not.
• You can choose to buy ingame pets – or not.
• You can choose to buy a 310% speed mount – or not.
• You can choose to pay $2.99 per month to additional features of the remote auction house – or not.

These are all options and while the mount and the AH feature DO impact on the game, do give an advantage for people with real world $$ to spend out of game, neither require relinquishing personal liberties or privacy.

The now revoked changes to the forums gave an option:

Use them with your REAL name (because although you could fake your account name, that is against the ToS, so no law abiding person would do that… Right?), or not.

To me this is either:

1. Not a (good) option, or
2. Not enough options.

Options, Options, Options.

At the root is the lack of options of RealID itself, whatever is built on top of this needs to have its options at this level.

Let’s step through the privacy options as I see could work.

1a) Don’t use AnID features
1b) Do use AnID features

If using AnID:

2a) Use AnID features with RealName
2b) Use AnID features with AliasName

3a) Allow FriendsOfFriends
3b) Don’t allow FriendsOfFriends

If using FriendsOfFriends:

4a) Use FriendsOfFriends features with RealName
4b) Use FriendsOfFriends features with AliasName

When using AnID:
5a) Choose to appear offline at login
5b) Choose to appear online at login
5c) Choose to appear online/offline at any point of your choice to your (groups of) friends.

With respect to characters:
Choose which characters participate in AnID, so you can maintain your getaway zone, the place just for you.

FriendlyGroups

Privacy settings should be controlled via groups. You may have your:

• Family group – your choice to be always online
• Guild group
• People I’ve met group
• Roleplaying group
• Nasty nasty PvP group
• etc

I know it can be complicated, but I believe it should be optional to make it as complicated as YOU wish.

It should be optional to turn on, not off

By this I mean that when a new feature is introduced that uses AnID, it should be optional to use AnID, whether RealName or AliasName.

It should be optional to relax privacy, rather than increase it.

By this I mean that when you first activate AnID, and when you first accept a friend request they should automatically be in the tightest privacy group, which you can choose to reduce for as long as you feel comfortable.

It should be optional for a feature in the first place.

None of the “you can’t have this wonderful, exciting, maybe game changing feature” unless you revoke your rights to privacy.

Yes you can use it, but you have the choice of whether you use it as Gnomeaggedon, Snowy, or Bob Rhubarb.

Parental Options <> Privacy Settings

I know I have splattered this around in comments, including a comment to my own post, but Parental Options are NOT Privacy Settings – They are CENSORSHIP settings.

They are settings that you as a parent choose to censor the big bad Internet from your young impressionable charges.

It’s incoming censorship.

I want outgoing censorship, where I can choose what other people see of me.

Just because I don’t want other people to know my RL identity, doesn’t mean I want to have a profanity filter imposed on me, channels of communication restricted to me, Beta participation removed from me.

By using parental controls as privacy controls important parts of the game are made… Optional?

Needless to say I still feel very strongly about this and as things stand, where AnID is still my Real(How stupid and I to follow the ToS and use my real-real legal name)ID, then I figure if I have to use my RealID, I am left with only two options.

1. Give up my privacy and use RealID, or
2. Leave the game, and all games using RealID, forever.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/07/14/its-optional/