I found this lovely essay on the WoW europe forums, whilst looking for advice on developing names for my Gnomish entourage.
The Name of the Gnome
It's a great read.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Begin at the Beginning
Now that I've transferred to a new server, I want to start writing up more interesting backstories for my characters. I actually don't like doing the 20-questions model of character definition - what's his favorite food, whom does he hate, and so on. Nothing wrong with that, but I like to establish the character via storytelling. So here's the first chapter in the Tale of the von Tvisenklanks, about Thrinwizzle.
Impossible to tell the story of the von Tvisenklanks without starting at Thrinwizzle. He single-handedly brought the von Tvisenklanks out of their centuries-long stagnation. The family name is ancient and well-respected, but at the time of Thrinwizzle's birth, it was one of those ancient and well-respected but terribly poor noble families known for very little other than their long memories of how things Used To Be In Great-Grandfather's Day.
After taking command of the family business interests (few, but still profitable enough to support the small family), Thrinwizzle developed a ruthless business acumen that soon made him the talk of the town, if not its toast. He'd put too many other Gnomes at a disadvantage, financially, for him to be loved. Respect was enough for him. And so, the von Tvisenklanks prospered again.
At a respectable age for marrying, Thrinwizzle set out, and with the same single-minded determination that he used to pursue a business deal, found himself a wife. Stabella Wobblecog was a lovely young lady of fine parentage (the Wobblecogs being a well-respected family with nearly as long a history as the von Tvisenklanks), and she was completely taken in by Thrinwizzle. Was Thrinwizzle sincere in his professed affection for Stabella? Had he been smote by love's arrow, or was he simply playing the role that society had laid out for him? It is not for us to say, not here, not now.
The marriage between Stabella and Thrinwizzle lasted twenty years officially. In truth, it transformed itself the night their first child was born. Let us return to that fateful night. The storm lashed the walls of the manor house, but inside, all was calm. Except, of course, for Stabella's pained breathing and Thrinwizzle's continual patter.
"He'll learn the business at my side, and the family firm will be called 'von Tvisenklank and Son', and he'll take the name of my Uncle, who was the only real man of that generation, the only gnome who could cut through the sentimental crap we'd been living for years, subsisting on a diet of pride and thin soup. Davros is a good name for a gnomish boy, a strong name. Davros von Tvisenklank. What a time it is. He'll have the finest education, but not so much that he becomes soft in the head, and he'll learn to live on his on in the wilds, but not so much that he becomes hard in the soul. Ah, Davros."
But this was not to be a good night for Davros von Tvisenklank. A strong name, but a weak gnome, Baby Davros did not survive the night. Stillbirth and child death were rare in those years of relative peace, but it still happened.
Thrinwizzle's heart, always a small and cold thing, turned harder that night. What was once thought ruthlessness on his part now seemed merely unpleasant in comparison to what came after.
Impossible to tell the story of the von Tvisenklanks without starting at Thrinwizzle. He single-handedly brought the von Tvisenklanks out of their centuries-long stagnation. The family name is ancient and well-respected, but at the time of Thrinwizzle's birth, it was one of those ancient and well-respected but terribly poor noble families known for very little other than their long memories of how things Used To Be In Great-Grandfather's Day.
After taking command of the family business interests (few, but still profitable enough to support the small family), Thrinwizzle developed a ruthless business acumen that soon made him the talk of the town, if not its toast. He'd put too many other Gnomes at a disadvantage, financially, for him to be loved. Respect was enough for him. And so, the von Tvisenklanks prospered again.
At a respectable age for marrying, Thrinwizzle set out, and with the same single-minded determination that he used to pursue a business deal, found himself a wife. Stabella Wobblecog was a lovely young lady of fine parentage (the Wobblecogs being a well-respected family with nearly as long a history as the von Tvisenklanks), and she was completely taken in by Thrinwizzle. Was Thrinwizzle sincere in his professed affection for Stabella? Had he been smote by love's arrow, or was he simply playing the role that society had laid out for him? It is not for us to say, not here, not now.
The marriage between Stabella and Thrinwizzle lasted twenty years officially. In truth, it transformed itself the night their first child was born. Let us return to that fateful night. The storm lashed the walls of the manor house, but inside, all was calm. Except, of course, for Stabella's pained breathing and Thrinwizzle's continual patter.
"He'll learn the business at my side, and the family firm will be called 'von Tvisenklank and Son', and he'll take the name of my Uncle, who was the only real man of that generation, the only gnome who could cut through the sentimental crap we'd been living for years, subsisting on a diet of pride and thin soup. Davros is a good name for a gnomish boy, a strong name. Davros von Tvisenklank. What a time it is. He'll have the finest education, but not so much that he becomes soft in the head, and he'll learn to live on his on in the wilds, but not so much that he becomes hard in the soul. Ah, Davros."
But this was not to be a good night for Davros von Tvisenklank. A strong name, but a weak gnome, Baby Davros did not survive the night. Stillbirth and child death were rare in those years of relative peace, but it still happened.
Thrinwizzle's heart, always a small and cold thing, turned harder that night. What was once thought ruthlessness on his part now seemed merely unpleasant in comparison to what came after.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Northern Stew
Jillathee is my most recent leveling project, and has turned into the new main on my new server, Wyrmrest Accord (and yeah, I really love rogues, more on that in the future.
Interestingly, Jill is also the only character I've played that didn't have some sort of significant health regeneration baked into the character. Warlocks drain life, Death Knights have death strike, and my priest and druid have healing spells. So I have gone through a lot of bandages and food on Jill. For the most part, I manage to break even - I have an assortment of foods in my bags that I've pickpocketed. It's somewhat annoying, since there's like five different stacks of food, but I've got big bags. I still have to buy a stack of vendor food every so often, and that is kind of annoying. It sets you back a noticeable amount of gold.
