Killing 'em Slowly

On Warlock RP

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:04:00 +0000

Wanted to check in today. It's been a bit. I was reading Poneria's little spat of fiction over at Fel Concentration, and fondly remembering my own glory days with RP here on the site. That was a lot of fun, wasn't it? Warlocks make great fictional characters. They are predisposed to walk the good/evil line, and it makes for a very interesting protagonist. How can you make someone who is, essentially, evil be sympathetic? How can a group where "selfishness" is a core value ever go on some sort of epic hero journey?

I watched Iron Man 3 last weekend, and really enjoyed the movie. I had the crazy notion just this morning that, you know, Tony Stark might just be a Warlock. IM3 certainly had the minion thing down. Plus, he is an inherently selfish character.

The cool part about that movie, to me, was the cleverness with which the story was pulled off. In the Avengers movie, the very fabric of the world was in jeopardy what with the alien invasion and Norse gods and all. It was the epitome of a "save the world" plot. How, then, do you create a movie in the same universe, with the same character, and have it retain a high stakes feel? It's like... well, we just saved the world, now what? Sequels in general struggle often with this problem. The stakes were so high in a previous movie and any subsequent plot will fall a bit flat.

There is a neat little trick that I think IM3 nailed. Instead of putting the whole wide world in jeopardy, you need only put the main character's world in jeopardy. If you make a likable character, then threatening things that are important to them can really raise the stakes without needing to resort to threats of a more global variety.

As a Warlock, I appreciate this. Saving the world doesn't always appeal to me. Sometimes, well... let 'em burn, right? Yet, threaten what I love and... it's on! Blizzard has a hard time using this trick, since we'd all be protagonists in Azeroth. Global threats are the only ones that seem to work well, which perhaps is why I feel it gets a bit overdone there. They have some good story threads, but my favorite by far was the Lich King. Fitting, then, that it may be perhaps the most personal of the Azerothian storylines.

I've been working with a character, Damian, on my writing blog that I'm trying to make into a bit of a Warlock. As much fun as WoW RP fiction was, I really enjoy working in my own world as well. It's more challenging, but I can also publish it at the end of the day and don't have to worry about offending any IP lawyers. Still, I'm trying to carry what I've learned over into my fiction. Tortured, somewhat ambiguous characters are fun to write. And, also, don't forge to make it personal.

Yay Warlockery!

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:51:00 +0000

If you've also noticed the lack of posting around here, don't worry. I still exist. Just doing more lurking these days than playing. Nothing much to report of note. I've been getting out IRL, too. Trying to create a new minion by resurrecting one of those - whaddya call 'em? - oh yeah, social lives. Just so y'all know, I will pipe up when I have things to say, but as previously warned, it's not going to be super often. I appreciate (very much!) all of you that have hung around for this long. It really does mean a lot. Connecting with folks is a large reason why any of us bloggers blog. With that in mind, even when I'm not posting I get email notifications for comments and junk. If something comes up or you just want to say hi, I have not disappeared and don't plan on closing this. It's free to me, so as long as blogger will have me, I'll be here in some ephemeral form or another.

Apart from that boring I-feel-obligated-to-share-what-is-up paragraph, I wanted to say a huge THANKS to Amijade over at Warlockery for the very kind words prior to my little 'locky spotlight. I feel honored to have inspired other writers so, and glad that even in my absence the fate of the Purple World (...of Warcraft) is in good (if somewhat corrupted and bony) hands. Like I mentioned, I think the opportunity to connect with other great people has always been one of the biggest strengths of the WoW blogging community, and the gamer community in general.

I've enjoyed the spotlight, and will definitely continue to lurk around the Warlockery, if only to cackle with glee at the corruption of others.

On RockSmith

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:44:00 +0000

Been a couple weeks, I know. Nothing exciting happening on my end. Building cities. Improving my guitar play through my PS3, so I did want to write a sort of mini-review on RockSmith. I know this isn't a review site or anything, but anyone interested in guitar might like to read some of this.

First of all, I've been teaching myself guitar for over 10 years now. I started playing when I was 16, just sort of as a side hobby. Several of my friends were in garage bands and stuff, so I just picked up stuff here and there. I know enough to masquerade as being "good," but I am not technically sound by any means. I putz around. It's all for fun.

Coming from that perspective, I've always enjoyed the Rock Band style games. It always annoyed me when I felt I could play something more easily on a real guitar than the plastic substitutes. I knew it was only a matter of time before they mated the two and came up with something really neat. RockSmith is one such attempt at mating.

Maybe you've heard of the new Rock Band with the "pro" settings where you can use a special guitar that functions pretty similarly to a real guitar. That's all well and good, but I didn't want to plunk down the cash for a special guitar. I already own guitars, and they are expensive enough in their own right. I was hoping to someday be able to use the guitars I own with some sort of game.

Enter RockSmith. Comes with a nifty USB cable that hooks into any electric guitar. Perfect.

The game itself is less of a game and more of a teaching tool. It gamifies things, but I think it is best understood as a good way to learn songs or brush up on skills. For a hobbyist like me, it's loads of fun, and I can see where it is going to improve my playing.

As someone who "kinda" knows guitar, the biggest hurdle right away for me is not the technical difficulty (it starts off as if you were a complete novice), but the transition to sight reading. I've always played songs by memory, not live. I'm having to retrain my brain and hands to use skills in conjunction with the display. It's actually fairly challenging and makes me feel like a newb a lot.

The game is gated, but the difficulty within the song scales as you hit (or miss) notes. Thus, it's possible to progress at something of an accelerated rate. It may be annoying for some to start so basic but, like I said, I need to learn the methodology anyway. I'm cool with it.

The one black mark against the game, so far, has been the audio delay. If you've done any research about the game, you'll probably see this caveat. It is processing an analog signal from your guitar, figuring out what you played, and displaying crap to your HDMI screen. HDMI is a poor transmission medium if you want immediate reaction. Apparently, if you split your audio out to analog cables (like might be used in a home theater setup), the lag goes away. I do not have such a setup, so I cannot test it.

The lag is definitely noticeable, but I've pretty much gotten used it. I crank the TV way up so I can only hear the amp, and it's tolerable. When trying to play more complicated stuff from memory (the game has an open amp feature), the lag throws me a bit, but if I just play, again it's not bad. Just something to get used to, though I'm really contemplating getting a nicer audio setup. It's not like I wouldn't use it for movies and such.

While some may take issue with the game, if you approach it as a "learning can be fun" tool, I think your expectations will line up. It's not as game-y as Rock Band but, to me, that makes it more fun in some ways. It's also not something I can play with friends, but again, that's not why I got it. (I think you can hook up a guitar and bass together now and jam, though. I don't know any bass players currently to try it out.)

Anyway, this is hardly a comprehensive review, just some scattered initial thoughts. If you're a hobbyist like me looking for a fun game to play with your own guitars, this is a great buy. I think I snagged it for like $55 or something. Probably can easily find better deals, but it's a lot cheaper than splurging for the newest Rock Band setup. And you will learn guitar. Real guitar. Pretty neat if you ask me.

