Lodur

Lodur is the right hand shaman to Matticus on World of Matticus, and a recruiting officer of Conquest and Co-Host of For the Lore podcast. Read more of his works at WoW Insider.

Shaman Tier 10 Lodur’s Thoughts

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So where has Lodur been you might be asking? Well I’ve been a busy Shaman. For those of you who may not know I am now the co-host of a weekly podcast called For The Lore. We transmit every week live on Monday’s at 6:45pm EST over at our Ustream Channel. We cover all aspects of modern gaming and some of the old school, we talk about more then just the lore of these games but the story is honestly a big part of why we play these games. Needless to say I’ve been quite busy with that and keeping the ball rolling over there. If you have time feel free to check us out live Monday evening’s or download us for free through iTunes and listen to your friendly neighborhood Shaman speak his mind.

Now while I have been busy with that among several other projects, I have not been living under a rock. I did see the Shaman tier 10 models and I dare say that Blizzard put it up rather shortly after my Cardboard Samurai post because I think they realized the natives were restless 😉 Lets take a look at it in it’s full glory shall we?

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This thing kicks allllllll kinds of tail in my opinion. Personally I think we won Tier 10. It’s stylish, the color scheme is awesome the placement of the ice is tasteful and well…lets be honest the shoulder effect is about as sweet as I’ve seen since Warlock Tier 6 bat wings. The only other armor set for tier 10 that comes close is the Warriors, but even that falls short in my opinion. Compare tier 10’s look to tier 9’s

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Aside from the kilt, this set is identical to the hunters tier 9. It didn’t look very shamanistic, and to be honest it was pretty ugly. I wish I could hide my t9 or have a vanity set shown over it because it’s not that great. Tier 10 feels very shamanistic, lets not forget that Ner’zhul was a shaman before he became the lich king, so the tier 10 armor has this erie shamanistic feel to it. It has the icicles around it randomly for the elemental feel of water, and the bones are that of what appears to be a Shoveltusk. Stags, Talbuk and Shoveltusk have always been representations for the Spirit of the hunt or spirit of the wild for shaman, so it seems only fitting to have not only their bones but the spirtual image of them pushing outwards from the shoulders.

I’m impressed and honestly very very happy with it. I think this was blizzards way of saying “we’re sorry for tier 9 guys, here… look awesome” and I say to them. Thank you. I’m quite pleased with how tier 10 came out.

What about you guys? What do you think about the Shaman tier 10? Think it looks good, bad, meh?

until next time, happy healing

Sig

all images courtesy of MMO-Champion.com

Ask Lodur!

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It’s been a while since we’ve had enough questions for me to do this but today happens to be one of the days I DO have enough! For those of you who don’t know about this I take questions over Twitter you can find me at the LodurZJ user name or you can use the hash tag #asklodur. Ask lodur is where I take the serious and the silly questions from our readers and give them an answer. Think of it as a Dear Abbey WoM style 😉  So without further ado, here’s today’s Ask Lodur!

Dear Lodur,

Will the new pet store cause the fall of WoW civilization as several WoW-“experts” have suggested?

Sincerely

The Zet

Dear Zet,

I can honestly say I don’t think so. Not unless they decide to let you buy say…Onyxia as a pet that you can unleash in PvP! Honestly though the addition of a pet store is nothing more then cutting out the middle man in the quest for more shinny non combat items for us in game. I hardly think that this break the game, and it is a FAR cry from being the Micro transaction model that other games such as Dungeons and Dragons Online and various other MMO’s have employed. This is no different then buying the cards for the collectible card game and getting an in came code.

Dear Lodur

Do you condone breaking and entering? Would you be ok someone broke into Blilz HQ for the supersecret t10 Shaman gear?