As a side-effect of leveling leatherworking, I've got a lot of chilled meats (and tufts of gorilla hair, and barrels, so now you know where I've been skinning). I usually keep a stack or two of these handy for the cooking daily, and vendor the rest.
I should have been cooking the chilled meats. Northern Stew is as good as the expensive vendor food in terms of health regen, and it vendors for more than chilled meats do to boot, so if I still have too much stuff it's worth cooking the stew before vendoring it.
I wish I had known this four characters ago. I wonder if there are any auctions I could buy out - buy up chilled meats for 25s per piece, cook them and vendor the stew for 35s per.
Interestingly, Jill is also the only character I've played that didn't have some sort of significant health regeneration baked into the character. Warlocks drain life, Death Knights have death strike, and my priest and druid have healing spells. So I have gone through a lot of bandages and food on Jill. For the most part, I manage to break even - I have an assortment of foods in my bags that I've pickpocketed. It's somewhat annoying, since there's like five different stacks of food, but I've got big bags. I still have to buy a stack of vendor food every so often, and that is kind of annoying. It sets you back a noticeable amount of gold.
As a side-effect of leveling leatherworking, I've got a lot of chilled meats (and tufts of gorilla hair, and barrels, so now you know where I've been skinning). I usually keep a stack or two of these handy for the cooking daily, and vendor the rest.
I should have been cooking the chilled meats. Northern Stew is as good as the expensive vendor food in terms of health regen, and it vendors for more than chilled meats do to boot, so if I still have too much stuff it's worth cooking the stew before vendoring it.
I wish I had known this four characters ago. I wonder if there are any auctions I could buy out - buy up chilled meats for 25s per piece, cook them and vendor the stew for 35s per.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Disaffection the second
I can't really saw what the last straw was, to be honest. I've been fairly unhappy with my situation in WoW for a while now, unhappy enough to even play an alt even.
I'm just not into my guild anymore.
There have been too many people leaving, or just not logging on. There have been too many people brought in who I simply don't like, or simply don't know. The incessant drumbeat for 25-man content on a server where recruiting and retaining that many competent people is simply impossible has led to a recruiting policy which has seen a talented, tight-knit guild that used to care somewhat about compatible personalities and chemistry instead taking all-comers, including many who are irritating and/or inept, often in equal measure, which leaves us failing time and again to progress in content we are too small to get through, while simulataneously disparaging the tremendous progress our top-flight core has made in content we are sized and skilled for. And, as I am not alone in my new found incompatibility with the guild, too many of my friends are now pulling up stakes and moving along, or moving altogether.
So, I'll be next.
And no one will notice.
The bright side of being a fringe member, infrequent raider, and perpetually-passed-over is that at least my departure probably won't have enough impact to upset the increasingly fragile situation in a guild that is undergoing an ungraceful metamorphosis. If the running changes in character and composition are to end in fire instead of ice, at least I am not important enough to be the one who lit the fuse.
I'm just not into my guild anymore.
There have been too many people leaving, or just not logging on. There have been too many people brought in who I simply don't like, or simply don't know. The incessant drumbeat for 25-man content on a server where recruiting and retaining that many competent people is simply impossible has led to a recruiting policy which has seen a talented, tight-knit guild that used to care somewhat about compatible personalities and chemistry instead taking all-comers, including many who are irritating and/or inept, often in equal measure, which leaves us failing time and again to progress in content we are too small to get through, while simulataneously disparaging the tremendous progress our top-flight core has made in content we are sized and skilled for. And, as I am not alone in my new found incompatibility with the guild, too many of my friends are now pulling up stakes and moving along, or moving altogether.
So, I'll be next.
And no one will notice.
The bright side of being a fringe member, infrequent raider, and perpetually-passed-over is that at least my departure probably won't have enough impact to upset the increasingly fragile situation in a guild that is undergoing an ungraceful metamorphosis. If the running changes in character and composition are to end in fire instead of ice, at least I am not important enough to be the one who lit the fuse.
Exposition Expedition
In the near future, both Phil and I are (most likely) going to be moving some characters from their homes on Steamwheedle over to Wyrmrest Accord. There's a lot of reasons for that, but one happy side-effect is that I get to effectively reboot all my characters' stories. Plus, I get to go into an entirely new server, with no preconceived notions about who the audience is. That means, more RP writing. This is a draft of something I'm writing to introduce my rogue.
Ahh, Ironforge. Home to hundreds of stories, many of which start with: "One time, Magni was so drunk that..." Home to Dwarves. Home to the remnants of the Gnomish Nation, and for the past several years, home to Jillathee von Tvisenklank.
What can we say about Jillathee von Tvisenklank? It's possible to stay mainly at the superficial level - she's petite, even for a Gnome. Why "petite" and not "short"? Even if "short" is technically accurate, anyone who refers to her using that term will quickly find themselves in one of two situations. It's possible that Jill will hop up on whatever's handy with a quick smile and say, "There, now we can make eye contact and you won't hurt your neck." It is also altogether possible that you will find yourself on your knees, eyes watering with pain, with Jill holding a handful of your hair. You can still make eye contact, but this way might hurt a bit more.
So, we can add "mercurial" to our list of adjectives.
Jillathee runs a small shop in Ironforge, the Bent Spoke. When her father ran it, it was a somewhat unremarkable supply shop, catering to the tinkering crowd. These days, it has a more exotic reputation. She still deals in cogs, gears, and reticulated flanges, but she has a fairly liberal policy for special ordering. If you need it, she can get it. Eventually, and somehow. It might cost, but if you have the money, it can be gotten. Fine art? Unobtanium? The tears of an abandoned bride on her wedding day? Many things have passed through this shop since Jillathee took over.
