Blog

Updates about the world or the blog at large.

Illidan down!

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I would like to interrupt your regularly scheduled witty commentary on healing strategy and guild management to bring you an important update in the in-game life of Sydera. My guild, Collateral Damage of Vek’nilash, has killed Illidan! Oh yes, we were far behind the leading wave of progression, but this kill was nonetheless thrilling.

The death of Illidan is an in-game milestone with special meaning for me. When Collateral Damage started up, we had none of the advantages that raiding guilds typically do. We are the product of a merger of two casual Karazhan guilds, and with one or two exceptions, our players had no previous raid experience, either in Vanilla WoW or other MMOs. We had new main tanks, a new raid leader, and a new healing coordinator (who, at the time, didn’t even realize that Regrowth spam was bad–oops!). We are a grassroots guild built from the ground up–and if you, dear readers, had seen our first attempts at Maulgar, you never would have thought that these same people could ever down the final boss of Tier 6.

When we started raiding, my endgame goal was to see the inside of Hyjal. Not necessarily kill any bosses there, but just see it. However, once we killed Vashj, I started to really believe, and to outright promise all of our new recruits that we’d be dancing on Illidan’s mangled, bloody corpse by the end of the summer. And well, a few days before the equinox, here we are. As you can see from the screenshot, we also brought out our formal wear for the occasion.

Myth busted: Canadian Chicks Play WoW

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I know I’m soooo going to be asking for it and Wyn and Syd probably going to butcher me. I’m in my Psyc class and there’s a girl right in front of me playing WoW while the Prof is lecturing.

  • Looks like a 70 Warlock main
  • Enchanter
  • Has the ZA bag
  • Looks like the Mag Bag too
  • Has many alts
  • Alliance
  • Piling the IF AH with stuff

…Is it scary that I can tell that much information with just a simple and involuntary glance over her shoulder? Or am I just a really good stalker? It must be my Criminology training and eye to detail.

Yeah, thats it!

Salutations, well-wishes, and thank-yous

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 Hello everyone! Most of you have probably been following Matticus’s “So You Think You Can Blog” contest. I’ve been lucky enough to have been chosen for the spot, and I’d just like to say how thrilled I am to be joining the staff of this fine publication. Writing is my passion, and I am intrigued by the challenges of learning to write in a new medium.

I look forward to sharing my opinions here and to responding to feedback from YOU, dear readers. The comments have been the most fun part of this whole experience, and it is very cool to be putting down roots, so to speak, in such an interactive medium.

What can you expect from me in the future?

I’ll be writing articles that chronicle my in-game passions–expect to see lots about healing strategy, group and guild management, and of course, healing of the druidic variety! This is a very exciting time to begin blogging. We have an expansion on the horizon, and I’ve got a beta key clutched in my grubby little tree fist. I’ll be giving you my own special perspective (full of puns about foliage, of course) on all the new changes that arise as we get closer to Wrath of the Lich King.

In the meantime, I owe a big thank you to Matt and Wyn for their help and support and also to the other contest entrants, whose posts have all inspired me. I would also like to give a shout out to Briolante, without whom all my tables would look like crap, and to my guildmates at Collateral Damage-Vek’nilash, who have been enthusiastically following along with my progress in the contest.

I’ve Chosen the Third Blogger

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Sydera is the third blogger! She’ll be co-blogging alongside Wyn and myself from here on out. Unlike Wyn and I, she is not a Priest and will be blogging from the perspective of a… tree.

So let’s all extend a welcome branch to Syd (I can hear the groans over the pun already)! I’m sure she’ll come along later and say something.

Joveta, you did really well. It was an extremely tight race between the two of you. I was on the fence at times where I’d go one way then change my mind and go the other. Pleeeeeease don’t be discouraged. If you decide to pursue blogging, I will do what I can to help you set up.

Week 3 – Critiques by Matt and a Special Guest Judge…

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This is it. This is the final week. After this, SYTYCB will end. Despite how brilliant everyone’s been, I only have room at the moment for one additional writer. Who will it be?

In addition to the critiques from Wyn and I, there will be a special guest judge adding their 2 cents. The guest judge is a fairly prominent member of the blogging community but I will be withholding their identity. Think of them as the Simon Cowell of blogging.

PS, Wyn’s remarks will come later (depending on level of busy-ness).

Both bloggers have performed exceptionally well to get into the final week.