Kirby

Dear Kirby,

Well I personally don’t condone breaking and entering, I feel that the fact that Blizzard has not released the Shaman tier 10 to be as good a reason as any to look the other way >.> While I myself wouldn’t do it… if it happened to find it’s way across my desk I wouldn’t ask where it came from ….
Dear Lodur,

In the absence of trustworthy feedback, how do you evaluate your healing performance? Especially as a rsham?

Sincerely,

Herselftherogue

Dear The Rogue

An honest judgement of how you evaluate your healing performance can be done a few ways for a Resto Shaman. The first thing to look as is… Did the raid wipe? If the answer is no, then you’re pretty good to go. If the answer is yes then you need to look a little bit deeper. Was the cause of the wipe the target you were assigned to heal? Was it caused by a “stupid” death that you couldn’t heal through? Honestly it’s very hard to judge your performance individually. Basically if no one died or it isn’t a wipe, count it as a win 😉


Dear Lodur,

boxers, briefs, none or “other”?

Sincerely,

Shamanfan

Dear Shamanfan,

um… I don’t really know how to answer that one. Honestly though, it depends on the gear. If I’m in a kilt, there’s no reason not to go full dress! If I’m in actual chain maille pants well… that’s another story.

Dear Lodur

I have this thing were I feel the need to only cast PW:S on everyone. Do I have a problem?

Sincerely,

BubbleBoi


Dear BubbleBoi,

YES! seek help immediately! There is more to life then bubbles alone! If you continue down this path you will develop Bubbleitis! This is a very serious problem that results in tunnel vision, blurry awareness and can escalate as far as deadraidsyndrome! Get help before it’s too late!

That’s it for todays Ask Lodur, be sure to use the contact form on this site, or pop on twitter and ask away!

Until next time, Stay Classy Azeroth

Sig

Exclusive Shaman Tier 10 Preview!!!!!!!!

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So I’m sure many of you are on the edge of your seats, wondering with baited breath what our armor is going to look like. Well I have exciting news for you!! Here at WoM we have the exclusive on the new armor graphics for the tier 10 shaman set

Are you ready?

Truly?

Honestly?

Are you sure?

It’s pretty epic!

Here it comes!

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CARDBOARD SAMURAI!!!!!

Made you look!

Honestly there still is no news on the tier 10 armor set models for Shaman and it’s a little disheartening. We’ve seen the sets for everyone else (good or bad) but not for ours.

What could be taking so long? Maybe they are really trying to figure out what it should look like. Maybe they have something in mind but want to spring it on us like a nice holiday surprise. Maybe they are just embarrassed by what they slapped together and are scrapping it to start over. I wasn’t very impressed with the Tier 9 Alliance set, it looked decent on the male models and it looked good on Dwarves but on Female Elves and Draenei it just looked misshapen. It also didn’t seem very shamanistic to me, especially since Hunters got the same armor graphic. I need something with at least a little bit in the way of elements to make me happy. Hell I’ll settle for a dead bird hat Druid style at this point. Here’s hoping we’ll get to see their model for it soon, but until then I have a challenge to lay at your feet.

If you want to try your hand at making a mock up of what you want Shaman tier 10 to look like or what you think would look cool, post it here! Break out the photoshop and MS Paint and let’s see what you got!

Sig

Image courtesy of http://www.rosepolenzani.com

Breaking in The Newbie

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So you’ve just recruited a new healer and need to integrate them into your healing line up. The question a lot of people have is how do you do this effectively? Well, it will obviously be different a little bit for every guild but I’d like to offer up some tips

As a Leader

Communication

Probably the most important thing you can do is talk with the new person. Make sure they understand the rules of the raid if there are any. If they don’t know the specific rules of a raid it’s too easy to trample on them. Communicate healing assignments to them and see how they react. Seeing if they can follow an assignment is a great indicator of their raid mentality. If you have a veteran healer of their class in your raids that performs well, ask them to talk to the newbie and gauge their performance. Most importantly socialize with them a little bit. Getting to know someone a little bit can make a big difference in how they perform and react. Also being able to judge if the person can communicate effectively, as well as if they mesh with the other personalities of the raid is a good thing to do.

