Toys of Azeroth

Landmark Day

2013-03-26T08:48:00.000-05:00

Today, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments on marriage equality and whether or not same-sex marriage is allowed under the constitution.

The US used to be one of the more forward-thinking countries in the world. We led the way in all manner of advancements. People looked to us as the cutting edge of what the future should be.

Somewhere, we lost our way.

Somewhere, we forgot what we stood for.

Today, nine men and women will determine the next course of history for our nation.

There has been a movement on Facebook to change profile pictures over to the following image.

Equality. That's all anyone wants.

As an interesting side effect to this movement, I've found it to be difficult to tell which of my friends is which in my newsfeed. I've had to stop and look at names.

Suddenly, I'm paying closer attention and not just knowing something based on how someone looks.

Because everyone looks the same.

How's that for a statement on society?

So, feel free to download the image and use it pretty much at every turn. Paint the internet red with equality. And pray to whatever god you hold to that these nine men and women do what's right and let marriage be about love between two humans and nothing more or less than that.

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

Just because you're not part of a group doesn't mean it's not your duty as a human being to stand up for them and stand with them.

((Cross-posted from my main blog at markahix.com))

Vial of the Sands

2013-02-17T23:19:00.002-06:00

When archaeology came out, it was fun. I liked it. Leveling it, going on the hunt for all the artifacts, seeking out digsites... it was a blast.

But then, after a while, I felt like I was required to do it. I spent more time in Kalimdor than I ever wanted to just grinding digs waiting for one to appear in Uldum.

Hours and hours, days and weeks, all spent in the arduous quest to get to the next Canopic Jar would would *hopefully* have the Alchemy recipe, Vial of the Sands.

It was to be my crowning glory as an alchemist. I never had access to a goldsink like that before. Hyperius is my alchemist, and has been since his inception so many years ago.

I picked up alchemy and herbalism right from the start of my WoW career.

Finally, last night, I was working on Archaeology in Pandaria. I just wanted to get it to 600 so I could be done with it again. I'd written off the whole idea of ever seeing that recipe. For me, the effort that I'd put in should've been more than enough, yet I never saw it.

20 canopic jars, not once did I see it.

Then, Pandaren archaeology changed the game for me. Every artifact I turned in gave me Tol'vir fragments.

I solved something or other, and got a canopic jar. I was only a few fragments short of completing it.

I had a Spirit of Harmony on me, so I went and bought another artifact to turn in. It felt like gambling. This jar had to be complete. Even if it didn't have the recipe, at least it wouldn't be staring at me from the Archaeology profession window.

I solved the jar.

I opened the jar.

Since then, I've opened my alchemy window a dozen times to make sure the recipe is still there.

I finally, after over two years of searching (I think, when did Cataclysm come out?), I finally got my crowning achievement as an Alchemist.

I still lack a few recipes, but they are no longer available. They're the ones that used to drop from the World Dragons that stood by the portals into the Emerald Dream (which, by the way, Blizzard still needs to make into a new expansion)

Hyperius is 90. And while I'm working on gearing him up as a sufficient tank, the most important goal for me has finally come to pass.

I can make you turn into a giant dragon with a skin condition.

Absolution

2013-02-09T21:28:00.004-06:00

I'm a paladin.

That's not just my class, that's my chosen outlook on life. Defend the weak and defenseless. Throw yourself entirely into the pursuit of what is good and right.

I know this is just a game, the Warcraft universe simply a story.

But I've wanted the Lich King dead since I first saw him in Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos.

I got that game on August 14, 2002. It was my 18th birthday.

I played the game relentlessly, following Arthas' path from student to leader to conflicted to monster.

I loved the story of the fall of Arthas and the rise of the Lich King.

For just shy of ten years, I've wanted to be the one to bring about his end.

I know it sounds foolish. To anyone who doesn't play the games or doesn't really let themselves get immersed in a story, I probably sound like an idiot.

Tonight, after years of waiting and even more years of trying (PuGs are bad, mkaaayyyy?), I did it.

I finally did it.

I didn't realize just how important that was to me. Until it was over. The sense of relief I feel right now is familiar to me. I get this feeling when I complete an exceptionally well-written book or series. Or when I finish watching a long movie with a lot of great storytelling.

Two weeks ago, I threw in with a PuG on my old server. I still have some toons over there, and I thought I'd give it a shot.

I went in on my warlock, simply because my tanks and healers weren't high enough to contend with the 90s in the raid. DPS wouldn't be a problem. I still outleveled the content, and I was there to see it end.

That first run got cut short due to some RL issues that popped up.

So, tonight I came back for another attempt.

And finally, after almost a decade, I won. I beat the Lich King.

A special thanks goes out to Afanasi of <Purge>, Horde on Sisters of Elune-US.

He put the raid together, invited me to the party, and led the run like a well-oiled machine.

Thanks, Afanasi!

Battle Pet Trainers and Profiteering

2013-01-07T19:24:00.001-06:00

I'm fairly certain the pet battle trainers that you're supposed to be able to duel have all agreed to boycott me.

I'm not sure why, exactly.

None of them will actually battle me. Unless I'm just completely stupid.

Which is a very distinct possibility.

Due to the prohibitive cost of faction changes and server hops, I haven't yet managed to bring my main to my new server's Alliance side. Say nothing, you Horde enthusiasts! It's just a game, and my friends are all Alliance at the moment.

I also discovered more than a few characters spread over the disparate realms upon which I have meandered throughout the years.

And some of them had gold by the Bag-of-Holding-ful.

So, rather than attempt to transfer them all to a server and wind up clogging my character screen with toons I'd just as soon delete, I decided to try something entirely different.

I checked the prices for different pets on my primary server. Saw which ones were selling high, which ones were hardly represented, and which ones were flooded.

And then I checked the auxiliary servers' markets and bought those various pets that would sell higher on my primary server.

Learn, log out, log in, cage, rinse, repeat.

PROFIT.

Not sure how long that can last, though. I mean, the concept is fairly intriguing. I mean, Blizzard has been steadfast in their resistance to allowing gold to be transferred between servers. However, the rise of account-wide pets in combination with the ability to cage them on any character has given some of us an opportunity.

