This is a blog, and sometimes it is time to look back at what you have done... so, let's look at the last two years on this Blog. Through wiping, we learn... during Mists of Pandaria
On the 18th of september, I wrote my cataclysm farewell post. The next post I would write would be about Mists of Pandaria, this took a while, my driving-urge was very, very low apparantly. Almost FIVE months later I wrote a post about what I had done sofar in Mists. But my blogging was still very low. After April, another FOUR months went by, without me writing anything.
I think there where a lot of reasons why my writing was down. I wrote some down in my first august post. There were probably more reasons, but after this my postcount went up again. This was mostly fueled by World of Lae. She started an Alt:Apprecation theme which I completed.
In November, my 300th post on this blog coincided with Innovations Garrosh-kill. I wrote something about timetravel, warlords and Orgrimmar after the siege, but starting in december, my postcount went down, sometimes dipping to zero, but there were no longer really big gaps between posts. I also did some Blogazeroth Posts.
On the first of April I wrote 'A word for reforging' which I still stand by. What also happened was that I got a better computer, and I started to make movies again. The rest of the year was writing about killed bosses, and what is to come. This week probably ups my count a lot.
In the end, I am just not one of the people who writes a blog almost every day. I have respect for bloggers that do that, it´s just not me. If something really bothers me, or if something irks me, I'll write, not because I need to write because I have a blog to fill, but because I want to.
And for that matter, this blog was mostly written on Friday. The same day as Overpowered, sometimes I just keep typing..... and I actually used the post-on-that-time option for this one.
My goal for Warlords is to write two pieces a week. I once tried a screenshot-friday-series, maybe that's an idea gain. But to be honest, I had that 2 post-per-week idea before...and it felt through a little bit. Lets see what happens....
Sunday, 9 November 2014
Saturday, 8 November 2014
Countdown to Warlords : Blizzcon Tournament
Last night, I watched some Blizzcon, most notably, I watched the PvP-tournament. Two teams of three people slugging it out in an arena. I got a beer, and just watched the stream. This stream is free, although the finale may not be?
Just to give it some background, I suck at PvP...or at least I think, because I never actually do it. For me, PvP is like a LFR-raid, only with more people just minding their own business, once in a while you may get a good team, but mostly, it's everyone for themselves.
So, last night I watched the matches, and I found it mildly entertaining. There is one huge problem, without the commentators, I had no idea what was going on. And I have a reasonable understanding of most classes, being an altoholic and all.
But just looking at the screen, with the sound of, most of the time stuff happens so fast. And it all comes down to cooldowns. Now some of them you could see coming. Manatea-stacks you can count, the trinket-cooldwon was on screen. But to really fathom what was going on, as a spectator, you really need to see all the cooldowns. Luckily the commentators apparantly had that info.
With that in mind, half of the kills, came completely sudden. In playback, you could see what was going on, and most of the time it was because the commentators where talking about another player, and suddenly, boom, dead player.
It's like in football, when a player just kicks the ball towards the goal from midfield, and it miraculously finds the goal. There was no real attack play, it just happened. Now, if we, as spectators had all the information, we oursleves probably could see it coming, although so much is happening.
I wonder if it is really feasible as an e-sport. Even with my knowledge of classes, I lost track. And most of the times, I was actually looking more at the health-bars, then at the screenplay.
What I mostly remember from last night was Lore. The community/manager from Blizzard, sitting in the middle of the commentators. Now, I have known Lore for a long time. He once had a blog, which is still buried deep down in my follow/list, which concerned Paladins. He stopped blogging, and starting to do ´The Weekly Marmot´, him ranting about stuff. In about three years, he made a lot of show, also combining with gamebreaker, doing stuff, and then he went to work for Blizzard.
At the beginning he seemed a little bit flustered, but he came into the groove later on, but really, that working for Blizzard really exploded the hair....
Just to give it some background, I suck at PvP...or at least I think, because I never actually do it. For me, PvP is like a LFR-raid, only with more people just minding their own business, once in a while you may get a good team, but mostly, it's everyone for themselves.
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| All my honorpoints on Argent Dawn. |
So, last night I watched the matches, and I found it mildly entertaining. There is one huge problem, without the commentators, I had no idea what was going on. And I have a reasonable understanding of most classes, being an altoholic and all.