Traffic Jam and Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:36:00 +0000

Perhaps my favorite part about being a gamer is how easily it promotes lifelong learning. I'm a big fan of learning. I absorb knowledge like a sponge. Perhaps part of why I've taken an extended break from WoW is that I didn't feel like there were any more opportunities for me to learn. That isn't to say I'd explored every nook and cranny, but that the buffet table of knowledge for me (at least) was pretty picked over. I really had to hunt to find any savory bits.

A very easy remedy for this is to try new games, especially in different genres. Hence why I've been having so much fun with Sim City. There hadn't be a legit new one in, what, a decade? Sure there were some solid knock-offs, but I never played any of them. For me, it's a return to something familiar but that is very new.

I've chronicled a few of the things I've learned, and most recent lesson is regarding the traffic. Traffic jams are a huge problem right now in the game, not just because of my specific city designs, but also because of several other strange game design artifacts. Perhaps the mos egregious of those is that most city zones only have one connection to the regional highway. This all but forces one to have a traffic problem at larger city sizes. I'm hoping that one gets fixed in a patch soon. Until then, I'm forced to be inventive about my traffic flow.

I'd been using the old tried and true grid approach, but it isn't working. I may go back soon and modify the grid by destroying the last little bit of connecting streets, and putting in lower density streets so that my major avenues become like a limited access highway. I've heard that might help. Also, since Sims choose the shortest path (regardless of how much sense it makes), I may chop some of those paths off to force the flow where I need it to be. It's an interesting puzzle.

I've also picked up a new game: Rocksmith. It's all about learning, learning the guitar. The cool twist here is that it comes with a cord that allows me to plug in the electric guitar that I already learn (and sort of know how to play). Then, it'll run me through a "journey" that develops real guitar skills and teaches me some fun classic rock songs. I think the best description I can come up with is that it is sort of Rosetta Stone meets Rock Band. It straddles the line between teaching aid and game, and so far I've been impressed. I'll write more about it as I get more experience, but I'm a fan of things that "gamify" learning, and just learning in general. The game was recommended by a fellow guitarist, and he did not disappoint. Pretty neat.

Building Cities

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:24:00 +0000

I haven't checked in for a while. Still kicking. Still building cities and enjoying it. I'm trying to complete some Great Works now. I think I've figured out how to build a successful city in most cases. Resources are so key in this version of the game. Tiles with lots of resources will be easy to build up. Also, it helps to have established cities nearby with road connections. Being able to farm out early utilities and simply pay for what you need... priceless. Well, if you ignore the paying part.

If you get your trade empire set up alongside some solid resource gathering and upgrading... you'll be making money hand over fist in no time. Most of my larger cities show a 10k plus debt per hour, but make it up easily through exports. It's pretty crazy.

Of course, as soon as I felt comfortable, a giant lizard showed up and caroused through my city. Destroyed my entire resource gathering infrastructure, nearly ruining the city. Fortunately, I'd been sitting on a sizeable nest-egg, so I was able to rebuild and get stuff back up and running without too much trouble. It was dicey for a bit. Stupid lizards.

I can't wait until some of the DLC starts showing up and they unlock things like expanding the city tiles or being able to edit the highway. Currently almost all of my cities have huge gridlocks when entering and leaving since there's only one exit on the highway. What sort of city has that? At the very least I should get one for each side of the map. I plopped a pro stadium and the traffic snarls are something fierce!

Anyhoo, that's all for now. Hope you WoW kids are killing extra critters for me.

Sim City 2013 Impressions

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:59:00 +0000

I
'm pretty much addicted to the new Sim City game at this point. Look, I know it's EA and they're evil. I know they did a crappy job with the launch. I know the always-online DRM excuse is feeble on a good day. That still didn't stop me from buying. I feel a bit dirty (since we all must vote with our wallets, right?), but few things in life are as personally satisfying to me as Sim City. And, let's be honest, it was a long, long time between iterations.

Put aside the political shenanigans, and you have (what I think is) a pretty solid game. I'm a fan of most (if not all) of the improvements they made to the gameplay itself. It's prettier, more intuitive and, if possible, more addictive than ever.

In today's age of DLC, I fully expect content packages that do things like "open bigger city tiles" and "extend your borders." Some folks will no doubt feel nickle and dimed. I would argue that it's all in the execution. If they give free updates interspersed with mostly cosmetic "for pay" packages, I would be a happy camper. I don't want to get too much into this argument, as it's both heated and over-hashed, says I.

Instead, I'd like to focus on the gameplay and my initial impressions. So, in no particular order, here we go:

I seem to get a lot of "Crime has the upper hand" messages, but have a zero crimes committed per day stat... very odd.
Found this Google Docs Spreadsheet. which is pretty comprehensive. Well worth a look, particularly if you're struggling from the "not enough workers" probably that I'll touch on next.
So it appears that to balance both jobs and workers, you are roughly working with this equation... C+I+P = R. That is, Commercial, Industrial, and Ploppables equals Residential. C, I, and P all generate jobs. R generates workers. That means you need a whole crap-ton of R to fill all your jobs. What's more, high density R doesn't seem to be as dense as high density C or I. Doing the math, you need like 4 high rise R buildings to fill up the jobs for one C skyscraper. See that spreadsheet for more info. For me, it means my cities tend to look like 80% R, 20% everything else. I hope they tweak this, even if it is realistic.
I hope a bigger plot DLC comes out first. Filling up the city tiles right now is too easy. Especially if you are using a lot of ploppables.
Specialization in mining and trading seems a great way to make money, even if you don't go full tycoon. I find myself always throwing down for these and then exporting to the global market.
I wish it were easier to tell which roads were feeding which buildings so I could upgrade accordingly.
Sometimes the UI seems pretty slow to update to a change I made... even on cheetah speed!
My buddy really missed the ability to set the funding level like in previous version. I find I'm partial to being able to turn individual modules on/off to achieve the same end. Seems more intuitive to me, but perhaps less real world?
Which brings me to my next point... the game seems to balance on the edge of "simulation" vs "game." Some things are game-y, some seem to give a nod to reality.
Those RCI problems I mentioned earlier are a good example of this... maybe they're realistic, but I think I'd prefer a more game-y implementation to add variety to the cityscapes.
My buddy was really bemoaning the lack of transparency to the underlying statistics. He thought previous games did a better job of that.
The LFR version of region building bugs me a bit. I feel like I'm somewhat dependent on my neighbors not to be poor mayors. Their rampant crime may spill over into my city, for instance. This is probably pretty realistic, but makes me want to erect big, giant, Raccoon City-style walls.

That's it for now. Like I said, I'm really enjoying myself despite the shenanigans. Any of the rest of you trying this one out?

A Google Reader Alternate

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:17:00 +0000

I have a post I'm cooking up with a whole bunch of Sim City lessons learned and tricks, but the announcement Google made about retiring Reader sent me into a mental tailspin (as well as a whole bunch of others, it seems). I've been a Google Reader user for years now, and I'm not even sure I could find half the blogs I like to read again if Reader just disappeared. So yeah, I was just a bit panicked. Plus, as a content provider, you have to somewhat wonder how this is going to affect your readership.

Have no fear. Feedly to the rescue!

After I calmed down a bit, I suspected it probably would not be too hard to find a replacement. Surely, someone else has created a clever RSS-based reading application. It did not take long. I found Feedly right away, installed the Chrome app, logged in, and perhaps 15 minutes later was staring at my Google Reader subscriptions in a new service. After a bit of poking around, I was sold.

