DK For Hire

DK For Dummies - Them Runic Power

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:41:00 +0000

So what about them runic powers?

It’s the light blue bar right under your health bar that’s filling up as you hit the mob and as you use your abilities.

You fill up your runic power by:
1. Applying your diseases (IT, PS).
2. Striking your target (BS, HS, SS, OB, DS).
3. Blowing your horn.

You lose runic power by:
1. Not in combat.
2. Using them for abilities listed below.

What they are used for:
Offensive abilities:
-Death Coil
-Frost Strike
-Rune Strike
-Dancing Rune Weapon
-Hungering Cold
-Corpse Explosion

Defensive abilities:
-Ice Bound Fortitude
-Death coil
-Mind Freeze
-Anti Magic Shell
-Death Pact

Since you start with 0 runic power and build up your runic power as you spend your runes, the abilities mentioned above fit after the ‘rotation’ we’ve establish previously.

So now our ‘rotations’ looks somewhat like this:

1. Apply diseases (spending runes, building runic power).
2. Strikes (spending runes, building runic power).
3. Spend runic power. (waiting to spend runes).

And that’s ladies and gents is the universal Death Knight rotation.

Whether you are tanking or damage dealing, in blood, unholy or frost, you will be doing those 3 activities. That is our core class mechanic.

Next post we’ll talk about pairing up abilities to maximize up time and minimize down time.

Quel Delar Delar....

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:15:00 +0000

Whatever will be… will beee…

So here’s short report on the Quel’Delar quest line that I’m doing at the moment.

It’s AWESOME!!!

The depth of my knowledge on WoW lore is pretty pathetic. It goes along the line of… Allys are pretty, Hordies are ugly. The end.

But it’s Quel Delar…. The sister blade of Quel Serar…

Epic quest line… Like Ebert’s review of Sex in the City, I’m going to give it 4 star out of 5. Actually that was not accurate, he gave it a thumb down. Complete waste of time that movie was.

This quest line takes you to 3 different dungeons. THREE!!! It is thick with lore and it takes you back in time. It has some NPC interactions, NPC acting, some voice acting and it rewards you with a bad ass epic.

It is the ‘solution’ of providing end game content besides raiding. Give us a story line that we can immerse ourselves in. Let us interact with important lore figures in the game. You can do the quest on your own time and pace.

I truly had fun questing even after I got to level cap. Hopefully they’ll have more of this come Cata.

Note: I’ll post up some of the lore stuff that I’ve learned after completing this quest. It’s really cool.

DK For Dummies - Abilities & Rotations

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:29:00 +0000

Let’s talk about abilities and rotations.

The DK class have 3 types of abilities:

1. Disease(s)
2. Strikes
3. Filler (or some people call it runic power dump)

That’s it. This is true of all 3 of our specs. There might be some little variation and ‘fun’ things from each of the specs but these 3 are the core abilities of our class mechanic. These 3 abilities are intertwined and affect how and when to use them. We'll take a closer look of each tree later to talk about these 'fun' things that make each tree unique.

So let’s try to build us a ‘rotation’ by looking at any of the ability that has the word ‘strike’ in them.

These are Blood Strike, Death Strike, Heart Strike, Scourge Strike

Depending on the tree that you choose to level/dps/tank with, you’ll probably have some of the above ‘strike’ ability. In either case, they are available as you start the Hellfire Peninsula zone in outland.

Let’s look at the tool tips for these strikes.

Blood Strike:
Instantly strike the enemy, causing 40% weapon damage plus , total damage increased by 12.5% for each of your diseases on the target.

Death Strike:
A deadly attack that deals 75% weapon damage plus 84 and heals the Death Knight for 5% of his/her maximum health for each of his/her diseases on the target.

Heart Strike:
Instantly strike the target and his nearest ally, causing 50% weapon damage plus on the primary target, and 25% weapon damage plus on the secondary target. Each target takes 10% additional damage for each of your diseases active on that target.