But just looking at the screen, with the sound of, most of the time stuff happens so fast. And it all comes down to cooldowns. Now some of them you could see coming. Manatea-stacks you can count, the trinket-cooldwon was on screen. But to really fathom what was going on, as a spectator, you really need to see all the cooldowns. Luckily the commentators apparantly had that info.
With that in mind, half of the kills, came completely sudden. In playback, you could see what was going on, and most of the time it was because the commentators where talking about another player, and suddenly, boom, dead player.
It's like in football, when a player just kicks the ball towards the goal from midfield, and it miraculously finds the goal. There was no real attack play, it just happened. Now, if we, as spectators had all the information, we oursleves probably could see it coming, although so much is happening.
I wonder if it is really feasible as an e-sport. Even with my knowledge of classes, I lost track. And most of the times, I was actually looking more at the health-bars, then at the screenplay.
What I mostly remember from last night was Lore. The community/manager from Blizzard, sitting in the middle of the commentators. Now, I have known Lore for a long time. He once had a blog, which is still buried deep down in my follow/list, which concerned Paladins. He stopped blogging, and starting to do ´The Weekly Marmot´, him ranting about stuff. In about three years, he made a lot of show, also combining with gamebreaker, doing stuff, and then he went to work for Blizzard.
At the beginning he seemed a little bit flustered, but he came into the groove later on, but really, that working for Blizzard really exploded the hair....
Friday, 7 November 2014
Countdown to Warlords : Overpowdered
Rouges are Overpowdered. - Nagkeen
That was the forumsignature of an officer in my first raidingguild. He played a Rogue, which was considered overpowered back then by most. OP-classes, or specs, is something akin to MMO's. Sometimes a class will do things the makers didn't consider, and be stronger then any other.
These classes are also very likely to be the so-called 'flavor-of-the-month' class. Players, and people in general, have the tendecy to flock to the strongest. And we have all seen OP-stuff. Last few months I thought it was mostly Warlocks, although I may be mistaken.
You always find OP DPS at the top of the lists, and not on just one fight, but on all the fights. The last few years, Blizzard has dwindled it down, the player is more important than the class. How bossfights are is also very important. If I look back at the last months, Innovation always had the same 6 people in the top 10, but almost never the same player on top all the fights.
Having one player on top all the time... and sometimes with a pretty big margin, that is overpowered.
So yeah, nerf Moonkins I guess, On 7 of the 8 first Mythic bosses I came in at 1. The only exception was Galakras, but I am not doing stuff there often, waiting on adds. I am also not on the towerteam. Sha als may be skewed because of different phases. But this is ridiculous, how did that happen?
So, yeah...that Starfall-buff is a little over the top at the moment, lets see what it does with 10 more levels. Juggernaut is as close as you can get to a patchwork style fight, one target, so almost no Starfall. Both Sha en Nazgrim but Starfire on top, probably because adds are not up all the time, and you can focus boss much more.
I do think I have the new Balance-stuff under control now, only thing is that I will get instant Starsurges somewhere on my way to lvl100. And that level100 probably will end my overpowdered status.
Thursday, 6 November 2014
Countdown to Warlords : Innovation Raiding
Tonight, Innovation will start its farewell Pandaria Raid. If we make it till the end remains to be seen, but that does not matter much anymore. Next week, we will be knee-deep in the blood of Iron Horde Orcs, instead of normal Orcs...
As Mardah, I have now done two whole expansions with Innovation. On the first day of winter, 2010, I joined Innovation, two weeks into the Cataclyms Expansion. Both expansion somewhat followed the same timestamps.
Innovation did the first tier of raiding 'almost' in the time provided. In the second tier we did some heroics (now mythics), and the last tier was completed on the most difficult setting... in the nick of time. Halfway the expansion there seems to be a problem with the number of raiders, although Innovation didn't went back to 10-mans, like we had to do in Firelands. So we have a good pace.
This weekend we will hear more about the future, if there will be 2 or 3 tiers of raiding. Will Blizzard finally up the speed, could we actually be having a patch 7.0 before december 2015? There is also a lot of studying new bosses and raids coming up, although some old names will come along (Hello Gruul).