Then, I decided to go look to see if my Reader subscriptions would be safe with Feedly after the inevitable shutdown. The good folks at the Feedly blog had two wonderful articles. One with tips for all of us transitioning from Google Reader. The other explaining how your subscriptions WILL be transferred over (short answer: seamlessly and without any action on my part. Huzzah!).

I figured I'd pass this all along as a sort of public service announcement, as many of you undoubtedly had faced similar freak-outs in the last few days. I want to note that I am in no way affiliated or receiving anything from Feedly. I'm just pimping them because they're the first service I came across, it was super simple to set up, imported my existing subs with a button, and assured me that they've got my back when Reader is shut down. What's not to like?

So no, I do not think Google shutting down Reader will be the end of blogging. I don't think it will really harm traffic all that much. Sure some folks may be left in the dark, but where there's a will, there's a way. If we keep creating content that folks want to read, they'll figure out how to read it. How do I know this? Because I'm more consumer than creator these days anyway!

Case closed. The Mayans were still wrong.

Sub-Free

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:37:00 +0000

I did a bad thing last night. Well, at least it felt bad. Sorta. I cancelled my WoW sub last night.

Truth be told, it was rather uneventful. I do not have any rage, I just can no longer keep up. My gaming time is spent on Sim City (now that I can get in) and a variety of pick-up-and-play games. LoL will happen from time to time. They seem to be making Assassin's Creed games quicker than I can finish them. (That had never, ever been a problem before, but I guess it happens.)

As long-time readers probably know/can guess... there were a myriad of personal reasons that really pushed me to this. It's not dissatisfaction with the game. I've had to turn a lot of my energy in upon myself to heal and rebuild things that were horribly broken. Life does that sometimes. Better to have loved and lost and all that.

In previous posts I mentioned continuing to write here. I still plan to do that. This is not a "good bye" post. I'm merely pointing out that I'm sub-free for the first time in almost a decade.

Specific to WoW, I realized that I don't have much of a desire to raid or do end-gamey stuff. I may jump back in during a boring month and muck around, but that simply depends on if time finds me. I'm no longer going to make the time. My character will be there waiting, so it seemed wise to save myself $15/mo that I really wasn't using.

Feel free to keep me in the WoW loop via comments. Otherwise, I'll probably be talking about random games. (Right now, baffling worker shortages are on my mind, for you Sim City players. What is up with that? The algorithm has to be screwed up, right? But hey, at least I can play reliably now...)

Much love to all of you that have shared Azeroth with me over the years. I'll be lurking!

Two Posts? No Wai.

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:34:00 +0000

In one week? Crazy, I know. I'll make this one short so as not to blow anyones' mind. I know you were all worried.

For the last two nights I've been trying (and failing) to play the new Sim City. I'm sure I am not alone in this. In fact, I know I'm not alone.

It's funny because you think I would just go play patch 5.2 in WoW, but I won't. I'll beat my head against the wall like everyone else. Makes me wonder, how much of our pain is self-imposed? I could just step away for a week and be patient until they resolve the dumb server issues (that I think EA should be able to anticipate at this point from every big game they've ever launched), but I won't. I was excited to build cities and, damnit, I want to build cities!

They will resolve the issues. A lot of people will be pissed in the mean time. I'm pretty unhappy as I'd like to play the game and apparently have a mental block disallowing me from playing anything else. But, again, I blame myself just as much. And I threw a movie on in the background, got to bed early... it wasn't a complete loss.

If you're thinking about trying the new Sim City, I would strongly recommend that you WAIT for several weeks. Listen for the "all clear" on the Interwebs. I'm sure it will be resounding (if not, I'm sure I'll mention something). From the tutorial (which I somehow got to play last night), I can say that I'm pretty confident the game will be hella fun. If only we could play it reliably!

I hope maybe the pressure forces them to write a patch allowing you to play the game offline in some form. I can dream, can't I?

So. Freaking. Busy

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:41:00 +0000

Okay, so check it out. I'm going to level with you guys today. I love my blog. It has been great. I'm concerned I'm doing an awful job actually, you know, writing in it. There are a whole bunch of reasons for this. Let me talk about some of them.

First and foremost... I think I've mentioned it, but for those that may not know, I went through a life-changing even at the end of last year. Things got shaken up. I'm still trying to put a lot life back together. Life happens.

One casualty is WoW. I don't play like I used to. My old guild imploded, and my personal time really dried up. I don't think I can maintain a raid-ready toon. I simply don't play enough. I don't really want to quit, but LFR is only so enticing. I may switch soon where I play with each patch, see the content, and then am done for a while. May even un-sub if there's enough time between things. I don't know. This makes me a horrible WoW-blogger.

I've written about other games, and I plan to continue to play some of them. League of Legends is the big one I'm playing, but I don't feel like I have much to say about it. It's simple. Easy to jump in/jump out. And I'm not playing it hardcore. I will finish ACIII eventually, but I'm way behind with that. A new Sim City also dropped today, and I'm excited to try it. I may spend some time there.

All in all, though, my gaming time was the first thing to get cut when my life went kablooey. It's a luxury I cannot afford right now. The second thing to go? Writing. My writing has suffered a bunch. Very simply, I picked up a whole lot more to do by default, and have to do it. Plus I'm trying to resurrect a social life, and several friends recently moved close by. I'm doing more of the RL thing. Crazy, I know. Also much more expensive, let me tell you.

My Day Job has gotten really, really busy in addition to my home life. I'm generally juggling a whole bunch of things on any given day, and there is ever-increasing pressure to deliver. I used to be able to squeeze posts in at work pretty reliably. That is no longer the case.

So I can't fit more outside of work. I can't fit more during work... What's a warlock to do? I researched some time travel, but it seemed more magey/dragony type of work. Cloning some minions seemed more appropriate, but I lack the necessary shards, I guess.

I guess I bring this all up because it may be that I shut my doors around here in the near future. I thought about just rolling my personal gaming stuff into my writing blog (make it more of a generic personal blog). I don't know. I'm not sure it fits. For now, I'm going to try to keep doing one post a week, but they're going to be more of a personal nature. Just what I'm playing, etc. I generally get the best comments on those these days anyway. I wanted to try and keep up on guides but, let's be honest, that hasn't happened.

Ah well, life happens. Thanks for hanging around. I'm not going to peace out just yet, but don't feel like you need to stay around and read the boring personal stuff. I'll download 5.2 tonight, but I think the new Sim City may have me captivated for a bit. We'll see.

(Side note: Anyone else think Blizz planned the release today to compete? Aren't they both technically the same parent company? Some thoughts for you tinfoil hatters...)

Token Friday Post

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:46:00 +0000

You know it's been a rough week of work when you're only now thinking about squeezing in a post on Friday afternoon, while everyone else is winding down. I didn't get much gaming in, either. I've been a bit sick, so instead of playing late, I did the mature thing and went to bed early.

Maturity is overrated sometimes.

What little gaming time I have had has been spent on League of Legends. (Have had has... ugh. My sentence structure is even lazy today.) I'm still avoiding WoW, anxiously awaiting 5.2. The major thing LoL has going for it right now is that I can get on and take part in a forcefully finite task in just about an hour. There is an expected (and, thus, plan-able) timeframe. I logon to WoW right now and it's ZOMG CAN DO ALL THE THINGS still.