Scourge Strike:
An unholy strike that deals 70% of weapon damage as Physical damage plus 238. In addition, for each of your diseases on your target, you deal an additional 12% of the Physical damage done as Shadow damage.

See the pattern there?

‘for each of your diseases on the target’ your strikes gets more potent. It will hit harder than if you do not have any disease active on your target.

So just by reading the tool tips we can built a starter DK rotation and it goes something like this:

1. Put diseases on target
2. Strike the target.

Pretty simple right? Yup.

But wait that’s not all. What about that runic power we’re gaining as we start our rotation?

Next we will talk about the dump phase. It’s like taking a dump, but better.

U and I Must Change

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:01:00 +0000

With the UI overhaul in cataclysm, you know the one thing nobody talks about and the one thing that Blizzard really need to change?

The default location of your portrait.

It has vital information. Your health, your runes, your energy, your rage, your mana, your focus, your runic power.

Currently it is on the top left corner of your screen. You know what else should be on the corner of your screen? Your recycle bin. Mine’s on the bottom right corner of my screen.

I like to locate things that I deemed important on the center of my vision.

This might be the reason why I'm such a bad Karate practitioner since punches and kicks that hurt the most typically comes swinging about from my peripheral vision areas.

Subway No Way

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:46:00 +0000

Unrelated to WoW, they’re going to put a cap on the unlimited metro card. So instead of ‘unlimited 30 days metro card’ it’s going to be ’90 ride card’.

Assuming that I use the card every day (and I do). One swipe going to and one swipe coming from, that’s 60 guaranteed used up charges. I’d still have 30 more to use. Not a problem for a single transit user like me.

But let’s take a look at somebody that needs some transfer to a bus in addition to subway, that’s 120 charges. Not good.

The thing is, I can definitely see myself being in that group. The 5 NY boroughs do not get complete coverage from the subway system. This change will increase their travel cost by one third.

That’s a lot.

Imagine the cost of fuel went up by 33% for you that drives to and from work.

That’s a lot.

Always Practice Safe DPS

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:00:00 +0000

While I was in the subway this morning I got to think of why I play WoW. I can blog about it and it probably be a very boring post. Most blogger already post about it. So I decided it’s a moot point.

But something else was on my mind.

I will let you in on a little secret.

I let stupid DPS die… I let them die multiple times in a run if they don’t learn. And it felt great afterwards.

Yes, I have a healer. Yes, I have healed heroics with no tanks. Yes, I know I can keep you all alive. No, I won’t do it just because it will keep me awake for daily random.

If I practice safe DPS, the why can’t I expect the same from others when I switch to healing or tanking?

On a lighter note, I started the Quel’Delar quest on my druid. I won the hilt’s roll on a HoR run. It’s definitely one of the coolest quest line I’ve seen in the game. I’m hoping the next expansion have more of this.

-----------
Edit: I just found out that healer letting people die is not so uncommon.

DK For Dummies - Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:40:00 +0000

In the first post of DK For Dummies series, we’ll take a look at resources that the DK class use. It’s definitely different and unique.

Like all class in the game, the death knight have their resources to fuel their ability. This is like mana for the caster classes, rage for warriors/bear, energy for rogues/cat, etc. Unlike the other class with the exception of rogues and cat druid, death knights have 2 types of resources that fuel their abilities.

One of them is called runes and the other one is called runic power.

RUNES:

All death knights starts with:
(2) frost runes
(2) unholy runes
(2) blood runes

Most guides called them FFUUBB
These are the little balls that are hanging under your character plate on the top left corner.

Some if not most of our abilities spend these runes. Once they are used for an ability, they go through a 10 second cooldown before they can be used again. So here’s an example of how the runes resource is used on a fight:

Start (fresh set of runes)
FFUUBB

Icy Touch
xFUUBB

Plague Strike
xFxUBB

Blood Strike
xFxUxB

10 second later
FFxUxB

11.5 second later
FFUUxB

13 second later
FFUUBB

RUNIC POWER

Runic power works exactly like rage. We gain runic power through the use of runes.

