News and Opinion

General news and opinion about WoW.

Memories of BlizzCon 2010

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Another year, another BlizzCon, and another set of memories. Even though there wasn’t a ton of breaking news from the convention, I had a huge blast. I saw some old friends again and made some new ones.

Most of the team that was from out of town stayed at Eden Roc. It ain’t exactly the Hilton, but for our purposes it was perfect. It had a dorm room type of atmosphere. We had 10 beds spread out over 3 suites (some rooms had 3, some had 5, etc). If you’re planning on going with a large group of people, I would recommend it. The wireless was limited to only a few areas but I spoke to the manager about it and I’m hoping there’ll be increased coverage next year. The staff was friendly and down to earth.

From my Guild

I met up with Viktory, Loganw, Erushia, Bisquic, Xonthebeach, Tessah, Ophelie, and Bruherd. Retired players such as Dannamoth, Mythik and Neru were on hand.

First thing we did when we all got there was get lunch.

I demolished my burger. The guild was stunned.

IMG_1296Getting iced – So apparently this is some phenomenon that’s been making its way around. I’d only just heard of it now. It’s a drinking game where if someone hands you a Smirnoff Ice or if you spot one, you have to get down on one knee and chug it. However, if you happen to be carrying one on you, you can make like a Mage and “Ice Block” where the attacker must then chug the one he planted along with the one the defender had.

This can happen at any time. The ice can be planted anywhere. The first person who sees it, and if they’re in the presence of someone else, must do it.

Why Smirnoff? Because its ugh.

My guild iced me once. I just got out of the shower and we were discussing stuff. They asked me about my Macbook. And sure enough, I rounded the corner and there it was right in front of my computer.

Guildies icing their GM. All I can say is, mango flavour sucks.

One of the perks of being on Conquest? I bought them all drinks.

“Hey guys, what do you want?”

“1 Jack and Coke!”
”Make that 2”
”Hey I want one!”
”I’ll take one as well!”
”Six!”
”Seven!”

Oh what the hell.

“HEY AJ! TEN JACK AND COKES!”

I am too generous. But they’re a great team.

Things to do next year

Business cards – Spoke with players who were interested in joining a steady guild looking to progress. I’ll need to be better armed next year with guild business cards. All I had were blog cards. Judging by all the recent apps, it seemed as if the people I spoke with were mostly Death Knights.

Track jackets – Heh, this I had a nice chuckle about. The team wanted guild shirts for next year. One of the guys said “Screw tshirts. Let’s go for Conquest track jackets!”. Not a bad idea. Something I’m going to look at for the future. Then Lodur comes along asks “Can I be an honorary Conquest member for a jacket?” Totally, it can be done. But that got me thinking, maybe I should get a Team Matticus track jacket instead for both friends and guild members that might be interested.

The convention

Most of day 1 was spent observing the panels.

2sbw

Some people call it taking notes. I call it analog live blogging.

As for the demos, I didn’t bother with Diablo 3. The line for that was longer then the line for the mens room. Checked out Starcraft Bejewled and Blizzard DoTA though. Those were fun maps. Can’t wait for them to come out. Met with an editor from the WoW Magazine.

The meetups

WoW Insider Reader Meetup

Had the whole patio and the whole pool area. Unbelievable turnout. It was great to see the whole WI crew in person once again. Managed to snag a picture with Felicia Day and Ghostcrawler! I got to meet and hang out with Dawn and I saw Lodur there. The guy forgot to give me the list of movies I need to see to get pop culturally educated.

181074751 IMG_1206

* I still owe the SC2 guy a drink, but wasn’t able to hunt him down. You know who you are! Next year!

Twisted Nether Meetup

I dropped by to say hi to the TnB folks again at Bubba Gump. It was good to finally see Stop, some of the Big Crits fellas, Beru, Hydra, Saresa, and others.