The new patch will ultimately allow a casual like me to make fewer choices. Logon. Run a heroic. Work on dat rep. Heroics generally time in at about an hour as well, so it adheres to the plan-able idea. I could also likely do LFR, though it generally takes longer. I'm mostly tired of dailies. They're okay, but just not engaging enough for one of my precious gaming hours. Dailies are more like something I don't mind doing when I have a movie on at the same time. Or a sporting event.

Also, there's the fact that I can't really buy much to help me until I top off some reps. So running more active stuff just brings me closer to capping points that I can't even spend. I just hope I can gear myself adequately enough to experience all of the content. That's really my goal at this point in time. I'm not raiding regularly, and I don't think I'd be able to put in the time to be a good raider. Checking things out via LFR is just fine by me.

It also means that my only encouragement to grind for gear dies as soon as I've cleared the available LFR content. Why farm when your only aspirations are to unlock the next queue tier? I'm not topping any meters anytime soon (though I hold my own, I'm proud to say).

Anyway, I threw a little ACIII in for good measure, but mostly slept a lot this week. I guess you'll have that. Hopefully I'll have more to say about 5.2...

Not Gaming: AMOL

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:06:00 +0000

During the last few days, the entirety of my gaming time has been devoted to finishing a book. I finally finished late last night, having burned my candle at both ends quite a bit. Even though I don't have much to say about gaming (just waiting on 5.2 for WoW), I figured A Memory of Light was worth mentioning. Several of you are probably Wheel of Time fans as well.

I won't say too much. I know I'm probably the last one finished, but I still don't want to spoil anything for anyone. No alerts here. Just wanted to do a bit of cheering.

What an awesome series! I was introduced to the Wheel of Time series by a good friend only about 4 or so years ago. Many of you have probably been living with these stories for much, much longer. 14 books (15 if you count the Prequel), over 4 million words, almost 12,000 pages. Wikipedia tells me that the audio would run 419 hours and 30 minutes. That's a lot of story.

For folks that do not know, here's a quick intro to the series. The Wheel of Time is epic, epic fantasy. Yes, that's two epics. Long, involved, with loads of plot threads and characters, it is not for the faint of heart. Due to scope alone, it may not be for everyone, but what it does, it does well. It's not pretending to be a thriller, it is epic fantasy. There is magic. And battles. And different races. And very, very human emotions.

The first dozen books were written by Robert Jordan. Then, unfortunately (but with a slight bit of warning), he died. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. Obviously, Mr. Jordan wasn't able to finish the series, and fans anguished that they would never find resolution for the characters that they'd grown to love. Fortunately, the man had prepared notes. Lots and lots of notes. And Brandon Sanderson was approached (as both a fan and burgeoning fantasy author) to finish the series.

It proved a prophetic choice. I can't imagine another author doing a better job of both treasuring the story and honoring the legacy of the late Robert Jordan. These books will remain a treasured series of mine for many years, and it is not without quite a bit of sadness that I finished last night. It was not the ending, but it was an ending. And endings can be both sad and fulfilling. AMOL was both. To borrow the word of Thom Merrilin: exquisite.

To all the other WoT fans out there, /cheer. I made it. We made it. What a ride.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.

Welcome to the Fourth Age.

Aff'lock Leveling Guide and a Musing

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:27:00 +0000

I've never done a leveling guide, but stumbled across a good one here several moons ago. Just wanted to give a quick shout out to it. Great work Psynister. Hopefully my generic title will net some Google searches and send them your way. You know, if they don't get there without my shoddy help.

In other news, I've been busy being social. Read: not gaming. Sadly. Being social is hard work.

I have been playing some League of Legends. I'll say this for LoL vs WoW. It is far, far easier to casually play a game like LoL. I can pick up, play a game in about an hour, and feel like I've accomplished something. Even when we get rolled.

In WoW, I can't play for just an hour. Oh, sure, I could force myself with a timer or something (and I usually do that), but you log in, start doing dailies, queue up... and all of a sudden it's 1AM. This isn't always a bad thing, but it is when I'm already feeling a bit sleep deprived. LoL has a built in cut-off time.

I'm looking forward to patch 5.2, when we'll be able to earn rep through dungeon runs. I think part of my difficult with the current incarnation of WoW is that I feel that I must both grind rep and run dungeons/LFR. I really enjoyed the old tabard system, because you could just make a point of getting on for the sole purpose of running one dungeon. It becomes more like LoL. My personal problem is that I really need to cap some reps before I can actually spend my accumulated points on anything. The patch change helps me in so many ways.

So I'm sandbagging a bit in WoW, waiting for the patch to drop. Until then, LoL is great filler. Also, I should probably progress some more in ACIII. That's another one I can't just sit and play for only an hour though...

Random Asides

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:21:00 +0000

Yahtzee! I left notes for this post from last week. I'd forgotten about that. It's always nice to log in and have prompts for a post. This is going to adopt the format of Random Asides

One.

I learned how to discern which bosses I'd downed in the LFR. This was a source of consternation for me, as I could never remember what I'd actually accomplished. In the LFR screen, there's a little icon that appears next to the name of the wing. Hovering over it will list the bosses you've looted.

I know for many of you this is not a new trick. For derps like me, I'd been trying to find the old raid lock screen (despite knowing we don't have locks anymore). I figured there had to be someone that would indicate what you've done during the current reset period.

The only downside to the mouseover? It doesn't tell you how many total bosses there are. It just lists the names. I had to look up things to make sure I knew what each wing contained (3 in each of the first two). Perhaps it seems silly to you, but in LFR I generally don't know the name of what I'm fighting. It's more like, "this is that one fight where the floor randomly disappears." Such is how my brain works when I'm not "really" raiding.

Two.

Apart from that, I actually didn't get much done. I had been doing a good job of running dailies from two zones. The problem is that the Golden Lotus dailies keep expanding. So where before I'd be done in 10-15 minutes, now it pushes a half hour. Tricksy Hobbitses.

I should be taking a well-reasoned approach, like prioritizing one faction and making sure I at least finish that each day. Instead, it generally depends on where I logged off and what is on TV in the background. A poor plan, indeed.

Three.

I've been playing around with the Ask Mr. Robot premium edition. Of particular note for me is the upgrade-question-asker-thingy. (I'm being profoundly specific, I know.) It's the big spy glass that lets you ask a question such as "How best should I spend my valor points?" Then, it generates a list of items that would benefit you most. Totally worth it's weight in shards. I've been gleefully abusing this feature to tell me what to buy and where to shop. It would also help immensely with my problem in section two, but only if I can force myself into focus.

I think it was another blogger that mentioned to me the find-stuff-in-your-bags-feature had discovered an overlooked item. I've not installed the required addon to use this, but I can see where it would be helpful. When you're running LFR with the TV in the background, items have the tendency to sneak into the inner folds of your backpack. Or maybe you also left your fishing outfit enabled. Oops.

Four.

Because my brain isn't focusing in WoW, I played a decent amount of League of Legends over the weekend. Also, I downloaded some new songs for Rock Band. Yep, I still play that occasionally. Having not explored the DLC in many years (handle it!), I was pleasantly surprised by the offerings. I need to upgrade my drum set.