The rest of our abilities that does not use runes as resource will use runic power.

See how that works there?

Think of a backwards rogue or cat druid mechanics.

In short:
-Runes creates runic power that’s used for more abilities while we wait for the runes to finish up their cooldown.
-Our resources have a set of exact timers. It does not matter whether you are in heroic blues or in ICC heroic gear, your runes will refresh in exactly 10 seconds after it is used. This makes the Death Knight mechanics gravitate to a heavy resource management mechanics.

Next up we’ll look at what do we spend these runes and runic power on to maximize our output within the exact 10 seconds of each runes cooldowns.

Bad Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:53:00 +0000

Anybody else got turned off by Job’s explanation today?

I did.

After what they said today, I will not buy any Apple product. What an arrogant piece of shit of a company.

You make mistakes, you owned up to it.

It’s a phone FFS. Is it too much to ask for it to work like one?

DK For Dummies

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:29:00 +0000

I’ll be posting up a DK for dummies series in the next couple of weeks. The purpose of this guide, rather than create a how to guide, is to explain the class mechanic.

This series is not for the expert raiders but geared more towards those who might be curious and want to try the DK class or those who might have abandoned that level 58 DK in Hellfire Peninsula.

I also hope it can educate those who insist that DK can tank in blood presence and insist that to use the talent tree you need to be in their respective presence.

I’ll be covering up some basic stuff about the class and some basic abilities for all 3 talent trees.

Hopefully after we finish the series we’ll know:

-What a DK can do.
-What a DK can’t do.

Last Week's Winners and Losers

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:48:00 +0000

Winners

1. Blizzard, for ‘listening’ to the community and retracting what could be the slayer of the dragon slayer himself. They’ve managed to pissed, pleased, and ‘solved’ what could be a cataclysmic event. No pun intended there…

2. Miami, for having the KING to tank all of their heroic raids.
3. Espagna. OLE!!!
4. Me, for making a mean peach upside down cake. YUMM!!!!

Losers

1. GM Bashiok, poor guy who’s rumoured to have supported the his company’s policy and got footed with a big pile of pizza bills.

2. Cleveland, for being tank-less.
3. Holland, for choking on the biggest game of their life.
4. Level 1 forum troll alt, for being a winner but since this is my blog, you get to be a loser.

Not So Secret Trade Secret

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:48:00 +0000

This is how I make my gold.

The method has been very good to me. It has not make me a gold millionaire, but it has allow me to not worry about the best enchants and gems.

I don’t think it’s an original one. If I can think it somebody else might have done it already.

Here we go…..

TOOLS:
Use some sort of an auction mod. Scan diligently.
Use lil sparky crafting mod. It will link your auction mod and put a scanned price to each of the glyph you can make.

MATS:
Scan for herbs.
Since I’m lazy, I typically just search for the Northrend ones. Look for the cheapest one.
They sell for about 80 silver each on my server. This might be different on yours.
Before you buy them, read below on setting your price.
Buy them.
Make a macro /mill
Hot key it and press it repeatedly.

SET YOUR PRICE:
Since milling will need a pack of 5, here’s a simple math to set your glyph price.
A pack of 20 herb with 80 silver each will cost you 16 gold.
A pack of 20 herb will get you about 10 pigment after 4 millings.
10 pigments makes 5 ink
5 parchment will cost you 2 gold 25 silver (basing the price on resilient parchment –the most expensive one)
5 inks + 5 parchments makes 5 glyph
Total cost is 16 gold + 2 gold 25 silver = 18 gold 25 silver
Each glyph will cost you 3 gold and 65 silver. (18.25 / 5)

MAKE THEM:
Scan the AH.
Go to Dalaran and stand in between the ink trader and the inscription supplier.
Open up your inscription window and find glyph that are priced above your cost.
Start making them.

SELL THEM:
Send them to your bank alt.
Pay attention as you post them, sometimes the price have change or dropped.
No worries. Just keep the glyph and wait a couple of days until they go back up to profit sales.

