Archive for July, 2009
Sex me (and my demon) up!
Jul 30th
Now if she looked like THIS...
Blizzard’s recent Q&A regarding Warlocks (back at the start of July) raised some interesting questions about aesthetics. I haven’t gotten round to addressing this particular subject until now, but here we go. First, a bit of background…
Most discussion surrounding Warlocks as we approach a patch revolves around DPS, nerfs and “what are they going to do to hurt us now?”. However, the news of new skins for Druids, I’m sure celebrated by our tree/bear/cat/freaky hairy caster friends, has raised the question of a much needed overhaul to us ‘locks and, more importantly, our demons.
Here’s what Ghostwalker had to say when the question of our own looks was raised:
Q. Are there any plans to allow warlocks to slightly customize or change the appearance of their pets?
A.This is something we are discussing. There are several voidwalker and imp models we could use pretty easily and it might be nice to add more felhounds and succubi. This isn’t a high priority, but something we would like to eventually get around to improving. We are discussing whether this is simply just random variation (like the names) or whether it becomes an even bigger feature.
Alright, it’s not a high priority but it is nice to know they are discussing it (if you believe what is said in these Q&As). It won’t be Patch 3.2 – we don’t know when it will be. But…there’s hope. So what do we want to see?
Here’s my thoughts.
Imp
I like the imp as he is. He is meant to be small with big ears. But what about a different colour? If it were up to me I’d have a black one or maybe a purple one. Green is so dull. Also, if they do change our fire spells to green, he’ll get a little lost in the action. More than he does now! No major changes required here by me, just give me the option to customise his colour – say he was summoned from a different realm or something, whatever it takes!
Voidwalker
The blueberry has much potential. Colour, armour, facial features, size. For me a change to his armour would suffice, much like the voidwalkers in Hellfire Peninsula. They are shadow mobs, so blue or black are your only real colour options to my mind. So let’s “buff” them up. More muscular, some shadowy plate shoulders…nice.
Succubus
Oh, what fun we could have with the Warlock’s girlfriend! The current model could do with an overhaul anyway, just to make her a little sexier, a little less slapdash. She honestly looks like she probably did when a Blizzard artworker first drew her. So that would be a start. However, and as suggested over at WoW.com, what about a sexy Succubus based on the summoning race?
A green-breasted Orc Succubus or a short, frumpy Gnome one anyone? The potential is fantastic here. Hair styles, armour and choice of whips could all be altered too. In fact, give me the job, Blizzard, I’ll do you proud!
Fel Hunter
I’m one of those annoying Warlocks that has never, ever used the fel puppy to its potential. I see it as a PvP pet and I do precious little PvP. Always thought he was an ugly little bastard though and I suppose that is how he is meant to be. My thoughts on what you could do with this particular model are limited to complete overhauls, a choice of three distinctly models. If you’re a fel puppy fan I’m sure you have more detailed wishes – let me know what they are.
Felguard
Here I have an affinity – the Felguard was a constant companion as I ground my way from 60 to 70. The sudden ability to take down the Elite bugs in Silithus (yes, we go back THAT far) with almost no effort was amazing to me. Everyone kept telling me “Affliction for levelling, Drain Tank those mobs!” – but where’s the fun in that? I wanted my axe-swinging, bad-tempered, rebellious destruction machine alongside me. I even PvP’d with him for a while.
But I digress. The point is I like the way he looks and I wouldn’t want him changed too much. A different weapon, different coloured armour – that would be enough for me.
Infernal
What? He’s a big block of stone spewing green fel fire. He is what he is. Leave him be.
Doomguard
Love this guy. Make him bigger! Make him look meaner! Give him a weapon! Considering summoning him nearly kills me or one of my party I do believe he should be much, much bigger. Maybe half end game boss size. Seriously. His flappy little prance as he enters battle needs fixing too. He should either stomp or swoop, not tiptoe and flap. He is our ultimate, time-limited death dealer – let’s have him look that way, please Blizzard.
Finally, remember that epic quest chain to get your Dreadsteed? Remember how proud you were when you cast that spell for the first time and sat astride your flaming equine? Well, HELLO, BLIZZARD! TIME FOR A FLAMING WARLOCK EPIC FLIER! Here’s what Ghostwalker had to say about that…
Q. Would we consider adding a warlock-specific flying mount? Warlocks have promised to never complain again should such a feature be added. Okay, not really…
A.I think it fits the warlock kit pretty well to have some kind of crazy flying demon. We don’t have any art for such a creature yet, but we’ll keep it in mind. You’d have to go back to Dire Maul to get it. Okay, not really…
Yeah, right…
Of all the bosses in all the world…
Jul 28th
Mimiron
I’m not one for complaining about bosses. Having said that I do get frustrated at wiping on one particular boss from time to time. But this, I feel, adds to the joy of finally defeating him (or her – nods to Maiden, Freya et al).