I'm ashamed to admit I have not gotten very far in ACIII yet. I love the game, it just requires a high level of focus. It's a hard game to pick up and not play for 27 hours straight. I find if I don't have sufficient time allotted for it, then I end up just running around climbing things and picking fights with guards. Totally worth it and fun, mind you, but not all that conducive to progressing.

Ah well, such is a gamer's life. Better too many games than too few, amirite?

From Zero to Gear-o

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:48:00 +0000

Terrible pun. I know. Deal with it. It reflects how I feel I've geared... very much in giant, terribly pun-y, leaps. Or something.

This past weekend, I finally got over the LFR hump. Immediately, I won a belt (and then nothing else for several runs). I also hit honored with Golden Lotus. As a tailor, that meant two more purples. I purchased a trinket and OH on the AH. I sold a purple robe to make the money back. I think I went from about 30k DPS to 60K DPS in a matter of hours. Pretty crazy.

I spoke a little about a rep path for Warlocks in my last post. If you're a tailor, getting honored with GL is huge. I also snagged a ring from the Operation: Shieldwall quartermaster for VP. I was nearing the cap after the last few weeks of dailies/heroics/LFR. I figured a ring was a good choice, since there's a second slot, so if I immediately get a drop, my purchase was not wasted.

I don't think I'm able to reliably juggle more than two hubs at a time, so GL and O:S are where I'm starting and would suggest other 'locks start there as well. O:S has the best rewards if you consider the eventual ilevel. GL is pretty much required to get started, but the tailoring really sells it if you're a tailor. Klaxxi is another option, but that's sitting in the 3-hole for me.

When 5.2 drops, it will shake this list up. I'm sure the new rep they come up with will take precedence. I'm hoping to have capped one of my first few before it does, but that may not be in the cards. I'm slow.

If you're looking for solid items to purchase on the AH. There's an OH purple that I snagged for 4k. There's also a trinket (Dragonling something) that can be filled with cogs to be pretty solid. With cogs, I don't think it was a whole lot more than 3k. If you're curious, I'm the Fulguralis on Alexstrasza. Check me out on Mr. Robot. I've only started reforging/properly enchanting/gemming the purple items. Until very recently, I was replacing things too quickly to be mess with it.

On an unrelated side note: I actually really enjoy trash now. With SS+SB, I feel like I actually contribute. Especially when I can time my DS so I'm constantly full of shards, and spreading DoTs like a madman. When I got to a stand and sling boss, it was almost boring. At least until I realized I really need to manage my shards better. For long fights, it's hard to keep Haunt up, and I think I want to be sure not to clip it, so-as to maximize the use of each shard. Mana has not been a huge issue as long as I remember to tap once every minute or so. Sometimes I forget and end up low.

I need to throw stats and spec into the primer, but I've not had the chance to snag any screenies yet. Maybe this week. I'm sort of counting on a talent reset with 5.2, so I can take the pet sacrifice talent instead of the super-pet talent that I have now. Nibs tells us that sacrificing the pup is actually pretty warlockerly of us, plus there's a very low danger of g- gui- guilt? Is that how it's pronounced? I guess if you're specced Destro you should be more concerned.

Primer Updated and Rep Grinding Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:07:00 +0000

Just a quick FYI post today, I slapped the glyph information into my primer, complete with links. Feel free to let me know if I booger-ed anything. I've got spec and stats left. Both should be relatively short, but I want some links/screenshots to better explain them. For stats, I'm just basically using Ask Mr. Robot anyway, and doing the "non hit cap" version. It's tough getting used to misses, but I figured I may as well start. It's not as bad as I thought. Speccing is pretty simple these days, as well.

I'm also going to ramble a bit about the dailies I've been doing. The short version from my quick and dirty holiday research is to start with Operation: Shieldwall (for Alliance). It's going to have the best gear upgrades. Also, I want to get some stuff from Shado-pan soon, and that requires completion of the Golden Lotus reputation. So I do the Shieldwall and Lotus dailies, basically. Throw in a scenario/heroic if I can. I'm one point away from LFR eligibility, so that's exciting.

I topped off Tillers pretty quick, just because it's simple to do. I like to log off there, as it's a quick flight down to Lion's Landing or up to the Golden Lotus hub. If I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I throw in the Klaxxi dailies. I was really close to capping my Valor last week. Go me.

Now that I've finally started Assassin's Creed III, though, I see a distinct lack of dailies in my future. I'll probably still try to knock out an hour's worth, but that probably won't get me capped. Oh well...

Happy 2013!

noreply@blogger.com (M) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 14:52:00 +0000

2013 marks the start of the 6th year for this blog. This is also post 884. That's not a special number or anything, but boy is it a lot. 2012 was a bit of a rough year for yours truly, and my writing definitely suffered as a result. Still, I'm incredibly glad I took the plunge and opened my doors 6 years ago. I may not be as useful these days, but I'm thankful for all of you readers that have stuck with me, commented, and otherwise shared this space. I can't begin to express how much it means, especially when you're having a crappy year. One of the greatest things about the Internet (and our gaming community in particular) is the assurance that even when you feel alone... you're not.

I've met a lot of amazing people on this journey and was just taking a moment for reflection this morning. I will be back in 2013, writing about random warlockery. Though I've been quiet over the holiday break, it is not for a lack of gaming. I'm one ilevel point away from being LFR geared and dipping my toes in a bit of raiding. It was somewhat of an accomplishment for me to get back on the horse, so to speak. I've been proud in the past to be the first in the guild to cap, to be the best geared, etc etc. This time I'm coming from a whole different angle, and in some ways its eye-opening. Can you still be proud when you're the absolute last person to the party? I suppose my pride surprises me.

If you're curious and looking for a warlockerly tidbit, I'm in the midst of the Golden Lotus daily throes. I'm also doing the Operation: Shieldwall stuff, as that seems to be the best way to get geared quickly. My first exalted rep in MoP was definitely the Tillers. Go figure. But more on that as things settle back into a somewhat normal schedule. Until then, happy holidays to you and yours, thanks for reading, and pleasant corrupting in 2013!

I shard all of you.

Affliction Warlock Glyphs

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:23:00 +0000

I promised a quick break down of my glyphs this week, so here we go. There's not nearly as much to say about this section as there was about the rotation, but feel free to chime in with any tips/corrections. I'll plop this draft into my on-going primer (with links!) sometime over the holiday break.

For major glyphs, I'm going with:

Glyph of Dark Soul - Adds a passive haste component while sacrificing some of the active effect.
Glyph of Siphon Life - Adds self-healing to Corruption.
Glyph of Soul Shards - Adds and extra shard slot.

Soul Shard is the only "required" glyph on that list. Having the extra shard makes a huge difference. Siphon Life is perhaps the second most common choice, as the extra health is good juju. Dark Soul, however, is probably pretty questionable. Currently, I'm taking it because I don't do a good job of using my DaS buff whenever it is off cooldown. At some point in the future, if I improve, I will likely replace this with Soul Swap. Rumor has it that the DaS glyph results in a DPS loss, but I need to look into the conditions of that statement. Obviously, if you never use DaS, it would no longer represent a loss. I imagine there must be some tipping point between "constantly" and "never" where the DPS loss kicks in.