How did someone with such a respectable name (the von Tvisenklanks are an ancient family) come to be living such a shady experience? First of all, Jillathee is only a von Tvisenklank by marriage. Her maiden name is Spokebender, a much more earthy appellation (which also explains the name of her shop). An only child, she grew up among the shelves of the Bent Spoke, raised by her widower father, Klang.
Hmm. I think this is way too much exposition. I'm trying to cram an entire story into a few paragraphs, and do so wittily. Maybe I should dribble it out a little bit more, give each major section - youth, marriage to Thrinwizzle, independence - a fuller treatment.
Here's the cliff notes spoiler: Jillathee was married to Thrinwizzle von Tvisenklank, a crotchety old noble who wanted a trophy bride so much that he had Klang Spokebender's lease bought out and threatened to evict the poor fellow if young Jill didn't consent to be his bride. Mariwocket (my Warlock) will come in as Thrinwizzle's witchy and spoiled daughter (by an earlier marriage), who is resentful of the step-mother she is almost of age with.
After a few years of marriage, her father died and Jill got her revenge (once she didn't have to worry about him anymore). Thrinwizzle died in a mysterious mechanostrider accident shortly thereafter. Jillathee ended up getting nothing in the will (it's rumored that Mariwocket had it changed at the last minute) other than the lease to her father's old shop, which she has re-opened and revitalized. One benefit to having been a Society Wife for a few years is that she now has enough connections to make the Bent Spoke a haven for the gray (if not straight out black) market. Of course, nothing in this world is permanent, and Thrinwizzle ends up being a Death Knight (conveniently).
This gives us the trio of Murdered Husband, Angry Step-Daughter, and Suffering Wife, which is a pretty ripe terrain for storytelling.
Any feedback on either the rough story outline or the prose itself is welcome.
Ahh, Ironforge. Home to hundreds of stories, many of which start with: "One time, Magni was so drunk that..." Home to Dwarves. Home to the remnants of the Gnomish Nation, and for the past several years, home to Jillathee von Tvisenklank.
What can we say about Jillathee von Tvisenklank? It's possible to stay mainly at the superficial level - she's petite, even for a Gnome. Why "petite" and not "short"? Even if "short" is technically accurate, anyone who refers to her using that term will quickly find themselves in one of two situations. It's possible that Jill will hop up on whatever's handy with a quick smile and say, "There, now we can make eye contact and you won't hurt your neck." It is also altogether possible that you will find yourself on your knees, eyes watering with pain, with Jill holding a handful of your hair. You can still make eye contact, but this way might hurt a bit more.
So, we can add "mercurial" to our list of adjectives.
Jillathee runs a small shop in Ironforge, the Bent Spoke. When her father ran it, it was a somewhat unremarkable supply shop, catering to the tinkering crowd. These days, it has a more exotic reputation. She still deals in cogs, gears, and reticulated flanges, but she has a fairly liberal policy for special ordering. If you need it, she can get it. Eventually, and somehow. It might cost, but if you have the money, it can be gotten. Fine art? Unobtanium? The tears of an abandoned bride on her wedding day? Many things have passed through this shop since Jillathee took over.
How did someone with such a respectable name (the von Tvisenklanks are an ancient family) come to be living such a shady experience? First of all, Jillathee is only a von Tvisenklank by marriage. Her maiden name is Spokebender, a much more earthy appellation (which also explains the name of her shop). An only child, she grew up among the shelves of the Bent Spoke, raised by her widower father, Klang.
Hmm. I think this is way too much exposition. I'm trying to cram an entire story into a few paragraphs, and do so wittily. Maybe I should dribble it out a little bit more, give each major section - youth, marriage to Thrinwizzle, independence - a fuller treatment.
Here's the cliff notes spoiler: Jillathee was married to Thrinwizzle von Tvisenklank, a crotchety old noble who wanted a trophy bride so much that he had Klang Spokebender's lease bought out and threatened to evict the poor fellow if young Jill didn't consent to be his bride. Mariwocket (my Warlock) will come in as Thrinwizzle's witchy and spoiled daughter (by an earlier marriage), who is resentful of the step-mother she is almost of age with.
After a few years of marriage, her father died and Jill got her revenge (once she didn't have to worry about him anymore). Thrinwizzle died in a mysterious mechanostrider accident shortly thereafter. Jillathee ended up getting nothing in the will (it's rumored that Mariwocket had it changed at the last minute) other than the lease to her father's old shop, which she has re-opened and revitalized. One benefit to having been a Society Wife for a few years is that she now has enough connections to make the Bent Spoke a haven for the gray (if not straight out black) market. Of course, nothing in this world is permanent, and Thrinwizzle ends up being a Death Knight (conveniently).
This gives us the trio of Murdered Husband, Angry Step-Daughter, and Suffering Wife, which is a pretty ripe terrain for storytelling.
Any feedback on either the rough story outline or the prose itself is welcome.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Greatest Mouse In The World: The Razer Naga
First thing's first. This is a real, honest-to-goodness review of a piece of hardware I bought. Razer didn't send me a freebie, and I'm not just saying this based on the pictures I've seen of it. I've owned a Razer Naga for a week now, and it's been the best week of my WoW existence (at least in terms of interface).
I've tried a LOT of different kinds of control tools for playing WoW. I took a Nostromo n52 for a spin that lasted a few days (it was pretty cool, but I couldn't get it to consistently go forward - backward - left - right using the thumbpad, I kept going diagonally and there was no tactile feedback, which was a dealbreaker). I've been using a logitech mx-518 (and a third-party mouse driver because Logitech stupidly doesn't have a mac driver for this one mouse), which I also really like. I mapped the six extra mouse buttons on the mx-518 (forward, back, page up, page down, scroll-wheel-click, and the random extra button) to game commands, giving me six buttons I can press with my hands on the mouse. Useful for /cast [target=mouseover] macros, especially for healers. But I'm ditching the 518 for a Naga, and the Naga even has a mac driver.