Performance

This is something you think wouldn’t be an issue, but it is. You have to be able to put the player in a situation where you can accurately gauge skill and knowledge of the role. If you bring them to a raid that you out gear, with your team of best healers, chances are the new guy wont show up quite as well against the others. It’s easier if the person is equally geared but chances are just as likely that they are below your current gear content. Give them a place to shine, take them on 10 man runs with alt healers, take them on heroic runs, chain pull and see how they react. Give them a chance to show you their moxie without the saturation of other over geared healers.

Evaluation

When it comes time to look at what they’ve done, take the time to include them in the analysis. They may have done things that you don’t quite understand, but they might have a perfectly logical reason for doing them. Talk to them about the runs you’ve done, things you like, things that might be concerns, you’d be surprised how many people respond very well to just being talked to about what’s going on.

As an Applicant

Be Vocal

Don’t just be the silent kid who follows along behind the pack. Be vocal, say hi, converse with the your fellow healers and guildies let them see your personality. Don’t overrun ventrilo or take over the conversation, but try to be sociable. It goes a long way when people can see your personality shine a bit. Don’t be afraid to offer to go on heroic runs and such.

Ask Questions

I encourage my raiders to ask questions if they are ever unsure about anything. You shouldn’t be afraid to ask for clarification or anything really. I’ve had raiders ask why we do things a certain way compared to another, and it’s OK with me, I have zero problem explaining why we’re doing it one way if someone cares to know.

Don’t Be Afraid

Probably the most important thing I can say is don’t be afraid to be yourself. Don’t try to be someone or something you’re not. There’s nothing worse then trying to shoe horn yourself into a little category or check box. Just be you!

Have fun!

It is a game after all! If you’re not having fun with the people you’re around, then what’s the point? We want to have fun too and if you can have fun with us, well that’s just a ton of points in your favor.

Practical Application

I’m going to share with you a story of one of my healing team members, you might know him. He’s a little bald Dwarf named Thespius. You might have seen him around Here and There. He came to me as a transfer applicant, he transferred servers just for the chance to raid with me and mine. We had talked over twitter and on AIM and email, and eventually he decide it was worth while to hop servers and spend time with us. I talked to him outside of the game so I had a decent understanding of his personality and I made it clear what I was looking for in a healer and a raider. We were both on the same page. And then after he was transferred on server we got him into one of our ToC (25) raids.

Keep in mind he is a Disc Priest for the next part. I started switching him back and forth between tanking heals and raid healing, purposely overlapping him and my other Disc Priest multiple times. I wanted to see how he would react and if it would interrupt his rolling if he got to a target that already had the weakened soul debuff. He didn’t make one complaint, nor did he break stride. He performed very well, never questioning orders. He had one suggestion that night and sent me a tell about it right away, and I encourage this in all my raiders as we either succeed or fail as a guild. I had also sent a tell out to the healers to give it all they got and not go easy so I can see if he can keep up (we out geared him a little bit ). At the end of the night I uploaded numbers to World of Logs. Thespius had performed more then admirably, he did downright fantastic! My healers had given their all and he kept right up with us despite the gear discrepancy.

I talked to him the next day and let him know what a fantastic job he did and that I was happy to have him on my healing team.

We talked, he listened to assignments and he wasn’t afraid to be himself. Since then he has contributed to strategy as the guild was working on three lights in the darkness. Communication between us was clear and he always responded when I gave assignments letting me know he knew what to do. He performed well, and was very personable with everyone in the guild, going along with heroics and raids and just having a blast. Honestly was one of the best applicants I’ve had in a long time.

Being the newbie isn’t always the most fun thing, but just remember to be yourself and have fun!

So how about you out there. How do you try to integrate the new recruits? What about when you first joined your guild? Any tips you want to Share?