I'm pretty ambivalent about Soul Swap. I wish we had another good major glyph. With SB+SS, I just generally don't see the need for the glyph. As long as you judiciously throw in your Drain Soul prior to the death of things, shards don't seem to be a problem. And when you're not dealing with quick dying adds, you're not swapping a whole lot. Still, there is some use for allowing you to essentially DPS more than one sustained target, when such a situation arises.

Down in the minors, we have:

Soulwell - Cosmetic glow.
Verdant Spheres - Cosmetic balls.
Eye of Kilrogg - Lets your eye place your portal.

The first two are simple cosmetic effects. If I were doing a lot of underwater stuff, I'd plop Unending Breath in Soulwell's place. It seems as if every underwater questing area gives you a convenient buff these days, though, so I never ended up using it. The spheres are just because I wanted to look like a ~~sparkly~~ vampire.

The Eye glyph is pretty useful, especially prior to obtaining my MoP flight license. It can allow you to teleport to places where you wouldn't otherwise have been able to reach. It's not really an in-combat thing, but fun and useful when exploring which is more than I can say for those other glyphs.

Does anyone else feel like Warlocks always get the most boring glyphs?

MoP Affliction Warlock Primer Started

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:23:00 +0000

I published the rough draft of my rotation post last week and got some great feedback. I've taken that, updated things as needed, and plugged it into what will become my MoP Affliction Warlock Primer Page. It is linked up there on the top left of the page where my old guides used to be.

The eventual goal is to have everything in there I need to be a competent Affliction Warlock. Right now, we just have the rotational discussion. I'm planning to publish a rough draft about glyphs before this week ends. Stats and spec will be covered eventually as well. If there are any other key topics I've missed, I'm definitely open to adding a section.

Again, the goal of these articles is not to be a hardcore raider, but simply to get Affliction Warlocks started. You may want to do things differently, and I encourage anyone and everyone to share these alternate methods along with the rationale behind them. As my old gaffer used to say: "There's more than one way to afflict an orc." He might have been a bit hordist.

In any case, thanks to everyone that commented. Hopefully the primer helps some of the other Warlocks out there that are looking for a simple discussion of (what I consider) the basics. If nothing else, it has helped me hone my own playing. I slapped on the shard glyph last night and, hoo boy, what a difference an extra shard makes. I ran a quick scenario and felt like I was slinging shadow errrrverywhere. It was glorious.

I have to say, I really enjoy where they've taken the class in MoP. Traditionally, I've always viewed changes from Blizz with a healthy skepticism, but I really feel they nailed it in this expansion. They updated and removed a lot of the unpleasant sides of Affliction Warlockery without sacrificing (what I feel to be) the identity of the class. Bravo!

Now I just need to work on those "Coming Soon" areas.

Slinging Shadow in Mists

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:51:00 +0000

Okay. So here is my attempt at organizing my somewhat disparate thoughts about the current method of Affliction Warlock Spellslinging. Eventually, I'm going to organize this information into a primer to replace the outdated articles that I have on the left. At that point, I'm sure it'll be too late to be of help to anyone. Still, I'm doing this as much for myself as any of the rest of you. Now that I'm level 90 and starting to gear up, I need to know how to play proper-like, if only so as not to embarrass myself in group settings.

Let me set one expectation straight here: My goal with this is not to become a top raider or anything like that. The idea is to capture a basic foundation of what I believe to be a respectable way to play the class I love. There are always things one could do better, but let's agree to discuss what we believe every "core" Aff'lock should do. With that being said, here we go...

A lot has changed in MoP. The Warlock class has been redesigned. I think they did a great job of keeping the old flavor that I loved about the class, and mixing it with some new niceties that fix long-endured issues.

Buffing was simplified. Dark Intent has become a buff that should always be up, and much simpler than the days where we used to need to choose which class to link with. When you've got an active pet, you should keep your Soul Link up as well. Outside of that, you have your normal choices of food and flask that generally aim to buff our major stats, and that will be important when raiding, but outside of competitive group environments, these are optional. A good Warlock will always keep goodies on hand that buff one of our top three stats. (I'll do a dive into stats later. For now, Int, Haste, and Mastery are all good choices.)

Once we're buffed, we should look to the spells we're going to keep up during a fight. There are two major phases of any combat situation for Affliction Warlocks. One is above 25% health, the second is under 25% health. There's a third option, and that is AoE fights. I'll cover all three.

Above 25% Health, Single Target
Haunt > Curse of the Elements > Soulburn+Soul Swap > Maelific Grasp Filler > Fel Fire Refresh

We want to lead off with our "buff" spells that improve DoT damage. I don't always do this (because of laziness), but this makes sure that every tick benefits from their application. I would advocate leading off with Haunt since it has a "fly time," applying only after it has traveled from your hand and hit the target. Thus, after the Global Cool Down, CotE and H can hit almost simultaneously.

I like to use SB+SS to pop all my DoTs once, but if you're shard starved, you can put them up manually. And when I say "DoTs," I'm talking about what I like to call the Big Three: Corruption, Unstable Affliction, and Agony. The primary goal of Affliction DPS is going to be to keep those Big Three rolling as much as possible. Our DoT up time on any given fight should exceed 90%. If you're learning Affliction, focus your efforts here first.

I will use Fel Fire to refresh Corr and UA. It adds a direct damage component, and the GCD's wash out when you consider you only get half of the time you would get with a manual refresh (but would have to manually refresh two spells, so you get two for the price of one). The only caveat to FF usage is if there is a fight where we're mana starved, as it is not the most mana-efficient path. Manual refreshing would be better then. Agony is a manual refresh all the way, and try to keep it at 10 stacks (by not letting it fall off).

Goal number 1 is maximizing Big Three up time. Goal number 2, then, would be to maximize the up time of our filler and thus minimize "non-damaging" down time. We will want to try to keep Haunt up as much as possible, but will likely be shard-limited to some extent, so we should simply do our best. More important, maybe, is weaving in as much MG as possible. MG is the spell that replaced our old Shadowbolt filler. MG is tied much more strongly to DoTs, increasing its importance as filler. The more we can keep MG rolling (without letting other things drop off), the better our DPS numbers are going to look.

And that's pretty much it for >25%. It's a lot simpler than in years past. If you feel like you are doing sub-par DPS, my first advice would be to check your up times. I've had a few discussions about that here, and I think we're looking at average up times of >90% on the Big Three, ~50% for Haunt (generally less), and ~40% for MG (fight/situation dependent, and 40 is probably a lofty goal). These are just rules of thumb, and your mileage may vary, but can provide you with a frame of reference and basis for improvement.

Below 25% Health, Single Target
We're pretty much doing the same stuff here. Keeping the Big Three rolling. Keeping Haunt up. The big switch is that instead of MG filler, we'll switch to using Drain Soul. DrS can have some pretty massive ticks under 25%, so it is totally worth using. Simply replace MG with DrS. Since DrS ticks a lot slower, this is where an addon that shows ticks (like Quartz) can be helpful. Try to weave your various refreshers right after ticks have occurred. (You could do the same with MG, but it does not have as much of an impact since the ticks are faster and the overall spell is shorter).