The basics of the Naga are straightforward - it's a decently ergonomic (right handed only, alas) mouse with some fancy-shmancy infrared laser (so you can blind yourself without noticing, since it's invisible) and a neat blue glow. It is a wired mouse, which I prefer - I still get noticeable lag no matter what kind of wireless mouse I use. It's got a scroll wheel (but no tilt-wheel which I again applaud, I detest tilt-wheel mice) and a forward-back button that is actually kind of hard to press (my one complaint is that I can't hit the back button with any finger in my normal hand configuration).
What's special about the naga? It has 12 more buttons.
Twelve.
Twelve frakkin' buttons. It's like they took your entire numberpad and taped it to the side of the mouse. It's EXACTLY like that.
This means that you can play the game using your left hand for movement and some buttons, and keep your right hand on the mouse at all times, for speedy turning, easy targeting, and so on. It means I don't need to have a keybind for /startattack, because I can just right-click on people now.
After a week of use, I can say that the keypad is precisely right. The mouse comes with some sticky rubber "trainers", little nubs you can put on some of your buttons. I put one on 5 and one on 11. I can very easily use 1-3 and 4-6 without thinking about it, that's where I put all my combat maneuvers on my characters (that's not a change from where I put stuff when I used a regular keyboard, even). 7-9 are a little harder to get to, but they're not too bad. 10-12 *are* something of a challenge to press, I have to consciously think about pressing those buttons. Then again, they're buttons I don't press all that often anyway (curse of elements, evasion, etc), so maybe if I had to use them a lot, I'd get better at it.
At $80 for the mouse, it's a little on the pricey end, but that's about what you'd spend for a fancy mouse anyway (a mx 518 will set you back $40, for example).
It's totally worth getting. Give it a week and acclimate to it, and you'll never need to take your hands off the mouse ever again. I'd even suggest it to Phil - just because you use a laptop doesn't mean you can't mouse also. Although I'm not sure I'd want to do anything requiring precision whilst treadmilling.
I've tried a LOT of different kinds of control tools for playing WoW. I took a Nostromo n52 for a spin that lasted a few days (it was pretty cool, but I couldn't get it to consistently go forward - backward - left - right using the thumbpad, I kept going diagonally and there was no tactile feedback, which was a dealbreaker). I've been using a logitech mx-518 (and a third-party mouse driver because Logitech stupidly doesn't have a mac driver for this one mouse), which I also really like. I mapped the six extra mouse buttons on the mx-518 (forward, back, page up, page down, scroll-wheel-click, and the random extra button) to game commands, giving me six buttons I can press with my hands on the mouse. Useful for /cast [target=mouseover] macros, especially for healers. But I'm ditching the 518 for a Naga, and the Naga even has a mac driver.
The basics of the Naga are straightforward - it's a decently ergonomic (right handed only, alas) mouse with some fancy-shmancy infrared laser (so you can blind yourself without noticing, since it's invisible) and a neat blue glow. It is a wired mouse, which I prefer - I still get noticeable lag no matter what kind of wireless mouse I use. It's got a scroll wheel (but no tilt-wheel which I again applaud, I detest tilt-wheel mice) and a forward-back button that is actually kind of hard to press (my one complaint is that I can't hit the back button with any finger in my normal hand configuration).
What's special about the naga? It has 12 more buttons.
Twelve.
Twelve frakkin' buttons. It's like they took your entire numberpad and taped it to the side of the mouse. It's EXACTLY like that.
This means that you can play the game using your left hand for movement and some buttons, and keep your right hand on the mouse at all times, for speedy turning, easy targeting, and so on. It means I don't need to have a keybind for /startattack, because I can just right-click on people now.
After a week of use, I can say that the keypad is precisely right. The mouse comes with some sticky rubber "trainers", little nubs you can put on some of your buttons. I put one on 5 and one on 11. I can very easily use 1-3 and 4-6 without thinking about it, that's where I put all my combat maneuvers on my characters (that's not a change from where I put stuff when I used a regular keyboard, even). 7-9 are a little harder to get to, but they're not too bad. 10-12 *are* something of a challenge to press, I have to consciously think about pressing those buttons. Then again, they're buttons I don't press all that often anyway (curse of elements, evasion, etc), so maybe if I had to use them a lot, I'd get better at it.
At $80 for the mouse, it's a little on the pricey end, but that's about what you'd spend for a fancy mouse anyway (a mx 518 will set you back $40, for example).
It's totally worth getting. Give it a week and acclimate to it, and you'll never need to take your hands off the mouse ever again. I'd even suggest it to Phil - just because you use a laptop doesn't mean you can't mouse also. Although I'm not sure I'd want to do anything requiring precision whilst treadmilling.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Adaptation to diversification
Now that I am playing a hybrid class, I've quickly come to resent the notion of main and off-spec preference in loot distribution - at least in the light of dual spec.
Historically, hybrid classes could change roles periodically, but did so infrequently and at a non-trivial expense. You could count on the bear tank more or less staying a bear tank, and when a player changed their role, it was a major decision and a fully-involved change.
In that era of relative stability and single-role reality, hybrids who desired items for the other roles they might one day take up could not have been, and should not have been given full and unchallenged access to the first-choice loot which the raiding team would be better-off having on other main-spec toons than rotting in the hybrid's bank for some far-off just-in-case possibility. In the past, therefore, off-spec marginalization in looting made sense.
But does it make as much sense today? Dual specs mean that players can fill two roles as whim and encounter needs dictate. Swapping specs on the fly, without expense, without a long trip to a trainer, and without consequence means that hybrids now can be flatly expected to do more than one thing in a guild, and to do so with regularity. What, in this era, is an off-spec really?
Is an off-spec the useful raiding role which you don't fill often, but can do so at a moment's notice if the attendance is off that night?