I typically try to have about 300-350 glyphs posted and about 100 or so sitting in my bag waiting for the price to go back up again. I only do this about once or twice a week. Not a very exciting thing to do. But it pays the bill.

Something Always Brings Me Back to You

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:31:00 +0000

From somebody that has let ‘Killing Dragons’ on the back seat for a while, I’d have to say let the people kill them internet dragons in peace.

The community blew up over this and it got a little too far than I think it should be. I have never seen the word raped, murdered, shot or stalked so many times on my RSS feed.

So many offered up their justification why they should or should not. Some offered examples of ‘what ifs’. I also did.

Maybe I shouldn’t. I’m not playing anymore, why should I care?

I’ll go with Typhoon Andrew’s conspiracy theory on this one, it’s all a publicity stunt.

Think about it. It brought me back to write about the game I left and might even re-subscribe.

I do miss them pixels…

real ID ???...lol

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:17:00 +0000

I’m not sure if this will make it further in the game but the prospect of being accountable for your online actions is an awesome concept.

I like it.

I like it a lot.

It still won’t let me reach across the internet and smack that stupid head of yours for being rude and stupid. But now you can put a real name to a stupid post.

Now if they’d only ban the word ‘lol’ in chat.

I had enough looking at “???lol”

Or “more heal!!! Lol”

Or “5.5kgs lol”

Please Blizzard, I am begging you. If you want my $15 a month back again, no more “lol”

Can't Get Over You

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:37:00 +0000

I guess I can’t quit yet…. Blogging is my version of nerdraging on raid chat/vent…

10 =/= 25

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:36:00 +0000

I like how wrath introduced easy mode. However, it’s safe to say that they’re still trying to clean it up.
We started with a clean 10 vs 25. 10 was supposed to be easier than 25. Some of the 10’s encounter mechanics was deleted for 10.
On top of that, sometimes they layered it with hard modes.
Then 3.1 comes out and the ‘hard modes’ becomes official.

So by design the hierarchy of difficulties should look (easiest to hardest) something like 10 normal<10 hard<25 normal<25 hard

Then they realized that in order to do this, they have to ‘design’ 4 times for the same encounter. This includes variety of class make up and balance, mechanics, gear, etc.

It will be like as if they tie themselves up and blindfolded if they were to follow this rigidly. And to this, we see some exception to the rule. Some say there’s too many of these exception that they’ve lost it.

Not entirely a surprise if they decided to streamline the difficulties tier in the next expansion.

The idea behind Wrath raiding is great but I really think the player base is not ready for it. They’re so used to the ‘progression’ path method that measure difficulties on an encounter basis. I call Wrath raiding as lateral raiding and TBC raiding as linear.

Wrath design brought new ideas to the table. An idea of progression based on real difficulties that you can adjust instead of dictated by the encounter designer. An idea where encounters are part of content that everybody should be able to experience and still leave the hard mode challenges to those who seek it.

From the looks of it Cata’s raiding scene will be a mix of Naxx and ICC with some simplification.

Ciao

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:38:00 +0000

Is a one size fits all expression I learn during a short stint in the Amalfi coast. It is hello and goodbye at the same time.

This was a short lived blog and I’m probably saying ciao to no one. But I felt the need anyways.

Professor Mukesh and Curtis

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:59:00 +0000

I knew it!!!

Money can’t buy happiness. Just ask Mukesh and Curtis. Both are university folks that modeled off how more money means just that… more money. I guess the idea is that up to a certain point wealth can bring you happiness. But pass that point, it’s just about keeping up with the Joneses. Or what they call ‘conspicuous spending’.

Sounds a lot like Feral druid armor diminishing return is making a cameo in your daily economic news.

Currently I have still yet to reach that point of keeping up with the Joneses. I still want to have a bigger house, faster computer, maybe an occasional maid to clean the apartment and a weekend house in up-state New York. I also would not turn down a boat or a long vacation in the Grecian Cyclades Islands or both a combination of the above.