In any case, on with the show!

Sydera: Troubleshooting Gurtogg Bloodboil: A Healer’s Perspective and Future Overachievers Anonymous: How Achievements Will Rock the Social World of Wrath of the Lich King

Although blogging can be about virtually anything, I’ve tried to set the standard for my blog to be about virtually anything beneficial. It’s a strong principle of mine that a post should contain value and this one post about Bloodboil certainly does that and it does that really well. While it may not be as specific as Bosskillers or a WoWWiki, that’s not really what I’m looking for. The intent here was to see if you could write a piece about something educational that players could potentially benefit form. With Wrath on the eve of debuting, you’ve done that here even though it’s on a boss that most people are getting to or that most people will not be able to get to. You’ve used tables, block quotes, emphasis, and other formatting techniques flawlessly. Both skimmers and readers will be able to read through it and find out what they need. I love the creative use of images and the way this post has been structured.

Your second post I found quite wall of texty. Again, very glad you included emphasis throughout so I could speed read it (lecture and note taking and all). Outgoing links are a plus. All of us should make more of an effort to link outward. You’ve supplied strong arguments on all 4 of your points.

Biggest weakness: Tree.

– Matt

Troubleshooting Gurtogg…

  • Boss strategy overview presented nothing that couldn’t be found just as easily on Bosskillers or other boss strategy resources
  • By the time I got to reading phase 2, I was already snoring
  • Healing tips present no information that a conscientious healer raiding at that level wouldn’t already know
  • Healers that don’t already know the information presented are probably the type to be too lazy to go looking for it anyway
  • Article should’ve presented NEW information: that’s the entire point of a “teaching” post, to show the reader something they didn’t know or hadn’t thought of
  • Should have covered information like: when to pop certain trinkets, when using innervate/shadow fiend would be most appropriate, etc

Future Overachievers…

  • The second article doesn’t present any new information
  • Article appears to simply be an amalgamation of all the viewpoints expressed elsewhere about the new achievement system
  • No new spin or opinion was presented about the new system, and no fresh insight was added to the discussion
  • Article lacked a “summary” for skimmers to get the gist of the article without reading it in it’s entirety and the headings didn’t provide any insight into what stance the article took on the subjects discussed

– The GJ

The Utility of Utility and Death and the Priest

Your post here was aimed at outlining the differences and the benefits that IDS and COH bring to a raid. Your arguments were sound and perfect. You went out of the way providing an example table with numbers that helped underscore the point that you were making. The rule of thumb you wrote at the bottom of the post about which raid makeup would benefit the most is a real eye opener to some Guilds, I would imagine.

The second post consisted of something that I wish I would see happen more often. You publicly disagreed with a blogger. Not only that, you backed up your disagreement with opinion and sound logical reasoning. As a crim student, how can I possibly not admire that? In both posts, excellent use of bolding to emphasize your main point. You did a great job at the bottom summarizing and adding on more ways for readers to participate. A skill that I’ve noticed a few bloggers not having acquired yet is that of reader participation. Give them some room to chime in. If you intentionally cover all the bases, opinions, viewpoints, what else is there left to say? I even gave a lecture about that to Auzara once (and she listened). The points you made, I think, helped encourage that.

Utility of Utility

  • Biggest complaint: The article focuses partly on talents found in the Disc tree, but makes no actual mention of Disc priests (as if they don’t exist)
  • It should be mentioned within the article that, if your guild/raid group has reliable Disc priests, or at least 1 Disc priest that shows up habitually, then the argument is moot: Holy priests can spec out of IDS if they so choose
  • When discussing the effectiveness/usefulness of IDS, stats were mentioned for Holy priests, Resto druids, etc, but again no mention was made of Disc priests (how much more effective would a Disc priest’s heals be with IDS + Power Infusion, for example?)

Death and the Priest

  • Instant bonus points for totally disagreeing with your “boss” so blatantly
  • Images or screenshots within the body of the article would’ve enhanced the points being made
  • The article takes an interesting stance on a subject many can relate to, and forms an emotional connection with the reader (enticing them to comment)
  • The article encourages longer “visits” by referencing an article already on the site (increasing the likelihood that the user will continue reading other articles and/or subscribe via RSS)
  • The article is “skimmer friendly”
  • The article presents a good opportunity for a follow up that expands on other moments players encounter while raiding

– The GJ