Matticus

Matticus is the founder of World of Matticus, a World of Warcraft blog.

Matt’s Secret for WoW Blogging Inspiration: Cosmo

by

A number of bloggers (RE: YOU GUYS IN THE BLOG AZEROTH CHATROOM) seem to have hit a wall recently in blogging. I count myself extremely lucky that I’m able to come up with stuff that’s fresh, relevant, and original as much as I possibly can. But that doesn’t mean I don’t hit a patch of ice once in a while and go skidding. WoW bloggers want to get that kick ass post out and attract attention but nothing seems to be working and they’re stuck with almost no good ideas!
In school, we are taught to write our thesis statement first as it helps direct the focus of our paper. Blogging is no different other then the fact that we don’t really have a thesis.

But we have a headline.

And the heading is the first thing that everyone reads whether they go to your blog or read from a reader.

One method that could work for you (and has worked for me) comes from a little well known women’s magazine called Cosmopolitan. Like a thesis, it can be difficult to write a headline first before your actual post. The premise here is that your headline looks intriguing enough to attract attention. Anyway, by looking at headlines of other publications you might be able to take those headlines and apply it to your area.

Obviously, any other magazine can work as well. THe next time you’re at the check out counter at your local super market, instead of staring ahead at the guy in front of you or contemplating all those chocolate bars on the side, direct your eyes to the magazine stands instead and see what jumps out at you and catches your attention.

So just for kicks and giggles, I’m going to take the page of the April 2007 edition of Cosmopolitan and “encourage” WoW bloggers to see if they can come up with the corresponding post. It’ll be fun to see if I actually get taken up on my offer =).

Cosmo’s Headline: 50 Things Guys Wish You Knew

Siha, I’m looking right at you as you’re one of the few GM’ing bloggers I know.

“50 Things Guildmasters Wish You Knew”

By all means, the number there is arbitrary. Use whatever value you like, although I have a sneaking suspicion that you can come up with 50 in no time.

Cosmo’s Headline: The “Friendly” Health Advice You Should Never Take

I know Megan’s a big time PvP enthusiast. You willing to try your hand on this one?

“The ‘Friendly’ Arena Advice You Should Never Take”

I know I’ve heard all manners of bad arena tips that were made with good intentions.

Cosmo’s Headline: The Silent Way He Shows He’s Whipped

Okay, Kestrel. I know you’re also a GM with your own flock of geese. How’s this?

“The Silent Way Guildies Show They’re Whipped”

We want raiders to be whipped, don’t we? Who wants a bunch of uncontrollable DPSing players anyway? Surely there must be some obvious signs.

Cosmo’s Headline: Be a Sex Genius!

Oh Anna, this one has your name written all over it.

“Be A Shamanistic Genius”

Surely there must be some tips, tricks, and techniques that you might know of that new, budding Shamans might not. I only found out the other day that Ghost Wolf Shamans can’t be sapped. Or perhaps some quick thoughts on attributes to push for gearwise in Elemental, Enhancement, and Resto as a part of the ingenuity?

Cosmo’s Headline: 16 New and Sexy Hairstyles

Big Bear Butt, I think we could all benefit from your thoughts on this.

16 New and Sexy Additions in 2.4

This is the last patch before Wrath, supposedly. There’s obviously a ton of good things coming out. Let’s narrow it down some and make it interesting, shall we?

Challenge Yourself

What about the rest of you WoW bloggers? Can you borrow one of these headlines courtesy of Cosmo and use them for your own blog? If you can, post it here and I’ll see if I can do a follow up post with links later on in the month.

The Carnage Voice Environment

by

I got a laugh from reading a post coutesy of Kulrayk (or Aylii) about Ventrilo environments and how they might be different. Although she does post a great question that I should go out of my way to look up. I really have no idea what the average age of the Guild is. Kulrayk has been a guest on my Guilds vent at my request. I figured she might be interested in learning about how Carnage operates during raids, and here are some of her conclusions:

  • Carnage had longer periods of rated X talk than my guild. This leads me to believe that the average age of members on carnage are lower than of those in Echoes.
  • Accents. Most of my guildies are east coasters. carnage seems to have an abundance for west coasters, and surprisingly enough, many live here in Southern California!
  • There is more talk of PvP-QQ on Carnage, which once again leads me to believe that the members are younger.

But I can say most of us (with the exception of Netherscrub ^^) are past high school. I love it. I can’t wait until she hits 70. She’d fit in well, I figure =).

Are we Wasting Time?

by

Image courtesy of rrss
First, I have a story to share for the sake of context.

One Raid

The other day, I assembled a a Guild Zul’Aman run. The goal is to keep a consistent ZA group that would run once a week in the hopes of eventually gelling together and running ZA with relative ease on a raiding off night without the displeasure of having to pug ZA groups. As usual, the group was built around a Prot Paladin and a Druid as well as the other miscellaneous classes that would be needed.

One Player

A DPS player from my Guild was interested in coming. Let’s call him Bruce. The only boss he needed was Zul’Jin and he really wanted the kill so he could get his weapon. I never really had a high opinion of this player in the first place but I didn’t care all that much about it. I just wanted to get the job done. He wanted to know whether or not this run would be a full clear. I told him that I could not guarantee a full Zul’Jin run. While my team scoffed at the idea, I exercised caution as there was still a few players who were new to the instance. I myself was rusty in Zul’Aman. Sure enough, we ran into a few bumps along the way. We started at approximately 8 PM and brute forced our way to Zul’Jin at 11 PM. The instance was slated to reset in 8 hours so we would not have the benefit of an extra day to come back.