BUT…and it is a big but…there are certain bosses where no matter how well you know the tactics, no matter how well your group is geared and no matter how well your group is drilled in the fight you still wipe more than you should. And the reason is the mechanics of the boss.
At first I thought Hodir was an example of this. He was taking too long. He wouldn’t go down when he should. I was thinking it was the mechanics. Too much can go wrong that is out of your hands. Not so. In essence, it was the collective failure of just two or three in the group. Apart from that one time when we attempted Hard Mode and the damn fire mage guy was considered out of line of sight because he was on the wall…sigh.
So no…Hodir is a practice fight that you should get down every time once you have cracked it. Not quite as easy as Thorim…but up there for sure.
The REAL pain in the ass, too much luck needed, slowing down your progression boss is…….Mimiron!
This guy…this guy must have more of my deaths notched on his bed post than the Alliance Guild, Might Rising. It’s not knowing the tactics. We have them sorted. It’s not individual error. Phases one through three are a piece of cake.
It is phase four. The amount of luck involved in successfully downing Mimiron in phase four is TOO HIGH.
I know there will be a lot of people reading this and thinking “We never have any problems…what’s up with this Guild?”
I’d probably be doing the same in your shoes. At first I put it down to a mental thing – we expected to die, didn’t expect to down him like we do on everyone else. But that can’t be true. We’ve downed him twice. We know our tactics work and work well. But every time we come to face him we wipe far too often before we finally get him. So it must be luck – and luck in phase four only.
It’s wasting time we want to put into General Vezax and then Yogg-Saron. The General has already proved to be an easier fight, though we have yet to down him as we truly learn the fight.
Something needs to be done about the little green-glowing robot and his big, shiny monstrosity, it really does.
Guild Drama #2 or Your Guild Needs YOU
Jul 23rd
Guild recruitment and raid party make-up – two things I am struggling to get to grips with.
I don’t want to invite any old player to the Guild but I know we need more. Not least so I can begin to put together set raid groups. That’s where raid party make-up comes in. What is optimal?
With dual spec this is much easier now, of course, but still…you have a 10-man raid, what’s the best group? I’d say this:
- Main Tank
- Off Tank
- 3 x Healers
- 2 x Melee DPS
- 3 x Ranged DPS
This is, of course, dependent on the boss in question, where you would perhaps prefer three melee DPS, one tank or whatever. Dual spec should give you those options to be fair, even with a set raid group. But there will inevitably be a bit of swapping in and out of other Guild members or ALTs. That, however, is what I want to try and avoid.
I know who I want in GANK Inc’s premier raiding group. They will be the same 10 that will form the core of our 25-man group. It comprises this:
- Main Tank: Paladin
- Off Tank: Warrior
- Healer 1: Priest (also DPS)
- Healer 2: Paladin
- Healer 3: Druid (also Tank)
- Melee 1: Rogue
- Melee 2: Druid (also Tank/Healer/Ranged)
- Ranged 1: Warlock (me!)
- Ranged 2: Mage
- Ranged 3: Shaman (also Healer)
From that group only the Shaman spot is open and I have a couple of candidates for it. The problem with this? It will inevitably upset at least three people in the Guild. I know it will.
Never mind the fact that it is highly unlikely that I will get these 10 on all the time at every raid and so the others will get a chance. Never mind the fact that a second raid group will be set up as soon as possible in which they will be the most important members. The fact that they aren’t first choice in my preferred raiding team will not go down well. Guild Drama will commence.
So I need to recruit and I need to find a good, solid, dependable and adult raid leader. One who has his or her own idea of what their preferred raid party is made up from. At the same time I need Guild members who will accept this situation. Any takers?
Guild Drama #1 or How I Became The Boss
Jul 22nd
Funny how things work out. One minute you’re a happy little soldier in a very large raiding Guild, the next you’re GM of a very small but committed progression Guild.
So in this first episode of what I am now going to call Guild Drama I’ll explain how the hell it happened.
As I said, just a couple of weeks ago I was happily raiding Ulduar 10 and Naxx 25 with my Guild, Coffee. Things were pretty smooth. But then out of the blue the Guild Master decides to quit World of Warcraft.
He hands over the reins to a very competent but not particularly interested officer and things start to go down hill. This was not the fault of the new GM – he did a good job for the most part, but his choice of officers (and the sheer number of them – I became one just by asking in GChat!) was flawed and one of those officers began to recruit heavily. This had the effect of increasing the number of raids so as to destroy the usefulness of the Calendar and dilute the quality of raiders. Not to mention the utter disaster that became loot allocation.