If you want to make some serious gold, the account-wide pets has opened up the markets for you.

You're not tied to a specific faction at all. So long as you've got a level 1 Alliance and a level 1 Horde toon on a server, you can bounce pets all over the place and get the most bang for your buck.

Where before, the biggest and best of the AH game only had to understand the flow of one server, now they must know many. Ideally, you'd want to buy from a server where old-world raids are the norm and then sell on a server that is generally a low-population server. Mind you, that's just one example.

Point is, the game has changed. Well, the game within the game. The Auction House Game, I mean.

An entirely new dimension has been added to it. Now we must learn to buy and sell across multiple servers, attempting to maintain the maximum possible profitability.

This will be fun.

But seriously, those damned pet trainers won't battle me. And I don't know why.

Stupid jerkfaces.

Hunters

2013-01-02T23:43:00.001-06:00

Okay, I *finally* got around to trying out a hunter legitimately, not just seeing if I could get to level 5 without taking a hit.

Hunters are fun. I like hunters. I mean, I'm only at 18 so far on my hunter, but it's pretty good so far. I'm liking the fact that the vast majority of mobs can't reach me before I've blown their heads off. I'm finding they're very gear-dependent, however, and that's making the leveling process a little rough.

Still, Agility leather isn't exactly hard to come by when you're a leatherworker and a skinner.

I think they should really rebalance the requirements of leatherworking's leveling process, however. I mean, I got my skinning to 75 and turned over to the leatherworking, where I got to about 30. Following the appropriate pathway for maximum production.

I'm in a new guild now. A couple of friends and I have all thrown our lots in together. In a few weeks, after my bank account recovers from the cataclysmic impact of Christmas Shopping, I'll bring my main Alliance-side and get him in the guild. In the meantime, however, it's just leveling a new rogue, warlock, and hunter.

The rogue's pretty fun in MoP.

In fact, let me back up a bit.

MoP came out during my hiatus.

Since coming back, I've had the unimaginable task of relearning all my characters, choosing their talent points, and generally figuring out just what the hell they're all doing.

Take Warlocks, for example. First tier talents, everyone thinks Harvest Life is great.

And it is. As long as you're doing nothing EVER but dungeons.

But if you need to solo anything, remember that your self-healing capabilities are dramatically reduced when compared to Soul Leech's value.

So I had to respec both my 85 'lock and my newbie 30s 'lock because of that realization.

Rogues. Those guys are *FUN* I mean, I'm not a huge fan of the talent options, but then they weren't supposed to be game-changing so much as stylistic variations upon an overall theme. So, ignoring the ineffectiveness of those talents, the core function of the subtlety rogue is goddamned awesome.

*sneak sneak* *stabeverythinginthefaceallthetimeHEEHEE!* *vanish*

Hunters. Shoot everything with a concussive shot first to make sure they never get to you. If they do get to you, disengage to buy more time. Rinse repeat.

Seriously, it's just too much fun.

Paladins got all kinds of weird. I'm seriously considering leveling another paladin from scratch just to learn what the hell happened. I mean, the departure from 96969 on Prot and HealSplashing in Holy to the Cataclysm model was hard enough. I did it, but it wasn't easy. The MoP model, however, is going to require that I spend some time and completely overhaul my entire UI.

Which I'm not prepared to do until I can afford a more powerful computer. Because while I love this computer, it's not exactly a top-end gaming rig.

Haven't tried my prot warrior yet. Not sure how he'll work. I'm nervous, to be honest.

Haven't done much on my fire mage, either. Mainly because every legitimate talent (in my opinion, at least) is a frost-based spell. Which sucks. Because FIRE. BURN ALL THE THINGS.

Disc priest. Haven't even logged in on that guy. Not entirely sure if/when I will do that. I may not do that for a long while.

Meh.

anywho.

Hunters are fun. I'm still a paladin at heart, though. Just in case any of your hunter-sympathizers out there are thinking of converting me. I'm lookin' at you, Grumpy.

On A Tentative Return

2012-12-18T19:46:00.001-06:00

     Howdy, everyone!

     I realize it's been a while since I last posted. *checks last post* Okay, so two months. Eh.

     Anywho, life's been getting more stabilized over the past several weeks, and I'm thinking about playing again. I can't reactivate my account just yet, since I have bills to pay first, but I'm hoping to be up and running again by New Years. I've been talking with a few friends, two of whom used to play before, and we're all thinking that playing a little WoW is a good way to kill some time here and there, as well as have it be an activity that we can all do while we hang out.

     I'm not entirely sure if I'll be getting back to this blog with the same level of dedication I once did, but who knows? If nothing else, it'll be a place to catalog whatever random crap I come up with as I play.

     I did dust off the starter account. I noticed that since my last post where I was bitching about the prohibitive cost of Pet Battles and how the 80g price tag put it beyond the reach of Starter Accounts, they went and dropped the price to 10g.

     So I bought it.

     And I'm constantly flooded with the error message, "Failed to begin pet battle."

     GG Blizz. GG.

     So, fine. I'll wait until I reactivate. I did try out the worgen starting zone for the first time ever.

     Nobody ever told me they get a TOP HAT. Why did nobody *ever* tell me I could've had a fancy top hat? I mean, I've already got a monocle and a diamond-tipped cane! I could've had a TOP HAT to match!

     So, first order of business when I get a full account again is to create a new bank alt and get him a top hat, tuxedo, monocle, and diamond-tipped cane.

     Because what's fancier than a top hat and monocle?!

Long Goodnight

2012-10-04T21:40:00.002-05:00

     I started this blog back in January or February of this year, and while I intended to keep up with it, life got in the way of things, as life tends to do.

     I'm simply too busy lately to play WoW at all, much less really blog about it at the level I'd have liked to do. I did have fun while I kept up with this, and I will still read up on other people's blogs (I've got to do something on my lunch breaks, right?)

     So, for the foreseeable future, this blog will be silent. I may resurrect it later, I may simply let it fade to obscurity, or I may flat-out delete it.

   I really don't know.

   However, if anyone wants to give me a shout, feel free to leave me a comment on this or any other post. They're moderated, so only I can see them if you leave contact info.

   Other than that, there's not much to tell.