Is an off-spec the setup you use for non-raiding play, such as solo farming or pvp?
Is an off-spec the third (or fourth, or fifth for you druids) role that you are not specced for in either of your swappable specs?
I would put foreward that while guilds continue to class all three of these cases as off-spec, and prejudice looting accordingly, that only the second and third remain truly off-spec. It should now be the case that only the specs which provide no benefit to the raid group, or the specs which you still have to go through effort and expense to take up which should be marginalized. Hybrids with two available, beneficial specs for two different available, beneficial roles should be given equal, and if not equal then at least superior priority in gear than true, and antiquated off-spec classification.
While an equal access would be both most fair and easiest, even the introduction of a new priority stage between main and off-spec would at least address the problem to some degree - a second-spec roll call should the main and primary specs all pass on the gear before it cascades to those who, though unlikely to use an item, could still benefit from it in some future eventuality.
Hybrids have tremendous benefits - to a player and to a group - but they also have amazing hurdles to overcome in gearing. Continuing to punish them using priority systems which are entirely behind the current state of the game is not helping to ease these burdens at all.
Historically, hybrid classes could change roles periodically, but did so infrequently and at a non-trivial expense. You could count on the bear tank more or less staying a bear tank, and when a player changed their role, it was a major decision and a fully-involved change.
In that era of relative stability and single-role reality, hybrids who desired items for the other roles they might one day take up could not have been, and should not have been given full and unchallenged access to the first-choice loot which the raiding team would be better-off having on other main-spec toons than rotting in the hybrid's bank for some far-off just-in-case possibility. In the past, therefore, off-spec marginalization in looting made sense.
But does it make as much sense today? Dual specs mean that players can fill two roles as whim and encounter needs dictate. Swapping specs on the fly, without expense, without a long trip to a trainer, and without consequence means that hybrids now can be flatly expected to do more than one thing in a guild, and to do so with regularity. What, in this era, is an off-spec really?
Is an off-spec the useful raiding role which you don't fill often, but can do so at a moment's notice if the attendance is off that night?
Is an off-spec the setup you use for non-raiding play, such as solo farming or pvp?
Is an off-spec the third (or fourth, or fifth for you druids) role that you are not specced for in either of your swappable specs?
I would put foreward that while guilds continue to class all three of these cases as off-spec, and prejudice looting accordingly, that only the second and third remain truly off-spec. It should now be the case that only the specs which provide no benefit to the raid group, or the specs which you still have to go through effort and expense to take up which should be marginalized. Hybrids with two available, beneficial specs for two different available, beneficial roles should be given equal, and if not equal then at least superior priority in gear than true, and antiquated off-spec classification.
While an equal access would be both most fair and easiest, even the introduction of a new priority stage between main and off-spec would at least address the problem to some degree - a second-spec roll call should the main and primary specs all pass on the gear before it cascades to those who, though unlikely to use an item, could still benefit from it in some future eventuality.
Hybrids have tremendous benefits - to a player and to a group - but they also have amazing hurdles to overcome in gearing. Continuing to punish them using priority systems which are entirely behind the current state of the game is not helping to ease these burdens at all.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Customizing your Physical Interface: the Church of ESDF
I'm an interface geek, I'll admit it. One of the things I think about a LOT is the manner in which I interact with all sorts of things. Today's post is about the basic physical interface for the game. This has something to do with the virtual interface, via keybindings, but for now let's focus on how you actually press the buttons.
Most people play with a keyboard and either a mouse (like me) or a trackpad (like phil and any other laptop users). Take a moment and look at your keyboard. Where do you put your hands when you play? Do you put your hands on movement buttons? On the mouse?
Most people play by using their left hand to move their character and their right hand to activate the mouse or another set of buttons for action bindings. Historically, this interface grew out of the Quake Years. When PC gaming was young (say, Doom as one of the early FPSers which needed this kind of interactivity), people used the arrow buttons to move and used the left hand to use control clusters (guns, grenades, chainsaws, etc). Eventually, all the best players realized that you were better off putting all the important controls on your left hand, including movement, with the WASD keys. You could use QE to strafe (or when I played Quake seriously, circle-strafe), and keep your right hand on the mouse. Generally speaking turning by using the mouse is faster than turning by using the keyboard, and in games that need precise aiming like a FPS, having your hand on the mouse all the time is really important.
History lesson aside, most people use WASD to move nowadays.
You should use ESDF instead.
Put your hand on WASD and look at it. What can you reach in terms of controls? How often are you going to need that capslock key? The tilde? Now put it on ESDF. Hey presto, you can still reach the tab (for targeting, although I rebound the space bar to target and tab to jump), but now you have QA for more action buttons. Plus you can reach 1-6 pretty easily without moving your hand too far. You've just added about four action buttons to your interface without having to buy a custom device. Whee!
For the record, I still keyboard turn a lot, using SF for turning and WR for strafing. More on why I do that tomorrow (and a preview of how I've tried to fix that).
Most people play with a keyboard and either a mouse (like me) or a trackpad (like phil and any other laptop users). Take a moment and look at your keyboard. Where do you put your hands when you play? Do you put your hands on movement buttons? On the mouse?
Most people play by using their left hand to move their character and their right hand to activate the mouse or another set of buttons for action bindings. Historically, this interface grew out of the Quake Years. When PC gaming was young (say, Doom as one of the early FPSers which needed this kind of interactivity), people used the arrow buttons to move and used the left hand to use control clusters (guns, grenades, chainsaws, etc). Eventually, all the best players realized that you were better off putting all the important controls on your left hand, including movement, with the WASD keys. You could use QE to strafe (or when I played Quake seriously, circle-strafe), and keep your right hand on the mouse. Generally speaking turning by using the mouse is faster than turning by using the keyboard, and in games that need precise aiming like a FPS, having your hand on the mouse all the time is really important.