I try to make use of our Dark Soul buff just prior to entering this phase. I do not believe that DaS stacks with effects like Heroism, so you may want to use the buff differently depending on when the group buffs come out. For most fights, I could use DaS at the beginning, and probably somewhere in the middle as well. I believe it has a 2 min cooldown, so a studious 'lock would be able to get ~3 uses out of it per fight. I am not a studious 'lock. I routinely forget about it, so I just try to make sure I use it at least once per fight, and I want to make sure that when I want to use it, it is ready to go. This is a personal preference. No doubt many of you do much better than me.

Finally, I have my Doomguard macro'ed to my DaS key, so whenever I pop the buff, I also bring out my bonus pet. Make sure you use this guy once per fight. It has a longer cooldown, so you're not going to be able to generally weave him in any more. I save my punches for the end, but there may be circumstance where you want to blow this stuff earlier. Maybe a tricky part where some bonus DPS is needed. Your call.

Area of Effect, Multiple Targets
Previously, we've always tried to define a certain number of units where utilizing AoE spells becomes preferable to simply trying to keep up DoTs on multiple targets. I think it may fall between 3 and 4 mobs. With 3 or fewer, you want to do single target stuff (perhaps using SS to run your Big Three on multiple targets). With 4 or more, you'll want to switch to AoE spells. For the Affliction Warlock, this means a SB+CotE (so that Elements gets put on all of the enemies), then following with a SS+Seed of Corruption (this will apply Corruption to all targets hit by the exploding seed). Plant your seed on the target with the most health, and push it toward explosion (it has a damage done trigger). I like to throw out a Drain Life here (with the AoE talent). It's probably better (when health is of no concern), to channel RoF or just do direct damage to the target to get your seed to explode. An alternate method would be to spread more seeds around while waiting for the explosion to get a chain of explosions. While this is great fun, I don't think you should do it if you've spread Corruption out, as SoC and Corr don't mix. That is, one replaces the other (still, right?).

One of the major reason I like to use the Drain Life approach is that spamming your AoE abilities will drain your mana ridiculously fast. Drain Life is a lot more mana efficient, though it doesn't pack the wallop of the others. Just something to consider. This is how I like to AoE and I think it is a solid approach. I wouldn't worry too much about being the master of AoE. Aff'locks are kings of sustained, single target damage. Let the mages deal with pesky groups.

So this summarizes my approach to Affliction Warlockery. See any major goofs? How do you do things differently and why? Consider this my first draft, so I'd love to fix any errors you notice. Like I said, this is more for me than all of you, since you're all pros already, right?

Up Time Follow Up

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:53:00 +0000

A little follow-up from yesterday's post. There was some great discussion in the comments section, but K-bear followed up with some more information for me. She slid a pair of logs across my metaphorical desk. One from her again, and one from another Aff'lock raider in a group she really respects as being "good."

She's been holding down the 3/4 slot on the meters in her raids with ~38k DPS. Solid middle-of-the-pack performance, but because we like to conjecture about all things warlockery, we're going to analyze things.

The other Warlock was also in the 3 spot in his/her raid. In both raids, the top two characters perform over 60k DPS. In Warlock 2's (W2) raid, though, our Warlock is giving chase with ~62k DPS.

Now, first things first. This is not a scientific study we're talking about here. For instance, I'm totally ignoring the gear component here. From our conversations, I'm pretty sure W2 out gears dear K-bear. I'm also ignoring important things like group composition, fight mechanics, etc, etc. There are plenty of important things that I'm just blissfully ignoring, so take this with a grain of fel salt.

The reason this is worth mentioning is because I believe we're comparing two pretty competent Warlock players. One is still sort of getting the feel of Affliction (because she bounces around specs), and the other is probably more comfortable. Here's what I saw.

The Big Three up time was pretty much the same. This is as expected. If we were handing out a "ready to raid" badge for Warlocks, mastery of the Big Three would probably be the primary criteria. As I scrolled down, though, I found some tentative proof of my suspicions. MG up time for W2 was around 40%. K-bear was only hitting around 20% up time for MG. That's a huge difference. Does it account for 24k DPS? Probably not, but I would bet as K-bear gains comfort and increases that MG up time, her DPS shoots up accordingly.

It was interesting that the Haunt up time for both was around 50%. No change, despite the increased MG up time. K admitted that she was a little Haunt happy during the fight, so her 50% may not have been efficiently obtained. Perhaps she would have been served better letting that drop a bit and focusing more on MG.

Like I said, this is just conjecture, but I think it's interesting if you're a raiding Warlock. Hopefully, you can consult your own logs and try to identify places where you can improve. I'd love to get more numbers so that maybe some day we could make a statement like: "Yeah, in typical fights you should have around 40% up time for MG." Or something like that. I don't have enough info yet, and there are a ton of variables that I'm not considering, but I think it provides a good place to focus.

MG is new and integrated even more into our DoTs than Shadowbolts ever were, and figuring out ways to squeeze in more s-bolts used to be a valuable pursuit as far as DPS increase was concerned. The way MG supports our DoTs, it's not simply a matter of added damage from the spell itself, but of the buff to all of our DoTs as well. It's all tied together. Doubling your MG up time should definitely provide a significant DPS increase.

Aff'lock Performance Indicators

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:11:00 +0000

I was gchatting with a fellow 'lock blogger yesterday (I'll let her identify herself in the comments, should she desire to be known as my Evil Accomplice), and we were primarily conjecturing on the nature of Affliction Warlock DPS. One of the common questions you'll get as a long time class blogger (and I'm sure I'm not alone in this) is from folks wondering "what am I doing wrong?" Generally, this question is centered around raid performance.

I've never had a rote answer, preferring instead to feel out the individual and try to see where they might be struggling. Then, I can usually offer some tailored tips. Not always, but sometimes. This approach has served me well, and--let's face it--I'm not exactly the hub of all things warlockerly. That is to say, my inbox isn't exactly overflowing with these sorts of requests, they just sometimes happen.

Now that I'm 90, I've turned my thoughts toward group performance. While you're leveling, I don't much see the need to min/max. Gear will be replaced a lot, and quests don't generally provide you a long DPS burn period with which to accurately gauge performance. Sure, you could point to your numbers in dungeons, but even then I do not think all classes level up equally, so the balance at 89 is likely different than 90.

An alternative way of saying the same thing is that we know Blizz balances at max level. Those are the numbers they're likely most concerned with. Thus, everything below that can be viewed with a level of healthy skepticism.

So, I'm now 90, I have no more excuses (manufactured or not) for disregarding my performance. But how to gauge? Whereas in Cataclysm we had about -5 changes (yes, that's a negative), MoP has revamped the class in almost all areas. The essentials like "using DoTs" are still there, but everything from the method of application to the method of refreshment has changed greatly.

The problem I've always had with simple looking at a meter and saying "well, I came in third so I have work to do" is that such an approach doesn't explain very well where you might be failing. Affliction Warlocks have always been a bastion of spell slinging complexity. Our spells are designed to weave together and provide a very level state of sustained damage. This is both blessing and curse (HA! CURSE!).

The blessing is that even when I don't have the highest DPS, I generally put out the most overall damage. The curse is that if you aren't weaving quite right, your damage can plummet pretty quickly. I always envision Warlock damage as sort of a ski-slope with damage on the "y" and execution ability on the "x." Good Warlock execution has always been rewarded by solid numbers. (Unlike, say, my old Frost DK where I felt sometimes that I could faceroll my way to solid numbers.)