   So, for at least now, and possibly forever, Hyperious is leaving his Arcanite Ripper (of Epic Awesome-itude) in the bank, unplayed. Faces that pass by shall remain unmelted.

   WoW was fun, but it's just not something I can do right now.

   I may start up some other blogs at some point, but I'm not sure. Perhaps a blog where I build random crap and take pictures of it. Sure, why not? After I get things a bit more... settled.

   Until then, cheerio.

     ~Hyperious

Non-WoW: The US Postal Service

2012-09-29T11:07:00.001-05:00

     I know, I know... this is a WoW Blog.

     But it's also my own personal soapbox/rant stand/megaphone.

     I recently ordered an HDMI cable on Amazon. I know I could've gone to a nearby electronics store or even a superstore (Wal-Mart, for example) to get the cable, but why pay $30.00 now when I can pay $4.00 and wait a week?

     Or so I thought. I placed the order on 15 September. The delivery estimate provided by the seller (cmple dot com. I will NOT link that.) was between 20 September and 25 September. Five day delivery window using standard service from the postal service seems reasonable for the price I paid.

     It didn't arrive by the 25th. In fact, it didn't arrive on the 26th or 27th, either. Nope, it arrived for delivery on the 28th. Here's the kicker. Instead of the postman (or -woman, I don't know) just dropping it in my mailbox for me to get when I had a moment to check the mail, they left a card telling me it was at the local postal station. Why is that?

     POSTAGE DUE.

     This company had mailed out my product with unsufficient postage. Of course, I'll be demanding a reimbursement from the company mentioned previously for the extra amount I had to pay (and should they infuriate me further, I'll bill them for the gas I spent getting to the post office and for the amount of time I spent standing in line. It'll be easier if they just cooperate.)

     This is where the Postal Service mentioned in the title comes in. Ohhhhh this is going to be FUN.

     I'm in line for five minutes. On a Saturday. Not cool. But fine, whatever. The Post Office is often busy on Saturday. I've made it halfway through the line of people when one of the workers (heh... right) at the desk shouts to the crowd, "Anyone for pickup should go to the blue door and ring the bell."

     Now I'm at a blue door with a bell. I ring the bell a total of three times over the course of my ten minute wait. Once at arrival. Once at five minutes. Once more at ten minutes. On the third ring, the door is pulled open by a rather large woman with a lazy eye. Scary. She snatches the pickup card from my hand, glances at it, then looks at me in disbelief. "Why are you over HERE?!" she demands of me. "Because the lady over there said all pickups should come over here."

     "No, you got to go over there to pay yo' POSTAGE." Imagine this with all the attitude you can muster in your mind. Remember, she's a big woman. One eye is not looking at me. Got the image?

     Let's move on. I go back to the line I started in. It's longer than it was when I first arrived. Ten minutes pass. I'm pretty sure I can feel the blood coagulating in my veins a la The Andromeda Strain. The book, not the movie. Seriously, read the book before watching the movie. It'll wreck every movie you ever watch.

     Where was I?

     Right, in line, waiting to die.

     So, I get to the counter. George Burns is standing there. If you don't know who that is, Google it. Seriously, go now. It'll complete the image I'm trying to paint for you. It wasn't *actually* George Burns, but you get my point.

     George Burns asks me why I'm at his counter with a pickup card. Well, George, it's because scary Cyclops over at the Blue Door of Doom told me to come here to pay my postage. "Well, if you knew you had to pay postage, why did you go over there in the first place?" *sigh* I'm not exactly religious, but I almost started praying for serenity at this point. I must not punch government employees. I must not punch government employees. Imustnotpunchgovernmentemployees.

     "Look, sir, I just want my package. I have the money to pay the extra postage. I just need the package. Please go find my package." I'll admit, I probably had a little annoyance in my voice at this point. Sue me. My patience is not infinite (anyone who has ever been in a PuG with me can attest to that).

     He walks back to the rear of the post office to find my package (remember, this is just an HDMI cable that's already three days late). As he's returning, I can hear him before I see him. What do I hear him saying, you might ask?

     "Find my package, find my package, find my package!" in the most mocking tone you can come up with when you're trying not to let the customer hear you.

     George Burns comes back to the counter and I said "You know, I could hear you mocking me back there. Those walls aren't soundproof."

     His response? "Good."

   At this point, I've had it. However, I maintain my self control. Sort of. I maintain it enough to pay for my package, snatch my receipt, and leave the post office without a scene.

   This was about an hour ago. Writing it down has helped me to calm down a bit. Perhaps it's just given me something to focus on while the adrenaline rush subsides.

   But seriously, and I say this with all sincerity.

   F*** the U.S. Postal Service.

Making a Hunter

2012-09-28T07:04:00.000-05:00

     Some of you may recall that I presented a challenge to another blogger specifically, and to the players generally, asking that they bring a character to maximum level without taking any damage.

     I've tried this on a few classes. Obviously it's impossible on the melee classes. The ranged spellcasters can pull it off, but they've got to be really careful and pray they don't miss, start from maximum range, and so forth.

     Then I decided I'd try a hunter. I've played WoW for five years and have never even created a hunter. Most of the people I've played with at least have a hunter in their lineup. May I just say that the phrase "Easy to play, difficult to master" has been pretty well proven by theorycrafters and players alike? But nobody told me it would be that easy in the first levels.

     Keep in mind that while I was leveling this guy, I wasn't really trying to avoid damage. I was playing the hunter just to see what playing a hunter was like. But when I got to level 10 and decided to check my statistics, I was stunned. I'd gotten all the way to choosing a spec taking only about 600 points of damage.

     With that in mind, I think I may have to append the Zero-Damage Challenge. If I wasn't trying and got in that low, surely it can be done with an actual ZERO.

     Now, obviously you'd want to be attacking everything from maximum range. That's just a given. Know your spells and when to use them. As a hunter, it's rather obvious that a concussive shot will give you a lot more time to kill the mob before it gets to you.