Innovation will probably resume raiding in januar after this week. Give people time to level up, have a nice christmas vacation. There are less bosses in the first tier of raids then last expansion, so we may be able to do it in time, we'll see.
What remains after this week are the memories of endless wiping on some bosses, I am looking at you ElegON, GaralON, HorridON. The quick and sudden kills of some bosses, like the Thunderkings Wifes, the Shamans of Orgrimmar on Mythic... That watery dude on the terrace. And of course the seemingly endless summer in Orgrimmar it self.
Luckily, we still have the pictures and videos....
As Mardah, I have now done two whole expansions with Innovation. On the first day of winter, 2010, I joined Innovation, two weeks into the Cataclyms Expansion. Both expansion somewhat followed the same timestamps.
 |
| Innovation preparing for heroic Malkorok |
Innovation did the first tier of raiding 'almost' in the time provided. In the second tier we did some heroics (now mythics), and the last tier was completed on the most difficult setting... in the nick of time. Halfway the expansion there seems to be a problem with the number of raiders, although Innovation didn't went back to 10-mans, like we had to do in Firelands. So we have a good pace.
This weekend we will hear more about the future, if there will be 2 or 3 tiers of raiding. Will Blizzard finally up the speed, could we actually be having a patch 7.0 before december 2015? There is also a lot of studying new bosses and raids coming up, although some old names will come along (Hello Gruul).
Innovation will probably resume raiding in januar after this week. Give people time to level up, have a nice christmas vacation. There are less bosses in the first tier of raids then last expansion, so we may be able to do it in time, we'll see.
What remains after this week are the memories of endless wiping on some bosses, I am looking at you ElegON, GaralON, HorridON. The quick and sudden kills of some bosses, like the Thunderkings Wifes, the Shamans of Orgrimmar on Mythic... That watery dude on the terrace. And of course the seemingly endless summer in Orgrimmar it self.
Luckily, we still have the pictures and videos....
Monday, 3 November 2014
Hellscream's Downfall
A lot has happened last week for me in raiding land. After taking down Thok, Innovation went on. Next target was Siegecrafter, that took a while. There is just so much fire, and stuff happening. You have to run around sometimes, with no idea if you can actually get back. But, the moment our raidleader put the ranged dps on a spot inside the second fire-circle, it was game over for Siegecrafter.
Next up: Paragons. I always found this fight easy, and normal...mm..heroic, our first kill was the second pull, and I was not really expecting a very long wipefest on Mythic. So, we took them down on our first pull...with a catch. Halfway the last paragon, only our DK-tank, two retridins and a warrior where left alive. The warrior didn't made it to the end, but the selfhealing of those last three was enough to take the last one down, took a while, but the road to Garrie was open.
Now, Mythic Garrie... an extra Phase, with circles, dots, fire from the sky and big iron balls. That was new for us, never seen that before, and you had to go through all the normal phases to actually see what was happening. So, this took a while, and after one thursday-evening of wiping, Garrie was still up, sunday was next. But I had made a Video for everyone to see what was happening.
Friday came, and I logged on to my Blood Elf paladin to partake in a heroic Garrosh run. There where some problems, but once Beyond redemptions RaidLeader figured out that only 3 of the 6 healers were actually healing, Garrosh went down, and Gwaednerth got his guaranteed heirloom, a 2H strength axe, and the title: Liberator of Orgrimmar.
On Saturday I did someting new, I used the new Blizzard Premade group Finder to join a HC Garrosh run on Lorinthe, my Warlock. Why Lorinthe, well, I either would get the OH or the Staff, and because I already had one spellmace, both would be usefull. Lorinthe's Ilvl is also in the 560's, so I applied to a group, and got a direct invite. This group pulled quickly, and together with my green fire, killed Garrie in one pull, and I got the Staff, probably my togoto weapon for levelling Mardah.
And then Sunday came around. I had some pre-raid remarks for our RL (always do them pre-raid, not during), and Innovation went in again. We had a little different tactic on P4. The Malice-target had to run between groups, instead of people with blast running out, And because the Bombardment seemed partially targetting players, the tanks didn't pull Garrie to spot 2 during that.