Raid Warning Meetup

Hung out with Brian, Seven and more people. It was located at Dave and Busters in a nice 200ish seat VIP room. Roomy and spacious. Somehow, I got conned into a drinking contest. The person who could beat me downing a Corona got a 30 day time card.

And there were a lot of people that wanted that time card. Like seriously, it doesn’t take much effort. I knew there was no way I was going to get it. Not with that lime that was stuck in the neck of the bottle. 20 minutes later, I finished the Corona. Yay!

I also wish to extend my gratitude to both Dannamoth and Erushia for giving the new friends we met a lift home. Way to represent. Very proud.

I was extremely humbled by the amount of people who recognized me and who came up to say hi, exchange handshakes, high fives and hugs. Thank you for making it a truly surreal experience.

Good seeing Daewin, anafielle, Saresa, BeruHeals, EntropiaWoW, Shandris, StoneyBaby, ModernMage, StoppableForce, Fimlys, Shadowembrace, Strio13, Hydra, Brian, Seven, the entire WI crew, some of the blues, and there are undoubtedly more people that I missed.

 

Can’t wait for BlizzCon 2011! I hope to see you again next year (or for the first time)!

 

 

What were your most memorable moments from BlizzCon? And more importantly, do you plan on going (again) next year?

Owl Returns With Special Delivery For You

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Hi, I’m Mimetir, and I’m a member of the WoM crew. No really, I am. A few months ago I would rant and mutter disconsolately on a weekly basis about the importance of being a care bear or how to slay your latest internet dragon. I haven’t posted for a while. Yes, I know, bad panda, no cookie. And from what I’ve heard of boomkins’ mana at 80, we really need cookies.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about today. See, I haven’t posted on WHoM for a while because I’ve been working on my own site, MMO Melting Pot. I premiered it here at WoM a few months ago and since then have been trekking through the wilderness of the WoW blogosphere to find the most interesting articles. When I find an interesting article I drag it back to my museum website and post bits of it up with a short summary, credit and a link, so you can go read it fully yourself.

Just in case that’s got you running in terror thinking I’m some kind of creepy museum curator with a speciality in dissecting innocent blog posts, let me rephrase it simply. Over on MMO Melting Pot we find the best posts and put them all in one place for you to peruse.

I miss posting on WoM. And things are getting exciting post-patch. So, I (and Matt) thought, why don’t I do a roundup of posts that’ve cropped up recently relating to healing, guild management or raiding articles, here at WoM? That’s win-win for everyone: I get to post here (read: ramble at you), you get interesting things to read and Matt gets a regular Saturday post.

Well, I say it’s win-win for everyone, but I understand holy paladins are chewing the walls in frustration. Sympathies guys. Anyway, here’s your roundup delivery with some paladin halp thrown in. Some of these are posts we’ve linked already at MMO Melting Pot, some of them are posts so far unfeatured and fresh for WoM’s roundup:

  • Guide to Dispels in 4.0.1 – Ecclesiastical Discipline guest posted for MMO Melting Pot last week with a complete list of what us healers (as well as other classes where applicable) can dispel now, as some of it changed in the patch. No more shamanistic poison removal? Noes!
  • Perhaps Healing Isn’t So Bad After All – TwilliK over at Arcane Envoy says that paladin healing’s actually not too bad. She’s recounting her recent experiences healing in Heroics and it looks like it’s felt like being thrown in at the deep-end, but also really rewarding getting it right. Makes me want to revive my own holy pally…
  • Holy Paladins in 4.0.1 – A Beginner’s Guide – are you looking at your holy paladin and cowering in fear? Aunna over at Bandage Spec has a straightforward guide to get holy paladins on their feet. There are loads of guides out there covering everything for the patch but given Holy Paladins seem to have it worst off, I figured linking this might be helpful. Her guide has information on your spells, gear, glyphs, spec, and crucially – what to expect and how to play.
  • Tell Us How Your Spec Is Doing In 4.0.1 – most weeks the editors at MMO Melting Pot throw up an editorial feature. This week, the patch has been about for a while and we want to know how you’re getting on. Healer role changed a lot and it’s great? Terrible? People are dying left right and centre? Tell us your tales!
  • Impressions On Healing So Far – Zinn over at Jinxed Thoughts has written a roundup of how he’s found healing classes work now. He starts off with a general overview of the similarities between class healing spells then goes through the healing classes with what he’s enjoyed or been disappointed by. He’s also got a separate post on quite how much he loves Chakra as a holy priest.
  • Nils and Raven say levelling needs balance, and soon – two bloggers with the same worry: that the levelling game is too easy and doesn’t teach players, including healers, the ins and outs of their class. The quality of play after waves of new characters level to 85? Don’t think about it. Both Nils and Raven say it needs fixing, and have ideas.
  • Thought of the Day – Getting Rid of the DPS role – a brief thought from Spinks over at Welcome to Spinksville. Short but sweet, this one’s interesting for everyone. How do you think getting rid of player DPSers would affect healing, if at all?