     Learn how to make macros. Macros are your friends for all occasions. Even little ones like weaving in /startattack with your main damage spell macros. This ensures that you're auto-attacking as well as using the special abilities. Not a huge deal, as once combat starts, auto-attack should kick in. but it helps to make sure that if you're using an instant-cast ability or spell, it'll get the bonus of the auto-attack as well. If you start learning which of your combat cooldowns are off the GCD, you can weave them into every action you take.

     One example is on Hyperious. As a holy pally, he's got a half dozen different cooldowns that can amplify various abilities. They're all useable off the GCD. So, since the main goal is to make sure I'm maximizing my output, I've gotten them all included in the macros for the various spells they can affect.

     But I'm getting off topic.

     Point is, if I can get a hunter from the starting area to level 10 and take that little damage, surely a more seasoned hunter aficionado can pull off the true zero.

     I realize that with Mists of Pandaria out, nobody's going to be taking the challenge any time soon. But still. The challenge stands for any and all who wish to attempt it.

     Hunters... Y U SO FUN?!

Starter Account - Pet Battles!

2012-09-27T08:28:00.000-05:00

I bet you thought this would be about how great I think the pet battle system is.

Nope. Because of this.

Hype doesn't get to battle with pets on a starter account, because starter accounts are capped at 10g. That means that even though it's not *technically* locked out (because it shows up and I can access it and the only reason I can't buy it is because I can't afford it), I have no way of actually training for pet battles on the starter account.

Which is crap, actually. Because the starter account is meant to give players the chance to see many aspects of the game which would entice them to buy the full version. If I have a starter account, and I get to do a little pet battling, and I decide I really like it and want to collect ALL THE PETS, then I'd have to buy the full version simply because I can't survive the trip to anywhere that has more pets.

So, there we go. Yes, I realize Starter Accounts are supposed to be limited, but come on. If you have to keep the cost of pet battles at 80g, at least let me purchase some kind of token or voucher or something that stacks to 8 so I can make my Westfall Chicken get into a fight with an Orange Tabby or something.

Chickens win against cats, right? Right?

Guys?

MoP First Impressions

2012-09-26T08:32:00.000-05:00

     I have none. My account lapsed a while back (hence the abundance of "Starter Edition" posts) and I haven't yet found the time to resubscribe and purchase Mists of Pandaria.

     So, I'll give you guys my first impressions based on other bloggers' first impressions, and we'll call this First Impressions Squared. Much like making a copy of a copy, this won't be too clear. As such, here's a happy break to shield you guys from the bad. But secretly, you want to click it. You have to know what Crazy Ol' Hyperious is thinking about a game he has not, himself, actually gotten to play. Cliiiiiiiiiicky clicky!

     I hear the lag is horrifying. I've seen a few screenshots of some of my own home servers being completely full (with a queue in the thousands and an ETA in the "calculating" range). I've heard that the flood of people to the new zones is causing framerates to drop into the single digits and questgivers to be nigh unusable.

     Par for the course with a new expansion, then.

     Screenshots of the new zones are much like the beta screens, so the scenery doesn't look too different. However, with more players on the live realms, we are seeing a bit more diversity and some better angles on some things. So that's helpful.

     Realm Firsts have already been going out. I know Navimie's guild managed to snag quite a few RFs internally. As I understand it, it was one player. Congratulations to them and to Navimie for the excellent coverage!

     I recall seeing a World First Level 90 achievement mentioned within hours of the European Launch. I haven't followed up, but it's assumed that the player in question may have been exploiting something because, well, FOUR HOURS?! I'd certainly hope Pandaria would take a bit longer than that, at least for the first run through for a person.

     I never really felt the urge to go for a Realm First acheivement. I mean, sure it's great and I'm happy for those people who get them, but... I think for my first run at Pandaria, I'd like to take my time and really enjoy the trip. That's something that I forgot to do around Wrath's release. I forgot to really read the quest text and understand what I was doing. I blame some addons like QuestHelper and the like. Not that they're bad addons, but they removed any incentive to read the quest text. Blizzard's updated quest UI and tracker hasn't helped matters. Now you can just accept a quest (or auto-accept in some cases) and knock off objectives without knowing the why.

     And I've gotten off topic again.

     I do that a lot, don't I? You guys don't mind, I hope. It's my blog anyways.

     Mists looks good from a generalized, over-the-shoulder impressions. And hey. Pandas. Always a plus.

     And anyone who wants to complain about pandas needs to stop lying to themselves. They look like fuzzy little burglars and you think they're cute. Admit it to yourself if not to the rest of us. Go on, we'll wait.

     Well, that's all I've got for now. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be back in Azeroth for real soon enough. Gotta get those new toys!

     Any similarity in format to The Grumpy Elf's Monday Thoughts posts is entirely coincidental. I think I've figured out how he does it. He just thinks and the post comes out.

Ten Thousand Views

2012-09-21T12:00:00.000-05:00

     So, the last post managed to bring my total pageviews to more than ten thousand. That's not too bad considering my first post was back in late January 2012 and I haven't exactly been updating an a regular basis.
     Thanks to everyone who reads this blog! I never actually thought so many people would want to hear what I have to say, especially when half my posts seem to be incoherent rambling about disconnected topics.
     That actually got me thinking about the other blogs I read.

     And I thought I'd recommend a few.

     The Grumpy Elf is always good for some down and dirty analysis (and he gets pretty in-depth) of whatever the latest topic of discussion is in the WoW Blogosphere. As others have said, Grumpy can talk for a long, long time. Just sayin'...

     The Daily Frostwolf - Druid Edition, written by the starstruck Navimie, is sort of a WoW Blogger Celebrity News Show, if that makes any sense. I've found that I will pick out new blogs to read from her Navispam posts (which are why I refer to her as starstruck). I'm fairly certain that most bloggers out there who know of Navimie are secretly hoping they'll be picked next for a Navispam. I just commented and demanded a visit.

     Blessing of Kings is a great place to go for some paladin discussion and some non-WoW gaming stuff, too. Rohan was also the first person to give me a spot on his blogroll, allowing me an established place to get a little traffic sent my way.

     Big Bear Butt is one-of-a-kind in the blogging world. He doesn't seem to conform to any specific style to speak of, instead choosing to write as if he were simply speaking to a good friend. That's what makes his blog a great read. He's funny, witty, and welcoming. And the Cub Reports are a blast to read.