Typically, my current rotation functions something like this:

SB+SS to get the Big Three up.
CotE
Haunt
MG filler
Maintain DoTs
Maintain Haunt

I realize folks would suggest putting CotE and Haunt up first. If you're using SB+SS to initiate, by the time that both CotE and Haunt get up, everything has ticked maybe once. Over the course of a >30s fight, one missed tick is a total wash. Do the napkin math if you don't believe me. Let me be clear: the order you initiate is NOT your biggest area of concern if you're playing at my level (read: not super hardcore, but just want to do well).

What is then? Well, quite simply: Up time. This has always been the case with Aff'locks. The closer you can get to 100% up time on your various buffs/debuffs is going to be the biggest and clearest marker of DPS performance. Feel like your DPS is low? The very first place I would check is my up time.

To facilitate discussion, Evil Accomplice and I viewed one of her logs from a very early raid where she'd just started running Affliction. Immediately, two things came to mind to look out for:

She was probably not super comfortable with the rotation.
She was probably not super comfortable with the fight mechanics.

In my opinion, those are the two biggest things that commonly cause a problem with up time. Impressively, her Big Three were all over 90% up time. I think (because I've not done extensive play testing yet) that this is pretty good. It used to be where I could only reliably keep Corr up over the 90% mark, and the others were generally close. On good days, keeping all the DoTs over 90% was generally a good indication of stellar performance.

With the new rotation, I think the Big Three should be easier to keep up, even when uncomfortable (it's a little easier to focus on them now, I think). The lack of comfort is going to shake it's way down to inefficient shard management and interrupted channeling. Or, more specifically, look for poor up time on MG and Haunt.

Evil Accomplice's Haunt was sub 50% and MG was something like 15%. I'm not sure what to bench mark for those. What would "good" up time look like for them? After all, they're not going to be 90%, no way. Haunt maybe, but we're definitely not going to be constantly channeling. And there's the whole sub 25% health DS thing to consider.

This has already gotten a bit long-winded, so I'm going to wrap it up with some generic advice. Should Evil Accomplice want to improve her DPS performance, I'd tell her to try to find ways to increase Haunt and MG up time. Especially Haunt.

This is where weaving comes in. If Haunt is not being kept up and you say "yeah, well, I just don't have enough shards." We have the chance to get shards refunded from MG, right? In a way, Haunt and MG are inextricably tied together as filler. Do poorly with one and you'll likely hurt the other. And Haunt has been buffed so that it's damage is pretty significant I think.

When we're uncomfortable, we can probably keep our Big Three up, but our filler is going to suffer. Back in the day, we used to pay attention to how many shadowbolts we squeezed in. This was a fairly decent approximation of Aff'lock performance (at least when you live somewhere between "newb" and "hardcore"). Now, I would advise aspiring 'locks to check out their MG/Haunt statistics. Improve those and see if your DPS doesn't respond accordingly.

This is all just conjecture. I'd really like to put my shadow where my mouth is (or something) and test the theory. Unfortunately, I've got quite a bit of gearing to do before I'll be invited to raids (even the LFR!). Some of you raiding 'locks out there... check this out. Let me know what you think. I may be completely wrong here, but it seems logical, right?

90!

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:45:00 +0000

Okay, so Ful is getting his groove back. At least a little. I put in a pretty solid session Saturday that I think lasted about twelve hours. I've not done one of those in a long time (read: since last expansion probably). It wasn't really planned, just sort of worked out that way. Basically did all of level 90 in one sitting.

It was one of those things where you start playing, knock out some quests, and then go clean something. Then sit back down, knock out some more quests, go get some food. Then more questing and... maybe I should do something else. But wait! 50%! At this point I can totally get to 60%, just to be over halfway. Two hours later... 80%! Might as well finish it off now. So I did. Dinged for the final time this expansion sometime around 1AM Saturday night, server time.

Here's a list of my initial post-ding thoughts (keep in mind I was pretty tired):

I have never been so glad to fly in my life. The zones seem to get progressively rockier (?), encouraging flying over riding. I suppose that makes sense.
I finally got to turn in a lot of quests that had been cluttering my bags, waiting for me to have access to places like the Seat of Knowledge. That felt wonderful.
The stream of refugees into the Vale was pretty neat. It nearly coincided with my final ding (I was two quest turn-ins away), so I almost felt a be emotional. Not that a Warlock would cop to having anything resembling emotions.
I'm still going to finish the quests to get Pandarian Loremaster. It's nice that these give you the same rep you're going to need from dailies.
Moving without interrupting casting is pretty neat. There are a whole bunch of habits I need to overcome now to make the most of things. Having grown used to being a damage turret for the last five-ish years, it's amazing now my thought I hadn't realized I give to where I stand when I pull. Now I can readjust without ruining my rotation. Totally an odd feeling, but not in a bad way. It's sort of like, oh yeah, I wasn't just interrupted by the stupid yank... the spell went off!
I'm doing a few dailies, but I've not developed a cohesive plan yet. I'd like to cap out my profs first, I think, and focus on raid gearing last. With my current status as "last sub off the bench," I'm not too worried about it. I should probably try to get LFR ilevel just to preclude any complaints should I be brought in.

Anyway, that's all for today. I'm excited about being at the level needed to help out. I missed some of the more social aspects of MMO gaming. Hopefully I can derp my way to some adequate gear and help out somewhere. I wouldn't consider myself back on the horse completely, but I'm partially in the saddle.

89!

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 03:07:00 +0000

The holiday weekend was a productive one for me, gaming-wise. I was actually able to sit down and put in some quality time on both WoW and LoL.

In Azeroth, I made a strong push and am now 89! I know, the title gave it away. I've been able to knock out almost a quarter of a level this week as well. I'll be 90 before Christmas. Wild and crazy times, I tell ya.

For a change of pace, I swapped over to League of Legends for a few matches. My skills have deteriorated somewhat, but not as bad as one might expect. I'd left off just before level 23, it seems, because after only a couple matches, I leveled up there as well. In seven short levels, I'll be a max level summoner. Maybe I can make that by Christmas too. We'll see.

And I have yet to purchase Assassin's Creed III. I'm horribly behind on my gaming. (Also on my writing. These few paltry paragraphs took me four days to write. Such is life, I suppose.)

Ah well. All's well that ends well, right? Hope you had a productive and happy holiday as well!

Anniversaries Etc

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:33:00 +0000

I logged in and was rewarded with WoW's 8th Anniversary celebration. Because of that, I became curious and went to look for my first WoW Anniversary achievement. For me, it was year 4. How about you?

That's pretty much all I have to report this week. In the interest of not writing the Shortest Post Ever, I'll pad it with some rambling.

I'm halfway through 88. Still chugging along.

I really want to place Assassin's Creed III, but I'm holding off on buying it until I hit 90. Then I figure I can split my time between "group activities" and ACIII. For now, my solo time should go to WoW (and I'm enjoying it).

LoL has gotten no love as of late. I know. I shall return at some point.

I watched Wizard of Oz this weekend. I never realized that Glenda was a disc priest.

I want a flying monkey minion.

Those last two were related.

Happy Thanksgiving. I'm hearthing it tomorrow IRL. Here's to a wonderful celebration!

*Cheers*