The first few pulls brought us without much problems in P4, where the learning started. During the third or fourth try, everyone was alive after bombardment, and with one Iron Ball up [re: apparantly two where up], when someone got malice..and ran out..yeah, I think we forgot to specify what to with malice after bombardment... so everyone bit the dust again...
...almost everyone, with a little more than 1% left on Garrosh, our Death Dorf Knight Tank Moreor refused to die....
[I was actually taping, but becasue I died, I was trying to type, some hotkeys popped up character screen and spellbook, so that video was ruined...]
Next up: Paragons. I always found this fight easy, and normal...mm..heroic, our first kill was the second pull, and I was not really expecting a very long wipefest on Mythic. So, we took them down on our first pull...with a catch. Halfway the last paragon, only our DK-tank, two retridins and a warrior where left alive. The warrior didn't made it to the end, but the selfhealing of those last three was enough to take the last one down, took a while, but the road to Garrie was open.
Now, Mythic Garrie... an extra Phase, with circles, dots, fire from the sky and big iron balls. That was new for us, never seen that before, and you had to go through all the normal phases to actually see what was happening. So, this took a while, and after one thursday-evening of wiping, Garrie was still up, sunday was next. But I had made a Video for everyone to see what was happening.
Friday came, and I logged on to my Blood Elf paladin to partake in a heroic Garrosh run. There where some problems, but once Beyond redemptions RaidLeader figured out that only 3 of the 6 healers were actually healing, Garrosh went down, and Gwaednerth got his guaranteed heirloom, a 2H strength axe, and the title: Liberator of Orgrimmar.
On Saturday I did someting new, I used the new Blizzard Premade group Finder to join a HC Garrosh run on Lorinthe, my Warlock. Why Lorinthe, well, I either would get the OH or the Staff, and because I already had one spellmace, both would be usefull. Lorinthe's Ilvl is also in the 560's, so I applied to a group, and got a direct invite. This group pulled quickly, and together with my green fire, killed Garrie in one pull, and I got the Staff, probably my togoto weapon for levelling Mardah.
And then Sunday came around. I had some pre-raid remarks for our RL (always do them pre-raid, not during), and Innovation went in again. We had a little different tactic on P4. The Malice-target had to run between groups, instead of people with blast running out, And because the Bombardment seemed partially targetting players, the tanks didn't pull Garrie to spot 2 during that.
The first few pulls brought us without much problems in P4, where the learning started. During the third or fourth try, everyone was alive after bombardment, and with one Iron Ball up [re: apparantly two where up], when someone got malice..and ran out..yeah, I think we forgot to specify what to with malice after bombardment... so everyone bit the dust again...
...almost everyone, with a little more than 1% left on Garrosh, our Death Dorf Knight Tank Moreor refused to die....
[I was actually taping, but becasue I died, I was trying to type, some hotkeys popped up character screen and spellbook, so that video was ruined...]
Monday, 27 October 2014
Starfalling
After every patch the last four years, it was the same question, what is Starfall doing today?
Starfall is the Moonkin AoE spells that drops those nice stars from the sky, doing nice damage, and always associated with trash-wipes. I remember that in one of my first raids with Innovation, I pulled the boss because I accidentally hit Starfall.
Now Starfall is not a targetted spell..it just blankets a 40-yard circle-area, with the moonkin at his center with stars, but, it was not supposed to hit out-of-combat targets... it was supposed to... So, since that incident I have been very carefull with this spell, but the last half year it seemed working perfectly.
It worked so good, that it even didn't hit CC-ed targets anymore. It still hit everything that was in combat though.. a real Healer-saver for that matter on trash, especially if an extra pack of mobs was 'butt'-pulled.
In solo-ing it was a little worse, because it does not make a difference with whom a target was in combat, hitting Starfall on the Timeless Isle was a sort of gamble, lucky there was a glyph so it would only hit targets you dotted. This was important, because Starfall was a big part of the rotation, even on single-target-fights.
I actually had Starfall glyphed for Garrosh, because the adds all aggro-ed me, for a while, until I was placed in the melee-group for Typhoon.