Actually I’ll take the vacation pronto. (For those of you looking to go to the Cyclades, skip the other islands and go to Naxos.)

However, I can see the conspicuous spending theory in effect in my World of Warcraft. If I collect all of my gold from all of my character, I probably have a whooping 2000 gold. That’s rounding it up (generously). And I’m completely satisfied with it.

When I used to raid regularly, I think I have a little bit less than 1500 gold combined. These economist made me wonder, is there a ‘point of no difference’?

The saddest day in my entire WoW career would be on my warlock as she reached level upon level and when she went to the trainer to learn her new spells, she was denied cause she didn’t have enough silver to do it.

What could possibly make players want what I call a ridiculously large sum of gold? I really just needed that extra 56 silver to learn the next rank of shadowbolt.

Would having 10k gold made me enjoy the game more? Would buying Haris Pilton’s bag increased my enjoyment of the game?

Why buy gold then? Makes no sense to me.

Maybe cause I’m not a balla, shot playa, high rollaaa

Or in this case, a suckaaaaaa…

Tanaris Needs More Bacon

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:59:00 +0000

This has been somewhat of an old news. At least it is for me. My favorite morning deli is no longer in business.

Most of you will probably say, “What’s the big frinkin deal?!” See what I did there… I’m trying to reduce the amount of swearing coming out of my mouth and my writing.

Deli is a funny thing for us in New York. It’s mostly a small mom and pop store that sells a lot of variety goods. From sugar, cold cuts, sometimes fruit, vegetable, soda, cigarettes, to your morning coffee and sometimes simple breakfast. It’s your one stop shop for all of the simple little pleasures in your daily grind.

The one thing that’s important about them is it’s very hard to find a good one that fits your specific need. The criteria is very different for different needs.

I would not go to my sandwich deli to buy my bread. There’s another deli that always have fresh baked bread delivered that morning. The same goes for my fruit and vegetable. I wouldn’t go to my salad deli for my morning coffee and omelet since it’s not on the way between my subway stop and my office.

Favorite delis are developed over time as you developed your daily routine. I got all of my needs covered up till last week.

I found out my favorite morning coffee and breakfast deli is no longer in business. I was walking on a shitty slushy morning from my subway stop to my office. Typically the ‘Two eggs, hash and toast with coffee for $3.75’ caught my eye but that morning there was no sign. A large FOR RENT call xxx-xxx-xxxx sign was posted on the overhead coiling door. I was shocked.

I can’t believe the line cook who knows me by what I order (To him I was the bacon omelet with pepper jack cheese and toast with no butter guy) didn’t tell me anything. I was there the day before and he didn’t say anything?!?! I was crushed. Now I have to find another deli that’s clean, on my walking route, that makes good omelet, within a reasonable price, that brew good coffee. Grrrrr….

With the craziness that’s happening at work and RL, I really can’t do anything else in game other than leveling. My WoW time has been filled with constant interruptions and short period of time where I can login and actually do anything. Not much you can do other than level. Quests took 5 or 10 minutes each and that’s just perfect for me at the moment.

Now I’ve developed a habit when it comes to leveling.

For my Alliance characters I typically start them in their starting zones, then on to Loch Modan, then to Wetlands, mixed a bit with Duskwood, then continue to Dustwallow Marsh, Tanaris mixed with Feralas, then Ungoro mixed with Burning Steppes and Fellwod, finishing Vanila with Winterspring.

As I re-roll to the Horde side, I didn’t know where to go. Some zones can be kept but they’re all mixed up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to ride into an Alliance town just to realize that the guards are beating me on my Kodo to death.

I love it when I got to Tanaris (and later on Winterspring). The goblins gave the same quest for both side. They even greet me with the same greeting, ‘Time is money friend.’ For a short period of time there I’m familiar with my surroundings.