Last but not in any way least, some sad news:

  • Lights Out – Lara of Root and Branch has shut up shop. Root and Branch has been a core part of the resto druid blog community for so long that the lights dimming on it is going to leave a big hole in the resto druid community. She’ll be missed, if her commenters are anything to go by – but we all wish her the best, safe travels and epic (real life) loot. /tree cheer

That’s it for this week. I’m planning to do this weekly for WoM, as often as possible.

What do you guys think? That’s the sort of thing we do daily over at MMO Melting Pot, though it’s not always roundup posts. Did you get an interesting read out of it, or has it inspired you to throw your thoughts into someone’s comments arena?

[VIDEO] Omnitron Defense System

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Here’s a video of the kill I was a part of when we took down the Omnitron Defense System during Sunday. Special thanks to Blacksen and his guild for allowing me to participate. I wasn’t actually healing at all on this fight. I’m the elemental shaman that’s throwing lightning bolts. It’s a hectic encounter and there is so much stuff going on. Three healers were used for 10 man. It’s a good indication of what to expect.

Read my writeup on WoW Insider (It should be up sometime around 6:00 AM PST, Tuesday morning)

The Post Patch Post Raid Synopsis

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Any of you who’s guilds were crazy enough to raid on a potentially unstable patch server with unfamiliar spells minus the luxury of completely functional boss timers, raise your hand.

Don’t worry, I’m with you on that one too.

But, I’ll see your instability and raise you short handedness.

Yes, I was insane enough to try raiding short handed. We started off with 15 at the designated time, but players were still wrapping up patches, addons, glyphs and reforging.

It felt like the crew we had today was operating at something like 70% strength. Of course, it was completely understandable.

We were getting our collective butts handed to us by heroic Marrowgar. While yes, we were short two, I felt that a kill was within reach. I knew Marrowgar’s abilities had not changed. It was a matter of being re-familiarized with the encounter and with our new found skills.

A number of players wondered why I wanted to push hard. We could have downgraded from Marrowgar hard mode. We could’ve called it an early night and give people additional time to get accustomed to the new changes. I don’t know what it was, but I felt driven. I didn’t want to give up. I didn’t want to leave until Marrowgar was taken down. I guess one could say I wasn’t willing to tolerate failure. But that wasn’t it. Another part of me sought validation that this was something we could still do. That come Cataclysm, the grit and determination of taking down bosses will still be present.

You know what I mean?

I wanted to see if that spark was still there. If there is one thing that terrifies me as a GM, it is complacency. It is a nightmare of any progression based guild leader. We don’t want people who feel unmotivated or who decide to give up after a few wimpy attempts. I’m not saying its going to happen, but what if we hit a point in Cataclysm where we’re working on a boss and there are no strategies or videos to pick apart? Will we tough it out or call it an early night and wait for some other guild to draw up the plays? That’s not something sits well with me.