History lesson aside, most people use WASD to move nowadays.
You should use ESDF instead.
Put your hand on WASD and look at it. What can you reach in terms of controls? How often are you going to need that capslock key? The tilde? Now put it on ESDF. Hey presto, you can still reach the tab (for targeting, although I rebound the space bar to target and tab to jump), but now you have QA for more action buttons. Plus you can reach 1-6 pretty easily without moving your hand too far. You've just added about four action buttons to your interface without having to buy a custom device. Whee!
For the record, I still keyboard turn a lot, using SF for turning and WR for strafing. More on why I do that tomorrow (and a preview of how I've tried to fix that).
Monday, October 12, 2009
Toggle walk
So, here's the thing, since my kids came along I have become fairly sedentary. I just don't get out a lot, no more soccer or rollerblading or just taking a stroll. A lot of it is time, a lot of it is WoW. Either way, I've unsurprisingly put on a few pounds over the last five years and I'm increasingly bothered by it.
But what to do?
No time for sports, or the gym, and I really don't want to give up my hobbies.
Maybe I can try this
Turns out that I can walk and play WoW at the same time (just don't add gum). In fact, I did so last night. I spent an hour strolling along at a fair but not unpleasant clip while questing on my druid out around Mo'Aki Harbor.
So there was an hour of exercise I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, as well as the game time I wanted to have in the first place, and all it required was a few dollars worth of pvc and a cabinet door.
You know you're addicted to WoW when you can't stop playing it to lose the weight you gained from playing it.
But what to do?
No time for sports, or the gym, and I really don't want to give up my hobbies.
Maybe I can try this
Turns out that I can walk and play WoW at the same time (just don't add gum). In fact, I did so last night. I spent an hour strolling along at a fair but not unpleasant clip while questing on my druid out around Mo'Aki Harbor.
So there was an hour of exercise I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, as well as the game time I wanted to have in the first place, and all it required was a few dollars worth of pvc and a cabinet door.
You know you're addicted to WoW when you can't stop playing it to lose the weight you gained from playing it.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Butterfly Storms: Warlock Changes in 3.3 (so far)
It is funny how some tiny little changes can radically change warlock play. Let's take a look at what the current 3.3 plans mean.
First of all: pets are kind of getting buffed and nerfed in PvP. (burfed?) They're getting 100% of your resilience, yay! But avoidance no longer applies to PvP damage, boo! So your pet can get AoEd down, and most likely will die a lot more in battlegrounds due to incidental AoE (and may die from stuff like heart strike in arenas). On the plus side, the PvE avoidance got buffed to 90% reduction, yay.
The demonic pact build is getting SUPER BUFFED. You heard it here, Blizzard Loves Demonology. Decimation has had its mechanic changed. The overall reduction is the same, but the decimation proc seems to last for 8 seconds, and it can proc off of Soul Fire. I don't know if the "8 seconds" wording in there means the buff lasts for 8 seconds or if it still gets consumed, but the big deal is that soul fire can now proc decimate. No more annoying decimate weaves, when you get to 35% just unload with chain soul fires. Wheeeee! Plus, demonic pact is getting buffed with a flat 5% spelldamage bonus for the warlock on top of its already tasty existence. This is good news for me, because while I know that I should probably be speccing demonic pact at least some of the time, I never do because I hate the decimate weave.
It looks like the people at blizzard decided that affliction warlocks should raid with a felhunter and not a succubus. Shadow bite is getting seriously buffed, with the bonus damage going from 5% to 15% per DoT, and improved felhunter reducing the cooldown on Shadow Bite as well. We'll have to run the numbers, but the succubus used to only just barely edge out the felhunter with demonic power going, so I imagine that the felhunter is back. This is pretty cool, I like the felpuppy and his abilities more than the succubus. But really, affliction warlocks don't care all that much about pet damage, they're the least pet-reliant of the specs.
I have no idea what the conflagrate change means. It's a nerf for PvP, reducing straight-up burst, but still does the same overall damage for PvE. So, meh.
I also have no freaking clue why the buffed the rank of Curse of the Elements you learn at level 69 from 10% bonus damage to 11%. Why? I'm convinced it was a bug or something that they just don't care enough to fix.
The most interesting potential change came from ghostcrawler earlier today. They're thinking about making a glyph (I assume major) that would make corruption tick faster based on your haste. He said that he wasn't sure if this was good (since you'd have to cast corruption more often), and while this might be true for other classes that will be affected by this test (they're looking at shadow word: pain as well as some HoTs), affliction warlocks don't have to recast corruption. So, yeah. That's just a flat DPS boost as it is, although affliction already has three good glyphs to use so I'm not sure what I'd get rid of.
This patch is looking like they're trying to make non-destruction specs more viable without really buffing destruction. It's a straight PvE buff to meta/ruin and affliction, and a slight PvP nerf to destro. Holy cow, I think I'm going to faint. Warlocks getting buffed, forsooth.
First of all: pets are kind of getting buffed and nerfed in PvP. (burfed?) They're getting 100% of your resilience, yay! But avoidance no longer applies to PvP damage, boo! So your pet can get AoEd down, and most likely will die a lot more in battlegrounds due to incidental AoE (and may die from stuff like heart strike in arenas). On the plus side, the PvE avoidance got buffed to 90% reduction, yay.
The demonic pact build is getting SUPER BUFFED. You heard it here, Blizzard Loves Demonology. Decimation has had its mechanic changed. The overall reduction is the same, but the decimation proc seems to last for 8 seconds, and it can proc off of Soul Fire. I don't know if the "8 seconds" wording in there means the buff lasts for 8 seconds or if it still gets consumed, but the big deal is that soul fire can now proc decimate. No more annoying decimate weaves, when you get to 35% just unload with chain soul fires. Wheeeee! Plus, demonic pact is getting buffed with a flat 5% spelldamage bonus for the warlock on top of its already tasty existence. This is good news for me, because while I know that I should probably be speccing demonic pact at least some of the time, I never do because I hate the decimate weave.