     Those are my four favorites, though there are by far many other options out there.

Are Guilds Going Extinct?

2012-09-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

     Okay, the title sucks. Sue me, it's early and I didn't get much sleep. But seriously. What's the point of guilds anymore besides storage space for bank alts? I mean, with the rise of cross-realm grouping and the loss of a few key perks (Have Group, Will Travel, for example?) that came with the larger guilds makes me think that perhaps guilds are losing their functionality.

     I mean, let's take a look at the history of WoW guilds throughout the game. In Vanilla, guilds were generally a place where you stayed. Guild-hopping was looked down upon, in much the same way as a resumé with too many jobs in a short amount of time would be viewed with uncertainty. Getting gkicked was effectively a death sentence on your server.
     During BC, raiding dropped from 40-man to 10- and 25-, causing a little strain on guilds, but ultimately leaving them alone. Slightly less emphasis was placed on the length of time a player was with a guild. BC was a fine time.
     In WotLK, guild-hopping became a very normal thing. With the rise of the random dungeon finder, guilds weren't nearly as important because you no longer needed to have a group of people to call for dungeons. Raiding lockouts being tuned to both 10 and 25 players meant that guilds no longer had to be able to field a large roster. Many smaller guilds were born during the Wrath days.
     Cataclysm attempted to bring back the importance of guilds, and for a time, it worked. Your guild's level and earned achievements gave you access to more and better rewards and perks, and you had to earn reputation with the guild in order to actually access those rewards. That meant staying with a single guild while you did quests, levelled, and ran dungeons and raids with the guild. That last bit, I think, made guilds a much higher priority during Cataclysm.
     However, now that Mists of Pandaria is days away, we can see that some of the changes to how guilds work have made them pretty much unimportant. Guilds are no longer capped on the amount of XP they can earn in a day. Reputation gains are no longer capped, and have been adjusted so that you can go from neutral to exalted with a guild between levels 1 and 30. As such, guild reputation now requires only hours of work instead of weeks (there was a weekly reputation cap, remember?). Guilds can hit level 25 pretty quickly now, and with so many level-capped guilds out there, perks are no longer a factor when deciding which guild to join.
     Add in the fact that cross-realm raiding has made it possible to join up with organized and highly-skilled raids without being bound by the restrictions on your server, and you've got no really compelling reason for guilds to even exist, save as social groups.

     Seriously, I haven't been awake this early in forever. Time for some coffee.

Paladin Theorycrafting

2012-09-16T12:49:00.001-05:00

I swore I'd never get into any theorycrafting. I may have even bluntly stated that fact somewhere in this blog. Don't get me wrong. I love numbers. I'm pretty good at math, regardless of complexity of the equations. I just never really wanted to actually apply math to my fun.

However, I realized long ago that most of my fun actually does involve math. And I'm okay with that.

Well, normally I'd leave the WoW theorycrafting to the professionals. But I noticed something in the new Paladin talents and glyphs. I think I've found a must-have combination, especially for healers.

Sanctified Wrath is a level 75 talent choice. If you didn't hover over the link for the tooltip, I'll just tell you. Your Avenging Wrath lasts for 50% longer, granting you a total of 30 seconds of increased damage and healing. Now that, in itself, is awesome. That's a huge bonus. Holy Avenger changes up rotation too much and doesn't really offer a substantial bonus over normal play to be worth choosing it (in my opinion, of course). Divine Purpose is proc-based, and that's not really the best option for a Holy Paladin. After all, we're already having to keep an eye on more than a few procs just because.

Now let's look at a glyph I saw that I really liked. Glyph of Avenging Wrath grants you 1% of your maximum health every 2 seconds while Avenging Wrath is active. Now that means that the baseline AW will give you a total of 10% of your health back every time you pop wings (which you should be doing at every single opportunity). With the Sanctified Wrath talent, however, that kicks it up to 15% of your maximum health over 30 seconds.

Just be afraid of mages doing evil mage-ly things.

But seriously. Consider the effects of that combination of talent and glyph as a healer. In PvP, you're getting 30 seconds of 20% more damage, in addition to being able to use Holy Shock twice as often (cause that's not OP or anything) and getting a free 15% self-heal-over-time. That's huge. Look at it from a PvE perspective. Most raids now have some area damage on every encounter. The healers are not immune to damage (despite my many letters to Blizzard's corporate offices). So the healing doesn't go to waste, and during high-damage periods, the boosted frequency and potency of Holy Shock in addition to the faster generation of Holy Power makes this a ridiculously good setup.

Now look at it from a Protection point of view. It's a bonus survival cooldown with a big window of opportunity. Giving your healers a thirty second window of bonus heals while also giving yourself 15% of your maximum health and dealing more damage while using a high-threat spell twice as often...

That's tank-worthy, if you ask me. Certainly more than the other two talents in the Level 75 Tier.

I'm not good enough at Retribution Paladins to really offer any insight, but as I know that they love Avenging Wrath, the talent is a good choice. And if they're into PvP, the glyph is also highly effective. Consider that most battlegrounds have a bit of time between skirmishes (just by the very nature of how the combat works), the odds of having AW available for the fight are not bad. And giving yourself a HoT during combat is always a good idea. Especially if you can do it without spending a single extra GCD (which, as we know, can spell the difference between victory and being eaten by dirty, dirty rogues).

So, there we have it. Hyperious attempts to theorycraft. Hopefully, some of this made sense to you guys. If not, reroll a paladin, level to max as holy, and be the best damned paladin you can. After all, Paladins are the best class ever.

Should Hyperious Use Twitter?

2012-09-14T12:00:00.000-05:00

A big piece of news recently was that Greg Street, a.k.a Ghostcrawler, lead developer for World of Warcraft, finally hopped on the Twitter train and started tweeting to players, fans, and haters alike. And one thing I've noticed is that I may be the only WoW blogger that doesn't use twitter.
So, the big question. Should Hyperious, collector of toys and killer of many bad things, champion of the Light and of cookies, defender of the weak and master chef of recipes involving gnomes, *deep breath, Hype, you've got a long way to go* bite the bullet and get on Twitter?
If I did do that, should I go for a handle based on the blog name or my own?
What do I do, fellow bloggers and readers? What do I do?!