If only they serve Bacon omelet with pepper jack cheese and homestyle fries with toast and no butter, I’d set my hearth in Tanaris Inn…. Forever…

It's Paddy, NOT Patty!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:06:00 +0000

Remember that.

Today I got yelled at in two separate occasion for being an ignorant St. Patrick’s day celebrator.

Apparently Paddy is the correct abbreviation for the occasion and Patty is a girl you dated in junior high. Or was it Samantha… I don’t remember…

On a separate occasion a ‘true’ Irish man told me the color of his beer is black. “Guiness comes in one color and that color is black.” he claims. His comment kicked my ego sharp in the groin since I enjoy my green beer during this festive occasion.

But then again, it’s light jacket weather in New York, people are wearing green and walking the streets. The sun is shining and the green beer are flowing.

No WoW today, go and enjoy St. Paddy’s day. Be merry but be safe.

Note: I found out that my green beer is no other than budlight mixed with green food coloring. Yay!!! It’s St. Paddy day everyday :D

Who Says?

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:15:00 +0000

Last weekend I decided to take control of the remote and steer us (me and wife) away from the usual suspect of Jersey Shore and Housewives of OC. Married life exposed me to many garbage television shows.

Talk about un-recoupable span of my life.

So we watched VH1s storytellers. It was John Mayer.

Now I’m not a big fan of music video television but I like this particular show and this particular artist. A combination of the two sounds really good.

It was a great show. John explained with great detail how he wrote his songs. He really demonstrated a high level of craftsmanship and passion to his craft.

While I’m aware that the World of Warcraft is a game, I really believe that its players need to show a certain degree of care playing it.

Like many other group related activity, this game also revolves around level of contributions to the group. When you slack other will have to pick it up willingly or not.

So when you hum ,”Who says I can’t get stoned?”

The answer is nobody. As long as you keep the tank alive.

Salty Ban

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:14:00 +0000

Did you hear? They’re going to ban salt in NYC restaurant!!! I can’t let this pass and not blog about it.

A congressman from Brooklyn wanted to ban the use of salt in restaurant. It seems that his dad went through a heart attack due to eating out too much. So as a service to public he’s proposing a ban in the use of the ‘substance’.

Seriously congressman…. Seriously….

There’s no chance that the heart attack is caused by the selection of food?
There’s no chance that the heart attack is caused by genetics?

And myriads of other factor that can cause it.

Instead of educating yourself on what is a heart attack and what causes it, you pick on the salt.

So let us make a promise fellow WoW players….

Each time you queue for a random dungeon and start your pissing match. Educate yourself on why the boss one shot the tank when you DPS during overlord’s brand.

In the mean time, I'm going to check on the next election dates so I can vote for the other guy.

THE END IS NEAR! REPENT!

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:30:00 +0000

As we cross the Manhattan bridge on the subway, an older lady was screaming in my train this morning. Actually she was screaming since four train stop back. She claims, “THE END IS NEAR! REPENT!”

With so many talks around the subject of Cataclysm, I can’t help to think back on the many ‘end of world’ movies that have hit the street.

Depending on which flick we’re talking about,

The public is always the last to know. Usually they’re notified by big hurling balls of fire hitting high populated areas.

There’s always a crazy scientist that predicted the event.
Sometimes they have the ‘league of justice’ bunch that will save the world. Elites of the elites to take care of the meteor/aliens.

The message of the story seemed to be consistent throughout the spectrum. Together we can conquer the impossible and after the destruction there’s always a fresh start for everybody.

With cataclysm the expansion, to tell you the truth, I could care less about the stats change. I’m more excited on the event itself.

Will there be an elite group of heroes that gets to do their hero thing? Are we those hero? Will there be a raid instance created from this? Will Iron Forge or Orgrimmar be hit with big balls of fire? Let’s face it, Exodar and Silvermoon is as dead as Okemah Oklahoma.

Will Alliance and Horde combine force to fight in this instance? To spice up the rivalry between the two they can stage a misunderstanding between the two at the end of the instance so they came in as a raid group and came out in a PVP battle ground.