It looks like the people at blizzard decided that affliction warlocks should raid with a felhunter and not a succubus. Shadow bite is getting seriously buffed, with the bonus damage going from 5% to 15% per DoT, and improved felhunter reducing the cooldown on Shadow Bite as well. We'll have to run the numbers, but the succubus used to only just barely edge out the felhunter with demonic power going, so I imagine that the felhunter is back. This is pretty cool, I like the felpuppy and his abilities more than the succubus. But really, affliction warlocks don't care all that much about pet damage, they're the least pet-reliant of the specs.
I have no idea what the conflagrate change means. It's a nerf for PvP, reducing straight-up burst, but still does the same overall damage for PvE. So, meh.
I also have no freaking clue why the buffed the rank of Curse of the Elements you learn at level 69 from 10% bonus damage to 11%. Why? I'm convinced it was a bug or something that they just don't care enough to fix.
The most interesting potential change came from ghostcrawler earlier today. They're thinking about making a glyph (I assume major) that would make corruption tick faster based on your haste. He said that he wasn't sure if this was good (since you'd have to cast corruption more often), and while this might be true for other classes that will be affected by this test (they're looking at shadow word: pain as well as some HoTs), affliction warlocks don't have to recast corruption. So, yeah. That's just a flat DPS boost as it is, although affliction already has three good glyphs to use so I'm not sure what I'd get rid of.
This patch is looking like they're trying to make non-destruction specs more viable without really buffing destruction. It's a straight PvE buff to meta/ruin and affliction, and a slight PvP nerf to destro. Holy cow, I think I'm going to faint. Warlocks getting buffed, forsooth.
Disaffection
I have mixed feelings about the game right now. I'm still logging in, sure, but it's just not the same. I'm doing it for lack of anything better to do, joylessly, and largely without accomplishing much.
To some degree, it is a lack of any current goals for my main. Barley's just sitting around Dalaran of late, barely played. There are no factions I feel compelled to grind, no instances I am itching to run, and no rocks I feel that I need to dig up. Sure, there's a slew of things I could be doing. I could be working on Loremaster, or old world factions, or tournie tokens, or dungeons, but nothing catches my fancy right now.
Some of this distance is due to a sudden surge in guild membership. I'm probably the only person who would be more comfortable in a stagnant guild that can't sort out a 25-man than in a guild with designs on (and every likelihood of) beating everything the game can throw at them right now, but for me, the expansion and the shift back to 25's is doubly discouraging. I am not, as I have said many times before, a big fan of the larger raid format, and getting the extra bodies to prioritize these runs over the 10-man versions which I greatly enjoy leaves me with fewer opportunities to participate in the group content I most enjoy. But even when there are 10's on the calendar, the sudden surge in bodies to fill those slots, and hunter bodies in particular, makes it difficult for me to even do that much.
And this in particular is an annoyance to me.
My guild has about a half dozen raid-ready active hunters right now - the most active of which are an alt, three who have quit and rejoined, a pair of brand new members, and me. Only one member of this assortment has been a long-standing drama-free main-playing hunter. Sure, I am not a standing member of the raid teams for lack of compatible time, but when I am still the lowest on the selection list, particularly when I'm only asking to run one raid a week, the raid my guild cares the least about mind you, while the others have multiple nights and multiple opportunities, it's more than a little alienating. To be honest, I really just don't care much for or about my guild at the moment.
Having an alt doesn't help either, alts are distracting, sapping energy and time from your main's needs and endeavors.
So here I am, a bit adrift, bored with my main, ill at ease with my guild, side-tracked by an alt, and unsure what to do next.
What should I do next?
To borrow a phrase, I have been horde-curious for a while now. I've always had a nagging regret that I didn't roll a troll or tauren to begin with, and with the new faction change option available, it is possible to not only take up the banner of the other side, but to take an advanced character with me. It would be incredibly hard to remake Barls as the troll he has always wanted to be - having to regrind the entire argent tournament, losing my history and tangible accomplishments like that first mechanostrider I got the hard way just isn't right. I can gender-bend and rename that toon over and over, but I don't know that I can go that far.
But my druid? She's accomplished nothing, has no history, no ties. Would she look better as a big ol' bull tauren?
But what would that solve?
An alt is distracting enough, an alt on the other faction? I already have enough trouble with the complications of a second toon sapping my time, energy, and enjoyment, I have a deep suspicion that going horde would probably either kill the alt or send me screaming from WoW altogether.
I probably need to just go back to Barls, find a few short-term goals, and get back to basics. Forget my guild angst, shelf the alt grind, stop longing for Sen'Jin, and get back to the game that got me hooked in the first place.
We all know how often I do the rational thing, though...
To some degree, it is a lack of any current goals for my main. Barley's just sitting around Dalaran of late, barely played. There are no factions I feel compelled to grind, no instances I am itching to run, and no rocks I feel that I need to dig up. Sure, there's a slew of things I could be doing. I could be working on Loremaster, or old world factions, or tournie tokens, or dungeons, but nothing catches my fancy right now.
Some of this distance is due to a sudden surge in guild membership. I'm probably the only person who would be more comfortable in a stagnant guild that can't sort out a 25-man than in a guild with designs on (and every likelihood of) beating everything the game can throw at them right now, but for me, the expansion and the shift back to 25's is doubly discouraging. I am not, as I have said many times before, a big fan of the larger raid format, and getting the extra bodies to prioritize these runs over the 10-man versions which I greatly enjoy leaves me with fewer opportunities to participate in the group content I most enjoy. But even when there are 10's on the calendar, the sudden surge in bodies to fill those slots, and hunter bodies in particular, makes it difficult for me to even do that much.