Cause seriously, Twitter...

Graphics Requirements

2012-09-13T13:52:00.000-05:00

Okay, I haven't actually looked at the system requirements for Mists of Pandaria, mainly because I already know I'm not going to be playing at Ultra. As it is, my current rig can only handle Fair level graphics. I used to be able to run on Ultra settings, and I loved it. But that machine (with twin GeForce 9800 512s) exploded, and I had to replace it with a machine that, well, simply turned on. Money and all that.
But the more I look at Cymre's various screenshots and Rioriel's Postcards, the more I realize just how much I'm really missing in my gameplay experience. I mean, if you check those two out (and you really should!), you'll see some incredible detail in the game world. Meanwhile, if you look at my screenshots and videos, you can definitely tell that I don't have an extraordinarily powerful graphics card.

It's on the list.
This actually brings up a good question in my mind. I can recall seeing complaint thread after complaint thread on the forums, talking about how crappy the graphics are and how dull and cartoonish the world appears. I'd have to say, the people making those threads may need to update their systems and make sure they're running on Ultra settings.
Having said that, I've seen what humans look like on Ultra settings, and Blizzard seriously needs to update those models. Poor giant-handed freaks...
Seriously, if you compare the hands to the heads, it's absolutely insane. Humans don't have hands the size of dinner plates. With the exception of a few NBA players and Andre the Giant, of course.
Stay on target, Hype.
Oh, right. So, I need a new graphics card. Actually, I need a new computer. This one works great for the standard web-and-photo stuff, but for what I really want to do, it's laughable. I really wish I'd saved my old custom case. That thing was ridiculously spacious inside. I could throw in whatever overdone components I wanted into that thing and still have room to spare.
Ah, computer nostalgia. Back in my day, we had to use the telephone to get internet access! And I don't mean those newfangled "smartphones", neither! I mean we had to have the computer plug into the phone jack in the wall! LAND LINES, I TELL'S YA!
Damn kids on my lawn...

Non-WoW Post

2012-09-05T22:01:00.001-05:00

     I've spent a little time playing some Texas Hold'Em poker online. I played sporadically over the past few years, but I stopped once the U.S. Legislature passed a bill effectively shutting down online gambling.
     I never played more than $5.00 a month, to ensure that it never affected my finances. One thing I've noticed when I compare online poker to an in-person game, is the direct application of the Internet Fuckwad Equation.
     See, when you're playing poker with people sitting across the table with you, you have to be reasonable and rational, and being a complete idiot will quickly cost you your chips. It'll also cost you the respect of the other players.
     But when you're playing online, especially with play chips, there are no consequences. Even if you go all-in with a stupid hand and lose, it doesn't matter. You can rebuy without any issue or delay.
     I see people playing low cards, off suit, in bad position, and they're taking it all the way to the river. And they can't be bluffing because they do it all the time. My favorite brand of idiot rides a deuce-seven offsuit all the way to the river, calling bets on straight- and flush- threats, and somehow catches a pair on the river.
     This idiot took the worst possible hand all the way to the end of that hand, and they won. Why? Because the other SIX people who stayed in did so with equally terrible hands.
     It actually makes me miss being able to play for money. At least then, even if you didn't have to look someone in the eye as you made your attempt to buy your way out of a risky bluff, you still had to risk real money to do it.
     I'm thinking I should give up the play chip games. All they do is remind me how stupid some players can be.

This post brought to you by Hyperious watching the Cowboys abuse the Giants (American Football for the international readers)

Giant Orange Rocks

2012-09-02T12:00:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of archaeology. Not the grind, mind you. Anything but the grind. It's fun to solve the projects and see what the next one is. It's really fun as an alchemist to get a canopic jar from the Tol'vir. It's not as much fun to open that jar and find yet another Mummified Organ instead of that @#$%@ recipe.

Breathe, Hype... this is a safe place... no jars here... it's okay...

Ahem, sorry. So, archaeology. I like the fossil branch especially, because you can get a mount, a pet, and a GIANT ORANGE ROCK

Of course, scholars will insist it's called an Ancient Amber. We'll let them play their silly game. We all know the truth. Giant Orange Rock will hold your character prisoner for five minutes. I have not yet taken the time to see if that imprisonment grants immunity or not. I'm sure someone would have mentioned that at some point, however, since complete immunity for 5 minutes would be pretty overpowered in every possible situation that could arise in Azeroth.

Giant Orange Rock (okay, fine. Ancient Amber. Happy?) can be obtained through the fossil branch of archaeology. It's a rare solve and will cost you 100 fragments. Somehow, 100 bone fragments will be combined to make a big glowing orange rock. This is a completely rational idea and should not be questioned.

And because I'm just such a fan of videos in everything I can think of, here's a video of a rock. It's not as bad as that sounds. The camera moves.

The First Impression

2012-08-31T23:31:00.000-05:00

     I know everyone talks about their current impressions of the latest patch or the upcoming expansion. I just did that. Yesterday. Or was it the day before? Whatever.

     I wonder what everyone's very first impression of WoW was. Not this patch or that expansion, not "Oh I miss Vanilla because I wanted to be ridiculed for wanting to tank as a paladin" and the like, but the first impression of the game from the moment you first opened the program and logged in.

     For me, the very first time I opened the screen, I felt a moment of nerd-joy. See, I'd played Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3, as well as the various expansion packs for each. I loved the gameplay I learned in WC2, and I absolutely adored the lore and story presented in WC3 and The Frozen Throne. I mean, I had my own agendas, but I also had the huge story arcs to follow, campaigns from the points of view of the different playable races, and so forth. It was AWESOME.

     But I didn't get into WoW right away. I was busy working, making ends meet, and the release of WoW actually passed me by, unnoticed. It wasn't until early BC that I saw a trial-edition CD in my local... store. I don't remember which store, but the CD was 2 dollars and you got like 10 days of full gameplay. So I bought it. Two bucks is cheap, and if it sucked, no big deal.

     I played for five years since that day.

     When I first logged in, I was greeted with the character creation screen. Oh dear God, save me. Dilemmas already. I must have spent a good twenty minutes working on that character (I find that, as of late, I couldn't care less what the alts I make actually *look* like, as I almost never see them).