Now, with 6.0, Starfall seemed to be less important for our wonky rotation, you have to choose between Starfall or Starsurge, the latter increasing damage on starfire/wrath. Considering single-target fights, Starsurge is way better then some falling stars, but as I found out last week in Mythic Siege, most fights have adds somewhere, and on 3 or more, Starfall does better damage then Starsurge.
On Thok last night, I found another use, a filler for when you running out of range towards something. You may loose some stars, but some will hit after you are in range again.
I am liking this spell-choice between Surge and Fall more and more...but.. using it on Trash is most of the time a big No-No. Not because of the damage, but because of something irritating. Starting with 6.0, Starfall lost the 'only targets in combat'-component. And most Trash packs are closer together than 40 yards, which may result in some accidentally pulling.
It's not even feasible on Frogs. The Timeless isle frogs, as most of you know, are now heavily farmed for charms. So, I thought nice, I stand there hit Starfall and every frog gets damaged by me, which is right..but I was most of the time not the one who tagged the frog.
Apparantly the stars in Starfall need to come from another galaxy, that long does it take to reach earth. I also heard horrostories from dungeons, where everything is even closer together. There Starfall seems to be 'press-here-to-wipe'.
I can actually not see the reason behind the removal of the 'only-in-combat' part, maybe there is some strange PvP-reason, maybe they found it to difficult to actually implement, I have no idea. But everytime I want to hit Starfall, I know have to be very carefull.
Starfall is the Moonkin AoE spells that drops those nice stars from the sky, doing nice damage, and always associated with trash-wipes. I remember that in one of my first raids with Innovation, I pulled the boss because I accidentally hit Starfall.
Now Starfall is not a targetted spell..it just blankets a 40-yard circle-area, with the moonkin at his center with stars, but, it was not supposed to hit out-of-combat targets... it was supposed to... So, since that incident I have been very carefull with this spell, but the last half year it seemed working perfectly.
It worked so good, that it even didn't hit CC-ed targets anymore. It still hit everything that was in combat though.. a real Healer-saver for that matter on trash, especially if an extra pack of mobs was 'butt'-pulled.
In solo-ing it was a little worse, because it does not make a difference with whom a target was in combat, hitting Starfall on the Timeless Isle was a sort of gamble, lucky there was a glyph so it would only hit targets you dotted. This was important, because Starfall was a big part of the rotation, even on single-target-fights.
I actually had Starfall glyphed for Garrosh, because the adds all aggro-ed me, for a while, until I was placed in the melee-group for Typhoon.
Now, with 6.0, Starfall seemed to be less important for our wonky rotation, you have to choose between Starfall or Starsurge, the latter increasing damage on starfire/wrath. Considering single-target fights, Starsurge is way better then some falling stars, but as I found out last week in Mythic Siege, most fights have adds somewhere, and on 3 or more, Starfall does better damage then Starsurge.
 |
| Thok-barbeque with Innovation |
I am liking this spell-choice between Surge and Fall more and more...but.. using it on Trash is most of the time a big No-No. Not because of the damage, but because of something irritating. Starting with 6.0, Starfall lost the 'only targets in combat'-component. And most Trash packs are closer together than 40 yards, which may result in some accidentally pulling.
 |
| Siegecrafter Blackfuse ready to kill an Innovation trash-pack |
It's not even feasible on Frogs. The Timeless isle frogs, as most of you know, are now heavily farmed for charms. So, I thought nice, I stand there hit Starfall and every frog gets damaged by me, which is right..but I was most of the time not the one who tagged the frog.
Apparantly the stars in Starfall need to come from another galaxy, that long does it take to reach earth. I also heard horrostories from dungeons, where everything is even closer together. There Starfall seems to be 'press-here-to-wipe'.
I can actually not see the reason behind the removal of the 'only-in-combat' part, maybe there is some strange PvP-reason, maybe they found it to difficult to actually implement, I have no idea. But everytime I want to hit Starfall, I know have to be very carefull.
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Transition
This time of the WoW-years are always strange. So much new information, all add-ons need updating, spells disappera, or re-appear. And sometimes you have to relearn your class completely. I have seen this before, and it's always the same.