And this in particular is an annoyance to me.
My guild has about a half dozen raid-ready active hunters right now - the most active of which are an alt, three who have quit and rejoined, a pair of brand new members, and me. Only one member of this assortment has been a long-standing drama-free main-playing hunter. Sure, I am not a standing member of the raid teams for lack of compatible time, but when I am still the lowest on the selection list, particularly when I'm only asking to run one raid a week, the raid my guild cares the least about mind you, while the others have multiple nights and multiple opportunities, it's more than a little alienating. To be honest, I really just don't care much for or about my guild at the moment.
Having an alt doesn't help either, alts are distracting, sapping energy and time from your main's needs and endeavors.
So here I am, a bit adrift, bored with my main, ill at ease with my guild, side-tracked by an alt, and unsure what to do next.
What should I do next?
To borrow a phrase, I have been horde-curious for a while now. I've always had a nagging regret that I didn't roll a troll or tauren to begin with, and with the new faction change option available, it is possible to not only take up the banner of the other side, but to take an advanced character with me. It would be incredibly hard to remake Barls as the troll he has always wanted to be - having to regrind the entire argent tournament, losing my history and tangible accomplishments like that first mechanostrider I got the hard way just isn't right. I can gender-bend and rename that toon over and over, but I don't know that I can go that far.
But my druid? She's accomplished nothing, has no history, no ties. Would she look better as a big ol' bull tauren?
But what would that solve?
An alt is distracting enough, an alt on the other faction? I already have enough trouble with the complications of a second toon sapping my time, energy, and enjoyment, I have a deep suspicion that going horde would probably either kill the alt or send me screaming from WoW altogether.
I probably need to just go back to Barls, find a few short-term goals, and get back to basics. Forget my guild angst, shelf the alt grind, stop longing for Sen'Jin, and get back to the game that got me hooked in the first place.
We all know how often I do the rational thing, though...
Thursday, October 1, 2009
I'm cheap, bird is fast, help me decide
While I continue to suck at alts, I am nevertheless slowly inching toward level 71 on my long-suffering druid out in Borean Tundra, which means I will have the opportunity to pick up swift flight form. The question, though, is will I do it?
It took me forever to finally get around to cobbling together the gold to get swift flight on Barls, and once I did, i swore I would be unable to live with slow flight again - but that was before they made slow flight over twice as fast as what Barls had been accustomed to. My druid cruises along at a clip which is far from plodding. With the original slow flight you felt like you were ambling, indeed, in a lot of cases I would use my swift land mount instead of my slow flier just to pick up the pace. However, the new 150% speed "slow" flight is really not horrible. It's no swift flight, but it might just be fast enough to live with.
And then there's the gold. Even with rep bonuses, short of going off on some time-sink rep grind, I need to come up with 4520 gold for the riding skill and the spell. That's a lot of gold. Sure, I've got it, twice, but I'm cheap, and that's a lot of gold. It has been hard enough to invest as much gold into this alt as I have and while I will never regret getting dual spec early, and I was more than happy to pay for heirloom cold weather flight (which makes Northrend questing wildly different the second time around), would I regret spending all of that gold on a luxury for an alt that I fall in and out of interest in?
Sure, I am not using that gold for anything, it's just sitting around on my bank alt, but it would take me several weeks of purposeful gathering and daily questing to replace it, time I could spend doing more enjoyable things.
I suppose I could take a different approach and make the alt pay for it herself, or if not all of it, at least a good part of it. Northrend questing and herb gathering is not without its profits, especially if you stay out of the auction house while you're doing it. Perhaps I will buy swift flight when the druid has earned and saved half of the price of the skill. I wouldn't miss 2300 gold on my bank alt as much as I would the full tally, and it would also have the effect of forcing me to justify the purchase through a demonstration of continued and ongoing investment of time in the alt - if I can get to the mid-70's and get that much gold together, odds are I've got the bug bad enough to finish the job.
That's far too reasonable, where is my usual rash and regrettable approach?
It took me forever to finally get around to cobbling together the gold to get swift flight on Barls, and once I did, i swore I would be unable to live with slow flight again - but that was before they made slow flight over twice as fast as what Barls had been accustomed to. My druid cruises along at a clip which is far from plodding. With the original slow flight you felt like you were ambling, indeed, in a lot of cases I would use my swift land mount instead of my slow flier just to pick up the pace. However, the new 150% speed "slow" flight is really not horrible. It's no swift flight, but it might just be fast enough to live with.
And then there's the gold. Even with rep bonuses, short of going off on some time-sink rep grind, I need to come up with 4520 gold for the riding skill and the spell. That's a lot of gold. Sure, I've got it, twice, but I'm cheap, and that's a lot of gold. It has been hard enough to invest as much gold into this alt as I have and while I will never regret getting dual spec early, and I was more than happy to pay for heirloom cold weather flight (which makes Northrend questing wildly different the second time around), would I regret spending all of that gold on a luxury for an alt that I fall in and out of interest in?
Sure, I am not using that gold for anything, it's just sitting around on my bank alt, but it would take me several weeks of purposeful gathering and daily questing to replace it, time I could spend doing more enjoyable things.
I suppose I could take a different approach and make the alt pay for it herself, or if not all of it, at least a good part of it. Northrend questing and herb gathering is not without its profits, especially if you stay out of the auction house while you're doing it. Perhaps I will buy swift flight when the druid has earned and saved half of the price of the skill. I wouldn't miss 2300 gold on my bank alt as much as I would the full tally, and it would also have the effect of forcing me to justify the purchase through a demonstration of continued and ongoing investment of time in the alt - if I can get to the mid-70's and get that much gold together, odds are I've got the bug bad enough to finish the job.
That's far too reasonable, where is my usual rash and regrettable approach?
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