   My first character wound up being a Night Elf warrior. I named him Ragewynd. Yeah, moving on. Crap name, I know. I said "Moving on" and I meant it!

   When you first log in on a new character, you get that cool intro video. It was great! A brief reminder of what the night elves had sacrificed atop Mount Hyjal, followed by a quick summation of what we're all facing today. Perfect!

   I died before I made it to level 3.

   I never did find my corpse. I also never knew that you could just talk to the spirit guardian lady at the graveyard. Not that it mattered, since after I ran off in search of my body, I couldn't find my way back to the graveyard either. Kids today have it EASY with that "Return to graveyard" button.

   So, after achieving one level and a death by a tiny panther or something, I deleted him. He was dead, I couldn't fix it. So I deleted him. My second character was worse. I think he was a paladin. I used my own real-life name as his name. That was stupid. His gear was a horrendous amalgamation of every stat. Every stat seemed to be a good idea to me. Every damned stat. Plate, leather, mail, cloth, whatever! If it had better numbers somewhere, I loved it. Especially the armor count. I loved that armor count. As a healer.

   Yeah.

   I picked up herbalism and alchemy. And what did I blow those stacks and stack of herbs on? Holy Protection Potions. Why? Because I wanted to absorb holy damage.

   Somehow, this became a confession of how stupid I was when I started, so I'll go back.

   My first impression of World of Warcraft all those years ago was, frankly, one of awe. It was enormous. Even to this day, I'm amazed at just how big Azeroth really is. And the detail. The landscapes. The sheer quantity of NPCs, each of whom has a story of their own to tell if you take the time to read the quest text instead of just killing whatever Questhelper commands, is mind-boggling. (In case that sentence was confusing, I'm saying there were a LOT of stories in the game)

   I remember looking up at the sky on my stupid warrior (he's stupid because he couldn't find his own dead body, not because he's a warrior... No angry emails, please) and being amazed at the details all around me in Teldrassil.

   Anyway, that's basically my first impression. I was amazed. I was awed by the sheer grandiosity of it all. Here was this whole new world I could explore. My first human character made the terrifying run from Northshire Abbey to Goldshire, then beyond into Stormwind.

   The epic music that started when I entered Stormwind... it matched the scene perfectly. Shiny-bright knights on towering steeds with banners flying high, marching in formation along the bridge that led into the mighty city of humans... Then, the city itself, bustling, busy, with merchants and traders and specialists of all kind, and the players, Oh! the players! Dozens of them, running around in their various endeavours (Non-American spelling there, I'm trying to be multi-cultural at the moment)...

   Stormwind was alive in a way even regular cities in the real world no longer seemed to be. Everyone was interacting, everyone had a task, and the noise was that of a city full of people, not just cars and mass transit and that drunken homeless guy that always asked me for a dollar between sips of gin. Stormwind was beautiful.

   Years later, when I finally swapped to the Horde, I got to feel that sense of amazement all over again. A new city with new characters, new quests with new stories, and finally figuring out why Mankrik was such a big deal (mass genocide, that's why)...

   I think that's why I still play. Because despite all my bitching here and there about how Blizzard broke this or nerfed that or how they love whatever faction I'm NOT playing more... Despite all that, Blizzard keeps offering me another new experience. People often say that once you've done the quests on one character, they're the exact same on any other. I respectfully disagree. I did every single goddamned quest in the game before the end of Wrath (save for the legendary quests and the Scepter of the Shifting Sands which I couldn't get finished before the quest was removed).

     That was on Hyperious, a plate-wearing melee class and a healer to boot. When I went back as a warlock, or as a rogue, or as any of the other classes I've played, it was different. On my warrior tank, for example, sure, I had the plate. Beyond that, however, I had no self-healing abilities but what I could get out of prolonged combat, and nothing but physical damage. My mage was squishy as hell, and again had no healing. My warlock was EPIC, but if something managed to survive the trip to me, I'd probably be dead. So while the objectives were the same, the experiences were very different.

    With all that in mind, it's hard to remember why I'd be upset at Blizzard for lapses and delays. Sure, it happens. But there's always more to do. So I can forgive the downtimes when I know there will be something good coming soon.

     ... But Blizzard, I swear to the Light, if you mess with my Arcanite Ripper, I will find some way to become obscenely rich, buy a controlling share of the company, and some of you guys are getting so very fired. Or at least put on probation. I'm not cruel. well...

     Rambling again. Bye!

Before It Was Cool

2012-08-31T01:13:00.001-05:00

Fine. Hipster Hyperious is rearing his ugly head.

Mountain Dew had a promotion a long while back where you could get a Warbot pet and daily supplies of red and blue Warbot Fuel.

I had the pet before Blizzard made it available to everyone with the recent patch.

My bank alt still uses it because it's a bitchin' little robot. People see it and they whisper me with the OMGs and the begging and the worshipping of the exclusivity.

Enough griping. It's a cool pet, and now I can get more fuel.

However... If they ever make my Arcanite Ripper an item that can be bought with the gold equivalent of two cooking dailies and a quick five-man dungeon, be sure to check back here for a video clip of my head turning into a nuclear holocaust. There are some things I just can't bear...

Patch 5.0.4.0.2.3.14.5.6.whatever thoughts.

2012-08-29T17:45:00.000-05:00

     Okay. Preliminary thoughts based on the small amount of experience I've had with a starter account?

     Eh. I like some of the changes. I wish they would have rolled out the Pet Battles system with this patch, but I can understand why they didn't. Also, it winds up being a good thing, since I accidentally killed what is apparently a rare pet on one of my lowbie warlocks. I'd hate to have done that when it might have actually meant something.

     I like the condensed loot system in random dungeons. No more chat spam. I realize it's not exactly a game-changing thing, but reducing the amount of stuff I don't care about in my chat window is a positive.

