Patch 3.3.3 for DK tanks

And yes, no matter what Gravity tries to tell you, it’s 3.3.3, not 3.33.

Blood tanks: our plan B is now plan-B-ier. It’s also even easier to understand: Damage that would take you below 34-35% health or taken while you are at 34-35% health is reduced by (4-5/9-10/14-15)%. Voila. Will of the Necropolis is now better, but still sort of a worst-case scenario. Frankly, I just want to know when it kicks in – does WotN put something in the combat logs? Does anyone know?

Frost tanks: If you’re specced into Improved Icy Talons, it (1) now double-dips to give you more melee haste and (2) should now be taken whether you have an enhancement shaman along or not for basically that reason… if you’re dual-wielding. DW got more boosts, in the form of more off-hand damage. (That also kind of makes me want to look into frost DPS again, but I’ve not been keeping up with the latest math wankery on whether frost DPS is competitive again. Plus I need new weapons.) Two-handed frost tanks… please stand by.

Unholy tanks: … sorry, I got nothin’.

Shamananananing

My shaman has been receiving a bulk of my attention lately. I like shamans! It took a while for the totem mechanic to grow on me, and I can still see a number of fights that my DK is doing now where totems would be more or less very awkward to use, but it doesn’t make me like it any less. I’ve been leveling elemental, and doing a few Outland dungeons as elemental so I can get used to it in groups. It’s a real culture shock, after being a death knight solely for so long – what do you mean, I have to not use up all my mana? Bloody hell, I’m an aggro machine! And so on.

I also got unexpectedly pressed into resto’ing (as elemental) in Underbog when our healer decided to plop his fat dwarven butt on the ground prior to the naga section and, y’know, not tell anyone, nearly causing a wipe. Once he got punted, I was asked to heal until we could find a healer, and so I swapped over to Earthliving, put my 3 heals on my bars, and along I went. I … liked that too! I sense 1000g is coming up in Kallech’s future to make him dual-spec ele/resto. Y’know, right after the combined 6000g for epic and cold-weather flying.

Money

Finally makin’ it. Thanks Jewelcrafting! And thanks primarily to Hydra and Rip for the advice.   I won’t be hitting the gold cap anytime soon, but my total grows little by little and I’m no longer scraping the bottom of my empty change purse to try and pay for repairs or raid consumables, and that’s an improvement in my book.

WoW is like Pokemon

No, seriously. At a very high level, there’s a lot of unusual similarities, especially in playstyles.

First, you’ve got the people who play for the leveling, or for the story, or both. These people might do things that seem strange to some of us, but they like what they’re doing, and sometimes they’re 9 years old, and who can fault them for that?

Then you’ve got the people who get really, really srs bzns about it. These people crunch math, look at stats, find advantages, and in the end they boil the ‘acceptable’ standards down to certain combinations of stats and maneuvers in tiers. For WoW, these might be hardcore raiders or arena folks; in the world of Pokemon, these are competitive battlers. Hell, both games even have simulators that allow you to engage in full-on math wankery in an idealized version of the game environment.

Oh, and altoholics? Come on, that one’s easy: gotta catch level ‘em all.

Pokemon even has its own version of Elitist Jerks: it’s called Smogon.

No wonder I’m such a fan of both games.

Caffeine is still recruiting

Especially healers. Seriously. Join us. Joinnnnnn ussssss. Now 7/12 in ICC-10, after a decisive Orb-Whisperer-included victory over Team Edward The Blood Princes.

Thanks for reading this post from: The Stoppable Force.

Bits and pieces

TheMightyGresh: do you really want to huuuurt me? Do you really want to make me cryyyy?

Yes. Warlocks are some of my favorite PvP targets, mostly because I still remember how warlocks work. Other classes might have tricks up their sleeves, but I know your arsenal pretty well. Plus affliction warlocks are a pretty good challenge, since unlike many casters – who I can lock out with my eight billion interrupts – affliction has a ton of instant casts, so I have to settle for a general silence and a beating with a sack of quarters.

Oh, and Fear? So underpowered. Hello, diminishing returns; hello, Every Man for Himself.

Trizophenie: Cloud or Squall? And why?

Neither. I haven’t actually liked a Square-Enix hero since the days of FF6. Cloud’s a doofus who’s too wrapped up in himself to see the bigger picture of "hey dummy save the world," while Squall is a whiny emo boy– wait a sec, I’m seeing a trend here. To contrast, I did kind of like Tidus, I just wish his dialogue writer hadn’t made a concerted effort to make him sound like an idiot. Then again, Tidus kind of was an idiot, wasn’t he? "Durrrr what do you mean Zanarkand’s destroyed? Why is Auron sparkling? Durrrrrrrr."

Sabiba: here’s a question for you: Why does blizzard hate hunters in PVP?

I’m going to assume this is an arena question, because hunters seem to be doing fine in Battlegrounds. Here’s your answer: they hate everyone, at different times, in arenas. Reason being, as they stated in an interview a while ago, arenas were basically shoved clumsily into the game and it’s been hell for balance ever since. Frankly, I’d be just as happy if Cataclysm brought with it the removal of arenas.

Llanion: What toppings go on a correct pizza?

Anything except anchovies. The last pizza I had was the Socrates’ Revenge from Dewey’s Pizza: olive oil, minced garlic, Mozzarella-Fontina blend, spinach, black olives, green olives, Feta cheese, red Onions, tomatoes. Fantastic!