We took 3 or so shots on him and managed to blow by phase 3 with relative ease. Unfortunately, we couldn’t follow up on our momentum and finish him off. We had a few EST players and it was getting late for them. As a result, we killed the raid and disbanded the raid.

Bruce wanted another attempt otherwise all of the efforts up to this point would have been for naught.

One Remark

A week later, the same core of us decide to go back in again. In Guild chat, Bruce stated that he’d like to go again but felt that the previous attempt was a waste of his time and hoped to be able to kill Zul’Jin again.

And that really struck a chord with me.

After all, Bruce only wants a weapon off of Zul’Jin. And if our little motley crew can’t kill him consistently enough, then that little remark implies that he would only be wasting his time by running with us. That is absolutely fine with me. I don’t really care much for the guy. If our Guild was a hockey team, he’d be a 4th line player and would see 6 minutes of ice time in a 60 minute game. As a result, I’ve no intention of taking Bruce into any kind of runs I do ever again because I’m afraid that it would simply be a waste of his time.

And I don’t like to waste people’s time.

5 Barriers of a Raid Healer – Part 3: Tunnel Vision

by

Image courtesy of liquid008

Each Saturday for the next five weeks, I will be writing about one barrier of the raid healer. Healers are often overshadowed and looked over since we are expected to simply know what to do. With luck, this five part series will help you to become a better raid healer whether you are a varsity or a freshman.

So far, I have covered:

Barrier 3: Tunnel Vision

“Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.”
John Carmack

Even the best healers suffer from tunnel vision. Their eyes are deeply glued to the raid windows and often miss a Doomfire heading towards them (or a Spout). As healers, we are often frozen in place due to our responsibility as combat medics. Unlike our leafy limbed brethren, Shamans, Paladins, and Priests need to stay still in order to get their spells off. As a result, us healers spend precious seconds having to heal in a stationary position knowing we could go at any moment if we concentrate too much on the raid.

Responsibility

Every raider has a responsibility to stay alive. Just because we healers have methods to bring our health back up, doesn’t mean it’s the best way. Moving 3 steps right and 2 steps up can save precious mana and our own e-lives.

Just last night, I participated in a Zul’Aman run which went relatively smooth. We suffered 2 under 10% wipes on Zul’Jin. In fact, we went into Phase 5 with all 10 players alive. But alas, we wiped due to those flame geyser things. I died to them twice and I make no excuse for my own failings. I guess the blogging God saw it ironic that I would be writing about tunnel vision and decided to collaborate with the raid God to screw me over. On my part, there is absolutely no excuse. If I’m going to die, then I will die for reasons beyond my control. Total and utter shame on me. A lot of players will play the blame game because no one wants to take responsibility for it.

Not me. I screwed up, I know why, and I’m going to not make that mistake again.

Except I did *faceplant*. I wonder if there’s something in the DSM about that.

Tips

When (and I do mean when and not if) you get past the Karazhans and the Gruuls and start your trek into the SSC’s and the TK’s, the encounters get much more interesting. All the practices from “cave ins” and “shatters” should be a good start for build your situational awareness. Here’s a few extra tips and exercises that I do:

  • Maximize white space. White space is a term I use to refer to blank space or open areas. Unlike some tanks and DPS classes, we need to have our raid frames open at all times. This contributes to the clutter on our screen. One way to maximize white space is to reduce your UI scale. This can be done in your options -> video settings. If you’ve got the dough, opt for a bigger monitor. I raid on a 22″ monitor with the frames neatly tucked into the side. You can see various shots of my UI here.
  • Minimize down time. I don’t mean downtime in a in between trash pull setting. I mean downtime as in lapse of actions. Always be doing something whether it’s moving, trinketing, or something. Don’t simply stand there. Action is almost always better than inaction and it will help train you to become faster. I like to randomly move back and forth and side to side during raids where I’m allowed. Sometimes you have to in order to keep up with your tanks and it’s a good skill to pick up. When you’re moving, you need to concentrate on what’s immediately around you, therefore you need to switch from your frames to your windows. Eventually, you’ll develop a practice where you just “know” where you are in relation to the things and players around you. Your movements will no longer be random, they’ll be focus and fluid. Every keystroke, every step, every screen swivel will have a purpose. Playing RTS games help. Not only do you need to command your units in the field, you have to manage your economy and unit production simultaneously. I used to be decent at Command and Conquer (NOD) but then they nerfed tanks which completely wrecked my Crane -> Double Refinery (sell 1) -> Plant/Factory -> Factory/Refinery -> 8 tank rush -> WIN strat. While my units were moving towards the opposition base, I made sure every credit was being spent on upgrades, more factories, or more tanks (no such thing as too few tanks). Call it time management, if you will. Same thing in WoW. Boss fights are typically ten minutes. WoW isn’t just about resource (mana) management, it’s also about time management.
  • Work on your peripheral vision. When I was younger, I had a fascination with espionage practice and spying. One of the little exercises they had helped increase your ability to use your peripheral vision. The next time you’re walking home, try looking straight ahead and see if you can read house numbers without turning towards it. If you think you have it, check to see if you’re correct. I believe the reasoning was so that intelligence agents could observe their subjects without their subjects knowing they were being observed (He can’t be looking at me, so I must be safe). In WoW, having excellent peripheral vision can help increase your chance of survivability because out of the corner of your eye you can see that jet of water heading your way or some curled up flaming turkey from the sky.

Other Resources

Ego wrote an excellent piece a little over a month ago on a concept she referred to as tiered healing. It’s a great read and it offers a bit more of a detailed process in regards to prioritizing healing targets. As a Priest, I’m not as good as a Paladin for MT healing or a Shaman for raid healing. But I can switch between the 2 as needed at any time in case we get a man down.