My little 10-man Ulduar group had, however, been raiding together for a couple of years in another Guild. We only joined Coffee when it was clear that we weren’t going to progress beyond 10-man Naxx and at the time Coffee was well run and we did achieve our goal of clearing Naxx 25 and starting on Ulduar. So with all this drama and nonsense going on around us we became very insular and began discussing what to do.
I even volunteered to Coffee’s new GM to take over from him as he had expressed his unhappiness with the role. And from that moment of madness came a whirlwind weekend during which our Ulduar group, numbering around 15 people (for those days one or more of us isn’t available), quit Coffee and returned to our former Guild, held in reserve by our ALTs. And somehow through all this I ended up as Guild Master!
I’ll be honest, I’m nervous about the role, you hold a lot of people’s expectations in your hands as GM and I want to keep the majority happy. I know I can’t keep everyone happy and, as my Guild will tell you, I am not averse to upsetting people when it’s required. I intend to be firm but fair.
I also intend to maintain the integrity of our raid group (and future raid groups) by very careful recruitment and selection of officers and raid leaders. But maybe that’s another post for Guild Drama. Right now, I’m focussing on getting us up and running with sensible rules that suit the majority.
So it is goodbye to Special Forces(!) Inoperante of Coffee and hello to Guild Master Inoperante of GANK Inc. I’ll let you know how it goes.
WoW Armory iPhone app – and it’s brilliant!
Jul 16th
World of Warcraft Mobile Armory
Blizzard has launched its WoW Armory iPhone app and I have to say…outstanding.
Called the World of Warcraft Mobile Armory, this thing gives you access to the Armory (whether Americas, EU or Oceanic) in full and in six languages.
Log in using your Blizzard account details and you’re good to go. Here are the features you get with this app:
Characters
From this tab you can access your own characters or your bookmarked characters from the Armory. Yes, you can browse the full Armory and bookmark those you find interesting. Maybe they are potential Guild recruits, out-of-Guild PvP partners, whatever you need.
When you click through to a single toon you get the basic Armory detail – name, class, level, server and Guild. In addition you can see the current spec (or specs if the toon has Dual Spec), current Achievement progress, health, mana and stats (all available by a dropdown menu).
What is really clever though, is the gear section. Like the online Armory the currently equipped gear is displayed around the stats. By tapping on an item you can view its stats. Tap the “View Item Details” button and you can view the item in its entirety – including where you can get it. Nice.
And, of course, you can bookmark the character from this page.
Guild
If you’re in a Guild, there is a handy tab immediately on the app’s homepage, titled with your Guild title, which gives immediate access to all the characters in the Guild, ordered by rank. Very useful for Guild Masters and Officers.
Calendar
Now…having direct access to your Guild calender from anywhere at any time is damn useful, don’t you think? Now you’ll never miss a raid, the start of a Holiday or World Event or any other date your Officers or GM wants you to be aware of.
You can also accept and decline invites to raids as well – that is truly innovative and makes you wonder why…
…you can’t add a new event through the app and have it show up in-game. Would be nice though, eh, Blizzard?
Leaderboards
This is purely for a bit of fun. Based on Achievement points earned, you can see where you rank amongst your Guild and your bookmarked characters, as well as view the achievement points earned by all your characters. Useful? Only if you’re in a race with a fellow Guild member or player to achieve the most. Fun? For sure!
Browse Items
Brilliant! Like AtlasLoot on your iPhone! Every item in the Armory searchable by type, (ie, weapons, armor etc) and by dungeon and raid, so you can find out who drops what where. All the item stats are included, as well as cost, vendors if appropriate. The best item search I have come across either on or offline.
Talent Calculator
Does what it says on the tin. Just like the online version, you can tweak your talent spec to your heart’s content. Doesn’t quite fit on the screen so a bit of dragging around is required, making it less useful than the online version – but only marginally.
News
I assume this will hold the latest news from wow.com or wow-europe.com at some point. At the moment it holds a welcome message and a full list of Realm firsts – which I like. Now I know who to tap up for that glyph or craftable gear item!
Settings
Sound, vibration and event alert on and offs. The app does seem to ding and vibrate a lot – but I’m damned if I know why. What those alerts are meant to mean is not clear so unless you can work it out, you may be better off setting the sound and vibrate to off. And if you DO find out what they are for – let me know!
Help & Logout
Provides…erm…help…and…erm…a logout.
Extras
Across the bottom is an always accessible menu list which contains a home button (nicely done with a Hearthstone icon), a search function – this is what will make this app most useful, especially when looking for items and specific characters, a character link just like the one described above and a direct link to your own characters so you can set which one you one to view the rest of the Armory against.
In summary, for the casual or hardcore WoW player, whether you are a GM, Officer, twink or solo player, this app has something for you. Get it. And get it now.
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