Krizzlybear: I have excellent rhythm, but I can’t get the crossfader to work properly. Any suggestions? Oh right, WoW questions only…

Heck if I know, man, you’re a full two difficulties above me. It would help if the crossfader locked a little more solidly into the ‘center’ position; as it is I tend to swing too far back when I hit a crossfade spike (I spike left, then accidentally go all the way right instead of back to center). I found that rather than trying to use it the way the tutorial shows, I positioned it between two of my fingers with my hand laying flat on the turntable controller – I tend to get better control that way.

Sleepyrabite: As I have nothing to ask about for WoW… What’s your current favourite offline game?

Funny you should ask – I just recently moved the rather clumsy "Hey Phil Whatcha Playin’" feature to a site I recently found that is designed for exactly this kind of thing – here’s my Backloggery! I’m currently dividing my attention between Half-Minute Hero, the Persona PSP remake, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, and (as you may have surmised from my answer to Krizz) DJ Hero. When my girlfriend is in town, we also play some co-op Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires. I also admit curiosity about Dragon Age: Origins; however, I may be the only gamer alive who didn’t really like Torchlight.

Ladygypsy: how is mana pronounced? MAN-a or MAHHHN-a? (srsly, I can’t pronounce squat in WoW.)

Well, I know how I pronounce it, but I wasn’t sure it’s correct, so I asked an authority. Apparently "mah-nah" – your second pronunciation – not "man-uh" is the correct pronunciation. It’s apparently a Maori word! I’ve learned something new today.

Lightning Round! Nibuca asks 12 million questions!

• If you were trapped on a "Lost" isle.. and had access to only one game/console/pc which would you choose? WoW. Surely no one expected that, but look at it this way: I can try and get my guildies to send a helicopter to get me off this stupid island!
• If a boss falls in the game.. and the last of the raid members dies at the same time.. is it a wipe? Nope. Sure, you have to get back up and repair and heal, but you still get phat lewtz, making it not-a-wipe.
• What pie is best for T-day? Pumpkin.
• Should all pie be topped with whipped cream? No – apple pies, or other warm fruit pies, deserve ice cream. Any pie with a meringue doesn’t need whipped cream – it brought its own topping to the table.
• Is ice cream optional? For most pies, yes. I really only prefer it with fruit pies. It’ll do for whipped cream in a pinch. Again, though, not really necessary for meringue pies at all.
• Boxers briefs or commando.. which do you think @brigwyn chooses… {evil grin} I refuse to consider Brigwyn’s undies or lack thereof; the fact that he showed up in my dreams on tour with Daft Punk was bad enough (at least he was fully clothed).
• Harvest festival overview.. Grinding reputation with the "running circles in Dalaran" faction… RP for the uninitiated… That’s not a question, but lucky for you, I’m nice. I know as much about the Harvest Festival as you, I’m not sure what the second one is, and I’m not on an RP server anymore and never RP’d when I was on one. NEXT!
• How is the "Mr T hand grenade" better/worse than the zombie infestation from last year?
• Better, for people who didn’t enjoy the zombie infestation: you can click off the Mohawked buff instead of hoping for a healer to pass by, or waiting to zombify then exploding.
• Worse, for people who did enjoy the zombie infestation: sorry, you don’t get to fight your own faction and infect them with zombiedom.
• Better, for everyone all around: the Mohawked buff isn’t going to stop you from going about your business.
• Worse, period: it doesn’t really lead up to anything. Unless… Mr. T is the final boss of Cataclysm?! So now we know where Deathwing’s been hiding all these long years: the A-Team van.

There, I think I won! Now if only there was a prize.

Thanks for reading this post from: The Stoppable Force.

Ask a reasonable question … get a stupid answer.

Remember how I told you I was a pretty avid console gamer? Well, yeah, about that…

I have a small problem when it comes to videogames: I never seem to finish them. My attention is caught, I plunk down the cash (or, more recently, massive amounts of Gamestop trade-in credit) and bring it home, I play the game for a night or two, and… nothing. Some rare games get me to come back to them repeatedly, but overall I seem to lose the drive to finish things in place of the drive to buy the Next New Thingâ„¢.

So, now, I am putting a challenge before myself: I’m going to finish what I start. Enter this site’s new page: Hey Phil, Whatcha Playin’? It’s a pretty straightforward page, divided into three sections:

1. Currently Playing, for games that are currently receiving a moderate-to-large amount of my gaming hours,
2. On the Shelf, for games that I either haven’t started, haven’t invested more than a few hours into, or that I have played for a while then put back down for whatever reason.
3. Finished! Which should be self-explanatory, no?

And, to make it a little more challenging on myself, I won’t be adding to the collection by spending any cash at all, until I’ve finished everything that is currently unfinished. If I want to get something new, there are two exceptions to this rule:

1. Store Credit, by trading in things I’m no longer playing, and
2. Rare Finds, such as if I manage to find Xenosaga III or Yakuza 2 somewhere.

That’s it. No spending money on new console or handheld games until I finish the ones I have. Let’s see if I can do it! I’ll update periodically on this (you didn’t think I would do something that didn’t provide me with periodic blogfodder, did you? Pshaw) and welcome comments as well as recommendations (because it’s probably pretty obvious from the list what kind of games I like).

Thanks for reading this post from: The Stoppable Force.

Finishing what I start