Indestructible

2010-02-08

Playing Bane (my Warrior) today made me appreciate how easy farming is with a plate class, particularly one with some kind of self heal.

Love is in the Air requires you to collect Lovely Charms this year, from mobs that would earn you XP. So I set out to find a good farming spot, and found a great location at The Lost Lands in Sholazar where Bonescythe Ravagers spawn every 10 seconds or so in an infinite procession. I plonked Bane down in mid pond and proceeded to destroy everything that spawned, with Miks scrolling an endless stream of ‘misses’ for the mobs. I kept this up, non stop, for about 45mins, popping Enraged Regeneration when required.

This netted the 120 Charms required for the Achievement and sundry other goods in the process. I could barely loot fast enough to keep up. On my leather wearing Rogue this would have required pulling one or two out of the way, dropping them, eating, repeat. Slow work. Since then I’ve read of some better spots to farm - BBB seems to have found the pick so far - but it was a good reminder of the virtual unstoppability of a plate clad Tauren.


Be careful out there

2010-02-06

Time for another round of weekly reading goodness:

Offtopic post of the week: the Sports Guys on supporting officially tortured teams. Anyone in Sydney will empathise when I say the North Sydney Bears are my team, and they more than qualify. Sigh.


Every game needs Tauren

2010-02-04

A friend recently decided to (re)start a Dungeon & Dragons group (using the Pathfinder ruleset). Having had a fairly lengthy break from roleplaying, it’s refreshing and inspiring to read through the core rulebook and dream up characters and classes. Should I play a straight-up Fighter? Or mix it up with a little Barbarian action? Or maybe stretch out and introduce the religious power of the Paladin or Cleric. Can the basic Fighter class really be balanced when compared to all the extra goodies the other melee roles bring? Good stuff.

But there was one problem: you can’t play a Tauren. Humans, pah. Half-orcs, elves, halflings, gnomes, zzzz. A dwarven warrior, hmm, maybe. But what I really wanted was a Tauren. Blizzard absolutely nailed it when they designed the mighty hooved ones, creating an iconic and emotionally involving new race. And one that doesn’t have it roots in the brilliant but saturated Tolkien racial templates.

Their homeland of Mulgore is beautiful, and perfectly fits the spiritual and ethical nature of the Tauren philosophy. Rolling plains filled with roaming wildlife and epic sunsets over towering cliffs.  And Thunder Bluff, standing tall in the midst of the plains of Mulgore, is a unique and special place, certainly the most racially ‘right’ city (with the possible exception of Ironforge).

RPing a Tauren is a dream, as it is so easy to bond with the race, with the history, the leaders, and the aesthetic. Creating a toon that has only a Kodo to ride, a prairie dog non-combat pet, and (if you’re a Hunter) Mazzranache as a pet instantly makes you part of the rich Tauren history. In fact the only thing Blizzard did wrong was remove the fabled Plainsrunning racial from the Tauren, which sounds like it would have been the icing on an already delicious cake.

The Panzercow clearly thinks the same - he’s trying to work out how to make a Tauren Trekkie. As for Pathfinder, I guess a Dwarf will have to do. Unless I can convince the GM to let me roll up a Minotaur…


‘It’s very rude of him,’ she said, `To come and spoil the fun!’

2010-02-03

Question of the day: do you watch the LK cinematic or not?

On the yea side of the argument, our Guild is so far from actually doing this encounter ingame that it may as well be a different game. By the time we do get there, there’s not going to be anything to spoil, because it will all have been out in the open for months. So why not watch it now, while the buzz is alive.

On the nay side, seeing the Wrathgate cinematic while levelling was epic and great. I didn’t get to it until way after most, but managed to quarantine any advance info or spoilers.

The problem is that the Fall of the LK is a much bigger deal, and I can’t imagine it not being common knowledge no matter how hard you try. Kind of like trying to not find out the winner of the Superbowl until you’ve watched it a day later. Luckily, for now anyway, Blizzard have pulled the video on copyright grounds, so I can ponder a little longer (before giving in!).


For the Hoard

2010-02-02

I’ve been running chain instances on my Rogue, starting with normal modes and just now graduating to Heroics. The Icecrown 5 mans drop so much epic stuff in regular mode that Heroics are almost not required. But there is still some gear that is best farmed from Heroics. And of course the flood of emblems is irresistible. 

Because Stroeb is just fooling around, I’m not driven or fussed by getting BiS, she’s just looking for enough to hold her own in 5 mans. Which is nice as it means guilt free Heirloom purchases, rather than feeling like it must be spent on Tier gear. I can feel a nice Lava Dredger incoming for my Druid.

One problem I encountered was my woeful DPS. Despite upping my gear, I was still only putting out 1200-1500 deeps. Luckily I was running non-heroics, and all the random groups were encouraging rather than dismissive. So I went in search of the reason, and found a great post on Slice and Dice on just this topic - how to ramp up your Heroic trash DPS.

My main problem was saving all the cooldowns for bosses, and using the EJ boss rotation religiously, rather than being looser on trash, using cooldowns, and adapting the rotation based on what was happening. Good lessons all. I followed Sam’s advice, and bingo! 2000+ DPS instantly, with the same gear.

I think that the reluctance to use cooldowns, trinkets, and consumables actually goes back to pen and paper role playing. In DnD, you tend to save the good stuff for when you really need it, when you need the GM to give you a break or reward for using a special item. You’re lucky to have a potion in your bag, or a spell to save everyone, so you use it judiciously. This is as opposed to WoW where there are more or less bottomless pits of food, buffs, and 30 second cooldowns. My bags tend to be full of consumables and my action bars full of cooled down specials, all of which I’m saving for that urgent moment. And it’s not just Warcraft - I have the same hoarding mentality in all single player games. No more! From now on, it’s use it or lose it. For the HoardHorde!