During the Canadian winters, I would always carve my own path in the fresh blanket of snow instead of stepping on trails made by others. That’s a mindset I carry when it comes to my projects and work (as you may have guessed).

We’re something like 23rd overall on Ner’zhul with our recently acquired ICC 25 drakes and finish at 11/12 HM. My desire is to enter the top 15.

We did manage to secure Marrowgar in the end and then placed a few shots on Deathwhisper hard mode before it was decided to call it early. I think we gathered enough information on our classes and rotations. We had a better idea of what was working and what wasn’t (like ret paladins).

Something I need to remind myself is to take a step back and realize that not every player devours patch notes as much as I do. Most of the players in the guild are just as passionate and thirsty for knowledge as I am. But not everyone has the time or the desire, I suppose. I want more players in the guild with the former as opposed to the latter. Sadly, desire to learn and improve aren’t traits I can instill in people.

All things considered, it wasn’t a complete waste of a night. We got 1 boss down and we know what our weaknesses and strengths are. We also learned:

  • Mages and Warlocks are ridiculously awesome
  • Unglyphed hunters do no DPS
  • Neither do pet-less hunters
  • Atonement is really effective but it requires support from the rest of the healing time
  • Ret paladins got sucker punched
  • So did DPS death knights
  • Overall raid healing shot up which means damage taken must have increased
  • Discipline priests are the Energizer bunnies of healers (They just keep going…)
  • Holy priests (without access to Archangel) just burn through mana insanely fast

Healing Roundups and We Got Our Drakes!

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Not quite sure where to go or what to read? Feeling overwhelmed? Yeah, I feel the same way too. Don’t worry though. I’ve got all the healing related stuff right here for you to brush up on. Next few weeks will be exciting with all the new systems.

Druids

Lissanna’s restoration healing guide (Restokin)

Keeva’s restoration 4.0 guide (Tree Bark Jacket)

Paladins

What Holy Paladins need to know for 4.0.1 (Kurn’s Corner)

Priests

WoW Insider: SG’s Reforging, gemming and GCD tactics for 4.0.1 priests (WoW Insider)

4.0 Survival Guide – Holy & Disc Specs, Glyphs and more (Tales of a Priest)

Discipline 4.0.1 guide (Malevica)

Shamans

Resto Shaman’s Guide to 4.0.1 (Life in Group 5)

Augments

Gem conversions for 4.0.1 (Revive & Rejuvenate)

Addons

No Stock UI has a nice compilation of addons that healers and raiders will find useful. Bonus: Updated for 4.0.1.

Beru’s Addon List

Don’t hesitate to suggest other resources that you think other healers might find informational.

And bloggers, you have my express permission to plug your own stuff.

Unrelated

25-drakesr

We scored our ICC 25 drakes last night!

And one of my hunters accidentally cast a buff which automatically knocked him off his mount. Extremely comical moment, actually. My timing was pretty good.

I originally planned on healing the entire encounter with three healers, but the current raid composition didn’t allow for it. Instead, we used our previous 4 healing setup. It consisted of a holy priest (me), discipline priest, holy paladin and shaman.

The first clutch moment of the night occurred during the defile phase. Valks were inbound. I was busy stacking the raid with Renews before I realized I lost all mobility.

“Matt’s picked up.”

I looked up at the second valk, and noticed it zeroing in on the other discipline priest.

“Ann’s picked up.”

At this point, I was thinking to myself it couldn’t possibly get any worse. Two healers out of four locked out?

“Rykga picked up.”

Crap. There goes our holy paladin. Wait, that’s three healers! I barked out for an immediate use of defensive cooldowns. Barkskin and other such skills were used while the DPS desperately muscled to get us free as quickly as possible (and to their credit, they did).

After something like 25+ attempts over the past few weeks, we were able to secure our drakes. Only took us something like 5 sets of Vile Spirits. Did it with 3 Boomkins. That helped immensely.

Still recruiting for Cataclysm. May not have any immediate openings now, but if you’re looking for a raiding guild, look me up.