The end is near people! Let’s hope Bruce Willis shows up to save the world.

Corey In Moderation

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:01:00 +0000

Today is a sad day for me as I remember fondly ‘License To Drive’. Heather Graham wore super hot bangs in short mini skirt and the VW Cabriolet was the car of my dream. It still bugs me why they didn’t get a Mercedes Benz for the ending car since her name is also Mercedes. Budget problem I guess.

Well, the word is out and Corey Haim is no more. The cause of death actor apparently is still undetermined. Some says he overdosed on drugs and that sadden me even more.

This game we play and love have been known to some as the model example of video games addiction. I for one am a firm believer it’s not the game but the person’s doing. We are after all master of our own destiny.

I’d like to highlight one of the loggin tips as we all enter our beloved world of warcraft.

"Take everything in Moderation, even World of Warcraft."

A Conversation With A Yogi

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:29:00 +0000

Last Sunday we had brunch with a good friend we haven’t seen for a while. A little bit of catching up is always good. Weather in New York these past days were perfect. I can definitely feel spring is in the air.

She got there first so the wait for table is not that bad. After the usual banter of words she mentioned that she’s a yogi now. I replied, ‘You mean you go to yoga class?’ And to my surprise, it’s more than just paying your monthly due, get a yoga matt and do your twice a week thing. Being a yogi is more of a way of life. The position exercise that most people are aware of is just a vehicle of their meditation. The idea is that these position can help the mind in meditation towards a higher enlightenment.

What really fascinates me is that the ultimate goal of Yoga is not what becomes popular. People are more familiar with the vehicle or the means to get to the essence of it.

It seemed that with the game that we love it’s the other way around. The pursuit of gear is spreading as fast as Paris Hilton’s sex tape on the internet. The one thing that should be the vehicle/means for us ended up consuming our obsession. I’ve seen loot ninja and guild drama caused by loot. It’s purple pixels madness in the world of warcraft.

The end goal of the game should not be gear. It should be the many feature that the game has to offer. The game have so many to offer (raids, heroics, explorations and quests, lore). Why would you choose to play dress up doll?

To Orb Or Not to Orb

noreply@blogger.com (Woog) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:46:00 +0000

The subway system has and will always be NYC’s blood vessel. Cut that out and we’re dead in the water. Me and my wife (then girlfriend) sold our car when we moved from Texas. Never looked back, never regretted it. Not having to deal with auto ownership was and still is our simple joy.

On December 20th 2005, the TWU called for a strike. For those of you who are not familiar with who or what the hell is TWU, they are the transit worker union. These are the people that do the day to day job of running the subway system in our beloved Gotham city.

For once New Yorker does not have the subway system to rely on. Some wasn’t even born when the last strike was called. We didn’t know what to do.

I for one was a skeptic the night before. I really believed that they would never even come close to a strike. They’ve always been able to work it out for the passenger’s sake in the past and they will again. They would’ve never left us New Yorker in the cold, so close to the holiday and without any mode of transportation to go around the city.

I was in for a rude awakening. That morning, I was not able to go to work or anywhere else for that matter.

But people adapt. Illegal cabs (gypsy cab) are suddenly not so illegal. People share these things. A trip from Brooklyn to Midtown Manhattan cost $100 and we split it up 4 ways. You sit down with complete stranger, negotiated on the transfer of money and you adapt. In New York, it’s business as usual.

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Lately we have been selecting ‘Need’ on the Frozen Orb. The sudden ‘buff’ to Frozen Orb increased its value up to a point where players changed their habits. I do have to say the change is for the worse.

I learned the Need over Greed the hard way. I was a warlock then running scarlet monastery rolling ‘Need’ on a green cloak with stamina and agility. I got called for it and made some friendly players not so friendly afterwards.

Yes, I too can argue either side of the fence but I know deep down inside it’s not right.

We’ve adapted to the new way of allocating Frozen Orb loot.

I didn’t think it would come down to this but in the world of warcraft, it’s business as usual.