There seems to be a very high number of people coming back to the game with this latest lol-patch. Doing a lot of things, they couldn't do last months, mostly because of not being there. And for me, and players like me, it's all...meh...
Does it say something that on Patchday, I was bored so fast, that I actually played my Frosty DK through her last 2 levels, making her my 11th max-level char on Argent Dawn? Actually, most time on patch-day was spent cleaning up bags... and waiting for the add-on Althoholic to update. I really can't play without that add-on anymore it seems... and it's not even for raiding.
The barbershop
Another thing that had to be done, was going to the barber on several characters. My Paladin was completely off, so he needed a new head-cut... I am also not liking the gnome when they just stand around, but because I don't like any of the other faces, nothing changed for them. My Trio of Draenai didn't need a change, and the only change to my Dwarves, was a new beard for Stonehear, Lorinthe changed hairstyles, and Mardah, well.. Mardah. There was something wrong with her new face...
Statsquishy
To be honest, I hardly notice it. It takes a little time to get used to smaller health-pools, but everything dies so fast.. I actually killed Attuman so fast he was not able to mount his horse..and dropped no loot. Innovation did a norma...rrr...heroic raid last week, and everything died so fast.. which is normal in lolpatches. But stat-squish combined with new power... well.. we skipped a lot of phases during this clear. Although we still had a wipe-call at garrosh, because our melee where testing if the bomb does less damage... which it probably does, but still enough to splat the melee.
Balancing Eclipse
The new Moonkin-rotation-thingy is strange. I trained to get the patchwork-style in my head, but on trash and bosses I can hardly do that. Either becasue trash is dead before I can cast two spells, or because of movement. Because of the fluidic eclipsebar I can not start moving with an idea what to cast when I stop. If I have to move a little.. well.. that measn I just skip a spell probably, but longer movement, means one of my eyes is continously on the eclipse-bar..where am I, what to cast... And 15k instead of 300k DPS is amazing...
Food for thought; our dps went down with a factor 20, our health with a factor 5..
Tonight, we will start Mythical..with a max of 20 people....
There seems to be a very high number of people coming back to the game with this latest lol-patch. Doing a lot of things, they couldn't do last months, mostly because of not being there. And for me, and players like me, it's all...meh...
Does it say something that on Patchday, I was bored so fast, that I actually played my Frosty DK through her last 2 levels, making her my 11th max-level char on Argent Dawn? Actually, most time on patch-day was spent cleaning up bags... and waiting for the add-on Althoholic to update. I really can't play without that add-on anymore it seems... and it's not even for raiding.
 |
| The day before massive plastic surgery |
The barbershop
Another thing that had to be done, was going to the barber on several characters. My Paladin was completely off, so he needed a new head-cut... I am also not liking the gnome when they just stand around, but because I don't like any of the other faces, nothing changed for them. My Trio of Draenai didn't need a change, and the only change to my Dwarves, was a new beard for Stonehear, Lorinthe changed hairstyles, and Mardah, well.. Mardah. There was something wrong with her new face...
 |
| The not well done plastic surgery |
To be honest, I hardly notice it. It takes a little time to get used to smaller health-pools, but everything dies so fast.. I actually killed Attuman so fast he was not able to mount his horse..and dropped no loot. Innovation did a norma...rrr...heroic raid last week, and everything died so fast.. which is normal in lolpatches. But stat-squish combined with new power... well.. we skipped a lot of phases during this clear. Although we still had a wipe-call at garrosh, because our melee where testing if the bomb does less damage... which it probably does, but still enough to splat the melee.
 |
| Wicked Mardah |
Balancing Eclipse
The new Moonkin-rotation-thingy is strange. I trained to get the patchwork-style in my head, but on trash and bosses I can hardly do that. Either becasue trash is dead before I can cast two spells, or because of movement. Because of the fluidic eclipsebar I can not start moving with an idea what to cast when I stop. If I have to move a little.. well.. that measn I just skip a spell probably, but longer movement, means one of my eyes is continously on the eclipse-bar..where am I, what to cast... And 15k instead of 300k DPS is amazing...
Food for thought; our dps went down with a factor 20, our health with a factor 5..
Tonight, we will start Mythical..with a max of 20 people....
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