That’s it for today, until next time, Happy Healing~

Sig

Two Val’anyr at WoM? That’s Unpossible!

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First things first I’d like to congratulate Matt on his Hammer of awesomeness!

Matt and I were long talking about sitting on the 30 fragments and needing to get the mace completed.  Matt’s guild was not the only one to have problems deep into Ulduar. Unpossible on Zul’jin, my guild and my home was tearing through Ulduar. Fragments were dropping and loot was being passed all around. Then we got to Vezax, the guild was going full steam…until we lost some of our top dps and heals to burnout. A top dps DK, Hunter, and a few others just didn’t have any more juice left. They had been raiding you see since before BC. It happens, and I don’t fault them for it, but that meant Unpossible was recruiting. All my guildies hit the streets so to speak, spreading word that we needed people to bolster our ranks! I sent a call out across twitter and got a response from someone on the Firetree server. We began negotiations and talks almost daily for several weeks and in that meantime we would bring in non raiders from the guild to fill in gaps and try to keep raids going.

Eventually the Firetree crew transferred servers and joined our ranks, and we began the process of integrating raid styles and getting everybody on the same page. Shortly after that we got our first Yogg kill, with new players we felt quite accomplished. Now came the problem of farming the rest of the Fragments of Val’anyr. We gathered up steam and pushed forward until Trial of the Crusader patch hit. We now were faced with a difficult decision. Continue to farm content till we had all of our fragments or push on into ToC and place Ulduar on the back burner. We did what was best for the guild as a whole and made our way into ToC. After finally pushing through faction champions the rest was easy to clear. Standing on top of the corpse of one giant Beetle we set our sights back to Ulduar. We dove back in and lady fortune smiled upon us as we got the last of our fragments, Mimron was kind enough to let us have the last piece. The guild excitedly followed me to the Archivum where we activated the console, and listened and watched as the history of the mace unfolded before us.

Now we had met with another guild on Zul’jin back at Blizzcon and they had already completed theirs. Sympathetic to our recruitment dilemma and bringing people up to gear and speed they offered to help us complete the mace. After weeks of waiting to hear from them, we finally said and I quote,

“To hell with it, lets do it our own damn selves!”

And so into Ulduar we dove one last time, clearing to the watchers, only to find Thorim bugged for us. He would despawn when he jumped down. Frustrated we waited, until finally we got a good spawn. We pushed through Vezax with ease and made our way down into the prison of Yogg Saaron, or as we like to call him, Yoggles.

We strode in and began the pull, only to have Murphy rear his ugly mug and slap us around. Tanks DC’d in the middle of combat, losing spawn and immortals and clothies died in troves. Random lock ups and lag spikes caused people to be frozen in the path of so many clouds that we had too many spawns to handle. After 32 attempts in 3 days of attempts everything clicked into place. Transitions were smooth, no one disconnected or lagged out. Like Matt I died not once, not twice, but thrice. One soulstone and two battle rez’s were burned and we were up and running into phase 3. Yogg opened wide and I turned, threw in my hammer and then healed my rear off keeping everyone alive I could with my heal team! Then all of a sudden I started shaking in real life, the nerves, anticipation, adrenaline all came in one rush as I looked over and saw Yoggles at 2%. Down his life went and UP went the achievements!

3 Lights in The Darkness (25) completed as well as Drive Me Crazy (25)

Off to the archivum we went, I completed the quest and in my hands lay Val’anyr, and the cry went out over vent

“WOOOT! Now bubble me bitch!”

and Unpossible rejoiced.

here’s a link to the full image from the header, it’s possibly my favorite screenshot ever taken by me, it just looks cool

Awesome Unpossible Screenshot

And as an added bonus, here’s a video for you all to enjoy.

Now what does this mean now that Matt and I both have Val’anyrs? This means that truly World of Matticus is Legendary. Also since I’ll be a dwarf sooner or later maybe Matt and I can be “Hammer Brothers”!

Sig