     Class changes...
     My mage is a little different. At level 20 (starter edition level cap still hasn't moved), you've got one talent choice, and not much in the way of spells that define you. Also, Fire doesn't seem to proc free Pyroblasts like it used to. However, speccing into Presence of Mind does give you the opportunity to macro a free one every now and then. The other two talents looked to be less helpful. I mean, yeah, scorch is awesome, but I didn't see it applying Critical Mass anymore. Also, even though it's practically a free spell, I noticed that I couldn't make a dent in my mana pool at all. I mean, popping cooldowns, maintaining a steady rotation, you name it, my mana refilled before I could finish casting the next spell. The other talent choice was something about being able to move while casting two spells. Not worth it. Not when I can give myself free explosions.

     I started a warrior to see how the changes have affected those guys. Now, you may recall that I recently stated my doubts that any melee class could pull off a zero-damage run, mainly because you can't even get out of the starter zone without taking a few hits. Well, imagine my surprise at the change to Throw. It no longer requires a thrown weapon equipped (which is good, since Blizzard broke all those fun toys). Nope, it's completely spammable, and if you're good about maintaining maximum range, you can actually bring down the lower level mobs before they reach you.

     That's actually kind of pathetic.

     Warlocks seem to have gotten some real love with this patch. I was in a random dungeon on my mage and I saw that one of those demon-buddy-crazy-people was constantly in Huge Purple Demon Form and was dealing out absurd amounts of death and suffering. I mean, he had like twelve Drain Life spells going at once. It was nuts. At one point, the tank just said, "Screw it, I'll hang out over here. The warlock's got this room covered."

     Now I miss my warlock.

     I noticed they've changed the cooking awards to be a single award, regardless of source. My reply to that is a resounding "It's about time!" Seriously. Cooking is cooking. Whether you're cooking food based on ancient Icelandic traditions or Deep South Barbeque, it's all still FOOD.

     Pet battles looks interesting. I spent a little time looking at the various spells that some of my pets have. Nerd that I am, I've already started to figure out which spells should be used on cooldown, which ones are fillers, and...

     Pet battles are like Affliction Warlockery.

     Mind = Blown!

   If I remember correctly, before the patch hit, Hyperious (the main, not the Starter Alt) was sitting at around 9,300 achievement points. After the patch, however, he's spiked up to 10,060. Mind you, I haven't logged in for some time (My account has lapsed, and I have a feeling I'll wind up missing the pre-expansion event, but that's another story entirely). However, I'll probably be getting back into the full game some time in October.

     Which means, once again, Hyperious (the main, again) is going to miss the Harvest Festival. Hopefully, I'll be back in before Pilgrim's Bounty, as that's about the last thing I need for World Event completion.

   So, my overall opinion of the patch? It's good. I notice that people in trade seem to be more excited than they've been in some time, and considerably less .... what's the word?

   Less like Trade.

   Glyphs seem to be causing quite a stir. Thankfully I've got a good stockpile of inks on my scribe, so when I get back in, I'll have some stuff to work with to make whatever new glyphs I need.

   All in all, good patch. Surprisingly good patch.

   I need to compile a list of collectible toys that will be found in Mists. I know there's the Flippable Table (which I must get for my prot warrior), but I haven't spend much time looking at other stuff yet.

   I'm rambling again. Guess that means it's time to end the post!

Arrival of the Naaru

2012-08-26T12:00:00.000-05:00

I've said it before, I love the little toys you can get from archaeology. Most of them are entirely useless for all practical purposes, but that's not really the point of archaeology. One good example of this is the Arrival of the Naaru, a rare solve from the Draenei branch of Archaeology. You get to witness the first encounter with the Naaru, those beings of Light, by the Draenei. Technically, the encounter was by the Eredar, since the Naaru told Velen to flee with whoever he could convince to join him. Those followers then styled themseves "Draenei", which means "exiles" in the eredar language.

But that's not the point. The point is, it's just a fun little toy that does something different. You can watch the recording of the arrival as much as you want. So go nuts. Watch Naaru talking to Draenei.

I swear there was more to this post, but I guess not.

Starter Account Progress Update

2012-08-24T12:00:00.015-05:00

Just a quick update. I've managed to get a few more achievements out of the way on my starter account.

Specifically, I went and explored Dun Morogh (which is not a big deal at level 20) and Northern Stranglethorn Vale (which is far more annoying than you might think at level 20).

I also managed to get to exalted with Gnomeregan, which brings my total number of exalted reputations up to 3. I haven't yet gone by the mount vendor for the gnomes, so I'm not quite up to the ten mounts needed for the next achievement in that line. But I'm sure I'll get around to it before this posts.

Oh, and I also managed to get the 500 fish achievement!

Throw in a cooking award, and you've got a nice roundup of achievements for the week.

Iron Boot Flask

2012-08-23T12:00:00.001-05:00

During Wrath of the Lich King, one of the many things to do was farm up Relics of Ulduar for Sons of Hodir reputation. More often than not, however, people would wind up with some extras. What do you do with the extras? Of course, you buy a toy!

One of the popular toys, epecially when Ulduar was current, was the Iron Boot Flask, which would turn your character into an Iron Dwarf (complete with awesome blue runes glowing everywhere) for ten minutes.

I really wish I'd saved the screenshots from my old computer (sadly, it got toasted) so I could share them. During more than a few Ulduar Runs, we'd engage the bosses with the entire raid as Iron Dwarves.

It was a very cool sight to see. In fact, I'd like to do stuff like that again. Perhaps when I get a better setup for my system and get some IRL stuff squared away, I can start organizing cross-realm raids for fun. Specifically transformed raids. Down a boss with all members of the raid transformed into an Iron Dwarf or a Druid of the Flame.

Oh yeah. More ideas. So many ideas, never enough time. Such is the life of the WoW Blogger, I suppose.

New Blogger In Town: The Badge Floozy

2012-08-21T22:15:00.001-05:00

     Okay, a friend of mine has decided to start a blog on, well, everything gaming. Or at least, that's how I have interpreted the incoherent ramblings.
     So, if you've got a minute, head over to check out the Badge Floozy. If you're looking for some humor with a little more sarcasm than I usually provide (*scoff*) and probably with better sentence structure and spelling, that's the place to be.

   There, I gave you the shameless plug, now please return my antique flower pots. They cost me a 48-piece set of dinner forks made out of some rocks I found. They're precious to me... My..... Preciooooouuuuuussssssssssss.